Chapter 18 Leo #2
Those were important questions. Trust Ven to keep her head on straight even after hearing such horrible revelations. I wonder if she knew how much her calm and comforting demeanor helped me when it felt like my brain was going to consume itself.
“I don’t know.” After so many sudden epiphanies, one right after the other, I couldn’t help but feel a bit like a failure. I had come so far so quickly, unraveling the mystery of everything that happened, only to stop short right before the end.
“Hey, that’s okay. Why don’t you take a seat, and I’ll get you some water. If you want, you can read the articles I pulled up, but it’s okay if you don’t. Take a moment to breathe.”
Breathe. Yeah, I could do that. Breathing was the basic function of life. Sitting in the computer chair, I rested my head in my hands and tried to come to terms with the floodgates that had opened.
I wasn’t seeing full scenes anymore; those had stopped.
But I still caught snippets and flashes.
Nothing about the brothers, but important things, nonetheless.
I saw Ricky trying to blow out the candles on his ninth birthday cake, but his asthma stopped him from doing it.
That’s when I’d stood behind him and subtly blown along with him.
Of course, he had lost that particular affliction once he got his wolf form.
It pissed me off that that precious memory had been stolen.
Charity losing her first tooth.
Helping Lawlit bury his mother after she contracted lycanthropy and died.
Most people used that as a catch-all term for werewolves, but it was actually a horrible disease that affected wolf shifters.
The closest comparison was rabies, and like that disease, it had no cure.
Thankfully, it wasn’t infectious, but all that meant was that we didn’t know how it was contracted.
“Here you go,” Ven said, putting her hand on my shoulder as she handed me a steaming mug. “This should help you calm down.” Then she placed a water bottle on the desk in front of me. “And that’s for quenching your thirst.”
By all the shifter spirits, this marvelous, wonderful woman took really good care of me.
It was insane to think I’d showed up at her door as a giant monster, and she’d looked at me and thought, yeah, I’ll make friends with that.
I would never forget how incredibly lucky I was or take it for granted.
“Thank you,” I murmured. While I would love to launch into an eloquent soliloquy about how much better she made in my life, my vocabulary still wasn’t there yet. So, instead, I sipped at the hot, pungent tea and tried to collect my thoughts.
“Do you want to read the articles?” Ven murmured. “Or do you want me to read them? Do you want to take a break? These will still be here later.”
I was already in an emotional state because of everything I’d remembered, so it wasn’t surprising how much fondness welled up in me. She really was so considerate. “I would like you to read them for me if that’s okay.”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it.”
And that was very true. Unlike what I remembered from other humans, Ven never had a hint of duplicity about her. She said what she meant and meant what she said. I appreciated that immensely.
“Do you mind rolling the chair over just a bit? That way I can bring one in from the kitchen.”
“No, you don’t have to. I can stand.”
But then her hand was on my shoulder for the third time, and I found I didn’t want her to let go. “Nonsense. You stay there and work on your tea. I’ll be right back. Just make some room for me, please.”
I did because it was truly the least I could do. She came back a few moments later with one of the wooden chairs from her kitchen. Sitting down, she cleared her throat and began to read.
I listened, but her profile distracted me.
The way the column of her throat bobbed up and down when she swallowed.
The way her nose crinkled when she read something she didn’t like.
The way her brows furrowed when it made her outright angry.
She was so expressive, so genuine. Although a terrible misfortune had definitely befallen my pack, I would forever be grateful it had put me in Vanessa’s path.
It took quite a while for her to go through everything. Chadwicke was doing so much damage to the mortal world, I struggled to think what he was getting away with that they had no idea about. Even without his crimes against shifters, his accusations were lengthy.
Corruption. Smuggling. Drug use. Drug trafficking. Witness tampering. Kidnapping. Fraud. Yet every time he went to court or got into trouble, he walked away unscathed.
“I can’t believe you found him,” I said, once again marveling at what Ven was able to do with an old computer.
It wasn’t like I was completely techno-illiterate—I remembered having a smartphone—but I didn’t think I’d ever had a laptop.
I vaguely remembered borrowing Ricky’s a couple of times, but that was really it.
Granted, it wasn’t like my memory was a steel trap.
“Well, with a paper trail like this, it wasn’t exactly difficult. Do you know what his powers could be?”
I waited a moment, racking my brain to see if that memory came up, but it didn’t. And unlike other times where I could feel something was missing, this felt like I’d truly never known. “No. We don’t know any of the other brothers’ abilities. I would assume they’re all different, though.”
“Fun,” Ven said in a way that told me she meant the opposite. Originally, I had struggled with sarcasm and facetiousness, but after spending so much time with her, I had a good handle on both concepts. “So, what now?”
“What do you mean, what now?” I retorted with a mildly manic chuckle.
It was a sound that might have concerned anybody else, but I figured with everything that had happened, I was justified.
“I’m going to find where he is, make him show me where he’s kept Ricky, and then I’m going to rip his own throat out and feed it to him. ”
Ven grimaced, and I wasn’t sure if it was from my tone or my description, but surely she had to understand.
“What if he’s at some super protected compound like his brothers? I mean, this guy’s managed to get away with so much without any human authorities touching him, so he’s gotta have plenty of protection.”
She was being reasonable, but I was in no mood for that. I finally had a direction for all my confusion and anger, as well as answers for some of what had happened to me and the people I loved.
It was time for justice.
It was time for revenge.
“Then I’ll raze that compound to the ground. I’ll kill anything in my path if it’s standing between Ricky and me.”
I was confused when Ven’s face grew grayer, and the smell of stress and fear emanated from her. I didn’t think I was saying anything out of pocket. Surely she had to understand.
“Look, this guy is likely hiding in the human world. I’m sure if I do some digging, I’m going to find him at some sort of mega estate or McMansion.
There are probably a ton of civilian and innocent people there, much like that harem you found with the other two brothers.
If you go in guns blazing, so to speak, you might risk all their lives. ”
She had a point, but it grated against the bloodlust building in my chest. I hadn’t earned the status of alpha within my pack by sitting by and letting others get away with hurting those I loved, and it felt like she was asking me to do that.
“What are you saying?”
She sighed. “I’m saying there will be no massacre.
You can’t go in there and just rip and tear through anyone you find.
Not just because you could hurt innocents, but because you could die.
You said these brothers were incredibly powerful, and the last time you took them on, you had three whole groups of shifters fighting together.
You, as incredible as you are, are just you.
I don’t mean to be rude in any way, but you’re not even fully you yet.
If you want to do this, we need some sort of strategy to ensure your success, and that also means a whole lot more research. ”
My inner wolf was getting riled up in a way I wasn’t used to it. It was demanding action now. I was an alpha, after all. It was my job to be strong, to fight, and to give my life for my pack. I wasn’t supposed to strategize like a weakling.
I shook my head, surprised at those vehement thoughts.
Strategizing wasn’t a weakness. Hell, I had used it to defeat two of the seven brothers, and we wouldn’t have succeeded without it.
The chemical and emotional rush from suddenly regaining my memories had made my inner wolf more than a bit agitated.
It had gone from being solely in control with no humanity to hold it back, to me not having shifted since Ven had kissed my nose and broken my curse.
She still didn’t believe it was her who had done that, but I knew it without a shadow of a doubt.
“What would you suggest we do then?” I asked.
“Give me one week. I have some time off coming up, and I’ll research until then. With a record that long, I’m willing to bet I’ll be able to find where this guy is staying.”
“And then I—”
“No, that does not mean you just go straight there and rain down hell. We need to do reconnaissance. Maybe I can get hired as a cleaner or even a gardener.”
I blinked at her slowly. Ven was amazing, but even she had her limits. “I’m really skeptical that it would remotely work out.”
“Hey, if it doesn’t, we can go with your plan. But when it comes to plants, no one has shit on me.” I still wasn’t certain, even with the earnest way Ven’s dark eyes bored into mine. “Please, just give me a week to get more info.”
“What if this crazy getting hired plan lasts longer than a week? Can you afford to miss any time at work?” I hated to bring money into it, especially since I wasn’t earning any, but I remembered enough about currency and the economy to know Ven wasn’t exactly well off.
In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was one of the reasons I wanted to get back to being able to shift without worry.
I was well aware that the amount of food I ate was putting a strain on her budget, and if I shifted, then I could hunt for her.
“Honestly, if I get hired, I’m sure this kingpin-wannabe will pay better than my job at the grocery store.”
Still, I didn’t like the idea of her putting herself in danger, and honestly, the whole thing seemed entirely ludicrous. But after everything Ven had done for me, surely I owed her at least the week to do her research.
“Fine,” I agreed after a painfully long pause. “But the moment things go wrong, we do things my way.”
“Deal.” Ven extended her hand, and I took it, giving it a firm shake.
Clearly determined, she turned back to her computer and started typing furiously. I continued to sip at my tea, trying to capture the ghosts of my past and resurrect them into memories.