The Raven's Source

Chapter 52 - Blood & Frenzy

"That didn't take near as long as I thought it would," Sheja said as they started up the path. "I figured a lot more people would have stopped us."

Twyn laughed. "We would have been home an hour ago if we hadn't forgotten to stop by Mr. Rupert's."

"God, Leena would have killed me," she said with a laugh. "Hey Kurt, I forgot to say it but thanks for you two tagging along with us today." She turned around to face him as she walked but stopped in her tracks, realizing neither of the Guardians were behind them. "Kurt? Sophie?"

"Think they forgot something at one of the shops?"

"No, they wouldn't have both left us."

"Well, let's get this load up to the house," Twyn said, starting up the hill again.

"Hey!" someone yelled. "Hey! Wait a minute!"

"Twyn, I don't have a good feeling," Sheja said softly as four men were jogging in their direction.

Twyn looked down at Sheja's feet and saw she was wearing sneakers. Good, she can fight in those if necessary, he thought to himself. "Can we help you?" Twyn asked as the men slowed. They were each smiling a friendly smile and Twyn also didn't like it.

"Yeah," the clear leader of the pack stated. "We saw this beautiful lady and we just wondered if she'd like to come down to the brewery with us and have a drink. We're buyin'. You're welcome too, mister!"

"That's a gracious offer and sounds like fun, but we really do need to get home," Sheja said with a smile and she turned away.

"Hey, come on now!" he said, closing the distance between them in a matter of steps and lightly grabbing her arm. "We promise to show you both a great time. Like I said, drinks on me."

"I believe she already gave you an answer," Twyn said, setting down the bags he was carrying and removing the man's hand from Sheja's arm. "The offer was appreciated, but we have some place to be."

"Fine, we'll let you guys be," he said, lacing his fingers behind his head, "if you let me kiss her."

Sheja let out a laugh.

"That's no way to treat a lady and even if it was, I sure as shit ain't gonna let you kiss what's mine," Twyn growled protectively.

Sheja quirked a brow before grinning at his response.

"Okay," the man said in what sounded like a defeated tone, letting his arms drop to his sides. His tone quickly changed back to boldness. "Here's the thing though...she's coming with us. We don't care what you think."

"Toldja I didn't have a very good feeling about them," she said as she leaned toward Twyn. "Come on guys, I just got this outfit and I don't want blood all over it. I'm tired of having to fight some idiot every time I turn around lately."

"Well, if you don't fight us and come quietly, you don't have to shed any of your blood on it," he smirked.

"She wasn't talking about her blood," Twyn replied.

As the lead male started toward Sheja, the other three split away from him and had their focus on Twyn.

"Hey, now wait a minute...three on one isn't fair," Twyn complained. "Well, unless y'all went against her then yeah, you'd need all four."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Twyn," she groaned, staring at the man in front of her.

"Come on, just one drink with us. I promise we'll all be proper gentlemen."