Undertow (18 page)

I looked at him as I s
tarted walking toward the tree again. As always, Raef fell into step with me like a chaperone shadow. I wrenched another innocent flower from the ground, venting my frustration over my lousy dream recall. “I have so many questions,” I muttered, almost to myself.

“I know you do,” replied Raef, looking at me. “I’ll tell you what I know if you’ll meet me under the
tree.”

“Meet you under the
tree?” I asked, but as soon as I said it, he had disappeared before my eyes. I may have seen it in a sci-fi flick ten times, but seeing a person vanish in front of you is quite creepy. Hollywood doesn’t do it justice.

“Raef?” I whispered to the space in front of me.  I reached out at the nothingness and swished my hand around to see if he was somehow there, but invisible. There was only the briny, sea air.

I glanced over to the tree and then back at the empty field. I started thinking about soul-stealing stalkers and started jogging toward the mammoth hardwood. I seemed to speed up the closer I got to my destination. As I breached the edge of the tree’s branches I nearly plowed into Raef.

I was breathing fast from my sprint and brief panic. “Don’t do that!” I said, poking him in the chest. “Showing off in disturbing ways is unacceptable. You freaked me out!”

“Sorry,” he said with a little smirk. 

I was trying to slow my heart. “Did you disappear or are you supersonic?” I asked, breathing fast. I was face to face with him in the cool darkness of the
tree.

             
“We can’t disappear. The speed is, well, a perk of my kind, I guess.”  I slowed my breathing and gazed at the elegance of the massive tree that surrounded us. Looking up into its upper branches was a dizzying experience.

             
“It’s beautiful,” I said to him quietly, and he stepped aside, gesturing for me to look around. My breathing was finally calming.

              “I remember this tree as a boy,” he said as I walked slowly around the inner perimeter of the beech. I reached out as I walked and let the soft, rounded leaves roll through my fingertips. 

“It was just a sapling back then. If it had been this massive, I would have loved hiding in here,” said Raef, who had slowly begun to also walk around the outer circle of the tree, his direction opposite from mine.

“I’m sorry for what happened to you. Becoming a Mortis,” I said quietly, wondering how old he was exactly. He could be any age, but his strong body and silky skin revealed no age past 18 years.  It also didn’t reveal his true, violent nature.

I realized I had failed to ask a critical question.

I stopped walking and playing with the swaying boughs. I looked at him for a few seconds before I spoke, observing how he moved, so fluidly, gracefully, and no doubt, lethally. I was looking at the true Raef for the very first time, yet my feelings toward him didn’t waver.

             
“Why are you protecting me?” I asked, a slight bit of suspicion crossing my face. He stopped and looked at me, his own face looking uneasy.

“Eila, you do know that I will never hurt you?”

              The briefest second of caution crossed my mind, but my instinct that I was safe with him was potent and solid, “I trust you.”

             
He walked slowly over to me. “This is a bit of a long explanation. We should sit. You still need to take it easy.” 

He held out his hand and helped me to the ground, then sat down next to me, crossing his arms over his knees. I could tell he was debating how to begin and I gave him time to get his thoughts together. His solid arm brushed ever so slightly against mine and sent my nerves into a chain reaction.

“I knew Elizabeth for a few months before she was killed. I knew her before I became what I am now. I helped finish building your home. I was good with my hands and my father was a brilliant woodworker, so I learned a lot from him,” he said glancing at me. I was floored – he knew Elizabeth
and
built my home?

“I had a little sister as well, and my mother, Beth. We lived on the outskirts of Barnstable as we could never afford a home in this area. But we got along fine and I enjoyed working with my father,” said Raef, reaching out to pick up a small stick. He started rolling it in his hand.

              “And Kian. He lived with you too, right?” I asked.

             
Raef shook his head. “No. Kian isn’t my real brother. I didn’t really know Kian before I was infected. I actually really didn’t know him well until this summer. I think Ana was pretty shocked when she met me at school that first day – and especially when I mentioned Kian. After that day at lunch, Kian and I knew we had to talk to Ana and MJ. They had been told about you and your family thanks to Dalca, but Dalca had no idea about Kian and I. We were a big surprise to her. We started working together. Well – coordinating at least. Dalca doesn’t like Kian and I. Can’t say I blame her. As a Gypsy, our histories entwine and not often in a good way. When she found out about you inheriting the house in the summer, she let Ana and MJ in on your real history. She wanted them to keep an eye on you, but you bumped into MJ by sheer luck when you called about his Wrangler.”

             
He looked at me for a moment, to see how I was appraising the story. I remembered MJ calling someone after I had left the ice cream shop the first day he met me. He was probably calling Ana or Dalca to tell them I had arrived.

I also
vividly remembered the first day of school, especially since Raef rescued me in the hall. “So, if Kian isn’t your brother, who the heck is he?” I said, in a near conspiratorial whisper.

“Another Mortis who was in the right place at the right time a very long time ago. My last name is actually Paris.”

              “Raef Paris,” I said, trying out the name. It sounded like someone famous.

“The summer that I turned 18, my family decided to move south. They heard that the winters were easier in Virginia and that the south was excellent to live in. I, however, preferred to stay here, on Cape Cod. My father, seeing that I was a man and could care for myself as a carpenter, let me stay,” said Raef.  I was listening intently.

“Elizabeth knew I had no family here and offered me steady work. She hosted some very fancy parties, as she was a sea captain’s wife. She once told me that such pursuits bored her nearly to death and that she preferred the quiet of her books and the beach,” said Raef looking out toward Dalca’s house.

“She was beautiful, but more than that, she commanded a room. In an age where women were expected to be
an accessory in life, she broke all the rules. When she spoke people, even men, really listened. She was a warrior hiding in plain sight – a powerful Lunaterra - but I didn’t know it back then. I never knew she was hiding a pregnancy either.” I could see Raef’s mind trailing back to a time when his life was still human.

“You seem to have been a fan of hers,” I said, trying to figure out if it was okay for the boy I was falling for to have a crush on my ancestral grandmother.

“She was well respected and could read a person like a book. The fact that she never treated me like a hired hand, but like a craftsman with great skill, endeared her to me,” Raef looked at me, his face quiet. “I considered her my friend.”

I couldn’t help but swallow, “I wish I could have known her.”

He laughed slightly and shook his head, “You are more like her than you know.” Raef’s eyes lingered on me for a few extra seconds, as if lost in thought. He continued to fiddle with the stick, which was getting shorter by the minute.

“It was the day of one of those parties that I met Kian when he was still human.” Raef broke another piece off the twig and flicked it aside. “Kian’s family had a lot of wealth - old money and grand homes on the Cape, Nantucket and Boston. So Kian, though young at almost 20, was well respected. Word was that he could also be an arrogant ass and a complete playboy, but he was unbelievably smart.”

“I can see that,” I mumbled and Raef smiled.

“I met him when I was finishing work on one of the bedrooms just before a party. He was an invitee, but Elizabeth still introduced me as her ‘gifted
woodsmith.’ He barely blinked. My station in life, even in her favor, did not register me on Kian’s radar. I excused myself and left. That’s the last time I ever saw Elizabeth in my human form. I’ll never forget the date. It was December 29th, 1850. Almost a year later, your grandmother would die.”

I swallowed hard. Raef was over 162 years old. My mind refused to grasp any reality that demanded he be more than a high school Senior.

Raef sat there quietly for a while, remembering back to that day. No doubt wondering what he could have done differently, as if fate allows us a do-over. He tossed aside the small remainder of the stick, which now looked more like a toothpick.

“I don’t remember much about the night of the party. I had driven my horse and carriage back home. I remember untacking her from the hitch and locking her in her stall. I shut the barn doors behind me and then . . . nothing,” said Raef, looking frustrated. 

“I woke up two days later in the forest surrounding what is now Sandy Neck. My mind was on fire and all I cared about was this burning need to get my hands, viciously, on someone. Anyone. Nothing registered but the lust to steal someone’s essence. I couldn’t remember who I was, nor did I care to try and find out,” said Raef, his voice haunted.

“I was a killer, a Mortis, and no one could stop me from my desires.
Sometimes I ended their existence quickly and other times I would slowly, torturously pull their life-force from their body,” he shook his head, disgusted at himself. “I was good at it and soon was recruited for my flair as a killer.”

“Did you kill . . . many?” I asked my voice small.

Raef nodded, “But Kian and I mainly hunt animals now. When we have no other option, human blood will do - usually blood bank stuff, which we vastly prefer to inject. That’s how Ana helped me. She healed me by allowing me to drink her blood. I must say, it tastes terrible though.”

“Do you still hunt people?” A clawing unease wound through me at the idea that the boy I adored could kill.

He paused, watching me, “Yes. But trust me when I say they deserve it.”

I swallowed hard. I reached out to that instinct that told me he was my salvation, despite the terrifying truth of what he was.  I could feel that powerful bond linking me to him hold steady.

Raef seemed surprised I was still sitting calmly next to him. “I don’t frighten you?” he asked, his eyes searching mine.

             
“I will admit that the first time I saw you, in English class, I had this horrific sense of danger,” I said, my gaze not leaving his face.

He nodded, “I remember. I could hear your heart rate change so fast I was sure you were going into cardiac arrest.”

              The fact that he could hear my heart beat worried me. Did he know how it raced when he was near? He must. I tried to push that mortifying notion aside. “I no longer have that fear and haven’t had it for quite a while.”

             
He looked like he was mulling over this information, his eyes searching my face. I could tell he was debating something in his head. I decided to break the silence. “So you have no idea who infected you?” I trailed off, not sure I had the term right.

“You mean ‘turned’ me
? No. But I will tell you this: if I ever find the one responsible for stealing my soul from me, I will kill them. They took my life away and I will return the favor in kind,” he said darkly. His vengeance surprised me.

“Is that normal? To not know who did this?” I asked.

“Of all the Mortis I have ever met, and I have known my fair share over the past century and a half, I have only known one other who also has no memory of their turning.” Raef looked at me, waiting for me to catch on.

“Kian?” I asked, stunned.

He nodded. “And on the same night I was turned. Of course, I didn’t know that detail about him until he was recruited as well. We weren’t exactly confidantes even though we were technically comrades,” said Raef, angling toward me slightly.

“Comrades? What do you mean?”

“We were recruited for our abilities by the Rysse Clan – by Jacob Rysse.”

I stiffened. Kian and Raef had worked for the man that killed Elizabeth. I slowly rose to my feet and Raef followed, but gave me space. “You worked . . . for Rysse?” I asked, tension coiling in my belly.

Raef nodded slowly. “We both were there, in the harbor square, the night Elizabeth and Rysse died,” said Raef, watching me cautiously.

“You saw her
die
?” I asked, my voice like a wisp of dry air, taking an instinctive step back. Raef looked pained. He started to reach for me, but I widened the gap between us and he drew his hand back.

“Eila, please understand that for all that I am now, at one time I was the polar opposite. I did not recognize her as Elizabeth, my friend.” His voice sounded desperate, “It was not within me to save her back then. We were there because we had heard that a Lunaterra would be there, that night, and neither of us had ever seen one. Neither of us had ever fought in the wars with your kind. I mean, to us, your kind was just a myth. It was a distant war in a distant land with a foreign enemy we had never seen.”