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Chapter 21 - Marian
Dorian and I teleported to the pack house, and a local witch was called to the pack. She teleported within minutes, and the scratches all over me, rope burns, bruising around my throat and waist where Ian held me, and the bite at the side of my left wrist was healed. All the while, there was silence.
No one spoke to ask what went down, and I didn't have the words even if they had.
Dorian stuck by my side, and once healed but still covered in blood, he took me home, and I stayed in the shower for perhaps an hour scrubbing.
I scrubbed myself red, weeping as I did so, and then I scrubbed some more. I stopped and stood under the water when my skin started to burn. I could still smell the blood, the stench of death in that house and Ian. I knew he was gone, but there was a lingering sensation of him holding me.
I was still sitting on the shower floor, and the steam was so thick I couldn't see outside the glass door. I’d cried until the tears stopped coming, and now I felt like a hollow carcass.
I almost died tonight. I’d felt it, Ian’s nails at the ready to kill me.
I'd seen it on Isaac's and Dorian's faces that one wrong move, and I'd be done for. My entire life flashed before my eyes. I saw my Mom and family in Mexico that I'd never see again, Diana and my beautiful goddaughter too.
I saw my wonderful staff at the supermarket, pack members, Nikoli and Dorian. I saw the life we'd almost had yet again and that at any minute, it could be ripped away, literally, since my throat would be torn open!
I thought of Isaac, my friend, and that he'd never find peace, that Dorian would never find peace.
Holding my throat, I closed my eyes. Ian's nails had scratched me a little, and those were healed as well, but I could still feel them. Or I told myself I could. Every time I blinked, I saw a flash of Ian's face, and I knew I'd be seeing it for a while.
Sighing, I finally got up, dried myself, and put on one of Dorian's shirts.
He was lying in bed with his back to the headboard, and I climbed in lying beside him. He shuffled down so he could hug me, and we lay like that for a while, neither saying anything.
I was glad he wasn't trying to offer me words of comfort. What could really be said after everything that just happened? Isaac was gone for good, and I was indebted to him for saving me, and I was now plagued with the thought, what did I awaken in him?
He hadn't had human blood in centuries, and now he was alone, a part of him that he buried awake and hungry.
He killed his brother to save me, and although Ian was a psycho and the wolves would have done it, Isaac killed his twin, and no matter their issues, that couldn't have been easy.
“Do you want the potion now that’ll help you sleep?” Dorian asked after some time, and I shook my head.
“Not yet,” I mumbled. “I’m not ready yet.”
"Okay," he continued to caress my hair, and I stared at the scar on my wrist.
There were fang marks, and they were now all I had left of the man that saved my life while destroying his. How long had he worked to achieve such discipline to not feed on anything other than animal blood? How traumatized was he that his brother killed the woman he loved?
How could he be so kind after all of that?
“Hey,” Dorian pinched my chin. “Get some sleep, huh? Take the potion. It’ll help you still and stop you from dreaming.”
I smiled weakly and shook my head.
"Why did you tell them to let him go?" I asked, and Dorian stared up at the ceiling. “Isaac, why did you let him go?”
He picked up my hand and stared at the fang marks. His jaws clenched, but he didn't appear upset. When he ran his thumb over them, my chin began to tremble, and he held my wrist.
"You were right about him," Dorian finally answered. "He wasn't the one after you; in the end, he saved you, and I didn't." I sat up and held his cheek, but he smiled and removed my hand. "I don't want you to say something to make me feel better. There’s no need for that.”
"I'm grateful to him for what he did, and I saw the truth. He cares for you enough to fight his instincts, and in my eyes, he earned his freedom." Dorian sat up as well. "You were right about everything; no matter the species, there can be good, but I almost lost you today, Marian."
“I’m still here,” I told him.
“You're all I have, Marian. I don’t think I can ever face what I did tonight ever again," he said, and I bobbed my head.
"No shit," I grumbled, and we both laughed. "Neither do I.”
