43. RED CARNATION

43

RED CARNATION

B reakfast was a somber affair. They avoided the cafeteria, taking their breakfast on the ground floor of the administration building after security set them up with egg, sausage, and cheese biscuits with mini bowls of fruit. They also brought coffee, tea, and bottles of orange juice and water. An open cooler containing blood packets occupied the middle of the circle they formed on the marble floor.

Charlotte's head buzzed with questions about the events of the night, but the one that stood out the most made her speak up. "Why did it take Seth so long to start healing? Don't you heal right away? I thought that's what you said."

She found it difficult to shake the image of blood pouring from the stab wound from her mind.

Aiden shook his head, swallowing the bite of biscuit in his mouth. "We do to an extent, but it takes a while for the healing to make a real difference depending on the severity of the injury. In his case,"—he looked at Riley—"the injuries were so severe and numerous, his body ran the risk of not being strong enough to heal in time."

"It's why they refused to move him to the medical department until he became stable," Dominic said, taking a seat next to them.

Riley sniffed, drinking from her blood packet in silence. She'd remained silent the entire time security recorded their statements. Charlotte didn't know if it was the shock of the fight or seeing Seth near death, but it had been eerie for her not to talk.

The heavy doors of the foyer of the administration building opened, letting sunlight in that blinded them. When the doors slammed closed, echoing in the cavernous space, Seth approached them in a clean outfit. His neck and face appeared bruised, but nothing as severe as earlier. The swelling had disappeared.

Riley sat with her back to him, head down.

He stared at her without moving, and Charlotte watched as his eyes became glassy.

"Firecracker," he said, voice rough.

Her head snapped up, and she twisted to see him. Dropping her blood packet, she scrambled up from the floor and barreled into him, clinging to his waist as he winced, but didn't push her away. She buried her face against his chest and wailed like a child.

He buried his face in her pink hair, whispering words Charlotte couldn't make out. He moved his hands to the side of Riley's head, tilting her face to look her in the eye before kissing her deeply.

Charlotte looked away, catching Aiden's eye.

"He'll be okay," he said, motioning for her to eat. She'd barely touched her biscuit.

Seth led Riley over to sit with everyone and lowered himself cautiously to the floor. His movements weren't natural, and he favored his left side .

"Are you still in pain?" Charlotte asked.

"Sore, but my ribs aren't broken anymore. I'm still bruised, but that should be fine soon enough."

"What about the bites and the stab wound?"

Seth lifted the edge of his shirt, showing the dip near his abdomen next to the V at the edge of his jeans. A faint raised pink scar marred his skin, with minor discoloration in various spots where bruising had faded.

An intricate tattoo of a horizontal S edged with lines and spikes bordered the scar. She'd seen a similar tattoo on Riley when she changed her clothes the other night when Charlotte was in the room.

That must be their Korrena mark.

"That's incredible," she said.

"What?"

"How you're able to heal like that."

"Oh. Yeah. The surface wounds heal faster, but there's still some muscle damage that needs to repair itself. It's not like the bites. Most of them are gone except the ones near my neck, but those will be gone in the next couple of hours."

It amazed her how their species worked. What she wouldn't give to recover from ailments and injuries at the rate they did.

Her gaze traveled to Blaire, who sat talking with Lukas, Noah, and the headmistress. She worried how the bite from earlier would affect Blaire. She never healed properly. Bruising that would only last a few days for one person would last weeks on her skin. Doctors never discovered the reason why.

Blaire noticed Charlotte's gaze on her, and she smiled, getting up and moving over to where they sat. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright. This has been a lot, but I'm not hurt or anything."

Blaire nodded in understanding. "It overwhelmed me at first. I didn't expect to join a university where I'd be pulled into fights and crazy rituals, that's for sure."

Seth snorted, putting his arms around Riley when she crawled into his lap. It was clear to everyone how shaken his brush with death left her. She still looked frazzled.

"How's your neck?" Aiden asked.

Blaire touched the bandaged side of her neck. "It feels fine. I mean, it isn't comfortable, but it'll heal."

Charlotte placed her biscuit on the wrapper in front of her. "Are you going to be okay, though? Like, with the bruising."

"Oh, let me tell you." Blaire laughed, her eyes lighting up with joy. "So, remember how I told you about when I almost died to that ritual down in the temple below us?"

Charlotte nodded.

"You did die," Lukas said, joining them. His lips brushed her temple before he looked at Charlotte. "One of the worst days of my life."

Blaire had told her all about how after the Order discovered her blood carried magical affinities, they experimented on her until taking her to an abandoned temple beneath the academy not seen in centuries. They tried to sacrifice her to an ancient deity they'd read about in an old tome. What a joke. Lukas had to make the choice of turning her into a Vasirian or letting her die, but he didn't do it, not wanting to steal her freedom of choice. Her own magic brought her back.

"Fine. I died, but I'm fine now," she said, waving Lukas off with a kiss on his cheek. "The strange thing about it is something happened to me after that. When the magic brought me back, it healed all my old scars, too. Not only that, but I don't bruise as severely as I did before, nor do they last as long. "

Lukas muttered, "Now you don't look like I beat you up every time we have sex anymore."

Charlotte's face flushed, and Aiden and Seth started laughing.

"He's not rough," Blaire said, mistaking Charlotte's flushed face and wide eyes as worry. "He doesn't hurt me."

"Oh, no… I…" She looked at Aiden and he smirked, raising an eyebrow in challenge. "Nothing wrong with a little roughness," she mumbled.

"Wait. What?" Blaire said, leaning over. "Did you say what I think you just…" Her gaze moved to Aiden. He didn't even try to hide the smug grin on his face. "I do not need to know more."

Riley threw her hands over her ears, snapping out of her funk. "Nope!"

Aiden laughed and leaned down to whisper in Charlotte's ear, "You know you enjoy every bit of it, Kitten."

She rolled her lips in to avoid whimpering at the husky timbre of his voice.

Headmistress Velastra joined them, her hands coming together in a sharp clap that drew their attention. Charlotte was thankful for her clapping for once.

"As much as it pains me to share this news, your alleged father was not one of the rogues captured and taken to the dungeons below."

"What? Where is he?" Aiden asked.

"I suspect he fled when you all were occupied with defending yourselves."

Dominic sat forward, grabbing a blood packet from the cooler. "I've already contacted the clan about James. They will send word to their contacts throughout the US so there's pressure to find him."

"What if he leaves the country?" she asked.

"I doubt he'll do that. If he's in the position he claims to be in, he's not going to abandon it when he can use those at his disposal to hide him. He'll likely either remain in the area or return to Florida. We still need to determine if he's your father or not."

"That we do have the answer to." A short woman wearing tactical gear with her blonde hair in a tight bun high on her head stepped forward. She held up papers, passing them to the headmistress. "We ran samples of the blood on the wall to determine that it is, in fact, human. While we didn't have James's blood to run against the samples, we did get a hit from a hospital in Florida. He had a car accident several years ago and needed a blood transfusion."

"How did you know to check the hospital?"

The security guard looked down at Blaire. "One of the rogues we captured alive gave us his surname, and we ran it until we got a hit in Florida. Seeing the crash report, we took a chance on checking the hospital. Not sure why they kept his pre-transfusion samples after the first week, but…" She motioned to the papers the headmistress frowned at. "His DNA is a match for the blood on the wall."

The headmistress sighed long and hard. "It would seem he is your father."

Charlotte's head jerked up at that. "How do you know?"

"The alleged father cannot be excluded as the biological father of the tested child. Based on the analysis of DNA loci listed above, the probability of paternity is 99.999-and so forth percent." The headmistress looked up from the paper. "I know you may not wish to hear this, but James Robertson is your father."

Charlotte slumped. She couldn't help but wonder what drove her father to abandon his humanity to run with the worst of the worst in the Vasirian world. Why did he do it? Something had to have driven him to do the things he did. If he had the kind of money he claimed, what did he gain from aligning himself with gangs—human or not ?

"Sometimes people are just bad," Noah said, making her realize she must have said a part of her thoughts out loud. "James isn't a good man."

Dominic nodded. "Stressing yourself over the reasons he chose the path he did will get you nowhere. Sometimes people make choices because of some profound reason or trauma, but sometimes, sometimes people are just evil. I know it's not what you want to hear because you've just learned he's your father, but it's not on you. His shortcomings aren't your burden to bear."

Aiden took her hand in his. "You're not a product of your father. He might be your blood, but you obviously didn't take after him."

If she'd grown up with him, maybe her life would be different, and she wouldn't be the person she grew up to be. Instead, she could thank her mothers for the life they gave her. They ensured she became someone not influenced by evil.

"We have to find him, though," Dominic said. "To have a human roaming free like this with our secrets, with a hoard of rogues under his control, is unheard of. Money or not. I'm also concerned about his motives. Why is he involving himself in our world so deeply?"

"I think it has to do with the person who is supporting him," Noah said.

"What do you mean?"

Noah looked at the headmistress. "He's scared of that person, but I think their influence allows him to stay in power. I think it's an ego thing. Anytime any of the guys questioned him, he spoke of the Red Carnation."

"Red carnation?" Riley's nose wrinkled. "What does a flower have to do with anything?"

"It's not a flower. It's what James called the person over him. I guess it's a code name or something. I told the security team about it. "

"Code name?" Seth's brows rose.

"I've not read over those documents yet," the headmistress said. "I intended to do that today until this happened."

"This Red Carnation is dangerous," Dominic said. "If they have enough influence to make the rogues fall in line behind a human…"

Lukas sat forward, resting his forearm on his knee. "Shouldn't the Blackthorn Clan say something about them too? Not just Charlotte's dad?"

"Sperm-donors don't deserve that title," Riley snarked.

"Huh?"

"Dad is a dad. A real parent. A father is the dude who contributed his chromosomes to create life. Biology. James doesn't deserve to be called anyone's dad."

Lukas held up his hands in surrender. Riley obviously held strong feelings he wouldn't contest.

The headmistress shook her head. "So far, the Red Carnation isn't making themselves known. Putting a spotlight on them, making them aware we know who they are, might drive them into greater action."

"Until we ensure Blaire's safety, or she makes the change, we have to play defense," Dominic said. "We don't know enough to know what this person will do."

"There's no telling how they'll respond to this failure as it is."

Aiden's words were met with several nods of agreement. Until they knew more, they were nothing more than sitting ducks waiting on the hunter to find them.