The look on Arrows face made me stop laughing instantly. Slowly, he stalked towards me, his head down slightly, looking up at me evilly through his Lon lashes. I back up against the wall until he was face to face with me.
"A-Arrow, you're s-scaring me." I whispered, turning my head to the side. He just stood there with his hands to his side and an evil look in his eyes. Slowly, he raised both his hands above his head. I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for pain or something. When both his hands met my sides and started squeezing and poking at them, I gasped and my eyes opened wide. I looked at him shocked and his eyes were laughing at me though his face was dead serious. He continued to tickle me and I was pleading for air.
"P-please! Stoooopppp!!" I was screaming it out at him, but to no avail. He kept tickling me, sometimes he would place his hand on my shoulder and my neck would come to meet with my shoulder. We continued like this until I couldn't take it any longer.
"Stop! I h-have to peeeee!" I shouted at him. Instantly, Arrow stepped away from me with his hands up. Taking this opportunity, I ran into my bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I was still laughing as I did my business and came back out. Arrow was smiling widely and had returned back to my bed.
"Next time, don't call me princess." He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. I giggled and sat down across from him.
"Yes sir." I said, saluting him.
We sat in silence for a moment before Arrow spoke up.
"So, the real reason I came by here-"
"Oh, so you weren't here to see how I was?" I mocked him, glaring my best fake glare. He chuckled and shrugged.
"Anyways, I actually came here to fill you in on some stuff. Aiden was going to do it but he had to run an errand." I nodded in understanding and made myself comfortable on the bed.
I knew this was serious. Arrow took a deep breath, and began.
"First of all, I'm sure you would like to know more about my kind, the shadow shifters. We come from a long line of hoodoo." I raised a brow.
"Hoodoo? What, is it like voodoo?" Arrow shook his head no and continued on.
"Voodoo is a religion, but hoodoo is magic. You see, our people believed in evil spirits and used hoodoo to protect themselves."
"Aren't you guys supposed to be African?" I blurted out. Arrow chuckled and rolled his eyes. "How very stereotypical of you Bella." He smirked and I blushed, looking down at my hands.
"Our family was in peace with the other kinds. The village we lived in was a mix of shadow shifters, witches, vampires, and werewolves, such as yourself. In the village, the only rule we had was to stay with our kind. Woman and men of different species weren't aloud to be intimate with each other. Our leaders feared it would lead to hybrids. We couldn't risk the different races and mixes we would have." I thought deeply about what he had said.
"Hybrids. So...Aiden is a hybrid? I mean, he's a wolf and a shadow shifter." Arrow nodded but kept going with his story.
"One night, the moon was brighter than most, and our village was quiet. Intruders snuck in and threatened to kill us all, over the land. They held knives to the throats of the young children, making everyone freeze with terror. The intruders didn't seem like a huge threat to us, seeming as we had an army of talent within us. But we were proven wrong when we found out they were hybrids. One bite from them to any of us, would poison our blood, making us die within a few days. We tried to stay strong, to show them they couldn't harm us. We were quickly shot down from those thoughts when one of the hybrids slit one of each kinds children's throats. We couldn't risk our kinds going extinct, so we bowed down to there command, letting the hybrids rule our land. That same night, our leaders came together to form an escape plan. We all gathered in a hidden area not far from the village and kept quiet, forming our escape. One of the hybrids over heard us, and a shadow shifter caught sight of him. Quickly changing to match his appearance, the shadow shifter killed the hybrid and went back to the village, leading the guard hybrids away from our location. The rest of the village planned an escape quickly and decided to do it that very night." Arrow paused, swallowing a few times, then sighed. "Most escaped. The witches put spells on the hybrids, making them feel nauseous. The vampires compelled the weaker hybrids, and the werwolf's distracted others. We couldn't attack them in fear that we would get bitten. All while the Shadow Shifters would take the appearance of the leaders of the hybrids. We thought everything was going perfect, when one of the hybrids, the Alpha, noticed the eyes color of our shadow shifters as they were taking the appearance of the hybrids. With this, he ordered the hybrids to kill anyone who's eye color was blue. We lost over 200 shadow shifters that night. All the other species fled and went their separate ways. Since then, all hybrids have threatened our kind, sometimes forcing war upon us. We are careful around them still, even after all those years." Arrow finished, looking at me for the first time since he had been talking. All the information ran threw my head fast and I struggled to grasp what all of this meant.
"But, Aiden is a hybrid." I stated, confused as to why Arrows kind would have him in their group.
"Yes. But with Aiden, it's different. His family disagreed with the Alpha hybrid, when we all fled, they followed us. At first, we thought of them as a threat. Soon after, they proved there innocence." He finished with a nod of his head and then stood up. I stood also, following him to my bedroom door.
"You're leaving?" I asked, eager and hoping that he wasn't. Arrow turned to me and furrowed his brows.
"Uh, no. I'm getting water." He said in a 'duh' tone. My mouth made an 'O' and he rolled his eyes. He started down the stairs and I followed behind him.
When we got to the kitchen, Arrow checked in every cabinet, looking for cups. When he finally found them, he poured himself a glass of water, chugging it down quickly. He soon refilled his cup and sipped at it slowly.
"Better?" I asked, taking a seat on one of the bar stools.
"Much." Arrow sat next to me, fiddling with his cup. "Look Bella, I know this is all happening fast, but we are all trying the best we can." He looked at me sympathetically and I forced a smile. He was right. Everything was happening fast. The whole situation was confusing. First the guy in the woods, then Simon, then Aiden, and now? Well, now there is so much more I have yet to learn.
"Arrow?" I turned to him, fiddling with my fingers. He raised a brow at me and I continued. "What did you mean in the story by, 'they noticed our eye color.'? What would that have to do with anything?" Arrow smirked and nodded his head.
"You're a smart lady. You catch on to the small stuff." I blushed and looked away. Arrow sighed and took a sip of his water.
"Every species has their own eye color." I scrunched up my nose in confusion.
"What?" Arrow bit his bottom lip, thinking.
"Have you ever noticed all of the wolfs in your pack have brown eyes?" He asked. I thought about it for a moment then answered.
"Yeah. Now that I think about it, we all do." Arrow nodded.
"You see, as I said, we all have our own eye color. A color that represents our kind. Wolfs have brown eyes because they are self confident and determined. Shadow shifters have blue eyes, mostly known for attraction and knowledge." He smirked and winked at me before going on. "Witches eyes are the most beautiful in my opinion. They are hazel. The reason for that is to show mixed emotions and feelings. Spiritually, they are all different and not one is the same, such as hazel eyes."
As I listened to this, I couldn't help but feel in aw. Everything was so new and interesting I couldn't stop listening. "Then of course, there are your vampires, and no, they don't sleep in coffins and they aren't pale. Well, most of them anyways. They look like ordinary human beings, though there eye color is a dark grey. Almost black. They are wise and people believe that others with gray eyes have eternal youth. Hence the vampires." He finished off his water and looked at me, waiting for a response. I thought about it all before something occurred to me.
"So there is a species for every eye color?" I asked, fully out of curiosity. Arrow nodded and spun his cup on the counter top. I thought back to all of the colors he listed. Wolfs had brown, shadow shifters had blue, witches had hazel, and vampires had grey. It all made sense I guess. Suddenly, I thought back to the green eyes that haunted me in my dreams. The eyes that fallowed me in the forest. The eyes that confused my every thought. The green eyes that Arrow hadn't mentioned.
"What's green?" I shot out quickly. Arrows head snapped up at me quickly and his eyes were wide.
"Excuse me?" He mumbled out, low. Almost like a growl.
I straightened my back and said it again, louder this time.
"I said, what is green. That is the only color you haven't mentioned and I'm curious as to why." Arrow sighed and tilted his head down. For a moment, I didn't think he was going to answer, and just as I started to get annoyed, he looked me straight in the eyes.
"Green is a color you want to steer clear of." He mumbled out, snarling at the very thought running through his mind. I furrowed my brows together and the face in the woods kept appearing in my mind.
"Arrow, it's okay to tell me." Arrow shook his head disapprovingly and sighed, trying to control his emotions. His face was flushed with anger and he balled his hands into fists, fidgeting with anything he could get his fingers on.
"Green, is the color of our enemy." He said coolly. He looked up at me with pure hatred in his eyes before he spoke the very words that shocked me to almost fear. "The color of the hybrid."
