by S. M. McCoy
I was not demanding, I thought, then considered that I was acting very out of character, like there wasn’t a care in the world. It was strange, I felt numb, free from emotional attachment to my situation. Everything felt very much like a realistic dream, like I was still sleeping and nothing could go wrong that I couldn’t wake up from.
“I…”
“That’s a rhetorical question. No need for an answer.”
“Rhetorical question or not, it is still a question.”
“Why aren’t you afraid?”
“Familiarity, I guess.” And a strange feeling that this wasn’t real at all. This place seemed like a place I’d been before, a made up place in my mind. He reminded me of the shadow in my dream, but not all shadows scared me—this one came with a warning.
“More.”
“I am not elaborating.” I waited for a response then continued, “Frustrating, isn’t it?” Oh damn, maybe he wouldn’t catch that one. At a two-to-one ratio, letting my questions get away with me like that was not good.
“Yes, so it is. Why do you say familiar?”
“Déjà vu. Like I’ve been here before.” I remembered all the smells, the feelings, the sounds, the view out the window. It all seemed so familiar. And not real at all.
“How do you feel you’ve been here before?”
“I’ve been here before, even the sounds are familiar.” The smell, like fresh linens and sweet cinnamon. The temperature, cold yet comfortable. And the sounds. His voice is just a part of my dream. I would wander this room or stare out the window listening to his voice. Just like today. I’d dreamed this before. It was all coming to me in waves. The voice seemed to echo in my mind, becoming more familiar the more he spoke.
“The sounds?”
“It’s my turn. Who are you?” I had no reason to trust him, and yet the longer I sat the more I did.
“You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“I’m a guardian of this territory. I protect the homin world from anomalies.” His admission was gibberish to me. Guardian of the territory? Homin world? Anomalies?
He huffed out a lengthy breath, considering the pros and cons of telling me more, and luck on my side he struggled with himself to actually give me something useful. “Human world,” he explained, “the world that turns a blind eye to the energy around it. I protect its fragile state of mind by eliminating anomalies, the threats to exposing magic, and anything tuned in to the supernatural world.”
I gulped, pressing my hand to the marks on my neck. I was an anomaly, wasn’t I? He sensed my anxiousness as I thudded my head against the door.
“I don’t plan on eliminating you. I brought you here to…” He trailed off.
“Brought me here to what?”
“To protect you from the anomaly I was after. He can’t track you here. Tell me about why this place is familiar to you.”
I didn’t have any desire to leave; I had an urge to stay. This place did make me feel safe, but something about being protected from the anomaly seemed like a double standard. “No, I’ll tell you when you explain. What anomaly? Who would be tracking me here?”
“A Shifter.” A Shifter? Okay magic but not magic, what would a Shifter be? Something that shifted, something that changed…
“You, damn it! It’s you for shit’s sake. You are what is familiar, this place, the sound of the wind rustling against the fabric, the sound of your voice haunting me, even your smell!
“Enough with the short answers. I don’t know the answers to anything and this is my dream so all you’re going to do is give me cryptic answers, because you’re my subconscious; you don’t know either. If you don’t want to answer something then don’t, but I have the same right and no two-to-one ratio anymore.”
“Enough,” I huffed out finally.
“Agreed.” So easily agreed. Well it’s my dream, so yah he should agree. My dreams were never particularly agreeable before though.
No, but it seemed too easy. Which part did he agree to?
“So what’s a Shifter?”
“It’s dangerous.” How? What is it? Human? Thing? Animal? …Vampire?
“If it’s after me, I should know what it is.” I needed to see Aislin. She would know what to do. Or at least be able to find out what to do.
“Will you come out first?” Me, come out? No. Unless…
“Do I get to see you?” I closed my eyes, sliding back against the door up to a standing position. Turning around, I opened my eyes, staring at my reflection in the doorknob. Contemplating turning it and touching his hands as I’d touched the door where he was, on the other side. It was a pressing urge to see who was behind this voice, who was behind this shadowy dream ever since I remembered them.
“Can you wait until the sun sets?” What would be the difference between now and sunset? Are the rumors about… Was he a serpent? Was he the one who bit me? I was so close to thinking Victor was a serpent and had done the pleasure of that deed himself, but now… Does the sun burn him to cinders? Turn him to stone?
“Something wrong with the sun?”
“No, of course not. I need more time.” Nothing wrong with the sun but the time until the sun goes down? Why did he need more time? Back to deductive reasoning—what would he need more time for? Or maybe he just didn’t want to give up his bargaining chip, the one thing I was curious about. Well, when dealing with bargains, one needed an exchange.
“I’ll see you now or I’ll be staying in this bathroom.”
“Stubborn…” Is that an unanswered agreement?
“Always.” My hand upon the knob, I turned it slowly. Opening the door, I looked around; thankfully he was sitting on the windowsill. I could only see half his face and I remembered he was the man I was staring at during the charity event. “It’s you.”
Just my luck.
I rolled my eyes and went back in the restroom and shut the door.
“I wasn’t expecting your reaction to be quite like that.” He was on the other side of the door again.
I walked to the bathtub and sat on the edge staring holes into the door. Observing the intricacy of the framing of the door’s middle, iron-lined details, looked old but vibrant.
“Where are we?” Looking at the rest of the restroom, it looked nothing like the designs I would see around New York. Maybe a French knockoff or custom made?
But it looked too authentic.
“Far away.” How far away for me to escape? I really needed to see Aislin. We needed to get out of town and start somewhere new, find a way to save my mom without being tracked.
“How far away from a bus, train, airplane, taxi, or hitchhiking?”
“Too far for you to walk.” I danced for several hours a day; I think I had enough stamina to get me anywhere.
“How long?” Can’t be that far. There was only so far one can go while having to drag me as I was passed out.
“If your destination is home, then three days’ walk to catch a plane.”
“Damn.” Okay, think. I had to think. How in the heck did he walk with me in his arms for three days? He didn’t—there had to be something here to get me back.
“Moments ago, you had no intentions of leaving; now you can’t wait to leave.” He was right, seeing him changed everything.
I needed answers and he was not going to give them to me. I had to get back; Aislin would make sense of this. Maybe she’d heard of the Shifter and why they would be after me? Plus, this was my dream and I’d probably wake up once I found her.
“How do you know I had any or no intentions of leaving?”
“You seemed content, comfortable, and calm. The three C’s that go against any form of flight.” The three C’s? What book was he reading? Nonsense, one of those self-help books.
Okay think, I needed to get out of here. Looked like there was a window in the bathroom, big enough for me to squeeze out of.
“Don’t leave.” What happened? Was I exhibiting the three C’s of flight now?
Calculating, cramped, and crazed into a canter.
“Are you forcing me to stay here?”
“No, but if you escape out that window I’ll have to bring you back before you die out there.”
Die out there?
“Is that a threat?”
“Of course not, but I have a good idea that you’re not one for mountain climbing and without the proper equipment you’ll fall and break like a glass figurine.”
“Damn.” I was stuck here unless I got his help to leave.
“Why has your outlook changed?”
“I was reading your warning label and it said to stay away.”
“Warning label?” Yah, the one that should warn any and every woman to stay away from his angelic good looks and his heart-breaking ways if they knew what was good for them. Plus, psycho tendencies to abduct strangers.
“It’s written all over you.”
“My warning label?”
“Yes.”
“What might it be warning about, might I ask?”
“Anyone who looks like you is bound to be up to no good. And you’ve just proved it by bringing me here. Plus, you couldn’t be the person I remembered from my dreams, so whatever trust I felt for you…totally gone.”
“Looks like me?” He seemed hurt by my comment.
“You already know.”
“Do I scare you?” Scare me…? Of course not, you look like an angel. What scared me was the devil lying in wait underneath it all. The one that would be my friend then feed me to the wolves. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“How can you protect me from yourself?” I knew he didn’t mean to harm me—we’d been over that—and I deducted he would have done that by now if he did. Despite that I had more important things to worry about than to coddle his feelings.
“Control. I have not harmed anyone unintentionally.”
I opened the door and saw him near the window again. He looked hurt. He made it sound as if he had harmed people before. I knew it, a regular heart breaker. And he knew it too.
“Intentionally then?” That’s even worse… I sighed, thinking about how many women he had probably used knowing full well he didn’t care for them one bit. Not the first one he’d brought back to his love shack, I’m sure.
Then I thought about that poor doe-eyed model all gussied up and hanging on his every word at the charity event. She was either trapped in his web before she knew it or she didn’t care that it was only temporary.
I wasn’t going to stick around to find out. How was I supposed to prepare myself for something called a Shifter if he wasn’t going to tell me anything? He probably didn’t even know anything, and here we were sitting like geese at a hunting event just waiting to be drawn out of hiding and the shotguns to fire a round of well-aimed scatter bullets… It all leads to the same conclusion. Only one hit needed, for dinner to be on the table. And I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry right then.
“Fine, I get it. You’re keeping me. So, what do you want from me then?” I slammed the bathroom door behind me, and watched him brooding in the window with his back to me. The whole act was getting on my nerves, and I was about to toss every question bubbling up inside of me until my stomach grumbled and I couldn’t keep myself from laughing even though I wanted to stay angry with him. “And how have I been eating this whole time with no kitchen in here? I’m starving.”
“I’ve been giving you a supplement through your blood.” He pointed to the vials lined up in a glass case, which was probably the only equivalent to a refrigerator in the place, since there were a few flasks in there as well.
“How am I still alive? What are you? A supernatural doctor?”
“No. But if you’re feeling hungry then I’ll get a vial for you.” It’s like he was listening but not listening to me all at the same time, he was answering my questions, but not answering my concerns.
My blood was boiling and I could feel a few beads of sweat work themselves up on the back of my neck while the hairs on my arm raised and shivered.
“NO!” I screamed, more to the world than to him specifically, but I supposed he was part of the world and pretty much the last straw for right now…so yes, especially at him as well. “I don’t want your vials. I don’t want your half-baked answers to my questions.” I don’t want to be stuck in a strange loft in the middle of nowhere, which appears to be on top of a very steep, and very high, and very hard location to drag an unconscious girl somewhere in the mountains, because all I saw were rocks and a bit of snow.
“I don’t want to be stalked by a stranger that I know nothing about that so happens to also be called a Shifter, whatever the hell that is. I don’t want to stand around doing nothing, waiting for this said Shifter to come and do whatever a Shifter is supposed to do to me. Which sounds pretty bad since another stranger, albeit handsome, has kidnapped me to this God-knows-where located on the top of a very high, very steep, mountain in the middle of nowhere to apparently ‘protect’ me from him. And I don’t want to die only a few weeks after my sixteenth birthday… What day is it?”
“Wednesday,” he responded, monotone.
“No, the date,” I asked like I was having any other conversation other than the tirade formulating in my head, that wasn’t quite finished yet.
“The twentieth.”
“Shit, that long?” My monologue stalled to stare at him in shock, “I don’t want to die…” I trailed off thinking before I found my mother, and saved her from the shadows.
He remained quiet, sensing I wasn’t finished. I continued under my breath, mostly to myself. “I don’t want to die not knowing whether I made a mistake by saying ‘no’ to the wrong person.”
“Don’t you get it? I can’t be unprepared for this. I need to know what’s worth fighting for and the only way I can do that is if I fight like everyone else before me. Don’t you…don’t…” My voice quaked.
All the blood just seemed to leave my legs all at once, becoming tingly, and then a strong grumble came from my stomach again, audible to even Mr. Angel across the room. I guess I forgot that I wasn’t moving my legs much while being passed out or that I hadn’t eaten a solid meal in weeks.
I’ll admit I was tad worked up about the whole situation and let that distract me from all the little signs about my current wellbeing. You know little things like…how I was either dying, or turning into a monster.
“I understand.” He blurred past me, and next thing I knew he was behind me swooping my legs up from under me before they could do it for themselves in a few seconds time. Sitting me down on the couch with his arms wrapped around me, he eased me down with my back pressed against his torso. I didn’t dare turn around for fear that he would vanish. I closed my eyes and let him hold me. I saw the energy swirling around him behind my lids until I felt a sharp pinch on my arm.
“What was that?” My eyes flashed open and saw a vial in his hand with his thumb on the button. It was like one of those diabetic applicators around the vial and the contents slowly eased into my veins.
“Why would you…you said…” I felt helpless, betrayed, defeated, and tears crested over, falling down my cheeks. Was I drugged, again?
I could see my own muscles in my forearm twitch and my veins bulged as the mystery supplement coursed through me. For a moment my heart stopped, like time stood still. Everything looked different: things pulsed, and the light outside caressed the objects, seemed to make them glow and refract like an object below the water. I could have sworn my eyes were closed, but this was different—I saw more details than I could have ever imagined.
As fast as I had felt weak and betrayed, I quickly felt power rush through me, and everything more clear and beautiful than it had ever been.
I couldn’t see the space like I used to, it was like it was alive and talking to me, telling me where every object was and working in harmony with my own being. Making me a beacon then suddenly the pulse and light behind me was all I could pay attention to. I had to look behind
me. I had to feel it but before I could pull him closer I suddenly paid attention to the fact that his arm was pressed against my own.
Magnetic fields matching and in sync, I felt the hum of his skin, and even breathed in the same air that came from his lungs, and somehow, I knew it had. I smelled the air and licked my lips, tasting apple cinnamon pie. It was my favorite.
I reached my hand out and ran my fingers through his hair, and he let me. He didn’t flitch at my touch and I saw his face: half of it was mangled, pieces of flesh hung from his cheek and I cupped the seemingly bloodless tissue in my palm, cupping his face. He didn’t scare me; he was a part of me in this moment.
Revelation dawned on me and in this euphoric feeling I pressed my forehead to his and asked him in a gravelly seductive tone, “Who are you to me?”
My hands trailed down his neck and pressed into his chest, then to my own before asking again, “Why do I feel this way? What is this?”
His voice was husky, almost caught up in the same moment. Maybe he felt exactly what I felt when he said, “You know what I am.”
“Vampire.” My lashes fluttered at him.
He groaned, pulling me against him. “You can’t be real,” he said, brisk and hard. His firm torso pressed against my breasts, tenderness swelled within me, every touch bruising my shields against him.
“You were the shadow watching me in the bushes?”
His eyes turned to ice before he shamefully looked away from me. “I never intended to have anything to do with you. I was after the Shifter.” Guilt shadowed him before he continued revealing the truth, I could feel his energy so wrapped up in mine that I knew it was fact. “I didn’t know you were the other anomaly, but the longer I observed the both of you, the more I tasted it on you.”
“Tasted it,” I sobbed. My emotions were all over the place, everything heightened ten times. I cried realizing that he was the reason I was so weak to begin with, feeding off of me until I could barely function. What would he do with me now that I was here?
My breath hitched and I grabbed at my chest violently. His arms wrapped around me, holding me tight as he whispered in my ear, “I’ve got you.” In that moment I didn’t know if it was possessive or protective, and I couldn’t even focus to answer that pressing question.