Thirty-six

Eli didn’t like the thought of having to wait a few days to get Grace home but he’d drive them himself if it was needed. Grace had been kept safe. He reached out and stroked her hair as she spoke to Coby.

“Thank god it’s all over now and we can all get back to normal.” 

Layla grinned. “It will be a new normal, a better normal.”

Coby laughed and relaxed on the sofa. “I think I’m ready to try something new. After a rest.” He ran his fingers over the colored bracelet in his hand. “And she’s ok? Little Genevieve?”

“I’d be more surprised if she wasn’t.” Will laughed and glanced at the Alphas with them.

“Vivi is fine. Her husband is with her and her brother.” 

“They didn’t give the girls any food today-”

“I don’t think I could have eaten.” Grace smiled and took a seat on the arm of the sofa. “I was too worried about you and Genevieve.”

The man laughed. “I felt calm until he took that black bracelet away. As long as I had it I felt like I could see things clearly and there was nothing to be afraid of even if it all went wrong. It was different than what they did. It felt like…” 

“Like the hand of god giving you reassurance?” Maeryn interrupted with a faint smile. “That’s almost exactly what it was.”

“What happened to…” Grace glanced at the door.

“He came out to fight Maeryn and they…” Dia gestured grandly, “Witched at each other. I expected something more exciting with the way the house was shaking.”

Maeryn started to laugh and Eli shook his head. “I thought she said it was going to be Jacob that got to kill him?”

Maeryn smiled at Coby and the older man looked a little bemused.

“I… it was like a dream. I got so angry, I was in that shed and I didn’t know what had happened to you girls. He had no right!” Coby made a fist and shook it. “I stood up out of myself and walked over to where that boy was mouthing off and…” 

“You struck him, I saw it.” Maeryn inclined his head. “He fell and the others he had harmed took your lead and ripped his soul out of his body piece by piece. This Sibyl is… her mother called for justice and she was born to put wrong things right. The house shook as she summoned the army of those who he had wronged to death or whose rest he had disturbed.”

“Seven Nation Army…” Grace shivered and Eli pulled her close.

“What?”

“That was what she was singing when Remi helped me out of the basement. The music, it was like it was playing loud enough to vibrate your insides but there was no sound. And when it finished she did God’s Gonna Cut you Down.”

The hair on his arms rose and Eli couldn’t suppress a low growl. “That’s not the kind of song she usually sings.”

Bas’ laughter made him look over sourly to where he was coming up from the basement.

“What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light. Forcefully. I told you, she does have a bad side and you should be grateful it takes a lot to get on it.”

“She got biblical on his a*s.” Dia grinned.

“I want to meet her.” Maeryn approached the open door before stopping and turning back with his eyes closed.

Bas gave Eli an amused look, “She’s singing to Remi at the moment, an audience will have to wait. 

“I need to find a bucket and as much salt as I can lay hands on while they’re occupied. The basement needs to be cleansed from her anger. It wouldn’t hurt to have her go over the whole house, either.”

“I’ll help, Bas. You’re as bad as Genevieve, hitting the ground running.” Eli returned the man’s toothy smile.

“Remi is making her take some time right now for herself. And since Maria is busy with Ruby I’ll step in for her.” Madam Cate was smiling when Eli glanced over. “Have a seat and rest while Vivi does and let someone else get the salt and the water together.”

“I’ll do it.” Layla inclined her head. “I owe her for keeping Coby safe.”

Pack members from the Benson pack brought drinks and some sandwiches as almost everyone left to attend to other things and Grace settled onto a loveseat next to him and Eli wouldn’t have budged for the world. Bas leaned back in a recliner and closed his eyes. Grace barely managed to eat half of her sandwich before she fell asleep.

It wasn’t until the man breathed a laugh that he realized the witch wasn’t napping. 

“Bas?” Eli asked quietly.

“Sibbi is chattering about eating at some place called Culver’s? She insists we have to stop there on the way home.”

Coby chuckled. “The girls liked the cheese curds and that little thing can eat! She had a triple burger and went back for more.” The older man was lying on the sofa, still playing with the colorful bracelet. 

“They’d only let her have a few pretzels, I think. It had been days since she’d eaten. She was starved and that was the best food she can remember having in years.”

“I can’t understand why…” Coby’s brow furrowed. “Cam was always a handful at the family reunions. His poor mother didn’t know what to do with him. But I never thought he’d turn out like that.

“And his friend… that boy…”

“He was the worst the lines have to offer. I’m glad he didn’t seek out my father while he was alive, they’d have gotten along well and life in the house would have been unbearable.”

“You grew up with a family like that?” Coby gave Bas a pitying look, “And little Genevieve too? Maybe that’s why she knew how to handle them.”

“Our mother tried to hide us when we were born. She took us out of the hospital and gave us away to strangers. I was found and Genevieve wasn’t, but the people my sister grew up with weren’t kind. She was abused as a child. Father could be a sadist but he loved me in his way.

“As for knowing how to handle them, our father tried to intimidate her over breakfast once and she,” Bas paused and laughed, “She told him she’d been burned, beaten, and stabbed he needed to try harder.”

Eli grinned. “Why didn’t you tell that story when you came to live with us?”

“It took some time for me to find my feet. By the time I did, it seemed strange to bring up those stories. And I don’t think you’d understand how… conflicted we are sometimes thinking about the time we spent with Father. He was a monster but we loved him.”

“Because you’re good kids.” Coby sounded as if that should be self-explanatory. “Bad people can have good kids sometimes, and good people can have bad ones. It’s part luck and part how you raise them. You can only do so much when you have rotten wood to work with.”

“Not rotten, twisted and knotted. If you know what you’re doing you can make something beautiful out of it.” Bas smiled. 

The older man nodded, “Like a burl. If he’d met someone like you and your sister instead of that other one he could have been something better instead…” 

“Instead he rotted, exactly.”

“How are they going to explain…” Coby started to ask and then shook his head. “Maybe it’s better if I don’t ask.”

“Their bodies will be released to their families. Maeryn will arrange it. They might look for the bear that savaged Cam if someone makes a fuss but I doubt there’s a detective who could pin a murder on the souls that ripped Lloyd out of his body.”