Losses

Onyx stared out one of the floor length windows in the main hall that over looked the court yard. The sun was dipping below the horizon, and Kaela had not returned from her trip into town. One of the other servants stood beside her.

"Perhaps she is visiting with Owen," the servant, Daniella, suggested, "she may have lost track of time, and decided to spend the night with him."

"Perhaps," Onyx sighed. Kaela spoke of Owen often. He was Lao's apprentice, and the two young people were very fond of each other. It would not be the first time Kaela lost track of time while being with the blonde haired young man. Onyx used her connection to Lao to reach out to him. "Lao."

"Yes, Onyx," Lao's voice answered in her head. "My you're looking lovely this evening."

He always had a flirtatious compliment for her. Normally, Onyx would smile, and retire to her room for a little spiritual foreplay, but her concern for Kaela over ruled her desire.

"Is Kaela still at your shop?" Onyx inquired. Her anxiety heightened when Lao expressed confusion through their link.

"I haven't seen Kaela all day," Lao stated, "and Owen even pulled your standard order together last night so that he could spend his time flirting instead of working." He tried to feed some good humor about Owen's clumsy flirting with Kaela through the bond to relax Onyx, but found himself blocked by a thick wall of concern.

The two mages used their combined power to reach out for Kaela. Fear flooded their minds, then panic, and finally pain. Where ever Kaela was she was being hurt. Onyx rushed from the main hall, taking time enough to pull her cloak on, and grab her staff. A groom met her in the court yard with her stallion, Black Wind, saddled, and ready. Onyx swung herself into the saddle, and gave the animal a hard kick with the heels of her boots. Black Wind, lunged forward into a gallop, and tore through the gate onto the road.

"Onyx!" Lao's voice called in her head. "Wait for me! I'll come with you!"

"There's no time!" Onyx called back to him. "She's being hurt!"

Onyx severed the link between herself and Lao so that she could focus on Kaela. She reined Black Wind in when her link to Kaela was forcibly severed. Onyx sat her saddle, and tried to re-establish her connection. A link was formed but it wasn't with Kaela.

"Hello, little sister," Ido's voice came through her head soft and cold. "Have you lost something, or more accurately someone?"

"Ido," Onyx snarled in her mind. "What have you done with Kaela?"

"I have done nothing with her," Ido's voice was maliciously innocent. "I can't say the same for the men of my pack. They've enjoyed her company very much, and from the sounds of things she has been enjoying their company."

He fed images through the link of each of his male pack members having his way with Kaela both in human, hybrid, and even their animal forms. Onyx felt the rage build within her. Kaela's body was nothing more than a limp husk under the most recent assailant.

"You'd better hurry," Ido's voice flooded Onyx's mind. "There's talk of how many she can handle at once."

"Ido!" Onyx called out loud. "You'll pay for this!"

She gave Black Wind a savage kick and the horse shrieked. He sped into a gallop that he would have only reserved if predators were nipping at his heels. Ido made it easy for her to find them by amplifying Kaela's pain and fear. Onyx nearly fell out of the saddle twice at the sensations going through her. At one point she vomited from the overwhelming urge to gag around a phallic object that wasn't there. She kicked Black Wind harder urging the horse on faster and faster until she reached the outskirts of the dire panther's land.

She dismounted, and assumed her own panther form leaving Black Wind to fend for himself. Onyx dashed on all fours through the tall grass that surrounded the panther's village. Kaela's screams and the sound of ruckus laughter drew her to a large pavilion in the center of the village. Onyx shifted into her hybrid form, and slipped through the crowd of dire panthers watching as their fellows took Kaela in pairs and trios. The rage that built up in Onyx caused her to lash out on the crowd. Her body grew in size until she was as big as a full sized dire panther male. She roared with rage as her claws sliced through each of their throats. They all had Kaela's scent on them. She slashed each one down as they tried to stop her. Her eyes glowed red with blood lust. By the time she reached the group with Kaela they were the only three left. Ido watched from a shielded hiding place as the beast that was his half-sister tore through his last three male pack members.

Once the last three fell Onyx turned to see Kaela laying face down on the ground. She too was covered in the blood from the massacre. Onyx knelt beside her friends body. With gentle hands that were covered in fur matted down by the blood of her victims she rolled Kaela onto her back, and searched for any sign of life. When she discovered the young woman was dead her head fell back, and she let out a roar of grief and agony that could be heard for miles. Ido watched as the beast lifted the young woman's lifeless body into its arms, and carried her out of the encampment. He followed them back to where Onyx had left Black Wind. The horse shrieked in terror at the sight of the monster that was now its mistress. Onyx reached out into Black Wind's mind and attempted to calm him. She only manage to keep him calm long enough to use what remained of her tattered gown to tie Kaela's body to the saddle. Black Wind took off with one order in his mind, home. Once the horse took off Onyx lay down in the grass allowing the severity of what she did to hit her. She fell asleep to the echoing memories of Kaela's pain, and the last cries of the dire panthers she slaughtered in vengeance.

When the sun rose the next morning Onyx awoke naked and covered in dark, sticky, dried blood. She did not have the strength to move, so she lay on her back staring up at the sky as it brightened to a pale blue. Onyx closed her eyes against the brightness.

Ido let his shield down and crawl over Onyx's blood covered body. He rested there on his hands and knees waiting for her to open her eyes. He held himself up to keep his body from touching hers. She was covered in the blood of his kin, and she was his sister; two taboos even he would not violate. She finally opened her eyes, and stared up at him.

"Good morning sister," Ido leaned down so that his face was a hare's breath from hers. "How was your night?"

"If I could move," Onyx growled. "I'd strangle you."

"Then it's fortunate for me you can't move," Ido smiled. "Did you enjoy my little game?"

"Game?" Onyx inquired. "You mean your pack gang raping my best friend to death?"

"That was not my idea," Ido shook his head in disgust. "I warned them it would not be wise, but they just wouldn't be dissuaded from having her."

"Some leader you are," Onyx growled. "You can't even control your own pack."

"I didn't exactly have the best example in our father," Ido growled. "At least I didn't abandon my pack for a human whore, and her bastard child."

"That excuse is getting tired, Ido," Onyx spat. "Father would have been disgusted by last night's spectacle."

"Which part?" Ido laughed blithely. "The gang rape he probably might have participated in when he was younger, or his little princess becoming a ravenous blood thirsty beast and slaughtering every male in the pack?"

"Liar!" Onyx turned her head away, and squeezed her eyes shut to keep in the tears that were welling in her eyes. "Father would never..."

"Oh, yes he would," Ido gripped her face, and forced her to look up at him. "Father was quite the rogue in his day. I wouldn't be surprised if he raped your mother the first time they met. He never did like hearing no."

Onyx's hands shot up and boxed Ido's ears. Ido stood clutching his ears. He waited for the ringing to stop before speaking again. Onyx was still unable to stand. He squatted beside her just out of reach.

"Why aren't you killing me right now?" Onyx asked. "You know as well as I do that I can't move."

"I'd rather let you live with the memories from last night," Ido stated. "You have a darkness inside you sister, and I'm going to make sure you remember that whenever you get too high on that horse of yours."

Onyx flinched as he pressed his lips to her forehead, the one part of her that was not covered in blood. Ido stood and waived a hand at the sky. Dark, puffy clouds gathered over head. They burst, and torrential rain fell soaking them, and the ground. The rain washed the dried blood from Onyx's body. Ido took a few steps in the direction of his camp, stopped, and turned to see Onyx sitting up in the rain. Her body was nearly cleaned off.

"I must say, Onyx," Ido smiled. "I've never seen you more lovely, than you were last night. If you weren't my half-sister I'd make you bare a child for every member of my pack that you slaughtered."

With that he shifted into his dire panther form, and disappeared into a sheet of pouring rain. Onyx sat in the down pour allowing her tears to mix with the rain. She cried both for the loss of Kaela, and for the monster that lived with in her. Even what happened to Kaela did not justify her slaughtering half of Ido's pack. She knew deep down that she would pay for what she did, and she knew she would deserve what ever came of the acts of savagery she committed. When she finally returned to her palace she locked herself in her room, and remained there to mourn the losses that occurred on both sides the previous evening.

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