Last Car to Annwn Station (17 page)

Mae nodded and opened her eyes, glancing around the house. She noticed wooden stairs going up along the wall to her left. She glanced up and saw a loft. “Is she upstairs?”

“Yes,” Ellie said, starting on Mae’s hands. “Kravis took her up to one of the bedrooms. Mirallyn is tending to her, and Kravis is out making sure nothing lurks. What happened to you?”

“I think I died.”

“In Annwn?”

Mae paused and frowned. “How did you know I was in Annwn?”

“The sign on the streetcar said it was coming from Annwn.” Ellie fidgeted, dropping the blood-stained towel on the table in front of them. “I saw the hounds take you from the wreckage. I—we were all surprised to find you on the streetcar. You should not have been able to escape Annwn without Mirallyn’s aid.”

“I wish those cars had never revealed themselves to me.”

Mae could not keep the bitterness out of her voice. She took another sip of her chocolate and looked down at the rug. Visions of Jill permanently maimed and scarred filled her mind. She felt Ellie place a hand on her knee. She glanced up as a new thought passed through her brain.

“How did you know Jill’s name?”

“She, ah, she arrived at the scene of the wreck on another car.”

“Don’t tell me you sent Jill to rescue me.”

“Once she found out where you were, she was determined to find you. Someone had to travel to Annwn to retrieve you. We did try to impress on her how dangerous the journey would be. That it was an undertaking which could well lead to her death. She went of her own free will.”

Mae glared at Ellie, who was now fingering her blue hair nervously. “She could have died! She still might! What the hell were you thinking?”

“She wouldn’t leave you in the Underworld!” Ellie snapped, a stray tear rolling down her cheek. “Jill would have struck out on her own searching for you eventually. This way we were able to provide her some small amount of aid.” Ellie gave her a tired sigh. “Would you have stayed home if it had been Jill taken by the hounds?”

Mae was quiet for several seconds. “No,” she finally said. “No. I would have done the same as Jill. I would have been scared shitless, and I probably would have died of fright without doing anyone any good, but I would have tried.”

“Of course you would have, so please don’t be mad.”

Mae sighed and leaned back, resting her head on the couch cushions. “How did it all come to this?”

Ellie patted her knee. “You tell me.”

Mae spoke calmly about her fight for life on the light rail train and the subsequent accident on the streetcar. She told Ellie everything Death had explained to her.

“And then—and then he touched me and the world exploded for a time.”

“Death touched you?”

Mae looked up at the question. At some point during her story, Kravis had returned, sitting across from the couch in one of the large, overstuffed chairs.

Mae nodded. “Yes. It was just a featherlight brush on the cheek.”

Kravis frowned.

“What?” Mae asked. She turned to Ellie. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Ellie’s eyes widened. “Death touched you? You’re sure?”

“Yes,” Mae said, confused. “It was—it was nice. I felt—I can’t exactly explain it,” she finished with a slight blush and a shrug.

Ellie turned toward her and took a deep breath, obviously steeling herself to tell Mae something terrible.

“Mae. You should be dead. Death
touched
you. Do you understand what that means? He came for you.”

Mae looked at her companions. Kravis had a crazed grin on his face. Ellie looked horrified.

Mae looked at the floor and frowned in thought. There was something in her memory, something she had not had a chance to examine since Jill had rescued her. Mae looked closely at the memory. Death
had
touched her. She remembered the feel of his fingers on her skin, the sudden burst of sensations that blazed through her body. She had tasted sound and felt the scent of hounds and heard the trees and seen…

She had a vague recollection of undressing, of a voice telling her she would not need her clothes where she was going.

And then he had lifted her up and slammed her body into a tree, impaling her.

Mae looked at her chest, reached up and placed a hand on the spot where the limb had burst through her body. She took a pair of shallow, ragged breaths.

“I died,” she whispered. She looked up at the others. “I died.”

Ellie put her hands on her mouth. “Oh, Mae…”

Mae sniffed. “I died and I—I need to use the bathroom. And I need to see Jill.”

“I think I saw a bathroom this way,” Ellie said.

Mae let Ellie lead her upstairs. She showed Mae the door to a bedroom.

“I’m afraid right now it’s a mess, but we’ll have it ready by the time you finish in the bathroom. Jill should be cleaned up and ready to see you by then. Just go in and be with her.”

“Thank you—”

“It’s my pleasure. I’ll root around and find you something to sleep in tonight and some clothes for tomorrow,” Ellie said. She paused for a minute, and threw Mae a sly smile. “You don’t mind sharing with Jill, do you? Kravis could make up the couch for you—”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Mae replied, blushing. “I’m sure Jill and I will be fine.”

Mae finished in the bathroom as quickly as possible. She desperately wanted a shower, but the urge to make sure Jill was safe and alive overrode any desire to stop and shower first. She opened the door to the bedroom and peered inside, trying to be quiet in case Jill was sleeping.

Mae looked around the room. There was a pile of crimson-stained sheets on the floor, next to Jill’s bloody clothes.

“Hey, you,” Jill whispered from the bed.

Jill was propped up by a pair of large pillows behind her back. Her hair and face were washed, the blood and mess cleaned away. She wore a flannel bathrobe so large it threatened to swallow her. Mae could see a flannel shirt peeking out from underneath the robe. She had a piece of white cloth covering her left eye, though Mae could not see how it was held in place. Jill’s face was covered in small, angry looking nicks and cuts. Her left arm was wrapped in a gauzy bandage, as were her hands. Her skin was pale, and there was an unpleasant, metallic smell clinging to her. Mae thought she was the loveliest sight in all existence.

Mae sat on the bed and reached out, placing her right hand on Jill’s face. She ran her thumb over Jill’s cheek. “You look a lot better.”

Jill smiled at her, wide and cocky. “You should have seen the other guys.”

“You’re quite ferocious.”

Jill gave her a serious look. “They were between me and what I wanted.”

Mae looked into Jill’s pale blue eye. “Jill—Jill, I—”

Mae licked her dry lips and pulled Jill closer. She reached up and placed her left hand on Jill’s cheek, then glanced down at Jill’s lips, inches from her own. They were too far away. She brought them to her own lips; tentative, shy, unsure of what the other woman’s reaction would be.

Mae need not have worried. Jill kissed her in return, at first softly and then harder, bringing her bandaged hands up and around Mae’s head and shoulders. Mae held the kiss for a moment longer before breaking it off and placing her forehead against Jill’s.

“You came for me,” Mae whispered. “You brought me back.”

“Actually, you’re the one who got us out of there.”

“No, Jill Hall,” a female voice said. “You brought her back from the land of the dead. Your blood, hot and mortal, poured into Mae’s wounds and awoke her stilled heart.”

Mae turned to look at her mother. The room seemed too quiet, too still to her senses, as if the cottage itself were holding its breath. “Jill, this is my mother.”

“We’ve met,” Jill said. “She opened the door into Annwn for me.”

Mae turned back to her mother. “I don’t know if I should yell at you or thank you.”

“Why don’t you thank her for patching me up?” Jill said softly.

Mirallyn looked past Mae to Jill. “Truly, Jill Hall, it was my duty and an honor to heal the one who saved my daughter.” Mirallyn turned her eyes to Mae. “I know you and your love have some catching up to do. We can discuss anything you desire, after you both have rested.”

Mae nodded. “I think—yes. I think—” Mae frowned at her mother. “You
will
be here in the morning?” she asked, her voice tense.

“I swear to you daughter, upon my magic, that I shall be here and prepared to explain my actions to you when you are ready.”

Mae nodded. “In the morning. Right now I just want to crawl into bed and rest.”

She watched her mother, the woman she had a million questions for, step out of the room with a slight nod.

Jill wrinkled her nose and laughed. “In that case, you should go take a shower because you, my dear, stink.”

“I’ve been dead, what can you expect?”

“Death does not preclude proper hygiene,” Jill said with a straight face.

Mae laughed. “I’d ask you to wash my back, but….”

“These bandages will be off in the morning.”

Ellie cleared her throat, reminding Mae and Jill of her presence. “I’ll leave whatever clothes I find for you on the bed.”

“There’s another robe hanging from the back of the bathroom door,” Jill added.

Mae slipped into the guest bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. Ellie had done an admirable job of cleaning her face and neck, but there was still dried blood in her hair. Her sweater was ruined, torn on the sleeves, with a bullet hole at her stomach and dried black blood caking the garment stiff.

Mae undressed, dropping her soiled clothes on the floor. She would pick them up later, for now she wanted a shower. Mae turned the water on, making it as hot as she could stand.

She let the hot water clean her body, sweeping away the blood, grime, sweat and death of the last two days. Mae watched the dark mess swirl down the drain as she lathered on soap and shampoo from the bottles resting in the shower caddy.

She had seen her family while hanging from that frozen oak tree. Her grandma and grandpa Malveaux had been there first, telling her how proud they were of their little girl. Then her father had come to her. She remembered crying on him, just as she had after nightmares when she was a child. He told her that her mother loved them both, but she had to go away to protect us all. He said she would be waiting when Mae returned, to explain why things had to be the way they were. Mae wiped her eyes. He had loved her mother so much. It was the only reason she had not exploded in a ball of fury when her mother had appeared at the bedroom door. And then he had told her to forgive herself for things that were not her fault, but merely unfortunate and tragic. She sighed as the water rushed over her.

She had spoken to other dead people as well—people like Minneapolis police Sergeant Mary Alice Dean, wife and mother of two small sons—who had lost their lives because of Hodgins and others like him.

Mae leaned forward, letting the hot jets of water caress the back of her neck and shoulders. She watched the last of the blood and dirt vanish, leaving soapy water in its wake as she rinsed her body.

Hodgins and his ilk believed their wealth and magic made them above normal mortals. Their greed and indifference to life allowed them to destroy fae and mortal alike with no regard to the pain they caused. In their minds, as long as their own desires were met, their actions were justified.

Mae ran a firm hand over her breasts and stomach. The wounds had healed, but there were pale scars where she had been bitten by faerie hounds, accidentally shot by a police officer, and impaled on a tree by Death. She gave her body a rueful smile. Scars were good. They were tangible reminders. She would carry them for the rest of her life and she would
never
forget what Hodgins and his cronies had done to her, had done to countless others.

The trail of death they had left in their wake stopped here and now.

Mae turned the water off and reached for the towel. She dried off and slipped into the white terry-cloth bathrobe, tying it around her waist. She continued to work at her hair with the towel as she left the steamy bathroom and walked back into the bedroom.

“Clean?”

Mae looked at the bed. The covers were kicked to one side and Jill was lying on the sheet, wearing a large black-and-red flannel shirt Mae suspected belonged to Jill’s brother or father. The shirt covered Jill to midthigh, leaving the rest of her legs bare. Jill was smiling madly.

Mae returned the smile. “Yeah. I feel about a thousand percent better about life.”

“You smell about a thousand percent better too.”

“That was the plan.” Mae sat on the edge of the bed and finished drying her hair with the towel. “Ellie was supposed to leave me some clothes.”

“She must have forgotten.”

Mae glared playfully at Jill, her wet hair falling onto her face. “Whatever shall I do?”

“I guess you’ll have to go without.”

Mae slipped into bed, still wearing the bathrobe, and turned off the lamp. She grabbed the covers and brought them up over her and Jill. “I thought you were supposed to be resting?”

Jill rolled over to face her. “I’m not as damaged as all that.”

Mae shifted closer to Jill and draped an arm over her, pulling her closer. “Let’s wait until you get those bandages off your hands.”

“Got plans for these hands, do you?”

Mae grinned. “Maybe.”

“Well then, how about instead of—”

Mae stopped whatever it was Jill was about to suggest by placing her lips firmly on Jill’s. They kissed gently, and when Mae felt Jill’s tongue, she opened her mouth and allowed it entry. Mae ran a hand down Jill’s side, over the swell of her hip, past the hem of the shirt and along her bare leg.

Jill broke the kiss. “I wouldn’t have gotten so banged-up rescuing you, if I’d known things were going to go down like this.”

“It’s okay. I’m just being friendly, not looking for a full-blown tumble. That can come later.”

Jill gave her a mock pout.

Mae laughed and kissed her again. “Later, after the bandages are off. You should be resting, Miss Hall.”

Jill laughed. “Fine, I’ll get some rest. We’ll take this up another night. It’ll give me a chance to shave my legs.”