The rest of the day was spent in relative silence as they drove on through the snow. Creed seemed fine with the long quiet between them, content, it seemed, with just the radio. He had grunted in annoyance when they'd lost the radio station they'd been listening to an hour after lunch, but he'd found another quickly enough. It was still rock music but more like the stuff that her parents had tapes and records of at home.
He was relaxed in the driver's seat, still driving with only one hand gripping the steering wheel.
Kitty wanted to speak. Suddenly so many questions bubbled up in her mind, mostly about Logan and their little 'trip' to save/find him. Creed had told her to leave it be.
She wasn't very good at following orders, though. Scott often complained that she spent too much time around Logan and that his bad habits were rubbing off on her.
On the other hand, Kitty liked being in one piece and asking about Logan was a good way to piss Creed off. A pissed off Creed was a dangerous Creed, and she hadn't needed to spend twenty-four hours with him to figure that one out.
Besides, Kitty thought watching Creed out of the corner her eye, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to some of her questions.
She wanted to ask him other things as well, things not about Logan. Things like -- how old is the truck, how old are you, how many wars have you been in, if it had been Marie or Remy at the cabin would you have convinced them to go with you -- but every time she got it in her head to say something he'd caught her looking and grin at her. Slow and sure, as if he were a telepath and heard her thinking something she shouldn't. And every time her face would heat and she quickly looked out the window.
She shifted in her seat, and chewed on the side of her thumb. There had been no real snowfall to slow them down, though the wind still whistled past the windows. They hadn't passed a town in a while, and with her iPod dead and her tongue tying itself in knots whenever she tried to speak to Creed, Kitty entertained herself mostly by watching the trees and snow covered ground go by. She tried to keep herself alert by distinguish different viable landmarks, things that made this stretch of road different from the next; trying to remember everything Logan had taught her about awareness of her surroundings.
Kitty sighed softly, closing her eyes against the blur of the passing scenery, all white, green and brown. She couldn't tell a damn thing; it all looked the same to her. Trees, snow, and the occasionally far off smoke from a cabin. There was a reason god created GPS, Warren liked to joke and Kitty sometimes agreed with him. She opened her eyes again to stare out at the trees rushing by, the twilight slowly closing in as the sun set. It seemed earlier than it should have been, and each hour they drove, the sky seemed to grow exponentially darker. She couldn't imagine living somewhere where it was so dark for so long.
Had anyone at the mansion started to worry about her? Probably not -- she'd only been gone roughly two days now. Remy might get antsy not hearing from her, but he'd been a bit worried about Logan as well. Logan and Remy - Kitty wondered about them every now and then, as much as she ever wondered about Logan's love life because, iew/i it was like imagining her parents having sex and she'd really rather not think about it. 'Side, Remy was dating Marie.
Kitty shifted against in her seat and tucked her legs up under her. Turning her head she watched the sky turn pink and red, and the sun sink low through the driver's side window. All the snow made it seemed brighter, almost like the sky was on fire. It was beautiful, so beautiful that it almost made up for the fact that it was three 'o clock in the afternoon.
Creed acted as if he didn't notice, but maybe it took more than that to impress him. Surely he'd seen the Northern Lights at some point and thousands of sunsets that put this one to shame.
Or maybe he seen too many to find beauty in any of them. Kitty bit her bottom lip, watching him more than the sky now. He didn't look dangerous like this. He looked like a handsome, fairly content man, who enjoyed driving his truck and enjoyed listening to music. Sure, there was an edge there lurking just under the surface - just Piotr, it had been what she liked about Piotr - it just made him seem more appealing.
Which made Creed even more dangerous.
Kitty had the sudden urge to run, just to see if he'd chase her, just to see if she'd let herself be caught. Her lips parted slightly, muscles coiling like her body was preparing for her to throw herself out of the moving vehicle. A jolt of adrenaline ran up her spin before she shoved the thought away.
"Are we going to drive all night?" she asked finally, because he had to have noticed her looking at him. He hadn't said anything, though, hadn't looked at her.
His nostrils flared slightly as he turned his head towards her. His eyes were dark, lips slightly curved, and when he looked at her and the shudder that ran through her she couldn't blame the cold. "That was the plan, kitten," he said, voice low, not quite threatening, but definitely predatory.
Kitty refused to drop her gaze, but her fingers curled around the sleeves of her coat. The coat he'd bought her. "I have a name you know."
Creed chuckled. "Be odd if you didn't."
"You could use it," she pointed out testily, getting tired of his mocking.
His smiled turned almost wicked. "Do you want me to call you Katherine or maybe Katya?"
Heat rushed to her face again, but she refused to back down and look away first. "Kitty would be fine," she said in a somewhat even voice.
"Only if you call me Victor," he reasoned.
Kitty narrowed her eyes. "Fine, iVictor/i. I can take a turn driving, if we're going all night."
Creed suddenly looked back to the road. "Can you even drive stick?" he asked sounding a little curious but mostly dubious.
"I learned to drive on a stick shift," she said with a shrug. She silently dared him to even try to make a dirty joke out of that.
"Will miracles never cease," he muttered. "Nice offer, but no one drives my truck but me. And I'm betting your night vision is shit."
Kitty nearly growled in frustration. Here she was, trying to be nice, and he still insulted her. Crossing her arms over her chest, she let her annoyance show in her face. "Well not all of us are part animal," she snapped.
Instead of a returning jab or sarcastic remark, his expression went cold. The relaxed, teasing smile vanished. Regret at her hasty words welled up and choked her, but why should she care if she hurt him? Not like he was trying to be nice --
She turned her head towards the passenger side window, watching the trees vanish into the closing darkness.
Kitty wasn't sure what jolted her awake, just that she woke. Woke to darkness and cold. For several disorienting seconds, she didn't know where she was, until her eyes focused. The moon provided some light as it shined against the snow, enough for her to know that she was in the truck still. There was a blanket tucked around her, but the truck was off.
The cold air and the ghost of her breath told her the truck had been off long enough for the heat to leave but that didn't tell her anything about how long. Where was Creed?
Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, speeding up, despite her trying to stay calm. Clumsily, Kitty tugged on her gloves. Maybe he was just off heeding nature's call. He'd be back in moments.
But then why cover her with a blanket? Why leave her asleep at all?
"Just calm down, Kitty," she told herself. The sound of her own voice gave her no comfort.
Creed would be back, she told herself. He wouldn't just abandon his truck, at the very least. She would just turn it on, let it the heat her up a little. She reached over for the keys to turn the truck on, he could just bitch at her -
There were no keys.
In a moment of panic, she looked on the floor, above the visor, in the glove box. Nothing. The keys were nowhere in the car.
For a long several minutes she sat there in the cold, half expecting zombies or a hockey masked man with a chainsaw to appear. "Okay, I'm losing it," she finally laughed, shaking her head.
Logically, she knew, she should stay in the truck. Kitty was never really one for doing what was logical.
She climbed out of the truck, then pulled her hood up. The more her eyes adjusted the more that she could see that it wasn't really that dark with the moon and the snow. The truck was pulled off the main road onto a side road - maybe the way to someone's cabin or one of those old logging roads. He hadn't driven them too far into the wild, though. She could still see the main road.
How long ago had they passed the last town? Could she find her way back there if need be? Or should she follow this road in hopes of finding a cabin?
She walked around the truck carefully looking for any signs of a fight - she hoped that she would have woken for ithat/i but it didn't hurt to check. The only footprints in the snow expect for hers were large boots - which she suspected were Creed's going off down the side road they were pulled onto.
Somewhere in the distance she heard something growl.
"Creed?" she called with her heart in her throat. The hair on the back of her neck prickled and she fought down the sudden urge to run. She could phase. She knew how to protect herself.
Her breath rose like mist in the cold air. Something moved just out of sight in the trees. "Come on, this isn't funny," she said loudly. "I'm sorry, okay? For what I said, just, stop, okay?"
There was no answer but she swore she heard another growl, this time closer.
"Victor? Please." The words came out more panicked them she'd meant them too, her voice catching in her throat. The awareness that she had no idea where she was sunk like a stone in the pit of her stomach. She had no idea how far civilization was, the truck was useless to her, she'd freeze to death just as quickly inside it as out, she - oh god she was so fucked.
With no other options she could see, Kitty started following the tracks Creed had left. It seemed odd that he'd leave such a clear path, and her stomach twisted with fear. He wouldn't just lure her out away from the road and kill her. Would he?
Kitty tried to step where he had to hide her own tracks. She tried to focus on something other than her fear and pounding heart.
Everything she knew about Victor Creed before this told her that, yes, yes he would toy with her like this. But after the past two days - he'd been somewhat nice to her; he'd bought her a coat. Nothing about him added up, and now was a really bad time to figure that out.
She heard the growl again. Closer, off to her right.
Kitty stopped and looked, trying to pick out anything but trees. There were two shapes moving out of the trees, and the sound of a soft growl again. Kitty started to phase just before she realized what she was seeing.
Baby bears. Two baby black bears. They sat down a little distance from her at the bottom of the embankment on that side of the road, looking curious at this new thing in their path. "What are you two doing out this late in the year, I thought all good little bears were sleeping by this point," she told the bears with a laugh.
One of the baby bears whined, and there was an answering sound behind Kitty.
Oh shit.
Baby bears.
Baby bears.
And where there were baby bears - Kitty slowly turned towards the sound.
What had to be the mother bear stood only few feet behind Kitty. She was between a mother bear and its babies.
Very slowly Kitty stepped to the side, trying to move herself out of that direct line. It seemed to work, the mother bear simply watched her. Kitty kept her eyes on the bear and kept moving inch by tiny inch.
She started to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking she was out of danger, when her foot slipped out from under her as she stepped down wrong. Kitty tumbled down the embankment, with a startled involuntary cry. The loud growl, an angry, threatening sound, from the bear made her heart lurch as much as the fall. Her back hit a tree with a dull thud, shaking snow from its branches down on her head. She hadn't even caught her breath when she saw the mother bear bearing down on her.
Kitty phased through the tree just in time to avoid being struck. It didn't protect her long as the bear reared around the tree sounding even angrier for Kitty having slipped away. She phased again to avoid the mother bear's claws and took off running. "Victor!" she yelled, knowing it was futile.
She phased through trees, hoping to lose the bear. She yelled for him again.
Above her thundering heart, and the instinct that years in the danger room had given her, was the niggling thought that this was wrong. It was too late in the year for Black bears to be out. Black bears, even mothers, didn't attack like this; it should have given up on chasing Kitty a while ago. Everything Logan had taught her about bears since the first time she'd gone up to Canada rushed through her head.
Her face was wet, and she was sobbing more than breathing, and it was stupid, so damn stupid. She'd been chased by the Juggernaut; she'd taken down the Juggernaut. Why didn't she phase the bear through the tree? Why was she so damn scared?
She phased through another large tree, and thought she might have lost the bear this time, when her foot caught a root buried under the snow. Landing hard on her knee, Kitty jerked her head back to check for the bear, and realized she had seconds to phase or --
Victor was suddenly between her and the bear, before she could finish the thought or take a breath. He was crouched low, ready to attack, his claws out. His growl sounded as loud as the bear.
"Don't kill her!" Kitty told him. "She's got cubs, there's something wrong -"
Both Victor and the bear attacked, and Kitty jerked her head away not wanting to see the fight. She looked back at the sound of something in pain, and found the snow red with blood. Victor stood, blood dripping from his claws. The mother bear had stumbled away, obviously in pain, but alive.
The bear started to move forward again, but Victor growled low in his throat, sending a shiver up Kitty's spine. Slowly the bear backed away and disappeared into the forest.
He hadn't killed the bear. She'd told him not too and he'd listened.
Only then did Victor turn to look at her. There was claw marks across his face, bloody but already fading. Kitty felt like she couldn't move, pinned by his volatile gaze. He didn't speak, just looked at her, claws still extended, chest heaving as if he was still fighting.
Kitty slowly, carefully climbed to her feet. Her ankle felt bruised but she could stand on it. "Victor?"
He closed his eyes at the sound of her voice.
She crossed the short distance of snow, and after only a moment's hesitation wrapped her arm around him. Pressing her face to his chest, she just stood there trying to stop trembling. After the space of several dozen heart beats, his hand came up and tangled in her hair.
His fingers were warm, for reasons she didn't want to think about, and his claws scrapped slightly against her scalp as they retracted. Victor's head lowered over hers and when he spoke his voice was rough and low. "Next time, I won't save you."
Kitty nodded against his chest, closed her eyes, and felt safe.