The Purest Heart iv

~ “Penny.” He called her name several times before she came out of her thoughts. Her forebodings persisted.

Tears streamed down her face. She stood there before him, unable to stop the sudden outburst of sobbing that shook her body. Penny crumbled to the ground and just wept. The images she had tried to block from her mind all came tumbling out of the closet, jumbled and frantic.

When he came over to her, holding onto her shoulder, trying to comfort her, she didn’t push him away. “Listen to me.” Penny didn’t notice the slight change in the timbre of his voice. Using a finger, he lifted her chin, leveling their eyes. “Calm down.”

Instantly, she did. Her hysteria died down to a mild fit of sobbing. His eyes, pure gold, held hers until the sobs died out completely. Hands now framing her face, he used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her cheek.

“Eat. I know you’re hungry. We can talk about this. You need to talk about it.”

She nodded, her eyes never leaving his. Penny felt as if she was drowning in a pool of warm gold. Lochlan helped her up, leading her over to a stool at the counter. She ate like she hadn’t eaten in days. When she finished, she pushed the empty plate towards him. Dropping her hands in her lap, she fidgeted.

“You’re not human are you.” It was a statement more than it was a question.

“No, not entirely.”

There was silence.

“And those men...?”

“They weren’t men - not entirely.”

“They were like you then?” she asked.

Lochlan shifted uncomfortably. “In a manner of speaking.”

Penny swallowed before asking her next question. “They took me. Why?”

“Before I answer that let me clear some things up.”

She nodded slowly before he continued. It was important to him that she was following what he was saying.

“I’m a werewolf.”

He heard her audible gasp as he gave her nightmares a name. She didn’t panic, though her heart raced before it calmed down again. Under his compulsion, she could process the information he gave her without completely breaking and shutting down.

“Those men... they were vampires. I am nothing like them. You are not being held here captive. I brought you here so I could heal you and keep you safe from them. And from others like me... werewolves.”

“You healed me? How? The accident paralyzed me. I had broken bones. The least I should have now are bruisings. Scars even.”

“After the van went over the cliff you were barely hanging on. I couldn’t - I couldn’t leave you like that. I couldn’t watch you die. So I took care of it.” And twice in one night, he had almost killed her. To get them to his house he needed strength, and the only way he could get it was through blood. Her blood. With her injuries, she had lost too much blood as it were, and he had taken more, leaving scarcely enough behind to keep her alive. It had been a calculated risk. One hinged on how fast he could have gotten her here.

The question of how he had done it never came. Well, it did, but she couldn’t get it off her tongue. Penny wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“You said you brought me here to keep me safe. I didn’t do anything to those men. I promise you. I leave my apartment to work then back again. I don’t have friends. I don’t go out. I couldn’t have pissed off anyone that much. And I have no family so it wouldn’t make sense to take me for ransom.” Her voice cracked with her last admission.

“It’s not about what you did.”

“Then what the hell is it?”

“It’s about what you are.”

Penny looked at him puzzled. “Human?” Her hand went up to her throat. Vampires drank blood, didn’t they? A meal. Of all the humans they could grab it had to be her.

“A pure heart.”

“A what?” she asked. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s a lot to explain.”

“Then start, because none of this makes sense. Werewolves are not real. Vampires are not real. You read about them in books, see them on TV and in movies, you don’t sit around a kitchen counter talking to one.” Penny held her head in her hands, elbows on the counter. “I must be going crazy. I have to be. Maybe brain injury. Maybe I’m dead. I should be dead.”

She dropped her hands on the counter palm down, looking up at him as if she had had some revelation. “Why am I not freaking out right now?”

Lochlan smiled. “Because I told you not to. If you want answers you can only take them with a clear mind.”

Penny licked her lips, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought about it. She didn’t bother asking him how he had done it. She just nodded, agreeing with him on that point. It took a clear head to be rational. And with everything going out of whack, she needed to approach this whole thing rationally.

Vampires and werewolves, she wanted to laugh. There was nothing rational about that.

“Tell me. Why do they think that I am this pure heart? My heart is far from it.”

“Not pure in a literal sense. It just means that you’re not tainted by hate, jealousy, or lust. The seven deadly sins. I told you it’s a lot to explain.”

Penny tilted her head to the side, watching him as he ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. “And you don’t want to explain it to me. Why?”

Having her hysterical, and weeping was starting to sound like a better option. With her mind clear her eyes were too, and she was seeing more than he would have liked. Penny sat there, waiting for him to answer. His reason was purely selfish, one he did not intend to give voice to. He capitulated.

“Ok. Fine.”

Penny didn’t miss the fact that he chose to come clean, rather than to tell her the reason he was holding back. In the time it took for him to explain to her all she needed to know without any flourish, she had only blinked once or twice. Penny sat completely still, only her eyes following his pacing.

Lochlan kept monitoring her heartbeat, but it never changed its normal rhythm. He was starting to think he had done too good a job keeping her calm. Though he wanted her to have a clear head, he also wanted her to actually process all that was happening, not just analyze it detached and emotionless. This was all happening to her, and her life would be forever changed like he was.

“Change me? You want to change me into...” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Notice I didn’t say me.”

“Everyone else but you. That’s comforting,” she said, getting up from the stool.

“Years ago I was in the same position you’re in, and I was given a choice. It was my choice to become what, and who I am now. It was a better choice than the alternative. Taking you, it was just so you could get the same opportunity that I did to choose.”

“Ok,” she said, nodding. “Ok, so I choose whether or not I want to be changed into something else.”

Lochlan delayed giving her a straight answer. “In a manner of speaking.”

“Manner of speaking? You just said that I had a choice.”

“With me. With me, you have a choice. With them, with anyone else, they will change you whether you want it or not. No one snatches you off the street to ask you what you want Penny.”

Lochlan had a point. If he hadn’t come... if he hadn’t saved her. Penny didn’t want to think about what could be happening to her right now.

“And if I choose to stay as I am... human?”

Lochlan sighed. “Then you will be hunted until one of them wins. Until one of them changes you. Being an unclaimed pure heart is not one of the choices.”

Penny hugged her elbows pacing. “Then I don’t have a choice.” She shook her head. “This can’t be happening. I can’t believe this is happening to me right now.”

Unable to stop himself, he went to her. When he tried to touch her she jumped back away from him. It stung. Her rejection of him stung more than he could have ever imagined. He balled his hands into fists dropping them at his side. He took a step back.

The hurt was there one second then gone the next. Penny wasn’t sure if she had seen what she had. “I’m sorry.”

Lochlan shook her head dismissing her apology. “I am what I am.”

“Why would you choose to be a...?”

He knew what she was going to say though she bit her lip to hold back the word. “This choice affects more than just you.”

“If I don’t choose either, will they kill me?” Her voice hitched.

“No, but-”

Penny cut him off. “I want to go home now.”

“Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve said?”

“I did. I just... I need to go home. This is all a bit - much right now to fully process. The only reason I’m not freaking out right now is that you did something, not because I’m handling all this well.” She paced away, her hands linked on the top of her head. “I need to go home and think about all... this. Plus I have work in the morning.” Penny felt a slight dread. She had so much work to catch up on. Caitlin was going to have a field day dancing on her bones.

“Tomorrow is Sunday.”

“What?” she asked, her head snapping around to look at him.

“You’ve been out for three days. Injuries like the ones you had, they take some time to properly heal.”

“But my job.”

“I talked with your supervisor, Caitlin Crashaw. Lovely woman.”

Penny snorted. “If a hive of angry bees is charming, sure.”

“It’s late. I’ll take you home in the morning. I’m sure you can find your way back to your room.”

“Yes. Thank you.” Penny turned to leave then looked back. “For everything.”

Lochlan nodded in her direction. The warmth in him had faded sometime during their conversation, she wasn’t sure how, but she could feel it.

The next day, as promised, Lochlan took her home. Part of the journey was a two-hour walk to the trail. Then another five hours, or so, to make it off the mountain, and to her apartment in the city by car. It was dark before Penny stepped into the familiarity of her home. She locked her door; double-checked the latch. Something she had never thought to do before. She checked all the windows in her apartment making sure they were secure. As secure as they could be against a human intruder. The things chasing her were anything but.

Penny had a night of fitful sleep. The memories from the kidnapping haunted her. All the information Lochlan had given her was stuck on a loop, causing one nightmare after another. Without him to hold up an invisible wall between her, and the overwhelming emotions, they swallowed her.