“Ah, well, I can relate in a way,” He rubbed his chin slowly thinking to himself, before he opened his eyes and looked down the cobbled pathway we'd taken to get here. “My parents didn't exactly, acknowledge, my existence.”
I looked over at him sadly; I knew the feeling all too well and understood how annoying and cruel it was, and how much it hurt. I looked back down before I began to speak. “I’m sorry.” When he cut me off with his hand, I blinked a few times and looked back at him.
He looked at me with a blank look on his face, shrugging his shoulders for a moment. “I don’t like living in the past, or having someone feel sorry for me. It’s been a little too long to stop and wallow in self-pity over it, or receive it from others.”
I slid down slowly, sitting on the cold stone. I let my eyes shut as I started to think to myself for a long moment. "When dad died, mom didn’t give a damn and was too busy trying to be the popular girl she never was when she was in high school. She even goes to the extreme of acting as if we aren’t hers. Stupid damn woman, she could’ve sent us to our aunts, but no. If she had we never would’ve been in this situation, and now... Now." I opened my eyes, gazing off into the distance for a long moment as I thought to myself. “I won't ever see her again, will I?"
“I can’t say that I know.” Talon said aloud to me, and then it dawned on me that I had said the last part of my thoughts out loud. I looked over at him as he tapped his fingers on his leg slowly, before he looked back towards the house for a second.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud!” I told him, wanting to smack myself now. “I shouldn’t ask you things like that, I don’t even know you!”
He looked down at me with a bemused look on his face, before shrugging his shoulders. “Don’t worry, I think we’re going to know each other pretty soon enough, besides. You're stuck with me and Nixon, remember?”
“I suppose so…” I said looking down, it was said more to myself than it was to him. I didn't want to get to know him, or Nixon. I wanted to go home.
Talon glanced back once more, then stood up to his full towering height, before he tilted his head in the general direction of the household we'd just come from.
“We should head back in; sounds like they’re readying the kitchen now.”
I stood up slowly, following him into Nixon's house once more. I was somewhat prepared for whatever was about to happen. Well, I hoped I was, since I didn't really know what was going to happen.
Alani had managed to prepare a feast. She called everyone from the living room into the kitchen. The girls were seated next to one another, looking as childish as ever, giggling and talking in hushed voices.
Nixon was sitting between his father and a rather expressionless Talon. I got the seat between Alani and Raven and wanted to run away almost as soon as I sat down. He wouldn't stop looking at me and smirking. I couldn't handle it for too long, but I just took a deep breath and tried to pretend that he wasn't sitting next to me.
“So, what’s your name?” Alani asked suddenly, looking over at me with a smile on her face once more. “Rude of me not to ask earlier, forgive me for that.”
“Oh, it’s fine.” I smiled back at her, as I sat up a bit straighter. “My name’s Raine.”
“Raine, that’s a rather vampiric name.” Heath told me, with a strange look on his face as he eyed me.
I looked at him rather confused. I didn't understand what he meant by that, Alani rolled her eyes - an odd gesture from a mother of five - and spoke to him. “Heath, she’s not from this world; I'm not sure her family knew that.”
“What’s your brother like?” Pandora asked me. I looked over at her and blinked a few times, trying to figure out what to say to that.
“Oh, well, um he’s… uh, hard to describe.” I told her truthfully. Then I realized I hadn't even touched my food. There was a perfectly cooked steak, and I hadn't even tried it. “He’s usually very childish, unless he’s worried, then he gets overly mature and guard like.”
“Sounds like Nixon!” Bliss shouted happily, and then looked over at her brother.
Nixon looked at her, giving her a strange look before raising one of his eyebrows at her. “I am not childish, ever.”
“I call liar on that.” Raven called over to him, smirking as he did.
“What about your mom and dad!” Bliss asked eagerly. Obviously ignoring what Nixon had to say, in that way that little children tend to do.
“Well, my dad… he died when we were born, and my mom, she’s not around much.” I explained, wincing at how casual it sounded when I said it out loud. I regretted my words after they came out, and frowned slightly.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Alani said slowly, looking over at me sadly.
I shook my head at her, smiling as much as I could. “Don’t worry about it, Tom and I take care of each other.” I told her and faked a bit of cheeriness, as if it didn't matter.
It didn't change the awkwardness that now hung close in the air around us. Talon looked from me to the others, before frowning a bit. Nixon looked down at his plate as if it would tell him something he could do to help.
“How old are you?” Talon asked me, arching one of his eyebrows. I saw the expression in his eyes; he was trying to help me out and for that I was extremely grate full. I wanted to find a way to let him know...
I settled with looking at him thankfully, before I answered his question. “Eighteen, as of two days ago now.”
Pandora and Bliss looked happily at one another then to me. They were practically bouncing in their seats, and it frightened me a little. “What’s it like being an adult?” They asked at the same time. I just blinked a few times at them.
Laughing a little, I bit my lip and then thought about it. “Well, it really doesn’t seem any different than being a teenager, to be honest with you.” When their faces dropped I instantly felt bad, and added in a quick. “But maybe, it’ll be different for you guys.” Their faces lit up once more with happiness, and I felt relieved to have been able to do that.
“Single?” Raven asked me, looking down at me and waggling his eyebrows back and forth, before he gave me a look that made my skin burn as if a lighter was being held to it.
“Er, well, um…yes?” I answered him as I started to inch over towards their mother without realizing what it was I was doing.
“Come on now Raven, give the girl some space would you?” Nixon asked him, letting out a very audible sigh, frowning at him.
“What? Just because you’re a soldier doesn’t mean I am, and I’m certainly not restricted from things like you are.” He told him, smiling back at me before he winked his right eye in my direction. My eyes grew at least three times their normal size, and I tried to look away from him. “I can have a little fun can’t I?”
“You can, but when you screw her up and you’re on your death bed, don’t say I didn't warned you.”
“Boys…” Alani warned them in a tone that even made me feel like I'd done something wrong. I looked up at her, and then at the two of them for a second, she seriously had the scary mom thing down.
“Sorry mum…” Raven said instantly, looking down at his food.
“Sorry…” Nixon managed to whisper before he shoveled food into his mouth, and stared down as well.
“Raine was it? How are you adjusting to our world? I’ve met other humans from your world, when they tried to end our wars they were horribly shocked by our world.” Heath asked me just as I shoved food into my mouth. I looked up at him blinking my eyes a few times.
Swallowing the food, I managed to think of something to answer with. “Well, it is different.” I told him, then gestured to everyone around me, flushing a bit. “There’s really no such thing as, well you guys, where I’m from, or Lycanthropes, only humans…” I began to scratch at my arm absentmindedly as I kept thinking to myself, I sounded like a complete fool, but it was the best way I could think of to say it.
“That sounds awfully boring.” Heath told me, nodd
ing his head slowly.
I shook my head slowly, smiling a little. “Not really, I mean, as a race we all stand out in different ways, from horror writers, to romantics, the crazies to normal people… it’s not so boring, besides we build all kinds of things, I’d show you if I could.”
Heath gave me a look that was completely and totally amazed. “What sort of things do your people build?”
“Buildings, cars, iPods and computers, all kinds of things.”
“What are these cars, and computers? Ipods?” He asked me, it was like watching Harry Potter and listening to Mr.Weasley. I had to keep from laughing as I looked down. I licked my lips slowly, trying to thinking of a way to explain it.
Chapter 7
_______________________
Dinner basically went on like that for what seemed like forever. It was question after question. The only one who really refrained from talking was Talon, he only answered when asked something directly.
Raven spent the majority of dinner hitting on me, and keeping my face a constant crimson-red color. I was too shell shocked when he did it to do more than that, by the time I finished most of my food, the rest were all completely done.
I stood up when Alani did, and started helping her and the girls clean up after everyone. They protested and wanted me to sit down, but I felt rude doing that when I was welcomed into someone else's home. I wanted to help, to show some form of thanks, but Alani got a good looked at my arm after I carried a pile of dishes in and nearly shrieked.
“You need to get that properly cleaned up and stitched, a human heals slowly, and that’ll get infected.” She said to me giving me a stern look, there was so much authority in her voice I was intimidated. “It’s a pretty deep gash too, what on earth did you do?”
“Um, heh long story?” I told her, tapping at the wound a few times with one of my fingers as I remembered what I did a few days ago.
She gave me a long sad look, and then straightened up to her full height as quickly as she could. Turning her body she looked towards the living room and called for Nixon. “Nixon, come here for a moment.”
Nixon came right away, looking from his mother to me curiously. “Yeah?”
“Can you fix her up? I don’t know what she did, nor when, but it’s deep and I don’t want it getting infected.” Alani told him as she started to gesture towards my wounded arm, the frown she wore on her face only deepened.
“Yeah,” He moved over to me, looking at me with an extremely confused look on his face. “Come on Raine.”
I followed Nixon towards the bathroom; he was hard to keep up with when he moved as fast as he was. He was using his long legs to make quick strides, I wanted to grab him and yell when I tripped over a toy.
He turned around, waiting for me to come in. When I finally did he made me sit down on the bathtubs side, going through the cupboard quickly. Not long after he turned around with a kit in hand, and bent down to pull out a washrag.
He started dampening it in the sink before turning back to me and leaning down so he was at eye level with my arm. Carefully pressing it down onto the gash, I jerked back in reflex, hissing my pain under my breath.
“What happened to you? I didn’t notice that earlier.”
“I had a bandage on it earlier; though it was dirty. I did not want it to get in the wound… I kind of jumped in the middle of a shape shifter fight, killed a Tiger shape shifter, and saved another shifter."
"She was a panther; we left her back in the earth region with one of the other soldiers. The tiger tried to attack me but fell on the sword I had, and I didn’t even actually try to kill her, luck I guess…” I told him in one breath, sucking in another and shrugging my shoulders a bit. “It’s nothing really, she landed funny on me and bruised a couple ribs and did that. It's nothing major, I’ve actually had worse.”
“You could’ve got yourself killed you know.” He said, tilting his head and sighing. There was concern lingering in his words, as he continued to clean out my wound. “If not hurt worse than this.”
“But, I didn’t. That’s what matters!”
Nixon only shook his head at me, removing the washcloth slowly from my arm and turning around for a moment. I watched as he moved around quickly, before he turned back around with a thread and needle in hand. My eyes widened, and my heart rate sped up.
He laughed at me before he leaned in more, moving my arm into position for him to work easier, before he started to stitch the wound. I had to look away, I couldn't watch the needle going in and out of my skin, it was too disturbing to see.
“There, I’m finished.” Nixon said moving away from my arm and beginning to put everything he'd gotten out away. When he was done, he grabbed the wash cloth and stood up completely.
Looking down at my arm I examined his work, I was grateful for the stitches. But seriously, damn any doctor would love to be this good, and fast, at stitches. I'd pay to have a doctor that worked this fast more often.
“No problem, but tell me, why do I have the feeling you’re not going to be easy to take care of?”
I smiled at him, and turned around starting to walk out as I shook my head. I heard him following behind me, before he stopped and muttered something under his breath that sounded like "That really wasn't an answer." It made me grin from ear to ear, but I pretended that I hadn't heard him.
I waked back into their living room, smiling slowly to myself. Talon stood up at the sight of us, stretching slowly and yawning as he practically leapt over to us.
'“Thanks for the dinner Mrs. Lane, I think we should be getting Raine back. She’s probably exhausted after the long ride here, but we’ll stop by tomorrow. I’ll make sure of it.” He told her smiling, or at least he was trying to for her. It was more like a half smile half grimace, and the grimace was overpowering the smile. I shook my head, but walked over to Alani ignoring Talon.
“It really was nice to meet you and your family; you’re a really nice woman. So regardless of what those two say, I’ll be stopping over on my own if I have to.” I smiled at her as I spoke, trying to show my gratitude.
Alani smiled back at me brightly, she had dimples that popped out in the process. “You’re welcome here anytime dear, I’m sure the kids would enjoy it as well, though I’m sorry for Raven, truly I am.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I said to her while ignoring Raven. I said my goodbyes to the girls, then their father and lastly Raven by shaking his hand. He ended up taking my hand all too happily, and kissing the top of it. I wanted to jerk my hand away from him, but he didn't exactly give me a choice.
“Talon, stop by a bit more would you!” I heard Bliss say to him sharply, it was as if she could control him. I heard him chuckle, and found out that she was only ten, but the way she acted I wouldn't have guessed it. Pandora was thirteen and Raven twenty.
“Yeah, I’ll try when I have time.” Talon replied to her, sighing a bit. I could see in his eyes that he probably wasn't going to have the time to do much of anything, I felt sad for him and Nixon both.
“You don’t have much of a choice anymore; if Nixon and Raine want to come here you’re out numbered.” Pandora shouted at him, grinning from ear to ear. I smiled over at her and realized she was right, as long as I came around more, then he'd have to come around more. Everyone wins then.
“And of course, you find that amusing.” Talon rolled his eyes, looking from her to me. I found it amusing too, but I wasn't going to let him know that anytime soon, especially not now, with how tired I felt for once.
“Of course, you hate to socialize, and you have no choice when you’re here.”
“No one said I hate it.” He argued looking over at her, his eyes were slits as he spoke, but there was a grin on his face. “I'd just rather not do it when I don’t have to.”
“Yeah, you hate it.” Pandora giggled and walked off with Bliss in tow. I watched the two of them smiling to myself at how they were acting.
“Nixon, be good, I hope you do a good job wit
h this. You know you’re the one they want to send out with the chosen.” Alani told him smiling happily at her son, before she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. I was lost, the only one? I thought there'd have to be at least two sent out with us, but I didn't say anything.
“I know mom, don’t worry.” He told her, hugging her back before looking down at her. He looked more like her more than anyone right then. I watched them for a moment longer, before deciding to look elsewhere, letting them speak for a moment.
“I’m a mother; I have to worry, if I didn’t what would I do with my time?” She asked Nixon, smiling at him. She patted his shoulder, and then let her eyes move back to me and Talon.
Nixon smiled at her when she wasn't paying attention, leaned down and kissed her cheek before moving on to his dad and exchanging a few words with him. His father patted his back and then Nixon jogged over to us. Looking from me to Talon, before nodding his head.
Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) Page 10