The Lamia Hunt

Chapter Forty-Five: An Honest Account

14:34 15/03/2015

"What about this?" said Jordan, her head still buried in the cupboard, a single arm stretched out towards Lucy, holding a dull teal-coloured dress.
Lucy shrugged. She didn't care about this, as she'd already told all three of them, but Jordan was having none of it; she was adamant on finding something for Lucy to wear, even if it killed her. 
Why Lucy needed something to wear was a painfully long story. Well, not long, just painful, but it made it seem long, which was almost as bad. 
Upon hearing her story, the three had told her theirs, which was pretty much as she'd expected; after being killed, they had awoken as Lamiae, and from there they'd started again. They were all Nescii, so there wasn't a great need to escape the sun, and so they had lived since their awakening in the neighbourhood, living and working in the bookshop to pass the time. Their discussion of types of Lamiae had then led to Lucy herself, and she'd told them what she was: a Fierus, with the ability to turn into a raven.
That was when they'd said they had to go to the Lamiae Verae.

"Listen," Lucy said, unsure of what it was she wanted Jordan to listen to. "I really... I don't."
The Nescius stood up, folding the dress over her arms and rubbing the material between her fingers.
"Yeah, I guess," she said. "And anyway, it's not your colour." She turned, looking at her. "But you do need it; you don't seem to know much about the Lamiae Verae, but let me tell you that they don't take kindly to Praedatori."
"But I'm-"
"That's not what matters; so long as you don't look Praedatori, it's fine. Now, what do you think you'd look good in? Pink, maybe?"
Lucy raised her eyebrows, and Jordan laughed. "Right. Maybe not, then." She retreated back into the cupboard, and withdrew with another dress, made of thin, pale grey fabric, its long sleeves flopping over her arm. "Here," she said, throwing it at Lucy. "Put it on."
"But-"
"It'll suit you. Unless grey's not your colour. It happens like that sometimes... Should be good, though." She paused, and glanced at Lucy. "What is it? I'm sorry; I'm talking way too much. It's exciting, though, isn't it? Going to the Lamiae Verae? You've never been, have you?"
Lucy shook her head.
"You?"
"Nah; the three of us... Well, we're just playing it safe down here. Haven't been caught so far."
Lucy nodded, slowly.
"And... Do you..."
"Do we feed?" Jordan nodded. "Course. Don't think we'd be able to live without food. Sorry, that was a little bit offensive, wasn't it. But yeah, we do."
Lucy nodded.
"And you haven't been caught?"
"Not yet. We're careful, though. Well, Summers is, and he'd kick our butts if we weren't."
Lucy smiled.
"You're close, the three of you, aren't you."
"Yeah. We've got to be, you know? Got to be close with each other."
"Guess so." Lucy paused, then began, "So, you've been here for... How long?"
Jordan shrugged.
"About... Oh, it's been... More than twenty - no, more than twenty-five years, I think."
"Oh."
Jordan nodded.
"Yeah. It's long, you know. Really long."
Lucy shrugged.
"Depends. But it's a long time to keep friends, that I'll say."
"Yeah. Hasn't always been easy, but yeah. Guess we had to become friends, after..."
"After what?"
She shook her head.
"No... Summers'd kill me."
"Sounds like Summers is pretty strict."
Jordan shrugged.
"Yeah, you could say that. He doesn't mean to be rude or anything, though. It's all to keep us safe. He says that a lot."
"Do you believe him?"
She shrugged again.
"Well, we haven't been caught up till now, have we. And that... Well, it's good enough for me." She paused, and there must have been something in that instant that had made her change her mind about what she was going to tell Lucy, for, without any further provocation, she began to tell her what had happened. "You know, when we were humans, he wasn't the leader. None of us were. See, we were in this group. Five of us: Summers, Hudson, me... There was Poppy - my little sister - too. But the leader... That was Phillips. I mean, I know that Praedatori are scary and all, but he was really cool. Just the coolest of the cool in terms of hunters. And he was the leader. It wasn't without reason, too; he was one of the highest ranked hunters in the Praedatori. And, when we were all alive, we all just followed him, and that was easy." She paused, before saying, "But... I don't know... It almost seemed as if the Lamia - Fidèle , was it?"
Lucy nodded.
"Yeah. Fidèle ."
"Yeah, that. It was almost like he knew we were following Phillips, that he knew he was the leader. And he killed him first. Killed him in front of all of us, scared us to shit."
Lucy didn't respond. It sounded like Fidèle , to do something like that. He'd always loved to talk about strategy; would have done it all the time if it weren't for the fact that it bored her. But seeing it like this... It seemed heartless, even, what he'd been doing.
But she knew that that wasn't true. She knew that Fidèle was kind, and that he had a heart. Not a physical heart, one that pumped blood around the body - he did have one of those, but it didn't make a difference to his personality - but a mental heart, a conscience. It was true that the consciences of Lamiae weren't the same as those of humans, but that didn't mean that they didn't exist.
Although, listening to this, she wasn't so sure.
"Anyway," continued Jordan, "The three of us... We all woke up within minutes of each other, and I don't know how long it was, but for a while, we just sat there. Being a Fierus, you wouldn't know, but... You know, after you become a Lamia, everything feels... I didn't do drugs as a human, but I'm pretty sure that's what it'd feel like. You're just so out of it; you can barely move, barely think. And... It's so much warmer, you know, being a Lamia. The air feels heavier, too, and it's just... Anyway, I think it was Hudson who tried to make us get out. It was probably a good idea." She paused, sighing. "But we didn't want to. Summers... He wouldn't leave until he found Phillips. It was the same with me and Poppy, but... But I didn't find Poppy."
"But you found Phillips?"
She nodded, not looking directly at her.
"It was horrid," she whispered. "I mean, you see people die when you're a hunter, see it happen more than you'd want it to, but you don't see that." She shuddered. "He'd been dead for a week. A week. He didn't look like a person any more, or not like himself, at any rate... That was good, I guess. No, you'd think it was good, but it wasn't. There're times when people look at a corpse, and they don't see the person who died, just an empty shell. Sometimes people say that's easier. I don't know." She sighed, heavily. "But I can't say that it was better to see a corpse like that. I -" Jordan stuttered, coming to a pause, and Lucy glanced at her. She wasn't sure what she'd expected her to look like, but this was probably better. She seemed unnaturally calm, her features barely moving as she talked. It didn't connect with what she was saying, not really.
But then, she could have expected that.
"Sorry," continued Jordan. "You don't need to hear this."
"No. It's fine." Lucy paused. "Unless, you know, you don't want to talk about it, because-"
"It's really okay." Jordan turned back to her, smiling slightly. "You don't need to try and be sensitive about it. I've lived through this enough times that it doesn't mean anything anymore, and talking about it again isn't going to make any difference. But I know that you probably don't want to listen to it, and-"
"Like I said, it's fine. Really fine. You don't have to worry about offending me. I can handle it."
Jordan nodded, sitting down and looking away from her. Lucy followed her with her eyes, cautiously. For once, she wasn't doing it out of fear. There wasn't anything suspicious in Jordan's movements, and she probably wasn't enough of a threat to keep an eye on. Even so, Lucy still felt as if she had to watch her, just in case something - she didn't know what - happened.
Jordan didn't seem the type to do anything drastic, but she had an odd aura of hyperactivity about her, crazed and frantic like an insect trying to escape a window.
And that was more worrying than it would have been if she'd had an actual plan.
Lucy shook her head, hopefully with little enough movement that Jordan didn't notice. It was true that she hadn't liked it when Fidèle had talked about strategy, but she must have learnt something from it, at least. She could almost hear his words as he'd said it to her: If somebody's got a strategy, you can predict it. If they're trying to do something, there are only a few ways that they're going to do it. He'd pause after that, and take a deep breath, before almost glaring into her eyes and whispering, But when people don't have any plan, when they could do anything... That's when you have to worry. People who you can't predict are the most untrustworthy people, more so than anyone else. Remember that, okay: It's better to keep company with someone you know is trying to stab you in the back than someone who might be. No matter what, you've got to remember that.
Well, she probably wasn't going to follow his advice here. But then, here, she was probably in a better position if she stayed. Leaving would cause issues, and she couldn't deal with any more of those.
And although Jordan seemed unstable, she didn't seem as if much would happen if she were to get knocked. It'd be like spilling an empty cup; you made as much of a mistake, but the consequences were far fewer.
Or, at least, that was what she was hoping.