7. Oria

The first day after Mother left, I thought I was seeing things or hearing Loki, but when I went into the work room, things looked like they had been moved. Then the feeling of being watched started on the second day. It felt like the same feeling I had gotten immediately after she left before I walked into the tower.

I was out in the garden checking on the stones, setting more out and turning them so we'd get even more energy in them. The hairs on my neck stood straight up as I leaned down grabbing some carrots out of the ground. My body flushed immediately as a rush of adrenaline coursed through me.

Prey.

That's what I felt like out in the open. It excited me, scared me, but for some odd reason it didn't feel like I was in danger. The need to turn around was unbearable, who was watching me? No one could possibly come through the barrier. Mother re-enforced it before she left, unless it was one of the men who came with Tay or maybe it was Tay?

I glanced over my shoulder keeping my face hidden in my blonde hair as a weird shield. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but the feeling of being watched hadn't gone away. It was almost magnified. I should have been scared… but I was mostly curious.

A thought formed as I grabbed my supplies and the vegetables for tonight's dinner. Entering the tower, I climbed up the steps to the workshop to leave the stones and brew what I needed quickly. It was a potion that I learned how to make when mother decided we needed to sell more things so we could keep up our lifestyle. It was called a void potion.

Mother had attempted to make it a few times, but was unsuccessful. Once I played with it, I had perfected it and was told that a few magic shops used it for their defenses. Tay had said it was genius.

I should have infused the moon water, but this felt more important. My potion was done quickly. I bottled it up, securing the top with a cork that would make it easier to pour out or throw on someone. Grabbing a few more items, I set up a magical trip wire and a pendant that removed all magical enhancements the moment they passed the trip wire.

Looking down the stairwell, I hoped they hadn't come up yet and were just watching or listening from below. A jolt of fear made my heart beat faster. What if they found me? What if this was it?

Panic flooded my senses. My vision became blurry, my breathing was coming in shallow pants and my palms felt clammy. This is why I wouldn't survive in the outside world. Mother was right. I had no common sense, but why hadn't they come after me yet? I was outside, easy to get to and dumb enough not to run inside.

Tears welled up in my eyes; I was so naive. Tay had shown me some self-defense moves, but nothing amazing enough that I would survive multiple people attacking me. How did I allow myself to be a defenseless woman? I clenched my jaw, holding back the tears as I walked up to the kitchen laying another trip wire at the entrance before laying my vegetables on the counter.

Loki rubbed against my legs as I squatted down, picked him up and held him against my chest. He usually hated to be picked up, but today it seemed like he was giving me the comfort I desperately needed. He purred against me before he quickly looked towards the stairs. His body tensed and his ears twitched as he heard our guest.

He looked back at me before jumping from my arms running towards the stairs. I was about to run after him, but I couldn't alert the person I knew they were here. Loki hissed before walking back towards me, his neck was puffed up and he paced in front of me like a sentry.

Taking a deep breath I got started on dinner, chopping vegetables and sautéing them. The faintest thump attracted Loki's and my attention. We stayed still, wondering if we would hear them again, but we heard nothing except the sound of the food cooking on the stove.

That"s when I felt the snap of the first trigger. My heart felt like it was in my throat from how fast it was beating. I should have grabbed a sword, but I was liable to stab myself instead of the intruder.

Loki hissed again and I knew they were slowly coming up the stairs. I quickly stirred the vegetables, making as much noise as I could so they would think I was oblivious, turning off the stove, just in case. I took out a frying pan thinking of the worst-case scenario. I could hit them with this heavy pan, but I went back for another one because two is better than one, right?

Loki growled again as they got closer. The second tripwire snapped and I looked down like I was chopping something. I saw the person in the corner of my eye. Loki hissed before all I saw was a quick movement before a blur came into the room. He was about to grab me when I broke the potion bottle on him. He groaned with his eyes wide open as he slowed down.

He was a vampire.

"Fuck," he whispered looking at me in shock before I was able to hit him with a frying pan.

"What the?—"

I didn't let him finish his sentence as I swung for him. I hit him two more times before he finally stopped me from hitting him a third time. He looked disoriented when he stumbled and so I hit him one last time.

As much as I wanted to celebrate my small victory, I was afraid there were more people here. I slapped an artifact on him to keep him sedated. I ran down the stairs listening for more people. When Loki and I didn"t hear anyone I ran to the workshop to make more of those potions just in case there were more vampires. If I was going to survive, I needed an even playing field.

My heart was racing, the adrenaline was making me work faster and more efficiently. Loki was pacing in front of the workshop like he was on guard, making me grateful this cat was smarter than most. A prickle of familiarity hit me as I watched Loki walking back and forth in front of the door. It was almost like déjà vu.

As much as I wanted to unpack what I was feeling, I headed downstairs, opened the door, looked around, but saw nothing. I waited a little while longer, each minute that passed by I was praying to the gods and goddesses that he was alone. My stomach growled, interrupting my stakeout.

If there were more coming, I needed to eat and possibly sleep. There was also a passed-out vampire on my floor upstairs that I needed to handle. I set up a few trip wires throughout the stairwell and a few pendants to remove any magical enhancements that were passed. I think the vampire had an invisibility stone on him.

Once I was done setting up my traps, I trudged upstairs exhausted. The thought of cooking had me grimacing and I made myself a cheese sandwich with chips as I stared at the vampire on my floor. He was face down, looking massive on the small kitchen floor.

Once I finished eating, I felt much better. I grabbed a chair from the dining room, setting it in a spare bedroom upstairs that had never been used. I had no idea why we even had it, no one had ever stayed over to my knowledge, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone had. Mother kept secrets, a whole heap of them, and if the other night had taught me anything, it was that Mother had a whole other life outside of this tower.

When I walked back into the kitchen, Loki was hitting the vampire's head with his paw repeatedly and I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me. It was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. My laughter continued until my stomach couldn't handle it anymore. I wiped tears from my eyes, grateful for the small reprieve from the seriousness of our situation.

"Loki, I love you," I said, picking him up and cuddling him.

He pushed his head against my own, purring loudly.

"Alright, I have to get this guy in the room and then we can figure out what to do with him," I said, putting Loki down.

He walked up to the intruder again before he swatted at him again. I chuckled as I rolled the man over, stilling when I looked at his face. He was drop-dead gorgeous, my heart beat rapidly, my body felt flush and I couldn't help the need to touch him.

I pushed a strand of his dark hair off his forehead, taking in his handsome features, his full bottom lip, strong jaw, cheek bones I'm sure everyone was jealous of. My heart tugged like it was being pulled towards him and then I felt like I needed to wake him up just so he would look at me.

He was familiar and foreign at the same time, like a part of me knew him on a spiritual level or something deeper. He groaned, making me panic, his eyes fluttered open when Loki hissed.

He groaned again as he looked around and I grabbed the closest thing to me. I hit him with the frying pan again, searching for the artifact that must have fallen off of him.

"Can you?—"

I hit him again with more force, seeing the artifact and putting it on his body immediately. His body immediately relaxed as I held onto the pan waiting to hit him again if he moved. Apparently, being familiar with him did not lessen my fear or my need to protect myself, even if a small part of me felt guilty for hitting him again… twice.

My grip on the handle of the pan loosened when I realized I had a tight grip on it making my hand cramp. Loki decided to hit him again before walking away, but stayed close enough to us. I slipped the artifact in his shirt to make sure he didn't wake up until I was ready for him.

Once my nerves settled down, I grabbed him under his arms attempting to pull him towards the room upstairs. I say attempt, because when I pulled he didn't move an inch. Pulling again, he still didn't move and I grumbled trying to figure out how the hell I was going to move him, especially upstairs.

It took me two hours to move him upstairs, into a chair. This man was obnoxiously heavy and every ten inches I was panting from exertion. It wasn't a good kind of exertion from ten inches either.

His head was slumped forward as I tied him to the chair, knowing this was going to be so uncomfortable for him when he woke up. It made me feel guilty, but I got annoyed with myself. He was an attractive man and that was it.

I left before I decided that I was going to untie him. Once I had the door closed, I felt like I could make rational decisions instead of some weird part of me that felt like I was hurting a part of myself. This feeling was so different from anything I had ever experienced. For a moment I didn't know if I could trust this feeling, my inexperience with the outside world reminded me that I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

My body ached as I walked away from the room thinking I should look around the tower to make sure no one was coming to look for the man. So, I spent the next hour looking around the grounds, setting up a few traps before I crawled into my bed as the sky lightened to the beautiful hues of the rainbow.