Chapter Thirty-Four: Kindred Blood Runs Cold

Chapter Thirty-Four: Kindred Blood Runs Cold

In order to avoid running into her mom and being sucked into a conversation she was not emotionally ready for, Ember climbed into her room through the open window.

She crawled into her bed and tried to numb herself but doing that was even more difficult than she had expected.

For the past few months, all she wanted was to recover her memories of the night of the mating so that she would feel complete. Now that she had those memories back, she felt empty and shallow.

Despite her efforts to shut her eyes, the vampire’s image lingered in her mind. She realized that she didn’t even know his name, but the strange comfort that she had felt when she had been in his castle was unnerving.

Then, the questions hit her; why had he suddenly become too cold to her? She knew that she hadn’t imagined the pull they had towards each other, and he had been cool with her staying in his castle. Why the sudden change in behavior?

She glanced over at the window with her heart racing. Part of her had expected the vampire to chase her down, to follow her back to her room and pin her down and…

Ember smacked herself inwardly, catching herself in the nasty thoughts she was having about him. Fuck! If she could just force these thoughts out of her mind and let herself drift off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Carin left the alleyway and he was now roaming around in the streets. He knew it was dangerous just lurking around in werewolf territory but he didn’t even care anymore.

Everything was shit!

He had somehow managed to make things worse for himself. First, he had lost his sister’s ring, the only thing that reminded him of her and now, Ember hated him.

The look in her eyes had been an undeniably strong hatred for him. 

His pride wrestled with his desire to go after her, to throw himself at her feet and tell her how much he had regretted leaving her all alone by the side of that road.

It was too late now, anyways. He might as well kiss goodbye to any attraction that had been sizzling between Ember and him.

He told himself that it was best for them to remain estranged from each other. There was no world where him and Ember together made sense. A werewolf had betrayed and killed his sister, he wouldn’t let the same fate happen to him.

Suddenly, an unmistakable and very familiar scent hit him like a punch to the gut and his senses went on full alert.

“Oh shit! It can’t be him. Please, let this not be him”, he whispered to himself. He took a sharp sniff, and then small, quiet steps as he attempted to pinpoint the location of the owner of the scent.

The streets were lined with different tall apple trees and grasses high enough to hide a man, this made it a real challenge to locate the position of the person.

And just then, with a dashing speed, Carin closed in on the scent of his target, ascending the top of an apple tree in a swift, fluid motion. He grasped the person’s neck, yanking him from the branch and sending him tumbling to the ground.

“Ouch! Oh, shit!”, the person groaned loudly as the impact of the hard ground sent a sharp pain through his spine.

“Theo,” Carin muttered, sounding both unimpressed and disappointed. 

A sly smile spread across Theo’s lips and his eyes twinkled in mischief. “Hey, big bro. You found me!”. He hoisted himself up to his feet, dusting his boots. “I was never really good at hide and seek though, was I?”

Ignoring Theo’s attempt at making light, casual conversation, Carin asked. “What are you doing here? I remember giving you explicit warnings never to show up at Wyoming”

Theo clutched his chest in fake surprise. He replied, “Really? I thought that was one of your famous silly talks. You know, you’re very good at those”

Carin clenched his fist as he struggled to keep his temper in check. “Mind your words, Theo. I am not really in a very good mood”

Theo’s brow furrowed in surprise. “Why? You are usually as chill as a cucumber, big bro. What is upsetting you?”

Even if Carin wanted to talk about Ember, the last person he would do that with was Theo. Moreover, Theo was trying to evade the more important issue by putting Carin on the spot.

“I will only ask you one more time,” Carin said, his voice low and serious. “What are you doing here, Theo?”

Theo splayed his arms widely, sounding fed up. “What does it look like I’m doing here, Carin? Of course, I’m in search for our sister’s killer since you obviously don’t have the spine to do it”

There was a long silence with only the rasp of their breaths trailing the chill air, and then Carin’s voice came.

“What do you mean by that? Between me and you, everyone knows you’re the spineless, weak-willed jellyfish. You feed on humans, you coward!” Carin barked at his brother.

Theo scoffed, looking very irritated. “At least, I am not the traitor who is sleeping with a wolf!”

Carin blinked rapidly, taken aback by Theo’s words. “What?”, he asked with confusion lining every letter of the word. “What the fuck are you even saying?”

He stared at his brother, genuinely amused by how easy all these ridiculous accusations came to him.

Theo folded his arms across his chest, looking more annoyed by Carin’s reaction. “Don’t you dare play dumb, Carin. I can smell her all over you.” His words were laced with malice, so were his eyes.

“Gods! You are insane, Theo. What the hell are you talking about? You can smell who all over me?” Carin asked him. 

“You reek of werewolf! You have their dingy and filthy smell all over you, big brother.” Theo announced to him and watched as realization set into Carin’s eyes.

“Shit!” Carin muttered under his breath and turned away from Theo. It had totally slipped his mind that he had spent most of that night throwing words around with Ember. Of course, her scent must have infiltrated him.

Theo, in a bid to poke at his brother some more, continued saying. “She’s the same wolf that was in your house some months back, isn’t she?”

When Carin gave him no replies, it seemed to solidify his claims even further. “You are  a fucking hypocrite, Carin. You judge me and you beat me up for what I enjoy doing, but you? You’re sleeping with the enemy. I mean, you’re just casually having sex with the same creatures that killed our sister. You are such a disgrace”

Carin, unable to put a lid on his anger anymore, charged at Theo’s throat. Grabbing him by his neck, he raised Theo until his brother was dangling in the air.

He spoke in a tone that bordered on a scream, “I told you to watch your fucking mouth with me, Theo! You have no idea what you’re talking about. I am not sleeping with a werewolf”

Theo’s laughter echoed through the crisp air. It was piercing and mocking at Carin. “You don’t have to be ashamed about it now, Carin. You know I don’t judge.”

Although he choked under the pressure of Carin’s grip, he managed to sputter. “I am curious to know though, how does it feel when you’re inside her? Is she warm? Sweet? Does she taste different from the others you’ve had?”

On hearing this, Carin’s fists tightened around Theo’s neck as he choked him further. Theo had a way of spiking up Carin’s temper. How dare he talk about Ember like she was some roadside whore?

“Shut up, Theo. Don’t dare me.” Carin warned but all Theo did was chuckle even more. 

“Carin and a Lycan girl sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” Theo sang tauntingly and this was the last straw for Carin.

With a thud, he slammed Theo to the ground and hammered him with a flurry of punches. Theo groaned in pain as Carin’s fists connected with face again and again.

Blood from Theo’s nostrils and mouth splattered across Carin’s shirt, but the punches just kept coming. Carin’s frustration with his brother had reached a boiling point.

In that instant, Theo’s eyes fell on Carin’s empty finger, where the ring should have been. He said, weakly. “Wait. Carin, wait”

Carin stopped hitting him but kept his folded fist trailed over Theo’s face. “What?” He uttered.

Theo’s voice was faint and barely above a whisper when he asked. “Where is it?”

Carin looked at him, confused by his question. “Where is what?”, he retorted.

Pointing to his fingers, Theo replied. “Catherine’s ring is not on your finger and I know that you never take it off. Where is our sister’s ring?”

The sound of Theo’s question drained the strength from Carin’s arms, and he instinctively released his grip from his brother’s neck.

His head dropped in defeat as he sputtered. “I… I don’t know”