When Saturn returns to the same position in the sky as it was at the time of your birth, calamity may unfold. As above, so below. 

Saterinne Stel was born with the moniker of the malefic planet, Saturn, and an uncontrollable, unexplainable ability to perform mind control. After decades isolated in a backwater town she leaves in search of something greater.  

Cloud Fairlight isn’t having it when a Vampire suddenly drives into his heavily-warded community, Mount Valen, it’s his job as the Alpha Lycan to take care of it. The solution is simple, rip her heart out or decapitate her, but when it becomes clear she has no idea what she is and when the Wolf inside him suppresses Cloud’s killer instinct against his will before he even can, the solution isn’t simple anymore. 

After a violent awakening to the world of magick, Sat not only discovers she is a member of Vampiric ranks, but the targeted obsession of a 28,000 year old Pureblood Vampire from the Underworld. And worse yet, her unknowing return to the place of her birth has been prophesied to be the end of all things magick. 

To prevent the full activation of the prophecy, Cloud and his pack of shifters realize they can’t let her leave, whether she agrees...or not. Sat must navigate her newfound identity while held captive by an Alpha Lycan, her natural born enemy, in a high-stakes tale of enemies turned reluctant allies who can’t prevent it when it starts to become more…

SATURN RETURN is a character-driven thriller pulsing with epic stakes, scorching romance, and razor-sharp wit as it unfolds through alternating first-person perspectives that build to breathless cliffhangers.

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// = italics

~ PROLOGUE ~

SATERINNE

(Sat-er-in)

I didn’t believe for a second that these people could be my parents. Not even when my first level of awareness had popped in at age 1. Firstly, they suck. Secondly, it actually had taken me a little while to notice, but I look nothing like them—and yes, I am very aware of genetic roulette and how you can never know what will come out—these two were both blond with pallid skin and muted blue eyes. Unless Carol cheated and Jim didn’t give a fuck, it was the highly uncommon possibility that I’d come out looking mixed with medium brown skin, long, fluffy dark curls, nearly black eyes, and a bone structure neither of them possess. The third thing that really gave it away is that I asked them, and they were compelled to tell me.

Jim and Carol have had the pleasure of “getting the goods” for many years. Meaning they had the privilege of using my mysterious mind powers to live their lofty drug addicted lives without paying for rent, food, or whatever it is they’re constantly snorting. I don’t have a whole lot against them, pretty early on I’d told them to leave me be and so they did. I didn’t mind providing for them because it didn’t take much out of me and apparently, after a small interrogation—the one where I had asked them if I was adopted—they had told me that my ability to do that for them had been a part of the deal. I didn’t get many more details than that though, after a few questions I had reached a dead end. I deduced that whoever had given me to them had even greater mind powers than me because I couldn’t get them to answer anything past a very shallow point.

Anyway, here I am now. I fully stocked their fridge, their drugs, and left them a large sum of money. Before I left our tiny apartment I compelled them to not spend everything in one place and once again, to wean off the drugs. I had never been able to get those two specifically off the drugs. I had experimented with getting other people clean and it had worked. I suspect someone—whoever had given me to them—who was more highly trained had selected them for a specific reason. Or perhaps, being in close proximity to me for twenty-seven years had given them some level of immunity.

I close the door to the apartment and slide the key underneath. Someone will eventually see it, probably Carol. Despite my feelings of indifference toward them, they had been my people and I hope my suggestions will keep them safe.

I walk down the stairs with no desire to look back. I don’t plan to waste the rest of my life in this bleak town. I feel drawn by something else. 

~~~~~~~~

A small dose of light from the front door opening and then closing illuminates the dim apartment. It briefly rouses Carol from her groggy state. A thought passes through her mind before she gently drifts back to sleep on the couch: 

//Saterinne’s gone. I hope she knows how much we love her.// 

~~~~~~~~~

SATERINNE

I close my eyes and point. My index traces the paper until it feels glued to something. This is often how I make decisions, some kind of gut-mind tracing. I open my eyes and see where it is I’m going. //Mount Valen//. I’ve never heard of it and it’s far away from here, perfect. I fold up the lousy outdated map that lays flat on the hood of my car. I can’t complain though, I asked the employee at the gas station to give me the map for free which he did with glee. I couldn’t see the point in paying for it when it wasn’t even up to date, but I promise myself this will be the last time I use my Jedi mind tricks…well, maybe one of the last times.

I want to start off in my new world with a fresh slate, I’ve let the inexplicable nature of my abilities isolate me for too long. I map out a route in my mind and get back in my car. I drive for miles across the open desert. I enjoy the beauty as the terrain changes. Sometimes it’s simply cacti and desert shrubs that surround me and then the occasional sharp peaks of rock formations towering above the road. When the mountain peaks in the distance begin to look like purple outlines in the horizon and the sun has sunk far below them and the last hint of light is on its way out, I pull off into a rest area. 

I don’t manage to sleep much. My sleep schedule has always been kind of wonky, I don’t mind it but I also don’t get much sleep. After about an hour of trying to sleep but getting increasingly more frustrated and alert as a result, I decide to keep driving—its a long way anyway; if I can keep driving, I will. 

I listen to some music, then an ancient audiobook tape I manage to scrounge up, and then silence. When the day starts to break again, finally the drowsiness hits and I opt to get myself some gas and a coffee at the first large gas station for miles. I've never gone more than 15 miles from my hometown and it turns out road trips are my thing. I sip my coffee and smile. I dumped tons of cream and sugar into this cup so it would taste like coffee ice cream. I reassess my map just to make sure I’m not going the wrong direction. In the corner of my eye I see some dude walking up to me. I can see from the smug grin that he’s coming over to flirt. Great, I can use someone to clarify these directions.

I ask him about my route, he confirms I’m going the right way and then I ask him to go away. I start driving again. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if I’m simply asking someone a question or if I’ve inadvertently mind controlled them. I consider my promise still intact since my intentions were good. 

As the hours pass in my car and the elevation increases, the terrain changes. Lustrous foliage surrounds me. I’m still far from Mount Valen but I appreciate the cool air and the deciduous trees that thickly envelope the road. Late in the afternoon, I finally manage to sleep. I wake when all the light is gone and I continue driving. I’m excited because it looks like I’ll be arriving at Mount Valen in the late morning. I hope it looks as pretty as the preceding areas. 

Seven hours later I’m in Pine Valley County. I drive through some populous suburban areas and an hour later I’m driving through a small metropolis called Valen City. I’m in awe of the quaintness mixed with urban design. It’s also thrilling to know this is right next to the town called Mount Valen which I assume is a more quiet community. I grew up in a small, boring town and always hated the lack of variety in people and sights. Valen City looks enticing, if Mount Valen is on par with this I’ll have the best of both worlds. Living in a peaceful mountain village and occasionally driving down to the city.

I drive up the spiral of the mountain. Even though the elevation plaques indicate severe increase, I don’t feel disoriented because of the thick pines that mostly block the view of the deadly fall you would have if you accidentally veered. In what feels like a half-hour later, I enter Mount Valen city limits. I drive under an embossed archway that reads the town’s name. It’s bigger than the small log town I had been expecting. It mirrors the quaint appeal of the city and magnifies it, but also has a hipster art walk area that feels like a small downtown as well as there being a farmer’s market currently going. I drive around a bit, pleased that it’s more populous and aesthetic than where I’d come from, but definitely a nature spot where I can find some nice spaces to seclude myself.

I park on a cobbled street in front of Mount Valen’s tourist center and to my surprise it’s open but no one’s inside manning the place. It’s one small room that has a few trinkets, souvenirs, and brochures in a wall-mounted plastic bin. I hesitantly grab the brochure. I assume everything must be free and I’m grateful I don’t have to interact with anyone yet. Now that I’m in town I need to firmly remind myself this is a new start. No Carol, no Jim, no running into decades-old schoolmates at the supermarket and commanding them to pretend they didn’t see me.

I need to somehow become everything I’m not. The me before was miserable. I need to be around new elements so I don’t fall into the same ruts. Being in a new town, new environment, with new people will no doubt prevent me from falling into autopilot. 

I wait around for about 7 minutes before I get the point that this is a self-serve kiosk and I can just take the brochure in peace. I flit through it and it turns out this place only has one lodging, the Valen-Pine Inn, and apparently it’s a pun because it says this bed and breakfast is primarily used by locals for special occasions…The picture beneath the factoid blurb is a Victorian home. I seriously hope they have a room available because looking at it I can’t imagine it having more than four bedrooms.

I navigate to it and park in the small parking area between the side of the house and the shrouds of trees of the forest that are nearly swallowing this place. There’s only one other car in the lot which I take as a good sign. I walk around to the front and pass through a blooming garden. The air is crisp with just a touch of moisture, it must rain a decent amount for these flowers to be so happy. I almost want to linger with the fragrance but I make myself walk up the stairs and stand on the decked out porch. The door looks closed but after a hesitant, gentle knock, the door all but swings open. 

I half expect someone to be on the other side but it just seems that wind had taken control of the door. I take a step in and to the right is a front desk that no one is manning, yet again. I take it this town doesn’t get many visitors and has some serious trust. I bet the locals all leave their doors unlocked, too. 

I walk a little past the desk and there is a cozy lounge area with a fireplace. There are fresh flowers in vases perched everywhere. The sun beautifully streams in through a slanted skylight and I’m surprised by how much makes it through the thick tree-line. 

I wasn’t exactly silent walking in. The black boots I wear, clunking against the wooden floorboards, made quite the entrance, but no one comes. I doubt it’s like the tourist center here though, I’m sure I can’t take the room key hanging from the wall and just settle in and expect breakfast to pop into my lap tomorrow. I look at the bell on the front desk and bite my lip. I don’t want to ring a bell on someone but I’m sure it’ll be shocking if they run into me in ten minutes and I’m just standing here. I ring the bell.

After a half a beat I hear some creaking from up above. “Suzanne, that you?”

Suzanne? Perhaps Suzanne is the mailman. “Uh, no, not Suzanne,” Whoever I’m speaking to is making their way down the stairs next to the front desk, “I’m here to book a room for a few nights.”

When a woman in her mid-forties with a straw-colored blonde bob wearing a big T-shirt and pajama pants makes it down the stairs she looks shocked, like I hadn’t just alerted her in two ways that I had entered the Inn. “How did you find this place?”

Oh shit, have I accidentally walked into someone’s house? Wait, why the front desk then—and the sign? “I, uh, found it via the town’s brochure.” I wave the pamphlet in my hand. 

She stares at it for a long moment with a blank stare I can’t read and then when she suddenly smiles, the shift is so unnatural that I nearly feel as shaken as she had looked just a moment before. “Oh yes, I apologize, I thought the other housekeeper came here on her day off.” She laughs off the weirdness, “I’m Isabelle, I run the bed and breakfast, you’ll have to excuse me,” she points to her attire, “it’s rare we have guests in the off season.”

I try one of my disarming smiles, but squash it down when I remember that charm tends to be an extension of my powers. “No it’s fine, really—yeah, the brochure mentioned the Inn was primarily used by locals.”

There is the slightest beat before she replies, I don’t miss it, “Yes, well our town isn’t much of a tourist attraction.” She wraps herself nervously around to the other side of the desk. I am used to people being intimidated by my presence so I don’t read much into it. Although, I’m unsure how I hadn’t noticed when I walked in here but the computer she’s using looks like it came straight out of the year 2000. I can’t see the screen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were some analog box. Do they use dialup here too?

“Okay, let’s see. We have a few options. At this time of year, our Monarch Suite is 550 and our regular rooms are 250 per night. How long would you like to book?” She glances up at me and awaits my response.

I look like I’m thinking about how long I’d like to stay but really I’m thinking about how overpriced this is and how it’s the only option in town. I nibble the inside of my lip, the urge to tell her to let me stay for free tugs at me, cooing for me to do the easy thing, but then the promise I made for a fresh start without compelling people to do what I want nags even louder. I just started, I can’t break right now and I can’t keep saying next time, but when I think about how much cash I have on me, staying for three nights will have me broke and then I’ll //really// have to use my powers to get some money. I can’t be stupid. What I can do for now, before I get a job, is compromise.

“I’d like to stay three nights, please,” I clear my throat, “and could you give me, say, a fifty percent discount?” My voice comes out in that sultry siren’s song. Half off for compromise’s sake.

Isabelle nods silently and then taps something into the old computer. “Alright, that will be 375 for three nights.” 

I pull out some cash from the pocket of my black jeans and pay her. My conscience feels clear having at least paid half. Maybe I’ll pay her back in some way once I get a job.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the girl leaves to fetch her things from her car, Isabelle knows she has only about a minute before her return. She scrambles her way up the stairs in a mad dash and grabs the phone attached to the wall at the end of the hall. Shakily she dials a number; struggling like she is in a nightmare and pressing the numbers correctly is next to impossible while the adrenaline is pumping.

“What is it?” A male voice answers.

“Cloud, we have a problem.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SATERINNE

Isabelle led me up to my room and told me what time she’d have breakfast ready for me in the morning. I didn’t bother asking her about WiFi because I highly doubted she had it and because I currently have no electronic devices on me. My phone had broken a week prior to leaving, hence my decision to go old school with the map. I kind of enjoy being free without technology buzzing all around me, but I’ll buy myself a phone and laptop soon enough.

After entering I can see why this is 250 per night. Spacious room, boudoir and all, with a four-poster, canopy, king-sized bed. It looks like a romantic Parisian dream that includes a large window with a beautiful view into the forest. There is antiquity but I can see that this place gets regular renovations because nothing looks grimy or overused.

I wash up in a modern shower and take off my clothes. I look over the brochure to see what attractions the town has to offer but it’s so bare-bones I wonder why they even have a brochure. I'll just ask Isabelle about the town tomorrow at breakfast. Even though it’s just past noon, I find myself nodding off. After my long and relatively  sleepless drive, I can’t resist following the cue. 

~~~~~~~~~~

I’m kind of surprised that I wake up and it’s the next day. I had only expected to nod off for a few hours, but the king-sized bed, although unnecessarily large, was comfy and the canopy that draped all around the bed had swaddled me like a baby in the womb. I wake up at 7ish, about an hour before breakfast.

Upon entering the town nothing had been a deal breaker. I had told myself I would choose a place and go there for spontaneity’s sake and if I ended up somewhere lackluster I wasn’t going to subject myself to it by settling down, but Mount Valen is definitely not that. Every sight I’ve seen thus far has been beautiful, the air is crisp and pure, and it’s integrated with nature while having the option nearby for a city escape. Plus, my senses are usually right, something had magnetized me to this place on the map and it’s no surprise that I’m already starting to dig this place. 

Given that I’m pretty much already set on making this place home, at least temporarily, I figure I should start looking for a job and a place to live ASAP. Budgeting in three days at a bed and breakfast means I don’t really have much time to get things in motion. Since this is a small town that doesn’t boast much in the brochure, I think the tourist stuff will be done with fairly quickly, I assume real estate will take a lot more time, especially if I don’t use my powers.

I reach into my duffle bag and put on a flowing black thin-strapped dress. This is my go-to outfit because it always manages to look seasonal, casual, slightly formal, and sexy at the same time. Since it’s cooler up here in the mountains I pull on some tights underneath, slide on my black lace-up boots, and put on my coat. I don’t have many clothes with me, but the ones I have are fabulous. I gently style my thick, spiraling hair which has gotten frizzier from sleeping deeply and moving wildly over night and put an invisible touch of makeup on to accentuate my dark eyes. 

By the time I’m done getting ready I can smell breakfast and it’s 8 o’clock. There’s a giddy feeling inside me that I don’t think I’ve ever felt. I don’t know why I hadn’t hit the road years ago. I guess I needed the unbearable pressure of perpetual boredom and purposelessness to finally weigh me down into existential dread before I decided that I deserve something different. As I walk down the stairs to the kitchen I can’t keep the smile off of my face. 

“Good morning,” Isabelle chimes over her shoulder. The kitchen looks like something from a magazine. Whatever she’s cooking smells amazing. I echo her greeting.

“How did you sleep?”

“Long.” I say through a laugh, “It was entirely needed.”

“I’ll bet. Where did you drive in from?” She turns around and begins moving whatever was in a pot onto a plate and then brings it over to a table. She motions me to sit.

“I’m from a small town you’ve probably never heard of, it’s a few days east of here.” My plate has eggs, sausage, a tomato-veggie stir-fry, and a side of seasonal fruit. 

She crosses her arms playfully and stands legs apart, “Try me.”

I shrug, “It’s called Bixby, it’s mostly known to people in the area for its paper factory and the unfortunate smell that comes with it. I was lucky to not live too close.”

Isabelle smiles, “I can’t say I’ve heard of it, but then again, not many people know about Mount Valen either, we don’t get many tourists. My, how does one end up from one unknown town to another?”

I look down at my plate not sure how to really answer. Part of me instinctually wants to command her to forget about it, I’ll sound like I’m going through a mental crisis (though not wrong) if I tell her I just closed my eyes and pointed on a map, but the other part of me that’s aching to be different urges me to just answer the question as normally as I possibly can. “I, uh, wanted something different, something new. I was…itching for change I suppose, so I just chose a destination at random and I felt like this was the right place.”

“At random?” She ponders. “How exactly?”

She’s awfully curious, but perhaps this is how people maintain flow in small talk when you’re not telling them to go away, “Just on a map.”

She nods in a bit of awe, “That’s an adventurous spirit right there.”

I smile, “Speaking of adventure. Do you have any recommendations for what to do around here?”

“Oh yes of course, I was hoping you’d ask. Let’s see,” She folds her apron, “Well, the first thing I’d recommend is going to our local bookstore. Beautiful place and they give you a free book on your first purchase. I say it’s always great to start the day with a gift. After that it’s always a pleasure to walk around town but you can also go to the lake in the afternoon and there are some fun activities around there as well.”

It makes sense that there would be more outdoorsy activities around here. “Are there any good hikes?”

She thinks for a moment, “There are a few small ones that border the town, I would stick to those. I wouldn’t recommend going too deep into the forest this time of year. Too much wildlife.”

Isabelle leaves me to finish my breakfast and think about bear attacks. As far as I know I’m not capable of telling a mountain lion not to eat me. Her suggestion make me feel like even the nearby hikes are potentially hazardous, but I can’t live in fear and I feel like hiking is probably a worthwhile activity. No doubt they sell bear spray around here. 

When I finish, I’m all set to head out. Isabelle reminds me to stop by the bookstore. She’s insistent on it. Perhaps she can sense that I’m a bibliophile or something, so I decide to take her suggestion and head there first. I leave my car parked at the inn. It’s a little ways away from the town center but this is a completely walkable town and I can honestly do without being in my car for a while.

I walk on a wide dirt road lined with glittering poplar trees that have done well in the alpine weather. It only takes about five minutes before I’m entering a street full of shops. The streets are mostly empty and it’s mostly shopkeepers setting up their storefronts, displaying their handmade soaps and such. The sky is cloudy but the sun peaking through provides a touch of warmth that prevents the place from being straight up cold. 

I find the bookstore pretty easily. In front of the glass display is a table with a neat collection of books and a chalk sign that writes, //Free Books for the Fairlight Fest!// I seriously hope that the festival is coming up and not already passed. The sign on the wooden door with a large baroque transom says “open” so I enter.

Like everything in Mount Valen so far, no one is manning anything. The bells clink together at the top of the door and let out a ring when I walk in but not a person comes with it. Isabelle was right, the bookstore //is// magical. Beautiful dark wood furnishings and a carved spiral staircase that goes to a loft-style second floor that wraps around the store. I dawdle around the display tables looking at the new speculative releases and then I head over to some classic sci-fi. I pick up a book and start flipping through it. I figure again that I should wait for someone to come before I walk between the bookcases over to the left.

“Hello,” I try. How am I supposed to pay for a book if no one’s here and apparently the bell is not audible? These establishments are starting to make me feel like I’m constantly breaking and entering. Maybe it won’t be difficult to get a job here, there seems to be an overall employee shortage.

I set the book down and then a young woman who looks my age comes rushing in from some backroom behind a bookcase, sees me and has a slightly more reserved look of surprise than Isabelle did when I came to her inn. “Oh hi!” she says perkily, but her brow is knit together. “Anything I can help you with?”

“Not at the moment, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one in here.”

She laughs, “Sorry about that, we usually don’t have customers in so early during the weekdays. Please, let me know if you have any questions.”

“Alright, thanks.” I smile. She stays parked behind the front desk and now I feel a little weird that she’s being so attentive just for me.

I take the book I’m holding with me and move over to browse through the stacks out of sight of her. I immediately find the fourth book in a sci-fi/fantasy series I’ve been reading and I’m pleased that they have it in stock when I couldn’t even find it at the last chain bookstore I went to. I take two books because of the thing Isabelle told me about. I’m going up there fully expecting to pay though, I don’t want to come off as presumptuous. 

Being in between the bookshelves is like a warm hug I don’t want to pull away from, Isabelle had been right about this being a great place to start my day; however, I don’t want to linger too long because now that the girl has stationed herself behind the front counter unmoving, I suspect she won’t budge until I leave.

I walk to the dark wood counter and a thought comes to mind, “Say, are you guys hiring by any chance?”

Up close I can see the young woman is pretty. Her wavy blonde hair is clipped with a barrette and she’s wearing a cute poncho. Given that she’s in my age range, being friends with her and working here might help open me up to the town—wait, is this how normal people think? I’m not used to making friends or being a member of a community. Even when I’m not actively/consciously using my powers, people are normally just magnetically drawn to me and I usually try to bat them off. I can’t say that’s not still happening, but my attempts to restrain whatever it is that I ooze and trying to build a life via natural means is a foreign feeling.

She looks puzzled, “Oh, um, uh—I don’t think—you know I’m not sure. Let me go ask my boss.” She turns and rushes away like she rushed in.

I set my two books on the counter and while I wait I walk over to the turnstile and entertain myself with the postcards, plushies, and magnets. A few moments later I hear steps that come in and stop and I turn my head.

It’s my turn to be a little surprised but unlike the townspeople, I have the ability to not show it on my face. A tall, handsome—and that’s keeping it simple—man with tousled black hair that falls a few inches above his shoulders is standing there observing me with icy blue-grey eyes. He’s one of those “never-cold” types wearing just a black shirt and pants even though it’s sweater weather up here. The way he looks at me is refreshing given the alarmed undertone of the two people I previously encountered. It’s like how on a sweltering summer day the thought of teleporting to the Antarctic for a split second sounds enticing, but if you’re there for any longer than that, you’d become chilled to the core, begging to return to the heat.

“How can I help you?” His low voice projects toward me.

I slowly turn around fully, “Hi, I was wondering if you were hiring.”

His arms fold in front of him. I pretend to myself not to notice the lean muscle rippling in the movement. “You new in town?”

I push a thick brush of curls behind my ear nervously, “Yes.”

There’s a ghost of a nod as he walks behind the counter. I notice his eye contact not breaking its observance of me. I feel inclined to look elsewhere but I feel challenged in some way and my instinct doesn’t want to back down. What is with these people? He reaches down into what I assume is a drawer and shuffles through some paper. It takes him a moment to find what he’s looking for and I’m grateful because it means he’s not looking at me. This is the boss? I wasn’t expecting someone so young, he looks about five years older than me at most. 

He finally finds what he’s look for after opening and shutting a few drawers, giving me the indication that they don’t get many applicants. He places the application on the counter between us and looks at me again like he’s studying me. “What’s your name?”

I look up at him and hold his gaze. I’m not sure what I’m reading off of him, “It’s Saterinne.”

“Saterinne?” He places a pen on the application indicating he wants me to fill it out here instead of leaving and bringing it back later.

“Yes,” I grab the pen. “and yours?”

He leans back and his brow lowers, “My name’s Cloud.”

I look at him for a second and then down at the application. I look around to see if there’s anywhere to sit and fill this out, half expecting that the guy named Cloud in front of me will direct me to some sofa chairs, but I feel somewhat pinned. I glance up and realize he’s just waiting for me to fill it out right now. 

I’m seeing a lot of blank boxes and don’t know how to bullshit them. I’m confused by what to put for address. 

“You don’t have to put your address, I’m assuming you don’t have one yet right?”

“Oh, okay.” I look past it and fill out the education section with the Bachelor’s degree in Psychology I earned at a university in Bixby—it honestly didn’t help me much in relating to other humans or understanding myself better, nevertheless, in this moment I’m glad I can write anything down because the next section on the application form is “Employment Experience”, something I do not have. You don’t exactly need to slave away in the service industry when you’ve got abilities like mine.

Under the arctic blast of his stare and time suddenly being at a standstill, I can’t even think of anything to fabricate. I don’t even know what to put for emergency contact. It also occurs to me that I don’t even have a phone number to put down. If I hadn’t been caught up here I would leave and get a new phone at the very least before submitting the application. I literally can’t even fill out a way for them to contact me back, but after the large measure of awkwardness I honestly don’t even know if I want to come back to this store, let alone work here. 

I sign the application at the bottom, write the date, and then I pass it back to him. I’m feeling frustrated and recalcitrant now. There’s an itch I need to scratch and I’m two seconds away from telling him to hire me and be nicer to me. He grabs my application and looks blankly at the page of almost entirely blank boxes that I just passed back. He glances at me briefly but gives away nothing of what he’s thinking. I just give him a tight smile like nothing’s strange at all.

Mentally, I’m already out the door. My era of spontaneity has already reached its peak by moving to a new place, going forward I need a game plan, a phone, and some fake employment stuffs. I just need to buy my books and go.

CLOUD

Isabelle informed me that a nefarious creature had come into town, but I wasn’t expecting the irony that came with it. I assess her entry. She seems completely unaware of herself, she grabs a book and begins flipping through it. Through the stacks I can see what she’s holding, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury. No shit.

After she calls out “hello” I look at Shelly who’s sitting in the office. Not much of an office given that every inch of it is piled with boxes of books we never manage the time to put away. She nods and goes out to inspect. Shelly waits stiffly behind the counter while the girl browses. I feel bad for not going out there myself, but both Shelly and Isabelle agreed that I don’t have the correct temperament to address the situation directly like I want to. According to Isabelle we need to address this delicately because of an odd feeling she has. We won’t get any information out of her if she runs.

She decides to hold onto the book—perhaps it’s a joke to her—and glides over in between the shelves. I move back into the office and several moments later Shelly comes back.

“Cloud,” I notice tension in her neck and her eyes are wide, “She’s asking if we’re //hiring//?”

“What? Did you say yes?”

Shelly shakes her head, “No, I was shocked and didn’t know what to say, I told her I’d grab my boss.”

“She didn’t try to compel you?”

“No, is that strange? That’s strange, right? I mean, she asked if we were hiring so I guess if I had said no maybe she would have, but why on Earth would she even ask for a job?” 

I turn away from Shelly to think. What game is she playing at? This must be a part in some deranged thrill. “Alright, I’m handling it.” 

I slip by but Shelly grabs my forearm and looks at me sternly, “Remember what Isabelle said, something’s off about this one. We can’t have her running until we get answers.” I pull away. Shelly forgets her place.

I walk past the bookshelf that blocks view of the office. When I get to the front desk the woman is standing at the turnstile looking at postcards. It’s interesting to see someone at rest when they don’t know they’re being observed, she seems relatively harmless. Her smell though, it alerts me, but in no way that’s familiar. I understand Isabelle’s odd feeling, this one smells off, but in a way I wasn’t expecting, she smells good. 

These are the normal options, I rip off her head no questions asked or I reach into her chest and ask questions while my hand is wrapped around her heart. I don’t entertain broken rules. Isabelle and Shelly have entertained this long enough and it’s not my job to hesitate. I’m about to move forward and take care of it but then she turns around. My brain pauses. The beast stirs inside me.

Her eyes meet mine. They are dark pools in the two portals that rest on her brown face. Her lengthy wild curls are messy like she was in a mosh-pit and only just brushed up a bit; it serves as a stark contrast to her angel-like features. Something about her seems innocent yet vastly dark. There are too many contradictions in what she projects, but there’s no doubting I’ve never seen anything like it before. I normally can’t stand the sight or scent of these fuckers and here I am all turned around. 

I can see how she moves around in the world. Dazzling humans. It almost seems like she doesn’t know that it doesn’t work on us. There are barriers between us. “How can I help you?”

It’s pissing me off that I can’t keep an eye on her while looking for this damn application. My hesitation before baffles me. Now that I’ve lost momentum, I’m stuck listening to Isabelle’s words. Isabelle is right though, something’s off and I don’t think killing the problem right away is the correct move.

I pass her the application and a pen. “What’s your name?” I try my best to sound tame and my beast laughs at me.

“Saterinne.” She holds my gaze with those seductive eyes. I repeat it back and she asks for mine. I reply. It seems like Isabelle’s suspicions are correct and she’s attempting to move into town. Her filling out the application is actually a perfect way to get information on her. As she’s writing things down I feel my beast stirring, stirring up trouble that is. //Stop that//, I command. He continues like he doesn’t hear me. The beast’s natural impulse is to want to destroy these things on sight, but now he’s directing my eyes down from her face to the curves of her body.

She passes back the application rather quickly and it snaps me out of it. I grab it and it’s completely blank save for the education box. Her B.A. in Psychology seems like another one of her sick jokes. She doesn’t even leave a phone number or email address. 

“Thank you for…filling this out, we’ll get back to you.”

She smiles, “I appreciate it.”

I don’t say anything for a moment. I’m waiting for her to try to compel me. I wonder what her style is. A polite question or an order. I don’t take orders, my beast responds violently to them. 

“Uh,” she looks down at the counter. “I also wanted to get these.”

I look down at the two books she grabbed. “Yeah, let me ring these up for you.” I scan the first one, "Something Wicked This Way Comes," and I laugh emotionlessly in my mind. Then I grab the book underneath and again my flow is broken. It’s "Space Gnomes 4: Turtles of the Bayou." Does she have a kid that she’s buying this for? I look up at her and she’s nervously looking away like she’s sort of embarrassed. It’s definitely for her. I find myself burying something I feel rumbling in my chest and I scan the book. I also find myself giving her the more expensive book for free. Isabelle told me she’d tell her first time customers get a free book to get her to come here, I’m making sure to keep up the ruse.

“It’ll be 13.89.” I say, keeping my voice neutral.

“Okay,” she fumbles inside her bag and pulls out some bills from a wad of cash, “That’s 14. You can keep the change. Thanks.” She grabs her bag, turns around, and leaves my store.

I watch her outside the glass as she decides which direction to go before heading off toward Sutton. A minute later I’m putting the bills in the drawer and Shelly comes out of the office. 

“What //was// that, Cloud?”

I ignore the question, “Call Ronan, have her followed.” I shut the drawer. 

“Wha—did you get any information out of her? Is she dangerous?”

I hand her the blank application and move past her back toward the office. 

“Saturnine?”

“Sat-er-in,” I correct her to the way the woman had pronounced it.

“Saterinne Stel.” She mumbles thoughtfully.

I look back at her, “Does that sound familiar to you?”

“No…it just has a nice ring to it is all,” Shelly’s eyes linger on the blank page before she looks up at me. “Yeah yeah, I’m calling Ronan.”

SATERINNE

I left the bookstore feeling unsettled. I’ve heard before that it’s not wise to make assumptions about others, but did I just sense hostility? Even when I don’t actively use my powers there always appears to be something active that attracts people to me and usually this makes them nice. Especially with men. Perhaps my strong intention to live a normal life has somehow managed for me to successfully mute it. It’s scary to think this is the way people express themselves when they aren’t glamoured by you. So far, I’m not loving it.

I feel a mist of tears behind my eyes. The energies in the room, including my horrible experience filling out that application, are somehow translating into waterworks. Isabelle’s suggestion might have just ruined my day, because as I’m walking through the cute cobbled street, I don’t even take in the sights. I keep slapping away images of those cold blue-grey eyes, my blank application, and…//god// I just want to curl up and die when I think about how he looked a second too long at my choice purchase of "Space Gnomes 4: Turtles of the Bayou." This is exactly why one should always buy their comfort reads online. I look at my book inside the little paper gift bag and just want to chuck it in the dumpster.

I spend the day walking around trying to take my mind off of the epic fail I had for breakfast. After having a few more interactions with some locals at a clothing shop I decide I’m not crazy because these people feel normal and polite, but after I leave the shop with a few new outfits I bump into this guy leaning against the door. He’s got messy dark hair and reminds me of the guy at the bookstore, I apologize coyly and he gives me a flirtatious grin and says no worries. 

I nod and walk on but, yes worries. I sense something with him that I’ve been sensing with a few people here in this town and after my experience in the shop, I realize not everybody is doing it. I no longer feel crazy, but confused. It has occurred to me that there aren’t many other brown people around, maybe this is actually Hicksville and I don’t know it. Right after I have the thought I pass by a large family that look like locals who have deep brown skin and are chilling, looking happy as hell. The dad in the group has a head of long locs, dark sunglasses, and looks like he’s embraced the Rastafari way. So there my theory came and went.

I find myself convinced something isn’t right, but then I have a nice interaction at the sandwich stand that paints the picture that I’m wrong. I could barely swallow my lunch. I feel more lonely than ever. I feel more lost than ever. Could I have made a huge mistake? Carol and Jim are the only ones who know what I am, what I do. I can never open up to someone or trust why anyone wants to be near me. Did I think leaving Bixby was going to solve anything? They say you take your misery with you, just to a new spot. Well it looks like my misery has come with me and I’m not even permitting myself the one thing that would make this slightly more tolerable.

//Tolerable?// Sat, //you just need to get used to this.// I hear one voice croon. //Sat, why act like you’re one of them when you’re not? It’s so boring when you act like you’re afflicted by your powers.// The other voice replies. //Yeah, but do you think you’ll ever stop feeling alone this way? When you don’t truly have anyone because they’re enchanted by your spell?//

The dialogue ends when I feel pinpricks of hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I feel someones fixed attention on me like one feels the rays of the sun more intensely when standing in one spot. My body had taken on an overall discomfort earlier but now that I’m sitting here barely stomaching my food, I can feel it all the more intensely. I look around subtly and try not to inform the person watching me that I feel them.

From the picnic table I’m sitting at I have few blindspots. I sweep over the few people I see walking around and can’t find Waldo at first but after a few sweeps I find him. Leaning against a streetlamp a ways away on the other side of the street is the guy I bumped into earlier at the clothing store. He had smiled flirtatiously at me, he must have accidentally gotten roped in by something I did earlier. I am doing my best to mute myself, but I think there’s only so much I can do and it’s hard to say whether I’m doing anything.

I’m used to being followed, but remembering that eerie feeling I had before and being in a new place makes me nervous. This wasn’t John from college, Nathan from high school, or Chris who worked at the convenience store on the street I lived on in Bixby, this was some rando. I knew how to handle them then and easily got them to leave me alone. If push comes to shove, I will use my powers on this guy, but I don’t want to do that so I think my best option now is to lose him and make sure he doesn’t follow me to the inn.

In perfect timing I see a trolley coming down the street. I gush a bit over how cute it is that this town only has a trolley for public transit. I’ve already wrapped the rest of my sandwich. I wait a few beats and then I rush toward the trolley right before it takes off and feed some coins into the slot. I didn’t want him to see me get on the trolley and then have time to hop on here himself.

I walk to the back of the trolley and peak out the window. I see him noticing that I’m gone. I move away from the window. He’ll probably assume I got on the trolley but there’s no need to give him confirmation. 

“Next stop: Crystal Lake.” The trolley driver announces. We start moving  instantly and I breathe a sigh of relief.

~~~~~~~~~

Ronan curses to himself. The Alpha will be pissed. He just took his eyes off of her for a moment. He’s starving and Cloud ordering him to do this caused him to have to skip lunch. Ronan was forced to watch the chick barely eat her sandwich while he salivated over it. Then a lady eating a chocolate ice cream cone passed by and he just looked at it for one second.

Ronan scratches his head. That explanation is not going to sound good to the boss. He instead texts:

Cloud, we’ve got a situation. Lost her. 

There’s no need to give all the details. It takes about a second after Ronan presses send for Cloud’s name to appear on the screen. Ronan throws his head back not ready to deal. He’s hungry and pissed and now he’s fucking up too.

“Where did you lose her?” Cloud’s voice is calm like he didn’t just read something he didn’t like. Ronan hates that voice.

Ronan rubs his hand roughly over his face and begins pacing. “She was sitting on a picnic bench near the Umbrella Tree Café. She was just sitting there eating and then boom, gone—”

The line clicks. Ronan looks down at his phone screen which reads “call ended” and lets out frustrated growl before kicking an invisible rock on the street. 

He’s going to get himself ice cream and a sandwich. Perhaps an ice cream sandwich. 

~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere in Mount Valen, a simple beast smells something delightful. 

~~~~~~~~~

SATERINNE

I want to stay on the trolley for a several more stops to be safe but I can’t resist getting off at Crystal Lake. I mean you can see the water glittering from here! I get off along with most of the passengers and feel instantly validated in my choice. 

I walk through the tall pines and the tannic smell emanating from the needles is like heavenly aroma therapy. I feel instantly relaxed. The lakefront is make up of large rocks that are perfect for sitting, balancing, and skipping. I make my way toward a somewhat secluded spot that’s close enough to other people if a bear attacks and far away enough that no one will see me reading "Space Gnomes 4: Turtles of the Bayou." Man, this day is turning around. I soak in the sight of the crystal clear lake. There’s a wooden landing where I imagine people like to jump off and swim or dock their boats, there are ducks and even swans floating on the water, and the sun making its descent downward is glittering on the surface. The thick evergreen forest that surrounds the entire lake is a sight to behold on the other side. 

When I think nothing can improve my mood more, I open my book and discover that this edition of "Space Gnomes" comes with a poster in the front flap. I squeal to myself and dive into my book. I practically swallow it hole. I take some breaks here and there to balance some stones into towers and skip some rocks. I attempt to meditate and it does a pretty successful job of clearing my head. The peace and tranquility I feel right now makes me feel like I did something right. There might be some bumps in the road but I will take this view and this moment everyday over some town that’s got a hazy, polluted sky. 

I rest my head on my bag which I use as a pillow. I can use a light nap. I fall into a surprisingly deep sleep. First I dream about turning into a turtle and saving the day by landing a hijacked spacecraft and then the dream fades and I’m walking around town and there’s some guy following me who I can’t seem to lose. I wake up when I hear rustling near my head. My eyes snap open and I’m making direct eye contact with a squirrel. 

“Hi,” I say groggily. It’s frozen in place but then dashes off when I start to get up. “Fine, don’t say ‘hi’ back then.” I brush fresh pine needles off my coat and see that the sun is about to fall behind the mountain. “Shit.” I look around and see most of the people that were here earlier have already left and the ones here now have built fires and are planning on camping here for the night.

I gather my things and make my way to the trolley stop, when I get there I find out that I’ve missed the last ride, “This is not great.” 

I look around and see a directory map. It turns out that Crystal Lake is not far from the street the inn is on and there happens to be a trail that’s almost a direct pathway there. I look to see if it checks the box of being near the town and it does. 

I start walking toward the sign that reads //Fairlight Trailhead//. I choose a brisk pace. At the beginning of the trail I can see the backs of buildings on the street and that comforts me. The light’s not fading too quickly but it’s reaching that point where the rods and cones are confused about what to show you. I estimated about a ten or fifteen minute walk and at about 8 minutes in I notice that I’m just surrounded by pine trees, no visual of the town. It’s gotten a lot dimmer and I’m starting to feel a bit jumpy. I think it might be wiser to go back but then again, I’m more than halfway there according to my estimated timeline assuming my skills with a map hold up like they did on my roadtrip. 

Momentum is an interesting thing. It’s easier to keep doing what you’re doing rather than change course. I keep walking briskly down the path and—oh shit, I think I see a bear moving to the left. I stop in my tracks and scan through the pines. Bears aren’t subtle hunters, I’m jumping at shadows. I take a deep breath and turn back forward. 

I’m about to take a step but then I stop mid air. My heart nearly stops too. Seven feet in front of me is some guy. The path isn’t that curved and I can see the next stretch for a long while so I don’t see how another hiker would have appeared so abruptly. 

He also doesn’t seem to be hiking. He simply stands there looking at me. Another detail that disturbs me is that it’s not even the guy who had been following me earlier. This guy has literal dirty blond hair, it’s practically sopping with oil and there’s something about his face that reminds me of a rat. I’m trying to find an explanation for this strange meeting but when I look at his eyes, I can’t. Something is not right. 

“Where did you come from?” I hear myself sound like the girl that dies five minutes into the horror film and instantly become flooded with a feeling of dread. 

His smile brings out his crazy eyes and I flinch back. “Is it you?”

“What?”

“It is you.” He closes his eyes, which I think are blue but they look black from how dilated they are, and takes a deep inhale. “The scent doesn’t even get lost in the trees.” He says in a voice that sounds drugged out. When he opens his eyes again they look like he’s gone mad. Some of the blood vessels in his scleras seem burst and the waterlines of his eyes are red. It looks like he’s having severe allergies. I see a twinkle at the corner of his mouth and when I look closer I realize he’s salivating.

“I don’t-I don’t know what you’re saying.” I stumble back more and he follows in sync. The movement looks unnatural. I’m not in denial, I’m pretty clued in here that this guy’s mental and I’m in danger. I look at his hands and I don’t see any weapons. I look at the pockets of his pants and don’t see the bump of a pocket knife or a gun. That doesn’t give me any comfort because this person is obviously unpredictable. I don’t see a point in debating. I’m using mind control. Self defense is a no-questions-asked scenario.

“Stay—” I sense pressure and hear a crack. Discombobulated, time doesn’t seem to be moving the same. How did I move in space? I look at the place I was standing. About 20 feet away. I can tell that’s where I was because I see my shopping bag and its contents fallen in a trail to where I am now. On the forest floor.

On top of me the man has me pinned to the ground with a vice grip on my neck. I can’t speak much less breathe. He laughs wickedly and spittle lands on my face. He takes another deep inhale next to my cheek as I’m gasping for air. I notice that my feet are kicking on their own and my fingers are clawing at the hand that’s on my throat. 

It’s funny. Whenever I see people being choked to death in the movies I always get annoyed and ask myself why those dumbasses don’t just gouge the dudes eyes out or knee him in the balls, but here I am, playing the dumbass.

My slight out of body experience somehow brings me back to my senses. I lift my hands to gouge his eyes and I manage to start but then my body gets slammed against the ground again with a strength I wouldn’t think possible from such a skinny frame. I see stars, nearly blackout and my body goes limp. I need oxygen and I haven’t even gotten a sip.

“Oh don’t worry, I won’t let you die yet.” His whisper in my ear is like nails on a chalkboard. “I want to have you while you’re still hot.” He traces a long, filthy fingernail along my cheek, “You see, your fear is like a pheromone and each second of terror makes your blood smell that much sweeter.”

I try to reach for something, anything. I’m honestly surprised I can move without air for this long after being choke-slammed twice, but the world is becoming a vignette filter and I’m about five seconds from blacking out. I feel a branch, but I can tell it won’t do much, this guy didn’t even seem affected in the slightest by my thumbs in his eyes. I fan the ground with my arms like a snow angel and only manage to grab onto a palm-sized rock. It doesn’t seem like enough but’s all I have. I swing it into his face. 

It throws him off enough that he releases my neck. Sweet air fills my lungs. I knee him and manage to crawl/scramble two feet away before he’s on me again. He flips me over, holds me down by my arms, and hisses. That’s when I see a set of long razor sharp fangs. I try to command him to stop and get away but nothing more than a wheeze comes out of my mouth. The longstanding pressure he placed against my throat seems to have damaged my larynx. 

Blood drips from the gash I made on his temple, but before my eyes I swear the split tissue closes up seamlessly. I’m overwhelmed by sheer terror as my last attempts to fight fail miserably, but I now know this is the last act. I had chosen Mount Valen to die. I always knew I was a freak of nature, something that never should have been made to walk the planet. It turns out my instinct to come here had been some divine being’s way of flattening the curve. 

A guttural sound produced from this monster’s mouth ricochets through the forest. It is a desperate cry of need, of hunger. He lifts his head and opens his dripping mouth wide like a cobra ready to strike, eyes emptied of all humanity. I close my eyes and shrink deeper into the earth as if it would help me avoid whatever’s next.

I hear a slice and thick blood flows on my neck. There’s no pain. His body falls heavily onto me and I open my eyes. I almost can’t register it. His body is on me but his head’s no longer there. 

ALEKSANDER

I have been awakened from my slumber so early that my eyes ache and pulse with the last beats of the sun. There is no darkness that can wait with such a scent seductively calling for me in the air.

I hear the cry of a lowly beast that dares to think it is worthy of such prey. I rise from my coffin and arrive at its funeral.

SATERINNE

A melange of a cry, a laugh, and a scream escape my throat. My previously soon-to-be killer’s head is on the ground several feet away from his body. His head is facing me though and it’s still fixed in the same expression it was right before he was about to strike me. I look at the bloody stump of his neck that hovers right above my neck and it’s oozing blood all over me like someone’s filling a bathtub. A squeal is added into my miscellany of sounds as I use all my strength to push his corpse off of me. 

When I do, I see who—//what// made this happen, and I immediately scramble back. A tall figure is standing in front of me. I don’t have it in me to move much further so I take this moment to breathe and try to take in what’s happened. I’m only able to process what I’m seeing in stages, as pictures all at once. I see glowing eyes. Two different colors, red and green. Blood soaked hand, nails, claws. Long, dark blond hair. The figure steps closer and the shadows that obscure his face dissipate. A beautiful demon stands before me.

He brings his bloody hand to his mouth and when I see his lips part, the part of me thinking I was saved crumbles up and dies. From between two sharp fangs his tongue comes through to lick the blood on his hand. If you can believe it, it isn’t the blood, the fangs, or the guy that was just attacking me that has me convinced that this guy is a capital V, Vampire. It’s the fact that what he’s wearing is the textbook getup for a Vampire. This man isn’t goth, those clothes were packaged into his DNA. From the long black coat to the silver draconic jewelry adorning his fingers and hanging around his neck onto the deathly pale skin of his chest shown visible through the loose and bloodied white shirt he dons. This is a creature of the night and somehow night feels like it’s falling ten times faster since his arrival. 

His presence is nothing like the one before him. With the other guy, I would have died and not truly registered he was anything more than a psychopath. As this one walks toward me there’s simply no other explanation for what he could be. I don’t even have the desire to move. His eyes hold me in place as he continues to lick the blood off of his fingers. I think the last thing to register is that his hand is what separated my attackers head from his body. Yet that thought alone does nothing to give me the will or strength to move.

He stands above me with a shadowy gaze that make those predatory glowing eyes reign terror on the psyche and the only thing I can feel while looking up at him is…//desire?// His or mine? I do not know. His tall frame kneels down with an outstretched arm and he touches his bloody hand to my face. I feel the sharp edges of his claws. His eyes trace my face and then go down to my blood-covered neck and my battered body.

“The vermin really don’t know how to appreciate a meal.” His voice is like honey and velvet, I almost don’t register his words, but when I finally digest them, I wonder why I feel okay with him digesting me.

His eyes narrow and he tilts his head. I want nothing more than to caress the silk strands of his hair as they shift with the movement. “Nor do they recognize what is and isn’t prey.” His glowing eyes begin to dim from that shining bloodlust until they achieve a normal appearance. Well, normal for a Vampire. 

His right eye is a muted blood-red and his left an apple green that has taken in some darker hues from the forest. I keep looking between them unable to decide which I’d like to look into for all of eternity. 

I’m so mesmerized that I don’t even realize we’re floating until I feel pain flood my body as it straightens into alignment. He swipes his other hand above my forehead and the pain is forgotten. My body gently glides backwards until my back meets the trunk of a tree. His arms cage me in and when his body presses against mine. I feel like I’m going mad. This amuses him. A dazzling smile plays on his lips and he brings them close to mine. I can feel the barest touch of them but he teases me by not letting our mouths meet and I whimper. 

“I wonder who else knows you’re here,” he whispers and traces a finger through my hair. Tingles erupt everywhere in my body.

“Wha…” I hardly manage to respond under the haze I’m in and I’m brought to silence with a sharp inhale when I feel his lips trace my cheek up to my ear. My head turns and my cheek presses against the bark, when my eyes flutter open I’m eye to eye with a squirrel. Two black beady eyes are staring at me for the second time today and I swear if this one could talk it would be saying //girl, what are you doin’?// 

“Squirrel…” I mumble, remembering the squirrel that was in my face before when I woke up from my nap. Here I am again, dreaming, or rather, in some kind of trance. The Vampire looks at the squirrel and the squirrel races off and disappears. I look past the Vampire and see the decapitated body behind him and the head off to the side. I see the contents of my shopping bags scattered across the footpath. I reawaken to pain in my actively bruising body and the concussion I’ve no doubt acquired and remember I’m covered in blood after the literal bloodbath I was in. I’m also aware of my voice, I can speak again. 

I don’t begin the process of wondering how I went from savagely beaten and nearly dead to horny and ready to fuck up against a tree. My hoarse voice comes out in layers. “//Let me go.//”

The Vampire moves back in surprise. I’m not sure if it’s from my command. Would my power even work on this thing? He looks like a normal guy who’s confused about why his date is no longer into him. I assume this is the first time a girl has broken out of whatever he was doing. I can still feel the pull towards him, but my survival instinct returning is linked to the return of my voice. 

I slip out from the gap he makes and I run. I run ten feet and then he’s standing in front of me. This must have been how the other guy moved. I don’t waste time screaming in terror, instead I shout, “DON'T MOVE. DON'T FOLLOW ME.” And I run past him with the assumption that it works on him. After sprinting twenty or so feet I look back at him.

He takes a step but then he hits an invisible barrier. “Oh.” He smiles and looks at me hungrily. I can see I’ve awakened something inside him he didn’t know was there. I sprint in the blue dark for several minutes that feel like an eternity. I don’t know if I’m following the path or just running blindly. My fight or flight has never kicked in harder and a higher sense is guiding me now.

When I see the edge of the forest and the poplar trees that precede the road to the inn, I cry out. When I’m almost out of the forest, I see the glowing eyes of the Vampire. He stands far away from me in the dark to the right of me but doesn’t approach. I told him not to move or follow me, both orders of which he seems to have overcome. His distance raises the question of whether he’s letting me flee or whether he is working his way against my command, I’m terrified of both options.

I don’t let go of his eyes but they disappear and now I have no idea where he is. I tear through the tree-line and onto the road. The inn is just thirty paces from me. I’m almost there, but then I see the nightmare still doesn’t end. In front of me is Cloud from the bookstore and by now I know what’s going on. I’ve survived two of them thus far, I can survive a third. 

He looks me up and down like he didn’t get the 411 on the hunt. No doubt the blood is about to rile him up. I waste no time, “DON'T. DON'T TOUCH ME.”

His brow tenses but he’s hardly taken aback by the otherworldly sound of my voice. “You think that’ll work on me?”

I back away from him. The other Vampire didn’t know what hit him before and I had managed to buy time, but this one somehow knows about my ability like he’s seen it before. I just have to assume he’s bluffing.

I take off past him. My legs are tired out and I know this is about the last Vampire I can take on for the night. Fuck the inn. I’m going straight to my car and getting the hell out of this place. //Oh shit, my bag and car keys are in the forest//—that immediately becomes an unnecessary worry of an unlikely future because I make it all of three steps before Vamp Number 3 is scooping me off the ground.

I hear a deep and deadly growl, “I told you, that’s not going to work.”

Fuck, I’m dead.

CLOUD

I hear the dreadful shriek of rabid blood-sucker. I should have snapped the woman’s neck on sight. Let today be the last time I act like this is a bloody democracy. 

“Alright, Nan. I fixed it.” I turn the last screw, “You know you really shouldn’t be on this thing anyway.”

She swats my arm. “Oh hush.” When I look back at her, it’s obvious that my care and concern for her dealing with a tractor are unfounded. She’s got a long wiry frame and the hair she’s got swept into a braid is a mixture of grey and white. She's biologically 40 years old at most, even though we just celebrated her 86th birthday. She inherited the genes that will keep her here for a long time.

“I know you’ll be fine, I just wish you did other activities.”

“What, like knitting? You want me to die of boredom?” She laughs heartily.

“Whatever, you do whatever you want.” I pull down the hood and she keeps laughing like I suggested knitting. “Nan, I can’t stick around for dinner I’ve gotta take care of something.”

When she sobers, her grey eyes are sharp, “I know.” Her ears are sharp too. 

~~~~~~~~~

I leave the barn and head straight to the source. Whatever activity the blood-sucker is engaged in, I can smell her from clear across town as well as blood from another source. Her victim. I can only hope to get there before another slaughter occurs. I already have a slew of missed calls from everyone trying to reach me at once.

I return Ronan’s call.

“I’m on it,” I say and then I hang up the phone. I return Isabelle’s call and she tells me the sound came from nearby and she’s already locked down the inn. I dial Bethany and there’s no answer. There’s a text from Kai that he’s on his way and I assume whoever’s nearby is probably already on it but by the time I get to there the sweet scent is hard to pinpoint like she’s been cutting through a long stretch of forest and the radius of her auric field is expansive. I stalk toward the edge of the forest by Isabelle’s. Tracing her scent in the air is infuriating to my senses. It takes me too long to find her before I realize that she’s coming at me.

A few moments later she emerges from the forest and she’s drenched in blood. It’s time to go in for the kill, my fangs elongate in my mouth. She stops in her tracks and I see the moment she looks like she’s ready to fight back.

“DON'T MOVE. DON'T TOUCH ME.” The magickal notes of her voice are what I imagine the scream of a fallen angel or a siren would sound like. I’ve never heard one use compulsion like that.

“You think that’ll work on me?” Just as she makes a break for it I’m ready to end her, but I find myself hesitating for the second time today, too many times for a lifetime, let alone a day. She runs at a normal speed as opposed to fast travel. I observe her moving in slow motion for three steps before I grab her. The moment I do she starts beating against me. Her fists feel like marshmallows against my body but I can see she’s using all her might. She struggles for about thirty seconds before going completely limp. She’s unconscious?

I lay her down on graveled road and grab both of her forearms and pin them to her chest with one hand and with the other I check her pulse. I’m convinced she’s playing dead and I should just kill her, but my actions are thinking far ahead of my killer instinct. She’s not behaving like the undead and when I count a pulse of 160 beats per minute I’m not sure what I’m seeing. Vampire’s don’t usually have pulses and the atypical ones have only one to three heartbeats per hour. There’s also the deep rise and fall of her chest under my hand indicating she’s breathing. 

I take in her appearance more closely and notice that there’s no blood on her mouth or around her mouth, just a faint line of red on the side of her face. The blood she’s covered in is on her neck and chest. Her body temperature is warm, feverish. I check for bite wounds but I don’t find any. There are scrapes on her body and I feel the soft squishy tissue of a bad hematoma on the back of her skull. She’s been pretty severely concussed and isn’t healing.

Just as I’m putting things together the hairs on my body stand up and my head careens toward the forest, a growl barrels from my chest.

“It’s just me.” Bethany emerges from the forest with her hands dramatically raised, her naked figure tells me she has just fazed. She walks toward me and looks at the woman, “She wasn’t the one who made the sound,” Bethany crouches down beside me, “No that sucker,” She motions her head behind her, “is dead.”

We both look down at her in unison. I don’t know what I’m seeing and I don’t like it.

SATERINNE

I make out voices all around me, a few of which are familiar. 

“I say we just kill her…”

“…shouldn’t we keep her alive just for a little while before…”

“—trying to eat her…”

The bits and pieces of dialogue swirl into my consciousness. When a half conscious me puts it all together I fully awaken and realize that my nightmare is still not over. I need a game plan—and fast. I’m smart enough to keep my eyes closed and not move while I think.

“She’s awake.” A deep voice I’m beginning to resent announces. I keep my eyes closed and don’t react. Shitshitshit. Maybe if I don’t move he’ll just assume it was a bad call. “If you keep pretending you’re unconscious, I’ll make sure you never wake up.” It’s my favorite scary bookstore boss, it’s Cloud alright. The irritation in his voice makes the image of his icy stare pop into my mind’s eye.

I don’t know who I think I am but I find myself calling this man’s bluff. I had already practiced my fight and flight responses in the forest, now that I’ve been unconscious and pain is throbbing throughout my entire being, it’s time to practice freeze. I hear movement and my eyes wince reflexively. I’ve been made. I peak my right eye open ever so slightly and just happen to make direct eye contact with the man making the threats. His eyes send chills down my spine, no surprises there.

I’m committed though, I don’t care how ridiculous I look, I take a peak around the whole table.  The room is dark despite the light beaming from the chandelier above me. I recognize Isabelle the inn-keeper aka The Woman Who’s Clearly Set Me Up, the girl from the bookstore, the guy who was stalking me earlier, a guy I don’t recognize, and at my feet there’s a woman standing butt-naked—something no one seems fazed about.

“Is she kidding?” Stalker Guy looks around at his peers and gestures at me. I don’t care, if I’m going to die I say it’s okay to lie to myself that they can’t see me while I assess the situation I’m in. It’s the one thing keeping me from sheer panic. According to Vamp Number 1, they like that. I’m not going to give them an ounce of whatever fear I can contain.  

I’m at the inn, I’d been trying to make my way back here before but I now realize this is the last place I want to be. My mind flashes back to the way Isabelle looked at me when I first walked in the door. Now that I’m lying down, strapped by my chest, arms, and ankles to what appears to be a dining table, I realized what that look had really been. She had seen a tasty snack, now here she and the rest of her Vampire coven are, about to feast on me. 

I forget the ruse. I can’t keep it up because I can’t contain what rises inside me. A maniacal laugh bursts from my mouth as I remember the series of events that got me here. Impulse decision to leave Bixby and start a new life, pointing on the map and choosing with my gut, deciding I didn’t want to use my powers anymore. All of that to end up in a communal hunt and become a Vampire nest’s family dinner. Another wave of laughter comes when I hear the word “Vampire” in my mind. I’m not surprised I don’t feel half the disbelief and denial I should be feeling because I grew up a freak of nature myself, but hearing the word Vampire bouncing around my head after a first account is maddening.

They’re all staring at me stony-faced, I notice one of them back up cautiously. It happens to be the girl from the bookstore, I snap my head towards her and she jumps, “What? You not used to your food laughing before you eat it?” I thrash uselessly against the straps that tie me to the wooden table.

The girl looks across the table like she’s confused by me. 

I run out of the air and energy to keep my laughter going, “Well, enjoy your family dinner.” I say weakly before slumping painfully back on the table. I had seen my power not work on Cloud and the Vampire before him managed to overcome it pretty quickly. I don’t see a point of even trying, they would have gagged me if they weren’t immune to me.

After my little outburst it’s silent and no one proceeds to start chomping. In fact, they’re all looking at each other and silently communicating. Bookstore Girl looks at me with a combination of concern and perplex, “Why do you think we’re going to eat you?”

I look at all of them and they are awaiting my answer with abject curiosity. I wonder how much of this is foreplay, but I will do anything to make this end. “Because you’re…” I sigh. This is one of those moments where I wonder if my life isn’t actually real. Like the real me is actually in some kind of mental facility imagining the craziness that is my life. It’s unhinged enough to have to say it in my head, it’s another thing to voice it. I can’t believe I’m going to have to say it out loud, therefore cementing this nightmare. My eyes close in resolve. “Vampires.”

Another silence falls over the room, I actually hear crickets, but then that silence breaks when a howl of laughter penetrates it. My eyes snap open and it’s Stalker Guy who finds me amusing, he’s holding his belly. Whatever joke I just made, it’s a real knee slapper.

“That funny, huh?” I don’t know how it’s possible while I’m in a terrifying situation I don’t understand, but why do I suddenly feel embarrassed? I hear a few other snorts and giggles but it’s not long before others around the table start laughing. Suddenly I just feel real stupid, like somehow I’ve lost the plot here. 

“I’m on a…dinner table.” I grumble hopelessly. What am I supposed to think? 

Stalker-dude manages to stop laughing for a moment and tries to sober himself, but when he looks at me he remembers the killer joke I supposedly just made and he erupts with laughter again. It’s not lost on me that the only one who isn’t even slightly amused by me is Cloud. He stands at a distance from the table just past the limits of the chandelier’s glow, face hardened with shadows. He doesn’t take an eye off me. Like I’m a threat being surveilled. 

They all finally manage to compose themselves. Bookstore Girl is biting her lip, something I see she did to prevent herself from joining in on the laughter, and gives me a compassionate look, “We’re not Vampires and we’re not going to eat you.”

“But we will kill you,” The Rain Cloud smoothly interjects, “if you don’t tell us what the fuck you are and why you’re in Mount Valen.”

I look around the table and they’ve all gone bad-cop on me again. I’m completely over this long drawn out death sentence. I sigh and stare into the chandelier, “My name is Saterinne Stel. I drove here from Bixby. I’m clearly not a threat to anyone here, something that is presently and abundantly obvious. I came to Mount Valen because I decided to be spontaneous and point anywhere on a map and go. Worst. Decision. Ever. What the fuck am I? Funny that. Well it appears I am the chosen sacrificial lamb in the deadly ritual of a superstitious cult so that the village can warded of Vampires for another 100 years.”

“You found us on a map.” Isabelle echoes my words and completely ignores my narrative arc. I just know she’s the one who got this ball rolling, insisting I go to the bookstore. I squint at her with a look that I’m hoping will split her head in two.

“That’s what I’m saying now and exactly what I told you yesterday while you were planning all of this.” She grips her hands to her head and I see she is indeed affected by the venomous energy I just flung at her. Woah. I had just gotten really pissed, I hadn’t expected that to do anything, but I guess not all of them are impervious to me

Cloud notices this when I do because suddenly there’s hand is wrapped around my bruised throat—everyones favorite place today—and his face is above mine. I can’t even fathom how someone can move like this, but when I’d seen it in the forest, it had been a Vampire. He bares teeth at me. Protruding from his mouth are more sharp fangs than the Vampires before and more than I can presently count. Is this not a Vamp on steroids? A deep growl bellows from his chest like there’s something inside of him wanting to rip itself out. Nothing in this world had prepared me for any of the events today, especially not this. 

Seeing his eyes up close is like a siren going off in my ears. It gives me the feeling I had when the Vampire with heterochromia appeared in the forest. Now I’m wondering how I could ever have interacted with him in the bookstore and not realized he wasn’t human. The longer I look into those steely eyes, the more I see. Oh there’s a beast inside. He fights to contain it. I can see it raging, hunting, slaughtering. It likes blood, too. 

“Cloud,” Isabelle’s shaky voice breaks through the moment. “I’m okay, please, killing her won’t give us answers.”

Cloud blinks, I see a sliver of something unsettled behind his eyes, but it’s gone so quickly I’m convinced I’ve imagined it, “I’m not interested in playing games with this one, she talks or she dies now.”

“My map,” I strain to say through an airway I’m surprised has not collapsed yet. It’s not lost on me now that his hand on my neck is nowhere close to asphyxiating me and his monster teeth have retracted, though, his canines at rest are still incredibly sharp. “is in my car. I marked the route.” 

“Isabelle, get out of the room,” he orders and then disappears into thin air. I hear glass shatter outside the Inn and know it’s my car window and then he’s back all in the span of seconds.

He’s looking at the map and tosses it on the table. A few of them huddle around it. “This map is ten years old, we’re still printed on it.” 

This all happens so fast that Isabelle has only just started making her way out of the room to safety. //Good. Let them beware.// I shudder with the thought that emerges. I don’t know where it came from but I welcome it. It doesn’t think I’m at a dead end yet.

“It looks like she’s telling the truth about that part.” A velvety voice replies. Its source is the naked woman at the foot-end of the table. My eyes have finally adjusted to the dim light of the room and I can see the details of her perfectly toned body with a tall model-like frame. I lift my head and find myself ogling at her. She has rich, deep brown skin the shade of a dark acorn from a live oak tree. Her eyes are dark, sultry with a natural smile to them and her hair halos around her head in neat, voluminous tight curls that fall just below her shoulders.

I know I should think this is my first time seeing this woman, but why do I feel like I’ve already seen her twice today?

“//Squirrel?//” The question just pops out of my mouth and I think I really must be losing my marbles now.

Her eyes widen, eyebrows raise, and then she tilts her head and releases some wholesome giggles. “My name is Bethany, but I don’t mind if you call me Squirrel.” Everyone is looking at her and then back to me wondering what the hell is happening between the two of us.

I’m not even sure what just happened but I’m pretty sure this gorgeous woman is telling me that she //is// in fact the squirrel I saw when I woke up from my nap at the lake and again when she was on the tree Vamp Number 2 had me pinned against. I remembered her little squirrel expression that said //girl, what are you doin’?// it had snapped me back into consciousness. I don’t know how my brain knows this but it does.

“Girl, you saved my //life// back there.” If I hadn’t turned my head and had that squirrel in my face god knows what could have happened.

Everyone is looking back and forth between us and Squirrel aka Bethany is having an ‘aw-shucks’ moment.

“You can recognize her in human form?” Stalker-dude says in astonishment.

I look at him and am unsure if I just got myself into more trouble, but I figure I should answer some of their question before they consider me non-compliant and go back to threats, “I mean, yeah, it’s just…” I try to explain how I know but can’t find the words, “Squirrel.”

I can see—//feel’s// more the word, that I’m vexing Cloud with the new questions that are piling up about me; however, I can’t help noticing he’s avoiding looking directly at me. I don’t know what happened just before, but I don’t waste any time now, Bethany is my opening and I direct my next question at her.

“Why are you doing this to me then? Why help me at all?”

Her eyes are crestfallen like she can see how I feel betrayed, but she glances at Cloud who glares at her empathy, she turns back to me, “We’re trying to figure out what you are and if you’re dangerous.”

“Well that’s rich.” I scoff, “You literally have me followed all day by Stalker Guy over here,” I jerked my head at the guy who had grinned at me flirtatiously when I exited the clothing store earlier and he stands back accused. “You see me taking a nap—what was it? Ten minutes prior to me being violently attacked and nearly murdered. Now you have me strapped to the table like //I’m// the one who’s dangerous. Tell me how this makes any sense?”

Squirrel sighs, “You don’t seem to be,” she glances at Cloud again who looks pissed that Squirrel’s trying to level with me, he doesn’t stop her though.“but then you hurt Isabelle just now and your ability proves minacious.”

“What? So I’m just not supposed to fight back or get pissed off when someone orchestrates the event leading to me being tied to a dinner table for just existing? It’s self defense. //Human// nature.” I make sure to add that last part just to drive the nail in the coffin. No pun intended.

“Human’s can’t compel people.” The cold, matter-o-fact tone of Cloud’s voice tells me there’s no argument to be won with him on this front. They don’t think I’m human and after my experience with the supernatural tonight and the isolated life I’ve lead as a chick with mind powers I could never explain, fighting to say otherwise is not a hill I’m willing to die on.

  “Fine. Let’s go with that, but I can tell you this much, my greatest crime—hmm,” I look around the table at each one of them, include the one guy I don’t recognize among them, “—is that I’m too convincing. I’ve never gone out of my way to cause someone harm. That would be all of you. I don’t know why I am the way I am but I’ve literally been going out of my way to not do what comes naturally to me and my what an incentive today has been. Now if you’re going to kill me just fucking do it already but if you have any further questions the least you can do is untie me from the dinner table.”

Squirrel and the others take in my speech and each one of them looks at Cloud, who by now I’m assuming isn’t just Bookstore Girl’s boss.

He and Bethany aka Squirrel move away and have a hushed conversation between the two of them, I can still hear most of what they say though. I guess it isn’t top secret. 

“She can’t be a Vampire,” Squirrel says, “It doesn’t make any sense for a Vampire to feed on their own, it makes them sick, but I saw it salivating over her.”

What? They think I’m a Vampire. What the hell is going on here?

“She uses compulsion, she tried to use it on me before.” Man, this guy is really fighting tooth and nail not to give me the benefit of the doubt.

“That may be,” Squirrel retorts, “but it didn’t work and she only used it in self-defense. I saw what happened out there, and back in the forest too, she used compulsion on the Vampire Aleksander to get away from him. It worked.”

Cloud’s head snaps over to look at me, I feel like I’ve been caught eavesdropping on a private conversation for a hot second. His gaze falling on my eyes again after it seemed like he was avoiding eye contact before startles me. 

He looks at the guy on my right who I almost forgot was there with his stillness. I look at him, he’s in the light but he’s in the shadows. He unsheathes a huge knife from a holster at his side.

My body pulls away hopelessly under the straps. I can’t decide if I’m going to scream or be verbose and yell “holy hell” in my last moments so my mouth just opens wide into silence. The knife comes at me quickly and I hear a slash and then another slash. I feel cool air on my wrist and an ease of immense pressure from my ribcage. I’ve never felt so free, but I know that’s the exact opposite of what I am.

I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that I’ll live to die another day, or at very least, another ten minutes. 

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