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"There still are, baby girl," Rain informed her, and this time it was my body that tensed. This had thrown me the first time I'd heard him mention it. I wasn't so sure he should have been telling Ariel about it like it was nothing, like it wasn't something he should be keeping secret, and therefore to himself.
"They aren't all bad," Rain said. "Some of them are just people who don't want to live the coven lifestyle. They don't want to share their woman. Or, females who don't wished to be shared. Those kinds of people, we hunters would find and help to hide them better, because they weren't safe from the Council. The Council only sees things in black and white, and you don't even want to know what they do to people who run away and hide from them. Back in the day, my grandfather, your great grandfather, told me that he knew of a woman who ran from the Council and her coven because she fell in love with another female witch from a different coven, and they ran away together, because neither of them liked men and didn't want to live the lifestyle the Council demands of our females. By then, we no longer had anything to do with the Council or their bullshit rules, we were our own rulers of a sort. My great grandfather and his coven of hunters tried to keep both the girls safe, but the Council eventually caught up with them and took the girls away. They kept those girls for themselves and used their bodies to breed children with."
Ariel shuddered, and I cursed under my breath.
"Rain," I growled in warning. If he didn't stop this shit, she was never going to be able to fall asleep and she'd likely be terrified the next time she had to be alone with Adrian. Which hopefully happened never. But, still... Rain needed a different topic for conversation, he was supposed to be talking about their family, not the damn Council and just how fucked up they could be.
I wasn't really surprised when Rain ignored my warning entirely. I didn't think there was a person in this world he'd take orders or criticism from, apart from the girl beside me.
"They aren't all like that, though." Rain said, and I sighed. Here we go again. "Some people are just born bad or, after unfortunate circumstances or by chance, go through something that turns them bad. This is no different for witches. Sometimes people are just horrible, and it's worse when you add magic to the mix. It's like taking the most powerful weapon you can find, and handing it over to a psychopath and letting them go into the world. Sometimes they are even kicked out of their coven." Rain trailed off, and his bitterness almost became a heavy, physical thing pressing down on us in the dark.
"Rain," I barked, hoping like hell he'd take my warning to heart this time, because I really did not want to kick his ass out of here. I didn't think Ariel would forgive me for it.
"Fine, fine," he grumbled, and I sighed in relief but knew it would be short lived.
Rain surprised me by going back to what he should have been talking about in the first place, Ariel’s mother.
"Her name was Maude."
Ariel's breath hitched again, louder this time and the sobs became louder, real.
Fuck.
"I think that's enough for tonight," Rain growled in a rougher voice than his usual one. "It's not just you who cannot handle much more for right now, it's me too. I haven't talked about her in so very long that it hurts just saying her damn name."
"Okay," Ariel whispered in a shaky voice. "But, you'll-"
"Yeah," Rain grunted, cutting her off. "I'll tell you more about your mother. And I'll tell you anything you want to know about your grandpa. Just no more tonight, please."
"Okay, Rain."
I stayed close to her while she cried quietly. Rain and I both remained quiet and let her have her tears without making her feel shame for them.
It didn't take long for her body to relax into the bed and her breathing to even out. She stopped sobbing because she'd cried herself to sleep. She’d had a long, trying day, and I wasn’t surprised that she fell asleep so quickly.
I removed my face from her neck and slid my arm under her head like I had wanted to do while she was awake. Very gently, so as not to wake her, I rolled her slightly, pulling her into me. I wrapped her up in my arms as I laid my head against her soft hair.
"Thank you," I murmured quietly so as not to wake Ariel up. She needed the rest, and she needed it even more so because she was sleeping next to someone and could rest easy without whatever had been trying to interrupt her sleep actually interrupting tonight. Which reminded me...
"Don't thank me," Rain growled. "It had nothing to do with you."
My lips twitched. I could see where Ariel got her stubbornness from, she was a lot like him. I amused myself by wondering what he'd do if I tried to give him something.
"She's out?"
"Yeah," I answered. Then asked, "Have you been trying to contact her in her sleep?" It had been bothering me something awful to know that after everything Tyson had put into that dreamcatcher there was something trying to get passed it all and to her while she was vulnerable and sleeping. If it were Rain, I would be happy. If not, then I was terrified for Ariel because there were so many different things or people it could be, and none of it was good.
Sleeping bags crinkled across the room as Rain sat up. His green eyes practically glowed in the light from the window as his eyes connected with mine. There was an unholy light in there that fascinated me and brought something inside me to the surface. I imagined it was my own light, but a whole lot less unholy than this man's. But, then again, he had quite a few years on me to get there.
"The Council is near, yes?" He asked in an urgent, hushed voice.
I nodded as fear slithered through me.
"She is as I am."
I closed my eyes as if I was in pain. This was the last thing I wanted to hear come out of his mouth. He was saying she was born a hunter, that it was something they passed down through their genes.
"Rain," I breathed out. "What's that mean for her?"
