"I can go back? Everything will be alright?"
"Yeah." He pulled back. He seemed resigned now. "You can go back."
'For now.'
It wasn't permanent. When he stood and went to the door, a part of me died as he left. I felt it curl up and fall down to the pit of my stomach.
I nodded and closed my eyes as he left. The door shut again, but this time the light shone in from the window. Even though the curtains were closed, the day had started and it had invaded my room. I lay down and could've stayed there in bed for the entire day. A part of me wanted to go back to my old life. I could be normal once again, but it wouldn't last. It was a lie. It was only until I'd have to leave again.
The war was real to me now.
A knock at the door woke me. When I looked at my phone, I saw that I'd been asleep for three hours.
"Yeah?" I croaked.
"It's Kates. Your door is locked." She pounded on it again.
I looked underneath the sheet and saw I was still naked. Thankful that Roane had locked the door; I jumped out and threw on the nearest clothes. When I unlocked the door, I tried to smooth my hair down.
She stepped in, took a breath, and then choked back laughter.
"What?"
"I can smell sex all over you." She rolled her eyes.
I wrinkled my nose up and cringed. "And what'd you do the whole night?" I sniffed and then tried to block her aroma. "It's not just booze I smell on you."
"Yeah, well." Kates shrugged. "Can you blame me?"
As she crossed the room and sat in a chair, I heard the swoosh of her clothes. That's when I looked closer. "Are you serious? You're wearing leather?"
A look of pure delight crossed her face. "Are you kidding me? We're going to be seeing Emily again. Nothing else is appropriate. She hates me, Davy. Don't take that away from me. You know I love her hatred."
I rolled my eyes and pushed back my hair. It blocked my sight and I needed to see. I needed to think too. "She's dating a werewolf now, you know."
Clothes. I needed clothes. Wait, I had clothes. Did I need new ones?
Kates grunted and kicked a bag to me. "I got these for you."
I picked up the bag and looked at it with caution. "I'm not wearing leather."
"It's not, but that look would be hot. Bet you'd get Roane back here in a flash for round two." She gave me a seductive smile. "Don't even act all virtuous right now. I know you want nothing more than to wrap those legs around him and let him dominate you."
I snorted. "Maybe, but we need to talk about Emily. She's not as dumb as you think and she's not as ignorant anymore. She knows witches and werewolves exist. Her mate is one of the strongest there is."
She threw a leg over the side of her chair and struck a sultry pose. "Why do you think I didn't shower? The sex is going to drive him crazy."
Before she had left, I would've made her shower. I would've lectured her on being good and keeping the peace, even though I knew she wouldn't. I didn't say a word now. Instead, I grabbed a towel and walked into the connected bathroom. Then I turned the shower on and stepped underneath the spray.
I needed a shower. I needed to rid myself of the past because I knew that Emily wasn't the only one with questions. Brown. Pippa. Even Blue. They'd all want to know and I'd have to be the best actress in the world. When I moved back into the room, I was dressed and ready to go. Kates narrowed her eyes. I waited for her to say something, but she didn't. She stood at the door and waited in silence.
"We're ready."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kates cast a worried look to me when we were in the backseat of another black car. Roane always sent the same car for my transportation. I'd grown accustomed to them by now, but I wasn't used to my childhood mate being the one worried about me. It was usually the other way around.
"What?"
"Are you okay?" She reached for my hand resting in the middle of the seat between us and hooked her pinkie
finger around mine.
I took a deep breath. "I'll be fine."
"You're different."
She should've noticed the night before. I'd been different since I got back, but I kept my mouth shut and shrugged instead. "I just want to be with Roane."
My answer appeased her and she patted my hand. "I'm sure he'll find time to sneak in a quickie. He'll be calling for you by the end of the night."
The war was coming. It was at our doorstep. It might not have rung the bell, but it would. Our time away from it was short lived and Kates had no idea. She was usually the one who knew what was going on. I had been the one in the dark, blinded by my own denial. But this time, everything had changed.
I felt like I was just biding my time. Waiting.
Then we were at the police station and I took a deep breath. Roane said we should head there first since an official investigation had been opened. When I walked in, the clerk hadn't recognized me, but when I told her my name, the pen in her hand dropped. After a moment, she hurried away and I was shown inside. I was stuck in an interrogation room for over an hour. The detective had sat me down at her desk, but too many people were around. They all wanted to hear and some even asked their own questions so she sat me in a private room. Then Kates was brought in too. She took over most of the questions since she was the reason I'd been gone. My acting skills weren't as honed as hers. She was animated and believable while I didn't give a crap.
When everything checked out, that she had called me to help with her mother who had died and then stayed to help with the funeral planning, the detectives let us go. My case was closed, but I knew the detective still had questions. I heard them. She didn't believe me, but why would someone lie about helping out a friend? Or taking care of a funeral? Or that my phone was broken and I didn't think about replacing it. When she ran my name, nothing had come up. Then she ran Kates and a lot came up, but none of it was substantial. The detective had nothing to keep us and I looked fine. So we walked out and I knew I had part one of the subterfuge down. Part two was Emily and she was going to be the hardest one.
When we arrived at the dorm, Kates cast another look at me and bit her lip. "Maybe I should do the talking."
I snorted and then grabbed my bag. "Come on. She'll never believe us. Let me handle it."
When we went inside, the desk clerk had a similar reaction as to the one in the police station. Instead of her pen dropping, her textbook fell to the floor. A few girls were in the lounge and their conversation halted as they stared. I ignored it all. They'd hear the story soon enough. Gossip was good for some things.
And then I felt it. Or I felt him. His power was overwhelming. It came over me in waves and I staggered back from it.
"Davy?"
I saw Kates' lips move, but I didn't hear her. I couldn't. His power blanketed everything else. I couldn't smell. I couldn't hear. I couldn't feel. I could barely think. It was a dense fog that formed a cement box around me. And I was alone in it. No one else felt it and no one else was aware of it.
How could they not know?
I shook my head and tried to push some of it away, but it didn't matter. His power was too much and I started to panic. I reached out blindly. My hand hit something. I felt movement beside me, but I couldn't discern what had happened.
My heart rate picked up.
It pounded in my ears. It was so loud. I wished I couldn’t hear in that moment, just for a moment. I couldn't handle any of this.
I tried to scream, but nothing came out. And then the power grew. I felt it coming closer. The walls doubled. I fell to my knees and cradled my head. How was I going to do this? I couldn't move past the front desk in my dorm.
A loud thunder blared in my ears. Then another and another. I turned for the door and strained to see through it, but I couldn't see a storm. It wasn't raining.
"Davy!" Kates' cried out. Her voice was so quiet.
I reached out to her and then gasped. I couldn't find her, but then as my heart picked up its pace. More thunder sounded. It was coming closer. It was now one big crackle in the sky. The boom shook me.
'Suppress your power, Davina,
'
Saren's voice snapped in my head.
'Suppress it now. He can feel you too. He knows there's something coming and he's hungry for your power. Suppress it all! Wrap it up and lock it in a box. Push that box deep inside of you.'
Another boom jerked my body aside.
She screamed this time,
'Do it now!'
And then it happened. I gasped as my own power swirled in a vacuum. A tornado formed inside of me and everything went around and around. I swallowed thickly, my hands were shaking from the effort, but I imagined a blanket. I saw it happening in my mind. The immortal was snarling, but I kept it in the swirl and the blanket wrapped around it. Then it was forced down, down, further down into a box. As it got there, the lid shook. It couldn't contain it, but I gritted my teeth and I snapped the lid in place. It shut with a violent force, but then I pushed it all the way deep in me, further than I could reach.
Then my eyes opened again and I was trembling in place.
"Davy!" Kates screamed at me. She twisted her hand free from my hold and hissed as she examined it. "I'm bleeding! Holy cow!"
"What?" I couldn't stop shaking. "What happened?"
"You went crazy. That's what happened." She shook her hand as she watched me with weary eyes. "What happened to you?"
And then a guy rounded the corner.
He was tall, built lean, and soft in the face. He had the face of a little boy who'd grown into a pretty boy, but his eyes made me pause. They were old, had seen too much for being so young. Then he stopped altogether, his nostrils flared and I felt him sniffing around me. He started low, around my feet, but his eyes held mine. I slipped into him without realizing it. Images of him as a young wolf came back at me. His fur was a golden bronze with white eyes. He was running and playing with Pippa when she had been a pup. The two nipped at each other, licking each others' toes at the end. And then an image of a woman flew at me. Her hand was outstretched to me, her red hair streamed behind her. She wore a similar dress to what I'd seen on Talia. When her eyes found mine, I sucked in a breath. I was horrified. She was Talia's mother, or the essence of her. There was no soul within her. This was only her residue, left in him. This was Emily's boyfriend. This was the Alpha.
I shut it down. I shut the last bit of power down and got out of him before he knew I was there. He wanted to know why I smelled familiar to him, but Kates' scent distracted him. The booze and sex pulled at him like a drug.
When she winked at me, I knew she'd done it on purpose. Then she drawled, "Got a good enough whiff? Are you a horny puppy now? Gonna go hump something?"
He snapped back and bared his teeth.
Kates rolled her eyes. "Please. Unlike vampires, I can kill your kind. There's no decree saying I can't."
He composed himself and stood at his fullest height. Then he smirked."You couldn't handle me, slayer."
"Maybe not alone, but I've got a few friends. You can't hurt me and I've got no such rule. If an animal's attacking me, I have every right to protect myself."
His lip curled upwards in a heated snarl.
I felt his anger start. It was low, but strong. As it rose in him, it grew even more powerful. Then it got to his eyes. The dark brown color had grown black with a silver haze that clouded over the white in his eyes. His eyes had been white as a pup. I was waiting for the full change now. He was within seconds of transforming in the hallway, but then his mate called him.
"Pete?" Emily was walking towards us.
He turned back and held out a hand. "I'm fine. No worries, hon."
Her eyes skimmed past him and fell on me. Her mouth fell open and she paled. "Oh my god."
My eyes widened too. "Don't faint!"
"Davy?" Her voice had grown weak. She wavered on her feet and then leaned against the wall. "What are you? Are you real? Oh my god."
"You already said that." Kates brushed past them to walk into our room.
My feet were still frozen, but I felt Pete's curiosity double.
"Davy? Is that really you?" Emily seemed to be on the brink of tears, but then Pete took her hand and she pushed them down. He steadied her. I saw the connection between them and it was remarkable. Before, she'd been more neurotic and almost hysterical at times. Now she was strong and calm. He did that for her. I could see his strength flow into her. It tripled when their hands touched.
I wasn't the only one who had changed.
"It's me."
"Davy?" A squeal came from behind me before two arms wound themselves around me. Her voice was muffled into my back. "Thank god you're home. I was so worried."
Only one person would react like that. I laughed. "It's nice to see you too, Brown."
She squeezed harder. "I did magic. I created spells. I begged for my sister's help. Nothing. I couldn't find you. And now you're back. My prayer must've worked. I finally had to go to God, though I hope the goddesses don't condemn me. I was at a loss, but it doesn't matter." She let go and then skipped in front of me as she beamed. Brown threw her arms in the air. "You're home! Welcome back."