Soul Bound

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

"This is bad, Falon. This is real bad," Dunn says as he steers the Hummer through the Refuge back towards my house.

"This is good. Now they know we're not afraid of them," River says from the front seat. He squirms around, finally settling on a position that looks very uncomfortable.

Dunn had insisted River take shotgun and Hicks sit in the back with me.

"No one asked you, yeah?" Dunn snaps. "We've stirred the shit pot and I'm telling you, someone's about to throw the whole thing at a fan."

Finn hadn't said a word to me after the kids came out. He spoke around me, through me, over me, but never to me.

Worry and doubt and anger and a million other emotions are whirling around inside me. I can't stay still in the backseat. Maybe I've just made everything worse for everyone. And why? I could've just lied. Could've told Judge exactly what he wanted to hear. It all would've been a lie anyways.

I feel like I'm going to explode.

"Stop the car," I say to Dunn.
"What?" Dunn slows but doesn't stop. "Why?"

"Stop. The. Car," I repeat.

River turns to look at me, eyebrows arched in confusion.

Dunn doesn't stop, but I open the door and hop out anyways.

"Damn it, you, wait a flipping minute, yeah?" Dunn says, finally stopping.

I slam the door closed and River jumps out as well, saying "I'll bring her back, go on to the house."

Like hell he will. I'll be back when I'm damn well and ready to. I take off into the woods, not knowing exactly where I'm going, just that I need the comfort from the souls of the forest to clear my head. What if I've doomed us all? Maybe Judge will come back and bring more of the Order with him. Maybe we actually need the Order's help to fight off the freaking Transmutes.

A sprawling oak lies ahead of me and I don't slow down as I charge towards it, and take a running leap up into its branches. River is probably right behind me, but I don't really want to talk to him either. Everything's so black and white for him. Vampires are bad. Humans are bad. Soul Binders are the only good. There's a pretty big grey area for me as far as that's all concerned.

I climb up the oak as high as I can, the thinner branches splintering a bit under my weight. Almost through to the top of the canopy, I can see past the leaves to the blue sky above. My body itches to fly. To jump up and fly as far away as I can. Maybe removing myself from Finn's life would make things better for them.

"I know it's tempting. But flying off to a distant land won't make anything better," River says from below me.

"What about jumping out of a car, running away, and climbing up into a tree doesn't say 'I want to be alone' to you?" I snap.

"You've been alone long enough," he says, unflinching at my anger, climbing onto a branch just next to me.

I sigh. "That's the thing, I haven't been alone." I can't look at him as I say this and focus on entangling my fingers with the tendrils of the oak's soul instead. I feel like I'm betraying him. "I know to you it seems like I'm surrounded by the enemy, but these people, these vampires, they're my family. And I think I've just made things a lot more dangerous for them."

"It's not your fault," he says, looking up into the sky the same way I had just a minute ago. "You said exactly what you needed to."

"It was what I wanted to say, but maybe not what I needed to."