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My ears are ringing, and it feels like fire is licking at every corner of my brain.
Leon’s voice is gentle, speaking to me as if I’m a wounded animal. “Vivian, you need to stop. Whatever it is you’re doing, you have to let it go before you kill someone.”
I frown through the haze that surrounds me, wondering what he means. Overhead, thunder booms. My gaze focuses on Leon, who is looking very concerned. My eyes travel further behind him, and I see the lightning lighting up all corners of the bay. Eyes widening, I snap my gaze back to him.
Seeing my confusion, Leon continues in his soft tone. “Breathe, Vivian. Deep breaths and try to calm down.” His other hand takes one of mine, and his thumb gently strokes across it.
I listen, taking deep, calming breaths, distracted enough by the massive storm to let my rage simmer down. As soon as my concentration begins to fade, the fog presses in, and I feel myself fully calm, my anger no longer existing.
Somewhere inside me, a small voice weeps, but the storm dissipates around us, turning into a gentle rain. Leon still faces me, but his concern is replaced by a very troubled expression.
I pull back from his hand, and he doesn’t oppose me. Instead, he looks around us warily before turning back to me. “Do you know someplace we can go for the night? Just so we can make sure we aren’t being followed?”
Wordlessly, I nod, still trying to figure out what on earth that storm was and why Leon seemed to think I was causing it.
Perhaps he felt my pain through the bond, and his power was affected by it. He did say his collar fell offonce before. Maybe my pain was enough to set him off. I shudder at the thought.
Leon leaves me to get back into the passenger seat.
“You’re okay?” He asks as I put my seatbelt back on.
“Yeah,” I answer, only half truthfully. If Leon is about to blow through a second collar, that can’t be a good thing for anyone nearby. “You?” I ask, now very worried.
Leon sits back. “Yeah.”
I nod again and pull the car back onto the highway, starting for the destination I have in mind. Neither of us speaks as I drive another hour.
We come off the highway, following a road that skirts around the bay's edge, hugging the coast. We stay the course for another half hour, until we reach our destination. We’re now on a peninsula that juts out from one side of the bay, at its very tip, where the road ends, facing the open ocean.
We passed a ferry a quarter of an hour ago, but I continued driving until I reached the end. There is a small parking lot directly beside the road, where a few lookout binoculars are stationed. Behind us, there are a few dilapidated houses, all of them looking abandoned. A small pier sits adjacent to the houses, where a few larger boats are tied off.
I explain my plan before Leon can ask. “These are tourist cottages. People from out of province or country bought them up, and only come down for a few weeks in the summer. They come to do some fishing, eat the seafood, and then leave. There’s an island not far from here. It has an abandoned fishing village on it. There’s no power, but it’s remote. The ferry runs to it during theon-season when the tourists want to explore. Some locals rent them out during the summer, but it's fully deserted the rest of the year.”
I came here last summer with Sarah, Conner and Isaac. We went whale watching and got hammered on the island, making bonfires on the beach and eating clams we dug up. I smile at the memory.
Leon dubiously eyes the boats and then looks at the ocean before us. The storm is entirely dissipated, and the water seems calm enough. “So, you want to steal one of their boats?”
I laugh at the thought. “God, no. Those are very expensive, and I imagine the cottage owners are paying someone to keep an eye on them. Hell, they might even be outfitted with some kind of alarm system.” I turn away from Leon and walk towards the cottages, beckoning him to follow.
Leon follows, prodding further. “So, you want to go to the abandoned island, but not with the boats.” He continues before I can further explain. “If I apparate us there, Vivian, there’s a good chance one of the creatures will pick up on the energy if it comes over here. I like the idea of going to an island, though. That will make it difficult for them to follow your scent over the water.”
We walk through high, unkept grass around the back of the cottages. It’s still dark out, only about four o’clock in the morning, according to the last time I looked at the time in my car. I’m thankful there’s no one around. The moon is half full, and without clouds, we have decent light to see everything around us.
I scan the area as I further explain my plan. “One of these cottages will undoubtedly have a light boat storedout back. People tend to leave them lying around since they’re so common out here. Generally, you take them out of the water after the on season before the ocean starts to freeze and tears them to pieces.”
I’ve seen them scattered around so many houses, and I’ve never seen a lock on one. I’m confident there will be at least one behind these cottages.
Leon, again, seems dubious. “And you want to row to the island?”
I ignore his lack of confidence in me. “I can probably find a motor. And if for some reason I can’t, we can try to hotwire one of the bigger boats. But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
I’ve never tried to hotwire something before, and if I had my bag in my apartment, I could have grabbed my phone while running for my life. Phones are infinitely helpful when it comes to finding how-to videos. As it stands, my only experience with hotwiring is from watching movies. I hope the directors at least did their research if I end up leaning on that experience.
My legs are soaked through from walking through the grass. After scanning the entirety of the overgrown yard behind cottage one, I move to cottage two.
Taking notice that I’m so far unsuccessful, Leon interjects. “If you remove my collar, I can just apparate us there and take care of whatever tries to follow us, Vivian.” His voice holds a slight hard edge. He’s evidently not over the whole, not listening to him thing.
I just keep walking. If Leon thinks his snarky comments will change my mind, he’s in for a world of disappointment. You don’t get through an entire childhood of bullying without building a thick skin.
