Meow, Meow

“Knock, knock kitten.”

Just as finish my incantation I hear Laurel's voice and the creak of the door as it opens.

From behind my haze, I hear Laurel’s voice With a few more words, I finish the incantation and open my eyes as the magic around me settles to normal levels.

“I thought I told you I don’t like it when you call me that.” I snap with irritation past my heavy, ragged breathing.

“Yeah, I’m sure you did.” She dismisses, shutting the door with a thud and crossing the room to rest on the bed.

After a few long moments of sitting with my hands pressed against the carpet, I carefully slip the sterling silver studs in my pocket and lift myself up from the pentagram on the ground slowly.

“I don’t know how Rhea handles you.” I groan as I rest against the tiny guest bed besides my best friend’s mate.

“Me either.” Laurel chuckles briefly, before quickly getting serious once again. “So what are you going to do about the cambion who held you?”

Her words make me go tense.

“I honestly don’t know.” I mumble, my ear laying low against my head as I bite my lip, studying the texture of the fabric without really seeing it.

As the seconds tick by loudly a cold hand presses against my arm, making me shiver almost violently. It definitely wakes me up from my self-induced stupor. I glance up quickly, staring into the blue, green, and gray eyed vixen.

“Rhea told me a little.”

“Yeah, and what did she tell you?” Irritation and annoyance makes me words come out a warning hiss instead of an inquiry.

“She told me about you and Narissa.” Laurel smirks devilishly, her fangs not even showing. “And about the cambion who held you captive.”

“And?”

“You have to kill him.” She states with ease and absoluteness.

The words literally make my stomach churn nauseatingly. To steady myself, I grasp the edges of the bed tightly, making my knuckles turn white.

“I can’t.” I manage to grind out past my clenched teeth and trembling lips.

“Because you physically can’t? Or you don’t want to for some reason?”

Closing my eyes tightly, I ignore her questions to attempt to manage my breathing, my racing pulse, and my rollercoaster of chaotic thoughts.

“Okay, don’t answer.” The vampiress snaps in my ear as the time lengthens, moving to sit farther away from me. “But what about your mate, Narissa? What about her? You can’t keep running and still protect her at the same time?”

My eyes fly open. “I know.” I loosen my grip on the plaid comforter and give out a heavy sigh as I fall back onto the less than comfy mattress. “For the longest its just been me. But now I have her to worry about too.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Protect her.” I state with purpose, rising from the bed and fingering the pocket with Narissa’s earrings in them. “I just need to figure out a plan. A good plan.”

“I can help with that.” The pale skinned model suggests gleefully, her fangs enlarging slightly as she betrays her Martha Stewert persona. “And we can make sandwhiches.” She hops off the mattress, leading the way towards the kitchen.

I give her a look to let her know I don’t share her same enthusiasm in any way. But I do follow slowly after her and take a seat at the now empty kitchen table.

The nearly two hundred year old women open the fridge, studying it’s contents briefly before pulling out a plethora of bread options, condiments, dressings, meats, veggies, and cheeses.

I chuckle, relaxing a little as I do, “You really like to cook, huh?”

“Yeah,” She turns slightly to glance at me over her shoulder and smiles, “It makes Rhea smile. Plus, it helps with the hunger.”

“She’s lucky to have you.” I breath, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“Don’t humor me. You and I both know it’s the other way around,” She breaths, organizing all the options into the perfect sandwich assembly line. “She understands me, accepts me, and loves me. Despite everything. So really I’m really the lucky one.”

My heart quivers in my chest at her words. I’m happy that Rhea has someone who wants to make her happy. But it also make me feel a little sad because I can’t help but think about Narissa.

Tears well up in my eyes. I blubber, suddenly not too in control of my emotions. “You two really do deserve each other.”

Through my blurry vision, I notice her stand at the counter, staring at me. I try to reign in my feelings, brushing away my tears with the back of my hand.

“Sorry.” I mumble, embarrassed by my outburst.

“Don’t worry.” She crosses the table and stands awkwardly beside me. She reaches out and places her ice cold hand on my shoulder, patting me soothingly. “You and your mate will have a beautiful relationship. I don’t doubt it. You’re so amazing that she can’t help but fall for you.”

“Was that a real compliment?” I manage to chuckle, blinking away some of the remaining tears. “If I can find a way to fix all this, then maybe.”

“You will fix it.” She leaves my side, quickly whipping up a basic sandwich and placing it in front of my face, along with a bottle of water. “It won’t be easy, but things will work out. They worked with me and Rhea and I was in a worse place that you. Far, far worse.”

Breathing in deeply, I nod my head slowly. “I hope so.”

“So, about Luka?”

I glance up. The vampiress is now sitting at the seat to my left a pita sandwich inbetween her fangs. “It’s not as simple as just killing him. I wish it was. Then I think I could do that and be done. But, it’s a little more complex.”

“How complex?”

“Really complex.” I shake my head, stuffing my face with the less than savory sandwich, not really wanting to talk about the biggest mistake that I’ve ever made in my life, and that can’t be undone. “I made a toiveri*.”

Just as Laurel opens her mouth to attempt to pry the truth out of me, Rhea comes into the house, literally emitting good vibes even without using her ability. There are bags in her hands and her dark hair is wildly hanging around her face even though she has it in a side ponytail.

“Hey guys!” She greets with a smile as Laurel eyes my before instantly gets up, grabbing all of the bag from her hands and placing them on the table.

“Thanks, love.” My friends presses a chide kiss against the lips of her lover before turning her focus on her apparent ravenous hunger.

Rhea stands by the counter, surveying the assembly line, while she gives me options of what I can do about my situation. Laurel puts the items up, throwing weird glances my way and butting in every so often.

Sighing in my head, I try to listen because they have really good suggestions, but they don’t really know. They don’t know how deep I’m in, how complicated and inexplicably impossible it really is.

“Luka is not the type to just…” My sentence and my thought fade away instantly when a dark, chilly feeling washes over me. A forest of goosebumps and a thin layer of sweat begins to cling to skin.

Confusion laces the soft features of Rhea’s face as she turns to stare at me. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I just- I have this weird feeling.”

A sharp pang goes through my chest, making me double over in my seat, clutching my torso. Whimpering, I attempt to get up onto for the feeling to come back more intense. I grit my teeth against the pain, trying to breath.

In the back of my mind I can hear Rhea’s voice frantically asking me what’s wrong and I can absently feeling her powers attempting to influence mine. This is when I realize what’s going on.

The pain I’m feeling isn’t my own. It’s Narissa’s.

“I-I have to go. I have to get Narissa.” I gasp, wrenching myself from my friend’s grasp and stumbling towards the front door.

“Wait, Penelope, wait.” The echoes of my friend’s voice fades as I shift and run as fast as possible.