Chapter 22

            ‘What did you do?!’ Tina screamed, having let me go. ‘Why would you do that? I thought he meant something to you.’ We were outside the wolf pack’s block of flats.

            I had just finished telling Tina what had happened and she lashed out. ‘It was all I could think of. I saved him and that’s why I did it in the first place.’ She pounced at me but I moved out of the way before we got into another fight. ‘Tina, if you just let me explain.’

            ‘And why should I listen to you? I was a fool to think I could trust you. You’re no different from all the vampires I’ve hunted in the past.’

            Being Luca’s sister, I didn’t want to fight her unless she insisted. ‘I don’t want to argue with you. I came to you because I thought you might know where he’d be.’

            ‘Oh, great. My brother’s missing and it’s all your fault.’

            ‘We’re wasting time arguing. We need to find him.’

            She growled menacingly as her eyes were filled with hate. ‘So you can bite him again?’

            ‘No! I’ve told you, it was the only thing I could do. Tina, stop trying to fight me. I want to find him as much as you do.’ I hadn’t believed that sucking the silver out of his blood would have saved Luca; it was worth a try and if it hadn’t worked then he would have been dead anyway. I only half understood Tina’s reaction and aggression but it still seemed disproportionate.

            This time she managed to grab me with her paws and we rolled around, scrapping like I don’t know what. Tina growled and barked but ceased from biting me; she mostly used her weight and her claws. I fought back, only to defend myself; I didn’t want to go hurting her as well. We scrapped on the ground for a fair few minutes until anyone bothered to interfere.

            We were now separated and Tina was now trying to get her way out of Brock’s hold. ‘Let me go, Brock!’

            ‘Stop it, Tee. I believe her, why can’t you?’

            ‘He’s my brother!’

            I didn’t need much other than my hands held by my sides. ‘I told you I did to save him, not to get into his head.’ Tina seemed to give up on me for the time being and stormed off with Brock soon following. I pulled my own hands free and saw who it was that had held me back. ‘Avery?’

            ‘Yeh. Hey. What’s this about Luca?’

            I quickly explained and expected him to lash out just as Tina had. He didn’t. ‘Oh, ok. Erm. This will be hard to hear but when Luca doesn’t want to be found, he can’t be.’

            ‘I don’t even know if he’s ok. He just bolted and I didn’t get a proper chance to explain.’ I gave a sigh and dropped my shoulders. ‘I just hope he’s alright.’

            ‘If I know Luca, he’ll be alright. And he probably won’t be too long away.’ He seemed sure of that. ‘Coren is around somewhere.’

            ‘Where have you been recently?’ I asked, seeing as they both hadn’t been around for a few days now.

            Just then, Coren joined us. ‘Even some wolves like to take time off, even from hunting.’

            ‘And we thought maybe you’d like to spend some time without us around,’ Avery added.

            ‘Oh. Right. I need to rest.’ And I headed off inside to Luca’s apartment. I didn’t like being there without him but I was feeling rather tired. Avery insisted that he and Coren tag along but I said there was no need; they still came along but went through to the front room. Left alone, I went into the bedroom and lay on the duvet. My head felt heavy and my shoulders were aching. Lying on my back, my head on one of his pillows, I thought on where he might be; then I remembered something. It was something I never wanted to be able to do and that was listening to his thoughts.

            There was so much going on his head that I couldn’t distinguish much. However, there was one particular thing he kept asking himself: Why? I wish I could see through his eyes, just to see where he was; although, I had already gone against what I had promised him. I let go of listening into his thoughts and pushed them aside like I always did with Finn’s mind. I shut my eyes and rested for the rest of the night.

*****

            When I next opened my eyes, I saw how far the sun had gone along its path. I sat up and stretched my muscles awake. After taking a quick shower, I stepped into the lounge. Avery was curled up by the radiator and Coren similarly on the sofa. I shook my head with a smile and went into the kitchen. It wasn’t blood I came in for; I had thought, as a sort of thankful gesture, I should make them some kind of breakfast. I didn’t need to eat but I knew they would as soon as they woke up. So, I set about getting out a frying pan and fishing around Luca’s freezer and fridge for bacon and sausages. A few seconds after putting them in the pan, I heard the two of them stir awake.

            Using a folded piece of cardboard, I wedged the door open so I could talk to them. ‘Wake up.’ It wasn’t long after that the meat was cooked and I’d plated it up for them. When I turned around, Avery was stood in the doorway sniffing at the air. Not sure what to do, I put his plate on the floor which turned to be good enough for him. In Coren’s case, I put his on the table. With one piece saved for myself, I went back to the bedroom munching on some bacon. The saltiness was very unfamiliar but that and the fat-veined meat was succulent in my mouth and it was gone far too soon. Licking my lips, I went over to the mirror to tie my hair up and check my body over. After all the excitement and adrenaline from the fighting last night, I wasn’t sure if I had been hurt or wounded. All my attention had been on harming my opponent and then on saving Luca.

            At the thought of him, I leant against the wardrobe and gave a sigh. I was missing him but I just had to get on with things until he came back, if he comes back at all. I went to go for a walk and as much as I might want to have been alone, I was swiftly joined by Luca’s best friends. They were still in their wolfy forms and pranced about ahead of me, keeping an eye on me every few seconds.

            ‘You know I can take of myself?’ I asked them. Avery snorted at me and swished his tail a few times before running after Coren who had gone on ahead a bit more. Rolling my eyes, I decided to play a game with them. As soon as both of them had their backs to me, I jumped onto the nearest rooftop and darted along the roofline, dodging between the chimneys. Humans rarely ever looked up to see what was going on above them, so we were safe enough to jump over the easier gaps without any trouble ensuing. I knew they wouldn’t be too far behind and I was wrong to think it would take them awhile. Their sense of smell was sensitive enough to know I’d disappeared upwards.

            I had run on into the city centre and saw an open, tree-dotted park ahead. I dropped back down to ground level and waited for them by one of the trees. There weren’t many humans around, not that I cared too much, so Avery and Coren stayed as wolves and we continued to walk along together. We followed one of the park’s many paths until we came to a denser patch of trees. If I knew Luca less than I did and Avery hadn’t spoken to me, I would have gone looking for him. Avery knew him better than I did and he was right when it came to Luca and being found. For the time being, I would just wait around and befriend his mates more until he returned.

            ‘Well, look at this.’ I came out of my pondering as I heard a familiar voice.

            Looking up, I saw Dara perched in the nearest tree. ‘Hello, what are you doing here?’

            ‘Carrie sent us.’ I was about to ask what he meant when I was soon answered. He hopped down from his branch along with Scott and his other two friends (I couldn’t remember their names). ‘She wanted to know if you were still roaming around.’

            It was nice to see some friendly, known faces. ‘Er, yeh. I’m ok. Still alive as you can see.’

            Scott soon spoke up, a hard look etched into his features. ‘Who are the mutts?’ he asked.

            I looked down over my right shoulder. ‘Oh, this is Avery and Coren. They’re friends with that other wolf I sort of ran off with.’

            ‘Luca. Yeh, Carrie told us,’ Scott quickly said. ‘Did we really have to come and check up on her?’ he asked, turning to Dara.

            Dara shrugged his shoulders to say he wasn’t in charge. I answered him. ‘Not really. Though I suppose, I haven’t got back to her in awhile so I can understand her concern.’

            ‘I told you,’ complained one of the others.

            ‘Don’t start.’ I saw it happen before it actually did and I stepped aside as Scott was bailed into by the complaining vampire.

            Dara huffed and shook his head. ‘They always do this.’

            ‘Aren’t you going to stop it?’ Avery asked, having shifted to be polite.

            ‘Why bother? I just leave them to it. They’ll be finished soon. So, how is your other wolf friend? Where is he?’

            ‘Erm, looong story.’ Coren and Avery started howling with laughter behind me. ‘That’s not helping,’ I said to them with a hard stare. ‘Ignore them.’

            ‘No, this seems like a good story. Tell,’ Dara requested.

            I was about to say forget it but Coren cut in and narrowed the whole thing into a few sentences. I just had to stand there and blush, folding my arms when he told the latest problem. ‘Yes, thank you, Coren. Now go and fetch a stick or chase squirrels or something.’ He might not have liked that but he and Avery ran off all the same, leaving me with my vampire friends.

            ‘Amusing pair,’ Dara commented. Scott had now ceased his weird male scrapping behind me and came over with his friend.

            ‘Only sometimes. How did you know where I’d be?’ I asked, wondering how easy it seemed to bump into them.

            ‘News travels fast remember? Besides, Carrie told us specifically what to look out for. It wasn’t hard to follow your trail. We were just having a break from looking for you and you happen to come by.’

            Then I happened on a thought. ‘You haven’t come across Luca at all whilst looking for me? His wolf is brown and black.’

            They looked between them and shook their heads. ‘Nope.’

            ‘Oh. Ok. Well, I guess he just needs time.’

            ‘Why did you bite him anyway? You know how annoying it is to hear them,’ he said, reminding me of the constant extra mind baggage.

            ‘I didn’t bite him for the sake of it. He got cut with a silver blade and I thought it would work. It did but he ran off before I could explain what actually happened.’ It was difficult enough having to explain it for the third time.

            ‘Wait, what?’ Scott asked and they all looked extremely confused. ‘You saved him by sucking the silver out of him?’ I nodded my head. ‘That doesn’t make sense but it’s ironic however you put it.’

            I agreed and then looked over to where Avery and Coren were chasing each other like puppies. ‘Isn’t it?’

            As I had been doing, they watched Avery and Coren mess around for the next five minutes. When vampires wanted to be, we can be very patient. ‘How do you put up with them?’

            ‘I’ve learnt to just go with it. I still don’t understand these two as friends. Are you going back now you know I’m ok?’

            ‘Eh, maybe we’ll stick around.’

            I was half expecting him to say that. ‘Just don’t go causing any trouble.’

            ‘Would we do that?’ Scott asked with a wry smile.

            ‘Yes, yes you would do that. See ya.’ And I walked off towards the two wolves. ‘Are you two done fooling around?’

            They each gave a bark and then shifted into their human counterparts. ‘Are you done treating us like dogs?’ Coren asked though I heard the slight sarcasm.

            ‘I don’t, you just act like it. Now you can do whatever you like, I’m going for a wander.’

            They both looked confused. ‘You know we’ll only follow you.’

            ‘What? Like two sheep?’

            ‘Possibly. We need Luca back and we have a bigger chance in sticking with you as we do looking for him,’ Avery told me.

            ‘And you know I have no idea what anything you say means.’ As ever, they had their strange way of thinking and talking and it was a mystery to any vampire. ‘Luca won’t come back. Not yet anyway.’

            ‘You don’t know that.’

            ‘He was pretty angry.’

            ‘That’s Luca. He overreacts a lot, you should know that by now,’ Avery added, trying to reassure me.

            I huffed unnecessarily loudly. ‘So I don’t know him as well as I should,’ I confessed and walked towards the streets again. Dara and his friends had long since run off to cause as little trouble as possible.

            ‘It’s not in our nature to let vampires get to know us even a little bit. Let alone date one.’

            I heard them snigger, to which I turned around and pointed a finger at them. ‘Listen, I didn’t do anything to make him like me. In fact, he rather annoyed me at insisting I owe him back. And following me nearly everywhere when I didn’t want him around.’

            ‘And now?’

            I didn’t answer. I just turned around and continued walking. We were soon in the maze of main streets of the city and, like Luca would have done, they dragged me along to get something to eat. I ordered with them (though much less) and began to wonder a little more. ‘What happens to your clothes when you turn?’ I asked them once we were sat down.

            Avery had already started eating which left Coren to try and explain. ‘There are different theories. Some say they sort of morph into our fur and vice versa. Others think they sort of conceal away with our human forms. To be honest, I don’t really care. It’s like us asking you why you don’t need to eat.’

            I took a bite out of my sandwich and slowly chewed it a few times before swallowing. ‘I can answer that easier than you answered me.’

            ‘Explain,’ Avery requested. Both of them looked rather intrigued.

            ‘It’s not that difficult to explain. And it is rather obvious why blood is enough for us.’ They tried to conceal it but I was all too aware of their cringes and twitches when it came to the thought of drinking blood. ‘Hmm, I’ll make it as easy as possible though. When you eat, the energy from your food is passed round your body in your blood. Not just that but also the oxygen you breathe in. So, for us, it’s an enriched energy source. We don’t require much else.’

            Avery seemed to grasp the idea immediately; Coren took a few seconds to absorb the facts. ‘I hadn’t thought of it like that,’ Avery mused. ‘It seems so obvious now.’

            I smiled and peered out of the window we were sat next to. I wasn’t paying attention to people outside; the reflections of inside the café were my focus. From one four-seater table near the far wall was sat a mother, father and two young children; one was a boy who might have been about six or seven. I noticed how he kept staring at us every few seconds between each mouthful from his plate. As he did, I slowly made my way through my food though kept from looking at him or any other humans directly.

            It turned out that I wasn’t the only one who had noticed. ‘That little boy keeps looking over,’ I heard Coren whisper to Avery.

            ‘Don’t go scaring kids again. You got into enough trouble last time you tried to be nice,’ Avery warned him back and I could only imagine the story behind that little conversation.

            ‘It might not be you he’s interested in,’ I said to the both of them, keeping my eyes on my plate.

            ‘Humans are more scared of vampires than werewolves. You were once their prey and in some cases, still are. And the eyes aren’t exactly easy to hide.’

            ‘Mmhmm, I know. I’ve had plenty of incidences that I had to use sunglasses or contact lenses. I remember back when we were stills legends and myths.’ They were only faint memories.

            What I said had been a shock to both of them and Avery almost choked on a sip of coke. Coren slapped him in the back. ‘What?!’ he exclaimed, now breathing again.

            Having muffled my giggles until they resided, I told them what I meant. ‘Luca is younger than I am. That’s what.’ They looked between them in that sort of bemused way I had seen them make many times over. ‘I’m a hundred and twenty-five.’

            They both knew what that could mean, in the sense of what I have seen and been through. ‘So you were around when...?’ Coren began to ask and trailed off as I nodded, knowing what he was going to ask. ‘Ah. How do you know Luca is younger than you though? We don’t like to give that away easily.’

            I casually took a few sips of my lemonade. ‘As stubborn as all wolves are, Luca didn’t waste too much time getting to the age subject. I don’t know his exact age but he was a bit surprised as to me being older though he has no issues. Anyway, I’m only eighteen, as humans go.’

            Avery nodded as though he suddenly understood something. ‘Now it makes sense. Luca’s about twenty-three or so in human years, as far as I can calculate anyway. We’re a bit older but not as old as you.’

            ‘I’m not old,’ I said, sounding as stubborn as they always did.

            ‘More like ancient,’ Coren mocked.

            ‘If you want ancient, you just have to visit Kieran and Carrie. They have over a thousand years between them,’ Avery added and that seemed to end our age talk. It wasn’t long after that that we were finished eating and were just leaving. As we passed the table, I gave the young boy a short, stern glance and a flash of my fangs but not so to scare him. I just about heard the faint gasp of excitement as the door swung shut behind me. ‘That wasn’t very subtle,’ Avery whispered to me.

            I brushed his comment aside and pulled my hair over my left shoulder. ‘Pish, I didn’t scare him. Besides, his generation will probably be the ones with all the new fantasies and stories to do with our kind. May as well give someone a splash of inspiration.’

            ‘It’s not like he could become the next Bram Stoker?’ Coren asked, joking along with me.

            ‘How would you know? Were you there when Bram Stoker made up the ‘Dracula’ story?’ I asked with a twitch of my eyebrows and a hinting smile.

            ‘You weren’t.’

            ‘No, I wasn’t but my grandparents were. And it was subtle enough for everyone but you, Avery, so don’t start preaching to me.’

            ‘I wasn’t preaching.’

            ‘Hmm.’ My mind suddenly filled with Luca’s thoughts. It shocked me and I stopped walking instantly. It shocked me because I hadn’t even been focusing on his mind. All I saw, in my head, was the flashes of memories that were incomprehensible and there was no sense of time.

            What is his name? I heard him speak in snarling tones.

            I couldn’t see who it was he was questioning but what went into his head also came into mine. Please, I don’t know. Luca must have done something to the man as I had to press my hands over my ears to keep out the cries of agony. Varten, his name is Varten, I heard the man say amid his wails and then I realised who it was. It was the bullet factory owner, Mr. Hudson.