Falling For A Follower

Chapter 4

I wake up and I feel warm, a strange feeling for me now. All I can remember is the faint sight of a dark stranger holding onto me, my throat felt tight and dry. I needed blood, looking around the room, I don't notice anything familiar. I sit up instantly, this isn't my house. I leap up instantly and look around for my boots. I feel a presence behind me, a cold hand touches my shoulder, I whip around and grab whoever it was by there shirt, pushing them harshly up against the wall. My vision becomes clear, the person was Val. "Val? what are you doing here creeping up on me" I spit, Val shakes her head causing her silky emerald hair to fall in her eyes, a small smile appears on her face "Tayanne you're in my apartment, some bloke came and dropped you off during the day. Funny sounding guy mind, he your boyfriend or something?" Val asks gently pushing me off of her. My head spun as memories from last night flood my mind, some bloke? "what did this guy look like Val? I don't remember much from last night" I ask rubbing my throbbing head. Val takes hold of my shoulders and steers me into her kitchen before pushing me into a chair. "well lets see, to put it simply he was shrouded in shadows, I couldn't see his face because he had a mask covering everything except his eyes" she said as she fixed me a drink of blood. That description sounded familiar "what colour were his eyes?" I ask curiously as I watch her pour a splash of vodka into my drink, she stopped and seemingly thought for a moment. "icy blue, why?" she says passing me my drink. I nod as a thanks and drink, it had been the stranger that spoke to me a few nights ago. What was his deal? how did he know where I'd be? I hadn't even told Val where I'd be because it was dangerous. I lower my glass and glance out of the window, he will be out there somewhere, watching my every move.  

I thank Val as I leave her apartment, I didn't have any work to do. I had a message from the commander to say that I had completed last nights job. My bike was somehow outside along with my helmet so I slip on the helmet and get on my bike, making my way through the busy streets back to my house. It was a cold night, it had rained during the day leaving the roads slick. However I made it back in one piece, I take the bike into the garage and go inside to shower and get changed. I look around my living room, all the glass and liquor bottles had been cleaned up. The room smelled distinctly better than it had when I left, everywhere had been cleaned, the blood on the wall was gone. Going upstairs I observed the same results, a sudden crash from my empty room made me jump. I take my steel bat into my hands and creep towards the direction of the crash. I hear footsteps moving around on the wooden floor, I take my position and raise my leg up before kicking the door open quickly. I move into the room with my bat held high, he was there. I swing towards him, the bat smashes against his shoulder, he staggers slightly and lunges at me. I swing again, catching him in the ribs. His gloved hand wraps around the bat and he snatches it out of my grip before tossing it over his shoulder. Regardless, I continue to fight him off with my fists. He catches hold of one of my fists and twists so that I fall to my knees, if I hadn't, he could have broken my entire arm. I look up at him, my hair falling into my eyes. "this is my house, what are you doing here and why are you following me" I growl as I try and pull my hand out of his grasp, this action causes him to hold tighter. "I'm keeping to a promise" he says in a low tone before carefully letting go. "What promise?" I ask rubbing my hand. He sighs and pulls me up "I promised your family that I'd look out for you"he says returning to what he was doing. I felt strange, I don't have a family, I was abandoned as a baby, I killed the only person I considered family. "I don't have a family, I think you're just some crazy stalker who's looking for a good time. Sorry to disappoint you but I don't roll that way, you'd have better luck with the sluts downtown" I say folding my arms. He sighs "I promised your father on his deathbed that I'd look after you, I take it you don't know what happened" he says, I remain silent, it was true that I didn't know anything about a potential family, I was curious. "Your mother was a witch, your father a vampire. In that time relationships between those races was forbidden just as it is today, they didn't care and continued to court, when your mother fell pregnant, your father was killed by her parents. I worked as a personal servant to your father, I failed to protect him. He told me that he was disappointed in me and that if I was to redeem myself, I was to protect you once you was born. Your mother died during labour, leaving you in my care. I couldn't do it by myself because of who I am, I tried to get different women to look after you but they refused, saying that they didn't want you in their homes, you was already showing signs of being a mixed child" he explains as he runs a finger through a purple streak of my hair "nobody wanted to take care of a trouble child, so I took you to Warren. He was a friend of mine. He took care of you and I watched from afar, building myself up in order to protect you as your father wished for me to do. I made sure to protect you all through school too, I kept to the shadows so you couldn't possibly recognise me." he moves his hand and takes a deep breath. My head felt like I'd been hit, my stomach felt tight. My thoughts went back to assassin school, I'd be training with Warren and there was always a strange boy in the background. Sitting in class, a weird presence would linger in the room. My room always had a dark corner that I was too scared to light. It had been him all this time and I hadn't known, Warren didn't tell me anything, nobody had. Nobody had ever told me, it was as if people hadn't wanted me to exist. I had tried to kill myself several times before and Warren had always stopped me, he had said that somebody as well as himself would be very upset if I had gone through with it. Was this guy the person Warren had mentioned? I look at him carefully, his face had remained covered and it was hard to tell what he looked like. The stranger looked as if he was lost in his thoughts. I take a deep breath and step forward, I take hold of the stranger's hood in one hand and his mask in the other "who are you" I say as I pull the hood and mask away, what hid underneath made my heart stop.