My Blood on Your Lips, Your Money in My Bra

I found Kyrianna in a circle of alto girls when I walked into choir on Wednesday. From what I could tell, they were all humans, probably the whiny kind she'd been bitching about before. She didn't seem to notice me, so I assumed she'd found some new friends that were somehow more fun than me.

I dropped my backpack in the corner and headed to my spot on the risers. About a minute passed before I was no longer alone.

"Hey, Elyria," Kyrianna greeted me with a smile. She sat down beside me, and I merely cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Hello." Why the hell was she over here bothering me when her friends were only a few feet away?

"Did you happen to bring my clothes?" I noticed the lightest blush color her pale cheeks, and both of my eyebrows raised. She was still embarrassed about yesterday?

"I did, actually," I answered while my eyebrows fell to leave me stoic. "I even washed them for you."

"All right," she said just as the bell rang. "I'll get them from you after class." She went back to her own section, and I stood. Singing ensued.

-

After class, I gave Kyrianna her jeans and T-shirt. Much to my surprise, she thanked me, but didn't walk away to join those other girls.

"Are you doing anything later?" she asked, hugging her clothes to her chest nonchalantly.

"Before or after nightfall?"

"Whichever."

"I'm free before, but always busy after."

"Always?" she said curiously. "You never take any breaks?"

I shrugged. "I could try, but clients would more than likely show up, anyway, and you have no idea how hard it is to fight off a hungry vampire." She went wide-eyed, and I finished with a simple, "It's not worth the effort."

"I'm sure," she said, a look of awe and wonder in her wide eyes. She must not have had much contact with vampires...or maybe it was bitches like me that she wasn't quite used to.

"Anyway," I sighed, getting bored with where our conversation had gone, "what is it you want to do later?"

She snapped out of her awestruck trance and shrugged. "Whatever you want, really. I just want to hang out."

"Don't you have other people to hang out with now?" My eyes drifted to the alto girls, and she followed my gaze.

"Nah. They're good for when I'm bored, but I'd much rather spend time with you." Her eyes moved back to me.

"All right." The bell rang, and she smiled.

"Meet me by the front doors later. We can decide what to do then." She then grabbed her bag and left.

I sighed and went to my own class. More stuff to do with people...Great.

-

"Any idea what you want to do?" Kyrianna asked as we walked out of the school together.

"Not at all." My eyes narrowed in a squint as they were assaulted by bright afternoon sunlight. It had been so dreary for the past few days that I was no longer accustomed to any kind of brightness. "Something in a nice, dark place sounds good, though," I added while using a hand to shield my eyes.

Kyrianna laughed, though she, too, was shielding her eyes. "How about your apartment, then?"

"Sure. Not much to do there, though."

"Ah, well. We'll find something, I'm sure."

Finally, we reached some tree cover, our arms falling to our sides. The shade here was nice, but my apartment sounded nicer. That kind of darkness always did sound good...

Suddenly, I stopped. My body tensed, my senses sharpening and frantically searching for what it was I felt. There were eyes on me, a dark, sinister intent behind them. Who the hell would bother watching me like that?

"Elyria?" Kyrianna asked, concern shifting her features. She'd stopped just ahead of me, leaving me in the shadow of the trees while she stood by in the glow of the sun.

My eyes moved to her in a quick jerk, the ferocity in them startling the girl. "You don't feel that?"

"Feel what?" she asked, frightened.

The feeling vanished when I looked over my shoulder. I forced my body to relax as I turned to Kyrianna again. "Nevermind."

We lapsed into an almost awkward silence as I began walking again, Kyrianna following along a bit behind me. She still looked a little worried, but she knew better than to ask about it while I was still like this. It wasn't hard to see that I was liable to snap.

"I thought necromancers were supposed to have exceptional senses," I said softly when we neared my apartment building. I was calmer now, no longer feeling threatened by some unseen being with an angry staring problem.

"They are," Kyrianna told me, confusion in her slowly spoken words.

"Then why did I feel that, but you didn't?"

"Are you..." She hesitated, then plunged on, hoping I didn't kill her. "Are you sure there was something to feel?"

I rounded on her, bringing her to a frightened stop. My narrowed eyes burned, a gray glow on her close face. "I may be paranoid," I hissed, "but I know when I feel something. If I'm good at anything, it's that."

She shrank back at first, but then, a hesitant anger grew in her. She glared up at me and put her face in mine. "Don't act like you're going to intimidate me. I'm just as tough as you and twice as mean." Yet her eyes weren't glowing like mine were, her aura not as vicious, and there, behind that anger, a hint of fear still lingered.

It took courage to stand up to me like this, but she had no idea what she was doing.

"If you don't back up and stop pretending you have a backbone, I can't guarantee that you'll make it home tonight." A deadly calm had fallen over me, the glow of my eyes faded and the tone of my voice cool.

Kyrianna's uncertainty was obvious. She was scared, hesitant, but she wasn't backing down. Not yet.

"You don't scare me," she said quietly, trying to hide the light quaver in her voice.

"Are you sure?" I asked, my voice shifting to the low purr I tended to reserve for my clients. And often other males. My fingers lightly traced her jaw, and her entire body went rigid. She didn't step back, though. "I swear I can feel a bit of fear in you..."

We were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, passerby staring as they went along. I couldn't imagine what this must have looked like to them, and I didn't really care to.

Slowly, my fingers slid down to Kyrianna's neck, gently caressing her skin.

"I'm not afraid." It was a lie. I knew it, she knew, and I'm sure anyone who could see her wide brown eyes knew it.

"Mm," I purred. "I'm sure."

In one swift motion, my fingers closed around her throat and her back hit the nearest wall. She was a foot off of the ground, her legs and arms dangling limply in their places. She wasn't going to put up a fight.

"Are you done pretending you're brave now?" I asked, my head tilting to the right. I regarded her with curious eyes, interested in the fear her own eyes held. It drew my inner beast. Or perhaps that was just my inner psycho.

She nodded, just one, jerky little nod, and I dropped her before I could do anything worse. "Come on, if you still want to hang out," I said over my shoulder in my usual cold tone. I was already walking away, wanting to get away from all of these people.

She was still for a moment, but I soon heard a soft shuffling behind me, then footsteps as she followed. Either she was really bored, really desperate for a friend, or she really liked me.

She kept her distance until we reached the door to my apartment, where she drew up alongside me and waited for the door to be unlocked. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I turned the key and opened the door. I then stepped back to let her in ahead of me. She looked at me for a moment, questioningly, before going in.

The sound of the door closing was loud in the quiet of the apartment. Another door closed softly down the hall, probably Gabriel hiding in the library, but Kyrianna didn't seem to notice. Her eyes never moved away from her shoes, following each movement of the laces as they were slowly untied.

I slipped my shoes off quickly and went over to the couch. There, I sat down and turned the television on. Kyrianna cautiously sat down on the other end of the couch.

"You can stop being so scared," I stated after a moment. I flipped past CSI, House, and several reality shows that didn't deserve to be on the air, though I didn't look at the girl next to me.

"I'm not scared," she argued, shooting me a small glare. "I'm just afraid of setting you off again."

"You shouldn't be worried about that. It's not that easy to do." I turned the TV off and stood. "Now, come on. There's nothing on TV and nothing else to do here. I don't even know why we came." I moved back to my shoes, and Kyrianna followed. I wondered if she knew I was just trying to get us out in the open so she'd stop being so afraid that I was going to hurt her...

"Where are we going to go?" she asked, sitting on the floor to put her shoes back on. She tied them without looking, her eyes fixed on me.

"I don't know," I answered with a shrug. My shoes were on by now, so I straightened and watched her. "Just out somewhere, I guess."

"All right..." She stood, then waited for me to lead the way out. I couldn't leave quite yet, however.

"Wait here for a minute." She nodded, and I walked down the hall without removing my shoes. If I got anything on the carpet, Gabriel would probably clean it up for me when he got bored later. Speaking of Gabriel...

Quietly, I opened the door to the library and stepped into the candle-lit room. The candles on the table were almost gone now, only an inch left of the wicks. The melted wax had dripped down to dry mostly around the candles' bases, though some had made it down to the table. A couple of books were on the table, one open and the other shoved aside. The human's eyes were on the pages of the open book, a finger trailing across the ink as he read. He was seated in his usual chair, his back to the door.

"Gabriel," I said softly as I laid a hand on his shoulder. He jumped and turned, looking like he was more than ready to fend off an attacker. When he saw that I was no attacker, he relaxed, smiling the slightest bit.

"Jeez, Elyria. You almost made me hurt you."

"I almost made you try," I corrected him.

He grinned. "What do you need?"

"I'm leaving with Kyrianna, so you can come out for a while. But you know the rules."

"Of course. It feels like I've been obeying them for years..." He smiled up at me for a second longer, then he turned back to his book. "Have fun." Only then did I remove my hand from his shoulder. I hadn't even realized I'd left it there...

"You, too." I went to the door, but stopped when my hand touched the knob. "Don't read that book too quickly. It's one of the only three I have that are written in English."

He looked back at me, smiling once more. "I've noticed. You might have to teach me the other languages soon, though. I've already read the other two English books."

I laughed lightly, just imagining him trying to understand the German or French or demonic languages that littered my texts. "We'll see." And with that, I left, closing the door just as quietly as I'd opened it.

When I reached the front door, Kyrianna looked away from the floor. "Ready?"

"Yes." I opened the door, and we both ventured out into the hall.

-

"Any idea where we're going yet?" Kyrianna asked after ten minutes of silent walking.

"Actually, I do have an idea." I'd had an idea for a while now, but I hadn't felt the need to mention it.

"Ooh. Where?"

I shrugged. "Nowhere special."

She didn't believe me until we entered a Starbucks coffee shop.

"Coffee?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at me. "Really?"

I shrugged again. "It sounded good." We approached the counter, finding no line or even many patrons sitting at the small tables scattered about the coffee-scented establishment. "What do you want?" I asked, glancing at the shorter girl.

"Cinnamon dolce latte. Grande," she answered simply.

"I'll take the same." As the woman took my money, then hurried off to make our drinks, I sent Kyrianna off to pick a table. She chose one by the window at the front of the store, and I sat across from her. She took her coffee and began to drink in silence. I did the same.

"So..." she began after a couple of minutes. She watched as my eyes flicked to her, then moved back to the window.

"What's your family like?" It was the only thing I could think of to ask, and I really was curious. I didn't know much about families, especially of the necromantic variety. I couldn't remember much about my own, and I didn't think we'd been too normal, anyway.

She smiled. I could see the reflection in the window. "They're not bad. My father's a bit mean, but my mother's nice enough to make up for it."

"Any siblings?" I took another drink of my coffee and pretended I didn't really care about the response.

"A brother and sister. He's in college, she's raising a family not far from here. I miss them...They were always the comic relief around my house." She laughed softly, but said nothing else.

I looked at her over my cup. The vague desire for a family was there and gone, and I dropped my gaze. I was perfectly fine alone.

The little bell above the door jingled, causing my eyes to move back to Kyrianna. There was no need for self-pity. There never was.

"Where do you live?" Another thing I was just a tiny bit curious about.

"Not too far from your apartment building, actually." She sipped her coffee and smiled again. "A few blocks away, on Maple."

"Not a bad place to live."

"That's why we moved there."

The chairs at the table next to ours scraped across the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched three tall, gruff-looking men sit down. Each one held a small plastic cup, the ones used for the hot drinks, and the little things looked wrong in the grips of these men. They were dead silent, looking at each other and their untouched drinks.

I coolly sipped my coffee and looked at Kyrianna. The girl was still smiling, and she didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong.

Maybe she really didn't sense things like I did. But this was so obvious...

I shifted experimentally in my chair, almost as if I were going to stand. The men did the same, settling only when I crossed my legs and stilled.

I again felt the feeling of sinister motives behind unfamiliar eyes, though that quickly faded. I tensed.

This wasn't good.

My eyes shot to Kyrianna's again, and she frowned, but only at the predatory look in my eyes. She probably thought it was directed at her. She really couldn't feel any of this. Did the men think I wouldn't feel it, either? Was I not supposed to?

Suddenly, I stood, forcing myself to walk casually over to the trash receptacle closest to our table. Kyrianna followed, confused. I shoved my half-full cup into the trash.

"Elyria, what-"

"This place is getting boring," I answered calmly. "Let's go." I walked out of the shop, and she followed with her coffee in hand.

I didn't realize that leaving the safety of the coffee shop might have been incredibly stupid until I heard the heavy footsteps of those strange men behind me. They were bigger than us, they outnumbered us, and there was no doubt in my mind that they weren't human. Or vampire. I could handle those. But whatever these guys were...

I tried to keep moving at a normal, leisurely pace, but adrenaline moved me along faster. I couldn't very well fight these men, so I needed to escape. It was basic fight-or-flight.

"Elyria, why are we moving so fast?" Kyrianna asked, sounding rather annoyed now. How the hell was she still clueless?

"We're being followed," I hiessed to her. "We need to get away from our followers." She started to turn her head, but I snapped, "Don't look, idiot."

"Stop being such a bitch, would you?" she growled back, not being too nice herself.

"We don't need to fight right now," I informed her, trying to calm myself down at least a little bit.

"Hm," she grunted. She was silent for a moment, then, as we neared a corner, she slowed down and said, "There's no one following us."

"What?" I asked as I looked back. My pace slowed when I realized she was right. "Where did they go?" I turned forward again and jumped when I found my face inches from a muscled chest. The scent of Were, dark and musky, wafted over me, and I tensed. Slowly, I looked up.

It was definitely one of the men from the coffee shop. He towered over me at nearly six-eight, and he looked like he'd be strong enough to snap my skinny ass in half. He had a very handsome face, with sharp features and a beautifully-shaped jaw, and fair skin, just barely darker than mine. His eyes were an unusually deep blue, and they seemed to bore into my very soul. His hair reminded me a bit of Eli's, the bangs being the only part of his brown hair that he kept long, and they were streaked with a dark blue to compliment his oddly-colored irises. They fell to hide his cold eyes when a light breeze blew past.

I swallowed my fear at his size and his muscle and said calmly, "Do you need something, or are you just trying to annoy me?"

"Elyria," Kyrianna whined softly from behind me. I felt her back pressing against mine lightly, her body rigid with fear. "Don't piss him off. The other two are over here."

That was when I felt it, that sinister feeling returning full force. It was one of the men behind me, but that was all I knew. I didn't know which one it was or why he was like this. That only made it more unnerving.

"Like I care," I said, sounding more calm than I really was. "Not like they can do anything to us here." It was true...kind of. There were people everywhere, walking past us down the sidewalk, driving by, shopping in nearby stores, but they were just humans, and if they wanted to, these guys would have no trouble hauling us off to somewhere with less of an audience.

"Now I see why you wanted this one," the Were in front of me said, looking over my head. "Is the other one necessary?"

"No," a deep voice replied. It was rough and scratchy, giving it an almost monstrous sound. It wasn't normal, even among werewolves. The beast was far too prominent...

"Maybe I'll take her," the male before me said thoughtfully. "She doesn't look too bad." A frightened whimper escaped Kyrianna, and I glared up at the man.

"You're not getting either of us," I informed him, the anger in my voice bringing his startled gaze to mine. "I don't know why you want us, but you need to leave us alone."

The werewolf merely stared at me for a moment, then he burst into laughter. "You picked a good one, Kai. You really did."

I growled, the white cloth stretched across his broad chest turning gray beneath the glow from my eyes. I wanted to hit him in the face, but that was too high up to strike well, so I aimed a bit lower.

A choked sound slipped from the man's lips as my fist met his throat. Even his neck was too high to hit well, but I managed. The Were stumbled back a single step, coughing as he looked down at me with wide eyes, clearly shocked. I hadn't really done any damage, but at least I'd stunned him.

Cockily, I started to walk past the shocked male, acting like I thought he wouldn't dare to touch me. In reality, however, I was just waiting for him to grab me.

"Elyria," I heard Kyrianna say warningly after only a second. I felt the man reach for me, and I braced myself.

A thump followed by a splash. Nobody touched me.

"Go the hell away!"

I turned to find the Were I'd hit covered in coffee and looking stunned, just as he had before. Kyrianna was facing him squarely, glaring like an angry child who hadn't gotten her way.

"I don't know what you want. I don't care, either. Just go!"

My eyebrows raised. She was amusing when she was pissed off...

The Were glared back at the girl, lips lifting in a snarl. Apparently, luke warm coffee didn't do anything but piss people off. Who knew? "She knows what we want," he growled. "You don't matter."

I blinked, confused. I didn't know...Oh, wait. I probably did.

Blood. Weres were starting to like blood. I sold mine, and it was probably way better than any of the human blood they'd tasted.

Kyrianna raised her hand to slap the man, though I snagged her wrist before she could do anything else stupid. I looked up at him with curious eyes, calm and unglowing. "I don't feed werewolves."

"Well, you might want to start," he told me bitchily.

"And why is that?" I released Kyrianna's arm and she let it fall to her side. She glowered at the Were, but said nothing. She knew the grown-ups were talking now.

"Because we'll get it whether we do it in a way that benefits all of us or not. You could end up rich or dead. It's your choice."

I cocked an eyebrow. "I'm already rich. And the man who provides the money is also the man who won't let you kill me."

The Were smiled evilly down at me, the look in his blue eyes chilling. "Yes. I know him. Terrence, correct? Terrence Roquemore?"

"Yes," I answered, vaguely surprised that he knew.

"We could be better than him," the man said softly, his voice a low whisper with a seductive edge. "We could give you more, all in a better environment. No slavery or abuse or taunting or threats." His smile turned into a devilish grin, and he took a step closer to me. He wanted to touch me, but he knew better. I had punched him in the throat, after all. Instead, he leaned close to my ear and breathed, "And you could feed anyone else you wanted without being a threat to their life." At this, the male with the strange voice growled. The wolf in him came out in the sound, strong and dangerously possessive. I shivered.

"No," he argued gruffly. "If she feeds me, she belongs to me."

"Then we have a problem." I turned from the men and tried to act cool and calm, even though my heart was racing and every part of my body ached to do something, whether it be run or fight. Now I knew how Kyrianna had felt earlier... "But, regardless, you should leave me alone. Her, too. You can talk to Terrence if you have a problem with my refusal." I began to walk, but stopped suddenly to glance back. "Oh, and you should probably go take a shower. Wouldn't want your brethren to know about...that." A gesture to his coffee-soaked hair and clothing accompanied the word, and I began to walk again afterward.

I braced myself again, expecting someone to try to stop me, but all I got was a growl from the Beast Man. Kyrianna was soon at my side, and together, we made our way back to my apartment.

There, we sat down and watched TV without saying a word to each other. I even let her watch Desperate Housewives.

-

I walked Kyrianna home just as night fell to darken the city. She lived in a nice white house, two stories with a nice porch and pristine yard. It was the perfect home for a small family like hers. I left her on the porch and began the walk back home in the dark.

It wasn't far to my house. I was tense throughout the entire walk, however, just waiting for one of those werewolf men to strike. Amazingly, I didn't feel eyes on me until I was a block from my apartment building, and the gaze was a familiar one.

Eli.

The male's presence was soon at my side, exuding its usual tranquility and calm. There was still a little snag in it, though, a soft touch of guilt, barely there but so unusual that it was hard to miss. I didn't like it, though I could do nothing about it. My headache had faded, but the sadness still lingered, always lurking in the back of my mind, where it could effect me only occasionally. Perhaps that was my snag. Perhaps that was the way Eli felt.

"Terrence isn't pleased," was the first thing the vampire said to me. I looked up at him, but he wouldn't look at me, so I turned my gaze ahead again.

"And why is that?"

"Three werewolves came to him as the sun was setting. They claimed you had sent them."

"And I had, in a way."

Eli nodded. "Terrence understands this. It's not what displeases him...not all of it, anyway."

"What else is there?"

"They want you. Not just for a taste or a few meals." He looked down at me now, and I found that his eyes were just as cold as they were supposed to be. "They want to take you for their clan and call you their own."

"And I assume he won't allow this?" I turned my attention back to the sidewalk ahead and quietly hoped the bastard liked my blood enough to fight for me.

"They offered a large sum..." I swallowed, afraid. "And they could start a war with him if he refused..."

I stopped walking and looked at him. He did the same. He was silent for a long moment before he spoke again.

"The war has begun. Terrence wants to see you."