Authors: April Smyth
TWO
I am cursing manically under my breath when I arrive back at my house. My breathing is so loud and hoarse that I don’t notice, at first, that there is somebody sitting on my bed when I charge into my bedroom. I drop my keys on the desk and run my hands through my hair before I notice he’s there.
‘Hi Cassie,’ says a deep, echoing voice.
‘Fuck!’ I shout and look up, expecting to see Maurice staring at me with his gleaming white fangs on display but it is a stranger. It still gives me a jolt. This handsome, hairy giant could be working for Maurice. ‘Who are you?’ I exclaim. ‘What are you doing in my house? How did you get in?’
He smiles friendlily but it doesn’t reassure me. Your enemy can play friend very convincingly if they want to. ‘My name is Oliver James. I’m Rose’s friend.’
An ocean of relief washes over me, waves of anxiety rolling off my back. I believe him. He’s a friend of Rose. I almost find myself saying ‘phew’. ‘What are you doing here?’ I ask. I have a feeling that Oliver showing up in my bedroom like this and a reported vampire sighting in Ayrin at the same time are not coincidental.
‘Rose sent me,’ he grins.
‘I guessed that,’ I say, chewing at my bottom lip, and I take a moment now that my breathing has steadied to evaluate Oliver. He is the tallest, widest man I have ever seen and it’s hard to tell how old he is because his face is hidden by a thick beard. His smooth tan skin tells me he’s relatively young though. I wonder if he is one of the many men that Rose has courted in her time or just an old friend.
Oliver is scrutinising me much less discreetly. His melting moment eyes are wandering from my sandy blonde hair to the chipped red paint on my toenails and everything in between. Jeez, someone needs a lesson in how to be discreet. ‘What age are you?’ he says, stroking his beard. His lack of subtlety is off putting.
‘I’m eighteen.How old are
you
?’
He just laughs and looks at his watch, ‘I am twenty-three. It’s time to go, Cassie Mueller. Pack your stuff.’ I resolve that I like how frank he is. I am sick of all the people from this world being vague and cryptic. It makes a pleasant change for someone to be upfront with me but nonetheless there is
no
way I am going anywhere with this guy. I’ve learned my lesson about following strange men, no matter how handsome and mysterious they are.
I widen my eyes and spit, ‘I’m not going!’
I’m not leaving Ayrin ever again after my last venture especially not with a complete stranger. There is no way I can trust this character. How do I know he really is a friend of Rose and isn’t double-bluffing? He could really be working for Maurice.
‘Why not?’ he looks at me with a simple smile on his face. He has the sort of face that makes you instantly comfortable and I know enough to realise how dangerous this is. I can’t trust him just because he has a sweet smile and innocent, puppy dog brown eyes.
I clear my throat, and my mind of thoughts about his lovely eyes, ‘You could be a murderer.’
‘Unfortunately, Cassie, if you don’t come with me you
will
most definitely be murdered. You see, I’m the lesser of two evils,’ he says and he begins to empty the contents of my drawers into a tatty gym bag.
‘Hey! Stop touching my stuff,’ I jump up and try to hide the sexy underwear from his sight. He has already spotted it and smiles. His cheeks turn a little pink which is endearing; I had the impression everyone from Rose’s world were so frequently drowned in sexuality that nothing could phase them anymore.
Standing beside him, I feel like a tiny China doll. He is mammoth and every inch of him is like an obnoxiously over-the-top parade of his masculinity. I thought Jonathan was tall and I thought Maurice was brawny but Oliver took these attributes to new heights.
‘I am
not
leaving with you!’ I repeat but I find myself folding my t-shirts neatly into the bag.
Then my phone goes and it’s Rose. I haven’t heard her voice since my birthday, ‘Hello?’
‘Oh good, Cassie. Are you well? Is Oliver with you?’
I grumble, ‘Yeah. Thanks for forewarning me, Rose.’
It would seem courteous to warn me that a strange man would be appearing in my house and about to whisk me away. After all I was kidnapped and almost killed by a vampire only six months ago. The wound is still quite fresh. There is only so much I can rely on my Healer blood before fear kicks in.
‘I’m sorry. I don’t know how we let Maurice slip under the radar but he managed it. Oliver’s house has strong anti-vampire wardens and he is a werewolf so...’
‘Wait, what?’
‘Well, look at him,’ Rose says.
I take a peek at Oliver who’s bulging arms are flexing as he piles my shoes into a black bin bag. He is certainly ensuring I won’t be short of my commodities. Okay, he is definitely a werewolf. All that hair and his size. It’s easy to see how he could shift into a beast. It is more surprising that I didn’t notice it straight away.
I glance away when he lifts his head and catches me staring. ‘Okay, yeah,’ I mumble.
‘Anyway since he’s a werewolf, he is extra effective in protecting you against Maurice.’
I thought that my Healer blood would keep me safe but that assumption was blown away when I met Maurice, how can Oliver, as big as he is, protect me from someone as lethal as Maurice? I guess I don’t know enough about werewolves. I always supposed they existed too but they, like witches, had never revealed themselves like the vampires in America. I’ll just have to trust Rose, she has kept me safe so far.
‘And you? Are you safe? If Arrow’s spells aren’t working here, can she protect you against Maurice if he shows up?’ I ask. There is nothing to suggest that Maurice won’t seek revenge by brutally murdering his old assistant.
I want to ask about Gabe too. I don’t know if he is even still with them but I like to think she is keeping an eye on him. Maurice doesn’t know that Gabe lost his memory to save himself from the fate of becoming a vampire; he is just as much in the firing line as Rose and I. However, as usual, I’m too cowardly to mention his name because there is no reply that would satiate me.
‘We’ll be fine. Arrow’s magic is much more efficient for us because we are so close to it. Arrow reckons she couldn’t extend the spell as far as Ayrin for very long without it weakening and we can’t send any witches out to you because we need as much spell power as possible right now.’
I’m uncertain. Rose promises that they’ll keep the wards up for my family as best they can but they doubt that Maurice will touch my family when he realises I’m not here. They doubt. I can’t rely on a hunch when it comes to my family. There is no way I am leaving them behind. If Maurice comes to find me he will tear the house apart and kill anybody in his road. Lily isn’t even a day old yet.
Rose can sense my apprehension from miles away, ‘Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to your family, Cass, I just need you to go with Oliver and keep yourself safe.’
I let my eyes fall on Oliver again. He is appraising the room for anything else I might need. His hands are on his hips and his jaw is flexing. ‘I can trust him?’
I see Oliver look up as his name is dropped into the conversation and he looks perplexed, perhaps even a little hurt about my apprehension. He hasn’t done anything to warrant my mistrust but he doesn’t realise what I’ve been through. Forgive me if I can’t willingly put my safety in a stranger’s hands.
‘Yes!’ Rose says exasperatedly as if the fact that I’m doubting her insults her. ‘Oliver is one of the nicest people I know. As soon as I realised I needed to get you out of Ayrin, he was the first person I thought of. You will love him.’
I guess it is rude to be weary of her intentions when she has spent every day of the last six months trying to keep me safe. She and Arrow barely slept trying to find a solution to our problem, trying to think of a way to kill Maurice for good. My blood should be out of his system by now so he is somewhat weaker but that isn’t very reassuring. He’s still pretty indestructible. ‘I’m not wasting anymore time on the phone, Cassie. Hurry up.’
‘Rose?’
‘Yes?’
‘I miss you,’ I say softly.
This moment seems too intimate while this stranger is sitting in my cramped bedroom. I haven’t heard Rose’s voice in an age and I haven’t seen her face in even longer. The texts and emails are always brief. There’s never any time to tell her about my life. I long to sit with her and tell her about my new friends, Jonathan and baby Lily while she brushes my hair like she used to. While I’ve enjoyed spending time with normal people my own age, I can’t tell them about the vampire pursuing my death or how my dad cries himself to sleep sickened with worry that I might be kidnapped again. I can’t chat to Lucy and Kate about how I fell in love with a boy who tried to kill me then kidnapped me and, oh yeah, now he has lost his memory and doesn’t even know who I am. They could never understand how my heart is broken in a thousand places and the shards stick into my lungs making it difficult to breathe. They will never understand me completely but Rose does.
‘I miss you too, Cassie, so much,’ Rose replies then she hangs up.
Oliver is kneeling on the floor and looks up at me from beneath his bushy eyebrows, ‘You okay?’
I nod and swallow but there are a few tears prickling my eyes. I don’t cry much anymore. When I first came home from Maurice’s house, I sobbed from morning until night but after a while I learned to turn it off. They were loud, crackling, heartbroken sobs. Now the grief I feel over losing Gabe lies stale in my heart, it isn’t a fresh wound anymore but hearing Rose’s voice was a painful reminder of how the scar became.
‘Okay, well let’s go,’ he says.
‘No,’ I retort. ‘I can’t leave again.’
Although he is brawny and towers over me, his face is as sweet as a small child’s. He gives me a soft, sympathetic smile and says, ‘Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, Rose has told me what happened, and you’re scared, trust me I get that, but you gotta trust me. You need to come with me, Cassie.’
‘
I’ve
been through a lot? What about my family? I can’t do this to my dad again. I promised him that I wouldn’t,’ I say, trying to stifle the tears again. As the words leave my mouth I am aware of how true they are. There is no way I could willingly break my father’s heart again, not after seeing him look so happy today. He gained a daughter and I’m not going to rip another away from him.
I look into Oliver’s hazel eyes and am reminded of Gabe. The same longing to help and be helped can be found in his eyes but I see a huge difference in my two kidnappers. Gabe was stoic, a martyr, whilst Oliver’s whole face is lit up with compassion.
‘You don’t understand,’ I say weakly. I thought things were better. I genuinely felt like Maurice was going to leave me alone or that Arrow could protect me from him. I should have known my luck would run out. I’ve been lucky to have so many months of a reasonably normal life; I shouldn’t have expected anything more than that.
Oliver places one of his expansive hands on my shoulder and says, ‘Trust me, Cassie, I understand and it breaks my heart to see a girl like you looking so sad but you gotta come with me because it would make me much sadder to see you killed.’
What does he mean by ‘a girl like me?’ I grit my teeth. ‘I can’t go.’
‘Well, I’ll have to make you then,’ he sighs and he walks towards me, wraps one of his arms around my knees and throws me over his shoulder.
I start to scream as he walks out of my room and jaunts down the stairs. ‘Put me down! Put me down! I really don’t think this is necessary, Oliver. I can walk!’
He doesn’t reply. He walks out of my house. There is no car parked outside. He just keeps walking with me swung over his shoulder, passing the familiar suburban houses that paint the backdrop of my everyday life. As usual, Mrs Chan is watering her plants in the front garden. There is enough rain in Scotland to render this completely futile but I reckon she just likes to keep a judgmental eye over the neighbourhood. She must be lonely. If I make it out of this alive, I’m going to buy her a cat.