Into The Unknown World

I leaned against Grayson as his hands kept brushing up and down my arms. I felt the steady rise and fall of his chest against my back.

“Are you ready?” Once they had picked me up, we rushed right to the hotel and Grayson carried me off to our room, where he quickly let me feed as much as I needed. I took what I dared, but I soon realized he was ready for more and told Dylan to order a whole bunch of protein based foods for him. And while he was helping me, the remaining three people were in the living room were trying to sort out what they could of the book.

“Not quite yet. Grayson, he scared me and I don’t get scared easily.” I curled even more into his body, my red dress on the floor. When we got back to the room, Grayson was adamant not to let anything happen to that dress because, for a later date, he did want to tear it off of me. He also said it wasn’t fair for me to look that sexy and be with anyone but him. So, to add to the comfort level, he put me in one of his shirts and shorts, the scent of him wrapping all around me and soothing my rather frazzled nerves.

“I know babe, and I can tell he did; I picked up on those vibes and I hated every moment of it.” He kissed the side of my neck in a reassuring gesture and I sighed. Grayson was nothing more than a werewolf and I could easily take him if I wanted to, but I still felt safe within his arms.

“He talked about someone watching me.” I sat up and turned to look at Grayson. “He said that they were waiting.”

“Fire,” he said, his hands cupping my cheeks, his thumbs stroking along my cheek bones, “I don’t care what he said; you are mine and only mine. I will protect you with my dying breath. And I have a real fucking problem with people trying to take what’s mine.” I couldn’t help or stop the smile that tugged at my lips; leave it to this man I loved and adored to make me feel better.

“Must have made you a fun kid to play with.” I smiled and nodded. “You don’t have to worry,” I whispered as I leaned forward to give him a soft kiss.

“No, babe, you don’t.” I leaned my forehead against his and nodded. We were together, we always would be.

“Come on, we got to figure this out.” He helped me up and we walked out, looking at the group.

“Well, did you all find anything?” I asked, curling up on the love seat with Grayson.

“Some, but it’s hard to pick things out in another language,” Dylan said. “Did The General say anything to you Fire?”

“Not about that, but he did mention another party, someone who had been watching me for a very long while. And he kept saying how happy he was to finally have me in his arms, which I found to be funny.” Grayson stiffened next to me and I glanced at him but his gaze was on Mariana. “What am I missing?”

“I’ve known The General for quite a long while Fire. Me, trying to kidnap you, wasn’t of my own doing, exactly; he asked me to.”

“What?”

“I didn’t think he was going to do anything wrong, but he did ask me to keep you weak.”

“But you had no clue why?”

“None, I swear, Fire.”

“I guess that’s when we were made?” Elric asked. All I could was nod. None of this was something I had really mentioned to anyone.

“Why didn’t you think to tell me this before we left?”

“Honestly Fire, I didn’t think he would still want you. I thought, back then, that he just wanted to play with you, and given all this time, that the feeling would fade away. But with him wanting you, I felt it goes well beyond just some feeling.”

“Like an obsession,” Grayson offered to with Mariana nodded. Both him and I sighed. “Let me have the book,” Grayson told Dylan. Dylan handed it off and Grayson balanced it between the two of us. I carefully ran my fingers over the front binding and Grayson looked at me.

“This was my dad’s, as strange as that is to say.” We both chuckled and he opened it, our eyes roaming over the writing. Yes, this was even a language I didn’t know but I still tried my best. And oddly enough, some things caught my eye. I pointed to one symbol, “that’s ‘daughter’.”

“How do you know?” Elric asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Something I remember seeing is all.” I felt the tug at the memory but couldn’t place it. Grayson flipped through a few more pages and then stopped.

“Dylan, wouldn’t you say that’s war?” Dylan looked at where Grayson was pointing at and nodded.

“I remember seeing James write that a lot and even asked. When I did ask about it, he just said that he was something from memory, but one time he mumbled something about it having to do with fighting. I always thought it odd because I knew of no language like that.”

“War?” We all looked up at Mariana. “I’m guessing that wouldn’t be talking about some war throughout history, right?”

“I would think not. Why talk about one when there has been many,” Elric answered her question.

“One night I heard him talking about something, about getting them ready. I wasn’t sure who he was talking to or about what even. I just know it was a guy and that it was dark. I did catch him turn slightly and from the side eye and it was if his eyes looked like to be his burnt orangeish reddish color. I had never seen him before or after.” I tapped my nails on Grayson’s leg, thinking this over. In all my years here, I had never seen anyone like that, nor anyone watching me, so who was this person?

“Is it possible this might be some other God we don’t know about?” All eyes turned to me and I shrugged. “Come on, everything that has been going on has been crazy and you want to give me a strange look because I’m talking about another God?”

“Not crazy, just what are the chances? And why? And how the hell could no one know anything?”

“Come on Grayson, barely anyone knew about Sol and this here is the only solid proof we even have.”

“And we still don’t know. But what kind of God would there be? Some type of dark one?” He paused and I looked up at him. The idea, given how everything had been playing out recently, wasn’t so farfetched.

“If that were true, Grayson, that scares me a lot more than I like, especially knowing he was wanting and watching me.” I stood up and shook my head, my thoughts starting to become a jumbled mess. I was trying to piece what all I had learned with my 1800 years and that was impossible; even more so when I knew I was missing quite a few things. I paused in my pacing when there was a knock. I glanced around, no one knew where we were. I swallowed hard and opened the door, my eyes opening up wide at the man that stood before me.

“Fire, I think we need to have a talk.”