by Fleur Smith
He blew out a hard laugh, no doubt realizing that there was no point being angry. It wouldn’t change the past, and who knew how long we might have before things went crazy again.
“I have absolutely no idea,” he teased. “And if you’d told me that plan before you did it, I wouldn’t have let you do it.”
“I’m glad I didn’t tell you then, because it worked. At least, in a roundabout way it did. I’m sorry I didn’t come to you when you first called out to me.”
“And run straight back to the person who held a gun to your head?” His voice was incredulous. “I can understand that. I’m actually glad you didn’t, because it means you have at least some sense of self-preservation despite throwing yourself from a cliff.”
I did have questions of my own, to piece together another part of the morning. If Louise had been the one hunting me . . . “Why was Ethan there today?”
“He caught me stealing one of the Rain’s cars to get back to you. It was a choice of take him with me or have a team on my ass. He said the area wasn’t safe.” Clay’s palm found the back of his neck. “I guess he was right.”
“What about last night?”
“Apparently he and Dad were here for the case. They just diverted to find us when Lou called him to say that you were there and had tried to kill her.”
I sighed. “Your sister is always going to be an issue isn’t she?”
Clay was thoughtful for a moment. “I think so, but if Eth is convinced about you, I am certain others won’t be far behind despite what he says. He can be very convincing when he wants to be, and there are some others in the Rain who think the hard line approach to hunting all nonhumans is wrong.” He sighed. “I just wish my family were some of them.”
“Maybe they will be one day,” I said, stroking his cheek soothingly but not believing a word I’d said.
“Maybe,” he replied sounding equally unconvinced. “Sleep now, I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“You need to sleep too,” I chastised.
He yawned as if to prove my point.
Squeezing over to one side of the bed, I patted the empty space beside me.
“Lie with me?” I asked.
He looked skeptically at the small space along the length of the bed and then at the chair on the other side of the room. The debate running through his head was clear in his expression: space versus proximity to me. We’d fit into a small bed together once before, and he seemed to remember that too. Careful to avoid the worst of my injuries, he climbed into bed beside me and held my hands in his until we both fell asleep.
TRUE TO his word, Ethan came back two days later with an escape plan in hand. He handed me a yellow envelope with a symbol on it. It was the same one that had haunted me for so long. Most recently, I’d seen it scrawled in paint on the side of the van: a crescent moon with a deep “M” stretching from side to side across it.
“What’s this?” I asked, sliding my fingers over the mark. “I saw it on the side of a camper the other night and when Louise . . .”
“That’s the seal of the Rain,” Ethan said. “It’s a protective symbol, but it also serves as a warning to other members who might be nearby that there’s a threat around.”
“It’s meant to represent the dove in flight,” Clay said. “The symbol used to be a dove, like the one on your pendant, but it’s too hard to draw in a hurry.” He chuckled as if at a memory.
“It’s your pendant,” I said. “I’m just keeping it safe for you.”
Sliding open the envelope in front of me, I found a pile of money and a passport. I tipped the contents onto the bed and grabbed the passport. Tuning the first page over, my own face stared back at me. I had no idea how he’d found a suitable photo of me, but it was a sharp reminder of all the things I’d never had.
“I thought a European holiday might be just what the doctor ordered. A few months in any country you want.”
“Thank you,” I said, looking over my first ever passport once again. It was surreal to hold something so common, so mainstream, in my hand. I was still incredibly apprehensive about going near an airport, and I didn’t even want to think about getting on an airplane until I absolutely had to.
“Thanks for that, Eth, but how exactly are we going to get into the airport?” Clay asked.
Ethan clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “Have a little faith, Bro,” he said. “I’ve hired a yacht and paid for a window of opportunity for you to sail in three days. That’ll get you down to Mexico where you’re booked on a plane to France in two weeks. After that though, you’re on your own. Can you handle that like a big boy?” He cooed the last sentence in baby talk.
Clay’s fist flew faster than I would have thought, striking against Ethan’s arm. Instead of retaliating, Ethan just laughed.
A set of keys, the details of his “window of opportunity,” and two airline tickets were all at the bottom of the envelope.
“You’ve done so much,” I said. The effort he’d gone to in order to put it all together so soon must have been gargantuan.
“Consider it a thank you for saving my ass.”
I couldn’t believe the chance he was offering us. It was almost too good to be real.
“No one else knows about this do they, Eth?” Clay asked, his thoughts echoing my own.. He must have understood how much work had gone into it and how impossible it would have been for Ethan to arrange it all himself.
Ethan shook his head. “I used some other friends I have. You’ll be safe, at least for a little while. I have to warn you though, I’m certain Lou’s reach is just as long as mine these days, maybe even longer.”
“We’ll be careful,” I said. Despite the fact that the trip was supposed to be the opportunity to be free, I couldn’t really imagine not looking over my shoulder constantly.
Ethan nodded. “Look after my brother.”
“I’m quite capable of looking after myself,” Clay bristled.
“Yeah, but you don’t have that wicked power.” Ethan wiggled his fingers.
“Get out of here before I show you just how capable I am.” He launched himself at Ethan with a laugh, carefully avoiding his wounded arm. Despite it being in fun, the exchange reminded me of the one I’d witnessed in Charlotte years earlier and caused me to shudder coldly. I’d been the cause of that rift too.
You’re also the reason they’ve mended it. The tension in my body lessened at the thought.
The joking and play lasted for a few seconds before Ethan grabbed Clay’s shoulder with his uninjured arm. “Take care.”
The two words held the weight of many more left unspoken.
“You too,” Clay said back.
After Ethan left, Clay and I prepared for our departure. Exactly as he’d promised me when I’d first woken, I hadn’t been disturbed by either the police or the Rain. Even the nurses and doctors gave me a wide berth, only coming into the room when absolutely necessary and allowing Clay to stay in my private room constantly, not just during visiting hours.
“So, what do you say Evelyn Meyers? Are you ready for the rest of your life?” Clay asked, holding out his hand to me.
I shook my head. “No.”
I smiled at his confusion. He looked like he was about to say something more, but I let him out of his misery.
“I’m ready for the rest of ours.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
REGARDLESS OF THE enthusiasm I’d had at the idea of getting out of the hospital, it wasn’t quite so easy to actually break away. The wounds that had littered my body recovered relatively fast; in fact, the burns had almost completely healed the day after Ethan dropped off the flight information.
A day later and I was able to support my own weight on my sprained ankle too, even if it still wasn’t quite a hundred percent healed. The overwhelming exhaustion and dehydration that had seen me collapse after the fight with the wendigo was completely gone—in fact, with Clay by my side, I’d slept better than I had in years.
Despite
the speed of my recovery, the doctors in the private hospital refused to sign the release papers until they were able to see my fever come down. They were so certain I had a secondary infection that it was useless trying to convince them I was perfectly healthy and my temperature was in the normal range—or at least normal for me. In the end, it came down to a choice between signing a raft of paperwork for a release against doctor’s orders, and providing concrete evidence I’d been in the hospital to anyone who knew what to look for—like the Rain—or breaking out of a second hospital.
The latter option won, but unlike the last time, I had Clay by my side. Before we made our break, he brought me a new bag filled with a number of different outfits together with a baseball cap—a ridiculous thing with a lewd expression printed on it that made me smile. He brought me a change of clothing and then we snuck out the back entrance together. I wanted to make a joke about it being easier than last time, but Clay’s face was so serious as he assessed the surrounding streets for danger that I couldn’t bring myself to raise the subject of our most recent separation, not even as a joke.
Together, we followed Ethan’s instructions to the letter. If Clay had any doubt over the trustworthiness of his brother’s assistance, he didn’t show it.
Unlike me.
When I found out the yacht Ethan had arranged was exactly that, just a yacht moored at the location, fear of betrayal sent my heart racing. At the time Ethan had mentioned chartering a yacht, I’d just assumed it was coming with someone to drive it. When I expressed that concern to Clay, he’d been offended before grinning at my skepticism and demonstrating his boating ability to get us out into the open ocean in almost no time.
He spent the next week and a bit navigating us to Mexico while showing me the basics of operating a boat. Even those few days were enough of a break from the constant running to completely rejuvenate me. It was amazing how the truth and just a few days together could wipe away years of heartache. Every night, Clay would anchor the boat for a few hours, and we’d spend the time reconnecting with one another. The sound of the waves splashing against the hull provided the soundtrack for our love.
After the initial hurdle, I was willing to put faith in Clay’s trust of his brother. Or at least, I had been right up until we were due to leave Mexico on the next leg of our trip. The cab ride to take us from the small motel we’d spent the night to the airport was a torture test. Knowing I was about to enter into a place so heavily guarded, and with so many cameras around, made my heart race and my skin blaze. Despite the distance between us across the backseat of the taxicab, the heat radiating from me was enough to garner Clay’s attention.
“Are you okay?” he murmured.
I began to nod, before ending the movement with a slight headshake. He held his arm out, and I slid across the seat to tuck myself under it. I shifted the rim of the baseball cap that he’d given me out of the way to snuggle against him.
“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “Eth wouldn’t do anything that would hurt you.”
“How can you be so sure of that?” I asked. My faith had started to wane as I’d realized how monumental a task it would be to get through an airport unnoticed.
“There are three reasons. The first is I think he now truly sees in you what I always have. The second is he knows I will fight to the death to protect you. He won’t risk me being hurt like that, not unless he was involved to ensure I wasn’t killed in the crossfire. And the third is I think he’s finally realized that if he were to cause you any harm, I would never forgive him. Family is everything for him. For all of us. It’s a big part of how we were raised. He’s saved my ass often enough for me to trust his word.”
Despite the intention behind his words—to help make me feel more at ease—his words made my stomach twist into sudden knots. I was the cause of multiple rifts in his family. I was the reason he had shut them out of his life years ago and the reason he might not see them in the years to come. I also didn’t understand how Clay could justify the lies that Ethan, and his father, had told him about Louise, but he obviously had.
“I know you’re nervous, and that’s understandable,” he murmured as he stroked my arm. Because of the singlet I was wearing, his fingertips slid along my skin for every perfect second of the gentle touch and caused instant reactions to my body, calming my nerves but igniting my passion. “You need to at least appear calm or we’ll be at risk. Can you do that?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “This isn’t my first ride at the fair. I do know how to appear calm.”
“It is your first flight though, right?”
There was no point denying it. I had no doubt he knew what my father was like after tracking us years ago. My father would have never risked going near an airport, and he’d instilled that same deep mistrust for any place with so many guns, x-rays, and checkpoints in me from a very young age.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Clay said. “Eth’s greased a few palms to give us access through here, and I have a back-up plan if things look like they’re going awry.”
It was the first I’d heard of it, so I turned in his arms to look at him. “And what is that exactly?”
“Get the hell out of there.” He grinned as he pulled me closer to him and kissed my temple.
“Brilliant plan,” I muttered. “However did you think of it?”
He chuckled and cast me an arrogant stare because he’d succeeded with his now obvious intention—getting me to relax enough to cool my body a little. I nudged his ribs when I saw through his trick, causing him to laugh louder. I chuckled in spite of myself.
“LET ME get a good look at you,” Clay murmured when he came back to my side after gathering our boarding passes.
His eyes trailed over my body, turning eager as he took in the ridiculously low-cut singlet I was wearing—a massive, but according to him vital, change from my usual hoodie. Stepping closer to me, he moved his hand to my neck, tucking his fingers under the chain that rested there to lift it so that the pendant sat outside of my top with the dove facing outward. When his fingertips brushed along my skin, I exhaled shakily, and he licked his lips in desire before moving on to adjust the hat on my head, tucking in a few loose strands of hair. Then he smiled at me. “Perfect.”
“Perfect for what exactly?”
He ignored my question and cast a quick glance over each of his shoulders. “You still have it?” he asked.
Clay had insisted I leave my switchblade in the pocket of my jeans. I’d told him he was crazy; after all, coming into the airport armed didn’t seem like a very smart idea, but he’d been insistent. I argued that having a knife in my pocket was bound to raise multiple alarms at the airport, but he’d assured me that with the plan he’d discussed with Ethan, it would raise more suspicion if I didn’t have some sort of weapon. I didn’t understand his logic, but he refused to elaborate, instead asking me to trust him—something I’d failed to do in the past to both of our detriment.
“You’re lucky I trust you,” I murmured as I nodded.
He grinned and grabbed my hand to lead me through to the security gates. Seconds before we got into line, he swung me around to him again.
“Whatever happens, just try to look like you belong here and that you’re not afraid,” he whispered as his gaze pierced mine. Through his fingertips, I could feel his heart pounding through his body. He was obviously less calm than he was pretending to be. “You need confidence—arrogance even—more than anything else right now.”
His fear made my heart race in time with his. “Why?” I glanced around.
Lifting his hand to caress my cheek, he steadied my nervous stares. “Because you’ll look out of place if you don’t look like you have everything under control.”
“Out of place?” I asked, confused. Then it dawned on me, his worry, his words, the placement of the pendant—there was something bigger that he hadn’t clued me in on.
“Are there Rain here?” I asked incredulously.
He
screwed his mouth up and met my eye, the concern echoing from his gaze confirming my suspicions.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I hissed, wishing I was away from the crowds of people so I could scream and rant the way I wanted to.
“Because you would never have agreed to come here if I had.” He had the decency to look apologetic, but it didn’t really help me.
“You’re damned right I wouldn’t have.” It took everything in me not to shout it out loud across the terminal. As it was, the venom in my whispered tone was unmistakable.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he assured me. “There’s always a handful of Rain operatives working security at every airport. They’re easy to identify, and if they think that you’re Rain too, they’ll let us pass, even with the knife and the gun. Especially with them—it’ll seem out of place if we’re not armed.”
His insistence that I carry a weapon made more sense with his statement, but it didn’t help my sanity. My breathing sped, and my lungs failed to provide adequate oxygen to my mind to think properly. “But won’t they know what I am? Won’t they recognize my phoenix qualities?” I mouthed the word to him.
He chuckled. “I didn’t say that they were very good operatives. The ones who end up in these sorts of posts are usually the, shall I say, less than bright, candidates. They have the desire, but not necessarily the ability.”
“Are you su—”
“Do you trust me?” he asked, cutting me off before I could ask whether he was positive it would all be okay.
I took a deep breath to steady my breathing and nodded. I would continue to trust him. I’d allowed my doubt to destroy too many of his plans. He’d asked for faith, and I would give it to him. Just as he’d given it to me.
“Let’s do it then.”
I followed his lead, and he hustled us forward in the queues until we were in the one he wanted. Then, as we neared the front of the line, he pressed his lips to my collarbone and slid his hand under my singlet to brush over my stomach.
