I give you the second book after 'Run'! Hope ya like it, sorry it's short, but it has to be so that the next chap can be longer. Enjoy!

Run 2: Escape Me Not Ch 1: Nothing

Raven hair that put the shadows of night to shame flew back from a pale face made of sweeping lines and smooth skin as perfect as silk, eyes the color of onyx with just a touch darker ebony pupils shown with innocent beauty as Riley ran down the side walk toward his bus stop, hands working busily to pull all that hair back into a high ponytail. A smile crossed his soft, pale rose pink lips as he spotted several of his friends already waiting for their school bus. His backpack swung back and fourth against his back, his clothing much like any other teenagers, jeans and a black sweater to fight off the cold of winter.

“Hey!” He called out in a sweet voice that was almost child like, waving his now free hands to get his friends attention. They looked up and smiled as they all waved back. Riley jogged up to them and too to a conversation about this and that, nothing really important. If only he knew of the eyes that watched him...

“That, is the one we want.” A deep voice said from behind a few rows of trees. The bus stop was at the edge of a dirt road that touched the edge of a forest. Frosted eyes focused on a smaller form. “Go, tell the others, we found him.” He stated. The small form, a young woman, bowed her head and vanished. Those frosted eyes moved back to the teen, the one who knew nothing of what would happen to him. “Just wait, soon, I’ll make myself known to you...” He watched as the teen stepped up onto the new arrived bus, his hair falling to his waist even in the ponytail.

Riley sat on the edge of a picnic table, long since faded from sunlight, in the small courtyard outside of his school. So far his day had gone well, interims had come out and all his grades were ‘A’s, lucky him. His friends had been less then happy with him, but they never held it against him. At the moment he was waiting for them to get their lunches, he was not hungry.

He hummed to himself, listening to the cars that drove past the school on the road just behind him. His school was three stories of boring classes, which made up all school. The teen heard the screech of tires and jerked around just in time to see a car slam on brakes. Students all over the courtyard had frozen to look at the car that stopped, but not soon enough to avoid the heavy thud made when it hit the dog that had been crossing the road, a golden retriever. Riley never hesitated, he was off his seat and running toward the road and the driver that was getting out of the car, he could hear his friends shouted out behind him.

Riley had seen the dog before, it was a stray, one that had always come to the school around when he ate lunch, he had taken to feeding it when he could, and if he did not one of his friends would. He was there before he could stop himself, kneeling over the poor thing as it whimpered.

“Shit, I didn’t even see it!” A woman was babbling as she looked at the teen who gently cradled the animal’s head in his lap as he cooed over it to quiet it. He ignored the woman and even the other students that gathered around and the teachers. What he could not ignore was the other person that knelt on the other side of the dog across from him.

“I’d be willing to give you and this old girl a ride to a vet not to far from here.” A deep voice that held the edge of an accent said as a long fingered, elegant hand reached out to stroke the dog’s soft golden coat. Riley looked up into eyes that were frosted green with edges of blue around the iris. Hair more golden then sunlight, a true treasure gold, fell to frame a face both delicate and strong featured, that face and those eyes placed him in the age of early to mid thirties. Riley found himself nodding, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked up into the face of is best friend, Tina.

“Tell us where you’re taking her and we’ll visit after school.” She stated firmly. She was a small, petite girl who was a force to be reckoned with, her hair as fire red as her passion and strength, her eyes a deep earth brown, but stubborn as they were soft. The man picked the animal up gently.

“Very well.” He gave an address that was about a fifteen minute drive from the school, a little more from where Riley and Tina lived. “I’ll stay with her until you come.” The man stated as he turned and walked toward a car a small distance away. Tina pulled Riley back toward the school, refusing to let him go even as he watched the man walk away with the poor dog.

“Are you crazy!” Tina hissed. “You almost agreed to go off with a complete stranger!” Riley looked at her for the first time since he had ran to the road.

“What?...oh...” It actually accrued to him then what he had almost done. Tina hooked an arm with one of his and pulled him close so that she could whisper to him where no one else could hear.

“And not to be weird or anything, but did you see the way he was looking at you! Like he was hungry! And I don’t mean for food.” Riley turned his head once more and saw the man getting into the front seat his black car, his eyes focused on the teen. It made Riley shiver. Those eyes were focusing on him as if he were a meal, but not just food, something to be devoured slowly, like every inch of him was meant to be tasted by those lips that offered no expression but still looked soft and unyielding.

Riley shook his head and turned a smile onto Tina. “You aren’t serious, we’ve never even met!”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not some kind of pervert that wants to rape you.” She said matter of factly. This drew a soft laugh from Riley as they walked.

The man sat in his car, looking for a moment to the dog now in his passenger seat. He had been so close. The next time he would not be stopped. He started the car and as he began to drive a cell phone rang. He picked it up. “Hello?”

“Valerian...” A voice, deep and rough said. “Lily said you found him, are you sure?”

“I can smell the scent of the other in his blood, it is him.” Valerian said. “I am the leader of Crimson Tears Clan and the Winter Tracker Clan, just like my fathers were, my nose is not wrong in this. I swore I would find him..” He growled out. “I am not wrong, do you wish to question me again?”

There was a long pause. “No, my pack leader.” That gruff voice replied before the line went dead. Valerian tossed the cell phone aside and cursed heavily in french. He was not wrong, he knew that. Nor would anything stop him from getting what he wanted. “Nothing, do you hear me god above? NOTHING!” He slammed a hand onto the steering wheel.

And so it begins...