“But, as Catherine pointed out, you can’t take responsibility for his deranged thoughts and violent actions. You shouldn’t have to kill to make someone behave. Every bit of this is on him. All I think when it comes to him is that he could have just asked for help in the first place, and that pisses me off enough to go after him. It is the only fact I focus on where he is concerned. He could have asked, and you would have never been in danger. Vivian and Riker would have been living it up with us on the island. I could go on and on, but you get my point. This is all his fault. Only his fault.”
“He’s absolutely right,” a Royal seated beside me named Josh said. “Sorry to eavesdrop, but this is a bit of a confined space with so many bodies in it at once. Besides, with our connection, I’ve been feeling your guilt and thinking the same. Not to gang up on you, but I wanted you to know that we all think the same. We don’t blame you in any way. We can’t even get there in our minds. Just hoped a man saying it outside of the one that loves you might help hammer it home.”
Lex thanked him before I could open my mouth. Josh and I had found we had a special connection, like brother and sister in the pack during my training. Just one of those things between wolves, a myriad of connections between us within each pack. Though I had a connection with each of them, with Josh it had been different, and in battle, we would use that to our advantage.
Once Josh settled back, closed his eyes, I settled in against Lex as the engines roared to life, giving me a little zip of adrenaline my nerves didn’t need. They were on edge enough already, so with my heart beating fast, it added only to my shakiness. I did have to do some mental work, and I had this plane flight to do it. None of the ten of us seated in the cabin looked much in the mood to talk anyway, and some like Josh looked ready to attempt to get some sleep.
I did gather some small comfort from being in more urban wear again. Though the clothes had just been flown in last night, the black jeans and t-shirt made me feel myself, as I hadn’t since leaving. Not that it had been a bad thing by any measure to wear flowing gowns, or my wolf hide, or even special attire to train in, but this outfit somehow prepared me for battle in the mean streets of New York.
Funny, all my life I’d been taught the dangers of New York. The criminals, the unsavory element that hid in the shadows, went after the unsuspecting going about their lives. Yet, I’d had no idea, had never been told, about the paranormal element, both good and bad at all. Not that my father had probably even known, but even if he had been aware, would he have warned me? This was the stuff even adult nightmares were made of.
I looked over the crew of Royals in their street clothes, having never seen some of them in anything like these. I found it interesting that we all had basically the same thing on. While more to hide us in the night, we would look like a band of common thieves to anyone else. An intimidating bunch in stature anyway, let alone the all-black articles of clothing, but still, we probably didn’t look menacing to Daniel and his new pack of terror-causing werewolves.
Outside of the tornado of my thoughts, which had prevented me from even closing my eyes, attempting sleep, the flight back had been thankfully boring. Very little to no chitchat went on, and no turbulence had been hit. I had tried to pick up on their emotions, to see if they too felt nerves before a fight, but all I could manage was to feel Lex whose death grip on me, whether holding my hand or having his arm around my shoulder, never let up in the hours it took us to get back to the States.
The strain of having so much time alone with my thoughts lifted as soon as I stepped off the plane and rushed into Nira’s outstretched and waiting arms. While I’d only known the woman a few days prior, the way we’d met had bonded, then left us lifelong friends. I felt closer to her than any friend I’d left behind here. Thoughts of my strained relationship with Chloe hit me another second before I wiped it from my mind, giving into the hard press of Nira’s arms around me. The woman was genuinely happy to see me, like she would have been any long lost friend. Not that seven months was that long, but I’d gone through more than a lifetime of changes since I’d last seen the vampire and her crew. (It says Christina only knew the woman a few days prior, and then says it was seven months since they’d seen each other?)
Her face had to be lined with worry, as the vampires didn’t age anymore. Her eyes that had sparkled last time I’d seen her looked dark and tired. I knew it had nothing to do with a need for sleep, and everything to do with the weight on her shoulders to keep people safe once a mad man and his loyal men brutalized their city.