by Cassie Black
Two dirty witches. It wasn't reassuring. And it made us even more determined to get out of there. By day six, we had all started fretting, mostly from sheer boredom, but I could see Liv was worrying about Hugo, and Jen about Julius. Even Maddie and Millie seemed less unconcerned about Cade and Atticus than they had before, but that might have been my imagination. It could have been my reading my own feelings in the movements and expressions of the others. Because I was starting to worry. Especially when Lucy informed us that they'd gone after the entire Arnold clan as well as Marcus. Three wolves and two vampires against four vampires. I wasn't sure about the odds, but they sounded a lot worse than three wolves and two vampires against one vampire. And we'd heard nothing from them since they'd left. Not a single call. Nothing.
Days seven and eight passed uneventfully. I was working on my novel, refining the stories as best I could, but the others were going flat out crazy with the tedium of basically nothing happening every day. I guess their lives had been so full of danger and drama recently, that this forced hiatus seemed empty and dull.
They returned on the ninth day, driving two cars, Atticus and Julius in one, and the Grantham boys in the other. Jenna spotted them first, and yelled to the rest of us that they were back. I watched their expressions carefully. Jen and Liv seemed pleased, Millie less so, and Maddie looked nervous and belligerent at the same time. I was unsure how I felt.
The witches let them drive straight up to the main house. Usually they had to wait at the gate, or in a cottage just inside the gate. This was also where they set up the meetings between the allegedly reconciling parties.
We stood just outside the front door, watching as they all climbed out. The vampires wore bloodied and torn clothes, and the wolves wore jeans and nothing else. They must have done their fighting as wolves, I thought. But the wounds they bore had transferred to their human forms. Hugo's eyes met Liv's, and she nodded, and turned to Lucy who led her away. She returned a couple of minutes later with a massive first aid kit, led the Grantham boys into the large kitchen, and she started cleaning and suturing the ugly gashes that adorned them. I watched in awe at how fast she worked. Maddie had morphed into a pretty competent assistant, and cleaned and dressed wounds that didn't require sutures. The wolves sat sprawled on chairs as the women worked. The vampires stood against a wall, bleeding quietly and watching the proceedings with concerned expressions.
I hung back as Liv stitched up a particularly deep laceration across the top of Leif's shoulder. His grey eyes were fixed on mine throughout, pain etched on his beautiful face. I wanted to go to him, and kiss away his pain, but it had been nine days. A lot can change in nine days. I was worried he might not want me anymore. The intensity of his unwavering gaze was reassuring, though, and when Liv had finally finished patching him up, he smiled at me, and beckoned me closer with the index finger of his right hand. I walked towards him cautiously, until I stood a couple of feet away from him. His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, and he pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his poor battered arms around me, and burying his face in my hair. Relief flooded through me then, and I tears started rolling down my cheeks as I realised how very much I liked this man, and how close I had come to losing him.
We sat like that for what felt like ages, not speaking, while Liv sutured a massive gash down Cade's back, and Maddie cleaned a few smaller cuts on his face. I watched as he looked up into her face, anxiety in his eyes, and she gave him a small, hesitant smile. His expression cleared then, and he took one of her hands in his, and kissed it, smiling back at her ruefully. She withdrew her hand from his, but in a gentle way, and continued cleaning his face.
Millie leaned against the kitchen counter, watching Liv and Maddie, and refusing to look at where Atticus stood. He watched her carefully for a few minutes, and when she continued to ignore him, he spoke in a low voice.
"Millie."
She looked up at him then, and something changed in her face when she saw the pleading in his eyes. She sighed deeply, and walked to where leaned against the wall, and stood looking at him for a moment, and then she stepped into his open arms and burst into tears. He stroked her hair as he held her, his eyes screwed tight shut with an overwhelming emotion.
Jen had gone to phone Annie to let her know that the vampires were back, and to find out how Sophie was doing. She'd left her daughter with Steph and Annie, knowing she'd be safe there, away from any danger. She hadn't been sure that Marcus wouldn't attack the witches' compound. I asked her why she hadn't stayed with them all, and she had explained that she was afraid that her smell would attract them to the Blake estate, and she would be putting her daughter in danger just by being with her. I saw the logic in that.
Jen returned, a radiant smile on her face that turned to concern when she saw Julius. He looked pale and tired, but his face lit up when she walked towards him, and he inhaled deeply and grinned in delight. He glanced towards Atticus, who flicked his eyebrows upwards, and smiled at his brother. Jen looked at both of them enquiringly, and Julius leaned over, pulled her against him, and whispered something in her ear. She blushed a fiery red, but she looked pleased. Julius held her tightly in one arm and pulled a cell phone from his pocket, dialled a number and spoke briefly into the phone.
"Andronicus is on his way," he announced to the rest of the room. "He's bringing his tattoo kit," he added meaningfully, looking at each of the Grantham boys in turn.
"Congratulations, Julius," Cade said with a wry grin. "Would he mind doing us a similar service?"
"I've already asked him, and he said he'd be delighted. He's bringing three extra needles."
"Three?" Liv looked up from her work as she cut the ends off the last suture in Cade's back, and frowned.
"Remember when I explained about your smell changing when that embryo implanted in your uterus?" Hugo chuckled, as she moved across to him, a fresh set of instruments in her gloved hands. "Well, little love, it's changed."
She stared at him briefly, and then she pulled a chair towards her, sat down, and started cleaning a laceration that extended across his chest and the upper part of his abdomen. Then she grabbed a fresh needle and suture material with the needle holder, and looked at him through her lashes, a half smile on her lips.
"This is going to hurt," she said.
"I know. I can take anything you want to give me."
She said nothing then, just gazed into his eyes steadily. Then she ducked her head and started pulling the skin edges together with small neat sutures. Ten minutes later she was done, and she leaned back and stretched, her hands in the small of her back.
"I don't think there's a policy against tattoos at the hospital."
"I checked. There isn't," Hugo told her. "Thank you, my little love."
Liv smiled at him. "Do the vampires need patching up?"
"Nope. They'll be good as new in about another eight hours. You'd just be wasting your time."
"Wait a sec," I interjected here, the penny having finally dropped. "You said three extra needles..."
"He did indeed, Cassie," Leif's voice rumbled somewhere near my ear.
"What does that mean?" I asked, suspecting that I knew exactly what it meant, but wanting to hear someone actually say it.
"That means that you are carrying my child, Cassie, and that under our Law you belong to me, absolutely and irrevocably. It means you will be getting a small tattoo that says 'Grantham' on the inner surface of your left wrist, and on your left thigh. And it means that I was right when I told you that I didn't think I'd be able to ever let you go."
He hugged me tightly as he said those words, and I felt my world shift and change as they sunk in. I looked around the room at the vampires and the wolves and the wild ones, my new family, my new beautiful man, my new and bizarre reality.
Oh, yes, I thought. I could definitely do a lot worse.
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