House Of Dragons Page 34

  It was a while before Jess could speak properly, which she did after pulling away from our group hug, wiping her eyes. "We left Nashville almost as soon as my call with you got disconnected, Eva. I know you told me to stay put with Ebony, but I just couldn't. I just had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen to the city, something far worse than what had even already happened with the virus and the Bloodsuckers.

  “So, I made Eb come with me, and we just got in my car and flew. But then we broke down, then we got kidnapped, but then we got guns and fought our way out. We wandered for a while with some priests, and two of them were black-belts in karate, then we lived with an elderly couple in the root cellar of their farmhouse for a really long time.

  “But then a horde caved the cellar in, and the elderly couple died, so Eb and I started wandering again, meeting up with this group of men. Then we saw signs that said this village was a safe place, so we all just started walking. We were out of food, and this place was our last hope. We never in a thousand, billion years ever thought we'd find you here. We were just hoping to find a safe place, like the signs said. The signs, however, didn't quite prepare us to get ambushed by a horde coming out from the forest almost the second we got here."

  Wiping my eyes, I sniffled a bit, thanking my very luckiest of stars for so many different things. "I was the one who set the putting up of those signs in motion. I asked my husbands to do it so that good people could get help...and it was also a little bit to try to expand the dating pool for my friend Chris, but that's a whole other story.

  “I never dreamed that the signs would draw the two of you here. I thought you were both dead. I planted rocks in our memory garden for you both. I had a little memorial service with our minister praying that your souls had found peace."

  Just staring at me, as if she couldn't quite believe that she was looking at me, Ebony began crying again. "We thought you were probably dead."

  Another tearful, near-hysterical group hug commenced, only broken up when the group of human men soon came through the village gates, asking Eb and Jess if they were okay. Eb and Jess both said yes, then Jess introduced the group of ten men to me by name, saying that they were all friends.

  I believed her, although I had many questions for later. One of them being if she and Ebony knew what Stockholm Syndrome was, and if it was possible that either of them had fallen victim to it.

  It was only after these introductions had been made that I realized that Nick was just gone. In my wild haste to pull Eb and Jess into my arms, I hadn't even noticed him charging away. However, I figured it was probably best that he had. I knew he was probably absolutely irate with me, and I wanted him to cool down a bit before we spoke. Same with Blaine.

  Soon Kathy came in through the gates with Sam, who was in human form, and he looked more than a bit irate himself. I was really too overjoyed to see Kathy, and in one piece, too, to really even pay much attention to Sam's expression. I just pulled Kathy into my arms, asking her if she'd been bitten. She said no, squeezing me tight, then asked me the same question. I responded in the negative, only then realizing that if hadn't checked with Jess and Eb. However, before I could even speak, Eb did, from somewhere behind me.

  "We're good, too. In fact, I did a fake-out chomp at one of the Huskers, just to try to scare it away for a second when I dropped my knife."

  Realizing just how much I'd missed her and her sense of humor, I suddenly began crying again, burying my face in Kathy's shoulder. Soon, I cried harder still when she patted my back, telling me that the battle was over.

  "Things were just winding down when Sam and I came up to the gate. Lots of Borderliner and Pine Bluff shifter carcasses. But not a single carcass with paint...not a single one of ours. Some of our men even survived the fight with enough energy left over to just take off in pursuit of the Borderliners that escaped."

  Chris soon came down from the guard tower, took Jess, Eb, and me to his office, and then gave us all brief physical exams, declaring all of us in perfect health, or nearly perfect, because I had a giant bruise on my face where Kathy had struck me. Chris asked me what had happened, and I sighed.

  "Basically, Kathy hauled off and hit me. I'm just going to let it go, though, even though I definitely didn't appreciate it. I think Kathy and I were both suffering brief attacks of insanity."

  After leaving Chris' office, I took Jess and Eb to the house, where we cried some more, ate, and cried some more again. Jess and Eb took hot showers for the first time in two years. I waited downstairs for them, not knowing if I wished that Nick and Blaine would come home, or if I wished that they wouldn't.

  That evening, when they still hadn't returned home, Jess, Eb, and I shared dinner and a few glasses of wine around the kitchen table. And when Ebony excused herself to use the restroom, I suddenly remembered a very important question that I hadn't gotten answered yet, so I asked Jess.

  "Those men that you and Eb came in with...I can get the fine details of how you two came to meet up with them and all that later, but...I just have to know right now. Have any of them ever hurt either of you in any way?"

  To my surprise, Jess actually stifled a laugh. "Um...no. Well, sorry...yes. Just four of them in particular...the four of them that make up two couples, Max and Andy, and Dave and Terrence. Those four would sometimes hurt my ears all night with their wails and moans of passion.

  “It was really like the two couples were hell-bent on outdoing each other in the noise department. Finally the six other guys and Jess and I told them that they just had to start pitching their tents further away from the rest of ours. We were all going to strangle them in their sleep if they didn't, not to mention that some nights, I was pretty sure they were attracting a few more Huskers than we'd normally be bothered with. But, anyway...after our threats and orders to move their tents, my nightly-ear-pain-level got a little better."

  Listening to Jess, profoundly relieved, my wheels had already started turning.

  "The other six men in the group, besides the couples...they wouldn't happen to be gay, too, would they?"

  Jess looked at me quizzically, lips twitching with amusement. "Why, yes...yes, they would. You wouldn't happen to have anyone from the village you'd like to introduce them to, would you?"

  "Oh, just a very handsome doctor in his late twenties. You think any of them might be interested in meeting him?"

  "Oh, something tells me that very soon, there's going to be a line at the doctor's office six men deep."

  The line might have been forming even then. Because when Chris stopped by to check on my bruised face around ten, he had Kevin, who was one of the more handsome men from the group, with him, and Chris said that they were going to take a stroll through the village, just to look at the stars. While Chris said this, looking right at me, I noticed a few stars dancing in his chocolate brown eyes.

  No sooner had Chris and Kevin left than Kathy arrived, asking Jess and Eb if she could visit with me in private. When it was just the two of us at the kitchen table, she began studying her hands and nails as she’d done when talking to me after the wedding.

  "Emily was my daughter, Eva, and you're just her absolute dead ringer. Same age...almost same literally everything. And for two brief seconds when I first set eyes on you, I thought Emily had somehow found her way back to me, and I've never felt such perfect joy in my life, not even when she was born. But then I saw that you don't have a very prominent scar on one side of your forehead...and I knew that I'd been mistaken.

  “You were just the Olympic ice skater that Emily and I always joked was her twin. And in that moment when I realized this...I hated you. And I'm sorry about that, but it's true. I hated you. I hated you because for two seconds, you'd unknowingly made me think that my daughter had come back to me, safe and sound somehow, miraculously...and then it was all just ripped away. I felt like I wanted to die, which is something I've only felt one other time in my life, and that was right after I lost Emily."

  Chest aching, I just
looked at Kathy for a moment or two before responding. "How did it happen?"

  Gaze still on her hands, Kathy heaved a sigh before continuing. "It was the two of us out on the road, not long after the virus hit, and we picked up a teenage girl named Chelsea, who'd lost her whole family. None of us knew how to fight. We got surrounded by a horde in a little shack somewhere in the boonies.

  “Chelsea tried to escape by running past all the Huskers, but, not knowing even how to kill them, she got stuck, stabbing them but not able to get free. Emily ran out after her, even though I begged her not to. And once she was out the door, I couldn't chase after her, because the Huskers had blocked the doorway by that point.

  “I ended up hiding in a large oak chest in one corner of the shack until the horde had moved on, destroying the shack in the process. And then, when I came out, Chelsea was staggering around outside, having been turned into a Husker. But Emily was just gone...just nowhere to be found. And, of course, I searched the surrounding areas for a time, carefully surveying the face of every Husker I killed, but I never found her. And eventually, for my own survival, I had to move on, both geographically and mentally. I never even told Mike and Sam about Emily until just a few hours ago...never even told my own husbands about my daughter.

  “Just the very thought of it hurt too badly. And I guess the tiniest part of me was always hoping that I'd never have to tell them the sad story...that one day, Emily would somehow find me, and then they could just share in the joy." With tears shining in her eyes, Kathy suddenly looked up at me, trying to smile. "Like the joyful reunion you had with your sisters today."

  I found I couldn't muster any kind of a smile in return. Instead, I impulsively reached for one of Kathy's hands, covering it with my own. "I'm so very grateful that my sisters came back to me, but I'm so very sorry it wasn't Emily who came back, too."

  Now smiling even harder, though with tears streaming down her cheeks, Kathy nodded. "Thank you. Me, too. I'm truly happy for you, though...and Emily's always in my heart. She will be until the day I die."

  Feeling a few tears welling in my own eyes, I gave Kathy's hand a squeeze, making her smile and cry harder, but after a few moments, she abruptly wiped her eyes with a deep sigh, leaning back in her chair.

  "Hopefully you'll never, ever have to learn what it feels like...to have your daughter just disappear...and you never even get to find out what happened to her. You never even get to find out if she's a Husker, or is at peace, dead, or if she's being held as a sex slave somewhere. You just never get to find out. I never get to find out. I'm not saying this so that you feel sorry for me, Eva, I'm just saying it because it's true. I wouldn't wish my experience on you, or anyone, ever."

  "Well, I hope none of those scenarios are true. I hope maybe Emily got away from the horde somehow, but she got lost, and later found a nice community like Helena somewhere. I hope maybe Emily's still alive somewhere happy, except maybe she always wonders what happened to her mom, and she's always looking for you."

  Wiping her eyes again, Kathy gave me a little smile. "I like that thought, and a tiny part of me will never stop hoping that scenario is true...but it's not very realistic in this new world, and I have to find a way to make peace with the scenarios that are more realistic."

  "I understand."

  A few seconds ticked by.

  Kathy turned her gaze downward, to the table, then abruptly stood, moving her chair out of the way so fast it threatened to tip. "I'm really very, very sorry for hitting you, Eva. Hitting is an outrageously horrible thing for a person to do, no matter the circumstances. I just hope you can forgive me at some point, because I'd like to be your friend. I'd like to move past hurting nearly every time I look at you."

  Eyes filling again, Kathy turned to leave.

  But, after flying up and out of my chair like she had, I caught her hand to stop her. "I forgive you, Kathy, and I'd like to be your friend, too. I'd like to make you smile sometimes and think of the good times with Emily, if I can."

  Kathy nodded, smiling while tears streamed down her cheeks once again. "Thanks. I hope you're given the same gift of forgiveness by your husbands that you just gave me...something tells me you will be."

  I was not at all sure about that. And after Kathy left, I got Eb and Jess all settled into the guest bedrooms, and then came back downstairs and cried, wondering when Nick and Blaine were going to come home. Wondering if they still loved me.

  However, when they both came in the living room around midnight, my remorse and heartache suddenly turned into irrational anger, and I flew up from the couch, wiping my eyes.

  "Well, go ahead. Let me have it. Yell at me. Tell me what I did was stupid and wrong, and a violation of your direct orders, Nick. You both can even throw things if you want, just not at me. But go ahead. Yell. I don't even know why I'm so mad all of a sudden, because I know I deserve it."

  *

  In response to my angry tirade, telling him and Blaine to just go ahead and yell at me, Nick just shook his head. "No."

  In the soft glow of a small lamp, I just looked at him for a moment. "'No,' what?"

  "No. Blaine and I aren't going to yell, or throw things, or any of that. We're both too grateful you're okay, and that your sisters are alive."

  A long moment went by before I could respond. "Well...well, that's it, then?"

  Nick moved a little closer to me, lifting his broad shoulders in a shrug. "I guess that's it. Blaine and I understand why you did what you did. We definitely wish you wouldn't have done it, but we get it. You're a brave, loving woman who saw her family members surrounded by Huskers, and so, you did what brave, loving women do. Blaine and I both needed some time to cool off before seeing you to talk about all this, but bottom line, we both forgive you."

  Again, I couldn't respond right away. "You do? You both do?"

  Nick nodded, and Blaine responded with a grunt. And soon I was in their arms, being held and cradled and kissed, experiencing one of the strongest rushes of joy I'd ever felt in my life.

  Over the next several weeks, things in the village slowly got back to normal. All the carcasses beyond the walls were burned and the remains buried. Some, though not all, of the Borderliners that had escaped the fray, including Wesley Archer, were hunted down and killed. Chris fell in love with Kevin. Jess and Eb found men of their own, two for each of them. Ten additional newcomers joined Helena after having seen the signs advertising a safe community.

  Jess and Eb's stones were removed from the memorial rock garden, and Kathy added one for Emily. She had me design it with roses around Emily's name, because roses had been Emily's favorite flower.

  Not long after, toward the end of dinner one night, Nick asked Blaine if he'd like to formally become co-leader of Helena. The question had kind of come out of nowhere, during a long pause in conversation, when I'd been finishing the last few sips of a glass of wine. Surprised, because I'd had no idea that Nick had even been thinking about what he'd asked, I set my wineglass on the table silently, covertly glancing between Nick and Blaine.

  I thought that Blaine would accept Nick's offer, especially since Nick had added that he'd be honored if Blaine would accept.

  However, surprising me yet again, Blaine just glanced up at Nick, then looked down again, pushing a few remaining cooked carrot slices around on his plate. "Thanks, brother. But I think I lead best, in my own way, when I'm not the top dog, or one of them, if that makes any sense. I feel most like myself how things are now."

  I'd never heard Blaine refer to Nick as his brother before. And I found that I kind of liked the idea of that, of the two of them being brothers, maybe in the same way that Jess, Eb, and I were sisters. I also found that I understood what Blaine had said in response to Nick. Blaine was certainly no beta male, but he wasn't as vocal as Nick.

  He seemed a bit more independent than Nick, even though he wasn't "top dog." And somehow I mentally agreed that being "co-top dog" probably wouldn't suit him. I also kind of liked things the way they we
re. Nick seemed fine with them, too, not directly responding to what Blaine had said, but lifting his whiskey glass in a toast "to brothers."

  About five weeks after the battle, after having tended to the flowers in the garden for several hours, I came home at about four in the afternoon to find Nick and Blaine already home. They said they had a surprise for me. Funny, I thought, because I had one for them, too. However, eager to see or hear theirs first, I let them blindfold me and lead me out to the garage, where they'd had some sort of a secret project going on for a few days.

  When Nick removed my blindfold, he gestured to a large, inflatable kiddie pool, maybe ten by ten feet, that appeared to be filled with a few inches of solid ice. "It's not Olympic ice, but it's ice. We got the idea when we found a few industrial cooling coils in a warehouse out on a supply run about a week ago. When we came across a pair of ice skates in your shoe size later that same day, we just knew we had to do it. We figured it might give you some joy just to feel ice under skate blades, even if you can't really do much on our small little rink but spin."

  After eying a pair of battered white skates tucked against the side of the "rink," I looked at Nick and Blaine with tears welling in my eyes. "It's the most beautiful rink I've ever seen."