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In Plain Sight

Are you sure about this? Charlotte shot the eneral direction where she knew Valek was hiding, though she still could not see him in the snowy brush

Yes I am sure You are safe Be still

His words dripped velvet, sweet in her ears He seeht there next to her with his lips pressed tenderly against the side of her head Her cheeks and shoulders heated with the mere vibration of his voice and she couldn&039;t help the release of the slanced around, Valek was still nowhere to be seen Charlotte always held the responsibility of doing the hunting for hii Valek do it for hi able to see the power, the stealth, created this odd war sensation at the apples of her cheeks and down the tops of her ar air and the quiver of her bottom lip

Valek did not have the ability to be invisible, yet somehoas He did not have the ability to ed

The world was quiet Snow fell in light flurries around the clearing as Charlotte stood ray It was light out, but as she searched, she could not find the sun behind all of the cloudy winter She hugged her arh the chill was not a simple reaction to the harsh, Czech January Her teeth chattered, though she remained as still as she possibly could Oldshe loved about her little hideaway-the waterfall she used to love to escape to when things in her ly out-of-the-ordinary Though reen, the pines almost completely blanketed with snow, some of the other trees looked withered and naked in the winter wind She hugged her arhter around herself

Charlotte juhtest noise cracked fron of reen for whatever dangerous thing was coaze flashed quickly in the direction of Valek&039;s hiding place again as a tinge of envy surged through her How convenient it must be to be able to see a predator fro her ood at for noas being the bait, she thought bitterly She could have sworn she heard a s froht She stuck her tongue out at the general area and faced front, squeezing her fingers into fists at her sides

Relax, the velvet voice offered, quelling her again

The shallow gash in her foreare any of the main arteries that ran shallow under the ivory bed of her skin Valek had done it swiftly with one of his claws just a few moh, ain

Charlotte watched as ruby droplets fell, staining the purity of the white beneath her The raised crescent scar at the side of her neck throbbed dully with the sight of it Blood see broke abruptly in the thicket of trees, the sound bouncing off the rocky face of the dead waterfall Her pulse ha attacker increasingly difficult

Thwack!

Her heart fluttering, her focus snapped to the direction of the next sound that cracked the surface of the silence Air caught in her throat and she fell coiant, broken branch that plu her jaw tighter, she stopped breathing altogether So, whatever it was, smelled her

I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! Charlotte clenched her eyelids shut, not wanting to look up Her fists wound in tighter knots Her heart hammered so violently it al hunted by now After all this ti should scare her anymore That hat she told herself, anyway It was disappointing, however, that she was only hus She struggled to ease her shivering

Do not be afraid, Lottie, the honey voice rerin behind his words this ti overpowers me

His dark chuckle resonated around her head like a swar like the heat of a su very difficult But her fear was unwavering Even in spite of his soothing promises, her heart continued to rattle

Okay, I&039;ll just hitch you up over a fire pit and tell you not to worry, because I can easily extinguish the flaht at him

I&039;d like to see you try His tone was aain, cocky this ti for them, nonetheless The beast is excited-I can hear it in his mind So, be afraid, if you so choose It only lures hiher attention It was only her red scarf that whirled in the cool winter breeze She&039;d hung it there out of habit, always used to tying ribbons to the branches to find her way hoer, now that Valek could go out during the daytie sound crunched within the trees, and she knew Valek was right A squeak escaped her lips The thing sounded too large to be just any wandering forest aniht, a new, growl double-toned by a devilish chorus ofto the other Several branches shuddered with the volu the blankets of snow off the tops of the evergreens Her heart leapt into her throat, choking her, as she glanced nervously toward Valek&039;s hiding place again She tried to control the fear in her ardless of how confident he see thehter I&039;m safe, I&039; through the gathering of pines, snoing out on the air about its wings as they thrashed nastily over its nighte of the clearing It was co down over the emptiness as it raced The vision of its scabby skin stretched over a face with hardly any features, was enough to make anyone want to scream But when she saw its massive ears, she reminded herself to stay as silent as possible, with the exception of her thrus froze into lead bricks underneath her body, and so it see, either All of these weak human impulses Someti like Valek and the others?

Theand raced in a flash toward her Soain that she was safe Charlotte was hardly aware that she began to scream as she lifted her ar hard slaain

Valek wrestled with the beast, pressing its claws to the forest floor as he took it down, trying to get a clear shot at the artery in the creature&039;s neck The fairy continued to howl in ates of Hell ht or not

She flinched away as one of the Fae&039;s large wing-spikes drove itself deep into Valek&039;s shoulder blade He arched backward, howling in pain, but Charlotte could have sworn she saw a sgle of hunting things that met his power more evenly than a mere human did She kne it excited hi in frenzy as Valek finally overpowered it Charlotte watched as he found his opportunity and plunged into the beast&039;s throat Ink-like blood spilled out around histo the creature, the sick, sticky slurping sound continuing as the Fae&039;s thrashing slowed and slowed until there was one eventual, last nudge The thing stilled beneath hi the back of his hand across his dripping chin to wipe ahatever was left over Charlotte watched as the blacks of his eyes shrank back to the center until they becaain

Valek looked at her, grinning, his teeth already licked clean of the blotchy stains Despite the ientle hair restrained by a satiny, black ribbon, his shoes shined and slacks finely pressed He had always taken good care of his personal groo abilities Charlotte barely wore a wrinkle anymore, which never used to be the case The Witchwith thee home at the end of the town square of the southernood to you?" Charlotte grimaced as she watched Valek lap up soine how it could

Valek laughed once and looked down at the gray skin of the fairy corpse beneath hiood to you?"

"No"

"But you would eat the you needed desperately as a result fro a few octaves to seriousness He turned his face up to the faded, winter daylight

The way he looked at the sun was like nothing Charlotte had ever seen before-not eventhe way he looked at her His ad she believed she could ever experience as a hus ine

"I suppose," she h the snow, up to her tall, drawn Va fairy corpse as she toed over it

Chuckling, Valek laced his fingers between hers and crushed his lips to her forehead, an action that easily painted a s ht it had been taken away fro you would never take for granted again She smiled to herself, happy that Valek could at least te about his human life that he missed so ht?" Charlotte continued to pry She lifted her eyebrow "That&039;s not what I would have guessed It seems to be such a dark sort of creature" She wrinkled her nose at the carcass Herand a Fairy had co headache Valek had been completely unaware of the benefits of Fae blood at that tiht because they arethe day, and because their loyalty rests with the light" Valek trailed off He was still distracted "It&039;s a long lesson I&039;ll tell you about one day" Quickly glancing over his shoulder, he see

Charlotte knehy Being outside of their house always raised suspicion and fear Aiden, or whoever he&039;d beco behind any corner

"Aren&039;t you afraid soht find this here?" She forced herself to look away fro howl Its claere gnarled around its slanted head and she fantasized about what

Valek finally dropped his gaze froht his eyes had seely soaked up down at her He was beyond beautiful She had pictured this vision about a thousand ti up It was absolutely cri this unearthly in the darkness, where no one could appreciate it

"The body will decompose too quickly before anyone else stue, cool hand closed delicately around hers, pulling her away fro toin on itself Charlotte had never seen anything like it-like watching the deco process of a dead ani around the skull But that was the thing about y, Law One was always in practice: never reveal the existence of , bloodless fingers through her warether back down the path covered over by a light dusting of fresh winter It sparkled in the late afternoon light like finely sanded diamonds The only other prints left in it were their previous ones, when they&039;d traveled across the Occult borders earlier that day Looking up at hiain, Charlotte noticed a sudden smirk play across Valek&039;s sculpted features She was just about to question it, when he abruptly shoved her up against the trunk of a tall, thin evergreen His sweet scent enveloped her as he pressed hi to the narrow of her waist She gazed up at him, unable to blink