Phrygia looked from Carnage to Murder.
Murder shrugged. “Okay, well, there’s a little chaos. But it’s controlled, and he has good intentions. And it’s not in the least linked to you leaving Hell.”
Carnage, still scrubbing up the blood from Carolena’s floor, chuckled. All of his chaos was perfectly managed, and he was loved for exactly who he was — there was no need to pretend he was any other than his true self.
“Carnage, sweetheart? Could you possibly clean the ducks and the rabbit outside?” Carolena asked sweetly.
“Teeesh, Leelee,” he explained, getting to his feet and going back to the sink to rinse out the towel.
“Yaaaaaay!” Lily shouted, grabbing the chair she’d been sitting in and shoving it over to the sink where Carnage was standing. “What knife do I get?” she asked, excitedly wiggling her fingers in the air.
“A safe one!” Carolena answered.
Carnage wrinkled up his nose and shook his head ever so slightly at Lily, letting her know he’d give her one that would get the job done.
“And you can just keep that towel for whatever you may need,” Carolena offered to Carnage.
“’Kay!” he said smiling, flinging it over his shoulder after wringing it out.
“And maybe you could at least start cleaning the animals outside, then bring them back in here to cut them up to cook,” Carolena said hopefully.
Carnage thought about it, his hunting knife already in his hand as he prepared to start on the rabbit. He looked at Carolena. “Guts?” he asked.
“Yes, the guts. If you could do at least that part outside, I’d appreciate it.”
“Outshide, Leelee?” he asked.
“Okay!” Lily said excitedly, grabbing two of the ducks out of the sink before she jumped down and ran toward the door.
Carnage reached for the other ducks and with his rabbit still in hand he grinned at Carolena as he followed Lily. “Mine Leelee,” he said, nodding his head, thrilled Lily wanted to learn all he could teach her.
“She is certainly a whole lot like you,” Carolena answered, laughing at Lily being as excited about his successful hunt as he was.
Chapter 7
“Well, I guess you’re staying for dinner,” Carolena said after Carnage and Lily disappeared outside to clean the results of his hunt.
“What is ‘ick?” asked Phrygia.
“Sick. He hates it when people that are sick come to his home and in his opinion risk his family’s health. So he was making sure you’re not sick,” Carolena explained.
“Makes sense to me,” Phrygia commented, nodding.
Carolena got up and sat Boon on the throw rug in the living room. She placed some of his toys around him, then went back to the kitchen and the basket she kept her vegetables in and took out potatoes and onions. As she reached for a knife in preparation of chopping them up, she spoke to Murder.
“You know, you don’t have to stay here for dinner, Murder. I’m sure visiting with us is not what you had in mind for your mating night.”
Murder was uneasy. He wasn’t quite sure what to say now that Carolena had broached the subject of he and Phrygia mating. While he was drawn to Phrygia, felt more settled now that she was beside him and safe, he wasn’t caught up in the single-minded focus of his kind to mate her. While he ran through a brief list of explanations in his head, Carolena kept talking. “Carnage just wants to feed everyone. It’s his way of taking care of all of his people. And he most certainly sees you as his people,” she explained.
Seizing on that, Murder smiled. “Which is why I want to stay for dinner. Carnage is my family. I am honored to share a meal he’s provided and dine with his family.” Murder smiled genuinely, satisfied with the explanation he’d come up with. “We have the rest of our lives to finalize our mating. No one is taking Phrygia from me, nor me from her. We will take our time. But tonight, we will share a meal.”
“That’ll make him very happy,” Carolena said, smiling brightly. She loved that the simple things made her Carnage so happy.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Murder walked through the woods, following the path his eyes could still make out in the moonlight. They’d stayed with Carolena and Carnage later than he’d anticipated.
“I can fly us there much more quickly, Phrygia. You don’t have to walk,” Murder offered.
“I’d like to walk. It’s been so long since I was able to just move about freely. I’m enjoying the moonlight and the trees and the cicadas calling. Do you mind?” she asked.
“Not at all,” Murder answered, walking along with her just a step behind him, following him on the path that led to his home.
“Where are we?” Phrygia asked.
“Louisiana. South Louisiana, in the swamps. We call it Whispers,” Murder answered.
“Are there a lot of people here?” she asked.
“Some. Each different in their own way, all wanting the same thing,” Murder said as he swiped his hand through a spider web to keep her from walking through it.
Phrygia lowered her face to hide her smile. He thought her a weak female. He insisted on leading her through the woods and swamps. He took her hand to lead her down the stairs at Carnage’s home, and he swiped spiders out of the way for her. She appreciated the gesture, but perhaps he’d forgotten she’d spent a very, very long time as a soldier in service to the Dark One. There’d been a time that she’d been more feminine, expected a male to take care of her, but she wasn’t sure she still needed, or even wanted that.
“What is it they want?” she asked, keeping the conversation going.
“Peace. Quiet. Calm. A safe place to live and if they are lucky enough, to take their mates to live out their lives without a threat to them from humans,” Murder answered.
He’d squeezed her hand when he’d said mates. And she’d squeezed his back in acknowledgment. Murder stopped walking and turned to face Phrygia. “I was so afraid for you when I woke up and you weren’t with me. I had every intention of bringing you with me when I left, but I wasn’t conscious to say so when Lore and Carnage came for me. I’m sorry, so sorry we left you behind.” Murder stood, his hand on her waist looking down at her, his other hand cupping her chin.
“It wasn’t your fault, Murder. Even if they’d known your intentions, I’d have fought them. I thought I couldn’t leave.”
“I know. I do. It was just eating me alive. I’d wake from dreams of you suffering, being punished because I escaped, and nothing, not a single thing could calm me. And then Lore and Evangeline had just found each other. I asked him to take me to you, and he agreed, but he needed time to bond with Evangeline. The only way he’d ever be whole again was to bond with Evangeline, so I had wait. Finally when I could take it no more, I demanded it was time. And we came for you. I’m sorry it took so long, Phrygia.” Murder ran his hands across her shoulders and down her arms, pulling her in close. “I was so fucking scared, Phrygia. I was tied up inside, couldn’t function.” He hugged her to him, pressing his lips to her forehead before pressing her face to his chest and practically smothering her in his embrace.
Murder took a deep breath, filling his lungs, then let it out slowly. All was at peace now. He could relax. His eyes popped open and wandered around the trees surrounding them. His brows came down in no small amount of confusion. Why then wasn’t he at peace?
“You need to let it go. I’m here now. It’s okay,” Phrygia answered, slipping her hands around his waist to hold him.
Murder flashed a trace of a smile into the darkness as Phrygia hugged him, but it faded as quickly as it surfaced. Something was still off. She was safe, she was at his side, in his arms actually, but still there was a piece missing.
He lowered his head to hug her and kiss her forehead again, and scented nothing but the sulfur and shale of the literal Hell she’d endured since she’d been locked away there by Lore’s brother. Lore. That was something else he’d have to address. It was Lore’s fault that his female had been locked away in He
ll. True, he’d apologized, but it’d still drawn his ire when he’d heard it. All in good time, he told himself.
“Would you like a bath, Phrygia?” Murder asked.
Phrygia burst out laughing. She laughed so hard and so long that she ended up leaning over, holding her stomach while she laughed. When finally she got it under control, with tears from her laughter still in her eyes, and out of breath, she tried to speak to him. “Is that your way of telling me I smell bad?” she asked, still laughing between stuttered words.
At first Murder’s instinct was to deny it, but when she dissolved into laughter again, he couldn’t help it and followed suit. “Yes. Yes, you do smell like the pits of Hell,” he finally admitted.
“Then I’d love a bath,” Phrygia said, taking him by the hand and starting in the direction they’d been going. “Almost as much as you’d appreciate me taking one,” she added with a giggle.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
Aubreigne had felt self-conscious all afternoon and evening. She’d been almost sure she was being watched. She’d even raised her voice in song, which usually drew any unmated male in the vicinity to her, but no one came out of the woods beside her home. She’d made sure to keep Deaumanique within eyesight, and remained alert. She’d been on alert since Ata’halne had left to return to his people. He’d told her he wasn’t free to mate her. He even told her he had to go to his people to see what awaited him. He said that there was more awaiting him. He deserved more than he’d received, and that if he were able, he’d return and hopefully, then, they may be able to make a go of it.
Aubreigne had told him to stay with his people. If he couldn’t even assure her that he’d return to her, she didn’t want to be the consolation prize when whatever he truly hoped for by journeying to his people, refused him. She wanted no less than someone who craved her, heart and soul. Someone who couldn’t even conceive of a life without her beside him. Especially since the matings of several of her friends, she’d decided if she was going to do it, bind herself to a male forever, she’d do it only if the male was her true mate. She would not settle for less.
She’d gotten Deaumanique into bed, cleaned up her kitchen, storing away her leftovers, and decided to take a moment for herself. She filled her bathtub with warm water, added a handful of salt and immersed herself in it. She was after all, half siren, and that side of her craved a salt water soak from time-to-time.
By the time she’d settled back to relax, she smiled as the tightness of her skin told her the pearlescent, shimmering scales that the salt water always brought to the surface had made themselves known. Aubreigne sighed deeply, enjoying the little bit of private time she was taking for herself. She became so relaxed she must have dozed off, because she suddenly became aware that her bath water was cold. As she stepped from the water, her skin shimmering with the scales that always lay just below the surface and the salt water running sleekly down her hips and thighs, reaching for the towel she’d left beside the tub, she’d have sworn she heard a growl. A deep, rich, rumbling growl.
Aubreigne spun around to peer out of the window, but there was no one there that she could see. She squinted her eyes, but still, there was no one there. Aubreigne hurriedly dried her body, wrapped her towel ‘round herself, and went straight to her room to put on her nightdress. She threw a glance out of each window she passed, but there was no one looking back at her, not even any luminescent eyes that could indicate an animal of some sort. Something wasn’t adding up. She knew she was being watched. She had no doubt, yet she could see no one.
Finally, after checking on Deaumanique, tucking her in a little more snugly and triple checking the locks and safeguards on her windows, she’d settled into her rocking chair in front of the fireplace. True, it was too hot to light it, but she still loved the spot, and picked up her sketch book and her charcoal pencil. She’d stay alert through the night, only lightly resting, and call on Murder in the morning.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Carolena rose from her bed as a slight breeze picked up and blew across her. She knew she’d not left any windows in the front of the house open to allow in a cross breeze, settling instead for just one window open in each bedroom. She slipped out of bed and went to be sure that all was secured as it should be.
As soon as she entered the living room, she knew what caused the breeze. The door was ajar and she could just make out the profile of a little girl on the back deck. Carolena made her way quietly out on the deck so she could see what was going on without Lily realizing she was there. She stood just behind the corner of the house, peeking out of the shadows, watching as Lily wandered around the deck, her face tilted up at the sky, examining the clouds, the trees around them, and eventually the roof of the house. Then she climbed up on one of the benches beside the railing and leaned over to get a good look at the bottom of the house where the pilings that supported the house were securely sunk into the ground.
Carolena walked quietly forward so as not to startle Lily. “Sweetheart, what are you doing?” Carolena asked.
Lily snapped her head around to look at her mother through her hair. “Looking for Aunt Luci,” Lily said, looking over the edge of the railing again.
“She promised she’d see you soon,” Carolena said.
“But I know she’s not happy. And she’s not answering. I’ve been calling and calling,” Lily said sadly. Then she turned around and sat down with a plop on the bench she’d been standing on. “I just want to hug her. She’s lonely, and she’s sad.”
“Everyone gets sad sometimes,” Carolena said, taking a seat beside Lily.
Lily shrugged. “I know.”
Carolena took a seat beside Lily and pulled Lily closer to her to hug her against her side. “Luci has been alive a very long time, Lily. She’ll be fine.”
Lily shook her head.
“Let’s give her a little time to herself. Everyone needs that from time to time. If we haven’t heard from her in a day or two, we’ll try again, okay?” Carolena said soothingly.
“Okay,” Lily said softly.
“Now, let’s get back to bed. We have a busy few days ahead of us. We have to make lots of goodies to eat. We’re helping Felicity with Rowan’s baby party, remember?” Carolena asked, trying to distract Lily.
“Okay,” Lily answered, throwing one more look over her shoulder at the sky as her mother gently moved her off the bench and started walking her toward the door.
An hour later, Lily lay tucked in her bed sleeping and safe, when Carolena stepped quietly back out onto the deck.
She looked up at the blue shimmer blended in with the night sky over her home.
“Lucitari?” she said quietly. “I’m not sure what’s happening. But I do know one thing. You are not a quitter. You are stronger than any female I know. Whatever is causing your heart pain is worth a fight. Don’t just give up and hide away. Fight whatever it is, or for whatever it is.” Carolena turned to go back inside, but paused with a smile on her face, remembering something her beloved teacher had told her when she was still at home. Carolena looked up at the sky again. “I was once told, the best thing you can do to the people causing you distress, is to show up happy, strong and obnoxiously excited about whatever it is that is in front of you. Worked like a charm on my father — whenever I could remember not to argue with him, that is. We love you, Lucitari. Don’t be a stranger…”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Lucitari sat quietly in her special place, just a step away from the realm all those she loved lived in. She’d heard Lily’s calls, and as a result, heard Carolena’s, too. She listened to every word Carolena said to her. And she thought about it. She could easily allow herself to fade into nothing — it hurt that badly. Or, she could show up, be as happy and supporting as she could be, and perhaps make herself feel better. Her smile fell when she thought of Murder, anxious to go claim a female that wasn’t even his.
“He doesn’t see me,” she whispered to herself.
Lucitari thought of the female
she’d helped save when Acaelo had thrown her into Hell. It wasn’t the girl’s fault that Murder thought she was his. But, still, shouldn’t he have seen her, as well. If Lucitari’s spirit hidden deep within Phrygia was enough to attract Murder’s attention, wouldn’t Lucitari herself have attracted him as well?
Lucitari closed her eyes, enduring the slow fracturing of her heart as her mate hurried to save another he’d already spoken of as his. She thought of the fact that Phrygia should have been rescued a very long time ago — no, she should never have been in Hell to begin with. “If nothing else, the girl will be freed,” Lucitari said, knowing it wasn’t something she could do herself. She didn’t have her full strength. She needed her soul to be complete before she could undertake something like that, and she couldn’t get her soul back until the girl was freed. It was the only reason she’d not gone after Phrygia before now on her own.
Lucitari reclined on her bed of starlight. “I’ll reclaim myself, then we shall see who he sees and who he does not see,” she said aloud. Lucitari closed her eyes, thinking of Lily’s words — you should sleep — and decided she might just need a little rest. Sleep was good. She could be whoever she wanted in her sleep because even ancients had dreams.
Chapter 8
Murder sat in a black wrought iron garden chair, with his drink sitting on the matching table to his right. He was listening to the crickets, the frogs and the cicadas around him singing their song in the distance. He was also listening to the splash of water from inside his home as his female bathed herself.
Murder took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was much more at ease. His female was here. She was no longer in danger. He should be the happiest he’d ever been — but he wasn’t. There was a nagging feeling in the center of his chest that told him something wasn’t right. It told him he still had a hollow space deep in his soul. A place that Phrygia hadn’t filled.
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