#Chapter6
Witches in the Woods
/"Tell me./" Sierra reaches out across the table and covers his hand with hers, that gentle maternal love she smothers us with shining through as she too senses unease. Colton sighs heavily, leaning back a little without breaking her contact and rolls his shoulders. A sign he's starting to get stressed and my nerves pick up, pushing me to lean towards him. Aching for him as his emotions taint mine and I get equally antsy as I feed from his inner despair. I reach out impulsively and take his other hand, the one on his thigh under the table and tangle our fingers together as a way of consoling what I don't even know yet. He throws me a soft look, a hint of a smile and a little ‘I love you' squint of his eyes as he wrinkles his nose cutely. I blush in response, never immune to the faces and messages he sends my way, even when it's in a serious moment like this. Colton clears his throat and tenses as he exhales with his words.
/"It started out in a forest. I think, maybe the north side of the mountain. It was familiar, but not here. I was alone…. Maybe…. I don't know. I saw no one, but it wasn't quiet, like I was alone. I felt like there were others in the shadows./" He sighs again and flinches and this time his eyes start to subtly amber out, a sign his emotions are pushing through and I squeeze his hand tighter to keep him calm. Wolf Colton would not be great at explaining anything as he has way too much hostile in that furry form.
/"Go on…/" Sierra encourages. Colton hesitates, screws up his face and blows out air as though the very words are painful, and I can feel it ebbing from him. The upset, the heartbreak and I listen intently, holding on for what he has to say.
/"I was standing still, in human form, but my hands were clawed out like I was half turned but had no intention of fully doing so. Covered in blood even though I was uninjured, and I knew it wasn't mine./"
/"Maybe it was a past vision, we've been up against the vampires and had their blood on our hands so many times these past months/" I interject as his emotions start clawing at my insides, his sense of elevated anxiety making me jittery and I wriggle in my seat.
/"No, this was different. I didn't feel like myself, I felt ……. I can't explain, but it was like I was above and looking at me, but it wasn't me. I was blank… emotionless and disconnected. There was nothing going on in my head and I tried to rouse myself to some sort of response. There was nothing but this shell of me, going through the motions and he couldn't seem to hear or see me, and then ….. I saw you./" Colton's eyes drop to his lap and he turns his head away from me shaking his head. His sadness and pain hits me full pelt in the stomach like a sucker punch as he sees it in his mind's eye, and I know that's not a good sign.
/"What was I doing?/" I blurt out impulsively, afraid of what he saw if it's cutting him this way. Colton remains silent for a long moment to compose himself and Sierra and I exchange concerned glances.
/"Would it be better if you shared it with me and I can see for myself?/" His mother interjects but Colton flashes back to her with a brutal headshake.
/"No!/" I don't want it in either of your heads. The hostility in his harsh response is so out of character.
/"Then tell us…./" I coax him, pleading to know what he saw that has him this way, while ignoring his outburst. Colton pulls his hands away from us and runs both through his hair in agitation, leaning back so his chair balances on only two legs at a precarious angle. I curb the urge to correct it and let him be as he scrubs his fingers on his scalp and sighs loudly.
/"You were lying on the forest floor about ten feet from me, partially concealed as though you had crawled to hide. Human, still dressed like you hadn't even tried to turn……. you were bleeding./" Colton chokes on his own emotion, leaning forward sharply to place his face in his own palms as he leans on the table, his chair slamming down, rubbing his temples then wiping a palm over his face as though to shake what he sees. /"You were looking at me, crying……. You were scared. Of me! ….. And I walked towards you, so empty, so…unfeeling…. I could see you were hurt and yet, I didn't seem to care or react. And you said ‘Please…. don't', as if it was down to me or because of me, or you thought I would hurt you and I woke up/" Colton tenses, shudders, and then stands up quickly to shake the memory out physically as I blanche in open eyed apprehension and Sierra frowns sternly. He stalks to the patio doors and opens one for air and shoves his shoulder against the frame to appear at ease, despite it being obvious he is far from it. I can feel his confusion, his pain and it renders me momentarily mute as chaos swirls in my brain to try and dissect his vision.
/"You think you were the one who wounded her?/" Sierra shakes her head at me as I move to get up to console him, telling me he needs space as she notes his eyes glowing amber before I do. He's wound up, better to let him get it out in his own way and I settle back down. Sometimes when he's riled his wolf hates being touched, even by me.
/"I would never…. but why was she afraid, why wasn't I reacting? Helping her? Why wasn't she turning? None of it made sense! It's like she couldn't turn wolf./" he's back to pacing and I watch him with a heavy heart, unsure what else to say as I try and decipher the dream logically. If he was half wolf in the dream, then there was no reason I couldn't turn. It makes little sense.
/"You said not all the dreams and visions are literal, right? Maybe it's more symbolic. Maybe it's that you feel somewhere inside that you aren't protecting me enough, or maybe feeling the witches last night somehow made you feel like there's danger lurking more than before, and you're scared I won't be safe. That you somehow are watching, powerless, while I'm hurt./" I try to explain what he described, clutching at straws and he turns and narrows his eyes at me thoughtfully. A slight change of expression as he grasps at reason in my explanation.