Haunted

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  Oh shit...

  “I insisted on leaving and signed myself out. We had to find you, and I was the only one who knew anything about Gregory's plan.”

  She winced briefly at the mention of his name.

  “You seem to be getting around okay for someone who was nearly eviscerated.”

  “They gave me some wicked painkillers,” I replied, my palms starting to sweat. “I think I could sell them for a lot on the street.”

  “What exactly did they give you?” she asked, starting to sound like a seasoned detective. The hard-piercing eyes she pinned on me looked the part as well.

  I paused for a moment. I knew nothing about narcotics, and had no clue what they would have given someone for that kind of damage.

  “Oxycodone, Vicodin, a Prednisone taper for the swelling, and some antibiotics,” Cooper interjected on my behalf. “Ruby hasn't seen the bottles because Sean has been dispensing them for her. He's a bit of a control freak.”

  I looked up to see Sean shooting daggers at Cooper in the rear view. Something was off about Sean's behavior since we left the park, and I was starting to think maybe he and Sophie were an unstable match made in heaven. Peyta looked momentarily satisfied with Cooper's response.

  My shirt was yanked up over my head before I realized it was a ruse. She gasped as my bare abdomen flashed everyone in the car while I scrambled to pull the thin cotton barrier back down. She said nothing, her mouth dropping open and closed repeatedly, unable to force out sound. I wiggled my shirt into place, covering my stomach without taking a glance at what she'd seen. I hoped it was bad enough to keep the lie alive.

  One look at Cooper's face and I knew the jig was up.

  “Any suggestions now, mister large and in charge?” Cooper mocked as he looked at Sean. “I'd say that the cat is officially out of the bag.”

  “There's just a white line,” Peyta said, sounding distant and flabbergasted. “There's barely even a scar.”

  “Peyta,” Sean said, a fatherly tone lacing his words. “I need you to breathe for a minute. We'll explain everything – it seems we have no choice. But not until we get back to the house.”

  “What are you?” she whispered, staring wildly into my eyes.

  * * *

  We were only a few minutes away from my home, and after being shocked by the state of my wound Peyta was in no condition to argue about getting her answers right then and there. Instead she snapped her mouth closed and lifted up my shirt again. She stared at the faint, silvery-white line that ran from my sternum down below my waistline. I gave it a good hard look, too; it almost looked as if nothing had ever happened. Whatever powers the Healers possessed, they were beyond my comprehension, and they appeared to be beyond Peyta's, too.

  When we arrived at the house, Cooper came around and picked me up out of the car, carrying me up to the apartment. Peyta followed him closely as Sean and Sophie pulled up the rear. I felt hostility rolling off of Sean and I couldn't quite understand why. He should have been thrilled that we found Peyta and returned her unharmed. Yeah, there was the Sophie issue, but that wasn't exactly something new for us.

  Something was bothering him deeply.

  “Peyta,” he said as he closed the door behind us. “We're about to do something that has never been done. Ever.”

  She sat on the couch and looked up at him like a pupil ready to learn. I couldn't get over how after everything that had happened, it seemed that all she really wanted were answers.

  I wanted a bottle of Patron and a vacation.

  “What you're about to hear could put both you and all of us in jeopardy,” he explained. “Can you handle that responsibility?”

  She nodded silently in response.

  “Where do you want to start?” he asked.

  “I want to know how Ruby is still alive.”

  “She is alive because of me,” Sophie said, pushing away from the wall to come closer to Peyta. “I healed her, as you are able to heal others. You heard Gregory speak of our kind tonight. It seems that he was right about your ancestry. You're extremely powerful over the dead, and if the PC ever need to call upon you, you'll be an asset to the brothers.”

  “To who?” she said, looking confused and not entirely sure which question to ask next. Sean stepped closer, crouching down in front of her legs as she remained motionless on the couch.

  “To me and my brethren. Your kind has kept us alive for centuries, Peyta. It's possible that one day that will be your responsibility.”

  “But who are you? I don't understand this,” she said, looking frantic and breathing heavily. Her “Does not compute” sign was starting to flash dimly.

  “Our kind has been in existence for longer than you can imagine; before Christ walked the earth. We were created by Aries, as Gregory said, for one purpose and one purpose only – to kill Romulus. However, that purpose morphed over time and now we keep the delineation between the human world and the...less-than-human one crystal clear. That line for you is now blurred. You would fall under the 'less than human' side of things.”

  She paled slightly at the implications of what he'd just said.

  “So I'm not human?” she asked, trying desperately to control the waver in her voice.

  “You are still Peyta,” Sophie said, sitting down beside her. “But you're also superhuman. You have abilities that exceed the norm. You're in a different class of human now.”

  As if she suddenly put two and two together, her eyes darted to where Cooper and I were standing.

  “What are you two, then?” she asked, looking pensive. “Gregory talked so much about power, killing people...and revealing himself to the humans. Then he blamed you for ruining his plan. If he's not human, what does that make you?”

  The two of us looked to Sean for guidance, unsure of how much she needed to know.

  “Just tell her the basics. She doesn't need to drink from the supernatural fire hose all at once,” he instructed.

  “We're...well, we're...you see we...,” I stammered, trying to figure out a good way to drop the bomb.

  “We're werewolves, Peyta,” Cooper blurted out. “Just like in the movies.”

  “You're what?” she asked disbelievingly. Her head dropped down so low that she could barely keep eye contact.

  “Smooth, Captain Tourettes,” I said, shooting him a scalding look. “He's telling the truth, Peyta. We are what he says, but it's not at all like the movies. We don't change when it's a full moon, we don't eat people, and we don't need to be locked away for the safety of others...caged….”

  Never again. The thought rang through my mind as Scarlet growled in my head.

  “So you turn into wolves?”

  “Yes, but not your average wolves. We're bigger, more agile,” Cooper added.

  “This is such a mind-fuck,” she muttered. I was amazed she hadn't passed out from pure shock and awe of the situation. She was taking our not-so-human statuses far better than I ever did. “I guess some things make a lot more sense now in retrospect.”

  “Such as?” Sean asked, intrigued by her statement.

  “Well, for example, it explains why you're such an overbearing ass sometimes.”

  “But I'm not a werewolf,” he replied with an evil grin curling up the corner of his mouth.

  “Fine. But you are still an ass,” she snipped. “It explains why Cooper stays out all hours of the night, and why Ruby lunged at Gregory after he stabbed her. He took her ring off and she pounced at him like a lion.”

  “He took off your ring?” Cooper asked, looking down at me in utter disbelief. “Did he forget the night in the clearing?”

  “He wanted to keep me alive. I was apparently dying too quickly for him,” I replied. “We tried to take advantage of the situation.”

  “Hence the broken finger?”

  “Yep...insurance that she wouldn't get out again,” I said. “That guy really thinks of everything. Well, pretty close to it anyways.”

  “So, Sean, if you're not a werewolf,
what exactly are you?” Peyta asked, eying him intently.

  “I'm the son of a god. Weren't you listening?” he replied with no intention of further expanding on his answer.

  “Whatever,” she retorted, blowing him off. “So you knew what I was when you met me. It's why you asked all those bizarre questions the night you stayed over and Cooper flipped out.”

  Sophie fumed at Peyta's comment; I guess she didn't know that Sean had a sleepover at my place.

  “Don't worry, Sophie. I made him sleep on the floor,” I added sharply.

  She scowled at me and I couldn't help but smile. I'd gotten under her skin and it felt good. She may have had the upper hand when it came to Sean, but I could still twist the knife in her side. As long as he still loved me it would always be there.

  “I had my suspicions,” Sean admitted to Peyta, stealing my attention away from the bitch and back to the conversation.

  “OK, but what I really don't understand is who Gregory was, and why he wanted revenge so badly,” she said to me and Cooper. We looked at each other then turned our attention back to the weary looking raven-haired girl on the couch.

  “It's a long story Peyta. The short of it is this: he was the Alpha of Cooper's pack out in Utah. I was brought to them under false pretenses then held captive there. Cooper rescued me and the two of us escaped together.”

  “That's how you met?” she asked, cutting off my explanation.

  “Yes.”

  “No wonder you're so close,” she said, admiring us. Cooper reached his hand down and closed it over mine. “Why were you brought to Utah? What did he want with you?”

  Sean shot me a pained look from across the living room. It was plain on his face that he hadn't fully forgiven himself for being unable to find me quickly; he clearly had ideas about what I'd been subjected to.

  “You don't need the gory details, P,” I said softly. “Just know that he was evil to the core. Like he said in the shop, he wanted to punish me for ruining his plan. As for Cooper, Gregory wanted to torture him for killing him, simple as that. Crazy doesn't have to make sense to the rational mind, and he was certifiably nuts.”

  “Will you tell me one day what happened in Utah?” she asked, concern for my well-being showing in both her expression and her tone.

  “No, Peyta. Some things are too terrible to share with others. I don't want that kind of pain to be possible in your world. I won't allow it.”

  Her eyes teared up as she stared up at me from the couch. I didn't understand why she was so upset by what I'd said. When a tear rolled down my own face it dawned on me – my pain had become her pain. I cried, so she cried. We had bonded quickly, as Cooper and I had. She was the sister I had never had and never knew I wanted. More tears came at the realization.

  “So can I see your wolf?” she blurted out as the idea crossed her mind.

  “Um...maybe some other time,” I said, coughing out a laugh. She had no idea the can of worms that would open.

  “I bet they're beautiful,” she said, romanticizing the idea. “But are they mean?”

  “Mine isn't,” Cooper said, smiling from ear to ear. “But Ruby's has a bit of an attitude problem.”

  I smacked his arm and immediately regretted the act. My trauma may have had few visible remnants, but my insides still felt like they'd been through a blender. Cooper helped me to a chair and sat me down.

  “Try to can the physical assaults until you're up to it, okay?” he mocked.

  I nodded in response, wiping the sweat the pain had caused from my forehead.

  “Ruby,” Sean called, bringing my focus to him. “Tell me something. How is it, exactly, that you knew how to kill Gregory. I've been wondering that ever since it happened.”

  “Oh. You can thank Scarlet for that one. She figured it out.”

  “Scarlet?” Peyta asked, confused by this mystery person.

  “Her wolf with the attitude problem,” Cooper said in an effort to clarify things for her.

  While Cooper expanded on my darker half with Peyta, Sean looked at me quizzically, trying to figure out the logistics of how Scarlet could have been an asset in that situation. As far as Sean knew, I couldn't hear Scarlet in my head. I didn't want to share with him that since the healing I could, but I couldn't think of a better explanation for how I knew what to do.

  “Ever since Sophie did her thing, I can hear Scarlet in my head as she can hear me in hers. We seem more...integrated,” I tried to explain. “Anyways, she put the pieces together. I kept seeing the Watchers solidify throughout the ordeal. She was the one that realized that it was only when Gregory touched Peyta that it happened. She coupled that with a conversation Peyta had with me once when she talked about their first kiss. She'd grabbed him and planted one on him. I guess he looked positively stunned when she pulled away and she couldn't figure out why at the time; she wondered if a girl had never been so forward with him. In hindsight I'm guessing it shocked the hell out of him because up until that moment he had only been able to call on her power to touch things, but nothing had been able to touch him.”

  “Are you saying that Peyta's powers were great enough to truly re-animate him?” Sean asked, completely awestruck.

  “It would seem that way. If they hadn't been, I don't think any of us would be standing here right now.”

  It was a sobering thought, but the truth nonetheless.

  “So what does that mean?” Peyta asked.

  “I don't think any of us really know, Peyta,” I said. “But it makes you pretty kick-ass in my book.”

  “Kick-ass or not, it's a question to answer another day,” Sean said dismissively. “We need to get Peyta's story together before her mother returns. Any suggestions?”

  “Well, you weren't feeling good on your birthday, so that explains that night,” I pointed out. “That leaves Sunday and Monday to account for.”

  “Yeah, and you have to have something good to explain why you bailed on your mom's fill-in lady on Sunday. I'm sure she's pissed about that,” Cooper added. “Werewolf or not, your mom scares the shit out of me. I'd avoid her wrath like the plague.”

  We spent the next two hours ironing out Peyta's story. If any of us were asked, we would say that she was sick Saturday night and all through the day Sunday. Monday she had broken up with her boyfriend and spent the day in the park to take her mind off of it. She'd forgotten her cell phone in the car, so she didn't see any messages. The best lies were always peppered with truths to make them easier to remember for the liar, and easier to sell to the listener. We would all work hard to pull it off.

  We all feared Ronnie too much not to – even Sean.

  35

  Sophie and Sean made their exits not long after Peyta's alibi was all worked out. Neither made any mention of where they were headed, and I wondered when Sean would return, wanting to go over my whereabouts when Cass was murdered. It wasn't a meeting I was looking forward to.

  I let Peyta sleep in my room when she wanted to turn in long before Cooper and I were ready to. We were both exhausted but completely wired so we stayed up early into the morning, rehashing the events of the night.

  “I'm still mad that I didn't get to kill that bastard,” I said, reflecting on Gregory.

  “Guess it just wasn't in the cards for you,” he replied, smiling at me from across the couch. “It takes a powerful man to take down another powerful man.”

  “Oh please, Cooper. Scarlet would have torn him to pieces,” I scoffed.

  “Pure speculation, Rubes. You two will never know now. His dead ass isn't coming back a third time.”

  “Hey, speaking of a 'powerful man', that reminds me. During his psychotic rant downstairs, Gregory said something odd.”

  “Doesn't 'psychotic rant' imply that something odd would be said?” he mocked.

  “Ugh, would you shut up for a second?” I asked, barely refraining from hitting him again. “He said something about being surprised that you were powerful enough to kill him. Do you know what he mean
t by that?”

  “Not a clue.”

  “You don't have any weird tattoos, do you?” I asked on a hunch.

  “You have seen me naked before. Do you remember any tattoos?” he asked, looking at me with a cocked eyebrow and a little more heat in his eyes than I expected to see.

  “If you remember correctly, I was studiously trying to avoid looking at you naked.”

  “Hmm...sounds like your loss to me,” he said, lying back against the cushions. “But no, I don't have any tattoos.”

  “Okay.”

  “Why?” he asked, looking curious. “What are you cooking up in that head of yours?”

  “Nothing. I just wondered if you were maybe from the same line as him. It would explain why you were powerful enough to kill him. He had a tattoo that he said all descendants of Romulus had.”

  “Nope. I'm ink free, baby!” he shouted over his shoulder as he got up, headed for the kitchen. “Kicking ass makes me hungry, you want some popcorn?”

  “It's like you read my mind,” I said, gingerly getting up off the couch.

  “Fire up that flat screen of yours and let’s see what's on HBO. I don't think I can sleep just yet,” he called out from the kitchen, trying to be heard over the clattering noise of the cupboard doors shutting.

  “I don't think I'll be sleeping at all,” I sighed.

  “Hm...sounds like I'll need to make double the usual amount then,” he said, smiling at me over the island.

  And just like that, things went from chaotic to normal in the blink of an eye.

  * * *

  I woke up on the couch late the next morning, curled up on Cooper's lap. He was still completely zonked out with his arms spread wide, wrapping around the back of the couch, his head extended so far back that he was facing the ceiling. It made him snore just the tiniest bit. I peeled myself away from him and sneaked out of the room and down the hall. My bedroom door was open, the room unoccupied. Peyta, despite everything she'd just been through, had the wherewithal to set my alarm and go pick up her mother at the airport. She really was something special.