Bloodlines

Anna

Dean puts his hand on my lower back and slides it around my hip. The motion makes me weak.

"I'm sorry about your losses." She looks at Dean. She's not even wearing black. Why'd she even bother coming?

"I see you didn't pay your respects," he says. "Showing that sort of disrespect doesn't make me want you here."

"Well I'm sorry. Nobody told me the dress code."

Dean nods in a sarcastic manner. "I'm sorry too, but I'd like you gone by tomorrow morning." His words cause me to stand straighter. Did he really just say that? I look at Jessica for a reaction.

All she does is nod. "Very well. Consider me gone." She walks off with her guards. I watch after her. Surely it couldn't have been that easy.

After Dean walks me home, I sit on my porch and wait for my aunts. They come up the path a few minutes later. Aunt Holland has raccoon eyes as I'm sure I do. Aunt Jenna isn't a fan of make-up. Lucky.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Waiting for you guys." I open the door for them.

Aunt Holland goes straight for the bathroom. I follow her. I was right. In my reflection is a raccoon staring back at me. Aunt Holland hands me some make-up wipes and I start cleaning myself.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead, honey." She dabs at her eyes.

"How do you know when you've met your mate?"

She suppresses a smile and I know she thinks I'm referring to Dean, but my mind is occupied on Julia's parents.

"It's just instinct, Anna. There's just this magnetic feeling that draws you to them in any way or shape."

Magnetic. Just like what Sara said.

"How do they feel towards their children?" I pause. "Shouldn't they not want to leave their child?"

She sets her hands on the table and talks to my reflection. "I imagine its much like a bird. If their spouse dies, they never mate again."

"But they stay with their chicks. Why can't wolves be the same?"

"That's like asking why sharks can breathe underwater and we can't. It's all about evolution." She leaves the bathroom.

I splash water on my face and stare at my reflection for a good couple of minutes. With a sigh, I leave and walk out of the house. I close the door on Jenna's voice. I walk between my house and the one next door so I avoid patrols. I cut through some backyards until I finally fall upon the peach house I was looking for.

I sit on the porch of the house.

I sit there for a couple of hours. No patrols pass which strikes me as odd, but it keeps me out of trouble. Would they even send me to Dean if I got caught?

The door opens. Liam smiles at me. He sits beside me and we stay silent for a long time.

"You're worried about her," he says at last.

A cold breeze goes by. I suppress a shiver. I should've changed before I came here. I'm in the same clothes that I wore at the burial.

"Yeah, I am."

"It brings back memories doesn't it?"

I look at the house next door. The one where my mother hung herself. This block must be cursed. "There are no memories," I say. "I was two years younger than Julia when I lost my parents."