Among Demons : A Siren's Voice

Ch. 19 : Scouts & Laughter

I woke up feeling heavy and a little achy around my stomach and sides, groaning as I rolled over and away from the light above me. My eyelids felt weighted, but I pushed to open them, locking eyes with a sight that confused me for a second.

A ball of dirty blond hair sat right in front of me. Barely an inch away in fact, with some long locks splayed out on the bed beside me. I lifted my head up as I blinked rapidly, trying to understand what I was looking at. And soon, a smile pulled at my lips, recognizing Nick's head laying on the side of the bed next to me, soundly asleep.

A giggle rose up in my chest, but I held it back, sitting up some more as I looked at him. He was sitting on the wicker seat that was always in the room, his body slumped forward and draped over the side of my bed. One arm half draped over his face, blocking the light from his eyes, while the other was tucked under my pillow. A faint snore left him as I shifted into a full sitting position, jostling him a bit before he fully relaxed again. Then, a second later, he mumbled something in his sleep, sounding annoyed, while his brows pulled together before relaxing once more.

I covered my mouth with my hands, trying to muffle my laughter as I watched him, wondering what he was dreaming about that made him look and sound so annoyed. He looked so cute like this, actively dreaming and making faint facial expressions to whatever it was he saw in his dreams. The light snore would stop abruptly, followed by a hum or incoherent mumble, then return to a soft snore. Seeing him like this made my chest flutter a bit and I had to fight the urge to run my fingers through his hair. His longer locks on top looked wild with how he lay, with the shorter sides curling into or around his ears. It looked so soft and a little fluffy as he turned and shifted a little, no doubt turning into that messy bed-head I had seen him have once before.

A faint squeak pulled my attention from him, turning to look at the door and finding Devin slowly tip-toe in, smiling at me.

“How are you feeling?” She whispered to me, pausing when her brother twitched again as she neared the bed, resuming her quiet walk to my other side when he settled.

I nodded to her with a faint smile, recalling all the things I had learned and felt while looking around myself, looking for the little notepad to write on. But as I continued to search, she extended out a familiar device to me, nodding towards the sleeping man to my other side. I smiled some more and opened the notepad app in Nick's phone, typing out a quick message to her.

‘Did I pass out? How long was I asleep?’

She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, turning her body to face me.

“You had a panic attack, Lora.” She frowned, taking my hand in hers and pressing two fingers on my wrist, clearly taking note of my heart rate. “Broke into a sweat and kept trying to say something to us before you completely blacked out.” I flinched a bit, hearing her worry and hating that I was such a nuisance; So weak that I couldn't even control my emotions. “You’ve been out for quite a long time. Slept past dinner and through the night, actually.” I turned to look out the window, feeling my brows pull together at the growing sunlight outside. “It’s early morning now.”

I looked at the top bar of the phone, my eyes widening when I noted that it was just past six in the morning.

“Are you hungry?” She asked me, pulling me away from staring at the phone.

I shook my head and pulled the phone up to type in it again, needing to know more, even if I felt so much disgust every time I thought about it.

‘Can I see those papers again?’

She frowned when she read my message, her eyes searching mine for a long second afterwards. I could see concern and uncertainty in her ringed gaze, though the worry outweighed it. But I had to, needed to look at those papers again. I wanted to look through the timeline of it all and see if there was anything there that could help me find Alder. Maybe one of the locations that Mitch bastard took my mother or sister to matched one of the addresses we found in those papers underground. Or maybe there was some other type of hidden clue I missed while reading through it the first time?

‘Please, Devin. It could help me find my nephew.’

“There wasn’t anything there, Lora.” She said softly, placing a hand on my arm. “I looked it over myself and found nothing.”

I sighed and leaned back against the pillow, nodding my understanding. The silence that stretched on felt heavy and not just physically. My emotions were raw and I felt sensitive with a simmering and persistent desperation to find out more about my family.

Just how many secrets were hidden from me? How many things were kept from me as I grew up? What else was buried along with my parents? Did my dad have his own secrets too? Was I going to find out about them later on in life? Was there something more that my sister was hiding? Just how blind had I been to never notice a single clue about anything?

Will I even find my innocent nephew at all?

“Hey.” Devin scooted closer to me, lightly placing both her hands over mine while they rested on my lap, over Nick’s phone. “Everything’s going to be ok.”

I smiled but couldn’t lift my head up to look at her, fighting hard to breath through the urge to cry.

I was so tired of crying and feeling lost… confused… and afraid.

“Lora.” His voice surprised me and I turned towards him quickly, feeling a few tears escape my eyes with the motion. “My sisters, right.” His sleepy smile helped elevate my mood, though his hair, that made him look like he was electrocuted, made me smile and choke back a laugh. “We’re going to help you through all of this. We said we would, and it’s going to happen.” He took a second to stretch out his arms and groan a little, rubbing the sleep out of his face while I wiped my tears away. “I know it’s a bit soon to say things like this. Or make promises.” He relaxed back in his seat, his smile more bright and his eyes shining with a truth I could feel. “But all of us are going to do everything in our power to help you, like we said we would.”

I nodded to his words and smiled, taking a deep breath in, holding it, then blowing it out evenly. In that breath I pushed out all the negativity, the fear, and the disgust that had filled me, wanting to clear myself of it all so I could move forward.

Movement caught my eye a second later and I watched as Devin pulled out her phone from her back pocket, then waved it at her brother and his wild hair, an amused smile on her face.

“You mind, Nick?” He looked at her, confused, as she kept waving her phone at him. “Charge it for me?”

“What?” He huffed out, looking between us when I broke into a giggle.

I made a motion to my own hair, pointing to him afterwards and laughing some more, no longer able to hold his gaze for more than a second. Devin joined me and flopped back, laying on my legs as she laughed while he stared on, still confused.

Finally, between laughter, Devin said, “Who electrocuted you!”

His eyes widened and he looked to me, reaching up to his hair while I tried to stifle my giggles. He frowned, an amused playfulness glinting in his eyes, before he stood up and rushed to the bathroom.

“Damn.” I heard him say, no doubt finally seeing his own reflection before he came out. “Traitor!” He told me, raising a finger to point at me with one hand while the other attempted to smooth down his shocked locks.

I laughed even harder and bent forward over Devin who rolled to her side, snorting at the sight of her brother.

The door opened and in came Nyla, looking so very amused at all three of us while holding a stack of papers in her hands. She raised a brow at our antics, smiling wider when she caught sight of Nick still flattening his hair to his head while also grumbling to himself with a smile. That action, though, made those longer locks on top flop over his forehead, making him look even more funny.

“You need a haircut.” Nyla chuckled, moving to join Devin and I who were lost to our giggle fest on the bed. “Dev, we had a few more scouts return just now and drop this off.”

That news sobered us up, leaving us both with heated faces, stinging sides and breathing heavy. Devin sat up and took a moment to calm her breathing, while I gathered my hair up away from my warm neck and face, trying to cool down. Dev jumped up from the bed and took the papers from Nyla, looking through them as she stood by the foot of the bed. Nick rejoined my side, sitting to my right while still messing with his hair.

We were both watching his sister as she looked through the pages with Nyla leaning forward to peek, the room quiet as we waited. A part of me wanted to see what was on them, but I felt that I now deeply trusted Devin, Nick and the others. So I waited patiently as she flipped through the pages. But with Nick still fussing with his hair, I turned to him and smiled a little, catching his tiny pout.

“You think I need a cut?” He asked after catching me watching him.

I reached out and started combing his hair through my fingers, moving it this way and that until I had managed to style it nicely. As I did so I tried hard to hide how nice and soft his hair felt, resisting the urge to keep playing with it once I was done. Leaning back, I looked him over and smiled before searching for his phone and opening the app again.

‘I don’t think so.’ I typed out, pausing for a second when he leaned in read as I typed. ‘You look good to me.’

He smiled and turned to face me without moving back, making heat rush to my face.

“Do you now?” He chuckled, clearly amused and enjoying my reaction.

“This is promising.” Devin spoke up, breaking the tension that was beginning to rise as Nick and I froze, staring at each other. “Ahem!” She made a point to loudly clear her throat when she realized that her brother was ignoring her, smiling when he finally leaned back and put some distance between us. “Anyway, our options have dwindled to just three out of all those addresses that we found.”

I straightened at hearing this, hope blooming in my chest as I gripped the phone tighter between my hands. Nick smiled at this too, placing a hand over both of mine and momentarily distracting me from the news. My mind instantly pointed out how big and warm his hands were, burning my cheeks some more before I managed to push the thought away.

“Did the scouts confirm that the other locations had nothing else for us?” Nick pressed, his playfulness moving aside in favor of a more serious expression. “No Hunter sightings? Nothing illegal being stored? Or anything else found on site?”

Devin shook her head and moved to the other side of the bed, smiling at me as she passed along the papers to my waiting hands. I looked through them slowly, reading and rereading certain parts I passed over too quickly. Hope continued to climb as I fully realized that I was one step closer to finding my nephew, though the truths I’d learned about my sister and deceased mother still deeply bothered me. I quickly refocused my thoughts when I noticed where my mind was heading, not wanting to waste time on that anymore.

Alders safe recovery was my only priority.

It didn’t take me long to see that Devin was right, Nick silently agreeing with us both after I had passed the papers to him. He asked Nyla and Devin a few more questions while I typed out a question into the phone, turning it to face them when I was done.

‘What do we do now?’

Devin smiled and scooted closer to me, resting a hand on my shoulder.

“We’ll set up rotation watches on those three locations for now.” I nodded, starting to kick the blanket off my legs to try and get up. “But we can’t risk making a move until we see them.” I paused, nodded then continued to get out of bed, smiling to show the others that I understood and knew why.

Then, breaking the silence and making me burn up like a bright red fire-cracker, my stomach growled loudly as I got to my feet. And less than a second later, we were all laughing and smiling at the suddenness of it.