by Amira Rain
Occasionally, but not always, they could be detected via radar, but certainly not reliably enough to depend on radar to alert people of an impending attack. Also, there were far too many entry points for Bloodborns to enter the country to not continually have USSA dragon shifters monitor these entry points.
As far as the specific group of Bloodborns that planned to attack Greenwood, the USSA bears in the U.P. would likely see them flying overhead, since the bears had guard stations all over the peninsula to protect their own selves from the Bloodborns. This meant that the Bloodborns would have to fly several hundred miles out of their way in order to avoid being seen by the bears, but Matt had said that Ronnie the spy had reported that the Bloodborns didn’t plan to do this since it would make them too fatigued by the time they attacked Greenwood.
In response to what Matt had said about being tired from running patrol, I told him I understood and that I was wiped out, too, which I was. I’d spent all day doing various projects at the gym by myself, because Amy was of course too ill to help.
Despite the fact that Matt and I were both beat, we still somehow managed to make love that evening, and afterward, Matt just held me for a while, slowly stroking my hair, until we both drifted off to sleep. I found his gentle caresses to be reassuring because while cleaning up from dinner, I had wondered just briefly if his quietness could in any way be an indication that not only had he “come down” from the happy “high” of our wedding, but that maybe he was even regretting marrying me or something. I only considered this idea for a few seconds, though, before dismissing it as crazy.
When Matt told me that he loved me and that he was so glad that he’d married me, which he did at least once a day, he seemed far too genuine to be having any regrets. Not to mention that he was the one who’d brought up the subject of children a few days earlier, saying that he hoped I became pregnant soon. I, on the other hand, would be perfectly content if it didn’t happen for several months or even a year.
I definitely wanted to get pregnant and begin adding to our family, but a little delay on that would give me time to grow my other “baby,” which was the gym. However, even with this being the case, I knew I’d be overjoyed whenever I became pregnant, even if that happened to be within mere weeks.
The following day, Matt and Mack surprised Amy and me with something they told us was a wedding gift to each of us. However, the word gift didn’t quite even cover what they surprised us with. When I thought of the word gift, especially with the word wedding in front of it, in regards to a new husband giving something to his new wife, I thought of a piece of jewelry, or something for the home, maybe like a new china hutch or something.
I definitely didn’t think of at least a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of state-of-the-art gymnastics equipment, which is what Matt and Mack had bought for Amy and me, surely spending at least fifty grand each.
Because of their palatial homes and brand-new shiny trucks, I’d had an idea upon arriving to Greenwood that Matt and Mack probably did really well financially as independent defense contractors working for the government. I’d just had no idea exactly how well, or how generous they’d be to Amy and me. As it was, Matt and Mack had each spent a small fortune on our wedding ring sets.
Matt and Mack had been wonderfully sneaky in the way that they’d revealed our equipment surprise to us, ensuring that we didn’t suspect a thing. Early that morning, Mack had called me, saying that Amy was terribly sick with morning sickness, and he hated to leave her, but as a lieutenant, he had to lead a group of shifters out on a special patrol some fifty miles west of the village.
“Is there any way you could possibly stay with Amy all day?” he’d asked me. “I know you probably have a lot of work to do at the gym, but I’m so afraid of her being alone in this state.”
Not even having to think about it, I said I’d be more than glad to stay with Amy all day.
Mack said great. “Thank you so much, Kylie. And even if Amy protests and tells you she’s fine and tells you to just head off to the gym, please don’t listen to her. She’s already gotten sick once today, and I just think she needs to stay in bed all day, or at least just stay in the house and rest all day. Please, just make sure that she does.”
I did, surprised when Mack arrived home around five with Matt. That was when they’d said that they had a little wedding gift for us. They’d then flown Amy and me to the gym on their backs while both in dragon form, then had blindfolded us both before leading us inside.
When they’d removed our blindfolds, Amy and I had gasped simultaneously and had then fallen silent, just looking all around at all the brand-new equipment that now filled the gym, including five regulation balance beams and a hundred-foot-long tumbling trampoline.
We hadn’t even had one of those at our old gym in Moxon. And this wasn’t even a fraction of it. Fortunately, the new gym was so vast that even with all the new equipment in the building, there was still plenty of room to have all pieces of equipment separated by a safe distance.
After many exclamations of disbelief and gratitude, Amy and I both became a little misty-eyed.
With his expression one of concern, Matt said he hoped my tears were happy ones, and he hoped that he and Mack hadn’t overstepped or anything by buying the new equipment. “We know you ladies wanted this new business to be all your own blood, sweat, and tears, and it has been, but we just thought that it could also be ‘blood, sweat, tears, and a wedding gift’ that you both can remember forever.”
Smiling through our misty eyes, I said that I loved the idea of the business being built on “blood, sweat, tears, and a wedding gift.”
Amy said she did, too. “Especially when the wedding gift is one like this.”
That evening at dinner, Matt seemed a bit more like his usual self, talking with me while we ate, looking me in the eyes, and even cracking a few jokes. However, to my disappointment, over the course of the next week, he slowly went back to being quiet and seeming troubled about something. Thinking that he had to be anxious about the possible Bloodborn attack, no matter what he said, I almost began hoping that they’d just do it and attack already. I wanted my non-anxious, non-troubled husband back full-time.
With her terrible morning sickness finally beginning to ease, Amy joined me in working on the gym, and we both began spending our days finishing up little projects and creating lesson plans. We planned to have the grand opening of the gym just a few days after Christmas, which was coming up fast.
The next week flew by, and during it, Matt seemed to come out of his state of anxiety a bit, which made me glad. However, after watching a movie in bed one night, I mentioned how I was going over to Uncle Dan’s the next day to look at some pictures of Seth and take some home, and just like that, Matt seemed to become tense again.
I couldn’t understand what I might have done or said to make him so, although I supposed that merely bringing up Seth’s name, making Matt think about how he’d died in battle and how some of his men could, too, when the Bloodborns attacked, very well could have done it. Not wanting to make Matt more anxious, I resolved not to bring up Seth around him again, at least not until the looming Bloodborn battle was over and done with.
The next day, when I went to Uncle Dan’s, he also seemed anxious or preoccupied or something, particularly when showing me the pictures of Seth, and I wondered if he, too, was anxious about the Bloodborn attack, figuring that he probably was. Not to mention that he probably felt helpless as well, I thought, being that he was too old of a shifter to participate in any battle. He might have not been able to participate anyway, even if he’d been younger, on account of the fact that he really hadn’t had much “practice” fighting and flying while in dragon form.
This was because when he’d come of age and had “gotten his wings,” shifters hadn’t been fighting each other, and they hadn’t been able to just fly around, either, for fear of the general public finding out about them.
Seeing the pictures of Seth was just
as emotional an experience for me as I’d guessed it would be; however, I didn’t bring this up to Matt over dinner at one of the restaurants in town for fear of once again making him quiet and tense. Because he’d known of my plans to see the pictures that day, I kind of thought he might bring up the subject himself anyway, but he never did.
I found this just a little surprising because he was normally so attentive and interested in what I’d done that day; however, at the same time, I certainly understood why he didn’t voluntarily bring up the subject of Seth and the pictures. If I were about to fight in some battle, especially not knowing when it would occur, I wouldn’t have wanted to be reminded of a fellow shifter that I’d known well losing his life in a battle, either.
It was Christmas Eve day when I got a peculiar call from Amy. A call so peculiar, in fact, that I felt hairs stand up on the back of my neck while listening to her speak, although I wasn’t sure why that would be.
“So, this is the weirdest thing,” Amy started out. “I just got done babysitting for Enid while she and Mira shopped. When they got back to the house, the three of us got to talking, something about how Enid was afraid she was going to burst trying to keep her girls’ big Christmas present, which is a puppy she’s keeping at Mira’s overnight, a secret until tomorrow morning. Well, anyway, we got to talking about how hard it is to keep secrets sometimes, and Mira…I love her to death, but you know what a blabbermouth she can be sometimes…well, Mira goes, ‘Oh, God, don’t I know it about how hard it is to keep secrets. I feel like I’m going to mess up and say something about Seth and Commander Grant every single damned time Kylie’s around.’ Well, I was like…well, frankly, I was like, ‘What the hell are you talking about, Mira?’
“And she got flaming red in the face, and was just like, ‘Oh my God. Oh, nothing.’ And if looks from Enid could kill…Mira would have been dead at that moment. Then I said again, ‘No, really, Mira, what the hell were you talking about, saying whatever you did about being afraid to spill some secret about Matt and Seth to Kylie?’ That was when Enid jumps in, and she goes, ‘Look, Amy. Everyone’s been keeping a big secret from Kylie. The truth is that her dad didn’t die right away that day in battle. He actually lingered on for weeks, and he suffered terribly. The doctors said there was no hope, but Matt just wouldn’t let him go, and kept pushing him to try to keep living. But in the end, Seth died anyway, so all Matt really accomplished was making Seth suffer terribly for weeks before dying, but just because he wanted him to live.’
“Then Enid continued on, something about how everyone in the village knows all this, but everyone is keeping it a secret, because no one wants you to have to find out that your bio dad suffered so badly for weeks before dying. Which…on the surface, the whole thing sounds right, right? I mean, what Enid said is completely plausible. Here’s the thing, though. It’s not the truth. She was lying. I could just see it in her eyes. She was lying.”
Amy paused, maybe thinking that I was going to respond to what she’d said, but I couldn’t. Stomach churning, I was beginning to feel like I had morning sickness, even though I’d just gotten my period three days earlier, so I knew I wasn’t pregnant.
When I didn’t respond after a few moments, Amy spoke again. “I’m really sorry to tell you about all this weirdness, Ky. Not to sound clichéd, but I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for what Mira said. I’m also sure that Matt isn’t keeping anything really hurtful from you or anything like that. But all that being said, there’s definitely a story here, and it’s not the one Enid told. I would suggest talking to Matt directly to get to the bottom of things.”
Having been sitting on the side of his and my bed while Amy and I had been talking, I now slowly stood, my head spinning a bit, barely even aware that I’d just dumped a stack of clean, folded t-shirts off my lap and onto the floor. I’d been putting away laundry when Amy had called.
“You’re right. I need to talk to Matt.”
I was glad he was currently home, having taken the day off from patrol in order to accompany me to Moxon later to do a little last-minute Christmas shopping.
“I need to talk to Matt right now.”
I suddenly didn’t want to wait one more second to get an explanation for what Mira had said about some secret involving Matt and Seth.
After ending the call with Amy, I made my way downstairs, passing Charlie, who was sleeping on the landing on an extra-thick plush towel that had fallen from my laundry basket earlier. Just beyond Charlie, Shadow was also curled up fast asleep, with his arm possessively around one of several large plastic chew toys in the shape of dinosaurs that I’d given him and Charlie for an early Christmas present.
The two sleeping dogs looked so cute that normally, I would have paused on the landing to pull out my phone and take a picture, but that didn’t even cross my mind. At present, I was far too intent on getting some answers from Matt.
Soundlessly walking through the dining room and living room in my sock feet, I heard Matt’s deep voice, which carried well, and I slowed my walk to listen, thinking that he must be on the phone with someone. Determined in my mission to get the truth, and quickly, I didn’t even care who that someone was, even if it was the president. I was going to politely but firmly ask Matt to please end the call.
However, just before reaching the short hallway that led to the kitchen, Matt lowered his voice dramatically, as if he didn’t want me to hear what he was saying. It had to be the case that he didn’t want me, specifically, to hear what he was saying, since I was the only other person in the house.
Now greatly interested in hearing what he was saying, I tiptoed maybe halfway down the hallway before coming to a stop, fully hidden from Matt, and I found I could hear him clear as a bell, even though he was still speaking in a hushed tone.
“No, Uncle Dan. I can’t…and you can’t. We’ve got to stick to the ‘war hero’ story. If Kylie were to find out the truth about Seth, and about me and Seth, she’d be so terribly hurt…and I don’t think she’d ever forgive me. And as for me, I love her far too much to ever take the risk of something coming between us…even if that means keeping the truth from her for the rest of our lives. Everyone else in the village is going to have to do the same, too. It’s necessary. And that’s just all there is to it because I just can’t ever lose Kylie. I won’t.”
I wasn’t sure how I knew, but suddenly, I just did. It was maybe just a guess I had, but it felt so unmistakably correct. Matt hadn’t inadvertently made a mortally wounded Seth suffer by simply urging him to hold on and keep living, as Enid had said. Matt had killed Seth. This was the truth. I was just beginning to feel it in my bones.
Feeling as if the house was tilting, or spinning slightly or something, I made my way down the rest of the hallway and entered the kitchen already speaking. “Did you do it, Matt? Did you kill my father?”
Dropping his phone, Matt whirled around to look at me, and the expression of absolute horror on his face told me all I needed to know.
THE FINAL CHAPTER
Matt couldn’t even speak. Or, he at least didn’t want to, because he didn’t answer my question. So I asked again.
“Did you kill Seth?”
My heartbeat hammered in my ears for one long moment, then two, then three, before Matt finally answered me, wincing.
“Yes. I’m so very sorry, Kylie. I’m sorrier than--”
“Why? That’s all I want to know now. Why did you do it?”
I paused to let Matt answer, but before he even could, I spoke again, crossing the kitchen.
“Please tell me it was an accident. Please just tell me you killed him accidentally, and that it was just some freak thing.”
I came to a stop just a foot or two away from where Matt was standing with a slant of sunlight coming in through the window above the sink bathing his face in a pale golden glow. It was this slant of sunlight that fully illuminated his eyes and allowed me to see the truth, even before he spoke it. Whatever happened had been no
accident.
Wincing again, Matt said basically this, and I asked him what it had been, then.
“Some sort of ‘manslaughter with extenuating circumstances?’”
I prayed and I hoped. But my hope was quickly fading.
Making it fade completely, Matt didn’t answer my question right away, instead just frowning hard for a long moment before speaking. “It was more like ‘justifiable homicide,’ I guess you could say. I lured Seth out to a field under the pretense of wanting to show him something. But when we got there, I shifted and attacked him. He shifted and fought back. We battled. I killed him.”
I felt hot and cold at the same time. I felt nauseous. I felt like my legs were going to give out beneath me at any second, yet at the same time, I felt so strong that I could have bent a steel bar with my hands. I felt like I was practically vibrating with strength, itching to use it to do I didn’t even know what.
In contrast to how I felt, my voice came out weak and shaky.
“It sounds like you premeditatedly murdered my dad, Matt. It sounds like you killed him in cold blood. You more or less executed him.”
Matt looked into my eyes with clear pain radiating from his own. “I won’t say that you’re wrong. I did essentially execute Seth. Please believe me, though, when I say that it had to be done.”
A single word escaped my clenched teeth.
“Why?”
Briefly breaking eye contact with me, Matt raked a hand through his hair, exhaling in a rush. “When Greenwood was first established as a USSA defense post, the government asked Uncle Dan to pick a commander, since he’d been the leader of our small little village in Indiana. Naturally, being family, Seth thought that Uncle Dan would choose him, but he didn’t. He didn’t even consider Seth because Seth had always been far too volatile, and even outright violent, for no reason sometimes. Instead, Dan chose me to be commander because, for one thing, I already had military experience doing covert operations overseas, and for another thing, I wasn’t needlessly violent like Seth was. This enraged Seth…that I had been chosen commander by his own uncle. To make a long story short, he decided to take revenge by working as a spy for the Bloodborns, giving them information that ultimately got many innocent people killed. Uncle Dan and I found out, and we knew there was only one thing to do to prevent more people from getting killed. I had to kill Seth. So I did.”