In the Dark by Lila Rose (25 page)

"Brother." Jezanna tilted her head down in respect.

They were acting so formal and I knew why. Anyone would if they could feel the power rolling off Isaac. It didn't help that Isaac still felt there was danger around with Ty and his merry men and women being there.

Jezanna and Caelen walked off, following Penny into the house. Commotion erupted, people screamed and stuff was thrown around, until quickly, it quieted. After a second, the back door banged open and I saw Caelen dragging a struggling Jason out. I wondered why he wasn't screaming, until I saw something shoved in his mouth. Before Caelen dragged him off into the woods, Jason's eyes caught mine. In them, I saw fear. He deserved everything he got and I felt no remorse. In fact, if I were in my human form, everyone would have seen a wicked smile on my lips.

I looked to my side as footsteps approached. Ty headed my way. Isaac watched him with deadly eyes.

"Leila, I'm going to pick you up now."

Shit, it would hurt. I even cringed at the thought. I ached all over. My whole body throbbed to its own tune of pain. My stomach churned and I wanted to crawl into a tight ball and just sleep. If I didn't wake, it wouldn't bother me, because then at least the pain would stop.

Ty scooped me up into his strong arms and held me gently against him. I whimpered into his neck. Internally, I screamed.

He turned back to his last man, or woman. "Steph, I'm taking her home. Meet me there when things are cleaned up here and the others have returned."

"Yes, boss," a quiet voice replied.

"You're not leaving without me," Isaac said.

"Master, what about these?" Xavier asked, gesturing towards MaryJane's other guards.

He exhaled loudly. "I don't wish to kill any of you. Will you swear your allegiance to me and my people?"

All of them looked startled by his question. All but one agreed.

"No," the only idiot yelled. It was one of the guards from the hospital, the taller, largely built one, with brown hair and dark grey eyes. He was also the idiot who'd held the gun on me. "Our mistress is right. You deserve to be destroyed by Gerald's hand."

"I see. I'm sorry you see it that way. Nevertheless, I cannot let you go and harm one of my own. Xavier." Xavier moved quickly. Within seconds, he was positioned behind the guy, twisting his neck until his head popped off his body. Xavier stood tall, threw the head away and dusted himself off from the particles the body left behind after disintegrating into nothing.

"Xavier, please take the rest to my home and have the others there watch them. I'm sorry, but until we can adjoin in the blood ceremony, so you're all under my protection, I can't trust you. Xavier, after that's done, come back to Leila's house. I've already informed the others of my plans. They'll be returning here soon to help with the clean-up and then will continue on to Leila's."

"Yes, Master." Xavier gave a small bow, collected up the rest of MaryJane's men and left with Caelen's friends helping him.

"It would be better and faster if I carried her," Isaac said. My heart soared from the thought of having his arms around me once again. I couldn't let it happen. I stiffened.

Ty felt it, because he said, "No. I will carry her."

Isaac uttered some swear words I'd never heard come out of his mouth before and disappeared into the night.

What about Sofia? She needed help more than me.

Thankfully, Ty answered my unasked question. "Don't worry, Leila. I won't drop you, and I will have someone bring Sofia along. Steph, have Peter do it." Ty smiled down at me, and I suddenly saw a flash of silver through his eyes before it disappeared.

What was that?

He took in a deep breath and started running. He was just as fast as I was in my human form.

Who was this guy?

Did I really know anything about him?

Was he actually blind? Because honestly, no blind guy could run through the woods like he was and not hit a tree.

Lies
. There were too many lies.

Ty walked in through the already opened back door to my house. I looked at the door as we passed through and saw it was nearly pulled off its hinges.
What happened to it?

Other than the door, the rest of the house seemed unharmed. Ty bypassed the living room, where Isaac sat stiffly on the couch, and went straight to my bedroom. He laid me down on my unmade bed.

"I will l-leave you to…" he cleared his throat, "change. Just call if you need me. I'll wait outside your door."

Once the door closed, I wanted to lay there and succumb to sleep. However, I had no chance of it. Grunting and groaning, I moved into a sitting position. Blood had started to dry into my fur. I was in pain with every move I made, and now I was about to make it worse. But I had to shift back. I needed answers.

Still feeling nauseated by the small amount of blood I had managed to ingest, I started the shift.

My bones cracked, shrank, and moved around inside my body. Most had healed from my beating when I'd laid watching on in the woods. Still, every bit of me was tender.

I whimpered, growled and hissed through the agony, and once I was in my human form, the sounds changed to screaming, panting and cursing.

"Leila, what can I do?" Ty asked. I couldn't answer him; it would take too much out of me. "That's it, I-I'm coming in."

A crash echoed in the hallway.

"You will not dare enter Leila's room," Isaac yelled.

"She's in pain."

"I know and neither of us can help her." Isaac's voice cracked, his sorrow showing. "Take your hand away from the door," Isaac hissed. Something crashed to the floor.

"S-stop ordering me around, Isaac. I'm not one of your groupies and throw something at me again, I'll fucking hurt you."

Isaac scoffed. At least their bickering helped distract me for a little while. I fell back on the sweat, dirt and blood-soaked bed,
breathing hard.

I wanted to take time to think, to lay there and rest, but I didn't. Weakly, I stood from the bed on shaky legs, grabbed some clothes and swayed to the door, leaning my head against it.

"Ty." I cleared my dry, raw throat. "Ty, move away. I want to go to the bathroom."

"Do you need help?" Ty asked.

"Help will not come from you. Jezanna, please attend to Leila."

Jezanna's here? Please, Jezza come help me.

"Ty, move away please so I can get through. I think it best if you watched your own people in the living room. They seem tense enough to shoot one of us."

You go, girl.
I smiled at her teacher tone.

Ty's footsteps retreated. A knock on my door jerked me away from it.

"Leila, I'm coming in." I backed up and the door opened. Jezanna gasped at the sight of my bruised, beaten body. "Oh, darling. Oh, dear God." Her hand went to her throat. "Look at what she's done to you."

My control cracked and I broke down. Jezanna was at my side in the next second, wrapping me in a blanket and taking me into her arms. "She will pay for this. Mark my words, she
will
pay." She gently pulled me over to the bed and sat me next to her, holding me in her arms until the tears dried up. I wanted to cry more, guilt clawing away at me as it felt like I was cheating Gregory from the time I'd taken away for grieving him.

Jezanna stiffened beside me. "Someone's coming."

A soft knock at the door soon followed.

"Leila, can I come in?" Sofia asked with a shaky voice. Instead of having to answer, Jezanna went over to the door, opened it and walked back to sit next to me, placing her arm around my shoulders. I knew it was to show she would protect me if she had to.

Sofia looked as bad as I felt. Her hair was a mess. She had dirt, scrapes and bruises all over her and her clothes. Warily, she entered and closed the door behind her. Instead of sitting on the bed, she sat on the floor near the door.

"You should not be here. You caused this to happen. You tricked Leila. For that, you had better watch your back. I don't take kindly to people who hurt my family members." It was the first time I'd heard Jezanna speak so threateningly.

"Jezza."

"No. It's all right. She's right, Leila, you and I both know it. I was glad when that Peter guy brought me here. I needed to talk to you, to check you're okay and to apologize a thousand times over."

Licking my dry lips, I asked, "Just tell me why, Sofia."

"Let me start at the beginning, please. Then I hope you can… I don't know, understand. Maybe, forgive me?"

"That will never happen," Jezanna snapped.

Sofia nodded. "I get that. I do," she said then sighed. "My parents were both attacked by different people who carried the canine disease. It wasn't until many years later they met and married. Then Raven and I came along. They thought we'd be born like them, but we weren't. We were human. So they gave us a choice. They offered to turn us when we turned sixteen, to make us like them. We both saw the advantages of having canine blood. So we said yes." She looked down to the floor, absentmindedly rubbing at her collarbone.

"Everything was going along fine. We were all happy. I really loved the days we'd be out running together as a pack. Until one night Jason had caught Raven and I shifting."

Tears fell freely from her eyes.

"The night I told you about, Leila. It did happen. Only it was different. Jenna had left the car and Jason kept driving. Then he pulled over and turned to me. Before he, he r-raped me. He said if I wanted to keep my secret, I had to do whatever he wanted. To start off with, I refused. Which was when he hit me and, and… I was too shocked to run. I just started crying. He said if I didn't do as I was told, my family's secret would get out and we'd be driven out of the town. I was sure my parents wouldn't care. They'd be proud of me for fighting back. But then, he said if I didn't follow the rules, he and his friends would have some fun with Raven, before… before they killed us all. Do you see? I couldn't let that happen, so I played along." She wiped at her eyes. "I'm so sorry for the pain I've caused you. I know I should've told you right from the start it would be a set-up because he wanted to impress MaryJane. But I thought… You see, I didn't believe those things about you. I still thought you were an average teenage girl. I had hoped a witch, but now that I know you can change as well, we could have helped each other and we wouldn't be like this now." She sobbed into her hands. I wanted to console her. It wasn't her fault I had someone gunning for me.

"Sofia. Sofia, listen. I don't blame you for anything. There's nothing to forgive." I shrugged. "You were tricked as much as I was."

Jezanna cleared her throat and we both looked at her. "I still think none of this should have happened, but I can understand your reasons for protecting your family."

"Thank you," Sofia whispered.

"I would get up and hug you, but I'm naked under here and that would just feel weird." I smiled, making her laugh.

"Don't your clothes change with you?"

"No. When I shift, my clothes fall away. Why, do yours?"

"Yes." Sofia nodded.

"I believe the difference is that Sofia is a shape-shifter, where Leila is a were
.
Your cat form is at one with you; they're both the same person. Leila was born this way." Looking to Jezanna, she saw my questionable look. "I've been Googling."

Sofia and I burst out laughing at the random answer from a vampire.

But if what Jezanna said was true, then
Holy crap
. There were many different species out there.

"Jezza, since you have all the answers, what in the hell happened to my back door?"

Jezanna laughed. "Uh, yes. That would be because Isaac received a mysterious call from someone using my phone."

That was right; when I put my hands in my pocket at Jason's, I found the phone and dialled the first number on it, hoping it would be someone who could help. Turned out it worked.

"He came straight here looking for you and in the process of entering the house quickly, the door just seemed to come right off. He found us all in your room, demanding to know where you were. I knew something happened, so I told him what you'd planned."

Now I was grateful I'd mentioned to Jezanna where Jason lived or else they could've turned up too late.

"Leila, I'm going to have to go," Sofia said sadly.

"That's okay. I'm sure you feel as I do, ready to crash. Look, I hope you'll come by more often."

Fresh tears filled her eyes. "I would love that. Thank you, Leila, and I'll bring Raven with me. She's always wanted to get to know you." She stood, came over and gave me a quick hug. I tried not to grimace in pain at the contact. "Bye, Jezanna," she said as she opened the door.

"Yes, goodbye. And don't fear. Jason has been dealt with,"—she glanced to me quickly, I nodded—"for what he did to Leila. He was not allowed to live, and now that I know what he did to you, I wished we had prolonged his death a little longer. Still, know this. He did suffer." Sofia nodded, taking it all in before Jezanna added, "The others will no longer remember what happened this night or even if Jason had said anything to them regarding you and your family."

Sofia sniffed, gratitude shining in her eyes. "Thank you, thank you so much."

Once she left, Jezanna turned to me. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."

Jezanna helped me to the bathroom. She stayed that time because from my swaying, I couldn't convince her I'd be safe enough in a shower on my own. Not that she got in with me; she stood silently by the door. I turned off the water and Jezanna handed me a towel. I tried to be quick drying myself, but there was no hope in that. My body still ached too much with every move. I got out with the towel wrapped around my body, and the first thing I saw was my reflection in the mirror. MaryJane
had
done a wonderful job on me. I was covered in bruises and scratches.

At least you're not dead.

Well, there was that to be grateful for.