The Second Covenant

The morning found the wolf gone but on it was a bright red rose. Weird. The wolf brought me flowers. Druex had given me a rose yesterday. I smiled at the reminder and gathered up the quilt, inhaling the slightly musky, woodsy smell of the wolf and carried it back up to my room. As I crossed to put it on my chair, I kicked something, sent it skittering. I dropped the quilt and saw that it was the box my bracelet had come in. When I picked it up off the floor, I saw the edge of the note I hadn’t read yet. I slipped it out of the box and opened it.

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
You take mine.
Peyton.

I folded the note and put it in my jewelry box, feeling a hopeless sort of doom. My dream coming back to haunt me. Peyton or Druex. I shook my head and picked up the phone. I needed to talk to someone about that dream, I swallowed my nervousness and dialed. “Hello?”
“Hey Peyton.” I worried my bottom lip with my teeth. “What’s up?” He said, not his usual sweet or friendly greeting. He was being distant today. Damn. “I just wanted to talk to you, but I can call back later.”
“No!” He said quickly, “Um, no. I’m not busy. Well, I do have class in about ten minutes.” I nodded and plucked up my courage. “Could I come up there?” There was a pause and I wondered what he was thinking, he cleared his throat like it was clogged. “Are you okay?” Was I? “No not really. I just need to see you.”
“Okay, I’m done with classes and stuff by about four.”
“It’ll take me at least that long to drive up there.”
“Not the way you drive.” He joked. “Should I get the guys together?”
“No, just you and me.”
I heard him clear his throat again. “Okay. At four.”
“Bye.”

I hung up and pressed the phone to my chest. “Oh man, what am I doing?” I moaned and as soon as I put the phone down, it rang. I looked at the number and groaned before answering it. “Dreux, hey.” I heard him chuckle. “Already have me saved to the caller ID huh?” I rubbed my finger between my brows. “Mm-hm. What’s up?” My, didn’t I sound like Peyton. “I was hoping to get you out for dinner tonight. Maybe a movie?” I made a little sound, almost a laugh. “I can’t, I’m driving up to Salem in a little while. I’m going up to see my guys.” Not totally a lie. “Can I catch you on the way out for breakfast?”
“Sure.”

I told my parents where I was going and they waved, both frowning a little, “Call when you’re on your way home okay?” My dad said and I nodded, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Bye daddy.”
I met Druex in town at the diner, best pie in Ipswich. And I was planning on having some for breakfast. Druex was waiting for me, trying his best to not let Sandra, the oldest waitress in the world, and the sweetest, talk him into dating her granddaughter. “Cherish, honey. There you are.” Druex said and I stretched up into his hold. He did give good hugs. “Hi, morning Sandra, what’s the pie?” She smiled at me with a resigned sigh. “Lemon cream.”
“Mm, can I have a slice, and some coke?” She nodded and Druex got some bacon and hash browns. He put his chin in his hand across from me and narrowed his eyes. “You look tired.” I smiled and took the glass of soda Sandra filled, waiting to answer until we had some privacy. “Just a little. I’ve not been sleeping well.” I shrugged and sipped the delicious coffee. “Bad dreams?” he asked and I nodded, but winked. “Sometimes.” His brow arched. “Sometimes?”

Our food arrived and I licked a bite of the tart pie from my fork. “You were saying?” Druex prompted and I looked across at him. Wondering what it was about him that attracted me. Aside from his gorgeousness of course. “Saying what?” I said innocently and his gaze flickered playfully. “Sometimes you have bad dreams, what are the other ones about?” I frowned in thought and searched, tapping my fork to my lips. “A Ferrari Spider mostly, little bit of Daniel Craig, there was this one time where I dreamed I was skinny dipping in a river of Godiva chocolate.” His brows inched up and he licked his lips. “Oh yeah?” I nodded and swiped my finger through the fluffy topping on my pie and licked it off. Druex shifted on his side of the booth and cleared his throat. Peyton had made that sound, almost that exact sound. Maybe Trixi spent the night.
Why did that make me jealous? Wasn’t that bad?

Druex noticed I wasn’t exactly all there. “Cherish, did something happen?” I looked up at him. “Hmm? Happen, no. I’m sorry, I’m just kind of distracted today.” he tilted his head to the side. “Are you alright?” I nodded and looked down at my coffee. “I’m just wrangling with a personal decision.” I sighed and looked up to smile at his frown. I pressed my fingers to my lips, reached over and touched that kiss to his mouth. “I’m sorry I’m not being a very good breakfast date.” he smiled and kissed my fingers back. “You’re fine, can I help you?” My heart flipped over and his hand wrapped around my hand and that feeling of something furry rubbing up inside me, almost made me jerk my hand back. But I just smiled. “No, but thank you for offering.”

The drive up to Salem sort of just flew by. It was three when I got there so I stopped for some lunch, walked around the historical town where hundreds of my kind had died. I could feel the echo of their magic, their souls I guess and wondered how the guys could stand the feeling of it rubbing up against them. But then, they’d not ever said anything about it, so maybe they couldn’t feel it. I walked past this shop that had little figurines in the window and saw a white wolf, it’s nose stretched up to the sky, howling at an invisible moon.

It looked hand carved, so lifelike I expected to see it move, lower it’s head and look at me. I thought of my wolf, and strangely, of Druex. So I bought it for him. I put it in my car and pulled up in front of the house Peyton shared with Tristan and Riley. Only Peyton’s car was in the driveway. He was opening the door before I even got out of the car. I took a deep breath and walked up the drive way, took the hand he held out for me and slipped right up under his arm. Like I was meant to be there. He kissed the top of my hair, like he always did, but it felt different. I didn’t think of it as a brotherly peck anymore.

We walked into the house, the surprisingly clean house and Peyton steered me to a red leather chair. I lifted my brows at him and he smiled. “We’re hoping you’ll decide to come up here for school.”
“We?” I asked and he shrugged. “Tristan and Riley fixed up the attic room, just in case.”
I was touched, they were still including me, thinking of me even when I wasn’t with them. “Wanna see it?” He said and I nodded, wondering what they’d done. The attic space was fairly large, the last time I’d seen it, the place had been a mess. Crap everywhere. But we walked up the stairs, up past the floor where the guys slept and to the attic. It was like walking into a whole other world. Downstairs everything was masculine, posters of bikini wearing girls and beer stuff. But in here, it was…me.

There was a delicate four poster bed, with wine red silky material coiled around the top of the frame. The wood floors had been polished and scraped free of gunk and shone with a honey colored glow. There was an empty book case, chairs, a red velvet throw over a pillow strewn chaise. The mattress on the bed was covered with more of that red material and it even smelled like my room.

I looked at Peyton, he was leaning against the door frame. Just watching me with a hooded expression. “It’s beautiful, when did you guys do this?” He shrugged. “Whenever we missed you.” From the looks of it, they missed me a lot. There was even a framed picture of the four of us on the table beside the bed. I picked it up and looked closer, Riley and Tristan were on my left, grinning at the camera, but I had my arm around Peyton, looking up at him, laughing. And he was looking down at me.

It made my throat tight to look at it. He was looking down at me with an expression I understood now. “Cherish, why are you here?” He asked me softly, and I heard the hope in that emptiness. I put the picture down and stroked my fingers over the silky bed hangings. “I’ve been fibbing a lot lately. I seem to do it mostly when I don’t really want to talk about something, or explain myself. Mostly after Halloween. After you saw me.” I heard him shift, but not move closer. “What are you talking about?” I looked over my shoulder at him, with my purple eyes and gave a half smile. “After I told you and Riley and Tristan about what Taylor did.”

His jaw firmed but he stayed quiet, remote, just listening. I looked around the room, feeling not one ounce of magic in the attic at all. They’d done all of this by hand, without their powers. “The dream I had the other night was about you.” His brow arched slowly and he smiled, but it wasn’t a real smile. “Oh yeah? Was I naked?” I shook my head. “You were dead.” His other brow shot up and the smile was wiped off his face. I sat down on the bed and clasped my hands together, frowning at them. “That thing that’s been poking around, I don’t know what else to call it but a shadow, It was in my dream. I couldn’t see anything but the outline of it, the evil.” I shuddered at the memory and Peyton came over to crouch in front of me, touching my hands, covering them with his bigger ones.

I met his eyes and read the worry in them. “It was just a dream, but I couldn’t use my powers, or call for help. I couldn’t do anything but watch.” I swallowed the fear and tried to get the picture out of my head, but the memory was just so damn real. “He told me to choose.” I murmured and Peyton frowned. “You said it before, but now it’s a him?” I made a waffling motion with my head. “Uncle Tyler can taste the difference between certain types of magic you know?” Peyton nodded. “Well whatever ’it’ is, it’s male. There’s almost a flavor to it, not just the evil of the magic, but a maleness. I don’t know.”

I sighed heavily and looked around. “Your magic has a different taste than Riley’s, or Tristan’s.” I said and his lips quirked up and he tucked my hair behind my ear. “Like what?” I brushed my finger tips over his mouth, felt him go totally still in front of me. “Tristan kind of has a gentle vanilla flavor,” Peyton’s lips moved over my skin like butterfly wings. “That’s what all the girls say.”

I smiled for real. “Riley’s got this kind of whisky burning sort of taste, and don’t you dare make a dirty joke, when he powers up it makes the back of my throat burn.” He laughed but didn’t say what naughty thoughts I saw in his eyes. I kept my touch light on his cheek, my nails just barely grazing his skin, the tips of my fingers tingling as I brushed through the power of his aura. “But when you power up, it’s like…chocolate ice cream, the chunky kind with all the bits in it.” He snorted. “Chunky bits, are you saying I’m heavy?” I shook my head with a laugh. “No, goof. I mean of the three of you, your power is the most…interesting.” His brow lifted again. “Alright, I can take that. Tristan tastes boring, Riley burns the back of your throat,” He grinned at that, “And I taste interesting.” I just sat there while he mulled that over.

I sat there, in the room and on the bed that my guys had put together for me and wished that things weren’t so damned confusing right now. “So what did it want you to choose?” Peyton’s question drew me back and I looked down at him, I lifted my hand and compulsively twirled my fingers in the long ends of his hair. “You were tied up, your arms pulled tight over this bar or something, it was awful.” He leaned his head into he touch of my hand and brought my other hand to his throat so I could feel the steady beating of his heart. “It was just a dream.”

I nodded, feeling the heat of him pulsing against me, life. Alive. “It was just so real though.” he caught my eyes and held them, searched back and forth between mine. “What did you have to choose?” I swallowed. “You were tied up, and Druex was next to you. The shadow had a knife and was swirling around both of you.” I felt his withdrawal, the careful shields he pulled down over his eyes. “And who did you choose?” I scowled. “I didn’t choose and he killed you both. Do you know what blood looks like at night?” He shook his head back and forth slowly. “Neither do I, but I can tell you what it smells like.”

I stood up and paced away from him. It was a mistake to have come like this. It was to raw still, he’d kissed me and then just walked away. Druex wouldn‘t have waked away and left me so unsteady. “Tristan felt it, me putting off power or whatever, all the way out here, he felt it. I feel like there‘s really something watching us.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and turned around, ran right into him. His hands steadied me, gently gripping my arms, looking down at me with his soft honey brown eyes. “Why couldn’t you tell me that over the phone?”

I just kept looking up at him, trying to figure out what to say, but he must have seen something that pleased him. His hands rose from my arms, up my shoulders to my face. “Why did you come honey?” He murmured and I shook my head, unsure what he wanted me to say, unsure why I had come instead of talking to him on the phone. I didn’t know. His lips lowered, slowly, giving me time I think to pull back. But I didn’t want to, I needed to know. I needed to feel this, with him.

I was the one to close the distance between us, I shaped my mouth to his and felt him shudder. His hands moved from my face, back down my arms, to my hands, lifted them to his chest. Like he was telling me I could stop him, just with a push of my hands. He splayed a palm on my lower back, just above the curve of my back side and fisted the other in my hair. I felt that heat start to rise inside me, a wave of light, of power. Our magic flared together, like the feeling of fur I felt with Druex, but with Peyton it was electrical.

I sighed and relaxed into him, let that heat wash over me in a soothing, liquid rush. I opened my lips to him and he made a low sound, deep from inside him. “Well, looks like I got here right on time. What the hell Peyton?” He froze against me at that hissed question. I pulled back and looked at…Ah, Trixi. And she was glaring at me.

I looked up at Peyton and saw his jaw was clenched, and he looked…guilty. Caught. “So you were talking to her this morning while you were in bed with me. Nice.” I waved my hand at Trixi, tossed a spell at her and she froze. I backed up out of Peyton’s hold and he was staring at me like I was the one who fucked up. “You tell her you loved her too?” I said and his expression turned terribly pained, the note he‘d written me was burning a hole in my pocket. I took it out and set it down on the desk without looking at him and made to move around him, but he stepped in my way. “Cherish, wait…”

I shook my head slowly, feeling tears well up in my eyes. God I felt stupid. “Thank you.” I was on the stairs when his soft voice reached me. “What for?” I paused and looked back around the room they’d worked so hard on. The one I was now not ever going to set foot in again. I met his eyes across the room and let him see how hurt I was. “Helping me choose.” I whispered and left him there to deal with his fuck buddy.