Den quickly recovered himself and shook his head. "No. They'll catch your scent. Well they'll do that anyway, but I'm betting on the fact that they won't follow realising that there is such a strong manipulator on your side."
Stella nodded but said nothing. She could guess now what was the sickly sweet smell Sharp had been following when she looked into his mind. It was her scent. The scent of her blood.
The two were silent for a few minutes while Den ran. He seemed to be taking a roundabout route and going too much in circles to confuse the Zukao brothers. Maybe he hoped that the Zukao brothers would not be able to understand how her scent could overlap so many times.
Stella settled comfortably in Den's arms and spoke, "Hey Sharp? Can I ask you something?"
"You can. But I'm not sure I will reply." Den said.
Stella rolled her eyes but a faint smile formed on her lips. Seemed like all it took was a near death encounter by her for their relationship to go back to normal. "Why did you come into the forest?" Stella asked.
Den didn't reply for a minute and Stella thought he wouldn't when he spoke, "You're not reading my mind?"
Stella shook her head and replied, "Don't want another reproach from my grandads."
Den: "....." Who was she calling grandads?
"But try to be truthful. Just because I'm not reading your mind doesn't mean I can't." Stella continued.
"I was looking for you." Den spoke with a sigh.
Stella did not reply and closed her eyes. She knew that much. He had been following her scent.
"Well, at least he didn't lie. He just didn't tell me the complete truth." Stella thought to herself as she felt herself slip into sleep.
Den's running was nothing like Allen's. It was smooth and peaceful, almost like a lullaby. It seemed like he had a lot of experience running with a human in his arms.
Plus, Stella suddenly felt the blunt of the fatigue from the whole day. She had already run many miles and fought a vampire on top of her job and daily routine. She had also broken her arm and hurt her leg really badly. All that and she hadn't even had dinner. All that had kept her going was the need to get to safety. And now that Stella felt safe, she fell asleep quite quickly.
When Stella opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar room.
Stella's defensive instincts immediately kicked in and she sat up and retreated to a corner of the huge bed on which she was.
Stella then caught sight of a picture frame and realisation dawned on her. This must be Simon's home as the person in the picture was Simon himself with an aged lady that Stella assumed would be his mother.
Though the picture seemed to be of the past century, Simon's face had hardly undergone any change despite maybe getting a bit thinner.
When she had calmed down, Stella heard voices from downstairs. Though she couldn't catch the words being spoken, she recognised the voices as belonging to Simon and Sharp.
Now that Stella thought about it, coming to Simon's home was the logical choice. They obviously couldn't go back to the cottage, it was too risky with the Zukao brothers in the forest.