L'Anima Ladro, InkWeaver [summer beach reads TXT] 📗

Crap. He’d picked up his cruddy accent again. It was hard to look reassured. Nobody might get to me, but it wasn’t me he should be worried about, it was himself.
He took us deep within the system of twists and turns, the urban Labyrinth. It was the perfect place, I realized, right before a shocking truth reared its ugly head, just before I ‘went in for the kill’, as Uncle had once said.
Not only was the place a blessing for me, but for him too! But why would he need to kill or dispose of me? He wasn’t a Werewolf, or it could have been blamed on the urge to protect one’s territory; and he wasn’t a Vampire, who needed blood as much as a Werewolf needed to change; and I didn’t think he was a Shifter (the general term for the lesser races of shape-Shifters), he would be much smaller than a regular Werewolf if he was, rather than larger.
But what else was there? I had little time to ask myself this before the man—I realized that I still didn’t know his name—attacked. He moved slowly, and I could see the muscles protesting the lame pace. He must have thought I was an even slower human! It was an easy enough thing to simply grab his leather jacket (real leather, not that strange-feeling fake crap), and use his force to plow him into the brick wall behind me. Even though I didn’t really need to use his force, it was easier than trying to start a different direction for the movement to go.


Chapter 4

His head struck the wall first, leaving a huge hole; one of his hands caught one of the numerous tubes of metal weaving around the alley’s end, pulling it from the wall. His chest left a dent, though not as deep as the one his head did. I heard a vicious laugh.
The young man pulled his head out of the wall with ease. “There now, you’ve done it. You’ve made me mad, with that little trick of yours. How about this: I give you a minute’s head start, maybe then we’d be a little less feisty.” He still thought I was a human? Well, it was a decent advantage, anyway.
But I didn’t run. I raised my fists. He just laughed. “Whatever, it’s your soul.” He grinned an awful snarl of a grin, and lunged, a split second faster than his last move.
I let my wolf take over, grabbing him by the wrist of the arm he held a bit farther out, and changing his direction until he was flying over me, landing on the roof of the building that made up the right side. I doubted it would hurt him very much, if the hole he made in the wall was anything to judge his durability by.
He slid off the wall in a crumpled heap, but I knew any supernatural could easily catch themselves before hitting the ground. I wondered if he was stupid enough to think that I would believe he was hurt. I didn’t think he was stupid, but nor did I think him hurt. What was it then?
His head tilted up. “What are you? How…?” He passed out before he could finish the words. It seemed ridiculous, a supernatural fainting after I’d hardly done anything. There was barely a dent in the roof!
But I heard the beating of his heart slow, and his breathing even itself. There was no doubt. He was out cold. The only thing left was why?
Well, you can figure it out later, now he needs help. My conscience, though it didn’t care for humans, was much stronger when it came to other unnatural people. I knew he was probably less likely to try to kill me now that he knew I was a just as strong, if not stronger than him.
I walked over to his still form, cautiously, as if the sleeping person could be dangerous. Kneeling beside the young man, I grabbed the front of his jacket. If I had been a human female, even if he had been smaller, I wouldn’t have been able to lift him. But as a supernatural, I carried him with ease.
My wolf senses kept him on constant guard, my Vampire reflexes ready to spring at a moment’s notice. I threw him over my shoulder, an awkward fit, considering how small that shoulder was. I shifted him to a kind of piggyback style. One arm was draped over my shoulder, my hand gripping his wrist, and one leg held up within my reach, my hand gripping his ankle.
It was like an archer carrying a gigantic, heavy quiver with no strap, or way to hold it on without using your hands. But it was much easier than trying to throw him over my too-tiny-shoulder.
He groaned a few times, mumbling something about souls. I wondered why he seemed so interested in them. He had said ‘whatever, it’s your soul’ and now he was muttering about them in his sleep. I had to admit it was suspicious.
Maybe he was one of those supernatural people who’s ‘curse’ or ‘gift’ (depending on what it was) was spreadable, but one who thought it took away their soul. Believe it or not, there were quite a few of us like that. But they were the ones who helped humans, not tried to kill them! I became frustrated with this stranger who kept confusing me.
I fought to push it out of my mind as I made the last turn to bring me out of the alleyway, slowing myself down to a human speed. The sun made me wince as my eyes adjusted to the brighter noon light. It was then I noticed people staring.
Some of them were familiar, the faces that had been outside the tattoo shop when the stranger and I had walked into the alley. They’d seen me go in with him standing beside me, and come out with him draped over me like a gigantic wrap, or shawl. I could only imagine what they thought.
I knew I had to come up with something, and fast. It was my Vampire side that responded first. “Help!” I cried, dropping to the ground, looking injured. Or so I hoped. I knew that I at least looked tired. “Somebody call nine-one-one!” I heard a voice in the crowd say, “They’ve been mugged.” I was glad that I carried no money. I only hoped that the man had little or none with him either. It would be hard to say we were mugged if he had money with him.
But I’d think of something, I always did. It was a gift from my lupine practicality, always have a backup, and my Vampire quick reflexes that ensured my backup came fast. And, of course, the fact that my mind could work things out about one hundred times faster than a humans.
I was pretending to pass out when I heard sirens drawing close, and stopping. The men hopped out and I heard their echoing footsteps get close to us. They prodded us, clearly checking for injury.
“No broken bones! But they look bad, I don’t think they can walk.” A female voice said, close to me, “You two boys get the male, I’ll get our little tattoo girl here.” There was a slight protest from one of the guys, but he soon stopped complaining, realizing that it was getting him nowhere.
Then I was being lifted, held so close to a human that I could hear the heartbeat as loud in my ear as if it were a bomb going off at my feet. Or thunder right beside my ear.
I had to admit, I didn’t like being carried, as if I was helpless. But I winced and put up with it. The woman only thought my discomfort to mean pain, so I didn’t bother fixing my face back to the almost dead look I had assumed earlier.
I was put in the back of the ambulance. As the beating of the woman’s heart left my ear, I heard the heavy drop of a man’s foot. It was maybe an inch from where I guessed they had started. I heard gasps, groaning, complaining, and strained noises coming from the men.
I hadn’t thought the stranger to be so heavy. When I heard someone who’d saw us come out of the alley tell the ambulance man that ‘the person can’t be so heavy, the girl carried him out here herself’, my heart nearly stopped beating.
I sighed in relief when the man replied, “She probably was dragging him mostly.” A few mutters of, ‘then why don’t you try it if you’re struggling so much’. Then the people left them alone.
They didn’t move much, even after the female joined in. But with the help of about five sympathetic men and a child to keep the patient’s back relatively strait while he was carried, they finally heaved the heavy body next to mine in the back.


Chapter 5

His body felt too hot against me. His arm was on top of my mine, and I gripped his hand, checking his pulse, but everything seemed fine. The ambulance no longer had sirens on, since nothing was broken and we seemed to be in no immediate danger. The sensors in the back told them that. So it took us a while to reach the hospital.
I was happy with this though. It gave me time to think of an excuse. I toyed around with the excuse of being mugged, robbed, or ill. But I wasn’t sure if he had money, which knocked out the first two, and there was too much an evidence of a recent struggle to be the last.
I have it! I exclaimed in my head when I realized the perfect excuse. We tried to take a shortcut through the alley. We got lost. We’d been attacked by my jealous ex, who was intent on ruining my date. My ‘boyfriend’ managed to knock him out for a few moments, after which he ran. But my ‘boyfriend’ (I was going to call him James if he didn’t wake up in time to tell me his real name) was too tired, and passed out as well, except he didn’t wake up.
I was going to tell them it was the heat that did it, since he was wearing a leather jacket. I’ll tell them he was sensitive to heat. I dragged him out of the alley, and the crowd saw his arms falling from my hands, which is why it looked like I’d been carrying him.
They’d believe it. Humans always seemed to want to believe only in what they considered natural. So I’d give them a ‘natural’ excuse, and they’d accept it, so as not to put a wrinkle in their perfect fabrication of ‘truths’.
I heard a grunt from beside me as soon as I finished my planning. The giant’s head turned towards me, and I saw his amber eyes open. I put a finger to my lips, telling him quietly to whisper only.
“We’re in an ambulance.” I said at the confused look on his face. When the look didn’t clear, I explained what had happened, and the story I was going to give them, in a shorter version. We momentarily forgot out fight. We needed to work together.
“Good excuse. But my name’s not James, it’s Romeo.” I looked at him oddly, but ignored the name. Nikhil was just as strange.
“Well, I hadn’t planned on you waking up.” I hissed. Then, deciding I’d better be polite to my ally, even if he was