“Charlotte…” Aiden whispered.
“What?” she whispered back, still not pulling her focus away.
“Your leg.”
She realized what he meant when she smelled the familiar scent of iron and rust, and then finally the shooting pain. Blood.
The wolf crouched deep, ready to lunge. It let out one last deadly growl and leapt into the air.
Thinking fast, she swung her satchel at the animal's head, slamming into its jaw with a crunch. She opened her eyes to watch a red ribbon of blood seep from midnight fur. It lay there, whimpering and twitching, fighting with itself to get up again.
She didn't have time to think before one, large hand grabbed her shoulder, tearing her from where she stood. Aiden threw her back on the horse, in front of him this time. He whipped the reins and sent the horse hurtling again down the trail toward home, leaving the Lycan fighting for its life in the dirt.
Charlotte looked to see the crumpled shadow get up and disappear into the woods, noticing then, the bloodstain on the corner of the Anatomy on Vampires jutting out just over the top of her satchel.
Chapter Three
No Fear for the Vampire
“I will not let you go into a Vampire’s house with your leg looking like that!” Aiden insisted, as Charlotte tried desperately to wriggle out of the grasp he had on her arm. He held her tight, pulling her in the opposite direction of her house.
“I want to go home now, Aiden! Valek is not going to hurt me. I’ll be fine by the time he wakes up, anyway!” she insisted, still struggling to pull away.
“You don’t know that!”
“Yes, I do! I think I know that better than you!” She hoped the other people in the town square would hear. She wanted to embarrass him.
The two had locked the spooked horse away in the town stable and were now glaring at each other in the middle of the busy street.
“I’ll haul you over my shoulder if I have to.”
She stopped and looked at him in disgust. “Why are you crying?”
“I am not crying.” He quickly wiped at his face with his sleeve.
“You’re acting like a baby.” She sneered. “I’ve never seen Valek cry. I want to go home!” She started to tug away again.
He did as promised and threw her over his shoulder, and started walking in the other direction toward his own house. She kicked and pounded on his back with her fists.
“What are you doing? ” she demanded.
Some merchants in the area stopped and stared.
“At least let Mum fix you up before you leave,” he said, clearly not affected at all by her tantrum.
Aiden had never trusted Valek. He made it very clear how he hated Valek for sending her out nightly to hunt for him. Aiden had been there when Valek brought her home from Prague that cold night. Aiden was around when his mother took care of her when she was little. He’d been her best friend through the years, and she knew how stubborn he was. Which was why no argument she had in her arsenal would have an effect on him. He was taking her home to be stitched up by his mother, and that was final.
At last, Charlotte grew tired in her struggle and let her body go limp as he transported her through the busy town square to the Occult's residential district.
Aiden carried her up the steps to his family’s cottage on the outskirts, between the suburbs and downtown. Various picks of wildflowers and shrubs, and a rickety old fence that kept nothing out or in surrounded the house. It was merely a tool the vines used to stretch toward the sun.
He opened the front door with the hand that wasn’t holding her secure to his shoulder, and went in to find his mother in the kitchen, as usual.
The scent of cabbage and carrots filled the room. Steam from the pot made the small amount of sunlight filtering in through the windows hazy. Small doorways in the brick walls led to other parts of the house, where bedrooms for Aiden’s many brothers and sisters were. Mr. Price was probably in the forest, still working, Charlotte suspected. Aiden rarely discussed his father. Actually, she never recalled meeting him before.
Meredith Price was another Earth Elf, like Aiden, with the same autumn-colored hair, and a warm smile with gigantic laugh lines. They also shared the same soft blue eyes. The Prices previously belonged to an Irish Occult. This explained the Celtic knickknacks adorning the house, as well as their last name, which obviously wasn't native.
Meredith’s stout frame jiggled under her apron as she stirred something in a large brass pot over the black potbelly stove. She stopped when she saw her son walk through the door, Charlotte draped over his back like a hunting trophy. “Oh, Aiden! What do we have here? I think we already have enough for dinner tonight.” She laughed her hearty belly laugh.
Charlotte squirmed to peer around Aiden’s shoulder. “Hello, Mrs. Price. How are you?” She smiled politely through gritted teeth and dug her nails into Aiden’s back so he would let her down.
“Yeah, Mom. I was really hungry, so I brought back an entire cow,” he joked.
“Aiden!” Charlotte slapped his arm.
His mother burst out with another thunderous laugh. “Oh my. It's always a comedy when you two get together.” She smiled as Aiden set Charlotte down, the smile fading when her gaze fell to the gash in Charlotte’s leg. “Oh, Charlotte! What happened, dear?”
“Aiden’s horse chucked me off when we were riding, after he promised it would be safe.” Charlotte glared up at the boy, whose confident smile immediately dissipated. He looked wide-eyed at his mother. Charlotte instantly realized what she had done.
“Aiden….” Meredith’s tone heated. “Now, I told you never to take those horses out of the town stable. Those are for when you are working! And where could you possibly have been going with a horse, anyway?”
“Thanks, Charlotte.” Aiden groaned.
The realization hit his mother like a stone. She gasped. “Aiden Price! What did I tell you about leaving the Occult? It’s dangerous! Don’t you understand? What would your father say?”
“It was my fault, Mrs. Price. I’m the one that left this morning. He only came looking for me,” Charlotte confessed.
Meredith looked at Charlotte, and then at her son again. A different emotion conflicted with worry when their eyes met. The three stood looking at one another in silence. Charlotte nervously dropped her gaze to the floor, shifting off of her wounded leg. She wanted to go home now more than ever. “Excuse me, but what time is it, exactly?”
“It’s around seven o’clock, dear. The sun will be setting very soon. Just enough time to get you cleaned up and sent home without Valek ever knowing you got hurt,” said Mrs. Price. “Come on.” She waved Charlotte into the den. Aiden followed.
The Price’s den was a simple, warm room with a few bookshelves, enormous, sunken armchairs, and one small radio in the corner. One of Aiden’s little sisters played with a rag doll on the floor by the window.
“Excuse us, Molly. We have to get Charlotte cleaned up. Can you please take that into the other room?” Molly must have been around eight or nine, with blonde pigtails that hung all the way to her knees.
“Hi, Aiden!” Molly chirped, and hugged her brother before running into the next room.
“All right, dear. Now just sit here a moment while I get the medical aid,” Mrs. Price said, and bounced out of the room.