Beautiful Creatures Series

Chapter 16: 14

It was almost 6:00 AM when Stanton came into the house quietly, trying not to wake her, but Aurora had been up all night wondering where he had been. “Where have you been?” She demanded as he closed the door. “Why are you, Hummingbird?”

“Why am I up?” She was stunned by the question and the state in which he was in. “Why are you covered in blood?”

“Don’t worry. It’s not mine,” he said, making his way to the washroom, where he peeled off his bloody clothes.

“Not yours? How’s blood, is it?” He didn’t answer as he threw his clothes on the floor and started the shower. Aurora watched him get in and stand under the water, letting it wash the blood away. “God damn it, don’t ignore me. Whose blood is it?” Stanton just shot her a look, and she knew exactly who’s blood it was. “You went back for him, didn’t you?”

“He deserved what he got,” he told her, taking the body wash from the edge of the tub.

“You killed him?”

Stanton washed the blood off his face and then turned to face her. “Not the first time and probably won’t be the last.”

“It’s murder.”

Stanton turned off the shower and grabbed a towel as he got out. “Don’t give me that self-righteous tone. You have killed people too.”

“To protect myself.”

“Bullshit!” He yelled at her making her jump. “You’ve killed people because you lost your temper,” he pointed at his face. “Look… look what that fucker did to me. I can never get my eye back and why because he was afraid that I would give his punk ass a beat down for insulting my girl. I did a public service killing him, one less asshole in the world,” he snarled as he found some clean clothes and got dressed. Aurora watched as he pulled his boots on. It looked like he was leaving again.

“Where are you going now?”

“Work,” he snapped. “The bills don’t pay themselves,” he opened the door and stormed out, slamming the door behind him so hard a picture fell off the wall, and the frame shattered upon impact with the floor.

Oh… that man.

***

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Aurora,” Aster said as she brought a big bowl of popcorn to the coffee table. Aster had the day off. She had left her assistant in command of her bakery in Aspen, claiming that every once and a while, even the boss needed a day off. So, she had invited Aurora over to rent a movie with the girls. “I’m sure they were careful. It’s not the first body the pack has disposed of.”

“Am I the only person who thinks what they did was wrong?” Aurora asked.

“You said yourself you wanted to kill the guy,” Aster pointed out as she sat down on the couch.

“I might have wanted to, but I didn’t.”

“You’re saying you have never killed anyone?” Charlotte asked from her place on the floor where she was sitting cross-legged and picking at the popcorn.

“I have but only in self-defence,” both women stared at her with the same expression, the one saying they weren’t buying her answer. “Ok, maybe 50% self-defence – 50% anger,” both women laughed. “What?”

“Yeah, we have heard that you have a bit of a temper,” Charlotte giggled.

a temper?” She demanded with

can clearly see that’s not

despite herself. “Ok, maybe I might have a very small anger issue,”

they could still hear what was playing on the TV. The anchorman was talking about a body found in the river earlier

body. The station flashed a file photo of the victim they had gotten from the family. Aurora recognized the victim immediately. It was the man from the restaurant last night. His name was Rupert Dickson, and he was a son of a Colorado State Senator.

Aurora confirmed. “This is bad, isn’t

really bad,” Charlotte

going to want his son’s death investigated,” Aster said. “Were there a lot of witnesses that

nodded. “The place

going to be the very first suspect, then

it was

going investigate,” Aster

animals and found floating in a

“So.”

draw

would be a

cellphone. “I

***

the way things were playing out, but it wasn’t Aurora’s fault. That girl was a frustratingly gorgeous magnet for assholes. He couldn’t blame her for the way others treated her. Life with Aurora would be an ongoing fight, not with her but with every other

passenger seat of his SUV. He picked the bouquet up and got out of the vehicle. Taking a deep breath, Stanton closed the SUV door and made his way inside. He

her shoulder and her hair swept up in one of those sloppy buns. In one hand, she had a frying pan and, in the other, a spatula. Some hard rock playing on the iPod speakers as Aurora danced like no one

smile to Stanton’s face. He still couldn’t believe that this was his life or that she was his girl. He never wanted to lose this, but he didn’t know if he could hold

pan down on a burner that was not on before she turned around and looked at him with relief. It was a look he had not expected. She rushed over to him and framed his face with her hands pulling him down so she could kiss him hard. Then she pulled back and slapped him across the face with an

snarled. She was right. He had been ignoring her calls because

white and yellows mean I’m sorry,” he

a playful grin. “How

“Google,” he snickered.

she said, returning to the

didn’t mean to make you worry. I just didn’t know what to say. I needed some time to think,” Stanton said as he took a seat at the small

and sage,” Aurora said as she plated the food that had been cooling in the pan. She brought both to the

his

the seat next to him. “Have you heard from

question. Gordon had called a few times that day, but Stanton had not answered because he hadn’t felt like talking to anyone. He had every intention of calling his pack leader back later in the evening. “I think he called once or twice, but I didn’t answer,” Stanton was getting a bad feeling. “Is there something going on that I should know about?” Aurora was silent, but the look on her face told Stanton she had something she didn’t know

“The man you killed….”

not talk about him. It’s over. Let us leave it in

“It’s not over.”

it is. Just let the issue

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