They were talking to the Sappingtons and by the look on their faces, none was enjoying the discussion. The hunter inside me was trying to guide my steps to the coffee machine in front of me. It'd have been a perfect spot to spy on their little conversation if I didn't decide to be a scared cat and act accordingly. I sprint past the people in the hallways, not thinking about the mess I'm causing, and rush into the ladies' toilets. I lock myself in one of the stalls, putting a hand over my mouth to mask my unsteady breaths. I heard the door opening and hopped on the dirty toilet vase, trying not to think of how disgusting it is.
"Aline, are you here?"
I didn't let out a sound. I knew it was only Asher, but I was so out of mind at the moment that I didn't want anyone to find me. If it was possible, I wished for even my own brain to forget where I was so not even a mind-reader could uncover my disgusting hiding place. The toilet smells worse than the stables at my home in England when we are short on staff. And it happened often because my mother loves firing people. Almost as much as she loves punching them.
"I know you're in there, Aline." He says right outside the stall. "Can you please tell me what happened? Why are you hiding?" His voice was pleading and I was nearly convinced to get out of there, but my legs refused to leave, my body stiffs on the place.
I nearly slipped in the damned toilet when I saw Asher's head popping from above the stall wall on my right side. I jumped on my feet and ignored him, which annoyed him even more. Somehow, with his stupidly awesome supernatural reflexes, he managed to climb from the other stall and land dangerously close to me. He took my face in his hands and I didn't realise I have cried until he traced the almost-dried trails of tears along my cheeks. I looked up to meet his eyes and his worried look troubled me. I don't know why, but it stirred up inside my stomach and made my heart ache.
"I'm fine," I assure him, "it's just that... this place brings back bad memories." I hope he will believe my lie because I don't want to let him know the real reason why I was chickening out in a bathroom stall. Because it is perfectly fine to be scared of hospitals, but it's somewhat strange to be terrified of seeing your parents.
"You know I can't believe that, right?" He says, looking me straight in the eyes, frowning in disappointment. "You just told me that you're having guarding shifts at the hospital; I doubt you're having a mental breakdown every time you are here, so don't lie to me like this. I'm not a fool, Aline."
"I'm sorry I'm not a fucking daisy who is scared of spiders and to sleep with her nightlight off because shadow demons will eat her fingers! My demons walk in broad daylight and are dressed in Prada costumes." I yelled a little bit louder than it'd have been safe because I'm well aware that these walls are thin and the hallways got echos even when they are crowded.
"I saw those people," he says, while I was carefully waiting for someone to enter the bathroom, alarmed by my shouts. "Who are they? Why are you so afraid of them?"
I mean to answer him, not honestly of course, but I don't get the chance, because I see the door handle slowly being pushed. In a second I was back in the stall, with Asher closing the door behind us. Although I must have been a little hysterical earlier, he must have understood that the threat I'm so afraid of is very real. Because I sure wasn't afraid when he found me in the middle of a den of vampires, or at least I was not showing it, not like this. My breath stops the moment the door is opened, but I sigh when I hear giggles. Yeah, surely not them.
I crack the bathroom stall a little and I spot a familiar face. My mouth sparks into a mischievous grin as I look at the blonde girl kissing her lover by the sinks. I've met her when I was first admitted here after some warlock knocked me down with a jinx and I hit my head falling down the stairs. The blonde doctor didn't bother to read my medical file, before administering me morphine, to which I'm very allergic to. Luckily, her husband, also a doctor at this hospital, saved me from dying of anaphylaxis. Too bad that the nurse she seems so in love with is not the doctor that saved me.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have waited for them to enter one of the stalls, before exiting mine and silently leaving the bathroom. Asher watches me as I approach a cleaning lady and tell her that the toilets are clogged. She proceeds to swear in Portuguese, before locking the bathroom. When the two lovebirds realised they were trapped in their cage of sins, they acted accordingly: knocking and shouting from behind the closed door. It drew attention to the bathroom and everyone saw the moment when the cleaning lady unlocked the lady's room and the blonde doctor and the nurse exited it, like wild animals escaping from a zoo. Her eyes goggled at the crowd that was silently judging her trashed clothes and messy make-up. I let her see me before I disappeared on the hallways.
"Aline, wait." I hear Asher calling me and I stop in front of a lift. I didn't know which room is William's, but if he is awake and well, I know where to find him. And if he is not, I can wait for him. "What was that?" The Lycan asks me when he arrives in front of me.
"What was what?" I ask, pushing the button multiple times and waiting for the stupid lift to come.
"One moment you are hiding in the bathroom, then you throw a show? I don't get it."
"You see how empty are these hallways? Sometimes you need to draw attention to turn a situation in your favour." I say as I hurry into the elevator when the doors open. "Besides, she deserved it."
I push the button for the top level and my eyes fall on the other button that was lit red. I look beside me, past Asher and I'm suddenly sick. I hardly keep myself from clawing my way out of the lift, as I was feeling its walls narrowing and the air becoming thinner and thinner. I knew I should have died in the fight with the vampires, it'd have been a gentler death than the one that I'll get now. I saw the smirk on her face widening, her eyes scanning me and Asher with amusement.
"Prince Asher, a pleasure to see you again, " she says gracefully and I throw a questioning look at Asher. Prince? But I'm unable to ask how do they know each other because my mother already turned to me.
Hello, daughter." She says with a voice that made me think of the snakes in Medusa's hair. I always thought that she'd be a great Gorgon. "Missed me?"
"Oh, you know, as much as you miss a hurricane after it passes." I smile back, my eyes just as full of venom, my body stiffer than normal because I'd be a trembling jelly otherwise. "But what brings you here, mummy? Did London have enough of your gloomy personality?"
"I'm on holiday, a well-deserved one I may add."
"Yeah, it does get exhausting yelling at your employées 24/7; it's relaxing to yell at strangers for a change."
"I see that the program didn't meet its purpose," she tells me, watching me with disgust. "You're even worse than I remember. I see that the American lifestyle doesn't suit you, Adeline. You even gained some weight..."
"Well, nowhere suits you so if you can excuse yourself, this is your floor," I tell her when the doors open again, keeping my eyes on her and hardly stopping myself from checking myself in the mirror after her comment on my silhouette. Damn her for knowing all my weak spots and how to manipulate them in all the right ways.
"Follow me, daughter." She says and I hesitate before I follow her. Asher goes after me and I try to stop him, but he just pushes me out of the lift and proceeds to follow my mother. He keeps me close to him and I try my best to gain some distance but to no avail. He detected the danger very well and now is very cautious of the woman walking ahead of us in her orchid-coloured Prada suit.
We arrive in front of a salon and I see Will through a little window, lying unconscious in bed. He is worse than I've ever seen him: bandaged up from his torso to his jaw, one foot in a cast, hanging above the bed. His eyes were both purple but I bet these are not his only bruises. Waves of anger build inside me when I see him still like my comatose ex-boyfriend and I hardly restrain myself from kicking Asher for what he has done. But I look up to him and I see regret all over his face. He didn't mean to do it, and at least he called the ambulance that brought Will here. If he was as cruel as any other monster, my friend would have surely been dead now.
"William's case required special medical attention and because the hospital is already over its maximum capacity, they've asked your father to come and supervise the operation. We will stay and monitor his progress and after he is discharged, we all go home."
"Wait, you're taking Will back to London?" I ask my mother, and my eyes flash back to my ailing friend. They can't force him to leave Boulder, we both like our lives here better than the ones in England.
"No, we're taking both of you back home. You've completed the program so you're no longer exiled. You are a full DeGrey hunter again, Adeline."
"I never stopped being one!" I tell her back instantly. "And I'm a practising hunter here, mother. I'm registered in Boulder, you can't make me leave."
"You're registered by my authorisation and that changed as of today. So pack your bags and prepare your goodbyes, Adeline," she says with a grin and prepares to leave me before I build the courage to cut her throat.
"No, you won't. She doesn't want to go." Asher's words stop her from spinning on her heels, and both of us are now looking at a very pissed off Lycan. I was wondering why was he not arguing the fact that my mother is taking me to another continent when he didn't agree to let me go to the campus alone.
"Sorry, Prince, but these are hunters' business. I know you're here because one of your kind attacked William, but I'll ask of you to come to talk about the legal issues regarding it later."
"I'm not here because of the attack," he answers, finally looking at me and smiling at the confused look on my face. "Well, not really at least. I'm here for my mate."
His eyes fall on me and I find myself blushing and diverting my gaze to the little window again. I know both of them were looking at me right now, both of them making me nervous for a completely different reason. And although I couldn't quite describe the way Asher made me feel, or I didn't want to accept how real these emotions are becoming the more time I spend in his near proximity; I knew exactly what my mother's angry eyes are scorching my body, while her lips petrified into that same old, disgusted grin.
"Interesting," she finally says and that's when I look at her again. She is frowning, but her lips are curved into a mischievous smile. She clearly doesn't like what she's hearing, but she must have spotted something to use in her advantage in this whole mess. "And where did you meet?"
And I just found it.
"A few weeks ago," I answer before Asher can, putting myself slightly in front of him, fully facing my mother. He seems to catch my silent warning to keep himself quiet, while I chop off this Gorgon's head. "One of my classmates is from the Boulder Creek Pack, where Asher stays at the moment. We met by chance, but I guess it was all fate's wish." I speak clearly and steady, not letting her detect even a trace of a lie in my speech.
"Fate? I see you've now come to believe in trivial things like these m-... creatures." My mother draws a careful look at Asher when she nearly lets it slip the m-word.
"Why do you look so surprised? After all, you've always believed I'm lesser than the other hunters in our family."
"You are," she says and I roll my eyes in annoyance, "but I never said lesser, Adeline. I think the word I used was different."
"Yes, I remember. You told that I fit between hunters like a wingless fairy in the Annwn."
Fairies do have wings, although I've never seen how they actually look. Just like I've never seen the Faedom, but if all the tells are true, it is mystical. Falls with waters made of golden dust, that flows from the floor to the skies, moving islands that float around at the mercy of the wind, temples of worships, build of sunlit stones and always bathed brightly by the rays of sunshine... paradise just slightly above the earth. But my mother's words were simply: not even in paradise would I fit in; just like I seem to belong nowhere in particular. A huntress allied to the monsters she's hunting is as abnormal as a wingless fairy; even a mooncalf has more purpose than I do.
"I should be going," she tells after a while, "I have business to attend to. But have no worries, I'll see you soon enough." Although her words were vicious and hold a strong warning, I couldn't help from doing a little winning-dance in my mind, when she turns on her heels and takes some steps away from us. I finally seem to be able to breathe normally again.
"The trial will be in less than three days after Will recovers." She says as her heels click down the empty hallway of the hospital.
"Trial?" I shout from my spot, watching as she doesn't even slacken her pace a bit. But it wasn't even necessary, her next words were crystal clear for me, haunting echoes following up and bashing my peace and splashing it all over the walls.
"Your mate's trial. He's been accused of attempting to murder hunter William Sappington while the latter was on patrol on Halloween Night." She says and I attempt to follow her and actually chop her head off this time. How does she know? "I'll see you both in court." And with that, she turned right and disappeared, leaving me with a will to kill higher than I've ever felt.
I promise you, mother, that I won't let things like this. I promise.