“I don’t know — thousands? We were paid with them, but I never needed them, so I just shoved them away. Each time I’d find a new place to live, I’d go back for them. I have silver ones, too. Just like those in your hand. Why? Do you need some? You may have whatever you like.”
Enthrall stood there, watching Destroy offer him whatever of his fortune he may need. He was beginning to realize that he truly never took the time to know the male. He was generous. He was caring. He was also everything else Enthrall had ever thought he was, but he was good and had so many more dimensions than Enthrall ever guessed.
“No, thank you, Destroy. I have plenty. I appreciate your offer, though. It was very generous of you.”
Destroy smiled at Rowan, “Do you want some?” he asked, holding the handful of gold out to her.
“Me?! No! No, I don’t need your money. Thank you, but no. It wouldn’t be right,” she said.
Destroy’s face scrunched up in confusion, “Why not? I’ve offered it. You are welcome to it — welcome to all I have. It’s yours, here, take it,” he said, trying to hand it to her.
Rowan stepped backward, holding her hands behind her back, “No, really, please. Just keep your money for yourself. I really have no need of it.”
“But you might want something. This way, you can get whatever you please,” Destroy pushed.
Rowan realized that Destroy truly meant to take care of her, to make sure that she had all the money that she needed, anything she may ever want. But still, she didn’t want to take his money. She wasn’t his, and when she left and went back to her own life, it wouldn’t be right to have taken his money only to leave.
“I don’t want to take your money, Destroy,” she said again.
“But you must. You may need it,” he insisted.
“Tell you what, I’ll let you know if I need something. That way you can give me the money then. Is that okay?” she offered.
Immediately Destroy’s whole countenance relaxed. “Yes, that will be very good. You will tell me if you need?”
“I will,” Rowan promised.
He turned to Enthrall, his hands still full of gold, “May I enter your home to put these inside so that they will be easily accessible in the event you or Rowan need them?”
Enthrall smiled, having just seen the first true glimpse into Destroy that he’d ever seen. The first true glimpse into his character. He had wealth, a great deal of it, but it meant nothing to him, never had. He had no one to share it with. He was generous to a fault with his friends. He’d just never had friends so that anyone could become aware of it. And he was learning respect. He’d asked permission to reenter Enthrall’s home.
“Yes, Destroy. Please, make yourself at home as well. Feel free to come and go as you need while Rowan is here,” Enthrall said.
Destroy took one step, then stopped, meeting Enthrall’s eyes, “Really?”
Enthrall smiled, feeling as though he was watching an errant boy grow up before his eyes, “Yes, really. Now, I’ll be off to town. Do not leave Rowan alone. I’m sure the Windigo has not yet given up.”
“I’ll not let her out of my sight,” Destroy called over his shoulder just before he went into Enthrall’s home.
Enthrall waited until Destroy came back out on the porch and headed down the stairs to the yard where they stood, then he ghosted away, leaving Rowan in his care.
Rowan turned to Destroy, “May I see your wings, please?”
Destroy took a step back, “Why?” suspicion in his voice. He was not sure if she thought them ugly, or perhaps wanted to steal a feather from them, or try to tear them from him. He was very particular about his wings. He’d been there when Carnage’s wings had been ripped from his body. In fact, it was he who had fled the battle to go in search of Murder. The removal of Carnage’s wings still brought him nightmares.
Rowan flinched at the suspicion in his voice, “I just thought them beautiful and wanted to see them better. That’s all. I’m sorry if I offended you.”
Destroy watched her for a moment, reminding himself that this woman was his Rowan, she meant him no harm. “No, I am sorry. I’m very careful of my wings. I should not have thought you a threat to them.” He turned his back to her and slowly extended them for her to view.
Rowan gasped as they opened before her.
Destroy heard her gasp and peeked at her over his shoulder.
She met his eyes, “They are beautiful, Destroy.” She lifted her hand, “May I touch them?”
At her words, his wings flinched.
“Or not! Sorry,” she said hurriedly. “It’s just, they look like feathers, but the texture… I can’t decide if they are leathery or stone-like.”
He watched her for a moment then conceded, “You may touch them, but only for a moment.”
She didn’t meet his eyes, she was focused on his wings, “Thank you. I’ll be gentle.”
Rowan stepped forward, her hand held out toward him. His heart was pounding — he’d never allowed anyone to touch his wings, especially since he’d seen Carnage lose his. Then she ran her fingertips across the upper edge of his right wing. His breath caught.
“Is this okay?” she asked.
Destroy nodded, now afraid that she’d stop.
Rowan trailed her fingertips down the center of his wing, “They are exquisite, Destroy.”
“Thank you,” he choked out.
Rowan lifted her left hand and ran it down his left wing, at the same time again stroking his right wing with her other hand.
He almost choked on his own saliva, trying to maintain control, trying to stifle the moan beginning to build in his chest. He’d had no idea his wings would be so sensitive to the touch of his mate.
His muscles were straining, his wings shivering, his chest heaving. Rowan noticed and reluctantly took her hands from his wings. He flat out whined at the loss of her touch.
She misread his responses as being in distress at her touch, when in actuality, he was struggling to contain himself. He wanted her to never stop. He wanted her to allow him to hold her, and kiss her, and even wrap her in his wings as he held her. She was his deepest wish come true.
“Thank you for allowing me to touch them. They are so beautiful, Destroy.”
His voice was strained as he answered, “You are welcome, Rowan. And thank you.”
She watched fascinated as he folded them and tucked them away tightly against his back while at the same time drawing them up from the bottom to fit into that muscular hollow between his shoulder blades and the small of his back again. He walked over to the chair he’d tossed his teeshirt onto before he left and tugged it on over his head, being careful not to catch it on his horns.
He turned and was surprised to find her standing right behind him, watching him curiously.
“I’d never hurt your wings, Destroy,” she said softly.
Destroy took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “I know. I really do. I just have issues with my wings.”
“Why? Did someone try to harm your wings?” she asked.
He shook his head, “No. Not mine. But Carnage’s were damaged. I saw it, and I’ve had nightmares about it since.”
“I’m so sorry,” Rowan said sincerely. When Destroy offered no further explanation, she could wait no more, “Will you tell me?”
Destroy regarded her thoughtfully for a moment longer, then he said, “I will. But, it’s not a very nice story.”
“I want to know all your stories,” she answered, surprising herself that she really, honestly did.
They sat on the front steps of Enthrall’s home while Destroy told her the story of Carnage standing up for their people. Battling their Sovereign. When he got to the part about their Sovereign tearing Carnage’s wings off, Rowan was in tears, her hands pressed to her mouth.
“I tried to help him. I fought alongside him, but our Sovereign was very powerful. When he ordered his personal guard to attack Carnage, I knew I had to flee. I had to go for help. The few of us there
fighting alongside Carnage weren’t enough to defeat them all. So I left Carnage there and went to find Murder. I knew where he was on duty and felt sure I could get there and back in time to still make a difference in the battle. I knew Murder — another like us — and the males who followed him would ensure that Carnage and the rest of us survived.”
Rowan reached out and placed her hand on a clearly very upset Destroy’s knee. “It’s okay, it’s all over now. And obviously Carnage survived.”
Destroy smiled sadly, “No. It’s not okay. It’s over, but it’s not okay.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s never forgiven me. The other night when the Windigo came for you, we made a truce, and it’s the closest I’ve felt to him in centuries. But it’s still not right.”
“Why?” she asked simply.
Destroy looked at her, saw the tears in her eyes, felt the soft heart inside of her, weeping for what he and his friend had been through. He took her hand in his and finished his story, “Carnage was my commander when we served under our Sovereign. He’d trained me from the time I was a very young male, before my horns were even fully developed. I worshiped him. He was a good male, the best, had more integrity than any male I’ve ever known, still does. I wanted to be him.” He hung his head, looking through his legs to the grass below them as he finished, “Carnage saw me take flight, leaving him surrounded with only a very few fighting at his side. He thought I deserted him and howled out in rage at my leaving him. He’s never forgiven me.”
“But you didn’t leave him, you went for Murder, right?” she asked.
“Yes. But I still left the battle. I still left him alone.”
“He wasn’t alone, he had others fighting with him, didn’t he?” she pressed.
“Doesn’t matter. I left.”
“Yes, to go for help that you knew you all needed,” Rowan declared, outraged that no one would give him a chance to explain. “Did you tell him that?”
Destroy shook his head, “No. It doesn’t matter. He assumed I left his side out of fear. It hurt that he didn’t think any more of me than that, so I never bothered to explain. I came back with Murder and his males. Murder and Carnage defeated our Sovereign fighting back to back. The rest of us battled his guard until we’d all won. Then we went our own ways.”
Destroy huffed out a laugh, “Even with his total loss of respect for me, and my resentment of his thinking I’d desert him — I followed him. I was far enough back that he was unaware, but I followed his trail. A short time after he found this place, I wandered into it as well.”
“You should tell him,” Rowan said.
“He’s never asked, and I’ve never offered.” He shrugged his shoulders, “We’ve declared a truce; it’s more than we’ve had since then. It’s enough for now.”
“Why didn’t Murder tell him?” Rowan asked, reluctant to let it go.
“Murder is a different kind altogether. He intentionally stays apart from all the rest of us, always did. He only ever spent any time at all with Carnage because Carnage is like him, but even then it was minimal. I’m not completely sure that Murder even knows that there is a conflict between us that we just can’t quite overcome. I’m sure he knows that Carnage doesn’t trust me, thinks little of me. But he may think that we always had conflict, for all I know. It’s not like Carnage can tell him…”
“That’s a shame. I think you should tell him now that you have agreed to a truce. It may change everything,” Rowan urged.
Destroy shrugged his shoulders again, “Wouldn’t matter.”
Rowan wasn’t so sure, and she was determined to make sure that Carnage knew the truth of things before she left Whispers to see where the rest of her life took her. It was the least she could do for Destroy since he’d saved her.
Chapter 15
The sound of flesh against flesh, the grunts of pain as yet another fist connected, didn’t even draw the interest of any passerby as they hurried past the alleyway outside the smoke-filled, run-down bar in the poorest part of the city.
“You will tell us where she is, or you will die,” the man threatened in the exotic accent of the homeland Gheorghe Enescu often longed for.
“I don’t know,” he managed to get out between bloodied, broken lips and teeth.
“I have waited long for my revenge. It is well overdue. Tell me!” Alexandru snarled right before he landed another powerful punch to the old man’s face.
Gheorghe cried out and fell to his knees in spite of the two men holding him in place so that Alexandru could beat him more easily. “I do not know,” he sobbed. “She left us. She is gone.”
“Gone where?” Alexandru demanded, screaming and kicking at the old man now on his knees.
“Perhaps he really doesn’t know,” Vasile said to his brother.
“He knows!” Alexandru snapped at Vasile.
“I don’t. I don’t know. She was keeping house for a gentleman in town, Abraham Ashlar. He’s dead now, a horrible death. And our Rowan is missing. No trace of her at all,” Gheorghe confided, again sobbing.
Alexandru watched the poor excuse for a man, now broken, on his knees in the dirty alleyway. “If I find you’ve lied to me, I’ll be back for you.”
“Please, she’s our daughter. Mercy!” Gheorghe begged.
Alexandru looked down in disgust at the man on his knees begging for mercy. “There will be no mercy. She showed none to our sister. None to any of the others. She will suffer, just as they did. She will burn for her crimes.”
“She was just a little girl. She doesn’t even know how it happened,” Gheorghe explained.
“She knows! She is evil. Evil must be destroyed,” Alexandru shouted. He kicked out a booted foot, hitting Gheorghe in the head and knocking him unconscious.
Alexandru and Vasile hurried from the alley they’d accosted Gheorghe in. With them was another young man, Constantin, though he was not from their original kumpaniia.
“He may really not know,” Vasile said again as they left.
“He’d best pray we don’t find out otherwise. We will go after him and his wife,” Alexandru snapped.
A few moments later and Constantin said, rather reluctantly, “What if she really was just a little girl? What if she really doesn’t know what happened?”
Alexandru spun on him as they all came to a stop on the sidewalk, “She was a little girl,” he stood, his chest pressed against Constantin’s chest, his nose pressed against Constantin’s nose as he all but snarled, “an evil little bitch that slaughtered all the children and more than half the adults in our kumpaniia. All the children died, but Vasile and me. I promised my father on his death bed that I’d seek revenge — I’d get justice for my sister, our mother. For all of us. If it is the last thing I ever do, I’ll make her suffer. She’ll suffer long and hard before I have the satisfaction of watching the life slowly fade from her eyes as she burns alive.”
Alexandru’s attention seemed to wander for a second, a twisted smile crossing his face before he eventually came back to himself, his eyes gained clarity and he bellowed, “Do you understand?”
Eyes huge, lip quivering, Constantin answered, “Yes, Alexandru.”
“Be sure that you do!” Alexandru screamed.
“I do. I won’t forget,” Constantin rushed to assure the obviously unhinged man he had mistakenly aligned himself with.
“See that you don’t,” Alexandru said threateningly before turning and stalking away, expecting both the men to follow him without having to say that they should. As he turned the corner, he flicked his fingers at a group of trashcans, causing them to fly across the alley and land in a pile in front of the other two men. The Witch wasn’t the only one who had magic. He’d bargained away everything he had, all he would ever have, in exchange for his own powers. He’d need them when he faced her, and they were well worth the price he’d paid for them. They were as dark as hers. He continued around the corner and glanced back and with his peripheral vision, saw that both h
is brother and Constantin were shaken up by his little display of power, but that they hurried to catch up to him. A very good thing that they had — he was in no mood for cowardice this night.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
It was midday before Enthrall returned to Whispers. When he arrived, he found Destroy and Rowan gone from his home. Rowan had, however, left a note, “Destroy has taken me on a tour of Whispers. We shall not be long.”
Enthrall left the packages he’d brought for Rowan on the bed in the room she was sleeping in. He kept the smaller package with him and ghosted to Carolena’s house.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Lily shrieked with laughter as she again ran full speed at her Papa, hitting him as hard as she could in the thighs. He’d feign losing his balance, swinging his arms about wildly trying to maintain his footing, then fall to the deck with a thunderous crash, which would leave Lily shrieking again. She loved the game. They’d played it since she was able to crawl. When she stopped laughing, Carnage would sit up and say, “Oooo ‘it me? Leelee, eww ‘it me?”
“No!” she’d laugh, denying it was her, “I not hit you.”
Then Carnage would make a big deal out of searching the deck to see who had hit and tripped him.
This was what Enthrall heard as he materialized at the bell pull beneath their deck. A loud crash sounded above, he jerked his eyes up to the deck and almost ghosted up there, until he heard Lily’s peal of laughter. She must be playing with Carnage, he thought.
He reached over and pulled the rope attached to the bell mounted at the railing that circled the deck. The moment it rang he heard Lily, “Who, Papa? Who?” and he could hear her little feet on the deck as she jumped in excitement.
Not a minute later and Carnage peered at him over the railing. “Come,” Carnage called to him.
Enthrall ghosted to the deck. “What was that crashing noise?” he asked.
Carnage smirked and pointed to Lily.
“That was you?” he asked, surprised.
Destroy, Book 2, Whispers From the Bayou Page 12