"Quite a grip you have there" I teased as Tristian still pinned me to the floor with no signs of getting up any sooner. I felt my stomach, and heard it, growling at me for food that I was so close to eating before we starting wrestling. I guess I started it. Tristian stared at me, not moving as if he was in a trance then blinked and got off me.
"I'm sorry, I did not hurt you did I?" he asked.
I sat up on my elbows as Tristian sat next to me. "No. I was just teasing, that's all."
"Are you sure?" He asked as he started to inspect my wrists. He took one hand, looked it over all around and then kissed the areas that he had gripped. "You would tell me if my grip was too strong, right?"
"Of course." I laughed giving him a sideways glance. "Is something wrong?"
"No, I just," he paused, "I got a little carried away. That's all."
Tristian stood and stuck his hand out to mine before pulling me off the floor. This time, we were almost closer than we were on the floor. Chest to chest, his hand still in mine as I looked up at him. His face didn't scare me anymore. I hardly noticed the scars that marked his beautiful skin that ran from his forehead to the bottom of his jaw. It was only his beautiful eyes that I saw. The most crystal blue I've ever seen, and they took my breath away. I looked from his eyes, to the hair that fell down on his forehead. I pushed the strand away, not taking away my hand from his face, lightly tracing my fingers down the marks that branded him. I looked at his lips as his head tilted towards mine. My heart was beating quickly and I felt his arm snake around my waist, palm at my back, pulling me even closer to him.
We were centimeters from each other when the door slammed opened and voices entered the house. Portia came barreling through the house at super quick speed saw us in our embrace and was caught off guard. Tristian was the first to move away. He nodded towards Portia who looked at him strangly, then to me, as he moved away and back to the stove to act as if he was still cooking. I felt my cheeks get hot as she caught us in a rare moment and I looked down at my feet, embarassed to have her witness what would have happened if she would have been away just a second longer.
"I was just telling Silas how wonderful it smelled in here" she hinted to me with a raised brow and a sharp tone.
My breath caught as Silas entered the house, his head down as if he didn't want to even look at me. I felt my heart break. Here I was about to kiss another man, wanting to be kissed by another man, when my heart clearly belonged to another. The moment I saw Silas I felt excitement and then grief as he refused to even meet my eyes and said coldly, "Hello Anabelle."
"Please, come in. Take a seat." I offered to them both as Portia sat at the table, staring at Tristian with preditar eyes. I sat next to Portia, hoping she wouldn't decide to go across the table and rip Tristian to shreds. Plus, this allowed Silas to sit across from me and look me in the face for the first time since we broke things off. "So, what is the meaning of this visit? I thought you were going hunting?" I turned and asked Portia.
"We were," her voice was edgy.
"We found a body." Silas interupted soberly as if not wanting to convey any type of emotion.
"A-A body?" I stuttered, nearly spitting out my iced tea that I just took a sip of. I starting thinking back to the body of the man in the woods. Oh lord, what did happen to that body? I don't remember doing anything with it. That would be a huge problem should anyone stumble upon it.
"Yes, a woman. She was torn to shreds. There are claw marks all over her body." Silas said, finally looking up at me. I couldn't tell if he was sad or thinking he might just kill me. His face betrayed no emotion.
"And it's not another Vampyre that could have done this?" I asked, still my voice shaky. I would be scared either way if it was a Vampyre, or even a Werewolf, though I had hoped it was a Vampyre than the later. You could at least try to reason with a Vampyre. There was no stopping a Werewolf. They were mean, nasty and had a thirst to kill everything in sight.
"I'm afraid that the markings indicate an animal did the roughing up. I assume it might be a Werewolf. The claw marks are very large." Silas said.
"Have you heard anything at night?" Portia turned to me, worry in her porceline face.
"Not really. I mean, apart from normal animal chatter, I can't really hear if it's way out in the woods." I turned to her, my face frightened and on the verge of tears.
Portia put her arm around me as a tear fell down my cheek, I looked over at Silas but he looked away, not wanting to see my grief. "Have you heard anything, Tristian?"
"No, I haven't. You know I would tell you if I did." He looked at me and stood next to where I was sitting, away from Silas.
I just looked down at the table. No one had anything else to say. What is going on? Months have pasted and not a single thing has happened and now to find out there are bodies in the woods by my house. This had to be the work of Morrigan. It had to be. First thing is first though, if there was a woman out there, we needed to know who it was and what is her connection to me. If she is on my land, what did she want. Second, we needed to call the police. They would need to process the remains. Steve knew about the craziness that happened here that night, he had been asked not to be glamoured into forgetting. So we let him go with the promise that no one else would know what happened that night at the farm. Silas and Julius had buried the bodies of the people inside the house and tipped off Steve later to let him know where to locate the bodies, where Steve, made up a story how they were all camping together and were attacked by bears. Not many people believed it. Most thought it might have been Vampyres, or werewolves. They were correct, though we wouldn't ever fess up to it.
Since the revelation, things have been getting weirder. Vampyre's were making themselves more known to the world. Julius's bar was a big attraction and many supernaturals floated to it while still being descrete. It was only a matter of time before they would just incorporate into our mainstream and seem like anyone else. So then, it made me think. About the woman outside, was she human or a supernatural? Could she have been targeting by someone who was trying to hunt her, or was she targeted by what she was. Only one way to know. "I want to go see the body."
Tristian looked at me with a worried face, "No."
"Yes. You're my friend, but not my father. I want to see it, so I will go." I told him. His face fell and he scowled at me, only pushing images of what would happen to me if I ran into what might still be out there.
"We can take you out there. Maybe you could pick something up." Portia cooed and ran her hand down my hair, which had become very long now. It was to my mid back now and curled at the ends, like it did when I was a little girl.
"Exactly. Maybe she wasn't just human and if I go to see her, maybe I can see who actually did it and what happened." I said boldly, purposely giving the stink eye to Tristian who obviously disapproved of me leaving. I was ready and up and out of my seat. I walked towards the coat rack by the front door and slipped it on. "We'll be back soon." I told Tristian, meaning for him to stay put. That's all I needed if him and Silas got into some sort of pissing match.
Silas was the first at the door as he opened it for me, but never looked in my eyes. His face was grim as he waved for me to go ahead. "Thank you" I said. He only nodded.
Once the three of us were outside, Portia nodded for Silas to go ahead and her and I walked at a snails pace, according to her, to meet him. "What's the deal with him?" I asked.
"He's just hurt. Give him time, Ani. I don't think he cares for the fairy either." Portia looked back to see Tristian looking out the door, his hands across the threshold, staring us down.
I looked back and just shrugged my shoulders. "He's just a friend."
"Just a friend, huh?" Portia looked at me sideways. "That's not what I smelled when I came in the door. It smelled like sex waiting to happen."
"Nothing happened. And nothing will." I said, more trying to convince myself than her.
"I wouldn't blame you. He is a tastey morsel." Portia nudged my shoulder, "However, he gives me a bad vibe, like he's hiding something."
"What could he possibly hide from me?" I asked, brows raised in question. Really, what could he hide from me? Nothing. All I needed to do was touch him and I would know everything.
"A lot actually. You said he could push any image to you. What makes you think he's not playing you and pushing what he wants you to see in your head." Portia pointed out. Actually, it was a very valid point too. What if he was?
I dismissed it right away, "He wouldn't do that. He's my friend."
"Who you've known for how long?" Portia questioned again.
"No longer than I have Silas or Julius. Should I not trust them either?" I mocked, clearly getting a little flustered as we reached the tree line and saw Silas standing nearby.
"Actually, you might not want to trust any of us." He said, clearly overhearing the conversation before walking in front. "The body is this way."
I gave Portia a glare as I walked behind him and she just shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn't care, or maybe she knew he was listening all along. Who knew. Either way, I'm pretty sure I just hurt Silas even more.
The body wasn't deep in the woods. It was actually fairly close to the tree line and very poorly covered with branches and leaves. As if someone just dumped the girl here and didn't care who would see. Obvsiously pointing the finger at me for this, otherwise, why leave an exposed body on my land?
She was a young girl, maybe no older than twenty-one. She had long, dark hair and her skin was very tan, so tan she looked orange. She likely visited the tanning bed often and used a really bad tanning cream. You could see the tan lines on her hips from the bikini's that she wore. Tan lines, ick. You could tell that she was a small girl, even with all the slash marks on her back. She was face down in the mud, so I couldn't see her face, but I didn't need to in order to know who it was. I could tell just from the paint on her fingernails. They were black with little skulls in the middle with tiny jewels in the eyes. "It's Whitney Johnston. The waitress that used to work at Ruben's." She disappeared a few months ago, back when Morrigan was still in town. "Help me flip her over."
Silas hurried over and got on the ground to pushed the girl over in the mud. Her hair dangling over her naked breasts and the leaves stuck to her lady parts. She was at least somewhat covered by the earth. The smell was aweful coming from the body. Her entire front had been hollowed out as if something had eaten everything . There wasn't anything left of her. Her face was frozen in agony and pain. Her grey eyes stared at me. That's when the bile rose and I turned to throw up.
Silas was at my side in a second. He held me back from the body and held my hair while I got sick. So much for soup tonight. He patted my back and rubbed my shoulders. "Are you alright? You can go back, Portia and I can take care of this." He said it with such compassion and emotion, it was like a light switch being turned on from being off for so many hours, releasing light into a well darkened room.
I looked up at him, this time he didn't shy away from me, "No, I need to know what happened."
I took a few deep breaths, Silas moved away but stayed close enough in case I lost balance, he would easily be able to catch me. Portia just looked on with approving eyes and she smiled at me. Even in this grim state she was smiling. Vampyrism seemed to suit her very well. I got to my feet, with no assistance and calmed myself. I turned back around, Whitney's horrid face looking up at me. I felt the bile coming back up my throat, but I pushed it down. I had to get a handle on myself to be able to do this. Slowly and calmly, I knelt down to her and reached my hand out. With all my concentration fixated on her face, I didn't notice the hand that had caught my own. Silas's hand.
"You don't have to do this" he said.
"Yes, I do" I pulled my hand from his and placed it on the body of the former waitress that I had wished I got to know a bit better.
Men, a lot of them. Surrounded. Hungry eyes and tongues licking lips. Growling. Clothes ripping. Screaming. Thrown from a vehicle, a van. Black with big wheels. No markings. Running. Scared. Howling. Looking behind to see nothing but darkness. Running still into the woods, breathing labored. Sounds of the pats of feet on the ground, fast. Running, faster. Feet behind, coming faster. Falling over rock. Damn rock. Smacking head on ground, blood running down, dripping onto the ground. Growling, coming closer. Getting up, scratching ground, trying to get moving. Looking back. Red eyes in the darkness. Growling. Surrounded once again. Screaming. Red eyes getting larger. White teeth, pointed and sharp. Snout, long and wet, dripping drool. Snarling. Howling, then charge.
"Oh my god!" I pulled out of the vision and let go of her body.
"What's wrong?" Silas asked as he put his arm around me, a comforting feeling. Portia looked at me with worry.
"What did you see?" Portia asked.
"She was definitely attacked. Attacked by a pack of wolves, not just one." I said scared. I had really hoped the Dracula would come popping out to eat her alive, I could deal with that, but a pack of wolves, that was no good. I had seen one and I certainly didn't want to see another.
Silas looked at Portia and nodded. They seemed to have some sort of invisible form of communication. One that I had been left out of as Portia took off into the night. I would have objected, but I was glad to get some alone time with Silas for a change. As much as I had said everything that needed to be said, and as much as I didn't want to be involved in Vampyre politics, I was glad for the time alone. He took my hand and stood me up.
"Time to go back. I'll take care of the body."
"Silas...I..." I started to say.
"Don't." Was all he said, his eyes sad.
"But.." I tried to object.
"Don't. Not now. Let's just get this handled and then we'll deal with the rest." He said. Smiling. He actually smiled at me. Maybe things were looking up a bit. "Now go. I'll take care of the rest."
I didn't say anything else. I just nodded, and like Portia, took off, back to the farm house where Tristian was waiting.