The Forsaken: Volume 1.17: Always On Your Side

Type: Series

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: M

Characters: April, Andrew, Luca, Willow, Cadence, Rachel, Rudolf
Word Count: 1806

Glossary:

Warning: language

Butterfly to wasp, soon I'll start stinging

The bite of knowing this, won't go away

And the sweetness from a friend

Just makes it harder

To visualize the end

Butterfly to Wasp-Dala

Twinbrook, present day...

Sonja had been trying practically the whole morning to get Cadence to join her for breakfast, but so far nothing had worked, not even her famous chocolate pancakes.

Cadence had locked herself in her room since their confrontation the previous day. She refused to talk about their fight; she didn’t want to eat either. She refused to go to school too, choosing instead to curl up under the covers and drown in her heartache.

“Cade, you have to eat something,” Sonja’s muffled voice from the other side of the door broke through her foggy sleep. Cadence rolled on to her back and stared up at the ceiling. Her stomach grumbled loudly, reminding her that her hunger strike couldn’t go on for much longer; sooner or later her pity party would have to come to an end.

She was definitely hungry and in desperate need of the bathroom and a shower and a change of clothing. But seeing Sonja again would remind her of what an idiot she was for thinking Luca could be anything other than what he was.

“I’m not hungry,” she managed to croak.

“Okay. But if you are later I’ve left some chocolate pancakes for you in the fridge. I have to run to the store,” Sonja cried again, and Cadence absently nodded her head, forgetting her mom couldn’t see her.

“Cade, are you okay?” Sonja’s incessant questions were starting to drive her mad.

“I’m fine mom,” Cadence shouted, there was a sharpness in her voice that wasn’t there before. She could feel her mom hesitate on her end.

“Keep moving, keep moving.” Cadence silently willed her mom to walk away, and she let out a relieved sigh when she heard Sonja’s soft footsteps slip away from the door.

A few minutes passed, Cadence listened to Sonja tinker around in the kitchen, before she let herself out of the front door. A second later, or maybe two, Cadence heard their old car start up in the drive away before sputtering away.

When she was sure she was alone Cadence jumped out of bed and ran for the bathroom.

I look like hell, she thought as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were swollen and puffy from crying nonstop since her talk with Sonja the previous afternoon. Her nose was red and blotchy, don’t get her started on her hair, it was a tangled blob of damp curls. She looked a hot mess, and if Rachel was there, she would have had a bitch fit at her ghastly sight.

She half cried and half laughed when she thought of her best friend. Rachel would know what to do; she’d know how to take care of the ache in her heart. But Rachel wasn’t there and she wasn’t planning on calling her because the wound with Luca was still too fresh, she wasn’t ready to show it to anyone, not until she’d put some Band-aid on it at least.

She absently reached for her toothbrush and toothpaste and went through the mundane task of brushing her teeth before jumping into the shower.

For a long time she stayed under the water spray, thinking about Luca and why she was so torn up over him. It was crazy, she hardly knew him, they were not in a relationship, sure he stole a few kisses from her and she let him get away with it, but they were not dating, there were no promises of love between them, he was just a random guy she’d met three days ago.

But why, oh why, did it hurt to bad to know he was married? Why did it feel like a huge chunk of her heart had been ripped out?

“Pull yourself together,” Cadence mentally shook herself as she yanked the fluffy bath sheet from the towel rack and dried herself. She wrapped a smaller one on her head, turban style, and left the bathroom, her damp feet left faint footprints on the tiles.

“What are you doing here?” She asked Rachel and Rudi when she found them sitting at dining the table in the kitchen, drinking her mom’s chamomile tea and snacking on chocolate chip cookies.

“You skipped school again and you weren’t answering your cell phone,” Rudi replied.

“We were worried about you,” Rachel added.

“I’m fine guys,” she lied as she quickly headed to her room.

She pulled out an old pair of jeans from the closet and an equally old sweater, its neckline was frayed, but she liked the way it hung loosely on her body. It smelled clean and fresh, a combination of her wild flower perfume and Sonja's lavender fabric softener. The smell reminded her of her past, a time that didn’t include Luca.

“Are you decent?” Rachel tapped gently on her door.

Cadence pulled it open and ushered them inside.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Rudi asked as he took a seat at her desk.

Cadence shook her head and fell face down on her bed.

The moment her face touched the pillows her tears flowed freely and Rachel was at her side, consoling her in a soothing voice.

Rudi left the room to get her a glass of water and Cadence saw her chance to fill Rachel in.

“What? He’s married?” Rachel gasped just as Rudi came back.

“Who’s married?” He demanded. His sharp gaze flickered between the two girls.

Rachel opened her mouth to reply and Cadence shook her head quickly to stop her. But it was too late, the words were already out of her friend’s lips.

“Luca. He’s married to some Renee. But he kissed Cadence.”

“That bastard! I knew he was a snake. I knew it!” Rudi fumed, and Cadence once again threw her face in her hands and wailed.

“Stop crying over him. He’s a bloody Vampire. Mitchell is so much better than him!” Rudi dumped the glass on the table, unaware of the damage his words were doing to Cadence.

“Rudi, I think you should leave. You are not making things easy on Cade,” Rachel interrupted his rant as she gently rubbed Cadence's back.

“You want me to go after him? I’ll beat him up. Just say the word,” Rudi bulldozed on, ignoring Rachel’s request. His eyes were glued on Cadence. “Just say the word. Mitchell and the boys, we’ll take care of him-”

“No Rudi, just stop. You are not helping,” Rachel snapped at him while Cadence continued with her sniffles. Her whole face was a river of snort and tears, as red hot as Rudi’s anger too.

“Fine! But my offer still stands,” Rudi growled over his shoulder as he let himself out of the room.

The door clicked in place. Rachel joined Cadence on the bed; their heads touched gently as they both stared up at the ceiling.

“It’s okay, Cade.” Rachel murmured softly as she took Cadence’s hand and lifted it up; she gently played with it, turning it this way and that way, their fragile fingers gently caressing.

“I think you should wait for him to come back and ask him about it. Maybe they’re divorced-” Rachel started to say, but Cadence cut her off.

“Or maybe he’s happily married with a gazillion kids.”

“Happily married people don’t go around kissing other people and telling them to stop seeing other guys,” Rachel pointed out.

“Maybe they do if they want the person’s blood,” Cadence retorted angrily. She was a fool to even think Luca could care about her.

“I don’t know. From everything you’ve told me, Luca sounds like a decent guy.”

“Whose side are you on?” Cadence demanded. She was tired of hearing her friend defend Luca.

“I’m always on your side, you know that. But why don’t you give him a chance to explain. Hear his side of the story.” Rachel mumbled weakly.

When Cadence was angry it was impossible to reason with her, and when she was hurt she got downright irrational, Rachel knew talking sense into her was pointless at this stage so she stopped trying and for an hour she listened to her friend vent and call Luca every horrible word she knew.

“Do you want us to put a curse on him?” Rachel smiled.

Cadence fell silent, mulling over her offer. For a brief second she looked like she was considering it.

“Nah, he’s not worth the reagents,” she laughed at last, a tearful sound.

“If you change your mind, you know I cast the most wicked spells,” Rachel winked at her as she headed for the door. She had to leave, she had a 2pm Art History class she couldn’t afford to miss because she was failing it badly.

“Will you be okay?” Rachel asked her at the front door. Cadence nodded. She felt so much better now that she’d vented her anger.

“I’ll be fine. Thanks.”

Before they could linger on, the home phone rang and Cadence ran inside to answer it. The phone stopped ringing just as she lifted the receiver off the stand...

Al Simhara, Egypt...

Present day....

Luca cut his call when he saw Andrew and the girls approach. He’d really wanted to hear Cadence’s voice and tell her about his trip, not everything, but some things like the snake charmer and his friend Aziz. It looked like it would have to wait now. His friends didn’t look pleased and he knew he wasn’t going to like whatever they had to say.

“So?” He asked them with dread. April’s eyes darted everywhere, but they refused to meet his stare, while Willow clung to Andrew’s arm like a man bag.

“Here,” Andrew handed him the small pouch with the Chaos Star.

“Great. Let’s get out of here,” Luca murmured excitedly, but his happiness was cut short by the look of sheer panic in Andrew’s eyes.

“What’s going on?” He demanded.

“We can’t leave the country without the proper documents for the Star. Ethan has them,” Willow explained quickly. And Andrew filled him in on the rest.

“Son of a bitch! I’ll fucking kill him!” Luca seethed. “Where is he?” he glared at April. He’d had just about all he could take from Ethan; he was prepared to kill the asshole.

“I don’t know. We left him at the Ruins of Karnak,” April replied softly. She still couldn’t look at him, and when Luca saw the shame and sadness on her face, his anger melted a little and he reached for her and gave her a hug.