Through The Veil (13 page)

“Thanks, Malcolm.”

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, Lori felt ready to crawl out of her
skin. After being in captivity for so long, she felt guilty for not taking full
advantage of her freedom. She should be doing something to free her friends.
Marcus hovered and pushed her for answers about the ES and how she’d been
imprisoned, but she wasn’t ready to share yet. She’d trusted once before and
lost the last six years of her life as a result. That wasn’t something easily
forgotten.

Luckily for Lori, she hadn’t realized she had her ability
for years, although it had probably been there shortly after the Veil dropped
like everyone else who developed them. No, she discovered it purely by accident
one day when she couldn’t get the lock on her door to work. She’d been
frustrated and angry as she wiggled the key within the sticky lock. Suddenly
the actual physical part of the door around the handle reformed and morphed,
creating a hole so she could just reach in and unlock the door from inside.
While standing there looking at it in shock, it occurred to her that she’d done
that. She hadn’t even tried. It just happened.

Then, she had the problem of figuring out how to return her
door to normal, never realizing all she had to do was let go of the knob and it
would change back. By the time she finished, she’d knocked her energy levels on
their ass and it took twenty hours of sleep to recover from that little
manipulation. She didn’t get as worn out by it now because her mental muscles
were in better shape, but it still drained her to use her mental ability.

But all of that happened a couple of years after the Veil
and by then, Lori knew the danger of letting anyone know about her ability. In
the ES, not everyone developed those special gifts and those who had were
oddities to be feared and maligned. She knew to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t
want to mysteriously disappear like all the Others had. That’s what they called
them in the media—Others.

But then she had met Teddy.

So, yeah, she had a hard time trusting anyone. The people of
the WS had been nothing but kind to her and she didn’t see any evidence of
duplicity, but she just couldn’t let her defenses down.

Marcus and she had been playing cards on the couch for a
couple of hours to pass the time. It turned out they were both pretty evenly
matched and competitive, but after being cooped up for so long, this wasn’t a
good enough distraction.

Marcus suddenly jumped up and said, “Come on. We’re getting
out of here for a little bit.”

“What? Where are we going?”

“Let’s go to the pub.”

“You have a pub here?” Granted, she hadn’t seen much of the
village, but what she had seen all looked like homes.

He nodded with a flirty, boyish half-grin that took her by
surprise just because it was such an unusual expression for him, but she liked
it. “Yes,” he said. “It’s pretty low-key, but it’s a fun place to hang out and
will give you a better idea about life here.”

Well, she certainly wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to
learn more about them. She hoped to bring the Others back here when she freed
them, so she needed to figure out exactly how they would all fit into this new
society. “Okay, sounds fun, but…” She glanced down dispiritedly at her
extremely casual cargo pants and T-shirt. “I don’t have anything nicer to
wear.”

Before she even finished talking, he twisted his mouth and
shook his head. “It’s very casual. I promise you, that’s actually perfect.”

The bar was built like Marcus’s house, on several floors
circling around the trunk of a huge tree. The main bar was located on the
bottom floor where they entered.

Every eye in the place turned to Lori as they walked in.
There were more people here than she expected and all dressed very casually.
Like the Warriors she’d already met, a lot of the women wore barely-there
shirts, and the men wore none at all.

At least twenty people stood and sat in groups around the
room and that was just on this level. She hadn’t considered how much attention
she would garner as the obvious newcomer. It made her uncomfortable. Marcus
settled his hand into the center of her lower back, soothing her with his
strong presence.

“Do you drink beer?” he whispered over the noise of the bar.
His breath brushed across her ear and sent a shiver down her spine.

She gave a short nod. Suddenly a beer sounded very good.
Swallowing hard at her nerves, she moved forward, following the gentle pressure
of Marcus’s hand on her back as he guided her through the crowd. They stopped
several times as Marcus introduced her to the villagers. Most were friendly and
polite, but she still felt the surreptitious gazes and whispers. This had been
a really bad idea.

“Relax,” Marcus whispered into her ear. “We’ll get our beers
and then find a quiet table on the floor with the live music. No one will bother
us.”

That sounded good and now that he mentioned it, she could
hear some sort of acoustic music floating down from above. They found an open
space at the bar and Marcus caged her body from behind. He leaned over to talk
to the bartender, the motion pushing his solid body against the full length of
her back. Damn, the guy was hard and muscular everywhere, not that that was any
surprise, but there was just something so much more real about feeling all
those muscles suddenly pressed against her.

The bartender was a tiny little wisp of a girl. She couldn’t
even be five feet tall, had short spiky blond hair, and the most incredible hot
pink wings. Could that coloring be natural? Did they dye their feathers here
just like hair? She wore a wrap top like Bethany normally wore, but hers was
sleeveless and bared a good portion of her very toned stomach. Most of her
exposed skin was covered with black swirls of inked tattoos. Overall, she
appeared extremely bad-ass and sexy…and a lot like what children’s books referred
to as pixies.

“Marcus,” the bartender greeted him while she flashed an
open smile to Lori. “We haven’t seen you here in ages. I heard you had a new
friend.” She glanced at Lori appraisingly. “And I’m assuming that her lack of
wings means this is her.” She reached across the bar to shake Lori’s hand. “Hi,
I’m
Roxi
.”

“I’m Lori. It’s nice to meet you and I have to ask…” She
looked at the wild wings again. “Is that their natural color?”

The girl gave a huge gusty laugh. “Yeah, Mother Earth knew
what she was doing when she gave them to me. They definitely make a statement.
It’s a good thing that I’m a statement kind of girl.” She winked at Lori. “I
know what the big guy drinks. Do you like dark beers like him?”

“Dark works for me.” Actually, she loved dark beers, but not
many people did. It was nice to find something so normal in this unexpected bar
in the sky.

Roxi
poured their beers, all the
while flirting and talking to everyone who stood around it. She was most
definitely a spitfire of energy and spark.

“Thanks,
Rox
,” Marcus said. “Is
that Eric I hear playing?”

“Yep, he’s up on the third level. Go on up. I think the
crowd is lighter up there so you can hear yourself think. I’ll come and check
on you in about thirty.”

“Sounds good.” He nodded at her and propelled Lori toward
the stairs that circled up the trunk of the tree to the upper levels. They
passed quickly through the second level, which looked like a games area. There
were dart boards and card tables, including what looked like a couple of serious
poker games.

The third level featured lowered lights, little votive
candles on the small conversational tables, and a spotlighted platform where a
beautiful man with golden wings sat playing guitar. His eyes remained shut as
he sang along to a tune she’d never heard before. It was beautiful, even
somewhat mournful, and immediately, Lori’s nerves settled and soothed. He had
an incredible gift.

They found a table in the back and settled in to listen.
Marcus threaded his fingers through hers and they both focused on the musician,
although Lori had a hard time maintaining focus with the pressure of Marcus’s
hand on hers. That small physical touch sent impulses of sizzling awareness
throughout her entire nervous system. This man affected her like no other.

The set lasted for another few songs that were just as
beautiful as the first. Then the guitar player finally opened his eyes and
stopped playing. There was a smattering of applause from the few inhabitants in
the room. In the ES, this man would be a star, selling out concerts, but here
it was so casual and laidback.

“Thank you,” he said with a humble nod toward the audience.
“I’m going to take a short break, but I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes.”
He set his guitar next to his chair and left the stage.

“He’s really good,” Lori said.

Marcus nodded in agreement. “Yes, he is. He plays here three
or four nights a week just for something to do. He writes all his own stuff,
but doesn’t have anyone to share it with. He spends a lot of time alone. I
think he comes here just so someone else can hear it.”

“That seems kind of sad,” Lori said.

Marcus stared into his beer. “Yes, I guess it kind of is,
isn’t it? It’s too easy in our world to stagnate because nothing ever really
changes. There are so few of us left…”

His voice trailed off and there was no mistaking the pain in
it. Who had he lost? The glimpses of hurt she’d seen in him seemed to be more
than what could be attributed to the loss of his parents.

Lori didn’t want this for their night out. They’d been having
fun. “I have an idea. While he’s on break, let’s play a game. Tell me something
about you.”

Marcus looked up at her with a single cocked eyebrow.

She grinned. “Tell me something no one else knows about
you.”

He gave a hollow chuckle. “Did I give you the impression
somewhere that I’m more interesting than I am?”

“Oh, come on.” She gave him a small shove. “I know there’s
more to you than that. You can do it. I have faith.”

“O…
kay
, but you have to play
along, too,” he responded and then took a long drink of his beer while he
considered the question.

Suddenly, he turned bright red. Even in the darkened room,
Lori could see it. “What?” she asked with a grin.

“No, I’ll think of something else. Hang on, this is hard.”

“No way, not after that reaction. You have to tell me now…so
fess up. What is it?”

“Um…” He looked around the room sheepishly. “I um…kind of
have a phobia…about spiders.” His entire body shook as he shuddered and he
finally met her gaze again. “All those legs, you know?” he said in a hushed whisper.
“They’re just really creepy. And now you know…I’m a total
wuss
.”

She bit her lip to keep her giggle contained. After a
minute, she finally had enough control to say, “It’s okay. That’s why you have
the big sword, right?” She snickered. She couldn’t help it.

He rolled his eyes at her. “Thanks for the sympathy.” His
eyes took on an evil glint. “Okay, I did it. Now, your turn. Let’s hear your
deep dark secrets.” He rubbed his hands together in supposed maniacal glee.

Now she laughed outright. “I’m not sure I can match that
one, but I’ll try. Um, let’s see. Before the Veil, we were never allowed to
have pets because my dad was deathly allergic. One day when I was seven, I
found a mama cat having kittens. She ended up having three of them. I took her
and the babies home with me and hid them under the house for a year, taking
care of them and feeding them. My dad never did understand why he always
started sneezing when I was in the room for that year,” she said with a soft
smile.

Marcus scowled at her. “I give you evil, hairy, terrifying
spiders and you pull out a sweet, cuddly kitten family that you saved from
starvation?”

He sounded so disgruntled and disgusted she couldn’t help
but giggle again. “I’m sorry. I promise to do better next round.”

“Nope, not good enough compensation. I told you something
that’s truly scarring to me. I think you owe me something more.”

“Oh, really?” she asked with suspicion.

“Yes, to truly call that round even, I think you owe me a
kiss.”

A frisson of nerves skittered through her stomach and then
lower. Kiss this sexy man? Not exactly a hardship. Her gaze dropped to his
lips.

He nodded. “Yes, definitely, a kiss will help.”

“Hmm, well, I can’t let you suffer, so if that will make us
even, I guess I can accommodate your needs.” She leaned over simply planning to
brush a soft kiss across his lips. But he reached up to cup her cheek as her
mouth touched his. When she began to draw back, he pulled her closer and
deepened the kiss. She could taste the smooth malty flavors from the beer on
him. His kiss was slow and thoughtful. His tongue tangled with hers sending
shivers of desire racing through her. She lost all sense of time and space as
she sank further into the kiss. Slowly, he pulled them apart with a gentle
final swipe of his tongue over her lower lip.

Opening her eyes, she found his gaze to be intense,
glittering in the golden candlelight. “I feel better now.” His voice was husky
and roughened with desire.

She touched her swollen lips, having lost any thought
besides dirty ones about this man in front of her. “Good.” Oh God, that could
not be her voice, sounding so breathy and turned on. She cleared her
throat.
 
“Um, can you point me toward the
restroom?” She had to pull herself together again and she couldn’t do that with
him looking at her like he wanted to strip her bare in the next five minutes.
Was it possible to spontaneously combust from lust?

“Sure, it’s right around the corner. While you do that,
would you like me to get another round?” He gestured to their empty glasses on
the table.

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’d like to listen to at least one
more set, if it’s okay?”