Safe Haven

Ch. 5

"Elena!" I hear a voice call behind me, coupled with the light pounding of feet on pavement. His keys jiggle in his pants pocket, and I can hear them clanging as he jogs in my direction.

I pivot around, and spot Nick, his lanyard casually hanging out of his pocket.

"Hey," I start breathlessly, "you in a hurry?"

"No, I just wanted to catch up to you before you left."

We walk to my car in silence. Silence, is the one thing that seems to be common whenever Nick and I are together.

Then, the unexpected happens. I see a figure lingering in the shadows of the parking garage. I catch a glimpse of worn skinny jeans and an off-white windbreaker.

He stalks past us, but I see the same pair of green eyes that I remember clearly from that same day at school.

"Hunter, right?" Nick calls after him, confirming my thoughts.

I see Hunter stiffen, and when he looks towards Nick he wears a hostile expression.

"Yeah man, what's up?"

"You following us?" Nick asks, raising his perfect eyebrow.

"I'm minding my own fucking business man. You obviously seem to have an issue with that."

"Whoa, simmer. I'm not trying to start anything."

Hunter scoffs and glares hard at Nick. He scrunches his nose, as if he caught a whiff of something pungent.

"I know your kind. You always try to start something with us."

Nick taps his finger on his chin. "I don't recall 'my kind' doing anything to 'your kind'. Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about or what you're referring to."

Hunter looks frustrated, and shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He proceeds to sniff the air besides Nick, making a show by scrunching his face and wrinkling his nose, as if he just smelled the most pungent thing on earth.

"This scent. It's repulsive. I know you bloodsucking leeches smell like this."

Nick stares at Hunter, his mouth agape, and I look back and forth between the two, unaware of what's going on. I speak first, trying my best not to shout.

"Are you out of your damn mind? What the hell are you even talking about?"

Nick blinks several times as if

"You really don't fucking know?" He laughs coldly and shakes his head in disbelief. "Ask your dad about my sister. Maybe then you'll know the truth."

"Don't you start shit about my family like that," Nick growls, "or I will fucking hurt you."

I am thoroughly shocked and confused at this point and look at Hunter like he's insane, then move to Nick, but I feel a hand push me back.

"Stay out of this Elena," Nick growls from the back of his throat.

I hear a cold laugh escape Hunter's lips. "Protecting the ones that have been your prey for millennia. I can't believe this!" he continues to laugh, but this time a little more hysterically.

Nick's demeanor changes and becomes more aggressive as he turns towards Hunter again. "Okay, what the fuck are you talking about?"

I could literally see the waves of tension between the two. You could stick a metal plate between them and just the air would be able to bend it in half. If we stayed here any longer, a fight would have most definitely broken out.

"O-kay... so I assume you boys had a nice chat?" I start off shakily. I needed to get out of here, and Nick was coming with me.

Hunter sneers at Nick, then proceeds to spit contemptuously on the ground besides him. "This chat won't be nice enough until I give him what he deserves. He fucking hurt my sister!"

Nick blinks and raises his brows as if he can't believe what he's hearing, and clenches his fists at his sides. When he opens his palms, I see the little crescent shapes his nails had dug into his skin. "Seriously," he raises his hands up and continues, "you're out of your mind! Get the fuck away from us man!"

He's right, Hunter is starting to scare me. "Nick let's go!" I yank his arm and he finally falls back with me, away from Hunter. He looks livid, his dark green eyes now bright with unknown fury.

I drag Nick to the direction of my car, anxious to get him out of this confrontation, because I had a bad feeling that if I didn't, someone would get hurt.

In the distance, I hear Hunter mutter at us under his breath. I turn around, and  see nobody there. He's gone.

***

"What the HELL Nick?" My loud whisper  thankfully did not carry through the eerily quiet garage.

Nick didn't answer me.

"Are you deaf? Did you hear me?" I pull on the sleeve of his shirt.

"I said what. The. Hell. Nick, what happened out there?" I knew I was pressing him but seriously, what did I just watch go down?

Instead of talking to me, Nick gets into his shiny Lexus. I put my foot down on the ledge of the car door so it wouldn't close if he tried to.

"Elena, I'm telling you right now to leave me alone." Nick grips the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles start to turn white.

"Give me an answer and then I'll leave you alone." I put my hand on my hip, emphasizing that I'm not going anywhere.

He lets out a large breath and gets out of his car.

"I'm telling you this once so don't ask me again. I don't fucking know what is wrong with Hunter, I don't know what I did to him, and I sure as hell don't know why he hates me."

"He's one crazy dude though. I've never seen a guy blow up like that in my life."

Nick gives me a small smile, but I see in his face and stiff posture that he's trying to hide how troubled he is.

I decide to throw a couple more questions at him, which probably wasn't the best idea. "You sure you haven't seen him anywhere though, like besides school? He seemed to know you're family and--"

"Yes Elena, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty damn sure I've never talked to him more than once in my life. The prick obviously wanted to get under my skin for his own pleasure. Now just to be clear, I don't want to talk about this again, okay?"

I let my foot fall out of the door ledge and he slams the door shut and speeds away.

***