…
Never trust the stars
When you're about to fall in love
Look for hidden signs before you start to sigh
..

Claire Speaks

It wasn't hard to see that Ben was an emotional hunter.
Following his heart and gut more than his head; he probably had nothing up there. Sorry, that was mean, I am sure he has more brains up there than below; I mean I know it is. There is a sparkle in his eye every time he acts coy or dumb, like he knows dam well what is going on and he is already two steps ahead of you. When he is watching you and you try desperately hard to avoid those green glass like eyes that have already figured you out.
I liked people like that, kept me on my toes.

Another thing that was easy to see was that he had been to a decent school or university. The way he tackled books and notes was too well practiced to be forgotten. Anyone else would have sighed and groaned about having to do something like this, and Ben did to I guess but he still got on with it with a sort of happiness that brought back the good old days.

I was lucky to have found someone like Ben to hunt with.
Hunters that didn't do the work and hunted with their head were the one with complexes and most dangerous.
I gratefully enough was one that liked to do the hard, dirty work that came with it but there was always a conflict between my heart and my head. I knew there were innocent people, I knew that they had no idea what was going on and had the right to live in fear for the rest of their lives but I also knew that there were monsters and ghosts and demons out there. I also knew that sometimes, some people were better off dead.
See my problem?

Some days it would be harder than others to listen and compromise between the two. Believe me I have not yet harmed anyone that didn't deserve it.
And the more I looked up Mark Hearson, the more deserving he seemed to be.

Spinning around in my chair, I opened my mouth to speak but the librarian held her crooked finger to her lips. I raised an eyebrow, giving her a strange look but she merely buried her nose back into the book and disappeared down the aisle. I do not like libraries.
'What you got?' Ben asked me, snapping me from my thoughts of saying something really loud. I finished turning the chair and ran a hand through my knotted hair.

'A lot, actually. Too much for me to wanna sort through.'
'Anything useful?'
I gave him a glare and he raised his hands in defence, pen hanging from his mouth. Reassuring him that I was only bored to death, I smiled grimly as I held my note paper up to read from.
'Mary Gary Hearson, born nineteen eighty two in Texas. Raised by a single parent, never attended school, joined the war and was shipped to Iran, dishonourably discharged in twenty seventeen.' I sucked in a deep breath, not missing Ben rub his forehead at the growing headache that was already in mine. 'Nine charges of indecent assault, four drunk and disorderly, over ten thousand dollars' worth of fines in a year for speeding, assault, robbery and hospital cover.'

I looked cautiously up at Ben at those last words and saw the anger flash in his eyes before he hung his head and sucked in a breath.
'Anything that can link him to the other victims?'
I glanced at the numerous faces on the glossy paper.
'None, except that they are all men and all taken this year within the space of months. Mark here was the first.'

Ben nodded his head, gathering his own paper and zipping it neatly into his leather bound folder, leaving only one sheet out.
'Stacey Rodriguez, twenty two and missing since January tenth of this year.' He looked up at me with a triumphant spark in his eye and I grinned also.
'That's four months ago, when the killings started.'
Ben bit his lower lip and I saw he was looking at the photo of the young woman. She had been beautiful, and it was sad now that she was nothing more than a pissed of spirit.

'So what's the theory?' I asked, hey I just wanted to know how he could connect the dots. Some people could and some people couldn't, smudging the lines as they want.
'Vengeful spirit. Taking a guess anyway that she was killed and now taking it out on jackasses.'
'You best stay at home them.' I chuckled and stood from my chair, shoving everything into my pockets and bag as I hung it over my shoulder. I was waiting for Ben to snap back but he just looked at me with those eyes and I knew that he was already way ahead of me.
'Well,' he grinned and picked up his folder, 'I asked you nicely to be careful and stay out of the shifter hunt and look where you ended up.' He smiled with his arms open, jacket slung over his arms and tie long since gone… dam he looked good in a suit.

I rolled my eyes and shoved his shoulder as I passed him.
'Please, I ended up in hospital and losing my bike.'
'But you got me out of it.'
'Oh yeah sure, because your worth five thousand dollars and the embarrassment of being in a hospital, bastard.'
A hush came from behind us and I snarled at the librarian, Ben laughing lightly as he opened the door for me.
'I'm worth at least a million, brat.'

My guns were spread out on the bed around me, most of them already clean but I was bored. Ben was on the phone again, who he was speaking with I wasn't sure and I wasn't worried; neither with the fact that Lance should have been calling me by now. Day three and I hadn't checked in with him or given him an update, normally he would have been tracking me down like a hound but after what happened, the fact that I chose a stranger over him probably killed him more inside than it did me.

Ben was pacing outside, his silhouette in behind the curtains of the window. I found myself watching it every now and then, thoughts racing around my head from our family history to who he was. I should have been ashamed, should have been nervous to be in his company but there was just something about him that I was starting to love.

I slapped myself mentally at the word. Barely a week and I used that word in the same sentence as Bens name. What the hell was wrong with me?

The door opened and Ben dragged himself in along with his own duffle bag, sighing as he tossed it onto his bed. After dragging the table closer to him he collapsed, rubbing a hand over his face and unzipped his bag, watching me as I finished putting my gun back together again with a click.
'That was the auto shop Hearson worked at and Patrick's girlfriend.' he whipped out a gun, spinning it skillfully before placing it on the table in front of him.

'And?'
'They were not acting weirdly before their deaths and neither had heard of the other. One was a resident and the other was a tourist.' He pulled out some more weapons; guns, blades and rock salt, all lining them up neatly on the table before he began to get to work on cleaning them.
I was loading some shells with salt as my mind raced.

'So Stacey dies and all these men begin to vanish and turn up in pieces. What sort of spirit does that?'
Ben shrugged, staring at the blank wall as he re-assembled a shotgun.
'Rips them apart and only leaves parts to be found. Where do the splinters come from?'
'Maybe it is like I said before, they just fall or as they are being killed.'
We remained in silence for a little while, the smell of hot chips from lunch still hanging in the air.

'You know what we need to do.' Ben said suddenly and I sighed, pushing hair from my face as I finished off my colt. 'We need to go to the forest. We need to talk to Stacey's family-'
'Doesn't have any.' I replied quickly. Ben turned his head slowly, watching me carefully and I just raised my shoulders slowly.
'What, you the only one that is allowed to do the research?'

He just smiled, shaking his head and I picked up another gun, clicking it threateningly as Ben chuckled.
'No sorry, I still need to get used to having to share the job.'
It was my turn to laugh and I stood up, scanning over his collection of guns and blades, giving a small grimace to fake an unimpressed face.

'What? What was that look for?'
'No look,' I smiled at him and waved a hand over his equipment, 'just with this stuff it seems that you would be the brains, I on the other hand…'
Ben looked up at me and I saw that sparkle, knowing exactly what I had got myself into.
'No brains? You probably couldn't even tell me the name of four of your guns.'
I put my hands on my hips, biting my tongue as I smirked at him, accepting the challenge. Marching the two steps back to the bed, I picked up my nearest.

'Glock nine mil, standard seventeen magazine capacity with silencer.' I dismantled it with skill and reassembled it just as quick, giving Ben a look as I clicked it shut. He nodded his head with a pout of his own.
'That's one.'
Again I bit my tongue, wondering why I was proving myself to him but I guess it was a little bit of harmless fun, as long as he didn't ask me to demonstrate how I used one.

'Taurus ninety two model, standard ten round mag. Basic shot gun, double barrel with salt shells for Casper and my favorite, sig saver. All with silver bullets I made myself and me with the aiming.'
I gave him a challenging smirk as Ben clapped a few times, remaining on the bed as he picked up one of his own.

'Double barrel shot gun, sawed off. Beretta model 92, not my most favorite but still gets the job done, colt trooper for some serious knock down and yes I see you have one to.' I chuckled slightly as I pushed mine into view.
'Smith and Wesson, and my other baby… my colt nineteen eleven, A one point four five. Nickel plated with an ivory handle.' He smiled brightly as he showed off his beloved gun, but there was a shade that slowly fell over him as he stared at it. It was a nice gun, but how many horrible things had it seen and done with Ben?

Trying to get him out of his trance, I heaved it open and proceeded to pull out the rest of my artillery.
'Thigh holster, Heckler and koch g3 sg1.' I proudly arranged it on the table beside Bens weapons as he smiled at the challenge, putting the colt down and pulling more from his own bag.
'Never go anywhere without my silver magnum push daggers and my slasher.' I had to give him a small clap as he pulled out the curved weapon, that was definitely one to be proud of.
'Seems to be more like one you hang on a wall than actually use.'
'Hey, this thing has saved my life more than a few times.'
'So more of a slapper than a stabber?'

Ben slowly turned his head to me with a disappointed look and I just shrugged.
'Cross bow,' he pulled it out and held it up as though he was going to shoot me. Anyone else and I would have panicked, or angrily told him to get it out of my face, but I trusted Ben, and that was what was making me worried, 'with a range of iron, silver and salt arrow heads.'
'Salt tips?'
He nodded proudly as he set it down.
'Alright, mine is on the bottom of my bag, but you'll have to teach me the salt tips. Shurikens, my own shove dagger, fifteen inch jungle master-'
'I know something else that is just as long…'

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying my best not to laugh as I spun the blade around before sheathing it again. Ben gave me an innocent look but I knew he was far from it.
'Grenades,' we both held up two or three and, frustrated, put them down again. This was a silly competition, but I guess we had time to pass and it was interesting to see how Ben could hunt and fight; you could tell a lot about a hunter and his weapons.

'Pocket knives,'
'Lock picks,'
'EMF reader,'
'EMF reader with thermo scanner.'
'Flare guns,'
'Tasers for those nasty one that need a good roasting.'
'Black light.'
'Rosaries.'
'Holy water.'

We both chuckled as we held up our flasks, but I grinned that mine was the winner.
'Engraved.'
Ben chucked his down with a defeated laugh, reaching across to take mine and look at it.
'Non timeho mala.'
'I shall fear no evil.' I translated and sat back down on my bed with a sigh. Ben handed it back, showing a small engraving on his gun. It was the same and we both remained quiet yet again.
'Not bad.' Ben said and I laughed, tying my hair back and casually putting everything away again.

'Not bad yourself.'
I gently put my bag in the corner, Ben cleaning some of his with a white cloth before placing them lovingly back into the black duffle bag. Moving over to the kitchen, I sighed and looked at how early it was. Too late to do any investigating and too early to go to bed.
We had no leads, we had nowhere to look or break into, it was driving me mad.

'Want to go to the pub?'
I turned and looked at Ben who was changing his shirt. I snapped my head around again; dam him and dam his body.
'I guess there isn't much else we can do.'
Ben slipped on his jacket as I turned back around, looking down at my torn jeans and baggy jumper. That was as good as I was going to get.
'You're driving.' I tossed the keys over to him, hoping he would drop them but he spun around playfully and caught them in his hand, rubbing it in with a charming grin.

We were half way out to the car, door open when Bens phone rang. I dropped my head; what the hell was it now? The one time we actually get to spend time together and we constantly interrupted. Well, we were on a case, and what was I thinking? Quality time with Benjamin Braeden? What the hell was wrong with me?

'Conner.'
I was watching his face change, from a casual happy to something cold and hurt.
'Ok, slow down, just, take a deep breath. What happened?'
For some reason I wasn't caring about who he was on the phone to or why, I was trying to find an answer to my own case. Why did I blush every time he looked at me with that certain gaze, like I was everything, the only thing he wanted to look at?
Maybe I was just a stupid school girl, having a crush on the high school hotty. Why did I have to be so childish?

It was always something I wanted but never got.
A normal life; graduate and maybe become a teacher or something. Find a nice man and settle down with a couple of rug-rats. I could see that again for some reason, leaving this horrid life and living myself while I was still young…
What the hell! I needed to snap out of it, I needed to step back, go back to the Claire Novak that survived anything, that was someone who could live by herself and do what was right. I didn't need that sort of life… I needed to protect those who had it.
Besides, Ben would never give up something like this, and not for someone like me.
But one day, if I was lucky enough someone would.

Ben was quite worried on the phone and I stood up straight, noting the concern on his face.
'Right. I'll be there as soon as I can.' He snapped his phone shut and I raised an eyebrow as Ben shut his door, covering his mouth as he paced slightly.
'Who was that?' I asked cautiously.
'That was Coby… his mother was just killed.'
I had to blink a few times.
'How?'
He looked at me, right through me and it made me shiver.
'The monster got her.'

..
Never trust your dreams
When you're about to fall in love
For your dreams may quickly fall apart
…

Thank you for reading you super awesome people.
I promise something will be happening soon, we are just at the foot of the hill, trust me ;)
And seriously guys, I am running out of songs, not really thats a lie, I think Ben and Claire are sick of me taking notes of what songs I have to use for them . So if you guys have any good ones, let me know. I love everything, except r&b. I love writing for you guys, what you all want.

Silver-Krin
xXx