One Foot in the Grave

I turned away from Rafael and walked towards the edge of the roof, it was a breathtaking sight to say the least. The city stretched out before me and I felt like I was on top of the world, the afternoon sun kissed my naturally tan skin and I closed my eyes for a moment to take in the feel of the sun. It warmed every part of me, and even though it was hot and humid already I welcomed the warm sun because it was more of a comfort to me than a source of heat. The leopard inside me likened it to basking in the Sahara desert sun. I looked over the edge of the roof and that warm feeling inside me turned queasy and I had to straighten quickly to prevent the onset of vertigo.

“Afraid of heights Sig?”

I turned around to come face to face with Rafael. He was grinning as usual.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” I joked.

“Nothing?” Rafael moved closer to me, forcing me to move backwards until my backside hit the cement barrier around the edge of the roof. He closed in on me, trapping me with his arms on either side of me.

My heart began to race at the look in his eyes, it showed without a doubt that he was just like his wolf counter part. The wild thrill was almost contagious and I felt my leopard stir inside me. For a crazy moment I thought he was going to kiss me, instead his eyes traveled down my body but stopped at my neck. His eyes went from happy to enraged within moments and he pushed away from me so quickly I was left dazed for a moment. I was confused for a moment as to what had caused the sudden change in mood and then it came to me. Quickly I snapped my hand up to my neck to cover the bite mark there.

“What is that?” Rafael nearly shouted, gesturing angrily at me.

“What are you talking about Raf?” I said quickly, trying to feign innocence.

I heard a low growl emit from him, one that sent a shiver down my spine, before he was suddenly in front of me. It was frightening to see how fast Rafael could move. His hand flashed out and grabbed the wrist of the hand I was covering the bite marks with.

“Don’t play dumb with me Sigrid, you let a vampire bite you,” he spit, like it was the dirtiest act that could ever be committed.

“No, I didn’t,” I snapped, trying to pry his hand from my wrist with my free hand. Rafael just seized both of my hands in one of his behind my back and his grasp would have snapped the wrists of a normal human. He was extremely angry.

“Then how would you explain that?” He swept my hair from my neck so the bite mark was in clear view.
“I didn’t let him bite me Rafael!” I shouted back, mustering up all of my strength to pull my hands free of his painful grip and shove him away from me. The effort left me breathing hard. Rafael seemed taken aback at my sudden strength and I knew I shouldn’t have done that, but I couldn’t take having him screaming in my face. “I did not let him bite me,” I repeated slowly, utilizing his moment of stunned silence. Within me I felt a sudden rush of warmth that always signaled the start of shifting, I closed my eyes and took a moment to slow my breathing to keep myself from losing control and slipping from my skin. “A vampire attacked a few nights ago,” I continued, my eyes still closed as that savannah warmth slowly disappeared.

“Those filthy leeches! Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Rafael shouted, his anger switching targets. “You hear in the news that they want to be treated as normal citizens and they’re doing their part to gain such recognition, but it’s a load of crap,” Rafael ranted as he paced across the roof.

“Raf...”

“They’ve killed so many humans,” Rafael continued, ignoring me completely.

“Raf!”

“And people think that lycans are the terrible creatures-”

“Rafael!” I shouted, this time I got Rafael to pay attention to me and stop his pacing. “Can we please just forget about it, it was just a one time thing and I got away just fine,” I said calmly, I felt bad for telling so many half-truths but I couldn’t tell him the truth about me being a wereleopard. I just couldn’t stand the thought of him hating me for lying to him for all these years.

Rafael sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. He gave me a long look then looked away, observing the view of the city. “Alright, we’ll drop it,” he said, “but I don’t want you going out in the middle of the night, if you need to just call me and I’ll come with you.”

“Deal,” I said, happy to end the subject. I said a silent prayer Rafael wouldn’t bring this up to John. “What time is it?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation off the topic of vampires.

Rafael checked his phone and made an “uh oh” face. “We’d better get you to work,” he said, looking up at me with an abashed grin.

“Crap, lets go,” I said, hurrying over to the door that led to the stairwell. I let out a surprised laugh when Rafael swiftly scooped me up in his arms and unleashed his speed.

We were down the stairs in seconds.

Full Moon was packed with werewolves tonight, I couldn’t smell one single human in the whole place. This was what it was always like when this festival came around. But this would be the first time I would get to be included in the festivities afterwards. Cheerful music was playing, a lot of it was from Irish decent. It was the type of music that made you want to clap and dance. Which was what a few people were doing in the space available. The younger wolfs scurried around playing tag and hide and seek. This was the only night John would let children in his bar, because tonight this bar wasn’t about getting drunk, tonight it was the start of a festival reuniting the pack.

I was popping the top off a bottle of beer for one of the werewolves, a nice man named Sam who came in here frequently, when I felt a tug on one of my belt loops. I looked down to see one of the younger children smiling happily at me. Something I had noticed with the younger lycanthropes is that their eyes are always brighter than what a normal child’s eyes should appear to be. “Can I have a soda?” he asked, holding out a dollar as he asked. I smiled and went to the cooler behind the bar, returning to the child with the cold beverage I noticed Rafael watching me from where he sat on the ledge that divided the main bar area from the pool table area. Rafael had dropped me off here then he went back to his home, which was at Dominic’s, and grabbed a few things and came back here on his motor bike with Sam and Dean in tow. He smiled when I met his gaze and I looked away with a soft blush coloring my cheeks. “Here you go,” I said sweetly to the little boy. The boy waved the dollar at me once more and I took it, the moment it was out of his hand he was off to go play some more. John never required anyone to pay for their drinks on these nights but almost everyone did anyways. As I was putting the dollar into the cash register I felt a set of eyes on me and turned around while leaning back and shutting the cash register drawer with my backside. I grinned when I met Raf’s gaze, I had known it would be him.

“You going to help me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just wondering if I should be flattered by that adorable blush?” Rafael said with a smirk, he tilted his head to the side and rested his chin in his hand.

The man sitting next to Rafael lifted up his empty beer bottle with a polite smile and I grabbed one from under the bar and popped the cap off. As I leaned over the bar to hand it to the man I made sure to get within inches of Rafael, “I have no clue what you’re talking about,” I whispered.

Rafael grinned and gently caught my chin in his hand. “So it’s not because you find me unbelievably attractive?” He asked, slowly leaning towards me. I could feel his warm breath wash over my lips and I thought he was going to close that last bit of space but then someone slammed a glass down on the bar a little harder than necessary, I jumped and Raf’s hand slipped from my chin. Both of us froze at the sight of John, he had this look of strained happiness I knew meant he was trying not to get angry. “Having fun you two?” He asked, his voice a little higher than normal.

“Um, well, I think it’s my turn to play pool,” Rafael said quickly, escaping John’s gaze as fast as he could. I, however, was stuck behind the bar.

“Nice to see you two are getting along,” John added, grabbing a beer and giving me a long look, he was tapping his fingers on the bar top as he spoke, a sign that I had associated with him controlling his anger. He nodded once more before going back to join Dominic at their booth. I breathed out a sigh of relief; it was scary when John got all ‘protective father’ on me. I looked across the bar to see Rafael looking at me; he winked when I caught his gaze and I just rolled my eyes and mouthed the word “wimp”. This just made him laugh.