"I'm ready for you to explain, I'll come by the house." Alexa's heart raced at those words, on the message left on her answerphone. She had been too afraid to actually answer her mobile when Sarah's name had popped up. What made it worse was that she'd been out on a walk with Tristan.
Paul heard a light knocking on the front door because of his radar like hearing, as he'd been in Diana's workshop helping the smiling face with some rad highly radioactive experiment. He saw no recognition of the knock, only focus on the experiment, and a fair amount of concern with that, his mind fluttered to how dangerous radioactive material could be to him for a moment. But the knocking on the door was far more interesting. He opened the door to find big blue eyes staring at him in confusion, she was a very pretty and very curvy brunette probably around Lex's age, but a very girly dress. If Lex was the devil designed to kill vampires, this girl was an angel, innocence and the perfect main course to drain dry . "Di, did you order in for me? Thanks but Lex 'ill be pissed." He waved the girl in. As if he had already taken control of her mind she glided in, calmly making her way through the house, just before him in every step. She went to enter the living room, but Paul pushed her slightly towards the kitchen. The girl obeyed entering the large kitchen. He saw no reason to wait for Lex to walk in a catch him so he bushed the hair of the back of the girl's neck and leant into take a bite and drink her sweet life force.
He'd misjudged it and stumbled, because the brunette hadn't stopped! She'd waltzed right up to the kettle and then brought out two mugs from the cupboard, "Any sugar my love?" She asked in that accent they had here if they livd on a farm, devonish? Nah, devonian. Who was she? She's acting like a maid, he hadn't been asleep for all of the days that she'd come by to clean had he? "No thanks." Paul sat dumbfounded, as she made herself a tea with four sugars, and happily slid him his and sat beside him. "The name's Sarah, who are you? Where are Alex and D too?" she asked softly, unabashed innocence and openness abound. She didn't know D wasn't around anymore, who was this human, she smelt delicious, and such easy prey. The back door crashed open, he could distinctly hear the hunter charging towards the room they occupied. He didn't care, he could give into the hunger she'd stab him anyway.
Alexa ran into her worst nightmare, Sarah sitting casually sipping a mug of tea smiling warmly at her and Paul was swarming over her friend, red eyes glowing, jagged fangs hissing out of his predatory smile, his shoulders hunched and arms and claws curved in ready to grasp the girl before him, and devour her. She fired one warning shot, into his head. "Alexa!" Both Sarah and Tristan behind her called in different tones. Sarah's face had dropped, her bows knitted in anger. "Seriously?"
"What's going on, is everybody okay, have you always had a bloody gun on you?" Tristan bounded in behind her probably because of the commotion, and she nodded in the affirmative. She had a gun licence after all. And saving Sarah would always be her priority. "He was trying to eat you! Yes, yes. Paul what have you got to say for yourself?" She kicked at the vampire writhing on the floor.
"Ow, nothing." The vampire rose, clutching at the entry wound. "You put a blood bag in front of me of course I'm gonna take a bite."
"Then apologise to Sarah!"
"She didn't notice."
Sarah nodded a little sheepishly, she hadn't, but she had now realised everyone was looking a her, she pushed her mug of hot tea towards her extremely stressed out bestfriend, "I think you may need this more than I do." She also tried not to notice the bullet being forced out of her would be attackers head, and him catch it in his waiting palm.
Tristan looked at the two girls and grabbed the idiotic vampire, dragging him out of the girls space with him. "Don't you have better things to do?" He asked the insatiable blond.
"Nah."
"It's daytime at least sleep, I promise I won't draw the curtains."
"Fine, just get off me." Paul shrugged out of his grasp, overtly brushing off the areas it had touched him, making an exaggeratedly disgusted face. Succeeding in pulling out of the awkward moment, Tristan made to wonder the house, the annoying vampire called to him, "What are you doing?"
"Sniffing out a ghost, this place looks like it would be haunted. You want to join?" He offered flippantly, he'd needed some time to look for the traces of D, without his Alexa distracting him, or hiding illegally obtained objects.
"No." Paul swivelled on the spot.
"I guess I'll be scotty no mates then."
Sarah broke the silence the two gals had been sitting in."Should I be thanking you then?" She asked cuttingly. Alex just shrugged at her, she did look overwhelmed by it all smiling at her for a moment then, oh she looked so sad, her face wobbled and wobbled between emotions. Poor thing Ed had followed her lead so nobody had been talking to Alex for months at school. "Fine, why don't we start with the facts. 'Ow may times have I been about to be attacked?" She tapped her chest, feeling she was probably a bit to blame. "And you've saved me?"
"A few." Alex sounded like she was trying to protect her even now…
"In numbers, Alex. In numbers?"
"13." She finally admitted. Sarah gasps in shock, but she wasn't at the bottom of it yet. "Including the guy at the park and your… 'oever that guy was?"
"Yes including them. Paul, I think of him as a… lodger." That got her making a single expression for 30 seconds, she even kissed her teeth. Haha.
"Oh thank you Alex! I didn't realise I was such a pain!" She leaped to hug the seated girl, her best friend, her secret saviour. Alex hugged her back, if you could ever get her to hug you you'd know she gave the best hugs. "You don't have to thank me, it's my job, I was just so thankful to be there each and every time. And, to be honest you seem like a sort of magnet." She teased slightly. Sarah wasn't angry anymore, Alex had done her time, it was probably a bit overkill really, ignoring her totally like that, but she'd needed space, and she was here now. A fresh start for both of them. Sarah pulled away, "OMG, if one of them tried before I had met you?"
"Yeah, thankfully most go for the post-pubescent. There was that one that tried to lead you off into the woods just after we first met."
"The flasher?" Her eyes went wide, remembering the tall old stranger in a massive puffer jacket, leering at her, he had 100% made her skin crawl, like nobody else since. "Yeah, he liked that you looked young, he was even super creepy with me when I staked him." Alex mocked chucking up, for someone so beautiful she couldn't half make a grim face. "Ewww creepy." She was so happy Alex had finally opened up and talked to her about this stuff after so long. They chatted for a while, Sarah caught her up on how she'd handled revision, the exams, the gossip of prom, how Ed had tried to kiss her and she'd been too drunk to notice and started making out with Mac, "Of all people!" She cooed about her family, how her baby cousin was getting big, "Imagine if you had to pop one out?" Alex laughed along. "So where's D too, he's not popped up to join us?"
"My father?" Alex gulped, and her eyes drooped. "He disappeared."
"What?" Sarah's eyes welled up as she asked her 'best' friend, she hadn't told her, she hadn't been there for her to tell. "What happened?" Her voice hitched in concern. "He went out to buy a few things. And never came back. He left a message with a niece I'd never seen before. She's here you'll meet her later. The really hot guy from earlier is trying to help me find him."
"I was going to ask about him. But D had a niece? Do you have other family out there, I don't mean your birth family but, think he's gone to stay with them?"
"I was being hunted at the time so I'm so worried that he was hurt, but he's always told me to wait for him to come back, don't leave. And there's no trail, his sent loops back, I just can't work it out. Oh I'm a werewolf too."
"That explains you not wearing that perfume I got you last Christmas."
"That's your take away from that?"
"If vampires exist so do werewolves, duh. And you've always been like gifted, didn't you not taste the exact year of the cheese at that cheese competition, at cheese rolling up Drunkards' Hill?"
"Gosh, I didn't think of it that way. It's like my world has gone completely crazy… I think I even have a boyfriend."
"Tell me everything! And if I can help finding D I will do anything, think he found himself a boy to chase after too?"
"That's best case scenario, it would be amazing if her just sauntered back in the door with a husband in tow, I'd forgive everything."
Tristan had searched everywhere around the large farmhouse and the small village, but bizarrely couldn't get so much as a sent in the right direction, people didn't disappear like that, they leave a trail.