Hot, Hard & Howling - OpenDrive

Mari Freeman
Auntie came to him and urged him forward until he sat on the floor. His vision was
going fuzzy. The room started to tilt. The two women began rushing around him. Nell
was standing on the stairs but she hadn’t crossed the boundary of the broom to come to
him.
He felt liquid being poured over his head. He smelled roses, frankincense and some
other floral oil. It dribbled down his forehead and over his nose and chin. He tried to
wipe it away but the older woman held his hands. Fighting the urge to lash out, Trent
tried to remember they were helping. Everything was fuzzy. Nell was gone. His heart
started to break.
“No,” he cried. “Nell!”
She wasn’t gone. If he focused, he could make out her form on the stairs. But he felt
it…felt what his body would feel if she were gone. It hurt as bad as when he’d tried to
shift. Trent clenched his fists as hard as he could, felt his knuckles cracking. Tried to
turn his fear and hurt into anger.
The women were chanting. Noise, thumping and screeching, was coming from all
around him but he couldn’t pinpoint the source. Fuzzier. More pain. He pounded his
fists into the floor. His feet were numb. Copper. The taste of copper filled his mouth. A
ringing started in his ears.
More pain.
More noise. Loud. Angry. Noise.
The room started to spin. Rather, Trent felt as if he were spinning. He was being
pulled. Dragged away from this reality. He fought it, but knew he needed to let go.
How?
More pain.
“Give in,” a disembodied voice chanted in his brain. “Let it come.”
Trent tried to relax but the searing in his joints made it impossible. The smell of
burning hair panicked him. Have to shift. Must save Nell.
Trent tightened every muscle in his body. He strained to be as compact as he could.
To ball up. Pain. More pain…
When he could take no more of the agony, he let out a soul-deep howl…and then
Trent Nicholas let go. He willed every molecule in his body to relax.
And it came. The shift was awkward and slow, but it came.
The power of the spell had been cleansed. It was broken. Trent was free. He shook,
stretching his muscles and feeling his wolf body. He was tired, but free of pain.
He stood shakily, trotted over and nudged Barri’s hand. She was wet with sweat
from her efforts.
“You’ll need to stay like that for a little while.” She put her hand on his head. “Let
your purer essence push any remains of the hex out of your system. And you’ll need
lots of water and rest.”
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