She wasn't supposed to be out here. Ever since the death of Apple White six months earlier, werewolves had not been welcome in Book End. Cerise and the rest of her pack had taken up residence a few miles outside of the city that they had once called home. No longer did they live in apartments and in houses, but in cabins, tents, lean-tos, and trailers. It was fine with most of the pack. They were wolves, so they were never exactly comfortable within the confines of the city.
To Cerise, there were more downsides than upsides. One of them being that she had to sneak into Book End in order to request a potion from Raven. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have bothered-potions were not that important, and most people could cope with whatever conditions they were going through-but this time she couldn't ignore it.
The dreams had started up again.
Raven was the only witch in the entire continent who knew how to put Cerise's nightmares to rest, so the werewolf had decided to make the dangerous trek to Book End under the cover of night. Ramona would kill her if she found out, and Hunter would no doubt be disappointed, but Cerise couldn't live another day with those horrible nightmares. The two of them would just never find out.
Cerise ducked behind into the alleyway behind Raven's shop. Thankfully, Raven didn't lock the back door to her magic shop. Sneaking through back passageways Cerise made her way slowly to the front of the shop where she knew Raven would be located at this time of night. She was almost to the front room when Raven spoke.
"What are you doing here?" Cerise froze, taking a breath to answer the question, but someone else beat her to it.
"I thought that we could talk." Cerise's heart plummeted, and she shrunk further back into the shadows. She recognized that voice. It belonged to Dexter Charming, the vampire whose twin sister had banished all wolves from Book End.
"We don't have anything to talk about," Raven said, "You chose your side and that's it. You and I aren't...I can't be with someone who lets that monster run this city."
"That monster is my sister," Dexter said, "and she is entirely justified in her actions."
"Justified." Raven laughed bitterly. "Punishing an entire species because of the actions of one person is never justified."
"She's teaching them a lesson," Dexter said, "When whoever killed Apple comes forward then the wolves will be allowed to return. They are hiding a murderer. They deserved what they got."
"No, they didn't," Raven said. There was a moment of silence before Raven spoke again, "Please leave."
"Raven-"
"I won't ask again. Leave. Please."
"Okay," Dexter said. There was a shuffling noise and the sound of bells jingling as the door opened.
"You can come out now," Raven said and Cerise stepped out of the shadows.
Raven Queen was the most powerful witch north of the equator and had been for several decades, yet she looked no older than twenty five. It had been magic, Raven had explained when Cerise had asked, that kept her from aging more than a year each decade. It was a spell of her mother's, who had been a very powerful, evil witch. Cerise almost smiled as she took in Raven's appearance and the shirt that read 'don't be a basic witch'. Almost.
"How did you know it was me?"
Raven shrugged. "You should know me better than that by now. You're lucky that Dexter was so distracted that he didn't hear you. What are you doing here?"
"The dreams have started again," Cerise answered.
"You need the tonic?" Cerise nodded. Raven dug around under the counter and pulled out a small vial filled with a dark purple liquid. Cerise reached for her wallet, but Raven shook her head. "There's no need for that. You have enough problems as it is."
"Thank you," Cerise said, pocketing the potion.
"Next time," Raven said, "how about you give me a call? I can make my way into the woods easy enough. We can't have the new alpha of Badwolf getting killed by a couple of night walkers."
"I'll give you a call," Cerise promised.
"I suppose," Raven said as Cerise turned to leave, "that I should congratulate you, but I don't think that you decided to get married out of a love for Hunter."
Cerise took a deep breath. No, her betrothal to Hunter was purely political. It was a way to strengthen the wolves. Neither of them loved each other, but they both put their packs first in that matter. She didn't say any of this to Raven. Instead, she turned around and left the way that she came.
It had rained during the short amount of time that Cerise had spent in Raven's shop. The wet ground was evidence enough of that. Cerise ducked into the shadows, pulling her dark hoodie around herself. She kept to the outskirts of town, so as to avoid the Charming manor. It made her trip longer, but it kept her out of the way of most of the vampires. The key word there being most.
Cerise stopped in a back alley to find four vampires waiting for her. She wasn't sure how they'd found her. She was the best at sneaking in her entire pack.
"I thought that it smelled like wet dog," said a tall vampire with brown hair. His friends, all girls with red hair, giggled.
"Listen," Cerise said, stepping out of the shadows, "I don't want any trouble."
"Maybe you should've thought of that before you murdered Apple White."
"I didn't…" Cerise groaned. "Look guys, you really don't want to pick a fight with me."
"Oh, you're so tough, are you?" one of the red haired vampires said with a cruel smiled.
"Let's show her who's boss girls," the brown haired vampire said, and all four of them rushed at her.
Cerise grabbed a wooden stake out of her sweatshirt pocket as the first vampire, one of the redhead triplets, rushed her. Cerise blocked her swipe with her hand, dodged a kick from another girl, and plunged the stake into the first girl's heart.
"Celeste!" came a scream from one of the other girls. Her eyes narrowed, and she started attacking Cerise like a cat, swift and quick. She kept Cerise on her toes.
Cerise had just gotten within an arms length of her to drive the stake through her heart, when she was grabbed by behind and the brown haired vampire's fangs sunk into her. Cerise felt her blood begin to drain as he sucked. She struggled to get away, but it was all for naught. The vampire had her held firmly in place.
She felt herself begin to lose consciousness. Her eyelids began drooping, her body slouching along with it. At least this vampire would die along with her, Cerise thought. Her blood in his system would be more than enough to kill him. It took a very strong, old, and powerful vampire to kill a werewolf that way, and her murderer appeared to be none of those. Right before Cerise lost consciousness, the vampire detected his fangs from her neck and tossed her to the ground.
"I forgot how disgusting wolf blood is," he commented to his companions.
"Then perhaps you shouldn't indulge in it," said a deep baritone that Cerise recognize. She heard the snap of three necks breaking. Through half shut eyes she watched a fair figure walk towards her. A pair of steel grey eyes met hers. "What are you doing here?"
"I…" Cerise began, and everything went dark.
Daring Charming stared at the figure lying on the couch of his penthouse apartment with interest. Of all of the times for Cerise Hood to show back up in Book End, she had to choose now. Just as Daring was getting his sister to think straight after Apple's death, the woman who might have caused it decided to once again make an appearance.
Yet Daring couldn't bring himself to wish that Cerise had stayed in the forest. It was definitely safer for her in the forest, but Daring had missed her these past months. He hadn't seen her since he had woken her pack up in the middle of the night and warned them to leave. The kiss that he'd stolen from her in the dark of that night had been all too fleeting.
He had missed her. Daring's eyes studied the lines of her face, the smooth planes that fell into shadow. Her eyes were closed, her full lips forming a frown. Her wolf ears-a sign of her fey heritage-stood out for all to see. What was she doing back in the city? Surely she knew that her fey ears alone made her the most recognizable werewolf in the world. There weren't many half fey werewolves around.
Cerise shifted on the couch, beginning to wake up. Her eyes opened a crack, coming to a rest on him. She smiled a little before that smile disappeared from her face. "I suppose that I should thank you," she said hoarsely.
Daring was at a loss for what to do. Part of him wanted to rush over to her and wrap her up in his embrace, but the part of him that was thinking told him that that was impossible. Their people were at war, and they had both chosen a side. They had both chosen their families.
And she was engaged.
"You don't need to thank me," Daring answered, "but you could explain to me what you are doing in the city."
Cerise shifted, as if she wanted to do something other than lamely sit on the couch. "I...stopped by Raven's."
Daring nodded. "The dreams?"
"Yeah," Cerise said quietly, "They're worse than they used to be."
"Why didn't you just call her?" Daring asked, "She would have met you in the forest."
"I didn't…" Cerise trailed off. "It's hard to tell who's on what side these days."
Indeed it was. In all of his years as an immortal vampire, Daring had never experienced anything quite like this before. Maybe that was because he had always been detached from the rest of the world. For the longest time it had been him, Dexter, and Darling. Then, on one rainy afternoon, he met Cerise Hood.
And everything had changed. Not drastically. His life hadn't flipped upside down, and he hadn't become a new person, but he had gained someone that he could talk to, that could understand him despite the hundreds of years separating them. He'd gained something that he hadn't had since he was a human: love.
Daring Charming had fallen in love with Cerise Hood, and now they were on opposing sides in a war that could destroy them both.
Cerise stared at the carpet in front of her with a feigned interest. It wasn't nearly as interesting as she pretended it was, but it was better than meeting Daring's eyes. Those eyes could read her so well, and they would know instantly that she was hiding something. That she knew who had killed Apple White.
"I heard," Daring broke the tenuous silence, "about your impending nuptials."
Cerise nodded. Of course he'd heard. Everyone knew by now. Her wedding to Hunter was the best thing for the pack. It would strengthen them. The power of two of the strongest werewolf packs in the nation combined would be more than enough to protect against the vampires. More than that, it would make them powerful enough to reclaim their homes, which had no doubt been taken over by vampires by now.
But hearing the words from the mouth of the man that Cerise had been in love with since she was sixteen made her ashamed that she hadn't told him herself. Daring deserved to hear it from her. He deserved to know the truth. The truth that all that she felt for Hunter was companionship. The truth that she was still in love with him.
But Cerise was a coward, and she knew that if she started telling the truth she wouldn't be able to stop.
"Yeah." Cerise swallowed. She stood up and started towards the door. "I should be getting back. They'll be worried."
"They know that you're here?" It was a question. Daring knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't risk her sister or fiancé knowing about her visit to Book End. If they'd known than they would have joined her.
Cerise nodded, adding another lie to the list of lies that she had told Daring. "Yes."
Daring caught her arm just before she made it to the door. "You're lying."
"And if I am?" Cerise asked. She met Daring's gaze with determination. She would not let him know just how much she was hiding from him. She would not let him know just how much she missed him.
"I know that you know who killed Apple," Daring said. Cerise processed the information. No matter how hard she tried, Daring knew that she was hiding something.
"Then you know that I can't tell you," Cerise said. She couldn't imagine Daring turning her over to his sister. It just wasn't something that he would do. Not to her.
"I know," Daring said. "Darling wants whoever killed Apple dead."
Cerise stared into those steel grey eyes that she had loved so much, that she still loved. "And what about you?" she asked, afraid of his answer, "What do you want?"
Daring's gaze flicked to her lips before returning to her eyes. "I want…" he trailed off. "You should go." He dropped her arm and took a step back.
"I should," Cerise agreed, but she made no move to leave. Instead, she took a step closer so that they were standing barely an inch apart.
"Cerise," Daring's voice was a warning, "We can't."
"I know," Cerise whispered quietly.
They couldn't. Maybe before the death of Apple White they would have been able to. Maybe before there was a chance that this would not end in heartbreak and misery. Not anymore. There was only one place that this road led, and it did not end well for either of them.
She should just turn around and leave. She should walk out the door and never look back. She should say her vows to a man who she didn't love and who was in love with someone else. She should do the right thing. She should do the responsible thing.
Cerise stared at Daring, standing only an inch away from her. Was this ever going to end any other way? Werewolves and vampires didn't mix. They never had. They never would.
"I…" Cerise took a deep breath and summoned her courage. "Goodbye, Daring." She took a step back, breaking the tension between them. She turned away from him so that he could not see the tears that were making their way to her eyes.
"Cerise." There was a note-a longing-in his voice that made Cerise pause with her hand on the doorknob. Cerise gathered the few nerves that she had left and turned to face him.
"Daring…" She barely had time to say his name before he grabbed her waist, melding their bodies together, and meeting her lips in a kiss. Harsh. Demanding. Desperate. Just as quickly as it had started the kiss ended. Daring took a step back, studying her with dark eyes. His intense gaze focusing solely on her.
Screw it. Cerise threw logic and reason to the wind and rushed forward, grabbing the collar of his shirt, and pressing her lips to his. Daring responded instantly, pouring every feeling that he couldn't voice into the kiss.
This was not going to end well. It was never going to end well. They would be delusional if either of them thought otherwise, and neither of them were. But for the first time in a long time Cerise slept without nightmares and that in of itself was a miracle.