Afraid yet

Chapter fifteen-surprise

Calum spit out in one breath. We were all quiet, shocked. No wonder Calum can be so cold he killed his parents and then left his sister and niece to hunt vampires across the country. Calum sighed again and stood up from the barstool.
"Well sorry to darken your birthday Raine, I know something that will cheer you up." Calum pulled a square wrapped box out from behind his back.
"Presents!" He tried to say cheerfully, the bow was wrapped in silver wrapping paper and had a baby blue bow on top. Raine squealed again opening her arms gratefully and quickly tearing the neat fully done wrapping jog to reveal a box of dark roast coffee from our favourite coffee shop, tears sprung to her eyes.
"Aw, thank you so much Calum" Raine got up and hugged him. Then Brad ran out of the room and came back with a small rectangular box wrapped in deep blue wrapping paper and had puppy stickers over it. I snorted at his wrapping job. Raine smiled and reached for the box, she carefully unwrapped the paper and look at Brad with utter amazement. Inside the box was a palm sized pendant on a necklace chain, but the pendant was incredible. It had a blooming cherry blossom tree with a large black wolf beneath it with a starry night sky in the background. She gasped and rubbed her slender fingers across the smooth surface.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Raine leapt up and hugged Brad again and Brad looked like the happiest person alive. And then I handed her my present, she shook it like a toddler and started tearing at the mossy green paper. She laughed when she saw her favourite cookies, and noticed there was one more thing, the necklace. Raine opened the felt box and gasped at the beautiful necklace, I smiled. Raine jumped on me and crushed me against her before pulling everyone into a group hug.Thanks, you guys are the best!" Raine said. And then I knew we are a family for all we care. After our mini celebration Brad insisted on checking my leg, it barely hurt anymore but I knew it would once the painkillers wore off. When Brad checked my wound and once again disinfected it I was all set for a day to just drive around.
   "We should all go sightseeing" a thought hit me "Calum, can we meet your sister?" Calum perked up and agreed to see his sister and niece. We all jumped into the SUV, I was prepared for a long drive but after twenty minutes Calum turned into a quiet subdivision with red brick houses and a small park. Deep into the subdivision Calum steered into a short paved driveway in front of a cute two story house with toys littered across the front yard. We all got out of the SUV and made our way up the stone walkway, we let Calum knock. The door opened almost immediately and a gorgeous young women stood in front of us. She had the same soft brown hair as Calum and it was halfway down her back, but her eyes. They were ice blue with a darker blue ring around them, she was tall, almost 5'11 with a slim fit build.
   "Calum!" She said astonished, tears springing to her eyes as she grabbed Calum in a rib breaking hug.
   "I haven't seen you in two years, what the hell." Abigail blamed. Calum smirked.
   "Abigail meet Asha Banks, Raine Polls and Brad Turner. We have been road tripping from Spokane to here together." Calum introduced.
   "Nice to meet you all" Abigail said politely hugging Raine and I and shaking Brad's hand in a very manly way. Abigail led us into her beautiful home, the floors were dark grey tile and the walls were a deep turquoise blue. I laughed when I saw a bunch of Calum's baby pictures strung across the walls. All of our heads whipped around when a loud crashing sound came from the kitchen, Calum sped into the kitchen but stopped short, I ran smack into his hard back. On the kitchen floor was the cutest toddler I have ever seen. This little girl had a head full of her mothers and uncles hair only in ringlets, and her eyes were ice blue like her mothers but they had little gold flecks in them. Ariaden sat on the floor, her chubby legs flailing around as she rolled on the ground hitting pots and pans and clapping her tiny hands. I looked at Calum, his eyes sparkled with tears as he bent over to pick Ariaden up. Ariaden giggled and pulled at Calum's hair, Calum laughed and swung her around.
    "She was so little when I last saw her" Calum said with wonder.
    "That's because she was a baby, she is practically an adult now" Abigail beamed at her precious child.
    "Can I hold her?" Raine pleaded. Calum handed her Ariaden and Raine immediately started cooing and playing with Ariaden. Ariaden squished Raine's cheeks together and pulled at her dark hair.
   "How have you been getting along?" Calum asked smiling at Ariaden.
   "Fine, I applied for a job at the local grocery store for shifts when Ariaden is at preschool" Abigail sighed. I just noticed how tired she looked, dark rings had settled under her pretty eyes.
   "You don't look fine" I had to add. Abigail looked at me with a sad, tired smile.
  "I've been having trouble sleeping lately and living with a two year old is very tiring" Abigail smiled looking at her child who was still happily playing in Raine's arms, Brad was playing peek a boo with her. I let Abigail's excuse slip by, something was going on with her.