Unnaturals (23 page)

`You saved yourself somehow. Used your hand as a shield.' Wilson struggled to speak, knowing the pain she'd had to suffer. `Why didn't the wounds heal? You heal like the others?'

`These were made by a Bloodells dagger. What they use to make a child into a Bloodells.'

Wilson sat up, head spinning. `They stab you in the heart?'

`Then they force their blood into you. It's horrible and often fatal.'

His own scars hurt in response to her pain. What she had told him was more than horrifying.

`Pain is something I understand.' His shirt slipped off and he shivered, suddenly cool.

`They tried hard to kill you too.' She touched each of the bullet wounds across his body. `And this? Shrapnel?'

`Yes.' Tears threatened and his throat went tight. Memories flooded back.

`These I recognise.' She traced a trail of scarring curving over his shoulder. `Bloodells claw marks. But they failed with you.'

`It happened at the hospital just after the first attack. We had gone over to Edinburgh for the funeral and were attacked there. Dad fought them off and the soldiers from the Fund came.'

He shuddered, memories of blood and explosives playing in his head. `I was hurt real bad. Mum couldn't stop crying and Dad… He was like some savage wounded animal that couldn't die. He had holes all through him, one that went right into his heart, but he still fought.'

Tremors ran though him and Lilly hugged him. `I remember being taken to the hospital. It was chaos. Lots of other people at the funeral had been hurt. Mum got me a room and I went out to it.' He fell back with Lilly still holding him, head on his chest.

`Pain woke me. My shoulder was on fire.' He stroked Lilly's hair, the images painful. `I saw a face. She looked a lot like you, same age and blonde. Her face was hard. She had her fingers buried in my shoulder.'

`What happened?' Lilly whispered.

`I guess part of what is in Dad, I have too.' His own tears flowed. The guilt he had felt from that night rose up. `I hit her hard. I just kept hitting her until her head split open and until she had no face left. Then everything went black.'

`It's okay,' Lilly whispered to him, her own hot tears wetting his skin. `We do what we have to do to survive.'

`I've never killed before. She haunts me. She was my age, a girl and I killed her.'

Lilly pushed herself off his chest, touching his face. `She was not a girl. Outside she would have looked like one but inside was darkness. She would have killed you and gloated about it. Even been honoured for murdering you.'

`I know that. But I killed her,' he whispered hoarsely. Not even his parents knew exactly what had happened.

`If you hadn't, then your parents would have lost their son, and Sally wouldn't have seen you again.' She laid her head back on his chest and he held her tight. `I would never have met you. Most likely none of this would be happening if you had died.'

Breath caught in his throat. The memory of his father's face on the day of the funeral. The moment when Mason had rolled him over. The anguish that burnt so brightly in his father's eyes while he'd struggled to breathe.

Wilson finally understood. If he had died his parents would have been torn apart.

`Never saw it like that.' He sighed and shifted, getting comfortable.

`Can we stay here,' Lilly whispered, snuggling against him. `Like this, just for tonight?'

`Sure.' Wilson rubbed his eyes. Tiredness had begun to weigh him down. With Lilly resting against him and the scent of flowers soothing him, he struggled to stay awake.

`Good.' Lilly relaxed on his chest, her voice faint. `Thank you.'

`Yeah,' he muttered, fighting to stay awake and remembering his promise.

I didn't kiss her.

 

Eleanor spotted Ivy from her rooftop vantage. She left the roof of the house and landed silently on the glasshouse roof.

`Ivy?' She peered into the glasshouse and saw little. `What?'

`Lilly and the boy,' Ivy whispered from where she lay on the glass.

`They're not—?'

`No.' Ivy looked up. `She's smart coming here; we can't hear them. But I can see her.'

`Is this normal? To be peering through glass panes in the moonlight?'

`When it comes to Lilly, yes.' Ivy stood up. `We both know she is important. She's your kin after all. I don't like this, Eleanor. She is getting too close to the boy.'

`Lilly trusts him a great deal.' Glimpses of naked skin through the protective canopy of flowers made that clear to Eleanor. `And she has blossomed since the island.'

`To have her so close to the Douglas clan is dangerous.' Ivy crossed her arms. `Both attract danger. Is this wise?'

Eleanor stood up. `Danger, yes. But they're not incapable of defending themselves. You saw what happened on the island and the outcomes so far. War is coming and we have to prepare.'

`True.' Ivy looked down through the glass. `But she has had so little peace in her life.'

`She still has nightmares? Has she remembered anything?'

`The nightmares continue but she has no real memory.' Ivy moved in a blur. `Lilly deserves a life free of who she is. But so much is happening so fast, her past is surfacing. Are you going to speak to him?' She nodded towards the lake house. `About the Bloodells coming here after all this time? And that it may not be him they come for?'

`No,' Eleanor whispered, watching lights flickering in the lake house. `It is possible, but unlikely. He is ready to fight, that we know. What will be the outcome remains unseen.'

`I am prepared to let Lilly go, if she finds a life away from my house.' Ivy touched her arm. `Are you ready to do the same?'

Eleanor felt Ivy's compassion. `Nikki and Renee have already made their choice.' She touched her cousin's hand. `Like Lilly, they have found what has been missing all their lives.'

Eleanor paused, sharing an understanding of how the ones they loved had begun a journey away from their protection.

One that none of them might survive.

Nerves blended with excitement. Mason hesitated outside the lake house; heart growing louder in his ears.

Soft voices mixed with the sound of a shower running. He stopped, wanting to go in, but the thrill of being unnoticed made him wait. Mason tilted his head, focusing on the whispers.

`Will he be okay tonight? I mean, will he be Mason?' Ruth asked in a coarse whisper.

`I don't know. Renee has that connection with him,' Nikki said. `Don't whisper. She can hear us regardless.'

`Oh.' Mason smiled, picturing Ruth's face as she came to understand what Nikki meant. `No secrets then.'

`No.' Renee's voice was loud as the shower shut off. `We're all too connected for secrets. Everything we do and say will eventually be heard by all of us. We're an open book now. I can feel your apprehension, Ruth. You fear me and the connection I have with Mason, just like I resent the years you had with him when it could have been me.'

`I wouldn't have put it quite like that.'

Mason winced at Ruth's tone but waited and listened, enjoying his voyeuristic experience.

`It's what we feel.' Renee's shadow fell across the window.

`Lies fester and grow into cancer. The truth hurts at first but is easier to deal with, even if we don't like it.'

`Not everyone thinks like you, sis.' Nikki's voice was tight. `I don't think
everything
should be shared. There are private things I know I can't, and shouldn't, share.'

`I think Renee is talking about sexual tension. Relationships. How we're going to—'

`Avoid killing each other,' Renee finished, blunt and direct. `Don't look at me like that, Nik.'

`You're honest,' Ruth said. `And I guess you're right about how I feel. What you have with Mason I can never have. It's frightening.'

`And when I see him look at you it does something inside me that I find frightening. You've had him all these years while I have suffered. There is a part of me you need to be afraid of, Ruth.'

Mason edged closer. Renee was taking the conversation close to something explosive. `Mason knows it already, and you two have to understand it as well. When we're together, Hunter and Huntress, like we were tonight, we see everything in each other. There is nowhere to hide.'

Mason held his breath. She was speaking the truth, one he couldn't say out loud.

`Ruth, I've seen a side of Mason you will never touch. Or want to touch. He's seen the same in me. But he still loves you the same way he always did. You're part of who he is.'

The silence inside lengthened.

Finally Ruth spoke. `Why tell me all this?'

`You need to know. I know he wants more children, and always has, but because he's Mason he's never spoken of it. He's kept it buried instead.'

`Renee, stop it,' Nikki said.

Renee ignored her sister and her voice hardened. `That's what you fear, Ruth. You fear that if another woman gives him a child it will be over for you.'

`You're right. Jesus, you're so right, it's terrifying. If he... If he left me...' Ruth's voice broke for a second and Mason clenched his fists, controlling his urge to rush in. `I could not live with that,' Ruth went on. `He has always been part of me. Even when I've been with another woman, I've known he would always be there. Shit, I sound like a selfish bitch.'

`Yes, you do.'

`Renee!'

`No Nikki. I get to speak here.' Renee's shadow moved. `Ruth, this is me. I will speak the truth no matter what. I fight when I'm attacked. I will do whatever it takes to have what I ache for.'

`He's still my Mason!' Anger had seeped into Ruth's voice.

`He is that,' Renee's voice softened. `But he is more than your Mason, like you are more than his Ruth. What he has with you, I respect. It would be wrong and stupid not to. But you know what it's like to love and be loved by more than one person. And while my sister has loved and is loved, I have never had that privilege. Not physically.'

Renee stood at the window, sweetly naked in the soft light, and Mason's knees buckled.

`It's hard to be angry with you when you're so right,' Ruth's voice wavered. `Even though he's my husband there's a part of him I wouldn't want to see again. Tonight when he made that noise—'

`That creature would consume your flesh while loving you. He'd taste your blood; he wouldn't mean to hurt you,' Renee said, winking out into the dark. She knew he was out there.

`But it would happen and he would suffer for causing you pain. That won't happen with me. He doesn't have to hold back with me.'

When Ruth moved into the window light, Mason's control waned and he felt his blood begin to quicken.

`Gaia said I
would
have more children, but that another would heal him.' Ruth said, touching Renee's face. `Are you the healing he needs?'

`Maybe.' Renee didn't respond to Ruth's touch. `All I know is I want him so much it hurts. I want him in me, to feel his seed hot in me. It sounds tacky but I feel hot just talking about it.'

Ruth snatched her hand back. `You're hot to the touch. Are you always so literal?' She smiled. `That stuff about wanting him. I figured that was on when we first met on the island. You're the only woman, other than me, who makes him nervous.'

`So,' Renee moved towards Ruth, `do I stay or do we leave?'

`Leave?' Ruth stepped back.

`You and Nikki need to agree to this. I would not be able to prevent Huntress from reacting if there was a threat when we—'

`You're such a psycho,' Nikki said, joining the women in the window. `If Ruth didn't like or trust you around Mason, do you think we'd be talking about this now? You were there on the island. If there's conflict, Ruth is more than capable of dealing with it.'

Ruth looked at Renee. `All this time I haven't felt any danger, just shaken that Mason finds you desirable.'

`I am going to fuck your husband, Ruth.' Renee's voice deepened and Mason trembled. Blood pounded in his ears. Like Renee, he was hot.

`How does that knowledge make you feel? I am going pull him into me and take everything he has. My hands will explore every part of his body while he explores mine. I don't care who stays or leaves but I am going to have Mason tonight.'

A small sound escaped from him and he sucked in sharp hard breaths to stay in control. Renee turned back towards the window and pulled her lips back over sharp teeth.

`I, ah,' Ruth's voice wavered. She had followed Renee's gaze and was looking at him. `I want you to stay,' she said.

`Get in here. You heard your wife,' Renee purred, pressing her hands against the window glass. Green eyes sparkled as tendrils of long red hair curled around her breasts.

Saliva filled his mouth. He had wanted so much to taste her lips, to hold her against him. Now it was becoming a reality. He reached out. The window crashed open.

Renee took his hands and pulled him towards her, until the walls of lake house stopped him. She put his hands over the fullness of her breasts. `Touch me,' she whispered.

He rolled a thumb over hard nipples, her soft cry tearing away the last of his self-control.

His lips burned for hers.

Her full red lips tasted so sweet. He kissed her. An explosion of colour came with the sensation of her tongue seeking his.

Sound intruded on his bliss. Renee's breasts were warm against his chest. The sound was unimportant.

Acrid scents rose up. They were of little concern. Ignore them.

`Whoa. Stop!' There was fear in the voice. `Fire!'

Fear? Mason blinked. Hot, smoke-filled air swirled where his lips touched Renee's. Flames roared around them, but they did not burn.

`Mason, you're on fire.'

Ah yes, but it was their fire. `You're beautiful in so many ways,' he whispered while the flames grew. He brushed hair from Renee's face and let her go.

Renee grabbed his hand. `No. Don't stop. We can do this. Take me away. Let's fly, go somewhere we can be together tonight.'

`The house is on fire!' Ruth yelled. Timber cracked and flames filled the night with an orange glow.

`Well, put it out, Ruth!' Renee's face darkened. `Fire is an element, control it!'