305- The Scent of Trouble
POV Seraphine Valerian:
When I returned to the village, two Romani women were there. I had been introduced to them in the morning—they were mother and daughter—but I hadn’t memorized their names. I waved to them.
“Who was that?” the younger one asked, shading her eyes from the sun as she hung clothes on a line. “Your boyfriend?”
“A friend.”
“I think I know him. I couldn’t see well through the glass,” the older woman commented, frowning.
Then it could be anyone. I didn’t say that. I stopped at my father’s porch.
“His name is Konrad,” I said, hoping for more information.
“Not by the name.” She shrugged.
I nodded and went inside. Zuleica told me my father was still sleeping.
I began to worry as the afternoon passed and he did not wake.
“He needs to drink water, take his medicine, and try to swallow some soup,” I said to her as we both stood in the bedroom, worried. I gently touched his thin shoulder. “Dad... Dad, wake up.”
He didn’t move at all, his mouth slightly open, his breathing faint.
My throat tightened and a tremor rose in my chest.
“Dad...”
“Zorvan...”
The fear became real when he didn’t respond and didn’t open his eyes even when we spoke loudly and shook him more firmly. Zuleica ran out to call the clan’s healer.
I fell to my knees on the floor, clutching his hand and praying. I mixed our faith with Christianity, begging God and Saint Sara to help him wake up, to get better.
That only happened hours later.
The healer had said prayers, made him smell certain things, burned myrrh incense in the room. Other people arrived and gathered around. They eventually left, devastated.
Only Zuleica and I remained there, both of us tearful, when suddenly he opened his yellowish eyes, lucid. He smiled at me.
“Oh, Dad!” I laughed and cried, grabbing his hand again.
“I was in a dream... such a good one...”
“Are you thirsty? You need to take your medicine and—”
“Teo... I am leaving. You must go too... far... from here...”
“We’ve already talked about this.”
Weakly he raised his hand and held my hair, his eyes locked on mine.
“Promise.”
“Dad...”
“When I leave... you return... to Cologne.”
I saw the urgency, the fear. I agreed immediately.
“I promise.”
Relief enveloped him. His hand fell. He smiled slowly and closed his eyes.
“Zuleica, bring water, please. Dad, it’s time for your medicine,” I said nervously.
“I just need to rest... a little.”
The woman filled a glass of water. I called him again.
He never woke up.
A few minutes later, he stopped breathing.
Zorvan Valerian, the Barô and Shuvano of the clan—my beloved father—left this world.
He left me, and I collapsed on the floor, crying.
Alone.
(...)
POV Viktor Averwyn:
“Vlad didn’t go to work today.”
Lonut informed me as soon as he entered my main office in the central building of the village. He scratched his large nose, as he always did when he was worried.
“I sent a miner to his house to look for him. He’s not there either. One of the guards said he left yesterday late in the afternoon to go to the city. Looks like he didn’t come back.”
“Fuck…”
I stood up, a bad feeling creeping over me. I should have ordered someone to keep an eye on him after what had happened.
“You gave him the chance to leave, Viktor, but he didn’t accept. Maybe he got drunk at the bar and slept there. After all, he lost his son not long ago—it was just the two of them. He’s probably still a little lost.”
“Or rage consumed him.”
“You think he might be planning something? Maybe taking the case to the Elders?” The alpha straightened himself, confused.
“I don’t give a damn about the Elders!” Irritated, I ran my fingers through my hair.
To make matters worse, for three days I had been smelling that infernal scent. Wherever I went, it was there, disturbing my sanity.
“Do you smell that?”
“What?”
“Of tulips and nutmeg.”
“No. I only smell the duchesses. I spent last night there, and Katarina smeared me all over. Not even a shower got rid of it!”
“Fuck, Lonut, you only think about drinking and fucking females! Send two guards to the city to look for Vlad.”
“I’ll go right now!”
He ran out before I got even more irritated. I looked out the window, my mind working.
Even though he had been a miner for many decades, Vlad didn’t know the underground secret passages. Nor the exact locations of the traps around my property. If he intended to betray me, he wouldn’t be able to provide strategic information. Only I and very few others knew that.
My fortress was an arsenal of protection. Many would call it exaggeration—I called it precaution. Especially after I began having those visions or memories, some of them filled with massacres and fires.
I didn’t trust the other alphas. The Elders thought I was unbalanced. It was better to keep my suspicions to myself and be ready for the worst.
The only way Vlad could hurt me would be by going to Lucian or the others and telling them that his so-called “soulmate” was in my territory.
Shit, he wouldn’t do that!
I had been an idiot for believing his words, his silent acceptance of his son’s fate. I should have had someone spying on him. I just hoped I was wrong—that it was nothing more than drunkenness.
Otherwise I would rip the bastard’s guts out.
Furious, I abandoned my work and left, not wanting to alarm anyone without certainty. I would wait for the guards to return with news.
Outside, the strange scent was worse. It seemed to come in waves into my nostrils, spreading through my bloodstream. Addictive. I fought constantly not to plunge into the forest and run until I found its source.
I was too busy to be distracted.
So I did what I had been doing these past few days: I ignored it as much as I could.
I arrived home an hour before lunch, ready to stay there and cool my head. Adelina had finally stopped giving me the silent treatment and crying in corners. But she still looked at me hurt and sad, as if I were the big bad wolf of the story.
I greeted her with a curt nod, unwilling to admit that I worried about her, that I missed her smiles and affectionate ways.
“Have you come to eat already? The meat is still roasting, and I haven’t even started stirring the mamaliga.” Daciana turned to me anxiously, her face red from the heat of the stove.