Everlong (8 page)

“Time you didn’t have.” His teeth snapped closed. His sweet breath filled my water-logged lungs. “I’m going to lift you. Just hold on to me.”

I obeyed as Clayton scooped an arm beneath the bend of my knees. The broken leg bent at an odd angle. “What did he do to you?” He brushed a hand down my thigh, leaving a tingling trail in its wake. His fingers whispered over broken bone and shredded flesh. “He will pay for this,
deshiel.
”

I frowned at his use of the unexpected endearment until his other arm wrapped around my back, resting just below my shoulder blades. His fingers hesitated as they smoothed over the bumps he found there. He swore under his breath, jerking his hand farther down my back before lifting me up.

Heat flushed my cheeks. Harper had overlooked my physical imperfections. It hurt that this near-stranger couldn’t. Shame cut away the worst of my disorientation. Clayton’s disgust with my deformity pricked my pride for reasons I didn’t want to examine too closely.

He cradled me against his chest, tucking his chin over the crown of my head. I felt the ripple of his muscles as they tensed, then the rush of air—a tantalizing taste of flight—as he used his wings, suddenly in evidence, to lift us from the gutter and back onto the level pavement.

Clayton carried me around to the passenger side of my truck, shifting me gently until he managed to open the door and settle me on the bench seat. The interior light cast a soft glow around me, revealing filthy jeans and soggy shoes. And blood, lots of blood. It couldn’t all be mine, could it?

I flinched when I caught the gleam of metal reflecting in Clayton’s hand. His face was cast in shadow, and he seemed content to stay there. Across his palm, he revealed a small pocketknife. “I need to cut the fabric away from the wound so I can see what we’re dealing with.”

With one clean swipe, he cleaved the denim of my jeans leg in two, revealing the worst of the already-healing wounds. “The bone pierced through your skin.” He bent down to examine the break. His head lowered, exposing slicked-back ebony hair curling just below his ears. No wonder he blended so well into the night. The color was natural, although the cut might not be. His glamour was a low hum moving over my skin everywhere his fingers touched.

Clayton’s silence drew my attention. I coughed to clear my sore throat and tried to assure him. “I’ll be fine, really.”

“You’re hardly bleeding.” He sounded confused by the lack of flowing blood, but I didn’t feel like explaining my whacked-out physiology just then. He cupped my ankle in hand and helped me pivot until my knees faced forward and my back flexed comfortably into the seat. “Good girl. Just sit tight and I’ll get you home.”

Clayton leaned over me, putting us chest to chest as he fastened my seat belt. He glanced up and I saw his face fully for the first time. My tortured heart rate skyrocketed. The air seemed to thin until the lack of oxygen made my head swim. I couldn’t stop the accusation from rolling off my tongue.

“You look just like him.”

The unspoken name hung in the air. Clayton’s shuttered expression told me he knew exactly who I meant.

“I should.” He pulled back, holding the door wedged open. His face remerged with the shadows. “Harper was my brother.”

My jaw dropped as the door slammed shut on the dozens of questions scalding the tip of my tongue. I needed to ask, to seek reassurance he spoke the truth. He prowled around the front of my truck to speak with two males in full glamour I hadn’t noticed. Through the wall of bodies, I saw Jacob held limply between them. Clayton patted the nearest male on the shoulder, hooked his thumb towards me and then pointed down the road behind me.

He glanced up and our eyes met through the windshield. His were such a curious mix of blue gray. I found myself wishing I could look beneath to discover if the black of his eyes was as conflicted as the illusion he cast over them. He continued talking to the others while keeping his gaze locked to mine. Waving them off, he started towards the door left open by Jacob’s hasty exit.

The door closed and sealed us in an intimate bubble. I couldn’t let the chance pass. I had to ask. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” For five years I had lived a stone’s throw away from someone of Harper’s bloodline. Someone I would have welcomed as family during those bleakest times of my life, someone who apparently didn’t feel the same way about me.

Clayton ran a hand through his hair, pushing the damp tangle from his eyes. “Dana spoke with your sister after Harper failed to return home.” He carefully skirted the issue of death. “My brother resembled me, as you’ve noticed. They decided I should stay away and allow you to mourn without the visual reminder that your lover hadn’t returned.”

“He wasn’t my lover.” The words rushed out until I clamped a hand over my lips. I don’t know why I said it. My heart ached the second I refuted the claim.

Clayton’s voice lowered to a husky growl. “I don’t want details.”

“Oh.” Blood rushed to my cheeks. “Of course you don’t. I didn’t mean— I just— Sorry.”

His long fingers circled the gear shift. “Don’t worry about it.” He threw the truck into drive, and as he executed a three-point turn, the headlights washed over the demons dragging their quarry farther into the night.

I knew Clayton wanted silence. I could sense it in the tight clench of his jaw and tense hold on the wheel, but I wanted to know. “Why didn’t Harper tell me he had a brother?” I paused, hearing nothing but the steady hum of the motor.

For a moment, he sat silently, ignoring me. His fingers flexed a little as if only now realizing how tight his grip had been. “I didn’t know my brother,” he corrected, “didn’t know I had a brother until the day my father assigned me to border patrol.”

“Border patrol?”

“I am freeborn.” He grinned with pride and my heart raced in response. “I’ve never known Askaran
hospitality
.”

His joke fell short because I knew what I was, what my mother had been and still was, and he did too. He glanced over and caught me picking my fingernails to avoid his assessment. “I apologize. You aren’t responsible for your mother’s actions. The Askaran society is cancerous. I’m glad you escaped.” He didn’t say
before you were tainted
, but I heard the words as clearly as if he had spoken them.

“It’s all right. I was raised apart from my family. I didn’t realize how bad things were until shortly before…before we left.” And when I’d found out, I had been horrified. Slavery had only been the tip of the iceberg, with worse things hidden just below the surface. Abuse, neglect, rape, all things centered on the Askaran craving for the depraved.

“I know. I saw you once, a very long time ago.” Dimples winked in Clayton’s cheeks as though he were remembering something amusing.

“What were you thinking just now?”

“I was remembering the first time I saw you.” His cheek smoothed. Instead, he seemed contemplative as he recalled the memory for us both. “I served under my father in the freeborn legion. When my turn for patrol came up on the roster, I did something I normally wouldn’t have done. I flew through Rihos, over the courtyard of the summer castle, and saw an angel and a demon playing together in the gardens. You couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven years old.” He frowned. “I knew the boy was blood kin. His wings carried the same crosshatch pattern all those of our line bear. But you…” he glanced my way, then resumed his stare, “…were enchanting.”

I admired his profile using the pale illumination of the speedometer. From this angle, he looked less familiar. His face seemed more rounded and less angular than Harper’s had been. “Why do you say that?”

This time Clayton didn’t answer. He kept his eyes on the road and drove. I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, rocking over the uneven surface and fighting the call of sleep. I think I dozed off because all too soon I heard the rhythmic click of the turn signal, then the nose of the truck dipped in a pothole. I was home.

I opened my eyes to the familiar outline of the farmhouse I shared with Emma. Every light burned bright and every window’s curtain was parted. Clayton parked beside Emma’s matching truck, and then slid off the seat and into the night.

My door opened with a suctioned pop. I saw him hesitate. A fresh wave of humiliation flooded me. I imagined him remembering the feel of those bony stubs. They represented a death sentence to the Evanti. Flight was soul food their hearts and minds would die without. By all accounts, most demons wished me dead for my own sake. They couldn’t imagine life without wings any more than I would imagine owning my place in the sky.

“You don’t have to touch me.” I would drag myself across the yard before I let him see how his actions had hurt me.

Clayton shifted closer, blocking the open doorway and my line of sight. His calloused fingers trailed my cheek, smoothing across my lower lip. “It’s not that I don’t want to touch you.”

“But now you’ve felt them.” I stiffened, trying to brace myself for his pity and unable to stop myself from adding, “I can’t help it. They’re a part of me.”

“Shhh,” he whispered, brushing his lips against my eyes where salty tears mingled with muddy rainwater. “You misunderstand me. I’m afraid if I touch you again…” his stubbled cheek rubbed against mine, “…I might not be able to stop.”

My mouth fell open and he took it as an invitation, nuzzling his way across my nose until he reached my lips and sealed our mouths together with a kiss that curled my toes.

I’d never been kissed. Not with tongue and teeth and carnal intent. The rush of possibilities I’d never considered was dizzying. Heat licked along my spine and pooled lower, searing me with the need to taste more of him.

“Maddie!” my sister cried out from behind the mountain of demon thrusting his tongue inside my mouth. “Maddie! Thank Zaniah you’re all right.”

Clayton eased away, nipping my bottom lip as he went. The interruption saved me from making awkward excuses for my behavior or apologies for whatever had passed between us. Emma shoved him aside, scowling, and then wrapped me in a spine-snapping hug.

“I’m fine.” Fine seemed like light years away from where I’d been only a few hours earlier. I stiffened, finding her embrace less comforting than it had always been.

Emma’s arms fell to her sides, perhaps sensing the anger waking in me. “I should have told you. I should have warned you, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon.”

I frowned. Jacob had sounded as if he’d had plenty of time to make his plans. Years, if his rant could be believed. So the word
soon
didn’t seem to apply. “What’s happening to me?”

Emma’s gaze snapped to Clayton. “This is a private conversation. Can’t you go be a statue somewhere else?”

He took a few steps away, enough for the illusion of privacy at least. Emma lowered her voice.

“It’s been five years since your ascendancy ceremony.” Twin lines appeared between her eyebrows, drawing them down. “And you’ve been five years without Harper.”

“Okay.” I drew out the word.

“Your ascendancy coincided with your first ovulation.” Her warm arms encircled me, lifting me from the truck. “But, there’s more to it than that.”

“What don’t I know?” I asked warily.

“Askaran females are only fertile for a period of four or five days once every five years. During that time, their scent will change as their body emits a pheromone designed to attract males.”

I swallowed hard. “I definitely don’t remember that.”

“I couldn’t tell you at the time.” Her explanation sounded as weak as I felt. “It’s an ascendant’s suitor, or if a union is prearranged, her consort, who is entrusted with all aspects of her sexual education.”

“And later?” My fingers tightened in the fabric of her shirt as my nails dug into her shoulder. “You couldn’t have told me this before now?”

“I tried,” she snapped. “You shut me down every time I broached the topic.”

“I should have been told.”

“Then you shouldn’t have practically stuffed your fingers in your ears every time I mentioned Harper or the damned Evanti.” Her jaw set. “If I said something you didn’t want to hear, you’d stop talking for days. It’s my fault for not pushing you sooner, I know that, and I’m sorry. I did the best I could for you, for both of us, but I’m not perfect.”

“Wait.” Muddled comprehension failed me. “What about Jacob? What does this have to do with the Evanti?”

“You’re a half breed claimed by one of their males. Evanti customs ensure a female a period of five years to grieve over a lost mate. Since they have so few females, it’s a given she will be expected to mate again to help populate the race.”

Realization dawned. “You’re telling me I’m what? In
heat
and
available
?”

Emma winced. “I honestly didn’t think it would get so out of hand. Harper never allowed the other males around you, so I didn’t know what to expect.” She barely jostled me as she climbed the front-porch steps. “I think we all underestimated the intensity of your appeal.”

My gaze found its way unerringly to Clayton. “So they act on impulse rather than sincere interest?”

She bobbed her head. “Taking your pheromones into consideration? They will all be affected on some level.”

Clayton’s lips tightened in a hard line as we walked past. I rested my weary head on Emma’s shoulder and the pastry-sweet scent of home tickled my nose.

She pressed her lips to my cheek. “I love you,
vinda koosh
.”

“I know you do.” I sighed.

She settled me on the couch in our tiny living room. “Let’s have a look and see what the damage is.” She scanned me from head to toe, eyes snagging on the cut denim where bone pierced through flesh. Regenerated skin had already begun to swallow the protrusion. We both knew what had to be done.

She glanced at me, her face impassive. “Are you ready?”

I locked my jaw. “Do it.”

A crisp snap like a celery stalk breaking filled the room. I cried out as a torrent of pain swept me up and threatened to drag me under while Emma reset the broken bone. I would heal, but damn it, I would hurt too.

Clayton charged through the doorway and came to my side in an instant, grabbing Emma by the throat and lifting her from the couch. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He gritted out the words through his clenched teeth.