Barrett sat in the large bathtub of their master suite, her eyes closed and her head thrown back. She was leaning against Kian as Morgan rubbed her feet. Kendall wasn't in the bath with them but was sitting next to it holding her hands. Maverick was sitting in front of the bathroom floor wearing the same clothes from earlier that were still covered in blood.
"Why did my body stop healing?" She asked.
"Days until you ascend your body is at it's weakest. Healing becomes almost impossible. Sometimes death is required to fully ascend."
"Did you die when you ascended?"
He shook his head.
"Maverick, did you?"
"No." His answer was short.
"Why did I die?"
"That's a question I don't have an answer for. All I know is that from what I've read and learned from my time with our kind is that only the strongest ones die before they ascend. Your prophecy claims you are going to be one of the strongest of our kind."
Barrett scoffed crossing her arms across her chest. "Would have been nice if I knew I was going to die. I would have tried to make it less painful."
Maverick grunted.
"What?" She snapped.
"You're making jokes about your death and you don't even remember it."
"Am I supposed to remember it?"
He rose and walked towards the tub, kneeling down next to it. His grip on the edge of the but made his knuckles turn white. "No, but I do. And it's going to haunt me for the rest of my life." When she reached out to touch him, he rose from his knees and stalked out of the room.
"Where is he going?" Barrett whispered, it was mostly a rhetorical question. Morgan moved in the water so that he was now hovering over her, looking at her intensely.
"You need to understand that he is going to be a very different person for a while. When you died, he felt everything. Something inside of him snapped, I've never seen a man so broken and it was only for a few moments. He was kidding when he told you his one solemn vow in life was to protect you. As your alpha he feels ashamed because he wasn't able to do so."
"But he did protect me!" She pleaded. When she sat up so abruptly, she forced some of the water to slosh over the side and spill onto Kendall. "I'm sorry." He smiled in reassurance turning his gaze back to Morgan.
"To you he fulfilled his vow but to himself he didn't. He's always going to think of himself as a failure for allowing you to die in his arms. He's going to be a different person for a while, he's going to be distant with all of us. Physically he will be present but not emotionally. He's going to seclude himself. You'll just need to be there for him with continual reassurance so he knows you still trust him. In our world, failing to fulfill a vow is damaging but it can be overcome. However, failing to keep trust between an alpha and consort, well, he's better off asking for death." Morgan's gaze was still very intense.
"I still trust him, I trust him with my life. I'm not even sure I really died. I stopped feeling but I never stopped thinking. I could hear everything you all were saying. It just sounded like I was at the end of a tunnel. I don't think I died, I think I just went away for a little while." She began gnawing on her bottom lip.
"I never stopped feeling her presence," Kendall added, gripping her shoulders in his hands for comfort.
Kian narrowed his eyes at him. "That's because you have the power of physical empathy. You can feel others pain and let them feel it in return."
"Doesn't matter. I never stopped feeling her and it wasn't her pain I was talking about. It was her presence. If she truly died her presence would have evaporated.
"Enough you two. What can I do to fix this?"
Barrett rose from the tub rapidly, almost losing her footing as she did so. Kendall's' quick hands were able to steady her before she toppled over the edge.
"You need to rest," Kendall growled as he continued to hold her waist. Barrett ignored his comment and wrapped a towel around her body. She winced when the fabric of the towel rubbed against her sore thigh.
"You've just ascended. It's going to take a while for you to heal."
She narrowed her eyes at Morgan. "I thought you said I was at my strongest after I've ascended?"
"Aye, but you aren't even sure what kind of powers you've managed to manifest. And even when we know you'll still have no clue how to control them. There's a lot of things happening to your body right now and it needs to rest and heal so it can find a balance again."
She twisted the end of the towel between her fingers and looked down at the ground, not brave enough to look at the three of them. "Maverick won't come near me if I'm not fully healed, will he?"
"Aye."
Nodding her head, she swallowed the lump in her throat and put on a small but completely fake smile. "Will one of you help me into bed then?"
Three days of bed rest had passed and she felt better. The wound on her thigh had healed but it left a large, jagged scar. Her splitting headaches were gone as well. Morgan told her they were probably side affects of her body preparing for her ascend. They each took shifts taking care of her, switching every now and then as to who would help her to the bathroom, bathe and bring food to her. She still hadn't seen Maverick but she knew he was near, she could feel him. When she asked the others about him the just shrugged their shoulders and continued to tell her he would be back when he was ready.
By the fourth day she was tired of lounging around. She missed Maverick and this plush bed had somehow managed to become uncomfortable. The downside to her bedrest had been that she slept during the day and was wide awake at night. Granted she couldn't sleep because none of her familiars would share a bed with her. They stayed in her room just not in her bed. The closet thing she got to someone sharing a bed with her was when Kian had accidentally fallen asleep at the foot of the bed while rubbing her feet. When she moved to try and lie next to him, he awoke and moved to the couch in the corner of the room.
She focused hard on trying to figure out where the boys were all at in the house. She wanted to get out of bed, today. And she was going to without being stopped. Rising from the bed she quickly made her way to the door and looked out into the hallway. The bedroom door next to her was open and she could hear faint voices and a television playing. Clearly, they had purchased some sort of gaming console in the last four days.
Softly shutting the door, she ran over to the closet and walked inside looking for warm clothes. She could hear and feel Maverick's presence she just wasn't able to see him. Barrett was going to find him whether he wanted her to or not. It was still snowing and she knew she would have to trench through it to get to him. Sucking in a deep breath she pulled on a pair of jeans, hissing for a moment as the tight fabric brushed against her leg. It was still tender even though it was healed. She pulled on a black sweatshirt and heavy winter coat before pulling her hair into a knot on the top of her head. Looking around she wondered if the boys have managed to purchase her any sort of boots.
"Ah ha!" In the corner of the closet sat a long row of Timberlands. She grabbed a gray pair and pulled them on after her heavy thermal socks.
Walking back over to the door the pressed her ear to the door listening for their voices. She cursed under her breath when she could still hear them. If she could get to the room to the left of her without them hearing she would be able to go out on the balcony and down the stairs without them knowing.
Shaking her head in encouragement she quietly opened the door and began walking down the hallway to the room next door. She took small steps down the hallway hoping the floorboards wouldn't turn against her. She grinned triumphantly when she reached the next bedroom only to curse under her breath again. Kendall was asleep in the bed. He was rolled over on his stomach and his head was buried beneath the pillows. The blankets were bundled at his feet and he was almost completely naked. Barrett began tracing the line his muscles made on her back with her eyes. Focus Barrett!
Dragging her eyes off the beautiful man on the bed she slipped past the bed and made it to the sliding glass doors. Inhaling sharply, she quickly opened the door and stepped outside, hoping the sudden gust of cold air wouldn't wake him. She ran across the deck and down the stairs finally exhaling when she reached the cement platform at the bottom. She zipped the front of her coat up and looked around. She looked around and sighed when all she saw was miles of snow-covered ground.
"Where the hell are you Mav?" She closed her eyes and focused on his face, hoping her mind was healed enough and she would be able to find out where he was. She stood there for a few moments, thinking about him when an image appeared in her mind. Just half a mile to the north of her was a small tree line but behind the tree line stood a small cottage. It was old and deteriorating but there seemed to be smoke coming from the chimney.
She began her descend through the snow, looking behind her every now and then to make sure she wasn't being followed. She really hated the idea of almost finding Maverick and then the boys dragging her away and back to bed. She was tired of being treated like a porcelain doll because she wasn't that fragile. Maverick always told her that she was the strongest woman he had ever met. Her life was easy before them. It was hard.
She lived with her father for a while until he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. Then when she was thirteen, she had to move in with her mother Joyce and her step farther John. Nearly three years after moving her mother died of a brain aneurysm and she was left with her John. Barrett loved him like he was her own father but something snapped when her mother passed away. He began drinking and was verbally abusive towards Barrett. She figured it was because she was the spitting image of her mother and a constant reminder about the person he had lost. She felt like a burden.
When she graduated high school, she went to a local college, studied literature and European history and worked as a waitress to help pay the bills around the house. She took care of John every day. And then one day when she was twenty-three, he struck her across the face and she left Rapid City in the middle of the night. Two weeks later she met Maverick and Kian in a bar in Sioux Falls and her life changed for the better.
Barrett finally reached the tree line. The cottage was a lot larger then what she thought. To get to the front door she had to cross a small cross bridge that was over the top of the stream. The bridge didn't seem promising in holding her weight but she needed to see Maverick. Running across very quickly she got to the front door and looked down. At the front of the cottage was a small present decorated in white wrapping paper with silver boys.
She picked the package up and looked at the name tag.
To Maverick with love
From Amaretti
I hope this give you all the answers you need to come back to us
Barrett's heart leaped forward in her chest. He was leaving her. For another woman. She dropped the present and grasped at her stomach, she felt it begin to lurch. She couldn't stop. Leaning over the edge of the cottage railing she hurled the contents of her stomach into the snow-covered grass beneath her.
The front door to the cottage opened and Maverick stepped out dressed in a pair of dark jeans, a grey sweatshirt and a heavy jean jacket. His hair was disheveled and he had his sunglasses on with his black ball cap and car keys in his hands.
"Barrett? What are you doing here?" He was surprised to see her. He clearly had plans for the day.
She turned around to face him and glared. Not realizing what she was doing until it happened, she slapped him. His head quickly turned to the side and his glasses fell to the ground. She watched as his cheek began to redden from where her palm had met his face. Crouching down she picked the present off the ground and threw it at his chest.
"I have nothing to say to you." She stepped around him and made her way across the bridge back into the field. Her footprints from earlier were now almost completely covered with fresh snow. She wouldn't lose her way through; the vast house was impossible to miss. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly and felt her eyes fill with tears. The hot liquid poured down her face. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to feel. There were so many emotions going through her head at the time she didn't know which one to focus on the most.
She felt betrayed and sad but most of all she felt heart broken. After everything they had been through, he was leaving her. She wanted to meet the woman he was leaving her for, was she another vampire? Was he going to be another woman's alpha? What would happen to her if he left? All of these questions were going through her mind and it was all becoming too much. Her knees finally gave out from beneath her and she dropped to the snow, clutching her chest as she cried. Why?
"Barrett! Wait!" His voice was coming from a few yards behind her but she didn't have the strength to get up and continue walking. She just wanted to lay in the cold snow, hoping it would numb her into oblivion.
She felt his hands grip her shoulders and she brushed them off. He tried to grab her again but she turned around and pushed. After pushing him a few more times she was on her back and he was on top of her, holding her hands down in the snow.
"Get off of me Maverick!"
"Not until you listen to me!"
"Let me go!"
"No!"
She shook her body, trying to escape his tight hold. "I hate you!"
He looked at her, hurt prevalent in his eyes. "You hate me?"
"Yes, I do!"
"No, you don't. You love me."
"That was before you decided to leave me for another woman! What am I garbage? Just something that you can throw away when you're done? What was I some sort of ploy? You figured you would be able to fuck me whenever you wanted and then just leave me?" He had released her hands sometime in between her nonstop questions and she was now on her knees.
"Who is she Maverick? Is that who you've been with the past four days? I'm stuck in bed, trying to heal and you're out fucking another woman? I almost die and you have to go find solace in someone else? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME? To us? To our family?" Barrett was screaming now. They were in the middle of the empty field and she could hear her voice reverberating around.
"Who is who, Barrett?!"
"Amaretti! Who is she?!"
His face turned white and she watched as he slowly swallowed.
"That's what I thought." Barrett rose and began walking back towards the house. Her screaming had been loud enough because she could see Morgan, Kendall and Kian all making their way towards the two in the field. They weren't running though.
Maverick ran up behind her and spun her around to face him again. "I'm not leaving you."
"You should. I'm not going to stay with someone who's cheated on me."
"Barrett, you need to let me explain-,"
"You broke us! What we have is broken! It'll never be fixed. No amount of time will ever be exist for me to get over the fact that you cheated on me with another woman. I know our relationship is unconventional because I'm with you and three other mean but you're with them too. I assumed it was mutually exclusive between the five of us that we wouldn't be with other people?"
"I didn't sleep with her!" His eyes were pleading her to listen to him.
"What the fuck is going on?" Kendall demanded.
"Amaretti is back." Barrett watched as the color drained from Kendall's face.
"Do you know her too?" Barrett gaped. To her disappointment, he shook his head. "Are you sleeping with her too?"
"What?!" Kendall looked offended by the question.
"You heard me." She was grinding her teeth when she spoke. Kendall stalked over to her grabbing her face between his hands.
"I'm not sleeping with anyone besides you so don't you dare ever accuse me of sleeping with anyone else. I've never been one to condole adultery. And I can vouch for Maverick, he would never cheat on you. We're all devoted to you Barrett."
She looked down at the ground, ashamed she had jumped to conclusions. "Then who is she?"
"She's our old consort." Maverick's words cut through her worse then that dagger.
"How long?"
"When Kian and I first turned in 1823. We were with her for over 100 years. But it's done now. Its been done for a long time."
Barrett finally turned to face Maverick. His face was still ashen and his hair a mess from constantly running his fingers through it.
"Why is she sending you gifts?"
He sighed looking up at the sky. "She's found Kendall and I. She wants us to come back."
"Come back?"
"There is a lot a hand we must discuss. I suggest we take this inside, aye?" Morgan was holding his hand out for Barrett to take. She reluctantly took his hand and walked over to where Kian was. Sometime between her yelling at Maverick and accusing Kendall of cheating as well Kian had left and gone back to the house to grab his car. It was an all-white Jeep Wrangler. She always thought it was so ostentatious until it came in handy for a moment like this.
Climbing in she sat in the back between Kendall and Morgan. Maverick stood outside of the car for a moment contemplating whether or not he should get in. Barrett had had enough. She pressed the sunroof button in the backseat and stood up popping her head from inside of the car.
"Maverick, you have two seconds to get inside this car before I force you to get inside." Her warning was serious.
"You don't have the strength to do so."
"Want to bet?"
"Try me Barrett. It's been a trying few days for me." He crossed his hands across his chest, challenging her. The bastard had a smirk on his face too.
"Fuck this." She jumped down from the sunroof window and climbed over Morgan to get out of the car. She stomped over to Maverick and grabbed the front of his jacket with both of her hands.
"You'll do as I say."
He raised an eyebrow. "Aye, and if I don't?" She was tired of hearing him talk. She hadn't seen him in the days and when she finally did, they were fighting. Their relationship almost ended a few moments ago and now they were mentally challenging each other like nothing had ever happened. She was confused with everything. She didn't know what was going on.
Her alpha was in a funk, someone was trying to kill her and now she was going to have to defend herself against some woman who wanted her familiars. The tension was thick in the air between the two. Her frustrations were always the biggest with Maverick. He was her alpha but right now he was acting petulant and she wanted him to stop.
Moving her hands, she dropped his jacket and grabbed his face pulling his lips to hers. He resisted for a moment, only giving her a chaste kiss. It wasn't until she wrapped an arm around his waist and another around his neck when he finally caved and kissed her back.
Kendall honking the horn finally broke them apart. Barrett buried her face in Maverick's chest in embarrassment. "We should get going. It's getting dark and I don't really feel up to fighting off a bear right now." Barrett nodded her head while giggling. He was back.
