Conflict

  Daemon stopped and turned back to look at me. “I am not in a position to be mad at you for not being honest with me, Paige. It’s like I said, we have much to discuss.” He immediately opened the door and walked out.

  I threw up my hands and settled back down in the water. One thing I could say for Daemon, he was an expert with the cryptic statements.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I climbed out of the bath and wrapped one of Daemon’s large bath towels around my body. I realized that my clothes were in the spare bedroom so I made my way out of Daemon’s room. When I crossed through the living room, Alex and David were sitting on the couch talking. I shot David and Alex the evil eye as I passed through and David’s face instantly took on a guilty expression. Alex, on the other hand, had the audacity to smirk at me as I passed.

  Stomping into the room, I shut the door behind me and threw on a pair of jeans and a black, long-sleeved v-neck sweater. The material of the sweater was light and it clung to my body perfectly. I patted my hair dry with the towel and combed through the tangled mess.

  I eventually returned to the living room and took a seat in one of the accent chairs opposite the couch. I stared at Alex and David for a brief period before I spoke. “So, Alex. What the hell is this I hear about you suddenly being on Team Daemon? You can’t be serious in this bargain you have going with him to babysit my ass.”

  Alex let out a humorless laugh and responded, “Actually, yeah, I am on his side. What you did today was over and above your normal stupidity, Paige, and it’s fucking obvious that you need someone who can protect you from yourself.”

  My eyes shot to David and I noticed that he was still dressed in his clothing from earlier today. The poor guy looked beat down and I felt bad for him. Unfortunately, I was too pissed off to let my sympathy stop me from asking, “And David? Why did you have to call both of them out there today? I think one would have been sufficient, don’t you?”

  David’s shoulders raised and lowered with the large sigh that escaped his body. He looked up at me and his normally warm, brown eyes were burdened with exhaustion and remorse. “I’m sorry, Paige. I called Daemon first and got his voicemail. I was a little freaked out over everything that happened so I called Alex almost immediately afterwards. Daemon just happened to call back right as I was getting off the phone with Alex and I had to tell him what was going on. The man sounded so pissed, I thought his hand was about to come through the phone to strangle me.”

  I opened my mouth to continue chewing David out, but Alex’s voice interrupted my thought process. “Don’t get pissed off at David, Paige. He actually did the right thing for once by calling us. The truth is, he should have called us before agreeing to assist you in your fucked up scheme. What the fuck were you thinking going out there?” Alex’s voice got louder with his obvious irritation and I put my hands up to stop him from completely going apeshit.

  Opening my mouth again to respond to Alex, I was interrupted by David this time. I was suddenly annoyed by the fact that I wasn’t getting a word in with either of them. David stood up from the couch as he said, “I’m getting a shower and going to bed. You two can sit out here and argue until you are blue in the faces, but I sure as hell am not going to sit around and listen to it.”

  My eyes followed David as he marched off in the direction of his room and immediately shot back to Alex after David disappeared from view.

  “I can’t believe you, Alex. You should be on my side in this. Not Daemon’s. I don’t need to be constantly watched.”

  Alex rolled his eyes at me and it caused my blood to boil even hotter. It was obvious he wasn’t taking me seriously and I jumped up from my chair to move directly in front of him. Once I was looking down at him, Alex’s silver eyes peeked up from below the brim of the black ball cap he was wearing. I could see his biceps and shoulders tense underneath his blue t-shirt and he suddenly shifted to get a better look at me.

  “Paige, I’m not going to fight with you about this. I’m not thrilled at having to take Daemon’s side, but I realized today that the man is absolutely in love with you. He’s still not my favorite person, but I honestly believe he has your best interests at heart. You, however, don’t appear to give a shit whether you live or die. Chris is a fucking lunatic and you thought it was a smart idea to go after him on your own?! Even I wouldn’t try something like that, Paige, and I have at least 100 pounds on you.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and turned my nose up at his words. “Whatever, Alex. He didn’t catch me.” That was a weak argument and I knew it, but I couldn’t stand there and be called a fool without at least some form of rebuttal. I let my arms down and sat down next to Alex. “Okay, fine, maybe my actions today were not well thought out, but I’m not the fucking idiot you and Daemon are making me out to be. I made a stupid decision, I’ll accept that, but it doesn’t mean that I’m a moron.”

  I was pleading my case with Alex but his body language showed me he was not sympathizing with my plight. “Seriously, Alex, I don’t need a babysitter. You can go and I’ll stay here like a good girl and wait for Daemon to come home. So, thank you for coming out to assist me, it means a lot, but you can get back to your regularly scheduled life now.”

  Alex chuckled at my statement and shook his head. “No way, Paige. I made a deal with your man and I’m sticking to it. Unlike you, when I say I’ll do something, I do it.”

  My jaw dropped and I was instantly on my feet again. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Alex?! I didn’t break any promises to anyone, I just kept information to myself. I would have had that asshole if it wasn’t for…”

  Well, fuck, I had nothing.

  Once again Alex smirked up at me because he knew I was out of excuses for my failed mission. Chris bested me once again and I had no option but to recognize and accept it. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter, I’m not a danger to myself and I DON’T need a babysitter. I’ve learned my lesson, you don’t need to worry about me anymore.” My voice was ripe with sarcasm as I spoke.

  “Obviously, Paige, you didn’t learn shit. The fact that you can even stand here and argue with me about this proves that you still have your head stuck up your ass!” Alex suddenly shot into a standing position and he was staring down at me. His head angled down so that we were nose to nose and our faces were both twisted into angry scowls. Alex’s rage was written all over him as he said, “You are a danger to not only yourself, Paige, but to other people. Because of you and your fucked up decisions, not only were you almost killed, but David as well. How many times do you need to get your friends hurt before you realize the seriousness of this situation?!”

  His words were like taking a bullet to the chest. “Low blow, asshole.”

  I turned on my heel and headed back in the direction of Daemon’s room. Slamming the door behind me, I leaned back against it and screamed. I could not believe Alex said that. I needed to distance myself from him and, since he refused to leave, it meant I had to. Daemon would be pissed off and I would deal with that later, but for now, an entire house wasn’t a large enough space between Alex and me. I needed to jump on my bike and take off.

  I ran to the bureau and started digging through Daemon’s drawers. I felt bad for invading his privacy, but I knew he had the keys hidden somewhere in this room. I stumbled on an extra key labeled “bay door” and cheered a little to have one thing that I needed.

  The first drawer didn’t have what I wanted so I moved along to the small drawer beside it. The second drawer was locked and I noticed it had one of those old fashioned keyholes. Eureka! I just happened to see that key in the other drawer. What a stupid thing to do. I chuckled to myself as I went back into the first drawer and retrieved the old-fashioned looking key.

  I slid the key into the lock and turned it. The drawer popped open and I did a little happy dance at my success. I pulled the drawer towards me and saw what looked like personal mementos. There was some small boxes shoved inside the drawer and old photographs. My curiosity peak
ed and I reached in to investigate. Just as I started pulling out the stack of photographs, I heard a familiar jingle. My eyes shot to the corner of the drawer and sitting there in all of their glory were my keys. I hurriedly reached in to pull them out and I accidentally knocked over one of the small boxes. The box looked weathered and old and I reached in to put it back in its place and replace the lid. My hand grabbed around the corner of the box and as I lifted, its contents spilled out onto the bottom of the drawer. Whatever had spilled out of the box was wrapped in a shred of newspaper and it thunked as it hit against the wood of the drawer. I reached in to pick up the item and return it to the box. Before returning the item to its container I pulled a corner of the paper away to investigate what was inside. The first thing I saw was a thin silver chain that was tarnished and kinked. I pulled on the chain and slowly revealed the pendant of the necklace.

  No.

  My head started shaking in disbelief. At first I couldn’t make sense of what I was looking at. My heart felt like it stopped and everything around me stood still. My eyes were focused solely on the object in my hand and my body started to tremble. As if it would burn me, I quickly dropped the necklace down to the floor. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths as I tried to stifle the tears that were threatening to escape. This wasn’t possible. There had to be some explanation because this couldn’t be.

  My knees started to buckle and I sank to the floor. I kept my eyes closed for a moment and tried to regain some semblance of sanity. I had to be losing it. I must have not seen it correctly. Having decided that there was no possible way I saw what I thought I saw, I opened my eyes again to look.

  It was the dragonfly necklace.

  Tears finally escaped my eyes and rolled down my cheeks as I stared down at the delicate piece of jewelry. It was just as I remembered it except it looked worn and tarnished from age. The tail was slightly bent out and the chain had seen better days, but there was no denying that this was the necklace my mother had given me on my sixth birthday…the same necklace that I had given to Buddy.

  I picked it up and handled it like it would fall apart if I was too rough in my movement. How could this be? I didn’t understand how Daemon would end up with this necklace. Did he know Buddy? Both would have been in foster care around the same time, so it was possible that they had been in the same house at one time or the other. But why wouldn’t Daemon tell me? He had to have known. This very necklace was tattooed on my back, there was no excuse for Daemon to not say anything.

  A deep feeling of betrayal overtook me. I had to know why Daemon had the necklace.

  I shot up from the floor and ran out into the living room. Alex instantly stood up and followed behind me as I went to retrieve my phone. I fumbled as I dialed the numbers to call Daemon and I became irritated and threw the phone across the room. It shattered into a hundred little pieces and I sank back to the ground as my sobs overtook me.

  “Hey. Hey, hey, hey. What’s wrong, Paige? Shit. Paige, what happened?” Alex sank down on the floor with me and wrapped his large arms around me. He pulled me against him and held me there as he waited for my response.

  My vocals chords felt like they were paralyzed and I couldn’t get out the words to tell Alex what was happening. I gave up on talking and finally just opened my hand to show him the necklace. Alex gasped when he saw it and he instantly reached out to take it from my hand.

  “Where did you find this, Paige? What the hell is going on?”

  All I could do was shake my head. I’d lost all ability to communicate. Alex sat with me on the floor for a few moments before saying, “Cry it out, baby girl, then you can tell me what happened.” He gently rocked me back and forth as I cried my heart out. Daemon obviously knew something about Buddy and I couldn’t fathom why he hadn’t told me.

  After another half hour, I cried myself into an almost catatonic state. So many ideas ran through my head as to why Daemon would have the necklace. Did Buddy lose it or leave it behind? Did Daemon steal it? Or worse yet, had something happened to Buddy and that’s how Daemon ended up with it? I needed answers, but I was too overcome with emotion to do anything but wait for Daemon to return home.

  Alex stood up after a while and picked me up. He carried me to the couch and held me in his lap. He remained silent as I laid my head against his chest. My eyes stared out at nothing in particular and I felt trapped within my own head. The physical and emotional exertion from the day finally got to me and I fell into an in between state; not really sleeping, but not fully awake.

  ~

  I’m not sure how much time had passed before Daemon finally returned home, but I was pulled out of my withdrawn state by the deep baritone of his voice. “Alex, would you mind explaining to me why Paige is sleeping in your lap?”

  I peaked up to see Alex scowl at Daemon. “Sure, as soon as you tell her why you have…” I reached up to cover Alex’s mouth to silence him.

  I struggled to open my eyes fully and my head slowly turned in Daemon’s direction. He stood at the front doors, obviously tense at having found Alex holding me. I pulled myself up into a sitting position and slowly moved off of Alex’s lap.

  My eyes met Daemon’s and I noticed a pent up rage within his stare. His anger at discovering me in Alex’s arms was apparent, but I was unaffected by it. The sight of him caused my chest to constrict as I remembered the necklace I still held in my hand. Pushing myself off the couch, I slowly made my way over to Daemon. I stood in front of him and held out my hand to him. A confused look came over his face and he reached to take what I was trying to give him. When his hand was below mine, I unclenched my fist and the necklace fell into his palm. I kept my eyes locked to his so that I could witness his immediate reaction to what I’d discovered.

  His face dropped instantly and his eyes immediately shot back up to mine. “Paige….”

  “Why do you have this necklace, Daemon?”

  Daemon huffed out a breath and then ran his free hand through his hair. His eyes shot to Alex as he said, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, Alex. I have something to talk with Paige about and it’s best we speak in private.”

  I heard Alex get up off the couch and walk up behind me. He leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Is everything okay, Paige? Do you need me to stay?”

  I shook my head in response to his question and he nodded at Daemon before walking out the front door. My eyes still had not left Daemon’s face as I waited for an explanation.

  “Paige, I think we need to sit down.”

  Daemon moved to step around me and I moved to block his path. “Sitting down isn’t necessary, Daemon. What you need to do is explain to me how you ended up with that necklace. Did you know Buddy? Why haven’t you told me about this since you saw the tattoo on my shoulder?!” My voice raised up in response to the rage that was starting to flood my system.

  Daemon reached out and wrapped his hands around my shoulders and moved me aside. He walked over to sit on the couch and looked up in invitation for me to follow his lead. I finally walked over, but chose to sit in the chair facing him. “Explain, Daemon.”

  He looked down at the necklace in his hand and his fist clenched around it. Without looking back up to me, he said, “I didn’t know Buddy, Paige…”

  “Then how in the hell do you have that necklace?!” I wasn’t quite screaming at this point, but I was close.

  Daemon let out another huff of air before continuing. “As I was saying, I didn’t know Buddy.” His eyes shot up to mine. “I am Buddy.”

  I was glad that I was sitting down at that moment because if I hadn’t been seated, I would have just collapsed onto the wooden floor. My heart felt like it fell in my stomach, and my head shook in disbelief.

  Laughter started bubbling out of me and I felt like I was losing my grasp on reality. He had to be lying. There is no way that what he was saying could be true.

  “No. That’s impossible. Why the fuck are you lying to me, Daemon?!” Tears started pouring from my eyes again and
I swiped at them to stop them in their path.

  Daemon’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper as he said, “I’m not lying, Damsel. I’m Buddy. I’m the kid you knew from The Center.”

  I was instantly back in a frozen state at Daemon’s confession. My breaths were coming to me in quick gasps, I was lost in a cloud of confusion and doubt. Thoughts raced through my mind so fast that I wasn’t able to muddle through them in order to form a logical sentence. My body suddenly felt cold and I trembled in my seat.

  After carefully placing the necklace down on the table in front of him, Daemon got up from the couch and moved to kneel in front of me. He attempted to take my hand in his, but I pulled away.

  “Paige, I’ve wanted to tell you who I am since I saw the tattoo on your shoulder at Tomb. But every time I tried, I couldn’t do it.” His eyes locked on to mine. “There are…things…you don’t know. I had every intention of telling you everything tonight. Hell, I tried to tell you yesterday when we were going to your parents’ place…”

  My eyes widened at his words. My parents. Have they been as blind to this as me?

  My head dropped into my hands and my head shook back and forth. “How is that possible, Daemon?” I brought my head up to look him in the eyes as I asked, “Your name isn’t the same, your hair color isn’t the same…you asked me about him.” I remembered Daemon specifically asking about Buddy the first night at his house and when we went to see my parents. “Why did you ask about him if you are him? I don’t fucking understand what is going the fuck on!” I was getting upset and Daemon attempted to calm me by touching me. I flinched as far back into the chair as I could and he pulled his hands back to his body.

  Daemon waited for me to relax again, before explaining, “My name was not actually ‘Buddy’ when you knew me. My mom didn’t like my actual name, so she used to call me her ‘little buddy.’” His frustration was made obvious when he ran his hand through his already messy hair. “Eventually, ‘little buddy’ was shortened to ‘Buddy’ and by the time we arrived to the Center, that’s the name I went by.”