Vanessa

I lay my head back against the wall and refuse the urge to pound my head back. The idiots I’m stuck with haven’t stopped arguing for the last hour, and if Nate and Kore don’t get back soon, I swear to all the Spirits I will start lighting some asses on fire. A bang echoes throughout the room, and all eerily goes silent. I almost want to shout at them.

Even if someone is outside the door, they are aware we’re in here, thanks to your mouths. The furniture piled against the door shack with each thrust against the door until it stops completely. I try to bring forth my flames, but all it does is leave me winded and leaning more heavily against the wall. Note to self, visions that I force to happen take up a lot of energy.

Several knocks on the door ring out three knocks, then five spaced-out ones, and finally, four speedily occur together. It stops for a minute before it repeats the process. This goes on for several minutes before Hugo steps up and starts to undo the barricade.

“We don’t know for sure if that’s Kore.” A man steps up and looks to be around mid-thirties but is leaning heavily on a walking stick. Perhaps he has a leg injury? Hugo turns back for a second and opens the door. Not a second later, he’s thrown back as Kore wraps herself in his arms. She looks up into his eyes, having another one of their private conversations.

I glance around their forms and see Nate lurking in the doorway with a little girl firmly held against his chest. He crosses the room, ignoring the looks thrown his way, and frees his arm to hug me. I cling to for a second before slapping his chest.

“Ouch! Witchy, what was that for?” He pouts, but we both know that hit didn’t hurt him.

“Then next time, don’t leave me here alone,” I tell him.

“I wouldn’t, but I knew you were too tired and the last thin’ I wanted was you gettin’ hurt,” he chides, I sigh as he’s not wrong, I bump my head against his chest and wish he wasn’t so freakishly taller than me.

“So who’s the child?”

“Hmm, this is Amena. Amena, this is Vee.” I look at the little girl, but she hides her face against Nate’s chest and clings to him.

“Wow,” I declare.

“What?”

“Never thought you’d be good with children,” I explain. He gives me a tight smirk, and I know it’s one of those things we’ll talk about away from others. Kore appears with Hugo, and Amena’s eyes widen before she reaches up to tug at one of Nate’s locs. He gazes at her before raising his eyebrow.

“What is it?”

“Amena is Hugo’s little sister,” Kore informs us. Nate looks between the two, scrunching up his eyebrows a bit.

“Huh, yeah, y’all do have the same eye and nose shape. Just thought everybody here was related, though,” he states.

“No, several covens have joined together over time to make Dolon. Most of us come from covens that were broken apart or are the last survivors of our family.” I swallow a lump in my throat, thinking of all the people I had grown up with and how they slowly started disappearing once I had hit eight summers.

“Was this the first attack?”

“No but it has been a while. It would appear they have regrouped and are trying a different strategy. Listen everyone,” Kore raises her voice and turns to face the rest of the room “thankfully Nate has incapacitated most if not all of the Bobbies. I need volunteers to come with me to search and make sure not a single one gets left in our borders.”

Several volunteers raise their hands high, stepping closer to Kore. One man eyes Nate before stalking our way.

“Will he be joining us,” he questions. Kore looks at Nate before turning back to the man.

“I think if we can handle it, they will continue on their way out.” He nods in agreement before eyeing Nate.

“He’s unwelcomed, but we could always use more firepower.” I bristle at him, ignoring Nate’s grip on my shoulder, I clench and unclench my hands before giving the man a tight smile.

“Unfortunately I will be of no use at the moment. I wore myself at training earlier.”

“That’s a shame don’t see such powerful witches showing up out of nowhere all the time, you know.”

“So I’ve heard.” I glance at Nate, and if I had the energy, a fireball would be aimed straight for his stupid smirk. “Let’s get going.”

“Right, right.” He goes to put Amena down, but she clings to him even tighter, she lifts up and whispers something into his ear. Suddenly I feel all the eyes in the room glued onto us. Nate lowers her down, and she lets go after he responds to her, something too low for me to pick up. I grab his hand, and we walk out of there. Nate stops to pick up our bag, and then we continue on our way.

“So that guy seemed rea-”

“One more word, and I will throw you so far it’ll take days to heal all the bones right.” He gives a body shaking guffaw, but I roll my eyes and refuse to respond to that line of commentary as if I would provide that asshole the time of day.

“So how much are you regretting staying back,” I ask once we’re far enough away.

“None, surprisingly.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. That little girl reminded me of my niece, she was about that age when I left.”

“Was it a good reminder or a bad one?”

“Both if that makes sense,” he pauses and tightens the grip on my hand, “she was the real reason I left.” I catch a glimpse of his eyes, and they’re all misted over. I let go of his hand to throw my arms around his waist and grip him tighter as I felt an arm around my shoulders.

“Just letting you know you’re totally driving.”

“Ugh, but Witchy, I suck at driving. I always crash the car at least once.”

“Hmm, too bad, I need a serious nap.” I let his cursing and complaints fall into the background and enjoy his body heat. Most see Nate and don’t understand he’s more than just a Bobby. He hurts and cries. We joke around all the time, and I know his favorite pastime is seeing how much he can get me to blush. But they’ll never see his human side, and that’s the reason we’ll never settle in this town.

The air is dry and sucks any water that hangs onto my skin. I hear stomping behind me and roll my eyes at Nate’s antics. The NTSCU had almost seen us once again, something we’ve managed to avoid since they witnessed our “death” over the cliff. Though as I see him nursing the slight limp with his blood running freely down his leg, courtesy of his latest meal, with a fresh bullet hole embedded into his flesh.

“Are you done sulking back there?” I stop and let him catch up, but he quickly stalks passed me and continues on ahead. “Nate,” I yell at him.

“Hmm.”

“Come on, use your words.” He stops to glance at me to raise his eyebrow before looking ahead, though he doesn’t continue onward. “I apologized a million times already, what more do you want from me?” I gently lay by forehead on his back before wrapping my arms around his waist. “Does it hurt?”

“You shot me in the leg, whatcha think?” He takes a deep breath before turning to abound though I do not relinquish my hold on him. “This is why you don’t handle the guns, you can’t shoot to save your fuckin’ life.” He shakes me off before grabbing my hand and continuing our trudge to the car.

“That’s not far, not all of us grow up learning to handle every gun ever made.”

“Wasn’t all guns, mostly just handguns, rifles, and shotguns. My dad didn’t fuck with AKs or anything of that sort.” I giggle at the pout on his face but abruptly stop once Nate goes entirely still. I go to ask me what’s the matter, but he holds up his hand, but he tilts his head to the side.

For a moment, all I can hear is the pounding of my heart going a mile a minute in my chest. I tighten my grip on his hand and conjure flames in my other hand. His body suddenly lacks, and I gaze at him in concern before I can see the relief on his face.

“False alarm,” he whispers, “thought it was somebody else.” I scrunch my face up and worry about what he means, who the hell could cause such a reaction in Nate? “Samuel, you just gonna hide behind our car forever or what?” Nate calls out with a hand to his mouth to help project his voice. I look ahead and can just make our vehicle out in the heat waves, coming closer is a human-like shape that could be a male.

“You sure that’s Samuel?”

“Positive.” He drags me forward, and before I know it I’m once more faced with Samuel’s features. His complexion is still tanned, and his hair the wavy sort that when long enough might turn into curls. His eyes go over Nate’s form before they land on his thigh and narrow. I keep my face skillfully blank and plead to all the Spirits that Nate says nothing to the man that obviously cares about this health.

“You ran into NTSCU,” Samuel questions, his voice tight and his face and visible body tense.

“Kinda,” Nate responds. Samuel gives Nate a look similar to when my mother knew I was bullshiting but waiting for me to inform her of the fact. I glare at Nate as he squirms, and while I deeply sympathize, I did not want this man to be aware of the fact that I shot Nate. I felt guilty enough as it is, I didn’t need his judgy looks to help.

“‘Kinda’. A real answer would help Ignatius,” he grunts out, “what about you, Vee? Know how he got that injury?” I shake my head but press my lips together, trying to escape the suspicious I can feel beating into me from his gaze. He scoffs before walking back down towards the car. “Well come on,” he shouts at us. I quicken my steps and can’t help my glee when Nate is walking even faster than me.

We get to the Jeep, and around the bend on the road, I can see the other shifters from Huxley lounging on the ground. The one that Nate had fun winding up is eyeing us the moment we get close enough. I glare at Nate, but he just gives me a large smirk that bares his teeth. I roll my eyes and stomp in front of him.

“Alright,” Samuel calls out, “one of you, please attempt to give Miss Vee here a proper shooting lesson while I have a chat with the knucklehead.” I open my mouth to retaliate his words as if I’ll let someone I barely know make my decisions, but then I hear Nate cursing behind me.

“I would love to Samuel,” I softly responded, my best innocent smile planted on my face.

“What she means,” Nate interrupts, shooting me a look of betrayal that has me biting my cheeks, “is that I have already tried to teach her, but Witchy here is just a shitty shot.” Samuel glances between the two of us before looking at his men, or would that be pack? Even though Nate shares plenty of similarities with the werewolves, he doesn’t know much about them.

“Why don’t you do as the man asked Nate,” someone asks. I look at them but can’t place if maybe he was in Huxley and I just hadn’t noticed him, but that doesn’t seem right. He has a presence that demands attention; if I didn’t know better, I’d place him around Samuel’s age, but somehow I know he’s much older. Dangerous.

I lay my head right over Nate’s heart and spread my hands to ready them in case a fight breaks out. The man tilts his head down to stare at me in the eyes, and I can see that he’s aware of what I’m doing, but instead of getting angry, amusement dances in his gaze.

“Man Nate whatcha do to land such a loyal witch,” the man laughingly questions, walking even closer to us. Nate’s arms circle around my waist, and I focus on the feel of his thumb tracing random shapes into the stripe of skin that’s exposed.

“Calm down, Witchy it’s just my dad,” Nate evenly whispers into my ear. I nod my head and relax my muscles before what he revealed truly hits me. I break his hold and whirls around to face Nate.

“What the hell do you mean dad,” I hiss, and any other time I would enjoy the distressed puppy look he has going on, but this man has some explaining to do.