The First Touch (35 page)

The sheer strength of Ivan at that moment sent waves of pleasure through her.
He was such a good man, strong and honorable, and freaking gorgeous.
She shook her head no,
Ivan was not the one for her
, Helen loved him and they were sleeping together. Ivan was fulfilling a promise, one that he had made to a sca
red girl
,
who had saved his life
once
. O
ne that he had indeed fulfilled,
just as he said he would
,
and now he was free of it. When she saw him again it would be different, he would be different. She frowned at that thought,
he
would be different. She knew that she did not want to see that
, that other Ivan
, who was in love with another woman
.

The thought sent a cringe through her as she tried to pull from the images that she had s
tored away of Ivan
.
What would he
be like when they met again, n
othing seemed to fit though, except
the
one that had stuck in
Drake
’s
mind.
Ivan
’s crazed gaze
as he lost control
. T
hat would keep her from doubting herself, for a very long time
.

If he caught up to her,
it would be torture, just attempting to defend
herself
from him. She shuddered at that thought, and not
for the same reason as before.
Yes
,
t
hat alone
,
was enough to deter her from ever wanting to see him again. The thought of someone that she loved trying to hurt her
,
made her heart hurt even more, than it already did.

She had to do everything in moderation now, her body was still changing and she had to constantly focus on staying calm. Otherwise
,
her eyes would change back and she was pretty sure that she would have to kill
all of the men on the boat
. That
would also mean
that the council and its guards were going to know which route she took and where
to start their search
.
S
he just wanted to disappear, let Ivan and the others go on living the way that they were meant to,
without
her
.

Run

The wind blew hard on their backs as the boat finally reached its destination. Autumn watched another storm system approached fast and hard,
and
within minutes it
was at their heels. The men on
board
this new ship
seemed particularly concerned by the
current turn of events appearing
exceptionally boisterous when they spotted the docks. Soon afterwards
,
the rains had overcome them and the misery in their faces set in.

In spite of the weathe
r though, lightening quick, she
watched as the boat hands jumped to the docks tugging hard against the pull of the current. T
he men struggled for quite some time,
as wet lines and wet feet slid on
to
the
wooden do
ck
s
. Minutes later
,
they had finally secured the boat enough to allow
Autumn
and the other passenger
s on
board to disembark
safely
.

The hope and desperation that flooded her was instantaneous. Where would she go now? She knew that she needed to get away but to where? The craggy ro
cks of the shore and water
slammed violently into them
, bringing
a flash of Gregory’s face to her mind. His blood shot eyes and heaving breath so close to her face, so hot and sick. She closed her eyes against the memory. Then she took a deep breath in of the rain laden air, it helped to chase away the unpleasant thou
ghts. She struggled against her
self to stop the change for the twentieth time that day.

The rain would help to mask her s
c
ent, or so she had hoped that was how it worked. The island was at least a six day boat ride from there. She
had changed her mind as she grew
closer to the shore on the cargo ship that she started on
,
and began switching boats so often that she didn’t even remember the name of the vessel that she had just ridden. Just that this one was a passenger ship that headed north. She loo
ked back at the boat and could no
t even make it out in the rain; it was coming down so hard now. But since she had not seen a single vessel or mention of one, since she left the island, she was hopeful that she had made the right choices in travel. Though to be honest she was not even sure if she needed to be careful.

The storm clouds turned the sky nearly pitch black and thunder could be heard in the distance. As it closed in
,
people cleared the streets in fear
,
and the vision snuck back into her mind again. The look of satisfaction on Gregory’s face when he had seen her reaction to the words, “He will not be coming for you
,”
was unforgettable. He knew what he was doing and he knew exactly how to manipulate others. Autumn had thought a
bout it for
a
while
. Gregory needed to pay for what he had
almost
done. Once she knew no one was following her, she intended on tracking him down and killing him
, plain and simple
.

First
,
she needed to help her newest allies, by running away from them. She was sure
that she had made the right decision to leave the boat and avoid the island.
She could not bear to watch Ivan be killed, because she wanted to be close to him.
Her mind jumped
,
flashing
to another sore topic. It was strange and
painful for her; he had seemed so loving when he had kissed her. She s
mirked bitterly and then huffed
, her hormones where getting the better of her. She needed to focus on evasion
and keeping hidden
,
not being captured
by her vessel maker, or whatever he was to her now
.

The rain begin coming down in sheets as she reached a sign for an Inn in the small town. Soon after bedding down for the night
,
Autumn
laid down trying with all of her might to stay calm. She pushed the negative thoughts that threatened to bring out the
darkness
that lay inside her, f
eel
ing
it shifting inside her body
,
restlessly waiting to be released. She finally closed her eyes
, and
slept hard and long
,
awaking the next morning when the maid came in to service the room.

She
dressed quickly and headed straight out of the t
own. Then she took out the compass
that Travis had given her and headed north. Ultimately
,
she hoped to travel north until she felt safe enough to settle down for longer than a night. Then she would make longer term decisions, once her head had c
leared and she could no
t feel this annoying
pain
any longer.

That was as close as she could get to a plan
,
as
her mind
,
was
mostly preoccupied with keeping her darkness at bay. Days and then weeks pasted and slowly her anxiety of being followed began to fade. She had felt her body weaken as the time
passed,
since
the since
she had first fed became longer and longer. The pain in her chest was also becoming stronger and stronger keeping her from sleeping now. The creature inside of her was becoming nearly unbearable and her skin began to b
ruise from the struggle with
in her chest.

It soon became obvious that she could no
t trust herself to be around anyone
else;
for fear that she would
lose
control and slaughter an entire village. Her newest idea
, for a food source,
was to attempt to put
herself
in a dangerous situation to solve her problems. She had heard that there were extremist groups that kidnapped foreigners
on the news. She had also learned that t
here were
drug runners
in the area
that killed on sight
,
to
prevent from being captured and
mo
re importantly, to keep from lo
sing their products.
Those were the kind of men who she knew she could stomach to kill.

It only took her two hours to find a road that smelled strongly of drugs and
she sat
wait
ing
for a passing vehicle. The next morning the
opportunity
presented itself. Autumn heard them long before she saw them and she was for once in her life glad that there were bad men closing in on her. She stood smack dab in the center of the road and waited for them to see her.

The truck pulled to a stop and the doors opened
swiftly, two men jumping from the truck.
She smiled sweetly and walked towards them
, wondering why her chest was not warning her of the danger that she was most certainly heading for at the moment
.
She watched as two more men pee
ked
out from the back of the truck
bed
,
one with a machete in his hand.
She swallowed, this was becoming complicated,
beheading
and burning
was definitely a possibility with these men. Still no warning signals in her head, so she
smiled and wa
ited for the men to begin to flirt
as she knew they
would. The driver was the first to grab her arm and within seconds she had convinced him to come into the woods with her
alone
.

She figured that this would b
e her safest bet since she was no
t sure just how strong she was having starved herself for so long. Also the thought of being shot was a bit unnerving especially since her skin was bruising now
. One
wrong move and she could truly be in trouble
.
Plus she had not actually felt danger since awakening with Gregory so she was uncertain if it worked with humans as it should.
The man did no
t seem to min
d the bruises and even seemed ea
ger to get started
, once she began unbuttoning her shirt
.

He smiled at her
and pushed his hand
through his greasy hair, saying
something in Spanish that sounded vulgar. She smiled and pushed him to the ground with ease ensuring his gun was
out of arms reach. Then she slid
on top of him
,
as if she planned to do the things that he undoubtedly spoke of before. Only to rip his throat out and drink
greedily from the new gaping hole in his neck just as she had seen Ivan do
to her
before. The
rest of the men were a blur,
screams and a few s
hots
fired
, but no one but the birds heard them
on the isolated road
.

They where all decapitated and drained dry without
as much as a scratch on her
much to her chagrin. She did have to go to a near by stream and wash herself off though since she was covered from head to toe in the warm red liquid. These men had tasted dirty
,
their blood undoubtedly polluted by years of misuse and in one case disease. She felt a little worried about drinking from that one but her body cleaned out the virus
, lickety-split
. Then she vomited
,
just the affected cells
,
next to the body. The newest heal
thy cells
,
stayed inside her
,
and she grew strength from them happily.
She had become one
efficient beast, it appeared.

Now that she was strong again
,
she dressed again and pulled the cargo from the back easily. Then she drove to the boarder and ditched the truck. She knew she could not go home but she also found that her mind was being drawn back to the city that she had lived
in
for so long. She wanted to see
her place again
des
perately
, and she missed her ca
t Jack. She knew that he would no
t be there but her heart still wanted to see it.