10 Chapter 9

The black haired guy picked me up bridal style and carried me to the jeep where Carter looked just as astonished as I did.

"Did you know that-?" Carter started.

"No" I responded, "I didn't know that animals could have powers. I've never tried it before."

Nathan looked between me and Eclipse.

"And no Nathan you can't do tests on him, that's my dog, or my human now I guess. Wait you can't own people. Ugh Nathan you can't test on him."

Carter laughed under his breath.

"I'm just wondering why he's wearing clothes," Nathan commented.

I looked back to see Eclipse in human form, wearing clothes, something I didn't notice before now. My head started spinning with questions I couldn't ask right now.

"Eclipse get over here now," I demanded. My voice was pained but powerful.

He turned on a dime and jogged back over to me.

"Yeah?" He asked. He seemed concerned.

I put my hand on his shoulder and took some of my powers back. I copied the morphing and bulletproof part but took the rest. I wasn't sure what would happen if I took the shapeshifting power from him.

"What was that-"

"Stop complaining and come with me," I growled. I felt like an idiot for giving my dog the power to shift to a human. I felt irresponsible and stupid. But the fact he was wearing clothes was mindboggling.

Eclipse instantly tucked his head down in submission and followed behind me, just close enough that I could see him beside me.

I was dumbfounded at the whole situation. Dogs could have powers. My dog is a person. A random stranger with powers is fighting Ryder. I still have to defeat Ryder. The grass is moving like someone's walking through them. Everything was a lot to handle.

I turned into a lioness, Eclipse copied by turning into a lion. Somehow my lion was still bigger than his but oh well I'll have Nathan figure out why later. But he can't test on my dog. I don't know, he'll find out what to do.

We moved in. The girl and Ryder were still going at it.

I swatted the legs out from under the girl and froze her powers. Eclipse slowly dragged her towards the group. I hadn't swatted too hard, she did save me, I was just trying to get her immobilized.

"There's two of you?" Ryder yelled as he looked astonished at me. Fear flooded his face, I could almost smell how scared he was.

He shook his head and all fear disappeared. I noticed an earpiece wrapped around his ear. It wasn't like ours. "I'm not scared, what do I do?"

Who was he talking to?

I growled. I could talk in this form but I was waiting for the perfect moment.

A lightning strike landed directly on my back, then another, and another. The lightning wasn't phasing me now. Ryder looked more panicked by the second.

I heard more movement in the grass.

Another lightning strike hit me. I could feel my muscles tightening by the second. I was going to stop this. I was done with the backstabbing. I was done with feeling useless. I was done. Ryder started taking steps backwards away from me.

"I'm not scared of you," Ryder whined as another lightning bolt hit me.

"You should be." I growled. My voice shook with power and Ryder's facial expression was one hundred percent worth it.

Ryder's chin hit the floor.

I shifted down and at the exact moment I heard an all too familiar voice scream from the grass beside me, "Carla!"

I turned to the grass where I heard the voice. And that was my mistake because I didn't believe my eyes when I saw Cleo with a knife to her throat. The spindly guy was holding her. She died, She's been dead, for months, I buried her. What even. Who even. How even. At that moment Ryder punched me with a speed like lightning.

They were working together.

But I had to choose whether I was going to save Cleo, or defeat Ryder.

I punched Ryder as hard as possible, harder than a few months ago. He instantly dropped to the ground. I shifted to lion form and sprinted as fast as possible towards Cleo. The guy slit her throat. One quick movement. I down shifted and caught her before she hit the ground. "No, not again, not again." I cried. I put my hand over the open cut and used my powers to heal her. She fell asleep. Asleep not dead. I was relieved, but I still had one problem. Why was she here, how did she get here, and why is Ryder and the spindly guy working together?

I got up and shifted back to lion form. I ran as fast as I could through the tall grass after the spindly guy. I was about to get answers. He turned around and gave me a smile, the creepy smile that I despised.

I took a leap to tackle him when he created a blue portal thing in front of me midair and I fell into it.

--

Hannah's POV

"Where is she?" He worriedly asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't know," I mumbled.

"What do you mean you don't know? Didn't anyone see what happened?" Carter quickly and angrily asked as he looked around at the group.

"I-I don't know," I responded sadly, "I didn't see anything."

"How can you not know!" Carter raised his voice in a fit of anger. Tears started streaming down my face.

"Carter!" Nathan screamed, "Leave her alone." He walked over to me and started gently petting my arm to soothe me while I cried.

I wiped my tears on my sleeve and looked over at Carter who didn't look the slightest bit upset at making me cry. He was worried about Carla though, which I understand.

"Listen Carter," Nathan started, "Yeah she's one of your best friends and you love her, but turning on your other friends while you're worried is not the way to go. Get your attitude in check, sitting here arguing isn't going to bring her back."

There was a moment of silence before Carter nodded and we all started walking towards the fight scene.

"Where's Ryder?" Sage asked from a far corner.

"Missing," I called out, "But there is a blonde girl and a reddish brown haired girl in the grass over here though."

I pointed where the two girls were laying in the grass and everyone came running. The reddish haired girl reminded me a lot of Carla. Same hair color, same eye color, same body shape, same height. Some facial features were different. You could tell they were probably related somehow.

"Cleo!" Kathy cried as she dropped next to the blonde girl. I remember Carla telling me about Cleo, a girl who was shot through Carla. Carla blamed herself for her death for the longest time until she just stopped mentioning her. Carter was looking intensely at the reddish haired girl. He was confused. I was too.

I put my hand on the girl's shoulder and slightly shook her. I was trying to wake her up. It happened almost immediately. She scrambled backwards away from Carter and into my arms. She started crying into my chest. Carter started inching closer but the girl just dug her way deeper into my chest away from him.

"Carter," I softly said, "Stop you're scaring her."

"Hannah," The girl mumbled, "What happened to mom?"