Vanilla Moon: Acrimony

by Airiel Hawkins

  "Put her back on."

  Instead of responding, I sat back down next to Mira and held out my phone. She smacked my hand away, so I tried a second time with the same result. The third time she pushed my hand away, she let out a whine-mixed growl and lunged toward the pillows with a screech.

  I pushed the button to put the call on speaker. "She can hear you," I said, "but she refuses to take the phone.

  Mira let out another screech in reply.

  "Mira!" Ravyn snapped.

  As if she pressed a pause button somewhere on the little girl, Mira stopped fighting against the situation and rolled over. "What?" she grumbled as she folded her arms and scowled.

  "You do not throw phones," her mother admonished. "You will be on your best behavior for your brother and sister, or I will give them permission to spank you. Do you understand?"

  Mira sniffled. "Uh-huh," she cried with a nod. Her cheeks were wet with tears and her eyes were puffy and red from crying. She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shirt.

  "Good," Ravyn said. "Ceres, please take me off speaker."

  I obliged her request and brought the phone up to my ear. "You're off," I said.

  "Upstairs in our room, there is a red leather notebook," she explained. "It's in Leon's nightstand on the left side. It's important. Please, bring it to me as soon as you can, but leave Mira home. She doesn't need to see her father like this."

  "Sure thing. I'll be there soon."

  Ravyn ended the call and I took Mira to the Library where I knew Wolfgang would be. He looked up when we entered the room. "What's up?" he asked.

  "Your mom asked me to bring them a book from your dad's nightstand," I explained. "She doesn't want Mira there today for obvious reasons, so I'm bringing her to you because I don't know who you want to watch her while I'm busy."

  Wolfgang smiled at his sister. "Feel like hanging out with me?" he asked.

  "I want mommy," Mira huffed.

  Wolfgang frowned. "I know you do," he said. "I want her to come home too." He sighed. "Until then though, you and I have to stick together. If you want, I'll pull up a movie on the computer and we can watch it," he suggested. What's that one you like? With the queen who has that ice castle and the singing snowman?"

  "Yeah!" Mira agreed. Like a switch, she was all smiles. No more tears.

  My mate chuckled and shook his head before he stepped up to me and gave me one of his earth-moving kisses.

  I smiled at him as I pulled away. "I'll be back soon," I promised.

  He nodded, but his eyes still turned amber with worry. "Take Lena with you, please."

  I scowled. "What's she going to do?" I asked. "If we get attacked, she's dead. She's pregnant, remember?"

  He sighed and closed his eyes. "Right," he whispered. He pressed his forehead against mine. "I just don't want you to go alone," he said. It was understandable… given the circumstances.

  "What about Scythia or Rusalki?"

  Wolfgang shook his head. "They're busy," he replied. He sighed and gave me a look that made me know I wasn't going to like his next thought. "The only person free is Riley," he said.

  "Great," I muttered.

  Wolfgang held my gaze without wavering. "I know you're upset with him right now." I glared at him. "And you have every right to be," he rushed to add. He ran his hands through his hair. "It's just… he's sorry about what he said and would like the chance to apologize to you if you'll let him."

  I shrugged because I knew I had no choice. "Tell him to meet me at the front door in five minutes," I relented.

  Wolfgang nodded and we kissed one more time before I left the library and made my way to Ravyn and Leon's bedroom. I opened the door, feeling like a child sneaking into their parents' room. I felt like I had to make sure that there was no trace that I was ever in here. I don't know what I expected their room to look like, but what I saw didn't match what I expected.

  I looked at the room the same way I looked at Wolfgang's room when I saw it for the first time. They had a dresser against the wall next to the door. Photographs of the family sat in frames on the top of an elegant silver runner. There was a mirror above the dresser, reflecting the room. It made me think of an old childhood fantasy of mine about mirrors being gateways to other worlds. I used to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I'd see the me on the other side one day.

  They had a four-post bed with a black and white striped comforter set. The blankets were rumpled. Ravyn hadn't made the bed that morning because we left in a rush after Wolfgang called.

  The two nightstands on either side of the bed were identical. The wood that made them also matched the same dark wood that made both the dresser and the bed frame. There was a chest at the end of the bed, and two chairs under the window.

  Judging who slept on what side was easy for a few reasons. The first was the smell, but it was more instinct that spoke to me than reason. Even Ravyn telling me exactly where to find the notebook didn't matter at this point.

  Like Wolfgang, Leon slept closest to the door. This was for two reasons. The first was that it gave him better access to the door, meaning that his early mornings and late nights wouldn't cause him to wake Ravyn if she stayed in bed longer. Being the first one up and the last one down made it a matter of convenience. The second reason, of course, was along the line of ease of access, but it was for protection purposes. If someone came through that door, placing himself closer to the door meant that Leon was closer to the danger, which meant that he could protect Ravyn if he needed to.

  I walked up to the nightstand and opened the drawer. The leather notebook wasn't hard to find, and I grabbed it while resisting the urge to snoop on my in-laws. I shut the drawer before I had a chance to look at anything else, then rushed down the stairs because I felt a sense of urgency lingering in Ravyn's tone.

  Riley wore a guilty look on his face when I reached the front door. I glanced over him but couldn't bring myself to meet his eyes. I wasn't ready to forgive him just yet.

  "Ready?" he asked.

  I walked passed him. I didn't speak. I trusted that he would just follow me because that was his job. I walked to Ravyn's car and opened the driver's side door. As I pulled out of the driveway, with Riley riding shotgun, I noticed that the storm was over. The clouds were still thick in the sky and I couldn't see daylight penetrating through them. Of course, it was still early, so that could change by the end of the day.

  "So, is this going to be a silent drive, or are you going to give me the chance to apologize?"

  I stayed silent. I'll admit, I can be somewhat bullheaded when I want to be. This wasn't so much that as it was that I just wasn't ready to talk things out. A month was not long enough….

  "Silent treatment. Okay," he sighed. "Mind if I just get it out then?" he asked. I stared straight ahead through the windshield. Still silent. He sighed again and I saw him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. "Look, I didn't mean what I said," he told me. My grip on the steering wheel tightened and I could feel his gaze boring into me. I wondered if he would put his foot in his mouth again. "I was a jackass and I was pissed that you and Wolfgang are mad at us for the whole mating thing. I mean, yeah, you guys have every reason to be upset, which was why we didn't want to do it in the first place. It's also why we didn't just come out and tell you. I really don't understand your gift, so I popped off at the mouth without thinking it through. I just think that with as much as you know, you should have… you know… known."

  I clenched my jaw and tried to kill the stoplight with a glare. "It doesn’t work that way," I growled.

  "Yeah, see… I didn't know that."

  "You also never asked," I replied. I glared at him before the light turned green and drew my attention back to the slick roads.

  "So… how does it work?" Riley asked.

  I shrugged. "Amplified intuition?" I guessed. "I don't really know. It's like opening a gallon of milk and smelling that it's spoiled. You just look at something or smell it, and you know things about it. For me, it
's like that, only I don't have to see or smell them first. I just know."

  "So why didn't you know about the last attack?"

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "I did," I confessed. He gaped at me. "Not in the way that you're thinking," I clarified. "I didn't know that they were going to T-bone us, flip us, drag us off, and kill the baby. I didn't know any of the specifics like when, where, or how. All I knew was that something would happen. I didn't have a feeling that morning or anything like that. If I had, we wouldn't have gone. The only thing I was focused on that day was spending time with my family. Everything else was arbitrary."

  "So, what do you know right now?"

  I let out a heavy sigh. "Things will get worse before they get better."

  He scoffed and shook his head as he looked away. "You sound like a fortune teller," he muttered.

  I shrugged. "Maybe I am."

  He looked back at me. I could feel his eyes studying me and the feeling made me focus twice as hard to maintain my concentration on the road. "Do you forgive me?" he asked.

  I nodded. "Of course I do," I replied. "You may as well be Wolfie's brother. You know how much your words hurt him and he's still willing to talk to you. He knows you didn't mean what you said, so who am I to hold a grudge?"

  "Thank you," he said as I pulled into the parking lot. I settled the car into a stall and turned off the engine before I responded.

  I turned to face him. "I'm not saying that I'm going to forget what you said," I informed him. "I will never forget that. I'll also still be mad about it for a while. But you're family. That’s what families do, or so I've been told. They piss each other off and they forgive each other. So, don't begrudge my anger and I won't revoke my forgiveness."

  He nodded. "Duly noted."

  I reached for the door handle, but before I could open it, Riley said my name, stopping me cold. I looked at him. He sat tensely in the seat. His hands clenched together. I saw little half-moons on the meaty part by his palm where he had dug his nails into his skin.

  "Can I tell you something that only Wolfgang and his parents know?" he asked.

  I blinked. "You want to tell me something that Lena doesn't know?" I asked.

  He nodded. "I haven't figured out how to tell her yet and I need some advice. I know she's going to be pissed at me. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to break it to her."

  "Alright…. Hit me," I said.

  Riley cleared his throat and took a moment before he spoke. "I have a son," he confessed. My eyes widened as I stared at him. "He's six. First grade. Really fucking smart. I talk to him as much as I can, but the last few months have been difficult. I know I need to tell Lena, especially now that we're mated and she's pregnant…. I know I should have told her before, but the subject never came up."

  It took me a moment to think of something to say. I cleared my throat. "Where is he?" I asked. "Moab?"

  Riley nodded. "With his mother," he explained. "She and I had… an explosive breakup before she discovered that she was pregnant. It wasn’t intentional. One of the few times it's happened…. We can't stand to be near each other for more than five minutes before we start in on each other if Caleb isn’t around. I only found out about him when she presented him to my dad. He knew the baby was mine, so he called and told me. I didn’t know I could be that mad…."

  I stayed silent, not knowing how to respond to this revelation.

  "Is she going to hate me?" Riley asked. He met my eyes and I noticed for the first time that they were the same shade of blue as Wolfgang's. I'd never noticed before.

  I shook my head. "No," I said. "She'll be crazy mad and you're going to have to deal with a woman who is twice as insane as normal, but she won't hate you. She can't. She's your mate, Riley. That bond is unbreakable."

  Riley nodded. He let out a shaky breath. "Thanks for that," he said.

  "Now, you understand that you better tell her before I do because she'll be twice as mad at you for telling her late, but she'll be ten times as mad if she hears it from me."

  Riley let out a low chuckle. "Got it."

  We got out of the car after that and walked toward the clinic. Riley held one of the doors open for me as I passed through. Once inside the lobby, I saw Sophia and Bree talking at the front desk. They looked up as we entered.

  "Hi," I said with a tired wave.

  "Hi," Sophia echoed. "What's up?"

  "Ravyn asked me to bring something by. Don't worry, no one else is injured."

  "That’s a… small relief," Sophia sighed. "The Enkidu is in the same room as before. We haven't moved him."

  I nodded before I gave her a quick hug and left the lobby behind. I found my way to Leon's room, thankful to not hear any screams as I walked the halls. Riley stayed in the lobby to wait. I think we both understood that Ravyn wanted to see me alone.

  I knocked on the door when I reached it and waited for her response before I entered. I held the book out to her, which she took as soon as the door closed behind me. She gave me a small smile as thanks.

  "This is one of the most important items in the pack," she explained. "It details our Hunting Grounds, the Resting Grounds, and all of the information about the members of the pack. This book, if it were to fall in enemy hands, would destroy us."

  I shook my head. "Doesn't it seem like a bad idea to keep all of that in one place?" I asked. "I mean, they already know about our Hunting and Resting Grounds."

  "But they don’t know our names and addresses," Ravyn replied, giving the book a little shake.

  I sat down in the chair across from her. She still sat next to Leon's bed. He had a little more color to him now, but he still looked horrible.

  "Earlier, you mentioned a traitor," I said. "Do you think that's how they found the Resting Grounds? I mean, I can't believe the Witches stumbled on it."

  "It's the only thing that makes sense," Ravyn replied. "I just can't think of anyone who would do that to our pack. It's a family. Sacred. This is the worst kind of betrayal."

  In an instant, my mind turned to Anica. Her face came to me as sudden as if someone put a photograph of her in front of me. Her natural golden eyes stared at me with rage and contempt through a curtain of dark black curls. She was Wolfgang's ex and she believed that she had more of a claim to him than I did. She believed that he belonged to her, even though I was his mate. She came to the apartment once to challenge me, and, aside from the hunts, it was the only time I saw her. I punched her in the gut, and that was the end of it.

  I dismissed the thought that Anica was the traitor right away because her issue was a personal one. She was mad at me for taking Wolfgang away from her, and at Wolfgang for following me instead of turning me away. She knew that she couldn't compete with me over his heart because that was no longer open to her. At this point, she didn't want to be with him anymore, she just wanted the power his position promised. She vowed to find someone, anyone, who was willing to be with her and challenge our Volsunga for the right to be the next Enkidu.

  There was no way that Anica was our traitor. She didn’t have a motive. The Scorned Lover would never be responsible for four hundred needless deaths. There were other, better, ways for her to get her revenge on Wolfgang and me.

  I did know that Ravyn was right, though. While I couldn't pinpoint who the traitor was, the knowledge that we did have one was solid enough that I agreed with her.

  "You've thought of something."

  I shook my head. "Nothing specific."

  "Who was it?"

  I shook my head again. "It's nothing," I insisted. "I just… Anica came to mind, but she wouldn't, so…."

  "Anica?" Ravyn asked. "Wolfie's ex?"

  I nodded. "Yeah, but her issues are personal against just us. It's not something she would endanger the entire pack for. She would have no reason to."

  Ravyn sighed as she nodded. "Well, we need to start investigating this as soon as possible. I'll call some people I know I can trust to ferret out the traitor. Tell Wolfie not to trus
t anyone we haven't vetted. At this point, we can't guarantee who is and isn't going to turn on us."

  "What happens to the traitor once we find him? Or her?" I asked.

  "The Neuri will decide the punishment best suiting for the crime and approach the Enkidu with that decision. In this case, calling the Moeris is the most probable outcome.

  "Are they all even still alive?" I asked.

  Ravyn nodded. "Very much so," she said. "We protect our people well."

  "Most of them, anyway," I said as my gaze drifted to Leon. His leg looked better now than it did last time I saw it. The bone was now covered in muscle and no longer visible. It was still a gaping wound, but not as horrifying as before.

  A knock sounded at the door before it opened, and Dr. Cyrus poked her head into the room. She looked at the three of us before centering on Ravyn. "May I speak with you?" she asked. "In private?"

  Ravyn nodded. I stood and walked passed Dr. Cyrus as she walked in. I stood in the hallway as the door shut and closed my eyes. I tried not to think about the traitor, but it was at the forefront of my mind. In front of me, there was a board on the wall that showed the name of each patient, which room they were in, and what their condition was.

  I knew that I shouldn't because it wasn’t my place, but I had to look at the board. All of them were in critical condition. Before I could move closer to it and snoop, the door opened, letting Dr. Cyrus out of the room. She looked at me and I saw the sadness in her eyes. "Ceres, if I could have—"

  "Please, don't," I said, shaking my head as I held up my hand. I moved passed her, back into Leon's room. Ravyn brushed away a tear as I entered, and I knew the news was bad. I shut the door behind me and sat down. "How bad?" I asked.

  Ravyn shook her head. She let out a shaky breath and reached a hand out to rest on Leon's shoulder. "His current state has put a few things into perspective," she said. "The most important is that Wolfgang may become the Enkidu before he is ready. The Witches demonstrated that they are stronger than we knew them to be. Right now, we realize that you need to make sure that you are ready to take over as Skaapie when that day comes. While your primary role is supportive, you will do a lot more than anyone realizes."