Chapter Twenty-Seven
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VICTORIA’S WORST NIGHTMARES were coming true. Everyone was staring at her like she was a monster. Even the alien who said she belonged to him was giving her the side-eye now. “I can explain,” she said defensively.
“We’re willing to listen,” Grace said, but the kid looked ready to bolt for the hills.
“What did you see in my memory?” Vic asked, still in shock that the pretty young brunette could use magic.
“I saw you pick up the boy and squeeze him to death,” Zoe said, a bit shaken by the vision.
“You didn’t see what he was holding in his hand?” Victoria asked.
Zoe’s gaze went distant as she brought the vision to her mind again. “Is that a scalpel?” she asked, seeing something sharp clutched in his fist. The blade was covered in blood.
“Yeah and the little fudger had just stabbed me in the face with it,” Victoria said, rubbing her cheek where the blade had cut her to the bone.
“Can you replay the memory again, Zoe?” Amaros asked. The knight looked like he wanted to get to the truth of the matter, instead of condemning her, which Victoria appreciated.
“I’ll try,” Zoe said. She closed her eyes and Victoria watched in an agony of suspense. “She’s telling the truth,” Zoe said at last, grimacing when she opened her eyes again. “You tell the story and I’ll verify it,” she offered.
Taking a deep breath, Vic forced herself to dredge up the one memory she’d hoped to banish forever.
“Professional wrestling wasn’t my only job,” she began.
“I worked in a daycare center during the day. Most of the kids were great and I loved working with them, but one was a genuine psychopath. He fudging tortured the other kids when the adults weren’t looking. ”
“Tortured them how?” Amaros asked. His eyes were so dark they looked black. In Vic’s opinion, he wasn’t as hot as Camriel, but he wasn’t far behind.
“Scratching and biting them, mostly,” Victoria said. “He tried to stab a little girl in the eye with a crayon once. I stopped him from fudging blinding her.”
“That’s why you say fudge instead of cursing?” Cam asked. “Because you guard small children?”
“Yeah,” Victoria said sheepishly. “I try not to use any bad language around the kids, but I sometimes slip.”
“I’m guessing the psycho kid wasn’t raptured,” Grace figured.
Vic nodded ruefully. “I went to work the day after everyone disappeared, just to check and he was already there,” Victoria said, hugging herself when a breeze reminded her that her clothes were still wet.
“Mickey was standing in the foyer, looking lost and innocent. The little cork sucker looked up at me and pretended to cry. He held his arms up for me to pick him up and I stupidly fell for his act.” She shook her head in disgust at herself for being so gullible.
“You’re compassionate,” Camriel said, sounding like he was proud of her. He’d lost his slightly wary expression and his gaze had become warm again.
“What happened next?” Grace asked, caught up in her tale.
“I picked him up to hug him and the shiz for brains stabbed me in the cheek with a scalpel,” Victoria explained, touching the long-healed wound again.
“The cork sucker was giggling like an evil little troll and I knew he was going to try to kill me. It seemed humane to crush him to death, rather than ripping his horrible little head off.”
“You did the right thing,” Zoe said, regaining some of her color. “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. I should have watched the whole memory first.”
“It’s okay,” Vic said. “I still feel fudging horrible about it.”
“We’ve been forced to eradicate evil younglings many times,” Amaros said, commiserating with her.
“They were our kind,” Grace reminded him wryly.
“What are we, exactly?” Victoria asked. “Is that evil dude with the red eyes really my father?”
“He is,” Camriel confirmed. “Your sire’s name is Phul, going by your resemblance to him.”
“My dad is a fool, that tracks,” Victoria said with an eyeroll.
“I think his name is spelled differently to how it sounds,” Zoe said.
Victoria nodded, feeling like she’d aged a thousand years. “I don’t suppose you have hot coffee in your lair?” she asked hopefully.
“We sure do,” Grace said cheerfully. “We have dry clothes that will fit you, too,” she added slyly.
“Come with us, mate,” Camriel said in a coaxing voice, holding out his hand to her. “Let us show you our home. You’d be far safer living with us than in whatever dwelling you’ve found here.”
“The cabin is small, but it’s isolated enough that you guys haven’t found it yet,” she pointed out, highly tempted to take them up on their offer.
“Come visit for a cup of coffee,” Grace suggested. “You can leave whenever you like. We’re not slaves or prisoners. Zoe is Amaros’ mate, not his concubine.”
“Are your mothers human?” Victoria asked, still not convinced.
“Of course,” Zoe said. “Isn’t yours?”
“I have no idea,” Victoria confessed. “She gave me up for adoption when I was only a few days old.”
“Did you have good adoptive parents?” Grace asked, feeling for the wrestler.
“No one wanted me,” Victoria said, pretending it didn’t still hurt that she’d never been good enough to become a permanent member of a household. “I went into foster care instead.”
“I will love you as you deserve, once you become mine,” Camriel declared, handsome face filled with purpose.
“Is he for real?” Vic asked the girls.
“Yep,” Grace said almost wistfully. “The knights will do anything for their mates.”
“Will you come back with us for a short while?” Zoe asked, gesturing at the far side of the lake. “We’ve got a lot to talk about. I’d rather do it somewhere warm and where we can sit down.”
Victoria was torn, but the lure of hot coffee was too strong.
“I’ll just put this meat away,” she said with a nod of thanks to Camriel.
She could feel his eyes on her back as she picked up the container and carried it to the cabin.
She returned to the group and fell into step next to Grace. Zoe was on the kid’s other side.
“Why didn’t you drive here instead of walking the whole way?” the teen asked.
“I don’t know how to drive,” Vic confessed.
“I’ll teach you,” Grace said eagerly.
Victoria was skeptical about that. “Are you even old enough to drive?”
“I’m eighteen,” Grace said indignantly. “I just look younger.”
“How old are you, Vic?” Zoe asked. “I’m twenty-five,” she added.
“I’m twenty-four,” Victoria replied. “How old are the aliens?”
Amaros and Camriel were in the lead, giving her room so she didn’t feel trapped.
“They’re billions of years old,” Grace told her. “They’ve been fighting the Soldiers of Chaos ever since the planet was created.”
“Bull shiz,” Victoria said with a laugh. None of them laughed with her. “You’re not kidding, are you?” she asked.
“Like I said, we have a lot to talk about,” Zoe said.
“How many of us are there?” Vic asked, pointing at herself and the two girls.
“Only twenty,” Grace replied. “Chaos let its dogs loose just long enough to knock our moms up before locking them back up in the Void.”
Victoria shook her head in bewilderment. “I feel like I’m losing my fudging mind. At first, I thought maybe I was half werewolf or something because I’m so strong and fast and I can do that trick with my dreams. It turns out I’m half alien instead.”
“What trick can you do with your dreams?” Grace asked, almost tripping over a clump of grass. Zoe caught her before she could fall into the lake.
“Ever since puberty, I’ve been able to freeze my dreams and move around in them,” Vic said. “Something weird has happened twice this past week,” she said in a disturbed tone.
“You were dreaming when I saw you appear in front of me, weren’t you?” Camriel turned around to ask.
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “It freaked me out when you spoke to me. Phul did the same thing. He called me his offspring.”
“Your talent sounds so cool,” Grace said enviously. “All I can do is steal things that are important to people.” She held up the sickle that should have been attached to Victoria’s belt loop.
“How the hell did you get that from me without me seeing you?” the wrestler asked in confusion.
“I think she can use telekinesis,” Zoe said with a grin.
“We think you can astral project,” Grace told Vic as she handed her back her weapon. “It makes sense, if you were sleeping both times it happened.”
“Maybe,” Victoria said, tying the reaping hook to her belt loop again.
She didn’t know much about her skills, only that she was the only person she’d met who could manipulate her dreams. She couldn’t wait to hear the answers to the questions that had been plaguing her for her entire life.
Finally, she would find out exactly why she was so different from everyone else.