Ravi. Ravi.

Ravi.

Here.

It had to be them. Beyond the door, lows voices murmured. Their ear-pieces crackled. Leather stretched and somehow shifted their stance, their heel scraping over the worn floors of the apartment's corridors. To a human ear, they would have been silent. Scent-less.

Lavender.

I was standing eerily still in the middle of the room, listening to them; listening to Muffin hiss and yowl, her back arching.

Lavender burned my senses. When I blinked, the leafy apartment spliced into a white cell. Panic splintered, my breathing beginning to grew rough.

"Lux," I choked.

Lordie, Nova – move!

I slid forward on stockinged feet, my senses funnelling. My nails began to itch, my skin skittering as panic became aggression.

"Lux," I said again.

Under the door, a white smoke began to splutter into the apartment. The smell was unmistakable – lavender.

"Lux." No. No. How could this happen on the same night?

"Hm?" Lux glanced up at me, her hands filled with sopping, red soaked tissue paper. "If Muffin is trying to eat your..."

"Get up," my voice broke, twisting into a snarl. "Get up right now and be quiet."

"Wha?" She had forgotten about the wine and was stretching towards the bowl of popcorn.

"Get up right now!" I snarled, twisting around. I could feel the seconds counting down as if it was stamped on the door itself. Sweat beaded on my forehead and I yanked Lux up from the ground, the smell of wine and rum still strong on her breath.

Her brow darkened, a complaint on her tongue as she snatched her arm from my grip. I didn't give her time, snatching a hissing Muffin up into my arm. The cat hissed and struggled, sinking her claws into my arm. Lux finally spotted the white smoke spilling under the door.

"Is the building on fire?" Lux asked fearfully, the annoyance clearing from her brows.

"No – something much worse." My tone was rough and deep. Inhumane.

"Three."

A man began to count down. I shoved the furious cat into Lux's arms, telling her to hold onto Muffin tight.

Two.

I moved. Not for the door, but towards Lux. She yelped as I heaved her up as if she was nothing more than a bag of sugar, twisting her so that she was tucked under me.

One.

The door exploded inwards. Wood and stone and fire roared into Lux's tiny apartment, rushing over tables and counters. Fire and air hit my back, burning the wool of my jumper and we were sent flying. The window was blown outwards as I crashed to the ground and I was rolling as Lux let out a yelp of pain below me.

I detangled myself from her, rising as a snarl curled my lip. Men, dressed in white and wearing helmets and goggles marched into the house. Eight Ravi soldiers.

"Get onto my back, Lux!"

"I – Meg, what's happening..." Wide eyed, Lux came to stand beside me.

"Just do as I say...and hold onto Muffin tight. We aren't leaving her behind." I faced the door as Muffin yowled and Lux's voice shook, thick with tears as she cooed at her cat, trying to contain her.

A man stepped through the fire, a gun held in his hand. "It's time to go, s112."

My claws descended.

"It's rude to enter without knocking," I drawled. The Omega was salivating. "Besides, this is a private party."

"We don't want to make a fuss." He said slowly. Eight. Eight. I eyed them, saliva flooding my tongue. Child's play really.

"This is my home and you're a stranger!" Lux stepped around me, her voice quivering but strong. "You can't just barge into my home and swing some guns around."

The leader lay a hand on his chest. "I am Captain Snowl. Now we aren't strangers."

"Step back Lux," I snarled.

"Why are you here?" Lux was not a woman to stand down.

"We're here for it." He motioned to me. "It's our property."

"Meg?" Lux mumbled, before her expression hardened. "Well tough shit."

I stared them down, waiting. My fingers were curled into my palms – hiding the wickedly sharp claws. They expected me to fight, I knew that. They wouldn't come here without having a plan to subdue me. I felt the wind whipping in from the shattered window, knocking over the last-standing pots.

"Lux. I need you to get onto my back." I didn't look away from the Ravi soldiers. Eight.

"I don't want to have to kill you," The captain told her gently. "You are trying to protect a dangerous patient."

"Patient..." Lux mulled over the word.

"Of one of the country's biggest asylums for the criminally insane," He inched a step forward. "It is a very dangerous creature."

"It." Lux took a breath. "I don't want to think about the conditions of this asylum if you refer to the patients as creatures."

Snowl sighed. "Well, I tried."

He cocked his gun and pure, trusting Lux did not question my request. She launched herself at me, a weight striking my back and her muscled arms slung around my neck. In the next second, I sunk my claws into the flaming table and threw it at the man.

He opened fire before it reached him. A bullet struck my muscled thigh and my leap from knocked sideways. I swung around, grunting at the pull of Lux's weight from my neck. With my claws flicking out, I clung to the stone wall.

Lordie.

My stockings shredded as my body contorted in a rough partial shift. My feet broke and lengthened, clinging to the wall as I trembled. Wind and rain howled around me and I let out a rough, pained breath.

"Shit." Lux's legs latched around my waist. "Shit, Meg. Someone shot at us."

Blood was pumping from my thigh. "I am aware."

My claws slid against the stone, screeching loudly as we slipped down rapidly. It left a path of white as I descended like I was sliding down a ladder. A unsafe, slick ladder. Lux's arms are tight around my neck and her breath tickled my sensitive ears.

Despite the rain dampening my hair and soaking into us, the smell of her fear was tart and consuming. My gums tingled. We hit the tarmac of the small parking-lot and I shook Lux off, swinging her around non too gently. Muffin was hissing, stuffed into a ruck-sack.

"You run," I hissed at her. "Run."

A girl like Lux would be destroyed by the Ravi. Torn apart and assembled again until she was broken completely or until she was something like me.

Lux hitched her chin. "What about you?"

Lights shone down on us from above. I heard the grate of metal, the whisper of a rising gun. I had been tuned into the sound for so long. Again, I moved, twisting to knock Lux out of the way.

A bullet cut straight into my lower leg – through muscle and flesh.

I couldn't bite down my scream, but they weren't aiming to kill me. They were aiming to slow me down so they could knock me out.

Still, they would try and hurt me a little first before they used the tranquilizers. I changed tact, grabbing Lux's upper arm and hauling her behind me before they could get another shot in. My mind whirred and the beast stirred, fighting the constraints of flesh and mental will.

Lavender.

They had found me. So soon too.

"You're bleeding Meg." If my grip was hurting her, she didn't let on.

"I've had worse." I told her through gritted teeth. Muffin's yowling was making it worse. The noise was a drill inside my skull and my gums throbbed harder, hurting like my wisdom teeth were growing up under the roots of all my other teeth.

My breathing shortened. "We need to find somewhere to go."

I stayed away from the streets, fearful of seeing a white van. Not for me though. No – I could handle running and fighting the Ravi every step of the way, but my peppermint friend couldn't. They had seen her face. They would know who she was and when they did, they would hunt her down and hurt her until I conceded.

And I would.

For the woman who knitted me scarves and slipped me a peppermint when she knew I was getting upset, I would shackle myself. So much for the feared, ruthless Omega.

I made a mistake when I rounded the wrong corner, my mind fuzzed by panic. A slate-grey wall loomed at the end of the alleyway and on either side, two towering buildings. My stockinged feet slowed in a puddle and the cold shocked me to awareness.

I eyed the wall, conscious of the footsteps thundering our way. "You told me you ran in secondary school, Lux."

"I still do," Confusion leaked into her voice. "Just not competitively anymore."

"Good." I let go of her arm as I heard them run down the alleyway. "I'm going to get you over this wall and then you are going to run."

"There she is."

Lights shone from the mouth of an alleyway. A shot cracked out and Lux let out a squeal as it ricocheted off the wall over her head.

"We don't want to kill her, 112." Snowl called out. My luminous eyes swept to him, scanning over his tactical gear. As if that could stop me. The Omega was rousing, tempted by the chance to stretch her murderous limbs.

"That would be the very last thing you would do," I snarled back. Under my skin, a force was writhing. Lordie – I didn't want Lux to see what I was.

A gun cocked.

I whispered to her urgently. "Run straight to the guard's station and don't look back."

"I can't leave you..."

"Leave me or you'll be riddled with bullets. Get to the station and get help –" I would be gone by the time she got help. But I would buy her some time to get to safety and I could kill these soldiers without letting her see what I was.

"Alright..." Before she could finish that sentence, I hefted her into my arms and then, like she was a football, I threw her up over the towering wall behind us. She screamed as she soared.

A gun boomed as it's trigger was pulled.

The blow of this gun knocked me sideways and a hand went instantly to the pumping wound, my hands curling into talons so that I sliced my own skin by accident. Teeth gritted, I focused on Lux.

I heard her feet hit the ground. I heard her yelp out in pain.

I heard her run – her gait fast and desperate.

I raised my head as the second bullet fired.

Eight soldiers.

Their leader let out a laugh. "You don't want to shift and let the world know what you are? It might save your life."

I just smiled at them, all teeth and fury. Reaching down to my pumping wound, I let blood flow over my fingers so I could taste it. The Omega writhed under my skin – she loved pain. She didn't care where it came from.

Theirs. Mine. It was all the same to her.

Claws descending, I moved in the darkness. They would be able to see me with their gear. I was sure of that- but I was also sure that I would be moving too fast for their human senses.

I sprang up high, catching onto the wall of an office block that darkened the alleyway. Shots fired but I was leaping again, this time hitting the fire-escape that hung from the opposite wall. The soldier on the fire-escape yelped as I rounded on him, claws slashing him from across the torso so that his guts spilled out onto the metal grates.

I leapt after I heaved the soldier over the railing.

His body hit the ground with a sickening crack and that distracted them for a second. An important second. Adrenaline pumped through me, but I knew my leg would hurt like a fecker later. I cracked the neck of another soldier. Another got a shot in and I reeled back, my vision fogging.

The Omega relished in it all.

More bodies fell in a dizzying desire for blood. All until the last remained. The leader, Snowl, who had now pissed his trousers as the second-last one fell.

Rainwater soaked into my clothes, mingling with the blood. A dart stuck out of my shoulder and I fought it. Fought the Ravi poison with all that I had.

Snowl stared at me as I faced him, bleeding.

"I don't need to shift to kill you," I told him quietly. "I am enough of a threat without the fur and teeth. I'd tell you to remember that for next time, but you are going to die now."

He raised his gun.

My hands were on that gun before he could fire, my half-shifted hands mangling it into something unusable. He was quick to reply, striking hard and fast.

Little slow human.

I caught his wrist, my thumb flicking the bones to the side as if they were little lollipop sticks. I watched his face, letting the beast inside soak in the pain on his face.

"I don't appreciate you threatening people close to me." I told him, claws sliding in under his rib. My fingers danced along his rib-cage, hot blood washing over my hands. His eyes widened, his breath choking.

I pulled his head from his chest and let him drop to the ground.

He looked at me, his mouth gaping but I was more fascinated by his still-beating heart. Pump. Pump. His heart was heavy in my hand. Red and fresh.

"Huh," I mused, looking down on him. "It's not a blackened husk."

I tossed the heart down into a rain-water puddle.

I turned then, stumbling out of the alleyway and into the open streets where the rain lashed down without mercy. My clothes were stuck to me and my shredded socks did nothing to protect against the rough asphalt.

One tranquilizer wasn't enough to knock me out on its own, but the blood-loss was beginning to mess with my head. I yanked the dart from my shoulder and crushed it under my heel before tottering on.

Street lights danced in my vision like streaks of smeared yellowy paint. I teetered like I was drunk and as my energy began to drain, my claws slipped back beneath the flesh confines of my natural form.

The wall of a corner-store held my weight as I puked all over my feet.

The next second, I was out in the middle of the road. Drenched by the rain and still losing blood. Focus Nova.

I needed to get out of the area. I needed to start over again.

A car screeched to a stop in front of me and the door clicked open. "By the goddess, miss! Do you need help?" The woman's cry sounded like it was an ocean away.

I waved her away, staggering on in determination. The adrenaline began to wear off and I became more aware of the ribbons they had made of my leg. It would heal, but not while the medicine in the dart lingered in my blood.

The last bullet felt like it had broken my collarbone. Lordie - I hated being shot.

I wandered onto another road. Years of conditioning, years of bullets as punishment, kept me from passing out. I would not loss consciousness and have the Ravi find me. I had to get out. Get out. Rebuild.

Where was Lux?

Where was I now?

I blinked, trying to focus through my drug-addled brain. My fingers curled on the railing and I blinked down at the churning river below.

Then, light illuminated the roads. Wheels screeched on the wet roads and doors shot open. I turned, eyeing the dark jeeps that blocked the path that I had just wandered from.

I was accosted by light and I could only imagine the silhouette I provided. Tattered and bloody, wearing soggy duck-pyjamas.

"Nova?" the woman's voice reminded me of sunlight trapped in hair.

I wiped my eyes as if that could help me see through the rain. Then, through the blood and rain and raw pain, I sensed him. As if my body and mind was tuned into him and no other sensation mattered.

He stepped from the car, dressed in a heavy woollen coat. The sleeves were rolled up as lightening flashed above, his face was darkness and scars. Beautiful.

I blinked. "I've been shot."

Only he approached me and he did that cautiously and stopped several feet away from me, eyes crinkled in concern. "I can see that."

"My friend..." Lux. Peppermint. "She should be in the station."

His head cocked. "Who do you think informed us that you were out here?"

I stared at him and he stared right on back. As if I was absolution delivered in a storm. The darkness in my vision grew stronger but I was not alarmed. No – no, there was a warmth in the moon's binding and I felt nothing but peace as I stared at him. Peace that couldn't be fought with common sense when my body was bullets and pain.

The same peace the untamed skies gave me. The contentment that all was good in just this moment.

I blinked and it was all gone in a rush. The world around me heaved like I was on the deck of a ship.

I reached back, gripping the railing. My voice hardened. "I won't be tied up. Not anymore."

The Alpha Supreme risked a step closer, his voice soft. "I don't want to make you a prisoner, Nova."

Confused, I frowned. "Where is Lux?"

"She's safe."

"Safe..." I turned my head, eyeing the river below. The water was furious and the drop had to be more than forty feet. Concrete. "Safety is my life's biggest lie."

"Let me get you to a hospital." The Alpha eyed my grip on the railing, a broad hand reaching but he was still stunningly restrained. "You are injured and the blood loss could be fatal."

Even as my vision dimmed, I could only think of the times I had used my wicked claws to slice open my veins in the white cells; to see something other than white. To feel something. To escape my hell. It never worked.

To him, I would have said, "I wish," but my strength fled in a rush of lavender.

I dropped onto the hard asphalt. My head knocked against the stone and I blinked out at the feet rushing towards me. Knees fell before me, followed by the ghost of a touch over my head.

He lifted bloody locks from my face, his voice low and insistent. Desperate. "Just stay with me this time. Goddess, keep your eyes open and listen to my voice – even if you hate it, hate it and stay alive."

I wanted to snap and tell him that a few bullets weren't enough to keep me down forever, but my mouth was cotton-wool.

I kept my eyes open, the world strange and liquid as my own body fought between consciousness and not. Sometime between the flashing lights and the desperate face hanging over me, speaking words I could no longer hear, and then inside an ambulance, I blacked out.

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