Chosen

6

"I see you found the strength to come down the stairs, instead of out the window." James stated siting in the seat Steve had vacated. He leaned back a bit, his large hands stretched out on the wood island. You rolled your eyes at his comment. "How was the food?"
"Quite good, you'll have to thank Wanda for me." You replied to him, looking away. You heard the stool move and saw him stand from the corner of your eye. He walked up behind you, and your nerves stood on end, your slow beating heart started to pick up its pace. You took a slow calming breath, slowing it back down.
"It's amazing that you were a hunter. I can smell the fear on you, but yet, you still have a fight in you." He said, sliding his hands cross your shoulders, slipping them over your collar bone. "Come with me, let's talk."
"I'd rather die." You snipped, not moving from your spot.
"What is it with you and this death wish of yours." He spoke tersely, his grip tightening a bit on you.
"I've told you, I don't want to be here with you. I don't want to be surrounded by what you are." You swallowed, closing your eyes.
Suddenly you were pulled from the stool, you heard it clattered the floor as he spun you to face him. He pushed you backward, the island pressing into the small of your back. His eyes glowing a dark blue as he pinned you in, his hands gripping the wood tight enough you heard it splinter. This time your heart rate spiked, and you knew you wouldn't be able to calm it back down.
"I will make this clear, child, you aren't leaving. You are here until I tell you you can leave." He hissed, you held his eye contact your anger bubbling forth. You leaned into him, rage building inside you at him.
"Then I will kill you myself and your pack. It's either my life or all of yours." You seethed, James's chest rose and fell heavily as he glared down at you. An urge to rip your throat pulled at him, your open defiance to him, your resolve, it pissed him off and turned him on further.
"Many have tried to kill me, doll, and as you see none have succeeded. So go ahead and try me, but a fair warning to you, I will hurt you." He said in hushed tone, his eyes flicking back and forth between your eyes. The corner of his mouth pulled up to the side a fang bared at you, glistening from the over head lights.
   He pushed himself away from, his heavy boots echoing through the kitchen as he walked out leaving you standing there. You breathed out heavily and supported yourself on the island behind you, the trembling feeling traveling through legs as your adrenaline continued to course through. You closed your eyes slowly, taking a deep breath in before standing back up fully, your eyes opening and landing on the door to the side of the kitchen.
    The world was dark through the window, moonlight spilling in as you approached the door. He left you alone, you looked down and noticed the door was unlocked, you looked over your shoulder toward the way he had exited. Slowly you looked back out the window in the door, moonlight turning the world outside a soft blue. Your fingers wrapped around the knob on the door, and you turned it, pulling the door open.
——
    "Nat?" Clint stated walking into her room finding her brooding on her bed, her gun in pieces as she cleaned it. "What are you planning?"
    "What makes you think I'm planning anything?" She asked, her eyes raising to meet his. He sat down on the corner of her bed, picking up the barrel to her weapon and holding up to his face but focusing on her.
   "You haven't pulled this out in ages." He replied as she snatched it from his hands.
   "Can't pull my old friend out with someone getting suspicious?" She quipped, rolling her eyes as she started to slam pieces back together. Clint sighed heavily, shaking his head.
   "If it weren't for the fact y/n was here, then no, I wouldn't have thought twice but, word travels and I know you don't like her." He shrugged looking around the room. "And I know you."
    "What does that mean Barton?" She snipped, rising from the bed and putting the weapon in her dresser.
   "What I mean." He chew the side of his lip before returning his eyes to her as she glared at him across the room. "Nat, we both know you have a temper, and you've been pinning after Barnes for years. Then comes this woman and you feel threatened."
   "This woman? This woman?" Her voice raising as she stormed over to him. "This girl, this pathetic human girl. And I'm not threatened, she's nothing compared to me."
   "Okay there, calm down a smidge." He stated, standing and lifting both his hands.
    "I'll calm down the minute she's gone, whether of her volition or death I don't care!" She spat, walking over to her doorway, she looked back at the man standing in her room. "And if she needs that push, then I intend to help her."
——
    You tentatively stepped out into the night, the breeze catching the loose bottom of James's shirt you still wore. The cool air feeling welcomed on your bare legs, your eyes traveled around the open area before you started to head toward the forest.
    "Human, that would be unwise." A soft accented voice called out from behind you. You whirled in your spot as the man you had seen yesterday stepped out, his skin a tinge of purple.
   "And why would that be?" You asked back.
   "Because there are a great many of dangerous creatures in the surrounding forest." He replied simply walking toward you. You looked him up and down, he didn't seem human, and yet he did.
    "How do you know?" You asked, crossing your arms over your chest, brushing your hair out of your face as the wind gently pushed it forward.
   "My.. creator," He said, tasting the words on his lips before continuing. "Tony, has made a great many of things."
   "What do you mean creator?" You asked him, shifting in your spot as he closed the distance. He stopped just before you, his eyes held a warmth you hadn't seen fully since arriving.
   "One minute I wasn't here and then the next I was. He created me." The man responded, the little emotion he held was soft and loving. "Tony wanted to create another for Master Barnes."
     "Why?" You asked.
     "Because the life he leads is vastly different then ours, and though I am different then the rest, I am not like him." He replied, slowly walking away from the forest back toward the house.
    "Why does it matter if there are more like him?" You asked in disgust trailing behind the man.
    "It must be lonely living a life as long as he has being the last of your kind." He said softly, walking around the to the other side of the house where a separate small run down building was.
    "And you think he should have that right, to live, knowing the atrocities he has done?" You questioned, the man turned to face you his eyes turning red before you.
    "Miss, though I maybe different in some aspects I am still much like he is. So I ask of you not to make disparaging remarks of him." He spoke curtly, you took a step back suddenly being reminded again that even though he had been courteous to you he was one of them. He turn back to the small building and pushed the doors open.
——
   "So that's why your keeping her here?" Steve asked, watching as James walked over and flopped down in the plush leather chair. He stared at the fire roaring in the fire place, the glow from it illuminated the main part of the two story library. James stroked his bottom lip with his finger watching the flames lick up.
    "She's a breath of fresh air, Steve. In all my life I have yet to meet someone who stares death in the face and refuses to back down." He replied softly, his eyes never wavering from the flames that consumed the log. "I've met countless who have run from, even when pressed into a corner. I have met many who have look me in the face and have come willingly. Yet she.. she fights it."
    "So it's the fact she refuses to cower or submit?" Steve asked, leaning against the wall, watching as his friend stared blankly into the fireplace.
   "Yes? No? To be truthful, I'm not one hundred percent sure what it is about this one. But she's the one." He said his eyes slowly lifting to the other man.
    "I'll say this once, Buck, and I'll only say it once. She's trouble." Steve shrugged walking out of the room, leaving him to his thoughts.
   James knew she was trouble, he knew had he been smarter he would of turned her in that first moment. But he could taste it in her, something different, something that stood out so uniquely different then any one else he had come across. Maybe it was that difference that would allow him to do what he wanted, that he had failed to do in his life. To have another like him, a pure, to make another ancient, through you.