Chance Encounter

Valerie couldn't wait for her cousins to leave, but because of the death threats from her mother, she put on a happy face and indulged her 10 year old cousins wish to "explore" the golf courses Val lived on.

"Val!" Angela called

"Yea?" she responded, figuring she just wanted to show her another golf ball she'd found. (They were on a golf course after all.)

"Look! Look! Look!" Sure enough, that's what it was.

"Wow! That one's expensive." Val tried to sound amazed but the annoyance in her voice came through. She doubted Angela noticed. Val checked her watch. It was almost 10 and her mom would be mad for keeping her "little niece" out so late.

"We need to start heading home."

"What?! No! I wanna explore the forest." She started running toward the small patch of trees. (Hardly anything Val would call a forest.)

"Wait! Angela stop!" Val started running after her. Now, she didn't think there was anything harmful out there, but she knew her mother would kill her if she let her cousin run free in a place she didn't know. Angela was a fast runner and even though Valerie played every sport imaginable, she had trouble keeping up. Sighing, Val slowed down, figuring she could take her sweet time to find the little brat.

"I'll just tell them the truth," she reasoned, "it's not my fault the little fucker ran off. God I hate being-" Val stopped in her tracks when she heard her cousin scream.

"Angela! Angela!" Now she was really scared. How could she explain her cousin dieing?

"Valerie! Valerie, help." Angela must have been scared to use her full name.

"Where are you?" Val answered. She stopped to listen for a response, and to make sure she had her knife in her boot, which she carried anytime it matched her outfit.

"I'm in someone's back yard I think, just hurry." Well that would be a lot easier if she knew where the little monster was. Pulling her knife out, she ran straight for a few yards, looking for a light or something to show that she was near a house. She soon saw what she was looking for. Darting towards it, she came up right behind her cousin and looking right at them both was a wolf.

..:Aubrey:..

"Joy, time to hunt down another high school party. I come for a little variety and I'm back where I started." he said to himself. Aubrey had gotten tired of hunting the bashes constantly held around New Mayhem, so he decided to travel to Charlotte. He had no idea why he chose where he did, but i didn't much matter. He was there now, standing outside a somewhat stylish house on a golf course south of downtown, where the party was.

"Hmmm… let's see what's on the menu." Aubrey then started scanning the minds of everyone at the party. He found a couple upstairs having "fun" and as humorous as it would be for the girl to suddenly get up, slap the guy and walk out, but he wasn't in the mood. He had come all this way just to do the same thing as everywhere else. He soon found a girl, no older than 17 sitting on a table in the kitchen. No one was paying her much mind.

"Yummy" Aubrey moved so he was behind a tree a few feet away from the back porch. He slowly started pulling on her mind, leading her out to him.

She was almost close enough for him to grab when, from somewhere down the golf course a girl screamed:

"Wait! Angela! Stop!" Being surprised by this outburst, he lost his control over the girls mind. She looked at him, confused for a moment and then fled back to the house. Angered about loosing his prey, he decided to go after whoever was out there.

Changing to his wolven counterpart, Aubrey moved toward the girls.

'Whoever these girls are, they are quite annoying. I'll fix that though.'

He found the younger of the 2 wondering, or running really through a wooded lot. He circled her twice, trying to pick up on the elder's mind. The youngest he could read like a book, but the older, she escaped him. He could sense her, not too far behind himself, but her mind was blocked to him.

'Interesting. A witch, but she doesn't seem to know it. And what else do we have- Vampire?!' Had he really just sensed vampire blood running in her veins? Surely not. There was no predominant vampire or witch's living within 100 miles of here. Reading the younger one's mind he found her name to be Angela and the older to be Val.

'Witch or not, I'm hungry and these two kept me from my dinner.' Aubrey came around too meet Angela in a small clearing outside someone's back porch.

'No one home, good' Upon seeing Aubrey the girl froze in fear and screamed.

Val's voice rang out from not far behind, "Angela! Angela!"

'Good, I'll take them both. This one's too little to satisfy me.'

"Valerie! Valerie help!"

'God stop screaming and get here already. I'm hungry.' he snarled at the girl, his hunger making him snappy.

"Where are you?"

"In someone's back yard I think. Just hurry!"

'Any day now, Val'

No sooner had he said this than a girl emerged behind her cousin. She had red hair with blond streaked though it. He looked her up and down now. She was wearing a short skirt with halter-top on.

'Definitely not something mommy approves of.' he laughed.

She also had on knee high black, lace up boots, and in her hand she was holding a-

'What- damn, a Vida blade. Shit, she's a Vida?'

He could feel the magic radiating off the blade.

'How would she get a Vida blade? Do they sell those at the mall now?'

He laughed to himself, imagining Dominique Vida peddling daggers to 6-year-old girls.

"Go, get behind me and when I tell you to, I want you to run back home and get help. You remember how to get back?" Val asked Angela, slowly moving in front of her cousin.

"Uh-Huh." the little one said, starting to walk back backward behind Val. She was starting to shake quite a bit.

"Ok, when I say go, run."

"Ok."

Aubrey found all this quite amusing. Little girl gunna beat the big bad wolf and save the baby?

"GO!" No sooner the words were out of her mouth than Val ran at the wolf. He started after her as well. In one leap, he was on top of her pinning her to the ground. The knife had fallen out of her hand when she hit the ground. She now lay defenseless against the wolf.

'Now I'm a little disappointed. You're a Vida no less.'

"What?" Val was really freaking out now. Had she just her a man talking to her? And what is a 'Vida'?

'I said, I'm disappointed. You make a big show to protect your cousin and now you have no weapons. Tisk-Tisk.' he laughed, snapping at her nose playfully.

O.K. Val will play along, she has no idea what is going on but she'll play. Figuring whatever is talking to her can read her mind she thought:

'Who, or what being a better question, are you to be disappointed in me? And who said I had no more weapons?'

Aubrey suddenly saw a silver blade come at him and connect with his left flank. He howled out in pain, the Vida blade imbedded in his side. Val pulled it out, ready to strike again when Aubrey decided to retaliate. Moving faster than the girl could follow the wolf bit down onto the girl's neck. Valerie screamed, unprepared for what was happening. She dropped her dagger to try and pry the wolf off her. This only caused Aubrey to dig his claws into her shoulders, one paw aligned on each of her shoulders.

'Having fun now?' the voice was taunting her. The wolf released her and stared down, baring it's teeth in anger. Before she realized it the wolf changed into a man. She barely got a good look at him before he bit down once again on her neck. She started to feel like she was falling, further and further down before the darkness consumed her.

Aubrey continued to feed, intending to kill the girl when he heard the voices of her rescuers coming toward them. "I'll just leave you here to bleed." With that he left for New Mayhem, fed but with a few lingering questions in his mind.