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"The Council can never know. You cannot allow them to get too close to her, to test her magic too often or too much. She is stronger, even more so than most of them, and it won't take long for her to come into all of that strength, and it will need to be hidden."
My worst fears were coming to light. I knew she was special, knew there was something about her that was different, and not simply because we were all attracted to her. The Council was already interested in her because her background was a black hole to them, and they wanted to figure her out. Now, here was Rain telling me that couldn't happen.
"I don't know how to do that," I admitted.
"I will teach you," Rain vowed. "I will teach you both."
I hoped so. Because if what he'd said to me about the Council and how they felt towards the hunters was true, then I had my work cut out for me, because they would have wanted Ariel even more if they knew just what she was. I didn't even understand it, but I needed to. For Ariel's sake, I needed to learn everything I could about these people.
Rain cleared his throat quietly. "There's something else we should speak of."
Oh, man. The strain in his voice told me I wasn't going to like this much more than I had liked everything else he'd said.
"That would be?"
"Marcus."
My eyebrows raised in surprise.
"What about him?" I asked.
"He's kind of... sort of..." Rain hesitated, as if searching for the correct word or phrase to use.
"He's what?" I asked. "What's wrong with Marcus?"
"Well... He's tied up in the basement at the cabin I'm staying at."
My entire body froze for a heartbeat as shock coursed through me. "Fuck," I breathed out.
"I'm going to need some assistance in freeing him," Rain said casually. Like this wasn't a big fucking deal that he had someone who'd practically been Ariel's step father tied up in his fucking basement.
"Christ," I muttered.
"So, you'll help?" Rain asked.
What choice did I have? If I told Ariel the man she'd likely just fallen a little bit in love with because he'd shared things that would be precious to her was a fucking psycho who had another man that she loved tied up in her basement, she would probably lose her shit, and then who knew what in the hell would happen. Knowing her, she'd probably make excuses for Rain, and then apologize on his behalf to Marcus, and in her head, she'd make me out to be the villain for being the bearer of bad news.
I didn't want that.
My jaw clenched painfully.
"Yeah," I ground out. "I'll help you."
If I regretted this, I was going to kick his motherfucking ass.
Chapter Fifteen
I woke up with a start and sat up abruptly in my bed. The soft glow of the sunrise and the early hour dimly shined through the window. I was unsure of the hour, but knew it had to still be early yet.
And I was completely and utterly alone.
My heart sank.
Rain was gone. Quinton was gone. I was all alone in my bedroom, and my heart sank for it. I flung the covers aside and climbed out of the bed. I checked under Quinton's pillow, looking for something, anything, to tell me where he'd gone, hoping he'd left me a note of some sort but there was nothing under there for me to find.
I ran to the window and peered out. Quinton's sedan wasn't in the driveway. He wasn't here. Darn.
I raced around the bed and stopped short. The comforter I'd used underneath the sleeping bags the night before had been folded up neatly. The sleeping bags had been rolled up, tied off and inserted back into their thin bags. The pillows were stacked up neatly on the floor beside the blanket and sleeping bags.
