A Portrait of Pain

by Jane Washington

  “You’re not going to be anywhere near Danny when he finally dies,” Seraph replied, her voice low and even. She seemed to be delivering a promise.

  A look of shock passed over Clarin’s face. Poison, who had been standing beside him, leaned forward. “You trying to go rogue again, cupcake? I don’t think that’s the best idea right now.”

  “Not right now.” Seraph shook her head, pulling her hands from ours so that she could turn and face her friends fully.

  We turned with her, trying not to be too obvious about the fact that we mirrored even her slightest body movements. We were knitting the bond together tighter and tighter, day by day. The changes only obvious enough if a person payed close attention. Clarin and Poison didn’t pay that kind of attention, but others did. Jack and the Sophies seemed to be hyper-aware of the slightest shift in our dynamics, and I had yet to figure out why.

  “But eventually, I will have to leave,” she told them, her eyes shifting over their heads for the briefest moment, to where Tariq was hovering by the doorway.

  He had his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes trained with unwavering intensity on Miro, who was still speaking to the other Klovoda members. He had been closely following the movements of the Klovoda since moving into Le Chateau, and since he was only a human boy, the members hadn’t done a thing to stop him.

  “So you are going rogue again,” Poison summarised, her tone sarcastic.

  “It will be for my own protection,” Seraph admitted, sounding devastated.

  Our eyes all swung around to focus on her, astounded. She barely ever did anything for her own protection, which meant that she was lying for our protection, or she’d had a forecasting of something terrible happening to her, which would negatively affect all of us. Poison and Clarin seemed to be coming around to the same conclusions. Noah’s expression didn’t shift, which validated my suspicion that she’d told him the same thing that she’d told me. I wondered if she’d told the other two yet. Probably not. They wouldn’t have accepted her words without question, the way I had—the way Noah would have.

  “You saw something?” Clarin pressed, his eyes narrowing, boring into hers.

  I wanted to smack his shoulder and tell him to stop looking at her so intensely, but I curbed the urge, reminding myself for the seven-hundredth time that he was gay.

  Seraph only nodded, reaching out and squeezing his arm, turning her attention from one of them to the other, settling on Poison. “One of these days, I’m going to disappear, and I’m going to take my pairs with me. But I will come back. Once Danny is dead.”

  I felt a strange rush sweep through me, a heat kindling in my chest. I wanted to grab her, to lay my hands on her in some kind of claim. That was my Atmá, the one who just said she was going to murder the evil psychopath who was plaguing us. I didn’t know why that was hot. It just was. Noah met my eyes over her head, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing. I grinned at him, but we quickly turned our attention back to the others, because they didn’t need to know what was going on in our minds. Poison and Clarin were slowly coming to terms with what Seraph had told them. They already knew that there was no way Seraph was going to allow them to go with her. This was a big enough step for her: accepting that the five of us had to go together, as a unit, and informing everyone about it beforehand.

  Clarin finally cracked a tense smile. “You’ll tell me if the Demon Overlord tries to kill one of your other boyfriends again, won’t you?”

  This time I did reach out and smack his shoulder. It was hard enough to send him stumbling back a few steps.

  “I could have died.” I faked a whole bunch of dramatic emotion.

  Clarin’s smile only widened, but Seraph had stiffened and turned around, distracting me. I realised why, when I saw the expression on Miro’s face. He looked distinctly uncomfortable, and he was currently pulling his arm out of Sam’s grip. Seraph must have sensed his emotion through the bond. I quickly captured her wrist, trying to prevent her from storming into the middle of an official Klovoda crisis and tearing the Voda away from one of their top agents. Even though I partly wanted to do the same thing.

  “Let’s go upstairs,” I muttered. “You said you wanted to talk to Tariq, remember?”

  She nodded, tearing her eyes away from the other woman. “Let’s go.” Her voice was part-growl.

  She stormed off to Tariq, muttering something to him. He nodded, and they slipped from the room. Poison and Clarin decided to follow, and I wandered after them with Noah, who hadn’t spoken a word since we had returned … which wasn’t really all that unusual. We ended up in Miro’s old room, which had been converted into Tariq’s room—though the only signs of conversion were a few personal belongings strewn over the bedside table.

  “You doing okay?” Tariq asked, pulling his sister into a hug.

  Ok … so I knew that he was her brother. I glanced at Noah; he was frowning. We really didn’t like anyone touching her.

  “I’m fine.” She pulled away, patting his arm. “Just a little shaken up. I painted her … floating. It seems like a really long time ago, now. I never even got to see her again. It feels like my previous memories are somehow separate to me, separate to the person I am now. So it’s almost like I never got to properly meet her, you know?”

  Tariq nodded, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t know. “None of us have seen Jayden yet.”

  “He’ll turn up,” I said, leaning back up against the door. “His main aim now is hunting down Danny, and the Klovoda is his best chance of making that happen.”

  “He’s wrong.” Seraph barely even seemed to realise that she had spoken aloud. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes downcast. She shook off the feeling, turning her attention back to Tariq. “And that’s why I have to speak to you.”

  “You’re going rogue again.” Tariq’s expression remained neutral, though he sounded exasperated.

  Clarin snorted. “You’re so predictable, mouse.”

  “I’m taking my pairs with me this time.” Seraph sounded defensive. “And there’s a very good reason for it. Something’s going to go down, but I don’t know when. We’re going to prepare for it now, and when it happens, we’ll disappear. But I can’t tell when my forecastings are going to actually become reality, so I don’t want to overreact right now. It’s really important for us all to act normal, otherwise we’ll tip Danny off, and that will only persuade him to act early, before we’re ready. There’s no way for me to tell the Klovoda about what I saw without someone somehow tipping off Danny. They’re all immediately going to go into panic mode trying to stop it from happening. For all I know, they’re already in the middle of this and I just haven’t heard about it yet.”

  I froze, all of the pieces clicking together in my brain. The press. The leaks about our society. Seraph’s name on a list, handed to the state department. She had seen it in a vision. Or, more likely, she had seen the result of it. And the result wasn’t good. I struggled with the need to barge out of the room and hunt down the others to come up with an immediate game plan … because Seraph was right. We needed to keep this quiet. As quiet as possible. The leaks had already started, her forecasting would become a reality any day now, and we needed the advantage of a quick and easy disappearance when it happened. That put us one step ahead of Danny, who was probably banking on the fact that if the human government somehow found out what Seraph could do, and had evidence to validate the rumours, they wouldn’t waste a single resource in getting their hands on her as rapidly as possible. Nothing would stand in their way—they would declare war if it meant getting a hold of her power, even if she was destroyed in the process. At least we wouldn’t have our hands on her power. Nobody having her would be better than us having her, in their minds. And once she was in their hands, nothing would stand in Danny’s way.

  He would finally succeed in destroying her. Us. The entire Zevghéri society. Every single person who had rejected him, ostracised him, undervalued and underestimated him. Miro would b
e destroyed. The Klovoda would be vulnerable. Who knew what he would go on to do …

  “And …” Seraph sounded hesitant, pulling me out of my thoughts. Tariq was staring at her; he hadn’t spoken. She continued: “And I want you to leave the country.”

  Tariq seemed too shocked to speak for a moment, before breaking out into sudden laughter. He pulled her back into another hug, and I squirmed to see the tears running down her face.

  “My crazy sister,” he murmured, patting her head. “If you’re a Zev, I’m a Zev. I’ll be the first human-Zev hybrid.” He grinned as she pulled herself out of his arms again, letting out a watery chuckle. He forced her to sit down on one of the couches, claiming the spot beside her. “When I came here, I thought I’d be lost. I didn’t belong, I didn’t know anyone, and I thought I’d go insane worrying about you … but … I don’t know. Something happened. I started paying attention. Jack lets me follow him around most of the day when I’m not with the tutor, and I’ve actually learned a lot about what you guys do. Well not you guys, but normal Zev agents. They help a lot, you know? The human government is targeting the hell out of Zevs all over the country, and it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to try and keep track of them all, and to keep them all safe. I know I’m not actually a Zev … but Jack said that all Zev households are either with the society, or out of it. He says I’m part of your household, so …”

  He stopped talking, wringing his hands nervously, as though he expected Seraph to forbid him, somehow. To tell him that it was too dangerous to get involved with the Zevs. I knew she wouldn’t, so I wasn’t at all surprised to see the smile curving her lips.

  “You want to become an agent?” she asked, raising a brow.

  “Don’t act so surprised.” His face creased up in discomfort, his shoulder knocking into hers. “It’s a cool job.”

  “You’re a human!”

  “I’m the only brother of their most important Super-Zev,” he returned, nudging her shoulder again.

  “I’m with you one-hundred percent.” She hugged him tightly, and that was it. I was done with the hugs.

  I strode forward, pulling her up from the couch. “Hate to break up family time, but the Dean is finally letting us back in the college, so you need to start body-guarding for Poison and Clarin tomorrow and we still haven’t finished setting up the furniture down the road.”

  Seraph leaned back into me, allowing me to pull her against my chest, my hands on her shoulders. “I just want this day to end,” she admitted.

  “We’ll help!” Tariq jumped up, ready to get started.

  “I’ll five-percent help,” Poison added. “But I’ll be ninety-five percent just watching while eating chips.”

  “I’ll ninety-five percent help,” Clarin joined in, “because only Poison can eat chips for ninety-five percent of any activity without it coming back to haunt her.”

  “That’s the benefit of boobs,” she agreed, plucking at her top to stare down. “Most of the weight goes to the good parts.”

  Noah scoffed, which drew everyone’s attention, because he had been standing as silent as a statue this whole time.

  “What?” he asked.

  “They forgot you were living and breathing,” I informed him.

  “Ouch.” He winced.

  It was enough for Seraph to pull away and go to him. He smirked at me over her head.

  “I didn’t forget about you.” She grinned at him, threading her fingers through his and pulling him through the doorway.

  I was plotting his murder as we piled into the elevator, but I quickly forgot about it as we passed the meeting room again, the wide-open doors showing that Sam was still plastered to Miro’s side.

  “Maybe you should—” I started, but Seraph had pulled her hand out of Noah’s and was striding well ahead of our group. Someone really needed to put a lock on the whole Sam situation, and soon. Clearly, Miro’s kissing demonstration had done jack.

  In the end, we decided to let Seraph, Tariq, Poison and Clarin finish up Seraph’s house together. We told them that we’d work on ours, but really we just stood outside. She was insane if she thought we’d actually leave her without protection after what had happened earlier. But it was still important for her to have some time alone with the others, especially if her forecasting was right, and we’d be forced to leave soon. We sat around the side of the house with both the road leading up to Le Chateau in view, as well as the mountainside stretching down on the other side.

  “We’re going to have to leave her again tonight.” Noah’s voice was so low that I almost didn’t catch it. “I don’t think last night was enough for Miro, and Silas is going to come looking for her after he’s done with the footage. He’ll only be able to stay away for so long.”

  I frowned at him, because I knew when my brother was in pain, and now was one of those times.

  “This isn’t going to work if we keep making the same sacrifices.” I sighed, letting my head thump back against the outside wall of the cottage. “I mean sure, sometimes, but there are times when we’re all going to need her. When that happens, we’re all just going to have to suck it up. None of us are leaving her tonight.”

  He looked over at me, his eyes clear. “You’re right. It’s just hard to see them struggling.”

  “Then we lead by example.” I laughed, unable to stop myself. The thought of me or Noah leading anyone by example was pretty funny.

  He joined in with a grunt of amusement, and we set ourselves to waiting until Seraph’s visitors tired themselves out. When they finally left, the sun was beginning to set. I called the kitchens to order dinner down to the house, and then we walked inside, Noah rapping on the section of wall beside the door.

  “Seph?” he called out.

  “Down here!” was her distant reply.

  We closed and locked the door behind us, barely even sparing a glance for the kitchen and living room, though it seemed to be fully set-up, all of the furniture assembled and the appliances unpacked. The others must have packed all the empty boxes into the pickup to take back up to the main house. We took the stairs down to the second level, seeing that it was also completely finished, sans-Seraph, and then we descended to the lowest level. She was sitting in the dry, empty bath, fully clothed. Her head was leaning back against the marble lip, her legs outstretched, her eyes turned toward the glass.

  “What are you doing?” Noah asked her, walking over to the tub and jumping into it, sitting next to her.

  “I’m too tired to shower,” she replied, barely even turning her head to look at him.

  He grinned, and I walked over to join them, lowering myself into the tub on her other side. “This is a great alternative,” I teased her, winding my arm around her shoulders and pulling her into my side. “But it’d be better if you turned the water on.” And took your clothes off. “And took your shoes off.”

  Noah made a barely-audible choking sound. He knew exactly what I had been thinking.

  “Here.” He shifted so that he could reach for her feet. “I’ll help.”

  He pulled her sneakers and socks off, and then tossed them to the side of the bath. He then did the same with his own shoes, and tossed them into the same pile, raising his eyebrows at me.

  “What?” I goaded. “You’re not going to do mine?”

  He ignored me, standing and pulling his shirt over his head. I felt Seraph tense beneath my arm, her eyes averted to his chest. I had to pull my arm away to remove my own shoes, but I watched her as Noah started unbuttoning his jeans. Her eyes were wide, her breathing stilted, the smallest hint of rose spreading high along her cheekbones. She didn’t look sleepy anymore. I grinned, quickly pulling my shirt over my head to hide the fact that I found her amusing, because she would hate that. By the time I had started pulling my pants off, she had turned her stare from him to me. We were both wearing boxers, and nothing else. She was way too clothed.

  “Come here,” I ordered, patting my lap as I sat back down and Noah started fiddling
with the taps. Water was already starting to splash into the bath and Seraph wasn’t moving. She was just staring.

  “Pretty devil …” I coaxed, “Your clothes are all dirty. I need to remove the top layer.”

  She finally moved, crawling over to me and kneeling beside me. She seemed struck dumb, disbelieving that we were all actually going to take a bath together. She also seemed too shocked to remember that she was perfectly capable of undressing herself, which was lucky for me. I caught the hem of her t-shirt, flicking it over my hands as I gripped her waist, pulling her the rest of the way into my lap. I was trying to give her plenty of time to change her mind, to come to terms with whether or not she was comfortable with this.

  We’d just take a bath with her in her dirty clothes if that’s what she wanted.

  “Are you going to take it off?” she finally asked, her hair half-obscuring her face.

  Noah turned his head toward us, his brows arching, but I was no longer paying much attention to him.

  “Yeah.” My voice dropped low, and I tried to rein in the need to kiss her and end the whole peaceful bath routine. “Arms up.”

  She raised her arms and I pulled the shirt up and off, tossing it to the side with the rest of our clothes.

  “Stand up.” I tapped her legs.

  She stood from my lap, her hands on my shoulders. She was wearing a bright blue bra, which should have surprised me, but I was too busy staring at the swell of her cleavage to bother myself with the colour. Her waist dipped in—her skin a creamy white, marked with the faintest, silver marks from her valcrick—before gently flaring out to her hips again. I unbuttoned her jeans and curled my fingers into the waistband, tugging them down her hips. I caught a flash of blue, the colour of her panties, before I was deliberately avoiding my eyes.

  Relaxing bath. Relaxing bath. Relaxing bath.

  I tossed her jeans and she quickly sat again, beside me this time. Noah was staring at her as though he couldn’t actually believe that she had undressed. He was also holding a loofah over the front of his boxers.