The Hunters

Chapter 13 part 2

Adriana

"The bird as in the flying kind or...?" Alec scrunches his nose.

For a few beats, no answer is heard, since Eros seems perfectly content standing with his mouth agape, breathing heavily. I shift in order to see more of his face, and in doing so notice an angry looking scratch on chin and shoulder, leading downwards and connecting with a ripped shirt.

Someone's been having fun then.

He groans. "Yes! What else could it possibly be? It attacked me for goodness sake! Do you not see my shirt?"

"Yes but last time you mentioned a bird attacking you..." Alec chuckles, and I notice the remark coaxed a subtle grin out of Kellen. Don't tell me this is a regular occurrence.

"Don't make me think about it," one of his hands covers his reddening face. My lips curl upwards; this might be interesting.

"She had real talons, that one. Pink, if I remember. Nice butt, too. Little too possessive though, wouldn't you say?" he looks up dramatically, feigning reminiscence as I snort uncontrollably.

"Alec, this is serious. Stop it."

"Sorry," he grins again, and Kellen giggles quietly.

Shaking his head, Eros sighs, bringing his hand up and dabbing a sleeve on the wound, soaking up a trickle of blood. The cut isn't deep, but it looks like there should be a lot more blood than a single trickle. It's also strange that Alec and Kellen seem unaffected, since every time I have bled someone has freaked out. It most likely also needs cleaning, but he doesn't seem as concerned about it, his focus clearly elsewhere.

"A bird gave you that?" I ask, pointing towards it.

He turns, as if just noticing my presence. "Yes."

"Where is it?"

"Why would you want to know?" He laughs, though it is humourless. "You're more likely to get hurt by it than any of us, if only because you lack the sense to avoid it."

"What if I wanted to congratulate it? I've been wanting to kill you since this morning, but this is better." He raises a brow as if challenging me, his cold stare telling me that he probably wont change his mind.

Shrugging my shoulders, I sigh in defeat. Karma or not, maybe he's right that it's not the smartest choice.

Will I let that stop me from seeing the thing? No. Not a chance.

"I'm just curious. Why is a bird such an issue? It can't be that bad."

The expression on his face told me he was ready to argue, however Alec cut quickly in. "She knows a lot already. If you're not even going to let her see it you might as well tell her what's going on."

He groans again, grumbling something before turning and walking back out with a scowl on his face.

Well ok then. I guess I'm seeing it.

Alec groans, following shortly after, only stopping briefly to smile warmly at a sheepish Kellen who appears to be staying behind. It is only at this point when I begin to ask myself, what the hell am I doing? Mr Macho Warhammer got bested by a bird and I'm going to go say hi.

Then again, I am in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of supernatural whatsits. A bird can't be that bad in comparison.

Besides, I kind of want to know how big it is. I will seriously piss myself if it's a pigeon.

With that image in mind, I was almost about to snicker, when a string of curses sounded from outside.

Following the sound, I quickly find myself in the clearing, staring at what is most definitely not a pigeon attack.