by Kita Bell
“You keep a list of disappearances?” Eva was unnerved – and somehow angry. There are enough disappearances to make a list off of?
“Only from those Gens who keep me informed,” Seth responded coolly, and Eva knew he was referring to her own Gens, the Turner Gens, who didn’t want a treaty with Stronghold. “Are you ready?”
“Seth,” Nikandria frowned, but Eva shook her head.
“It’s not the memories of Rohe I mind,” Eva said, gripping her chair, “It is just…I was so stupid.”
So weak.
Then Eva closed her eyes, forced her thoughts to go still, and remembered.
The ground crunched beneath her feet, making the walk through the dry winter leaves and ice of the park much more solitary than usual. Eva had stayed late at the motel to balance the figures, helping train the new night clerk who had hired on. The human girl’s name was Tina…Tila? Eva couldn’t remember. But the girl’s face had been tired and peaked and she looked pregnant, and Eva could tell that Tila wasn’t more than sixteen, though her application read eighteen.
Not that Eva would judge. She understood the need for a job that didn’t ask questions.
Even more, she appreciated a job that let her study.
Eva shifted the Accounting book beneath her right arm, uneasy as she cut down the path. She usually managed to leave her textbook in the cleaning closet at the motel. If the Gens saw her carrying a textbook, they would ask questions. Especially Justin. He already knew she was up to more than working nightshift, and if he suspected Eva had snuck a night class in on the side, he would tell the Resh.
Eva could kiss her night class and the job goodbye.
She was four semesters into general studies. If she finished this class, she could transfer the credit hours to a degree. And she and Rainey had been saving money – they talked about it. Perhaps Seattle. It was on the opposite coast. It would be easy to get lost in Seattle, to hide. They could rent an apartment and work and go to class. Rainey could apply to a nursing program, and Eva…she would figure something out.
Eva stopped at the park bench and shoved her book into her backpack. The bag was ancient, left over from high school days, but it still worked. Each time the pack ripped, Rainey insisted on covering it in pins and badges to disguise the tears. Eva smiled, dug out her iPod, and slipped the earbuds in. It would be a short jog through the park to the Gens’ land on the other side. Eva and Rainey had used this path for years, and so Eva never thought about her surroundings as she ran.
Eva cranked the iPod up to one of the pop tunes and let her feet take her home.
Running. Running was her life. It had been in high school, and it still was now. It was how she decompressed, how she thought, how she lived. When Eva ran, no one could catch her. Not even the Resh.
Eva closed her eyes. She could run this trail in the dark. She knew every root and branch, dip and hollow.
She didn’t hear it coming. She was listing to her iPod.
She didn’t see it coming. Her eyes were closed.
Something hit her side, hard. It was like being hit by a truck, and it hurt, winded her. A hard body dressed in black plastered Eva to the ground and she screamed, earbuds falling out. She caught a glimpse of pale skin, white fangs behind a ski mask and lashed out, but the man pinned her again. This isn’t right this isn’t right, she was stronger than humans, she should be able to…
He was wrong. He smelled like Kaspian. But there was more, a metallic taint – an almost blood-like taint – to his scent. Eva never would have noticed, but she was fighting and he was pinning her and they were close.
She should have been able to get away. He shouldn’t have been able to do this. Rainey, Eva thought, panicking. Oh god, she was going to get raped. Or killed, or murdered.
All she had to do was run. Eva kneed the man and he grunted, cursing as she writhed away. She pulled to a crouch, staggered…
He punched her in the temple. Everything stopped.
Pain. Eva’s body went limp and stunned, stopped responding.
She couldn’t even think. Couldn’t move. “Rainey,” she mumbled past the blood, the pulse in her head, not able to think why she was so terrified. What would happen with Rainey…
He fumbled with her clothes and she cringed…no her backpack. He was taking it. Cold metal handcuffs around her wrists, nylon rope around her ankles. A thick cotton gag in her throat.
Eva was crying. She couldn’t remember why she was crying. Except her head hurt. It hurt, and she couldn’t focus her eyes, it hurt so bad she could feel her face swelling against the dirt and leaves. She was bleeding.
The click of a com unit.
“I bagged it,” her attacker said, and poked at Eva with his boot. “Put up more fight than expected. I don’t know why the Mistress wants these things.”
Eva started shaking. The gag was choking her, she couldn’t breathe.
Because “it”…it was her.
“Sshh,” Brand murmured deep and low, and Eva found herself sitting on his lap in the Infirmary office. She dropped her head, inhaled his scent through the weave of faded blue cotton. Seth was gone and, when Eva glanced across the room, she saw Nikandria closing the door as she left. Brand’s fingers stroked Eva’s hair, palm trailing down her neck.
Eva sucked in a breath and slowly unclenched her fingers. “How did you get here?” Almost steady.
Brand’s eyes were very blue. “Seth sent for me. He said you needed me.”
“Seth said that?”
“He’s not always an ass.”
Eva listened to the steady, warm beat of his heart, then closed her eyes. She willed herself to stop shaking. I need to call Rainey.
“Eva?”
“I was showing Seth how I was kidnapped,” she murmured. “The man…he just came out of nowhere. I thought he was human, so I didn’t think he could be stronger than me. But he was, and it was like a nightmare. I thought I was going to get raped. Maybe killed. I didn’t know what Rainey would do.” Brand had gone still and Eva buried her face into his chest. “It was…if I just hadn’t been listening to that stupid iPod, I would have heard him coming.”
Brand’s arms tightened. His voice was rough. “Not if he was Sakai.”
“Huh?”
“Not if he was Sakai. You never would have heard him. Not if he was warrior-trained. The only way you would have known he was coming – or fought him off – was if you had been trained as well.”
Eva’s smile didn’t want to come. “So I was easy prey.”
Brand frowned. “No Eva. What I’m saying is that you were in a no-win situation. There was nothing you could do. You couldn’t have heard him coming, or fought him off.”
“I could have run. I almost ran, but he hit me in the head.”
Brand’s eyes flickered gold, his face compressed…then he relaxed. He gently kissed her forehead. “You tried, Eva,” Brand said. “That is the past. What matters now is that you’re safe.”
Eva absorbed those words. She reached up a hand to comb through his hair. “It wasn’t just that. It was Rainey.
“Your sister?” He didn’t understand. “What about her?”
Eva settled her head against his shoulder. “She’s more than a sister, Brand. We were born so close together I can’t remember a time she wasn’t there. After Mom’s death, I thought…” Eva’s throat closed. “Whenever I’m hurt, Rainey feels it. Whenever Rainey’s in trouble, I know. We’re that close, Brand. We have that bond.”
“A bond,” Brand said in an odd tone, then shook his head. When he spoke next, there was forced humor in his deep voice. “Do you look alike? Don’t tell Joshua, he might get ideas.”
Eva smiled faintly. “We both look like mom, but I have darker hair.”
“I like darker hair.” He kissed her neck. “Your hair.”
Eva’s heart tightened. “About Rainey and I,” she began. She needed to tell Brand this. Because Rainey was important to her – but Brand, in a different, frightening way, w
as also becoming important to her. Eva wanted to introduce them. She wanted them to…meet.
The idea made Eva wary and excited and afraid. Because if Rainey and Brand ever met, what Eva had with Brand would become real.
Much too real. Maybe too real.
And really, what was she thinking, pretending that she had any sort of future with Brand? She was just at Stronghold temporarily. She was…well, she was probably Brand’s flavor of the month. Eva flinched.
Get a grip, she told herself firmly. The arm of the chair dug into her thigh, a sharp reminder.
“All these years, Rainey and I planned to leave our Gens together. She has to think I abandoned her. That I left her. We do everything together, so if Rainey thinks that…I can’t let her believe that, Brand.” Eva shifted, pushing away from his chest because what she was talking about – ultimately – was leaving. She had to go home. Back to a place she never wanted to see again, but still a place infinitely better than the Asylum.
Brand growled softly, held her to himself. Eva subsided. She looked up into that fierce strong face. His brows were drawn together.
“I don’t expect you to understand.” Her chest hurt, he was so close, so gorgeous. “But when you’re that close to someone…Rainey’s the most important person in my life, Brand. She’s…she’s part of me.” It came out choked. Eva wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell Brand. But she had to try to explain Rainey. She had to explain what Rainey meant to her. Why, when Eva was being kidnapped, all of her thoughts had flown to her sister.
Brand shifted Eva to a more comfortable position in his arms. His presence grounded her. Frightened her. Brought delicious thoughts to her mind, wonderful temptations to her body. Temptations that made Eva want to forget all about everything and everyone else.
“She is more twin than sister,” Eva whispered.
Brand took Eva’s jaw, tilted it up. His eyes were very blue as he raised his hand to touch her cheek. The faint smile, the warmth in his expression – it was as if he were remembering – and the openness there riveted Eva unlike anything else.
“I do understand,” Brand said finally. “I grew up with Lis.”
“Lis.”
Brand watched the silver in Eva’s eyes darken. She moistened her lips. “Who is Lis?”
There was wariness to her scent, an almost jealousy that gratified Brand even as he explained, “She was Khael’s amati.”
“Amati?”
Brand cursed himself. “Lovers.” Which was only a shadow of the truth.
Eva shook her head at the term. “So they were lovers. Where is she now?” Eva arched an eyebrow, probably wondering how this could relate.
“Lis and I were born five months apart.” The old grief rose, and Brand ran his hand down the delicate arch of Eva’s spine. He focused on a medical chart on the far wall. “I was older. Lis was Gaviros’s ward, so the two of us were always together. If I was in the forest, Lis was in the trees. If Lis was on the shore, I was in the ocean. If one of us was sad or happy, the other always knew. If one of us was angry, we hunted together. All of my blood siblings,” Brand focused on the books covering Samuel’s desk, “were born years apart. Far enough that I was the only child growing up. So Lis became my sister.”
“What about Nikandria?”
“She was born three centuries later.”
Eva went rigid, but Brand drew her close again and she settled. “So Lis was Gaviros’s…ward?” she asked. “He wasn’t her family?”
“Not directly.” Brand studied Eva. She was clearly uncomfortable, but also curious. Trust her. Yes, he needed to. And it would help Eva to realize how safe she was at Stronghold. With him.
Brand shifted Eva’s body toward him. “Gaviros is Stronghold, Eva. Lis was the only one Gaviros ever found who could sense a territory, who could track all of the people inside it like he does. Lis was his great-granddaughter and he adored her.” Brand knotted his fingers in Eva’s hair, grief rising. “He adored her more than the sun or the moon or the stars. All of us adored her. Even Khael. Especially Khael. Though Khael being the way he was, I don’t think she ever knew.”
Eva smiled sadly, touched his hand. “That sounds like Rainey. Easy to love.” Then her smile died. “Brand, you and Lis…” she shook her head, looked away. “What do you mean by ‘sensing territory’?”
Brand narrowed his eyes. “Eva. This has to stay between the two of us. You can’t mention it to anyone outside of Stronghold. Not your Gens – not even your sister.”
Tension eased from Eva’s body, her face turning serious. “Brand. You can tell me anything. Any secret. I swear I won’t tell anybody. Not ever. Not even if Rohe gets me again.”
Brand brushed a thumb over her lips. “I believe you. But it’s not just my secrets, my safety, Eva. I have no right to tell other’s secrets. And Rohe will never get her hands on you again. Never.”
Eva kissed his fingers and waited.
“The outer perimeter of Stronghold isn’t just a border,” Brand finally said, watching the gold in that serious gaze. “It marks the edge of Gaviros’s ability to sense people in his territory…on Stronghold’s grounds. Gaviros knows anyone who enters or exits. Any friend, stranger, ally or enemy. That is why he was my father’s Shield. That’s why he is Stronghold’s Shield. That is why you will always be safe here.”
“Because he can tell when his enemies are coming.” Eva’s eyes lit. “If I had that ability, Rohe’s guards never would have caught me.”
Brand smiled faintly. “Doubtful. If Gaviros knows someone is an ally, he’s not worried when he senses them crossing the perimeter. But he only knows if someone is an enemy if they are feeling…” Brand hesitated, not sure how to explain, “…antagonistically. Most of the time those who cross are humans who wander too far or get lost. Then Gaviros sends out Bryan, or Khael, to drive them away.”
Eva frowned. “But you said Khael was your Resh. Or no,” she corrected, looking confused, “you said both Khael and Gaviros were your Resh.”
“And they both are.” Brand dropped her gaze. He lifted Eva’s hand and began to play with her fingers, uneasy by this direction in conversation. “Khael would have been our Resh, but he can’t…he needs to leave sometimes. He needs to go off by himself to settle his anger. His wildness.” His control.
“Why?”
Because of Lis. Because he lost his amati. They had come full circle. Brand studied Eva’s fingers, noted the slender strength of them, then raised the tips to his mouth. He swiped his tongue across her index finger and felt her shiver before kissing her palm, trying to lighten his pain at the next words. “Because Lis died.”
Eva breathed in once, then out. Quietly, she said, “I don’t understand.”
No, of course not. Because he hadn’t told her.
“Lis was killed by Sakai. She…” She Marqued Khael. Then she died, before Khael could Marque her in turn. “Lis went off, and she was killed, and no one was able to save her. No one was able to help her when she died. She died,” Brand flinched, “alone. We didn’t even know she had gone. She didn’t even ask me to come with her.” The two of them had always fought together. But not that time. “If Lis had just come to me…” Brand shook his head, trying to bury the old pain. No, he had made it so Lis couldn’t come to him. He should have listened to her, and not been caught up in the excitement of following Khael.
Now everyone had to live with the consequences. Everyone had to live with the guilt. The pain.
The memories.
Well, not everyone.
Brand’s jaw tightened. Eva cradled his neck, gently pulling his face to her own. Her expression was warm, compassionate. Her silver eyes were beautiful, glinting with unshed tears as she smoothed her fingers over his lips. She soothed him to the depths of his soul.
“You loved her. Do you hate them? The Sakai? For what they did to Lis?”
Brand felt his lips twist into a grimace. “No.”
Eva blinked. She withdrew her fingers. Then she looke
d down and studied them. “Then you’re different from me. Because I hate them. I hate Rohe. For what she did to me.”
Brand waited.
Slowly, Eva shook her head, and extended her palms as if she could stare into them…and into herself. “I’m sorry. That’s not right. I don’t hate them. Not all of them. I mean Brand, the only reason I’m sitting here with you right now is because…”
“Because a Sakai helped you,” he finished softly, thinking of the man who had left Eva in the snow by the side of the road, of the message the male had written in her blood.
Eva nodded. “I think he drank their blood. The guards’. After he saved me.”
“He probably needed it,” Brand said pragmatically. He was nothing if not practical, and he couldn’t fault a Sakai for being the same way. “No reason to waste it and go hungry.
Eva shuddered, looking up. “That’s gruesome.”
Brand shrugged. “Sometimes gruesome is necessary.” Then he shifted forward in the chair, lifting Eva to her feet as he rose and steadied her on the ground. He needed to get back to work, and Eva needed…he studied the shadows beneath her eyes, the now-distant tears shimmering in the back of her eyes, and wondered if work shouldn’t wait.
Many things could wait.
And when he thought of how she had looked earlier when he came into that office, the terror in her eyes…
Eva’s gaze met his, and the gold that sparkled in them expanded. Slowly, she began to smile, her face warming with amusement…and arousal. The lingering sadness disappeared.
“I know what you are thinking,” she whispered.
Brand leaned down and brushed his lips to hers. “Then lets go. We can spend more time ‘thinking’ in bed.”
“You have the worst lines,” Eva muttered, but she caught his lip with her teeth and nibbled. Brand growled and carefully pulled back, afraid she would nibble too much. By the time they moved to leave the Infirmary office, both of them were breathing unsteadily.