“You.” He nodded at Ashton, “Take her to the car and wait in it with her. If she wakes, do not let her back in this house.” I’d stopped in my tracks as he started barking orders. He was angry and I felt it. A strong wave of that anger washed over me and I braced myself against the table as it almost took me to the floor. I’d never felt him do that before, I didn’t even know he could, and I didn’t want to feel it again.
Ashton took Kiera from Oliver’s arms and Zoey led the way to open the doors for him.
I steadied myself and sat in a dining chair beside Carter, hugging my knees up to my chest. I stared at his pale trembling body. I was sick to my stomach at the thought of how this might end.
Zoey had returned and was standing on the opposite side of the table with the others, their eyes all focused on poor Carter.
“Get him out of here,” Oliver said in a voice that was almost cruel. My eyes fixed on him and my brow furrowed.
“What do you suggest I do with him? Either side will kill him.” Felix spoke with his mouth this time and his voice was still light but holding more weight than it had previously. He stood near Carter’s head with his own stooped almost in agony.
“Then dump him off at the pound,” Oliver snapped with absolutely no remorse and crossed his arms over his chest. His head dropped like he’d been hit with an afterthought and he realized how heartless he was being.
“Oliver! What is wrong with you?” I demanded.
His head snapped up. His gleaming emerald eyes narrowing on mine, “Vampires and werewolves are natural rivals. He can’t be here. We do not mix!”
“He’s not just some guy, it’s Carter. He’s our friend! Well, at least mine anyways.” I glared hard at him.
“Fine!” Oliver threw his hands in the air and turned away from the table.
Zoey and her grandmother had moved to the end of the table, near Carter’s feet, and continued to watch quietly from there.
Oliver turned back to Felix. “You put your
pet
in Julz’s room and keep him there.” Felix nodded and gently scooped Carter’s limp body into his enormous arms and headed down the hall. “You!” Oliver turned to me and I felt a little cringe inside, “Go wait in the bedroom. I will speak to you later.” He was a total ass and that pissed me off.
“Excuse me? What is your problem?” I demanded from where I sat.
I saw his chest heave as he took a deep breath and I noticed his T-shirt was on inside out. “I’m sorry,” he took another breath to steady himself, “Please wait in my room until I get back.”
“Back? Where are you going?”
“I’m going to try to get Kiera and Ashton out of here before she wakes up.”
“We’ll go with you,” the grandma added to Oliver.
He nodded at her, then crossed the room to where I sat. He took my hand and led me down the hall. The door at the end of the hallway on the left was open partly, and in the far corner I saw Felix hunched over Carter’s body on a twin size bed as we passed by to Oliver’s room. But before Oliver could close the door behind us Felix called him into the other room and I followed.
We crossed the small room to the bed to stand beside Felix.
“I cannot heal him with my blood. I cannot fix his wounds, it will make me ill. We just have to wait and see if he can pull through this on his own.” Felix’s compassionate tone was touching.
“Why can’t he see a doctor?” I asked.
“His kidneys might fail.”
“Another reason for the doctor, right? Could he get a transplant?” I asked again.
“From what?” Oliver said, and I wasn’t sure if his tone was condescending or serious.
We both shot him a dirty look, granted Felix’s held far more power than mine.
“What do you do with a wounded animal?” Oliver added. I glared harder. He was definitely being condescending. “You put it out of its misery.”
“Oliver! You’re being a total jerk!” I shouted at him. I didn’t understand his behavior and I didn’t have time to worry about it just then.
“Sorry,” and he clearly wasn’t. He put his hands up in surrender and took a step back.
“We have to keep him a secret,” Felix said very quietly but no matter how quiet his voice was, it carried.
“Agreed.” We all spun around to find Zoey’s grandmother standing in the doorway, “But right now you’ve got a crazed little blonde girl screaming in the front yard that needs to be dealt with.”
Felix inhaled deeply, then exhaled with the force of a giant. He focused then said, “I should go. I will take care of our extra guests. He,” and he nodded towards Carter’s resting body, “should be okay for now. I have given him a sedative and I will tend to him when I return.” He covered Carter with a heavy, white down comforter and we all turned to leave the room. The grandmother was gone. Felix closed the door behind us before heading down the hall.
Oliver led me to his room again and I sat, perched on the edge of the bed.
“How could you say such awful things?”
He squatted in front of me and took both my hands in his. “I am really sorry,” and he truly meant it this time. “The Lycan are not of my kind. I have no compassion for them.”
“I’m not your kind either.” I said quietly, staring deep into his pools of emerald.
“Oh, that is so very different. It’s not even comparable.” He kissed the backs of my hands without taking his eyes off mine. “I am sorry I was so insensitive, I will not let it happen again.” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Laney, I am so tired of cleaning up everyone else’s messes. I don’t want to take on another one when I’m so close to…” He trailed off and I furrowed my brow at him.
“So close to what?”
Not acknowledging I’d said anything, he continued, “I just want to have my life with you now.”
Well, who could resist that? I couldn’t help smiling at him and the smile he gave in return made every worry drain from me for that moment.
He quickly pecked my lips as he rose from the floor. “I’ll be back in a moment,” he told me, “I’m just going to help Felix get everyone into the car. Please stay in here and do not try to check on Carter.”
I nodded and he bent to kiss me on the forehead. He left the room and closed the door behind himself.
I went to the window and peered through the blinds, lifting one slat with my finger. Kiera was dodging each person in the yard trying to get to the front door; Ashton almost had her in his arms once but she was able to escape him. Zoey and her grandma were there too, trying to get a hold of her, blocking her from the front of the house. Kiera looked wild and demented and my heart ached for her. I balled my hands into fists, digging my nails into my palms. I wanted to go to her and explain everything. Tell her what had really happened. Tell her all that I knew of the other creatures in our world. She didn’t understand what was going on and she was trying to save her love. Suddenly she was down again, dropping like a ragdoll. Ashton lifted her limp little body from the grass and headed towards the driveway and out of my sight. Zoey and her grandmother followed along with Felix just behind them, his car keys in his hand. I took a step back and turned around and Oliver was there. I let out a little screech and immediately covered my mouth.
“I’m sorry,” he chuckled. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“What just happened out there?” I gestured at the window.
He took my hand and pulled me to the bed, where we both sat on the edge.
“Felix has the ability to knock people out with his mind.”
I stared at him in full amazement with a hint of horror.
He smirked a little at my expression. “He can lock onto a person’s brain pattern and shut them down. He can do it to anyone, human or vampire, if you don’t know how to block him out. He also has the ability to suppress memories, so before he takes Kiera home he’ll suppress what happened this morning and up until this moment.”
“Won’t she wonder what happened and how she got home?”
“Felix can be pretty persuasive. He’ll plant something in her mind.” He smiled slightly at this. I didn’t. Then he added, “He also has the ability to communicate telepathically.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” His eyes widened for a moment and then his faced returned to that angelic beauty he has.
He took both my hands and looked soulfully into my eyes with his beautiful green ones. “I am sorry I yelled at you earlier. The last few days have been so stressful; it’s beginning to wear on me.”
I smiled a little, “I can understand.” Yet, stressful didn’t even begin to describe it.
He smiled back and kissed me lightly on the lips. “Forgive me?”
“Always. Just don’t do it again.” I half-heartedly joked.
He kissed me again, then with a sigh he laid back on the bed with his hands behind his head and I joined him, resting my head on his chest.
“Werewolves are dangerous creatures, you know,” he stated.
“Only things I know about them are what you’ve told me, and that’s not much.”
“It’s hard to know what’s going to happen to Carter. With his vampire lineage mixed with a Were bite, it may kill him.”
My stomach turned at the thought of losing Carter and the pain not only I would feel, but the horrific pain Kiera would experience. Then I yawned.
Oliver rolled me off his chest and, taking both my hands, pulled me off the bed. “Gather your dirty clothes and I’ll start a load of laundry.” He handed me my star-covered tank top and said, “That sweatshirt needs washing badly.” Thankfully he didn’t mention anything about me showing my bra to the world.
He turned his back to me and pulled the dark plaid, flannel comforter down along with the dark blue flannel sheets while I shrugged out of the hoodie and pulled my tank over my head and into place. I gathered my dirty clothes, along with his sweatshirt, handed them to him and he headed into the laundry room. I picked up my pillow and pulled my fleece blanket out of the case. It was my favorite blanket, my aunt had made it for me years ago. It was aqua with different sizes of white stars scattered all over it and white satin binding around the top and bottom edges. I crawled into Oliver’s bed, laid down on the side against the wall and covered myself with my blanket.
He returned to the room moments later. “You know your shirt’s on inside out?” I said with another yawn.
He stopped in the middle of the room and looked down at it. He shrugged and let out a little chuckle, “At least I ended up with a shirt on,” he laughed as he climbed into bed beside me.
“Ha.” Was all I said, sarcastically of course. Then I scooted as close as possible and rested my head on his chest again. I was too tired to be embarrassed by what had happened. Plus nothing like that should matter when one of my closest friends was fighting for his life. Oliver wrapped an arm around me and I sighed as the comfort of him filled me. The sound of the water running into the washing machine helped my mind go blank and I was asleep within moments.
It didn’t seem like I’d been out that long when I woke to the squeak of the dryer and Oliver crawling back into bed. “I was just swapping the laundry. Go back to sleep,” he said with a kiss to my forehead as he climbed back into bed beside me. And with that, I cozied myself back into him and fell into a deep, deep slumber.
Chapter 4 - Cheesy Treasures
My dreams had left me with fleeting memories of being chased, screams and blood. I was relieved when I opened my eyes and I was in the comfort of Oliver’s presence. He had an original Rubik’s Cube in his hands. I rolled off of his chest and onto my back and stretched. He smiled, his eyes sparkling at me. “How long did I sleep?” I asked.
“Almost twelve hours.” He set the mixed up puzzle on a shelf of his oak headboard.
“Dang. I must be making up for lost time.” And probably some lost blood…
“You’ll be happy to know that Carter has improved. Only a tiny bit, but at least he’s not getting worse.” He was off the bed then. Standing beside it, looking down at me.
“Can I go see him?” It was a bit of a relief to hear he was getting better.
He shook his head lightly, “Not yet. Felix is in there with him now and he doesn’t want to be disturbed. He seems to be quite enamored with Carter, which I find rather…odd,” he spaced off for a brief moment, his eyes getting a distant look in them. Then he was back and with a sweet grin he said, “Let’s go get you something to eat.”
I stretched once more and a sharp pain shot through my neck. “Ow!” I pressed my palm against it and rolled into a ball. Oliver was over me. “What happened?” There was alarm in his tone. I didn’t answer until the pain faded. Thankfully it didn’t last long and I hesitantly pulled my hand away and looked up into his concerned eyes once it was over. I explained what happened and he then told me that, although he had healed the bite from that crazy vamp on the outside, it was still healing on its own on the inside. That it would probably heal very quickly and I didn’t need to worry about it. After a shot of pain like that though, I was terrified of it happening again. So I moved very slowly as I got out of bed and pulled on my black velour jacket. Nothing happened and my neck seemed to feel fine. I relaxed some and then I followed Oliver into the kitchen.