Volume 1.20: The Truth About Renee

Type: Series

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: M

Characters: Cadence, Emme, Luca
Word Count: 1599

Glossary: 

Warning: none

I was waiting for the day you'd come around

I was chasing, but nothing was all I found

From the moment you came into my life

You showed me what's right

Feels Like Tonight-Daughtry

As she drove to school the next morning, Cadence didn’t know how to feel when she saw Luca’s van in his front yard.

He was back, and a part of her was thrilled that he was, but another part, a huge one at that wasn’t looking forward to the challenge of staying away from him. But she had to. For so many reasons. He was married. He was a Vampire. He wanted her blood to free his brother. And how could she forget the most important reason of all: the whole town hated him. Her coven would burn her at the gallows if she so much as admitted to anyone she was in love with him.

It was hopeless, this insane, neurotic love she felt for him. It was a waste of space in her heart, and she had to clear it out ASAP so she could make room for Mitchell, learn to love him.

“The coven would love that, wouldn’t they?” She snorted angrily to herself as walked into dance class.

Emme smiled at her in the mirror. Cadence smiled back. A silent promise was made in that briefest of moments; they’d never mention their talk again.  Emme had lost her wits in her moment of weakness and divulged more than a teacher should share with a student. It shouldn’t have happened and it never would again, they both acknowledged this sad but simple truth with their smiles.

For the next three hours Cadence threw herself into the choreography with everything she had in her. She was on fire, all her moves were precise and perfectly synchronized, and her raw energy was something to watch. And Emme who was doing exactly that from across the room, knew if Cadence applied herself the way she was doing now when the talent scouts from the international dance company showed up she would be well on her way to stardom.

Cadence was surprised when the music suddenly stopped; she looked up and found Emme with the rest of the class collecting their belongings, getting ready to leave. She couldn't believe how quickly the four hours had gone.

She didn't join her classmates as they left, she stayed behind and turned on the music from Swan Lake and moved into a series of her moves as Odette. By the time Emme bid her farewell, she'd already assumed Odile's persona.

Outside the classroom, things got tense when Emme found Luca waiting.

Her first thought was to walk on and ignore him, and she did for a few feet, but then she turned back. She couldn't let it go, couldn't leave without telling him what she thought of him.

When the Youngblood coven had filled her in on his reappearance she'd reaffirmed her commitment to the alliance, she would do everything elvan possible to get rid of him. Heck, she’d even turn her unicorn evil just to curse Luca to damnation.

She stopped in front of him and spat on his face. A small muscle twitched on Luca's jaw for the briefest of moments, betraying his fury, before it vanished, along with the rage she'd seen in his eyes.

Wordlessly he wiped her spit from his face and continued to stare at her.

"You shouldn't have come back. You won't win Luca. I'll make sure of it. Your people killed my only daughter; it's only fair that you should live with the pain of losing someone too!" Emme hissed at him through clenched teeth.

"I’m sorry Fae was one of the casualties of that night and I’m truly sorry for your loss, but Julian didn't kill anyone. And believe it or not, he'll be free and there's nothing you and your friends can do about it." Luca told her.

Emme stepped back from him, shocked by the steady calmness in his voice and horrified at his confidence.

"Stay away from Cadence," she warned his retreating back. Luca ignored her and he carried on walking to the picnic bench under the shady tree opposite the classroom.

When it was obvious that Luca wouldn't be drawn into a fight or a reasonable discussion, Emme ran to her car parked in the staff parking lot across the street, her dance slippers barely touching the ground.

As she drove home towards the woods she took in the beautiful scenery of valleys and everglades, and she wished once more that Fae was there to share it with her.

Fresh, hot tears burned the corners of her eyes as memory after memory flamed her mind. She could take them any day, in fact she welcomed them most days because when it was all said and done she'd had a good life with her daughter who was a result of her one night of weakness in the arms of the man she had loved so fiercely but couldn't have because he belonged to another…

An hour after dance class was dismissed and the students had filed out, Luca was still under the tree, waiting for Cadence to come out. Judging from the music drifting from inside the classroom he knew she was still inside, he couldn't have missed her.

He pulled out his cell phone and checked the time, he'd wait another five minutes, and if she didn't come out he was going in.

He paced the length of the bench, but it was more like two small steps back and two steps forward.

Exactly five minutes later he walked across the building. 

Cadence was so lost in her moves she didn't notice him standing at the door. Watching her caused a huge lump to form in his throat and as hard as he tried to swallow it away he couldn't.

He'd seen her dance when she was happy and excited and inspired, when she was passionate and on fire, when she was angry too, but he'd never seen her when she was sad like now.

Heartache accompanied every languid stretch, every movement; he wanted to rush inside and take her in his arms and rock her hurt away. 

The music stopped suddenly, Cadence had reached the end of the CD.

She looked up, their looks connected in the mirror. For the briefest of seconds Luca thought he saw cold fury in her eyes directed at him but before he could process it and ask her about it, it was gone, and the sadness he'd seen in her body language had moved to the grey depths of her eyes too.

"Why are you sad?" He asked.

She ignored him and turned on the music again, before throwing herself into a series of fast paced twirls.

She did about five or six successively before she missed a step and fell, her pained screams made him rush to her side.

But when he reached for her ankle she recoiled from him. Luca frowned when she pulled her feet in and massaged her ankle. She still refused to look at him.

"I wanted to walk you home," he began after a few moments of uncomfortable silence; he watched her face for any reaction but there was none, it didn’t take a genius to figure out she was pissed at him, and he had no frigging clue why, but he guessed Sonja must have said something to her.

The whole time he was in Egypt, she was all he'd thought about, and he'd played their reunion in his mind at least a thousand times, and every time it opened with an intense kiss conveying their yearning for the other, and ended with a walk on the beach watching the sunset, or a picnic in the woods under a blanket of stars. He'd never have imagined this cold reception from her, considering how intimate they were the last time he saw her.

"Cadence, if you want me to leave just say so," he tried again and this time she spoke, breaking his heart with her request.

"Yes, I’d like you to leave."

He stood there for a minute, shocked that she'd send him away.

"Fine," he mumbled as he slowly walked to the door.

But then he turned back. He had to know, he had to know what he did and maybe he could fix it.

"Why?" he asked.

"I know about Renee, your wife."

He went ashen at her answer. Of all things she could say, this was the last thing he'd ever expected to hear from her.

“Sonja told you?" It wasn't a question, just a bewildered statement.

"She showed me the pictures too!" Cadence added with a look of disgust in her eyes.

"Did she also tell you that Renee died in a boating accident with her lover six months into our marriage? Did she show you pictures of her funeral too?" Luca asked, and when he didn't get an answer from her, he continued, "I didn't think so. Goodbye Cadence!"

He promptly turned on his heel and left. At that moment, hurt and heartbroken, nothing would have made him turn back, not even her sincere apologies and her cries, begging him to stay so they could talk things through.

He cussed Sonja all the way home. And as he cut through the stream, he was so tempted to rush up to her house and strangle her, but he forced himself to walk on, arguing that Cadence would have found out about Renee, and he was okay with that, what he didn't appreciate was Sonja's attempts to make him look like he was some two timing husband…