Ancient Darkness (On HOLD)

Chapter Two - No Such Thing As Vampires

She woke as the sun cheekily looked in through the curtains, a surprise since she normally woke before the sun even crested but the long trip coupled with the exertion of telepathically speaking to the mysterious Owen Blackbourne had completely drained her.

The one known as Sang Sorenson sat up and worried at her bottom lip, the conversation from the previous night drifting through her mind. 

She never spoke to anyone about her gifts but the overwhelming devastation in his mind had overridden her sensibility.

Without a doubt the man had been on the verge of making a fatal mistake by ending his life and Sang had felt compelled to reach out and soothe him although the mistake could prove costly if he decided to tell anyone. God, she knew better!

Pushing the covers back, she tried to smooth down her unruly hair even though it was generally an uncontrollable mess in the mornings. Well, most of the time actually, but she'd never worried about it overmuch. She would pull it up into a bun and forget about it like always. There was never anyone to do it for, no one to care that the mousey librarian was unkempt.

Her job  was a calm one and didn't require that she pay an overmuch amount of attention to her appearance, which suited her just fine. Sang was shy, almost socially awkward, and enjoyed the fact that she could live a quiet and peaceful life.

Nothing exciting ever happened in Ancient, Montana and that was exactly how she liked it, how her mother had wanted it but for the last two months there had been an uncomfortable itching at the back of her neck.

Something that she'd never experienced before and most certainly something she hadn't understood until the night she'd been reading a book on the history of Romania. Her whole body had shook as she skimmed the pages, an irritating burn had flashed through her bloodstream. Jumbled images had filled her mind, a vast open field covered in snow and a white wolf standing almost obscured by the raging storm.

That creature had stared at her with hot demand as others, as many as eight, had crept into her line of sight. The vision had ended as they began to howl at the hidden moon, calling to her. Pulling at her.

It had been exhilarating and absolutely terrifying but she hadn't been able to stop herself from jumping straight onto her computer and booking a flight to Romania. She had also done more research and made all the travel arrangements to be transferred from Bucharest to the Toplita Region which housed the Carpathian Mountains. It was silly but when she'd found a photo of the forest below the vast range, there had been a compulsion the ensure that that was where she find answers.

Easing herself from beneath the warm blankets, Sang shivered in the cold morning air. A week ago she had been living a quiet life and now she was traversing around a strange country because of something close to foresight. With the ability to see the future on occasion she had always remained wary because those flashes usually brought about tragedy and trouble but this time the feeling had been different, unexplainable.

A knock on the door had her startling enough that she almost spilt the glass of water she had only just raised to her mouth.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Miss Sorenson," a female voice petered in, obscured by her thick native accent and the solid door, "Breakfast will be served in half an hour."

She swallowed thickly, "Thank you, Mrs Resita. I'll be down before then."

Sang heard the noise of footsteps moving away and listened carefully as the owner of the inn knocked on other doors. One of them probably belonging to the Blyres.

Sang hadn't made any special effort to get to know anyone on her travels but as meals were only permitted in the shared dining room, she'd felt compelled to make polite conversation with two of the youngest, a man and women who had revealed that they were siblings trekking to the most famous parts of Europe.

She had nearly choked on her soup when they'd explained what they meant by famous. Vampires! They had actually taken time from their lucrative careers to explore the most rumoured vampiric hot spots.

She snorted just thinking about it, "I may be strange but there is certainly no such thing as vampires."