Crimson Midnight (A New Adult Dark Urban Fantasy Series) (The Crimson Series Book 1) (19 page)

24.

IS ANYONE HOME?

His eyes were glazed over, his head
resting on the glass and his legs out in front of him. He was lifeless and
limp. The only indication that he was alive was his breathing, slow and even.

Raven didn’t know what to do. The
glass box used on Rose was useless on werewolves. That was its only flaw. For
some reason it could not read patterns, pulses and perspirations in a werewolf,
so classic interrogation was the way to go in a different glass box– one built
to withstand a werewolf’s immense strength. It normally worked. A rogue wolf
would throw his weight around for a bit, mouth off and try and show he had
muscle before breaking down into a blubbering mess at the hands of the Beta.
But this one, this nameless and empty man, wouldn’t even get up. Raven had
tried lifting him onto his feet, but the man couldn’t stand. No amount of
threats or torture got a rise out of him. The rogue wolf just stared ahead with
his cold, orange eyes.  Raven briefly wondered if they would have had any
better luck if either of the other two had survived.  He shook his head.  There
was no point stressing about it. The other two had been dispatched.  One by
Rose and one by Harold. 

“We have to wait,” Richard said
from the other side of the glass. “He will talk soon once hunger and thirst
become unbearable.”

“What if he doesn’t?” Raven said.

Richard shrugged. “Then we destroy
him.”

That was the cold and blunt truth
of it. If the wolf didn’t talk then he was dead. He had attacked Rose and
violated territory laws. Silence was not a good way to go.

Richard had summoned the head of
the warlocks, Bob, to cast a spell to see if there were any traces of magical
interference on the wolf before taking any further action. Bob was on his way.

Raven walked up to the man again
and crouched down to his level.

“Why did you attack her?” he asked,
for what seemed like the hundredth time.

No response.

“Why are you on pack territory?”

Nothing.

He growled in exasperation. “Why am
I even asking you again?”

“Persistence is a virtue,” Richard
said.

Raven stared at the man, leaning
closer to look deeper into his eyes. “Is anyone home?” He resisted the urge to
tap on the man’s forehead.

The man shot up. “Home!” He jumped
to his feet and started pacing.

Raven jumped back startled.

“Home, home is a house. I have a
house. Do I? Yes I do. It’s a nice house, has violets in the garden and fishes
in the pond. Has a clock. I love the clock…”

Raven looked to his Alpha who
didn’t react. They let the man continue his pacing up and down the cell.

“Ticky, tocky, tick, tock…oh where
is my bowl? I want some porridge. No I don’t. I want some eggs…I spilled my
eggs. Maybe some…no, I want to go in the garden. Mummy! I saw a frog! Hop! Hop!
Hop! My name is Mr Frog and I…I love Julia. Julia is gorgeous! I fucked Julia
in my car once! HA! Julia, Julia, Julia, Julia. I love your sweet pussy! Come
on, Julia! Get ‘em off, Julia!”

Raven glanced at Richard again.
Richard made a gesture instructing him to wait it out. The man continued to
pace.

“I don’t think it’s a house
anymore. It’s a flat. Nice flat, nice flat. Fucked Julia on the couch and broke
a spring. Spring! Flowers! Where are my violets? Who ate my violets? Mr Frog
did, mummy. I saw him. I did! He was sitting on the toadstool with a plate and
a fork, tucking in to those lovely violets! Thanks a lot, Mr Frog! You upset my
mummy and she upset me! I’m grounded now! Gotta stay in and look out the window
at the sky…don’t hate me, Julia, I didn’t mean to do it. I love you, fucking
hell I love you, babe! Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!” The man
smacked himself hard in the face, drawing blood.

“That’s enough.” Raven took his
arm.

The rogue wolf grabbed Raven by his
shoulders and started to weep. “I got the carpet dirty! I ruined that white
carpet! Julia loved it! It was hers! Julia! Julia! My sweet Julia! She didn’t
like the violets!”

Raven held the man out away from
him. “You’re bleeding.”

“Bleeding…” The man touched his
cheek and looked at his hand. “Blood…” His face contorted in horror, and he
screamed, a piercing, terrified shriek. Before Raven could react, the man threw
himself against the glass, smashing his head repeatedly into it.

“NO!” Raven rushed toward him.

“BLOOD! RED! RED AS BLOOD! CAN’T
LET THE RED IN! NO! RED! RED! RED!”

Blood splattered up the wall as the
man’s head split open. His nose was broken and pouring with blood. Raven pulled
him back but he kept shrieking, kicking his legs. He swung out and punched
Raven in the shin, setting himself free to throw himself hard into the glass
wall one final time. His neck broke on impact. He fell to the floor dead.

Richard was still on the other side
of the glass, his expression blank, unfazed by the sight of blood splattered up
one wall and over the floor. “It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have stopped
him.”

Raven ran a hand through his
blue-black hair. “He got free, I should’ve anticipated…”

“Enough. It is done.

“Shall I organise the clean up?”
Raven asked.

“I will take care of everything.”

25.

HOT CHOCOLATE

The house was in darkness when Rose
returned. The only illumination came from the kitchen, from which also came the
sound of muffled cursing.  Rose hung up her coat and stepped into the light.

“Where the hell…it’s like a bloody
mini pantry in here…aha!” Roman was crouched on the floor, his head in the
cupboard under the sink.

Rose stepped into the kitchen.
“Hi.”  

Roman jerked up in surprise,
banging his head on the top of the cupboard. “Ouch!”  He stood rubbing his
already tousled hair.

“Aren’t you supposed to have super
hearing or something?”

“I was kind of distracted.”  He held
up a packet of Demerara sugar. “Hot chocolate isn’t hot chocolate without it.” 

She frowned, looking longingly
toward the hallway.  What she really needed right now was her bed. She was
drained.  She felt a flash of anger. Why did Roman have to choose tonight of
all nights to go all caring and concerned on her?  The last thing she needed
right now was coddling. “It’s late.”   

He sighed and turned slowly to face
her. “I know but I thought you might want to talk about…everything.” He looked
suddenly uncertain and vulnerable.

Rose felt her annoyance evaporate.
None of this was his fault, and a mug of hot chocolate did sound good.  She
walked to the table, pulled out a chair and sat down.  Roman turned his
attention back to the task at hand, extracting a saucepan from another cupboard
and rifling through yet another cupboard for the hot chocolate powder. He
placed the pan on the hob and lit the gas.

“Raven called you?” she asked.

“Yeah, he told me you were on your
way back, so I thought…”  He turned to look at her, his expression soft. “I
thought we could talk.”

Rose sighed. “I don’t know. I kinda
feel like I should be all talked out.”

He stopped fiddling with the stove
and turned to look directly at her. “The glass box can have that effect.”

“You been in there?” There was a
hint of challenge in her voice.

“No.”

“Well, you can’t possibly know what
it’s like.”

He gave her a wry smile. “It’s
always easier outside looking in.”

“Hurmph.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? It’s not your fault.”

“I know.  I’m sorry you had to go
through that.” He stretched, pulling himself up to his full height. “At least
it’s over. You’re one of us now, and that means we can really be ourselves
around you now.”

“I guess so.” She looked sceptical,
then nervous as another thought struck her. “You’re not going to start
wandering around naked and changing back and forth into wolves are you.”

Roman burst out laughing. “Not
likely. Besides, Erin doesn’t know so…” He looked at her meaningfully.

“Don’t worry– I’m not likely to let
the feline out the bag.”

He nodded, turning back to the
stove. He had poured milk into the pan and was now proceeding to gently heat
it. 

She took in his crumpled T-shirt,
the equally crumpled tracksuit bottoms and the bed head. “You were asleep.”

Roman shrugged with his back to
her. His concentration was on the hot chocolate as he made sure it didn’t boil.

Rose was suddenly overcome. She
felt that tightness in her throat, the threat of tears.  Where the fuck had
that come from? Damn it she wasn’t going to cry!  Her body, however, had other
ideas as a choked sob escaped her.  She bit it back, praying Roman hadn’t
heard, and then remembered he had extra sensory abilities. 

Roman didn’t even flinch. Instead,
he took an extra-long time removing the pan from the hob before turning his
attention back to her.  Rose realised he was giving her a moment to compose
herself and was grateful for it. 

When he did turn to her, his
emerald eyes were soft and warm. “Can you pass me a couple of mugs?”

“Sure.” Rose was glad to be doing
something, even if it was fetching mugs, anything was better than staring into
those beautiful eyes and feeling…what did she feel?  She passed Roman two mugs
and reclaimed her seat. 

Until recently, Roman had existed
on a separate plane from her, a different world.  They had co-existed, simply
living side by side. But now she was a part of his world and it meant that she
had to leave parts of her world behind.  There would be a crossover of course,
but there were things she could never tell the people she would normally
confide in.  It should be Faye in the kitchen with her, Faye that she would
have run too normally. But normal was no longer relevant. Although nobody had
expressly spelt it out, she knew she could never confide in Faye about this.
Thistle, Roman and his pack were now the only people she could really talk to
about…everything.

A thought struck her. “Does Flo..?”

“Yes.”

“Is she..?”

“No. She’s human. She found out
when I hit puberty and started to sprout fur.” He chuckled.

“My God!”

“No, it’s cool.” He waved away her
concern. “Richard had found out about me and was here in time to help her
through it.” He grinned. “She took it surprisingly well.”

“I’m confused. If you are a
werewolf then why were you adopted?”

He shrugged. “My parents were
werewolves, they died in a car crash and I was placed into the system before
the pack could trace me.  By the time they had found me it was too late.  Even
we have to abide by the law and the adoption was legal.  All they could do was
watch and wait and step in at the right time.”

“A time when Flo wouldn’t be able
to doubt their claims,” Rose said.

“Exactly.” He looked impressed. 
“You know what? I think you’re going to fit right in.” 

Roman poured out the drinks,
setting down a steaming mug of aromatic chocolate in front of her and her
stomach let out a loud growl of appreciation.

 She placed her hand on her abdomen
to stifle the sound.

“Hungry?” Roman asked.

“I don’t understand why. Thistle
and I had a huge meal before…” Rose shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. “This,
by the way, is delicious.”  She took another hungry sip.

“Nah, that’s not good enough.”
Roman abandoned his seat, loping into the living room.  He was back a couple of
minutes later grinning from ear to ear. “Pizza good for you?”

“Yes, but won’t they be closed at
this time?”  Rose glanced once again at the wall clock.

Roman grinned wickedly. “The good
thing about living in London is that there is always a fast food place open
somewhere, at any time of the day. I’m a werewolf, Rose. I have an extremely
high metabolic rate and I know all the good places to eat, all the places that
are open late, all the places that deliver. Stick with me and you’ll never go
hungry again.”

Rose laughed. “Easy, Scarlet!” 

“You like that film?”

“Er…yeah.  Do you?” Rose asked
curiously. Gone with the Wind wouldn’t be something that she would have
expected Roman to have even watched, let alone like.

“It’s a fucking good epic of a
movie!” 

“I completely agree. It’s one of my
all-time faves.”

They shared a warm smile.

“We’ll have to watch it together
sometime. Anyway, pizza?” Roman waved the menu at her.

“Pizza sounds perfect.”

“Any preference?”

“I’m easy.”

Roman quirked a suggestive brow.

“I mean anything will do.” She
quickly amended. 

Roman turned to go back to the living
room but not before she saw the big grin plastered on his face.  She chuckled
to herself, she was beginning to get used to his cheekiness.

“Oh, no mushrooms!” Rose called.

“A girl after my own heart,” he
called back.

Much later that night, or early morning,
in bed, Rose realised that although they had talked and talked for hours they
hadn’t even touched upon the subject of vampires, warlocks or werewolves. 
Instead, they had talked about everything and anything else.  Somewhere along
the line she had let her guard slip. She hadn’t seen this side of Roman before
and she wished now, with all her might, that she never had.  Tonight he had
been sensitive and caring and she had opened up to him in a way she had never
thought possible. The playboy with the smugness and smart mouth she could
handle, but this…this side she didn’t want to know.  He was Thistle’s
boyfriend, and tomorrow she would reassert the status quo.

26.

 AWKWARD

Faye was waiting in the living room
when Rose walked in showered and dressed. Roman was eating some cereal at the
dining table. Rose hadn’t slept too well the night before. Everything was on
her mind, the new direction her life had abruptly taken, giving her restless
and empty dreams. She felt like crap, her eyes heavy and her head fuzzy.

“My God you look awful!” Faye
proclaimed. “What’s wrong?”

“Lack of sleep,” Rose said.  Roman
caught her eye questioningly but she pointedly ignored it.  It wouldn’t do to
have any more one-on-one fuzzy moments with her close friend’s boyfriend. 
That
was a recipe for disaster.  She wanted to tell herself that last night was
probably his attempt at prepping her for his final pounce. The pushy,
in-your-face act hadn’t worked, so now he was playing it subtle, all hot
chocolate and let me order you pizza. But the lie was too big for her to
swallow. She knew in her heart his attentions had been sincere and that was the
worst thing because it would be so easy to fall for him, to become dependent on
those warm moments.  Roman and Thistle’s relationship may be open but it didn’t
change the fact that Thistle was her friend or that Rose didn’t do open
relationships. She needed to distance herself from Roman. Through the web of
her thoughts she noted that Faye was still blathering on. What the hell was she
on about now?  She turned her puffy red eyes on her friend.

Faye was rummaging in her bag. “I’m
so glad I brought my emergency makeup with me.” She pulled out a smaller bag.
“Bathroom. Now.”

“I don’t need-”

“You look like a panda carrying
luggage on its face!”  Faye ushered Rose forward.

“Oh, sod it.” She yawned widely
allowing herself to be propelled.

 “Morning, girls,” Flo said as she
passed them in the hallway, rollers in her hair.

Flo went to the kitchen and flipped
the kettle on. “Want a cuppa, Roman?”

“No, thanks,” he replied.

“I’m bleedin’ gasping for one. Erin! Come get your breakfast.”

Erin slouched into the dining room
shortly after being called, dressed in his school uniform – grey jumper, red
and grey tie, white shirt, black trousers and freshly polished black shoes.
“Morning,” he said to Roman.

“Morning.” Roman frowned as he
caught Erin’s expression. “What’s up? You look a little pi-, uh, I mean,
grumpy.”

Erin sighed and placed his face in
his hands. “I’ve got boring maths today. I hate maths on Mondays.”

“Why’s that?”

“Mr Goodwin,” Erin groaned. “He’s
bleedin’ horrible.”

“Oi!” Flo snapped as she came in
with a bowl of chocolate cereal for Erin. “Don’t you bleedin’ say bleedin’ or
I’ll give you a bleedin’ clip round the ear ‘ole’.”

“You just said it three times!” Erin protested.

“Eat your bleedin’ cereal.” She
popped it down in front of him. “And get your bleedin’ elbows off the table.”

Erin rolled his eyes at Roman and
proceeded to consume his breakfast. Flo returned with a glass of orange juice
for him and then left to “have a fag and do the barnet.”

Rose and Faye returned, Rose
looking like an exhausted person with concealer around her eyes.  Why did
makeup hardly ever do what it claimed to in the ads?

“Coffee,” Faye demanded. “Make sure
yours is black.”

“Please?” Rose prompted, heading
for the kitchen.

“Please.” Faye simpered prettily

Rose flipped the switch on the
kettle and tensed as she felt him behind her

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Take the
day off, you need to rest.”

“I’m fine.” She said shortly as she
added instant coffee to two mugs. “Could you pass me the milk please?”

“Sure.” Roman gave her a quizzical
look but handed her the carton.

Rose poured out the milk. Where the
hell was Faye? She really didn’t want to be alone with Roman right now. Just
having him standing next to her was making her pulse race.  “Don’t you have
somewhere to be?” she snapped.

He recoiled slightly and she caught
the hurt in his eyes before he turned away.

“Yes, actually, I do.  I’ll see you
at dinner tonight then.” He headed out of the kitchen.

“I might be out!” she called after
him. 

He paused in the doorway. “Well you
better tell mum then, seeing as she’s going to a lot of trouble to cook for
everyone.” His warm expression of a few minutes ago was gone, replaced by a closed
and distant one

She cleared her throat. “Oh, are
the other wol…others coming then?”

He stared hard at her for a beat
too long and she swallowed, uncomfortable under his scrutiny. “See you at
seven,” he said curtly and left.

Shit! She had done the right thing,
so why did she feel so guilty?

“Rose, I’m parched!” Faye called
from the lounge. 

Rose rolled her eyes, firmly
pushing Roman out of her thoughts.  She had more important things to worry
about, like her powers, and the new community she was now suddenly a part of.
And registering and…

“Coffeeeee!”

Coffee.

“Coming, Diva!”

Raven walked into the reception
area of the university, brushing raindrops off his long dark coat.

“Hi.” Brandon sat up a little
straighter.

Raven smiled. “How are you?”

Brandon warmed under that beautiful
smile. “I’m very well, thanks.”

And Brandon was very well indeed.
In fact, he was positively euphoric, still basking in the afterglow of spending
the night with Raven.  He had whiled away the hours since, revelling in the memories
of the way he had been held and kissed and made to feel so special by such an
amazing guy.

“How are
you
?” Brandon asked.

“I’m okay.” Raven nodded, glancing
away briefly as if distracted.

Brandon took another look at his
idol, this time without the stars in his eyes, and noted that far from looking
fine he looked tired and slightly stressed. “Are you sure?” he asked,
emboldened by their night together.

Raven nodded curtly, waving away
his concern. “Do you have my schedule for this week, please?”

“Sure.” Brandon wavered for a
moment, torn between pressing him further or handing over the schedule and
letting the subject drop.  He opted for the latter and retrieved the schedule.
I
was kind of hoping for a good morning kiss,
he thought.

“Thanks,” Raven said and looked it
over quickly. “See you later.”

“I was thinking…” Brandon blurted
out loudly, lowering his tone when Raven stopped “I was thinking that maybe we
could go out tonight, catch a movie or something…maybe?” he trailed off
uncertainly at the genuine look of surprise on Raven’s face. 

“I can’t tonight, sorry.”

“Maybe tomorrow?”

“I can’t tomorrow either.”

“Oh, well we can do something
whenever it’s best for you. It’ll be nice to have a first date.” He laughed, it
sounded forced even to his own ears.

Raven suddenly looked a little
worried. “What do you mean?”

“Well it’ll be nice to just do the
date thing, even if we did do it the other way round.” He smiled, trying for
the mischievous look but ruining it by blushing.

Raven sighed. “Look, what happened
the other night was fun. But that’s all it was. Don’t get me wrong, I think
you’re great, really sweet and warm and caring. I’m just not looking for dates
and all of that stuff.”

“All of that stuff?” Brandon repeated slowly, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

“There’s nothing wrong with all of
that stuff,” Raven said quickly, as if sensing he was on dangerous ground.  Brandon looked as if he was fit to throw a wobbly.  His face had gone very red and his
eyes were glittering. “I’m just saying it’s not for me right now. I just want
to have a bit of fun.”’

Brandon wanted to see red, it would
be easier to be angry and indignant, anything aside from what he was feeling
right now– gut wrenching disappointment at the rejection. Because despite how
Raven dressed it up, that’s all it was, a rejection.  He, Brandon, had not been
good enough.  If he had been cooler, better looking, better in bed, then Raven
would be the one asking him out. Instead, he was letting him down gently.  He
felt the hot sharp prick of tears and blinked rapidly.  No way was he going to
cry.  He needed to play it cool. “I’m sorry,” he said, trying to mask the
tremble in his voice.

“You haven’t got anything to be sorry
for.” Raven’s eyes were concerned. “I’m sorry if I led you on in any way. I
hope I didn’t.”

Those words broke what last bit of self-control
Brandon had as his dreams came crashing down, all of his hopes for where this
would go shattering into irreparable fragments.  He felt the slow definite burn
of anger. “All you wanted was sex?”

Raven frowned looking confused. “I
thought that was what we both wanted. Some company, some fun.” He cocked his
head.

“Was I just a toy to you?”

Raven’s eyes widened in surprise.
“No, of course not!”

“I was just-“

“Look, I thought you understood, I
thought we were two consenting adults having some fun.”

Brandon held up his hand. “Please
stop saying fun.”

“Sorry.”

He turned away. “Please go.”

“I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to
lead you on. It’s just…I’m not looking for a relationship.”

“Go away.” Brandon’s voice rose
again, an angry edge to it.

“I don’t want to fall out over
this.” 

Brandon settled back into his chair
and started shuffling some papers. “Have a good day, Mr Stonewall,” he said
primly.

“Brandon?”

Brandon did not react.

Raven waited for a moment but when Brandon did not look up he turned and left the reception area.

Brandon didn’t need to see Raven’s
departure. He felt it like the absence of the sun. And then the tears came.

Dinner with the wolves. Dinner for
the wolves?  It was obvious they ate meat but they probably didn’t eat people,
maybe just the odd deer or antelope?  Did they have antelope in England?

“Er, Miss?”

“Huh? Yes?” She snapped out of her
reverie to regard the slender man before her.

“Mr Johnson. The reception desk
said I needed an orientation.”  He smiled tentatively at her.

“Yes, yes, of course, Mr Johnson.
How about we start over here?” She moved to the treadmills.

It was quiet once all the students
had gone to class. Brandon had finished all of his paperwork and started crying
again as the loneliness of the reception area, echoing the loneliness in his
heart, overwhelmed him.

How could this have happened? This
was not the way it was supposed to be?

He felt a presence at the desk.

“Oh,” he gasped. It was the really
beautiful man. Raven was gorgeous in a hard, masculine way, but this man was breath-taking,
like a piece of art come to life. Everyone at USL took an intake of breath
whenever he walked by. “Hello, Mr Smith.” He swiped at his eyes.

“Ossian, please,” the man replied.
Then he leant forward, his eyes full of concern. “Are you all right?”

Brandon couldn’t help it. He broke
down again. “I’m sorry.” He reached for a tissue.

“Do you need to talk?”

Mr Johnson was gone and her
self-defence class would be arriving any minute.  She found herself pacing the
changing room restlessly.  She just wanted the day to be over.  She wanted to
face the others and for it to be over, to get over the awkwardness and into a
new normality of the supernormal.  She still had so many questions about the
new world and about herself.  Raven had promised that they would arrange for
her to be registered as soon as possible, and that another warlock would be
assigned to speak to her and help her adjust.

“Like a mentor?” she’d asked. 

“Just like a mentor.” He had
promised. 

But so far there had been nothing. 
It had only been a day, but still, did they not understand how confusing all
this was for her? And then to have to come to work like everything was normal
when it so bloody wasn’t!

She glanced up at the clock. Shit!
Her class would be waiting.  Oh, well. At least she would get to kick Derek’s
arse. That should work off some of the tension.

Brandon needed to talk, really
badly needed to talk. He didn’t know Ossian Smith, had never spoken to him. But
he had been so kind that morning. And Brandon was always optimistic about the
kindness of strangers. He arranged to meet with Ossian at The Whisper later
that afternoon to talk, to just talk. Maybe Ossian would be the first friend
he’d make since being in this city.

CATHERINE
STILL REALLY UPSET.  AM TAKING HER OUT 2 DINNER 2NITE. U WANT TO COME?  HOW WAS
LAST NITE?

Rose read the text. She had
completely forgotten about Faye.  It would be nice to see her but there was no
way that she was going to voluntarily spend time with Bitch Face, and she was
actually glad that she had an honest excuse. She texted back quickly.

NOW
WHY WOULD I WANT 2 DO THAT?  I THOUGHT YOU WANTED HER TO FEEL BETTER? 
SERIOUSLY I HAVE TO STAY IN TONIGHT FLO’S ORDERS SHE IS COOKING XX

Faye replied a moment later.

SORRY
DIDN’T REALISE YOU WERE SERIOUS ABOUT CATHERINE.  CAN’T BELIEVE AM MISSING
DINNER AT FLO’S BUT DUTY CALLS LOL XX HOW WAS FIGARO’S?

Rose was glad her friend had a
prior engagement– it saved her from having to explain why she couldn’t come
round for dinner that evening. She texted back.

THE
FOOD WAS GR8 THANKS FOR THE RECOMMENDATION.  DEFO GO AGAIN XX

She waited for a reply but after a
few minutes gave up.  Her lunch break was over anyway.  Back to work.