10.
4501 Words
“Scarlett, tell me nothing is true about anything I just heard.”
I let out a deep sigh and walked over to sit next to her.
I didn’t want to lie to her. Damn, I didn’t want to lie to anyone anymore!
“I can’t, Kaley.”
“You can’t what?”
“I can’t tell you that nothing is true about what you heard.”
I saw her press the pads of her fingers on her closed eyelids before opening them again to look straight at me in the dark.
“So... tell me I heard wrong.”
“No,” I whispered.
She fell silent and swallowed loudly.
“I should laugh in your face, worry about your sanity, or at least pack my bags to go back to where I came from and leave you to your delirium, but I can’t.”
“Why?” I asked very softly.
“Because I believe you...”
She sniffled and wiped away a tear that ran down her cheek.
Before adding anything else, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders to lend her mine. She put her temple on it and sighed jerkily. I remembered too well the way I had reacted when Elgin revealed himself to me, it had been brutal, explosive, and painful. My entire universe had collapsed under the violence of his revelations. Skara Brae... I remembered as if it was yesterday my breathlessness, the chaotic and overwhelming breathing, my head about to burst. My brain refused to admit what I had experienced, even though I had witnessed the transformation of a galbro. Of course, Kaley hadn’t seen anything like that, but we hadn’t seen each other for two long years, and our reunion, she was far from having imagined it this way. She was pretty open-minded, but she could never have foreseen that her best friend would set up a rescue plan with vampires to find her werewolf boyfriend. Even less expected to find out that I was one too. But she stayed here, close to me, not moving too much. Kaley had guts. Much more than I ever had myself.
She lifted her head and ran her fingers through her blond hair.
“Pitt is a vampire, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
She bit her lip and exhaled loudly.
“I saw them. I saw them once, but I didn’t want to believe it. I convinced myself that I had imagined everything.”
“What did you see?”
“His teeth… is he… is he really bad?”
How could I respond so drastically to that when she was already in shock?
“Was he with you, Kaley?”
She shook her head. I tried to smile.
“Then tell yourself no. No, he’s not that bad.”
“What did he do to you? How did you know him? I want to know. Tell me what has happened over the past two years.”
I sighed deeply while rubbing my forehead.
“For that, I would have to start from the beginning and it’s very long.”
She reached out and put her hand on mine, gently.
“Go ahead. I’m ready. Tell me everything.”
So, I tackled it as best I could. Honestly, no lie. Just the truth, the change in my life and the full revelation of who I had become.
Long after, when all was said, Kaley ran her index finger on the back of my hand. She was cold.
“A werewolf… Am I completely crazy to believe such a thing without having seen anything? Damn, Scarlett. What will happen to Elgin and your friend? Are you going to go get them?”
“Yes. I must.”
“But you’re going to risk your life!” she exclaimed.
“We all risk it,” I whispered in an almost inaudible voice.
Her fingers closed abruptly around my fist.
“I don’t want to lose you… I want… I want to know who you have become.”
I looked at her with a mirthless smile.
“In that case, I’ll have to come back.”
She gave me a little punch in the shoulder.
“You better, old lady!”
“Kaley, I know I shouldn’t ask you this but… about the boys…”
“You want me to go with the children,” she continued for me.
“Yes…”
Her breathing stopped, I felt she was hesitating.
“They’re not dangerous.”
“Well, I… Give me a few minutes to partially digest it all.”
She knew she had no more time to decide. I would leave, whatever she decided and the boys would go to Gwen’s place.
Kaley stood up.
“Honestly, Scarlett, I’m in shock.”
“I’m sorry.”
She sighed.
“If I had been told that you… that I… Anyway, is there tea in this house?”
“In the kitchen, yes. Come.”
As I started to walk down the hall, she grabbed me by the arm.
“Are you going to be okay?”
I swivelled to look at her, eyes burning with tears that didn’t want to come out.
“I must…”
“You have the right to cry,” she said softly, touching my cheek.
“I don’t have time.”
“It might do you good to...”
“No!”
I hadn’t wanted to be so dry, yet that’s exactly how I felt. Everything was escaping me, I was losing control of my life and I felt that to fix it I shouldn’t give way to anything other than determination, relentlessness, and stubbornness.
“Forgive me, Scarlett. I don’t know how to react. You may have lost what you hold most dear.”
“I haven’t lost anything yet!” I exploded. “He’s alive! I know it! I can feel it here, in my heart! He lives! They both live!”
Kaley cringed as she stared at my irises with an expression of dread.
“Your... your eyes...”
I closed my eyelids for two or three seconds and tried to recover, to dissipate this rage for which Kaley wasn’t responsible.
“They were golden,” she whispered, confused.
“It’s because I have yellow eyes in my wolf form. When I’m angry, they look like that and...”
She looked horrified.
“Oh, Scarlett… I don’t know what to think. Are you still the same?”
I examined her drawn features, her eyes widened with anguish. She made it seem like the world had collapsed around her but maybe I had some super power to put the pieces back together. However, I had broken inside from the moment I knew that my soul mate had been taken from me. The Spirit would lead me to him and only then, I would repair what can still be repaired to hope to resume the course of our life.
“No,” I replied. “I never will be again. Let’s go.”
Without another word, I went to the kitchen to heat some water for her and returned to my room to change. I hastily pulled on jeans, a black sweater, boots, tied my hair into a ponytail and grabbed a small backpack. I had no idea what was best to bring along. After a few seconds of thought, I suddenly felt like I was packing my things for a weekend getaway. Ridiculous. I wouldn’t need anything other than the lockets and what I was already wearing... but Rucker, yes. I rushed into his bedroom to rummage in his closet and grabbed a T-shirt, a warm sweater, then grabbed the pair of Converse lying at the foot of his bed.
When everything was ready, I joined Gwen, Grigore and Kaley downstairs. It was half-past five. Kaley was dressed and seated on an armchair in a corner of the living room, there was a leaden silence. She was silently watching Gwen and Grigore, surely wondering if she would have been able to notice that they weren’t quite like her, or if she would have let herself be manipulated as with Pitt. Besides, I didn’t need to explain to them that Kaley knew about us, they had overheard our whole conversation.
Something about Grigore’s demeanour caught my attention. Three times I saw him glance in the direction of the entrance hall.
“He’s coming.”
He had a very good sense of smell, especially when it came to spotting Pitt. Their bond made him smell him way before me.
“Remus and Gabriel will meet us directly at Edinburgh Airport.”
“Where are we going, exactly?” I asked.
“Home, Transylvania.”
Transylvania… It was so cliché that I could have rolled my eyes if I hadn’t been in a bad mood.
“In the region of Hunedoara, where Corvin Castle is located. We will land in Sibiu.”
“Sibiu is close to where you and Pitt were born, isn’t it?” I remembered.
Born twice...
“Yes.”
He approached me gravely.
“Scarlett, going there will be much easier than coming back. Bringing them back with us will have serious consequences. They’ll hunt us down to get back what we took from them.”
I silently nodded; I knew all that.
“I’m ready.”
Then I smelt him. Pitt. Like a reflex, I felt all the hairs on my arms stand up, my eyes change, and the heat gradually increased in my veins. I didn’t trust him. He would lead us to death. Everyone. Out of revenge. But this expected death would take neither Elgin nor Rucker. I made a promise.
Lowering my eyelids, I waited until he was on the porch to turn to Kaley.
“Pitt is here.”
“I don’t want to see him!” she cried, standing up, almost hysterical.
With a wilful step, she walked down the hall to her room. She stopped in the middle of the entrance and turned to us.
“Tell the children I’m going with them! We’ll have a solid breakfast on the road, they’ll eat fruit!”
I was relieved, even though I had the feeling that this decision had just been made on impulse. Kaley had surely not yet fully realized the universe in which I lived now. She had only seen the surface of the problem. Morel and Corwin looked like any kid at first glance, but the mere thought that she might attend one of their hunting trips made me shudder. Kaley was far, very far from knowing everything.
“Kaley,” I whispered, grabbing her by the arm. “My parents don’t know...”
She c****d her head to the side and shrugged in annoyance.
“I suspect it! And I was never a tattle-tale, Scarlett Rittel!”
She walked away when the front door opened for Simon, Rufus, and Pitt. Before disappearing into her bedroom, she spun around and her gaze met her ex-boyfriend’s. She glared at him as, strangely, I read a hint of tenderness in his, then she slammed the door. I was puzzled for a few long seconds, then I faced him, as icy as a Siberian blizzard.
“I don’t trust you!” I shouted at him.
“It doesn’t matter,” he replied, an evil glint in his eyes. “Your trust doesn’t matter to me. What I want is to torment you, to torture you, to crush you. And I will succeed. Eventually. Unless this journey gets the better of you before me? Ah! Let us pray that my wishes will be granted, my brothers!”
To get past him, Rufus deliberately shoved him on the shoulder.
“Save your fantasies for when you have nothing else to do!”
Pitt looked so sure of himself… I felt the violence inside me increase tenfold. Motivated by the need not to lose my temper now, I put on a blank expression and hid my fury behind it. With a smile on his lips, Pitt took two steps towards me and reached out towards the living room.
“After you…, Scarlett.”
I’d rather die than turn my back on him. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for him to enter before I did, imagining the pleasure I’d have in digging my claws between his shoulder blades. I was almost surprised to get lost so easily in this kind of fantasy. Never, before Ewan, had I had a desire for pure violence. My last transformation hadn’t been only physical, it had produced in me an upheaval questioning my very essence, my human nature, and the fear of the other which ensued from it; I used to be cowardly. Oh, yes, I hadn’t lied to Kaley, I would never be the same again.
“Thanks for coming,” Grigore said to Rufus and Simon. “Is everything ready?”
Simon nodded.
“They’re expecting us in two hours.”
“How are we doing this?”
All attention was on Pitt. I tried to detect in him a shadow of mockery, a flash of misplaced pride, half-hearted deceit… Anything that would have placed him a little more in my sights, that would discredit him in the eyes of the others and terminate their participation. But I saw nothing there. Pitt, his face hard and determined, seemed to take his role of guide quite seriously.
“The Council has requested a private plane, so boarding will be very quick. We’ll arrive in Sibiu around 2:30 p.m. local time. It will then take us a good three hours by 4x4 to reach the region of the eastern vampires. More, if the road is snowy. The tracks aren’t maintained everywhere. We’ll spend the night in a hotel and we will go to the Strigoi Castle in the early morning.”
“Will we have a driver?” Grigore asked.
Pitt let out a light laugh.
“You in person, my dear brother. You couldn’t have forgotten the roads of Transylvania!”
Grigore winced. In truth, I knew he hadn’t set foot in Romania for at least forty years. Everything must have changed since.
“Then?” said Grigore impatiently.
“The Council has notified the Strigoi Guild of our arrival. Actually… yours. Remus, Gabriel, and you are expected. Alone.”
If Grigore was surprised, he didn’t let it show. He didn’t have the slightest flicker of his eyelashes.
“Alone?” I repeated.
“Yes, alone. Because I cooperated with the late Ewan,” he explained in an overly dramatic tone, “I cannot afford to be seen with them.”
“Are you considered a traitor?” Gwen said, who couldn’t hide her dislike when she barely knew him.
“No, but I could be if I was spotted. So, forgive me for wanting to watch my back. It would be a shame if my life was cut short so quickly, I have so many plans,” he added, giving me a sidelong glance sparkling with sarcasm.
I ignored his last remark and frowned in surprise.
So, Pitt was taking risks by serving as our guide? Why? Why was he going to put both feet in hell of his own free will?
Again, he turned to Grigore.
“So, you will accompany Remus and Gabriel, since you are the new president of the Council and the Strigoi know nothing of your involvement.”
I widened my eyes.
“Is that what you told them? Do the members of the Council know that?”
Grigore nodded.
“Besides, Scarlett, I’m Romanian. If they talk to each other, if they reveal information, I’ll be able to understand them.”
“They don’t know you?”
“No. And I’m counting on that to infiltrate.”
“What about us during this time?” I asked him.
Pitt kept looking at me.
“We’ll be in another vehicle,” he informed me in a satisfied tone. “We’ll wait until Grigore and the others have entered, then we’ll slip into the castle.”
I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.
“How do we know you’re not going to try to fool us? That you’re not sending Grigore into the mouth of the wolf the better to trap us?”
“But the wolf will be with me, Scarlett,” he sneered.
“What if they decide to free Rucker and Elgin?” Gwen pointed out. “Our intrusion would be considered an attack and they would change their mind. Worse, they would attack us!”
Pitt stifled a cynical laugh.
“They never release anyone. Those who find themselves free are dead. As for attacking us, they’ll do that no matter what. But I know the place like the back of my hand. Relax,” he laughed, “you’ll all be delighted to have me with you.”
Then he spun around slightly to look at me sideways, seeming to say, I know you need me and this is exhilarating. He was right, I couldn’t do without his services if I wanted to find Elgin. He spoke Romanian, he knew the place by heart, he was a vampire… I knew I was running headlong into a wall, but despite everything, yes, I needed him.
“You’d better not betray us,” Simon warned him sharply.
Pitt amused himself by rolling his eyes excessively.
“Come on, come on…, I couldn’t betray my kind.”
But the others, yes; the idea of crushing people like me perspired through every pore of his skin.
“And when we get them, what will happen?” Gwen asked. “I highly doubt that we’ll be able to leave as easily as we will have arrived.”
“In the air, pretty,” Pitt replied with a wink. “The Strigoi cannot fly.”
“Neither can werewolves!” Gwen snapped. “Do you plan to abandon Elgin and Scarlett there? Is that the plan?”
“It’s an idea,” he hissed, smiling happily.
A cold spread through my bones. I wanted to skin him alive.
“Stop talking nonsense!” Grigore snapped irritably. “We’ll bring everyone back. But for that, we must already have succeeded in saving our skin. Let everything be clear between us, Petre. You show us where the castle dungeons are, we pick up Rucker, Scarlett’s boyfriend, and off we go. Nothing else. Don’t use the situation to satisfy your personal ambitions. You take a wrong step; I swear on what I hold dearest that you’ll regret it.”
Pitt raised an eyebrow, puzzled, and almost amused.
“And what is dearest to you, my very dear brother?”
“Enough!”
Grigore closed his eyelids to give himself some composure.
“Do as I tell you and you’ll not have to deal with me.”
“That could please me, however,” Pitt quipped.
Grigore suddenly stopped breathing. When he opened his eyes again, I saw that they were glowing with a burst of fury that Pitt would do well not to ignore.
“Don’t try your luck with me, Petre.”
He had spoken in a voice so low it was almost inaudible.
Pitt gave a mean smile.
“Two bloods for one, one will not survive without the other. That’s how we’re bound for eternity, brother.”
“Nu-ti supraestima valoarea, frate, ai putea fi dezamagit. Nu mai însemni nimic pentru mine.” [Don't overestimate your value, brother, you could be disappointed. You don’t mean anything to me anymore.]
No one was able to understand what Grigore had just said, but Pitt was suddenly silent. The surrounding unease had suddenly become so overwhelming that Simon, who hadn’t said much since he had arrived, clapped his hands forcefully as if to wake everyone up.
“We’ll have to go!”
Pitt and Grigore stared at each other for a few more seconds before looking down at the same time. I would have given a lot to know what Grigore had said to him, because after that, Pitt didn’t talk to him again.
Morel and Corwin hadn’t yet returned and I suspected that they would not appear until we had left. That’s why I looked for a piece of paper to jot down a message to them.
You will go to Gwen’s mom with Kaley. Be cooperative, for Perceval. We’ll bring him back. I love you.
Scarlett.
I placed it prominently on the living room table and turned to Pitt and Grigore.
“I’m ready.”
Grigore walked over and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. Mechanically, I covered it with mine, smiling at him with annoyance. He reached out with his other arm and gently brushed my jawbone with his fingertips.
“It’ll be fine…”
“I hope so,” I whispered.
Pitt eyed Grigore for a long time, then slipped an indecipherable expression over me.
This is the moment that Kaley chooses to leave the bedroom and join us.
Focused on Pitt, she positioned herself in front of him, shaking her index finger just under his nose.
“If you do her any harm, I swear I’ll kill you with my own hands,” she warns him most earnestly.
Pitt leaned down to lift her chin with his thumb and gaze straight at her.
“I knew you couldn’t resist the urge to say goodbye. Know I’ll let your hands do whatever they want to me, baby.”
Then he stole a kiss from her lips.
In a rage, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and pushed him back violently with her palms.
He barked with laughter. But when he turned to us, his joy was gone.
“Let’s go!”
The rain had started to fall heavily. Remus, Gabriel and a third dark angel were waiting for us on the tarmac. His name was Paul and he would make the trip with us. He was supposed to wait for us at a hotel while we went to pick up Rucker. If neither of us got back on time, he would let the Council know.
I got off the shuttle, sheltering myself with my hood, but by the time I got to the plane, I was soaked. We climbed the few steps of the movable staircase and were greeted by a flight attendant with a broad smile, the one due to passengers being able to afford a £34,000 private jet flight.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard our Hawker 4000. I’m Kirsten and I’ll be your hostess for the duration of your journey.”
Never, until then, had I noticed how influential the Dark Angel Society was outside of St Andrews, or even how much money they had. This little express trip had been organized in no time, without the Scottish authorities coming to ask any questions. Not once had we been checked into the airport. I went first and entered the cabin with its soft, clean tones. The interior layout was in every way similar to what I had already seen in American movies. The central corridor separated four seating zones sufficiently spaced from each other to be able to lie down, and some of which were furnished with a mahogany table. In the background, a cream leather sofa could happily accommodate four people, while an open bathroom door offered the possibility of taking a shower during the flight.
“Hello, I’m Tatiana. Please take a seat,” invited a second hostess. “Can I take your coat?”
I nodded and handed her my wet duffle coat. She grabbed it with her fingertips and hung it in a closet at the back of the plane. While she attended to the rest of the passengers, I took a seat in a chair and waited for someone to come and keep me company. It was Grigore who sat down across from me. There was plenty of space between our two seats, though, but I had to bend my knees a little more when he settled himself comfortably, stretching his long legs out in front of him, his hands crossed over his stomach.
“Are you going to be okay?” he whispered, looking at me strangely.
I turned my head towards the window and answered without looking at him.
“I’ll tell you that when we get them back. For the moment, I refuse to even ask myself the question.”
I heard him laugh.
“You have always been the bravest human I’ve ever met.”
“I’m no longer human, Grigore, and I’ll never be again.”
“So that makes you the most reckless wolf on this planet... with a human scent.”
This time, I swivelled to observe him.
The amulet... did it affect him?
He stretched a little more and involuntarily jostled my foot. Our eyes locked for long seconds during which he looked at me intensely and silently.
“When I asked you why Pitt was helping Rucker, you said he owes it to him. For what reason?” I wanted to know, knowing full well that Pitt could overhear our conversation.
“Because Rucker saved his life once.”
He tilted his head back and closed his eyes as if about to sleep.
He wouldn’t add anything else.
Without a glance, Pitt walked past me and settled into the seating area just behind. Without being able to do anything to remedy it, my hair stood on end at the back of my neck. I didn’t like knowing he was behind my back. I didn’t like to know he was around at all. I was still wondering how I was going to follow him blindly, especially as I felt all this was a trap and nothing could have dissuaded me otherwise.
Gwen and Simon took their seats next to us, while Rufus, Gabriel, Remus, and Paul sat down with Pitt. Several times I had caught the gaze of Council members fixed on me in utter amazement. No one had explained to them that I wore a Garou amulet capable of hiding my true nature. No supernatural creature would have guessed what I was. The magic that this object gave off was awesome and would have driven anyone who knew who I was crazy. Ignoring their bewildered glances, I buckled my seat belt and waited for the plane to manoeuvre to take off. The flight would last a good three hours.
When we had gained altitude, I lost myself for long minutes in contemplating the cloudy carpet stretching just below us and, little by little, I drowned in the darkest melancholy.
Every time I believed our lives were finally settled, Elgin and I faced new adversity, a new attack. I wondered if, one day, we would taste the peace we longed for. What would fate steal from me this time? Elgin? I had to prepare for the worst.
- Writer
