Chapter 41: The Calm Before the Storm


    I was just sitting down to watch a movie and drown my sorrows in a bowl of popcorn when my door


    suddenly burst open.


    “What the fuck?!” I shouted, jumping up from my couch and spilling popcorn everywhere.


    My eyes widened as I saw Lukee in, his skull exposed, carrying a limp Nina in his arms. He ran


    over to the couch and shoved me out of the way,ying her down while I stood there inplete


    shock.


    “What did you do?!” I said.


    “I saved her from getting sexually assaulted,” Luke said, stepping away so I could crouch down to Nina


    and feel her forehead. She was mmy and delirious, mumbling nonsense under her breath.


    “Who did this and where is the fucker?” I growled, looking up at Luke, who was covering his skull again.


    “Some asshole from the club,” he replied, sounding just as angry as I was. “Don’t worry. I got him in the


    back of my car. Well, not my car, technically. A car that just happened to be unlocked with the keys


    inside.”


    He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and jingled them.


    I stood and rubbed my forehead with my hand, sighing. “You can’t just steal cars,” I replied. “But…


    Thank you. Can you get him somewhere secluded? I won’t let some asshole who drugs girls, especially


    Nina, walk around as a free man.”


    Luke nodded and walked back toward the door, taking onest nce over his shoulder at Nina before


    pulling his hood up and darting out of my apartment.


    “Ugh…” Nina groaned, holding her stomach like she was about to puke. I cursed under my breath and


    ran over to the kitchen to grab a trash bag, but by the time I returned it was toote. She had already


    vomited all over herself, my couch, and the floor.


    “Shit…” I whispered, turning her on her side in case she puked again and running for a damp towel to


    clean up the mess. When I returned, she was fast asleep again.


    I wiped up the mess, holding my nose, then decided that I couldn’t let Nina justy there with crusted


    vomit all over her and gently slid her shirt off over her head. I wiped her down with a clean, wet towel


    and soap and then put one of my shirts on her.


    under any other circumstances, I would’ve found her to be incredibly cute in one of my shirts. She was


    so small that it was like a dress on her, and I was able to remove her dirty skirt as well without viting


    her privacy any further than it already had been tonight and tossed her clothes, along with the vomit-


    covered towels, straight into the washing machine..


    While I was doing all of this, I fumed about the asshole who had done this to my Nina. How could


    anyone do this to her? I just wanted to hold her and protect her.


    Once I finished cleaning her up and getting her into a clean shirt, she was starting to seem better


    already. She was still sleeping, but the color had alreadye back into her face and she stopped


    sweating, which was surprising. Didn’t drugs like this make people sick for hours? Then again, Nina


    was proving more and more every day to be out of the ordinary. Seeing her heal so quickly made me


    wonder if she was even human at all. Could she be a hybrid? They were fairlymon in the human


    world, but most people had no idea about their hybridism since it was extremely rare for one to have


    any sort of supernatural powers.


    Deciding that now was not the time to agonize over whether Nina was human or not, I let out a deep


    sigh and scooped her small body up in my arms. I walked over to my bedroom andid her down in the


    bed, pulling the covers up to her chin and cing a trash can, a ss of water, and her cell phone on


    the nightstand.


    I looked down at her for a few moments, watching her sleep peacefully.


    I hated myself for letting her get hurt.


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    If I hadn’t been such a fuck-up that pushed her away and ruined our chances of being together, I


    could’ve been there and none of this would have happened.


    It was toote now, though. The damage had been done, and I had been such an asshole. I had to


    make things right for her. If she wanted to just be friends, we would be friends. I couldn’t push her


    anymore like I had been. I needed to be there for her. I needed to protect her.


    I decided that it was best if I just let her rest for now, so I tucked her in and headed back to the living


    room, leaving the door cracked just in case she needed me.


    When I sat down on the couch, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I opened it to two texts: one from Luke,


    telling me that he had the asshole who hurt Nina tied up in an abandoned barn with a spell on him to


    keep him asleep, and one from Lewis. There was a picture attached to the text from Lewis. I raised an


    eyebrow and opened it.


    The text read: “Been doing some more digging. Found this. The pattern looks familiar… I can’t find


    anything else on the girl, though. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”


    The image that was attached to it was a picture of an old, yellowed photograph with burnt edges. The


    burn marks destroyed most of the image, except for the figure of what appeared to be someone holding


    a baby swaddled in a nket. I squinted and looked closer; the figure’s face was burned away, so I


    couldn’t make out who it was … But Lewis was right. The pattern on the nket was familiar.


    It was a burgundy colored nket, with little golden rabbits on it that looked like something out of a


    storybook that my mom used to read to me when I was a kid. It was a folk taleabout a rabbit and a wolf


    putting aside their differences and bing friends, but it was only something I had ever heard in the


    werewolf world. As far as I knew, humans didn’t know this story.


    How, though? If this was Nina in the picture, or someone rted to her, then how would a human family


    be in possession of a nket with a werewolf pattern on it?


    Before I had enough time to think about the strange picture, my phone suddenly started ring. It was


    a typhoon warning. It looked like a bad one, too, judging from the weather report that popped up when I


    opened the warning.


    I sighed and stuck my phone back in my pocket, hitting y on the scary movie that I had been


    nning on watching tonight as the wind began to howl and rain started to beat against the sides of the


    building.