by Honor James
“I don’t feel so hot.” She didn’t like where they were going, this was far too close to where the explosion happened. “This is where it all began. There was a tear in the Veil that my House was protecting. The humans came, but there were those that were under my mother’s rule that hated her politics and how she did things. They felt they should rule because they were men and therefore superior.” She snorted. “I think that it had been all planned. The tear in the Veil, the precision of it all. Everything.”
“Why would they come here?” Kristjan asked. “Not like there would be anything left to look for after all this time. No more evidence, likely no more of the original witnesses, so what is their purpose?”
“Likely to get her to remember something,” Volker said. He pulled over to the side and parked, turning the engine off. “They are about thirty feet from us in a dark blue truck with tinted windows. And they know we are close.”
“Oh God.” Luna could swear she actually felt the blood draining from her face. The memories assaulted her rapidly. Far more than they had when Gavriel had unblocked her. “They killed the dads first.” she whispered in horror. “Tomas’s blood father was the one who hid me. It was with his and my oldest two brothers’ blood that I was hidden.” Tomas was her oldest brother, and the one closest to her oddly enough. “It was a blood ritual they used.” She felt like she was going to puke but continued. “I saw them, killing my mother. Right before I was pushed through into the human realm with that explosion. I watched them kill her and that power rushed to me but not knowing who I was it locked up inside of me which was why I was in a coma for so long, and how I survived a blast that should have killed me.” She looked up at the truck and swallowed. “I know who the traitor to the Crown is.” She admitted quietly. “The brother that’s being held. He’s not held.” She was crying now. “He was part of it.” He was born after she was, the baby of the bunch and had never really connected to her or her two older brothers. “I wonder if they know.” She whispered with pure sorrow dripping from her voice.
Volker stared at her, his hand practically crushing hers but that was okay, she was returning the favor. Lifting her hand he pressed a kiss to her fingers and closed his eyes. “What do you want to do, Luna?” he asked softly. Lowering her hand he opened his eyes to look at her and waited.
Kris hadn’t said anything but he was watching her too, his hand rubbing up and down her side as he pressed in closer to her. Protecting her she knew.
“We talk to them. We bring them home with us. We get this settled because I do not like having this hanging over our heads. They didn’t see what I did. They didn’t receive my mother’s memories, the last things said to her. The whispered words of the man that killed her. That her son, Dafid, bid her one final goodbye.” She felt ill, she felt that intense sorrow from her mother as she died. “How Tomas and Edwin escaped I don’t know but I’m ever grateful that they did. So we pull up to their vehicle and we tell them where to meet us, or have them follow us because I want my brothers in my life.”
Nodding Kris hugged her closer to him. “We can’t take them back to the safe house. It’s against regulations for non-AEDA personnel to know where they are unless they are under protection. So where do we go?” he asked quietly.
“We can’t go to her place, the Gods only know who might be watching it,” Volker said. He was back to rubbing his thumb over her skin while he stared out the front window of their vehicle. “We need somewhere secure, private and where we can see trouble coming.”
Luna tried to think of somewhere to go and then grinned. “I know where. Remember that when I thought I was human I read, a lot, well there is an observatory that’s about three miles west of here. It’s abandoned and sits atop a hill. It’s pretty much overgrown with the trees since it was abandoned in 2014, but it would be an ideal place for us to all get out and meet. It wouldn’t be ideal for comfort but would for ensuring that we would be able to see anyone coming.”
He shot her a look before smiling slightly. “Works for me,” he said. Sitting back he turned the engine over and eased away from the curb. “You get to tell them to follow us, darling. I somehow doubt they’ll be so willing if Kristjan or I bring it up.”
“Besides the fact we wouldn’t be so nice as to ask,” Kris mumbled.
Luna snorted. “Fine.” When they pulled up to the vehicle and the window was lowered she began to cry. “Tomas, Edwin.” There was a wealth of love and affection in her tone. “We need to talk,” she said quietly. “Follow us? Oh, and these are my mates but I will properly introduce you after I’ve had lots of hugs from you both.” She had missed them, so very much she had missed her brothers and seeing them made it all the more real for her. “Please?” she added.
The brothers shared a look before glancing their way again. Tomas, in the driver’s seat, nodded. “Lead on,” he said, though he looked and sounded suspicious.
Snorting Volker rolled up the window and pulled away. “I don’t think they like the fact you found your mates, Luna. They both seemed a mite miffed if you ask me.”
“Understatement. As soon as she mentioned mates the one in the passenger seat started glaring daggers,” Kris said, chuckling softly.
“They will get over it,” she said with a smile. “Besides, you said that only those that were under the AEDA’s protection could be in the safe house. Why can’t they be under protection as well? They are in just as much danger as I am and I have to admit, if one of them were taken I would move hell and heaven to get them safe just as I would for the two of you so it’s a double jeopardy kind of thing. Don’t you think?”
“They would need to ask for AEDA protection,” Kris said quietly. “We can offer it, they can accept and then sign a crap load of paperwork. Or, they request it, we run it through the channels and then sign a crap load of paperwork.”
“What he’s trying to say, love, is that there will be a trail leading right to them if they ask for or we give them protection. They are currently ghosts as far as everyone is concerned. Hell, until I actually saw them I honestly thought I was getting some weird feedback from you or hallucinating. No offence,” Volker said, shooting her a smile. “No one knows for sure they are alive, which is a huge benefit to us and, in particular, you.”
“Well hell.” She didn’t like this. At all. “I don’t like that they are out there alone. Yes they are both fierce fighters but everyone needs backup sometimes, right? They can’t do this fully alone.” She was worried for her brothers, worried for everyone she loved, honestly.
“Then we’re going to have to come up with a plan…uh, whatever the hell we’re at currently,” Kris said with a frown. “Maybe we rent a place for them to stay at,” he suggested. “It keeps them off the radar and gives us some space too.”
“Yeah, but renting a place is a pain. The whole landlord part mainly,” Volker said. “We really need to finally break down and buy a place. Especially since we will be living here with our mate and she’s really not going to want to stay in the bachelor pad apartment we currently have.”
“You can say that again. Not that there is anything wrong with it but I really would love for us to have more space,” Luna injected. “So yep, I think that buying a place would be a very, very good idea. One where it’s large enough for my brothers and us.” Because she knew Tomas and Edwin, they would want to be near her, at least until they found their mates.
“With a separate place, across the land, for them,” Kris muttered. “Sorry, love, but I’m not having your brothers in the same house. Not with how loudly you scream during climax or when Volker is doing his…whatever.”
“Good point. I think that we need to eventually have the house soundproofed as well. Because one day I really would love to have miniature yous running around our place.” She wanted a family, she really did. “No daughters for a long while though, please?” She didn’t want to chance a daughter with the mess they still had to unravel at her home world.
“We’ll see what we
can do, Luna,” he said, laughing now. “But I don’t think the universe gives a shit when the little parts are handed out to boys and girls. It gives us whatever will fuck us around most in the moment, pretty much like anything else.”
That had her sighing and she nodded. “Yeah, this is too true. Well we can be hopeful at least. That’s what we will do. We will be hopeful that our children will be boys for a good long while. If we have a girl, we do, we will just protect her and keep her safe all the more. Right?”
“We will keep any and all our children safe,” Volker said quietly. “No matter what their sex. They will all be protected to the very best of our abilities. Just as children should be cared for.” He shot her a look just as they started the climb toward the observatory.
“This is very true. Children are a blessing, something that so many have forgotten over the years. The age of convenience and all that fun stuff. I know that whatever child we might be blessed with one day in the future will be loved, and they will know how loved and safe that they always are.”
“They’d better be boys,” Kris finally said. When she looked his way he shrugged. “I was just thinking about the first time a boy showed up on the doorstep to take out any daughter we have. Nine out of ten scenarios in my head ended in screaming as they ran away, peeing their pants and curling in a ball to cry or just dropping dead on the doorstep.”
Luna laughed. “Oh lord, I so could see that one happening.” What was so bad was that she could. She could see Kris and Volker becoming exceptionally protective of a daughter that they might have. Same with a son, but with a daughter it would be even more so and they all knew it.
“Of course it’s going to happen,” he said with a grin. “We’re not going to let any daughter of ours go out with just any guy. He will have to be investigated, have to stand up to us without pissing himself and of course pass the final test. Getting past our daughter’s mother.”
“Good,” she said with a grin. “Because I have to tell you that I never, ever want anyone who can’t be strong enough to at least face our daughter’s fathers head on.” She didn’t want someone who would try to strut and do a cock walk, but she did want someone who would be able to keep their bladder about them. “But that’s not for a very, very long time.”
“Agreed, centuries from now.” He nodded. “I might be ready for that teen girl horror by then. I doubt it but maybe I’ll be so senile I won’t care because I won’t remember one day to the next.”
Snorting she looked up at him. “Yeah whatever. We both know, heck we all know that you both will be sharp as tacks from now until the day we die. We all know that you will never, ever be senile.”
“We could hope we were with a teenage girl,” he said, his tone hopeful.
Volker chuckled and shook his head. “Doubt we’re going to get that lucky. We’re going to have each and every memory burned into our heads. On the upside of things, that means we can pull shit out of the memory when we need to embarrass her.”
“Yes, this is very, very true. When it is time to embarrass her you will have instant and complete recall so that’s a very good thing,” she said with a smile. “But that’s like a hundred years away. At least.” She wasn’t ready to be a mom, not now and not for a very, very long time.
“At least.” He nodded. Squeezing her hand he spun the steering wheel and drove them up into the abandoned parking lot. Swinging the truck around Volker got it pointed toward the exit and put it into park. Turning off the engine he looked to her. “Ready to see your family again?”
“Yes. I’m ready to see my brothers.” They were all that was left of her family, her older brothers. “I’ve missed them, now that I know who and what I am and who they are. I have missed them so very, very much,” she whispered honestly. “So yes, I can’t wait to see them.”
Pushing open his door as the other vehicle came to a stop Volker turned to her and helped her out his side when she wiggled that way. “Go, be with your brothers. We’ll be here once you get through all the tears and such.”
“Come with me?” She was nervous, more than a little terrified, truth be told. She turned however and saw her brothers and smiled. “Stay close?” As if she had to ask that question. She turned and moved to her brothers, slowly. “Tomas? Edwin?” When they came in just a hair closer to her she didn’t hesitate, instead she ran to them and threw herself into their arms, sobbing as she did so.
“Luna, sweet Looney,” Tomas said, hugging her so tight she was having trouble catching her breath. “By the Gods, I never thought you’d remember us,” he whispered. He was rocking her back and forth and holding her so tightly.
“I didn’t until I met my mates and they had someone unblock me.” She had tears rolling down her cheeks but it didn’t stop her. “But the two of you. You could have gone into hiding with me. You could have gotten the AEDA to protect you as they have been protecting me.”
“If we had we wouldn’t have been able to build the resistance,” Edwin told her. He was pressing kisses to her face between touching her and rubbing her arm. “We knew that, one day, you would remember and you’d need a force to overthrow the asshole that stole our lives from us and your memories.”
“We are back together now though, right? We won’t be separated again, will we?” She didn’t think that she would like that at all. “You are my brothers, I need the two of you just as I need my mates. Please don’t leave me again?” she asked and held onto them tighter as if they would leave her.
“We are not going anywhere,” Tomas said, his tone firm. “But we can’t remain at your side. We still have much to do. Once it is known your memories have returned he will come for you. We need to be ready for when that happens.”
“He doesn’t know that I saw him,” Luna whispered. “Alphonse, our baby brother. He doesn’t realize that I saw what he did to our mother and that the memories of the prior Queens are passed through the magic.” She nearly choked on her grief. “I can’t believe he killed her,” she whispered in true sorrow. For a child to kill a parent, it was a thing of absolute horror.
“Which is why we can’t endanger you by being with you. Separate we’re harder to get at and track. Together.” He shook his head. “It’s better we keep going at this as we have. We’re close, Luna. A few more weeks, a couple of months at most and we make a big show to drag him out of our realm and nail him.”
She felt Volker then, a light and yet welcome presence in her mind. Unobtrusive but there to comfort her while she was with her brothers.
She didn’t like it, at all, but they made perfect sense. “Can we at least remain in contact? I don’t want to lose the two of you again. Even if it is through someone else or some old-fashioned means, can we remain in contact so that I know you are both okay?”
“Of course we can.” Edwin nodded. “We should plan to meet once a week for sure. Here is good, it’s got easy access and good visibility. We should do it at night, with your mate’s eyesight we would know if any dared to sneak up on us.” He looked to Tomas who was nodding as well.
“This sounds good,” she said with a smile and then looked to her mates. A sigh escaped her and she whispered, “I do love them so very, very much. They are amazing to me. They love me like crazy and I love them as well. I can’t see life without them.”
“They are your mates. That is how it should be,” Tomas told her. Touching her cheek gently he shook his head. “I honestly worried the day would not come where you would remember us, little sister. But I am glad it came when you had the protection of your mates. You will need them in what is to come.”
“Enough on that tonight,” Edwin said quietly. “Here.” He passed her a piece of paper. It had their initials and then a number behind it. “Our cell numbers. You and your mates should all have them if you need to contact us. If we do not pick up leave a message, we will return your call as soon as we are able to. If the call does not connect, it just means we are on the other side of the Veil. But, again, leave a message for us and w
e shall call you upon our return.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile and looked up at them. “I’m glad that I was able to recall you as well. It’s very good for us to be together once more. We are all stronger as a unit. My mates will protect me. I need for you two to keep yourselves safe as well.”
“We will need to decide on a time,” Tomas said. “For our next meeting I mean. But we should decide on a couple of different days, just in case something arises where we can’t meet one another. And we should get your number as well. If we need to cancel one of the meets.”
“That sounds good. They will have to give you numbers because I haven’t been able to use technology. I was completely blocked, but I had a serious static shock that would zap anyone and anything near me. I have had to use completely old ways of doing everything. Reports on paper were the worst,” she said with a smile, teasing them and also giving Kris or Volker a chance to step in and pass off their numbers.
Volker moved up next to her and handed over a card. “Both our numbers are on there. The safe house phone isn’t mainly because it is monitored by the AEDA. Our lines are not. One of us will be close to her at all times so you can text or call pretty much any time. Unless she is sleeping, do not call then or our next meeting won’t go as nicely.”
Luna laughed. “Honey seriously? How in heavens would they know if I were sleeping or not? It’s not like I’m a child and I have a bedtime. Although I have noticed that you both try to get me into the bedroom as close to eight pm as possible.” Not for sleep, but all the same.
He shrugged. “Anything after dark should be considered a time not to call. We have things to do after dark,” he said quietly. “We will meet them any time after dark but all calls and messages should be during the day so we have the time to plan if we need to meet.”
