Altered

  “So,” I started quietly so as not to disturb the boys’ conversation. “What do you want your new name to be?”

  Clara jumped in. “You look like a Marguerite.”

  Everyone just ignored that.

  “I don’t know, really. I haven’t given it much thought.”

  “Who’s somebody that you look up to?” Soria asked.

  “My great grandmother. She died when I was ten, but I still remember her teaching me all the basics.”

  “Was there a nickname she called you?”

  The woman smiled. “Violet—because it was my favorite flower.”

  “Violet it is,” Soria announced, all proud of herself. “Finish your soup and I’ll get you some clean clothes and a shower and a bed for the night.”

  “I’m done,” she said and stood. She looked at Enoch and bit her lip. “Thanks again for saving me.”

  “Sure,” he said gruffly.

  Soria and Franz took her away and I turned in Enoch’s lap. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, too. I’m tired.”

  “All right,” he agreed without a fight and waved to everyone once as we left.

  He pulled his shirt off as soon as we were inside and kicked his boots off by the door. I stared at his back, at the muscles and scars and marks that living as long as he had had given him.

  “I’m going to change,” he called over his shoulder and grabbed some clothes from Eli’s room before going into the bathroom. I figured I had enough time to change if he was changing, so I kicked off my shoes, and then pulled my jeans off and my semi-wet shirt.

  I took a cami from the small pile Clara had given me and was putting it over my head when Enoch came out with dry clothes on. He was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. I was never going to see him in anything but jeans it seemed. That was a shame.

  “You’re not going to put on something more comfortable?” I asked as I finished pulling the cami down over my stomach.

  “You mean like you?” His voice had gone deep and taken that growly tone that I loved so much. His eyes looked at every inch of me.

  I turned to find something to put on. “I thought I had enough time to get dressed before you came out.”

  I heard the swoosh of him blurring across the room a second before he was wrapping his arms around my stomach. He pressed his mouth to my ear and didn’t whisper it, he growled it. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are, Fay?”

  “No,” I whispered.

  “How is that possible?” He kissed the side of my neck. “Put something on, sweetheart, because I want to kiss you all night.”

  I grabbed the first pair of shorts I saw and turned in his arms. He leaned down and captured my mouth, tilting my head back with his. His big hands grasped my sides through my cami and he groaned as he picked up on the way he was making me crazy right now. I had to admit that I didn’t foresee that ever getting old—being able to know, without a shadow of doubt that I was attracted to him, and vice versa. Wow, that was an amazing relationship tool. I grinned into our kiss and leaned up on my tiptoes to reach more of him.

  His hand, so warm it was ridiculous, crept under the back of my shirt and pressed into my back while the other one gripped my hip and then went lower to my thigh and under my behind. He pulled back and licked his bottom lip. “You gotta put something on, sweetheart,” he groaned. “I can’t wait to leave here. We’ll get our own place when we get to Colorado.”

  “We will?” I asked coyly.

  “Yes,” he barked playfully. “Don’t even pretend like you don’t want to stay with me.”

  “Colorado?”

  “That’s where we’re going tomorrow night.” He sighed and chuckled as his hands flexed on my hip. “Go. Now. Before I stop being the good guy.”

  I shook my head and slipped under his arm. “You’ve been the good guy all along, Enoch.”

  I heard him groan behind me and the bed squeak as I went into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair out. I even put some coconut lip-gloss on. Then I washed up a bit and shaved my legs as fast as I could because I knew that tonight was far from over. I smiled at myself in the mirror. Somehow, I had gotten what I always wanted. Someone who wanted me for me and didn’t want anyone else.

  I put the little cut off sweatpants on right before I walked out last and saw Enoch lying on the bed. His feet were dangling off the edge and I bit my lip at how sexy he was with his bare feet and his jeans. The trailer was dark, so he must have turned the lights off. In the small bit of light from the window I saw Enoch’s face. He was looking at me, his eyes open wide, but he just lay there. It was a strange pose and a strange look on his face.

  Something automatically struck me in my gut as wrong. His eyes begged me to run. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I squinted and stopped where I was, looking around, completely silent. From the light in the window I saw it. There was a fog coming from the window. I looked outside and saw it everywhere. It travelled to every cabin and tent and spread out to every nook and crevice. It sought us out. I turned to it and it was coming toward me from Enoch through the kitchen. I knew I couldn’t outrun it.

  Enoch’s eyes were wide. I knew there must be something in the fog that did something to you. Enoch wouldn’t just lay there otherwise. So I did the only thing that I was trained to do.

  I held my breath.

  I shut my eyes tight and covered my ears and nose, crouched down, leaning down against the refrigerator with my back, and I held my breath with everything I had. The fog spread out through the house.

  I waited and waited when finally, I had to see what was going on. At first I kicked myself, thinking I should have gone into the bathroom, but I saw the white fog as it spread through one vent in the ceiling and came out another. My lungs burned and ached.

  I remembered when Enoch pulled me into the river and how he saved me by kissing me and giving me his breath. I wish I had his breath to save me now. He must not have seen the fog or not worried about it and breathed it in.

  I looked at him and used his face to give me strength since I couldn’t have his breath. He knew exactly what I was doing. I could see it on his face. He looked so proud and I didn’t know why. I squeezed my eyes for a second and tried to clear my head. The fog was dissipating. I had to hold out. I fisted my hands on my knees and shook my head, refusing to give up yet. I could do this. I was trained for it. My head and heart were pounding so hard they hurt and my chest began to shake. I knew my body was going to start turning on me to protect itself soon. I looked at Enoch again and focused on him, on his purple eyes, and tried to stay calm for as long as I could. My chest ached. His eyes told me I was doing good. My lungs burned. I knew he was so angry, but he didn’t look around—he looked right at me because he knew I needed him right then.

  And then my lungs would hold out no more.

  I released my air and sucked in air, praying it wasn’t tainted with whatever magic was creeping over the camp. I waited as I coughed for just a few seconds and when I felt that I was fine, I rushed to Enoch. I hovered over him on the bed and saw that he could move his neck and fingers a little, but not much else. So he could have looked around if he wanted, but he chose to look at me because I needed him. I kissed him and it didn’t hurt me a bit that he barely kissed me back. I knew he wanted to.

  “Enoch,” I whispered as I pulled back and cupped his cheek. “Are you okay?” I cursed. “I know you can’t answer.” I got up and went to look out the sliding glass doors. “There’s no one out there. No one,” I told him. “They must have all been affected by the fog.” I sighed. “Eli and Clara didn’t make it back.” I covered my mouth and tried not to start thinking about what that could mean.

  Enoch grunted. I looked back at him. He grunted again. I scoffed. “What? Stop being a baby?”

  He made a kind of scoff noise and I tried to smile for him. I looked back out the door and gasped. “Enoch! That lying witch,” I sneered. He knew exactly what I was talking about because
he growled.

  I shifted to the side so they couldn’t see me and watched as Violet and two men I had never seen came out of Franz and Soria’s tent. They started headed that way. “Oh, no.”

  I knew hiding was going to be useless. If they found me, they’d kill me. Besides—I refused to leave Enoch. I crawled up on the couch bed with him and faced him. He looked so worried and pissed off.

  “It’s all right, baby.” He sighed at that and closed his eyes for a second. “I’ve got everything under control. I promise. I was in the military, remember?”

  I took a couple calming breaths before leaning forward and kissing Enoch’s bottom lip hard. “I just want to say that…I’m so in like with you.”

  He managed a small groan and his tongue barely touched his lip, but I got the message. His eyes held so much affection. I just looked at him, waited for the door to open, and tried not to show any real reaction.

  When I heard the door open, I stayed perfectly still. “Two more in here,” she called. “Ooh, it’s the yummy one.” She crawled up on his lap and straddled him. “Too bad you had to take up with this lot.” She looked over at me with disgust. “And this human. We could have had some fun.”

  “He’s not a witch or warlock,” one of the guys she was with told her as he looked through Eli and Clara’s things. “You’d be a hypocrite if you hooked up with him.”

  She leaned down to Enoch’s face, her chest pressed to his. “Don’t spout your hypocrite crap to me, Luscious. You have hooked up with almost every species there is.”

  “Yes,” he said and I could hear his grin, “but I didn’t try to make them my mate. You can’t get all sappy about it.”

  She cocked her head as she looked at Enoch. She looked over at me and smiled. “I know you can see me. And you can’t move. That’s got to be awful, and knowing that you let me come in here in the first place.” She tsked me and watched me all the while as she leaned down and pressed her chest closer to Enoch. “You may not like it, but I bet he does.” She grinned and turned to face him. “Gah, if I could have gotten one night with you, I wouldn’t have wasted it.”

  When she leaned down to kiss him, I didn’t know how I stayed still. I gritted my teeth and had to watch because I was facing that way. I watched as she pressed her lips to his. He was perfectly still, unable to move. She held his face and looked like she enjoyed pretending that he enjoyed it. She bit her lip and laughed a little to herself. “He’s coming out of it a little bit already.”

  “How can you tell?” the guy asked her as he took something out of his backpack that I couldn’t see.

  She grinned. “He’s fighting me.”

  That one statement made me infinitely happy.

  “Let’s go then.”

  She kissed him again and smiled down at him. “Bye, lover.”

  She climbed off and stood next to the man. “Is the Horde ready?”

  “Yep,” he answered and I could hear him straining for something. “As soon as we give them the signal, they’ll come running.”

  She scoffed. “This was just too easy.”

  “They’re just too trusting,” he corrected. “One story about a dying mate and a poor little vexed witch and they welcome you right in. Stupid rebels. They deserve to die, every last one of them.”

  “And they will,” she said and pushed him out the door. “Come on. Let’s meet them at the community center and end this.”

  When she left, I sat up, expecting Enoch to be able to, too, but he couldn’t. He could make his fingers move and his face could move a little more. He was so angry, that I could see, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

  “I know,” I soothed and smoothed his cheek.

  I laced his fingers with mine and put our hands on his stomach. His fingers squeezed mine. I looked at him and he tried to tug me down to him. “I can’t. You heard what they said. They’re planning something. They’re going to kill everyone.”

  His eyes flashed and his lips parted.

  “No,” he said in a barely-there rasp.

  “Enoch,” I reasoned. “If I’m going to die anyway, I may as well die trying to save everyone. I heard them say the where and the when. I can try and—”

  “Fay, no,” he begged in a whisper, his eyes squinting, showing all the emotion that his body couldn’t.

  “I have to try. I have to.”

  He closed his eyes, knowing he’d lost. “Stay here with me.”

  “If I stay here, I die anyway.” I cupped his beautiful face and smoothed my thumb over his lips. “I am so glad you saved me that day.”

  “Don’t,” he said hard. “Don’t…say goodbye.”

  I didn’t listen. I needed to say it. I smiled. “I’m so glad that you called me princess and danced with me. You made me feel like I was the only person the whole world.”

  He groaned as he tried to say something. “You…are.”

  I smiled and tried not to cry, but failed. “I am so in like with you.”

  His face twisted. “Don’t do this, princess.”

  I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to his. I could tell he was able to move better this time. His lips caressed mine angrily and lovingly. I held on as long as I could, but I knew I had to go. As soon as I lifted, he pleaded in a growl. “Don’t.”

  “I have to.”

  He was breathing heavy which just told me he was angry, because he didn’t need to breathe. The blue veins were starting to peak and shimmer in his arms.

  “I’ll be careful,” I promised as I put my shoes on.

  He snarled as best he could, “You better.” What else could he say when it was obvious that I was leaving and he had no choice.

  I peeked out and didn’t see anyone. I grabbed a knife from the knife block, opened the sliding glass door, and stepped outside.

  “Fay.” I looked back. “Stay calm. Devourers can feel you.”

  I nodded.

  “Okay.” Although I knew that was a pointless venture because I was scared out of my mind.

  “Deep breath,” he urged in a husky voice that was coming back, “in and out. Think of something that makes you smile automatically whenever you’re scared.”

  I smiled. “That won’t be hard at all.” I closed the glass door slowly and silently, and kissed my fingers before pressing them to the glass. He closed his eyes, as if in agony, so I ran.

  I crept to the side of the trailer first and looked around. I didn’t see them anywhere, but I didn’t see anybody else either. She had said they were meeting the Horde at the community center, so I went there first.

  I passed Franz and Soria’s tent on the way. I peeked in to check on them because I had seen the witch and the men in there. They were laying down on the blanket together. I leaned over them and could tell they both were shocked to see me.

  “I’m sorry. I hate to leave you like this, but I’m going to the community center. They’re planning some sort of attack tonight and they’re going to kill everybody. I’m the only one awake that I know of. Enoch was waking up a little bit when I left him so you should be, too, soon.”

  Franz grunted when I tried to leave. “I can’t stay,” I told him. “They are planning something and I’ve got to see if I can stop it.”

  I didn’t wait for anything else, I just looked outside and then took off toward the center. I checked in on Aries and Regina when I passed their place, but it was pretty much the same thing. Enoch was further along than they were, but I think that was sheer will more than anything else.

  When I reached the community center, there were a few more men inside than I had seen before. The witch was there, too. She was the only female I saw though. I hid by the window and listened as they talked about when the ‘detonation’ would happen. My breath caught in my throat, but I breathed just like Enoch told me—in and out, slow and steady.

  What were they talking about?

  My first instinct was to run back and drag Enoch out of the house into the woods so I knew he was safe, but I knew
that I couldn't do that. I would be damning everyone else, and could I live with myself if everyone else died?

  I peeked back through the window. If there was a detonation going to happen, then they had to have planted something, and there had to be a device they were using to set the explosives off with. I crept around to the corner side of the building when they started coming out. Some of them had backpacks and I knew that’s what they carried the explosives in. I remembered the guy rummaging around in Clara and Eli house and then his backpack.

  I gripped my chest knowing that he’d put one of those in their house...where Enoch was. My insides warred with me, my heart pumped so hard it hurt in my chest. Go save Enoch or do this now and save them all. I couldn’t not save my sister...

  “We should have started using human devices a long time ago,” one of them scoffed and I heard something bang near the window I had just vacated. “We would have won this war already and—”

  I heard someone get slammed against the wall and barely kept my squeak silent. I looked over and could see their shoes on the corner of the building, not three feet from me. Someone was making gagging noises, like he was begin choked.

  “Don’t ever say you’re happy we’re using those feelers and their inventions for the cause. The only reason we are is because Byron is scared. Being scared isn't a reason to turn to the very thing we hate them for.” He let the other man go and leaned away from him. “We hate them for mating with the humans so we go and use human weapons on them to end this war? No. We should do this our way. Take them out the good old fashioned way, but no, he wants to be a pus—”

  “Marco,” someone boomed and everyone got quiet. “Do you have something to say to me?”

  The man sighed with a little growl on the end. “No, Byron.”

  “I am the leader of the Horde now. If you have a problem about the way things are being run, you come to me. If they want to shack up with humans, then they can die by human weapons.” He chuckled. "I think it’s very fitting. And no one suspects the Horde to be using guns and bombs. They won't even think the Horde is involved.”