Dusk Chronicles: Among the Stars

Chapter 1: Papillon Venin du Crépuscule (4/5)

It's been two years since returning to life. Two years spent collecting souls for someone named Grimm, daughter of Death itself. Would I say this is how I imagined my life turning out?

Never.

Yet here we are. I never heard her movements, but I was finally learning to recognize her scent. I was able to move fast enough to catch her by the arm, but then the world spun as the side of my head exploded in pain. Blood instantly spilling from my nose.

"What the hell was that?" My arm now covered in a streak of crimson as I tried to wipe my face, "Cheap shot and you know it." There was a huff as she crouched to my level, lifting my chin and admiring her work.

"Still a wuss, but you aren't reacting to the pain as much." I could hear the sarcasm in her voice as she took my face in her hand and lightly squeezed my face. "I'm going to cry, my little Blakey is all grown up." I groaned as I tried to pull away from her grasp, not being able to. I wasn't sure about a lot of things when it came to Dusk, but I knew she was stronger than anything I had ever met before. "Give up." Her tone was firm, and I knew she wasn't even close to tired. She would win again and I would have to follow her to the next soul. This charade we played, it kept us on our toes, constantly training and working on our skills. We spar, brutally and without niceties, whoever gets the other to admit defeat gets to take lead on the next soul we collect.

"Never." I spat out blood from my lips as I spoke, only throwing fuel into the fire, her desire for battle was insatiable. I knew I should have given in, she usually wins...okay, she always wins. She had a smile similar to the one I first saw on Grimm's face, a sickening and sly smile that said she was enjoying this fight, but she also knew she had the upper hand. In a moment's flash she tightened her grip but I reacted first, I didn't even realize what I had done until I heard her cry out.

"What the F-" I now stood over her, watching her hand shoot up to cover her mouth, black blood dripping through her fingers. My head hurt like it was splitting open, but I knew I had finally done it. A single headbutt and I had her knocked down. The only weakness I knew she had was to hit her fangs. "That was..."

"Good, just admit defeat. It's been almost three weeks, and if we don't get a quality soul for Grimm...well we both know how she gets." Dusk simply nodded and held her hand out, we shook and I had started to pull her to her feet when the world fell silent, almost as if everything moved in slow motion.

We didn't need to speak, at this point we had almost been able to communicate without any words. I don't remember when we became an actual duo, but we work as a pretty great team. We could easily walk away, Dusk could leave me behind, she never needed or wanted a partner dragging her down, and I could leave at any time as I have learned all that I can from her. Being around Dusk just made the world clear, sometimes I wondered if she felt the same. With her next to me everything was peaceful, there was a sense of stability and a balance between us, even when she was beating me to a pulp.

Then there was a tug on my wrist and in a moment we were both on our stomachs, laying as flat in the tall grass as we could. When our gaze met I saw her eye had begun to shift into its amber hue, that sight always made the hairs on my neck standing up.

We're being hunted.

As I closed my eyes I could feel the ground tremble, small vibrations coming from our left.

There's two sets of feet?

I focused on the feeling as hard as I could, and when I snapped my eyes open Dusk was already staring with a slight panic on her face.

Taurus.

Without another second of waiting we both bolted towards the setting sun, Taurus had found us. We didn't stand a chance in our current state, not if she had gone into feral form, and from the sound of hooves on the ground, she had. Dusk nodded towards the area to our left, meaning she thinks we should head back to the settlement of Ricktor.