In Plain Sight (A Hunted Rose)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Mornings are so stupid.  Seriously, I mean, the people who are considered “morning people” obviously got dropped on their heads as children.  I only need about four hours of sleep a week, but even then I hate watching the sun rise.  Well, the sunrise part wasn’t too bad; it was dealing with everything else that came afterward.  Only after I had my yummy coffee would I be able to pretend to be a normal human, rather than the homicidal vampire-zombie-thing that I was more inclined to act like.  It would have been much more enjoyable. 

Waking up after an hour of sleep was actually resting well for me.  I had been getting a lot of sleep lately, which meant I was becoming comfortable in the new town.  Maybe a little too comfortable. 

The smell of coffee beans and cinnamon filled the air as I tried to replicate the cinnamon coffee that Ryder had let me sample at the parade.  I think I did pretty well because I liked it, and Liam, who came out of the guest room shirtless, his chiseled chest on display, with mussed up hair and half closed eyes, liked it too. 

Then I remembered.  Ugh.  I had to go to school and deal with all of those people and classes and teachers and homework… I was seriously contemplating taking a sick day.  I just felt grouchy – like all I wanted to do was pick a fight with someone.  I didn’t like it, the feeling of unease and irritation.  It was like someone had switched my personality with the one I had right after I had been changed.  Let me tell you, feeling homicidal is not very fun most of the time, let alone when you have to then deal with a large amount of people in a small setting – also known as high school. 

My oh-so “sunny” disposition was not lost on Liam, and of course, he was more than happy to try and upset me even more, making sure I was going to be absolutely delighted when I arrived at school.  He had mastered that specific skill of his at least fifty years ago – the actual number was unknown and would remain that way – and so, I knew I was in for a headache inducing morning.  That was bad, because vampires weren’t supposed to get them.  Not that I had the choice of becoming a vampire, but if I had known I would get Liam out of the deal, I probably would have declined and bled out on the street instead.  It wouldn’t have been a very hard choice.

In truth, Liam wasn’t that bad, he just lived to annoy me.  And, y’know, the entire general population along with me.  Something about how he had lived long enough to deserve that right.  So, of course, I called bullshit on that and said he just enjoyed spreading misery.  He didn’t deny it.  I wasn’t surprised.  At all. 

I didn’t know why I was in such a pissy mood, only that I was.  It might have been the stress of all the recent events finally adding up.  Or something entirely different that would remain a mystery.  Doesn’t everybody have those days where all they want is for the Earth to spin off its axis, blow up and have all the little Earth chunks fly into the sun where they become little charred crisps of crust so that everybody else is as miserable as you are?  No?  Well, I thought it sounded pretty good. 

“Rosie,” Liam interrupted my thoughts.  “You’re mumbling again.”

“Oopsie,” I said.  “I guess my psychotic tendencies are starting to show.”

“Don’t worry,” Liam pretended to reassure me, “they’ve been showing since day one.”

“And it isn’t like you can't hear every word that I’m saying,” I gave him a pointed look.

“Something about how you are in a pissy mood and you want the earth to blow up so that everyone is as miserable as you are.”  He paused before saying, “what a pleasant thought.”

“Love you too,” I grumbled. 

 ¥¥¥¥

 I barely made it through the school day alive.  Or would it be un-alive?  Un-dead?  Un-living?

 Like it really mattered.

 The first thing I wanted to do when I got home was take a nice, long, hot shower.  So that was what I did.  The hot water rushing over my skin, relieving at least some of the tension in my muscles was gorgeous.  When I was finally able to compose myself enough to get out of the slightly chilling water, I took one of my oversized t-shirts and slipped it over my head after drying myself off.  After applying lotion – out of habit, rather than need – I used some of my unnatural strength to get my legs into a pair of black leggings.  It was a gorgeous outfit – an old, gray, faded t-shirt, and black leggings.  I was fit for the runway.  I mentally snorted over the thoughts going through my head.

I padded into the kitchen and took a Mountain Dew out of the fridge.  The nearly sickeningly sweet flavor washed over my tongue, and I questioned why I even bought the stuff anymore.  When I had been human it was for the caffeine – the same reason I had gotten addicted to coffee.  Now though, I actually thought coffee was delicious.  Mountain Dew, not so much.  (No offense to Mountain Dew lovers or anything.)

Placing it back down on the counter, I instead got a glass of water and sipped it as I relaxed against the countertop.  I was free for the afternoon.  I didn’t have work with Isabelle, and I, for once, didn’t have any homework.  I was able to finish everything at school, and with the way my day had started out, I had needed the miracle it was.

Liam was nowhere to be found, but he had left the mail on the counter for me to open.  I took the old fashioned dagger-type letter opener and slid it along the underside of the flap of the first letter.  All of the mail I got was the basic bills for water, and electricity – those types of things.  As I was working through the pile, though, there was one that was different than all the others.

It was a thick, pale cream envelope, with simple writing on the front stating my address.  The return address was a P.O. Box in North Carolina.  The inside paper had a simple message in a scrawled, messy print.

We Know Who You Are.

Below the writing was a picture of the last job I had gone on.  Or at least, it was the scene after I had left.  You would easily see the body of the man I had been paid to kill, and the open window I had used to escape.  It had been only about two months or so since the job, but it felt like so much longer.  I had come here, met the guys, and everything had gotten so chaotic that I had completely forgotten the reason I had moved here in the first place.  My eyes widened as the message really sunk in.

They knew who I was.

More importantly, they knew where I was. 

They had the ability to destroy me.

I knew that in a little bit I was going to be in over my head.  The only reason they had sent me the message was because they wanted a fair fight – something that didn’t make sense to me.  They could have attacked me and slaughtered me because I would have had no clue they were coming.  Why were they taking the chance of letting me run again by telling me they were going to come?  I knew that I was going to have to tell Liam, and I knew that I was going to have to face these people sooner or later.  I didn’t want to run for my entire life.

I knew that I needed help.

At least I wasn’t too proud to admit it. 

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