by Mary Martel
"Umm," I mumbled. "I forgot to mention that I texted Damien before I got hurt. I told him that there was a scary monster trying to eat me in the woods, and that I needed immediate back up."
I knew my cheeks were red as I lowered my eyes and looked down to the floor. I couldn't remember what exactly it was that I had texted Damien, and kept coming up with a blank every time I tried. But I was sure I wasn't too far off the mark, because it had felt like there was a scary monster in the woods that had wanted to eat me.
"You probably scared the shit out of him, girl." Tyson said.
Again, he and I were on the same page.
Dash leaned to the side and turned the faucet on. He held an orange washcloth under the spray for a couple of seconds before pulling it out again and shutting off the water. He wrung out the cloth before turning back to me.
"What happened?" Damien asked breathlessly as he rushed into the room.
Julian was right behind him. He had his big black bag of tricks clutched tightly in his hands.
"What's wrong with her?" Julian asked into the silent room.
Dash turned into me and put his free hand on my shoulder. He pushed on my shoulder, pushing forward until I was slightly bent over. His hand moved from my shoulder to the back of my neck where he started to push my hair aside. I sucked in a sharp breath as he touched a spot on my head. It hurt, but wasn't something that would kill me. I would live, and it didn't feel big enough or deep enough that I would need stitches. I'd had worse. Much, much worse.
Looking back on it now, I couldn't believe that a little bump on the head had made me pass out like that. Vivian was probably looking up at me from her throne in hell and laughing her ass off.
My hair was pushed in front of my face and the lovely view of my legging covered knees vanished behind the messy strands.
I talked through the hair. "We went out to investigate something," slight exaggeration, but they didn't need to know that. Also, it must be important to note, not out loud of course, but my first mission with Tyson had ended in a disaster and with me bleeding. If that was the way our partnership was going to go, then we were both screwed six ways from Sunday. "Then someone showed up at the house, and we didn't know it was Dash, so Tyson went to investigate that on his own and left me alone in the woods." Okay, so maybe I was going to exaggerate everything slightly. At least this way it would look like it was all Tyson's bad and not mine. "And, well, there was some rustling in the woods." Gods, this was painful and made me sound like the big wimp that I was. "And, umm... I got a little scared, so I texted Ty, and when he didn't respond, I had to text someone else, so I sent that message to Damien and well... I might have fallen and cracked my head on a brick, and now we are here."
Okay, so I'd skipped exaggerating at the end there, and decided to leave most of the facts out. They could guess, because I wasn't about to share any more facts that made me look like a wimpy girl.
"Who the hell is this?" Damien asked, and his voice got closer with every word.
Dash pressed the washcloth against my scalp and gently started cleaning up the blood. It stung, but I tried to blank it from my mind and push the pain to the back part of my brain, instead of the front where it threatened to make me cry and probably make a whole lot of unattractive noises.
A hand that didn't belong to Dash touched my shoulder hesitantly, and I knew who it was immediately. It was Damien. We weren't to a place yet where we were comfortable with touching each other, and we didn't know how far the other one would be comfortable with going, there'd been no line drawn to cross, yet. I reached up and placed my hand over his, holding it to me. I heard his sigh before I felt him move closer to me. His body moved into my legs and he touched me with more than his hand. I guessed Damien was a lot more comfortable touching me than I had thought he was.
"Well?" He asked in dark voice. "Who are you?"
"How do you not know who he is?" Tyson asked. "He looks just like he did in the photos."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Damien shot back in a haughty voice. "I've never seen him in any pictures, and I obviously have no idea who he is because I've asked twice, so I would appreciate it if you'd answer the question and stop giving me a hard time."
I didn't think Tyson was giving Damien a hard time. He'd asked the same question of Dash when he'd had no idea who Rain was, too. I hadn't realized Damien hadn't looked through the box of stuff I had from Vivian.
"Are you blind?" Julian asked. "All you have to do is look at him to know who he is. She looks just like him, only pretty."
The front door banged against the wall again and footsteps thundered through the house as more people raced towards the kitchen.
I sighed loud and heavily.
We were only missing Quinton and the Salt and Pepper twins, and there was more than one set of footsteps coming down the hallway, so I figured it was all three of them. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with Quinton, not when I still thought he might have lied to me. Not even just me, but all of us.
"Of course I'm not blind," Damien said in that haughty voice. "You're standing right there looking at me while I'm looking right at him. Just tell me who he is already."
I sighed again, and Damien's hand slid out from under my hand and curved around to my back. He started rubbing smooth, slow circles into my back. I wasn't sure who he was trying to comfort more, me or him. I appreciated the gesture, though. He probably even knew why I'd sighed so loudly. We all knew what was coming. He just didn't know why I was wound so tight about it.
"What the fuck is this?" Quinton rumbled out as his energy burst into the room. "Rain? What are you doing here?"
That did it. He sounded like the odd man in the room was familiar to him, like he had a right to ask him a question, and since they were friends or whatever the hell it was they had going on, he thought Rain would simply answer his question.
I pushed Dash's hand away from my head as I sat up straight. I flung my hair back behind my head and was happily surprised when I didn't feel woozy and there were no spots in my vision. Score one point for Ariel and not blacking out and falling down and injuring myself again, this time in front of Quinton.
Quinton had stopped just inside the doorway. He crossed his arms over his chest as his eyes roamed over the room, taking everything in.
Abel and Addison stopped behind him, standing slightly in the hallway. They didn't rush in and to my side, and that surprised me.
"Why do you sound like you know him?" Addison asked in a suspicious voice, and I relaxed against Dash and Damien who still had me in between them. The twins hadn't pushed Quinton to the side and come in because they weren't sure how they felt about him just yet, and didn't like what he'd said when he'd walked in ahead of them. They were being cautious, and I couldn't blame them.
"I met Rain the other night," Quinton said casually as he moved further into the room.
My mouth wasn't the only one that dropped open at his announcement.
"You what?" I asked in a hushed whisper.
I was going to kill him. He knew how desperately I had been searching for Rain, and what it was costing me. Which, now that I thought of it, explained why I had passed out when I'd started bleeding, and why I was still getting the spotty vision. I needed to stop losing blood for a little while, or I was going to end up in the hospital or something equally as horrifying.
Quinton frowned at me, and I didn't think he'd liked the tone of my voice.
"You're mad," he said quietly. "And at me. Why are you mad at me?"
He had to be kidding me.
"Why?" I asked quietly. My voice wasn't quite the whisper it had been at first, but it wasn't loud, either. I shook my head sharply, and my hair flew around my face. "When did you meet him, Quinton? If it was the other day, like you say, then it happened before our phone conversation this morning. A conversation, I might add, where you seemed to have forgotten to tell me that you met up with my long lost biological father. You know, the one I've been cutti
ng my arms all up and bleeding into a bowl trying to find? And you know, you damn well know, Quinton, that I have been becoming more miserable by the day. And you met him days ago and didn't think to tell me when you talked to me? Better question, why didn't you," I leaned forward and jabbed a finger angrily in his direction, "fucking call me as soon as you met him?" I ended on an angry hiss, and I was proud of myself because I didn't once raise my voice, and the lights didn't even flicker.
"She just swore, twice." Abel said in a happy voice as he moved further into the room. "I love it when she starts getting feisty."
"I heard, twin." Addison said, and he moved up to stand beside his brother. He didn't sound happy in the slightest, and his eyes never once left Rain as he talked and moved.
Addison was my Salt twin because his hair was so blonde it bordered on being white, and often times he was more serious than his brother could be. They seemed to only have three moods. Playful, happy and serious. Serious was never fun when they brought it out. I preferred them to be playful and happy.
They were very weird and sort of fed off of each other’s energy. And they did everything together. They were seventeen and lived with Quinton and Tyson because both their parents had died in a horrible plane crash that had gone down over an ocean. One of them had died when the plane went down, and the other one had survived only to then be eaten alive by sharks. Abel had a serious phobia of water because of it, and he had constant nightmares that I didn't think were only about his dead parents. He was also afraid of the dark, and I had at first thought that might have been the reason they shared a bedroom together. Addison was very overprotective when it came to his twin, and he would never leave him alone, especially when he was afraid. I knew differently now. They shared everything with each other and never wanted to be far from their other half. They'd even told me a couple times that eventually they would share me. It still made me blush when they talked like that, and I didn't think I'd ever stop, but I wasn't bothered by it anymore. Being between them didn't bother me anymore, instead, it felt natural, normal even, and how it was just supposed to be with them.
They were my Salt and Pepper twins, and I couldn't have one without the other. It just seemed wrong.
"Met him in my dreams, Ariel," Quinton said into the quiet room. "I told him where he could find you. I was going to tell you all about it, but I didn't want to do it over the phone, and I hadn't expected him to just show up here out of the blue. I thought I had more time to tell you. I'm so sorry it came out like this."
"Did he just apologize?" Abel stage whispered. "Why doesn't he ever apologize to me when he's in the wrong?"
No one laughed, but I appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood. It looked like I was the only one.
"You should have told me right away," I told Quinton.
I sighed and leaned against Dash's side. Damien made an unhappy sound and followed behind me, leaning into my knees and my side. My eyes widened in surprise, but I didn't say anything. If he wanted to get nice and snuggly close that was alright by me. I bit the inside of my lower lip painfully. I would not make this awkward for Damien and scare him off. I wouldn't do it. Nope. Not gonna open my mouth and say anything weird. Not this time.
"You're absolutely right," Quinton said in a subdued voice. He uncrossed his arms and ran one of his hands over the top of his short, dark hair. It was something he only did when he was either nervous or really frustrated about something. "All I can do is tell you how sorry I am, and hope like hell you forgive me."
Watching him nervously run his hand back and forth over the top of his head made me realize that I wasn't mad at him or upset any more. Frankly, I was relieved.
Quinton ignored the dirty looks the other guys gave him as he crossed the room towards me. The only one who didn't give him a dirty look happened to be Rain, and I wasn't surprised after he'd said earlier that he liked Quinton. I didn't think the others were really feeling the love towards Quint at the moment, and I couldn't say that I blamed them. If he'd said something about Rain sooner, this whole night might have been avoided. Then again, maybe not, you just never knew what the future held.
Quinton stopped in front of me and ordered, "Don't be mad at me anymore, Ariel."
I chafed at the tone of his voice and the order he'd given me. Part of it was having the freedom to finally argue and fight back with someone, the other part of it was me figuring out I really didn't like it when people told me what to do or how to feel. Quinton had a habit of doing both because he thought he knew what was best for me. But he didn't only save that part of himself for just me, but he dished it out liberally to all of the others as well. His bossing me around didn't exactly make me feel special.
"I'm not mad," I told him honestly, and it was the truth.
"Then what are you?" He asked quietly. Hid dark eyes bored into mine and it was almost as if he didn't notice the other people in the room and it was just the two of us having a private conversation; everything else ceased to exist for him. "You look like you're mad, and I can even understand why you'd be mad. But I know you, and if you say you're not, then I am going to believe you because we don't lie to each other. But, you don't look right; there's something wrong, I can tell. And it's not just you who doesn't look right. Dash and Damien are pressed up tight to you and hovering like there's some unseen threat in the room. I've yet to see anything threatening. So, I'm asking you, if you're not mad, then what are you?"
Now, that was a loaded question. What was I?
Hmm...
If I told him I was both relieved and terrified, I thought he'd take it the wrong way and lash out at someone. If that someone he lashed out at would have been me, then I might have actually told him the truth. When we were alone, and it was just the two of us, if he asked me again, I would tell him the whole truth and nothing but. I didn't want to say those two words in front of Rain, though, because I didn't want him to take it the wrong way. If I told Quinton that I was sort of terrified, then he would demand an explanation, and Rain was the reason I felt that way. If someone had said they were terrified because of me then I would have been completely miserable, and I would have gotten the heck out of here.
All out of options, I reached out and took hold of Quinton's hand. I pulled him towards me and he came without hesitation. I slid off of the counter and landed a whole lot less wobbly than I had before. I immediately moved into him and wrapped my arms around his middle. Quinton sucked in a sharp breath before he wrapped me up in his arms.
I hid my face in his chest and let my emotions get the better of me. I cried, but I did it silently.
No one called me a wimp or a girl for doing it, either. However, Quinton did get to see the top of my head when he hugged me, and he couldn't help but ask, "Why the fuck is your hair covered in blood? Do I even want to know? You know what? Maybe you shouldn't tell me, a man can only take so much bullshit from his woman in one day, and you still owe me for hanging up on me earlier."
Everyone else laughed quietly, but I didn't join in with them. Instead, I shivered, because I knew Quinton was going to make me pay for hanging up on him, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be complaining when he did.
"You never do that," he whispered in my ear for me alone to hear.
"Do what?" I whispered back.
"Touch me first," he said.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest, knowing he was right, and, judging by the approval in his voice, it was something I needed to work on doing more often. I shivered again, for an entirely different reason.
Chapter Twelve
I was seated at the head of the dining room table, which is where we'd moved our not so happy little party after I stopped crying in the kitchen. I sat with Quinton on my left and Rain on my right. Dash sat at the other end of the table with Julian to the right and Damien on the left. Tyson sat beside Quinton. Addison was between Rain and Julian, and Abel sat across the table from him, between Tyson and Damien. It had surprised me to see the twins separate the
mselves even if it was just the length of a table between them. This was a high emotions situation, and I had expected them to stick close to one another.
It felt weird sitting at the head of the table, and it wasn't a good kind of weird. Yes, I thought there could be good kinds of weird. I felt like I was taking up Quinton's place, and he'd only deferred it to me because he knew I'd want to be close to Rain, and Rain had sat down before any of us had.
From where I sat, I caught a glimpse of his hands in his lap where they'd been since he sat down at the table. His fingers were turning an angry shade of red from what I assumed was being clasped together too tightly. It was the only sign of emotion of any kind that I picked up from him. His face was blank, empty. The rest of his body looked relaxed sitting in the chair. His eyes were a lovely shade of green that matched mine when I looked in the mirror, but they were completely devoid of life. He was back to his version of the scary face. From the nervous looks some of the guys were shooting around the table at each other, I knew they didn't like Rain's scary empty face; it put them on edge, and I couldn't blame them. But, as for me? I was no longer afraid of Rain's empty look. It just made me sad, and I had to shove my hands underneath my thighs to stop myself from reaching out and placing my hand on top of his.
I had the strongest urge to comfort him, and it wasn’t something I was used to feeling.
Since we’d seated ourselves at the table mere moments ago, no one had spoken. Instead they were all eyeing Rain and sizing him up.
Binx was at the other end of the table. The little beast had eaten in the kitchen then wandered off. We’d found him out here laying on top of the dining room table, curled up in a little ball and fast asleep. Dash had his hand on the little furball, and was petting him, even though the cat seemed to be sleeping.
No one seemed to give a crap or bat an eye at the fact that the little guy was curled up on the table. I wondered if he'd been a small dog if they might have cared then. It wasn't important enough to ask, not when the entire room buzzed with tension, like it was just waiting for the wrong word to be spoken aloud before exploding.