Eternally Hers

Part Twenty

Arabelle Warren

​"Well now that a human has died, the Oregon Institute can be involved," Tessa replied. She was kneeling beside Macy now, examining the body. "I'm going to assume she died... eight hours ago? It's hard to say exactly, but no more than ten. Saoirse, can you tell?"

​I looked to my left, where Saoirse was standing. "I can't say for sure," she responded, her voice calm, "but her blood smells fresh. Anywhere between eight to twelve hours, I'd say."

​I wanted to ask her exactly how she could smell the freshness of human blood but decided it didn't exactly matter at that moment. A week ago, I'd been standing in a hospital room with Macy. She was monotonous – compelled – but she was alive. Now, she was dead, her bloody corpse lying in the middle of my main room!

​Tessa nodded at my mate's response, not bothering to glance up. "This was a vicious killing," she noted out loud, "and not very common for a Vampire. Is this something Valentina would have done?"

​Dot, who was standing with us now, almost laughed. I scowled at her. She knew so much, and even though I didn't know how she knew, she always did. Her lack of any real emotional response to anything that happened made me grow wary of her, and honestly, really fucking pissed off.

​"Thomas Elton, Lena Brown, and Amber Tomlinson," the witch replied.

​Saoirse sighed loudly in response. "Yes," she spoke, "this is exactly the type of thing she would do."

​"Neither of you are going to explain the names?" Jamie asked, standing on the other side of Macy's body with a scowl of her own.

​"Three victims with almost identical deaths to Macy's," was Saoirse's response. "Vampires don't often make human deaths so gruesome, but we have undeniable tempers and a tendency to make a scene. While slitting throats of their victims isn't exactly a Vampire signature, it is something that would draw attention, and something that has been done many times before."

​"What was the purpose of this killing, do you propose?" Tessa asked.

​"I can't know for sure," Saoirse admitted. "I would assume Valentina is trying to tell us how seriously she takes this; how unafraid she is to take a human life."

​"That shows us she's not afraid to kill some humans to draw attention," I brought up, fighting the frown that was making its way across my lips, "but how confident is she in taking a Werewolf's life?"

​Saoirse twisted her neck to look at me, so many emotions running across her face I couldn't pinpoint just one. "Arabelle-"

​"No," I cut her off, "think about it, Saoirse. She wants me gone. When I don't leave town after this, she'll realize I'm not going anywhere. If she wants me out of the picture, she will try to kill me. What if she finds out I don't have a mind link? Then what?"

​"Wait, you don't have a mind link?" Jamie butt in, looking confused.

​"No. I have a physical wolf, but no internal one. No mind link, no pack link, no internal monologue or whatever the hell you want to call it. No wolf instinct or pack instinct."

She pursed her lips in thought. ​"Why?"

​I grimaced at her curious expression. "It's a long story." Right now was really not the time to tell everyone here my tale of woe. Jamie was a really good friend of mine, the closest I'd ever had, so I would tell her eventually, but now was simply not the time.

​"What difference does it make if you don't have one?" She pressed further.

​"It's hard for Vampires to compel Werewolves because Wolves are mentally connected to a pack, and even if they're not, they can mentally connect with family," I explained quickly, "so in order to compel that one Werewolf, they'd have to be able to compel an entire pack. Without it, it's easier to compel me."