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Cadence
~

Cadence shook herself awake and gasps for air filled the dark and dense room. It didn't take long for her to register where she was, where she lay, beneath thick and wholly covers and not icy cold and metal chains snaking around every inch of her body, securing her firmly in place like a prisoner.

Because that was what took place in her nightmare. Night after night, she was wrapped in unmoving chains that she could hardly wriggle in. Trapped in a coffin with no way out.

Turning over her, she grabbed the phone Alexene gave to her and the screen lit up. Her eyes squinted from the brightness.

A message appeared on the device and it looked to have been sent hours ago — around midnight.

Cadence wished it to be Erisa, even though she didn't necessarily want to hear from her either right now.

Alexene's name appeared brightly on the screen and Cadence wanted to ditch the phone against a nearby wall.

Madam Dumb Bitch Bloodsucker: Haven't heard from you in a while, I've been worried. I'm sure I don't need to revisit the importance of the object, Cadence. I'll do worse than choke you, remember that. If I don't receive any updates within two days, you and I will have a catch-up. Sleep well.

Cadence clutched her hand around the device and resisted the urge to fling it across the room.

Sleep well?

Cadence sat up, skin prickling with fear. Did she cause these nightmares?

She was a vampire, a compelling and manipulative thing that could not only glamour a person but do worse. What if she was the root cause of this?

Cadence bit at her nail, pulling at straws that could make sense. Alexene was secretive and cunning. An immortal with years of experience in how to warp the mind to her use. What if compelling went beyond and extended to the psyche, tearing you from the inside out?

Cadence swore she heard a voice calling for her in her dreams.

But that couldn't be true. She was her own company, only friend and one enemy in that tomb. Maybe she had been imprisoned in that place for too long that her mind had worked up an onslaught of voices to haunt her, to drown out her cries of plea.

They were extending, becoming too real for her to separate certain things. When Accalia woke her up over a day ago, something within her snapped and she couldn't shake out of it even as wakefulness had seeped into her physical form. A part of herself still felt she was there in that dreary old tomb.

Alexene must have provoked all of this.

The image of the knife meeting her cousin's throat to cut her flashed through Cadence's mind. All she needed to do was slice it across the skin and Accalia would have encountered a bloody death.

Cadence drove her fist into the bed, wishing it was glass or a brick wall she was colliding her skin into. Getting to her feet, she resisted the urge to flip the mattress over, smash the lamp she flicked on to illuminate the room into a nearby wall and create havoc because this was where the damning nightmares began.

They began in this house, in this pack and under the roof of a lycan. It seemed only fitting to burn this house down, maybe her dreams would smash into ashes as well.

Stumbling into the bathroom, Cadence slammed the door closed and clutched the sides of the sink, glaring at herself in the mirror. The jet-black eyes that stared back at her tipped her off the axel, she could not only see her reflection in the mirror but within those depths of obscurity. Reflection after reflection.

Colour had drained from her skin over these past few days, leaving her pale and ghostly to the eye.

Cadence knew what she wanted in life and wasn't the pretty and easy-going canvas that many wanted to be painted for themselves. She knew her path would be bloody and brutal, that was the path carved before her birth by her family. And it was the path she would walk down until she died. It was fair and honourable.

She didn't want her family's death to be in vain. She had to continue with a sword by her side for the sake of the deceased ones she would never see again in this lifetime.

What she didn't want, was this. Being mutually linked to a lycan, living with him and ready to betray him even if it put Accalia on the line. Once Cadence found this item, Lycus would realise why she stuck around so long and pin a portion of the blame on Accalia.

He wouldn't hurt her, Cadence dared herself to hope he wouldn't. Once this item was in her hands, it was leverage.

She didn't want know to about the existence of vampires, didn't want Accalia bound to Lycus and didn't want to be given a mission that could lead to her demise.

Perhaps that was what prompted Cadence to drive her fist into the mirror in front of her, skin making contact with the glass before a crack shook through the bathroom, the once perfect shape shattering into pieces.

Cadence cried out, shards piercing into her skin as she cowered against the sink, hunching forward.

"Dammit!" She cried out and stared at the deep red liquid oozing out of her.

Breathing through the pain, she rinsed the glass and blood off, skin prickling and lip being bitten hard enough it could bleed.

Flinching, she grabbed a towel and clutched it to her knuckles, stepping out of the bathroom and into the dawning sunlight.

It will take forever to heal now, Cadence thought, annoyed with herself. Just a human girl.

Cadence tended to the wound the best she could, dabbing at the blood and observing the cuts rooted in the skin that met flesh.

As Cadence thought of what she never wanted, she played at the things she did want.

She wanted this done. Starting with these dreams.

~

It was nearly lunch when Cadence came downstairs and into the kitchen to energise herself. She hadn't eaten in hours, too on edge and tired to stomach anything.

Making a big bowl of cereal, Cadence took a seat and munched away. Milk dribbled down her chin and she slowly became sated, her hunger drifting away with every spoonful she took.

"You look like you're heading out," a voice called through the kitchen.

Cadence jumped and wiped at her chin, milk staining the back of her hand. Looking to the source, Accalia strolled in looking nothing short of pretty and untouchable. She wore a white sundress that complimented her brown skin and gleamed against the sun rays screening through the glass windows.

What didn't compliment her skin, however, was the slight cut on her neck that she made a point of throwing her hair over to cover once Cadence narrowed her eyes at it.

Cadence looked down at herself. The usual attire was combat boots, dark grey skinny jeans and a long jacket.

"Is your neck alright?" Cadence inquired and her heart pounded relentlessly. Distracting herself, she placed the bowl in the sink and washed it up.

Accalia put the kettle on and had her back facing Cadence.

Remorse filled her, a void punching through her chest and leaving nothing but a deep and faulting hole that wouldn't fill.

"Accalia, I'm sorry," Cadence forced out.

Accalia turned around and fixed Cadence with a kind smile. "I told you it's fine, Cadence. I'm just worried about you, these dreams are getting out of hand."

Cadence bobbed her head, already knowing this and knowing her way out of it. She wouldn't tell Accalia though, just in case it didn't work.

"Your hand," Accalia gasped, pulling Cadence out of her thoughts as she came over and gripped the injured hand in her own.

Her finger brushed against the dried cuts and reddening bruises. Cadence recoiled, pulling her hand to her side.

"It's okay, it was an accident," Cadence said shortly, wishing Accalia wouldn't press any further.

She couldn't break now, not like she did with the Jaeger family. They already knew too much and just being around Accalia made her want to snap and spill everything on the table.

Accalia's lip pulled into a thin line and she took a step back, torment haunting her pretty face.

"Cadence," Accalia's fingers intertwined together as she cast her head to the floor, unable to meet her cousin's eye. "If you want to leave, I won't stop you. I'm the one that made the deal with Lycus. If you want to leave ... I won't stop you. You can go."

Trust me, I have every intention of pissing off, Cadence wanted to mouth off, a bitchy and icy remark, but she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon," Cadence watched as Accalia's head snapped up, a gleam of hope twinkling in those rich russet irises.

Cadence fixed up her jacket and adjusted her tight ponytail that sat high on her head. "I am going for a walk though, I'll be back in a couple of hours. Gotta clear my head."

Accalia smiled, that hope undyingly unfailing. It made Cadence want to run.

~

The forest was dreaded in silence as Cadence padded down a dirt path. The citadels of trees drowned out the skies and daylight, leaving a shadowy view of the nut-brown forest. No birds sang, bugs unspeaking in the bushes and no brush of wind tickled her clothes.

Cadence made a snapshot of everything her head could take in. She needed to memorise and visualise this place because soon enough she would be walking through it once again with a shovel.

It was her last resort, she couldn't consider anything else other than manipulating Lycus's wolves to dig for information. Even then, she doubted he would utter anything to them. He was secretive and had centuries of secrets up his sleeves, some he may have forgotten about as time waned on.

Gabriel would know something, but asking the noble lycan would be suspicious enough.

Unless Cadence confronted Lycus himself, demanding to know where this item was and making Accalia collateral damage as to why the object needed to be found.

Cadence could spin this entire matter to her making; tell Lycus that Accalia was going to die if something wasn't found. He would give in then. She couldn't confide in a lycan, nor the lycan she was working against.

Cadence's trek to her destination had taken over an hour on foot and only for the sole reason of sitting by a creek and watching the water ripple endlessly.

She did need to clear her head. Grab a handle on the reigns within her mind and weigh every possible outcome without doing something reckless.

Cadence supposed seeking the help of an oracle was reckless as she could get, simply because she hardly believed in them. Their abilities were limited when it came to humans, only because they were created to help lycans and werewolves.

Desperation had led her here.

Desperate ...

Cadence Larren had never been so desperate in her entire life.

Not even when her parents died and there was a reason behind that. She knew what they would have wanted her to do without them even saying it. Hunted in their stead and carried on. She thought she was succeeding until she trespassed into the Fenris lands.

Cadence saw the flowery and blooming garden before the small and concealed cottage. Fruity and sweet scents welcomed her nostrils and she almost sneezed. Rubbing her nose, she viewed the many colours and watched as bees and butterflies dusted along the garden.

Averting her attention to the wooden door, Cadence strolled up the path and once again, felt like she was here against her will.

Cadence ran through the sentences she jotted down in her mind when she was sitting by the creek. She told herself to be respectful and open-minded. Not an insolent little girl. And hopefully, the oracle would do the same and not view Cadence as unhinged and crazy.

To the mind of a human, she would need to be locked up but to an oracle, this would be an oddity that would want answers for this. Oracles must have dealt with dreams, they were prophetic beings, after all.

Working up the courage, shoving aside her want to turn back, Cadence knocked loudly on the door and rammed her hands in her jacket pockets, rocking on her feet.

Only a minute passed when the door opened, revealing the being that didn't look bound to this earth.

Vaela was draped in a maxi dress that brushed her along bare feet and her dreads cascaded in a downpour, reaching her hips. 

Those silver orbs shook Cadence to the core, but she didn't look away from them. They were stark and filled with brilliance. The moon's twin, the moon's eye for lycans and werewolves. She wasn't gifted eyes like that for no reason, no oracle was.

Her dark skin was painted in cryptic tattoos that didn't make sense, sigils and symbols that were a complete mystery. Bangles curled around her wrists, rings on every finger and Cadence briefly locked sight on her neck that only wore one necklace.

A mix of disbelief and astonishment could knock Cadence right off her feet. But she steadied herself, looking at the necklace and trying to decipher it from the drawing she had in the bag that Alexene gave to her.

The piece was small but shapely, shapely enough for someone to notice it and have to compliment it. The silver was swirling around a red diamond. Only it wasn't a diamond as Vaela moved slightly, the red swayed also as though liquid resided in it.

Cadence snapped her up, looking long enough and couldn't risk Vaela noticing. Not when she found it, right in front of her and worn as a necklace.

Vaela looked to Cadence with a concerned expression, sympathetic even.

The oracle frowned at her, trying to gauge the hunter's features that wished to laugh. Cadence wanted to laugh and howl in glee with her findings.

"Cadence, I occasionally can see the future but I did not expect this. Why are you here?" Vaela asked serenely.

Cadence swallowed, all sense of knowing what to say dispersing as something else took over her. Hunger.

"I have nightmares," Cadence revealed to the oracle.

Maybe if Cadence exchanged her secrets, Vaela would do the same ... even if the huntress had to force it out of her.

~

Would this be considered a plot twist? Not sure.

Please share your opinions with me and your feedback. I tried to edit as best as I could.

I hope it was a good chapter, perhaps boring — not sure.

— Caranyx.