Chapter 32

Sorry for the late update.  I'm away from my apartment and the internet where I am is crappy crap.  Therefore, my editing process suffered a lot in the process.

Therefore, honest feedback is especially important.  Please let me know what you think.  Good or bad, I'll take it.  :)

Does everything in this chapter make sense?  I'll try to clarify if it doesn't.

Spelling errors are probably a dime a dozen in this chap.  Sorry. I tried.  I'll try to go over it again when I get back home.

Until then, any feedback at all is much appreciated.

Chapter 32

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Real life wasn’t supposed to be like this.

You weren’t supposed to run into stalkers and still feel safe.

Especially not a stranger—who, at one point, claimed to be a bloodthirsty monster from children’s nightmares.

A stranger who also had a habit of just being plain out creepy.

She shouldn’t have felt safe.

For those reasons, Miriam figured that—as she locked the shed door with a trembling hand—in the space of a millisecond reality had descended from reality, right into fantasy.

Insanity.

Not that she could complain.

At least in this parallel universe there was something a little darker to fear than the threat of a seizure.  And, at least for now…she wasn’t alone.

Though, does it really matter?

Her heart sped up as she hiked her backpack over one shoulder and turned to face him.  He was watching her, of course, waiting patiently up ahead.

In another universe, they could have been just a normal pair of teenagers out after hours playing a taunting game of hide and seek behind the creepy school shed.

Of course, in that world, unicorns probably existed.  Fairies to boot.

As much as she didn’t want to, a part of her realized that Eliot wasn’t real—at least, the idea of him wasn’t.

There were only two likely scenarios into which someone like him could possibly fit.

One, he was an escaped psycho from the loony bin thoroughly convinced that he was a bloodsucking monster from horror movies.

And the second…

Well, she hadn’t really considered the second option yet.  It was still there, of course, waiting unspoken out of reach—but she couldn’t bring herself to think too hard on it.

Bad, her senses warned.  Just focus on the here and now—minus the fact that he just so happened to have spent the day ignoring you, only to come to the rescue at the last moment.

It didn’t help any that he looked perfectly at home in the darkness that drifted over the field.

As if reading her mind, he paused, head tilting casually, red eyes seeking out hers in the glow of the overhead field lights.

You coming?  It was what she figured he would have said if he were a normal boy.

Instead, he didn’t have to say anything; his body language told it all.  His head was cocked slightly to the side and those dark eyes demanded a response.

“Y-yeah,” she stammered to his unanswered question, hand shaking as she shoved Carl’s key into the pocket of her jeans.  Stupidly, her finger slipped sending the metal key plummeting to the ground.

She lunged for it, sinking down on one knee to catch it before it could hit the grass.  As she did, her gaze strayed over to the side of the building—

Plunk, went the key as it landed near her boot.

“Miriam?”  She heard Eliot call out.

She couldn’t answer.

Heart in her throat, she felt her backpack slide down, as she took a step forward.  Then another and another, until she stood on the side of the shed right before the darkened window.

It was nearly pitch black back here; the shadow of the shed loomed above like a dark blanket, blotting out the glow of the field lights.

But even still, it wasn’t that hard to make out the deep, jagged ruts splitting the earth into pieces.  They were that thick; each jagged rip was about the side of three of her fingers.

Almost as if something massive had reared back on its hind legs…

Just to peek into the window.

“Are you alright?”

She flinched as a cold hand descended over her shoulder.

“I-I’m fine.”

This time, Eliot didn’t even waste his breath calling her out on the lie.

He just shoved her aside, eyes darting in the same direction hers were glued to.

He didn’t say anything—but his grip on her shoulder tightened.  That gaze narrowed.

Then, all at once he pulled away, dragging her behind him.

She didn’t speak.  Not even to ask him what was going on—why was he frog-marching her across the deserted fields to the empty parking lot where that black car seemed to have appeared from nowhere?

A part of her wasn’t even really surprised when he pulled open the passenger-side door and politely shoved her inside.  She just shrugged her backpack from her shoulders and settled into the stiff leather.

It was only when he came around to the driver’s side, climbed in and switched the car into drive that she finally blurted out the only thing on her mind.

“I think I saw a wolf.”  Her voice was deceptively casual.  She might as well have said ‘it rained today’—but, of course, Eliot saw through the act.

He glanced at her sharply, knuckles icy white against the steering wheel.

“A big wolf,” she added when he didn’t say anything.  “That growled…”

His jaw tightened then, but he turned away before she could see his expression.  Those amber eyes just bore into the road, easily navigating the way to her house as if he’d driven it a thousand times.

The rest was just silence.

They didn’t say a word all the way to her house.  Not when they passed the thick wall of naked trees surrounding the empty crime scene or the dark hill where the black house stood in eeirie shadow.

It was only when the car finally came to a stop before her gravel driveway that she finally turned to face him.

“I think I saw a werewolf.”

Silence.

Those pale hands clenched the steering wheel—tight.  Miriam swore she saw the edge of the dashboard crack beneath the force of his grip.

He stayed that way for almost a minute, glaring steadily at the road.

Then, he sighed, red eyes seeking hers out through the semi-darkness.

“I know.”

That answer wasn’t expected.

Doubt?

Yes.

More silence?

You betcha.

Even a good-old fashioned sarcastic snort and an eyebrow raise wouldn’t have been too out of place.

Not this.  Not a grim truth in his gaze that made the back of her throat itch and her fingers dig into her palms.

“Y-you believe me?”

Eliot shrugged, eyes dark.  “I could smell it.”

Oh.

“Well...t-that explains a lot,” she said weakly.

Her voice shook.  Suddenly exhausted, she leaned against the headrest and hoped that shock hadn’t pushed her right off the bridge into insanity.

Barely two days knowing the guy and he was already trying to convince her that things like vampires and wolf-men were real.

Not that he had to try too hard at it.

Easy girl Miriam, she told herself, forcing her eyes closed.  You weren’t that sane to begin with…

“Don’t worry,” she heard Eliot say in a voice that made the back of her neck prickle.  “It smelled me as well.”

“Oh,” she croaked.  “That makes it better…”

Her chest heaved beneath her sweater, as she gulped air, trying hard to fight the urge to just pinch herself and get it all over with.

Those yellow eyes still haunted her, just behind her eyes—threatening her with nightmares if she dared to close them long enough.

“A friend of yours?”  She added in a pathetic whisper.

Eliot let loose a dark laugh that—despite everything—made little butterflies in her stomach flutter to life.  She shifted, crossing her arms to hide her reaction, but she doubted that it helped.

He could still hear her heartbeat…

To his credit, he didn’t call her out.  He only turned to stare out of the dark window instead, watching as night continued to fall with a wistful frown.

“No,” he said after a moment.  “Frankly, I don’t know what one of them would be doing out this far from the mountains.  Not to mention, that I don’t honestly care.”

One of them, Miriam repeated mentally.  Obviously there was no love lost between him and whatever had been out there on the fields.

Or maybe he really just didn’t care?  His tone was borderline apathetic.

Careless.

Damn, Miriam couldn’t help thinking; if a potential snarling horror monster didn’t knock Eliot off his game, she had no idea what would.

He must deal with stuff like this every day.

“T-this is all strange for me…you know?”   She stammered, watching him from beneath her lashes.  “Vampires and werewolves…they don’t exist where I come from.”

Though, to be fair she wasn’t half as shocked-terrified-frightened as she figured she should have been.

A normal person would have been halfway to the police station by now.  Screaming at the top of their lungs, most likely—ready to check right into a mental ward.

Though, after almost two years of being a self-imposed outcast, maybe it was just a little comforting to consider for a minute that she wasn’t the strangest thing out there?

Pointy teeth and bloodlust definitely beat friendless social pariah in the weirdness department.

“We’ve always existed,” Eliot said, sounding almost bored.  Those amber eyes cut to hers, burning deep.  “We’re all just better liars than you are.”

Better liars.

The line stuck in Miriam’s mind and wouldn’t come out.

After all this time, she was used to avoiding the truth--hiding the severity of her seizures.  Hell, she had gotten so good at it that these days the real Miriam seemed to be hidden beneath a smiling, perfectly maintained mask of a person she barely recognized.

A bumbling idiot who couldn’t stand to be alone, even though she went out of her way to be.

It was almost hilarious to think that someone—or something—else had already mastered the game long before she had.

No wonder Eliot could see right through her…

“So, why Wafter’s Point?” she asked, if only to fill the building quiet. “It’s not exactly the most mysterious of places for a vampire or a werewolf to want to hide.”

She thought of the neat, white picket-fences and shuddered.

“Exactly.”  Eliot’s tone was matter-of-fact.  “It’s the kind of place that no one would ever look…but it wasn’t my choice to come back.”

He sounded annoyed at that; ‘it wasn’t my choice to come back.’

As the words ran through her head, something stuck out.

“You’ve been here before?”

Caught.

She could imagine Eliot thinking that as his entire body went stiff.

He tore his gaze away, glaring out of the windshield—but just as quickly, his muscles relaxed, and when he spoke against his voice was as calm as always.

“What did you mean...about what you said before?”

The change in topic threw Miriam off.  She blinked, stammering like an idiot before she realized what he meant.

The whole ‘empty’ thing.

“N-nothing,” she blurted.  “Just something a girl at school said.”

“What?” He insisted.  His gaze said it all; Play along.

Ignore whatever I said before.  Change the subject.

“Okay...”  She sighed and laced her fingers together or the corduroy of her pants.  “I’ve never really considered how I came across to other people before.” Shrugging, she crossed her arms over her chest.  “I’ve always just assumed that they thought I was…”

“Like what?”  Once again, Eliot was smooth and back in control.

And she was on dangerous ground.  After barely ten minutes, Eliot already knew more about her than anyone else in Wafter’s Point.

Be smart girl, a part of her hissed. You’re saying too much.

But was hard to ignore the part of her that just wanted to talk, regardless of how stupid she sounded.  So, with a sigh, she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and bit her bottom lip.

“I never wanted to get close to anyone.”

Wait?  Was that right?

No.  She shook her head and tried again.  “I mean…I never wanted anyone to get close to me.”

Eliot nodded, voice soft.  “Because of your mother?”

“Yes...”

The topic didn’t hurt so much when he brought it up.  Probably because his tone wasn’t heavy with sarcasm and guilt like her own was.

When he spoke about her mother, she could almost pretend that the calm, detached tone referred to someone else.

Some poor, lonely idiot who couldn’t handle her own problems by herself.

“But that’s not all,” she admitted.  “There's other reasons…”

Like the fact that her seizures seemed to appear as frequently as he did these days.  And that she was afraid of the next one—absolutely terrified.

“What?”

She briefly considered spilling the beans on those secrets too.  Coming clean about everything...

But there were just some places she wasn’t willing to go.  Not even with a gorgeous, mysterious stranger who seemed more distant than the moon, though they’d already kissed.

Twice.

Absently, she reached up running her thumb along her bottom lip.

“Were you watching me earlier?”  She asked—changing the subject herself this time.

Eliot seemed to flinch, even though his body remained perfectly still.  The motion was so subtle that Miriam figured that anyone else might not have noticed it at all.  But, she was beginning to pick up on when he was caught off guard.

It was all in the eyes; they flickered like a bonfire did when a sudden breeze whipped it into another direction.

Of course, before she could blink, they were already that solid amber again—completely guarded.

“What would you do if I was?”

She thought about it.

“Nothing.”

He smiled.  A beautifully dangerous smile that made her head skip a beat and her spine tingle at the same time.

Startling.

“You’d make terrible prey.”  His voice was quiet, but there was no mistaking the ominous edge. He almost seemed to laugh, but it was cold. “You’d make it way too easy…”

“Easy to what?”  She couldn’t ignore her curiosity, even though she had a feeling that she really didn’t want to hear the answer.

He didn’t hesitate.

“To kill.”

Her first instinct was to shy away, hand reaching automatically for the door.  But the more she thought about it…

The memory of that foreboding growl tore through her head; she could taste the fear at the back of her throat.

Her fingers still ached from how tightly she’d clutched at the hockey stick.

Even Carl seemed to have it out for her for no other reason that the fact that he could.

In the end, Eliot was right.

She was prey.  Weak, pathetic prey—heck, she even acted like it; running around, trying to hide, as innocent and naive as a stupid little mouse.

Her palm caught the edge of the leather seat as she let her hand fall back down to her side.  Quietly, she stared through the dashboard into the shadowy forest that lined the edge of the road.

Do I really want to be this way forever?

It didn’t take long to come up with an answer.

“I…I don’t want to be prey,” she said finally, turning to face him.  “I’m tired of running.  I’m tired of hiding.  I’m tired of being afraid all the time.”

Her words ended on a shaky laugh she didn’t really feel.

“I’m tired of being empty,” she went on, voice fading to a whisper.  “So teach me.”

“What?”

“Teach me,” she repeated, louder this time.  Hesitantly her eyes met his from over the dashboard.  “Teach me how to be like you…”

“No,” Eliot said, shaking his dark head.  “You don’t want to be like me—”

“Then teach me how to fight,” she insisted.  “I need to be stronger—I need to be…”

She trailed off, unable to put just what she wanted into words. The desire was there, just out of reach, but she didn’t know how to say it without sounding like an idiot.

She so settled for plain out begging instead.

“Please.”

His jaw tightened.  Then, with a heavy sigh he ran his fingers through that red hair and met her gaze.

“So the mouse wants to grow fangs?”

“Small ones,” she countered breathlessly.

His answering grin was terrifying.  The stuff of a billion nightmares.

“Oh really?”

In a single fluid motion, he pushed open the door and slipped from the car, leaving Miriam to scramble out after him.

She left her backpack on the seat and tried to catch her balance on the slippery coating of ice and slush that covered the road.  The moment she righted herself, while holding onto the side of the car, an icy chill was there to brush against the nape of her neck.

“I want you to stop thinking in terms of friend or foe—predator and prey," she heard Eliot murmur just beyond her ear.  “From now, it’s only me and you—”

"What do you--?"   She blinked, whirling around to face him, but the next instant he was halfway toward the middle of her driveway, arms held out in an open posture.  Those red eyes sparkled, not to mention those fangs…

They glimmered in the pale moonlight.  Unnaturally sharp and brilliantly white, pressing full against his bottom lip.

If she had still had any doubts before.  Well…

They went right out of the window, along with her pathetic urge to be brave.

“Think only in terms of ‘me’ and ‘you,’” Eliot ordered, voice echoing on the icy wind.  “And right now—”  That mouth curved into a lethal, heart-stopping smile.

“I want to kill you.”

He wasn’t serious, of course.  At least, she didn’t think that he was.

Fear swallowed her anyway, as real as that amber gaze haunting her every step as she turned to face him.

“You can stop me,” he assured her, even though he looked damn right unstoppable with that glowing glare.

The sight of him literally made her heart lurch in her chest.  She had to take a deep breath just to find enough air to speak.  “How?”

Suddenly, this didn’t seem like such a good idea.

Everything about him screamed ‘dangerous.’  From the blood-colored hair on the top of his head down to the tips of his pale fingers.

He’ll have me pinned before I could blink, she thought, remembering his uncanny habit of seeming to appear from nowhere.

It was cold out as well.  Too cold to fully catch her breath.

Too cold to think.

“Maybe we should just…”

“What?”  Eliot countered, raising an eyebrow.

She didn’t waste any time beating around the bush.  “I can’t fight you.”

That point was made brilliantly, as she slipped on a patch of ice and had to grip onto the car door just to remain standing.

Hell, thinking back she could barely hold her baseball bat when he’d barged into her room.

“You’re right,” Eliot said simply.  “You can’t fight me…but you can outsmart me.”

She didn’t see how that was possible.

“Strength, speed, agility—none of that matters in the end, just as long as you don’t give in,” he snapped.  “Just find my weakness.  Exploit it.  Beat me.”

As if it was that simple.

He seemed to read her like an open book, sensing her fear.  That gaze narrowed, fangs glinting sharp.

“You don't want to be prey Miriam," he insisted.  "So—”  He flexed his hand and crooked a pale finger in her direction.

His final words reached her all at once on a rush of ice-cold air, making her heart skip a beat.

“Come at me.”