by Mia Taylor
“I heard you talking to Beatrice.”
As the words left her mouth, she wished she could put them back, but he nodded, sighing heavily.
“I’m surprised it took you this long to learn the truth,” he replied. Then, conversationally he added, “Do you want me to take him?”
He gestured at the nearly hysterical baby but Fallon jerked her arms back and stepped further back.
“You don’t touch my boys,” she hissed.
“Fallon, darling, they’re my boys too, remember?”
She blinked, the gravity of what she’d been told yanking her back into a surreal reality.
“Why do you need girls?” Again, she wondered why she had voiced such a question aloud but she needed to know the entire truth. For years she had been a pawn in some dark, twisted plot of which she’d had no clue. If there was any hope of escaping the madness, she needed to know what she was up against.
“Why do you think?” Daniel scoffed at her, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe that of all the women Bea could have found with a carrier gene, it was you. Homeless Honey. Jesus. But that’s also what made you so easy to find. Your DNA was on record for that little jewellery store job you pulled and did time for a couple years back.”
Hot and cold washed over Fallon simultaneously.
“You never cared about me,” she breathed, humiliation staining her cheeks. “You never loved me. You used me for this… project?”
“It’s not a project! It’s a plan which will work when the shifters overtake the populous and rule the world!”
“And you thought you could orchestrate this singlehandedly by breeding your own children together? Are you insane?”
“All geniuses have been regarded as insane at some time in history,” he replied flippantly.
“Why don’t you and your sister just…” Fallon couldn’t even finish her thought, the idea of siblings creating life together far too disturbing for her to fathom.
“My sister refuses,” he sighed. “I offered.”
Fallon snorted.
“Obviously Bea is the more intelligent of you both.”
The venom in her voice seemed to stop him short and his eyes narrowed.
“Well, I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” he spat back. “You’re not smart enough to see the greater good. Anyway, you can’t produce girls.”
It was Fallon’s turn to smirk, cold and humorlessly.
“Actually, my brilliant husband,” she countered. “The man is genetically responsible for determining sex in his offspring. So this one is on you. Even if you manage to find another ‘carrier’, you’ll still keep popping out boys because you’re a failure.”
The smug expression on his face faltered but he didn’t have an opportunity to react when she reached out with the arm not holding the baby and yanked the Tiffany lamp from the table.
A spray of sparks lit the outlet and Fallon smelled burning but she didn’t bother to look, the heavy glass shade smashing across Daniel’s face.
He whimpered in pain, crumpling to the floor, and Fallon stared at him, his eyelids fluttering strangely as he fought with consciousness. To her relief, he went limp and Fallon bolted down the hallway, her heart thudding dangerously in her chest.
Smoke began to fill the corridor and as she whirled around the corner, she screeched to a stop, her sons staring at her with wide, terrified eyes.
“Mama?” they whispered in unison.
“It’s all right,” she told them softly, gathering them to her body. “But we have to get out of here. Now.”
Chapter Eight
The Long Road Good-Bye
Cypher could plainly see something was amiss as if he inherently understood the tragedy that was about to unfold for years to come, but his age prevented him from understanding the entirety of what was going on.
There were tears in eyes as he stared at Fallon, his chin quivering as they stood huddled in a group by the imposing iron gate. It had taken two days of traveling to get to where they were but Fallon felt like the trip had not taken any time at all.
For the time it had taken for them to get to Kentucky from Ashbridge, Fallon had considered any other possible scenario than the one which they faced in that moment, but there was no other way, no one else to call, no friends or family she could reach out to for help.
They had seen to that. That’s why they picked me of all the carriers they could have found. I was the one that no one would miss at the end of it all.
She wondered what Bea’s role had been in the entire scheme, if she was also a carrier or if she was a shifter or if maybe she was simply supporting her brother. Fallon didn’t put anything past the family she had come to call her own over the past five years.
The weather had turned unexpectedly cold, an ominous dark cloud mirroring the dense sense of morose hovering above the small group.
“What are we doing here?” Cypher asked, his small voice almost squeaking as she embraced them closer as if trying to ward off the darkness. “What is this place?”
“Shh!” Fallon whispered, brushing a strand of dark hair away from his face as his brothers tittered amongst themselves, still oblivious to what was going on. To them, it was an adventure, not an escape. She was grateful that at least two of them were too young to understand the betrayal that was being forced upon them.
How could she explain to them that their worlds were about to descend into chaos, that any sense of security they had known was obsolete? Fallon could pray for the best but her experience with the world told her that she was setting her sights much too high, that she was sending her sons into the unknown, despite her desire to keep them close.
“Everything will be all right,” she said in her most reassuring voice although the words cracked as she spoke.
But it was a lie, of course, and Cypher sensed it, his slate irises shining.
He was only five, just barely turned, yet he was almost a man it seemed, wise beyond his years.
My little old soul, she thought mournfully. It will be the hardest for you.
Fallon thought of Daniel’s words to her, about what would happen to them when they were in their preteen years.
She had no idea if she could believe her husband’s words, but she had seen enough with her own eyes to be very worried, heard enough to be sickened.
“You must do your best to take care of your brothers,” she told her oldest son. “I have to go away for a while.”
“Where are you going? For how long?” he demanded, his tone attracting his distracted siblings, but she didn’t answer. How could she when she didn’t have one to give?
Where am I going? Back to a life on the streets? Will I live a week out there? If Bea found me once, she can easily find me again, can’t she? The Wexleys have all the tools they need to find anything they want and if Daniel didn’t survive the fire…
She shuddered to think about what Beatrice would do if Fallon had killed her brother.
What kind of relationship did they have?
There were so many questions now, most of which Fallon did not want answers to.
At least not right now. My only goal is getting the boys to safety. I will figure out a way to come back for them, one way or another, but this is the only way right now.
She thrust the sleeping infant from her arms into Cypher’s instead of answering and he stood dumbly, staring at the baby before raising his head to look at her.
“Everything will be fine,” she told him, hoping that there was some conviction in her words, but the look on his tiny face and the expressions on his brothers’ told her that she was reassuring no one.
Least of all myself.
A sob escaped her lips before she could stop it and she knew she had to leave before she changed her mind. She had to go. There was no other option, not for her and not for them to have a fighting chance in the cruel world into which they had been born.
“I love you boy
s with all my heart,” she whispered but she couldn’t be sure they heard her as she turned to bolt away, leaving them behind.
“Mama! Mama, where are you going?” Cypher cried, waking the sleeping baby who began to wail. “Mama! Mama, don’t leave us here!”
Chaos erupted then, the cries of terror mounting between them.
Fittingly, fat drops of rain began to fall from the sky as the boys yelled out for her to return.
“Mama! Mama, come back!” they chorused, but she couldn’t, no matter how desperately she wished to.
It’s for the best. I am doing the right thing. I am doing the only thing that will guarantee they are kept away from Beatrice Wexley if she comes looking.
It was a futile argument because it did nothing to make her feel better about her choice, but it was the truth.
If they remained with her, the danger was far too great, the possibility that they would be discovered for what they were much higher than if they were sent away. Not to mention what they would be encouraged, if not forced, to do should female shifters be found for them to mate with.
At least their father will never come looking for them here.
She didn’t need to remind herself that if he ever found her and saw what she had done, sending the boys away, her life was as good as over.
It’s probably over anyway and it doesn’t matter.
It would be worth it to know that her babies were safe. They were young enough to find good homes, to start fresh somewhere, hopefully among people who would love and care for them.
She ran around the corner, her dark hair fanning as she turned, their tiny voices calling out for her, even from the distance between them.
“Mama! Mama! Mama!”
It was heartbreaking but she knew she had to be strong. Still, she could not resist peering out from behind the wall to stare at them one last time. She knew that it was likely the last time she would hear them calling out for her like that and despite the pain in their voices, she wanted to hear them say her name.
Mama.
They seemed to vulnerable, so lost in the world as they stared after her helplessly, their pleas diminishing as they slowly realized that she was not coming back.
The oldest boy did his best to wrangle them into his small embrace, possibly offering them words of comfort the best way he could. Pride and grief filled Fallon’s slender frame and she dropped her head against the wall, trying to compose herself.
They will thank me for this one day, she promised herself. I am saving them. If they ever figure out what has happened.
Reluctantly, she turned back into the alleyway, hanging her dampening head in sorrow as her tears intermingled with the rain falling from the sky. Her only hope now was that they were rescued together and remained that way.
They need one another now. They have no one else.
It was a desperate thought. No one would take four boys under the age of six.
And certainly not four boys with their devastating powers, even if they hadn’t manifested yet.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and made her way across the sodden laneway toward the busy street. There was nothing left to do but pray, but she didn’t have high hopes that those prayers would be answered.
The gods had done nothing to help her thus far. If anything, they had seemed hellbent on destroying her at every opportunity.
They send me a pretend husband, a pretend friend, a fake job and children whom I have to give away. I was better off living in my own filth, struggling to eat, wasn’t I? At least I wasn’t afraid for my children.
Maybe her sons would have better luck, maybe the world would be a kinder, gentler place by the time they reached maturity. Maybe a cure would be found for their shifting or a tolerance would be reached among the populace. But as she disappeared into the unforgiving city, she had a terrible sense of foreboding, intertwined with the almost insurmountable guilt.
After all, when had their family ever been bestowed good fortune?
Epilogue
“You’re Leah, right?”
Fallon looked up, her back instantly tensing as the well-dressed stranger sat at her side in the pew, uninvited. For a moment, she considered ignoring him but she didn’t want to attract attention to herself.
“Yes.”
She didn’t elaborate nor look directly at him, her head focused on the pulpit as Pastor Rogers waited for his congregation to settle. She wished the minister would start his sermon so she would have just cause to ignore the man at her side who stared at her with bright blue eyes.
It had been ten years since she had left her sons in front of the nunnery in Louisville but the paranoia, the fear and the suspicion did not lessen an iota despite the time which passed.
She hadn’t stayed in one town long enough to make an impression or lay roots, but she had figured out quite early on that binding herself to the nearest church was the fastest way to ensure survival in any town, particulary one in the bible belt.
This had been the longest she’d stayed in one place since beginning her run, but she was getting tired, so tired of it all. But now, someone was nosing around her, asking questions, and Fallon knew it was time to move on again.
She didn’t have any friends. Friends asked questions and questions led to dangers which Fallon did not want to track her again.
Ideally, she wanted to leave the US and hunker down in some unknown town in Europe or Australia, but she had no passport to make that happen and Fallon didn’t know the kinds of people she had known when she’d lived on the streets of Ashbridge.
It had occurred to her to return either to the home she’d shared with Daniel or just to find some of her old contacts in the slums, but the peril was far too great. She wasn’t even sure if the house had burned down that day or not.
Maybe I’ll find a way to sneak across the border to Canada one day, she’d promised herself in those earlier days, but the idea of being so far away from her children made her gut split in agony.
She still believed that one day she would be reunited with the boys, that she would hold them in her arms and tell them how sorry she was that she had to leave them, but time was the enemy.
Fallon was sure they had no idea who she was anymore. She wasn’t sure she knew who she was anymore either.
Maybe Fallon Rusholm never existed. I know Fallon Wexley never did. Maybe I really am Leah Danvers.
“I’m Kevin Davies,” the man said, offering his hand. “I’ve heard you sing at choir practice and you have the voice of an angel.”
Fallon did not even crack a smile and she ignored his hand. His beam faltered.
Dammit. It was the only thing I did for myself and now I have a stalker watching me. Does he work for the Wexleys?
He was certainly well dressed enough but there was nothing pretentious or cold about the man. He had an easy-going mannerism about him but he seemed ill at ease also.
Because I’m making him uncomfortable, she realized and the thought pleased her.
“I, uh, I’m new to Dalhousie,” he continued as if she had not blatantly snubbed him. “I never thought I’d live in a small town but this is where my dad kicked it so…”
Fallon jerked her head up and she peered at him, an unexpected pang of sympathy touching her.
“Your father died?” she asked and he nodded. She turned her head back toward the front, wishing she hadn’t engaged him but it was too late.
“It’s all right. He was really old,” Kevin chuckled. “He had me when he was sixty so…”
Fallon cast him a sidelong look but she didn’t speak.
“Anyway, I’m setting up my firm here and commuting for a while, it seems,” he chuckled dryly. “At least until the estate is settled.”
“Your firm?” she echoed before she could stop herself, her spine tensing. “What kind of firm?”
He smiled and Fallon found herself searching his mouth for fangs as she did so often with so many
others.
“I’m a lawyer,” he replied.
“Oh.”
She turned her attention back to the pastor who tapped on the mic.
“Are we ready to get started?” Pastor Rogers asked.
“I specialize in adoption law.”
Fallon whipped her head around and stared at him, a combination of terror and excitement coursing through her.
“Adoption?” she whispered. “You can look into adoption records?”
Kevin’s brow furrowed and he shrugged.
“Well, that depends,” he said slowly, shooting her a worried look. “I mean, it depends on a lot of things.”
But Fallon was barely listening after that, her eyes trained on his lips as they moved, her mind whirling with possibilities.
An adoption lawyer could help her find the boys. An adoption lawyer could open doors she had never dreamed of in the way of locating her sons.
“Sorry,” Kevin breathed as the pastor began his sermon. “I’ve bored you to tears.”
She shook her now blonde head, her dark eyes sparkling as she studied his face, listening to what her gut was telling her.
When Beatrice had reappeared in her life, her sixth sense had warned Fallon and she had ignored it, but there was nothing about this man which screamed a warning.
I’m going to have to trust someone sometime if I ever aspire to see my boys again.
“Just ignore me,” Kevin mumbled, his face flushing with embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
He turned his head away but Fallon reached out to touch his arm, a warm energy moving between them. He looked at her pensively, his cerulean eyes widening at the unexpected touch.
“No, you didn’t bore me and you’re not bothering me,” she replied softly. “You’ve just given me hope for the first time in a decade.”