His skin was on fire.
Zane was sure he'd never experienced anything so excruciating in his life. Flames of blazing light engulfed him as he gasped for air he could not catch.
His storm-ridden eyes filled with calculation as he watched the beautiful woman, sorceress, whatever she was, wield her power over him. It crescendoed like a wave, washing through his body with unstoppable force.
The sorceress smirked with satisfaction as he fell to his knees in the dirt at her feet. Zane could feel his powers draining, the brute strength he possessed was slipping away. His muscles clenched in resistance as she continued to pour her wrath into him, igniting his very soul.
His physical form was morphing, changing into something familiar, yet unknown. But it was the psychological affect that was truly beginning to wear on him. How long had he been trapped here?
“Stop struggling!" she snapped in ferocious warning. “Just a bit longer…come on…don't be so useless!"
Zane clenched his razor sharp teeth, his toned figure trembling with the weight of the spell. He spat at her muck covered boots.
She cackled sadistically at his gesture and surged more violent rays of power into his sweaty chest. He tried to turn his head to break the contact that she had over him, but it was impossible.
He was going to lose this fight.
“Now give me what I want!" she demanded, her shadowed face twisting with anger, her beautiful long black hair whipping around her like demons taking flight from the deepest layers of hell.
Zane wasn't entirely sure what this woman wanted with him, but he knew that he had only moments left before he was unable to resist.
“That's it," she crooned softly, stepping closer to him. “You pathetic beast."
Suddenly Zane jerked with pain, his body giving out beneath him as a searing hot light shot straight through his heart.
He cried out in anguish as emotions, things he'd never felt before, filled his entire existence. There was sadness and love, there was fear and rage…the rapidly changing feelings climbed up his limbs and struck themselves into his soul.
“Know your place," she hissed with proud malice.
He let out a roar of fury.
“And respect your betters," she chided him condescendingly.
The unknown sensation of tears graced his face as he crawled across the wet ground of the isolated marsh. He had to get away. He had to find his family. He would not let her do the same to them. He hadn't lived this long just to die here, of all places. No, not like this.
He reached a shaking hand out to grasp onto the muddy ground. Above him he could sense the wicked woman closing in on him, preparing to deliver the final blow.
Zane braced himself, his chest constricting with newfound panic.
He closed his eyes and waited.
There was a moment of silence.
The air around him exploded with a light so immense, it nearly blinded him through his closed lids. He only had a second to react before the sorceress screamed again. Yet it was not a scream of triumph, but one of pain.
Zane dared to crack open his eyes as he turned slightly in the direction her yell echoed from. He could see nothing but powdery smoke.
Pain wracked his body in pulsing throbs. He straightened his arms, his lean muscles pushing against the thick mud as he continued to pull himself across the uneven ground.
The woman was still screaming but the chaotic sound was moving further and further away. Its echo rung in his ears until, once again, silence fell.
Gradually the smoke cleared, wafting over the hushed and forgotten land.
Zane let out the breath he'd been holding. His furiously strong but straining arms and legs collapsed as he groaned in anguish and shifted onto his back. He winced at the burns the sorceress must have left there with her powers.
Zane took a shuddering gulp of air. Was he safe? Was she truly gone? Had the spell backfired?
He lifted his hand up to run it across his chest. He paused. The strange emotion of panic filled him once again—where moments before he'd sensed relief…how strange.
His smoldering grey eyes fell to his hand. He stared at it in shock. He clenched and unclenched his fist, flexing his wrist, but his claws did not appear. In their place were short, human looking nails.
His frantically pounding heart skipped a beat.
He winced in pain as his fingers carefully felt the base of his neck. The small, near invisible, slits that allowed him to breath underwater were gone. He bit down on his lip as hard as he could, noting that his normally sharp canines were dulled, as if someone had filed them down. The metallic taste hit his tongue like a blaring alarm. He reached up and ran his finger across his lips.
Human. Blood.
He forced himself up onto his elbows.
Zane realized, in that moment, he was completely naked and the black tribal tattoos that covered large portions of his body, had also disappeared. Everything else in regards to his physical appearance seemed perfectly fine. After all, there were very few elements that distinguished him from being a human. And now they were gone.
He, was gone.
Zane experienced a deep stirring in his chest, a rage that never once before surfaced from his cold and hardened heart. He'd never known any emotions but cool disdain and hunger for his entire existence.
But now, the first-hand knowledge of empathy and a vast array of human emotions were suddenly bombarding his skull. These were the things that truly undid him in that moment.
Zane staggered to his knees, his icy blonde hair, so light it glimmered like liquid silver, fell into his eyes. His high cheekbones stood out sharply as he clenched his cut jaw.
He wiped away the blood slicking his full and firm lips. He rolled his muscles, feeling the lean sharpness of them, but the power beneath, the thing that made him most extraordinary was gone.
The sorceress had erased his magic, taken it somehow.
She'd made him a useless human.
A sneer of vicious loathing lifted onto Zane's handsome face, making his already intimidating looks that much more dangerous.
The fury once again lashed against him as he trembled with the sudden need for revenge. He forced himself to his feet as he threw back his head and laughed with dark disdain at the skies.
Zane vowed in that moment, he would find whoever had done this to him and make them pay. That was the promise he swore at the ominous clouds gathering overhead.
He could not handle the feeling of utter loss that wrapped around his heart and infused itself into his now crimson blood.
Zane's vision went blurry and he hit the soft ground with a thud as exhaustion drove him to oblivion.
Miles away the sorceress stopped to catch her breath. She lifted her burnt fingers up to her eye-line for inspection. She frowned, biting her lip with the unfamiliar feeling of apprehension.
A howl of fury sounded in the distance.
She realized in that moment, she had no idea what she'd done.
Nor, what it would ultimately cost her.
