Page 22 of Till Death Do Us Part (Ariel Kimber 7)

I had a feeling that all this emotional bullshit and turmoil I was feeling over a little hand holding meant that I was destined for a very uncomfortable conversation with the members of my coven in the very near future, because I had agreed to not keeping secrets or lying to them, and the longer I kept these feelings to myself, the more they felt like I actually was keeping a secret from them by not being open with them. Even though I absolutely was not lying to them, sometimes it could come across as a lie just by not saying anything at all.

Would that be considered lying by omission?

I wasn’t exactly sure, but I knew that whatever it was, it didn’t sit right with me.

“Shit,” Trenton hissed under his breath as we walked through the automatic doors that had opened up for us.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I followed the direction his eyes were aimed in.

A man wearing tan khakis and a light blue polo was jogging after us with a nasty look on his face. I’d never seen him before in my life.

“Walk faster,” Trenton urged as he put his hand on the small of my back and gently pushed me forward.

Simon squeezed my hand, and all three of us picked up the pace until we were practically jogging. I had no idea what was going on, but I trusted them both with my life, so I listened to what they told me to do.

I knew when to behave and when not to. I wasn’t always a dumb girl.

“Hey!” a male voice shouted out from behind us, and somehow we picked up the pace and still made it look like we weren’t running away. Hopefully.

People turned to stare at us. I guessed it totally looked like we were running away from someone inside of a super store. Bummer.

Every time I went anywhere now, I always tried to blend in and never stand out. I didn’t know why, because it was dumb, but I always felt like people would take one look at me and they’d know I was a witch. Hello, insecurities. They screamed loudly and clearly whenever I surrounded myself with normal people.

Most people didn’t even believe in witches these days, so I knew I was safe in that regard, but I just couldn’t help but worry.

People turned to look at us, and every single one of them got a load of my face and quickly looked away.

Oh no, who needed to be worried about being outed as a witch when everyone who looked at me took in the wicked scar on my face and decided to never look at me again because said scar made them uncomfortable? The damn thing wasn’t even that bad anymore. Or maybe I was just so used to it now that it didn’t seem that bad and weak bitches couldn’t handle it.

Sometimes I absolutely hated people. They could be so damn stupid.

I ignored all of them like I usually ignored this type of behavior, and I kept hustling with my bodyguards, neither of whom even seemed to notice the looks I was receiving. They went pretty much everywhere with me, but they never paid the looks I got any attention. Either they lived in their own world, or they just really did not give a fuck.

“Hey, I know you heard me. I’m talking to you.”

People actually stopped this time to stare. Jesus, this was not good.

“Do you know this guy or something?” I finally asked.

What if he worked for the Council? And why hadn’t I thought of that before now? The threat was serious, I just didn’t live my life scared or worried like the rest of the guys did.

The Council wasn’t going to hurt me, I knew that much, but there was nothing stopping them from hurting everyone else.

“It’s the guy who was driving that red van from the parking lot,” Simon told me, and I stopped dead in my tracks. My hand yanked on his, and he stopped with me rather than simply letting go.

“Why are we running away from him?” I asked incredulously.

Had they lost their damn minds? We were drawing more attention by running when we didn’t even need to be running.

I wasn’t afraid of normal human beings anymore. Yeah, I knew they were capable of being monsters, but I had bigger and badder monsters to worry about and be afraid of.

Fuck the normal ones.

I turned around and dragged Simon along with me. Trenton, never one to be left out of my foolishness because he didn’t want to miss out on the chance to either lecture me or protect me, wasn’t far behind.

“Fuck me,” Trenton grumbled under his breath. “You’re going to cause a scene, and somehow the Council is going to hear about it because they have eyes and ears everywhere like the creepy fucks they are. It’s going to give them more ammunition to use when they show up to try and take you from us. Both Quinton and Rain are going to want our heads for allowing this. We should have taken you straight home so there was no chance of you getting into any trouble. Fuck this shit.”

Fuck this shit indeed.

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