“In the Grass” (a Star Wars snippet)

“You didn’t come to bed last night.”

She shifted her shoulders, drew the shawl tighter around her shoulders. The yarn was soft against her fingers as she tangled them through the knots of its pattern, the garment smelling of laundry soap, faintly, Dalsuna’s cologne. The patch of grass between the house and the edge of the water was small, but large enough for them to play with their son without too much fear of him toppling over into the canal. She sat in the center of that grass, her bare toes slowly going numb in the morning damp and chill, watching as the sun slowly crept up over the canal and the parkland beyond. It was a rare sight, that much green on the other side of the canal. How her husband had managed to find it, she wasn’t sure—nor had she ever asked.

She was wise enough now to know when to leave things alone.

Sometimes, at least.

“Tag?”

“I took a walk,” she said, patting a spot in the grass next to her. “I couldn’t sleep—wasn’t going to be able to sleep. I’d meant to clear my head and come back, but I ended up at Mickie’s and then I ended up at the school.”

“You went flying.”

She nodded, staring at the sunrise as he settled next to her. Calloused fingers wrapped around hers, squeezed gently. A faint smile curved her lips and she squeezed back, glancing at him. “I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

“Me, worry? Why would I worry? It’s not like my wife isn’t a former intelligence officer who’s probably pissed off more than her share of people on both sides of the not-war-anymore. It’s not like I’ve gotten used to you being there to reassure me when I wake up in a cold sweat at three in the morning after another nightmare.”

She winced. “I’m sorry, Dal.”

He exhaled a long breath, then wrapped his arms around her, resting his cheek against her braided hair as she leaned into his embrace. “It’s okay. It took a couple seconds, but I could still feel you, so that was enough.”

“I should’ve been here,” she murmured into the soft cotton of his shirt. She closed her eyes and breathed in, tension draining from them both with each breath, each beat of their hearts. “I hadn’t meant to be out all night. I thought I was just clearing my head.”

“The old ghosts swam back up, huh?”

She nodded, pressing her face against his shoulder. Her voice came muffled; likely he felt the words more than heard them. “There’s so many. And so much I just—left behind.”

“What brought it on this time? It’s usually not for no reason.”

“A letter from an old friend,” she said softly. “Reassurance that he’s okay. He told me I did the right thing.”

“But you’re still not sure.” He pulled back, peering down at her with a furrowed brow. Those green eyes of his snared her all over again, like they had the first time she’d seen him in the mess hall on a base that didn’t exist anymore a hundred light years away. “Even after all this time.”

“No,” she said slowly. “I did the right thing. But it’s not over. Not yet.”
His frown deepened and he canted his head to one side. “What’s not over?”

“The war,” she whispered, then leaned into his chest again. “We’ve all just stopped fighting for now. But it’s not over. I don’t know if it ever will be.”

“It is for us,” he said, squeezing her tight and burying his nose in his hair. He was quiet for a moment, then added, almost too quietly to hear, “At least for now.”

She nodded. “Yeah. At least for now.”

They sat there together in the grass as Corel cleared the horizon, its light glittering on the water of the canal and off the metal and glass of the city around them.

Epsilon universe snippet – in the alley

                I felt the heat of the explosion almost before I heard it, saw the light of it.  I spun, swearing, not knowing what to think or where to run to until I saw the fire’s brightness not too far from me, down the street a little ways.

                I’d last seen Wil headed in that direction.

                “Wil!”

                Nothing–but if he’d been anywhere in the vicinity of that explosion, no doubt his ears were still ringing and ringing loud.  I gulped in a breath and ran in that direction, away from where I could see the lights of landers in the distance.

                When the Imperium had come to Caldin, they’d come in force, just like we feared they would.

                What the hell just happened there?  The Imperium wasn’t supposed to have made it this far into the city by now.  Nothing should have been exploding.

                Moving at a dead run, I almost tripped over him.  He choked back a moan as my foot banged into his in the darkness.  Backlit by the flames from across the street–the Alliance post was burning–I could see the blood on him.

                It was all over and it looked bad.

                “Wil!”

                “Get out of here,” he rasped.  “I’m fine, get out of here.”

                “Liar.”  I crashed to my knees, pulling his head and shoulders into my lap.  He hissed in pain, choking back a scream.

                “Ren–”

                “Shut up,” I snapped.  “What the hell did you do?”

                “My job.”  He squeezed his eyes shut, his breathing labored and shallow.  I swore heartily.

                I thumbed a mayday on my comm, knowing Luc wasn’t far.  He’d be here fast, I knew it.

                He’d better be.  We need him now.

                “Ren,” Wil breathed.  “Ren, please.”

                “No,” I said through gritted teeth.  “I am not leaving you, dammit.”  I caught a glimpse of Luc in the light of the burning building beyond the alleyway.  “Luc!  Luc, get over here, I need your help.”

                He pivoted and swore when he saw Wil, just like I had.  I couldn’t stop the tears anymore.

                “Please,” I begged in a voice that was barely more than a whisper.  “Please, help him.”

NaNoWriMo 2017 prep – Days 17-18

The notes from today and yesterday is actually a background scene, set in September 2021, in Fredericksburg, VA.  Cassidy Beckett seeks some help from some rather unusual sources…

Just Another Day in Fredericksburg

Location – café and coffee shop owned and operated by Kasey Greene Lord

The bell on the door jingled and Vellin tensed across the table from me, jaw tightening.  “We have company,” he murmured, though he didn’t turn.  I leaned sideways slightly, looking past him to the door.  My brow furrowed slightly.

“I didn’t think they could walk around in daylight,” he continued.  “Is it who I think it is?”

“In the flesh.”  My chair scraped quietly against the floor as I stood up.  It was early evening in Fredericksburg, the sun starting to slowly sink lower but full dark was still hours away.  “Are you going to pick her brain?”

“Fuck no,” Vellin muttered.  “I don’t have a death wish.”

“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting something,” Beckett said quietly, closing the door behind her.  She moved away from the windows even as I walked forward, drawing some more of the shades.  The vampire shot me a relieved smile as she took off her hat and sunglasses.  “Thank you.  The clouds help but it’s still difficult.”

“Have you been here since last night?” I asked, a ripple of shock fluttering through my guts.  New York wasn’t an impossible drive, but it wasn’t exactly a short one, either—Vellin and his wife, my best friend, knew that very well, since it was a trip they’d made almost every weekend for four years after their summertime wedding nearly ten years ago.  Vellin had gotten into Columbia’s law school and none of us had been willing to let him give that up.

I couldn’t imagine how Beckett could have made the trip down during daylight hours, though.

She gave me a smile that was thin, but real.  “Since about an hour before dawn.  I rested for most of the day and as soon as I felt it was dark enough, I came looking.  You have children; I thought maybe it would be best to find you before full dark considering by the time it’s actually dark you’ll both likely be home for family dinner.”

She was right, though I was almost loathe to admit it.  Sam had just taken our youngest with him when he’d gone to pick up the twins and Harrison from school, leaving me and Vellin alone at the coffee shop to talk Conclave business.  Kasey would be doing the same, along with half a dozen of our other friends.

Truth be known, Beckett had picked the perfect time to show up without drawing too much attention to herself.

“You want something,” Vellin said.  It wasn’t a question and I barely managed to suppress a wince at the slight edge to his tone.

Then again, he and Kasey both knew her better than I did in a lot of ways.  Kasey had spent most of Vellin’s time at Columbia working at Beckett’s store in Hell’s Kitchen, keeping an eye on Order business—among other things—in the five boroughs while still somehow managing to keep up with the politics back here at home.

“You always were direct, Lord,” Beckett said, though her lips quirked into a slight smile.  “How’s Mara?”

“She’s fine,” Vellin said.  “What brought you here, Dr. Beckett?  You don’t drive five and a half hours without warning for a social call.”

My gaze slid toward Vellin, lips momentarily thinning before I forced myself to relax.  His magic was up and I could feel it—but then again, my shields had snapped into place as soon as I’d seen her coming through the door.

It wasn’t that I necessarily saw the vampire as a threat, but it never hurt to be careful.

“I have a favor to ask,” Beckett said, then sighed quietly.  “Can we sit?”

I nodded, motioning to a nearby table.  Vellin’s jaw tightened, but he followed my lead, taking a seat with his back to the wall even as Beckett settled into the chair across from him, leaving me facing the door.

“What did you come to ask us for?”

She stared at me for a few seconds, as if she was still processing my question.  Then she cleared her throat.  “It’s been ten years since she disappeared,” she said softly.  “It’s been ten years since anyone’s heard anything from Rebecca Reid.”

My stomach gave an uncomfortable twist.  She and I—all of us—had spoken on the subject over the years.  “Dr. Beckett, we’ve tried to scry for her before and there hasn’t been a trace.  The New York enclave doesn’t know anything?  There hasn’t been any sort of changes?  That’s where her pack is from and they would know—word would come to them before it reached any of us down here.”

“I know, I know,” she said.  “And I didn’t come down here to ask you to try to scry for her again.  It’s something different this time.”

Vellin eyed her.  “What?”

“The New York enclave won’t listen to me, doesn’t trust me, and I can’t blame them.  They still think I had something to do with Becca’s disappearance even though I didn’t and that sentiment has only gotten worse as time’s gone on.  I can’t go to them and ask them what I’m going to ask of you and the enclave here in Fredericksburg.”

I felt another uncomfortable flutter and made eye contact with Vellin, though only for a second.  He frowned and gave me an almost imperceptible nod.

“Then ask,” I said.  “The worst I can say is no but you realize that I don’t speak for the enclave, right?”

“Only when they ask you to,” she said, her voice grave.  “I need you to find Ioan Adam Griffon.  Find the alpha and you’ll find the rest of them—or at the very least, a trace of her.  As much as he and I didn’t like or trust each other, the one thing we agreed on was her and I know that he would never willingly let anything happen to her.  Find him and you will find them.  I’m sure of it.”

“What makes you think we can do that?” Vellin’s voice was heavy with skepticism and suspicion—and more doubt than I’d heard in his voice in a long time.

“I don’t know if you can,” she admitted.  “But I also think that out of anyone, you have the best shot and frankly, you are my only shot.  Please.  I will beg if I need to.  All I ask is that you try.”

“We’ll have to talk about it,” I said, fighting the sinking feeling in my stomach.  It would probably end in some kind of argument, but at the end of the day, Vellin and I both knew what was going to happen, no matter how much we argued about whether or not we should or would.

We would do it—we’d find a way to at least try to help.

“You’ll owe us a favor,” he said.

Beckett smiled.  “If you find him, I’ll owe you more than that.  How long will you need to discuss it?”

“Give us a couple of days,” I said.  “It’s not like we need to talk to one person.  There’s a lot of moving parts.”

“Fewer here than in New York,” she said softly.  “I’ll be back at the end of the week.  Thank you, Wolf Shaman.  Thank you, Lord.”

She stood from the table, donning her hat and sunglasses again before she stepped out the door, the bell’s jingle marking her departure, an oddly cheery sound in the wake of our conversation.

I looked at Vellin.  “Have you talked to Solace about her at all?”

“Not recently.  Not since the last time.”  He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.  “We’ll have to call the Conclave.”

“And I’ll have to talk to the pack.”  I rubbed at my temple and shook my head slightly.  “Life gets complicated whenever she shows up.  Just when I think that maybe we’ll have a moment’s peace, something new.”

“We could have retired,” Vellin said, then cracked a grin.  I punched him in the arm as I stood up.

“No one’s ever going to let that happen, Nick.  You and I both know that.”

He just shook his head.  “We can dream, right?”  The smile faded.  “What do you make of it, Haley?”

“Of what?”

“Of any of it.”

I shrugged.  “At the end of the day, she came asking for our help because there’s someone out there that needs it.  I think you and I both agree on that piece of it.”

He nodded.  “The Conclave’s going to be edgy about it.”

“So’s the pack.  But she’s played everything straight thus far.  Inches and miles, right?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.  “Inches and miles.”

I squeezed his shoulder and he smiled again, reaching up to cover my hand with his.

“I’ll see you later, okay?”

He nodded.  “We still have to finish the conversation we started before Dr. Beckett got here.  I do want to know how they’re doing.”

I smirked.  “If you weren’t so concerned about the way your wife looked at him, I’d invite he and his sister down for a refresher course.”

Vellin snorted.  “Are they still trying to recruit us?”

“It didn’t sound like it,” I said, then smiled.  “Why, disappointed?”

“Fuck no,” he said, then grinned.  “Though it’s flattering to be wanted.”

“Don’t you have a brief you should be working on?”

“Probably.  Invitation for dinner tomorrow night still stands?”

I nodded, fixing the shades before I made my way to the door.  “You and Kasey are in charge of dessert.”

“You bake better than I do.”

“Then bring ice cream.”

“Five o’clock?”

“Five-thirty.  After soccer practice.”

He flashed me a thumbs up and I waved on my way out the door.

Just another day in Fredericksburg.