Lexia (The Deadwood Hunter Series)

by Raithby, Rachel M

  “Get off, get off!” she screamed, kicking out again but he wouldn’t let go. A blood-thirsty look gleamed in his eyes and the more she kicked the further his teeth sank into her ankle.

  The sound of a car made Lexia glance up, its horn sounded over and over momentarily distracting the panther and as Lexia slammed her foot into his jaw he let go, falling to into a heap below her.

  Lexia sighed in relief but then gasped as her dad’s car sped up towards the panther. The cat froze for a second still in a jumbled heap as the car raced towards him, then he scrambled to his paws trying to avoid being run over but he’d hesitated too long.

  Lexia screamed as the car hit the cat. “No!!” she cried, scrambling into her bedroom. Lexia stared down at the panther still on the ground and she wanted to cry, her heart hurt as she looked at this beautiful animal hurt and broken before her.

  “What have you done?” she screamed to her dad still sitting in the car, tears welling in her eyes. She didn’t care how irrational she was being or how it may look being so upset by the panther being hurt; she couldn’t control her feelings. Lexia felt as if she’d been split in two, one half of her wanted to jump from her window and make sure the panther was dead. The other felt heartbroken as if her best friend lay below. She didn’t understand her feelings but then she didn’t understand much anymore, so she cried. Cried for the panther and for the loss of her old life; she stopped trying to hold in all of her feelings and just let them out.

  Then the panther slowly lifted his head and for a second the world froze as he stared into her eyes, but they weren’t the eyes of a panther anymore, she was looking into the eyes of a man. For that split second everything felt right in the world, then she blinked and he was gone.

  Her dad scrambled out of the car. “Lex, Lex! Are you okay?”

  Lexia couldn’t speak, she felt too shaken but she nodded to him and smiled weakly.

  “I’m coming now, don’t move.”

  As he ran in the house Lexia looked down at her ankle and started to panic, the holes were deep and blood poured from them but already she could feel the power in her blood fixing it. The blood was slowly stopping and she glanced up to see her reflection in the mirror on the back of the door, a strangled cry left her throat as she looked into the bright gold eyes staring back at her.

  Her dad’s feet pounded up the stairs, “Oh god, oh god,” she said to the girl in the mirror, “please stop, oh god please, he can’t see.”

  The floor boards squeaked as he walked across the landing, her heart hammered in her chest, and her hands started to shake. “Go away, turn blue,” she pleaded to the mirror but as the door opened they were still gold and Lexia closed her eyes, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

  “Lex? Lex baby, it’s okay, open your eyes, I’m here.”

  But she couldn’t because if he saw her eyes, he’d never be there again. He’d already pulled away and she didn’t think she could handle losing him for good. So she slowly turned her head from side to side, her tears still falling.

  “I can’t,” she sobbed.

  “Lexia baby, look at me, you’re okay now. The panther’s gone, you’re safe.”

  Lexia slowly opened her eyes, bracing herself for the moment he realized her eyes weren’t blue anymore. But he didn’t gasp in horror, he took her head in his hands and then wrapped his arms around her. Lexia sobbed as she looked into the edge of the mirror, looking into her now blue eyes.

  “Oh Lex, it’s okay I’m here, I’m going to call the ranger straight away, sit down let me see your foot.”

  Panic set in again as she remembered her injury that had already started to heal.

  “Dad, don’t fuss. I’m fine, it’s not too bad.”

  He sucked in a breath when he knelt on the floor. “Lex!”

  “Dad seriously, it looks worse than it is. See I can walk on it just fine.”

  “Lex, I think we need to take you to hospital ”

  “No!” she snapped. Startled he looked up. “Dad, I don’t like hospitals and really it’s fine, can’t you just clean it up? Please Dad? All I want to do is curl up in bed.”

  He looked at her for a few moments longer seeming to work out the battle in his head. “Alright, let’s get you downstairs and clean it up, then I’ll decide if we need to take you or not.”

  Downstairs in the kitchen Lexia sat on a kitchen chair. Her jeans leg had been cut off and her ankle boot, too; they sat in a pile on the floor along with a mountain of blood-red clothes.

  “I don’t understand how there was so much blood, I really thought we’d find your ankle shredded. You were so lucky, Lex.”

  “So I don’t have to go to hospital?”

  “Well I don’t know, some of these teeth marks are quite deep and I think you could do with some antibiotic and a tetanus shot.”

  “Dad please, can’t we just see how it is tomorrow? I’m so tired and we’d be sat in the ER all night.”

  “Hmm, I suppose you’re right, but I don’t want you walking to school tomorrow, if you even go at all.”

  She finally managed to get her dad to leave. Her ankle throbbed as she lay in bed, and as she drifted off to sleep she wondered how long her leg would take to heal; this was the worst injury she’d had. I’ll get to see how good my super powers really are.

  Chapter 10

  Lexia woke before her dad the next morning and unwrapped the bandage around her ankle and what she found shocked her. The shallowest scratches had healed leaving behind a faint red line and the worst bites, where she’d had deep holes in her tissue, had filled back out. It still looked bad and hurt to move but she was healing at an incredible rate. If her dad saw it, he’d know right away there was something different about her.

  Lexia covered her ankle and got up pulling on a pair of loose linen trousers. She paired it with a loose shirt and fitted jacket. Once her hair and makeup were done Lexia sat on her bed and waited until she heard movement. At seven she heard the water being run and twenty minutes later her dad walked down the stairs.

  As she thought he’d left her in bed, most likely he planned on making breakfast and bringing it to her. So now all she needed to do was walk downstairs with enough of a limp that he wouldn’t think anything was suspicious, but not too much of one that he wanted to look at the wound. “Simple Lex, fucking simple!”

  Carefully she got up and started to walk across the landing, it still hurt and she had the slightest of limps but when she pushed the kitchen door open, Lexia put on a pretend limp.

  “Lex! I was going to bring you your breakfast in bed; really you shouldn’t have walked on it until I’d had a look.”

  Pulling out a chair, Lexia took a seat and answered without looking her dad in the eye; she hated lying to him. “Please don’t fuss, it hurts a little but really I’m fine to go to school, I think you must have over-reacted last night.”

  “Let me see.”

  This is what she’d dreaded, he couldn’t look. To Lexia it felt like her whole life depended on this moment, she had to convince him everything was okay or there’d be no going back. She was on the edge of the cliff; everything had been compounding together bringing her to this moment but she wasn’t ready; Lexia was too afraid to jump, she wasn’t strong enough to lose her Dad.

  “No!” she snapped. “Don’t touch me.”

  Shocked he said, “Lexia?”

  “Dad I... I’m sorry I didn’t mean to snap, it’s just I’ve read somewhere taking off the bandage can pull off all the new skin cells.”

  He looked at her, puzzled. Please buy it, please, Dad.

  “Okay, if you’re sure. We’ll need to be going soon. I have an early morning meeting at school.” He got up and retrieved the plate of food he’d prepared.

  Lexia sat in silence eating, her dad placed a drink and some pills next to her but never said a word. She sat in silence staring into space as her dad wandered around the kitchen, when she finished Lexia got up and slowly limped over to the sink with her plates. As
she turned back around she noticed her dad bent over the trash can and then her heart lurched as she saw what he was doing. In his hand he held a Ziploc bag and he’d retrieved one of the stained cloths he’d used to clean the blood off her skin. She watched in horror as he closed the Ziploc then slid it into his bag.

  “Dad, what are you doing?” His eyes locked onto hers and she held her breath waiting for the reasonable explanation as to why he wanted her bloodied rags.

  “Well... I...”

  Her heart thundered and her head swam. He knows, oh god he knows.

  “The ranger called, they want a sample to... see if the panther had any diseases.”

  “From my blood?”

  “Yes, hopefully there will be saliva from the panther.”

  “Dad?”

  “Enough. Get ready we are leaving.”

  Lexia felt like he’d slapped her in the face, in all her life she couldn’t remember a single moment where he’d spoken to her that way.

  **********

  Lexia sat alone in the cafeteria. School didn’t start for another hour but with being dropped off, she was early and her dad had insisted Lexia sit in the teachers’ lounge while he had his meeting but she’d declined, needing some space.

  Lexia got out her phone and began to text.

  I really need 2 talk babe, can U cum 2 school now?

  School now! Ur crazy!

  I need u A

  C U Soon XXX

  It felt like an eternity waiting for Alice to arrive, she’d been so afraid of jumping off the cliff she’d been walking along the past few weeks, it never occurred to Lexia that she could be pushed. She felt like she was falling and she had no idea if she’d survive. Had she just lost her dad forever this morning or was he telling the truth?

  “Lex! I just ran into Mike! He said you’d been attacked by a panther!”

  Lexia couldn’t stop the tears as they sprang from her eyes.

  “Fuck, babe, come here.” Alice hugged her. “It’s ok babe, I text Dan, he’s coming now, we’ll take care of you.”

  “What? Alice—god—why?”

  “Well, I just thought you were together, you two yesterday kissed and well... I’m sorry babe, shouldn’t I have?”

  “You knew we weren’t going out! Alice!”

  “Sorry I just thought.”

  “That you’d interfere, like always?”

  “That’s not fair Lex”

  “Argh! Look it doesn’t matter but I really need to speak with you before he arrives.”

  “Okay, I’m listening.”

  “My dad has been acting so weird and he wouldn’t stop going on about how lucky I was not to be that badly injured and well, this morning my leg’s not so bad but he didn’t believe me and we ended up snapping at each other...”

  “Lex, I think he was just worried about you, I’m sure he was pretty shook up. You could have been killed.”

  “That’s not all though, I saw him put the cloths with my blood on them into a Ziploc bag.”

  Alice frowned. “Did you ask why?”

  “Yes and he said the ranger wanted to test my blood to see if there was any saliva from the panther.”

  “But that sounds reasonable.”

  “You didn’t see the way he looked at me and he got so mad.”

  “Babe, I think you’re just reading too much into this. What else would he need your blood for?”

  Lexia started to answer but Dan burst through the doors. “Lex! Are you alright?”

  Lexia looked into Alice’s eyes, pleading. “Alice?”

  Lexia looked up at Dan and wished she could disappear. He climbed into the seat next to her giving her a hug, Lexia stared at Alice over his shoulder, glaring.

  “Lex, you’re overreacting, okay? Mike loves you.”

  Dan pulled away looking between the two girls, “I know we aren’t together but you said we were friends right?”

  Lexia sighed nodding.

  “Don’t worry; I’ll take good care of you. From now on I’ll be your slave.”

  Lexia couldn’t help laughing at that. “Help me to class then before this place is crawling with people staring at me.”

  Dan put his arm around her waist and lifted her slightly, Lexia pulled away, “Dan I’m not an invalid.”

  As she slowly made her way to first period, Alice and Dan rambled on about the panther and how she could have been killed. By the end of the day the whole school was talking about how a panther was terrorizing the forests; wherever she walked people stared and whispered. And she was also completely over Dan fussing over her. She was about ready to bite his head off; did he think he could get her to reconsider her decision, to not go out with him?

  **********

  She wandered down the school corridor, the teacher had let her out early to avoid the stampede of students that would be walking the hall in five minutes. Her foot hardly hurt at all now as she had been downing pain killers all day, but still she limped away just in case someone saw her.

  As she reached the school steps she stopped; she’d told Alice she would meet her here after school. Staring into space Lexia waited for the bell to ring and when it did students piled out the doors and whispered as they went past. She leant against the wall and started looking at her phone, drowning out the noisy chatter of the students around her, trying not to let the stares bother her. But as a group of girls walked past she couldn’t help overhearing some of their conversation. They were practically jumping up and down about something and it wasn’t her and the panther attack. Lexia looked up and her heart stopped.

  That’s why all the girls were so excited, standing at the gates was Lincoln. He had on his usual faded denim jeans and white t-shirt but he’d put on a leather jacket, too. He seemed completely unfazed by the hordes of teenage girls that were drooling over him. Lincoln looked up now straight into her eyes and she felt like a rabbit caught in headlights. She could make out the amused look on his face even from here, she had to go to him now or he’d think she was crazy.

  “Shit,” she muttered, and looked behind her. Alice was walking towards her, her head bent texting, and then she saw Dan running to catch up with her.

  God why does Lincoln have to keep showing up unannounced?

  She glanced back at Alice and Dan, they would see her any minute. Then back at Lincoln who was now walking down the school drive. Arrrh! Screw it! I can’t be doing with Dan anyway.

  Lexia dashed down the school steps, completely forgetting she was supposed to be injured. She text Alice at the same time: had 2 run. Then she heard someone say, “Isn’t she supposed to be injured?”

  “Fuck!” Lexia started to limp again as she sprinted up to Lincoln. He was laughing at her but then he frowned as she started to limp. As she approached, Lexia just grabbed his hand and hauled him after her out of the school gates. She risked a glance back at school; Alice had paused on the steps reading the text and Dan was looking over her shoulder. She felt her phone vibrate before they continued on their way out. All they had to do was look her way and they’d be seen.

  “Lexia?”

  Lexia ignored Lincoln, pulling him to run faster. She glanced around her hoping for an escape and then dragged Lincoln between two buildings. She stopped, and glaring at him shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”

  He didn’t snap, just chuckled at her like her being crazy was highly amusing. “I could ask you the same thing.”

  He smiled looking down at her hand still clasped with his.

  Lexia dropped his hand immediately, stepping back. I’ve finally lost it, she thought. “Lincoln, you can’t just turn up at the school gates; someone could see! Alice could see!” A group of girls walked past laughing and Lexia turned, walking towards the end of the alley. The last thing she needed was Alice spotting her in a dank, dark alley with him.

  “I’m not a criminal, Lex. I just wanted to see you, besides you sprinted to me like I was a long lost lover,” he laughed.

  “God, Lincoln, how can yo
u laugh at everything? Alice was about to meet me and I really don’t want a lecture from her and oh god, I was running in front of everyone.” Lexia started to pace backwards and forwards completely forgetting Lincoln. “He’s going to go nuts if he finds out, I’m going to be in a padded cell before I know it. God, Lex, you’re such an idiot!”

  “Wow Lex, hold on a minute, what’s wrong?”

  “I... I can’t tell you.”

  “Why?”

  “Please Lincoln, I want to be around you because you don’t ask questions, I don’t have to explain everything to you.”

  He looked at her for a minute. “Okay Lex, but if you ever want to talk ” He started walking further down the alley away from the street.

  “Where are you going?” she said frustrated.

  “Well, I didn’t really plan on spending my time with you in an alley.” And he hopped over a fence which bordered the forest.

  “Lincoln, wait, we’ll get lost.”

  “Chicken,” he called, laughing again.

  Lexia paused at the fence, she could just leave him and walk back to the street but really she wanted to spend more time with him. What she didn’t understand was why he wanted to spend time with her. She was just a school girl and right now she was acting crazy and he was a sexy man that could have any woman he wanted.

  “Don’t have all day, Lex.”

  “Coming,” she sighed. Putting her foot onto the mesh fence, she winced as she put all her weight onto her ankle.

  She felt quite pleased with herself as she climbed to the top of the fence without much effort, but as her foot swung over the top it got caught. It twisted painfully and Lexia lost her grip, falling to the ground. She braced for the impact but it never came because she landed in the strong, warm arms of Lincoln.

  “Got ya,” he whispered, his eyes burning with hunger and Lexia found her eyes dropping to his parted mouth. She licked her bottom lip, biting it slightly as an image of him kissing her popped into her head. Her heart beat faster as his head lowered towards her; she held her breath waiting for the moment when his lips would touch hers. Her whole body tingled with anticipation, then it dawned on her what she was doing. This was Lincoln—this was stupid—they’d never work. What am I doing?