The gazes that were cast towards me were met with cool mossy eyes. Where once I had been easy to smile, I felt brittle, my lips not connected to the rest of me. Realistically I knew that my mourning would pass but that was overcast by the gaping feeling of emptiness. No one should be alone in their grief and yet I had no one. No one I could trust, at any rate. My parent's Coven had coiled pleasing words around me, their touches a tad too long and a bit too possessive. I recognized them for what they were. Leeches. Not in the sense that some called vampires that either but because they grasped onto any power they could find. I guess I understood it. In the paranormal world, strength was a coveted thing. I knew that I could be stronger - would be stronger - in time, as both my parents had been exceptional as well.

But I wouldn't be used.

I note the Were that slips away upon my arrival along with the ones who mill about and offer me less than welcoming looks. Things were calmer, quieter. It was an odd change, as if the world had hushed in my own grief. How was I to know that another, far more serious crime had occurred? The Ark breathed and lived but the sliding grace of the Shifter's was marred by a cautious pause here, a low snarl there, and I felt tension sliding down my back. I had been afraid before I had met Aiden and Tobias. They hadn't much soothed that fear but I also felt a level of.. trust, with them. Now I felt the true spike of danger, my tongue escaping to wet my lips as if to taste the scent in the air.

Whatever has happened, I took it that strangers (or Others) were not a welcome presence at the time. Still, I wait, knowing one of them will come. Surely they will. For a second I wonder... has the power changed here? Were they gone, swept away in the fierceness of the Shifter world? Certainly not. I can see as the crowd begins to part, vicious gazes turning away from me and focusing with submissive gazes as a Leopard strides through. With skill he changes midstride and I blink, taking him in. Tobias. It was fitting that he should greet me - he had been the first to do so before.

He is half beast and half human but also something entirely different. For the first time in months, I smile, a genuinely grateful smile. He is a known in my life, even if one couldn't really know Tobias and I couldn't say we were friends. But familiar was good and as he taps his fingers against his forearm, hissing at me, I dip my hand into the pocket of my coat and draw out something wrapped in plastic wrap.

Riddles!

For a second I had been growing wary, his look one devoid of recognition. Not surprising, I think, considering I seemed much more polished than I had before. My naturally curly hair had begun to hang straight and true with my clever hands and my face had become sort of worn and tired, darkness coiled beneath my eyes. Not to mention that my clothes were not street clothes but held a bit more finesse, the silky dark fabric of my shirt hanging loose above my black jeans. All hidden by the sleek black peacoat that had once been my mothers.

"Tobias," I say with a relieved grin and hold my hand out, unveiling my gift. "I have a cookie for you." For the duration of my sales on the Ark I had brought him cookies, his demand for protection, and I remembered his fondness for them. A lady moves up to Tobias's side, her eyes hooded and wary, and my mossy green eyes turn to her. She seems familiar, somehow, and I drop my eyes for a moment. It was never a good idea to stare long into a Shifter's. Then recognition hits and they bounce back up. "You are the one who saved me before, from that man. Frost." The word comes out like a hiss, remembering the pain that had burrowed and burned within her. "Thank you," I say with sincerity.

How was I to know that the mention of Frost was a bad one, judging by all the hate filled looks suddenly cast my way?