Danger

[cassandra]

Restless and unable to sleep after Kaden left, Cassanda decided to go for a walk through the town and see if the fresh air would help clear her jangled thoughts.

Telling herself she was NOT hoping to catch a glimpse of Kaden, she nevertheless found herself outside the club, and saw a light on, towards the back.

"He's there", she thought. And he couldn't sleep either." Misery likes nothing better than company, so the thought that Kaden wasn't having an easy time of either made her feel better. Looking at the light, she wanted so badly to go in and just talk to him. Just be with him. Near him. Knowing she couldn't because that would mean breaking her word to him, she felt torn, conflicted, and frustrated. As she was turning around to leave and go back to her room, she noticed movement in the shadows of the club. Shifting inot leopard form, she looked again, and saw one of the men that were after Kaden at the back window of the club. Crouching close to the ground she began to stalk closer to him, silently...telling herself she would just frighten him away...as she told herself that she could hear her mother's instructions running through her head.

"Only kill to save your own life Cassandra, and then only as a last resort. Run, hide, threaten. Do whatever you can to avoid killing. Only kill if there is no other way to save your life." She had sworn to her mother she would obey that order. She had sworn." I'll just frighten him off somehow, or make a noise and alert Kade that he's here." she thought.

As she crept closer to the man, she saw the glint of moonlight on steel coming from an object in his hand. Filled with a rage she had never felt before, she gave a loud roar, and as the man stood and faced her, she made a high, graceful arching leap landed on the man, knocking him to the ground. As he tried to reach the knife he'd dropped in the fall, Cassandra gave another snarl and sank her teeth into the man's throat, tasting his blood that was spurting into her mouth drove her into a frenzy and she gave a powerful shake of her head and ripped the man's throat out. As she stood there in horror, realizing what she' d done, she felt his blood splashing against her face. She had killed. She had killed. Wanting to get as fast and far as she could she turned to run off towards the forest then was stopped by a thought...

"Kaden!! he's in there...he might not have heard me, the other man could be close by...I have to...he has to..." Whirling towards the backdoor of the club she scratched at the door. Hearing the sound of a radio or TV she realized he couldn't hear her. Shifting again, forgetting that she must look terrifying covered in blood as she was, she began to beat and kick at the door.

"Kaden, its me, Cassandra, Kaden open the door...KADEN TORRICK OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!!"

[Kaden]

The TV was on and turned up loud in an attempt to distract him. He wasn't exactly watching it, but if he couldn't hear it, then he'd start thinking about earlier and that was the last thing he needed to be doing. As a result, he didn't hear anything that happened outside. He couldn't hear anything period, until the last scream. His head jerked toward the door reflexively, hurting his neck in the process. With a wince and a curse, he clicked off the television and headed over to the door.

As he opened it and was greeted with the grisly sight of a blood-soaked Cassandra, he gasped in surprise. It wasn't so much the blood than it was the fact that he JUST left her place. His shock got his words caught in his throat for a second, before he found his voice. "What the hell happened to you?!" He asked in a loud whisper.

[cassandra]

"Kade, I killed him, I killed him, and the other one might be nearby, I don't know, I didn't look, OMG, I killed him, he's dead...right outside...he's back there..."The words just came tumbling out of her mouth in a jumble, stammering and stuttering in horror at what she'd done.

[Kaden]

"You killed- Who?" Kaden asked fruitlessly, realizing after the fact that she was much too rattled by it to answer him. She obviously hadn't killed often. "Never mind, come inside." He said, ushering her inside, and sticking his neck out the door to see if the body was nearby. It was, and illuminated in the moonlight, the wizard noticed the glyph-like marking on the corpse's neck. The mark of a telepath. "It was D." Less trouble for me to deal with. He thought, closing the door behind him.

"Cassandra, just calm down. I need you to tell me if you saw the other one when you killed D."

[cassandra]

"No, I didn't see him, or hear him, but I didn't really try to either. That man is dead Kaden, I killed him...I ripped his throat out...he's dead. What do I do now?" Cassandra was stuck in the horror of what she'd done. Scarier to her than what she'd done, was how good it felt the moment she did it. That was the worst of it. The mad glee that she felt when she felt his blood spurt up into her mouth.

[Kaden]

"You've never killed before?" Kaden asked, a bit surprised at the fact. "I didn't even know they were out there, so you might have just saved my life Cass." He said, trying to make her feel better about it. He knew how it felt the first few times from experience; sadly though, life had desensitized him to it somewhat. "As for now...we have to get out of here before his friend finds us."

[cassandra]

"Get out of here? And go where? Kaden, I'm covered in blood! Where...." She just let her voice trail off. She was tired of trying to think. Better to just let Kaden decide everything for the moment.

"What do you want me to do?" Her mind was still in such shock that she couldn't even make the decision to put one foot in front of the other.

[Kaden]

"I would let you clean up in here, but we don't know if Sorba's still around." Kaden said. "The lake's nearby though, you could wash the blood off in there. Hopefully, since it's late, there won't be anyone around to see you. But we have to hurry anyway." He finished, pulling back open the door and extending his hand to her.

[cassandra]

"Should I shift? Which would be better to be seen with? A blood covered woman, or leopard?"

[Kaden]

"Well, a blood-covered leopard might be seen as a threat and attacked, so just stay as a woman." Kaden said. "We won't be sticking around anyway." He led her out of the back room and moved a bit ahead of her to see if anyone was walking the streets. Sighing with relief when he saw no one, he gestured for her to continue following him.

As he stepped out into the moonlight, Kaden realized that the body was gone. "Oh sh-" He didn't get to finish as a muscular fist crashed through the wall of the club, almost taking his head off. The rest of the wall easily fell to the onslaught, and out from the rubble stepped the largest man Kaden had ever seen in his life. He had to be almost 7 feet tall, the muscles bursting all over his body making him seem wider than he should be.

The wizard didn't have to ask who he was, it was more than obvious. It was made even more obvious when Sorba proceeded to tear a nearby light pole out of the ground effortlessly and begin to swing it at Kaden. He hoped like hell that Sorba didn't see Cassandra, but he wasn't given much time to worry. His concentration was mostly on keeping his body out of reach of that pole.

[cassandra]

"This is too much!" Cassandra froze in terror for a moment. Even for this town, this was some freaky sh*t!

"Now what?" She thought desparately. Taking in the situation as well as she could in her state of shock, she quickly made a decision. Realizing instantly the man was too big for her to be able to take him down the way she had his friend, she decided to go for distracting him. Shifting quickly she crept behind him silently. When she was a few feet behind him she gave another spine chilling growl and lept at his back. Digging her claws in to him she clawed him as deeply as she could with that swipe, then using her back feet for leverage she leaped over him and onto the roof of the club. Almost instantly upon landing she whirled around to face him again, and see what his next move would be.

[Kaden]

The surprise attack caught Sorba off guard more than actually hurt him. He ceased his assault on Kaden and spun around, determined to kill whoever interfered with his assignment. Letting out an angered growl of his own, he prepped the pole as if it were a spear and flung it directly as Cassandra.

Kaden saw what was happening as soon as the giant switched up his grip on the light pole. He immediately fired a blast of ice in the path the spear-pole would take. As soon as the pole passed through the ice, it solidified around the projectile and the wizard grabbed it tight. Now this was a mental grab, as his magic was as strong as his mind. And Kaden's mind was much stronger than his body, but even so, he felt like he was jerked forward. That was the amount of strength Sorba put into throwing the pole.

But he caught it nonetheless, and after stopping it, swung it back the way it came, slamming it into Sorba's face with so much force the ice shattered upon impact and the pole itself bent around his face. The man's head snapped backward, but slowly fell back into place. The only difference was that there was a bloody nose and a very pissed-off expression on his face. Forgoing weaponry, this time he rushed at Kaden, planning to deal with him with his bare hands instead.

[cassandra]

Watching from the roof as she felt with the wind off an icy...fury, for want of a better word brush against her as a huge blast of ice came between her and the pole. Turning around to trace where it had come from, she looked directly into Kaden's eyes.....which were now an icy, vivid, blue. Every muscle in his body was taut, straining, whatever he'd done had required great effort.

"What in the HELL was THAT?" Cassandra felt the force of the magic swirling around her, although she didn't know that's what she felt. Seeing Kaden jerked forward suddenly broke her out of the shocked trance she'd been in. Turning her head quickly she saw the giant going after Kaden. Panicked, she tried to think of something she could do to help, to stop what was about to happen. As if everything were happening in slow motion she saw the giant nearing Kaden, reaching his hands out to grab him...

"He's going to kill him. Kaden's going to die right in front of my face, omg, he's going to die!" At that thought a pain like she'd never known before pierced her heart, leaving it colder than the blast of air that had brushed past her. Close on its heels came a rage, also unlike any she'd ever known. The spoiled, arrogant, princess that she'd been reared back up in her. She wasn't having it. That's all there was to it. SHE. WAS. NOT. HAVING. IT. Having grown up believing there was nothing stronger than her will, she still believed it. Making a quick decission she gave a snarl/growl/scream that was almost unearthly in its fury. As the giant stopped in his tracks to look at her, she crouched...muscles tightly coiled, timing her leap for the exact moment he looked up she sprang. Landing on his face she began to claw at his eyes desparately, quickly. She could get no purchase for her back claws so she only had a precious few seconds before she'd fall, she had to make it count. He closed his eyes on reflex so the first swipe merely tore at his eyelids. As she growled again, he opened them briefly, at the exact moment he did, she swiped her claws again....and felt them both dig into the squishy orbs that was his eyes. Was his eyes. Hooking her claws Cassandra felt them 'plop" and burst. Feeling the return of the mad glee she'd felt when she killed his friend earlier she screamed again in triumph, "Can't grab him if you can't see him asshole" she thought grimly. Feeling herself sliding down his body, she pushed off with her back legs as best she could and climbed over his shoulders and leaped to the ground. Whirling around as quickly as she could she had to see if it had worked. If she had given Kaden the precious time he needed to amass that icy fury again. To see if she'd saved his life. Knowing if she failed, and if he died, she died as well.

[Kaden]

Kaden had already begun to turn and try to stay out of Sorba's reach when he saw a blur of fur land on the ground behind the man. Both him and the giant looked at it, though the unlucky aggressor had the misfortune of being her target.

The gigantic bounty hunter let out an agonized roar; hands clutching his bloody eye sockets. Rage overtook his mind. Even though he couldn't see, a wrath tore through his body and he had the overwhelming urge to just destroy everything in range. Unfortunately for him, he'd been spending his entire life making sure to keep a specific spot on his lower back guarded at all times. His immense anger threw that out of the window. Reaching out blindly, he felt a piece of the wall of someone's house. Promptly tearing out a huge chunk of the cement, he turned to try and crush the enemy he couldn't see.

And allowed Kaden to see the burn mark on his back. It stuck out like a sore thumb, especially on a man with otherwise unmarked, unblemished skin. Pointing his finger at the spot, a spike of ice quickly shot out from the finger and pierced it, coming through the same mark on the other side of his body. Sorba stopped in mid-rush. The chunk of cement fell from his hands and broke against the ground with a loud crack. Blood dripped from the end of the end of the spike as the strongman's eyes glazed over. With his Achilles heel being wounded, he was no more, Kaden realized as he pulled back his finger. The spike slid out of the wound and the giant slumped to the ground.

Turning his attention to the leopard, he asked, "Cassandra, you okay?"

[cassandra]

Hearing Kaden's voice Cassandra shifted again. Running to Kaden she threw her arms around him and pulled him to her. Holding him tight against her for a moment, she released her hold on him and began to run her hands all over him, starting with his face. Although the touch was very intimate there was nothing sexual in it, no intent to seduce. Rather, it was as if she were touching her own body, checking for wounds, reassuring herself that he was indeed alive, and whole.

Finding no wounds, finally satisfied, she removed her hands from him and backed up. She stood totally still, and crossed her arms over her breasts, with her head down, staring at the ground. Although unharmed, she appeared......shattered...somethng broken about her.

Hearing a sound from Kaden, she looked up at him, and there it was. In her eyes. Gone was the mask that she wore to shield herself from others. In its place, was the woman herself, her soul exposed. All she was....and all she would never was laid bare before his eyes. She could hold his gaze but a moment, then lowered her eyes once again.

"I'm fine Kaden, he didn't hurt me." she said in a small voice he'd never heard from her before.