Through The Veil (17 page)

Bethany and Aaron stood side-by-side at the front of the
room. He was so dark with his black wings, dark hair, and brooding eyes. In
stark contrast, Bethany exuded light with her multi-colored wings and open
demeanor. Her wings reminded Lori of tropical birds she’d seen in books as a
kid. They were nothing short of stunning.

Off to the side from them stood the Warrior who’d been with
Malcolm outside the cave the day before. He had chocolate brown wings and the
feathers looked so incredibly soft, they reminded her of a baby bird’s downy
feathers. He had dark brown hair spiked on top and trimmed close to his head at
the sides. The scruff on his face showed it had been a couple of days past his
last shave, which gave him a rugged look. His eyes had an angry edge that
piqued her curiosity.

Marcus drew her over to him and introduced them. “Lori, this
is my cousin,
Griff
.”

Surprisingly, his expression morphed into a distinct look of
distaste. What had she done to offend this guy already? She didn’t even
remember interacting with him yesterday. Did he disapprove of her involvement
with Marcus? The thought hadn’t even occurred to her before now, but it seemed
reasonable that there may be those within the WS who would judge her because
she appeared different…without wings. Just like the bias in the ES against
Others. Ice settled in her gut. She tried not to let her feelings show as she
smiled at him.

Marcus must have felt his coldness, too, because he squeezed
her shoulder gently and led her to introduce her to the rest of the Warriors.
There were two other Warriors in the room who she hadn’t met. The first was the
musician with golden wings who played at the pub. His wings were darker than
yellow, but nowhere close to toffee or brown and almost shimmered in the light.
They were truly gorgeous. Of course, the man wasn’t bad to look at, either. He
skin was olive-toned, like he had some sort of Spanish descent, with dark,
smoldering eyes that observed everything.

When Marcus introduced them, the man simply nodded at her.
Marcus explained, “Eric is the quiet one of the group.”

She smiled at him. “We heard you play the other night. You
have an incredible talent.”

He offered a soft, warm smile and murmured, “Thanks.”

The final Warrior smiled broadly as they walked up to him.
He appeared to be quite a bit younger than the others, with dirty blond hair
and massive arms. At the top of each bicep, there were Chinese symbols
tattooed. A third, smaller tattoo rested right above his belly button on his
incredibly sculpted abdomen. His wings reflected his ebullient personality.
They were dark red with a thin band of black at the tips. She couldn’t help but
return his friendly grin.

Marcus reached forward and shook hands with him. “And this
is Garrison. He’s our honorary cook and cheerleader.”

Garrison winked at her as he turned back to Marcus. “I see
why you’ve been so absent the last few days. I wouldn’t come out of my house
either if I had a beauty like this holed up in there.”

Marcus responded with a cocky smile, “He’s also our resident
flirt.”

Bethany cleared her throat and started the meeting. She
smiled kindly at Lori. “We owe you a debt for saving Marcus’s life yesterday.
That’s not something we take lightly here and we appreciate the risk you took
by revealing your power.”

Her stomach seized at the automatic panic that came with
those words. Spotting the door, she wanted to do nothing but run and escape
before they caged her. She knew the instinct sounded ridiculous, but it stayed
there, pulsing in her brain.
Run! Run!

As if sensing her distress, Marcus smoothed his hand up her
spine, soothing her.

“I promise you that no one here will take advantage of that
fact,” Bethany continued. “Here we’re family and you’re a part of us now. Never
doubt that.”

Relief choked her. She couldn’t believe this blanket
acceptance by these people, with the exception of
Griff
.
It was so unlike anything she’d ever been exposed to before. “Thank you,” she
said, speaking past the catch in her throat.

Marcus squeezed her hand.

“Unfortunately,” Bethany continued. “We’re already getting
reports that this incident isn’t the only instance of a Predator out during
daylight. There have been three other villages who have reported the same type
of thing. We’re recalling all our clans living on the outskirts and letting
them know that they need to get within the walls of the villages.”

She took a deep breath. “Brooklyn, I need you and Garrison
to head out and check on the Murphy clan and the Hyatt’s. No one can reach them
telepathically and we need to do a visual check on them. Watch your backs. I
have a bad feeling about their status.”

She pursed her lips as she looked out over the Warriors. “We
need to up our security rotations. Aaron has already talked to several members
of the village. From here on out, we will be spread thin, so we will partner
each Warrior with a civilian for the patrols. Everyone—I don’t care who they
are—needs to be armed when they are on the ground. We’ll open the armory to the
village for those who need more weaponry.”

She met Lori’s eyes briefly as she moved into the next
warning. “Something has changed. I don’t know exactly what this means for us,
but Lori crossed the Veil, and now the Predators are out and about during the
day. That’s probably not the end of the shifts or changes. Stay alert and stay
safe. Remember our strength comes from the Earth. If we take care of Her, She
will take care of us. Stick close to the
ley
lines
when you can. We can’t afford to lose even one person from our society.”

Oh God, had she done this? Did she disturb the balance of
their world by crossing the Veil? She’d never considered there could be a cost
for her manipulations of energy, but the coincidence seemed too strong to
ignore.

Bethany gestured to Aaron and he laid out the security
details for the next few days. First up they planned a class to refresh members
of the village on their basic defensive and offensive fighting techniques. As
this new world necessitated, they all had fighting skills, but few besides
Warriors were regularly called upon to use them. Everyone in the village needed
to attend and all available Warriors would be teaching.

Training and arming their citizens for battle against
threats…this society was so different from the ES where no one was allowed to
be armed, unless they were a soldier for the government. But even with the
threat of violence, it still felt so much safer here.

When the meeting ended, Marcus touched her arm. “I need to
talk to Aaron. Will you be okay for a couple of minutes?”

Lori nodded. This gave her a chance to really consider what
Bethany had said. Had her opening that hole in the Veil caused a shift of
something in the basic framework of nature? She’d never considered that by
using her ability to change the molecular structure of things—even
temporarily—could cause ripples of effect. That presented a sobering thought,
especially since she hoped to cross it again within the next few days. The
possible repercussions of that were frightening.

Marcus tilted her head up and brushed a light kiss across
her lips. She hadn’t even heard him walk up. “You’re thinking too hard again.”

“Sorry, just thinking about what Bethany said. Do you think
I did this by crossing the Veil?”

He frowned in thought. “I honestly don’t know, but
regardless, I’m glad you did. I’m happy you’re here and wouldn’t change that
for anything.”

She reached around and hugged him. “Thank you. I needed
that.”

“Then we’re even because I need you, especially today. How
good are you at manual labor?”

“Um, can I plead the fifth until I know more about what
you’re talking about?”

“Sure, but that won’t get you out of the work. At least not
for a few more hours. Come on, we have a job to do.”

* * *

Lori looked at the pile of lumber at the base of the tree
and turned to give him the biggest smile he’d seen from her. “You’re going to
build me stairs?”

“No, sweetheart,
we’re
going to build you stairs.
This is a joint effort.” He pulled a pencil out of his pocket and started
sketching on one of the boards. “The reason none of the houses have stairs to
the ground is to keep the Predators out. Since we can all fly, there’s rarely
been a need for stairs.” He looked at her sweetly. “Now we have a need.”

He’d been drawing the whole time he talked and she looked
down to where he gestured. “With this design here, the stairs lift and lower
through a system of pulleys. You’ll be able to pull them up from either the
ground or the house, so that the Predators still can’t get in and you will have
the freedom to come and go as you please.”

“I don’t understand how you all can live in structures
without any stairs. Doesn’t anyone ever get hurt where they can’t fly?” she
asked.

“Of course. Each village has homes on the ground. Usually
those are built within a gated area so the Predators can’t get inside. For
Springlake
, ours are located within the farm complex which
you haven’t seen yet. But our village is in the middle of the forest. It was
simply easier for us to build the majority of the homes in the trees with just
a few of them on the ground.”

She nodded. That made sense. “If I bring the Others back
here, would we be allowed to live in one or two of those homes, do you think?”
Please, say yes. She didn’t know how they’d survive if they had to stay in the
ES or fend for themselves against the frightening Predators.

“Of course. Bethany is incredibly generous and welcoming. I
think you’ll find her at the forefront of the building committee swinging a
hammer to add stairs to a lot of our dwellings. Just give us time to figure it
all out. No one is going to turn you and your friends away, I promise.”

She looked at him with wonder and more than a little bit of
overwhelming gratitude. “Thank you, Marcus, this is the sweetest thing anyone’s
ever done for me.”

The truth he could see in her face over that statement broke
his heart. She deserved to have the world at her feet spoiling her. Up to this
point, her life hadn’t been easy. He planned to change that.

“So now the question is…” He handed her a hammer. “Just how
good are you with tools?”

“I probably can hold my own.” She gave him a saucy grin and
cocked her hip. “But this does bring to question…” Gesturing down to the fairly
technical drawing he’d done, she asked, “Just how did you learn to do all
this?”

He tugged her forward and then looked around like he was
looking for others who might overhear this deep dark secret. Leaning down, he
brushed the wisps of hair off her neck and whispered into her ear. “I don’t
know if you noticed the overflowing bookcases in my house.” He quirked an
eyebrow at her in question.

She nodded. “I did notice them.” And she admired the fact
because she’d always been a book hoarder, too. In her estimation a big library
was right up there with someone who sheltered animals. It was just one more
little thing to tell her that this person was trustworthy. She should have
remembered that when Teddy had neither pets nor books.

“Well, you see…” He glanced around surreptitiously. “I like
to read. A lot. Any book I can find. After the Veil fell and we had to figure
out how to do things for ourselves, I devoured books on everything that might
help us, but my favorites involved construction and carpentry. A lot of the
houses in
Springlake
are my design. Everything I
know, I learned from a book, but
shhh
.” He held a
finger up to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone my secret or else everyone will know
how to do it all, too.”

She giggled. “I think your status within the community is
secure.” Was this guy too good to be true?

* * *

Three hours and about thirty steps later, Marcus decided
that Lori looked too damn good with a hammer. As he worked perched below her,
he watched her delectable ass sway in time with the swing of her hammer. His
cock throbbed, and honestly, he could probably hammer a few nails with it right
now, too.

The stairs weren’t quite done. They’d still need a couple
more hours to work in the morning, but now they needed to quit, since it was
dusk. He laid down his tools and eyed that ass one more time. He growled low as
he swooped in to pick her up.

Lori screamed in surprise, but then laughed as he hugged her
tighter to his chest. “What the hell are you doing?” She tried to sound
offended, but the buoyant laughter ruined the effect.

“It’s time to quit.”

“But we aren’t done, yet.”

“We’re done for today. I have other needs for you to attend
to for the rest of the day.”

“Oh you do, do you?” Her voice took on a sultry edge that
made him want to throw her down right here on the steps and devour her.

He leaned down to kiss her as he flew up into the sky. She’d
become more comfortable with his ability to hold her and she immediately
twisted around until she had her legs wrapped tightly around his waist. The
pressure at his groin proved both glorious and torturous. But if he was going
to die, this topped the list of the ways he’d choose to go.

He groaned as he threaded the fingers of one hand through
her hair and used the other to hold her ass and push her even harder against
the throbbing part of him. The feel of her heat shredded at his self-control.
The temptation to unzip and bury his cock within her right here, right now,
became almost impossible to resist. It occurred to him that he might want to
land before he lost total control and flew them into a tree.

He set her down outside the door to the bathroom. She looked
at him with a question in her eyes.

“I’ve been working all day,” he told her. “I think a shower
may be in order for both of us.”