I resisted the urge to scream at the face that appeared in front of my line of vision. My senses went haywire as I registered the unfamiliar surroundings of the room I was in. It was difficult to sit up for some reason, but my neck craned painfully from my position to look around frantically trying to find answers.
I was no longer in my bedroom but laying on a couch in a bleak and bare apartment. My hands and feet were bound tight with a rope that was chaffing my skin. A tv played static in front of me. Alice Galloway sat at the end of the couch. Johnathan stood next to the tv.
"You fucking kidnapped me... again?" I groaned, bashing my head back into the arm of the couch in exasperation. "You have some weird thing for making me the damsel in distress, don't you?"
Alice snorted. "You're no damsel."
"Yeah, but you'll see how distressed I am when I show you your worst nightmares," I spat out at her, seeing red in my vision.
Normally when I would threaten her, Alice would laugh or brush it off. She knew she was stronger than me and a better fighter, but this time was different. This time she kept her face blank as she stood from the couch, moving out of my reach. She'd known to take my threat seriously. Good.
"Where's Tucker?" I asked.
My father raised an eyebrow and I couldn't help but flush as I'd just revealed to my father that my boyfriend had been sleeping in my bed. It was such a human and normal reaction to have at this moment that I was slightly caught off guard, but I was almost embarrassed.
"He wasn't there when Alice retrieved you."
I winced at the word 'retrieved' like I was a piece of mail rather than an actual human being. My eyes flitted toward Alice and noticed with some pleasure that she still seemed rather wary of me. She was sure not to stand close to my position and I was glad for it.
"And how exactly did the redheaded bitch carry me outside of my house without waking up any member of my family?"
The fear I held over Alice was diminished at that moment as a sick smile curved on her lips. My stomach plummeted thinking of her coming into contact with Harry or my mother.
"Who said they didn't wake up?"
My response was caught in my throat as the urge to vomit overcame me. Johnathan nodded his head toward the door and Alice nodded curtly and left. I glared at the man in front of me. His usual warmth and smile were missing from his face. I realized that he wasn't familiar to me. I had trusted him because I'd had no other choice, but I'd never known him. And I never would.
"Harrison and your mother are safe," he assured me as if that would make it better, "they're not who I need."
We both looked at the other, neither of us saying a word. I'd never felt so much anger toward anybody in my entire life- not even Owein. The man in front of me orchestrated everything all for some sick ritual. My ribs still ached to remind me of his part in the abyss that had overcome West Acres.
I had been wrong. It wasn't me who had brought the darkness- it had been here all along. And it had been waiting for me.
"So," I began, "when does this whole zombie-ritual-thing happen?"
Johnathan's graying eyebrows raised at my attitude. Truthfully, I used it to hide the fear that was creeping into my stomach.
It wasn't until Tilly had explained the full ritual that I realized the extent my father was willing to go to bring back his tether. The ritual was meant to be so complicated that no one would dare try it. The page that Tilly had found discussed just one part- the sacrifices.
Lots of them.
"You have been busy," he tapped his chin thoughtfully, "I was beginning to think that you weren't half as smart as you think you are."
I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, yes. Can we do the whole megalomaniac 'I'm a mad genius' speech later?"
His eyes caught on fire with anger. His teeth gritted together, jaw clenching. Mentally, I patted myself on the back for getting under his skin. My satisfaction was shortlived as he burst into action, dragging me into a sitting position and shaking my shoulders. The contact startled my senses.
"You still think I'm the bad guy, after all this time?"
"You stole Delia's memories. You stripped away the very thing that made her human. You controlled Rhiwallon and forced me to get beaten so badly that I ended up in the hospital. You want to murder my friends- my tether- just to get yours back. So...yep. Pretty much. That's bad guy material."
His hands dropped from my shoulders and a strange expression crossed across his face as he backed away from the couch. It wasn't shock on his face- no it was something else. Something like resignation. I wondered if he'd finally accepted that he would never convince me of the inherent evil that he believed werewolves were. If anything, his reaction to them solidified my stance.
My father was becoming less and less of a mystery to me. He was alone, much like I was when I sought out his help. He was looking for, in me, the same thing that I had been looking for in him, someone to understand.
I did wonder, however, how he could not see that what he was doing was wrong? He had blinded himself to everything except his search for her.
"I didn't know, for the record," he began oozing calm, "that you would be beaten. I thought it would be the witch."
If I could've thrown my hands up in exasperation, I would have.
"Well, that's just great. That makes everything better now, doesn't it? Oh, thank god! You just wanted to have one of my best friends beaten up. That makes it all okay."
"Sam went through the same things, but she wasn't as lucky as you were. To understand, you needed to see what the wolves were capable of-"
"Instead," I interrupted, "I saw what you were capable of. And, let me tell you something, I wasn't impressed."
He was not amused at the sarcasm that dripped off of my every word.
I wanted to break free of the rope and strangle him. I wanted to wipe the smug look off of his creepily familiar face. I wanted to make his face not look like mine and rip the eyes that we shared out of his head.
In a sick way, I understood the core reason of why he was doing these things. He would do anything to get her back- his tether- and I couldn't fault him for wanting her back and wanting revenge for her death. If I had lost Tucker to Owein, I could only imagine how the power and darkness now would completely overwhelm me. These facts, however, didn't excuse any of his actions.
Because I would fight it. And I would win. So why couldn't he?
"One thing I don't understand...why did Owein go along with your plan? Why would he try and get the Codex for you? Why would he care about the woman his sister killed? He wasn't exactly a model citizen."
Johnathan raised an eyebrow as a knowing look took over his face. Behind my back, my fists clenched as they strained against the rope that bound them. My father walked closer to the couch, close enough that if my hands were free I could reach out and punch him in the face. I ached to. Instead, he put his hand on top of my head in what felt like a perverse version of a fatherly gesture. I swallowed, knowing precisely what he planned to do.
"I'll have to show you."
Opening my eyes, I knew I was seeing the world from Johnathan's perspective and yet, I was still able to see him as if I were watching from above. He was standing next to a large river, flanked on both sides by a thicket of tall trees. Anguish and rage flowed through me as my father looked down at something in the water at his feet.
When he crouched down, that's when I knew what- or, rather- who he was looking at.
"Dammit, Tommy," Johnathan spat, looking into the lifeless man's eyes.
Tommy Joy's body lay cold at my father's feet and my father, not upset by grief but inconvenience, was pacing in front of him. He seemed to be going over other options in his head. Tommy's death had hindered something important for my father, but I didn't know what.
"Where is she?" the voice that spoke the question caused chills to run up my spine. It was a reaction that I was getting used to.
My father spun on the other man, anger alight in his gray eyes and I suddenly felt very bad for the man who was to be on the receiving end of that wrath.
"Do you know what you've done?" he spat. "You've ruined it! My chances for the ritual- all for your ridiculous pride and power- shot to hell!"
Owein looked nervous. It took me a while to realize that what he was feeling was fear; I'd never seen the alpha emulate that emotion before. My father was the one that caused him to swallow thickly and that was not a very comforting thought to have.
"He started to suspect my involvement in Delia's disappearance!" Owein defended quickly, "What was I supposed to do? Let him tell my pack or the Denver's?"
The gray eyes that met Owein's were cold, dark, and familiar. I knew that the look on my father's face was one that had graced my own on many occasions before. It was a look that told me that his power and his darkness were beginning to cloud his vision- he was about to lose control and Owein was going to be the target.
"The deal was clear," he spat, "I grant you power. I help you become alpha and you get me the Codex. I was very clear in that I needed Tommy Joy alive."
"B-but it didn't work. I'm the alpha, sure, but I didn't become more powerful. Something didn't work."
That was when I finally understood. Johnathan never told Owein that he was keeping Delia alive. Owein had tried to assume the power of alpha by having my father take out Delia, but Johnathan had needed her alive as well and so he'd lied.
As I watched Johnathan approach Owein, I was reminded of an animal waiting in the grass for the first sign of weakness to strike. Owein watched him warily and flinched as my father's shoulder brushed his own. It was strange to watch a man that I'd known to be powerful and harmful cower in fear before a man that, by all appearances, was the weaker of the two. However, even I, only a voyeur of this memory, could feel the absolute power and rage that coursed through Johnathan.
"I don't have the Codex and now I don't have the tethered pair I need for the ritual. So, I think that you are the one who hasn't kept up your end of the deal, Mr. Heigl," my father clicked his tongue as if he were talking to a child he was disappointed in.
"Do you know why Daemons are called Whisperers, Mr. Heigl?"
Owein swallowed as my father muttered familiar words. The threat hung heavy in the air between them and I watched with bated breath as my father continued to circle the werewolf. Owein attempted to smooth out his features, trying his best to hide his anxiety. And it worked. Almost.
"What do you want me to do?" the alpha asked. My father smiled.
"I think it's time for you to meet my daughter."
***
The memory was ripped away like the snap of a rubber band against my mind and I recoiled from my father's touch as I began to understand. Owein had told me in one of my dreams that Johnathan had asked him to marry my mother. My father had lost the pair of tethers he'd had waiting in the wings while he prepared the other arrangements needed in the ritual. We moved to West Acres because he needed me to take Tommy's place.
I was the replacement. So was Tucker.
"You're a bigger asshole than I thought."
Johnathan sighed and clasped his hands together behind his back. He turned from me and I struggled even harder to get free. I had suspected that my father was responsible for orchestrating so much, but I hadn't expected him to be responsible for everything.
"I wish it didn't have to be this way, Eloise. Truly, I do," his voice sounded sincere and I wished I could stop myself from hearing it.
"When you were born, I felt it. Your mother and I didn't know each other at all. I didn't know she'd gotten pregnant. But I've known you since the day you came into the earth and shook the ley lines."
I wish they didn't, but his words hit a strange place in my heart. Growing up, I hadn't ever needed a father. Mom, Harry, and I had done just fine on our own and we still were doing just fine without him. But they couldn't understand the toll that my abilities took on me. He could.
That was why it hurt when Johnathan murmured the words I'd been thinking since I met him.
"Eloise, you and I...we're the same."
____________
Ah Johnny boy what is you doing??????
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