Chapter 35 CHAPTER 35
CAEL'S POV
The drive back was quiet, just as the flight was, but where words failed to communicate, Fabian's eyes spoke volumes.
Yelled at me.
Tore me up with demands for an explanation I couldn't give.
Marcus wanted to drive but I refused, I needed something to occupy my mind so I don't end up jumping out of the window or something.
Instead of going back to the place I'd rented the last time, I found a hotel close to Nashville and I paid for a week.
“A whole week?” Marcus asked on the elevator ride up. “You think we'll be here that long?”
“We can't just pick her off the streets, with the Pack aware of her importance to us, she'll be under strict protection and we have to thread carefully to avoid an all out war. This isn't like the time where I was undercover and had full access.”
“I wonder why you didn't do your job then,” my brother’s voice was like a snake’s own, poised and ready to strike.
Tension filled the little box as I refused to answer.
We got into the house and he proceeded to sound proof it immediately.
One of his abilities as a King.
“This place reeks of dirty human sex,” Marcus said, making a vomiting sound.
“It's the best hotel in the whole area and a very good one too. If you find a better one, please let me know, I'm good on the money,” I snapped.
“Jeez, take it easy, don't bite me.”
“Leave my brother alone, something is twisting his insides and until we undo it, he'll be difficult to be around.”
“You all just don't get it!” I snapped, wound too tight and unable to hold it any longer.
“I actually don't,” Fabian drawled, never one to talk too fast or with emotion. “So tell me Cael, why did you fail a mission that's this important? You haven't failed any in centuries so why does this particular one, the absolute easiest yet more important than anything else, break your arm so much you're yelling at your King?!”
His power rakes around my neck and pulls me to my knees.
I'm weak against it.
I've never been on the other end of what I fight desperately every day to make sure Fabian has access to.
This power, coveted by many, reached deep into my core and splayed me open for him to read.
“Speak!”
“Her… her eyes, it's her eyes. No. Her scent, it's alluring, maddening, and… wait, it's more than that! I want her, I desperately want her. Alive. With me. Every time I rescue her from danger –”
“You rescued her?!” He snarled, breaking veins in my body.
“A building was falling, someone else was trying to kill her, I had to stop him.”
“Tell me Cael, tell me why and stop rambling!”
“I… it's..”
“TELL ME WHY!”
“BECAUSE SHE'S MINE!” I threw off his hold so harshly his knees wobbled.
“How –”
“Oh shit,” I heard Marcus distant gasp behind me.
Fitting, as I'd done the unthinkable.
Brother or not, the signet of power was in his head and the ring of control permanently glued to his middle finger.
I shouldn't have been able to rebuff him.
“Marcus?” My brother walked away from kneeling form.
“Yes your Majesty?”
“Take me to this girl!”
“I… I don't exactly know where she is but Cael can trace her with his nose.”
“Oh can you?” Fabian chuckled, a deranged sound.
“She's currently home and we have to wait till the next school day except you want to fight an entire Pack of wolves, Council and also expose our world to humans,” I mutter as I stand up.
My guilt had been replaced by irritation.
If he thinks he can do this without me, he's grossly mistaken.
This is still my mission, I'm just a little…taken aback.
By emotions.
Oh for fucks sake.
Fine, Fabian is right to be hard on me because none of these jumbled nonsensical thoughts make sense.
Emotions are not a vampire’s way of life.
People on my side of the night rarely get that whole soul mate crap and when they do, they don't necessarily become stupid.
Like I have.
The impulsive desire to make her mine, to ruin her soul, to taint that innocence in her eyes… it's overwhelming.
But that's all it is, feelings.
Hardly enough to sacrifice the entire Valkori dynasty over it.
“Let's go,” I headed to the door.
“To where? Didn't you just say–” Marcus began.
“We might not get the mission done with today but we need information. Set traps. Get things in motion.”
“Glad to have you back to your senses brother. Please don't scare me like that again,” Fabian said and followed after me.
We don't drive into her Pack, that'll be stupid but I recognise her cousin as she heads back in after an evening jog with a boy and we park the car somewhere hidden, just outside the gates and then we follow.
It's late so it's easier to track her movements.
Until we get to the residence, a two storey building with the lovely aroma of food.
Gods above, I sound pathetic. What's my business with human food?
Letting the self loathing wash over me, I break rank and trace her intoxicating scent through the backyard.
A snarl breaks out from my left and I fled before the wolf could figure out what was lurking in the shadow.
“What did you gather?”
“That's her room up there.”
“We could have deciphered that from the entrance to the Pack.”
“Look, you have to take things slowly Fabian. This isn't England, everyone here is overly alert and since this… incident, there is something in the air.”
“The Council is paying special attention to her so…” Marcus trailed off.
“It's fine. We need to set up watch spots. In the ground.”
“Come on Fabian, what is this? The 1500s?”
“Since your modern and trendy ways aren't working, we'll go the old ways. I want to know how she walks, what she eats, every word she breathes and all the people interested in her. You made this difficult so don't look at me like that. Marcus, grab shovels, we have graves to dig.”