“Hey, I’m not suicidal!” I shot back. “And it’s not like I have anywhere else to go. But I am going to do whatever I still can when we go to rescue those kids and none of you are going to talk me out of it.”
“We’ll discuss that later,” he said, handing me the monitor that I strapped to my bicep. “I’ve got to make another round of my patients and we’ve got some new housing arrangements to make for your borders.”
“Well, I guess I can start by helping with that,” I offered and went to find Dara.
Chapter 19
After all of my borders were settled into their quarters, I went looking for Cynda, who had been released from observation now that her scent was no longer appealing to vampires. While this was great news, without a phone it was nearly impossible to find her. I considered looking for Andre first, but I knew he was busy working on replicating the transmitters, and bugging him for a new phone seemed kind of petty. Besides, I wasn’t yet comfortable with my strange, starfish-like arm growth even if I did have it hidden within a long sleeved shirt.
When I finally found Cynda, in the garden on the roof, I was not the least bit surprised to see that she wasn’t alone. She and Anil were lying in a sunny patch of grass, dangling strings and feathers to the delight of my battle-scarred cat. I thought about Isaac’s earlier proclamation and couldn’t help but imagine a younger version of Andre and myself in their place. Part of me couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the teens.
What did surprise me though were Cynda’s eyes. When she looked up, with a big smile and a wave, I noticed that the murky film that had covered her irises was gone, revealing eyes of the clearest platinum with flecks of darker silver. The effect was quite stunning, transforming her pale features from a cute kid to a lovely young woman. From the distracted expression on Anil’s face, I wasn’t the only one who had noticed.
“Hey guys,” I said as I crouched down to get a better look at Gumbo. She had a slightly smoky smell and a few spots where her burnt fur had been shorn down, but she appeared to be no worse for wear. “I won’t bug you for too long, I just wanted to check on my little war hero.”
“Actually I was just going,” Anil said and sat up. “I’ve got practice with dad in a few minutes. Don’t worry I’ll go easy on him... just this once.”
“I haven’t had a chance to see your dad yet. Would you tell him thanks for me? And sorry too, I’m sure he’s still a bit sore.” I felt like a jerk. I probably should have gone to find and thank the hunters first.
“I sure will,” he said with a wink. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he added with a quick glance at my arm, “and mostly not broken. I’m sure Andre can make you a bionic arm though.”
“Nah, I’m growing a new one,” I said with a laugh. Whether he believed me or not, I wasn’t sure.
“I’m out,” he said and leaned down to give Cynda a quick kiss that did not escape my notice. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
As he jogged away, I raised my eyebrows, which elicited a blush from Cynda. “So Abe fixed your eyes,” I commented in an effort to spare her from her embarrassment.
“Yeah, he did it yesterday. I was really scared, but it didn’t hurt at all. Oh my gosh, it’s so amazing! Everything is so bright and sharp and I can see things that are far away! Have you seen the view up here?”
I couldn’t help but to laugh at the rapid-fire teenage speech pattern. Isaac had been right; Cynda was truly an amazing kid. After a lifetime of abuse, she was adapting to a somewhat normal life faster than anyone could have expected. Especially knowing as she did now where she came from.
“I have,” I told her, “but it never gets old. I love it up here.”
“Me too. I could just live up here. Maybe I can put up a tent in a corner, out of everyone’s way. But then again, the beds are really nice.” She rolled onto her back and gazed up at the sky. “It’s just so beautiful!” She closed her eyes and sighed, but then bolted up and gave me a sheepish look. “I’m being weird, aren’t I?”
“Weird? No, but I do wonder how much coffee you’ve had,” I said lightly.
She blushed again and scooped Gumbo into her lap. “I’m just…I’ve never had a good life, you know, and everyone here has been so awesome and nice. It’s a little overwhelming and I’m…I don’t know, it’s a lot of emotions, I’m not used to it.” She looked at me and blushed again, but her eyes were moist. “I wasn’t like the other kids on the farm, you know. They all knew who their mothers were and I think that’s the only thing keeping some of them going. I didn’t. I know why now. Abe told me, you know, that I’m like... you're, um...”
“That we share a common DNA? Are you’re okay with that?” I asked gently.
“Yeah!” she said enthusiastically, which was a bit of a surprise. “I mean, I was really worried about you, you know, this morning when you came in I thought you were dead and I felt so horrible! You’re the first family I ever had and I didn’t want to lose that. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
I was completely taken aback and more than a little choked up by her response. “You know, I didn’t have a lot of family either,” I told her. “My mom died when I was ten and my grandmother died a few years ago. And of course, I didn’t know my dad until after I met you so I understand. I never had siblings either, but I always wanted a sister.”
“So is that what we are, sisters?” she asked with a hopeful grin. I grinned back and laughed.
“Definitely sisters, I’m way too young to be your mother and besides, a mom would disapprove of her teenage daughter kissing boys. Sisters can remember being teenage girls once, even if it feels like it was so long ago. “
She covered her face with her hands. “It wasn’t that kind of a kiss!”
“Uh huh,” I teased. “I don’t think sisters want to hear what that kind of kiss is just yet.”
“I really like him,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve never liked a boy before, it’s kind of scary.”
“Relationships are kind of scary,” I said with a sigh of my own. “But they can be pretty fun too. Just don’t do anything you’re not ready for.” I wasn’t sure I was quite qualified or ready to have the birds and bees talk with Cynda. “And if you think you’re ready for something that I definitely don’t want to hear about, I suggest you talk to Dara.”
“You mean sex?” she asked casually, as if she had just asked what’s for dinner.
“Yes, but not just sex,” I said cautiously. Now it was my turn to be embarrassed. “Look, Anil’s a great guy and I think it’s pretty obvious he likes you too. He may have had a different kind of life than you did, but it was still pretty unusual and I think that’s going to help him understand you a little better than your typical teenage boy. But you are both teenagers and I’m not so far removed from my own teen years to forget that it’s an age where things tend to move a little quickly. I’m not going to tell you what you can and can’t do, but I am going to tell you that I didn’t always make the smartest choices when I was younger. Hell, I don’t always make the smartest choices now. Okay, never mind. I’m not making much sense am I? I really suck at this advice thing. Talk to Dara, that’s my best advice.”
“I don’t think you suck, I totally understand what you’re saying.”
“You do?” I looked at her with skepticism. “I guess that makes one of us.”
“I have talked to Dara, about sex even. I… I want to go to high school in the fall, like a normal kid. Dara said my test scores would put me in tenth grade. Anil’s going to be in college. I just don’t want to get my hopes up or anything.”
“Ah, insecurities, that’s something I definitely understand. Anil’s going to be in college, yes, but he’s going to school locally and he will likely continue living here at headquarters. You’re forgetting that he’s still planning on being a hunter as soon as he’s old enough. If he truly cares about you then he isn’t going to worry about where you go to school and he isn’t going to pressure you to do anything because of it. He knows that
I would kill him if he did something so awful. Besides, the fall is still over a month away.”
“I guess I’m just being dramatic?”
“Yes,” I said with a smile, “but you’re allowed. It’s one of the few perks of being a teen.”
When Cynda left for her dinner date with Anil, I decided to use my time constructively and hit the practice course. If Abe was right, I was going to be without my dominant arm for a week and I knew we would be going back to the plantation well before that. I ran into my first issue almost as soon as I changed into my workout gear. Try as I might, I couldn’t strap the wrist holster on with one hand. I switched to a leg holster that I could slip on and hit the course.
It was an abysmal failure and I couldn’t figure out why. I routinely used both hands to wield my CPAs and I never experienced any issues with my left hand. But for whatever reason, without my right hand, I was clumsy at best and a danger to myself at worst. I dropped so many weapons that I began to wonder if I’d sustained permanent nerve damage that had gone unnoticed. I was extremely frustrated, but I kept at it. After several hours, I had only managed to stop dropping the CPAs when I tried to engage them, but my aim was still terrible. I finally gave up and stalked back to my room with the intention of starting fresh in the morning.
I had just started to drift off when I heard a quiet knock on my door. I got up to see who it was, but halfway out of the bedroom, I remembered I was wearing a tank top and went back to find a long sleeved shirt. Nearly all of my clothes had been destroyed along with the safe house and the only long sleeved shirt I had was dirty from my earlier workout. I found a jacket in the closet and threw it on; less concerned about my fashion choices than hiding my disfigurement. I opened the door and found Andre holding a small box and a bouquet of flowers.
His eyes registered momentary confusion over my wardrobe choice, but he shrugged it off and handed me the flowers, wildflowers from the garden on the roof. “An apology for not coming to see you sooner,” he said with a sweet kiss to my cheek. “I’ve been working on replicating the transmitters all day. Obviously, we need to move sooner than later.”
“Thanks,” I said, indicating the flowers. “So you did it? When do we head out?”
“I’ve got enough copies made to replace all of the ones we will be removing. Since Evan’s out of commission, we’re having a planning meeting tomorrow to revise our strategy. We’ll likely strike early the next morning.”
“No one told me about the meeting,” I pouted.
“It’s on the calendar, which reminds me,” he opened the box he was carrying and pulled out a phone. I tried not to get too excited. “In light of Fred’s demise, I hope it’s not too insensitive of me to offer George here as a replacement.”
“George?” I asked with a questioning look.
“What else could I have possibly named him?” he replied with a smile. I placed my thumb on the red square in the middle of the screen to activate it. Doing this made the phone respond to only my commands. “You’ve got all of your data from the network plus a few upgrades that I hadn’t been able to add previously, due to Fred’s age.”
“He was only a year old!” I might have been a little too defensive, but Andre was implying that my nearly new, high-end phone was obsolete.
“No, he was only a year out of the box, but he was a retail model and not our design. He was about ten years behind this one. You now have several of the same scanners that I, and the rest of the hunters, carry. I’ll teach you to use them after we get back from the plantation.”
“Aren’t I going to need them out there too? I’m assuming you gave me the scanner to pass through the barrier onto the property, right?”
“Lucy,” Andre said gently, but I could sense his exasperation, “you’re not going to the plantation. You’ll be helping Mike monitor the satellite uplinks.”
“What? No! Evan can do that! I’m going with you guys.” I had a feeling he was going to try to exclude me and I wasn’t having it. Sure, I had some setbacks earlier in the gym, but I was determined to spend every free moment tomorrow practicing until I was just as good one handed as with two.
“Not happening and not negotiable,” he said firmly. “You lost a limb. I know it will be several weeks before Abe can find the time to construct a proper prosthetic and even then you’ll need months of rehabilitation to get to where you’re functional with weapons again.”
“I’m not… getting a prosthetic,” I informed him in a stilted voice. I wanted to prove I was whole enough for the mission, but I wasn’t about to show Andre what growing an arm entailed.
“What? Of course you’ll get one. Trust me; I’ve seen the prosthetics EJC’s created. You’ll never know it wasn’t your own arm.”
I sighed. “It’s not that. I won’t need one because I’m healing. Like… a starfish… starfish healing.”
“Starfish?” Andre looked at me as if I was insane until he realized what I was saying. “Do you mean you’re growing a, um?” I nodded. “I guess that explains why you’re wearing a windbreaker with boxer shorts.” I nodded again. “That’s…” He whistled. “Wow, pretty amazing!”
“It’s not pretty,” I said with a shudder. “That’s an understatement. It’s actually pretty awful and painful.”
“Did you tell Abe?”
“Yeah, I’m wearing a monitor, but he can’t do anything. I reject painkillers, remember?” I adjusted the sleeve on my jacket to make sure I was completely covered. The conversation was making me uncomfortable.
“Hey.” Andre put his hand on my arm, the bad one, and I recoiled. “Lucy, come on. You don’t have to hide from anyone, especially me.”
“I’m not hiding, I’m just…okay maybe I’m hiding, but I have a right to be self-conscious and freaked out. My arm was cut off this morning and now it looks like I have a bad fifties horror movie prop growing off my arm. How would you feel?”
“Okay, you have a point,” he said. “But this is me, Lucy, the guy who cares about you no matter what. You’re also forgetting that you are the one who got me to overcome my own issues with my scars.” He was referring to the three jagged lines that marred his chest. On his first night as a hunter, Andre had made a dangerous mistake and nearly died.
“That’s totally different. Your issue with your scars was more mental regarding how you got them. And besides, they just make you sexier. I’m not scarred, I’m…temporarily deformed.”
He raised one eyebrow and slipped his arms around my waist. “Oh, you think my scars are sexy?” His voice was a low growl muffled by my hair.
“Shouldn’t that be obvious?”
“Do you know what I think is sexy, Lucy?”
“Two arms?” My reply was a little snide, but I meant it lightly. Andre apparently didn’t think it was funny. With a frustrated sigh, he pulled back and stared intensely into my eyes.
“Your self-confidence,” he replied fiercely. “I miss the strong, stubborn, beautiful, and yes, sexy as hell woman who has my heart.” The fact that each point was punctuated by a searing kiss made me miss the fact that he had unzipped my jacket and slipped it off my shoulders. “I don’t care if you’re missing an arm, growing an arm, or sprouting antennae, I miss you. This,” he cupped the elbow of my right arm and gently caressed the stunted forearm, “is a part of you.” He raised my hand, which had grown slightly, but was still small with the waxy sheen of new skin, and placed a soft kiss on my palm.
It was a gesture that had melted my heart once before, but that was nothing like this. The touch of his lips sent a fire blazing along the newly formed nerves that quickly spread to every inch of me. With a trembling gasp, I yielded to his touch and let all of my hesitations melt away as he pulled me into one explosive kiss. “Can you stay?” I whispered breathlessly while sliding the soft cotton of his t-shirt up over his head.
“We have nine hours until the meeting,” he said, breaking from me only to toss the shirt aside and send mine along with it. “I intend to spend as many of the
m as I can showing you exactly how much you mean to me and exactly how beautiful I think every single inch of you is, until we both collapse from exhaustion.”
Several hours later, I was indeed exhausted and yet too overcome with emotion to fall asleep. I knew we still needed to address the very big issue that hung between us and soon. It was too late, I realized, to walk away without being hurt. I wasn’t falling in love with Andre; I was in love with Andre. The idea that I might yet lose him weighed heavily on my mind. I tried to banish my heavy thoughts, knowing that the day ahead of us required I get some sleep, and steadied myself by listening to the steady, slow beat of Andre’s heart.
Not long after he fell asleep, Andre’s breathing became heavier and he began to tremble. I tried shaking him gently, but instead of waking, he began muttering just as he had before. “No, I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”
“Andre, wake up,” I said and nudged him. He cried out and to my surprise, he was actually crying. His eyes were shut tight, yet tears clung to his lashes.
“I can’t do it! No, please! I can’t do that to Lucy!”
I was startled to hear my own name and more than a little curious as to what he couldn’t do to me. He began to thrash wildly and I resorted to straddling his chest and shaking him with more force than before. “Andre, wake up, you’re dreaming!” I think the slightly hysterical tone of my voice finally broke through whatever had him paralyzed because his eyes snapped open. For a moment, he stared at me as though he had no idea who I was, until he finally registered that he was awake.
“I…was dreaming, wasn’t I?” he said thickly. “I’m sorry.” He sat up and curled his arms around me, burying his face in my hair. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I’m fine, I’m just worried about you,” I said and hugged him tightly. “What were you dreaming about?”
“It was…just a nightmare, nothing concrete. I’m sorry I woke you.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 50