Heart Of The Lycan Queen

6. Blue

Death leaves the kind of marks that can't be kept in.

___

(Elian)

It took Elian ten minutes to finally collect herself and come back to the earth. The damn beast had run away like she was a threat to him and not the other way around.

The thing was so damn big...

What a coward! Elian scoffed as she glared at nothing.

Her breath was coming out in a stuttered gasp and she stared at her fingers, the ones that she had been running through his soft fur... and wondered what the hell had happened to her at that one moment of weakness...

She almost felt guilty when she thought about Blake. Was it considered cheating when one caressed a majestic beast who was starring in all their wet dreams?

She had no answer for it. There was no particular rule book for these kinds of things. There should be...

'I don't like rules.' The bitchy voice said.

'I don't like you.' Elian said with a frustrated groan. 'And I don't like that uncouth beast!'

She took in a deep breath as she looked around the dense forest and then looked at the time.

She had to go back home—which was not really a home, anymore—that she shared with one of her murderers.

Elian shook her head as anger and helplessness rippled inside her. She had never felt so helpless in all her life. She had always been someone who was confident in who she was, what she was... even when people tried to tell her that she didn't mean much, because she was just a human, she never let them question her identity. She was sure of herself, always had been.

She had a degree in economics, and she was working as a part-time tutor in the local community college when she wasn't training or practicing or learning more about the creatures of the night, and suddenly, with just a f*cking nightmare, it was all shattered and now she was left alone in this emptiness, looking for a way to find out what she had missed.

Had she been that blind not to see anything happening around her?

She didn't know how she could find the beast again. Of course, when she went back, she knew he would come in her dreams, as he had first done, but... beyond that, she didn't know who the hell he was, or how the hell he looked.

A wolf howled in the distance and the furious wind whipped past her, making a shiver run through her body. It was already getting too dark and there was no use standing here in this freezing cold. She knew he wasn't coming back.

She cursed softly as she looked towards the dense trees where he had disappeared a few minutes ago, before turning around and started walking back to Amethyst main house.

She reached the tall brick building. It had six floors, with small rooms for hunters who still hadn't started their family. It was where Elian lived before she moved together with Blake after two months and then after four months... she was dead!

She pushed the door open, noticing the house was quiet. Everyone must have already gone to bed.

The first floor of the house was for the kitchen, dining room, TV room, and common area. The basement was a safety bunker with metal walls, and large, heavy doors... and it was filled with weapons you could only dream of in your fantasies. There were daggers, bows and arrows made of different metal, syringes and tranquilizer guns with wolfsbane and foxglove, crossbows dipped in wolfsbane, silver bullets, pistols, shotguns, swords... every damn thing in the history of weapons. And food; dried, tasteless food and packs and packs of water and Gatorade. The hunters had an unhealthy obsession with Gatorades.

The first floor had training rooms, indoor gyms, conference rooms, offices of various big heads of the Order of Amethyst. And the rest of the floors are used as a hostel for hunters who haven't been fortunate enough to find their partners.

Elian climbed to the fourth floor, where her room was. She leaned against her door as she looked through the long corridors packed with rooms on either side. Chairs and couches were pushed against empty spaces and water dispensers were placed throughout the corridor.

She looked at the room right opposite to hers. The front door had a cute little cut out of a masked hunter with a dagger in her hand... down it, a creepy font read - knock or you shall be knocked out. It had always made Elian smile. Not this time. She could still remember the press of Robyn's dagger as she slit her skin where her tears slid down.

Elian's breathing hitched and she wanted to grab Robyn by her throat and snap her neck into two. The anger was like a solid punch in her gut and she felt it inside her, burning, growing, begging to let out.

A soft growl left her lips and even she was startled by that sound. She placed a palm over her mouth as her scared eyes scanned the corridors.

Her body felt like she had been run over by a freaking bulldozer.

She took one last look at Robyn's closed door before she kicked the door to her room open and walked inside. She felt hot all over. Hot and angry. Pulsing. The anger was like an undeniable ache in her body. It burned around her, hot and wild, looking for something to destroy, devour.

Dark fire of vengeance swirled inside her, growing, growling. It grew and grew until it made her whole body burn with the need to break Robyn Gere into unrecognizable pieces.

She took in a deep breath, knowing very well she couldn't show what she was feeling. She had to be sneaky, wily and careful. She couldn't afford to show her emotions, not to anyone.

Elian was startled when she heard a pounding on the door. This didn't happen the first time around and that was when Elian realized that some things were changing...

She looked through the peephole to see that it was Zoey. Zoey was wearing the familiar Pajama bottoms, and her blue eyes were rolling around as she waited for Elian. Her dark blonde hair was in a ponytail that had stopped being a ponytail for a while.

Elian opened the door with a sigh. She couldn't avoid Zoey, but when she looked at Zoey, she couldn't help but wonder... did Zoey know about Robyn? Did Zoey know anything about why she was hunted?

"Hey El, you alright? You look so damn distracted and then you left early from the ceremony. Your mother was looking for you."

"I told grandmother before I left. But yes, trust grandmother to not have said anything." Elia frowned as she sat down on the bed and Zoey followed.

"It is no news that your grandmother is a wicked witch of the west. Forget about her. So... you and Blake... when are you guys going to move in together?Are you planning anything?" Zoey asked as she slumped down the bed, looking at Elian with a smile on her face.

"Not yet, we are still thinking about it, but we are both comfortable right here." Blake also lived in the Amethyst main house. His room was on the floor above hers. And they could meet whenever they wanted. "Hey, Zoey, I... I mean..you- did Robyn-" Elian sighed. She didn't know how to ask her best friend about her other friend. Even though Robyn was no longer anything closer to a friend, Zoey didn't know that, and Elian couldn't tell Zoey anything, at least not yet, and not without checking what she knew.

"Robyn what?" Zoey scowled a little as she propped herself up with her elbow and stared at Elian.

"Never mind. It is stupid." Elian mumbled under her breath, which made Zoey's eyes sharpen. She sat up in bed and looked at Elian with a frown. "We have been friends for a long time, and I don't mind her most of the time... but Robyn...sometimes, she is a b***h. There I said it." Zoey said as Elian stared at her, her mouth hanging open.

That... Elian didn't expect that, but there it was.

"Did you ever notice that she is... overly friendly with-"

"Why sugarcoat? She flirts with Blake. Like outright flirts with him and I don't like it. I have told her so." Zoey said with a huff. "I didn't want you to worry about it. Blake has no interest in her whatsoever."

"I know... I just noticed at Lafayette's ceremony. She was full on flirting with Blake."

"And that was such a horrible thing to do to your friend."

Oh, that is the least horrible thing Robyn is doing... The other one... not as harmless as this!

"Let's just forget it. Want to watch a movie? I will make popcorn." Elian said. She really wanted to sleep, but she also didn't want to stay in her room alone.

"Sure. Put on something gory and we will imagine the first one who dies in the movie as Robyn."

***

(Blue)

The beep of the machines connected to her intensified as she heard the lock clicking. Whenever they came in, the beeps went louder.

The shackles around her arms and legs burned, but they had become familiar. Tied in them for too long had made her, not immune, but indifferent to them.

This was her life. Inside this white room, with machines and shackles.

She always felt like she was suspended in time and space. She didn't know who she was or where she was or why she was here in this place... not anymore. All her memories were robbed, leaving her a shell of who she was once.

The only thing she remembered was... Blue. Her name was Blue. Or so what the lady who often came in kept calling her.

The door banged open, and Blue stared at the woman who walked in. She had long red hair that was like a fiery flame. She must be around her mid thirties.

The man with the woman was much older than her, and his eyes... were always full of condescending leer as he looked at her. Blue understood that look. He didn't like her. She didn't like him, too.

"You comfortable, b***h?" The man asked as he pressed a finger against Blue's pulse. Blue gulped. She never liked it when the man touched her. It made her body crawl, as if a million squiggly worms were creeping all over her body. She shuddered. "What? Does my touch disgust you?" He sneered at her, his lips pulling back in a mocking smile. "For someone who has nothing, you sure act like

a princess. You are not." He said to her.

"Stop bothering her." The woman said. "And collect more blood."

She looked younger than him, but it was obvious who was the boss in this place. This woman was!

"She doesn't look like she will survive if we take more blood." The man scratched his jaws. Blue didn't want to survive. Not anymore. Not after all this.

What was the use of living when you didn't know who you were... What was the use of living when all of your identity was broken into pieces to give you this one identity - Blue. Blue. That was what they called her and she had started calling herself that, too.

Blue often had flashes of her old life, but it was too quick, and gone before she could fully grasp it or understand it.

She stared at the man who was now preparing a big syringe. Her howl was soft and full of agony.

Blue wished this torture would end... but it was endless. It went on and on and on. The man came towards her with the syringe. The woman, leafing through a bunch of files on the cabinet, turned towards him, her eyes pensive and then she said, stop.

"Wait, just pump her up with more fluids, and no need to collect any blood for now. Let's see whether she improves. I don't want her dead. We just lost Red and Green."

___