Back In Time

Chapter 1: In Which I Fall Down the Rabbit Hole

I crawled up out of the dirt, bitching under my breath. I hate going to ground but I didn't have much of a choice last night. I hadn't found a meal until the wee hours of the morning and by then I was too far from home to get back before dawn. I couldn't risk hiding out in a building anywhere so I'd had to burrow. I got completely out of the ground and shook myself, trying to dislodge the biggest pieces of filth from my clothes. I stretched lazily and looked around. I needed to get some water to get clean, first of all. I tilted my nose up to see if I could catch the scent of a creek or pond somewhere nearby. I couldn't remember exactly where I was, but I knew I was a ways from home and there was no way I was heading back covered in filth. The air smelled clean and I closed my eyes to savour it. It smelled really clean. Weird. Whatever. I thought I caught a hint of water to the east, so I began to wander that way, putting my plans in order on the way.

First, get clean. Second, get home. Third, kick the shit out of Jessica. If she hadn't made such a ruckus at that pub last week, I wouldn't have had to roam so far last night. I was seriously pissed about the post Russell Edgington attitude toward vampires myself, but that didn't mean I was going to kick into super-slut gear and start drinking everybody's blood. Then again, I just couldn't stomach True Blood or any of that other synthetic crap, either. In any case, I was regretting bringing her along to London. It seemed like a good idea at the time, the whole 'see the world' plan Eric had come up with but after three weeks abroad I just wanted the backwaters of Louisiana. Two tears in a bucket, I guess.

Anyway, after laying a whooping down on Jessica, I'd go find Eric. I still couldn't forgive him for making me vampire when he knew that I didn't want that (which is part of the reason he had suggested this whole adventure in the first place), but I could sort of understand that it was an automatic reaction after what had happened. And let me just tell you that after all the things that had happened to me since I first met Bill, a car crash was the least of my worries. Just another example of the irony of life was that was how I'd died. Almost. Eric had been with me and he claimed that he had acted by instinct in turning me.

I'd thought my human life had been complicated, but after becoming vampire, I realized I hadn't even known the meaning of the word. I was still telepathic, only now I could hear everyone, all beings, crystal clear. Vampires, weres, shifters, fairies. You name it. Another neat side effect of my turning was my Fae blood. The little blue hand thing I was just learning to master with Claudine's help? Yeah, that was still there. Only now, with my vampire emotions being so strong and quick to change, it was a real miracle that I hadn't killed anybody yet. By accident or otherwise. However, over the last few months, I had made serious strides in reigning that in as well. I could channel it now into my physical strength, as opposed to an explosion out of my skin. The one good thing about that was I could overpower Eric. He could still whip me if he wanted to, of course. The strength was short-lived and hard for me to muster, plus he was my Maker and it went against every impulse I had to actually try to hurt him. But it came in handy every now and again and man oh days you should have seen his face the first time I bested him.

I made it over to that pond while I was thinking of these things and peered around for signs of people. I wasn't about to shuck off all my clothes in front of anybody but everything was clear. The woods were quiet, no sign of wildlife even, but then again, they usually clam up when we're around anyway.

I peeled the dress off and tossed it in the shallow water near my feet, then made my way in. It was lukewarm and felt delicious on my skin. Must have been a nice, hot day. I slid down to my shoulders and popped my head under the surface, watching my hands wave in front of my face. The water gave everything an eerie quality, like I was looking through a murky glass. I scrubbed at my scalp to loosen the dirt out of my blonde hair and popped back through the surface.