Chapter Three
A.N. This chapter is extremely late in being posted! I blame computer trouble first and foremost. After the computer trouble was fixed I found that reading over it I just wasn't satisfied with what I had, so scenes were added, deleted, rearranged and deleted again in some cases, and the finished product is something I'm still not entirely happy with but I think if it's edited anymore I will no longer be happy with anything in it. So I'm very happy with parts of this chapter and hope you guys agree too. The good news is that the next few chapters have all been typed up from the notebook they were hiding in and should be uploadedmuch more quickly.
Any and all feed back is appreciated very much :)
Did you hear about her and Roman?"
"In the hallway? I'm not surprised."
"Her mother was the same, she was pregnant when she was our age."
Odette turned around to stare at the whisperers, a trio of human girls and one werewolf, who gave her an arch smile upon seeing the murderous expression on her face, "Can we help you?" she asked, her golden eyes glimmering. The humans, near replica's of the wolf girl, with highlighted hair and perfectly done faces, hid their smiles behind manicured nails and avoided her gaze
Odette was after a weekend of Aiden's disappointed stares, but she smiled pleasantly anyway, "Not really," she leaned forward with a conspiratorial whisper, "If you like I can show you what I plan to do to Roman next time I see him." She looked straight into the werewolf's eyes and let shadows enter her own. It was a cheap trick, to bend the light like that, but it worked.
The werewolf drew back ever so slightly, but her smug smirk remained firmly in place, "I can imagine." She knew Odette couldn't do anything in front of humans. She was, Odette decided as she walked away, in effect, challenging her to do better. It was important to establish these types of things with werewolves.
Odette next saw the bitch, or Verity as she had learned her name was, with Annette in the hallway on Wednesday. Their blonde hair was not nearly so perfect, and there were dark circles under both girls' eyes. "Oh Verity," she laid a sympathetic hand on her arm, "You don't look so good hon, have you been sleeping well? Oh..." she plucked a fine golden hair from the girl's shoulder with a bright smile, "You shouldn't wear black if you're shedding you know."
Verity snarled at her and snatched the hair out of her hands before storming off down the hall. Annette's stared at her for a moment, and then, too quickly for Odette's eyes to follow, she slapped her. Hard. No one stopped, or stared, or even said anything. Werewolves resorting to physical violence were a common occurrence then.
Odette let loose a creative string of swear words and focused on Annette's retreating back. When a wolf turned its back on you it was because it didn't view you as a threat.
"Did you do something to Verity?" Aiden had turned up beside her, his expression worried. Caleb flanked him, his stoney gaze was fixed on her neck.
"Aside from getting in the way of her hand?"
"You must have done something," he stared at her intently. "Annette never loses her temper enough to hit people."
"Maybe she's just having bad dreams."
"It must be nice attacking innocent Night People who have no means of defending themselves," Caleb's tone was spiteful.
Odette rolled her eyes and pulled out a compact to inspect her face obviously he had missed the part where Annette's hand had left a lovely red print on her cheek. Even that must have been a controlled blow for a werewolf, but Odette could still feel her cheek beginning to swell. Caleb and Aiden were regarding her stonily. No one would be jumping to her rescue then. She went for bravado, "They have every means," she said, tossing her hair so that it hit Caleb in the face, "All they have to do is leave me alone."
Her exit would have been more impressive had she not walked into the broad chest of a human boy. Hands immediately steadied her at the waist and she looked up into cool midnight blue eyes framed by sooty lashes and high cheekbones. He was almost too pretty for a human, Odette decided clinically. "Steady there, are you ok?" he asked, he was smiling as he said it, cautiously friendly with a hint of flirtation.
"Fine," she shrugged his hands off her waist and shot a short "Sorry," over her shoulder as she walked away. She heard Caleb's mean laugh but was blissfully oblivious to the eyes of the human boy following her.
Later that day she heard that Verity had broken down in the girls bathroom and been taken to the school nurse.
Caleb Lowell took his position seriously, it seemed, and took it upon himself to protect his pack from her. In the days that followed Verity's near breakdown Odette felt his eyes on her frequently. Across classrooms and hallways, on streets. Over the course of the next week Odette came to know the teenage Pack members better than she had ever expected to know any werewolf. They worked in sync to make her life difficult in many small little ways. Her locker combination changed on a daily basis, feet would try to trip her in classes and hallways.
So she opened her locker with a whispered spell and watched her step closely. Her message about being left alone had only half sunk in, it seemed.
They tested her weaknesses in many ways, conducting small attacks in attempts to spook her.
"Did you know, when Blackwater was first founded, they would allow the Pack to hunt any suspected Midnight witches to the boundary?"
Quentin Chambers' voice was smokey. Odette simply could not imagine a world in which it wasn't the most attractive sound in a room. It was a pity that he was also a spiteful ball of fur who liked to tell her gruesome stories about the old days in Blackwater. When he wasn't trying to mix water into her paint thinner and knock her canvas to the floor, that was. Odette, who had spent many an afternoon watching her mother paint as a child, and learning to herself as she grew older, had developed a healthy dislike of Quentin that had little to do with his breed.
His mother was a witch. Something that made him all the more dangerous in her eyes because witches did not marry werewolves. It was unheard of. Caleb knew it rattled her too, and so he had set Quentin on her, and Quentin had taken to it very well indeed.
"That's fascinating Quentin,"she deftly moved her palette to her other hand before he could spill something onto the paint, "I heard about this town called Briar's Creek where they burned a werewolf alive in August because he killed another Night Person. Isn't it interesting how the important traditions stay alive?" she smiled sweetly up at him and watched him go pale beneath his healthy tan before turning back to her canvas. It was a simple still life of a bowl of mixed fruit and flowers in the centre of the room but she was intensely proud of it. She hadn't bothered to take any of her art supplies to the Albright home, but there was something cathartic about the simple act of adding colour to canvas. Something pure. Even if it was just a painting of a sad bowl of fruit in watery sunlight.
"It was a Redfern who carried it out, of course, they're sticklers for rules. But you don't have any Redferns here, do you?"
When Odette returned to the airy art studio at lunch time, the canvas lay torn, shredded beyond all recognition. She stared at it with burning eyes for a moment before starting to clean up the mess. She then walked to the small supply room and washed her hands, calmly and methodically. Quietly, she resolved to send Quentin a dream of fire.
"You look ready to kill someone."
Odette spared a glance to the boy beside her. The school day was over and she had just escaped the school principal, who had spent half an hour explaining to her that it was important she go to the school counsellor when appointments were made for her. She was still fuming at Quentin. It was the same ridiculously pretty human boy she had crashed into the other day. He kept pace with her as she walked and she couldn't help but return his smile with a tiny one of her own.
"Maybe I am," she shrugged, "What's it to you?"
"Just making conversation," his own shrug was equally artless, "I'm Ross."
"Odette."
" I know, you're a bit of a celebrity around here, mysterious cousin if Aiden Albright who treats Caleb Lowell and his flunkies like trash," he waggled his eyebrows, "Pleased to meet you."
"You too."
There was an awkward pause in the conversation while he kept pace with her and she tried to decide the best manner in which to brush him off.
"I think this is the part where I offer to show you around town or do something fun and quirky, but we don't really get many new comers here so you'll have to choose which one it is," his smile was no less devastating for the sheepish tilt to it. It should have clashed with the palpable air of confidence around him, but he made it work.
"Bashful looks good on you," she said, keeping her tone dry and unimpressed, "But no thanks." Appreciating was one thing, attempting a date when her emotions swinging wildly between manic glee and dead inside was quite another. She sped up and unlocked her car quickly, eager to get home and craft a spell for Quentin.
It would confirm her status as a truly dark witch, alongside what she had threatened Roman with, and what she had done to Verity. Under normal circumstances she would have tried to clear her name, but from what she had seen of Blackwater it was everything her mother had said it would be, and the teenage Night People were bloodthirsty, they would fall on her at the slightest sign of weakness. She had to maintain an image now.
The next day was a drab kind of day. Storm clouds hung heavily above her and she could feel the pressure of the coming rain, the build up of lightning in the ground, soaking into her skin through her feet. Not many people realised that lightning started in the ground and met an answering bolt in the air, but witches with an affinity for the earth couldn't help but know. She could feel it in her bones and it set her teeth on edge. She was thankful she didn't have many classes on the ground floor today.
In the front courtyard several younger werewolves were beating up a young lamia boy. She could see them quite clearly as she parked, the other students were ignoring the spectacle, even though the central circle of stone they were occupying was the perfect location for an impromptu Roman coliseum. The lamia boy was landing a few punches but the fight was definitely theirs. She took a moment to observe from a distance while she collected her books and bag: off to the side was a senior, a werewolf, with electric blue eyes and pale golden curls. He was observing the fight critically, his arms crossed at his chest, and every once in a while he would nod to himself in approval.
So much for a Night World Utopia, Odette thought wryly and sent a stray bit of will at the lamia boy. It was easy with the extra charge in the air and Magic was more will than anything else, and the stronger your will, or the more strongly you felt about something, the easier it was to manipulate it.
The boy found his strength multiplied and suddenly the fight became a fair one. With luck, and some extra power from the lightning thrumming through her, it would last as long as he needed it to. The senior gave her a quick, piercing look as she had walked by before sliding into step beside her, his show forgotten.
"Are you going to be one of those humanitarian types because your half vermin?" he asked, his voice light and amused.
"I can't imagine what you mean," she murmured.
"A do gooder then," he reached out and smoothly snagged a girl around the waist, Odette cast a glance at her and saw it was Mary, who was very pretty when she wasn't terrified and was looking at Chase with a humorous smile and barely concealed lust, "Let's see how Mary feels about that. Mary," he smiled warmly at her, "Have you met Odette? Apparently she met you and Roman in a rather...difficult position recently."
Mary's expression turned frosty as she took in Odette, who found herself wishing she'd worn a dress, or at least something prettier than the floaty green shirt and tight jeans she had on, "I know they were in an abandoned hallway alone together at lunch time and that he broke up with me afterward," she said hatefully, "But this is the first time I've met the girl who destroyed my relationship."
Odette's draw dropped at the spite in the human's voice. Mary hadn't seen her, of course, she realised, she had run off before Odette confronted Roman, "You were terrified of him," she said finally, "I didn't ruin anything."
"No, you just took advantage of the situation when you saw we had been fighting," Mary said haughtily, "I saw him with Cordelia Evans on Friday night though, so it looks like even that wasn't enough to persuade him to go out with a piece of trash like you."
Humans really were so stupid, Odette realised as Mary smiled flirtatiously at Chase and went to join a group of girls who glared daggers at Odette. Either that or Roman had had some vampire wipe her memory, because Mary had been crying, and frightened and had not looked like the kind of girl who was used to being treated like that.
They never did though, she supposed. And Night People were like drugs to the average human, when they chose to be. Sometimes it didn't matter how you treated them, if the human was hooked, if a Night Person wasn't careful, then it could get to the point where the human was driven insane just by their presence. They would do anything for them.
"So, you see," he said, and slung an arm around her shoulders casually, steering her in the direction of her locker without any direction from her, as if they were good friends having a pleasant chat before class, "Things work a certain way here, Mary is worse off because of your meddling. That Roman chose her at all made her more popular than any other vermin in this school, but you've taken that from her. It's not your fault," he continued, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "Aiden should have explained how things worked here, and him and Caleb shouldn't have come down so hard on you. But we can move past this if you just start to see things our way."
"And that poor lamia boy your boys were beating on back there?"
"He stole their prey," he shrugged, "They were within their rights."
They came to a stop at her locker and then, by some clever practised move, he had her caged in before she could slip away. He flashed the same charming smile he had used on Mary, she ignored him and started whispering the spell that would open her locker. She had stopped bothering with the combination, "You don't have to be an outcast here Odette. A pretty girl like you could rule this place."
Goddess, she thought, feeling the small padlock click open, is he coming on to me? He was smiling at her in an intimate fashion, standing far too close for comfort and his eyes held promises he seemed intent to keep. Odette had to resist the urge to laugh. So Caleb thought he could subdue her with an outright seduction? Distract her with romance so she didn't have time to make trouble at school? Or did he mean to let this boy hunt her like Roman had so clearly intended to hunt Mary? She toyed with the idea of playing along, briefly.
"Chase," Caleb's voice was icy, "Move away from her and ignore her." There was something in his tone that made Chase obey immediately. Caleb was regarding both of them imperiously, "That's how she got Roman."
"I was just letting her know how things work here Caleb," Chase's tone was dutiful.
"I'll talk to you later," it was a clear dismissal, and Odette was surprised that Chase backed off the way he did.
"Sending your lieutenant to seduce the enemy?" she arched an eyebrow at him. She had spent a whole year when she was thirteen perfecting that after meeting Blaise Harman for the first time and she was glad she had now. It was the most arrogant facial expression she had, "I thought scare tactics were more your thing?"
"Hardly," he crossed his arms, "Chase has always been too curious by far about Circle Midnight. He's too good for the likes of you."
"As if I would lower myself to a dog like him."
He grabbed her arm, and she was glad then for the years of self defence Elvie had insisted on. Her magic flooded her skin and sent a shock through her arm. It was painful for her, so she was surprised when Caleb held on.
"You're incredibly racist you know that?" he said softly, "How does this sound: stay away from my Pack, keep out of our way, and I might let you finish high school."
"Fine," her voice was a tad breathless, she could feel lightning coursing through her and into Caleb and back again and she was damned if she knew why he wasn't on the ground, "You call off your dogs, put a muzzle on Annette Loupe. I'll leave them alone if they forget I exist."
"Muzzle Annette," he mused, was that a hint of a smile curling the corners of his mouth? "Fine, you refrain from torturing my pack and I'll make sure they extend the same courtesy to you," He shook her lightly for emphasis, "And never attack me again," he let go of her arm then and strolled off, apparently unaffected by the high voltage her magic had just poured into him.
Odette resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at his retreating back and opened her locker.
And screamed as a rain of iron filaments flew out and settled around her in a burning cloud. She felt it settle in her hair, burning her scalp and neck, inside her nose and mouth, which she quickly clamped closed. It settled on her bare collarbones and burned her hands as she tried to brush it off. It snaked down her back and she silently cursed the loose neckline. Her locker had been stuffed and the rain of iron continued to pour over her before she had the sense to stumble back.
No witch could stand cold iron near their skin, pure iron burned on contact and enough could kill a witch, if one knew where to put it.
The last thing Odette heard was Annette Loupe's laughter and Caleb swearing.
No two witches ever work a death in quite the same way. No two families mourned in quite the same manner. There were traditions within traditions, in circles and families, a witches funeral could produce just about anything.
Elvie Albright's funeral had been a thing of wonder to may. For never had a witch been attended by such a diverse range of people, even in death. But Odette had always suspected her mother was truly exceptional, and it had only seemed right that so many people should acknowledge this. If only they hadn't felt the need to acknowledge it to Odette, who had wanted nothing more than to be left alone for the ordeal.
What had struck her was the music. A faceless woman had been singing, and Odette's skin had been raised in goosebumps at the sound of her voice: it soared up, above the heads of the mourners and into the sky, like a lark that had found freedom and found it sudden and wonderful. It lingered long after the faceless had left and the service had ended, when the last of her mother's many acquaintances and enemies had left and stayed with her for days afterwards.
She was back there now, sitting beside Tobias, listening to the bittersweet melody and staring at the coffin with dry eyes. She could smell the orchids and the fresh cut grass. Feel the silk of the funeral dress, the late summer sunlight on her head.
Odette had heard of people who could infuse their voices with their power, sing magic into being and creat singing crystals. But never had she heard a faceless woman sound so lovely. Banshee's, she knew, stuck to families, and screamed at deaths. And sometimes they sang. She wondered if they ever had families of their own.
Everything hurt. It was a desperate burning pain that took over her mind and dragged it back to her body inch by inch. She lost the memory of the faceless woman's voice with it, and, for a moment, a sharp, stabbing grief overrode the physical pain and she did not know which pain made her cry out.
She opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. Aiden and Caleb stood over her. Aiden looked anxious. Caleb grim. They were still there when she opened her eyes again. An older lady with a stern expression gently nudged them aside. Odette couldn't imagine her as anything other than a lady: with her classical features and clear gray eyes. Her honeyed hair was done in a severe knot at the crown of her head and she ignored Caleb's impatient sigh with a roll of her eyes.
"Caleb, you can either be quiet or wait outside. You know how I feel about sighing."
Odette blinked owlishly at the woman when Caleb actually shut up with a respectful, "Yes doctor," that was interesting.
"You learn how to deal with teenage werewolves when they appear regularly with injuries that need healing," the woman said conspiratorially, gently she began to apply a cool cream to Odette's face and neck, ignoring her flinching, "You had us worried that you wouldn't wake up young lady."
"How long was I out?" she asked, there was something in the cream that made her feel groggy as well as numb. Her voice was thick with sleep, but the pain was receding, and not nearly as bad as it had been when she first passed out she reflected.
"Five hours. You missed lunch. And your counselling session. Turn left."
"Oh no, she sighed, obediently turned her head to the side so the woman could reach her right ear, it had faired worse than its fellow, "Now I won't be able to talk to a stranger about my dead mom."
"I'm sure you're devastated," there was a wry hint to her smile, "Caeb, help Miss Fairchild sit up please."
Odette expected him to scoff, but he moved to her side and gently placed a hand under her back. Odette hissed in pain, her skin felt hot and tight everywhere, and where the iron had hit her directly still burned. The good doctor smiled sympathetically butstill directed her to lean forward, gasping and resisting the urge to clutch at Caleb's arm when he moved away while more ointment was smoothed over her neck and back where the iron had fallen. She was glad Caleb's skin hadn't touched hers. She didn't think she could stop herself from shocking him, or stand the extra pain if she did.
"Isn't that better? A few days of rest and more applications and you'll be as good as new. Watch her while I go call your folks." She exited to a chorus of 'Yes Doctor' from Aiden and Caleb who immediately turned to her. Caleb still grim, Aiden more relieved that worried now.
"Lowell, you sure know how to encourage a false sense of security before you kick a girl," she said, her voice was husky and low, she couldn't seem to raise it.
"It wasn't me," he replied, eyes flashing, "I'd just made a truce with you."
"It was Annette and Quentin," Aiden cut in, "Quentin wanted to burn you too, Annette confessed everything at lunch."
"That was big of her."
"They didn't know about the truce," Aiden assured her.
"They wouldn't disobey me, it won't happen again," Caleb growled. He looked agitated under all that grim anger, Odette realised. She wondered if he really hadn't know about the iron.
"I'll believe that when I see it," she said weakly and gingerly leaned against the pillows Aiden had begun to prop her up with. She valiantly tried to avoid gasping when her back hit the cool cotton but it was in vain. Caleb stared steadily at her for a moment, fury in his gaze, she had insulted him, by questioning his honour, "Until then you can stay the hell away from me."
She didn't look at him when he stormed out , slamming the door behind him.
"Caleb carried you here, screaming. You were screaming for almost an hour, without stopping," Aiden said after a long pause, "You are intensely allergic to iron."
"Aren't all witches?" she snapped, it was a weak snap though.
"Not like that," Aiden shook his head, his expression was a little bit haunted, she supposed it couldn't have been fun, listening to her scream, "If it had hit me it would have been like having a mild sunburn. Your skin looked like you'd been burned."
"Oh, lucky you, I guess." Odette laughed lightly, she was high as a kite by now though and the laugh kept going longer than it should have.
She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them the room was full again. Caleb had disappeared, but Rose and Stephen were there, and the doctor, and Aiden still hovered in the background. They weren't looking at her though. The doctor was talking to the Albright's in the same quiet, reassuring manner Tobias had used to tell Odette her cat had ran away when the was twelve. Odette caught snatches of their conversation, 'severe iron poisoning' and 'very lucky' and 'rare, but not unheard of,' before she drifted off again.
When she woke up again she was being carried across the threshold of the Albright house by Aiden and the magic of the house was enfolding her, welcoming her home and soothing her back to sleep. She felt safe. Like the house would look after her and heal her. Houses weren't alive though, she thought sleepily. That was crazy.
It took her days to come round again. Days of fever dreams of glass hallways and moving shadows. She danced in circles she had attended when she was a child and ran through the forest, whooping with laughter and unable to tell whether she was the huntress or the hunted.
She would wake in the middle of the night, convinced someone was watching her, or that someone had left the room the moment she opened her eyes. Faces pressed against her window and the inside of her mirror, waiting for her to invite them in. She would stare, horrified, at their twig like bodies and leafy apparel. Then she would wake with a start, and sometimes Rose would be there, ready to sponge cool water on her forehead and neck and hum nonsense lullabies.
And sometimes she would wake, convinced her mother was the one humming lullabies. And once Tobias walked in leading an elephant and a circus monkey by the hand. Which was ridiculous because elephants didn't have hands.
Once she jumped out of bed and stumbled to the french doors, wincing at the familiar heat of the iron that guarded the threshold. She flung them open and stepped out into the cool night air and watched while a unicorn stood in the garden, just at the tree line. It glowed gently, and it's horn was a pale, luminous gold. It was looking at her with blood red eyes and when it tossed its mane she heard the faint silvery peals of the bells woven into it.
"Come inside Odette," Aiden came out beside her, startled by her turn of speed and frightened of the way she stared at the forest with such intensity.
"Unicorns, everyone tells little girls they're so pretty and pure," Odette murmured, her gaze fixed on the edge of the forest, "But why do they have those horns? Not for anything good, I bet."
"Probably not," Aiden agreed and guided her inside.
On he fourth day Odette woke alone, there were no faces at her window and no shadows. The sky outside was blue with a patchwork of white clouds streaking across it.
She felt clearer than she had in days and her skin, she noted after shakily making her way to the mirror, was back to it's normal shade of porcelain. The school doctor was obviously a master at her craft, Odette had never recovered from iron burns so quickly before.
Rose brought her breakfast in bed and settle on the armchair beside her. It perfectly matched the room, with it's ivory upholstery and green pillows, but Odette had never noticed it before, "You never mentioned how badly iron affected you, we were worried."
"I didn't realise it was worse for me than others," Odette admitted honestly, "I've always reacted badly to pure iron."
"Do you have any idea who might have out that in your locker?"
"I know exactly who did it," she replied grimly, then added, "But I can't tell you."
Rose shook her head tiredly and Odette's heart went out to her, just for a moment, it couldn't be easy for her, for any of the family. For all that Odette hadn't wanted to be here, she wondered if Rose had been equally reluctant to take her in too.
"I know it's not easy here, for you," she said quietly, "Banned from practising your magic," although I suspect you don't adhere to that as closely as we would like, her tone said, "and with Elvie gone...but we are here for you Odette. If you ever need us. For the rest of your life."
Rose was a lot more than sweet smiles and summery fragrances, Odette realised then, she was smarter,perhaps stronger, than Odette had given her credit for.
That evening she came out of her first shower in days to find Caleb lounging in her bedroom doorway, studying her room.
"I didn't realise we were best friends now that you'd valiantly carried me to the school nurse," she slipped past him, taking care not to touch him, knowing her magic would react instinctively to his hostility. She felt intensely vulnerable clad only in a towel: even if it was one of Rose's ridiculously large fluffy ones. She wondered if he could smell it. "I'm glad to see you're well trained enough to stay out of my room," the familiar heat of the iron filaments as she crossed the threshold was comforting against the feel of his gaze on her back. It struck her, not for the first time that day, that she should find comfort in them even after Annette's attack.
"I know better than to cross the threshold of a dark witch's room," he said pleasantly, she could see his eyes following her movements in her mirror as she began the careful process of combing through her tangles, "You shouldn't leave your door open."
"You shouldn't be here, Aiden's room is across the house."
"Your room is filled with iron, it stinks," he said bluntly, "Are you planning on hurting someone with it?"
"It's my mother's room. I found it like this," she set the comb down and selected a small glass jar of moisturiser. It rang softly when she touched it, like pure crystal, and she could see Caleb's eyes narrow suspiciously, of course he had heard that.
"Singing crystal? Aren't you a bit young to be enchanting your makeup?"
"I have extremely fair skin," she snapped, smoothing the cool cream onto her face.
"I bet you don't see much sunlight," he muttered.
She turned to smile mockingly at him, "Why don't you come in here and say that?"
He was going to step inside, she was sure of it. His amber eyes flared, his mouth tightened and he stood up straight a look of intense focus on his face. After weeks of dancing around and waiting for the other to slip up she had finally issued something of a challenge. Odette felt and odd thrill go through her, finally: a challenge.
Aiden chose that moment to walk by, "Caleb, we're going to be late," he nodded stiffly at Odette, "Did you tell her?"
"No, I was too busy noticing the overabundance of deadly iron in the room."
Aiden frowned, puzzled, "There is no pure iron in this house Caleb. Anyway," he continued while Caleb and Odette exchanged puzzled looks in a rare moment of accord, "Chase spoke to Roman. He admitted you stopped him from changing in public. We didn't have a chance to say before after..." he cleared his throat, watching Odette through her fever obviously hadn't been easy, "Isn't that right Caleb?"
"Yes," he muttered.
"So, thanks. And, sorry we jumped to conclusions." Aiden offered a tentative smile.
"So that's why you offered the truce," Odette laughed lightly, ignoring the primal part of her that really wanted to fight Caleb, "I accept," she turned back to the mirror, resuming the work on her hair, suffusing the combs metal teeth with heat to dry it, "But I probably would have done the same thing even if he had only been planning to chase that girl Mary in human form."
It only took a small push of will to close the door in their faces, and she was alone with her reflection. For a moment she thought it looked different in the dim lamplight, older and more intense. As if it knew something she didn't. But when she leaned forward to examine it further she looked normal again.
Her eye caught on one of the faded photos that surrounded the mirror. It was her mother, her hands were resting on the shoulders of a teenager who bore more than a passing resemblance to Caleb, his were wrapped around her waist and holding her in the air. Her feet kicked off the ground and her head was tilted down, her hair thrown carelessly over her right shoulder spilled down onto his and her expression...
Her expression was delighted. She was smiling at the boy, and the other people caught in the photo were smiling indulgently at them. It was a candid shot of a perfectly happy moment in her mothers life. One she had known nothing about until now. Had she been involved with this boy? Was he related to Caleb? Had she left him for her father? There was so much about her mother that was a complete mystery to her, that would remain a complete mystery now that Elvie was gone. It made Odette feel terribly depressed as the thought sank in. She was never going to know more about Elvie Albright than she already did, because none of the people in this town had really known her either.
"Odette?" Rose's voice was low and sweet and accompanied with a tentative knock.
"Come in," she said tiredly, still staring at the picture.
"We're going to the Thorn's for dinner, remember? Aren't you coming?" She looked more like a princess than ever, in a floor skimming peach dress and pearls.
"I..." Odette had been sitting staring sightlessly at her mothers photos for a while it seemed, "I'm not very hungry Rose, I think I'll just go to bed early."
"Aren't you feeling well sweetheart?" She walked closer a placed a cool hand on her forehead. Odette avoided her eyes, "You do feel a bit warm. Maybe you should stay at home."
"Yeah. Have you ever seen this picture?"
Rose leaned in to examine it, bringing the scent of lilies with her, "That's Elvie and Bryant Lowell at the Halloween Circle," a gentle smile lit up her fine features, "He's Caleb's uncle. They dated for years before..." she paused awkwardly
"Before she met my father and skipped town with me?" Odette said helpfully.
"Exactly," Rose agreed ruefully, then added casually, "He'll be there tonight, if you want to meet him."
"No," she didn't want anything to change about her mother yet. For now Elvie could remain frozen in her memory, exactly the person Odette had always known her to be, "I think I'll get some rest," she accepted Rose's soft hug and waited for the door to close behind the older witch before she studied the picture again and started to cry.
The werewolf was gazing at her mother with something like love.