I watched the woman walk down the street with the strange sense that something was wrong with the scene before me. Biting my bottom lip, I brushed my arm against the window that I was looking out of to try and clear the frost that clouded my view. I began to question whether or not the figure was a female because the raincoat they wore covered any curves that might have been present, but then they turned to face me and I could tell immediately that she was a woman. She looked very confused, I noted. Not what I was expecting to see. I cocked my head to the side for God knows what reason. I usually did that when I was confused, as I was at the moment.

It seemed as if she was staring right through me. Like she could see me, but she was looking at something beyond my field of vision. I grew curious so I turned around. Seeing nothing that was out of the ordinary, I rolled my eyes. There was my dresser, with a pile of clothes that I had failed to put away after folding sitting on top. Another pile of clothes, dirty this time, was strewn all across the floor because I was a bit too lazy to pick them up. A cup of coffee that I didn't have time to drink sat on my nightstand next to my alarm clock. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. My room looked like this a vast majority of the time.

I turned back to find the woman gone, her umbrella being whipped around by the blowing wind. I sighed heavily and closed my eyes, turning back to the book that I had set down when I first saw the woman. "You need to get out of here. Now." Said a clear, bell-tone voice.

I gasped and jumped out of my bed, getting tangled up in the sheets and falling to the floor with a soft thud. "Who the hell are you?" I managed to stutter out after a few seconds of gasping for air.

The woman stood there at the foot of my bed, her hands placed on her hips and her face stony. She was beautiful. Her dark, mahogany hair was parted to the left and was slightly wet from the rain. Her eyes were wide and bright and mine moved past them too quickly to notice the unique color of them at first. Her skin was deathly pale (from the cold temperature, I figured) and she had a perfect figure that I envied. If only I could look like that.

She cleared her throat, making me look back at her face…and her eyes. A sharp intake of breathe as I noticed they were charcoal black. "Oh my…gosh." I choked out. She rolled her eyes and stepped toward me.

"Seriously, you need to go. You have absolutely no idea what kind of painful death you just evaded by my presence. I cannot be here to protect you right now, so get the hell away from here." She reached her hand down toward me and I willingly accepted it without hesitation. "Darien, go. Please do not make me force you." Her last words came out in a strained tone. "I do not want to hurt you…"

"I…what?" her eyes traveled down my form and I finally remembered what I was wearing. Underwear and a frilly lace top. My hands moved to the bed and yanked the blanket up so I could cover my revealing outfit.

"Damn it, Darien! What the hell don't you understand? Go somewhere else! I can't protect you now, but there are…people like me all over the world who can." She struggled over the word 'people' and I found myself wondering why.

"Like you? What is that supposed to mean? I do not understand what this is about!" I exclaimed. Her hands grabbed my shoulders painfully and shook me back and forth. "There was a shape-shifter in your house, Darien! He was going to kill you!" She yelled.

"What? Why? When? Huh?" I asked without pause. I could not understand what in God's name she was talking about! Shape-shifters, really? Could she be for real, or what?

"I am a shape-shifter also. I am Yvaine, and you can trust me. But there are others like me, like the man in your house before, that are far from trustworthy. They are after you! They want you for reasons that I cannot say right now. You must leave, though. I will contact somebody to help you, but you can't stay here any longer. Go, now."

I hesitated, and without warning she pulled me into her arms, kicked out the window and jumped. Oh God, really? Could this seriously be happening? I thought angrily. "Yes, this is happening." Yvaine said. When I looked back, I saw a pair of giant black wings sprout from her back as she flew into the sky and away from my home. Yeah, it was happening. Damn the rain. Damn that window. Damn it all. Damn it!

********************

I could not believe this was happening to me right now. Since when had stories become reality? No more than five minutes ago I was sitting in my bed reading, and now I was being held in a woman's arms, flying through the night while getting completely soaked through. My cutesy little lingerie outfit was now glued to my skin from the rain, showing the fact that I was wearing a bra and underwear underneath it. I made a mental note to throw this outfit away when I woke up. Yes, when I woke up. I knew that I was asleep right now. Why else would I be able to fly? And why else would some random guy shape-shifter want to try and kill me? No reason, okay? No reason…

"You're wrong, you know." Yvaine said, her dark brown hair plastered to her face. She still looked gorgeous, I noticed. I wondered in the back of my mind how I looked right now. "Wrong about what? I didn't say anything!" I yelled through the pouring rain.

"This is not a dream. And, by the way, you do not look that bad right now." She smiled as she continued to hold me in her arms, the wind making her hair fly out behind her. I felt a strange, pleasant warmth spread throughout my body at the sight of her smile and I recoiled from the foreign feeling.

"Not that bad? Well, thank you…Umm…" I frowned at how awkward this situation really was. I didn't even know this woman and yet I felt as if I could trust her. My mind growled at me, telling me that I had no idea what was going on and I just wanted to go home.

I couldn't keep my thoughts straight for long, though. They kept on wandering when I tried to focus on one single feeling, so it was almost impossible for me to calm my nerves so I wouldn't fall to my death below.

As I was thinking to myself about escape plots and cool maneuvers to get free, I noticed the woman was flying toward a building some measure of feet away. "This is a friend of mines house. He said he would watch you for a few days while I tried to figure something out." Yvaine said as she knocked on the heavy-looking wooden door.

A man of about twenty opened the door, a frown plastered onto his beautiful face, and motioned for us to come in. Yvaine carried me through the threshold and set me down on the leather couch that was pushed up against the far left wall. I immediately jumped up, not wanting to ruin the couch with the water that covered my frozen body. "What are you doing, Darien? Sit down and relax." Yvaine said, using a voice that one would usually associate with small children.

"I… am soaked. And see through…" As soon as I noticed the man was staring at me I turned away from him, wrapping my arms around my chest. I heard a sigh and then something heavy was placed around my shoulders; a jacket. "There. I will get you something suitable to wear in a moment." The man said, his voice carefully controlled. "Yvaine, can I speak with you please?" his jaw muscles were pulled taught, and I swear I could hear his teeth grinding together.

I heard another sigh and a shuffling of feet as they moved into the kitchen to talk. "Yvaine, I have my own charges to worry about right now. I just lost one two days ago and they are not very happy about it. I can't handle this right now." I heard him say, despite his obvious efforts to talk in a low voice.

"I know, Clay, and I am sorry about this. But she was so close to losing her life tonight, and I have to go away for a while. I saw the list, Clay. She is number one now, and I need to know why. I can't protect her from something I can't see." She sounded heartbroken at the idea of not being able to do this, and it puzzled me. Why should she care? "She is in the most danger at this point, and I can't drag her along with me on my trip. She may not look heavy, but she is." I glared through the wall in the general area that I thought she might be in. I was not heavy…

Yvaine's voice sounded choked up by tears when she continued. "Please, just do this for me? I promise I should be back in five days, at the most." She begged him.

Clay sighed, a sure sign that he was going to give in. "Fine…does she have any clothes with her?" he asked, his voice sounding restrained and controlled once again. "There was no time, Clay. We had to go. He was still in the house when we left."

"Who did they send after her, anyhow?" Clay questioned her, a curious note in his voice. Yvaine stayed silent for a long moment, obviously not wanting to say the name. "It was Seydar." She said, disgust laced throughout her words.

I heard a sharp intake of breathe as Yvaine said the name. "They sent Seydar after her? She is that important to them?" Clay sounded completely blown out of the water. I was completely confused, for that matter. Who was Seydar?

I turned my attention back to the conversation, hoping my unvoiced question might be answered. "Yes, she must be. I don't know what her… ability is yet, or if she even has one, but she must be important to what they have planned." She stopped, her voice trailing off on the last word. "I have to go now, Clay. Take care of her…"

I looked over in time to see her run out the back door and into the dark night. Clay turned back to look at me, a frown turning down the corners of his round lips. Did he always frown? I wondered. I smiled nervously and he turned, walking down the hall and out of my sight.