Part Sixty

I found Kane sitting near the jetty looking out over the lake. He seemed lost in thought and he hadn’t been in the house all day. I had brought his dinner with me because now I was worried. It wasn’t like Kane to act like this.

“What’s up with you, big guy?” I asked him as I placed the container down in front of him.

“Nothing,” he said and gobbled his food up.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked him.

“Waiting,” he said.

“Waiting for what?” I asked.

“Something,” he said.

“I’m starting to worry about you, Kane,” I said and he looked at me.

“I don’t know how to explain it. Something’s off, I don’t know what, something’s not right with Samantha,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Her scent’s different, she smells like them,” he said.

“Them who?”

“Hunters,” he said and looked back towards the lake.

“I pulled her from a warehouse crawling with them,” I said.

“No, her scent’s changed Griffin, how can you not smell it? She’s been here for a whole day and she still smells different,” he said.

I didn’t really know what to make of this, to me she smelled like herself. She had gone to sleep a little while ago and Jett had also left to go look for the vampire that he was hunting. I had been sitting on the porch watching Kane sit here unmoving for the last hour.

“Are you coming in?” I asked him.

“No, I need to wait,” he said.

“You’re acting really weird Kane,” I said to him as I stood up.

“Piss off,” he grumbled.

I walked back to the house feeling confused and worried. Kane rarely spoke to me, if he did at all, last night was the first time he had said a word to me in just over seven years. Even Jett had seemed different. When he left earlier he had told me to look after myself, he didn’t mention Sam at all.

I switched the lights off downstairs and paused on the stairs as I kept thinking about things. It felt like I was missing something, but I had no idea what. I found Sam sleeping in my bed and I crawled in next to her.

Sleep came swiftly but I was trapped as memories flooded me, then I was pushed over the edge with nightmares, images that I knew weren’t memories but they unfolded around me like I had lived them. There was a woman, dark brown hair, she stood looking at me, telling me she loved me.

I was hugging Damon as we reconnected. Images of me back at the house in Newport, eating dinner with the family, a strange girl sitting next to Jett, the same brunette sitting next to me, a ring on her finger.

I was back in Greenville as Kane licked my face. I was in another warehouse being shot at, back at my house, the same girl digging bullets out of my back and kissing me. Samantha in my kitchen as men barged inside.

I saw Damon in a coffin and me placing his heart in a hole I dug on Finley’s grave. I saw myself slitting some man’s throat, I had no idea who he was, but we were in my house. I was in the dungeon at the clowder, ripping Samantha’s heart from her chest.

I saw myself in a court room, hugging the mysterious brunette as she smiled at me. I saw Claudette and something strange in her eyes. I was taken to a pack house, Enforcers following me as we killed wolves and I could feel that bloodlust.

My head was pounding and I felt like I couldn’t breathe as everything flashed before my eyes. Kane was ripping Rosco Williams apart and I pushed bodies into the incinerator. My heart was beating erratically and I just wanted to wake up.

I saw myself walking into my house, letting bags of food fall to the floor as I pulled my gun out and shooting at something in my living room. I ran to the kitchen where Samantha was cowering. I turned and shot another man that stepped into the kitchen and felt the bullets slam into me from behind.

I turned slightly and looked at the gun in Samantha’s hand, her eyes were cold and calculating as Kane reached me before I slumped forward. She tried pulling the trigger again but the magazine jammed and Kane started running.

I saw that same woman, surrounded by vampires, me diving into a lake and swimming with her, me holding her to my body, feeling the ice cold of her skin as it pressed against mine. Me kissing her blue lips and finally me closing her coffin.

“I love you,” I said to the woman with the dark hair.

I sat up and took a deep breath as I finally woke from that nightmare and wiped the sweat from my forehead. My hands were lightly shaking and I walked to the bathroom to splash water on my face. Samantha hadn’t moved and I grabbed my phone and walked downstairs.

“Woods,” he answered the phone and I could tell that he had been sleeping.

“Hey Dad,” I said as I sat down in the living room.

“Griffin, are you okay?” he asked me.

“I just… yeah, I just needed to hear your voice,” I said rubbing my hand over my face.

“I’m always here Griff, anytime,” he said sounding wide awake.

“I’m sorry Dad,” I said.

“Griffin, are you okay?” he asked me again.

“Dad, I… can I come see you?” I asked him.

“You never have to ask that son, I’m always here for you,” he said.

“I’ll see you soon, okay,” I said and ended the phone call as tears formed in my eyes.

I went back up to my room and I pulled on jeans and a t-shirt and grabbed my jacket and boots. I pulled them on downstairs and looked at the time. It was one am when I walked outside and opened a portal. Kane turned and ran towards me, following me through the portal.

I was standing in my old bedroom and Kane leapt onto my bed and closed his eyes as he shifted into a more comfortable position. It felt like I needed to be here, I felt like it hadn’t been eight years since I stood here.

I knocked on Damon’s door and I almost laughed at the confusion on his face and then relief as he pulled me against him, wrapping his arms around me. I took in his scent and it calmed me, I was seconds away from breaking and I had no idea why.

“You’ll need to explain how you got here within a few minutes and without patrol spotting you,” he said close to my ear.

“I love you, Dad,” I said tightening my hold on him.

“I love you too, Griff,” he said and we stood like for a few minutes.

I pulled away and saw that Damon was crying too, we both laughed awkwardly as we wiped our eyes and then it turned into full blown laughter as we stood in the hallway looking at each other. I heard footsteps and Connor stopped short when he saw me.

“Griffin?” he said.

“Hey Connor, sorry if we woke you,” I said looking back at Damon.

“I thought I was dreaming hearing Damon’s laughter,” he said as he engulfed me in a hug too.

“Piss off, Connor, I laugh,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah, fine we’ll catch up later,” he said and turned back towards the stairs, “I’m glad you’re here Griffin.”

We both watched Connor leave and I turned back towards Damon as he walked into his room and pulled a t-shirt over his head. He gestured towards the stairs and I followed him to the kitchen where he switched the kettle on and I sat down at the familiar counter.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked me.

“I saw you die, I buried your heart,” I said to him taking a deep breath.

“I’m not going anywhere, son,” he said.

We sat quietly for a few minutes as Damon made coffee and settled next to me. We glanced at each other a few times and sipped the hot liquid. I couldn’t believe how natural it felt being here with him and I realized just how much I had missed him.

“I found Samantha,” I began and his head snapped up towards me.

“How…?” he asked his voice faltering at the end.

“I don’t know, she’s at my house in Greenville. Kane’s acting weird, sitting on the jetty saying he’s waiting for something and then that dream, only it didn’t feel like a dream, it felt like I was remembering things, but it can’t be true,” I said.

“What things?” he asked me.

“Kane killing Rosco Williams, me proposing to a woman, me burying you, killing council members, getting shot, us waging war with a wolf pack, Samantha shooting me in the back and me burying this girl that I love,” I said to him.

“Who is she?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen her before, but in the dream I knew I loved her, I felt my soul dying as I held her lifeless body in my arms,” I said to him.

“Where did you bury me?” he asked and I looked at him.

“What the fuck kind of question is that?” I asked him.

“I’m just curious,” he said.

“I buried your heart with Mom,” I said and he smiled at that.

“I won’t pretend to know everything but I do believe that everything happens for a reason, sometimes life kicks us in the ass because we’re stupid and other times I think stuff happens to warn us, what if this dream of yours is giving you insight into your future, so that you don’t make the mistakes you dreamt of,” he said.

“Kane said Sam smells different,” I said thinking over his words.

“Griffin you’re one of the smartest people I know, look at this without blinders on, look at it from another angle, what if Kane’s right, what if Samantha does shoot you in the back?” he asked me.

“That only means that she betrayed me from the start,” I said and looked at him.

“I can’t tell you what to do Griff, but you are a Woods and we don’t take betrayal lightly,” he said.

“I need to go, I promise I’ll come back Dad, one way or another I’m going to find the truth,” I said to him and left the kitchen. Kane wasn’t happy when I woke him up and growled at me as we stepped through the portal and I looked up at my house.