COUNTDOWN: 20 DAYS TO FULL MOON #4

                “Found anything yet?” Kita asked as she flipped another page in the heavy tome propped before her. The book was on a higher shelf, newer, and she could recognise odd words here and there as the language transitioned into something more similar to her own. Through those and the diagrams on every couple pages, Kita was trying to find reference to any type of barrier that she could make for the next full moon.

                Kris was at the desk he’d insisted on moving from the study upstairs, just as he had been for the past three days. Books were towering around him, each one containing hordes of Fey history, but none of what they were looking for.

“If I’d found something,” Kris replied tersely, “I’d have told you.” He was dedicating ever second of his life to finding a spell, and he had to find one quickly so Kita had time to learn it before the next full moon. As the only one who could read the ancient Fey language, there was pressure on his shoulders.

                And he remembered the weakness he’d felt during the last full moon, the weariness in his limbs. He’d hid himself in his room willing it to go away because as much as he had agreed to this decision, he wasn’t sure he was ready for it. He was an Alpha, an Alpha for Christ’s sake. He was bigger, more vicious, fiercely territorial, he always had been. He’d woken up surrounded by bodies, drenched in blood that was not his own. He’d made the deal with the Fey for the good of his pack, but he couldn’t deny the selfishness in him now that begged him to go back on his word, to remain the way he was. He was not too proud to admit to himself that he was afraid, afraid of what he would become. That was why he needed this barrier, he needed something to contain him and protect the world from his anger.

                Kita mimed his face in her slouch before rolling her eyes. Being in a bad temper wouldn’t help them find a spell any faster. Though, she wasn’t sure Kris had any other setting other than the scowls he rotated through. She continued flipping through the heavy pages, squinting her eyes as the vaguely familiar words swam on the page. She shook her head, trying to focus after being at this for so long, looking at which words might be related to the words of her own language.

                “Might have found something.” She said, running her finger over a paragraph, “it’s the word ‘kelos’, which I would translate to modern day ‘kelosee’, for protection. Then later in the paragraph it makes reference to ‘janasie’, which is close to-”

                “Wall!”

                Kris barely saved himself from an embarrassing faceplant, his chair still managing to plummet to the ground as he scrambled over to her. His arm pressed against hers as he leaned over to examine the writing, taking the book without a word and hunching over it at the desk. Kita scoffed, rolling her eyes again as she heaved herself of the couch. Her joints ached and she stretched them overhead before heading up the stairs. She couldn’t help Kris after that, he’d come find her when he had it translated.

                “Hey Luhan,” she said, plopping herself down on the couch beside him.

                “Found anything yet?” He asked, knowing full well what Kita and Kris were doing in the basement.

                “Other than the depths of Kris’ bad temper?” She joked back, taking a sip of his water before passing it back. “I think we might be one to something, just waiting on the translation.”

                A frustrated groan echoed from the basement and Kita rolled her eyes at how much of a drama queen Kris was on the inside.

                Kita closed her eyes and let her head fall back on the couch. Every now and then Luhan would turn a page in the book he was reading, a yell and a thud would echo from upstairs where Tao and Sehun were still acclimatising to sharing a room, but the rest of the house was silent.

                “Where is everyone?” She asked.

                “D.O. is up in his room I think, the others went out for a walk in the woods checking boundaries and stuff.”

                Kita nodded, the pull in her gut telling her that Kai was with them.

                “They’ll be back in a couple hours.” Luhan said, turning another page.

Kai

                Yes, he’d suggested a check on the boundary. But that hadn’t meant that he’d wanted everyone else to come with him. He’d wanted time by himself to figure things out, but that wasn’t going to happen with Baekhyun guffawing in the background.

                He held back a snarl, pushing down the wolf that wanted to rise to the surface. He was in control of his own body. Full control. He had to be.

Kita

                She’d left Luhan to his book inside and had gone to sit on the grass facing the forest. There were so many things to consider.

                How had she started binding with the moonstone?

                How could she blend her magic with Kai’s, but not with Baekhyun’s or Chen’s? She’d only tried those two during the last full moon, but she was sure that it would be the same with all of the other wolves. All of them except Kai.

                The tree is falling sick. Things are Changing. Be careful. What had Eunhyuk meant with such cryptic words, and was Donghae really trying to send a message through him?

                 There were so many parts of magic that she didn’t understand, parts she wasn’t sure she was supposed to.

                The moonstone was in its bag beside her. She’d avoided touching it to bring it out, she wasn’t sure what to do.

                “What am I supposed to do?” she asked herself, looking down at her hands. She still remembered the feeling of her fingers snapping into place as Kai had shifted back into human form. She shuddered. “I have to do something.”

                The tree. That was probably the easiest place to start. Placing her hands on the ground, she began the process of trying to sense the magic in the ground.

Kai

                Xiumin had called for everyone to break up into groups, thank god, and was now trailing silently after him, almost as if he knew he needed the space.

                He’d prefer to be alone, but it seemed this was the best he was going go get for now. He let up on the strangling hold he had on his wolf, and felt it twitching, testing the boundaries. He felt it’s nose in the air, sniffing at the freedom that was so close. Its excitement returned. Its bloodlust began.

Kita

                She’d felt before that the magic of the forest was weaker than when she was a child, and she felt it now as the tendrils of sickness tangled around her. She was searching for a burst of magic, as she had been for a while now, but perhaps she was too far from the tree.

                Her first thought was Kai, the pulling in her gut telling her exactly where to find him to the west of her.

                Her second thought, as her eyes slid over to it, was the moonstone.        

                Slowly, she reached over and delved her hand inside the bag to clasp her fingers around it. It was smooth and cold as always, but not buzzing in her hand as it had been the other night.

                Probably because it’s not under moonlight, she thought, the sun beating down on her. She pressed it to the ground anyway, palms laced on top of it, and let her magic flow.

                Already she could feel a difference. Her magic was spready farther into the forest in every direction, but the majority heading west to its siren call.

Kai

                Kai’s breath caught in his throat, his body weakening as he leaned against a tree for support. Something was here, something was around him that made his wolf launch itself against the few restraints he had left. It wanted out. It wanted out now and it was prepared to fight for it.

Kai winced as the onslaught of images pounded one after the other into the back of his eyelids.

                Blood soaked on his claws.

                Cries of anguish in the air.

                A fey, crumbling to the ground.

                A girl with fire, watching him burn.  

                As Kai realised who his wolf was thinking of, he felt his blood begin to race. The images were coming faster now.

                Kita’s sobs of pain as she’d felt him shift.

                Kita almost caught in his claws.

                Kita’s leg trapped between his jaws as she tried to flee. Blood blossomed over her fair Fey skin, and Kai felt a different part of himself stirring.

                Kita lying beneath him. Her shoulder bare, her neck tilted, offering to him.

                Kita’s small hands on his chest.

                Kita’s legs clinging to his hips as she arched beneath him –

                “No!” He yanked at his hair, begging the wolf to stop, forcing it back away from him, away from her.

                “Kai! Woah Kai talk to me man.” Xiumin was beside him in an instant, hand on his shoulder. Kai swung, but Xiumin had him quickly face first on the ground, arm twisted behind his back, shoulder almost popping from its socket. “You didn’t seriously think you could one-up me, did you?” Xiumin smiled briefly, “you ok?”

                Kai’s breathing had shallowed, air was coming back into his lungs. “Yeah.”

                “You going to talk to me if I let you up?”

                Kai hesitated. How could he admit what had just happened? Xiumin twisted his grip, flexing the pain in Kai’s shoulder, and he felt settled. This was Xiumin, the oldest of his hyungs. He would know what to do. Slowly, Xiumin released him and Kai gingerly sat up, leaning back against a tree and rubbing his shoulder.

                “It’s my wolf…”

                Xiumin snorted, “I figured that much. It’s Kita, right?”

                “How did you-?”

                He rolled his eyes this time, “you’ve been pining after her since day 1 even if you wont admit it. Xiumin rolled over Kai’s spluttering protests and gave him a hard look. “But when you shifted your wolf was targeting her, and only her. The rest of us were just nuisances that were in the way. Plus,” he added, “you’re not great at hiding little junior.”

                Kai looked down, burning along his ears as he realised what Xiumin meant. The older boy chuckled, enjoying embarrassing his younger brother. He sobered, “Is she your mate?”

                Kai swallowed, tucking his legs closer together. “How can she be? She’s not a wolf.”

                Xiumin shrugged, “she’s a Fey, who knows what that means. But that’s not what I was asking.”

                Kai thought, “I don’t know what it wants.”

                “I can think of one thing…” Xiumin wiggled his eyebrows, glancing down to Kai’s crossed legs.

                Kai glared. “It’s not just that… I don’t know… I know it wants her like that, but…”

                Xiumin was quiet, waiting patiently for Kai to gather his thoughts.

                Kai cleared his throat, averting his eyes, “I think it wants to kill her.”

                Silence.

                “What do you mean?” Xiumin asked, hushed.

                “I keep seeing her dying.” Kai choked out, “and I know that I’m doing it to her. And then it’ll show me visions of her…”

                “Dead?”

                Kai shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut, “alive. But… under me. .”

                Ah.

                “Well, that’s… that’s ed up.” Xiumin said. Kai lifted his head, eyes wide.

                “That’s it? That’s what you’re going to say?”

                “What do you want me to say, your wolf wants to kill her and sleep with her. Preferably not in that order. Preferable not in any order. One quick question. When your wolf imagines having with Kita–”              

                “Yah–”

                “Grow up. When it imagines having with Kita, is she enjoying it?”

                Kai wanted to dig himself a hole and never come out. He looked away from Xiumin who was watching his reactions like a hawk, a grin growing on his face.

                “She is! Our little Kai is growing up.” He laughed, making Kai feel uncomfortable but at least not like a monster. “Last question,” Xiumin said, “and this is the most important one. Forget about the wolf for a second, do you like her?”

                “What?”

                “Your wolf wants her, in some way, that’s obvious. The question is are you going to let him have her, or are you going to fight for her?”

Kita

                Using the moonstone had been pretty useless, all of the magic that went through it went rushing off to a certain part of the forest which she was determinately trying to avoid thinking of as the place where Kai was.

                There’s no point fretting over things I don’t understand. She kept repeating it to herself as if it would somehow aleive the frustration she felt. Luhan was gone from the couch when she went back in so she made her way straight to the basement where Kris was sat staring at papers scattered over the desk.

                “Found anything?”

                “Perfect timing. Come look.”

                She walked up to the desk, “you’re going to have to explain this to me, you’re handwriting is awful.”

                “The book you found earlier was about a protection spell, and I think I have the idea of it figured out. Here it says ‘line unbroken, constant in strength’, so obviously that’s a circle. But over here it talks about ‘equal in division, though do not divide, take strength from the ground, not from inside’ , so I’m assuming that’s some magic stuff for you to figure out, and then a few pages later there’s these pictures” he tilted the book so she could see, “and these are something called ‘resonance runes’ so I hope you know what they are –”

                “I do.” She said, surprised. “we had them in the forest, they hold magic within them so you can power something magical without having to constantly put magic in it.”

                “… so like a battery then.”

                “…yes.”

                “Right, that makes a little more sense then. You draw the circle, you put some battery runes at equal distances along the circle, charge them up and we’ve got ourselves a barrier.”

                Kita scanned her eyes across the pages, “it seems so simple.”

                Kris snorted, “lets just hope it is."