Free Chapter for Soulmate Cravings Part Two: The Retribution

Hello!

As a celebration for submitting Part Two of Soulmate Cravings for publication, I have dropped one of my favorite chapters here.

Be warned, this takes place about 3/4 into the second book, so there are some rather significant spoilers in here.

This was one of the more fun chapters that I wrote, and I’ve rewritten it about a hundred times because new ideas kept coming to me as I wrote it, or edited it, or let it sit and came back to add stuff to it. I really dug into what it might be like for a person to suddenly wake up and be completely overwhelmed by the same senses they’ve always felt, only magnified by 1000. If this is the only chapter of this that you read, then this is Cato being completely floored, overwhelmed, and in awe of his vampiric senses. As he adapts, his ability to think soundly and reasonably comes back. But this chapter is just a purely physical journey of his first moments as a vampire.

The book will be released on Kindle Unlimited on 10/9 Soulmate Cravings Part Two: The Retribution

And of course, Book one is already available! Soulmate Cravings Part One: The Reunion

Without further ado, this is Chapter 34: Soul Seer Vampire

Asher fell asleep with the vision in his head of Cato opening his eyes, and meeting Asher’s eyes, and the eternity of the moment would settle into them with a semblance of peace and perfection. But even with the many discussions they’ve had, they failed to imagine every possible outcome. 

Lycus and Kellen have both explained the mess Cato was before he’d met Lycus. Cato’s inability to control the powers he never even knew he had. The timid, jumpy child that was scared of everything around him, all the time. 

Kellen thought it was the horrific dreams. Lycus had said part of it was the other powers Cato had besides the dreams. Lycus had trained Cato to control his powers without Cato even realizing that’s what he was doing. 

He had trained Cato’s human manifestation of his abilities, and even Lycus, knowing Cato’s manifestations much better than anyone else, was blown away by what Cato had done to Ciaran in the factory. 

But Cato fell asleep as a human with a semblance of control over his human abilities. They should have realized the potential of those abilities growing into something beyond Cato’s control when he changed. 

Cato should have slept for twelve hours at the very least, but it hadn’t even been six hours when Asher is awoken by an unholy scream. A scream that doesn’t end, a constant, blood-curling scream of unfathomable pain. His eyes fly open to find Cato curled in on himself, his hands clutching his head, his eyes unseeing, as he screams in agony. 

As Cato rested, each moment brought his mind further into vampiric clarity, but it also brought in the sights and sounds of every single person and supernatural being around him. Not just one at a time, a low hum of sound turning into an unbroken wail of chaos as every thought and every vision of every living being in the city pours into his head. Visions flashing like strobe lights as they flicker by too fast to see, and a mass of noise pounding into him. 

He has no sense of self, no concept of who he is or what he is, because his brain can’t override the chaos long enough to form coherent thoughts. All that exists are the infinite flashes of light and chaos inside his head, screaming at him, drilling into him, blinding him, and keeping him in a perpetual state of confusion and agony. 

He can’t even feel Asher’s desperate attempts to reach him. His hands on his face, his body being shaken, Asher screaming his name. He can’t process the tears pouring down Asher’s face, or even hear the phone call Asher makes screaming for Sophie. Hell, he can’t even process his own sense of self, let alone process other entities or their attempts to reach him. 

As Asher fights for a purchase into Cato’s pain, Cato knows nothing past the flashes of light and screams in his head. 

Each moment that passes is longer than the previous one. Asher yells, begs, and shakes Cato, hoping for some sort of response. But there’s nothing. Cato has checked out of the building. His eyes unseeing, his mind uncomprehending. All there is are the continuous screeches of pain. 

Stones crash into Asher’s gut as the realization settles in that Cato can’t sense him any better than he can reach Cato. 

When Sophie reaches the penthouse, she finds Cato cradled into Asher. Asher having pulled him into his lap and was now softly rocking him with tears streaking down his face, with hollowed out, red-rimmed eyes. His complexion pale and sickly and his entire countenance crumpled in as Cato’s screams rebounds relentlessly off of every surface of the room. 

The sight is heart-wrenching, but she’s immediately sidetracked when Irene walks into the room. Irene’s eyes widen before her mouth drops and she falls into a heap on the floor, her hands wrapping around her head and adding her screams of pain in with Cato’s. 

Sophie watches her mate fall to the floor and realizes she’s reacting to whatever Cato’s projecting. Picking up strong thoughts has made Irene uncomfortable in the past, but it’s never been strong enough for her to hit the floor or start wailing as a result, either. 

She’s seen seers wake up with disgruntled confusion from the strength of their sharpened abilities, but she’s never seen someone wake up in screaming agony. But there’s never been anyone of Cato’s caliber either, and she’d prepared for the possibility that his powers might be uncontrollable in the beginning. 

Irene is on the floor sobbing pitifully, unable to stop the force of Cato’s agony from taking the forefront of her mind. However, she’s only receiving it second hand, so she still has enough sense of self to frame words. Her cries of it hurts, and too much, and so loud, giving Sophie an idea of what’s happening without assessing him. 

His screams and screeches are too much for an assessment, and with Asher’s suffering alongside him, completely tormented that his love is lost in so much pain and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it. His eyes taking on a more maddening gleam as Cato’s wails overwhelm everything else. 

“Caius, Felix, fog him now!” she calls to the two men she brought along with her. 

The two men are famous for their abilities to block senses and create barriers in the mind. They have used their abilities frequently while training seers because they can control how much of the outside world can filter into a vampire’s brain. It’s useful for stronger seers to be able to learn how to control their powers in increments instead of trying to learn amidst the confusion of their powers hitting them in full force. 

It’s like slamming a steel door closed. One moment there’s nothing but noise, the next, there’s nothing but silence, followed by confusing clarity. Because the screaming stops at the same time that a million sensations hit him at once. He scurries backwards, out of Asher’s arms and across the room, trying to take everything in. 

His head cocks to the side as he tries to understand the different sensations. Sounds that never registered before are coming in loud and clear. He can hear something as simple and quiet as a blink, the shutter of skin over the eyes, the flutter of an eyelash, the wind the act stirs up, the exhale of a breath from across the room. 

Colors are more vibrant, textures more prominent. And his scent is off the charts. He knows every person, the way they’re holding themself, and every item in the room and its placement, by nothing more than scent alone. 

It’s like a blueprint painted by his nose instead of sight. He can even smell emotions. He can smell the worry in the room, the hesitation, the patience, the despair, and then, like a sucker punch to the gut, he can smell the sheer strength of love and affection. 

His head cocks to the other side, like a puppy trying to gather its senses as his eyes seek out the source of the affectionate smell. His eyes landing on Asher and oh! 

His stomach vibrates with the flutter of a thousand wings. Memories come flying back to him, a sense of who he is and understanding what is happening all come back, but they are all overshadowed, because everything pinpoints around him. 

He’s rooted, completely overwhelmed. He knows Asher, loves Asher, has seen Asher until he could map him blind. But he may as well have been blind. The smooth expanse of his skin and the translucent hairs of his face. His doe eyes. The vibrant color of his lips, and the soft texture of them. The dips and valleys around his eyes and his nose. 

The smell of him, an aroma of snow and winter and fireplaces, and the slight tinge of blood. And then the thought of blood has Cato’s stomach rumbling, his senses bouncing around. 

He can hear two female voices whispering in hushed voices. Their attempts to be quiet are useless since he can hear every word. One of them confirming the other is okay, and the other one confirming they are and explaining the chaotic rush of sights and sounds Cato’s mind projected into her head. 

Cato knows he should participate in the conversation. Some vein of understanding knows they are talking about him. That they are waiting for him to explain what happened, to figure out what to do now. He doesn’t understand what quieted the noise in his head and should probably figure that out, too. 

But his stomach is getting irrationally irritated while his bloodlust ricochets upwards, as he continues to just stand there and not eat. But fuck! None of that matters as he stares at the inhuman beauty of his chosen mate. The contours of his skin and the intoxication of his scent. 

Asher takes a step towards Cato, and Cato takes an unsteady step back. His stomach rumbles again, and he’s not sure if he wants to eat Asher or eat Asher. 

Afraid his bloodlust instinct will surface, he continues to step back as Asher steps forward, not trusting himself to not harm him. Asher steps again, his hands flitting over a beverage fridge, and opening it, he pulls out two bags of blood and opens one. 

The scent hits Cato like a freight train. The intoxicating smell making the bloodlust inside of him growl with need and he’s moving before his brain can keep up. He crashes into Asher, seeking out the scent so he can sink his teeth into it. 

Asher was prepared for the crash and manages to keep them both upright, but he loses one of the bags to Cato’s mouth. However, Cato is working on natural instinct instead of logic, so when he rips into the bag, it shreds and he drenches them both in blood instead of actually drinking more than a few drops. 

A confused pout crosses Cato’s face as he tries to catch up and Asher has to bite back the laugh that creeps up. 

Cato almost growls, moving towards Asher to lap some of the blood up. Asher stops him, knowing with how insatiable Cato was in human form there’s a chance if Cato gets his mouth on Asher he’ll be torn between bloodlust and a different kind of lust. 

Asher reaches up and puts a hand on Cato’s forehead, holding him back. “No. Watch,” he commands lightly, taking the second bag and tearing the top of the bag open. “Easy with it,” he instructs, handing the bag over to Cato. 

Cato takes it and blanches at the coldness of it, but drinks it back anyway, the blood invigorating him and calming his confusion down. “More,” he demands once he’s drunk it down. 

Asher smiles and reaches for another one. He hands it over to Cato while Sophie steps forward with a wet towel to help clean the spilled blood off of them. 

Cato stiffens and hisses at the unexpected presence, but Asher puts a hand on his arm and he calms down. His brain catching up while he feeds that it’s just Sophie, and she’s a friend, not a foe. 

Asher hands him a third bag. Freshly awakening vampires need more blood, and Cato’s awakening had come with less rest and more excitement than normal. Cato steadily drinks and takes in the room while reasoning slowly returns to him. 

His rationality coming back in increments and he reaches up to point at the two vampires in the room he’s never seen before. Too thirsty to stop drinking long enough to ask about them out loud. 

“Caius and Felix,” Sophie points them out. “They are foggers. They are the ones currently blocking outside thoughts, so they aren’t all screaming in your head,” she explains. 

Asher grabs two more bags and pulls Cato towards the couch so they can talk while he drinks. Cato follows his lead and slinks down next to him. 

Almost automatically diverted to the floating particles of dust in the air and making out the texture and shape of them as they float around them. His eyes ping-ponging everywhere while he tries to make sense of everything he’s seeing. 

Asher moves slightly and Cato can hear the muscle expanding with the movement. The sound intriguing him and he picks up Asher’s arm and bends it so he can make out the sound of his muscles moving better. 

Asher watches the fascination in Cato’s face until Sophie makes a quiet ‘ahem’ noise and Cato flinches his attention towards the sound. Once his attention is on her, Sophie smiles at him. 

“Can you explain what it felt like before we blocked your mind?” she asks. 

Cato looks at her with confusion before looking back at Asher, and then turning back towards her again. Asher reaches his hand up and runs his fingers through Cato’s hair, grounding him. Cato’s eyes flicker back towards Asher and Asher gives him a brief nod. 

Cato’s tongue flicks out to wet his lips, and the sensation of doing so has him distracted again. He pulls his lips in between his teeth to feel the texture and accidentally bites too hard. 

A hiss escapes his lips while Asher reaches over and flits his thumb across Cato’s lips. His tongue flicking out a second time and Asher’s taste explodes on his tongue. A needy whine falls from Cato and he leans in towards Asher, desperate for more of his taste, when another clearing of the throat pulls his attention again. 

“Answer Sophie, my love. We need to know what happened,” Asher says. 

Cato furrows his brow. “Blinding lights. Loud.” 

Asher brings his hands up on either side of Cato’s face, making him focus solely on him. “We need to know more than that, my love. I need you to focus for a few more moments, please?” 

Cato’s eyes get lost as he watches Asher’s gorgeous lips move while he talks, his breath wafting the sweetest scent straight into his face. Cato swallows hard and forces himself to focus on the chaos and explain it to Sophie. 

“Too much. Loud, chaotic, blinding. Hurt, like hammers in my brain and flashlights pulsing in my eyes. There was no logic, just chaos, so much. I couldn’t even gain a sense of myself with all the noise. Like a billion drums going off in my ears, or sirens blaring, with images flashing like colored strobe lights, continuously right through me, and radiating through my brain,” he tries to describe, but even the descriptions are coming up lackluster to the magnitude of what it had felt like. 

Sophie nods. This is on a much larger scale than anything she’s seen before, but she can still grasp what happened, and knows that until Cato masters his powers, it will continue to happen if Caius and Felix aren’t with him. 

“Your ability to hear thoughts is not surprising. Being able to discern people’s auras the way you did and being able to guess at people’s reasonings and actions hinted at the possibility of you being able to read minds.” 

“The visions are a little surprising, but we didn’t have time to really probe and test the different kinds of manifestations your powers had. Most people have to concentrate to get clear reads, but I think you’re the exact opposite. It feels as though you are getting clear feeds and reads. The problem is you’re getting all of them at once. There’s too many to separate.” 

Asher is paying attention to Sophie, but Cato’s still distracted by too much. A part of his brain is registering her words, but the more predominant part of his brain is noticing that Asher looks more tired than normal. 

Cato reaches up to poke at the tender sleep deprived bag of flesh underneath Asher’s eye, and Asher reaches up to trap Cato’s hand in his while focusing on Sophie, a soft smile on his lips at Cato’s inquisitiveness. 

“How do we move forward from here?” he asks Sophie. 

“He needs to be trained to block the noise out. It’s entirely feasible that he can fade them into the background and function normally. However, until he masters that ability, Caius and Felix are going to have to stay close to Cato to keep him fogged. It’s going to take time before you two can have any privacy because the second they step out of range, everything is going to flood back into him and crush him until he learns to control it,” Sophie explains. 

Cato’s once again overwhelmed by the smoothness of Asher’s skin, and the intoxicating scent coming off of him. He leans in, his hands roaming across Asher’s chest, as he buries his nose into the crook of his neck and inhales deeply before flicking his tongue out and licking his skin. 

Asher’s eyes roll back in his head and he reaches his hand over to slowly pull Cato away. Cato’s eyes search Asher’s face. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispers, trailing his finger along Asher’s jaw with a look of awe. 

Asher swallows hard at the innocent amazement in Cato’s eyes as he takes him in. He leans up and kisses Cato lightly on the nose. “Concentrate, my love,” he says, flicking his eyes in Sophie’s direction to remind Cato of the conversation. 

Cato pouts and looks back around the people in the room, a little confused because he’d forgotten they were there. His brain more focused on the sight and smell of Asher. His lips dip down into a frown while Asher focuses back on Sophie. “How long does the process take?” he asks her. 

Sophie sighs. “It’s hard to say. It varies from person to person. We have to try different training techniques until we find the one he responds the best to and then, after that, we have to use it to get him to train and exercise control of what flows in and what flows out. It could take weeks or months, but honestly, the hardest part is finding the proper method of training that works for him.” 

“Each method takes time to show any results, so we have to stay with a method for a period of time before we can assess its effect on him. Every time we find one that doesn’t work, we have to go back to square one and start over again until we find the right technique,” she says. 

“What about Lycus?” Cato asks, still not fully attentive to the conversation, but having paid enough attention to contribute. 

Almost as soon as the question is out of his mouth, his attention is diverted again to the way the light bounces off of a strand of Asher’s hair, reaching over to grab it and accidentally pulling the strand out of his head. Sophie bites back a chuckle while Cato’s eyes flicker between Asher’s head and the strand of hair in his hand. 

Watching neophytes is not new for any of them. Cato, being able to focus enough to contribute to the conversation at all, is more surprising than Cato’s attention and curiosities darting all over the place. 

“I didn’t even think about that. I saw the way Lycus trained Cato in his memories, but they are lycanthrope techniques that I’m not very familiar with. But he’s still here, so maybe he’ll agree to train him again, or at least point us towards someone with similar techniques to help us. It’ll still take time, but without having to fumble blindly for a good technique, it’ll save a lot of time as well,” she muses. 

Asher takes a deep breath of relief. If Cato’s ability to overcome this rests on Lycus’s shoulders, then everything’s going to be just fine. “I don’t think there is much in this world that Cato could ask for that Lycus wouldn’t agree to.” 

“When I observed them together, I felt a very strong paternal bond. There is a reason Lycus calls Cato ‘Little Pup,’ and it goes deeper than Cato just being younger than him, or even human. Some part of Lycus sees Cato as his child, as his little pup, and Cato reciprocates that bond. Cato looks up to Lycus, even if he doesn’t agree with Lycus’s ways. He looks up to him like a son would to a father,” he says, the relief palpable in his tone. 

Sophie nods. “Then we’ll try this route first. Felix and Caius will stay with you to keep the noise out and they will work with Lycus to train you to control your powers so you can function normally. They are already beyond what we had anticipated Cato. I know it’s inconvenient for the moment, but hot damn! You are already fucking amazing!” she praises excitedly. 

Asher pulls Cato deeper into him, Cato looking up at Asher quizzically. “He’s always been fucking amazing,” he says emphatically, earning a few coos from the girls, and a smile from Cato, before Cato takes complete advantage of their proximity and swipes his tongue across Asher’s neck again.