3. VANYA: GROUNDED

Devrim turned to face me once he finished his phone call. “She’s still there. She was talking to a man a few minutes ago.”
“Who?” I asked.
“They don’t know him,” he told me.
“Let me—”
“No,” he growled. “Both of you are staying here.” Devrim’s eyes darted over my shoulder. “I mean it, Obsidian.”
Turing, I frowned at him as he moved closer. He was dressed in his usual black clothes. Obsidian watched Devrim with narrowed eyes.
“I’m going with you,” he growled.
“Ezra’s coming with me,” Devrim hissed. “You and Vanya are going to stay here because both of you are still recovering.”
“It could be a trap!”
“Which is why we won’t be going alone,” Ezra said as he made his way down the stairs. “We might not be a paranoid as you, but we are not stupid.”
Ezra stood a little taller when Obsidian took a step towards him. My eyes darted from one man to the other. Obsidian would have managed to put Ezra on his ass before, but I had no doubt that if they were to fight, Ezra would win.
“Knock it off,” Devrim growled at them. “We have more important things to do. Dorian will be here in three minutes and—”
“You don’t think that I’ll be able to protect her?” Obsidian asked him.
“I didn’t say that.” He frowned at him. “I’ll feel better knowing that Dorian’s here with you. Orion’s meeting us there.”
They stared at each other for a few minutes before Obsidian snarled and stormed away.
Letting out a sigh, Devrim looked at me. “Vanya—”
“I know,” I interrupted him. “We stay inside the cabin, no matter what.”
He lingered for a moment but then spun on his heels and disappeared out the front door. Ezra did the opposite. He stepped in front of me and reached out to cup my cheeks. My gasp of surprise was swallowed by his mouth.
My lips parted under the pressure of his as I raised my arms to wrap them around his neck. Ezra groaned and gently pulled me closer to his body.
Pulling away, he smiled down at me. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Please be careful,” I told him.
“We always are.” He pecked my lips but as he stepped back, Ezra pulled a face at me. “Take a shower, sugarplum. You kinda smell.”
My mouth fell open but Ezra was already out the door, his laughter following him all the way. Frowning, I dipped my head and sniffed at my shirts. Shit, he was right. I smelt of sweat.
Cursing, I hurried upstairs to my bedroom and into the bathroom. Instead of taking a shower, I filled the tub with water, wishing that I had some bath salts to add.
There was a hair tie and some hairpins in the bathroom drawer that I used to pin my hair on top of my head. There was no use wetting it since only had a little shampoo left, besides, my hair wasn’t that dirty yet.
Undressing, I threw the dirty clothes into the laundry basket that stood in the corner of the bathroom. I stood staring at it for a few seconds before I turned away. Who did all the laundry? Where did they wash the clothes? It was something I hadn’t thought of before.
Shaking my head, I climbed into the tub and sighed as I leaned back against the side. My eyes fluttered closed in utter bliss. It has been a while since I had been able to enjoy a bath. The stitches prevent me but now that they had been removed, I could enjoy my long baths again.
Sliding a few inches lower, I blindly reached for the soap, only to realize that I hadn’t grabbed a bar from the cabinet. I opened my eyes as I sat up and nearly had a heart attack.
“Fuck,” I breathed. “Don’t do that!”
His lips twitched. “Cursing again, sweets?”
“What am I supposed to do when you sneak up on me like that?” I asked him.
Obsidian entered the bathroom and paused when I pointed to the cabinet.
“Grab me a bar of soap?”
He changed direction and grabbed the soap from the cabinet. Handing it to me, he took a seat on the edge of the tub and leaned back against the wall.
“I thought you would have followed them,” I muttered.
For a few seconds, his eyes dropped to my shoulder before they darted away. “I don’t want to leave you alone,” he rasped.
“Dorian’s outside,” I pointed out.
“It’s not the same.” He cleared his throat. “Don’t tell them I bonded you on purpose,” he said softly.
I paused. “Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“And here I thought that we were making some process.” I pulled a face at him.
Silence settled between us as I scrubbed every inch of my skin with the odourless soap. It wasn’t the type of soap I usually used which I hated but their words about the artificial scents humans used made me agree to use their soap instead. The soap wasn’t so bad; I just liked having my skin fragranced.
“How did you get all your tattoos?” I asked him as I leaned back.
His eyes dropped to rest on the back of his hands for a few seconds and then locked with mine. “I got them while I was travelling,” he answered. “Don’t look so surprised, sweets. You know about my trips.”
“I always suspected it,” I admitted, “but I didn’t know for sure until you returned with the Lycans.”
My eyes dropped to watch the ripples in the water as I swirled my hands around. “Devrim says that we can’t leave the island, but you’ve left it.”
“You want to leave permanently, Vanya,” he said. “I always return because Ottawa is my home. I have no desire to live anywhere else.”
“Why do you travel then?” I glanced up at him. “When you leave, you stay away for months before you return.”
Obsidian remained silent for so long that I thought he was done with our conversation. I suspected that it was one of those things I wasn’t allowed to know about, but he surprised me.
“We’re trying to locate more of us. Not exactly like us but who were created in a similar way to us,” he explained.
“Do you ever find any?”
“Sometimes,” he whispered, “but most of the time we’re too late to rescue them.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged.
I sat up and pulled my legs up to hug them to my chest and rest my chin on my knee. Obsidian remained silent as I studied him from beneath my lashes.
“You haven’t left in a while,” I stated. “Does that mean that you haven’t found any new leads?”
“No.” Obsidian ran a hand through his hair. “They’re not as important as you.”
I blinked at him in surprise. It wasn’t the words I wanted to hear but it still meant a lot knowing that he wanted to stay with me instead of travel like he had been doing for years. But then an ugly thought hit, making the warmth fade.
“You’re not just saying that because—”
“I mean it, Vanya,” Obsidian interrupted.
Our eyes locked and held even when colour flooded his cheeks.
*Obsidian was blushing!*
“Don’t make this a habit,” he growled.
“What?”
“I don’t talk about my feelings.”
“Then why are you doing it now?” I frowned when he stood.
“Because I want you to understand why I bonded you.” He headed for the door.
“Wait!” I called. “I have one more question.”
He paused, hesitated a moment, and then turned slightly to look at me. I took it as a sign to continue.
“Have you ever. . .slept with women on one of your trips?” I asked the question that popped into my mind a few seconds ago.
He pursed his lips and swallowed as he gave me a stiff nod.
“Humans?”
“A few times,” he muttered. “The other women were mixed-breed like me.”
I nodded and watched as he hurried out of the bathroom. Confusion mixed with pain. I had no idea why it hurt but it should’ve been expected. The fact that it had happened before we became a thing didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Had he really slept with humans before? Was that why he had said that they were only good for fucking?”
Tears filled my eyes as the pain intensified.
Had the humans he slept with enjoyed the same things as him? Had it been someone who got turned on by the pain he caused?
There had been nothing gentle between Obsidian and me. He had been rough the first time we had sex and the second time when he gave me his blood to heal me. Then there was that time in the bathroom at the Christmas Ball.
I hadn’t been a fan of the way he tortured me for answers but I liked the toys he used. I liked the roughness but I didn’t think that I could handle any pain—especially not pain caused by being cut with a knife.