Chapter 20 #2
My mind connected the dots, and I placed my hand over my pounding heart.
No, it couldn’t be.
“But it could have been her.” Dad’s voice cut through my thoughts, and I stared at him.
Who was he talking about? The only woman who was our number one enemy was the vampire Queen.
“No, my King. She would have used elemental magic, and something in the forest would have given it away, like scattered rocks or torn branches. Based on the neck wound, vampires clearly inflicted it.”
Magic? The vampire Queen was not a practitioner of magic.
“You’re dismissed,” Dad said.
The werewolf warrior left, and Dad turned to Mom, his back toward the tree where Layla and I trembled.
“I shouldn’t have sent him on this mission. I should have gone instead.” Dad’s voice broke, and Mom hugged him again.
“Let’s go check the car first,” Mom said.
As soon as they walked away, I turned to Layla.
“Mission?” Layla whispered. Her eyes moved side to side, gazing into the distance. “I heard Uncle Brendan and Dad talk about a mission yesterday.”
Abruptly, she stood and sprinted to the spot where my parents had been just a moment ago. I followed her. Bending, she yanked on the corner of the tarp and uncovered the unmoving body of her father.
She wheezed as if her lungs were too constricted to take her next breath and dropped to her knees while staring at Uncle Derek.
His head was bent awkwardly, the missing part of his neck a gaping wound. The soil beneath his upper body was damp.
The stench of rusty metal and death hit my nostrils, and bile rose in my throat. I swallowed hard to suppress my gag reflex. I covered my face with my hands. How could my indestructible, favorite uncle be dead?
From the wound on his body, it seemed he had no chance against his attackers. How could anyone do this to him?
I knew it was a ridiculous question to ask. We lived in the supernatural world where danger lurked on every path.
No nine-year-old should have seen such a sight, even if she was a supernatural. Heart clenching painfully, I looked at my cousin as she hunched over her father.
“Layla, I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what to say or do. I wanted to embrace her and tell her everything would be okay, but that would have been a lie.
The hole in my chest grew, and I knew life would never be the same. For us. For Layla.
I crouched down next to her. “Layla?”
Breathing heavily, she shook. My cousin turned her head to the other side and threw up. The strangled sound escaping her throat made my chest tighten with pain.
Once she was done, she turned to me, but what I saw on her face raised the hairs on my forearms. My legs wanted to take me away from her. Her eyes radiated so much hatred that I almost stopped breathing. Her gaze flashed with anger. My body froze.
She moved so fast that my mind only caught up when I found myself a few feet away from her on my butt. She had shoved me so hard on my chest that it hurt inside and out.
“Dad died because of you. You…human. I heard him talk to your father about going on a mission because of you.” She paused to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand. “He was going somewhere because of you!”
My cousin kept screaming those words, her voice hoarse. I scrambled back on my hands and feet. My mouth fell open, but no words would come out. Blood rushed to my head, and my ears rang so hard that Layla’s next screamed words sounded muffled, but I thought I heard, “It’s always about you!”
The commotion drew other people's attention, and some dashed toward us.
Layla’s sobbing was uncontrollable now, her face a dark-red shade. She hugged her knees and rocked back and forth on the cold forest ground. She stopped talking, but her words stuck in my mind forever. That, and an image of my favorite uncle’s dead body.
Dad appeared in front of me and ordered his men to bring Layla back to the manor and find the royal doctor immediately. He then extended his hand and lifted me to my feet.
“Dad, did Uncle Derek die because of me?”
Dad’s black eyes softened at the edges. He patted my head. “Your uncle loved you and would have done anything for you, Anna.”
His words only added more intensity to the sorrow, grief, and guilt that brewed inside me—new emotions that I felt would stay with me for a long time.
“Was it because he tried to find out why I was human-born?”
Since I’d learned to speak, I kept asking my parents why I was born a human, why I couldn’t shift or feel my wolf, why my scratches took longer to heal, why I broke my wrist when both Layla and I fell off a tree, but she’d walked away unscathed.
Had I put so much pressure on my werewolf parents that they sent Uncle Derek on some mission to find the answers?
Dad took a sharp breath and averted his gaze to my mom, who recovered the body with the tarp.
“Anna, some things will make more sense when you grow up,” he said.
Inhaling deeply, I dropped my head back and watched the heavy sky.
The low gray clouds popped, and rain streamed down.
I squinted my eyes, and the cascading raindrops looked like ashes through my blurry vision.
Drops of water mingled with my tears, running down my cheeks.
The coldness of the rain seeped into my bones, intensifying the emptiness I felt inside.