~The pic is Caleb Hale~
"Why are all of these recipes for sushi?" Tyson grumbled as he entered the living room with another stack of paper in his arms.
Fang rolled her eyes but didn't bother looking up. "Because I like sushi," She grumbled, ignoring him almost completely as she focused on her work.
Tyson smiled, watching her affectionately. She lay sprawled out on the floor, scissors, and glue close by. The trash can was barely full, cut pieces of paper lay crumbled all around it. She didn't even bother to look to see if any of the paper she threw at it actually made it into the trash can. She was adorable, engrossed in her work the way she was.
Fang started mumbling a long string of unintelligible words, too low for Tyson to hear. "Stupid pet, I eat my food raw. I might be able to slowly adjust my metabolism to accept your weird, cooked, tampered human foods, but I eat au natural and I will hide that by eating sushi. It's my gateway food and you would do well enough to leave me alone." Fang groused, feeling irritated. The storm was raging outside, and it had already knocked over a tree in the park across the street. She didn't want to see what damage the storm had done to her house while she was away. It was surprising how much more she cared about the building since the boys had forced her to help them fix it.
Tyson sat the papers down near her elbow and then sprawled out next to her. With a sigh, he picked up the scissors, grabbed the first piece of paper, and began cutting out what they needed. Fang took a picture from their stack of cut photos and glued it to the top of the next page in their mostly blank cookbook. Underneath the picture, she wrote in small, bold letters, California Sushi Rolls. It took them forty minutes to finish the cookbook and another twenty minutes of throwing shreds of paper at each other to even notice that the rain had stopped.
Fang stood, pulling bits of paper out of her hair as she walked down the hallway. Tyson followed close behind, brushing off his shoulder. She opened the door cautiously.
"Looks like it's only drizzling now." Tyson's voice in her ear startled her. When had he gotten so close?
Fang jumped and spun, pressing her back against the wall. Tyson smiled, still bent over slightly with his hands behind his back. He laughed, straightening. She growled in response. Stupid pets and their boundary issues. She decided that next time he put his face next to her ear before talking, she would break his face. Indignant, she turned on her heel and stormed off into the rain. "Well, whatever, I'm going home to check on the damage the storm caused."
She made it to her truck before she heard the footsteps running to catch up to her. "Lexi! Wait!"
Fang slowed but didn't stop.
"Hey," Tyson panted as he came to her side. "I'll come with you."
Fang rolled her eyes, still agitated. Stupid pet. She opened the driver's door and slid inside, silent. She didn't really care what her pet did right now. He could step in front of a bus and she wouldn't flinch. Tyson slid inside the cab as her engine roared to life. Fang still refused to speak, or even look at him. The drive to her house was a silent one. Tyson tried a few times to break the tension with random comments, but Fang continued to ignore him.
Eventually, he fell into a subdued reverie, crossing his arms across his chest and staring out the window.
Fang didn't give a rat's ass what he might be thinking. She loathed it that this human could startle her, her, the werewolf hybrid. She hated feeling weak, and she didn't care if it hurt her pets feelings or not, she was pissed. The feeling didn't abate when they reached her house and were faced with the absolute mess her property had become. One of the smaller trees had uprooted, but it was still thick enough to be an issue. It had taken out one of the fences surrounding the property as well.
Several hours later, Fang was busy throwing the last of the broken tree into the bed of her truck.
Her agitation with Tyson had faded a bit, but every time she turned around, he was just standing around, staring at her with this stupid look on his face. Seeing him would flare up her temper again, and she would just get that much more irritated.
God, I wish he would just go away and let me run.
Fang scowled. She hated how she was rarely alone. Tyson was always following her around like some lost little puppy, and it was driving her insane. She had already run away from that kind of behavior once, and she had no issue doing it a second time.
The rest of the day passed in much the same manner. Fang would catch Tyson staring at her and it would reignite her irritation and anger. By the time night fell, he was driving away in her truck to deal with the entirety of the broken tree in the truck bed and the fence was fixed. As soon as he drove out of sight, she locked the house and took to the woods. She needed to get away for a bit to clear her head. Nothing was adding up anymore. Fang's getaway was turning into something much more complex than she had wanted. She didn't realize how bad things really were, or she would have left then and there without a second glance.
~Two weeks later~
"And where is it, exactly, that you are going?" Fang trapped the phone between her shoulder and her ear and continued folding her laundry.
"I'm heading over to Washington on assignment for my film class, for a few steampunk conventions, I'll be gone for three weeks. Can we meet up for lunch today?" Tyson sped through his words as if he was expecting any one of them to be his last.
Fang glanced at the clock above the dryer. It was 11:30, which meant since he was asking, he was only two blocks away. That would explain why he was in such a hurry. She glanced at her laundry, only half finished. I suppose I could finish it later. "Alright, I'll meet you outside." She shrugged and hung up on him like she always did, slipping her phone into her hoodie pocket. She turned off the light and stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind her.
She went into the bathroom so she could at least brush her hair before he got there. Her reflection caught her eye, and she paused. She leaned closer to the mirror, studying herself. She had changed radically since embracing her feral side. Her hair had turned from blond to a reddish brown with hazelnut highlights. Her eyes had gone from a baby blue to an odd, lurid violet. She studied herself. Her skin even looked a bit darker.
A car honking in the driveway jerked her from her thoughts and back down to earth. Fang ran the brush through her hair one last time before walking outside to meet Tyson, hands in her pockets. He chuckled as she slid into the passenger seat. "Hungry, Lexic?"
Fang rolled her eyes. "Hurry it up, Ty, before I eat you."
He laughed aloud, thinking she was joking, and backed out of the driveway. "So, the boys should take care of you while I'm gone."
Fang smirked at the thought. "Yeah, they'll make sure I don't crash into anything when I go pick them up from the police station."
Tyson raised a brow. "The station?"
"Of course, once they're finally caught for any one of those idiotic pranks of theirs." Tyson snorted, shaking his head. "Yeah, you have a point."
Fang grinned. "I told you, Ty, I'm always ri-"
It's completely black, I can't see where I'm going. Run, I have to run, I can't breathe! Get out of here, I have to get out! Fear runs like fire through my veins, burning away any rational thought until I can't remember what I'm running from. I have to get away, I have to survive, I have to find what I'm looking for!
Fang jerked upright, her head spinning, only to keel over again, her head ready to explode. Holy crap, that wasn't... my visions only come when my mind is blank! I mean, yeah, I see stuff, but never from that point of view! I watch, I don't... this time I was them. Whoever 'them' is...
"Alex?!" Fang jerked again, automatically looking up at Tyson. How did I get on the floor? Her hands tightened around her head, for fear that her skull would break apart if her hands so much as slipped. Her vision was swimming, She could barely focus on him.
"Alixica?! Are you okay?!"
Ummm.... I don't know, I'll take a vote and get back to you. Fang shut her eyes tight, tears leaking out from beneath her lashes, hoping to make the pain go away. Her teeth ground together, and she whimpered softly. She tried to take stock of herself. She was curled up in a ball on the floorboards. The seat and door dug into her spine. She could faintly feel Tyson speeding, and for once, it irritated her. "Slow down," She managed to hiss through clenched teeth. "And don't even think hospital," She growled pathetically. "No good,"
He swerved, sending her crashing against the door. Fang cried out involuntarily, glad that at the very least the pain in her head was subsiding enough for her to feel the pain rocketing through her shoulder.
"Sorry!" He yelped, almost as if she'd kicked him. Another tear slid out from her eye, and she laughed.
"Come on, Ty, take a chill pill," she gasped out. "I'm perfectly okay."
"Alixica Krystal Gordon, you're in the fetal position on my floorboards! You are not okay! You are going to the hospital, now!"
Tyson sounded desperate, but one sharp look from Fang was all it took to make his shoulders slump in defeat. Irritation shot like fire through her veins. Damned pet thinks he knows better. A doctor is just as useless in this situation as a vet would be. And what good would some human medicine man do me, anyway? One look at my blood and they would ship me off to a science lab to experiment on.
Fang slowly sat up. She paused a moment and chuckled as a thought occurred to her. She had won with one single look. Man, am I good. "Where are we going?" She asked gently, wanting to play nice now that she had won.
Tyson cussed under his breath, slowing down. Fang smirked. She loved it when her pets were helpless under her control. "We're going to lunch," He whispered.
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They ate in silence at that little sushi shop, and Fang didn't mind. Now that the pain in her head had faded, she had time to think. What had just happened? Did her stray vision have something to do with Raven? Once she got home she would adjust the mental link between her and Caleb, find out what was going on.
Fang was lost in thought when Tyson spoke.
"Alex, what aren't you telling me?" She glanced up from under her eyelashes at him. Tyson's eyes widened a bit, and he looked down at his plate. His hair had fallen into his eyes, but she could still see him blushing.
Fang shook her head. Humans were so easy to embarrass. Her heart softened a little, all the same. He was her human. "Nothing you want to know," She admitted finally. She turned her attention back to her food, suddenly feeling the urge to tell him everything. Sure, Fang, tell him that you're a freak half-breed running from a group of vampires that want to protect you.
Tyson sighed and set down his fork. "Alixica, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?"
Something about the tone of his voice got to her. She didn't know why, but what she did next surprised her. Fang's head shot up, and their eyes met. She blurted out without a thought, "My parents didn't die in a car crash,"
Tyson looked reasonably startled. It was a few moments before he could reply. "Huh?"
Fang shrugged, her mind scrambling and the fire fading until she settled on an almost human explanation. "My mom died giving birth to my baby sister, Raven, and my dad was killed in an ambush. He had some enemies, I guess, and that left us with my aunt and uncle." Fang picked up her fork and began toying with her food. She laced bits of truth in with bits of lies. She wanted to be able to trust this pet, but at the same time, she wasn't sure how much she should give away. She could handle any drama he might cause, but she didn't want to lose her favorite pet. What could she say, she had grown attached.
"Aunt Lia and Uncle Say raised us with our cousins, Raise, Demi, and Ky, and eventually Ky's wife Ziz joined the happy family." Fang winced a little. It hurt to use the coven's nicknames, but she was afraid that she might expose too much otherwise. "Caleb was a late addition, tagging along when Demi left for Europe. He... saved him, and he felt like he owed him something, so voila! Add another to our not so happy family."
Tyson was watching her. "Can I meet them?" He asked finally, and she flinched.
"Well, um, the thing is, they don't know where I am." Fang almost groaned. Why did I admit that? Tyson looked confused, and slightly hurt. Fang grimaced a little, and quickly replied, "Because, um, well, I'll tell you when you get back." She evaded at the last possible second, trying to decide how to do this. She stuffed a raw fish into her mouth. She chewed slowly, trying to figure out what the hell she was doing.
Ty seemed to accept her explanation and nodded. "Do you miss them?" Startled, she looked up.
Without waiting for her mind to respond, her mouth opened, and words began spilling out on their own.
"I remember the way Say would hold me every time I cried. I remember the way Lia would make me these huge, delicious meals. I would watch her cook and she would ask me about my day, like her whole world revolved around me." Her throat felt tight, so she set her fork down. "I remember Ky. He was my favorite, like a big brother. He would get down in the mud and play with me, and he never talked, but somehow you always knew what he wanted to say."
Tyson nodded. "I can see why he was your favorite."
Fang chuckled, and then went on. "Raise was always hot-tempered, but quick-witted, challenging everything I said. We could go all night in a battle of the wits." And sometimes, they had. It was those nights that Fang remembered, the nights when they would laugh so hard that they could barely breathe...
"Demi was beautiful in a... masculine way, but like Raislin, he was hot-tempered. He could kick ass better than anyone I've ever known. Sometimes he would take me out back and teach me how to defend myself, almost like he knew that one day he wouldn't be there to protect me."
Now Fang was fighting tears. Demi had known that she was restless, and just like him, he was afraid that Fang would leave. For the longest time, Fang had never really thought that he would be right. "Ziz was honey sweet, and her presence was addicting, just because of the way she smiled. She loved to read, just like me, and sometimes we would make a fort when it rained, then crawl underneath the covers with our favorite books and sing along to our favorite songs."
Fang picked her fork back up and toyed with her sushi. "Rae was my responsibility. I loved her, I really did. We did everything together. But when I started to feel restless... she told me to go. She said that I was too independent to be with them any longer."
A tear actually fell onto her fish. She blinked really fast, trying to make the rest of them go away. "Ever since my dad died, they had been over-protective of Raven and I. Not like the normal overprotective, more like the 'I-will-watch-you-as-you-sleep' kind. It was infuriating, and finally... I decided that I had to take care of myself, for once..."
Her voice trailed off. There was silence for a moment as she regained her composure. After a long pause, he spoke, barely more than a whisper, "Is that why you left them, Lexic?"
She shook her head no. "Only partly. I... I'll tell you that when you come back, Ty."
He sighed. "Are you done eating?" For the first time in her long life, she was. She pushed away her dinner and after he paid, they left.
The ride home was silent.
He walked her to her door, and she hugged him, hard. After all, they were saying goodbye.
If she had seen what was coming next, she never would have let go.