And her name is…

I ignore the urge to question them like it’s their fault, even though them risking coming closer to me out here was a major risk. I know they sensed I was no longer siphoning probably on my way to the cave. Even if they had waited ten minutes to confirm it I was still a ways away at the time and they were probably worried, even more so when they only found yeti footprints leading away.

Another look at them reveals they’re scared, so I try to lighten the mood first, moving to where I had been sitting and picking up the short quill. “I got it out,” I proclaim, waving it at them.

“I was ready to come back and question you about why we needed to venture out so far and how you can possibly reach so far away… but you being from Orthoire.. that explains… so, so much. Honestly how you’re still a person after years of torture is more amazing than you keeping a glamour that long now.” Nyx gasps, taking an unconscious step back when my face falls back into a line.

“I guess there’s no point in denying it,” I admit, my teeth returning to the points I had hidden when I heard her scream. “Yes, that’s where my mother was from.”

“Everything makes more sense now. Why you wouldn’t tell Kheliq where you’re from, your crazy energy, why you’re so culturally diverse. Orthoire is so small you need to know the other cultures to hide your own from those with prejudice.” Nyx is pacing a little behind Tiago and I return to my old sitting spot where it’s snow free to attempt a less threatening position.

“I wouldn’t really know. I never left my home town, but we still only practised our traditions in the privacy of our home. My mom said it was to create the habit incase we ever went home, but we never did.” I don’t bother telling them that she thought we would go home after my dad died but as he grew older she hated the idea of living without him more and more.

“How did your mom end up there? She couldn’t have been farther from home… but yet she still stayed so close to the mountains.” Tiago is talking more rationally than Nyx.

I sigh. “The farther away you get the more you can feel the tug to return home to Sioga lands. She went as far as she could bare it.” I ignore his other question intentionally and start building a little snowman at the edge of my clearing.

“That’s yeti was… carrying you,” Nyx gasps suddenly, looking towards where it left. “And tried to protect you. Why weren’t you here?”

“I almost killed his young. They came to take out the threat, but found me. I went and fixed the problem and we found some respect. We have a special connection with animals, and I usually warn an area before I start taking energy. I believe in natural selection after that,” I admit.

“Do you think Helion knows?” Tiago asks and I look up from my snowman to him, shrugging. “It would make sense.”

“It would, wouldn’t it? But I can’t imagine him playing things so cooly if he knew.” I dig into the dirt for a couple stones for eyes, trying to distract myself from the bloodlust building in my chest. “Tiago, you’re supposed to retrieve him today aren’t you?”

“Actually, I was supposed to bring him back yesterday for dinner but I didn’t show up.”

I nod. “I suppose today is as good of a day as ever to start some things then. You should distance yourselves from me,” I declare, looking up at them seriously. “For real. I can’t.. ugh,” I hold my hands out and gesture inward to my chest like I’m hoping they can feel the pain there and understand. “I can’t control this pain as well as I get stronger, but as I uncover morebullshitI can’t exactly let myself get weaker.”

“What about your friends..?” Nyx asks softly and she kneels in the snow to get on my eye level.

I meet her level and run my tongue over my fangs. “They’re already dead,” I return shortly. “Helion played the blank card he was given as an ace. There’s no one for me to rescue, so my job just got a whole lot easier.” I stand and brush off the dirt on the back of the coat I’ve borrowed.

“How can you be sure?” Tiago argues. “Because of something Wulfric or Noryth said? Can you really…”

“Because I killed them,” I return, looking him in the eyes. “About a month after we got there they had enough. We were supposed to go out together but I didn’t die fast enough. I spent a few days with their bodies before I spent a mind numbing about of time in a sensory deprivation cell. By the time I got out I didn’t remember anything. Wulfric told me yesterday.That’swhen I realized Helion was manipulating me with his affinity and went to confront him,

but found him diddling Pretta.”

They both take a step back at that particular info dump and look at me, stunned. Nyx recovers first, standing and coming over to me to wrap me in a hug. I barely move, not entirely sure if I’m ready for a hug right now because I’m definitely not ready to cry.

“You’ve had quite a life,” she whispers, squeezing me tighter.

I break her arms away from me and take a step back. “I had aperfectlife. It was peaceful, and normal, and all I ever knew. It’s just been these last years that suck. I don’t need your sympathy, and honestly I don’t want your involvement. The last thing I want is either of you getting hurt for a girl you barely know.”

“I can’t just stand back and watch,” Tiago insists and Nyx nods with him.

I just get up and shrug. “Maybe wait to see how today ends before you decide that.” I glance up to the sky and smirk at him. “It’s after breakfast, and I’m supposed to meet Wulfric for a workout.”

He nods begrudgingly and brings us back to his bedroom. We shrug out of his coats and throw them over chairs to dry, but before I go I leave the quill from my foot on his table. They’re muttering around me and I’m not sure if they’re meaning for me to hear or not but I’m notlistening either way. I go out his door and head towards mine when I see Wulfric.

He stops and stares at me, slack jawed. I realize, as he forgets to blink, that my face would still be flushed from outside and I have that post-feeding glow about me. He stutters a few sounds but no words come out right away.

“Tiago said you go out with Nyx in the morning,” he finally gets out.

This is about to get a whole lot better.

I start smirking like a fool and then Nyx starts coming out of the room behind me, while Tiago speaks softly in her ear. The ones behind me are uncomfortable for a whole different reason, but I’m pretty certain Wulfric isn’t even close to the truth. I move toward him, aiming for my bedroom door beside me.

“Come on,” I say in passing with a wink, “you know I’m a freak but you also know if they’d been with me they’d look more..satisfied.”

“Theo….” He starts but I hold up my hand.

“I’m just getting changed. You can meet me downstairs.” He looks confused so I continue. “In the gym? Weren’t you taking over working out with me?” He nods dumbly and I do in return. “So meet me there, I’m just getting changed,” I reiterate.

He looks stupidly happy and I close my door, locking it soundly. I put on a pair of shorts, the chest wrap from the prison, and a tank top. Yurik dyed the wrap black for me after several attempts to make one that supports me as solidly failed. He’s still working on one, and what I wear during the day is fine, but fighting and lifting requires a little more oomph.

Before I go I put on a pair of pants and a sweater, despite running a little warmer since collecting all that energy, I’m not confident enough to walk through the house with all of my scars on display. I feel self conscious, tugging at the hem of my tank top under the sweater as I make my way to the gym, and that doesn’t improve when I feel how hot the room is.

-

Wulfric turns when he hears me close the door and raises an eyebrow at me. “You’re going to die in all those layers.”

I nod in begrudging agreement and peel my sweater off first, not looking at him as I take it to the bench to fold before sitting to do the pants. My face is practically on fire when I look up and see him staring like he could bedrooling. He must be missing all the ladies back home if my pale, carved up ass is doing it for him. I stand up with my hands on my hips, trying to hide my inner thoughts by bringing back my ‘I could cut you’ expression.

“Can I help you gen…”

Before I can finish the word he’s in front of me, wrapping his hand around the back of my head and pressing his lips to mine.What?I’m glad my conscious mind isn’t the only part of me that’s confused and I open my eyes, that I didn’t mean to close, to see his closed eyes as he presses his lips deeply into mine.

A throat clearing pulls us apart, and I’ve located Noryth before Wulfric as he says. “Really brother, first in the dinning room and now here? I thought you were told to keep your distance.”

I snort. “That’s the problem with you Orthoirian’s, like a dog with a bone.”

Noryth’s eyes blow wide open and he kicks the door closed before stomping over to me. “Didhetell you that?”

I quickly duck below the arm he’s pointing at Wulfric behind me and tag his leg, pulling the energy quickly so he collapses on the sleeping appendage. He looks up at me, shocked as I spin away from him and cross my arms across my chest. Wulfric is dying in a fit of laughter and I smirk at him as his brother groans on the floor.

“Don’t fuck with me Noryth. I’m not in the mood today,” I snipe. “It wasn’t hard to figure out, I could taste it in his blood.”

Not to mention the fact that he bit me back in the prison and I heard his hand burn when he touched the silver.

My affinity is laughing maniacally in my head at the blatant lie that only I would know isn’t true. Regardless, Noryth calms down a little bit and tries to stand, failing. He huffs angrily and glares at me while gesturing to his leg like I should do something about it.

I shrug. “What do you want me to do?”

He shakes his head like it’s obvious. “Fix it?!”

I shake my head in return. “No can do.”

“Just give me your blood,” he demands and I level my glare.

I take a step forward, glad to have taken so much from the forest today and I let my aura slip like an invisible fog around me. “And what will you give me in return?”

It’s a struggle not to show my fangs, despite knowing it will complete my desired look, and just let my eyes flare to life. I’ve never seen his do the same and I’m sure he’s still only in the double digits. He takes a ‘step’ back and I just grin.

“Back off Noryth, she did the same thing to me yesterday. You’ll be fine in ten minutes.” He holds up his hands between us, but his hand falls to my shoulder and holds me gently.

I rest my hand on top of his. “Awe,” I coo. “This is the first time you’ve stood up for mebeforeI’m ready to pass out. You were right Noryth, romanceisin the air.” I start batting my eyes and Noryth starts to laugh at his brother as I flick his hand off. “So do we have an understanding? I keep my mouth shut, you stay out of my way?”

“Depends slightly on what you have planned,” Noryth declares wisely.

I applaud him. “For that careful wording I’ll even bump you down on my list. With your good luck I’ll be dead before I get to you. Currently I’m on a mission to get information from Helion, but his answers will greatly affect what needs to happen next.”

“How do you plan on keeping him from controlling you, little mouse?” Wulfric has moved to stand beside me like I’m going to need support.

“Simple, he needs to say my name for him to try, and that’ll be pretty hard without a tongue,” I return, some of my earlier anger returning.

Noryth laughs. “Ok, I like her.”

“Itolerateyou,” I return with a grin.

I hear Wulfric sniff my hair and I lean away from him to meet his face. I’m thinking I’m going to see some wanting there, but he just looks curious. With that expression on his face I take another step away and wait for him to speak, but not before giving him a disgusted look of my own.

“What is that smell?” He asks.

I shrug. “Hair? Whatever shampoo I use? Maybe moth balls from my wardrobe?”

“That’s not it.” He leans toward me again and I take another step back but Noryth is there, taking his own sample of my aroma.

“You two are being weird,” I mutter, walking over to a stationary bike to start a warm up.

“No he’s right. There’s a weird scent there, like an animal,” Noryth clarifies and I quickly look away.

“I was on a walk this morning. Maybe it’s from the tree I took a break under,” I infer, remembering my trip as a backpack on a yeti all too late.

I should have showered.

“I’ll figure it out,” Noryth assures. “You have one of our secrets, it seems only fair.”

I shrug again. “I’d tell you them all, but then I’d have to kill you.”

Noryth starts laughing again. “Why’d I get you for a brother, her as a sister would have been much more enjoyable.”

“While I may be an only child,” I return, barely looking at him, “I have plenty of experience looking after babies. If I had been around maybe you wouldn’t have been dropped so many times.”

Wulfric is laughing and though Noryth is smirking at me he still feels the need to quip back. “Yea, must have sucked to be the town’s most senior citizen. So did you like, raise all your boyfriends?”

“Yuck,” I return quickly. “No, when I was young and we were the same literal age I had a few crushes. We did the typical parties, spin the bottle and all that, I even dated some people. But as they showed aging and I didn’t we decided it was best to split before the heartbreak was too great. Besides, in a small town most of them wanted children and you know how hard it is for Sioga to conceive, if I was even comfortable passing my genes on.”

“So, what? No sex?” Noryth persists.

I shrug. “Not in town, not with people I knew. There were a few towns less than a day’s trip away that I could go to if I was desperate, but it was hardly worth it.” I laugh and look to him now. “You know men.” I make a quick action with my hands like two guns firing before turning back around on the bike, hoping that will end that line of conversation.

“Get out,” Wulfric growls and I turn again to look at him, seeing him snarling at his brother.

To my surprise, he easily complies and leaves the gym, leaving the two of us alone with an strange uneasiness. I try to ignore it, returning to my workout as if I didn’t notice. Clearly that doesn’t work as Wulfric comes around the bike and leans on the handle bars to look into my eyes. I look curiously at him, not entirely sure what he wants from me but assuming if I just maintain the silence he’ll eventually cave and tell me himself.

“I know I felt a burn on your hand yesterday, and you and I both know that isn’t the smell ofsquirrelin your hair. Now are you going to be honest with me?” His eyes implore me to answer him, but that’s not how I play.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I return, cooly with a gentle smile on my lips.

He shakes his head in disappointment, but chuckles at the same time like he expected as much. “Fine, then let’s get to work.”