The Glass Man (6 page)

“Sleep,” I said.

His eyes closed, and his head tipped forward.

7

Blood pooled in the gravel beneath Liam’s motionless body. I ripped his shirt open, pressed one hand flat against his mid-section where his heart stumbled within, and the other against his clammy forehead. My eyes closed, and the wind picked up again. I forced all thought and emotion deeper into me as I put out a call upon the breath of the earth.

Moments later, the silence shattered beneath the shrieking of thousands of birds. The whap-whapping of their wings drummed against the air above me. A symphony of crickets began a crescendo, yips and howls bellowed from the forest all around, and the screeching of an owl came last. I’d never had so many answer my plea.

The air quivered as I soaked up energy from every bird, every furred creature that wandered the woods, every blade of grass, every insect. The heartbeat of the earth reached up through my body and joined with mine as I opened my mind to the man before me. I searched for the wound with my energy. The bullet had nicked his gallbladder and ripped open his liver. Imagining his body healed and his heart beating strongly, I forced my will down my arms and into the fading body in my grasp.

A gurgling scream burst from Liam’s lips. His spine bowed as my mind wrapped itself around his wound and knitted his flesh back together.

Ruby patches of blood remained on Liam’s chest, but the bullet hole had disappeared. The wind fell silent as the well of energy emptied. The ones who had answered my call faded into the forest.

It had taken over five minutes, though it seemed like it had happened in a blink. He’d be sore, and he’d be terrified of me, but he’d live.

Why then did my heart burn as if it had been crushed?

I fell back on the gravel, my energy spent, hot tears trailing down my cheeks, and faced the sky until all went black.

When I opened them again, the sun had risen farther into the pale blue sky.

Clancy still slumped over his earthen prison a few yards away.

Where were the other guys? They must have heard the gunshots and my yelling. Had Clancy killed them first?

Please, no. Not Garret. He’s just a boy.
My heart raced.

I turned and shook Liam.

He sobbed with his eyes crimped shut as my own tears fell again.

Why the tears?

“You’re okay now.” I tugged him into a sitting position. “We need to go into the house. Come on, help me.” I pulled his right arm across my shoulders and heaved him up.

We stumbled through the bent gate and up the front steps to the house. I laid him out on the sofa, covered him in a gold afghan and kissed him on the forehead.

“You should have listened to me, you stubborn ass. Sleep now.”

• • •

I wiped the steam from the mirror with the corner of a ratty towel. Usually, I bathed in rivers, but once in a while, I’d break into a house and have a quick shower with real soap. It had been months since I’d done that. I’d forgotten how good it felt to be clean.

Standing in front of the mirror, I pulled my fingers through the sopping bird’s nest on my head. My reflection made me jump. Even through my illusion, exhaustion decorated my skin, purple bruises took hold beneath my tired, bloodshot eyes.
Nice. I look like the walking dead.
At least my outside matched my inside. I closed my eyes and grabbed onto the sides of the sink, grinding my teeth.

“I should never have come here.” I pounded my palm down on the porcelain.

With a grunt of frustration, I turned away from my reflection and rifled through my bag to avoid the coming war in my head. I had to leave, so why did I want to stay?

Something about this place.

Something about Liam, but what?

I needed to protect him. Maybe he was the first good person I’d run into.
Does he know what I am? No.
I could sniff out liars the way a shark could sense blood in the water.

The idea of leaving made my stomach churn, but I couldn’t stay. Liam would be terrified of me, and I’d put all of the men in danger—if they were still alive. Nope, I’d get a bit to eat from the fridge and get away before he woke up.

The only spare underwear I owned caught on the zipper as I pulled them from the bottom of my pack. The once tiny hole in the bum tore across the cotton from seam to seam. The terrible ripping sound made me jump.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Put on sweat-soaked ones again, clean ones with the entire ass ripped out, or go commando—not great options when hiking through the bush in jeans.

After opening up two doors in the yellow hallway—one room sat empty, and the other was a linen closet—I found Liam’s room at the end.

Small room for a big guy, he’d painted the peaked ceiling blue. The sparse decor included a double bed under the sole window, a night stand and two dressers. An old rumpled quilt lay half on and half off the mattress, and one corner of the white fitted sheet had sprung up.
Neat and tidy on the outside, messy on the inside.
That described me most of the time.

The glossy white dresser on the right side of the bed had a jewelry box and a few packages of panty hose on top—must have belonged to the hair dresser.The peeling blue one on the far side held an armload of guy’s underwear.

I went to the white one and pulled the top drawer open. The left side of the drawer held more lace than I’d ever seen. On the right, a fold of pink tissue covered a bundle of bras and panties—still sporting a little lace but not a frightening amount—with the tags still on.
Perfect.
After ripping the tag off a black pair, I slipped them on and added a blue one to my pack.

Before I shut the drawer, I hesitated, grabbed a red pair with a matching bra and stuffed them in too. I found two pairs of jeans in the next drawer down and a few t-shirts in the bottom.

The closet door sat halfway open, revealing mostly women’s clothes inside. Hanger after hanger of dresses hung in a row. Everything from little black ones, to sun dresses, to beach cover-ups. A bunch of sweaters were piled on the top shelf. I grabbed a black hoody and a red cable-knit and stuffed them in my pack.

The floor squeaked behind me.

“Take anything you like.” Liam said. “I’m sure one of them dresses would look real pretty on you.”

I cinched the towel around me, eyes cast to the floor. “I—I’m sorry. It’s just—winter’s coming. I wasn’t thinking.” I paused, remembering he probably had questions. “You don’t need to be afraid of me.”

Liam held up his hand as he walked farther into the room. “I don’t know how you did what you did, but I’m not afraid of you. And you have nothing to be sorry for. I’d give you more if you’d take it.”

“So you saw? I kind of hoped you were out the whole time.”

He looked away. “I saw how you put it to Clancy the way you did, and I know you healed me.”

My chest seized, and my stomach filled with bees. I nodded. “He’s tied up in the shed now, so you can do whatever you want with him. I’ll get changed, and I’ll leave.” I started past him, but he moved to block the door.

“No! I mean, I don’t mean to shout, it’s just—”

“I would never hurt you.” I stared into his bare chest, still beaded with water where he’d cleaned himself up. Nothing could have made me raise my eyes. “I don’t hurt anyone unless they leave me no choice.”

“I know.”

I didn’t believe him. How could he not be afraid of me?
Doesn’t matter.
“Where are the rest of the guys? Why didn’t they come to help you?”

“I told ’em if they ever heard shots to run into the woods. Never know when one of them gangs of raiders’ll show up. I’m sure the boys’ll be back by nightfall.” He raised his hand to my face and hesitated for a moment before his fingertips slid along my jaw and into my hair. “Stay here with me.”

“I need to go.” I struggled to free myself from him, but I couldn’t find the strength to get it done. He tipped my face up to his, and the world narrowed down to those intense brown eyes and the electricity flowing between us.

“Why is my heart beating so fast?” My breaths stumbled in and out faster.

“I don’t know.”

Liam put his hand flat on my chest above my breast, took my hand and put it on his bare chest. His heart throbbed faster than it should, but nothing like mine. As we stared at one another, the rhythms synchronized until they beat in unison. The air pulsed around us, and the trees outside the window hissed, speaking to one another in their wooden song.

“What’s happening?” I raised my other hand to trace the muscular ridges of his arm.
Why do I want to touch him so badly?

Liam put fingers over my mouth and pressed his lips to my cheek in a chaste kiss. “Stay with me tonight.” He took his fingers away and kissed me, lightly at first. Breathless, he crushed his mouth against mine, slipping his tongue between my lips. I stiffened for a moment before some instinct, long dormant in me, awakened and took over. Primal sounds came from us as we ate at each other’s mouth, hands exploring. Everywhere he touched seemed to be connected to a throbbing nerve that led to lower places.

Liam came up for air, chuckling. My legs wobbled beneath me. The sky outside rolled with clouds, and the wind pushed against the window.

“I need to go.” I edged closer to him.

“Why?”

I thought long and hard. “I don’t remember. Something bad. Something bad is coming.” I should have been gone already, not sucking face with a stranger. So why couldn’t I go? Why did I linger, waiting for him to cure my ache?

“No.” He laid kisses along my jaw. “Let me keep you safe tonight.”

“But—”

He kissed me again.

I closed my eyes, gave myself over to the urgency in my body. The ache for him became unbearable.

When I opened my eyes again, the towel lay on the floor at my feet. I stood in nothing but the black underwear. He sat on the bed in front of me, his eyes rolled up to me—hungry, dark, predatory.

I shivered under his touch as he kissed the underside of my wrist, savoring the pulsing current flowing through me.

“I can’t get close enough to you.” His voice was thick with need.

I pulled my hand away from him and backed up until I bumped into the door. A desire so thick I couldn’t think past it flooded my body. “I’m confused, I—”

Vibrations sang through the floor as if the whole world moved to watch us, anticipation trembling their feet.

He stood from the bed, his hands shaking, fear shining in his eyes. “I know this shouldn’t be happening, and I shouldn’t do this, but …” Humming filled the room as he reached for me, voices speaking a language I didn’t understand. A harmony resonated through my soul. “So much trouble.” He pulled me back to the bed. “But the pull—the need—feel high …” He breathed me in, shook his head. “Can’t fight it.”

The room filled with light when he kissed me and pressed his bare chest against my breasts. Our hearts still beat in perfect unison. Heat traveled over my skin and sank deeper, took the tremors from the house and the resonance from the voices and poured them into my body.

I cried out when Liam tore my lace panties off and looked down at me like a king before a feast. We fell back on the bed, breathing hard and fast. His hands slid along my legs, over my hips, up my waist. Everywhere he touched tingled, and the little hairs on my body rose to meet him.

When his mouth found my breast, I writhed beneath him, moaning. He took turns playing his tongue over each nipple, biting playfully and sucking before returning to my mouth, searching deep. My hands explored the landscape of his back, bringing excited sounds from him. Delicious, throbbing fire raged through my flesh.

“Please,” I whispered, giving in to the need and the giddy intoxication in my head. “Please, please, please.”

“Yes. She wants us to. She’s given her blessing.”

Blessing? Why do we need someone’s blessing?
My body froze, but his languid touches removed the thought from my mind.

I wanted to drink in the tight lines of his body and the wilderness in his eyes, to rub myself all over him, and to explore every inch of his tender lips. Something close to desperation gripped me as if I’d burst if he didn’t shut up and give me what I wanted.

He scrambled off the bed, shimmied out of his shorts, picked me up at the waist and shoved me farther up on the pillows. He hooked his hands under my knees and lowered himself down on me again. His fingers found me first, playing just out of reach. He kissed me while I squirmed and moved against him, slick and swollen against his touch. When he had mercy on me and slid over the right spot, I cried out, my back bowing.

“No teasing,” I said. The air pulsed and pressed against us, drawing us closer together, urging us to finish. The wind, the hissing of the trees, and the voices penetrated my body as if I’d come apart, burst into nothing but glowing energy—a sun gone nova.

Liam ate my scream with a kiss as he pushed his way into me. A sensory overload of pleasure settled upon me.

“So eager.” He guided our rhythm. I moved with him in perfect synch with his body.

The intensity in his eyes made me close mine, but he shouted, “No! Don’t look away. Don’t hide from me. Not now.”

I opened them again and fell into his dark brown seas while he coaxed pleasure into every part of me. Within seconds, the pressure in my abdomen built to something that would soon burst free of my skin.

All sounds came in crisp and clear. The beating of Liam’s heart. The sound of his labored breathing. The energy flowing through our bodies with the crackling of static electricity. The room brightened. Lines of brilliant indigo light rose up along our skin in a network of veins. I had only a moment of fear before I went over the edge. I screamed my release as the world disappeared in golden streamers of light, and wave after wave of unimaginable pleasure smashed into me.

Something opened between us. Sweet freedom. My spirit burst out of me and permeated Liam, stretched into him like an animal that had been kept in too small a cage and had found somewhere to run.

A moment later, Liam’s rhythm faltered, and he collapsed down on me, crying out with his lips pressed against my shoulder. Light exploded into the room with the intensity of a thousand suns as he spilled himself inside me, both seed and spirit.