“C’mon princess, you got this. You’ve been swallowing like a pro for ages,” Slade said, trying for a smile, but it came out shaky. “C’mon, my girl. Keep breathing, or we’ve got to put you back on the machine. You don’t want that.”
“Let’s unhook her,” Finn said.
“I’ll carry her out onto the grass. The moon’s about to rise. Maybe if she’s under it…” Brandon said, but I smelled the stink of fear on him. They all stank of it, like the sour scent of unwashed bodies.
“Fuck it, let’s try. What else can we do? If she shifts with this stuff in her…” Finn said.
Slade moved to my arm and placed a hand above the bend. “This is going to pinch, princess, but you’re a tough girl, aren’t you?”
I watched them fuss over me like a corpse, because that’s what I was close to being, I realised. I smelled of death, stinking, sickly, sweet rotting death. If I could have raised my head, I would’ve seen the wound sites had gone rotten. The bandages at my wrists were pristine, but I knew they hid a sight much more awful. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t even breathe as Slade’s hand closed too easily around my arm like an iron band. Something peeled away from my skin, feeling like it was pulling the flesh with it. I squeezed out a whimper, and all eyes whipped to meet mine.
“I know, love,” Slade said, and I heard the tears in his voice. “I don’t want to, princess, but I have to. I’ll try to be quick.”
Maybe he was, it was hard for me to say. My entire world was pain, and it was all I could pay attention to. Something was pulled from me, feeling like it grated and tore as it came off. I cried out, but no sound came from my desiccated voice box. I was frozen in a curve of agony, unable to do anything other than blink as the waves of it crashed over me. I was moved, I felt the sensation dimly but it couldn’t take my attention away from the pain. They held me around the shoulders and under my legs, because that’s where the muscles shrieked in protest. I felt like I was going to throw up as the swirl of motion sent my head spinning, but there was nothing to come up. Instead, my abdomen clenched and spasmed weakly, sending further spikes of pain. I was laid down on the ground finally, the guys coming to sit beside me. I wanted to scream at them, force them back and not hurt me further, but all I managed was a slight spastic moving of my limbs.
“Give her the blood,” Slade said. "I’ll fight every cunt here if I have to. She’s not going to make it. She’s been wasted away by that fucking prick’s venom. Give it to her, now.”
“You’re going to do what?” I shifted my eyes slowly to see Shaun had arrived, his hair made golden by the floodlight behind him. “You take her choice.”
“She’s not strong enough to make a choice right now! The doc warned us, she might not be strong enough to turn. The blood, it’ll at least give her a chance.”
“Fuck,” Shaun said, kneeling down beside me. “Jules… What they want to do, it’ll give you some strength, but you’ll be bonded to them, for at least a while.” His eyes searched mine, looking for some answer, some clue. “She can’t give consent, she can’t tell us what she wants.”
“Surely not to die would be high on her list,” Brandon snapped.
“She’ll come back strong and wanting to fight. This will put a target on your back if you do this,” Shaun said.
Finn answered by bringing his wrist to his mouth, teeth sharper than a human’s snapping out and making a tear there. “Open her mouth, Slade, and keep it open.”
I saw my Tirian over Finn’s shoulder, watching what she did. “Help me,” I said, but didn’t move my lips. She shook her head.
I cannot. You have to be strong enough to come to me. If you can, I can fix the rest.
“I can’t!”
Then you will die. I kept you from the pain, stopped it from tearing your mind to pieces, let the chemicals they pumped into you have a chance to do what they intended, but you must take the final step.
“I can’t.”
You must.
“How? How do I do this? I can’t even breathe!”
Swallow, my Tirian commanded.
My body made the swallowing motion without even thinking as the salty metallic liquid filled my mouth. I dimly heard them all twittering on about it, but I focussed within. Moving my muscles, opening and closing my throat in a series of agonising movements, getting the liquid down before it went the other way, into my lungs. Then, I became fire. It was different to before as it was not painful in the proper sense, I just felt a terrible heat spread through me but as I did, my chest opened and I could breathe more freely. My muscles relaxed and lay flat against the earth, loosening a tension I hadn’t even been aware of. I swallowed, reaching up now to take the strong, hard wrist in my hands and pull it against my lips. I fought back the urge to moan as the trickle of crimson made its way down my oesophagus, spreading blessed relief through my body.
“It’s happening,” Finn gasped, “I can feel her fangs.”
“C’mon, princess. You shift and no one will ever take you down again,” Slade said, rubbing a hand over my forehead. I thrust both of them back, amazed when I saw them fly through the air to land far away from me. I tried getting to my feet, no, that wasn’t right. I needed to be on all fours, anchored to the earth with my great paws, ready to fight off or chase down these men, depending on what I wanted from them. Brandon and Shaun remained close, only drawing away when I let out a godawful growl. I was getting hotter and hotter still, until it felt like all that was me was molten and liquid. I shut my eyes, stretching back, feeling things inside me pop and crack and rearrange. Then the dust settled, and all was well.
I smelled like earth, smoke and the wind now, all that a healthy animal should. I shifted restively, and my muscles obeyed without complaint. No, instead I felt a great coil of power in my gut that was itching to get out. My Tirian had disappeared, because I was her now. I could run for miles, cover massive areas in a few strides. And run was what I wanted to do. I looked around at the beings next to me, drew in the hot woody scent of their desire on each of them.
“You want to run, princess?” the big one with the fur on his face asked, baring his teeth at me. “You want to chase us down?” I threw back my head and howled my contempt at his words. I could smash his head against the ground with one swipe, and claw out his entrails if he tried to run. “Looks like we’re going to have a mating run,” the man thing said.
I growled in disgust, hackles rising at his blatant lack of respect. I was his better, his only appropriate response was to roll before me and bare his throat for my pleasure. Just as I was about to coil my legs and leap after him, the other man things stepped in my path. “Every bloke that’s able to will be down here in moments, heeding the call. She’s going to get drawn back to you, Finn, for the blood,” the light furred one said. "Are we staying together? She’s already picked us once, all except for Brandon.”
“We should let her choose,” the dark furred one growled.