Death's Werewolf Nymph
Chapter 18

I got dressed a little warmer than usual, Deaths coat was the warmest thing I had with me and not caring about his judgment of me wearing it after our fight I put it on hugging tightly around my body, nasty wind was blowing outside, now more than ever I wanted to stay inside the house in warm sheets and hot cup of tea. Strangely enough it wasn’t because of the weather I wanted to stay in but because of the fright of the wizard I was meeting. Scared of what he might say…

“Storm is rising outside,” my mom warned me as I reached the outside door, she was watching me from the living room while she was cuddled up next to the fireplace. She looked up and down my coat but didn’t mention it. “Be careful,” she said with a warm smile.

I froze in my spot. “…I will” I answered, returning her smile. But I wasn’t a real one.

I opened the door and a gush of wind hit me in my cheeks like a thousand needles attacking.

Even when I stripped for changing my naked body at first I felt paralyzed by the impact of the sharp wind. I tried to change as quickly as possible and took my clothes in my teeth. I ran, but even with me rushing the distance seemed longer than usual.

I ran and completely forgot where I was going. If I had been alone I would drop my clothes and go further to the lake with my wolf.

That’s what I did. My fur was going in the wind’s direction but it was keeping me warmer than if I was in my human form.

I reached the lake and only then remembered why I was going there. Death looked at me from his side. I don’t think he had ever seen my wolf before.

“Who’s that?” Jasmin asked from beside him with her face scrunched up like I was some disgusting beast.

“Meredith,” Death answered her. Somehow he recognized me. He smiled at me.

I turned around and ran up to the spot where I dropped my clothes and changed back.

I walked slowly to that place, my hair was going in every direction and constantly I tucked them behind my ear. The first thing I noticed was the lake going in crazy waves, even for this strong wind the lake was too crazy, going against physic laws. A strange feeling washed over me that this storm was not Mother Nature’s doing but the man with deep dark eye sockets, hair that reached his shoulders and face that was boney looking with his beard. That must have been the wizard… I looked around and even Death and Jasmin were making distance between him.

I wouldn’t want to be near him either, but he had other plans. He looked at me, but I couldn’t bear to look into his eyes and looked away from his face.

He walked up to me and subconsciously I looked at Death’s direction scared. He mouthed. ‘it’s okay’ to me, but I didn’t feel like it, my stomach dropped with each step he took closer. I was still avoiding his face but when he was close enough he lifted my face with his cold hand roughly to make me look into his eyes, I let out a whimper of cry. He looked around my face and dropped it. “Pretty girl,” he said and walked back to his previous spot where he was putting up some liquids and herbs. I touched my jaw and it ached from his strong grip.

Death walked up to me, he was the one who now took my jaw in his hand, but gently as ever he did something… something that made the pain go away. He took the hold on my wrist and walked me closer to where that wizard was. “No,” I said quietly as we neared him but Death just kept walking, “I don’t want to…” Death looked at me apologetic.

“It’s better if you cooperate, if Jasmin summons him he won’t just leave. He feeds on the information of others. I didn’t know he was going to be this cruel,” he said whispering and held my face in his hands.

”I don’t want him to hurt you… but… he will…,” he said.

I looked at him questioningly. “He’ll hurt me?” I asked. No one told me this before. No one told me I was going to get hurt.

“I didn’t know.” He said. He seemed ashamed. Hurt. Or sad?

From a distance I looked at Jasmin. She didn’t really look like she usually did. Her face. She looked at me with just as much pity as Death did.

They all already knew what was happening to me… And my tears started to fall down. “What will he do?” I asked.

”I know that you will be okay,” he assured me instead of answering. He took my hands in his and kissed them. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “You’re not going to do anything?” He knew what was about to happen. But what did I expect of him? That he would just watch me getting hurt? That he wouldn’t save me?

His eyes sank deeper and lips started to shake. “I can’t…do anything,” he told me.

Who else could save me if not Death?

He positioned my head to face him. “Now I want you to be as strong as you can, okay?” he asked me, not getting any answer in return. He wiped away the few tears that had spilled out. “I will let you cry after. I’ll be there and you can cry. I will hold your hand and you can let everything out. But not now. Keep it in. fight it. Can you do that for me?” he asked.

I swallowed and nodded. Doing as he told and taking in a few deep breaths and holding back everything that wanted to spill out. Even if it hurts. “You’ll be there?” I asked.

A sorrow filled smile crept on his face. “Always.”

He took me by my hand. Actually took my hand in his and intertwined our fingers. For the first time I felt his palm against mine.

He led me closer to the wizard.

”Was that Death you were talking with?” he asked me and that made me understand that he also didn’t see Death. I didn’t answer him, but I was sure that he already knew the answer.

After a short while he turned towards me with a silver cup in his hands. “Drink,” he ordered and gave me the cup.

Death let go of me. Although I would rather he stayed than to leave me alone with him.

I took the cup carefully so I didn’t graze his skin and looked inside it, thankfully there wasn’t a lot in there. I drank the substance down my throat, it was thick and disgusting but I drank it keeping all my emotions bottled. Just like death said. And I trusted him in this. It looked like he knew what he was talking about.

”Extract of wolfsbane mixed with water and nymph blood,” he said, smirking. Nymph blood… no! Where does one get nymph blood? Strangely it didn’t make me puke… it should have but…

My vision got blurry and then clear again, it did this a few times before. I could see but the colors seemed different now.

I rubbed my eyes and opened them again.

Looked around myself it was daylight now and the wind was gone. It smelt of something burning. The sunlight streaks looked blurry. The colors around me washed out.

I looked at the water but it was still going crazy in every direction with no wind. Storming under sunlight.

This was strange. I looked at Death and he was wearing white now, white suit all over, he was holding a single red rose in his hands and offered it to me but I refused. What was happening?

I looked down on myself. Black silky dress on me and mesh gloves.

I looked at Jasmin and she was smiling widely and her clothes now were torn and dirty, her hair was a mess. She didn’t look like herself at all. She wasn’t as elegant as she always was, now she looked like she had been tortured, there were scars on her face. Scars of blade cuts. But I looked at her hands and she was the one holding the blades.

Suddenly the wizard ran up to me and he jammed a knife in my chest making me scream in agony and fall to the ground, the pain I have never felt before washed over me. I was on the edge of giving up and fighting for my living, I looked up and noticed everyone around me laughing, and they were laughing at my pain. I screamed for help but their laughs grew stronger as I screamed. My body was clenching together.

I stopped crying and it didn’t hurt anymore. In a split second my emotions changed. My cheeks weren’t even wet.

I stood up with the knife still in my chest and the laughs stopped, they were now angry, their eyebrows scrunched down. I looked at the blade in my chest. I wrapped my hand around the handle and slowly pulled it out. As I pulled it out a gush of blood came out, it didn’t hurt but I saw all the blood soaking my dress and the ground. I looked at the wizard and his face looked pleased, he liked this… he was enjoying this. I looked at Jasmin and she was looking in disgust at me. Then Death. I looked at him and he was now right next to me. “I told you he won’t hurt you, Love” he said with a smile on his face, not a warm smile. He held a hunting smile on his face, a smile like mocking me.

I shook my head in confusion, “No… that’s not what you told me…”

He looked at me and they all just busted out in laughter, first Death and then Jasmin joined in and then the wizard was laughing uncontrollably. They were laughing till they cried and then like the click of the fingers they were serious. “This isn’t real,” I finally understood. I looked back at the lake and it was still going crazy and I ran to the water, I ran in but it sucked me in, I was underwater, trying to breathe, but there was no way out. I felt shaking in my body, why was I shaking? “Wake up… it’s not real,” I heard a voice say in the distance.

And then the pain came again. My heart clenched. It was pain like no other. My lungs were filled with water. I tried to breathe. But there was nothing to breathe. My chest pained like being cut from inside, blowing up in glass shards.

I wanted this to end. To die sooner.

I closed my eyes and the next time I opened them I was being shaken up by Death. I was on the ground, panicking. I stood up in a sitting position and pushed Death away but he still remained at my side.

It hurt. Everything hurt. I screamed in pain. My lungs hurt. Still the same pain. I still felt under water.

I looked down on my chest, panicked. I hit my chest to stop the pain but there was nothing. I touched my throat and I felt the pain in it, the pain I feel when I have been crying, except this was more painful. I touched my face and it was all wet from tears, in panic I started plucking my hair out. I panicked.

I was laying down on my back and jammed my hands in the dirt. Clenching with all my strength. There was nothing but pain. I had never wanted to die more.

Death took my arms holding them, “It’s not real!” he shouted, he looked like he had been crying, why was he crying? I calmed down and when I wasn’t trying to break my hands out of his hold anymore he touched my face with his palm. “It’s not real,” he said gently.

I felt my stomach going up. I quickly shot up sitting and I turned to the side. Death took my hair in his hold as I vomited out the same liquid thickness I drank. It felt as if it came out with a thousand needles scratching on the way out.

I straightened my posture still sitting and looked around, it was the same it was before. Only the wind had died down now. I looked at the wizard and he had a smirk on his face.

Must have been amusing watching me suffer.

“It’s not a curse…” he said like he was pleased with his discovery. I didn’t know how he found that out. I didn’t know what he did while I was away. my bones kept shaking.

“Then… what?” Jasmin asked for me.

“You were born to be part of prophecy. To start the movement. “ He explained. “It’s not a curse you have, it’s an honor to serve for the prophecy. And you are a gifted for someone but unfortunately I didn’t see who.” He explained.

My hand flew up on my neck in an attempt to soothe the pain. I kept crying, sniffling. “I am a gift?” I asked confused. And also shocked at how unrecognizable my voice sounded.

He proudly nodded. “Made for someone, like mates are made for each other,” he explained.

“But it’s not a mate?” I asked reassuringly.

“If it was a mate I would see it,” he said. “A mate would also be a gift to you. But you are the gift. Meant for someone.”

“That’s why I don’t have a mate?” I asked quietly, scared.

“The one who claims you would have harder time doing so if you were with a soul mate.” He told me.

Claim me? As if I can just be taken?

“You should ask your parent about this.” The wizard added.

“My parents?” I asked. Why would they know anything?

His eyes slit up like he had forgotten to mention it. “For them this is a curse, for their wholesome family. They are the ones that started this, everything you are and will be is their fault. Your mother was being punished for her sins and they punished the thing mothers care about the most,” he smiled, like he was comforting me. Like he thought he was saying something good. “But don’t worry this is only punishment for them, the sadness they feel for your lost mate and the sorrow they will soon experience.” He explained.

I purported my weight on my arms that dig in the ground. “I am a gift to someone?” I repeated. “Meant for someone to just… have?” he nodded like it was nothing. Like I was the one asking dumb obvious questions. “How is that not a punishment to me?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Who wouldn’t want to be a gift? Your parents curse made you a gift. You are not cursed. I think it should be enough to be grateful for. They made terrible mistakes and you barely dodged the sphere of being cursed.” He shook his head disappointed.

I should be grateful… that I wasn’t cursed. That I wasn’t cursed for sins that weren’t mine. I should be grateful that I wasn’t punished for something I didn’t do.

I needed to be grateful that my parents were being punished and not me…

That I was never cursed…and that my parents were...