Chapter 23 Dylan’s Aunt
Dylan's Aunt
Liam’s POV
I smelled cigarettes. It was faint, drifting from the left and coming from the direction of the balcony door that was slightly ajar. The thin line of the night air carrying the smell of tobacco inside. I had been so focused on the window that I had missed that.
I left the room immediately and went to the balcony.
Dylan was leaning against the railing with a cigarette between his fingers, his jacket over his shoulders, looking out at the street below with the quietness like he needed some air. He heard my footsteps through the door and glanced back.
“Were you here the whole time?” I asked.
He looked at me, then read whatever was on my face with attention. “Are you alright? I have been here. I needed some fresh air.”
I walked to the railing beside him and looked down.
I saw the woman from the street, the one whose nails had extended under the streetlight.
She was standing on the pavement directly below, darkness had almost faded so I recognized her face immediately. My vision sharpened at the edges the way it did when my vampire state pushed toward the front. My hands were at my sides and my jaw was tightening and the space between us felt like very little.
When our eyes met, she didn’t move or look away. She just stood there and after a moment, slowly and deliberately, she raised one hand and waved. She was acting like she wasn’t the woman I saw yesterday, was I mistaken or what?
I put my hand on Dylan’s arm. “Come, let’s go inside.”
“Why? What is…” He followed my line of sight down and went still. “Hey? Good morning” He waved at her.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Let’s get inside, stop waving at strangers.”
“Strangers?” He asked. “That’s my aunt.” He said and my whole body froze.
“Your aunt? Are you kidding me?” I asked, completely shocked.
“Wait.” He brought out his phone and showed me a message that she sent him yesterday night. I took the phone from his hand and read it.
‘Hi Dylan love, I have been trying to reach you. I came by your place but you weren’t home. Your friend gave me this address. Are you alright? I saw the news about you and the club. I will visit tomorrow morning before going to work.’
I read it again to make sure I read correctly. Was I mistaken? Maybe it wasn’t the same face I saw last night.
Dylan took his phone from me and looked up at me. “You see, that’s my aunt.”
“At this point, I don’t want to believe this,” I said.
“She’s my mother’s younger sister, aunt Sera.” He was already moving toward the door. “She must have come into the city without telling me, she does that, she’s been doing it my whole life…”
I got to the door before his hand reached the handle and held it closed.
He looked at me. “Liam, what are you doing?”
“That woman was on the street last night with extended nails moving toward you at speed. I saw her clearly”
“You saw the message. She hasn’t been in town for so long and she came back to see her nephew, is that hard for you to understand?” He held my gaze. “She’s my aunt. I’ve known her since I was born.”
I stood at the door and looked at him and ran every possible thought through my head. I even asked myself if Dylan was hiding something from me. If he insists she is his aunty, I don’t have to restrict him from seeing her.
I moved aside and he opened the door.
She came in with the warmth of a woman who had been worried and was relieved, touching Dylan’s face briefly, looking at the graze on his hand with the focused concern of someone who had watched him grow up.
“Dear, what happened to your hand?” She asked in a worried tone.
“Just a little scratch during practice, I’m fine,” Dylan said, hugging her.
She was shorter than she had seemed on the street, and warmer in the light of my apartment.
“You know I don’t like seeing you hurt,” She said while patting his back.
“Let’s sit.” Dylan said with a smile while gesturing towards the couch.
She walked to the couch and sat down carefully. Dylan sat close to her.
I stood at the edge of the room and watched.
“Is he your new friend?” She asked while looking at me.
“Yes, he is my team’s captain.” He replied. Do you care for anything?” He asked.
“No! No! It’s too early for that. I heard about what happened at your former academy, you know I believe you, right?” She asked as she held Dylan’s hand.
“I know. I didn’t do it, I don’t know how it happened but my hand wasn’t in it.” Dylan said.
“I believe you.” She said with a smile.
I stayed where I was and said very little and watched her carefully, one wrong move and I would be sending her to her early grave.
“Why didn’t you meet the security to call us when you came?” I managed to ask.
“It was early and I didn’t want to wake Dylan up.” She replied. “Besides, the security man told me that one of the boys in the apartment I was asking for is injured, so I thought I would give some space.”
“But he had been standing at the balcony before I came?”
She looked at me with an unimpressed expression.
“I… I didn’t see him, if I knew he was there, I would have called him immediately.” She replied.
“How was your trip?” Dylan asked, already sensing that I was about to turn the whole thing into an investigation.
I left them alone but not completely. I listened from the kitchen doorway, finding nothing that broke the surface of what she presented. Just a woman who had arrived in the city unannounced and spent the evening more frightened for her nephew than she had let on.
When she stood to leave she reached into her handbag and pulled out a flat box of chocolates, the expensive kind in black and red packaging, and placed them into Dylan’s hands.
“Have something sweet and don’t think about the bad things surrounding you,” She said to him and stood up. “You can share with your friend.” She looked at me.
She hugged him, nodded at me once, and walked out.
I closed the door behind her and stood with my hand still on the handle.
The smell reached me before the thought fully formed.
I turned slowly and looked at the chocolates in Dylan’s hands and then let my attention drop lower, to the memory of her handbag swinging from her shoulder as she walked out, the clasp, leather, and faint trace that had caught at the edge of my awareness and which I hadn’t noticed… A blood stain, clinging to her leather bag.