Love Comes In Many Dangerous Forms

I woke up with my back aching from sleeping on the rocky floor and then I noticed that I was surrounded by darkness.

I couldn’t control the hysterical scream the bubbled out of my throat.

“Shhh, Cassiel it’s okay. Look,” I heard Shane’s voice and then the sound of a match striking against the box, the torch lit again.

I rested my hand over my heart trying to slow its erratic beating, “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” he apologized, “you dress burned out,” he gestured to his bare arm, his sleeve was missing.

I gave him a small smile and he looked away from me, and I heard Zach cough behind me, “Did you sleep well?”

“Fine, thank you,” I gave him a small, hesitant smile. “What about you?”

“We slept great, right Shane?”

“Yeah,” he murmured lost in thought.

I bit my lip, wondering what was bothering him, “That’s good.”

Colton wasted no time with urging me to get on his back, I sighed as I climbed onto his back, and my fingers were entangled into his fur.

He walked ahead of Zach and Shane, but gave Blaine his space.

And it continued on like that, and we would have to stop a few times to feed Aiden. Today wasn’t as bad as yesterday, but I still flinched at every noise, but I managed to keep my eyes open for most of the way. And for that I was proud of myself.

Aiden nudged my shoulder with his large head signaling that he was hungry again. I sighed, “You’re not going to have any food left, sweetie.”

He nudged me again.

“Okay, okay,” I slid off of Colton a reached into his saddle for his bag of feed. I couldn’t stop myself as I looked around wearily as I held out a handful of food to Aiden.

“Pig,” I teased him lightly as I stroked his mane with my free hand, it helped me calm myself. When he was finished, I turned to Blaine, “How many more days until I can see my brother?”

He wrote in the dirt, ‘Tomorrow.’

I smiled as I a sigh escaped through my lips. A few more days in the dark, I could handle that, at least I think I did.

“We should probably stop for the night,” Zach suggested, running his hand through his hair.

“Alright,” I nodded before I faced Shane. “Are you alright?”

“Um yeah, I’m fine,” he breathed leaning against the stone wall, doing everything not to look at me.

I frowned, wanting – no needing to know what was bothering him.

I walked towards him grabbing his free hand and pulled him around the corner, “We’ll be right back.”

We walked a few yards so that I was sure Colton or Zach couldn’t hear us, “What is it?”

“What?” he still wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“What’s bothering you?” I clarified crossing my arms across my chest.

“Nothing,” he murmured.

“We both know that’s not true,” I sighed. “Will you at least look at me?”

He closed his eyes for a moment before his green eyes locked onto mine, “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s nothing, I…” he trailed off and his eyes traveled down to my neck, and they stayed there.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” I touched the scar gingerly. “I’ve had worse, trust me.”

He hissed, “Don’t try to spare my feelings.”

“I’m not,” I blinked. “Do you want to see?”

He said nothing.

I bit my lip, and for the first time, I was actually self conscious about my scars. But I gathered all the courage that I had left and thanked God that I was still wearing my bathing suit. I looked around the lit area, making sure no one was around, before I pulled the ruined sundress down so that it was around my waist.

What would he think of them? Would he be disgusted? Would he be afraid? Or would he accept me for my imperfections?

All of those questions flooded my mind as the silence smothered me.

And then he touched me. It was my deepest scar, I got it when I was nine; Derik gave it to me personally.

“I know every scar by heart – how I got, when I got it, and what I did to get it,” I told him.

“They’re wings…” he trailed off.

I nodded as I let out a shaky breath.

“What is ‘2247’?” he asked his hand ran over the numbers that were permanently inked into my skin.

“My slave number, ‘224’ is my family and I’m the seventh member of my family to be a slave. Hillary’s ‘2246’, Tristan is ‘2245’ and so on,” I explained. “Angel venom can’t get rid of tattoos.”

“’Angel venom’?” he asked softly.

“Angel venom gets rid of scars, it’s in the shaft of their feathers. It has healing properties, but it’s highly painful,” I winced at the memory.

“And you did that because your family made you,” he guessed.

“I didn’t want to get rid of my scars, but I wanted to do what my parents told me to, I wanted them to be proud of me.”

All I could hear was our breathing, though his was a bit more labored.

“Which ones do you want to know about?” I asked, looking over my shoulder to examine his expression.

To my surprise he was in awe.

He touched the deepest scar again, “What happened?”

“I was with Michael, I was polishing the floors and he was helping me even though I didn’t want him to, he shouldn’t do a slaves work. Derik was looking for him and he found us. He had one of the guard’s whips, the one with nails in it. I was nine year old when I got that one,” I answered as he traced the scar that ran all the way down my back.

“What about this one?” he moved his hand to the bite mark on my shoulder.

“My rapist gave me that one,” I closed my eyes, digging my nails into my palm.

“It doesn’t look six years old,” he touched it so lightly that I couldn’t tell if his hand was still there.

“Because it’s not.”

“What?” his eyes narrowed as he turned me around to face him.

“The first time he raped me was when I was twelve, but he never stopped coming back. He would… visit me while I was in my cell. That scar is only a few years old; he gave it to me four days before the werewolves saved me and my family.”

“And you didn’t tell anybody?” he seemed angry.

“Vera, Audrey and Zach know,” I sighed putting my dress back on. “And I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anybody.”

He sighed, defeated.

“Thank you,” I touched the side of his face tentatively. “And don’t worry about what Zach said.”

“What?” he looked down at me, his eyes were uncharacteristically panicked for a moment.

“I know Zach better than anybody, and I think I know you well enough to know that he threatened you. He’s a little over protective, but he’s harmless,” I told him. “We should probably get back.”

“Okay.”

***
(Audrey’s P.O.V.)

I closed my eyes, trying to force myself to calm down, Zane found Cassie’s shirt and skirt as well as her bag of toiletries, she never came back to get them off the river bank.

Vera was breaking down on her bed, on the top bunk, “I’m sure she’s fine Vera, Zane didn’t smell any blood, or her scent,” I tried to reassure her.

Elizabeth was at Clara and Blaine’s gravesite with Carly and Jimmy. Hillary and the four parents from hell were God knows where. And Zane was searching the rivers around New York trying to find any trace of Cassiel or the boys – he didn’t find anything else.

“If they aren’t back in a week, we’ll send out a search party, alright?” I tried to calm her down.

She nodded wiping her eyes.

“Cassie wouldn’t die because a few worthless wolves took her,” I reminded her. “She’s not a damsel in distress, if anything Colton would take that role.”

I smiled as I heard her broken laugh, “Now, I need your help with planning Cassiel’s birthday party.”