StarShine (Temporarily On Hold)

12

Elara stayed in her bed, staring out the window as the sun peaked over the horizon. Light filtered through the trees, casting shadows on the empty side of the bed that reminded her again, of Bennett's absence.

She had hoped as the minutes turned to hours, that he would make his way slowly into her room. That he would lay in the bed, moving his arm around her waist and pulling her towards him slowly so as not to wake her.

She imagined his scent, the one that has become a comfort to her, knowing that whatever was happening, she was with her mate and that was all that mattered.

But then the darkness crept into her thoughts, pushing that safety away as if it hadn't been there. Because Bennett wasn't there.

The warning from her dream dances center stage and no matter how many times she told herself it was a dream, everything in her begged her to listen.

It felt too real to have just been a dream and she knew that even though it might make her crazy, she wasn't going to ignore it.

Still, it brought about more questions than Elara had answers.

Who was the raven-haired woman that Elara saw at night? Does she have any tie to what's been happening and if so, how?

The woman had to have been warning her about the vampires, that's the only explanation that makes any kind of sense.

Be prepared. That's what the woman said, and to be honest, that's what Elara was going to do.

Regardless of the dream or its warning, the threat of vampires is a very real one. So what harm would it do to be prepared and do some training?

None, she thought as she slipped into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top. She tossed her brown hair into a ponytail that sat just as the crown of her head and pushed the nerves that flooded her veins as she stared at her reflection.

She hasn't done any training since her parents were alive and even then, it was nothing more than very basic self-defense.

There's no doubt in Elara's head that had her father still been alive, he would have taught her everything she needed to know and then some. He had talked about making sure that Elara would never be helpless if anything ever happened.

But fate was something that couldn't be predicted and something did happen before they had gotten to that point.

If Elara was being truthful, this wasn't the first time she had thought about going back to training. After her parents died, she had wanted to train to be ready to extract some sort of revenge, but it always ended up being too much to handle.

Every time she stood on those blue mates in the far corner of the training grounds, where beginners learned, she would end in tears thinking of her dad.

She could hear his voice ring in her head as if he had just spoken and sometimes, she swore he had.

It became too easy to tell herself that tomorrow would be the day she finally overcame that obstacle and began training again.

That's the funny thing about tomorrow; it never comes.

Tomorrow will always be tomorrow and today will always be today. So it was easy to let the time pass by.

But Elara couldn't let her past stop her anymore. She wouldn't be left vulnerable because she was scared of emotional pain. Her father would be so disappointed if she did.

With that thought in mind, she moves towards her bedroom door, ready to face the demon that has haunted her.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she opened her door and saw Bennett slumped against the wall. One of his legs somewhat stretched the length in front of him (but the hallway wasn't wide enough to fully accommodate that) and the other legged propped up with his arm resting on it.