Chapter 142 THE MEMOIR
142 THE MEMOIR
With a spine of steel
And a roar like thunder
She will rise
-Nicole Lyons-
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Torak kept repeating his words, convincing her, until Raine could muster her courage to look at him. She peeked through her fingers, glancing at the spot where she saw Aeon was standing earlier. However, just like what Torak said, there was no one there. Nothing at all. There was no dead body, not even a single drop of blood in sight, because there wasn't anybody to begin with.
She was sure that she saw Aeon there.?Where was Aeon? In a matter of fact, she was talking to him until the moment when Torak suddenly came, and ripped the living out of the shadow warrior. "Where…" Raine stammered. "Where...is he?" She gulped down her fright when she asked Torak about that. She put down her hands this time to have a better look at the scene before her eyes.
No matter how hard she tried to pull herself together while having her adrenaline peaking inside her, the sight of Aeon was nowhere to be found. "He is not real." Torak said patiently while stroking her back, letting her know that she was safe in his arms. "His real body isn't here. That's one of the shadow warrior's abilities."
Torak knew the shadow warrior would appear at some point. He thought that it would likely happen only if Raine was left alone. That was the reason why he left Raine alone earlier. It was hard to endure his anger the moment he heard about what had happened to Raine when she was gone. Especially when he knew exactly what the people in the Village of Angels did to a guardian angel, and a shadow warrior.
Thankfully, nothing major had happened between Raine, and the shadow warrior. Torak would have guessed, and knew it the first time he found Raine. Shadow warriors would leave some kind of mark when they united with guardian angels. A mark that would let people know that a guardian angel already belonged to a certain shadow warrior.
And Torak couldn't be more grateful when he found that there was no mark on Raine.
"You didn't kill him…" Raine said, seemingly trying to be sure of it.
"I didn't." Torak's blue eyes looked into Raine's. "But I will, if ever he comes near you again." He added. It wasn't a statement, but it was more like a promise. And he meant it profoundly.
"No...Don't…" Raine's weak rejection was left unnoticed when Torak turned his head to look at the other side of the room.
"What do you find?" Torak asked someone there. Wouldn't have she realized, that there was someone else inside the room, if it wasn't because Torak was talking to them. She turned her head, and there she found Raphael, Serefina, and Calleb. They were standing near the bed, all being serious. It was shown in their expression that there was something she didn't know about.
Torak looked at his mate, down to her face, stroking her cheek gently. "Sweetheart, did he give you something?" His voice was unusually stern, and stiff when he talked about Aeon. Immediately, Raine shook her head firmly. Aeon didn't give her anything when she was in the Village of Angels. She was sure about this.
"Don't lie." Serefina frowned, slightly reprimanded Raine.
"If she said she didn't receive anything, then she didn't." said Torak, raising his voice to its peak. He didn't like it when someone doubted him, or his mate.
"Oh well, if you believe her blindly, someday you will see how capable she is to lie right under your nose. We'll see about it. But when that time comes, don't say I didn't warn you." Serefina retorted with her typical sarcastic remark. Torak growled dangerously upon hearing the impudence in Serefina's words. But, Raine's small palms held his clothes tightly, preventing him from lashing on the witch.
Raine's pleading eyes successfully prevented the situation from getting worse. Seeing those eyes was enough for Torak to swallow back his anger. He backed off to hold his mate in his arms. He could feel that if he didn't do so, the outraged beast inside him would resurface again. And if ever the outraged beast resurfaced again, it would be just like the night when Raine disappeared, all over again.
"Raine, do you happen to have something that you've been keeping for a long time?" asked Calleb who was leaning his body on the wall behind him. When that question was being asked, suddenly the four pairs of eyes in the room stared back at her direction. And that didn't make her feel comfortable. Because she didn't like to be the center of attention for whatever the reason was.
Instead, she turned her head to look at the only pair of blue eyes that could unfailingly make her at ease. As she did, something came up into her mind. She recalled something. "I have my mother's diary with me…" She said in a low voice.
"Maybe that's the thing. Let me see that." said Serefina like a bossy woman that she was, as she took the first initiative to ask for the book. Meanwhile, Raine frowned. She didn't like the way Serefina asked for her mother's diary. This was something personal, and she asked for it so impolitely.
Sensing Raine's discomfort, Torak smoothed her hair, as he softly said, "Would you mind showing us the diary, my love?"
Raine was still reluctant to do that, but since it was Torak who asked for it, she relented and nodded. "The diary is in my bag… but, my bag is still in the apartment." Little did she know, something terrible happened to the apartment while she was gone. And no one told her yet about it, or about Torak's outburst that caused it, even to this day after being back for a couple days already.
She didn't even know if all of her things had been moved to this house, or not.
They went to the other room next to Torak's. "Your things are already here." said Raphael, walking towards the door, and pushing it open. The room was smaller, with white as the color that dominated the entire interior. There was a queen size bed, on top of which many bags that belonged to Raine, were stacked carefully.
Raine walked into the room, heading straight to the bed where there was a small, worn out bag among the stack of bags. She reached for that small bag, and dug out what was inside. Then, she took out a small blue book with a damaged cover.
"That's it!" said Serefina from where she stood, claiming the thing to be the problem they were looking for, even before Raine could show it to the rest of the people. The book was the last thing that was left for her, a legacy that would always remind her about her mother. Because that book was once part of her mother.
After that terrible night years ago, she only returned to her old house once. And at that time, a police officer was kind enough to give her that book. Since she was admitted into the mental institution, she couldn't see for three years. Only when she was discharged, and put into the orphanage, she could read it again. The book was the only thing that she had left of her mother, a treasure from her parents.
However, before she knew it, Serefina was there and snatched the diary from her hand. "This is the one!" she revealed, emphasizing again of what she meant after touching the book in her hand. There was another strange, unknown energy that she could feel. And it was only the witch who could confirm the anomaly after being so close with the book.
Snatching away the book from the girl's hand wasn't the last thing that Serefina did. Because right after that, she conjured a fire that was feeding to the book in her hand. With the magic fire flaming in her hand, in a matter of seconds, the thing that was left from the book was ashes.
Witnessing the witch's shocking action, immediately screamed. Raine had never screamed so loud in her life that moment when she watched in horror, how cruel Serefina burned the last legacy of her long dead family, the last memory of her parents disappeared, turned into dust. The only thing that she had been holding so dearly was now gone.
Torak didn't know that Serefina would do such a thing to that extent. Sure, he thought about many things in his head about the book, and what was it all about. Anything in his head, but not destroying the book that immediately like what Serefina just did. He was completely caught off guard, as the other lycans in the room.
But it was too late for him to do something. The fire had turned down, and there was nothing left from that book. The first thing that he did was that he caught Raine's body. The guardian angel's body was trembling. She screamed hysterically, "Why did you do that?" She screamed at Serefina. This was the first time they saw Raine in rage, confronting someone with anger burning in her eyes.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?" Raine struggled to get free from Torak's strong arms, but he was holding her too tight.