The Lion's Den

Chapter 17

Nova's POV: I frantically flung random items in my pink suitcase. Deja vu... Tears stream down my cheeks, and Feliks pounds on my room door. 

     "Please come out hun. I need to make sure you're okay," Feliks calls, his voice slightly distorted through the door.                                                                                                                                          

     I sob harder, the sound of his voice making my throat tighten. The idea I would never hear it again egged on my tears. 

     I sat on my bed for the last time, remembering everything that had happened since Zivon and I's reunion at the hospital. 

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     After an hours drive home, we made it back to the Den. It was dark now, the type of dark that made even the wolves hide. The moon was tainted by it, making it invisible. 

     The scarce light that illuminated from the front windows made only our feet visible, crunching over the white gravel pathway. 

     Zivon's strong arm looped around my shoulders, and I laid my head on his shoulder. If I could pick a moment in time to stay for eternity, it would be this moment right now.

     Sadly, we can't trap ourselves in an infinite circle of time, and all good things must come to an end. We make it inside, and head straight up to Zivon and I's room. I like that. It's ours. 

     I lay my head on the pillow, snuggling into the scent of Zivon that was embedded in it. Instead of laying down next to me, Zivon sat behind me, stroking my back. 

     "Tomorrow, I'm flying you to California," Zivon said after a moments pause. 

     "What? Why?" I spoke to quickly, I was confused. Why are we going to California? 

     "I've rented you an apartment there, and I have a job lined up for you." His voice was monotone, distant. Cold even. Zivon was never cold with me.  

     "What?" I breathed. 

     "We can't be together. It isn't safe for you."

     The realization crashed down on me like a tidal wave. He was leaving me there. I had a one way ticket, he didn't. 

     I was going to lose the only person I really truly loved, and I knew I couldn't stop it. 

     Zivon got up, the bed rising to fill the emptiness of his weight. I was out of bed before I knew it, running through halls I didn't know existed. 

     Door after door flew past my vision. I don't know how long I ran for, where I was, or why I stopped. 

     I sat against a wooden door, similar to the one I entered the day I met 'the dragon'. My legs burned from the unexpected run. 

     A few men walked past me, giving strange looks. I expected one of them to say something to me, but none did. 

     I didn't want to sit here anymore, and I decided entering the door behind me would be my best option. I stood, turning the handle. 

      I stepped inside, and stale, humid air hit me like a wall. Maybe I'm crazy, but I love small, warming hiding places. Maybe this will be my new hiding spot. Oh wait. I'm not going to be here anymore to use it. ouch. 

     The brown cork wall to my left had hundreds of pictures and profiles hanging by golden tacts.  Many of the images had an Italian flag in the upper right corner, and I assumed that indicated the Italian mafia. Maybe these were members?

     What was the deal with the Italians? I remember Feliks and Zivon had mentioned them owing a 'favor' before. 

     The rest of the room consisted of computer monitors, only one or two of them awake. LED lights illuminated the small room.

     I was so tired. I sat down in a corner, under the ledge the computers sat on. I had stopped crying now, and I slowly drifted off to sleep. 

     When I awoke, I was here in my room. Pain radiated in my neck, probably because I slept on it wrong in that small room. 

     Feliks knocked on my door, making me jump upright. "Hun, pack your things. We leave in 15," and with that, I listened as his footsteps faded into the distance. 

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     So, here we are. I await someone to collect me to leave. Everything feels numb. I can't think, can't fully comprehend what is happening. The pain is consuming, and I don't know if it will ever leave. I wonder if pain meds would get rid of it...

     "Come on Nova. It's time to go."