Courier run

[cian_oneill]

Odd jobs was definitely a part of Cian's work description, but he didn't mind this sort of thing so much. It gave him a chance to get on his bike and ride, even if it was just up to Searchlight.

He pulled up outside the library, opened the pannier on the side of his bike and pulled out the bundle of books that had to be returned. Some family had forgotten the concept of borrowing from the library meant actually returning them at some point, and had just left them in the room at the resort when they had checked out.

He took off his helmet and leather jacket, leaving them on the seat of the bike, and tucked the bundle under his arm. The heel of his boot crunched on the gritty pavement outside the library, and the rush of cool air that hit him as he walked inside was welcome. There was no-one at the counter when he walked in so he stood and waited, making the most of the air conditioning, before heading back outside on his next errand.

Comments

[wolfs_daughter]

Searchlight's library wasn't as well-stocked as the one in Seattle had been, but they had a fair amount of books about mythology and some about famous artists, so Echo didn't mind spending time there. It was quiet and cool inside, she could read undisturbed, and since she still didn't have a television she could also people watch for entertainment.

The door swung closed in her wake, and there was a quiet thump as she dropped one of her books onto the non-skid mat just inside. The hybrid made a quiet sound of annoyance, picked up the book, which had opened when she dropped it. That was all she needed, to be fined for damaging library property.

There was a tall man in riding leathers ahead of her at the counter, and Echo studied his broad back thoughtfully. She'd sketched some people since she'd been in town, usually random sightings of the locals, and she hadn't seen this one before. In a town as small as Searchlight, faces became familiar in a hurry.

The librarian came back and collected the books the man had brought in, then said, "Thank you for bringing these in, sir. We can't afford to lose many books here, so it's nice to have someone volunteer to bring them in."

[cian_oneill]

"It's no trouble," Cian replied, giving the librarian a lazy smile before turning to leave. As he did his senses picked up something he hadn't come across in a while, and there was only one person in his vicinity it could be.

He still had his sunglasses on, his eyes concealed behind them, giving him the chance to run his eyes over the young woman in front of him. He knew he hadn't come across her before without having even seen her face, and her scent was definitely not one he was familiar with.

Rhiannon did say there were a lot coming into town, looks like she was right.

"Miss," he said, putting his hand out to catch another miscreant book that was about to head to the floor.

[wolfs_daughter]

A strange, unnameable Something shivered its way up Echo's spine when she looked up into the stranger's face, and she was so startled that she almost dropped all of her books at once. She couldn't even see his eyes, but it was there, unable to be missed.

Kinship. She wasn't sure if she was elated or terrified.

"Uh." Oh, real intelligent. He was very handsome, even she could appreciate his looks. "Thank you. I should get a backpack if I'm going to check out a bunch of books, I guess."

[cian_oneill]

There was no doubt in his mind now, the sudden increase in scent easily detectible to him. "Would probably make 'em easier t' handle," Cian agreed, reaching over smoothly and taking the bundle from her, large hands quickly and deftly shuffling them back into submission.

He was curious to see the titles of some of them, and reached up with his empty hand, lifting his sunglasses up and propping them on top of his head. "Y' returnin' 'm all?" he asked, indicating the desk where he'd just left the bundle he'd brought back.

[wolfs_daughter]

"Y-y-y-yeah, I was going to check out some new ones," Echo said, jamming her hands into her pockets when the stranger did her the favor of arranging her books into a manageable stack on the counter. He didn't smell like the Wolf, not like Papa did. She felt ridiculously small standing next to him.

"I haven't seen you before." The words leaped out of her mouth and into the silence of the library before she could grab them back. "In Searchlight, I mean. I know I don't know everyone here or anything, but I'd have..." Smelled you.

"I'd have remembered your face."

[cian_oneill]

Cian's smile widened and his nose twitched with amusement at her.

"I'll try not t' be hurt," he said, his voice soft and yet clear. "I'm Cian, work down 't Cottonwood Cove, so not really here more'n a couple of times a week," he told her. "Can't say 's I've come across y' before, s' what's got y' t' this part o' the country?"

[wolfs_daughter]

His good humor calmed her nerves a bit, a balm on her agitation, and she lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I can't afford to live in Las Vegas, and a town this size is more my speed anyway. At least until the tourist crowd gets word about how cool it is to live in the middle of nowhere, anyway."

Were they supposed to shake hands? It was what humans did, but neither she nor Cian were entirely human and they both knew it. Echo dragged one hand out of her pocket, raked it through her hair, touseling the dark strands. Then she extended it in his direction, a slightly dopey smile on her face.

"I'm Echo."

[cian_oneill]

"Hi Echo, nice t' meet y'," Cian replied, taking her hand and feeling the warmth of her skin.

"Some interestin' readin' material y' got there," he said, a small jerk of his head indicating the pile of books he'd placed on the counter.

[wolfs_daughter]

"I like mythology, especially since Mama named me after someone in one of the stories," the brunette said, letting her hand be dwarfed by his. His body heat was markedly different than a human's, as if he'd just stopped warming himself by a fire. Werecreatures were natural heat producers, even walking on two legs. She sniffed at the air again. Familiar, yet also different.

"I'm guessing you're not American," she remarked once the handshake was over. "Where in the UK are you from?"

[cian_oneill]

"Small place in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland," Cian replied, the Irish lilt clearer now as he emphasised a little for her.

"And you? Where w'd y' family be from?" he asked, eyes on hers as he continued to assess, fairly certain she was lycan, but not about to leap to any conclusions. He'd known a few over the years and each had their own scent.

[wolfs_daughter]

"Came down from Seattle, found this wide place in the road and decided to stay a while," Echo answered, waving her free hand in the direction of the trailer park before putting it back in her pocket. "It's a small place, but it's a comfortable kind of small."

What would he think of her if he knew her mother was human and that she was a half-breed? He might not be so friendly then. But there was something about Cian's manner that said he might find it not worth ostracizing her over, which would be a relief. Living in the twilight between two worlds was difficult enough. She didn't need reminders of her status.

"I went out to Cottonwood Cove to sit down by the water last week," she said, shaking off the reverie. "Did some sketching, had lunch, waded a little. It's a nice place to make a day of visiting."

[cian_oneill]

"Aye, it's good f' that. Y' c'n find plenty o' places for some peace 'n quiet, and privacy. Good for going for a run." The last part was accompanied by a twitch of one eyebrow, his eyes fixed on hers as he said it.

[wolfs_daughter]

Was he trying to dominate her? Papa did that stare thing sometimes, usually when he was annoyed by poor service at a restaurant or someone was less than prompt in answering his question. Echo was too shy to be much of an alpha, and she wasn't uncomfortable when she ducked her head in response to Cian's close look, giving the taller were the respect he deserved.

"I didn't learn to swim until I was a teenager," she said, looking up at him again. "But I like being near the water, especially around here where it's always so hot."

Looking for something else to say, no matter how inane, she looked down at his feet. "I like your boots. Do you have saddlebags on your bike to carry books in?"

[cian_oneill]

He huffed a soft laugh, the young female clearly curious, but unsure of him. He didn't mean to make her feel this way and shook his head, indicating the bike outside.

"Used to, but they always filled up wi' dust. I use panniers now, seals keep everythin' inside nice 'n clean. Y' c'd do wi' a good bag y'self," he noted, knowing she'd already mentioned it but trying to put her a little more at ease.

[wolfs_daughter]

His accent made her imagine rolling green hills and bagpipes. Or were bagpipes from Scotland? Maybe she should look that up in a book.

"I actually do have transportation of my own, but the town is small enough that I can walk it in a day," Echo told Cian. "It's nice weather for a motorcycle ride, though. I don't know if it cools off much when the fall comes, but maybe it won't be in the nineties every day."

The librarian had left her station at the desk again, probably to shelve more books, and the hybrid peered past the man to make sure she was out of earshot. "How long have you been...well, you know. Could we talk outside?"

[cian_oneill]

"Long enough," he grinned, leaning over and pushing the door open for her.

He could smell there was lycan involved, but there was something else about the younger woman he couldn't quite figure out, and his curiosity was at a high.

[wolfs_daughter]

As she and Cian exited the library, Echo saw his bike where it glinted in the sun, and she let out a low whistle as she tucked her hands into her pockets to keep from touching the handlebars or the seat. Some people were particular about that, and she didn't know how clean her hands were.

"Nice," she remarked in a complimentary voice. "Papa had a bike when he was younger, but he sold it after I was born so he could buy a car with a backseat for baby stuff. There's a big framed picture at the house in Seattle of him sitting on it."

The tall man was not kin to the Wolf, but he was a shifter, she could smell it. She wished she knew more about her own kind. It might be easier to ask a stranger questions, though.

[cian_oneill]

"Thanks," Cian replied, nodding his head as she talked about her father. "So y' father's livin' in Seattle?" he asked, jerking his head a little toward the shade of an awning that was meant to keep the bright Nevada sunlight from damaging the books shelved inside the window. It offered a little shade against the wall.

[wolfs_daughter]

"He's a writer, sort of," Echo answered, following the motion of Cian's head before stepping beneath the awnings. "He writes stuff no one ever reads, though. Textbooks, things like that. He's really smart."

She drew an invisible line on the cracked concrete near the window, looked up into the Irishman's face. "When you, uh...when you change, what does it look like?"

[cian_oneill]

She was gutsy, he had to give her that, and her level of curiosity was almost on a par with his own.

"Isn't tha' like askin' a woman her age?" he teased, arching an eyebrow and the twitch at the corner of his mouth ensuring she didn't take fright, or offense. "I'd pick y' f' lycan, but there's summin' diff'rent abou' y' I can't quite put m' finger on," he said, as usual sidestepping direct questions until he had enough information to be sure of who was asking.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo laughed, but it came out sounding a little nervous. Rejection by and exile from the commune had done a harsh number on her psyche when she was younger, which was why she was borderline paranoid about telling anyone about the Wolf. Holly had been different because it had been clear those sort of things were exciting to her, but the world at large thus far seemed ready to condemn anyone who was different.

Still, if she couldn't tell Cian, who had a slightly different smell, who could she confess to?

"Papa passed on the Wolf," she told him in a whisper, and her eyes glowed a soft golden color as she let her other self show just a bit. "It was an accident, that's why I'm his only kid. Mama didn't know if it might not happen again."

[cian_oneill]

"That's what it is," he said, nodding slowly and leaning back against the wall, then quickly rethinking that and pulling away again. He leant on his shoulder against the rough surface instead. While the abrasions on his back were now well on the way to healing they were still a little tender and his t-shirt wasn't enough padding at this point.

"Y' wolf by birth, but not by y' ma." He paused, wondering what it would be like to be born with it. He'd never come across one born to it before, let alone a hybrid one. "How was that?"

[wolfs_daughter]

She noticed the way he moved, as if he'd been hurt, and she chewed on her lower lip rather than comment on it. Her shoe drew another line on the ground.

"I was born in a commune just outside of Seattle," she told Cian, averting her gaze because this was hard for her. "Mama met Papa while he was doing history research, and they moved in together in the compound. Everything was really great for a while. And then they found out I was a half-breed and that it was because of Papa's genes. They said we had to leave."

Shame. Echo was used to shame. At the way she'd been treated, the way it made her feel, the way people she had thought were friends had looked at her. As if she were a freak. It made her heart hurt.

She looked up into his face, curiosity battling it out with caution. "Does it hurt when you shift? Is that why your back's bothering you?"

[cian_oneill]

A smirk crept across Cian's face, eyes now fixed on hers. "Only a little, and no," he answered directly, wondering if it was perception, or something else that made her ask.

"'n that's pretty lame, turnin' y' family out f' tha'," he continued, a small crease appearing as he frowned slightly. "You 'n y' pa weren't rippin' folks head off were y'?" he asked, not fully understanding the status of the commune, or why they would turf anyone out.

[wolfs_daughter]

"We're not dangerous."

Echo said it with a slightly stubborn tone, her chin tilting upwards. "Papa's lived for a really long time, and he's learned to control the change for the most part. The moon still gets to him, but he deals with it. He's only an animal sometimes."

Scrape. Her shoe caught on a piece of gravel, dragged it across the concrete. She kicked at it, sent it skittering into the parking lot. "They helped me get a handle on it after we left the commune. My change was unpredictable because of being from mixed blood, so they taught me meditation techniques and some other stuff to help me focus on my human side. I'm usually pretty in control of it."

[cian_oneill]

"Easy there tiger, wasn't sayin' y' dangerous, just askin' why they'd be turfin' y' out. Not even sure what sort o' commune it is, so not sure why they'd even know 'bout you n' y' pa."

He knew he'd been lucky, if anything could be called lucky, having Annie who helped him through the process of coming to terms with and accepting what he was, and teaching him how to deal with it, to the point he was now. Between her, Oonagh and Sean he'd learnt how to handle Siofra, and make him a part of his life, instead of denying and fighting his existence.

[wolfs_daughter]

She ducked her head, shy being her resting state. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to snap. You're the only other shifter I've met other than Papa. We didn't really associate with his kind, if that makes sense."

A spot on her arm itched, and she scratched at it absently. "When I was about eight years old, I was playing with some of the other children in the common area outside. Lots of running and hiding, horsing around, carrying on. I guess it was just waiting for the exact wrong moment to happen, because I shifted into the Wolf when someone knocked me down. I can still remember how much it hurt."

Echo kicked restlessly at another piece of gravel. It went flying beneath a parked car. "I didn't even know I was different until then. I think Mama kept it from me, to protect me until I was older and able to understand it better. And sometimes I still don't understand it."

[cian_oneill]

"Doesn't make a lot o' sense to me, not tellin' y', but then I wasn't born t' it." He looked her up and down for a moment. "What don' y' understand? C'n y' control it, or y' just shift whenever?"

[wolfs_daughter]

"I can usually control it," Echo replied. "There was this one incident, but that was an accident. There was this...thing. I thought she was human at first, but she wasn't acting right. She sniffed at me, like a were but different. The Wolf said she was the enemy, and I panicked. I should have handled it better."

[cian_oneill]

Cian was a little puzzled at her apparent lack of control, and this made him wary. The last thing he needed was to have her freak out and flip while around him. After all, if what he had noticed, and Rhiannon had commented on, was true, and a large number of things were starting to congregate in this corner of the world, she was going to have to start to get herself under control, or she wasn't going to last long at all. The vampires alone would make minced meat of her.

"Y' ever used wards, or anythin' like that t' help y'?" he asked, knowing it was the first step Annie had taken in helping him.

[wolfs_daughter]

"There's a magic supply store in town, Peddler's Rest," Echo answered. "The owner was really nice to me when I went in before. I was thinking about going back there to see if she can recommend something, but I don't really know how to explain my situation."

She knew she had to keep control of herself, and she wasn't about to tell Cian that she had a crush on the shop keeper, so the only avenue open to her seemed to be to gather her courage and go through with telling someone. Someone else.

"I'm not...I think I know what you're thinking. Mama warned me, Never shift in front of others. That I could end up in a government lab or somewhere worse. I've always been really careful. I've had to be."

She was looking down at her shoes by the time she finished talking, as if she'd run out of steam to form words, and she darted a look upwards before returning to study the toes of her sneakers when she said, "How did you learn to control it?"

[cian_oneill]

"Friends," he said simply. "One in particular," he continued, thinking if he ever met this kid's parents he'd probably give them a piece of his mind.

"She helped me wi' ward 'nd potions she made. And others who did the work on findin' the best ways t' control it." He knew only too well if it hadn't been for Annie, Oonagh and Sean he'd probably be dead. He was surprised she wasn't. Vampires could smell a were out and most of them wouldn't think twice about killing one, would boast about it.

"Y' can't go on not knowin'," he told her. "I'm goin' up t' town later this week, I'll pick y' up some things."

[wolfs_daughter]

"You'd...you'd help me?"

The offer was a surprise, and Echo darted a look at Cian's attractive face before looking back down at her shoes. No, he wasn't family, but he was like her. If he could offer the wealth of his experience, she'd be a fool to turn him down.

"I'd like that," the hybrid said shyly. "You're right, I have to be sure it's under control so I don't hurt someone. And so I don't get hurt. If it wouldn't be a hassle for you, I'd love to have your help."

Re: Courier Run

[cian_oneill]

He snorted softly, shaking his head and again surprised that she was even still alive. Luck of the draw was all he could put it down to.

"Where d'y' say you were stayin'?" he asked, unsure whether she'd told him. "I'll drop by some things, get y' set for the time being. Y' can figure out when we can go out and work on y' shifting." He glanced at his watch, the orders he had to pick up probably ready now.

[wolfs_daughter]

"I live in the trailer park," Echo answered, pointing in that general direction. "The last lot there, at the end of the gravel road. I'm the one with the new lawn chairs set out in the yard."

It was getting later in the day, and that meant she needed to get the books she wanted so she could let Cian get back to wherever he'd come from. She felt sure he hadn't meant to spend so long jawing with her. She slapped her pockets, came up with a piece of scrap paper and a stub of a pencil

"I just got a phone, so you can get in touch with me at this number," she said, scribbling the digits down before offering the slip of paper to him. I'm between jobs, so I'm usually home."

Re: Courier Run

[cian_oneill]

He took the piece of paper and glanced at it before tucking it into his pocket. "I'll give y' a ring when I've been up t' Vegas." He walked over and picked up his jacket, shrugged it on then held onto his helmet as he swung his leg over his bike. "You make sure y' be careful," he said, looking at the young girl. "There's a few vamps around, and they're likely t' be lookin' f' some fun. Y'd be just th' kinda fun they'd enjoy," he warned her before pulling his helmet on, leaving the strap undone for the short trip around to the depot. His booted heel caught on the kick start and with one flick the motor churned to life. With a nod he flicked the tinted visor down and was soon on his way out of the car park.

Re: Courier Run

[wolfs_daughter]

She watched him head out, squared her shoulders. Vampires. Well, shifters couldn't be the only unusual things around here. She would have to watch herself. But she'd had a lot of practice at that.

The brunette turned on her heel and went into the library, letting the air conditoning waft over her again. Books, then home. And she'd actually met another were, who'd offered to help her. Things were looking up.