Friends in Not So Holy Spaces

It took Julia and I only a matter of minutes to reach the mountains and find a fresh track of grizzly paws. We landed in a near clearing and followed the tracks to find the owner. As we walked my mind kept wondering back to Emmett and he had said before I practically drained him. “I can’t stand to see you hurt any longer…

What does he mean by that? It’s not like we’ve known each other for a long time or anything like that. So why such…

“Cat.” Julia brought me back to earth.

“Yea?”

“What were you thinking?” Her eyes stayed on the trail in front of us, but I knew she was completely focused on me. I bowed my head, not sure if I wanted to tell her just yet, but as always she knew what was on my mind. “You were thinking of that vampire you almost drained.”

We stopped walking both looking at the ground. “Cat, this is- “

“Dangerous,” I finished for her.

“Not only that,” She turned to face me, all the comfort from the field gone, “but naturally forbidden.”

I raised my head to meet her steely blue-grey eyes. “Yea,” I said turning away, “I knew that too.”

I turned back to the tracks and so did she.

We followed them in silence for a good 5 minutes until we came upon a river and just a small 10 yards up stream was the large grizzly we’d been tracking.

Julia and I faced off, “I go high you stay low.” I nodded once; Julia unfurled her pure white wings and shot in the air. I watched as she soared to higher altitudes; then turned to bushes and blended with the foliage.

The bear didn’t notice as I crawled through underbrush and positioned myself at its right flank. On the water you could just barely make out the reflection of Julia high in the air, looking like a black spot in the wintry sky. The direction of the wind shifted and the grizzly stopped its search for fish, trying to find the source of Julia’s scent.

I closed my eyes and envisioned how she would strike.

First she’d circle once. Then she’d go into a nose dive, head straight down and wings tightly held to her body for more speed.

I open my eyes as she comes closer.

100 yards away the bear realizes the threat and stands up on his hind legs to bat her away with his huge paw. 20 feet away the grizzly gives a howl and starts flailing his arms about; this is when I strike. I bolt out of the bushes and tackle the beast the impact breaking the creature’s neck. Julia lands gracefully beside me.

“It’s been so long I’ve forgotten how fast you were.”

I look up at her smiling face, and give her a confused look.

“Julia…we saw each other 2 months ago.”

“Really? It feels longer.” I roll my eyes and give a laugh as a start to pick up the animal. Julia laughs with me and we both pick it up, she the front paws, me the hind paws. I looked down at my end, then hers.

“There something wrong Cat?”

“Why the fuck am I holding the end with the ass?”

She laughs like I’m trying to be funny and we take off. But seriously, how the hell did this get switched around?