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Chapter 6—wolves
I swung my feet out of the bed grudgingly as Nympori whistled merrily from the other side, and I tried to avert my eyes as he pulled off his vest and threw it on the floor.
“You’re really friendly in your sleep, Alice.” He noted brightly, walking to the other side of the room, “Really, when I woke up I expected you to have moved to the couch or floor or something. When I found you in my arms…!” he made a motion like he was cradling a body in his strong arms, “I could have sworn I was still dreaming.” He was suddenly behind me, hands on his hips with the most hysterically accusing look on his smooth marble face.
“You’re lying to me! You really do want me, don’t you?” he demanded haughtily, a mischievous gleam in his violet eyes. I rolled my eyes and stretched my relaxed body.
“Oh YES, Travista. I want you so bad I’m about to burst into a pile of ecstasy on your floor.” I let the sarcasm drip through my tone and I looked at him incredulously. “I keep telling you, I’m not interested. I just naturally curl up to whatever’s closest. My brother and I used to sleep like that.” I shrugged and started to hunt for my uniform, which I realized would be difficult to identify due to all the similar colors and fabrics that littered his lavish room. He sat cross-legged on the foot of his bed and cocked his head to the side in his interest.
“Your brother? I didn’t know you had one. When can I meet him?” he asked politely. I sighed and sat on the floor, hunting under the bed.
“Where is my uniform?” I asked, trying to stay distracted so that I wouldn’t have to recall that dreadful memory to the surface, hoping to God that he would take the hint.
“Certa just washed it for you. When do I meet your brother?” he insisted, waiting expectantly. I threw him a dirty look and crossed my legs and folded my hands tersely on my lap.
“You don’t.” I responded flatly, “My brother is dead.” His eyes widened in surprise and he flashed his white hand over his mouth. He looked horrified at himself, and his purple eyes were sympathetically searching my expression in hopes of seeing some reserve of strength or block so he wouldn’t cause me tears.
“Oh…I’m so sorry…I didn’t…”
“It’s fine.” I got up and walked to the door, praying that it led to somewhere somewhat familiar or easy to navigate back to that white room. I didn’t want to think of that day, but now the memory was fresh and it stung and felt just as unreal as that time. The flash of light, the scream of tires and the crunch of steel…the low promise in my ear, his final words echoing in my reverie, “Alice, you’re special. You’re gonna make it out of this car!” His innocent voice burned me and tears spilled over my cheeks as I pushed open his heavy door. I was disappointed to find that it led to a stone, spiraled staircase to some unknown floor and I simply didn’t have the patience to deal with being lost in both my memories and this stupid, endlessly huge estate that was somewhere conveniently hidden in Tokyo—or so I hoped. I didn’t feel like being several miles from where I could call my home. Nympori called out softly from behind me, his voice sweet as honey and repentant.
“Oh, Alice, I’m so sorry…I didn’t know…”
“Nympori…just…drop it. I’m not mad. You didn’t know about the crash.” I muttered flatly. He was behind me in a blinding flash and placed his cool hand on my shoulder soothingly, his fingers spreading out to stroke my warm skin. My blood boiled under his fingers again, and my tears slowed as I focused on his frozen fingers.
“You said my name.” he whispered, his voice just a breath on my messy bed hair. I didn’t want to look at him with my splotchy face and drying tears, so I instead stared at my pale toes.
“You finally said my name, Alice.” He murmured. He tilted my face up and wiped the tears from my cheeks, his eyes relentlessly searching mine for what I thought was that reserve of strength from before. I thought to myself, and wondered how disappointed he’d be when he realized that I was weak against my vivid memory, and that ultimately it dictated my entire behavior. Then, abruptly, his eyes changed and he yanked me closer, pulling my face just a half inch away from his.
“N-Nympori…?! What the hell…?!”
“Don’t cry. Kiss me, and don’t cry anymore.” He lowered his face just a little closer and I could taste his cool, delicious breath in my mouth. My face turned a blotchy purple as I trembled. I was in no way ready for my first kiss, and not from him! Yet he lowered so that his lips were just above mine…
“Goodness! Am I interrupting?” Certa chirped. He jumped away from me, startled and face twisted in enraged annoyance, but I couldn’t hide my relief as I danced up to her side.
“No! Not at all! I was just going…going to ask if you had my uniform!” I hid from him, my heart frantically pulsing out a disjointed rhythm and the thought of kissing him, of what almost was…
“Oh! That’s right, here…Nympori! Give the poor girl some privacy!” she handed me my uniform and put her hands on her hips as she chased a disgruntled Nympori from the room.
“Dammit, Certa! This is my room! And you WERE interrupting! Certa!”
She giggled and held up my bag as I brushed off the bracken off my backside and pulled leaves out of my hair—we had taken a route through a forest and I didn’t anticipate a slope on the first step. The back of my leg was all scraped up and I was feeling very bitter about the miniskirt the school required. Certa fixed the bow in my hair while she laughed her silvery seraph’s laugh.
“Certa, I’m not sure that this forest route was the best of ideas…I didn’t even know there WAS a forest in Tokyo.” I grumbled as she handed me my bag with a smile.
“Oh sweetheart, we’re not in Tokyo. We’re just outside of Kyoto. We’re running to school today—it’s the fastest way and this is safest. Nympori! Stop acting like a monkey!” we both raised our eyes to the branches above us and my hand flung to my mouth in shock as I watched him swing precariously from limb to limb.
“T-Travista! You be careful!” I choked out. His laughter echoed off the silent trees and surrounded Certa and I in its warm sound.
“No need to worry, Miss Alice. He won’t get hurt.” She chuckled as she tugged my hand and led me down the trail, her brother swinging above us. I followed silently, listening to the limbs creak and bend underneath the weight of the—well, I suppose he IS a boy—above me, and I was starting to accept the fact that looming around me all the time was just a part of his vampire nature and that I may just as well be stuck with him. I wondered if that would bother me much in the future. What about the off chance that I manage to land a boyfriend in high school? Would he be mad that Nympori constantly hung around and did that stupid flirting habit that he has? Nympori would probably really enjoy that, I thought bitterly. I was so engrossed in my trivial thoughts that I didn’t even realize that Certa had stopped dead in her tracks and was letting out an angry hiss from somewhere in the back of her throat. I felt my jaw drop and my eyes get wide in terror of her sudden hostility—her dark lips were pulled back into a snarl over her glistening fangs and her normally hazel eyes had become pitch black; she fell into a crouch and let my fingers slip out of her hands as they twisted into monster-like talons.
“Wh-what’s going on?!” I gasped as I was suddenly yanked backwards into the safety of a large bush.
“Shh! Keep quiet!” Nympori commanded, keeping me pinned to his side as we crouched by the roots of a tree and were hidden in the aromatic leaves of whatever bush we were in. I looked around wildly for whatever had disrupted her normally sunny disposition, but the area was completely calm except for her furious display. I tried to speak again, because I was confused and terrified and needed answers—my heart was pounding in my ears and everything—but Nympori glared at me with eyes that scorched and left my voice stuck to the walls of my throat. I soon discovered what the source was, for no sooner had I opened my mouth to try again did a large man appear from the trees. He was beyond big, he must have been seven feet tall at the very least, and he was build like an ox. Dangerous bands of rippling muscle spun down his arms and across his broad chest under dirty golden flesh. He was wearing nothing but a pair of grungy cut-off jeans and a destroyed pair of blue flip flops. I looked up to his face and was surprised to see that unlike Certa, he was relaxed and calm. His face was unusually handsome with a sort of rugged charm: he had deep-set eyebrows and broad lips, a sharp jaw line that was speckled with unshaven stubble down his chin. His black hair was long and unkempt, but it framed his gold face in such a way that it almost seemed angelic. His eyes gazed carefully at Certa and as I watched I had to double take to make sure I’d seen it right. His eyes were beautiful. The pupils and most of the iris were deep, clear ebony, but the outside of the iris were stunning, shimmering silver. He spoke to her in a low, gruff bass.
“Hey there, bloodsucker. What’s a leech like you doing here in my forest?” his question wasn’t threatening, just open, airy almost. Nympori tensed beside me and hissed softly in my ear, whispering something that I couldn’t understand.
“This has always been OUR forest, wolf! Since when did you decide you’d cross our boarders and move in? Who gave you permission?!” she spat violently, crouching lower to intensify her awaiting spring. He dropped his easy stance and stood rooted with his feet apart, bracing himself and preparing for a fight with a smirk on his face.
“I’m alone. I’m moving here because there’s nothing a weak little parasite like you can do to stop me.” he opened his arms wide, taunting her as his grin grew into a similar snarl as hers. In the next moment, there was an explosion of fur and a flash of white, and my slow human eyes couldn’t keep up with the rapid movements. Nympori tugged me farther from the scene, but his tenseness and what I supposed to be fear for his sister kept us within watching distance. I realized that the peaceful clearing was now a deadly arena that staged a monstrous ballet between Certa and this beast…a werewolf! I was too horrified to notice the sheer impossibility of the circumstances; I was instead transfixed with their fight.
Certa danced left, and the large beast lunged after her with cruel, snapping jaws, growling like the monster he was. She managed to dodge right in a blinding movement, a confident smirk on her face. She was beyond quick, and she swiftly kicked out his two front legs and made him crash down on his chin. His head fell as he unwillingly bowed to her, and he howled in an annoyed rage. He lifted a giant paw and swung it at her, missing her lovely face by just inches. She tackled him and yanked that the fur around his neck while he bucked frantically to get her off. I stared open-mouthed at this disastrous ballet and was taken aback by the sheer fearsome beauty that they both, as mythical creatures, portrayed in the fight.
“How is she doing this…?” I whispered. Nympori looked down at me and chuckled blackly.
“She’s amazing at fighting beasts like him. It’ll be over quickly, so long as he stays in that state.” He whispered back.
“What if he doesn’t?” I was trembling—I was hoping that Certa would just dash away and we’d all get out of here alive. He stayed quiet and focused his amethyst eyes on the battlefield. I gulped and pulled myself closer to him as I turned to watch as well. He chuckled tensely, wrapping his arm around my waist protectively.
“Scared?” he murmured.
“No, I want popcorn.” I hissed back sarcastically, biting my lip in worry. He chuckled again, but easily saw through my breathless attempt at sarcasm and protected me in his iron arms, his neck tense and his eyes rapidly growing darker.
The fight continued like a dance choreographed by a madman, with Certa jumping from trees and the beast leaping down to bite her apart. On occasion they collided and Certa screamed in pain every now and then, but when she did, the wolf got cocky and got himself a nasty gash in return. It seemed like a fair match as Certa jammed her icy shoulder into his throat and gagged him and he swiftly recovered to pin her with a giant paw. I screamed in horror as he lowered his dripping jaws close to her face, my heart in my throat. I hadn’t been quick enough to see the most complex parts of the fight, but this was by far the most dreaded thing I’d ever seen. Certa glanced frantically at us, and Nympori let out a warning hiss to the wolf. He looked up for a moment, then closed his jaws and snorted in Certa’s face. He transformed back into a man with a loud crack, and was now straddling her in his torn jeans with a grin on his face.
“Wow, leech. That was the best fight I’ve had in ages. You’re really something else.” He commented before lowering his face to kiss her dark lips, twisted with rage. From where I was sitting it looked like she bit him, but he pulled away laughing.
“Quite the attitude too! All right, all right, I’ll leave. My name is Jamal, by the way. What do you call yourself?” Now that the fight was out of the way, he seemed so oddly gentlemanly, and I wondered how on earth someone like him could exist—I was certain that one of his personalities was false. She shoved him out of the way and he fell down to the dirt with a groan.
“Brother, carry her now. That was too close.” She said quietly. Nympori slid my body on to his back and slid fluidly out to the clearing, carefully stepping away from the wolf who called himself Jamal.
“Hey lady, can I get a kiss goodbye?” Jamal teased, looking at Certa with a joyful look of enjoyment on his handsome face. I almost believed that he was flirting, but the vivid picture of his dripping jaws lowering to her face…regardless of what I was thinking in my panicked little head, Certa sneered at him and spit venom on his arm. I could hear the sickening sizzle as it burned through his skin, but it hardly seemed to faze him. He wiped it off his broken flip flop and tossed it aside, unconcerned with his bleeding wounds. I was starting to get sick from the acidic smell of his burnt flesh, so I buried my face in Nympori’s back and clung to him like a child. I would never admit it, but I was very comfortable where I was. I didn’t have to show him that I was enjoying being safe with him and I looked like that was all I was doing—trying to obtain protection. Which, I suppose was the main focus…but the longer I spent with Nympori, the more the urge to be close was. And I detested that.
“Hey, you got a little human girl…gee, she’s a real doll. Why are you keeping her close like that? I really hope she ain’t a snack.” Jamal stood up and walked casually over to me, reaching out his hand. I squeaked with fear and Nympori guarded me with a violent hiss and I felt his muscles tense under me as he prepared for a fight as well. The wolf put up his hands defensively and laughed.
“Okay! Okay, I’m going!” he turned to Certa and smiled, “Thanks for the fight, Dollface, it was a blast.” With her hissing at him, he turned and disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Nympori loosened his grip on me and shook me slightly so that I’d let him out of my desperate death grip.
“Werewolves…? This is bad.” Nympori murmured tersely. Certa nodded once and swept her hair back behind her shoulders without saying a word. I supposed she was too angry about the stolen kiss, so I said nothing to her, but instead turned to Nympori and whispered in his ear.
“I suppose that means that vampires and werewolves don’t get along well…is she gonna be okay?”
“I’ll be fine, sweetie. Let’s hurry on to school.” She led the way as I held Nympori’s hand through the forest and on towards our ordinary lives, however false they may now be.
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