Ravens (16 page)

A knock at the door forced them apart.
Liam pul           `led away to leave Kendra gasping. He dropped his hands and
picked up the washcloth from the floor.

“Yeah?” he asked, annoyed.

Lou opened the door. He grinned when he
saw them. “We’re about to head out. Got some deals lined up downtown.”

“Thanks for coming to get me this
morning. You guys take care out there. I don’t want to have to return the favor
so soon.”

“Later. Bye, Kendra.”

Kendra smiled, half embarrassed, as Lou
closed the door behind him. She stood, but Liam grabbed her wrists. “Now, where
do you think you’re going, darling?”

Still dazed from his kisses, she replied
in a raspy voice, “I want to talk with Julie.”

“Oh.” He dropped her hand.

“Don’t worry.” She stroked his cheek
with the back of her hand. “I’m not going anywhere, yet.” She strolled away.

“You know, I shouldn’t have kissed you
the other night. This is way better.”

She glanced behind her, her head still
in the clouds. “You made up for it.”

His smile faded. “Darling, wait.”

“What?” She faced him.

“There’s something you ought to know
about Julie.”

“What?”

“Kendra?” Julie appeared at the door.

Kendra smiled. “Yes?”

“The guys are gone. If you want, you can
take a shower and change into some of my clothes, or your clothes.” Julie
blushed and went on, “Mark saw your skirt and thought it was mine. In his
dreams.” She rolled her eyes.

Kendra laughed. “Thanks. That sounds
nice.”

“Come on over and pick something out.”

“Okay.” Kendra glanced back at Liam
before exiting.

“We’ll talk after your shower.”

Kendra entered Julie’s room. Julie gave
her little more than a quick glance here and there. For a girl who just broke
out of a crude cell while awaiting an autopsy, Julie appeared to be very
cheerful. Those sorts of tribulations made one thankful for life.

“Go ahead and go through my closet. I’ll
be back. Those guys left without doing the dishes,” she grumbled. “I cook all
the meals. All I ask is that they do the dishes.”

“Other than the dishes, you seem pretty
bubbly.” Kendra thought this behavior seemed odd.

Julie smiled. “I can’t really complain.
I’m glad to be alive, back home, and safe. I don’t really care that the guys
didn’t do the dishes because they had to get to a job that would pay big bucks.
They share some of their money with us.

“I don’t know how much you know about
us, but Nathan is like an older brother. He knows how to save cash, but will
share it with us. Lou won’t, that stingy rat. Mark shares everything with me,
and I always share with Liam, not that he needs anything. He’s pretty on the
ball.

“Although Liam’s a great thief, he
doesn’t fall into the bigger crime scenes like some Ravens. He wants to keep
some sort of anonymity. He does all right for us. I don’t go on raids often. He
and Mark are always scared I’ll get caught, like this last time. I won’t be
going on a raid for a while. I’m still pretty shaken up about having been
caught. It wasn’t pretty. I thought I would die for sure, and I knew it would
hurt like heck. I watched them kill and cut open a girl.

“Anyway, Liam takes good care of me. He
says whatever money I have is mine. I use it to buy food and feed the guys,
since they all take part in protecting me. I want to give back.”

“So you don’t have any romantic feelings
for him?”

Julie made a disgusted face. She
scrunched up her small features as if gagging. That was enough of an answer.
She left to tend to the kitchen.

Kendra moved through the hangers and
decided on a pair of jeans and another tank top. It was cooler here than in the
other dimension, but still too hot to wear sleeves.

The faded jeans had speckles of light
blue. The knees were worn through and the bottom hems frayed. Julie must’ve
worn the tank top a few times. The lustrous forest green color faded a shade or
two. The ribbed tank had a design of brown leaves on the chest.

Kendra went out into the living room.
Julie washed dishes.

“I got the bathroom ready,” Julie
called. “Dunno why, but the screen was sitting on the floor; I put it back in.
There are some towels, soap, shampoo, and lotion; extra toothbrush, everything
you need. Pretty neat to have another girl around.”

“Thanks.” Kendra smiled back and headed
for the bathroom.

Kendra couldn’t have been happier that
Julie turned out all right. She was happy, healthy, and knew how to handle
business. She had more skill here than she would’ve learned in school in the other
world.

Kendra locked the door behind her. Liam
shouldn’t try to slip in here with Julie in the apartment, but she could never
be too sure with him. Being so unpredictable, he would probably take the
naughty opportunity in a heartbeat.

She took a cool shower in the warm,
summer afternoon. The surging water splashed onto her hair and skin, trickled
to her feet, and washed away last night’s grime. She couldn’t believe how much
dirt accumulated in her locks, or how hard she had to scrub to remove the singed
material. This felt more like a chore than a relaxing shower.

She stepped out of the shower
half-expecting to find Liam, but he stayed in his room, managing for himself.
She dressed and ventured back into the living room to find Julie standing in
front of the couch changing channels.

Kendra inhaled, and rummaged any ounce
of courage in her.

She approached Julie and said, “I’d like
to talk.”

Chapter Fifteen

Julie didn’t move. Kendra exhaled and
controlled any threatening tears. She had to ease her way into the
conversation, and started by taking a seat on the chair across from Julie, who
sat down on the couch.

“So, tell me about your life. What’s up
with you and Mark?”

“Oh.” Julie blushed and giggled like a
typical, sixteen-year-old girl. “We’ve been together for a long time, and he’s
super sweet and caring. It’s so difficult for us Ravens to have any type of a
normal life, even in relationships. There seems to be a ton of Raven guys and
very few girls that I’ve ever seen. Also, this world is dangerous for us, and
there never seems to be the right moment or the perfect time to get to know
someone you like.

“There’s always an interruption, usually
a raid, hunters, or other danger. Then again, it makes the romance last, like
the first feeling seems fresh longer because we only get to be alone for a
little while once in a while. He still makes my heart flutter the same way he
did two years ago when we met.”

“That’s sweet. I can’t believe I’m
saying this, but keep that innocence as long as you can. You guys are still
young.”

“I know. We’ve heard it from Liam. I
thought, for some weird reason, Liam would drop another lecture about the birds
and the bees when he called me into his room earlier. I thought he’d snap
because Mark slept in my bed. He’s very adamant that Mark keeps his boundaries
with me.” She rolled her eyes.

Kendra giggled. “Just like an older
brother. How do you respond? Obviously he lets you two share a bed.”

“Just once in a while, and only if we’re
extremely tired or there are a lot of people sleeping here, like last night. We
promised we wouldn’t do anything. Liam already told Mark he would destroy him
if we did.”

Kendra laughed. Liam should follow his
own advice before imposing his rules on others.

“So how is life as a Raven?” Kendra
asked.

Julie’s face lit up. Suddenly, her
gestures were full of life. She got on her haunches, and tucked her feet
beneath her.

“Oh, it’s wonderful! I mean, yeah, it’s
not normal. You can’t go to the mall and hang out like normal kids, but on the
bright side, I never have to go to school. It made me have to grow up really
fast. I love my powers, and I love the nightlife. I guess that’s why the
universe chose us. We’re meant to be Ravens. We might have been born in another
world, but we’re most definitely meant to live here.

“I mean, kids grow up fantasizing about
having our abilities, right? About being dark and mysterious? Sci-fi movies,
comics, TV shows, it isn’t all imagination and fantasy. It’s real for us. I
guess we’ve got it good, huh?”

Kendra smiled. Julie wasn’t torn and
riddled with grief, which made it unfair for Kendra and their parents, but this
insight made the sorrow bearable. Julie probably did better here than she
would’ve in the other world.

“Do you remember your family?” Kendra
asked, glancing at the floor.

“You mean from the other world?”

“Yeah.”

“Not really, I was pretty young when I
passed through, and it was very traumatic.” Her demeanor faded. “Liam thinks I
don’t remember the other world because I went in head first. We stopped talking
about it years ago. We figured since we didn’t know how to get back, why
bother?”

“You don’t recognize me then, do you?”
Kendra’s heart sank.

“Should I?” Julie examined her.

The innocent words felt like fresh
wounds to Kendra’s heart, much worse than a simple “no.” It was as if Kendra
never existed to Julie and meant nothing to her.

“Think to your past, before you passed
through the portal. It’s been ten years and maybe I look different, but who
else do you think I could be?”

Julie squinted and twisted her lips.
“Kendra, I don’t remember anything before passing through the portal. I don’t
know if I had family or friends. All I know is that when I woke up, I was with
Liam, and I see him as my brother. I didn’t even remember
him
from
before I passed. I didn’t even remember passing. He remembered everything and
told me about what happened and what he said is what I know. Like I said, we
never discussed the other world, so I don’t know of anything or anyone there
personally.”

An ache spread across Kendra’s chest. The
blood drained from her face, and she felt a little queasy. To Julie, Kendra
had
never existed.

Kendra watched Liam, as he emerged from
the bedroom in full health. He paused when he saw her. Her tears made him
blurry.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him.

Julie remained quiet but observed their
conversation.

He replied with a hint of remorse. “What
should I have said? Kendra, I’m Liam, alive and in a parallel world. I said
that. You didn’t believe me. I need you to get sucked into the floorboards in
the barn and help me find Julie, who, by the way, is also alive but doesn’t
remember you. I didn’t say that, but it didn’t matter. You wouldn’t have
believed me. You wouldn’t have stayed in the barn that night. You thought you
were going crazy
without
any of this information. Besides, it would’ve
been too much for you to handle all at once.”

“But you could have told me now, could
have started explaining days ago.”

“I planned on explaining today.”

“When? Right after you tossed me in bed?
Because I can’t imagine you would’ve stopped during making out to tell me
this,” she snapped as the entity hissed in her veins and squirmed toward her
eyes.

“Kendra,” he whispered, shaking his
head. “I would never intentionally hurt you. Yeah, I was caught up in the
moment, but I planned to tell you the truth when I found the right words. It’s
not easy to say.

“We both suffered from amnesia when we
passed through, but I regained my memories. Julie never found hers because she
went in face first. At least, that’s my theory. She couldn’t remember anything
from the other world, and since we figured we would never return to that world,
why bother to bring up the past? We let forgotten memories lay in their graves.
Can you blame us for doing that?”

Kendra spun to face Julie, ignoring Liam
as tears slipped. “So you don’t even
know
about me? I’m just a dead
memory buried six feet deep in your mind?”

“I’m sorry, Kendra. We never spoke about
it after our first few weeks here.” Julie’s eyes darted back to Liam, flustered
and desperate for help.

Kendra pressed a hard swallow down her
dry and sore throat. “So you don’t know you have two loving parents? That you
have a sister?” Her voice cracked.

Julie’s eyes widened. She turned to
Liam, then back to Kendra. “Are you saying that you’re my... you’re my sister?”

Kendra nodded, and wiped away the hot
mess of tears on her cheeks. “You don’t know about our family dinners or how I
held your hand on the way to class every morning or how I played with you and
your dolls every night?”

Julie shook her head.

Kendra stopped herself. “Okay…”

“That’s how you knew where to find me?”
Julie asked. “Liam always spoke about his theories about these unspoken bonds.
I guess we had one.”

Kendra’s lower lip quivered. She fought
to gain control of her emotions. “I’m-I’m glad I could help save you, even if
you don’t remember me and never knew I existed. I don’t regret coming here if
it saved your life.”