Blood of the Covenant (bxb)

Chapter Eight: Common Scents

Sierra and Misty try to hover around me, but I tell them I'm going to go to bed. My dad has vanished. I don't know where he went and I don't care. Darla was right. I can't care what my dad thinks about Tyler. It won't help anything.

I think I should be relieved that my dad isn't pissed my mate is a man, but I'm not. If anything, I feel worse. My dad wouldn't hate my soulmate if he was any man. Just that man.

Then there's Karmen's strange words in the forest. I realize that I don't care about her, either. If she wanted to help, she would have been clearer. I decide that it's okay to be angry with Karmen for refusing to communicate with me and insulting my intelligence.

I don't need any of them. I should have stayed in the forest.

I take a shower hot enough to bring the feeling back into my frozen fingers and toes. It takes a long time. I realize that I might have gotten frostbite if I had been out in the cold much longer.

Stupid. Acting like a child is over. I'm an adult now. Karmen had that right, at least.

When I step out of the shower, my dad waits for me in the kitchen, a bowl of hot soup on our small dining table. I look at him, then at the soup. My stomach grumbles. I accept the offering, though I know this means we will have to talk.

"I can't believe you, Ethan," my father says quietly. "I can't believe you'd think I was homophobic."

"What was I supposed to think?" I ask flatly.

"What have I ever done to indicate I'm not a dedicated progressive?" he demands.

"Well, you got angry with me when my soulmate turned out to be a guy," I argue, taking a bite of soup. "Dad, I can't. I'm not doing this. Thanks for the soup. If you give a shit about helping me, leave me alone."

"Don't speak to me that way, Ethan," he says quietly, sitting at the table with me. I look over at him as I eat the soup, wishing I wasn't so hungry, so I could refuse the food and go to bed. He isn't angry anymore, despite the obnoxiously paternal words. Now he seems confused. "What has gotten into you?"

"Can you think, even for a second, about the nightmare I'm now stuck in?" I ask. "I didn't pick this, dad."

His dark eyes stay fixed on my face. I've been told we look alike, but I don't see it. I think I look much more like my mother. My dad is all angles, with high cheekbones, small lips and a nearly-constant frown of consternation. His hair still has the shiny blackness of youth, cut short, just a bit longer and combed carefully on the top of his head. I have the smoother features of my mother, her round cheeks and small nose, her fuller lips. I keep my hair longer, shaggier, messier.

"It will all be okay, Ethan. It might seem like it now. It's because you're young. In ten years, you will look back on this and smile," he says delicately. He has never been good with emotions. I think he considers them a waste of time.

"I'm not smiling now," I mutter. I shake my head. "I have to tell Julia I'm breaking up with her for her brother. I have to tell Tyler, who I'm now madly in love with, that despite the fact he has never been particularly nice to me, that I'll die if he doesn't love me. And then Karmen..." I trail off, still conflicted over her words in the forest.

"Karmen will understand," my father tries.

"She found me before Misty and Sierra did," I say, looking up at him as I swallow another bite of soup. "She... she wasn't making any sense. She called me an idiot. Told me there was something I was missing. She said... she said "mates always have the ability to love each other"."