Chapter 7

"Hullo" I raised a blood soaked hand and waved; I know, not the smartest thing to do, but I was at a loss of words, and actions for that matter.

I tried to calm myself down, tried to swallow the lump that was forming in my throat; But any way I looked at I was still in a bad situation. Either a) They had seen the whole thing and knew I was innocent, but the guy was still dead. Or b) they had not seen the whole thing and thought I had killed him. Which meant not only was there still a dead guy, and it looked like I had killed him.

Then there was my least favorite, c) They had killed him, and since I pretty much walked in on the murder I had to die now, too. Any way you looked at it someone was still dead, nothing would fix that or make it any better, and all the other options only made it worse.

"Valery, give me the knife." The second man said, easing towards me very slowly. I think he was trying not to scare me, but the fact that he knew my name and that I was standing next to a dead guy only scared me more.

I started crying then, big, burning tears leaking from my eyes and down my cheeks. My shoulders shaking as I tried to hold in the pathetic noises I always make when I cry. I couldn't help it, I was almost certain I was either going to jail or going to die.

"Damn it, Emrys, you made her cry," The man behind me in the alley spoke, sounded horrified at the idea of a crying women.

"I was only trying to comfort her, your the one who came out of the shadows like the death himself," The man named Emrys answered back, sounding closer than he had been before.

I desperately wanted to wipe the tears from my eyes and clear away the wet blur. My hands were slick with death though, and I didn't dare bring them anywhere near my face again. Distantly I felt the knife being taken from my hand and I heard a scrape of metal against concrete as it was tossed aside.

I looked up, blinking several times as my eyes nearly drowned in tears. He stood almost a foot taller than me, which only made him look more menacing, and would have scared me even more; Except for just a moment, he was too damn pretty to be scary.

His face was angelic, each graceful line on his face more beautiful than the last; This lips were a rosy pink, and it was no wonder that any word spoken from them would be soft and lulling. His hair fell just to his shoulders and was as white as the clouds on a summer day, the thin strands swaying in the light winters breeze.

He didn't look real, to beautiful, to majestic to be standing before me. Entrancing me and washing my fear away, then my eyes met his and my fear came rushing back. They were as beautiful as the rest of him, a soft sky blue, flecked with hints of gray; But it was the darkness hidden behind his eyes that brought me back to reality. There was a touch of something fierce in there, something untamed and wild, just barley hidden by a warm blue sky.

"Please don't kill me," I began sobbing again, backing up on shaking legs.

The other man came up behind me and gently set his hands over my shoulders, a sob escaping my lips as I backed into him.

"We are not going to hurt you," He tried to soothe me, his voice sending a chill down my spine as he held me in place.

"You need to come with us, Valery." I shook my head, making the tears fly from my eyes, "The one who killed this man is after you, Valery. If he finds you, he will kill you too."

I was almost certain Emrys had been trying to reassure me, letting me know that they were the good guys and they were only trying to help. Good guys or not the situation had just gotten much worse, there was a dead guy, and if I didn't get very, very lucky, there would be a dead girl, too. That dead girl being me, and that was about all the bad news I could take in one night. My vision began to spin, the world tilting ever so slowly, my knees went out on me and I fainted.

I woke up slowly, first my mind, carefully releasing me from the dream I had been having. Then my body, as I became aware of the chill in the room, and the goose bumps spread over my arms and legs. I was so close to thinking it had all been a nightmare, but when I moved to brush my hair from my face I noticed that instead of lying in bed, I was on a couch.

Then my stomach lurched at the sickly sweet smell of dried blood, and flakes of it brushed off from my hand and onto my face. I am not sure if it was the exhaustion or if I was still in shock that kept me from screaming. My heart was still pounding in my chest, but that was the only evidence of my horror. I sat up slowly, brushing my arm over my face to clear away the dried flakes of blood, and looked around.

The room was filled with a faint light from the windows, it was early in the morning, the sun just beginning to rise. I didn't know where I was, or how I had gotten here; The other man from the alley was there, leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest as he stared out the window. There were plenty of questions I could have asked, where was I? How had I gotten here? Was he going to kill me? How did he know someone wanted to kill me? Why had the man in the alley been killed?

See, plenty of questions, all of which were good to have the answer too; But out of all the questions I could have asked, I picked the simplest, most irrelevant one. "Whats your name?"

He stayed looking out the window for a moment, squinting slightly as the sun hit his face. He had to be one of the most handsome men I had ever seen, sharp, rugged featured, full dark lips that were currently poised in a stern frown. His hair cascaded down to fall at his shoulders, looking like black silk, or maybe charcoal gray it was hard to tell which; And though I couldn't see his eyes I knew from last night that they were storm gray.

Finally he pushed himself away from the wall and came to sit on the arm of the couch a cross from me. "Kieran," he answered me, I opened my mouth to ask another equally irrelevant question when he interrupted me. "Whats yours?"

"Valery," I answered with a frown, because though we have never met before, Emrys had said my name several times last night. Which brought me to my next question.

"Where is Emrys?" Honestly, I really couldn't tell you why I wanted to know, but for some reason it bothered me that he was not here now.

"I will tell you where he is when you tell me your name."

My frown deepened with confusion, "I just told you my name,"

Kieran gently shook his head at me, "Not your full name,"

"You didn't tell me your full name," I shot back with a scowl, and though it was silly, it bothered me that he wanted to know my full name.

He gave a dramatic sigh, "Fine, if it makes you feel better I will tell you where Emrys is, and my full name,"

I thought about it for a moment, to be honest I really didn't care what his full name was, I didn't did want to tell him mine. Its not that I didn't want him to know, but I hated my name, and no one but my family knew my real full name.

So I did the same thing I did to anyone else who asked, I lied, "Valery Kerrianne Mosely,"

"Wrong,"

"I think I would know what my name was, It is my name,"

"If you wont tell me what you Full name is, I wont answer anymore of your questions." My eyes widened a little bit at the way he said 'full', making it sound as if I had left out a whole bunch of name. Which I had, my name was unusually long, but not many people know about it.

"If I tell you, will you answer all of my questions?" I bargained.

"Every last one," He seemed honest enough, and since he had let on that he knew my name was longer than what I had told him I assumed he already knew what it was. So if he already knew it didn't really matter if I told him or not, I was just curious as to why he wanted me to tell him, if he already knew.

Thinking about it was starting to hurt my head, so I took a deep breath and got it over with, planning on interrogating him afterwords.

"Valerya Kerrianne-Elvira Renata-Peditra Wilhelmina-Cosima-Letha Semelia-Edny Beata-Mosely," I finished off in a huff, though secretly I always liked the way it sounded.

I had always wondered why my parents hadn't just given me a normal name, and every time I had asked them they had told me I was just special. When I was little I used to go around telling all the kids my full name, but most people always thought I was joking, or they looked at me as if I was weird because of it. So as I got older my name got shorter, sometimes I would get tired of one middle name and choose a different one; But then I got my I.D. and a job and I had to stick to just one, Kerrianne.

He looked rather happy now that he had heard my name, where as before he seemed unsure of me somehow. Now he knew and a smile lit up his face, it was a charming smile and it stayed on his face as he relayed his equally long name to me, just as he had promised.

"Kieran Menachin-Garvey-Clementius Niran-Patu Erastus-Theophilus Takik," He smiled and I could not help but smile back, though I thought it odd that his name was almost as long and complicated as mine. I had never once come across anyone else who had, every now and again someone might have had two middle names, or two last names, but that was it.

"Why is your name so long?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Because I am special," He smiled, I smiled and for a second I almost forgot that I was covered in blood or that some guy was dead. Almost.

"Where is Emrys?"

His smile wavered, fell and turned into a frown, "He is taking care of the body,"

"Oh," I whispered, staring down at my hands, trying to pretend that it was not blood that was dried and peeling on them.

"Come on," Kieran spoke as he stood, "How about you get yourself cleaned up while we wait for Emrys to get back."

He lead me through a small kitchen and down a hall to a bathroom, getting the shower started for me and then going across the hall for some towels.

"I will see if I can find you some clean clothes to wear and leave them outside the door for you. Then when Emrys gets back we can all sit down and talk."

When the door was shut I turned and looked at myself in the mirror. My makeup was smear, black smudged under my eyes from when I had been crying; The curls had fallen out of my hair and was now a wavy, fizzy mess. I tore off my costume and stuffed it in the small trash can and climbed into the shower, turning the cold water down and the hot water up.

What was happening to my life? In the span of one night everything had gone worse than I could have ever imagined. Emrys had said that whoever killed that man last night wanted me dead too, Why? I had never done anything to anyone to deserve death. Could I really trust Emrys and Kieran? Even though they said they were there to protect me I didn't know them at all. How were they mixed up in all this and what did it have to do with me?

Those were the kinds of questions I should have asked, but I had apparently still been in shock until that moment. Now, I stood under the burning cascade of water, watching the dried blood on my hands soak up the water and become thicker, wetter. It ran in crimson rivers over my fingers and down my wrist, and for the first time since I laid eyes on the awful sight of a dying man, I screamed.