Mimics of Rune 02- Surrender (20 page)

“Forty years.”

Evelyn’s brows shot up as her eyes blinked surprise. “And you haven’t made a move? If he’s that old, think he’ll go for an old granny like me?”

Her giggle forced another out of Lily. “You know, he might, but he can’t be a long-term solution unless he shares your birthday.”

“Oh, I’m just messin’ with you, my lily pearl.”

The prick of tears hit Lily again at her mom’s use of a nickname she hadn’t heard since she was tiny.

“Now, let me get on out of here, and you take some time with your man. Let him do all that good consoling some of those more refined men are so good at.” She patted Lily on the head as she stood.

“Evel—Mo—I don’t know what to call you.”

Evelyn turned back. “Honey, you can call me whatever you’d like. Mom if you’re comfortable with that. I realize after sixty years that might seem odd, but I’m okay with it if you are.”

Lily unfolded herself from her scrunched up position and shuffled to Evelyn. “Mom.” Yet more streams of happy tears left her eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re more than welcome. That’s what moms are for.”

• • •

Cael grabbed the door as Evelyn opened it. “Did she—”

Evelyn patted him on the chest. “She’s ready for you, I think.”

He helped her to the stairs, keeping an eye on the door in case it closed before he had a chance to enter. Prior to breaking into Angela’s office, he’d never intruded on Lily’s privacy.

The door remained open once Angela took over with Evelyn.

Cael snuck his head in. “Lil?”

“In the bathroom.”

He entered her room, closing the door behind him. She walked out of her bathroom, her face the picture of sadness. Paleness from her change to natural form and the emotional upheaval that she hadn’t explained darkened the unusual circles under her eyes.

Cael reached for her, rubbing his thumb across the shadows, wiping away the tears and hoping to add a little color to her pallor.

She closed her lids, leaned into his touch and stayed silent.

“Lil, I’m …”

Her head moved side to side. Whatever her thoughts, she didn’t share except to stay connected to him.

Cael massaged her temples, trailing his fingertips to her cheeks and neck.

She stretched into each movement like a cat luxuriating in a good rub. Her smile brought out his own, and as she lifted her lids, near-purple irises sparkled back at him.

Cael leaned toward her until his lips met hers. When she didn’t hesitate, he took.

More than that, he consumed.

He filled himself with Lily’s taste, the softness of her lips and the sweetness that came only with her. As much as he’d promised himself he wouldn’t push her, he drew her against him until their bodies touched on more than one plane. She opened for him. He accepted. Their tongues danced against each other, toying and sending sparks of need that tightened his crotch within his jeans.

Cael pulled away, believing he should stop before he couldn’t hold back.

Lily dug into her pocket and removed the ring box.

His eyes grew wide before they narrowed. “Why do you have that?”

“He—he gave it to me. In the room. Said I should open it, and there was a message inside just for me. I don’t want to do this alone, Cael. I’m not cut out for it.”

His lips found hers again, quelling the build up of emotion he sensed would come if Lily continued to talk. “Never alone, Lily. Never.”

• • •

The softness of his lips undid Lily. The fact that she’d missed out on years’ worth of his touch dug a hole in her heart. Charley had complained she lost sixteen years with Wyatt, but Lily had topped that at forty.

Forty years in the same house with a man she could have loved, and she’d placed him at arm’s length—friends, but no more.

Because of who I am and what I did.

A knock on the door had them both turning. Cael opened his eyes as if to say ‘who would bug us?’, but Lily shrugged.

“Who is it?” Cael asked.

“Lily!”

“Chase!” Cael and Lily both said at the same time.

Together, they race-walked to the door and opened it together.

Chase stood in the frame, a giant smile on his face, his red hair just as bright as it had ever been. “You look funny again, Lily.”

“I know.” Lily grabbed him and hugged, swinging him around and around. When she stopped, Cael knuckled his head. The whole time, Chase giggled his eight year old laugh.

“How was Florida?” Lily asked.

“Hot! I saw Mickey Mouse and got to eat lunch with a Power Ranger.” He mimicked the kung-fu moves, cutting the air with his hand. “And Maggie took me to see the big boats and …”

For a moment, a pang of guilt ran through Lily. Chase still didn’t call Maggie ‘Mom’. That she hadn’t been in his life for eight years seemed insignificant. Lily hadn’t had hers for sixty and called her Mom with only a slight hitch.

“… and then we flew all the way to Maggie’s house in Hollywood. She lives on a hill, and you can see all around it, right down to the water.” Bright green eyes shone back at Lily.

“That’s awesome, Chasey.”

Being in a year-round school gave Chase and Maggie an opportunity to spend quality time together without waiting for summer. Necessary since Charley had threatened Maggie’s life if she took Chase away.

“So what’re we going to do today?” He blinked wide eyes and long lashes.

“Well …” Lily started.

“Actually, buddy boy,” Cael cut in, “what would you think about helping Max out today? He could really use a friend.”

“You mean that kid downstairs? The little one?”

Only three years younger.
“Yeah, that one,” Lily said.

“I guess he can play in my room,” Chase said with a noncommittal tone.

“We’ll let James work that area.” Lily pushed Chase out of the room with the promise to join him in a few minutes.

Voices, two in particular, rang from the entry foyer as Lily made her way down.

“You can’t leave your car parked right behind mine, Stuart.” Maggie poked him in the chest with a blood-red fingernail. “I’m leaving, and you can’t just block me in.”

Stuart held his usual half-eaten apple in hand as he munched and stared down at Maggie. “Bite me, Margaret.”

She’d opted for bright, cherry-red hair, her usual five-foot five and the physique of whatever supermodel she’d had to mimic a few weeks before. She rarely changed to herself from whoever she’d been. No one but James knew the real Maggie.

Her seethe came with a pointed nail to Stuart’s jugular. “You really want to mess with me? You know I’m way older than you and can slip out of here undetected if I kill you.”

“Maggie!” Lily wrapped her arms around her nemesis.

The chuckle told Lily she’d diffused the situation.

James entered from the downstairs hallway with Chase in his arms. He and Maggie locked gazes for a second before separating again.

“So, how was the trip?” Charley asked, joining Lily and Maggie as James departed.

Maggie lifted a shoulder in a universal ‘it was good or it was bad’ symbol. “We did stuff. He’s a good kid.”

“I told you so.” Charley moved in for a hug.

Maggie added what Lily thought to be a genuine smile to her face. “Well, I guess that’s that, and I gotta go again.”

“You could stay,” Charley said.

“Yeah, you could,” Chase added from James’s arms. “You can meet my teachers at school on Monday, and I can show you Pops, and—”

“I think Maggie might need to go.” James set Chase down on the floor. “She has lots of responsibilities in California. Remember? We talked about that?”

Lily hurt for Chase. She could sense the desire to have his mom around.

“But I don’t want her to go.” A light whine tainted his childlike voice.

“She could stay and help me with a little problem I have.” Lily hoped her suggestion wouldn’t come out forced.

“What problem?” Maggie asked. “Wyatt and Charley not getting married anymore?”

Lily cringed. She hadn’t spent a single moment thinking about the wedding, yet it loomed just a month away, and she’d delegated herself as wedding coordinator the moment Wyatt had proposed.

“We’ll postpone a few days … if we have to,” Charley said.

Wyatt appeared behind her, a small nod sent in Lily’s direction. “Once we figure out what to do about our situation … here.” He circled a finger as if pointing to each group member.

“I’m still lost,” Maggie said.

Lily hooked her arm through Maggie’s. “Come on, because I don’t think I can go through this twice.”

17

With Maggie and Chase’s return, Sophie, Chase’s nanny, rejoined the group as well. Having everyone back under one roof brought Lily immense pleasure, especially since it included both her newest and closest family. She relegated Sophie to care of the human side of the house, while she, Cael and the rest of the group would take over Charley’s old office—one James had snagged when Charley moved in with Wyatt.

Before they reached the doors, Lily nudged Charley aside. “I didn’t forget about the wedding.”

Charley brought Lily in for a hug. “I know full well, Lil, and it’s a hundred percent okay. An extra week or two isn’t going to hurt Wyatt and me. We already live together. We’re never going separate ways. Shoot, he barely leaves my side as it is. And I love it.”

A real smile broke through as guilt waned in Lily. “Are you sure? I can ask Chen downtown if she can do a yogurt party for you.”

Charley’s laugh could not have been bigger. “While I think Wyatt wouldn’t mind … I mind. So, no.”

“What about all the friends and family Wyatt has coming in?”

“Lil, it’s okay. I’ll fix all their arrangements if we need to. For now, you focus on you. When we have Leigh back, we can figure out what to do next about the wedding. It’s going to happen, and you’ll be there. Don’t you worry.” She snuck in another hug.

“But are you su—” The glare Charley gave Lily stopped her words. “Okay.”

“Now, are you ready to tell us what’s going on? What the box is about, and how Roy got out?”

“Yeah, and you aren’t going to believe it.”

She proceeded into the bookshelf-lined room with state of the art computer systems and a dust-free desk that James loved. Bigger than most people’s bedrooms, James had kept all the chairs they’d stuffed into the place a month before when they’d strategized on what to do for Charley’s predicament. That they all returned to the same place for her own issue gave Lily a true sense of déjà vu.

With a seat between Cael and Charley, Lily went through the entire conversation she’d had with Roy. She told them everything, including her own feelings and thoughts. She cried again, though the bonus of accessible tissues came in handy, and the hand-held squeezes helped.

“And he really just melted into the wall?” Wyatt asked.

“Yeah. Inch by inch, he just …” She pushed her arm through a cupped hand. “… disappeared into the cement. I really didn’t think we could do that.” She spun, stopping first in James’s direction, to Cael, and to Charley last.

They each shook their heads as if to say ‘me neither’.

“Well, fuck me,” Maggie said. “Are you people telling me that you’d never have guessed The Chameleon got his name because he could blend in with the walls?”

“Um …” Wyatt started.

“Geez.” Maggie stood at the back wall. She stretched out her hand, touching her palm to the surface. The wall didn’t move, but Maggie did, inch by inch, merging with the material.

James stood first. “What the hell?”

Cael followed.

Wyatt’s eyes couldn’t have gotten wider.

Lily wanted to throw up again.

Maggie pulled herself away, shaking her hand. She rubbed at it a second before cracking her knuckles. “Now that hurts like a bitch.”

“Why?” Wyatt asked.

Lily smiled at Wyatt’s newness, how much and how quickly he accepted new knowledge about them.

Maggie continued her arm massage. “We’re all organic matter, right?” She didn’t wait for answers. “So is everything around us. Steel comes from the center of the earth. Wood is fiber. Even stone is natural.” Her head cocked to the side. “You really don’t know this, Charley? You’re like the ancient one.” Sarcasm laced her comment.

“No, I—”

Maggie held up a hand. “Okay. Remember how I keep telling you that you were taught to do things one way, but I wasn’t? Well, organic matter can take different shapes just like we can.”

Lily nodded as did James and Cael.

“It’s the same here. Roy is organic matter. The wall is organic matter. If he’s figured out how to alter his physical state to match the organic matter of the property … well, then he can blend with it. That’s why we can be other people because we’re the same. And why I can become an animal—because I can interpret its properties.”

“But Chase can already shift into an animal, and he doesn’t understand the organic and chemical structures of humans, let alone animals. So how’s that possible?” Wyatt asked.

“Kids don’t think about it,” James said. “It’s the ‘no fear’ element. If you think you have no boundaries, then you don’t worry about what you can and can’t do … you just do.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Wyatt said.

“You guys know the funniest part, right?” Maggie asked.

“No, Maggie, I’m sure we don’t.” Charley’s tone had everyone turning to her.

“He probably didn’t go through the wall,” Maggie said. “You saw how that hurt me? It’s because the minerals and extras they put in the shit in these walls are all mixed up. So, yeah, I can do it, but I can’t go through it. I’d burn up and probably light the wall on fire. He’s known as The Chameleon because he can do this stuff, but he doesn’t leave. He was right there the whole time, and when you guys left, he reformed and probably walked right out of the building. That would also be why he’s one of their focuses. Dude … that kind of genetic ability combined with Lily’s undiluted line? Powerful.”

Combined?

“Well, shit.” Cael pounded a fist on the desk, jostling James’s pen holder. “Now what do we do?”

Maggie rubbed at her arm again. James eyed her as Charley squished herself against Wyatt’s side.