She hadn’t really expected it to respond…Though the way she caught Eric looking at it from time to time, almost expecting an answer from it…well, it made her think that maybe, just maybe, it was possible. But she wasn’t really in on that wave length, was she?

   Wynter kept quiet and still in the room, doing her best not to panic. Eric was capable, to be sure, but anyone would be freaking out if they were in her position. If he was littered with bullets, he’d survive. Hard to kill what was already dead, after all, but if she caught the business end of a gun, it was all over and she didn’t think that she’d be on the receiving end of her own mystical Crow.

   The gunfire sounded from below, the young woman jumping a bit. Like firecrackers, it was, not at all how the movies made it sound, but terrifying all the same. Shit…shit, this was so out of her depth…

   “He’ll be okay, right?” she managed to whisper, her attention on the crow once more. She knew there’d be no answer, but any indication would be welcome at that point.

   He was bulletproof now, but she of all people knew that magic was a fickle thing…nothing was a guarantee. 

“I missed the final overnight bus, so now I have two days to kill.” Obviously, Esther had no idea how dangerous this city was. True, she was raised in a city, but a quiet area on the edges in a gated community. So, not many dangers there. But, Esther liked to have the care-free yet brave mindset and so far it wasn’t causing trouble. 

“Thought about exploring before going back to the motel, but I got lost. Can I ask you the same thing?”

It was funny that Kyleigh gave Bentley an odd look with what he said about bugs considering what made up her primary diet. She almost laughed every time she thought about the look on his face when she told him what she usually ate, though now she had been able to train herself to rely mostly on whatever critters they could hunt and the things they grew in their little garden. Almost like a vegetarian lycan, if such a thing did exist. Hey if they could make the vampires in those stupid movies do it, then so could she.

“Yeah, I remember all the stories you tell me!” That was one of her favorite ways to pass the time when there was nothing else to do. He always had such interesting things to tell her about, all the places he had been on his travels and the things he had learned. Kyleigh would have loved to been able to do the same, but with sharing your body with an animal it didn’t really allow you such pleasures as traveling by plane to other countries. The fact that other people actually included bugs in their diets was their thing to be honest, she would never hate on someone for what they wanted to eat. But even if it was the only thing left on Earth to survive on, well she would rather eat grass to be honest.

Spare towels rolled up by the windows made her think of back home in Boston, when those really bad winters would hit and the drafts would start. Not that they really needed to, but Aunt Joan would do the same with their windows, just laughing when Kyleigh would complain that it was getting warm in the house. “I’m still surprised we found those. I would have thought towels would be gone by now, but I was very glad we found them. The jackets too. Though I have to say the way that you were able to take those old sheets and make them into curtains was pretty genius.”

A frown graced her lips as she stood there watching who she thought to be her little brother, and she gave a soft sigh. It was not until the frail looking boy sat up almost excitedly at her presence that she entered the room, her frown changing to more of a gentle smile.

“Easy… Take it easy, okay.” Sarah approached the hospital bed and sat at its edge moving to take her brother’s hands. “You need to rest and work on getting better. Dad says once you do he will let you come stay with me a bit.” The brunette sighed and moved a hand to brush the hair from the brother’s face to try and sooth him. She was worried that Irene was the one making Toby sick, that she’d turned into one of those mother’s that make their children sick for the attention. She would not put it past her, besides Sarah could not think of another reason for a perfectly healthy boy to suddenly be this ill. Though they would know in a few hours apparently. Her dad had given the go ahead to run several tests that would send the boy through a barrage of machines and have all sorts of blood drawn. She felt bad for Toby… none of that sounded good.

“So, aside from terrible… how are you?” She gave a stifled chuckle partly hoping Toby would give her some small tidbit of information that might help her understand why he had gotten sick.

Not actually thinking anymore how long it had been since anything happened, it always seemed like it was forever when the half lycan tried to remember. Years, that’s what she was guessing, had passed since all the good things had been taken or destroyed, so something as simple as tea with a friend was hard to bring back in her memory. All she knew now was water and maybe a really old soda she would randomly find. So whatever it was that Bentley was going to make for them she was sure it was going to be good to her.

“Honestly as long as it doesn’t have bugs in it, it’ll taste good.” Thanking him for the millionth time for helping her with such a simple thing as taking that water, because she was still that stubborn in wanting to do everything for herself, Kyleigh saw how happy he was with the things she was able to find and that made her happy in return. It wasn’t like she could bring him a box of his favorite candy (there was literally no more to be found no matter where she looked) or a new outfit (those were running out too, but she expected that), so animals were her way of gifting him things to let him know what he meant to her.

“Yeah that sounds like a plan.” As soon as he was ready they started to head back to their small house, like one of those one floor ranchers, that they had fixed up over the years. Not the kind of place Kyleigh imagined spending the rest of her days in but that dream had died along with most of the world. “I was thinking that it’s probably going to get colder soon, so we should see if we can find some more trees to chop up.”

After the initial shock of nearly being killed by a plant pot from someone’s window over 10 stories up, Esther had to look back at her reflexes and smirk. At least she got a voice saying ‘sorry’ high above her. 

“Goths like us need to be stealthy. We need to become ninjas!” His appearance really didn’t frighten someone like Esther, even on a dark and somewhat rainy night such as this one. 

It didn’t take Kyleigh that long to get used to the little things Bentley did to pass the time and help them out in their new daily lives. Once she had revealed to him what she truly was it was like everything after was just normal to them. And if it wasn’t for all the things her friend knew Kyleigh might not be doing as well as she was. Every time they went out on their own though she would worry about him, never going far enough that she couldn’t pick up his scent or hear his soft footsteps on the ground. It was kind of like cheating at the whole life thing, but if anything ever happened to him she would probably go crazy and tear apart every living human she could find.

Seeing him look up and smile was like visual confirmation to what she already knew, that he was just fine and it allowed her to relax herself just a bit. The rabbits that she found will be enough for that night and perhaps some for the morning, Bentley is great at making food last for awhile, and she has a giant gallon of fresh water for them to drink tied to one of the belt loops on her pants.

The half lycan never learned what kinds of things that came from the Earth were good for you, just what not to eat so she didn’t get sick or die. So the pine needles are a bit of a surprise for her. A good one though, she probably could use some vitamins in her life.

“Honestly? Probably not since I was younger, back when I lived in Boston with my Aunt. She liked to drink it all the time when it got colder. I had no idea those things could make tea. Good thing I got us some more fresh water. Oh and I found some pine cones and mushrooms, the ones you showed me were okay to eat. Saw a few deer too, might go out later and try to get us one.”