Chapter 48: Lavender Trail

Esme unsheathed her knife from her back and sneaked into the apartment. Each step she took was slow and quiet, her gaze sweeping across the room, her hand clenching on the dagger ready. Her heart was beating out of her chest, but Esme ignored the rising noise and focused on her surroundings. The apartment was dark, but she could still see the empty space before her.

She stopped and listened carefully for a heartbeat, breathing or light footsteps, but there were none. All that was left in the room was a faint scent that she recognised. Esme smirked; they covered their smell with lavender, a trick only she and one other used to do when tracking someone. But it could be a copycat, so she would not jump to conclusions until she saw them in person.

Relaxing her stance slightly, she reached for the light switch, flicking on the light before checking the toilet and finding no one. Even though she knew nobody was there, her walk was still slow with suspicion, her gaze flickering to every corner and crevice of the room, looking for anything out of place. Not that she had anything there, it was all in her backpack. The hand holding onto her knife started to spin it casually, a little habit of hers while on the prowl.

Esme followed the scent to the balcony and lowered herself into a crouch, observing the street. She didn't know what tricks might be up their sleeves. She could be walking into a trap and getting shot from a distance.

But after assessing the area, her body aching from the position she was in, Esme stopped spinning the knife and, with a slight clatter, dropped it to the floor as she unzipped the top of her bag. Leaning against the balcony, she pulled out her phone, her eyes flickering to the apartment again as she texted Lenny without looking at the screen.

[ 11:41pm I need to pay my rent. I won't be staying here from tonight. – E ]

Flipping the phone shut, Esme put it in her leather jacket pocket and scrambled to her feet, grabbing the knife and sheathing it while checking her surroundings once more. Triple checking the coast was clear, she hopped over the balcony rail and landed gracefully on the grass below. The lavender scent and the vaguely familiar one was more pungent here. How did she miss the scent upon entering the complex?

Isana growled, the wolf pacing along the edges of her mind. "Unless they have not long left," She said quietly, assessing their surroundings as Esme started to follow the trail leading to the woods. She stopped, her gaze sweeping across the trees, searching for amber eyes or even a pair of humans. She could not tell what form they were in, but it was about time they came out to say hello.

"There is no point in hiding.." She drawled darkly into the silence. There was nothing but the wind rustling through the trees in reply to her comment. Esme dropped her backpack in the corner of the glass-roofed bus stop by her side, waiting to hear someone approach, but they did not. She internally rolled her eyes; they were waiting for an opening, the cowards too scared or unable to attack her from the front.

"Should we play with them?" Isana whispered, holding back a giggle. It seemed like she, her wolf's mind, was already set on who the intruders were.

Hmm, she would be a nice wolf and give them a head start.

Esme sighed and turned her back on the forest. She was baiting them so easily, a tiny she-wolf who arrogantly and stupidly stood underneath a streetlamp and her back to them. Esme took one step forwards as though she was to leave, then smirked after hearing the first rushed footfall. They were quiet, but she'd been trained better. At the last minute, she spun around and instantly side kicked the hooded she-wolf who lunged towards her. She flew to the side with a grunt, crash landing onto the grass with a loud thud.

Esme's attention then went to the following two rogues rushing towards her, deciding it was better to both attack her simultaneously. Esme dodged the first two swipes from both men; their knives were out, their stances and attacks similar to her own. But this group was sloppy compared to her.

She swiftly grabbed her knife from behind her back, looking between them, not fazed at all by their attire, all of them wearing black, their hoods up and wearing masks. With one hand gripping the knife, the other was before her, ready to move at any moment.

The girl scrambled up and rushed towards her. Esme turned her head in the she-wolf's direction just as one of the men lunged towards her face. She moved swiftly backwards, dodging the knife and grabbed the hilt of it as she kneed him in the groin. Esme then jumped up, cartwheeling over his arm, her hand still gripping his knife, just as the girl tried to stab the wind of where she had been standing and accidentally cut the man's cheek.

He cried out, and Esme used this distraction to move his hand, holding the knife and slit his throat before throwing her own blade sideways into the other man's head; he instantly collapsed on the ground. The girl screamed, her face now covered in the man's blood, and she angrily lunged for Esme again. This time though, Esme swiftly grabbed her wrist holding the knife, flicked it to one side and tightened her grip, hearing the bones in the other she-wolf's wrist break and drop the dagger to the ground.

But even though the she-wolf shed some tears, she didn't give up and tried to punch Esme in the face. Esme dodged her fist and jabbed her in the ribs twice as hard, causing the girl to inhale sharply, and the sound of a cracked rib could be heard, making even Esme cringe. She'd been there. Then just as quickly, Esme hit the side of her temple where the she-wolf wasn't quick enough to block her and fell to the ground.

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Esme stared at the two bodies and then at the girl still breathing on the pavement. She was fortunate right now that the streets were deserted.

"The girl.." Isana began.

"No," Esme growled back at her wolf, her eyes glowing in authority.

"She needs to die," Isana snapped back, her wolf, not liking Esme's attitude. Isana was thinking of them, and Esme didn't want to kill someone defenceless.

"You've killed like that before-"

"It's different now," Esme growled again, the warning lacing in the tone of her voice as she marched toward the man with her knife sticking out of his forehead. She placed her booted heel on his head and yanked the knife out, wiping his blood on his hood, though her eyes were still set on her surroundings.

"Exactly, it is different now.. you leave her alive, and she'll return for us out of revenge or to who sent her with news of us," Isana argued. Then when her wolf realised Esme had no intention of killing her, she took over her body.

"Isana!" Esme shrieked as she was pushed out, and a solid wall blocked her from grasping at the reins to her body. Esme was pummelling onto the wall, trying with all her might as she watched like through a T.V screen as her body marched towards the girl and stabbed her in the heart, twisted the knife, then pulled back and stabbed her in the stomach. This was her typical move from her past to make sure if the first stab didn't kill, then at least they'd bleed out.

Isana pulled the girl back from the pavement before her blood could seep onto the concrete. Then as though her will had weakened, she released herself, and Esme almost fell forwards from the sudden pull of their mind's switching places. She growled, her eyes shining once more as she shut her wolf out as though she slammed the door shut between them. Isana could not talk to her now until Esme unblocked her.

This one was on Isana, not her. She frowned, then sighed, leaning back on her heels from where she was crouched. She couldn't stay there in the open space with three dead bodies. Esme began pulling each of their bodies into the outer edges of the forest; she was still very wary of her surroundings, the lavender coated scent was still nearby, and she knew it wasn't because of the three she had just killed. Their scents were not smothered, so it was an ambush, and the one behind it was nearby.

Esme dropped the last body next to the other two; she could bury them right now or call 'the cleaners' as she started to refer to them. Her back was still tingling, her senses telling her she was being watched, and if she decided to bury the bodies, she could very well be attacked. Esme would never let her guard down, and she doubted they would go for vampires.

She was their target; it was still unknown whether their intention was to kill or kidnap her.

Esme reached for her phone in her pocket then paused; before calling the cleaners, she needed to check the werewolf's chests. They were well trained, but not good enough, letting their emotions and pain cloud their movements. So, she wasn't sure if they were who she expected them to be.

She stabbed her knife through the fabric and checked one of the man's chest. There above his left pec and to the top right of his nipple was the burning flame tattoo she recognised. Esme's eyes widened by a small fraction, surprised and not too surprised by killing them so easily.

"Was this entertaining for you?" Esme asked the darkness behind her. The presence of another nearby, their scent and lavender smell drifting towards her nostrils from the wind, and even though she should make a surprise attack, she did not.

The sound of a branch snapping caught her attention, and she spun on the spot, still crouched, gripping the knife, ready for their attack, though it seemed a little sloppy to let her hear them. But what she wasn't expecting was a blonde-haired girl in a high ponytail with large rectangular glasses upon their face, their blue eyes staring at her angrily and marching towards her like she wasn't a murderer chilling next to a bunch of bodies.

"You're the one leaving dead bodies behind so carelessly!" She shouted at her.

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