Damn … what was going to happen now?
Was the Brotherhood going to split apart? Where would she and Wrath go? Technically, they shouldn’t be staying in those overdone quarters on the third floor if they weren’t the First Family anymore.
Actually … it would be a relief to get out of there.
Although the cause for the relo sucked.
Opening up the Sub-Zero, she saw … a whole lot of shit she didn’t want to eat. But she should be hungry, shouldn’t she? She’d only snacked on the stuff Fritz had brought her how many hours ago? And she certainly hadn’t eaten anything during the needing.
She needed to pee.
Disappearing into the loo off the kitchen, she took care of business, washed her hands, and gave the refrigerator another try.
Someone had just put a big vat of something on the lower level. A quick peek under the lid and … cacciatore. Normally an entrée well worth tackling, especially because iAm must have been the one who made it. However, a quick whiff got her a big fat no-thanks from her stomach. Same thing when it came to the leftover ham. A plate’s worth of Bolognese with linguini in a Tupperware container. Tomato soup …
Giving the freezer a try, she took out a box of plain Eggos … then put them back. “Meh.”
Ice cream was a total no-go. Just the thought of that heavy-cream stuff made her want to throw up—
She hesitated as she looked down at herself. “Somebody in there?” she said to her pelvis.
Okay, it was official. She’d totally lost it.
After a trip through the pantry, which proved to be like trying to find something edible in the laundry room, for chrissakes, she doubled back to the fridge and made herself take out a Vlasic jar of butter chips.
“It’s pickles, people,” she muttered. “Pickles. Total cliché here.”
Except when she twisted off the lid and looked at the slices dancing in their little pool of sweet brine, she grimaced and had to put them back.
As a last resort, she hit the vegetable drawer—
“Yes,” she said in a rush as her hand snapped out for a grab. “Oh, yes yes yes…”
As she carried the bunch of organic carrots over to the knife drawer, she couldn’t believe she was about to get it on with all that beta carotene.
She hated carrots. Okay, not completely—if they were in salads, it wasn’t like she’d eat around them. But she had never in her life volunteered them out of the fridge.
Standing over the sink, she cut one free, got out a peeler, and made a neat little pile of bright orange strips in the stainless-steel belly. Quick rinse. Cut in the middle. Slice length-wise twice. And voilà, crudités.
Crunch. Munch. Swallow.
They were so fresh, they cracked every time she took a bite out of them, and the sweet, earthy taste was better than chocolate.
One more, she thought as she finished her last quarter. Except when she got to the end of number two, she thought … how about another.
As she worked her way through her third, she thought back to the Council’s proclamation. Her motivation for trying to do something was such a no-brainer. Even though her mother’s racial identity was not her fault, she still felt responsible for bringing the shit cart to Wrath’s front door.
If she could only figure out a way around this …
On the Council’s side, things were evidently moving ahead. An official swearing in of that Ichan guy had been scheduled—and Rehv had found out because, like an idiot, the Council’s secretary had failed to take him off their blast e-mail list.
That was taking place at midnight.
She glanced over at the double ovens. The blue digital clock read four fifty-four. So they had nineteen hours.
What the hell could be done in nineteen hours?
Turning back to her stash, she—
The sound of the security system announcing the opening and closing of an exterior door was a surprise. Frowning, she went out by the pantry, pushed through one of the flap doors that the staff used …
Layla was coming out of the library, looking like she’d been in a car accident: Her hair was windblown, her face white as a sheet, her hands up to her cheeks.
“Layla,” Beth called over. “Are you okay?”
The Chosen jumped so high she had to put both arms out to keep steady. “Oh! Oh—ah, yes. Yes, I am. I’m fine, just fine, yes. Thank you.” The female abruptly frowned. “And yourself? Are you…”
So many ways to finish that for the female, given what was going on: Are you … suicidal? Are you … taking a break between wailing sessions? Are you … pregnant, too?
“Oh, yup, fine. Yeah, just fine. Yup.”
Two could play at the deflection game.
“Well, I’m just heading upstairs. To go to bed. To have a shower, and go to bed.” As Layla started taking off her parka, her smile was about as genuine as Courtney Stodden’s. “I’ll see you at … well, later. I’ll see you later. Bye. Bye for now!”
The Chosen took to that stairwell like she was being chased, even though there was no one behind her.
As Beth returned to the kitchen, she felt bad that she didn’t follow through on the female’s obvious distress, but the sad truth was, she had so much on her plate … there wasn’t room left for anyone else’s drama-burger with a side of brain-fry.
Back at the sink, she peeled another carrot. Cut it in half and turned it around to—
The solution came to her with such clarity, she nearly sliced the pad of her finger off.
Putting down the knife, she picked up the two halves … and held them together, finding the puzzle fit that made them seem as if they were one.
Then she deliberately separated them. Reunited them. Separated them.
In both incarnations … the halves were still carrot.
Throwing the pieces on the counter, she took off at a dead run.
It was a fat round hedge that saved them both.
As Xcor materialized in the front yard of his suburban abode, he had to take a moment to collect himself—even though the sun was threatening in the east.
Talk about close calls … he’d barely gotten Layla back in time. And even the now, he was not sure he had succeeded.
But he had done his best.
Once it had become obvious that she suffered the same disorientation as he in the mist, he had taken her hand and started her up the hill. He did not ask her for confirmation that the Brotherhood’s hidden compound was in fact at the top—for that information, he relied on the same principles that had constructed his far more appropriate lair back in the Old Country.
The higher the position, the more defensible it was.
Hustling her as fast as he could, he had ended up running them straight into a twenty-foot-tall stuccoed retaining wall—a very good sign that they were close to her homestead. The problem was, she’d been too turned about to dematerialize over the damn thing.
Confronted by the choice of right or left, he’d been well aware that upon his decision rested her safety.
On so many levels.
He’d been well aware that even if he could construct a suitable shelter for them, something capable of shielding them both from the sunlight all day long, her absence would be noted and questioned when she returned at the following sunset. How she would be able to present answers that would not complicate her life irreparably, he did not know.
He had picked to the right—on the theory that he wanted to do right by her, and therefore, that was the direction he would take.
When they’d found that well-trimmed, well-cared-for little bush … and then a number of its identical siblings, it was clear they were on the trail of the main house. He did not take her all the way. He went far enough to find the first planting bed, and then had released her hand and hissed at her to go—go fast.
He, too, was out of time.
Xcor had watched her hustle forth for only a moment, and then she was lost into the mist, not even the sounds of her footfalls reaching his ears anymore.
It was as if she had disappeared forever.
And as much as a part of him had been tempted to sit and let the sun take him, he had forced himself away, triangling downward until he had tripped over, quite literally, a ploughed drive.