The First Touch (9 page)

He seemed harmless enough just watching the two of them or so
Autumn
thought
,
but Ivan instructed
suddenly tense
, “Go on ahead
I will catch up.” Autumn,
con
fused and
frustrated
, watched nonplussed
as Ivan headed across the street,
leaving her
alone
, without another word
.

Autumn
continued up the sidewalk and glanced back over her shoulder at Ivan’s backside. He walked slowly and confiden
tly striding towards the man
with an air that suggested annoyance. A completely insane turn of events and for her a bit of luck given the circumstances and making no mistakes she turned around
,
glancing up again to say,
Thank you
as her pace quickened. As h
er
thoughts
flittered, frantically scrambling to come up with a plan
,
A
few mo
re blocks and then hail a taxi,
she thought
.
Maybe even
change
taxis’s
a few times, before finally heading for home
,
then l
eave town.

The world shifted again
,
and the sidewalk ahead of her filled
suddenly
with smoke and a familiar sight appeared before her again.
A vision, of the
burning man
,
rushed out to meet her and she gripped her chest, startled by the intensity of the
unexpected sight
. His head
completely engulfed in flames,
his face distorted, making him unrecognizable. H
e came running towards her screaming
, blood curdling agony, intermingled with
a
eerily creature like quality which set her mind on edge
.

Shockingly, the man
began
tearing at his skin
,
trying to throw the flames off
of him,
along with bits of burnt flesh
. The feeling of searing heat and smell the burnt hair
faded away
,
along with the apparition,
leaving her alone on the deserted sidewalk once more
. Again the world shifted
sending her head spinning
, cursing as she tried
to steady herself on the nearest street sign.

When the fog finally
cleared, her eyes found Ivan in the distance
. He was already standing in front of the man
who had been eyeing them
, talking to him
intently
.

Silent Bond

Autumn turned and began walking a little faster
,
but surprisingly, her mind was not focused on trying to escape now. The burning man f
l
ashed before her every time the
thought pushed its way to the surface again. After a few more strides, her mind jumped at the next available line,
who was that
? Her inner voice answered her first question, instead of her second suddenly more pressing question,
Ivan is not a danger
. Relief flooded her senses quickly followed by tightness in her chest
, Could that be true? Hadn’t her vision just warned her that he would jump across the table and rip her throat out if she told him that she knew what he truly was? Had his intentions changed that quickly? No, had that man changed it somehow?

Something was wrong
. S
he knew she could feel it.
Autumn frowned to herself as her pace began to slow. Ivan had zoned in on him so quickly. It made her anxious and she replayed the look in his eyes just seconds ago.
He had been angry, and what els
e?
Her mind began to wonder,
why had the man been surprised by Ivan approaching him
?
Then another part of her mind answered,
Ivan did not know him.
Autumn stopped,
why had Ivan been angry with a stranger then?
Something was definitely wrong with that picture.

Was that man following them
? She had not noticed, but then she had not noticed muc
h of anything since she met him
. If he had been following them that would be understandable. That also meant that either the first choice, he knew that Ivan was a vampire and was following him. Or the other choice, that the man was just being an idiot and he caught a vampire attempting to get a bite to eat
. So what then? No witnesses? If that were true, wouldn’t all of the witnesses from the coffee shop also worry him
in her vision
?

She shook her head;
no
even, she knew that was a bit far fetched. Besides her gut told her Ivan was no longer a danger to her, and
she passed touching her chest. Was that the truth? Was the blood lusting creature no longer a threat to her?
Nothing…
no danger meters going off
at the moment
…and
she knew better than to doubt that feeling.

So that just l
eft option one,
that man was following them on purpose. Perhaps Ivan would simply make fast wor
k of him and return to her side, to
finish whatever he had planned for her
…
. There was also another possibility
. T
hat the man was part o
f a larger organization, one
who
caught and killed his kind. Ivan had seemed so convinced in her vision that she worked for someone.
Did he suspect that some
one was out to get him?
Was that why she had had the vision
, to let her know what he was?
If he was not a danger to her
now
then was
he
in danger?
If today had taught her anything, it tau
ght her tha
t anything could happen now
.

Her mind shook, no he is strong, and fast and
strong
. He should be able to take care of himself, even against multiple attackers. The only thing that continued to nag her was
the dream, and now that vision
.
That burning man,
had asked her to kiss him and she had not. Now he was alone with a stranger and all her mind could focus on
was the fear that she had just made a mistake
.

He could be in real trouble right now. What if they were kidnapping him and planned to burn him alive once the sun rose or something.
Could someone do that?
She was not familiar with all of the things that could hurt him. What if it were something simple like
holy water or crosses or a virgins blood or something. Damn she was going to have a lot of questions before the night was out.

A
taxi flew towards her then and
Autumn
held her hand up and it slow
ed to a halt next to her. She
looked back down the road behind her as she reached for the door handle. Then somewhere in the night sh
e heard a strangled cry that
stopped in her tracks. She cursed under her breath and smacked the window sending it speeding off back down the road
, cursing again
.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a can of mace, for just these occasions.
Ha, just these occasions, what when her vampire killer was going to be slaughtered and his din
n
er saved him? Damn I should have just kissed him, then I could have cleared my conscious and I would not be in this mess.

She cursed to herself
a second time
and turned
back around heading
to where the sound had come from. Back to Ivan, and her heart rate tripled, as a thought flashed in her mind.
What if he were hurt?
The image of Ivan burning squeezed itself ins
ide of her head so swiftly that her chest tightened
.
Hand to her chest, s
he increased her pace until she was running
,
pushing herself a bit harder, so fast that her chest burned with the effort. Then only problem with that was that her heart was so loud now that it b
ecame all that she could hear,
by the time she arrived back at her starting point.

Then it skipped a beat
,
as she crossed the road to the spot that two men had been standing moments earlier
, and they were now gone
.
Where had they gone?
A
noise came from
the alley up ahead
of her
and to her
surprise
,
she headed straight for it. She held
the mace in her right hand, and
made her way to the darkened alley. Once there
,
she found herself gripping her bag tighter as she peered into the alley, looking for any sign of her theory at work.

Up ahead
,
she could hear something, but nothing definite, and she pushed herself forward in spite of her fear, th
e stupid sound of her own heart
beat
still
reminding her just how stupid she was being at the moment.
Then she nearly tripped on something
lying in the alley, and cursed
.
The
shuffling
no
i
se ahead in the alley
did not cease, and she noted, it
was originating from a single spot
. S
he strained her neck
, stepping over whatever was on the ground
but she could
not see an
ything. S
lowly
, she
crept further in
to the dark,
listening
for any sounds aside f
rom the ones coming from behind the
dumpster ahead.

As she m
oved closer though, the lighting actually became
worse and she nearly trippe
d over something else, something solid
. She cursed again, realizing that now she could barely see two feet in front of her.
Suddenly, t
he noises stopped abruptly and a single shape stepped out of the darkness.

It moved slowly towards her, and for the first time she felt calmness come over her unlike any she had ever felt before. She called out, “Ivan?” The silence that followed turned her skin cold and she no long
er
felt connected to her bod
y, just as she had
in her dreams. Suddenly the darkness of the space was no longer a problem, and her heartbeat slowed to an easy trot in her chest.

Seconds later
,
Ivan appeared before her, his face half covered in shadow. Autumn smiled and spoke strained as relief finally filled it, “God you had me so worried!” He did not respond to her question
,
so she added a little more gently, “Are you alright?”

His voice cam
e out strange and raspy
, “I told you to keep walking.” As he spoke, he walked towards her with a different gait in his step
,
almost a hunched walk. Her mind did not register the change, but her body seemed to understand the danger and stayed in its
new reserved state. Then her knees bent slightly anticipating an attack from her newest mistake.

She noted that his jacket and gloves were now gone and wondered if that had been what she had tripped over as she had entered the dark alley. Ivan’s hair was tussled and he had some dark droplets on his neck. Luckily, for him though not a drop had managed to get onto his white collared shirt. She smiled thinking to
herself,
it had been perfectly tailored to accentuate his statuesque figure. Then she swore in her head, her hormones were now making it difficult for her to concentrate on the problem at hand; as she noticed that his eyes were still jet black.
Something that should have
shaken
her, had she
not already
seen him
, inches from her face in the coffee shop
.
Autumn tried as hard as she could
, not to alarm him
, she did not want to start that chain reaction again.

As he approached
,
her legs began moving, slowly receding back to the safety of the well lit street. Her step was considerably smaller than his was though and he quickly closed the
distance between them
. She stared up at him studying his face while he stared back studying hers. His mind was tugging
at him, remember, he blinked
and
his mind began working again. He tightened thinking of
Autumn
touching his chest again, and like a cha
rm his heart began beating again
.