Shadow City: Demon Wolf

3

The desire to go inside trumped my dread of hearing whatever she had to say. The strain on her face forged a lump in my throat.

She didn’t want to share the secrets she held.

Surprise, surprise. With everything she and Ronnie had been keeping from me, why not pile on more?

I entered the small living room with its navy walls and laminate wood flooring. The room held a tan futon, a brown pleather recliner, and a bulky TV sitting against one wall across from the furniture.

Normally, I’d park myself in here when I got home, but I was too anxiety-ridden. I wanted her to tell me and not drag this out, even though I might regret the decision.

Squeezing past the recliner and futon, I walked down the short hallway and turned left into the L-shaped kitchen. In the center of the rustic wooden dining table, which we’d scored from Walmart, sat my two favorite things: mint chocolate chip ice cream and a slice of cheesecake. The ice cream pint was open and had a spoon stuck inside. Eliza hated when I ate out of the container, meaning she was sweetening me up to tell me something upsetting.

Literally.

Readying myself for the inevitable conversation, I went to the middle section of the white cabinets and grabbed two slate-gray marble coffee cups.

We were so tight on money that we didn’t have a Keurig but rather an old-school coffee pot. I was surprised to learn how much money we saved by making coffee by the pot as long as we drank it all. And Ronnie and Eliza were avid coffee lovers who drained multiple pots a day.

I poured one for Eliza, who enjoyed her coffee black, then added three spoons of sugar and some half-and-half to mine. I placed the cups on the table, sat on the bench across from Eliza, and slid her cup over to her.

“Thanks.” She wrapped her hands around the mug as if they were cold.

My chest tightened. She did that when she was nervous, yet another tell.

My right foot bounced, my nervous energy needing an outlet. The edge of hysteria clawed inside me, but I was trying to hold it together until we got through this conversation. If I broke down, she might take months to tell me this secret. But damn it, I’d been attacked, my nightmares haunted me even when I was awake, and I’d seen someone die. He’d deserved it, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Knowing that drinking coffee wasn’t the smartest idea, I took a bite of ice cream. The sweetness further turned my stomach, so I pushed the ice cream and cheesecake away.

When Eliza still hadn’t said anything, my patience snapped. “What is it?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me what happened tonight first.” Eliza lifted the cup of coffee to her mouth.

Whatever. I just wanted to know. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Ronnie. Once she answered, I told them about the attack. When I was done, Eliza frowned, while Ronnie remained quiet.

“Ronnie was right. You should’ve stayed with her. But I couldn’t,” Eliza said dejectedly.

“Annie should come back down here.” Ronnie huffed. “I’ve got to go. I need to make sure that asshole was working alone. Let me know when you two finish your conversation.”

Great, they were talking in riddles, and Ronnie knew what I didn’t.

“Bye.” Ronnie sighed and hung up.

I almost wanted to call her back and beg her to stay on the phone. She was my rock.

Eliza was good at going around and around, telling Ronnie and me things without being direct. I’d have to piece the information together for it to make sense, and I was not in the mood tonight. She would have to spell it out for me.

“You can’t stay in Shadow Ridge. What does that have to do with me?”

“Ronnie needed to go back into Shadow City with Alex, Sterlyn, and Griffin, and you would’ve been left behind with Killian and Sierra.” She blew out. “I couldn’t risk the witches in Shadow City finding out about my presence in Shadow Ridge. I don’t need more of a target on my back.”

“What does that have to do with me coming back to Lexington?” I would’ve come home with Eliza anyway. Even though Sierra and Killian and I had become friends, I didn’t feel comfortable staying in Killian’s house alone with him, and I definitely didn’t want to stay with Sierra and her family. My best option had been to return to Lexington with Eliza, but she hadn’t given me a choice. She’d treated me like a child…again.

“I promised Ronnie I would tell you about yourself, and it’s something I needed to say in person. She doesn’t know this yet because you should know it first. Then you can choose to share it with her or not.” Eliza laid it out so simply. “I hadn’t counted on a vampire following us here to hurt you, but your sister is their queen now, and with that kind of power comes enemies.”

Now she was rambling on about Ronnie. I couldn’t handle this. “Just tell me.”

Eliza would usually have gotten upset over my disrespect, but she took it. Sweat pooled under my armpits. I would need a shower when this revelation was over and done with. “Please,” I added softly as if that would make it better. At least, Ronnie was as much in the dark about this secret as I was.

“All right.” Her hands shook. “You know how I told you that your mom dropped you off with me one night when you were an infant?”

I hadn’t expected to go back to the very beginning of my story. “Did she not?” I already had issues over my parents not wanting me, but I had a feeling this was next-level upsetting. “Did you find me in a garbage can?”

“What?” Her mouth dropped open. “No. Not at all.”

“Oh, God.” I rocked in the chair. “Was she a drug addict?” Maybe that was why the void inside my chest had nagged at me my entire life. As if something should be there.

Eliza lifted a hand, telling me to stop. “Will you let me tell you instead of continuing to guess?”

In other words, shut up. “Yeah.” Now that I knew the secret had to do with my parents, I was desperate to hear what she had to say. I’d always wondered about them, but I’d never asked because I was afraid it would hurt her feelings.

“Your mother left you with someone in my coven, and the coven member asked me to meet with her, because she needed me to do something very important. She told me about you, and I met her that same day.”

“You don’t know who my mother is?” I didn’t know why, but that was important.

Eliza shook her head. “I never saw her, and I had already left the coven for reasons that aren’t important now. I’d bought this house, needing to hide. I met my coven member halfway between our locations—we each had to be careful that we weren’t followed—and once I saw you, I realized I’d made the right decision to take you. You were precious, and the fact that you were sought after meant you were important.”

My heart dropped. “What do you mean?”

Eliza carefully measured each word. “The people following us that day in Nashville—I thought the demon was after you, not trying to use us to get to Ronnie.”

“Wait …” My brain struggled to catch up as if I’d been drugged. Something important hid among her words. “Why would they have been after me?”

“All I know is that a strong demon is hunting for you. Your mother took off with you and brought you to our coven to hide you.” Eliza lifted her hands. “I don’t know how she found them. The witches used magic to bind your supernatural side and hide it. I cast the same spell on Ronnie when she came to live with us.”

“So…I’m a demon, too?” I stared at my hands, expecting them to become invisible like Ronnie did when she changed into her demon form. “Like Ronnie?”

Eliza frowned. “That’s the only reason I can think of that a demon would be hunting you.”

“But how does living in Lexington keep us safe?”

“Most supernaturals stay closer to nature.” Eliza waved a hand around the house. “Few would search for a witch in an urban area, and since your power was hidden at an early age, you appear human. I’m assuming that’s why—” She cut off her words and glanced at the cabinets.

I followed her gaze to the cabinets, seeking answers, and found nothing. Eliza didn’t get to start a sentence like that and stop. “Why…what?”

Eliza ran her hands through her hair, dislodging pieces from the bun. “Do you remember going to tour Shadow Ridge University?”

The question caught me off guard, but I should have expected random turns in the conversation. “I wanted to go there, so I drove down to take a tour.” I’d met a guy on campus, and that was when my life had turned into a clusterfuck. He’d lured me in, and I’d allowed him to take control of my life. Whenever I’d done anything that he didn’t approve of, he’d manipulated me, and—worst of all—I’d gone along with it. Because of him, I’d turned down the acceptances to all the other colleges I’d applied to, including some Ivy League schools. All my dreams flushed down the toilet.

I wanted to be a lawyer and help kids in the foster care system, whether it was fighting to protect them from their biological parents or helping them find loving families through the adoption process. I wanted to be an advocate for those kids like Eliza had been for me. Hell, I’d worked multiple jobs, saving for school, and now my money was nearly gone. I didn’t even know where it had gone, and I couldn’t save up that kind of cash again.

“I didn’t want you to go there and be surrounded by other supernaturals. I was afraid what happened to Ronnie would happen to you. But you were adamant.”

Yeah, I had been. I’d still been tempted to go back down, even after Ronnie had extracted me from the awful guy’s clutches and I’d left her behind to come home to Lexington the first time, before Eliza and I returned to escape the demon that had been tracking us. Something I didn’t understand had been tugging at me; I hadn’t felt that pull since we’d gotten back here three days ago, but now a new sensation buzzed inside me every time I walked outside. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Too little too late.” She frowned and ran her finger around the edge of her cup. “You snuck down there for the visitation day. If you hadn’t, Ronnie would still be here, and you’d be off at college.”

Her words felt like a slap. I would rather have her smack me than evoke all these feelings of guilt. I already felt like a f**k-up—I didn’t need her adding fuel to the flames. But whatever. She’d said it. There were no takebacks. “Tell me how you really feel.” I couldn’t hide my resentment.

“Oh, Annie.” Eliza pinched the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

I didn’t have to be supernatural to know the kitchen probably reeked from her lie. “Don’t bother trying to make me feel better. You meant what you said.” I wasn’t a good daughter like Ronnie or strong like the two of them.

I was the emotional basket case who tried to make everyone smile, and I’d messed up my entire future because I’d been desperate to be with a boy and go to Shadow Ridge University, this huge supernaturals-only college on the outskirts of a secret city that was home to all kinds of supernaturals—shifters, angels, and vampires. The college town, Shadow Ridge, was on one side of the Tennessee River, and Killian’s wolf pack lived there. They protected Shadow City, located on an island in the middle of the river and spelled to be invisible to humans. The town on the other side of the river was Shadow Terrace, where all the vampires who hadn’t been allowed inside Shadow City lived. That was the town Ronnie and Alex now ruled over.

“Stop. Please.” Eliza dropped her hands on the table. “I’m sorry. It’s been a highly emotional night, and I’m taking out my frustration on you.”

Wow. I wasn’t used to her apologizing, but her previous words still stung. “You know, it’s not like I was attacked by a vampire or anything.” I gestured to my neck. “I might be dead if a huge silver wolf hadn’t leaped out of the darkness and killed the vampire not ten feet from me. And let’s not forget I just learned I’m a demon. So, you’re right. You’ve had a horrible night. Sorry I’m not more sympathetic.”

The dreams I’d been having tickled my mind, but they were always there, waiting to make me question my sanity and feel dirty, though I couldn’t access why.

“I’m not thinking clearly.” Eliza reached across the table and took my hand. “It’s just…I feel like I’m losing you two. The last eighteen years have revolved around taking care of you with the last six including Ronnie. I… I feel like I’m screwing up, and I’m hurting you two despite my best efforts.”

Her sincerity thawed some of my anger, and the warmth of her hand took some of my defenses away.

“You aren’t hurting us.” I didn’t want her to shoulder that burden. “The lies and secrets are.”

She frowned as if she didn’t like what I’d said.

My heart dropped. “These are all the secrets, right?” I wasn’t sure I could take any more. Her gaze fell, confirming my worst fears. “What are you still not telling me?”

“It’s not just me,” she snapped. “Your sister has her own secrets now.”

“She’s hiding something else from me, too?”

Someone pounded on the door, and my breath hitched.

Eliza placed a hand on the wall to steady herself and whispered, “Stay right here, and don’t say a word.” She hurried out of the kitchen to the front door, leaving me alone.

No. I was tired of always being left behind.

I rushed after her to face the threat head-on beside her.