Through The Veil (8 page)

* * *

Hours later, Marcus sat in the quiet of his living room and
considered his unexpected guest. He still had so many questions for her.

When the Veil fell eighteen years ago, they didn’t have any
warning that they would lose complete touch with the ES.

Within forty-eight hours, all the adults and a lot of the
kids were simply dead. They had no idea how or why. Even more mysterious, the
bodies disappeared within a couple hours of dying.

Just kids at the time, they hadn’t known what to do. They
were all terrified and hadn’t understood what happened. Hell, eighteen years
later, they still didn’t understand it.

But with Lori’s appearance, all kinds of questions were
raised. Did the same thing happen in the ES? Obviously not, but how much of
their world remained the same and how much had changed? She could use
telepathy, but didn’t expect them to use it, too. So, did that mean not
everyone in the ES had heightened skills and gifts?

She got through the Veil, but how did she do it and why?
Would more follow her? Alarm flooded him. Even if the changes in the ES had
been as significant as they’d been in the WS, they obviously hadn’t developed
wings. That would make his people an oddity and something to possibly be
studied or maligned. Man had always been obsessed with the idea of flying.

But for the first time in a long time, Marcus embraced a
flicker of cautious hope. Was Lori’s crossing a sign of better things to come?
Or just the beginning of more strife and struggle in their lives? Goddess, he
didn’t think he could handle any more pain.

“Marcus, what’s wrong?”
Malcolm asked mentally.
“You’re
tense.”

And this exhibited the downside to one of their abilities.
They’d learned over the years how to guard themselves from allowing others to
come into their thoughts without welcome, but that didn’t eliminate their
ability to sense each other’s moods. As brothers, Malcolm and he had a stronger
bond than most, which made it impossible for him to shut his brother out
entirely.

“Everything’s fine. I’m just concerned about what all
this means.
”

“Were you able to get any more information out of Lori?”

“No, she’s tired and hurting, so after eating she headed
right to bed.”

“Okay, I’ll come by in the morning to check her sutures
and bring you some more of the pain powder.”

“Thanks, Malcolm.”

There hadn’t been any more discussion about Lori staying
somewhere else after she had eaten. At that point, she seemed ready to drop and
he didn’t offer again, mainly because he didn’t want her to go. He wanted her
here where he could protect her, something she obviously hadn’t had for a
while. That bruise on her cheek bothered him more than he’d like to admit. What
had happened to her? How did she end up here, wounded and terrified? Didn’t she
have anyone in the ES to take care of her? To miss her?

Marcus rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the
tension spread across there. It had been a long day and tomorrow promised to be
just as eventful. He probably should get some sleep, too.

He headed toward the steps to his bedroom. The bedroom he’d
shared with Audra. It felt odd to have someone else in the house. No one else
had stayed here since Audra died and Shane left. His life now completely
revolved around being a Warrior, destined to live and die alone. He served and
protected Bethany from the Predators and anything else that might threaten her.
He did it well and took satisfaction from that. If the loneliness ate at him,
well that was just life, wasn’t it?

He’d given up that he’d ever have someone else here again
and now someone else slept in his home. Someone he felt inexplicably drawn to.
He never planned to get involved with anyone else again. That route just held
pain and he wasn’t willing to go through anything like that again.

Someone else didn’t fit into his world anymore.

He pulled off his jeans and settled under the covers of his
bed, trying to relax his tense muscles, ignoring the jumble of memories of
Audra and visions of Lori that plagued him. He’d just dozed off when Lori
screamed.

Marcus’s feet never even touched the floor in his rush to
get to her room to fight off her attacker. He barged through the closed door,
yelling, “Lori!” He held his sword aloft, ready to protect her.

He quickly searched the corners of the room ready to take
down whoever had attacked, but could only see her from the light filtering into
the room from the surrounding
treehouses
. She sat up
in bed, clutching the covers to her body as she looked at him in shock and
distress. She still had the rumpled appearance of sleep about her. She’d had a
nightmare.

He lowered his sword slightly, noting how sexy she looked in
his bed. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes widened as she gave him a full body perusal. “You
have a big…” she hesitated slightly, her face reddening before swinging her
gaze back to his arm, “um, sword.”

Aw, damn. He stood here naked and his interest in her
quickly became more and more apparent. As he looked at her sleep-rumpled
appearance, he felt his face flush in embarrassment and resisted the urge to
draw his wings around to the front of his body. Instead he went to stand behind
a chair in the room to disguise his nudity, at least slightly. “Sorry, I
thought someone attacked you.”

She blanched. “Does that happen here?”

“No, you should be safe. I just heard your scream and
assumed. Did you have a bad dream?”

Her eyes skittered to the side as she simply nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She still wouldn’t look him in the eye. “No,” she said so
quietly he could barely hear her.

“Do you need anything else? Are you in any pain?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m sorry I woke you, but thank you for
coming to protect me.” She nodded toward the sword still clutched in his hand.

“No problem. It’s my job.” He didn’t feel right leaving her
here alone, but that’s obviously what she expected him to do. “Okay, well, I’ll
head back to my bedroom. If you need me just yell and I’ll be here.”

“Thank you, Marcus.” Her reply was soft and quiet and felt
almost like a caress against his spine as he walked out of her room.

He glanced down at his straining erection in disgust. He
muttered, “You have no sense of timing at all do you?” He ran his hand over the
back of his neck. Here she was, hurt and scared. He had no business getting
turned on. Not that her fear turned him on. The woman herself did that for him,
just her mere presence.

He heard her cries twice more throughout the night. Both
times he checked on her, but each time he did so by peering through her windows
while flying with his bottom half clothed. Both times, she appeared to simply
be caught up in her nightmares.

While asleep, her mental guards were down so he used his
telepathy to calm her. He tried not to intrude on her thoughts, but the
overwhelming fear pervaded her mind. Terrified didn’t even begin to cover the
depth of her emotions. It disturbed him. What had happened to this beautiful
creature to cause her to be so petrified? And how could he resist that
vulnerability when all he wanted to do was protect her?

* * *

The next morning, Malcolm showed up before Marcus even had
the coffee fully brewed. He knocked lightly on the door as he let himself in.
“Good morning. How’s our patient this morning?”

Marcus squinted at him then back out the window into the
ever-present fog of the morning. He scowled at Malcolm. “I’m not sure. She
isn’t up yet.”

Malcolm took a moment to look him over. “You don’t look so
great. Rough night?”

Marcus glanced up toward the direction of the bedrooms.
“Something’s happened to her in the past. She has horrible nightmares. I can
sense how terrified she is, but I also get the sense that she doesn’t want us
to know about it.” He ran his hand over his face, trying to rub the tiredness
away. “We have to find out how she ended up here, but I’m afraid if I push her,
it might scare her away.”

The woman in question opened the door and walked into the
room. Her mouth dropped open as she focused on his chest, her eyes becoming
darker, and then she frowned in annoyance.

Marcus eyed her critically. She looked like hell. There were
deep circles of exhaustion under her eyes. He walked over to her and pushed a
cup of coffee into her hands. He reached up to brush a lock of hair off her
cheek, but he directed his comment toward Malcolm. “She needs sleep. Can you
give her something to help?”

Her eyes flashed in anger as she brushed his hand aside and
then pushed his chest to move him out of her way.

“And good morning to you, too,” she growled.

Oh yeah, she didn’t wake up in a happy mood.

“What is it with you guys?” She waved a hand at the both of
them and their bare chests. “Don’t you ever wear clothes?”

Malcolm raised his eyebrows and turned to Marcus as if to
ask him if he wanted to take this one. Instead Marcus spoke to Malcolm
telepathically. “
You’re the doctor. You can explain to her the difficulties
of shirts when you have wings.”

She continued to glare at them like all her problems could
be traced back to the fact they didn’t have on shirts.

Malcolm continued to watch her like she might physically
attack him at any moment while he responded to Marcus.
“What did you do to
her? She was a perfectly pleasant female when I left her in your care last
night.”

Marcus growled in his head.
“I didn’t do anything but
feed her and give her a bed to sleep in. Maybe she’s in pain. Did you bring
more of that medicine?”

Lori rolled her eyes. “At least it’s good to know that guys
are completely clueless on both sides of the Veil.” She glared back at the two
of them. “You do realize I can hear you, right?”

Marcus jerked his head back to her. How did she hear them?

“Um, no, we didn’t realize that.” Malcolm said as he eyed
her curiously. “Were you trying to listen to our private conversation?”

“No!” She sounded offended. “What kind of person do you
think I am? I wouldn’t intrude on someone like that.”

The brothers exchanged a look. They’d learned over the years
to automatically shield their telepathic conversations from others. Marcus
reinforced the shields before turning to her and instructing, “Try to hear us
now.”

To Malcolm he said,
“She looks tired this morning. How
does she seem to you?”

She rolled her eyes at Marcus. “I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep
very good, as well you know. And yes, obviously I can hear you. I don’t even
have to try. You both just broadcast in my head.”

Malcolm frowned at her when he asked, “Can you hear anyone
else?”

She immediately shook her head and then focused a bit more.
“No, but I’ve never been particularly good at telepathy.”

The brothers exchanged another confused look. “You shouldn’t
be able to hear us at all,” Malcolm stated. “We have our shields up.”

She shrugged and then winced as the motion pulled at her
side. Malcolm moved over to her side. “Can I check it?” He asked. At her nod,
he lifted her shirt. “Do you still have much pain?”

“It’s a little tender, but it’s no big deal.”

He pushed at the stitches a little bit. “It looks inflamed.”
He reached up, felt her forehead and then took her pulse rate. “I think you may
be getting an infection.” He pulled some packets of medicine out of his pockets
and dropped them on the counter. “I want you to take one of these every four
hours.” He turned to Marcus. “If her fever gets any higher, I need you to call
me immediately.”