Free Descended by Blood by Angeline Kace

be over.
    I strode up the stairs, Jaren finally trailing behind me as I walked into the foyer. I turned down the hall, making my way toward the den. My mom and Garwin would be in there.
    Jaren lingered behind me to stare at what I’m sure were the chandelier, the marble statue in the foyer, the paintings in the hallway, and everything else his eyes probably feasted upon. He finally composed himself and grabbed my hand, walking beside me with purpose.
    When we reached the den, I found my mom and Garwin sitting in the lounge by the fireplace.
    My mom looked up before we passed through the double doors. She stood and ran to me. “Honey, are you all right?” she asked, hugging me then checking me over for injuries. I slipped Jaren’s jacket down to reveal my shredded shoulder.
    She gasped. “We need to get that cleaned up. We’ll be right back,” she said to Garwin and Jaren.
    “Not yet.” I planted my feet. “What did you mean when you said ‘we’d stayed here too long’?” My mom knew something about why the man was after me, and I was going to get it out of her, even if it meant my shoulder might fall off.
    “Are you sure you want to talk about this now?” she asked, looking over at Jaren.
    “Mom! He just had a monster with fangs try to strangle him to death because he was protecting me. Then he saw me fly in the air only to catch myself on said monster’s head with enough force to torque the guy’s skull around, snapping his neck, and killing him! I think he can hear what the hell is going on.”
    “Brooke, don’t talk to your mother like that,” Garwin said, still sitting in his chair and swirling a glass of brandy and ice. He didn’t raise his voice, either. He didn’t have to. His voice held an authority that didn’t need volume to communicate business.
    I looked at Garwin, then to my mom with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry, but we’ve had a really rough night, and I’m a little freaked out.” I shook, on the verge of tears by the end of my apology.
    “Oh, Brooke. It’s fine. Sit down, and we’ll talk. Okay?” My mom led me over to the couch she’d been sitting on. Jaren sat on the other side of me, across from Garwin.
    “Hi. I’m Jaren,” he said, getting up and offering to shake hands with Garwin.
    “I’m sure you already know I’m Garwin,” he said, grasping Jaren’s hand, ice clinking against his glass.
    “Let’s start by you telling me everything about your attacker tonight,” my mom suggested.
    I had to tell her now. I couldn’t hide my stalker from her any longer, not with him lying dead on Jaren’s floor. I swallowed, afraid of confessing the truth of my prior run-ins with this weird stranger, but I needed to know what was going on.
    “Well, I first saw him while hiking with Kaitlynn, and I’m convinced he had a mountain lion try to attack us.”
    Garwin’s head tilted to the side. “ Try ?”
    “Yeah,” I nodded. “I told it to stop, and it…did. It froze. It wanted to attack me, but it couldn’t.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me? You could have died, and we could have avoided it if you would’ve told me,” my mom said, agitation thick in her words.
    “That is exactly why I didn’t tell you. The man freaked me out, but I didn’t want to believe my life was at stake, and I knew you would flip out about it and not let me go out with Jaren, or worse. You’d make me move again.” I adjusted on the couch to ease the throb in my shoulder. “And I think he only sent the mountain lion after us to test me.”
    “What makes you think that?” my mom scolded.
    “Well, when I stopped the lion from attacking us, the man had a smirk on his face, full of approval.”
    My mom looked at Garwin.
    “Yes, this makes things interesting,” he said, then sipped his drink.
    “Why?” I asked.
    “We’ll get to that. What happened the next time you saw him?”
    “Ugh,” I grunted, frustrated they weren’t telling me anything . I sighed. “I’m pretty sure that I saw