Sleep Tight, page 8
My eyes widened in surprise without meaning to, it was like she was reading my mind.
Ava saw my expression and laughed. “Wow I didn’t know calling you a jerk was going to offend you so much.”
I gulped and laughed, mostly laughing at myself, of course she couldn’t read minds she was just speaking the truth. “No, no, your right I was a jerk to you guys, and I promise to do my best to be a little nicer. You guys are going through a lot of changes, and I just didn’t think about that, I was being selfish.” I really meant that too. Olivia was right, I was only thinking of myself.
“Wow. A little nicer?” Ava rolled her eyes. “What gave you a change of heart?”
She looked up at me still clutching something in her hand.
“It’s more like who.” I looked at Ava, sitting there looking so small, clutching what looked like a pendant on a necklace in her hand. Before she could ask another question, I spoke first, curious to find out what she was holding.
“What’s that in your hand?”
Ava opened her hand and looked down lovingly at the object in her hand. She lifted it up for me to see. “It was my dad’s. He said that it’s been in our family for many generations.”
I stood up and walked closer to the bed trying to get a better look at it, it seemed familiar to me. As I got closer, I realized what it was and why it was so familiar.
It was a crescent moon pendant. Her family’s sigil.
I sat next to her and pulled my shirt down a bit. Her eyes widened, her cheeks turning bright red as she quickly looked away from my chest.
“What are you doing?” She was mortified. I hadn’t even taken my shirt off.
I smirked at her embarrassment and pointed to the side of my chest. “I’m trying to show you my tattoo that’s all.”
“Oh.” She slowly looked my way, and I could see the relief and shock in her eyes. I had the same crescent moon tattooed on my chest.
“That looks just like my pendant.”
“It is your pendant.”
Ava looked up at me confused. “I don’t understand?”
“That moon is your family sigil and it also represents us as Leki’s. Every Leki gets this mark when we are born.”
“I didn’t know that. I guess I have a lot to learn about my own people, don’t I?”
I let go of my shirt, nodding. “Don’t worry, I know it seems overwhelming to learn about a whole new world you knew nothing about, but we have time to tell you everything you want to know.”
“So that’s why me and my brothers don’t have one? My dad ran away before we came along.” She was deep in thought. “But wait why would you give a tattoo to a baby? That sounds awful!”
“Oh, don’t worry it doesn’t hurt them I promise. The way we give them isn’t the same way you would get your traditional tattoo. We have a ceremony and give them their mark celebrating that another life has been born and they will hopefully one day grow up to help people and keep balance in our world.”
‘That’s a lot of pressure to put on a baby.”
I laugh a little before she asked another question. “So, if it’s not the same way you put a tattoo on how do you do it?”
“That’s a question you can ask my mom at another time. She’s one of the Leki’s that does the ceremony so she can explain it much better than I can. That’s all the questions I’ll answer for right now otherwise we’ll be here all night. I’ll leave you to rest. I’ll be staying here tonight with Blake and Ethan just to make sure no Kryps come back tonight.”
“I thought you were supposed to stay here and watch me?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You sound a little eager there, Ava.”
She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, her cheeks turning scarlet.
I stood up and walked to the door, throwing her a smirk. “You don’t have a concussion; I think you’ll live. Next time I’ll stay longer when you haven’t almost died. You need rest.”
“Oh? You think there will be a next time where I’ll let you in my room?”
“I’m counting on it.” I winked. “Good night princess.”
“Wait,” she called out. “Thank you for everything Elijah. I think I get why you acted the way you did towards me and my brothers and I just want you to know that I understand and it’s okay.”
I didn’t look back as I shut the door behind me. She must think I was just a selfish prick only thinking of myself. And I hated to admit it, but she might be right. I like to think that I was just worried about losing my powers because I wouldn’t be able to help people anymore and help keep balance between light and dark but deep down, I think I just couldn’t stand the thought of being powerless. I was only thinking of myself.
And Ava saw that.
Knocking at the front door brings me out of my daydreaming.
Daniel stood from his chair next to me at the kitchen table and opened the front door, Cass was standing there with a big grin on his face.
“Hey Cass, come in.” Daniel smiled at him as he moved aside to let him in.
Cass was wearing a flannel shirt with jeans and boots, his chestnut hair messier than usual. This was the most casual I had ever seen him since we’d met. It had been almost two weeks since the attack me and Elijah went through. Elijah had only stayed that night and I hadn’t seen him since, even though I was sure that he came back each night and watched over the cabin from a distance.
Cass and Wendy had been coming over every day trying their best to convince us to come back with them, to learn more about who we we’re, but I still hadn’t been ready for that. We were still getting to know them. They were genuinely nice and patient, I had to give them credit. They understood how I felt and weren’t pressuring me to accept who I really was yet. But I couldn’t ignore that my life was forever changed much longer.
“Hi Cass, where’s Wendy?” I asked.
“She’s back at home helping with training, she has a class every Thursday and didn’t want to cancel again.” Cass and Daniel took a seat at the table when Jesse came out of his room to join us.
“Here to convince Ava again huh. Well, let me tell you Ava is stubborn and won’t go until she’s ready, even though we’ve been begging her to change her mind.” Jesse rolled his eyes with exaggeration as he sat in the chair next to me.
Cass laughed when I stuck my tongue out to him.
“You know I’m not here to force anyone to do anything they don’t want; we want all of you to be ready not just some. So, if Ava isn’t ready yet then that’s okay.” Cass looked at me, worry suddenly clouding his face. “Ava, I know this is not easy, especially with what’s going on with your mom, but you need to know that every night that passes you and your brothers are in danger. We just want to protect you guys.”
I looked into Cass’s brown eyes and saw real fear in them. I knew what he was getting at. Even though he said they were being patient, they only could be patient for so long and that was running out. He was asking me to finally accept their offer and go live with them. Strangers. That’s what they were to me still. I wasn’t ready for that yet, but I decided it was time to visit their home and get some more answers to our questions.
“We’ll go with you.”
Cass, Jesse, and Daniel all got visibly excited.
“Only to visit.” I quickly added. “You’re right Cass I can’t keep ignoring this part of my life anymore. But I’m still not comfortable moving in with you, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize Ava. You have nothing to apologize for. I get it, we are strangers to you still and I’m not surprised you don’t want to move in with us straightaway. But just know that I am hoping that with time we’ll stop being strangers and instead be family.”
I looked up at Cass in surprise and felt tears dangerously coming close to spilling out. Why did he care so much that we became family? I didn’t understand the kindness coming from him. Why would anyone want to willingly be family with us?
The thought made me happy and scared. The only family we had ever known was each other and my mom’s sister. Small but enough.
Enough. That’s what I thought before. Would it be so wrong to wish for more family than what I already had?
I smiled at him. “Thank you, Cass.”
He returned my smile and stood. “Well alright let’s go.” he announced.
“Oh, you want to go now? Already?”
“I thought now would be a good time. But if you don’t have the time today, we can always schedule another day, it’s no problem.”
“No, we have nothing planned today, I just wasn’t expecting to go so soon.” I looked to Jesse and Daniel to see if they were as nervous as I was, but they only looked at me eager to leave already, their eyes lighting up with excitement.
“Alright let’s go.”
“We’re almost there.” Cass looked at me and Jesse in the rearview mirror. Daniel was sitting in the front with him, already straining his eyes trying to find the house somewhere in the trees ahead of us.
“I’ll make sure you guys get the grand tour of the house. Make sure to stay with the tour group at all times please, wouldn’t want you guys getting lost.” Cass casually said.
I thought he was joking and I’m about to ask him if his house is really that big when we pull up to a tall brick wall that seemed to go on forever.
“So, you guys have a lot of property, is that what you mean about getting lost?” I asked.
“That’s one way you can get lost.”
As a tall black gate creaked opened, letting us in, I saw what he meant. In the distance a huge mansion comes into view. No, I should say a castle. Yeah, a castle is more like it. It was massive.
Jesse and I pushed forward both of us trying to get a better look at the massive structure in front of us. It had countless windows and was made entirely of grey stone. Vines crawled up against the walls in random places. It looked haunting and beautiful all at once.
As we neared the house, people started appearing around us, some were jogging, others were doing yoga. Groups of men and women fighting each other. And each time we passed someone they would stop and stare at us driving by. I wasn’t going to like this attention.
“Why is everyone staring at us?” Daniel asked.
“Sorry about that, everyone is just excited that we finally found you and some are simply curious, many of them are going to want to talk to you guys and get to know you. If it starts to get overwhelming just let me know.” Cass stopped near the front doors and turned to look at us. “You guys ready?”
We looked at each other and nodded our heads. Jesse and Daniel hopped out of the car before Cass even stepped out, eager to start the tour. I grabbed the door handle but paused, I closed my eyes and took one slow deep breath, mentally preparing myself for whatever I might find out in this house.
When I stepped out of the car, everyone was already starting to crowd around me, Cass was at the door with Jesse and Daniel, all of them chatting away excitedly as Cass pointed at something on the door.
The crowd around me started to get bigger, closing in on me.
A small girl who looked to be about ten appeared out of the crowd. “Step aside people, let me through.” She had a small bouquet of tulips in her hands. She grabbed my hands and shoved the flowers into them.
“I picked these just for you! I hope you like them.” She smiled at me; cute little dimples popping up on both her cheeks. Her curly long brown hair was in pigtails with yellow ribbons tied to each one. Her clothes are what made me do a double take.
She was dressed in a purple pant suit, she looked like a little professional lady. Everyone else around us was dressed in exercise wear but this little girl was dressed to impress.
“Thank you so much. These are my favorite. How did you know?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“It’s kind of a gift of mine, I’m a pretty good guesser.” She flipped one of her pigtails over her shoulder, impressed with herself.
I gave a little chuckle and she gave me another dimpled smile. Before either of us could speak again another voice came out from the crowd.
“So, the princess has finally graced us with her presence. How lucky we are.”
I looked up to see where the voice was coming from. The owner of the voice stepped forward, scowling at me. She looked like she was close to my age, tall and in great shape, her skin flawless. I looked down at myself, noticing I was short and shapely, nothing like her.
I took a step back feeling instantly uncomfortable and insecure around her. She smirked, she knew how she made me feel and was enjoying it. She knew she was beautiful. She flipped her long black hair over her shoulder just as the little girl had, but this time it wasn’t cute.
She took a couple steps closer, looming over me. Her bronze eyes looked me up and down, silently judging me. “Hm, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. You look ordinary to me, nothing special.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, I didn’t know this girl, yet she was acting like we were sworn enemies. Already insulting me for no reason.
“How could you say that to her? Rude Clarissa. Just so rude.” The little girl crossed her arms over her chest, huffing at Clarissa. “This is why no one likes you; you know!”
“Oh, shut up Rael, this is big girl talk.” Clarissa focused her attention back on me.
“Big girls don’t act like this.” Olivia pushed through the crowd and stood next to me.
I released a big breath, relieved that Olivia was coming to my rescue. I didn’t know how to respond to what was happening and I couldn’t stand being the center of attention any longer.
“Sweet Olivia always coming to the rescue. I was only welcoming our honored guest, don’t worry.” Clarissa smiled wickedly.
“It sounded more like you were trying to scare her off. And she isn’t a guest here, you know that very well Clarissa. This is her house, you’re the guest here.”
I almost choked and looked at Olivia in complete surprise. What the heck did she mean this was my house? She’s got to be kidding.
Rael looked up at Clarissa smugly as she stood next to Olivia. Everyone around us was calmly looking on as if they were used to this kind of standoff happening every day.
Clarissa narrowed her eyes and gave me a fake smile. “Welcome home princess.” And with that she stalked off, her black hair swaying back and forth behind her.
“That was Clarissa Vega, she hates anyone who’s pretty, she sees them as a threat, just ignore her okay.” Olivia turned to me and smiled.
“Yeah, it's why she hates me so much too.” Rael sighed dramatically. “We beautiful always suffer.”
I liked this girl instantly.
Olivia chuckled. “That’s right squirt.”
“Alright people back it up! No pictures or autographs will be taken at this time, but you can contact me later and we can discuss prices.” Rael winked at me and pushed through the crowd creating a path for us to follow to the front door where Cass was still talking to Jesse and Daniel, completely unaware of what just happened.
Men.
As I walked through the crowd some people stared in curiosity and others shook my hand, welcoming me. It was all so foreign to me. I didn’t think I would ever get used to this.
As we got closer to the door, I turned to Olivia. “Olivia what did you mean this is my house? You don’t actually mean this is all mine right, you were lying just to shut Clarissa up, right?”
Olivia opened her mouth to answer but Cass beat her to it.
“So, Olivia told you already did she.” Cass looked at Olivia sternly and she shrugged.
“Sorry uncle, it just came out.”
Jesse and Daniel looked at each other with wide eyes. I knew how they felt.
“All of this belongs to you guys. This house is your family home, has been since your great, great grandfather built it.”
“No way. That’s so cool.” Jesse high fived Daniel.
I stayed silent, processing this information. How could something so grand and beautiful belong to us? Cass looked at me with a worried face.
“We were going to wait to tell you guys, I know you are dealing with a lot and all of this is already very overwhelming for you. But that’s why we think it’s best that you guys stay here. It’s not only because we can help keep you safe. All of this is rightfully yours. And it will be here when you’re ready to take it.”
A million thoughts were running through my mind.
“I was just showing your brothers your family sigil, right there.” Cass pointed to the top of the wooden door; a crescent moon was carved into the wood.
“Your great, great, grandfather, Gregorio Luna, carved that out himself after the house was built.” Cass smiled down at me, he seemed so proud like it was his own family sigil up there.
We all walked into the house and it was even more beautiful inside. Everything was updated and modernized in some way, but it still had a vintage look to it. There was a grand staircase right in the middle of the main room that split into two ways once you got to the top. I was going to get lost in here for sure. But the thought of one day being able to explore and find secret passageways gave me chills, I could look forward to that. Maybe owning a small castle wasn’t so bad after all.
“We can go exploring later and I’ll show you all the secret passages I’ve found so far.” Rael whispered to me as if reading my mind.
“Can you read minds too?” I asked.
“I wish I could read minds; how cool would that be?” Rael’s big brown eyes lit up at the possibility and she sighed.
“I’m sorry I haven’t even introduced you to Rael.” Cass said. “This is Rael Desoto; she lives here with her mom and younger brother. If you ever want to place a bet, make sure to consult with her first. She’s the best guesser you’ll ever meet.” He winked at Rael and she took a bow for us.
Jesse and Daniel each shook her hand.
“Well, I gotta say, I love your pant suit.” Jesse said.
“Why, thank you. It’s my secret weapon.” Rael confidently grabbed at her jacket, straightening it out.
“How is it your secret weapon? You can tell me I know how to keep secrets.” Daniel’s tone was serious.
