章節 27: 26
R U B Y
It felt weird being back in this house. I sat up in bed staring before rising and heading to the window. There has always been something calming about
watching the world outside one's window. Whether it is night or day, I can sit at a window and feel a heavy weight lifted off my shoulders.
After Axel left, I chatted with Natalie for a while before taking a long, long shower and going to sleep. I was exhausted and frankly, still on edge after seeing that shadow person watching me. I was trying not to think about the fact that it might have followed us here. I had slept during the day to be awake during the night.
I woke up after 5 pm and was unable to find Natalie or Xavier in the house. I'd been in my room since. With the house being so empty and knowing only a few wolves were patrolling the forest, I just wanted to be in my room where I was locked away and felt safe enough.
The towering trees outside my window weren't offering me the calm I was expecting. The forest here was thicker than where Axel's safe house was. I was becoming more uneasy the longer I stared out the window. I felt like within those trees...something was staring back at me.
I drew the curtain and turned away.
Natalie walked into the room at that moment. "Hey," she said as she came over to my bed and plopped down.
"Hey." I sat beside her. "I wish we didn't have to stay here for the night. I know Mathieu will be back in the morning to take us to where everyone else is but couldn't we have gone into the city, rent somewhere for the night?" I turned to face her. "I mean, there's no one here. If we're attacked, we'll surely die."
She placed her hand over mine and gave me a reassuring smile. "There are several warrior wolves in the forest. We aren't alone. I slept here last night alone and I was perfectly fine."
I'd been trying not to panic as she tried to reassure me. I sighed. "It's not just the vampires I'm afraid of. Someone is watching me, Natalie. That guy or whatever that thing was in my room the other night at the motel freaked me out."
"I'd be freaked out too, so I understand."
"I feel uncomfortable being here with everything that went down up until I left. I saw the shadows here as well, so being here right now, doesn't make me feel safe."
Frowning, she asked, "You saw shadows here in the house?"
I nodded and told her about what I'd seen during our mind link.
She looked confused the more I spoke and eventually, stood up and started pacing.
"I didn't say anything because there wasn't any time to," I added.
She nodded, as she looked perplexed. "No, no I get it. I understand why you said nothing. I'm wondering why I didn't see that during the mind link. I doubt Reika had seen it either or she would have told me."
"You trust her?" I asked her.
Again, she nodded. "I do. She helped me out that night when you guys left and she's been filling me in on what's been going on with the Council since. She can be trusted. Xavier was telling me earlier about everything that happened with the vampires that attacked you guys." She sat down again.
I let out a sigh as I bit down on my lip for a second as red eyes flashed in my mind. "I thought I was going to die," I said in a low voice. "He was tearing into me, Natalie. Have you ever seen a dog bite down on something and shake it? That's what…" I closed my eyes for a moment as my body tensed up. The memory was too painful. "It was the most horrible thing I've ever experienced in my life. I could feel my blood rushing to my neck."
She moved my hair over my shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Now, you know what these creatures are like, the monsters that they are. You, Axel, and Xavier all do. As for whoever saved you guys…" She puckered her lips. "I don't know. Either that person was following you guys, following the vampires, or was just at the right place at the right time."
"How did he know where to take us though?"
"I don't know." She shrugged. "If the person healed all three of you and from what Xavier told me you were all in pretty bad shape, they must have been strong. No doubt, it had been a witch or powerful warlock or a demon. Whomever it was, they're an ally if they saved you all and all-powerful allies will be needed in the fight to come." Grasping my shoulders, she turned me to face her.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Moving my hair back on my other shoulder, she hovered her hand over the area where I had been bitten. She closed her eyes for a moment and when they reopened, they were as
white as clouds. "There are traces of magic on you. It definitely was a witch or something but it's fading."
"I didn't say this to the guys," I whispered. "But I think that shadow in my room was the person who saved us. I hadn't realized that might be the case until I woke up the next morning."
Pulling her hand away, she pursed her lips as her white eyes faded back to blue. "That could be true, yes."
"Fight to come?" I repeated. I felt like Natalie knew more than she was letting on. "You said there is a fight to come. How do you know that? Have you had a vision?"
"No, it's just clear if the vampires aren't stopped and things will get out of hand."
"Who's going to stop them? The Council members are focusing on their safety right now."
Despite how crappy the human government could be, I was certain that when, not if, they find out about vampires, they'd use everything in their power to fight back and protect their people. The werewolf Council wanted to hide vampires while they slaughtered packs one by one.
Natalie smoothed my brows down with a finger. "Our pack and the ones that are willing to fight will have to come together. We have to start hunting the vampires. We all have to help."
"No," I said. "I've faced those things, Natalie, I saw his eyes. I can't face another one of them. I don't have the strength you and the others have, so count me out. When that fight starts, I'll be locked in a room while sitting in a circle of guns. That's all I can do to protect myself."
She didn't say anything for a while.
I didn't care how selfish it sounded. Unlike the Council members, who had the power to help and refused, I couldn't help even though I wanted to. If Axel and Xavier had to watch over me at all times, it left them at risk and it left
them distracted. Axel had his pack to look after and Xavier needed to help his father to protect their people.
"I saw the way Axel looked at you before he left," she whispered. "Are you two becoming closer?"
I again tensed up. I thought of his apology for how he had treated me in the start and shrugged. "We're not close but civil. He left with us, putting himself in danger and his pack. He um, he apologized for everything."
A smile spread across her lips
I rolled my eyes. "Stop smiling like that. All he did was apologize to me." Despite saying this, I couldn't stop the flutter of butterfly wings in my belly. Axel has seemed different, kinder but it was only a sprinkle of kindness in his otherwise hostile personality made up of 95% asshole. But because of this fact, whenever he said something sweet or did something kind, I knew it was real.
Natalie stayed with me for a while as we talked about some of her past relationships and my failed ones. It was a good distraction from what was happening around us. Even if it was only for a little while, we were just girls gossiping about or experiences and boys. Not vampires and a war neither of us can fight.
Natalie
he vision I had seen of Ruby being attacked was like I had been there. I hadn't felt her pain but I
had felt her fear as she looked into the blood-red eyes of that vampire.
As I laid in bed, unable to sleep it felt like I could see those eyes looking down at me from the ceiling. I closed my eyes as they began to tear up. I'd turned into a liar and while
I was doing this for good reasons...it didn't stop how horrible I felt. I couldn't tell Ruby I had seen her attack long before it had happened. How would I explain to her that I had to lead her to it? I wasn't told why, but I could only assume there were things I didn't know, things I couldn't explain.
I was merely a servant.
I had asked myself so many times what good could come from her being attacked by a vampire? What I did feel sure of was that her being bitten was completely unavoidable. If it hadn't happened that night, it would happen another night and it might have turned out even worse. I might not be able to see it coming. Either way, she had to see what vampires were like for herself—they all needed to see it.
The role they were going to play in the future depended on their hatred for vampires. What better way of solidifying that hatred than by having a true score to settle. That's why I thought she needed to be bitten. The vampires that attacked them had been killed—that part I didn't see—I hadn't known how they would be saved, just that they would be. Even though those vampires were killed, Axel, Xavier, and Ruby would hold this newfound hatred close to them.
Vampires were fueled by hunger and rage. To beat them… it had to be matched.
I said nothing to Ruby when she admitted to being scared because so was I. I too, felt terrified. As for the shadows she was seeing and whoever was following her, I knew nothing about that.
I frowned as I looked over at my door. I swallowed as a metallic taste appeared in my mouth. I stuck my tongue out and sat up. My tongue was covered in blood.
"Something's wrong."
I got out of bed, leaving my shoes behind as I rushed out of the room. I wasn't sure what it was but death was coming, I could feel it. I rushed to Ruby's room and found her fast
asleep. I breathed a sigh of relief, but why wasn't this foreboding fading?
I closed her room door and as I was walking, back to my room a piercing howl could be heard outside. It was a wolf in pain and again, blood appeared in my mouth. My gut twisted as I turned and headed for the stairs.
I ran down the stairs and as I got halfway down, the front door flew open.
Axel rushed in. He dropped a large bag and rubbed his arm as if it were sore from its weight.
I looked behind me to the second floor where Xavier appeared and without hesitation, he threw himself over the railing. He fell on the first floor and I ran down the rest of the stairs.
"What's going on?" he asked Axel who was still panting. Axel turned away to close the door still hanging open.
"Where is Ruby?"
The cold night air gushed forth causing goosebumps to dot my flesh. "Sleeping," I answered. "What's going on? I heard a wolf's howl, we didn't expect you back tonight," I added. "Did something hap—" I coughed as blood began to pour from my lips and another howl ran through the night. I could smell it then, a rancid smell.
Xavier grabbed my shoulder as another wolf's cry met our eyes.
"No," I said as I wiped at my mouth.
"What the fuck is going on right now?" Xavier asked.
I swallowed and turned to him as I slowly and shook my head. "Can't you smell that?"
"I can't smell it. They're too far away, how can you?" Axel asked me.
"I'm an Enchanted remember?" I turned to Xavier, whose confusion was slowly fading from his face as he realized what's happening. I nodded as he released my shoulder.
"They're coming. The vampires are coming, Xavier. We have to get Ruby. Now!"
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