Chapter Two~

I remained awake for the entire night, watching as the clouds formed and then parted. As the sky changed from dark blues to light, and then blue to purple and red, I stayed vigilant at the window waiting for her all night. I spent the night hoping, praying that in the coming hours I would see her – that she would come back to me. Whether by the moonlight or by the rising run, it didn't matter. I longed to feel her in my arms, and I hoped that my need to be with her was as strong for her as it was for me. The sky cleared in the morning hours, but she did not come. My mind was filled with everything that she had ever done or said to me. I could still feel the touch of her skin on my fingertips and the taste of her lips as they danced and parted with my own.

"The sun will still rise and set if I am not at your side," I had told her the night that I left her side so long ago.

I remember the feel of her arms around me and the weight of her head as it rested against my back, I felt her lips move as she remarked: "The sun may continue to rise and set, but I will not rise, only set."

Her words were like scars deep within me, her voice as clear and beautiful as it was then, and as I hoped it had remained so after all of these years.

Was she still alive? I asked myself, I had not seen her or any one else who had known us then in hundreds of years. I heard rumors on my many travels. Whispers of Danica Shardae, who once ruled over the Avian people but now after the human race invaded our lands and took over she became somewhat of a ghostly saint. Saving those who remained of her race and the many other shapshifting kinds whom had scattered to the winds. She provided comforts and love for the survivors of war, and helped to control the ever-growing Vampire population. I had stayed away from those rumors, always keeping my distance and remaining hidden from my past. I shed it like an old snakeskin, leaving it far behind me on the road that was my destiny.

I continued to watch the sky, though by midmorning I began to lose hope, her face still burning holes through my skin, and her voice, her sweet voice still echoing through my ears. "We will never be apart again Zane. Never."

I lost hope that she would come back to my window again; if she was near, then coming here was only a warning to me, a declaration that she was here and that she knew I was here. If she wanted or so desired to, she would approach me soon.

What am I doing? I asked myself furiously, clenching my fists into balls and wanting to punch them into my own skin. I should leave now! I figured, get away before I see her again. That would be best, the best for me and for her, even if we couldn't see that now.

I walked away from the window, the feel of the warm carpet deep underneath my toes. I pulled on the dark blue jeans that I had worn the night before and tore off the white shirt. My chest looked chiseled, years of war and training to fight forced my mussels to form young and my constant changing from human to snake kept me in shape. My flesh was darted with scars, some small and others large. A four-inch scar went up from my waist on my left side; I could still feel the blade that had cut there so long ago when I was held prisoner in the Underground Municipality. Its sharp edge ripping and tarring until it broke free of the surface. I had been discovered to be the Arami and beaten for it, then later as I recovered, one of the prisoners dragged his blade there as a warning that I was no longer king, and in this place I was fair game to terror. I could also feel the scar that went across my right shoulder blade, the wound caused by Vasili of the Avian's. My heart grew heavy whenever I thought of Vasili, his words of doubt were what drove me away from Danica, and in some strange way, he was still driving a wedge between us.

Without hesitation I pulled on a black T-shirt that had been hanging in the closet, then hastily I donned the leather jacket that was still on the chair at my desk. I was leaving, I had to, and I could never come back here again. I knew that the only way of avoiding Danica, and all that I desired was, to get as far away from her as possible and hope that she would lose my track and that I would be safe again. I took one last look at my room; one last gimps of Alex Acevedo.

I didn't encounter Simon or Diane on my way out; I was glade of it. I would miss them and their company. Of all of the people who had been my companions in my life they were some of the kindest, and I knew that in future when I looked back on my time here I would smile and be appreciative of that.

The red corvette was parked where I left it and without looking back at the house I turned the key and drove off, my foot heavy on the gas. I could navigate these streets with my eyes closed and I knew every corner and avenue that I would need to take to make my way out of the city and out of Washington.

The freeway was busy; early morning traffic mingled with the morning rush hour. I took a deep breath as I waited, wanting to be free of Danica and the constant weight of her absence on me. Part of me wished that I had never met her, that I had never broken into the Hawks Keep when we were young and that I had never set eyes on her. But I did, and she stared me down from memories and held me mercilessly and has never let go.

What if she was still in the forest?

The thought had never entered my mind before. What if she had been living in the forest and that was why she saw me with Veronica to begin with, and then realizing that it really was me she then followed me home. Without seeing if there were cars behind me I turned the steering wheel until my path had changed and I took the small off ramp exit that would take me back to Squally Forest, and for a fleeting second I hoped that it would take me back to her.

My route back to the forest was the same as it was last night. I parked the car near the edge of the road; I changed into my snake form, only this time I had to go deep into the forest before I changed. The possibility of being seen changing was greater in the daylight then it was at night.

In my snake form I made my way deep into the forest, enjoying the solitude of the silence, and with my outstretched senses, I knew that there was no one else in the forest but me. After about forty-five minutes of travel I came upon the spot where the party had been last night. The ground was littered with trash and beer cans as well as large pits that people had lit fires in. The once green grasses that had surrounded those large pits were now covered in a dark ash and burned to an unpleasant crisp. I continued to travel in my snake form until I got to the large tree where I had been sitting at when I saw her last night. It wasn't until I was there that I changed back into my human form. I sat leaning against the tree trunk as I had been before and I watched the gray sky change and morph as the hours passed waiting for her.

As I sat there a small dark green Gardner snake slithered to my side. I welcomed the company, and let the small reptile slink and curl in and out of my fingers as I held it in my hand. The snake was female, and gentle as she playfully wrapped herself around me. She was old! I could tell by the colors of her scales and by the feelings that she was giving off to me. Snakes had no real vocal communication skills, but they made up for that in body language and giving off feelings. She stayed only for a moment. I think that she recognized my connection to her and wanted to further investigate this strange creature that in so many ways was like her but looked so separate. Soon she grew disinterested, and I let her uncurl her tiny body from my hand and fingers and watched as she made her way back into the trees ahead of us.

Once again I was alone.

I got up and paced a few times, always keeping my vision on the sky and the surrounding trees. I called her name out a few times as well; sometimes as desperate whispers, other times as heartfelt screams.

There was nothing.

Dead silence. Dead calm.

By nightfall I had given up all together. The idea that she had found me or that she was anywhere near here became utterly ridiculous, and I couldn't help but laugh and put myself down for thinking it. On foot, in my human form, I made my way back through the forest. I didn't want to change, I wanted to walk, and run away from her to where I knew the aspect of her so near to me could be eliminated. I knew that it would take me hours on foot, but I welcomed the exhaustion, feeling the air chill with the late hour, and listening to the change of the daylight animals into the nocturnal ones.

As I walked deeper into the forest I felt a slap of wind come up from behind me, its current of air so strong that it almost picked me up and carried me a foot ahead of where I was standing. I looked up to the sky, amazed and curious as to where the sudden wind had come from. The sky was almost pitch black now, and the moon flowed above me as it branched its light far across the sky, and then I heard it again. The golden cry, loud and beautiful against the night. Then I saw her, in her Hawk form gliding across the sky, her powerful wings stretching far across from her golden body and sending surges of wind down onto the world below. "Danica!" I yelled as she circled away from me and began to fly in the opposite direction. I was determined not to lose her, so I turned around quickly and ran after her. I called her name out again and again, but it did not deter her from her journey.

"Danica!" I said again, my voice pleading with her to stop and come down to me. I wanted to be reassured that it was really her that I was seeing and not just some bird that I was actually following and calling out to.

"Danica!" I saw her form billow and slice through the sky above me, her body waving in and out of sight as the tips of trees and long jagged branches got in the way of my view of her.

I ran faster now, the burn of my bones was nothing compared to the agony of knowing that she was purposely not stopping for me, even though I knew that she could hear me calling out to her.

"Dan-" I began to say but was stopped by a man who stood directly in my path. The shock of his face sent surges of wonder into me. His face! It was my face! I stared at it for what seemed like hours. In form he was identical to me, same height and build but where my hair was dark his was a yellowish gold and hung clear down to his chin where mine stopped just above my cheek bones.

"Who are you?" I demanded, exhausted from the chase and weary that I had lost her again.

"Well, what's the matter Zane," he said to me, his voice deep with the slightest hint of an accent behind it. "Don't you recognize your own family?"