Unnaturals (8 page)

`Hmm. But she is different enough to—'

`Yes, very different. More dangerous than intriguing.' Nikki glanced at the conjoining door between their units, which had crept open. `Enough about me. I have to call Mother and Big Ears is waiting for you.'

`Yes.' Tashia glanced at the door and leant forward, her lips brushing Nikki's ear. `Follow your instincts, little one. Listen to Eleanor, but it is your decision whether we stay. Either way you have my support.'

`Thank you.' Nikki kissed her on the cheek. `Go, and don't be late at the club tonight.'

`No chance. Can't wait to meet our unexpected guest — and his wife.' Tashia winked at her.

`Go away.' Nikki threw a cushion at the door as Tashia slipped behind it. `Can't keep anything from you, can I?'

The door closed and Nikki lay back, eyes closed. `All this and it's not even nightfall. What next?' Ruth's face filled her mind's eye.

`Mother is calling. Mother is calling.' Her mobile phone chirped. She sat up and stared at the phone. `Mother is calling. Mother is calling.'

She picked it up, holding it for a moment before answering. `Mother.'

`Are you leaving yet? Have you warned the others?'

`No to both.'

`You need to leave now. Only Tashia and the elder Flowers sisters have any combat experience. Bloodells do not take prisoners, child. Abandon the island.'

`Mason Douglas is here with his family.' Nikki felt odd saying it, almost excited. The silence on the phone unnerved her. `Mother?' Silence answered her and Nikki checked to make sure the call had not been lost. It hadn't. `Eleanor?'

`I did not foresee this.'

`Believe me, it was a surprise for us.' Nikki took a moment, not sure how her mother would react. `Um, Renee and I bumped into them today.'

`Bumped?' Eleanor's voice pitched upwards and Nikki held the phone away from her ear, ready. The tirade didn't come. Just the even sound of breathing. She frowned. This was not expected.

`Mother?'

`What was he like?'

`Sorry?' Nikki nearly fell off the couch in surprise.

`Mason. What was he like?'

`I'm sorry,' Nikki sat up, and took a breath, `I just told you we met Butcher, the one human everyone of our kind hates, and you want to know what he was like?'

`You're alive. That says everything to me, daughter. You met the man, not the monster.'

`Kind of. We sensed something unusual lurking around on the island and went to find it. The entire Douglas family arrived just as we did. He was pissed off to see us, to say the least, and Renee found out she wasn't a match for him. Not even close.'

`Yet you survived.'

`Yes. Gaia intervened.' Her mother went quiet again. `She broke all the rules. Pulled us all back through time to when the Douglas family was attacked in the UK, at the funeral. It's from her Mason draws his strength. Her intervention saved them all.'

`What else did she show you?'

`Ruth, Mason's wife, spoke for her, like an oracle. Gaia has warned of a war, one that will affect all those who live here in her world. A treaty was made between us and the Douglas family.'

`A treaty was made, brokered by Gaia? Will Mason honour it?'

Nikki smiled. `Ruth believes in it, so Mason will too. She has Gaia's touch and voice, one that Mason listens to. It is Ruth who will hold the treaty true until he feels the full touch of Gaia.'

`Daughter, you speak as if… Where is your sister?'

`Having a swim.' Nikki rubbed her forehead, the day's events settling on her. `She needed to calm down.'

`Why?'

`Mason is immune to her curse.'

`Oh.'

Nikki let the information soak in.

It was a lot for Eleanor to accept.

`You're staying, then? On the island? Yes, of course you are.'

`There's a lot we have to understand about today and I'd have no chance of getting Renee to leave anyway. And with Gaia revealing her hand today of all days, we have to stay.'

`The Bloodells that are coming, it was Mason who warned you, wasn't it?'

`Someone called Max, from the Douglas Fund, called him earlier today. I believe the Fund is coming here in force, Mother. To deal with any Bloodells.'

Silence filled the phone and Nikki swallowed, uncomfortable with it. `Mother? Why are you so quiet? What's going on?'

`Are you alone?'

`Yes, and none can hear our conversation,' Nikki said, letting her natural defence energies thicken.

`Wait a moment.'

Nikki frowned at the sound of the phone being put down. The hair on her arms stiffened at the sound of her mother's energy crackling in it.

`We are protected now. None must hear this.'

`Hear what?'

`The truth of our past. About the day my father was slain.'

`He died fighting Agnes off? He killed her—'

`No. She was too strong, more powerful than any other Bloodells priestess has ever been. Almost immortal.'

`Then how? What happened?' Nikki lay down on the couch; the sense of a great change coming grew in her. This story had been legendary among her kind. But it was a lie?

`Father had felt her presence in the great forest not far from our home one morning. We ran. We did not know why he was so frightened, or understand why Agnes wanted to hurt us. Only that our father had never been afraid of anyone before.'

`Wasn't Grandfather the strongest Darkells Magi? That's how he killed Agnes?'

`He was, but Agnes had taken blood, making her stronger. But it was the dark energy she wanted — Bemeon's energy, the Bloodells' god. And he blessed her with it, more than any other ever has.

`Bemeon saw how strong she was and knew Agnes could break the seals to let him come here, to cross him over.'

`Then how?'

`Agnes surprised us in the forest. She teleported using Bemeon's energy. Father died not even seeing her or knowing that he was lost. He just exploded before us.'

`Shit! Sorry, go on.' Nikki found herself hot and clammy from her mother's words. Some of her mother's energy seeped from the phone into her.

`It was terrifying. Michelle and I were still children, ungifted, and Agnes used that to her advantage. She took Michelle from me. I couldn't stop Agnes or even make her bleed. She made me watch as she,' she sighed. `As she turned Michelle into a Bloodells. Stabbed my sister in the heart and forced her own blood into Michelle.

`The sound a child makes when poisoned by a Bloodells is something I still hear in my dreams.'

`Ma,' Nikki wiped her eyes. Tears fell as the pain her mother felt seeped through her. `You've never told anyone this, have you?'

`No.'

Nikki took a deep breath, sharing her mother's pain but wanting to hear more. `Who killed Agnes, then?'

`Agnes sent Michelle away with her followers and she stayed in the forest with me for a day. Trying to break my spirit. To make me hers. She could not. I was stronger than my sister. Agnes told me she had to kill me if I wasn't hers. I would be a threat if I lived.

`All
I
wanted was to kill her. It kept me alive but it mattered not when Agnes held me by the neck. For a second I thought I saw a moment of weakness in her eyes, but it was gone. I accepted my death as she crushed my throat.'

`No!' Nikki leapt from the couch, her body alive with the gift, and the sensation of hands tight around her throat. `Don't say that. You didn't die!'

`Aye, child, I did. My life fled and I was in darkness, neither here nor in our goddess's arms. It was a cold nothingness and I screamed for her. I screamed for Darla to save me, to take me into her arms.'

Nikki struggled to breathe. The room shrank as she paced. `What are you telling me? This is insane. How?'

`A voice pulled me back to the agony that was my body. The pain was better than the cold. Hands touched me with great care. It was a man. A man covered in blood, kneeling beside me, brown eyes full of compassion as he kept asking me to come back. Tears shed for me streaked his face.'

`A Darkells? Where was Agnes?'

`Agnes was dead, clove in two by a woodsman's axe. He showed me her head and heart torn from her body.'

`Wh, what happened? I mean, what happened next? Did he tell you how he did it?'

`Nay. He spoke very little to me, just took me to his home, cared for me and treated me like his own kin. It took me months to recover.'

`A human, a man with an axe, did what none other could?'

`Aye, daughter. A simple but loving man who lived in the great forest killed Agnes. A man at one with Gaia.'

`Did he know he was like this?'

`No. To him the forest was his kin, his family. Agnes was a cancer.'

`Did you stay with him? I mean after you turned?'

`I left one day when he was out in the forest not long before I turned. It hurt too much knowing I would have to watch him die as I lived on.'

`So, what happened to him? Did you ever see him again?'

`I went back a year later, I had turned by then. It was hard. When I left I was a child and now returned as a woman. I found him where Agnes had died. He remembered the day he had found me and returned to the spot each year.'

`He celebrated that day? The day he found you?'

`Yes. He had planted flowers and herbs there. He was there, tending to them. I nearly didn't speak to him. I didn't trust myself to be strong enough to leave.'

Nikki sipped some water. `But you did?'

`He knew it was me — even as an adult woman he knew who I was. All he wanted to know was if he had done something wrong to make me leave. I told him no, and that I could not stay. He went quiet and I felt his heart burn for me. He would not speak the words but I knew he would love me, the child he saved in the great forest, all his days.'

`And you just left him there?' Nikki didn't hold back; her heart pounded, the image of her mother and the woodsman burning in her mind.

`I had to. He knew what I was and he loved me, but to stay would have been selfish.'

`Mother, I don't really understand this. Why tell me this now?'

`Ah, yes. You see, I didn't just leave him with nothing, daughter. Once I had turned, I took my revenge on the followers of Agnes. I don't know why I thought tons of precious stones and gold would make the woodsman happy.'

`Wait. You gave him what? How?'

`I had raided every temple and house that had followed Agnes. So when I returned to see the woodsman I brought all I had plundered. Our, his, home was built against a hill; a cave his storage area.'

`Okay. Right.' Nikki paced again, hand on her forehead. `I still don't see what this has to do with today?'

`His name was Hael Dubhghlas.'

Nikki struggled for a moment. The name…

`No way. You mean?'

`Yes, daughter. Say it.'

`Hael Douglas. He was Mason Douglas's—'

`Even so.'

Mason stood on the villa patio. He glanced inside at Ruth, half-asleep, and pulled some shorts on. `Just going for a run.'

`Uh-huh,' she hummed, rolling over. `Be back in time to see Sally.'

`Will do.' He stepped off the patio and jogged off towards the eastern side of the island. He needed to run. Once in the trees he picked up the pace, moving quickly over the hill to the eastern beach. His mind drifted. Sex with Ruth had been intense but he had still held back, afraid to hurt her.

Renee was standing on the beach.

`Shit.' Mason dived behind a tree. Unsure of what he was feeling, he glanced around the trunk trying to calm his heart. It resisted. Blood warmed his chest as he tensed, trying to take control of his reactions. `Damn it.' He checked the beach again. Renee hadn't moved. She stood facing the ocean, her clothes wet.

Someone moved among the trees. He spotted them. A couple hand in hand, enjoying the view. He flicked his attention back to the beach. Renee had gone; her trail just visible, heading north. Mason followed, keeping his distance but remaining close enough to see her.

Renee moved fast, then stopped, scanning the ocean. She moved, he moved. Mason knew she was patrolling the island, looking for unwelcome visitors. But there was more to it than that.

A tree shattered and crashed down. He fell back, watching as she tore it to shreds. Timber filled the air like confetti. She moved on and Mason followed, beginning to see a pattern. She was patrolling and venting at the same time.

He allowed himself a small smile.

She moved again, a red blur through the trees. He followed until they had gone full circle. He made sure he was downwind and watched her standing on the hill, looking down at the villa. Cold pinged in him and his skin thickened. Was she a threat?

Renee's scent changed, the anger gone. She walked away, down towards the far side of the resort.

He waited. Time passed and he went to the spot where she had stood.

Her scent lingered. Fresh sap tainted it. A tree bore the marks of her nails, then another. And more, leading back towards the resort.

Mason rubbed his nose hard. The sound of surf reached him on the breeze and he agreed with himself. Time for a swim.

 

Ruth dried herself off, looking at the dress on the bed. The only one she had packed. She returned her towel to the bathroom.

`He's going to recognise it, girl. Why did you pack it?' Ruth said to her reflection, then went back out to the dress. `It's either you or the sundress.' The sundress hung in the wardrobe, its bright colours a stark contrast to the sleek black dress on the bed. `Oh, you're a bad, bad girl.'

She slipped the dress on, turning so she could check in the mirror that the back didn't sit too low.

`Very bad girl,' she muttered, drawing the hem down snug against her thighs, adjusting the tight fabric over her buttocks.

`And, of course, you didn't pack any Hollywood tape.' She looked down at the plunging neckline, making sure the thin fabric covered her nipples. `Like that's going to last.'

Outside she heard Mason arriving. `I'm back.' The outside shower came on.

Ruth shook her head. `He's going to remember it for sure. Shoes?' She pulled out the shoes that `went' with the dress. Diamonds flashed back at her. `Crap. Titty, crap. What was I thinking?'