Chapter seven

Gwen had made up her mind. In a split second, she closed the gap between herself and Bruce.

She would feel bad after but she had to do it. If she didn't, she knew what was going to happen and she didn't want to head down that path.

She looked at Bruce in the eye and proceed to compel him.

"You will forget that you ever met me and you will leave this room board a taxi and head back home after I am done giving you fresh clothes to wear. Once you get back home, you will get into bed and take a deep and restful sleep.

He blinked once, then twice, then pulled back away from her and stood in the living room looking dazed.

Gwen felt bad. She had compelled him twice in one day which was very much against her principles.

This was the only option left for her, if she didn't compel him to forget about her, she knew that she would fall in love with him.

Gwen realised with shock that she liked Bruce and she didn't know if he liked her too and that was always the problem. She had a knack for men like him and it never ended well.

She didn't want to make another costly mistake to her feelings or her heart. He would need to be forgotten.

"Can I get the clothes that you said you would give to me?" Bruce asked, finally snapping out of his dazed state.

Gwen nodded and proceeded to her room where she fished for clothes that would fit a man of his size. Luckily for her, she found some baggy slacks and a baggy t-shirt.

It was one of her favourites clothes which she used to relax but he could have it if that was what it took to forget about him.

Gosh, there was just something about him that was appealing to her but she knew that if she got drunk on whatever was going on it wouldn't be good for her.

For all she knew, he could merely be acting nice because she had rescued him back at the alley and not because his character was that way.

She closed her eyes, exhaled and walked over to the living room. Gwen found him in the exact same position that she had left him when she had gone to get the clothes he would wear to leave the house.

He was under the effect of the compulsion so he would do all that she asked. She handed him the clothes and he took them without a word.

She left the room to allow him to change. Her face reddened again when she remembered what had been below.

Gwen didn't know how long it took him to get dressed but she emerged when she heard a familiar sound which meant that the door of the living room was being opened.

She walked back inside to see him just on one as he was leaving the room. She felt a pain of something she couldn't explain going through her and for a minute she wanted run across the room and over to him to remove the effects of the compulsion from him.

But she steeled herself. If everything was as easy as compelling a human then there wouldn't be any problems on earth. He looked out of place wearing her baggy clothes which somehow fit him perfectly.

She was more inclined towards seeing him in a tux.

And then he was gone. He simply walked out the door and was gone.

Gwen stood alone for a couple of seconds in the silence of her room and the weight of what she had just done came crashing down on her head.

She exhaled and inhaled, trying to calm down her breathing and before she knew what was happening she was hyperventilating. Summoning the werewolf inside her she was able to still her breaths and get into a relaxed position.

In order to forget what had just happened, she needed to move around. Sometimes when one was busy they tended to forget a lot about pressing things that held them.

She removed the plate that he had used to eat and looked longingly at it, remembering how he had eaten from the plate and had joked about how skinny her muscles were.

In the short amount of time that she had stayed with Bruce she realised that he was a rare type of man.

She headed to the sink with the plate and began to wash it. Making sure that she kept her mind relatively clear from Bruce or what she had just done.

As they say, keeping ones' self busy was one of the ways to make sure that one got other weird thoughts out of mind.

When she was done with the dishes, she stood with her hands in the silence of her kitchen. Even if she hadn't compelled him, it would never have worked out in the end.

He was a human and she was a hybrid. Not only that but he was fairly easy to kill and she worried that at the end of the day someone will indeed kill him.

Gwen left the kitchen and went over to the telephone that was in the living room nestled in the wall.

She dialled Tyler's number and heard it ring. On the third ring, he picked and she heard his voice.

He seemed to still be asleep as his voice had a bit of a slur to it. Tyler was impossible sometimes.

"Hey, Gwen. What is it?"

"He survived, the man we had taken from the alley." She added just to make sure that he understood.

"You mean the guy that was bitten badly. How the hell was he able to survive a bite like that?"

"I checked his body, there was no discolouration in the area below, and you know what usually happens to areas with a vampire's bite. Yet his body was still normal."

There was a pause at the other end of the line and Tyler spoke up again.

"What if he is more than a human? I mean, we have to consider the possibilities here."

"Believe me, I doubt he is anything but human. I couldn't pick out much from him though."

"You want me to keep an eye on him?" Tyler asked.

Gwen wasn't sure that would be a breach of his own personal space. After all, if someone did the same to her she would be deeply annoyed.

But nevertheless, there was something off about the man Bruce and she couldn't quite put her head down around it.

"Nah, it's okay. I think if he finds out he wouldn't be too pleased about it."

After a little bit of texting, Gwen cut the call, turned off her phone and went over to her room.

Sometimes, she wished she didn't feel so lonely. Yes, to most people she had a tough lovable exterior but internally she knew she wasn't that strong.

She wasn't that mean as she had projected herself to be. Gwen was only afraid that she would be used again.

Gwen wasn't a fan of heartbreak. She'd rather stay single than think deeply about another man.

She climbed over to her bed, got under the sheets and stared at the ceiling. As she did so, the face of Bruce slowly started pushing its way into her head.

She shoved it aside and willed herself to sleep.

Rick was sitting in the small dingy office that he usually stayed in the lair of his compound.

Presently, his mind was on the moon staff. It was necessary that he retrieve that staff.

Currently, most of his thoughts had been placed on them. Even though he didn't know the particular whereabouts of the staff, he knew that it was within his grasp.

That staff was one of the ways he could secure his position permanently as the king of vampires and even as the king of all supernaturals.

When it was placed like that for him on a platter of gold, he couldn't resist it like that. He was a very ambitious man and he believed that if one wanted something, they needed to go ahead and fight for it.

Rick got up from the table he was sitting on and walked over to the window facing the wide courtyard and looked outside it.

He had come a long way from being a normal vampire. He could clearly remember the last vampire that had held the ring that was on his index finger. That ring clearly told all vampires out there that he was their king.

The last person to have held that ring was the former king of vampires named John.

John had been a tyrannical vampire. Always hungry for blood, hungry for a fight, hungry for conflict.

He was the true definition of a spartan. If there was ever any fight between werewolves and vampires, it was always John that was behind it.

As a result of his tyrannical behaviour, they had lost a lot of vampire brothers back when he was the reigning king of vampires; because whenever the werewolves lost a member of their pack they decided to revenge on the night of a full moon when they knew that they were generally stronger than the vampires.

Rick had lost a brother and that was when he had snapped. Fueled with pure rage, he had attacked the vampire King.

But Rick knew that he wouldn't have won if it wasn't for the help of the Blood Moon.

Even though most vampires dreaded the blood moon as it was something that made them the opposites of what they truly were. Rick knew that the blood moon was truly potent.

Most vampires didn't know that they could draw power from the blood moon, power that even werewolves on a full moon couldn't ever dream of possessing and that was what had enabled him to beat John.

He had used his dead brother as a focus to channel his rage and the power that he was tapping from the blood moon. He had defeated John.

But even after he had been made the vampire King, Rick knew that he wanted more. He wanted more than most vampires needed.

Gwen.

It entered his head like a single chord. Never had he wanted a woman the way that he wanted Gwen.

He craved that werewolf. Her body was exquisite and he knew that if Gwen became his mate they could very well birth hybrid children.

Hybrids were like gold in the supernatural world.

That would even seal his deal more in the world of the supernatural.

Even though Gwen had approached him, he knew that she didn't really like him. Apparently, she needed him for something which he couldn't discern at the moment.

But no worries, where her feelings stood for him would soon be changed.

As he was still pondering on his next course of action towards Gwen, there was a shrill sound that killed him abruptly from his thoughts.

It was his cellphone.

He removed it from his pocket and answered the call.

It was one of the vampires under him.

"Hello, Rick."

"What is it, Thomas?" Rick growled in response. He didn't like getting phone calls if there was no tangible reason for it.

"I have good news for you."

"Better be real good news for disturbing me this way."

"We have information on the moon staff that might be of relevance to you."

That word Moon Staff made Rick sit a bit more upright on the chair.

"What did you say?"

"Our sources have some kind of lead on the moon staff."

Those words were like music to his ears. Asides from himself Rick had also let in a bunch of his most trusted and loyal vampires on his plan on acquiring the moon staff.

Night and day they worked tirelessly trying to find more leads and pinpoint the exact location of the staff.

Today seemed to be their lucky day.

He got up from the chair and looked outside. It was getting to night time and the weather in the sky was changing. The sun was dipping beyond the horizon, casting splashes of red colours on the ash above.

"Give me your location, I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

He cut the call and adjusted his suit. Today was a real lucky day indeed.