Jamie watched as Sam drove away, not moving until her car was out of sight.
Usually he couldn't bear the sight of blood. The smell was something he was able to force himself to ignore, but the sight of it was a completely different matter.
Sam's blood had scared him.
The sight of it caused his pulse to quicken, his muscles to shake, his teeth to ache with a familiar craving. And in that moment he'd known it was only a matter of time before his predatory nature would overtake his composure.
That realisation had caused him to feel dread, an emotion uncommon to him in this situation.
And once the dread had gotten a hold of his consciousness he'd been able to react. Pushing himself away from her, inflicting physical pain on himself in order to keep his mind distracted, hoping that the stinging in his palms would help deter from what his instincts demanded.
But his efforts only worked for a brief moment. The urge quickly became too much and he felt his defences crumble as his instincts obliterated his inhibition. He breathed in the scent of her blood which still lingered in the air surrounding him, hoping as he did that the urge would dissipate before he managed to catch up to her.
He wouldn't kill her, it wasn't as though he hadn't fed in days, but the idea of using Sam to sate his hunger, to cause her that kind of distress, filled him with concern. He planned to see her again, and didn't want to feel guilty every time he laid eyes upon her.
Jamie felt a brief stab of panic . . . before he finally realised the urge was no longer there.
In fact when he'd breathed in her scent it helped to calm him rather than incite him.
Jamie blinked, totally dumbfounded.
When he breathed in, it wasn't the scent of blood, it was simply the scent of Sam. And Sam's general scent didn't fill him with a bloodlust, it filled him with an entirely different kind of lust.
With a sigh, he walked over to the wall where they'd been standing and slowly he let himself sink down, until he was sitting on the cold concrete ground.
He didn't really know this girl, but he'd seen enough for him to learn that she didn't make sense. She worked a human job. Lived in a human house. She had human friends. And today he was pretty sure she'd been shopping for school supplies.
Everything she did screamed human.
But everything else about her . . .
She was attacked by a man with a crossbow! Jamie couldn't remember the last time he'd seen anyone use a crossbow. And not only that but he seemed to conjure the weapon from nothing. One minute his hand was empty, the next he had a crossbow.
He couldn't make sense of it.
Everything was just . . . things just weren't right.
Somewhere in his mind he knew that Claudio wasn't just a paranoid, superstitious fool. He knew that he should back off, he should leave Sam alone.
But he couldn't.
He had tried.
For a whole week he'd left her alone, not bothered her at all, he tried to forget about all of the things that didn't make sense.
But he couldn't.
The curiosity was keeping him awake every day. And the longing for her, someone he didn't even know, it filled him with the urge to see her. To be near her. Even if she couldn't see him, he needed to know that she was okay.
He'd started going out more and more during the day. He'd always known that he could, not in direct sunlight as his skin burned too easily and it was painful and took so outrageously long to heal, but going out while the sky was overcast had always been fine providing he stuck to the shade as much as possible. Even so, it was a dangerous habit to get into. Even with clouds, the sun was still there, waiting to make an appearance at any moment.
And on days when the clouds weren't out he'd sit at home and stare at the clock, hoping that it would make the sun set faster.
And then when the sun had set he'd find her, no matter where she was. He'd keep safely to the shadows and be as unnoticeable as possible. If his parents could see him now they would have been ashamed to find him basically stalking a girl. Doing something people usually got arrested for.
He had never been the type to become obsessed over things, but with Sam . . . there were too many unanswered questions, too many confusing thoughts and sleepless days for him to simply ignore her.
He thought that it should be pathetic that the day he had met her was possibly the best day of his entire existence. Even though she'd made it painfully obvious that she didn't return his affection.
There was just something about her that he felt drawn to. She was like a memory from a dream he'd had long ago, her presence living somewhere in the back of his mind. She was the most familiar thing in the world to him, despite the fact that he'd only met her recently.
I've lost my mind, he thought with a sigh. Sam was right . . . Claudio was right . . . I need to stay away from her. I mean, I almost attacked her! I just . . . I need to stay away. I've been coming into this town for years and never run into her, it shouldn't be too difficult to avoid her. Maybe she'll go to college and move away . . . I hope I don't have to move away.
With a resolute sigh he stood, deciding that all thoughts of Sam would now be forbidden. It was for the best.
He pushed himself away from the wall, about to walk out of the car park, when he heard a small piece of metal fall to the ground. He turned and saw a glimmer in the light. Frowning, he walked back to where he had been sitting and bent down.
There was a necklace.
Jamie picked it up and turned it over in his hands. He remembered seeing it before. Sam had one just like it. But the stone in hers was a different colour. This one was clear, where hers had been purple. He brought the necklace closer to his face and inhaled.
It was definitely Sam's, her scent still lingered on it. He looked at the stone again. He knew that Sam's was a different colour. Perhaps it's mood jewellery, he thought. That would explain why the colour changed.
But how did it get here?
He was sure that he hadn't been sitting on it, if he had he would have felt it beneath him. He tried to think back to whether or not Sam had been wearing it when she left, in his mind he could clearly picture it around her neck as she walked away from him.
Again he frowned. Then how did it get here?
He turned slowly, assessing every inch of the car park he was standing in. Attempting to sense another presence.
There was nothing, at least not as far as he could tell.
Unless there was someone that he couldn't sense.
"Is someone here?" he asked, feeling slightly foolish as he spoke to the empty space.
Silence.
He sighed and peered down at the necklace in his hand thinking it was typical that he would now have to return her necklace, right after he had decided to stay away from her. "Am I not supposed to stay away?" he mumbled, wondering if there was a higher power at work. He had never been one to have faith in such things, but he also wasn't completely closed off to the idea that there was something else out there, watching over the world. "If I'm not, I'm afraid I may need a more obvious sign."
He looked up, his eyes scanning the shadows once more. A shape emerged from behind one of the cars. Jamie stared in confusion as a small white cat strolled out into view.
He was sure that the car park had been empty of any kind of presence, both human and animal. Yet there stood the cat, walking towards the far end of the car park. Jamie watched it as it moved, taking a hesitant step towards it. He reached out his senses and probed at the cat's mind, somewhere in the back of his head thinking that perhaps the cat could shield its presence from him as Sam had. But once he realised that the animal was just a cat, he couldn't help but laugh slightly at his own foolishness.
The cat stopped walking and picked something up off the ground, holding the item sideways between its teeth. He looked at it curiously as it turned and began making its way over to where he stood watching it.
When it was less than three feet away, the cat stopped moving and dropped the item on the ground at his feet. Jamie stared down at it, realising that it was the arrow that had been fired by the crazy man with the crossbow.
The cat sat down and gazed at him with its large red eyes and meowed, before nudging at the arrow with its nose. He put the necklace into his pocket, thinking he would find a way to return it to Sam eventually, knelt down and picked the arrow up off the ground, staring at it as he absently stroked the cat's head.
She's in danger, his body froze as he was stuck with that thought. She was in danger. The man who attacked her was still out there. He had escaped and he could come back.
What if he hurt Sam?
What if he killed her?
When Jamie looked up he found that the cat was gone and his hand was stroking the air.
He shook his head, and tried not to think on how strange his life had become over the past few weeks. He couldn't focus on that now, not when he had a job to do.
Jamie walked over to where the man had run out, his scent was still in the air. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt Sam. For as long as he was living he'd make sure that she was safe. Even if it meant hunting down the people who wished her harm.
Jamie breathed in deeply, and followed the scent.