Beth watches, forgetting to be annoyed by the endearment.
Color floods Gunnar's cheeks, then his hand rises. He yanks the blade from his chest and tosses it aside.
After another minute, he sits up, pulling Maddie more deeply into his embrace, cradling her in his lap.
His ebony eyes look out over the audience in challenge. His look says what his mouth can't—that he'll kill all comers.
“Please, Gunnar, don't kill Madeline. She… she has nothing. Only this wretched life, not one thing more.” Beth beseeches him with her eyes.
Gunnar pulls from her neck, one finger absently stroking her skin. Finally, he takes his lips off her throat and licks every last drop off his mouth.
Maddie's head falls back, and she appears to rest against the crook of his arm. He runs a tongue over the twin puncture wounds, and they begin to close.
“Let me down, freak!” Jacky bellows. “That vamp fucker needs to get his creepy fangs away from Maddie.”
“They are out, Three slime,” Slade counters.
“Slade,” Beth says, giving a cautious look at Maddie, who's not been killed. Then she shifts her gaze to her newfound father, whose wound has stopped bleeding and is already healing. “Let Jacky down.”
“Gladly,” Slade says in disgust.
He releases Jacky, who falls to the floor with the grace of a wet cat.
“Dick,” he says, scooting away.
Slade looks ready to do more, so Beth jumps between them. “Don't. It's a volatile time.”
“Volatile?” Jeb asks from the ground. He indicates Maddie with a hand. “A One just took blood from our charge, and I did nothing to protect her because he is your father. Look how far we've come.”
Slade shakes his head. “She is fine. A finite number of females have kindred blood with one of our kind. That this one would show up here at just the right time is beyond coincidence. It is a favor issued by fate.”
Jacky's eyebrows rise. “Kind of like the lottery?” He's sullenly interested.
Beth feels better that another crisis seems to have been averted.
Slade's eyebrows come together, and Beth allows a small smile. “Jacky means the chances of such a female would be small,” she explains.
“Infinitesimal,” Slade confirms.
Jacky snaps a thumb at Gunnar and Maddie. “So what does that mean?”
“It means that she is his, technically,” Slade recites blandly.
It's too much for Beth, and she sits on the nearest chair, hard. If the seat hadn't been there, she would have landed on her ass.
Maddie lies in Gunnar’s arms like a small child, and he strokes the hair back from her face.
“Eff this noise.” Jacky strides toward the pair with clear intent etched on his features.
Gunnar's head whips to the young Three and he hisses. Fangs lengthen, venom sparkling at the tips.
“Not scared, vamp dude—bring it.” Jacky grabs a bronze sculpture off a low table in front of the couch and hoists it to his shoulder. “Let Maddie go or I'm going to pretend I need a home run with your head as the baseball.”
Gunnar stands with Maddie in his arms.
“Drop that or die.” His words are slightly muffled through the fangs, but Beth hears the warning.
Jacky smirks. “Putz.” Then he's closing the distance, the heaviest part of the statue poised to brain Beth's father.
She does the only thing she can.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jeb
Unreal.
Beth's foot whips out in front of Jacky, and down he goes, sending the statue flying.
Jeb jumps to his feet and grabs the hurtling sculpture.
Slade moves forward, presumably to punish the boy.
“Don't, Bloodling. Leave him. He's doing what he thinks is right.” Jeb's tone clearly says that Slade's done nothing right.
He scowls then glances at Beth, pale and exhausted in the chair. He steps down.
Jacky picks himself up and gives Beth a dirty look. “Thanks a lot—that sucked.”
“Sorry,” Beth says. “I thought things were going south in a hurry.”
Jacky jerks his thumb at Gunnar. “So your pop gets to fang Maddie and do whatever he wants?” Jackie folds his arms.
Beth leans forward, putting her forearms on her thighs. “No,” she says softly, hands dangling between her legs.
Jacky turns in a slow circle, taking them all in. “Am I the only one here getting the big picture?”
Gunnar's fangs have retracted and Maddie seems to have come around. “Big picture?” Gunnar asks and Jacky nods.
“Madeline is—she's been through a lot and she doesn't need to be some blood concubine or something because you're hungry and shit.”
“I was dying, Three.”
“It's Jacky you fanged fucktard.”
“Jacky,” Maddie chastises softly then she taps Gunnar's shoulder. “Would you, can you let me down?”
Gunnar nods but adds, “Stay close to me.”
Maddie smiles. “I—these guys aren't going to hurt me.” Her hand goes to where Gunnar took blood.
He lets Maddie slip down the front of him, and even Jeb tenses at the huge size disparity. Maddie comes to well below his shoulder, looking positively fragile beside the nearly seven-feet-tall Bloodling.
He cradles her face, kissing her forehead, each cheek, then her mouth.
Maddie stands still, her eyes still closed seconds after his lips have left her face. “Wow,” she breathes.
“Maddie,” Jacky says sharply, and she startles, turning to him. “Don't let him vamp you. He's got some weird mojo, I'll admit…”
“It doesn't work on males,” Slade comments dryly.
Jacky pushes his longish hair out of his face. “Thank fuck.”
Kennet chuckles. “You do have a way with Three words.”
Jacky screws up his face. “Yeah. Duh—they're mine.” He rolls his eyes.
Kennet frowns and Jeb feels a grin stretch his face. He has to admit, Jacky somehow adds a perverse balance to a barely tolerable circumstance.
“Maddie, can you get away from him?” Jacky points at Gunnar.
She nods. “Sure.” She begins to walk away from him and Gunnar says, “Thank you.”
Color swamps Maddie's cheekbones and she whispers, “Welcome.”
Beth walks to Maddie. “I'm sorry, Maddie. I—I just found out Gunnar is my father.”
She shakes her head slightly. “I can tell. You guys feel alike.”
Jeb frowns. “What do you mean?”
Maddie lifts a shoulder. Her newly trimmed dark brown hair slides over her shoulders, landing in the hollow between her shoulder blades. “I can't explain it very well. I walked in here, and I could feel his need,” she swallows, casting a shy glance at Gunnar. “I had to answer.”
“Seems like a big old user to me,” Jacky mumbles, his eyes narrowing on Gunnar.
“That's great you have a dad,” she says, her eyes dropping.
Jacky appears to guess her thoughts. “Screw Chuck, Maddie. That turd is gone forever.”
She nods quickly, her fingers wiping tears as fast as they fall. “Yeah.”
“Who is this Chuck?” Gunnar asks, moving toward Maddie.
“Back off,” Jacky says.
Gunnar snorts. “No one tells me what to do, Three.”
“Jacky, asshole,” he corrects without fear of reprisal and Beth's eyes close.
“Jacky,” Jeb begins, “we'll figure out this situation better if you're not using every bit of profanity you possess.”
A crooked smile flashes across his face. “I'm not even warmed up yet, Merrick.”
Kennet chuckles. “The boy has a point. Bloodlings are the natural enemies of Reflectives. He's taken blood from a female under our care.” Kennet plants his feet apart, folding his arms, and gives Slade a hard stare. “Explain what's going on, Bloodling.”
“Yeah, park it for awhile guys and expound on your unwanted presence.”
Jacky flops down on a recliner, spinning it in a single revolution.
“Jacky,” Maddie says, “quit it.”
Jacky pops up again and walks the short distance to Maddie. He grabs her arm and shakes her slightly. “Nah. These guys need their feet held to the fire, as my pop would say.”
“Take your hands from the female, Three.”
Jacky looks at Gunnar and Jeb intervenes. “They are both from Three. Madeline and Jacky have known each other since they were younglings.”
“He cannot touch her.”
Jacky grins. “Yʼknow, you're sure owning a lot of shit that's not yours. Back off.”
Gunnar moves in a blur of pearl-gray air rushing past Jeb.
Then he's got Jacky by the throat.
Maddie screams and steps between them, putting her palms on Gunnar's chest. “Please, I love him—Jacky's all the family I have.”
Gunnar hisses, dropping Jacky, who lands on his ass for the second time, hands at his throat.
Gunnar grips Maddie against his chest. “Don't hurt him—please,” she repeats.
Gunnar's hand moves below her hair, kneading her nape softly. “For you I will abstain.”
“What's going on, Jeb?” Beth asks.
Jeb moves toward her and away from the couple forming before his eyes.
“What is this complication, Merrick?” Kennet asks, looking between Gunnar and Maddie then at Slade.
Jeb takes Beth's hand, and a low growl parts Slade's lips. Jeb gives him a sharp look.
“I think,” Jeb says slowly, “that we have two Bloodlings that are here for a purpose, and Maddie's been caught in some kind of blood magic.”
Jacky coughs. “I think it's a shit ton more than that, Merrick. Did you hear the big doofus?” He hitches his jaw toward Slade. “He said that Maddie was this other slack jaw's.”
“What is a ʻslack jaw’?” Gunnar asks, his eyes pinning Jacky to the floor.
Beth groans.
“Don't explain, Jacky,” Jeb says.
“A dumb ass,” Jacky answers, smirking.
“Jacky,” Maddie says, “I'm begging you—stop egging him on.”
“No begging, small one,” Gunnar says, stroking a finger underneath her chin. “You beg to no one.”
Jacky snorts. “You don't know Maddie, chump. All you needed right then was a quick bite.” Jacky snaps his teeth together several times, and both Gunnar and Slade glare at him. “And Maddie was conveniently here. No, she's just some—no offense, man—blood whore for you. And when another chick comes along with the yum factor, Maddie will be a throwaway. And dude, she doesn't need your brand of noise.”
Beth moves with the speed of calculation, slapping her father's face so hard it rocks back. “You're a liar. Jacky's right.”
Maddie cries out.
Jeb moves in as Gunnar grabs her wrist. “I am Bloodling. We are many things, but deceit at the expense of a defenseless female is not one of them.”
A shrill whistle pierces the tense tangle of limbs and rage-filled gazes. All eyes move to Kennet.
His fingers drop from his lips. “I understand this is a huge mess. But what we really need to consider is all the Reflectives coming to collect Beth.”
Jeb looks at Kennet, leaking a rough exhale. He nods. Kennet's right.
“Who is coming to take Beth?” Slade asks, his eyebrows gone low over glittering obsidian eyes.
“You don't need an explanation, Bloodling. She is my claimed soul mate. I am the only male who needs to understand Beth's future.”
Beth blanches, and Jeb winces at his own words, however true they are.
Slade's lips curl. “Yes, and has she claimed you as well, Reflective?”
Jeb squares off with Slade, hearing Beth's sigh.
“Jeb,” Beth says, touching his arm. Softening instantly at her touch, he flicks his eyes at her. “This isn't helping. Posturing is delaying. Kennet is trying to tell us to formulate a plan. Now.”
She turns to Slade. “How much did you hear when you took me from The Cause Headquarters courtyard?”
Slade lifts his shoulders and Beth looks at Gunnar. “Nothing, we came upon you, and made the jump.”
Beth gives him a sad smile. “Artful jumping, by the way.” He inclines his head and Beth frowns. “I'm still mad as a hornet at you.”
His lips curl. “As I said before, this is not the reunion I had planned.”
“Wait a sec—” Jacky looks from Gunnar to Beth. “You didn't know you had a kid?”
Gunnar gives a slight shake of his head. “No.”
“Well this is an epic fuck-up.”
Slade holds up a palm in Jacky's direction, and his mouth snaps shut. “Be that as it may, I'll ask a second time—why are the Reflectives coming for Beth?” His eyes blaze at Jeb.
Jeb's shame is acute, but he refuses to sugarcoat the truth. “She is the only Reflective female on Papilio.”
Slade and Gunnar take on identical expressions of horrific understanding.
“Did you publicly claim her, Reflective?” Slade asks.
Jeb inhales deeply.
“Did you?” Slade asks through his teeth.
“Yes,” Jeb bites back.
“Yet, they still come for her?” Gunnar asks in a tone filled with menace.
Jeb nods. “We've been without leadership for five years.” He swivels to Slade. “You know what Dimitri has done with our Reflectives. What Lance Ryan did. They overthrew The Cause—ousted Rachett. Then Ryan was the defunct leader of a corrupt and debauched order.”
“And the females?” Gunnar’s brows collide.
“They've been jumped to other sectors.”
“What?” Shocked, Slade drops his hands to his sides.
Jeb nods. “Beth is the only female left. We need these male Reflectives to locate the females and bring them safely back. But there is no cohesive leadership and Ryan remains at large.”
Slade throws his head back and laughs.
Jeb doesn't see the humor and his body tenses. Beth squeezes his hand.
“I have an idea, since your world is even more convoluted than ours.”
Jeb smirks. “I doubt there's anything you can offer. I wager your very presence on Papilio has made things worse.” He doesn't add Gunnar to the comment but his inference hangs in the air between them.
Gunnar holds Maddie loosely. “As I see it, you don't have many options. Your leader is missing, while another schemes in a dark corner somewhere. My daughter has made no claim on a male.” He shrugs.
Jeb fights not to pull Beth against him.
“And Beth's life is in danger from her own kind. Really,” he says, looking at Kennet, Jacky, and Jeb with mild distaste, “you do not understand the treasure you have in females, and you do not appear prepared to protect them properly.”
“Not all guys are dicks to girls,” Jacky says in sullen defense.
“There certainly aren't many prevalent examples in this sector,” Slade comments in a dry voice.
Nobody argues.
Jeb swallows his pride as thoughts of keeping Beth safe fill his head. He can't outrun the entire Reflective command—or even most of them. “What do you suggest?” he finally asks Slade.
Jacky balks. “Merrick?! Come on!”
“Quiet, Jacky.” Jeb's eyes are steady on Slade's.
Slade doesn't hesitate. “We jump to One.”
“Merrick—Principle no—that would be so wrong,” Kennet says.
Triumph, and something else Jeb can't discern, is written all over Gunnar’s face.
Jeb glances at Kennet and shakes his head. “We need to think of Beth—and Maddie. We can't protect them. Not at present.”
Kennet's mouth closes with a snap, and Calvin, so silent until now, blows out his disgust in a harsh exhale.
“Let's do it,” Beth says, and Jeb wants to kiss her. She's the bravest person he's ever known.
“What about the other women?” Maddie asks from the shadow of Gunnar's form.
Jeb's eye flick in Maddie's direction. “We'll secure the women at One, and when things are more settled, we'll return here and galvanize groups to seek the females.”
“Bad choices—all,” Calvin says and Kennet nods assent.
Jeb shoots them a hard look. “Do either of you have anything better?”
Beth steps in front of him, gripping his shoulders. He sinks into her dark eyes.
“It's okay. It's all we have. Sometimes the best choice comes from terrible ones.”
Beth turns to Slade. “What about Dimitri?”
A shadow passes over Slade's features, and a shiver of foreboding threads through Jeb. “I'll handle him.”
“This is going to blow,” Jacky says, following the others to find a safe place to jump.
For once, Jeb agrees with Jacky.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Beth can't believe how much her life has changed in a month's time. First, she endured the horrible induction courtesy of Reflective Ryan, when she had to jump to save her own skin.
Then she was paired with Jeb Merrick—womanizer, expert jumper, and warrior—only to have him claim her as his soul mate. Beth feels like at any moment, she'll wake up from a nightmare.
Their last jump to dispatch the woman-abusing Chuck and return thirteen-year-old Jacky to Three went up in smoke when Ryan disrupted the time continuum, moving Papilio time ahead of sector Three.
Ryan jumped the Reflective women before being assessed and brought back to a semblance of health. And Jacky aged to eighteen cycles. Just those two facts make Beth's head buzz.
Then her Bloodling father suddenly appears in her shattered world by sheer coincidence. She can't evaluate it all too closely, or she'll go crazy.
They have a saying about coincidence on Papilio: coincidence is destiny asserting its dominance.
Beth hasn't told Jeb her worries. She's angry at Gunnar. He holds the secrets to her mother—and Beth's unlikely beginnings. He also took blood from a willing Maddie.
Jeb thought the worst of Gunnar after she was responsible for freeing him of his pants.
The recent memory makes her chuckle, and Jeb gives her an inquisitive glance as they walk toward a lake buried in the deepest part of the forest behind her domicile.
“Oh—you remember how Gunnar didn't have any pants?” Beth's lips curl.
reflection 02 - the reflective cause Page 9
