Chapter 19

~Eliana~

We salivated as two waiters, looking neat in their uniforms, with broad smiles plastered on their faces, came with trays of the food we had ordered, at the fancy and exquisite Chinese restaurant Alistair had taken us to the day after we had defeated the Beast of Vengeance, just exactly as he had promised.

Sweet and sour pork was the main dish we had ordered for, and the side dishes included: boiled rice, cucumber salad, and prawn wontons. While myself and Alistair were digesting the food with red wine, Jenny had opted for soy milk, while her brother, Garrett had decided to have beer.

A smile appeared on my face, as I stuffed my mouth with sweet and sour pork, with the aid of chopsticks. Its taste was truly heavenly, and I liked how the sweetness and sourness of the meal blended in my mouth, giving it a unique taste.

I watched as Garrett struggled with the chopsticks, and a few seconds later, he groaned heavily in disappointment, and did away with the chopsticks, grabbing the spoon that was meant for the rice, and using it to help himself out.

“What?” He asked, repulsively, looking up at all of us, who were actually staring at him, with a mouthful of pork.

“Nothing,” I said, and concentrated back on my own meal.

Alistair, however, could not resist the urge to laugh, and ended up choking on his own laughter.

“Hey, have some water,” I said, offering him a bottle of water, which I had opened up for him.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Jennifer put back her bottle down, which I hadn’t realised she had intended on giving him in the heat of the moment.

“There, there,” I said, patting Alistair’s back gently, as he gulped down the water to prevent him from dying from a choke.

Soon, he had stopped choking and his eyes, which had been teary as he coughed out became dried up again.

“Serves you right,” Garrett said, chewing boiled rice aggressively.

“You know, I’m beginning to think that you did that to me,” Alistair said, pointing an accusing finger at Garrett.

I gave a small laugh. “How is that even possible? I mean, he’s a werewolf, not a wizard,” I said.

“He might be a wizard. I mean, he practically lived with the Druids for about five years. I’m sure he must have learnt some witchcraft from them on how to make someone who almost never chokes on his meal or his own laughter, choke,” Alistair said, and even though he sounded serious, I could tell he was only just joking.

“Trust me, if it had been up to me, you’d have died right here and now and not only have choked,” Garrett retorted.

“When are you ever going to learn some manners?” Alistair asked.

“I will, when you stop acting like a child. What was so funny that you had to laugh?” Garrett asked.

Alistair shrugged. “Seeing you struggle with your chopsticks felt funny, especially when you dropped it out of anger. I didn’t mean to get on your nerves,” He said.

“It’s fine. I didn’t take it as anything serious. I just didn’t like the fact that you had to remind me of my stay with the Druids, especially in the presence of Eliana,” Garrett said.

“Why couldn’t he have talked about your stay with the Druids in my presence?” I asked, out of sheer curiosity.

“It brings about bad memories, plus I don’t want you to talk about it with Carrie,” He replied.

“And why would I go about blabbing about our discussions with Carrie? I wouldn’t do that, trust me, and if you don’t want to talk about living with the Druids, it’s perfectly fine,” I told him.

“Thanks. Also, please, don’t tell her I’m a werewolf. Things are going really great with us and I don’t want to ruin any of it,” He said.

I shot a small smile in his direction. “If I tell her you’re a werewolf, I’d have to also explain that your sister and Alistair are also werewolves. I may be able to live with that, but I won’t burden Carrie with that knowledge,” I said.

“She doesn’t seem like she’d be scared though. She seems like she’d be rather fascinated, as she’s really into talking about the supernatural world and stuff like that,” Garrett said.

“Well, it’s easier to speak of things you’ve not seen in reality. I know Carrie a lot, and, please, trust me when I say that she is going to be really freaked out if she gets to know about this. You’d have to tell her someday because it clearly isn’t right for you to hide anything about yourself from her, but she’d have to trust you by then, and would love you to the point of not wanting to lose you. That’s the only way she won’t get freaked out, and would accept you just the way you are,” I said.

“Is that why you just accepted me the way I am?” Alistair asked.

“What?”

“I’d have understood it if you didn’t want to see me again, but you reached out to me to speak about killing the Beast, as well as even let me hold you in my arms, without for one second, feeling scared or freaking out. Do you love me to the point of not wanting to lose me? Do you trust me?” He inquired.

I smiled at him, and picked up my chopsticks, which I used to put some pork on his spoonful of rice, which he was holding in his hand, but hadn’t eaten yet.

“Eat up,” I said, making a gesture at the spoon in his hand.

“You won’t give me an answer?” He asked.

“I will, when it’s just us two,” I responded, taking a sip of my glass of red wine.

“Okay then,” He said, in an understanding tone.

“Just us two... That made me think about Carrie just now,” Garrett said.

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Why doesn’t anyone here, except for me have table manners? You all keep talking, and it’s not nice to speak at the table,” She said.

“Well, you just spoke,” Garrett pointed out.

“That’s different. I was trying to get you all to stop speaking,” Jennifer said, in defence.

“Still doesn’t change a thing,” Alistair said, munching on some prawn wontons.

“Okay then. I’ll leave you guys to it,” She said in a conclusive tone, focusing back on her food.

“So,... what happens when it’s just you two?” Alistair inquired.

A mischievous grin played around Garrett’s lips, “We do what you and Eliana would do if you were alone,” He responded.

A blush swept through my cheeks. “Just be careful, Garrett, especially during the full moon, so, you don’t go exposing your identity, because of your emotions being intensified,” I warned, already aware that it was the full moon that had triggered Alistair’s inability to control himself the first time we had met.

“I know how to control my emotions, even during the full moon,” He argued.

Alistair scoffed. “You’re likely to lose control, especially if you go screwing up a hot chick. I’m speaking from experience,” He said.

“You lost control with Eliana? What happened?” Garrett asked, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets, with increased curiosity.

I stifled a laughter, as I watched Alistair suddenly become embarrassed, probably having a flashback of what had happened that very day he had lost control.

I decided to speak on his behalf. “That’s a very personal matter. Just keep it in mind that you shouldn’t have anything to do with Carrie...sexually...on the day of the full moon,” I said.

“Yeah, because that’s what first gave Eliana the impression that I was a werewolf, and you don’t want to have Carrie finding out about this, do you?” Alistair inquired.

“Oh! Forget about Carrie finding about any of these. You all should really be scared of everyone in this restaurant getting to know about this, since you keep talking about werewolves so openly, without even trying to talk in hushed tones. Very soon, you’ll draw everyone’s attention to us, and reveal our identity to the world,” Jennifer said, interposing in on our conversation.

“Why are you always so negative?” I asked, having enough of her annoying behaviour.

“I’m just trying to be the reasonable one here. Walls have ears, and we all know that. It had taken the intervention of your parents to say that the Beast of Vengeance, which over seventy guests had clearly seen with their two eyes, had been verified to be a prank, sent to them by their former business partners in Japan, and that no one had to be worried,” Jennifer said.

“Yes, I know, which was totally uncalled for by the way. Do you happen to support their decision to have lied about the whole issue when they could have come out clean about how things really were?” I asked.

“Of course, I do. If they hadn’t, people would have started panicking, and would begin to see things that aren’t even there. Do you know what kills faster than any other thing? It’s fear. Your parents did a good thing by hiding the truth about the Beast of Vengeance,” Jennifer said.

I scoffed. “I don’t know about you, but I think people deserve to know the truth about things,” I argued.

“Eliana, sweetie, the truth may be easy for you to cope with, but may be the hardest pill to swallow for some others. Just as some words are better left unsaid, some things are better left unknown,” Alistair said.

I rolled my eyes, still not agreeing with what they had said. It was worse that Alistair was not on my side, but on Jennifer’s side. I knew that there was something fishy going on between the two of them.

“Whatever you say,” I said, trying to waive off the discussion.

“Do you know what happens if they should ever know we truly exist?” Alistair asked, still trying to prove a point.

“No,” I responded.

“Well, they’d make us display animals in zoos, create documentaries, fun facts and movies about us. I’m sure they’d cut us up to find out what would happen, create remedies out of us and all manners of scientific experiments...”

“Okay, I get it,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender.

I continued, “I understand your plight, and I was wrong in saying we should just be honest about stuff like that, but maybe... just maybe if someone had told me the truth about what I had seen ten years ago, my life wouldn’t be so messed up right now. What am I even saying? If someone had told me about werewolves like they should have done when I was younger, I’d have been able to have protected my friends that night, and they’d all be alive today. They’re dead because I didn’t know the truth, and to ease the guilt I feel, I’ve been believing that Sam is somehow still alive and that they didn’t all die because of me,” I said, trying my best not to shout, since we were in a public environment.

“Are you okay?” Alistair asked, looking at me with a concerned expression, after a brief moment of silence that had fallen upon us after airing my opinion.

“Yeah, I guess. I’m sorry,” I said, now wishing that I had kept quiet, instead of just speaking out like that, and probably getting on everyone’s nerves.

“Is this about your friend, who might still be alive?” Garrett asked.

“I don’t know why I reacted that way. I’m sorry,” I said, as a response to his question.

Alistair put his arm around my shoulders, as we sat with our stomach filled up, with the empty plates staring at us.

He squeezed my hands with his free hand. “If he’s alive, I’d make sure to find him, okay?”

I nodded my head, trying to put the faith I had in him above the overwhelming doubts that clouded my mind. My outburst hadn’t been about Sam, and I knew it. I had spoken in the manner I did because he supported Jennifer’s view, and even though that wasn't a bad thing because both of them were absolutely free to choose their stance, I had just wanted Alistair to be on my side always, because he was the only one I had.

That got me thinking really hard. What if Alistair chose to turn his back on me in the future? It wasn’t as if I even knew him that well. Sam had my back for eighteen good years, and was the only other person apart from Candice who was dead that ever had my back and supported me all the time.

I watched as Jennifer smiled at Alistair, and he returned the smile. I needed to find Sam and I hoped he was still alive, as I gulped down the remaining contents of my wine glass.