Chapter 9 #2
There was a long silence and Winter glanced over to see Fox sinking down in his seat a little lower, looking incredibly uncomfortable.
“Bel, his name is Fox Turner, and he was kidnapped by Damon’s brutes. He’s coming home with me until we can get Damon taken care of. Then he’ll be able to return to his home.” At least that was what Winter was hoping at this point.
“Hello, Fox,” Bel replied, but his voice sounded strained, as if there was a lot he was holding back.
“Hi, Bel. Your brother has told me nothing about you. Well, other than the fact that you are very bad about rising each night.”
Winter smirked at Fox and the forced cheerfulness in his voice. The witch just shrugged at him.
“Of course he did,” Bel muttered.
“I could use your help with something,” Winter started again, trying to pull his brother’s brain away from the dark thoughts he was likely turning over. He didn’t want Bel thinking about the fact that Winter had in hand the witch that was supposed to be destroying his family.
“What do you need?”
“They grabbed Fox straight off his job, and then I kind of stole him from Damon. He’s got…”
“Nothing,” a new voice filled in. Winter smiled. He’d recognize River’s softer tones anywhere. “We can make sure he’s outfitted for at least a week by the end of the night.”
“Thanks, River.”
“No problem. Just need sizes.”
“Whoa…wait! I don’t want anyone to go to trouble. I-I…” Fox said quickly, but his stammers drifted off.
“Fox, you need clothes,” Winter said gruffly, not taking his eyes off the road.
Late evening traffic wasn’t too bad, but they couldn’t afford to get tied up in a minor fender bender.
They needed to get to Hartford safely and quickly.
“I don’t mind loaning you some of mine, but I thought you’d feel more comfortable with something to call your own. ”
“Yeah, but the expense,” Fox said in a whisper. “I’m pretty sure I’ve been fired from my job at this point for not showing. The money isn’t exactly flowing in, but I will pay you back.”
“You’ve been kidnapped…twice,” Winter muttered. He waved one hand as he tried to think of something that made sense. “Think of it as short-term hazard pay.”
There was a snort through the car speakers, and Winter wasn’t sure if it was from his brother or River.
“If that’s your rationale, I also need to pick up some booze for the poor guy,” River teased. “Speaking of…if you’re anything like Bel, there is no food in your house.”
“That would be correct,” Winter admitted with a sigh. “Do you mind…”
“We’ve got it, Winter,” Wyatt quickly said. “We’ll head out in the next hour.”
“Where are you?” his brother demanded.
“We’re still at least four, maybe five hours out. We won’t reach my place until morning. The locks are coded to Bel’s bio, so let him go in first. Leave it all in the kitchen. We can sort through it when we arrive.”
“Winter, I…”
“We’re fine, Bel. I promise. I got through Damon’s easily. Fox wants to help us. We’ll be safe and sound in Hartford in no time.” Bel’s worry was warm and reassuring. It helped to ease old feelings of loneliness and isolation.
“I’m not happy,” Bel grumbled.
Winter chuckled. That was likely an understatement. Bel might be the brother most likely to be distracted and lost in an experiment, but he also happened to be the most overprotective of all the brothers. Probably the scariest, though few people outside the family knew it.
Rafe and Marcus could threaten and rampage with the best of them. Winter could do some sneaky, scary things. But Bel, he was a total mad scientist with a sadistic streak when his family was threatened. Bel would torture and break a person if he had to.
“You’re really not going to like my last request, then,” Winter continued.
There was a long, drawn-out sigh before his brother spoke again. “You don’t want me to tell Marcus.”
“Or Rafe.”
“Winter—”
“Bel, I’m exhausted, and it’s going to be late when we get home. I don’t want to deal with all of them descending on my place when I really need to double-check my security.”
There was a long silence, and Winter looked to make sure the call hadn’t been dropped.
“Twenty-four hours,” Bel ground out.
“That’ll be enough,” Winter said, releasing a relieved breath. “Now hand the phone over to your wolves, so we can get Fox outfitted.”
“Oh, wow! He’s got wolves?” Fox said.
“Two of them,” River proudly answered. “Are you a real witch?”
“Trust me, it sounds cooler than it actually is,” Fox mumbled.
“Can you turn into a fox? You know, because of your name.”
“Wow, I’m just going to be a big disappointment for you,” Fox said with a kind of forced cheer that he doubted River picked up on.
Winter clenched his teeth. His every instinct was demanding he pull Fox into his arms and just cuddle the wounded little witch, but that was a bad idea.
He didn’t need to cuddle Fox. He didn’t need to take care of Fox.
The man was plenty capable on his own. Winter needed to do enough to make sure he was comfortable. That was just basic compassion.
But he still couldn’t completely hold his tongue. Fox was already insecure about his powers, and now he was being accused of threatening people he’d never met.
“Fox is a young witch and still learning his powers,” Winter added.
“Oh, that’s cool.”
“Don’t worry, River. We’ll schedule a playdate for you and Fox,” he teased.
“Har. Har. Asshole,” River snapped, but it at least got a snicker out of Fox. The wolf and the witch spent the next thirty minutes talking about clothes, sizes, and most importantly, what food needed to be picked up.
When the call finally ended, Fox was looking more relaxed. Contacting Bel had been the smart choice, if for no other reason than talking to River. The young man—though even that was a misnomer since he was supposedly over fifty years old—had an engaging way about him that put other people at ease.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Fox turn in his seat so that he faced Winter as he drove. There was a wide grin on his face—like he was barely holding in all the questions bubbling inside of him.
Winter lifted a hand and waved his fingers at Fox. “Come on. Let me have it.”
“Bel, your brother, has two lovers? Boyfriends?”
“Yes.”
“Are they both wolves?”
“Yes.”
“Whoa…that’s cool. I didn’t think vampires and werewolves liked each other. I thought you were more like mortal enemies.”
Winter snorted. “More like we really didn’t know each other existed until recently.
Apparently there’s a long history of wars and violence I’m still learning about, but we’ve largely kept away from each other.
Beltran has always been different. His power is to speak to and understand animals.
It created a unique bond between him and the wolves. ”
Well, there was way more to that story than he was giving away, but if Fox met River and Wyatt, then he was sure the witch would get all the details from the people actually involved in all the drama.
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Three. All older.”
Fox winced. “That had to be a pain in the ass growing up.”
Winter nodded. “Very overprotective brothers.”
“Yeah, I got that impression. Should I be worried?”
Keeping his eyes on the road, Winter reached across and placed his hand on Fox’s shoulder, squeezing.
He couldn’t stop himself. Or rather, he was tired of fighting this damn urge to protect the man.
But something about the idea of anyone hurting Fox made his fangs ache and burn. “You’ll be fine. We need more answers.”
“It’s not like I’d blame your brothers. They’re just trying to protect themselves and the people they love.
And this whole prophecy is so damn vague.
It’s obvious that if it is me, it’s not because of my magic.
But what if it’s something I do, not meaning to hurt anyone, but it still destroys your family? ”
“Then we figure it out,” Winter said more sharply than he meant to.
He gritted his teeth for a second, waiting until he was sure he could speak a little more evenly.
He put his hand back on the steering wheel to keep from balling it into a fist out of frustration.
“We can sit here and list all the reasons why it’s smart for me to pull over and kill you now—”
“Let’s not,” Fox muttered.
“Or we focus on getting to a safe location so we can start researching all this prophecy nonsense. We find a way to keep my family safe and you alive.”
“But if killing me is the only way to keep your family safe…” Fox whispered.
Winter couldn’t say anything to that. He would kill the man. He didn’t want to. Just the idea of it was making his stomach churn and his palms sweat.
“We’ll figure this out.” It was all Winter could think to say.
“Thanks,” Fox murmured. “Brothers might be annoying, but it must have been nice growing up with built-in playmates. Were you always close?”
“Yes. We all tend to be relatively inseparable. Always in each other’s business. Kind of surprising after all these years.”
Then again, maybe it wasn’t. For the longest time, they’d relied on each other to watch over their mother.
After close to two centuries of performing that duty, Winter was sure that not one of them thought they could suddenly stop checking in on each other.
It was an ingrained part of who they were now.
“I take it you’re an only child,” Winter said, happy to talk about anything other than why they were in the car together in the first place.
Fox nodded. “Yeah, just me and my mom growing up. She worked a lot and I learned to be independent from an early age, but I liked it. We looked out for each other. With the cancer, it happened kind of fast, but she made sure I was prepared as well as I could be. You know, so I wasn’t grieving her and trying to figure out how to rent an apartment at the same time. ”
“She sounds amazing.”
Fox hummed softly to himself, relaxing in his chair. “She was. Loved to laugh and play little jokes.”