Shadow Borne (7 page)

"I don't know that you have anything to say
that I'm interested in hearing. And I have to go. I've been on
patrol all day and I'm tired."

"Fine. Then I'll see you in the morning." He
made the words into a challenge.

"No."

"See? You are running from me."

"I am not running from you. You aren't that
intimidating." I snorted. "I'm busy tomorrow morning." I lied.

"That's interesting. Didn't you say you
would be by to see Claire in the morning?"

Damn. I had said that, hadn't I? And I did
need to see Claire tomorrow, and Mark as well. We needed to plan
the upcoming search and rescue of the coast.

“
Look, Claire's husband,"
he paused and smiled faintly, "that's going to take some getting
used to," he muttered. "That my sister is married now. Anyway, Mark
told me how close you are to Claire and the kids. He said you're as
close as sisters and you practically live here. Don't change on my
account. I get that you aren't keen on spending time with me. I
think I even understand why. But don't disappear because of me.
Please."

"I wasn't planning anything of the sort." I
lied and re-sheathed the knife. "Tell your sister that I will see
her in the morning."

Mike nodded and before he could say anything
else, I turned around and left. Because I didn't want to turn my
back on him, though I couldn't say exactly why, I disappeared into
the tree line we had been standing next to rather than use the
driveway.

One way wasn't necessarily any shorter than
the other, although if I'd wanted to fly the distance between
Claire and Mark's place and my cabin, the trip would have at least
been faster. But I didn't want to fly. Odd as it may sound, I
needed the slower pace of walking, the repetitive action of putting
one foot in front of the other to give me something to do. I had
nervous energy to burn and knew from experience that when I got
home I wouldn't sleep, despite the fact that my body desperately
needed rest.

No, I would toss and turn and eventually
pace the width of my bedroom and replay the night's events ad
nauseum. Mike was back. I deftly skirted the gnarled, exposed root
of a large brown and gold tree and sighed. It was easy enough to
understand why he'd returned, but there was no denying things would
have been so much simpler if he had stayed away. Worse, I had the
distinct feeling our situation would only become more impossible
before this was all over.

Chapter Four

Abomination

The cabin was pitch dark, one of the
downfalls of not having electricity. You couldn't exactly leave an
oil lamp burning to greet you when you came home at night. Usually,
it didn't bother me. I've never been afraid of the dark. But
tonight the shadows seemed to press in from all sides, even here in
the protected zone where I stood.

It was like unseen eyes tracked me in the
dark, I felt hunted and harassed. Damn Mike to the farthest reaches
of hell. The churned up, mixed up feelings I struggled with tonight
were all his fault. Now it was making me paranoid, too, since there
sure wasn't anything out and about. Still, I hesitated in front of
the low, rough wood country style fence that marked Grandview's
border, taking slow calming breaths in an effort to settle
myself.

It wasn't even all that dark, at least not
in my immediate vicinity. Thousands of tiny golden droplets clung
to and surrounded each rounded plank of the low fence. They were
lit up like spun gold and glimmered brightly in the dark. Claire's
kids thought it looked a lot like pixie dust. The memory of little
Ashley and Sienna asking Tara if she and Tinkerbell–their nickname
for Juliette–had scattered it all along the fence lines was enough
to wring a smile from me, tense as I was at the moment.

My fingers trailed through the sparkles that
danced and swayed lazily on and around the wood. It wasn't getting
any lighter outside and I badly needed some sleep, at least a few
hours' worth.

If I didn't get any rest, I wouldn't be much
good to anyone and it was this thought that spurred me to action.
Swinging one leg up and over the top rail, easy enough since it was
only hip high, I vaulted over the fence and into the unprotected
side of woods. The fact that in my mind it had become the
unprotected side of the forest spoke volumes. Not 'home', not even
'the border' but simply 'unprotected' was the first word that came
to mind tonight when I thought of my home.

I frowned up at the simple white clapboard
ranch style cabin in front of me. Never had I felt unsafe here
before. I'd lived here without incidence for over eight months and
it was close enough to the border that I honestly never gave much
thought to safety.

Besides, as homes went, it was a pretty bare
bones space. I was the proud owner of a half decent bedroom set, a
small table and chairs that Aranu had carved for me when I'd moved
in, one ugly couch and two wing-back chairs. Other than the clothes
in the single tiny closet and dresser, there were maybe a handful
of personal possessions scattered around the place, some dog-eared
paperbacks, and enough food to fend off starvation for a day or
two.

I've never had to worry about thieves
ransacking the place, that's for sure. Like its out of the way
location, the cabin's lack of amenities wasn't normally an issue,
either. There was a stream about a quarter mile to the east and
really, I wasn't home all that often, anyway. When I wasn't working
patrol or training with the soldiers, I was with Claire and the
girls.

Right now, though, it seemed like all bets
were off; I was nervous. A quick look around showed what I'd
already known before hopping the fence–there was no one around. No
menacing forces lurked about and if the shadows seemed a little
thicker, a little heavier tonight, well it was probably just the
clouds overhead that kept racing across the moon to blot out the
light. Shivering a little as I walked up the little stone path and
let myself into the house, I admitted that maybe it was time to
have electricity run to the cabin.

It wasn't a bad idea, really, especially now
that, thanks to Mike's return, I'd be spending a little less time
up at the big house and more time at home. The lock clicked into
place behind me and I headed to the counter of the cabin's tiny
kitchen and made quick work of lighting a few candles on a tray
before I unlaced my boots, kicked them off, and nudged them under
the table before wandering down the hall to the single bedroom.
Yes, I decided, standing in the large box-like room, I would go
into town first thing and hire an electrician to update the cabin.
In fact, it would be my first stop.

And maybe it wasn't fair to blame Mike for
that one, I sighed, sinking onto the double bed that lay against
the far wall, beneath the larger of the room's two modest sized
windows. Updating the cabin was something I'd been planning on
getting around to for a while and it might as well be now. Maybe
I'd even head to the fabric store before heading to Claire's.

Laying back against my single folded-in-half
pillow, I turned my head a little and let my eyes wander and do a
slow study of the bedroom, trying to view the space objectively. It
wasn't a bad room. It was quite large, especially considering the
rest of the house could only be described as cozy.

The dark knotty pine double bed, dresser,
and matching nightstand were beautifully crafted and I'd purchased
the gray sheets, silver and gray comforter and silver pillow case
new six months ago, along with the dark brown and silver rug that
occupied most of the floor. It was plush and hadn't cost all that
much but kept me from eating and drinking in the bedroom, something
I used to do frequently.

The rug was not only large but it had a
thick non-skid type backing and I was terrified of spilling things
on the fabric; no doubt it would be an absolute bitch to wash and
dry. But it was perfect for the wood floor it graced and it kept me
from freezing my feet during the cooler season. The cold weather
was right around the corner, I reflected idly, rolling half over
and tugging at the comforter until I'd freed enough to wrap around
myself.

The temperature was dropping rapidly in the
overnight hours now and what had been tolerable earlier in the
evening when Claire and I had been swimming in the lake now
bordered on uncomfortable. It wouldn't get much worse than this,
though, and that was something. I wasn't all that fond of cold
temperatures. None of the nymphs were, with the exception of
Juliette but then, Juliette basically liked everything. She was
pretty much the opposite of me, although we had grown up together
and were the same age; Juliette could almost always find an upside
to anything. And I...well I wasn't ever like that, not really, not
even before my life was turned upside down, shaken, and
stirred.

Other than when dumb bitch Aries reared her
naïve head, I hardly ever recalled what I'd been like before the
abduction and later the war. Softer, definitely, and trusting.
Cripes had I been a trusting soul. But it was all done now, I
shrugged and snuggled deeper into my cocoon of covers. Life had a
funny way of twisting and turning, weaving paths you'd never in a
million years envisioned yourself treading. Sometimes the changes
were slower, less noticeable, like a rock being gently worn away by
the stream. Other times, like the past couple of years around here,
it was more like an ambush. So many changes...I had been taken and
the war had begun, was still going on; I even had a full repertoire
of curse words now, thanks to Claire.

Claire. I owed her big time. For my freedom
and for friendship, my new vocabulary and...lacy underwear. Lots
and lots of lacy underwear, I grimaced. Well, I probably wouldn't
thank her for that particular gift anytime soon. The bras were
mostly okay, but I still couldn't figure out what I was supposed to
do with some of the panties, although Claire insisted they were
supposed to go up there.

Yeah. Right. I snickered. Not happening. But
I knew I wouldn't throw them away; to do so would hurt Claire's
feelings and she had the habit of rifling through my drawers and
closet whenever she came over. My fingers tightened around the top
sheet and comforter and I rolled onto my stomach, still wrapped up,
to stare out the window with my chin propped against my folded
hands.

Every now and again the moon would peek
through the thick layers of gloom and the clouds would become wispy
enough to let a little bit of light through. Lying in the cool,
quiet dark took me back to happier times. Well, not exactly the
cold, but the silent, moonlit night...oh yeah. I curled my hands
under my chin and let my head rest so that I was staring idly at
the striped pattern painted on the sheets by the light filtering in
through the slatted blinds on the window. I began to drift into a
peaceful solitude as I recalled my years as a young girl, deep in
the forest with my mother and a plethora of cousins and aunts and
uncles.

Life had been so sweet and sheltered, there
under the protective dome. My mother and I had lived with her
oldest sister, my aunt Ingenia, in a little house that wasn't so
very different from this one and I used to lie in my room just like
this and watch the moonlight throw patterns onto my bed through the
flowered curtains Mama had made for me when I'd turned
thirteen.

Thinking of my mother was usually enough to
drag me into the light when I was feeling unsettled, even though
Ilsa had been gone from this world long before I'd become a grown
woman. She died quietly in her sleep two weeks before my sixteenth
birthday.

Aunt Ingenia and I hadn't even known that
she was sick, or rather, if she had been sick. For years it had
bothered me to not know exactly why my mother had passed away. And
as if I hadn't been heart broken enough, over that next year I'd
also become paranoid. If someone like Mama, whom everyone agreed
had seemed as hearty and whole as the next woman, could be taken
like that, in the blink of an eye with no warning, who was to say I
wouldn't be next? Or aunt Ingenia? Maybe even Juliette or Tara or
any of the others?

Some days I'd even wished it had been me
instead, because it didn't seem fair that Mama should lose first
her husband then her home and finally her life. In my sixteen year
old mind she'd never had a chance to fully recover from the blows
life dealt her; never got the chance to live out her happily ever
after and if anyone had been deserving of a happy ending, it was my
mother.

Never mind that I couldn't recall her ever
seeming unhappy in the years leading up to her death. That
understanding would come years later, when I learned that fairy
tales were complete bullshit and there are worse ways to go than in
your own bed, warm and safe and blissfully asleep.

The clouds finally lifted. The stripes of
light had stopped dancing across the edge of my sheets and my
muscles relaxed another delicious degree. Sleep was near and oh how
I welcomed the peace. The week had been a long and tedious one, par
for the course whenever a new rescue mission was getting underway,
but right now I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and drift
into a peaceful slumber.

And really I couldn't think of a single
reason why that shouldn't happen, why I shouldn't take a page from
Claire's handbook and let my guard down, truly enjoy falling asleep
instead of forcing myself to do it just because it was
necessary.

My eyes drifted lazily over the soft silvery
glow of moonlight that spilled onto the sheet next to my head. I
yawned, blinking when my eyes began to water. And then the light
flickered, shifted, and was gone. Wide-eyed, I snapped to
attention, instantly alert even though I hadn't yet moved a muscle.
Moving only my eyes, I slowly, carefully forced them to go
half-mast and peeked through my lashes at the window over the head
of the bed. The dark shape was still there. Tall enough and close
enough to fill the space outside the window and blot out the light.
There was someone out there and he was looking in at me right now.
It was hard but I forced myself to remain silent and still, not to
move even the slightest little bit because at such close range, the
man would surely notice any movement.