The Luna Cure

THIRTY-EIGHT

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered Maggie telling Venice to come over by her. My attention was more or less focused on my brother, across the counter from me.

Nolan stepped forward, his unwavering gaze never leaving mine. Those brown orbs burnt into my skin, and suddenly the pain on my back from Dante's first aid didn't matter.

He pulled his glasses off, blinking a few times. As a werewolf, he didn't actually have bad vision. He just felt that to be successful, he had to have glasses. Isaac always gave him a hard time for it.

I felt Dante wipe something around the wound before placing a bandage on it, his fingers gently smoothing the sticky part of the bandage around the spot. The soft cashmere of my sweater dropped back down, brushing against my skin.

I wouldn't acknowledge the fact that my body felt so much colder at the absence of Dante's touch.

"I'm not wrong, am I?"

I almost smiled at Nolan's nervousness. Almost. Nolan was never wrong. But the throbbing of my heart kept me from feeling anything remotely positive at this moment.

Apparently, this pain also kept me frozen, unable to respond. That was, until Dante's hand went back down to the side of my waist. A reassuring touch that proved to be what I needed.

I shook my head in a no, which resulted in him dropping his shoulders in a sigh.

"You're home." He whispered. His expression wasn't one of surprise, or happiness, or anything that I could decipher. What did furrowed eyebrows and eyes dropping down mean?

My arms wrapped around myself nervously. There was that word again. It made me feel so uneasy, and so frustrated. Was this home?

I'd battle myself for hours over that stupid question. It wasn't worth the thought, so I brushed his comment off.

Maggie snuck by silently, grabbing some of the bandage trash off the counter and starting to clean. Dante joined her, putting everything back in the basket, leaving Nolan and I staring at each other.

"I'm not the first one to know about this, am I? Maggie wouldn't be so quiet." He commented, taking a couple steps towards me.

I shook my head. "I saw Max yesterday." It came out faint, barely a breath.

"And me! With the Prince!" Venice giggled.

"Shh, sweetie." Maggie whispered to her daughter.

Nolan ignored Venice, giving me a half smile. "At least that hasn't changed."

"Can I show the princess my room?" Venice asked, finally taking my attention away from Nolan. She was tugging on her mother's shirt excitedly.

Maggie glanced up, guilt clear on her face. "Sorry." She moved to look down at Venice. "How about you and I go look for that elf!" She offered, to which Venice took off running.

"She looks a lot like you. You probably knew that, but—" Nolan said.

"No. She looks nothing like I did." It was a blatant lie, but I didn't want to think about how similar eight year old me and Venice looked. Hopefully, she'd grow up differently. She didn't want to look like me, with my horribly dull features, and common brown hair and eyes. I wasn't much for the eyes.

Nolan blinked at this comment, seemingly taken aback by my rude correction of his words. Nevertheless, he tried again. "You're back." He gave me a once over, as if he was making sure he was right. "Where were you?"

The million dollar question. Max had asked it, and Nolan did just now. Would every other family member that walked into the house ask that same question?