Chapter 43

Sitting in a fielded of sweet grass outside the French town, I look down at my hands. They still shook from whatever had happened to me inside that room with the two Dracul Purebloods. Looking down at the palm of my left hand, the one that had been slammed into by the sword had nothing on it. It wasn't cut, not even a bruise from being hit. What was happening to me? I look up at the moon, fear and worry causing my mind to race. There were things happening to me I didn't understand. I could walk in the sun, I could go months without feeding, I could eat human food, I could move the air around me, I could shape shift, and now it seemed I had unnatural strength and an immunity to silver and tridium swords. Some of those only A ranks could do, however there were others not even Purebloods could, not only that but I had never been bitten. What was I? I wasn't human because I could self sustain for months without food, drank blood, could do things humans could only dream of, but I wasn't vampire either because I could walk in the sun and eat food. Brushing my hands through my hair, I whisper to myself, tears brimming my eyes, 'Calm down Natasha, you're fine.'

That's when I hear a voice I didn't want to hear, 'Nina!'

Slowly I let my hands fall, knowing that voice that swirled around me like warm cashmere. Turning my head, I look at Nick who was walking towards me in his long black coat and simple button down shirt. My mind was transported back to my naive youth, seeing this handsome and exotic man walk towards me. I should have know back then to stay away, unfortunately I was stupid.

Sighing, I ask softly, 'What is it Nick?'

'I don't appreciate being ignored or my orders being willfully disobeyed.'

Blinking, I look up at him. The smell of his blood had mosly disappeared, whatever was left having dried on his clothes, his wounds having already healed from the sword. My hands still shook and I close my eyes, trying yo calm the thirst that had once again awakened, saying quietly, 'My apologies. There were simply too many pheremones and strong powers in that room, I felt like I was going to die.'

'That's not true.'

My eyes pop open as he looks down at me and murmurs, 'You were hungry.'

Gulping, I tear my eyes away from his blue ones and look at a point on the horizon. Suddenly I realize he is going to sit next to me and I jerk in surprise, but he reassures, 'Don't fret, I'm only sitting.'

Calming my racing heart, I start to ask, 'What hap...'

But then Nick interrupts in a soft tone that flowed over me like a soft smoke, 'This feels so familiar to me, but I can't seem to place it.'

The hairs on the back of my neck raise as I look at his shadowed profile, the moon waxing in the night sky, letting off little light. My breathing starts to increase, but not from fear of him knowing who I was, it was... something else.

Slapping away the feelings trying to bubble to the surface, I ask abruptly, 'What happened when I left?'

'Nothing too sinister, emotions cooled, and Helix was taken to Colmar to be healed by a Seeker. It seems I was too harsh on him and truly shattered his mind.'

This made me shiver knowing how easy Nick could hurt me eithout ever touching me as he continues, 'My brother believes that someone may have used him to destroy the information.'

'But the paper was new.'

'Exactly, which meand my brother will have to return to Egypt and have the archival librarian's minds probbed, and if possible Helix's once he has mended. Tomorrow, however, we will have our human counterparts take care of the nasty business of telling the press some stupid story about some gas leak or whatever they see fit. The Night Hunter's are better equiped to deal with that part of it. However that is besides the point...'

Slowly he looks at me, though his face was shadowed, I felt a twinge in my heart as he asks, 'I know my blood is intoxicating for most vampire. Many can't restrain themselves from wanting it. Even the A ranks in the room were struggling, but you are the first C rank I have ever seen to walk away from me in such a state, twice...why?'

That was the question wasn't it. I simply shrug, just as stumped as he was. He then asks another, 'You are also the only one that tried to stop my brother and I from trying to kill each other. No one else dared to interfere. A true C rank shouldn't have been able to move, much less be concious during the exchange. But you could, how?'

Again all I could do is shrug and shake my head. I could feel the fears and frustrations I had dealt with for centuries bubbling up to the surface again. My breathing becoming unsteady and halting as he asks the next, 'And the fact that you can resist us. Us the royal Purebloods, who's lineage and power make even A ranks shudder in fear and fall to their knees in subjugation, you don't. How?'

Tears filled my eyes again, my heart slamming in my chest as I stare back at his face. Those were more questions I could not answer. I was alone and there had been no others like me, no one I could ask for an explanation to what I was.

In that moment I wanted to desperately tell him everything, but then I snap away from it, standing abruptly, words from my past ringing in my ear from Furlow, 'Never tell anyone about your abilities.'

I quickly say, 'If I knew I would give you the answer, but I don't. Maybe the Silent Phantasma knows something about me that not even I know.'

Looking down at him, his face now illuminated by the moonlight, calm and unscrutable, I continue, 'Maybe along the way we will find the answers.'

'We?'

'Maybe.'

He lets out an amused huff and stands, towering over me saying, 'Maybe. Come lets get some blood to sooth our thirst.'

As he walks back towards the small town, I look at his back, remembering something else Furlow had said that I hadn't thought about for years. A small smile comes to my face as I tuck my chin to my chest and trudge after my maker.