Altered (24 page)

“Because if he’s going to be in this family then he needs to be in it for good! I don’t want to worry about him taking off or
getting pissed off for no reason and leaving Fay. Or us,” she said and promptly burst into tears. Fay and I looked on confused as Eli tried, futilely, to console her.

             
“What’s it to you, Clara?” I said carefully. “You hate me anyway.”

             
She sniffed and looked up at us. “I’m…pregnant, Uncle Enoch.” She swung her gaze to Eli. “I’m pregnant. I’m sorry.”

             
His mouth was slightly open in shock, but I had to give it to him. He swung back into action quickly, though he looked like he could keel over. “You are? How far?”

             
She dropped her chin. “At least seven weeks.”

             
“Clara,” he scolded, a growl tacked on.

             
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed and covered her face. “I know that the Horde is onto us so heavy and…” she looked up, her face covered with tears, “and I’m carrying the one thing they despise most. The thing they are trying their hardest to stop.” She looked at me. “The one thing
you
despise. At least…that’s what I thought. I was afraid to say anything, especially with Enoch here. I didn’t know if this thing with Fay was all an act or not. I couldn’t risk it.”

             
I felt true guilt for the second time in my life as I watched my brother hold his scared-out-of-her-mind wife and knew that the reason she’d been so protective and seemingly over the top wasn’t just because she was a sister protecting her sister—though it was that—was she was a mother protecting her child. And she had good reason.

             
Once the Horde found out that Eli Thames was having a child with his human bride, the bidding wars would start for the reward to whoever brought them down. I shook my head.

That troll hadn’t realized how right he had been.

This war really was just beginning.

Eli held her close and lifted her chin. He smiled. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare make this something bad. We’re going to have a baby, Clara.” He kissed her and wiped her cheek. “Remember, on the boat to Arequipa, you told me you wanted kids and a white fence?” She gave him a half smile. “Well, this is half
come true.”

She laughed reluctantly. He wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted them from the ground to hug
her tight, but I saw it. Behind her back where she couldn’t see, he was afraid. He gripped her back tight and looked like a man who was about to lose the one thing he wanted in the world. He was a human now. He couldn’t protect her, and as much as he may have hated that fact, it was the truth.

I don’t know why he looked at me then, but he did. I nodded, letting him know that I wasn’t going anywhere. They had to know that by now, right? I basically professed my love for Fay in front of everyone. Well, not everyone.

I looked around and saw Aries and Franz and the rest of the men piling the bodies up.

             
“Are you okay? Did the smoke, fog, whatever hurt you?”

             
I looked back to find Eli kissing Clara, making it impossible for her to answer.

             
I looked away from them and took Fay’s chin in my fingers, pulling her to look at me. “Are
you
okay?”

             
“I’m fine. Now.”

“What happened?”

She sighed and pushed her wet hair back. “I’ll tell you about it later, okay? Right now I just want to be here.” She laid her head in the crook of my neck and settled against my chest. She was shaking and I wrapped my arms around her small frame, tucking her in closer for to my warmth, but also for my primal need to have her close.

“
You almost died,” I growled, all my anger coming back. I knew the blue veins were showing in my arms and neck, but I couldn’t stop. “You lay there and I thought you were going to die, just like that. Human life is so fragile and I hate that you can be taken from me so easily.” Her fingers ran across the blue veins on my arm and hand lightly. “But if you hadn’t been human, I wouldn’t have fallen for you.”

She smiled in her peripheral. “You didn’t date witches and pixies?”

“No,” I groaned and tugged her closer. “I didn’t date witches and pixies. I was only ever with…humans. I was never even with devourers. That doesn’t even make sense.” I laughed once.

She turned her head, letting me see her eyes as she searched my face. She touched my neck and jaw. “These will heal, won’t they?” she asked of the scratches I got from the devourer in the river.

I nodded. “Yeah. I always heal.”

She bit into the side of her lip and my gut went crazy. She
draped one arm around my neck and rested her face back into my neck. Eli and Clara were still preoccupied with each in whispers and if I saw him grab her stomach one more time… I rolled my eyes and smiled. My brother, the father. It suited him.

I realized that I hadn’t ever moved on to any other species because I had been waiting for Fay. She had been meant for me all along. If there was one person out there for one other person, she was mine. I had become a complete sap, the thing I hated, the person I resented and made fun of, that was me. I grinned and shook my head.

And I was going to be an uncle.

And that thought actually didn’t make me want to vomit.

I kissed Fay’s forehead and thought she might be asleep, and I wouldn’t blame her a bit after the day she had, but I still had to say it. “You’re mine now, princess.”

             
“And you’re mine,” she answered and I felt her smile against my neck. I felt something a little warm around my heart, but I just pulled her chin up and lowered my mouth to hers. I exhaled against her skin, claiming her. She licked her lips as I pulled back. She was mine, my mate, my
whatever
you wanted to call it.

I looked around at the camp and knew exactly that we had to do.
I pulled the detonator from her lap and we looked at it. She realized it, too, and sighed roughly as she nodded.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Everybody okay?” Franz yelled as they finally made their way over. A large pile of bodies burned near the river. The boat was gone, too. I assumed he sank it.

I stood with
Fay in my arms and let her feet touch the ground. Franz and Aries were looking at her like she hung the frigging moon. I groaned a little, but it sounded like a growl more than anything, and Aries laughed. Franz rolled his eyes at me and grinned at Fay. “You did good, girl.”

“I just did—”
              “You just saved everyone’s lives,” Soria’s said and scoffed while she cried and wiped her eyes. “That’s all.”

“We need to get our belongings together,” Franz told everyone.

I nodded and lifted the device. “We need the rest of the Horde to think they succeeded.”

             
Franz nodded and looked at Fay. “You know how to use that thing?”

             
“They put devices in all the houses to explode,” she explained. “So when you press this button, it’ll detonate the explosives.”

“It’s that easy?” I asked and shook my head. “Press a butt
on and everything blows up? Humans make things way too simple. But…it just can’t be that easy, can it?”

“Sometimes,” s
he leaned in and whispered, “we accept that it’s just that easy.”

________
___

I laced my fingers with hers as we
stood on the bank of the river, having done a head count and made sure everyone was accounted for several times before the button was pressed. Then the safety cap was removed, Franz pressed the button, and we all watched as the camp they’d lived in for months was demolished, leveled to nothing but fire and smoke.

Not many of them got sappy about it. They were nomads, travelers, gypsies, so they knew that a move was always on the horizon. What surprised me most was how we were going to get to Colorado. I had wondered what happened to the car I stole since we arrived, but had
n’t wondered enough to actually ask, but as we all trekked through the woods, the long way around the river to the other side, I saw how they were going to get us there.

And I saw the stolen car they had
stolen
from me.

I smirked at Franz as he passed me with a little devious smile.

They had a few vans and trucks, there was even two old yellow school buses.

Franz shrugged. “You leave them by the side of the road unattended, it’s fair game.”

“A school bus is fair game?” I laughed. “I find it hard to believe you weaseled two buses away without anyone noticing.”

“I bought them,” Eli said as he passed and shook his head.

“Don’t take my fun, Thames,” Franz grumbled.

I laughed and hoisted Fay into my arms, blurring her to the car we had stolen. “Dibs,” I whispered into her hair.

She tried to grin, but it was tired. I could tell she was so tired. Dying on a beach and being brought back to life would do that to anyone. I held her face and kissed her once before I put her on the seat and called Eli’s name. I nodded for him and Clara to ride with us.

When I cl
imbed in, I tugged Fay’s sleeve so she would lay her head in my lap. She sighed so contently and I felt that bone deep satisfaction once again. For a moment, all was right in the world.

And then Clara leaned over the seat.

“I’m glad I was wrong about you,” was all she said before she kissed my cheek and leaned back. I was shocked that I didn’t want to punch something. Maybe Clara and I might…maybe….could be friends after all.

“Um…are we gonna go?”

I shook my head. No. No, we were never going to be friends.
              “I’m driving,” I threw back at her and started the car with a chuckle. “You just sit back and enjoy the ride, prego.”

“Oh, you are most certainly not calling me that.”

Fay laughed from my lap and rubbed my thigh.

“Oh, boy,” she mut
tered and snuggled in closer as she tried to go to sleep. I rubbed her head and neck, knowing the next eleven hours of driving were going to be long, but the girls would sleep through most of it. I was actually looking forward to talking to my brother. Never thought that day would come.

“Baby,” Eli said.

“What?” she said, the exasperation in her voice clear.

“Go to sleep,” he
ordered softly.

Anyone else would have been chopped in half by her sharp tongue.

She sighed. “Okay.” She laid her head on his shoulder, but he pulled her down to his chest instead and leaned against the door, propping his feet up on the seat with her.

“Just go to sleep, love. Where do you want to go?”

I rolled my eyes, knowing right then that I wasn’t getting to talk to him at all if he was taking her in reverie. But then I squinted. “Wait, you’re human.”

He smirked. “Not all.”

“It’s okay,” she yawned her words. “I think your big brother wants to talk anyway.”

I smiled. She remembered that I was
the oldest by six minutes and she was perceptive enough to know I wanted to talk.

He started to hum a little against her forehead and I felt a crack go through me. It was painful
enough that the car swerved a little. Eli’s eyes opened, but he didn’t move. “You all right?”

“Fine,” I answered gruffly.

But I wasn’t. My chest and stomach were on fire. I drove on and eventually it subsided to a dull ache. The girls were asleep, but Fay was murmuring my name. I kept rubbing her hair. I didn’t know if Eli could hear it or not. If he did, he said nothing.

Eli went ahead and hit me with the sledgehammer. “You want to know if what happened to me is what’s happening to you.”

“It doesn’t make sense.” I didn’t waste any time so I didn’t chicken out. “I didn’t want to be like you. I wanted to be a devourer. I don’t know why things are changing. I tried to fight it, with everything in me, but now…I wouldn’t change anything. I wouldn’t go back.” Fay’s silky black hair combed through my fingers and I didn’t deserve her. “I feel like it doesn’t belong to me.”

“I think that’s the difference. You
feel.
What does Fay say about it?”

I scoffed and smiled as I drove on.

“For humans, everything’s easy. If you want to change, change. If you want to be forgiven, ask for forgiveness. If you want to be someone different, then don’t be the same man ever again.” I gulped. “That’s what I did. That’s what I’m doing.”

We arrived at the Colorado camp the next day and they were prepared for us. They had a big dinner ready of soup and sandwiches. Their accommodations were a bit more primitive than the other camp we had been renting. This was all tents, no cabins or buildings of any kind, except showers and bathrooms. I sighed and it must have been louder than I thought. Enoch put his arm around my shoulder and brought my head closer.

“We can always hit the road again and do the motel circuit.”

I laughed. “That’s not sounding too bad.”

“Hey,” Clara scolded and looked around. “It’s totally secluded. It’ll be like all those trips we took with Mom and Dad
dy to Little Bitterroot Lake. All we need is a tire swing and bugspray.”

Enoch scoffed. “And some root beer and
corn on the cob and a toothpick, right?”

She squinted her eyes and punched his arm lightly as they walked by. “You’re going to be perfectly fine here. Even you can
have fun at a bonfire. I’ve seen it.” She turned back to look at him. “Or was it just my sister’s influence?”

“It was just your sister,” he said and smirked, pulling me closer by the arm around my neck.

She rolled her eyes and gripped Eli’s hand as he laughed. They met everyone at the fires they had going and sat in the grass. It was dark, but they had tents set up and I was grateful. It was a lot of people in one place. A lot. It felt like boot camp; long lines and loud conversations. We sat with our group around a fire and the boys went off to have a meeting with the leaders of the camp.

When Clara was talking with Bridgette about something, I turned to Soria and Regina. “Regina, will you tell me about your bond?”

She smiled and rubbed her wrist. “Aries was shocked.”
              “How come some people have them and some don’t?”
              Soria grimaced. “Franz actually got upset, thinking that I didn’t want him enough. But it’s not really my choice. It’s something inside us, something that’s not really in our hands. You choose to bond before you even decided to.” She smiled. “It doesn’t mean I love him any less. I tried once, to bond myself to him. I tried so hard, but it wouldn’t work.” She shrugged. “Like I said, it’s something inside our very souls that decides, not us.”

“Wow,” Regina sighed, “that’s really beautiful.”

“Shut up,” Soria said and shoved her.

“So,” I swallowed and clasped my hands behind my back, “you’re saying I have no choice?”

“You’ve already decided.” She smiled in a knowing way.

I gasped, barely. “Do you…know something?”

She scoffed. “I can’t tell the future. I wish.”

I rubbed my neck and pressed my lips tog
ether. “Thank you, by the way. If you hadn’t given me the sight, I never would have seen the witch’s fog and been able to avoid it.”

“Yeah,” she stalled and paused avoiding my eyes. “You
saved us all. We should be thanking you.”

Regina hugged me. “So glad you’re all right. And don’t worry about the bonding, mating thing. It’ll happen in its own time.” She pulled back, but left her hands on my shoulders. “
And I know Enoch slipped up and said ‘mate’ that one time, but just wait ‘til he tells you that you’re
his
. Ahh,” she groaned. “When you know you’re his and no one else’s, you’re his mate and then you have nothing to worry about.”

I squinted. “Uh…”

“You’re mine now, princess.”

“And you’re mine.”

“What?” she asked, seeing the look on my face. She grinned. “What!” she whisper-shrieked.

“I think we already did that part.” They both gasped and leaned in. “On the beach, right after he saved me. He said ‘you’re mine now’ and I said ‘and you’re mine’. Does that mean…?”

“Yes!” they both squealed and tackled me in a group hug. “Ohmigosh!” and “You’re mates!” and “So sweet!” were all mixed together in a jumble.

“Wait.
” I stopped them, unable to let the happiness bubble over if it wasn’t true. “Are you sure that’s what it means.”

“If that’s what he said, that’s what it means,” Regina answered. “Mine
means
mine
. Mine means
his.
That is the word he would use to claim his mate. He may not have had the official talk with you because, yo, you just died and all, but you’re totally mates.”

Clara joined the group with a
curious look on her face and I was worried she’d be angry. We’d never been close. Even as teenagers, we’d always been more the sisters that fought and avoided each other than the kind that stuck together and did things. When it got quiet, she knew it had to do with Enoch. She made a sulky face, but smiled. “What is it? I can take it.”

“
Enoch…”

“What?”
she asked.

“I made Fay my mate.” I whipped around at the sound of Enoch’s voice to find him there with a smirk on his face. “That is what we’re talking about, right, ladies?”

I didn’t know what to say so I just stared. He was alone and his smile was soft as he made his way to us, his steps silent in the grass but strong, and they made his entire body shift. I gulped, suddenly not sure what to do with this man who was stalking over like a panther. His gaze never left mine until he reached me. He handed Clara and me a mug of something.

“Hot chocolate,” he told us. “Eli and the rest of the guys are coming. Sorry, girls. I only had two hands, but I know I saw Franz with some mugs so I’m sure some is coming for you,” he told Soria and Regina with a wink.

“That’s okay,” they said dazedly. I laughed under my breath.

“So, you hate me again?” he asked Clara.

“Why?”

“I stole your sister,”
he told her, but looked down at me.

She shrugged. “So we’re even.”

______
_____

I could hear the river as he tugged me along. It was dark, but the moon was so bright. I looked back and could see tents everywhere. The Colorado group only had about thirty to begin with, so we were the bulk of their mass. Clara had said that Eli and Franz’s money funded most of the cause. And I knew Enoch had money, too, though I had no clue as to the extent of it. Some of the fruits of that money were in my hand. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I had a backpack full of clothes and stuff I’d need, as did Enoch. We stopped on the way and got some necessities. We were going to be camping after all. For how long, no one knew. We had spies and eyes out looking for word from the Horde and the new councils with the witches and the elves.

Things would get worse before they would get better.

“Hey.” I turned to look at him. He was serious and gruff, worried. “You all right?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I half-smiled, holding my sleeping bag to my chest tight. I went ahead of him in the tent and kicked my shoes off outside. I laid my sleeping bag out, unzipped it and, opened it up. He was kneeling beside me, watching me. “If you put yours on top of mine, then we can zip them together and we’ll both fit.”

He sighed. “You want to sleep with me?”

I blinked. “You don’t?”

He chuckled and leaned in to hug me to him. “Of course I d
o. I just never got to talk with you and when Clara asked me…” I leaned back just enough to look up at him. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to be upset with me about saying you were mine.” I shivered. Regina was right. Hearing I was
his
… He groaned, but that swiftly moved into a husky chuckle that he pressed to my ear. “Ah, my little human, you’re killing me.”

“No,” I told him, but it came out as nothing but breath. “I’m not angry.”

“You stalled outside the tent.” He paused. My Enoch was unsure. “I thought it might be that I claimed you and had not discussed—”

“I’m yours.” I looked up so he could see my eyes. I knew right away he was mourning my blue eyes, but what I saw in his face couldn’t be real. He
had said before that love changed things. He hadn’t said he loved me, but I think it was obvious that we were well past like. You know when you’re on a course that you know is the right one. You can’t explain it, you can’t define it, you don’t know how you got there or what all the obstacles will be, you just know the end result will be amazing and it will be worth it.

That was the road I was on.

Full speed ahead, no blinkers or turn signals, just cruise control.

He
cupped my face and didn’t ask, he took.
This
was the Enoch I knew. He pushed the backpack from my shoulders and tossed it in the far corner. He pulled away to reach over and zip the tent up. When he returned, he grinned cockily as he took my face again.

“See, didn’t I tell you I’d get us our own place.”

I nodded with a smile and tugged him closer with his shirt. He groaned as we crashed together. I knew with everything that had been going on, he hadn’t fed in a while. He hadn’t said anything, but I was beginning to notice the little signs. I let everything come forward, all my feelings for how he saved me, how he cared for me so obviously, how he pushed all his old self away the past few days and really stepped up to show me how much he wanted me, all of it.

He su
cked a breath against my lips. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I’m just being me.”

He chuckled in that way that said he was annoyed. “You are so going to be a handful.” He swept my hair back. “My little beautiful handful.” He sighed. “I can wait. I know what you’re doing. You’re pushing extra hard to feed me. You’ve been through so much…” he looked down at my neck as if he couldn’t stand to think about it, “…the last couple days and I can wait.” He looked back up at my eyes. They were harder. “Besides, I don’t want you to think this is just me needing to get my fix all the time. I want to touch you because I want to touch you, not just because I need to feed.”

I nodded. “And you don’t think I want you to touch me?” He paused, still. “You don’t think that when you touch me it doesn’t make me insane?” I breathed. His eyes became a little more lidded as he watched me. “You don’t think that when you look at me like that I don’t want you to kiss me?
To put me on your lap and make me sit there for hours?” He gulped. Actually gulped. I felt so much triumph. “The goal is to kiss you, Enoch.” I pushed my arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck. He groaned, the tiniest moan. I moved up on my tiptoes and faced him. “It’s my honor to give you what you need, but the goal is to touch you. Feeding you in the process is just a perk.”

I felt his hands on the backs of my thig
hs before he lifted.

“You aren’t real,
Fay,” he whispered harshly against my mouth.

I wrapped my arms all the way around his head, bringing us as close as we could get. I loved feeling
his hands on my legs and our bodies pressed together all the way down, warm and right.

“I’m real. And I’m yours.”

“Gah, I love to hear you say that you’re mine,” he growled. We laughed into our kiss, but his kiss was barely a whisper as he lowered us down to the sleeping bag. “You know I’m asking for forever, right?” His eyes closed for a moment and I knew exactly what he was thinking. “As forever as human life will let us have.”

When he opened them
, he tried not to let me see, but it was hard to hide the pain there.

“Forever is what I want
,” I whispered.

I
t had crossed my mind, too. Of course it had with all the thoughts of the bonds. But with the way this life was going, we didn’t know what was going to happen. I almost died yesterday. Who knew if I would even make it to fifty. I wasn’t wasting time worrying about that.

Apparently, neither was he.

“Come here, little human,” he ordered, cupping my chin and pressing me into the blanket. “No more talking.”