Chapter 13

Match

      

       We stepped through the portal, and onto a pristine looking beach, the air shimmering still behind us as we stood.  I threw myself down, letting the wet silky sand pool under me as the tide came in and lapped around me.  I was in cut off shorts and an old tee shirt, not caring for one second if they got ruined.  I looked up to find Mave, West, and Logan hiding their smiles as they stared down at me.

       "I just need a minute and then we can make our way to the house," I said closing my eyes and squishing the sand in my fingers and toes.  I just wanted to savor the moment, the complete peace of knowing there was no one on this island but me and my three companions, and the natural world around us.  It soothed my magic in a way that was hard to describe, it was like a sedative to my shaken soul.  I took a deep breath and then stood up, feeling a slight chill from my soaking wet clothes, heavy laden with damp sand. 

       "Turn around for a second," I asked sweetly when I realized I didn't want to spend the next mile with my skin chafed off from my clothes.  The sun was high and hot, beating down on us without mercy.  I snapped my fingers, replacing my clothes with the one swimsuit that I had bought on my trip down to the airport.  It was a bright coral color, plain and small for a bikini but I couldn't resist it when I saw it. 

       "This way!" I called out as I turned, making my way down the beach for Miguel's house that was just around the bend.  I didn't hear anyone behind me and I was forced to turn around to see what has holding them up.  Mave and Logan were smiling at me, but also looking to West who seemed to be stuck in the sand a little ways behind them.  I threw on my best coy smile and beckoned them with my hand to keep up.  I send a little whip of energy out and it caught all three of them on their behinds, prodding them forwards suddenly.

       "Come on West, get it together," I heard Logan hiss as they all finally made their way towards me.  I tried to stifle the giggle that was rising in my throat when I heard him.

       "It's not too far away, hopefully he stocked the house otherwise I'll have to try and make it to the mainland to get supplies."  I was debating if I could figure out how to drive the boat, I had never done it before.

       "Where are we by the way?" Logan asked, jogging to catch up to where I was walking.

       "Indonesia," I said smiling, knowing it wasn't where he was suspecting.  "There's a story that comes along with the island if you want to hear it?" I asked them, finding eager faces greeting me in return.  I didn't want to spoil the story by warning them that it was a bit less of fairy tale then I thought they were expecting, so I just continued on.  I found West had caught up and was walking along side me, and he reached out to hold my hand.  I staggered a little in the sand, trying to figure out at first what he was doing.  West noticed my hesitation, but held firm, and I decided to just let it go.  I wanted to take his lead for a while, interested in seeing where he would take it.

       "Miguel is very old, so old that I have a hard time reading him sometimes, that's what makes playing him in poker so interesting.  Anyways, a long time ago, some have said as early as the sixteenth century, he was living as a lord in Spain.  During this time he employed many maids in his stately manor house, and one of them was a young woman named Camila.  Miguel says she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his existence, and he sought to win her hand.  The only difficult part of the equation was that he was married, to a vampire.  A particularly nasty and vicious vampire."  I paused and was promptly interrupted.

       "And you think Miguel is what again?" West asked.

       "I think he is most likely some kind of water fairy, but he could also be one of the original merman for all I know.  He never lives too far from the water, so I can narrow it down to a bit, but I have never seen his true form so I can't be sure.  It could be a combination of things, many that live in the water tend to inter-breed with one another."  I could see him nod next to me, and I continued on.

       "Camila, as it turned out was also married, which further complicated things, especially when you consider the time in which they were in.  Divorce as well as adultery were strictly forbidden and punishable by death in certain circumstances.  Regardless of the dangers, they eventually succumbed to the mutual infatuation they had with one another, and began an affair.  Miguel had decided that it was best they keep it secret until he could find a way to break it to his wife and to her husband.  The otherworld community was not as wide spanning as it is now, modern ways of connecting each other and our communities didn't exist then, and as such he didn't have much support in making his decision."

       "Let me guess," Mave interjected, a playful gleam in his eye.  "He killed the husband and his wife, and fled with her to this island, loving her until the day she dies, and her human spirit now haunts these very beaches, looking for her love," he ended with a dramatic wail, flailing his arms around like a dying fish.  I laughed, but not for the reason he was thinking.

       "Oh no, that would be far too tame Mave.  No, they managed to keep up the affair for a good few years before anyone started to catch on to what they were doing, but in the end it was her husband who discovered the infidelity.  He, completely oblivious to the existence of vampires, approached Miguel's wife and exposed what they were doing, in an attempt to get revenge he suggested they strike up an affair.  Miguel's vampire bride found this proposal intriguing, but in the end she was too eager for blood.  She killed him, framing Camila in the process figuring she could kill two birds.  When Miguel found out what his wife had done, it was too late.  They had hung Camila that very morning, her swinging body was still in his backyard collecting flies and festering in the afternoon sun."  The guys had stopped with the teasing, looking horrified at the turn in the story.

       "So he killed his wife then?" Mave bravely asked, I smiled, my cue to deliver the blow.

       "No, he did far worse, for he truly loved Camila.  He had a witch place a specific spell on her, binding her to this very island that is named after his mistress, the woman she killed.  She lives in the main house, bound as a servant to whomever stays.  She can never leave, she can never escape, and she can't be killed."  West's hand tightened in my own, and I tried to squeeze it back in reassurance.

       "This is common poker talk?" Logan asked.  I had to laugh, I wish it I had learned this that way.

       "My father told me that story, when I first told him I like a boy. He told me that to caution me against love, explaining that infatuation was the most dangerous emotion of all.  More than anger or hate, it what we do for love that puts us in the most danger," I told them, releasing West's hand on instinct.  He let it go, but didn't make a move to leave my side.  We walked the rest of the way in silence, and about five minutes later I could see the house clearly. 

       It was a light green beach house, far too grand to really be called such, but I went with it anyway.  My father had taken me here for a business meeting he had with Miguel's brother when I was ten, and I had loved it on site.  We only stayed two days, but I had never seen the ocean before and it majesty was like birdsong to my ears.  I spent the whole two days lying in the sand and playing in the water, it was the first break from my father's training I had ever had, the only vacation he had ever taken me on.  If I had to admit it to myself, it was the main reason I had gone to the game the other night.  I knew Miguel would get desperate and offer the island up, all I had to do was outplay him.

       "And Camila is still there?" Logan asked, looking a little hesitant at the thought.

       "Yeah, but she keeps to herself," I said dismissively, trying to reassure them.  The three of them gave me a look that clearly stated they didn't believe me, but to their credit they kept on marching.

       ***

    

       "There are five bedroom, two down here and three upstairs.  I stayed in the basement the one time I was here, so I don't know which ones are better than the others.  Feel free to pick, I could care less where I end up," I told them as we dropped our bags into the living room.

       "Why did you stay in the basement?" West asked, looking around as I found myself doing as well, amazed at the opulence of the house.  It really was over the top, and it was updated very nicely since the last time I was here.  I shrugged my answer out to West, not sure of the reason.

       "I did what I was told, I never thought to ask," I told them, realizing it was true. 

       "Were you scared of him?" he asked me softly, even though Mave and Logan were walking around I could tell they were listening.

       "Yes and no, it was more of an ingrained response from me.  He told me what to do and I did it, looking back, it was a slow kind of control.  One that he built up over time, cautious of who he let into my world to prevent me from straying or questioning what he was telling me.  It was the most devastating kind of mind control, most of it still lingers in me, his voice refusing to leave me be," I told them, hearing the voice in my head at that very moment, yelling at me to stop talking.

       "I can't imagine that," West said, looking over to the large bookshelf that was inset into the wall of the living room.

       "I'm glad you can't," I said softly to him as I walked into the kitchen, ready for a drink.  I passed the island, and started rooting through the high cabinets for a respite.  I didn't find anything, but I had a feeling the bar was still in the basement, if I remembered things correctly.  "You have two parents who care about you, and friends to back you up.  Maybe things would have been different for me if I had what you did," I continued on, sitting on the plush arm chair and rubbing my head.  It still ached a little.

       "I thought you said you had JP?" Mave asked, and was promptly hit from behind for the comment.

       "I don't know if I ever had JP, but for a time I thought he was there for me," I explained as best I could.

       "I knew he was part of crew to raid your complex, but I don't think many knew that he was undercover for so long.  No one at school knows that," West said, turning to face me.

       "So you were close then?" Mave asked, looking a little confused.

       "It's okay," I said holding a hand up to Logan who looked ready to hit him again, West didn't move from his position by the books but his eyes never left mine.  He looked about ready to apologize for telling them what I said, but he didn't need to.  I found I didn't mind. 

       "JP was undercover, so I struggle with what was real, I was very young when he joined us up in Canada.  At first he was just a stranger, another person I would see come and go.  We were travelling a lot back then, never really hitching the trailer for more than a few weeks at a time. 

       "When it became clear he would be joining us for a bit longer, and his presence was gathering attention, I made a move to see what the fuss was about.  I got to know him, and we developed a friendship of sorts, if you can call it that.  I think it was more than a year before I said a word to him, and he to me.  I'm not sure what his main motivation was in finally making a connection to me, it seemed like the governance that set him up there wasn't aware that I was ever born.  He said it was a shock to see me there, he hadn't been briefed about me and he didn't know what to do.

        "Unfortunately, it was around the same time my father was starting to go off the rails more, his most recent wife had just left him and it snapped something in him I think.  Anyways, Remy started to keep me by his side more often, and JP and I had little time to talk, but he always made an effort to spend time with me.  He taught me to fish, and he let me help him out with projects sometimes.  My adolescent brain assumed he was interested in me, and I gradually fell in love with him, it was a slow kind of affection born from time alone.  I didn't have anyone to ask about that kind of thing, and as my father got suspicious of me spending time with anyone he isolated me more and more from everyone," I explained.

       "You don't have to tell us any more if you don't want to," West said, he was looking at me where I was sitting with a look of pity on his face.

       "I don't have anything to lose by sharing," I said shrugging.  I had a story to tell, and there were lessons to be learned.  Before they heard all the rumors of everything I wanted someone to know the truth.  "JP somehow gained my father's trust, and he spent the next several years becoming my father's third.  His second is a friend he has known since infancy, Brooks Renfro, but everyone calls him Ren.  Ren never trusted JP, mainly because he was threatening to his position, and it caused a fraction in our community for a while.  I think Remy loved JP, I think he saw in him an opportunity to relive his youth again, to redo parts of his life he feels he never took advantage of.  That's when he let JP in, and we started to really become friends."  I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment to remember what happened next.

       "I never suspected he was a spy, I am very, very, good at reading people but I never saw that coming.  That was the moment I could see my father's warnings coming true, I liked JP so much I never saw what was really going on.  The last couple of months before the raid, he was acting really squirrely.  I think he was trying to warn me about things, he would say things I just didn't understand at the time, but I pieced together later."

       "Your father never suspected him?" West asked, I just noticed he was sitting on the ottoman next to the chair, close enough to touch me.

       "Never, not until I caught JP talking with his handler one late night.  Remy was going to have me do some drills in the dark the next night, and I wanted to practice to get it right so I could spend some time with JP after.  I heard him talking about things I didn't get, but I could tell something wasn't right.  I came right up on them talking in the woods, and I only needed to take one look at his face to guess what was happening.  I remember the feeling of complete stillness, like everything had stopped all at once for me.  I hate to admit I don't think I had ever had a friend really until him, I never loved anyone before, even a small part of my brain knew what Remy was doing with me was wrong.  But JP, he was everything to me.  When I came to the understanding that it wasn't like that for him, I lost it, my carefully constructed sanity cracked that night in the woods.  It's like in those paranormal romance books when the human's realize everything isn't what they thought it was," I said, still feeling the despair of that night creep into my bones.

       "Then what happened?" Logan asked softly, eyes bunched up with tense anticipation.

       "I didn't run, I didn't attack him, though I wanted to, I just stared at him and did the one thing I vowed to never do to him.  I entered his mind.  I knew it was wrong, and even then I was strong enough to accomplish it with little effort.  I got to the parts I needed, speed watching the important moments while he remained frozen to the ground.  It was the first time I knew that my father really wasn't right in the head.  Seeing him through someone else's eyes was disturbing, and part of me was beginning to recognize that Remy was going to kill me one day.  Intentionally or not, he was going to snap and I was going to be on the receiving end of his anger.  I slipped out of his head, and threw myself at his mercy for lack of a better analogy.  I needed him, something he held I believed would fix things, heal me.  I saw he cared for me, I saw that he struggled with who I was, what I could be as much as what he feared I could be.  He kissed me briefly, then pushed me away, telling me he could never be with me.  I was devastated," I said, feeling the brush of West's fingertips graze my leg.

       "And then what?" West asked, a hard jaw outlining his features.

       "Then he told me he was leaving, I never asked him who he was working for, I assumed it was for another group not the governance.  I begged him to take me with him, I begged him to stay, I begged him not to leave me.  It was pathetic on my part, I should have known that mixed in with the affection he felt for me, was disgust and fear.  I should have seen it then, I look so much like my father, you have never seen him in person but we look exactly the same.  He couldn't separate us enough, and when it came time to leave, he left me behind," I told them, voice nice and steady in contrast to my hands, which were shaking.

       "What about your face?" Logan asked, knowing that was the same night.

       "Remy caught me out, and I made a choice in that second to conceal what happened with JP.  That simple choice saved me from being locked up along with the rest of them, I saved that whole team that came in to raid, and without my protecting JP, Remy would have wiped them all off the face of the earth. 

       "In return for my silence, Remy took me to a back trailer we used for guests and training exercises and worked me over.  When morning came, and JP came up missing, he assumed I helped him leave.  That was when he did what he did, and my face came out like this," I said gesturing to my eye, not needing to go into detail on that count.

       "And JP was there with the raid, he came back after all that?" West asked, and if I were JP I would stay away from him for a while.  He looked ready to commit some violence on him.

       "Yes, he was the one that found me in the woods, with Ren on top of me and my father watching," I said, letting the rest hang in the air.  West promptly got up, threw a vase against the wall and stormed out of the living room, stalking towards the beach.  Well, that certainly was a first for me, I had a knack for clearing the room.

       "Mave and I are going to pick out our rooms, why don't you go out and see if West can be calmed down?" Logan suggested with a smile as he bent down to give me a small hug.  I returned it awkwardly, not knowing what I should do.

       "He has a quick temper, but it'll calm down.  Go talk to him," Mave said, kissing the top of my head and following Logan up the stairs.  Should I tell them it's the first affection anyone has shown me since that night?