Hey guys! Tried to get this one out a little quicker.
So in the past couple chapters of this story and In The Eyes of a victim, I've been using little symbols, example: astrics (those star things) or slash marks, to show that I'm switching to a different part, or that time has passed. But FanFiction is retarded so it has been blending them together like it's part of the same paragraph/idea. So I'm gonna start using the initials of the story to show that time has passed or that section is over, so it doesn't misread it when I post the chaps!
Thanks for reading, hope that cleared it up for those who were confused.
Run.
Her heart beat faster as she felt the cooling presence sneak up upon her.
Run.
Everything shifted slightly. There was no more time left, she was destined to be faced with this after what she had done. It was sealed into the depths of lost fate. Her only hope was a monster.
Run.
The amount of strength it took to peel her gaze from the obliterated figure was deafening.
Run.
That was the only word that came into her subconscious. To run. Yet her legs were frozen and her body cold as ice.
The silvery, flowing shape was coming nearer. It's hissing sound was horrifying as it's transparent fangs were bared. The creature's face was nothing more than a curtain of see through fog. It was as if it were part of the storm.
Nearer and nearer it came. So close now... it was right in front of her.
Colder than an iceberg yet it was a hell banished spirit. It's ghostly figure came close to her face.
Just a little closer and it would become her. Take her soul for good and destroy her ancient blood.
It's fangs bared once again as it leapt at her–
Auria shot up straight in her bed. Her hair matted to her forehead, her not-needed breath came in quick, in and out like a human's, and her eyes wide open.
It was just a dream. Just a nightmare.
Yet it felt so real. She swallowed.
The susceptor animae. She had never seen it, not once. Yet she doubted that her imagination was far from the truth.
Are you okay?
Jeremy. Her almost brother, contacting her through her thoughts. He must have felt the shift in emotions through their connection.
Close vamps had those. They were like these telepathic ways of talking to each other, feeling what the other felt, without needing to speak to them.
It only worked if both minds were kept open. No shields and no glamours. Just pure open.
She must have let her shield down during the heinous nightmare.
Fine. It's just all Vic's books getting into my head. We read a lot last night.
She sent to him. She flipped the covers off the bed and was in her bathroom the next millisecond. Scowling at her over-slept hair.
She needed a break. She knew just the place to go too.
Hayden's fingertips brushed the bar top with ease.
He lived here. There was nowhere else to go.
The apartment he inhabited above the art gallery downtown, was empty; absent of his presence. He needed sleep like the desert needed rain. It had been days since he had closed his eyes and drifted off.
He hadn't let his guard down for one second now that the glamour was gone.
He could see everything, feel everything, hear everything. It was all so familiar and haunting. He had felt...human for so long. This was almost foreign. Being a vampire, this powerful, was odd.
His strength was welcoming and bitingly effortless. Everything was amplified. It was a giant magnifying glass above his life.
His thirst was already up to a deadly need as well.
He lifted his hand, the bartender across the room nodding. Used to the routine.
"Another scotch on the rocks." Hayden's velvet voice cooed to the young girl. She was a 20 something high school dropout, and already under the vivacious spell that was Hayden Force.
"Yes, sir." She smiled flirtatiously. Then handed him yet another drink...
Twenty minutes later he was on the trail down to the park. His head a mess.
The voices were quieter with the buzz of alcohol tuning them out. The human thoughts that chanted at him were the worst of this power regain. Another annoyance with the mortals. Their shallow thinking.
He kept on walking. A sharp look on his face. The sleep barely touched him, he thought. He didn't even need it.
He came to the break in the trees, leading into the tiny little grassy area, so hidden and quiet it was almost another world completely.
He stepped into the meadow and froze momentarily.
There sat Auria, knees pulled up to her chest, face looking terrified. She was more like a little girl than a vampire in that moment.
She immediately stood and was glazed over with her usual overly confident attitude when she spotted him. She cursed under her breath for not being able to sense him sooner.
"I didn't think anyone was going to be here." He said, coming closer.
She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to hide a smile.
"Yeah, well sorry for stealing your special spot, but I needed some quiet." she answered. The smile breaking.
She was beautiful. Hayden tried to ignore the perfect smile, even for an immortal, the way her long hair always trickled down her back, and her eyes... they were blazing with something.
Fear?
"Your scared." he stated. He was only a foot from her now.
He didn't have to read her mind. He couldn't with the shield she permanently wore anyway. He sensed the feeling. It was all over her face no matter how much she tried to hide it.
"Yes." no point in lying. Hayden's powers were strong. She'd never been able to master "aura reading".
Hayden had to know. All the sudden his outmost attention was directed at the beautiful brunette standing in front of him.
"Please... tell me. Maybe I can help?"
"Trust me. I've read every book, every entry on this thing. Nothing can help." She paused. Taking a step closer. "Something really bad has happened in Rio."
Auria thought she saw Hayden tense, when she mentioned the city, but she ignored it and continued.
"There has been a resurfacing of one of Lucifer's servants. The Soul Taker."
"Susceptor animae." Hayden breathed.
"Yes... how did you know?" Auria asked, baffled. Hayden's background didn't include any brushes with the Brazilian Coven. She was pretty sure the Soul Taker hadn't surfaced anywhere but it's birth place.
"I read a lot. It's been...mentioned." He said looking unsure. Auria didn't like the uncertain feeling rising from her. Hayden unnerved her. She couldn't get enough.
"Now the country is in terror. My teacher, he runs that capital. He's been gone for weeks on business for the Coven. There is no information. I have no way of helping. I feel pathetic, Hayden. I can't even sleep without it bothering me. And deep down I feel like I've...seen it. The Soul Taker. Or been around it or something and it's scaring me. I can't even talk to Maggie or Jeremy because I'm always the strong one. I'm always the one who fixes everything and this time I can't!" She ranted until her eyes stung. She was so embarrassed she turned away from him.
She would not cry in front of him. Nor anyone else.
Hayden set a warm hand on her back and turned her around. Auria's eyes were no longer blazing with fear, but with surprise. She couldn't believe she'd let her walls down around him. He figured she wasn't that type.
She hid her face, turning away as a small tear rolled down her cheek.
Please look at me.
He sent.
Auria flinched.
"How did you do that?" She was facing him now. Uncaring of the tears.
"Talk to you through your subconscious? Easy, while your mind is hidden from me, your aura is not. That is a completely different part of you. I can still talk to you through it. It is harder though."
"I know that. I just thought only vampires with close relationships could." Her voice trailed off. She remembered the tears and wiped her face angrily.
"No. It can work with a total stranger sometimes. Now is there anything else? Anything I ca help with?" Hayden offered.
"I'm not looking for a fairy godmother. I'm just..." The tears came again.
Stop it right now, Auria! She lashed at herself. She didn't need a public meltdown.
Hayden looked pained. Watching her look so upset was awful. Her beautiful features were now distorted in sadness. He longed to see her vivid smile again.
The nest thing he did surprised both of them.
Hayden took her in his arms and hugged her. Embracing her small figure. Auria froze, then melted into him. She bit her lip to keep from crying.
All this confusion with the turmoil in Brazil and now this.
It was the last thing she needed yet the first thing she wanted out of the core of her being. She'd been "alive" for 125 years, and never had she felt like this.
He stroked her head.
It's going to be fine. I'm going to help you.
He sent her.
She nodded her head against his chest.
Maybe it would be fine. She had Maggie, Jeremy, Vic's library, Leon...and now Hayden.
It seemed the fate of the South American Coven was in her hands. And she felt as if now, her heart was on her sleeve.
