Anticipating, Chapter 3

(Godric’s POV from their initial encounter)

Godric thought the shuddery face this Cara made was the most adorable he’d ever seen. He blinked and shook his head, wondering where that errant thought had come from.

The stench of wet Were was excruciatingly strong and the blood leaking from them onto the pavement in the dark alley didn’t help. “Four Weres is not a coincidence,” he growled to himself as he surveyed the scene.

“How did the Weres even know where my child would be to attack her in the first place?” The moon was not full, and the cold, stormy weather was not inviting for an evening excursion, even to filthy Weres.

“Were they lying in wait for her?” he wondered. He had felt her fear and anger, and then her pain, through the maker/child bond. His own mission that night had been instantly forgotten in his rush to reach his child. If this human, this Cara, had not happened along when she did, Isabel would most certainly have met her final death.

Quietly he ordered Gervaise to contact the nest and inform them of this situation.

As his blood healed his child’s many wounds, his worry for her began to abate enough to allow himself to focus on her savior. Now he could marvel at this fascinating human woman.

She was shorter than his own 5’11” by several inches. Her long dark hair was up in some sort of loose knot at the back of her head. Her dark jeans and too-large red thermal shirt were smeared with a few blood stains. The dark eyes in her sweet, soft face held intelligence and secrets both, yet her plump lips held the memory of humor. The slight blush on her cheeks suggested either wind exposure or innocence. He could not understand where she found her inordinate courage, though.

“You were alone when you came upon four Weres attacking my child, and yet you still…?” His incredulity was obvious.

“Well, yeah”, answered the woman, surprise evident at his question. “There’s no way I could just let them…I couldn’t just let them attack her like that.” Her anger and disgust at the Weres was palpable.

Although he could understand the outrage on her beautiful face, Godric felt an unexpected tinge of angry concern toward this Cara for purposefully endangering her own life in such a fool-hardy way. He knew exactly how vicious Weres could be.

“Cara, I am in your debt for saving my child’s life, but you realize that such courage could very easily have gotten you killed!” He was torn between gratitude for her actions and outrage that she would put herself in such danger. Such oddly mixed emotions were confusing to his ancient heart.

“There was no way I could let them do that to her! As scared as I was, I can’t imagine how she must have felt. I’m really glad the other two ran away.” Her quiet voice trailed off as if she were finally understanding just how dangerous the situation truly had been.  She shivered in the cool night air, but did not move toward her bloody jacket.

Godric looked toward the entrance to the alley when he heard Scott’s return. “Were you able to track them?”

“I followed them to a house five blocks over,” the blond vampire quickly reported. “Looks like there’s a pack holed up in there but I couldn’t tell how many.” Scott surveyed the scene again, then turned to look at Cara and demanded, “How did you manage to fell two full-grown Weres?”

Godric did not appreciate the tone Scott used with the woman, but was also curious as to how this small, thin woman managed to incapacitate two such large animals. He glared a warning at the blond-haired vampire then turned his piercing gaze back to Cara.

“Surprise. That’s got be how I did it, honestly. I had my pen in my hand from being in the store and when I got to the first…Were?” she glanced over at Godric for confirmation. “I just jabbed him in the neck before he could get to me. The other one turned around at the noise and I freaked at his glowing yellow eyes. It’s like my hand just automatically moved to stab him…” she grimaced, obviously remembering the disgusting situation, “…there.”

Godric noticed that she shivered again, and glanced over at her blood-stained jacket as she drew a set of keys from her purse. The temperature had dropped since the rains had stopped, and the human was undoubtedly suffering the after-effects of her battle and needed to go to her home. While he felt an odd urge to see this human safely home himself, he knew his child still needed his presence. He would command his Third with this task.

“Gervaise, see Cara safely to her home. I don’t trust Weres. Cara,” he paused, enchanted by her deep brown eyes, the delicate arch to her brows, the rosy plump lusciousness of her bottom lip…, “I owe you a blood-debt for saving my child’s life. I would speak with you more, but later and under better conditions. Gervaise will see you to your home.”

The wind suddenly changed direction.

Godric’s eyes widened slightly, his nostrils flared. He barely kept from dropping his fangs as he caught her uniquely intoxicating scent. He unconsciously rose and moved slowly toward her. His dead heart would have stopped if it still held a beat.

“She is mine.”

Three sets of shocked vampire eyes immediately turned to him at his claim made too softly for human ears to notice. All three stunned vampires nodded imperceptively. When Godric issued a declaration, no one would dare challenge him.

He never claimed a human. Ever. He knew his actions were very much out of character, but…she was his. SHE WAS HIS. He didn’t know how he knew this; he just did. He knew this as surely as he knew he could not enter the sunlight…as surely as he knew how to feed. She was his as surely as he was hers.

“If you will allow me, I would visit with you at first dark tomorrow,” he said softly as he attempted to cover his small lapse in conversation. His hand lifted to brush a few strands of her dark hair away from her cheek, the pink warmth of her skin inviting his caress like a magnet. His fingertips lingered for a few precious moments before he reluctantly lowered his hand.

Cara started at the contact, and shivered a bit, but didn’t back away. Her eyes flew to his as a sweet blush darkened her cheeks. Her rosy lips parted as she started to speak, but she changed her mind, cleared her throat, and simply nodded instead. A small smile graced her lips before she shyly lowered her gaze and ducked her head.

She turned and retrieved her purse and shopping bag before saying good-bye to Isabel and wishing her a quick recovery.

The ancient vampire simply stood and stared as Cara and Gervaise walked toward the store’s parking lot. In a highly-unusual state of confusion, he could not decide what to consider first. Never in his over 2000 years of existence had he felt anything like this. It was disconcerting to say the least.

He was not familiar with feeling…anything, really. While he was certainly familiar with experiencing the concepts of anger, loyalty, patience, secrecy, planning, timing, satisfaction from a good feed or, although not recently, a good fuck, the things he was feeling? sensing? with this Cara were completely new. Intriguing. Curious. Exciting. Faintly terrifying. Definitely addictive. Confounding, mostly. The whirlwind in his normally-placid, well-ordered mind unsettled him greatly.

Though he relished his thoughts of Cara rather more than he knew he should.

Cara… so impulsively brave yet so oddly shy.

Shaking his head, he turned to his child, picked her up in his arms, and sped toward his nest with Scott. He would see to his child’s comfort and then he would surely ponder these recent events.

And then he would plan.

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*I’m sorry this chapter is so short, but Godric refused to say anything else to me. I imagine he’s uncharacteristicallyskulking around in his nest, becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the state of his undeath, planning, plotting, and perhaps even nightdreaming about…things.*

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Next to:  Chapter 4

Back to:  Chapter 2

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