Handle With Care

Confusion

When we got back to the house, in early afternoon, I was a bit surprised to see Elric already standing out on the porch, his shoulder leaning against the railing and his arms folded across his chest. My ears flattened back on my head, fearing that he was angry at us for leaving. But Nimr had gone up to tell him, I recall, of what we were doing before we left?

I had slowed my pace, but when I had stepped close enough to see his face more clearly, I saw that he was smiling as he watched us, and I was quite relieved. Nimr walked ahead and up the steps to approach him, the two embracing in a hug like the last time Nimr returned from a hunt. Within the split second I saw the two wrap their arms around each other, I felt a strange tug inside me, not a very pleasant one. The best I could make of it, was envy. I don't completely blame myself for feeling that way....

Slowing to a stop just a few feet from the porch steps, I dropped the stag I had been carrying by its antlers and stepped a little ways away, looking down at my paws that blended in so well with the snow. I wondered whether or not to shift back into my human form, even though I would very much rather stay in my current form.

The front door swung open, catching my attention, and out bounded Jasper and Esther, both jumping off the porch, completely skipping the three steps. Startled, I stepped -or more so, jumped- back a bit more away from the half-eaten deer, which they both dropped to their knees by.

"Nice catch, Nimr," Esther complimented as his lively green eyes scanned the fresh carcass.

"Couldn't've done it without Ryder. You should've seen him, he was brilliant. You'd be proud, Elric," Nimr replied, his voice dropping to a whisper in the last sentence, meant only for the vampire right beside him, though I was able to hear it anyway.

All that could come of it, for me, was my own denying thoughts. Brilliant? I wouldn't call myself brilliant, not at all... maybe I was just off of not being bad, but I didn't think I was 'brilliant'....

I saw Elric glance at me, a small... sort of smirk, to his lips that had me glancing down in befuddled embarrassment. I had hoped he had directed his attention back to the much smaller vampire after I looked away from his odd gaze.

"How so, my darling?" Elric whispered to him. I looked up through what little eyelashes my wolf's eyes possessed, just in time to see Nimr push himself up on his toes and tilt his head up to Elric's ear.

"The way he acts in the forest... it's exactly like what you taught me... only for him, it comes so naturally, he doesn't even have to try..." Nimr whispered, his voice so incredibly quiet my ears strained to hear him. When he finished, Elric's eyes slid to me in interest once again. I pinned my ears down on my head, once again, and backed away even more. If I didn't have fur covering my cheeks, I would have been positive that my blush was very apparent to him.

Elric smiled again, though it was in an intriguing way; it was soft, and kind, like he was trying to ease me without touch, or words, just a simple gesture. I held in a groan of great reluctance as I stopped moving away; I had come to the edge of the house already.

If I truly wanted to, I could just dash right around the side of the house and into the woods there, but I wouldn't take such a risk when four of the five vampires were outside and within sight of me. Especially when a particular one had his utmost attention on me.

So instead, too timorous to look back at Elric's face, I looked over at Esther and Jasper. They had engaged in sucking up the blood in a rather quick pace, small slurping sounds emitting from their mouths as the thick blood slipped in past their lips and down their throats. I would have thought they were starved, but they would be acting much more ravenously than they were currently if they were starved. Maybe I was just used to my own slow eating habits, and really I was the one who ate strangely, and really, they were feeding in a perfectly normal pace. Yes, that must be it....