Benjamin’s FLASHBACK
Diana's mind inside his body.
"Benjamin, stop!" I looked back to see a woman with really long blonde hair tied up in a bun with her eyebrows raised up in panic, running towards me in slow motion because she was not fast enough to save me from this. Confused at the commotion, I looked down at the small wolf I was about to pet. Its mouth was now wide open over my small chubby hand which meant I was around 2 years old. Fear spike throughout my body like an electric current which left me immobile to do anything but watch the razor-sharp teeth inch forward-looking needle sharp.
The lady that I only can assume was Benjamin's mother used inhuman speed but she wasn't fast enough, teeth chomped down on my hand and tore my fingers right off before his mother grabbed the wolf and crushed its neck with her bare hands in anger. I glanced down and saw blood gushing out the spot where my fingers used to be. Pain flushed my body and my hand felt scorching hot causing me to fall back into the dirt ground crying. Cold tears streamed down my flushed face as I hugged my hand to my chest. Everything in this vision I was experiencing as Diana but living through as Benjamin in his memory. I felt everything he did, and this was a new sense of pain that I had never before. One I could never even imagine. It was a mind fuck because I knew it wasn't real but felt like it.
Suddenly Benjamin's father came in my line of blurry, teary-eyed vision as I felt him carry me off. He kicked a door open and rushed me to his room where he practiced magic. The walls had symbols of black magic and one I recognized as Diana was the six-pointed star. I was placed gently on the table so he could see what happened better. I watched his face intently as he checked my hand because I didn’t even want down look at it. His jaw clenched hard enough to see his jawline.
Those dark brown eyes of his narrowed in thought. He tried to touch it but I screamed and he gently shushed me to stop, repeating that he was sorry.
"Damian..." Benjamin's mother said worriedly to her mate, her voice choking up with emotion.
"It's alright, it's alright. I can fix it, Kia," Damian said reassuring her, running to the small bathroom connected to the room. He came back with a small knife and thick black book worn down on the edges.
Damian proceeded to cut his finger with the knife. The cut was a little deeper than necessary but he didn't seem to care he just pressed the bloody finger on my forehead, nose, down over my lips, down my neck, while Kia quickly tore my shirt off so his father could trail that blood down to my chest. He finished by making a symbol over my heart I couldn't quite recognize. Damian began to say words in Latin and I could feel my crying suddenly stopped like a switch. A gust of cold wind came out of nowhere, swirling around me, ruffling my hair harshly. It crackled dangerously loud, the type of electricity that could kill you in your spot. My skin got goosebumps as a signal that whatever was surrounding me was dangerous. Fear bubbled up inside me and Benjamin's father quickly noticed this.
“Never be afraid of this, Benjamin,” Damian said putting both his hands on my cheeks so I looked straight into his eyes. “It will eat at your fear and consume you. As long as you don’t show yourself as weak then you’ll benefit from this kind of magic.”
Benjamin slowly nodded in his hands looking into his father’s concerned dark brown eyes. Sure, he was young but the reality of what was happening didn’t fail to teach Benjamin. He had to push down his fear of the unknown and look at death in the eyes.
When he father was certain that Benjamin could handle it, he whispered the last word causing everything to stand still. Time was frozen as the magic surrounding me grew in size. The wind that was blowing around me like a tornado turned into black smoke so thick I couldn’t see past it. I couldn’t see Damian or Kia anymore, I was in the hands of black magic. I watched as the black smoke entered my mouth forcing its way into my body almost like I inhaled it.
After that, in an instant, before I could even blink my hand stopped pulsing with pain. I was in complete shock as my tiny body felt numb all over. It all happened so quickly that I was left still holding my breath. Glancing down, I noticed my hand had healed back up without a scar. It was back like nothing had ever happened.
Yet, I could feel something dark swirling inside me as a reminder that everything that happened was in fact real.
Abruptly the memory changed and I felt myself slip from the memory like I was falling backward into a deep sleep. I rushed awake breathing in fast because the sense of air escaping my lungs completely kicked up my heart in overdrive. It turns out I had fallen in this memory, tripping on a tree branch so I was laying on the cold floor. The feel of leaves clinging to my wet palms felt so real. It was odd to see that he was older.
Slowly I stood back up noticing that I was roughly in my teenage years.
Looking up at my surroundings, I saw a beautiful sun setting in a hue of pink clouds as the trees swayed side to side gently above me. The forest around me was serene as nothing but the sound of leaves ruffling was heard from miles away but the hairs on my arms stood up straight as a warning that everything was not what it seemed. His mother Kia had warned him to not stray too far while exploring and yet he found himself going far and testing his limits.
Now he was staring into a pair of alluring but dangerous blue eyes off into the distance. A pale girl around the same age as him was hiding behind a trunk smiling playfully. Her raspy giggle should have been a giveaway to how thirsty she was since her throat was painfully dry but it didn't ring any bells. Being coy, she was using the shadows as curtains to hide her true self.
Those red lips turned up in a smile as I unconsciously stepped forward to see her better.
“Hello,” I whispered unable to blink away from her alluring blue eyes. “I’m not going to hurt you, you can step out.”
She stayed silent as she slowly revealed herself to me, stepping into the last bits of sun rays that fell through the tree branches. After breaking eye contact with her I noticed her ribs were sticking out and her skin was a shade of blue not pale. The more I looked closer, the more I noticed something was not right with her. Her blue dress was ripped to shreds, threatening to fall off her tiny frame. Her delicate face was sunken, her cheeks hollow in almost showing her teeth through her paper-thin skin.
Before I could see it coming, she attacked me throwing us both to the ground with her fangs out while her mouth was wide open, inches away from my neck. Since she was so overrun by hunger, she didn’t care that her hand had twisted in the fall. I kicked her away before she could pierce those long fangs into my skin.
“Help!” I yelled hoping my parents were close enough to hear the commotion. No man’s land was known for rogues to prowl but there were many other monsters out in the forest when the sun fell and night began to rise.
No one was going to come to my rescue this time, I was going to have to fight her on my own. I needed to survive and return back home. Since I had wandered too far away this time and I was paying the price for it. I looked around desperately trying to find something to fight her with. Her skeleton hand grabbed my right foot so I struck her face with my other leg. That gave me the chance to grab a rock and let the weight of it crush her head. She wasn’t dead yet, her hands were still twitching. So, I did the only thing that would completely kill a vampire. I dug my hand into her chest to grab her heart with my bare hand. I tried not to cringe at the feel of breaking through her skin as I tried looking for the heart to rip it out. The gruesome vision made me flinch internally as Diana. Benjamin’s feelings towards this surprised me, he didn’t feel any remorse when he took away the small spark of life she had left. She was one of the many that hunger had consumed completely, there was no saving her.
The vision changed this time a little differently as I didn’t fall back into darkness like last time. Everything around me became a mess of blur until I found myself watching Benjamin's mother expertly fight off wolves. They had shaggy fur which meant they were suffering from lack of food. Kia was fighting two rogue werewolves at the same time inside their small living room by maneuvering herself between their bodies as they each attacked, moving very fluid. They had both stepped back and were surrounding her, looking for the right moment to end her life. Her leg was injured from the fight, yet she still stood tall trying not showing any weakness. Although, she was very weak on the inside, her blue eyes were glazed over empty from any emotion. Her mate was injured on the floor feet away, dying but she couldn't focus on that right now. She had to protect Benjamin.
A bloodied white werewolf was taking my attention away from her as he growled coming up close to me. A group of seven rogues raided the house for food in the middle of the night and resulted in a massive fight. Damian was bleeding on the ground, motionless, after killing two werewolves. We all knew he was going to die and it caused Kia to go through tremendous agony. Benjamin’s rage from his father’s injury had awakened something he didn’t believe he had in himself.
His inner wolf had taken control over his body. The pain he endured while transforming was nothing compared to the emotional pain. I could feel my teeth grit together to deal with the pain as the sound of every bone in my body breaking and readjusting to my new form rang inside my ears. Hair pushed itself through my skin like needles, covering my entire body.
I snapped my eyes open when it was finally done to see a sharper image of my surroundings. The first transformation was always the hardest. Although it felt like an eternity for me, it was all done in a second. The pain was submerging as my body became used to my new form. I was able to let out my anger in a form of a growl, echoing loudly throughout the house.
The rogue wolves weren't so crazy of hunger so that they could still recognize an alpha when they heard it. I watched through Benjamin's eyes as their tails went in between their legs and their heads dropped quickly to the ground. I walked around them slowly watching them shiver in fear as it was so long since they were faced with an alpha. I could taste their fear in my mouth since it was reeking off of them. I glanced at Kia and waited for her command in this situation.
"Kill them," Her eyes were empty, a part of her gone when her other half was dying because of them. There was no light in them and I knew I would lose her to grief if I didn't do something fast. I killed them all with my bare teeth, the taste metallic blood gushed into my mouth as I tore out their throats out letting them bleed to death. I found myself being able to transform back into a human easily, not waiting for the chance to escape my fingers. Benjamin walked back to his father's lifeless body on the cold ground. I looked at his bloody clawed open chest that no one could physically survive from, but Damian was holding on to life. With a shaky hand I dropped blood of the five I just killed in his exposed chest before cutting my own wrist not too deep with the knife his father was gripping in his hand. All this blood was disturbing but I didn’t take my eyes away from this memory of his.
Benjamin talked quickly and it was like I was the one talking, feeling the fear of losing a loved one for good. In Latin that Benjamin never bothered to learn but surprisingly could recite out of the top of his head, he said, "Brother of blood, mother of life, father of strength and daughter of soul! I offered five souls for one! Bring back, Damian Nava!"
The air was heavy with spine-chilling energy, as dark as a black hole that could suck you in and you'll never be able to get back out. In a blink of an eye, it was gone and his father gasped out his hand going straight to his healed chest. His mother sobbed and ran into his arms as Damian held her tight. I could finally breathe again as I watched Benjamin’s parents kiss passionately like it was the last kiss they could ever have. They smiled at each other, not believing they were both okay and alive.
Yet, again the memory changed without my control, I was just in for the ride. This time I was in wolf form seeing all kinds of rogues all around me, their heads bowed down. They felt my power miles away and were following me around like lost puppies. They immediately labeled me as their alpha when I saved someone's small child from a crazy rogue vampire lurking around the forest. They weren't driven mad by their wolf side yet. They were just a pack that lost their alpha in a freak accident. They were running around like chickens with their heads cut off ever since all order between them was lost. No one was powerful enough to take over. Surviving in the wild was natural for them since they weren’t the kind that hid their wolf side from humanity. After a while, I accepted to be their leader, their center in their little community. They would do anything I asked for protection and food. Deliberately more rogues who were cast to No Man's Land ended up bowing their heads to me. Slowly it went from ten people to twenty-five, to fifty, to sixty, to one hundred and the numbers didn’t stop there it only kept increasing. With all these people Benjamin began to feel a huge weight on his shoulders so he did what came naturally. He builds a home for everyone, set rules and became an alpha of his own.
Finally, I felt myself get out of a dream-like state as my mind became connected back to my own body. Breathing in deeply, I opened my own eyes. My vision was dizzy with the sudden movement of getting up but I didn't lay back down. I didn’t know what to say after all that, I wanted to believe it was a false image he put of himself but I knew deep down it was real.
"Now you know," Benjamin whispered, watching me pace around unable to keep still. I just saw a part of his life and how he became to be. His father, Damion, was a witch rouge but he wasn't like the ones that provoke chaos and just truly proving for his family even if his own soul is at risk with black magic. His mother, Kia, was a rouge on the outside but simply a loving mother and wife.
"What did you do?" I asked stopping to look at him.
"I put you in my shoes and let you see it for yourself. To show you I'm telling you the truth. Those are my memories. I was cast out to live alone to grow mad if left alone for too long. I have created a solution to the rouge problem by being an alpha of them." Benjamin said slowly getting out of the bed too. He opened a wide wooden door and took out some clothes. Without saying anything to me he handed them to me. I barely noticed I was still half naked from the start. I took what he offered and quickly put them on feeling better since his blue orbs weren't burning on my skin. Being fully clothed helped me from being on edge.
"Are you the one who killed my brother? Who has sent rogues to attack packs?" I asked seeing his expression turn sour from my words.
"No, why would I concern myself with killing your brother. And I have no reason to attack other packs. I didn't even want to be part of a pack after what they did to my parents." His voice held anger but I didn’t care, I turned to face him head-on.
"You are a rogue loving bastard! I had my brother taken from me, from rogues. You seem to surround yourself with them. How am I not supposed to think you are behind all of it?!" I yelled in his face and he narrowed his unnaturally blue eyes on me angrily. My brother was killed by them so I had every reason to like them.
"Because your brother is still alive," Benjamin said stepping closer towards me. “I was the one who helped him fake his death.”
“You what?” I asked dumbfounded. That's why he knew my name when he first saw me.
“He came to me, asking for my help. Told me he could not face his father with being gay. Cam is already beta of the pack so it would be shocking to know the alpha and beta are mates.” Benjamin handed me a silver band with an engraving on the inside. I recognized it immediately, it was my brother’s given to him from my father. A ring was given to the next alpha to be, a tradition. “In exchange for my help, he gave me this. This is what ties him to me.”
I shook my head in disbelief as tears were forming in my eyes, blurring my vision. “I don’t believe you.” Yet, deep down this ring was proof he was telling the truth. I felt like I needed to see him in person to believe it.
“James,” Benjamin called out causing me to snap my head towards the door as it creaked open. Slowly a tall figure stepped in.
I almost didn’t recognize him with him with a full beard and long hair. Those green eyes were squinting as he smiled at me. I swallowed the tears down painfully but I could do nothing about the pain burning in my chest. My brother was actually alive, here on earth.
I ran towards him and he swiftly wrapped those arms around me as I bumped into his warm chest. I could feel some tears escape my tightly closed eyes and soak his white shirt. He easily lifted me off the ground and went in a full circle causing me to laugh. He used to always do that when I was younger.
“I’m sorry,” James whispered when my feet touched the ground again. “I didn’t mean to leave you behind so that everything fell onto your shoulders. I wasn’t thinking right. I needed some time away to think things through but couldn't go back after all this time. I’m a horrible brother.”
“You don’t know how bad it hurt when I thought I had lost you forever. Just please don’t ever do that again!” My body was shaking as the control over my emotions shattered.
“I won’t, I promise,” James reassured me holding me tighter.
“I don’t want to interrupt this touching sibling reunion but I think you should know why I kidnapped you,” Benjamin said causing me to step back from my brother and wipe away and the tears and snot with my hand. It wasn't very ladylike but could you blame me? I need answers and he was willing to give them to me right so I was going to listen. “It has to do with your ability to heal.”