by Rue Volley
“No… these come from kills,” he said quietly.
I looked at the leather on the bed and touched it. “Kills...? Killing what?”
“Sometimes a white lion… sometimes a white rhino, it depends.”
I stood up and pulled my shirt off and started to place the vest on. This one had laces on the front of it, kind of like a corset. I guessed Sam just liked to experiment with the design. I pulled the laces and looked at Theodore. He smiled.
“You really are quite the hottie,” he said to me, and left the room. I laughed at him.
I pulled the top and slipped my hand into the one arm, then the other then pulled my jeans off and slipped the white leather pants on. I thought about the fact that this skin was from some majestic animal that Josh or Sam had taken down. I could only imagine how they did it… hopefully quick. I ran my hand across the front of my shirt and fastened my straps into place. I slipped on my white boots and zipped them up the side. I caught a look at myself in the mirror and realized that a raven had been embedded into the front of my leather shirt. It was also white… so you had to look close to see it. I traced my fingers across it and its wings spread out in flight.
I grinned and placed my blades into the holders on my back and flashed downstairs. I opened the front door and everyone stood there, watching the forest. I flashed up in between Johnathan and Josh and I looked at the forest too.
“What is it?” I asked. Josh kept staring and without looking at me said.
“There are a lot more than I thought.” I looked up at him.
“Rogues?” He nodded and looked at Sam.
“I’ve got point… you protect.” Sam grinned.
“Wait… could you let me in on the battle lingo?” I asked him.
He looked at me and down at the raven on my chest. He shot a look at Sam.
“Nice touch Sam,” he said to her. She laughed.
I looked down at my raven and touched it. I looked at Sam too…
“Thanks,” I said to her. She nodded.
Elin flashed up dressed in white leather too. I barely looked at her. I hope she understood that the ‘kiss thingy’ was a one-night stand kinda thing, absolutely not the prelude to some whacked out affair. She stepped up to me and winked. I sighed. You have got to be kidding me right?
“Okay,” I said as I clapped my hands together once.
“What’s the plan here?” I asked. Josh looked at me.
“To live,” he said.
“Oh… Okay, well I thought we’d have some idea of what we are going to do,” I said as I placed my hands on my hips.
Josh looked up at the sky and watched the gray clouds starting to form. One drop of rain hit my face and I blinked.
“The plan is to survive this,” he said, sounding like he might really mean it.
I cleared my throat and looked at Sam.
“He is kidding right?” I asked her. She winked at me and pressed her hand against the ground. She rose back up and stepped up to Josh’s side. “I have no idea how to track them.”
Theodore stepped out in front of us and raised his hands up to the sky. The clouds looked as if they started to collect over him. Lighting cracked the sky and then hit him; he stood there… lit up like a Christmas tree. I took one step forward and Josh touched my arm. Theodore started to lower his arms and he had a ball of lighting in between them. He grinned and his face looked crazy from the flashing light in front of him. He opened his mouth and let it enter him. He rose off of the ground and his hands and went wide. He threw his head back and then he dropped to the ground in a crouching position. He cut his hand and slammed it to the ground. The lightning raced across the ground through the forest.
He stood up and flashed after it, Josh and Sam followed him. I looked at Johnathan and shrugged my shoulders, as I took off after them too. Johnathan and I reached them as they all stood at the edge of the forest. The lighting traced the ground like long fingers out across the field. I looked up and saw those tents erected. I looked at Theodore.
“Pretty cool Theo,” I said. He looked back at me and smiled.
“Just a little trick I learned from the book you deciphered for me,”
I smiled… at least my hellish make out session with super freak had not been done in vain.
Lights started to flip on at the carnival and music started to echo. I looked down, as the sun left us quickly and realized that we stood right behind a lot of symbols that glowed on the ground. I went to step over one and Josh stopped me.
“No,” he said to me.
I stepped back and waited… for what I wasn’t sure.
I looked at Theo. “Are these protection symbols that you guys put into the ground?”
Theo smiled.
“Not us… Josh has been a busy boy. He laced the entire town with them, in a huge circle.”
I glanced at Josh, who stood there staring at the tents. He looked like he might jump at any moment to get another crack at Jonah. I know that kiss pissed him off. I only hoped that he would not try to kill Johnathan in his sleep now, you know, for my pseudo passionate ‘screw you’ kiss I laid on him.
I leaned up to him. “I hear that you like to kill big kitties,” I said, trying to break the seriousness of the moment. Josh looked at me and back out at the carnival.
“You are talking about the leather,” he said as he knelt down.
We all lowered. I didn’t realize, until this moment… how much of a leader Josh was.
“Yes… my outfit is a kitty, right?”
Josh reached over and didn’t look at me. He accidently grabbed my boob. I hit his hand.
He looked at me and grinned. “Sorry… just thought I’d feel it… to know.” I looked at him. “What? To see how big it was?” I asked. He lowered his head and laughed.
“No Rue… what animal it was.”
“Oh… you can tell?” I said. Josh raised his hand and Sam came to him.
“Go, take Kai and Elin… move down about a half mile and wait,” he said.
I watched all three of them flash from us and I looked over at Theo. He winked at me.
“So what are we doing?” I asked him.
“Waiting,” Josh said with an even tone.
“Waiting for what?” I asked him. He looked at Theo and grinned.
He suddenly flashed from me and I saw him literally flip into the air and then roll with something, until he came to an abrupt stop. He rose up and flashed back to us. It happened so freakin' fast, I don’t think that I blinked. He knelt next to me, like he hadn’t even left my side.
“For that,” he said to me. I looked at him and blinked.
“What?” I said. He grinned at me.
“You asked what I was waiting for… it was to kill that disgusting rogue.” I shook my head.
“You were gone for like fifteen seconds, Josh,” I said.
“Yea… I’m getting slow in my old age,” he said. He looked back at Theo.
“More will come… they will smell the dead one,” he said to him. I crinkled my nose.
“So… you killed that one, to what...? Set a trap?”
He grinned and touched my nose.
“Hold on,” he said to me. Again he was gone in an instant and back just as quick.
I took maybe three breaths while he was gone.
“What did you do?” I asked him.
“I killed three more,” he said as he watched the field. I raised my hands.
“You are kidding me,” I muttered. He grinned again.
“No, that time I had to take a piss,” he said. I laughed and covered my mouth.
I tapped him on the arm.
“Hey, do you think that you could grab me a burger next time you do the flashy thing?”
Theo raised his hand up. “I could use a drink,” he said.
I looked back at Theo and grinned. Josh raised his hand up and we looked out at the field.
“Sweet…” Josh muttered.
He flashed from us and this time I moved forward and tried t
o see anything that he was doing. I heard a little scuffle and he flashed back, dragging the ticket boy with him. The boy had lost his hat… the ‘Ladies Love Me’ declaration, he so proudly wore. Josh had his arm around his throat, cutting off his ability to talk. He kicked and tried to grab at Josh’s face. Josh brought his fist up and knocked him out and dropped him on the ground in front of me. I backed away from him and bumped into Theo. Sam, Kai, and Elin flashed up to us and Sam stared at the boy. She looked at Josh and grinned.
“See that you caught one,” she said.
I stood up and rubbed my arm.
“I don’t know what just happened,” I said to everyone.
“Shit,” Josh muttered as he flashed out of the way of a girl… She looked way too young to be a protector… maybe fifteen.
She came to a skidding stop and hissed at us. I grabbed my blades from my back and she lunged at me. I, for some reason, froze… really? Sam flashed in front of me and knocked her to the ground. She squirmed under Sam’s foot, and grabbed at her leg. Sam flashed down and stabbed her. She stopped moving. Sam stood back up and wiped the blood from her blade with her fingers and smelled it. She crinkled her nose.
“Oh god,” she muttered. I stepped up to her and raised my hands.
“Does anyone want to tell me what the deal is?” I asked.
“Well… we are hunting Rue. Something you will need to learn how to do,” she said as she placed her blade on her back and kissed Kai. I turned to Josh.
“So what now?” I asked him.
“Well, now we torture the hell out of him and wait, until he gives us the information that we need,” Josh said as he pulled his blades out.
I looked down at the boy and then back up at Josh. “Torture?” I said.
Josh grinned… a new grin, a wicked one that I never seen from him before.
I looked at the boy and then touched Josh’s arm.
“Are you sure that you need to torture him?” I asked. Josh laughed.
“Yea… ‘paid or laid’ remember?” he asked me. I shook my head.
“It was my idea to go to the carnival. He just so happened to be manning the ticket booth,” I said. Josh stared at him and flipped his blades in his hands.
“Yea, lucky him,” he muttered.
I stepped in between Josh and the boy, who still lay on the ground unconscious. I glanced down at him.
“He doesn’t deserve to die for that Josh.”
Josh stared at me and grinned. He leaned around me and looked at the boy.
“Oh… but he will,” he said as he looked down at him and avoided looking at me.
Theodore touched my arm and pulled me away from them.
“We need to eat,” He said to me.
I stared at Josh for a moment more. This was a chance for me to say something, but I opened my mouth and suddenly I didn’t have anything to say. New for me. I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. No one cared what Josh was about to do… no one but me. I still wanted to hold on to some shred of humanity, where you don’t go around killing people, or rogues… or whatever.
I looked at Sam and she had a blank look on her face. Johnathan didn’t look like he even cared. He was staring at me and Kai was like a kid in a candy store. He paced back and forth, like he wanted to get it on. Awesome Kai… you turd. Elin was staring at Josh. I guess that was the one thing that made me mad. I hate her… yep… HATE her. Don’t think that very often and mean it. I guess if I was cool I’d want to see it too... but I don’t, not really. I let Theo pulled me along with him, like a little kid being dragged to the dentist. My stomach started to growl.
I looked back at Josh, as he stood over the boy on the ground. I wanted to stay, but I just knew that I probably shouldn’t. I had a bad tendency to forget the ugly and try to focus on the pretty, anymore. This was obviously something that I really had no business being a part of. I stopped. I shouldn’t have. I turned back, just as Josh raised his blades and slammed them into both of the boys’ arms… pinning him to the ground. Josh straddled him and placed his hand over his mouth, as the boy screamed under him. I flinched. I loved Josh, but the killer in him is something that I don’t like to dwell on… I really don’t. We are not animals... are we?
Theo and I flashed back to the house and I sat on the couch with my arms crossed on my chest. I stared at the door, expecting to wait up for them all to return. Theo came in and handed me a glass. It had swirling color in it. I looked up at him, wondering what he had mixed up for me. If it was something to make me sleep, I was going to be really mad. He smiled at me and sat down. I felt better when I saw that he had a glass, swirling with color too. I held it up and watched it getting lost as the colors danced in the glass.
“Drink,” he said.
“And what is this?” I asked him.
“Something you need to start drinking everyday… like the rest of us,” Theo said as he drank his down.
I watched him and waited to get the truth. He lowered his glass and laughed.
“It is not an act of trickery Rue… in fact it offends me that you would think so poorly of me,” he winked, to indicate that it was a joke. I grinned.
“I just want to know what I’m drinking… especially when it moves in the glass.”
I held it up again and stared at it. It looked like oil in water.
“It is chromium my love, it will help with your hunger. It takes everything that you ingest and makes it stick.”
“Like a vitamin?” I asked him. Theo lifted my glass to my lips like a little kid. I started to drink it.
“Like a thousand… to us,” he said.
I drank it down and it tasted sweet, like blood. I really wanted another one, but I set my glass down when I heard voices outside. I stood up and walked to the door, opened it and looked out. They had all returned and Kai was patting Josh on the back while Elin stood there staring at him. I stepped out and watched the rain start to come down a little harder. I looked at Elin and Josh as she was leaning into his ear and he laughed. I cleared my throat and she looked at me.
Johnathan stepped up onto the porch and stared at me. Then he went inside. Elin touched Josh’s arm and I instantly wanted to tear her heart out. She smiled at me and flashed away. Kai stood there and Sam grabbed his arm. I walked out to them to Kai laughing as he held his hand up at Josh.
“Dude… when you tore his arm off, I almost shit my pants!” he said. Sam tugged on him and Kai reluctantly let her pull him towards the door.
I blinked as the rain started to come down pretty hard. I looked at Josh, as the lightning lit up everything around us, and he was covered in blood. I stood there and watched as the rain started to wash it off of him and it pooled at his feet. He stepped towards me. I opened my mouth, but nothing really came to mind. He looked too much like a serial killer, for me to have much to say.
He reached towards my face and I let him touch it. His body was humming like an engine.
“So… you killed him, I take it?” I asked him.
He took his hand from my face and tilted his head at me. The lighting lit up everything again and I noticed blood on his mouth.
“Okay… so I guess I did,” he said.
“Did you get any information from him?” I asked. Josh grinned.
“He said to tell you that he was sorry.”
I put my hands on my hips and looked at his mouth.
“Did you eat him?” I asked.
“Oh… no, they taste awful, really nasty.” He wiped the blood from his mouth.
“I bit his fingers off,” he said, like it was just everyday business.
“So… is this what boys get if they hit on me?” I asked him. He laughed.
“I guess so,” he said as he started to walk towards the house. I turned around and walked behind him.
“That is crazy,” I said. He laughed and opened the door and walked in.
Once he was in the light I really noticed how much blood was on him. It was unbelievable. He went into the kitchen and open
ed the fridge up. I walked up behind him and grabbed a towel. I wiped the blood from the handle of the fridge as he sat down. I dropped it in the sink and stood there... not really knowing how to navigate all the crap. I mean… what do you say to a boy, that you really like, when he just killed someone...? Partially due to the fact that his victim had hit on you, and it pissed him off? I would like to know. I looked at him and decided to take the low road, the one most travelled when you find yourself in the strangest of situations…
“So, what was Elin whispering to you?” I asked him. I guess this is my only avenue. I don’t know how to have a fight about which way he should kill someone.
“She said that I made her hot,” he said. I looked at him and walked out of the kitchen.
He was in front of me before I took my first step on the stairs.
“And.” He looked at me. “I told her to kiss my ass.” I looked down and then back up at him. “Sounds great,” I said.
I tried to walk past him and he backed me against the wall, my face was even with his.
I looked at him, as he gently touched my lips. I sucked my breath in as he leaned his body against me.
“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” he asked me.
My heart did a flip so hard in my chest I thought it stopped beating. I started to open my mouth and he kissed me. I felt his lips humming on mine and I clinched my fists as Johnathan came down the stairs. He bumped into Josh and Josh lowered his head and looked at him sideways, as Johnathan walked to the kitchen and grabbed an apple. Johnathan turned and walked back up the stairs and took a bite of the apple right by us and started to chew it. He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at Josh. Josh stared at him and Johnathan walked down the hallway and slammed his door. I sighed. Josh looked at me.
“Did you enjoy kissing him?” he asked me.
“If I say ‘yes’ are you going to bite his fingers off?” I asked him as I bit my lip.
“Not at first,” he said.
“Okay then.” I said, as I pushed myself from the wall and walked up the stairs. I looked down at him. “Listen, I don’t trust myself with you in my bed, so… just sleep in your own,” I said to him.
I think I heard him mutter something, but I walked to my room and closed the door. I knew that it wasn’t really a deterrent to him but it was a clear sign that I did not want him in there. I wasn’t mad or even disgusted really. Which is just freakin bizarre, right? I just did not want to smell the blood on him. He was right, that boy smelled nasty. Oh crap… I meant to ask him where the hat went. I kinda wanted to wear it. Weird right? I heard him outside the door and I opened it up just a little. He stopped and leaned against the wall. I smiled.