Chapter 14 Feeding The Ducks
Feeding The Ducks
Trenton
The park was dead at this tine in the morning. Just like the man said ir would be.
I didn’t get any bad vibes off of the place but at this point that didn’t mean jack shit to me.
I sent Rain our location on my phone and dropped it into the cupholder.
I didn't want to be distracted during this by my phone going off at any second by people demanding an update on Ariel. And by people I meant Quinton. I wasn’t worried about Rain calling me, he was on his way and now knew where we were, there was no need for him to call.
I wanted to do a walk through of the park by myself but Ariel wasn’t having any of that. She said we all went together or not at all.
She pissed me off but I could understand why she wanted it that way.
So we all got out of the SUV together like she wanted.
Ariel always got her way, one way or another.
There was no sign of that broken, completely shut down girl from yesterday. This morning her game face was on and firmly in place. I hoped like hell it stayed there.
We had been walking for less than five minutes when I spotted him. He was seated on a park bench facing away from us. From what I could see he was throwing bread into the little pond in front of him.
Feeding the ducks.
How fucking normal.
How fucking absurd.
He had a black baseball cap on and wire framed sunglasses covered his eyes. He wore jeans and a plain black hoodie.
He looked like any normal dude off of the street. I wouldn’t look twice if I walked past him on the sidewalk.
There was no lingering touch of magic in the air at all. He’d blend in with the normals perfectly.
We did not and were the people who were out of place here.
Simon and I both stood out with our tattoos we never bothered covering up and our silver eyes. Ariel looked like some goth punk and her scar was on display this morning. She never tried to hide it but today it stood out more than normal.
She’d done that on purpose. I just didn’t understand why.
Simon and I stood side by side with a small gap between us for Ariel to be able to look through. It was as close as I wanted her to get to the man.
“What’s your name?” she asked him and I wanted to tell her to shut up. She didn’t need to talk to him.
He continued to throw chunks of bread to the ducks as he replied to her.
“My name matters not to you. I assure you, it’s not one you’d recognize like yours.
I’ve spent my whole life blending in with normal society.
I do a little freelance on the side, like I did for your aunt.
It pays the bills and keeps me in the lifestyle I want.
Born different but never really special enough to stand out.
Not like you, Ariel Kimber. You stand out, even if you don’t try. ”
I wanted to laugh at him. She’d definitely come here with the intent of standing out. I didn’t laugh though because the way he was talking was giving me the creeps in a really big way.
This man was off.
He might have been able to blend in until he opened his mouth and started speaking. There was nothing normal about him then.
“It doesn’t seem fair that you know my name but refuse to tell me yours. Keeping your name from me won’t save you. You know that, right?”
Jesus.
That was a threat from Ariel if I ever heard one. That wasn’t how you started off a civil conversation.
I understood her clothes now. She came here looking for a fight and she was going to do anything until she could get one.
I wished she’d given me a heads up or something.
“I don’t take kindly to threats. And I’m not afraid of Rain.” he turned his head and looked directly at her. “It’s obvious to me that you grew up with Vivian and learned from her. She threatened me once too. Now where is she?”
“In the dirt where she belongs. Would you like to join her?”
He laughed and took off his sunglasses.
His eyes were ghostly white and completely washed out.
It could happen to people sometimes who dabbled in the wrong kind of magic.
Simon believed it had something to do with losing your soul.
The whole thing creeped me the fuck out.
How could you live without a soul? I needed what part of mine that belonged solely to me.
“That’s the last time that you threaten me,” he said to Ariel in a pleasant voice that reminded me of a serial killer.
Fucking awesome.
“And that’s the last time you threaten her,” Simon responded in an equally pleasant voice.
Even better.
Apparently we were all going to act like crazy fucking assholes here.
Good to know.
“Can we skip this part and get to why we’re really here?” Ariel drawled in a bored voice that made me proud of her.
It was good to see that she could play along for once.
The man put his sunglasses back on and went right back to feeding the ducks.
“Come and sit down by me, Ariel Kimber. Tell me about your life and feed a few ducks.”
I knew better than to tell her not to do it. She wouldn’t listen to me. She might actually do it just to spite me.
My brother wasn’t as smart as me.
“You’re not going over there.”
I rolled my eyes. Simon would never learn.
Ariel pushed her way between us and sat down on the bench beside the creep.
Simon swore viciously underneath his breath. I almost laughed again.
Ariel took a piece of bread from the man and began ripping it into little shreds and tossing them into the water.
“I’m not going to waste my time telling you about my life because it’s obvious to me that you already know a great deal about me. More than I clearly know about you.”
I didn’t much see the point in this conversation Ariel was hell bent on having. You couldn’t believe anything out of the mans mouth and she ought to just wait for Rain to take care of him.
This rebellious streak in her where she felt the need to do everything on her own was enough to drive me crazy.
She was lucky she was smart and incredibly powerful or she wouldn’t be able to get away with half the stuff that she did.
“Tell me, how did you get in with the Council when no female has ever been able to pull that off before? Did you use your pussy and sleep with all of them? You had to, it was the only thing that would have worked with them. They didn’t care about much else. What an absolute waste.”
I stared at him in shock, wondering if he really just tried to compare her to a whore or if maybe I’d heard him wrong.
“The fuck?” Simon growled.
Nope, guess I heard him right after all.
Ariel stopped throwing chunks of bread at the ducks and turned to stare daggers at the man. “You get that they were filthy rapists and absolute scum of the earth, yes?”
He waved his hand blandly in her direction, easily blowing her words off. “Most men in power are, girl. It’s just the way the world works, unfortunately for those less fortunate souls born with a vagina between their legs.”
Oh, good fucking grief, he did not just say that to Ariel Kimber of all people.
“Is it the having a vagina itself that makes you think being a female that makes us less fortunate?”
I don’t buy her conversational tone for a second and if this man were half as clever as he thought he was he’d take one look at her and run for his life.
“You don’t think women in our culture are born less fortunate than the male witches are?” he asked her condescendingly. “We should talk about how you got that scar on your face.”
“Do you like scars?” she asked him in return and I didn’t for one second like the dead look that had washed through her pretty green eyes.
She was up to no good.
Again.
The man shrugged carelessly. “Scars don’t mean anything to me. Then again I don’t have any like yours to mark my body.”
Ariel moved faster than I’d ever seen her move before and I knew she’d used her magic to give her a little burst of speed. Her arm shot out and she slashed a sleek black blade across his face.
“Fuck,” he screamed as he leapt to his feet and lurched away from the bench Ariel was still sitting on. “You stupid bitch. What’s the matter with you?”
Ariel laughed darkly. “Well, I figured since you admired mine so much I could give you one similar to it. Now you won’t be able to hide your plain Jane face in plain sight anymore.
You can’t remove scars made by that blade, she marks you for life.
Little gift I got from one of my husbands. One of the crazier ones.”
“One of?” I asked with a laugh. “Shit, they’re all fucking nuts.”
She flashed me a wicked grin. “All of the men in my life are. And don’t you try to deny it.”
“You’re fucking crazy!” the man screamed and I sighed, over this game Ariel clearly wanted to play with her new friend.
“This isn’t crazy, mister,” Ariel drawled.
“You haven’t seen crazy yet. This is mild but it’s the only way I think I might get any real information out of you.
I tried to play nice and feed the stupid ducks with you but that wasn’t getting me anywhere.
So I thought we’d try to play this way. You’re welcome to tell me the truth at any time and we can stop playing.
Those are the rules and it’s really up to you how we proceed forward from here going forward. ”
I was happy to hear there’d be no more sitting on the bench pretending to be fake friends bullshit. I couldn’t take any more of that, it was a complete waste of time and I was glad to hear we were finally done with it.
But that didn’t mean we could go around slicing people open at the park in broad daylight because that was also pretty fucking crazy.
That man glared at Ariel while pressing the palm of his hand to his cheek. It didn’t stop the blood from flowing down the side of his face.
“I’m not telling you anything, you fucking bitch. I don’t know who you think you are but you don’t get to attack me and then threaten me. You’re going to pay for that. Everyone you love is going to pay for that, mark my words.”
“Oooh,” Ariel mocked. “I’m shaking in my boots. Please. Better men than you have tried and I’m still standing here. If anyone’s a bitch here it’s you. But you’re welcome to give it your best shot and try.”
She held her hands out at the sides and shook her fingers at him in invitation.
“Not on your life, motherfucker,” Rain snarled as he stepped up behind the man. Rain wrapped his forearm around the man’s throat and lifted him up clean off of his feet.
The man struggled but he was no match for Rain’s brute strength.
Rain stared his daughter down while he choked the man out.
The man went limp and Rain tossed him aside as if he were a piece of garbage. Finn and Romero were right there to scoop him up.
“We’ll get him in the trunk,” Romero said to Rain, who was still focused on Ariel. “We need to get him out of here before people start showing up at the park to play with their kids or walk their dogs.”
“Don’t make an even bigger mess here, Rain,” Finn advised before he and Romero carried the man off between them.
I couldn’t say I was sad to see him go but I was upset and worried for Ariel. She’d come here wanting answers from him and all she’d gotten was more bullshit and head games.
When was enough going to be enough for our girl here?
“Quinton was wrong to send you here without me,” Rain said in a gentle voice to his daughter.
She shook her head and looked down at her boots. “I’m a big girl, dad. I make my own decisions. This had nothing to do with Quinton.”
That wasn’t entirely true because it had all been Quinton’s decision. But I kept my mouth shut because there was a time and a place for everything and now was neither.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
She shook her head again and she looked so dejected my heart broke for her.
“That’s because you’re looking for something no one can give you, baby girl. It’s horrible and I hate it for you, but it’s just a fact of your life that you need to come to terms with. And the sooner the better, Ariel, because you can’t keep chasing after something that’s not there.”
“Now hold on a goddamn second, Rain.” Simon stepped up next to Ariel and wrapped her up in his arms. “It’s not over for her yet.
That man could still hold the answers that she’s looking for, even if it is to find she needs to close this chapter in her life.
She’s not wrong for seeking answers and she’s not wrong for coming here without you. ”
Simon’s right, dammit.
Rain opened his mouth, but I spoke, cutting him off.
“They’re both right and you’re only going to argue with them because she’s your daughter and you care about her.
That’s understandable, but you need to remember she’s an adult now and gets to make her own decisions.
And you need to respect them and her for it. ”
Rain turned his glare on me but I didn’t shrink under it. I respected the man more than anyone else, but when it came to Ariel and my brother I wasn’t about to back down.
And if anyone ought to respect me for it it should be Rain.
He kept his mouth shut and didn’t try to argue with me. I’d accept that from him because he had to be feeling a lot at the moment too.
“I’ll ride back to the cabin with you guys and we’ll see if we can get you guys set up with one near ours.
I’ll also show you the storage unit. Simon is going to take Ariel back to the cabin to regroup and figure out what’s the next step we’re going to take.
Now that we have a plan let’s get the fuck out of here. ”
I’m relieved when no one argues with me. I hadn’t expected Ariel to because I was taking her back on this a hundred percent. And I’d just finally made that known. But I expected Rain to argue with me or tell me he was in charge here and I needed to shut the fuck up.
I didn’t know what was scarier, the dead look in Ariel’s eyes or the fact that Rain was taking orders from me.
Whatever, I didn’t put too much thought into it.
It looked like I was in charge right now and I needed to get shit done.