Griffin's Salvation

Chapter 2:Ju-ri

Marissa introduced me to Elody, while she double-checked, making sure both twins didn't flee from their strollers like Kian did minutes ago.

-Why don't we go to the restaurant next door and eat something, the stress of finding a toddler through this crowd made me famished! Marissa asked, and we all readily agreed. I for one needed to sit in my new reality for a few. while I was happy death was no longer my reality, I had already started my goodbye tour. I had started with my family and stupidly given my brothers and sisters the location of my secret cave with all my treasures. I'll have to call and tell them to not touch my s**t, that was going to be fun. especially with ChoHee and Minho, those two pirana will give me hell for getting their hopes up. I should probably wait to tell them in person with our parents present so they can wrangle those two if they get too rambunctious.

I was about to step into the restaurant after them when Ronan popped up right between me and Marissa and Elody. He was looking at me funny while he stood at the threshold of the restaurant glamoured so the humans couldn't see him.

-what is wrong with you? something weird was happening with you and then you disappeared for a while I couldn't see you. He asked me blocking my way, unbothered by my inability to talk to thin air in front of my mate's mother. I was trying to look like a sane human, so the woman felt comfortable with me tagging along with them for the day. I fumbled for my phone and shoved it in my ear

-yes, Ronan! I faked looking at him pointedly so the clueless asshole would take the hint. I gestured at the others to go ahead pointing at the window. I'm at 천국(heaven) Barbeque. we're sitting by the bay windows, if you walk through the crowd, you will see us there!

-I'm already here! he said looking at me like I was the stupid one.

-Take off the glamour and walk back here like a normal person! I whispered-growled at the clueless sociopath, then in my normal voice added. Of course Ronan, I'll see you when you get here!

I walked around him to my seat, if he didn't still understand what I meant that was on him, I shall not look like a weirdo in front of Marissa. Thankfully he did understand me, and a few minutes later he walked to the window, stopped right where we were sitting, and stared at me pointedly through the glass. Did not say Hello, did not smile, or acknowledge my table mates, the fucker just stared.

-Are you in some sort of trouble? He looks like you owe him something.

-no, That's my best friend, Ronan, he has zero social skills I apologize. get in here and say hello! I snarled through my teeth. the fucker rolled his eyes at me and ambled over. I contemplated the multiple ways I could end him while he made his way slowly to us like I was the one being an imposition. Like I was the one showing up unannounced to hang around people who didn't want me there!

-hello ladies, nice to meet you, Ronan here! if I could borrow Julie over here for a quick word thanks.

He walked away, the motherfucker walked off after his monologue! I was going to kill him, for sure I was going to kill him dead. I apologized and tried to set Kian down in the empty chair next to me, but as I suspected he wrapped himself around me, clinging to me with a tightly wrapped little fist around my collar, he drew in a breath in preparation for the tantrum I could see brewing already.

-I'm so sorry but can I just take him with me we'll be right outside by this very window, it won't be long, is that okay?

-You don't have to apologize, I really don't know what's with him today. He's never taken a liking to someone quite this fiercely before.

-It's fine, I think it's very much mutual. we'll be right outside, I just have to find out why Ronan crawled out of his cave, to grace me with his infuriating presence! I took Kian with me, striding to the widow without giving Ronan the option to argue with me. Speak, what do you want?

-Not me, speak! you speak, something happened. You were losing your grip on your humanity as of ten minutes ago then there was a sudden shift and I got here to find you in a sea of people with two tiny humans and an even tinier human stuck to you like a barnacle. is this what the end is going to be like for you? you're just going to go around collecting humans and attaching them to your person. If so would killing you also kill them?

-this is my mate you fuu...freaking i***t! and why wait ten minutes?

-I was right in the middle of killing a coven of rogue vampires, I got to you as soon as I could. Your mate is the larvae or one of the women back there?

-watch it! I snapped punching his shoulder, and the child is my mate, obviously!

-The Fates really are bitches, so not only did you have to wait thousands of years on literal painful pins and needles, but you find your mate only to wait again for however long it takes these creatures to reach adulthood.

-beats being dead.

-silver lining! I might have hated killing you. afterward! when I remembered you were the only friend I had.

-especially if you take into account that I'm the only friend you've had in five thousand years, so the odds of you dying friendless and alone were mighty strong.

-I'd be okay with that, you are more assle than you're worth! now I know what finding your mate feels like so I'll leave you to your rejoicing.

-wait! I said grabbing his arm, Kian growled, and I let go. what do you mean you know what it feels like now?

-Kareem is the only griffin with a mate, and he found her way before I was alive. This is the first time I experienced what it's like when one of us finds his mate.

-you can feel what I feel? I asked astounded

-not exactly but I have a sense of your general state of mind and drastic changes or big emotions, and where all of you are at any moment. Think less humany and more hellhound.

-can I do that too?

-no, your mother isn't a hellhound, mine is. that's where I got that from. you never wonder how I got to Styxx so fast when he turned and burned half of Atlantis forcing me to sink him and half of Atlantis in the bottom of the ocean?

-you never told me what happened and I sort of never asked I didn't want to jinx myself by asking. plus Styxx was an asshole with delusions of grandeur.

-well the i***t killed his own soulmate. you remember how he used to go on killing sprees from time to time burning human villages to the ground, but the council never did anything because quote" Humans are nothing but cattle"

-I remember. I mumbled tightening my arms around Kian, while goosebumps traveled down my back. if that were to ever happen to my precious Kian I didn't know what i would do.

-well, his mate was one of the cattle he decided to slaughter that day, and his mate fought long enough in that fire for their eyes to meet. Styxx realized his mistake and quickly descended into madness, he literally exploded into a blazing ball of fire, with the heat of the sun. I contained him as best as I could and sunk half the country in the ocean. that coupled with my powers lessened how armful his outburst could have been for the rest of humanity.

- you sound like you were there.

-I was, I would usually follow him when he was in one of his killing moods so I could save the most people I could. I didn't have the balls to stand up to him back then, since he was from a very affluent household, politics were worst then, and his father was the head of the supernatural council. that's why I no longer stan politics, I could have stopped the m******e of thousands of lives if I'd just said to hell with politics and grabbed that fucker by the skin of his neck and slammed him face first repeatedly against a hard surface.

-it's not your fault, it must have been hard for you to deal objectively with him since your parents were heavily involved with that family and you used to have a crush on him.

-I did not!

-did too! I laughed. You know you did crush on him hard, you're just embarrassed you had a crush on that dickshnozzle.

-fair. he acknowledged reluctantly. it's true that my taste in men historically is the worst, I faire a lot better with women.

-Humm! I let out vaguely. If that's all, I'm going to go back inside, Marrissa must be twitching to get her son back to her side and our food just got served.

- sure, I need to go back to Germany and make sure there aren't any stragglers I forgot in my hurry to get to you. he walked out of sight of the glass and teleported to Germany.

I went back inside and Marrissa let out a relieved breath, If she'd only known that as Kian was my mate, there was nothing I could do that could hurt him. nor did I have the inclination for that. I would never take him away from his only family, I would never do anything that caused him harm.

I stayed with them for the whole day, we went to the concert, dinner after and then back to their hotel. Not once did I try to put Kian down, his mother tried to take him a few times but I had to steel myself against recoiling from her grasp, thankfully Kian was loud enough in his displeasure of being taken from me for the both of us. I knew I would have to be stronger tomorrow and let him live his life but today, I just couldn't. He was probably picking up most of his reticence from me since there was a tangible connection between us after he bit me. but I'd just found him after almost four thousand years painfully alone and hurting. Griffins weren't like other supernatural where even in the absence of their soulmates they could live perfectly normal happy lives. Griffins survived until they could meet their soulmate or they were killed after they lost their grip on their sanity, always by another griffin because no other supernatural species was powerful enough. Kian was a balm to my aching soul and the knowledge that I had to let him grow into his own person was not going to make it easier for me to leave him alone for as long as it took. So I took the day to soak up the ease that came from existing in the same space my mate was in, hence I had memories to keep me company when I left him to his life. I made friends with Marissa, even exchanging numbers, I told her I lived in Pittsburgh, the same as them, and promised to call her the moment I was stateside. In truth I hadn't lived in the US for ten years, I was a paramedic in Canada for the last eight years, but I was sure finding a job in Pittsburgh was going to be feasible. Healthcare workers were a hot commodity in most of the world. I waited until Kian was asleep to leave, bidding a hushed goodbye to Marissa and Elody.