I'm sorry for the wait. I've watching Hannibal and take in mind I wrote this with a teething baby in my lap.
"forty-six, forty-seven, fort-"
The sound of several hard shoes slapping the concrete interrupted my counting. I turned away from the wall to the dirty white door adjacent to it. There was the sound of keys and the clean sound of the keys slotting in. The door swung open and there stood five guards, and the Alpha of Alphas' Beta. He said nothing as they pulled me up from the ground and handcuff my hands and chained feet in silver.
I was silent as they led me through the corridor where each door lead to mass killers and up the steps. Two guards had to help me up since up since I could only make baby steps. We crossed a landing, went up another pair of steps, entered a lift and into a meeting room. There were tables placed in a U shape and Alphas across the nation sat together.
However, there were some seats unfulfilled.
I was immediately on edge. The alphas only usually came together on important or crucial times. Other than it happening every Autumn every four years, emergency meetings had only happened twice in the time I had been alive. The first was when they found a Vampire colony in the Rocky Mountains and the second time was when I was sentenced.
They pushed me to my knees in the centre and I looked up at the Alpha of Alphas. He had a stern, cold face covered in scars. Black hair gelled and slicked back all the way to the nape of his neck, he creeped me out. His eyes were so dark, they were almost black and muscles bulged through his suit, making him look grotesque. They said that looking when you looked into his eyes you saw the Alphas before him and the history of every werewolf that ever lived. There was nothing there.
He cleared his throat and I stared blankly ahead. "We have something we could offer you, Charlotte. Although you'll have to do something for us." It was then I noticed the grave faces of the Alphas surrounding me. I immediately fished out Joshua's father. We held eye contact and I looked away. "We're willing to shorten your sentence."
"What? from seven lifetimes to six?"
My bitter joke angered him. He banged a fist on the table and it cracked in half. I jumped, never seeing someone show emotion in the two years I had been in isolation. The Alpha of Alphas stood up and said to me, "this is not a joke." His voice was grave and he looked at me like I was scum. "Now that the Vampires have broken their treaty, we have lost many of our brothers," there was an awkward moment of silence as they hung their heads, "and we have nowhere to turn but to the most dangerous of our kind."
We were the 'most dangerous of our kind'? Wow, that's some title. Since we had been imprisoned, my wolf had been obsessed with our status. I only just realised that she was a dominating wolf, often common in Alphas. She was excited to hear that my name was known across the US, every werewolf had found out about how I had massacred a pack.
I was infamous.
I hushed my wolf (who clearly had different priories) and asked what they were going to give me in return for my help.
Again, he looked at me in disgust, "you're sentence will be dropped," he said as if he was making the worst mistake but knew he had to anyway.
"And what do the people think of a homicidal maniac roaming the streets?" I couldn't stop the corner of my lip twitching and so I gave a full-on smile.
The Alpha of the Alphas hesitated. Hesitated.If I could make the most powerful werewolf doubt himself, than what the hell had I become?
"The situations have changed." This was all he said.
....
Three days later they showed me a layout of where they think the Vampires were staying.
"Is there anyone else living in this area?" I asked.
"No. Just vampires. They live underground."
"And this here," I tapped a grey box crossing a blue line on the map, "is this a dam?"
A nod.
"Do vampires drink water?"
There was a pause, "...no." They looked at me as if I should have known that. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine I wasn't there anymore. I was back at my cabin, cleaning my weapons. Back when things were peaceful; I was acting out my revenge. A simple, modest life.
"Do they have a reliable blood source?" I asked, hoping to recreate the Blood Wanderers Massacre (that's what they called it now).
"Yes," one of them pulled out a glossy picture of a hospital. "They infiltrate in the nearby hospital and steal the blood donations."
"Then we'll poison them."
All four heads looked up and one asked, "but that will be damaging all the blood reserves. How will we know which ones to poison? What would we-"
I cut him off. "We'll work it out when we find out more."
...
I pulled my legs to my chest and watched as the dry ground bubbled and started to cave in. The screams became clearer and as the sunlight streamed in. Flames licked the earth and struggled to crawl out of the ground.
I was the only one not celebrating. Booze was tossed around, cheers drowned out the screams of dying vampires and people kept clapping me on the back.
Oddly enough, killing was not giving me the same satisfaction as before. I killed those who were an injustice to my loved ones. They had killed inncocents in cold blood, just to feel the thrill fo overpowering others. There was hatred between vampires and werewolves, it was a hatred that overpowered souls and rotted hearts. It was destructive, and now seeing it third person, I only then realised how rotten my hate had made me.
However my wolf had grown a taste for killing, which I found quite disconcerting. In fact, the idea of human being less important, less valid than I was, freaked me out. It unsettled my stomach and made me feel like a bad person. Which after five or so years of experience killing, should not be happening just now.
...
They let me go. No one offered to take me in into their pack and so I was a rouge, once again. It was odd to think that after so many things had happened, here I was back in my cabin, a rouge. Alone.
Joshua.
The name sent shivers down my spine and keeping me out of my mind was the hardest thing to do after all these years. Well two years; but two years was a tenth of the life I had lived. I wasn't even sure how long we spent together, two weeks? Four days?
I wondered what he looked like? Had he grown taller? Had he matured? Would he the same boy I fell in love with?
There was only way to find out.
...
I bought a SUV with the money they gave me, which I shouldn't have exhausted on a car. Although it was really nice.
It was odd to think that I was reunited with Joshua at a petrel station. I got out and filled my SUV with fuel without paying much attention to the outside world.
"Oh...My...God."
I lifted a brow at the two twin teens standing next a seven-seater. They stared at me with open mouths. Ah, so my fame had reached a point where I am now recognised in the streets. Yay.
The smell hit me first. It washed over me and so did the tumble of memories, feelings and people I once knew.
Even after two years, the smell of eucalyptus trees was still the same but now there was a smell of rich earth. He slid out of the car and my hand dropped from the fuel pump.
"Is that Charlotte?" Danny was now standing there with my old, forgotten friend, Hannah. My eyes on Joshua as I tried to work out his expression. Was he angry at me? Was he upset that I didn't visit him after leaving prison? Was he disgusted at the person I am? Has he taken the years to figure me out that I nothing but vengeance and heartache.
Instead he stared back with a blank face. No feeling I could detect from a face almost but not forgotten. There was no frown or smile that mouth I never got to kiss. No crinkling from those eyes I never studied properly. That nose that I never met with my own. That jaw that I never caressed. So many things that I wanted to do and never got the chance swept over me and I was the one who made the first move.
It may have been the biggest mistake I ever made but I wasn't going to through it all away.
My arms wrapped around his waist and he stood still. His heart pounded against my ear and I never noticed how much taller he was than me. My rosy cheeks pressed against his shirt that had smelt slightly of lemons and of him.
Warmth spread through my body like a flame rekindled. Heat sizzled between us and even though he was frozen in my grasp, I took the moment to tried to soak up as much so I could remember forever.
We stayed like this for so long but it felt like time hadn't passed at all. The longer he stood still, the more I felt like this was it.
We were over.
A tear slid down his cheek and he must have sensed it. He pulled back and I looked up at him. His thumb wiped away the tear and he said the words I would never forget for as long as I lived.
"I missed you."