by L E Royal
I clung to the railing looking down at it, taking it all in. Scarlett stepped up behind me. I heard her unzip her jacket. She draped it around me over my sweater and held it closed in front of us. She felt warm against my back in comparison to the cold air. We stayed like that for a long time. She swayed us back and forth, and I leaned my head back on her shoulder and let her, content.
“Did I scare you earlier?”
Her voice was soft, and I knew she was referring to her interaction with her nieces.
“No.” It was the truth. I turned in her arms and she let me go. She slipped the jacket off her shoulders, wrapped it around mine, and used it to pull me close to her as she pressed me back into the railing.
“Good,” was all she said in response before she kissed me, soft and slow, sweet and hot.
“Do you want kids?”
I blurted the words out without really meaning to, my heart rate picking up with nerves once they had left me. The question hung in the frigid air between us. She studied me, and I felt her hesitation, her quiet hopefulness and the fear that came with it.
“I never thought that could be my life, that it could even be an option for me.”
It was half an answer and I kissed her lips, turned colder by the freezing air.
“Let’s say it is an option, because you’re great with them and you have a huge heart and despite your broody, moody vampire thing, you’re the glue that holds our family together…” I stumbled a bit over my own words. “You, me, Cami and Jade, I mean…” I hadn’t meant to imply family when it came to Scarlett and myself anytime soon, unsure if it was something she wanted.
She laughed and kissed me, took a deep breath, and told me, “Yes.”
I swallowed hard.
“Maybe one day, maybe with you there’s a future where we’d have a child, if that’s something you also want.”
I hugged her tight, feeling what the admission had cost her, how hard it had been for her to take the unchartered step into letting herself hope.
I nodded into her neck and I knew she felt it.
There was so much more to consider than just if we wanted children, but for now, the simple fact we did was enough.
“Take me home?”
It was a selfish request, but I wanted her all to myself while she was like this, soft and warm and open, playful and even hopeful. The light in her eyes cast a beautiful glow on the outlook around us that was usually so bleak, and I wanted to bathe in it for a while longer.
“Why run all the way home? I happen to know of a few spare bedrooms right here.”
She swept me into her arms and I laughed as we moved through the halls, fast enough to disorient me, until she was laying me on soft pillows and climbing on top of me.
WE MADE LOVE for what felt like hours, and when we returned downstairs, I could tell it had been.
April and her brood seemed to be gone—or had moved to another part of the tower at least—and Camilla was alone by the fire, staring into the flames.
“Where’s Jade?”
Scarlett’s question made her jump so hard the liquor in her hand sloshed over the side of the glass and onto her pants, making her hiss.
“When did you get back? She went home to see if you two wanted to come up for air and eat with us. I figured you’d all just decided to stay home. Seems that was over an hour ago.”
Scarlett’s fear shot me in the chest when I was too slow to make the jump before her.
“We didn’t go home.”
Cami jumped to her feet and was in front of us before I could blink.
“She’s probably fine. Let’s just go check.”
Scarlett tried to calm us all, swinging me up into her arms again, before we were running.
Chapter Nine
CAMILLA UTTERLY REFUSED to scale the building, and as worried as we all were, as eager as we all were to get to the thirteenth floor, I was glad. The height made me nauseous. So, we took the elevator like civilized beings, Scarlett’s foot tapping the whole way, her unease mixing with mine, making the small space stifling.
When the doors dinged open, she was gone before we stepped out, leaving Camilla beside me, her hands gripping her thighs. She muttered, “She’s not here, she’s not here,” over and over with increasing pitch and panic.
“She’s not here.”
Scarlett’s words sent my stomach plummeting into my sneakers.
“Could there be a logical explanation?”
I tried to be reasonable. Camilla was already at panic station ground zero beside me, looking around wildly like Jade might appear out of thin air.
“Maybe she went back to Hawthorne Tower, or to the market to get something for dinner and bring back to yours.” Scarlett took my idea and ran with it.
“Camilla…”
She grabbed Camilla’s arm and held it until she met her gaze; I realized it was the first time I had seen them touch in so long.
“Stay here with Rayne. I’m going to go take a quick look for her in case we missed her on the way back.”
She waited until Cami nodded and then she was gone. Down the hall, the drapes billowed in the wind through the open window. I moved on autopilot to close it all but a crack, to be sure she could get back in, knowing her patience for the elevator was long gone.
Cami still stood in the foyer, the most undone I had ever seen her. I approached her cautiously and took her hand.
“Can I make you some tea?”
She nodded, looking far away, so I tugged her along with me to the kitchen and left her by the bar. I set the kettle to boil. Our relationship was a strange one. When we first met, she’d hated me, disapproved of my relationship with Scarlett deeply, and I had been jealous of her and threatened by her, as silly as it seemed. When Scarlett was sick and unreasonable, she became an unlikely ally, a friend. As much as we had our differences, I had come to love her as a member of our messed-up little family.
“We’ll find her.”
My reassurance was quiet, and she looked up at me with empty eyes.
“You don’t know that.” It was true, I didn’t, but I did know something.
“If Wilfred has taken her somewhere, he won’t hurt her. She’s too valuable to him when it comes to Scarlett.”
Cami didn’t seem to hear me, and I left her to her brooding, remembering how terrible I had felt when Scarlett disappeared into the bunker, and we were left behind to wonder if we would ever see her again. I desperately wanted Jade home, safe, out of Wilfred’s terrifying clutches, but I was also confident that she was too valuable to him for him to do any real harm to her and risk retaliation from Scarlett.
The kettle came to a boil and I poured two mugs of tea, choosing a peppermint bag and adding a huge amount of honey to Camilla’s in the hopes of helping her out of the current shocked, and possibly tipsy, state she seemed to be in.
I had just set the cup down in front of Camilla when Scarlett appeared behind me.
“Has she come home?”
I shook my head.
“Where did you go this morning, Scarlett?”
Camilla leaped to her feet, sending her stool spilling back across the tile floor and colliding hard with the wall, surprising us all. I jumped at the sudden movement and Scarlett’s hand closed around my arm. She pulled me back away from the angry Camilla.
“That’s none of your damn business,” she snarled, the tension in the room ramping up with every passing second. With both of them emotionally compromised by Jade’s disappearance, they were fanning the flames of the old grudge between them that I had hoped was finally beginning die.
“You went into the fucking bunker, didn’t you?” Camilla roared the words and the curse sounded so wrong in her voice. “You stuck your stupid, reckless nose into things you shouldn’t and got caught, again!”
Everything unfolded fast before me, and all I could do was watch. Scarlett rose up three inches beside me, and I waited for them to collide.
“That is none of your busines
s!”
I could hear the restraint in her voice and silently I begged Cami to sit down so we could talk through this reasonably. I almost suggested as much, but Camilla spoke again.
“It is my business when it means Jade gets pulled into all your bullshit. We get it! You have a shiny new toy now, and finally you have taken your claws out of Jade and let her be her own damn person, but really? Even after he threatened her, you’re still on this suicide mission, all for what? So you can keep playing power trip with your breakable little human girl, even at the expense of the sister who was your whole entire world five minutes ago, so much so that she was practically a prisoner in this tower at your beck and call?”
The slap rang out loud and Camilla’s head whipped around with the force of it.
A low rumbling hung in the air and I realized Scarlett was growling. I hated the sound.
“You don’t know the first thing about Jade, Cami, and so fucking help me, perhaps it’s time I educated you.”
“Stop it.”
I stepped between them, because this was devolving, spilling and spiraling and descending into madness. I was not going to let Scarlett drop that truth on Camilla, not now, not like this.
“You’re both scared for her, I understand, but fighting each other won’t bring her back. In fact, it only makes us even less likely to find her.”
“We’ll never fucking find her!” Cami was hysterical.
“I knew you were stupid—you have to be to come here of your own free will—but wake up! Look at what he did to Scarlett, she’s a psychopath, and you know something, so is he, but he’s worse, and he has Jade. Jade who couldn’t whip a stupid little Fringe girl to save her own silly skin!”
There was a flurry of motion and a thud, and Camilla was on the floor, Scarlett on top of her, her hands tight around her throat, her face twisted into something I recognized by now, but never wanted to see here, in our home. Cami looked up at her with dull brown eyes, stunned.
“Don’t ever talk to her like that.”
Cami tried to push her off. They struggled for a second, but Scarlett held firm.
“It’s fine, Scarlett…”
Scarlett turned those dark eyes to me and silenced me.
“It’s not fine, you’re mine!”
She hissed the words and I knew she was in a dangerously dark place. Hurt and fear wafted off her in waves. She felt powerless, and I was quickly realizing with her, that was the most dangerous emotion of all.
“Let me up, Scarlett.”
Cami’s voice was a hollow monotone. They stayed frozen for a few more seconds until finally Scarlett clambered off her and Cami hauled herself to her feet, straightening her hair. Something hung between them I wasn’t privy to.
“I’m sorry, Rayne.”
I shook my head, not feeling owed an apology—she was probably right.
We were quiet for a few moments.
“What do we do?”
Cami sounded smaller than I had ever heard her, and Scarlett looked broken. I hovered by the bar, my tea cold on the counter beside me, unsure how to help, how to even open a conversation without risking another nuclear explosion.
“We do whatever it takes.” And just like that, Scarlett rose. She was the flower that had bloomed in adversity, a phoenix that had risen from the ashes of her manipulated, twisted life, and I watched her now, beautiful as her back straightened.
“We do whatever it takes.” This time she seemed to be saying the words more for herself than for us, and the sentiment scared me. I knew I was powerless to stop her; she would walk through hell willingly for Jade. I wanted her home too, but not at the expense of my girlfriend, the center of my universe.
A cool breeze kissed my cheeks as Scarlett disappeared, leaving Cami and me to stare awkwardly across the kitchen at each other until she returned.
“Where did you go?”
“To summon my father.”
“Are you crazy?” Camilla’s hissed response pretty much summed up my feelings on the matter.
“We all know that’s where she went, what’s the point in pretending?”
Still rattled from our last encounter, I was loath to see Wilfred Pearce again.
“Princess…” I knew she was going to send me away, but the elevator dinged, and it was already too late. Her frustration told me she hadn’t expected him to arrive so quickly.
“Scarlett, and Camilla… And Rayne.” He surveyed us from the doorway. “What seems to be the emergency?”
“Jade’s missing.”
It was Camilla who spoke, seeming to come back to herself, taking over the interaction before Scarlett could start. I had no idea what angle she was playing.
“How unfortunate.” There was no trace of concern in his voice. “I’m sure she’ll be home when things settle down…”
“What did you do with her?” Scarlett cut in, and finally, the pretense fell away.
“I have no idea what you’re implying, Scarlett.”
“Cut the bullshit, Daddy.” She spat the word and it sounded vulgar in her mouth. “Tell me what you want, tell me where she is. You want to make a deal, give me your terms, but I want her home tonight.”
She released a controlled breath after the words had left her. Wilfred was silent for a moment and then he laughed, long and low and unnerving. It was a play straight out of Scarlett’s own book, and it was totally jarring.
“You want her home tonight?” He was mocking her, and she practically shook with rage beside me.
“What do you want?” She repeated her earlier question.
“Why? Because you would do anything to save her? Absolutely anything?”
“You know I would.” She spat the words back at him.
“Fine, a trade then. Your hybrid for your sister.”
My blood ran cold. Scarlett hissed, and I pushed past her, forcing myself to find my voice.
“Fine.”
He studied me with great interest before she pulled me back roughly, spitting a venomous “no” over my shoulder.
“Interesting.” He observed it all, the light back in his eyes. His obsession with her was clear in that moment. I glanced over to Cami and saw she was entranced by it too. This was the man who had broken Scarlett, without the mask.
“And say, Scarlett, if I had taken her, and put her somewhere for…safe keeping, what do you think might have motivated me to do such a thing?”
He posed it like a math question, a science question, like asking for the time or about the weather. His voice easy and cool, not in the least rattled even as he discussed kidnapping someone and holding them against their will.
“How would I know?” She spat the words at him, vibrating with an energy that grew darker every second.
“Think.”
His tongue clicked on the “k” and then he was beside me and I was yanked back, standing across the kitchen with him, one of his arms pressed tight across my neck.
“What could you possibly hope to find in the bunker archives? I received a very unhappy phone call after your little excursion this morning. Even though you were already warned to mind your own business.”
She took two steps forward and stopped, her composure starting to shatter.
“Let her go.”
Her voice lacked its usual strength.
“Why?” He questioned her again, his arm squeezing tighter around my throat, beginning to restrict my air supply. I stayed quiet, still in his grasp, flashing back horribly to my own father and the many times he had choked me, beat me, bruised me before Scarlett had saved me.
“Why is she still a human?”
“Wilfred, please…”
Camilla tried to cut in and he silenced her with a look.
“Welcome to the family, Miss Hawthorne. Consider this your first lesson. Stay out of things that do not involve you.”
“With all due respect, sir, Jade is my partner. I love her.”
He laughed. “While I approve of the alignment of our families a
nd I’m glad the girl has finally proved useful, you’ll also eventually learn love is weakness. Isn’t that right, Scarlett?”
I jumped as his cane clattered to the floor, his cold fingers clutching my chin, the position he held me in strange until I finally recognized it. He was going to break my neck.
Scarlett crumbled in front of me, melted, broke down into a desperate, frenzied mess.
“No, no… Please. Please! I’ll do it, whatever you want I’ll do it, just let her go!”
He held me still, and together we watched her, hands raised in surrender, trembling, before she seemed to steady herself though the fear never left her eyes.
“I’ll do it. Just let her go, please, whatever you want.”
“Kill Camilla.”
The words rolled around my head, strange and meaningless in my adrenaline-filled brain, until finally they took form. Camilla shrieked and was already running. He laughed, cold breath on the back of my neck, before I was tossed forward hard. Scarlett caught me before I hit the ground. When she pulled me tight to her, she was crying.
Wilfred returned to the room with a screaming, kicking, fighting Camilla in tow.
“Enough!” He roared at her, and she stilled, looking down at Scarlett and me, fear clear in her eyes.
“I was joking.”
He was the only one who found it funny.
Scarlett wiped roughly at her eyes, forcing herself to her feet. She pressed me back against the counter and smoothed my hair before she turned to him. When she stalked forward, she seemed bolder. She yanked Camilla from his grasp and shoved her in my general direction.
“How do I get Jade back?”
She balled her hands into fists at her sides.
“What are you looking for in the bunker?”
She sighed.
“I heard a rumor about Jade, that we’re only half-sisters. A human in the Fringe said he had a relationship with a scientist twenty years ago, that she’d told him. I knew it was a lie and I killed him, but then… I just… It’s such a strange lie, so specific. Ever since I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I need to know it’s not true.”
