Hidden Nature

by S. M. Savoy

  “We can’t just forget it, Chief.” Oz took Charlie’s hand, his eyes beseeching him. “For Christ’s sake, we were gone months and we’re tan and fit! What the hell happened that you want us to forget so badly? It must be pretty awful. Do you want us to imagine horrors?”

  Charlie stared at him, not knowing what to say. Oz would pursue this and might be able to persuade his magic to show him or investigate and uncover the truth. With all his soul, he never wanted Oz to remember what they’d done to him— or the feel of Sara’s skin.

  “You and Sara were lovers,” Liz said softly, “Not by choice. Tomas wanted an heir from you, Sara, and he forced you both.”

  Charlie put his face on Sara’s neck and breathed deeply of her familiar scent. Her pulse pounded as hard as his.

  Oz paled, swayed, and sat abruptly. “Yes, we should never remember that. God, Sara, I’m so sorry.” He turned stricken eyes to Charlie. “Chief—”

  “No, we’ll never speak of it. There is nothing to forgive,” Charlie said. “I love you. You’re my brother. It wasn’t you. You’ll never remember any of it.”

  Sara shook in his arms, so ashamed that tears of sympathy filled his eyes. Sad, confused, and afraid, her grip on him lightened and she attempted to pull away. He tightened his grasp. “Sara and I both still love you. That will never change. There’s no need to feel guilt or shame, either of you!” The magic brought him feelings of protectiveness from all of them. Love, dismay, and small tingles of embarrassment was mixed with a fierce need to protect them.

  Oz rose and turned his back. His gait stiff, he stalked to the railing and clenched it.

  “Go to him...” Charlie whispered.

  She followed Oz, humiliated and ashamed but appearing calm. The rest of them withdrew their magic and left quietly. Charlie stood behind them, unspeaking. Oz gripped the rail of the boat so hard his knuckles turned white.

  “You made the magic make us forget,” he said without turning to face Charlie.

  “I begged it to,” Charlie agreed.

  Without warning Oz was violently ill. Sara reached for him, and he shrank from her. Her inner turmoil was a pain in Charlie’s gut, but he was grateful that they remembered nothing. This pain he embraced.

  “What happened wasn’t you, and it wasn’t her,” Charlie said firmly, willing her to believe.

  “How could I do that to her,” Oz asked in a voice that shook with self-disgust.

  “Stop it!” Charlie grasped his shoulder and shook him. “I made you forget on purpose. Who would it help to remember details? You and I both know neither of you would willingly do that. Does it matter what they did to force you?” He glared at Oz, shaking his head when he opened his mouth. “Believe me when I say they forced you.”

  “Right, Sara held me down and forced herself on me,” Oz said bitterly. He was quiet a moment and then vomited again.

  “Would you rather they’d tortured her to death? God, Oz, it wasn’t a fate worse than death! I don’t want her to remember you, not because you were awful to her— she never stopped loving you. When we came for you, you were begging them to spare her, and she was clinging to you. She loved you then, and she loves you now. Please, can’t we put this behind us? Can we forget? Can I have my wife and best friend back? I don’t want you to be sad or guilty, either of you.” Charlie stood with an arm around each of them as they stared out to sea, thinking their own thoughts.

  They stood together until the sun rose, bathing the deck in a soft pink radiance. Charlie didn’t need the magic to know how horrified Oz was. Sara felt bad but it was nothing to the terror she’d felt, and his relief and joy were so strong it made him giddy. He laughed softly as he kissed her temple, wincing when she trembled but his momentary dismay was no match for the overriding joy of feeling her love for him.

  “I—” Oz shook his head and scurried for the stairs.

  Sara whispered. “I believe you. I must’ve done it, but I don’t remember doing it. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  “Sara, I thought you were dead. I wasn’t hurt, I was relieved. I was and am furious that your father did what he did. Not at you or Oz— at him. I’m comforted by the thought you weren’t alone. I’m grateful it was Oz who loves you and not a stranger.”

  She shuddered violently. “Oh God, Charlie, what if it wasn’t only him? What if I’m pregnant?”

  “You aren’t. Liz checked. It wouldn’t have mattered anyways,” he continued hurriedly least she sense his lie. “Not about the child, I mean. I’ll love any child you give me. I’d hate for your sake, but for my own, your children will be mine.”

  They stood silently again. Her emotions were in a roil that were impossible to sort. He didn’t want to sort them or even sense any except the love she felt when he kissed her warm hair.

  He said, “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Oz loves you. He would’ve been as kind and gentle as he could be. It’s okay to still love him.”

  “How can you still want me?” she asked bitterly.

  He laughed. “You know I do. Nothing’s changed for me. If you need time, that’s okay. I can wait forever. Feel what you feel, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”

  She threw herself into his arms and kissed him passionately. “I want you, only you. I don’t remember. It never happened.”

  He returned her kiss and ran his hands under her shirt onto her bare back. His relief that she still felt the same for him was enormous. She still loved and desired him. He let his magic loose around her. He didn’t want to miss any of her feelings. He wanted to be sure her shivers were passion, not fear. He went slowly.

  She lay on his chest afterward, lazily rubbing her hands over him, feeling his heartbeat slow as he relaxed. “It’s only been two days for me since we’ve made love. I remember it clearly. This is the longest we’ve been apart for you; I’m willing to make up for lost time. She pushed herself up and kissed him deeply. He smiled against her neck.

  - 24 -

  The Magic Doesn’t Lie

  Rick paced in a small hotel room on the shore of the isle of Molokai as he called his father.

  “They don’t remember anything. Burn that file! Don’t open it! Burn it to ashes!”

  “What will you all do now?” John asked worriedly.

  Rick was silent a moment. “Major Nelson betrayed us, Dad. We need to find him and question him to be sure he was acting alone. We need to question them all.”

  “What are you going to do, break into the White House and force the president to confess?” John asked sarcastically.

  “Exactly.”

  John sighed. “Son, look— you can’t do that. Let me rephrase that— you shouldn’t do that. Question him, by all means, but make an appointment and do it in a civilized manner.” His father sighed again. “He has no reason to be involved. They were his enemies too. Well, Liniar was anyway.”

  “I think the major more than knew. I think he actively helped. My spell-bracelet was replaced, leaving me unable to summon them. Sara had just checked them all that week and refilled them.”

  “Maybe she missed one.”

  “Dad, it was only days ago for her. She remembers filling them. She remembers having a stack of new ones to fill.”

  “Maybe you got one of those by mistake?”

  “I don’t see how I could. Sara had them. They weren’t in our lockers.” Rick was quiet a moment. “I have to go ask her if they were there when she left Tomas in the room alone.”

  “Rick, your mother and I are concerned for all of you. Don’t do anything in the heat of anger. This isn’t about revenge. It can’t be. I agree you need to be safe, but don’t burn your bridges here. You had a great working relationship with the government. Do you really want to lose that?”

  “We can survive without them and find a new place. We don’t need them at all. If they had any hand in this, we’re done with them forever,” Rick said.

  “And the rest of us; all of America, are you done with that t
oo?”

  Rick laughed a short, angry bark of laughter. “If America is so corrupt that it’ll stand behind this kind of backstabbing in its ranks, then to hell with it!”

  “You’ll go public then?”

  “I can’t say what we’ll do until we find out who else knew.”

  “Tell Charlie and Sara they’re welcome to come here and stay with us while she recovers.”

  “She’s fine. Charlie isn’t. For her it was just a day, thank God. She and Oz are acting like it never happened. Charlie is so angry all of us feel it.”

  “That doesn’t seem healthy to me, son— pretending it didn’t happen. Anger is a more reasonable response.”

  “I agree, but what do I say to her? I’m so happy she doesn’t remember any of that. I’m okay with her pretending it didn’t happen.”

  “Where do they think they were the entire time? How are you explaining the amnesia?”

  “Obviously, they know time passed. They know we asked the magic to remove their memories like it did for Joy when she died.”

  “They think they were dead?” John’s voice dropped into a disapproving register.

  Rick cleared his throat. “They were told part of the truth. Liz told them they were lovers, that they were forced to be to conceive a child. They both agree they want no memories of that.”

  “Rick... It isn’t a lie, but it isn’t exactly true either. I can’t imagine the harm this is doing to them.”

  “Dad, believe me when I say it has got to be less harmful than the truth.” Rick paused a moment. “We’re going to ask the magic to erase all our memories. Everyone who saw the pictures and recordings. As soon as we clear this up, we want to forget.”

  “You’re sure that’s wise?”

  “I’m sure I can’t stand to hear Stasia cry every night or to have nightmares that make her sick to her stomach. She’s lost twenty pounds. She’s a wreck. Drew and Joy aren’t much better. We need to forget this, Dad.”

  “You do what’s right. Take care of them.”

  “I will.” Rick hung up and turned to Agent Lewis. “You’ve been a good friend to all of us. What should we do?”

  “Your dad is right. Call— make that appointment and ask your questions.”

  The problem is we don’t trust them now, so how can we believe the answers?”

  “Major Nelson was wrong, one hundred percent wrong both legally and morally, but that doesn’t make them all wrong. I’m certain those weren’t orders. He’ll be court martialed.”

  “How do we know they weren’t orders?” Rick paced the small hotel room. “Did you see what they did?”

  “No. I was informed by Mr. Taylor.”

  “If they can stand by while we’re tortured to protect their secrets or the economy or for any damn reason... Do you see why we have to know?”

  “I do. The president will too. Please, call him and talk this out. Tell Charlie to talk with him.”

  He’s in no shape to speak with anyone. It’s ironic, but Sara and Oz are both doing better than he is. I’ll go with a few Scouts. Tell the president I’ll meet with him in two days.”

  “I have to stay here and oversee this mess, but I’ll make sure you get your meeting. Rick, we really do want to work this out.”

  Rick turned away and stalked to the window overlooking the parking lot. “Let them go. Don’t try to follow us. Any action on your part will be perceived as hostile. Give us some time.”

  “You’re all officially on leave. They can go where they like.”

  “Thank you.” Rick nodded and strode from the room.

  * * *

  That night on board the Rheal Lucky Team Valor held a meeting. Rick, Joy, Todd, Lee, Marcus, Brenda, and Mike sat on the benches on deck. Charlie stood with his hands on his hips before them.

  “We’re officially on leave. We should split into small groups until we know for sure what’s going on.” Charlie examined them, satisfied with their angry faces. “If they did this on purpose, they could decide to go for broke and kill us all.” Charlie pulled Sara closer to him; her hand trembled in his, but it was still pure joy to touch her.

  “Stasia, Joy, Drew, Rick, and Lee will go to the capitol and talk to the president. Stasia, stay invisible and with the president. Keep in contact with the rest of your party.”

  “No, I’m going too,” Oz said. “I can be the mage and attend the meeting.”

  “Absolutely not!” Charlie held up his hand when Oz started to interrupt. “No, I mean it. No! You and I, Sara, Hawk, Brenda, and Mike are staying on this boat. Lee will be their mage. She can use the security equipment. I need you near me. I’m sorry, but I do.” Charlie let his magic touch Oz. “Please, Oz,” he whispered.

  Oz nodded unhappily. Hawk moved close enough to sling an arm around Oz’s shoulder.

  “Guthrie, Sam, and Gina will follow us in the other boat.”

  “Toric will take Gamma and go into hiding.” Charlie pulled Sara into his lap, putting one arm around her waist. Her trembling hands had turned into shivers. He got up and sat as close as he could to Oz so his magic could cover them both. Sara took one of Oz’s hands in hers, and Charlie kissed her temple. He was trying to encourage their natural reactions to each other. They were stiff and awkward, uncomfortable interacting, afraid both to hurt each other or him with a casual remark or touch that proved to be upsetting.

  Charlie put his arm around Oz’s shoulder, clasping Hawk too and hugged them a moment. “Stasia and Joy will have to search all of their offices. After you search Pierce’s office and home and anywhere else you think he might have information, I want Joy, Drew, and Marcus to go to Iraq and search the general’s things. No one goes anywhere without backup.”

  Charlie turned to Oz. “We need the magic indicator built into the spell-bracelet and it needs to be tamperproof. And tamper proof doors and desk drawers. Sara’s father was able to replace the full spell bracelets with empty ones way too easily.” He kissed her temple again. “That anger is for him, not you. You shouldn’t have to be wary of your own father. We’ll improve our security. We’ll improve it so much that Stasia and Joy can’t get through it.” Charlie examined their faces again. “Sedatives are a blessing and weakness for us. We need to figure that out. That has to be one of our priorities. As soon as we get this mess straightened out and can gather in a group, we’ll attempt to teach our magic to help us with it.”

  “I don’t understand why we didn’t escape,” Oz said in bewilderment. “We must have had opportunities to.”

  “You did.” Stasia took his hand, leaning on his shoulder. “We aren’t talking about anything that happened. You just have to trust us. We’ll make better plans, get more guards, have better security. This won’t happen again— to any of us.”

  “I’m sorry. I want to let this go, I really do, but we had good security with microchips and wristcomps. Two guards were with us, one hanging back able to summon us. You say they didn’t know about our magic that it was just about getting a super smart child. I don’t understand how we couldn’t get away from them with all of that,” Oz said plaintively.

  Sara started to cry. Her tears dampened Charlie’s neck as she sobbed. Her angst made his stomach clench in a tight knot.

  “It was me, Oz. Obviously, I told my father too much. They don’t want me to blame myself or you to hate me but I’m the only way he could’ve known about the microchip. I don’t remember saying anything about it to him other than I had good security who could find me anywhere. I must’ve though.”

  “Stop! Both of you!” Charlie shouted angrily. “We aren’t talking about this! How many times do I have to say that? Jesus, Sara, let it go! I don’t want you to remember. Oz, please trust me. I don’t want either of you to remember. Sara was careless with her father; she left him in her office alone. Sweetheart, no one blames you for that. You had no reason to think he’d do anything bad. We all thought he was sucking up for business reasons. We knew he didn’t have
your best interests at heart. We all thought that and none of us changed our security. It isn’t your fault. For the love of God, let this go please!”

  Oz nodded and patted Sara’s back. He rose and nudged Hawk over until he was next to Charlie. Charlie laughed bitterly. “I need like five rangers around me. I’m sorry my anger is upsetting you all.” He took a deep breath, and then released it slowly trying to calm himself. “We have one last thing to discuss and it’s going to suck. Do any of you have any doubts about any of our remaining team members?”

  Rick grimaced. “Sam, but only because he was there when they were taken. He’s never done or said a thing that would make me distrust him. I was there and failed as well. Most likely he’s trustworthy.”

  Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose. His brother had been suffering and he’d done nothing to help him, too caught up in his own misery to give a damn what anyone else was feeling.

  “I should have said this sooner, Rick, much sooner, but I never blamed you. I’m sorry…”

  Rick cleared his throat gruffly and Stasia clasped his hands hard in hers.

  She said, “We all feel bad for our mistakes. God, I made so many of them!”

  Rick’s eyes filled with tears and he ducked his head to press her hands to his lips.

  Charlie said, “You and me both. God, if only I’d gone with her…” He cleared his throat, shaking his head. “I know that’s stupid, as stupid as you feeling bad for not sticking to Tomas like glue. We all believed his drugged ravings.”

  Tomas had told him the literal truth and even though he’d known the man had no affection for Sara, he couldn’t conceive that anyone would treat their own child so despicably. It had never entered his mind what Tomas had planned even when he’d said it right to his face.

  Brenda said, “We all need to forgive ourselves and each other and move on. Charlie is right. We need to improve our security. We should question Sam in the magic.”

  Charlie nodded his agreement. He’d make time later to speak with his brother. “Anyone else?”

  “Toric,” Brenda said slowly.