Heart's Redemption (MxM)

Chapter 36 ~ Sam

I can't stop shaking.

Ian frowns every time he feels an intermittent shiver course through me and rubs his hand up and down my arm. I sit leaning against him on the Walkers' puffy, outdated-looking couch, trying to stay awake while everyone discusses the latest upsetting turn of events.

"You sure you're okay?" he asks, as another shiver runs along my limbs.

"I'm fine," I say, though I hear the fault in my voice; the weakened lines along which it threatens to break.

Usually, I do a pretty good job of keeping the worst of Asato's memories suppressed: the long stretches of unmarked time in the dark; the hunger; the fear that, this time, the woman who'd been my mother would let me die, forgotten in a hellish space over which she went on with her life as though I didn't exist.

The Walkers' basement had been just the thing to bring those memories out with a vengeance; add in the fact that I'm running on empty as far as demonic energy is concerned, and I'm a bit of a wreck.

"I just need to...refuel," I say, giving Ian a slight smile that I hope doesn't look as sad and desperate as it feels.

"As soon as I can get you alone, I'm all yours," he says, pressing his lips to my temple in a scratchy kiss.

We might have to talk about that beard.

"Who could have done this?" Jack asks, bringing my thoughts back to the matter at hand.

We're gathered in the Walkers' home—the smaller, private house situated at the back of the lodge—seated around a small stone hearth in which a fire crackles with eager orange flames. It isn't a cold day, but the warmth is comforting. Maria also made coffee and tea, which sits on a tray on the big, polished wood coffee table that dominates the center of the half-circle formed by a pair of sofas and several chairs. Everyone is present except Sofia, who remains with Elliot where he lays, still unconscious, in an upstairs room.

Maria shakes her head at Jack's question. "I've got an answer, of sorts," she says, "but I don't like it."

After Toni inspected the tires and announced that the valve-stems had been severed, putting the tires beyond any hope of repair, Maria had called a towing company to send out at least one truck. Then, Jack—who supposedly had the most sensitive nose—briefly Shifted and sniffed around in search of any evidence that someone else had been there, but he'd come up with nothing: just the familiar smells of his family and of us.

"If there's no sign of a stranger, then I'm left to think...it had to be one of us," Maria says.

"Elliot?" Carlos suggests. "Before he attacked?"

He's sitting on the smaller sofa with Jack, while Toni occupies the spot beside me. Cass, Inez, and Maria have taken the chairs.

Maria shakes her head again. "No. When I drove up with Sofie and 'Nez, y'all were already going at each other. I didn't notice the other vehicles, but my tires were just fine."

"Who then? No one's been alone long enough to do something like that," Jack says.

"With the right tool, something like heavy-duty wire-cutters, it would only take a moment," Toni says.

Carlos sighs. "If only that ghost had just told us who offed her instead of being all cryptic an' shit. I mean, would it kill a ghost to just come out and say something plainly for once?"

Jack looks at him, confusion pinching his even, dark brows.

"Maybe she didn't tell us who killed her, but I think I have an idea who she is...or was," Maria says.