33. Sleeping With The Witch

(Seth)

"The fuck is this?"

I glanced away from the stretch of road in front of me to look at her laughing, her eyes crinkling up in the corners in that adorable way that let you know her smile was one hundred percent genuine.

"Drunk makeup with Liz Collins," she giggled. "I don't even remember filming this."

"I want to see," Mark said from the back as he stuck his face between us. They watched the video together and laughed.

Liz turned the music down a bit. "Baby, did I tell you that Mark and Melody are fucking?"

I laughed. "No, but I already knew. I heard them a few times."

Mark held his hands up. "Dude, I'm unashamed. Mel is hot and a lot of fun, and she's cool about being friends with benefits. I think."

"She definitely is," Liz said. "She said pretty much the exact thing you did, so now I think you guys are perfect for each other." She touched my arm and said, "Turn down exit five twenty nine."

I'd been watching, observing her since that night in Seattle, looking for signs she was breaking. Strangely enough, she wasn't, and instead of shutting down like she usually did when something bad happened, she'd been wide open to me. She told me everything that had happened, she told me when it was on her mind and when she felt awful. She poured out her every thought and feeling into me, and I was glad to see that she was healing. I knew it wasn't going to just get better and go away, but I couldn't stand to see her suffering alone.

Despite her reassurances and the fact that I could see her being okay with my own eyes, I was still terrified to leave her for even a second. Still held her closer to me at night, still told her I loved her a few extra times every day. If some unknown part of her really was silently falling apart, maybe my efforts would help hold some of her pieces together.

"This is going to go straight to my ass," were the words that broke me out of my mind again. She was chugging a milkshake.

I smiled and was about to respond when Mark spoke up first. "Yeah, how terrible that would be." I shot him a look through the rear view and he quickly added, "For Seth."

"My thoughts exactly," I said, annoyed. I'd caught him checking out said ass a few too many times for my liking.

"Let's take a road trip selfie, bitches," Liz changed the subject. She snapped a picture of the three of us with her phone and sent it to Ana. She turned the music up louder and headbanged as the wind blew her hair all around.

Once we hit the twenty four hour mark, she kept trying to talk me into pulling over.

"I'm fine," I told her once again. "I don't need to sleep as much as you do." I was kind of tired, but whether I was driving or in the passenger's seat, no way was I sleeping.

She peeked into the backseat. "Mark is totally out of it," she said. I glanced over in time to catch a devilish little smile playing at her lips. "You know what's really, really great about most of these older cars?" Her fingertips danced lightly across the seat. "Bench seats."

She scooted closer to me and touched her lips to my throat, sending shivers down my flesh. She didn't stop, licking, kissing and nipping at the side of my neck that was closer to her, moving her hands to my arm and my chest and then slowly down.

"Liz," I managed through clenched teeth.

"Seth," she purred. "Are you familiar with the term road head?"

Hell yes I was. "Maybe," I smiled. I gasped, in ecstasy as she went down.

It was early afternoon when we finally got to her hometown and I was completely beat. I'd only rested once the entire drive and it had been cramped up in the front seat and on edge the whole time because I wasn't the one driving.

Unfortunately, Liz was buzzing with energy and I needed to choose between getting some sleep or sticking with her, because there was no way she was staying in right now.

We were standing on the porch and she was examining me with those brilliant blue eyes. "I'll take Mark with me, babe. Just get some rest." She ran her finger across the bag under my right eye.

I yawned. The bed was literally calling my name. "Okay," I agreed. "But stay with him. Keep your mace and your knives on you. Call me if you need anything."

She held her hand up. "Promise."

She kissed me before heading back towards her car, and I went the opposite direction to find Mark.

"Hey, man," he said as I entered Liz's mom's kitchen.

"Stay close to her." I didn't need to say more than that. We had discussed what happened to Liz that night... he was almost as horrified as me. He might not even fully realize it himself, but he was so totally head over heels for her. Seeing her in the midst of something so terrible had left its mark on him.

"I won't let her out of my sight, I swear. Aside from bathroom stuff."

I was dead to the world moments later, the second my head hit the pillow that very, very faintly held the scent of cherry pie a la mode.

It was dark beyond my eyelids when I woke up alone. I was feeling around in my pockets and then dialing her number before I even opened my eyes.

"Hey!" she answered excitedly.

"Where are you?" I croaked.

"I'm way out in the boogie woods," she said. "I can come back now if you want."

"Can I run to you?"

"Hold on a second." I heard a muffled "Booo!" and a "Where you going, Legs?" before she yelled, "I have to piss!". "Okay," she finally spoke into the phone. "So. There's nothing but woods between us if you want to run. I just don't have any way of directing you here in that manner."

I laughed. "That doesn't matter. I can sense you from anywhere."

"True," she replied. "The other thing is, make sure you're paying attention and not sneaking up on any of these hoodlums out here. In either form. You could get shot."

I rolled my eyes. "See you in a few, Elizabeth."

I hadn't been phasing much lately, and when I did I was afraid to stray far from home, from Liz. What if someone broke in? What if some crazy witches just poofed themselves into the living room one day? I couldn't take chances like that.

Being in these woods felt so much like being home. It was missing the scent of the saltwater in our ocean, the sounds of hurtling waves crashing to shore, but it was wet and green all the same. I was really itching to explore it more, but I wasn't sure I felt safe leaving Liz alone at all tonight.

I had to hunt around to find the actual road that led to where ever she was out here. When I finally spotted it, I phased in the trees and got my clothes on, smoothed my hair down so I didn't look as wild as I felt right now. The wolf was getting restless inside of me.

I was trying to think up a good excuse as to how I'd gotten here when - of course - someone spotted me.

"Where the fuck did you come from?!" a heavily Southern voice inquired.

I opened my mouth to lie when she came dashing for me, arms wide and body jiggling in all the right places. She jumped onto my front, legs around my waist and she kissed me full on.

There was a whole group gathered as I piggy-backed her closer to the bonfire they were having. She jumped down and started leading me in an almost protective manner. One of the bigger guys gave her a look, then leaned in close to whisper, "I thought you were with that other guy."

She snorted. "Ew. No. Mark is my best friend," she said aloud. "This one is my man." She wrapped her arm around my middle and pulled me close as I fell in step with her. "Matthew!" she suddenly yelled at someone else. "Cheeto me!"

This long haired, somewhat familiar guy threw a handful of Cheetos at her face, missing her mouth completely. "Sorry, Legs."

"Wait, wait. Let me get on your level." She sat down on a large log and opened her mouth wide again. He threw some more Cheetos and missed once more. "You suck at this," she laughed.

"One more?" he asked.

She sighed, faking annoyance. "Fine, fine."

She held her mouth wide once again and he threw more Cheetos, but this time I snatched one out of the air with my mouth, and the rest hit me in the face.

"Seth!" she laughed lightly. "You stole my Cheeto!"

I smiled at her with my mouth full and she playfully smacked my arm and grabbed a guitar from beside of her.

"Alright, Matty. I'll be your backup."

"You gon' sing? 'Cause I'm not singin'," he replied, pulling on his own guitar.

"I will sing my cold, black heart out for you," she promised as he started to play.

This setup was strange to me; Liz never played backup for anyone. Other people played backup for her. But, after a few moments, I got it. This guy was a damn good guitar player, even better than she was.

They were in the middle of a Raconteurs song when some girl sat down in the empty space next to me. Some part of memory recognized her from one of my previous trips here, but I couldn't place her. She stunk like chemicals and it was actually bothering my nose.

"Hey, Seth," she said.

I sucked in a deep breath from Liz's direction before turning and saying hello. I couldn't register her face well enough to remember her, and no way was I taking a whiff of her to jog my memory.

"Haven't seen you guys in a while," she replied. "I'm surprised you're still together after everything."

I could feel it coming and was immediately on edge. She wasn't the first girl to lay out some snide comment to me about my imprint.

"I mean, you must be a really secure guy to see her with all of these gorgeous rock stars all over her and still want to be with her."

There it was.

"Holy shit," Liz started to laugh from my other side. "Nice meth mouth, Mandy!"

And there's the escalation.

Mandy stood up and Liz did, too, depositing her guitar gently on the ground along the way.

"What did you just say to me?!" Mandy yelled.

Liz leaned in, mere inches from her face. "I said nice meth mouth you fucking skank piece of trash."

Everyone was quietly watching, but there was a thrill of excitement in the air. They wanted to watch a girl fight, but I wasn't going to let it happen. The fire was already glowing brighter due to Liz's anger; I couldn't let her expose her powers, and of course I couldn't risk her getting hurt.

Liz glanced down at me, shooting me a look that told me she knew exactly what I was thinking and was having none of it. She ripped her gaze away and acted, grabbing Mandy's arm and dragging her farther from the fire.

"Don't put your hands on me, bitch!" Mandy yelled, attempting to stand her ground.

Liz flung her over the log by her arm and then jumped across it herself. "Get the fuck up, cunt! You want to fight? Let's do this!"

I was up in a flash, restraining my girlfriend as she yelled and flailed and kicked at Mandy. She landed one right to her forehead that was hard enough to jerk her head back in a somewhat grotesque manner. Matt and Mark came over as I pulled her away and helped Mandy up.

Matt turned her towards a line of vehicles. "Get up out of here," he told her.

"Fuck you, Matt! Fuck all of you!" she was flipping out and screaming at everyone, and Liz was struggling harder and yelling back.

"Don't go, come and let me kick your ass you fucking filthy dumpster! Quit running your cocksucker and hit me, bitch!" I was trying so hard not to laugh, but I was the only one. Mark was on his knees, he was losing it so bad. "Let her go, Matt! Let me go!" she yelled, digging an elbow between my ribs.

Matt and Mark went to Mandy to basically force her into her vehicle.

"If I catch you out, Liz - "

"If you catch me out, I'm going to do a fuck lot more than just one kick to your head, cunt." Mandy was trying to shake free again when Liz looked up and back to my face. "You're ruining my fun, baby," she pouted in the most adorable way ever.

I shook my head. "You don't need to be fighting with anyone. You might..." I cut my sentence off, knowing that was not the thing to say to her.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "I might get hurt? That whore couldn't take me on my worst day, baby."

"She could set your mom's house on fire or something," I argued.

"Good thing I'm sleeping at Ana's house tonight," she informed me with a wink and a smile. "She wouldn't do that anyways. She wouldn't even hit me."

"You should have let her beat her ass," Matt said, now beside of me as Mandy's car traveled farther away from the gathering.

"See?" Liz laughed. "What'd she do to you?"

He sighed. "I ain't tryin' to spread nobody's business... but you know D is my brother, and Little D is like a son to me. She doesn't take good care of him." He glanced up at me and started to shift away.

Liz gave me a look and stepped away with him. I guess he didn't feel comfortable talking about it in front of me, but I could still hear everything he was saying. It was awful; I couldn't understand why no one was stepping in to get her child away and to someone that would properly care for him. That's how we did things in La Push... that's how you were supposed to do things if you wanted a healthy community.

She was crying and I really wanted to go to her, but I knew that she wouldn't want that. She cut off their conversation, excusing herself to her car for a moment. I watched her walk a little ways to the car and sit inside, so strikingly beautiful out here in the moonlight. She pulled out her phone and dabbed at her eyes... she was calling the police on Mandy.

I was kind of stunned. Liz had this cop hating thing going on; calling them was the very last thing I would have expected her to do. Regardless, it was a happy kind of stunned because she was doing the right thing for that little boy.

We left soon after that, driving back to Liz's mom's before walking the short distance over to Ana's previous home. Liz didn't even knock, just walked right in like she owned the place.

"Hey Caroline," she called to the robed woman sitting in the living room. "We're sleeping here."

"That's fine, darlin'." Caroline drawled.

We headed downstairs first, to a room I'd slept in a few times. Liz flipped the lights on, and it was clear that nothing had been touched since the last time I was here.

"Last time we were here, I lost three hits of blotter in here," Liz said as she entered the room slowly, her eyes darting around. She shrugged and turned to Mark. "You can have them if you find them. They have an all seeing eye on them."

He smiled. "Awesome."

Ana's room had also remained untouched. It still smelled like her, like the door hadn't been opened since the last time she shut it. Liz plugged in a power strip, causing music to begin playing and tubes and strings of lights all over the room to come to life.

She flopped back onto the bed. "What a fucking night," she sighed.

"Have to agree with you there." Every night we spent in WV was eventful. I wasn't sure if that's just how it was here or if it was Liz herself making it so much more interesting.

She yawned and snuggled closer to me. "Will you just cuddle me until I fall asleep?"

I touched my lips to her forehead. "I'll cuddle you all night, Elizabeth."

"No," she said, already on the edge of unconsciousness. "You should go tonight. Run the woods, feel the wind in your... fur."

"I don't want to leave you..." Though part of me was itching for it.

"Baby, you need to go out. You're going to start aging on me."

I pulled her limp body on top of mine. "I really think I'd look fine all salt and pepper," I joked.

She giggled and rolled over to kiss me. "Go," she said against my mouth. "She kissed me again and I started to protest. "Look at it this way, Seth. You're going to run tonight. Go and see if there are any vamps around, or I'm sneaking out while you're asleep to see for myself."

I growled and flipped over top of her. "You better not."

"Then I guess you have no choice. Go through the window," she said, a note of finality.

"Fine," I finally agreed. "I'll go after you fall asleep."

"Fine," she retorted.