He turned back around, his eyes bloodshot and his handsome face creased into fury. “Describe it to me.”
One look at him sent fear coursing through my veins. “I…it…was just a cliff top.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know!”
“Think, Caitlyn, think!”
I burst into tears. His booming voice and terrifying looks made me want to run away and hide. Mirabelle’s words echoed in my ears. You must not leave him behind. You’re meant to be.
“I don’t know…it was just a cliff top. There was nothing there. Nothing. Just hills one side and the sea the other.”
Marcus let out a shout of frustration. “I’m going to kill that good for nothing beast you call a friend.” He took his phone from his back pocket and started scrolling over the screen. “I told you not to trust him, didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you not to trust him?”
“Who are you talking about?” I said, trembling from head to foot.
“Luke, of course.”
My fear evaporated and I felt nothing but anger. How dare he drag Luke into this mess? “What the hell has Luke got to do with this?”
“He’s a werewolf, Caitlyn.”
Chapter Sixteen
Shellshocked wasn’t the word. Luke, a werewolf? No way. It wasn’t possible. Was it? It would explain the hatred the two had for each other. As Marcus blasted away down the phone at Luke, demanding to know where his mum was, all the little things started coming together. The wolf weathervane on the top of his stables, the big family, his insane strength, the size of him, the fact he never seemed to sleep.
I sat back against the headboard of my bed, dazed and confused. What a day this had been. I couldn’t even bring myself to say ‘Luke is a werewolf’ without it sounding foreign. It didn’t feel right. Why hadn’t he said anything before now?
Seconds later my apartment door flew open and Luke hurled himself down the hallway at Marcus. Before I could even blink, Luke had Marcus by the throat, pinned up against the wall.
“You want to say that to my face, blood sucker?” Luke said, all but growling.
Marcus grinned at him and stuck his face right in Luke’s. “Give me my mother back, mutt. I know you know where she is.”
I jumped off the bed and ran over to them. Luke’s knuckles were white, his entire body tensed, ready to fight. I could see all the muscles and tendons in his forearm, strained with fury. Marcus’ eyes gleamed with the promise of war.
“Stop it,” I said, putting my hand on Luke’s arm. “Please.”
Luke let out a shaky breath and after a couple of seconds, he released his grip on Marcus.
“Typical mutt, letting the woman take control. Always think with your di—”
“Marcus!” I yelled. “Enough.”
Marcus turned to look at me. He still looked rather frightening but somehow it didn’t bother me now. I knew Luke would flatten him if he turned on me.
“He knows where my mum is,” Marcus said. “His group of wild, uncivilised, dirty mongrels took my mum.”
Luke glanced at me, his brown eyes full of worry. “Cat—”
I held my hand up. “Oh we’ve got some talking to do but now is not the time.” I glared at Marcus. “How do you know Luke has anything to do with this?”
Marcus opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“Right,” I said. “This was just an opportunity to pick a fight with the closest wolf was it?”
He looked away, staring at the floor.
“For goodness sake.” I turned to Luke and said, “I’m so sorry. I had a dream about his mum and he’s taken it all out of proportion.”
“It’s ok,” he said, rubbing his hand up and down my arm. “Are you ok?”
I nodded. “It’s been a day of revelations to say the least. Did you know I’m a witch?”
His hand stilled and as guilt trickled into his eyes, I had my answer. “Were any of you planning on telling me? Or do I literally need to thank Gordon for that?”
“Gordon?” Luke said, turning his head to look at Marcus. “She better not mean the Gordon I think she does.”
Marcus didn’t say a word.
“What is the matter with you?” Luke yelled, balling his fists. “Are you trying to get her killed?”
I put my hands over my face and groaned. “Now what?” I asked, letting my hands drop. “What else do I need to cram into my overfilled brain?”
“Gordon is a hitman,” Luke said, staring at Marcus. He froze for a moment and then smacked himself in the head with the palm of his hand. “Of course.” He looked at me and said, “You remember that creepy old lady on the beach?”
I nodded.
“I bet you any money you like she has something to do with Gordon reappearing.”
I shook my head. “How do you figure that out?”
“Because I know exactly who that was and what she wanted.”
Feeling nothing but exasperated, I threw my arms up in the air. “Oh yay. You know what? I actually can’t deal with this right now. I’m going back to bed. If anyone wakes me up before I want to wake up, I’ll turn you into my personal slave. Oh, and this place…” I motioned around my apartment “…is Austria. If you want to fight like teenage boys, take it elsewhere.”
The two men looked at each and sighed.
“I’m going nowhere,” Marcus said, walking back to the bed.
Luke wandered over to the sofa and plonked himself down on it. “Neither am I.”
“No one invited you to stay,” Marcus said. “There’s no need.”
“You’re here,” Luke replied. “There’s very much the need.”
“Just go,” Marcus replied.
“Guys!” I said. “This is Austria. No one needs an invitation to stay.”
Silence finally fell and I drifted back into a very welcomed dreamless sleep.
***
When I woke the next morning, I felt calm and peaceful, like nothing dramatic had happened over the past twenty-four hours. And then like a wrecking ball, it hit me. I was a witch who may or may not be in love with a vampire, I’d spoken to said vampires mum and her new lover who happened to be the demon from my nightmares, my parents were witches who had ‘locked’ their own memories away and bound my magic, two of my friends were a witch and a werewolf, oh, and there was a possible hitman vampire after me too.
I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. Sleep it all away. It’d be fine then. Suddenly, I didn’t pity Sleeping Beauty, I envied her.
“Good Morning,” Marcus said, putting a hand on my back. “How are you feeling?”
I sighed. “Like I don’t know which way I’m being pulled.”
“I’m sorry.”
I turned over and looked up at him. “For what?”
“For how you’re feeling.”
I rolled my eyes. I threw the bedcovers back and got out of bed. “And there was me thinking you might be saying sorry for your behaviour last night.”
A light chuckle sounded from the sofa. I kicked the back of it and said, “Don’t you start. You’re in just as much trouble.”
The chuckling abruptly stopped.
“Of course I’m sorry for last night,” Marcus said. “I didn’t want any of this to happen because I didn’t want you feeling like this.”
I wandered over to the kitchen and flicked the kettle on. After I set out my mug and set the tea bag in it, I turned around and folded my arms over my chest. “That sentence had a lot of ‘I’ in it. That strikes me as being some manipulative crap if I’m being honest.”
Luke sniggered.
“Did you not hear what I said?” Marcus said, getting off the bed. “It was only my concern for you that kept me from telling you anything.”
“Right…is that what made you keep Gordon away from me too?”
Marcus looked over at the sofa. Luke was still laying down but even from where I stood I could see the beaming grin on his face.
“He can’t touch you in an official ca
pacity,” Marcus said. “He’s my family and he’s bound by rules that forbid him from killing you.”
“Knowing Gordon, there is a way around it that will mean he can fulfil his contract.”
Marcus pressed his lips together. “The witch is an Elder from another coven. She wants you, and if not you, then your blood will do.”
The kettle boiled, the click of the switch almost making a point of his words. I poured the water into my mug and let the teabag stew.
“I wouldn’t mind a cuppa,” Luke said, finally sitting up.
I pointed at the kettle. “You know where the mugs are.”
“But—”
I shook my head. “You don’t get luxuries like having tea made for you when you’ve been lying to me for months.”
He closed his mouth and frowned. He even pouted.
I turned my attention back to Marcus. “Were you just planning on never telling me?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“If you expect me to believe that then you really are an idiot,” I said, turning my back on him to tend to my tea.
His phone rang then, cutting through the tension. He answered it and disappeared into the hallway to talk. I heard the sofa creak as Luke moved. I didn’t need to watch him approach me; the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as he neared me. A soft shiver ran down my spine and I couldn’t help but look at him.
“You ok?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
I nodded. “I want to be so mad at you right now.”
He flashed me a cheeky grin. “But you can’t be, can you?”
“Shut up,” I said, pouring the milk into my tea. “I’ll leave the milk out for you. Consider that a leaf from an olive branch.”
As I turned away to head to the sofa with my tea, he reached out and caught my arm. “Hey,” he whispered. “I’m sorry for lying to you.”
I tried to ignore the leap of my heart as his skin touched mine. I wanted nothing more than to sink into his chest and have his arms around me, but I couldn’t. “Thank you,” I replied, before backing away and retreating to the sofa.
Marcus came back down the hallway, his handsome face set into a grim expression. He put his phone back in his pocket and gave me a very sheepish look.
“What?” I asked, putting my tea on the coffee table.
“Whilst you were sleeping last night, I reached out to some contacts about my mum and the connection with the wolves—” he glanced at Luke “—I’ve got a really good lead and I need to chase it up.”
I nodded. “That’s great news. I’m really happy for you.”
“But it means I’m leaving.”
I stood up. “Leaving?”
He nodded.
“What do you mean you’re leaving?” The rising panic inside me felt like lead trickling through my veins. I couldn’t move or barely even think. How could he do this to me?
“I need to go and speak to some witches about how to find my mother. They know everything there is to know about doppelgangers. Between you and them, I can find her.”
I was stunned. I literally had no reaction because I couldn’t comprehend this situation to even formulate a reaction. What was he thinking? “But…but my dad…Marcus, you can’t leave. Not now.”
He came over to me, took my hands in his and lifted them both to his mouth. When he brushed a gentle kiss over the back of both, instead of welcoming the normal butterflies that flowed through me at his touch, I felt nothing.
“You know I wouldn’t even think about this unless it was absolutely vital. Caitlyn, this is my chance, my one opportunity to finally find her after all these years. After your dream last night, I know she’s calling for me. I need to do this.”
“Go next week or next month, whenever, just not now.”
He sighed and closed his eyes. He drew in a deep breath and then reopened his eyes. “These witches, Caitlyn, they’re old. Older than even my family. Rumours are they were around in ancient times. They move from place to place, realm to realm. It’s very rare that anyone ever knows where they are. I have to take this chance now or I could be waiting another two hundred years or more for another chance.”
I stared at the floor. My mind and body felt nothing but numb. Part of me wanted to be angry at him, another part happy for him, but the biggest part had been filled with an unsettling emptiness I didn’t know how to calm.
“I understand, Marcus, but I need you right now.”
“I know you do, sweetheart, but you’ve got other people around you—Luke, Joanna, Sophie, Hannah, your mum. You’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be here, Cat,” Luke said. “If he needs to go then let him go.”
“Don’t side with him, Luke, please.”
“I’m just saying, I’ll be here for you.”
“See?” Marcus said.
“You’d normally be telling him to back off and leave me alone but now because it suits, you don’t care. Wow.”
“You can’t ask me to choose between you and my mum, Caitlyn.”
My jaw dropped. His words ignited an ire in me I’d never felt before. “I beg your pardon?”
He dropped my hands, uncertainty flickering through his eyes. “I—”
“How dare you?” I said, glaring at him. “How dare you accuse me of something like that. Do you not even know me by now? I can’t believe you would even think that, let alone say it!”
“Caitlyn, calm down.” He glanced around, a nervous edge to his eyes. The apartment suddenly darkened and I turned to see the clouds outside had taken a dark turn, promising heavy rain. “I wasn’t accusing you of anything.”
“Don’t take me for a fool. I heard what you said, Marcus. I’m not asking you to choose between me and your mum. I’m asking you to stay a few more days, that’s all.”
A low rumble sounded from the grey sky. “I can’t. If I delay any further then I’m going to risk not finding them. I’ve wasted enough time already.”
“How? You found out about them two minutes ago.”
He pursed his lips and looked down at the floor. The penny dropped. “You mean this, don’t you? Having this conversation with your girlfriend is wasting time.” I snorted. “Well isn’t that just charming.” I turned my back on him and walked across the room, shaking my head. What an absolute asshole.
“Caitlyn, I—”
Just hearing his voice sparked fury within me. I spun around and yelled, “Get out, Marcus. Just get the hell out!”
He held his hands up in a surrender sign. His eyes flooded with fear. “Sweetheart, please. I don’t want to leave on bad terms.”
“Get out.”
“If you need me, ring me. I’ll be there, I promise.”
“Sure.”
He put his hands on my shoulders, staring me straight in the eyes. “I will, Caitlyn.”
I looked away. I couldn’t bear to be around him at the moment.
He bent down and kissed my cheek. “I’ll call you later.”
I rolled my eyes in response.
“Please don’t make this any harder than it already is.”
That annoyed me. “What about you making my life harder than it already is?”
“I don’t know what you expect from me.”
“I expect my boyfriend to be by my side when my dad is dying.”
“And I will be. You can ring me any time and I’ll be there.”
“Over the phone.”
“It’s not a five-minute trip down the road, sweetheart. It’s the other side of the world.”
He glanced at his watch and sighed. “I feel horrible for doing this.”
“And yet you’re still going.”
“Caitlyn…”
“Just go, Marcus. I’ll speak to you when I speak to you.”
He moved his hands to cup my face but I backed away from him. “Don’t. Just go.”
Rain started pattering at the windows giving a welcome noise to the strained silence between us. “I’ll be back before you know it.”<
br />
“Yep.”
“Caitl—”
“Go, Marcus. You’ve already wasted enough time remember.”
The pain that flickered across his handsome face almost made me feel guilty. Almost. “Can I have a kiss?”
“Are you kidding me? No!”
“Sweetheart, come on.”
I exploded like a ball of fire. I’d had enough of him trying to placate me. “I am not your sweetheart.” Deep thunder rolled through the skies outside. A gust of wind blew open my apartment door, flinging it back at such a rate, I worried it had been ripped off its hinges. “Get the hell out of my house, Marcus. Now!”
He didn’t stay a second longer. Within the blink of an eye he’d vanished, leaving me to deal with the violent whirlwind of emotions tumbling around inside me.
Chapter Seventeen
I couldn’t believe this. How had my life collapsed around me in such a short space of time? I didn’t understand.
“Cat, are you ok?”
I turned and looked at him, his whiskey brown eyes full of care and concern, and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t even know what to think right now.”
“Do you want a hug?”
I really did, more than anything, but I’d been trying my hardest to deny my feelings for Luke. Being close to him would only make that worse. As much as I’d convinced myself this thing between us was born out of insecurities, I knew deep down it was much more than that. I didn’t even know what I had with Marcus anymore, let alone trying to bring Luke into the equation.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m ok.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Cat.” He held his arms out. “Come on.”
More than emotionally battered, I couldn’t resist. I needed some comfort and stability. Without a second more of hesitation, I flung myself at him. As soon as he curled his arms around me, I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. Hearing the steady beat of his heart soothed my soul and the warmth of his body radiated peace into my core. I’d never felt more at home than I did in his arms.
That thought alone terrified me through and through. I knew he had feelings for me but that didn’t mean I was going to take advantage of it. He’d made it clear that crossing boundaries wasn’t acceptable just as much as I had, even if I had been tempted.
Love, Lies and Blood Ties: A young adult paranormal romance (Love, Lies and Ties Book 2) Page 13