Disclaimer: Blah! Blah! Blah! I don't own Demonata, Darren Shan does. But I do own any OCs or non-cannon creatures that will appear in this fic. And trust me; as you now know, I have a LOT of non-cannon creatures, never mind characters.
A/N: Sorry it's been so long loyal readers! I recently went back to school which means I've got a lot of work due to this being the first of my exam years, so updating will be a lot less frequent sorry! I rewrote this chapter a billion times because originally the story was going to go in a totally opposite direction til I realised it'd become to 'vampoari politics' based, scrapped the former chapter and wrote this in its place. This is told in past tense, opposed to present because the next chapter will go back to present, but this is an explanation of the upcoming Chapter 10's events. Fluff ahoy in this chapter and the cuteness of this chapter made me practically squeal with happiness, however a massive twist is coming at the end to show you that it's not all fun and games. These events will take the vampoari, at least San Valentino, Decha, Beikur Rose ect ect, out the picture for a while because we're going to be going into Lamb territory and learning a bit more about our favourite family: The Grady's! I did this because I wanted to have more Bill-E Spleen in the fic because I absolutely adore him (he's like one of my real life friends!) and so I made up this plot point to get him back into the mix. Hope you enjoy!
I've never really had much control when it comes to violent or chaotic situations, but for once I managed to handle one successfully by myself. Maybe it was the mauve coloured ring in the shape of fingers imprinted onto my fair skin, or the cherry red welts which were starting to form, or maybe the odd dried trickle of crimson blood which had stained my inner palm; or maybe it was just the combination of those key three factors which set him off. But most of all, maybe it was the deep feeling of failure he must've felt bubble so cruelly inside his chest when he saw the state of my wrist; and that was what had make me start crying. Not the pain. Well, mostly anyways.
I'd never really been classed as a cry-baby by anyone I've ever met, which is why I hate it whenever I start; it's the immediate stares and questions which I hated, not the actual act of crying itself. I have no issue when someone begins to cry, I only have issue with the people who believe they have the right to then interrogate them about why they were doing it. If you're a friend, or a family member, you naturally get a free pass, but it's when someone you don't know, or don't particularly like, asks that irritates me so much. Why should they be allowed immediate access into your emotions and feelings, especially if they're just searching for gossip? But this time, I knew it was going to have some form of reaction, because of the context of the situation. And the reaction I anticipated was not only correct, but the exact thing I'd been hoping wouldn't happen.
"He did what to you!?" My attempt at hiding my wrist behind my back hadn't worked, or Lorcan wouldn't have addressed the issue of its colour and the bumps beginning to arise on the reddened or purpled skin. He'd grabbed it the second he'd saw it, but he'd grabbed me around the elbow, as if he'd dealed with injuries such as my own by now. I figured in his original time span, with fighting demons and dealing with the subjects of death and destruction, meant that he'd end up treating other people's injuries and wounds, no matter what they were nor how gruesome.
"I shouldn't have opened my mouth and back chatted him…" Was the defence I tried to use, because it was true. I'd gotten far too cocky for my own good and I'd ended up paying the price by having my wrist almost broken, but I'd been preparing myself for this since I set off for my walk back, knowing what was going to come up regarding the injury I'd sustained.
"He almost broke your wrist!" Lorcan was furious and it showed openly, his body language was jittery and every muscle, nerve ending, open mark of skin seemed to be noticeably shaking as if he was about to begin emitting electricity. His fists were clenched so tightly they were a ghastly shade of white, and his knuckles were vibrating the most violently out of any of his body parts as he paced up and down the room, the jingling sound of his earrings breaking the almost suffocating tension. "He hurt you and you're trying to stand up for him!?" By then he just sounded incredulous and ran one hand through his short hair. "I'm going to kill him…"
"NO!" It came out before I could try and calm down but his head immediately snapped up in my direction and I knew now that I'd emitted that statement of my own, I was going to need to back it up. I swallowed and my eyes, which had already, began watering slightly, began to spill tears down my cheeks, making my squeeze my eyes tightly shut, biting my lip and furiously rubbing at them with my sleeve ends. "You have no idea what he could do, Lorcan! He could kill you within a second and you've got this insane idea that you're going to be able to single-handedly kill him!?" My vision had blurred due to my tears but I could tell he was barely keeping his temper together.
"I promised to protect you…"
"But you can't successfully do that if you're dead!" I practically screamed, my own body beginning to shake now as I stared up at him. My pale blonde hair, the shade of frosted lemon bonbons, had fallen slightly in front of my face, further clouding my vision and the waves slightly fell over my eyes. Taking a big, tight, almost painful breath inwards and half-skipping, half-walking over to him I put my hands on either one of his broad, scarred shoulders, the pale scars visible even in the rooms low light. "You know you couldn't win, but you wish you could, which is why you're so determined. If you were dead then there would be nothing in San Valen-fucking-tino's way to stop him marrying me, so why waste all these possibilities just to give him what he so badly desires?" A strand of waving, blonde hair was pushed away from my tear-stained, fading into ashen face and I properly looked up at him.
He'd stopped shaking violently and he simply looked down at me, as if deciding whether to take my advice or totally ignore it, and proceed to kill San Valentino regardless of what I said. But he simply sighed and he sat down on the plum coloured sofa behind him, my hands still on his shoulders so I looked like, in some strange warped vision, that I was taller than him. He looked up at me, and in that brief second of eye contact, something about his body language changed. His lips curved into a smile and his long, lean, weathered arms wrapped around my slim waste so my body was pushed against his, my head buried into his shoulder, coating his naked back in long, curling blonde fibres of my pale hair and my arms wrapped tightly around his neck. "Thank you…" I whispered and his grip on me tightened to the extent of which I had to kneel on the sofa, my kneecaps pushing into the velvet fabric.
"It's fine." He said, and his voice reflected the fact he'd calmed down, as well as the soft grip on my waist. "Guess I'll have to wait till he's asleep in his coffin, aye?" My facial expression must've been one of shock, horror or a blend of both because he began to laugh and shook his head, his earrings clinking as he did so but grinned up at me. "Kidding, kidding! I won't go and try and kill your fanged future husband…For now at least." His scarred, extensively weathered hand stroked at the tips of my hair, pulling gently on the curls so they flattened themselves out, only to spring back upwards into their usual spiralling fashion and I shifted myself slightly due to the amounting pressure being put on my knees by myself leaning on them. I've never been good at kneeling, my knees have issues when holding up the rest of my body, despite my legs being long.
"You can sit on my knee if you like?" Lorcan offered and for a brief second I thought he was joking…Until I looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity and guilt, as if he wanted to make it up to me in some way, anyway, somehow.
"Thanks…" I smiled and shifted myself so I was perching on his right knee, my arms still wrapped around his neck, and in this position I was facing him directly, staring him in the face, so our eyes, his pale, almost grey, green and my midnight sky blue were looking directly into each other. My stomach, as well as my heart, seemed to clamp up, scrunching into little balls and I took a sharp, quick intake of breath as the blood begin to swirl like a whirlpool in my cheeks, dying them the colour of pink smarties. Everything seemed to automatically improved its clearness but I didn't know why and although my brain was desperately telling me to drop eye contact…I just couldn't. I don't know how much time passed before his hand gently shook my shoulder and I jumped slightly, everything fading back to its usual dullness and loosing that clear shine.
"Are you okay?" He asked, staring at me as if he was a mixture of curious and amused, which I figured he had the right to be. I was confused myself.
"Yeah!" I said quickly, practically cutting off the last part of his sentence in my haste to usher the words out. "I…I think I just zoned out for a second there…Sorry." I smiled somewhat awkwardly, my eyelids drooping slightly. It'd been a longer night than the one I'd originally anticipated to had, and the cracks in my wide-awake façade were beginning to show through my seemingly 'bright eyed and bushy tailed' performance. "Maybe tiredness is just getting to me…" I managed to blurt the words out before I yawned, another tell-tale sign I was ready for bed.
"Need to rest?" Lorcan asked me gently, and when I looked up his own eyes were clouding over, like they always do when you're tired. Talking seemed to be taking up a little too much effort at that point in time, so I simply nodded meekly and rubbed my eyes yet again. The redness was beginning to die down, and the whites were returning to their namesake white colour, but my eyelids were still falling down and I was by then yawning profusely. I leaned back against the sofa's headrest, staring up at the ceiling which was the pinkish-purple shade of an amethyst, but I was barely able to identify it because my eyelids which furiously trying to totally rob me of my vision so I could return to the hopefully peaceful world of sleep and earn the rest I figured I'd deserved for the night's events which I definitely hadn't seen coming.
Lorcan's fire engine red hair blazed on the mauve colouring of the sofa next to me, some of it blending in with my strands of border lining platinum blonde hair; our bodies were so close together my small shoulders brushed up against his broader ones, and my eyes ascended up to his face. Stubble coated the area of his jawline, but I didn't really mind it, and some people could argue it made him look more grown up; his eyes were shut closed and his breathing had become shallow. I've never been able to understand how he manages to send himself to sleep so painlessly and quickly, and I never will; call it his own little secret.
Using the last amount of strength in my body, I rolled onto my side, although I extended my sour wrist so it rested gently all the way across to the other side of his bare chest; my head gently rested just below his right shoulder, hair spilling across his chest, possibly gently tickling his naked flesh, and my legs curved up into the foetal position, pushing my body gently against his own. He just seemed to be impossibly warm, warmer than anyone I'd ever been near before; on the other hand, you could create the counter argument that I've always been incredibly cold, so maybe it was just me finding someone with an average body temperature, compared to my freezing one. My eyes began to close, gently drifting me off into what some people call the land of dreams. And for once, in the very first time in what seemed like years; although in actuality it was days, I didn't dream of demons, or Connla, or dead bodies, or churches, or weddings, or anything revolving around the subject of the macabre. Maybe I didn't dream, or maybe I just didn't have a usual dream for me, but all I knew was that my dream wasn't a nightmare, or at least a memorable one at that.
The pine trees seemed to have stood in the forest for years. Hundreds of years. Maybe even thousands if you pictured back far enough. I didn't understand why Lorcan had decided for us to go out into the woodland area during today's light hours, but it was pleasant because of the tranquillity which was held in the woods. I found it slightly strange that the carnival was surrounded by miles of thick, grassy woodland and meadow area, but it was a nice kind of strange because it was such a peaceful contrast compared to the carnival's flashing lights and obnoxiously loud music and the screaming. Human staff, such as Nicole Phan and Ellie Quinn, manned the place during the day, whilst the vampoari slept down in their coffins, so it was mainly young children and teenagers who visited in the daylight hours.
Small birds fluttered throughout the trees, and I occasionally heard the snap of a twig, followed by a rush of brown shooting through the trees-deer. I was practically blending into the trees with my chosen outfit, but wearing purple or neon orange to the woods never struck me as intelligent, so it figured. My shirt was a shade of brown, a few shades lighter than the pinewood bark, and my hoodie even lighter still; navy jeans and black walking boots completed my outfit. Sure, the blondness of my hair took away the subtlety a bit, but I could live with that. I figured with my newly revealed species, I'd end up living with a lot more terrible things than simply having hair which stood out in the wilderness. Strangely enough, today Lorcan had decided to wear a shirt today which I found a little odd, but figured pushing your way through the wilderness topless would get you pretty scratched up, regardless of what time period you originate from. It was almost funny that he'd chosen a deep green t-shirt, which contrasted with his hair so much it practically blazed, almost crackling like fire as his earrings glinted when the icy sunlight hit them.
"Can you eat the deer in these woods?" He asked, and I partially jumped, staring up at him, before figuring out my answer.
"I guess so. They're not like swans, they don't belong to the Queen, so yeah, it's okay to kill and eat the deer I suppose." He cursed and shook his head, clearly annoyed.
"It's a shame I don't have my weapons then," he held up his head higher, looking up to the canopy of branches and leaves which clouded out the golden sunlight from streaming through. "Or I could have caught us a nice deer to eat." I felt my stomach lurch slightly at that, having an all too familiar memory of the Disney film Bambie. I first watched that film when I was three or four years old, and I never got over it; there was something just so chilling about the gunshot which signalled his mother's death that frightened me and I remember vividly running out the front room half-crying, half-screaming when the infamous scene happened. I've never attempted watching it since that day and I still don't plan to. The memory of that must have made my face go ashen because he lightly tapped me on the shoulder, staring down at me, slightly worried. "Are you okay? You look ill."
"Yeah…" I nodded, smiling thinly, the only smile I could manage at the childhood horror which was that film. "Just remembering something I saw which involved a deer's mum getting shot…I never really got over it." He looked at me like I was insane crying over a deer's mother dying. "It was this film about a little deer and hunters shot his mother and so I could never really get over that!" I explained quickly. "I only saw it when I was really little and it was my first proper experience of death, even though it was all make believe, so it really hit me hard."
"A…Film?" He looked at me utterly confused, and I realised the context of the answer had confused him more than it definitely should have.
"I…Can't really explain…" I mumbled, taking hold of his weathered hand in my own smoother one, intertwining my fingers with his own, squeezing it slightly. "I'll show you what a film is when we get back to the circus! They were like…A massive technological advance in their time." I smiled slightly up at him, my hair falling back in front of my eyes slightly, but I pushed the strands away, simply smiling at him like an idiot. "Sorry about that…"
"Don't apologize, pretty Esther," I felt the blood immediately rush up to my cheeks within the second of the words leaving his mouth, but he continued talking. "I need to get myself more updated with your times anyways. And with all the new bad language." He snickered at that and grinned down at me, his eyes shining almost as brightly as his earrings were in the frosty morning sunlight. We'd set off at 8 AM, despite only having about seven hours sleep, but the cold air of the woodland area had immediately woke me up, a pleasant surprise.
Lorcan had sped up his pace slightly, so I was half-running as I scampered along to keep up with his longer strides provided by having longer legs, which enabled him to carry longer distances in a much quicker pace. He spent most of the walk from the fairground to the woodland area telling me about his childhood, how he was taught how to swim and how he learned to fight from an early age, quickly rising to one of the best fighters in his tuath by the age of just thirteen. I'd listened politely, enjoying his tales, and was glad that he left out all of the sadder parts. Although the truth was important to me, it cheered me up to hear him overall much happier. "So?" He grinned down at me, grinning even more mischievously. "Why don't you tell me about your childhood Esther?"
I was reduced to shrugging and bit my lip tightly. "Nothing much to tell really…" I shook my head. "I didn't have many friends," I sighed and shrugged at that mentioning. "I used to scare other kids in my nursery school because of my pale skin, pale hair, and my dark eyes so they never really wanted to get to know me and it tarnished my reputation from that year upwards. Kids went out of their way to ignore me, and if I ever did make a friend, they'd then ditch me once they were accepted into a bigger group as long as they gave me up. I made a friend when I visited my grandma's house; my best friend Violet, who arrives here tonight, but apart from that I've never really had anyone. I have my little sister, Evie, and my parents, but obviously I'm not seeing them much at the moment." I looked up at him and smiled slightly, almost feeling like I wanted to laugh. "So I've never had anyone like you had your friends and family."
"Well, don't worry Esther," Lorcan's hand untangled itself from my own and instead, wrapped his arm around my slim shoulder. "You have me now," I laughed slightly, high pitched and nervously, like a little girl who's just got her first crush. "And I promise to protect you until I die." I smiled up at him then, the blush having died down in my cheeks, and I had a feeling my eyes were sparkling by the smile back which he gave; it was warm and complete, a smile which I figured he hadn't given anyone in quite some time, which made me feel incredibly special and I immediately felt bad for being so vain, but couldn't stop myself. His hand slid back down from on my shoulder back to my hand, so we were again linked via them. "Don't you just love the woods?" He grinned down at me, staring around the greenery which surrounded us with a look of childish awe reflecting in his eyes.
"Probably not as much as you…" I smiled somewhat nervously and he laughed at that comment, his entire demeanour seeming so much of a polar opposite from last night my own mood immediately sky rocketed to one of sublime happiness.
"I doubt that!" He grinned, staring excitedly up at the giants for trees which towered above us, their sturdy builds reaching upwards towards the heavens, and I could tell he was figuring out whether attempting to climb one would be worth it. The sky was a fresh, crisp light blue colour, and light rolls of mist were clouding the horizon slightly, making us seem slightly isolated from the circus we'd left behind, but I didn't particularly care that I was leaving the place in which my future husband and future captor lived, as well as escaping the rest of his blood drinking clan. I had no real issues with them; they just gave me the creeps to be totally honest. It was their entire identity which gave me the shivers, not them as beings; it wasn't anything to do with that. It was the whole drinking human's blood which put me on edge. Lorcan bought my out of my thoughts with a simplistic question. "Should I try climbing a tree Esther?"
"…No…" I said after a small pause. "I mean…Look at them they're so tall and kinda eerie looking, and you don't know how strong they are! I mean, they are pretty thin aren't they! And what if you fell and hurt yourself and then I couldn't get help and you died and I'd just end up hating myself for the rest of my entire existence!" The last part came out in a rushed, hurried, breathless torrent and I almost laughed at how much like a mother or grandmother I sounded after saying that to him. "So…I just wouldn't." Something about it amused him so greatly he began to laugh uncontrollably to the point where he had to bend over in hope to catch his breath, finally managing to stand up, with an incredibly amused smirk on his face. "I sounded like your mum, didn't I?"
"That was the most perfect impression of her ever, even though I know you didn't mean to make it so accurate!" He stood so he was facing me properly and stared at me for about a minute, so I assumed he wasn't going to do anything; that was until he placed his hands on my waist and lifted me upwards so I was hanging in the air, with only his arms holding me properly up.
"Put me down!" I shrieked, sounding twice more feminine that usual and I knew I must've sounded incredibly amusing because he chuckled again.
"Now why would I want to do that when your reaction is nothing short of adorable?" I pouted and he laughed again, his face broken into a pleasant smiling; he was clearly having fun getting on my nerves like this and I was forced to place my hands on his shoulders so I didn't put too much pressure on his arms. My feet were resting on the area just above his knees and I was staring down at him, for once feeling taller than him. His arms wrapped tighter around my waist so our chests were pressed against each other's and I smiled almost shyly, feeling just like I did that night when we did about three seconds of unconventional swimming. My hands wrapped around the back of his neck to provide further stability in our position, my forehead pressed against his uncoincidentally and just like that night, our mouths were a matter of centre metres' away from each other's, causing me to swallow tightly, feeling my cheeks begin to burn.
I'd never kissed anyone, even when Violet's friend's, the Turner Brother's, creepy friend offered to have sex with me, and I said no. He'd tried to kiss me on several occasions, but I'd always pulled away, and on some occasions even ran off in down the beach back to Violet and would practically attempt to hide behind her, despite being the taller one. Our foreheads gently pressed together, the feeling of his warm breath ghosting against my lips, and I swallowed sharply, my cheeks a flaming pink, the colour of a flamingo's feathers as our eyes met. That sick, swelling feeling of worry returned to my stomach, but I pushed it back down and didn't pull back, I just stared into his eyes, my heart beating furiously inside my chest. Then he leaned forwards, and my trembling lips met his own, our mouths pushing together to form one of the things I'd never had in life: a kiss.
He pushed his mouth closer against mine and a proper kiss formed as my eyes closed, my legs wrapping properly around his waist, his hands tangling back in the blonde folds of my hair which was tumbling down the back of my chocolate coloured hoody and our lips moved, perfectly meeting each other's. I pulled back briefly to catch my breath, eyes still closed, but shortly after a tight breath he pushed his mouth back against mine, pulling me into another kiss. I pulled back after just underneath a minute and smiled up at him, feeling my eyes shining like they do when you're about to cry and all he could do was smile back, his smile shining as brightly as his earrings were in the light streaming through the canopy. "That was amazing!" He grinned, pulling me closer to him, into a hug so my head was resting on his shoulder and my hair hung in front of his face. "You are amazing Esther." He looked down at me, smiling, and I felt myself smile back, my eyes shining.
"No…You were…" I whispered and he gently lowered me back to the ground as everything around me returned to that clear, shiny filter and everything seemed brighter and much more wonderful. I was in love. I couldn't place it at the exact moment, but looking on back, I knew that was when I fell hard for him; a matter of seconds after the first kiss we would ever have broke, I fell in love with him. And then I burst into an unstoppable fit of laughter and it was my turn to bend over, resting my hands on my knees, hair falling in front of my face, unable to stop the bout of laughter coming out, but I couldn't. When I was finally able to stand properly again, flipping my hair back out of my face and grinning uncontrollably up at him. "That was incredible!" I practically shrieked, slamming my hands down on his shoulder and jumped upwards, forcing him to pick me up again.
"Aye! It was!" He grinned down at me, pressing his forehead back against mine as we grinned like idiots, laughing softly. I'd never felt better. After we stopped giggling, he gently placed me down and grabbed hold of my left hand with his right, as we continued to stand facing each other. "So? What does this make us now then in your time's terms?" He asked.
"I guess this makes us boyfriend and girlfriend…" I shrugged, unsure of what to call this, but that sounded like the best term I could use for the circumstances and situations we'd now gotten ourselves into by kissing. Those were the best terms I could use for the direction our relationship had suddenly hurtled in, although I wasn't complaining about it, because I was happy like this, and Lorcan was. "That's what people in a relationship, but who aren't betrothed or married are called nowadays."
"So I'm your boyfriend?" He laughed and grinned excitedly.
"Yes…"
"And you're my girlfriend?" He cut me off just as I finished my sentence, so I simply nodded as a response, and my suspicion was confirmed when he regained talking quickly, grinning like he was incredibly pleased with himself and the title he'd just achieved. "That is the best thing anyone has ever given me. Thank you Esther, you've just made me happier than I have been in a thousand years." He placed his hands on either one of my shoulders and I stared up at him. "No girl in my village was ever as pretty or interesting as you are, so I'm only glad I had the chance to be bought back and have the Gods give me the chance to finally meet you." I smiled up at him and he smiled back, and it felt like the best feeling in the world, even more than when we'd kissed. "Want to carry on now?" He asked and I knew my answer.
"Yeah, I mean, what's the point coming out here if we can't explore?" I smiled at him and we began walking again, although my mind was nowhere near the subject of the forest now. I was officially in a relationship. An actually, serious, proper relationship with someone I knew cared about me just as much as I cared for him. I was on my very own personal euphoric high, in a blissful state that I could only thank Lorcan for, because he was the one who put me there. In such a wonderful state of permanent, perfect happiness. The birds flew through the trees, diving through the canopy's and tweeting gently as they did so, some even flew in front of us in a frenzied mess which made my eyebrows raise and I cocked my head to the side, wondering why so many of them had taken flight because they'd barely been swooping through the air until then, however I simply smiled and watched them dart throughout the trees, souring gracefully and expertly, as if they'd rehearsed this for their entire lives.
Then…Then everything went back to normal; everything to harsh and gritty and fucked up in one foul, swift movement when a sixteen year old boy fell out of a tree and rolled till he was almost at my feet.
His tanned skin was covered in welts, bruises and bloody marks, some still gently oozing trickles of crimson coloured blood, especially the ones on his arms. His once crisp white school shirt was tattered and ruined, with large gouges and gashes in the back area, revealing more cuts oozing blood down the skin. Some were old, like Lorcan's, not as flamingo pink but a fading cream and less fresh, but most were still slightly red and looked as if the slightest pressure would spurt more blood out. Blood was matted in the edges of his dirty blonde hair which was so dark it almost reached light brown but fell a few shades short of that; when he looked up at us he had a thin face, with beady dark eyes that were almost black and his nose was long and straight. He haled himself to his feet, coughing and a fresh bruise had formed on his left temple from his fall or jump out of the tree.
"You've got to help me!" He gasped, as if he'd been running for miles and I figured this scenario was likely by the state of him. "You don't know what's gonna happen if she finds me! She's gonna fucking killme!" The last two words came out jumbled together, but I knew exactly what he'd said and my eyes went wide. I looked up at Lorcan, whose face was a mixture of suspicion and horror. "She'll kill us all!" The boy, who still hadn't revealed his name gasped, now shaking violently and he took a step forwards. "Her and that…That fucking thing!" He was hysterical and I reached out, intent on gently putting my hands on his shoulders but something stopped me. A short, sharp, snapping sound which caused me to turn around and I heard the boy gasp.
A gun, a Browning Hi-Power, was being pointed not at me but just to my right, at the boy behind me. The person wielding the gun was female and her appearance shocked me more than anything because of how…Ordinary she looked. She wasn't big or buff like Arnold Schwarzenegger or dark and devious like San Valentino; she wasn't even that old looking, only sixteen, just like the boy.
Large eyes and filled out lips made up a large percentage of the girl's rounded face, with a small snub nose; some people could say they looked a little too large, her eyes almost fishy and lips practically fat, but after having a proper look, you could tell it suited her perfectly. Her mouth was coated with a thick layer of gloss, emphasizing her kissable lips to their full potential; whilst her eyes were sprinkled with gold eye-shadow on the lids and a thin line of eyeliner ran along the edges of the eyelid. Her eyes were a sparkling blue, the colour of spring morning skies, and her face was outlined with a sheet of thick, hazy light brown hair which fell around her hips. Her height was about 5'5" and her figure was voluptuous; all curves, thighs and bosom, coated in a pair of pure black jeans, a matching jacket and boots, with a deep tie-dye grey t-shirt underneath. A series of what seemed to be dog tags, as well as heart-shaped pendants, clanked over her chest as she stood with her left hand on her hip, waiting expectantly.
She looked too much like a little, petite Barbie doll to be a ruthless hit woman but looks can be deceptive and I immediately knew she was dangerous. I felt Lorcan bristle at the introduction of a gun, something he had no idea of, but he was intelligent enough not to run at her. "Okay," she said her voice a little deeper than I'd expected and each word flowed lazily, as if effort wasn't important to her, whilst her accent was vaguely Yorkshire. I heard something rustle in the trees and my eyes travelled behind her, where a large, shagging hulking shadow crouched in the darkness and I knew I wasn't going to like what I saw so I averted my eyes back to the girl. "Just hand him over," I knew she was referring to the bloodied and bruised boy behind me from his own speech a matter of seconds, maybe minutes, before, "And no-one is going to become werewolf chow." Werewolf!? My heart almost stopped.
A/N: Dun, dun, dunnn! Yes, cliff-hanger! Our heroes have been cornered by a teenage hit-girl, her pet werewolf and have to decide something: Should they save this mysterious boy, or does he deserve to die? What is truly going on now? Are this girl and the werewolf working for Serse Ripper, or are they totally different entirely? Find out soon…