by Mary Martel
Tyson's arms were crossed over his chest and Dash's arms were held down at his sides, his fists pressed in tight to his thighs and clenched tightly. Tyson looked condescending and Dash looked furious.
"That's her bio dad, man," Tyson said.
"How do you know that?" Dash angrily shot back.
"Didn't you look at the pictures?" Tyson asked, sounding incredulous, and I was right there with him. The guys had passed those pictures and letters around between them all. How had Dash not looked at a single one of them? And Rain looked just like he had in the pictures, only older and a whole lot less friendly. All the joy and happiness had been washed out of him, and what was left was something cold and dangerous.
Looking up at his cold, closed off face made me feel sorry for him, and I had the sudden urge to cry. Vivian and unfortunate circumstances had ruined this man’s life, and it was all, in part, due to me. If Rain had never had a child would he have lost the friendly look that had once graced his eyes? Maybe, anything was possible. But I doubted it.
I had no business blaming myself when Vivian The Imposter was entirely to blame, unless there was something I was missing. It was possible, but I didn't want to believe there had been anything at fault besides her. I wanted to love Rain and be loved by him so badly it was an ache in my chest that never went away.
"No, I didn't look at the pictures," Dash muttered in disgust. "I had no reason to. He wasn't in her life in any real way outside of the letters that lady left, so what reason did I have to read the letters or look at the pictures? I couldn't find one, so I didn't bother with it."
Honestly, I couldn't fault his reasoning, but I was far too nosey for my own good sometimes, and, if it were me, I would have looked simply because I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from not doing so. My curiosity wouldn't have allowed me to do anything else.
"That's-" Ty started to say something, but Dash cut him off.
"Doesn't matter," Dash said. "None of that matters. What does matter is-"
This time it was Rain who cut them off, and when he did, his voice was laced with an emotion I hadn't heard from him, and I didn't pick it up until after he'd finished speaking. It was impatience and anger. Two things he hadn't shown me, but had no problem throwing Tyson and Dash's way.
"You are correct," he said. "Not any of this bullshit matters. But, do you know what does matter, and it matters to me a whole lot? The fact both of you idiots are willing to stand around and play twenty questions while my girl here is bleeding from a head wound, and neither of you seems bothered by it or really seems to care. And, neither of you has so much as tried to take her away from me. What kind of males are you? Certainly not ones of worth. I will not be handing my daughter over to your care, and if you want to try and take her from me, you are both more than welcome to, but I can promise you right now it won't end well for either of you. I will die before I let anyone ever take her from me again."
The beautiful thing was I believed him.
I wasn't your typical, pretty, I'm gonna love you until the end of time because I'm your father speech. I was impressed by it. The silence that lingered thickly in the air around us didn't let me know anything about how the guys had taken it.
"Now," Rain said when no one else filled the silence, "let's get her inside so we can stop the bleeding from her head."
A reasonable request and I was glad someone had made it. I wanted my head to stop bleeding, as well.
The sound of an animal purring reached my ears and I glanced down at where it was coming from. Binx was rubbing his little black body lengthwise against Rain's ankles, back and forth, all the while purring. The cat seemed to take an immediate liking to Rain that was a whole lot similar to how he'd reacted to me right from the start.
"Crazy cat," Rain muttered under his breath, and I was right there with him.
"Crazy, stupid cat," I muttered back.
"Fine," Dash snapped unhappily. "You can bring her inside the house, but I want you to know that I don't trust you, and I really don't want you in my house right now. I'm also going to be watching every move you make."
Rain looked down at me and the corner of his lips twitched. "Does he always talk like he thinks he's a badass?" he asked me quietly.
"No," I told him honestly. "He's usually very sweet. But this isn't the first time I've been bleeding in front of him, and I think we are both still a little raw from last time. It leaves him a little grumpy. And I can’t blame him for being grumpy."
Dash and Tyson both grumbled too quietly for me to make out the words as they headed towards the cottage.
Rain followed behind them with me still in his arms. He'd gotten what he'd wanted, and he really hadn't even had to fight for it. I wished things worked out that way for me.
"I can walk, I think," I told him quietly, and it was probably even true. Somewhere along the way after we'd started talking to two of my guys, my head had stopped throbbing and was now only a slight pressure in the back of my head. Blood ran down the back of my head in a warm, wet trail that went down the back of my neck and slid down the back of my shirt. But I could stand on my own, and I could sure as hell make an attempt to walk on my own, too.
How embarrassing, the first time I met him, and I hit my head on something, blacked out, bled all over myself and had to have him carry me. He was going to think I was a serious wimp and unable to walk on my own.
"I'm sure you can," he said in a fierce voice, "but you're not going to."
And with that, he carried me in his arms like I was something precious, something made of glass, and he walked into Dash's cottage which is where I now considered my home to be. I'm not going to lie, I cried a little bit, but I made sure to do it silently. Rain didn't seem like the type of man who missed much, so I figured he saw me crying. Thankfully, he didn't ask what the tears were about, he just let me be, and I liked it about him.
Chapter Eleven
Rain set me down on the island with a butcher’s block on top in the kitchen. The lights were on, and the stupid cat had immediately moved to his food bowl, which he was now sitting in front of and crying like a baby because the bowl was empty. Dash ignored him. Tyson ignored him. Rain was all about me, with his arm around the back of my shoulders in a tight hold, which is what he'd been doing since he sat me down on top of the island.
My back was to the entrance of the kitchen, and I faced the sink and the window above it.
I looked down on Binx as he rubbed his little body all around his food dishes and something came to me. Binx had wanted outside so badly, why? Because of Rain? And Tyson had said he'd done the same things Dash had described to me that the cat had done the other night when he wanted to get to me in my room. Did that mean Binx had gone outside for Rain? Had it been Rain who had been messing with me in my dreams but couldn't get to me because of my dreamcatcher?
I didn't know the answers to these questions, and it really bothered me.
Without a doubt, I was a whole lot more bothered by the thought of the Council trying to get to me in my dreams than I was by the thought of Rain trying to interrupt my dreams.
I couldn't reach him in his own dreams, and it wasn't for a lack of trying, but he could reach me just like that? I didn't like it. I had felt his magic push against me in the back yard, I knew he was a force to be reckoned with. I had not felt the level of magic that Rain gave off of coming from any of my guys, not even Quinton, who was the coven leader.
I had felt Adrian use his magic once before, and he hadn't had the kind of juice that Rain gave off, either. I should have been worried about that, but I wasn't. It was naïve, and maybe even a little stupid, but I was going to let the others worry about Rain's magic and his intentions. I would probably end up with my heart broken into a million pieces, but I had come this far; I would not shy away and hide from the things I wanted now. I deserved to have hopes and dreams like normal teenagers, and I deserved to get the things I wanted every so often. And I wanted Rain in my life. If he hurt me, then I woul
d have to deal with it, but I wasn't going to play the what if game with him before the fact. And, maybe, just maybe, if he screwed me over and broke my heart, Uncle Quint would beat him up for me. It seemed like the sort of thing he would be totally cool with doing.
Dash opened a cupboard below and to the side of the sink. He got out a can of cat food, set it down on the counter and immediately pulled the tab on top, opening it up. The cat switched from rubbing himself against his empty food bowls to rubbing himself against Dash's ankles.
"Tyson should be back down any second with the first aid kit for Ariel," Dash said without bothering to turn around and look at either of us as he talked. His voice held the smallest hint of anger, and I tensed as I watched him put Binx's wet food in one of the dishes on the floor. He looked normal, relaxed even, but that tiny smidgen of anger in his voice had given it all away for him. He'd meant what he'd said before we came inside, and he really didn't want Rain to be in his house and standing in his kitchen with his arm around my shoulders. I wasn't exactly sure why Dash didn't like Rain. I had heard every word he'd said outside to the man, and I still didn't get it. It wasn't Rain's fault I had grown up with Vivian and gone through the things I'd gone through.
I didn't want to resent any of the guys for their dislike of Rain, but I was worried it would turn that way because I wanted things with him to work out so badly.
"I've got it," Tyson said as he walked back into the kitchen. He came into my view and held the first aid kit up proudly in his hands. "Found it in the bathroom upstairs. It was shoved in the way back and hidden behind a bunch of towels."
Rain's arm around my shoulders tightened and I heard the low, angry noise he made in the back of his throat. Rain was unhappy, and I only wished I knew why. There were so many different options to pick from.
"She doesn't need a damn first aid kit," Rain growled. "What she needs is a damn wet washcloth and then maybe a shower if she wants to get the blood out of her hair and off her body. What she doesn't need to be doing is sitting here waiting while you're," he waved his hand in Tyson's direction, "upstairs doing what the fuck ever. And you're," he waved his hand Dash's way, "feeding your fucking cat and acting like you don't have a care in the world."
My eyes widened, and I looked at Tyson in a semi panic because I didn't think he'd take kindly to Rain's words. I wasn't sure Dash would either, for that fact. I really didn't want there to be a fight in the kitchen while I was bleeding from my head wound. I had seen Ty and Julian fight before, and it hadn't been enjoyable for me. I'd also been tackled by Tyson before, it hadn't been meant to harm me, just to keep me where he wanted me and to get my attention. He was a very physical person, and if he got physical with Rain, I wasn't sure what I would do to make it stop, but I did know I didn't want to find out.
"Where's the other one?" Rain muttered. "Quinton? That one doesn't seem to pull his punches, and I highly doubt he'd be sitting around listening to you fuckers while you all play with yourselves when you should be taking care of my baby girl. That one wouldn't be putting up with this kind of bullshit. I like that one."
My head swiveled to the side slowly and I leaned back a little, away from Rain. A sudden blast of cold air blew through the kitchen and the hair on my body stood on end, even the hair on my head raised and started floating around my neck and shoulders. My body hummed with energy, electricity and I knew when Rain shivered that he'd felt it coming off of me where he was touching me.
"How do you know who Quinton is?" I whispered in a harsh voice. "How do you know?" Quinton claimed to have never met Rain before, and knew only as much as I did about him. Now, here was Rain saying things like he knew exactly who Quinton was, and, what's more, is that he said he actually liked him. Nobody really seemed to like Quinton as much as I did, and we still fought as often as we got along.
I scooted out from under Rain's arm and slid away from him and across the counter top until I reached the very edge. I slid off and landed with my boots on the floor with a hard thump. I stumbled and listed to the side. I was going to go down and I was too lightheaded to put my arms out in an attempt to break my fall. Instead, my arms wheeled out at my sides. I crashed into a hard, warm body as dark spots swam before my eyes.
Arms wrapped around me, and I was pulled into the warmth of someone's body. Someone who smelled like musk and something sweet.
"You need to sit back down," Dash murmured quietly.
He was close, so close, and I knew it was his strong arms that were wrapped around me, his warmth that was moving around my body, heating me up. It was his breath that gently caressed the side of my head as he lifted me up off of my feet. My feet were left dangling above the ground as he turned around with me held in his arms.
He took a couple of steps forward and my butt and the backs of my legs met with a different counter and different cabinets. One arm moved down my back, past my butt, only stopping when he wrapped his arm around my thighs. He pulled my thighs up as he put me down on the counter and pushed me back so I was sitting on top of it. He let go of my thighs and stepped back.
I blinked rapidly, trying to chase off the spots, Dash leaned over me. He raised his hand and pushed my hair back from my face, tucking it behind my ear. His thumb traced down the crest of my ear, rubbing up against my piercings.
"Stay right here," he commanded. "Don't you move from this place unless there is someone here with you to make sure that doesn't happen again. You're going to end up hurting yourself worse than you are already, and that, I will find unforgivable. You don't get to do that to me, to the rest of us. I've already gotten to watch you bleed in front of me, it's a nightmare I will never live past. Now I have this image to contend with it in my brain, you with the back of your head covered in blood. That image will never go away and, honestly, I don't want it to. I don't ever want to forget what it feels like to see you hurt, because it's going to always make me more vigilant, more careful, just more everything where you're concerned, and you need that from us. Now, you stay here while your head gets looked at and fixed up. I've texted Julian and he should be on his way, but I'm not sure because I haven't looked at my phone since I sent it to him. But, knowing Julian, he's already on his way."
He turned away from me to face the rest of the room, and pushed back against my knees without actually putting any of his weight on me. I didn't look at Rain, I didn't want to see his face. I was afraid it would bring my anger back and, with it, the freezing cold front that had come with it the first time. I was slightly embarrassed about it having happened once, I didn't want it to happen a second time. I needed to get a better handle on my emotions. Instead, I just gave it all away all of the time, and it had felt a lot like having a silent tantrum, and I couldn't have that. Besides, I felt betrayed, and I had just met him not half an hour ago. And, the bigger problem, I felt a horrible aching inside because I thought the betrayal was more on Quinton's side of things. Rain hadn't lied to me or kept things from me. Right now, it sure seemed like Quinton had done those things. So much for the honesty we were supposed to be valuing so much about our relationship.
"And you," Dash growled low and dark. "You're going to explain what you just said, and you are not going anywhere until you've explained it. Before tonight, none of us had ever seen you before outside of those photographs. We'd never spoken to you before, and, until Ariel had shared the letters and photos with the others, none of us had even known you'd existed. I mean, yeah, we knew she had a dad, we all do, but we had no idea who you were outside of the fact you were a witch like the rest of us because her mother hadn't been."
"Fake mother," I automatically shot out. I cringed every time she was referred to as my mother because it was an insult to the real one who I would never remember, and it hurt my heart to think about being robbed of getting to know her.
"Vivian was not her real mother," Rain snarled out at the same time I'd spoken.
This time it was a blast of heat that blew through the kitchen and had my hair floating around my head a
nd the tiny hairs on my arms and the back of my neck rising as little bumps covered my skin.
"Knock it off," Dash said in a low, threatening voice, and the parts of his body touching mine grew hotter and almost hurt to touch.
"Guys," I muttered.
"Both of you stop it," Tyson snapped.
I wanted to look at Tyson and nod my head in approval because we were on the same page here, and he was back in my good graces and back to being my partner in crime, whether he wanted to be or not.
"Tell us about how you know Quinton," I said in a small voice as I finally looked at Rain. I told myself I could do this without crying or breaking down or further embarrassing myself in front of him. But I was crying on the inside, because if Quinton had lied to me, it was going to hurt me like a mother, like nothing had ever hurt me before. He played the role of my protector so well that I sometimes forgot just how conniving and asshole-ish he could be when he needed to be in order to get what he wanted. I was so comfortable with Quinton, even when we were fighting, that I had forgotten how scary he was. Or, maybe forgot wasn't the correct way to explain it. Maybe it was more along the lines that I had grown comfortable with, and even fond of, the scary parts of him. But I was only able to feel that way because I had thought he'd never, not ever, do anything to hurt me. If he'd lied to me about Rain it would kill me, and I didn't think I would be able to ever get past it.
Rain looked at me, and there was absolutely nothing friendly about him in that look or his body language. His face was closed off, shut down, and his eyes had gone empty and dead. I had to admit, it was a scary look, and if it had been just the two of us in the room it might have even frightened me. I had never seen anything quite like it before, and wasn't sure I wanted to see it on anyone else's face again. His whole body practically vibrated with his rage.
The front door banged open with a crash, and I heard it hit the wall in the mud room. Footsteps thundered down the hall. There were more than one set of them, and they were headed our way.