Midnight Rose

by Dani Hart

  What he was asking me to do—what I knew I had to do—killed me. Lying to Wes seemed inconceivable, but fear was a strong motivator. I could never put my mother’s life at risk. “I understand,” I said, my voice trembling. I buried my face in my hands, trying to block out the last horrible hour of my life.

  “I’m sorry, Abigail. I feel like I’ve failed you.”

  “You haven’t failed me, but I’m not sure if I can ever completely forgive you.”

  “I understand. The Order isn’t happy with me for hiding your gift. They are going back on our deal. They want you. No more negotiations.”

  It was a death sentence. My father’s plan had backfired, and now he would be losing both his children to The Order, but what if… “I’ll go,” I announced bravely.

  “What?” Elijah pushed off the wall, looking stupefied. My father put his hand up to silence him.

  “Why?” he prodded.

  “My brother is with them.” It was good enough for me. I didn’t know how, but I was going to take him back.

  “Abby, he doesn’t even know we exist, and he’s not a little kid. He’s thirteen now. All he’s known is that life.”

  “So, what? You just want me to forget he exists? To give up on him? He’s our family. He needs us.” I was baffled that Dad wasn’t fighting harder for him. “You said it yourself. Your deal is broken. That’s on both sides.”

  He thought long and hard, pacing. He knew I was right. “Infiltrating The Order is impossible, but if you were invited…”

  “She would blend in as just another recruit,” Elijah finished.

  The wheels were spinning, and plots were being built.

  “What have the Hunters told you about themselves? About immortals?” my father asked urgently.

  “Why?” I was afraid to tell him too much about them. When it came to the Hunters, I didn’t trust him or Elijah.

  “We might need them, if things…” He stopped abruptly.

  “I’m sorry if this is out of line, but are you seriously considering this?” Elijah addressed my father.

  “What choice do I have? You know The Order. They will yank her from her bed if she doesn’t turn herself in. It’s inevitable, but we have an advantage here, Elijah. And if it means I could get my son back, I’m willing to trust in Abby’s strength.”

  Elijah stepped closer to me. “Abby, what you’re volunteering to do is dangerous. It won’t be easy.”

  “He’s right. The training is rigorous, and they have spies everywhere. They will be watching you very carefully.”

  “You said it yourself. I don’t really have much of a choice. They are coming for me either way.”

  “You always have a choice. We could still leave.” My father rubbed my arm.

  “No, I want to do this. I want to help bring my brother home.”

  “I’m going, too,” Elijah announced.

  “What?” my dad inquired. “You would do that? You’ll be sacrificing your freedom if you go back.”

  Elijah’s selflessness knew no bounds.

  “I know.”

  “All right. Then you go together.” My dad held out his hand, and Elijah took it. “Thank you.”

  Elijah nodded his head humbly.

  “I need to see Wes,” I confessed.

  My dad’s shoulders slumped. “He’s a monster, Abby. All of them are. They are murderers.”

  “They aren’t all murderers.” I defended the Hunters. “Wes would never hurt me. Neither would the others.”

  “You don’t know what they are capable of. You haven’t seen what I have seen. What Elijah has seen.” He raised his voice. “They ripped his mother to pieces.”

  A pin could drop and echo off the walls with how silent the room became. My eyes darted to Elijah remorsefully.

  “I’m sorry, Elijah. I didn’t—” my dad apologized.

  “Don’t. It’s fine. She needs to know the truth about them. She needs to see for herself.”

  I couldn’t shake the image of his mother being pulled apart. It was nauseating.

  “We don’t have much time, Abigail. They are sending someone in the morning. It would be better if you went on your own. It would make them trust you more.”

  My dad was right. If I went kicking and screaming, they would never trust me, and I needed them to. That was the only way I was going to find my brother. It hurt like hell to leave Wes, but if it meant I could bring my brother home, it was worth it.

  “Just give me until tomorrow night. I need to say goodbye to him. You owe me that much.” Those words cut my dad deeply, but it was the truth. His debt to me would never be fully paid, but this was a start.

  “Tomorrow night, but that’s it,” my dad agreed apprehensively.

  Elijah kept quiet.

  “We should get home. Your mom is going to worry.”

  “Okay.”

  “Thank you again, Elijah,” my dad said proudly.

  “You’re welcome,” he replied simply.

  “I’ll be in touch tomorrow night,” my dad informed him as he ushered me toward the front door.

  I peeked over my shoulder, stealing a last glance at Elijah. He smiled, but it was fraught with turmoil.

  I stopped by the car door. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Anything.”

  “Does Mom know? I mean, she couldn’t have given up her son easily.”

  His expression darkened. “She thinks he was stillborn. We had a funeral for him. It was just us. You were only four at the time, and we didn’t want to expose you to that.”

  “Why don’t I remember any of this? I think I would remember Mom being pregnant. It was all I ever wanted.”

  He came over to my side of the car and took my shoulders in his hands. “You’ll never forgive me if I tell you.”

  “You have to tell me everything, Dad. I’m going in there completely vulnerable. I need to know what I’m facing.”

  “There are other Specials. Some can move objects with their minds. Others move faster than a car. And then there are those who can wipe your memory.”

  I shook my head, unbelieving. “You had them take my memories? How could you do that?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I know. I’ve heard that a lot tonight.” I yanked my shoulders free and got into my Jeep.

  He shrugged and got into his car. The pain that was brewing in me was so completely blinding I didn’t know how to breathe. I gripped the steering wheel hard, willing the pain into it. To free me of it, but nothing was going to save me. Not from the betrayal. I looked over, and Elijah was watching me. He put up his hand and waved sympathetically. What my dad did was disgusting, and I wondered how much of it Elijah knew.

  CLUTCHING THE SHEETS in my fingers, I waited until the quiet settled throughout the house. A ping on my window broke the silence. Peeling back my sheets, I raced to the window and saw Wes below. My heart ached. This would likely be the last time I saw him. I branded the image of him in my head, standing there, eyes glimmering and a mischievous grin.

  I snatched up my grandpa’s jacket and tiptoed down the stairs, my heart pounding nervously as I passed my parents’ closed bedroom door. I was tempted to leave them a note, feeling guilty if they woke and discovered I wasn’t home, but I didn’t.

  “Hey.” I smiled nervously as I approached Wes. Trying to steady my heart was harder than I imagined. I didn’t want him to suspect anything, but I was a horrible liar.

  He looked at me strangely. “Hey, yourself.” He stepped into me, grazing his nose and lips along the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply as he always did. I sucked in a breath, my neck tensing.

  “I missed you,” he whispered close to my ear, still nuzzling in my hair. “I was worried.”

  My fingers crawled up the back of his neck, entangling in his hair, gripping tight. Every time we touched, I was on the precipice of his world and mine, teetering on the border, ready to cross, but not knowing to which side.

  “I missed you, too,” I replied softl
y, stretching my neck, inviting him in. He kissed it lightly then pulled away, studying me closely.

  “You were with him.” Blackness was swirling in his eyes.

  “It’s not what you think. He commandeered me when I was on my way to see you.” I paused. “That didn’t come out right.” I tried to take back what I said, but it was too late. Wes’ hands tightened around my arms, the darkness consuming him.

  “He what?” His lips peeled from his teeth as he hissed.

  I grabbed his cheeks and forced him to look at me. To stay with me. “I’m fine. Look, I’m not harmed. It’s not what you think. He just wanted to talk. He’s not going to hurt me. I promise. He really is here to help me.”

  “I don’t trust him, Abby. And I think it’s a mistake you do.”

  I let go and tugged at the cuffs of my long sleeves, pulling them over my hands anxiously. “Can we go somewhere, please?” I was torn between a promise of silence and honor to tell him the truth. It was making me physically sick.

  He leveled down, his eyes returning to their magnificent beauty. “Of course.” He pulled me in close, comforting me and then leading me to his car at the bottom of the driveway.

  “When do you need to be back?” he asked blankly as he started the convertible.

  “Sunrise.”

  “You look upset,” he observed.

  I shifted my glance his way. “It’s been a long day,” was all I could say.

  He placed his free hand on mine, my body instantly relaxing.

  “I know just the place.” He smiled.

  I was grateful when he turned away from the lake. I didn’t need to add to the list of bad things associated with it and saying goodbye was going to be monumentally bad. We drove up into the hills where large estates sprinkled the hillsides situated on large acres of land. They had the most magnificent view of the lake. My dad and I hiked up here once, but I hadn’t been back since.

  There was a well-traveled dirt road that led up one of the hills to the site of a fire where a house had been lost. Only the bottom half of the brick fireplace remained intact.

  “Wow, what happened here?”

  “It burned down just after we moved here. William helped save the family that lived in it.”

  Picturing Mr. Hunter doing something so human made all of this that much more difficult. Immortals were painted so ugly, not only by my father and Elijah, but also in every fairy tale I had ever read. Yet couldn’t humans be just as ugly, if not worse? They murdered, cheated, lied, and bullied. Monsters burrowed within humans, too.

  He took my hand in his as we walked carefully over the rubble. “The view here is the best in the valley.” He smiled.

  Had it not been for the fireplace it would have been hard to decipher there was a home here at all. It was a peculiar and eerie site that spooked me.

  “What are you thinking about?” he inquired.

  I hadn’t realized I had stopped to admire the fireplace for so long. “The three little pigs,” I said blankly.

  He laughed. “As in ‘I’ll blow your house down’?”

  I laughed with him because it was utterly ridiculous. “Yes. The brick house was the only one that stayed up when the wolf huffed and puffed. This brick fireplace is very symbolic, don’t you think?”

  “I see your point.” He smiled for a moment, admiring the fireplace as I saw it.

  He nudged me eagerly through the rubble to the back. It was overridden with waist-high weeds. Beyond the weeds, miles of stars compelled me. I had stepped into Van Gogh’s Starry Night. It was breathtaking.

  “This way.” His eyes lit up as he led me to the cliff where a metal park bench overlooked the cliff’s edge.

  “How did this get here?” It was out of place to see among the ruins. The white paint coating was chipping off the bench, showing the years of wear from the Idaho storms.

  “I found it out front, but thought this was a more fitting place for it.” He walked around and sat down, his eyes pleading for me to sit next to him.

  Without hesitation, I snuggled into his body, his arm wrapping around my shoulders naturally. He leaned over and kissed my forehead. Everything Wes did made it impossible to see him as a monster. He was still the Wes from before the accident. My Wes. I could never see him any differently.

  “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. I mean, I know there are a lot of beautiful views from up here in the valley, but this is a magnificent, unobstructed view of the whole city. And we’re high enough that the city lights don’t obscure the view of the stars,” Wes shared.

  I was just as amazed. “I can’t believe something so magnificent exists.”

  Wes’ thumb caressed my hand gently, his eyes peering over his lashes. “I can.”

  He was adoring me, and it made my stomach flip. His free hand slid down my cheek, his thumb following my lips from one end to the other, my heart skipping with each shallow breath I took. We pulled in closer, our legs overlapping and fingers tangled in each other’s hair. His breathing became as erratic as mine as I nuzzled into his neck this time, kissing him softly, wanting so much to feel his lips on mine again. Yearning. Needing. He gripped the back of my neck, only making me want him more, knowing he was losing as much control as me. So very human.

  We both pulled back, resting our foreheads together, catching our breath.

  “I love you, Abby. With everything I was and with everything I have become. Nothing will ever change that.”

  It was killing me to keep secrets from him. I waited for so long to be here with Wes. To have him back in my life. The universe had brought us back together, only to unfairly rip us apart again, but I couldn’t stay knowing I had a younger brother out in the world somewhere thinking he didn’t have a family. Being raised to hate the very thing I loved.

  Tears betrayed me as Wes caught some with a quick swipe of his fingers.

  “Why are you upset?” His hands cupped my face gently. Concern flooded his eyes.

  “Nothing. I’m sorry. It’s just been a really long day,” I lied.

  He leaned over and kissed my wet cheeks. “I’ll never leave you again. I promise.”

  All I could do was nod because he wouldn’t be the one leaving. I rested my head on his shoulder, and watched the twinkling sky. Every once in a while a shooting star would fly across the sky, its tail blazing fiercely and then fading.

  “Did you know that shooting stars are actually meteors?”

  “I did.” I smiled. “Knowing the truth kind of takes the magic out of it, though. When I was little, I wished on as many stars as I could.”

  “What were your wishes?”

  “There was only one.” My voiced cracked remembering how I would clasp my little hands together tightly, squeeze my eyes shut, and picture my wish coming true.

  He looked down at me. “Really? All those stars and you only wished for one thing?”

  I nodded, trying hard not to cry. I pressed my head a little closer to his chest, noticing for the first time that Wes’ chest didn’t beat with life, just a steady rising and falling as his lungs took in air.

  “I don’t have one,” he answered before I asked. “It was weird at first. It’s nice feeling a pulse again.” He rubbed his thumb over the pulse on my wrist.

  “So, before the final change, you were human?”

  “Yes. Immortal, too, but still human.” He hugged me tighter, lifting my legs over his knees.

  It was hard not to think about tomorrow. To think about not being in his arms again, but I was here now and I savored every touch of his body, every word he uttered, and every memory we created.

  “What was your wish?” he asked.

  Hesitantly, I softly revealed my wish. “For a brother or sister.” It hurt saying it aloud. “I begged my parents every day until I was twelve. I stopped asking after my grandpa died.”

  “I know it’s not the same thing, but you have Ben and Zoe now, and they are the best siblings anyone could ask for.”

  Why did this have
to be so hard? Words stuck in my chest. There was nothing I could say to change the future. I was exhausted, so I laid my head on Wes’ chest and closed my eyes.

  “Abby,” Wes whispered.

  I blinked, my eyes heavy with sleep.

  “Abby, it’s almost sunrise.”

  I peeled my eyes open urgently. The sky was glowing dimly like embers in a dying fire, and the morning dew had layered on my face and clothes.

  “I need to get you home.” He tried to stand, but I pulled him back down. “Aren’t you worried your parents will discover you’re missing?”

  “I don’t care.” This might be the last time I saw him, so no, I didn’t care if my parents knew I had been out all night. My dad might be mad, but he would understand. He would have to.

  Pinks and oranges filled the sky. The colors mixed with a thin layer of cumulus clouds left over from the last storm, creating a rainbow of clouds that took on an iridescence.

  “It’s stunning, Wes. The clouds look like your eyes.” I looked between the two, comparing. The similarity was uncanny. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” I was wonderstruck.

  “You know it’s very rare to witness an event such as that. Small water droplets or ice crystals in the clouds scatter the light from the sun, causing an effect similar to that of oil in water puddles. But the droplets or ice crystals have to be of similar size, and the cloud has to be paper thin to cause the iridescent glow.”

  ”Wow. Maybe it’s good luck.” I wanted it to be a sign that everything was going to be okay. That things would work out the way they should. That Wes and I would be able to be together one day, the forbidden curse broken. I nuzzled my head into the crook of his neck and watched the swirling of the iridescent clouds. “What color were your mom’s eyes?” He never talked about his mom.

  “Green.” He smiled. “And even in photographs they were piercing.”

  I wondered if Wes knew the truth surrounding his mother’s death. “How did she die?” I asked carefully.

  “She didn’t survive childbirth,” he said plainly, but he was lying. He knew how she died, and I could only imagine the hatred he had for The Order and anyone associated with it. It made me fear for my father’s life.