THE AWAKENING

Memories from her childhood floated through her mental theater, plucked from the past and pasted together in a jumble of thoughts, sounds and feelings as she sank under a black blanket of total lethargy.

The sharp bite of pain as the skin split beneath the rusty saw blade. Blood welling from a small finger. Crimson spilling in a beautiful trickle from a nasty wound. Her adoptive mother’s fretting and worrying as the wound streamed red.

“I told you not to play by that dirty old thing,” her mother had admonished, rushing to put Cassandra’s wounded finger under the faucet.

The cool water soothed the angry cut, washing away the blood, staining in the porcelain sink a light pink before swirling down the drain. “You could’ve cut your finger clean off!”

Cassandra had remained silent, more fascinated by the blood than the pain of her cut or her mother’s muttering about tetanus and blood poisoning.

Without thinking, Cassandra popped her finger into her mouth just as her mother went to grab a bandage.

“Cassi!” her mother had cried, appalled. “What are you doing?”

“I wanted to know what blood tasted like,” Cassandra had answered.

Her mother’s mouth tightened in a disgusted moue. “Well, that’s disturbing. Don’t do that. Little girls don’t need to be wondering about such things. Do you hear me?” she chastised as she quickly bandaged Cassandra’s finger.

Cassandra had nodded, sufficiently convinced that she ought to never do such a thing again but deep down…Cassandra had been afraid to admit that she’d liked the taste of the blood.

The copper tang had thrilled her senses, as if lighting her insides and creating a pervasive hunger for more.

From that point forward, Cassandra had always preferred her meat rare and slightly bloody. Her friends had always shuddered and called her a carnivore. If only they knew…

Of course, now it made sense. If anything about her new life could make sense, that is.

How would her life have been different if she’d been raised with full knowledge of her heritage? What if her biological parents had been able to raise her within Clan Janus?

have meant for her life? Would she have gone to college? Would she have been as driven to

the moment but she supposed being as dumb as a rock wouldn’t have helped much either. Too many questions

“You are awake.”

to find Jandin watching her with

to her side to help. She graced him with a brief grateful smile and took a good look around her surroundings before asking, “How long

“Two days.”

“Two days? I’ve never slept that long in my

picked up his unique body odor and it smelled delicious, like chocolate and steak; rain and

Phasing, she wasn’t wildly attracted to him. It was as if he were simply…her

can’t be normal, right?

she

“We took some losses that night. As much as I hate that blood-sucker Cristophe, taking you away from the heat of battle may have been the best course of

“I wasn’t safe for long. Ulster and his clan found us just as we were leaving the cave,” she admitted with open distaste. “And then

The Phase is a powerful force in a female’s body, not to mention there are forces at work that go beyond the simple biology of our species. You are unlike any female we’ve ever

her neck. The crackle of bones felt good but only briefly so as her stomach growled like a beast trapped under her skin. She clutched her belly with embarrassment but Jandin simply chuckled as he rose from her bedside.

his word choices. “Too much?” he asked and she nodded.

and lots

wine; food of the Gods. Only the best for you,

No sense in making it worse with fancy meal requests. I think I’m just a problem that’s been thrust in his lap to solve. Doesn’t really make for

On either side.

apparent frustration at his brother. “Tieran has always been stubborn. Hardest head of all the pups, our mother used to say. He will come around.

supposed she didn’t need to call him The

another when she needed all of their help to get through this epically screwed up Prophecy in one piece. “It seems that everyone I come into contact with

breathe, you will not be harmed in this house by anyone in Clan Janus. I make