by Lynsay Sands
Santo noted movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced up to see the waiter approaching with their food. His gaze flickered over the food, but he slipped into the man’s mind and sent him back as Pet continued.
“When they were done with Mom, they cut off her head,” she said her voice turning shaky, and then she closed her eyes in pain before adding, “Quinn and I were in the closet, covering each other’s mouths. We’d been so quiet like Mom wanted that whole time, but we both screamed then. Dad screamed louder, though, and they didn’t hear us. His scream . . . I’ve never heard so much raw pain. I think even they were affected by it, because when it ended there was this heartbeat of complete silence . . . and then a small sob.” She opened her eyes and looked at him sadly. “Erika didn’t have anyone covering her mouth.”
Santo cursed and lowered his gaze, knowing what was coming before she said, “Dad didn’t even look up when they dragged Erika out from under the bed. It was like he was already dead. That might have been a small mercy, though. I think if he had looked up even once, they would have raped or at least tortured Erika too. But he didn’t and the men just fed on her, one at her neck, one at each arm and leg. They drained her dry while she screamed in agony and terror and then snapped her neck. The minute that was done, they cut off Dad’s head.”
Pet cleared her throat and then her voice going flat again, she said, “After that, someone said, ‘What about the twins?’ The head guy started barking orders. I didn’t catch a lot of it. Too horrified I guess. I know he sent some men to search the woods, and others to search the rest of the house. He must have sent someone to get gasoline or some other accelerant too, but . . .” She shrugged. “When he fell silent, he was the only one left in the room. He stood there for a long time and then looked around like he was searching for something. I don’t think we made a noise or anything. Maybe he just started thinking about Erika under the bed, and maybe he’d noticed that Mom hadn’t moved too fast to get away and realized that she’d sacrificed herself to try to save us all, but then he suddenly turned to the closet.”
Pet swallowed and then admitted quietly, “I peed myself when he started toward our hiding spot. I know Quinn did too. I remember seeing two streams of liquid running toward the doors, and then he opened them and—I was praying so hard,” she admitted. “I know he read me. I felt him in my head, a strange ruffling. He had brass-colored flecks in his eyes instead of the silver Mom and Dad had. He bent down with a mean smile and reached out to grab me, but then his gaze shifted to Quinn and as his fingers closed in my hair, his eyes widened and he kind of froze, just staring at Quinn. His expression became more concentrated, and then he looked shocked. Neither of us moved. He just stared at her for the longest time, and we stared back, shaking, and then the man who had gone for the accelerant came back into the room and the leader quickly released my hair, straightened, and closed the doors.”
Pet shook her head with amazement even now at the memory. “I couldn’t believe it. I felt sure he was just toying with us and would whip the doors open again and drag us out. But then I heard the other man ask something and him say he’d just been searching the room. The other man said, ‘Nothing? The men haven’t found the twins.’ He said, ‘No, nothing.’ And then when the other man started to pour something that smelled like gasoline on my mother and father, the leader said, ‘Take them out in the courtyard. I want a bonfire by moonlight.’ They dragged their bodies to the window and tossed them out like trash and then grabbed Mom and Dad’s heads and climbed out the window with them.”
Pet lowered her head, staring at that spinning fork as she said, “We smelled the fire not long afterward. Heard the men laughing and talking for a while and then silence. But Quinn and I were too afraid they’d come back to move. We just crouched there, still covering each other’s mouths until well after the sun rose, and then we fell asleep huddled together in that small closet.”
Fourteen
“Pet?”
She glanced up with surprise when Santo softly said her name. She’d been lost in the past, clinging to her sister and trembling in the dark closet, watching the monstrous shapes dance across the walls of the bedroom beyond the doors, cast there by the flames in the courtyard.
Sighing, Pet straightened in her seat. “Sorry.”
“Do not apologize.” He frowned and asked, “Do you want to stop now?”
Pet considered it, but then shook her head. Might as well finish, she thought, and cleared her throat. “Anyway, like I said, we fell asleep from sheer exhaustion after the sun finally came up. But Quinn’s screaming woke me some time later. I’d barely opened my eyes when someone was picking me up. I started screaming and kicking and . . .”
Pet shrugged. “I guess I must have fainted. Everything gets kind of blurry after that. Like I’m missing bits and pieces.” She narrowed her eyes briefly, but then continued, “The next thing I remember is waking up somewhere else. I think it was a hotel room. Mary and Randall, friends of my parents, were there.” Her mouth twisted slightly. “They kept talking in soothing voices, trying to reassure us everything would be okay, and asking where Mom and Dad were. But Quinn and I wouldn’t talk, we just clung to each other and stared at them. I guess we were probably in shock.
“I’m not sure how long we stayed in that hotel room. It could have been a day or weeks. I don’t know, I kept kind of zoning out. I remember other people came and went, people with silver flecks in their eyes like Dad’s . . . and yours.” She met his gaze briefly and then looked away. “I’d met some of the people who came before, knew they were family on Dad’s side.”
She was silent for a minute and then said, “I remember we were never allowed near the window or out of the room, and then I remember a car ride, and then being on a plane, but not a normal plane with lots of people. It had tables and chairs, and a couch and it was just us and Mary and Randall. And then we landed. There was another car, and then we were in a house and they were telling us we were in America now. That we were now Americans, that they were now our parents, and our family name was now Stone.”
Her mouth hardened at the memory. Everything had been taken from her, even her name. Pushing her resentment down, she drank more water and then sipped her wine before glancing up at him and raising her eyebrows. Her voice was back to normal when she asked, “Questions? Comments?”
Santo opened his mouth, but afraid he would say something sympathetic that would bring the tears on, Pet warned, “Don’t do the whole pity thing. I don’t need it. I, at least, remember Mom and Dad. Quinn doesn’t remember a thing.”
“Quinn does not remember that night?” he asked with surprise.
Pet shook her head. “Or anything else. Not even Erika and our parents. At least she says she doesn’t. But she also won’t let me talk about it to her, so maybe she just says that to shut me up . . . or maybe she doesn’t want to remember.” She shrugged wearily.
Santo looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, “These men were Brass Circle?”
Pet nodded and frowned as she tried to remember everything she’d heard about them. “I remember hearing Mom and Dad—Meng Feiyan and Meng Tian,” she added a little wryly so he would know which parents she was talking about. “I remember hearing them talk a couple of times before that night. I remember Mom was worried, and Dad tried to soothe her, but I could tell he was worried too. But he said they had to hunt them and . . . something about . . . they were kidnapping mortals and making them blood slaves?” She looked at him uncertainly, a question in her eyes.
Santo’s eyes widened and he cursed under his breath and then growled, “That is a term I have not heard in ages.”
“What is a blood slave?” Pet asked at once.
For a moment, she didn’t think he’d answer, and then he growled, “Human cattle.”
Pet frowned at the brief explanation. “You mean kept on a farm, or . . . ?” She shook her head, unable to think of anything else it might mean.
“Large numbers of the
m kept in cages, fed slop, only brought out to be fed on, and leashed when they are.” His words were cold and hard, but painted the picture pretty well. Sighing, he ran a hand over his bald head as if to soothe his temper, and then asked, “Who found you in the closet? Immortals?”
Pet shook her head. “Mary and Randall. Randall was the one who picked me up.”
“They were there, in China?” Santo asked with surprise.
Pet nodded. “I guess while Dad was trying to soothe Mom, he was worried enough about retribution that he wanted to send us all away until the situation was resolved. Mary said later that someone he’d worked with had been found dead not long before the attack on us. They feared it was a retribution killing and were concerned he would be next. Mary told me that she and Mom had been roommates at boarding school, and they both got into Princeton and were roommates there too. She said they loved each other like sisters.” Frowning, she added, “I remember Mary and Randall visiting us once or twice in China before that night, but Mother—Mary,” she clarified, “she said she came twice a year before she married Randall and then once a year after that and that Mom visited her in America twice with our birth father and then with Meng Tian too.”
Pet shook her head. “Anyway, Mother—Mary,” she clarified, “Mary said while Mom—Feiyan—agreed to send Erika, Quinn, and me away for a while, she refused to leave herself unless Dad, Meng Tian, agreed to come with us. Mom arranged for Mary and Randall to come collect us, but unbeknownst to her, Dad had sent a message to Mary, explaining everything and begging her to help him convince Mom to leave with us when she got to China. He figured if anyone could, it would be her. At least that’s what Mary said he told her.”
She shrugged. “I guess their plane landed that morning, just hours after everything happened. They came straight to our home. They found the door broken open and started to look around. They found a child’s charred remains in the courtyard first, but other than that, just a lot of ash.”
“We are highly flammable and burn hot,” he said grimly. “Ash would be all that was left of Feiyan and Meng Tian.”
Pet filed that information away. “They didn’t know that, so still hoped Mom and Dad and two of us kids were alive somewhere. They searched the rest of the house, found Erika’s bedroom with all the blood, and then found us asleep in the closet. Randall picked up Quinn and passed her to Mary, then picked me up. That’s when I woke, but I didn’t know it was him at the time. His body was blocking the light, and he was just this big dark shape picking me up. I thought the bad men had returned.”
Pet released the fork and sat back in her seat, relaxing a little now that the worst of it was over. “I guess Mary contacted Dad’s family for help getting us out of the country. They arranged for the plane, and gave her passports for us with our names, now Petronella and Quinn Stone.”
“What were your names before that?” Santo asked.
Pet was a bit surprised that he couldn’t figure that out. She’d mentioned Meng Tian several times, but she answered the question. “Meng Petronella and Meng Quinn. We had taken Meng Tian’s name when he married our mother. I guess over here it would be Petronella and Quinn Meng, but there the surname goes first.”
“Your first names were Petronella and Quinn even in China?” he asked with disbelief.
Pet felt amusement try to lay claim to her lips as she took in his expression. “My mom fell in love with America while she was in school here. She loved everything American and hoped to move here permanently someday. So, when we were born, she gave us American names with meanings that were traits she hoped we would have.”
“What do your names mean?” Santo asked with interest.
“Petronella means rock, and Quinn means wise and intelligent or something.”
“Strong and smart,” he murmured.
She smiled softly and nodded. “Our older sister’s name was Erika, which means powerful ruler . . . or honorable ruler, maybe. I’m not sure anymore,” Pet admitted, unhappy with herself for forgetting that. It felt like she’d let Erika down somehow. Sighing, she reluctantly admitted, “Erika wasn’t our sister by birth. She was our cousin. Her mother was my mother’s younger sister. She had no husband and died giving birth to her. Our parents, Mom and our birth father, were newly married but took her in and named her and raised her. She was four years older than us and a big sister in every way.”
Santo nodded but asked, “You said Meng Tian’s family arranged new passports?”
Pet quickly followed the switch in topic, and suspecting what he wanted to know, said, “And social security numbers and new birth records so that we were suddenly Americans. They also read our minds to learn what had happened to Mom and Dad.” Her mouth tightened before she added, “They foolishly told Mary and Randall what they saw in our memories and Mary freaked. I remember that. I also remember her trying to convince them to blank out our minds to get rid of our memories,” she added grimly. “They refused. Thank God.”
He didn’t comment, but Pet could see that he was thinking and wondered what about.
Santo was thinking that he wasn’t surprised the immortals had refused. If they’d simply removed the memories of that night, those would have eventually returned, jostled back into Pet and Quinn’s minds by other memories of their life with Feiyan, Meng Tian, and Erika. It might not have happened for decades, but eventually things like that came back. A trip to China, their own child hiding in the closet during a game of tag, a child wetting themselves, even a bonfire or a picture could have opened the door and brought it all rushing in . . . No one could know what would bring it back, or when. They could have experienced any one of those things several times and then the third or tenth time the memories could suddenly spring forth. And then the trauma would have been compounded by its unexpectedness. In his experience, children’s minds were more adaptable than adults’. They could better handle trauma. Trying to hide something like that and then it’s popping out ten, twenty, or even fifty years later could have caused huge psychological issues.
The only way Meng Tian’s family could have ensured those memories never returned was to do a 3-on-1 on each child to completely wipe their minds. A dangerous thing to do with a lot of risks, including leaving them both beautiful little drooling idiots.
“Every time I remember Mary demanding they wipe out our memories, I just want to slap her,” Pet growled, reaching for her fork again. “They were my parents and she wanted to take them away.”
“Not your parents,” Santo said with certainty. “The pain and trauma.”
When she glanced at him with surprise, he reminded her, “I read her mind.”
“And?” Pet asked, stiffening.
“She fears she failed Feiyan with you.”
“Because I’m not a doctor like them and Quinn?” she suggested grimly.
Santo shook his head. “Because you clung to the past.”
“What?” Pet asked with surprise.
“You call Feiyan Mom,” he pointed out.
“Feiyan was my mom,” she said resentfully.
“But you call Mary Mother.”
Santo knew he didn’t have to point out that Mom was a more affectionate title than Mother. He could tell by her expression that she saw that. But he did point out, “Mary has been a mother to you for thirty years, Pet, yet you show more affection in title for a woman who has been dead that long and was able to mother you for only six.”
“It’s hard to love someone who wants to take even the memory of your own mother from you. Memories were all I had left.”
Santo could almost feel her pain in her words, but suspected it was just the tip of the iceberg. Pet and Quinn had suffered a terrible trauma, but Mary and Randall could never have taken them to a mortal psychologist to help them deal with it. Doing so would either have revealed the existence of immortals, and that they weren’t legal Americans, or convinced the psychologist that they were delusional or suffering some other mental illness. It had left Mary and Randall to try t
o deal with their trauma on their own. Something they weren’t really equipped to do. They had inevitably made mistakes with them that they hadn’t even realized they were making at the time. Like this business about the wiping of the memories. Mary probably didn’t even realize that Pet had heard that, or how she’d taken it. So had never corrected Pet’s misconceptions.
It seemed he wasn’t the only one needing counseling in this relationship, Santo realized, and almost felt better for it. He had just started talking to Marguerite’s son-in-law, Greg, who used to be a mortal psychologist and now counseled both mortals and those immortals willing to seek such help. Perhaps he could convince Pet to seek him out too.
In the meantime, though, he might be able to help clear up some things for her, Santo thought, and growled. “What if Quinn was gang-raped and murdered?”
Pet blanched at the thought.
“Mary and Feiyan were like sisters,” he pointed out. “That is how she felt.”
Santo let her think about that for a minute, and then asked, “And if Parker witnessed his mother being raped and murdered? What would you want most in the world for him?”
“I’d want—” Her eyes widened and then closed on a sigh as she finished, “to take the memories away and save him from carrying that horrible trauma in his head.”
Santo grunted and waited. After a moment, she opened her eyes, uncertainty on her expression.
“So . . . Mary wasn’t trying to take my mother away and replace her in my memory?”
Even though Pet had concluded that she’d want to do the same thing for Parker as her adoptive mother had tried to do for her, Santo wasn’t surprised she would have doubts. She had believed a certain storyline for so long that it would be hard to adjust her vision of events. Santo knew he could help her with that, though, and nodded before saying, “I read her mind. She was desperate to protect and care for you both. She still is,” he added, thinking of the woman’s reaction once she’d realized he was immortal. Mary Stone obviously held all immortals to blame for the death of Feiyan. Which was a shame, since this was one of the few times when a life mate wouldn’t have had to leave her family behind. Mary and Randall knew about immortals, so Pet’s not aging would not have had to be hidden once he turned her. Which made him wonder—