Never the Lone Moon

Chapter - 6

Norri

“We meet again?” he said.

“Um… I think I gotta go.” I pointed towards the other side of the lane.

He smirked. “Not so fast. How did you end up here?”

“I was walking down the lane, and I just wanted to look around.” I waved my hand in the air.

He slowly nodded, and his eyes looked confused. “Let me show you the way out, then.”

“I think— Oh, you’re not asking.”

He started walking without even looking back, so I just followed him. It was so quiet you could hear the leaves crunching beneath our feet, and it was awkward, so I wanted to start a conversation. Moreover, I hadn’t even thanked him for saving me.

“Oh my god, I totally forgot even to thank you for the other night.”

He tilted his head. “Why were they chasing you that day?” he asked.

I was stumbling to come up with an excuse and what to tell him, but he said something.

“Just some rogues? Out of control?”

I nodded. “Yes.” I didn’t want to continue this conversation, but I had to ask him.

“What were you doing there at that hour?”

His confused look turned into a stoic one. “I heard someone screaming, so I went to help.”

I slowly nodded my head. “You totally got it.”

As we were walking down the path, I tilted my head, and something caught my eye. It was my father’s last name carved into a big stone. I wanted to check it, but I didn’t want to blow my cover, so I decided to look for it later.

“Do you live here?” I asked out of nowhere.

He sighed. “I used to.”

“What were you doing in Portland a few days ago?” I asked him because I wanted to know if it was all a coincidence or if he was waiting for his turn to kill me.

“Work.”

Only that one word came out of him. I didn’t know if he was lying or just telling the truth.

“Do you believe in supernatural beings, Elenor?”

He stopped in his tracks.

“Um…” I didn’t know if I should run now or just act normal before I got killed right here. “I didn’t tell you my name.”

He looked at me like he was studying my every emotion. “I heard it that day when that guy picked you up.”

I shook my head. “Yeah, that day, but you disappeared all of a sudden.”

“I am—” His mouth shut, and he pulled me to the side. His hands were resting on my back and around my waist, but his gaze was set behind me. I was standing there like a heart-beating statue when a shot flew past my ear and made it bleed.

“Those bastards dared to show their faces here,” he grunted. “Stay here. They are around.” He grabbed my hand and led me down the lane when we heard another shot that went right through his shoulder. That didn’t stop him.

He broke the chains on some family crypt. “Stay in here. Don’t come out till I say so.”

His tone didn’t even seem rushed. He was so calm, and that made my heartbeat return to normal and calmed me down.

I nodded.

As soon as he closed the doors, I heard someone. I looked through the gap in the door; they were them—the guys in black jackets with the engravings on their pockets.

He was facing them and twisted their heads in one go. They didn’t even get a chance.

I opened the door slowly. The minute I stepped out, another bullet flew through his chest, and several of them were shot by another one of the guys who was with them.

I saw the blood running down his body and hitting the ground, but he stood there with bloody moon eyes. I grabbed the broken wood near me and plunged it into the guy who came at me before he could kill me.

His blood splattered all over my face when his head hit the ground.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched him standing behind the guy I attacked. He was standing still, looking at me without a scar on his body. If he was human, he must have been dead by now. I saw him getting shot several times, but here he was, standing in front of me.

“What are you?” were the words I said in my shaky voice.

“Not that you care. Did you kill him?” he asked.

Now that he mentioned that, I remembered something, something that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Tears started to well up in my eyes, and when I realised what I had done, everything in me started to scream at me all at once. “Oh, my god.” I saw my bloody hands. It was all over my hands, the crimson drops falling onto the ground. It started to remind me of what Alaric said: you had to kill someone to turn into a wolf.

“No, no, no. This is not how it’s supposed to be.” I was pacing back and forth.

“Hey, hey, listen. It is fine. You don’t have to feel guilty.” I looked him in the eye when he said that.

“But I killed someone.” I didn’t know if it was guilt or the fact that I was going to turn into a monster. I didn’t know what was going on in my head, but it was not supposed to be like this.

“Hey.” He stopped me. “Look, it’s not your fault. Trust me, I was the one who killed him, not you.”

I looked at him. “What are you? Were they here for you or for me? How did you not get hurt? Are you a werewolf?”

His brows furrowed. “I am not. Trust me, I am not.”

“Then are you one of them?

Vampire?”

He let go of me. “Do you really want to know?”