Strange Love 60 Only Time Will Tell

The tension in the room was so thick it could be cut with a knife as everyone sat around the large table waiting in apprehension as Sh.e.l.ly struggled to retail the events of the past month. Sh.e.l.ly sat between Rin and her brother, Rin's rea.s.suring words and hands working diligently to ease her stress and lingering fears as she recalled the horrors of her time spent with Dante. Rin's parents sat nearby, his father's long arm resting across the back of his mother's chair while she held his other hand with both her tiny hands. Worry was etched into her delicate features as she listened without saying a word. Orion stood against the far window lined wall of the dining room listening carefully as he gazed out into the large courtyard.
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"I never meant for this to happen, I swear it!" Sh.e.l.ly cried as she cupped Russ's large hand resting on the table. "That night when you and Joslyn... were... ya know." She blushed as she averted her gaze. "I wasn't mad that you were... together..." Her tear-filled eyes met his, "I was only scared. I was scared that our family that was already so fractured would then be completely destroyed." She tightened her grip on his hand. "I didn't realize how much you both cared for one another. I had picked up on the tension and Joslyn's sudden jumpiness and just a.s.sumed you were trying to make her one of your conquests." Tears began to overflow as she continued. "It wasn't until Raven explained things to me that I realized you were both in love with each other and that Jos was only worried about the same things I was." A dark cloud settled over her as her eyes lowered to the table focused on the unseen events of the past. "I was too embarra.s.sed to face you both so I went to work with Raven instead. I figured I'd take a chapter from your book and drown my woes in a beer or two... and that's when he approached me." She fell quite for several minutes as everyone in the room silently urged her to continue. "I only remember fragments past that." Her brows furrowed as she tried to remember the details of that first day. "Thinking back, I'd first talked to him at the concert. He introduced me to the band and... and... he had whispered something in my ear before we left..." She shook her head. "I can't remember what he had said..." her eyes quickly shot up to her brothers, "But I do remember him asking me for my name and I gave him my full REAL name.... It would have had to been some sort of compulsion..."

Everyone glanced around to one another but said nothing as Sh.e.l.ly struggled to continue. "I remember bits and pieces of that night... He was on the phone... showing someone the... stage area..." Sh.e.l.ly struggled to piece together her fractured memories. "I remember the things he was saying was so nasty... brother..." She suddenly looked around the room meeting the intents stares of the people around her. "His brother he was talking to his brother!"

Russ frowned, "He was video chatting with someone at the fundraiser? Are you sure it was the front stage area he was showing?" Russ met Rin's gaze over Sh.e.l.ly's head his frown deepening.

"You and Jos were together that night... backstage... I remember, all the guys were joking that the real money maker was happening backstage." Alarm registered on Rin and Russ's face at the same time. Rin turned to Sh.e.l.ly and cupped her cheek. "What else can you remember? Was there any other conversation with his brother?"

Sh.e.l.ly scrunched her brows tightly together as she struggled to rack the farthest recesses of her mind. Her eyes widened and scared, shocked eyes met Russ's. "Yes! Yes, several conversations in fact!" Anger fought with fear as she tried piecing it all together. "At first he was arguing with the brother... he wanted to use me to somehow get back at someone... His brother tried to talk him out of it... but then as time went on and things got worse the brother was only worried about keeping me away..." Her eyes burned and her entire body began to tremble. She began to sob as she fought for words. "The first time he through me in the cage... He said he wasn't finished with me yet and that the cage was surely a better option than death." Her body began to shake hard and her breath came out in raged heaves, "His brother had ordered him the night before to kill me since... since the mind control wasn't affective on me..."

Rin's mother shot up from her seat and rushed over to Sh.e.l.ly. She dropped to her knees before her and cupped the trembling hand that shook in her lap. She nodded toward Rin before looking up into Sh.e.l.ly terror stricken face. "Come my child, I'll make you my special tea and you can rest. Let the men handle it from here." Sh.e.l.ly nodded and with a snap of her, she and Sh.e.l.ly had both disappeared.

"Jos is with that psychopath as we speak." Russ said matter-of-factly as he stood. He pulled out his phone, hit a few b.u.t.tons and flung it onto the table for everyone else to read. "And she knows she's in trouble. She texted me before we left saying that she would make things right even if it killed her..."

Orion moved quickly to the table and retrieved the phone. His face went white as he read over the message. He dropped it back to the table and quickly turned away. "I'll be back, I have some calls to make."

Rin retrieved the phone and read the message himself, then pa.s.sed it over to his father. "This is bad, I will consult the book." Rin's father glanced back and forth between Russ and Rin. "I will bring it back for you both to see, but know the future isn't exact... It frequently changes I can only show you the most likely outcome shaped by the current events." Rin nodded and his father vanished.

Russ arched his brow, "Why didn't he just snap it here like you guys do with everything else?"

Rin sighed, "The Oracle's dairy has been heavily spelled. It is one of the few items in existence that can't be wished for or summonsed. It can only be accessed and used by soothsayer bound to it."

Russ's brows arched up farther, "Ah... alright, I'll just pretend it understand what all that meant."

Rin sighed, his shoulders dropping heavily, "It means my father is the only one who has access to the book and he has to physically retrieve it."

"Ah... Alright..." Russ's expression changed from partial understanding to a scold. He clapped his hand over Rin's shoulder and gave it a good squeeze. "So now that we are alone, should we address the other elephant in the room?" He glared at Rin with his most stern expression. "My sister?! Really?! How can I even call you friend now?" He tightened his grip before pulling Rin against him and hugging him tightly, "I guess now I'll have to call you brother."

Rin's stiffness eased as he hugged his best friend back just as tight. "Ya know, you could have called me brother sooner had you not told her I was GAY!" Rin pulled back a lightly punched Russ in the gut. But the teasing was short lived. He glanced out into the courtyard where the hulking man who had accompanied Russ was pacing back and forth while in what seemed to be a heated call. "What's going on man? Why is he here? And why is Jos with the creep who tortured Sh.e.l.ly's brother?"

Russ blew out a heavy breath of air. "I messed up man... Jos was worried about Sh.e.l.ly being with DeMarco and kept insisting that the behaviors Sh.e.l.ly was showing wasn't like her, but I ignored her. I was so wrapped up in getting what I wanted that nothing else mattered... It blinded me to everything... Everyone else... Including Jos herself." He sighed and ran his hand roughly through his hair. "She and Raven met with Xavier to find how Sh.e.l.ly was doing but I showed up and lost my s.h.i.+t in a brainless fit... I basically pushed her into his arms..." He nodded toward Orion, "He's right ya now I... I was just a dumb pup... running around too concerned with marking my territory to give three s.h.i.+ts about anyone else and now the love of my life may be in extreme danger... Wait..." He glanced over at Rin, "You know who he is?"

Rin shrugged, "Of course, it's Orion. Even the humans know who he is... Granted I believe most of them think he died hundreds of years ago." He glanced for the large man still pacing the court yard to Russ, "But what is he doing here with you?"

Russ stared out the window. "He's working as somewhat of a double agent. The council sent him here to locate me and give them an update on my development as an alpha. What they don't know is that he is using this time as 'my babysitter' to train me." Russ smiled, "You tell him and I may consider kicking your a.s.s, but the guy's pretty cool." He laughed, "Don't get me wrong he definitely knows how to get under my skin but all and all he's a pretty alright guy." Russ held out his arm. He moved it from side to side as it s.h.i.+fted back and forth from human to wolf. "He taught me how to channel the wolf at all times and not just in anger..." Russ continued to s.h.i.+ft each of his hands back and forth along with isolated portions of his teeth and eyes. "I'm far from a master, but I can almost completely harness the power of the wolf without losing the man."

"Huh... The h.e.l.l ya say?!" Rin watched with amazement. "How long have you been working with him?"

"Only a week." A smile curved his face. "I believe what helped the most was discovering there was someone I couldn't beat with blind rage alone."

Rin crossed his arms still watching as Russ s.h.i.+fted individual fingers now. "I'm not going to lie, I would love to go a round or two with you, just to see this new found control of yours."

Russ grinned widely, "You're on man!"

"This I would love to see." Orion stood in the doorway now, his phone in his pocket. "I sent one of my brothers to Florida to monitor Jos. He has been instructed to lay low unless needed." He walked over and clapped Russ on the back. "She'll be safe boy, don't worry."

Rin's mother materialized at the head of the table. "She is resting now."

Rin nodded. "Father went to get the book he should be back soon." Before he had even fully finished his words, his father entered the large dining room. He watched as his father placed the book in the center of the long table and flipped it open. waved his hand over the pages and they began to flip and fill magically in front of all their eyes.

"Well isn't that the t.i.ts." Orion said as he walked closer for a better look.

Rin and Russ leaned over the table and both examined the images closely. Some were solid images, some flickered and changed, other were only partially developed. "What do they all mean, father?" Rin asked.

Russ's breath caught as he glanced up from the book to Rin's father's face. The man's eyes were solid white with no pupil to be seen. He stood ridged with his hands still extended out over the book. His lips moved in a silent chant as more of the pages filled and flipped.

"He's channeling the fates. With their powers he will be able to fill the book. of both past, present... and the future..." Rin answered.

"I don't understand why are some of the pages not completed then?" Russ asked as he continued to watch in amazement.

"Because the future is still uncertain." Rin's mother answered as she knitted her fingers in worry.

Once the pages stopped flipping Rin leaned in for a closer look. "These pictures they are of both Sh.e.l.ly and Russ... Joslyn and... me..."

His mom nodded a sad expression on her face. "Yes, your fates are forever entwined, that much is for certain."

He studied his mom's face for a minute before taking the book and flipping through the pages himself. His hands stilled and his heart leapt into his throat. On one of the last filled page was a picture of Sh.e.l.ly in a hospital bed. Her face was lit with both tender love and exhaustion as she gleamed down into the tiny blue clad bundle in her arms... his image flickered beside her. His eyes shot up to his mother. "What is this? What does it mean?"

She smiled back at him as tears first filled her eyes then slowly spilt out. "This image developed the night you and Sh.e.l.ly first arrived here." His mother beamed a wide smile even while her tears stained her face. "Her fate is locked along with the little one in her arms. I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't already carrying your babe as we speak. Her smile faded as more tears spilt down her cheeks. However, son... Your fate has not yet been sealed..."

Rin stared down into the image. His heart ripped apart with the elation of being a father and seeing Sh.e.l.ly gaze so lovingly down into the face of his baby boy... and the pain of watching his own image blur and vanish from her side over and over again.