Souls' Collision | ✔

A T T A C K E D

~ Chapter Four ~

Liz squinted at her phone.

It was new and quite frankly a hassle to work out. She'd gotten it for free, made one of the assholes that forced her into the forest a week ago (and almost got slapped with a law-suit) buy it for her. Her old one was gone without a trace, most likely at the bottom of the lake.

She shook away the intrusive thought pointing out that she should be there, too.

"Hey, Hannah!" she called over her shoulder as the phone suddenly switched off.

"Yeah?" Hannah, her roommate, answered from somewhere in the apartment.

Liz banged her head against the headboard. "The phone went dead again -- why does it keep doing that?!"

Hannah appeared in the door to her bedroom with her hair in a towel. "I don't know," she muttered. "Probably a manifacturing error with the SIM."

Liz furrowed her brows.

"You gotta go back to the store," she spelled out.

"But they're probably closed. And tomorrow's Sunday." She tossed the phone onto the covers and massaged her temples. "I can't catch a goddamn break."

"It's only seven o'clock. Y'know, just because you go to bed as soon as it gets dark doesn't mean everyone else does." Hannah gave Liz' huddled form a meaning look. She was under the covers, already wearing pajamas and having brushed her teeth.

"I wasn't going to sleep."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I was just napping."

"You wanna go out with me and Trent and the guys, then?"

Liz threw the covers off, grabbed her phone, and hurried out of the room. "God no," she said as she rushed past Hannah. "I have to go fix my phone."

×

Eyes watched closely as the human girl exited her apartment complex. The snow had settled but the frost was as aggressive as ever. Yet she appeared to have only thrown on a jacket and snowboots over loose fitting pajama pants.

She fixed her glasses and, to her watcher's alarm, squinted towards the bushes where he was hidden. Of course he hadn't made a noise - he never did - but doubted that was what had made her look over. On some level she must feel the bond, too, he guessed. He lowered himself further into the brush. It wasn't a very good hiding place considering it was only a small patch of trees and bushes in the human female's courtyard, but it hadn't mattered to him. He had to see her.

"Hello?"

He didn't respond but gravely disliked the quiver to her voice.

Liz crossed her arms and crouched slightly, feeling more and more certain that someone was watching her. Despite her jacket a chill raced through her body, alerting every follicle and making the hair on her body stand on edge.

"Come out!" she dared to yell. "Come out or I'm calling the police."

The man in the bushes didn't know who "Police" was but the mere thought of having her call to another male for help made him fired up enough to decide to face her. But not like this. It wasn't custom for her kind, he guessed - acting out of norm could be devastating for their bond. He shrunk further back into the brush as the human - his human - took a few steps in the opposite direction.

Despite the situation he couldn't help but note how she moved, the way her strong muscles held her upright. And she clearly had good instincts, backing away like that. Granted, he wouldn't hurt her even to save his own life, but that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.