Chapter 21 #3
Selene tried to stand up, but her knees buckled. Fen caught her and supported her against his body. She was all too aware that he was completely naked, but he seemed unconcerned.
Allie gasped and turned bright red when her eyes found Fen. She sought a safe place for her gaze and ended up turning around completely.
“Allie, what’s going on?” Josh stormed into the kitchen. His nostrils flared, then he saw naked Fen and Selene’s bruised body. “Shit.”
He didn’t ask what happened. Maybe he already knew. Had he smelled the fight? Daniel’s ashes?
Nausea swam in her gut. Daniel is ashes.
“She was attacked, Allison, but it’s over now,” Fen said. “Josh, I have clothes in the trunk of my car. Could you get them?”
Josh nodded but seemed hesitant to leave.
“Attacked?” Allie half turned but reddened again and abandoned the attempt. “Attacked by who? I don’t understand.”
“The car keys are on a hook next to the front door,” Selene told Josh.
“Get the clothes, then I’ll tell you what happened,” Fen said.
Josh caught Allie’s hand and dragged her from the kitchen with him. “Stop it, Josh! I’m still mad at you!”
Allie is mad at Josh?
“Let me take you somewhere you’ll be more at ease.” Fen carefully lifted Selene in his arms and brought her out of the kitchen, through the hall, and into the living room, where he deposited her on the couch.
Finding two throw blankets, he wrapped one around his waist and settled the other over Selene’s shoulders. She snuggled into the soft fabric, wishing she could get warm.
Fen sat beside her, surveying her with concern. “Marley will have something to help you through the shock. I’ll get him after we talk to Allie.”
“I think I should talk to Allie alone.” Selene struggled to think clearly, but her instincts kicked in when it came to her niece. “It’s going to be hard for her to hear about Daniel. She didn’t know what he was like. Her mother sheltered her from his flaws. I guess I did too.”
“It’s natural to protect those we love from the dangers and disappointments of this world,” Fenris said. “But I’d like to explain to her why his death was necessary.”
“I can do that,” Selene told him. “And she’ll need time to accept it. You killed him, Fen. You had to, but he was still her father. I don’t want her to lash out at you. In time, she’ll understand.”
He cupped the side of her face with one hand. “I can bear Allie’s wrath.”
“I know you can.” She leaned into his touch. His warmth. “But I don’t want you to.”
“If that’s what you wish, I’ll abide by your decision,” Fen said. “Josh and I will clean up the kitchen, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Her stomach lurched. “What . . . what are you going to do with Daniel’s . . . remains?”
“Do you want to keep them?” Fen asked with a slight frown. “For Allie?”
“No,” Selene said. “But I’d rather you didn’t sweep them up and throw them in the trash.”
“We wouldn’t have,” Fen told her. “His ashes will be collected and brought to Marie. As his coven leader, he was her responsibility. She will want to know what happened here.”
Selene nodded slowly. “That sounds okay.”
The front door opened, and Fen called out, “The living room, Josh.”
Josh came into the room carrying folded clothing and a pair of shoes. “I asked Allie to wait in the hall until you’re dressed.”
“Thank you, Josh.” Fen took the clothes and shed the blanket around his waist. He quickly pulled on jeans, but he offered his button-down shirt to Selene.
Josh gave Fen a brief nod and left the living room while Selene discarded her ruined blouse and put on Fen’s shirt. It was giant on her yet deeply comforting.
Allie rushed into the room with Josh following as Fen pulled on socks and a pair of black work boots.
“Auntie Sel!” Allie threw herself at Selene, hugging her tightly.
Selene made a small noise of discomfort as her bruised body objected to the embrace.
Fen took Allie by the shoulders and pulled her away. “Take care, Allison. Your aunt is injured.”
“I’m so sorry.” Allie sat as close as she could to Selene without touching her. “I didn’t think.”
“It’s okay, Allie.” Selene took Allie’s hand. “I’m not hurt that badly. Just a little sore.”
Allie bit her lip, and tears welled in the corner of her eyes. “Who hurt you?”
Selene glanced at Fen.
“I’ll check on you in the morning.” He bent to feather a kiss over her forehead. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call.”
Fen walked away, passing Josh as he left the room. “With me, Josh.”
Josh nodded, but before he turned, he gave Allie a pleading look. “Allie—”
“Don’t bother, Josh.” The anger in Allie’s voice was startling. “I have nothing to say to you right now.”
Wearing a stricken expression, Josh went after Fen. From the hall, she heard the front door open and close. Fen and Josh were gone. As much as Fen’s presence reassured her, it was best that she and Allie face this on their own.
Selene took a closer look at her niece and found evidence that Allie had been crying: tear tracks that hadn’t dried, reddened eyes, and flushed cheeks.
“Allie, did you and Josh have a fight?”
Allie’s lip trembled. “I want to know what happened to you first. I’m freaking out.”
Selene hadn’t looked in a mirror since Daniel attacked her, but she could imagine what Allie saw.
Placing her other hand over their already linked fingers, Selene spoke firmly but gently. “Allie, what I’m going to tell you will be very hard to hear. I wish there was a way to make it hurt less, but I don’t think there is.”
“Who attacked you, Aunt Sel?” Allie’s voice was very small.
Selene had to swallow several times before she could speak. It felt like she might vomit, or sob, or both.
“It was Daniel.”
Allie stared at Selene, then slowly shook her head. “No. That . . . that can’t be right.”
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Selene said. “But it’s true. He was waiting in the kitchen when I came home.”
“But I talked to him last night.” Allie’s voice wobbled. “He wouldn’t hurt you. He likes you. He wants us to be a family.”
Daniel had told Selene he’d been at the house with Allison, and that had been bad enough, but knowing now what he was capable of, what he’d done .
. . The fact that he’d spent hours alone with Allie made it difficult to breathe.
What Selene went through was awful, but if he’d hurt Allie, if he’d turned her, it would be so much worse.
At least she could be thankful that in Daniel’s insane reasoning, he decided to target Selene first.
“Daniel has always been very good at telling people what they want to hear.” Selene squeezed Allie’s fingers. “It doesn’t matter to him if what he says is true.”
Allie looked away. “He was so nice.”
“I know.” As much as Selene despised Daniel, both for who he was and what he’d done, she wished Allie didn’t have to face this ugliness.
“Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand?” Allie asked. “Did he say something mean about Fenris that made you get into an argument?”
Selene had to check the impulse to raise her voice.
Denial, shifting blame, is a normal reaction.
Rather than speak, Selene released Allie’s hand. She picked up her shredded blouse and placed it in the space between her and Allie.
After taking a deep breath, then another, she said, “I was wearing that shirt tonight. Look at it.”
Allie lifted the blouse gingerly, gasping when she saw the way it was torn.
“Daniel did that.”
Selene opened the top buttons of Fen’s shirt, parting the fabric. It was difficult. She wanted to dissociate from the violence that had been done to her. Instead, she had to relive it for Allie’s sake.
Her hands shook as she gestured to her throat. “He also did this.”
Allie began to cry. “I don’t understand. He wouldn’t . . . I liked him.”
“You liked him because he wanted you to,” Selene said. “And I’m sure he used his vampire charm to make sure you believed everything he said. He tried to do the same thing to me. I don’t think you would have invited him into the house otherwise. Not after Josh warned you about vampires.”
“Daniel said werewolves lie about vampires,” Allie mumbled. The evidence was mounting up too quickly for her to counter it. “When he talked to me, he sounded so sincere. Everything he said made sense.”
“I’m sure it did,” Selene replied. As much as it was hard to do anything other than disparage Daniel, she knew it was vital to acknowledge Allison’s feelings.
Allie wouldn’t be able to see the truth if she wasn’t given space to work through her own experiences with her father.
“Allie, I don’t want you to feel bad about believing what he told you.
You did nothing wrong. He manipulated you. ”
“Why would he do that?” Allie sniffled.
Okay, she’s starting to get there. One foot in front of the other as we slog through the emotional mud.
Selene reached for a box of tissues and handed it to her. “All I can tell you is what he said to me, and I don’t know how much of it was true. He told me he wanted to make you and me vampires so we would stay with him.”
Allie perked up a little. “So he did want us to be a family?”
Selene swallowed a sigh. Two steps forward, one step back. But I can’t stop now.
“Allie, he was going to turn me against my will,” Selene said. “And he would have made you a vampire without asking too. That isn’t a family. All he cared about was getting what he wanted.” She pointed at her throat again. “That’s how he hurt me. He was trying to turn me.”
“He bit you?” Allie gasped.
“Fen stopped him before he could.” Selene touched a bruise and winced, then she shivered, ice slipping through her veins at the visceral memory of Daniel’s attack. “I was very lucky. If Fen hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have been able to stop Daniel. He was too strong.”
Allie swiped a tissue over her cheeks, then she began to sob. Selene drew the girl’s head into her lap and stroked her hair while she cried. Selene cried, too, albeit quietly. She took a tissue and pressed it to her face to catch the tears that trailed down her cheeks.
After a few minutes, the storm of weeping subsided, and Allie lifted her head. “I’m so sorry, Aunt Selene.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, sweetheart.”
“Yes, I do.” A sob welled, thickening Allie’s voice. “I let him in. If I hadn’t invited him into the house, he wouldn’t have been able to attack you. It’s all my fault.”
Allie broke down again.
“No, no, honey.” Ignoring the bruises, Selene wrapped Allie up in a tight hug.
The last thing she wanted was for Allie to blame herself.
“Nothing about this is your fault. Even if Daniel hadn’t used magic, he would have used your feelings to get you to trust him. And of course you wanted to trust him.”
“Can you forgive me?” Allie’s muffled question came from Selene’s shoulder.
“There’s nothing to forgive.” Selene hugged her closer, ignoring the pain of her battered flesh. “But if you need me to say it, then yes, I forgive you. I love you, Allie.”
“I love you, too, Auntie Sel.” Allie sat up and blew her nose. “So what happened to my dad? Did he run away when Fen showed up?”
Dread swarmed in Selene’s chest. “No, Allie. Daniel had a gun. When Fen protected me, Daniel tried to kill him.”
“He shot Fenris?” Allie had gone very still.
“He missed,” Selene said carefully. “He and Fen fought in the kitchen. Fen killed him.”
Allie swayed on the couch. “My dad’s dead?”
Selene nodded and had to close her eyes. The sound of Fen’s jaws crushing Daniel’s neck. Daniel’s scream. The tearing of flesh as his head was ripped from his body. She wanted to erase all of it from her memory and knew she would never be able to.
A choking sound escaped from Allie, and Selene gathered her close once more. Allie buried her face in Selene’s shoulder and sobbed. Selene rocked her and stroked her hair as she wept, then handed her more tissues when she sat up, sniffling.
“Why did he kill him?” Allie asked softly. “Couldn’t he have put him in jail or something?”
“I don’t think that was an option, Allison.”
“Why not? Because Fenris decided it wasn’t?
” There was a hard edge to Allie’s questions that Selene didn’t like, and again she had to temper her response.
Allie hadn’t been through what Selene had.
She’d only seen the side of her father Daniel wanted her to.
Selene couldn’t lose sight of that fact because it skewed Allie’s perception of everything.
Fen had saved Selene’s life, and while it was fine for Allie to be unhappy with him for what he’d done, Selene couldn’t let that unhappiness fester into resentment .
. . or hate. But that meant she had to show Allie how ugly the world could be sometimes.
What monsters could do. She wished she didn’t have to rob a young girl of the innocent belief that her father had been a good person.
“Allison, don’t forget that Daniel wanted to kill Fenris,” Selene chided gently. “Fen only attacked your father after Daniel hurt me and tried to shoot Fen.”
“But he killed my dad,” Allie replied in a plaintive voice. “He could have shown mercy or found another way to stop Daniel. Isn’t that what good leaders are supposed to do?”
“Allie, if you had asked me before tonight whether I thought Daniel deserved to die, I would have said no,” Selene said. “But attacking me and trying to kill Fenris wasn’t the worst thing he’d done.”
“What do you mean?”
They’d reached the most difficult part of the conversation, the moment when Selene felt like she was about to take a hammer to Allison’s heart. She hated it, but she knew offering Allie anything besides the brutal truth would be a mistake.
“He told me he found Emma in San Francisco because he wanted to make her a vampire.” Selene’s fingers dug in to the couch. “She said no, but he tried to turn her anyway. And when he did, he lost control.”
“Lost control?” When Allie spoke, Selene could barely hear her because Allie’s voice was so quiet, and Selene’s rage and grief were roaring in her ears. “Are you saying . . . Did Daniel kill my mom?”
“Yes.” The truth felt like twisting a knife in her gut and Allie’s simultaneously.
“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Allie bolted from the living room.
Selene stood on shaky legs and followed Allie to the powder room. When Allie retched into the toilet, Selene held her hair back and rubbed gentle circles along her spine until Allie stopped vomiting.
“I’m okay now,” Allie said after a few minutes and sat back. Selene helped her up and gave her a towel so she could wipe her mouth.
The doorbell rang.
“Fen was going to send Tim and Marley over to be with us,” Selene told her niece. “Are you all right with that?”
Allie nodded. Selene gave her another hug then went to answer the door.
Tim waited on the front step. Marley fluttered in the air a foot behind him.
“Selene.” Tim opened his arms, and she stepped into them. He held her gently. “I’m so sorry. We’re well rid of the bastard.”