Moonlit Dangers

Chapter Thirteen

        When I had been a child, I had loved bird watching. Not only because of how pretty some of them were, but because I thought being able to fly would be amazing. I figured that being free of the power of gravity would be the most freeing thing of all; that the birds had to be the happiest animals alive because they were literally above it all. They never had to worry about falling.

            I was as high in the sky as I dared to be. I knew that the atmosphere got thinner the higher up one went, and didn’t want to knock myself out by going up to the point that it would be hard to breathe. It was extremely cold up here, but I didn’t care. It was quiet, and I needed a little quiet. I had turned so that my back was facing the ground, and I looked at the stars. I fixed my gaze on the big dipper as I thought about what had happened earlier. I had been so stupidly happy after having sex with Kory. I had thought that the act was his way of showing me that he cared about me, maybe wanted to be with me. I thought about what the team had told me earlier. I wondered at how someone could kill someone that they loved, no matter whether or not they were a monster. Finally, I thought about the man himself. Kory was a massive mix of contradictions. He could be incredibly rude, like when we had found Lina, or really sweet, like when he had visited me in the infirmary. He was honorable to a fault, which was frustrating. Sometimes a woman just wanted a man to want her and damn the consequences. He obviously loved deeply, or else it seemed he would’ve left a trail of broken hearts behind him. Since the team hadn’t warned me about that though, I assumed he hadn’t.  In the sack, the man could start teaching other men and make a fortune. It near made me climax just thinking about it. And attractive, he was ridiculously attractive. I couldn’t help but to stare at him sometimes when he was talking to me.

            I was falling in love with him. I knew it, and couldn’t help myself even though I wanted to. I felt like I was watching the heroine in a movie fall for a jerk. No matter how many times you yelled at her to not be an idiot, she fell anyway. That was me. I knew that he didn’t love me. He probably didn’t even like me most of the time. Probably thought I was a silly girl that he was suffered to rescue so she didn’t become dog food. Even if he did somehow fall in love with me, we both had things standing right in the way of our being together. His was the guardians. And in a way, that was mine too. There was no way he would be with me if I became a guardian officially. I understood his reasons, but that didn’t make me happy about it. Even if I didn’t become a guardian he wouldn’t fit into my life. I wanted a normal life, filled with work, and friends, and someday, a family. He would never quit the Guardians to be with me. I sighed as I felt my inner gas tank began to empty. It was time to get my feet back on the ground and my head out of the clouds.

            Back on the ground, it took me a few minutes to get my bearings. I realized that I was in the state park just outside of Thurston. I must have been levitating for a while because my house was on the other side of the town. Shrugging to myself, I began heading that way. I had been walking for about ten minutes when I saw movement ahead of me. I stopped, studying the woods around me, and hoping that it had been one of the local deer. Normally, it would be just what I needed if a lycan jumped out at me, a chance to blow off some built up anger and frustration. Or it would be if I were at full strength; which I wasn’t. Or if I had a weapon; which I didn’t. I waited nervously for a moment, cursing myself for not bringing a weapon of any sort. I was next to the road, and considered running away before realizing that I wouldn’t get very far if it were a lycan.

        After a few moments, I yelled out, “Who’s there?” I knew it was a horror movie line for the person who gets themselves killed, but I really, really hoped that I would get a spoken answer.  When I saw a shock of red hair, I relaxed. It wasn’t a lycan, just someone else out for a walk. I waved as they came closer, and then smiled as I realized they looked familiar, and why. I knew him from work.