Chapter 33

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Chapter 33

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“This…t-this is insane,” Miriam stammered, tucking her fingers into her armpits for warmth.

Eliot didn’t answer.  He just stood there, eyes cutting through the shadows like little red lasers.  The look in his eye said it all; you’re not getting off that easy.

“Get ready,” he ordered.

She tried to copy him, spreading out her stance and holding her hands open at her sides.  But when she glanced back up…

She hadn't even see him move.

One minute he was there, halfway across the distance between the road and her house.  The next instant, he was gone.

Just like that. Her yard was empty—the trees threw shadows that flickered across the snow like a thousand rapidly moving Eliots.

He could have been anywhere.

Move, she ordered herself.  Her foot jerked out, just enough to take a quick step over the curb.

But she wasn’t anywhere near fast enough.

Slam!

Her feet were swept out from beneath her in a flash of ivory, and she went sprawling hard onto the icy snow.  Before she fully connected with the ground, a pale hand wrenched her wrist out of the way to keep it from breaking her fall, and probably the limb in the process.

So she just landed hard on her butt instead.

“Ugh.” She glanced up, pushing the hair out of her eyes to stare up into a fearsome red glare that made her heart stop.

“You’re dead,” Eliot said.

His fingers were colder than the snow itself, clenched around her wrist.  Once he seemed satisfied that she wasn't seriously hurt, he let her go and stood back.

“You shouldn't have to think,” he told her.  “Don’t plan—you don’t even have time to be afraid.  Because if I truly wanted to hurt you, you’d be dead already.”

“O-okay.” Miriam crawled painfully to her feet.  Her left thigh felt sore and the wet snow was beginning to leak through the back of her jeans.  “I want to try again.”

With a sigh, she dusted herself off and turned to face him—even though she felt a little bit like David going up against an unbeatable Goliath.

Minus the sling shot, and the bravery, and the whole ‘human’ aspect of her Goliath.

Still, she tried to be optimistic, as she stared down a vampire from across the length of her front yard.

One more nasty fall and she just might injure herself enough to have an excuse to skip school tomorrow and avoid people like Carl and Sidney and her Uncle.

At least then, something good might have come out of today…

She’d barely finished thinking the thought before a flash of white caught the corner of her eye.  She blinked, and poof!

Eliot vanished.

This time, she tried to take his advice and didn’t think.  She didn’t plan.  Her body reacted purely on instinct as she took off in the direction of her front porch.

Ice and snow crunched beneath her rain boots.  Her breaths came in frantic puffs of air while her heart thudded like a sledgehammer against her chest.

Her thoughts were a frantic rush of run, run, run, run.

She lunged for the stairs.

Wham!

He caught her by the waist this time, before she could even make it to the first step.  That pale arm was crooked like a boomerang, snagging her in mid-stride and yanking her back.

“Dead,” she heard him murmur, right before she wound up on her back in the snow, blinking up at a dark sky.

“Here.”

A pale hand appeared above her head.  With a groan she took it and allowed him to haul her back to her feet.  Clumps of snow dripped from her hair, running down the collar of her jacket.

“On second thought,” she gasped, wincing as her hip throbbed.  “I think I’m content with being a mouse, for now.”

At least, if she wound up in the cat’s claws, it would be over way too quickly to feel any pain.

Useless, she thought, glancing over her body with disgust.  It wasn’t even worth the effort.

She would always be helplessly weak.

Eliot didn’t say anything.  But she realized that he hadn't let her hand go, even when she regained her balance enough to stand on her own.

That gaze was sharp, cutting through her.  Uneasy, Miriam turned away—but she could still feel that gaze there, on the side of her neck.

“Get some sleep,” he told her, finally.  One by one, those cold fingers pulled away from her own.  She let him, despite the part of her that wanted to hold on for as long as she could.

“You’re right,” she admitted, turning to glance at him through her lashed.  “But…will you be there tomorrow?”  She hated how pathetic her voice came out—desperate.

"Only because I want to be prepared if you barge into my house," she added hastily, turning around to face him.

She blinked to find him closer than before, holding her pink backpack in those white hands.

“I’ll be around,” was all he said, shoving the pink cotton into her grip.  His tone was stiffly polite, revealing nothing.

“Alright,” she said softly.  “S-see you tomorrow.”

It felt weird saying it—but he didn’t disprove it.  The fact almost made her smile as she hefted her backpack onto her shoulder and headed up the stairs.

‘See you tomorrow.’

She paused for one last look over her shoulder, before reaching for the doorknob.

It was still broken and came away easy in her hand—too easy.  It wasn’t until she heard the footsteps over the floor of her foyer that she realized why; someone from the other side was pushing it open.

Thunk!

The door knob left her grip as the solid door flew into her face.

She cringed in anticipation of the pain she knew would be crashing through her skull.

But it never came.

Whoosh!

A dark shadow came from behind to shove her out of the way.  She fell back, careening to the edge of the porch, as someone darted in front of her, partially blocking her view.

Gasping, Miriam barely managed to catch herself on the edge of the bannister.  She turned…and the sight almost made her fall over again.

There wasn’t just one person slipping from the doorway of her house to boldly confront Eliot, who stood in front of her.

There were two of them.

Both figures were an eerie pale.  And both had matching dark hair that gleamed in the moonlight as they moved gracefully onto the porch.

A girl was in the lead. She moved with a haunting elegance that any professional dancer would kill for.  She looked young; barely eighteen with a smooth, flawless face that would curse her to be perpetual jailbait.  She was small as well, barely coming to Miriam’s own height of five foot four.

But when she tilted her head back to meet Eliot’s glare, there wasn’t a hint of fear on her pretty face.  Her smile was mocking as she mischievously twirled a black curl around her pinky finger.

“Well, well, Eliot,” she chirped in a voice like honey.  “We wondered where you’d gone.”

“Not far, apparently,” grumbled the boy behind her.  He was tall and nearly twice the girl's size.  Black hair framed an angular face set with endless dark eyes that made Miriam shiver as they passed over her.

She knew that gaze…

“It seems you’ve barely left the neighborhood,” he said in that grumbling tone.

To his credit, Eliot didn’t even flinch.

His whole body radiated anger, however; an icy cold rage that seemed to send the temperature plummeting even colder than it already was.

“What the hell are you two doing here?”  His voice was a whip—even Miriam flinched, though the tone wasn’t directed at her.

Regardless, the girl just shrugged and let loose a playful giggle.

“Now, now, Eliot,” she taunted.  “No scolding in front of the guest...”

Miriam’s heart thudded like crazy as three sets of eyes turned to stare in her direction.

Head on, the two teens seemed no less threatening than a furious Eliot did.  Their eyes gleamed unnaturally.  Their skin was too pale.

Not to mention the ivory teeth she could make out, slipping down over the girl’s bottom lip.

Fangs, her mind supplied.

It didn’t take rocket science to put two and two together; the strangers were vampires.

“How rude of you not to invite us to your little party,” the girl sniffed, crossing her pale arms over a dark dress that seemed as shapeless as a pillow case over her tiny frame.  “Poor Sage and I were worried sick, but here you were…”

Sage.  The familiar name caught Miriam’s attention—her eyes darted to the dark-haired boy who was watching her with a scowl.

The guy from her kitchen.

“What a hypocrite, you are,” the girl went on with fake outrage.  Her black eyes sparkled.  “You’ve always taught us to share our toys.”

“Enough.”  The quiet hiss was Miriam's only warning before the broad length of Eliot’s arm appeared in front of her, blocking her view.

“Leave,” he snapped, almost too quickly to hear.  “What the hell are you two doing out anyway?”

“We were bored,” the girl said simply.

“Besides,” Sage chimed in, annoyed, “that damn witch told us to find you.”

“Ordered us more like,” the girl hissed.  “As if we would even listen to a witch—”

“Then why are you here?” Eliot snarled.

“I don’t know why,” Sage growled, turning to the girl.  “I told you before; she’s tainted—”

“We wanted to explore a little,” the girl said, cutting over him on another delicate laugh.

The sound made Miriam’s skin crawl.  It definitely wasn't a happy, harmless laugh.

There was an edge to it.  Dangerous.

“Well you did,” Eliot said coldly.  “So get back into the house.”

“No.”  Her tone reminded Miriam of a defiant four-year-old rebelliously disobeying the orders to ‘time out.’

Tossing her thick hair over her shoulder, the girl skipped off the porch and landed in the snow. She seemed right at home in the freezing cold, even in her sleeveless dress.

And despite the fact that she wasn’t wearing any shoes.

The boy, Sage, followed her, arms crossed over his chest.

“Dont' get too excited, Hazel,” he grumbled.  “Trust me—there isn’t much to see.”

Those black eyes glanced around the empty grove with a look of disgust.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” the girl murmured, turning back to stare at the porch with those ebony eyes.

If Miriam wasn’t mistaken, that gaze settled firmly on her with an expression that could only be described as…unsettling.

Countless ages showed in those black eyes.  More years than Miriam could possibly comprehend someone living.

Her first impression had been wrong, she realized.  So very, very wrong; this girl wasn’t her age.  She wasn’t anywhere close to being young.

Far from it.

“You still haven’t explained yourself Eliot.”  That chirpy tone was sharp.  “Even more so, you haven’t introduced us to your guest.   How very rude of you!”

“Leave, Hazel.”

Miriam flinched as Eliot maneuvered his way in front of her again, pressing her firmly between him ice-cold body and the railing of the porch.  Both surfaces were equally unyielding.

“Now,” he added ominously.

Hazel giggled, and Miriam was glad that she couldn’t see the expression on the girl’s face—she had a feeling that it wasn't very girlish and playful.

At all.

“Hello there Miriam,” she called in a breezy tone.  “I am Hazel, and this here is Sage.  We are very pleased to meet you—”

“Stop—”

“We are very excited to meet you personally,” the girl added, cutting over Eliot.  “Maybe some other time though?   When grumpy Eliot isn’t around—”

Even though the girl sounded as chummy as a long-lost friend, even Miriam recognized the threat;  'when Eliot isn't around, we'll be back.'

“I said leave.”

Glacial.  That’s the only word Miriam could think of to describe Eliot's tone.

She waited for another giggling reply—but there was only silence.  She still waited though, cramped in the narrow space between the railing and Eliot.  After a while, she could feel her legs beginning to grow numb from standing so long.

When Eliot finally moved away to the opposite side of the porch, she went limp with a sigh, practically collapsing against the wood of the railing.  It creaked, the frozen wood snagging beneath her fingers as she held on for dear life.

“Well, that was interesting,” she blurted.  She had aimed for nonchalant—to just laugh it all off; ha, ha, more strangers just broke into my house, ha, ha.

Her voice shook too much.

“What…what was that?”

She meant to say ‘who’ but the word changed on the tip of her tongue—and for good reason.

Those weren’t normal teenagers.  The thought was the only thing keeping her sane as her eyes stayed to Eliot in search of an explanation.

“No one."

But he seemed awfully on edge for the two figures to have been just ‘no one.’

“They won’t bother you,” he added, frowning.

“Well…that’s good to know.”  Miriam felt lightheaded as she pulled away from the railing only to sway on her feet.  Her heart seemed to be in the middle of a drum solo, hammering away while her legs trembled.

She felt overwhelmed, picking up on Eliot’s unease so that it nearly swamped her.

For a moment, they only stood, staring at each other from opposite ends.

But, he moved first.

This time, his motions were smooth and deliberate—almost as if he were moving in slow motion on purpose.  He came forward, picked up her backpack from where it had fallen beside the door and pressed it gently into her hands.  Those cool fingers were soft, tilting her chin up so that she was forced to meet that amber gaze.

“Go inside,” he said.  “You’ll be safe.”

Before—three days ago, when she had been just a semi-normal outcast—she had never doubted that.  Out here, in a place like Wafter’s Point, what could possibly go wrong?

The greatest danger to her safety had always been herself…

But now, his words made her swallow painfully.  She thought of the strange murder and his even stranger 'family' and just hoped they were true.

“I’ll be close by,” he added, almost in a whisper, before turning away again.  His breath brushed her ear as he slipped past.  “Go to sleep...”

Then, just like that, he was gone.