The Nightwillow

Chapter 6

What was that?

He had seen it happen with his own eyes, but it made no sense. He was on his now habitual nightly stroll, which just so happened to also take him past the Tabbris house. It was normally a fruitless endeavor with him standing under the willow staring up at her window.

The idea of stepping outside so late should never have crossed a young lady's mind. What on earth had she been thinking? Besides the creatures that prowled in the moonlight, there were plenty of humans that posed a danger after dark. At this hour she should have been in her house...in her bed!

Instead she had grappled with a vampire - a hungry vampire no less. And she had won. And he felt -

Relieved?

Proud?

All of it, as well as confusion and anger and frustration.

He watched the girl's father lift her up and carry her into the house, and a part of him wanted to go to them, grab her and be the one to comfort her. Her blouse torn. Her pants ripped beyond repair. He could smell the blood that ran fresh from the cut over her eye. It was mixed with the fragrance of old blood that was partially from the yellowing bruise on her cheek. He wanted to be the one to make the pain go away.

It wasn't the first time he felt that way, and yet he still stood there, just watching. He had wanted to carry her on nights when she stumbled back to the house after what seemed to be a long day of physical training. He wanted to tell her how impressed he was with her after he had seen the last moments of the exercises her father was putting her through. Her master level skills with everything from knives to crossbows was impressive for anyone, especially a human girl of her age.

He had no doubt that she would be able to hold her own in a fight with another human, but she was with flaws that would doom her in a fight with non-humans. She was far to eager to win, and she put everything she had on the table up front. At the time, he had thought she would never last more than a few moments in a confrontation with an underworld creature.

Yet here he was agog at a scene he couldn't explain, and not taking one step forward to make himself known. In all his immeasurable years on this earth, he had never seen anything like what the girl had done. He had seen plenty of his kind killed. It was gruesome. Creatures didn't die like humans. In a battle, they exploded in a shower of gore when they were killed. Even if they died a natural death, they melted down into a puddle of muck. They were never reduced to dust, even when fairies or witches had killed vampires with their own brands of magic the ending had been the same.

What was this girl?

###

Michael returned to Fitz's home after a long walk with all the questions about this girl running through his head. He may not be able to help her directly, but could find out who the vampire was that attacked her. He only knew of a few vampires that lived in this area, and most of them tended to be peaceful, feeding on willing victims or heading to feeding rooms in the city. They tried not to draw attention to themselves.

Like most vampires, they lived among their food supply, which made finding their prey easier. Most chose to live near cities, because their activities were not obvious. Mistakes could be covered up easily, food was plentiful, and they tended to blend in far more easily. Their eccentricities were not necessarily noticed in the city like they were out here. People in these outskirt areas lived in smaller circles. They all knew each other, so while an older vampire may enjoy a little more solitude, he had to learn to blend in better.

The vampire that attacked Sophie had no desire to blend in.

It may have been a nomad, but he would have assumed that Fitz would have been notified of a stranger in their midst. Word was a rapid traveler in their circles. It was unusual that Fitz would not have known someone was here to hunt, or maybe he just hadn't shared it with Michael?