Marked by Destiny (5 page)

It took an
effort to pull away and my body didn’t like the cool air between
us. I panted, letting my chest rise and fall. “I’ve a feeling
making out in a cemetery is not the most accepted thing. I’ll feel
awful if someone comes here to put flowers on a loved one’s grave
and they have to step around us.”

Michael groaned
and closed his eyes. Before they shut, their blue burned brighter
than normal but by the time he opened them again, they were back to
their ocean blue color. “I didn’t take you here so I could kiss and
ravish you. If I wanted to do that, I would prefer a little more
privacy.” He grabbed my hand and started walking again.

“Why did you
want to come here?” I asked.

“I like walking
here. It’s quiet. I figured if you wanted to look at the journal,
no one here would bother you. It seemed like a good idea… this
being the first place we met and with us leaving in a few
days…”

“Are you
thinking we won’t be coming here?” My mouth suddenly went dry.

“No! Yes! I
mean, we are
definitely
coming back.” He sighed and shoved
his hands into his jean pockets. “I just don’t… I don’t know if
this trip is going to change things. I want you to remember the
good feelings we had here and if there are any disappointments for
you on the trip, I want you to remember that there is a lot of good
here.”

He was worried
I would be disappointed or even worse, disgusted in what I might
find out about my history. Part of me wished I could do this trip
on my own so he wouldn’t find out the truth, but I knew I couldn’t
do it without him. “I’m not expecting to find much but whatever
happens, I will have you there with me. In the end, nothing really
matters but that we are together.”

“No matter what
we
learn; you’re still going to be my Rouge, my little Red
Riding Hood.”

I wanted to
cry. Maybe he already had a feeling I might be a Grollic or knew
about the mark on my back that I was trying to hide from him.
Everything was going to change after this trip. I reached for his
Sioghra. Caleb would kill me and rip it from my neck before he
would let Michael be with a Grollic.

Michael reached
for my hand. “How about we take one more lap around and then head
back home? I’m getting pretty hungry and there’s some of Sarah’s
casserole left in our fridge. Afterwards we can sit in the living
room and have a look at the Grollic Book together. I’ll help.”

We both knew
there was nothing in the book he’d be able to read or decipher. He
meant well, and I loved him for it.

We went home
and had dinner in the pool house that was now my living quarters.
Michael spent most nights here. He said it was for my protection
and I never argued. The conversation of intimacy or sex hadn’t come
up yet. I had a feeling travelling across country without the
watchful eye of Caleb might change that.

After we turned
the futon into a couch and pulled the coffee table close to use as
a desk.

Michael grabbed
his laptop and set it on the table. “Maybe we’ll need the
internet.”

“Sure.” I tried
not to sound as half-hearted as I felt. He sounded so eager to look
at the journal. “Whoops,” I said as I looked around the small room.
“I think I left it in the car.”

“No probs.”
Michael disappeared through the front door. He was back in about
five seconds.

“How’d you do
that so fast?” I had just sat down on the couch with a pen and pad
of paper.

“Benefits of
being on the dark-side,” He said with a sly smile.

“Come sit with
me.” I patted the couch beside.

He dropped down
putting his arm around my shoulders and set the journal on my lap
at the same time.

“What are the
benefits of the
dark side
?” I asked and tossed the journal
on the coffee table. We hadn’t spoken about what he was or what he
could do in a long time. I had been thinking about it a lot lately
and decided now was the perfect time to learn more, anything to
prolong the need to actually open the book.

“There are
benefits but like everything, there’s consequences also.” He
twirled a curl of my hair around his fingers.

“I’d like to
know what I am in for with you.” I poked him playing in the chest.
“The good and the bad.”

He laughed as
he reached over to stroke my cheek. “Are you stalling? Why are you
so scared to look at the journal?”

I swallowed.
How did you tell the person you loved that you were wrong for them?
That you didn’t want to leave but knew one day you were going to
have to? “What if I am a descendant of
Bentos
?” I whispered.
The truth hurt too much I couldn’t hold it in. “What if part of me
is werewolf? What if I shifted and bit you? I might actually kill
you! I need to find out about who, or what I am before you and I
make any other decisions.”

Bentos had
killed Michael and Grace about a hundred and forty years ago. He
had been able to control the Grollics through a gift and it was his
Wolf Book that I now had in my possession.

“What did Damon
tell you in the cabin?” Michael asked softly.

Since the
horrific night we hadn’t talked about him. My breath caught at the
sound of his name and anger boiled inside of me. It took several
deep breaths to calm me down but I forced myself to let it go.
Damon was dead. He couldn’t hurt me or Michael anymore now. “Damon
babbled on about a lot crap.”

“What did he
say?” Michael persisted. He shifted and leaned forward, resting his
elbows on his knees.

Damon had told
me that Michael had already known what I was. That Michael would
never want me when I turned eighteen. I had turned eighteen and my
royal wolf blood hadn’t changed me. “Damon was wrong about a lot of
things.”

“He said I was
a destructive weapon.”

Michael
grinned. “He was right on that one.”

I rolled my
eyes. “Controlling and killing Grollics doesn’t make me
destructive. It makes me a bad person.” The part that bothered me
the most was that I didn’t feel any remorse for the Grollics who
had died that night.

“You are not a
bad person. You were protecting yourself and those you love.”

“Sure.” I
didn’t want to argue with him what my conscience debated with me
daily. “Damon said I was a descendent of Bentos, and the wolves
want me dead so I won’t be able to carry on Bentos’ legacy.” Just
talking about it made me angry. I was determined to find out the
truth. I wanted to be with Michael and nothing would stand in my
way! I had to find out about my past and my ancestry to see where I
stood and what had to be done to secure my future with him.

“I don’t
believe for one second there is any Grollic blood in you.”

Little did he
know – I had wolf blood coursing through my veins.

“I’d have known
that right away,” he continued. “The smell of those mongrels is
disgusting and you, my dear, are freesias and honey.
That
scent runs straight through you, which is also very, very sweet.
It’s almost… heavenly.” He inhaled and closed his eyes. “Definitely
a bit of heaven in there.” He opened a single eye and grinned
slyly.

“You have no
idea how much I wish that were true.” We had never spoken about the
possibility of me being like him. You didn’t find out until after
you died and strangely woke up undead. Sort of like a vampire, but
without the blood and bite.

Michael turned
serious and leaned back against the couch, resting his feet on the
coffee table. “What I’m curious about, and Caleb and I have talked
about this a number of times, I’m surprised that if the werewolves
had been hunting you since your birth that they hadn’t found you
before Damon. You have to admit, Damon wasn’t the sharpest tool in
the shed. How could he figure out what no one other Grollic
could?”

“That is
something I hope to find out when we drive out to Niagara Falls.
Maybe it has something to do with me turning eighteen? Maybe Damon
got lucky and made a wild guess.” I grinned. My turn to tease.
“Maybe you’ve got a wolf or two in one of your labs down at the
office we could question? See if he knows anything?”

Michael raised
his eyebrows and rubbed his chin. “I can check.”

I punched his
arm. “I’m only kidding!”

He pretended
the punch hurt and leaned away, protecting his arm. “They don’t
tell us anything anyways. No matter how hard we question. They
don’t talk.”

I held my hands
up. “I don’t want to know.” I might not feel bad for hurting the
wolves, but that didn’t mean I was okay with others hurting them.
Weird
. “Okay,” I said, folding my arms in my lap. I’d had
enough talk about werewolves for the moment. “Let’s stop talking
about me. It’s your turn. What about
you?
”

“Me?” He moved
slightly so he could see my face.

“Besides being
super-gorgeous, super-fast and super strong, what else can you
do?”

He chuckled.
“You make me sound like superman.” He pointed to the pendant around
my neck. “I can sense you now, even if you are a mile away; I can
sense you and my
Sioghra
. You especially because I’m in love
with you but others as well. All of our senses are heightened
compared to humans. I can hear see, smell, and even taste better
than you. ”

“Really?”

“It’s like
everything is better, more perfect now.”

“That sounds
quite nice actually. I have a hard time trying to imagine it.”
Another thought crossed my mind. “What about Seth – do you remember
when he came back to the house and was bleeding so bad?”

“Yeah, the
wolves had given him a pretty good beating and he had lost a lot of
blood.”

“Could he have
bled to death?”

“He would’ve
died from the Grollic’s poison. It’s complicated to explain, but
our strength comes from our blood. What powers, abilities or
strengths we have, we lose from their poison. Seth fought against
the poison and I think losing Tatiana made him fight harder. That
fear of losing control and strength is what makes us fight to the
end.”

“Fight or
flight drives you as well. Human nature.”

“We crave power
and strength – that is our nature. The more we have, the more we
want. Some of us can control it better than others.” He glanced
through the window at the house on the other side of the pool.

“That’s the
difference between you and Caleb, isn’t it?” I asked quietly.

“Sometimes yes;
but Caleb is so strong in different ways that I’ll never be. He’s
probably the strongest one on the ‘good-side’ and he never is
tempted to go to the dark-side.”

Say what? “Now
I’m confused – there’s a good and dark side?

“There are
those of us out there that don’t agree to the laws of the Higher
Coven. Or they don’t know about the coven – when they died, nobody
was there to help them and they were left to fend for themselves.
They don’t know what is expected from them and the need for power
drives them crazy. There is also a Coven known as the Lower Coven.
They make werewolves look tame.”

I felt my mouth
fall open. I assumed everyone born with some kind of angel blood
was like Michael’s family.

“One moment
you’re human and dying, the next you’re suddenly invincible. It’s
hard not to take advantage of that. We’re all greedy to some
extent. That’s human nature. Some of us just prefer the feeling of
giving over the need to take.”

“What’s it like
to die and then all of a sudden be alive again? What happens
exactly?”

Michael rubbed
his chin with his hand. I could sense he wasn’t sure if he wanted
to answer those questions. “You die Rouge –your heart stops and it
kills you. There is nothing pretty, nothing serene about it. Then,
after a little while, your blood begins to flow again but it is
different. There is no oxygen inside of it. We won’t breathe
because we need air. It’s too hard to explain.”

“Can you bleed
to death then?”

He pressed his
lips together before speaking. “Caleb’s company clones blood, for
humans and for us. The de-oxygenated blood can be pumped through us
and can sometimes save us.”

“Why didn’t you
use it the night Seth got bit?”

“We didn’t have
any here.”

“But if you
know it might work, why wouldn’t you keep loads of it on hand?”

“You can’t
store it like orange juice in the fridge. Caleb’s company has tried
experiment after experiment. One might work on a certain person and
then kill the next instead of aiding. It’s too volatile still.”

“So it’s a dead
end for now.” I hugged my knees and rocked slightly on the couch
staring absently at the wolf book lying there closed and ignored.
“What happened with you and Grace the night you died?” I could
ignore the journal a little longer.

“You already
know what happened.”

“I know you
were both mortally wounded. Bentos broken Grace’ back and you were
stabbed. But what happened after?”

“Sarah found
both of us in our kitchen and ordered her soldiers take us to the
forest where they held camp. I died before in the house, Grace died
on the way.” Michael stared down at his hands.

“Then how did
Sarah know you would wake up again?”

“She saw my
eyes change before I died.”

I couldn’t have
been more fascinated by this story.

“I re-woke
sooner than Grace. Probably an hour or two after I died. It was
absolute torture. I thought I was inside the house burning in a
fire. It took ten of Sarah’s men to hold me down and allow Sarah to
explain what had happened to me.” He closed his eyes and hung his
head. “I was angry. Grace wouldn’t wake up and I was alive with all
this strength and power. I did some stupid things that night.”

I scooted over
and crawled into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and
kissed him tenderly on his mouth. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”