Altered Path

According to what Gideon told me, I was passed out for a whole day. He had moved me to my bed and was seated in a chair beside me when I woke up.

I didn’t feel rested at all. My body was sore, and my mind felt fuzzy. There was a strange buzzing in my ears, and it felt like there were bubbles in my blood. Tickle-y and itchy.

“Hello, dear. It’s good to see you awake.” Gideon said, softly, as if he didn’t want to startle me.

I stretched as much as I could without making the aches worse.

“What happened?” I asked him, sleepily.

He cocked his head to the side and lifted one eyebrow, then asked, “You don’t remember?”

I thought for a few seconds, trying to recall the last thing I was doing.

“Oh, you were drinking my blood,” I said, then my eyes got wide and I pointed at him, “You went to far! You tried to kill me, didn’t you!”

His face fell.

“What? No! I did nothing of the sort...” he started to argue.

But I was giggling wildly and covering my mouth to hide the sound.

Gideon sighed.

“I was just messin’ with you, vamp.” I said, grinning.

“You will be the death of me,” he said with a chuckle, “So, you do remember?”

“Yes, I remember. It wasn’t painful at all. The high was way more than I expected. It was really...” I searched for a word that would say it had been unpleasant but not so much that Gideon would think I’d changed my mind, “...an experience.”

Gideon stared at me for a moment, then asked, “May I ask you a personal question?”

Oh, boy. Here we go. As if the way he found me wasn’t enough proof of my worthlessness, now he’d know that even my parents had given me away. But I was determined not to sound too pathetic.

He smiled and said, “I’m beginning to think this connection of the mind goes both ways. I was indeed about to ask you about your family, but if that’s a delicate subject, we can save it for another time.”

How much should I tell my new employer?

“Why do you ask?” I said, trying to stall.

“Only curiosity, dear. I’d like to get to know you better.” he replied.

I could tell there was more to it, but I didn’t push.

“I never knew my parents. I grew up in the system. Bounced from home to home,” I said.

Gideon shook his head and said, “That’s a shame. I’m sorry. But someone knew who your parents were? Someone you lived with. Or maybe an agency worker?”

Again, I had the feeling that he was holding something back.

I shook my head and answered, “No, not that I ever knew of. I asked a few times, but I finally figured my parents just didn’t want me to know who they were. Maybe they were ashamed.”

I was looking at my hands now, folded in my lap where I sat on my fancy, fluffy bed. The memories in my head and my current surroundings were so different, it made me feel like a fraud.

“I doubt they were ashamed, dear. What could you do as a small child to cause them shame? You have no memory of them, which tells me that they abandoned you at a tender age.” Gideon said, firmly, “I wonder if they were ashamed of themselves.”

I had never thought of that. I always assumed that there had been something wrong with me as far as they were concerned. I thought I wasn’t what they’d wanted so they dumped me.

“How could a parent think their own child would be ashamed of them?” I said, not ready to accept the possibility that it was my parents who had the problem.

Gideon tilted up my chin and said, “How could such a lovely child think her parents could be ashamed of her?”

I tried to look away, but he held me there, gently but firmly

He looked into my eyes and said, “Melissa, you will not think of yourself as worthless ever again. You will realize you have the potential to change your life and you will. You will understand that people do horrible things that do not make sense all in the name of loving you.”

He released me and I sat there for a few minutes waiting to feel a difference.

“Did you compel me?” I asked him.

It had seemed like he was going to, but I didn’t feel any different.

He raised his eyebrows.

“I mean, when you said that about me thinking I can change and stuff?” I pushed, because he was still just staring at me, “Hello?”

He sighed and said, “Yes, I did. Or I thought I did.”

He sat forward and look into my eyes again.

“Melissa, you will no longer think of yourself as worthless,” he said, firmly.

But I still felt no difference.

“Nope. I mean, I appreciate the effort. Maybe I really am worthless.”

I laughed a little, but I almost believed it was my worthlessness that made his power fail.

Gideon sighed and rubbed his face as if in frustration.

“Now I cannot compel you. There is definitely something different about you,” he said.

“What do you mean? Different how?” I said.

I was afraid he was going to tell me I had some rare disease that messed up my blood.

He smiled, but it looked forced.

“We’ll have a doctor come to the house tonight, just to be safe.” Gideon said.

He stood and left my room, saying no more.

I felt guilty for some reason. Like it was my fault that Gideon couldn’t compel me. But that was ridiculous. I was a plain old human with no magical hocus pocus powers.

So, was it the other option? Was I sick? Did I have some rare condition that no doctor had ever noticed?

I realized that with the limited number of times I had been seen by an actual doctor, it was very possible. The last time I was seen had been when I was thirteen years old and had started my period for the first time.

I was twenty-one now.

It wasn’t long until Gideon returned with two other men.

The first was a tall, lean looking man with caramel colored skin and curly dark brown hair. His face looked strained, as if he was worried.

The second was shorter, but not short. He looked Asian to me. Almond shaped eyes, black hair and a huge smile spread across his face.

“Melissa, this is Snap. He is a healer,” Gideon said, indicating the second man.

“Snap? Dr. Snap?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Snap, still smiling, said, “Nah. I heal, but I’m not doctor. Just Snap,” he winked, “as in I have you better in a snap.”

His smile and humor made me feel at ease with him, but the other man's tense expression and silence was making me very uncomfortable.

“And you are?” I asked him directly.

He flinched, slightly.

Gideon chuckled but made no move to introduce the man.

“My name is Tynan,” he said.

I waited for him to say more but apparently, he felt that was enough of an introduction. I disagreed.

“Tynan? Are you a healer? Or a doctor?” I asked him, knowing I sounded snotty and not caring at all.

“He’s our pack leader,” Snap supplied.

Snap was laying out different plants and crystals on the nightstand. He hadn’t looked up to see the icy look Tynan gave him when he spoke.

I wondered why but I was more concerned with who Tynan was since he’d been mentioned in Gideon’s note as if he were important for some reason.

“Pack?” I asked, looking directly at Tynan.

“Tynan and Snap are werewolves, dear,” Gideon said, “Their pack hunts the woods here on my land in exchange for guarding our home. Tynan is the leader of the pack. A very important wolf.”

Werewolves. Now, there were werewolves.

I stayed quiet after that unless Snap asked me a question. I think this new information about werewolves was a bit too much. I had already had to accept the existence of vampires and maybe I hadn’t completely gotten there yet. Now werewolves?

Snap did a lot of the things I had seen doctors do on television, so I figured he had some idea what he was doing. He felt my pulse, listened to my heartbeat, asked all kinds of questions about my past and my habits and Erik, the baby’s father.

“Well, I will say that drug use is never good for baby. Baby seems healthy, though. Strong heartbeat,” he said, after having me hold different crystals, “These plants will help baby grow.”

He showed me the plants he had put on my nightstand and explained how to use each one as a tea to give the baby extra vitamins.

“These replace prenatal vitamins and with Gideon giving you his blood regularly, your baby will be like Hercules when it’s born,” Snap said with a chuckle.

“Thank you, Snap.” I said, smiling warmly at him.

Then I looked at Tynan, still sulking behind Gideon.

“It was nice meeting you both and I’m happy to know there are wolves guarding me. That’s really cool, actually,” I said, then I winked at Tynan.

Yes, he did not seem friendly, but I saw the sense in making nice with a powerful man/wolf.

Tynan looked surprised but bowed his head respectfully.

“One more thing. You need to find out about the baby’s father’s family. You want that info for later, in case something happens, you know.” Snap added, just before he left.

Gideon shook his head at me.

But I knew Snap was right.

Not only did I need information for the baby’s sake, but I needed to tell Erik it was over and that he would never see this baby. I just needed closure.

I wouldn’t mention it to Gideon, but as he walked the wolves out, I decided I would go see Erik the very next day. It would be over and done before Gideon knew about it. No harm, no foul.

I fell back asleep pretending I believed that.