"Well, we can't let that happen," said Viktor, as he continued to stroke my back and hair.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that would suck," I admitted. "But… the strength of that draw… it's what I felt to your thread, only different," I continued, my head down and eyes closed. "I want to—" I stopped in mid-sentence, not willing to go any further.
"Anyways," I said, shaking my head. "The purple thread is a demon, I guess."
"So everyone has a different color?" asked Viktor never stopping his actions.
"More like every species has its own color," I clarified. I didn't think there were enough colors in this world if ever color was an individual. "From what I can gather, red are vampires, gold are werewolves, silver are Van Helsings, green are the Monstru, black are Skinwalkers, pink are humans and now, purple are demons." I went through the list quickly, but I was pretty sure that I had covered everything.
'There are even more,' whispered my monster. 'So many more.'
Well, that wasn't reassuring in the least. "You know, I kind of miss the days when my biggest hurtle to deal with was serial killers. Can I go back to that?"
Viktor let out a low chuckle and gave me a kiss on my head. "Nope, welcome to the world of monsters," he said as I let out a groan.
"But, on a serious note, is there any way to tell how many demons are here?" he asked, shifting me so I was looking into his eyes. The seriousness on his face let me know that I was talking more to The Van Helsing than I was to Viktor.
'Is there a way?' I asked my monster, not wanting to bother her, but needed to help Viktor in whatever way I could.
'Does he was in the city, state, country, hemisphere, or world?' came the voice, a tint of laughter to her question.
I relayed her question and watched as Viktor's eyes widened. "Let's start with the world and work our way down," he said, taking a deep breath, already knowing that he was not going to like the answer.
I closed my eyes so I didn't have to see the disappointment on his face if I messed this up. 'World,' I said to my monster.
'I will do it for you, but you will need to know how to do it in the future, so watch carefully,' came her reply. All of a sudden I saw billions of threads, all entwined in a massive thread that I knew represented the world. As I studied the mass of wiggling chaos, I saw all the normal colors of threads that I expected but I also saw more… white, blue, baby blue, orange, and yellows all peaked out from the others.
'Don't worry about those for now,' said my monster as she tried to draw my attention away from the colors. 'Concentrate on the color that you want and if possible, any feelings they might have invoked.'
I thought about the hypnotizing beauty of the purple thread, how it made me feel safe and cared for, how I—
Shaking my head at that final thought, I watched as all the other colors seemed to have vanished leaving only the purple strands.
"Crap," I breathed out.
"What is it?" asked Viktor, a tinge of worry in his voice as I felt him shift beneath me.
"One second," I said to him, not realizing that I had spoken out loud. 'How do I count them all?' They literally looked like a pile of worms or snakes intertwining, like they were trying to fold in on themselves. Although they all had some aspect of brown to their color, there was a significant difference between a lot of them.
'Just think in your head that you want a number and it will come to you,' said my monster as I felt her looking over my shoulder and shuddering.
I spun to look at her in complete shock, but there was only darkness with silver eyes waiting for me. 'Do you not like the feeling from those threads?' I asked completely confused.
'No,' came the voice from the darkness. 'To me, it just feels wrong, like a disease that shouldn't be here. Why? What does it feel like to you?' she asked me, disgust and concern coming at me in waves.
'Like home,' I admitted. 'Like safety, security, like how Viktor makes me feel, but in a more platonic way,' I admitted. It was a curse not being able to lie.
Silence was her only response.
'Find the number, Nadia,' came the shaken reply. Then there was nothing but silence again.
A number popped up in my mind. "6,870,459," I said out loud and opened my eyes. Viktor's face stared down at me, a smile graced his lips.
"That's my girl," he purred as if I had just solved world hunger. "You did a good job." I breathed out a sigh of relief that it had worked.
"Any idea the number in the city or the country?"
I tried to bring up the world map again and then break it down to country and city, but the mass never changed, the numbers never appeared. I tried to call my monster to ask her, but she didn't so much as stir.
"I'm sorry, I have no idea," I admitted.
"That's fine. At least we now have a number to go on," he said, once again kissing me on the head. "But you are tired, let's get you to bed. Tomorrow is a new day."
I nodded my head in agreement. Sleep seemed like a really good idea right now.
Viktor stood up with me still in his arms and I let out a very unladylike screak at the change. Gripping his neck with all my strength, I could feel his laughter. "Don't worry Little Cub, I am not so weak that I will drop you."
I raised an eyebrow at that statement and let out a chuckle of my own. "You do realize that if you do, you will never live it down, right?"
He relaxed the grip under me and dipped a bit so I felt like I was going to fall. With another squeal and a frantic attempt to keep a hold of the man, I grumbled under my breath about stupid monster hunters and their idea of humor.
But then again, my mind was miles away from the problem of demons on Earth, so maybe he accomplished his goal after all.