*Sorry for this late update guys! I was out of town and barely had Internet (I know, I know but meh) :)*
This chapter is a bit long (I hope you guys like that?) :D
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We walked through the dark forest for what felt like years. It probably took us only an hour to find the clearing in the middle of nowhere, but when we did, our feet hurt and our breathing was short and shallow.
"Well this is just fantastic. He probably wants to lure us out here so he could snap our necks. . ." I muttered while I looked around the moonlit meadow from where I stood beside Ezra, at the edge of the trees. I could him peering into the shadows as well, looking for the same thing that I was: Lorin - or movements in the darkness that told us Lorin was near by.
I stopped grazing my eyes over the open meadow because I knew that my eyes - as blind as I already was - were pretty useless in this lighting. Instead, I bent down and searched for a loose stick that I could use as a baseball bat if that creep decided to sneak up on us.
My fingers had just brushed a thick branch that had fallen when I heard Ezra inhale sharply. From where I crouched near his feet, I could see that his whole body had gone rigid, standing as still and tense as a threatened animal.
"What?" I whispered. "Ezra?"
"It's. . ." Ezra trailed off. He was at a loss for words and that shocked me because even though Ezra barely spoke, when he did he always knew what to say. And right now, he didn't.
"Ezra. . .what is it? You're scaring me." I was still crouched on the ground, staying as frozen as I could for the fear that if I moved, Lorin - or whatever it was that had Ezra speechless - would attack without warning.
"Well. . .its. . ." Ezra whispered in a tone that told me he was shaken. "Big."
"Should I stand up so we can run?" I whispered back. I then heard something snap, a twig, a bone who knows with Ezra and a 'big' thing around.
"No - no. If you do that, we'll both be dead in seconds." Ezra replied as he breathed out slowly.
"What is it?" I asked again. I was too curious and I didn't like being in the dark - with anything.
"A. . .bear." I heard Ezra breath. I immediately stopped the fidgeting I was doing and stopped breathing as well. "And it's right in front of me." With that, I heard a shuffle, a grunt and then I felt heavy, hot breathing on my back. I whimpered quietly as tears began to form in my eyes. I had never seen a bear in real life, and whenever I did see a bear - on TV - it was always about an attack. Was this how I would die? A bear? Was I more terrified of the bear than the fallen angel beside me - or the crazy nephilim trying to kill me - because it was humongous and had too many teeth? Or was it because I didn't know if it wanted to kill me - and that it could at any moment - with its non-existing facial expressions?
With Lorin, I could tell what he was feelings from his expressions - and even though Ezra's were buried somewhere, I could at least see what he might be thinking by his eyes. With a bear? I wouldn't be able to see its attack until it was attacking me.
"Wh - what do we do?" I stuttered out.
"Kill it." Ezra's voice replied in a blank tone, devoid of any emotion. "We just have to wait. . .until the right. . .moment."
"This is - this is so stupid and crazy. . ." I breathed, sweat trickling down my neck and temples despite the cold weather. "We're trying to kill a - a damn grizzly bear while our real. . .enemy roams around - probably watching us right now and laughing like the maniac he is!"
"Forget this." Ezra murmured, staring straight into the distracted grizzly's eyes. It moved its heavy head back and forth, looking at something in the trees, and then back to Ezra with the slow, lethargic movements that every big animal seemed to have.
"What do you mean?" I whispered as I saw it turn its shiny, beady eyes towards me.
"We need to find and fight Lorin - not this beast." Ezra spoke calmly and lowly. "We either need to run from the grizzly, which I doubt - no offence to you - would happen. Or we need to find a quick way to divert it and kill it -"
"Or just leave it alone while we run for our lives?" I offered. I rather not kill anything - besides Lorin.
"Or that." I looked away from the bear and to Ezra. I could see him bending his knees, ever so slowly, switching to a defensive pose.
"Are you planning on tackling it?" I almost yelled. Sure, he was an angel - more human now than angel, but still - I doubt he could tackle a six hundred-pound grizzly bear.
"Nope. I plan on jumping over its head, onto its back - or behind it - and crack its head open with my bare fists." I stared at Ezra, not comprehending his sarcasm. But in my defence, and with a boy like Ezra - an angel like Ezra - who knew what he would do. What he was capable of doing.
"Okay. . ." I drawled out, and jumped as I heard the whoosh as the grizzly breathed out heavily, have gotten closer to us as we had whispered to each other. I saw Ezra smile a closed, secret smile and turned my head back slowly to the bear. It was staring right at me.
Ezra crouched down even further, the spring in his pose, the way all his muscles grew tense and taught in his arms and legs, and the way his eyes narrowed with concentration told me he was ready to jump any second.
"Well, then! This isn't really getting anywhere, us it?" A voice called from within the trees. I recognized it immediately.
"Lorin." I almost growled. So that jerk had set all this up - this whole crazy, stupid scene. But I was distracted from my angry thoughts when the grizzly bear reared backward, standing up on its hind legs, roaring with its gaping blackhole of a mouth. I screamed and fell on my butt, throwing up an arm over my face in a instinctual move. I saw, in all the chaos, Ezra take a step back, staring in shock at the startled bear that threatened to crush him with its giant, clawed paws.
"Ezra!" I screamed, frozen in my fetal pose on the ground. I didn't care if I got crushed, or clawed, or eaten alive, as long as Ezra didn't get turned to dust.
But my scream was futile. Because before I could even finish yelling his name in warning, Ezra had lunged out of the bears way - out of its clawed death trap - and onto me.
His hard body hit mine and I felt all the air escape my lungs instantly. But just as quickly he had fallen on me, Ezra had gotten off of my crumpled body, pulling me up to my legs in the confused daze that I had been sucked into. Without wasting a moment, he began pulling me, his long legs and inhuman grace making him almost fly above the tangled tree roots, underbrush and loose rocks and twigs.
"Ez - Ez -" I panted, while Ezra continued to pull me away from the whoever the bear was now. "Ezra!" I finally screamed and sucked in air as he stopped, turning to look at me.
"What? What's wrong?" He asked, lowering his head to gaze into my wife eyes.
"I'm - I'm tired!" I yelled in his face. "I'm human! I don't have long legs! I'm lazy! I've never ran this fast - this long in my life!"
"Oh. . ." Ezra said shortly. "We needed to get away from that bear - and closer to Lorin without him knowing that we were." He said as he searched my heated, probably pink face. I opened my mouth to reply, to say that I was sorry I shouted at him for saving my life just now, and - in a way - keeping me in shape, but the sudden sound of a twig snapping under someone's weight stopped me.
"See?" Ezra leaned down, his breath tickling my ear as he whispered. "He doesn't even know. He thinks we ran the opposite way." I looked up at Ezra in wonder. How the hell did he manage this! With his superhuman abilities? Or was it because he had planned all this in the split-second chaos? It didn't matter because I was impressed.
"Humph." We both heard the proud, defiant tone of Lorin's voice. He began to chuckle lowly, at our fleeing I suppose. The sound of his slightly deranged laughing got closer and closer as he unknowingly walked closer to us.
This was it. I was going to get him back. And all because of Ezra's quick, clever and impressive capabilities.
"This is it." I whispered and I saw Ezra nod silently beside me, both of us partly hidden by a thick tree. I guess we were going to jump out at him and start beating him up. But then again, I had Ezra: the 'not-so-nice-and-friendly-angel' beside me. I'm pretty sure he would rather jump in front of Lorin and slit his throat before Lorin would even know what was going on.
"Now?" I asked Ezra, a sickly eagerness to hurt Lorin overcoming me. Ezra didn't reply and continued to stare out at a random spot in the forest - the spot that Lorin would emerge from, no doubt.
"Now." He whispered and took my hand as Lorin walked past the two trees that Ezra had been staring at. Now, it was Lorin's time to feel surprised, and deceived. And hurt.
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Damn! I know it took me a long time but there you guys go! I hope you liked it!
Raise your hand if your excited to see what hell I unfold upon you in the next chapter!! ;)
Thank you for reading! (˘ ³˘)♥ <--(yes, I know I'm super cool)