Haunted (28 page)

“No, Mom, I know I should have called you. Something came up,” Peyta explained. “Right. No, I know you must have been worried...but...but I...OK, but if you would just—” She exhaled heavily, knowing that she wasn't going to get off the hook easily. “Tomorrow? What time?” she asked as we pulled out of the parking lot, headed home. “I'll be there at five...no, Mom, I won't forget.”

I could hear most of what Ronnie was saying so I knew Cooper and Sean were getting everything loud and clear. Ronnie was reading her the riot act and wanted a detailed explanation of why she hadn't called and what she'd been up to. We were going to have to get our story together before her arrival.

“Mom...Mom, listen. I'm too tired to explain now. I've had a really rough day,” she pleaded, tears filling her eyes as her voice wavered slightly. “I need you to drop it for now. I'll tell you everything you want to know tomorrow, I promise. Please, Mom, just let it be for right now.”

There was silence from the receiver for a moment.

“Thanks, Mom. I love you, too.”

She hung up and threw my phone into my lap before dropping her head down into it as well. She curled her legs up onto Cooper, laying across us in the back seat.

“Why aren't you dead?” she whispered to me. “I saw what he did...there was so much blood.”

Sean looked at me in the rear view mirror with a tight expression. He didn't want me spilling the beans on what I was, what he was, or what exactly she was for that matter. She wasn't stupid though, and with the bits and pieces of information she'd overheard from Gregory, she was bound to put things together soon enough, or parts of it at least.

“Sean and Cooper found me just in time,” I replied. She pushed up off of my lap and looked at me, her eyes searching mine for something, some shred of explanation. She really was a smart kid – I knew she wouldn't buy my story. “They took me to the hospital and the surgeons patched me up.”

“Doctors never would have released a normal person after a surgery of that magnitude. I saw your colon fall out on the floor, Ruby! It wasn't exactly an outpatient procedure.”

Oh shit...

“I insisted on leaving and signed myself out. We had to find you, and I was the only one who knew anything about Gregory's plan.”

She winced briefly at the mention of his name.

“You seem to be getting around okay for someone who was nearly eviscerated.”

“They gave me some wicked painkillers,” I replied, my palms starting to sweat. “I think I could sell them for a lot on the street.”

“What exactly did they give you?” she asked, starting to sound like a seasoned detective. The hard-piercing eyes she pinned on me looked the part as well.

I paused for a moment. I knew nothing about narcotics, and had no clue what they would have given someone for that kind of damage.

“Oxycodone, Vicodin, a Prednisone taper for the swelling, and some antibiotics,” Cooper interjected on my behalf. “Ruby hasn't seen the bottles because Sean has been dispensing them for her. He's a bit of a control freak.”

I looked up to see Sean shooting daggers at Cooper in the rear view. Something was off about Sean's behavior since we left the park, and I was starting to think maybe he and Sophie were an unstable match made in heaven. Peyta looked momentarily satisfied with Cooper's response.

My shirt was yanked up over my head before I realized it was a ruse. She gasped as my bare abdomen flashed everyone in the car while I scrambled to pull the thin cotton barrier back down. She said nothing, her mouth dropping open and closed repeatedly, unable to force out sound. I wiggled my shirt into place, covering my stomach without taking a glance at what she'd seen. I hoped it was bad enough to keep the lie alive.

One look at Cooper's face and I knew the jig was up.

“Any suggestions now, mister large and in charge?” Cooper mocked as he looked at Sean. “I'd say that the cat is officially out of the bag.”

“There's just a white line,” Peyta said, sounding distant and flabbergasted. “There's barely even a scar.”

“Peyta,” Sean said, a fatherly tone lacing his words. “I need you to breathe for a minute. We'll explain everything – it seems we have no choice. But not until we get back to the house.”

“What are you?” she whispered, staring wildly into my eyes.

* * *

We were only a few minutes away from my home, and after being shocked by the state of my wound Peyta was in no condition to argue about getting her answers right then and there. Instead she snapped her mouth closed and lifted up my shirt again. She stared at the faint, silvery-white line that ran from my sternum down below my waistline. I gave it a good hard look, too; it almost looked as if nothing had ever happened. Whatever powers the Healers possessed, they were beyond my comprehension, and they appeared to be beyond Peyta's, too.

When we arrived at the house, Cooper came around and picked me up out of the car, carrying me up to the apartment. Peyta followed him closely as Sean and Sophie pulled up the rear. I felt hostility rolling off of Sean and I couldn't quite understand why. He should have been thrilled that we found Peyta and returned her unharmed. Yeah, there was the Sophie issue, but that wasn't exactly something new for us.

Something was bothering him deeply.

“Peyta,” he said as he closed the door behind us. “We're about to do something that has never been done. Ever.”

She sat on the couch and looked up at him like a pupil ready to learn. I couldn't get over how after everything that had happened, it seemed that all she really wanted were answers.

I wanted a bottle of Patron and a vacation.

“What you're about to hear could put both you and all of us in jeopardy,” he explained. “Can you handle that responsibility?”

She nodded silently in response.

“Where do you want to start?” he asked.

“I want to know how Ruby is still alive.”

“She is alive because of me,” Sophie said, pushing away from the wall to come closer to Peyta. “I healed her, as you are able to heal others. You heard Gregory speak of our kind tonight. It seems that he was right about your ancestry. You're extremely powerful over the dead, and if the PC ever need to call upon you, you'll be an asset to the brothers.”

“To who?” she said, looking confused and not entirely sure which question to ask next. Sean stepped closer, crouching down in front of her legs as she remained motionless on the couch.

“To me and my brethren. Your kind has kept us alive for centuries, Peyta. It's possible that one day that will be your responsibility.”

“But who are you? I don't understand this,” she said, looking frantic and breathing heavily. Her “Does not compute” sign was starting to flash dimly.

“Our kind has been in existence for longer than you can imagine; before Christ walked the earth. We were created by Aries, as Gregory said, for one purpose and one purpose only – to kill Romulus. However, that purpose morphed over time and now we keep the delineation between the human world and the...less-than-human one crystal clear. That line for you is now blurred. You would fall under the 'less than human' side of things.”

She paled slightly at the implications of what he'd just said.

“So I'm not human?” she asked, trying desperately to control the waver in her voice.

“You are still Peyta,” Sophie said, sitting down beside her. “But you're also superhuman. You have abilities that exceed the norm. You're in a different class of human now.”

As if she suddenly put two and two together, her eyes darted to where Cooper and I were standing.

“What are you two, then?” she asked, looking pensive. “Gregory talked so much about power, killing people...and revealing himself to the humans. Then he blamed you for ruining his plan. If he's not human, what does that make you?”

The two of us looked to Sean for guidance, unsure of how much she needed to know.

“Just tell her the basics. She doesn't need to drink from the supernatural fire hose all at once,” he instructed.

“We're...well, we're...you see we...,” I stammered, trying to figure out a good way to drop the bomb.

“We're werewolves, Peyta,” Cooper blurted out. “Just like in the movies.”

“You're what?” she asked disbelievingly. Her head dropped down so low that she could barely keep eye contact.

“Smooth, Captain Tourettes,” I said, shooting him a scalding look. “He's telling the truth, Peyta. We are what he says, but it's not at all like the movies. We don't change when it's a full moon, we don't eat people, and we don't need to be locked away for the safety of others...caged….”

Never again. The thought rang through my mind as Scarlet growled in my head.

“So you turn into wolves?”

“Yes, but not your average wolves. We're bigger, more agile,” Cooper added.

“This is such a mind-fuck,” she muttered. I was amazed she hadn't passed out from pure shock and awe of the situation. She was taking our not-so-human statuses far better than I ever did. “I guess some things make a lot more sense now in retrospect.”

“Such as?” Sean asked, intrigued by her statement.

“Well, for example, it explains why you're such an overbearing ass sometimes.”

“But I'm not a werewolf,” he replied with an evil grin curling up the corner of his mouth.

“Fine. But you are still an ass,” she snipped. “It explains why Cooper stays out all hours of the night, and why Ruby lunged at Gregory after he stabbed her. He took her ring off and she pounced at him like a lion.”

“He took off your ring?” Cooper asked, looking down at me in utter disbelief. “Did he forget the night in the clearing?”

“He wanted to keep me alive. I was apparently dying too quickly for him,” I replied. “We tried to take advantage of the situation.”

“Hence the broken finger?”

“Yep...insurance that she wouldn't get out again,” I said. “That guy really thinks of everything. Well, pretty close to it anyways.”

“So, Sean, if you're not a werewolf, what exactly are you?” Peyta asked, eying him intently.

“I'm the son of a god. Weren't you listening?” he replied with no intention of further expanding on his answer.

“Whatever,” she retorted, blowing him off. “So you knew what I was when you met me. It's why you asked all those bizarre questions the night you stayed over and Cooper flipped out.”

Sophie fumed at Peyta's comment; I guess she didn't know that Sean had a sleepover at my place.

“Don't worry, Sophie. I made him sleep on the floor,” I added sharply.

She scowled at me and I couldn't help but smile. I'd gotten under her skin and it felt good. She may have had the upper hand when it came to Sean, but I could still twist the knife in her side. As long as he still loved me it would always be there.

“I had my suspicions,” Sean admitted to Peyta, stealing my attention away from the bitch and back to the conversation.

“OK, but what I really don't understand is who Gregory was, and why he wanted revenge so badly,” she said to me and Cooper. We looked at each other then turned our attention back to the weary looking raven-haired girl on the couch.

“It's a long story Peyta. The short of it is this: he was the Alpha of Cooper's pack out in Utah. I was brought to them under false pretenses then held captive there. Cooper rescued me and the two of us escaped together.”

“That's how you met?” she asked, cutting off my explanation.

“Yes.”

“No wonder you're so close,” she said, admiring us. Cooper reached his hand down and closed it over mine. “Why were you brought to Utah? What did he want with you?”

Sean shot me a pained look from across the living room. It was plain on his face that he hadn't fully forgiven himself for being unable to find me quickly; he clearly had ideas about what I'd been subjected to.

“You don't need the gory details, P,” I said softly. “Just know that he was evil to the core. Like he said in the shop, he wanted to punish me for ruining his plan. As for Cooper, Gregory wanted to torture him for killing him, simple as that. Crazy doesn't have to make sense to the rational mind, and he was certifiably nuts.”

“Will you tell me one day what happened in Utah?” she asked, concern for my well-being showing in both her expression and her tone.

“No, Peyta. Some things are too terrible to share with others. I don't want that kind of pain to be possible in your world. I won't allow it.”

Her eyes teared up as she stared up at me from the couch. I didn't understand why she was so upset by what I'd said. When a tear rolled down my own face it dawned on me – my pain had become her pain. I cried, so she cried. We had bonded quickly, as Cooper and I had. She was the sister I had never had and never knew I wanted. More tears came at the realization.

“So can I see your wolf?” she blurted out as the idea crossed her mind.

“Um...maybe some other time,” I said, coughing out a laugh. She had no idea the can of worms that would open.

“I bet they're beautiful,” she said, romanticizing the idea. “But are they mean?”

“Mine isn't,” Cooper said, smiling from ear to ear. “But Ruby's has a bit of an attitude problem.”

I smacked his arm and immediately regretted the act. My trauma may have had few visible remnants, but my insides still felt like they'd been through a blender. Cooper helped me to a chair and sat me down.