I woke up at about 6:35 in the morning, with a burning pain on my ribs. "Damn.." I throw off my covers, a few of my pillows fall on the floor. I pick up my sweats before heading out of my room and down to the kitchen. Going down the stairs, I smelled blood. A few drops were on the wood flooring, Laura's lights in the bathroom were on. I press my ear on her bedroom door, and the sound of two hearts beating were the only thing I could hear. I open the door quietly, peaking my head through. "Andrew?" Laying down on the bed, he looks up at me. "Savannah..you're up." He says into the bathroom, when the water suddenly stops.
His eyes flutter off of mine, "Laura?" I walk to the bathroom, when she pops out of nowhere. "Yeah? What are you doing up?" She's barely wrapping the towel around herself. Her face looks calm, but then my eyes focuses on the cut that's on her lips. "So you wouldn't know who's blood that is on the floor?" I question. But still nothing. I walk over to the door, reopening the door and turning on the lights for the hallway. I point to the drops, trailing up the stairs and into her room.
"Most have been Kali's? She always working so hard." I gave up. "Okay then. It's nice to see you Andrew.. again." I close the door behind me and return to the blow torch.
When I go into the kitchen, I hear the sound of a gun. They pull the safety down, and lock it. "Keep it here." They say. Grabbing the blow torch, and push the button, and look at the blue and green flames. Lifting up my shirt, I put the fire close enough, and it starts to boil my skin. Seconds later, the tattoo reappears. "You got another one?" Laura stands in the kitchen. "Yeah." I put the blow torch on the counter. "You said no more tattoos when we were in Beacon Hills."
"You did hear yourself right? Beacon Hills. When we 'were' in Beacon Hills. This is Portland, Oregon." She strides to the torch, facing it towards me. "I'll burn it off.." And triggers the flames. "Do you really want to do this? In our brand new kitchen?" She flashes her eyes, "Yep." She runs towards me, but I bend over, turning my self around, and sticking my arm out for her to hit and fall down. The torch rolls out of her hands, and I step onto her ribs. "Don't lie to me next time when I ask you about the blood of the floor, or the gun behind your back."
I flip her over, still pressing down on her, and take the gun away. "I don't even want to know who gave you this gun in the first place. Get to bed. You have training tomorrow." I take out all the bullets in the chamber, letting them fall next to her face. "Goodnight."
The Next Morning.
Kali and Laura woke up early, leaving me and Andrew alone at the house. He was down stairs watching the local news by the time I went down for breakfast.
"So do you care to tell me, how Laura and you were attacked last night? And how she got a hold of a gun?" I sit down on the recliner, eating my cereal. His eyes roam down towards his hand not the remote, while he hears my teeth crunching down the cereal. "Some guy named Alex attacked her at the airport, they fought, and then a bullet was pulled. Alex ran away with his friends, while this guy named Chris came out of the dark. He took us home, and helped me up the stairs. That's how she got a gun, he gave it to her." He finally spoke up.
"Do you know why he attacked her?" He shakes his head, "All I know is that he wasn't very happy when they fought. He kept looking at his very young girl on the other side of the garage." In my head, I thought about Alex and Mia, how they were both siblings. She had ruined his plan to attack Laura and I, but it all went down hill when I found out and kicked them out. "He's angry because I kicked them out, now they're targeting Laura." The front door opens, and Kali and Laura come with several members of my pack.
"What are you guys doing here?" Allison, James, and Max, stand beside them. "They wanted to ask you something.." I set my cereal aside and tell them to take a seat.
"We wanted to know if you would ever let any of your members go if we were atracked? Would you let us live?" My eyes immediately drew over to Laura. "It would all depend of you live, I don't want to promise freedom if anything happens during a fight. You survive then yes, you can go on and join another pack. But I can't keep that promise that you 3 will be given your freedom." They all smile at each other, "What?" I ask.
"It's just..that our other Alpha. She promised us freedom, and she gave it us. But we would have to kill to get it, and you don't do that." Allison says. "Trust me, killing people is not satisfying. Helping people, and protecting them is. It's the best thing I could ever give you all, because throughout my whole life, I was protected. I was hidden from all of the great dangers there was out in the woods, now it's my turn to give that back." Satisfied with their answer, they head back out the door.
"Kali. I wanted to talk to you about something.." She stays behind for a while. "I'll agree to having Julia as your Emessary, but you are responsible for her. If she risks her life for yours, don't feel bad. If she dies under your protection, give her a proper burial. And lastly if she betrays you...you kill her." Seeing the serious in my eyes, she agrees. "Thank you." And runs back to the car.
"Well that was very nice of you?" Andrew says, who is still looking at the new channel. "Shut it, she wanted her anyways. I can't keep her from getting what he wants, she's done so much for me already."
Later that day, I head over to the warehouse.
"Savannah?" A soft voice comes up the stairs. "Hi." I say. Julia walks towards me, "I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves. I'm Julia Baccardi." "Savannah McCall." She shakes my hand. "I've heard a lot of great things about you." I lean on the railing. "A lot of people have, trust me, sometimes it's not good." I monitor down below me. "Well I don't believe that, you're one of the smartest intellectuals, and a very power full Hybrid. People should bow to your feet." I clasp my hands together, looking down at them. "That's a misconception many people have."
"You don't know how powerful you are do you?" She leans over the railing to look at me. "What do you mean?" I ask her. "Hybrids start off with one power. It could either be mind reading, enhanced hearing, strength, anything really, it all depends on your DNA. And as you grow up, you gain powers along the way." I think back to the time were I used to be able to read what other people were thinking, and the older that I got, it became a lot easier to read them.
"And at the age of 20, you reach your ultimate power. That's where most Hybrids become unstoppable, undistrucible monsters. That's where your kind gets their name from, all because of a number." I look down to see Kali, who is working with Allison. "You don't' really listen to people do you?" A smile appears on my face, "It's not because of you. I've had many people tell me what I'm going to become in life, a monster, a leader, then they have these ridiculous idea that I'll become a True Hybrid. But I know that doesn't exist for us."
"You don't know that...many Hybrids take years to get to where you are. Having a pack of 20+ members, dealing with family, revenge in ever corner. You've gain the power because it was the fire within you, not because people expected you to be the Hybrid others want to have. You made yourself, and you won't stop." Kali comes up the stairs. "Sorry I wanted to take you somewhere, Julia. When you're done, meet me by my car."
"You should go." I tell her. "Trust me when I say this...one day you will be back to your normal. But I guarantee you that, the people that you care most about, are not going to be part of your life forever. You have to learn to live your life without them, or else, you're just going to be living your picture perfect life." I glance over at her, but she was already down the stairs before I could say anything else.
I drive over to the local farmers market for something. "You're new here right?" The guy behind me in line whispers to me. I turn around to face the 'great wall' of chest. He wore a black T-shirt with dark blue jeans. His hair was slicked to the side, with a cut on his part. His brown hair and brown eyes matched perfectly. He wasn't that tall than 5'11, but he was pretty close. "I just moved here 8 months ago." I grab the plastic bag, and put it in my cart.
"So I'm guessing you haven't had a real tour of the town yet huh?" He follows me to around the store, not even strolling to buy his stuff yet. "Nope, I don't really plan on touring anything, since I don't really like exploring." He points over to my tattoo. "You like the woods then?" I cover my ink with my arm and continue. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-" "It's fine. And yeah, I do like the woods."
"Great. Me too, my families in the hunting business. And have been for 35 years." I stop putting my groceries on the belt, "Who's your family." I ask, "Does it really matter? They always travel so no one really gets to see them, so you probably won't either." I grab my things and walk out side.
He takes a while to come out, but he manages to catch up to me. "So What's your name?" I stuff my bags in my trunk, "Does it really matter?" I ask, "Yeah, It does. Maybe I want to see you some time?" I roll my eyes. "C'mon, I promise you I won't kidnap you or anything, I just need your name." Turning on my car, I step out. "Savannah." He raises a brow, "Savannah..What?"
"Savannah...Argent." His face freezes. "You're Chris's daughter?" I shake my head, "No, I'm his niece..his missing sister is my mother." The sound of a motorcycle coming into the driveway interrupts us. "I didn't know she had a daughter? Most of us didn't even know she was married?" I shake my head again. "She fell in love with my dad, no one knew she was pregnant. Not until they see the resemblance." He watches my eyes, following them where ever they go. "I don't see it? I see someone else.."
"Who?" My eyes tremble, scared of who he's going to say. "I see you..see every part of you. I know who you are.." He gets in my car, taking the keys out of the ignition. "You're a Hybrid..and a hunter." He hands me my keys, "I won't tell anyone you're here, endless you go out with me on Friday.." Suddenly I fell into his trap, "If I go..your families going to know. I'm not risking that." I get in my car, and close the door. Turning on the car, he knocks on my window. "Okay then, you pick the date. Tell me where to be, and we'll go from there."
My phone rings, reaching over to get it but he manages to run to the other side. "Hello...yes she's actually right her next to me. Would you mind telling her to agree with the date with me, I'm Liam by the way." Mumbling comes through the other end, until he hands me the phone. "Hello?"
"Go out with him...he seems nice. You deserve it.." Kali hangs up the other end. I roll my eyes to him, "Fine, meet me by the cliff near the warehouse. 8 pm." He closes my car door, "I'll see you there." He smiles.
I arrive at my house, and stock up the groceries in the refrigerator. "Let me help you with that.." Andrew walked in, grabbing the heaviest bag there was. "Ah." He drops the bag, "Here I got it.." Bending down, I notice he's bleeding. "Andrew, let's get you to the living room." I grab his arm, wrapping around my neck. "Sit. I'll grab the aid kit."
He lifts his shirt up, "Wow. Okay, hold still this might hurt, and when it does, just grab my hand." I say to him. I take off the stitches with some tweezers, and then grab a needle and thread and sow his cut up. "So want to explain to me how you got this?" He scratches his face, "Knife wound, they dug in pretty deep. Sent me back home to recover." Barely digging into his skin, he grabs my hand, and his pain soon goes away. "Good, keep doing that. Not getting stabbed, but the pain." I say. I finish the stitching just before Laura came into the house. "I'm home." She says. "Shit." I whisper. He pulls down his shirt, and I stuff the kit into the bottom of the sofa.
"Hey, what are you guys doing in here?" She asks. Andrew's feet were up on the coffee table, while I hug my knees to my chest. "Oh I just came in from the store, and Andrew told me about this movie he was watching." She looks at the T.V, "There's nothing on?"
"Well, there hiding in a cave...and it's really quite." Andrew speaks up. "Okay?" She says.
She makes her way to the kitchen, "Oh by the way, some guy named Liam? Came to the warehouse asking for you? Said something about a date?" I feel Andrew's eyes beam on the side of my neck. "He's just a guy I met at the store." She looks into the fridge, taking out a drink. "What does he work as?" She asks. "Um..he's an athlete. He actually goes to the college near by the warehouse."
"Oh that's nice, What's it called." More questions.
"Um..Huntsss..villeee University." She narrows her eyes, "That's weird? I've never heard of it before." She asks, "That's because the just made it a few years ago, so it's not as popular as Oregon State." I say.
Andrew and Laura have dinner afterwards in the kitchen, while I stay up in my room.
I finished my drawing, after weeks of not continuing to paint it. Laura brought it with her when she came from Beacon Hills. She brought a lot of my old stuff, my athletic clothes, and some of my soccer gear.
Friday Night
Practiced finished early, and everyone left the warehouse for some apparent reason. Kali and Julia took them all to the town for the night since it was Kali's birthday.
I walked into the woods, following Liam's smell. He was sitting down on a rock near the edge, looking down at the water. "It's cold down there." I say to him. He turns around to face me, "Won't be wrong if we checked it out?" I glance down at the water, thanking god I had some extra clothing underneath my clothes. "Okay, I hope you can swim...it's pretty deep."
He checks me out before I lead him down the cliff. "You really like the woods don't ya?" He struggles behind me, "Where I grew up, the woods was our playing ground...literally." There was about 7 more feet of the rock to climb down on, so I jumped off hoping for the best. "Yeah..um..I'm just gonna go around." Liam says, he takes the trail down.
I grab a small rock nearby and skim it across the water. "The water seemed really dark from up there?" I take of my shoes, and pull down my pants. "You coming in?" I ask him. He switches his sight from the water to me. "I bet you can't swim to the bottom." I say. "Oh that's it." He quickly takes off his pants, and everything else except his boxers.
I dive into the water, feeling the icy liquid wet my skin. Holding my breath, I can see him standing above me on a rock. My hair flows around me, and then he hits the water next to me. He pushes himself down towards the bottom of the water, swimming around me. He twist and turn around each other, until I point down. We swim down, the water keeps getting colder and colder. I look to the left of me, and I see something shinning. Liam grabs my hand and pulls me up to him, he points up to the top.
He burst through the water, "Are you crazy? I thought you were just joking?" He swims, trying to stay up. "I told you you couldn't do it." I climb up the rocks. "What is that?" He asks. "I found it at the bottom." I hand it to him. "It's a locket..look it's a mother and a daughter." Awkwardly I get up and dive back into the water.
I float up on the surface, traveling in a huge circle. "You know, you have a really good body for someone who likes to eat junk food." Closing my eyes, I see the sunlight peaking through. "Yeah, a lot of people tell me that." He walks into the water, swimming towards me afterwards. His arms coming from under, carrying me. "Don't move..." He moves around the water.
After a few minutes, we swim to the edge of the river. "Why did you come here? With your pack. Why not just live with your mother." His body was right up against mine, his skin glistened with the water. "The story is too long and it will just bore you to death." I play with the water around me. "Hey you can trust me, I know how it feels to have parents as hunters.." He grabs my wrist, slowly and gently putting his hand on top of mine. "It's not that, you won't understand." I say. "Then tell me, so I can understand..."
I take a deep breath.
"She left me, with my dad just 3 days after I was born, and forced him to marry someone else. I had to live my life, knowing that my mom left me, with a stranger. Thinking that it would better for me to be raised by someone else, to have someone else deal with me. She made one promise..that my uncle would be part of my life." He watches my head, "What happen?"
"He was, parshly. He left me when I was 8, so the only person I had left was Talia Hale. She was always there, even when I didn't want her to be. Her family welcomed me like their own, when I was completely different from them. I had.." He stopped me, "You don't have to say that part of your life. Just tell me about your family, what's your mom's name?"
"Her name's Melisa, she's the only person I could ever call mom, and for the past few years, she's been there for me. My dad left one night, he was drunk. He grabbed my hand so tightly that I couldn't feel it anymore, he told her how he was going to take me away from this place. She didn't let him. Soon after that, I started to receive calls, texts, and even gifts around my birthday. They were all from her.." He takes his hand up to his mouth, reminding me of Derek. "Then..." He asks.
"She started to send me pictures of places that she visited, she wanted me to draw her some pictures of them. Talia got angry, and she sent her pack to confront her. After that, she didn't send anything to me. And for the past few years, things were really good. And they have been, since I've gotten here." I tip my head back into the water.
"Can I do a something?' He asks, I nod me head curiously. He brings his hand to the back my spine, pulling me closer to him. He moves pieces of my hair away from my face. Bringing his lips closer to mine, they touch. We move with each other, like the water flowing around us. He carries me, wrapping my legs around him. The water drips down my back, forcing my to arch my back.
He moves us away from the edge, and we sink into the water. When were under, the noise suddenly stops. Everything goes mute. We continue to embrace each other, twisting among the water. We pull away for a minute, taking time to process what just happened. I swim up to the top, he follows after. "I've never felt anything like that.." We're both breathing hard, and everything just stops.
I've never felt anything like that, not even with Camden. Derek on the other hand, it was special. But now when I'm with him, or even when he touches me. It's so different. "Me either.." He comes closer to me, and my body completely freezes. "I like you, a lot." He whispers. "You know for the first time in a long time..I'm starting to let my guard down. I'm just happy it's with you.." I lean in against him, kissing him one last time.
6 Months Later.
"Thank you for Dinner Ms.Paul, it was the best dinner I've have in a while." I walked out the doors of Liam's parents house, "We would love to have you here again, just tell me when you're open and I'll have Liam pick you up.." I look over at Liam, "Will do." Liam and I walk back to my car.
"They seemed to really like you..and your knowledge on machine guns and Chinese daggers." I chuckle as I get in my car, "Well, I have to share my knowledge with other hunters don't I?" He leans in the open window, planting a kiss on my lips. "What was that for?" I ask. "Nothing, I just really wanted to kiss you." He leans back in again after a few moments. "I'll see you tomorrow?" I look down at his lips, then up at his brown eyes. "Yeah."
He steps away from the car, and I pull away to the street.
I got home just in time to meet up with Laura. "So how was the dinner." She said, Andrew and her were watching a TV Show. "Good, their really welcoming." Andrew gets up and heads to sleep early sense he has training. "I haven't seen you this happy in a really long time, maybe it's a good thing that you're moving on.." I notice that she's watching me, but I don't turn my attention from the TV Show. "I just wished that I could found something like you and Andrew.." She grabs my hand. "Are you happy?"
"I'm happy. I really am.."
We watch the rest of the show for another hour, until we both get sleepy, and head upstairs.
The next morning, the warehouse was empty. "Hey where are ya'll?" I call Kali. "Down by the river, there's something you need to see." I hang up my phone, looking at the open door, scared to what I'm going to find.
I jog my way to the river. Everyone even some police men surround the river. "Please stay back, this is a crime scene." I manage to get closer, the investigators pull something out of the water. "Oh god.." Kali turns away from the body. I lean over, and see Andrew and Ash laying on the floor.
"Oh god! No! Andrew!" Laura runs from behind me, crashing her knees to the ground. "Miss. Please step away from the body." An officer call one of the others in to remove Laura. "Get her in for questioning." They take her to the cars, and I trail in after them, "Wait! I want to go as well, I knew the other body."
When they let me in other car, Laura throws herself on my legs. "Shh..it's going to be alright. It's going to be fine.." I brush her hair, but she doesn't stop crying.
We arrive at the station, and they guide us to a questioning room, where we sit there for hours. The would bring us food, when we wanted to. "He can't be gone...he just can't Sav.." She cries even more in her arms. "It was just hours a ago when we slept together, and now he's gone.." The door suddenly opens, and Andrew's dad, Bobby, comes through the door. "I'm so sorry baby...I truly am." I get up from my chair and offer it to him."
Standing behind them, I saw the love that Bobby gave to Laura, I've never seen him this way, even with his children. I envied that..the love, the protection, everything. "I'm here Laura, I'm here." A cop comes in to question us. But they didn't last long. The simple question would get to Laura, like 'how long were you guys married?', 'Did you have any fights before this happened?', or even the worst one. 'Could you have any enemies that would do this to your husband?'
Her eyes, which her red. Shoot up at me. "It was them..Alex, Mia, Ty and Marcus. They've been trying to get me to leave you here. They wanted to break us apart." The cop writes everything down. "Thank you, We'll be sure to track them down immediately."
They let us go after they wanted a sketch of the people Laura listed. "I hope they find them...and if they don't I'll find them myself."
Bobby left us afterwards, he only came to be here for Laura and I. "I hope everything is okay with her.." Liam played next to me in my bed. He had heard of the bodies and he came to the house as soon as I arrived. "If that was you.. I wou-" "That won't be me..don't think like that." He kisses my head, bring me closer to him.
Few hours later
Liam and I had fell asleep in bed, but the sound of the door slamming woke us up. "Someone's here.." I say, taking of the covers I open my door, to see Laura coming up the stairs covered in blood. "Laura! What did you do?" She drops the knife, my knife. "I found her.." Liam comes from behind me. "Found who?" He asks. "Mia." She faints onto the floor, but I jump ahead and catch her. "Help me put her to bed.."
He tucked her in tightly, "What Now?" He says, "You have leave..go home and stay there. If you don't hear about me by Sunday, you come to find me okay? Until then I'll find you." I drag him out of the house, "I love you be safe.." He tells me, I freeze for a minute. I grab his neck and kiss him. "I love you." He runs to his car and leaves as a I close the door behind me.
"Laura, let's get you cleaned up." She takes off her clothes, throwing the clothes to the laundry basket. I help her in the tub, running the water by her feet. I grab a scrub and start to wash the blood off. "She was begging for her life, just like Andrew and Ash did." I grab the shower head, and wash her hair. "Okay. Let's go." I wrap the towel around her.
I walk out of her room for a while to let here dress herself. But when I get to her room, she's already asleep.
"Okay thank you..keep tracking them for me..okay bye." I hang up the phone. "That was Liam's family..their helping me find Alex and the rest of them. What you did last night..was crazy. You could've' gotten yourself killed I wouldn't even noticed. You're staying here and you're not leaving." I grab my jacket and keys, locking the door behind me.
"You can't do this Sa-" she hits a wall of Mountain Ash. "You can't keep me trapped in here like some animal." She slams her hand on the wall. "Well if you hadn't gone off and killed Mia like an animal...I wouldn't have too." I climb into my car. "Savannah!" Closing my car door, I don't hear any more of her screaming.
I met up with Liam's family at their office near the house. "Are you ready?" Liam's dad asks me, "You tell me.." I open the back of my car, revealing dozens of guns, knifes, arrows and machines guns in my trunk. "You said you were a hunter right?"
"It's a difficult profession." I pack up my bags, and plan out our plan. "You will guide the South part of the woods, then you at the North end, East End, and West end. I'll be in the warehouse waiting, their bound to come some time."
We split up, saying our goodbyes again.
I arrive at the warehouse, closing my car door, I hear the howls of my pack members. "You think were going to leave you here alone?" Allison comes from the dark, along with Kali and the others. "This is our fight, as family. Remember?" I smirk at them, "Okay."
We walk in the house, centering in the middle. "Now what?" I drop my bag on the floor. "Now we wait."