True Love's Bite

40 // No Rest For The Wicked

It was sunset when we finally arrived at the village, and Papa asked Theo to pull up on the side.

"We will walk from here, thank you," he said, taking out his wallet. "How much is it going to be for the trip?"

Theo showed him the price on the screen, and my father gladly accepted, adding extra on top of the charged amount.

"Thanks for the ride," I said to Theo before joining my dad on the side of the road, and we both watched as he drove back in the direction we came from.

Papa took off his shades, his eyes following Theo's car as it vanished in the distance. "Do you think he connected the dots when he heard Esra's name on the radio?" He asked.

I somehow understood where this conversation was going. "Even if he did, Papa, what can we do? Are you going to kill him too?"

He responded with a roll of his eyes, but he didn't seem offended. "Let's go." He turned around, and I trailed behind him as he paved the way farther into the village.

The closer we got to the homesteads, the slower Papa began to walk, until he eventually stopped. "Listen..." He spun around to face me. "You are right, this place is not safe, this entire meeting could be a trap. So, should anything happen out there, I'll try my best to make sure you make it out of here alive. Once you are back home safe, Ivy should give you something to get rid of Zamani should he continue making trouble for you."

"Ivy? Did Ivy also know about this?" I asked, feeling hurt. Lately, it was the only thing I felt - pain.

"Now is not the time for that."

I folded my arms and shifted my weight from one foot to the next. "This thing that Ivy has, does it have anything to do with his brother's, Mpilo's death?" He nodded. "You know his wife is coming after you, right?"

I could never forget the hatred and anger Karabo has expressed towards my father, nor could I forget the phone call from this morning.

"Yeah. She's been a long time coming." He sounded bored as he took out his phone and typed away on it for a few minutes while my eyes skimmed our surroundings.

"The last time I was here with Aunt Meiki, I met a woman in the forest," I confessed.

He snickered. "That witch. What did she say?"

"Just that I shouldn't return to this place. Who is she?"

"That's Emre Yildiz's wife, Nandi," he said with nonchalance, clumsily slipping his phone back into his pocket. "Shall we?" He gestured ahead of us, and I followed him, my steps hesitant.

He had just admitted that the woman I'd seen that day was in fact Sy's mother. A part of me wanted to text him to let him know of his mother's location and that she could be in possible danger, but I knew it would be too dangerous for us both to be here. One of us had to be out there to look after our son.

"Are you coming?" My father called out, and I responded with a hum and hastened my steps.

Khayelihle was too quiet for my liking, the silence was haunting. "Are you sure this is where they said you would meet?"

"Mhmmm." He hummed just as his phone rang, and he answered in a haste, a displeased look on his face. "Ntaba. Mhmmm. Okay." He hung up with a sigh. "We are meeting at the cliff." The mention of the cliff made my stomach twist. "Come, let's sit here for a while."

We settled under a tree facing the houses, and one glance at my father, one could tell that he was finally home.

"My career was just taking off when I fell ill, and the doctors told me I didn't have long to live. I was desperate, I went from one sangoma to the next, even your aunt. But they all told me that there was nothing they could do. I had completely lost hope when Nandi approached me with a proposition, she said she could help me to live longer." He exhaled deeply, his shoulders relaxing. "Everybody knew she was gifted, but she never practiced. She turned me into a blood-sucking monster, and it became absolutely impossible to go about my daily life with all the physical changes. I hated the smell and taste of blood, and I hated that I needed blood to survive. I couldn't stay at home, I avoided your mother at all costs. What happened with your brother was a grave mistake, and I spent all these years trying to reverse it."