Claws // Colby Brock

💫 70 💫

HELLO IM BACK

did you forget about the cat while i was gone? cus i did...

☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎

Colby didn't want me to help, and to be honest I didn't really feel like building furniture or cleaning up the mess Aiden had left behind either, so I willingly left the vampires to it. They'd take far less time than me, after all, and waking up on that sofa bed instead of Colby's mattress ignited a flame within me that was almost suffocating. I stood outside in the moonlight, asking her if she'd known this would happen — I knew she wasn't allowed to warn me if she did so I didn't hold a grudge, I just had to know.

She wasn't responding to me tonight.

"Damn Aiden and everything he's done," I muttered to myself, shaking my head. He'd pay one day.

Blinking completely back into reality, I noticed a small black figure sitting just at the threshold of light pouring out from inside the house and smiled slightly as I sat down. It jogged over eagerly, purring up at me while I stroked its fur.

"Would you like to watch me train, Neoma?" I asked in my usual baby voice for her. She didn't understand, of course, but I pretended she had. "Sit back and watch an expert at work."

I was lucky Neoma had taken to going on little adventures and only coming home when she needed food, because if I'd come home to find her dead, I would have murdered Aiden instantly — and Paula, and whoever else was responsible for all of this. She didn't spend much time with us anymore but it was nice to see her every now and then, when she'd only curl up to me and hiss at the vampires.

She decided to stay here with me tonight, sitting in the dark with her eyes on me as I did push-ups, sit-ups, punched the air and sometimes threw in a little cartwheel or front roll. My body screamed at me for doing them so suddenly with no warm up, but that passed quickly and I found myself in a trance of exercise. It was easy to get lost in my vengeful thoughts with every movement, remembering why I was so intent on building up my strength.

It had little to do with battles anymore, it was something else I had planned, and I needed to be ready.

Time passed by quickly, the world around me becoming nothing more than an obstacle in my way I was going to get rid of one way or another. I was acutely aware that the sky had grown so dark that only a sliver of illumination from inside the house made my surroundings visible. My muscles were beginning to ache, my head filling with air, but I kept going.

I kept going until I heard a little hiss before arms were around my waist. I didn't miss that they halted my movements as I glanced back at a familiar face. "I'm not done."

"Yeah, you are, actually," he argued quietly. I opened my mouth but he quickly cut me off. "Reserve your energy. We're going to have a little catch up with Blake and his pack."

That shut me up completely.

"Not tonight, but soon. The house is... mostly fixed so I don't see any point in holding off if we're all at full strength."

"Our room?" I asked, twisting around in his grasp. He held me a little tighter so my chest pressed to his. Subtle.

"Almost back to normal. Might be an idea to go shopping 'cause our closets are looking depressing." I grumbled under my breath in annoyance, but I was glad we'd returned to some semblance of normal. "Let me show you," he offered, taking my hand to lead me inside.

Most of the house was, in fact, fixed up. It almost looked like no one had ever trashed it but there were little signs all over the place, a permanent reminder that something of ours had been destroyed. What shocked me was Colby and I's bedroom. Unlike most of the mini mansion, he'd worked his ass off to return it to its former glory; the furniture, the paint on the walls; the rug.