CHAPTER 77
The safe house was a huge cabin that was located in a section of the forest that anyone who did not know it would not be able to find easily. Amelia had a complex of feelings that were close to relief reported, but apprehension was in the air too when people from the other group approached them. The last few hours, she had been through anger, confusion, surprise, disappointment and lastly understanding, she wasn’t prepared for the next feeling that was brewing inside her.
Bruce's hand on the curve on her back propelled a signal up the porch steps. The touch was still and warm – a balm that its absence for the past few months had not erased from their memory, but also a symbol of all the things that they hadn’t talked about in the span of their estrangement.
Entering the cabin, Amelia simply looked around with her eyes opened wide in surprise. The fireplace had a fire and the smell in the home was of good food being cooked. But it was not the warm ambiance that took her focus on the man.
There was mother, rising from an overstuffed armchair with tears in her eyes – and the woman who had as much to do with the Miracle’s creation as any other person.
“Mom?” Amelia’s voice was wavering, she hardly could believe what she saw.
Rosa lurched out of the chair and kitted Amelia into hugging her tight. ‘Oh my sweet girl!’ she cried and hugged her as if Amelia might slip away from her again.
‘I’ve been so worried about you’?
They cried and hugged each other and Amelia could not help but shed her tears as well clinging to her mother. Several months seemed to disappear; she was a frightened, perplexed girl who had first realized her true identity.
‘I’m sorry,” Amelia said quietly and moved her head from Rosa’s shoulder to look at her face. "I'm so sorry. "
For a long moment, there was only mother and daughter clinging to one another, and neither had a thought for the others crowding into the cabin. And when they disentangled themselves, Rosa held Amelia’s face very gently in her palms and stared at her.
‘’You know them?’’ I enquired, acting quickly to keep her from leaving.
."’ Are you alright? Did they touch you?’’ she questioned anxiously.
Amelia shook her head. “I am okay Mom” She was told, “but I feel so overwhelmed. ”
Smiling at Rosa, she, ‘Do you understand?’ To which, she nodded and swung round to the rest of them. She realized her eyes were on Elijah and there was a clear, silent thanks between them.
“Thank you,” Rosa murmured. They are inclined to provide it for only one reason that he brought her back safely.
Elijah inclined his head. “Of course. Amelia’s safety was and will remain our top priority. ”
Many may not see anything wrong or anything out of the ordinary in his use of “our” but it was not lost on Amelia. She glanced around the room and found herself surrounded by people that in most cases she knew at least by sight. Huddled in a corner nursing various wicked-looking injuries Ema and her rogues watched the fight with keen interest. The members of the pack, including Bruce, were sitting all over the room; even though they were seated, they looked alert.
“What I believe,” was Elijah who had to raise his tone to get the others’ attention, “is that we should all now talk of what will be the next step. ”
People moved in their seats in a rather clumsy manner and there was a lot of noise. Amelia joined her mother on the couch leaving only Elijah who stood, and regardless of his young age, he dominated the space.
Sarah just managed to nod in agreement, she was still tense and jumpy after all that had happened. “We did what we thought was appropriate to do but let us assume that all of us might deserve some answers here. ”
Elijah shifted his eyes in the room before coming to rest on Amelia. "Yes, you are right and in my opinion, they should start with Amelia, why don’t you explain in your own words why you decided to run to Seattle?
Everyone looked at Amelia, and she blushed again, although she tried hard not to do so. She breathed in deeply as if to arm herself before getting into the issue.
She hesitated for a moment, “I… I was tired,” she said her voice steadied and rising. “Sick of the feeling of always being hunted, of constantly looking over my shoulder, of feeling like the life that I had was no longer my own. After everything – finding out that I was half vampire, the attacks, the training – I just wanted something different. ”
She gazed at her mother and was as if she saw the pain and sense of understanding in Rosa’s face. Finally, I felt ready to defend myself before my mother: ‘I am sorry for not informing you, Ma’am but I was afraid that you would try and prevent me and… well, I had to do this for my own sake’.
Rosa squeezed her hand. ‘Oh honey, I see that,’ said Rosa tearfully, ‘I just wish you told me about how you felt. ’
Amelia nodded her head in agreement in tears once more. “I did not. I should have. ”
She looked at Elijah and waited for him to frown or shout at her. Instead, what she saw made her heart miss a beat. He wore the look of anger and his lips were white, he had clamped them together to keep from saying what he wanted to.
“You have any idea,” he said softly and menacingly, “of how many folk are out to get you because you truly are, after all we had gone through to protect you?"
They did not speak anymore for some time, and an electric current seemed to run through the air. Elijah’s words gave Amelia a chill at the backbone.
"Why is everyone acting like it was my fault?" Amelia tried to defend herself
"Because it is your fault" That was the first time Bruce said anything in the cabin
Amelia looked at him
"Bruce try to understand"
"Try to understand what?" the Alpha's voice could be heard from a thousand miles away
Amelia looked at everyone in the room, with their judging eyes, she just smiled and said
"This was the reason why I ran away in the first place"
"Are you planning on running again? Elijah asked
"I might," she said.
