The Wolf's Daughter

12 - Rift

I watched Aunt Kim carefully clean dad's ash coated arms. He was unconscious, lying on a camp bed in the infirmary. She paused to look up at me as I nibbled my lip.

'Your mom does that when she's worried about him.' She smiled softly, reaching over and squeezing my wrist. 'He's gonna be fine sweetheart. Just some smoke inhalation.'

'This is all my fault.' My fingers traced the plaster stuck to my temple. 'I just thought he was being strict, I didn't realise the twins had threatened him. Why didn't he say anything?'

'Well if I know your dad, and I do,' Kim rung out her wet cloth and dropped it in the bowl. 'He doesn't like to come across weak. Making it obvious he'd been threatened by them would dent his overly massive pride.' She smirked, standing up and placing the bowl of water on the side. 'Best to let him rest now. Clear his lungs out while he sleeps.'

'What if he needs us?' My eyebrows knitted together, unwilling to move from my chair.

'Selene's here, she'll keep an eye on him.' Dropping a hand into my line of view, Kim encouraged me to my feet. I took it apprehensively, giving a worried sigh. As she led me out of the infirmary, I glanced over my shoulder to catch dad's chest rising and falling slowly.

Fresh air whipped into my nostrils and I welcomed it, still recovering from my own ordeal. As Kim led me outside, Carmina rushed out of the shadows and pulled me into a hug.

'I'm so sorry.' Her voice wavered as if she was about to cry. 'I didn't realise they'd got you-'

'It's fine.' I said quietly even though it wasn't. The feeling of my best friends' embrace did help a little but ultimately my mind was still trying to piece together the events of that evening.

'On the bright side, we rescued Rush.' She sniffed, pulling back and pointing over to where I could make out Silver talking to a shorter, stubbled man. A tattoo stretched across his throat and he kept bending down to support his knee.

'That's great Mina.' My words were insipid, empty of any real confidence. Carmina's lip quirked with uncertainty and she tried to hug me again but I drew back.

'Are you sure you're okay?'

'Yeah, yeah. Just tired.' I embraced my arms around myself as another roll of cold breeze attacked my body. 'I think I'm gonna go to bed.'

'Sounds like a wise idea.' Kim chipped in, quietly observing our interchange. Nodding, I gave a lacklustre smile to Carmina before heading inside.

***

Sleep was evading me. Every time I closed my eyes, mom's face burned in my pupils. The tape enclosing her mouth, the bonds cutting into her wrists, dad's wild eyed look when I told him she'd been taken. Where was she? Had they killed her? Why bother kidnapping her? Tossing and turning against my pillow, I ended up getting to my bed and going back downstairs. It was quiet in the house, every creak of the floorboards sounding ten times louder than it actually was. Approaching the sink, I made a cup of water and took a long sip of the cool liquid.

'Athena!' I almost dropped my glass at the sound behind the wall. A gut wrenching yell that tore right through me. Dad was awake. Almost stumbling over my bare feet, I blended into the shadows and rushed outside. Darting into the infirmary, glass still in hand, I paused at the sight before me. Dad was sat upright in bed, white knuckled and pale faced. It was like he'd seen a ghost.

'Dad?' I said softly, padding towards him. His gaze swivelled to look at me and he blinked a few times. 'What's wrong?'

'Your mom, your mom, where is she?' It was like he couldn't remember where he was or what had happened.

'She got taken remember? By the Highwaymen.' I sat down beside him and offered him my glass.

'But... I need her.' His voice was fragile, almost broken. I'd never seen this side of him before. So scared.

'Have a drink dad, you probably just had a nightmare.' I pushed the glass towards him again and he took it with a shaking hand. Droplets spilled into his beard as he gulped it down, leaving none for myself.

'S-sorry.' He grunted, seemingly having regained his grasp on what was happening. 'I should be lookin' after you, not the other way round.'

'It's fine.' I gave him a small smile and kicked the duvet up, shuffling underneath. 'Was it a bad one?'

'What?'

'Nightmare.' I wasn't sure what to do. Mom always dealt with these situations and she was a pro at getting dad back to sleep within seconds of them happening.

'Feels like they're never ending at the moment.' Ginger hair scruffy and unkempt, dad slid back down and rested his head on the pillow.

'Maybe you need to focus on nice things.' I mused, thinking of funny stories. 'Remember that time we told mom we'd seen a two headed horse and she got really excited?'

'Hmph. Yeah.' Dad's lip quirked a little. 'She didn't speak to me for two days after that one.'

'And the time we went and had that picnic up in the yucca field? She snapped a load of stems and tipped the sap over your head!'

'Took me hours to get that shit out.' Even though there was a slight grumble to his tone, I felt dad chuckle a little at the memory. He grew quiet after that, blue eyes narrowing as he stared at the ceiling.

'I'm sorry I got us into this mess.' My apology was met with a soft grunt, dad still focussed on what was above him.

'God fucking help them if I find her and they've hurt her.' He groused, nostrils flaring angrily. 'Thinking they can just tear a rift in my fucking family, pffft, they got another thing comin'.'

'We will find her dad.' I looped my arms around his upper arm and squeezed tight. 'We will.'