6.
2955 Words
I hadn’t been able to reach Elgin. Neither at home, nor his uncle and aunt, nor at Gwen’s. Mobile or landline, last night, he wasn’t responding anywhere. It’s like Orkney and all of Caithness had been cut off from the world! There was no point in clogging Elgin’s, Al’s, or Bonnie’s voice mailbox, and as for Jeremiah, he probably wasn’t at home, but somewhere on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea. Around eight o’clock, I left a message on Magiki’s answering machine, asking Gwen or her mother to call me back ASAP. It was about time Gwen found out about Rucker’s disappearance. It had been two days and the situation was serious.
I was packing my bag for class when there was a knock on my door.
“Come in!”
It opened to the despondent faces of Morel and Corwin.
“He’s never going to come home again, is he?” Corwin began without preamble.
I couldn’t suppress the long moan of anguish that lumped in my throat.
“Is he in trouble?” continued Morel.
There was no point in lying to them.
“Come over here,” I invited them, patting the bed.
They both moved forward to sit on it, shoulders lowered.
“Yes, Morel. I think he’s in trouble.”
“Is it related to the murders?” he asked.
Even if they hadn’t left their homes for two days, they couldn’t ignore the latest events which had, unfortunately, widely covered our two communities.
“Yes. But how, precisely, we don’t know.”
“They believe Perceval is responsible, don’t they?” Corwin said.
They, the Council. I shook my head vigorously.
“No one can claim such a thing, boys.”
“So why did he disappear?”
“I don’t know, Corwin... The Council will investigate.”
Corwin seemed to be trying to contain the anger that was about to explode.
“Why didn’t they come to see us? Does anyone care? Is that it? We aren’t important?”
“No, Corwin, no,” I tried to reassure him.
“Then why?”
I reached out to gently stroke his cheek with my palm. Annoyed, he pushed me away. So, I answered him in a calm tone.
“Because you don’t know anything. You have nothing to reveal to them.”
“What about you?” he barked. “Are you going to investigate? Are you going to do anything? Are you going to find him? He’s your friend, you can’t...”
His voice choked on a sob. I threw myself on him to take him in my arms.
“Oh, Corwin! Of course, we won’t let him down. He’s more than a friend, you know that. He’s like my brother. I love him as I love you. I would never allow any harm to come to him.”
Although at the moment I had no idea what I could do to help him, find him, and get everything back to normal.
Corwin propelled himself to his feet, his brow furrowed, his eyes hard, translucent, and determined. He had never looked so much like Rucker.
“It’s Pitt!”
I opened my mouth to say something, then decided to close it.
“It’s Pitt, I’m telling you! You don’t know, but he came back!”
Even seated, I had the impression that my legs gave way under my feet. I had to grip the bedspread with both hands to keep from wobbling.
“Came back?”
“He asked the Council to be re-admitted to St Andrews.”
I was seized with a shiver so intense that I couldn't hide it. I looked at the boys, Morel seemed to nod.
“Who told you that?”
Corwin’s irises flashed lightning.
“He submitted his request well before Christmas! Everyone knows it!”
But I didn’t. No one had seen fit to warn me. I felt my jaw tighten as I narrowed my eyes.
“The Council said yes,” Corwin spat in anger, “and now Perceval is missing, people are dead and Pitt wants to make it seem like our brother is responsible. He’s going to punish him because he helped you!”
Each of his words hit me like a punch in the face. However, I was aware that it wasn’t a reproach. He was only expressing his anger.
“The Council reinstated him?”
They nodded at the same time.
“Since when?”
“Three weeks,” replied Morel.
I felt crushed under the weight of the betrayal. Not one of my friends had told me. Not a single one… Who among them knew, precisely? Did the pack also know? Elgin… Did he knowingly leave? I wanted to scream.
Watch out for yourself, Grigore had whispered the day before.
“Don’t worry, Scarlett,” Morel tried to reassure me. “It seems he hasn’t come back yet. And then he promised he would leave you and your friends alone. He won’t do anything to you.”
“Do you think he’s going to keep his word? He’s the one who kidnapped our brother!” Corwin grew angry.
“Perceval is stronger than him, he’s stronger than everyone!”
“No, he caught him and he killed him! That’s why he hasn’t come back! He’ll never, ever come back!”
“Shut up! Liar!”
In anger, Morel threw himself violently on his brother. They rolled over on the floor before finishing their scuffle against the dressing table, which collapsed with the impact. The mirror shattered, spreading around them.
“Enough!” I shouted. “Stop it immediately!”
Instead of stopping, they started all over again. Morel sent a boxer-like punch on his brother’s chin, who barely staggered before crushing Corwin under his weight. Their fight was incredibly violent.
“I said stop!”
Having to show all the strength I was capable of, I grabbed Corwin by the neck to force him to stand up and put myself between them.
“I’ll porridge all of you if you keep going!” I warn them. “Are you angry? Are you scared? Me too! So beware, this isn’t a good mix.”
I didn’t mean a word of it, I never would have raised my hand to them, but my little tirade had its effect all the same. They calmed down almost instantly.
“Perceval would hate to see you behave like this.”
They both looked down to examine the tips of their shoes. So, I knelt in front of them.
“Look at me.”
They did so, timidly.
“Do you trust me?”
Without saying a word, they nodded.
“I’m sure your brother isn’t dead, I can feel it here,” I said, patting my fist on my heart. “Grigore, Rufus, Simon and I will get to the bottom of this, and Elgin too when he returns. We’ll look for Perceval and bring him back by the skin of his buttocks, if necessary, you understand?”
They nodded.
“Corwin, don’t worry about Pitt. If he said he wouldn’t hurt me, he’ll keep his word,” I tried to reassure him as I couldn’t believe a word of it myself.
“Sorry, Scarlett,” Morel whispered. “We had promised Perceval not to tell you anything.”
I smile tenderly at him.
“You have nothing to forgive yourself. On the other hand, you both owe each other an apology. I never want to see you do this again, understand?”
“Understood!” they exclaimed in chorus.
They looked each other in the eyes for a few seconds and finally apologized to each other.
“Good. I’m going to update Gwen on what’s going on and ask her to come over here, are you okay? She can stay with you.”
I didn’t think I was going too far; Gwen would come running. Because she loved them all deeply, she would even blame me for not warning her sooner.
For the first time in two days, I saw their faces light up.
“If I leave now, can I count on your cooperation? No more fighting?”
“Promised!”
“Promised!” Morel said.
“And this mess will have to be cleaned up!” I warned them, pointing to the broken glass.
“Alright!” they answered heartily.
I held out my arms to them.
“Shall we hug each other?”
And they threw themselves onto me.
I was in a state of extreme irritation when I reached the door of the lecture hall in which Grigore had been teaching for the past five minutes. I opened it so violently that it slammed hard against the wall, startling most of the students.
“Miss Rittel!” he thundered as if he didn’t know me personally. “Can we know what this intrusion means?”
By the way I looked, he must have guessed that I wasn’t showing up to tell him some unimportant news, but because I was furious with him. I felt the outraged looks around me and chose to swallow my anger rather than put on a show.
“I… uh… Forgive me, Mr Vulpescu. The main office is asking for you urgently.”
“Can’t this wait?” he said between his gritted teeth.
“Obviously no. Sorry, sir.”
He scanned the room, assessed the situation in seconds, and looked at the pages he had in front of him.
“The statuary in the temples of Roman Brittany. Reread your notes from the previous lesson while I’m away for a moment.”
He emphasised those last three words, glaring at me.
“I advise you to do it seriously, you’ll have a report to give me.”
Grunts of protest arose. I figured this extra work was far from on the agenda, but I didn’t feel guilty about it, I was way too pissed off for that.
Grigore left his books on the desk and grabbed his jacket.
He followed me for a few steps before grabbing my shoulder to stop me.
“Can I know what’s wrong with you? Have you fallen on your head?”
I pulled away sharply to face him, stung.
“You filthy hypocrite, lying, deceitful, exploiter and... and pretender!”
He opened wide eyes.
“Don’t look like that! Did you forget to tell me, by any chance?”
As he was wrinkling his forehead, I took a quick turn.
“Pitt, Petre, your blood brother! How dare you not warn me of his presence here? How could you have the nerve not to inform me of the Council’s decision? How is it possible that I don’t know when this weirdo is after me? I don’t know what’s holding me back from breaking your nose, Grigore Vulpescu! And Rucker is very lucky to have disappeared otherwise I would have painted your portrait with his head!”
Moved by the noise, a few students had stopped to observe us. I was so pissed off I didn’t care about their presence, I continued to bark like it was just us in the hallway.
“You’re just a traitor! You all are! Exploiters, liars, profiteers!”
Grigore leaned casually against the wall behind him as I was about to commit murder.
“Is that it? Are you done?”
I felt like steam was coming out of my ears. How could he act so casually?
“Grigore!”
“Give me two minutes.”
“What?”
“Don’t move from here!” he got angry.
I saw him turn around towards the lecture hall, go inside and come back almost immediately. The next minute, all the students were coming out, a broad smile on their lips.
“Let’s go,” he urged me, taking me by the elbow.
“You better explain yourself and quickly!” I grumbled, trying to keep pace with his strides.
We continued for a few more meters until we came to the door of an unoccupied TD room. He opened it and rushed me inside. Shocked by the anger that inhabited me, I stared at him, gasping for air.
“You deserve to...”
“Shut up!” he interrupted in a loud voice. “Not a word or I’ll strangle you. You listen to what I have to say to you and then you do what suits you.”
With swollen nostrils, I waited in front of him, arms crossed.
Grigore wasn’t blinking. Still, his eyes, usually pale and cold, had inflamed. Jaw clenched, he ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath.
“For starters, Pitt isn’t here yet. He went abroad for several months, then ended up asking for reinstatement in December. This is also the reason why Rucker was so concerned recently. Because it was out of his control and he was involved in the events which brought Pitt, he was removed from the vote by the Council when he would have wanted to participate. It took a very long time to make the decision. They ruled about three weeks ago. Pitt convinced them that he was able to live in St Andrews again.
“They believed it!” I choked. “How can they imagine for a second that he returned to better feelings?”
He shook his head, unable to answer.
“Where is he?”
“Edinburgh. Since yesterday morning.”
I felt that I had visibly whitened.
“I see. So, it can happen anytime.”
He nodded.
“If he was abroad, why do you think he had something to do with Rucker’s disappearance?”
“I don’t know, Scarlett! It’s a guess! Let him come. I’ll learn more.”
“He didn’t give up his revenge, did he?”
Overwhelmed, Grigore had to admit he didn’t.
“That would surprise me, Scarlett.”
“Would he go so far as to hurt an old friend to get to me? To the point of causing harm to you?
He narrowed his eyelids.
“I don’t know what to answer you, I don’t recognize him anymore.”
“Everything will start over, then? I’ll have to hide, you follow me everywhere, I’ll look twice where I put my feet in case of falling into a trap? I’m not ready to relive all of this. I’ve changed, Grigore, I’m no longer the fragile Scarlett. If I run into him, I’ll kill him before he can kill me.”
My warning didn’t make him smile, which was pretty good, as I wasn’t kidding. I was no longer the same. I had suffered enough to be sure of what I was saying. I had fought like hell to be happy, never again would I let someone upset the balance in my life. Granted, a dark angel of Pitt’s experience and age was bound to be stronger than a newly born female werewolf, but my will to be released from him was my best weapon. The naive and helpless girl had long ceased to exist. I’d become a wolf, a lupus formed from a vampire, accustomed to hostile situations. I hadn’t forgotten anything of Rucker’s teaching. Let Pitt rub up against me and he would notice.
“You’re stronger than before, but not invincible,” Grigore warned me as if he had read my mind. “Don’t underestimate your opponent.”
“I’m not so afraid of him anymore.”
Grigore took a few steps forward to dive into the whites of my eyes.
“That’s what scares me, kid. Because he knows it and that’s why he won’t spare you.”
Grigore was right. A few months before, it wasn’t my death that he wanted, but to tear me away from my soul mate as he had been torn from his. He wanted to see me suffer by binding me to him for all eternity. Today, he had certainly revised his ambitions upwards. I shivered.
“Okay,” I whispered. “What would Rucker’s decision have been?”
He c****d his head to the side in incomprehension.
“His choice for Pitt,” I clarified.
Slowly, he moved his hand to my face to stroke my cheekbone with his thumb.
“Such a pretty head for such a hollow brain,” he laughed gently. “No. He would have said no. And I would have given the same answer if I had been asked. Don’t doubt it.”
Head down, I closed my eyelids and smiled softly.
“Rucker intended to tell you about it, but only when he got back here. I’m sorry I lied to you, Scarlett.”
I looked up at him, narrowing my eyes.
“And me for calling you an exploiter.”
He laughed quietly, a small smile on the corner of his lips.
“That’s what I am, kid. That’s even part of my charm,” he said.
“What are we going to do?”
He stepped back a yard and put his hand on the doorknob.
“Find Rucker. Come on, let’s hurry out before the gossip starts.”
I didn’t understand what he was implying until we left the room and saw three students whispering as they watched us leave.
Grigore and me? Ah ah ah!
Just before we parted, I grabbed him by the arm.
“Grigore?”
“Yes?”
I took a short breath before asking him the question that burned my lips.
“Who knew about Pitt?”
He observed my doubtful face for a moment, then his lips twitched gently.
“Rucker, the Council and me. Your hairy didn’t betray you.”
- Writer
