That Can’t Be It

Savannah

“Your rat of a mother got my Nina killed.”

Bullshit.

My heart screams loud enough to break glass, my fist locked at my side, ready to break bones.

Not my mother.

“That’s not true.” I defend my mom. There is no way she would have done something like that. Even with the more and more information that comes to light, there is absolutely no way my mom would have killed Nina.

None.

“It is! Barns flipped when he got the added time. Went to the Hell’s Raiders and came for blood when he got released. He took my Nina because of your mother! Ellis got my wife killed!”

Lucien is in a full uproar, his body like a viper and his face fuming red. I can see his devil horns and the venom that could in one way or another resemble my own.

If only he knew when to show them and for a valid FUCKING reason.

His leap over the table, while I appreciate a good dramatic flare, that seemed a little much. Him coming chest to chest with Grave, who shields me, only pisses me off and sends me into fight mode.

~How dare this piece of leather dog shit threaten me!~

“My mother didn’t get her killed! You’re pointing fingers at the wrong person! My mom just wanted to help Nina by helping you! You know she wouldn’t have done that!

“You’re letting the anger in your grief blind you!” I yell back and sandwich Grave to get to Lucien and defend my mother from his lies and evilness.

The day I stand down from honoring the mother, the father, the brother that I had, will be the day I’m dead.

Then, you’ll have to fight my ghost because I will never stop. I will be one hell of a Poltergeist.

“Barns? Like Callahan and Malachi?”

I calm down for a second and remember how Callahan was the asshole that punched my Uncle Jonah in the nose and how it took me a few years, but I got payback for it when I knocked Malachi’s ass and got to fight Callahan when he showed up.

“You will never be a Luna. Get the fuck out while you still can.” Lucien spits on my feet and shoves Grave back, but he doesn’t even waver. Grave doesn’t move at all.

It was as if Lucien pushed a brick building instead of a man made from flesh and bone. I don’t think I even saw the skin slide a little.

“Like fuck I am!” I scream back, ready to fight this, to stand up on my mother’s name.

To defend my trial and stay in as a potential Luna for Damon even if he is in some kind of tantrum diaper-baby mode right now. I can forgive that.

If I found out he had some kind of even a barely there link to my family’s death, I might need a minute to get my mind back straight. I get it. I do.

Grave taking me by my hand, he yanks me along before anything else can be said. He fights me at every step, but he is much stronger.

He has me out the bar, even with me yelling for Damon and beating his back until my hands throb with each pounding punch I land.

“Let me go!” I scream and wail on his back so much, as if the first hundred and twenty-eight hits did anything. I claw at his hand and demand even louder.

~Where the fuck is Damon? He can’t honestly believe that. Could he?~

~Would I?~

~He just needs a minute to pull his head out of his ass and see the truth. Right?~

“Let’s go, we have to leave, Savannah.”

Grave pushes me to my bike, not taking my fight for anything meaningful. He has me on the seat with my helmet on like it is nothing.

“Damon he—”

“Is not who I’m concerned about. You will die if they find you here. We have to go. And we have to go now.”

Grave has the keys out of my dad’s jacket and into the ignition.

My hands in place, I switch off my emotions like the humanity switch in the ~Vampire Diaries~.

With Grave hot on my tail, we ride off and out of biker country. Through town and back to my Uncle Jonah’s like I have nowhere else I need to be.

Pulling up, Grave is the first off his bike, taking me by the elbow and dragging me up the porch and opening the door.

Uncle Jonah flies off the couch and goes straight into cop mode.

“You should have the door locked. You know what kind of town this is.” Grave lecturing my uncle as if he isn’t the town’s deputy sheriff or anything.

With every attempt I try to snatch my arm free, Grave holds tighter.

“You three need to get out of town, you need to go and go now. Shit hit the fan.”

Grave says it like he is now the king. My head starts to spin when my uncle doesn’t even question this man, he just gets to moving.

Calling for Percy, he yells out a code word, “homer stretch,” and the next level of craziness starts up.

Four black duffle bags get dropped down the stairs, my uncle starts loading his guns and holstering them. Percy doesn’t even look at me as he jumps the railing and goes for my medication.

Grave standing guard at the door, nobody is talking. Nothing is normal here.

“My mom did not kill Nina! What the fuck is happening right now?”

I’m lost right now.

“Three minutes.” Grave clicks his tongue like he is getting irritated that they’re taking longer than whatever time they should.

My eyes snap back and forth, watching the scene unfold before me. Percy pulling my knockout juice free and filling up a syringe lets me know we will not be taking my bike.

“Hey! I need Damon, I need…” Grave whips me to him. His chest to mine, he hugs me.

His arms wrapped around my head, he hugs me like a dad does his daughter and it makes my eyes burn.

“You don’t need anyone, Savannah. You’re a survivor. It’s easier with people, but we don’t need them. You’ve never been easy. Stop expecting life to be easy. It won’t.

“Life’s a fucking cunt that loves messing up other people’s lives. Fate is bullshit. Destiny is a bitch and karma will kick their ass every time. Listen. Be safe. For once.”

Grave kisses the top of my head at the same time as Percy stabs my shoulder with the needle tip. I can’t catch another flicker of my second home or any of their faces before it all goes black.

***

“~On the road again, I just can’t wait to be on the road again. Living, laughing with me and my friends. Oh, I just can’t wait to be on the open road again.~”

~Good Lord, not Willie Nelson…~

~Surely death would have Slash playing for me, right? I’ve made my request as clear as I could.~

“Am I dead?” I croak out.

“Nope.” Percy lays my head back down on his lap and plays with my hair like when we were kids.

“Damn it.” My eyes still heavy from the drugs. It’s like being tied down by chainmail.

“Damon?” My heart is so raw and exposed by just saying his name and waiting for an answer I’m afraid to hear.

“Nope.” Percy’s tone of voice changes to one of regret. He knows I wanted to hear something else.

“Damn it,” I whisper from the place I’ve found to hide away in. The drugs must’ve kicked in stronger than normal since I’m falling back under.

I’ve always loved the dark anyways.

I’m a daughter of darkness.

***

“~Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.~”

I can hear my uncle howling along to the radio. Much, ~much~ louder than he should.

My head is heavy like someone put rocks in it while I was unconscious.

I can almost feel them rattle around in there, but hey, it could be the broken pieces all the same.

“Am I dead yet?” My voice is like nails on a chalkboard with the way I rasp.

“No, Savannah, you’re not.”

Grave?

“Grave?” I try to peel my eyes open but I can’t seem to unblock the eye booger that’s gluing my lashes down.

“Right here, kid.” I feel hands on my arm. The swipe of his palm is nothing but fatherly.

“Uncle? Percy?” My voice creaks some more as my eyes start to flutter open.

“Safe. Chopping wood.”

~Dafuck?~

Grave helps me up and squats down to check me out. I know he has never seen me drugged before, so…here we are.

“Damon?”

~Please be good news.~

“Not yet at least.”

I rub my eyes a little more to do anything other than look heartbroken as much as I feel. I can smell something cooking, real fire burning somewhere close by.

That house smell you can’t place.

“Where am I?”

I need distraction.

“Uhh… about that.”

I look around him and take in my surroundings.

Wooden walls and open floor plans. Like some eighteenth-century log cabin. The kind that doesn’t even have working electricity, and water coming from a well.

“Is this Abraham Lincoln’s ancestral home? Fuck is this?”

Grave chuckles, my eyes land on the floor and see the heart with my initials carved in.

The sign for Loki, the sign for Hel. Gates and a pair of wings surround it.

~This is the cabin.~

~The one my dad proposed to my mom in.~

~The one they ran off to.~

~This was theirs.~