Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Underworld or it's characters, so don't sue. The other characters and subsequent storylines are mine, so don't infringe. Many Thanks.
Chapter 4 - Someone To Watch Over Me
She was pissed, plain and simple. She just didn't know who she was more angry with, herself or Jimmy...that sleazy, no good, piece of... Maybe she shouldn't have blackened his eye, but still, it was her ass and she hadn't given him permission to put his slimy hands on it. Now she was busy running said ass off, trying to catch the last bus. No way was she going to walk home this late at night, not in this neighborhood, and since she'd just lost her job, money was a scarce commodity, meaning a cab was definitely out of the question.
Her lungs ached as the chilly fall air filled them. The rhythmic slapping of her feet against the pavement was the only sound in downtown Denver, unless you counted the police siren's and the persistent begging of the city's homeless. She gave them what she could, which wasn't much as she could barely afford to feed herself. The thought that she could very easily become one of them was always with her, along with the memory of her last day in the orphanage. It had been almost a year...being handed her walking papers, like a fucking convict being let out of prison.
"Sorry, dear. We have to let you go. You're eighteen now..."
God, how that rankled her. What had they expected her to do? She'd never been on her own. The orphanage was her home. They wouldn't even tell her who her parents were, why they'd abandoned her as an infant...two days old and left alone in the world.
Well, she'd solved one mystery, at least. She remembered thinking that surely someone would hear the pounding of her heart as she slid through the open window. It was two o'clock in the morning, though, and everyone was tucked up safe in bed. She'd never thought of the orphanage as forbidding before, but breaking and entering had changed that impression right quick. The hallways were gloomy; filled with wavering shadows just waiting to grab her ankle as she crept past. The silence was so loud, it made her ears ache. She'd picked the lock on the office door, cringing as the hinges squealed. Digging through the file cabinets had wasted precious time and her nerves had been damn near shot by the time she'd found her own file, hands shaking with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. All that adrenaline fueled fear...for damn near nothing.
Melissa Corvin, age 16.
Her mother's name and age. No father listed. No reason for her abandonment given. But did she really need an explanation? Her mother's age told the story just as well as a detailed accounting would have. Her mother had been an unmarried teenager. But then, was she just the unwanted product of a teenager's wild passion? Or, God forbid, had her mother been raped? Did Melissa Corvin even know who the father of her baby girl was?
The questions flew through her mind as she left the orphanage. It helped that the mysterious stranger that had given birth to her now had a name, but still, she wondered. Had she been loved, even just a little bit. Had her mother wanted her, but been forced to give her up? Or had she just been an inconvenience to be gotten rid of?
"Shit!" Tail lights pulling away from the curb brought her abruptly back to the present. "No, wait! I'm coming!"
It was no use, of course. The bus chugged off, leaving her choking in a cloud of diesel fumes. She took her anger out on a nearby trashcan, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do now. She was making enough of a ruckus that she didn't immediately hear the vehicle. Instead, the hair's at the nape of her neck stood up, alerting her a moment to late. The dark, economy van screeched to a stop next to her, door sliding back amid the smoke of burning rubber. Two figures, very large ones at that, popped out and headed for her. Her first instinct was to run...which she did, screaming at the top of her lungs until a beefy hand clamped down tight over her mouth.
She kicked back at hardened shins, scratched the muscular arm around her waist, all to no avail. The guy was inhumanly strong. Images of her brutalized and murdered body swam in her head. With a ferocious snarl that came from somewhere deep within her, she latched her teeth onto the fleshy palm of his hand.
He let go of her so quickly, she stumbled to the ground, skinning her palms on the rough concrete. Leaping to her feet before he could grab her again, she spun and kicked out, her foot connecting with an abdomen made of steel. She faltered, completely thrown off guard. The man's eyes were changing, flashing electric blue. And his teeth...but that wasn't possible. She must've hit her head when she fell. No one had teeth like that.
"Control yourself, Jonas!" The unearthly voice came from behind her. "Lucian wants her unharmed."
The man, whose eyes hinted at kindness despite the fact that he was attempting to kidnap her, held out a hand. She looked at it confusedly, like a person might look at a pet dog that had suddenly turned on them. She shook her head slowly, backing away from the two men and suddenly praying for someone, anyone to drive by. She'd even welcome a carload of gang-banger's at that point.
"Don't do it..." The one named Jonas said, "You can't outrun us."
"Yeah..." she answered, licking her suddenly dry lips. "but I can sure try."
Spinning on her heels, she took off. She knew it was a futile gesture, but she wouldn't willingly go to her death. If they wanted her, well, she wasn't going to make it easy for them. Who the hell were they, anyway?
It didn't take long, though she did lead them on a merry chase through Lo-Do, but it was obvious that they were just playing with her. Every time she thought she was free, one of them would be right there. Melting out of the darkness before her and grinning like a jack-o-lantern.
"That's enough. Lucian needs the girl." An arm flashed from an unlit doorway to her right, capturing her around the chest and pulling her back against a hard body.
She struggled, panicked tears pricking at her eyelids. A soft, wet cloth covered her mouth and nose. The sickly sweet scent of ether filled her head and Olivia's last conscious thought was...
Someone needs me...
