Burning the Alpha

CHAPTER THREE

He called himself River.

A fitting enough nomenclature, given his particular talents.

He was fully steaming as I walked through the door.

"What took you so long?" He asked, rushing towards me like he was going to body-slam me or something, but stopping short, fists balled, and standing at his full height in-front of me.

"What are you talking about?" I checked the clock. "It's 7pm. Just like last night. And the night before. What's going on?"

"Who's Shaun McCallum?" He opened his fists, just to clench them back up again.

"Excuse me?" I felt my own temper start to flare up. "And how do you know that name?"

"I monitor what's mine." He shrugged, crossing his arms. "It shouldn't surprise you that I follow your search history."

"'Follow'. My..." I paused. How had my life come to this? "I think I'll sleep alone tonight."

"Alone?" It was his turn to pause. "What do you mean 'alone'? We don't sleep alone. How can we propegate the species alone?"

"We've been trying for the last seven years, with no success. Maybe we're meant to die out, after all."

I don't want to go into details about how I ended up in bed with River that night. I don't really want to go into details about how I ended up with him at all, but it's the lesser of two evils.

This moment had been about a decade in the making. I'd known he existed for centuries. In hindsight, I wish I'd paid more attention to his pattern of behaviour, but I guess hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

You've probably guessed it by now. If we were to call me a fire nymph, it would be fair to refer to River as a water nymph. I've met a few of his kind before, but none of them have met others like me.

But I digress. I had a centuries old habit of keeping to myself, but every now and then, my path had crossed with an ever-growing number of fellow immortals. River was, of course, amoung this number.

He had been kind enough at first, clever - I may even go so far as to say interesting. He tended to change intimate partners every hundred or so years, but I'd thought nothing of it. The thought of another ninety years of this made me shiver, I don't know how the others had lasted so long.

His arm was hanging over me. I wriggled out from under it and walked over to the balcony. I took out my little zippo lighter and lit the flame, taking it into my hand and making it grow and shrink, like a beating heart.

"We should breed, so your species doesn't die out with you." He had told me, jokingly at first. He had just parted ways with our mutual acquaintance, Rosa, and I was just starting to notice how very alone I was in the world. The timing was perfect.

It had started slowly. He thought it was funny how my skin would sizzle when he dropped water on me. He liked to know where I was at all times, because he cared about me, because he missed me.

It seems so obvious now, but it hadn't occured to me how true it was that fire and water don't mix. I had learned how incredibly important it was to control my destructive capabilities, to keep from doing great harm and damage. I had been under the illusion that I was the most destructivd force on Earth. It hadn't occured to me how helpless I was against water, until River made it abundantly clear.

I was at the point now where I was holding out hope that it wouldn't work. What a terrible thing, to bring another living being into the situation I had found myself in.

My thoughts drifted back to the werewolf. Could he help me? It seemed cruel to bring him into my drama. I also didn't know enough about his capabilities have any faith in him.

Up on that balcony, flames pulsing in my hands, I resolved to learn more about this new creature. Maybe he could be the answer I'd been looking for.