Taming A Predator

Chapter 15

Doe's POV:

The scene around me was a familiar one, vast, pale, nothingness surrounding my entirety.

The sudden uneasiness that churned in my gut reminded me of what I was supposed to be expecting from here.

So much has happened, it'd been so long since I've had a dream like this.

As the realizations and memories trickled in, as did the cementing sensation pouring down my limbs, rendering me immobile.

And the footsteps, echoing through the endless nothingness surrounding me with their casual approach.

It had me holding my breath, trying to prepare for what I was so used to following.

The woman who I thought I'd escaped.

I did. I did escape her, so why was this still happening to me?!

I forced myself to focus on the sounds approaching me, gauging just how much time I had to rebuild my mental defenses.

The longer I listened, the more one thing became evident.

These footsteps were... different.

Still familiar, but different.

My immediate panic slowed at this, hearing the steps close in before they were right upon me.

A gentle hand found my shoulder, and at that touch, I could move again.

I quick head-turn to my right, and a different blonde than I was expecting greeted me with his warm fanged smile.

The tension I held melted away at the sight.

Xander.

He'd never appeared in a dream like this before. Not as anything more than a thought at least.

I'd be lying if I said his presence here didn't elate me.

I rose an arm, aiming to cross it over my chest and set it atop where his was on my shoulder.

Only a heartbeat before the contact was made, a tearing sound sliced through the air around us, bouncing around us like every minuscule sound always did

I knew that sound, I'd heard it once before.

Even a hint of the memory sent my stomach flipping.

The look on Xander's face dropped. His eyes fearfully wide and staring just past me, and his breath trembling in a hiss through barely parted lips.

His hand on my shoulder grew heavy before falling away completely with the rest of him.

I tried calling his name as he fell to his knees before landing fully face-first on the ground.

Any second hope of speaking died on my tongue at what I saw.

Four deep gashes ran across his back in the same way I'd seen once before, blood flowing freely from all of them and steadily began to pool around his motionless body.

No!

There was some resistance, but my body eventually listened to me and knelt by his side in a fit of terrified panic that I'd never experienced before.

His name wouldn't leave my mouth, no matter how much I tried I couldn't make a sound.

I put my hands on him to try to shake him but got no reaction out of him whatsoever.