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He stepped back, letting those words sink in for a minute. “Do you remember the Hemingway family? You would have heard about them after you started? They made many donations to the college over the years.”
I nodded, and he buried his hands in his pockets. “Did you hear about the fire that took their lives? That wasn’t an ordinary fire. That was a hunter team I was assigned to. Jacob Hemingway, a billionaire tech mogul, was making deals with demons and dark witches. He was in league with every dark creature you can think of, rogue wolves too, and he was looking to run for mayor. His death was an accident. Things went sideways.”
“Mary Lighthouse, the girl that killed herself on campus, you must have heard about her?" he asked, and I nodded again. “She was cursed by a witch, chosen along with many other girls that went missing. They were all believed to be dropouts, but they were cursed and killed in various ways, and once buried, they were resurrected and put to work in Jacob’s labs. No surprise he was in league with anti-supers as well.”
“Right under your nose, Marian, these things were happening right under your nose,” he walked away. “This was the city you would move to once I returned home. I saw you in the library that day. I came to find you right after the mission, but you were so happy.”
“You were wearing a green turtle neck top, and I saw that you could have been Mary or one of the sixteen other girls that were killed."
I sat down on the swinging chair, my legs wobbly. I remembered that day. I'd won a scholarship along with four others, and we had a campus tour.
“I remember that day,” I mumbled softly, and Dorian sat beside me.
"Hemingway's son managed to get his hands on the files of two hunters on that mission. We were trainees, and our files should have been more secure, but their entire families were killed, Marian. He was later found, but those innocent people died."
I held his stare. I couldn’t believe this.
“You called me the following day," I recalled. "You were the coldest you'd ever been. Things had been rough for a while, but I heard it during that call that something was really wrong, and a few days later, you ended things."
Neither of us spoke for a while. We sat on the porch, listening to the wind in the trees and the shadow of the branches on the ground. To an innocent child, they'd think the shadows were monsters.
I stifled a yawn, suddenly feeling exhausted.
After so many years of believing the wrong thing, I wasn't sure what to say or do. Dorian had allowed me to suffer instead of telling me the truth, and I was angry at that, livid, but God, his file could have been taken.
Nikoli could have been targeted, the pack too… and me.
I was mad, but I also understood why he did what he did.
“I apologize for what I did today,” he said while a car drove by. "I know I'd hurt you, Marian. I know because a day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about it, but I thought you hating me while safe was better than loving me and perhaps dying because of it. I did what I thought was right.”
"Kissing you today wasn't some game," he turned to face me. "I've missed you more than you know, and I know you don't feel for me like before. I understand that, but today that kiss was real for me."
"I told myself to stay away from you, to leave things as it was, but I never stopped loving you. I know I have a lot to make up for Marian, but I'm willing to do what it takes. I want to be a part of your life, even as friends, just friends."
I bit down on my lip, and when another car drove by, I used the opportunity to avoid Dorian's gaze.
"You have a long way to go," I grumbled. "A very long way, and I’m not going to make it easy for you.”
I could see him smiling in my peripheral vision, and a quick glare wiped the smile away.
"I can understand what you did. You did the same to protect your son and the pack," I grumbled. "But understanding doesn't mean we're all good. Got it? I'm no sucker."
"That's one thing you're not, Marian," he replied. "That's one thing you're not."
We sat in silence, neither interrupting the tranquil quiet, until we fell into a comfortable conversation about his life as a hunter, avoiding the more painful parts. He'd been worldwide and seen more than I could have imagined. It was crazy to think of all that happened at the college I went to, in the city I lived in for years.
I could have spent years in a place run by a mayor condoning the killing of young women, and Dorian prevented that.
How was I supposed to be angry at that?
