Entity Mine (9 page)

“You think it was a vision?” Beth leaned forward, eyes wide, lips slightly parted.

Devon rubbed her face with both hands. “I don’t know what to think.”

Chapter 12

The air stair steps deployed with a hiss, letting in what should have been clean Western New York air. Ky winced as acrid fumes flooded the cabin of his small private jet and burned the sensitive lining of his nose. Shaking his head to dislodge the smell, he headed down the narrow steps onto the tarmac, the folding handrail flimsy under his hand.

The East was in the grip of an unseasonable autumn heat wave and the morning sun was warm on his head.

Jake whistled low behind him, his boot heels clicking on the steps. “A bit different than JFK.”

“A welcome difference.” That jostling sea of humanity had eaten at his nerves. Thankfully, he hadn’t had to endure the public areas for very long.

Jake stepped toward the waiting rental car, sweeping the red, green, and gold patched surroundings with an approving eye. Ky could see the lion inside Jake weighing the open countryside. “Looks like a good place to run.” Eyes half-closed, his brother scented the breeze. “Lot’s of deer in this area and plenty of cover.”

Less then a half an hour later, the wheels of the rental car spat gravel onto the weedy edge of a driveway leading to a compact, white ranch-style house. The house squatted in a square clearing, a thick row of giant trees towered behind it, no doubt marking some boundary line.

Kyle glanced at his brother. “This is it.”

Jake nodded, his features bleak.

They sat for a moment in the car, each absorbed in his thoughts. Then Ky took a deep breath and reached for the driver’s door. The click of the latch seemed ominously final. His boots crunched on the loose stone as he got out.

There was a thump and the car rocked. Jake’s feet hit the faded asphalt driveway, but he just stood there, gazing into the distance, leaning on the dusty roof as if he needed the car to hold him up.

Ky could see his brother’s chest rise and fall with the deep roll of an ocean swell. He sympathized. They needed answers, but, God, he dreaded what they might uncover.

He scrubbed at his forehead with his hand, then started toward the wide concrete front stoop. After a moment, Jake strode up to join him.

Honey raised her bony chin off of Devon’s bare toes and gave a short, sharp bark.

Beth and Devon glanced at her.

“What is it, girl?” asked Devon, putting down her cup too fast and slopping coffee over the side of her ‘lawyers do it legally’ mug.

“Yeah,” said Beth, eyes twinkling, mouth formed into a impish quirk. “Is Timmy in the well?”

Devon shot her a wry look as she mopped up the spill with a paper napkin. “Very funny.”

A businesslike knock at the door brought Honey to her feet, barking. She bounded to the foyer, and showed off her best Rottweiler impression, a snarl backing up every bark.

Chairs screeched as she and Beth, eyebrows raised, got up to trail after her to the door.

Devon wrapped her fingers around Honey’s collar to hold her back.

Beth pulled aside the yellowed lace curtain. She gasped. “Ethan!”

Devon looked up at her friend so quickly she courted whiplash. Her heart rate soared as Beth fumbled with the latch and ripped the door open, revealing two very large men who greatly resembled each other.

The one in front looked very much like Ethan, but, damn it, he wasn’t.

Disappointment weighted her arms and legs. She braced herself to keep a hold of Honey.

Both men wore T-shirts, jeans, and boots similar to what Ethan wore in his photo. And, like Ethan, were cheesecake poster worthy. Both men had chiseled, symmetrical features and lean, muscular bodies, yet,
more’s the pity
, Ethan’s photo ignited a spark in her she didn’t feel from the two gorgeous, and very alive, men standing on her stoop.

Beth deflated, her face, which had curved into a hopeful smile, reddened. She fingered her tousled hair. “I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

“Hi, I’m Kyle Mara.” The spiky-haired, Ethan look-alike leaned a muscled shoulder on the rust-spotted, metal curlicue bracing the overhang, and jabbed his thumb in the direction of the man beside him. “This is my brother, Jake. Ethan was our brother, and we’d like to ask you a few questions about him, if you don’t mind.”

The words should have been a question, but they weren’t.

Devon pressed her lips together. Though their physical resemblance said they were who they said they were, and they’d been perfectly polite, there was something a bit scary about the pair, especially Kyle.

Honey seemed to think so, too. She growled low, fur spiking up from her shoulders all the way down the length of her back.

Devon shushed her, and she whined, sidling under Devon’s restraining hand, her nails clicking on the linoleum like hail pattering against a window.

Finally, after a swift, wary glance at Beth, Devon stepped back, introducing her friend and herself with a flourish of her free hand and inviting them in.

As they entered, Honey’s collar wrenched from her fingers. The dog rushed forward. Devon dove to capture her again, but Honey was too quick.

“I’m sorry.” Devon snatched at Honey’s collar again and tried to yank her back, biceps straining, but the dog was too strong and the area too small. Devon winced.
Great, I’m about to be sued.

But Honey sniffed the men’s clothing and her demeanor immediately changed. Her hackles went down, her curved tail whipping side to side over her back like a flag in the wind. A pink tongue flashed out and she licked each man’s hands.

No lawsuit. “Good dog.” Devon’s words were breathy with relief.
We now resume normal heart rate and respiration.
She exhaled in a rush and led the visitors to the table.

Ethan’s brothers sank into kitchen chairs and Devon scurried to fill mugs from the steaming carafe on the counter.

She handed the coffee to each man, the cups disappearing into their big hands, and leaned back against the chipped white laminate counter. Beth stood beside her, arms folded.

No one spoke as they quaffed from their mugs, she and Beth with an anxious look at each other.

Hot liquid rolled over her tongue, but Devon barely tasted the sweet rich brew. Kyle and Jake exuded the coiled presence of big cats, capable of springing into action even at rest. The two men made the kitchen seem stuffed to the gills.

The impression raised a shiver and she turned away, as if to wipe the counter, pressing her lips together to fend off the threat of tears. In her dream, Ethan had filled the kitchen like that, so solid, so strong. She blinked and faked a smile, turning to Jake.

With his black, chin-length hair, he should have appeared more intimidating than his well-groomed brother, but he had a way of not quite meeting her eyes that seemed shy rather than evasive. Both brothers radiated the same sensation Ethan had in the dream. The feeling that something wild and fearsome prowled inside them, probing for the opportunity to escape, but the impression was more muted from Jake.

She licked her lips and finger-combed her tangled hair, conscious of having just got out of bed. She resisted the urge to tug the bottom edge of her shorts lower and yank up the scooped neck of her ribbed tank top. “What do you want to know?”

Kyle felt his inner beast pick up its head as soon as they’d entered the small kitchen. The tiny house might be redolent with the rich odor of coffee, but beneath the smell of eggs, coffee, and bacon, the place reeked of chimera.

His gaze darted to Jake as they sat and accepted coffee. His brother jerked his chin down in acknowledgement, the movement so slight Ky would never have seen it if he hadn’t been looking.

The redhead smiled at Jake as she spoke. She was pretty and athletic and, damn it, he didn’t feel a thing. Though she turned in toward Ky, her gaze just swept past him, not quite meeting his eyes, and the sour odor of anxiety rolled toward him.

Fuck. Either she was hiding something, which seemed unlikely since he didn’t smell dishonesty, or she sensed the creatures within him.

He stole a breath and took hold of his other sides, steeling the mental walls he used to contain them. From the smell of chimera on her, Devon was living here. Fear wouldn’t get their questions answered.

He tried a reassuring smile. “We’re looking for him. Anything would help.” There. The truth. His smile widened.

Devon’s eyes narrowed and he throttled it back.

Beth’s forehead folded. She was pretty, too, all blond hair and honey-kissed skin and mouthwateringly curvy, but she moved him not an inch. She lifted her chin. “I thought Ethan didn’t have any family.”

“We were separated as children. I’ve been searching for him for some time.” The smell of chimera grew heavier. Ky scanned the room. “I tracked him here, but before I could contact him, he . . . disappeared.”

“Well, I never knew him. I’m just a renter.” Devon gestured toward the blonde. “Beth is the landlord. She knew him.”

Beth grimaced. “I liked him—would’ve called him a friend, but he wasn’t what you’d call sociable.”

Ky ignored his brother’s pointed glance. The description only corroborated what they already knew—Ethan had been close to the edge of going feral before his vanishing act.

Several minutes later, Ky tilted his coffee cup to his mouth only to find the mug empty. He set it down on the table, his gaze flicking to his brother and back to Beth. Her stream of information about Ethan had also run dry. “Thank you.” He stood and handed her and Devon each a crisp, white business card. “I hope you’ll contact us if you think of anything else.”

With one last sweeping look around the room, he allowed Devon to lead the way to the door, disappointment a burning ache in his chest.

The screen door creaked and banged behind him as it shut. Ky headed toward the car. He opened his mouth to comment on what they’d heard, but the whine of the door swinging open again spun him around.

Devon stood in the doorway holding a dusty, cardboard box, Beth beside her, hands filled with a large picture frame.

The warm autumn breeze blew a foxy ribbon of hair across Devon’s face. She shook her head to toss it back and bit her lip, lifting the carton higher to draw attention to it. “These were Ethan’s things. I thought you might want them.”

Ky started to take them, but Beth walked forward with the large picture frame and thrust it into his hands instead.

He glanced at the picture, a black and white photo of a man who looked very much like him. The set of Ethan’s shoulders and the hooded gaze spearing the camera screamed of his brother’s hidden struggle and total isolation.
I’m sorry, Ethan. I should have found you sooner.

Chapter 13

The room had tilted around Ethan as the men had entered the rental house.

He had brothers.

Family.

He swallowed, trying to grapple with this sudden re-writing of his childhood. It seemed impossible, but the physical resemblance was too unmistakable to ignore.

Brothers.

How many times as a kid had he dreamed about having brothers? Someone who had his back no matter what?

An ache pulsed in his chest. God damn, this sucked.

Ghosts shouldn’t feel the sting of missed opportunities, the smart of loss. He shouldn’t care that he would never know his brothers, never get the chance to learn about his real parents, never find out how it felt to be connected by blood, but he did, damnit. He did.

Then he listened with disbelief to Devon deny knowing him and that hurt worst of all. On some level, the dreams were real. He knew that now. Why didn’t she say something?

Because, idiot, she doesn’t know they’re real.
He shook his head. Despite their connection, all Devon had to go on was a few intangible moments. She might even believe those were her imagination, too.

He slammed a fist at the dented foyer wall, but all that accomplished was making his arm disappear into the structure up to his shoulder. He drew his arm back, rage washing over him. At fate. At himself. At her. At his brothers.

Where the hell had they been all his life? Why couldn’t they have found him when it would have made a rat’s ass worth of difference?

Ethan stalked the meager length of the kitchen and back. His fury triggered the familiar madness. The wild things inside him raised their feral heads. He fisted his hands against the sensation and growled.

The living occupants of the kitchen didn’t bat an eyelash.

He halted in front of Devon, staring into her pale features. “You’re supposed to be a medium! I’m standing right here, God damnit!” He waved his arms in front of her face, then let them fall limp at his sides as she shot Jake a tight smile.

And why didn’t she tell them, she’d seen him last night when he’d grabbed the glass? Wasn’t contacting the family members of the deceased the whole point of being a medium?

“Tell them you can see me,” he said, but Devon just sat there with that desolate look in her eyes, listening to Beth natter. “Tell them!” Damn, it was a good thing he wasn’t corporeal or he’d grab her by the shoulders and shake her.

Abandoning her, he tried each of the men in turn, shouting and waving his hands in front of them, trying to touch them, but though they scanned the room with the air of a lion looking for prey on the savannah, neither gave any indication that they sensed him.

This was hopeless. Ethan looked at the popcorn ceiling. He’d been able to reveal himself last night. Why couldn’t he do it now?

He returned to tracing a back-and-forth pattern across the room.

Kyle and Jake walked right through him on the way to the door.

Ethan closed his eyes. Despair weighed on him like after a dive when his body had to remember how to deal with gravity. “Why God? Why am I stuck here in this limbo?”

Then an idea slammed through him. Air exploded into his lungs. He might be stuck in this state, but he wasn’t stuck
here
.

He could go home with his brothers.

He shook his head, rejecting that thought. Ridiculous as it was, he didn’t want to leave Devon.

Being near her was a drug he didn’t want to kick. Besides, if he left, she’d be alone with the other phantom, whatever it was. How could he abandon her?

He groaned, his head rearing back. Their discussions had made it clear that she was an experienced medium. She didn’t need his help.

His fascination with her was a reason to leave, not stay. If he remained where the woman he craved like no one else lived, unable to touch her, happy just to hear her call his portrait “Handsome” then there was no longer any question, he
was
crazy.

Beth and Devon had come back and then disappeared, one into Devon’s bedroom, the other into the garage. The garage door crashed against the wall as Devon came in, carrying the box of his things.

The sight knocked him out of his thoughts, and made his stomach clench. Chest heavy, he made a split-second decision. In her own way, Devon was moving him out. He might as well take the hint.

Before second thoughts could crumble his resolve, he moved through the door and down the cracked front walk. His brothers were almost to their SUV. He’d better hurry. Behind him, he could hear poor Honey whine through the door and felt a twinge of regret. She at least knew he was leaving. Devon didn’t, but given her eagerness to throw him out, no doubt she wouldn’t give a damn.

Suddenly, he was a child again, shoved into a car with his pathetic belongings, to be abandoned at another placement with a cheerful smile and a reminder to behave. As if it mattered. As if he’d ever done anything but toe the line, even when he’d wanted to hit back or run away.

Devon and Beth burst out of the house, panting.

He barely heard them speak as he recognized what Beth held.

His photo.

She handed it to Kyle, and Ethan could have sworn the blood drained out of his brother’s face.

Kyle exhaled long and loud. “I have pictures”—his eyebrows were black slashes over grim eyes—”but nothing as good as this.”

Devon made a small sound. Just a whisper of air really and Ethan realized she didn’t want to give the picture to Kyle. Some of the hurt drained, but a hole remained where it’d been.

Kyle must have heard the noise as well. The shadow of a smile crossed his face.

Why would he smile?
Some private joke?

His older brother turned so Jake could see the picture, but he spoke to Devon. “Why don’t you keep it for me for now? It’s a little big for taking on the airplane.”

Jake drew even with Kyle and took the photo. He shook his hair out of his eyes, studied the photo for a moment, then regarded Beth from under his lashes. “What color were his eyes?”

Beth stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets and tilted her head. “Hazel green.”

Jake studied the photo again for a moment, the downward tilt of his head hiding his expression. He seemed to avoid eye contact a lot, but Ethan couldn’t smell any deceit. “Hazel? Or kind of gold?”

It was an odd question and Beth and Devon exchanged a quick, puzzled glance.

“Green with gold flecks,” Beth answered, her light brown eyebrows pointing toward her sandy hairline.

Jake’s mouth opened a second before he spoke, as if he weren’t sure he should speak. “Did they seem to change color?”

Now Beth’s lips skewed a fraction to the left. “No. They just stayed hazel-green.”

Jake nodded and handed the photo to Devon, who had to put the dusty box of Ethan’s piss-poor belongings down to take it.

Ethan rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms. What had made his brother give his things to Devon? Beth’s hands were empty, and she’d brought the photo out.

Devon wrapped her slender arms around the picture, almost hugging it to the sweet curve of her breasts.

Jake scooped up the box with one arm and opened the door to place it in the foyer, backed out, then let the door fall shut, before anyone could react. He straightened. “Keep ‘em safe for us,” he said, his bright, blue gaze zeroed on Devon for a long moment, before skidding away, but Ethan could almost swear he’d said “him.”

As Kyle and Jake ambled down the aging driveway to the car, both women went into the house.

“What do you think he meant about Ethan’s eyes changing color?” Ethan heard Beth say before the door swung shut.

Exactly what I want to know
.

The car engine revved. Ethan moved through the metal and glass of the passenger door and sat in the rear seat. The backseat was cramped and Ethan stretched out sideways, not bothering with the twisted seatbelts. There were some benefits to being dead.

Ky peeled out of the driveway, the back of the car fishtailing on the loose gravel before gaining purchase on the blacktop of the county road.

“Hey!” Jake grabbed the leather dashboard, to stop from sliding into his door.

Kyle slanted a look to the side. “You want to drive?”

“You
bought
my license, remember.”

Ethan laughed, the gruff sound surprising him.

Kyle had
bought
his brother a license? That must be one hell of an interesting story.

He settled back into the leather seat, watching the telephone poles go by against the piercing blue sky, but a nagging pang expanded in his chest as Devon’s house disappeared from sight through the back window.