Shed some Light

by Amber Naralim

  Vincent heard a noise and looked to his left, expecting to see Reese. The white bird flying off into the distance made him stop. The game falling away, Vincent stood up, walking toward where the bird had been. His heart sank deep into his chest. Vincent could see the earmarks of the kill before he was close enough to see the corpse itself. He exhaled a shaking breath and dropped to his knees next to the body.

  Reese landed silently behind him. He frowned, his eyebrows knitting in confusion. “I thought we was playing? I know it's been a while, but even ya should get the concept of hide and seek,” he complained, walking up behind his little brother. The closer he got, the deeper the lines in his face set.

  “What the hell?” Reese asked, coming to a stop behind Vincent.

  The body was so torn Reese couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. The face was beaten to a paste. A few strands of red hair danced on the breeze. The corpse was missing its arm, torn out at the socket. The stomach and chest were so much gray meat. It glistened with the rain. Reese stepped past Vincent. Leaning down he plucked a torn piece of lace from the ground. Reese would lay money that it had been a she. Vincent looked up at him.

  “Can you feel him?” Vincent asked, letting his eyes slide from his brother’s face, over the landscape around them.

  Reese took in a deep breath. He let his mind wander the forest around them. His shields didn’t work on Vincent, so he didn’t bother keeping them up around him. They had been out here the last four hours. He hadn't felt the brush of the other one’s mind the whole time. Smoothing a swath of his hair that had fallen down over his eye back, Reese shook his head.

  “The one who attacked me is gone. Not even in the same country no more, Vince.”

  “She's fresh, a day maybe two,” Vincent said. “There's no rot?” Vincent gave an odd look. “That means he would have to be close.” Vincent stopped, turning to look down at the ripped and broken corpse.

  “What?” Reese knew that look. “What is it?”

  “There's no rot, but can't you smell it?” Vincent asked his brother.

  Reese raised one eyebrow and took in a deep whiff. He did smell it.

  Vincent climbed to his feet. He began walking into the thick trees. Reese looked around. He sighed. They weren’t all that far from the house. That worried him. It worried Vincent. He followed Vince into the gloom of the forest. With spring came new growth. It also brought the thaw. Vincent stopped and crouched down. There was another body. This one was mostly shattered bones, a few scraps of decaying flesh. It looked much older. Months at least. The scavengers had gotten to it. Vincent took in a breath and looked over his shoulder at Reese.

  “I thought you said you would feel him coming a mile away.” He wasn't angry at Reese. He was worried about the girls.

  Reese peered at the trees around them. He would know that mind anywhere. He and Vince were thinking the same thing. They could see the chimney of the house from where they stood. This body was practically dropped on their doorstep. Reese didn't understand it. He hadn't felt it. The guy was gone.

  Maybe they had been a little quick to drop the search for him so soon. Reese turned to look at Vincent. The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question was, what did they do about it now? Anna was on edge as it was. None of them wanted to put that baby at risk by scaring her anymore. Ellie would want to go on the warpath.

  The harsh wind tore at Reese’s hair. “Do we tell the firecracker?”

  Vincent rolled his bottom lip as he went through his options. He wiped at his nose, the corners of his mouth with one hand. “No,” he said finally. “Not until we know more. Putting everyone on alert would just drive us all crazy,” he told Reese.

  Reese agreed. Anna was on edge. Ellie was getting worse. She thought she was hiding it better. But the other day Vincent overheard her talking to Vetler. If she humbled herself to talking to him, that meant she was willing to admit to her shell shock. Reese nodded at him. They were already keeping a close eye on the girls as it was. Anna never left the house. Ellie was always with one of them, no need to spook them further.

  “This is a small town,” Vincent said. “They'll be missed. We don't want these bodies found here,” he said running his hands through his hair.

  “Ya go back to the house, keep an eye on our girl,” Reese said, walking back to the fresher corpse. Vincent didn’t like the use of our girl but he didn't argue either. He turned to his brother.

  “Far away. If you catch wind of him, call, I'll come running,” he told Reese. “Raincheck on hide and seek?” Vincent asked with a smile.

  Reese waited for Vincent to head back to the house before he pulled the body out of the dead leaves and underbrush. He took a moment to survey the scene. Her clothing ripped. Her body shredded. It was difficult to ascertain much. He almost wanted to drag Vetler out here. Have Shane tell him what he thought. Reese let his eyes slide over the body one last time before he lifted her up.

  This didn't feel like the guy that attacked him. Reese was pretty sure that the crazy bitch -that had been the moniker the whole house had given her- was a phantom. Vincent ripped her heart out and set her on fire. They should have years before they would have to deal with her again. Reese understood Anna’s fear. Not being able to sense him bothered Reese. Then again, he spent so much time shielding at the house. Everyone's emotions leaking all over him made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. So he kept them clamped tight.

  Reese took in a deep whiff. His senses screamed at him. Blood, and death, that was all that was here. He bit his bottom lip, hefting what was left of the carcass. The older one was just bones. With a sneer of disgust, Reese gathered as much of it as he could. He took it far north into wilderness no one around here touched. Two hours on foot for him was nearly three hundred miles into the thickest, deepest woods Canada had to offer. It gave him time to think. If it were the one who attacked him that meant he had been hanging out, watching them. He was either very crafty, or there was something else going on here. Reese was betting on the latter.

  Reese could hear Ellie's pleasant sounds the moment he walked into the door. They were making love, again. It wouldn't be so damn bad if he couldn't hear every moan, every sigh Vince drew from her. He considered going back out, running off into the woods so he wouldn't have to hear it. So he wouldn't have to deal with it.

  Reese considered going out, trying to find a girl of his own to stay the night with. Walking slowly through the hallway, he heard crying. Anna was sitting on her bed, alone. Edward went out hunting even more than Vince did. Reese guessed he could understand it, learning to control the Beast in the early stages could be a bitch. However, Edward had a head start.

  Reese looked down the hall hoping for Charlie, but she was down in the infirmary. With a heavy sigh, Reese pushed the door open. He gave a small whistle. Bird calls, Dickson, their radio operator loved them. He would spend their time slogging through the countryside looking for the different birds. Reese picked up a love of them through him. Reese told everyone else it had been through osmosis, not wanting to admit interest in something so unmanly.

  When Dickson took two bullets to the gut in a firefight Reese had taken his notebook. Dickson was his friend. Reese felt as though something about him should be remembered. So Reese carried on for him. Making notes of the birds. He even had Vince sketch a few for him. He’d planned on sending the book back to Dickson's wife when they got back to the states. He never did. Still, Reese learned the calls, learned how to spot the different species. Through Dickson, he learned to love birds.

  The whistle was to let Anna know he was coming. She sat up wiping at her eyes. “No use, Red, I could hear ya crying from outside,” he said. That wasn't entirely true. The sound of her crying had been muffled mostly by Ellie's cries of passion.

  “Fine, I'm crying,” Anna admitted with a sniff. She wiped at her eyes.

  “I hear that happens a lot to women in your condition,” Reese said with a smirk. He leaned against the doorjamb. Arms crossed over hi
s naked chest. He longed for a bath. Anna looked like she needed an ear at the least, and a shoulder at most. Out of all of them, the humans that is, Reese felt the worst for her. Ellie was right. Having to depend on everyone for everything in a situation like this would be hell.

  “You're with them, aren't you?” Anna asked, pouting.

  “Not sure what ya mean by that, darlin'?”

  “All excited about this baby. You think I should feel lucky,” she almost growled the last.

  “What can I say, I'm old-fashioned. Shh, don't tell Ellie. Every time I admit to thinking women should be homemakers, she threatens to pistol whip me,” he said. That made Anna chuckle.

  “I had a career. I was a damn good reporter,” Anna said, wiping at her nose.

  Anna missed her old life terribly. She thought that having Edward with her would heal some of that hurt. But the longer they went. The worse it seemed to get. This new life was such an unwanted change. It wasn't just the constant fear. It was being housebound. It was not having the freedom she enjoyed so much before. It was the lack of solitude.

  Anna spent most of her life surrounded by the constant chatter of people. But it was far away. She had her apartment to escape to. She could be alone. And when she was alone she wished for company. Now that she was surrounded by a throng of people she craved that solitude. It's human nature. We are not black and white. No matter how much people attest otherwise. As a race, human beings are grayscale. We need the mixture, a dash of loneliness, combined with a pinch of the throng.

  “That baby don't take that away,” Reese said, coming into the room. He flopped down in the overstuffed chair near the window.

  “No. This life does.” Her face shattered again, and a sob escaped her. “I hate it here,” Anna cried. “I hate having to hide. I miss my crappy little apartment. I miss it because it was mine. Nothing here belongs to me. It never will. I'm just waiting for Ellie to tell me we have an hour to pack a bag, just so we can start over somewhere else.”

  He watched the tears roll down her cheeks. Reese understood exactly what she meant. Before the war, the feel of family, dysfunctional as it was, surrounded him and Vince. Soldiers are thrown into the wilderness. Put in harm’s way, constantly on the move, always looking over your shoulder. Reese chose to go. Still, that didn't change the fact that it was a shock. Change comes easier to some than others. Over time he had gotten used to it, even came to crave it. Being here reminded him of that contrast. There were days he longed for the open road. Then there were nights sitting around the dinner table surrounded by their newfound family where he couldn't keep the smile from his face. The laughter, the conversation, the companionship comforted him.

  “Ya can always go back to it,” Reese told her.

  She looked toward him as though he were crazy. “No, I can't,” she said.

  “Sure ya can. Ya can always go home. Of course, there ain’t no guarantee that home will be anything like it was. No guarantee that it will be safe. That it will be what ya remembered,” Reese said looking at her. “When we were infected, I wanted nothing more than to go home. To see my mother. To live the life I left behind.” Reese looked out the window. He watched the rain fall gently. “I finally went back. Seeing it made me realize I’d looked at that place with rose tinted glasses. Everything I craved wasn't the same. It wasn't the same because I wasn't the same.”

  “I'm not infected,” Anna said looking toward the sound of his voice.

  “No, not infected, but ya are changed. Loss shifts our perceptions of things. Ya lose things. Ya gain them. Things change. Nothing ya can do about that. The one thing I learned. Is while you're pining for what ya lost, ya can't see the things ya gained.”

  “But, you had to go back to see that, didn't you.”

  Reese smiled. But it was sad. His eyebrows dragged inward with the memories of walking through that door. Looking at what time had destroyed. Seeing firsthand, just what he lost, and how angry it made him. Reese wondered if it would’ve been worse if everything was just the same as the day he left. If he had gone back a changed man, trying to shoehorn himself back into the person he used to be.

  “I waited nearly seventy years, and everything had been destroyed.”

  “Why did you wait so long?” Anna asked.

  “Because Vince was right. If we had gone back when I wanted to. It would have been us that destroyed everything we loved,” he admitted. “I didn't want to believe that at the time. But it's true. We don't just carry death, sweetheart. We are death.” Reese smiled, turning his head back to her. “Ya, you're different. Ya carry life. Ya are bringing life to a group of people who have lost everything.”

  Anna shook her head. “You are death,” she repeated. “And everyone wants me to bring a baby into this.”

  “We are death, that's right. Because of that, though, we know how special life is. We know how sacred it is. That it should be protected. Vetler lost his son, his wife. Charlie, Vince, and me, we had the ability to make life taken from us. And little Lottey,” he said, using Edward's nickname for Ellie. “She had her life stolen from her before she had a chance to live it. Believe me, when I say, all of us know exactly what that child means,” Reese told her. His voice was gentle, softer than she had ever heard it before. “That, Anna, is why we know you're lucky.”

  She sniffed. His words made her head spin. She never thought of it that way. Anna had been so angry at all of them for pinning all of their hopes on her and this child. Hearing the reasons why cooled some of that anger, she supposed. But, it didn't change the fear. It didn't take away the dread. Anna felt as though she were standing on the edge, and everyone was pushing her toward it.

  “I'm- I'm not ready, Reese.”

  That made him smile. “Believe me, Red, nobody ever is.”

  Chapter 35

  “No, that’s the wrong one,” Reese complained, snatching the piece of crib out of Vincent's hand. Vincent frowned at his brother, shaking his head. Ellie had given up an hour ago. She sat in the center of the carpeted floor of Edward and Anna's room Indian style. With boxes and pieces of the crib stacked up around her, taking pictures of Vincent and Reese trying to put it together. They were failing, miserably.

  “I'm telling you, you have it backward,” Vincent told him.

  Ellie laughed at them. She looked up to see Charlie standing in the doorway. “Dinner is almost done. You guys have been at this all day. Why don't you let Shane have a shot at it?” Charlie said, laughing at the boys stealing the instructions from one another.

  “You know what, I admit defeat,” Ellie said. “Let the G-man have it. We can put the mobile together or something.” She climbed to her feet and headed toward the living room to help Charlie set the table.

  As excited as Edward was about the baby it was really Charlie and Vetler that had that glow about them. Every time she went shopping, Charlie would come back with something for the baby. She spent her afternoons crocheting a beautiful blanket for Lucky. Vetler was as bad as she was. He was the only one who knew what they needed and he used that as his excuse. Ellie could tell he was just as eager as Charlie.

  Shane passed the potatoes across the slightly used oval table that Charlie had the boys lug home for her. Everyone agreed it was nice to have a new one. Every one of them tended to congregate around the table in the dining room for some reason. Ellie chewed thoughtfully. She looked up at Vetler. “So, I suppose when you died,” she said hooking her fingers around the word. “You lost access to the crime scene stuff at the FBI, huh?”

  “'Fraid so, Princess. They are usually pretty good at taking out us dead agents,” he said cracking a smile. She frowned at the nickname princess.

  “Damn,” Ellie grumbled.

  “What do you want in the databases?” Shane asked, taking a bite of his chicken.

  “I was just thinking, if these crazies can't control their Beast, there are probably quite a few unsolved cases out there. The mercs couldn’t cover all of them. I was hoping to get a look. See where
to start the search,” Ellie explained.

  “You're still planning on leaving, Squirt?” Edward asked. His face set into annoyed lines. He didn't want her to go. He also had a deep fear that if she did, Anna would not be willing to have the baby. He had hinged all his hopes on that tiny thing.

  “I told Anna I would stay until we can prove the crazy bitch is dust. I figured I would do some research while we're waiting.” She looked at Anna with a frown. Ellie was definitely feeling guilty about abandoning her. “Somebody has got to stop these freaks.”

  Edward could read the determined expression on Ellie's face. Normally, he would drop any arguments in the face of that look. Today, he wanted a fight. Edward opened his mouth to tell her it was stupid to think that she alone could stop those things. Anna interrupted him. He sighed. His body may be faster, sometimes, though, he thought his mind was getting slower.

  “Why don't you just check news feeds?” Anna said, taking a sip of her lemonade.

  “It took Vetler showing a video of Vincent doing his best impression of a tornado to his partner to get him to even consider what the boys are,” Ellie said, frowning.

  “Well, yeah. You're not going to find headlines that read, werewolf attack,” Anna said. Feeling for the table, she clumsily set her glass back down. “However, animal attack, mauling, just use the right search parameters,” Anna told her. “More often than not, us reporters put things together that the cops never get.”

  Ellie shot a mocking smile at Vetler. “Yeah, I guess you got a point,” Ellie said, looking impressed.

  “The police blotter would be a good place to start. Most papers still have them,” Anna said. “Even tiny newspapers have a digital version published that you can subscribe to,” she tutored. “Just use an anonymous email address, or use fake information. It's not like they do credit checks.”