by Cecilia Lane
“See that?” her mother asked Sage, pointing to a picture of a toddler in muddy undies ready to jump in another puddle. “Our Lilah used to get as dirty as the rest of us simple country folk. Don’t let her fancy city job fool you.”
“Momma,” Lilah groaned as much over the picture as the bald guilt for leaving their tiny town. “I told you to take that down years ago.”
“Oh, who are we going to show? No one comes to visit us.” Her mother waved off the jab and ushered them into the kitchen.
Lilah and Sage took seats at the table while her mother busied herself pouring four glasses of lemonade. When the last drop hit the ice, she pulled out the powder mix to refill the pitcher. Lilah wasn’t at all surprised to see her add an extra half scoop before giving the whole thing a good stir and sticking it back in the fridge. Some things never changed.
Her father bustled inside and let the back door bang closed behind him, wiping his hands on a rag he immediately stuck back into the pocket of his jumpsuit. The tall, wiry man bent to plant a kiss on his wife’s head, then hurried around to do the same to Lilah. Once again, the strength of his scent surprised her. Dirt and grease from whatever he worked on, but underneath was a layer of something earthy, like his aftershave and the breeze blowing in from the surrounding flatlands.
“Hands, Merle,” her mother just about growled before he leaned against the counter.
Her father rolled his eyes at the eternal reminder, but turned to the sink anyway. “What brings you to town, sweetheart?” he asked over his shoulder. “I thought you were too busy to make the trip down here.”
Lilah swirled her glass and took a sip before answering. “I was collecting information for a case in Bearden, and I had the sudden urge to come see you. Sage was heading this way, too, so we decided to make the trip together.”
“Bearden? You’re working with shifters now?” Her mother clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Isn’t it time you found something else, sweetheart? I just don’t know how you can defend those people. Half of them are criminals and the other half will be in a year’s time.”
“I’m not a lawyer, Momma. I don’t do any of the defending,” Lilah said in a tired repeat of previous arguments. Fuck. Maybe the trip had been a mistake. At least bringing Sage inside. The poor woman had stiffened at her mother’s sharp tone, and the air around her took on a strange smell. She should have left her back at the hotel and made the final leg on her own. No one wanted to sit through someone else’s guilt trip and defense of their life choices. “And don’t you think everyone deserves an opportunity to present their side of the story?”
Rita pursed her lips and waved off the explanation. “We worry, is all. You don’t know what those creatures really want. I just don’t understand why they can’t go back to hiding in the shadows. Everywhere you look now it’s shifter this and vampire that. I saw on the news the other day—”
“Momma, please—”
“—a vegan bakery owned by these fae is being accused of hexing some poor woman’s bread to make her grow a mustache. You know how I feel about the vegans already, but now we can’t even eat bread without worrying if I’m going to get boils?”
“I can guarantee that’s not a problem, Momma,” Lilah tried to cut in. She took a deep breath. Time to get down to the reason for her visit. “Momma, I—”
“What about those lions? I hope you’re not mixed up in that business. They already tried to kill honest, hard-working folks. Who knows what evil those felons will be up to now that they’ve escaped. We should round them all up before the rest of them try something. At least make them wear those collars when they’re out in public so we know they won’t be a danger.”
Them. That included her now, she supposed. Lilah felt the blood rush to her cheeks with a wave of anger not only for herself but for Sage, the Crowleys, and every other person with a little extra to them.
On the other side of the table, Sage squeezed her glass tight. She hissed with pain a fraction of a second before dropping the broken pieces to shatter against the floor.
“Oh no,” she gasped, then dropped to her knees. Carefully, she shoved the bigger pieces into a pile. “I’m so sorry.”
“Honey, you’re bleeding!” Rita exclaimed.
Sage rocked back on her feet. “It’s okay,” she insisted. “I’m fine, really.”
“Nonsense.” Her mother ripped a paper towel from the roll next to the sink and firmly took Sage’s hand in her own to press down on the wound. “I haven’t let Merle rip himself apart on those machines out back, I won’t let some glass tear into my guests. Now, let’s take a look.”
Sage shot Lilah a panicked look and tried to tug herself away as she was led to the sink. “Really, it’s fine. Just show me to the first aid kit and I can handle it myself.”
“Momma, let her loose,” Lilah added. Shit. That was an explosion waiting to happen. Sage hadn’t signed on for a clarity trip to be forcibly outed by her parents.
“Oh, what do you think is going to happen? I’m not afraid of a little blood.” Rita fixed Sage in place with stern eyes. “Go on, let’s see the damage.”
Sage shot another wide-eyed look to Lilah, but slowly uncurled her fist and let the paper towel fall into the sink.
Rita let off a screech and jumped away, dropping Sage’s arm. She rubbed her hands on her thighs like they were dirty just from touching the other woman. She took a step back, then jammed a furious finger at Sage while speaking to Lilah. “You bring one of them into our home?”
Her father, too, shoved out of his seat. “Get away from her, Rita. You don’t know what those freaks are capable of.”
Sage’s face fell, and Lilah hurried to step between her and her parents. “Don’t you dare talk that way about her!”
Her father’s face twisted into something afraid and revolted. “I thought you learned your lesson about getting involved with their kind when you were just a girl.”
Lilah stared for a long second as the words worked through her head. “You knew?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from breaking. “You knew about Lorne and the others? The ones that attacked me?”
“Of course we didn’t know, but we heard the rumors. They’ve been swirling since the family settled here back in my granddaddy’s day.” Merle scowled. “Those Bennetts were always up to no good.”
Lilah took a step back. The betrayal cut deep. Deeper than any other hurt she’d suffered. Breakups, friendships ending, none of those came close to the pain that drove straight into her heart. They were supposed to love her and keep her safe, but they’d done the opposite.
“You told me I was crazy. Everyone told me I was crazy,” she muttered, blinking back tears.
Her mother reached for her. “Lilah—”
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped and added another step. She wanted to retch. “My own parents made a fool out of me.”
“We just wanted the best for you, sweetheart. You were always such a stickler for what was good and right, we knew you wouldn’t be able to let it go.”
“Yes, because how dare I want the people who attacked me brought to justice,” she shot back. Fire built in her stomach as she bounced her eyes between them. Such good, upstanding people, and they were as tied up in her pain as the ones who made her suffer. “All I wanted was some apology from you, but I’m never getting that, am I? You knew all along I wasn’t imagining things, but you let me doubt myself for years.”
“We were trying to protect you!”
Lilah turned her eyes to the ceiling and let off a sharp sigh. “I’m so sick of hearing that.”
Lorne removed himself partly because he didn’t want to bring more hurt on her, but he’d broken her ability to trust. Seth promised to keep her safe, but he upended her world and broke her heart. The latest wound only underscored the lessons given to her by the others.
The path to hell was paved with good intentions.
She dropped her eyes and glared. “You won’t need to worry about protectin
g me anymore. Or coming by ever again. You wouldn’t want one of them darkening your doorstep, would you?”
Her mother covered her gasp with her hand. Her father didn’t say a word.
Lilah shifted her look to Sage, then jerked her chin toward the door. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”
Sage let off a long whistle once they were outside. “I thought my family was bad, but yours takes the cake. At least I know what I’m getting with Roland. Your people hide the rotten bits behind smiles and politeness.”
“Yeah,” Lilah agreed dejectedly. “The rot just goes deeper than I thought.” After a moment, she added, “There’s one more place I’d like to visit if that’s okay with you.”
Chapter 23
Lilah turned her head slowly to take in the collection of trailers. Four of them stood in a half-circle, though ‘stood’ was probably too good of a description. One leaned heavily to one end while the others bulged and sagged with none of the old, but well-tended care of her childhood home. They were simply abandoned, just like Lorne had said.
She opened the car door and took a cautious step into the little clearing. Lorne had lived in one of the middle ones, though she didn’t know which. She wouldn’t have been a welcome sight if she’d dared to step foot on the Bennett family plot. She remembered him complaining about the noise from his cousin Ian’s room and sometimes needing to go next door to Ryan’s if his family used up all the hot water for a shower.
Both Ian and Ryan had been part of her attack. Drew. Tyler. Grady. Shane. The Bennetts were gone while she remained standing.
Lilah pushed the flash of memories out of her head. She wasn’t there to relive the past. She just wanted to find some sense of closure.
She picked her way through the weeds and rounded the cluster of trailers. Her heart inched up her throat with every step she took. She’d made the journey before, knew where to look for the overgrown path leading deeper into the territory. She didn’t even feel the branches catching at her arms and legs as something drew her further down the path.
She needed this. So much had changed in her life since she’d made the first journey. She wished it was just a simple accounting of growing up, but her life had long since ceased being simple. She had shifter blood, now, after the years of holding onto a belief held by the crazies and the conspiracy theorists. She’d just wanted the truth, and now she was living it.
“So this is the place?” Sage asked when they pushed through the last of the trees and stepped into a small clearing.
Lilah spun in a slow circle. “This is it.”
The trees were bigger and the dead or dying underbrush looked thick and prickly. A thin stench blew through, maybe a skunk or something foul on the shore of the nearby river. The rusted remains of a dirt bike poked through a patch near the little shack at the edge of the clearing. The clubhouse, Lorne called it when he’d described the place to her. It was a refuge for all the boys when they needed an escape from home.
She understood that need all too well.
Fresh disappointment washed over her. The shock of her parents’ admission hadn’t worn off in the slightest. Maybe it never would. Or it’d turn to another mark of betrayal etched on her insides. They’d known all along she’d told the truth, and they’d watched her sink further and further into anxiety and despair.
Assholes. She didn’t want them in her life. Not anymore. No apology would fix the damage they’d done. Better to just wash her hands of any hope at salvaging that relationship, especially now that she was the very thing they’d tried to convince her didn’t exist.
Lilah dragged down a deep breath and turned to Sage. “I’m sorry for my parents. I wouldn’t have brought you if I’d known they’d act so horribly.”
“It was my fault. The talk about collars...” she trailed off and raised her hand halfway to her neck. Giving herself a good shake, she flashed a dismal smile at the ground. “That’s what Jasper does to his females. My father sold me to him, and he put one on me the night he took me from my home. Kyla and Lindley and the others are the only reason why I’m not wearing one now.”
“Not your fault, Sage. Don’t think that.” Lilah wanted to curse her parents all over again. “You did nothing wrong.”
She cracked another small smile that said she didn’t believe a word Lilah said. “So you see,” she said, adding a shrug, “it’s not just humans and shifters not getting along. We do enough damage to each other, the same as humans making war. We’re all the same, really.
“That doesn’t stop me from hoping for a better future. You’ve gone through some truly awful shit, but you’re still alive. You still have a chance to make the best of it.” Sage, quiet Sage, stepped up to her side. “I want to be strong like you and the others.”
Lilah looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “Not like us,” she corrected. The woman had been through hell and back, but molding herself after anyone else was a mistake when she had the makings of her own strength inside her. She wouldn’t be standing there and confronting her own painful past if not for the woman. “Like yourself.”
She’d been changed in that clearing, but not destroyed. She’d retreated in on herself, sure. Learned to hold her thoughts and words to herself. But they weren’t gone from her head. She’d been bruised, but she came out determined to find a way to make her slice of the world slightly better than how she found it.
Maybe that was the clarity she needed. She’d been kicked down too many times, but she still pushed back to her feet and dusted herself off. Like Sage said, she was still alive. She decided what came next. And while that part was still fuzzy, she felt better about being in charge of shaping her future.
She wasn’t defined by what happened to her.
She lifted her face to the sky above and slid her eyes closed. The pang in her heart beat stronger than before. What she wanted, truly, was to go back to those precious minutes before the other lion appeared in the darkness. She’d been filled with hope for the same, fuzzy future when Seth said he wanted her to stay and that she made him whole.
“Lilah?” Sage asked softly.
Lilah turned, nostrils flaring at the slightly acrid odor wafting through the clearing. She’d missed it when they first arrived, but it’d steadily grown stronger. She scanned the horizon for signs of smoke, but no plumes rose above the trees in a telltale sign of a fire.
“Lilah?” Sage repeated. “I don’t think we’re alone.”
The door of the shack punched open, revealing a large, broad-shouldered man. He stumbled forward and caught himself against the frame, making the whole decrepit building shudder with the blow. The acrid odor puffed in the air around him with every exhale. Bleary eyes blinked at them in surprise before a slow smirk spread over his unshaven face.
Drew, she recognized. One of the Bennett cousins. He’d been mean when she knew him and she doubted the years had made any improvements.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” he slurred, taking a pull from his liquor bottle. “Pretty girls like you don’t have no business being out in these parts. Guess it’s just my lucky day.”
“We’re leaving,” Lilah said. She took a step backward, but Sage didn’t move. She grabbed for her hand and dragged her away from the drunk bear shifter.
“I don’t think so.” He took a wobbling step forward and swirled the bottle. A spark of intelligence flashed in his dull eyes and he pointed at her with his bottle. “You.” He took a deep breath and let it go with a dark chuckle. “I know you. You were the slip of a thing Lorne chased after.” Turning to the side, he spat on the ground. “Fuckin’ bastard.”
Shit. Lilah met Sage’s wide, wild eyes. The other woman’s quick, panicked breaths matched her own. She thought she could even hear her heart hammering away with the same furious, terrified beat as what sounded in her chest.
His eyes narrowed and he inhaled again. “Why did someone get to make you better while my clan fell apart? Where’s the justice in that?”
The word
s thickened with each syllable. His eyes brightened from the unfocused, watery brown. Bright gold flared in the irises as a growl leaked out of his chest.
“Sage,” Lilah whispered. “We need to go.”
“Go?” Drew laughed. “But you just got here! Why don’t you stick around? We can have all sorts of fun. You remember that, don’t you, Lilah?”
Pops and cracks shattered the quiet of the clearing, but did nothing to cover the inhuman noise his laugh turned into. Drew threw himself forward as his bear ripped out of him.
With a roar, he lunged right for them. Lilah threw herself to one side as Sage tumbled to the other with the bear right on her heels.
If ever there was a time for her newly formed shifter to appear, this was it. Lilah squeezed her eyes closed and willed the beast to take over, but nothing happened. She was on her own.
Her eyes shot open and she looked around for anything to use as a weapon. The rusty bike was promising, but Drew still advanced on Sage, so she didn’t have a whole lot of time for picking through for something sharp. That left the thick branches. Lilah streaked across the clearing to the nearest tree and heaved a long, broken limb off the ground.
“Leave her alone!” she yelled. With all the strength she could muster, she swung the branch against the bear’s side.
Drew spun around with a savage roar and charged right for her.
Seth grunted when he spotted Sage’s car. Jackpot.
Lilah and Sage hadn’t tried very hard to cover their tracks. He’d had a clear line of purchases only a few hours after Trent let him loose. Each stop for a gas station, fast food, or motel offered him a clearer picture of where the two headed. Their final overnight at a place twenty minutes away from her tiny hometown was the final clue he needed. Lilah was going home.
Not a big surprise. She’d faced down shifters and death, but her treatment at the hands of her people was still a sore spot.
