Chapter Nine

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The slamming door reverberated through the small room, shaking the air until it vibrated against Spencer's skin. He groaned and sat down on the bed, pulling his feet up onto the mattress and not caring that he hadn't taken off his boots. He never would have done it at home, but this was another shitty motel, just like all the other shitty motels. They'd barely checked into the new room before Vince had started up again, demanding to know when Spencer would turn him, and why he hadn't done it already.

Spencer pulled at his boot laces and stared at the window. The paper-thin curtains were pulled across the window, an orange glow from the streetlamp lighting the space outside. He had little will to go outside after Vince, or to leave the small room at all. Every part of him ached, alternating between hot and sore, and cold and shaky. Perhaps the air the younger man had demanded would do him some good. Perhaps it would have done Spencer's swirling stomach some good too, but he couldn't bring himself to move.

He glanced across the room to a dark corner where Edeline sat, her knees drawn up to her chest and her head in her hands. Behind a curtain of dark hair, her lips moved constantly. Only a little more than a murmur slipped past as she shook her head and continued on. One hand flung out in exaggeration of some point or another, made to herself, before she cradled her cheeks again.

"Will you give it a rest?" Spencer snapped, slowly getting to his feet. "I've got a headache."

He went to the door and picked up the jacket he'd flung over the nearest chair. When he turned back, Edeline was staring at him, her brown eyes gleaming out from between her brown locks. Spencer pulled on the jacket and tugged it closed around his body. It didn't stop the shivers running through him.

Her eyes narrowed as her gaze ran down his body.

"What?" he asked.

She flinched, but didn't look away.

"Wouldn't have headaches if you weren't listening so much," she said. "Minds weren't made to handle more than one voice at a time."

She drummed the tips of her fingers against her temple, her head tilted at an odd angle as she rocked slowly back and forth. Returning to the bed, Spencer sneered and slumped down, wrapping his arms tight around his stomach and hunching over his legs. The sweat trickled down his neck until his collar was damp and uncomfortable.

"Yeah, well, if that were true, split-personality wouldn't be a thing, would it?"

Edeline curled her arms around her knees and hugged them a little closer to her body.

"They don't drug themselves to hear more, though, do they?"

"Whatever, just give it a rest, will you?"

Spencer sighed and lay back on the bed, the cheap mouldings in the ceiling curled with shadows and yellow glow. He was sure that, at one time or another, they'd been white, but not anymore. He groped along his side for the edge of the blankets, considering pulling them over him and simply sweating the comedown out of his system. Vince would be pissed, but Spencer didn't much care for what their little dark wolf would think.

He felt her move before he saw her, the vibrations passing through the air. Her scent rippled in his nose, soap and lemons, standard cheap motel body wash scents. He probably smelled the same, though with a sheen of sweat and alcohol on top. She sat on the edge of the other bed and peered at him. Her body blocked the light through the window, a silhouette against the window. He could barely see her dark eyes as she brushed her hair back.

"I know you're a good person, Spencer," she said quietly. "At least, you were. People adored you at your home."

Rolling onto his side away from her, Spencer buried himself in the blankets until his voice was muffled in them.

"People liked me because I could do things for them," he said. He drew his knees up, curling into a cocoon of blankets and what little body heat had been left to him. "Trade niceness for favours. They used me."

He scoffed and buried his face further into the pillow.

"But you already know that. You've seen how August used me." He let out a bitter grumble of laughter. "You been searching through my head again, Edie?"

"He didn't use you, Spencer, he loved you," she said in a breath of a whisper. "Probably still does."

Spencer rolled over to look at her. His lips curled in a disbelieving sneer. She'd been looking in his head, alright. Probably searching for the nuggets of information that would distract him long enough for her escape. He'd not chained her when they arrived. He'd been feeling like shit, and didn't plan on going out, so why not let her move around. Even feeling as lousy as he did, he still would have been able to catch her if she made a run for the door.

He shoved the blankets back as they became infuriatingly hot.

"Stay out of it," he said.

"Your memories are tainted, Spencer," she said instead. "You tainted them with anger and betrayal. Even you know that August cared about you, you just don't want to remember because it'd hurt that you left him."

Sitting up, Spencer swung his legs off the bed and leaned over his knees, closing the gap between them.

"Is that what you think, huh? That all I want is to go back?" He laughed and shook his head. "Is that what you think of Carson? That he didn't use you for his own ends? That he loved you?"

Edeline sat up straight, her eyes narrowed. She twisted a lock of hair around her finger.

"You forget that I've been in your head too. God, to listen to you, you'd think he was some sort of knight in shining armour, coming back to rescue you as soon as he finds out where we are."

Reaching across the gap, Spencer laid his hand on her knee and dipped his head to meet her gaze.

"He used you, Edeline, just like August used me, because we were convenient. He led me straight to you thinking... no, hoping that it would start a war. He wanted me to drink from you. Wanted me to kill you. Then, he abandoned you. He's a dog..." Spencer snorted. "In more ways than one."

She curled in on herself, twisting and turning to lose his gaze. Her knee jerked beneath his hand and she shuffled further back on the bed.

"He regretted it," she murmured. "I heard it."

"His only regret was that his plan didn't work, sweetheart."

Finally, she looked at him again.

"Didn't it?"

Spencer's eyes narrowed, his teeth gritted behind his lips. He leaned back, putting more space between them.

"Look at what you've done, Spencer," she whispered. "You didn't kill me, but it's been months. Do you even know if your friends are still alive? However angry you were at August, you loved him. You still love him, I know you do. You want him dead? My family might have killed them all to get me back. You don't know my father."

He sneered.

"Daddy's little girl?"

This time, Edeline's lip curled as she shook her head.

"Their little Pureblood Reader," she said. "You don't know the lengths they'd go to in order to get my power back."

Spencer stared at her for a few moments. He'd never heard Edeline talk about her family, her coven, if you wanted to go witchy about it. He knew it probably wasn't the right word. She withdrew into herself whenever he'd made jokes about her family, especially her father. Perhaps it was that he'd pointed out having heard her thoughts about Carson, or maybe she was tired of hiding after so long.

At the beginning, she'd been more scared of Vince than of him. Spencer knew why, though he wasn't sure what would come of her fears, of her prediction. The kid was still human, after all.

Reaching out, he waved for her to give him his hand. Edeline moaned and slumped.

"You're going hunting again? Haven't you had enough?"

When she didn't offer her wrist, Spencer snatched her hand and tugged her towards him.

"Oh, I'm going hunting, but not for food. I'm going to hunt some vampires," he said, giving her a wicked grin. He turned her hand palm up, and along her wrist, a constellation of fang punctures decorated her wrist. "We came home, didn't we? And what's home without a little family reunion?"


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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey all.

Sorry that I wasn't able to get this up last week. I had two projects on my other job coming to completion, and, yeah.
But, to make up for it, not only do you get a chapter today, you'll get one tomorrow too!

Remember to vote and comment!
Happy reading
Chele

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