Blood Moon

Chapter Six - My Soul, Your Body

The eyes that had once been Lilo's opened, and I stared out at the world.

Suddenly, her muscles tensed without my control and I prepared myself for a fight. To make it back so early... This one was tougher than I thought.

No, the body was just shaking. With cold? Strange.

As quickly as I could I raised her hand to her face, brushing the rain droplets, which appeared to be warmed with the girl's tears away.

Then, processing the lit world. I narrowed her eyes, attempting to see through the haze that covered them. Strange, human eyes should work better than this. I blinked and the world cleared. The mechanics of humans were simple, it would not take long to understand.

Tall girl was staring down at me. "Lilo? Omg you're awake." Her gaze looked as though it was boring into my soul. "What happened? Are you ok?"

Then someone attempted to disarm me, squeezing at Lilo's hand that they had already been gripping. I pulled away jumping to her feet. Only to be pulled into their trap as the two girls squished their bodies into Lilo's, surrounding me. I struggled but to no avail, the targets were not to be harmed yet and so there was no escape.

The girls did not seem to have any intent to let go and their motives were not clear. So I just stayed in their embrace. It was ok though, in fact I fought back from chuckling, as if it mattered how long their petty bodies held me. Millenias I have waited for this mission, fools.

"You're ok." The smaller girl repeated into Lilo's ear, she seemed far too stupid to stop the end of the world. After all, despite saying the same two words for the tenth time in a row she still stuttered over them.

Without warning they released me. I was free or at least almost. The smaller one, Nina, had my hand firmly gripped. She was wearing a pointed hat, perhaps I had underestimated the risks. In the past many witches had seen fit to march into our domain and I am ashamed to say we rarely won.

Had I fooled her? Without warning, her lips grazed Lilo's and as if it never happened, were gone. Lilo's whole body buzzed, hairs I didn't know humans carried stood on end. She touched my cheek and I felt all the body's tenseness be brushed away. What spell was this?

"Do you know what happened?" Tall girl, Albie, took Lilo's other hand.

It seemed the mortals were oblivious to my changed form, why all this trickery and capture then? I stayed silent. Human voices were hard to pull off, let alone Lilo's lilting Somerset. Anyway, who knew what games they played? It would be worth waiting until their motives were more clear.

"Hey, it's ok. You can explain it later. Let's just go home." The small one gave Lilo's hand another warning squeeze. "You can just rest when we get to my place." I nodded, thanking the sisters, parents were not a variable I had to deal with tonight..

Carefully we made it back to their home. At first, I had forgotten the mechanics of walking but the girls practically carried me along, until, eventually I was able to stride confidently. Even then, they did not let go.

As the sun rose it's fresh warmth tickled Lilo's skin. Somewhere along the way I had stopped shaking and Lilo's soaked hair was almost dry before we reached the witch's little cottage.

Birds woke with the sun and their song serenaded me as we walked. Shame, I reflected, that soon I would feast on their carcasses. Lilo's stomach groaned, an instinct or a reflection of my genuine hunger?

"Hey, I'll text you yeah?" Such words held no meaning for me but I nodded as yet again Albie held me tight. "I love you." She whispered, many such confessions had been made in front of me in the past. Humans were boringly repetitive in their ideals. Never to me though.

Carefully, Nina guided me up the stairs to the door of the cottage. I had mastered the basics of walking at that point but it's many intricacies escaped me still. Then we sat on a faded sofa and she questioned me. "Do you wanna talk about it? We can just gossip if you want." I stayed silent, as she prised hot sweetness into Lilo's hands and I gulped it down. Lilo's throat burned with the sudden warmth.

She laughed shakily. "Another one?"

I closed Lilo's eyes as more sweetness carved a path down Lilo's throat. Then tore at the meaty sandwich she presented to me. Lilo's incisors were not nearly as sharp as the last body I entered had been but they did the job. It was good to eat something that had only been dead for a week or so.

Sleepily, I wondered how fresh humans would taste. Taking delight that it would not be long till I would be rewarded for occupying this tiny host. "Maybe, we should ring an ambulance. How's your head?" Nina made no move to do such a thing, as I leant into her source of warmth. Pulling the sheep hair blanket over the two of us. I needed to get my body temperature up.

Then once the feast was over and still questioning me we curled into a large bed. Lilo's body almost cried in exhaustion, as together me and it tumbled into my first sleep of the century.