SWNOVELS Chapter 8-Caught
This morning I woke up with the worst headache. It had to have been from drinking all that champagne last night.
After getting back from the ball, Will had dropped me off at home and I barely made it to the toilet in time to throw up. I ate way too much and after witnessing that witch get shot by Nick it was just too much for my gut to handle.
I swivel around in my rolling chair and pick up my brown bag with my lunch. Finding my sandwich already half gone, I give a very guilty looking David a frown.
“Really kid?” I say feeling irritated, but after I say it I wish I could take it back.
It makes me feel old calling him that, but technically I’m twenty-nine -- almost a decade older than him. Well, he acts like a kid anyway, always stealing my food and hiding my chair around the department for me to go find.
“I was hungry and I can’t afford to use the vending machines. Lunch was four hours ago anyway, if you were really hungry you would have ate it already. So don’t pretend like you weren’t going to throw it out,” Yansmen counters.
I scoff, tossing the bag in the trashcan between us.
He’s right, I wasn’t hungry then and I’m not hungry now. There’s no way I’m giving him the joy of letting him know that though. He should have asked to eat my food.
From the corner of my vision, I notice him packing up his things for the day. He swings his messenger bag over his shoulder and slides his computer chair into his desk. After placing an important looking stack of packets into his desk drawer, he turns off his desk lamp.
He looks up while texting. “You coming?”
I pick up my tote and turn off my own computer. “No, I have to pick up some stuff before I head out. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”
“Alright,” he says while standing up and heading out.
There’s still quite a few officers still working and I walk around their maze of desks to the hallway where Nick’s office is. I can’t leave here until I pick up my belongings from last night. Once I reach his closed office door, I knock on it with a grimace.
Nick did tell me this morning he would be out of the office at this time. He did say I could pick up my things from the bin in his room.
“Officer?” I ask loudly, but I don’t hear any answer.
With a deep sigh, I open the door and turn on the light. His desk is a little more cluttered than usual and he didn’t even bother to turn off the news station broadcasting on his flat-screen in the corner of his office. The police radio is going crazy too, he must have forgotten to silence it. I can hear bits and pieces of conversations talking through it.
In the right corner of the back of his office, near the filing cabinets, a blue plastic bin rests on the ground.
Quickly, I walk over to it and rummage through the piles of closed zip-lock bags until I find my own bag with my name in sharpie on it. Sure enough, all my clothes that were bloodstained are in it, only now, they are freshly cleaned. My brooch is even sparkling clean too -- stainless and spot-free.
“Wow...” I mumble in great relief, pinning the precious heirloom to my shirt to keep it secure until I get home.
I glance around his office feeling appreciative. A small envelope on the side of Nick’s desk catches my eye, it’s torn open and a black piece of paper with silver handwriting lays on top of it.
Before I can stop myself, I’ve already read through half of the letter. His father died a month ago? I don’t remember him ever bringing up a funeral and he works every day of the week as it is.
I’ve never seen or known him to take a day off.
Whoever sent him this letter clearly wasn’t happy about him having missed it, but I’m not going to read any more of it. I’ve already read too much.
So I stride out of his office with my things. After saying goodnight to the vampire lady behind the front desk, I head out into the evening.
Will’s leaving in a couple days to go down to Florida, but tonight I invited him over to have dinner with Stella and I before he leaves. However, he forgot he had a routine meeting tonight up by the portal to reinforce the ward around it. As well as the ward around Wixton’s cemetery, a precautionary measure to keep more people from being revived.
By the time I get home and finish making dinner, the sky is already dark. His food is already cold and Stella is up in her room probably sleeping now. I consider putting his plate of pasta in the fridge so I can heat it up when he gets here. However, just when the thought crosses my mind, I hear the doorbell ring and get up from my seat at the table.
“Hey, how was the meeting?” I ask Will.
He hangs up both his coat and cloak on the coat rack.
“Good, everyone showed up and we got the wards set in place,” he answers with a kiss on my lips.
A blush spreads across my face. He turns away from me after a moment to take off his boots. So I shut the door behind him and rush over to his plate to put it in the microwave.
Will doesn’t follow me over to the kitchen, and instead, goes back outside with his magic freely floating around him. What has gotten into him? It must be someone from the coven. Have they finally found out where I live?
“Will!” I holler in panic running after him.
I meet him near the front door.
He wraps his arm around my waist.
“Did you tell her the supreme of Florida ordered your family to extinguish her craft, to kill her for good?” I hear Nick say in a knowing voice.
Nick’s police uniform is covered in dirt and a large stab wound bleeds on his upper right arm. He stands just outside the door, on the front porch with his hands in his pockets. I don’t see his police vehicle parked anywhere outside. William won’t move out of my way or let go of me. I can’t get through the doorway.
What is he talking about and why does it look like he just crawled out of a grave? Who hurt him?
“Will, what is he talking about?” I ask frantically, watching Nick’s stoic expression shift to me.
My heart pounds as I look between the two of them, waiting for one of them to speak.
Nick's voice remains calm and steady, “First, he went for my father. Then, he came for me. Tell her, Will. Tell her what the supreme of Florida asked you to do."
Looking impassive, he leans against the old wooden railing of the porch flicking a speck of dirt from his bullet-proof vest.
Will gently grips my shoulders and a heartbroken look passes over his face when he glances back at Nick though his face hardens.
“You have to understand, most witches are not like me. After you were cleared by her, she made it my family’s job to track you in case you were the real white witch. After Colin got possessed, I didn’t go to my cousin’s wedding, I went to her. I was ordered to. She thinks having you alive endangers all of us and she wanted me to get rid of you to save her the trouble. I told her I killed you, but she found out otherwise watching the riots on tv. I bartered to kill Mr. Silvet instead, his father. For now, she is happy,” Will explains slowly.
Bile rises in my throat.
Mr. Silvet is Nick’s father and he killed him?! How, and...why?!
“H-how long? How long ago has he been dead?” I ask him in a shaky voice, my magic swinging the door behind us open and closed.
“A month,” Will whispers.
My lip trembles. Mr. Silvet wasn’t like Patty. He didn’t stir up hate, he was a good role model to the other vampires as far as I know. They didn’t kill him for being evil, they killed him for what he was. They have become scared enough to make one of their own murder someone in cold blood.
“Just tell me one thing Will, do you believe her?” I ask shivering, but it’s not because of the cold.
“Of course he does,” Nick answers darkly.
After giving Nick a death glare, Will’s face softens when he looks at me and speaks up.
“It doesn’t matter what you are to me, it’s you that I love, Val. Let’s talk about this inside, okay?” he asks me looking hurt, but how can he feel hurt right now?
He didn’t even give me a straight answer.
“Murderer!” I whisper-yell, remembering the single occasion I met Mr. Silvet.
He was a vampire true, but he seemed like he was just trying to get by with his family. He even asked the McCasters for help a couple times with Jackson.
Will killed him just because the supreme mistress of Florida thought he had gained too much power in our community! I guess making a decent living and not feeding off humans was not acceptable to them, according to the almighty supreme. She probably suspected the Silvets wanted in on the stupid legend of lies and how they just happen to live next to the portal doesn’t help their case.
“Valerie, it was either him or you! You don’t understand what position I’m in. I cannot keep taking middle ground on issues. My place will always be with the coven. I want to change their minds about the legend, but change takes time. His father was no innocent man by any means,” Will tells me sounding sure of himself.
I narrow my eyes, feeling numb.
Nick watches me. “He’s right about that. My father was a vile man, but hiding your killing of him and attacking me was not very smart Will. Not very smart all.”
I begin to wonder if he came here to arrest him.
He would have every right to, Will tried to kill him. I don’t think he came here to arrest him though, I think he really believes what Will did he was in the right to do.
At least the part about him killing his father. I’m sure there’s something he plans to do now that Will has tried to kill him too. I shiver again, thinking about what else they could be keeping from me. Still, I’m keeping so much from him too. I’m guilty, but I haven’t gone and murdered anyone, yet.