by Martha Woods
“What happened?” Hayley asked, “It couldn’t have been easy fighting against him.”
“It wasn’t. He was a monster and… The brother I had once known was long gone, but he was still my family. But it didn’t matter that night, by the time I’d managed to fight through his servants he was long gone, off to a part of the world that I didn’t know anything about.”
By now, most of them had started to connect the dots, Skylar covering her mouth in mute horror at the implications. Even Liam squeezed his eyes shut in sympathy, already realizing what demons they had both been carrying with them all these years.
“I tracked him for months, never explaining what I was doing or what he had done to the elders. I almost lost him for good until I heard that someone like him had been seen in South America, so naturally I went after him.” She glanced over at Leila, who didn’t return the look. “By the time I located the village and made my way there it was already far too late, he had taken control of Leila.”
“It’s a strange feeling, your mind not being your own.” Leila still didn’t look at them, not wanting to see any pity on their faces. “I knew everything that I was doing, I felt them crumble and break under my hands but I couldn’t do anything to stop myself. All I could do was go from house to house and empty them of life, his dull eyes watching me all the while. If Cassandra hadn’t shown up I would probably have died under his control, whenever he decided that was to happen, but as soon as she appeared he dropped his focus for a split second.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t going to hang around and take my chances, I made my escape and spend the next few months at the bottom of a bottle, trying to dig blood out of my nails that was already long gone by then.”
“He didn’t fight me when I made my appearance, he opened his arms in greeting and wondered what had taken me so long. He said that it was our time, that I could rule next to him and bring the world to its knees.” Cassandra opened her hand, looking down at her palm and the indentations her nails had dug into the skin. “When he wrapped my arms around me I drove my fist into his chest, took hold of his heart and crushed it into nothingness. He didn’t even look betrayed when I lowered him down to the ground, he looked… Proud, like he would have been disappointed if I’d done anything else. I started the journey to bring his body back home the next morning and hoped that with time I would forget that he’d ever existed. I wasn’t that lucky.”
The room was silent as she finished speaking, none of the others sure if they should say anything, or even what they would say if they could. Instead, all they could do was stare at the two women in front of them, a new light having been shone on the both of them.
“My god… Cassandra I’m… I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine having to do that to someone you care about. And Leila,” Leah said, shaking her head slowly while she looked at Leila. “I’m so sorry about the way I treated you, if I’d known...”
“You probably would have acted the same way.” Leila shrugged, her face open in understanding. “Just because something bad happened to me years ago doesn’t mean that I’m not just naturally an asshole and a criminal. You were right to be suspicious, considering how much you obviously care about Skylar.”
“Still, I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t apologize at least. Can we start over?”
Michael nodded alongside her, Hayley and Farah following soon after. “That goes for us as well, we should have given you a chance to begin with.”
Leila laughed, an amused smile greeting them and a pleasant lilt passing through their ears. “My god, you’ll make me feel bad if I don’t say yes won’t you? Fine, it’s a blank slate, don’t worry about it.” She dropped the smile, looking back over at Cassandra. “Unfortunately, that is going to have to wait for a while. We have some very bad news to share with you.”
Cassandra nodded, sighing once more before looking at all of them in turn. “I destroyed his body, but I was never certain that I he was truly gone. I always thought that I could still sense him somewhere in the back of my mind, but I thought that was just regret until recently.”
“I felt it too. Ever since that night it’s like there’s an itch on my brain, like something had dug its claws in and refused to let go. I always had fears about what it meant, but after talking to Cassandra...”
She nodded, confirming what had been one of her greatest fears and shocking everyone gathered. “My brother is still alive.”
Chapter 4
Sleep didn’t find them that night, thoughts heavy on their mind and almost screaming at them whenever they closed their eyes. By the time it was twelve o’clock and even Abigail was still awake they decided that it would be best to make what progress they could, they could always sleep during the day if they needed to.
Two hours later and they were on the road, Abigail sat securely in her baby seat and sleeping soundly, Skylar looking on dotingly. “She never sleeps when we’re still does she? Always when we’re on the move.”
Liam chuckled, tapping his fingers along the steering wheel. “I have a feeling that when she gets older we’re not going to be able to control her, she’s going to split off and go on her own adventures as soon as she can.”
“Well, she’ll definitely take after her father then. And I suppose after her mother, given how the last month has gone.” She reached back, running her hand softly through Abigail’s fast-growing hair, still marveling at how soft her skin was. “Our little adventurer.”
“We should keep a hold on her until she’s old enough for us to teach though. I’m all for her going off on her own but I’ll be damned if it happens without me teaching her everything I can.”
“That’s going to be hard, if she’s anything like her parents then patience isn’t going to be a strong suit of hers.”
Liam laughed, “I used to be patient, my job required it. But then I met you, and that just threw everything out the window. I can’t control myself around you, never could.”
“Well, looks like she’s going to be pretty responsible until she starts dating...” Skylar sighed, “Whoever she wants to be with is going to have their hands full, aren’t they?”
“Well, we’ve got years before that ever comes up. Right now, all we have to worry about is making sure that she’s happy, that’s what’s most important.”
“You’re right, that’s all we can do right now for her.” She smiled at him, weaving their hands together. “I still can’t believe that we finally have a family together, that we’re surrounded by people who love us.”
“I’m just sorry that we couldn’t protect you when you needed us, if we had been stronger… If I had been stronger your father would still be here.” Liam squeezed her hand, shaking his head sadly. “I’m so sorry Skylar.”
“It wasn’t your fault Liam, it wasn’t any of your fault.” She looked ahead at the road, her eyes not betraying any of the emotion that she felt burning through her veins. “It was one man’s fault, and we’re going to go and make sure that my father doesn’t go unavenged, to make sure that he can never cause anyone else that pain that we felt.”
“Never again.” Liam nodded, smiling to himself. “You don’t need me to tell you this but… I’m proud of you Skylar, for everything. You weren’t forced into this fight, you could have come and gotten the rest of us to handle everything. But that was never your style was it? When it comes to the people that you love nothing’s going to stand in your way, not even me.”
“You make it sound like I’m some sort of superhero… I’ve been scared every step of the way Liam, I’m really not made for this.”
“Being brave doesn’t mean not being scared, in fact it makes you even braver for being scared and still going through with all this.” He waved around him. “Look at what you’ve been doing for a month, you’ve been tracking one of the most dangerous men I’ve ever met across the country and having him terrified the entire way, what was I doing? Sitting sad in a corner and drinking myself into a stupor.”
“You were grieving Liam, no on
e can blame you for that.”
“You were grieving too, you had to leave behind the family that you’ve been looking forward to having for so long and go on a journey that absolutely terrified you, all to protect us. I chose to let my grief control me, and you chose to control yours.” Liam leaned over quickly, pressing his lips to her cheek and grinning. “Don’t doubt yourself Sky, you’re so much more amazing than you think you are. There’s a reason why I wanted to help you open your own business back in Boulder Junction.”
“Oh?” She smirked. “I thought it was so you could have somewhere to come have lunch when you got bored of your own work.”
“Well, let’s call that a happy little coincidence. You took to the negotiating game like a fish to water, and you have a real head for business. I refuse to let you just go along and have that little thought in the back of your mind that I just married you because you’re beautiful and you make me feel better.” He snapped his fingers. “What better way than to have you be in charge of your own business and be able to watch it succeed in front of you?”
“Well, it would have, not much chance of that now is there?” She pouted, blowing air through her lips. “Kind of shot myself in the foot with the ‘faking my death’ thing, doesn’t really leave much room for afterwards.”
He frowned, thinking silently for a moment before his eyes lit up. “Not necessarily. Everyone in town thinks you’re dead, sure, but we never actually said how it happened. We couldn’t, they’d throw us in a psychiatric ward for life, so we just kept silent on it.”
“So… You’re saying that I can just walk back into town, no questions asked and just go on with my business? I have a feeling it won’t be that easy.”
“Think about it, we have money, and we’re in love. What do rich lovestruck fools do? They buy boats and go sailing.” He drummed his fingers along the dashboard, the plan already forming in his head. “We were out celebrating Abigail’s birth off the coast when a storm hit and the boat capsized. I swam around for hours until Michael found me, but you were nowhere to be found.”
She laughed, thinking over the different possibilities for her disappearing. “And I washed up on an island somewhere, spending a month there living off the land until I made a raft and sailed back to the mainland. Oh! Or maybe I got kidnapped by pirates and only just narrowly escaped with my life to get back to you!”
Liam laughed, clamping a hand over his mouth so he didn’t wake Abigail. “I’ll let you come up with that part, it’s only fair considering you were the one who went through all of that.”
“I know, how did I ever make it through?” She chuckled, leaning into his side and squeezing his bicep. “I love you, you know that right?”
“I had a feeling you did.” His lips brushed the top of her head, his hand not leaving hers. “I love you too Skylar, don’t ever forget that.”
* * *
A few hours into their journey they showed no signs of stopping, deciding that they may as well make as much use of the time they had as they could. Of course, a few hours of sitting in a car would drive anyone insane, so after a quick discussion they decided to stop for a short break. Good thing too, given that Abigail had just woken up and was getting progressively more antsy the longer she stayed in her seat.
“There you go, all better now.” Skylar said, rocking Abigail back and forth and rubbing circles into her back. “My little traveler, even you have limits, don’t you?”
“She takes after her parents in being completely restless yeah?” Skylar looked over, seeing a nervous Iggy walking towards her. “Sorry I just… We haven’t gotten a chance to talk and I feel kinda bad about that. Especially considering your guy and his pal saved my ass a few days ago.”
“I haven’t exactly made an effort to get to know you either, I can’t blame you for anything there.”
“Yeah but you’ve had a whole bunch of shit to deal with, what with coming back from the dead and meeting your mystery mom.” Iggy held his hand out, trying to give the most winning smile he could in his nervous condition. “Name’s Ignatius, but for the love of god, call me Iggy please.”
She met his hand, giggling at his introduction. “I’m Skylar, but my friends usually call me Sky.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So, am I a Skylar, or am I a Sky?”
“Well, how about we start off with Skylar and move on to Sky after you tell me all about yourself?” She led him towards the car, taking a seat against one of the piles of bags that they had started to rearrange. “We can start off with you telling me where you were from.”
“Where I’m from?” He rubbed the back of his neck, tilting his head in thought. “I’m from Seattle originally, but I’ve been moving around since before I can remember. I was living in Vegas for a while but that wasn’t doing it for me, so I packed up my car and decided to go off the grid for a bit. I actually spent a month living at the Grand Canyon before I got back on the road and ended up getting turned.”
“Wait, you were living at the Grand Canyon? How did you manage to work that?”
“Well, it takes a bit of getting around. Park rangers start to figure out that you’re not just visiting for a night or two, they don’t like people sleeping on the big rocks for too long.” Iggy lay back on the back, arms crossed behind his head. “Eventually I got tired of having to keep one eye open when I was sleeping and headed on out, came down to Arizona and met my master.”
“Your master?”
“Oh sorry, the guy who turned me.” He perked his head up. “Do you know much about vampires?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Honestly I’m still learning about a lot of things related to the paranormal.”
“Oh good! That makes two of us then!” He chuckled, “All I know is that I woke up one morning with fangs and hungry and given how broken up he was about the whole thing it would have been rude to just go off on my own. He was going to explain everything to me eventually but then he died, so here I am. On the run from a genocidal maniac, going about it very counterproductively by running towards the genocidal maniac, and I still don’t know my ass from my fangs.”
Skylar watched him close his eyes, legs resting together and his body sagging in relaxation. He looked so peaceful, but what he had just described sounded so stressful…
“That must have been very hard on you.”
Iggy shrugged, his eyes staying closed but a lazy smile spreading across his face. “Nah, it’s not all bad. I got to meet you guys after all. Speaking of, what’s your story?” He snapped his fingers, pointing over to where Liam was sat with Cayden. “When did you get married to tall, dark and handsome over there?”
She looked back at him, surprised. “How do you know where he is? Your eyes are closed.”
“You all smell like a different kind of food, that’s the best way I can describe it. Now come on, tell me the story.”
“Alright, alright, be patient.” She shuffled closer, her heart already soaring as she recalled how Liam and her had met. “It all started when I came up from Florida...”
Iggy sat up, hanging on each of her words with an enthusiasm that she hadn’t expected. He laughed when she told him about their misadventures and couldn’t stop smiling when she recounted the day of their wedding and the birth of Abigail. His mood however plummeted just as hers did when she started to recall the fateful day of her disappearance, the day that she had lost her father.
“I’m sorry, I know you’ve probably heard this a lot by now but… I’m sorry about your dad. I didn’t really know mine, so I don’t know what it was like losing him but… When I lost my master, it felt like my soul had been torn out of my body, I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself after.”
“No that’s very nice of you to say, thank you.” Skylar rocked Abigail back and forth, the infant starting to fall asleep once more. “I’m sorry about your master, that’s a loss that no one should have to feel. We’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else Iggy, I promise you that.”
“Thanks Skylar, you know you’re pretty cool, I can see why everyone likes you so much.”
She laughed, taking care not to wake her child. “Please Iggy, you can call me Sky from now on. I’d say we’re friends now, wouldn’t you?”
“Oh.” Iggy blushed, looking away from her. “Y-Yeah, that sounds really nice… Sky.”
From where they were sitting on the other car, Liam and Cayden had a clear view of the conversation, chuckling to themselves when Iggy couldn’t look at her any longer. “And she’s got another one,” Liam said, “It took a little longer than I thought it would, but there it is.”
“You know, I’m surprised at how well you’re taking this.” Cayden passed him a drink, opening his own and taking a sip. “I figured you’d be getting all jealous right around now, what happened to the big, bad Alpha that almost ripped my head off whenever I so much as looked at her?”
Liam shrugged. “I’ve grown up, it’s amazing how much I’ve improved as a person by just not wanting her to be disappointed in me.”
“Yeah, she has that effect on you huh? God, can you imagine actually being a disappointment to her? I can’t even imagine what her face would look like.”
“The shock of it would probably kill you.”
“Still though,” Cayden said, “Even if you aren’t as much of a dick as you used to be it’s still pretty surprising. I mean, what if he starts to fall head over heels for her?”
“Let’s be completely honest Cayden, more or less everyone in this group is in love with her a little bit. It’s impossible to meet her and not have that happen.”
Cayden clicked his tongue, conceding the point. “I guess you’re right there.”
Skylar for her part hadn’t noticed the way Iggy couldn’t maintain eye contact, speaking more about her past and asking him questions which got little half answers in response. She was in the middle of telling a story of her father coming home having lost his socks in a bet when Iggy shot up, his back going straight as a rod and his nose sniffing at the air.
