Wildfire

Chapter 23

23. Walk

"You don't know what the hell you're doing!"

Viktor slammed his fist into the wall and I flinched, a tremor of fear rushing through me. His body was trembling with the force of his anger and he was visibly trying to reign it in, but I could tell he was failing miserably.

"I'm trying to save his butt," I retorted angrily, "that's what I'm doing!"

"And what about the rest of us?" Viktor rounded on me, eyes flashing black. "What about Diesel?"

"What about Diesel?" I demanded. "I'm the human, remember? Up until last week, I didn't even know you guys existed, never mind how this whole —" I struggled to find the right word. "— thing works."

Viktor inhaled slowly, his teeth grinding together audibly. I watched as he paced up and down, moving faster than I'd ever seen anyone pace before without actually running. He pivoted at each corner with a fluidity that surprised me — just as I thought he was about to hit the wall, he was walking in the opposite direction.

"It's not my place to say," he said after a few minutes.

A burst of frustration rose in my chest. "Then whose —?"

"VIKTOR SANDAHL!"

I jerked my head to the right in fright. Madalena was standing in the doorway, looking like she was ready to murder someone.

"What happened to my wall?" she demanded.

I looked at Viktor, but all he did was fold his arms over his chest and stare at her with a haughty look on his face.

Madalena scowled. "Fix it."

He jerked his head in acknowledgement.

"Now."

His eyes darkened, but he moved past her anyway, disappearing in the direction of the front door. Satisfied, Madalena made some sorted of contented, growling sound in the back of her throat and turned her head in my direction.

I stared up at her. "Congratulations," I muttered. "You got your wish."

"My wish is to see my son safe," she said stiffly.

"And unhappy?"

"Diego has not been 'happy' for a very long time," she said coldly. "No amount of gallivanting and carousing is going to change that fact. His place is here, with me — with people who understand him."

I frowned, her words sitting heavily in the pit of my stomach. It reminded me of something Diego had said to me — "I think we're even. You gave me a reason to laugh again." What the hell had happened to make him feel like that?

I swallowed, unsure if I really wanted to ask her about it. Yes, she probably knew the reason why — but wouldn't it be better to wait for Diego to tell me himself? There were parts of my own history that I wouldn't want my grandmother to divulge to anyone, not until I was ready to tell them myself.

But I wanted to know more about him. Not about his world or how things worked around here, but about him.

It was a weird feeling, this awful curiosity. I'd never wanted to know much about anyone, before... not even my friends. I liked that element of je ne sais quoi in my relationships; if they were allowed to maintain their secrets, then I was able to withhold mine. There was definitely such thing as knowing too much about someone — as Lexie had demonstrated oh-so-well. She'd used what I'd told her against me, and she didn't even know the worst of it.