Where Lost Things Dwell: Night Creatures Book Two

Chapter One - We're Following the Leader

A/N: I'm adding a new chapter one. Bear with me while I amend chapter titles.

Faery looked beautiful in the snow; its rugged landscape blanketed in a fluffy covering of glittering white. Icicles hung from the leafless branches of the deciduous trees like sparkling baubles, catching the light of the low winter sun in a dazzling display. The needles of evergreens bristled with frost, which also furred the edges of the few fallen leaves that hadn't rotted away since the autumn. Swirling fractal patterns decorated the frozen surfaces of becks and lakes they passed as they trooped through the wilderness, and Kalyna had to admit that the realm of the fae-folk enchanted her, but perhaps that was why so many humans had been lost to the Otherworld over the centuries. They visited and couldn't bring themselves to leave, not until centuries had passed, and everyone they left behind had already died.

Still, despite the beauty, she couldn't help but resent both the low winter sun and the reflective snow. The bright white dazzled her part-vampire eyes, driving a piercing stab of pain into her brain, where a headache had tormented her for the better part of a week. She had suspicions about the cause of that headache, but she wasn't willing to confront the truth; the truth that she'd fundamentally changed her biology when she realised she could make herself into something more than human.

Her cheeks stung too, partly from the biting winter wind, but mainly from the burn of the sun as it beat down from the clear blue sky or reflected off the crunching white carpet of ice under her boots. It didn't even matter that she'd applied sunscreen several times already, her skin still tingled, turning pink wherever it wasn't protected by clothing.

"Maybe you should ask for some of the protective gear the vampires are using," Alauda offered as Kalyna brushed her raw cheek with a gloved hand and winced at the sting, nodding towards Laura Bryant, whose face was entirely hidden behind a black, full-face balaclava and UV reflective goggles. Every inch of the vampire recruit's skin had been covered, allowing her the full experience of an off-world exercise without spontaneously combusting in daylight.

"I'm fine," Kalyna murmured, even though she knew she wasted energy healing even her minor sunburn, when she wasn't sure how much she had to spare. Not since she'd stopped feeding on blood... from any source, vampire or human.

"Bullshit," Alauda rebuked. "You haven't been fine in weeks. If anything, you might even be less fine now than you were straight after you escaped that place. You might think you're pulling the wool over our eyes, but you aren't."

"Let it go, Princess," Brandr admonished from the other side of Alauda. "She knows what she needs."

"She needs to accept that she's not human," Alauda insisted, ignoring Brandr's advice. "She's trying to live like a human. She's trying to be what she thought she was before Dunstan Eorl, but it isn't going to work. She's not human. She needs to accept that. She can't make herself more human to distance herself from Eorl. His damage shouldn't become hers."

"Princess..." Brandr tried again. "You can't make someone see things how you see them. She has to decide for herself. Give her time. Give Eorl time..."

Kalyna deflated, wishing her friends would both drop the subject. "That's Staff Sergeant Eorl to both of you. To me. To everyone in the OTF. We all need to remember that. We all need to respect him for that. There's been way too many rumours flying around for the last two weeks, and everyone needs to damn well remember that he's a fucking good Staff Sergeant rather than spreading half truths about his sire and his 'damage'. Or about mine."

She stalked away from her friends, leaving them in her wake and not caring if she'd offended them or if they found her temperamental. Her headache hadn't left her with much patience, and the distance Eorl had forced between them since Laelia's reappearance with Ancarata hadn't left her with much faith in relationships. She knew he needed time to get his head around his sire's latest cruelty and his wife's continued life, but his distance screamed a warning at her; whatever brief thing they'd had since her arrival at the OTF, it was doomed to end. He was the only person she truly trusted, and he'd pulled away. As far as she was concerned, that only confirmed what losing her husband and children had already taught her; being alone was safer than getting close to others. Getting close left her vulnerable; it meant she had things to lose. She'd lost enough already.