Felix was the only one ready. Instead of his armor, he’d put on dark slacks and a form fitting shirt and jacket. A blade was strapped to his belt, and the jacket was armored, but he looked like a different man.
And hot.
Levi, on the other hand, was still at the dining table, his tablet propped up in front of him and a plate of food next to that. He’d looked up at her entrance. “Illi. You took longer than we thought.” He rose and headed for the wave-cooker. “We saved your food like you asked.”
“You’re still eating?”
“Well, I wanted to eat with you, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“Oh.” That was sweet, but… “Did you shower?”
He shook his head. “I don’t take long though.”
“What about them?” She waved to where Mo’ata and Forrest sat at the other end of the table, heads bent over papers strewn across the top. Mo’ata, her always prepared and responsible clansman, was still in his sleeping clothes, and Forrest wore a paint- and ink-stained shirt over torn jeans. “He’s not wearing that, is he?”
“I told you guys to get ready,” Felix said with a look to her.
“No, no.” Forrest didn’t even look up. “Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get this just right? It finally came to me!” His pencil flew over the paper as he turned it this way and that.
Mo’ata waved a hand in her direction. “Eat, shopa, and shower.” He, too didn’t look away from what Forrest was working on.
She took a breath and let it out. Then another. Eat. He said to eat. I do need to eat. When she finished washing her hands, she took her plate from Levi and stepped toward the table.
“No! No peeking.” Forrest did look up then. “Don’t come any closer Blue. I want this to be a surprise.”
Both her brows rose. Considering she had no idea what he was doing, it would definitely be a surprise. “O-okay. I’ll… eat here in the kitchen?”
Forrest nodded then went back to work.
“Mo’ata?” she called out.
No responce.
“Honey buns?”
That got a reaction. “What did you call me?”
“Better than snookums,” Forrest muttered, setting down one pencil and grabbing another, this one a shade of deep green.
“We are all receiving nicknames,” Felix grumbled.
“Yeah, he’s pookie,” she said.
“What am I?” Levi wanted to know.
“I haven’t decided. I’ll let you know when I do.”
Felix leaned close to Mo’ata. “I think these are a punishment, not an endearment. Be careful.”
Mo’ata’s eyes widened. “What did I do?” A light blush formed on his cheeks.
Ignoring him, she finished her breakfast of orinan eggs and fela cheese scrambled with day old bread heels. The concoction was richer than hen eggs, with a nutty flavor to the cheese, but it was still good. She was getting used to Karran foods.
Her clansman hadn’t really done anything. But weren’t they in a hurry to get to the exhibition, to have a chance to handle any last minute adjustments and be there when it opened? Hadn’t Forrest just been telling her to hurry?
If she’d known they would still be playing around, she would have taken her time with Beast as she’d originally planned.
Placing her plate in the sink, she headed for her room. She’d shower, get ready, and hopefully by that time Forrest would done with whatever he was working on. After setting out her clothes—a pair of dark jeans, her favorite boots, and her new favorite blouse, a blue and green striped shirt made from the same material as her scarf—she headed for the bathroom.
Only to find it occupied.
How…? “I was in my room for three minutes. Three.”
Felix leaned against the wall, filling the hallway. “He didn’t want to end up with one of those horrific nicknames and decided he needed to get done with his shower before you became upset.”
Blue twisted and allowed her head to hit the wall.
Felix erupted in laughter.
“We need like, two more bathrooms,” she muttered. There was one good thing about having a highly regimented schedule most days—no bathroom conflicts. “Ah, screw it.” She straightened and palmed open the bathroom door.
Steam rushed out as she stepped in. The shower glass slid aside and a dark head poked out. “Illi?”
Blue waved a hand. “Continue. I’m just going to get started.” Plucking up her toothbrush, she checked to make sure her towel was still there, and dry. Yup.
Thirty seconds later Levi pushed the water off and grabbed an orange towel off its hook. He slipped out of the stall, paused long enough to press a quick kiss to her forehead, and then he was gone. She didn’t even have a chance to admire his man-nipples. Shame.
A light knock came on the door.
“Yes?”
The door slid open enough for Felix to stick his head in. “Would you like me to stand guard, pet?”
“Are you sucking up and asking to be my fuck-topus?”
He grinned. “Yes.”
“I’m not angry.”
“I know. But it will be fun.”
She couldn’t say no to that, not after last night. “Fine.”
“You should take your time.”
“But we’ll be late.”
“Then they should have listened to you and showered. The only one with any real excuse is Forrest.”
“Felix.” That wasn’t really fair of him. She was the one who had slept in and then spent so much time with Beast.
“Just saying. And at least I’m no longer pookie.” He pulled his head away and shut the door before she could argue further.
Chapter 9
FORREST
Blue radiated annoyance, but it was mild. Her mind held amusement more than anything. Which meant there was no reason for him to pull away from what he was doing.
He almost had it. The sigil that would go on their seyna, the banner that would represent their prida and declare them as a family for all to see—or at least for all who entered the apartment to see. The design had eluded him for months. Every time he started on it, something would interfere, or the shapes wouldn’t come together, or something always seemed to be missing.
When he’d gone to see Blue in the barn, it hit him.
He had to include everyone for it to work.
If everyone was there, the pieces all fit, and his prida, his family, would work.
There was the central piece, of course. Behind that would be the rock, what held everything up. Around this was the… frame? It was a frame upon which the other pieces could secure themselves, that held them all steady. It was different from the rock.
These pieces he already knew. But they hadn’t fit together for some reason. What he needed was the wings, to launch them, and the arms that held them. But they also needed the delicate wisps that filled in their cracks, and the thorns that would pierce their enemies…
It wasn’t three pieces, or even five.
It was seven.
They weren’t complete without all seven.
Images and colors and lines had swirled in front of him. At one point he wasn’t sure if he was seeing shapes or people, thinking about a design or a family. The shapes shifted, turned to lines that reached out for Blue and Mo’ata and Felix and Levi. Two more stretched out, delicate and fragile and oh so easily snapped. They needed to strengthen those thin threads, and one more.
Blue had begun last night on Felix’s thread. She had gathered the family’s arms, and held them tight around her, and their strength had increased. The shadows and threats that hovered were pushed aside.
There was a battle to come, but their arms were regaining their strength, and they would be able to fight when the time came.
Vivi pressed into his side and purred. Forrest shook his head and focused on the paper before him as those lines and vague impressions faded away. He’d almost gotten used to it, the way his mind sometimes wandered, the way t
houghts became images, and images became words that came together and told him things he couldn’t know. He felt a bit like he should dress up in fancy robes and hang out his shingle as a prophet, his words were certainly cryptic enough sometimes.
Reaching down, he buried his hand in Vivi’s ruff. His mind stilled. Then there was a flash, the briefest moment, when he no longer stared at the rough sketch he’d just drawn, but at himself—as seen from a piquet’s point of view.
Forrest sucked in a breath as he came back to himself. The wandering mind? That he could handle. Sounding like he was off his rocker? He could pass that off as artistic eccentricity.
Seeing the world out of another’s eyes?
That didn’t happen.
He hadn’t been able to tell any other the others about this. Not yet. Sure, they’d handled the fact he sometimes slipped into their minds, or their thoughts slipped into his, pretty well. They would no doubt treat this other development the same way, as something to take up in a family meeting, make a plan for, and then just deal with.
He couldn’t tell them, not yet.
“Forrest?” Mo’ata, wearing clean clothes and his dark-red hair bound back, stood at the end of the table. “The shower is free.”
Shit, the exhibition. He gathered up his sketches and rushed to his room. Clothes were laid out on the bed, no doubt placed there by either Blue or the clansman, or even Levi. After stashing the drawings, he scooped up the clothes and headed for the bathroom.
Felix stood outside Blue’s room, his arms crossed and his do-not-mess-with-her look firmly in place. Except, the mercenary radiated smug satisfaction. And he got nothing from Blue but amused indulgence.
Unlike the others, from whom he only picked up the vaguest impressions, Blue was a constant hum in the back of his mind, like Vivi, and fainter, Garfield. The bonds they had with the piquets stabilized whatever that drug had done to him. It was like the pathways that had formed when the cubs imprinted on them could also channel this new… power.
He rushed through his shower, careful not to use Blue’s shampoo, and by the time he finished, his mind had cleared. Forrest hadn’t lied to Mo’ata when he’d told him the incidents increased in intensity when he was relaxed. The kiti and meditation he practiced with Levi’s guidance had afforded him an amount of control. A small amount, yes, but it was some.
After toweling his hair dry, Forrest threw on his clothes, ran his fingers through his wet hair, and stepped out of the bathroom just as Blue opened her door and shoved at the mercenary.
“Come on pookie, fuck-topus time is over. We need to go.” Blue leaned over and peered around the mercenary’s bulk. “Hey.” She grinned and her eyes lit up. “This is really happening, isn’t it? Oh, I get to be the wife of a famous artist. I hadn’t thought of that. Do you think I should learn some pretentious art speak so I can fit in?”
Garfield slipped through the open door and through Felix’s legs, giving them a swipe as he passed by. The piquet’s gesture said, move you giant neanderthal so we can go to the awesome Forrest’s show.
Felix sighed and shifted his frame out of Blue’s way, then flung an arm over her shoulders as she passed by him.
“Wait. Your day was yesterday. You don’t get her today.” Forrest tried to squeeze up to Blue’s other side, but there was no space in the narrow hallway. There wasn’t even space for Blue, who was now plastered to Felix’s side.
“Not your day either. It’s Mo’ata’s. If he asks for her I’ll hand her over. Until then… go paint something, or something.”
“But it is my special day.”
“Do I get a say in this?” Blue looked between the two, her forehead scrunched in the twisted expression she wore when she tried to lift one eyebrow.
“No, pet,” Felix said as Forrest whispered, “Pick me, pixie, pick me.”
“Shopa.” Mo’ata called her from the living room.
“Damn,” he and Felix muttered together as Blue slipped from under Felix’s arm and headed to the clansman.
It’s better this way, today. Our barbarian needs this.
“Why does he need this?” Felix asked as he loomed over Forrest.
Shit, he hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Thought I had my mind corralled.
Vivi chirped at him from the doorway and the wandering pieces of his mind returned.
“Nothing that won’t sort itself out,” Forrest said as he spun and sprinted for the others. He didn’t want to say anything to Felix to tip him off as to what would happen tonight. Now was not the time. Plus, he looked forward to the attention coming his way. It wasn’t often he got the limelight, not with this group. Mo’ata could stand beside her today, but Forrest was going to soak up as much of his pixie’s attention as he could.
Coming to a halt a bare foot away from where Blue and Mo’ata stood together, he bounced on his toes and rubbed his hands together. “Are you finally ready?” he teased.
Blue rolled her eyes and nodded.
He slipped his arm through hers and tugged. “Then let’s go. And be prepared to be amazed.”
BLUE
Be prepared to be amazed, he had said.
Well, she was.
When the others had talked about the exhibit, she had imagined a sort of school fair thing, with displays set up in the gym and people with badges wandering around casting votes.
She should have known better. This was not Earth, and they were not in high school.
The exhibition was being held in the University’s museum. All those selected to enter would have their pieces on display for three months. Paintings in both gilded and plain frames graced the white walls, spot lights highlighting the colors and forms perfectly. Statues of stone, metal, and glass stood in proud splendor. The organizers had placed enough space between them to allow each piece to stand on its own.
She followed after Mo’ata, Forrest still glued to her side. There was something bothering her clansman, but when she’d tried to ask him about it all he said was, “Later, after the exhibit.” Blue agreed for Forrest’s sake.
Garfield kept pace with Mo’ata, his harness and leash blending with his fur. Most places they went learned the animals were well behaved enough to not need the restraints, but some concessions still needed to be made—like when they were roaming through rooms filled with delicate and priceless works of art.
At the entrance, it had taken Blue a full five minutes to persuade Garfield to allow her to put on his harness. The security guards and doormen watched with mixed disapproval and amusement. Vivi, used to this treatment, had delicately stepped into her harness with a flick of her paws and ears toward her brother.
Forrest’s pace picked up. Only a few people dotted the rooms, most artists who were doing last minute checks on their work. “We’re in a special room,” he told her. “For the lighting. Matti should be there already, maybe some of the others.”
There was such suppressed excitement in his voice, Blue had to answer with a laugh of her own. Whatever else may be going on, this moment right here was something to savor, something that would never come again—Forrest’s first public appearance as an artist of Karran.
Elation filled her, putting a spring in her step and chasing away the niggles of worry that lingered in the back of her mind.
“I’m sorry for not coming to visit you while you were working on this,” she said, feeling the need to make this clear. “You may have said it was fine, but this is the kind of thing that’s truly penny-worthy, you know. Your first showing isn’t something I can hit rewind on and do over.”
“No, no, pixie. We’re done with that topic.”
Blue swallowed the rest of her words. She’d take Forrest’s sentiments at face value. Her sweet boy never said things he didn’t mean. It was one of the things she loved about him.
She’d figure out her own ways to make up for it, even if he wouldn’t let her give him a penny.
Mo’ata and Garfield disappeared through another doorway, this one with a small sign besi
de it:
From Their Darkness
Forrest Decatur and Matti Snowden.
Her chest tightened and her eyes pricked. She swallowed.
“Why does she look like she’s going to cry?” Felix whispered and poked Forrest’s shoulder. “What did you do? Fix it.”
Blue waved a hand and swallowed again. “Emotion,” she choked out. “It’s not bad crying.” She looked up at Forrest. “Your name is right there. That’s you. Right there.” Seeing it made it so real.
Her Forrest was fulfilling his dreams.
“Is she all right?” A slight, dark haired young man stood in the doorway. “You didn’t mention her being a crier, Forrest.”
“It’s emotion, it happens,” she snapped out. Maybe she was crying, but she wasn’t a crier.
A corner of the young man’s mouth ticked up. “And that sounds more like the Blue that Forrest has described.” He held out a hand. “I’m Matti.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks flushed. “Sorry. It’s just…”
Matti’s head bobbed. “Emotion. I get it. We artists understand temperamental. I mean, you should have seen Forrest when that one panel of the egg wouldn’t stay in place—“
“Don’t need to tell them everything,” Forrest cut in.
Blue freed herself from Forrest and stepped up to Matti, linking their arms. “Oh, I think you should tell us.”
“Wait!”
Blue turned back to Forrest with a smirk. “What? I’m just going to get to know your friend…”
“No. I mean yes, do that, but I want to take you in. To show you—“ he switched his attention to Matti. “Is everything still working right? The angles, the light?”
Matti held up a hand. “Find your calm, dude.”
Dude. Did Matti say "dude?" She laughed and Matti shot her a grin.
“Want to go check it yourself?” Matti said. “I can keep her company.”
A hulking figure loomed over them. “She has plenty of us to keep her company,” Felix said as he folded his arms over his massive chest.
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