by Kait Nolan
~*~
“Emily? Doublemint?” It was the fear in Rab’s voice that had her forcing her eyes open, despite the fact that it felt like lifting garage doors with her pinky finger. Her brother crouched beside her, dressed all in black and armed to the teeth. Dark liquid streaked his clothes. Blood. It didn’t seem to be his.
“Rab? You came.” She blinked, started to slide back into unconsciousness.
“Of course I came. Can you move?” He seemed afraid to touch her, his hands hovering just beyond her face.
She was going to have to wake up for this. Well that sucked. With consciousness came pain. She tested her fingers and toes, carefully checked her arms and legs, relieved that she could still feel them all but wishing for some titanic pain killers.
“Not paralyzed. Busted rib though. Probably something else. Little fuzzy.”
He took her hands, examined her wrists. “They tied you.”
“Oh yeah, that.”
Rab lifted a bottle of water carefully to her lips. She sipped, coughed, sipped some more.
“Where are they?”
“Dead.”
She loosed a breath, winced at the reminder of her broken rib. “Good. That’s good.” Then, realizing what he’d done, what he’d had to do to save her, she took a better look at him. “Are you okay?”
He ran a careful hand down her cheek. “What the hell happened?
“I was kidnapped,” she said. Her voice cracked, throat dry from exertion and dehydration. “They picked me up right after you left, while I was on my way back to the dorm.”
Rab swore, turning the air blue with self recriminations. Emily laid a hand on his arm and he bit off the tirade. “Sorry. Go on.”
She told him, skipping over the fear and the pain, giving a military style report of events. “Then…things got kind of weird.” She took a breath. “I needed to get free of the suppressor cable and I…well, I phased my hands into shadow.”
Rab stared at her. “You did what?”
She shrugged and immediately regretted the motion as her back screamed. “I can’t explain it.”
“Have you ever… Did you know you could…” He didn’t seem to know how to phrase the question. But Emily knew what he was asking.
“No, never. Not without you. I don’t know why or how, but the shadows got me out.”
A look passed over his face, some mixture of fear and speculation before he said, “Clearly I’ve underestimated you.”
She smiled faintly. “I pick up more from you than you can imagine.”
“That’s a scary thought." One corner of his mouth quirked with humor, but she could hear the very real disquiet in his voice. “Tell me the rest.”
She did, unable to soften the details of what had followed after since her body provided very real evidence of the violence. “And then you came. I called you right into the trap they’d set. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I can take care of myself and I took care of them. You made it out. You survived. I don’t care how you did it, just that you did.” He cupped her face. “You’re all I’ve got left, kiddo.”
“Ditto.”
She wished, oh how she wished, that he’d take that into consideration and keep them together.
“Let’s get out of here.” He reached down and carefully scooped her up. “Doctor first. Then we’ll see about relocation. How do you feel about the Pacific Northwest?”
Emily dropped her head to his shoulder. “Rains a lot. You really gonna sentence me to perpetual bad hair days?”
A dozen steps took him to the nearest shadow bridge. “We’ll leave it open for negotiation. You’ll have plenty of time for that while we look for a new place for both of us.”
A ripple of shock rolled through her. Is he saying what I think he’s saying? Surely not. “Both of us?” she asked cautiously.
“No way am I leaving you on your own after this. I’m not risking losing you too. And if you are starting to pull the shadows, you need training. We’re gonna have to figure out how to be roommates, little sis.”
“Can you cook?” she asked. It was a stupid question, mundane in the face of bigger issues still looming over them. But it was something she felt like she ought to know.
“I am an expert orderer of take out.”
Emily smiled a little as he stepped into the dark, carrying them both into an unknown future. And that was okay, she decided. Because at least they’d be facing it together.
As a family.