"Have you completely lost your mind?" Crassus roared; his eyebrows glued together. "I thought that it was clear enough to you what you were signing up for. Everyone was so desperate to do something to fix this situation we have been stuck in, and you know it was your blood that brought her here. But now you, of all people, can't even control yourself?"

"She couldn't handle the pain," Rexsus finally said after a third punch landed on his face, making red bloom from beneath his pale skin.

The two brothers that stood in the main square of the Nest had stirred quite the audience. People gathered in their proximity fussing around, their whispers, indistinguishable, engulfed the atmosphere and heightened the tense mood.

I was as confused as one could be. After the incident in the woods where I, strangely enough, found brief relief thanks to Rexsus, back at the Nest, nobody uttered a single word to me.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" I shouted as I rushed their way. "Are you just going to keep sitting there like some pathetic decorations, and just keep on watching as someone is being assaulted right before your eyes?"

I rushed to Rexsus' side and reached out to cupped his face in my hands. His jaw tensed as we came in contact, and I brushed my fingers over his wounds, with the intent of inspecting them, but he shrugged me off before I could take a closer look.

"Who let this woman here?" he inquired, not even sparing me a single glance. "I asked, who let her here!?" he shouted, as he stood kneeled down before his older brother.

"Where is that warlock?" questioned Crassus. "Annia!" exclaimed the older guy, his voice ruling over the silence that took control of everyone present. "Take her away right this second, before she makes me do something she'll regret."

The woman pulled me aside, and took me away to the place they provided to serve as my temporary residence. I tried to set myself free from her grip, but she wouldn't give in.

"Let go of me!" I complained trying to budge away. "I don't know what I'm going to do if you don't let go right now!"

I looked back at them, frowning at Crassus as I exhaled sharply and crossed my arms.

"We will wait for the syndicate to arrive, then you shall be dealt with according to their guidance. But what you did is intolerable, and it will be addressed accordingly," Crassus said rubbing the crimson off his hands.

"You all are scaring her," added Rexsus. "I did nothing wrong. It's the least I could-"

Another punch landed on his jaw.

"You just won't let it go, will you?" The older brother turned his back brushing his right hand through his raven locks.

"You people sicken me..." I sneered at Annia. "And why the hell is he letting himself get beaten up?"

"Because deep down, he knows what he did was wrong," she said, loosening her grip. "He is not supposed to fraternize with you, not to mention doing what he did."

She paused and let go of me, and proceeded to rub her temples.

"Mixing scents with someone for them is like taking one's clothes off in front someone else."

"Mixing scents?" I chuckled, and I struggled to stop myself from portraying a wide smile. "Come on... You can't actually mean that. That sounds so silly!" I giggled briefly. "Is this why everyone is ignoring me as if I am cursed?"

Annia didn't seem to find the situation as amusing as I did.

"If anything, you are a blessing to us all," she briefly smiled, but that too soon faded, "There are rules that these people live by, that you and I, as outsiders, cannot understand, and we cannot change. Trust me, I've failed to do so."

Rexsus finally looked at me, blood dripping onto his beard, his eyes locked onto mine. And I knew in that moment, he wasn't scared, not one bit. I wondered what was going on in his mind as he stood there, his head bowing to the one the pack called the alpha.

Upon Crassus' demands, his younger brother was taken away by a few of the other men present, with clear instructions as to how they should deal with him and the situation.

"You are linked to him," Annia revealed. "You are the vessel and he is your summoner. And because his blood is what brought you here, and ultimately what keeps you here, the closer your proximity is, the more things could take a turn for the worst," she paused and bit her lip, as if pondering on whether or not she should unveil more. "At least that is what we were told to believe."

Her eyes, as if uneasy, briefly looked at Crassus, but then she quickly shifted them back at me. She paced back and forth a few times stopping suddenly as if she had found the most suitable way to address things.

"One can't just simply bring a full-fledged soul in the way you were brought here, not without terrible repercussions, or forbidden magic," she explained. "But there is no use in denying the fact that your soul had essentially perished right before you were summoned. So, you were the perfect vessel. The blood oath that was established, essentially made you a vessel for Rex's soul."

I tried to make sense of what she told me. But it wasn't much of a use. I found it hard to believe. I was sure that I wasn't the one that they hoped for. It didn't make sense of me to be.

But I were lying if I were to deny the fact that I did feel something. Whenever I found him laying his eyes upon my being. Whenever the sound of his voice resonated in my ears. Whenever his scent poisoned my senses. Whenever I felt his touch tainting the surface of my skin.

I must confess, I felt like home when near Rexsus. His scent felt like my own and the sound of his voice too soothing against my eardrums. I felt a strange feeling of belonging, like I had found myself in him.

"It is because the two of you are linked, that the closer you get to one another, the more chance there is for things to take a turn for the worse. Because of that, they are not willing to take any more chances. Not now. Not when everything has finally fallen into place."

Rexsus stopped all contact with me since that day, and strangely enough, since that day, I had failed to properly keep track of the days that were passing. I often found myself spacing out, and time and space seemed to have been blending around me. I was waiting for the moment that I could wake up and say that all which had happened to me was a dream.

But the pain had numbed away, and I wasn't too sure anymore what was real and what was beyond reality.

At least three weeks had passed from what I could recall since I was brought back to life and since I met him. There was about twenty something days since I started living with the beasts, and I would still wake up, in the middle of darkness, fearing for my life.

It was as if someone was drowning me every single night without fail. Sharp claws dug into my neck, and tangled in my hair, pushing me underwater. I found myself to be sinking no matter what I did. Mud shackled around my feet, dragging me down, and weeds leeched onto my skin.

I was trapped.

I found myself shivering and scared beyond reason.

My lungs were filled with boiling muddy water, and my organs felt like they were rotting from inside out. Maggots crawled inside my being, and it seemed like, despite what has been keeping me sane up until those moments, death and decay had truly never left me.

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. And I was cold.

I was cold and in pain.

I wanted to scream for help, but nobody could hear my pleas. Water rushed down my throat, poisoning my insides, and my chest hurt. I tasted blood in my mouth, and I couldn't breathe.

I was stuffocating as my ribs fractured.

Then right before I could wake up, when my body was numb from the pain, and when my bones felt like they had been shattered beyond recovery, I would gasp for air, and a voice, too familiar already, would whisper in my ears:

"Nefastus."

And then I would die, over, and over again.

That's how all my nights ended.

But, then, for a brief moment, I would then open my eyes, and I would find relief.

I would see him. A pair of mismatched eyes gazing at me from the entrance of my tent. A shadow that never left.