by Simone Sinna
They had never been to the island before, and the dash across the waves at top speed in the boat would have been a pleasant enough excursion, but neither of the brothers were thinking of the scenery or even their father. They were reliving the previous night and hoping that Zac and Wilson wouldn’t change Lena’s mind about them. Neither understood why they had this attraction, but they’d had enough of Grandpa Ed’s romantic stories and Auntie Kate’s magical ones that they didn’t question it too hard. Not even Linc the scientist. He knew that there were some things that they just didn’t understand yet.
Torq was neither surprised nor pleased to see them, though he was grateful for the container of water.
“What do you want?”
Yes and hello, good to see you, too, Dad. “We met up with some ghosts.”
This got Torq’s attention. “Which ones?”
“Zac Karlssen and his mate, Wilson.”
Torq grimaced. “They are the ones that nearly caught me a few years ago, before I…knew better.”
“What,” said Kael, sitting on a rock around the black charcoal in his father’s campfire, “does knowing better mean?”
Torq’s eyes dashed to and from each of them, and he laughed at some private joke.
If not mad, then at the very least unhinged.
“Dad, we need to know,” said Linc. “They didn’t smell us. How come?”
Torq muttered to himself, got up, and walked into the makeshift building he called home. Linc looked at his brother in exasperation, but before they had decided what to do, Torq came out with a book.
“You’re the scientist, aren’t you?” he asked Linc, handing him the book.
Lincoln opened it. It was an exercise book full of handwritten chemical equations. Torq seemed to have added a few extra elements to the periodic table. Seeing Lincoln’s frown, Torq laughed. “They’ve got you, boy, haven’t they?” He looked pleased with himself.
“You’re not trying to tell me you’ve discovered new elements, are you?” Linc said dryly.
“No, no,” said Torq. “Code, my code, so they can’t break it.”
“Okay,” said Linc slowly. “What are the equations for then?”
“Protection,” whispered Torq, giggling. “Protects us from the virus—new and old!”
“The were-devil’s curse?” Kael asked.
“No, no,” said Torq. “The one they introduced up here.” He added slyly, “The one that’s changed.”
Lincoln was now certain his father was certifiably crazy. But there still had to be an explanation for why Zac and Wilson hadn’t recognized them. “So you have an antidote?”
“Vaccine,” said Torq. “From the original.” He was looking very pleased with himself. “Tested it out on myself until I got it right. What I hadn’t anticipated was”—he dropped his voice to such low levels that his sons had to lean in to hear—“that it changes our blood, too. Not just immunity, but neutralizes the scent.”
Lincoln let this sink in. “Okay, Dad,” he said. “But how did that help us?”
Torq beamed. “Adam protected his clan when he brought back the poison from the Northern Hemisphere,” he said. “So I had to protect you, of course.”
“You slipped us some?” Kael looked at his father incredulously.
“Oh yes,” said Torq, clearly pleased with himself. “Put it in your beer that first night.”
* * * *
Lena took an hour to work out what to wear. Shorts made her legs look too heavy. She was going to need a few packets less of the Oreos before her favorite red dress wouldn’t look like it was ready to burst. She thought of Lincoln losing himself in her breasts and tried it on again. After all, the only thing likely to burst was the button holding the dress together at nipple level. If it burst and showed off the lacy red bra, that wouldn’t exactly be a tragedy. But did she dare?
She went back to jeans. Her legs really narrowed down nicely after the thighs, and with high heels? The green dress was a bit skimpy, but it did make her eyes look stunning. Lena sighed and wished she could ask Gabriella. But to do that she’d have to explain why she was dressing up, and it would be too hard to explain. She didn’t understand it, so she couldn’t expect anyone else to.
In the end she went with the green dress. Not as revealing but the button issue with the red one would have made her more nervous than she already was. The green one hugged her curves even if those curves were more generous than she’d have liked.
Kael and Lincoln picked her up on motorbikes. Lincoln threw her a helmet. She eyed the bike nervously and wished she’d gone for jeans. “Trust me,” said Lincoln with a smile. “Kael’s the risky rider.”
Lena put on the helmet and eased her leg over the bike so she could sit behind him, trying to forget how she’d nearly run her scooter into the back of a car on her first day learning and that she hadn’t been back on one since. It gave her a good excuse to hold Lincoln tight, and he wasn’t complaining.
By the time they’d left the outskirts of Cairns behind them, Lena had started to relax and enjoy the wind rushing past her. Lincoln’s body hard against hers felt so solid that an accident seemed impossible. She could see Kael ahead leading the way, and he took a right turn onto a dirt track, taking them through scrubby grassland before stopping at a beautiful, isolated, sandy cove that Lena had never been to.
“Did you organize the food to be delivered here, too?” Lena asked, laughing as she pulled the helmet off.
Kael tapped the side of his bike. “All here.”
They insisted Lena sit on a rug on the beach while they prepared everything. Kael donned an apron and put a white towel over his arm, asking, “Madame, champagne?” before pouring ice-cold, sparkling wine into her glass. They all sat and toasted.
“To friends,” said Lincoln.
“To lovers,” said Kael.
“To us,” Lena concluded. She saw them exchange a glance, but Kael was blocking her. She sensed they were worried about something.
“If you’re worried about Zac and Wilson, don’t be,” she said. “He was just cheesed off because he thinks I’m a doormat. His doormat.”
Her reassurances didn’t seem to put them any more at ease. Lincoln kissed her gently on the forehead then rummaged in the bags of food for plates. He served smoked salmon on rye bread with more champagne.
“I’m feeling very spoiled,” said Lena.
“You spoiled us last night,” Lincoln replied. “It’s the least we can do.”
Lena felt a sudden pang of concern. So they felt guilty? Were they trying to let her down easily that it was just a one-night stand? She suddenly felt sick. She was always doing this, thinking things were more than they were, wishful thoughts at work. It seemed she’d done it again, even though she had been so certain they, well, Kael at least, had felt had the same as she had.
“Think nothing of it,” said Lena, forcing herself to sound as if she jumped into bed with two men she’d only known less than a day all the time. “It was fun.”
The brothers looked at each other again. Lena steeled herself.
“Lena,” said Lincoln finally, “we have a confession.”
Shit. Lena looked away, wishing she was anywhere but where she was. What was wrong with her? Did she have “doormat” written over her forehead? She vowed never to read another romance novel ever again.
“Last night was more than just fun from our point of view,” Lincoln continued. “I can’t say I entirely understand it, but we got brought up to believe in our instincts and to follow them.”
Lena, who had been looking out across the beach, turned and stared at him.
“We thought you were the same,” Kael added.
Now she was completely confused. What was it they were trying to say?
“That was exactly how I felt, too,” Lena said slowly. Romance novels might be back on the agenda.
“Which is what we thought,” said Lincoln. “But we didn’t realize—”
The silence seemed to st
retch forever. Lena finally took a deep breath. “Didn’t realize what exactly?”
“That you didn’t know who we were.”
A small alarm bell was starting in the back of Lena’s mind. Zac’s words came back to her.
Well, I know we would smell them, and they don’t have white streaks in their hair, but I swear they’re were-devil in every other way.
“Perhaps if we’d told you our surnames,” said Kael lamely. “We’re Tremains.”
Chapter Four
Zac wondered for the millionth time when Lena was going to snap out of it. If she got any thinner she’d be invisible sideways. He liked a woman with a bit of meat. After three months of pining, she was little more than bone. Not even when he had bought out the supermarket’s supply of Oreos did she raise a smile—or eat anything much. Zac had wanted to go out and drop the two dickheads into the ocean when she had come back from her night out so distraught she had barely been able to speak. If she hadn’t insisted they weren’t to blame and it—whatever “it” was—had been her fault, he would have.
Zac didn’t understand the first thing about women, he knew. But he had known Lena all his life and had always felt she was special, that she would make a good wife. She had almost fallen in love with him, and he still had not entirely given up on the notion. He had watched her slip through his fingers and nothing he had tried worked. Gabriella had told him he was a dinosaur like his grandfather and that women didn’t want to just be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen anymore. He’d bought Lena flowers. What more did she want?
Zac was sick of Lena looking like the world had come to an end. Maybe it was heading in that direction, but if so he wanted to be fighting it, not just sitting around waiting. His grandfather had certainly been worried about the were-devils’ curse backfiring on them, though just how this would happen he couldn’t say.
“Someone needs to go down south and find out what they’re up to,” Grandpa Adam told him. “You sensed them here, and they vanished. What were they doing here?”
“They’d sense us on their territory,” said Zac.
The old man smiled slyly. “It’d put the wind up them, hey? There aren’t many of them left of course. It’s just Tremain you’d need to deal with. He’s the danger I reckon.”
Zac had decided to do as his grandfather suggested. If the world was going to come to an end, then he wasn’t about to go down without a fight. He’d presumed Wilson would come with him, but just as he was about to ask, he thought of Lena. Maybe this was just what she needed to distract her.
* * * *
“Go to Tasmania?” Lena stared at Zac, thinking he’d lost his mind.
“A quick trip,” Zac replied. “Just to check out Tilman Tremain’s research lab and maybe inflict a bit of damage.”
Lena was sitting on the bed she spent most of her time on. She looked at the bookshelf opposite her full of romance novels and closed her eyes. She had grown up with stories about the evil were-devils, how they had caused the beautiful Larissa, her great-aunt, to die of a broken heart. Her mother, though only half ghost, identified fully with her ghost part, and along with Lena’s father, a full-blood Magnussen, she believed Adam’s stories, how the curse was destroying the were-devils because they were incapable of love.
Larissa had died of a broken heart, and right now Lena felt she was going to do likewise. When Kael and Lincoln had told her they were were-devils her world had fallen apart. In dream-ravaged sleep she was haunted by them and Larissa, waking with her pillow soaked with tears. What cruel twist of fate had led her to fall in love with two men that were the spawn of Satan?
There was no one she could talk to about it, though in her most desperate moments she had wondered about her grandmother, Angel. But there was such antipathy between Angel and her mother that it would have just escalated the family tensions that Lena had hated all her life. Zac, were he to find out Lincoln and Kael were were-devils, would have killed them. She knew she was being ridiculously romantic, that she couldn’t trust the brothers, that they had tricked her like another were-devil had her great-aunt. But the pull of her desire to be with the two men continued to be strong, and she couldn’t bear the thought of any harm coming to them. It was exhausting to resist it, yet resist it she did, every day holed up in her cabin staring at the walls.
Now Zac was suggesting she go to Tasmania. To fight back, and against a Tremain at that. She wouldn’t have ever been able to fight Kael or Lincoln, but maybe in doing this she could regain her sense of self as a ghost and lessen the guilt and desire that kept her tossing and turning every night.
“Okay,” said Lena, watching Zac’s mouth widen into a grin. “I’ll come with you.”
* * * *
Auntie Kate was having bad dreams and was struggling to make sense of them. Tilman Tremain’s new research assistant had ghost blood. She was sure. Was she the source of the glowing ghost stone? Kate wished her mother was still alive to help her try to understand the signs. Seven stones had to be accounted for before the were-devils would be rid of their curse. Four were-devil stones and three ghost ones. Maybe the Tremains’ girl was not the burning stone. Which meant somewhere out there was another. And this one was dangerous.
* * * *
It had been a lot harder than she thought it would be. First of all she had lost so much weight that she was feeling extremely weak. Looking into the mirror, she barely recognized herself. She had spent so much of her late adolescence and adulthood wishing she was skinny, and now that she was, all Lena could think was “be careful what you wish for.” Her cheeks were sunken, and she seemed to be all bones. She decided she would force herself to eat, but healthily. No more Oreos. Maybe an occasional one if she ever felt happy enough to have any interest in food.
Then there was the fact that she liked the look of the woman with the other Tremain men down in Tasmania. She was clearly aligned in some way with the ghosts despite the glare she had given Lena. Becc Morton. Why on earth was she hanging out with two were-devils? More incredibly, she seemed to be enamored of both Tilman Tremain’s sons, Jesse and Jarrod, who, unlike Kael and Lincoln, Lena had no warm vibes toward.
But it had been harder in other ways. Zac was so full of anger it was barely contained. He clearly hated these were-devils in the visceral way that his grandfather did. Lena had kept seeking reassurances that they were just going to destroy the lab and not actually kill anyone, but Zac became more and more remote, caught up in a fury that Lena found increasingly terrifying.
When Zac sent her into Tremain’s laboratory to destroy it while he protected her from the Tilman’s sons, she hadn’t been ready to face either of the things she found in there. Coming face-to-face with Tilman Tremain had been bad enough. But he had been holding a Tasmanian devil, one of the were-devil’s non-transforming cousins. And he’d been crying.
Lena had never seen a man cry before and stood staring, not even considering the danger she was in.
“Why on earth—”
“I couldn’t save him,” Tilman said simply, and Lena looked at the animal and didn’t just see an animal but saw the vicious tumor that had taken over its face, ugly and blistering with blood and pus. She remembered swaying and then all went black until Zac was shaking her urgently, and the two transformed and rose out of the burning building only just in time to save themselves. Tilman had been crumpled on the floor, but Tilman’s sons had transformed into huge black beasts, teeth and claws at the ready. It was only the fact that ghosts could fly and were-devils could not that had saved them, though Zac’s strength and speed had also been critical.
When Lena returned from Tasmania she felt worse. One of the were-devil brothers had managed to put a long, deep scratch mark down her arm, and when she looked at its increasingly angry edge she pictured it turning into the cancer that the were-devils had. Her dreams continued to be troubled. The woman in white that reminded her of her grandmother and she presumed was her great-aunt haunted her. In earlier dreams she had been sitting st
ill and watching the waves, waiting for her lover to return. There had been an enormous sense of loss and emptiness, the same feeling that returned in the dreams where Kael and Lincoln called her.
She finally decided to take some sleeping medication, just so she wouldn’t have to spend her nights fighting as much as she did her days. Whether the medication or the delirium from her fever was responsible she wasn’t sure, but this night she dreamed of Kael and Lincoln, and it was so real that when she woke she was unsure whether or not it had really happened.
“You called us,” Kael had said softly.
“I will always protect you,” Lincoln had added.
Unlike the other nights, Lena had given in, refused to listen to the voices of her childhood, her mother yelling at her grandmother saying “they’re evil and deserve to die” or Adam saying “you can’t trust any of them. They’re scum.”
“I need you,” she had said with her mind, and they had both heard the message. Lincoln had gotten there first, engulfing her in his arms, and for the first time in months Lena felt safe and that things were the way they should be.
Time had drifted, and she slept with her head and one arm on Lincoln’s chest and Kael’s arm around her waist, his legs tucked behind her. When she woke it seemed to be in the very early hours of the morning, with dawn’s first sunrays lighting the sky. Lincoln had kissed her as if to say good-bye, and Lena had pulled him to her.
“Love me,” she had begged, and Lincoln had kissed her harder, his hands running over her limbs and breasts as he did.
She wriggled closer into Kael, and as Lincoln started covering her body with kisses, he whispered in her ear, “We will always love you,” then nibbled the lobe of her ear and pushed his tongue, hot and moist, into it.
Lena felt Lincoln’s hands then lips on her breasts.
“You’re fading away,” he murmured. “Still gorgeous but so thin. You must eat and take care of yourself.”