Between Shadows (Shadows Saga bk2)

Chapter 22- Time

"What do you mean I'm shifting?" Mara asked. Her heart was beating wildly and she was scared out of her mind. Mara stared down at the claws protruding from the ends of her fingers and looked at her face in the mirror, the slight distortion from the large teeth making their home in her mouth. 

"I can't be shifting, that's impossible."

Through the mirror, Mara saw Marx move, standing behind her. He rested one hand on her shoulder and the other gently grabbed one of hers. Mara clenched her fists the claws digging into her skin as she tried to hide them. She wasn't sure why she was hiding them from Marx she knew he wouldn't care.

"The bond must have triggered the wolf in you." Marx murmured looking at her talons. 

Mara recalled the feeling she had; something felt like it had tried breaking through and by the end, she thought she could have felt it get free. 

Was that my wolf? Mara wondered to herself. She couldn't believe she was already considering it to be her wolf. 

"Why do I only have these? Why didn't I fully shift then?"

"Well, a person only shifts if they have half werewolf in them, once you get below that, there isn't enough to trigger the shifts. I have never heard of this happening, but it looks like you're only partially shifting." Marx said as he lifted Mara's hand closer, examining it. 

"Am I going to be stuck like this, like Feray?" Mara squeaked. 

"You shouldn't be. Feray and other Nightshades get in their state by being in their wolf form for too long. When they become more animal then human it leaves a mark."

"Well how do I get rid of it?" 

"You have to want it to go away." Marx said, trying to keep voice even and calm for Mara. 

"Believe me, I want it to go away!" Mara shouted, her tears nearly returning. This was not what she had in mind when she agreed to start the bond. 

Marx rubbed his hands up and down Mara's arms trying to comfort her. 

"When you do your magic you have to visualize it right? Like what you did to make the cuts."

Mara nodded slightly taking deep breaths, listening to Marx's words, focusing on his voice.

"It's like that. You need to calm yourself down and will it to go away. See them go away in your mind." Marx brought her hands up and holding them in front of both, palm to palm. 

Mara took another deep, calming breath feeling Marx behind her, letting his calm wash over her. She cleared her mind and focused on the claws and teeth, visualizing them going back into her skin. 

She opened her eyes when she felt the weird sensation. The talons were retracting back into her skin, but there was no pain this time, just the gentle gliding as the disappeared. Mara let out a harsh, silent chuckle as she stared at her plain hands with dried, crusted blood on her fingers. 

Mara felt Marx leave her side and walk across the room. When he came back he had a cloth that had been soaked in water. He sat her back down and gently started to wipe the blood off her hands as Mara shook slightly. She was afraid. 

"So how do those work?" Mara asked quietly. 

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think you can access them whenever you wish."

This time Mara didn't make the laugh silent, it sounded like a harsh barking noise. "Why would I want to use those again? I think that experience was enough."

"The first transformation is always painful." Marx said as he remembered his first shift when he was a kid. The way he felt all of his bones shift and crack, forcing into the right position. The claws and teeth that forced their way out. His parents could only stand by and watch, nothing could be done for a person shifting except words of comfort, and even those aren't heard while going through something like that.