Another Name Whispered

Chapter 1

The feeling of Lavi's satin lips against the bare flesh of her skin was intoxicating; a shot of adrenaline provoked through her body. His slim fingers, gentle to the touch, grazed through her ebony hair, each silky strand shimmering with the reflective shine of the scarce and dim light. A hot breath from between his promising lips escaped to her ear as she felt him press his bare, muscular body against her slim frame. "Miranda…"he whispered in his angelic, velvety voice… "Miranda!" Came a voice again, but this time a very different one. "Get up!" sounded the growingly agitated voice from the other side of the wooden door. The shrill urgency had thrown Miranda out of a pleasurable, but strange sleep. Her milky white hand crawled from beneath the warmth of the covers and probed the back of her neck. There, she had found the cool sweat that had made the bed linens cling to her pasty skin. Once fully awake, a much fatigued Miranda sat up in bed. The blanket folded over, submitting to gravity as her drowsy onyx hues fixated out the thick glass panels of the window on the opposite wall. With a poignant sigh, her slim fingers fitted themselves around the corner of the microfiber comforter and dragged it off of her lanky body. With a swing, her legs draped over the bedside, and her palms rested securely on the bed linens as her eyes focused on the bedside table. It was littered with her time disk, an outdated newspaper, a bedside clock, her keys, and all kinds of crap that she didn't bother to put away. Running her fingers through her silky slate hair, the young woman got up and walked over to her bedroom window to look over the street below. It was seven in the morning and Paris was busier than ever. Her white silk tank top and shorts accented her long legs and smooth skin. Though she was 5'9"* her legs were still long for her body proportions. Miranda padded delicately over to the bedroom mirror, catching a quick glimpse of herself, and then proceeded to the dresser where she removed her clean uniform for the day's wear.

Outfitted in her sleek, glossy Exorcists uniform, Miranda Lotto caught another glimpse of herself in the mirror. She didn't look that terrible today, and in fact, her inky tresses that so delicately wove curls around the edge of her face looked especially lustrous today and her face looked like a little stress had been relieved along with an added refreshing touch. The confident booster lifted a lot of her chronic depression and put a small, but alluring and radiant smile on her face that touched her livid eyes. Side-stepping the mirror, Miranda proceeded to glide out the door without another thought clouding her mind. Descending down the creaking wooden staircase, presumably hundreds of years old, she swooped down with a gleeful step to the kitchen of the Parisian inn.

The tapping noise made by the young German exorcist drumming her fingers on the counter top was a sign that she obviously wasn't too patient this morning to wait for her tea to come to a boil. The other exorcists sat about a meter and a half from her, nestled in their chairs at a small round table, thoroughly enjoying their breakfasts. Allen, of course, had poor Cécile, the innkeeper, cooking her fair share of a grocery store to keep up with his metabolism. One person, in particular, was missing. And this person had come to her attention under the circumstances of the dream that she had that she was not able to stop thinking about. In the middle of her train of though, he entered, moving smoothly through the crowd with a blissful smile poised on his lips. For a moment, he glanced at Miranda, who in turn gave him a coy smile as her cheeks flushed a soft cerise. Smiling back, Lavi regarded her for another moment, and she could see that behind his beryl eyes he seemed to be pondering something. This moment was short lived, however, as his attention became diverted to Lenalee, his eyes following over to her. Miranda had thought that maybe he was thinking about how nice she looked today, but all confidence she had had became demolished as she saw the way he stared at Lenalee… Who was she kidding? She couldn't compare with Lenalee and her short little dress that made her look like a beautiful Asian doll. With a downward glance, Miranda seemed to dive back down into her internal depression, but it lifted a bit as she raised her eyes to watch Lavi eating and laughing with the others. Finally, the tea kettle whistled and she took it quickly off the stove, but only was able to move it a little ways because her fingers suddenly felt an arising discomfort, which registered as pain. With a sudden gasp, she let the kettle drop onto the counter. It was only a little ways, so the kettle plopped down right-side-up, a little water splashing from the spout. With a horrified expression, Miranda looked at her reddening fingers.... Maybe she'd had the heat too far up in her impatience and was otherwise distracted with Lavi, for this had never happened before. She went to rinse her fingers off under the cool running water in the sink, and with it, washed away her glum thoughts. It felt good....

Her boots skidded across the cold hard-wood floor, leaving a hollow sound behind her. Her burned hand gingerly held a cup of mango tea as she went back into the bedroom to get ready to leave. She left the cup on her dresser top as she walked over to the bedside table. She caught another quick glimpse out the windows. Miranda did a double take. The run-down apartment across the street had taken on a new resident... Or at least as much as she could tell. The exorcists had been on this mission in Paris for two weeks now, and were staying in a decent part of town, not run down or dirty, but the ragged apartment across the street had always been to her distaste, for it seemed a creepy place to be. There was a flash of movement behind the dirty window, followed by something that splattered onto the glass from the inside. She cringed. A little while later, a good looking man emerged, a cigarette poised between his lips that was filtering cloudy smoke into the air. She thought he might be another homeless man: trouble... But this man seemed to carry another aura about him. She'd never seen him before. Walking over she opened one of the windows with its wavy handle. A gust of prickling bitter breeze greeted her. She gasped a bit, before leaning out and looking down at him, wondering what had just taken place in that building…

Hey! This is my first Fanfic, so please!!! Review and tell me what you think! I would love some constructive criticism to help me improve my stories  So, go for it!!!

* I also had to guesstimate at Miranda's height, because I couldn't make a positive identification, so yeah… 