****
Night had fallen when Forest finally returned home. She tried to force her mind to be coolly diplomatic, but she was terrified. As she reached her stone wall, she forced herself to focus on her physical state. She was freezing. It had stopped raining, but her clothes were still wet and clinging. Her heart clinched when she entered her garden. Syrus stood with his back to her, poking a stick into the fire. His shoulders stiffened when she approached, but he gave no other sign that he knew she was there.
Forest stood close to the fire, watching him over the top of the flames. His eyes were shut, and his face looked drawn. Forest could think of nothing to say. She felt embarrassed, stupid, and unprofessional. One of Syrus’ cheeks was pulled in, as if he chewed the inside of his mouth. The silence was ridiculously awkward and Forest was completely at a loss as to how to break it.
Syrus sighed, rolled his head, cracking his neck, and threw the stick he was holding into the fire. “I’ve always had the feeling that my parents hate each other.”
Forest’s breath came out in a whoosh, and she tried not to laugh in the cracking tension. It was amazing the amount of relief she felt that he had spoken first. “Oh?”
“Yes. It seems on the rare occasion that they do speak to each other, they are fighting, or else talking with such cold civility you would think they were addressing an enemy.”
“That must have been difficult for you as a child,” Forest said.
“When I was young, they fought about me all the time. Then as I grew up, they used me against each other. No matter what the topic was, I was the hinge on the door that they pushed back and forth.”
Forest was quiet for a moment. “Why are you telling me this?”
Syrus shrugged, but she knew he wasn’t just making idle chit chat. “I became a mage after the attack. It was the most wonderful moment of my life. It was even enough to please my mother. Any vampire that becomes a master has the chance at becoming a mage, though very few have the ability. When the transformation happened to me, well…the experience was nothing short of… spiritual. I thought it would be the only spiritual experience I would ever have. That was until a few hours ago.”
Forest panicked. “Syrus, don’t!”
“No, Forest. We have to talk about it.”
Panic pressed down on her lungs, and she found it hard to breathe. She would not, could not tell him about Leith. And if they talked about what had happened between them, she feared it would come up because Leith was a part of it. If Syrus had felt even a fraction of what she had, he would want to be lovers. She couldn’t be his lover. She was someone else’s property.
“I…not yet…not now, okay? I’m not ready. Give me some time, please. We’ll talk about anything else.”
Syrus raised one eyebrow. “Leith?”
“Damn it, Syrus! Anything else! Not what happened earlier and not Leith! Why would you even ask about him?”
“Because of the way you reacted the other night when I mentioned you knowing him.”
Violent emotions bubbled inside her, and she turned to retreat to the house again. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
Syrus moved quickly and caught her by both arms. “I just can’t.”
Whatever it was that had happened earlier had caused a shift in the gravity. She felt the pulsing of his blood through his hands as he gripped her arms, and it seemed the magnetism between them had doubled, tripled even. Why was fate doing this to her? Syrus was shaking slightly again as he eased back from her, and she sighed in relief when he let go and took a step away.
“Just tell me something.”
“What?” she asked cautiously.
“Just something I don’t know about you. Something true.”
“My eyes are green,” she said.
“I already know that. Redge told me.”
Forest thought for a moment. He had told her something personal, and he wanted something personal in return. “My father named me. As far as I know, he has only seen me once: on the day I was born. My mother said that he held me a long time and that we looked into each other’s eyes. When he gave me back, he said that my name should be Forest, because that was what he saw in my eyes.”
“When this is all over,” Syrus said quietly. “I shall look in them myself.” He reached and took her hand. “Get lost in them.”
He began to pull her to him, but she put her hand on his chest, stopping him. “Look, we can’t do this,” she said firmly.
“Why?”
Forest could feel her mind spluttering. “Because we, because…because we have to keep our minds clear for the journey ahead. This, whatever this is, is a distraction neither of us can afford.” She pulled her hand out of his. “Don’t touch me anymore,” she ordered roughly.
“Fine,” he said in a clipped tone. Then he smirked, catching her off guard. “Don’t touch me anymore.”
“No problem.” Forest could hear the acid in her voice and was relieved that she could still serve it up to him. “I’m going inside. I’m cold and tired.”
Syrus didn’t follow her immediately inside but took his time putting the fire out. Forest threw her damp clothes on the bathroom floor and put on fleece pajamas and thick socks. When she came back and picked up her pile of wet clothes, intending to put them in the laundry, her heart skipped a beat. Her cell phone! She pulled it out of the pocket of her wet pants. It was dead.
When Syrus came in the house, he could hear Forest cursing a blue streak from her room and the whirring of one of her electronics. He was half way to her door, going to ask her what was wrong, when something loud crashed inside, and he thought better of it.
Forest was in hysterics over her phone and trying to dry it out with her hairdryer. Desperation will sometimes cause people to do things they know are asinine, yet they cannot seem to stop themselves from doing them, hoping for a miracle. Forest put the phone down once it was dry and began pacing around her room. She had to calm down.
An hour later, Forest sat on her bed, the comforter littered with clothes, weapons, and first aid items. She had been considering what were the most important things to pack for their journey. She was throwing clothes around, looking for her favorite hoodie when her phone gurgled up a weak beep letting her know that she had in fact received a message. Forest was cradling her phone in both hands pressing buttons gently, trying to coax it to deliver the message it received while she had been underwater.
“Please. Please. Please,” she whispered.
The little screen told her the time in London, the weather in Boston, and a factoid about Mount Rushmore before informing her that she had an email from Kindel. Forest held her breath. Some of the message was lost but the words that mattered most popped up. “Leave before first light.”
Forest sighed and then laughed, relieved. Her phone wouldn’t be any more use to her on the trip. She tried to call, tried to email Kindel. The phone refused to play along. Well, she had been chosen for the job because she knew the Wood better than any other operative, she reminded herself. She would just have to do without any other help from Kindel. She jumped up to tell Syrus they would be leaving in a matter of hours.
Syrus’ door was shut. He was listening to Cake's version of Mahna Mahna loudly. She laughed to herself as she heard him singing along, before knocking. The music shut off.
“Come in.”
Syrus sat cross-legged on the floor, playing with a slinky.
“I just got word from Kindel. We need to leave before dawn. So, that gives us about five hours. You should think about getting some sleep.”
“Okay, Mom.”
“Well, I’m going to sleep once I finish packing. You need to do that too.”
“Hm. Yes. Do you have any more human clothes for me?” he asked.
“I’ll go down and find some.”
Forest was happy to find a new pullover that would fit Syrus, along with two other pairs of jeans and a few T-shirts. As she walked up the stairs, she remembered that they still had not fi
gured out their cover story if they were captured, or how to change Syrus’ hairstyle.
“Here,” she said tersely, dumping the clothes on his bed. “Fix your hair. I’m going to finish packing, and then I’m going to sleep. So, leave me alone.”
Syrus grunted in response as she shut the door behind her.
Chapter Nine