Chapter 18

            I don’t know how but I lost my grip and he flung me to the floor. My head hit the pavement and I went dizzy for far too long; my eyesight went blurry and I could just see the blackness of the rifle in front of me but the man was just a blur of brown and blue. Fortunately, my hearing was still fine.

            ‘You’ll pay for that, leech.’

            If my head wasn’t spinning I would have reacted. I heard the click of the gun and my lungs ceased to breathe. Luca wasn’t snarling or growling although along with the absence of any other gunfire or talking. It occurred to me that the man hadn’t fired at me, nor did he say anything else. I just laid there, everything blank, still and silent. BANG. That was the shot I was waiting for. I felt no pain, though I guess I wouldn’t if I died so instantaneously.

            I could still feel though. Someone had pulled my head up with their hands under my jaw. My eyes swirled around but I soon managed to shake my head; my lungs gasped at the air and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t hurting. ‘Uhhhh!’

            ‘Faye!’

            ‘Luca!’ My arms shot around his neck. I just breathed, not caring about anything else. He held me too, just as I held him. When I next opened my eyes, I noticed we were no longer on the pavement or even in the same street. ‘Where… are we?’

            I was still a bit dazed though it didn’t mean I couldn’t tell he was kissing me; not my lips but my cheeks and my forehead. Pushing him away, I tried to convey some sense onto my face though my brain was a bit fuzzy. ‘Hiding,’ he answered. ‘Just until I got you conscious again.’

            ‘What happened?’

            He seemed unharmed as far as I could tell which I was glad about; there was nothing else I felt, just pure gladness. It was a strange feeling and I found myself smiling. ‘What?’ he asked, looking at me.

            I leant over and kissed his cheek. ‘Thank you. Are you hurt?’

            ‘You’re welcome. A bit bruised and shaky but nothing serious.’ He then dropped his head and sighed. ‘I told you it was a bad idea.’

            I squeezed my eyelids together. ‘I should have listened to you.’

            ‘Are you two finished?’ I should have known one of them would somehow be near. I looked over to my left and saw Coren leant against the wall. That was when I noticed we seemed to be down the side of a house, with a gate and behind me was indeed a garden. That could mean that Avery wasn’t too far away either.

            ‘Thanks, Coren,’ Luca said with a nod of his head to his friend. I was still not sure how we got here though I had lost track of everything going on around me since I hit my head. ‘Do you think you can walk?’ he asked, looking slightly worried. ‘I had to carry you here. With some help from him.’ He gave a bob of his head towards Coren.

            My eyes closed and I bowed my head; the shock started to hit me. I began crying, having had total control over myself or so I felt. Luca tried to pull me into his arms but I pushed them off and tried to get a grip on my emotions. I bent my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them; for the time being, I just wanted to be alone. Luca tried to hold me again but I pushed him off just like the first time. ‘Don’t, Luca.’ The padding of his paws sounded past me but I wasn’t concerned.

            ‘Luca, come back,’ Coren called. As far as I was aware, there was no reply. ‘Why did you do that, Faye?’

            ‘Go away, Coren.’ I wiped my tears away on my collar and looked at him. ‘Sorry.’ Getting up, wobbling a little, I stepped over with one hand on the wall. ‘Do you know what happened?’ Maybe he could shed some light on things since I heard the shot.

            He didn’t look at me; he just kept a watch on the driveway and the street in front of the house. From what I could see past him, these were newly built homes. ‘Only a little. Avery and I were walking through town and heard him howling. It’s not hard to distinguish our howls. When we found him, you were fighting with one man and Luca was dodging around a car to avoid another.’

            I didn’t remember anything of what he told me. ‘I don’t remember past being thrown to the floor. Where is this?’ I asked, finally over my self-pointed anger.

            ‘Nowhere in particular. It’s just the nearest, safest place we happened across.’ He finally looked at me and then over my shoulder. I followed his gaze and saw Luca sat at the end of the side alley. ‘Don’t be hard on him,’ Coren whispered to me as he left.

            I dropped my head and folded my arms around my chest. ‘I’m sorry, Luca.’ That’s all I could say. He had walked over and brushed his head against my leg. I looked over my arm at him. ‘Aren’t you angry at me?’ He shook his head once and then sat down by my feet. ‘Coren told me what happened,’ I informed him in case he hadn’t heard all of what his friend had said to me.

            ‘I know.’

            ‘Oh.’ I looked down again and saw he was sat on the ground with his legs outstretched. He didn’t have to ask for me to join him. I crouched down and sat how I had been before talking to Coren; only this time I huddled into Luca’s side. I wanted to say something but words escaped my thoughts.

            He slipped his arm round my back and chortled. ‘So now I can touch you.’

            I put my head on his shoulder. ‘Yeh, you should have ignored me pushing you away like that. It wasn’t me.’ As he had with me, I put my arm round his back. ‘Who do I owe this time?’

            ‘What do you mean?’

            ‘Who saved my life this time?’

            He smiled and leant over to kiss my lips gently. ‘That would still be me and this time you don’t owe me.’

            I smiled as he did and he rested his forehead to mine. ‘Coren said this wasn’t anywhere particular but I don’t really believe him.’

            ‘I thought you wouldn’t. This is a friend’s place. A friend of mine,’ he added as I scowled. He stood up and then pulled me to him. ‘You might like him, he’s a bit… odd.’ Sounding as though he couldn’t find a better word, Luca walked off to the back of the house again.

            This time, I followed and found myself in a very pretty garden. It wasn’t huge, just cottage sized. There was a beautiful lilac tree in one corner with a painted wooden bench nearby. The flowerbeds were full of amazing coloured and scented blooms and nearest the house was a wonderful looking herb garden. Luca disappeared inside through opened double conservatory doors. I was going to walk inside with him but then something caught my attention. There was a strange peppery smell from one of the plants; I bent down and pulled off a stalk of the herb. I wasn’t very good with herbs and spices, having never used them in my life, though this one fascinated me.

            Twirling it in my fingers, I then went inside. Luca gave me a confused look as I stepped in but said nothing. The next room into the house was the kitchen; it was neither outdated or modern but somewhere in the middle. I remained near the door that joined the two rooms. On one of the armchairs was a grey shabby cat; it stared at me with its green eyes as it was curled up. I stared back just as hard, without blinking. When I went to touch its head, it hissed and ran out to the garden and over the fence.

            ‘She doesn’t like your kind,’ came an older man’s voice from the kitchen. ‘As cats don’t like dogs, she doesn’t like wolves.’

            Luca chortled and grabbed a slice of bread but the man slapped his hand. ‘Ow.’

            ‘Go and wash your hands before you eat.’ I smiled and giggled as Luca dropped the bread back onto its plate. ‘Always eating,’ the man complained. He hadn’t really looked at me so I could forgive him mistaking me for being a wolf. The old man was well-built for someone his age and he was definitely human. Luca did as he was told and I found it odd that the man would know Luca for what he really was.

            ‘Faye’s not a werewolf, Boris,’ Luca told the man.

            ‘Is she not? Well, well.’ He did not seem one bit bothered about what I was, though I was unsure if he had clicked on that I wasn’t human either. Boris picked up a pair of gloves and went out to prune some rosebushes.

            ‘So who is Boris?’ I asked Luca, more specifically.

            ‘A friend of the family, in a distant mixed up way. Ignore the cat, I do,’ he told me. ‘She bit me once.’

            I smirked at that, imagining it in my head. ‘And why wouldn’t she like me? I’m not a wolf.’

            Shrugging his shoulders, he picked up the same piece of bread. ‘Probably because she doesn’t trust you either. And she’s a very odd cat.’

            Boris must have had good hearing because he commented on that. ‘You leave that cat alone. She gives me more company than you have over the years.’ As the old man spoke, I watched Luca and he just rolled his eyes and switched to the wolf I knew. At that point, I decided to go and see if Boris needed any help.

            ‘Would you like a hand?’ I asked, keeping a few paces away from the pile of rose cuttings. This particular bush had thorns that curled like the claws of a cat and I didn’t fancy getting one stuck in my skin.

            Boris took a moment to fight with a particularly thick stem. As it detached from the rest of the bush, one of the thorns scratched at his thin skin. There wasn’t a lot of blood but enough to give me some discomfort in holding back. ‘Now, yes. Could you get me some tissue for this?’ he asked kindly. I was soon back and stretched out my hand for him to take the tissue. ‘It’s just blood, my dear.’

            ‘Not to me.’ My body shivered as a short wave hit my senses as he uncovered the cut.

            That was when he looked at me and saw my eyes. ‘Oh, I see. You’re the first vampire I’ve met in a good many years.’ I could not guess as to how old Boris might be but he was old enough to not be scared of my company. ‘Luca does not usually associate with vampires.’

            ‘We are more than just friends as well,’ I told him with a soft smile.

            ‘There are not many vampires who would be seen openly with wolves.’ I shook my head and we were soon joined by Luca, Avery and Coren. Each of them were as their wolf. Boris and I looked at each other and then at them. ‘And three seems a lot for one.’

            I smiled to myself, thinking of each time they had helped; whether Luca on his own or the other two interfering in their own way. ‘Maybe but three wolves are better than one scheming vampire.’ I knew there were a lot of darker minds among the vampires I knew back home. Not so much now as when the wars were still raging on. Boris cut off a rose and trimmed off the thorns, then he handed it to me and strolled back inside.

            As I smelt the delicate fragrance of the petals, I watched as Luca tilted his head at me. ‘Now why can’t you be like him?’ I asked, jokingly of course. He gave a bark with startled a load of birds from their nearby perches and they flew away from the sound. ‘Do you always do that?’ Avery and Coren mimicked his bark to which I headed inside with my rose.

            ‘Wolves are noisy company,’ Boris said, having heard me step into the kitchen possibly. ‘How do you find them?’

            ‘That would depend on the situation. Most of the time, they get in the way although I can put up with them. I trust them enough.’ Then I remembered some of my manners. ‘Thank you for the flower.’

            He took his mug of tea (which he had been making) and led me further into his house. ‘I have plenty growing so one will do it no harm. If you tend to something long enough, it will turn out as you want. You wish to kill a cult that has existed for over a hundred years?’ he asked.

            ‘The slayers have no right to kill us so they need to be eradicated.’

            ‘They are not rats. They are people and people can be reasoned with. But, if you wish to scare them, then I suggest you find it’s heart.’ I knew what he was saying but it was harder than just putting into words. ‘Where to look is the question?’

            ‘It is not easy to follow someone who runs and wants to remain hidden,’ I noted. ‘Who are you? You’re neither wolf nor vampire, and yet even as a human you are a mystery to me.’ This man knew more than he was letting on and I did not like not knowing.

            He laughed and put his mug down on a small table. ‘I am just an old man who enjoys his freedom and the small company he has in strange friends.’

            ‘Faye, I want to show you something,’ came Luca from behind me.

            ‘It was nice to meet you, Boris.’ And I followed Luca up the stairs. ‘What are you going to show me?’

            He walked around me once and looked bewildered. ‘You’re not hurt?’ he asked, taking one of my wrists.

            I pulled my arm back and walked around him. ‘No, I’m fine. What is wrong with you?’

            ‘I wasn’t the one crying earlier. I thought you were injured.’

            I didn’t like the way he was now talking to me. ‘If I was you would know. I was just overcome. Why do you treat me like I’m fragile? I can take good care of myself.’ Then I stormed out of whatever room he had taken me into.

            ‘Don’t you remember what happened at the hospital? Faye, where are you going?’ he questioned.

            ‘I try to forget.’ What did happen there had been a bit of a hit to my self-pride; I had a lot of it although I usually kept it hidden. ‘Leave me alone, Luca.’ There were no more words from him, just one low growl and a swish past my legs. As he had noisily ran out, I silently crept down the stairs. I was just about to put my foot on the last step when I was knocked down with a thump by a white bulk. The air was knocked out of me but I managed to start breathing quick enough to see Avery being pulled off by Coren.

            He had both his arms tight around Avery’s chest and held him as the wolf clawed and kicked at the air. ‘Avery, stop it! It’s not our business,’ Coren shouted at his friend.

            I got up and remained on the stairs, rubbing my back where it had been slammed into the steps above. ‘If you have a problem with me as well then you may as well leave too,’ I said, speaking to Avery who had now been placed back on his feet. Out of the both of them I thought it would have been Coren who would have given me a hard time; with it being Avery, I was more shocked than I had expected. Avery just ran out to the back of the house. Coren and I followed him with our eyes until he was out of sight. ‘I shouldn’t have to say this but thank you,’ I mumbled though knowing he could hear me.

            ‘What happens between you and him is none of our business. Avery just doesn’t like seeing his best friend hurt, and neither do I but I know when to keep out of it.’ This was a side of Coren that I never thought existed, although I knew him very little in the first place. He then turned around and went to walk out but turned to me when I didn’t follow. ‘Aren’t you coming?’

            ‘Where to?’

            I wasn’t sure if I was right but he seemed to sneer. ‘To find those two. Come on.’ With that, I reluctantly followed and we ended up at the wolf flats.