by Carly Fall
"Nope," Cohen had said quietly. "She's fine. Just drugged, my man."
Relief washed through Rayner and he closed his eyes.
“I'll be back in a few,” Cohen said, heading for the door.
Rayner had woken up a few hours later, hunger lancing through him. After checking on Faith, he had made his way up to the kitchen, grateful for the elevator. Hudson had cooked a huge meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans. He had thawed chocolate cake as well, and God bless the male, he had left a plate piled high for Rayner in the fridge.
Rayner ate quickly, then headed back to bed.
A soft tap at his bedroom door woke him a few hours later. He rolled off the cot, his eyes immediately going to Faith. Her chest still moved up and down, but she was still unconscious. He gingerly made his way to the door. Hudson stood on the other side, his arms crossed his huge chest, his hair in its standard ponytail. Dressed in blue shorts, a black wife-beater tank top, and some Reeboks, Rayner had guessed Hudson's workout had been interrupted. Interrupted indeed, and not by anything nice. “Noah wants us all in the War Room. Ten minutes. It isn't going to be pretty.”
Rayner had nodded, preparing himself for the verbal lashing he was about to receive. Yeah, they had fucked things up on a pretty high level. Police. The news. Crowds. So much for not drawing attention to themselves and going incognito. He went to his duffle bag to get out a shirt, wondering why he hadn't bothered to unpack and put his clothes in the very nice dresser.
He slid the white t-shirt over his head, silently cursing as it hit his bullet wounds, and slipped on a pair of sweats. He used the bathroom, but didn't bother with a comb through his hair, a toothbrush, or shoes.
“So, I was watching the eleven o'clock news feed from Phoenix last night,” Noah had said quietly once they had all gathered into the War Room. “We can thank Talin for that. The guy's a genius on the technical stuff, isn't he?” He didn't wait for an answer, but his voice got a bit louder. “Is there anyone in that fucking room who would like to take a guess what the lead story was?”
No one answered. They all had a pretty good idea.
“Let me tell you,” he had yelled. “Two guys making their way out of an abandoned building. Another guy in a Hummer. Gunshots fired. Four women found dead in said building. That Hummer racing away from the scene.” He went quiet for a moment. “And guess what? I fucking knew the guys running out of the building! And one looked like he had yellow eyes! How about that?!”
No one in the War Room said anything, but all stared at the black marble table. “Do you guys understand how much you've exposed us?” Do you understand the clean-up this involves?”
Silence.
“Are you fuckers going to say anything?!” Noah had yelled. They watched as he ran his hand through his wavy brown hair, and all knew better than to say a word. “Okay,” he said in a quieter tone. “So, what's the status of the female? Faith.”
Cohen and Hudson looked to Rayner. He cleared his throat and stared up at the big screen with Noah's image on it. “She's resting. She's safe.”
Noah nodded. “Well, that's one positive in a shit storm of negatives.”
They went over the disposal of the Hummer. “Do what you have to do. Burn it. Drive it into a lake or off the side of a mountain. I don't care; just make it disappear. I called the guy who rented it to us, and he's reported it stolen as of yesterday. I also bought him a new Hummer, and he'll collect on the one you destroy from the insurance company. His silence is paid for.”
There was quiet on both ends for a bit. “All right. You guys fucked up. Big time. You put us all at risk. What if you had been caught by the police? Shit. We would have had to get you out of some government facility that wanted to study your glowing eyes.” Noah shook his head and put his head in his hands. “Look. I don't want to see anything happen to you three. You're...my family.” He looked directly into the screen, jabbing a finger at them. “My brothers. You mother fuckers are my brothers.”
Rayner, Hudson, and Cohen stared at the screen. The three were silent for a moment. Never had Noah expressed anything but respect as a fellow Warrior. Brotherhood was something that perhaps most, if not all felt, but it went unspoken. Truly, the fact that they were on Earth and they were all they had left of their species made them brothers. It was stuff they just didn't talk about. It seemed there was an unspoken bond among the Warriors, and that was the way it had always remained. Unspoken. No words. Just a feeling that none of them expressed. Rayner was surprised at the level of influence Abby must be having over Noah for him to say such things.
Hudson met the eyes of Cohen and Rayner. Both nodded, a non-verbal agreement reached. “And you are ours, Noah,” he had said quietly. Rayner knew the male meant it, but he could also tell that Hudson was a bit uncomfortable with the declaration. “We messed up, but we did the best we could. We got Faith out. If the others had been alive, we would have gotten them out as well.”
Noah nodded again. “You're right,” he said quietly. “You can't imagine how...difficult it was to watch you guys on the news. It scared the hell out of Abby.”
Rayner had wondered if it was a possibility that maybe, just maybe, Noah had been afraid as well. If he were a betting man, which he wasn't, he would have put all his money on hell yeah.
“We're sorry, Noah,” he said. “We didn't want to upset anyone. We just...wanted to find the innocent who were involved in this mess.”
“Okay,” Noah had said after a moment. “Onward.”
Rayner came back to the present and held Faith closer.
Onward indeed. But onward to where?
When Faith woke up and had questions, he needed to be able to answer them. He had never been a good liar, had never had much of an imagination. He didn't seem to know how to explain everything—the glowing eyes she certainly saw, the kidnapping she now knew was reality, who she was kidnapped by...shit. Where did the questions end?
He could probably explain the glowing eyes as a drug-induced hallucination. The kidnapping would remain real. He needed to get information out of her on the Colonist.
The chat with Noah had ended up with everyone calm. “Hudson, send me the pictures you snapped of the room where the women were held,” Noah had rumbled. “I'll take a look at them and hopefully get a better idea on our guy. You guys study them too. The more eyes, the better.”
After they were done with the ass chewing and the kumbaya that took place afterward, Rayner had called Faith's parents. The conversation went better than he’d thought it would.
“Was my little girl in the building?” Chevey had demanded. “The police say she wasn't.”
“Yes, sir. She was. But we got her out.” Rayner had gone on to explain that they didn't take her to a hospital because he was afraid that the kidnapper was on the loose, and Rayner didn't want to take any chances of him trying to get to Faith again. “We know who he is, and we know that he's...dangerous. I didn't want to take that chance, sir.”
“So where is she? I want to talk to her.”
“She's still unconscious. I had a friend who is in the...medical field take a look at her. He said that she's fine, just needs to sleep off the drugs. There hasn't been any physical harm done to her.”
Rayner had then taken down directions to the Cloudfoot house and promised to deliver Faith as soon as she was steady enough to travel. He also promised to have her call as soon as she woke up.
“We want to come down,” Anna had said.
Rayner couldn't bring them to the silo. If he thought Noah was pissed about the botched rescue, he could probably guarantee that Noah would bring down the wrath of Hell itself if he had Faith's parents come for a visit.
“I'm sorry, Mrs. Cloudfoot, but I can't allow that,” he said quietly. “Faith is in a secure location.”
“Are you military or something? What do you mean by a secure location?” Anna had asked.
He hadn't been sure how to get around this little problem, but Anna had just handed him a
way out. “Yes, Ma'am,” he had said. “Military. I promise to have her home as soon as she's able, and I promise to have her call when she wakes up. She's in good hands, being looked after by good people.”
Anna hung up at that point.
“Don't fuck around with me, Rayner,” Chevey had said in a low deadly voice.
Rayner didn't hesitate to answer that. Chevey was big, and could be bad and deadly, just as Rayner could be if needed. The man was sheer power and strength, built out of the same cloth as Rayner. He recognized the peace in Chevey, but also understood that there was a warrior beneath that tranquil being that was more than happy to make an appearance whenever needed. And Rayner guessed that this situation would call for the warrior in Chevey to pop up and say hello. And launch a threat or two.
He had no doubt that the underlying threat in those six words was very real. And he didn't want to mess with it. His admiration for the man also went up a couple of notches, if that was possible. They spoke the same language, had the same understanding of life and the world they lived in. They were so similar it was like being one in the same, although from different worlds.
“I wouldn't dream of fucking around with you, sir,” Rayner had said with strength in his voice.
Silence answered him on the other end.
“Okay,” Chevey had said quietly. “I'm going to trust you. You have Faith call me when she wakes up. First thing. You understand me?”
Rayner had closed his eyes in relief. “Yes, sir, I do. And I will have her on the phone first thing.”
Faith sighed and burrowed herself in closer to him. Rayner stared at the ceiling. He had been avoiding thinking about what happened in that cell. Why Faith had been able to get back into her body…
He was certain that his Gomada had said that three conditions needed to be met: someone who loved the trapped spirit had to be present, the body had to be there, and the spirit needed to love the person who loved them.
So what did that all mean? He knew he had fallen in love with Faith. As much as he didn't want to, he had. If he was honest with himself, he probably had fallen in love with her the second he saw her on the street for the first time and ignored her. That was the way it could be with males of SR44. They fell in love hard and fast. But that was really quick. He wondered if he had set some type of record.
It also meant that Faith loved him. How that had happened he had no idea. His experience with human women was usually limited...a one-night stand. In and out, no pun intended. But he did know that human women were different. He remembered when Hudson had told the story of falling in love with Abby's mother, Iris. Hudson had fallen hard and fast, but Iris? Not so much. Even when she found out she was carrying his child, she’d pushed him away.
How in the world had Faith fallen in love with him?
And where did that leave him? There wouldn't be any happily ever after. He couldn't imagine losing his SR44 form and spending his days aging as a human would. Not only that, but never seeing his family again, not to mention his planet and his forest, felt like a kick to the groin.
But on the other side, he wouldn't be doing much living when he left Faith. Males of SR44 tended to be empty husks—often times cranky empty husks—as he had seen when Noah had kicked Abby to the curb. He didn't even want to be around himself just thinking about it.
Maybe there was the possibility that he would simply get over it. He thought about Hudson. The guy wasn't anything close to a bucketful of laughs, but he seemed to manage all right. He kept himself busy with working out, cooking, and women. Maybe Rayner would just need to find a hobby and up his activity with women to get over Faith.
He thought about a new hobby. What would he enjoy doing? Gardening? He would be working with the earth, with growing living things, and he liked the sound of that. He didn't have the patience for cooking. Besides, what was that saying? Too many cooks spoil the pot? He couldn't imagine Hudson sharing his kitchen. It was his domain. Hudson would probably stab him multiple times if he tried his hand out in the kitchen.
He drifted off to sleep, cursing the black contacts he had put in. They were highly uncomfortable, but he didn't want Faith to see his glowing eyes. She was in enough danger as it was, and her finding out any more information about the situation would only possibly make the target on her back larger than it already was.
And he wasn't going to let that happen.
He drifted off to sleep thinking about the tall trees of his forest and the smells of SR44. Clean forest breezes filled with scents of wildflowers broiled their way up his nose, and one word crossed his mind before he finally fell into the darkness of sleep...Faith.
Chapter 25
Faith curled up in the bed and stared at the profile of the big man lying next to her. His nose was straight, his jaw strong. His eyes moved behind the lids, as if he were dreaming. His mouth was relaxed. She let her eyes travel downward.
He wore a white t-shirt, and the huge expanse of his chest went up and down slowly as he breathed. She allowed her eyes to travel downward more. The sheet rested at his hips, and her eyes swooped down to his toes. He was tall. Just as he had been in that dream. Well, she now knew it was not a dream but reality, and it made her sick to her stomach.
As she stared at Rayner, she replayed every moment of it. Had she really been a ghost? She remembered walking through walls, letting the red Escalade drive through her in the parking lot. She supposed that definitely qualified her as a ghost. Rayner had told her that she had been stuck in the ether between life and death.
She remembered lying on her bed in her apartment, sure that she was going to go to the other side. She felt her will to live slipping, wondering what the other side would hold for her. And now she was alive, nowhere near death. Well, that she was aware of anyway. Death could come at any moment, which she now knew with clarity. Maybe it was time to rein herself in a bit. She could still live, still explore, still try new things, but maybe she needed to do that with a little more caution.
Or maybe not. Maybe almost dying was her cue to really get into life, to take more risks. One thing was certain: she didn’t want to sit around and think too much about what had happened to her. She wanted to get back to normal as soon as she could.
And she could do it. She inhaled deeply and grabbed her bear claw. Inner strength. She had it, and she would use it.
When Rayner had come in and told her to hold on, she saw the desperation in his face, and if she wasn't mistaken, love. I wish I could touch you, she had said. And she had wanted that, because at that moment, as he crouched down so that they were eye to eye and he told her to hold on, she knew she loved him.
Now, staring at him, she thought it was ridiculous. She was probably in the middle of some stupid savior syndrome. Kind of like that one where the captured falls in love with her captor. What was that called? Stockholm Syndrome? Yeah, that was probably it. There was probably some big name for what she was feeling.
Except that as she looked him over, her heart was telling her that what she felt was real. Very real. Love had moved into her heart, staked its claim, and had no intention of moving along. She supposed that she shouldn’t know what it felt like to be in love since she had never been there to begin with. But she was absolutely certain that love was settling in her bones and claiming her heart.
She slowly reached out and touched his hair. She wanted to run her hand over his cheek, but she didn't have the nerve.
She rolled to her back and closed her eyes. What was she doing? What the hell was going on with her? She had been kidnapped, almost died, and fallen in love. Hadn't she been a busy girl. God, she wanted to get back to her old life. Except she had the distinct feeling that wasn’t going to happen. Ever.
“Good morning.”
Her eyes flew open and she turned her head. Rayner's dark eyes were on her, a small smile on his lips.
“Hi,” she said.
“How're you feeling?”
I'm feeling really messed up, thank you very much. I'm p
retty sure I'm madly in love with you, and it sounds completely ridiculous to me, so I think I'm suffering from some form of psychosis. But besides that, just dandy. Instead she said, “Hungry.”
Rayner nodded and propped himself up on his elbow facing her. “That's a good sign your body is healing,” he said.
Faith couldn't look away from his eyes. They were so dark...a blackness that she had never seen in another. Except that guy who took her. His eyes had been black as well, but they had been cold and evil. Rayner’s were kind and warm.
“What would you like to eat?” Rayner asked, breaking the eye contact and getting out of bed. She watched as he stretched, then looked over his shoulder at her, waiting for an answer.
She stared at his back; there were two small spots of red, one on each shoulder.
“You have something on your shirt,” she said.
He pulled the shirt up his back a little and nodded. “Must be a little blood.”
“From what?
He headed to the bathroom. “Just a couple of cuts, Faith. No big deal.”
While he was in the bathroom, she sat up in the bed and did a little stretching herself. She realized she was still dressed in her clothes from work. She had been in these clothes for days now, and they were dirty from the floor of the cell...where she had been trapped with bodies...
She flew out of bed and ripped them off. She stood in the middle of the room, breathing heavily. Panic gripped her heart. She so needed a shower. And shampoo. And soap. And maybe some sandpaper to clean her skin.
Just then the door to the bathroom opened and Rayner said, “So Faith, what would you like to—”
He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. Their eyes met, and surprise registered in his face.
He turned around quickly, just as she was bringing up her arms to cover her breasts. Embarrassment overtook her panic. She hadn't been thinking that Rayner could step through the door at any second. She had only been thinking about removing her tainted clothing.