Ares hands the girl at the window a credit card after she tells him the total. She makes quick work of giving back his card and the receipt. Once the window closes, Milo turns in his seat a bit to look into the back. “After we get everything put away, do you think you could give me a hand for a couple of minutes? I want to get a few things done before we have to go out tonight.”
“Sure,” Dante replies.
“What are we doing?” Ollie looks sideways at Milo.
“Anything I want. You make me work all the time.” Milo settles his back into the seat facing forward again with a little pouty scowl on his face.
The drive-up window slides open and I see bags already lined up on the counter. Ares takes each, thanking the girl while handing them off to Milo. He sorts through the bags, finding a paper wrapped burger, and hands it back to Dante. He doesn’t waste any time opening it up. Right before he takes the first bite, he freezes and holds the sandwich out to me instead. I shake my head, warmed by his thoughtfulness.
Chapter 7
“We’re in the kitchen,” Rosa calls, when we enter the door to the mudroom. Everyone but Ares kicks off their shoes. I struggle for a minute, trying to line up my toe and heel like I would usually do without even thinking about it, but it takes me several seconds to get my shoes off.
Ollie wraps his arm over my shoulders and tips his head into mine as we move out into the hallway. As much as I’ve missed my mom and been worried about her, I’m nervous. So much in my life has changed over the last few months. How is she going to react when she sees me with the guys? She didn’t say anything last night when we left to go home, but I could see she wanted to.
Milo walks into the kitchen first, with Dante right behind him. Ollie and I make our way through the door together. Rosa is already standing, ready to greet us with hugs, as has become usual for her.
I can’t bring myself to look over at my mom. When I return Rosa’s embrace, I’m a little stiffer than usual, but I wrap my arms around her and briefly squeeze before stepping back. Ollie is right there waiting. He doesn’t give me the chance to deny him the closeness I probably would have out of sheer nerves. Mom stays on her stool, quiet as a mouse.
“Hey, Mom.” I drag Ollie with me to get a little closer to her. Her lips lift, but it’s mostly her going through the motions of smiling. I study her eyes. She seems more distant now than she did before she disappeared. “Everything okay?” I immediately fall into the role of caretaker.
She brings her hand up and squeezes her temples between her thumb and middle finger. “Just a headache, nothing to worry about,” she replies, dismissing me.
“Do you want an ibuprofen? Have you eaten? It might help,” I ask her, not convinced it’s just a headache.
“I had lunch, and I think we’re all eating together for dinner.” Mom looks around me over to Rosa, who’s chatting easily with Dante.
“Are you okay staying here?” I whisper.
Her eyes jump back to mine. “I’m fine, Laura, better than I have been in a long time. I just wish I weren’t putting everyone else in danger.” She sighs out the last part, her cold exterior cracking a little with the confession.
I pull out the empty stool next to her. “You don’t think he’ll leave us alone?” I ask, sounding a little too hopeful.
“He didn’t stop looking for me for almost eighteen years,” is her answer. Ollie stays on my opposite side, giving us the illusion of privacy.
“Was he mean to you while you were with him?” I stare at my fingers on the island instead of looking at her.
“He could have been worse.” I peek over at her after her response. “He fed me and gave me clothes, but I wasn’t allowed out of his sight.” Her eyes go unfocused.
My mouth goes dry. I really don’t want to think about what he did to her, what else he could have done while she was gone.
“He left something on our car today, while we were shopping,” I tell her, before remembering, “Oh yeah, Ares called. You already know.” I ball my hands up and bring them down to my lap. “But that means he’s watching us; he probably already knows where we live. Ares can’t go to work, and we can’t go to school. We have to do something to make him stop. To make sure he leaves us alone.”
Mom stays quiet.
“Is there anything you can tell us about him? Where he was holding you, how his abilities work, if he actually has more than one?” I twist my neck so I can watch her and her reactions.
“I really don’t know where we were. It was just a house—a nice house—but just a house.” She opens her hands on the island.
“Well, that’s something, right? Was the house nice like this one?” I gaze around at the opulence I’ve actually grown a little used to since staying here. “Or nice like a normal nice?” I think back to the few times we would talk about finding a place to stay; she always wanted a little bungalow.
“Big like this, but older.” She looks around, her eyes passing over the fine cabinets and granite countertops.
“We stayed mostly on the lower level. It was underground.” She closes her eyes and blinks several times. When she looks at me again, that detached haze is there again.
“Ares is thinking about letting one of us touch the paper he left behind, so we can see what he was trying to do with it.” I want to keep her engaging with me, want her to know we’re fighting against him. “Do you think that’s safe?”
“With Leon, you never can assume.” She shakes her head and licks her lips in a nervous gesture.
“Will you tell me about Wyatt, Mom?”
She flinches when I say his name. I can’t imagine what this must be like for her. Can’t imagine what it would be like if something were to happen to Ollie or Dante and knowing that it was Ares or Milo that hurt them. No wonder she’s so screwed up.
She takes a deep breath, then admits, “He was…he was my everything.” She flattens her lips into a tight, makeshift smile. “We had an instant connection. It was electric. Nothing like what I experienced with Leon.” I shut off all the background noise from all the guys and their families and give my mom my full attention.
Mom opens her mouth to speak but closes it. She swallows and tries again. “I guess I can’t tell you about one without telling you about the other. Leon knew about Wyatt before I did. He kept us apart until Wyatt decided he was tired of waiting for Leon and all his excuses.” One side of her mouth tips up and a genuine smile lights up her face.
“Wyatt, your dad, he didn’t come from a wealthy family like the Whitmores. One of his fathers was an animal shifter, a fox… I think.” Mom’s head tilts to the side. “Shifters, especially small animal shifters, aren’t viewed as particularly powerful, and it can have an effect on how others in the community treat them.”
I dart my eyes in Dante’s direction. He’s lounging on the back of the couch with feet on the floor, and his arm stretched over the back as he grins at something Rosa and Mal are saying. I don’t understand how something as special as being a shifter could be looked at as less than any of the other abilities. The thought of someone treating Dante any different, because he can shift into a tiger, makes me instantly angry.
Mom continues, probably not even realizing the effect her words are having on me. “I didn’t know that Wyatt had reached out to Leon to tell him that he, too, bore our mark. Leon never told me.”
“That’s not surprising after learning how screwed up he is,” I snarl. The weight of Ollie’s hand lands over mine in my lap. He gives my fingers a gentle squeeze, reminding me he’s here with me.
“No, I don’t suppose it is. But I was naïve back then. I knew something was wrong with our connection. I just didn’t know what it was, and I was too embarrassed to talk to anyone about it. I grew up dreaming about finding my Infinity. Knowing that one day, I would have what my parents had, my friends had.”
My mom looks over in Rosa’s direction. She’s leaning forward, her hand outstretched to William. It’s plain to everyone in the room how happy
she is. Even with the cloud of Leon hanging over us, her eyes are bright with happiness. As we watch, William pulls her up to stand and wraps his arms around her back. Then, as she tips her face up, he dips down, and they share a stolen moment of tenderness, a sweet kiss. Even as they each pull away, still staring into each other’s eyes, you can see the love and devotion shining between them.
Mom looks away. She reaches for a napkin and drags it across the counter, wiping away imaginary crumbs. “Anyway, Leon thought he could intimidate Wyatt with his money and his family’s power, but it didn’t work. Wyatt used his mimic ability to sneak into the house to see me, because Leon and I barely left the house at that point.” Mom tears a little piece of the napkin off, her fingers working quickly on another.
“How did he get in? How did his mimic ability work?” Ares interjects, placing a can of soda on the counter in front of me. He leans back against the cabinets behind him and folds his arms across his chest, waiting for my mother to answer his question.
“He had to touch someone to be able to use their ability. It only lasted a short while—maybe twenty minutes—but he was able to sustain it much longer after we bonded,” Mom answers with a note of pride in her tone.
“Once Leon knew there was no way to keep us apart, he got fanatical about testing Wyatt. He wanted to know how long Wyatt could sustain an ability, how many abilities he could mimic a day, and how much stronger Wyatt was when we were together.”
Mom shakes her head in disbelief. “We were just starting to realize how screwed up Leon really was. I think he knew Wyatt and I were planning on going to my parents and telling them that something was wrong.” The napkin she has been tearing up has been reduced to a small pile of tiny white pieces.
“You see, my parents, they had money and prestige like the Whitmores. And with Wyatt by my side, I wasn’t afraid to tell them I wasn’t connected to Leon, identifier or not.”
“What stopped you from going to them?” I want to place my hand over her fingers to stop her from shredding the tiny shred of the napkin she has left, but I don’t.
“Leon did. The night we planned to leave, he had dinner brought in, made a big deal about us all eating it together.” Mom makes a scoffing sound.
“I should have known right then something was off. But I was too preoccupied with our plans to leave. I didn’t think Leon had a clue about us leaving. To be honest, I didn’t think he would care much. The only thing he seemed to care about at all was Wyatt’s ability, but I thought his obsession was more scientific.”
“How did he get you both to stay?” Ares inquires softly.
“Manipulation. He used his abilities against us.” Mom doesn’t move her head, but she looks up at Ares.
The mask of confusion on his face is clear. “How is that possible?” he finally queries slowly.
“We never bonded. Looking back, he had been using it on me the entire time. I never would have gone months without speaking to my family or Rosa. He was manipulating me from the beginning.”
Ares brings his hand up and covers his mouth. He drags his fingers down and tugs at his chin. “Then how do we know he’s not influencing you now?”
Ollie’s head turns in our direction, all pretenses of him giving us privacy evaporating. Mom’s face goes ashen as she glances between the three of us.
“He’s not…I don’t think he is.” She stands up from the stool and inches away from us.
“How would you know? If you never bonded with him, he could still be using his abilities against you.” Ares watches her retreat, his eyes never leaving her, and he has a cold look of calculation on his face. “Did he give you anything—those clothes, anything that he could have influenced?”
Mom’s hand comes up to her chest, and she grips the material of her shirt. “No, Rosa gave me these, but the clothes from yesterday...” She doesn’t need to add anything more.
Dante slips out the door behind her, unseen by my mom. I’m sure he’s going to see if he can sense anything from the room where she’s staying.
I stand up slowly. “Mom, it’s okay, you don’t have anything right now that could be affecting you. I would know.” I can see the fear in her eyes. No wonder she’s so terrified of him. He could make her do anything, and it would be completely out of her control.
“We don’t know how long the effects last. We need to be certain,” Ares adds. When I look back at him, I notice we’ve captured everyone’s attention.
Dante returns to the kitchen. “I didn’t feel anything.” He makes his way over to my side.
Mom’s narrowed eyes dart over to Dante. “How can you be sure?”
“Dante and I can… feel… when he manipulates something. Just being near it is enough for us to sense it,” I tell her.
“How?” Mom folds her arms across her chest, tucking her hands under her arms as if she’s cold.
“I don’t know how it works. Ares put some equipment in the motorhome so we would know if you or anyone else went there. The cameras were triggered, but there was interference.” I look over my shoulder at Ares, making sure I’m explaining this correctly.
He gives me a slight nod to continue. “We went to check it out, but something felt off as soon as I got inside, Dante sensed it too. There was a box, a box like the one you kept your ring in, on the driver’s seat.”
Mom’s face pales, and I notice when she swallows. “He left that for you. I can’t believe you can sense his ability.” She licks her lips and reaches her hand in my direction. “Can you tell if he’s done something to me?”
I go to step forward to accept her hand, but Dante’s heavy palm lands on my shoulder. “I think we need a better understanding of how his ability works first. How do we know if you’re infected or not? It might spread.”
“I think we would still be able to sense it, Dante.” He looks down at me, and he’s still reluctant, I can see it in the way his eyes are searching mine.
He releases me, and I take a step closer to Mom, closing the distance between us. I reiterate what I just said but grab for her hand anyway. “I didn’t feel anything off Mom before; I still don’t.” This close together, I have to look down to meet her eyes. She’s only a couple inches shorter, but it seems more obvious now. The feeling of her hand in mine doesn’t even register, I know my fingers are wrapped around hers, but I can’t feel it. That sends a pang of loss through my chest.
After a few long seconds, she tugs her hand away and looks down at the ground. “I want to tell you everything I know. I’m just afraid it’s not very much.”
“Anything might be helpful,” Ares encourages. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I could take a look through your memories?” he offers hopefully.
Mom peers up from the floor, her shoulders go back a little, and she meets Ares’s eyes. “With direct contact he can influence your emotions. It’s not like mind control. More like he can make everything fuzzy, so you just don’t care. Like you’ve been desensitized. Things that you would never do otherwise seem like no big deal.”
“How long does that last?” Ares maneuvers around the kitchen until he’s standing on my other side, letting go of the fact that she ignored his offer to get inside her head.
“It’s hard to say, it only takes a tiny brush of his fingers to…” Mom pauses, looking for words. “Renew the influence,” she finishes, sounding uncertain.
“Does he need skin to skin contact?” Ollie pipes up.
“For that kind of connection, yes. I don’t think his abilities work on everything, or maybe he just favors certain things. I don’t know.” Her eyes go a little glassy.
“He was always making little trinkets, boxes, and carving things out of rock and wood. Those things seem to hold almost as much power as a touch. But something he just picks up, say the remote, or a fork.” She gestures around the room. “His taint doesn’t last long then—hours, maybe. This is all information I gathered years ago, so I have no idea if his ability has changed, or if what he did to Wyatt has change
d him.” Mom’s shoulders go up as she lifts her open palms to us.
“So, would the object only hold his influence for hours, or would it only influence the person who touched it for hours?” Milo conjectures, settling himself against the back of the sofa, his hands gripping the edge.
“The object, I think.” Mom grimaces.
“Why don’t you come sit down?” Rosa lifts her hand and waves Mom over to the living room area. Mom hesitates for a moment, but then makes her way around the room and settles herself on the edge of the couch cushion.
Milo switches positions so he’ll be able to see her better, while Dante, Ares, and I walk over to join them.
“What level of control are we talking about?” Ares asks as soon as we’re all seated.
Mom folds her hands in her lap. “Not complete. For instance, he couldn’t have made me jump off a bridge.”
“Did you remember after? If he influenced you, did you realize it once it wore off?” Ares leans his elbows on his knees so he can see around Dante and me to study my mom.
She gazes off to the side, not focusing on anything. “Looking back now, I remember things. I was scared to fly for the first time when he took me to Utah. I remember him buying a small stone in the airport, it had a saying on it, like ‘you’re beautiful’ or something.” Mom waves her hand like she’s dismissing the words. “He held it in his hands, rubbing his fingers and thumbs over it for a few minutes before he handed it to me. I thought he was being shy, sweet.” She rolls her eyes.
“But as soon as he gave me the stone, I wasn’t worried about flying anymore. Didn’t have any reservations about leaving with him at all. When I got off the plane, I remember thinking how strange it was, but then we had so much to do and so many other things to worry about, it was almost like I forgot.”
“That’s kinda like what you did to me,” I comment. “When we got pulled over, you made the cop believe that you gave him my driver’s license. Then it was like I totally forgot about it.”
Infinity Chronicles Book Four: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Series Page 7