reflection 02 - the reflective cause

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  “But I can,” Ryan says, beating his fist against his heart. A horrible intent sweeps his features, making Slade’s adrenaline surge.

  Dimitri turns, looking between the two of them. “What is this treachery?”

  “Shut up, nightloper.” Ryan flings a metal disc at Dimitri. Serrated blades whip out as it spins then pierce Dimitri’s chest.

  He roars, jumping over his dying messenger to get to Ryan. Blood soaks his broad and muscled chest, coating the golden fur with rust.

  “You!” he roars, and the sound beats against Slade's sensitive eardrums.

  Nightlopers swarm forward to assist their leader.

  This is it. Ryan has caused the promised distraction, and Dimitri knows he is betrayed.

  Slade is in the perfect position to slay Dimitri and leave Merrick at Ryan's mercy.

  Then he will somehow get to Beth—wherever she is.

  But Slade cannot jump. Only Gunnar can. And what is the possibility that Beth has jumped from One without her father?

  Zero, Slade presumes.

  As the nightlopers converge against Ryan, Slade breaks from the path of least resistance. Instead of killing the obvious enemy, he sprints past the one who would take after Beth.

  Ryan bellows, calling for Slade as Dimitri bleeds all over, and nightlopers descend on him.

  But Slade does not listen; he flies back down the steep stone steps to Merrick's cell.

  He rounds the corner as a nightloper moves to attack. Slade sweeps his fully extended fangs across its throat, and the head falls back. He shoves a body spitting blood to the side, slips on the naked stone slick with blood, and jerks the keys from the jailer's hands.

  Merrick's face lifts, and Slade groans, seeing that the Reflective has taken a beating since he left.

  Damn.

  “Fuck off, Slade.”

  “I do not have time for your arrogance, Reflective.”

  Merrick spits a wad of blood at his feet, and Slade steps over it. He unlocks the first manacle then the second.

  Merrick slumps against Slade.

  Slade senses his injuries.

  They are many.

  But Merrick shoves him away, the one eye that is not swollen shut narrowing. “I will bring my best, if that is what you seek.”

  Slade ignores him, lifting the object he had been stroking like a talisman earlier.

  A door above slams.

  A small ribbon appears in his hand, and he yanks the mirror out of his pocket.

  It had cost him a small fortune, but it was worth more than ten bars of Three gold.

  “What is this?” Merrick asks reverently.

  “Can you jump us?”

  Merrick’s disdain is clear.

  Shouts and snarls float to the cell. Merrick glances behind Slade. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “I need you to jump us to the lake. Beth has hopped.”

  Merrick's face pales. “Where? Without me?”

  “She thinks you are getting Rachett.”

  “I can't trust you, Bloodling.”

  “Nor can you trust Ryan. He knows, Jeb Merrick.”

  Their eyes lock.

  “He'll find her.” Merrick holds out his hand.

  The ribbon tied around his wrist, Slade hands the mirror to Merrick. “Then jump us.”

  Merrick stares at Slade. “I'll kill you slowly, Bloodling.”

  Slade nods. He would do the same. “Kill me later, but for now—let us save Beth.”

  Merrick's eyes jump to a point behind Slade's shoulder, and he whirls.

  Ryan looms large, a flail raised and swinging. It makes a whisper's call in the sudden silence.

  The cell is tight; there is no room to evade.

  The swing is true, sweeping for his head in a precise arc of fluid motion.

  Heat engulfs Slade, and he watches the spiked ball pass through his body as though it’s happening to someone else.

  Ryan opens his mouth, veins standing out on his forehead like twin pulses. And then the vision of the enraged Reflective recedes until he is the size of a seed in stone.

  The Reflective winks away as Slade spins, traveling with a male who means his death.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Beth

  Beth lands hard.

  Gunnar holds her fast, his other arm around Maddie. His grip on Beth’s wrist jerks her hard against his body.

  Beth's breath punches out in a whoop that leaves her on the ground, in desperate need of air.

  Loose clouds flow overhead like escaped cotton while Beth's lungs burn.

  Jacky's face appears above her.

  “Got the wind knocked outta her,” he says helpfully and jerks Beth up. She staggers, her arms flailing.

  Jacky beats on her back, and dots swim in front of her eyes.

  Gunnar appears, his black irises swallowing the expression in them. He runs a fingertip along the side of her face, and breath eases inside her lungs.

  Beth is ashamed at her weakness—that his help allowed her to breathe.

  Gunnar curls a large arm around her body and holds her.

  “I—” She coughs. “I can stand.”

  Gunnar releases her, and Beth lands on her ass. It hurts, but she feels better.

  Maddie approaches and Beth instantly knows where they've landed—the woods outside of where Jacky's parents visited the grave of his dead brother, Chase.

  Bright sunlight fights through the canopy to throw chunks of light around the forest floor like the pieces of a discarded puzzle.

  Beth can hear the forest breathe and knows it's alive here on Three, as it was in One.

  “Is this—is this an enchanted wood?” Beth manages as she stands, dusting off the seat of her pants.

  “Ah—yeah. Check it.”

  Beth cranes her neck. Eyes spring open from tree trunks indiscernible from the rest.

  “Oh Principle,” Beth says, hating the tremor in her voice.

  “They didn't hurt us before, Beth,” Maddie says.

  Beth blinks, looking at Maddie in the dim light beneath a canopy so thick that the air appears green.

  Maddie doesn't fit so well within Three norms. Then she looks at Gunnar.

  Beth fights her emotions then finally gives in. “I am here to return Jacky and Maddie to their home world. That is all.” Beth looks at the trees silently watching them.

  Her veins surface, gently revealing themselves like cobalt lace beneath her pale skin.

  She feels their hunger, the hunger of the trees. Yet they do not attack or ask for blood.

  Beth gathers her courage, gazing down at her feet for an entire minute. She would give every mirror in Papilio for one minute with Jeb. She feels naked without her partner.

  And Beth won't even allow herself to think of the void left behind by Slade's absence.

  She chose to jump from One while the two males rescued her leader. Beth won't examine why it was so easy to do.

  She lifts her chin, looking directly into Gunnar's eyes. “I know you mean well. And I thought I wanted to know who my parents were.”

  Beth shakes her head as Maddie rests a light hand on her shoulder. Beth turns to look at her, momentarily drowning in eyes not found in Three, but right at home in other sectors.

  Gorgeous eyes like iolite gems gaze back at her. “It's okay, Beth—let it out.”

  “Yeah, blubber away. It's just us and the trees here,” Jacky cracks.

  Beth laughs. Once she starts, she can't stop.

  When she begins to cry, Gunnar takes her in his arms. “I did not know there was any joy left for me—until you were revealed to me. Do not take that from me, Beth.”

  Beth pulls away, with a hard heart that's growing soft as the rough edges of the life she has lived to be Reflective are shaved off.

  Maddie stands silently beside her.

  Beth shouldn't take time for this. But she can't help herself. “Tell me about my mother.”

  Gunnar steps away, turning to face the woods. The trees benig
nly stare down at them, and Beth suppresses a shiver.

  “Lucinda was on a scouting expedition to our sector and was disguised as a man.” He chuckles then adds, “As though a Bloodling could not easily scent a female.” His lips tilts, and Beth can see the memories of her mother play over his face. His expression darkens.

  “She was taking surface samples. And of course, finding nothing that reflects. It was during a time when the great Papiliones thought they could man all the sectors through hopping alone. Back when they presumed their species to be the only one capable of jumping.”

  His hands fist, and the beginnings of resentment leak into his tone. “I planned to kill her. She was, after all, a Reflective, and as such, not welcome in our sector. How dare the mighty Reflectives of The Cause jump here and take samples from our world as though we are their personal lab experiment?”

  “What happened?” Maddie asks. Beth gives her a sharp look, and she blushes, casting her eyes away.

  “I crept closer, employing every bit of natural Bloodling stealth…”

  “She made you right away,” Beth guesses, and he gives a solid nod.

  “She said, ʻNo closer, Bloodling, if you value your manhood.ʼ”

  Beth smiles.

  Gunnar does, as well, cupping his testicles. “She had the flat end of her ceramic blade holding my…” He lifts himself and Jacky gives a low whistle of sympathy.

  “Ouch, man.”

  Beth's smile fades.

  “Then we looked at each other, the blade fell away, and she allowed me to touch her. I swear, I wanted only to feel what a Reflective felt like.” The silence eats his words. “I did not know.”

  “Didn't know what?”

  “What she really was.” Gunnar looks at each of them, making an irritated sweep of his hair as he secures it at his nape. “Lucinda said, ‘It's you.’ She said it as if she'd been waiting for me there by the lake, instead of having snuck in the back door of our sector.”

  “Her timepiece,” Beth whispers.

  He nods. Flinging his hands apart and fluttering his fingers as though spreading dandelion seeds in the wind. “Gone.”

  “So her soul mate thingy just blew up when you showed up with all your coolness.”

  Gunnar's brows come together.

  “Yes.” Beth looks at Jacky. “If she was ticking down and her soul mate was near, there'd be no holding it back.”

  Gunnar gives Beth his full attention. “I did not know of this. I only knew that she was my enemy no more.”

  “Was she kindred blood?” Maddie asks.

  Beth turns to her. Though her face flames, the girl’s eyes remain steady on Gunnar.

  He lifts his chin, answering her question head on. “Yes.”

  “How did you find that out? You give her the fang treatment?” Jacky asks, jerking a thumb toward Maddie.

  “I never asked. She came to me like a lamb to the slaughter, walking right into my arms with all the trust in the world. As though…”

  Beth leans forward. “As though what?”

  “As though we had always been mated.”

  “And then you took her blood,” Jacky states.

  Gunnar nods.

  “You got the whammy.” Jacky punches his fist into his open palm, and Maddie and Beth jump at the slapping sound inside the unnaturally quiet forest.

  “If you mean I knew she was my kindred blood? Immediately.”

  “So why didn't you know about me?” Beth asks and is proud she doesn't sound like a whiny female.

  “Our mating was in secret. Lucinda's time was not at an end as a Reflective, and I could not keep her safe here—so far from reflection and so deep I would have had to hide her among my people, and with all the responsibilities of my station. We found time when we could.”

  “Apparently enough time,” Jacky says, giving a pointed look to Beth.

  Gunnar doesn't look embarrassed by Jacky's crude implications. Instead, he grins at Beth. “She had the ability to skip to whatever sector she wished. Whatever time. She obviously jumped—”

  “And interfered with time.” Beth pauses for a suspended moment then recites, “Twelfth: Disturb not the continuum.”

  Jacky wanders away, edging toward the border of where the trees give way to shrubs and a graveyard rises to a gently sloping knoll.

  “I am unhappy I could not have spared you the life you lived without me. But I cannot say I am unhappy to find you now. Please forgive me for my absence. I am Bloodling. No daughter would be without her father if I were aware.”

  “I don't need a male's protection.”

  Gunnar's nostrils flare. “I offer my love, and I cannot separate that from my protection, Beth. It is what a male Bloodling is.”

  They stare at each other.

  “I can only be honest. I miss your mother, and I hate how her life ended. I would do anything to change it, but unlike you—Bloodlings cannot skip time—only space.”

  A prickling sensation causes gooseflesh to rise on Beth's arms.

  “Beth,” Jacky says, and her head whips in his direction.

  Gunnar grabs her arm. “Truce, my daughter?”

  Beth can't keep blaming him—or her dead mother—because they couldn't offer something to soften the harshness of her childhood. All she can do is be grateful for her father's presence now.

  Gunnar lets his hand fall, and Beth intercepts it midair. His dark eyebrows rise in surprise, and she lays his huge hand against her cheek and closes her eyes for a blissful moment of warmth.

  When she opens them, his tender gaze is on her.

  “Beth!”

  Gunnar growls low in his throat at the intrusion as they move toward where Jacky and Maddie stand at the forest's edge.

  “Is this time continuum thing, like, on purpose, or can ya just—poof—go any time?”

  “What do you—yes. It's deliberate.” Beth stands beside him, her father a solid presence at her back.

  Beth gazes out into the mass of graves. The bleached headstones look like newly erupted teeth in a grassy mouth.

  Maddie gasps, stepping more deeply into the shadows, and Beth's father automatically puts her behind him protectively. “What is it?” His fangs garble his speech.

  Beth knows what's happened, but she can't speak. Somehow, she's broken the twelfth she so blithely recited as though it would be so beneath her to breach a directive.

  “How come that prick's alive, huh?” Jacky asks Beth, accusation clear in his voice. “I mean, you guys came back and did him—didn't you?”

  Beth nods a little frantically. “Yes. We—he was processed for elimination.”

  “He looks very alive to me,” Gunnar comments with a shaking Maddie clinging to his back. “Who is that male?”

  Beth gulps her shame. “Maddie's stepfather.”

  Gunnar steps out into the brightest part of the shadows, and Maddie plucks at his tunic. “Don't—don't go out there.”

  The Bloodling turns and cups her chin. “A male who has hurt my kindred blood shall not breathe another breath.”

  “No!” Beth shouts but too late. Her hand grabs empty air as Gunnar leaps into the meadow to go after Chuck.

  And his skin starts to redden before their eyes; grotesque blisters spring to life in quarter-sized boils.

  Gunnar falls to his knees, and an involuntary wail escapes his lips as his skin begins to blacken and burn.

  The lone figure at the top of the hill shades his eyes from the sun, looks down at the strange sight of a man on fire, and grips his trimming shears tighter.

  Maddie screams as Chuck's eyes find her.

  He grins, coming straight at them.

  Beth lunges forward, grabbing Gunnar’s arm, and drags him backward into the safety of the shadows.

  “What has happened?” he croaks, and Beth holds in a sob as half his arm sloughs away under her touch.

  “Three has one sun—it's very strong,” she says, rolling him over.

  “Beth, figure something out!” Jacky say
s.

  Beth watches Chuck coming and her eyes go back to Gunnar. “I'm sorry, father.”

  Beth stands as her father lies dying at her feet and Chuck approaches.

  I'll kill him twice.

  But when a shimmering rainbow appears midair Beth sucks in a breath.

  Someone has followed her.

  Hope sparks—Jeb has followed.

  Chuck walks through the iridescent tailwind of her jump as though it’s not there, his eyes set on Maddie.

  Then Ryan leaps from thin air to the slight incline of emerald grass, with a lightness of step that belies the difficult landing.

  His eyes find Beth as though he knew right where to look.

  THE END

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  Directives of The Cause:

  First: Right the wrong

  Second: Bear no injustice

  Third: Change not what must be

  Fourth: Reflect only when unobserved

  Fifth: Protect the young

  Sixth: Take life only in defense of another

  Seventh: No death is without consequence

  Eighth: Defend those who cannot

  Ninth: Forsake not honor, for it is all that remains

  Tenth: Reconcile emotion for The Cause, not another

  Eleventh: Divulge not your identity

  Twelfth: Disturb not the continuum

  Thirteenth: Forsake not The Cause

  Sectors:

  Sector One – Nightloper/Bloodlings

  Sector Three - Earth

  Sector Seven - Bloodsingers

  Sector Ten - Papilio

  Sector Thirteen - Spheres

  Unexplored sectors:

  Two

  Four through Six

  Eight

  Nine

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Series by Tamara Rose Blodgett:

  The BLOOD Series

  The DEATH Series