by Mary Martel
I hesitated before stepping into the dark space, After what I'd seen in the first room and the smell down here I did not want to walk willingly into a dark room just to stumble into what ever nasty thing that lie in wait for me. Blindly, I reached up, searching for a string to a light and felt nothing. I stepped further into the room with my right arm up-stretched high above my head. Finally, my fingers came into contact with what I was searching for. I pulled on the string and a light clicked on.
I frowned as I looked around the space. The walls in here weren't black but gray and, even though the smell still lingered in the air the further I walked into the room, I could tell it originated in the other room.
"Did you find your dead bodies?" Uncle Quint shouted from the other room.
Even though he couldn't see me, I shook my head.
Boxes upon boxes upon boxes lined the walls and covered almost every ounce of floor space. Thankfully, no dead bodies but the shit was a fire hazard to be sure. Most of the boxes were old and weathered with time.
"Well," Uncle Quint shouted. "Don't leave me hangin'. What the hell's in there and why in the fuck aren't you saying anything?"
"It's just boxes," I yelled back.
"What's in them?" Quinton shouted.
I rolled my eyes.
Like I'd had time to check out the insides of the boxes yet. What an asshole.
I didn't reply. If he wanted to know so badly, then he could look for himself.
Curious myself, I stepped up to the box closest to me and peeled open the top flaps. A puff of dust blew up in my face. I covered my mouth and nose with my hand as a coughing fit seized me.
"Ty?" Quinton shouted in concern. "What's happening?"
The sound of heavy footsteps pounded on the floor behind me, coming closer with each step. I ignored him and dug around in the box. There was nothing special inside, just a bunch of old photo albums filled with people probably long since dead.
I made it to the next box just as the pounding on the floor stopped right behind me. Uncle Quint was smart enough to not ask me what was in the box again and instead decided to look for himself, for which I appreciated.
We moved through the room in silence as we each took a look inside box after box. It was like a whole lifetime worth of shit had been stored away down here. I gave up after finding a bunch of dirty pans inside box five and shook my head.
"It's like a goddamn storage unit down here," I muttered disgustedly. "Who in their right mind holds onto dirty pans?"
"Is that what you found?" Quinton asked in an amused voice.
I ignored him and headed towards the door.
"Don't you even want to know what I found in my boxes?"
If it was anything like what I'd found then the answer was a big fat no.
"There are detailed journals in the ones I've looked through," Quinton said to my back.
Damn it. He'd gotten my attention with that one.
I turned to face him and asked, "What are they about?"
Uncle Quint smirked at me but thankfully told me what I wanted to know without hassling me beforehand. Mostly unheard of.
The smirk faded away from his face. "I've scanned a few pages in each one I've found so far. Some are lists for the store, but they aren't what you'd think. They're not about inventory. More, they're about the people who've walked in the front door. Descriptions, names, and every single item they purchased. She wrote in notes about them in the margins, what she thought about them, whether she liked them or not and what she thought they were gonna be doing with the items they bought."
That seemed weird to me and I wondered if there were detailed descriptions of my father and I in one of those journals.
Then a weirder thought came to me.
"But she was blind," I told Quint. "How did she know what everyone looked like when she was blind? I mean, I always knew she could see things better than most people but different than actually seeing them."
Quinton pursed his lips as he eyed me. "You have to ask that? It's magic, Ty. She was a witch and from what I sensed in the other room, an incredibly powerful one. There's really no telling what in the hell she was capable of. In some of the notes she's made on some of them, she wrote down-"
He snapped his mouth shut and looked around the room cautiously. He pulled out his cell phone and started to tap at the screen.
Uncle Quint: She wrote down when she thought someone came from a family who'd once held magic. We should leave all of this here and come back and look through it after the team has gone through the building and made sure it's not bugged. Then we should go through all of this.
Uncle Quint: The Council would kill to get their hands on this. Some of the names mentioned are female. You know what the Council would do with them if they thought there was even a hint of magic in their system. Breeding.
I swallowed thickly. He hadn't seen what I'd seen at the motel and I hadn't told him. I wasn't surprised he already knew what they were doing, though.
"They're all doing Annabell," I blurted out, not caring in the least if one of the pigs overheard me. “I saw..." I trailed off and winced. What I'd seen wasn't worth repeating. It had been Annabell acting like the whore I'd already known her to be but hadn't seen before with my own eyes.
Uncle Quint cocked an eyebrow. "They're all doing Annabell?" He repeated.
I nodded.
"The Council?" He asked, seeking clarification.
Again, I nodded.
He looked at me thoughtfully before asking in a quiet, hesitant voice, "You see that shit with your own eyes?"
There I went again, making him hesitate.
"Yeah," I told him honestly.
"Did it bug you?" He asked in that same voice.
I eyed him sharply. "What?" I asked. "Why would that bother me?"
I had bothered me. It made me feel a little bit dirty because I'd had my dick in her before and I was really wishing I could take it back and it sucked that I couldn't wipe the memories from my mind of her wet heat wrapped around me because they made me fucking sick to my stomach.
No way could I explain all of that to him. He was my Uncle, more like my brother, and sometimes my best friend. We talked about a lot of things and I knew I could tell him anything. But talking about sex had never been on the table before and I wasn't ready to place it on there. The only time I'd ever heard him brag about any kind of physical interaction with a female had been when he'd gotten to kiss Ariel first. Otherwise, he was discreet and I knew absolutely nothing about his past lovers. I did, however, know that when and how he had sex with Ariel wasn't something I wanted him to tell me about and it wasn't something I wanted to hear about from anyone unless it was something Ariel wanted to share with me. For her, I'd suck it up and listen to whatever it was she wanted to tell me. But I didn't want to hear about it from anyone else, that's for damn sure. If I talked to Uncle Quint about sex right now then I felt like I'd be opening the door for it to come back up later on down the road.
"Do you still have feelings for the bitch?" He asked me and I felt my chest squeeze tightly, painfully.
I should have expected this but I had not. Instead, I was left feeling blindsided.
"I would never hurt her," I ground out, knowing he'd understand I meant our girl and not the other one.
"Harboring feelings for this old bitch is going to hurt Ariel's feelings, Ty." Quint growled at me. "If you don't know that then maybe you don't know her at all. She might not always let it show but she feels deep about every fucking thing. Finding out you're still into this bitch will crush her. And then that will fuck her up even more because she's gonna feel like garbage for being upset you have feelings for some other chic when she's got feelings for six other guys besides you. You know she loves you, right?"
I had been getting angrier and angrier with each word that had come out of his stupid mouth to the point I was no longer angry but absolutely enraged. Then he'd said those five words.
You know she loves you, right?
That had taken the wind right out of my sails and I'd completely deflated, all of the angry energy draining out of me.
No, I didn't know she loved me and I was absolutely certain she hadn't told my Uncle she loved me, either.
However, what I was certain of was that she loved him without a fucking doubt.
"You know she loves you, right?" I shot back.
Quinton's mouth fell open in surprise and his eyes lit up.
"Did she tell you that?" he whispered hopefully.
Shit. That wasn't a voice I was used to hearing him use often. He wasn't a hopeful person, he was the type of person who knew he'd get what he wanted out life because he went out and made it happen on his own.
Ariel hadn't told me she loved him, she didn't need to. But, I wasn't going to tell him the details of the conversations Ariel and I shared, that wasn't a trust I'd betray, even to my Uncle.
"We should stop talking about this," I suggested. "What Ariel tells me or doesn't tell me isn't any of your business."
The light in his dark eyes faded. "So, she didn't tell you she loved me," he surmised.
"No," I sighed, knowing full well if I didn't tell him the truth then he'd never let up and drive me nuts. "But it's obvious. She feels deep for you and I really don't want to talk about it with you."
"That's bullshit, Ty." he shot back at me immediately after I stopped speaking. "We can't bottle things up and refuse to talk about them with each other when it comes to shit with her. It involves all of us and if we keep things secret then there's a chance it will all blow up in our faces. We've gotta be open and honest with each other. That's the only way a relationship like this is going to be successful."
I wanted to snap at him that he wouldn't know how a relationship like this worked successfully because he'd never been in one and it's not like he'd grown up in one, either. His dad had refused to settle down with just one woman and traded them up like most people trade up socks when they've gotten worn and holey. He didn't know anything about a healthy relationship.
"Listen," I started.
"No," Quint snapped at me. "You fucking listen to me, Nephew. You climbing in your own head and shutting yourself off from the rest of us isn't the way we do this. I know you were hurt your first go around with a female but Ariel isn't fucking Annabell and the guys are different this time around. It's not just three of you, it's all of us and we are all fucking in, all the way. You don't get to pull yourself away from the rest of us, not this fucking time. If you do then you run the risk of ruining this for the rest of us and I can't allow you to do that."
I studied him for a moment and took in his rigid posture and clenched fists. He looked ready to take a swing at me if I made one wrong move and I couldn't even blame him. I was acting like an asshole and I was doing everything he'd accused me of doing. Shutting them out was a defense mechanism I had every intention of using so I didn't get my heart ripped out of my chest again and shoved through a wood chipper. I wasn't sure if I'd have any of it left if I went through that again. The stupid organ had already been super glued back together once and I'd done a shoddy job at it. One wrong move too many and the whole thing might splinter apart and I'd be left bitter and broken.
"You got a problem with her loving more people than just you?" Quinton asked incredulously.
I shook my head. I really didn't have a problem with her loving more than one person. In fact, I wanted her to love them. It meant she'd have a harder time ever leaving us if she loved all of us. I just didn't want to have to talk about it with the rest of them.
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. "I'm not talking about this," I told him harshly.
Quinton took a step towards me and raised a fist. He jammed his fist in my direction and gritted out, "The fuck we aren't talking about this. What the hell's the matter with you? You're going to fuck this up for the rest of us and I'll not allow it. First, you take her to the motel with you to see that fucking bitch. Then, if that's not bad enough, you're keeping secrets from me and now you've bought an entire fucking building. You're out-"
I leaned forward at the waist and clenched my own fists. Enough was enough.
"First of all, I bought this building with my own fucking money," I snarled at him. "I do not have to ask you for permission before spending my own goddamn money. How dare you imply that I need to ask you for permission. How dare you act like my fucking father when you are anything but, Uncle."
He flinched and I knew I'd struck a painful blow.
I didn't care and kept going anyway.
"You and I are family and I will love you like a brother until the day I fucking die and I love you even more because you've been my guardian since the day my parents died, and you and I both know I'm not just talking about legally. I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I'm an adult now, Uncle Quint, you're going to have to let me make my own mistakes and you're going to have to let me be man enough to fix them. I know I made a mistake getting involved with Annabell the first time around. I know it's my fault the others got sucked into her dark web of bullshit and lies. I fucking know it's all my fault." He opened his mouth to speak but I unclenched my fist and raised my hand, shoving my palm towards his face in a silent gesture that screamed shut the fuck up.
"It is my fault and nothing you say is gonna make me change my mind on that. She came at me when I was weak and vulnerable and I opened the door for her to waltz right in and do her worst with our family. I was trying to make it right by handling her on my own so that none of the rest of you had to deal with her and my shit again. And, I was trying to save you. She's doing the Council, Uncle Quint. All of them. They want to breed her and are working really hard at knocking her up. If I had allowed you and Jules to get involved you would have probably hurt her. If you hurt the Council's new piece of ass there was no telling how they'd retaliate. And you damn well know that. If-"
He interjected, "If she'd threatened my family then, yeah, I would have hurt her. No questions asked, I would have gotten rid of her permanently this time."
I sighed in relief, glad to hear him admit what I'd known all along.
"I took care of her permanently without physically harming her... much." I told him something he already knew.
"I know, Ty," he said tiredly. "But you still took Ariel with you and you put her at risk. Now, you're pulling away and acting out. I don't know what to make of it. My first instinct is always to fight with you and force you to tell me what I want to know."
He ran his hands over the top of his head in a show of nervous aggression and I knew his urge to hit me had finally left him and it'd left him frustrated instead of angry.
"I didn't take her with me because I wanted to," I admitted. "She forced herself on me and I knew if I'd have turned her down then it would have killed whatever affection she's got growing for me. I have to be careful with her because it's like every time we take a step forwards in our relationship something happens and she takes two giant steps back. And, besides, I wanted her to know that I don't feel anything more than hatred and disgust for Annabell, so she came with me. I made sure she was never in any real danger and I would have protected her with my fucking life if it had come down to it."
"I believe you," Quinton said instantly, shocking the shit out of me. "And I trust you with her."
My lips parted in surprise and I stared at him.
"What you need to figure out how to do, Nephew, is learn how to trust the rest of us with, not only her, but you as well. If you'd shared what was going on with me, I would have trusted you to take care of it on your own and if you couldn't and things got away from you, I would have been there to have your back when you were ready for me to have it. All of us would have given that to you. What I don't understand is why you'd want to take the whole burden of it on your own shoulders and keep it from the rest of us."
"I told you," I grumbled. "It's my fault she was in our lives in the first place. I was trying to protect the rest of you from any mo
re bullshit she might cause and I was trying to make sure none of the rest of you got hurt by her again."
"But, Ty," Quinton said quietly. "Who was making sure you didn't get hurt by her again? Who was looking out for you?"
The backs of my eyes stung as I blinked rapidly, making sure I didn't shed any tears in front of him.
I got his message loud and clear. He was so upset because he was worried about me and was pissed I hadn't given him the chance to take care of me and have my back. It would have hurt him to see me get chewed up and spit back out by that bitch again.
I didn't answer him verbally but instead moved forward and into him. My shoulder hit his as I lifted my other arm up behind him. I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled his forehead into mine.
"Love you, Uncle Quint," I muttered before giving his neck a squeeze and letting him go.
I cleared my throat as I stepped back and, avoiding eye contact with him, looked around the room.
"We should get out of here and do that thing we were talking about," I muttered thickly.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather we burned the place down?" He asked quietly.
I sighed, knowing him letting it go was his way of letting me know we were okay.
As soon as we were out of the building he made the call to the security place he'd mentioned. We waited outside for them to show up half an hour later. They combed through the entire building and found absolutely nothing. No bugs, no cameras, nada. We were in the clear and he didn't even joke about burning the building down again.
We might have been better off if we had, though.
Chapter Eleven
You’ve got really big balls, kid
"What's the meaning of this?" Rain growled in a voice full of gravel as he looked down his nose at me. "You think you can just phone me up and demand I meet you somewhere?"
I winced.
Shit.
Ariel's dad really did not like me. I wanted to not care but it still hurt me just a little bit. The man standing in front of me meant the world to my girl and I didn't want him to hate me. Normally, I wouldn't give a fuck, but since Ariel meant the whole world to me and he meant that to her, I really wanted him to like me. Hell, I'd even settle for him just not hating me. That was better than nothing.