Volume 1.11: Who's Fooling Who?

Type: Series

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: M

Characters: Cadence, Sonja
Word Count: 1087

Glossary: 

Warning: language

I can’t go on living this way

But I can’t go back the way I came

Chained to this fear that I will never fing

A way to heal my soul

And I will wander ‘til the end of time

Half alive without you…

My Heart Is Broken-Evanescence

Cadence didn’t get a chance to prepare herself and gather her missiles; the war was on as soon as she walked in to the house. Sonja though, having had plenty of time to gather her weapons of words and come up with an attack strategy, was at an advantage.

Her blows fell on Cadence like a ton of bricks, and hard as she tried to dodge them and fight back, she couldn't. Every one of Sonja's accusations was true; she couldn't deny any of it. Yes, she'd cut school and yes she was in Luca's arms, but it wasn't what Sonja thought.

“Really? Not what I think?" Sonja’s shrieks were loud enough to drive the birds in the forest out of their nests and Cadence thought if Luca was around he would have heard the fight all the way inside his house.

"My God, he almost ran you over and there you go running after him like a-" the rest of Sonja’s angry words didn't make it out of her lips.

Cadence threw her hands out and sent bolts of lightning at her; Sonja countered the attack with fire. For a minute or two the room was in utter chaos as fire and lightning collided, the sound of the two energies as they splintered on the pristine floors was deafening. Mother and daughter found themselves blocking their ears as they watched their wrath simmer on the floor and dissipate to oblivion.

"I’m sorry," Sonja backed down first when the storm in the room had died down. She'd forgotten how potent Cadence's ability was, like her and Luann, Cadence could manipulate elements, but her daughter rarely used her powers, preferring to focus all her energy on dancing.

"We kissed. We got caught up in the moment. It doesn't mean anything." Cadence repeated what she'd been saying since she came back from Luca's house.

"It means something if you let him touch you. How many times should I say this, what should I do to make you see Luca doesn't give a rat's ass about you? He's after your blood, and he will do anything he can to get it. You are nothing more than a means to end to him. Besides, even if he'd felt some small semblance of attraction, Renee has his heart, he'll always go back to Renee!"

"Who’s Renee?" Cadence asked in a small voice. She had a sinking feeling deep in her gut and she knew she wouldn’t like the answer.

"He didn't tell you?" Sonja snorted. When Cadence didn't reply she proceeded to fill her in.

"That’s not true," Cadence cried, tears shimmering in her eyes. Luca didn't have a mate, why would he hold her the way he had, kiss her the way he had, if he did?

"I told you he lies like a cheap suit, he'll say anything, do anything, just to get you to give in," Sonja added.

"No, it's not true. I know what I felt when he showed me our memory. He feels something for me," Cadence watched the tears fall from her eyes and stop on the front of her sweater, leaving behind a small damp patch.

Without saying anything else Sonja left the room. When she came back not even five minutes later, she had a scrapbook in her hands. She leafed through the aged pages for a few seconds before she found what she was looking for.

"There," she tapped her index finger on a series of newspaper photographs.

Reluctantly Cadence took the book, it was covered in a fine coating of dust and it left dark smudges on her hands. The smell of aging paper was overpowering she could almost taste it at the back of her throat. It made her think back to her childhood, of the hours she’d spent playing in the attic, surrounded by objects and things from her mother’s past, a past Sonja never talked about. 

Cadence touched the book tentatively, afraid that any sudden movement would rip off the crumbling pages.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the photographs. It was a wedding or something close to a wedding because she wasn't sure if Vampires got married. But the shindig was Luca's and a pretty, dark haired girl Cadence assumed was Renee. She didn't have to assume long because her eyes found the caption in one of the pictures.

"Luca Delacroix and Renee Van de Kemp, forever in love, eternally committed!" The words rolled off her tongue and jumped straight at her heart, piercing it with a tiny million daggers. She closed her eyes, wishing she could unread the words, wishing she could take them back and make them vanish.

She took small shallow breaths as she waited for the tide of heartbreak to pass, but it didn't. Instead it took a huge chunk of her heart and swept it away in the ocean of sadness already threatening to drown her.

She was a fool. She knew he was using her, trying to seduce her to give in, she couldn't say she didn't know. But a part of her had kept hoping that the kisses he stole from her meant something, she kept hoping she wasn't the only one freefalling into the fire. What an idiot, what a world class idiot she was!

"I’m sorry. You were right. I was so wrong. I so wanted him not to be the person you said he was," she told her mom before she ran to her room.

She hurled herself on the bed and cried for a long time, promising herself it would be the first and only time she'd cry for Luca, the first and the last time he'd ever make a fool of her.

Sonja stuck around for a few minutes, listening to Cadence’s heart wrenching sobs. She was sad it had come to this, devastated that she’d been forced to show Cadence the scrapbook to get her point across, and angry that Luca’s advances were hurting Cadence like she knew all along they would.

She wanted to walk into Cadence’s room and take her in her arms and promise her it would all be okay, but Cadence wasn’t five anymore, hot chocolate and marshmallows weren’t going to heal the ache in her heart.

With a heavy sigh Sonja headed for the front door. The coven was meeting with the alliance at the Faelon camp in the woods.