An Eye For An Eye

Vingt-Cinq

When I woke up, I immediately wished I had never slept. My eyes were sore and every part of me yearned for sleep. I had no idea what time it was and with a sigh, I closed my eyes. If there was any time to have a coffee, it was now.

“You should go back to sleep.”

His voice was gruff and I smiled. I wasn’t alone.
“So should you,” I replied. His hand snaked around my waist. “Why aren’t you asleep?” Thinking about it, he always seemed to go to sleep after me and wake up around the same time as me.
“I was thinking, there’s a full moon in a few days.” As soon as he said it, there was a flicker of anxiety. He must have sensed it. “Yes, exactly.”

“How am I going to deal with it?” I asked. The mere thought of losing control and hurting people scared me.
“You need an anchor,” he explained. “Something that ties you to humanity.” Something that tied me to humanity… Well, it definitely would not be my family. As much as I loved Chris, our sibling relationship didn’t really scream at me as something special.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Well, Tasha and Jack use their relationship together, Becca used to think of food, I can’t remember exactly what food but it worked.”

I rolled over and faced him.
“What’s your anchor?” I wondered if it was a person, if it was family or someone he loved.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said dismissively. “What does matter is your anchor, what ties you to humanity?”
I blankly stared at him, glad he couldn't see my expression. “I have no idea.”
“You don't need to worry about it,” he said.

But I probably would anyway. Without an anchor, I wouldn't be in control of my shifting. When the full moon happened, I'd be dangerous, especially since it would be the first full moon as a werewolf. Unless I followed the code, then I wouldn't have to deal with it. But then I'd be dead and that was what I was hoping to avoid.

“You don't have to discover your anchor now,” he said. Deuc could probably tell how I was feeling. “You live with your Alpha and I won't let you hurt anyone.”
“I know you won't.” I rolled onto my back and then sat up. Last time I had slept here, I hadn't paid too much attention to the room itself. Deucalion had been rather good at distracting me.

There was a bookcase beside his wardrobe filled with books, some of them looked decades old with leather bindings. Some had gold lettering on the spines, some were blank with their spines falling to pieces.
“You have so many books.”
“I do, but they're not much use to me now.” Because he couldn't read them.

“You could read Braille,” I said as I shuffled to the end of the bed. Kara had some books in Braille, though she preferred audiobooks.
“How many books on the supernatural are written in Braille?” he asked with a sigh. I walked over to the bookshelf and looked at the books in awe.
“I'm guessing not many,” I sheepishly admitted. Assuming the books he had were on the supernatural, the stories and knowledge the books contained was unimaginable. “I could read them and I could read them to you if you wanted or if we needed to.”
“If you read them, I think it would be a little less tedious,” he said.

Turning, I could see him smiling as he sat up. Part of me just wanted to run my fingers through his hair and let him hold me while I tried to forget about everything. But that wouldn’t happen.
“I’m surprised you haven’t tried learning to use a white cane.”
“What?” he asked. I could see his brow furrow.
“A white cane, it’s specifically for blind people. There’s training for it, it lets you move around and stuff. Kara used to go, she uses it if she has to but she’s not overly fond of it,” I explained. “There’s a special technique and everything, it’d probably be worth learning.”

“You know, this isn’t even all of the books, the rest of them are at home,” he said and I let out a laugh.
“At home?” My eyebrows raised.
“I own a house back in my territory, I’m just renting this place,” he said. How did he have the money to do that? “Speechless?”
“A little, how much money do you have?”
He chuckled. “Enough to live rather comfortably.” My eyes widened and I shook my head a little. No wonder he didn’t seem bothered by me living here, he didn’t have to worry about money. “Speechless again?”
“You're getting rather good at that,” I said with a smirk. He chuckled and grinned.
“I suppose I am.”

Laughing, I turned back to the bookcase and ran my fingers over the spines of the books as I read the lettering on them.
“These are so old,” I mumbled as I stared at them. How did one even acquire so many old books on supernatural creatures? I wondered if they had the ancient smell that old books tended to have but, terrified of damaging them, I left them alone.

“Come back here, Liza.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.” My hand fell to my side and I climbed onto the bed and knelt next to him. He held his hand out.
“What is it?” I asked. There was a smile on my face as I took his hand.

“You like me, don’t you?” he asked quietly. I furrowed my brow.
“To say the least, yes,” I said. “And I’m guessing you like me?”
“I do, yes,” He took a deep breath and held my hand tighter. “You aren’t a hunter any more.”
“No, I’m not,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure where this was going.
“Promise me that you won’t follow your code.”

Was he worried about that?

“It’s not my code,” I said softly. “I have no reason to follow it.” He was serious about this, wasn’t he?
“Promise me. Promise me you’re not going to kill yourself before the full moon.” I pressed a kiss to his lips. I couldn’t imagine leaving him, not after everything that had happened. I had almost died and he had saved me, none of my thoughts were close to suicide.
“I promise.”