???
Being back in such close proximity to a place that I’d long tried to forget but with great difficulty, could not, provoked a hoard of mixed emotions. Ever since that night, I’d found that I didn’t have as good a handle on feelings as I once did.
Physically, things hadn’t changed too much, though there were noticeable differences. Mentally, however, I had entered a whole new world. My perception of everything surrounding me was as different as night and day to me now. I just wasn’t sure whether it could be considered for the better. Though, I’m sure the lives that I’d indiscriminately taken since my retransitioning to this world, would vote on the contrary.
That was one thing, indeed, that I had a problem with, I’ll admit. Not the life taking-oh no, but the fact that I held no remorse for the lives that I had decided to take. It was as if all humanity was gone from me and where I once had it in the beginning, I now struggled to find out why.
“You know that you can find out if you just tell him that you are here.” My beast pressed incessantly in the recesses of my mind.
“I told you…Fierya, I will not.”
Fierya was the beastly soul awakened within me on that night. She’d been a conscious friend to me at the worst moments of my new life, and while I appreciated her, she did aggravate me at the best of times. Now, being one ‘em.
“Then we go on, taking life without cause. Is that really what we desire?”
Of course not. At least that was what I should have said but I knew that I didn’t feel this way. In truth, I did not care enough to think so deeply into feeling as much as the why I hadn’t been feeling in the first place.
“Logically, I do not think that it’s conducive to not have a conscious, but…what can I do about that, Fier?” I shrugged.
“We both know the answer to that,”
“I will not!” I growled, losing my patience with my best friend and other half.
“Ah! You see, we have feelings. They are just rooted and saturated in rage.”
Maybe…I could not deny that this was not an extremely plausible possibility. Nevertheless, I certainly didn’t want to think about that now.
“Right now, Fier, I am chiefly concerned about my hunger,” I said as I continued my hooded stroll down the gradually idling street of what was once my home.
“And I trust you realize that this hunger that we are feeling is a direct cause of-”
“No, it is not,” I quickly rejected. “You read entirely too much into things sometimes.”
I could hear my counterpart scoff in the back of my mind but I ignored it. Although the truth of the matter was, she may have been only partially right. Some part of me wanted to let that girl die but, another part of me knew that I couldn’t. If for no one’s sake but his. I owed him that much, or at least that was what I told myself. In truth, I should have asked myself whether I owed him anything at all.
Life was never a fairytale for me, so why did I even feel like I should lift a finger to do anything for anyone anymore? Stuck, that’s what I was; in a time where doing anything for anyone but myself was what my life was about. And it angered me to think about me.
“You may be right, Fierya,” I finally confessed. “About my unsettled emotions,” I shook my head and watched as a young couple came fumbling out of a club in the distance, my frustrations already beginning to take aim. The girl was drunk, and the guy, well, I could tell that he meant to take advantage of it. “But I…I am too angry to face it right now. I can’t. Not yet.” I hissed, keeping watch as a predator would its prey while the young man subtly lured the girl into the alleyway by the club.
It was as soon as I saw this that I dissipated into shadows and followed suit. He became aggressive as the scantily clad young woman attempted to fight him off-to no avail of course.
“I s…said no, Josh! No!” the young woman persisted. The harder she tried to fight him off the more aggressive he became. I decided then to intervene before things got too bad.
As he lifted his hand to strike her and she opened her mouth to scream, I snatched him up with a smile. “You’re simply too handsome to have to resort to such trickery with women,” I grimaced with disappointment. “Are there no more gentlemen in the world?”
He was in too much shock to say anything and the young woman was too surprised to move. Not what I would have done in a moment like this but, I should not have been surprised that she’d simply stand there, mouth agape.
There was very little else to say following my comment. I proceeded to sink my elongated fangs into his neck and sucked mercilessly until he was a hollow husk of a man. I’d always leave a drop to see if the body wanted to fight to live. Was it cruel? It was very cruel, technically speaking.
“Th-thank you,” the girl shakily said in her drowsy state.
“Oh, sweetie, I…I think…you may have the wrong idea about me,” I said as I sauntered over to her with a seemingly sympathetic smile, though truth be told, I did not feel any remorse for what I was about to do.
“Wha…wha’ do you mean?” she asked in her groggy state. At this point, the muppet had at least started to move her legs to get away.
“I mean, hon, that I’m still hungry and, well…you’re here.”
Her reaction was so delayed that I almost felt sorry for the poor dumb damsel. Almost. She turned tail to run and before she could hit one step in the opposite direction of me, I was in front of her and her neck was in between the gripping bend of my fingers.
I thought about apologizing but considering the fact that there’d be no sincerity in my words, I decided against it.
Please…no….don’t do this. They’d all said the same thing before their demise, so it certainly wasn’t a surprise when she finally did it. I stifled an amused and admittedly heartless chuckle that threatened to surface. Then suddenly her expression changed. It immediately darkened and a sneer replaced her expression.
Instinct told me to drop her but before I could, she shoved me so hard that my grip loosened on her and I fell back against the alleyway dumpster, almost completely destroying it.
“Sorry, dove,” said the girl as her innocent features suddenly turned menacing. “You ruined my meal,” her gaze quickly shifted to the rear of her. She, like I, heard someone on approach. “I’d kill you but, I have to run. We’ll finish this dance again,”
“Promise?” I grinned.
A dry chuckle sounded through the air, and though it was dark, and the night tried to hide us from one another, I knew that it was her who found amusement. “Oh, I promise. Later, dove,” she said and suddenly disappeared.
After she left, standing there a moment as I wondered silently, how I’d end her life when we finally met again. No hard feelings, of course, but there couldn’t be two powerful alpha females wandering so close to home. And I could sense, this one was extremely powerful.
“You ruined my takedown,” said a voice in the distance, outside of the alleyway. When I looked up, there stood a figure, leaning against the entrance of the backstreet, his arms crossed.
I was not in the mood for another song and dance with another person. “If you’re not going to serve as a meal, I don’t have time for this conversation, I said walking past him.
“Someone so powerful, and yet you couldn’t even tell that the girl was not human,” he pointed out.
“Crazy, isn’t it?” I sarcastically noted.
“Whether it’s crazy or not, you know that I cannot allow you to just…walk away…right, love?”
When he said this, I stopped, knowing that whether I kept walking or not, I’d have a problem with this one as he was extremely powerful as well. My lucky night, I thought to myself and turned around.
“What? You gone take me in or something? I trust they’ve made the promised upgrades to that little horse shed that they call a prison,” I laughed when I thought about the haggard ram-shacked prison for bad humans.
“You’re not a human,” he said. “So, needless to say, you’ll need something far more…containable,” he walked toward me, and immediately sweet scent reached me before he did.
“You know, I eat inhumans too…right?”
“You won’t eat me,” he said with confidence.
“You…you make a big assumption. I wonder if you’re arrogant or just…very confident.”
“I…just have…this feeling,” he said and approached me closer. “That…”
His words veered off as he came closer, and I did not flinch over his towering height. I was too impressed with his waxen pale and yet masculine features; his eyes were verdant and dominating as he looked down at me. There was something familiar about him.
“I know you,” he stated.
“Do you?” I was doubtful but somehow I felt that he may have been telling some semblance of the truth.
Gradually, he began to smile. “Oh…yes,” he chuckled. “Bones,” He snickered. “Last I saw you, you had a party to plan.”
Mentioning this, sparked a distant memory. “It’s been a while,” I replied.
“It has, and you owe me a drink.”
He was an interesting character and while I didn’t mind the idea of continuing this conversation, I thought better of it. But before I told him my decision, he took my hand.
“Oh come on,” he said. “You remember Bones,” he glanced back toward the building.
It was then that I realized where I was. The building was no longer the small and quaint hole in the wall that I onced knew. Sad really; whatever changes were made seemed to almost completely take away the charm that the old bar and grille once exuded.
Where once a one-way door stood, there was now a large male guard blocking the way to a revolving entrance from a long line of young men and women. It was a far cry from the old stomping ground that I once remembered. Suddenly, I couldn’t help but wonder how old Herry was doing.
“No worries, love,” he said shifting my thoughts away from the thought of Herry Bones. “I won’t bite.”
There was no need for aggression so when I pulled away from him, with a smile. “You may not, but I cannot say the same,” I replied. “For now…I must decline…master Damian.” I said mockingly as I recalled our conversation that night over two years ago. Steadily, I backed away as I gradually began to dissipate into the shadows that covered me. “Raincheck,” was the last thing I said before allowing the shadows of the night to take me.
*********
Warren:
“Where is she?” I stormed the medical center in search of my daughter. “What happened?!”
“Calm down, Alastair,” Toran pressed as he followed behind me. “Minken said that she was fine.”
“Why? Why was there an attack of such great magnitude? There hasn’t been one in-in almost two years. And where was-”
“Alastair, working yourself up over this will not help anything.” Toran pressed.
When we arrived at her room, I quickly rushed in and saw that Harlyn was sitting on the side of the bed, her back facing me as she looked out of the window.
“Sweetheart?” I walked into the room, Toran still close behind. Minken was already there and there was a look frustration and seeming shame in his expression.
“I’m so sorry, alpha. I thought-”
“You thought what?” I hissied impatiently. “What happened?”
“He thought that…his daughter would actually look out for someone other than herself,” Harlyn spoke distantly, her gaze never shifting from the view of the window. She finally looked at me after a moment, tears brimming her eyes. “She left me…by myself….to fend and…well…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t have to, as I’d heard the news concerning her…ordeal. Someone helped her…someone saved her.
“There were a lot of husks on that beach, Harly,” I said, sitting next to her.
“There were,” she replied, her eyes beginning to overflow with tears. I knew not to push the conversation further. I decided that I’d let her her broach the subject that I’d been almost desperate to hear. “You’re wondering howo I got out of there alive.”
My daughter already knew what I wanted to know but I still didn’t push it. “Are you alright?” I asked instead.
Where once her weary eyes stared out of the window. “I’m here,” she said, slapping her hand against her legs. She looked at me again with a soft and still bitter chuckle.
I looked at Minken and could tell that he’d already beaten himself up enough. The delta had done no more to spoil his daughter than I had. So I certainly could not point fingers because his was less courageous.
“Where is your daughter?”
He grimaced. “I’ve sent Talon to find her and bring her to you for judgment, alpha-”
“No,” I shook my head, cutting him off. “Send her home, Delta. I’ll deal with that at a later time, but right now there are far more important things that needs to be addressed.” I told my Delta, as I knew that John would probably chastise the girl enough for the both of us. The least, I could do for his sake is give some time before addressing her.
“As you wish, alpha.”
I then returned my attention to my daughter. “Harly, did you-”
“It was her,” Harlyn said before I could finish, her eyes staring distantly forward. “It had to be,” she looked at me. “Right? There was no mistaking it! I saw it! I saw it!”
“What did you see, sweetheart?”
She cried for a moment, and I gave her that moment to get herself together then Harlyn chuckled more harshly than she did last time. “I guess I shouldn’t surprised. Even at her worst, she was always the one that I could count on,” she murmured under her breath.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Vali…daddy…it was Vali who saved me!” she exclaimed. “It had to be her! I saw it! I saw her! Talon doesn’t believe but…I know it. She’s always been there. Always. I know what I saw.” The more she spoke, the more she seemed to doubt herself. “It had to be, but they tell me that shock made me see things. I don’t believe that. It was her…right?” she looked at me for validation and honestly, I wasn’t sure that I could give it to her, despite the newfound information given to me. “Right? Daddy?”
“Tell her, Alastair,” that familiar throaty voice said from behind.
I should have known that she’d come, but I was too frustrated to deal in logic at the time. “Merari, what are you doing here?” I asked without turning to her.
I didn’t have to as shortly after hearing her alluring voice, she stood directly in front of me and Harlyn.
“Daddy?” Harlyn called my name her gaze tentatively and defensively on Merari.
“Hello, dear,” the beautiful woman greeted Harlyn.
“Who are you?” Harlyn asked without hesitation.
Merari simply smiled at her. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Forgive me, but I just had to see Caris’s little miracle baby,” she approached and her hand hovered over my daughter’s features and for a second I did not trust what she’d do to her. Then she retracted. “What a pretty little thing you are,” she said and then sighed. “My name is Merari, dear,” she replied. “And to answer the question that your father is too cowardly to answer, yes…it was Valene.”