Blood Of My Blood

Jasmine POV



I was floating down in a space I did not recognize. The darkness was all around me, I could not see anything. However, even in the darkness, I could sense the shadows all around me, pulling onto me slowly, tearing me, almost drying me of my soul; one shadow more terrifying and colder than the other. I tried to move, but somehow, I felt suspended. I could not really tell in the dark if I was suspended somehow by restraints, but I could not feel any on my body. I tried to use my magic, and despite various spells and enchantments, nothing changed. I tried to reach out to Calypso, my Lycan, and I could not feel her or hear her anywhere. Silence awaited me whatever I tried to do to contact her. Panic started building within me. There can only be two explanations for this. I was dead, yet somehow aware, coming forth trying to return to the world of the living. Or, I was enchanted into a veil in between, which only meant that I would stay alive, but never truly wake up. I would be locked in the darkness, in a time suspended vortex, where my body would not age, but my mind would forever be locked. And while technically, I would still be alive, I really would be sleeping, breathing, the shell of a person, a corpse and slowly go mad.



Khor’s words slowly came back to me.. “You have another thing coming, if you think I will allow you to die!!”. Now I understood what he meant. He did not want to be known as somebody who killed his only sister on top of everything else. But enchanting me and torturing me within my own mind, without any means of escape, yet I simply remain in a coma, yet alive. Now that - that he would do, I thought to myself, trying to figure out how I would ever get out of this, if I get out of this at all.



Dark shadows were draining me. I do not know how long I have been here and how much longer I have had. I had somehow lost the ability to understand if it were day or night, if I was stuck in a moment, or if the moments were passing by. What is worse, my Lycan nature meant I regenerated, and as I regenerated, the shadows would appear only to drain me again. It was a slow, painful dance of torture and death, and I wished for it to be over. I tried to seek help, I tried to contact Ivan, and even though I was blocked, when trying to connect to him I saw a brief glimmer of light. As fast as it appeared, as fast as it disappeared. I was growing restless and my powers were leaving me. I had to contact somebody or figure out the spell to break the shadow work. However, I could not concentrate - I was fading and fast! Weaker than I ever thought I could be. The days became nights and nights became days. I did not know what time it was, I just knew that the moment a miniscule percentage of my strength returned, shadows did too. It was a continuous loop of torture; one I did not know how I would survive.



As the hours and days passed, I did not know that I even cared anymore, everything stood still except memories of my past, seeing my family torn apart, over and over like a painful replay. Seeing Dragana lost and alone, afraid, without me to protect her, seeing the centuries of wars and blood. However, those were not the worst. The worst memories which came were ones of my family, when we were happy, the love of my mother and father, the love of my now father, King Malakai, the support, and kindness I received. Those memories were hardest to deal with, as if I was leaving this plane, it meant I was never going to have that again. The torture within my own mind, the shadows, the memories. At one point, I completely lost the ability to discern anything, and could not even remember my own name– everything was a blur and immensurable pain.



The next thing I knew, a gold, sparkling light appeared out of nowhere. First a flicker, and then it grew, slowly, like a steady flame at first. All of a sudden, it burst like a large ball of fire, and the image of King Solomon, king of all witches, briefly appeared, looking at me with a smile. It gently faded away, to be replaced by an image of Dragana, her eyes in tears, a worried expression on her. “Jasmine, Jasmine… wake up”.. she called me. “Jasmine... please!!!”, she continued. I had no strength to respond, nothing I could use to communicate with her. The warmth of some kind enveloped me, gradually at first. Her face was observing me, concern, and tears in her eyes still visible, her fear for me palpable. She said an ancient spell, something I recognized but, in my weakened state, could not identify. The darkness around me reseeded to a thunderous growl, and I felt her hands on my face.



“Blood of my blood… wake up!!!”, her voice echoed. A warm sensation came over me, as if life was returning to me and, shocked my eyes to open in a white room in the pack hospital. It was the afternoon of a crisp sunny day. Lady Asma was sitting by my bed, her eyes sparkling with joy when she met mine.