Marker; 3065 reads and 494 reads!

AN; Wow, I got more than 100 reads in the last 24 hours. I am in awe, so I decided to give you an extra chapter this week. Let me tell you I have certainly been bitten by the writer bug this past couple of days! I can't seem to keep my fingers away from my keyboard. Anyways, enjoy!

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At first, I was falling as one should fall from a fourth-story window. Quickly, with the wind roaring furiously past me, while gravity yanked me towards the ground. Then something strange happened. The wind wrapped around me and my body slowed and stopped and I was left bobbing in the air about two stories below the window.

Alpha Luka, who still stood in the window, watched me with his hateful yellow eyes and let out a low growl. His ears went back against his head and backed away from the window slowly, before disappearing back into the attic. In the meantime, the sound of raspy, labored breathing began to fill my ears, and the smell of damp earth assaulted my nose. Thin strips of gray, somewhat translucent-looking fabric began to swirl around my body and wrapped themselves loosely around my arms and legs.

I began to drift away from the window before slowly rising into the sky and towards the forest. I wanted to look back and see what had me, but it seemed I could not rotate my body in the air or turn my head around enough to see what was behind me, so I had to relent myself to the unknown.

Whatever it was felt old and very much part of the land, and very much something out of my current understanding. And even though I couldn't see it, it had to be horrifying to scare the Alpha and cause him to run away like a scared puppy back into his mansion. Despite all this, I felt like I wasn't in any danger, and despite not knowing where it was taking me, I was just glad it was away from the Alpha's mansion. Actually, I felt rather peaceful while I and my new friend began to descend gracefully into the snowy forest below. But with this new sense of peace, came the searing pain coming from the bite on my arm and scratches that I had gotten flying through the window.

Luckily, I had learned a new trick early that night. I shut my eyes and pulled the heat from the air into my wound. It was almost done healing, by the time my feet touch the snowy ground and whatever had me, let me go. I turned around to finally meet my rescuer and was met with the face of a skull with cloudy white eyes, floating within a tangle of that same gray, translucent fabric. And at that moment, I blacked out.

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I awoke to the car engine and someone singing "Hound Dog" very off-key. My head was pounding and I felt like I was going to be ill.

"You ain't nothing but a hound dog. Cryin' all the time."

I opened my eyes and realized, that I was in Richard's truck. But as I looked to my left I realized that it wasn't Richard driving. Liam's green eyes met mine the second I glanced in his direction. He was wearing the most weather-appropriate outfit I had seen him in to date. He was dressed in a gray fleece zip with dark jeans and heavy brown work boots.

Above us, the sky was glowing pink while the sun peaked just above the horizon. Whatever road we were on, it was carving itself through a collection of fairly impressive look mountains.

"Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit. And you ain't no friend of mine!" he sang and grinned at me."Morning! You passed out from magic exhaustion and probably a little bit of shock of seeing a forest spirit for the first time. They aren't very pretty. Here, drink this," With one hand on the wheel he reached over and handed me a glass bottle, with a glimmering purple liquid in it, from the cup holder."

I took it and looked suspiciously at the glimmering liquid.

"It's a potion for magic exhaustion," he explained. You aren't used to using magic yet, so you burned yourself out. I also stopped at a gas station a few miles back and got us some food and also a new shirt. It's in the back. You are going to want to eat and get up your strength for where we are going."

I looked down at the powder blue sweater I still had on. It now had multiple rust-colored stains and the left sleeve had a gaping hole in it where Alpha Luka had torn into my arm.

"Got to admit, you gave me a good scare back there. I thought you were a goner, luckily I was able to pull you out of the room with the binding spell, and the forest spirits answered my prayer a came and helped you."

"How did you get Richard's truck?" I asked. I snifted at the potion. It smelled like Maureem's spice cabinet. I took a swig of it and flinched at its bitter taste, but it made my head feel a whole lot better.

I hope he hadn't hurt him in the process of getting his truck. Richard wasn't a bad person and was kind to me.

"After you passed out, he found us in the woods. He's someone that listens to the spirits too, and they told him to come to find us and help us in any way he could. Apparently, he is quite fond of you, so he was willing to give me his truck. I just told him where he can come and get it in a couple days."

We came to an intersection with a red stop sign, which Liam flew by without a second's hesitation. I gripped my seat in terror.

"Do you even have a driver's license? You just ran a stop sign!" I yelled. I quickly fastened my seatbelt that had previously been undone

"No, didn't really need one. I usually traveled on foot until now, in wolf form of course. Oh by the way. Liam kept one hand on the steering wheel, while he used the other to pull his phone out of his pocket. Do you mind giving Grayson a callback? I figured that the poor guy probably sensed you were in a lot of danger, but would most likely not be able to reach you through your bound, due to your magic exhaustion, so I gave him a call and told him I had you and well....it didn't go so well.

I reached for the phone, now very eager to hear Grayson's voice again and let him know I was okay, but he yanked it out of my grasp just in the nick of time.

"Wait before I give you this phone,  grab my hand." He held out the hand still holding the phone.

I looked at his hand apprehensively, remembering that last time I had grabbed his hand like this back at the diner. That hadn't ended too well.

"Don't worry, I promise you no dirty tricks."

"Okay, but this better not be another one of these binding spell things," I grabbed his hand with the phone in it

"Got it. Aurelia, I release you from all the bindings. You may talk to whoever you want about whatever you want, including everything that happens between you and me."

He let go of my hand.

"You are releasing me?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, because I going to need you to call Grayson back and explain what is going on before he loses his mind. I tried to earlier when you were asleep, but we started cursing me out and I couldn't get a single word in over his swearing."

I looked at the screen, "You have 71 calls from him and twenty messages. Liam, what did you say to him?"

"Nothing, it was your friends apparently. They called him and said someone kidnapped you from the mansion by throwing you out a window," Liam scoffed. "More like saved your life by throwing you out a window."

" Wait Beatrice, Caesar, and Benedick called Grayson?"

How the heck had they gotten a phone?

"I think it was your friend Caesar."

The phone lit up in my hand and Grayson's name flashed across the screen.

"He's calling right now. Should I pick up?" I asked.

I stared at the picture of a red phone and a green phone below his name.

"Yeah, just click the green icon...I think. I don't use those things too much. "

"Me either," I said and pressed my finger against the screen!"

"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?" Grayson's voice shouted and I nearly dropped the phone.

"BRING HER BACK YOU BASTARD!!!? YOU DON'T WANT TO F-"

"Grayson..." I said before he could continue his rampage.

Grayson went silent and from the other side of the phone, I could hear him take a few  deep breaths.

"Aurelia, are you okay?" he asked. I could tell he was trying his best to stay calm but he couldn't keep his voice from shaking.

"I think..."

"What do you mean you think!?" the panic in his voice was palpable. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the car with Liam. He's..," I glanced at Liam, "I'm not sure where he is taking me? Where are you taking me?"

"She doesn't know yet, and I'm not letting her know till she gets off the phone!" Liam yelled from the driver's seat.

"TELL ME NOW WHERE YOU ARE TAKING HER! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU I SWEAR TO GOD!"

Liam let a low whistle. "Down boy. I can't tell you, I can't have you charging in and wrecking everything. Relax, I won't let anything happen to my little sister."

"What the hell are you talking about you don't...Aurelia what is he talking about!?"

"He's telling the truth,I just couldn't tell you he had me under a binding spell, until now. But Liam is my older brother, he was the one that brought me to Pine Ridge."

I glanced out the window, while a green sign emerged from around  the bend in the road.

"We just passed a sign saying..." before I could finish Liam had ripped the phone out of my hand and tossed it out the window.

"Why did you just do that!?" I yelled.

"I told you, I can't have him knowing where we are going. Until the time is right We are almost at our first destination."