Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
ARABELLA
I was humming under my breath as I began to pack up a bag, flitting about my room as I grabbed everything that I could possibly need, sad to leave my heels at home but knowing it was better that way.
After all, as much as I loved my stilettos, they would probably stand out considering I’d be living in an RV for the next bit of time.
Instead, I packed a lot of dark jeans, sweaters, hoodies, and slip-on sneakers that would allow me to blend in.
At least as much as someone with bright pink hair could hope to.
I may have also stuffed in a few fancier outfits, like my favorite leather mini-dress and corset top…
just in case. Oh, also some lingerie. I totally put some of that in my not-so-small travel bag.
As I gathered my cosmetics, I made sure to pack my eyeliner after adding a heart underneath my scar, examining the texture of the mark under my fingertips before continuing to pack.
I knew that the boys were packing up their shit, so you could imagine I was surprised when I walked into my bedroom and found Damian sitting on my bed.
“Hey you.” I smiled as his liquid gold eyes warmed on me.
“I brought up your extra pairs of glasses you left in our dorm.” He offered two glasses cases, and I flashed him a smile at how amazing he was for remembering that. I packed them away and turned around to find him watching me with a peculiar look.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “Maybe. I’m not sure, honestly.”
Walking between his legs, I let out a happy sound as his tail trailed up my leg before wrapping possessively around my thigh to keep me where I stood.
I moved my hands to his shoulders, loving the soft black sweater he was wearing…
Although, it made him look a bit human-ish. I much preferred the horns and tail.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know how to handle what you’ve told us,” he admitted.
“About the mating thing?” I asked curiously as his tail tightened around me, causing my skin to break out into shivers.
“Yes, about the mating thing,” he growled.
“Well, you don’t have to do anything.” I swallowed, feeling suddenly insecure about why he seemed unsure of what to do.
I was a fairly confident individual, but keeping the attention of so many amazing nightmares was a bit intimidating.
I was doing my best to continue on as I always had, but I wouldn’t lie—I was a bit nervous.
“How do you want us to handle this?” His voice was rough. “You are about to get in a vehicle, going on the road with seven nightmares who all want you. I need to know how to help you deal with this—”
I considered his words, because truth be told, until this point I hadn’t thought about that. “I…I’m sort of winging this Damian. You know how I feel about all of you, but I can’t tell you some type of plan for how I am going to handle this.”
“I don’t want you to feel rushed or get overwhelmed,” he explained, putting his head against my chest and wrapping me in his arms. “I know we can be a bit intense, and I don’t want you to feel like you are being rushed into anything you don’t want.
Blackwell is like a brother to me, but if you felt at all like that wasn’t the right time—”
I pulled back and cupped his jaw so he looked up at me. “I was more than fine with the Blackwell thing. In fact, I encouraged it…like, a lot.”
Damian’s gaze turned molten as he smirked. “Of course you did, cherry blossom.”
I nibbled my lip and shrugged, feeling my cheeks dust pink. “I’m done hiding how I feel, and especially what I want. I thought you guys didn’t like me for long enough, and now that I know you did… I am just done with miscommunication.”
Damian produced a low sound from his throat. “Like doesn’t seem like an accurate word for my emotions towards you. In fact, I don’t think I have a word to describe how I feel.”
I could think of one for sure, but I didn’t think now was the time to state that.
“I can think of a few,” I teased, because clearly, my mouth didn’t agree with my brain.
His eyes flared. “Care to share?”
Before I could embarrass myself further, a knock on the door had me snapping my head over as I called out a ‘come in’ and stepped back from Damian.
I was surprised to find my dad standing there, looking a bit sad and worried, but when he saw Damian, he narrowed his eyes.
“Wait outside for her,” he ordered. Damian muttered something under his breath and was gone in a puff of pink smoke that had me smiling. I knew he wasn’t actually disappearing in smoke, but sometimes nightmares moved so fast that it really did appear that way.
I sat down on the edge of my bed as my dad paced in front of me.
Before, he had seemed a bit nervous about me leaving.
His conversation with me outside of the conference room consisted of ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ and me insisting it was the right move.
Now though, he almost seemed panicked, and I think it was the most emotion I’d ever seen out of him.
No, that wasn’t completely right… There had been a lot of small moments between the two of us, and while the man was horrible with emotions, he showed how he felt with actions.
Like when he managed to find a terror that could produce ice and snow and asked them for a favor in creating me a massive ice rink because I was going through an ‘ice fairy’ phase.
Or when he had managed to find me an exact pair of my favorite glasses I’d broken two years ago. It was the things like that which had me knowing how much he cared even though he wasn’t fantastic at verbally expressing it.
I wasn’t positive what parents were supposed to be like; I could openly admit that. I knew, though, that my dad had been an amazing one, and while I had never had a mom, I didn’t ever feel like I’d missed out on anything.
Although, I would admit there had been a few stumbles along the way.
In fact, most of my puberty had been super awkward for both of us.
Actually, make that three of us, because Razar had literally been right by my side.
I mentally groaned, remembering when I had first gotten my period and Razar had insisted I was injured because he could smell blood…
Yeah, that had been mortifying on a level I couldn’t express to this day.
Luckily, the medical center had set me up with everything I needed and explained the best they could about how human women had periods.
Luckily, some of the Class D terrors had been able to talk to me as well and make me realize that I, in fact, was not dying.
Razar had been relieved by that, something I knew because he had literally sat by my side through all of it.
Then, the next morning, my dad had an entire caseload of female products delivered to my room. I had pretty much been unable to meet either of their gazes for like three weeks because I had been so damn awkward about it all.
After that, though, I was over it, and looking back on it, I couldn’t help but smile a bit because he had really been trying his best to be a good dad and Razar a good best friend.
“You seem worried,” I observed calmly.
“I am.” He frowned and ran a hand over his face before pinning me with a look.
“You have never left the institute’s grounds before, and now you are getting into an RV with our most dangerous team to travel across the country in search of god terrors while facing possible danger from human and nightmare factions alike… So yes, I am worried.”
“But I’ll be with the guys,” I pointed out. “You know I will be fine.”
“I’m not sure about that,” he muttered, continuing to pace, stopping and fixing me with a look. “Are you sure you are comfortable with this? You don’t feel pressured to go with them because you’re a team—”
“I’m not going with them because we are a team.” I exhaled as his eyes filled with confirmation at what I knew he already assumed. “You know why I’m going with them.”
My dad swallowed awkwardly and winced. “I don’t understand how this entire thing is possible. You’re human, Ara.”
Ah, he was using my nickname. He really was worried.
I actually hadn’t been able to say my full name when I was little, so I had introduced myself as ‘Ara,’ and it had stuck.
He had started saying it because I had corrected him whenever he called me my full name.
Apparently, I had been embarrassed. I couldn’t say it and he had done it to support me.
Pretty cool, right?
“Yes, but…” I hedged and then tilted my head thoughtfully. “I don’t know how to explain this without making it super awkward, Dad. Any chance you can trust that I’m good until I figure out a way?”
My dad exhaled and nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. I trust them with your safety, so if you trust them as well, then it will have to be enough. But you have to promise me that you will set up the system in the RV to update me every few hours with your location and any progress. If we need to extract you, I will figure out a way to send a team.”
I looked towards my window. “You could evacuate everyone.”
“No.” My dad shook his head. “The Class D and families have been given refuge down below the institute in the bomb shelter—”
“We have a bomb shelter?” I felt my eyebrows raise.
“Yes, but our nightmares want to defend their home, and I won’t take that right away from them. But I will do my damn best to shield them from as much of the blowback as possible.”
“Do you really think the god terrors have been influencing the nightmare hate groups?” I asked seriously, my brow dipping at the concept. I couldn’t understand the need or want to hurt your kind like that. Then again, maybe as god terrors, they didn’t consider themselves on the same level.