The moment I woke, I was out of the bed, depressed, but feeling better than before. On my way to breakfast, I saw a figure of a man standing at the door. My heart shuddered. Could it be Sebastian?
Of course not you fool that’s not his style. He would come through the window or however he gets around, but if he wanted me he would have been in my bed last night, but he’s somewhere with that witch and no doubt making strange love to her, I imagined because of my limitless jealousy when it came to Sebastian.
This person standing at the door looked indecisive. He didn’t know whether to ring the doorbell or walk away. I saw him turn away then back again and extend his finger for the bell, and then pull it away twice and just stand and look at the door.
I started to call Robbie and remembered he hunts early. I thought I shouldn’t alarm Ann because she is nervous since meeting Samantha and not knowing what she would do to all of us.
But it wasn’t a woman and I inhaled. What did that person want and what was he doing here? It couldn’t be for Robbie because no one knew where he and Ann were living. They had gone into hiding because of me. I knew now I had to leave Robbie and Ann’s place and find a place of my own.
I didn’t think they liked the idea of people finding their hideaway. If it was a person, maybe that wasn’t too bad, but one of those beings or immortals who tracked me, now that would be disastrous for all of us. Especially Robbie and Ann. After all this compound was to be a place to raise their family in peace.
I needed to leave Robbie and Ann in peace. With me around there would be no peace. We had brought witches and vampires to their doorsteps and I didn’t think Robbie appreciated that much. I know he didn’t care much for Terry. Lauren was a quiet kind of vampire who was happy as long as Terry was happy and showed him affection. I guess some vampires needed attention too.
Standing a while trying to decide what to do, I continued my walk down the stairs to have breakfast in Ann’s large kitchen where Ann would be and she would know where Robbie had gone to. Then the bell rang. As I got closer I saw through the bedeviled glass. It was Ryan. He decided to talk to me after what I had done to him, and after his drunken rant about vampires and werewolves. I thought he would be the last person to show up at Robbie’s door.
I walked quickly to the door and opened it.
Feeling like myself again I had recovered with Lauren’s help. Lauren had given me something to drink to revive me. “You can’t have an anemic baby now can you? Especially one that’s heir to the Vesper throne,” he said to me as I drank down his green concoction.
“He isn’t heir to anything,” I said my loud high voice showing my anger. “My child can never be an heir to that cursed Vesper line,” I warned Lauren.
“That’s the way Sebastian wanted it,” Lauren continued.
“Sebastian is out of my life. He has married and I will never see him again.” After saying those words it finally sunk in that this part of my life was over and another part was beginning especially since I saw Ryan show up at the door after what I put him through.
Deep down inside I became excited and anxious to see Ryan. I had been lonely and felling not myself. I had been sickened not by weakness from the feeding, but by Samantha’s hard words about who Sebastian truly was, and I had to face it. He was a vampire and not love or me, could change his nature. A nature that is brutal and without feelings.
When I opened the door, I looked at Ryan’s smiling face. I just stared at Ryan as he stepped in. Then a pain shot through my stomach, and I grabbed it with both hands. My back ached, and I felt as if I was being eaten from the inside out. My forehead furrowed and I gasp and grabbed on to Ryan and he caught me before I fell.
“What’s wrong, Zoey? You look pale. You need to eat.”
“I think I could use a big breakfast.”
“Would you like something to eat? I was just going into the kitchen to cook. Ann and I take turns cooking breakfast. Today is my day, but I haven’t been feeling well lately.” We walked along as I explained how much I appreciated him. I stopped before we entered the kitchen. “I want to apologize for what I did to you. I should have told you what you were up against.”
“You didn’t know,” Ryan said his voice easy and low trying his best to give me an excuse. But I did know what I was doing and it was out of selfishness. I used him and pulled him into this chamber of horrors.
He had a quiet life. We all had a quiet life until I came across Sebastian. I needed to blame someone and who better than Sebastian. My feeling about him began to waver as I came to my senses. First I loved him and now I hate him, and I hoped I had never met him.
It became clear that if Sebastian hadn’t been this love sick fiend who wanted to please Samantha, I would never have met him. And to blame it on his father and make me believe that lie was beyond the pale, and I don’t know if I could ever forgive him. But then why am I thinking about Sebastian when I have Ryan here with me. It’s useless to hope for something I will never have. There is one thing I do know and that is Ryan is a living breathing human and he’s in love with me. I can tell.
The first thing I needed to do was apologize to Ryan and ask his forgiveness and I wished he would let me do so.
“But I did know what I had done to you, and there is no way for you to cover my insensitive behavior. I take full blame because you could have been killed.”
“I’m not that easy to kill. And I carry my silver bullets...” He patted his coat jacket pocket. Ann showed up at a bad time. Just when Ryan was pulling out his bullets.
“Why are you carrying silver bullets?” she said. Her voice rising. “You know Robbie can be killed by a silver bullet, and he wouldn’t appreciate you saying or doing such things in front of him.” She glared at Ryan and then looked to me. “I was just going to get you, Zoey. I made your favorite. Banana pancakes. Would you like some, Ryan?” Ann always had a ready smile even when she was clearly angry.
“No thank you, but I would like a cup of coffee, black,” Ryan said. We walked into the kitchen and sat at the counter isle. Ryan sitting in front of me as Ann handed him his coffee and placed a large plate of pancakes down with bacon on the side she had taken out of the warmer. I couldn’t wait to start eating.
“You know it was my time to cook.”
“I know but you were out of it and pregnancy agrees with me. I never got sick and I have more energy than I know what to do with.” At that time I wished I were her. It would have been heaven if I wasn’t sick every hour.
Ryan watched at me as I devoured the pancakes and asked for more. When Ann stood to cook more he said, “I saw a weird looking creature outside it looked like some kind of cat only bigger than the ordinary domesticated cat.”
With my mouth full of bacon, I said, “Oh that’s not a cat. Well, it’s a cat but it’s more of a mountain lion. He’s still a baby,” I said chewing.
“I thought it looked strange. Well I don’t want to see it when it’s full grown.” He sipped his coffee and placed it down. “It glared at me when I passed by. I could swore it knew what I was thinking.”
“Animals sense things. Maybe it was afraid of you,” Ann said dropping batter into her skillet.
“I don’t think so. If I may say, I think it’s like Robbie,” Ryan said taking a sip of his coffee.
“What do you mean like Robbie?” I asked him. Ann never turned around.
“Robbie is a shifter. I think he’s a shifter, too. But he’s very young and maybe he doesn’t know he’s a shifter,” Ryan said.
Ann looked up. “How would you know about that?”
“I’ve studied this unbelievable occurrences reported all over Seattle, and some of the nearby states, where you have humans who appear to be humans, but are something else entirely. I spent my life trying to prove this and now I can’t tell everyone that shifters, vampires, were-animals, and witches exist. The men and women in my squad room thought I had a few screws missing for a long time. You don’t know how I was laughed at about my theories.”
“I can imagine. I thought I had lost my mind too,” I said.
Ann stood in front of me with another plate of pancakes and placed it down on the counter and stared at me. “You know you can never say anything about that,” Ann said with a serious tone as she turned to Ryan.
“I’ve spent my life trying to prove to the world that these mutants exist and now you’re telling me that I can’t. I think I got that message from Robbie last night. You don’t have to worry about me talking.”
“Think about it, Ryan. Some of these beings are innocent, but the world will look at them as aliens invading the human race, and they will hunt them and kill them. Do we need that kind of world where everyone sees their neighbors as a shifter or vampire?” I said to him. “Then turn them in to be killed?”
“Yeah, but some of those creatures are dangerous. Like that vampire Sebastian and that witch.” I glared at Ryan. I wasn’t yet convinced that Sebastian was dangerous as Ryan thought, but I understood why he thought that way.
“I know they are but would you destroy everyone just to get rid of those two?” Ann said.
“No one is getting rid of Sebastian,” I said to Ryan.
“You are connected to him and you can’t see what’s happening to you,” Ryan said as he drank the last bit of his coffee and stood and moved to the coffee maker and poured another cup. “I’m pregnant or have you forgotten and I’m having one of those beings. What would you have me do, kill him in the womb?” I asked as Robbie came strolling into the kitchen.
“Who’s talking about killing something in the womb?” He looked to Ryan. Ryan raised his hand and with the other he stood back clutching his mug of coffee.
“We were just having a philosophical talk about what happened in New York,” Ann said rubbing Robbie’s arm. “How was your hunt?”
“It went okay, but I swear I had more deer than I saw out there. I try to keep the herd full and kill only what I need at that time, but I swear something is killing off my young deer.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Ryan seems to think that the mountain lion Terry brought back is a shifter.” Robbie looked to Ryan and he shook his head in agreement.
“Now that makes sense. Leave it to Terry to find a shifter when she goes to rescue something. I’ll take a look because if that’s true then she took it from his mother before the mother had time to bond and nurture it. I may need to help it along,” Robbie said turning and walking out and leaving us standing without a word between us.