The air pulsates around it silently, the veil moving over and away like I blew a candle and the smoke disperses in the waves of breath into nothingness. Disappearing like it never was, and I’m as shocked as the damn bear at what I just did, sitting stupefied, watching in complete disbelief. Panting, with an erratic heartbeat, hunched up in my poised pose but dumbstruck and blinking at it.
It seems stunned for a moment, rolls, and crawls to its trembling legs, blinking my way, and then turns and takes off at a ridiculously slow speed, no longer willing to combat whatever I just did. It’s not recovered though, it’s clumsy, and swaying, and crashing into the undergrowth.
It doesn’t get very far, as I watch from my perched semi kneeling position. It’s staggering sideways, then slowing to a bumbling uncoordinated mess of a stop, falls over its own feet and slumps face down on the ground. It’s like it’s drunk and as it lets out a long noisy groaning exhale, I pull myself to my feet, and watch as it falls completely silent.
I can hear a heartbeat in the air around us, so suddenly it makes me jump; slow, labored, one, two more, and stop. I’m shocked that it was so pitch clear while so far away. It couldn’t have been its heartbeat, surely? It had to be mine, but I can’t hear it anymore, and I check my pulse to be sure I’m not actually dead and already crossed over to the other side. Nope, still beating as I press my clawed paw to my breast and snort out a thankful half growl.
I blow out my lungful of air and give myself a few seconds to fully heal every single tiny injury it inflicted, stretching out my ribs to be sure. I stay in wolf form and slowly edge forward to see if it’s still alive, trying to recover my wits, and focus for a second attack. Surprised to see my fire, and food, was free from our thrashing around and still smoking away gently, untouched. It smells pretty good too, and my mouth waters with how hungry this has suddenly made me. Weird.
My bag is kicked to one side, but nothing looks ripped, and I catch sight of the t-shirt still sticking out, bringing a sense of calm to my internal rage, which had still been simmering away all on its own. I pass it and come up at the bear from the side, veering left cautiously, and keeping my distance in case this is a ploy to get me close.
The bear has its eyes wide open, glassy, its tongue hanging from an open mouth, framed with teeth, eliciting no breath, and blood streams from both nostrils. It’s vacant, staring at nothing, and I realise whatever I did, it messed the bear up inside, and it’s dead. I can tell without touching it that it’s life force and aura is completely gone. My senses tuning in and finding nothing.
I did that. With whatever I threw that I couldn’t see, I killed the bear.
I don’t know whether to feel relieved, proud, or devastated by the fact I did that, alone. That I managed to pull some weird power out of my gut and take down a bear, with nothing more than air. My heart constricts, my gut twists, and I suddenly have the overwhelming urge to throw up as human emotion kicks in and slight shock takes over. I begin to tremble, heart bouncing against my chest wall, mind racing, over the fact I literally just had my second ever, real full on battle, with something capable of killing me and this time, I didn’t almost die at his hands. Umm paws. I didn’t need Colton to save me either. He’d be proud, not that it matters, or that I care of what he thinks anyway.
I push my paws out in front of me, moving to stand on my hind legs and stare at them, unsure how to feel about it. Really just gawping at these strange clawed, fur covered, rather blood-soaked weapons of destruction I never knew I possessed. I mean, of course, I knew I had paws, but these ones, they did something weirdly special that I can’t explain. They also look… whiter?!?! Under the mess, and grime, and red stains, but maybe I never really paid attention to how pale they were before. I was sure they were greyer when I first turned.
I try to muster that sensation again, that physical veil thing that I could touch, and hold, and see, but nothing happens, no matter how many weird grunts and noises and odd faces I pull, and I shake my hands away, feeling stupid for not knowing how to control something I can clearly do. My legs begin to shake, and I can already feel my energy waning and signaling I’ll return to human form soon if I don’t hurry up. I don’t know if I would be able to do this as a person, and I’m not ready to forget it already.
I forget the bear, forget the battle, the shock, the pride, and walk back to the clearing, extending my hands and try to grasp at air again, with no avail. So focused on this now that nothing else registers in my brain about what just went down.
Whatever that was, I have to figure out how to do it at will. I have to understand how to conjure it and make it appear like that, so I know how to use it again, or hone it. Like the day I shattered everything in the house… it just happened when I got mad and…. I got mad!
The thought hits me like a slap in the face, as my brain clicks into place, and I recall just how crazy angry with Colton I was right before I managed to do that. Just like I was a mass of seething fire, sweat, and despise, with this idiot grizzly. That has to be the key between what I did at the house, and now this.
I don’t think it was the same as this though, and he proved it was some sort of absorption gift, especially when he tested himself against it. I definitely did not have Colton’s strength, speed, and power this time, or else the bear would have been toast in seconds. I saw what he did to the vampire that night. So I did absorb and deflect his own gifts. This isn’t that this is something else, unless that bear had weird powers and was some sort of shapeshifter and not a regular black bear at all.
I glance back at its lifeless form, a hint of apprehension and circling questions and shake my head, removing that doubt completely. Shifters would revert to person after death, and it’s still a pretty sizeable black fur rug over there. Creating a dark mass against the trees.
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