Diana's POV:
Recap:
My stomach lurched at this reminder and I found myself uncurling from my ball and clinging to the side of the wagon dry heaving. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on slow breathing. I distantly heard Nala ask me if I was alright… at least I think that's what she asked. Darkness slowly swallowed me whole.
I don't know how much time passed before I regained consciousness. I felt weak and for a moment I thought I was shivering. I realized with a start that I couldn't feel temperature differences anymore so that couldn't be right. I shifted trying to sit up but my muscles felt like pudding. It took a moment for my hyper senses to slam into me once more. We were still outside… I could feel the tickle of a breeze of wind as it swept its cooling fingers over me.
"She's shaking," Lance announced his voice edged with panic. My head throbbed and I wrinkled my nose smelling an odd scorched scent. Black dots bobbed before my vision. I closed my eyes trying to let myself process everything.
"I can see that!" Nala retorted her voice sharp but worried. I felt hands on the side of my shoulders and felt a squeeze. Her grip dug into the fabric of my shirt and I felt distinctly denim? That couldn't be right… The humans at the greenhouse were dressed simply with a scrub like uniform a shade of khaki that was boring and nondescript in every sense of the word.
I closed my eyes still unable to make sense of the shapes than the colors that were slowly coming back. I counted to three then to ten before attempting to open my eyes again.
I blinked rapidly feeling myself still trembling. Was I cold? No that couldn't be it. Was I scared? I tried to not overanalyze the past few hours with my already precarious health.
I felt my stomach twist into strange knots and it suddenly clicked. I sat up faster than I should have, startling Nala, and nearly missed Lance's shoes as liquid vomit mingled with chunks of dried blood vacated my stomach. My eyes flared open from the jerking movement as my muscles squeezed together all cooperating for the task.
"Oh fates-" Lance started his voice showing his clear disgust. He shuffled several steps away waving his hands at me as if to fend me off.
Nala, ever the more nurturer of the two, held my shoulders and swept back my hair. "Breathe, sweetie. Breathe."
The smell of vomit quickly made the situation from bad to worse. The iron of the blood, the strange mustiness of it all had my head reeling. I gasped partially choking on some remaining bile and whimpered.
Lance's voice floated around me, a disembodied heckler. "...Er… you're not pregnant are you?"
My empty stomach tried to push more up my throat but it had nothing left to give. I stood teetering on my own feet for a long moment. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.
Nala swept my hair back soothingly but inquired further, "...Did Nicholas-"
I could feel their gaze on me, the skeptical gazes creeping on my skin adding another uncomfortable sensation to account for. I cut her off before she could ask the question that made my skin crawl, "He handled me but didn't bed me. I suppose he was reserving that for some other time."
I tried not to think too far back, tried not to relive all the moments of near intimacy that had been forced upon me. I could too quickly feel those cold hands caressing my bare skin, tracing the puckering scabs around bite marks. I could feel my eyelids tremble at the weight of remembrance.
Erik's voice sliced into the conversation practical and unmoved, "Sounds like something he'd do. He has a nasty habit of drawing out everything… torture included."
Giving the unwanted touches and attention the label torture felt oddly comforting. I continued shivering and Nala's strong hands squeezed my shoulder, "First hand experience?"
There was a long awkward silence as I reached up trying to use the sleeve of a jacket I hadn't had on earlier to wipe residue from the corners of my mouth. I opened my eyes, studied the material for a moment confused on where the jacket had even come from. I glanced up to the trio half ready to inquire further.
"I wasn't always blind." Erik said his voice soft but dangerous.
I felt a faint prick of regret at that revelation. Nicholie… had blinded his own brother? I wasn't naive to what NIcholie could be capable of… He threatened to break my legs before and whispered so many more sickening threats.. But blinding someone? Especially someone he was related to?
"She needs to eat." Erik said his voice coming from somewhere behind me. I straightened awkwardly pulling from Nala's comfort attempts and hugged the jacket closer to myself. The jacket was faded denim and a welcome familiar sight in these strange events. My mind flashed to memories of Washington, the soft subtle chill and the rain there.
Nala frowned looking towards him, "I don't think we have enough distance between us and the-"
Erik scoffed cutting her off, "They won't be following us anytime soon." He moved shouldering past me narrowly avoiding my puddle of vomit and gestured slightly off target towards Lance. I was more awkwardly noticed he never wore shoes. I stared at my own puddle of vomit unsure if I should attempt to clean it before realizing we were still somewhere in the desert and it was already seeping into the sand.
Lance sighed and reluctantly went to retrieve the cooler they had packed before and opened the cooler chest up again. He fished out another mostly frozen steak the blood thawing out and coloring it.
He walked over to me reluctantly offering it, he watched my face carefully searching for something. It looked so strange there in his pale hands, a sharp contrast of muted brown, red, and white.
I pursed my lips, feeling faint gratitude that my stomach didn't coil up or try once more to achieve full vacancy. I reached out with a trembling hand and felt the weight of the meat in my own hand, the slippery surface of ice melting rapidly, and the smell of faint spoilage seemed to drift off it. I could only imagine what the cold ones would say if I asked for grill to cook this on. I had always preferred medium well and now…
Everyone was watching me and I suddenly had more empathy for zoo animals.
I did my best to ignore the others and opened my mouth to take the first small bite. My teeth grazed a giant ice chunk that crusted the meat and my tongue flicked out on its own hungrily reaching for the-
Cold, an iron taste, and faintly intoxicating my tongue retreated first from the brush with the bleeding steak before attacking it with a frenzy of impatience. I felt my jaw try to pry itself further down so I could stuff the slab into my mouth. I felt something feral in me snap into place and I half-choked in my urgency to down the steak. A strange growl emanated from deep in my chest.
Lance stumbled back several steps looking alarmed. His features were too close to horrified for my comfort and I not so subtly began to gag on the steak.
Nala reached for his shoulders and pulled him back a bit more, "Careful. First feeding. Don't stare."
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The sun was starting to rise sending its bright rays into illuminating the sand at our feet. I was back in the wagon, wordlessly letting them pull me where they may. Erik sat impassively across from me. His unseeing eyes focusing on something far beyond me. Nala and Lance quietly bickered in low quick voices about the destination we were headed to.
"- I'm just saying I think you or I should tell the Volturri what is happening. They could do something about this!" Lance argued tilting his head towards Nala, his lips moving quickly but every word audible to the four of us.
"What makes you think those old cronies will leave their roost? Even if they sent out some of the guards the technology from these invaders would probably handle them…" Nala retorted giving the wagon a savage tug forward showing her irritation.
Erik mumbled something and shifted his position. He hadn't spoken since I had devoured the steak beyond ordering everyone to start moving again. I took this time to study his features as covertly as I could. The differences between Nicholie and Erik were becoming more apparent here and there. The lip shape was subtly different, Erik's nose seemed to have been broken at some point and reshaped the best he could with a subtle break at the bridge still, the cheekbones for Erik didn't swoop up as high instead more modestly, and the eyes-
"As flattering as it is for you to be paying me such attention surely there are other things plaguing you." Erik said his voice wry.
I startled unsure how he had caught my activity and felt my cheeks warm, "S-Sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"Stare? It is quite alright… I'm used to it… I can still feel the weight of people's gazes on me from time to time… especially in isolated situations such as this. In crowds it becomes much more difficult." Erik's face twitched with a smile that quickly vanished as he shifted once again his back on the cooler they hauled around.
I slowly let out a breath wondering why being awkward was quickly becoming one of my more dominant traits, "Where are we headed?"
Erik tilted his head slightly reaching out to gesture towards the desert around us, "Somewhere more out of sight. The weather here isn't exactly what I would call desirable."
I struggled to read his face.
"That was a joke…" He said his voice amused slightly although his face was more neutral.
"Ah… So somewhere out of sight-?"
"There are many locations further north where these invaders seemed to have not spread to yet. For now the plan is to go to one of our bunkers and decide what to do from there." Erik said matter of factly.
I pursed my lips looking down at my lap clasping and unclasping my fingers, "...I don't know what can be done about this problem I mean it's like Nala said… Their technology is more advanced and I don't really know what Nicholie's end goal is-"
"Yes, you do. Your information about the activity in the compound has allowed me to conclude his arrangement." Erik said with a simple shrug. "Obviously the monster has set up some type of deal with these otherworlders in getting them vampire bodies…"
I straightened up a little remembering all the vials of blood in that cooler. My stomach twisted uncomfortably at the vivid memory of the neat small vials of red blood all labeled with the various dates they were taken.
Erik gestured vaguely in my direction, "Your part in this whole operation has been puzzling to say the least. What is about your bloodline that would have a calming dare I say neutralizing effect on vampires…"
I swallowed uncomfortably, "I don't know…"
Erik sighed his frustration obvious, "Is there anything about your family that you know is unusual?"
My mind started to wander and I felt like I was trying to focus on a kaleidoscope of memories. Desert, trees, heat, cold, all the different sensations rushed and tugged on me as my mind. I bounced through my childhood memories of being in the Washington areas and then the warm states of California, Arizona, and other places I'd been bounced around.
The cart stopped with a jolt and I blinked coming back to the conversation at hand, "Nothing comes to mind…"
Erik frowned giving a slight nod, "If you think of anything..anything at all that even seemed a smidge unusual... "
I gave him a helpless shrug then quickly added, "I'll let you know.. But honestly, I can't think of anything odd… I mean fairly normal childhood before my parents split up…"
Nala piped up interrupting my train of thought, "Well don't stress yourself trying to think hard about it right now. We're taking a quick break so feel free to stretch your legs."
Lance was suspiciously rubbing his side and I realized their conversation had died down as they were listening intently to ours.
I carefully stood up in the stopped wagon and carefully climbed out. I was surprised to see greenery starting to creep at the edges of the desert-like terrain. Cactus like plants proudly reached for the sunlight as thistle like plants circled beneath them. I saw a few rare orange blooms on plants I had no name for. We must have been getting closer to civilization…
I stretched trying to ignore the stiffness my muscles felt and the numb sensation of sitting too long and having phantom limbs. Civilization… People.. Normal people going about their days of school, work, vacations… How… How on earth were these three planning on walking into town?
I glanced over to the trio and winced noticing their skin glimmering unnaturally in the broad daylight. My early life was full of stories of cold ones being terrifying, inhuman, and monsters in every sense of the word. I could feel my brows raise observing the sparkling trio comparing them to the horror stories seemed silly.
Lance was talking to Erik and Nala took a bottle out of the cooler and uncorked it downing it in a single gulp.
For monsters, these three seemed chummy but I suppose that was part of their predatory nature. There were tons of different predators in nature. Some used stealth to creep up to their intended prey, some ambushed/ ran them down, some set traps, and etc. The three cold ones before me had many things at their disposal but with their… glittery skin I failed to see how they would be ignored in town.
Lance waved in my direction calling out, "How are you feeling?"
"Stable." I said without much enthusiasm. I shook my head feeling an awful plan start formulating in my head. If there were people up ahead I could easily get away from this trio. I had already given them all the information I had… besides I wasn't "truly" a cold one in their words. But where would I go? I didn't really have a home to go back to.
I felt discouraged and it must've shown because my train of thoughts was interrupted. Nala spoke up her voice suddenly behind me startling me half to death, "I know that face."
"W-What?" I squeaked too guiltily, I self consciously tugged on the jean jacket whirling to face her.
Nala's dark brows arched, "That's a plotting face if I've ever seen one… What's on your mind , kid?"
"N-Nothing," I started then seeing her eyes and felt pressured I continued, "I mean.. Nothing much."
Nala looked me up and down and pointed to the jacket, "I think you should ditch that. If we do run across any out trekking humans they might be curious why you are wearing a jean jacket."
I raised an eyebrow glancing to my companions. Nala was in a darker orange crop top that showed off her flat stomach with tan shorts that further flaunted her long legs. Lance in contrast to Nala was dressed more for colder weather with his jeans white t-shirt and quilted black vest. Erik completed the trio with cropped jeans and a simple polo that had seen better days.
I returned my gaze to Nala, "Are you sure I'm the one that is going to stick out?"
Nala laughed seeing my traveling gaze, "Fair enough. The guys will change too if we sniff a human but since I'm not sure of your sense perimeter I figured I'd give you a heads up."
"Sense perimeter?" I echoed uncertainly shrugging out of the jacket and tossing it into the wagon. I still hadn't exactly figured out whose jacket it was.
She bobbed her head and tapped her nose cheekily smiling,"How far your senses extend in their ability to register presences." Her features were so kind it was jarring to realize she was an elevated predator of humans.
I tugged awkwardly on my uniform from the compound and looked myself over. The outfit was in every sense of the word made me look like I'd escaped a hospital ward or was guarding one and on break.
Nala pursed her lips looking me over as if sensing my hesitation, "You're not exactly my size…"
I felt my cheeks color at the comparison, Nala stood several inches over me and was lean like a gymnast while I was… well more average.
"My shirts probably won't fit you," She clicked her tongue gesturing towards my chest, "you have a bigger bust."
I crossed my arms self consciously over my bust as she pointed it out, "Y-Yeah I'm not model size like you are…"
Nala smiled reassuringly, "Oh please. Every person is different. Unfortunately in this case this might call for an emergency quick shopping trip… Cash only. Thrift store most likely. Don't want to get on any security cameras."
I blinked, "You can be seen on security cameras?"
"Hmm? Oh yes... " She circled me now like a shark taking in me critically, "the whole not showing up in mirrors thing is a big lie. So is the camera thing."
"Oh." I awkwardly rubbed the back of my head as she suddenly peered up to my face.
"Do you have any clothes you tend to stay away from?" She chirped curiously.
"Crop tops." I said coloring in my face again at how bluntly that came out.
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