Chapter 142 Not Worth It

Chapter 142 Not Worth It
The knife was still at Zion's throat.

Zion sat very still, he understood one wrong move could make him end up dead on the ground. The blade was held by someone who knew how to hold it,  it was directly above his pulse the angle and the pressure communicated experience rather than panic, and Zion had enough self-awareness to mentally fight moving fast against someone who could slice his carotid if he so much as moved.

"I won't ask again," the man said, pressing the blade enough to cause a trickle of blood.

Before Zion could form a response, Molly sat up from his lap.

She sat up and looked past Zion's shoulder at the person behind him and her expression went through shock before she quickly hardened her face.

"What are you doing here?" she frowned.

Her voice was flat, she was trying to manage her dizziness, and now, her displeasure at the man in front of her. She put one hand on the ground to steady herself and looked at the man behind Zion and waited.

A pause.

"Molly." The voice was softer, "How are you—"

"What are you doing here, Clark?" she cut him off, annoyance written all over her features.

“Not dad…?” Zion felt the knife at his throat ease slightly, he took that opportunity to turn his head enough to see the man in his peripheral vision.

Late forties. Dark hair with grey coming through at the temples. A face that had Molly's bone structure in it, the jaw and the set of the eyes, but harder, shaped by years of something that had not been gentle. He was looking at Molly with an expression that almost looked like hurt.

Almost.

Molly saw it and her jaw tightened.

"Don't," her top lip curled in a snarl. "Don't give me that face."

"Baby girl—"

"Don't call me that either." She slapped his hand away from Zion's neck.

Clark lowered the knife. But he didn't put it away. Zion noted that, he moved away from the man with Molly still on him, but he was on his guard.

"Your mother and I—" he started.

"Couldn't live together," Molly finished, her voice cutting across his cleanly. "Yes. I know. I've heard that one." She looked at him steadily. "What you left out, every time you said it, was that you started a whole other family. Different city, different woman, different children. In secret. Until Mum found out." Her voice was controlled and precise, she refused to let her voice crack, Zion slowly squeezed her waist. "So don't make yourself sound like the victim of a living arrangement. You made your choice, you disappeared and we were left with the consequences of it."

Clark said nothing.

"Daniel is dead," Molly said.

The words came out quieter.

"And Mum is too," she continued. Her voice cracked on the last word, she couldn't help it, she looked away, at the trees, at the dark between them, and breathed through her nose for a moment. "So whatever you came back for, you're too late."

Her father's face had changed while she was speaking. The expression on it was not something Zion could read entirely from his angle but he could read enough of it to know the man was actually hurt.

"I would have been so alone," Molly wrapped her right hand around Zion's neck, looking at him, he almost sighed, her eyes had so much love in them for him. She put her chin on his head and turned to look at the trees again. "If not for him."

Clark's gaze dropped to Zion.

The knife came back up and Zion immediately backed up, upsetting Molly's position.

"I came back to avenge them," Clark said. "And to protect you."

Molly looked at him.

"You're too late for the avenge part," she let out a bitter laugh. “And the only person I need protection from right now is you."

Clark pulled the knife back slowly and the expression on his face was shock. He looked over at Molly like he was just seeing her for the first time. He hadn’t expected her nonchalance towards him.

"I knew you'd find out eventually," he slowly nodded. His voice had gone quieter, the previous authority had drained out of it somewhat. "About this world. About the magic." He did not sound pleased about it. He sounded like a man who had hoped a thing would not happen yet had always known it would.

"You knew,” Molly said, it was a question, she stared at him with a bored expression.

"I knew your mother was a witch," he kept nodding. "I knew what that meant for you. I thought if I kept away from this world it wouldn't find you." He looked at Zion again and back at Molly. "I was wrong."

Zion got to his feet with Molly slowly, he put her down and moved to put himself between her and Clark. Molly reached forward and gripped his arm.

"Take me away from here.” Her voice was quiet but it was just clear enough for him.

He looked at her face and saw her exhaustion, she was holding her own so well against her dad. But she couldn’t keep doing it.

He reached down and took her hand carefully, avoiding the pressure on his damaged palms, she leaned slightly into him and he steadied her.

"Molly." Clark's voice came from behind them as they turned. "Molly, wait."

She did not stop.

"I'm going to make this right," he sounded desperate. "Everything. I came back to fix this and I am going to fix it." He took steps towards them. "Every last one of them. I'm going to exterminate every werewolf in this city. Starting tonight. The same way I did with that pack."

Zion stopped walking, the same time Molly stiffened beside him.

Clark's words sat in the air and Zion turned them over, he felt the pieces click together.

‘The same way I did with that pack.’

The police knew how to kill wolves. He had noticed it during the raid. They knew about silver, their deployment had been too precise, too informed, for a group of officers who had simply responded to a call. They knew where to target. They had known how to do it in ways that worked against wolves specifically and not just humans. 

Zion already felt himself turning. “Zion, no.” Molly grabbed his arm.

Someone had told them.

Someone had known enough about wolves, how they could die, how they operated, and where they would be. That someone had fed that information to the police and it had resulted in dozens of dead wolves and officers too. Zion slowly dragged his eyes towards the man who stood in front of him. He had just exposed himself.

Molly's father had given the police everything they needed.

“Zion, no!” Molly was tugging at his arm because she could immediately feel the change in him.

Zion couldn’t hear her, all he knew was that the locals had been destroyed because of this man. He knew those people, had grown up with them. Though most of them didn’t act like it, they were his family.

“Zion, he’s not worth—”

Molly didn’t finish her sentence because Zion had already dove at the man.