Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1)

by Samantha Hoffman

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “How long do you think she’ll be out?” Tanya asked worriedly.

  “Annie said she lost a lot of blood at the cemetery.” That was Holly, and she sounded bored as usual, but also slightly annoyed. “How come you couldn’t get her here sooner, Finn? She was bleeding to death in your arms, and it took you forever. Did you stop for dinner first?”

  “I ran as fast as I could,” Finn ground out tightly. “It wasn’t my fault she got shot. Maybe if she paid a little more attention to her surroundings she would have seen Diego and his rifle before he shot her, not after. And besides, I didn’t see you out there helping guard her. You’re a vampire and more powerful than she is. If you’re so concerned for her safety, why don’t you do something about it?” he snapped.

  Holly hissed. “I was busy. What were you doing, scoping out the cemetery for your next fuck buddy?”

  “Will you guys both shut up?” I asked quietly, opening my eyes a bit. The lights above my eyes were harsh and I blinked rapidly to keep from crying. I tried to sit up, but Tanya rushed to my side, wings fluttering anxiously behind her.

  “Don’t move.”

  I dropped back to the bed with a gasp of pain. Even the slightest movement caused severe pain in my abdomen, and I just sat there panting heavily while everyone in the room watched me with mixed expressions. Tanya looked sad and a little helpless, Holly looked bored and annoyed, and Finn looked pissed off and surprisingly, worried. Did he care about me?

  “How long have I been here?” I asked, looking at the small room that was full of clean linen sheets, bandages, and other medical supplies. “Is this a hospital? Is that safe with Andrew still out there?” I asked, getting worried in a heartbeat.

  Tanya put a hand on my shoulder, steadying me and stopping my panicked feelings. “You’re resting in the infirmary. You’ve been here for almost three whole days, but you’re healing. Thankfully Lisa knows quite a few good healing spells.”

  “Healing spells?” I asked, confused. “If she healed me, why does it still hurt so much?” I asked, gritting my teeth against a flare up of pain.

  “Spells can only do so much. The human body has to finish the healing on its own. That’s just the way our magic works. But it did a great job at jumpstarting your body’s natural healing ability. You’ll be on your feet again in a couple of days. Until then, you get to just sit back and relax while people wait on you hand and foot while I plan your birthday party!”

  I looked at Tanya. “Please don’t, Tanya. My birth isn’t something to celebrate, now or ever.”

  She frowned, and her wings wilted a little. “Don’t you want a party? It’s your sweet sixteen. Every girl wants a huge bash to celebrate. I know you don’t have many friends here, but–”

  “I’m not turning sixteen, I’m turning seventeen,” I said, remembering what my mother had told me. Suddenly all I could think about was her and how she’d just left me for the second time. The pain of her loss was even worse than the pain in my stomach, and it felt like someone was driving a railroad spike through my heart. I had to fight for each breath I took, and everyone just stood there watching me like I was losing my mind.

  “Ronnie, what’s wrong?” Tanya asked.

  “Is this about your mom?” Finn asked, stepping up to my bedside. I was surprised when he put a hand gently on my shoulder, giving me a comforting squeeze. When I met his eyes, I saw understanding, even if he didn’t want me to see it. He’d lost his mom too, and he knew exactly how it felt.

  “What about your mom?” Tanya asked gently, sitting next to me on the bed.

  “I saw her, twice. Once while I was at Andrew’s place, and again just now, after getting shot. This time she spoke to me, and part of me wishes she hadn’t. Because now I know the truth. I’m not fifteen, I’m sixteen!” I cried, drawing my knees up to my chest and putting my head down in my arms.

  “Honey, it’s alright if you’re sixteen already. It’s not a big deal,” Tanya said comfortingly, obviously worried about my sanity.

  I sniffed once, and forced myself to pull my head up to look her squarely in the eye. “It does matter, because my mother was with Andrew before my dad. She lied about my age because she didn’t want anyone to know that Andrew is my father.”

  Everyone stiffened, and nobody said a word. They all just stared at me like I was a freak, a monster. And for the first time in my life, it really hurt. I’d been called names and taunted before, mostly by kids at school or foster siblings, but this was far worse. Tanya and Holly were friends–new friends–but friends nonetheless, and the looks on their faces hurt.

  Tanya was the first to recover, and the first thing she did was pull me close for a hug. When her arms wrapped around my shoulders, I sobbed into her chest. The thought of Andrew being my father was so vile, so repulsive, so disgusting that I wasn’t sure how to begin to cope. My mother had once seen something desirable in that horrible human being and that scared me more than anything.

  Not finding out that I was a necromancer and part of a secret supernatural community.

  Not finding out that I might be developing real, tangible feelings for an angry, arrogant werewolf.

  Not finding out that my father–who had abandoned me–wasn’t really my father.

  It was the fact that she and Andrew had once been in love. Andrew was a deeply disturbed man, and it would take a special kind of woman to love him. That woman was my mother. She was attracted to him; I wasn’t sure what it was–his power, his charm, or maybe his good looks–but something had drawn her to him. What kind of woman did that make my mother?

  “Ronnie, I am so sorry. I don’t even know what to say to that.”

  “What the hell was your mother thinking?” Finn asked, going back to the jerk he usually was. “What would possess her to have sex with a monster like that? Is she stupid or was she just plain desperate?”

  “Finn!”

  I pulled my head up to glare at him. “She was in love with him, and that’s something that you can’t even begin to understand, since you’re such a pig you can’t be with a woman for more than one night. Don’t you dare call my mother stupid you son of a bitch!”

  Finn and I stared at each other while Tanya and Holly were looking back and forth nervously between the two of us. I could see the regret in Finn’s eyes, and I looked away before I was tempted to forgive him. When he sighed and put his hand on my shoulder again, I flinched away from him. “Ronnie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “How did you mean it?” I hissed, clenching my hands in my lap.

  “Um, I think the two of us are gonna see where your breakfast is,” Tanya said, grabbing Holly’s arm. “Let’s leave the two of them alone while they work this out.”

  Holly hesitated, her dark eyes darting from me to Finn, and she narrowed them at him. “Don’t do anything stupid. You’ll regret it.” She turned and walked quickly from the room, her long, dark hair swishing behind her as she slammed the door shut.

  The silence in the room was nearly suffocating, and I wished Finn would say something. But he seemed content to just stand by my bedside, looking properly ashamed of himself. But I wasn’t sure if I could forgive him for what he’d just said. He knew how I felt about my mother’s death, and he still chose to say something mean about her.

  I’m overreacting, was my first thought. He was angry because Andrew’s a threat, and I was just shot, and he was worried. That thought surprised me, because it meant that Finn cared. If he was worried about me, maybe he had feelings about me like I did about him. Why would he though? He’s never cared about a woman before, has he? At least, not for more than one night…

  His fingertips brushed against my bare skin, sending shivers across my arm. I tried to play it off as me just being cold by pulling the linen blanket up around me, but I was sure he didn’t buy it because he backed away from me. “I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I know what it’s like to lose a mom, and I’d get pis
sed at anyone that said something bad about her.”

  I looked at him. “Considering you know exactly how I feel, I can’t believe you said what you did.” My voice broke, but I forced myself to keep going. “You know how much I loved my mother. You knew how it would affect me, and you knew that I needed someone to understand how I was feeling after seeing her again.”

  “Ronnie–”

  “You can be really cruel sometimes, you know that. You think of the most hurtful thing you can possibly say, and then you say it, regardless of how it’ll make someone feel. Who does that?”

  “Well, in my defense, it’s not like I’ve had a ton of people I cared about in my life. I feel weird about liking someone, kind of like I’m always being judged. I’m always defensive and rude, because it’s a way of keeping people away from me. But lately it doesn’t seem to be working.”

  I gave him a small smile. “Tanya would be nearly impossible to scare off.”

  He smiled back. “Yeah, she would be. Kind of like you. This is the second time I’ve snapped at you, and you still haven’t told me to stay away from you.”

  “Well, maybe that’s because I don’t want you to stay away from me,” I said softly. “No matter how much of a jerk you can be sometimes.”

  Surprisingly, he bent over my bed and lightly kissed my forehead. When he pulled away, his tan face held the hint of a blush across his cheeks, and his pale blue eyes were wary as he watched me. Without a word, he straightened, and left me alone in my room. Tanya passed him on her way back in, and she stopped and leaned out the door again to watch him go. When she looked at me, she smiled. “What did I miss?”

  I looked down at my hands in my lap. “What are you talking about?”

  “Um, I leave for a few minutes and come back to find a blushing Finn leaving your room. Not to mention you have this wide ass smile on your face. Oh, and you’re as red as a tomato. What did I miss?”

  I chewed my lip nervously. “Finn kissed me on the forehead.”

  She squealed happily and rushed to my side, setting the tray of food across my lap. “Oh, my god! Tell me everything. What did he say? Was it just a kiss on the forehead? Does he have feelings for you?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, sorry. I’m not sure how I feel about Finn yet, and I don’t wanna spoil anything in case there’s really something there.”