Chapter 24 Shadows And Light #2
Elias talks to her with so much tenderness. My heart squeezes. What is that? I rub my chest. Maybe I ate something recently that doesn’t agree with me. No, I eat the exact same foods every day, at the same times. I never stray from my biological schedule.
Guiding her by the shoulders, Elias turns her to face me. “Little One, this is Shadow. He’s one of our best guards, or he was. He lost his title since you outran him, too.”
Ean scoffs. “Best guard? What the hell am I? I’m the one busting my ass training the newbies, while this one goes off to a fancy college.”
“I don’t see you doing any training now.
Besides, I’ll earn my title back eventually,” I counter, lifting an eyebrow at Ean in a challenge.
He’s been training his whole life to become a guard.
Then I arrived, and it all came naturally to me without trying.
It frustrates him to no end, made worse when I don’t respond to his jabs or his competitiveness.
His brows rise in surprise, assessing me. I realize my facial expression is not practiced. I don’t usually banter with anyone. What did she do to me?
Little One timidly steps closer and holds out her hand to shake mine. Elias reaches out to stop her.
Normally, I don’t shake hands or hug. I don’t like being touched.
Yet as I take her dainty hand, a burst of white light and a tingle of electricity snake up my arm and embed themselves into my chest. I study her face, her breathing.
She doesn’t appear to have the same response to me.
Furrowing my brow, I bend forward slightly.
How can this be? “Can you remove your glasses?” I ask.
She jerks back just a little, like I slapped her in the face.
“I didn’t get a good look at you when we first met, watching you run away,” I joke with a genuine smile. I don’t want to intimidate or scare her away.
Reluctantly, she removes her ridiculously large glasses.
It’s her—the girl in the picture. Same heart-shaped face.
Dark contrasting eyebrows. Her eyelashes aren’t as long as they were.
I see the scars much clearer on the left side of her face, like someone deliberately cut into her flawless skin.
A white puckering scar sits in the hollow of her throat.
White scars run along her arms and across her wrist.
What the hell did they do to you?
Anger spreads through my entire being. I want to kill the fucker who hurt her. I swallow the emotions that flare up in my chest and clear my throat. “I trust you are doing well?”
I wince. I sound like an asshole. I feel eyes staring at me. Everyone in the room scrutinizes me.
She offers a tight-lipped smile and a nod. Then, she turns away from me to face Anders.
“Yes. I received your application. We can discuss it when I’m done with this meeting,” Anders says to her.
I look around the room. Was I so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t hear her speak?
Chris laughs. “Little One, girls are not allowed in the guard.” She swivels toward Elias. “Don’t look at me. I don’t make the rules, Little One. You know that.” She stares at him for a moment, then at Chris, and back to Anders.
Anders raises a hand. “Jessica, I promise we will talk about this later. No more arguments.” She emits an irritated sigh, and Anders smiles. “You have my word.”
She nods and rounds the room, giving Elias and Chris hugs. Walking behind Anders’s desk, he receives a hug and a peck on his cheek.
He blushes. “‘Bout time. I was starting to feel left out.”
She pats his shoulder and leaves the office, taking her light with her. She doesn’t look back at me or say goodbye.
I feel a little—what? Miffed that she dismissed me so easily. Especially when I can barely hold it together. “Did I miss something?” I ask. “I swear I didn’t hear a word utter from her mouth.”
Anders clears his throat. “My apologies, Shadow. I should have explained while she was here. She doesn’t speak because the tracheostomy caused some complications.
This past week, she’s managed small sounds and short phrases but nothing substantial.
She’s also used to not speaking so she doesn’t.
Initially, when we brought her back from Whitemore plantation, she bonded with me and the Langhlam twins, and we could communicate through a mind-link.
Recently, she mind-linked with both Chris and Elias.
She doesn’t know how she does it, and she can’t seem to do so on command.
Her mind-link is also one-sided. We hear her, but she cannot hear us. ”
“Mind-link? A mind-link usually works only when in wolf or animal form and with members of the same pack. Only a true Alpha can communicate with pack members in human form through a mind-link. Even then, that’s rare.
Obviously, she’s a magic dweller. I could sense her magic surrounding her.
It practically enveloped the whole room. ”
Anders frowns. “I’m sure there’s more to it, but without knowing her origins…”
I stare at Anders. As clear as day, I see it. “I’m sorry, Anders. What is your relationship with the young woman?”
Chris smiles, and Elias chuckles. “You see it, too. Don’t you?” Chris asks.
“What is it you see?” Anders grimaces.
I issue a crooked smile. “Other than the similar characteristics you both share? The eyes and nose? And, if her hair was any lighter, it could be almost white.” He maintains my gaze without replying. “She has strong magic, stronger than anyone I encountered, including you.”
Anders reclines in his chair and wipes a hand over his face. “This can’t be,” he whispers.
“Where’s the paternity test?” Elias asks. “The results should have arrived by now. It’s been a few weeks.”
Anders pulls an envelope from the top drawer of his desk. “I didn’t have a chance to open it.”
“Or maybe you wanted to convince yourself you didn’t need to,” Elias suggests. Anders passes the envelope to Chris, who gives it to Elias.
“Why would you request a paternity test?” I ask.
“She needed a blood transfusion when she first arrived. The doctor asked everyone to get tested to find a more direct match.”
“Anders was the only one who came close,” Chris adds. “The doctor only asked Anders out of desperation.”
“Then, a few weeks ago, Jessica reacted to the blood transfusions using Anders’s blood,” Elias explains. “One of the specialists asked if Anders was a direct blood relative. Of course, he denied it.”
Anders looks away. “I don’t have a daughter. I would know,” he mumbles.
“That you know of,” Chris argues. “Look, you can stay in denial all you want, but you know deep down that it’s a possibility. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have agreed to the paternity test.”
Anders drops his chin to his chest, looking at the photograph in front of him. A crimson flush creeps from beneath his collar. “Aside from the hair and eyes, she looks just like her mother,” he finally admits softly.
“It’s a 99.9 percent match,” Elias informs Anders. Elias shows me the test results.
I think Anders already knew, even before the blood typing. He didn’t want to face the truth, especially given the way she was found.
His shoulders tense, jaw clenches, and the flush turns to an angrier red.
He slams his fist down on the desk. “Dammit! I can’t believe she would do this!
” He looks over at Elias and Chris. “Was this some kind of retaliation against me?” he shouts.
The two men stare at him, unblinking. “When I find her, I will fucking end her!” His breathing becomes labored, and the temperature in the room drops dangerously low.
Chris hops off the edge of the desk. “Wait! You don’t know the whole story. You’re jumping to conclusions. At this point, we still don’t know what really happened or how.”
“What really happened?!” Anders yells. “You saw what she looked like when she arrived at the clinic. You heard the doctor! Years of abuse and malnourishment. She was tortured. Her back was filleted. They cut off her hair and marred her face. She was beaten, strung up, and hanged from a tree, barely alive! Multiple failed surgeries, and even after all of that, she still nearly died only a few weeks ago.”
Standing, I lift my hands to distract Anders before ice shards start flying.
“Chris has a point. We don’t know what happened.
We can’t storm into a territory and start killing people without any proof of who attacked her.
All we—I mean, you—all you can do is focus on right now.
That’s what we—you—can do for her right now. ”
Why the hell do I keep saying we? This isn’t about me right now. This is about Anders and the young woman, and as much as I am on board for killing the fuckers who hurt her, we need to keep our heads. I mean, his head. Shit!
Anders glares at me, chest still heaving.
“We can figure out the rest later,” I assure him.
He stands, leaning forward with both hands planted on his desk. Frost forms on the wooden surface, and his harsh breaths puff into clouds.
I turn toward Chris and Elias. Worried expressions mirror my own. I have never seen Anders like this.
Still hunched, he closes his eyes and takes several slow, deep breaths. The room temperature begins to return to normal. “I will kill the asshole responsible for hurting my daughter, and not one of you better stand in my way,” he promises with a deathly calm.
“I’ll stand by your side, my friend,” Elias commits.
Chris nods. “No one deserves what she endured. We need to be logical about this and develop a plan. A plan to take care of her right now and keep her safe.”
Once calm, Anders slumps into his chair. “What the fuck am I going to do? I can’t have a daughter. I just can’t. Every female in my bloodline carries a curse.” He sighs and rubs his temples. “Pretty fucking obvious—the curse is already affecting her.”
Chris begins to pace. “Technically, it’s not a curse. It’s a bunch of greedy bastards who think they can gain something by hurting others. Just so happens the females in your bloodline are their main target.”