I watched my father stare at the now vacant spot previously occupied by Nicolas. Even as he pulled out his phone and dialed his driver to deliver the message that we were to go "home", his eyes never left that spot nor did his scowl falter. Maybe I was wrong for reading too much into it, but my lips took on a mind of their own, voicing what I was thinking.
"You still don't like us, do you?"
"What do you mean?" The displeasure creasing his brows released slightly, forming one of confusion as he ended the call and slipped s phone back into his pocket.
"Nicolas and I. You still aren't all that happy with the idea of us." My initial question which was filled with uncertainty faded into knowing the second time around. He couldn't tell me any different when the obvious was written on his face. I think he could tell from my tone that I was no longer asking, but telling him I knew.
"It's more so me wanting you to myself for a while and having to get used to him being in the picture outside of work." A small smile worked its way onto his face. He leaned back onto the table and gestured me over, but I ignored it not wanting to get too close to him. "I'm being selfish. I know all about his history--his loss and what you mean to him, but all I can think about is how I just got you. You're a grown woman, but I'm not ready to let you go."
He pulled at my heartstrings with that one. It hasn't been all that long, but we've bonded so I know exactly what he means. In some ways we're working toward a typical father daughter relationship minus the grounding me part. It makes sense to me now as it has always, that he just wants to protect me. I can almost see him trying to threaten Nicolas if he doesn't have me home before midnight to ensure it. The thought makes me giggle internally.
"Why would you have to let me go?"
My Dad smiled again adding a small chuckle with it this time, but he wasn't very amused. "You're not going to want your old man around after a while. It happens with all pups. They grow up, you grow apart, then the next thing we know I'm looking at my grandkids wondering when they got so big." Once again he sent me a smile that was lacking joy. "Grandkids I would have...if I could've given you a normal life."
"You don't have to feel regret for that, Dad. My life wasn't normal before any of this. The closest I got to that was my childhood despite Nan's condition being in the beginning stages. Mom tried to make things as normal as possible, but it was still hard on us. All too soon Dalton was in the picture. Just to escape him I slept on public benches until Lou found me. You want to know something crazy? I've always had this pull to him--like this fatherly feel from Lou then he turns out to be my Uncle."
A genuine smile was my father's first response, "You sensed each other. Our kind has this sixth sense when it comes to our kin. We can feel that someone belongs to us. That's how I knew you were mine by simply looking into your eyes. Lou probably felt your connection to me, but didn't understand it. I'm beyond grateful to him for taking you in. I honestly don't know what I would have done if one day I would've learned of your being and that you were taken from me. Probably the same way I feel about DeLeon doing the same thing."
I shouldn't have laughed, but I did with an unlady-like snort. "Dad, Nicolas is not taking me from you. Regardless, you'll always be one of the most important men in my life. He'll just have to share."
"You make sure you tell him that." he stood, straightening his clothes as usual then held his hand out to me. The whole time we were talking I could still feel the nagging need to sink my new fangs into him. At the same time I heard Nicolas' commands in my head.
"I don't know if I should." My maneuver backwards was followed by a step forward.
"I trust you not to hurt me, Rayne. Even if you do lose control and attempt to, I can take you." he winked and smile making me do the same. Being tackled by an older wolf probably isn't that funny when it's happening. The idea all around is amusing still.
I took his hand with much reluctance, feeling the gnawing of need swell. My Dad wasted no time at all collecting our bags in his free hand leading us out. The whole way down we were joined by more wolves that had me fighting anxiously against my hunger while wondering what happened to Odessa. The scent of blood is faint, but enough for me to detect it's former presence. Maybe I'm just hungry, but even covered with the stench of death, the scent of her blood is appealing to me. All too soon it's replaced by the combined scents of each wolf surrounding me.
Sitting next to my father with that intoxicating aroma calling to me was hard enough. Adding his driver and two guards was pure torture. My thumbs rolled over each other in an attempt to keep my hands to myself as I walked out the building and entered the sleek black car. One bite...that's all I need. If one of them just gave me their finger I'd be happy just feeling the few drops it would provide me with.
The driver and his wingman eyed me cautiously, but kept their backs straight like good soldiers until I leaned forward and inhaled a little too deeply maybe just a little too close to one of them.
One bite...
Slowly I lowered my hands to the seat on either side of me. Tightly gripping it, I moved my body forward with my eyes narrowed on my target. The wolf in the passenger seat was clearly nervous and through that, his heart was racing. I could literally hear his blood rushing through his veins--as it would be rushing down my throat. Before I could move closer and strike, my father's hand shot over to my leg, stilling me on contact. I'm reminded then that I was not to harm anyone responsible for my safety.
Disappointed and hungry to the point that I'm ready to snap at my own father regardless of what I was told, I sat back and turned my gaze to the trees zooming by us. I feel like I'm trapped. These men are around me smelling like freshly baked biscuits while I'm starving and near the edge of my own sanity. My emotions are turned up extra high and at any minute, I feel like I could burst at the seams or jump from the window of this moving car and run happily through the woods. It's a constant conflict in my brain right now over what I should do. My instinct is to rip into them all, but my conscience is already feeling regret for it. I don't want to make a mistake and kill my own father or even one of his men yet, I don't want to kill anyone else either. The men in the front keep looking back at me because they know what I'm only realizing now, I'm a danger to everyone.
Pinching the bridge of my nose and pulling my lips in over my sharp fangs I try to pretend the blood slowly seeping from the small nicks are that of someone else. It's not working; failing to quiet the voice telling me I need to screw it all and do what needs to be done.
"Are you alright, Sweetheart?"
All of me wanted to say, 'hell no', but instead I went with a simple nod that was nowhere near the truth. I'm not alright. Far from it.
"I haven't been in your life that long, but I am able to tell when you're lying." The car came to a stop as he looked away from me with a knowing smile. "When we get inside, I want you to relax. Take a nap maybe since it's been a long couple of days. Maybe by the time you get up Nicolas will be here with something for you."
"You mean someone." The disgust couldn't be hidden even if I had attempted to mask it.
"Easier said than done I'm sure, but try not to think of it that way. Just like you would not feel guilt for breathing feel none for taking what you need to live. When we first met I told you killing humans wasn't my thing, but I would not hesitate to do so if it were to feed you. We all have our ways, do not be ashamed of yours."
The light attached to the roof of the car flipped on with the opening of the back door. I followed my Dad up a really long walk-way then into a house that looks like a palace. Everything looks so expensive and clean. Very fitting of my father since those words could describe him as well.
"You like it?" he walked up behind me rubbing his hand across my back. "Lou and I grew up in this house. It was passed down to me when I took over our father's seat on the council. You can tell where my mind was when I moved in here." his long finger extended to a set of french doors slightly covered by sheer drapes. As I pushed through them, lights came on around me and immediately my eyes landed on a life-sized painting of my mother in the form of a pretty pin-up girl with a bright exotic flower in her hair hanging up behind a large desk. "She always had my back when we were together so even when we couldn't be anymore, I wanted to feel like I still had her behind me." Words can't begin to describe how good it feels to see my mother's face again. My breath was taken away with a burning of tears lining my lower lashes. So badly I want to reach out and touch her. I miss her all the time but seeing her--actually seeing her through the eyes of someone else who loved her hits hard. Once again I feel a hand on my back, rolling across it soothingly. "I didn't mean to overwhelm yo--"
My arms instantly flew around him forcing a tight embrace while I sobbed into his chest. I'm holding on to my father wishing it was my Mom; wishing that the hand that came up and brushed my hair away from my neck was hers and the lips pressing against my forehead were too. As my cheeks are cupped I imagine looking into her eyes while she whispers that how she loves me and how she'll never leave me, but instead I'm seeing the gruesome images of her rotted skull and blood all over my bed. Long hard blinks to clear my head seem to bring me back to the present; my place against my father's strong chest peering into orbs of light emerald hearing a rich tone tell me the same.
"Don't tell me that! Don't say you won't leave me because just like she did, you will! Someone or something will take you from me! Nan probably doesn't have much longer and I could someday lose Nicolas too! What if we didn't think this through properly and being what I am, I can never die? If something happens to you or Nicolas, I'll be all alone again!" The ability to contain my emotions fell by the waysides. Light sobs easily turned in wailing and huge tears soaking into his shirt. "She left me. She was all I had and she left me. Please don't leave me."
"I'm here Rayne, and I'm not going anywhere." The hand nestled into my hair allowing his thumb to rub against my cheek swiping at the tears still on a journey down to my chin. "You're going to go up stairs to take a long hot shower and when you get out, I'll be here. After Nicolas arrives with something for you, you're going to eat then get some much needed rest and you know what? When you wake up, I'll be here. For as long as there is breath in my body and even in death, I will be with you. Ok?" The tears I tried to blink back ended up falling anyway and again, he caught them as I nodded in agreement. "I'll put something for you to wear on the bed in the guest room--your room at the very top of the stairs. When you're done up there you can come back down and we can talk or do whatever you want, but just know that I'll be here."
An odd feeling in my chest wants me rooted to that spot and not let him out my sight,. I get this feeling he is trying to get me away from him, but why would he after telling me he's always be with me? I'm losing my mind. Being overly sensitive and losing my mind. Maybe a hot shower is what I need. I can still feel the blood of the poor man I killed all over me even without their being a trace and I need it off of me.
Again, I turn with much reluctance heading up the stairs and into the room he deemed as mine. It looks more like a fancy suit than a room, with a lounge area and even a kitchenette. Behind another set of french doors in a bathroom that I could honestly spend the rest of my life in. It took me no time at all to make my way to the large walk-in shower surrounded by sparkling glass walls framed by stainless steel.
Piece by piece I let my clothes hit the floor trying to think of them as every emotion coursing through me. When the hot warm falls upon me, I nearly released a sigh of relief as if it were massaging every inch of my skin. Each bead of water caressing my skin like a skillful finger forced my eyes to close. As I reach for the still packaged bar of soap, another weird feeling crosses me. My father comes to mine with a light voice ringing in my head mimicking the exact timber of his voice.
"Protect our pup." I heard clear as a bell, but I know for a fact he's talking about me rather than to me. Who does he have to protect me from?
Fueled by pure instinct, I switched off the water throwing a towel around me before cautiously poking my head out into the bedroom. He said he was going to put clothes on the bed for me so I didn't lock the door. Seeing nothing there, I pulled back putting on everything I just took off excluding my underwear. The whole time I tiptoed out the bedroom and toward the stairs I heard growling that alarmed the human in me, but set off the wolf within. My father is in danger. I can feel it and feel the need to help him but, all too soon my sense of smell is aroused.
The aroma of warm honey drifts underneath my nose sending my heart into a frenzy. Before I can stop myself, my fangs drop and my feet take me down the stairs. The closer I grew to the source of the scent, the higher my nose tilted into the air. I was letting it lead me, foolishly and uncontrollably into a dangerous situation.
I knew I was close when the smell became so overwhelming that dull sighs were escaping with each breath. A single door stands between me and whatever lured me here and instead of being able to listen to my own logic that I should try to make a run for it, the hunger takes over in full force driving my hand to the hard wood that I pushed effortless revealing a large puddle of blood. Following the trail of blood with my eyes I'm met by the lifeless body of both my father's driver and his wingman.
The alarm bells are going off again; blaring like a banshee telling me to run like hell--find my Dad and run like hell, but instead I want to kneel down and drink directly from the sweet smelling crimson pool. A draft out of nowhere sweeps by me, forcing me to turn on my heels and when I do, I'm instantly brought to my knees.
Lying in another pool of blood, my father's neck is bound by thick silver chains.
"Dad?" I called to him through a heavy downpour of tears. When he failed to react to my call, I inched toward him holding out a shaky hand. The threat of danger still looms, but all I can think about is my father. "Dad, please don't be dead!" Nervously I closed the gap between us, my hunger still at the forefront of my mind. The moment my hand comes in contact with his skin more tears rush from my eyes. The usual warmth of his skin is fading and he doesn't seem to be breathing. As frantically as I could I went for the chains, trying to pry them off of him and locate his wound, but upon contact the shiny metal burns the tips of my fingers.
I had to ignore it. To save my Dad I have to ignore my own pain so I bit down on my lower lip to stop the trembles and urges to scream from the searing of my flesh. By the time I got them off completely I could heard what resembled deeper breathing rushing through his nose.
"Dad? Daddy?!" Hopefulness replaces the overpowering feel. Wolves can heal themselves, right? If the chains are gone, that means he'll be ok, right? "Daddy, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Baby, I can." Chills rolled down my spine. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The trembling of my lips intensifies along with the rest of my body which quickly turns into a violent shake. Slowly, but surely, I turned in the direction of the all too familiar voice. As soon as I did the same sharp sting burning my fingers rocketed through my neck. The same thick chains I'd just removed from my father were pressing into my throat, making it hard to breath. The last thing I saw before something hard smacked against the back of my head was a pair of eyes. Dark evil eyes that ruined my days, haunted my nights, and once took all that I ever knew away from me.