Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

49: Let Him Suffer

Erica could never deal with silences, which was simultaneously her strength and weakness—she never let anyone feel awkward in her presence, but she also didn't know how to shut up.

As we all climbed into the car for the next leg of the journey up to Donegal, she only allowed for a few minutes to pass before she felt the need to fill the air with the sound of her voice from her spot in the backseat. 

Jayce and Ben weren't men of many words, which meant it was mostly me and her going back and forth, sometimes with Ollie chipping in here and there.

But when we ran out of topics, Erica didn't have to dig deep for her next idea—a plethora of road trip games.

Most of the time, I tried to keep my eyes on the road ahead and not look at my heart—Ollie—in the back seat. But every now and then I let my eyes flicker to the rearview mirror, happy to see her smiling. Glad to see there were no creases of worry on her face.

After overhearing her conversation with Ben on the first night, I knew she was nervous about potentially transforming, so any distraction she could have from her racing thoughts was for the best.

I just hated that somehow Ben never fully satiated that need to ease her fear.

But heading back into my spiralling thoughts wasn't a great place to go when I was trying to focus on my new mission to just be her friend and forget our past. So I stopped myself before I could delve deeper into the regret.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

The first thing we did when we arrived at our next AirBnB halfway between Dublin and Donegal was claim our rooms.

After spending the better half of the afternoon playing Cards Against Humanity—Ben lost epically with his lack of humour—we then cozied up around the fireplace with a cup of tea in hand, conversation as our only entertainment. Like the good old days.

"Whatever happened to your uncle, Lukas?" Ollie suddenly asked me, pulling me from my fixated trance on the fire.

Head snapping up to meet Ollie's gaze, my brows furrowed to see she was genuinely confused.

Pressing my lips together, I then turned to Ben, who was looking at his lap, avoiding me.

"You didn't tell her?" I asked him.

Ben's eyes shot up as he deadpanned at me, as if to say 'must you have really used that tone so that she'd worry for nothing'? But the truth was, I had to use that tone. Because it only meant he hadn't been fully honest when he cemented the bond—he didn't tell her the full truth for his actions of seeking her blood, which meant only more deceit would eat at their relationship.

"Unbelievable," I muttered.

"What?" Ollie then asked.

Ben opened his mouth to speak—probably to propagate more lies—but I cut him off before he could do so. 

"Ben tipped your blood out ages ago," I said, as truthfully and honestly as I could, allowing Ollie the option to ask probing questions.

"What?" she exclaimed, face contorting with anger as she accusingly looked at Ben, evidently miffed he had kept this information from her.

"Careful, Ollie. One might think that's the only word you know," I joked. But to be honest, as I saw her brows pull deeper together, venom seething from her gaze that was dissecting Ben, a part of me wished I had some food to snack on for the inevitable fight that was about to ensue.

"When were you going to tell me this?" she demanded from Ben when he said nothing to defend himself.

"I... I was going to," he whispered, eyes still turned to his lap. "Eventually."