ELENA
THE NIGHT SEEKER’S appointments helped in so many ways. I’d been seeing him for almost a week and a half now. He knew more or less all the things I’d gone through, especially that night in the forest. That was the hardest part to talk about, but I had to. I had to get over what had happened to me that night.
He showed me what I needed to see. I had to admit, it didn’t make me feel better at first, but he left me with something I couldn’t stop thinking about. It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was the darkness that had consumed those people, as being good was just too difficult a choice for them, and they started to become dark too as it was constantly around them every second of every day. It was hard to find the light in such a dark, dark place.
He didn’t ask me where I had been, like all the others.
He never forced anything else out of me but one thing that he seemed to not be able to help me with was how angry I still was with Blake. Even if he showed me he wasn’t to blame, I still saw his face every time I thought about Billy and his betrayal that night. I still saw him not finding me, not helping me when I needed it the most. I would push forgiving him to the back of my mind and even out of my head as I couldn’t afford to go through the disappointment of being let down by him again. I had gone through that once and it’d broken my heart.
There was no place for me to trust Blake, and once this mission was over, I would break ties with him forever. I didn’t need a dragon. To be honest, I didn’t want a dragon, and I sure as hell didn’t want it to be Blake Leaf if that ever changed.
I knocked on Constance’s door.
She smiled. “He is in the office, but I think he has something up his sleeve,” she joked.
“Up his sleeve, I wonder what it could be?” I passed her and knocked on the door.
“Enter,” he said and I found him sitting like usual on his chair. It must be so boring, I asked him once why he just sat there, and he told me that he wasn’t. He was doing all sorts of things normal people do, running, riding his bike. Riding his bike was one of my favorite sayings coming from him. It was just in a way that none of us could comprehend. I guessed a mind could be that powerful.
He got up. “We’re not staying?” He’d never gotten up before.
“Nope,” he said. “I need a bit of fresh air, and we need to work on that anger phase of yours.” He moved his hand in a circular motion in my direction.
“I thought that is what we were doing.”
“Really work on it,” he said. “Mind if I hook in?”
I gave him my elbow and he took it.
“Please don’t see this as payback for making you relive all those dark days in your life. If you see something in my way, let me know. I’m as blind as a bat.”
I giggled. He had a great sense of humor.
“I promise you, I won’t.”
“Where to?” I asked.
“Please take me to the Parthenon dome.”
“You have an urgency to fight?”
He chuckled. “Nope, I told you today we are going to work on that anger of yours.”
“Oh, I see so I’m going to do all the fighting.”
“Smart girl.” He smiled, and I led him to the dome, wondering how fighting with a weapon was going to help me get over my anger phase.
Sure, boxing helped plenty, but there wasn’t a bag in the dome, unless he’d put one in there during the past hour and a half.
He kept babbling about how beautiful today was, he wasn’t far off, and it was amazing what my mind could conjure that made him able to see that, so clear.
I laughed every time he made a joke. Especially when he pointed out a dragon that was going to leave a dropping from the sky.
It was hilarious. Yet, there was no dragon, but to pretend like that, made me feel like a kid again. I missed Herbert terribly.
He’d helped me with that too. Never being able to tell him how sorry I was for all those times I put up a fight when he wanted me to leave with him. What he showed me was letting me off the hook. It was simple. How the hell was I supposed to know that I was running away from dragons? I was just a kid.
If only that could sink in.
We reached the Parthenon dome and we entered.
I made sure that he didn’t trip or that his cane didn’t hook on part of the door when in the corner of my eye, I saw a figure.
I lift my gaze and found Blake, waiting.
“Ahhh, I told you to hide until the time was right,” Leo said in Blake’s direction. I didn’t laugh this time. I felt so stupid being tricked by a blind vampire.
“This is what you meant by working on my anger.”
“Elena, you need to be open-minded.”
“With him? Never.” I didn’t even look in Blake’s direction. He was nothing to me. He was lower than nothing.
“You will never be free if you don’t learn how to forgive.”
“I trusted you Leo. This is the worst kind of betrayal anyone could ever give me.”
He held out his hand for mine.
“Don’t.” I slapped it away. “I don’t need to see you anymore.”
“Elena, wait!” Blake yelled. “Don’t do this, please.” It was something he’d only done twice. That night when he’d asked me to kill him, and that day in the cafeteria he wanted me to free him.
“Don’t tell me what to do. You have no say in anything I do.”
His face didn’t show any emotion. “I know, but you need Leo. He didn’t betray you, okay? He is trying to help you.”
I huffed and a small sarcastic curve tuck in the corner of my lips. My eyes found Leo’s figure again. “I thought what was said to a Seeker, stayed with a Seeker.”
“I never spoke about our sessions.”
I nodded. “Then what is this, Leo? What is he doing here?”
“You need to make peace with your dragon.”
“He’s not my dragon!”
“Still here,” Blake said, but I ignored him.
I started to laugh sarcastically. “Oh, I see what this is. You want me to yell and scream at him. Get all my frustration off my chest, that sort of thing.”
Leo’s body posture dropped. I’d hit it right on the head.
“Then what, Leo, I have to forgive him for all the crap he put me through? For not being there for me when I actually needed him? What do you think will happen?”
“You are a smart girl.”
“Yeah, well, you forgot something. I have to care a little bit to actually start a fight, and I don’t. So see this as time up. I’ll see if I’m in the mood to come to our session tomorrow.”
I turned around and walked out the door. How dare he, how dare both of them? I will never forgive Blake Leaf for everything he has ever done, never.
BLAKE
“THAT WAS A waste of effort.” I was mad, and a frustrated grunt left my mouth. She didn’t care. That door had closed. It was too late and I was never going to get one more chance with her. A chance to show her that I was different, that she made me different.
She had taken all the dark away that day, and because of my fucked-up past, I would never be able to show her that. She would never know what it was she’d done for me.
Leo’s hand touched my shoulder.
“She isn’t as smart as she thinks she is.”
I looked at him, even though I knew he couldn’t sense it.
“You don’t trust me?” he joked.
“I know you are blind, so you couldn’t have seen any of that, but you must’ve heard what she said.”
“She is pissed off.” He walked to the bleachers and sat down.
“Pissed off, that is what you think that was? That was beyond pissed off.”
“If she wasn’t, well then I would’ve told you there was no hope.”
I got what he was saying. She’d lied when she said she had to care about someone to actually fight with them.
“The second she found you here, was the second I knew whether there was a future for you with her.”
I looked at him again. “And?”
He just smiled.
“Leo, don’t play games with me, please. Tell me.”
“I’m not the Viden. I know people. And based upon what just happened here, there is still a chance. It’s what you are going to do that will determine if you are going to mess it up, like you always do. Or if you are going to succeed.”
“I don’t mess things up.”
“That’s not what I got from you.”
“Stop analyzing me. I don’t mess up.”
“Then tell me, when she asked why you weren’t there. Why didn’t you correct her?”
I bit the inside of my mouth.
“I thought you wanted opportunities for her to forgive you, Blake. Yet you don’t take them.”
“She will never believe me.”
“You don’t know because you’ve never tried.”
“I know her.”
“I see, let me guess, it’s a dent thing.”
“It’s a dent thing.”
“People change,” was all he said.
“What does that mean?”
“You will figure it out.” He beamed. “You want to know how you will get her on your side.”
“How?”
“Cara.” He pushed himself up and moved with his cane toward the door.
“Cara is dead.”
“You’ll get it.” He chuckled and left.
What the hell did he mean by any of those things? Did he know what a dent was, know the procedure?
People change.
I had thought about that for a while. People changed.
She’d gone through so much since the day she first found Paegeia. She’d lost four people she cared about. People changed.
Then it hit me. I had no clue who this Elena was at all, just like she had no idea who I was.
ELENA
I BARGED THROUGH my bedroom door, and Becky flinched. George was sitting with her on the couch.
“What happened?” Becky asked in a soft but worried tone.
I looked at George and took a few breaths.
“I think that is my cue to leave.” He bent over as he got up from the couch, kissed Becky on her lips and passed me. “Bye Elena.”
“Bye.” I felt bad that he always got up and left whenever I had to rant and rave about his best friend, once removed, and now back on.
“Let me guess.” Becky didn’t sound pleased. “It’s Blake related?”
“No,”
“That’s a first.”
I ignored her comment. “It’s Leo betraying me, related.”
“Leo?” she asked with a new tone in her voice. “What did he do, Elena?”
“It follows into a Blake-related thing.”
She sighed. “What happened?” She tapped on the couch, and I went over and sat down.
I just stared out in front of me then stroked my face real hard and let out a growl, sort of.
“Leo wanted us to talk, make peace. I can’t.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed real loud. “Just try.”
I squinted. “Excuse me, am I the only one that remembers the hell that asshole put me through? What, explain it to me Becky, what did he do that made you forgive him just like that?” I snapped my fingers.
Her jaw muscles pumped slightly, but no answer came from her. “You don’t have to say anything. You know there is absolutely nothing, and then you think I’m gullible.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“He never cared for me. If he did he would’ve found me and brought me back, where I felt safe.” Tears lingered in my eyes.
She just looked at me, not saying anything, but worry laced her eyes. “You have no idea how it feels to see the guy that was the only one keeping you safe from his psychotic son, get killed in front of your eyes just because his son wanted me. When he died, I was hunted down like some animal.”
Her head snapped back at me. Tears started to well up.
“I tried to fight them off, but,” I shook my head. “Without my abilities, I could only do so much.”
I sniffed. “There was this one guy that I thought was on my side. He helped me to get away, but he was never on my side, and took me to him. He betrayed me, and every time I look at Blake, I see him.” I shook my head again. Why I was telling her this, I didn’t know. But I needed her to stop fighting on Blake’s side and just see my point for once.
“You have no idea how it feels when six guys hold you down on the ground, taking their turn like you’re a feast.”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
“I had the worst dragon out there, that could’ve killed them if he’d just tried. He,” I shook my head, holding back my tears. Why I was even so emotional about this still was beyond me. I wiped away my tears.
“Elena.”
“No, don’t. I can’t forgive him, and I thought that at least you would’ve understood that. But I guess Twilight Zone Blake has won you over too.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Whatever.” I got up and grabbed my jacket and left the room. I didn’t care what the idiot said while I was away. Actions spoke louder than words, and ever since I had come back, he’d done nothing, absolutely nothing to make me think otherwise. He was still the same arrogant ass he always was, and would never ever change.
BLAKE
I FOUND GEORGE in my room playing on my PlayStation. “Where is Becky?”
“Elena came back from her session with Leo, something really upset her.”
“Yeah, I know. It was me, sorry.”
He chuckled but didn’t say anything.
I sat next to him and grabbed the other controller. Ever since I’d dented, George had taken Lucian’s place, and we had been roommates for almost five months now.
“Blake, you think she’s going to be okay?”
“I have to think that, I can’t give up,” I said as I let out a huge breath.
Just then an urgent knock came on the door and George got up. It was Becky. She was crying and flung herself into George’s arms.
“Shhhh, what happened?” he asked against her head, and George gave me the eye. He was blaming me, as I’d put Elena in that mood, and she’d taken it out on Becky. Still, Becky wasn’t the crying kind of girl, and that made me worry.
“Becky,” I asked. “Is Elena okay?”
She looked at me, sniffed and wiped her eyes. “No, she’s never going to forgive you, Blake.”
“C’mon, don’t say that. She just needs time.”
“No, she doesn’t. She told me.” She took a deep breath.
“She told you what happened?” Both George and I looked at her while she nodded and tried to push back her tears. George hugged her tightly.
“Becky what did she say?”
“I can’t, Blake. It feels as if I’m betraying her every time I just listen, begging her to try and make peace with you. Let’s just say I understand why she doesn’t want to. If that was me, thinking that my dragon had tried nothing to save me, I would feel like that too. You should’ve told her.”
“Becky, she is never going to believe me, and you said it yourself, she thinks that you guys are on my side. She will never believe you now.”
“Then this is going to carry on for a very, very long time. She might never forgive you.”
She was ready to turn around and leave.
“Please, just tell me what she said.”
She stopped, took a huge breath, and looked at me again. “She was hunted down like some animal. One of them was a psycho that killed his father, who had been protecting Elena. Another one she thought was her friend betrayed her and took her to him instead, which I assume was the place they took advantage of her.” More tears rolled down her cheek. “She tried to fight them but she said without her abilities she didn’t stand a chance. They broke her, I saw it today for the first time, really saw that.” She was crying and sniffed. “The only thing that is going through her mind now, isn’t the fact that she thought you were dead, but where the hell you were. Why you didn’t save her, and I couldn’t tell her because of that fucking stupid promise I made.” She wiped her eyes. “She said every time she looks at you, she sees this guy that betrayed her. Bummer, right?”
“Becky,” George said. “Blake almost died.”
“I know, but she doesn’t!” she yelled back.
“No, Becky is right. If I remind her of the one who did this, she will never forgive me. I think I know who she is talking about.”
“What do you mean you think?” Becky’s tone rose.
“Easy, Becks,” George said and looked at me. I nodded and sat back down on the couch wiping my face just thinking about all of this. Trying to put myself in her shoes. I couldn’t.
“Blake is still connected with Elena in some way. When she dreams, it’s like he’s there, experiencing it with her.”
“What?”
I sighed.
“You know what they look like?”
“Not all of them, but I know what one really looks like. He sure seems the psycho type.”
She came to sit down and just stared at me. “Make her see, Blake, that you do care.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how.”
“Fight with her. Hold her down.”
My head snapped at her. “No! I will never put that type of fear into her again just because I want her to hear me out.”
“Becky.” George sounded shocked too.
“That’s not what I mean. I just want her to know the truth.”
“You think I don’t? You think I like being that ass she thought I was a couple of months ago? I don’t, Becky, but I have no choice at the moment.”
“Then let me talk to her.”
“No, she doesn’t trust you like that anymore.”
More tears welled up in her eyes.
“I have a month alone with her. I’ll think of something. She has to talk to me sometime, right?”
They all just looked at me. I knew Elena was stubborn but to not pretend We were going to be together for four weeks, she would speak to me eventually. “I’ll show her then that I will never put her in harm’s way, ever again.”
