BTW, some of you complained about the last couple of chapters not being centered on interaction between Sophia and Luke. There IS a reason for that. I'm laying the ground-works for this entire series in the first six chapters, and from them on out, it's gonna be all L/S… But these chapters have to be written first… So just go with it and cut me some slack.
Also, some of you were confused as to why Ruby jumped John the way she did in the last chapter, rather than just walk up to him calmly… Hopefully you'll understand why she did that after reading this chapter…
And as far as the Virtual Series is concerned, my muse and I are having a little spat at the moment. Although I know what I'm gonna be doing in this season, and my brain is incredibly full of ideas, I've been having an incredibly hard time getting it underway. I think its partly due to the fact that when I started the first season continuation, I never had any intention of it getting as big as it did, and when I look at what I created there, with a nearly 200,000 word epic… it's a little intimidating. I think I'm actually psyching myself out a bit… But I also think it is actually starting to finally come together now, regardless of that. My hope is to begin working on the premiere soon, and who knows… I might even be able to get it out in time to greet the New Year… Keep your fingers crossed! Also, stay tuned into my message board (you can find the link in my bio) I'll be updating there soon on the preparations for the Virtual Second Season as they get underway…
Thanks go to my betas, Lady Lioness, Nightwriter2, and Sousa… Surya and Ashione, I never heard back from you on this chapter, so I hope everything is alright with both of you… All my love!
~*~
Chapter Four
Vivian stood in her office, silhouetted by the darkness that swept over the interior, and illuminated by only the one candle sitting on her desk.
She gazed out into the night through one of the large windows. Her fingers absently caressing the length of one of the dark panels of cloth that hugged its sides. She knew without looking in a mirror that her eyes were reflectively glinting inhumanly because of the heavy shadows, but she tended to prefer it that way.
Put aside of the foolish politics, and the useless greed and power struggles, and you were left with a species that was close to forgetting what it meant to disappear within themselves and glory in being what they had been born as. In how powerful their bodies were, and how advanced their senses could be.
As her Pack continued on with the charade of human normalcy, they were starting to forget along the way what it meant to be a shapeshifter. A Skinwalker. A wolf. They forgot what was truly important, even critical, to their survival. They were losing their own sense of themselves.
Vivian liked to remind herself of who and what she was every chance she got. It kept her from becoming just as misguided as some of the rest had. And if that meant standing in a room that was almost completely dark with nothing but the flickering low-burning candle to break through it, then so be it. She could still see everything within the room as if it were the brightest of days. None of them needed artificial light. It was just that human stigma that made them use them. All part of appearing just as normal as the rest of the world's population. All part of the ever-continuing charade.
Silence stretched. Broken only by the ticking of the massive grandfather clock sitting in the corner. She continued to star out into the night and into the blackness of the forest that came practically right up to her front door. Not even bothering to turn around and face the tense, dark haired man standing in the middle of the floor behind her.
He had every right to be tense… because she had every right to rip his throat out.
"I take it by your silence, that your hunt didn't go as according to plan, Gary." her lips curved up at the edges as her voice nearly purred over the sentence. Knowing without looking that her bodyguard had flinched as if she had rained obscenities down upon his head.
But then, he knew what rested underneath that deceptive voice. The fact that she could practically taste his fear was prove enough of that.
"You woke me up in the middle of the night with your call to inform me that you had found Ruby, and were at that moment hunting her down. Preparing to pick her up. You wanted to know if you should go ahead and simply kill her, and I told you to bring her here to me instead. So would you mind telling me what happened to change all of that?"
He cleared his throat nervously. "She knew she was being followed. She switched directions quickly and headed into town."
Vivian laughed, and the sound was anything but pleasant. She finally turned to face him, and her eyes sparked in the firelight. This time she didn't have to sense him flinch. She saw it. She slowly began to walk towards him.
"Of course she knew you were following her, Gary. She has abilities that no other female within the Clan carries. She knows everything that is happening around her. The only reason why Tyler was able to catch her in Seattle was because she had been gone long enough from the soil of this place that her powers were slowly beginning to fade away. But now that she has been back for nearly nine months, they have even more slowly begun to return. The more time she spends in her true form, the faster it all comes back."
Vivian stopped only a couple of feet away from Gary. Looking up into his face with a benign curiosity. Almost as if he was some odd bug under a microscope rather than a member of her Pack.
"Nevertheless, you lost her. You made a promise you couldn't keep. You know what the penalty can be for your failure if I so desired."
The skin along his body shuddered, and Gary closed his eyes. Sliding to the hard floor beneath them both. Landing soundlessly on his knees. It should have looked clumsy, but it wasn't. He moved with muscles in places that no mere human possessed. And nothing about that was awkward or ungraceful.
He tilted his head back. Offering her his throat. And his life.
Vivian stepped closer. Testing his resolve. This time he didn't flinch, and his hands remained loose at his sides. Accepting of whatever fate she might choose for him.
She reached out to stroke the line of his jaw with the tip of her fingers, and she saw a muscle jump reflexively in his throat.
"What I want Gary, is to know why it is that you lost her. I sense that there is more to your story then you have so far told me. So… spit it out. What else happened in the woods tonight?"
He swallowed. Vivian watched the motion of his Adam's apple flex, and then her eyes strayed back to the pulse beating so furiously just underneath the skin of his throat. The cord of his jugular visible.
"Y-you won't like what I have to say."
Vivian pressed her nails hard into his chin. Threatening to cut skin. Her tone darkened with sarcasm and anger. "I don't much like what you've said so far, but I'll try not to hold your weaknesses against you at the moment. Tell me where my stepdaughter is. I'm sure that you know at least that much."
He nodded quickly. Eyes still closed. "She went to Kanin."
Vivian became still. Even her breath came to a halt.
"What?"
I saw them… together. She knew I was there, watching them. But I was still a ways off. By the time I had gotten to where they had been, they were already gone… and their scent trail was cold. I-I don't understand what happened, I swear to you that I don't. One minute they were there, and the next… it was like they had disappeared into thin air. I swear I – "
"Shut up." Vivian ordered. Tone now as hard as ice and just as cold. Gary wisely fell silent, and she felt a tremor run just underneath his skin. It was then that she realized she had inadvertently dropped her hand down to the strong column of his throat, and her fingers were constricting. Threatening to crush his windpipe.
And she should kill him. He had good reason for not wanting to tell her this last little tidbit of information. He was one of her best, and for him to admit that he had lost Ruby's scent, meant that he quite possibly could no longer fulfill his duties. And if you were no longer useful in the capacity that he served as bodyguard, henchmen, and spy to the Alpha, then you were eliminated. You were just too much of a liability if you were not. Men in his position tended to know almost as much as the Alpha. It was a hazard of always being nearby, especially during the political grand-standing between the dominant members of the Pack.
But despite all of that, she understood all too well what he didn't. And it wasn't his fault.
She knew what Ruby had done.
She threw him back with a snarl and spun away. Air escaping through her clenched teeth in a growl. She paced back to the window restlessly. Slender hands clenching at her sides with the desire to rip into something, anything, from frustration.
"Of course." she scoffed humorlessly. Eyes glittering brightly in the shadows from something more than just the natural reflective lens over the pupils. "She shielded against you. I wasn't aware that our little white female had acquired that particular power yet. Apparently she's just full of surprises."
She turned back around to look at Gary again. He was still kneeling there, but he was watching her like potential prey watches a dormant predator. Just because she hadn't torn out his throat when she had the chance didn't mean that she wouldn't still yet, and he knew it. Thus the reason why he remained kneeling in a subservient position.
"Are you absolutely sure that John Kanin has left Wolf Lake?"
Gary dropped his head. Nodding slowly.
Vivian tossed her head back in frustration… and then began to chuckle.
Gary's head came back up. Eyes startled.
"You have to admit, it's impressive. I have to admire the tenacity in which Ruby has turned everything towards her favor. If there wasn't the concern of it possibly coming back and slapping us in the face, then I would almost consider myself proud of her. She has never been one to allow things to stand in her way." Vivian dropped her head and allowed her gaze to focus on the hypnotizing dance of the single flame resting on her desk. Watching the beads of pale wax as they slid down the outer surface to pool at the base of the candleholder. "She is, after all, a female of my family line. My sister's daughter. We're nothing if not known for our… determination."
Letting out a sigh, she turned back to look at Gary, who, if it was at all possible, was watching her even more cautiously than before.
"Do you wish for me to try and track them?" he finally asked carefully. "It's only been less than an hour. It's possible that I mig – "
Vivian waved her hand dismissively. Cutting him off. "No, it's too late. This was inevitable. This was why I never wanted Willard to bring her back against her will. I knew this would eventually happen. Ruby has taken John out of here, and this time, we will not be able to find them. Ruby learned her lesson all too well the last time around. With her newfound ability to guard them, they'll both disappear off the face of the earth… that is, if John can accept her inner beast. Either way, they're long gone from Wolf Lake and there is no way to determine which direction they're headed. Whether I like it or not, it's now out of our hands. There's nothing we can do."
Vivian turned and walked over to her desk, coming around behind it and sat down. Body sinking into the leather covered plush of the cushions. At this close a range, the light and resulting shadows cast by the candle danced over her pale features. Making her features suddenly look sharper. Less human. As if an illusion was occurring that was causing her inner wolf to peek ever so slightly through the human facade.
It wasn't an illusion.
"You can go," she finally stated. Not even bothering to look in Gary's direction.
Gary didn't wait for her to change her mind. He just leapt to his feet and headed out the door as fast as he could go without actually breaking into a run. Not understanding why his mistress had decided not to kill him, but not wanting to stick around long enough to figure it out either.
"Oh, and Gary…" Vivian's voice stopped him at the door as if she had read his mind, and the muscles along his back stiffened.
"I cannot hold what happened tonight against you, because there truly wasn't anything you could do. There is a reason why my husband sought to bring Ruby back home. Her power is much too strong to have simply let slip away without a fight, or at least that is what he thought… But if you ever fail me again, in anything large or small… you'll be offering me your throat for the very last time, I can promise you that. I hope that's understood. Your wife is a child-hood friend of mine. I'd hate to see her have to go through the grief that your death would cause."
He nodded once, jaw clenched so tightly she was surprised she didn't hear bones grinding together inside his mouth, and then he slowly slipped out the door.
Vivian watched him go, and then leaned forward. Stretching out over the polished surface of the desk. Reaching her fingers out to the candle.
Bringing her thumb and forefinger together, she pinched off that brilliant little flame. Smothering it.
It let out one final little hiss before dying out, and the room was plunged into complete and total uncompromising darkness. No moon shone tonight in the dark sky, so there wasn't even that little compromise filtering in through the windows. Just total blackness.
Just the way she liked it.
She leaned back in the chair and folded her hands in her lap. Allowing herself to once again become lost deeply in thought as she habitually twisted a familiar gold band around and around on her ring finger…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~