Tearful Reign

by V L Friends

  Outside, I could not resist a little jab at my new revelation that my father was quite popular with almost all ladies.

  “So, stud, what’s next?” I teased.

  For some reason, all my senses where on overload and as I was talking to Julian I was also overhearing Anna pick up and dial her phone. Something was not right. My senses were on high alert as I picked up the conversation.

  “Benji, you wanted me to tell you when Julian was here. Well, he’s here,” said Anna.

  Julian was saying something, but I didn’t hear him and I interrupted. “We need to get out of this town right now!”

  Just as I got that out this flash of someone came and drug Julian to the alley.

  “JULIAN!” I was frantic! I was suddenly alone in this town full of witches.

  As I rounded the corner into the alley I saw this young blond man with a tire iron stab Julian multiple times. Julian was lying there when I called out. I had to do something. Benji had a canister and, judging from the screams I heard from Julian when he splashed it on him, I suspected it was acid.

  “Benji! Wait!” They both looked surprised that I knew his name.

  He turned to look at me with these eyes filled with pain. I knew Benji wanted revenge for some reason.

  “Who do we have here, Julian? Another witch maybe? Is she somebody you care about? Maybe I will kill her and make you watch before I kill you. Just like you killed my Sophie!!”

  Benji took a step toward me. I wasn’t sure he could kill Julian that easily but I wasn’t going to find out.

  I remembered meeting a Sophie when I went to a church service at the Amish community the week before. She talked about her boyfriend and how much they were in love and how they wanted a different life together. They wanted healing from their lives as walkers. What had Julian done?

  “She is innocent! Leave her be. She is human and you know the consequences for killing an innocent human!” Julian yelled out between screams of pain.

  “Benji, please just listen to me. I knew Sophie. She spoke about you. I know she wouldn’t want you to do this. She wouldn’t want you to become this. I promise you I will help you. We can talk but I need you to just walk away from this! Please Benji, please! This man may be horrible and not worth this sacrifice to you, but please.” I was crying and begging with all I had in me. “He means a lot to me.”

  “Who is this piece of shit to you?” Benji spat out the question.

  My tears were still running down my cheeks.

  “He is my F—Father,” I confessed.

  Benji looked at me with tears flowing down his face.

  “She wouldn’t want this.” He dropped the torch he was about to use to burn Julian to death. He had apparently poured gas on Julian as well. “This is for Sophie!” Then he was gone.

  After pulling the steel tire iron out of him, I noticed Julian was able to heal quickly. One of the benefits of being a walker was self-healing.

  “Would you mind telling me what that was all about?” he said, still out of breath.

  “I heard Anna on the phone talking to Benji just as we walked out to let him know you were here. He must have wanted revenge. Julian, did you kill Sophie?”

  “It’s a long story,” he nodded. “Anyway, thank you. You saved my life and you could have been killed. This is obviously more dangerous for you to be here than I anticipated.”

  I felt a little awkward that he heard me say I cared about him.

  By the time I got him back to the car, Julian was almost completely healed.

  He opened the trunk where he had a change of clothes and a jug of water handy. After dumping the water on himself to wash off the gasoline, he began to disrobe, out in the open, as if he had no care about who was watching. Walkers often had no problems with being naked in front of people, which was one of my pet peeves about them. He didn’t understand my need for modesty, so when I turned around abruptly he chuckled.

  After putting on a spare change of clothes, Julian addressed me again.

  “Hey, listen, there is one more thing I need to do. Do me a favor, go and gas up the car across the street and I’ll meet you there.” He pointed to a gas station across the street.

  I noticed the direction he was headed, back to the tavern. Not feeling good about leaving him alone, I immediately went to join him when I was done.

  The tavern was empty. I guess he had made everyone leave. Why did he come back here? I heard Anna’s voice back behind the bar. My feet traveled to the voices.

  “Please, Julian, it won’t happen again. It was a momentary weakness. Sophie was my friend!” I heard Anna pleading.

  “Well, you see, I can’t just let that go now. Benji couldn’t have killed me, of course, but suppose Benji had killed my only daughter. My sweet Anna, I can’t believe you would betray me like this.” Julian’s voice was casual, almost playful. My gut churned. It was like he gained pleasure in her fear.

  Just when they both came in sight, I saw Anna turn to run and in a second Julian caught her from behind and ripped her heart right out of her from the back. The shock left me unable to move at the horror I had just witnessed. I tried to scream but nothing would come out. I couldn’t even breathe. I had saved his life just minutes before but he could not let a betrayal go. Anna had betrayed him. I dropped to my knees and gasped for air. The fact that I saw him did not even faze him. His eyes were cold, dead, as he walked over to me and dropped Anna’s heart to the floor right in front of me. Without a word, he stepped over the blood and walked out. He was the monster after all!

  Oh God! I was feeling myself going into shock. Tears ran down my face. What have I become, to love someone or something like this?

  I sat there on my knees for several minutes just staring, only I could not focus on anything except trying to breathe. When the fog began to clear, I noticed I was hunched over and my hand was reaching out for something on the floor. It was Anna’s heart. The copper smell of the sticky blood-soaked floor and the salty taste of my tear-stained face gave me evidence that this was indeed not a nightmare. It was real. I felt a tremor from inside me

  What do I do now? I had just witnessed a horrific scene and now I was responsible for what I did next. I couldn’t just walk away and leave this the way it was. When I reached for the still-beating heart and took it in my hand, there was only one thing I could do.

  Chapter 7 - Flirting with Danger

  As I sat in the back seat, hugging my knees, listening to the hum of the car motor, I stared forward, locked in a state of shock. I was still trembling from the very depths of my being and I could not control it. The gory scene, still playing over and over in my head, haunted me. Was this what I had to expect from now on in this new world? Julian just kept his eyes forward, never turning back to me as I sat in the back seat. Somehow sitting anywhere near him would be unbearable. So much for father-daughter bonding time.

  We were both still covered in blood when we strode through the door that evening and Caleb and Lucian were both waiting for us like two anxious parents. Lucian was at my side in a flash. Okay, seriously, did anyone else find his intense overprotectiveness strange? It was suffocating. His hands roamed over me frantically as he hunted for any wounds on my body. When his examination turned up nothing, he cupped my face in his hands and stared intensely into my eyes as though he was still searching for something. I gazed at his pools of glowing eyes with sparks of silver and tried to say something but my mouth was not working. When did he get so damn attached to my well-being anyway?

  I shot a look to Caleb; he had the usual calm expression that showed no tell of the brooding storm that was within. I don’t know how I knew, perhaps it was the growing tension of his jaw, but he was about to explode. He glowered at Julian, who avoided his gaze.

  “She is in shock!” Lucian’s voice reported to Caleb.

  “What the hell happened?!” Caleb demanded.

  When Caleb stepped closer, my heart clenched. The look on his face was utter regret. He blamed himself
. I could feel his guilt radiating from him because, after all, he had let me go with this monster.

  Caleb shoved Lucian away from me as he pulled me tight to his chest. I thought he would cry, but instead I felt him trembling. Struggling to read this emotion that had him so worked up, I felt what I can only describe as a gentle tug at my brain. He was now invading my thoughts, trying to read what happened. He can’t know what I did! I jerked back to get away, but he held me tighter and cooed softly in my ear.

  “Shhhh,” he said as he stroked my hair.

  Caleb held me tight for another few seconds before he eased up and planted a kiss on my forehead. When I looked up at him, I saw one tear fall from his eyes and that is when I saw it. Behind those loving eyes that seemed to look at me with tenderness and guilt, the emotion that made him tremble was not hurt or fear, but rage. I was suddenly afraid of what he might do to Julian and how he would react to me if he now knew what I had done. My attention was drawn back to the other two walkers in the room.

  “Whose blood is this?” Lucian demanded from Julian.

  Julian acted as if it was just another day in the life of a walker and strode nonchalantly over to pour himself some brandy in the parlor.

  “Things got a little heated. She actually saved my life. Who knew the girl could be so level-headed in a fight?” He paused to take a gulp of his drink before continuing with hesitation. “There may have also been one incident after the fight that got quite gory,” he shrugged. “She’ll be fine. We can’t baby her forever. So she got a little bloody.” Julian shrugged again. “She needs to know this is a part of our world.”

  Well, I had wondered if I could actually dislike this monster more than I did already but… what do you know? I could!

  I stared at Julian and tried not to do what I wanted to do. I wanted to punch his pretty, arrogant face in. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Caleb’s red face as he clenched and unclenched his fist. He was going to lose it. This was going to be bad!

  “You have gone too far this time, brother!” Caleb said between gritted teeth.

  I was now backing away slowly to the stairs. I knew from experience that once one of them began to get that look, that stance, they had reached the point of no return. It was that stance of facing Julian with arms dropping to his sides and legs parted even with his shoulders and gaze locked on his target that I knew all too well meant Caleb was about to pounce. Caleb’s eyes began to glow and that meant his predatorial rage had taken over. My heart pounded with agony at the realization that this could be the worst fight they had yet.

  Lucian must have sensed the tension in the room because he stepped between them and I noticed that aristocratic mediator look take over that made him seem like royalty. His white-blond hair pulled back with a tie at the nape of his neck, along with his white button-up, black riding pants, and boots made him look even more like royalty. His arms folded at his chest and his shoulders seemed to square as if he was ready to take over diplomacy for the two brothers, now glaring at each other from across the room.

  “Julian, did you ever think perhaps that exposing Anaya to such brutality would bring her trauma? I mean, the girl is obviously not alright. It’s been hours since the event and she is still trembling and speechless.” Lucian’s voice was calm and I felt his magic spring forth, trying to project a sense of calm in the room. I knew it was too late and the best thing to do at this point was to get out of the way.

  What they didn’t know was that I was not shaking with fear but with the incredible amount of power that had surged through my body so quickly. It was so bad most of the way home that I thought I would come apart. At least I could stand now. The power shot from my body as I reached for the woman’s heart and crammed it back in her body and commanded life back into her. I had felt the touch of God before but never this raw power surge within me and out of me.

  “Lucian, take Anaya upstairs and attend to her.” Caleb did not sound like himself anymore as he gestured to me. I had made my way to the bottom step and now bolted up the stairs to get away.

  “Caleb, calm down.” Lucian’s hand went to grab Caleb’s but retracted in an instant, knowingly.

  I thanked God for my legs being able to work again. I had to get away to the safety of my room.

  Once in my room, I slammed the door and locked it. The last thing I wanted was for Lucian to come in and discover my secret. He had a way of sniffing out magic and determining its source. I wasn’t sure if his ability included detecting heaven’s power but I didn’t want him to find out. He already knew too much about me. Something inside me told me not to trust him. If he knew what I was becoming, this would be bad, very bad.

  Loud smashing noises and yelling came from downstairs, giving me the clue that the fight was well underway. All I could do was cover my ears and sink to the floor and wait. My eyes closed and I began to hum, trying to block it all out. It felt like an hour before the vibrations of the house stopped. When I sat up and lifted my hands from my ears, there was silence. I strained to listen for voices but heard nothing.

  A soft tap on my bedroom door made me jump.

  “Anaya?” Lucian’s voice was soft.

  I crawled over and unlocked the door, and then scrambled back to the place I sat. I figured it was safe for him to come in now, hoping he would be too distracted by the fight to notice anything.

  “Hello, precious, what are you doing there in the dark on the floor?” He towered over me with a playful grin.

  I hated it when he called me that. It was such an obvious dig at how weak he thought I was.

  I shrugged as he came in bearing a tray of food and container of what looked like wine.

  “I figured you would be hungry. I doubt Julian fed you. He means well but he is just not a nurturer.” He chattered as if nothing was wrong as he sat the tray down on the night table and turned back to me.

  “Understatement of the year,” I mumbled.

  He stood still, towering over me with his hands on his hips, studying me. He cocked his head. “Do those two often carry on like that?”

  “Yeah, a few times,” I said, trying to gather myself off the floor. My muscles were sore and weak. He jumped to steady me. I quickly pulled away.

  “Why do you push me away?” he asked.

  “Sorry, I am just a bit jumpy,” I said back to Lucian. I knew my nervousness caught him off guard.

  He shrugged and took me by the hand gently. “This was a shock for you. I see that, but I just have to ask you something. I did not sense fear when you came in the door yet you were surging with energy. What was that about?” He moved in closer as if to study me.

  I could not look him in the eyes. He must not know about the power surge that was flowing through me. “I don’t know, Lucian, I have never seen so much blood. I can’t begin to explain anything right now.”

  His finger lifted my chin to meet his eyes.

  “I don’t like you lying to me,” he said as if scolding a child.

  I swallowed hard as I saw a stern look in his eyes. He makes me nervous. Who the heck was this man? I had the shuddering thought that I really did not know him well. Silence fell between us as I eased my way out of his reach and looked down. I could feel him watching me as he took in a deep breath as if to change the subject.

  “Never mind,” he whispered, shrugging. He stepped forward and took my shoulders. “I am here to assist you.” He smiled down at me mischievously. “We need to get you cleaned up.” He began to pull at my shirt.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing?” I pushed away his hands.

  “Trying to help you undress, silly,” he said with a mischievous grin. “We need to get you in the shower.”

  “I can manage!” I groaned, staggering toward the bathroom.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to join you?” he said, teasing. At least I hope he was teasing.

  I gave him a warning glare before I slammed the bathroom door behind me.

  “Damn incubus!” I grumb
led to myself.

  Laughter erupted from the other side of the door.

  After my shower, I peeked out the bathroom door. I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes. As if reading my mind, someone had placed a chair by the door with a long cotton nightgown on it. Snatching it in my hand and retreating back into the bathroom, I felt a gnawing in my gut to stay alert.

  I came out to find Lucian lounging on the bed, his head on my pillow, with a glass of wine in his hand, resting on his chest.

  “Feel better?” He smiled warmly and his dimple on the side of his face showed. I noticed his hair was wet and he had on black silk pajama bottoms and a white tank top clung tight to his muscles. His short white-blond curls hung wildly about his head. His perfect sun-kissed skin made his hair look even blonder. Realizing how attractive he was to me in that moment, I suddenly recognized my next battle and what my gut was telling me.

  “A little, but I am so tired,” I replied, hinting for him to leave.

  Act natural, Anaya. Don’t let him know your weakness or he will pounce. Remember he is a predator. I coached myself inwardly as I walked to sit at the edge of the bed and dry my hair with a towel.

  “Yes, of course.” He sat up.

  “It’s just that…” He hesitated.

  “What?” I looked back at him, as my back was now to him. His expression was thoughtful.

  “I thought you might want to talk. No offense, but you seem very tense,” he said and looked at me with a slight smile.

  I shifted to look directly at him, trying to act natural, like he was not affecting me.

  “Well, of course I am tense. I just saw a woman’s heart ripped from her chest in a bloody tirade that my own father inflicted without so much as a care in the world! I think a little tension is allowed!” I replayed with mocking attitude as I grab his drink from him and swallowed it down with one gulp.

  I had to wonder why his eyes seemed to twinkle in that moment.