SANCTUARY
A huge thank-you to those who've read the first chapter. Enjoy this second installment, and know that the third chapter will soon follow.
Somewhere across the city, she knew that her so-called family were looking for her. The hunt had begun, and she was la prix grand. After all, she was different from everyone else around her. Not even the kids at her school-new or old- had wanted to be her friends or hang out.
Ducking behind a hedge surrounded by a wrought iron gate of a Victorian-style building in the French Quarter of New Orleans she considered her options. There was nowhere that she could go that her 'family' couldn't find her. Tucking a strand of her waist-length, blue-streaked auburn hair behind her left ear, she twisted her head to read the street sign above her head.
"Bourbon Street," she said quietly. "Huh, I guess the locals like their parties."
She mused over the fact that one of the people on the street just one block over had yelled in old French and reveled in the fact that she could understand every word. Yet, it was no surprise to her. No matter what language was being spoken around her, she adapted so quickly that within minutes she was able to fluently speak it.
She pulled out her laptop from her shoulder bag and flicked it on. Carefully wording her situation, she placed another post on the website she'd found by complete accident not four days before. At first glance, she thought that it was just some locally created, run-of-the-mill gamer site. That was until she was walking down the street on her way home from school and overheard a very interesting conversation between three guys that looked to be in their early twenty's. Her mind flashed back to that fateful day. The day that she figured out that the the things of nightmares might actually be real and she might not really be alone.
The street was busy for three thirty in the afternoon as she kicked a small stone down the sidewalk. It skipped about fifteen feet, coming to a stop on the cusp of a jagged crack in the gray-black cement. Keith, one of her six older brothers, had once again forgotten to pick her up from school. She grimaced at the thought that he could be so forgetful.
Just then, something bright and flashy caught her eye. She turned and felt her jaw drop open in shock. There stood three of the hottest guys she'd ever seen and judging from the way that they were standing, they were sharing some secret only they were privy to.
Or so they thought.
Even though she was a good ten feet from the three men, she could hear their conversation as clearly as if she were right there with them. Knowing that she should move on, she remained rooted to the spot as one of the guys who was wearing a brightly colored button down T-shirt with Hawaiian print said the one word that made eavesdropping well worth the time. Dark-Hunters.
The guy to the left of the Hawaii reject scoffed lightly. "Yeah, I know, Ollie. They want us to look into it anyway and report back at sundown." He ran a hand through thick black curls and gave an agitated sigh. The third wore a jacket with the words Tulane University emblazoned of the front and back.
"Look, Eric, I still don't see the point of getting all worked up over this so-called 'disruption' on the site. Whoever it was probably won't ever realize what they stumbled on anyway." Remarked Hawaii.
Tulane U. regarded both with a look of disinterest. "Guys, even if they did figure it out, our Hunter's can more than likely use their weird Jedi mind tricks and wipe that person's mind clean."
"Mark's right. It ain't like they're not powerful enough to do it." Said Hawaii as he laughed lightly. "Eric, you know that's true."
Jedi mind tricks? Hunters? Holy Hell. She thought. Cautiously, she moved to continue down the sidewalk toward home, but just as her luck would have it, one of the men had caught sight of her staring at them.
"Hey, who's the chika?" She'd determined that the guy who'd spoken was the Hawaii reject named Ollie. He was now looking straight at her and so were the others.
The dark-haired Eric raised a brow at the girl and smirked. "Hey, cutie, whatcha need?"
Finding her courage, she exhaled a small laugh. "No, I was just on my way home from school when that walking atrocity caught my eye."
Taking heart that the others actually laughed, she decided to take the friendly insult a step further. "By the way, Hawaii Five-O called McGarrett wants his shirt back." The comment was well worth the reaction by the guy named Ollie when she watched his jaw drop comically.
Yeah, that memory made her laugh every time. She loaded the website and left another blog on the main page. She closed her eyes, sleep exhaustion threatening to overcome the last of her adrenalin rush from two days ago. Something moved in the shadows of the alleyway, knocking over what sounded like a trash can, the cover rolling noisily along the asphalt. The adrenalin returned with a vengeance as she pressed her back to the fence while hastily shoving her laptop into her bag and digging her Blackberry out of her back pocket of her jeans. There were three messages from Felix and two from Andre – the threats were very darkly put and she knew that they were nicknamed the Terror Twins for a reason.
Somewhere in the darkness, a cat yowled as it searched for food, reminding her of the same hunger that ate at her empty stomach.
She closed her eyes as she quietly contemplated what to do with the device in her hands. If they had any common sense, it would be so easy to track her down using the Blackberry's GPS system. Thankfully, she was smart enough to turn the app off. The other problem she faced right then was that if they could turn into animals, wouldn't they be able to track her scent?
A guttural growl from a few streets over made her blood run cold. The phone in her hands buzzed silently as another message came through. She glanced at the screen, reading each word that Zephyr had sent carefully, wishing that she was mistaken about the meaning behind them:
*Time to die.*
They had found her after all.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she stood in the shadow's and threw the phone at the far wall of the alley. Her lips lifted slightly in a satisfied smirk when the object shattered against the concrete wall, the pieces falling to the ground as she shrugged on the shoulder bag and ran off into the night.
The sign read Sanctuary. Judging by the line up of bikes and the not-so-friendly looking crowd that was gathered outside the doors, it was a popular hangout for many of New Orleans' less-than-savory people.
To her, it was the perfect place to hide in plain sight.
She stilled her breathing and walked up to the door where a tall, blond but very intimidating man stood guard. His blue gaze scanned the people both in and outside of the pub and eatery while joking with another that looked just like him except for the lack of the tattoo on the first man's bicep.
Her eyes widened, shocked for the first time that night by the appearance of the double bow-and-arrow tat that the bouncer sported on his arm. To her, that mark meant safety. Without thinking twice about it, she walked through the crowd and stopped not three feet from the door. Summoning her courage, she spoke in hushed tones to the two men.
"Excusez-moi, puis-je entrer?" Stunned into silence by the little dark haired girl that stood before them, Remi and Dev stared at her as she spoke in perfect French to them. Remi was the first to regain his voice as he took in the girls appearance.
She had a pair of black jeans that were smudged with dirt and wore a dark red T-shirt advertising ACDC's Back In Black album under an open black leather jacket that stopped just above her knees. There was obvious fear in her dark, midnight blue eyes as she toyed with a black and silver cross that hung around her neck on a black-beaded silver chain.
Damn, she'd give Acheron a run for his money in the Goth department. Remi thought idly. "Pourquoi, chère?"
The girl scoffed lightly, "Je regarde à manger un morceau à manger, si vous le permettez?"
The two men laughed softly.
"We speak English, petite." Dev said gently as he, too, gave her a once over. "And we know a lie when we hear one."
"Please, I need help." The girl said in her soft voice. "I don't mean to bring trouble, but someone's trying to kill me and I need a place to both hide in and grab something to eat. I won't stay long, I promise."
Dev looked at his brother and sighed. "I'll take the girl in to Aimee and have Cherif whip her up something to eat," he said steadily. "Man the door, Remi."
"Yeah, yeah; don't get lost and forget me out here, Dev."
The girl followed Dev into the building, gratefully accepting the access that they granted her. "Thank you so much, Dev. I swear I won't stay longer than I have to in your den."
The words were out before she could stop them. Dev turned, malice in his light blue eyes as one of his golden curls fell loose from the band that held his hair. He grabbed her arm roughly and guided her to a booth in an empty, shadowed area of the bar. Shoving her lightly into the seat, he glared darkly.
Clinching her jaw, she felt her defenses go up. Inwardly, she grimaced because now her attitude took the place of her friendliness. "Wow, are all bears as irritable as you, Sugar-puff, or do you suffer from perpetual PMS?"
"Who told you about us?" He glared down at her as she laced her fingers together under her chin and looked at him square in the eye with an innocent smile.
"Do you have Wi-Fi here? I need to check a website to see if anyone's gunna help save me from a fate worse than death."
"Answer me, girl." Dev watched as she grinned up at him. A spark of something unknown flashed in her eyes and he knew at that moment that she was not an ordinary human. He took a step back, fishing out a cell phone while she pulled out her laptop and opened the Dark-Hunter website.
There was a message waiting under her last posted blog from someone named Ash asking for her location and how to contact her.
She looked up at Dev and grinned darkly. "Is there an actual number that you have for that phone or is it just for looks?"
Dev regarded her with contempt before handing her the cell phone and telling her the number. Two minutes later, the ring-tone that he'd set for Acheron blasted from the device and she picked it up with a polite "hello". As the person on the other end spoke to her, her demeanor changed from brazen to defeated, showing Dev that she was reacting to him under the guard of a defense mechanism.
He watched as she took a deep, shaky breath. "I'm scared. Can you really help me?"
For those who don't know French these are the translations:
Excusez-moi, puis-je entrer? means: Excuse me, may i go inside?
pourquoi? means: Why?
Je regarde à manger un morceau à manger, si vous le permettez? means: I'm just looking to grab a bite to eat, if that's okay?
