by Elise Faber
Daughtry swallowed hard. Cody was so insightful, so understanding, just so damned much. These last months without the Dalshie bearing down on them, without mortal peril at every turn had strengthened their connection. Every day the bond grew, and every day she fell in love with the man a little more.
“I love you too, cowgirl,” he thought. “Now choose one of those movies already.”
She smiled. “You should be thanking your lucky stars there’s no Internet up here, or I’d be bingeing on Librarians Gone Wild again. I’m almost half a season behind, and I forgot to download more episodes before we left.”
“Thank God for small miracles,” he thought. “But I wouldn’t mind—”
John cleared his throat, and Daughtry’s cheeks blazed as she realized that he and Alex were staring at her and Cody, tracking their mental conversation like spectators at a basketball game.
“So movies?” she squeaked before abruptly remembering Alex’s confusion over the pizza and added, “These are DVDs, we can put them in the player and watch—”
“I’ve seen a DVD before,” Alex said.
“I-uh—” Hell, now she sounded like an insensitive idiot.
Her sister sighed. “I guess this should be the time for all the sordid details, huh?”
Daughtry’s mouth opened and closed a few times as she struggled to figure what to say.
John beat her to the punch. “Yes.”
Alex’s gaze flicked to his then away. After a moment, she nodded, as though she’d made a decision. “Okay,” she murmured. “Okay.” A breath. “I’ll tell you everything.”
Thirty-Five
Daughtry’s fingers clenched hard, and the DVD cases crackled in protest. Quickly, she set them down on the coffee table.
Shit. Her throat went a little dry, her heart pounded, her magic buzzed in her mind.
This was one of those moments where it was both good and bad to have the power of foresight. She hadn’t pulled and altered a vision of death since Kaitlin—the little girl’s death she’d accidentally changed for the worse before fixing it — but she still experienced other byproducts of her Oracle powers. Little pricklings. Like knowing Alex was coming before she’d arrived at the Colony. Anticipating when one of her teachers was going to give a pop quiz. Sensing someone walking around the corner a few seconds before she went around the same turn—thus being able to move and avoid a collision.
And this.
Knowing that whatever Alex was about to tell her wasn’t going to be good.
“How much do you know about our mother?” Alex asked. It was the first time Alex had directly mentioned their familial connection. Daughtry had wondered if she knew they were related. Clearly, Alex had. Which created a whole new slew of questions.
“I—” She broke off, stood, and started pacing.
Daughtry knew a hell of a lot about their mother, considering that she’d been the one to kill Elisabeth.
Not that the act had been a conscious choice.
Instead, it had been one of those critical moments when a person has to pick life or death for herself, and instinct takes over.
She shuddered at the memory. Flames roaring. Ash coating the air.
Her mother dead.
But that wasn’t what Alex was asking.
With a deep breath, she said, “The first time I met our mother was at the Colony, and she was disguised as Cody’s sister, Caroline.” Dee shook off the tenterhooks of the memories, not wanting to delve back into how her life had been in so much upheaval at the time. “It wasn’t until I was in a cell in the Dalshie stronghold that I saw her as truly evil.”
She’d seen Elisabeth’s cruelty. Borne witness to murder. Torture.
And yet it wasn’t until later that she’d known that woman was her mother.
From the moment her powers had come forth, Daughtry had feared the intrinsic darkness within them. Seeing her own mother—an Oracle who’d been unable to resist the lure of using her powers of foresight in nefarious ways—had been her worst nightmare come to life.
“Yes,” Alex said. “She was evil.”
Daughtry’s eyes flicked up, and she saw shadows flutter across her sister’s expression. “How—” She broke off, stifling the question, but still desperately wanting to know how her sister had come to be.
“I’m twenty.”
Cody’s surprise registered across the bond, but Daughtry didn’t understand. “Okay . . .” She hesitated. “Congratulations?”
Alex snorted. “I’m twenty. As in five years younger than you.” A beat. “As in our mother was pregnant when she turned.”
Daughtry had been standing until then, nervous energy making it impossible for her to sit still, but at her sister’s revelation, her legs wobbled. She had to lock her knees in order to not sink to the floor.
A baby. An innocent baby in the hands of the Dalshie.
She was going to be sick.
“Our mother was famous for her experiments,” Alex continued, her voice oddly placid. “She always wanted to take it one step further than anyone else . . . wanted to do more than the Dalshie from the past.”
More?
Dee’s mind whirled, horrible imaginings slamming around her consciousness. She would keep it together, she would, but—
Damn. Her eyes burned like a mother and her throat . . .
Cody crossed to her and took her arm. “Hang on,” he told John and Alex before tugging her outside. The night air was cool, the stars bright, but Dee couldn’t appreciate the gorgeousness of her surroundings.
Because she’d seen firsthand evidence of Dalshie experiments. Had friends who’d survived them.
The Forgotten had been created by pumping magic into mortals, trying to get it to stick to their DNA, to turn them into magical soldiers for use against the Rengalla. According to Dominic—the Forgotten’s leader and her friend—most of the humans who’d been abducted and taken to the camp at Ravensbrück had died.
But a small group had survived.
They’d managed to flee when the Rengalla found out about the experiments and took out the Dalshie conducting them. The Forgotten’s existence had been nomadic since then, as they’d attempted to avoid the Rengalla and the Dalshie alike. The efforts weren’t always successful—the two people most involved in Daughtry’s abduction from the Rengalla as a child were Forgotten. Of course, Judith and Daniel had been blackmailed by the Dalshie, and they’d eventually paid the price in their own way.
“I love you,” Cody spoke into her mind, distracting her from her thoughts. She smiled, pushed back the memories, and steadied her legs.
Ugh. Emotional baggage sucked. “I know.”
He snorted. “So sentimental, cowgirl.”
Her laugh was soft. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all maudlin and morose. I’m not Eeyore.” She sighed. “Or at least not any longer. But it’s hard not to think about the past with all this . . . whatever this is going to turn out as.”
Cody took her hand, smiled softly. “This might be the key to all the questions, the path that will finally allow us to find peace.”
“I’ve been pretty happy with the peace we’ve had the last months.”
“Me too, cowgirl. Me too.” He leaned in, nuzzling at her throat. “Try to remember this will all be okay, that we’ll figure it out together—” He froze, his mental curse echoing across the bond.
“What is it?” She called on her instincts, focusing on their surroundings.
Her skin wasn’t prickling, her stomach wasn’t nauseous. So there weren’t any Dalshie nearby. Then what—
Cody’s focus shifted, and she finally realized what he was hearing. Raised voices. From within the house.
Turning almost as one, they ran inside.
John was glaring down at Alex, yelling something about how she wasn’t trustworthy. For Alex’s part, she didn’t appear kowtowed at all.
She stood nearly chest-to-chest with John, her spine rigid, her blue eyes filled with fire.
/> “You’re nothing but a pawn. I know it. You know it!” John yelled. “Tell me what they want or so help me God—”
“You’ll what?” Alex shouted. “Torture it out of me? Hit me, burn me, lock me in a cell? I’ve been there, done that.” She shoved him hard enough that he backed up a pace. “There’s nothing you can do that will force me to do anything I don’t want to.”
Daughtry started forward, ready to intervene, wanting to calm the situation. Cody stopped her with a hand on his arm.
“No,” he thought. “Wait.”
She hesitated. “Why?”
“Let her get it out,” he thought then shrugged. “We’ll probably learn more from her blurting things out when she’s pissed than when she’s trying to sugarcoat the situation.”
“You don’t agree with John?”
Cody shook his head. “No. I don’t know what’s going on with him. He’s never been this emotional, but Alex hasn’t given us any indication that she’s in league with the Dalshie. I trust my eyes, and I trust”—he squeezed her arm—“your instincts.”
She turned her gaze back to the confrontation but leaned into Cody, accepting the support at her back.
“Do you think I spent six years in a fucking cell?” Alex spat. “Six years without sunlight, without real food, without something as simple as a shower only to turn around and betray the people who’ve shown me the first bit of kindness I’ve had in—in a long time?” She stepped close to John, lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders in a gesture that reminded Daughtry very much that her sister was only twenty. Especially when her voice broke over her next question. “Do you think I’d ruin the only shot I’ve got of having a family?”
John didn’t answer, but the look on his face was one Daughtry had seen before.
He wasn’t an asshole very often. Not that he didn’t have his moments, same as anyone. But the thing about John was that while those A-hole moments might be few and far between, the moment you called him on his crap, the second you made him see reason, he could flip the switch and be a kind, compassionate man again.
Daughtry had seen it before. Alex, obviously, hadn’t.
So when her words struck John between the eyes and he took off his asshole hat, and raised a hand, her sister couldn’t know his intentions.
Alex couldn’t know how to react to the gesture.
“You’re right,” he said, reaching for her. “That was uncalled for. I’m—”
The thunk of fist against cheek was loud.
“Don’t touch me,” Alex said, her voice tinged with only the slightest waver.
And right about now was the time to intervene.
John’s indigo eyes went cold as he reached up and pressed a hand to his cheek. A red mark was already there, a distinct crimson mark bright against his tanned cheek.
“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Daughtry murmured.
Both Alex’s and John’s gazes shot over to her and Cody. John’s met hers then fell away, but not before she saw the remorse. She crossed the room, laid a hand on John’s cheek, and called upon her magic. “It’s okay,” she murmured.
He shook his head, started to pull free. “It’s not. I’m not usually out of control, you know that.”
“I know. It’s a stressful situation for everyone,” she said softly. “Now hold still.”
“Stress isn’t my issue.”
Her magic drew out the sting from the slap, soothed the reddened skin. “Then what is?”
“It’s—I feel—” John sighed. “Just leave it, Dee.” He turned and walked to the window.
“I’ve got him,” Cody thought. “You take care of Alex.”
She let the healing magic shut off, grabbed her sister’s hand, and tugged her to the bedroom.
“See you in the morning,” she thought to Cody. “I love you.”
“If you need me,” he thought back, “I’ll always be there.”
Thirty-Six
Daughtry closed the bedroom door, let go of Alex’s hand, and crossed to her duffle bag to dig for some jammies.
“I don’t really know how to be a sister.”
Daughtry turned at Alex’s admission, a pair of cotton pajama pants in her hand. The slightly morose look on her sister’s face made her smile. “Me neither.”
“No?” Alex’s face was skeptical.
“Nope,” Daughtry answered. “But I do know how to be a friend.” She cocked her head. “So why don’t we start there?”
For a few seconds, she thought she’d said the wrong thing. Then Alex smiled, a full-blown grin that made Daughtry’s heart fill with hope.
“Yeah?” her sister asked.
Dee shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Cool.” A pause then, “I’ve never had a friend before.”
The hope in Daughtry’s heart went suddenly heavy. “Well, you have one now, and you’ll have more once we get settled at the Colony.”
“You mean once the testosterone monster finally gets it in his head to trust me,” Alex muttered, rolling her eyes at the door that led to the living room before walking over to her own bag that Suz had packed for her.
Daughtry couldn’t hold back her snort. “Something like that,” she said and slipped into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth.
By the time Alex had taken her turn in the bathroom, Daughtry was settled onto one side of the king-sized bed.
“Too weird?” she asked when Alex hesitated in the doorway. “I can sleep on the floor.”
Her sister shook her head, and her words came out rushed. “No,” she said. “It’s fine. I mean the bed is big and—”
“Deep breath,” Daughtry said and smiled. “I don’t even hog the covers.”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” She bit her lip. “It’s just . . . sometimes I have nightmares.”
Dee did her best to keep her face blank even though emotions surged through her. The expression on her sister’s face was wrenching—frost in her blue eyes, bone-deep fear beneath that ice.
She didn’t want to think about what demons Alex had dealt with during her time with the Dalshie, what kind of atrocities she’d faced, but it wasn’t like she could completely ignore what were facts of life.
Her sister had been hurt.
Sucking in a breath, Daughtry shored up her spine and said, “Me too.”
It was the truth.
Maybe it wasn’t the way she wanted to relate to her sister, but it was something. Better to embrace the tie than pretend the memory of her hands slicing through their mother’s body—coated in magical flames of emerald and violet—didn’t still haunt her.
What kind of monster would she be if it didn’t still haunt her?
“Really?” Alex asked.
“Really.”
Her sister nodded and slowly climbed into bed. She lay stiff as a log for what seemed like an eternity.
“Here,” Dee finally said into the pulsing silence and took her laptop from the nightstand. She clicked on one of the old episodes of Librarians Gone Wild she had on the hard drive and cranked the volume. The show was so good that she didn’t mind rewatching it.
A fight was brewing in the world of her favorite bibliophiles, a doozy over whether or not they should forgive late fines, and nothing screamed female bonding to Daughtry more than a couple of episodes of bad reality television.
Well, that and chocolate, but since she didn’t have any of that—
The knock on the door made Alex gasp.
“Just Cody,” Dee murmured. To her bondmate, she thought, “Knocking, huh?”
A thread of embarrassment slid across the bond. “I’m not about to barge in on your sister.”
She smothered a laugh. What did he think they’d be doing? Pillow fights in their underwear? “I appreciate the consideration,” she thought and threw a mental kiss in his direction. “Be that as it may, it’s safe to come in.”
His humor swept across their connection, and he opened the door to reveal a large smile on his handsome face.
“Couldn’t sleep without saying goodnight to my girls.” He crossed the room, pressed a kiss to her forehead then—to both her and Alex’s surprise—walked around the bed and repeated the same gesture to her sister.
“I also come bearing gifts,” he said, extracting a bag of chocolate candies from his pocket. His mind was slightly less buoyant than his verbal words, laced with concern for both her and Alex. “You okay?” he thought. “She okay?”
“Getting there, I think. What the hell is going on with John?”
“He’s an idiot.”
She snorted. “That’s my line.”
“Apparently he’s just tired from our last mission. He promised me he’d get it together.”
“Good.” Aloud, she said. “Thanks for the chocolate.”
“I’d say you’re welcome, but I think it’s one of my duties as bondmate and fiancé to provide you with it.” His eyes dropped to her laptop, the screen frozen mid-fight over a New York Times Bestseller, and he groaned. “I thought you said you couldn’t watch this because we don’t have Internet.”
Dee smiled smugly. “I have season three saved on my hard drive. It’s my favorite.”
He shook his head. “I’m on first watch,” he said aloud, for Alex’s benefit. “Just holler if you need anything. The cameras are on, and the security system is activated.” And since they’d used Bond Magic earlier to create a shield around the cabin, that was as safe as they got. “Make sure not to leave the house without telling John or me. We can turn off the alarm if you need to get out for some reason.”
Daughtry nodded in approval, knowing that Cody remembered all of the times she’d needed space to process when her life was thrown into disarray, and she loved him all the more because he was willing to grant the same consolation to Alex.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sister nod, heard her murmur, “Thanks.”