The Beau & the Beast

21 - Alfa

The comparatively large fist flew through the air so fast that I did't have time to react.
  It took a firm grip on my embarrassingly narrow neck. 

  The black strands of hair stuck to my forehead and it didn't take long before I fly straight into a concrete wall, back first.

   "You cunning little bastard, you stole from me!"  He hissed low in my face and so close, it struck me that all the wounds and bruises were almost gone in the relatively handsome face in front of me.

   Relatively speaking, because I would never fall for a wolf. "I-oh, gooood..! You're alive!" I stuttered and managed to squeeze out a smile while thanking the gods that I was not alive and not in need of air.

   "No thanks to you, leech." he hissed, straining his eyes so intensely on mine that I raised my hands to the sky in an innocent gesture for a few seconds, before my hands closed around his wrist again.

   "Ehm ... yes?"

   "How did you unlock my cell phone?"

   "Face ID?"

   The grip on my neck hardened and I kicked my red Converse in the air above the cobblestones. "And why the hell did you call him?!"

   I swallowed hard and thought about what I should answer.  Honestly, I really thought I had done something good, and his reaction was not what I had expected. "You had missed calls," I whispered quietly.

   "And?"

   "I got the feeling that someone was worried about you," I replied with a shrug and saw how the face in front of me began to soften and my toes could finally feel solid ground under me again.

   "You should have left me, I heal quickly," he muttered annoyed, and released his grip on me so that I fell flat on the ground, very different from a cat and more like a clumsy toad.

   I nodded a few times and licked my dry lips before I got up to brush off my light gray slim jeans, "sure man, I'll remember that for next time."

   "Next time, do your best to stay away from me."

   "Next time, I'll remember to bet money on the other guy," I grinned, giving him a wink.

   "Go to hell," he muttered, but something in his eyes told me the opposite, something completely different.  So I did something stupid, something I would surely regret.

   I gave back his cellphone, but what he didn't know was that I had added my number among his contacts.
Like in a bad romantic movie, I would leave and hope he finds it, but hey, you only live once. Or not really, but who cares.

***

Business trips and my pretend life as a human filled the days with boring everyday life, but my head was filled with other things.

     Brown curls and ice cold eyes, which were not so icy cold when it came down to it.
    I had seen how they sparkled when I challenged them and I suspected that the wolf liked playing cat and mouse.

     And if he didn't I was determined to find out what made his stone heart crackle.
I wouldn't mind a little help from those wolf paws right now, I thought with a sigh as my feet flew over the gutter once again.

     Why was there always a whole bunch of bad guys chasing me?  And what the hell had I ever done to provoke them?  Probably my mere existence was enough to build a rage in the inhabitants of this madhouse.

     "I don't like the way you look at me," he'd said.

     I sighed to myself and took a leap over the nearest plank, I stopped at the top and looked back at the idiots panting behind me.
     If I continued at this pace, I would soon have to reconsider my immortality.

     Two hours later I woke up with an insane ache in my stomach area.  How and why a vampire's body hurt was beyond all logic, but like hell it did anyway.

    I realised my body was rocking back and forth and something or someone were holding on to my legs.
     My eyelids flutter and I noticed I'm bouncing over someone's shoulder, like a humiliating sack of rotten potatoes.

     When I tightened my body, the grip on my calves became harder and I immediately notice that there is no point in fighting.

     "So. Is it time to wake up?" The voice sounded tired and a little raspier than usual, but I still recognised it and couldn't help but smile.

     "Shall I thank you or ask you to go fuck yourself?" I wondered as I licked away dried blood from my lips, my own blood.

     "Funny you're asking. I was just thinking about how I hate babysitting, especially a kid like you."

     "You have no idea who you are talking about, wolf, I may be a thousand years old?"

     "Lived a thousand years and didn't learn shit," he snickered.

     "Maybe" I replied with a grin and tried to change position over his broad shoulder, "I think I can walk now ..."

     "Not a chance."

     I moaned and tried to come up with a better plan, "where are we going?"

     "You don't belong here," he replied shortly.

     "So you do extra work as a bouncer now?" I laughed but regretted it immediately when the stomach pain made itself known, "a man with many talents," I whispered, "but honestly I can walk by myself."

     "Listen." He sighed heavily. "you are like a fucking a boomerang. But this time you won't return. Understood?"

     Impatient that my tactics were not working, I used my hardest defiant voice and wrapped my arms around his waist so that my cheek was pressed hard against the lower part of his back, "But I like being here," I whined.

Then everything came to a standstill. "You're playing with fire. Kid."

     "Just put me down," I sighed, "and how old are you then? And what's with all the fucking nicknames? Dear children have many names and all that, but you seem completely obsessed with me." Annoyed, I tried to kick him in the stomach but was immediately stopped by a determined arm.  "You can drop me anytime now, please? I think I'm going to break in half."

     "You're a damn immortal, aren't you?"

     I moaned wearily and closed my eyes, "I've probably used ninety-nine percent of my immortality already."

     Three seconds later, I fall headlong into a pile of black garbage bags and other nuisances, in a less than pleasant alley in an even less than pleasant part of the city.

     In front of me he stands tall with his arms crossed over his chest, "I don't do charity, princess. If it happens again you stand alone. Is that clear?"

     I crawled to my feet and pulled up my sweater to study my bloated stomach with a moan, damn I would need blood to heal from this fight.

     "In your dreams chéri," I grinned and winked at him, "if you really didn't give a shit about me, I would still be lying where the gang left me."