Book 8 Part 15

Book 8 Part 15
Dani turned and started running as they stood on the patio and watched her in confusion. I pushed my chair back and looked at her as she ran around the house. We were all shocked that she was running.

“Are you… or…” Slade began to talk.

“I’ll get her,” I said and walked into the house to the front door.

I caught up to her as she rounded the corner of the house and she froze when she saw me a few yards away from her. She wasn’t fast and she was already breathing hard. She started backing away again as I walked closer to her.

“Please, don’t hurt me,” she whispered as I stopped right in front of her.

“Why would I hurt you?” I asked her.

“Please, just let me go. Nobody can know what I am,” she said tearfully.

“What are you so afraid of? Why are you using wolfsbane? Are you trying to kill yourself?” I asked her.

“It’s my punishment for living with humans,” she said.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked her.

“I can’t tell you,” she said and I could smell her fear.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me or anybody in this house. Nobody here will hurt you,” I said to her.

She looked at me cautiously and I held my hand out to her. My eyes pleaded with her to trust me and she took my hand tentatively. I led her back to the house slowly and listened to her heart rate increase with each step.

“You need to tell me everything,” I said to her as I led her to a couch in the living room.

“I hardly know you,” she said.

“Dani, I can’t help you if I don’t know the truth,” I said to her.

‘Just take it from her system,’ Blaise said to me.

“Eitr leifa líkami,” I whispered as I put my hands on her shoulders.

Her eyes grew wide as my hands burned brighter and I could feel the wolfsbane being pulled towards me. My heart rate slowed as the wolfsbane entered my system but I kept my hands on her until everything was gone.

“What did you just do?” she asked me.

“He healed you,” Slade said from behind us.

I couldn’t talk and the only thing I could hear was my own blood rushing through me as Blaise fought the wolfsbane in our system. My eyes changed color and Slade took a hold of Dani’s arm.

“Go to the kitchen,” he said to her as Blaise took over and I shifted in the living room, growling ferociously.

Blaise looked around as he growled and I tried fighting for control. Slade ran and opened the front door, “Use the door this time!” he was yelling at me and Blaise turned and started running.

I felt us slip through the realms as he ran. We were running through the realms, in and out. Blaise was running in the forest behind the house, then he was running in Scotland, back in Cloverdale. Blaise’s paws hit the clearing in Scotland and everything was quiet. I tried to control the magic and he stopped running as we stood in the forest in Cloverdale again.

‘You took too much,’ Blaise said and he stumbled to the ground.

“Deep breath in, slow breath out,” Kai said next to me. “Calm your heart rate and let the magic settle.”

“Dad,” I said as I shifted back and forth between me and Blaise.

“You’ll be okay, clear your mind and expel the poison, envision it leaving your bloodstream,” he said calmly. He was kneeling next to me and his eyes flitted between blue and black.

I tried to clear my mind and do everything he said as I settled back into Blaise and stayed that way. He sat with me for ten minutes as I kept my eyes closed and just concentrated.

“I know you don’t want me here. Just keep at it, slow breaths, you’ll be fine in a few minutes,” he said and disappeared again before I could say anything. Blaise stood up slowly after a while and started walking back.

It took him half an hour to walk home and I saw Slade on the porch waiting. He held out a pair of shorts as I shifted and got dressed. His eyes were filled with worry as he watched me. I had no idea what had just happened. I had only ever healed once before but this was the first time I had healed poison.

“Are you okay?” Slade asked me.

“Yes, it’s gone now,” I said.

“You scared the shit out of everyone,” he said.

“I scared the shit out of myself,” I said to him.

“You’ve been gone for three hours,” he said and opened the front door.

“Really? It felt like a few minutes,” I said as everyone in the living room stood up.

“Holy shit, Jericho! Even my pancreas was throbbing in fear,” Harper said loudly.

“Sorry, bad reaction to the wolfsbane,” I said and smiled.

“Why did you do that?” Dani asked me.

“Because it’ll leave my system faster than yours,” I said to her.

“I don’t want to sound insensitive, but are we still going to eat those steaks?” Leon asked as we all started laughing.

“I think we all need a drink right about now,” Slade said.

“Can you uhm put a shirt on,” Harper said and Slade grinned.

“Distracting, I know,” Slade said as he grabbed a shirt.

“I was talking to Jericho,” she said and I laughed as Slade glared at me.

“I think I need to shower first,” I said and headed to the stairs.

I showered quickly and got dressed again. I could hear them joking outside as I walked downstairs and I wondered how Kai had known that something was wrong with me. It didn’t matter anyway. I was still angry with him.

I sat down at the table and Dani looked me in the eye. It looked like she wanted to say something but had decided against it. Harper stood with Slade at the grill and Leon was showing Sam our stock market profile on the laptop.

It felt like forever that we just stared at each other until she broke eye contact and looked away. Slade announced that the food was ready and Sam brought the salad to the table. We ate and I was quiet as everyone kept talking and joking, I felt different but I couldn’t explain it. Dani and Harper helped Sam to clear the table and carried everything back to the kitchen.

“You should go lie down, you still look kind of pale,” Leon said.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep the fort here,” Slade said.

I could hear them as they started on the dishes and I went upstairs to my room to lie down. I was feeling tired and my eyes closed the moment my head hit the pillow. Even Blaise was snoring in my head and I cut him off so I could sleep.

I woke up as my door opened and light from the hallway seeped into my room. She closed the door behind her and I felt her lay down next to me. She turned to face me as I turned on my side and we looked at each other.

“I want to trust you,” she said to me.

“You can,” I said to her.

“I have to go home,” she said and her eyes moved downwards.

“I’ll take you and I promise you that Rick will never bully you again either,” I said to her.

“How are you going to do that?” she asked me.

“I’ll pick you up for school in the mornings and take you home in the afternoons. You will sit with us at lunch and we already have most of our classes together,” I said to her.

“I can’t ask you to do that,” she said.

“You didn’t ask, but until Rick’s sorted out we can hang out. You won’t shift until you’re eighteen anyway and then you can actually just tell your parents what you are,” I said to her.

“Isn’t that against the law?” she asked me.

“There are ways around those laws and I’ll be there to help you every step of the way,” I said to her.