Something wasn't right. Lucas groaned as a wave of goosebumps formed on his body and left again. Vaguely familiar, he tried to dismiss the feeling and rolled onto his other side hoping that Azura would curl herself into him. His arm hit an empty spot right as another wave of goosebumps rolled across his skin.

He couldn't stop his heart from skipping a few beats as his eyes snapped open. This scene was way too familiar. Another wave of goosebumps crashed into him but this time it was stronger, more urgent and it had nothing to do with the situation at hand. He stumbled out of bed as something painful seemed to crawl underneath his skin. Azura being gone and this feeling was unrelated, he knew, but were they really? That same panic he had felt after finding her missing from his bed the first time closed his throat as he quickly grabbed some clothes to throw on.

Danger.

The warmth inside him seemed to spell out that word as the feather mark on his arm started to itch and burn. It wasn't really painful but it was annoying. Right now he had other things to worry about though. Her scent was tainted with distress as he followed it downstairs and through the front door.

The cold harsh wind had him almost stumbling as it whipped into his face. It was still dark outside but due to the white snow, he could still see silhouettes of his surroundings. Tiny snowflakes were falling down as his gaze frantically searched the area for Azura. He could see her irregular footsteps leading to the back. She had been dragging her feet and the further he followed them the more snow had melted around them.

Lucas stopped as he noticed something else in the snow. Due to the harsh wind, he had not picked up on the distinct scent of blood yet the red drops on, what remained of the snow, made his blood race even further.

The cold wind didn't bother him anymore even though the goosebumps were still coming and going on his skin. Lucas ran across the corner of the house towards the garage when he saw it. A figure curled up on the ground in a circle of scorched ground.

For a moment his breathing stalled. He could only see a faint outline of her body but the longer he stared the clearer the image became. Sometimes little flames erupted around her but the position she was in didn't seem natural at all. He could see her twitching and as he moved closer heard her anguished cries.

Something was holding him back. His brain told him to rush over and take her in his arms but a strange heath inside him forced him to keep his distance. He had to fight for every step to close the distance but slowly made his way closer.

She lay naked, half on her stomach facing away from him. It was a gruesome sight as her limbs seemed to be in angles that should not have been possible. Shoulder blades were more closely together as her arms seemed to have dislocated themselves from the shoulders. He could see the muscles spasming beneath her skin, could hear the bones grinding against each other as she groaned in pain. Fingers were elongated and her legs lay in awkward angles. Her skin was still intact, more flexible than it was supposed to be, stretching over parts where bones and muscles were protruding.

A body stopped in the middle of a shift to the other form. It was the most gruesome sight he had ever seen. Things were not where they were supposed to be and he could only imagine the kind of pain it caused. Flames erupted along her skin at times and rolled along her body as if trying to set herself on fire. They didn't hold and died down every single time. As another wave of goosebumps hit his own body, he noticed it was in sync with her tremors and flames.

Not wanting to trigger her any further, Lucas slowly circled her till he could see her face before he would approach her. The blood he had seen came from her nose and mouth. It was smeared across her face. As she pressed her face down into the ground, he could only see a small part but he didn't need to see more to know what she would look like. Eyes closed, her mouth only moved as the whimpers left her lips in sync with the rest of her, and his, tremors.

"Azura? I'm here." He spoke softly

Her eyelids fluttered at his voice. Slowly, one eye opened and after a bit, she twisted her head so she was facing him. There was a strange recognition in her eyes. A fear he had not often seen before. Hesitantly, he stepped forwards while her bloodshot blue eyes followed his every movement. There was no relief in her eyes, just fear, pain, and wariness. He was too far away to touch her still so he took another step closer.

She recoiled. He didn't think it possible with how misshaped she seemed but she managed to somehow move back from him. It wasn't by much but the reaction was there.

She was eyeing him as if he was a predator and she the prey knowing death was just a moment away.

Lucas froze, closing his eyes as a brick crushed his heart. She was scared of him. Acting out of instinct. He didn't get much time to think about it though.

"You feel it." Lucas's eyes snapped open as an estranged voice spoke up.

He stared at Azura, her former fear-filled blue eye now fiery red with two black irises. It wasn't her voice, more of a mix between hers and something else. The Phoenix was something else alright.

"She's blocking me. Stopping me from shifting. Yet I need to do what I am here for. Convince her to let go." Her head twitched to the side as another wave of flames rolled across her skin.

He stood stunned for a moment. Unable to answer. Bones cracked and snapped as the Phoenix tore on Azura's body. A pained moan passed her mouth. Not one from the Phoenix. It was all that he needed to get back into the here and now.

"She's scared!" Lucas yelled.

"Scared? She should know better." A grimace appeared on her lips.

"No..." Lucas exclaimed. "You should know better. You've been with her, been part of her for so long. You know how she thinks, how she acts. Know her fears, her doubts. She's scared she can't come back once she lets go. That once you take over, she dies."

"There's another break. In order to prevent it from getting stronger, I must kill those creatures as We've done before. I have my purpose and will do anything to get there. You feel it! You feel it, feel it getting stronger. If left unchecked, there won't be much to defend anymore. This is the way it has to go, how it always has gone. We fight. It's my purpose."

"At what cost?!" He retaliated, throwing his arms up in despair.

"That is not my concern." The mythical creature replied.

"Well, it should be. You chose to merge with a human. A supernatural human, but still a human. You could have chosen not to! To do what you've done for years. There must have been a reason why you did so. You have asked so much of her. mostly her trust! And she's given that to you. Now it's your turn to trust in the person you have connected with!"

Azura's body stopped twitching as the bird remained silent. Its eyes still locked with Lucas's. It seemed to contemplate what the male shifter had said. Slowly, it seemed like her body relaxed. She blinked a few times, the red in her eyes disappearing and the blue returned. Lucas let out a sigh of relief and rushed over to her. The Phoenix had listened to him, it was backing off despite its own motivations not to. Kneeling down, he gently brushed her hair out of her face and wiped some blood away from her nose.

"Hey, it's ok. You can shift back. Take your time." As he softly spoke, he kept caressing her hair.

Azura blinked at him as an answer. The pure anguish and pain her eyes had held before were gone. Her body was still in shambles but it was calm and no longer fighting itself. That's when the first movement started. Lucas watched in awe as one of her arms started moving. Bone and muscle shifted underneath her skin.

Normal shifts lasted a few mere minutes. The fastest ones could do it in two. Azura was close to that, he himself took a bit longer in normal conditions. Her shifting now was excruciatingly slow though. As if her body had to find out how to fit together again.

Normally it wouldn't hurt. It was a natural process but there was nothing normal about this. Being caught in mid-shift for such a long time was anything but normal and it had taken a toll on her.

As one shoulder popped back in the right place he carefully placed an arm on the black webbed shoulder. A reminder of the previous fight with the strange smoke creatures. She had told him bits and pieces about it but had remained quite closed off about it. The whole ordeal, the fight, the destruction of an entire village, it all weighed heavy on her. More than she let on and would ever admit.

Several minutes passed while Azura lay on the floor, her body changing back to herself. The sudden jolt in his body caught him by complete surprise. He released his touch on her and fell flat on his ass. The feather mark burned on his arm, all hairs on his limbs were standing upright and his teeth chattered together as a big chill ran through his whole system. His breathing faltered for a moment as the wave of strangeness hit him. It wasn't pain, it wasn't cold or extreme heat, it was something else. The same feeling he had before just magnified a thousand times. The same feeling he had gotten every time Azura had her tremors.

With a gasp, he pushed himself up again and fell on his knees next to her. She was silent, had been ever since the Phoenix had released its grip on her body. Sweat glistened on her skin as she lay crumpled in the fetal position. If that jolt had caused so much discomfort to him, he could only imagine what it had done to her. He could hit himself in the face for getting so distracted while she needed him.

Her back was turned to him. The scar from long ago clearly visible. It all looked right. His eyes scanned over her body shocked how she had shifted so suddenly. Arms were in the correct angles, legs seemed perfectly fine and nothing seemed amiss. Her chest was slowly moving up and down indicating she was breathing but for the rest, she didn't move nor made a single sound.

The memory of her recoiling from him still fresh in mind, Lucas moved to her other side so he was facing her front. "Azu, I'm here."

keeping his voice calm and quiet he spoke the same words he had done before. When she didn't react he spoke up again, hoping she wouldn't be startled.

"I'm going to touch you now on your left arm." At the same time, he did exactly that, lightly brushing against her skin.

she had her arms crossed in front of her chest, hugging herself. Her body was all tensed up but as his fingers grazed past her arm, it seemed to loosen up a small bit. Happy she did not draw back from him, Lucas let his hand follow up her arm to her shoulder and eventually brushed his fingers past her blood-stained cheek.

She leaned into him. Eyelids fluttered slightly as she released a long exhale. With it, all tension left her body. The frown on her face relaxed and for just a moment she looked at peace.

The strange feeling that had attacked them both was gone. He knew what had caused it, knew that if he would watch the news the next day, would hear about a strange darkness and missing people. Whatever it was the Phoenix was destined to fight had extended its claws and had let its lesser beings feed on the world's lifeforms. There was not a lot of time left.

As his green eyes examined the naked frail woman in front of him, he knew that he would lose her soon.

No matter how hard he would fight it, no matter how hard she would resist it.

*

"I just offered you the deal of your life and you just sit there like a lump. What's going on, Lucas?"

Jeff slapped him on the shoulder with more force than he had anticipated. Lucas grunted at the impact and glared at his massive friend. Jeff just shrugged, a lopsided grin on his face as he tried to hide a laugh. The big man was blissfully unaware of what was going on. Of just how close they were to something that could possibly change their whole lives. How was he supposed to tell Jeff that he might not see his child being born? That thing, that nightmare as Azura had referred it to, was coming and it seemed to be aiming for her. Even though it had hit in two places, they could draw a straight line towards Pleyvale.

"You and Sheila need to get out of town." Lucas finally spoke absentmindedly.

"Out of town? Dude, I offered you a bigger share in the climbing hall, so that I could take a step back and be there for my child and you're just telling me to leave it all together? Where's your head at?"

"Azura's back," He muttered in response. "And there ain't much time left before the Phoenix will have to do its 'thing.'"

Jeff looked stunned, eased back into his squeaking chair, and just stared intently at his friend before him. Lucas had his eyes averted, a frown had formed between his brows which aged him up quite a bit. His eyes stared blankly at the piece of paper which held the new agreement between the two men regarding the climbing hall. Jeff would still be the owner but would take a step back, making Lucas become the acting manager. A term he despised but it was just on paper. In reality, he had been doing that more and more over the years.

"Azura's back? And you guys... met up?" Jeff finally broke the silence, making Lucas snap his head up again.

"I went to Rose's place yesterday to pick up a parcel she forgot to bring here. When I got in, Azura was there, baking a pie in preparation for Shorty's birthday." He placed his hand on the contract and gently shoved it towards Jeff. "In normal circumstances, I would have signed. I can't right now though. Not until after."

"So Azura is staying at Rose again?" Jeff ignored the latter comment and the piece of paper. For a man his size, his voice had become remarkably silent.

"No. She's home. Resting I hope. Though I do feel like she's up to something but she forced me out of the house when she found out I was supposed to meet up with you. Want some more coffee by the way? I could use some." Even though he tried to hide it, Lucas couldn't hide the sly grin on his face.

Crappy outlook or not, he could not ignore the fact of how relieved he was that things between him and her were good again. The fucked up morning had put a little stain on last night's events but Azura had recovered well enough to kick him out with a wink and a hand on his crotch. She was still the worst tease and more confusing than ever.

"Fine, I get the hint." Jeff got up rolling his eyes and made his way over to the coffee machine. As he placed a mug under it and started the grinding of the bean's he spoke up again. "Why did you say you want me and Sheila to leave town? That wasn't a joke, was it?"

"The Nightmare creature, as Azura calls it, is coming. The thing the Phoenix has come to fight. There have been two incidents now. One you know about and the other happened early this morning."

As Jeff handed him his black coffee, Lucas took a whiff of the rising smoke coming from the black gold. "Damn this smells good." He breathed before taking a sip.

"Expensive coffee, do try to enjoy it instead of gulping it down as you usually do." The big man sneered. "Now stop stalling and talk. There's gotta be a damn good reason for me to take Sheila away from here."

"There's been another incident as I said before. The Phoenix wanted to take control and fight it but Azura held it back. It wasn't pretty but she had her reasons. Check the news tonight, I'm sure there'll be something on there. We know what caused the mayhem, but the rest of the world doesn't." He took another sip, savoring the full flavor of the expensive coffee Jeff preferred

"They are drawn to one another. The Phoenix and the Nightmare. Don't ask me how, but they simply are. Azura and I had a good talk this morning after she recovered and she managed to get some information from the Phoenix too. Normally the bird chases the nightmare but because of the different circumstances regarding Azu, it's the other way around. It chases her. Besides that, the creature feeds on the so-called life force. We all possess that. Plants, animals, humans, supernaturals. It seeks out the densest places to attack to feed on, building strength through the smaller creatures before showing itself. That's why it attacked two cities now."

Lucas stopped talking for a bit and looked at the window overseeing the climbing area. Jeff followed his gaze to the oblivious people working out.

"Pleyvale is next isn't it?" The burly man guessed but he already knew the answer.

Lucas nodded. "We've discussed her moving away in hopes the Nightmare will follow. but chances are slim. She and the Phoenix have made a home here, left a mark. Something we cannot trace but that thing can. Even if Azu would leave now towards someplace else, we believe it would still hit here."

"We need to inform Ben." There was no hesitation in Jeff's voice as he spoke.

Lucas's eyes widened in realization as his friend mentioned the mayor's name. "Shit! That's why she was so adamant about me meeting with you!"