Naomi Grim (5 page)

I heard the young boy gasp from the
doorway and sensed Colden moving behind me. A stinging pain shot up and down my
arm. Blood poured from the slice onto the wood floor. Blood. Why the hell was I
bleeding?

"Jax, run and get Carey,"
Dunstan said to the boy. "Tell him to bring his kit." The boy left
the room. I still stood there, watching this deep-red liquid that shouldn't be
there continue to run from my arm. "Colden?"

I felt strong hands grab my shoulders
and pull me back toward the chair. Gently, Colden pushed me down into the seat.
"I think she might be going into shock," he said. There was a little
concern in his voice and for the first time maybe even sympathy. He pushed my
arm against my belly and wrapped the bottom part of my hoodie around it.

I didn't care about the pain. It was
nothing compared to the branding and year-subtraction process I'd gone through.
There was something more important going on. "Why am I bleeding? Grims
don't bleed."

Dunstan sat back in his seat, not
looking one bit apologetic for what he'd done to me. "Not full-blooded
Grims.
We
bleed. It's the human in us."

I heard the front door of the cottage
open and close. Jax entered the room with a tall, slender man wearing a black button-down
shirt and black pants. The man had a small metal case with him.

Without a word, he knelt before me and
told Colden to help me remove my hoodie. After the bloody hoodie was off, Carey
looked the wound over for a few seconds and then whistled. "This is going
to require stitches."

At first I couldn't bring myself to look
at my arm, then I did. My flesh as opened and blood continued to flow.

I immediately burst into tears. It was
not my intention to cry like a newborn child in front of these men, but I'd
never had as much as a scrape until the day before.

Carey quickly wrapped my arm in a
bandage. Then he rummaged through the metal case and pulled out a large needle
filled with liquid.

I cringed at the sight of it.
"What's that for?"

"Trust me. You're not going to want
to be awake for this."

Before I could protest, he had grabbed
my uninjured arm and thrust the needle into my elbow crease. Immediately I felt
woozy. Everything went blurry and began to spin. I couldn't hold my head up. I
remembered Colden pressing my head against his shoulder. I screamed something
about wanting my mother and then that was it.

* * *

I opened my eyes and then shut them
immediately. I didn't know where I was, but wherever it was, it was much too
bright. After a few seconds, I forced myself to open them again.

I was laying in someone's bedroom on a
bed underneath a window. I felt groggy as I moved my head from side to side,
surveying my surroundings. The walls of the room were burnt orange and blended
nicely with the dark-brown furniture. I looked beside me. The bedspread was
ornate—a mixture of orange and golden swirls. My arm was wrapped in a bandage,
still throbbing from pain. I made myself sit up. It hurt my head tremendously,
but I couldn’t just lay there. I went to the door. After turning the knob, I
discovered it was locked. I banged on it. "Hey! Let me out!"

I waited for a minute, and there was no
response. After yelling twice more, I heard heavy footsteps walking toward the
room.

I stood back as the doorknob jiggled. I
heard keys clinking against each other. The door opened. It was Jax. He didn't
say anything, but he motioned for me to follow him.

He led me to the kitchen where Dunstan,
Carey, Colden, Nigel, Moore, and about six other men stood.

Dunstan pointed at the spot at the table
directly across from them. I watched the men as I stepped forward. I had no
idea what to expect. Were they going to attack me? Were they all upset with me
for botching the assignment? Not one of them said a word. They watched me as if
they were looking at one of Dorian's weird science experiments.

I sat, holding my arm. "Are you
going to cut me again?"

"I'm sorry," Dunstan answered,
"but it was the only way I could make you believe." But he didn't
look sorry at all.

"What are all these men doing
here?" I asked. Jax brought me a glass of water and I gulped it down
gratefully.

"We're discussing what we should do
with you."

That didn't sound good at all.
"What do you mean?"

Nigel cleared his throat. "We need
to decide if we should keep you or use you for the cause."

"What's the cause?"

Nigel began to answer, but Dunstan cut
him off. "We can't discuss that at this time. Don't you want to go back
and check on your family?"

"Of course, but I'll be killed if I
go back."

"You're as good as dead
anyway," Dunstan said. "You think my brother doesn't know you're
here? They haven't captured you because they can't come here. I know my
brother. He's keeping your family alive, banking that you'll come back looking
for them."

Moore scoffed. "She won't do that."

I shot him an angry look. I hated him as
much as I hated Colden. "You don't even know me. How do you know what I
won't do?"

Moore sighed. "Well, let's take a
look at your track record.
You
put your family in danger by messing up
an assignment. Then instead of taking your punishment like a man, you ran like
a mouse, leaving your family—who had done nothing wrong—holding the bag. I
doubt you'll go back to check on them."

I stood, causing the chair to fall back
and crash to the floor. "First of all, I didn't just leave. My father
pushed me out of the back door and slammed it in my face. Second, I risked my
life to save humans I'd known for two weeks. Do you honestly think I wouldn't
go back to make sure my family, my own flesh and bone, were okay?"

Dunstan looked at Moore. "She makes
a good point.” He turned back to me. “Although I am a little perturbed with you
interfering with our lifestone collection, I think this is actually perfect
timing. You'll go back tonight, and you'll do exactly what we tell you
to."

I observed the faces of the men standing
in the kitchen. Their expressions were solemn and serious. What was going on
that had to be so secretive?

Dunstan stood. "Okay, Naomi, you
may retire back to the bedroom. Colden, please wait with her. Jax will bring
you something to eat."

"Wait! What do you mean I'm going to
do exactly what you tell me to? I don't even know what you guys are talking
about!" Colden grabbed my arm, but I pulled away from him. The men were
going to discuss something and I wanted to hear it. They weren't about to send
me to my room like a child, when it was apparent they were going to discuss me.
Unfortunately, Colden was much stronger than I was. He grabbed me by my waist
and carried me down the hallway, kicking and screaming.

When we made it to the bedroom, he
tossed me carelessly onto the bed, causing me to land on my damaged arm.
"What's the matter with you? I get that you hate me, but you didn't have
to throw me down!"

Colden shut the door behind him.
"Shut up! I'm missing out on an important meeting because I have to
babysit you, so shut up!"

"My brother is gonna kick your
ass."

"Oh, right. What brother exactly?
The one who's going to be executed because of you?"

That stung—hard. I folded my legs
underneath me and turned my back to him. "Just go back to your stupid
meeting. I'm not going anywhere."

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have
said that." I felt the bed move as Colden sat down. "Why'd you have
to do that? Why'd you have to screw up the assignment? None of this would be
happening to you if you hadn't done that."

"Yes, Colden, I'm aware of that,
thanks." My stomach growled. I hoped Jax wouldn't be much longer with the
food. "You're a For—hybrid. You should understand. You're part
human."

"Yes, but I'm mostly Grim, and we
don't belong in that world. We belong here, so here's what I worry about.
Gwendolyn was our predecessor, and we respect her, but our allegiance is not to
that world."

I ran my fingers along the beige bandage
on my arm. "I'm not a hybrid."

"Sure. Whatever."

"They're going to kill me if I go
back."

"Well, you knew that when you did
what you did."

I didn't want to speak to Colden
anymore. I didn't even want him in the room with me. I lay across the bed,
thinking of home. I hoped everyone was okay. I imagined them being imprisoned
or dead, but I pushed the thought away. I closed my eyes and envisioned Dorian
working away in his "laboratory", Mother and Father sipping coffee
involved in deep conversation, and Bram up in his room doing whatever he did in
there.

The door opened and I sat up. Jax came
in with a tray of cheese and crackers. He handed me the tray and I met his
hazel eyes. "Thank you."

He nodded and then skittered from the
room. His eyes reminded me of Hunter's.

I munched on the cheese and crackers,
cleaning the tray. I sat on one side of the bed while Colden sat quietly on the
other. I would have offered him some, but I still hated him.

I had just set the empty tray on the bed
when Dunstan entered the room. "Leave us," he said to Colden. Colden
bolted as if he couldn't wait to get out of there.

Dunstan moved the tray out of the way
and sat next to me. I moved over in the opposite direction. "You'll go
back tonight—"

"The minute I set foot over that
wall, they're going to kill me."

"They won't touch you because they
won't be able to see you."

I looked at him as he twisted a silver skull
ring around one of his knuckles. "What?"

"You'll be invisible."

I stood and began to pace. "That
doesn't work in Nowhere."

"No, not unless you're wearing the
invisibility cloak, which I have."

I'd read about that in my studies. No
one had ever actually seen it, so we assumed it to be a myth. "You have
the cloak?"

Dunstan nodded. "My brother and I
weren't meant to be twins. When we were born, our parents decided we'd share
the powers and gifts that came with being a Death Lord. Technically, it should
have been me, since I was the eldest by four minutes, but my parents didn't see
it that way. They made us split the sacred gifts. Dunningham got the Scepter of
Immortality and I got the Cloak of Invisibility."

"Dunningham never told us
that."

Dunstan shrugged. "Why would he?
Why would he want his people to know that such a prized possession was in the
hands of his lowly rat brother? Before he banished me, he looked everywhere for
that cloak. He wanted it back because I wasn't worthy of it anymore, but I'd
hidden it. It's the only thing I have that's worth anything besides our
father's ring." I assumed he meant the ring he was toying with.
"Don't even get me started on how immortality is a far more exceptional
gift than invisibility, but he didn't care. He didn't want me to have
anything."

"Why do you want me to go back
there? What do you care?"

"First, I want you to make sure
your family is okay. I know that means a lot to you. Then we have other
business to attend to, but we'll discuss that later on."

I rubbed my forehead, trying to
understand. "So, you want me to put on this cloak. It'll make me invisible
so I can go check on my family. Then you want me to come back here?"

"Yes."

"Why would I do that? Why wouldn't
I just keep the cloak and stay with my family?"

"Because you're one of us. You'll
do what's best for the cause."

"I'm not one of you! Stop saying
that!" I shouted although I still couldn't explain why I'd bled like a
human.

Dunstan laughed. His laugh annoyed me
and I wanted to push him. "Sweetheart, you're more of a hybrid than anyone
in this colony."

"What?"

"All these people, they're
descendants of me and a human woman. They only have a percentage of human blood
in them. The younger the generation, the less they have. But you, my dear, are
half and half."

I walked briskly to him. He looked up
sharply, as if he were afraid of what I might do. "Both my parents are
full-blooded Grims."

Dunstan stood and I backed away.
"If you say so. Why don’t you ask your mother all about it when you go
home tonight?"

I had to make another arduous trip to
the wall, with Colden and Nigel escorting me. Even though it was nighttime, it
was still humid. There was no breeze or relief from the sticky air. Also, I
wore the invisibility cloak, which was thick and heavy.

"Okay, so the plan for tonight is
for you to go in, see your family and come back," Nigel explained.

"Why do you guys need me to do
this? What does my family have to do with you?" I wasn't satisfied with
Dunstan's answer. I wanted to know the truth.

"We need to see how smoothly you
can get in and out without being detected, that's all."

I stopped walking. "What, you're
using me as some kind of guinea pig?"

"You could say that," Colden
said. The words flew from his mouth way too easily, as if it were perfectly
okay for them to use me.

"Then I'm not going."

Colden held his arms out, feeling for
me. His hand landed on my forearm. He grabbed me and pushed me forward roughly.

I yanked away from him. "Keep your
hands off of me!"

"Cut it out, Colden," Nigel
said firmly.

Things just weren't making sense to me.
"Why does it have to be me? Any one of you could put on this cloak and be
invisible."

Nigel looked at his brother. "We
can't, okay? It won't work for us."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not branded. We're
not really considered Grims. Let's keep walking." Every Grim was branded
with the sacred emblem on their thirteenth birthday.

I decided to stop asking questions. My
main goal was to see my family and make sure they were okay. I had to know, at
least, that they were still alive. If anything had happened to them . . .

We reached the wall. The ropes we had
climbed the day before were still there. I wasn't looking forward to this
climb. Thankfully Colden went first. I didn't want him underneath me. I
especially didn't want him to be the one responsible for catching me if I were
to slip.

I remembered what Nigel had told me the
last time.
Hand over hand, foot over foot.
After Nigel began up the
wall, I grabbed the rope, pulled it, and hoisted myself up. It was difficult,
especially with an injured arm, but I thought I was doing a better job than the
last time. Twice, I had to stop to catch my breath and let my arms rest. Colden
shouted at me to keep going. My anger at him motivated me to keep moving.

At last I made it to the top. Now came
the hard part. I froze momentarily. Nigel pushed me gently over. His hand on my
backside felt wrong. I was happy to be wearing the cloak. The climb down was
much quicker, seeing as though I slid half the way down and landed on my side.

Colden laughed hysterically before
offering me his hand. I pushed it away. Even though it hurt, I pretended that
it didn't as I tried to stand.

"I'm sorry," Colden said.
"I think the fact that I couldn't see you, but I just heard this loud thud
made it even funnier."

"Colden, you're an ass," Nigel
said, dropping to the ground. "Where are you, Naomi?"

"Here," I answered.

Nigel turned to my voice. "Okay. Go
home. Do not take that cloak off for any reason except for in your house. Check
on your family and come back. We'll be at Odessa's waiting for you."

I nodded even though they couldn't see
me. "All right. I'll be back soon," I said, not at all knowing if
that were true.

I ran through Litropolis unseen. A few
Grims turned their heads as a whirl of wind whipped by, brushing against tin
cans. I couldn't walk. I couldn't wait to get home to my family.

I made it to the wall that separated
Litropolis from Farrington. It was quite a task for me to push the loose stones
from the wall. I was weak from having eaten little, but the thought of seeing
my family gave me the extra strength I needed.

I crawled through and replaced the
stones. I continued to run, across the stream, my invisible feet making loud
splashes. The cloak caught on the twigs and thistles of the bushes as I
traveled. I heard the cloak rip once, but I couldn't stop.

A burst of energy shot through me as I
darted through the quiet streets of my city. The streets were empty and the windows
were blackened. All Grims had turned in for the night.

Finally I made it to my street. My eyes
welled with tears. It had been less than two days, but I had no idea what had
become of my family.

I knew it would be safer to go through
the back entrance. I stood on the porch, remembering that was the place where my
father had thrown me out. I rapped on the door with my fist. There was nothing.
The black curtain that covered the tiny window on the door didn't move.

I knocked again, louder this time. After
I moment, I heard movement coming from inside. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Someone was there. My family hadn't been carted away. The curtains parted, and
Dorian's sleepy-looking face peered out. He looked confused. Of course he
couldn't see me.

"Dorian, it's me!"

He frowned. "Naomi?"

"Dorian, just open the door. It's okay."

He paused for a moment, probably
thinking this was some kind of trick. Then he opened the door slightly.

I pushed myself inside and closed it
behind me.

"What the—" Dorian began.

I removed the cloak. "It's me,
Dorian."

He exhaled and wrapped me into a hug.
"Nay! You're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Are you
guys?"

"Yeah, we've been fine."

The kitchen light came on, and Bram
leaned against the doorway. "Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged
in."

I hadn't expected a warm welcome from
him. "Bram."

"What are you doing here?"
Bram demanded.

"I had to see if you guys were
okay," I answered. "Where's Mother and Father?" I couldn't fully
relax until I knew they were all okay.

"Father's on assignment, and
Mother's sleeping. I'll wake her," Dorian offered, leaving the kitchen.
The fact that Dunningham was still sending Father on assignments was a good
sign. I wished to see him, but I didn't think I could bear the look of
disappointment on his face.

Bram looked at me as if I were some
foreign creature. "So you had to see if we were okay, huh?"

"Yes."

"You weren't worried about us when
you did what you did. Why are you worried about us now?"

I'd already come to the conclusion that
Bram would never forgive me for this, so I didn't bother giving him my
explanation once again. "I'm sorry."

I heard feet pounding down the stairs.
"Darkness!" Mother said. I ran to her and she wrapped me in her arms.
We both cried. "Naomi, I'm glad to see you, but you can't be here. It's
too dangerous."

I pointed to the black robe laying on
the ground. "It's okay. I have the Cloak of Invisibility."

"Yeah, right," Bram said.

Dorian picked the cloak up from the
ground. "It's true. I saw it or, I
didn't
see it, with my own
eyes." Dorian placed the cloak around my shoulders and I pulled the hood
over my head.

Bram's eyes widened, but he said
nothing.

"Naomi, where'd you get that?"
Mother asked.

"From Dunstan."

Bram took the cloak off me. "Dunstan?"

"Yeah. I was in the Forager's
village."

Bram put the cloak on himself and
disappeared. "Man, this is so awesome. You know the kind of stuff I could
do if I were invisible. Can I keep it?"

"No, you can't keep it. It's not even
mine. What did Dunningham do?" I asked.

Mother shrugged. "He came looking
for you. We said we didn't know where you were. He sounded the alarm and sent
the Watchers after you. That was it." I thought it was weird for
Dunningham to give up so easily. Mother ushered me to the kitchen table.
"Sit down and tell me everything." I sat in a chair next to her. She
wrapped her hands around my face. "You haven't been eating properly. Bram,
make your sister a sandwich."

"What? Are you serious?" Bram
asked, throwing the cloak off.

"Just do it," Mother ordered.
"What happened?"

"Well, I went through Litropolis. I
couldn't get over the wall and the Watchers came looking for me, so I spent the
night with Odessa. She was really nice to me. The next day Foragers climbed the
wall to have a meeting."

"Why would they do that?" Bram
asked, digging through the refrigerator.

"I don't know. They wouldn't tell
me, but something's going on. Anyway, the Foragers helped me climb the wall and
they took me to their village. I spent the night with Merna and her sons Colden
and Nigel. Then this morning, Colden decided he just had to take me to see
Dunstan, so we went."

Bram slammed things noisily on the
counter to show how much he obviously didn't want to make me that sandwich.

"Dunstan is just like his brother,
but he looks older. He took a knife and he sliced my arm," I told her,
rolling up the sleeve of my hoodie. Mother frowned and touched my bandage.
"Mother, I bled. Dunstan said it was because I was a hybrid like them, and
not a full-blooded Grim, but that's ridiculous."

Everything in the kitchen became still
at that moment. I wondered if they had all stopped breathing.

"But why would you bleed?"
Bram asked, holding a butter knife.

Mother touched my face again.
"Naomi, let's go to my bedroom to talk."

"Why can't you talk in front of
us?" Dorian asked.

"Go back to bed, you two,"
Mother said.

"But what about Naomi's
sandwich?" Bram asked.

Mother ignored him, leaving the table. I
followed her, suddenly afraid. What was so bad that she couldn't talk about it
in front of the boys?

We went into my parents’ bedroom, where
she closed the door. Their room was huge. Maroon wallpaper with a leaf design
decorated the walls. Mother crawled into their giant canopy bed. I followed her
and snuggled underneath the covers. We had girl talk like this sometimes when
Father was away on assignment.

I rested my head on my mother's chest
and enjoyed her scent.

"Naomi, I have to tell you
something. I was hoping this would never have to come out, but it has. You bled
because you're half human."

I shot up. "That's impossible. You
and Father are both Grims."

Mother closed her eyes and paused for a
long time before she spoke again. "Darkness, your father—your real father—is
a human."

"You're lying. Stop lying."

"Naomi, Nox is not your biological
father."

I tried to think of what possible reason
my mother had to be lying to me. There had to be something. I lay back down and
stared at the black material that hung above us.

"I was on assignment a long time
ago. This one was unusually long, five months. Assignments that long happen
sometimes, but not very often. Anyway, I was following a man named Jeremy. He
was a photographer and a really nice man. One day I made the drastic mistake of
letting him see me. I was in his home. He demanded that I tell him who I was. I
told him why I was there."

I shook my head. If this was true, my
mother had broken all kinds of rules. I guess it ran in the family.

"Jeremy seemed to kind of accept
his fate. He wanted to live his last moments to the fullest. We began to talk
and we bonded. I started to develop feelings for him that I shouldn't have for
a human or anyone who's not your father. One thing led to another."

I closed my eyes, wishing she were done
with this fairy tale.

"I still had to do what I had to
do. When Jeremy's time came, I took his lifestone and left."

"I know you're lying. If you'd
really done something like that, Dunningham would have executed the both of us
a long time ago."

Mother looked me in the eye for a moment
and then looked away. "Mr. Dunningham is a lot more . . . malleable than
people think."

"What does that mean?"

"It means sometimes he'll
compromise."

I sat up again. "Yeah, in return
for something."

Mother closed her eyes.

"What did you give him,
Mother?"

"I had to do what I had to do to
save you. To save both of us."

I didn't want to know what she had done.
"I have to get back. They're expecting me."

"Naomi, can't you stay the
night?"

"No, Mother. I don't want to
anyway."

I opened the bedroom door. Bram stood
there, holding a messy turkey sandwich on a plate. "That's why you never
had the heart of a Grim."