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As if I wasn’t like any other person. As if I was somethingelse.
“Let the poor girl catch her bearings first,” Stephan said smoothly. His hand frantically pulled through his hair despite sounding so collected.
I could tell a part of him was just as freaked out by the situation as I was. His eyes never left Eleanor as the two looked at each other with either concern or love. It was hard to distinguish between the two, to be honest.
I tried to look more closely at Stephan as he spoke, but Dustin’s bright silver hair covered my line of sight as he blocked me from the other car passengers, pinning me in my seat as if to hold me back.
“Somebody explain to me what is going on here right now.” I pleaded, trying to push Dustin from me to no avail. He was surprisingly strong for his build.
They all fell silent after that as if they were scared to answer me.
What did everyone else know that I didn’t?
Eleanor frowned in response, cutting Sasha off before she could answer. “It is always sad when halflings know nothing of their true nature, though I suppose your ignorance may have let you survive as long as you did.”
Survive?The word stung me.
She reached in past Dustin and let the back of her hand run down my face gently as if to comfort me in some perverse way. “You may have questions, but now is not the time for such matters. That being you witnessed was what our kind call a deathwalker, and they are not creatures who publicly kill like that anymore. If they are desperate enough to attack you among the humans, to draw attention to themselves and risk the Elder’s finding out, then we have much larger problems than trying to convince you of what you are.”
It was like I was learning a new language, trying to process everything she was saying, yet still not understanding what it meant.
Deathwalkers? Elders? Among the humans? Meaning they were not human?
I think Dustin could feel my body trembling because his hand lightly held down my thigh, which was shaking uncontrollably.
I smiled when his touch would have otherwise sent me twitching to the far side of the car, though as I caught myself, I quickly eradicated my smile, turning it into a stern, crooked look. I did not need his ego to catch wind of my change of heart - ever so slightly- toward him.
I may not have fully understood, or even believed what was happening, but I was glad to finally be out of that building and away from thatcreature. And although every fiber in my being told me there was something dangerous about Dustin, Icouldn’t shake this feeling that I was safe with him.
He was still disdainfully egotistical, but he saved me from that monster. These, what did she say, deathwalkers?
And even if I wouldn’t admit it, I was thankful to him for saving me. Not many people I’ve encountered in my life have done something like that for me. Ifany,for that matter. I had seen what darkness looked like in people’s eyes, seen it shimmer like stars as they looked at me with such cruelty. And when I looked in Dustin’s, I didn’t see that look.
Granted, I didn’t see much beyond the self-centered douchebag he loved acting like, but there was a glint of goodness behind those eyes. Or maybe a sadness. But I could tell he wasn’t all that bad. Or at least, my gut was telling me that, despite it also urging me to be careful around him.
“If you have any questions, just ask me.” He leaned over me, his head resting on the edge of the backseat as he sunk further in.
Even with this newfound niceness he was portraying, I did plan on running home and locking myself in my room the first chance I got, should an opportunity arise. I still wasn’t entirely convinced this wasn’t some fever dream or hallucination. And the theory that I was drugged was still circling my mind as a possibility.
I had to cling to that idea because the reality of what it might actually have been was far more terrifying than being drugged. Because if this was real, and these people weren’t perplexed by the idea, what did that make them? In a world where monsters exist, I would imagine the prettiest of them to be the deadliest.
“Where are you taking me? Where are we going?” I stammered, trying to sound like I wasn’t mildly panicking on the inside still.
Stephan smiled forcefully, uninterested in my question. It was perhaps the first time I had seen him look so unpleasantly disappointed and uncharming. “Well, if you must know, I am taking you and my children to a safe location for the time being until I can ensure that the Elders know nothing of our involvement in this.”
“What!?” Sasha yelled, sitting upright in her seat. Her hair bobbed up and down as she angrily spat. “Why am I being punished for this?”
Stephan breathed in sharply while he shook his head. “You will do as I say, Sasha. This doesn’t just affect you; it affects all of us, and I need to ensure that we are safe from the Elder’s wrath. You know as well as I that they have been trying to be rid of our kind for quite some time now, and I don’t need them taking advantage of this situation to do so.” He cleared his throat. “Now, all of you will stay at this place until I return. Is that clear?”
It was as if he had timed this moment perfectly, the car stopping to a halt as we had arrived.
I watched quietly from my seat impatiently as the driver got out and opened the back doors for us. Stephan and Eleanor stepped out first, and then Sasha skipped out displeased, her arms crossing over her chest like an upset toddler. Dustin looked at me devilishly as if wanting me to crawl over him to get out, and I dug deeper into the seat until he realized that notion would never happen. He huffed in defeat, and this coy grin sparked across his face before he slid out. Despite my gut telling me to make a break for it and run, I followed them.
Once Oliver had climbed out, Stephan and Eleanor waved their children goodbye and piled back into the blackened SUV, driving off, leaving me and the three blonde-haired GreekGods standing in front of a rather pathetic-looking rundown building.
It was three stories, though the top floor looked as if it was crumbling. The shattered windows were stained and cracked, mold growing along the power lines, which stuck out against the outside of the building, almost bending into the structure itself. The brick that framed the building was stained red like clay or rust had dripped from the roof down the sides, and the wood trellis of the roof caved inward like it had collapsed a long time ago.
Truthfully, I never thought my pathetic excuse of an apartment would have looked so good in comparison.
