Untitled chapter
60.DEVRIM
Something happened while I was gone.
Vanya was doing her best to avoid spending time alone with Obsidian.
My plan was for Vanya to spend a lot of time with Obsidian so she could see for herself that he wasn’t the monster she saw him as. I had hope when she agreed to come back home with me, but it looked like things were only getting worse instead of better.
I feared that Vanya was going to leave us just like Ezra.
Swallowing, I pushed the newspaper aside and stood.
It was all over town, Vanya and Obsidian’s kidnapping, and their escape. They all knew that Reeves had paid a man to kill innocent girls and make it look like we had done it.
We had managed to keep Vanya out of the newspaper when she was admitted to the hospital thanks to Betsy, but I suspected that it would only be a matter of time before they found out what injuries she had sustained.
If any humans find out that Obsidian attacked her…
I shook my head, shaking the thoughts away. There was no way anyone would find out the truth, I was going to make sure of that. The videos Mike recorded of them in that container had been destroyed.
Mike was dead.
Reeves was in prison.
Vanya was no longer in danger.
But Obsidian was sick, and Ezra had disappeared. Let’s not forget the fact that Vanya was scared of Obsidian.
I ran a hand through my hair as I turned away from the window. One glance at the papers scattered around my desk made me exit my office. I headed upstairs.
At least Obsidian’s fever was slowly going down. It was one less thing to worry about. The sooner he got better, the sooner he could fix things with Vanya.
I checked on Obsidian and found him fast asleep.
My feet carried me down the hall towards Vanya’s room before I realized it.
Vanya sat in the middle of the bed, staring at something she held in her hand.
I hovered in the doorway, unsure whether I should talk to her or just tell her goodnight and leave her alone.
“Betsy told me that my Mom cheated on my…cheated on him with one of your kind,” Vanya said before I could utter a word. “You mentioned her at the Christmas ball.”
I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorway.
“Ezra confirmed it, but he wouldn’t tell me more.” Vanya raised her head and looked at me. “Were you the man she had an affair with?”
The fact that she asked me that, confirmed my suspicion that Vanya had no memories of her childhood. She didn’t remember finding Obsidian when she ran away from home. She didn’t remember visiting him with Melanie while he healed. She didn’t remember spending time with any of us when she was just a little girl.
“Melanie and I were good friends,” I told her. “Our relationship was not like the one we have, Vanya.”
She frowned, “I feel…I don’t understand anything anymore.”
I hesitated a moment before I made my way over to her and took a seat on the edge of the bed next to her.
“Things are different,” I muttered.
“How did you meet her?”
Standing, I held out my hand out. “Come with me.”
Vanya stared at my hand for a few seconds and then placed her hand in mine, allowing me to help her up from the bed and lead her out of the room and downstairs.
Her heartbeat increased when we reached the basement, but she silently followed me down the stairs. I pushed the door open and glanced back at her as I led her to the wall covered with newspaper clippings.
“Melanie worked at the facility where we were created,” I said softly. “She usually took our blood samples or treated us when we were sick our injured from the test they did on us. She was different than the other humans that worked there.”
“Was the facility on the island?” Vanya asked.
I nodded. “Most of us were…born in the facility. We were created to be different, to be what we are today.” I paused, waiting for her to ask any questions, but when she remained silent, I continued. “Most of the humans who worked there didn’t care about how we were treated, but things changed when Melanie showed up.”
“I…You’re telling me that you were c-created in laboratories?”
I looked at Vanya and silently cursed myself.
Gripping her arm, I steered her towards the couch and pushed her down onto it and crouched in front of her.
“Doctor Benjamin Florence was the man who started it all,” I explained. “Our DNA was spliced with animal DNA to create us, when they succeeded with splicing the DNA, they used females to carry us until we were old enough to be born.”
“Surrogacy,” Vanya whispered. “They offered to carry the babies?”
“They were paid to do it. Once we were born, the females handed the babies over to the doctor and then disappeared.”
I reached out and took hold of her shaky hands. “Melanie promised that she would help us get free and she kept that promise.”
“Mom saved you,” she whispered.
I nodded. “She did a lot more than just free us. She made sure that we got a home and that we knew how to care for ourselves.”
“Is that how you became friends?”
“Yes.” My eyes darted over her face.
She had a little more colour in her cheeks, but she didn’t look any better. I should’ve paid more attention to her, should’ve made sure that she was taking care of herself and not just of Obsidian.
“You were still inside her when she started working there.” I pressed my hand to her stomach. “After we were freed, we lost touch with her for a little while.”
Vanya covered my hand with hers for a few seconds before she linked our fingers together and pulled my hand away from her stomach.
“You have to understand that some of us found it hard to adjust to freedom because the facility was all we have known.”
My eyes darted around the room.
“Obsidian struggled a lot.”
“He’s still struggling,” Vanya muttered.
I nodded. “But he’s doing a lot better than he was back then. Obsidian tried to kill himself.” I ignored her gasp and continued before I could change my mind. “You found him in the forest when you were seven. It’s how we officially met you.”
Vanya stared at me silently. “I don’t remember any of it. I wish I could remember.”
“So do I,” I told her. “I don’t know why you can’t remember anything, but I promise you that I’ll do my best to help you try and remember.”
Vanya cleared her throat and reached up to push the strands of hair out of her face. “Why are you telling me this?”
I stared down at our hands for a few seconds before I looked up at her. “I want to do this right this time. I want you to know everything about us so that there are no secrets between us.”
Vanya stood and walked back over to the wall covered with the newspaper clippings. For a moment she silently stared at it and then she pointed to something to the right.
“That one’s new.”
I moved closer, following her gaze.
It was new. I scanned the words, my frown deepening with each passing second. The article wasn’t about the facility, but about Reeves being arrested for paying a man to kill his own daughter.
Why did he add that to his collection?
It wasn’t related to any of the other articles about the facility.
“Why did you tell me all this?” Vanya asked, snapping my attention back to her. “When I asked you about these things before, you always changed the subject or told me that you couldn’t tell me anything.”
“We have a lot more enemies than you think, rosebud. I’m trying to protect you from them. The less you know about the pride, the better. But I want you to know about us so we can start over the right way.”
“Do you honestly think that things will go back the way they were before?”
“I’m hoping that it will,” I said, “but I know that it won’t be easy.”
“What if I want to leave?” she asked, knocking the air from my lungs. “Are you going to force me to stay? Are you going to blackmail me into staying here when I want to leave?”
“I’m not Reeves,” I growled. “Leave if you want to leave.”
Vanya stared at me with wide eyes and lips slightly parted for a few seconds before she shook her head and stormed away.
It wouldn’t be so bad…
I wouldn’t be completely alone if she left. Obsidian would still be with me even though he would probably go back to hiding in his basement if Vanya left us.
And then there would be no chance of Ezra ever returning, because without Vanya, there was no chance of Ezra and Obsidian ever making peace.
Everything had been so perfect.
Now it was all a mess.
I didn’t know if I could fix it. Not on my own and not if the others weren’t willing to fix things.
“Did you mean it?”
My eyes snapped over to the doorway. “What?”
“That I can leave if I want to?”
“Yes.” I frowned.
“Why?” Vanya asked.
“Why?” I repeated. “Because I want you to be happy.”
She took a step into the room, eyes darting over to the bed for a second and then back to me.
“Do you think I’ll be happy?”
I gave her a wry smile. “I think you will, because it’s something you’ve always wanted to do, isn’t it? You want to explore the world.”
“But I won’t be happy.”
I remained silent.
Vanya took another step forward. “You’ll still have Obsidian.”
“Rosebud, he’s not you. Nobody will be able to replace you.”
We silently stared at each other until she looked away.
I looked at Obsidian on the bed. I noticed the change in his heartbeat, so I knew that he was awake and just pretending to be asleep.
My attention moved back to Vanya when she came to a stop in front of me. I took note of her red-rimmed eyes.
I made her cry.
The realization made my stomach twist with unease. I wanted to be the one to wipe her tears away, not make her cry.
Sitting up, I reached for her.
Vanya allowed me to pull her onto my lap.
Reaching up, I slipped a few strands of hair behind her ear, but in doing so, the shirt slipped off her shoulder.
The white bandage made me freeze.
Of course, I had seen the extend of her wounds when they were found. Still deep in thought, I reached out, slipped her shirt lower and then gripped the edge of the bandage to pull it back.
The skin was an ugly red colour and still raised around the edges of the healing teeth marks. Her stitches had been removed a day before she moved back into her apartment.
Pushing the bandage back in place, I fixed her shirt and then looked at her.
Vanya’s eyes were squeezed close.
“It’s healing nicely,” I said.
Her eyes snapped open. “It’ll scar.”
“That bothers you?” I questioned. “It does,” I muttered when she looked away without answering.
I gripped her chin and turned her face back towards mine.
“Lots of people have scars, Vanya.”
“You don’t have any,” she whispered.
“Not a lot of visible scars.” Taking her hand, I linked our fingers together and slipped them into my hair. After some searching, I finally located the raised skin from an old scar.
I let go of her hand, expecting her to pull away, but her hand stayed in place, fingers tracing the scar.
“Did you mean this when you said that not all scars are visible?”
“No.” I hesitated, eyes darting to the bed for a second. “We－”
I broke off when movement from the doorway caught my attention. Vanya followed my gaze and gasped.
Ezra hovered in the doorway, looking uncertain. He had a plastic bag clutched in one hand and a bucket in the other.
“Can I come in?”
My lips parted but it was Obsidian who answered him.
“You live here, don’t you?” he growled as he struggled to sit up. “You never ask permission to do anything.”
Rolling his eyes, Ezra entered the room. He lowered the plastic bag onto the bed and then looked at Obsidian.
“Surrey asked me to drop this off.” Ezra’s lips slowly curled up into a smile. “I can understand why she made old man food. It does look like you aged a few years.”
Obsidian flashed his teeth at Ezra. “I’m not too sick to kick your ass.”
Vanya scoffed. “You can’t even go to the bathroom on your own.”
“I thought we agreed to never talk about that again sweets.”
Obsidian threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood. He swayed but before I could move, Ezra was there.
“I wish everything will stop spinning,” Obsidian muttered.
“It will if you start eating more,” I told him.
He growled at me and shook off Ezra’s hand to stumble into the bathroom.
