Dangerous Lovers

by Becca Vincenza

  As I ran, I tried to reason out why I felt this an undeniable need to protect Audrey. It wasn’t a shape-shifter thing. We didn’t have quite the same instincts as the Weres did. They were part animal down to their cores, and shape-shifters were not. We didn’t react the same way as them. The protective instincts weren’t so ingrained in us. We acted much like a human would with bonds. Of course, ours were intensified but only after time. I didn’t know Audrey. I didn’t feel a sense of family with her, but I felt something. I just had to figure out what that something was.

  “Stone! Stone-y boy! Stone! Stone, Stone, Stone!”

  I let out a growl when I heard Nixie call out to me, her voice managed to carry through the forest. I didn’t want to deal with the six foot, green-haired siren at the moment. She looked so out of place in her high heels and short skirt. All sirens had problems with hiding their legs, saying pants were too constricting. “Hey! Stone!” Now she was dragging my name out with far too many syllables. Her voice started to change into a song, and I knew she would not be denied. I came out, shifting as I walked toward my clothes. I gave her my backside while I searched for the tree that I had stuffed my clothes into.

  “What do you want, Nixie?” I asked as I pulled on my boxers. I looked at her when she didn’t answer. She was staring intently at my ass. I pulled myself up to my full six foot, three inches height and stared at her. “Are you finished?” I growled, getting more annoyed. She shook her head.

  “Sorry, what was I saying?” Usually sirens were much more composed than she was. After all, their first calling was to call sailors into the rocks in order to kill or mate with them. The lucky ones were the ones that were killed.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her.

  “I don’t know, Nixie. You were going to tell me.” My jaw was clenched so tightly that my words came out strained.

  “Oh right, I demand that you help me get in to see Audrey.” She set her legs shoulder width apart, and her jaw jutted out.

  “Nixie, I have no control over that. Elijah hasn’t let anyone into that room since he entered it three days ago. You know why we can’t go in there.” I pulled my plain black shirt over my head as I spoke. When my head poked through, Nixie was looking at the ground defeated. I wasn’t sure why, but sirens had strong bonds with people that only seemed to grow the longer they were away from water. “Nix, when was the last time you went to the lake?”

  “I don’t know…a week. Maybe a month and half…” she whispered the last part, but she knew I could hear her.

  “What the hell, Nixie?” Sirens needed the water at least every two weeks in order to remain healthy.

  “Look, going back to that lake is not an option. I spend a little extra time in the bath or in the pool. I am fine!” Her coral eyes flashed a deep seaweed color.

  “Obviously. Look, go to the lake for an hour or two. Keep your cell phone close by, and I will call you if there are any changes. You need real water, not the pool, and certainly not a bath.” My voice turned gruff, and I knew that this was how Charlie must have felt when he had been dealing with me earlier.

  “You don’t understand!” Nixie screamed at me. She was losing her temper, which wasn’t too shocking. Normally, I could deal with the shorter-tempered creatures, but at the moment, I was on edge myself. The run had only helped so much.

  “Don’t you dare yell at me, siren,” I growled, my voice coming out strangled and distorted. I knew at this point my wolf fangs were out and my eyes had shifted a deep red color. Nixie dragged her hands down her face.

  “Whatever, this is getting out of hand. Look, I will go to the fucking lake. Call me if anything changes with her or if Dallas decides to go with the pack to the other territory.” She flipped her deep green hair and headed toward the lake. I didn’t know what had happened between Dallas and her, but I was glad I didn’t know. I headed back upstairs.

  When I arrived on the floor Audrey was on, I could hear her screams. I tore through the hallways to get to her room. I tried to push her door open but it was still locked. Charlie stood there wide-eyed. I gave him a questioning look, and he just shrugged.

  “Elijah! Let me in!” I slammed my hands on the door. “Audrey!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Audrey

  White surrounded me. It felt like safety. It felt like home. Someone was calling my name.

  But this wasn’t home. Suddenly the whiteness melted away, and my old home took its place. Home was a worn down one story, three-room house. A living room with a stained, hole-ridden couch with the stuffing overflowing and a small, mostly broken TV that only received a couple channels. It was a kitchen with broken tiles that were littered with unrecognizable stains. It was a closet that someone had converted into a bedroom by tossing in a mattress and an old pile of clothes. And his room, my father’s room. I never went in there.

  I stood in the kitchen, not moving as he added new scars to join the others. I was being punished. I’d forgotten what I had done this time, but this one was the newest of scars. The set that wrapped around my thigh.

  “You belong to me. Do you understand that? I am branding you as mine. If anyone else tries to use you, I will kill them. I might even force you to kill them. You understand me?” His voice had a slight hiss to it. His tongue was always slimmer than other people’s. His pupils were slits.

  I nodded as I cried and screamed on the inside. He took his time, letting the claws do their work. I heard it all. I heard my skin rip apart, and then felt the blood run down my entire leg. I heard muscle rip. I tried to shift my weight so that I wouldn’t fall forward and make it worse.

  Make it stop, make it stop, please make it stop. My only relief from the memory was when he had finished. He carefully wrapped my leg in gauze and set me down in my bed. He then told me not to move for a couple of days and he would bring food to me. He wasn’t a horrible father all the time. His instincts ran deep into his blood. He believed that by marking me with his claws, he was doing the right thing every time, except when he scarred my face. He meant to do that as a punishment. He meant to hurt me.

  I was thrown into my next memory with no transitioning, no warning.

  My body closed in on itself, trying to be small. The smaller the body, the less they could attack. Attacks from every side-punches, kicks, unwanted touches. All of it, never ending. I cried for it to end. They demanded things I couldn’t give them. They demanded that I do things I would never do. I’d rather claw out my own eyes than use them for these people. I wanted to…something. I couldn’t remember what. It was hidden there deep in my blood but I could never remember. The attacks continued.

  “Audrey!”

  I knew that voice, a voice that gave me a small sense of comfort. Another memory tried to swamp me but that held me for a moment more.

  “Audrey, the wraith is weakening. You must awaken now.” This voice was colder, cut off from any emotion, but it was still a voice that wasn’t connected to painful memories.

  My head throbbed. My mouth was dry, but somehow I managed to strangle out a “no”. I wanted the peace of the white room, the safety that the room offered.

  “It’s safer here,” a voice whispered in my head. The voice was a slight hiss, a promise of what I wanted, what I needed. Safety. Safety in my room.

  I shut my eyes even tighter in order to make myself stay asleep. I was forcing my brain off. I was forcing so hard it hurt. “Please, please, please.” I could feel the mattress beneath me; I could sense eyes watching me, waiting patiently.

  “You must not listen to the wraith in your head. If you wake now, you will break his hold. That safety you think you feel is false. Let go.” The unemotional voice was back. He was asking the impossible. How could anything be safer than the evil I knew? I was safe here because it was familiar.

  “Audrey!” I liked this voice. I savored how it made me feel. For a second, I felt…safe. This voice promised me things. This voice belonged to someone who’d… saved me. “Audrey!” the voi
ce roared again. I twitched.

  “Wake, Audrey,” Elijah urged once more.

  I was scared to open my eyes. Something held me back. In here was safety, and out there was the unknown.

  “The wraith is influencing your thoughts. Safety is not in sleep, but in waking, so that you can break free from his hold. Now, wake.” The voice sounded almost angry. I reacted to anger. I obeyed it. My eyes cracked open. The walls weren’t white. I wanted to shut them against the pale blue.

  I took a shaky breath. I opened my eyes again to the pretty walls, the too comfortable mattress, and the soft, unbelievably soft, blankets. And cold black eyes. Those, I hung onto. Those I clung to as if I would fall out of existence if I didn’t watch them. Those cold black eyes watched back. No, a shade different from pure black stared back at me. I could stare forever and I knew that those eyes would never change color. It was unnatural. It should have been unnerving, but for me, it was calming. It was safe. Safe as the white walls of my old prison.

  “Wh - ” Oh, that hurt. My throat was bone dry, and suddenly, it became hard to breathe.

  “Here.” Elijah handed me a cup with a straw.

  I wanted to throw the straw aside and gulp down the water, but I knew that would only cause me to cough it back up. This wasn’t my first time feeling this way. It wouldn’t be the last, I was sure of it. The water was room temperature. I stared at the strange creature next to me as I drank. His emotionless eyes and voice clashed with his actions, and I didn’t do well with conflicting personalities.

  “A wraith had a trap door of sorts in your mind. If you were ever taken, the wraith would be activated. The Vedenins had just realized you were taken. We had to remove it or they would have had the wraith use you as eyes and ears for a while until they got the information they needed and took you back.” Elijah stood abruptly and headed out the door to the small living room.

  There was a loud crash followed by some type of growling. I knew the noise well, and I knew it meant to hide. I tried to pull myself up, but I could barely move. Instead, I rolled myself off the bed. Taking the too soft blanket with me, I pulled myself together into a ball. All the while, there was screaming in the other room. Too much noise, too much anger. I counted. One, two, three. I am safe. I am safe.

  “What the hell were you doing to her?” Stone’s voice was distorted and rough…forty, forty-one…

  “I did nothing. Now, remove your hand.” Elijah’s voice turned different, darker. The air went cold around me and I pulled in tighter. There was another crashing sort of noise, followed by feet stomping into my room.

  “Audrey.” His voice was quiet now, as if he coaxed a small frightened animal. I suppose that was what I was. A small, frightened animal. “Audrey…”

  “She is wraith-free now.” Elijah’s words floated through the door as he retreated. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to look up. There would be nothing for me to hold onto. There would be no solid safety.

  “Audrey,” a whisper of my name came again. I knew I couldn’t look, even for a second. Stone smelled different. Like woods and fresh air. His hair was a tangled mess, and his eyes were a strange yellow-like color. He let out a long breath when I looked into his eyes. The color showed that he was worried, a strange kind of worried, a sort of happy worried.

  I tried to hide, but he moved, pulling my blanket away from my face. His hand stroked my cheek in the briefest of touches. My eyes closed involuntarily. A long breath slipped from my slightly parted lips. I felt something touch them, but when I opened my eyes, Stone was frighteningly close, yet painfully too far. He searched my eyes as he pushed my hair away from my face, his hand grazing my scars. I flinched for him.

  “Don’t.” Stone’s voice pleaded; I looked at him, not understanding. “Don’t flinch when I touch you.”

  “But…”

  “These are beautiful.” He glanced at the scars.

  I didn’t understand. They were a brand, a punishment. They were meant to keep others away. They were meant to make me belong only to my father. I would never belong to another because of these brands.

  Stone cleared his throat and pulled away. I didn’t realize how much of his weight I had been taking until he pulled away and I could breathe properly again.

  “Elijah says the wraith is gone. I suppose that means we should feed you. And if you want, I can get Nixie, and she can help you shower.” Stone held out his hand.

  I looked up at him. His eyes turned to a deep blue color. Before I could read anymore, I shifted my eyes back to the hand he offered me. I raised my shaky hand to his, and he pulled me up. He tucked me under his arm and directed me out of the pale blue room.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Stone

  Gods, she looked like a fragile, broken bird. I didn’t know whether to touch her or let her remain where she was. I was afraid that if I so much as breathed on her, she would crack into a million pieces and I would never be able to put her back together. But those thoughts confused me. When did I decide it was my job to make sure she wouldn’t break? When did I decide that I would be the one to put her back together? Probably when her eyes fluttered shut, she sighed at my touch, and I pressed my lips ever so softly against hers for only a moment. A moment that I would relive for the next few nights. I couldn’t help but remember how even though the right side of her mouth was slightly rigid and malformed from her scars, the scars had tasted the sweetest.

  She looked at me like I was an oddity she could never understand. I knew that she was wondering how I was able to touch her scars without a hint of disgust or pity. I understood the scars that littered her skin, and I hoped one day that she would allow me to show her my scars. That thought made me recompose myself. A shape-shifter like me would never show off their true forms, not to anyone. So why would I suddenly have the urge to show myself to the magnificent creature in front of me?

  “Don’t,” I whispered. “Don’t flinch when I touch you.”

  “But…” She tried to urge me away, but I couldn’t.

  “These are beautiful.” I traced her scars with my eyes. “Elijah says the wraith is gone. I suppose that means we should feed you, and if you want, I can get Nixie and she can help you shower.”

  She took my hand and stood. In this form, I always chose to be taller, but not excessively tall. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself. Six feet three inches worked well for me. Her head reached my collarbone and I realized that she was not a tiny little thing at all. I thought that maybe in a different life, in a different place, she would have been a fierce warrior.

  We didn’t make it far before Nixie came rushing toward us. I wondered if the wraith had erased some of Audrey’s memories, because she hid behind me as Nixie approached. Nixie took it in stride and continued forward with a smile still plastered on her face.

  “Audrey!”

  I felt Audrey jump, and possibly flinch at her name, but then she edged out around me and moved a little closer to Nixie. Nixie threw her arms around Audrey and hugged her enthusiastically. I wanted to shout at Nixie not to be so rough with Audrey, since somehow the girl looked even smaller than when she had first arrived. Nixie turned around and glared at me.

  “I told you to call me. Now you don’t get to come with us. You may trail behind, but you are not with us.” Nixie stuck out her green tongue at me.

  I just rolled my eyes, hating the fact that I wasn’t the one holding Audrey. Nixie started to talk to Audrey about random things but my thoughts drowned out their conversation.

  I wondered where Elijah went. After I had busted through the door, I’d caught Elijah by the throat. Still in a blind rage, I’d ignored the instinct against treating him that way. He had snarled in response, his sharp teeth clenched. I had never seen him so angry and the fear that should have been overpowering me was surprisingly absent. My instinct to challenge him wasn’t though. Thankfully, common sense had pierced my rage before it had gotten worse. I had pulled away from him before I could say anything, and he had left
the room looking distracted.

  We headed toward the cafeteria and I started wondering if maybe we should have allowed Audrey to eat in private. But the cafeteria was mostly deserted. A few people lingered but not many. I let out the breath I didn’t realize I held as Nixie led Audrey to the back in a dark corner. I stayed with Audrey when Nixie left to grab food.

  “I hope you told her that you didn’t want seafood.” I tried to make my voice light, but I knew that tense, stiff muscles, fisted hands, and rapidly changing eye color, off put any jokes I tried to make. Audrey looked up at me with worry in her eyes. “I was trying to make a joke. I didn’t realize I was that bad at making them.” I tried again to give her a smile, but she shrunk into herself some more.

  “Here we go, sweetie.” The plate was filled with a mixture of food, small portions of pretty much everything. Nixie had her own tray of seafood. I about gagged when I looked at her food, so I focused on Audrey. My heart broke looking at her because she just stared at the food as if it would eat her.

  “Eat,” I growled before I realized how that word came out of my mouth. Audrey’s eyes shot up to me, and I could see the fear there. She would eat but only because she was afraid of what would happen if she didn’t. I needed to leave. I needed to give her space, yet I couldn’t move. I couldn’t force myself to even look away from her. She looked like she was about to grab some of the fruit, but I knew she needed protein. She needed meat. Goddammit, if she got any skinner she would be pushed over by a gust of wind. I controlled the growl that wanted to force its way out of my throat. I didn’t like to think about how weak she really was, how the Vedenins made her that way.

  “Hey, Stone, how about you go find out where Elijah went?” Nixie muttered through clenched teeth.

  I knew she was mad but at this point, I didn’t care. I wanted to force the food down Audrey’s throat.