by L E Royal
The relief was visible for the barest moment on Wilfred’s face before it was gone.
“And this is why you’ve been so distracted, why your hybrid hasn’t been turned, or trained, why you’re sneaking around deep in the bunker?”
The ends of her dark hair danced as she nodded, and then there was a thud. When I found her again, she was crumpled against the refrigerator, blood dripping down her chin, one hand over her mouth where he had struck her. The shock hit me like a physical blow, and I almost ran to her.
“Childish distractions, Scarlett.” He hissed the words. “For the record, it was a lie. As much as you wouldn’t think it, sadly, Jade is a Pearce. You will put this to bed.”
She nodded, looking shamefaced. Camilla shuffled closer to me and grabbed my hand, pressing it between our bodies and squeezing it tight out of view, keeping me from going to Scarlett just yet. As much as I ached to, I knew this had to play out.
“Turn your hybrid, and handle your business, Scarlett, or I will start to handle it for you.”
She said nothing, and finally, some of the crushing weight, the dread, began to rescind as I sensed his anger waning, satisfied with Scarlett’s lie.
“Jade will be back before midnight. Clean yourself up. I expect to hear your name in the announcements tonight.”
She nodded and then he was gone. I rushed across the space and fell painfully to my knees on the hardwood floor, going easily when she pulled me to her and held me tight.
Across the room, Camilla cried silently.
“Scarlett…”
Scarlett stuck out her other arm, and in a flash, Camilla was beside us. I wrapped my arms around her too, and we all sat there for far too long, just breathing.
Chapter Ten
JADE HAD RETURNED unhurt, and Scarlett’s busted lip had finally stopped bleeding. We sat together in our room, face to face on the bed.
“You have to stop looking.”
She shook her head.
“If anything, I have to find something. We’re running out of time.”
With only two weeks left, I knew she was right.
“Just turn me…”
I didn’t even get to finish before she silenced me without words.
“Would you have killed Cami?”
She let the question hang unanswered for a few long moments.
“Not if there was any other way. I was going to try to kill him first, I just… It’s like he paralyzes me.”
“He tortured you for years.” I held her face in my hands, looking deep into her oddly colored eyes until they would hold mine. “He broke you, baby, it’s logical to be afraid.”
The endearment was new, but she didn’t seem to mind it, though she did take exception to something else.
“I’m not afraid, I’m just…stuck.”
I breathed out, content to let the topic die and go back to trying to convince her to give up her insane plan to take down the government, when a knock at the door interrupted us.
When it opened Camilla appeared, puffy-eyed and pale.
“Come in…”
I invited her when Scarlett remained silent, avoiding her eyes. Scooting over, I motioned for her to sit beside me and wrapped an arm around her when she did. For all our history, she was my family too.
“Scarlett, I um…” It was one of the first times I had heard her stutter, her voice raw and cracked. She cleared her throat and tried again.
“I need to ask you something.” Her lip trembled, and tears spilled from her eyes when she looked up at her best friend, waiting for the other woman to look back.
“What you said to your father…” A sob broke the words and she took a moment to collect herself. I squeezed her tight, trying to lend her some strength.
“Before Leo died, he told me something, and I just… I never thought much of it at the time, but he said we had another sibling, a sister, April’s age… That there was some sort of mix-up.”
Another hacking sob cut through her words. My heart plummeted.
“Scar… I need you to be honest with me.” She swiped roughly at her eyes. “Is Jade my…sister?” She started to cry, and my heart broke for her. “I know you hate me, and you think it’s weird and that she’s a child, but I love her, Scarlett. I love her like I used to talk about when we played house as little kids. I want to spend my life with her but ever since you told your father that I just can’t stop thinking…”
She wiped at her eyes again and I studied Scarlett’s face.
“Our children would be… and I just… If she was my sister. This is everything I ever wanted, finally, but I can’t marry my sister… I just… Just tell me please…” She sobbed. “Just say it?” Camilla cried harder.
“Cami, stop it, Jade’s not your sister, she’s mine. You’re not related.”
Camilla looked up, tears still wet on her cheeks.
“Really?”
Scarlett looked at her, and with all the sincerity in the world she told her, “Really.”
Cami cried harder and to my surprise turned and hugged me tight. I hugged her back and offered Scarlett a questioning look over her shoulder, as she sniffled into mine.
“I checked. There’s no blood relation between you and Jade.”
I heard the relief in Scarlett’s announcement.
Finally, Camilla pulled back and wiped her eyes, another sob taking over before it turned into a laugh.
“You must think I’m so stupid.”
I reassured her that we didn’t, but Scarlett shrugged, which made her laugh.
“I wasn’t going to kill you, you idiot.”
Despite the macabre situation, we all laughed at that.
“Any sane vampire in my shoes would have run. I hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. We all know you’re crazy for this one.”
She patted my cheek affectionately and I reached up and squeezed her hand.
“There you are!”
Jade appeared at the door. She rushed over to Cami and wrapped her arms around her neck, kissing her sweetly on the forehead.
“I was looking for you. Why are you still crying?”
“It’s nothing, darling.”
She smiled at each other, and the sight was so sweet I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cry or hurl. I sensed a wedding on the horizon. Scarlett looked at me and nodded ever so slightly. I smiled back.
“Where did he take you?”
Her voice cut through the moment, back to business, and the sweetness that had lingered around me evaporated. She was still hell-bent on getting herself killed for me.
Jade clutched Cami close to her chest, and Cami rested her head there.
“To the bunker. I sat in a room, nothing happened, then he brought me home.”
“Why would he take you to the bunker?”
Camilla asked the question we were all thinking, and it reminded me of a question of my own.
“I meant to ask you what his involvement with the Government is. How does he know whenever you’re doing something you shouldn’t?”
Scarlett shrugged.
“He has friends in high places. I figured they call and tattle.”
“Someone on the council?” Jade questioned.
Scarlett nodded.
“Probably.”
“Or he’s on the council himself.”
My idea was greeted by silence. Scarlett shook her head, but Jade interrupted.
“It would make a certain kind of sense, though… He always knows what you’re doing, he took me to the bunker today. No one questioned him or asked if he had orders or permission to be there.”
“No one questions me either…”
“That’s because they’re terrified of you,” Cami supplied helpfully.
“I mean I guess it’s possible…and if it was true it would definitely be a start in dismantling the Government to know who one of them was,” Scarlett conceded though she still sounded skeptical.
“Let’s ask Mom?”
Camilla snorte
d. “Oh, this is going to be good.”
Scarlett grit her teeth.
“Is it really worth upsetting her over a crazy theory, a hunch at best?”
“A hunch that makes sense!” Jade supplied.
“You have a mom?” I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice.
“Ever heard the expression it takes two to tango, Princess?” Scarlett joked.
Jade kissed Cami again and then pulled away. “I’ll go and get her, let’s meet in the living room?”
Scarlett nodded and then Jade was gone.
“Go ahead and get us a good sofa, sweetheart, we’ll be there in a minute.”
Scarlett dismissed me. I didn’t mind. As I turned to close the door behind me, she was pulling Camilla into her arms, Camilla going willingly. As I walked down the hall, I was proud of myself for how much I had grown, proud of all of us for what we had overcome, and strangely optimistic about this new crazy idea that somehow Wilfred Pearce was more involved than he seemed. I had no idea what we would do if he was, but for now, it made me feel like we were making progress.
I went through the motions of remaking my tea and sipped from my mug as I perched on the sofa.
Camilla and Scarlett joined me first, the latter sitting beside me and winding herself comfortably around me, while Camilla reclined at the other end of the sofa, looking tired but relaxed.
The elevator dinged, and voices and footsteps floated toward us.
“But I don’t want to be a dancer, Mom.”
“Yes but, darling, you’d be beauuutiful. Wonderful. And besides what else are you doing with your life?”
Scarlett rolled her eyes and Camilla snickered.
“Oh my God, she still hasn’t realized she has two left feet?”
They appeared at the doorway as Scarlett shook her head.
“Hello, Mother.”
“Scarlett, darling, Mommy’s here!”
There was something off about Scarlett and Jade’s mom. Her hair was jet black, with one thick gray streak running from her crown back into her slightly lopsided ponytail. Black work boots poked out from under her flowing black dress.
“Mrs. Pearce…”
Camilla greeted her cordially.
The woman studied her.
“Camilla, is that you? I have to say you look wonderful even though I know you’re defiling my daughter… The other one this time!”
Camilla shifted uncomfortably as Jade groaned.
“Mom…”
“Now don’t you Mommy me, young lady.” She turned back to Camilla. “Are your intentions pure, Camilla Hawthorne?”
Camilla sat up straight, and I could see somewhere deep down she was fighting a smile.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, all right then, I suppose.” Mrs. Pearce sniffed again, lifting up her skirts as she plonked down into a recliner and crossed her legs in a very unladylike fashion.
“Mother, I can see your underwear,” Scarlett declared dryly, and sharp dark eyes turned to her.
“And what about you, Scarlett? I can’t keep up with your toys. Which one is it that has Daddy so wound up now, hm? The nurse?” Her eyes landed on me, and she tilted her head, one hand thankfully yanking her long skirt down over one knee. “Plain, but pretty,” she observed aloud.
“Mother, this is Rayne.” Scarlett took my hand. “She’s not my toy, I love her.”
The woman just continued to stare at me.
“Sweetheart, this is my mother, Helena Pearce.” Scarlett spoke quietly, squeezing my hand.
“Oh, don’t whisper, Scarlett! For goodness sake, we can’t take any more of your whispering. I still haven’t forgotten what you did to poor Alfie!”
“Oh my God…” Scarlett flopped back in her seat defeated, glaring at Jade. “Why did I let you convince me this was a good idea?”
“Speak up, child!” Helena grumbled.
“Who’s Alfie?” I couldn’t help but ask, though I was unsure I wanted to know.
“Scarlett’s toy.” Mrs. Pearce turned her attention back to me. “Stand up, girl, and let me have a proper look at you.”
Blushing, I did as I was asked. She hummed as she appraised me. Scarlett looked embarrassed and Camilla was hardly containing her laughter.
“Hmm, yes, a bit skinny, decent chest, nice derriere… Blonde… Scarlett, did you say she was a vampire, dear?”
“No, Mother, she’s a hybrid.”
Mrs. Pearce seemed suddenly lucid.
“Did you sire her?”
Scarlett seemed to sense the switch too. Her reply was more careful.
“No. ma’am… She was like this when I…met her.” I knew she’d had to fight the habit of saying “acquired” or “came to own.”
“Impossible. Someone has shared blood with her. Hybrids don’t just happen. Is she a Delta hybrid or a non-Delta? Someone’s head is going to land on the chopping block for this…”
That seemed to spark something in her, and she set off singing a bizarre little song, while Jade and Cami stared at us, questions in their eyes.
Jade cleared her throat.
“Mother…”
“Call me Mommy, dear.” Helena cut in, before she went back to her singing.
“Mommy…” Jade stuttered out the word, embarrassed. “Used to be a Government scientist, one of the best. One day there was an accident…and she…um…”
“Oh, it wasn’t an accident, darling. Wasn’t an accident at all.”
“What do you mean?” Scarlett humored her.
“When you know too much, you know too much.”
“What did you know too much about, Mommy?”
She ground out the word, and it sounded odd in her mouth, but all of us were eager to hear what the woman had to say.
“We don’t talk about that, Helena!” She barked out the words and I jumped. Her voice was deep and decidedly masculine, and we all exchanged a glance as we realized she was imitating her husband. “Jade darling, why don’t you do a little dance for us? I dreamed last night you were in the ballet.”
I watched Helena. As strange as she was, beneath the neurosis there was something sad to her. I wished she could tell us her story.
“I don’t dance, Mom…”
Jade squirmed uncomfortably as her cheeks were pinched.
“No of course not, dear, that’s why I always did like Alfie best. Until Scarlett killed him!”
“You killed your brother?”
I asked the question quietly, and Scarlett’s irritated mismatched eyes met mine, but before she could respond we were interrupted.
“Oh yes, she killed him, ding-dong dead! Dead as a doornail, completely and utterly dead!” She screeched the last word at a pitch that made me cringe. “She’s very good at death.” Helena whispered the words like a secret and it was haunting.
“For the millionth time, Mother, it’s not my fault he jumped out the window…”
“You threw him into the sky, toward the sun, and he fell like a star…” Helena swung her arms dramatically, and I imagined talking to her was something like attending a poetry reading. The dialogue just kept taking twist after twist.
“Poor Alfie!” Camilla chimed in, a wicked grin on her mouth.
“Oh yes, poor Alfie, poor Alfie…” Helena echoed her words, while Scarlett flipped her best friend off.
“So, your brother fell out of the tower window and…died?”
“Yes!”
“No.”
Mother and daughter answered at the same time.
“He was the light of my life, the only consolation after Jade was such a disappointment to us all.”
“That’s enough!” Scarlett’s demand was harsh, and Helena jumped, pressing her fingers to her lips as if she had been scolded. “Enough about the damn dog!”
Alfie was a dog? Beside me Scarlett was cold and hard, and her mother looked afraid of her. I couldn’t help but pity Helena.
“What happened when you had your accident, Mom, or your not-accident
?” Jade lifted her chin trying to put on a brave face, but it was obvious the remark had cut her.
“Well, it wasn’t an accident. I just… Quiet, Helena!” Her voice once again imitated a familiar one.
“Is Mr. Pearce involved with the Government, Helena?” Cami tried.
“Well, darling, he is the Government!” She laughed long and hard at that and we all shared a look.
“What do you mean, he is the Government?” Scarlett asked when she finally stopped laughing. Jade took her hand.
“Explain the science to me, Mom. How does he relate to the um, organism as a whole?”
She seemed to come back to reality a little, and it was so easy to imagine her as a brilliant scientist, making it even sadder to see her reduced to this half mad wreck.
“He’s the nucleus.” Her voice was quiet, no trace of humor. “He controls the cell, the channels that bring in and the channels that go out. Scarlett is the mitochondria, the powerhouse, and he made her that way to serve his purpose.”
“Is Wilfred on the council?” Scarlett asked the question. Helena took a breath, lifting her chin, and as her lips parted, fear in her eyes, I was sure she was about to say something profound, something that would change the face of the game we had been playing for too long now.
“My poor Alfie.”
“Take her back, Jade.”
Scarlett’s disappointment echoed in her tone.
“You were really helpful, Mom.” Jade patted her hand and stood though her mother made no move to follow.
Something struck me.
“Mrs. Pearce,” I began politely, “can it be reversed? Whatever happened to you that made you forget—can we change it? Is there an antidote or a cure?”
She studied me.
“No.” The reply was sad. “My brain chemistry is altered forever; the reaction is irreversible. Might be better just to end it all. A failed experiment.”
I swallowed hard, and Jade and Scarlett shared a long look.
“Why don’t you come upstairs, Mom? I have a new dance I wanted to show you.”
Jade and her wonderful big heart, and the sadness around Mrs. Pearce’s situation, made tears sting my eyes.
“Scarlett, change the world, my darling.”
We all looked up at her as she lingered in the doorway. The remark was disarmingly poignant given what we all knew Scarlett planned to do.
