by Rena Marks
Beast winced. “Does Robyn know?”
“Oh, yeah. She said something about making you wear a collar.”
Beast swore. “Is she very upset?”
“Not with Angela being here. Just that it was driving her nuts trying to figure out why the head counts were off with the DNA matches.”
His face brightened. “Oh, good. I can assure her that I helped her figure out a crack in the security armor. That it was in her best interests to trust the computer counts.”
“And to be fair,” Angela said. “I tricked you. I let you assume I was Everly.”
“You’re right,” Beast said, looking gleeful. “This is getting better and better.”
“Here is your mate. Take care of her.” The female Xeno Sapien—Tempest—who approached, pushed a golden woman at Beast.
“My Sunny,” he said, wrapping his huge arms around her.
“Hi, baby,” she said, lifting her lips to his.
The woman who’d brought her was the one who Thane had left behind when he’d brought her into Xenia.
“Tempest, right?” Everly asked.
“That is correct,” Tempest said, blinking. “There are…two of you?”
“My sister. Angela.”
Angela held her hand out to Tempest. Tempest reached out slowly, looking bemused.
“No one likes to touch her,” Beast said. “Cooties.”
“Hush,” his mate chided. “Leave her alone.”
Angela took Tempest’s hand. “Cooties don’t scare me.” She shook it strongly.
“Do you know there were others asking about Everly?” Tempest said.
“Others?” Angela narrowed her eyes. “Did they ask for her by name?”
“Yes. A male and a female. They were new to the camp. I heard them talking to some people. They said they were from the north side encampment and wondered what happened to Everly.”
“Do you know what they were told?” Thane asked.
“I believe someone mentioned that you may have entered Xenia.”
Angela looked worried. “If that was Crested Ute, they know where she’s at.”
Chapter Thirteen
Thane:
“Someone’s given him a bath.”
Thane looked up to see Everly’s twin leaning against the doorjamb. She must’ve smelled the faint scent of peppermint soap still lingering in the air.
“Yeah, he’s cleaned up.” But even though the dried mud and crusts of blood and who knows what else that had been imbedded in Zee’s skin was gone, his body remained the same. Bigger. Beastly. His other changes hadn’t yet gone away. Surely that couldn’t be a good sign. But he didn’t want to worry her.
“Has Robyn said how her studies with him are going?”
“She’s convinced that it has something to do with his sleep and the wake/unwake portions of his brain not being balanced. Normally he’s unihemispheric, meaning half his brain can stay awake at the same time the other sleeps. Somehow, that was disrupted, triggering his change. So the sleeping portion of his brain thinks he’s awake while instead he’s living in a dream. She’s convinced that by forcing him completely under—making both sides of his brain sleep at the same time, it’ll rebalance the brain. He’ll be perfectly normal when he wakes.” It was a lot more complicated than that, considering they all had computer chip triggers in their brains, but that wasn’t out for public knowledge.
Angela moved further into the room. Zee’s hair had been fanned out onto the pillow to dry after his bath, and she calmly reached for the hairbrush and began smoothing the strands for him.
“I don’t want to scare my sister. But they know that Everly was released from prison. They saw her on the news feeds just like I did. They’re going to want to retrieve her, lock her up, compare the testing they did on me with her. They’re going to find that Everly has the potential I never did.”
“I’m not sure you didn’t have any.”
She snorted, and it sounded exactly like Everly. “Trust me. If you’d have seen Everly in action after she killed our father, you’d know I have nothing. Zero. Zilch. But although it’s only come into use one time, it’s enough to know there’s something there. On her end. They’re going to want that.”
“She’ll be safe here. On Xenia.”
“She’ll be safer if they’re no longer looking for her.”
He looked up at her, whereas he’d been avoiding looking into her face. It was odd to see someone who looked so much like Everly but wasn’t.
“Robyn has received a subpoena requesting to know her whereabouts. Whoever filed it claims that her release from prison may have been due to a glitch in the system. It’ll have to be sorted out.”
“What? They can’t prove that.”
“No. But they can force her to show up to court once Robyn verifies where she is. I think that’s why people were outside trying to search for her.”
She caressed Zee’s cheek, seemed to catch herself, and went back to brushing the long strands of hair.
“I’ve come up with a plan. Robyn’s going to have him out for a full month. I’m going to take that month to remain outdoors. My skin is going to tan, enhanced with a few UV sessions from Robyn, of course. Some lemon juice squirted onto my hair out to lighten a few strands though if I get arrested, it could be considered a substance to change my color without a license.” She shrugged. “That’s if I get arrested.”
“You’re leaving.”
“Yes. And I’ll need you to keep her calm when I do. Tell her anything. Tell her I have every intention of returning if you need to. But I need to pretend to be her.”
“Why?”
“It’s the perfect time. Now that the mainframes belonging to Crested Ute have been destroyed, it’s easy for Robyn to switch out our labels. Our DNA is the same. Small differences mark her as Everly and me as Angela. Robyn can confuse those. I’ve already been through the testing, I know what to expect. If they think they’re testing Everly, they’ll finally stop looking for her. They’ll drop this farce of ‘accidentally being released from prison’ and needing to return.”
“I’m sure Robyn doesn’t think they’ll get away with that.”
“And they probably won’t. But it doesn’t stop there. They’ll come up with something else to harass her with. And more and more people will become afraid of her. Everly can’t handle that. She loves people. She’ll love to go with you outside the gates and visit with the people there. Can you imagine how it’ll feel if those kids are scared of her?”
“It’s not safe for you.”
“No. But it’s temporary. It’ll give them some false numbers to play with, thinking they have the other half of the equation and are testing Everly. And that means security for my sister.” She stopped speaking suddenly, putting the brush away. “My sister didn’t hesitate to kill my father when he was hurting me. When she finally saw him hurting me. It wasn’t to play the martyr. It wasn’t because she lost control. It was because we don’t hesitate to protect each other. This is the same. This is within my power to keep Everly from being harassed for the rest of her life. It’s a small thing, really. I’ll be kept caged, blood withdrawn daily, exercise tests, brain scans. I’ve been through it all. When I have enough, I’ll escape the same way I did before because they won’t be expecting it. She’s the untrained twin. They’ll be lax in her captivity.”
It couldn’t be that easy. They’d remember Angela betraying them and hiding her skills. This time, they wouldn’t be as naïve.
“We need a backup plan.”
“Already there. If I’m gone too long, Robyn will try to send a team for extraction,” Angela said. “That’s Plan B.”
There was no guarantee that Angela would be found. But she was trying to ease his mind.
“So you won’t even get to meet Zee when he wakes?”
“Nah,” she said, surprising him by leaning over and kissing Zee’s forehead. “He probably won’t even remember me if he was really dreaming this whole time. But h
e’ll be here among his friends, and hopefully he’ll be normal. That’s what’s important.” She looked up and smiled. “Go on, get off with you. Everly’s probably finished with her shower and is wondering where her guy is. We have a month before any of this shit hits the fan anyway.”
She gave him a genuine smile, and for the first time, he felt an inkling of love for his mate’s sister. Not the same kind of love, of course. But the common ground—they each had a need to make things perfect for Everly.
“We’ll both go and take her to lunch,” he said. “She needs every spare minute possible with you. Come on, Zee will have plenty of visitors later.”
This time, they linked arms as they headed back to pick up Everly. He was glad when he saw her face, the warmth at knowing he and Angela were on the same side.
He wasn’t looking forward to being the one to tell her when Angela was gone.
“I have a great idea,” Everly said as soon as she saw them. “Tell me if it’s not possible, but perhaps we can go visit the camp? The children would love to hear new stories. We can weave a tale with Angela into it.”
“We can take them food,” he said.
“Angela, yes! Come see all the children I’ve been minding since I arrived here. They’re so sweet. You’d love them. We tell them the most outrageous stories. They eat it up.”
“I’d love to go see your babies,” Angela smiled, catching Thane’s eye as Everly hugged her.
They packed bags of food in the kitchen, loading them into storage-saver backpacks before heading to the wall where they waited on Beast, Sunny, and Tempest to arrive. The backpacks slimmed down to the span of an inch thick, but once air was released, everything inside would expand normally.
“Don’t puncture this while it’s on you,” Thane joked. “You’re going down back first.”
“Why don’t we drive out the front gate like normal people?” Angela asked.
Thane grinned. “It’s more fun this way. Besides, there’s a log at the front gate kept of people leaving and re-entering. We can’t show you both coming and going. In case anything happens on the outside, Robyn would prefer to pretend none of us are involved.”
“Are you ready?” Beast called from on top of the fence.
He was flanked on either side by Sunny and Tempest. He jumped down at Thane’s nod and the two of them clasped hands so Everly could place her foot in for a boost up. She was shot straight up into the air where Sunny and Tempest each caught a hand, hoisting her up. They did the same for Angela before Thane took a running leap at Beast, who lifted him the same way.
Tempest stared down at Beast, who was left behind. “We could leave him,” she said to Sunny. “Just patrol ourselves. It would be like old times.”
Sunny laughed. “And then we’d run into Sam at the next checkpoint, and you’d forget I existed.”
“I simply like to make sure he is feeling okay,” Tempest protested.
“Every body part works,” Sunny said meaningfully. “You should know that by now.”
Tempest blushed deeply and covered it up by leaning down and yelling at Beast. “Come on, Beastly. Move those fat little legs. Run halfway up the wall, and we’ll catch you.”
“Shut up,” Beast yelled. “There is nothing on me that is little.”
Thane grinned. Tempest and the human, Sam. She’d once accidentally killed him, stabbing him during a training session with her broken bones, one of which had pierced his heart. Thane had assumed she was always at his side over a sense of guilt. Sunny seemed to know there was more than that. In any case, Sam was resuscitated, and Tempest hovered over him like a nursemaid.
Or perhaps she was striving for a sexy nurse.
But listening to her holler over the fence at Beast wasn’t quite achieving a sexy, feminine persona. Maybe being friends with Sunny, Everly, and Angela might help her out.
Then he leapt over the other side of the fence, catching Everly as she dropped into his arms with a huge smile. He kissed her tenderly, remembering how terrified she was the first time she’d jumped. Now she set an example for her sister.
He set her on her feet and motioned for Angela. She showed none of the fear that Everly had in the beginning, and he was surprised to find that she felt exactly like Everly—same weight, same feel, everything. He set her on her feet, noticing that Beast was already on top of the wall with the other two women, and the three were waving to them as they went on their rounds.
“I can’t wait to see everyone,” Everly babbled as they walked to the camp. “Oh, look. It’s different.”
It was less crowded.
“The camp of the six men were relocated,” Thane said. “They’ve been convinced not to come back to this side to visit. This section is for women and children with mated males being the exception.”
“Everly! Everly’s back!” Savannah’s shrieks were enough to wake the whole camp. Children came running from every direction.
“Where you been, Ev’rly?” Jacob asked, his thumb in his mouth. Everly picked him up, squeezing him tight. He smelled like baby and boy—a combination of soft chamomile and the salty tang of sweat. She nuzzled the baby-fine hair, making him giggle.
“Who’s that?” Adam stared at Angela, baffled.
“That’s a story waiting to happen,” Thane said. “Let’s get to your overhang.”
“Thane!” Savannah scoffed, sticking her small hand in his. “It’s an awning.”
“My apologies,” Thane said, grinning. “I forget how smart you are.”
A lot of the parents were still in the camp since there was no babysitter available. They brought the folding chairs out, parking them underneath the huge awning.
Adam squeezed between Everly and Angela, staring at both of them as if trying to figure out the slight differences.
“I think Thane should tell this story,” Everly said, winking at him.
“I should? Where did I leave off?” Thane asked.
The children all yelled out. “The babies peed everywhere!”
“…everywhere,” Jacob echoed, plopped onto Everly’s lap.
“And one of them covered Jack’s mouth with his pee-pee hand,” Stevie reminded.
“Ahh, yes. Just as he covered Jack’s mouth, an idea hit. Jack stopped, dropped, and rolled. Say it with me, everyone.”
He waited while the crowd chorused, “Stop. Drop. And roll.”
“Jack rolled between the baby’s legs, trying not to look up at the dangling bits.” He heard Angela snort in shocked laughter, the sound erupting from her nose. Several of the teens laughed, too. Whether it was at her snort or his story, he wasn’t sure. Parents were smiling, so it wasn’t that his story was too outrageous.
As he spoke, he worked the backpack off his shoulders, pushing a button to rehydrate it. The pack expanded as he unzipped it, pulling out bag after bag after bag of prepared lunches. The children passed them down the circle.
He moved behind Everly to help her with her pack since Jacob didn’t seem to be letting her go anytime soon. Angela removed her own and the two women began passing out their bags of food. There was definitely enough for everyone in the camp.
Everly winked at her sister. “We just introduced Thane to the art of storytelling, so I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.”
“Oh, me, neither,” Angela said, smiling at Thane to encourage him.
He cleared his throat, and if he sounded a bit important, so be it. He was the storyteller today, after all.
“He rolled from the clutches of the wet baby, scrambling up quickly when he was clear from the nether bits.”
“What’s nother?” Jacob asked Everly. She bent to whisper something in his ear. He giggled.
“He ran and ran, sliding in a wet puddle every now and then, but he figured it was okay since he had shoes on. He found himself in a room and looked around for a place to hide, but to his surprise, he didn’t hear the stomps of uncoordinated, waddling babies behind him. He leaned his ear up against the door and realize
d that the mommy giant had entered the room and discovered her bratty babies had hatched. Jack was in the clear! Almost,” Thane dropped his voice to a whisper, wanting to build tension.
“On the wall was a mirror.” His mind worked a mile a minute, scrambling to remember the story Beast had told to Kaden once—before Robyn shut that shit down. “Jack looked into the mirror and said, ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who’s the greatest of them all? I made it through the babies’ pee, not getting any on my knee. There is a bit, upon my shoe. Remove it please, this times two.’ Now, he was thinking the mirror would know to take it off both shoes, right?”
“Uh, huh.” Several heads nodded.
“But nothing happened. Nothing. And when he stared harder into the mirror, he realized it looked a little darker inside. He squinted, watching the Jack in the mirror squint, too. And the Jack in the mirror lifted a hand to touch him. Jack jumped back, scared like a cat. The thing in the mirror reached out to him! He looked again. It was just a reflection, nothing alive. Maybe Jack had reached out and forgot his own hand was raised? So he raised his hand, slowly reaching toward the mirror, expecting to feel the cold, hard, slick surface of the glass. Instead, it felt warm and…soft. He realized he was touching skin.”
One of the children gasped.
“It was another Jack! One just like him, inside the mirror. He laced his fingers through the other Jack, and pulled the hand out of the mirror. The wrist followed, and the rest of the arm, then the shoulder and the head. When the other Jack came completely out of the mirror, he stood staring at him, blinking in shock. This Jack had never seen the sun, so his skin was white…like Angela’s.” Thane pointed toward Everly’s sister with the tilt of his chin, watching several heads turn toward her to notice her lighter skin tone. “And his hair was darker because, again, no sun. But other than that, it was him. It was a copy of Jack.”
“Whoa,” Stevie breathed and reached out to poke Angela in the shoulder.
“Ouch,” she said loudly, which made him jerk his hand back, startled.
Several of the parents laughed.