Shadow Borne (20 page)

"Oh, my God." he
breathed, reaching for me in the next breath.

"Don't." I backed up
a step and held out my hand. "I don't want your pity, Mike. And I
damn sure don't need it."

"They hurt you."

"Claire tricked the
guards and helped me escape." I shook my head as I thought back to
that day. "I knew we were more or less doomed, at least, for the
moment, but Claire had spent all afternoon plotting and planning
our escape. She never told me what she was going to do. When we
were being moved, she created a distraction and shoved me, told me
to run, and then she threw herself into the guard that was with us.
There wasn't time to talk her out of it, or grab her. They had her
in an instant, so I ran. I tried to send help, but by the time I'd
recovered enough to tell anyone what happened and where we'd been
held, she was gone. Bob found her at the auction and I guess you
probably know what happened after that."

"Jesus, Ari." He
muttered, scrubbing a hand over his eyes.

"There's the car." I
took a breath and pointed to the metallic green shimmer at the side
of the road. "Megan will be wondering where we're at, let's
go."

"Wait! You can't
just tell me something like that and then–"

"Walk away?"

"Well, yeah. Jesus,
Ari," he repeated. "Are you...okay?"

"I am now. Give me
the keys, I'll drive."

"Here. What did you
mean by 'recover'?" he demanded, climbing in beside me and clicking
his seatbelt into place as I revved the engine to life. The dash
light cast the sleek black interior in a neon blue glow and I swung
onto the narrow gravel lane, executing a neat three point turn and
heading back the way Mike had come.

"I fell into a river
and ended up getting a fever."

"Did Claire...did
they–" he broke off.

Out of the corner of
my eye, I watched him knot his hands in his lap. "They didn't rape
her."

"God." He hung his
head and then glanced at me with an unreadable expression in his
eyes. I watched his throat work as he stared fixedly out the
passenger side window a second later.

The car was silent
except for the clicking of the turn signal as I steered us onto the
main road that would take us to the hospital.

"What happened after
you fell into the water? How did you make it home?"

"I didn't. I blacked
out next to the water. Aranu found me and took me back to his
camp."

"I see."

"What's that
supposed to mean?" Light from a passing streetlamp tracked across
his face and I could see that he was scowling.

"Nothing."

"The hospital is
just up ahead."

"Great."

We drove the rest of
the way in silence, but I was hyper aware of Mike practically
radiating tension beside me. I parked beneath a giant, lit-up white
sign with the word 'Emergency' in blue lettering. It was another
three or four seconds before I could no longer stand the
silence.

"Okay. What?"

"What do you mean?"
he asked, staring morosely out the window.

"What's your
problem?"

"Nothing. Not one
damn thing. Everything is just great."

"Really. Well, good,
then I suppose you can quit stalking me after tonight. And you can
damn sure quit grabbing me every time we run into each other. It's
getting old."

His head whipped
around then, and he gaped at me. "Stalk you? I've been trying to
talk to you ever since I got back."

"Well, now we've
talked."

"Yeah." he snorted.
"Excuse me if I need a minute after our talk, tonight. You kind of
threw me for a loop."

"I did what?"

He shook his head
and sighed, his mouth still a tight, grim line. "None of this is
what I expected. Hell, I don't know what I really expected. My
sister's husband ran off on her and she's a walking ghost. I'm
pretty sure the same hit man who tried to off my other sister, is
in love Megan. My parents are shell-shocked. And you..." He closed
his mouth.

I folded my arms
over my chest. "Go on." I said evenly, my eyes flashing a warning
that he evidently decided to ignore.

"You've moved on,
and everything is different now. You're different."

His words shouldn't
have cut so deep, but they did. "Sorry to disappoint you." I
snapped, slapping the key onto the dash and shoving my way out of
the car. The slam of metal on metal echoed once and then twice
through the otherwise peaceful night and then Mike was stalking
beside me to the entrance. I cooled my heels while we waited to be
buzzed in.

"I'm sorry, but the
girl I remember was gentle and full of life. She wove light into
flowers and she smiled. A lot."

"Hm." I grunted and
tapped a boot against the concrete.

"Just forget it,
Aries."

"Finally, he gets
it." I muttered, sending a fierce scowl his way.

"Yeah, I get it.
That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Then please do me a
damn favor and 'not like it' quietly." I snapped, sick and damn
tired of hearing that line.

"You want me to be
quiet?" he demanded hotly. "Because I can be quiet."

"So can I." I shot
back.

The door buzzed and
we strode through the double doors, gave Megan's name at the desk
and were directed to the third floor.

"Hey, you made it!"
Claire met us at the door to Room 308, throwing her arms around
Mike and me so that we were momentarily shoved together.

We tensed and Claire
pulled back, a concerned expression lighting her eyes. "Uh, is
everything okay?"

"Fine." we answered
together, then frowned.

"Okay. Right."
Claire drew out the second word and stood aside to let us pass.
"Megan, Mike and Aries are here."

“
Hello, Megan.” I walked into the dimly lit room, nodded to
Mark and Mr. Roberts, who stood together beside the room's only
window. Mrs. Roberts and Carl occupied chairs on either side of the
narrow but comfortable looking hospital bed. Mrs. Roberts mouth was
set in a thin line and she nodded at me. Her gaze hardened when she
looked at Carl.

Carl leaned back,
removing his arms from the wood and chrome bed railing and scooting
over so I could lean down and hug Megan.

“
Aries, you came.” She smiled, looking flushed and a little
tired but overall, much improved over the last time I'd seen
her.

“
Of course I came. How are you feeling?”

“
Nervous?” She laughed a little. “Grateful everybody is here
with me.”

“
Well, I was pleasantly surprised when Mike said you'd asked
for me.” I squeezed her hand, easing into Carl's chair when he
stood and offered it to me. I ducked my head and hid a smile when I
noticed that he didn't leave Megan's bedside. Instead of taking up
a spot with Mark and Mr. Roberts, he simply stood at the end of the
bed. Behind us, I could practically feel Claire's glare on our
backs; she wouldn't be happy–at all–that Carl was glued to Megan
like this. I thought it was kind of sweet.

“
You're my first friend here.” Megan was saying. “Thanks again
for coming.”

“
I
wouldn't miss it.” I said honestly, smiling down at her. “This will
be a team effort.”

She seemed to
consider that for a moment. “I like the sound of that.” She finally
nodded, darting a covert glance at Carl. Her eyes met mine and I
nodded. She smiled then, and I laughed, feeling some of my earlier
tension drain away.

***

By the time
Claire and I left the hospital, the sun was creeping over the
horizon in a fiery splash of brilliant orange, red, and yellow.
Mike had made himself scarce since our train wreck of a discussion
on the way to the hospital. Somehow, for his sisters sake, both of
them, he and I had actually managed to get through the night
without bloodshed. In fact, we hadn't said more than two words to
each other throughout the long night. It was not one of those easy
silences.

I'd been hyper aware
of the dark looks that he would periodically shoot my way from
across the room when he thought I wasn't looking, and clearly I
irritated him. At least Megan hadn't seemed to notice the tension.
That in itself was a miracle, I thought with a little half-smile as
I fell into step beside an exhausted looking Claire.

She had already
confided that earlier, when Megan went into labor, Claire and Mark
had been in the middle of a very loud argument over Claire's plans
to accompany us to Coztal. Added to the tension in the crowded
birthing room was the fact that Carl had insisted on following the
family to the hospital when Megan's labor began, and Megan had been
equally insistent he stay for the duration. Basically, the only
people who weren't on the outs with each other were Mr. and Mrs.
Roberts.

I said as much to
Claire as we dropped into opposite sides of the car and I turned
the key in the ignition.

"Give them time."
she muttered on a huge yawn. "Oh God, I need sleep."

"Hmmm." I nodded.
"That's quite a baby girl your sister brought into the world,
though."

"Yeah." She rolled
the window down and let a rush of cool morning air wash through the
slightly stuffy interior of the car. "Rose is definitely worth a
little sleep deprivation."

"Do you realize Rose
is the first foreign child to be born in Terlain?" My lips curved
and I blinked back a sudden sheen of moisture. "That's pretty
amazing. She's probably the only person who will ever hold that
title."

"I hadn't thought
about that." Claire murmured. "To be honest, I've been so focused
on Megan's husband leaving her and the baby. Rose," she corrected,
"and this whole thing with Carl." she sighed and caught her bottom
lip between her teeth. "Well, I don't really need to go into all
that again, do I?"

"You don't trust
him." I shrugged. "That's a normal reaction, don't you think?"

"Hell, yes. He tried
to kill me." Claire thumped her fist against the arm rest before
settling back into the tan leather seat. "Well. He was planning on
it anyway, which is more or less the same thing."

Wisely, I remained
silent. The moment we crested the hill that would take us up the
rest of the long driveway to the house, bright shafts of sunlight
speared the windshield and I had to squint to make out the bend in
the road and not run us into a tree.

"Are you ready for
Coztal?" I asked quietly, navigating the final turn and heading up
the mostly straight section of the drive.

"More or less."
Claire shrugged and answered without opening her eyes. "Once, I
would have been excited about a road trip to the beach. But
somehow, said beach being infested with mutant vampire Coatyl and
probably littered with dead bodies kind of ruins it for me."

"You obviously have
no sense of adventure." I murmured, a smile tugging at my lips.

"I'm ready." Claire
answered soberly. "What about you?"

"I'm as ready as the
next person. This should be a quick trip."

"Yeah."

"We're almost home."
I pointed out, figuring Claire wanted to talk about the tension
that had run rampant in the delivery room and in another half-mile
or so we would reach the house and probably wouldn't get another
chance at personal conversation for the rest of the day, maybe even
the rest of the week.

Claire opened one
eye and peeked at me from beneath her lashes but remained
silent.

"Things aren't going
so good with Mike." I took a deep breath and eased up a little on
the accelerator.

"Oh. Yes, I noticed.
My parents noticed, too."

"No doubt. I think
the only person who hasn't noticed is Megan and I'm pretty sure
it's because she was busy giving birth, that and her own life is in
turmoil right now, although for how much longer..."

"What do you mean?"
Claire twisted around to stare at me.

"That her life seems
to be slowly righting itself." I smiled. "Did you see the way Carl
looked at her and Rose?"

"I saw." Claire
muttered darkly. "I also saw Mike staring at you every ten
seconds."

"You mean
glaring."

"That too. I didn't
know if you'd want me to ask..."

I took another deep
breath. "He walked to the cabin to find me and instead he found
Aranu and I together."

"Is that all?"
Claire's brow furrowed. "Aranu is usually somewhere close by, like
the rest of the warriors." She shook her head. "And didn't the two
of you grow up together?"

"Something like
that. Men have never permanently resided in the dome but his
village isn't far. We used to play together as children..." I
frowned at the memories. Good as they were, it served no purpose
now to think of those days. Just the opposite. Remembering an Aranu
who was guileless and full of adventure was hard. It muddied the
waters between us even further and I didn't want to deal with any
of it. Not now. Not when we were about to embark on a journey that
could very well get us all killed.

"Anyway, you don't
understand." I sighed. "Aranu was kissing me."

Claire blinked.
"Aranu kissed you?"

I nodded.

"Oh." she stared out
the window for long moments. "Has he ever...?"

"No." I hesitated.
"But looking back, I think there have been times when he wanted
to." What was I saying? Of course there had been times when Aranu
had seen me as something more than an old friend and fellow
soldier. I wasn't well versed in the ways of men, not very
experienced anyway, but I wasn't so naïve that I thought last night
was the first time something like that had ever occurred to
Aranu.

"Do you..." Claire
plucked at the hem of her pink T-shirt. "have feelings for
him?"

"Yes." I finally
admitted. "I didn't think of him that way before he...well...not
much anyway." I drew in a breath. "What I'm trying to say is I've
always known that Aranu is an attractive man. But I've never..." I
shook my head. "He's always been there, you know?" I glanced at her
before steadying my gaze on the road ahead. Tiny bits of gravel
pinged the underside of the car as I left the tree line behind and
pulled up in front of the house.