"Big, bad Hunter can't even take on my poor little pussy cat. How on earth do you survive out there?" I tease.
He shoves me gently and I laugh again as Bauer joins us. "Dad's not coming, he's working on something this morning, but asked us to bring him something back."
"Sounds good to me," I say, standing as my stomach growls.
"I call shotgun!" Colt shouts and bounds out of the house. I swear to all the fates, he has Peter Pan syndrome.
"I guess you're driving," I say to Bauer, since my car is still parked at home.
"Fine by me," he says with a grin. "Better than letting you drive."
"Hey! I am not a bad driver."
"Whatever you say!" he shakes his head as he chuckles and I follow him out of the door.
Breakfast was amazing as ever, and being around those three as they gossiped away about this and that felt so natural, so right. They were talking about a night from about a hundred years ago, and I laughed with them as they told the story, right before it popped into my head. It is still the strangest sensation, but with each memory that comes back, I feel more myself. More confident in the decision I made. And yet, my heart still hurts, even though it’s been broken before, and being around everyone makes me feel like I'm home, a part of me still misses Jack, and the chance of a normal life. Still misses dancing, and the pressures of my job.
Bauer dropped me off at home twenty minutes ago, and
I've been pottering around, trying to figure out what to do with myself. I have so much weird nervous energy.
My phone rings, startling me from my ponderings. I see Creeks face on my phone and smile.
"Hey, what's up? Miss me already?" I joke as I answer the phone.
"Hey, I was just deciding what to do for the day, and I wondered if you were up for a drive?" Creek’s gravelly voice filters through the phone, and I tamper down the wistful fluttering of my heart. Not only is it way too soon since everything with Jack, but Creek is my friend, always has been, and that's it as far as I can remember. The last thing I want to do is ruin that.
"Sounds fun! Can we take my mustang?" I plead. I miss driving her. The last time I did was when I picked them up from the airport.
"We could, except, where we're going might just kill her, so probably best to just take my truck." I can hear his smile in his words.
"Fineeeee!" I concede. "How long till you're here?" "Well, I mean, I'm kinda downstairs already." I laugh at his words.
"Of course, you are." I shake my head. "Give me two minutes and I'll be down."
I grab my jacket and pull on my chucks. My jeans and t- shirt should be good for wherever we're heading, so I pull my ridiculously long hair up into a messy ponytail and grab my keys, scratching Sushi behind the ears as I head out and down to where Creek is waiting.
Parked just outside of the main door, Creek’s huge truck idles, and I can see him grinning down at me. I pause, the truck is identical to Colt's and I flash back to the other week, when I was attacked by the Dracul. His face is all I can see, and I'm rooted to the spot.
"Remy, you okay?" Creek’s voice pulls me from the memory and I shake it off.
"Yeah I'm good." I walk to the truck, and pull myself up into the cab. "Just having a moment."
"You went pale as fuck." Concern laces his voice as his eyes look me over.
"I'm fine, really. So where are we going?" I ask, and he takes the hint to drop it.
"Well, that's a surprise. Don't want to ruin it."
"Of course not." I shake my head with a smile and buckle myself in. "Come on then, off on the adventure we go. We drive for what feels like an age, catching up on everything he's been up to since he left. The guilt he feels about ghosting me is obvious, so I try not to be too prickly about it, and just try to enjoy having my friend back and hearing about his globetrotting adventures. Training with Hunters on the other side of the world. "Wait, the Van Helsings exist?" I ask, because no freaking way.
"Yeah," he laughs. "The ones I met were absolute pricks. So far up their own ass, as if their name meant something other than the fact that one of them obviously slipped somewhere and let a human know the truth. Even if its spun as a myth."
"No freaking way." I sit back and reel. "Dude, they're like famous."
He laughs at me and shakes his head. "Maybe, but you'd hate them. So freaking arrogant, and really not all that great Hunters. Now, the Nagasaki family? Them, you'd love. True Samurai, and they still honor the codes of the old times. I learned a lot from them. Colt, though, he was wayyyy too Colt for them." He laughs and I join him, because I can only imagine.
"That doesn't surprise me at all."
Creek pulls off the road we've been on for a while and turns onto a dirt track. "Nearly there."
He looks over to me, and I can't read him, but it feels like I'm missing something. We sit in comfortable silence while we finish the drive, pulling up to a hidden lake. A house is off far in the distance, the whitework gleaming in today’s sun, but obviously run down and abandoned.
The birch trees circle the lake and lead a path up towards the house, and the whole place just feels peaceful.
"This place is beautiful," I sigh, and climb out of the truck.
"It really is," Creek says as he joins me at the front of the truck, the soft cool breeze wrapping around us.
"It feels so. it feels almost like home." I sigh, because
something about this place resonates deep inside me, and Creek smiles at me.
"Something like that. Come on, I need to do some work up at the house, but I brought a picnic for after, I figured you'd be up for helping, keep you busy, and you always were a sucker for being by the water."
"Sounds like fun. Is this place yours?" I ask as we start the trek up to the house, enjoying the sounds of the birds, and the ripples on the water.
"Kind of," he says with a shrug. "I know you said earlier you were feeling better, but how has it been? The memory dump I mean? Have you gotten much back?"
"I mean, I've got a lot of weird stuff back. Feelings and moments, but nothing monumentally life changing. I remember rituals, every bloody one of them, I remember training, and my love of the fight. I've had a few dreams, which I think are other memories, but not much about my actual lives. I've remembered a lot of Hunter lore, random as fuck information, but not much about who I was, if that makes sense?" I shrug.
"It does, it'll come, at least, that's what Ben thinks, and he's not usually wrong." He smiles down at me, towering above me now, and it’s still a little strange, him looking like this, so different, but still being the guy I've always known.
"You've spoken to him?"
"Yeah, he's been around, he usually stays for a bit after, even when the other elders return back to wherever they're stationed. He is always the guide for us, we've known him a long time."
"Oh," I say, unsure of what else to say.
"He thinks something is happening within the elders, something he's being kept out of," he tells me, and I sigh, not unlike what Colt was talking about.
"Yeah, Colt mentioned something about it."
"Well, just keep your guard up okay? Even with Ben, we might have known him a long time, but a lot can happen in between cycles." His smile is tight and doesn't reach his eyes. "Anyway, enough of that. I hope you're ready to get messy."
We stop at the back of the house, when he reaches up and plucks a key from the door frame and opens the door. "Mind your step."
I follow him in and gasp at the sight before me. The inside has been completely gutted, the brick work is exposed on one side of the room, and the other walls are all whitewashed. The majority of the downstairs has been opened up into one space, the kitchen to my right, and the rest stretching out around us. Something about the room just feels so familiar.
"You've been working pretty hard I see."
"I've not been home long, but I wanted to get a start on it. The vision for this place never really got realized, so I wanted it to be right. It's huge, so huge
, so I decided starting down here was a good idea. There’s still the sun room and the library separate down here, plus the utility. There’s stables outside that need patching up too, and that's before I even think about the next two floors, but I'm happy with what I've managed so far."
"Can I look around?" I ask wistfully.
"Sure. What’s mine is yours." He smiles at me and it warms me. "Just be careful where you stand."
I nod and take off to explore, leaving him to get started on whatever it was that he brought me here to help with. I'll help, but first, I want to look around.
I discover seven bedrooms, four baths and what looks like a games room over the next two floors. This place is huge. I make my way back to Creek and find him topless, paint roller in hand.
Holy freaking cow.
Like, I knew he'd got ripped, because, well, he's a hulk of a man now, but holy freaking ovary explosion. I clamp my lips together to keep the word vomit from spilling out, because nope. Can't start drooling over my life long best friend, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to ogle the fuck out of him while his back is to me. I might be his friend, but I'm not fucking blind.
"You want to come and help, Remy?" he asks without turning around, but I can hear the laughter in his voice. Shit. Stupid Hunter hearing.
"Yeah sure, just getting my bearings," I say with a blush. "Where do you want me?
He looks over at me with a heated stare, but I look away and take off my jacket. "There’s another roller on the counter. These walls need another coat of white before I start on the floors. White paint on grey carpet isn't the easiest to get out."
"Sure thing!" I say, almost too eagerly and go and grab the roller, before joining him again.
"Did you enjoy exploring?" he asks, looking me over again.
"This place is phenomenal, Creek. I'm almost jealous it’s not mine." He smiles at me, but disappointment clouds his eyes.
"Thanks. It'll be better once its finished." He shrugs and starts painting again. I pull my phone out of my pocket and press play on my music list, Wildwood Kin's "Steady My Heart" pours through and I smile before I start painting too.
The silence isn't uncomfortable, so I don't think. I just lose myself to physicality of the painting. It might not exactly be strenuous, and with my new Hunter strength, I don't tire, but its more than I've done in a long while.
We finish the room in almost no time, and I look around, trying to envision the place when its finished, when a memory hits me. I've been here before. With Creek. I see the room, not as it is now, but what it was. Before. In another time. He looks different, but I know its him. He looks so jaded, and yet, so at peace. The vision flickers before disappearing, and I come out of it to find him staring at me.
"We've been here before," I say, my voice barely more than a whisper, and he nods, still looking sad.
"It was so different. We were so different." I chase the memory, but nothing else comes. "I only saw us, in this room, in a different time. I don't know when, or why, but..."
"It’s strange when they hit you like that." He smiles softly and comes towards me. "But sometimes they show you exactly what you were missing." he stands so close to me, and it’s as if I can't breathe. My eyes meet his, and it’s like I'm stuck. Fixed in place, unable to move. His hand lifts, and brushes the hair fallen from my ponytail behind my ear, and his thumb strokes my cheek so softly. My breath hitches as I lean into him.
"Yo! Where you guys at?" Colt’s voice reaches us, breaking whatever spell we were under and I step back from Creek and try to steady my racing heart.
"We're just in here," Creek calls out, walking towards the sound of Colt’s voice.
Holy shit, what the hell was that?
"I figured I'd find you guys here. I brought something for Remy, I figured she shouldn't be without it all for much longer." Colt says as he enters the room, a black duffel slung over his shoulder, his gaze bouncing between us, trying to read the room. "It’s looking good in here, man."
He claps Creek on the shoulder and they do that weird bro hug thing they do, and I shake my head.
"What did you bring me?" I ask, once I feel back in control of myself.
"Well, I mean, I tried this once already, but you've done the ritual now, so we should be good to go." He shrugs with a carefree smile, letting go of whatever tension he felt in the room as he entered.
He eases the duffel onto the floor and kneels down to unzip it. He pulls out the box he showed me those weeks ago at Bauer’s, and I sigh, my heart skipping a beat at the sight of it.
"You brought my sword," I sigh and rush over to him. "Swords." He smiles. "And your guns. Dad had them all kept in the armory back home, but a Hunter shouldn't be far from her weapons once she's been awakened. It's like an itch at the back of your brain that you don't notice until it’s gone."
I look at him and realize he's right. There was a buzzing, dim enough to dismiss, but with my sword within touching distance, it’s silenced.
"Thank you, Colt. How, how did I get these?" I say as I drop to the floor and lift the boxes. I move them to the counters in the kitchen, eager to open them, yet hesitant.
"Well, the black hilted one, the obsidian blade, that was a gift from Creek here. Your old sword was shattered after a particularly gnarly fight with some pissed off Lycans. But the iridium one, the one in the box, I don't actually know. You didn't have it one life, then when I cycled back, you'd had two lives without either of us and you had it. You could ask Bauer, but I'm not sure that he knows either." He shrugs without a care. I open the box, and it’s as if the blade sings, like it's happy to be reunited with me, and I'm flooded with a sense of joy and peace as I lift it from its violet velvet setting and unsheathe it. The sword is perfectly balanced, the perfect length, as if it was made for me. The decorative hilt glints in the sun filled room. I twirl the blade cautiously, getting a feel for it, and I feel the stupidly big grin on my face.
Hello old friend.
I re-sheathe it, and place it back in its box, not wanting to get too carried away, but I know that this blade isn't going to leave my side for long from now on. The guys both watch me, grinning, like it’s my birthday and I'm surrounded by a pile of gifts. I try the other sword, the gift from Creek, and again, the metal sings as I slice the air with it. It's not as intricately decorated as the other, but the mark of the Hunter is etched into the top of the blade, just below the hilt.
I move to the smaller boxes and find two guns. Small, but perfectly sized for my hands. One black, one silver, both with symbols carved into them. I recognize the symbols from the alter at the chambers, but I'm still unsure of their meaning. "The black is for obsidian bullets, the silver for iridium. Keeps things simple, and the markings help keep your shots true. Not that you need the help," Colt says with a shrug, while Creek stands in the corner with his arms crossed, silently watching, his face unreadable.
"Thank you, Colt." I sigh and put the guns back in their boxes, before hugging him.
"No worries, little bit. They're yours, we've just been keeping them safe." He shrugs as I let him go. "You guys need any help here?" He asks, looking to Creek, who shakes his head.
"Nah, we were about done."
"Okay, cool. Want to head to the range? Give our girl a whooping before all of her skills come back? Let her play with her toys?" Colt asks, waggling his eyebrows, the piercing bounces making me laugh.
"Thanks, but we actually had plans," I tell him and stick out my tongue.
"Without me?" he says, staggering back, a hand on his chest. "You wound me!"
I laugh at his dramatics, and even Creek cracks a smile. "Sorry bro."
"It's all good, I get it. The dynamic duo are reunited." He pretends to wipe a tear from his eye, and I swipe him in the gut,
"Shut up dummy. You two have been off having the greatest bromance of all time for over a year."
"Yeah, yeah. Everyone wants a bit of me, I get it," Creek laughs, whatever was up with him seemingly forgotten.
"I missed this," I say, because this is exactly how it used to be, before they both up and left, making their choice to become Hunters. I can't begrudge it, because I wouldn't want them to be any different, if they had we wouldn't be here now, but no matter how much I try to let it go, it still stings a little. I try not to think about it, because if I do, I'll think about Jack too, and that's all just a whole well of hurt I don't want to dive into today, or any day soon.
"Aww," Colt says, wrapping one of his barbarically big arms around my neck. "I missed you too little bit, but I'll be on my way. Don't forget we're patrolling again tonight," he says to Creek.
"Looking forward to joining us at the weekend, Remy?" he asks me, and I gasp.
"I'm hunting at the weekend?" I say.
"Yeah, didn't Bauer say? You'll be going out with the two of us, giving Dad a night off. The old man is slowing down, just don't tell him that because he'll still take your head off your shoulders." The excitement bubbles up inside me. The restlessness I've been feeling finally getting the outlet I've been looking for.
"He didn't say a god damn word, but hell yes I'm excited." I grin at them both, Colt’s grin matches my own, but Creek just looks grim.
"Right, I'm off. I'll catch you later, man. Don't get up to too much trouble you guys," Colt says, grabbing the duffel and throwing it over to me. "Be careful where you keep that shit."
"I will. Stay safe," I tell him as he turns to leave.
"I always do." He winks at me before bumping fists with Creek and leaving.
"Well, hurricane Colt has officially left the building," I sigh.
"That he has. You hungry? Ready for that picnic?" Creek asks, with a small smile.
"I sure am, I just need to clean up."
"Use the bathroom on the next floor. The water is all still running, might be cold, but it’s there," he says to me. "I'll get this stuff put away and then we'll head back down to the truck."
A Crown of Blood and Bone: Paranormal Romance (The Shadow Walkers Saga Book 1) Page 12