Shadow of Thorns

by Ripley Proserpina

  Staring at the images on the screen, she called up another part of her DNA—Chromosome 6.

  “What’s this?” Sylvain asked.

  “Chromosome 6. There are some sleep disorders that have their genetic origin here. The human leukocyte antigen complex… people with narcolepsy can have it and…” The door opened, interrupting anything else she would have said.

  “But what’s going on with you isn’t narcolepsy,” Hudson said as he strode into the room. Marcus came behind him, and then Valen. Marcus gave her a nod but a kind smile.

  “Hi,” she said quietly.

  Marcus looked past her to the screen and smiled. “Sleep disorders?” He came closer, leaning over her shoulder to examine the image carefully.

  “Yes,” she answered. Her face heated. He was so close. While he hadn’t said much, the pride in his voice overwhelmed her. Especially when she compared it to how bitter he’d been earlier. It took her a moment to remember Hudson had spoken, and she cleared her throat. “I know it isn’t narcolepsy. But I wondered if something might be present here that would indicate—” It seemed like a long shot now.

  “I like where you were going,” Hudson said, touching her shoulder.

  “She’s going to figure out how Asher gets into her head,” Sylvain said with a hint of pride. “Using science.”

  Briar bit her lip to keep from laughing. “I was going to try.”

  “What do you know about brainwaves?” Hudson asked, and Briar tried to remember her cognitive neuroscience classes. “Well, there are five types of brainwaves. They change depending on what we’re doing. Right now, I’m active and thinking… so beta waves?”

  “What else do you know?” he asked, putting her on the spot.

  “Oh gosh, okay.” She tried to think. “Um. Brainwaves can be changed using chemicals or maybe neurofeedback.”

  “Maybe…” Hudson interjected. “But what about when you sleep?”

  “Jesus, Hudson. Stop fucking hinting at shit and just get it out. This isn’t a fucking lecture,” Sylvain barked.

  Hudson blushed, and Briar took his hand. “It’s okay,” she told Sylvain. “This is the part I love about college. But you’re right, Sylvain. We’re being rude. I’m sorry.”

  Sylvain huffed. “Not your fault.” And Briar got what he meant—it wasn’t her fault, but it was most certainly Hudson’s. “It’s fine. Get on with the lecture.” He waved his hand in the air as permission for Hudson to continue, but Hudson only glanced at Briar and raised his eyebrows.

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “Sleep. During sleep, our brainwaves are theta waves. The frequency slows. But theta waves aren’t specific to sleep. When accessing memories, brainwaves have been shown to slow to theta waves.” Now she saw where Hudson was going. “Theta waves happen during REM sleep, and that’s when you think Asher got in my head. But it’s also when he got in your head, because it was your memories he took. All of yours. So, if we can keep my brainwaves from cycling to a theta wave, we can keep Asher out of my head.” Her voice rose as she put together all the pieces. “Hudson. This could work!”

  “I think so. Marcus agrees with me. We can’t keep you awake. You’ll go crazy, and your body will break down,” Hudson mused.

  “Wait,” Sylvain interrupted. “This seems like a pretty big leap. How have you figured this out?”

  “You and Valen have been so focused on Briar, you especially Sylvain, that each time you’ve noticed a physical change while she sleeps, you’ve said something to Valen. In turn, he’s noted the time or something that was happening, so we could pinpoint how long she’d been asleep. We did a little calculation. Took what we know about sleep patterns, and made a guess.”

  “A guess.” Sylvain crossed his arms and looked down at Hudson. It struck Briar that while they were close in height, Sylvain had a couple of inches on Hudson and was making use of them now. “A guess isn’t good enough.”

  “You could attach me to an EEG.” She turned to Sylvain and Valen. “An EEG measures brainwaves. Because brainwaves are electric impulses. So these nodes go on my head, and then it reads each little pulse. It’s kind of cool. I’ve never had one before.”

  “Does it hurt?” Sylvain asked. He grabbed her chair and rolled it toward him before kneeling. Her hair fell in her face as she shook her head, and he pushed it back. “But how do we help you if Asher gets to you?” He glanced over at Hudson. “Have you thought of that, Professor? What happens when he goes to her, and hurts her, like you know he’s fucking doing, and we can’t get to her.”

  “We wake her up,” Hudson answered quickly.

  “This is stupid,” Sylvain replied. “We don’t need to know how it’s happening, to know that it is happening.”

  “She needs to sleep, Sylvain.” Valen’s voice was calm, and Sylvain’s shoulders relaxed somewhat.

  Briar took his face between her hands, turning his head to hers. “This is to keep Asher out of my head,” she said. “Not prove he’s there. If I go into theta waves, you wake me up, or there are some drugs I could take…”

  “So we do this forever?” Sylvain asked. “You take drugs every day to keep from having these brainwaves, or whatever the fuck they are?”

  “I—” When Sylvain put it like that, it didn’t sound like a very good idea. So what was the answer? In the short term, taking a sleeping pill would knock her out but keep her from REM sleep, the time her brain would enter a theta wave cycle. But how did she keep Asher out of her head forever? What was he doing in there? She slept through it, and she didn’t remember, but… What if he got in her head during the day? Made her say things? Do things? These guys were the strongest people she knew, and they hadn’t been able to keep Asher from making them attack her.

  “We’re going to kill him,” Valen said. “And we’re going to do it soon. We’re not talking about her doing this forever. We’re talking about doing it as long as it takes us to kill him.”

  “Then let’s do this now.” Sylvain stood, clenching his hands by his side. “We stash Briar somewhere safe, and we end him. But we do something. No more fucking talking about it and strategizing. We get shit done, and we get it done now.”

  “Sylvain.” Briar reached for him, but he stepped back.

  “Hold on, blossom,” he whispered, tempering her immediate embarrassment. “I’m serious. He doesn’t expect us. Let’s go.”

  “It’s a mistake to go off half-cocked,” Valen said. His voice was calm, but he’d moved toward the door as if he could keep Sylvain from barreling through. And maybe he could.

  “Valen,” Sylvain cajoled. “Come on. You and me. Old times. We could hack our way through the soldiers and get to him. Better yet, the four of us. We were unstoppable.”

  Unstoppable. The word repeated, tickling Briar’s ear. She rubbed it. Hacking. From across the room, Marcus caught her gaze and canted his head, studying her.

  “Wait,” she called as Sylvain continued.

  “Valen. Think about it. Do you remember when we faced down the family group in New Brunswick? They were two hundred vamps strong. Two hundred! And not soldiers. Not crawlers. Fully aware, mature vamps. We went in there, and—do you remember, Hudson? You had us set the fires in the—”

  Briar could feel the heat of the fire on her face. The sound of the horses as they saw the fire. In her head, she could see the whites of their eyes as they reared up in terror.

  “Sylvain, enough.” Marcus’s voice slashed through the air. “Enough.”

  She’d shut her eyes without realizing it, and when she opened them, she met Marcus’s stare. He studied her intently, like he could see every emotion she tried to hide.

  “Marcus—” Sylvain’s voice was equal parts petulant and pissed.

  “Sylvain.” Valen added his voice to the mix in a tone Briar’d never heard before. She jumped, her heart racing. It scared her; it was completely lacking the warmth and kindness with which Valen always spoke.

  “Shit.” Sylvain tugged her to his chest. She knew it w
as him by the soft flannel beneath her cheek. “Briar. Shit.” He held her and ran one hand down her back to soothe her.

  “I’m fine.” The lie rolled off her tongue. She wasn’t, but it wasn’t Sylvain’s fault. It was whatever was stuck in her head, throwing images and sounds at her like she’d stood in the midst of war. The description Sylvain gave, the story he told, was something she’d seen before. It teased the edge of her consciousness like an itch she couldn’t scratch. “I’m fine. I got lost is all.” Sylvain stepped back to stare down at her. He narrowed his eyes, studying her face, and then he breathed in. “You’re frightened.”

  “Not of you.” Never of him. Never of any of them. They were her safe place. Even when Sylvain wants to kill? Is he safe then? Where did this voice come from?

  “Do you have an EEG, Hudson,” she asked. Her fingernails cut into her palms she clenched her hands so tightly.

  “What?” he asked. His lips firmed into a bloodless, straight line. “I can get one. Wait here.”

  “Briar?” Valen asked, crowding Sylvain. “What’s happening?”

  Hudson was back before Briar could explain. He and Marcus moved in sync. They worked around Valen and Sylvain, not saying a word. Briar could feel the tension ratcheting up with each moment.

  “Valen. There’s this gel, in the drawer beneath the microscope.” Briar pointed. “Can you get that? It’s in a blue tube. Kind of looks like a ketchup bottle.” Valen darted away, his body a blur of blond and blue. “We’ll use the gel to stick the little electrodes to my head.”

  “Alcohol,” Marcus said, as he turned on the machine.

  “Sylvain,” Briar called, and he hurried to her. “Take the alcohol and swab it over my forehead and behind my ears. Then take that towel and kind of scrape it over my skin.”

  “You think he’s in your head now,” Sylvain whispered, doing exactly as she said.

  “I don’t know.” She winced when he rubbed her forehead a little too hard.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. I think you’re supposed to take a layer of skin off,” she answered.

  “I thought you said you’d never done this.” Marcus pushed Sylvain out of the way, but he hovered nearby, waiting for her answer. His brother measured her head from just above her nose to the back of her head and left again.

  “I haven’t,” Briar replied as he carefully moved her hair out of the way to run the cloth behind her ears. “But I’ve read about it.”

  “Light reading?”

  “Beach reads,” she replied, and Sylvain chuckled.

  But then he was serious again. “You’re okay?”

  “I am,” she replied and took his hand. To her surprise, she could feel it trembling. “Sylvain. I’m okay. You’re here with me. He can’t hurt me here.”

  Hacking. Unstoppable. Murderer.

  “Ready,” Hudson called.

  Sylvain helped her up, steering her toward the chair they had set up in front of the computer.

  The electrodes were set into a type of cap, and once Marcus had measured her, they were able to fit it perfectly to her head.

  “This doesn’t hurt you, does it?” Sylvain asked, frowning.

  “It doesn’t hurt at all,” Hudson answered for her.

  “I didn’t ask you, Hudson,” Sylvain snapped. “Briar?”

  Briar started to shake her head but stopped, remembering the cap. “No. It won’t hurt.”

  The computer beeped, and then all their attention was on the line of squiggles appearing on the screen. “Is she okay?” Sylvain asked.

  Briar noticed how quiet Valen was. He stared at her, and then the screen, and back again. The lines on the screen meant nothing to her. She couldn’t interpret them, even if she knew what they were supposed to be. She held out her hand, and he came to her. His hand dwarfed hers, but he was careful. He was always so careful with her.

  Briar squeezed hard, meeting his stare. She hoped he understood the comfort she was trying to give him. He studied her, eyes trailing from her head and across her forehead to the computer. But he didn’t speak.

  She took a deep breath, held it, and released it. If she let herself think about why she was doing this, about Asher being in her head, whispering horrible things, she’d go crazy. Instead, she focused on her breathing, picturing each inhalation traveling from the top of her head down to her toes.

  In and out.

  “Theta.” Hudson’s voice seemed to come out of a fog, so she kept breathing.

  In and out.

  Somewhere far away, someone screamed. Briar’s eyes shot open. But she wasn’t in the lab with Hudson, she was on a battlefield.

  In the middle of a war.

  “What are you up to, Briar Hale?” Asher asked.

  Stay calm.

  Asher laughed. “You think that you can keep me out of your head? You’re not smarter than me. Hudson isn’t smarter than me. Look at this.” He threw his arms open to encompass the entire scene. All at once, heat burned her skin and the sounds of pain and dying surrounded her.

  I’m not really here.

  “No?” Asher asked. Cool fingers wrapped around her throat, and he pulled her against his chest. “Do you not feel me? The heat of the fires? I told Hudson to set them.”

  “It was Hudson’s idea,” Briar said, remembering Sylvain’s story. “Hudson said to set the fire.” As if her words conjured him, she saw him, striding toward another man. Marcus. Marcus’s light eyes caught hers from across the battle scene, and he cocked his head like he had just moments ago when he’d studied her in the lab. Briar lifted her hand and waved to him. White teeth flashed in his face, and suddenly, she wasn’t there anymore. She was back, sitting on the leather wheely chair. Sylvain loomed over her, one hand held hers while Valen held onto her other hand.

  “Thank God,” Valen said on a breath. “There are those eyes.”

  “I’m here,” she said, and her voice was hoarse. “I’m here.” She said it to reassure herself as well as them. Over their heads, she caught Marcus watching her. “Anything interesting?”

  “Lots,” he said, and he lifted his hand, fingers twitching in a wave. “You waved to me.”

  “I remember,” she said. “I remember what he did. Where I was. What I saw!”

  “He’s going to be mad,” Valen said, squeezing her hand. “But I’m so proud of you.”

  “I was thinking about the battle Sylvain described,” Marcus said. “Hudson and I spoke about it earlier. We wondered if what Asher was showing you, he took from us. Memory, passive memory, is often associated with theta waves. I think that’s how he gets in our head. When we’re relaxed, thinking about the past.”

  “Or in my case, dreaming, or in a state of calm,” Briar added.

  “Yes. But you remember? You remember what he showed you?” Sylvain asked while Valen watched her with a frown.

  “I remember,” she answered. “I saw Hudson, and Marcus. I didn’t see you or Valen.”

  Valen’s shoulders slumped, and he let out a breath. “I’m not ready for you to see me that way yet, Briar. I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for not wanting to share every moment of your past with me,” she replied. His sadness was palpable, and Briar couldn’t stand it a second longer. She stood and wrapped her arms around the huge man. She kissed his chest even though he wouldn’t be able to feel it under his heavy wool sweater. It itched against her skin when she laid her cheek there. “I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

  “Promise?” His breath ruffled her hair, and she tucked it behind one ear.

  “Promise,” she answered, and then, because his muscles were stiff and rigid, his arms tense, she said it again. “I promise, Valen.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Briar

  Their problem with Asher wasn’t solved, but the overwhelming sense of doom that had been suspended over Briar’s head was gone. They were on the right path. She could feel it.

  Briar didn’t let herself think more about the
scene Asher had shown her. When she was little, her mother told her she had the ability to not think about things that would upset her. She’d accused Briar of being a bit like Scarlett O’Hara and would put on a heavy accent and say, “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

  It wasn’t that Briar was hiding her head beneath the sand, but she dealt with things as they came. And in her life, there had been so much she couldn’t fix. Why should she obsess over not going in the sun? It wasn’t a problem she could solve, so she moved on. Then, when she got a little older, she started on a path that would solve her problem. First, she’d taken biology classes, and then she’d gone online to college, and then she’d gone to graduate school… and met Hudson.

  None of that had happened overnight. It had been a long and arduous process, and she still wasn’t fixed. But if she hadn’t made incremental steps that were so small they were barely noticeable, she certainly wouldn’t be where she was now.

  And what a shame that would be.

  Briar’s stomach growled, and she clapped her hands over it. With the guys’ super hearing, they could probably hear every bodily function she had.

  How embarrassing.

  “You need to eat,” Valen said. “You haven’t been hungry lately.”

  She hadn’t been. Her nerves were strung tight, but this little success today was enough to bring her appetite back, full force. “I’m starving,” she admitted and earned a wide smile from Valen.

  “Good. We can take you out to dinner.” Valen raised his blond eyebrows, peering at his brothers, all of whom nodded in agreement.

  “A date,” Marcus said, some of his old humor creeping back into his voice. “We’ve never gone on a date.”

  Hadn’t they? Every day with the guys felt like a first date. Maybe Asher wasn’t the only reason her stomach was in knots. Each morning, she looked forward to seeing her guys. What girl wouldn’t be a little wound up with these four greeting her?

  “I’d love to go on a date,” she answered. The truth was, she suddenly realized, she’d never been on one. The closest thing she could call a date was Valen taking her to breakfast when they’d first met.