| |
The conversation came to a halt after Rebekah said that. We drove in silence as we drove from forests of trees scenery toward city life. Rob found a Holiday Inn and pulled in.
We went with one room and I drew the short stick on sleeping with Rob, but Rebekah saved me from it. I swear she was working as hard as she could to force me to face her.
Another day. I didn’t have the energy or the emotional strength to deal with her.
I picked up my bag and looked over my shoulder as I walked toward the door of the hotel room. "I'm going to go to the lobby and chill for a bit. Maybe try and read the journal. See if I can figure something out." There had to be something more inside the stupid journal that would show a weakness in Bentos. Why else would I have it still? Bentos didn’t fight fair, but he sure as hell wanted something out of me and I had to find out what it was.
"Can't you read in here?" Rob turned the volume up on the TV. "Why? Too loud?"
Grace slapped him with a pillow and got up. "I'll come with you. My head might explode if we have to watch another Discovery channel show. Just because you're an animal doesn’t mean you have to watch them."
Rob snorted and shoved the additional pillow behind his head. Rebekah had disappeared into the bathroom, which meant Grace and I could have a little bit of time to ourselves. I wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing.
She was my best friend, no doubt, but the same fissure lay between me and her as it did with me and Michael. She was the Hunter and I was the hunted. Plain and simple.
I always knew we would be forced to choose sides, I just hoped it wouldn’t happen till I was old and grey.
"You feeling any better?" She reached over and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Her blue eyes shone brightly and against her fair complexion and long blond hair, she looked like a cover model. I almost felt like a toad beside her. It wasn't the first time.
"A little. It’s been a rough few days." My stomach growled. I half smiled. “Guess I’m hungry too.”
She moved in front of me, opening a door and backing up. "I bet this place has a kitchen. I saw a room service book near the phone in the room. Let's check it out."
"All right," I muttered, unable to rouse up much excitement about anything. I wanted to ask about Michael, but that would open a conversation I wasn't ready to have just yet. If anything was wrong with him, Grace would show it through her mood far before saying anything.
I stopped at the front counter as a middle-aged man glanced up. He pulled his glasses from his nose and smiled. "Hi girls. What can I do for you?"
"We're starving and wanted to see if you had a kitchen onsite."
"We don't, but there’s a diner maybe a hundred feet down the road, if you want to check it out."
"Should we drive? I don't want anyone getting us." Grace smiled and tapped the desk. She wasn't flirting with the old geezer, but his smile grew like she was.
"Might be a good idea. It's called Burney’s. Tell them Mike sent you." He put his glasses back on and looked down as his cheeks colored red.
"Will do." Grace slipped her arm into mine. "Should we grab the others, or should we just bring them something back?"
"Let's just go. I'm not in the mood to be around anyone else." I stood silently in the lobby as Grace ran to grab the keys, picking at my nails and wondering when the horrible sense of trepidation that sat on me might lift. Mourning Joshua was going to be a process, but this heaviness was something more.
It was truth. The realization that I was too weak to fight, to pathetic to run and had a secret that was going to wreck everyone's world, most of all Michael’s.
"Come on. Rob’s good with us getting him a couple burgers and I swear your mother never eats." Grace pulled the door closed as we moved back out into the chilly evening air.
"How long have you known her?" I glanced toward my friend while we moved to the SUV.
We buckled up as Grace clicked her tongue against her teeth. "Hmm... Sometime after I was turned. We never knew she was your mother. At least, I didn’t know."
"I guess that wouldn't exactly be something she would mention." I leaned back and rolled the window down as Grace pulled back out onto the deserted highway in front of the hotel. I wondered if Caleb knew, or Michael. They wouldn’t have hidden it from me, would they have?
"I’m not close with a lot of Hunters. Caleb and Sarah, of course. Seth too. Michael and I are different because we're real family. Being able to communicate telepathically helps keep our connection alive and well too." She shrugged and nodded toward the restaurant. "Here it is."
"The last time I stopped at a diner on this road I was attacked by a Grollic who had just finished licking up what was left of my waiter off the floor." I unbuckled and turned, chuckling at the shocked look of disgust on Grace's face.
"Tell me you just made that up to gross me out?"
I got out of the vehicle and walked toward the small diner, pulling the door open and shaking my head. "Don't I wish? It's been a disturbingly eventful week since leaving you in Miami."
"About that," Grace started in on me as she walked to the closest booth and got in, "I want you to promise me you'll never do that again. Here and now. Promise it."
I sat down and dropped my backpack in the seat beside me, grabbing the other menu on the table and working to ignore the large blob of ketchup on it. "I can't do that. If I'm given another chance to take my father out of the picture, I'm taking it."
I glanced up as a gangly teenage boy walked up to the table. His smile was only outdone by the smacking of his gum.
"Family troubles?" He gave a goofy grin and I turned my attention back to the menu, not in the mood to placate anyone anymore.
"I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger with chili cheese fries and a coke." I put the menu down, ignoring the stare from across the table. "And a side of barbeque sauce and mayo."
"Mayo?" the guy asked, scribbling furiously.
"Mayonnaise. The white stuff that you put on a burger."
"Uh yeah." He snorted and turned to Grace, his tone shifting slightly. He was intimidated by her. "How about you?"
"Um... I'll have the same. Why the hell not." She put her menu down and turned to face me, a smirk on her mouth. "We'll die young one way or another right?"
"That's what I figure." I leaned back as the waiter asked how we wanted our burgers cooked and then left.
Grace’s face grew serious. "Tell me what's going on with you and don't lie to me. You left me and Michael with nothing more than a note. Walk me through this. I need to understand. My heart still hurts from all of it. Help me heal. Help me understand."
"Is this for you or him?" I crossed my arms over my chest, not quite sure where my level of angst was coming from, but there was no stopping it now that it had burrowed deeply into my chest.
"For me. Michael’s with Caleb. They’re almost to Wyoming. Bentos is either playing games, or he's good at being in two places at once."
"Both statements are probably true." I took the coke the server extended to me and began as best I could remember. "After the battle in Miami, I went down to the shelter.” I sighed. The image played inside my head like a video. “I could hear Caleb and Michael fighting. Over me. Caleb was screaming at him and it got pretty physical. I realized then that it was just a matter of time before Michael changed his mind about me. It made more sense to get out while I could and save him the heartache of having to be the one to kill me." An image of Joshua pulled the corner of my lips down. People who cared about me died. Bentos made sure of that.
"That's ridiculous. I mean; the part about them fighting, I get, but Michael would never hurt you. Ever."
"No?" I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth as I let my mind wander back to that night. "I think the conversation went something like this: Caleb said he had to choose and Michael's response was that Caleb shouldn't make him choose now, because if forced to choose now, he wouldn't choose in a way that would make Caleb proud."
"So where’s the problem? I'm lost?" Grace leaned over and sucked at her straw.
"Now. Now is the problem. Now means in the moment."
"I know what now means, Rouge."
I huffed. "You're not hearing me. He would choose me now, but in the future he wouldn't. Michael’s trying hard to figure this out, yes, but he plans on growing strong enough to let me go in the future."
"That's not true. You're reading too much into it."
"No, I'm not." I reached up and tugged my hair from the holder, running my fingers through it. "I left with Joshua and Rob because I belong with them, Grace. They are my family. I have Grollic blood inside of me."
"And we’re not your family?” She raised her eyebrows. “Funny. It feels like the past, almost two years, we’ve been your family more than anyone else. You’ve known Rob, what, a month? Joshua, two weeks?”
“They’re Grollics.” I hated how her comments were making me see things different. She was right, but so was I. It was so freakin’ frustrating!
“Then what about your mother?" She leaned across the table, her stare not letting me move away from the subject without facing the fact that she had me.
"I don't know." I shrugged. "She’s irrelevant.” I scoffed. “She’s probably not even my real mother.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Who abandons their child?” I thought of the possibility of a little child growing inside of me. It was impossible, but still... I would never abandon him or her. Nor would Michael. Except he would never know. “Nothing can ever become of me and Michael."
"Do you love him?"
"Yes." I couldn’t lie. I knew without a doubt that my heart still belonged to the blond-haired, blue-eyed man that stole it from me what seemed like forever ago. I would always love him.
"Then all of this is for naught. Let's find him and you can apologize, Rouge. He loves you too. He didn't stop loving you."
"Grace, this isn’t about love. We cannot be together. We're not on the same side of the fight."
"Yes you are. We want Bentos dead and so do you."
The server stopped by the table. The mixed look of concern and confusion sat on his thin face as he set our food down. "Um, yeah, so here's your food."
"Thanks," I grumbled and pulled my plate toward me.
"Should I be concerned?" He looked from me to Grace.
"About what?" she asked sweetly.
"About you guys wanting people dead?"
"No," we both answered and turned back to each other. He got the clue and walked off. I was glad, as he was about to get a good chunk of my angst, which he didn't deserve, but I was ready to dish out.
"What happens after Bentos is dead? What then, Grace?"
She picked up a fry and bit into it, looking up at me. "I don't know, but can't we just take this moment by moment? Why does it all have to be figured out right this second? We've all been through so much. Let's just huddle together for a short break and figure it out like we always do... with each other."
“What if killing Bentos kills me?”
“Pardon?” The fry in her hand froze midway in the air. “That won’t happen.”
“How do you know?” I didn’t know myself. The thought had never occurred to me. However, what if we were linked somehow? "What do you know about the dark angel that created the Grollics? I asked earlier and got no reaction at all."
"Why’s it so important to you?"
I slapped the table between us and leaned over menacingly. "Because he's haunting my dreams and leaving his claw marks in my back."
She jolted away from me and I regretted my actions the minute I did them.
"What? Where?" Concern covered her fear and she moved toward me, getting out of the booth and sliding into my side. "Show me."
I let out a long sigh and turned away from her, tugging down my shirt and letting her see.
"Unbelievable." She touched the scabs and her finger trailed over the birthmark on my back. Finally she got up and went to her side, her complexion having paled even more.
"Nothing like going into a dream and coming out mauled." I picked up the burger and took a deep bite of it, groaning at the deliciously greasy taste as it coated my taste buds. This was what I needed all along. Something horribly unhealthy.
"Michael has those same marks on him." She picked up her burger. "I asked him what happened, but he didn't want to talk about it."
I put the burger down and grabbed a napkin, wiping at my mouth and sitting back. "He’s got the same marks?"
"Yeah. They healed quickly because of our blood and such, but it looked like he was attacked by something."
"I think it was the same dark angel I dreamt about."
"What's his name?" She picked up her knife and fork and started to cut at her burger.
"I know it, but I can't say."
"I'm not going to tell anyone, Rouge. Just tell me."
"It's not that. His name is the incantation you use to call him to you. I’m afraid that if I speak it, he'll be here before we can blink. Not a good thing." I swallowed hard and leaned over, picking up my burger again.
"Maybe let’s not try that right now."
I grumbled and continued to eat, not wanting to rehash my current situation or the nightmare of having my father now hell-bent on using me versus just killing me. I debated about writing his name on a napkin, but even that scared me.
"He's weakening, you know." Grace reached for her drink, her words catching my attention.
Bentos? “No he’s not." I thought about how strong he was earlier. Grace had no idea. She, and the others, needed to be prepared.
"He is. The last fight we were in, he didn't fare too well."
"When was this?" I licked the chili from my fingers.
"Right after you left us. Probably fifteen minutes later. We fought against him, but he kept shaking, like he couldn't hold himself up. The fact that your power’s growing means his is weakening. Simple really."
"Impossible."
"No it's not. I just explained it." She grumbled something at me, but I ignored her.
"He couldn't have been fighting you just after I left. He was with me."
"Impossible." She lifted her eyebrow.
"Is it?" I turned and opened my bag, the book sitting quiet and cold. I pulled it out and laid it on the table before flipping to a page I had seen a few times, but skipped over. It was the drawing of a man who appeared to be pulling himself apart from the center.
"What’s that?" She leaned over, blocking the small light from above us.
I moved back and lifted the book to my face. "He has the ability to be in two places at once. His body can separate from his spirit."
“Way too far-fetched,” she mumbled and stared at the page. "We fought against his physical body, Rouge. It was no spirit.” She shook her head. “Way too far-fetched. It’s impossible. You must have fought earlier and then passed out.”
She believed in Grollics and angel Hunters and magic, but Bentos being in two places at once she thought was impossible? Oddly, it annoyed me she couldn’t see it. Everything was beginning to burn inside of me, making me angry. "No. You’re wrong. The fact that he told me I was pregnant is far-fetched. This two-in-one-thing makes perfect sense. I didn't touch him in the house and he didn't touch me. He forced Joshua to do his bidding. He wasn't anything more than a spirit. That's why the angel was there." I slapped the table and laughed before noticing Grace's face.
Her eyes had grown wide, her mouth open in astonishment.
"What's the matter? You still don’t believe me?"
"Is it true?" she whispered as tears filled her bright blue eyes.
"Is what true?" I sat back, the tightness in my stomach having moved to my chest.
"You're pregnant?"
I realized then the error of my ways. I had blurted out my secret in the comfort of my friend without even thinking about it. "I-I don't know for sure. Bentos said I am, but he could’ve been playing me. It's too early." I glanced down, wanting to disappear.
"Whose?"
"What?" I looked up as her eyes narrowed and tears dripped onto her cheeks.
"Whose baby is it?"
I was stunned by her words. Did she really think me capable of sleeping with anyone but her brother? I pushed my food away, having lost my appetite. "The only man I love." I got up and pulled my bag from the seat. "I'm leaving. I'll see you back in the room."
"Does Michael know, Rouge? Did you tell him?" She moved out, threw a fifty on the table and hurried toward me, pulling me to a stop.
"No," I whispered, glancing over my shoulder. "And we're not going to."
