You guys. I am loving the feedback. Shoutout to ScottyBgood for being full of questions and theories; you are my favorite kind of reviewer, and I'm always eager to see what you think is going on. Speaking of feedback, actually, I wanted to ask all you readers/reviewers something: if I do write the second arc, what do you want to see in it? So far I just have a very rough, very vague outline, so I'm open to suggestions. Are there particular characters you want to see more/less of? Any questions you want answered? Any concepts you want explored? I'll do my best to include every suggestion, so feel free to leave your thoughts in a review or PM and I'll see what I can do.
And now, as a reward for sitting through that AN, have a chapter. ;)
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"You didn't have to walk me to the door," Tori says, bemused, as Andre even reaches out to open the door for her.
He shrugs, unabashed. "I'm just being a gentleman," he says. He's still finishing off his smoothie, which they'd stopped to get on their way home from dinner. It was originally meant to be a group-hang type thing, but one by one the others had all bailed. Tori had been tempted to cancel the whole thing, since she's tired and behind in almost all of her subjects, but Andre had wanted to get away from his grandma for the night so she'd tagged along.
And it had turned out to be a good evening. They'd had pizza (a nice change from sushi, Tori had thought as she licked cheese off her finger), done some karaoke, and stopped for smoothies on the way home. At one point she'd been worried that he might have been interpreting it as a date, but then she realized how stupid she was being; this was Andre. They were best friends, and that was it. Besides, she'd reminded herself, he was still hung up on some Northridge girl he'd met a few weeks ago. Once that weirdness was out of the way, she'd quite enjoyed herself.
"I'm a big girl, Andre," she says with a smile, stepping around him and opening the door. She slurps the last of her smoothie and then tosses the empty cup into the trashcan next to the door. Then she turns back to Andre. "Do you want to come in for a while?"
Andre considers it, but then he checks the time on his phone and groans. "Thanks, but I should get back," he says. "I left grandma a note on the fridge saying where I'd be, but if she didn't read it she probably thinks I've been abducted by aliens or something."
Tori laughs, well aware of how eccentric Andre's grandmother is. Then a thought hits her, cutting through her amusement. She remembers how strange everyone had been acting at school today, and she's about to ask Andre if he'd noticed anything weird. But then he slides his phone into his pocket, smiles again, and says, "Well, see you tomorrow then."
The moment passes, and Tori says goodbye to him, watching him walk down the drive before she turns around and goes into the house. She's barely in the door before she comes to a complete standstill, her brow furrowing as she takes in the sight before her.
Trina is sitting at the kitchen table, dumping the contents of several cans into a large glass bowl. Every now and then she stops to stir a wooden spoon through the sludge, which turns a muddy green color. Tori knows her sister well enough to be concerned, but not to the point of actually wanting to ask her what the heck she's doing. But as she passes by the table on her way to the fridge, Trina looks up, her eyes wide and her mouth tilting down in annoyance.
"You could offer to help," Trina grumbles, tipping a can of leek soup into the bowl. The mixture is lumpy now, reminding Tori of something she'd seen in a swamp that time Sikowitz had dragged them all into the woods for a weekend of survival skills, which he swore would help them with their acting. (It didn't.)
"Yeah, I could," Tori says, pulling a soda from the fridge and popping the top. She turns back around, leaning against the fridge as she surveys her sister. She frowns. "But I really don't want to."
"Ugh." Trina slaps the spoon into the mix with too much force; some of the green goo splashes over the side of the bowl. She huffs, pushing her hair out of her eyes with the back of her hand. While Tori finishes her drink, Trina glares at her. "Aren't you at least going to ask what I'm doing?"
"Nope," Tori says cheerfully, starting to head up to her room. She can still hear the sounds of Trina concocting her sludge-mix as she walks up the stairs. It's probably yet another Internet-approved beauty lotion that's only going to irritate her skin or cause her to break out in hives, but somehow each bad experience doesn't stop her from trying again. Tori decides to stay in her room until Trina's finished, because no way is she helping her clean up that mess.
As she flicks on the light in her room, Tori's thoughts have turned to the mountain of homework she has waiting for her. Aside from the project with Cat, she has a script to write, a song to record, and an essay on the history of theater to compose. She's just thinking that she'll start with the essay – she may as well get the most boring thing out of the way first – when she hears the door close behind her. She spins around, startled, and is even more surprised when she sees someone standing there.
Before she can get a good at them, the person lunges at her. With a shriek Tori jumps to the side, her heart and mind both racing. She reaches for the door, her fight or flight reflex kicking in and deciding on the latter, but the person goes for her again, this time making contact and pushing her against the closed door. Her assailant is slightly taller than she is, dressed all in black – complete with a hoodie so that his face is obscured.
"Get off," Tori snaps, but her voice is shaking and she knows she's not intimidating in the slightest. The person doesn't let go, and now Tori's starting to panic. She'd gone to a couple of self-defense classes with Trina, but she can't remember a single thing about them. She closes her eyes, feeling the person's grip tighten around her wrists, still pinning her to the door. Tori takes a deep breath, and she feels something stir inside her, some half-forgotten memory, some primal feeling.
Her eyes snap open and she acts on instinct. She twists her hands around so that she's holding onto his wrists too, and then she pulls him toward her, lifting her knee up at the same time so that she hits him in the stomach. Hard. He doubles over in pain, letting go of her, and Tori seizes the opportunity. She shoves him back, so that she can step forward and away from the door, and she backs it up with a roundhouse kick that sends him stumbling even further away.
Her assailant lets out a grunt, hesitates for a second, and then comes at her again. This time Tori's ready. She sidesteps easily, slightly surprised at her own grace, and then uses the stranger's own momentum against him, pushing him up against the door. She does it so quickly that he doesn't have time to react, but just as she's about to pull his hood away from his eyes, he spins around, grabbing her arm and twisting it up behind her back.
Tori lets out a yelp, but her fear is quickly burning into anger. Still relying on instinct she slams the heel of her shoe into the guy's foot, wishing she had worn heels today. But it's enough without them, and his grip on her loosens. Running on anger now, Tori yanks her arm out of his grip, turns around, and grabs his wrist in both her hands. And then, so quickly that she doesn't even have time to process it, Tori pulls him downward, slamming him into the ground and quickly flipping him over so that she's holding his arm behind his back, straddling him and holding him to the ground.
Before she can do anything else, he speaks, but the blood rushing in Tori's ears makes it hard for her to understand. She shakes her head slightly, focusing.
"I give," the guy is saying, "Jesus, Tori, I give."
The shock at hearing her assailant use her name is second only to the fact that she recognizes his voice. She's so shocked that she lets go of him, falling to the side and staring at the black-clad figure with something close to horror.
With a groan he rolls over and slowly sits up, cradling his arm. Then he tips his head back so that the hood falls away from his face, and Tori's suspicions are confirmed.
"Beck?" She can barely force the name out, struggling to understand what the hell is going on. Adrenalin is still coursing through her body, making her jumpy and, more than anything, angry. "What the hell are you doing?"
He raises an eyebrow, as if it's a stupid question, and then he at least has the grace to look embarrassed. He rubs the back of his neck with his good hand, the other resting limply in his lap. "I probably could have gone about this in a better way," he admits.
Tori just stares at him. Nothing about this situation makes any sense. "What's going on?" she finally says, her anger fading now as she realizes that Beck isn't a threat. At least, he shouldn't be. And he's not attacking her now, so that has to count for something.
"Maybe you should sit down," Beck suggests, and then blinks as he realizes that Tori is actually sitting down – just on the floor. "Right," he mumbles, running a hand through his hair. "I guess you're probably wondering -"
"What the hell you're doing in my room?" Tori interrupts sharply, crossing her arms and glaring at him.
"Well, yeah." Beck shifts his position so that he's facing her, his legs stretched out in front of him and his injured hand still in his lap. "I'm impressed, by the way," he says. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
Tori opens her mouth to respond, then realizes that she doesn't have an answer. It had all been instinct, no conscious thought or rational decision-making whatsoever. "I don't know," she admits, crossing her legs and frowning at Beck.
"Well, I do." He hesitates, and then rolls up his sleeve, revealing the same dagger-shaped tattoo she'd seen earlier that day. "You can see this?"
It's such a bizarre question that Tori doesn't answer right away. "Yes, I can see your very obvious, very visible tattoo," she says, her voice equal parts questioning and mocking.
Beck doesn't respond to the humor in her voice. "The thing is," he says, rolling his sleeve back down, "nobody should be able to see that. Or at least, you shouldn't be able to see it."
"What do you mean?" Tori's eyes flicker down from Beck's face, darting over the tattoo. There's no mistaking it, and she has no idea why she shouldn't be able to see it. She raises an eyebrow. "Did you have it done in invisible ink?" she jokes.
"Sort of," Beck says. He gives Tori a careful look, as if he's deciding whether to tell her something – or how much to tell her. "This tattoo should only be visible to other hunters."
"Hunters?" Tori echoes. "You mean like deer, or…" She trails off, noting the seriousness of Beck's expression. "You don't mean deer."
"No," Beck says evenly. "I'm not talking about deer."
A moment passes, and then Tori clears her throat. "What are you talking about then, Beck?"
He seems to brace himself for the truth, while Tori's heart speeds up in anticipation. "I'm talking about werewolves," he says, and Tori's heart stops altogether.
Another long moment passes. Tori's heart kicks back up, but her mind is slower to get back into action. "Werewolves," she repeats flatly, waiting for Beck to tell her that this a joke, that it's a skit on iCarly and the others are waiting in the wings, that it's a dare or a prank or something. But he stays silent, letting her process the information. Finally she says, "So you're telling me that you're a werewolf hunter?"
"Well, yeah." He allows himself a small, self-congratulatory smile. "I actually just finished my training. That's what the tattoo means – that I'm a fully-fledged hunter."
"Okay," Tori says slowly, wondering whether she believes him – and whether she even wants to, "but I'm not. So how come I can see your tattoo?"
"If you're not initiated, there's only one other reason you'd be able to see it." Beck pauses, and then, with a solemnity that chills Tori to the core, says, "You're a bloodline hunter."
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So, what do you guys think that means? How will it affect Tori and her friends? What will she do with this revelation?
Next chapter involves a coffee date, a realization, and some lighter moments to balance out the tension this time round, so I hope to see you all there. And as always, reviews make me happy and mean quicker updates for you guys, so everyone wins. ;)