by A. D. Ryan
“Dear lord,” my mother whispered. “What happened?” Then her gaze found me. I knew I must have looked rough. I was likely covered in dirt and a few scratches. There could very-well still be vampire blood on the side of my lip that I would have to try and pass off as my own from getting in a fight, and my hair…good grief, my hair was probably tangled and standing on end.
“The guys who broke the window took off,” Nick explained, sounding even rougher than before. He needed rest. “I followed their tracks, but they’d hidden in the bush and jumped me. They caught me by surprise, and had me beat…until Brooke showed up.” He gave me a gentle, yet affirming squeeze around the shoulders. “She kicked ass and saved me.”
“Well, someone had to be the hero,” I quipped.
Mom reached out, her thumb grazing the side of my mouth. I tasted the foul vampire blood as the flakes hit my tongue. “Are you okay?” she asked me.
“Fine. One of them hit me,” I lied. “Let’s get Nick onto the couch. We’re going to make some reservations at a hotel in the city and we’ll all stay there tonight. It’ll be safer.” I nodded toward the broken window. “And warmer.”
By the time we got Nick comfortable, his cell phone vibrated on the coffee table; everything was set up. Marcus was able to get two suites with adjoining doors at The Fairmont Palliser hotel in Calgary. It sounded expensive. I’d have been happy with just about anything, as long as it was safe.
Mom grabbed the first aid kit from the bathroom upstairs, and she helped me dress Nick’s wounds. Nick was able to hide the fact that his arm was broken from my mom, but he had a hard time steering her away from all the old scars that littered his body. She eventually bought the story he fed her about having a rough time in the years that followed Bobby’s death and getting into a lot of bar fights just to feel something other than grief.
Once Nick’s wounds were all patched up, I packed our bags while Mom and Dad packed theirs, and then we headed out to Nick’s truck. Nick was about to hop behind the wheel, when I stopped him.
“You can sit up front with me,” I agreed, “but I’ll do the driving.” He looked ready to argue, so I lowered my voice. “I can’t risk you hurting your arm further. Just help me navigate…please?”
Nick conceded with a nod. “Of course.”
Soon, we were on our way into Calgary, and as I pulled onto the main highway, Nick chuckled softly next to me. Curious, I acknowledged him with a quick glance. He nodded toward the time on the stereo. It was ten past midnight.
He took my right hand and brought it to his lips. “Happy New Year, Brooke.”
I inhaled deeply, trying to remember the resolution I so desperately wanted to keep. This is my life now, I told myself. It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. It’s going to be what I make of it.
Even though we’d just been through yet another life and death situation, I smiled and threaded my fingers through Nick’s. “Happy New Year.”
Chapter 31 | duped
My parents tried to pretend everything was fine, but their fear and confusion thickened the air in the truck like smog. I knew it wasn’t their fault, and I certainly couldn’t blame them for feeling this way. My only real concern was what kind of questions were going to follow the silence.
After checking into the hotel, the four of us rode the elevator to the top floor and found our rooms. Once Nick was settled into bed, I knocked on the door that adjoined our rooms. My mom opened the door, and I could hear the water running behind the closed door of their bathroom.
I walked past her and over to their window. The lights in the city were bright, and I could hear the loud base from the music of a nearby night club. It was doubtful my mom could hear it; my range of hearing went for miles.
“How is he?” she asked. I watched her reflection in the window as she perched herself on the edge of the lone king-sized bed.
“Resting,” I replied, readying myself for what was to come.
“And you?”
“Worried.” I turned my head to the side, glimpsing my mother through my periphery. “About you.”
The bathroom door opened, and my father stepped out, his face buried in a towel as he dried it. As he pulled the terrycloth away, I noticed his complexion was pale and his eyes held questions I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Silence filled the room, none of us knowing what else to say or how to bring up the giant purple elephant in the room. I couldn’t tell them the details of what happened tonight, but they did deserve some kind of explanation, didn’t they?
Dad sat next to Mom on the bed, both watching me expectantly. My heart thundered, blood pulsing through my veins thick and heavy.
“What happened tonight?” Dad finally asked. “You just…took off.”
I shrugged, unable to meet their scrutinizing gazes. “You saw what those thugs did to the window. Nick needed help. There were five of them and only one of him.”
Another pause while they looked at one another. “Your father tried to go after you,” Mom confessed, surprising me. “He was stopped by two wolves.”
I made a note to both thank and scold Colby and Zach. I was grateful they kept my father from tailing me, but they should have been more careful.
“Are you…” I began. “Are you okay? They didn’t…?”
Dad shook his head. “It was like they were intentionally standing watch and not there to hurt me. Like a couple of guard dogs.”
I could practically see the investigative wheels turning in my father’s head. “It was late and dark,” I tried to argue. “I’m sure they were just passing by and gave you the once-over before realizing you weren’t what they were after.”
He wasn’t buying it, but he didn’t dig any further.
“Nick was pretty beat up. He going to be okay?” my father inquired further. He was using the tone he used when interrogating a suspect and it made me uneasy.
“He’s resting now,” I responded, crossing my arms in front of me as though they could protect me. “He’ll be fine, though.”
Dad released a sigh, almost as though he was finished dancing around the subject. “Look, something’s going on…has been for a while. What your mother and I can’t understand is why you refuse to talk about it.”
“It’s…” I paused. “It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it,” he demanded. “I think we deserve to know. We were in just as much danger as you were tonight.”
He was right; they were in danger tonight, and while I wouldn’t have let anything happen to them, they were still put in the middle of this damn war that had been going on for decades. I heaved a sigh. “I can’t,” I confessed. “But believe me when I say I want to.”
Dad stood up and crossed the room. “What are you mixed up in here, Brookie?”
“Dad, I promise you, it’s not as bad as it looks…and after tonight, things will go back to normal.”
His eyes narrowed like he was analyzing my words for the truth—that these intruders would never bother us again because we’d disposed of them for good. Part of me hoped he’d figure everything out on his own, because then I wouldn’t be held responsible for letting the secret slip.
But, if he did figure it out, would he be able to handle it? It was hard to say.
His eyes held mine, and it felt like he was boring his way into my head, trying to find the answers they both so desperately sought. I could feel myself beginning to crack under the pressure of his stare, and I just opened my mouth when a deep, scratchy voice to my left startled me.
“She’s safe here, Mr. Leighton,” Nick said, resting against the adjoining doorframe. He tried to make it look like he was casually leaning, but I could tell he was using it to stay upright. He needed to be in bed.
“Safe?” Dad shouted, thrusting his finger behind him at the door. “You call what happened back there safe? Look at yourself and try to feed me that bullshit line again, son.”
“Look,” Nick said, pushing off the door frame and stumbling slightly a
s he held his broken arm to his body, “what happened tonight was…” He stopped to catch his breath, then looked my father dead in the eyes. “Well, I won’t say it was a one-time occurrence, but it was the last.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
Conviction buzzed off him even before he spoke, and his eyes held Dad’s almost dominatingly. “I just am.”
Dad seemed to pick up the meaning, but instead of being as horrified as a Police Captain should be, he seemed almost…appeased. His jaw clenched and then relaxed before he sighed. “It’s late,” he said, his voice a little softer than a minute earlier. “We should turn in. Maybe talk more over breakfast.”
Nodding, I turned toward Nick as he headed back into our room. The second I closed the door behind us, he stumbled, and I only just made it to him in time to let him lean on me until we made it to our bed.
“What were you thinking?” I demanded, brushing the hair off his now-sweaty forehead. “You were supposed to be in bed. Resting.”
Nick chuckled. “It sounded like you needed a little help.”
“I had it under control.”
“I didn’t want you to have to lie to them any more than you already have,” he continued as I helped ease him back on the bed. He leaned back against the headboard and winced as he brought his arm against him.
“It still hurts, huh?”
Nick shrugged his good shoulder. “Only when I move.”
With a quiet giggle, I shook my head. “Then stop.”
“I’ll be fine.” He readjusted himself until he was lying down comfortably. Or, as comfortably as possible.
I rose off the bed and rifled through my bag for my toiletries bag. “I’m just going to go change and clean up, and then I think we should try to get some sleep.”
By the time I finished up in the bathroom, Nick was snoring lightly on the bed. I crawled beneath the covers, and within seconds, he turned toward me and gingerly draped his injured arm over me. I snuggled into his embrace.
“Is everything really going to be okay?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “What if there are more of them?”
Nick’s lips grazed my shoulder. “With Gianna and Bobby gone, the others are too new and weak to assemble an army against us. We took out five of them tonight. That diminishes their numbers substantially. I’d be willing to bet they plan on getting the hell out of dodge the first chance they get.”
I took comfort in his words and let the warmth of his embrace lull me to sleep. I looked forward to living my new life without having to constantly look over my shoulder…
And that life started in the morning.
The day after the attack, I expected my parents to grill Nick and I further, but they seemed to have dropped the subject entirely. I was grateful for this, but I didn’t let my guard down completely either; I continued to expect the conversation would come up at a later time. Something told me they were still trying to figure things out for themselves so they knew exactly what questions to ask.
Nick was also moving around a little better the following morning. His arm was still pretty sore, and he had a hard time changing his shirt the next morning without my assistance, but his cuts were all healing quickly. Knowing he wasn’t going to have to suffer longer than necessary made me extremely happy.
In order to fill our days, Nick and I took my parents around the city. On our last night together, Nick made reservations for us to have dinner in the revolving restaurant that was located in the CN tower. It was remarkably breath-taking, and I felt it was the best way to spend our last night together.
With the coven taken care of, I was finally able to relax. By the end of the meal, I was feeling pretty tipsy from the wine, so Nick drove us back to the hotel, and I wound up collapsing on top of the duvet in my dinner clothes. Nick chuckled, pulling my shoes off and tossing them to the floor. His fingertips brushed my ankles, and I giggled before passing out. As far as I could remember, I wasn’t even able to find the energy to change and get under the blankets by myself.
At some point in the night, a woman’s cry startled me awake. My eyes snapped open, and I sat upright, straining my ears. It was after two in the morning, and my head was still a bit foggy from the wine, so I started to question whether I’d heard anything at all. Maybe it was just a dream.
“Brooke?” Nick groaned beside me, pushing himself up on his good arm and looking up at me through groggy eyes. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair. “Nothing. I thought I heard something.” I shrugged. “It was probably just a dream.”
I was just lying down again where there was a dull thud on the wall behind me. It rattled our headboard slightly, and my heart skipped. Panic raced up my spine, thinking maybe the coven hadn’t given up and were coming for us. It didn’t take me long to remember in my groggy state that the room on the other side of that wall belonged to my parents…and it took even less time to recognize the sounds coming from next door as those of pleasure and not fear.
My panic was chased away by nausea as I sank back into the soft hotel bed, pulling my pillow over my head to muffle the sounds. It didn’t work, unfortunately, and I was forced to listen to my parents’…activities in Dolby Digital surround sound.
Damn that werewolf hearing. It sure was handy when you needed it to be, but a pain in the ass in situations you cared to ignore.
“Everybody does it,” Nick said, trying to make me feel better about what we were being forced to listen to.
I yanked my head from beneath the pillow and glared at him. “That may be so, but they’re my parents, and I don’t need to hear it. Gross.”
Nick laughed, rolling onto his back. “We could give them a run for their money,” he offered, placing his good arm behind his head as he leaned against the headboard.
I knew he was kidding—or, at least, I hoped he was—and I picked up my pillow and hit him in the face with it. “You’re twisted.”
Still chuckling, Nick grabbed the pillow from me and nodded his head toward the bathroom. “In all seriousness, why don’t you go have a quick shower.”
“It’s two in the morning,” I argued.
“I know, but it’ll muffle the sounds, and maybe relax you a little.”
Nick was right; the shower muffled the sounds from next door just enough to make me put it out of my mind, and when I was done, I curled up in bed and let Nick trace curly-cues up and down my back and shoulders while I traced his pattern of scars. It was something he used to do to put me to sleep when we’d first gotten together. These small, familiar acts continued to tie me to him, and I sighed in contentment before finally drifting off again.
Dropping my parents off at the airport was even more difficult than I’d imagined. I knew they didn’t currently belong in my world and we wouldn’t be able to peacefully coexist until I had a firm handle on what I was and what I was capable of, but it still hurt to watch them go. I tried telling myself that I was fortunate to have the week that we’d just shared, but now that they were gone, it just didn’t seem like enough.
Because we’d made it through the visit without anything too awful happening—and with the coven out of commission—I figured that a trip to Scottsdale in the near future might not be out of the question. Maybe Nick and I could slip away sometime in the spring.
When we made it back to the Manor, I wasn’t surprised to hear that Vince and Marcus were over at Vince and Layla’s waiting for the window installers to fix the shattered window. Because the attack happened over the holidays, they had thrown a tarp over the broken window after we’d left for the hotel, but they had to wait until after the holidays to get a repair man out there.
Our first day back was pretty low-key. There was no need for morning patrols of the perimeter, which meant the house was full and lively almost all day long. It surprised me to find how much I’d missed it while we were visiting with my parents. I knew I’d bonded with some of the Pack, but I hadn’t realized just how deeply those
bonds were forged.
With the full moon just around the corner, the tension continued building in my body. It wasn’t as intense as the last couple times, but I was still highly aware of it. My muscles were tight, and the tingle had returned in my shoulder. By the next night, I expected my arm to feel like it was engulfed in flames right before my shift; I only hoped my recent acceptance would help ease the sensation…even if only a little.
Another thing that had heightened was my libido. I couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than Nick. I knew a large part of it was the moon, but when compared to last month, it seemed a lot more powerful. Just having him next to me in bed sent my thoughts into overdrive. My dreams were passionate, the love-making forceful yet caring. I could have sworn his hands were actually on me as we writhed passionately beneath the sheets.
I awoke with a start when my dream reached its peak. My skin was glistening with sweat, my hair likely tangled and standing on end from tossing and turning, and my hands trembled with the aftermath of my dream. I could barely catch my breath as I fell back onto my pillow and stared up at the ceiling, trying to calm my racing heart. The heavy pulse between my thighs forced my knees together in an effort to quell it, but all it did was intensify it and make me more uncomfortable.
Beside me, the mattress dipped as Nick rolled over. He leaned on both of his arms, which made me happy because that could only mean the break was mostly healed and he was feeling next-to-no pain.
“Good morning,” he greeted, his voice low and gravelly with sleep still. His blue eyes moved over me, his eyebrows furrowing when he registered my disheveled appearance. “You okay?”
I inhaled deeply, running my fingers through my hair, and nodded. “Yeah. Just had a wild dream,” I explained, glancing at his hands and remembering them on my body. “How was your sleep? Your arm feeling better?”
Nick acknowledged the fact that he was leaning on his arms and smirked. “It’s still a little tender, but it’s manageable.” He sat up and rotated his shoulder, then stretched out his arm. “I seem to have full range of motion again, so that’s something.”
