“You're welcome,” Beth replied, feeling as if her space were being invaded. Of course, she had never really had a female friend before. The other Reflective females treated her like a pariah because she’d chosen to be a warrior.
They simply didn't understand that it hadn't been about choice but about calling. She could no more work in a clerical capacity than Merrick could.
She smiled, thinking about that big warrior's body being folded behind a desk.
“What's so funny?”
Beth's grin widened as she drew closer to her small domicile.
She lived in the suburbs of Barringer, which she liked better than town. She received fewer dirty looks and had less shunning to avoid. What the elite Papiliones did not see, they could not look down upon.
“Sorry, my mind is wandering.”
“Has anyone ever told you that what you're thinkinʼ is all over your face?” Madeline asked.
Yes, with their fists.
“Some,” Beth answered.
“Wow…” Madeline breathed. “This is amazing.”
Madeline spun in a slow circle, taking in the antique building with a thatched roof at a fourteen-twelve pitch. Two apartments had been carved out of the interior, and a wrought-iron stairwell guarded a medieval-period arched door. Studs of hand-forged metal held together the wood tongue- and-groove planks of the seven-foot door.
Warm windows of amber, each with four divided lights were separated like two sets of kind eyes sunk into the stone façade.
“It's gorgeous,” she said.
Beth agreed, giving critical attention to her shared domicile and nodded. It was as close to the remembered childhood home as she could come.
Madeline turned away from the house and took in the solar-powered lights flickering on with twilight's descent.
The town of Barringer lay beneath them; stone cottages and cobblestoned roads flowed in ribbons of chaos as they migrated down the hill to the center that housed the judicial, medicinal and The Cause headquarters.
Beyond that, vineyards rose like reminders of the spring that would yield plump grapes.
“The view is incredible.”
Beth was pleased that the Three was so grateful for their world. Each minute she was there, Madeline seemed to thrive a bit more. It was as though Sector Three had poisoned her. Or, at the very least, hadn’t allowed her to flourish as she was meant to.
“Come,” Beth said, putting her thumb to the pulse pad at the right of the thick entrance door. The old-fashioned surface-mount rim lock remained, but it had fallen out of use long ago. When brain impulse technology—or just “pulse” for short—had been introduced, the number of thefts had taken a big dip. It had improved the quality of Papiliones’ daily life, as most advancements should.
A thumbprint was unique to the individual, so it was completely secure. Of course, that had not been the case with the fraudulent prints they'd sold on the black market of Three.
It had been for The Cause.
The door swung wide, the bronze handle pull cool to the touch, reminding Beth that autumn was quickly approaching. Her one-month absence had unnaturally sped up her sense of reality, and she hadn't caught up yet.
The two women climbed the steps, and Beth repeated the pulse security routine for her personal dwelling.
The number at the door simply read,2.
There was only one other that entered here and Beth was relieved when her butterflies floated toward her when she swung the heavy door wide.
“Butterflies!” Madeline chimed behind Beth and the women raised their arms to receive the greeting from butterfly to Reflective.
As ancient as Papilio itself, the butterflies came and landed.
One large specimen stroked its velvet wings against Beth's cheek. “Yes, yes Sampson.”
Beth petted his wide wings.
Sampson was her favorite. He was a great beauty. His body was decorated in periwinkle, with striking electric blue spots and stripped antenna that alternated between the two colors.
“He's so pretty,” Madeline said quietly.
“Handsome,” Beth said automatically.
“How do you know he's male?”
She smiled at Madeline.
The girl cocked her head. “Besides the clue in the name?”
Beth nodded, her smile becoming a grin.
“I don't know—just do.”
She knew. The male Reflectives could never tell, but Beth could. She always attracted the papiliones wherever she went. Sometimes one or two followed the male Reflectives, but never the flock that trailed Beth as if she were the Pied Piper.
Madeline made her way deeper inside Beth's domicile.
Her eyes touched on everything, and Beth was suddenly self-conscious. She wasn't known for her housekeeping.
It was a very good thing the women who straightened residences for Reflectives while they were on jumps visited frequently.
Beth knew the women had been there because the butterflies’ small salt perch was fresh, and their sugar dropper was full. She sighed in relief. No one had anticipated the break in the continuum. However, every Reflective’s contract stated that their domicile would be maintained in their Cause-sanctioned absence—until their death or break in service.
Beth had never anticipated an absence so long when she’d blithely signed the contract.
She was glad for the contingency.
Rows of small lights hung from solid wood beams buried in the stone walls and flush against the solid four-meter-tall rock ceiling.
The butterflies lit on the wires that traveled between the bulbs.
White lights twinkled at the women like stars.
“Thank you,” Madeline said softly.
Tears like crystal rain fell from her face, dripping from her delicate jawbone to land on the wood floor.
Beth wasn't good at consoling. She had no practice.
“Why are you crying?” Again.
Madeline hiccuped back a sob. “I'm so damn grateful, I simply don't have the words.”
Beth blinked. It made her resistance to sharing her domicile less frustrating. Madeline behaved like a person who'd never received a kindness in her whole life.
That sobered Beth in many ways, some which struck very close to home.
Beth didn't know exactly what to do with the gratitude so she ignored it.
“Let me show you your room.”
A smile tilted the corners of Madeline's mouth as she followed Beth, which irked her.
She hated being so easy to read.
Beth walked down the dimly lit corridor and depressed a tarnished brass thumb latch, pushing open the wooden door.
A miniscule window peered into the ancient woods behind the domicile, now kept in the deep shadow of night's invasion. Only the tops of the trees appeared to escape, reluctantly letting go of their silhouettes to the cape of true evening.
A long, narrow bed stood underneath the small convex portal of a single pane of glass. A tiny nightstand with a pulse light was centered atop the adjacent square wooden tabletop.
A scrolling design of metal loops took up the headboard in a chipped blood red. The quilt made by one of the Crafters snugged the corners and foot. A lone stuffed bear—the only thing Beth had been allowed to keep from her childhood—lay anchored amid two thick pillows.
Madeline walked over to a small bookcase opposite the bed and ran her finger over the spines of many tales of the dark fey, Beth’s favorite.
The dwelling was too ancient for anything modern like an integral closet, but there was a wardrobe against a corner that jogged to accommodate the tiny fireplace in Beth's chamber. It mirrored the room they stood in.
Beth went to the wardrobe and opened the pine doors, placing the backpack inside the bottom, noting a dozen empty hangers, starving for clothes, hanging on the brass rod.
She softly closed it and turned.
Madeline's face clenched to restrain her emotions. After a few deep breaths, she said, “This
is wonderful. But…”
Beth frowned.
Madeline laughed. “Is there a bathroom here? Everything looks so antique-y.”
Beth's lips twitched. “Yes. We call it a cleansing room in this sector.”
It was Madeline's turn to frown. “That's weird.”
Beth shrugged. It was what it was.
“I'm desperate for a shower. I feel skanky and—yuk,” Madeline said, taking a subtle whiff of herself.
“I'm sympathetic.”
“Do you want to use the shower first?” Madeline asked, tucking back inside her turtle shell.
Principle but she is reticent.
“No, you go ahead and cleanse first. I will follow.”
Madeline's brows quirked. “You talk different here.”
Beth nodded. “I am home.”
“Are you speaking Latin?”
“What do you think?” Beth asked, curious.
Madeline shrugged. “I can't tell.”
Beth looked down at her feet, overcome with all the strangeness of the current circumstances.
Her face rose. “Yes,” she answered.
“Oh,” Madeline said. “I'm gonna go then and…” She indicated the corridor.
Beth answered, “Second portal on the left.”
Madeline hesitated. “Thanks.”
After a few minutes of silence, the commode flushed, and the cleanser was turned on.
The white noise of water drowned out the silence, and Beth walked to her sofa then plopped down in exhaustion.
She unlaced her boots and dragged her feet out of the shoes she'd been wearing for three days.
Sleepily, her mind reminded her that it had really been more like a month. That made her mouth crack into a sloppy grin.
The last thing she remembered was feeling dead on her feet.
Then it occurred to her she was no longer on her feet.
Beth fell into a deep sleep.
The butterflies stood guard over their charge, only the soft beat of their wings revealing their existence.
After a time, a large periwinkle butterfly floated downward with the expertise of practice and landed on the sleeping female Reflective.
It tucked its wings tight to its body and nestled against the soft crook of her neck.
Beth slept on, oblivious to the butterfly who gave her comfort while she dreamed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Hey, man! How do I turn this dumb thing on?”
Jeb cracked an eyelid. His every muscle ached, begging for more sleep. His eyes rolled over the countertop of his kitchen, where crumbs, a dirty knife still caked with too much peanut butter, and an open sack of bread stood like a contaminated island in the middle of his kitchen.
Jeb's eyes fluttered shut.
“Jeb!” Jacky yelled, two feet from his face.
He sat up in one motion, staring at the teen like imminent death. Just call him Reaper.
He was tired and hungry. He felt sore because he was, and if he'd thought he had escaped host duty, he was sorely mistaken.
Obviously, Jacky was on another sector zone for time.
“Hey, man… you look like ass.”
Jeb growled, and Jacky stepped back. He was at a safe distance and Jeb calculated how far he would have to reach to ring Jacky’s neck.
Instead, he scrubbed his face. He ran his finger through his long corkscrew hair. He longed for a close-shorn haircut, but his return jump to Three would require him to keep the mop for a time longer.
“Well,” Jacky asked, retreating one more step.
Definitely smart.
“It's second portal to the right.”
“Thanks.” Jacky gave him a considering look.
“You're not much of a morning person.”
Jeb glared at him.
“Fine, eff me.”
Jeb heard the door slam and sprang off the couch, flinging his arms to loosen the stiffness.
He padded in his underwear to the kitchen and wiped the crumbs off the quartz slab. After capping the peanut butter, he twisted the sack with the bread inside and neatly tucked the whole business inside his cupboard.
He turned around, and the lathered peanut butter mocked his normally sterile surfaces.
Their current living arrangement was so not going to work.
The boy had atrocious manners and a tongue that never stopped with insults, both inferred and actual. On top of it all, he was not even Reflective. All of it plucked at Jeb's innate sense of dignity.
He jammed an empty coffee cup into the pulse dispenser and selected cappuccino. If he didn't have something special that morning, he would never make it through the day. He would spoil it for everyone who came into contact with him with his foul mood.
As the smell of the brew filled the kitchen, Jeb heard the soft sound of the sunflower showerhead, like rain falling, from his cleansing room.
He frowned.
Hope that brat doesn't dirty up the whole place.
Too late.
Jeb leaned against the doorjamb of one of the only modern domicile complexes in Barringer.
It was completely square and built with modern materials that mimicked the old. Papiliones were proud of their fourteen- to sixteenth-century architecture.
Jeb thought the looks were okay, and he understood the need to preserve their history, but he had refused to deal with drafts, noise, and lack of function. The first thing he'd done upon moving into his dwelling was take it down to the studs and make every wire, gadget, and inclination of the pulse variety.
He sipped his delicious morning solace and surveyed his guest’s accommodations, which looked as if a cyclone had torn through it.
The coverlet from the bed was strewn haphazardly, bunched tightly into a corner of the bed.
Socks so dirty they could walk to the clothes holder stood at disgusting attention, mid-heave in the center of his tiled floor.
Whatever drink the boy had consumed the night before had left a wet ring on the thick glass-topped integral bar that ran the length of the headboard.
When Jeb had said yes to housing the boy until their return jump, he had not considered it very carefully.
He wondered how Jasper was faring with Madeline.
“There's no towel!” Jacky wailed from the cleansing room.
It’s going to be a long visit.
*
Jeb fell into step beside Jasper.
She looked as tired as he felt.
“How'd your night go?” she asked, but something about the tilt of her mouth let Jeb know that she had an inkling of just how shitty it had been.
“I'm thinking you got the good end of the stick.”
Jasper grinned.
“Maybe,” she confirmed.
Jeb glared at her, not seeing the humor. “Oh, come on, Merrick. When's the jump?”
One long week away.
Waiting at least a week was mandatory between jumps. He almost felt as if he could have gone two weeks before going back to Three. It'd left an unpleasant aftertaste in his mouth—and an unexpected houseguest.
Jasper stopped.
“Principle, you look depressed.”
He was, but Jeb would soon have the cure.
“I—Principle… that boy.”
Jasper's lips quirked. “He's a handful.”
“That's the understatement of the world.”
“Pull up your big-boy boxers, Merrick.”
He stopped, pegging his hands on his hips. “I see someone is still enjoying the Hades out of Three lingo.”
Jasper laughed. “Yeah, but you walked right into it.”
“Walked right into what? And why are you using Three language?”
Ryan looked between them both. Jeb narrowed his gaze on the flippant Reflective. Without realizing it, he’d stationed himself protectively in front of Jasper. When he noticed, he moved aside.
Ryan flicked his eyes to the movement and smirked.
“I don't answer to you, Ryan.”
&n
bsp; “Yeah, I got that. What about her?” He moved his jaw in Jasper’s direction. “Seems she leads your around by your dick, if you ask me.”
“Yet—he didn't, Ryan,” Jasper said.
Jeb knew a preparatory stance when he saw one. Jasper was keyed to fight, and Ryan certainly seemed as if he could bring it again.
What is this extreme animosity between them?
“Settle down, Ryan.” Jeb turned to Jasper.
“Jasper.”
She glared at Ryan then turned passive features to Jeb.
“Let's not involve Rachett. Ignore his stupid ass.”
“I'm far from stupid, Captain Merrick.”
His official title sounded like slur coming from Ryan's mouth. He hated addressing him officially.
He obviously hated Merrick.
That was fine. Merrick crossed his arms, smiling wide. “Listen well, Inductee Ryan.”
They stared at each other.
“I don't know what this pissing contest is between you and fellow Inductee Jasper, but I want it to cease and desist.” His eyes went from Jasper to Ryan, who stood with an uneasy space between them.
“You spent a month of fun at Sector One.”
Ryan's face became granite at the mention of One.
“You say you're smart? Then act like the IQ you have rather than your boot size.”
Ryan's expression soured.
“You're not my lead. I don't have to show you anything but pat civility. You lead with Jasper.” Ryan took an irritated swipe against where his inhibitor timepiece disc lay beneath his skin.
Jeb stepped into his personal space. As tall and muscular as Jeb was, Ryan was his equal in size.
Ryan didn't put his finger on Jeb's chest, but it hovered there.
“Stay out of my fucking way, Captain Merrick.”
Using the heel of his palms, Jeb slapped Ryan's chest, knocking him backward. “You get off my dick, and stay away from my partner, or we're going to have words.”
Ryan leaned toward Jeb, a vein throbbing in the fair skin over his temple.
“And it won't be the talking kind.”
Ryan had all the contained violence of a Reflective on high combative alert.
Then he trained that vision on Jasper. “Stay out of my fucking way, mongrel.”
“Thanks for the love.” Jasper fluttered her fingers at him.
Between Death (#6.5): Dark Dystopian Paranormal Romance Page 29
