Eye of Heaven
Page 36
“If you say so. I am still … adjusting.”
“Better you than Iris.”
“Yes. I could not agree more.”
“Iris is just inside. I’ll go wake her up. Unless … you are going to talk to her, aren’t you?” Blue sounded alarmed. “She has questions, Serena. Where—you can’t do this to her.”
“I have no answers, Blue. I betrayed my daughter.”
“I think a simple apology might go a long way.”
“You are naïve.”
“Maybe, but I still think I’m right.”
“Because you know her so well? Because you think loving her makes you an authority?”
“Because I know she loves you, and that won’t change, no matter what you tell her.”
Silence; Iris held on, breathless. “I think you forgive me.”
“Maybe. Or perhaps I’m just patient.”
“No,” she said slowly. “You are a good man.”
Iris could almost hear Blue smile. “You sound shocked, Serena. Good men don’t exist where you’re from?”
“They do not. Or in such rare quantities as to be likened to dreams.”
Iris shook herself and rolled off the bed, running to the door. She pulled it open, and there stood her mother. Blond hair, sharp chin, a black eye patch covering half her face. She looked like a pirate, and there were hard lines around her mouth that Iris did not remember. A different woman, maybe. A secret life.
“Iris,” she breathed. Golden light coursed through her eye, splashing her skin, trailing fire down her throat. She took a step toward her daughter, and stopped, staring. Iris stared back. They stood like that for a long time, saying nothing, just looking at each other. Drinking everything in.
“You must hate me,” Serena said softly, with such quiet pain that Iris flinched. Blue drifted backward, into the shadows.
Iris fought for words. Her heart hurt like hell. “I don’t understand you. But that’s not the same thing as hate. Far from it.”
Serena nodded, wetting her lips. Slow, tentative, she held out her arms. Iris did not hesitate. She jumped down the steps, hugging her mother hard, savoring the sensation of being held in return, enveloped by touch and scent, which was wild as bramble, green with wood and sap and some cool breeze off the moon.
“I’m sorry,” Serena murmured. Lila and Petro pushed through the door of the RV, and the two women sank to the ground, letting the lions crawl over them. Con and Boudicca were suddenly there as well. Iris glimpsed Blue by the holding pen.
No one spoke for a long time, until finally, Iris said, “Why?”
Serena looked away from her; Iris stared at her eye patch, and remembered Santoso. “Because I had obligations that could not be ignored, promises I had made before you were born. It was for your benefit, Iris, though I knew at the time you would not thank me for it.” Serena finally met her gaze, and her face was stark, haunted. “I tried to protect you. Part of my agreement for going undercover with Santoso was that you would be cared for.”
“And I assume being stalked by Santoso was not part of the plan.”
“No,” she said grimly. “In fact, it was orchestrated.”
Blue finally emerged from the shadows. “What?”
Serena flinched. “When Santoso arrived in this city, he found Iris by accident. He took a liking to her—an appreciation that quickly turned into obsession. My employers were intrigued by this, and decided, against my wishes, that you be allowed to … hang. To see what would come of Santoso’s interest, and whether it would distract him enough for other things to come to fruition.” Serena swallowed hard; her scent turned sour, bitter. “They would not listen to me. I begged them, Iris. I did everything I could think to persuade them, and they would not budge.”
“You couldn’t just quit?” Iris asked, horrified.
“You do not quit these women,” Serena said. “No one does. But there are ways around them, and perhaps because of that I did some … foolish things. I had Fred install a camera inside your RV so that someone could keep you under constant surveillance. And I orchestrated Kevin Cray’s attack on the cats. I hoped that if they were taken from you—or if you were threatened enough—you would stop your performances at the hotel. Leave of your own free will.”
“My God,” Blue said. “You fired that shot at her. You were the sniper.”
“No,” Serena said, looking him in the eye. “Fred was. It was a favor to me.”
Iris sat back, leaning against Con’s broad side. A tremor ran through her body, her head, her heart; her entire world was shaking. “I can’t believe this. I just … can’t. How could you?”
“I had no choice.”
“Bullshit.”
Serena’s gaze hardened. “I will make no excuses for my actions, Iris. I did what I had to. Count your blessings that you have had an easier life.”
“Not so easy,” Blue interrupted. “You’ve been in contact with Pete, too, haven’t you? You asked him to fire me.”
“Oh, not Pete,” Iris said, but Serena nodded. Iris rolled back her head, staring at the sky. She could barely see the stars past the city lights, and for a moment she hated it all. Hated her mother, her life.
“I thought I was acting in my daughter’s best interests when I asked him to get rid of you,” Serena said to Blue. “I did not trust your motives.”
“Who do you trust, mom?” Iris asked, wanting to scream. “You sure as hell don’t trust me.”
“That is not true. I was protecting you. This life, what I do … it is not for you, Iris. You are better than that. You are … sweeter.”
“Sweeter,” Iris echoed. “Not so sweet anymore.”
“I know,” Serena said sadly. “I know.”
“So,” Blue said, much later. “Are you ready to cry yet?”
Iris bit back a hard laugh. She lay on her back in the dry grass of the holding pen, nestled against him. Two lions, a tiger, and a jaguar pressed warm around their bodies, the world drowning in the sounds of heavy breathing, the occasional groan and purr. A nest made of fur—and one very good man. Iris ran her hand up Blue’s arm. She was still trying to see the stars.
“I’m too confused to cry,” Iris said. “She’s crazy.”
“She’s perfectly sane. Just like my father. At least your mother had your best interests at heart. Mine …” He stopped, sighing. “I don’t understand him, either. Why he had me go after Daniel. Why he couldn’t just bring us together. He said it was because we never would have listened, but I keep thinking it was just another one of his games. Always games, down to the bitter end.”
“And you’ll never know if he loved you,” Iris said.
“You have to make your own love.” Blue’s arms tightened. “Find your own family.”
“But it still hurts.”
“Yes,” he said softly. “It does.”
Iris kissed his cheek, his throat, sliding her hand beneath his shirt to touch his skin. He shifted, rolling so that he could hook his leg over her hip and slide her near. His body was heavy and warm, his arms strong. She listened to his heartbeat.
“We’re taking a risk here,” Blue whispered. “If I ever lose control—”
“If I ever lose control—”
“You wouldn’t. Not like that. I trust you, Iris.”
“And I trust you, Blue.” She peered up into his eyes. “I love you.”
His jaw tightened. He brushed back her hair, his thumb sliding down her cheek to the corner of her mouth, making her breathless with the heat and hunger rising slow.
“I love your eyes,” he murmured. “I’ve loved them since the beginning.”
And I’ve loved yours, she thought, heart aching, thinking about her life as it had been, and what it could be.
“Shape-shifters mate for life,” she told him. “You think you can handle that?”
His mouth curved. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Ah,” she whispered. “Then I say we pack up the cats in my RV and we roll ourselv
es to your cabin in Colorado. Go sit on a mountain and commune with nature.”
“What about the Miracle?”
“My mother owes me one. She’ll pull strings.”
Blue smiled. “And what will we do on that mountaintop? Be at one with the world?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of being one with each other.”
“And if we happen to make a pit stop at some little pink chapel? Maybe rope ourselves a preacher who looks like Elvis?”
“I’ll be dazzling in fur.”
He laughed, but only for a moment. He caressed her left hand, pressing his lips to it and lingering. “I’ll buy the rings tomorrow.”
Her breath caught, heart thudding itself into a lovely ache. “I think I’d like that, Blue.”
They stared at the stars. The city drowned out the night, the dark expanse.
“Blue,” she said. “Turn out the lights. Just for a minute.”
So he did.
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Other books by Marjorie M. Liu
THE RED HEART OF JADE
SHADOW TOUCH
A TASTE OF CRIMSON (Crimson City Series)
TIGER EYE
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
EYE OF HEAVEN.
Copyright © 2006 by Marjorie M. Liu.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-201337-8
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