Flourescent Palmer???
I'll go to hell seven times before I'd be so blatantly mistaken for Flou! But no matter.
"I can't say I am not pleasantly surprised to finally meet you in person sooner than I could have ever hoped for had I had my hand in it." My kidnapper expressed an agreeable nod. It hit me that this was no simple nor common misconstruement. It was in his eyes and body language that he had perfect possession over his cognitive faculties. I did not yet know how he reached his conclusion but he truly believed that I was Flourescent. Yet, if he, whom I had never seen before, and who I was sure was certainly not a Sanctuarian, had to go through apparent pains to know Flourescent, how could he know nothing about me? Her twin, her shadow. It was widely known in the Sanctuary that in physical and structural terms, the resemblance between my sister and I were too close for comfort. It was only by our hair colour that we could be told apart. I was blonde with straight shoulder length hair. Flourescent's wavy dark red hair stretched as low as her waist.
'Maybe he mixed up his research,' I thought to myself. 'He thinks the blonde is Flou."
Flourescent (I don't need to tell you this) was popular in the Sanctuary — as popular as Maude. It was undoubted truth that had Maude never come into the picture, Flourescent would have gotten Freur. Still, her loss of Freur did not stop her from being a model citizen and werewolf. She constantly oozed charisma and her well tamed beauty always scored her bonus points. I could never come close to scratching the image Flourescent had so diligently constructed for herself which was why as far as every true Sanctuarian was concerned, I could never ever be mistaken for her— like this stranger just did.
"Who are you?" I queried. This could work well to my advantage. In thinking he knew almost everything about me, he may not mind revealing tidbits about himself. He threw his head back and released a genuine laugh. His laughter would have been infectious on a normal day so I am glad that we've established the fact that this wasn't a normal day. He scowled, seemingly taking the hint from my unassuming stare. He clearly did not find it amusing that I did not find him amusing.
"What kind of question is that?" He complained. "If you're the scout your pack sent to find me, then you should have a pretty good damned idea who I am."
The bloke obviously thought rather highly of himself. For starters, he thought I was a scout.
I wished!
"You obviously have the upper hand." I waved my upright arms for extra measure. "This is a no man's land and it is not expected to be occupied for a long while yet."
"Don't tell me what I already know." My kidnapper rolled his eyes before nudging his intimidating gun at me. "Ugh, such an inconvenience. I should have killed you already but you are rather valuable. That's why your pack sent you, isn't it? They know if things should go awry, I wouldn't mind offing a scout but I might have second thoughts if the scout were to be their beta's beloved daughter."
I sent back —to whatever moody crevice of my mind it had come from— the inner compulsion to turn my eyes up to the sky and beg the heavens to just tell me what the hell was going on. Flourescent was right about one thing, I had no interest in pack politics. I valued my average days that did not involve having the alpha as my mate,two dead gate guards, my near death (probably more than five times already), and an outsider possessing silver bullets. An outsider knowing that the Sanctuarians were werewolves.
I really did not want to get in the middle of this. If there was a chance to alert Freur, Zale or Flourescent, then crawl into bed with steak and coke to watch a teenwolf movie, I'd take it! I would not even be curious about how the issue would be eventually resolved as long as I was still alive and enjoying the benefits of being the beta's ignored daughter.
"Try and play clueless all you want, but soon you are going to talk," my kidnapper confidently proclaimed. "You and your pack cannot stop the retribution that's coming neither can you delay it." He finally closed the distance between us and yanked my hands behind my back, securing my wrists with a thick rope. His strength, I could tell, was impressive.
"Are you a werewolf too? A rogue? Another pack…?" I trailed off. He looked down at me.
"As expected of the beta's daughter. Investigating even while facing certain peril. Well, I've got nothing to hide but you're not making it to your pack before tonight. I can't afford letting you ruin my plans."
My jaw dropped at the sheer efrontery. He has plans that he thought I was capable of ruining? Whatever those plans were were surely infringing on the potential of my own plans! No matter what, I could not let Freur mate Maude. Not while I lived, and I was proving hard to kill so far. I was not looking to be dissuaded, talk less of a handsome stranger with a silver bullet loaded gun outrightly commanding me to stay put. I only just had to hope he wasn't trigger happy.
He was gentle while suggestively steering me towards where he wanted. It began to dawn on me that he knew a way to get back up to the moon river.
"Where are you taking me?"
"I should think you want to make it home badly."
BINGO.
"You're not just going to let me go, are you?"
"No. You'll fit well into my plans."
"Again with the plans." I was becoming unable to hide my rapidly growing irritation. "I have my own plans too."
"All your plans are gonna have to take a raincheck," he retorted and urged me on, leading me through a dark damp cave.
"How long have you been planning this?" I tried again. I did not know the exact facts of what he was planning but it had to be something he thought was big and significant. Since he was directly behind me, I could not draw a conclusion from his facial expression.
"All my life," he answered.
"You've been watching us your whole life?"
"Yes."
"Don't you have a job?"
"I have money," was his witty reply.
"Life in the Sanctuary is pretty routine. How can we be that interesting to you? You are a werewolf aren't you?"
"Slow down Redhead, you'll get answers in due time," he chuckled.
I came to a full stop and he bumped softly into my back. My lips curled down in a sneer. "Redhead?" I howled. Never in my life did I think I'd be mixed up with Flou but this was really pushing it. "Oh, you must be colourblind." I made a U-turn to face him. "And if that's the case, the colour you thought all your life is red is actually yellow (sort of). Blood is actually yellow to you as well. So that time when you said you would paint the ground red with my blood, I think you meant to say yellow. You poor thing, thinking yellow is red and red is yellow."
He scowled, seemingly baffled. "I know what red is. I know blood is red."
I laughed. "Don't try and hide it any longer. It's just the two of us here. Cause why else would you call me a redhead when I am, clearly, blonde?"
He was silent. His stare on my face, searching. He quirked his lips. "Clearly, you must be the one who's colourblind."
"What? Impossible!"
"The beta has two daughters. One is a blonde and one is a redhead. Everybody loves the redhead, and everybody hates the blonde."
My mouth hung agape as I was rendered speechless once again by the accuracy of his description. He eyed me accusingly.
"What kind of game are you playing at, huh? What do you think you can gain from trying to pull such a cheap trick?" He was totally offended. I guessed to him, I was just some damned woman who would not stop underestimating him.
I shut my mouth, still short of words. Still clueless what to comprehend. "Do you have a mirror?"
"What?" He growled, on the brink of losing patience.
"A mirror or any reflective surface. One of your silver bullets would do. I think I have to look at myself."
"Whatever." He rolled his eyes, exasperated, before procuring a mirror from goddess knows where. It was a tiny portable design, heart shaped, pink with Barbie stickers. It was tacky and obviously not his aesthetic. I briefly wondered if he had a daughter somewhere. He held the mirror for me to look at myself and that I did.
My jaw dropped so hard this time, I thought my facial bones could not possibly retain their structure. My kidnapper had indeed not been faulty with his deductions as far his tactical knowledge went. In the mirror, looking back at me, was the face of my sister.
Flourescent.