AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Everything was neat, tidy even, and if I hadn't seen Rain in here with my own eyes then I wouldn't have known he'd been here at all.
My hand went to my throat. This was not good.
Noise came up from down the stairs. There were people down there moving around and I immediately brightened. They could have gone downstairs. Yes, why didn't I think of that sooner?
I raced out of my bedroom, down the hallway, and around the banister. My bare feet thundered on the stairs as I ran down them two at a time. My feet hit that bottom step, and I launched myself off of it. I ran flat out in the direction of where the noise was coming from. My feet took me towards the kitchen.
I burst into the kitchen and came up short. There were people in here, yeah, but did it make me a bad person to say they weren't the people I wanted to see? Because they were still people I cared about... I just wanted to see Rain more.
Dash stood in front of the sink with his hips resting back against the counter, and a cup of coffee in his hands suspended in the air halfway towards his mouth. His lips were parted as he stared at me in surprise.
Abel and Addison were both seated at the small table with steaming cups of coffee sitting on the table in front of them. They turned in their chairs with curious looks on their matching faces to watch me.
Not even the promise of fresh coffee kept me in that room, which was a miracle in itself. I needed coffee in the morning like I needed air to breathe.
I turned on my feet and raced out of the kitchen. I ran through all of the rooms in the downstairs of Dash's cottage. There was no one else here.
Deflated and upset, I made my way back to the kitchen. When I got there, I made a beeline straight towards the coffee pot, not giving the first crap that all three of them stared at me curiously. They could look all they wanted, but I needed coffee before they started questioning me, which they doubtless would do.
Sometimes this seven guys thing meant I spent a whole lot of time explaining myself.
I pulled a coffee cup out of the cupboard. It was black and had candy corn on the front that said Eat Me underneath. Dash was out of control.
I heard the fridge open and close as I hustled over to the coffee pot. I was ecstatic to see there was more than half a pot left. Yes! I filled my cup three fourths of the way full and turned, ready to get the creamer out of the fridge. The sugar was in a cute little ceramic container in the shape of a black cat. Dash wasn't just out of control, he was freaking nuts. His salt and pepper shakers were ceramic cats as well. I had yet to go through all of the cupboards, but I was sure when I did there would be lots of treasure I would find. Weird, old lady like treasure. I turned around, ran right into Dash, and jumped back. My coffee splashed out of my mug, thankfully missing my hand. It landed on the floor with a plop.
"What are you doing?" I breathed out.
I was struck dumb when Dash grinned at me. He held up the creamer proudly and shook it at me. My free hand moved to my chest and I pressed in in hopes of slowing down a heart that was trying to beat right out of my chest and run away from me.
"Looking for this?" He asked. "I figured you'd want creamer, so I got it out for you."
"Thanks," I wheezed.
His shoulders shook with laughter as he said, "You're welcome."
He set the creamer on the countertop beside the sugar, and pulled a piece of paper towel away from the roll that was beside the coffee pot. He used it to wipe up the coffee that had spilled over the side of my mug when he'd scared the crap out of me.
I dumped a severe amount of sugar into the mug, then added an even more severe amount of creamer. The color immediately swirled and changed from black to a seriously light brown. Sometimes I liked for my coffee to not taste like coffee at all. It was awesome. Sometimes I liked it black, but today wasn’t one of those days.
I took a sip as I watched Dash throw the now dirty paper towel into the trash bin. My mind was working over everything I had learned from Rain the night before, about not only my long-lost mother, but rogue witches and the Council, as well. There was a whole lot of messed up information there, and the Council terrified me more now than they ever had. If what Rain had told me was to be believed, then they (or more like the people who'd sat in their seats years and years before them) were filthy rapists and held little regard for anyone outside of their circle of power.
Rain never did tell me what the hunters used to do with the rogues that they weren't trying to save. Did they kill them? I couldn't come up with an alternative scenario in my head for what would have been done with the naughty little witches once they'd wreaked havoc and horror and then made a break for it. Death was so final, but what else could you do with someone who could wield what they held inside them like the most brutal of weapons? Unless there was some way to strip them of their magic or bar them from ever using it again, I didn't see what else you'd do with them but kill them.
Harsh, yes, but this was the world I was now living in, and I wouldn't shy away from the unpleasant parts of it.
"Quint said he'd be back later tonight to talk to you about something," Dash told me, and I was immediately pulled free from my thoughts and blinked back into the now.
Hmm... I wouldn't be here later tonight, I would be out with Damien doing who knew what.
"Did Rain leave with him?" I asked, sounding like I felt, and that was to say that this was the single most important question that would ever leave my lips in the entirety of my life and I needed the answer right this second or I would break down into tears and cry and wail like a freaking baby.
Get it together, Ariel. Weakness isn't attractive on anyone, stop showing yours to people.
The advice to myself was, as always, sound. I just never listened to myself very well, and chose to ignore it.
"Nope," Dash said as he watched my face closely. From the look in his eyes he really wasn't liking what he was seeing. "Rain left about an hour before Quint did. I didn't see him leave, just heard a floorboard on the stairs creak when he slunk out of the house before dawn."
Again, my heart sunk, and I had thought earlier that it couldn't get any lower.
