Chapter 5 – Complications

(Cole’s POV)

My great-great grandfather fell in love with San Rafael, and it has been his mission to keep the simplicity and beauty of the rural area. From his generation to ours, we have been the government’s conservation partner to assure the protection of its habitat and ecosystem, supporting and maintaining the site as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

The truth? He did it for our protection.

For the first time in many years, nothing ever happened in San Rafael. Life here compared with the one in the city was slow, and people who chose to stay here mainly wished to have a quiet life. As for the young generations hoping to have different lives, wanting the vivacity and complexity, they tend to leave the place, but only for a while. San Rafael has always been their choice of location to retire or settle in when they got tired of the exuberance of the city.

I was one among them, never staying but always coming back.

After scanning the town, hoping to find Raven but failing on that mission, I decided to check on Brielle again. Just visiting here meant not having her own bedroom, and I was right. I climbed up the tree facing Gabriel’s old bedroom and watched her sleep like a baby.

I stayed for a while, forgetting about Lucilla’s request and thinking of a good excuse if she asked me about my whereabouts. She has been considering adopting but couldn’t decide if she wanted a pet or a baby. Though she was good in that department, making good decisions, she still wanted to hear my opinion about her choices before calling our parents.

How could she trust me when I didn’t even know what to do with the woman I met today? It was almost dawn when I returned home, still without a decision on what to do with Brielle.

At the bar, I made a hasty decision, and now Gertrude’s granddaughter was like a puppy following me around.  As soon as I got home, I went straight to the home bar, took a bottle of whiskey, and poured a little amount into my glass.

“You didn’t sleep,” Aarush said and then smirked at what he uttered as he walked past me to go to the kitchen.

I breathed out and thought of what he said as I lifted the glass, smelling the alcohol but not sipping it.

“I didn’t sleep,” I glanced at him when he returned with a cup of coffee.

He sat beside me and briefly looked at the glass I was holding. “I bet you lost Raven last night,” he guessed, picking up his cup to sip coffee.

“I got distracted,” I put the glass on the table before making the mistake of crushing it, not wanting to scare Aarush. “You didn’t sleep,” I copied what he told me just a while ago.  

He groaned. “Who could sleep when Lucilla kept walking around and pestering me while I worked?” His eyebrows knitted as he looked at me.

Aarush stretched his arm, making sure his wrist was in front of my face. I raised my eyebrows and tilted my head to look at him.

“Just bite me,” he sniffed and grinned at his joke. “You know, to wake me up, Cole. I have plenty of work to do today, but my brain’s not working because of her.” He retracted his arm and propped his elbow at the bar top. “Damn it! It’s fine with me if she walked twenty-four hours a day, even on a ceiling. It’s really okay with me, but why wear high-heeled shoes?”

Lucilla walked toward him, planning to smack him in the head, but I caught her hand and shook my head.

“You’re not killing him today, Lucilla. Just wait because more sleepless nights, his brain would stop working, and he’d die on his own,” I teased her, although I knew she wouldn’t do that. She loved Aarush like a baby brother; hurting him was the last thing she would do.

She sat beside him, took his cup, and sipped coffee, but after tasting, she closed her eyes, puckering up her mouth, nose, and eyes simultaneously as if she had tasted something sour or rancid. Her body shivered, returning the cup to him.

“You need more practice,” Aarush rolled his eyes, sipping coffee again.

“Aarush, did you know you could put milk or cream on that, or maybe sugar?” She shuddered. “I hate black coffee.”

He looked at her and stretched his lips, showing irritation at her. “I need a kick because I have to finish my work. Otherwise, I would be beheaded by the men named Ichiro and Cole.”  

I smirked, but I did not say anything, only heaved a sigh and thought of Brielle.

“Nick, what’s a Writingham doing here?” Lucilla hissed, changing her mood. “Why is she following you like a lost puppy?” she growled at me.

“A Writingham?” Aarush looked at me, curious about what angered Lucilla. “Gertrude Writingham? I didn’t know she could still walk or drive to go here.” When I glared my eyes at him, he raised his hands. “No offense meant, but why would she do that?”

“Not her,” Lucilla rolled her eyes at him. “Her granddaughter.”

“Probably the same reason we were here in San Rafael, maybe tailing Raven,” I answered, glancing at my glass and turning my eyes at Aarush. “And stop calling me Nick. I’m Cole,” I hissed, but she ignored me, tasting the coffee again.

“Complication?” he asked, confirming if she was a problem.

I heaved a deep sigh, nodding at him with a serious look on my face.

“Because?” Clueless, Aarush asked again.

“Because we don’t want to cross paths with Writingham,” I answered, upset at myself.

“You always visit the Writingham. I mean, Gertrude-”

“She’s a huntress, idiot!” Lucilla hissed, cutting him but glaring her eyes at me.

“Gertrude is a huntress?” Aarush knitted his eyebrows, imagining the old Gertrude fighting the supernatural.

Lucilla sneered at him. “Gertrude is a huntress? What happened to the genius Aarush? We’re talking about her granddaughter.”

“We always crossed paths with police, agents, special forces, and if unlucky, hunters, but it was never a problem for you. Today, you looked bothered,” he noticed, taking the cup from Lucilla. He sighed when the cup was empty but didn’t say anything to my sister.  

Reading me like an open book, Lucilla smirked, surprising Aarush. “Oh, dear brother, you know Aarush is right. We never had any problems with them. Not ever.” She lowered her gaze, studying her fingernails. Last week, it was blue like the color of her eyes, but now it was black and red, matching her dress.

 I know, wanting to yell at her, but it was different now. My eyebrows knitted, thinking of Brielle.

 “It’s the young Writingham that bothers you,” she curled her lips as she looked at me, her eyes mocking me.

“You know she’s not,” I snarled, almost hissing at her, hating to read from her eyes how she wanted to hurt Brielle.

She banged the bar top, tilted her head, and looked daggers at me.

“Then you should not have brought her last night. You know that only the invited are allowed to come here. If you let her come here again, brother, I’ll kill your huntress!”

“She’s not my huntress!” I growled at her.

Her nostrils flared in anger. “Stay away from her, Nick!”

“I’m Cole!” I snarled, clenching my fists and controlling myself.

“I’m not ready to die… yet,” The man sitting between us said, only wanting to control the situation. This was not the first time it happened, but before we could hurt each other, he tried to wedge humor into our heated argument.

Lucilla screamed angrily, so loud that the birds and other animals who probably heard her fled to stay away from her. Aarush’s heartbeat accelerated, looking from me to her with his eyes wide. A little more of Lucilla’s crazy act, he might pee in his pants.

After shrieking like a furious demon, she lowered her head and began sniffling.

“Choose someone else, Cole,” Lucilla begged, calming down. “I can deal with any woman, even a werewolf if you like, just not her.”

I stood up.

“A werewolf,” I nodded, sighing and smiling sadly at my sister. “I might as well find one to rip my heart out, but Lucilla, I didn’t choose her. She chose me.”