Chapter 14 - Kiara

The very evening, I stood next to Harvey in his bedroom, where I monitored his remaining wounds. Most of them had healed up pretty well, but his eyes were the only things that hadn”t changed back. They had started to change, but remained more of a dark honey and walnut rather than the gold brightness that they usually were. Clancy told me not to worry about it, but I still did. It was scary to sit next to him, seeing his eyes roll toward me and not knowing precisely where his irises or pupils were.

It made me feel like something else was watching me. In a lot of ways, that was true. Something else was watching me. Something that lived inside him and wanted to eat him alive—that had been eating him alive for a long time. Harvey didn”t talk about his demon very often, which I didn”t blame him for. It wasn”t like it was appropriate dinner conversation or something you could bring up on a date. But regardless of how strange and scary it was, I didn”t turn away from him. I raised a cup of water to his lips along with a cloth, just in case some of it spilled out of the corner of his mouth. He sipped it gratefully. When I put the cup back on the bedside table, he snatched my wrist. His eyes snapped open and a grimace turned his once calm features into a contorted mess. His grip was painful, but I withstood it—I knew it wasn”t him doing it.

He gritted his teeth. “This one is mine”.

The way his voice split into four different directions was horrible and grating. It sounded like when someone opens the back of a piano and runs a violin bow over the strings hard enough to break them. It frightened me to my soul. It was also deep and authoritative, hollow yet haunting. I knew this wasn”t him either, of course. Yet, at the same time, I realized that there wasn”t a lot I could do to stop what was happening from happening. He released my wrist and then looked shocked as some of the darkness drained from his eyes. A look of horror replaced the contorted madness in his expression.

“I”m so sorry, Kiki.” The nickname caught me off guard. I bowed my head and rested my hands in my lap, rubbing my hurt wrist. A soft smile appeared on my lips.

“I haven”t heard anybody call me that in over a week now.”

He raised his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, that”s my nickname back home. My best friend and my dad call me Kiki.”

He looked mournful for a second. “I”m so sorry I”ve kept you from them. They came to get you, didn”t they?” His voice was soft—almost weak.

I swallowed hard and nodded slowly. “Yes, they did.”

“What did you tell them?”

I focused on him for a second, thinking about what happened earlier this morning. It was weird to think that it had only happened a few hours ago. But inside, it felt like it had been days.

“I told them to go away, that I wasn”t in danger.”

Technically, that was a lie. Although I had said that. I didn”t think that I wasn”t in danger. I knew the demon inside Harvey wanted to do great harm to his pack and to him. I knew it would do anything possible to achieve this. That meant that I would be in trouble as well. I rubbed my wrist again. I thought about calling them and telling them what was going on. I didn’t want them to attack again.

Harvey reached for me. I didn”t cringe or pull away from him. Instead, I took his hand immediately and pulled it toward me, daring to put his hand where it might do the most damage if the demon were to take over again—on my neck. The place where he bit me. It throbbed. The more I touched him, the more it reacted. Soon, my hands were on his shoulders, and I had crawled into the bed and straddled his lap. I held his face in my hands, running my thumbs over his sharp cheekbones. I traced his chin and his strong, prominent eyebrows.

His lips parted, closed, then parted again. His eyes rolled up and tears formed at the corners of his eyes as he took a shuddering breath. He rested his hands on my hips. On his exhale, his eyes closed and he relaxed.

“The closer you are, the better I feel. I really don”t want you to leave my side.”

I ran my fingers through his hair. “I need to call my father.”

He nodded, swallowing for a moment. Then, taking my hand, he gently ran his fingers over my injured wrist. It was now twitching with pain. I actively tried to ignore it, trying to forget about the way the demon clawed at me. Harvey was so worn out and he needed to rest, but it didn”t seem like he was going to do much of that without me in the room. Then again, it didn”t seem like he was going to do much of that with me in the room. Regardless, he rested. He clasped my wrist between his hands and whispered something in a language I didn”t understand. The whispers turned into a chorus; a song that seemed to swim around the room.

The more he focused, the stronger it became, and then I realized my wrist wasn”t hurting anymore. He opened his eyes, and I realized the dark color had drained from his irises. Now, they were a pale marigold. He slumped back further into the bed, looking like he was sinking deeper into the mattress. I slid off of his lap.

I stood next to him, holding his hand tightly in mine. “What did you just do?”

“I didn”t want you to leave, so I healed your wrist.”

“You didn”t need to do that. I know that you used your demon.”

“I did,” he admitted. “But sometimes, I can make it do things, and this time, I was able to make it heal the damage it had caused.”

I frowned. “I thought Clancy was the only one who could do demon magic.”

He nodded slowly. “Technically, that”s still true. Clancy is the only one who can do that kind of magic. But every now and then, I don”t know, I guess I can make it do things.”

“You”re so worn out, I can tell.” I stroked his cheek. “But you”re being stubborn about everything.”

He snorted lightly. “Yeah, I guess you could call me stubborn sometimes.”

I shook my head. “Well. My father”s going to have a lot of questions, particularly about me turning him away.”

It was almost funny to think that their first meeting had been a brawl of sorts. Not only had my father found out where I was staying but he also had gone head-to-head with the man who was technically my mate. Considering that Regina was the one who announced our names, and the fact that it was revealed during a ritual, I couldn’t see how my father would fight that, but I knew he would try. I knew he would go off the deep end about it. At the same time, there wasn”t much he could do—what was done was done. Even though Blake had tried to pass it off as a mistake, the truth remained. Harvey was mine.

Harvey laughed bitterly. “So, your father’s first impression of me was…”

My smile weakened, but it was a smile nonetheless. “…Not great, no.”

He shrugged. “I guess there”s always next time.”

I gave him a curious, look. “Next time? So you want to meet him again?”

“I mean, I guess there”s time for that, isn”t there? I still have my hang-ups about whether or not they will accept me.”

I nodded. “I understand that. With time, they will get to know you better.”

Who was I kidding? I wasn”t sure how we could come back from that fight. It was still true that Harvey”s people had kidnapped me, and it was still true that I had run out into the woods without knowing exactly what had happened, despite what Nora said. Maybe I was trying to find my mate or maybe I was trying to run away from the ritual. There were so many possibilities. I even considered the fact that I had been sleepwalking, which was something I had done once or twice in my youth. It was normal for shifters to shift in their sleep and runoff. Maybe not all the time, but at least sometimes—usually in the beginning when puberty began.

“I don”t get it,” I said, “How did I end up here?”

He laughed bitterly. “You know. We kidnapped you.”

I shook my head. “No, not that. I mean, how did I end up in the woods? I keep thinking about it and I just can”t figure it out.”

He looked thoughtful as he gazed at the ceiling. His lower lip protruded as he was deep in thought. It was cute when he did that. I took his hands in mine and squeezed them lightly.

“Hey, you don”t have to do a whole lot of thinking right now, you really should rest.”

His thoughtful expression disappeared and was replaced by a defeated look. “I just feel like a failure.”

I frowned. “I don”t understand why you feel like a failure. You haven”t failed at anything.”

He stared at me. “You must be joking. I failed as an alpha by not saving my pack. I fought your father instead of trying to talk it out first, and then I ran away from everything. I let my demon take over. I let it hurt you…”

He hiccupped as more tears pooled in his eyes.

“My sweet, sensitive man.” I said, in a loving voice. “Don”t you get it? Don”t you understand by now? I don”t care if you have a demon possessing you. I accept you for who you are. In any form.”

His gaze sharpened. Then, as he looked at me, a smile crossed his lips, and he started to sit up, his wound having completely healed. He pulled me close and held me with a tenderness that made me want to fall into him. And I did. I rested my head on his shoulder. Then, I let my lips seek his throat. I searched for that very artery that he had bitten on me, the one that I wanted to mark. The place that I knew would make us official in more ways than words, chants, or rituals could. This was the mark of me, and I was ready to give it to him.

But suddenly, he choked. He fell back on the bed. His head smacked the pillow with a loud thump and his muscles started to twitch. His head shook from side to side so quickly that it looked like his face was blurring in front of me. It was like watching a digital video glitch. He convulsed, and his limbs twisted into odd angles. His mouth dropped open, and I heard a sound that sent me running from the room. But instead of running away, I went to find Clancy because he was the only one who could tell us what was going on.

Someone had to tell us what was going on. Someone had to help me save him.