Actually it backfired in epic portions. Boy did it ever.
Mr. Deen stood in the doorway with his hands folded over his chest looking upset, angry, and stressed. His slightly graying hair was frazzled, and his eyes hard as glass. “I figured she would be with you,” he said in a tone laced with distaste.
A million thoughts ran through Travis’s head, and then the world around him ceased to exist. She wasn’t here. “She isn’t,” he finally replied. “She isn’t with me.”
He looked confused. “You aren’t here to drop her off?”
“No. I came to see if she was here. She called me over an hour ago, and I haven’t heard from her since.”
Mr. Deen leaned back against the door clearly upset and in shock. “I told her she wasn’t to see you anymore.”
Travis sucked in a sharp breath. So that was why she was so upset.
“She was distraught and stormed out of the house. The last words we had weren’t pleasant. And now…now she is gone.” He put his hands over his face in an attempt of disbelief. Turning toward him, Travis watched as his eyes went for sadness to hatred. “Stay away from us. Stay away from Emma. I don’t want you anywhere near our house. You hear me? Emma is better off without you in her life, and when I find her, I intend to keep her as far from you as possible.”
Then the door was promptly slammed in his outraged face. He couldn’t believe it. Well he could, but it didn’t lessen the blow of hurt any less. It wasn’t like this was the first time he had been shit on.
He had to fight the internal instinct to tear down the walls of the house, to pull this place apart brick by brick. The only reason he left it standing was the fact that deep down he knew she wasn’t inside. He had known the moment he stepped foot on her property, regardless of the sliver of hope he clung to. Clung to still.
The animal roar of frustration exploded into the night as he tore from house in a blinding run. He ran nowhere particular, just away. Away from the memories, away from the crushing hurt, and the suffocating fear of never finding her.
Where the hell did he start?
*
Travis went nuclear. He hadn’t heard from Emma in a week, and his entire body vibrated.
Find her.
Protect her.
Kill them.
His demon was wild, restless, and out-of-control. It stirred inside like a raging beast, beating against him. Dying to break free, to unleash the built up of hurt, helplessness, and blunt anger. Anger at himself. At the world. And mostly at the curse that dictated so much of his life.
Without it would Emma still be here? He couldn’t help but think that being who he was had everything to do with her sudden disappearance. Travis would easily trade his life for hers.
He knew how much his sister and cousin worried about him since that night. They thought of him as a ticking bomb just waiting to blow, and in a way he was. There was so much bottled up, eventually it was going to need a release. He feared whoever was around when that cap popped.
Life was numb. Dead. Useless without his Emma. A search party had been gathered to scope the area, still no sign of her. But that didn’t deteriorate him from doing his own investigation. Turned out, his trail was just as cold as theirs.
He wasn’t giving up. Not by a long shot. As horrible as things were…he had a feeling the worst had yet to come.