Ravenswood Ch. 05

Maura sifted through what was left of her belongings. "It looks like somebody took everything I had worth taking."

"I'm sorry you had to live like this? I suppose this is what you meant by crashing at a friend's apartment?"

"Yeah, well, I lied." She shoved what was left of her clothes and shoes into a bag. "If I told you the truth I didn't think you would want to be with me."

He reached down to pick Maura up from the floor. He kissed her on the cheek then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Let's go okay, this place gives me the creeps."

They walked back to the car and he tossed a sack with a few of her things worth keeping into the trunk. "Where to next?"

Maura slipped into the passenger seat and buckled her seat belt. "The library vaults, I kept the things I valued most down there."

"We'll go shopping for some new clothes for you after we stop at the library."

After several apologies to the head librarian, Mrs. Williams, Maura gathered up two boxes and several bags of clothing she had hidden among the catacombs in the library vaults.

Jason picked up the bags. "How long have you been living like this?"

"Since I got the job. Before working here things were a bit rougher." She led the way out of the vaults, up the stairs, and past the front desk.

"Are you leaving, Miss Duranoc?" Mrs. Williams looked up from her ledger. "We so rarely see you I almost didn't recognize you."

"For a while, I'm moving to a new place and once I'm settled I'll be back. Have you seen Natasha? Her locker was empty, too."

Mrs. Williams turned away from her computer monitor. "Actually, she quit on Wednesday, she told us she had to return to her home country, something about a political struggle. We've advertised for a replacement but no one has replied just yet, hopefully soon."

Maura nodded and wished Mrs. Williams good luck in her search. They walked down the library steps and put her bags and boxes into the trunk of his car.

They drove to a secluded park near the campus and found a small park bench beneath the shade of an ancient oak tree. They settled down for lunch. He pulled out a couple of deli sandwiches and some sodas.

They ate in silence. The sky was crystal clear and a gentle breeze tickled the leaves on the tree. Jason looked at Maura for a moment then glanced away when she turned towards him. "Is something bothering you?"

Jason's face flushed red and he turned towards her sheepishly. "Well, no, nothing's bothering me it's just that...well...I was wondering..."

"Yes?" Maura turned to him.

"Don't be angry with me but...your fangs...what do they look like?"

A look of shock crossed Maura's face followed by a flush of red. "Oh. Eh, no, no, I'm not angry. It's just that no one has ever asked me a question like that before. It's a bit embarrassing."

Jason took his sandwich wrapper and stuffed it into a sack. "Then never mind, it's a silly thing to ask. I-I was just curious, that's all."

"No, it's okay, really." She glanced around to see if anyone else was nearby. As they were alone, she placed her finger on her upper lip and raised it slightly to reveal her teeth.

Jason looked surprised. "Huh. Your teeth look the same as anybody else's."

"Well, that's because I'm not...well...excited." Maura whispered then shrugged sheepishly.

"You mean the bloodlust?"

"Well, yeah, when that happens I probably look pretty scary to a human. That's why we are able to soothe their minds. It makes the experience less traumatic."

But why couldn't she affect his mind? What is it about him that prevented her from doing that?

She paused for a moment then she turned to Jason. "Watch closely." She opened her mouth slightly and two sharp fangs extended well below her normal teeth. They were wider at the base and came to a razor sharp point. Jason's mouth dropped open and his eyes grew rather large at the sight of her fangs.

Shocked, she flushed red and snapped her mouth shut then glanced around again to make sure no one had seen what she had just revealed.

"Wow, they look really sharp. I imagine seeing those coming at you would be a real shocker for anyone. I suppose it's hard for humans to consider that they're no longer on the top of the food chain."

Maura's hands fiddled nervously with her sandwich wrapper. Holy Blood, Jason, don't run. She suddenly felt like she should have never shown that to him. Damn it. She felt like such an idiot!

Jason leaned back against the bench and stared off across the park. Maura watched his emotions dance across his face. At one moment he seemed troubled then the next resolved. It confused her and at the same time enchanted her. She wanted to know what was going on inside his head, what was troubling him so much. Does he still trust her? It was fun to watch him squirm a little when she showed him her fangs but would that frighten him so much that he would want to leave her?

"That night when you held that rapist by the throat. That glint I saw in your smile, those were your fangs weren't they. Would you have done it right there? Out in the open?"

A fierce look grew in Maura's eyes as she thought about that event. "I was in bloodlust, Jason, and desperate. I could smell the evil in those men. It was my first experience on Earth and I was totally out of control. I didn't expect to find someone like him out there so it was as much a shock to me as it was to you. I over reacted."

Maura bowed her head. "Then, when I heard your voice that night and I turned and there you were, I was devastated. At that moment, I thought I had totally destroyed everything between us. The only thing I could think of was to run away."

Jason looked down for a moment then glanced sideways at Maura. "Did you go back to him, I mean that rapist guy, after I left?"

"I won't lie to you Jason. I went back. I'm a Terrian that's what we do. I wanted to kill him. I didn't...but I wanted to. Instead, I reached into his mind and tied up all the dirty memories that scum had of women and children he'd raped and molested over the years. I put them in a place in his mind that he'll never reach."

She paused for a moment and studied his face. "After that I needed to see you. I needed to know what you saw or what you thought you saw. I was afraid that it was all gone, all your trust. That I trampled on it by one single careless act. I never felt so alone in all my life."

"It must have taken a lot of courage for you to walk into my workroom after that," he murmured.

"More than you can imagine," she whispered as the fierceness in her eyes began to ebb. Maura moved to the ground and took her coat to make a pillow. She stretched out in the grass while Jason spread out against the back of the bench.

They both were lost in thought for a long time until Jason softly mused, "Do Terrians fall in love?"

"Yes," Maura whispered.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

The author copyrights Ravenswood and all of its parts. The reproduction of any part of Ravenswood without the written permission of the author is expressly prohibited. This story is a work of fiction. All of the characters, their names and the places they visit, are purely from the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to persons, places, or things is not intentional and purely coincidental.