Chapter 16 #2
My ears protrude again to lie flat back on my skull. “What if you can’t find a way to make them better? Will you let them go then? Leaving them trapped here for the last small bit of their lives—it’s horrible.”
How many beings did I consign to that horrific fate because of the experimenters’ tricks and traps? I never wanted to be part of that kind of awfulness again.
I want to make everyone jump and laugh, maybe scare them a little but only enough so they enjoy the relief afterward. These strange beings have been nothing but confused since they came through their weird rifts.
And with all my foxy powers, there’s nothing I can do to solve that problem.
Rollick meets my gaze solemnly. “I don’t want them to live out their last few hours in misery either, my friend. We’ll do what we can for them, and if it doesn’t seem there’s anything to be done, we can let them roam at least a little.”
Raze’s voice comes out raw in its gruffness. “We’d still need to make sure they don’t hurt anyone before they go.”
What about the creatures? They don’t deserve to be hurt either.
I shake again as if I can dispel the collision of twisted thoughts and memories inside me. They squeeze tight as silver chains around my body.
Rollick isn’t budging. Maybe there really isn’t anything more he could offer.
Maybe this really is the best he can do.
With a growl of frustration, I spin and sprint back up the stairs.
By the time I reach the ground floor, I’m scampering across the hardwood in full fox form. My claws scrabble against the polished surface.
I skid toward the nearest door, blink into the shadows to dip through the sliver of darkness beneath it, and burst out into the patio around the small pool.
I stop there for a moment, panting, braced for Rollick to come charging after me.
But that’s not his way. He isn’t a tyrant like the humans who captured me. He’ll give me my space.
What am I supposed to do with it?
Groaning, I flop onto one of the lounge chairs and stretch into humanesque form.
The shade of a nearby umbrella drapes over me, diluting the sun’s piercing rays. I close my eyes and press the side of my face against the plasticky fabric of the cushion.
All those weeks confined in the brilliance. Walls everywhere I looked. Suffocating…
“Mirage?”
I should have felt Peri coming, but I was too lost in my inner turmoil. Her tentative voice makes me flinch—and provokes a pang of guilt that shoots from her into me and then resonates with my regret at prompting it.
I push upright to face her. She’s standing on the pool deck a few feet away, alone.
A grin pushes up the corners of my lips automatically. “Shouldn’t you still be downstairs? Head-shrinking the shadow creatures?”
My softly beautiful woman lets out a faint snort. “I’m not doing therapy on them like on TV. It’s just sometimes easier to tell how to help someone if you can pick up on what exactly they’re feeling.”
Has she figured out how to help me?
I swallow that question behind my smile and swish one of my fox tails behind me. “You can go help the weird ones then.”
Never mind how many beings would say I’m pretty weird too.
Peri comes over and sits on the end of the lounge chair—beside me but leaving half a foot between us so we’re not touching. The compassionate warmth that emanates from her body turns the tug I often feel when she’s around into a yank.
It takes all my self-control not to scoot over right next to her and lift her into my lap. I’d love to bury my face in her vivid hair and drink in her sweet smell…
Those memories burn straight to my groin. I adjust my position before she can tell that I’ve gone half-hard.
How does she have an even stronger effect on me now than she did before? Something about this connection stokes the attraction I already felt into a hotter flame.
Why does it have to come with so many chains too?
“I did taste their emotions,” Peri says.
“It doesn’t seem as if the disintegrating effect is causing them any pain.
They’re disoriented and frustrated, but they’ve been that way since they tumbled out of the rifts.
I… I couldn’t sense anything that gave an answer about why it’s happening or how to stop it. ”
Her head droops, but then she looks at me with unusual firmness. “So it’s not your fault that you don’t know how to help them either. We’re all doing everything we can. That’s what matters, right?”
I can’t tell her it doesn’t and make her feel she’s to blame. But I don’t want to lie to her either.
She’ll probably be able to tell if I do.
“It’s not their fault,” I point out. “I don’t like seeing them having to live this way.”
Or not live, as the case seems to be.
Peri’s hand twitches toward mine as if she’s considered taking it but then stopped herself. She can tell I’m still on edge.
On the edge of what, I couldn’t say anymore. I don’t know what I’d do if she touched me now.
“I don’t like it either,” she says. “Rollick is going to let them wander near the house a bit and see what happens. Maybe getting more freedom will heal them up!”
My smile relaxes at the optimism in her voice. Peri is always hoping for the best, for all of us.
That’s why she’s here with me now.
A swell of affection sweeps through me so forcefully I’m leaning toward her before I realize it. With a hitch of breath, I spring to my feet instead.
“Mirage?” Peri says, blinking.
“I’ll be okay,” I tell her. “I just… I feel like I need to keep moving. It’ll be good to see the creatures get a little freedom. Thank you for coming to talk to me.”
Then I bound toward the front of the house before the glow she’s attached to me can drag me any further into its bright but inescapable cage.