Page 39 of Darling Wildfire
Kon and Nyx pulled him to his feet and helped him through the house out to Kon’s waiting SUV, talking quietly about what happened.
I walked into the house behind them and went to close the french doors, only to see someone had spray painted something across the inside. I backed up to see the full picture and my body froze in shock. Blood roared in my ears making me lightheaded. I clutched the back of the couch as I fought to keep breathing.
Someone had spray painted a giant red crosshair across the doors leading to my back patio. Nyx came up behind me and grabbed my shoulders, making me startle so violently he had to catch me as I stumbled.
“Whoa, easy, pretty girl,” he said. “Just breathe—Graham and North are on their way.”
I was getting lightheaded and my chest felt tight as I struggled to breathe. I sank to the ground of my living room and Nyx followed as I clutched at him, needing some sort of anchor in the storm that suddenly had me flailing in fear. He pulled me to him, murmuring words I hardly heard. When I finally calmed down, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the french doors leading out to my backyard. Nyx helped me to my feet but I couldn’t bring myself to let go of his hand.
“Who—who did that?” I asked.
Before Nyx could answer, I heard a door slam, startling me again.
“Where is she?” I heard North demand loudly before he appeared and pulled me roughly into his arms, his eyes going over my head and turning absolutely murderous. Graham was right behind him, looking equally furious and my own anger surged. I pushed away from North, taking a step back to glare at him.
“Who did this?” I demanded.
“We’ll take care of it—”
“That’s not what I fucking asked,” I snapped. “Something is going on and I need to know right now.”
His eyes darkened, and he took a step towards me, only for me to take another step back and I shook my head viciously.
“No. No—you do not get to brush this off,” I said, my voice rising as my panic crept up. “What the fuck is going on, Theron?”
“Kaelin—” Graham stepped up beside Theron and my eyes jumped to him, glaring equally as hard.
“Do you know?” I fumed.
His mouth snapped shut and his face grew stoney. I felt slightly unhinged as my gaze flickered back and forth between the two men I trusted to keep me safe and for the first time doubt crept in because they’d failed. Someone had been in my house and shot Viktor. What if I had been home too?
“Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?” I said. “Who shot Viktor and what the fuck is that?” I waved over my shoulder at the spray paint. When neither man spoke, I rounded on Nyx and he held up his hands and shook his head sadly.
“I’m sorry, Killer—” he said. “This isn’t my call.”
“This is why you were so upset over the death threats,” I said, my voice shaking with anger. “Because you knew something like this was going to happen.”
Theron didn’t even have the decency to look guilty. In fact, his face was so emotionless I couldn’t get a read on him at all, it was like he’d completely shut me out.
“You told me you didn’t want to think about these things,” North said.
“This is different and you know it!”
He didn’t answer.
“Get out,” I hissed.
If they weren’t going to tell me anything, then I didn’t want to be around them. Their silence and lack of trust in me cut deep. When neither of them moved, I threw my finger towards the front door. “Get the fuck out of my house!” I screamed.
“Kaelin—” Graham tried to take a step forward and again I took a step back, my legs hitting the couch.
“I said get out! If you aren’t going to tell me what the fuck is going on—get the fuck out. I don’t want you here.”
Graham looked hurt, but he nodded and turned to Theron who was still looking at me with expressionless eyes. They flickered beyond me to the doors and I saw his fists clench at his sides, the only tell that he was internally churning with emotions I couldn’t gauge. Graham came up even with Theron and I heard him say something low in his ear.
Theron’s mouth twitched as though he wanted to snarl something back but he refrained and without a word, he turned and left with Graham close behind. Something slammed into my heart so hard I was momentarily breathless. He left instead of telling me what was going on. He just…left…and that hurt more than I realized it would.
Tears choked me as they pooled and threatened to fall. Nyx was still standing nearby, guilt written all over his face. He reached out to me but I held up a hand to stop him just as a rogue tear escaped down my cheek. Before I could have a full on meltdown, I stormed off into my bathroom and locked the door, barely holding back a sob as I slid down the wall and broke apart.
