Chapter 7 #2
All the Tenebrae boys laughed. Dylan cheered, and Hendrix wailed, “I have heard things I will never unhear!”
Tobin laughed from behind Fray, his hands on his hips, and hid his smile behind Fray’s shoulder. His shyness was cute as hell, and Fray’s hearts swelled with love.
“No apologies necessary,” Marten said. He was the leader of the trio, and Fray had spoken to him on the phone or via video chat many times over the years. “To witness a bond is quite a privilege.”
“As it is to be in one,” Fray replied. Then he stepped aside so he could make formal introductions. “You’ve already met Tobin, my... uh, my mate.” Fray felt a rush of pride and embarrassment at the term. “I’ve not called him that yet.”
It was Sawyer who laughed. “It’s weird saying it out loud the first time, isn’t it?”
Fray nodded. “Yeah.”
Sawyer shrugged. “I just call Ciaran mine. It’s easier.”
Fray had a rush of heat fill his chest. He looked at Tobin and gave him a nudge. “Mm, mine. I like that.”
“Yeah, okay,” Ciaran interrupted. “I know how distracting it is, and I know how much you’d rather be...”
“In bed,” Tobin murmured. “On the chair, in the hall, in the shower, at the bottom of the Cove, in freeform, human, half shift...”
Fray laughed and then remembered something. “Oh, Sawyer. Gotta thank you for the half-shift suggestion. It’s—”
Ciaran cleared his throat and cut Fray a sharply pointed look.
Right.
“Sorry.”
Dylan, Hendrix and Aurin all laughed. Ciaran ignored them. “Okay, as I was saying,” he said, tone all no-nonsense. “We’ve been discussing the bond phenomenon.”
Oh.
Fray looked at Marten, who gave him a nod, a silent acknowledgement that Ciaran had been discussing it with them.
Fray wasn’t mad. In fact, the Norwegian consortium were like the Elders of their kind.
Their consortium was old. Like old old. They were also old-school; they adhered to traditions, kept records of lore older than most religions.
It was why Kellan had called them with questions on Lusca.
It was why they were here.
“It’s rare enough that the bond happens at all,” Ciaran went on. “But it’s now happened to one consortium twice in as many weeks.”
Yes, that was odd.
“And,” Ciaran added, “when Sawyer and I spoke to Mr Brown last week, he told us there would be more.”
“More what? Bonds?” Fray asked.
Ciaran gave a nod. “He said we wouldn’t be the last. Then you guys happened,” he said, nodding to Fray and Tobin.
“Yeah. I kinda got the feeling he meant even more than two,” Sawyer agreed.
Ciaran let out a sigh and looked around the room. “Same. He didn’t say who, or how many, but it was the way he said it. You know how he is.”
“What the fuck,” Hendrix murmured. “We’re all just gonna pair up? What the hell?”
“Why is a more pertinent question,” Kellan said. He pushed off from the wall where he stood by the jail cell. “If bonding is so rare, yet it’s happened twice here in two weeks, and possibly more to come, then we should be asking why.”
“Yes,” Marten agreed. “We believe it is because of the threat of Lusca. Our records show increased instances of bonding pairs before her return.”
“But like Kellan said, why?” Dylan asked. His eyes were wide, voice small. “What does that mean? Is she, uh.... I don’t know if...”
Hendrix slipped his hand around Dylan’s. “Hey. We’ll be okay. Everything will work out, ’kay?”
Fray didn’t miss the way Kellan smiled at them so fondly.
Otis put his arms out and grinned. “Any of you should be so lucky to have me.”
“So that means she’s definitely coming,” Aurin said, his voice lyrical as always.
Marten and Ciaran both nodded. “It is odd,” Marten said. “The signs of her imminent return have been evident for a week or two. Normally there is not this long a period of warning.”
Tobin straightened up behind Fray. “Oh,” he said, clearly just remembering something.
“On my way to Southport, I went out toward the Trench where the fishermen said they ran into mechanical failure. My electronics went out on the boat. I was lucky to pull back, and it was only that I was expecting it because of what they’d said that I was going so slow.
I meant to tell you, Ciaran, sorry. Maybe Aurin told you.
I guess I forgot, what with picking up our visitors and.
..” He smiled at Fray. “Everything that happened since I got back.”
“Oh my god,” Hendrix whispered. “Did... did Tobin just actually smile? Someone take a photo.”
Fray shot Hendrix a look and couldn’t stop the growl he felt rumble from his core. “Shut your—”
Kellan stepped into Fray’s line of sight, both hands up. “Okay, let’s calm down. He’s just being...”
“A fool to antagonise a newly mated pair,” Marten said coolly, his voice neutral, but he did give Hendrix a warning glance.
Fray had never had an aggressive bone in his body, and his reaction to protect and defend Tobin was instinctual as breathing. He’d like to think he wouldn’t have actually hurt Hendrix, but the reality was, he absolutely would have.
And he wouldn’t be sorry.
He did have a new appreciation for Sawyer’s reaction when Fray had gone to tackle Ciaran, though.
“Sorry,” Hendrix said, and he did at least look it. Dylan gave his knee a squeeze.
“Okay, look,” Ciaran said, taking control of the conversation. “After much discussion with Marten, and with his knowledge and research, we’ve come up... well, with not much at all, to be honest.”
“Not much?” Dylan repeated. “What does that mean, not much?”
“Not much is perhaps the wrong way to phrase it,” Sawyer said with a smile aimed at Dylan.
He stood up and went to Ciaran’s side. “It’s not to say we have nothing and are completely blind here.
We do have evidence, and we are aware of several key factors.
There being something in the water, for one.
Several of you have felt the presence of something or seen movement out of the corner of your eye when in the water off the jetty.
The silence in the Trench, that’s another key factor.
The mechanical and navigational equipment failure of vessels in the vicinity of the Trench.
The instances of bonding and what Mr Brown said.
Or implied. And something was definitely calling to me in the water.
These are all similar occurrences to what Marten has found in his research and from knowledge passed down in their consortium. ”
“Yes,” Marten agreed. “We are certain of it. The one factor that is not the same is the timing. That Lusca has not appeared already.”
“Maybe she changed her mind,” Otis said with a shrug.
“Or maybe she’s gathering more strength,” Dylan mumbled, “to come back stronger this time.”
Kellan’s brow furrowed as he looked to Ciaran. “What else did Mr Brown say? What were his exact words?”
“He said mine and Sawyer’s bonding won’t be the last, and he said change would come with the tide.” Ciaran shrugged. “You know what Cern’s like. He speaks in riddles half the time.”
Sawyer made a thoughtful face and touched Ciaran’s arm. “No. He said there’ll be more. His exact words were ‘There will be more bonds. You’re not the last.’”
Ciaran smiled at him. “You’re right. He did.”
“Perhaps we should go pay him another visit,” Sawyer said. “Ask him to cut the crap this time and tell it to us straight.” He shrugged one shoulder. “If he is who I think he is, then he knows more than he’s letting on, and we need to know, do we not?”
Fray snorted. “Okay, so if he is who you think he is, you don’t go asking him to ‘cut the crap.’ Just a heads up.”
Because damn.
Sawyer’s jaw ticked and his eyes narrowed. “Okay, so if the lives of everyone in this room—including Ciaran’s—is in danger, I will fucking ask him. Old god or not, I don’t give a fuck. Whose side is he on, anyway?”
Fray grinned at Ciaran. “He really is perfect for you. Good luck with that.”
Ciaran sighed and pulled Sawyer into his side. “Which is why I’ll do the talking.”
“I would like to go with you,” Marten said with a respectful nod. “If that is alright with you, of course.”
“Absolutely,” Ciaran said. “I’m sure Cern would like to meet you.” Then he addressed the rest of the group. “We won’t be gone long—an hour, maybe. Please, no swimming alone, and don’t leave the Cove. We’re expecting the Māori consortium today or tomorrow, and—”
Tobin lifted his head. “What?”
“My cousins are coming,” Otis said with a huge grin.
Tobin was clearly surprised. “Do they need me to go get them? I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I can meet them in Strahan or—”
“Nah, bro,” Otis said, grinning. “We got that covered. They have their own boats. Bigger than yours—they’ve got beds and everything.”
Fray remembered Otis’s cousins ran a fishing charter company off the South Island, so of course they would have boats. He’d never met Otis’s cousins from New Zealand, though Otis spoke of them often enough that he kinda felt like he knew them.
He looked forward to getting to know them, even if the circumstances weren’t ideal. But the fact that they were coming to Tenebrae in their hour of need meant a lot. Same with his own cousins from Norway, whom he had barely even acknowledged.
As Sawyer grabbed the keys to the cruiser, Fray took Tobin’s hand and led him over to the three newcomers.
“Hello again, and thank you so much for coming,” he said to all of them.
Then, as a mark of respect, he addressed their leader with a gracious nod.
“Marten, I cannot thank you enough for coming all this way.”
Marten shook Fray’s hand in both of his. “I would say I wished it was under better circumstances, but it seems there is reason to celebrate, after all.” He gave Tobin a smile. “It is good to see you in better health.”
Tobin chuckled, giving Fray a shy nudge. “Uh, yeah. I was, uh.... I was...”
“Drowning in the river denial,” Arvid said. “I believe that was the phrase used.”
Fray laughed, but he met Tobin’s eyes and found only softness there. “We both were. But here we are.”
“Here we are,” Tobin murmured.