Chapter Fourteen
He placed her gently on the hard bed, feeling her heart racing in her chest as he lowered her down. She was so pale she was almost ashen. But still her eyes were wide open, as if fixed on something only she could see, and her mouth twisted with the words, over and over again.
He had brought her back to the small cabin that he had been given because he had no idea where her own room was on this ship. But every moment that she was in this strange state was a moment when she might be discovered missing. Who knew? He thought Fitzpatrick was probably safely asleep in the arms of his movie star, but the man was capricious. So capricious that he might just get up to check on whether his precious pet was safely tucked up in her bed.
“Sienna?” he whispered, shaking her again. “Can you hear me?”
She didn’t respond. His eyes swept over her, swiftly assessing. At least she had stopped jerking quite so violently. Now, she was trembling all over, a slight sheen of sweat covering her face. He watched her repeating the words until they were a whisper, and then they petered out entirely.
She closed her eyes, and her breathing started to slow down slightly. He kept watching her, then pressed his hand to the pulse at the base of her throat. Yes, even her heart had started to slow down.
Another five minutes passed, then her eyelids fluttered open. She gazed at him without speaking for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse, as if she had been shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Where am I?” She tried to sit up, but it seemed beyond her. Her head crashed back down onto the hard pillow.
He smiled gently. “In my cabin, Sienna. Do you remember what happened?”
She frowned slightly, turning to her side. Suddenly, she started retching. He was just about to grab something for her, but she seemed to control it, swallowing with difficulty.
She blinked. “We were in that small room, weren’t we? The one where Lola had been taken?”
He nodded. “Yes. You had just discovered a word scratched into the wall. I turned around and you were…not yourself.”
She sighed deeply. “I remember now. The word, and then the vision overtook me.” She paused, staring at him with wide eyes. “The same vision that I saw the night that she was taken.”
He gazed down at her, frowning. “Can you tell me what you saw?”
She smiled slightly. “Do you believe that they are true, then? That I’m not mad?”
Zach hesitated. “Shelby told me that you are a seer,” he said. “He believed it. And obviously Fitzpatrick believes it too, otherwise why would he be so obsessed with keeping you with him?”
She was silent for a moment. “Yes, they all believe it. And I know that what I see is the truth, somehow. Sometimes all I have to do is brush past someone and I can see what is going to happen to them.” She paused. “It is a curse.”
He stared at her. “Why is it a curse, Sienna? You can do something very special. Something that many people would give their eye teeth to do.”
She smiled again, sadly. “They wouldn’t if they knew what it was like. How draining and horrible it is. Like I am possessed. I have no control over it, Zach. You’ve just seen what I am like when I am in that state.”
He nodded. “It is hard. It takes a lot out of you.” He hesitated. “But nothing that amazing can be easy. I think it is the burden you have to bear for having such a gift.”
She was silent. He could tell she was struggling with what he had said, but she didn’t contradict him. Instead, she gazed around the room, as if she were trying to pin something down.
“You don’t think I’m crazy?” she said eventually. “You don’t think that I should go to a doctor to be medicated, or put into a strait jacket somewhere?”
He laughed, throwing his head back. “Sienna, you aren’t crazy! I’ve seen a lot of crazy people, and you aren’t one of them. What happens to you is different, but you aren’t alone. Other people have gone through it. It comes from some other place.”
She studied him. “You really believe that? That I am…channelling some knowledge?”
He nodded. “I don’t know much about it, but that’s what I think. Somehow, your mind is open and receptive to it. As if you have tuned into some frequency that most people can’t.” He paused. “It makes you powerful. You just have to believe in that power.”
Her face twisted. “How can I when I am being used because of it? I have no power in this situation. Fitzpatrick drains me so that I can tell him his future. He is the one who has power over me.” She sighed. “And if it wasn’t him, it would be someone else.”
“I don’t believe that,” he said slowly, staring at her. “I truly don’t. I sense something in you that is even more than your visions. If you were just open to it, you could find your power. It’s there, waiting to be discovered.”
She stared at him. “You don’t know me, Zach Byrnes. How can you be so sure?”
He reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, gazing at her gently. “I do know you, Sienna Carter. I know you better than you think. That’s why I am still here, even though you’ve tried to run away from me and told me to bugger off. Why else?”
She kept staring at him, her eyes gleaming with tears. “You believe in me?”
He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. “I believe in you.”
***
Sienna watched his eyes gleaming as they told her that he believed in her. That he believed that her visions were something other than the result of a disturbed mind. That he believed that she was powerful if only she would believe it herself.
She opened her mouth, and suddenly she was telling him everything. Everything that had gone wrong in her life from when she was a baby. How she had been orphaned and forced to grow up in a succession of foster homes, never bonding with any of her carers. How she had run away from home and met Julia, who had tried to manipulate her too. With a shaking voice, she told him how Julia had betrayed her, giving her to Fitzpatrick. And how she had lived as a slave in his home ever since.
He didn’t once interrupt her. He let her speak. The words spewed out of her like hot molten lava, lying like a stream between them. Until she wound down and couldn’t speak anymore.
“I’m sorry,” he quietly said. “I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you. It shouldn’t have happened. It was wrong.”
She nodded slowly, biting her lip. She hadn’t mentioned to him yet the strange thing that happened to her when she had her visions. That she could fly and felt like she was a bird. Would it tip him over the edge? Up until now, he had told her he didn’t think she was crazy. Would that opinion change?
She took a deep breath. Somehow, unburdening herself like this with him had given her courage. She had never spoken about the bird to anyone. Was now the time?
“There’s something else,” she began tentatively. “Something else that happens to me when I have my visions.”
He stared at her. “What is it?”
She took another deep breath. “It is so strange. I feel that I am looking down at what is happening—that I’m flying through the air. But it’s not just that. I am a bird. I sometimes see the tip of my wing, and strange sounds come out of my mouth.”
Zach was silent, gazing at her. Then he cleared his throat. “Tell me about the bird.”
She let out her breath. “I don’t know much. Just that I am the bird. When I am in that state, I am no longer myself.” She hesitated. “I always fight it, to come back to myself. Sometimes I feel that it is about to split me in two. That if I give into it, it will destroy me entirely.”
Zach frowned. He appeared to be thinking deeply. She felt a frission of fear go through her. Was this the moment when he told her that he had been wrong and she really was crazy?
“Sienna,” he said, at last. “I can’t be one hundred percent sure. But I think you need to give into it.” He took a deep breath. “I think you need to let yourself become the bird.”
She frowne
d. “What do you mean? It’s just a feeling. It’s not as if I could actually transform into a bird!”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. She shifted uneasily on the bed. Was he the crazy one?
“It all makes sense now,” he said slowly. “Your visions, and that you can see the future. I have heard that some of us have that power as well. It is like a double gift.”
Her frown deepened. “Some of us? What do you mean?”
He sighed. He seemed unsure of what to say, as if he were grasping for the words. But he seemed to make up his mind that he had to say whatever was running through his mind.
“Sienna,” he slowly began. “You aren’t the only one who can do things that normal people can’t. There are many of us in the world, but we stay hidden. Usually we find others like ourselves, who can show us how to tap into our power.”
She stared at him. “How do you know this?”
He took a deep breath. “Because I am a shapeshifter, Sienna. And I believe that you are one, too.”
***
She stared at him for a moment. She had read about shapeshifters in a book once. A book about myths and legends. And he was calmly sitting there telling her that he was one. And that he thought she was one, as well.
She laughed, hesitantly. “You are joking, right? Shapeshifters don’t exist. They are like goblins or fairies or any other imaginary creature!”
He sighed, shaking his head. “I know that it sounds unbelievable. But don’t forget, you are a seer—something most people don’t believe is possible, either.”
She stared at him. “You are really telling me that you shift into an animal?”
He nodded. “I wasn’t intending to tell you, Sienna. Usually we don’t tell anyone, or as few people as we can.” He took a deep breath. “I live in the city, in a secret location. As part of a pack of five wolf shapeshifters. We are called the Wild Keepers.”
“The Wild Keepers?” she repeated, staring at him, her eyes wide.
He nodded again. “It’s the reason I was asked to find you,” he said. “Julia is an old friend of Thad, our alpha leader. She knows that he is a shifter, and that was why she came to him for help to find you.”
Her eyes widened even more, but she didn’t say anything.
“We are an old pack,” he continued. “We have existed since the city was founded, to battle a race of demons called the Vilgath who try to cause destruction and evil in Covenester. Our members have come and gone, but our group remains indestructible.”
“This is too much,” said Sienna slowly. “Now you are telling me that demons exist as well?”
“They do,” said Zach. “They are real, Sienna, and everywhere. We take on cases to defeat them. Most of the time we work undercover, investigating. It was why I was able to get this job with Fitzpatrick so easily. Thad has connections all over the city.”
Sienna stared at him. She felt like her head was spinning. She had confided in him about the bird, and now he was telling her it meant that she was a shapeshifter. Like him. And not only that, he was a part of a group of shapeshifters who lived in the city, apparently battling demons on a daily basis.
Suddenly, she gasped, lurching forward. The wolf! She had seen the wolf in her vision when he had kissed her. They had both turned into animals, surrounded by flames. He had been a wolf, and she had been an eagle.
Her skin started prickling as her mind raced. She had seen him as the wolf before, in her dream at the motel. A wolf with fur the same shade of black that his hair was.
Could it be true?
“I am an eagle,” she said calmly. “I have seen us together. You as the wolf and me as the bird.”
He blinked rapidly. “You spoke to me in the motel when you were dreaming. You told me that I must not howl to my pack.” He took a deep breath. “I think I realised then that you knew somehow.”
She nodded. It had all slid into her mind like the last pieces of a puzzle slotting into place. It was true. Bizarre and unfathomable, but true. The knowledge glittered like a rare jewel that was almost within her grasp.
“If I am a shapeshifter,” she said, slowly, “then why have I only dreamed of being the eagle? Surely I would have transformed into it before now?”
Zach sighed. “It works differently for people,” he said. “And I am only familiar with what happens to the wolves. We all start turning at roughly the same age—around seventeen. Perhaps because you are an eagle it comes later. Or perhaps because of your other gift you have been able to fight the transformation.”
Sienna was silent for a moment. It was true; she had been fighting it for a long time. Sometimes the effort of fighting it almost killed her. She had subconsciously believed that if she gave into it then she would never return to herself, somehow. She had believed that she was a freak because she had visions and saw the future. The thought that she could also turn into an eagle was too much.
It was all true. And Zach was calmly telling her that he was a shapeshifter. He didn’t believe he was a freak because of it. In fact, he spoke with pride about it. He had a pack—others who were just like him and banded together to fight demons, of all things.
Wolves and eagles and demons. What else was out there in the world, that she had no idea existed?
Zach leaned forward, taking her hand. She stared down at it, overcome with emotion.
“Don’t you see, Sienna?” he whispered. “If you accept what you are, everything changes. I told you that I believed in you, and that you had power. All you have to do is surrender to it and that power will transform your life.”
She blinked. “You think that if I let myself turn into the eagle I will find my power?”
He nodded slowly. “I do. I struggled with it when my turn came. I had no idea what was happening to me, and no one to ask. It was hard. But then I found my pack. Others who were just like me, and it changed everything.” He took a deep breath. “They showed me that I wasn’t alone. And you aren’t alone, either.”
She started weeping. Silent tears slid down her face. Her heart was so full of emotion she could barely contain it.
She had been alone all her life. She had some friends, like Lola and Shelby, who had tried to understand what it was like for her. But they couldn’t help her because they didn’t know what it was like being so different. But Zach understood. He was just like her.
She kept weeping softly. He murmured, reaching forward to wipe the tears from her face. She stared up at him. His face was blurry through the mist of her vision.
“Do you remember when you kissed me?” she whispered.
His hand stilled on her face. “I do,” he whispered back. “I can’t forget it. It’s all I can think about. But I’m sorry I kissed you without asking if I could. I won’t ever do that again.”
She gazed at him steadily. “No,” she said. “It won’t happen that way again.” She took a deep breath. “Because this time I am asking you. Will you kiss me?”
His eyes darkened imperceptibly, and she heard the low moan in his throat. “I couldn’t think of anything that I would rather do.”
He reached out slowly, taking her head in his hands. Sienna felt as if she were being wrapped in a spell. She couldn’t take her eyes off his face as he slowly pulled her towards him. Their lips touched, and then they were drowning in each other.
The kiss deepened, slowly but surely. They twisted into each other, pulling each other closer. Sienna had never felt anything remotely like it in her life. It was as if her whole body was on fire. As if it had been waiting for this her entire life.
He pulled her head back, his mouth sinking into her neck. She gasped, pulling him closer. She could hear him moaning as if from a far-off distance. She couldn’t help it. She pulled him away, panting heavily, and stared into his eyes.
“I want you,” she said slowly. “Will you have me?”
She saw his eyes light up. He simply nodded his head. He was beyond words.
Slowly, they shed their clothes, until they were
pale in the moonlight that peeped through the small cabin window. She could hear the sea lapping against the boat; it seemed to hiss gently against it, cradling it in a warm embrace. They sank down into the sheets as if in a dream that neither had thought possible nor ever wished to wake up from.
***
Zach opened his eyes, slowly. He must have fallen asleep.
He stared down at Sienna, still cradled in his arms. She was asleep, too. They must have both dozed off. He kept gazing at her, memorising the planes of her face and the sweet curves of her body. He had never in a million years ever dreamed it could be like this.
She stirred softly in her sleep. At this moment, at least, she didn’t appear to be haunted by the dreams and visions that so tormented her. She seemed deeply calm and at peace. He sighed. It couldn’t stay this way, of course. As much as he wanted to curl back against her body and drift away into sleep again he knew it wasn’t possible. They had already risked too much.
He shook her gently, calling her name. Her eyes fluttered open, and she stared at him. Her face transformed with joy, and she smiled, reaching up to caress his face with one hand.
He turned to it and kissed it passionately. If they stayed this way he knew what would happen next, and it was unlikely to be sleep.
“What time is it?” she whispered. He could see her eyes gleaming in the darkness.
“After two,” he whispered back. “We must have fallen asleep.”
She sighed, stretching. He tried hard not to look at her body beneath his. His face tightened. If only he could spirit her off this goddamn boat and be done with this. Take her as far away physically from her captor as it was possible. But he knew that it couldn’t happen yet. Apart from the fact that they were on a boat God knows where on the sea, he knew that she was determined to stay until she had found out what had happened to Lola. And so was he. Fitzpatrick’s evil trading in human flesh had to be stopped.
They hadn’t even gotten around to talking about what had happened in that room. Her vision there. And they needed to, before she had to leave and return to her own bed. They needed to do it now. He had no idea if they would get another chance on this trip.
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