The Way

by Mary E. Twomey

  “Does this seem wrong to anyone else?” Sam asked, putting out his cigarette on Liam’s empty plate.

  Alec shrugged. “I see his point. Man! He’d make a fantastic guard.”

  The kitchen door swung open, and Baird strolled out at a moderate pace holding a plastic grocery bag. “Alright.” He spoke again only to his sister, but did not bother lowering his voice this time. “Remember, don’t bother doing the civil thing and making him face his killer before he snuffs it. If he sees you, it’ll count against you and I’ll send you out again after someone else tomorrow. The predator doesn’t deserve to see who’s going to kill it, and neither does this guy. Stealth, Blue.”

  It was clear that the men wanted to speak up, but Baird held his hand out to silence them. “If any of those guys helps you? Same thing. I’ll send you out again tomorrow, too. Now, he touched Grettel’s face, so I want whichever hand he used.” Baird’s gaze grew intense as he gave the orders to his sister, shoving the plastic bag at her. “He was looking at her, too. I want both of his eyes intact and out of his head.” Baird could tell that his sister was doing her best not to look shocked. “Bring them both home to me, Blue. I don’t want to see any blood on your shoes either, so you’ll have to wear your old ones from The Way, in case you screw that up. I see blood on your shoes, you’ll have to go out after someone who doesn’t deserve it like this guy does. If an innocent person has to die tomorrow, it’ll be your fault. Do you understand me?” When he spoke, it was more like a punctuation at the end of his command than an opportunity for her to ask any clarifying questions.

  “Why do you need his eyes?” Blue questioned quietly.

  “Alec does.” Baird jutted his chin toward the booth. “We need proof that you can kill without losing your mind. That means when you do take him down, you have to keep him in one piece before you remove my parts and bring them back to me. The guys can help you deal with what’s left of the body, but if they’re not good at that sort of thing, have them call me, and I’ll take care of it.”

  Baird noticed the dread beginning to creep into her cerulean eyes, so he held his finger up two centimeters from her nose to distract her from it. “Hey, this is nothing. You’re doing us a service. After you leave, I’ll still be here watching over the girls. Grettel’s too naïve and scared of her own voice to scream for me if he gets too close to her again. If you didn’t find him the other day, he could’ve taken her. Do you want that? Do you want him to sneak off with our Grettel after you’re gone? You can’t just leave without making sure it’s safe for her, Blue. She’s your responsibility just as much as mine. She can’t lift her hand to push him away from her. You can. So do it. Push him so he never comes back for her or anyone else.”

  Blue nodded once, and Baird was convinced that she was ready for the task. “Oh,” he remembered. “Your weapon.” He pulled something shiny out of his pocket. It was an ordinary butter knife, like the one she’d thrown into the dartboard the night before. “You seem to like showing off with them.”

  Blue took the excuse for a weapon from him and pocketed it along with the balled-up grocery bag. Removing her short black apron, she pulled out a thick wad of bills and handed it over without batting an eyelash.

  Alec was amazed at Baird’s authority. Sam was sickened at the subservient sister who was parading around, trying to hide all traces of the girl who’d shoved him up against the wall and threatened to break Brody’s arm.

  Baird added one last low threat. “If you don’t do this without blacking out, I won’t let Liam buy you or free you. I won’t send you out to the island if I think you’ll be slaughtered because you can’t control the final punch. Liam’s a good guy who’s risking a lot for you, so I won’t let you live with him if I’m not certain you won’t go dark. There’ll be no more trials for the pimp, Blue. No prisons he can get paroled from in a year. Just justice. Clean and quick.”

  Blue nodded, though her eyes were on Baird’s shoes, studying them as if they held the secrets of the universe. “He works the corner of Liberty and 5th this time of night. Wait till he sells off his last girl, so there are no witnesses. He usually has about an hour or so by himself.” He dismissed her as he walked away toward the front door. “Guys?” He indicated the exit. “I’ll see you later. Stop by tomorrow night if you have more questions or want more drinks. Except you, Liam. I told you two drinks a night. You’re cut off.” His tone left no room for arguments. “Otherwise we’ll see you around on Peace Day.”

  The three just stared at him, thunderstruck. Even Liam lost his ever-present laughter.

  Baird pursed his lips and pushed the door open, reminding them of the late hour. “Goodnight, guys. I’m locking the doors now.”

  Alec snapped back to himself first and nudged Liam forward. He waited for Blue to follow the men, her head down, as usual. It was more than just the need to hide her eyes that drove her gaze to the floor. Alec thought to himself that her shoulders now seemed weighted, like they carried too many burdens to stand erect.

  Alec put his hand on her shoulder to lead her out of the door, but she stiffened, telling him that it was the wrong thing to do. The guard caught Baird’s eye and nodded once to communicate that he’d be there the entire time to make sure she did everything he told her to.

  Liam noticed Baird taking off toward the woods. “We can give you a ride home, Baird.” Before Baird could protest, Liam turned his back so he would not be able to see the token hesitation the man put up at accepting any help.

  When they reached the car, Baird slid in the back seat beside his sister, obscuring her from Alec’s view, who sat on his right. Blue’s fists were balled up and tightened around her stomach. “You know,” Baird said quietly as the car started up, “if the predator sees that kind of fear in you, you don’t stand a chance.”

  Blue relaxed her fists, but then moved them to clutch at the interior of the car that was available to her. “It’s not that.” She corrected herself, “Well, it’s not just that. I don’t like riding in cars, Baird. But at least in yours you can feel it moving. This one barely jerks at all. I can’t tell where it’s taking me, and I don’t like that.” She swallowed once. “If I just knew how to take it apart and put it back together by myself, I think I’d feel better about it.”

  “They have books like that at the library, but we can’t use the library, Blue. Citizens only. You’ll just have to get over it.” Baird shrugged, his arm brushing uncomfortably against Alec’s.

  Sam’s eyes frequently darted up at the rearview mirror to look at the siblings, but at this, he stared only at Blue in between focusing on the road. He could not help the anger that flared up in him when she responded with an obedient “okay.”

  “You got something to say, Vemreaux?” Baird leaned forward to stick his head closer to Sam’s threateningly.

  “Sam,” Alec cautioned as he grabbed Baird’s shirt collar and pulled him back.

  “I just think it’s great you’ve trained her so well.”

  “Sam.” Alec threw him a dark look to indicate that he should stop.

  “What? You can’t take five minutes to explain how a car works so she’s not so scared? Excellent job, chief. I mean, now we have our very own pretty little homicidal puppet to…” But Sam never got to finish his sarcastic sentence or the bitter monologue he was building up to in his head.

  Baird lunged forward toward the driver’s seat, but Alec was faster. “Not tonight, you two,” Alec warned. He wrapped both arms around Baird and clamped them to his body, limiting the threat.

  Blue let her vice grip on the seat go and punched Baird in the throat, which stopped him from further attacking Sam. He shot her a look of betrayal as he choked. “What? You hit the driver, Liam could get hurt. You wanted Liam to be safe, but you throw a fit this easily? How’m I supposed to learn control if you don’t have any?”

  Alec nodded, shooting Blue a look of gratitude. “You’re the boss in the diner, but you answer to me around the prince. That means no attacking the
driver, no matter how asinine he is.”

  Liam shook his head at his friend, but no one said anything else.

  Blue had her work cut out for her, trying to be invisible in such a cramped space. She did her best to push down her anxiety about the car and her impending mission, and focused on forcing the seat she occupied to swallow her as best it could.

  It was not a moment too soon that the vehicle pulled up to the unlit hut, and Alec ushered Baird out of the car. He ducked down and spoke over Alec to his sister, who was still trying to disappear. “Be back before your shift, Blue. You’ll need to change out of your clothes and wear Elle’s for her scent. Yours are starting to lose Grettel’s smell. Give your uniform here.” He extended his hand. “You can’t be getting blood on that or your shoes. I’ll bring out your old ones.”

  She obeyed and took off her shoes and the powder blue collared shirt, exposing her bare arms in the form-fitting tank top. Sam picked a tree in front of him to stare at without bothering to blink.

  Baird departed into the hut, reemerging with her worn Wayward white sneakers. “Fellas,” Baird tipped his head and turned toward his home.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Deadly Deeds Done in the Dark

  The atmosphere changed as the four drove away from the hut. The pressure lifted enough to make breathing easier. Liam reclined the passenger seat and closed his eyes. “You can relax, kitten. Your guard dog’s gone now. What a night.” Then he turned his head to his left, his tone sharpening. “Did you have to start with him?”

  “He’s the one who started it, ordering her around. Would you let someone talk to Suzette like that?” Sam countered, not in the mood to be blamed for the mess that was Baird’s.

  Liam chuckled as his eyes drifted shut again. “Shoot, I’d pay to see someone talk to my sister like that. She’d tear them a new one in a hot second. Suzette’s not afraid to go off when she needs to.”

  “Or when she doesn’t,” Sam amended.

  “True enough.” Liam nestled into his seat to get a little more comfortable. “You’ve got to admit, though, she does what he says. When’s the last time Suzette did anything anyone asked her?”

  Sam’s teeth ground together as he tried to focus on the road, his speed picking up with his temper. “You’re doing it, too! Stop talking about her like she’s not right behind us.” He glanced in the rearview mirror at Blue, only to find her braced against the door with her head down. “Hey, are you okay back there?”

  Blue nodded, but Sam was not convinced. He opened his mouth again, but Liam reached out and nicked his friend’s shoulder with his knuckles. “Leave her alone, Sam. She’ll be fine. Right, kitten?”

  Blue did not respond, but no one expected her to.

  Alec spoke up. “What was that about Grettel’s smell? Why do you have to wear your friend’s clothes?”

  Without looking up, Blue spoke just loud enough for her voice to drift into the front seat so she did not have to repeat herself. “I don’t smell like an A-blood to the changed Vemreaux. Baird thinks it’s part of being the Light or something. So I wear their dirty clothes to blend in.” Blue’s hands were plastered to the car and gripped onto the leather as she revealed the well-kept secret. “It wears off by the morning, though.”

  If the boys weren’t awake before that, they sure were then. Liam’s serious expression matched Alec’s. “Then why does Baird smell? Not as strong as a normal Wayward, granted, but he’s still got the scent,” Alec wondered. “You have the same eyes, same genes, but you don’t smell the same? How’s that work?”

  Blue shrugged, though she did not release her grip on the car. “He’s probably my half brother. We’re not sure.”

  “How can you not know something like that?” Liam questioned, unaware of his rudeness.

  “How do you expect me to? It’s not like we get to know our parents or see them after our first year. Building One of The Way is separate from Building Four, which is where the adults live. We aren’t given names unless two siblings ask specifically and file a petition to know if they’re related. Lucky we look so similar, really. Baird found me and knew we belonged to each other before they even told us we were brother and sister. Our eyes are the same just by chance, I guess. Our younger brother Griffin has the same eyes, too, and he smells just like Baird does. It’s rare for siblings in The Way to be true siblings, though. Most of us are halves.”

  “So you don’t know who gave birth to you?” Sam asked unhappily.

  “No, but no one knows that kind of stuff in The Way. That’s a Vemreaux thing. Baird, Griff and I all have the same eyes, same hair and the same ears, but there’s no way to tell who our parents were. They’ll have moved on to Building Four or Five, or they’re terminated once they hit life expectancy.”

  No one spoke for a moment. Then Sam rolled down the window to bring in a bit of fresh night air. “That’s a sad story, little Wayward.”

  “Is it?” Blue contemplated this new thought. “I’m sorry.”

  The four drove the rest of the way in a thick silence filled with pondering, breaking the peace only when they dropped off Liam. Sam parked the car, taking the keys out of the ignition. “I’ll take Liam to his room and wake up Brody, but I’m going with you tonight.”

  Alec shook his head. “Sam, I don’t know about that.”

  “Good thing you’re not the future emperor.” He turned to Liam, who was reaching for the door handle. “Liam, do you want me to stay with you tonight, love? I’ll sleep right next to you and sing Perry Como to you all night long. Come on, you can be the little spoon to my big, fat…”

  Liam shuddered. “Brody can take the guest bed tonight. I don’t want that wanker anywhere near me while I’m sleeping,” he informed Alec. “And I’m not the future emperor. That’s Killian’s job, thank goodness.”

  “There’s a comforting thought for the nation,” Sam sneered with a glower.

  “Fine.” Alec sighed as he got out of the car. “But you’re not a guard anymore, Sam. You can’t be responsible for him. I’ll take him up to his room and kick out whatever Fem Brody’s got tonight. I’ll be right back.” Alec got out of the car and started walking toward the hotel. “Come on, Prince.”

  The title felt like a jab, and Liam gave Alec a half-hearted shove. Liam turned around and ducked to look at Blue in the back seat. “I only need guards because I’m so dashing. People see my face, and all the Femreaux maul me. The blokes don’t like me. Think I’m too good looking.” His white teeth set off his teasing smile nicely, but Blue still would not look up. She nodded, which deflated his mood. “See you ’round, kitten.”

  As soon as the two men were away from the vehicle, Sam tried to think of something clever to say, but came up empty. He pulled out his cigarettes and lit one up. “Are you alright? You don’t have to do this, you know.”

  Just when he was about to give up on conversation, Blue answered in a whisper. “You heard Baird. If I don’t kill him, I’ll have to kill someone innocent tomorrow.”

  “He can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” Sam countered as he turned in his seat to face her. He was glad that, at the very least, she hadn’t said “okay” again.

  Her brain spat out a mixed regurgitation of Baird’s words. “He touched Grettel when she wasn’t his property. If I don’t kill him, he’ll do it again after I’m gone. I can’t…” she considered her words carefully. “I can’t let that happen. I won’t leave if they aren’t safe.”

  Sam wished she would look up at him. He was beginning to be annoyed by the thick waves of auburn that insisted upon obscuring his view of her face. “What I mean is that Alec and I can do it. You don’t have to do this.”

  At this, Blue raised her chin and allowed her eyes to meet his. The steadiness she’d achieved left her, her breath dragging in and out unevenly. They were both stunned at the intensity of their unspoken connection, and Blue had to remind herself that she needed to come up with a response to his offer. “But I do have to. Baird’s r
ight. If I can’t kill someone who’s a threat to Grettel without going dark, how can I kill for complete strangers I’ll never meet? Besides, he’ll know if I’m lying. I gave up lying to him years ago. No point, really.”

  Sam allowed silence to fall between them. He realized that he couldn’t correct the first thing that came out of her mouth. If he grew too argumentative, perhaps she would stop speaking to him altogether. For whatever reason, he couldn’t have that. Instead, he drank in her face, which was finally revealed to him.

  Beautiful, he realized. It was subtle, hiding beneath a thick iron wall that had “stay away” inscribed on it. Most Femreaux he knew screamed for attention. Their gobs of permanent and temporary makeup painted on their often lifted or reconstructed faces held nothing to Blue’s natural features and simple beauty. Thinking back to her brother’s threat earlier in the booth, Sam wondered how it was possible no other man or boy had noticed the rare find. Then again, perhaps they had, and were just too afraid of her brother.

  Their connection did not waver even as Sam spoke. “Why don’t you come sit up here? If you want to learn about cars, I can show you.”

  Her lips pursed and drew to the side of her mouth as she considered this, weighing the uncertainty against her blatant curiosity. In the end, her curiosity won. She unbuckled her seatbelt and let herself out of the car, tingling with excitement.

  As she walked around to the passenger door, Sam turned back around happily. He had managed to have a little conversation with her without scaring her or saying something inappropriate or stupid. He had to fight against every natural tendency as he reminded himself how to speak to a woman he wasn’t trying to bed right away.

  Blue dipped down and sat next to him, their close proximity making both of them a little nervous.