Wren had to throw the breaks
on these
shenanigans. “I haven’t attached myself to anyone and I’m not going to.” Wren
denied.
Ethan put his arm around Wren, moving his body between her
and Izzy.
“Watcher, there’s nothing for you to report.”
Izzy stood her hands on her hips in front of Ethan. Wren felt
Caleb’s psychic presence. His energy permeated the room, the air crackled with
brittle tension. Izzy met her brother toe to toe, her eyes reflecting his same
aggressive wildness.
He asked. “What do you want with her?” His tone communicated
that Izzy should start explaining.
“I have kept the rogue from her and protected her, hoping for
a way to figure out her heritage. There is no record of her grandmother here
prior to thirty years ago. Maxwell, the chairman, prohibited me from doing more.”
She spat the words like verbalizing her censure left a bad taste in her mouth.
“I couldn’t determine what she was. He counseled me for interfering and said I
should be more about our business of integrating those who’ve escaped and
hiding them from you.”
“You’ve been digging into my family history. Izzy, I thought
you were my friend. Now you’re telling me you’ve only acted that way to keep an
eye on me, spy on me and what,
control
me?” Mention of
Wren’s grandmother reminded her of just how alone in the world she was. Wren
clung to Ethan, not believing Izzy could betray her this way.
“Sit, eat your pizza.” Izzy pointed to the unopened box on
the table.
Ethan nodded and released her. Wren pulled out a chair across
from Izzy and sat. Her stomach protested any thoughts of putting food in it.
Caleb and Ethan pulled out chairs flanking the other ends of the table.
Izzy continued. “I am your friend, more than you know. I
don’t have the gift my ornery brothers do but I know you are important to our
people. I’ve tried to keep you safe while I’ve poured through every book in the
Watcher library I can find, trying to figure out just how it all fits together
and who you are.”
“Who I am?
I’m no one special, just
a girl trying to make something out of the inheritance of her grandmother’s
business. I work, I think about work. I always follow my Gram’s advice to wear
clean underwear when I go out.
“God forbid there might be a hole in them or a stain and I
get hit by a car. I won’t even take lead on a project for the Chamber of
Commerce. I rarely watch TV or keep up with current events. I even enjoy
reading navel contemplating literary fiction. I lead a boring invisible life
and I like it.
“Why would you think I’m important to your people? And even
more, why would anything about me be in books from your… country?” Wren set
aside the strange feeling that Izzy might not be her friend at all but just
someone who’d violated her privacy. Curiosity to understand what Izzy was
talking about imposed.
“You draw our people to you, somehow. Your necklace is old
and I believe it a relic of our culture.”
Wren touched her throat; she had no idea what Izzy meant.
“This is only an heirloom from my grandmother.”
Izzy glanced between the two brothers. “We must tell her.”
“You would have us reveal ourselves for wishful hopes and
half known truths.” Caleb said
,
more statement than
question as he leaned into his hands, fingers spread on the table.
Izzy looked at her own hands while she twisted a napkin to
channel her agitation and whispered, sounding on the verge of tears. “Yet, our
people cry out in their need for strong leadership. When is the time to do
something besides idly stand by and watch our people destroyed by our mother
the tyrant?” Izzy demanded.
“Iz, I know you’ve suffered. We couldn’t save you. We could
barely save ourselves when the time came. That doesn’t mean we don’t love you.”
Wren saw her nod and
exhale
a shaky sigh. Wren wasn’t
sure what Ethan meant. They were Kings of their country and had left Izzy to
suffer at the hands of their mother, the current ruler?
Caleb added. “It doesn’t mean we didn’t want to either. Once
the Watchers got you out we decided to stay away.”
“I know. I was angry but I think I always knew that. Then
time passed and I didn’t know what to believe anymore. When will you make our
people accept you both as our destiny?”
Ethan spoke in an exacting way as if struggling with his
emotions. “It’s not yet time for our ascension. Goddess hasn’t seen fit to
announce that yet. Our people will also need a Queen. She who is on high has
not revealed that either.”
Izzy dropped her shoulder in defeat, hands clasping the back
of the chair in front of her before turning to look thoughtfully at Wren.
Wren felt sick, the cream latte didn’t seem to be sitting too
well in her stomach. “Izzy, we’ve been friends for a couple years, are you
telling me…what are you telling me?”
Izzy sat down at the table. “In our…country, the rule of
lineage is that the crown passes through the matriarchal line to the eldest
born. If that issue is female, like our mother was, the line flows directly to
her. We’ve had multiple generations of first born females.
“I think they had to look up the rule when Ethan and Caleb
were born. If the offspring is male,” She looked from Wren to her two brothers.
“…then it diverts to his bonded mate. Bonded is a term for the Goddess’
sanction of a joining and a little known qualification that’s been subtly
eroded from our history by our current Queen.
“The research I’ve done revealed the process wherein the
Goddess recognizes mated couples. So many years have passed since she’s done
so, the knowledge has faded or more likely been purposely obscured. Bonding
increases power and I don’t think our current Queen wants citizens to realize
that. Especially since that kind of power isn’t in her reach.”
“What has any of this got to do with me?”
Wren watched Izzy pause. She looked at Wren with an
unreadable expression.
“Perhaps you are the destiny.” Izzy’s voice frightened Wren.
“What are you saying? You think I’m destined to be your
country’s Queen?” Shock and disbelief went to war with the former sense of
violation Wren had been grappling with.
Izzy checked off on her fingers as she listed reasons. “Our
people are drawn to you. You have no idea the number of your customers who are
refugee’s from our world, er country. These two, the prince heirs to the throne
arrived here this morning. You tell me you hear their thoughts and they hear
yours.
“You have an almost irresistible attraction to each other.
You’ve clothed them and are about to feed, both symbolic acts but significant
none the less. Granted, a polyamorous union is somewhat unusual…” she smiled
“But, my brothers are anything but typical. The only thing missing is a merging
of mind memories in claiming and a blood exchange between the three of you and
then marks for confirmation. If
your
mating is
recognized you become the current Queen’s heir. They are the Mane’tung. You’ll
have to organize a staff for advisors. . .”
The conversation had taken a turn for weirdness.
Joining of minds, exchange of blood? What
kind of people did stuff like that?
Isobeau stopped, noticing both her brothers staring intently
across the table at Wren.
“What? You two didn’t know? It seems like you’d have at least
studied up on the subject of your path toward the throne.”
Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re the one
sitting on the Watcher’s library. We’re not much welcomed there or able to
research at home. You might have given us a heads up for what we were dealing
with here. We’re freaks remember. We’re here to enforce the barrier between our
worlds, and to identify and return citizens who’d immigrated without
authority.”
Caleb watched Wren for her reaction to what he was saying.
She guarded herself and fought to not show him any response. “Once they‘re back
in Wyrmarach they are basically sold into slavery. We refuse to participate in
the skin trade so we’ve been identifying and keeping track of them ourselves
from this side. We’ve only returned those that we’ve identified as disruptive
to the peace of the colonies or a threat to local citizens.”
Izzy interrupted. “I was told that you profited from
returning people…like me…back to Wyrmarach. The Watchers made you out to be the
enemy.” Wren wasn’t sure what Izzy had started to say before she substituted
like me
.
Caleb couldn’t hide the sadness in his voice. “Yeah everyone
needs a boogie man. As Enforcers, we’re the only candidate they’ve got. If they
only knew the extent of the bad out there, we’ve come across the worst of the
worst. Actually our goals and those of the Watchers aren’t that different.”
A question jumped to Wren’s lips before she could stop it.
“Why are you working as the glorified border patrol if you’re Royal in your
country?”
Ethan spoke up to
answer her. “We have different views than the reigning Queen. We are considered
somewhat of an oddity. For now you’ll have to take our word for that. Our twin
birth is unusual enough. It’s not customary for both twins to survive.”
He looked away as if there was more he wasn’t saying. “Then,
for us to be male was out of pattern. As we grew we discovered our people
aren’t able to harness their psi-energy like Caleb and I do. We were assigned
here to exile by the Queen.”
Then she remembered the blood.
“What’s this about a blood swap?”
Caleb tried. “You heard what Izzy said. A blood exchange is a
typical part of the bonding evidently, perhaps ceremonial.”
Ethan interrupted. “Our skin absorbed her blood earlier like
an industrial sponge.”
Wren was unable to focus on Izzy but thought she might be
smiling and nodding. Wren threw her hands up between them warding off their
words, fighting for how she could call a halt to the crazy talk,
their skin absorbed her blood
. There was
a distinct possibility Wren was on the verge of a panic attack. Her heart
pounded in her chest with an aching boom.
Caleb tried to soothe her. “When your blood soaked into our
skin it wasn’t in the usual order of events, the result is unpredictable.
Getting your blood on us, apparently forced Ethan and
I
to begin the process… without you. It wouldn’t have happened with just anyone
who bled on us. You must have been foreordained as a potential mate by the
Goddess. You have a choice. Think of it as a possible destiny.”
The look Izzy gave him clearly disagreed. She started to say
something but Ethan cut her off with a twitch of his fingers. So they weren’t
being totally honest here.
“So you’re like doing this bonding thing with me while I’m
not?”
Ethan clarified. “We don’t even know all the appropriate
steps or what to expect other than what Izzy just told us. We are apparently
stuck somewhere in the beginning. Like she said
,
there
hasn’t been a Goddess honored mating in many years. You may pick up some of the
over flow of psi-energy from us in the process, kind of an empathetic
reaction.”
He shrugged. “We should’ve done a claiming with the full
mental merge, then a blood exchange which would be followed by transformation.
We’ve accidently had a one sided blood exchange. I know this sounds pretty strange
to you. Our customs are somewhat peculiar. Obviously we need to do some
research.”
Wren had often felt out of step with the world. She heard the
same longing to be accepted from the guys. It tweaked her heart a little that
they might have found that acceptance together.
Yet, reality intruded with a slap to her logic. She’d never
heard of their country and certainly never a place where psychics ruled the
government and couples merged together mentally. Their country benefitted from
human trafficking. A practice she could never accept. At least they agreed on
that.
“Wren, I am your friend and I do care about you.”
She couldn’t control the curt nod she gave Izzy.
“There’s so much we don’t know. Information has been lost or
hidden. Wren hasn’t had the benefit of being raised in Wyrmarach. I’m not
totally sure how they will accept her.”
Wren wanted to shout,
yeah
what she said
. Wren didn’t want to be in charge of anything, much less a
whole society that expected her to be a strong, no nonsense person.
She often didn’t balance her personal check book. Was it
really so bad to start over with the balance the bank gave you every few
months? She couldn’t even get her laundry put away. Her own store was months
from bankruptcy. This destiny thing was a trip she didn’t deserve, didn’t want
and wasn’t ready for.
Ethan’s nod held measured compassion and understanding.
“If she is human.
She would not be anyone’s first choice.”
Ethan looked from Wren to his sister.
Not
be
anyone’s first choice? Whoa.
The words burst from her in an explosion. “I’m
not too enthusiastic about this whole weird sci fi drama at the moment either
Mr. no-first-choice. And, and, well, we had sex once. Don’t I get a say in any
of this? I’m not interested in being Queen, or this whole bonding business you
keep yacking on about.”
“I don’t even know you people? How could your skin absorb my
blood?
And as for your human crack?
Of course I’m
human. What’s the option, Vampires?
aliens
from
another dimension?
Imperial Storm Troopers?
Did you
come here from outer space looking for woman?”
This got a whole lot weirder when they said they weren’t
human. “So, if you’re not human what are you then?” she peppered the questions
like arrows because if she stopped talking she’d probably scream. She couldn’t
breathe.