Chapter Twenty-Three
“Oh, my god! I can’t believe you’re alright,” Tanya said, throwing herself at me. I slid my arms around her back, careful to avoid her wings, and hugged her like I hadn’t hugged someone in years. I couldn’t believe how much I had missed her, and judging by the way she hugged me back, she felt the same way.
When she pulled away, I noticed there were silver tears in the corners of her turquoise eyes. She wiped them away with a trembling hand, and turned to Finn. “How dare you just run off to save her without telling us? Do you have any idea how furious the Council is with you? They don’t appreciate rogues that don’t take orders.”
Ezra nodded. “Yeah, man. We would have gone with you. Even Holly.”
Holly looked up from the bottle of blood that always seemed to be in her hands, and she shrugged. “They might have been able to talk me into it. Or I probably would have just stayed behind and been a lookout so you could all get away.” She looked at Finn and raised a perfectly elegant eyebrow. “I’m surprised you managed to sneak out. They really upped security after she was taken. You must have really wanted to save her to get passed them.”
“Finn knows what Andrew wants with her,” Tanya said, looking at Holly. “He knows how dangerous Ronnie is in Andrew’s hands, and he couldn’t let the world be destroyed. Plus, you and I both know this also had something to do with Diego. They had…unfinished business.”
Diego. Was that the old friend of his?
Finn cleared his throat. “I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do. Now, I’m going to get my shoulder looked at to make sure Ronnie didn’t scoop out half the muscle, and then I’m going to lie down before my meeting with the Council. If I’m gonna get my ass chewed out, I’d like to be rested enough to appreciate it.”
I watched him walk away, and noticed that his left arm hung by his side, not fully functional yet, and I briefly wondered if I might have caused permanent damage.
“Don’t worry,” Ezra said, startling me. “Finn will heal perfectly; he always does. It’s a gift werewolves have. They’re practically unstoppable unless they get shot or stabbed in the heart. Anything else and their adrenaline keeps them up and going until they can heal, and then they beat the crap out of you for hurting them.”
“How much trouble is he in?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it too much. Finn did what had to be done, and the Council will understand that. The only thing he’ll probably get reprimanded for is not taking care of Diego when he had the chance.”
“He had me to take care of. He never would have won a fight with another werewolf. Finn did the right thing by running instead of fighting, and the Council can’t yell at him for that.”
“The Council can do whatever it wants,” Ezra said. “That’s why they’re the Council. They’re some of the most powerful of our kind, and they were elected to head this area for that reason.”
“Wait, this area? Are there more Council’s like this one out there?”
Ezra and Tanya stared at me. “Um, yeah,” she said. “Of course there are. Why wouldn’t there be? Is the world governed by one person? Of course not. The supernatural community has one top Council, followed by several smaller ones that have power state by state. This state’s Council has no power in the next state over, and never will. That’s how our government works.”
I sighed. “Great. There’s even more stuff I still don’t know about the supernatural world. Awesome.”
Tanya gently patted me on the back. “Don’t worry about it, Ronnie. People that grow up on the outside of our world just need time to adjust to their surroundings. In time, you’ll come to understand our rules, and how things are done. Once everything calms down a little, Ezra and I can give you a crash course.”
“Thanks you guys,” I said. “I don’t suppose the two of you know when the Council’s going to meet and debrief me? I’d like to get something to eat first. It’s been a while. Plus, I haven’t showered or slept in a decent bed since before I was taken.”
“Why don’t you go back to your room and take a shower and I’ll bring you some food. Then you might have time for a nap before the meeting,” Tanya said.
She left to find some food, and I headed through the halls until I found my room. When I stepped foot inside, I was surprised to find all of my clothes strewn around the room in disarray. They were piled up on the bed and across the floor, and sitting on the pile at the foot of the bed was a small yellowish cat with white-tipped feet.
“Two Socks!”
He jumped immediately into my arms, and I held him as close as I could without squeezing the life from him. His slender frame was even thinner than usual, and I wondered if he’d stopped eating because he was worried about me, or if he was just unable to take care of himself now that I’d done it for him.
“I went back to your place and brought some of your things back,” Finn said from the doorway. “As I was leaving, this little rat dug its nails into my leg and wouldn’t let me go without him. I figured he missed you, so I brought him with me.”
Two Socks jumped back to the bed and, without thinking about it, I threw my arms around Finn’s waist and hugged him. His entire body tensed, but he didn’t back away from me or push me away. I felt kind of weird about hugging him, especially since I knew it probably annoyed him, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
Finn had known that I missed Two Socks, and he went and got him for me. It was just a cat and a pile of clothes, but to me it felt more special than that. After a second, he cleared his throat and I pulled away, aware that my entire face burned with embarrassment. I was surprised to see his cheeks were slightly red, and when I pulled away, he shuffled his feet nervously.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, looking away. Now that I had already embarrassed myself, I felt incredibly stupid for hugging Finn. All he did was bring me my cat, and I reacted like a raving lunatic by throwing myself at him and putting my arms around him. He probably thought I was nuts.
“It was nothing,” he mumbled, looking almost as embarrassed as I felt.
Without another word, he turned and left me alone in the room. I felt stupid, embarrassed, and just a little ashamed that I’d acted that way with Finn. Even though he saved me from horrible plans, he’d still been a jerk to me before then, and I wasn’t sure if his feelings toward me had changed at all. For all I knew, he could still really dislike me, and think that I was stupid.
I closed the door behind Finn, grabbed a towel from the dresser, and headed down to the communal bathroom to shower. The room was small, with only six shower stalls with curtains, and three cubicle bathroom stalls. The first two showers were occupied, and I turned on the hot water in the one farthest away from the door. I hadn’t showered in close to a week, and I couldn’t wait to wash the dirt and the grime off of me.
The hot water felt amazing as I stepped into the shower, and I let it roll off my back in waves, taking stress and dirt with it. I leaned against the wall and watched the dirt swirl around the drain before disappearing from view. I scrubbed my scalp clean, making sure to dig all the dirt away, and then I washed every last inch of my body until I was spotless.
I lingered in the hot water for a few more minutes, well after the other girls had left, and the rush of cold air I felt when I finally stepped out had bumps rising along my arms. Wrapped in a towel, I dried myself off before sliding into clean clothes for the first time in days. It felt so great to be clean, dry, and in new clothing that I almost did a dance in the middle of the girl’s shower room.
But my stomach began to growl ravenously at me, and I grabbed my dirty clothes and wet towel, and I walked back to my room. When the door closed behind me, I was unsurprised to see Tanya sitting on the edge of my bed with Two Socks in her lap. She stroked him from head to tail, and without looking at me, she nodded her head to the dresser in the corner. “The food is still warm and it’s all for you. Help yourself.”
I fell on the food like a rabid ani
mal, devouring it in moments. Tanya absently stroked Two Socks while she watched me with a look of awe on her face. Like all of the food at the Compound, it wasn’t particularly great, but after days of nothing to eat, it tasted like the most wonderful thing I’d ever had.
“Can you even taste it?”
“Of course, I’m just not savoring it. I’ll do that later. Right now getting food in my stomach is more important than enjoying it.”
“You’re gonna make yourself sick, Ronnie.” She was looking at me with a mixture of concern and shock. “Slow down or you’ll just throw it back up later. Then you’ll have to eat again.”
I didn’t slow down; I couldn’t. “I haven’t eaten in days, Tanya. Do you know what that’s like? It felt like my stomach was caving in on itself. My mouth was bone dry, and I couldn’t sleep because of some seriously intense stomach cramps. I felt like I was dying. I’m too happy to see food right not to slow down.”
She watched me eat in silence for a few more minutes. When I had finally polished off the entire tray of food, she handed me a bottle full of cold water, and I started to chug. I knew I probably should have slowed down and not rushed, but I couldn’t help myself. I’d had a bit to drink before my shower, and I’d kept it down, so I didn’t see a problem with chugging this. My stomach startled to growl again, and I silently prayed that Tanya wasn’t right, and that I wouldn’t be throwing it all back up an hour from now.
“The Council has scheduled a meeting for tonight. They want to debrief you. I’m sure they’re concerned about the effects Andrew’s presence might have had on you.”
“They think I went over to the dark side?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I guess it’s a possibility. We know what Andrew’s plans for you are, and we have to make sure those plans haven’t been started yet. And you’re the only person that can tell us what we need to know.”
I sighed. “Well, if the Council wants to meet with me tonight, I’m going to get a nap in before then. I feel like I haven’t slept in a week.”
“You probably haven’t. I’ll leave you alone then.” When she got to the door she paused. “I don’t suppose I could steal this precious little guy?” she asked, holding Two Socks closer. “He’s really adorable.” Two Socks jumped from her arms and landed nimbly on the bed beside me. “I guess that’s a no,” she said with a laugh. “Get some rest for now, and I’ll see you later.”
The second the door was closed, Two Socks climbed up to my pillow and curled into a ball. He rested his tail across my arm, and with him beside me, I fell asleep in no time.
Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1) Page 34