Wiccan, A Witchy Young Adult Paranormal Romance (33 page)

“
Wait,” I said, turning back
into the room. Nearly suffocated by the betrayal I felt, I had to
rid my room, my most personal space, of all traces of the monster
that my father was. Is.

Frantically, I searched through every
drawer and corner, every vessel and vase, every box and bag, but I
found nothing. It looked like I’d just have to get rid of my
mattress. Maybe everything else was safe.

We walked into my parents’ room and the
first thing Grayson did was lift the mattress and peek underneath.
I didn’t look, but when Grayson lowered it and turned to me, his
expression told me that it had a symbol of some sort on it as
well.

I walked numbly to the dresser,
intending to search their room and throw out anything I found that
I couldn’t identify. I opened the top drawer, almost afraid to look
inside, but it was nearly empty. I closed it and opened the second.
It just had a few articles in it, too.

Every drawer I looked in was like that,
even in the chest. I walked to the closet and flung open the doors.
There were a few things hanging inside, some barely clinging to
their hangers like someone had been jerking clothes off in a
hurry.

I went to the hall closet and looked
inside. The luggage was gone.

My parents were gone.

Questions raced through my head. Had my
father kidnapped my mother? Or, worse, had she known about this all
along? Had she been complicit?

All the answers that I sought for all
the questions I had could only be answered by one person. My
father.

I looked at Grayson and he looked at
me.

“
I- I—” I
stammered.

“
I know,” he said quietly.
Walking toward me, he stopped with only inches separating us and
stood looking down into my face. “You’re not alone, Mercy. We’re in
this together,” he said, repeating what he’d told me earlier. Maybe
he thought I didn’t believe him the first time. Or maybe he thought
I just needed to hear it again.

I smiled a weak, watery smile and
leaned my forehead against his chest. I felt his arms come around
me and somehow, despite the disaster my life was turning out to be,
I felt a tiny twinge of happiness.

I inhaled, letting the scent of soap
and cinnamon soothe and comfort me. Silently, I ticked off all the
positive things I could think of. First among them was Grayson. As
I made my way down the list, I realized that many of them were
either directly or indirectly related to him somehow.

“
We’ll find them,” he
whispered.

And I knew he was right. We had a name
and a face and we had me. I knew my father—or at least somewhat—and
I had something that he wanted. If I couldn’t find him, he’d find
me.

Picking up my head and raising my eyes
to find Grayson’s liquid hazel ones, I had but one thing to say,
the only thing I knew for sure and could derive some small amount
of peace from.

“
I love you,” I
said.

“
And I love you.”

Wiccan

by

M. Leighton

http://mleightonbooks.blogspot.com