Awakened (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 1)

by Shei Darksbane

  We parked, grabbed our bags, and headed for the check in desk. After we’d checked in, we sat together on a bench and waited for the plane to be ready for boarding. I stood up after a bit to stretch and wandered a few feet away to stare at the big screen with all the flight statuses on it. When I bored of watching the screen updates, I started back to where Raelya was seated, but as I turned, I saw something that gave me pause.

  Down the hall, near the check in desks, two groups of travelers converged just in time to prevent me from getting more than a second’s glance at the familiar face of Reynold Cuthbert, staring right at me. I blinked, disbelieving for an instant that I was really seeing the vampire who’d attacked me the night I’d Awakened, but I didn’t get a second chance to confirm it. The gap in the crowds closed on his face and when they parted again, he was gone.

  I felt my wolf rising to the challenge. I could sense her unease as I hurried back to Raelya’s side. My human half wasn’t alone in thinking that we weren’t safe where we were.

  Raelya seemed to know I was on edge as soon as I approached. She stiffened and glanced around once before asking me, “What is wrong?”

  I frowned. “Saw a vampire.”

  Raelya relaxed immediately. “Ah. It is all right, Dakota. We see vampires around—”

  I shook my head and cut her off. “Not just any vampire. This one tried to eat me on the night I Awakened. And he didn’t seem too pleased about Amorie denying him his meal.”

  “Oh. Well, that is not good.” She glanced around again, scanning the crowd. “I do not see his aura among the crowd. If he is still there, he is suppressing it.”

  “You can do that?” I blinked at her, genuinely surprised.

  “Of course you can.” She tilted her head at me. “Did they not teach you this when you spoke with SII?”

  I shook my head. “They’ve sent me some reading material but there’s a lot of it and I haven’t gotten very far yet.”

  “Well, yes, you can do that. It takes practice, but vampires typically have plenty of time to practice simple things.”

  I frowned. “I wonder if that was him then…”

  “What do you mean?”

  I glanced over at her. “One night at work, a couple days before Ralof took me to the SII headquarters in Nashville, something was stalking me at work. I thought it was one of my shadow figments. But maybe it could have been him instead. Repressing his aura so I couldn’t see it.”

  Raelya tilted her head. “Shadow figments?”

  I bit my lip. “I see shadow figures sometimes. May be related to the thing we’re headed to Calgary over. It’s usually no big deal, but… the one I spotted at work made a sound. None of them have ever made me feel uneasy before either. Maybe it wasn’t one of them. Maybe it was a vampire.”

  “But you said you did not see an aura at all?”

  I shook my head. “Just shadows.”

  Raelya frowned. “I wish I had seen his aura just now then so I could help you compare notes. It is unlikely he could suppress his aura completely. I’ve only heard of very old, very powerful things doing that. But the shadows could have been his aura if it is dark enough to your sight.”

  I glanced at her. “The shadow figure doesn’t have an aura.”

  “Then it is likely as you say, in your head.”

  “That, or it’s very old. Very powerful.”

  Raelya frowned thoughtfully and I frowned back. I turned back to the crowd and peered and peered, but I did not see Reynold Cuthbert again.

  “Great.” I puffed out a frustrated breath. “Ugh, I hope he doesn’t get on the same plane as us.”

  Raelya considered that. “We can board last, watch the other passengers get on, and make sure he is not among them.”

  “Wow. Great thought. Yeah, we should do that. I don’t want to be stuck on a flight with that guy.”

  Raelya nodded. “It would probably be best to avoid that.”

  We kept our eyes open, but there was no further sign of Cuthbert. A few minutes later, we had to move to the boarding area, so we stood near the gates and carefully observed the passengers getting onto our flight but again, he did not appear. As the last call for our plane was made, we went up to the flight attendant to hand her our boarding passes. She took them, looked them over and frowned. “I’m sorry, but this flight is full.”

  I blinked. “What do you mean, it’s full?”

  “The flight was overbooked, and it’s already full.” She handed me our boarding passes back. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to see customer service.”

  “That’s ridiculous! We weren’t even on standby!” Raelya touched my shoulder. I’d raised my voice more than I’d intended to, and the woman in front of me had taken a step back. “Sorry. Who do I talk to?”

  The flight attendant pointed us toward a desk and we headed for it. “She was scared of me…” I observed quietly to Raelya.

  “Mmhmm. This is why I tried to calm you down. Your wolf is restrained for now, but the Unawakened can still become very intimidated by us if we are not careful. I did not want you to scare her and cause a scene.” Raelya told me quietly.

  I frowned. “I hadn’t wanted to do anything like that.”

  “I know.” She smiled at me as I glanced at her. “You’re welcome.”

  We spoke to the customer service representative who told us they could get us on another flight right away. It was practically the same as our first flight, having one stop and landing us in Calgary around the same time, so we accepted it and moved on. The customer service rep walked us down to the boarding area and personally saw to it that we made it onto the new flight, so all in all, I was satisfied.

  As we settled into our seats, Raelya smiled. “That was not so bad.”

  “Nah. We’ll still get there and we didn’t have to wait forever, so I’m happy enough.” I frowned as I scanned the other passengers.

  “What is wrong?”

  I shook my head and sat down. “Nothing. Just making sure Cuthbert’s not here. What if he’d engineered the whole flight-swapping thing so he could get me alone in a can in the sky?”

  Raelya grinned at me fiercely. “Then he would have been in for a surprise, as you are not alone.”

  I smiled at her happily, then glanced paranoidly around again. “Ugh. It’s like you said. Already feeling uncomfortable in here.”

  Raelya patted my arm. “It will be all right, Dakota. I will be here with you.”

  I smiled at her. “I’m so glad for that.” I laid my hand on top of hers. “I… I really wasn’t enjoying being home alone.”

  “Some wolves do not enjoy being away from their pack. Then, it is a little odd to me that you were fine with living alone all these years. Typically, when one is not with a pack, they would still want to be with someone.” She turned her hand over and clasped mine.

  “I can’t say I always loved being alone, but it never felt so… awful… until I first set foot in the pack house. Somehow, meeting you guys, just being around you for even a little while made me feel like I’d crossed some invisible threshold… Like I’d changed things in some unseen way and I could never go back.” I squeezed her hand. “Is that weird?”

  Raelya shook her head. “Not so much. Maybe it is because your wolf is… so distant. Maybe because you can not fully connect with her, you are longing for the wolves you can connect with all the more.”

  “That… might make sense.” I glanced down at our hands. I was so comfortable sitting close to Raelya, holding her hand. It shouldn’t have been so simple. I didn’t normally find it so easy to connect with other people that I was comfy snuggling up with them when I’d only spent a handful of hours in their company before. But Raelya’s hand didn’t feel like a stranger’s hand. She felt like she belonged there, by my side, so close that our shoulders rested against each other. She made me feel safe, and at home, even in this crowded, noisy plane.

  27

  Turbulence

  Our flight landed on time, and we exite
d the plane to wait out the brief layover. “The hell are we doing in Dallas?” I wondered to Raelya as we settled our carry-on bags onto a bench. “Why would you fly from Nashville to Dallas to go to Calgary?”

  “Perhaps it is because the airport here is a very large one. I think not all the airports are international.” Raelya had napped a little on the plane, resting her head against my shoulder. I hadn’t minded at all. I had just been happy she had felt that comfortable, especially after all she’d said to me about how uneasy planes made werewolves feel. I’d felt strangely satisfied with her resting on my arm, as if everything was right now that I could watch over her for a change. Now her hair was a little fuzzy as wisps had flown free from her braids and I smiled at her dozy expression.

  “Probably that. It just feels weird to me to go West and then North. The Chicago layover at least made sense. This feels like we followed a Looney Tunes map.” I walked over to the nearby status board and carefully scanned it until I found our flight number. “But it says this one goes to Calgary. So I guess they didn’t also mess that up.”

  Raelya smiled at me. “It will be all right, Dakota. We will get there.”

  I laughed. “I know. I’m just annoyed.”

  She grasped my hand. “I know.” I smiled at her, feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

  “Do you smell pizza?” I wondered idly.

  Raelya nodded. “Definitely.”

  “You know what we must do, right?” I grinned at her.

  Raelya grinned right back. “I believe it is becoming clear to me.”

  We got up and wandered around for a bit. This trip had been my first time flying and I’d never even been in an airport before this morning. I had been distracted earlier with Cuthbert showing up and all, but now that it was just me and Raelya with some time to kill, I was eager to do a little exploring. The Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was quite a bit bigger than the Nashville airport had been. We hadn’t bothered to explore the food court in Nashville, so we made our way to the brightly-lit strip of fast food restaurants nearby and sought out the glorious smell of pepperoni and greasy cheese.

  I marveled for a moment at the selection of restaurants, but my awe was quickly overshadowed by a glimpse of the prices. “What?” I half-shouted. “I’ve heard that airport food was expensive, but seriously? That much for a slice? I could buy a cheap pizza for that much back home!”

  Raelya smirked at me and shrugged. “We are, as they say, a captive audience. Are you going to pay extra or go without?”

  I pouted playfully as I reached for my cash. “Please forgive me Mr. Wallet. I’m so sorry I have to do this to you.”

  Raelya laughed as we stepped up to the pizza place together.

  We filled our rumbly bellies with pizza and soda then split an exorbitantly priced scoop of Ben & Jerry’s. Raelya said she was not picky, but turned her nose up at my first selection of Rocky Roadish, professing a distaste for marshmallows, so we settled on Cherry Garcia because who doesn’t love cherries and chocolate? We finished up the dessert before heading back to the boarding area in search of a quiet corner to rest in until our plane arrived.

  As we walked back into the boarding area, I noticed a couple of men in black suits glancing our way from where they were standing near the other entrance, and my stomach tightened a little as they started heading our way. I glanced at Raelya to see how she was reacting to their approach, but she had been digging in a pocket on her bag and hadn’t noticed them when I had. I nudged her shoulder just as the suits paused to address us, drawing her attention to their presence before they spoke. “Miss Shepherd, Miss Gundarsdottir, we need to have a word with you.”

  I glanced at Raelya who shrugged at me minutely. “What’s this about?”

  One of the suits smiled reassuringly. “We just need to ask you a few questions, ma’am. Our supervisor informed us that you were originally on a flight stopping in Chicago?”

  I nodded. “That’s right. And?”

  “We need to speak with you privately for a moment.”

  I frowned. “What about?”

  “You’ve been flagged for an additional security screening. We just need to ask you a few questions.”

  This wasn’t how it usually went in the movies, but this was my first time flying, so what did I know? I glanced at Raelya to make sure she was agreeable and she shrugged at me again. She looked a little uncertain, but I figured that she, like me, was mostly just uncomfortable with the idea of going off to talk to strangers in a strange place. But I noticed other airline personnel standing at their stations nearby and even a couple of TSA agents with their iconic blue gloves wandering past the door that led back into the airport’s main concourse, and no one had given the suits any second glance, so I supposed they weren’t as suspicious to those accustomed to airport stuff as they were to me.

  We turned to follow the suits out of the boarding area and down a hallway to where a few doors lined one wall and the agents gestured us toward separate doors. I glanced at Raelya as she disappeared into the door next to the one they were leading me toward. She met my eyes just before the wall between the two rooms separated us. The wolf inside of me was starting to feel agitated and I was inclined to agree with her; something didn’t feel right. I examined the man who led me away, but I could not detect any color in his aura. He was Unawakened; I was sure of it. But something still felt wrong.

  My instincts started really going haywire when he led me through a door and a faint pressure popped in my ears. I wondered if it was something to do with the X-ray machines or some other TSA equipment, but there was too much on my mind to spare it much thought just then. I found myself in a small room with a table and two chairs, and a single potted plant in the corner. There was another door opposite the one I’d come in. We were alone in the room, except for the shadowy figure in the corner. But that had come with me and I didn’t have time to concern myself with my mental issues right now.

  The agent told me to have a seat. I dragged the chair out slowly and sat down, eying him suspiciously. “So what now?”

  The agent sat across from me and folded his hands on the table. “As I said before, I just need to ask you some questions. Is that all right?”

  The shadowy figure moved a little closer to the agent, which freaked me out considerably more. The shadow figures usually didn’t move. They just stood there, silent, if slightly creepy, and then vanished some time later when I wasn’t paying attention.

  I kept one eye on the shadow figure as I crossed my arms. “Do I have a choice?”

  “I really need to ask you a few questions.” The shadow figure shifted slightly to the side between one blink and the next.

  I frowned, breath quickening slightly in anxiety. “In other words, no. I don’t have a choice.”

  “If we could just begin, this won’t take much of your time.” I said nothing, so he continued. “Your name is Dakota Lynn Shepherd. Is that correct?”

  “That’s right.” I responded woodenly. The shadow figure came to rest just behind the agent, slightly to the side. I found myself staring at it, afraid it would do something more, perhaps something terrifying.

  The agent nodded. “And how old are you?”

  “Twenty-eight.” My skin was prickling with unease. “What’s this really about?”

  The agent’s expression shifted defensively. “I will ask the questions here, Miss Shepherd. Now, where do you—” The shadow figure vanished between one blink and the next. My stomach knotted even harder. But I didn’t have time to spare it any more thought at the moment. Something about this situation was not right, and I knew exactly how to deal with it.

  “Am I being detained?” I asked coldly.

  The agent glared at me. “As I said, we just need to ask you some questions.”

  I straightened and put my hands on the table. “That’s not what I asked. I said, ‘Am I being detained?’”

  The agent glanced at his hands, seeming to lose his nerve. “Miss Shepherd, we simply
need to ask you some questions—”

  “For what reason? Am I under suspicion?” I started to rise.

  “We need to determine your group affiliations. And—”

  “Group affiliations?” My temper was flaring. I knew my rights, and this agent was refusing to acknowledge my query about detention. I felt as though the wolf were pacing inside me. She didn’t like this any more than I did. “If I am not being detained, I am leaving.”

  I stood and turned toward the door, but as I did, the opposite door opened. A slightly older man stepped in and I knew I was in trouble. He wore a long, black coat over his black suit, and his aura was lit up with yellows and a creamy not-white. Despite the overall cheery color of his aura, my hackles were up as soon as he appeared. He nodded to the other agent who hurried out and closed the door. “Miss Shepherd?” He slowly stepped toward me, tugging on a black glove.

  I took a step back, not backing down, but bracing myself. I didn’t trust this man one bit. “Who the hell are you and what do you want?”

  The man in black adjusted his glove then started to pull on the other one. I noticed a silver emblem on the back of his glove, an iron cross, and my head was swimming with need to remember where I’d seen that symbol before recently. The man regarded me levelly as he settled his gloves. “Dakota Shepherd, you are a werewolf.” I straightened reflexively; my instincts were screaming danger. “And I will purge you in the name of God.” Crap.

  I took a step back. “Wait, what? Why would you need to purge me? I haven’t hurt anyone.” My thoughts were racing. The man pushed his coat aside, revealing a freaking longsword on his hip. The same iron cross adorned the pommel. I had seen that symbol before. I knew I had.

  He put his hand on the hilt of the sword. “You are an abomination in the sight of the Lord. Your kind will be cleansed from the Earth in His name.” I heard a thumping sound from the next room, and what I presumed to be raised voices, muffled by the thick wall, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

  “Woah!” I was starting to panic. “Hold on there Father Psychopants! I’m not an abomination! I’m just a girl that happens to be a werewolf! I can’t even shift!”