5 #2
The man laughed, his tongue extending almost twenty inches from his mouth. It was rose-red and slick, streaked with blue-violet veins that saturated the split tip.
She thought about the homeless man. He made no sound despite the grotesque scene.
Amelia didn’t dare look at him, knowing that whatever was happening to the stranger was a transformation.
She expected him to cry out as Mikhail had the few times she’d witnessed him transform.
But nothing of the sort happened. He was still the same man – dishevelled, his suit torn, and with blood dripping from his mouth.
But now, several asymmetrical dark spots shadowed parts of his face.
Snake spots. A reptilian.
An insane need for reassurance had Amelia seeking Mikhail’s gaze, but his golden eyes were glued to the creature facing them. The stranger extended his upturned palm towards her. “Are you coming, love?” he rasped.
Yet another difference from Mikhail. In his secondary form, the manticore couldn’t speak…
Mikhail threw his jacket to the ground and arched his back in a painful spasm. His limbs and torso expanded, dark, dense fur sprouting over his body. Amelia blinked, trying to process the transformation. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t pinpoint what…
The clothes. The last two times she’d seen Mikhail transform, his clothes had been torn apart under the strain of his growing muscles. But now, they seemed to have disappeared into some invisible space.
Her thoughts of his clothing evaporated while she took in the awe-inspiring sight before her.
Mikhail’s face had become a lion’s muzzle, framed by a magnificent dark brown mane.
A sinewy tail extended from his lower spine, ending in a sharp spike.
The black wings on his back were folded between his shoulder blades.
He stood on his hind legs, his golden eyes still locked on the stranger.
The smile on the stranger’s face grew wide. He turned to Amelia. “Are you really into this, love? It has fur!”
Mikhail attacked, but the man seemed to have expected it because he turned on his toes. Flinging himself to the animal’s side, he drove his fist into its neck.
The manticore tackled the man to the ground, his massive body covering him. For a moment, Amelia couldn’t understand what was happening, her heart sinking when she glimpsed the blood staining Mikhail’s mane and fur.
Then Mikhail pulled back, revealing his enemy’s emaciated form. With a furious snarl, the manticore sank his teeth into the man’s neck. For several agonising seconds, the man kicked helplessly, trying to free himself from the powerful jaws clamped around his throat. Finally, his movements ceased.
It’s over , Amelia thought, feeling the tension drain from her. She wiped away the small beads of sweat from her forehead with a shaky hand.
Yet Mikhail continued to hold the lifeless body between his teeth, refusing to release his grip.
“Mikhail, stop!” Amelia screamed, but he didn’t seem to hear her. “Mikhail, you’ll kill him! We need him alive!”
The manticore turned his blood-streaked muzzle towards her, his eyes filled with animalistic aggression and fury. For a terrifying moment, she feared he didn’t recognise her. A cold sweat broke out on her skin.
“Mikhail…” she whispered, pleading.
The animal’s features began to fade, as Mikhail regained control. In the next instant, he was human, his suit back on – the transformation complete. On his knees, he stared down at the stranger’s battered face. Blood was smeared all over his suit, hands, lips, and hair.
“Mikhail…” Amelia called out softly, approaching him.
He looked up, and she was relieved to meet the familiar green-brown hues returning to his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice steady but tinged with concern.
“I… yes… but you…”
Mikhail rose to his feet, retrieving his jacket from the ground.
From an inside pocket, he pulled out a cell phone.
Only then did Amelia realise why his suit was still intact.
It must have been made from some natural material, capable of adapting to his transformation.
The memory of him explaining as much to her felt so long ago…
He dialled quickly, drawing her out of her thoughts. “I’m sending you a location. Bring the car. Immediately,” he commanded into the phone, then hung up. “Zachariah stayed behind to get your diploma. He’s on his way here now.”
Amelia pictured the hybrid’s icy blue eyes, indifferent expression, and imposing figure clad in a rocker jacket. She could also imagine the rector’s horrified look when he handed over the diploma. “He’s getting my diploma?”
Mikhail ignored her question, nodding instead towards the motionless body on the ground. “Amelia, do you know this man?”
She glanced down at the stranger, his chest rising and falling with laboured breaths, his face battered beyond recognition. “No, he just appeared…”
Mikhail’s gaze burned into her. “Do you have any idea what would have happened if I hadn’t been here?”
Amelia shook her head, dread coiling in her gut. “It was a mistake to go to the cemetery…”
“This isn’t a game, Amelia!” he snapped.
“I didn’t think it was…”
Something caught her attention in her peripheral vision. She lowered her gaze just in time to see the stranger, charging at her with a knife glinting in his hand. His face was a mask of blood and unbridled rage, driven by sheer determination – there was no doubt where that knife was aimed.
Time seemed to slow while he closed the distance between them, his eyes fixed on her with murderous intent.
Then Amelia was on the ground. Her hip burned with pain, not from a knife, but from hitting the asphalt. Mikhail had shoved her away from her assailant’s path once again.
She lifted herself on her palms. The stranger was running away. His knife lay at Mikhail’s feet. The manticore stood with his back to Amelia, frozen as if wondering whether or not to chase after him.
“Mikhail?”
He turned to face her. Simultaneously, they lowered their eyes to Mikhail’s abdomen, where a blood stain was growing bigger by the second. When their gazes met again, there was something in his golden irises that she had never seen.
Fear.
***
Mikhail believed he controlled the animal within, but at this moment, it was harder than ever to keep it in check. The creature sensed only one thing: danger . Danger for Amelia. Danger for his own life.
“Mikhail?” Amelia’s voice barely reached him. “Mikhail, are you all right?”
“Yes…” The word came out strangled, almost unrecognisable as his own.
A fresh surge of adrenaline coursed through him, blurring his vision.
The laboured breaths and pounding in his ears were his own.
Staying on his feet was an insurmountable task, but he had to be ready in case the reptilian returned.
“Zacharia will be here soon,” he gritted out. Backup was on the way if another fight loomed.
Amelia took a step towards him, palms raised as if to touch him. “Mikhail, you don’t look too well. Are you sure—”
His legs gave out, forcing him to his knees. The scent of blood overwhelmed him.
Amelia knelt beside him. “Let me see.”
She pried his fingers away, revealing the wound underneath. Mikhail didn’t want her to know the extent of his injury, but he lacked the strength to stop her. Even before her hands were stained with his blood, she had already assessed the damage from the reptilian’s blade.
Her eyes met his, asking a silent question. Do you know?
Yes, Mikhail knew all too well how severe it was. “It’s all right, little beast.”
Amelia stiffened. Was it the realisation of his condition, or the nickname? Referring to the woman endowed with the power of the Oracle that way was presumptuous, even disrespectful. But he didn’t care. She was his Amelia.
“Mikhail, you’re bleeding heavily,” she said, her face tense. “We need to get you to the Hospital fast.”
Her expression was firm, but her blue eyes were filled with worry.
An unexpected warmth spread through his chest, and for a moment, he was oddly grateful to the reptilian for putting them in this situation.
If he had ever doubted that Amelia still existed behind the Oracle, now he knew she was there.
And she wasn’t indifferent to his suffering. “I will not die, Amelia.”
“Of course, you’re not going to die,” she said, her hands pressing firmly against the wound.
Her delicate fingers smeared with his blood, while his vision darkened with spots. “Don’t worry, little one… Everything… will be all right… I promise. Zacharia… is coming.” Mikhail’s head drooped to the ground, his body shivering with cold.
“Where’s your phone?” Amelia’s silhouette shifted as she loosened her pressure on his wound. “I’ve got it.” A brief pause. “Zacharia! It’s Mikhail. He’s not well. Yes, we’re here. Yes, all right. Hurry!” She returned her hands to his wound. “Mikhail! Mikhail! Open your eyes! Please, Mikhail!”
He hadn’t realised his eyes were closed because, in his mind, he hadn’t stopped seeing Amelia.
He remembered the first time he’d met her and passed her by, oblivious to how special she was.
Then, when he’d kidnapped her and terrified her.
The first time he’d seen her smile. When she’d let him in, and he’d responded with nothing but callousness.
The flashes shifted, turning to more recent events.
Like when Amelia became the Oracle and whispered her prophecy to him.
The prophecy.
That damned prophecy foretelling his death, which he had completely ignored.
He wouldn’t die now either, only Amelia didn’t know that.
She likely believed he was slipping away.
And even though his body behaved strangely, somehow reminding him of that time when Valeria’s poison had weakened him, he wouldn’t…
“Not… dying…”
“I know. Mikhail, open your eyes.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Talk to me,” he rasped.
For a moment, he thought he had lost consciousness because only silence greeted him. Then, she spoke. “When I was little, I dreamed of you every night.” She paused. “I saw you in the Hospital, but back then, I thought it was a castle and you – a prince.”
More. He wanted to hear more.
“The first time I saw you, your eyes were yellow. It scared me, but then I got used to them. I had forgotten, until…”
Why had she stopped? There had to be more to her story. It couldn’t end here.