I cried out, frantically running down the pasture calling for him. "Romeo!" I screamed, running harder. My lungs began to burn and my muscles ached as I reached the wood line that surrounded the property. "Romeo!" I called out again, but no answer, no sounds, nothing at all. I stopped running and hunched over with my hands on my knees breathing hard. My legs ached and begged for me to sit or lie down. I couldn't catch my own breath in this chilly air and it hurt my lungs. Tears started to stream down my eyes again, thinking that the person who was so nice to me, would deceive me by taking my prized possession, my horse. I knew he rode him often, but I didn't think he would actually attempt to steal him from me. If I caught Tristian, I would make him pay. For now, I was in despair. Too sad to be angry at Tristian, I just wanted my horse back.

I walked to the nearest tree and slumped down on the ground. My head back against the rough bark. It felts good to relax for a moment, but still my mind wondered, where was Romeo? Tears dropped down my cheeks and I took my hand to wipe them away, but as I did, something slick was wiped on my face.

"Ick," I retched as I looked down at my hands that were covered in blood.

I jumped up where I was sitting and looked at the ground around me. Where my hand had been resting to the right of me, the left of the tree, was a puddle of thick, molasses-like crimson liquid. "Please let it be a dead animal, please let it be a dead animal, please let it be a dead animal." I chanted to myself as I reached for the branch of leaves that was draped over top of the mound to which the blood was spurting from.

I closed my eyes, afraid of what I might see as I touched the branch and lifted it up. When nothing attacked me, I peaked my eye open to see a body. I dropped the branch and turned away, heaving at the smell of the rotting corpse. Without thought my hand went to my mouth to cover it and my nose, but I started to heave again remembering that my hands were now soaked in the corpse's blood. I dropped to the ground on my hands and knees and heaved until yellow foam came from my bowels. I rubbed my hands on the grass and tried to get the blood off my face from where I touched. I was freaking out with the dead blood all over me. I was now covered in this person's blood and where ever it came from, the blood was still slightly warm to the touch. A fresh corpse, but rotting at an exceptional rate.

When my stomach returned to normal I crawled over to the mound that was hidden carefully at the tree line of my property. I swallowed hard and took in a deep breath before holding it to keep myself from smelling the ghastly scent of freshly rotting corpse. I pulled back the branch and threw it behind the decomposing body and grabbed a nearby stick to use to move anything close to the body out of the way. The body was female, her long dark hair draped over her face and she bore the same markings as Whitney did when we found her, not far from this spot. The girl was dark skinned, so ebony colored that she looked blue. She was tall and slender and like Whitney, was missing her insides. It was hard to tell from the gashes on her face who she was. They did a better job of trying to cover up the identity of the woman until I saw the tattoo. The gold symbol Udjat that was an eye with a long tail and thick brows. From school, I had learned that it was the Egyptian symbol for healing or protection. The Eye of Horus. I only knew one person who had this tattoo and in a similarly placed location. Shauna Cole. She was the new bartender at Ruben's that took over most nights while I was in class. Someone was targeting the people I worked with.

I ran back to the house, blood soaked and all. My lungs were burning and my legs hurt by the time I made it inside. Someone was targeting people close to me. Not necessarily people I was close to, but people that were close to me in proximity. They were trying to pick them off one by one. First Whitney, now Shauna. What had either of those two girls done to deserve this? I couldn't help but think that I was next. Was I part of this elaborate scheme? Would I be the next body that would end up in the woods there?

I thought back to what Tristian said as he left a while ago, that he was protecting me from things, warding off evil I suppose. Was he keeping someone at bay from attacking me? If so, I just kicked him out of my house and he was right, I was left alone and vulnerable, especially right now. I needed to talk to someone, so I called Portia.

"Hey girl, what's up?" Portia's cheery voice said over the speaker.

"I found a body on my property," I let out. I wasn't afraid to tell Portia anything, no matter what her living status was. Dead or Alive.

"A body?" she sounded suspicious.

"Yes, a woman. Just like Whitney, was gutted in my tree line," I explained. "I found her this morning when I went to look for Romeo."

"Wait, hold on a second. You were out in the woods, where you know we found another body and yet you went out again in search of a horse? Have you lost your mind?" Portia gasped. "Anyways, I already knew about the fresh corpse and Silas and I were going to take care of it tonight when the sun went down."

"What do you mean you knew about it?" I questioned, my tone just a little harsh. Could Portia and Silas have known about this and didn't tell me? Why would they keep that kind of secret?

"Silas found it last night, that's when he called Julius. Seems the perp was still around, and also a Werewolf. That's how Julius and Silas were attacked. They didn't have time to move the body yet." Portia sounded bored as she yawned on the other side of the receiver. "And what's this about your horse? Did he finally run away?"

My mouth was in a hard line listening to her explaination. The wolves were on my property and no one bothered to tell me about it. I felt even more of a fool now. "So, no one decided to tell me any of this, why?"

"We didnt' want to worry you. We can take care of this Ani, you don't have to worry about it. You just stay home with Tristian, he's good at protection. He'll make sure you're safe," she said.

"Well, glad to know you have such faith in me. And Tristian is gone, I'm pretty sure he stole Romeo, which was why I was out in the woods to begin with," I spat into the phone, clearly my anger was rising.

"Tristian's gone?" she asked bewildered. "Then you need protection."

"I can take care of myself. Don't bother." I yelled and hung up the phone.

My own best friend, my own like-a-sister was lying to me. Or at least she had omitted the truth from me to keep me from "worrying". As if I cared if I was worried. I wanted to know if something was going a rye on my property. What if Morrigan was back? Now that I was here, and had no protection at all. Not that I needed it. I wasn't a weakling and I wouldn't be seen as one. The only person that didn't treat me like I was weak was Julius. And here, I had broken his heart by siding with his Cousin, who was so good at deceiving me.

Taking a few calming breaths, my anger started to release and common sense kicked in. No one decieved me. Why was I so angry at them? It had only been discovered last night, not a week or more ago. Anyways, Julius being bitten was probably the biggest priority, and after what I went through because of the bond, I could see why Silas wouldn't want to cause me any more undue stress. I was over reacting.

Now came the matter of Tristian. Where was he and why did he take my horse? It made me angry all over again and for good reason too. Yes, he was here to protect me as Portia said, but we grew close. I trusted him. I expected him to trust me. It wasn't as if we were a couple of anything, so why did he freak out about me being with Silas. He made it sound like he was a jealous boyfriend finding out his girl had been cheating on him with a pimp. I wasn't with Tristian. Yes, some feelings were there, and I'm sure still are, but my heart is with someone else. Not with Tristian, no matter how much we shared or laughed or cried on each other. I guess I loved him more like the family I no longer had than anything closer. I suppose to him that he felt the opposite.

Tristian had lost the majority of his people, so finding someone that somewhat like him, I'm sure sparked his interests. And on more than one occasion, I did sneak a peak into his head and saw how he thought of me. I wasn't completely oblivious. I saw what he thought about me. Especially when he would crawl into the bed with me and drape an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I would already be sleeping, but my dreams would become his memories, his thoughts and feelings. We were holding hands, twisting and spinning in the tulip fields. The grand smile on both our faces as he would pull me in closer to him, slowly lift a hand to my face, searching it with his eyes before gently bending down to kiss my lips. In his thoughts, I would respond by kissing him passionately back. Then his thoughts would fast forward, we were together, hand in hand with small children at our feet. I would look up adoringly at him as our children played in the field and his arm would holding me securely next to him. He wanted to be with me. He wanted to revive his kind. With me being a Halfling, I could do that for him and it gave him hope that one day, his people would be strong again.

Thoughts of Tristian exited my mind. Just because he hoped that we would have a future together, didn't mean that I thought that. After all I went through, it was hard to want to trust him completely. No matter how I might have felt when he was around, or how comfortable he was to snuggle up against. His humor while trying to teach me the old tongue of the Danu or even in my classes that he attended with me. I would miss him. Now I wish I had never gotten angry at him and just ignored his ranting, pushed aside his jealously and just gone about my business. I did regret what I said and now I was reeping what I sowed.

Remembering that I still had hands and a face that was covered in dry blood, I figured another shower was in order before I headed to work. I would have to change again as well. Tonight, I was thinking casual. I didn't feel like being sexy or pretty tonight and I didn't care about bringing attention to myself. So I showered again, making sure to scrub hard to get the stain of blood off my skin and my mind. Changing into a pair of baggy jeans and a crop top tee with a pair of boots and headed out the door to work. At least Ruben would get my mind off things. He always had a great sense of humor and allowed me to see the error in my ways. I went to him with problems before and he was great at trying to resolve them. Tonight, I just wanted the humor of friendly and familiar faces. I wanted to be safe. I wanted Morrigan far away from me. I wanted this bond with Julius broken, but I wanted him to be himself again. I wanted not to be mad at my best friend, Portia for keeping a secret from me. I wanted Tristian to forgive me for snapping at him and most of all, I wanted my horse back.