Necessary Secrets - The Prologue

          It was them against the world; a pride of two lionesses with no need for a lion. They hunted together, fed together, slept together. Everything done as a unit, inseparable from each other, one mind in two bodies.

            That night, just as they did every full moon, they hunted.

Rachael and Eva stalked their prey in the hills outside of Los Angeles. Guided by erratic breathing and the smell of sweat paired with tears, the two women slipped in and out of the trees in unison, eyes forward, always with their prey in their line of sight. It was their favorite time of the month and they savored every minute of it.

The man was easy to trap. The scent of him pissing himself when he realized what he’d gotten him and the girl into was strong enough for Rachael and Eva to smell a mile away. When he crapped his pants while running into the canyon, well, the fun was over. It took just five seconds for him to give up and die like a coward: on his knees, cheeks puffy from blubbering, pleading for God – or his mother to save him.

Feeding wasn’t too pleasant, but the pair had been through worse and they were hungry.

The girl, now, she was different. Smarter than her date, she’d stripped off her clothes in an attempt to mask her scent. Eva watched in amusement as she removed her underwear by the creek and tried bathing in the water to wash off the perfume she was wearing.

“Clever girl,” she mouthed to Rachael, who was behind a tree not 10 feet from where the girl was now lying, rolling around in the dirt. “Good body.”

“Her father must be a hunter,” Rachael murmured back. It intrigued her, thinking that the girl may know enough about hunting to be smart enough to try something like this. “Too bad we didn’t ask before sex.”

In the end, it didn’t matter. The girl was never in danger of getting away; the compound had been constructed that once people entered, they didn’t get out. If Rachael and Eva didn’t get to them first, the wolves and the traps would.

The girl died standing, unlike her boyfriend. At least she had the respect enough to face her killers. That lent her the reward of being killed quickly, a mercy that Eva had not bestowed on any prey in decades.

The girl knew it was coming, but when the dagger went through her neck, her eyes widened with surprise. There was something else, too: pleasure. As though the thrill of the night had finally caught up with her and she got the joke just as she was dying.

And that’s how they fed, with the girl’s beautiful emerald eyes open and her burgundy smeared lips slightly parted in a smile.

#

            The sex was always better after feeding. The ravenous need for sustenance now satiated, Rachael and Eva could feed on each other. They could lie wrapped up in each other for hours, until the sun came up and the blinds went down, enabling them to prolong the night for as long as they needed.

            Eva always fell asleep first, her steel grey eyes fluttering closed, wrapped up next to Rachael, covering her, her breathing slowing to the point that she looked dead. Her body would grow cold and still, wrapped in the black silk sheets of the large rosewood platform bed that Rachael had made when they lived in Scotland.

            Normally she wouldn’t wake up for a few days, allowing Rachael to have some time to herself. It was when she would attend to business and do research for her interests, uninterrupted by Eva’s needs and desires. She’d begun to cherish this time over the years.

            The dream of a few days alone was rudely interrupted by bangs and crashes coming from the attic. It was what woke Rachael, who sat straight up in bed, her eyes scanning the room, looking for any sign of movement.

            At first, she thought that something had broken into the house. She reached out her hand to Eva, but where her body once laid was just cool sheets. When she looked, Eva was gone.

            Another crash upstairs let Rachael know where Eva must be.

            No. No. No.

            In less than a minute, she was out of bed, down the corridor, up the steps to third, then fourth floor, up the stairs to the attic and at the door of her private study which, she saw, was wide open, claw marks ripped through the oak where the door handle once sat.

            There, standing in the middle of Rachael’s study, her sanctuary, was Eva, her once calm blonde locks now swirling around her like a storm.

            “You lied to me,” she said quietly.

            “What?” Rachael kept her anger in check. In the entire time they’d been together, they made one promise – each woman would have her own private sanctuary and the other would never step foot in it. Eva, in all her stupid curiosity, had just broken that rule.

            “You lied to me.”

            That’s when she saw it: the letter in Eva’s hand. The one she had tried so hard to bury, just like she tried to bury the memories that came with it. The secrets that it brought. The heartache it would cause Eva.

            Rachael took a minute to digest it. She hadn’t seen the letter since she opened it, but it was clearly the same one; the crimson wax stamp was still visible and hanging from the string that had kept it together.

            “All this time and you let me believe it was done.” Eva was pacing the length of the room, her body now changed from the sweet little kitten Rachael had always cared for to a lioness ready to pounce on one of her own for taking her food. “But it’s not done, is it?”

            “It is for you,” Rachael said. She kept her voice even, but her hands were trembling.

            “But not for you.” Eva’s words were venom, meant to seep through Rachael’s patience. “Been keeping track, right?”

            “It’s not what you think.”

            “It’s exactly what I think,” Eva said, slamming the letter down on the desk, baking the letter into the wood. Rachael moved further in the room, keeping an eye on the window. 

            The sun would be coming up soon. She could already see the light changing.

            “Can we talk about this downstairs, please?” Rachael changed into protective mode, her words soothing. “I can explain all of this, but let’s—”

            “I’m not moving until you admit it.” Eva’s steel grey eyes were turning black. Rachael moved closer to her, and that’s when she realized that her entire study had been torn apart.

            What else does she know?

            “Say it, Rachael.”

            “Alright, Eva,” Rachael said, her entire body now trembling. “I knew.”

            “And?”

            “And I lied to you about it.” Eva hissed at her, throwing her desk chair aside. The sound of the chair splitting as it hit the opposite wall rang in Rachael’s ears. “Because you told me you didn’t care. There was nothing we could do. We couldn’t keep—”

            “You didn’t give me a bloody choice.”

            Rachael’s eyes scanned the room. Everything had been overturned, things had been thrown aside, nearly everything she cared about had been looked through.

            Except for the box.

            Please, not the box.

            “Look at me.” Eva snapped Rachael back to reality. She was still angry, but Rachael could smell amusement. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you?”

            “Obviously not.” Rachael motioned to the letter, the wax seal and rope barely hanging on by a thread, the only bit still visible.

            “You love keeping secrets, don’t you?” Eva was now drunk on a secret of her own. It made Rachael nervous. “Well, I have one for you.”

            Rachael’s body went rigid, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.

            “Eva, what did you do?” Rachael was now more than a little concerned and it had nothing to do with the letter. “Eva.”

            “Oh nothing,” she said, twirling in a circle, a giggle forming in her mouth that she let out as a scream. “Just been in touch with some old friends.”

            She wouldn’t, Rachael thought to herself.

            “I would,” Eva said. “And I did.”

            Anger boiled inside Rachael, threatening to overtake her common sense. She reached out and clawed the wall to keep from running at Eva.

            “Elysiasays hello.” There it was. “She says she misses you.”

            Rachael hissed, her eyes narrowing, the blue in her eyes disappearing as a veil of black blurred her vision.

            “Did you tell her where I am?” The words came out as a command rather than a question. It gave Rachael a moment to collect herself. When she could see clearly again, Eva was no longer so amused.

            She was cautious.

            “Of course not,” she said. “But don’t change the subject—”

            “You wanna talk about something that ended ages ago and you’ve been speaking with Elysia? Behind my back?” Rachael was now seething. She took her hand out of the wall and squared off with Eva, who, Rachael had to respect, was not backing down.

            “She’s the one who told me,” Eva huffed. “I had a right to know.”

            “You didn’t want to know, remember? So, I kept it from you. Which is different than what you’ve done,” Rachael said, stalking towards Eva. “What I did won’t get us killed.”

            “Careful,” Eva said, smiling. Her way of always trying to diffuse the situation. “Only one of us can bring back the dead.”

            “Do you think Elysia’s going to keep you alive after her war with me is over?” That wiped the smirk from Eva’s face. She has no clue what she’s done. “She’ll use you for what she can. When she’s done with you, she’ll kill you.”

            “But I can—”

            “She has hundreds of others that can do what you can.” Rachael spat out. She was now panicking but holding onto her anger so that she could have some semblance of control. She could already feel it slipping through her fingers. “You idiot. What did you think was going to happen? You were going to turn me over to her and then you’d get to walk?”

            “I haven’t done anything close to what you’ve done.” Eva was smirking, her eyes dancing. Rachael could still smell her fear; it always smelled sweet, like gardenias.

            It was a nauseating smell she knew all too well.

            “No? You think Elysia’s going to forgive you for killing so many of her own?” Eva’s face dropped. “You were right there with me. She’s played you, Eva, and now you’ve put us both in danger. For what? For something that finished ages ago.”

            Rachael tried to collect herself. They didn’t have time for this; only minutes before the sun reared its head.

            “You know what? Let’s go downstairs and try to sort this out—"

            “No,” Eva protested, slamming her foot down on the ground. Such as a child. Always wanting to play the game but never wanting the rules to apply to her. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Elysia promised me something you will never give me.”

            “What’s that?” Rachael didn’t need to ask the question; she knew the answer. It didn’t stop her hands from shaking and her heart fluttering into her throat.

            “The truth.” Eva was now backing up towards the window, the only one in the house that had no shutters to keep out the dawn. “You lied about something important. You lied because you are afraid of being alone.”

            Rachael moved closer, hands outstretched.

            “Eva, please don’t,” her voice quiet, eyes peeking up every few seconds as the sun began its ascent. “You don’t know what can happen—”

            “This time, you have every right to be. Because now you are alone and there is nothing you can do about it.” Eva ignored Rachael’s words, climbing backwards onto the windowsill, balancing perfectly. “I want you to know something very important.”

            Rachael inched forward, arms still outstretched. There’s still time.

            “You took something from me,” Eva said, standing, her silhouette bearing down on Rachael, hands reaching behind. “And you and I both know this isn’t finished. Not by a long shot.”

Rachael couldn’t scream the word “No!” in time. She couldn’t say anything at all, she just watched as Eva drop from the window as the sun’s rays hit the house.

It took less than five seconds for the screaming to start. The long howl that turned into screeching, the echoes of pain shaking the house.

Then, Eva’s screams from outside, banging on the kitchen door.

Rachael got on her hands and knees, scrambling downstairs, cutting her head on the door jam as she cut the corner to the ground floor too fast.  She kept moving, slipping and sliding on her own blood that was gushing from her head, creating a crown of blood in her raven black hair.

She turned the knob and pulled the door open to silence.

Silence and ash, floating in the wind like it was snow, sweeping away with the gust of wind that told Rachael a storm was coming. The sun was now hidden behind dark clouds, but there, on the ground in front of the kitchen, showed the only thing that was left of Eva:

The locket that she’d worn around her neck.

Rachael didn’t think and put her hand out, barely closing her fist around the locket before the sun poked back out from behind a large cloud and began chewing through her skin. She leapt back from the door, letting it close on its own, scurrying into the kitchen, pulling out her phone, tapping a few commands into it to send the entire house into shutdown mode.

Then she collapsed under the kitchen table, curled up in the fetal position, cradling the only thing left of Eva she had left.

When the tears started, Rachael let them roll, her sobs keeping in time with the thunder outside.

#

It would be three days, three days of crying and mourning, before Rachael moved from the spot on the floor. She wouldn’t realize it had been that long, but to her time was immaterial.

            Just a way for her to remember what she had lost.

When she did move, her first stop would be the fridge. Opening it, her head still aching from the blow Eva had struck, she took a black bottle and drank the entire contents in less than 10 seconds.

Unsatisfied, she opened the fridge again and drank a second bottle, then a third.

Rachael was full after the third bottle and turned her attention to her hand, which she put out in front of her. Spots of blood fell from her mouth and into the open wound, sealing it. When the wound had healed, Rachael licked the rest of the blood from her hand and moved to the window in the great room at the front of the house.

With one command pressed into the keypad next to the blinds, the night sky was revealed to her. Another few presses and the entirety of the compound, all on security cameras, played on the window panes.

Nothing. No sign of Eva, no sign of Elysia.

Just animals and darkness.

Rachael stood in front of the panes for a while, waiting to see any sign of movement. Her senses keyed into every sound, every animal, but she couldn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.

After a while, she made her decision: it was time to go back to Los Angeles. If Eva had gone to Elysia, it was better to battle in the city than in the country. More places to hide, to recover, to plan.

And she had just the place to do it.

#

30 minutes later, Rachael was driving out of the compound in a sleek black Aston Martin, the passenger seat holding the most important items in her possession – the box that held all her secrets and Eva’s diary. Eva’s locket was fastened around her neck, a memorial of betrayal and loss.

As Rachael drove out, she glanced back at the compound, knowing that while Eva may be gone, her sigils and protection rituals would keep the place hidden, especially since Rachael had made a few adjustments she was now glad she hadn’t told Eva about.

Rachael took the PCH down to Los Angeles, allowing the city to open up to her as she emerged from the mountains and down the shoreline. The minute she hit Malibu, the scent of humanity and all of their vices filled her nostrils.

Rachael smiled, the tips of her fangs barely showing over her blood-stained lips.