Wild Ones (19 page)

Liv and I
had been approached by that bitch Meredith again. She mentioned
other
options
available to us,
and suggested we keep our minds open just in case. I spoke to Lucy
about it and she investigated, and found out that two of the
witches, Meredith and Kerri, had been approached by a couple of
paranormals, and had been offered obscene amounts of money to get
us to agree to meet them someplace out there. Who knows what would
happen after that. I asked Lucy what she was going to do about it,
and she grinned evilly, and said she'd told them she would discuss
the matter with Cade. Apparently Meredith and Kerri had disappeared
after that.

Two dirty
witches. It wasn't reassuring. And it made us even more determined
to get out of there. By day six, we had all started fretting,
mostly from sheer boredom, but I could see Liv was worrying about
Hugo, and Jen about Julius. Even Maddie and Millie seemed less
unconcerned about Cade and Atticus than they had before, but that
might have been my imagination. It could have been my reading my
own feelings in the movements and expressions of the others.
Because I was starting to worry. Especially when Lucy informed us
that they'd gone after the entire Arnold clan as well as Marcus.
Three wolves and two vampires against four vampires. I wasn't sure
about the odds, but they sounded a lot worse than three wolves and
two vampires against one vampire. And we'd heard nothing from them
since they'd left. Not a single call. Nothing.

Days seven and
eight passed uneventfully. I was working on my novel, refining the
stories as best I could, but the others were going flat out crazy
with the tedium of basically nothing happening every day. I guess
their lives had been so full of danger and drama recently, that
this forced hiatus seemed empty and dull.

They returned
on the ninth day, driving two cars, Atticus and Julius in one, and
the Grantham boys in the other. Jenna spotted them first, and
yelled to the rest of us that they were back. I watched their
expressions carefully. Jen and Liv seemed pleased, Millie less so,
and Maddie looked nervous and belligerent at the same time. I was
unsure how I felt.

The witches let
them drive straight up to the main house. Usually they had to wait
at the gate, or in a cottage just inside the gate. This was also
where they set up the meetings between the allegedly reconciling
parties.

We stood just
outside the front door, watching as they all climbed out. The
vampires wore bloodied and torn clothes, and the wolves wore jeans
and nothing else. They must have done their fighting as wolves, I
thought. But the wounds they bore had transferred to their human
forms. Hugo's eyes met Liv's, and she nodded, and turned to Lucy
who led her away. She returned a couple of minutes later with a
massive first aid kit, led the Grantham boys into the large
kitchen, and she started cleaning and suturing the ugly gashes that
adorned them. I watched in awe at how fast she worked. Maddie had
morphed into a pretty competent assistant, and cleaned and dressed
wounds that didn't require sutures. The wolves sat sprawled on
chairs as the women worked. The vampires stood against a wall,
bleeding quietly and watching the proceedings with concerned
expressions.

I hung back as
Liv stitched up a particularly deep laceration across the top of
Leif's shoulder. His grey eyes were fixed on mine throughout, pain
etched on his beautiful face. I wanted to go to him, and kiss away
his pain, but it had been nine days. A lot can change in nine days.
I was worried he might not want me anymore. The intensity of his
unwavering gaze was reassuring, though, and when Liv had finally
finished patching him up, he smiled at me, and beckoned me closer
with the index finger of his right hand. I walked towards him
cautiously, until I stood a couple of feet away from him. His hand
shot out and grabbed my wrist, and he pulled me onto his lap,
wrapping his poor battered arms around me, and burying his face in
my hair. Relief flooded through me then, and I tears started
rolling down my cheeks as I realised how very much I liked this
man, and how close I had come to losing him.

We sat like
that for what felt like ages, not speaking, while Liv sutured a
massive gash down Cade's back, and Maddie cleaned a few smaller
cuts on his face. I watched as he looked up into her face, anxiety
in his eyes, and she gave him a small, hesitant smile. His
expression cleared then, and he took one of her hands in his, and
kissed it, smiling back at her ruefully. She withdrew her hand from
his, but in a gentle way, and continued cleaning his face.

Millie leaned
against the kitchen counter, watching Liv and Maddie, and refusing
to look at where Atticus stood. He watched her carefully for a few
minutes, and when she continued to ignore him, he spoke in a low
voice.

"Millie."

She looked up
at him then, and something changed in her face when she saw the
pleading in his eyes. She sighed deeply, and walked to where leaned
against the wall, and stood looking at him for a moment, and then
she stepped into his open arms and burst into tears. He stroked her
hair as he held her, his eyes screwed tight shut with an
overwhelming emotion.

Jen had gone to
phone Annie to let her know that the vampires were back, and to
find out how Sophie was doing. She'd left her daughter with Steph
and Annie, knowing she'd be safe there, away from any danger. She
hadn't been sure that Marcus wouldn't attack the witches' compound.
I asked her why she hadn't stayed with them all, and she had
explained that she was afraid that her smell would attract them to
the Blake estate, and she would be putting her daughter in danger
just by being with her. I saw the logic in that.

Jen returned, a
radiant smile on her face that turned to concern when she saw
Julius. He looked pale and tired, but his face lit up when she
walked towards him, and he inhaled deeply and grinned in delight.
He glanced towards Atticus, who flicked his eyebrows upwards, and
smiled at his brother. Jen looked at both of them enquiringly, and
Julius leaned over, pulled her against him, and whispered something
in her ear. She blushed a fiery red, but she looked pleased. Julius
held her tightly in one arm and pulled a cell phone from his
pocket, dialled a number and spoke briefly into the phone.

"Andronicus is
on his way," he announced to the rest of the room. "He's bringing
his tattoo kit," he added meaningfully, looking at each of the
Grantham boys in turn.

"Congratulations, Julius," Cade said with a wry grin. "Would he
mind doing us a similar service?"

"I've already
asked him, and he said he'd be delighted. He's bringing three extra
needles."

"Three?" Liv
looked up from her work as she cut the ends off the last suture in
Cade's back, and frowned.

"Remember when
I explained about your smell changing when that embryo implanted in
your uterus?" Hugo chuckled, as she moved across to him, a fresh
set of instruments in her gloved hands. "Well, little love, it's
changed."

She stared at
him briefly, and then she pulled a chair towards her, sat down, and
started cleaning a laceration that extended across his chest and
the upper part of his abdomen. Then she grabbed a fresh needle and
suture material with the needle holder, and looked at him through
her lashes, a half smile on her lips.

"This is going
to hurt," she said.

"I know. I can
take anything you want to give me."

She said
nothing then, just gazed into his eyes steadily. Then she ducked
her head and started pulling the skin edges together with small
neat sutures. Ten minutes later she was done, and she leaned back
and stretched, her hands in the small of her back.

"I don't think
there's a policy against tattoos at the hospital."

"I checked.
There isn't," Hugo told her. "Thank you, my little love."

Liv smiled at
him. "Do the vampires need patching up?"

"Nope. They'll
be good as new in about another eight hours. You'd just be wasting
your time."

"Wait a sec," I
interjected here, the penny having finally dropped. "You said three
extra needles..."

"He did indeed,
Cassie," Leif's voice rumbled somewhere near my ear.

"What
does that
mean
?" I asked,
suspecting that I knew exactly what it meant, but wanting to hear
someone actually say it.

"That means
that you are carrying my child, Cassie, and that under our Law you
belong to me, absolutely and irrevocably. It means you will be
getting a small tattoo that says 'Grantham' on the inner surface of
your left wrist, and on your left thigh. And it means that I was
right when I told you that I didn't think I'd be able to ever let
you go."

He hugged me
tightly as he said those words, and I felt my world shift and
change as they sunk in. I looked around the room at the vampires
and the wolves and the wild ones, my new family, my new beautiful
man, my new and bizarre reality.

Oh, yes, I
thought. I could definitely do a lot worse.

####

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