Rouge

Rouge - Chapter Twenty-Two

As the wind picked up outside, Hunter stalked down the street to the main road and scanned traffic for a taxi. A few tears trickled down her cheek and she swatted them away, determined not to let her fight with Eli – if that was even a fight – get her down. In truth, she just didn’t want to give the fire the satisfaction. It had overpowered her tonight, true, but that only gave her the fortitude to train even harder.

A yellow cab pulled up next to her and she smiled to the driver and ducked in the backseat. There, she found a passenger already buckled up on the other side.

“Oh,” she started, moving backwards. “Sorry, I-”

“Mind sharing a cab, Sweetheart? You’re not gonna get a free one in this traffic.” The driver urged her inside and she reluctantly sat beside the man. “Where you headed?”

Hunter gave him the address and tried to relax, focusing on the howling hot wind outside. Normally she’d take the subway in this situation, but after the incident in the alleyway she was afraid to roam the streets alone.

The man next to her was staring, as New York men always do, but there was something about his stare that drew Hunter to meet his gaze. He was balding, with a slim face and hollow cheeks. He smelled strongly of antibacterial, the kind they use in hospitals and tattoo parlors, but he looked like he belonged in neither. He wore all black and his gray eyes regarded her as someone he might know distantly but could not recognize.

Hunter forced a smile and went back to staring out her window.

“Do you have some sort of blood deficiency?” asked the man in a calm, slippery tone.

Hunter frowned, followed his gaze and saw that under her sleeve, the skin of her forearm showed the faintest glow of orange in her veins. Hunter crossed her arms and covered them as best she could.

“No,” she said.

He nodded and stared ahead, but the smile on his lips struck a chord of fear in her heart.

“Actually, it’s um … a bracelet my mother gave me. It’s the new fashion.”

The man glanced at her again. “Right. No one likes to be different these days, do they?”

Unsure what he meant, Hunter laughed nervously. She thought about his words long after the man left the cab a few blocks from her stop, unable to be rid of his knowing gaze and strange smell.

She had to be more careful, or soon everyone would start asking questions.

“Who can tell me what the missing equation is?”

Not a hand shot up in the entire physics lab, and Hunter thought to herself with a roll of her eyes, God - we’re all doomed.

Miss Smart eyed them with the air of a disappointed mother. “Really, guys, I know it’s getting to the end of the year and you’re all exhausted, but I expected better.” Her sharp, young eyes moved around the room, peering over the rim of her glasses, and rested on Hunter for a fraction of a second before she turned back to the board to finish the equation herself.

Hunter settled back in her chair and twisted her pen around in her hand. For the past half an hour, she’d seriously considered stabbing herself in the neck with it. She was sure none of her classmates would lift a finger to stop her bleeding out.

The day had begun horribly. When Hunter arrived, she purposefully waited on the opposite side of the building to where she and Eli usually met - near the science building - and set herself the task of writing up study notes. But she couldn’t concentrate at all. She lit two cigarettes and ended up sitting there, alone again, wishing she’d never left last night. I really can’t keep him out of my life, can I? I’m a danger to him, and I still selfishly put him at risk. The bell rang for class before Eli arrived.