The Royals

Chapter 8 THE CALM BEFORE A STORM

“Wait a minute.” Blake spoke through the silence. “How can that be? First responders said that no one else was there other than you.”

“I’m more focused on the comment Eris made about you being the cause.” Caspian said through gritted teeth.

“All just a misunderstanding.” Blake turned to Avalon. “One that I've been trying to talk to you about.”

As he stared at Avalon longingly I felt his hate, not towards her or himself, an image of a blonde flashed through my head. I could also feel how broken he felt at the possibility of losing Avalon.

“Who’s Crystal?” I asked.

Blake and Avalon had been quietly fighting amongst each other and stopped to look at me. Everyone stared, in fact, they looked at me as if I had just grown a second head.

“Damn it,” Avalon cursed out. “I should have known.”

She jumped out of her chair knocking it over as she stormed out.

“Wait…..” Blake ran after her.

“I already know!” I heard Avalon shout from down the hall.

I got this nagging feeling in my stomach telling me to follow so I did.

“I’m going to kill that b***h!” I followed Avalons voice up the staircase and down the long hallway stopping just short of the arguing couple. They stopped as I got closer.

“Do you ever stay out of other people's business?” Blake stepped in front of Avalon.

“Don’t talk to my friend like that!” Avalon yelled at him. “Eris, thank you for everything but I know what really happened now.”

She smiled at me, and even though her face doesn’t show it I could feel the anger seeping from her and fill the air around me. The anger she felt I knew was more than likely to be directed at the woman named Crystal, the hatred was so strong and standing so close to her made me feel dizzy and weak. Everything was beginning to blur and I felt myself slipping and falling into a pair of strong arms.

**********

I opened my eyes and found myself under the covers on what feels like a bed of clouds, when they adjusted to the dark room I saw that it was just a really soft bed. Soft voices came through the closed door muffled, I carefully climbed out of the bed and quietly crept across the room and placed my ear against the door.

“Why are we all here? There better be a good reason to have me up this late at night.” a female voice came from the otherside.

“It’s best we have our meeting in private in case our guest wakes up.”

There were sounds of several feet shuffling through the corridors and then a door shutting. Curiosity got the better of me and I slipped out the room and snuck down the hall to where I could hear hushed voices coming from.

“I’m tired of Crystal messing in mine and Blake’s life!” It was Avalon who I heard yelling.

“Oh don’t turn this into such a big deal. Childish petty jealousy games is all that it is, honestly if you're going to let some silly little trick almost break the two of you up then maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.” it was the voice of a woman i've never met but I could practically hear the smile in her voice.

There was a loud growl that shook the floor and the walls causing the picture frames that hung there to rattle and almost fall off.

“Either you control her or i’ll put her in her place!”

The voice startled me, it sounded like Avalon but also at the same time it didn’t, It sounded more demonic.

“Control your mutt Van Doren.” The woman had so much venom in her voice.

A shattering roar erupted from inside the room followed by a loud crash. I barely had a second to jump out of the way as the door shattered and a body flew to the other side of the hallway slamming against the adjacent wall. As I layed there amongst splinters of wood from the broken door I watched Avalon, at least I think it was her, walk out. Her skin looked as if steam was rolling off her, her eyes had turned yellow like fire, and her teeth had become razor sharp as she bared them at the woman while letting out another roar. Avalons gaze shifted to me and her eyes widened as she saw me. She blinked and her eyes were back to the normal green of hers and the steam stopped.

“Eris, how are you feeling now?” She walked towards me and reached out her hand to help me up.

I took it, standing now and having a closer look I could see that her once vicious fangs were now gone as well.

“I’m fine, just got hit with too many strong emotions.” I brushed a few pieces of stray splinters from my skirt as we spoke.

“You know, we really need to have a nice talk about this empath thing.” We laughed.

Caspian rushed over to me as Blake followed behind, stopping to grab Avalon and lead her off to the side.

Caspian opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. “If you’re going to ask if I'm alright I am. I just got overwhelmed earlier and just know nothing hit me.” I gave him a smile as I remembered what happened when I fainted, “And thank you for catching me.”

I blushed as I spoke the last part softly and noticed the corner of his mouth twitch slightly.

“Good to know Miss Evan’s.” was all he spoke.

“I think that’s enough fun for one night.” Mr. Van Doren said flatly.

I could tell by the expressions on his and his wife's faces that this was not how they had planned the night to go, and I didn't need to read their emotions to know that they blamed me.

“I’m sorry that I ruined dinner tonight. Thank you for having me Mr and Mrs Van Doren.”

I turned to walk away but stopped when Mrs. Van Doren called to me.

“This family has issues just like any other Eris, no one is perfect so there’s no high expectation for you to be. There will be plenty of more time to get to know you, as well as you us.” I gave her a smile, it felt nice to know they didn’t think of me as bothersome or troublesome.

“And please,” Mr. Van Doren spoke up. “Call us Craven and Wisteria, you’ll be a part of this family soon too.”

I nodded, still smiling as I turned and left, feeling Caspian on step behind. He hooked one arm around my waist and led me down the hall to the room I had once left as I tried heading towards the stairs. Caspian pulled me into the room and shut the door behind him while turning on the light. I looked around, the room was bigger than my whole apartment, the bed was massive and sat on the opposite side in between two floor length windows with black curtains drawn closed. A T.V sat above a huge fireplace with a wooden coffee table and couch placed around it. One wall was even entirely dedicated to shelves full of books lined in neat rows, across from that were two more doors which I'm guessing lead to the bathroom and closet. The crimson colored walls were left bare.

“Caspian, I need to get home. It’s really late and I have class in the morning.” He had both arms wrapped around me now as he nuzzled into the crook of my neck.

“Stay the night and I’ll take you in the morning. I promise to behave.”

“You barely know me, Caspian.”

My words being true, I still couldn’t help this feeling I have towards him. The feeling of always missing something, of being empty for so long was suddenly gone whenever he was around. I liked it, it made me feel whole, but it also scared me.

“Then let me get to know you, I want to know everything about you.”

His arms loosened and then I could no longer feel them around me as he stepped away and walked to the drawer on his bedside table and opened it. He reached in and pulled out two small boxes and came back to where I was standing.

“I was going to give this to you after dinner tonight.” Caspian handed me the box that was slightly bigger in size.

It fit in the palm of my hand, the outside slick to the touch and black. I opened it and gasped at the most beautiful necklace I have ever seen. A breathtaking black stone that shines blue and green hung delicately from a thin silver chain. Caspian took the necklace from the box and clasped it around my neck smiling as he watched me. He gently brushed a strand of hair behind my ear and cupped my face, his thumb softly stroked my cheek and down my jaw until his hand rested under my chin.

“And this,” his hand dropped and my face flushed from the intimacy and how close he was to me. “I was having trouble finding the right time.”

Caspian held his hand out with the smaller box sitting in his palm, he brought it up to my face and my breath caught. It was green like the color of pine tree’s and velvet to the touch, he opened it to reveal a ring.