ROMANCE: CLEAN ROMANCE: Summer Splash! (Sweet Inspirational Contemporary Romance) (New Adult Clean Fantasy Short Stories) (100 page)

              “I trust him.” Hailey finally said. It was something even Anton was thinking of. What if the Khiones had bought the Haitian off? The Dominguez’s weren’t really that good of a protector to him.

              “I do.” Hailey reaffirmed. “If he says he is on our side then I honestly believe he is.”

              Caleb knew this wasn’t the charm of Gustav speaking. This was Hailey who had always been keen at knowing who to trust and not to trust. It was then quite mechanical for them to do as Gustav commanded because of what Hailey said. They jumped into random cabs separately.

              “If Gustav is telling us the truth,” Caleb began, “then the Khiones are on to us; well maybe not Hailey and me, but on to you Anton.”

              “Let’s split up, let’s have the taxi take us separate routes to Central Park.” Hailey pitched.

              “I am not at all comfortable with the idea of leaving you by yourself.” Anton immediately rebutted.

              “I’m still marked, remember. They won’t notice me even if I lay there in front of them.” Hailey said with an almost annoyed voice. They can tell that being so helpless for the past days has frustrated her. She had always fended for herself and not needed anyone to do anything for her ever.

              “Hailey’s right.” Caleb said.

              “Of course, you would jump at every opportunity to win Hailey!” Anton said angrily.

              “No! This is not about that.” Caleb continued calmly.

              “Then what is it about? You want her to ride across the city all by herself when all of the most powerful wolf clans of America have gathered here in search of her? Where is the sense in that?” Anton got angrier.

              “Listen Dominguez, we’ve been together the whole day. If they had discovered about you through Gustav, I’m pretty sure they’ve sent blood hounds out already to sniff you out so they can keep an eye on you.” Caleb began. Anton started to see his reasoning and so he started to calm down.

              “If we take separate cabs, they wouldn’t put so much association on me and Hailey.” Caleb said as he looked to Hailey for approval, to which Hailey gave a sincere nod.

              “We need to really just focus on keeping a step ahead of these guys.” Caleb finished.

              Anton was silent. “Fine. But this is assuming they’re not already a hundred steps ahead of us.”

              Almost a quarter of an hour had past when Hailey finally arrived at the park. She looked around to make sure not a single soul was around. The moonlight illuminated the stream that carved its way through the very heart of the park. She crossed the stone bridge which connected each side to the other, remembering the instructions that the two wolves told her.

              “Over the bridge to the west, three elks down south and turn right. Straight down that path is the oak.” Hailey murmured to herself.

Behind her he heard heavy footsteps, but something told her it was just Caleb or Anton.

              She turned around and saw no one. The hairs that trailed down her neck started to stand uncontrollably. She was not a believer in ghosts or demons, but after meeting a few werewolves and a witch doctor who had just so recently poured out her memories into his voodoo hut, she was ready to believe just about anything.

              “Who is that?” Hailey asked. The footsteps returned, but this time around they were heavier and more precise. She started to back up but still kept her body turned to where she thought the sound came from.

              “Hails!” The voice came. It was Caleb who was by then clumsily suppressing what seemed like real giggles. This was something all too foreign now for Hailey after everything that they have been through.

              Hailey stumbled down from the fear of the looming body that was coming.

              “Hails!” The man called. “It is just me! Caleb.” Caleb said almost on the verge of laughing.

              “Shut up!” Hailey retorted on the verge of laughing herself. “Not everyone has superhuman senses Storm boy!” Hailey jeered. They paused and looked at each other. They both knew what was happening. For the first time in what seemed like the longest time ever, they actually felt light and care free. This was weird considering how they were in an isolated part of this very eerie and dark fog laden park to meet a witch doctor.

              “I miss the time when we just had to think about which patient went to whom.” Caleb said.

              “Exactly. Remember how you used to swap shifts with me so I could get my Sundays off?” Hailey teased. Caleb knew she was trying to imply how he had always been in love with her even before this whole werewolf thing.

              “I really did like you, even then.” Caleb muttered.

              Hailey looked into his eyes and saw a sincerity that was immensely gratifying. She needed that purity – that sincerity in her life. She started to entertain the idea of being there with just him, minus all the drama her life had just got trapped into.

              The sound of the night crickets played a sweet and soulful melody; the song of the night. All of a sudden, that song was interrupted by a blood curdling wail.

              “Noooooo!”

              Anton. It was Anton and they both knew it. Caleb looked to Hailey whose face was now devoid of any traces of red. “Oh my God.”

              Caleb took Hailey’s hand and he flung her over his muscular shoulders as he dashed in the direction of the scream. Passed the elks and down the path, they saw him, Anton bathed in blood. The light of the almighty moon was bouncing off the velvety red color that had bathed the young man who was slumped down on the ground in fits of uncontrollable tears.

              “Anton!” Hailey screamed as she ran towards the easily distinguishable silhouette of Anton. Caleb grabbed her arm as if trying to hold her back, but no matter how wolfish Caleb’s grip was, Hailey easily twitched through it as she was on the verge of hysterics herself.

              A million things had now run through her mind. That semblance of joy or happiness she had with Caleb just a few seconds ago, she thought, she would trade in a heartbeat just so she could protect Anton right then and there.

              This was just another example of her daily conflicts of the heart as she was pulled from one man to another. However, she did not have to think of that right then. All that she wanted was to hold Anton and help ease his pain.

              Caleb followed suit as he tried with all his might to use his storm born powers to scope out the place for danger. Hailey and Caleb reached Anton as he slumped over himself, getting a better look at him under the pale blue moonlight; they discovered the source of the blood that had drowned the man.

              “Oh my god.” Hailey said as she covered her mouth in disbelief.

              Lying before the shocked and placid Anton was the brutalized body of Gustav. They stared at each other knowing that none of them could help the old man out. He was still breathing but the breaths were shallow and intermittent. The blood that had spilled was too much. Hailey, being a nurse – a hospice nurse at that – she knew what a dead man looked like for sure.

              “This is my fault.” Anton was muttering under his breath. But no one dared reply to his statement. They all felt responsible. Especially Hailey, the woman for whom the lives of Caleb and Anton were dedicated to as of that moment; the woman for whom Gustav died for. The moon lit the grass where the blood had slowly flowed. There was an unprecedented precision to it. Gustav’s breath became quieter and quieter.

              “What happened?” Caleb finally said, breaking the silence that was eating the group up. His voice was electric, and just like that, as if lightning struck his body, Gustav began to cough.

              “He’s trying to say something.” Anton said shocked.

              “Gustav, talk to me.” Hailey began to cry as she lifted Gustav’s head and placed it upon her lap.

              “Ca…” Gustav began to talk.

              “Gustav?” Caleb asked, knowing that that single syllable was meant for him.

              “Caleb…” He finally said the Storm boy’s entire name.

              “Yes, I am here.” Caleb answered. The other two were clearly curious as to why out of all the three of them Gustav chose to call to Caleb using his last dying breath.

              “I’m here.” Caleb repeated as he got down on his knees to draw his ear closer to the dying man.

              “You.” Gustav said again as he coughed out more and more blood.

              “Yes Gustav?” Caleb asked. Hailey and Anton just watched them quietly.

              “The keeper… you…” Gustav struggled, and this time it seemed he was going to give in.

              “Am I the keeper?’ Caleb sincerely asked.

              “You… you can find her.” Gustav finally said. And with that, his life slowly drained out from his with the last of his blood spilling over. Then all of a sudden, tiny bright lights started to reveal themselves from the different trees that surrounded the place where Gustav had just passed. From the biggest of all those trees, the oak, came a larger swarm of these lights. They were so beautiful. They danced in the cold midnight air as the moon light streamed through the canopy of the trees. Slowly the lights fluttered towards them.

              “Fireflies.” Anton said as tears rolled swiftly down his cheeks.

              The fireflies floated across their universes and encircled Gustav’s body in this effervescent light that was so mild and quiet that it felt like a distinct kind of warmth that they had never felt before. And as the nightingale from the distance whistled its last song for the night, so did Gustav’s lonely body return in a flash to the darkness that he had served.

              Gustav was murdered, clearly. His crisp clothes and perfectly lined pants were all torn out into pieces.  But it all mended itself in a beautiful display of lights. Gustav was a child of darkness, and even though that might sound sinister to most, Hailey knew that he served a special kind of darkness – the kind that played host to the beauty of the night.

              “What did he actually say?”  Hailey asked.

              “He said I can find the keeper.” Caleb said almost dumbfounded.

              “Of course you can.” Anton exclaimed finally realizing what Gustav realized. “You are a Storm. You have the gift of sight!”

              “What do you mean?” Hailey asked.

              Anton looked to Caleb who had now understood what it all meant too.

              “It means that we are all totally lost. I have no way of knowing how to work my powers, especially now that Gustav is gone.” Caleb said as he slumped down at the now empty field where there once was a pool of Haitian blood.

              “Do not say that. How hard could it be?” Anton inquired.

              “It is hard. It was so hard for my father that it took him fifty years for the power to manifest. This was when he had all of the elders of the Storm pack teaching him. Me? How about me? I'm all alone with no one to tell me what to do.” Caleb explained.

              Caleb paused for a while. “Look. We need to find another way to solve this dilemma. Trust me on this one. Depending on me to find the keeper is not going to be very fruitful.”

              Anton nodded. “We can’t force your powers, definitely not. It is supposed to grow out of you organically...”

              “Sure.” Hailey said sincerely trying to comfort the obviously distraught Caleb. “But please Caleb. Do not ever say that you are alone.” Hailey said with a stern voice.

              “I will always be with you through thick or thin. I will be here.” She finished.

              Anton looked a little uncomfortable at the sight of the two being all too chummy. So he spoke up just to break the sweetness between the Hailey and               Caleb.

“That’s all nice but we have one thing you guys are forgetting all too quickly.” Anton said with a dark demeanor.

              “If you have not noticed at all…” Now Anton just sounded downright mean. “Gustav is dead. He was murdered and I’m betting the Khiones got to him.”

              “He is right.” Caleb agreed.

              Something needed to be done about the Khiones. Hailey felt this deeply in her heart and mid the whole time. It was not just about protecting herself now; it was about revenge. She needed to avenge Gustav.

              “The Khiones must have found out about this rendezvous.” Hailey pitched.

              “I doubt that.” Caleb rebutted. “If they knew he was meeting someone, and if they suspected it was someone who had something to do with the sacrifice, then they would have stayed here or at least left a watch.”

              “There is not a single living soul around us for half a mile.” Anton replied. “I can’t even sense a wolf anywhere near us here.” Anton finished.

              “Then what happened to Gustav? Are you two saying this wasn’t the Khiones?” Hailey asked.