Altered

by Shelly Crane

  “The persuasion was keeping them away,” she said with a sigh.

  “And that’s not a bad thing,” I said and lay down with a sigh of my own. I stared at the ceiling. “No offense, but I never thought you’d wind up living with a group of gypsies. In a travel trailer no less.”

  She busted out laughing. “Oh, me either, honey. Me either. I have so much to tell you.”

  She turned and hugged me around my back, her hands resting on my stomach. She began to talk and told me how Eli came into the picture, about Tate, about Enoch, Eli giving up everything—his very being—to save her life, them getting married. I told her I got the invitation, but it came too late all because I had been a coward and ran and they couldn’t find me in time. She hugged me tight and said it didn’t matter, that I was there now. She said we could talk more tomorrow, that I could ask anything I wanted. She would show me pictures if I wanted of the wedding. I nodded, but it wasn’t really the same.

  I fell asleep and had no more problems with dreams of people trying to hurt me.

  ____________

  The smell of bacon woke me, but the sounds of giggles and deep, but quiet moans kept me from getting up. I peeked my eyes opened and saw bacon in the pan with biscuits on the stove. Clara’s butt was planted firmly on the counter top, Eli thankfully had a shirt on now, but it didn’t even matter because Clara was practically ripping it off the guy.

  When he gripped her butt and dragged her closer to him, crushing her to him, I couldn’t even be embarrassed really. I was the older sister and I had wasted my life. I had never had that with anyone. If anything, I was jealous. Happy for her, but jealous.

  He groaned again with a throaty little chuckle and I knew I had to let them know I was awake. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat. “Um, I’m awake now!” I said loudly. “Very, very awake!”

  Clara just laughed and Eli sighed, pulling her from the counter and straightening their clothes. I could tell that he was the straight-laced one, the level-headed and sensible one of the two of them. “Sorry, Fay.” He smiled and made a plate before handing it to me. “Breakfast?”

  “Clara cooks?”

  She snorted. He smiled wider. “Uh, no. We don’t eat a communal breakfast so we eat in the mornings on our own. But Clara hasn’t really mastered…the stove.”

  She laughed and poked his stomach. “That’s a sweet way of saying I almost burned the camper down. Twice.”

  I laughed, biting into my bacon. She shook her head. “No, here, sis. Make a sandwich.” She put bacon in my biscuit and put a little jelly from a jar on the counter. “One of the ladies here makes this homemade grape jelly. I’m telling you, it’s amazing with Eli’s biscuits and bacon.”

  “Sounds gross.” I made a scrunched up face.

  “Eat it!” she ordered with a laugh. I took a bite and was pleasantly surprised. “It’s good, Eli.” He smiled and shrugged. I walked over to him. “Thank you for taking care of her for me, while I was gone.”

  He smiled. “Of course.”

  “No, I mean it. You gave your life for her.” He looked at her and back at me with a sigh.

  “Someone was up talking late last night, huh?”

  “It’s what sisters do,” she reasoned.

  I threw my uncomfortableness out the window and hugged him around his middle. I may have hugged him a bit too hard, because I heard him oomph and then chuckle.

  “I don’t know you,” I said, hearing the tears threatening. I sighed at myself for the ridiculous amount of crying I was doing lately. “But you not only saved my sister, you took care of her and obviously make her happy.” I looked at Clara and knew she was happy. Like in her soul happy. “Thank you for that.”

  He squeezed me back. He felt so much like Enoch. “She made me happy first.” I heard the smile in his voice. I knew there was probably a great story there that I wasn’t privy to, but I also knew he wasn’t going to tell me. “Seriously, you don’t ever have to thank me for that. She saved me, too.”

  I laughed as I backed away and sniffed. “Those accents are freaking adorable.” I wiped my nose. “Where are you and Enoch from?” Just saying his name made my chest hurt knowing that I was never going to see him again.

  “A little bit of everywhere.” His eyes shifted to the window.

  “Why don’t you ask him?”

  My heart begged him not to be playing with me as I turned to find Enoch coming toward the trailer. I stood frozen in my spot. He hadn’t left. He was walking awfully fast. And that guy…Franz something-or-other was with him. They knocked once and then opened the door without waiting.

  “Eli!” Franz bellowed and then stepped inside.

  Enoch came in next and stopped dead in his tracks when he laid eyes on me. I gulped. He slowly closed the door.

  “Fay,” he said in a whispered hello. “Nice pajamas.” He let his eyes take me in starting with my feet, and just like last time he wasn’t shy about letting me see that he was very much enjoying the view.

  “Stop eye-raping my sister and get on with whatever you barged in here for,” Clara barked.

  “Clara!” I snapped. “I am a grown woman. I can tell someone to stop looking at me if I want him to. Which I clearly don’t or I would have told him to stop.” I sighed at the level of awkwardness. “Now we can get on with the business.” I sat and looked at the Franz guy and waited patiently.

  He smirked and laughed just once at Clara before getting serious. “Ok then. Uh…I hate to say this, Fay. It’s not your fault, so don’t feel bad, but the Horde followed you here.”

  I stood. “No.”

  “It’s all right. We’ve fought them before. We fight them a lot. They held back and made you both think you were clear of them so you’d lead them to us.”

  “And we did.” I walked to the window, leaning on the counter. “That ambush at the restaurant…that was probably just a trap. If we had left like you asked, Enoch, we probably would have gotten away, but you went back to save those people because I asked you to and now…”

  “Saved people,” Clara whispered, but I shook my head.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I muttered.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find Enoch, but expected Clara. He pulled his hand away.

  “You’re still here,” I whispered. “I thought you were going to leave at first light.”

  He looked at my lips and then my eyes. “I thought I was, too. But when it came time to leave, I just…didn’t want to go. And then Franz told me that a small group of the Horde was surrounding the bank on the other side.”

  “Ah,” I said, understanding. “You couldn’t leave.”

  “There’s not that many of them, Fay. I can leave if I want to,” he said harder. I stared up at him, wishing I didn’t want him to want me. I licked my lip and his eyes jumped to watch the movement. When he blinked, it was sluggish and slow. I was so confused. He seemed to be angry all of a sudden. He glared at me and leaned back on the counter, pushing the breath from his lips in a huff. “Can we talk about what we came here to talk about now?” he barked.

  I turned to look out the window and just begged myself not to cry. It worked. I tried to listen to them as they talked about an ambush and then packing up and leaving, moving somewhere else in the dead of night before their reinforcements showed up.

  “They don’t know that we know they’re here, so we have the upper hand,” Franz was saying. “We need to move fast or we’ll lose it.”

  “Enoch, you need to feed. We all need to be at our strongest.”

  “I know that,” he growled. “I searched all night, but there was nothing. People in the rebel camp don’t fight, believe it or not. So I’m…going to have to think of something else.”

  “Well,” Eli said carefully, “we have other Devourers in the camp. “There are people here that cater to their needs, to feed them. I’m sure someone would be willing to do the same for you.”

  I snapped my gaze over to them and knew exactly what they were tal
king about. Enoch didn’t look at me, not at all. He nodded once and barged out the door with Franz on his tail. Franz yelled for us to meet everyone else in thirty minutes.

  I went straight to the bathroom, grabbing the clothes Clara had given me to get dressed first. But all I could think about was Enoch getting fed from someone that wasn’t me. And then I remembered what he told me last night.

  But you don’t want to feed from me?

  No, Fay.

  He had told me flat out that he didn’t want to feed from me. And just now, he told me flat out that the only reason he hadn’t left was because the Horde was blocking his way. And now he was going to feed from some other girl. I didn’t know why he had such a strong connection and hold on me, but I had to let this go. Yes, he saved me; yes, I thought he was…more, but he made it clear that for him, I wasn’t.

  So I got dressed and used Clara’s stuff in the bathroom to fix my hair and threw on a little bit of her makeup. I waited for Clara and Eli and then we met the rest of the rebels in the big tent for the meeting to discuss a plan of action. I didn’t let my eyes roam around, though I knew right where he was. He stood on the other side of Eli, not too far from us. And he kept looking back at me. It pissed me off, too. Why would he look back, why did he care?

  They talked about sending a couple of people over the long way around the river bank and catching them on the back side to ambush them. We’d be leaving in the early, early morning. When they dismissed the group, I was the first one to bolt from the tent. It was probably good that we were leaving. He would leave, too, and—

  “Fay.” His warm, strong grip took my arm and turned me, not giving me the choice.

  My mouth fell open and I glared at his hand. “What?” I snapped.

  He clenched his jaw, his fingers tightened. “I want you to stay clear of this. Just stay in the trailer, even if Clara gets it in her head to get involved. Don’t.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “I’m not the hero type. That’s your job.”

  “I’m not a hero.”

  “Yes, you are,” I hissed and gulped. “You are a hero. You save people, over and over, and then when you finally bring them home, you completely derail and act like a jackass who doesn’t know how to handle it.” I yanked my arm away.

  He gave an angry chuckle. “Jackass, huh?”

  “You are the not the same person who was on that trip with me.” I leaned forward a little. “You want to leave and be in the next stolen car out of here like a coward, then fine. Because you’re not him anyway. I miss that guy. I miss the guy who helped me and made sure I ate enough and got enough sleep and put my feet in his lap when he thought I wouldn’t know about it.” He looked angry, but I kept going. “The guy who went into a building and saved complete strangers for me. The guy who got angry and told me not to…make him fall for me, and we never spoke of it again.” He gulped, looking so vulnerable. My no-crying rule went out the window and a sob caught in my throat. “I miss him and you’re not him! As soon as we got here, he was taken from me.”

  I turned to leave but heard a loud bang. I stopped, but was yanked roughly, and before I knew what was happening, Enoch’s pained face was right in front of mine and all the puzzle pieces were coming together. I searched for the wound and found it easily in his chest. “No! Enoch!”

  We stumbled to the ground on our knees. He groaned and used his fist to keep himself upright.

  “Help!” I screamed. “Help!”

  But then I was on my back under him on the ground and he was shielding me once again, looking around for more trouble, a horrible pained but determined look on his handsome face.

  “Enoch, what are you doing?” He sighed and relaxed, giving me the indication that there was no longer any danger. He relaxed his weight on me before rolling off into the grass on his back, his face drawn and his breaths labored. I sat up and leaned over him, still low to the ground. “Oh, God, Enoch.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. I shook my head and put my hand on his chest. “Fay, I’m all right,” he insisted.

  “You’ve been shot,” I sobbed. “Oh, my God, no. It’s in your heart.” I cried harder. “No. You jumped in front of me. You took this bullet for me.” I looked at his face, so mad at him. “Why are you always being the hero!”

  He chuckled and winced. “I’m not human, Fay. I’ll be fine.”

  “That doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to get shot for me!”

  He tried to smile. I could tell he was enjoying this. “Sweetheart—”

  “Don’t sweetheart me,” I scolded and sniffed. “You do these things and then blow me off, be a complete ass to me, and I…” He was looking at me guiltily, like he knew it was true. I sighed. “I guess I could scold you when you don’t have a bullet in your chest.”

  The edges of his lips lifted. “I am an ass. We’ll…talk, okay? But this?” He pointed to his chest and the bullet hole. “I’ll be fine. You can’t kill a devourer like this. You can even break our necks and we won’t die. I’ll be fine. I saw the bullet coming and I had to stop it.”

  “Speaking of,” I looked over his chest across the river, “who’s trying to shoot me?”

  He stuck his finger in his chest and dug the bullet out. I hissed as he flicked it to the ground and watched him stand. He held his hand out for me and glared across the river as he pulled me up. He shielded me the entire time as he blurred me along the bank until we were hidden behind a large tree.

  “Stay at the camp. Go to the trailer like I told you.” He looked at me. “I mean it, Fay. I can’t be hurt, I’ll be fine, but you can. I don’t want to have to worry about you.”

  He’d never sounded so sincere, or looked it either. My hand was still wrapped in his from where he helped me up from the ground. I looked down at entwined hands, thinking he’d pull away, but he didn’t. He squeezed my fingers and lifted my chin. “Fay,” he growled in a whisper. “Don’t make me worry about you.”

  “I’ll stay. You’re not going over there by yourself, are you?”

  “Eli’s human now. He’s useless,” he sneered and then remembered that I was one, too. He looked at me. “Sorry. But when it comes to fighting our kind, a human wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “I don’t disagree with you.”

  “I’m going to find Franz.” We looked around the grounds at people who were bustling about, trying to find the culprit, to see if anyone else has been hit. But there had only been one shot—one shot and it had been aimed at me.

  I gripped his fingers tighter. “Those people are looking all around for more shots, but there had only been one. And it was meant for me.”

  “Right now I need to bust their heads for trying it,” he said harshly. He paused, waited, stalled—something—as he looked at me. He took the small step to close the gap between us. “When I heard that shot and imagined what would happen if you had taken that bullet instead of me…”

  I let my confusion show. “Enoch,” I shook my head, “you hate me.” I laughed my words to keep from crying.

  “I thought we talked about this,” he said quietly, a small private smile on his lips, “and we said that hating you wasn’t possible.”

  “But the way you act goes a lot farther than the things you say.”

  He nodded and gulped. I noticed that he did that so much. “I can’t be what you want me to be,” he whispered, anguished.

  “I don’t want you to be anything but what you are.”

  He was back to looking angry. “What I am is a bastard. I am a bad guy who does bad things. You deserve a lot more than that.”

  “Can’t you just avenge me now and we’ll talk about it later,” I said coyly. I smirked and hoped he took the bait. He laughed reluctantly and looked pained.

  He rubbed his face, my hand still in his and he leaned forward. He kissed my forehead and once again I was aching for those lips to head south. “You are killing me…”

  “Little human,” I finished and smiled. “I know.”

  “And
yet you still do it,” he muttered and smiled. “You seem to be enjoying it.”

  “Oh, I am.”

  He chuckled before grabbing a passing man’s shirt collar. “Take Fay to Eli’s place. Make sure she’s safe inside before you leave. Got it?”

  The guy nodded without question. “Of course.”

  Enoch sighed as he walked backward from me, watching me like a predator watches his prey.

  “I’ll be back,” he promised, but it wasn’t a sweet gesture, it was more like a warning. “Be ready.”

  “I’m ready,” I said. “Be careful.”

  He grinned and pointed at himself. “Not human, princess. I’ll be fine.”

  He turned to sprint, but turned once more and gave me a stern look, his chin dropping down. “I better find you at the trailer with Eli and Clara, or you will be in so much trouble.”

  I smiled, unable to help myself. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  He groaned and put his fist to his mouth. I laughed and held my hand up. “Okay. I’m going.”

  I couldn’t help but feel like a million pound weight had been lifted off my chest as we walked through the trees, to give us cover, the guy said. He also said if anything happened to me that Enoch would rip his head off. I looked up at him and couldn’t stop my intake of breath. He wasn’t human—that was obvious given by the fact that the irises of his eyes weren’t just white and almost clear, but swirling and alive. I tried my cover my discomfort and show him that I was…fine, I was just still adjusting. “What’s your name?”

  “Aries.” His voice was gruff.

  “Like the God of war?”

  He smiled and looked over at me. “Smart girl. It’s not spelled the same, but I like to think that I can hold my own in a fight.”

  “You don’t have many humans here, do you?” I asked softly.

  “No, not many.” He stopped walking and turned to face me. “We don’t have any that aren’t mated or bound to someone. That’s their reason for being here.”

  “Bound?” I asked and stepped closer.

  He smiled and the affection oozed from him as he lifted his arm. You can’t see it because you’re a human, but there’s a string on my wrist attaching me and my mate together.”