Chapter 14 - Aubrey
I’m flipping through one of the books that I’d already read twice, but I had to have missed something. I wasn’t feeling anything, and Janella and Elize said sex was the key. I was beginning to think something was wrong with me.
I felt like I was failing. I could see the disappointment on Klaus’s face when he asked. We did the deed, and nothing had changed. Which meant we crossed that fine line in the sand for no reason.
And I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to help, but it was clear I wasn’t. I couldn’t even save myself, so why the hell I thought I could help save this pack was beyond me.
I heard the front door and turned. Klaus stepped in, looking frustrated. I chewed on my cheek, unable to stop my eyes from looking him over. Now that I’d seen him naked, I felt heat forming beneath.
Klaus spotted me and walked into the living room. “Hey, you have a moment to talk?”
I nodded, snapping the book shut. It wasn’t helping me anyway. “Sure, what’s up?”
“I spoke with Riley and Troy about everything.”
My stomach sank, unsure of what he was about to say. I chewed on my cheek. “Oh? And?”
“Well, there was information they left out. Long story short, there is a diary that I want you to look at.”
My eyebrows went up. “A diary? How come we’re just hearing about this now?”
He frowned. “Don’t poke at that door. It would seem that the diary hasn’t opened for anyone, and they didn’t think to mention it. So, tomorrow, would you be willing to look at it? I guess I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get in, but I figured we could try.”
I nodded. “Of course.” This was something new.
He looked tired, and I rubbed my hands together to stop myself from reaching out to him. “Besides that… how is everything?”
He shook his head. “A few more guys started having problems on my drive back into town, so they got locked up. I had to start making Cal work nights so we could have someone in the office at all hours.”
He looked stressed, and I wanted to help. “Do you want dinner? I can cook.”
He shook his head. “No, I was just going to heat up leftovers and head to bed. I have a few things to do tomorrow, but after that, we can head to Riley’s pack.
He gave me a nod as he turned into the kitchen. The house fell silent as I watched him. The morning after we had sex, I felt like we were connected, maybe a little closer. But maybe I’d been wrong.
The next day, we headed to Riley’s pack. Klaus led the way to a conference space where the diary sat. I hadn’t expected it to look like any diary. I was expecting something dangerous. But it was a simple leather-bound book with a little lock on the side. It didn’t even look that old.
“They can’t unlock it?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did they try?”
“A little, but Elize worried there might be a spell on it, and they don’t know what could happen if they put in the wrong code too many times.”
I picked the diary up and flipped it over. I scanned the leather and ran my fingers over the binding. I held the lock and rotated it a few times. It required four numbers.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I turned the dial. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. It was like someone was doing it for me.
Four. I rotated it back to nine, then forward to seven, and then landed on three. The locked clicked and snapped open.
Klaus’s eyes widened. “Did you unlock it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it just… I don’t know. Those numbers… it felt right.” I couldn’t put my finger on why, but it did.
I pulled the lock out and flipped the book open.
I took in pages upon pages of writing. The letters were neat and organized.
I sat down, flipping through them. There were dates written back over fifty years.
Each page was a new date. Some were long and filled, while others were only a few lines.
But you could tell whoever wrote in this used it every day.
“She had beautiful writing,” I state, running my finger along the fine print. “And you could feel her emotion in the writing.” I flipped to the middle, where the writing just stopped.
“There are a lot of pages in that. It’s going to take me some time to get through all of this.”
Klaus nodded. “Take your time.”
It took me a couple of days to get through it.
She talked about the weather and her day.
She spoke about learning magic and falling in love.
You could tell when she was excited because her pen was heavier on the paper, while on other days she wrote lightly because she was down.
There were even tear marks that stained the pages.
I was on the last page, and she was talking about her wedding. She had her dress in the closet, and she was eager to get up the next morning. The next page had been dated the wedding day, but nothing was written on it. There was no other writing after that.
I set the diary down just as Klaus came inside. He froze at the doorway. “Did you finish?”
I nodded.
“So?”
“She wrote a lot. She wrote about everything in her life. She was getting married, but it just stopped on her wedding day.”
Klaus frowned. “The guys were telling me about this woman who owned the diary. She never got married.”
I thought of all the books that I’d read and the little information I knew about dark magic.
It sounded like she had been stood up. “It’s said that strong emotions can twist a person up.
Turn a sweet and innocent person into someone else entirely.
This woman, she wasn’t always bad. She actually sounded sweet. ”
Klaus frowned. “Elize had a vision about her. She said the same thing.”
“Can I see the cauldron? I want to check it for marks. See if there is something that we all missed.”
“Couldn’t hurt. But for the record, I hate going into that room.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“I’m not letting you alone,” he countered.
I couldn’t help but smile, feeling that he cared. We headed down the hallway and into the meeting room, where the door that led to the basement was. We went down the spiral stairs, and a shiver went down my spine. The air felt colder, but nothing else.
“You okay?” Klaus placed his hand on my back.
I nodded. “Yeah, it just feels a little different coming down here this time than before.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing.”
I nodded as we continued down. We headed for the door, and I slowly opened it. The cauldron sat quiet like before. The room didn’t look different.
We stepped inside, and Klaus frowned, scrunching up his nose. “It stinks in here.”
“It does?” I asked, sniffing the air.
He nodded. “Yeah, like a rotting corpse.”
I didn’t smell it. I moved further into the room and looked the cauldron over to see if there was anything I had missed.
I didn’t see any marks or anything carved into the cauldron.
I looked into it, wondering if there was anything besides the water, but there was nothing inside. I was a little disappointed.
“So?”
I shook my head. “Sorry. I feel like I’m wasting your time.”
“You’re not.” He gave me a gentle smile. “This is all worth it. Now, let’s get out of here. This place creeps me out.”
I brought the diary back to the pack with us. I flipped through the pages over and over, looking to see if there was anything I missed.
“See anything new?” Klaus asked as he drove.
I shook my head. “No, but it’s just… There is so much emotion in this. I just wondered what all happened.”
Klaus’s face pressed together tightly. “Nothing good. I guess the council helped get in the way of things.”
It twisted me up inside thinking about it. How something so beautiful could be ruined so easily. She wrote about her love.
“Would you do it?”
He glanced at me. “Do what?”
“Ruin something beautiful?”
His jaw clenched. “I’d like to think I’m not like them.”
As I took in his face, I didn’t think he could. Sure, Klaus was grumpy and short-tempered. At times, he was easily irritated, but I didn’t see him as cruel. He was fair and just. He listened to reason.
I looked back at the diary and flipped it shut. “I wonder what happened next. Why didn’t she write in the diary after that day?”
Suddenly, I wasn’t in the car but standing in the middle of a street.
The sound of screams echoed around, and I pulled my hands up to cover my ears.
I winced at the pitch and turned around.
The streets were filled with people running around scared for their lives.
Blood splattered the pavement and the shrubs.
The screaming only grew louder. I could hear a child crying and someone pleading.
I couldn’t look, but I couldn’t look away at the same time. I felt sick, suddenly wanting to vomit where I stood.
And like the snap of a finger, I was back in the car. My eyes were wide, and Klaus had pulled the car to a stop. “Aubrey?”
I unblocked my seat belt and threw the door open. I didn’t even make it out a step before my stomach revolted and I threw up into the grass.
My head spun as I knew those faces. They were Klaus people. I was standing in Klaus’s pack while this disaster played out.
“Aubrey.” Klaus was already around the car, his hand on my back. “Breath.”
I gasped for air, my eyes burning with what I saw. I wanted to shake the images out.
“Aubrey, talk to me.”
I pulled my head up, staring into his eyes. I pulled my hand to my lip. “I saw bloodshed.”
Klaus’s face pinched together. “Where? Wait, did you have a vision?”
I took a breath in. “In your pack.”
He frowned. “You did have a vision. That’s good. It means things are changing.”
I shook my head. “I don’t like what I saw.”
“It’s a vision. They don’t always happen. Breath.” His hand rubbed circles on my back, and I was suddenly hyper-aware of him. His scent filled my nose, and his touch was warm. I swallowed, suddenly needing space.
“We should go.” I pushed myself up and toward the car.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I nodded, getting back into my seat. “Yes, let’s go.”
I stared ahead, the vision blurring in my brain. I could smell the blood, and the voices were echoing over in my skull. Klaus spoke, but I didn’t hear him as he pulled into the driveway.