The Rising

Chapter 3 Dereks P.O.V

I stared outside the window as the car passed more and more cow pastures. Honestly Texas was as dull and bland as the rest of the world has become ever since we lost Chloe.
No doubt she was dead. And it was our fault.
Looking back, we should have stayed and talked to her. Tell her we didn't think it was safe for her with us anymore.
Give her a chance to fight and argue and change our minds.

Instead, we were cowards and we booked it after she fell asleep.
We had been on the road for five hours when one of Simons sketchbooks flew at my head containing a hasty note scrawled by a very angry, very agitated poltergeist.
All it said was 'Chloe's been shot and captured, and you weren't there to protect her. She took a bullet meant for you.'
After that, I had trouble caring about anything. I rarely ate or slept. I didn't want to die, I just wanted to be in constant agony to remind myself that I had basically left my mate alone and defenseless. And now she was dead. She was gone and I'd never get her back.

I hardly noticed when dad said we were almost there.
To make things worse, we were still running from the Edison group, and dad just had to pick a safe house in the middle of nowhere under the pretense that it was "tucked away" and had "lots of room to exercise".
Not to mention it sounded like we were all going to be cramped into a quaint country cottage surrounded by cows.
Yay.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts that the car pulling to a stop and dad rolling down his window startled me.

I looked up, and dad was pressing a call button on one of those fancy pager boxes you see outside of gated communities. I hadn't even realized that we were now surrounded by dense forest. The mossy cobble drive peeling off from a remote road was guarded by thick, ornate iron gates. Through the bars, I could see the dense woods fading into grassy hills and a lake sparkling in the distance. And still the road stretched on.

Suddenly the gates glided soundlessly open, and dad put the car in drive.
I shook myself as the car left behind the thick forest for rolling planes.
My mind had just started wandering when Tori squealed excitedly in my ear. I quickly noticed that Simon had his face pressed to the glass.

Looking out, I was shocked at what I saw.
Galloping beside us was a ginormous black stallion. And sitting atop it was quite obviously a young woman, perhaps our age. Her strawberry-blonde hair flowing her. Hair just like Chloe's, I thought.

But what freaked me out the most, was that the horse didn't seem to notice my wolf presence. And if it did, it didn't care. Usually any prey animal would catch a faint whiff and try their hardest to give me a wide berth.
I watched as the massive beast surged ahead and disappeared over a rise in the land, the rider lifting her rear out of the saddle and leaning forward.

Leaning forward so I can see out of the front windshield, my eyes flew wide when the house came into view. No, not house, castle.
We were staying in a damn castle. The horse and rider were disappearing into a side building that I guessed was the stables.

We pulled up a rounded drive with a bubbling fountain in the center next to a brand new red Mercedes Benz and a sleek silver Lexus. Dad was staring at the antique champagne colored Rolls Royce while Tori and Simon scrambled out of the car so fast you'd think it was on fire.

They walked past a beat up farm truck to the base of the marble stairs leading up the hill.
They were craning their heads upwards to catch the full glory of the building. It was set atop jagged hillside, overlooking all that surrounded it.

Dad got out and motioned for me to help with the bags.
Once our arms were loaded up, we started heading up the stairs.
Simon and Tori, for the first time in weeks, were chattering excitedly together instead of fighting.