I woke up when someone bent down over me and tossed my head to the side, running a finger over my neck. I couldn't tell who it was, but they had a light, almost formal touch – like a doctor who'd checked for wounds many times before. Then I caught their voice.
"Well, Ash, it seems Jude was very keen to change her last night," a girl. It was a girl. I couldn't tell anything else about her, except that she sounded disgusted.
"Rashel…" I recognised that voice. It was the boy called Ash – Jude's cousin.
"Shh, she knows what she's doing!" Another voice hissed. Quinn. "How bad is it, sweetheart?" Well. That was interesting, I grimaced.
Rashel stood up and let out a breath. "Savaged. She'll be fine – even though she lost a lot of blood. But if this is how someone treats their soulmate…" she didn't finish – left the sentence without an ending. "Oh, she's awake," Rashel looked down at me and smiled warmly. She had long, dark hair down to her waist – the same colour as Quinn's – and she had emerald green eyes. I noticed Quinn was holding onto her hips, standing behind her, his head on her shoulder. Well, well. Very interesting.
"Natasha? I'm Rashel. I'm here to help you," she grinned, flashing her teeth. The way she stood sent shivers down my spine. She was standing like a predator, eyeing up her next meal. Like a vampire. She relaxed her stance and turned around to push Quinn away, playfully. "Tell him she's awake," she told him, and then turned back to me.
I noticed that besides Quinn and Rashel, Ash was in the room too. He had a girl on his arm that had brown/black hair down to her shoulders and bright blue eyes. She was the complete opposite of Rashel. Where Rashel looked predatory and formal, she looked unsure and foreign. Vulnerable.
Ash tightened his grip on her and pulled her, gently, down so she was sat on his lap. He was staring at her intently. "Natasha, this is Ash and Mare." Rashel introduced, nodding at the other two. I grinned, shyly, and sat up. I got two simultaneous 'hellos' back.
Quinn entered the room again and nodded. "He was pretty mad," he told Rashel, going over to sit in the chair on Ash's left. I looked around. The room was like a doctor's surgery. There were four chairs along the wall, the fold-down ones. The type you get at the cinema. The walls were painted white and the flooring was cream-coloured linoleum.
I was laying on a futon in the corner, with Rashel at my side – cotton wool in hand. A table on my left was strewn with disinfectant and bandages. Holding my hand to my head, I smiled lazily. "Where am I?" I asked, focusing my attention on Rashel.
"You're…" she stopped. "Hmm, should we tell her? Or would it be kinder to influence her? Quinn?" the dark-haired boy was too busy staring at some poster on the wall saying: Soulmate disco, Saturday night. Boy-girl couples only. "Quinn!" Rashel hit him on the arm and he came to attention immediately.
"I heard you!" he growled, rubbing his arm. "I don't know. After what he did to her… do you think-?" he paused and then looked at the other couple. "What do you guys think?"
Ash and Mare looked at each other and pulled faces. "This is above us – don't you think?" Mare grimaced, twiddling a strand of hair around her middle finger. Rashel shook her head, vigorously.
"You know what Thierry will say. He'll say that we should leave them be – but Jude… didn't he have a reputation for being even worse than you two?" she pointed two fingers. One at Ash, one at Quinn. The two boys shrugged and looked uncomfortable.
"Jude was one of the reasons why I went bad," Ash told her. All the while, I was getting mad because I had no idea what they were talking about. Also because they were obviously talking about me.
"Do it," Rashel turned to Quinn and frowned. "It would be the kindest thing. If he's just going to-"
That instant a mangled boy ran into the room, flustered. He had long black hair down to his ears and green eyes not as bright as Rashel's. "He's out!" he panted, clutching his side. That second a girl with red, wavy hair ran in after him. She had grey eyes that were almost blue – or some colour in between. She was breathless too.
"He got the jump on us. We thought he was tied up and then-"
"He says he's coming for her," the boy cried. "You have to do something with her – I've never seen anyone like this before!"
"Morgead, calm down." Ash was standing up, Mare following suit, and they both were surrounding him. Morgead simply shook his head in exasperation. Determined, Rashel turned to Quinn, jaw set.
Quinn nodded, walked over to me and touched my forehead with his thumb. Erase, he muttered. You were at home last night. You didn't see anyone in this room or Jude, understand?
My mind started to go foggy but I was conscious enough to realise that Jude hammered into the room that instant. "TASHA!" he screamed, and he was running forward, but that instant three boys leapt on top of him and held him down. Then the red-haired girl and Rashel did too and Mare was left there, staring at me with large, sympathetic eyes.
Under all of those bodies, Jude was still trying to claw out. "Tasha? What have you done to her?" he gasped. And then everything went black.