by Gray Holborn
Kay cleared her throat softly behind him. Luis was really great at sticking his foot in his mouth.
“Goodbye, Luis.” It was all I could trust myself to say. His head leaned down, breathing into my hair. Something about the comforting weight of his arms hammered home how insane the morning had been. Everything was different and I had a feeling it was going to get a lot worse before it recalibrated back to any semblance of normal. I mean hell, a week ago I was almost lit on fire and now absolutely everything was upside down and threatening the very fragile home I’d built for myself over the last few years. The realization pushed a traitorous tear down my cheek and I tried to swipe it away the second Luis pulled back. The arch of his dark brow painted confusion across his face. Before he could say another word, or cause another unexplainable, powerful emotion to rattle through my body, I turned and walked away.
I was vaguely aware of El’s presence next to me in the elevator. Her hand snaked down my arm to find my own, offering her strength.
I looked up at her, no longer finding it possible to hide the tears carving trails down my face. “I know it’s stupid.” My whispers floated away into simply air and I traced circles on my chest as if that would somehow relieve the pressure building there. “This is all so much right now. Everything’s changing. It feels wrong to leave him behind. To leave Sam? It’s just a lot. Everything was so normal two weeks ago.”
“I know,” she said. “Things with Luis are complicated. Walking in on that plus having to say goodbye—you don’t have to explain, you have every right to feel it, even if you don’t understand what exactly it is you’re feeling, Dessa.”
A small bubble of laughter escaped from my lips. “And how ridiculous is this? Here we are going into the supe version of the Witness Protection Program, and now I’m choosing to breakdown? Not because we could’ve been killed in a fire or because the guy I was dating was using me for some sort of supernatural espionage. But because we are retreating into safety and leaving home for a bit? How does that make sense?” My laughter started to escalate.
In true best friend fashion, El embraced the macabre tennis match between tears and belly-deep laughter. By the time the elevator doors opened, both of us were cackling with damp eyes; tears that were filled with sadness or humor or fear. Or maybe all of those things at once. Either way, I felt lighter when we walked outside to meet Jax in the parking lot.
When we reached the car, Jax wasn’t alone. Soren was lifting our bags from El’s convertible and tossing them into a black minivan.
“What are you doing?” I could hear the panic elevate El’s voice as she started to piece together his actions.
“Sorry Sis,” Soren spared her a passing glance, “but a hot pink convertible isn’t exactly the ideal getaway car. Not to mention that Michael’s pretty familiar with your eyesore of a vehicle already.”
“Eyesore? She’s a classic, Soren. She makes a statement.” El was practically fuming. That car was perhaps her most prized possession; people knew better than to insult it in front of her.
“Statement, classic, Barbie-mobile, call it what you like. Either way, Soren’s right. Pink does not a getaway color make.” Jax threw the final bag through the back door of the van.
“But really, a minivan?” I eyed the car, happy for the simple pragmatic discussion to take away the focus from my adolescent emotions. “Couldn’t we have gone with something more stealthy? This just screams soccer mom.”
“Exactly.” Soren was pleased, but I caught his brief longing look at the Porsche in the next aisle. “It’s not flashy. It blends in. We can carry all four of us, plus whatever stuff we need for transport. And nobody is suspicious of a minivan. It’s perfect. Sam did well.”
“Sam?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s where he went off to before we left. He persuaded someone to indefinitely lend us the van. It’s really too bad he insists on staying here. His manipulation could come in handy.” Soren hopped on his bike. “I’m going to drop the keys to El’s convertible back at the house and catch up with you guys in a few.” He pushed the helmet down over his eyes.
“Wait, did you stop by Michael’s house?” I asked as El reluctantly hopped into the minivan with one last wistful look back at her baby.
“Yeah, he wasn’t there. Place looked kind of ransacked, like he blew in and out of there in a hurry. His roommate was clueless, just mentioned something about Michael leaving for a family visit or something.” He paused and El and I looked at each other, the irony lost on neither of us that Michael used the same excuse we just did. “I didn’t really expect him to stick around, but it was worth checking out anyway.” Without waiting for another response or question, Soren took off out of the parking lot. With nothing else to do, I followed El and Jax into our new vehicle.
“So what now?” I laughed as I buckled myself in. Now that I’d gotten a good cry out of my system, it felt like we were going on some sick and twisted family trip. Emotions were weird.
“We are going to head to Soren’s place up north. It’s relatively isolated and only a handful of people know about its existence.” Jax’s eyes bounced back and forth between the road and the rearview mirror. “All people he trusts, of course. So we’ll go there to regroup. Then we can make plans and figure out what to do next.”
“What do you mean make plans?” El was scrolling through the radio stations, never landing on a single one for more than a brief clip of a song.
“We can’t just hide forever. This whole thing with Charlotte and Michael, it adds a new layer. There’s some sources Soren and I will likely want to go through, see if we can get to the bottom of whoever went after your mom,” he said, his eyes glancing at El. “It’s entirely possible it’s not even the same person or group after you. That’s an assumption we’ve become too comfortable believing a fact. And there are some things going on Veil-side. Soren wants to stay reasonably close to the Pacific Northwest rift,” he paused, nodding his head along to a catchy pop song. “Either way, we are shifting gears. Before, it was strictly surveillance. Soren suspected someone would come after you, but now he has proof. Which means Michael and the things going on in the Veil are potentially connected. That means we need to go play both offense and defense. Things are more complicated than we expected them to be.”
Jax’s words were met with silence, all of us letting them marinate. It was more than either he or Soren had been willing to reveal in my presence before. I was afraid to remind him of that by asking more questions. If the people after El were really the same people after her mom, they clearly didn’t get bored easily. I didn’t know what he meant by rifts or Veil problems, but from what I’d seen about serial killers on TV, it was unlikely that whoever was after El would move on now. Still, despite Jax suggesting they had sources and options to exploit, I couldn’t help but fear that we were in way over heads with very few leads to go on. The chaos of the day had left me mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. Between sorting through my own thoughts and the gentle lull of the car as we drove, I fell into a dreamless sleep oddly comforted by El’s tone-deaf humming.
✽✽✽
As the car finally came to a stop, I woke up. It only felt like we’d been in the car for a few minutes, but a quick glance at the clock suggested I’d been out for a couple of hours. Jax and El were already exiting the car when Soren pulled up next to them on his bike. I was surprised he was able to catch up with us after stopping back at the house, especially since Jax drove like he was trying out for NASCAR.
I stretched my arms and legs after hopping out of the car, my muscles still tense and sore from the morning run and, let’s be honest, pretty much every other morning workout this week. After giving my brain and body a second to wake up, I was able to take in our new temporary home.
It was beautiful.
The cabin itself was larger than I expected, it looked more like a rustic house than a simple campsite. The land surrounding it though was breathtaking. To the left was a large forest,
so thick with trees I couldn’t see where it ended. The rest of the perimeter was filled with more sparse vegetation, all opening into a giant lake and dock. From what I could tell, there was no one around for miles. Somehow, Soren had managed to find a house that existed in perfect isolation—almost like the rest of the world didn’t exist. If I wasn’t so amped to figure out what was going on, to do something, I could stay hidden away here forever. And if I closed my eyes, I turned off my brain for a bit, I could pretend this was a vacation, not a lesson in recon.
“How did you find this place? It’s like a fairytale.” I found myself voicing the childish thought out loud.
“I used to come out here a lot, so I built the house a couple years back.” Soren scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, in an uncharacteristic moment of vulnerability.
“You built this?” I felt my jaw drop.
“Yeah, not too bad right?” His gray eyes latched onto mine, watching as I took in the cabin.
“Not bad? It’s breathtaking.” While I was the first to admit that Soren’s ego could do with a few hits, I couldn’t deny how beautiful his place was—to say anything else would have been nothing more than a badly disguised lie.
The left side of his mouth twitched up, in a shadow of a grin. For the first time, I could see the smile extend to his eyes, creating light wrinkles that made the scar running through his brow stand out—somehow both boyish and sexy.
The inside of the house was just as beautiful as the outside. The place opened into a giant open-concept living room. The walls were made of a dark brown wood with lighter exposed beams running across the ceiling. While the room had a very masculine feel to it, it was also very cozy—a giant black couch and matching chair were angled around a fireplace. The cushions were deep, the kind you could sink into, and after a day like today, I was tempted to forego the rest of the tour to curl up and nap on one. Above the fireplace was a giant TV decked out with several gaming systems. My eyes travelled across the room spotting several speakers. It was strange to see technology in a place that was designated “the cabin” out in the middle of nowhere. The house was filled with a rustic yet modern atmosphere. An odd mixture of two worlds.
Even the kitchen was filled with modern appliances. It was much smaller than the kitchen back home, and I knew I’d be missing Sam’s cooking. Still it would suffice for a hideout—we’d be able to prepare meals comfortably. Beyond the connected kitchen and living room, the house opened into a hallway with four doors: two bedrooms, an office, and a bathroom. They were all simply but tastefully decorated. And Jax proudly announced that there was a small garage at the back which was used as a gym. The declaration had my stomach sinking in dread.
I soaked in the house, the scent of pine filled the rooms and each had a large window making the woods and lake feel as if they were part of the house. My hand ran down the rich wood panelling on the walls. It wasn’t like the fake stuff you found at the store, but was imperfect and full of naturally asymmetrical markings; the walls told a story and when I closed my eyes I could imagine Soren carefully pouring over every detail as he built his hideout. It felt almost like an adult treehouse. When I turned back around to face everyone else, I found his eyes on me. There was a softness there I hadn’t seen before. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something to me, but was disrupted by the slam of a car door.
“Ah, that’ll be Sage and Dex then,” Jax said while he walked over to the fireplace to get a fire started. “They have excellent timing.”
Chapter Thirteen
When Soren opened the door, he enveloped a large man in a hug.
That was the first odd thing. Soren actually showing affection.
The second odd thing was the way that El blushed a deep red and took a step behind me, like she was hiding.
After pulling myself out of the shock of seeing El uncharacteristically sheepish, I focused on the newcomer. The golden glow let me know immediately that he was a manipulator, and a pretty powerful one. Then again, my spidey-sense was a bit off lately. For all I knew, he was a low level boredom-feeder. His hair was an unusual red color that was somewhere between burgundy and black. The hair lining his jaw in a scruffy shadow was a few shades darker and matched the deep brown color of his eyes. He was dressed head-to-toe in black, but the simple clothing didn’t disguise the fact that he was built with a lot of lean muscle; the kind of muscle you earned through work and constant physical activity, not the kind of muscle you built up casually in a gym.
Catching my stare, he side-stepped Soren and reached his large hand out towards me. “Hey, I’m Dex. You must be Odessa, Soren’s told me all about you.”
As a flirtatious grin split his face, I couldn’t help the one mirroring it on my own. “Knowing Soren, I’m sure he’s painted me in a lovely light. All the same, nice to meet you.”
His smile faltered a bit as he caught El hiding behind me. “Elliana. It’s been a long time.”
I heard the sound of El’s intake of breath and watched as she straightened up her spine and turned her head up. “Dex, good to see you.” Cautiously, she walked over to him and they did an awkward dance trying to decide whether they should shake hands or hug. When he finally tricked her into a hug and pressed his nose into her hair to longingly take in the scent, it made perfect sense. While I didn’t know much about El’s past, I did know El. And there was some history between her and Dex, the kind that probably involved doing the horizontal dance. I’d have to get the story from her later, because she was usually one to kiss and forget, not one to get pulled into the awkwardness of an old conquest.
When I looked back at the door, Soren was embracing the single most beautiful female I’d ever seen. She was tall—at least six feet—and, unlike Dex, she appeared to be a feeder. Black hair fell in voluminous waves down her back, highlighted with streaks of purple and blue. Her skin was a rich caramel that made the golden color of her eyes stand out. She walked forward to shake my hand and I took in the deep cut of her leather jumpsuit that showed off her perfect figure. Was this chick even real? She looked like she belonged in an action-hero film.
“Hey, I’m Sage. Dex and I will be in charge of looking after your uncle.” Her smile was warm and inviting, and I had no choice but to like her. After a quick shake of my hand, she practically jumped on top of El. “Ellie, gods it’s been ages. I missed you girl. It’s hell living without my best friend around.”
El hugged her back just as emphatically, and I couldn’t stop the petty feeling of jealousy that came over me. Of course El had other friends, even a best friend, before me. Still, I was possessive and too much of my life had been turned upside down in one day. El was the only anchor I had left. And it didn’t help things that Sage was stunning and warm. Or that she kept sending hungry glances towards Soren as she plopped down next to him on the couch. Though I wasn’t really sure why that bothered me so much. Maybe because I was the only one who didn’t seem to fit in perfectly with this strange band of supes.
I walked over to Dex who was conveniently holding a six pack of beer. Grabbing one for myself, I popped the top off with my ring using a trick Luis taught me. The trick was that Luis gave me a ring that was specially designed to open bottles since I wasn’t coordinated enough to learn the actual trick. Then I kicked back into the chair with a little too much force and took a long swig.
El took the remaining seat on the couch and Dex sat on the arm next to her, passing beers around to everyone else. Watching them, it was clear that they were close—all four of them had a deep history that I didn’t know or understand. I was taken out of my mini pity party when Jax lifted me up to steal my seat and placed me down on his lap. When I jerked away to stand up, he roped his long arm around me, pulling me closer and deeper into the seat of the chair. His left hand started rubbing circles into my back and I relaxed into him, in spite of myself. I knew it was his weird, seduction-feeder way of making me feel less alienated. I could do worse than having someone like Jax as a friend.
&n
bsp; Soren cleared his throat and tore his eyes away from me and Jax. “Thanks for coming over guys. You’ll have to head down to Seattle in a bit, but I wanted you to fill us in on what’s been happening while we try to fill you in on things here. Give you an idea of what exactly it is you’ve agreed to step into.”
“Soren, relax. It’s been ages since we’ve all been together. Give us a second to catch up with El.” Sage swatted Soren playfully on the arm before turning her attention over to El. “So, what have you been up to? Soren tries to give us updates every few months, but it’s usually nothing more than ‘she’s alive.’ You know how he is, he never gives us any good dirt.”
El grinned at Sage as she relaxed slightly into the couch, though I could tell from her side glances at Dex that she wasn’t as relaxed as she was pretending to be. “Things have been good. I’ve been living with Dessa and Sam for a few years. We’re finishing up college.” She glanced over at me, and her smile turned down slightly. “Well, really, who knows now? I don’t know when we’ll get back so I guess we’ll have to worry about our degrees later. So much for two months left, right Dess?”
I nodded back to her with a wistful smile, Jax’s featherlight circles were doing wonders to relieve my tension. If I didn’t know that his feeding didn’t affect me, I’d think the calming sensation running through me was a supe thing. Then again, maybe it was the beer that I’d drained in less than a minute kicking in.
“Oooh, human college? That sounds so fun! Any human boyfriends, or are you just playing the field?” Sage’s tone was light and friendly, but Dex stiffened immediately, clenching the neck of his beer so tightly I was sure it would shatter in his hands.
“Catch up over, Sage. We need to know what’s going on ASAP. Girl talk can wait for another time.” Dex turned to me. “So, Odessa, Soren tells us that you can see energy registers?”
