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“Fay!”

We turned toward the screech and saw Clara glaring at us from the top of the hill.

“Go,” he said and took a step back, his hands falling away. “You got your sister. You made it here. You got everything you ever wanted, right?
Someday you’re going to find some smashing human and make beautiful babies together,” he murmured almost angrily and then smiled at me. “Of that I have no doubt, love.”

“So you are leaving,” I confirmed and the tears fell freely. Knowing he wasn’t going to be there was heartbreaking. He sucked in a breath, licking his lip as he came my way once more.

He lifted his hand slowly and with his forefinger wiped a tear from my cheek so reverently, it made me cry even harder. He gripped his chest with free hand and sighed. “Sorry. I know you hate to taste my—”

“No,” he sighed
, his eyes closed. When they opened, he unleashed his gaze on me. “These tears are for me. No one has ever cried for me before.” I looked at him and silently begged him to stay. He leaned in and whispered, “This is a beautiful gift, Fay.”

“Enoch—”

He leaned in and I held my breath, but his lips didn’t connect with mine. They brushed my cheek and I was once again wondering what Enoch felt for me. “Thank you. Now go, eat.”

“You need to feed.”

“I do,” he agreed, and he did. I could see how awful he was starting to look.

“But you don’t want to feed from me.”

“No, Fay,” he said harder and gulped.

That solidified it for me. I’m not sure what our trip was, but it hadn’t meant the same thing to him. I tried to hide it, but it still must have shown on my face before I turned.

“Fay,” he sighed.

I didn’t stop. I didn’t want his sympathy. And that’s what it was. I shook my head at myself. Ah, I was so stupid! Even just now when I was crying! He had said it was a beautiful gift. That’s because he was trying to let me down easy. Because he thought I was psycho for crying in the first place! I finger combed my hair
and went inside. A few nosy people tried to act like they weren’t staring at me, but I just ignored them. Clara and Eli watched me like a hawk as I grabbed a bowl of spaghetti and sat with a thud on the green grass to eat it. I wasn’t even hungry anymore really, but I made myself eat.

I looked over to find them watching me and sighed. I waved them over and Clara practically bounded. “Why the hell do you have cry eyes?” she hissed.

“Because I was crying.”

“What did he do?”

“I was thanking him, Clara,” I said, exasperated. “Can I just eat in peace and take a shower, if you have them…and maybe get some clothes. I just want to go to bed.”

“Yes.” S
he had the good sense to say that and only that, but she looked like she wanted to say a lot more.

Eli walked off to where his brother had been and I tried to put it out of my mind. There was a community shower at the campground, so that was
fun
. Clara and I were still the exact same size, so no problems there. I got some sleep clothes and some clothes for the next day. There were some tents and some cabins.

Clara
and Eli had a very small camper-type thing. I shared with them and took the pull-out couch. So I crawled under the covers and pulled them over my head, trying not to think about anything. It amazed me how different my mind was now that the persuasion was off. I worried about things now that I hadn’t thought about as much just a couple days ago.

I drifted to sleep, trying to forget that what was supposed to be a happy day for me, a day of reunions and love, just reminded
me how much I always felt like I was the one that wasn’t good enough and no one wanted around.

___
________

I felt arms under my breasts and could remember his breath as it skated over my cheek.
I’ll give you a place to stay for the night. No charge. You give me a little something in return, okay?
I balled up in on myself and tried to catch my breath. Was it real? Had it all been a dream and I was still caught in the hotel guy’s clutches?

“
Fay?”

I pushed the hands off me and scooted away. “No!” I shouted.

“Fay,” someone said softly and touched my hair. I opened my eyes and found myself looking at my sister. “Clara?”

She nodded. I looked past her to find a shirtless Eli peeking out to check on us. “Everything okay out here, baby?”

“We’re okay,” she said and looked back. When she saw him she got up and climbed over the bed to him quickly. She whispered something to him and then kissed him. He took her face in his hands, not letting her get away, and kissed her again softer, longer. I felt like I was prying by watching, but I couldn’t look away. So this was who my sister married. You could tell he worshipped the ground she walked on, and would do anything for her. And it was mutual. She didn’t abuse that, and that surprised me. I always assumed when she got married she’d be a bridezilla who ordered her husband around and I’d feel sorry for him, but I could tell that the respect was mutual. I found myself wanting to cry as I watched them.

They separated and he smiled, putting his forehead to hers for just a second. “I love you. Yell if you need anything.”

“I love you,” she whispered back.

“Fay, you need anything?” he asked wryly.

“No,” I said and laughed. “Thank you for letting me stay.”

“Of course.”

Clara bit her lip as she watched him go and then crawled up on the bed beside me again. “Bad dream?”

“Yeah. Weird that I haven’t had any until tonight.”

“The persuasion was keeping them away,” she said with a sigh.

“And that’s not a bad thing,” I said and lay down with a sigh of my own. I stared at the ceiling. “No offense, but I never thought you’d wind up
living with a group of gypsies. In a travel trailer no less.”

She busted out laughing. “Oh, me either, honey. Me either. I have
so much to tell you.”

She t
urned and hugged me around my back, her hands resting on my stomach. She began to talk and told me how Eli came into the picture, about Tate, about Enoch, Eli giving up everything—his very being—to save her life, them getting married. I told her I got the invitation, but it came too late all because I had been a coward and ran and they couldn’t find me in time. She hugged me tight and said it didn’t matter, that I was there now. She said we could talk more tomorrow, that I could ask anything I wanted. She would show me pictures if I wanted of the wedding. I nodded, but it wasn’t really the same.

I fell asleep and had no more problems with dreams of people
trying to hurt me.

___
_________

              The smell of bacon woke me, but the sounds of giggles and deep, but quiet moans kept me from getting up. I peeked my eyes opened and saw bacon in the pan with biscuits on the stove. Clara’s butt was planted firmly on the counter top, Eli thankfully had a shirt on now, but it didn’t even matter because Clara was practically ripping it off the guy.

When he gripped her butt and dragged her closer to him, crushing her to him, I couldn’t even be embarrassed really. I was t
he older sister and I had wasted my life. I had never had that with anyone. If anything, I was jealous. Happy for her, but jealous.

He groaned again with a throaty little chuckle and I knew I had to let them know I
was awake. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat. “Um, I’m awake now!” I said loudly. “Very, very awake!”

Clara just laughed and Eli sighed,
pulling her from the counter and straightening their clothes. I could tell that he was the straight-laced one, the level-headed and sensible one of the two of them. “Sorry, Fay.” He smiled and made a plate before handing it to me. “Breakfast?”

“Clara cooks?”

She snorted. He smiled wider. “Uh, no. We don’t eat a communal breakfast so we eat in the mornings on our own. But Clara hasn’t really mastered…the stove.”

She laughed and poked his s
tomach. “That’s a sweet way of saying I almost burned the camper down. Twice.”

I laughed, biting into my bacon. She shook her head. “No, here, s
is. Make a sandwich.” She put bacon in my biscuit and put a little jelly from a jar on the counter. “One of the ladies here makes this homemade grape jelly. I’m telling you, it’s amazing with Eli’s biscuits and bacon.”

“Sounds gross.” I made a scrunch
ed up face.

“Eat it!” she ordered with a laugh.
I took a bite and was pleasantly surprised. “It’s good, Eli.” He smiled and shrugged. I walked over to him. “Thank you for taking care of her for me, while I was gone.”

He smiled. “Of course.”

“No, I mean it. You gave your life for her.” He looked at her and back at me with a sigh.

“Someone was up talking late last night, huh?”

“It’s what sisters do,” she reasoned.

I threw my uncomfortableness out the window and hugged him around his middle. I may have hugged him a bit too hard, beca
use I heard him
oomph
and then chuckle.

“I don’t know you
,” I said, hearing the tears threatening. I sighed at myself for the ridiculous amount of crying I was doing lately. “But you not only saved my sister, you took care of her and obviously make her happy.” I looked at Clara and knew she was happy. Like in her soul happy. “Thank you for that.”

He squeezed me back.
He felt so much like Enoch. “She made me happy first.” I heard the smile in his voice. I knew there was probably a great story there that I wasn’t privy to, but I also knew he wasn’t going to tell me. “Seriously, you don’t ever have to thank me for that. She saved me, too.”

I laughed as I backed away and sniffed. “Those accents are freaking adorable.” I wiped my nose. “Where are you and Enoch from?” Just saying his name made my chest hurt knowing that I was never going to see him again.

“A little bit of everywhere.” His eyes shifted to the window.
“Why don’t you ask him?”

My heart begged him not to be playing with me as I turned to find Enoch coming toward the trailer. I stood frozen in my spot. He hadn’t left. He was walking awfully fast. And that guy…Franz something
-or-other was with him. They knocked once and then opened the door without waiting.

“Eli!” Franz bellowed and then stepped inside.

Enoch came in next and stopped dead in his tracks when he laid eyes on me. I gulped. He slowly closed the door.

“Fay,” he
said in a whispered hello. “Nice pajamas.” He let his eyes take me in starting with my feet, and just like last time he wasn’t shy about letting me see that he was very much enjoying the view.

“Stop eye-raping my sister and get on with whatever you barged in here for,” Clara barked.

“Clara!” I snapped. “I am a grown woman. I can tell someone to stop looking at me if I want him to. Which I clearly don’t or I would have told him to stop.” I sighed at the level of awkwardness. “Now we can get on with the business.” I sat and looked at the Franz guy and waited patiently.

He smirked and laughed just once
at Clara before getting serious. “Ok then. Uh…I hate to say this, Fay. It’s not your fault, so don’t feel bad, but the Horde followed you here.”

I stood. “No.”

“It’s all right. We’ve fought them before. We fight them a lot. They held back and made you both think you were clear of them so you’d lead them to us.”

“And we did.” I walked to the window, leaning on the counter. “That ambush at the restaurant…that
was probably just a trap. If we had left like you asked, Enoch, we probably would have gotten away, but you went back to save those people because I asked you to and now…”

“Saved people,” Clara whispered
, but I shook my head.

“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find Enoch, but expected Clara. He pulled his hand away.

“You’re still here,” I whispered. “I thought you were going to leave at first light.”

He looked at my lips and then my eyes. “I thought I was, too. But when it came time to leave, I just…didn’t want to go. And then Franz told me that a small group of the Horde was surrounding the bank on the other side.”

“Ah,” I said, understanding. “You
couldn’t
leave.”

“There’s not that many of them, Fay. I can leave if I want to,” he said harder.
I stared up at him, wishing I didn’t want him to want me. I licked my lip and his eyes jumped to watch the movement. When he blinked, it was sluggish and slow. I was so confused. He seemed to be angry all of a sudden. He glared at me and leaned back on the counter, pushing the breath from his lips in a huff. “Can we talk about what we came here to talk about now?” he barked.