Falling Feathers Book I - Rogue Without Fear

Chapter XXI

>>> Autumn Rose <<<
    I had lost sight of the bird completely.  It called less often than before, but when I heard it I pursued the direction from which it came.  Eventually, it stopped calling at all.  I stopped and looked around.  Where'd it go?  I'd lost all traces of the bird.  Don't tell me I've done all this for nothing! I grumbled at the thought, annoyed.  I spun around in another circle, hoping to find the raven.  The trees' branches were deprived of it, and it wasn't on the leaf-covered ground.  It was dark in the forest, but then again, the canopy of leaves didn't let much light in.  I sat down on the ground, disappointed.
    "Looking for something?"  A voice called from behind me.  I leaped to my feet, prepared to fight, but no one was there.  "Up here," the voice teased.  After raising my eyes, I found her.  She was sitting in a tree, resting against its trunk. She was about a quarter of the way between the ground and the top of the tree. While she was high off the ground, she wasn't near the top of the canopy. Her strange and familiar beauty perplexed me. Her hair reminded me of my hair, though it was a dirty blonde not red. She had pale blue eyes, and an angular face that looked like someone had sculpted it from their finest clay. She was slightly pale, but not sickly pale. In the darkness of the forest, she appeared more comfortable than anyone I'd ever seen anyone else before. The darkness is rather comforting, I thought to myself. Isolated from town and the watchful eyes of other werewolves, or the ignorant townsfolk, I felt I no longer had an act or expectation to fill. She held a dagger in her hand. She was studying it, in the dim light of the woods. Neither of us said anything for a while. I was busy wondering who she was, and why she was here in the woods with me.
    "Aren't you going to ask my why I've brought you here?" She asked, not looking away from the dagger she held in her hand.
    "I came here -" I stopped myself. Following a raven... The statement sounded ridiculous. I couldn't say it to her. "I came here to take a walk, get away from the noisiness of town," I lied. Flinching at the weakness of it, I waited for her reply.
    "Interesting." She murmured. "See, I thought you were following a little black bird. One that you've seen a few times before around Shepherd's Rest. Maybe even one that dropped a rose at your feet, a rose like this one, perhaps?" She reached into a pocket and threw a rose at the ground in front of me. I picked it up, and instantly remembered the raven that dropped the rose that day that Shepherd's Rest burned.  Fallen Rose.  "Ah, I see you remember things well!"  She chuckled.
"How'd you know about that?  How'd you know about any of this?"  I wondered out loud.  She sighed, and leaped down from the branch.
"You see, Miss Rose," she began with mock politeness and formality, "and yes I know your name, I've had my eye on you for quite a while, for a great many reasons. And as much as it pains me to say this," I could hear the sarcasm in her voice, as she spoke. "I'm going to make sure you die tonight." A shiver went down my spine when I heard those words. "You're a dangerous asset to the werewolves. They need your blood, and your necklace." She smirked, revealing her sharp and pointed canines. "You know, the one you took from your dead mother. I need it." I flinched slightly at hearing her mention my mother. I heard the screams of children echo in my ears, everything was on fire. Don't think about it, I urged myself. With little trouble I quickly pushed it from my mind.
    "You're a vampire!" I exclaimed. She laughed a cold laugh, and smirked only wider.
    "Why, I thought you'd never realize that! My dear, what have they been teaching you?" I regained my composure and calmness, and said as casually as I could,    "Not to trust filth like you." She only laughed more.
    "I'm not here to argue with you. I just want what is mine." She lunged forward towards me in a grabbing motion towards my neck, undoubtedly an attempt to take the necklace. I stepped to the side, expecting her to fall to the ground. Instead, she regained her balance and snickered.
    "Why do you want it? It's just a family heirloom, of sorts. Or, at least it is now." I demanded. Something about this girl made me uneasy. She was a little younger than me, probably about twenty years old. Yet, somehow I felt as though she had more skill than me. She's probably been a vampire longer than I've been a werewolf. I'd never encountered a vampire before, at least not to my knowledge and not in a fight like this one. I had no idea what she was capable of. Her eyes glowed a deep, dangerous red.
    "We want that necklace for the same reason as that fool Daniel. To destroy our enemies, once and for all!" She hissed, before lunging towards me once more.
    "What do you mean?" I growled.
    "Haven't they told you yet?" She scoffed. She tossed the dagger in the air, and caught it in her hand again. "Hasn't he told you yet?" She threw the dagger over my shoulder. I ducked, and listened to the sound of the dagger making impact on it's target. It thumped as it struck a tree, lodging itself in the wood.
    "Well well well, I thought you'd never show up!" She taunted.