After the little celebration, Candido walked me back to my room and said goodnight. I wouldn’t be drinking milk mixed with his blood any longer. I was at once grateful and a little sad. It felt like I was losing just a bit of the connection I had with him. It felt like it was just the beginning of losing that connection too. First, it would be the blood. Then, I wouldn’t see him as much. Then, he’d be married to Sibyl. Even if he wasn’t married to Sibyl yet, I still hadn’t gotten him to see me as more than just a little girl. Sure, there had been some heated moments between us, but that had all been instinct. The wolf in him recognized me as a woman, but he didn’t and that was the problemI huffed, trying not to think about it too much more. I opened every bag he’d brought. There were casual dresses along with a few cocktail dresses. I wondered if he planned to take me out more often. I did notice that the clothes were in different colors than they had been when I was bigger. I didn’t
Seeing Bella coming into the room, though, made a lot of sense. Who else would be petty enough to ignore the facts and have such a grudge against me? She sneered at me and rounded the table to take her seat. Another person entered just behind her, but he wasn’t familiar to me. He looked tired and irritated. He sat beside Bella, turned to her, and glared at her.She flinched away from him.“For what reason did you reject Claire and Hedy’s applications?” The man that had come in after Bella asked. “Their try-out results were better than the people that were accepted!”Bella lifted her chin. “As the vice president of the team’s administration, I’m responsible for making sure costs are kept down. We would have had to buy new uniforms for Hedy.”The rugby captain hissed. “What the—are you fucking serious? One set of uniforms when we buy new uniforms every year?”“The amount of money in the budget—”“Shut up,” the man said. Bella flushed. “You have no right to talk about the budget that you
I struggled against the darkness. I knew I was unconscious, but as I pushed and pushed against whatever she had prayed me with, I felt my mind waking up. I pushed my power to strengthen my mind and senses, listening for something. I felt something jostle me. If I had to guess, Bella either stumbled over me or kicked me. Then I heard her feet going away.What was her plan? I didn’t know, but as I forced my eyes open, the ceiling spun in my vision. I heard her getting farther away. I grit my teeth, pushing at the heaviness in my body until I could turn onto my side and drag myself away from where I had fallen. My head pounded. Had I hit my head? I didn’t know.My heart was beating a mile a minute with fear and panic, but I tried to focus. I had to move. Even avoiding her plan, staving it off a little would buy me time. Team Gamma-2 would come looking for me soon. I heard my phone ringing, but I couldn’t get to it.If I didn’t answer it on the second try, they’d come after me. I just had
I was running. I didn’t know where or how, but I knew on the other side was something I needed. I heard Candido speaking to me. Sometimes his voice was gentle. Sometimes I heard him growling, but I felt his presence nearby. He didn’t leave me though I didn’t know what I would be waking to. Whenever he spoke, I felt like I was drifting closer to consciousness. When silence fell around me, I sunk.I slept for a long time. I don’t know how long, but it felt like at least a few days. I didn’t want to wake up and face what had happened. The way the world had spun and the sound of them laughing at me chased me nearly every time I started to relax.“You’re okay, Hedy. I’m here.”Candido’s voice kept the sounds at bay when he spoke, but he wasn’t always there. I felt disoriented and lost. My skin felt like it was burning. I felt like I was freezing and everything in me was confused. Moonlight drifted through my eyes. I swore I heard a wolf howling in the distance.Then, for a moment, I was st
Candido said nothing for a moment, seemingly thinking about what to say, but it only made me worry more. I could believe that Candido hadn’t even considered what it would do to him to shift and kill them all, but I was worried. Now was not the time to lose him. Now was not the time for him to be reckless either. Things were ramping up, getting worse, with each passing day. This was just part of it. Had any of them been in opposition to Candido? Were they just disgruntled and using me to hurt him, or were they just at Bella’s beck and call?Did it really matter since they were all dead? Where was Bella? Did Steven know about any of this? Were there other people involved? Was it all connected somehow? I had many issues with Steven and the Wolf Fang Pack, but he had always seemed too proud to defect to the vampire side, but things were different now.I knew nothing about Lilian so it wasn’t improbable that she had some connection.The spray was nothing like anything I had ever heard of.
Allen looked uncomfortable with the line of questioning and he left soon after.“Candido, are they…”He took another bite of bread and lifted his own bowl of soup into his hands.“Eat, little one. You need your strength.”If that wasn’t a signal that he wasn’t going to talk about it, I didn’t know what was. So, I ate without complaining. I scooted closer to him and made him feed me bits of cake. Maybe I was pretending a little about being too tired, but Candido didn’t seem to mind. If anything, he seemed to love the idea of caring for me.I smiled and basked in his attention, knowing that he was never like this with Sibyl or anyone else. This affectionate and soft side of him was just for me.Candido hardly left my side while I was recovering. He’d cuddle me close and read to me until I fell asleep. He stayed up and helped me get through the homework I was missing and the lecture notes. His constant attention meant that I couldn’t sneak a check-in with Moon Shadow, but I found that I
I woke up early, got dressed and packed. With about twenty minutes to spare before I needed to be heading out, I logged into my Moon Shadow laptop to check on the investigation of the murders. Armageddon had added several files to my research folder including a few other attacks that had resulted in deaths with the same pattern as the others and the case file of Bella’s orchestrated attack. My heart lurched. Did Armageddon know it was me? I had only been offline for a week. That wasn’t unusual. I opened the note attached. Unidentified substance used to incapacitate the victim. Tracing origins. Sent to lab under ID# HCAKP-144538966. I relaxed a bit. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought that it was probably connected. I was glad that Armageddon was seemingly getting involved in this. The lab hadn’t completed its analysis, but the preliminary notes suggested that it was related to the substance found in the blood on other scenes. I swallowed thickly. Had Bella known that it was proba
The first round ended quickly. They were fast, but they weren’t anticipating how clever Claire and I were on the field together. It was a great start for us. When we stepped off the field, we walked around the stadium before heading back to the hotel room for a team strategy meeting and dinner.Candido texted me just as we were finishing dinner.Congratulations on your first win. I smiled and replied. Would have been better if you were here.Who says I wasn’t?I pouted and cast my gaze around, and frowned. Why didn’t you come say hi to me? And where is my present?Don’t pout, princess. I’m here. I frowned and looked up, trying to use my instincts to find him.“Hedy? You okay?” Claire asked.I turned around and nodded. “I’m good. I just…”A sense of awareness pricked the back of my neck. I turned again until my gaze fell on someone who was dressed in a plain back suit, half-hidden behind a support beam.I walked towards the figure, my stomach churning with excitement as I grew nearer