Chapter 155
RYKER’S P.O.V
“That’s impossible,” Caius said after we had told him everything that happened.
It was almost impossible to get Audrey back to sleep. We had conceded to having her sleep in our bed, and the moment she was out, Camilla and I went in search of Caius. We tried to convince Audrey that whatever she saw was a nightmare, but she was convinced that it was not. She explained it in more terrifying detail than what her five-year-old brain should have been able to cook up. There was only one other explanation—it was a vision—but Caius didn’t seem to agree.
“She is a wolf, not a witch and wolves don’t have visions,” he explained. “It also cannot be her powers because she is five and not twenty one.”
“Well what do you expect that we tell our daughter?” Camilla asked with her hands crossed over her chest. “She was genuinely worried. There has to be some truth in what she said. She would not make up something like that.”
“Children lie,” he offered but I shook my head.
“Not Audrey, she has everything she could ever want, there is no reason for her to lie.”
I was glad that I had spoken before Camilla because she looked ready to blow a fuse. Her hair was in a tangled mess around her head from the number of times she had ran her fingers through it. She looked as frustrated as I felt and I wanted to reach out to console her but I didn’t even know where to start. She turned to me in exasperation as if pleading for me to say something but the truth was that I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t even know where to begin.
“What would you suggest that we do then?” Caius asked looking confused. “We cannot tell anyone about this because it will only bring more questions than answers and the way I see it, neither of us has any answers. All we can do is just sit and watch things unfold.”
“She is terrified!” Camilla exclaimed. “Do you expect that we just leave her?”
“We don’t have a lot of options right now your majesty,” Caius’ voice was soft and almost patronizing.
I reached out for my mate and placed one hand on her waist and the other on her shoulder. She immediately relaxed into my hold and I rested her head against my shoulder. Caius’ eyes met mine and I gave him a simple nod of dismissal. There was nothing left to be done or said, he had done his best and for that I was grateful. He bowed before walking away and once he was gone, Camilla groaned in frustration.
I could feel the effects of that sound in my bones, I felt the same way but in times like this, one of us had to remain strong. There were times where she held things together for both of us, the least I could do was extend the same courtesy to her. We stood there for a few minutes, just standing in the silence and feeling each other. No words were spoken but nothing needed to be said that hadn’t already been through our actions.
After a long silence, Camilla sighed and turned to face me. “We should better check on Audrey. We have to make sure that she is okay.”
I immediately agreed and we were on our way towards the room. I opened the door and the first thing I realized was that Audrey wasn’t on the bed. Panic seized my insides until I realized that she was sitting by the window. She was sitting under it with her legs pulled up to her chest, her cheeks were wet with tears and pain gripped at the corners of my heart because I wasn’t there for her. I immediately rushed over to her and pulled her into my arms. She buried her face into my shoulder and grabbed onto me like a koala.
“Where were you?” she sobbed into my shoulders. “You weren’t here when I woke up. I called for you but you-”
“I’m sorry,” I hated the way my voice cracked on the end. “I am so f ucking sorry, princess. I should have been here, you’re right. I won’t leave again.”
Audrey choked back a s ob and I felt moisture gather in my eyes. She was so little and yet so much had happened already. My eyes found Camilla who was standing to a corner with her hands wrapped around herself. She was already crying and I could see that her hands itched to hold Audrey.
I smoothed my daughter’s hair back. “Do you want some chocolate?” I asked and she nodded.
It was an insane idea to give that to her this late at night but I didn’t quite care. I wanted to make sure that she was happy and settled. With her on my hip, I walked over to the kitchen. Camilla followed close behind and made hot chocolate in a small mug for Audrey. Audrey had stopped crying by now but she still didn’t want to be let down and I understood. I wouldn’t have wanted to be left alone either if I were her. I couldn’t even imagine what she might have seen.
By the time we got back to the room, everyone was relatively calm. I placed Audrey on the bed but she refused to move from her spot between my legs. She leaned back against me as she drank her beverage and snacked on the little bro wnie that Camilla had placed for her.
“Audrey,” I began slowly and she hummed. “Do you want to tell me what scared you so much when you woke up?” She stilled before shaking her head. I had expected that kind of response but that didn’t mean I was going to let it slide. “I know you’re scared princess, but I need to know so that I can help.”
She sniffled. “But it was scary and I don’t want to be scared.”
“It’s okay to be scared, I am scared a lot of times but I find that talking about my fears help me. I always talk to your mum and it makes me not so scared anymore.”
“Are you really?” she asked and I nodded. “But you’re big and big people don’t get scared.” “Should I tell you a secret?” I waited until she was looking up at me with her wide eyes before I spoke. “Big people get scared the most. We are scared most of the time. I was scared when I saw you like that on the ground, I was scared when the vampires attacked and I was terrified as hell the first time I saw you.”
Her brows scrunched. “Why?”
“Because you’re my little girl and I want to protect you. I knew that I was going to need to step up my game so I could be a good dad to you,” she didn’t completely understand what I was saying but she understood the general message. “What scared you so much?”
She was quiet for a second as if weighing her thoughts and instead of pushing, I waited. I gave her the space to make that choice for herself because while I could have pushed and gotten the answer I wanted, it was a sure way to ensure that she never trusted me again.
“It was very dark,” she began slowly. “I was in this place and I knew I was sleeping but I couldn’t’ wake up. There were so many things and they were moving so fast. I saw you with blood on your hands, I saw Rory but she wasn’t breathing and mummy was screaming. There was this other woman there too, she was very pretty but she was scary. I couldn’t talk to anyone. It was terrifying.”
I pulled her into me because her lower lip had started to wobble again. “It’s alright, you’re safe. I am fine, so is your mummy, okay? Everyone is okay, Rory is asleep, no one is hurt.”
“I’m just scared!” she exclaimed and it hurt that all I could do was hold her.
She sobbed into me for a full minute before finally calming down. Her shoulders shook with each s ob and by the time she managed to relax, I saw that she was already asleep. I didn’t want to let her go immediately, I wanted to hold her, I wanted to rid her of all the nightmares and bad dreams. I wasn’t sure if they were just nightmares but I sure as hell hoped they were. What else could they have been?
“What do you think?” I asked Camilla who just shrugged. “it isn’t a memory from the past.”
“it is probably just her subconscious bringing up fears because of what happened to her in the past,” she explained but I could tell that even she didn’t completely believe that. “We just have to assure her that everything is fine. It happens.”
“Why did it happen now?” I asked and she couldn’t respond. “If this was because of everything that happened before then it only stands to reason that it should have happened since. Things have been calm for months, why would this suddenly just start up like that?”
“I don’t know,” her answer was almost choked. “I don’t even want to think about what the other alternative is right now. We haven’t gotten my powers under control, the last thing we need is a five year old with powers. People will go crazy for that.”
She was right. Her healing powers still tended to react when she was in contact with sick people and for the past few months, we had done anything possible to keep her away from people. She always wore gloves in public and she never touched people. It was difficult to maintain but we managed to do so.
“No matter what happens, we can handle it,” I told her but she said nothing, “Camilla, do you trust me?” She nodded, “Trust that we can handle all of this, we can take care of our child.”
“I want to believe that, I really do.”
“If we made it this long then you have to believe that we can make it until the end,” I glanced down at Audrey who was still sleeping soundly and gently lay her on the bed. “She will be fine, I swear it.”
