It was that voice again; like every other night touched by the icy fingertips of nightmare.  Beckoning.  Dominating.  So different from the voice of Destiny that so often guided her.
       "Kelly...  Kelly... Come to me..."
       The young vixen could hear herself grunt and strain, as if far away.

       Blackout.

       Laughter.  She heard it grow louder.  Pain hit her like a charging bull.  Her eyes opened.  Or had they been open the whole time?
       "Nathaniel!"  Kelly screamed in panic, dropping to her knees beside the man she loved, on moonlit grass she had not occupied moments ago.  What were they doing here?  And what sort of beast had mauled him to wound him like this?  He was nearly unrecognizeable.  He expelled blood from his lips like a weak fountain, his eyes beginning to glaze over as they fixed on Kelly's.  "My love..."  He could barely speak through the blood filling his lungs.  "My love...not...your fault...Just stay...with..." He could only mouth the last word, "me", choking on the crimson flow.
       "Nat!  No!  No, no, don't go!"  Kelly grabbed him in near hysteria.  "What happened to you?!"  Even as she spoke, he grew stiff.  Kelly began to hyperventilate.  His chest wasn't moving.  And a familiar Sense gripped the fox.  His spirit was gone.
       Laughter.  Cackling, wailing, maniacal.
       Darkness took her.
       More pain.  This time the vixen screamed.  And this time--she saw him.  It was the face that haunted her nightmares since she was but a child.  That wolf.  That hood over his face.  That voice mingled with an almost constant growl, like a demon from the lowest hell.  Eyes like actual balls of fire, always pulling her in as if to possess her.
       But for the first time--he removed the hood of his dark robe.  And he was no longer beckoning, as he had every time heretofore.
       This was no dream.
       Kelly suddenly realized she was lying on the ground, and wounded.  The wolf's hands began to glow as if liquid onyx and amber were enveloping them.  His fangs showed.
       The fox rolled out of the way.  Just in time: he had sent a deadly blow sailing for her battered form.  She coughed and spat.  "Who are you?"  God only knew how many times she'd asked him that in her dreams.
       The wolf's eyes stopped flaming.  He looked shocked, and then furious.  Out came his hands and siezed her head with amazing speed.
       The world began to fade.  Kelly could feel herself writhe, as if outside her body.  She heard the words from her lips.  "No!...Not again...!"  He was taking her mind.
       Awareness.  She remembered Nathaniel.  Remembered every dream.  Remembered her life.  Herself.  And a scream began to rise from somewhere far off.  It flew closer, then seemed to leap back into her own throat.  The darkness faded, and she was screaming, "Nooo!!"
       Light shot from her palms.  Blinding light.  Now she could hear the wolf grunting in strain.  Her hands were on his head.  Now she could understand.  She felt his thoughts just as she did her own.  He had been controlling her mind.  And now, almost by pure accident, she had his in her grasp.

       Not more than a few seconds could have passed, but in those moments, the rules of time and space themselves all seemed overthrown.  And instantly, Kelly knew.  She felt as if she knew everything, just for that moment.  Past, present, future.
       Celina Opal Silas.  How long had it been since Kelly remembered that name, the name she bore upon entering this world?  Since that day, a prophecy had been fulfilled.  Celina had been named the Destined Woman.  Bound by fate.  Both blessed and cursed by power unimaginable in her day.  Power that had long been nonexistent upon earth.  The power of her ancient ancestor, Silas Vulpes.
       Since those early childhood days, war had rocked the planet.  The royal court, of which her father was the protector, had been destroyed.  King William Winthrop--whom she had known as "Uncle Winnie"--was overthrown.
       And in the chaos of war, the legacy of Silas housed in the palace was lost.  Celina disappeared.  Kelly Bancroft surfaced.  Power was forgotten.  Except in the shadows--and in her dreams.  There, she faced the only other on Earth who possessed magical power.  The prophesied Warrior of the ancient Vasilis Lupus--sworn enemy, and ironically, half-brother, of Silas.  A hooded wolf.  Fully trained, whereas Kelly had but a year's training by a cenile old Silasian priest.
       In this moment...all the days of Kelly's life were thrown into perspective.  And somehow she knew what the wolf knew, whether consciously or not.  His name was Alexander Vasilis.  He had lived a good number of years.  He practiced the forbidden art of mind control; the art that bore a curse unlike any other: banishment, into a place of darkness and anguish, for all eternity.  He had used this art to seek out and try to kill his prophesied enemy, Celina.  In nightmares and visions he beckoned her.  If it weren't for this art, he would not have known her alias, Kelly Bancroft.
       Awareness returned.  Alexander Vasilis was regaining his mind.  Time and space fell like trained soldiers back in line.

       Kelly was hurled backwards and slammed onto the ground by a forceful blow.  Alexander snarled, gripping his head in pain.  "You fool!" he boomed.  Unlike Kelly, he was a native of the Great United Provinces--once Great Britain, many years past.  His voice made it clear.  He bared his teeth, making Kelly scoot back in fear as he tried to stand.  "How dare you take my soul into your filthy, incapable hands!"
       "Try respecting mine, you old fart!"  The words escaped Kelly before she could hold them back.  Yep.  She was her normal self again.
       "You deserve nothing but death!  Nothing but death, dimwitted scum!"  His hands began glowing again.  Kelly snarled, her own teeth bared, and thrust her hands out first.  Something violet flashed, and Alexander yelped in pain.
       "You ask, you beg me for your destruction, daughter of Silas!"
       Power.  More power than Kelly had ever imagined.  It lept from Alexander and sailed for her, warping reality in its wake.
       Power.  More power than Kelly had ever thought she could produce.  It lept out to meet its opponent.  Light met darkness.  Kelly screamed.  It was torturous pain, using all this power.  Alexander yelled with effort.
       "It's over, daughter of Silas!"  Alexander's eyes flamed anew.  "I am Vasilis incarnate!  Today my war ends!  I will controll all!  Existence shall be defined by me!  I...will..be...GOD!!"
       His power increased what must have been tenfold.  Kelly was smothered, utterly suffocated, by the jet of black.  The pain was beyond all pain, penetrating mind and body and soul, reaching into her very core as if to tear it and erase her from existence.
       But the face of death gives way to a part of us we have never known.
       Kelly couldn't feel herself move.  Couldn't hear the blood-churning scream she was emitting.  But she rose, gained a firm stance and dug her feet into the earth.  The Voice was there again.  Destiny.  Beyond words.  All feeling was leaving.  She could only see light, pure light, shooting from her to meet the black stream.  Everything began to bend inward toward the center where light and utter darkness met.
       The voice that came from Kelly was not her own; it was amplified, deepened, strengthened.  She didn't know her mouth was the one moving.
       "The fates have been set, O son of Vasilis, firmer than the sun and moon.  And thou hast no place in the setting thereof.  Be gone, userper of all.  Be...GONE."
       Everything was warping more now.  The universe turned in upon itself, even as both Kelly and Alexander stopped to gaze in utter horror.  A black hole seemed to form.  Kelly felt herself pulled in, as if being ripped apart.
       A voice.  Was it that Destiny again?  It was clearer than Kelly had ever heard it.
       "Daughter of Silas Vulpes.  You have broken the sacred Law, and sought to control the spirit of another.  Your soul beckons the curse upon it.  But you are the Vessel, the Destined Woman.  You have fulfilled your great mission.  Go now, and fulfill your destiny.  Blessed...be your curse."

       Noise.  Confusion.  Light.  Darkness.
     And then...
Nothingness.