(REWRITING) The Skylar Experiment : Coveting

Bonus Luc POV

I ALLOWED THE WANDERER TO SCURRY. But not without one hell of a flesh wound for a friendly warning.

My attention drifted to the girl lying in the heap of leaves, knocked out cold from my outburst. I silently stepped closer and crouched. That—that was very much a girl.

I picked a twig with my other hand, snapped it in two, threw it at her. 

A glow from my palm illuminated her face. My fingers snapped around her ears. 

Good. Definitely out cold as I had hoped. I had to congratulate myself for such fine crisis management. One more second and she could have seen too much and this situation would have gone from unpleasant to quite troublesome. 

I snuffed my light out. She was pretty far up the buttcrack of this forest, far enough to get spotted by one of them. Now I had to carry this back to the house a few miles down. Just my luck.

"Dumbass."

My attention zoned around her legs, noting the hand tightly wrapped around an ankle even in her unconscious state. I nudged her fingers away with mine. Instantly, a discharge coursed from her to me. That familiar, involuntary tingle uncurled down my spine, but it was so weak. Had I imagined that? 

What kind of fuckening was this...

I held her ankle. Energy welled to the tips of my fingers, ready to bond with her, a dead giveaway that she must have sprained it somehow. The shrieks were moving around the woods before I narrowed them down. She'd been running in the pitch black.

The second I was done healing it, I kind of regretted it. Probably should have let her learn a valuable lesson.

Days ago, I'd noticed her and what I assumed to be her father settling into that empty house downhill, at the very limit of town. I'd spied among the trees for so long I'd almost turned into wood myself, fuming at the idea of outsiders dwelling uncomfortably close to our private space.

I kept hearing about a higher number of Wanderers passing through these parts from the others—in the weeks leading up to this. 

So when these happy-go-lucky campers showed up with that moving truck, I wondered how fucked I was on a scale of one to ten. 

I'd say a cushy five, for now. 

Wanderers, once they chose their prey, would play and play and play some more until they pounced for the kill. That one will come back for the girl and finish its business. My stomach acidified just at the thought.  

Okay, maybe more like a five to seven, considering what just happened.

I'd stood there for long enough already. I stretched my arms in the dark, sliding my hands under her body. She was... surprisingly not the lightest out there.  

I trailed down the mountain with the living bundle against my chest. Her head swayed in the void at an odd position, and I propped it against my bicep to correct it. I'd hate to unintentionally snap that frail neck of hers. 

I wasn't going to test now if I could heal it quicker than it would kill or paralyze her.

She started shivering halfway through, and I wasn't surprised with the scraps she wore. September nights yielded no mercy, here. Thankfully, my heat range could take care of that. One of the perks of being awesome.

I could just let this midget freeze and spear her through her window.

I could easily abandon her on the roof of her new property. 

Just for fuck's sake. 

Except the cold could wake her up too soon and I didn't know which window belonged to her room. The roof was a bit much, even for me. She'd been in the middle of running from a real-life nightmare, after all.