by Lena North
“Have to give it to you, man… Superb comeuppance,” he muttered.
“Absolumundo,” Jamie retorted.
Their eyes met, and suddenly they both started laughing. Jiminella nudged me and the smile in her eyes was infectious, so I giggled with her.
We stayed at the restaurant until late, dancing and drinking wine spritzers or beer. There was a lot of laughter, silly dancing, and sexy dancing, and when we finally strolled back to the small house we shared with my grandmother, I was tired, and my feet hurt.
“Not going to –” Nick cut himself off and grinned crookedly. “The little shit,” he went on. “The walls are super thin in this house. Your grandmama is sleeping upstairs. He knew we wouldn’t do anything but sleep tonight.”
Damn it, but he was right.
We didn’t get up until late the next day and then we went to Prosper where Benito waited with the small airplane that would take us to the Islands.
“I’ve checked every inch of this plane. No one has touched a thing,” he said on the loudspeaker as we were taking off.
Nick gave him a thumbs-up, and we sat in silence for the first part of the journey.
“I’ll drop out of Uni,” I said.
I’d talked to my teachers, and they had promised that I could take extra classes to get back on track after my long absence, but just the thought of it made me shudder.
“Okay,” Nick said.
“I don’t want to be a marine biologist,” I told him.
He snorted, and asked, “Why would you?”
“But I have to work with something,” I said.
“You have the vigilante thing going with Hawker. That’ll take some of your time. And you write,” he said, and I blinked.
I did. I hadn’t in the past months, but I had written some before everything started to escalate around us.
“Babe, I have to travel anyway. If I only took pictures of one place, everyone would get bored,” he said. “Would like it better if you could come with me sometimes. You have time to figure it all out.”
I was pretty sure no one would ever get bored with his pictures, but I got what he meant.
“Where will home be?”
“Wherever,” he said with a shrug. “We have your house in Norton, my place in Prosper and the house on the Islands. Bet we can mooch a bed in Marshes anytime we feel like it.”
It felt as if a weight suddenly lifted off my shoulders. I’d thought I would have to decide on one place, but he’d just told me that we could move around as we pleased.
“You’re right,” I said.
“Always am,” he smirked and I grinned as I slapped him on his shoulder.
The plane started its descent, and I looked out on the Islands and the beautiful turquoise water surrounding it. Pauline and Nicholas would be waiting on the tarmac. Nick’s sisters were home for a few days so they’d be there too.
“We’ll sleep in your house on the beach tonight,” I sighed.
“Our house. And we’ll not sleep much,” he said.
I giggled, and it wasn’t fake, but it sounded profoundly silly. I didn’t care.
“I want to make love to you with the doors open, to the sound of the waves,” he murmured.
“Nick…”
“And later in the house in the mountains, with the cold wind blowing in through the windows. And in Prosper, with the sound of the city surrounding us. In the dunes outside Marshes, and on your boat…”
“That’s a lot of places,” I said, a little breathlessly.
“Is that a problem?” he asked.
I looked into his beautiful eyes and smiled.
“Not a problem at all.”
Epilogue
Skiing
The snow made a soft creaking sound underneath my skis as I made my way down, turning in a slow, even rhythm. I hadn’t been skiing on the mountain since that day when I lost my father, and I hadn’t known how much I missed the smell of the cold and the wind in my face until right then
My bird was circling above, Miller was to my left, and Hawker to my right, and I knew they held back for my sake. I’d learn again, I vowed. I’d been a good skier, and I hadn’t forgotten everything, so I could learn again.
Then I stopped, and the two men did too.
“It was here,” I whispered.
“Yeah, Snow. It was here,” Miller said. “You okay?”
I looked into his gentle eyes, and answered with complete honesty, “Yes, Mill. I am.”
Then I took off my skis and made my way to the edge, to look down.
“Snow.”
“Bird.”
“Wild man and his bird both died here.”
Wild man. That’s what she called my father.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
The drop was steeper than I’d remembered and I wondered how I’d managed to get down there unharmed. A quiet echo of the desperate feeling that had been clawing in my chest, and the explosion of grief that came after, coursed through me.
“I miss you, Da,” I said. “Take care of Mama.”
I raised my eyes toward the sky and swallowed.
“If you can hear me, tell her that I’ve forgiven her. Tell her I love her.”
A soft breeze suddenly swept through the trees, and I smiled.
“I love you too, Da,” I said.
“Miss you, Oz,” Hawk muttered, and Miller echoed the words.
There was another soft gust of wind, and I looked at the men in surprise.
“There are lots of things in this world we don’t understand, Snow,” Hawker said quietly.
Then loud sounds echoed on the mountain and we turned to look up the slope at the spectacle that was coming our way.
Nick’s wide pants were waving in the wind, as his slightly bent knees wobbled. There were at least two, if not three, feet between his skis. He held his elbows straight out from his sides, and they wobbled too, so his poles were bouncing around him in a way that made me worry he’d poke one of his eyes out.
“Whoopee,” he shouted, and made something that probably was supposed to be a turn but mostly looked like he was about to fall.
Wilder was next to him, and I heard her call out something. Kit, Mickey, and Olly were laughing so loudly I thought they’d set off an avalanche.
There hadn’t been a helmet in the whole village large enough to cover his dreads, so they were flying in the wind. Then he made another attempt at a turn, and promptly fell, creating a cloud of snow in the process.
“Uh, Snow,” Hawker muttered. “You sure he’s what you want?”
I looked up the slope at the man above us. The snow was brushed off him by a group of expert skiers who were cracking up so hard they could barely stand, and my bird made a sweep around them, shrieking out her glee.
“This is so much fun, Snow!” he called out to me, and I heard him laugh with the others as he got up, and started making his way down toward us.
“Yeah,” I said and turned to Hawker Johns. “He’s exactly what I want.”
~~~
Continue reading; Reaper, the fifth and final book in the Birds of a Feather series, and Seaborn – both planned for release 2018.
Reaper – Birds of a Feather, book five
Prologue
I hid in the shadows, protecting the group. When they needed it, I helped, and when I judged it safe, I interfered. Shielding and aiding a man and his friends, and perhaps protecting myself at the same time. I had too many secrets. Too much to lose.
After weeks of preparations, they finally got ready to fight, and I watched them. The scout had been there for a while with her sharp-eyed man, and their voices were muted when they shared what they'd found. Both the leader and his daughter suddenly seemed to sense me and raised their heads to search the alley with pale amber eyes, but I was there through the gaze of another, and we stilled.
Soft steps
announced the arrival of a tall man, and I recognized him immediately. The genius’ man, carrying his heritage from the kings of our past like a cloak, regal and proud with his long golden hair held back at the nape of his neck. His gray eyes sliced through the shadows like a razor-sharp knife and I pulled back from his gaze until he turned with a shrug.
When the last one finally rolled in on a low, black cruiser, my breath hitched as if it stumbled a little on its way down my throat. His long coat was black as the night. As black as his eyes and the marks on his neck.
The man was a warrior, a killer, all strength and composure as he approached the others with a confident stride. In a whisper-soft rustle, his bird swept down from above to rest on the arm he had raised, and their eyes met in perfect accord.
The Reaper had come.
His mother was there and they nodded slowly although no words were spoken. I saw her slide a small hand along his arm, though, and his smile in return.
The group stayed silent as final preparations were made. It was unusual to find them all gathered like that, and I thought back on the last time I’d seen it. He’d been there then too, fighting the men who had held the girl in the basement. I’d searched day and night just as they did, and I found her, a little by chance but mostly by skill and determination. Word had been passed to the group and they’d gotten her out of there, bruised and battered. Alive.
“Let’s go,” the yellow-eyed man grunted, and they spread out.
I followed them into the building, hoping they had what they needed to succeed. Worrying that I'd not done enough for them. Wondering if I could have done more.
An ambush awaited in the huge open factory, but they knew in advance that it would, and pressed on as shots were fired.
“Find him!” the leader called out, and they spread out yet again.
I knew who they were hunting, and hoped with every beat of my heart that they'd kill him. Cameron Strachlan. Abuse victim. Murderer. Lost boy. The devil.
From nowhere, the sound of explosion resounded and a small woman was thrown from her spot on a walkway. She hit the wall with a sickening thud, and the whole world stopped breathing for a second.
Then the man in the black coat started running.
One glance at his mother, crumpled on the floor in a corner, and then a roar vibrated in the air. I’d never heard anything like it before, and I never want to, not ever again. It was the pure, undiluted sound of pain.
He got up and I saw how his eyes had gone blank. They were dark, bottomless pools of madness and fury, filled to the brim with destruction.
There was a blade in each of his hands when he started walking, and the others didn't hold him back like they usually did. They followed him into the battle with their own weapons raised. Flanking him, and shielding him. Helping him.
I’d seen him fight before, but not like that night. He wielded his knives with all the skill he possessed, and the echoing screams contrasted frighteningly with the complete silence of the Reaper, dispatching vengeance for his mother. Then the bees came to their aid, flushing out men from nooks they had hid in. Dragonflies swarmed through the building in their wake, and the birds came from everywhere, screeching and clawing. The smell of their wrath clung to the air, giving it a sickening odor, and the few who could get away ran for their lives.
When it was over, he went back to his Ma. On his knees, with his hand on her cheek, he murmured a final soft sentence. A final goodbye.
Then he walked away, and his face was completely void of emotions, but there were tears on his cheeks. His cousin ran after him, only to get brushed off with a hoarse whisper.
“I have to tell Da.”
When the roar from his bike had faded, I started weeping, silently and helplessly.
The Reaper had left, beaten and grieving.
And I loved him.
The time to step out of the shadows had come.
~~~
Reaper is planned for release in January 2018 – sign up for Lena’s newsletter to get word on exact dates, www.lenanorth.com, and follow Lena on social media for even more news.
Seaborn
Running for her life from the man whose fists put her in the hospital, Charlie escapes to the small town of Croxier, located on an Island far out in the sea, where she can hide until she’s healed, and until she can return safely to her life in Prosper city.
Ready to give up and settle for companionship, accepting that the all-consuming love from fiction and fantasy isn’t for him, Joao walks into his Uncle Nico’s house to talk about protection for a girl they are helping.
Then Charlie opens her bruised and swollen eyes, and everything changes.
Table of Contents
Copyright
My thanks
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Epilogue
Continue reading – Reaper
Continue reading - Seaborn
