by Elena Lawson
I didn’t understand. I set down my tea on the small ottoman next to where Alex knelt on the rattan carpet at my feet.
“A—aren’t you angry with me?” I directed the question at all of them and none of them. Not wanting to hear their replies but needing to understand.
If it had been anyone else I knew—Amy or Aunt Deb or my father that I’d run away from after they’d warned me against it, they’d be furious. Wouldn’t they?
They’d tell me I was an idiot and that I’d almost gotten myself and them killed. Rightfully so.
These guys had told me again and again and again that the streets at night were no place for a lady, and I’d completely—idiotically—ignored their warnings. Because of me they were put in danger.
My chin wobbled. I hated that it did that every time I was about to cry. Made it hard to hide the fact.
“Angry?” Jasper asked, a confused expression crossing the side of his face not covered by his mask. I couldn’t help the pang of additional sadness at finding he’d put it back on. I reached up a hand and caressed the side of his face made of the tarnished silver plate.
I wouldn’t say anything in front of the others, but I hoped he understood what I meant. You don’t need to hide.
His jaw clenched, and he looked away.
I swallowed hard and came back to the topic at hand. “You all told me it wasn’t safe,” I explained. “You said I shouldn’t go outside alone—especially not at night. And I…well, I didn’t listen. And all this happened because I’m a total idi—”
“No,” Everett all but growled. “This is not your fault.”
Somehow, hearing him say it out of all the guys made me waver in my resolve. Surely, if any of them could see the fault in my actions it would be Everett. He was the one whose wrath I was most worried about.
“But—”
“No,” Everett said again, and I saw the bulge of his biceps harden beneath the taut sleeves of his simple white tunic. “You’ll not blame yourself for their disgusting actions. I won’t have it.” He slammed a fist against the carved edge of the mantle above the fireplace, looking away from me and into the fire. The orange glow played with the shadows on his face, lending sharpness to the already pronounced angles and smooth planes. “You shouldn’t have gone out there,” he acquiesced in a breath. “But I don’t blame you.”
That pained look he had returned once more, and I itched to console him. But I didn’t think he would like that.
“None of us do,” Jasper echoed.
My cheeks inflamed at the silence that followed. I didn’t know what to say other than, “Thank you. For saving my life…” I glanced at Jasper from the corner of my eye. “Again,” I added, just for him.
Ellis signed something to the others, and I caught the sign for sleep, and I thought maybe something about medicine?
“No,” I said hastily before Alex or Jasper could respond to him. “I mean—no. I don’t want to sleep. Not yet.”
The truth was, I was afraid to close my eyes. For days I’d been hopeful each night that when I closed my eyes at night, I’d wake up in the morning to find that this was all a vivid dream. And I would find myself in my bed in that hideous purple room at Aunt Deb’s. I’d smell her herbal tea wafting down the hall and pad my way to the kitchen to find she’d already made breakfast.
But now…fuck.
I was afraid of the opposite. Not only did I not want to see the shifter’s maniacal grin in the dark, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to wake up in my own time anymore.
There was so much about them I didn’t know yet. And now, looking into all of their eyes, I found I wanted to know. I yearned to know all of it. What was the haunted shadow behind Alex’s devious grin? Why was Everett the way he was? What was it he worked so hard to keep locked up inside? I knew there was something…
And Ellis…maybe if I stayed long enough, he could teach me enough sign that we could talk—really talk. I’d like that.
And tonight, I knew I’d only just scratched the surface of the man that is Jasper.
Hell, I didn’t even know their last names.
I couldn’t leave yet. If I was being honest with myself—I didn’t want to.
Alex rose from the floor and I saw the red stains across his abdomen. I gasped. I’d forgotten he was wounded. Suddenly, all thoughts of sleep and of my own time flitted from my mind—the real estate taken up instead with worry.
Damn—there was so much blood on him.
“Alex,” I said, my voice wavering. “We need to get you to a doctor.”
Christ, did they even have hospitals in this time period? I knew for sure they didn’t have telephones yet. How would we even find one this late at night? And how the hell was he still standing after losing that much blood?
I tried to stand, but Jasper held me in place. “It’s alright—”
“No—he’s hurt. He needs—”
“Quit yer fussin’, Rebecca,” Alex said with jest. How could he be joking at a time like this? He was seriously hurt. He—
Alex lifted the hem of his dirt and blood-stained tattered shirt to reveal smooth, unblemished skin beneath. There was dried blood on him—lots of it—but no gaping, festering wound as I thought there would be.
Only rock-hard muscle. The firelight played on the mounds of his abs, deepening the shadows there. I reached out almost unconsciously, placing my hand over where I thought he’d been ravaged by the wolf. He convulsed at my touch, his breath hitching, but I didn’t pull away. I was in awe of him. In awe that he wasn’t hurt at all. How…?
I looked up to his shoulder, where I was certain I’d seen him take a hit also. I dropped my hand and he released the hem of his shirt again, pulling down the torn sleeve of his shirt to reveal that there wasn’t any wound there, either.
My own wounds were barely visible beneath the rolled sleeves of Jasper’s shirt, but I could still feel them there, itching and stinging when I moved too much. The claw marks William left in my arms were deep enough to scar. I’d always have to see them and remember now.
When I glanced back up, Ellis was signing something, and he, Alex, and Jasper were all sharing a look.
“It’s time she knew the truth, Ev,” Jasper spoke, and my gut twisted at his words.
There was more?
Fuck—I didn’t think I could take any more of their truths.
Everett turned his attention from the fire back to me, his pain-filled gaze boring into me. He seemed to decide something right then and there. I could see how he relented in the way his shoulders drooped and a muscle in his temple relaxed. “Fine,” he said between gritted teeth. “But don’t come crying to me when it blows up in all our faces.”
With that he strode from the room, a dark storm cloud clinging to him. Each thud of his stomping footsteps across the floor like thunder shaking the floorboards.
Chapter 27
ALEX
“He’ll come ‘round. You’ll see,” I told her, squattin’ back down to put myself at her eye level once more. I drew her hands into my own and felt the roughness of my calloused skin scrape against her knuckles. I shivered. “We havena been honest wi’ you, Rebecca. But I ken you already suspected as much, aye?”
Her eyes widened—just a little—but she swallowed hard and nodded. A knot formed in my gut.
I looked to Jasper, and then to Ellis. The pair o’ them gave me terse nods. Permission to speak freely.
The doorway Everett stomped through a moment before was empty, but I could still hear his heavy steps as he crested the top ‘o the stairs. I prayed he wasna right. Rebecca wouldna do a thing to harm us—I didna know why, but I could feel it in my bones. Everett was wrong. And he would see that soon enough.
Rebecca was concentratin’ hard on me. I could see by the set of her sharp jaw and the hardness o’ her gaze that she was bracin’ herself against what was to come. I didna want to put more stress on the lass than she had already, but she would find out soon enough if she stayed. There was only so muc
h we could hide. Better she hear it from us direct than find out by some other method and be afraid.
The very thought of her fearin’ any o’ us made my blood go cold. I didna want that. And I knew none of the other lads did, neither. Not even Everett.
“We aren’t like you, lass,” I began, tryin’ to sort out the best way to explain. Jasper shuffled on the settee beside her so he could join me in explainin’.
Ellis only bowed his head—waitin’ and listenin’.
“We told you there were other creatures that exist in this world…” Jasper trailed off, like me, unable to come right out and say it.
We were cowards, the lot of us.
Too afraid of what she would think—how she would react.
Would she run?
Scream?
Would she leave and never return?
“The…the shifters—Endurans,” she clarified for herself. “And the, um…Vocili?”
“Vocari,” Jasper corrected.
“Right. That.”
Her hands cooled in mine, and she grew very still. I swallowed past the lump ‘o cotton in my throat and pushed on. But before I could open my mouth to speak, she beat me to it.
“You aren’t like them, are you? Are you wolf underneath? A—a vampire?”
By the horror in her eyes and the way she pulled her hands back to rest intertwined in her own lap, I hated to think what she would do if the answer to that question was yes.
Thank heavens it wasna.
“No,” I told her in earnest. “Well, yes and no,” I amended. “We arena shifter kind. And we arena Vocari. On our homeland we were known as Alchemists.”
Her brows furrowed. “So, you’re like—scientists?”
I couldna help the small chuckle that left my lips at her assessment.
“Not exactly,” Jasper added in.
Ellis signed the motion for witch, but Beck didna seem to understand it, or if she did, she doubted what she saw.
“Mortal kind know us as witches,” I said finally when the silence began to weigh too heavily to bear and Jasper made no sign of bein’ the one to tell her.
Her face soured as though she’d sucked a lemon, and she tilted her head at me. “Witches?” she asked with a little sneer that told me she greatly doubted that. But then the pucker in her lips smoothed out and she let loose a little gaspin’ sound before she turned to look at Jasper.
He nodded to her.
So, he’d told her then. Jasper told her what happened to his face and much of his body.
I hated that he had to live as he did. In hidin’ from those who sought to persecute him. Condemned to look at what they did to him every time he beheld his own reflection. He was the only one to escape the fire that day. Ironic, since of the eight so-called witches trussed up over the pyre—he was the only one guilty of the deed for which they were all to be punished.
The best thing to do now would be to show Rebecca. To solidify what we were sayin’. I nodded to Ellis, and undertsandin’, he went across the room and closed the shutters firmly o’er the windows.
Rebecca jumped at the sound of the latches clickin’ into place.
“You’re safer here with us,” Jasper said, and she relaxed a little, but the color had left her face, and I was afraid that she might faint.
“Perhaps we should continue this discussion in the mornin’,” I attempted, my skin bristlin’. I wouldna force her to hear somethin’ she wasna ready to.
“No,” she replied quickly—her tiny hand snakin’ out to latch onto my forearm—to stop me from risin’. “I—” she began and swallowed, wettin’ her lips in a way that made my groin clench. “I want to know,” she said.
“I trust you,” she added after a moment. “I trust all of you. Please…go on.”
“Very well.” I lifted my hand, about to show her when I thought better of it. Instead, I turned to Ellis. His lips were pressed in a firm line, and his hands were clasped between his knees. He likely hated that he couldna speak plainly to her. He’d have been the best one to explain everythin’ if he were able. But this part he could do. Besides, his power was stronger than mine or Jasper’s.
“Ellis,” I said wi’ a pointed look at Rebecca’s wounds. “You’ll do a better job than I.”
He seemed to consider this and then rose to clamp a hand down on my shoulder in thanks. It was Ellis who’d healed me earlier, and thanks to him I wouldna have so much as a scar. My own power wasna trustworthy an hadna been in a long while. I was just as likely to harm her as I was to help her.
Her worried face made me want to gather her into my arms, but I couldna. I may not let her go if I did. Instead, when I rose to move out of the way for Ellis I bent down and laid a swift kiss on the top o’ her head. I wasna sure why I did it. I couldna even remember decidin’ to. But she didna scold me or move away, and I couldna help the smile strainin’ my lips as I took my place behind Jasper, and Ellis took my place on the carpet before her.
Ellis signed for her not to be afraid and Jasper translated for him in a clean, monotone voice that didna waver even in the slightest. Was he not as worried as I?
I could barely watch as Ellis drew her left arm in front o’ her and pushed up the sleeve. A cold chill ran down my back when he drew out her right arm and did the same, liftin’ his hands to begin.
“It won’t hurt,” Jasper whispered to her, and I saw how his hands lifted as though to comfort or caress her before they fell back down to rest against the settee. “But it’s important you try to remain still.”
I felt as though I could sense how her heart was racin’—by the quick rise and fall o’ her chest it must’ve been racin’ as much as my own. Thunderin’ like Sorcha’s hooves over hard-packed earth.
Ellis’ power came into him with a palpable force—the air in the room thick with its pulsatin’ energy.
Chapter 28
BECK
Something in the room changed as Ellis lifted his hands to hover over the gashes on my arms. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but it made my skin tingle and the air around us crackle with something like electricity. Something within me stirred awake. Like a slumbering giant, petrified from the compression of time—breaking free of its stony tomb.
Ellis’ fingers swirled through the air, and I watched in silent awe as a trail of glowing light followed the path of his fingers. As though he were drawing with light and the world was his canvas. It was a simple shape. The light wavered and pulsed as though alive as he bent it to his will. A circle with a line through the middle, glowing a faint yellow.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I kept blinking to try to clear them. To make sense of what was right in front of me.
It was beautiful.
And terrifying.
If it weren’t for Ellis’ kind smile behind it all, I might’ve run—or tried to move away. But that smile didn’t mean me any harm.
And even though my breaths were coming hard and fast now, sawing in and out through my gaping mouth, I found I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. I was frozen—completely rooted in place.
“Hush now, Rebecca,” I distantly heard Alex whisper as Ellis guided the glowing sigil lower, pressing down over it until it latched onto me, seeping into my skin like a salve. “You’re alright.”
“You’re safe.”
I couldn’t help the tiny shriek that escaped my lips as I felt a heat—near blistering—in my veins. And then as the glow seeped into my flesh, the itching started—itching unlike anything I’d ever known. I had to bite down on my cheek to keep from scratching my skin off to stop it.
Thank goodness Ellis had moved to hold my wrists in place. Not roughly, but like a weighted blanket, goading me to be patient. To wait.
“Watch,” Jasper whispered, and I saw he’d leaned in and his face was right next to mine. I followed the line of his sight and found that the wounds on my arms were all but gone. Before my eyes, the remaining bits of red, raised flesh, knitted back together. Even the smallest of the scratch
es faded until they were no more than pinkish lines, and then after a moment more, until they were nothing at all.
Like it never happened.
Like that bastard never had me pinned against rough stone—freezing in the water as he tried to force himself between my legs. I wouldn’t have to look at the scars and be reminded every time I saw them.
I had no idea what the fuck Ellis just did, but they weren’t lying. It didn’t hurt. They didn’t hurt me. If anything, what he’d just done was a goddamned miracle. They weren’t monsters. They were healers.
Wizards?
No—alchemists…
And looking at each of them in turn, I found my thoughts about them hadn’t changed. I had questions, yes, so many questions, but…they were still the guys who took me in. They didn’t turn me out into the streets.
I flung myself from the settee and into Ellis’ arms, wrapping my arms tightly around him.
He made a muted oomf sound that was more an expulsion of air than any real sound before I felt his hands move to return my embrace.
“Thank you,” I whispered against his neck, and he relaxed, moving his head in a nod that was his way of telling me to think no more of it.
And I wasn’t just thanking him for healing me. I was thanking them all.
For trusting me.
Chapter 29
BECK
Feeling rejuvenated the next morning, refreshed, I raced downstairs.
I didn’t bother with an elaborate dress, instead choosing to throw a robe over the sheer nightgown. I would have to ask Ellis to teach me how to string up a corset—especially if I planned on staying here.
Staying here.
That thought no longer filled me with icy dread. If anything, the prospect of not staying here made my body tremble. I’d never been one of those women who enjoyed watching Hallmark movies—the cheesy romance, the dashing heroes, the protagonist who got everything her heart desired. But this? This was my fucking Hallmark movie, but instead of one guy, I got four. There was an undeniable spark between me and the…between me and the Alchemists. All four of them.
