Cody's POV:
I shivered against the cold wind as it blew past me. The storm had stopped a few minutes ago, and piles of snow littered the roads and the sidewalks. It was one of the reasons I chose to walk to Alex's house instead of taking a ride; the Jeep was too old to make it through the thick snow, and Noah was too overprotective of his new car.
It took me roughly thirty minutes to get to Alex's house. My legs still ached from the exertion at the warehouse, but I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. I didn't think her father or older brother would be home after what happened last night, but I also wasn't expecting the old woman who opened the door to be at home either. I blinked and double-checked the address just to be sure I was at the right place.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked, her tone weary and bored. She was dressed in a knitted sweater and a yellow skirt, her gray hair tied back in a bun. Her face was wrinkled, but I assumed that was the contribution of her scowl more than her age.
"I'm a friend of Alex's," I answered, unsure of how else to introduce myself although the statement sounded foreign in my mouth. I was more than that to her, but I didn't mention it. "I came to talk to her brother."
"Which brother?" the woman asked.
"Xander," I answered. The woman raised an eyebrow as though that alone wasn't enough. At that, I remembered the conversation I had with Alex in her room, when she mentioned her grandmother. She seemed to have arrived early. I thought of what Alex said about her. "The scrawny one who likes music?"
"Ah," she said and moved to give me space to enter. "Him. He's in the kitchen." I moved past her and into the house, nodding at her. "Although what would a fine young man like yourself want with that little menace and his pathetic sister?"
I stopped, feeling as though someone punched me in the gut, even though none of her words insulted me. I turned around to face the woman and tried to keep my tone as calm as I could. "I can assure you, ma'am, your granddaughter is anything but pathetic."
"Keep telling yourself that," she said and I resisted the urge to snap, letting her walk out to the front yard. I now understood why Alex preferred to disappear into the woods than be within the vicinity of this woman. I tried to ignore her words as I made my way to the open kitchen. I found Xander sitting on one of the stools at the counter, his back to me. At the sound of my footsteps, he turned around and raised his eyebrows in amusement when he saw me.
"You look like you already met Grandma," he guessed, taking a bite of the Oreo in his hand.
I ignored his comment and got straight to the point. "I need to talk to you and River."
His eyebrows went up higher, and he shifted, facing the hallway with three rooms. "River!" he called. A minute later, the door to one of the rooms opened, and River walked out, tying her golden hair into a ponytail. She looked healthier than the last time I saw her. There was color in her face, and the bags under her eyes were nonexistent. She was dressed in a pink sweater and jeans, and her feet were bare, her toes curling against the cold floor as she walked toward us.
"He wants to talk to us," Xander briefed and jumped up from the stool to the counter, next to his pack of Oreos. "Have a seat, Martin."
River rolled her eyes but sat down in Xander's previous spot. My gaze traveled from her to Xander as I tried to wrap my mind around the lack of hate in their interaction. The last time I saw them, they pretty much wanted to throttle each other.
Masking my confusion, I sat down on the stool in front of River. I ran the events of the warehouse in my mind before sighing and starting, "Your sister's hurt. Like shot-in-the-leg-and-bleeding hurt."
Xander froze, his Oreo midway to his mouth, his expression suddenly pale. Okay, that might not have been the best way to break the news. I continued, trying to get him to relax, "But she's fine. I mean, your other sister took care of the wounds." He relaxed ever so slightly, but not enough to take another bite of his cookie. "That's not the point, though. The people we were fighting, the ones who shot Alex..." I looked at River. "They were looking for you."
She paled, the color leaving her face so rapidly that within a second, she looked paper-white. I made a mental note to never sign myself up for breaking bad news to people. Especially these two.
"What do you mean? How many people were there?" Xander asked.
"Two, a man and a woman. As for your first question, I don't think I could be any clearer," I said. He deadpanned.
River tried to recover from her shock as she said, "My father's looking for me." She seemed to be running through possibilities in her mind. "I have to leave."
"What?!" Xander said like it was the most bizarre thing he'd ever heard. "River, are you crazy?"
"If I don't leave, we'll both die," River snapped. "I know my father. He has links, he has people. He could get all the weapons and people he needs, and he'll find me-"
"Then file a case against him!" Xander yelled.
"I can't!" River shouted, equally loudly. My eyes darted between the two of them, trying to figure out a way to stop their argument, but they didn't leave any room for a third person to speak. "He'll come up with every fake excuse you've ever heard, he'll convince them that he isn't guilty. He'll blame me, he'll tell them I'm crazy!"
"River, there are scars all over your body!" Xander yelled, and that seemed to grab River's attention. She stared at him for a moment as if wondering how he knew that before setting her jaw and defensively pulling the sleeves of her sweater further down her arms. As she did so, I caught a glimpse of a faded scar just above her wrist. It didn't look like it was the result of a knife, but rather something smaller but equally sharp.
Like a piece of broken glass.
I didn't have enough time to examine it before she covered it with her sleeve though. I looked up at her as Xander spoke, "You have all the evidence you need."
"You don't understand, Xander." She looked at him, her eyes filling with unshed tears. "You don't know his games. So just stay out of it." She swallowed hard. "I'm not letting anyone else die for me."
With that, she got up from her stool and stormed back to her room, slamming the door behind her. As I stared after her, I could only think of one thing.
She was too young to be that broken.
I turned back to Xander whose expression seemed distant, similar to that of Alex's when she was thinking hard. I didn't realize how much he resembled his sister until now. Although they both had different eye colors, the rest of their features were almost entirely the same.
"Don't let her leave," I told Xander. "And don't take this to the authorities either. Alex wanted you both to know this so you could keep your guard up. I've seen the man and woman during a fight; they're skilled. But you both are smart."
Xander snorted at that. "Tell that to Miss Straight A's," he murmured under his breath.
I ignored his comment and continued, "If they do attack, find a way out of the house as soon as you can because sticking around would be the dumbest thing you guys could do. You can't fight them, so don't test your fate."
"Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence," he said, scoffing. I narrowed my eyes at him. Not many dared to be that relaxed around supernatural species, and Xander's boldness to be that sarcastic just proved he was related to Alex.
"Just stay out of trouble," I told him.
"Like you follow that rule yourself."
I inhaled sharply, but Xander seemed amused at the idea of annoying me. He also seemed to know where to draw the line, though. "Relax, I'm messing with you. I get it. You're on a 'saving the world that could potentially lead to your own death' mission, so trouble is inevitable."
"Thank you for understanding," I said sarcastically. He winked. I stood up from the stool, ready to leave, when he called out.
"Cody?" I looked up at him. The amusement in his expression was replaced in an instant with a serious look. "Can you promise me something?" I knitted my eyebrows in confusion but nodded anyway. "Alex doesn't love a lot of people. But the ones she does love, she protects." As he said that, his hand went up to his throat where I saw a faded scar. It was barely noticeable, but it was there. I thought of Alex's confrontation with her father last night and the bullet wound in her side, wondering if it had anything to do with that. "Sometimes, she's so focused on protecting others that she forgets to protect herself. I want you to promise me you'll do that for her."
I hadn't ever thought about it before, but I realized that whether I promised Xander or not, I would always protect Alex. She was the first person to see me as more than a loner in the corner. She went through so much because of me, and not once did she blame me for it. She believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. Her words from yesterday still rang in my ears.
You have me.
"I promise," I told Xander.
Sensing the end of the conversation, Xander strolled back to his room, and I walked out of the front door.
Out in the front yard, I saw Alex's grandmother watching the plants intently. I didn't plan on approaching her, but when she heard my footsteps, she looked up and called out.
"You said you were friends with my granddaughter," she said, and I resisted the urge to flinch. Once again, I wanted to point out that the word friends was a little weak to describe what we had, but she continued, "I don't suppose you have known her very long, though. Certainly not long enough to know her flaws."
It was true that I hadn't known Alex that long. But I knew her better than her grandmother did, and I was sure of it. As far as her flaws were concerned, I wasn't perfect either. Neither was Zoe, nor Elijah. And none of us minded that.
"You could claim you've her your whole life, and I'd still bet I know her better than you do," I told her calmly. "And for all that it's worth, I think I'd win." She narrowed her eyes at me in examination before shaking her head.
"You're something," she muttered and turned back to watching the plants.
I took that as my cue to leave and began walking back home. On the way, I kept thinking of my conversation with Xander. He talked about Alex's protection like her existence was the only thing keeping him sane, and, in all honesty, I couldn't blame him. I couldn't imagine how it must've been for him to find that most of his life had been a lie, a pretense, and nothing more. After everything that had happened, the kid was holding up pretty well.
I still hadn't talked to Alex about her confrontation with her father, though I didn't think the topic was something she was ready to talk about just yet. I knew that the wound at her side was the result of the confrontation, but I still wanted to know the details of how she ended up like that.
Snow crunched beneath my feet as I neared my house and headed to the front door. As I stepped inside, my shoulders relaxed at the warmth that surrounded me. I took off my jacket and hung it up on the coat stand before walking forward.
I planned on going up to my room to see Alex, but I found her in the kitchen instead, leaning against the counter. She had gotten a change of clothes and was now wearing an oversized T-shirt which I instantly recognized as mine, although I suspected the shorts had been Emma's provision since I'd never seen them before. Her hair was, unsurprisingly, still in a braid, although it was renewed.
She turned to look at me as I walked up to her and smiled. "That shirt seems familiar."
She looked down at the shirt and shrugged. "It's a comparatively good fit."
"How're you feeling?" I asked, searching her face for any signs of pain.
"I'm fine," she said dismissively. I narrowed my eyes at her and reached out to touch her hand. In an instant, I felt her pain crawling up my nerves and looked down to see the mapping of veins turn dark blue under the skin of my hand, traveling further up to my arm. I heard Alex give an involuntary sigh of relief and looked up at her, arching an eyebrow. When she saw me looking, she pulled her hand away. "I'll be fine."
I shook my head and pocketed my hands, switching the subject. "Your grandmother was home."
Alex blinked in surprise. "Did she say anything?"
"About me? No. She doesn't seem to like you much, though," I admitted.
Alex shrugged, unbothered. "She never did."
"I told River and Xander about the situation."
She nodded. "We can't waste any more time on distractions. We have to get to Hawaii as soon as we can."
Before I could respond to that, Zoe's voice cut through. "Did someone say Hawaii?" I turned around as she joined us in the kitchen, followed by Elijah. They both seemed better, no longer shivering or sneezing. "I talked to my aunt. She told me to meet her at midnight, at Rinx."
I drew my eyebrows in confusion. "Rinx?"
"It's an ice rink," Alex explained and looked at Zoe. "Why midnight though?"
"For two reasons," Zoe said. "One: she doesn't want people finding out, and two: we don't want people finding out."
Alex looked at me before shrugging. "Midnight it is."