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"Anyone here?" Rob's voice came through the back window near the kitchen where Grace and I sat at the kitchen table trying to figure out ways that wouldn’t get us, Rob in particular, killed.
"Yeah. You guys need help?" I stood and moved to open the back door.
Rob and Michael walked up with their arms full of bags. I reached out and took a few from my brother before urging Grace to do the same.
She let out a spoiled huff, but got up and helped out too.
"Jeez. How long did you think we would be staying here?" I set the bags down and turned to Michael.
"Your brother eats like an animal, and now that you're pregnant, you need to start eating more too." He set his groceries down and shrugged. "Did you girls find anything?"
"A safe." Grace moved up and pulled a banana from the bunch sitting on the counter.
"And? What was in it?" Michael asked.
"We don't know. There’s a code and we can’t break in.” Grace shrugged, obviously annoyed I hadn’t told her a way around killing Bentos and all the Grollics without killing Rob. I had no idea how, but I was trying. “There’s a large shed out back, maybe you big tough boys can go out there and get some type of tool that’ll help you break in."
"I remember that shed." Rob shuddered and snagged Grace's banana, taking a big bite and pressing a sweet kiss to her lips.
"Hey, come on... really?" Michael fussed.
"Yep. Tastes like a banana." Grace took the peel and threw it away.
I popped Michael's butt, trying to warn him to let it rest. They were happy, why couldn’t that be enough just for now?
"You and Rob go get the safe open. The light is at the bottom of the stairs and the first door on the left in the hall is the entrance to the basement."
"And what are you going to be doing?" Michael lifted his eyebrow. "Better yet, what is my lazy sister going to do?"
"We'll be cooking," I suggested.
"Cooking? Ugh." Grace winked and walked into the kitchen, starting to work on pulling everything out of bags.
"You cook. She's terrible," Michael whispered before touching the side of my face and leaving.
I barely managed to stifle back a laugh. It wasn’t that long ago I remembered how awful Michael was at coffee and cooking—except breakfast, of course. He’d done that one right when we were in the pool house. Our own little place of peace. I sniffed suddenly, my nose feeling the urge to run. Those weren’t bad memories. What I had thought was bad back then barely scratched the surface of the horrors of today.
Rob, oblivious to my inner turmoil, followed Michael out, singing something horribly off key.
"Do you think things will ever get back to normal?" I asked, pulling out a large pot from one of the lower cabinets.
"I'm not sure things have ever been truly normal, but I hope we find ourselves living for something else besides 'the fight'. I used to live for this, bored when things grew tedious. Now I find myself tired of running, chasing and fighting. I want to settle down and live a little." She shrugged.
"Once we rid the world of Bentos..."
She cut me off, "And the dark angel."
"Right. Him too." I opened a pack of noodles and ran water in a stainless steel pot. "First we find a way to kill Bentos without destroying all Grollics. Once they’re gone, hopefully Caleb and his hunters will turn their attention to any Grollics who still pose a threat."
Grace didn’t say anything for a long moment. "I don't know what Caleb will do. All Grollics are evil."
I whipped around only to have her lift her hands in surrender.
"You know I don't believe that, but Caleb, and most hunters, do. Michael and I are part of Caleb's hunters. I'm not sure if we're ever going to be able to change that. Michael’s Caleb’s understudy. You don’t spend decades being an understudy and just let it go in a snap." She shook her head. “You wouldn’t get it.”
"Being a hunter isn't a choice?" I glanced over my shoulder, not ready to point out that technically I was a hunter now too.
"Not really. It's much like being a Grollic. They have no say in the matter, and we really don't either. We don’t know what, or who, we are until after we die. It’s not like we get a letter of acceptance in the mail. Think about the old Red Riding Hood story. We were created to hunt. Nothing else." She opened the package of hamburger meat and crumbled it in a pan. "Spaghetti?"
"That's what I was thinking." I pilfered through the bags around me as her words sunk in deep. If she was right, then Michael and I would never truly have a normal life. If we all made it through this, our child didn’t stand a chance at having a normal childhood. It would be worse than what I had gone through. Thoughts of my mother and what she gave up to keep me safe made clearer sense. Supposedly she had come back to get me at one point. Maybe it was when Bentos had been out of the picture and when he’d returned she had to let me go again. She’d wanted me, she just couldn’t keep me.
"There are so many random snacks in these bags. What were they thinking? We could have cupcakes for dinner and pretzels for breakfast?" She held up various bags of goodies and I laughed.
"Who knows?"
The sound of the back door opening made me glance up. I headed into the living room. I’d forced myself not to think of Joshua here, in this lodge, but it was hard to shake. I swallowed and forced the memories aside. I hadn’t loved him, but I’d cared for him and he had died. Bentos had done that. Not me.
Michael and Rob walked in holding two to three tools each.
"Really?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips and trying not to laugh. These strong fighting machines looked silly carrying tools. It was awkward, almost comical
"What? We don't know what will get the damn thing opened." Rob shrugged.
Grace called for help so I headed back into the kitchen and busied myself with getting dinner ready. There was no way I was getting in the middle of the comedy act that was sure to ensue in the basement.
Half an hour later, after loud banging, swearing and yelling, they returned upstairs.
“It’s nearly open,” Rob said and sniffed. “We need to eat first. I can’t think without food.”
Table set, food out, we sat down and ate in silence until our bellies were nearly full. Except Rob’s.
"This is delicious." Rob held up his fork. A huge wad of spaghetti coated his fork and sauce dripped back onto his plate.
"Good. Grace is a good cook." I took another bite of my dinner and pushed the plate away.
"You only ate half of your food." Michael shook his head. "I—We want a strong boy to raise, Rouge, not some little weakling like your brother."
"Please." Rob lifted his eyebrow and flexed the muscles in his arms and chest.
"Smoking hot." Grace licked at her lips.
"I'm going to be ill." Michael stood and reached for my hand. "Did you say you wanted to check out the safe?"
I laughed and turned to Grace. "Thanks for the help."
"My pleasure." She moved closer to Rob, picking up his fork and feeding him a bite while Michael growled in aggravation.
I pulled him toward the stairs and wrapped an arm around the back of his waist as I chuckled softly. "Leave them alone. There's nothing you can do about it."
"Agreed, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Very true." I opened the basement door and walked down quickly, Rob and Michael having left the light at the bottom on. "Did you see what was in the safe when you got it opened?"
"No. We broke the lock but left the door closed. I figured you'd want to be the first one." He moved in beside me, bending over and lifting the top off of it. The small opening couldn't have been more than a two-by-two space, but a large duffel bag was shoved down into it. "Want me to pull this out?"
"Please?" I moved back as anticipation tore up my insides. "Let's take it upstairs unless it's too heavy."
He grunted and pressed his foot against the side of the safe, twisting back and forth a little to get it out. "Not at all. Let's take it up there. Tell Grace to clear the table."
"Okay." I turned and jogged back up the stairs. "We need the table to open the bag up here."
Grace stood and started to help me clear plates as Rob leaned back and let out a long belch.
"Really?" Grace looked over at him with disgust.
"What? In Germany that means it was an incredible meal." He shrugged.
"No, it doesn't. Now get off your dead ass and help us clean up so we can look through this stuff together." I poked my brother in the side, which assisted in getting him up and busy.
"Fine. Jeez. I gotta do everything around here." He chuckled as everyone turned to give him a look. "Just kidding. Trying to have fun."
Michael came up the stairs and laid the bag on the table when the last dish was cleared. He looked at me. "You open it."
"Okay." I walked up and unzipped it, pulling the sides open and smiling. "Books and journals. Exactly what I wanted."
I handed off three books to each of my friends before taking the oldest three for myself. Rob pulled the empty bag from the table and sat down with us.
"There's something still in here." He bent over and picked up a black velvet bag, pulling out a necklace of sorts, the chain dangling from his fingers. He laid it down and Grace let out a gasp.
"A Sioghra. But whose?" She picked it up and studied it with wide eyes.
"Someone who didn't need it anymore, obviously," Michael muttered, the look in his eyes telling me that he was far more disturbed by Bentos having the item than he was letting on.
I reached out and took it from Grace. "I'll put it in the living room for now and hopefully something in these old books will help us figure out who Bentos was close to."
"We know it wasn't mother," Rob responded, looking up at me.
"True. She had hers until recently." I put the trinket in the small black velvet bag and sat down, pulling one of the old journals toward me as realization rolled over me. "Rebekah didn't have her Sioghra when she died in my arms. Where had it gone?"
"Maybe she gave it to someone," Michael said absently as he licked his fingers and turned the page of the volume that lay before him.
"Then why is there one here? It's empty, which means someone's body created it and the blood is gone, so they're dead now, right?" I know I sounded crass, but I was curious as to how someone's Sioghra survived after their death. The only time I had seen one was when Seth’s mate, Tatianna, had died. Seth had crushed it to dust. I couldn’t remember if it had been empty or not.
"They were murdered, Rouge. There’s an old wives tale that says that if you're murdered and your killer yanks it from your neck before you take your last breath, your soul wanders aimlessly. You don't have the power or the strength to cross over." He looked up briefly, but the sadness in his expression stilled my heart.
"So Bentos murdered a hunter and stole their freedom to ascend?" I couldn't imagine a worst fate.
"Probably." Michael looked back down quickly as Grace closed her book.
"You don't think it was mother, do you?" She turned her question and attention on her brother.
"I once did, a long time ago the thought crossed my mind. After we turned and I went hunting for the truth, I thought mother was one of us, I just... She didn’t survive when the Grollics attacked. She was human. Our father was a hunter, not mother... I think." Michael shook his head. "It doesn't really matter anymore. What matters is how we're going to kill Bentos without killing Rob. How are we going to convince Caleb there are Grollics worth saving?” His voice grew louder with his frustration. “What if these freakin’ books aren’t even in English? Rouge’s going to have to read them all?” He slammed his palm on the table. “I want answers! Like who the hell is my father?"
I could see the strain of all we'd been through pressing down on him. "Michael..." I reached out to touch his hand, but he jerked it back.
"No. Don't." He stood and walked to the back door, tugging at his hair and walking out into the sunset.
"I'll go after him." I stood, but took a moment to pull the book he was looking at toward me. The page he was on was ripped clean from the center of the old thing, but the one before showed a shadow rising from the center of a bright light and two humans standing as an extension of the darkness.
Twins... Michael and Grace.
"Michael," I called after him as I walked from the house.
The dull shimmer of his blond hair was all I could make out as he disappeared into the forest. I knew he was frustrated and lost as to what to believe, but I couldn't leave him to suffer that alone.
I jogged toward the forest, pausing only as the brief flutter of angel’s wings filled my senses. I turned around slowly and glanced toward the sky, seeing nothing but a million stars.
"Hey," he spoke just behind me and I jumped, yelping loudly.
I spun around and slapped at him before pulling at his t-shirt, forcing him close to me. "You scared me, dick head."
"I'm sorry. I just needed some air." He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.
I reached up and slid my hands along the side of his face, forcing him to focus on me for a minute.
"I know it's a lot, too much actually, but the truth is worth anything it takes to obtain it or any residual feeling it leaves you with. Ignorance isn't bliss." I leaned in and kissed him softly.
"I agree. I'm just not sure who's telling the truth and who isn't." He pulled from my hold. "And worst of all, this isn't about me right now. We're trying to figure out how to finally take out Bentos. I shouldn't be running around concerned about the past, who my father is. It doesn't matter. What matters is who I am right now."
I'd never heard more poignant words. We were growing up, and it felt like it was happening too fast.
"I agree. Whether your father was the dark angel or not, you're a good man, a strong man and you're going to be a great father."
He glanced down at the ground and kicked a rock toward the forest. "I only have Caleb to thank if I am. He's been a father to me and Grace since we lost our parents. Sarah found us, helped us, but Caleb... he taught me everything. Everything."
I rubbed his back and let him talk without interruption.
"If my father is the dark angel, which is the way it's looking, then Caleb’s sacrifice to keep me by his side and call me son had to be that much harder. He must have been waiting all those years to see the darkness bleed through all he had trained me to be."
"But the darkness never did." I slid my arm into his and pressed my head against his shoulder. "If you want to call Caleb and bring him here... then do. But know that I'll kill him before I let him touch me, Rob, or our baby."
"I would kill him before you could get to him if he tries to touch you." Michael turned and pulled me in tightly. "Nothing’s going to hurt you again. I won't let it. My loyalty was torn before, but not anymore. Caleb's going to have to understand that I don't stand on the left or the right like I've had to do my whole life. I stand in the middle."
"Me too. Call him." I turned and kissed the swell of Michael's shoulder, more than glad that I came after him.
"I will when the time comes. Let's utilize every other source of information and if we get stuck or need him, I'll call, but it won't be to learn about my past. I'm going to leave that where it belongs."
"Behind us?" I lifted my face toward his, hoping for a kiss.
"Exactly." He leaned down and granted my wish, lighting my heart on fire in the process.
