Fallen Blood (2 page)

"Then come along with us, Ma'am." The man responded, unperturbed by Sam's whimpering form on the floor.

"Okay, okay..." Deeta said, and started walking in his direction.

"Is there anyone else?" asked the man as she neared him.

"Ah...just Heather, but she already left." Deeta answered without thinking.

"
No
...! You stupid...!" Brian shouted at the oblivious girl. "Why did you have to
say
anything?"

"Tell me how and where this Heather can be found."

Brian rushed to Heather's side without further ado. All it took was a thought, and the room blurred and he found himself standing beside Heather as she was climbing through the hole in the chain-link fence that now surrounded the old Warren's property.
Hide
he shouted at her,
run! Do something don't just walk!
He yelled at her. He could hear in the distance the door open and shut from the old house. He was sure she didn't as everything was enhanced in this state. If it hadn't been for his senses, he wouldn't have heard them open and shut the door either.

He had to do something to protect her. He couldn't bear the thought of her spending the night in jail. Someone like her wasn't made for such a place, she would never survive, he thought. How was he going to make her hear though? If she was asleep, he could tell her, and she would hear him, but that wasn't going to work now. O
r would it?
He didn't have much time, as he could hear approaching feet.

Without thinking about it any more, he stepped into her form. Not really into her, but just where her body now walked. It would be a lot harder to stay inside of her as she was moving and not sleeping in her bed, but he was going to have to try.

"Heather, hide!" He spoke as he concentrated on her mind. It was how he could sometimes invade her dreams. It would always work to some degree, but not always as well as he would hope. He was never sure why, maybe sometimes she resisted his intrusions, and maybe at other times she welcomed it. At least, he liked to think that. "Hide in the bushes...
Danger
!" She stopped and began looking around. Brian almost walked out of her as she did so, but he wasn't sure he would be able to keep the link if he did. "The bushes by the side of the road. Hide. Danger"

Brian watched from inside of her. It was like having a holographic image surrounding him of her that allowed him to see through her to the surrounding area. She was obviously hesitant, thinking about something as she looked around her. "Danger!
HIDE
!" he shouted.

"This is stupid," he heard her say, " but..." She walked to the side of the road and crouched in some nearby brush.

Brian stepped out of her and looked at her hiding place. It might work, he thought, but a little more help couldn't hurt. He concentrated as he focused his will at the ground as he had done in the past. A wisp of mist began to rise from the ground, and quickly began to build into a wall of thick fog that rolled out into the road and began to spread in every direction. Racing footsteps came down the road as two of the men in black suits came running down the street.

Brian looked to see if Heather was visible. The fog made it almost impossible to see her, and even with his enhanced sight he had difficulty in seeing her hiding place. His only real worry was that she would freak out about the fog and run away, apparently she heard the running footsteps as well now, for she crouched even lower as they approached.

The two slowed as they came upon the fog. Brian wasn't sure if it was because they suspected something, or if the fog was a bit unsettling. The larger stopped and lifted his wrist to face. "No sign yet, but we've encountered a thick fog." The man tapped a finger to his ear then spoke to his wrist “Roger that. They said to keep looking," he told the other man, “but keep alert, there's something strange going on." The other man nodded, then the two began to run again, passing both Brian and Heathers hiding place.

"Stay there, Heather." Brian said to the girl as he turned and followed the two men for a bit. Once he was sure she was in the clear, he returned to her and did his best to merge with her again, It was difficult, as she was smaller than he, and she was crouched quite low. "Heather, you need to take the back way to my house. Go to Brian's house, you will be safe.”

He wasn't sure what he was doing, but a thrill ran through him when he decided to tell her to go to his home. He was sure it was the right thing to do, but he still felt excited about the entire prospect. "Do you hear me? Go to Brian's home. Safety. Go to Brian's."

She stood slowly, unsteady and still hesitant, before brushing the twigs from her hair and clothes, and she vacated the bush. She looked down the way the two men had run, but it was obvious to Brian that the fog was too thick to see anything. "Go to Brian's. It's safe there."

She shook her head as if trying to clear it. "I...should to go to Brian's till I figure out what’s going on..."

He smiled as he watched her run off into the fog and into the small woods that would take her to his home. He couldn't help but wonder why he never tried this before.

Brian combed his thick dark brown hair to the side for the hundredth time. No matter what he did, the long swath of hair would drop over his right eye, covering half of his face. Well maybe not half, but it sure felt like it. He had been meaning to get more hair gel from the store, but he just hadn't bothered to get around to it lately.

"Well it can't be helped now..." he mumbled to himself. Any moment now, Heather would be bursting into his home, panicked and looking for help. A smile crept onto his face as he thought about it. Admittedly he wouldn't have dared anything like this in the past, but the current circumstances were definitely falling in his favor.

Brian took one last look into the large mirror set into his bedroom dresser. His blue jeans and black tee shirt looked clean enough, he wasn't sure why he was feeling so nervous. He never thought he would be one to have butterflies in their stomach.

Downstairs, he could hear the back kitchen door squeak as someone opened it.
Well, this is it...
he thought. He paused again to look at himself, before turning to head for the kitchen, his hair already fallen in front of his face by the time he left his room. He wasn't too sure where this was all going to lead to, but it really didn't matter. The most important thing was that he was about to get some alone time with Heather. For once, no Chuck, no school, no dreams to wake from. Nothing to interfere with them for the first time. He just hoped she wouldn't find him to boring.

"Hello?" he could hear her voice trembling from the kitchen "Brian, are you here?"

"Heather?" he walked into the almost empty kitchen. He really hadn't used it since his Mother had died six months earlier in a car accident. There really wasn't much use for it. The only thing he actually used was the refrigerator, and sometimes the table, which sat square in the center of the room. His aunt Margret provided him with all the food he needed, so cooking was not a necessity for him, though he did like the taste of some food still, mostly memories from his past when he was younger.

"Heather, what are you doing here?" He asked, as he reached out for her with his right hand.

Heather paused as is if considering his words for the first time, the look of confusion crossing her face. "I..I don't know." She paused, and looked back out the way she had come in. The door still standing wide open.

Brian could see cuts along her arms where branches had obviously scratched her as she hurried to the safety of his house, and a smudge or two of dirt lined her beautiful face. "Come here and sit down for a second. You're safe now." He laid his hands on her shoulders and turned her away from the open door. Her eyes locked onto it longingly, until he turned her full away from it. After he sat her on one of the few chairs around the lone table, he quickly turned and closed the door she had been looking out, locking it as he did so.

"You're safe, Heather, tell me what happened to you." Pulling the last chair in the room away from the table and placing it in front of her he sat and looked intently into her eyes and waited for her answer.

"I'm not sure..." She hesitated. "Some men were following me and I hid, and this fog came from nowhere, and...and..." She stopped and swallowed, pausing for a second.

"Go on," he said, to get her talking again.

" I'm sorry... I should be going home. I'm not sure what I was thinking." She began to stand.

"Wait a second, Heather!" Brian stood and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes as he caught her attention. "You obviously felt you would be safe here, and you know what? You were right. Nothing's going to happen to you here. Now, catch your breath and relax a moment." Before she could respond, he pulled her stiff form to his chest and embraced her tightly, whispering into her ear that everything was going to be alright. She pushed against him trying to pull away, but he had her off balance, making it difficult to easily do so. "Relax, I'll walk you home in a bit," he said. He felt her body relax as he spoke the words, and he patted and rubbed her back, telling her everything was going to be alright.

He couldn't believe he was so close to her, that he could feel her body tightly against him. He could feel every breath she took as it caused her chest to rise and fall against his stomach. He never thought anything could feel this good, or ever would again. He wished he could make it go on forever, but he knew it wouldn't if he didn't get her talking to him about the night's events.

"Now, tell me what happened, and then I'm taking you home." He helped her sit back down on her chair, then he quickly sat himself in front of her on his own chair.

"Ahm...Chuck and some friends were having a party at the old Warren's place." She wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing some of the smudges on her face even more. He couldn't help but think how cute she was, doing that. No one else could smear dirt on their face and somehow look good doing it like she could. "Then, I decided I was bored and left for home" It was a good thing he had witnessed the whole event firsthand, as somehow he had gotten so lost in watching her that he missed part of what she said.

"Then these two men came out of nowhere as if they were looking for me, and I hid in some bushes until they were gone." She looked around the room for a second. "Can I have a drink of something?"

Brian nodded and got up and walked to the fridge. He wasn't surprised to find nothing but I.V. bags filled with blood. He was really hoping something was left from when his mother was alive, or maybe something his aunt might have left for herself.

"How about some water? I haven't done much shopping here lately." He opened a cupboard door and sighed in relief to see it still filled with drinking glasses. Dusty, but still usable.

"Sure, that would be fine," she said, then continued her story. "Anyway, I was scared, I kept having this feeling like they were after me, and were really dangerous."

Brian smiled to himself remembering the scene from his perspective

"All I could think was I needed to get to Brian's house, I need to get to Brian's house. Just over and over." Brian smiled even bigger as he finished rinsing off her cup and began filling it with tap water.

The sound of cars pulling out front in the street made him look up and look out the window over the sink. Several black SUV's were stopped on both sides of the street as several men dressed in black suits and dark sunglasses converged on the house across the street from him.

"I just somehow knew..." she was saying

"Heather, come here."

"What?"

"Are those the men outside?"

"What?" She jumped up. "Outside? Here?"

"I think you need to see this." Brian watched as the men produced a hand-held battering ram and knocked the front door on the other house open then surged inside, as several others stood around in the yard looking about as if on watch duty.

"That's my house! What are they doing?" She all but hollered. He knew very well it was her house, he had been living across from her for several years now, he wasn't stupid.

"Lower your voice or they might hear you." He tried telling her unsuccessfully.

"Mama, Daddy..." she started to turn to run toward his front door. He glanced out the window before he turned to grab her, he saw in that brief second two figures in various states of undress, with black hoods over their heads being dragged from their home, each between two men simultaneously supporting and dragging them.

"Heather,
no
, you can't." He grabbed her and began to turn her back toward him.