Kindred Soul (Otherworld Book 2)

by Brynn Burke

  * * *

  We could have spoken.

  In the hours of driving, we could have had a conversation but every single one of us remained silent, lost in our own thoughts.

  I see a sign on the highway that says hotel in five miles and I point to it.

  “Get off the next exit. There is a hotel. I need to stretch my legs. Plus, I need food and I really need to pee.” I look down at myself and wince. “And I think I might need a shower.”

  Just thinking about a shower excites me. It’s been so long. Oh and to have real clothing. This feels like one of the best days I am going to have in years.

  All the things I have dreamt of for so long and I am finally going to have them.

  We pull off the exit and drive into the hotel parking lot.

  Wyatt gets out and Killian follows suit.

  “We’ll head inside and secure the rooms. Elliot,” Wyatt looks at his twin, so that’s his name, good to know. “I saw a little diner as we pulled in. Can you head over there and get food. Doesn’t matter what, get a variety. We’ll be back in just a moment.”

  The door slams just as the other one opens. The car is jarred as the second door follows suit.

  Oh crap.

  I quickly roll down the window and shout “Wait!” to gain their attention. They pause their pursuit, turning to face me “Wyatt, umm…” I look at his body and can feel heat rise on my cheeks, “You need clothes.”

  Lynx flies out of the car through my rolled down window and turns back into a normal size man again. He snaps his fingers and both the naked men are clothed in an attire similar to that of Killian. Jeans and a black t-shirt. Each and every one has their mouths opened wide.

  “How is that possible?” Killian asks Lynx.

  I don’t bother listening to what Lynx replies with, I roll up the window, looking over to Hadley. “You okay?”

  “I really don’t know right now, Oksana. I wanna pretend this is all a dream. I want to forget I saw this man turn into a fairy, but one thing I don’t want to lose is you. None of this makes sense to me. It’s not realistic. It’s a lot to wrap my head around.” She says, looking towards me.

  “I will explain everything to you, Hadley. At first, none of this made any sense to me either. The world I left, the world I was taken from… has changed. It is now a world full of things I never thought possible to exist. I never asked for any of this and quite frankly, I want nothing to do with it. It scares me, but these men in one way or another have given me back my life. I never got the choice whether I wanted to be welcomed into this world or not. Fate made that choice for me. I would still remain in that dungeon if it weren’t for Wyatt. I trust him. No, I trust them. I know it takes time for you to trust but you will see. They seem to be monsters on the outside, but they are anything but what they appear to be.”

  She nods her head. “I hope you’re right. I really, truly hope you are right.”

  We remain silent until we see Killian and Wyatt coming towards the car. I sit here thinking how I am going to explain to Hadley what had happen to me. It’s going to be hard filling her in on everything and I honestly don’t want her to know all of the details. It will be a lot. A lot for her and the others to process and it will also be a lot on me.

  I’d have to live through the whole thing all over again and I don’t know if I am ready for that yet. I just escaped Monster. I just got my freedom back and the last thing I want is to acknowledge his existence. So, when the time comes, I will dim it down. I’ll just explain to her that it was not a pleasant experience and if she asks me a specific question than I guess I will have no choice but to answer. I will never lie to her, not ever… but I feel like I need to keep some things to myself. This I know is for the best.

  Wyatt comes to my door and opens it for me. I step out and Hadley does the same on her side. I see her head to the back of the trunk, grabbing something and then I hear it slam shut. She appears on my side of the vehicle with a large duffle bag thrown over her shoulder.

  She shrugs at me and says, “I didn’t know what you were going to need so I packed a bunch of stuff just in case.”

  I run up to her and hug her. “Thank you,” I quip. It’s been so long since someone has shown even an ounce of kindness and I am more than grateful… to her… to all of them.

  We walk up a flight of stairs and enter a room with two queen size beds. To most people it wouldn’t seem like much, but to me… it is the most glorious thing ever. I rush past everyone and immediately jump on the bed. Moaning at the luxuriousness, the comfort. It feels like I am laying on a cloud.

  Oh shit. I shouldn’t have done that yet. I glance down and look at the grime that covers my body and decide to run to the bathroom and turn on the shower. I stick my hand in the warm liquid and just close my eyes, relishing in the way it feels hitting my skin. I look down at the drain and see the remnants of blood that coats my body. It flows down the drain, round and round it goes. Forever removed from my body. I take the sweatshirt off, not that it concealed much and throw it on the floor. I walk out into the other room where everyone still remains standing by the door. It’s an awkward silence and if we are going to be stuck together than they are all going to have to get over themselves and speak.

  I stand here and place my hands on my hips.

  “I see introductions need to be made,” I say, and everyone looks over at me with wide eyes… including the fairy who is now full sized.

  “Oksana!” Hadley basically shouts and rushing towards the bathroom grabbing a towel. I shake my head.

  “No, I am not going to touch that white towel covered in blood. I will use that after I am clean.”

  “But you are naked. In front of everyone!”

  I give off a laugh “Hadley… I have been naked since the day I was taken. Nudity is not something that bothers me. Anyways… Wyatt is over there,” I point to Wyatt and then Killian “That is Killian, I assume the fairy is Lynx and Elliot is the one getting us food. This,” I point to Hadley, “is my best friend, Hadley.”

  “Actually,” Lynx speaks up “She is your sister.”

  “You’ve said that before. We will talk after the lot of us are clean and fed. Now I am going to go bathe. Stop being so standoffish with each other.” I say as I turn and head back into the bathroom.

  * * *

  I step into the shower, letting the water cascade over my body. I just stand here, taking pleasure in how the warm water feels hitting my flesh. I close my eyes and flashes of my life, flashes of Monster start to come forth.

  Not now.

  I am no longer captive.

  I open my eyes and see that most of the blood has washed off my skin but in some spots it still remains. I need it gone. I need to wash away all that I was.

  I grab a wash cloth and the soap, lathering it up and the I scrub. I scrub my skin raw until I hear a knock coming from the door.

  “Oksana?”

  Hadley barges in and opens the shower curtain. I didn’t realize I am in tears until she gives me a look full of understanding and sadness.

  In her hands is shampoo and conditioner with a set of clothes. She sets the clothing down on the top of the toilet and steps into the shower with me, fully clothed. She grabs me, giving me a hug, all the while getting her uniform soaking wet.

  “I don’t know what you’ve been through and I’m not going to ask at the moment, but I have been here. I’ve gone through shit and the shower is where I would let it all out. Now… I am going to wash your hair, okay? It looks like shit and quite frankly it smells like shit too.”

  I laugh through the tears and I turn giving her my back, so she’d have better access to my hair.

  At the moment my heart feels full. I know I needed Hadley, but I didn’t know how much until this moment.

  12

  Hadley

  As soon as Oksana leaves, returning into the bathroom, we all just continue to stare at one another in complete silence.

  What am I supposed to say to these men
?

  I am trying really hard not to freak out over everything I have seen and heard over the last few hours… In my opinion, talking to them will just make everything so much worse.

  I walk over to the duffle bag and start to pull out a change of clothes for Oksana, the shampoo and conditioner, a brush when Lynx speaks up.

  “Have you sealed the bond?” I look over to him and he is staring at the two men Oksana introduced as Killian and Wyatt. Killian and Wyatt look at one another and in unison they shake their heads. I think it is supposed to be a ‘no’ but from the expressions that cover their faces, you can tell that they are about as confused as I am.

  Wyatt speaks up, after coughing clearing his throat, “What do you mean by that?”

  Lynx takes a seat in one of the chairs that rests in the corner of the room, running his hands through his hair.

  “You don’t know anything about these two females, do you?” He asks the men point blank.

  What does the even mean?

  The question is put to halt by knocking at the door. My body tenses up and instinctively I reach in my bag for my gun. I flick off the safety button and hold the weapon in my grasp inside the bag, just in case it will be needed. I keep my hand inside the duffle as I turn my head in the direction of the door.

  I let out a sigh of relief when I see that it is just the other man, Elliot, carrying about eight bags with Styrofoam containers.

  “What did you do, order everything on the menu?” It slips out before I even have time to process what I am saying.

  He shrugs his shoulders, setting the bags down on the opposite bed.

  “I didn’t know what everyone wanted, and I figured it’d be best to have a variety.”

  He starts going to the bags, laying everything out on the bed closest to the bathroom. He pauses his motions, turning his ear slightly towards the room Oksana is currently in.

  “She is in there?” He states more as a question instead of a statement.

  “Yes,” His brother says to him.

  Elliot looks at me and says, “You should go check on her.”

  I nod and gather the stuff I had laid out for her.

  I lightly knock on the door and when I hear her weeping, I enter the bathroom. No part of me gives a fuck if she wants me in here or not. I close the door behind me and reach for the shower curtain. She is in hysterics, scrubbing her skin ferociously. I don’t even think about, I get in the shower with her and just pull her close, hugging her.

  “I don’t know what you’ve been through and I’m not going to ask at the moment,” even though this big part of me is dying to know, but I will wait. I will wait just like she has done many times for me in the past, “but I have been here. I’ve gone through shit and the shower is where I would let it all out.”

  If she only knew all that I have been through. I realize now that she has gone through something just as tragic, if not worse. I try to lighten the mood, so I tell her, “Now… I am going to wash your hair, okay? It looks like shit and quite frankly, it smells like shit too.”

  She laughs and I reach my arm out of the shower to grab the shampoo and conditioner, along with the brush. Thank god I remembered to pack a brush because her hair is a complete rat’s nest.

  I take my time lathering in the shampoo. Scrubbing away the filth until I can finally see dark wet blonde tresses. Whatever is in her locks made it seem as if she had dark hair instead of light. It didn’t suit her. She rinses the shampoo out and turns her back to me once again. I work the conditioner in and tell her to let it sit for a few minutes. She turns her head, looking over her shoulder.

  “You think what he said is the truth? You think we could actually be sisters?”

  “I don’t know, Oksana, but we will get to the bottom of it. I promise.”

  I don’t make it apparent but as I wash her hair, I get a good look at all her scars. They are bad, really bad. You’d think we were sisters by all the marks covering both of our bodies. Some were worse than the others but at the end of the day, to me, a scar is a scar.

  The worse one out of the bunch is the one covering her shoulder. It looks like a chunk of her skin is missing and it healed indented. I never wanted Oksana to experience abuse like I did.

  She is light where I am dark. She’s the sun whereas I am the moon. Oksana never deserved such a fate, not when she has always represented everything that is good in this world. Me on the other hand, I didn’t necessarily think I deserved the treatment I received from my father, but I went through it for so long… it was something that I was used to. Something I could handle. Pain is just something that has been common occurrence in my life.

  “Okay, let’s get a brush through this mess.” I start at the bottom, making my way to the top, it takes some time but once I get it through, her hair is past her ass almost to the back of her knees.

  “You need a haircut, Oksana.”

  She grabs her hair in her hands and sighs. The only response I get her is a saddened, “Okay.” I can’t explain it, but I know something is wrong. So, I question her.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “My hair, it’s been both a comfort and a burden all these years. A comfort for when I was cold because it’s been like my own personal blanket. A burden because more times than I can count it was pulled. Pulled so hard and so cruelly. Pulled to the point where I would be dragged around by it. I planned on cutting it, but also the thought makes me sick to my stomach.”

  Oh my.

  “Oksana, I am not telling you to cut it off completely. If you can’t tell, I feel the same way about my hair.” I grab a curly strand of my wet hair that’s still in a pony. It rests right above my ass. “Maybe just a trim. We’ll still keep it somewhat long and if you want, I will teach you how to put your hair up so no one can pull it ever again.”

  “Okay, yes… I like that idea.”

  After her hair is rinsed out. I grab her a towel and take an extra one, placing it on the floor so we don’t get water everywhere. As soon as she’s out, I start taking off my soaking wet uniform and proceed to hurry up bathing myself. I didn’t get the chance to shower after shift with everything else going on.

  It takes me about ten minutes tops, because I forgot my razor in the duffel bag. I’m sure as hell not wasting time shaving when I’ve been away from Oksana for so long. Plus, it’s not like I have anyone to impress anyway.

  I move the curtain to the right and see Oksana standing before me with a towel in her hands.

  I dry off and take an extra towel, throwing my hair up in it. I point to the toilet, signifying for Oksana to sit. While she sits, I go over to the sink and grab the hairdryer from its place on the wall.

  I want Oksana to feel like herself, her old self. I yearn to help her try and erase the damage that has befallen on her. This is simply the first step.

  She sits on the toilet and I take my time drying her hair. From the fresh washing, her hair is now full of shine and is silky soft, almost like it hasn’t been washed in years

  As soon as I am finished, I put on the set of clothes I initially brought into the bathroom for Oksana, towel still wrapped around my head and walk out of the bathroom. The room immediately goes silent, like I intruded on a conversation they didn’t want me to hear. Well fuck them, I need more clothes. They’d just have to get over it.

  I reach in my bag and pull out another pair of sweat pants and a tank top then head back into the bathroom. I hand the clothes to Oksana and thank gosh I didn’t give her the ones I am currently wearing. She is so thin and they would have fallen right off of her. The other pair I grabbed have a draw string so at least she can tie them. She throws them on and moans.

  “My god, you have no idea how good it feels to have clothes on. Strange but good.”

  Just as she finishes talking her stomach starts to growl. We both look at each other and giggle.

  “It’s time to feed you,” I offer, while her eyes light up.

  “Please,” she chirps with excitement.
<
br />   I am first to exit the bathroom. Once again, the room is silent, but as soon as Oksana walks out both Wyatt and Killian stand.

  Their eyes. They are glowing. I shake my head thinking my eyes are deceiving me. I close my own eyes, rubbing my temples believing that I am just over exhausted, that maybe it is just my mind playing tricks on me but when I open my eyes, nothing changes.

  “This sure as hell can’t be possible!” I exclaim out loud. “Okay, what the fuck is going on?”

  None of this makes sense.

  “There are a lot of things we need to discuss, Hadley,” Lynx says to me

  “Let’s all get something to eat and then we will talk.”

  I grumble out a fine, but eating is not something I want to do right now, even though I am starving… I needed answers… like now. It’s irritating me how everyone is just avoiding the obvious.

  Wyatt comes up to Oksana and starts opening boxes for her. She looks at all of them and inhales deeply at the one with the steak. It looks practically rare, but she snatches it up and moves to the corner of the room, sits down on the ground and uses her hands to eat the steak instead of the silverware that has been placed on the right side the containers on the bed.

  I remember working a case about a girl whose parents locked her away in the basement for half her life. She was practically starved and when one of the other officers gave her food she reacted the same way. Only word I can think of is feral. It is like she is afraid that someone is going to take the food from her, so she attempts to fold in on herself in the corner, trying to hide it from everyone.

  I see Wyatt grab another box with the same exact contents with in it and watch as he approaches her, popping a squat on the floor right next to her. Killian stands propped against the wall near Oksana, like some sort of protector. Elliot is on the opposite bed, two empty containers sprawled out in front of him as he works on his third and Lynx approaches me from behind.

  Picking up the box that contains nothing but a salad. I can see it has tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, olives, cheese, but no meat. I just look at him with a raised eye brow.