17. A Double Reflection
A Double Reflection
Driz sat on the lip of the ravine, idly bouncing the rubber ball beside her, waiting for Pearl.
Last night had been unreal. Driz still couldn’t think about it without her wings twitching. How Pearl had touched her. Driz thought she might break into pieces just at the memory of being beneath her hands.
The night darkened, and Driz remained alone. But Pearl had said maybe, and so Driz would wait all night. Just in case.
She bounced the ball higher.
When she saw a tall woman in a long coat striding through the scrubby tumbleweeds toward the bluffs, Driz excitedly stood, ready to glide down to meet her.
Driz froze. It wasn’t Pearl.
She scrambled back, flattening herself against the rim of the ravine in the shadow of a large rock, peering curiously over the edge.
The woman was the same one Driz had seen the first night, coming out of Pearl’s home with the uneven footsteps. She must be Pearl’s mother, Oak.
Why was she here? Had Pearl told her to come? Was Pearl in danger? Did she need help?
Driz was about to reveal herself and ask, but Pearl’s words from the night of the flood came back to her. “My mother will shoot you on sight.”
Oak stopped at the mouth of the ravine and stared up it, looking around slowly. A hunter. A predator. Driz held perfectly still as Oak stalked inside.
“Show yourself,” Oak demanded.
Driz remained frozen. Was she talking to Driz?
“I know you’re here.” Oak walked deeper, scanning the crumbling walls and shadowed corners. “I saw you land. It’s been a long time. And I’m all alone.”
She stared challengingly up at the world. What had been a long time? She must be talking to someone else. But no one else was here.
Oak opened a silver disk and brought it to her nose, inhaling the shimmering white powder, her eyes never leaving the ravine. Blight. Driz recognized it, and its sweet scent, even from here.
Would Oak be able to smell her now? Hear her heartbeat?
Oak’s nostrils flared as she shoved the disk back into her pocket. Driz tried to calm her racing heart.
“Well? What’re you waiting for?” Oak demanded, her voice echoing as she swung the rifle from her back to beneath her arm in a single, fluid movement. She looked so much like Pearl. But she wasn’t Pearl. Driz’s wings twitched in distress.
Oak stilled, her head and rifle turning toward where Driz hid.
Driz scrambled away from the edge. The shot rang out behind her as she ran several paces before opening her wings. She kept low, hoping the angle of the terrain would conceal her from Oak’s gaze.
Her hands shook. Pearl had been right about her. But why? Did Oak shoot at everyone she had not met?
Part of Driz called to stand and fight. Or to speak to her. To defend herself. But Oak was Pearl’s mother. Driz would not fight or hurt her, and she did not know what she would say.
So she took the only option, and fled.
Pearl hadn’t dared return to see Driz last night. She’d kept herself busy during the day, painting another building, and hiding out at Molly’s. She knew her mother’s interrogation would continue given the chance.
Once Pearl told the sheriff about Driz, that would be the end of whatever this was between them. And Pearl wasn’t ready to give Driz up yet.
She managed to avoid her mother until the following evening, as the sheriff came inside when Pearl reached the bottom of the stairwell.
“There you are,” Sheriff Oak said, her clothes stiff with salt and dust. “I’ll change and meet you at Spencer’s.”
“I already ate.” Pearl tried to slip through the blocked door.
“Where’re you going?”
“Out.”
Sheriff Oak narrowed her eyes.
Pearl shifted.
“With who?”
“Stop it.”
“Your new mystery woman?”
“Sure.”
“Why won’t you tell me about her? She could come here. I’d like to meet her.”
Pearl huffed out an unamused breath. “Well, I don’t want her to meet you.”
Her mother flinched, and then hardened. “She an outlaw? I didn’t expect that of you, Pearl.”
“She’s no outlaw. Besides, we aren’t exactly abiding, are we?”
“We abide by our own. Don’t dodge the question. Why the secrecy? Or is it me you’re ashamed of? You got yourself a fancy lady?”
“Leave it.” Pearl shoved past but Sheriff Oak caught her arm.
“I don’t want you out at night with this goyle around.”
“Too bad.” Pearl gentled her tone. “I’ll be fine.”
The sheriff finally let her go, but Pearl sensed her eyes following her back. Instead of heading straight for the ravine, she detoured through the salt fields and all the way up to the mines before cutting back through the brush to disguise her destination.
It was fully dark by the time she got there, and so Pearl was a bit surprised when Driz didn’t greet her right away.
Unbidden, her stomach knotted. Was this it? Had Driz decided not to return?
Pearl hadn’t expected her to abandon her so fast. Especially not after their last meeting. She quelled the swell of hurt and panic, replacing it with anger.
Pearl would feel nothing if Driz left. Good riddance. It was too complicated anyway.
She was about to leave, to prove to herself she didn’t care, when she heard the whoosh of wings.
Her heart leapt and she spun back around.
Driz landed right in front of her, straightening to her full height so Pearl had to tilt her head back.
“You’re late,” Pearl snapped.
“I am?”
“Yes.” Pearl cupped the back of Driz’s head, pulling it down. “But I’ll forgive you if you kiss me.”
Driz watched her for a moment. Then she surged forward and covered Pearl’s mouth with her own. But before Pearl could get too excited, Driz retreated again. “Your mother came here last night.”
Pearl stilled. “What’d you just say?”
Driz’s wings twitched, her shoulders bunching and tense. “I thought it was you, but it was her.”
“What happened? Did she see you?”
Driz shook her head. “She was looking for someone else. Someone she seemed to know. I hid.”
True anger flared at that, along with an unsettled sensation. Pearl glanced back at the entrance to the ravine. What did her mother suspect? Was she looking for Driz? How much did she know?
Driz took her hand. “I have another surprise for you.”
That distracted Pearl, and she gratefully focused on it. “What sort of surprise?”
“I will show you.”
Pearl pushed her mother irritably from her mind and climbed into Driz’s arms.
She almost enjoyed the flight this time, the sensation of the wind rushing over her limbs beneath the sky illuminated with stars.
She wasn’t certain what she expected, but it wasn’t for Driz to bring her to a ruin. She blinked at the crumbling old ghost town, clearly from before the war, half-destroyed in a basin still barren with raw blight. That any of it remained standing amazed her.
As a coyote howled from the ridge, she swallowed, the moonlit scene a bit spooky. Not exactly the romantic gesture her mind had been conjuring.
Driz took her hand, leading her up the once-central street, just cracked earth now. “The surprise is up there,” Driz said, pointing vaguely on the horizon. “But I wish to show you something first. You may want your lantern.”
She seemed nervous, and it rubbed off on Pearl, her senses already on edge.
But she removed the travel lantern from her hip and lit it, following Driz up rotting steps and into what had been the saloon.
One of the doors had clearly been rehung recently, because it was upside down and the hinges were staked with new, jagged bits of iron, not the original nails.
Inside wasn’t as bad as she’d braced for. Beneath her feet, the dust and sand of years and storms had been cleared away, revealing patterned tiles. Old bottles and broken shards lined the shelves, which caught her lantern’s glow, and several of the stools at the bar appeared intact.
She glanced at Driz, uncertain how to respond. “Is this what you wanted to show me?” she clarified.
“I used to come here a lot, especially when I was young.” Driz walked over to the wall. “This is why I brought you here.”
Part of a cracked mirror hung there. Driz stopped in front of it, staring at herself for a long moment before she turned back to Pearl, extending her hand, looking almost shy. “Will you look with me?”
Pearl slid her palm into Driz’s larger one and joined her.
Pearl was unused to feeling small. But the top of her head barely reached Driz’s ducked chin as Driz moved behind her, her full face still in view.
“Do you see yourself?” Driz asked, her eyes on Pearl in the mirror.
Pearl nodded, still not quite sure what Driz wanted.
“And you see me?”
“Yeah.”
“And…is this what I look like all the time?”
The glass was a bit cloudy, and a crack ran through it. “Mostly.”
Driz nodded. “I have not had anyone to ask before.” Her breathing quickened, her wings shuddering.
Pearl reached for her. “What’s wrong?”
Driz squeezed her eyes shut. “She was my only friend, for a very long time.” She pointed at the wall. “Me, in the mirror. Now I get to show her you. Show her I am not alone anymore.”
Pearl didn’t know what to say, the urge to run away strong. Alarm bells rang in her head that this was too much. Driz was getting too attached to her. At the same time, Pearl needed to wrap Driz up in her arms and hold her until she smiled again.
Driz looked back at the mirror, her expression darkening. “I wish I could look better for you.”
“Don’t say that,” Pearl snapped, and Driz flinched.
“I am sorry.”
“And don’t apologize for it either.”
Driz gazed at her, and Pearl sighed. She was overwhelmed by Driz’s heartbreaking words and Pearl’s own confusing reaction, and this need to erase the sadness from Driz. Pearl knew she couldn’t change the past, but she could give Driz something new.
“Don’t move,” Pearl ordered before she could think too hard about it.
She grabbed two bar stools, one tall and one broken down to the upper braces beneath the structure of the seat, and dragged them over.
She placed her lantern on the taller stool to cast light over them both, and stepped onto the short one in front of Driz so they were nearer the same height, facing each other. And she kissed her.
She meant it to be a quick peck, but Driz’s soft gasp followed by her faint rumble almost derailed Pearl’s plan.
She forced herself to pull back and glanced over her shoulder, waiting for Driz to meet her gaze in the reflection. “You’re not alone right now,” Pearl promised.
Driz couldn’t stay quiet or keep her wings still as Pearl’s lips landed on her cheek. Soft and warm, they lingered before trailing down to her jaw, pulling a groan from Driz’s throat. When she turned, mouth hunting for Pearl’s, Pearl retreated.
She gripped Driz’s face, forcing it back straight. “No, watch,” Pearl whispered. “Don’t look away. I’m trying to show her.”
Understanding swept through Driz. She looked back in the mirror, at herself. And at Pearl, as Pearl touched her.
A thumb pressed against the corner of Driz’s mouth. She opened it, uncertain what Pearl wanted, but that must have been right because Pearl smiled. Pearl’s small tongue darted out and tasted one of her fangs. The sensation shook Driz, nothing like when she ran her own tongue over them.
Pearl kissed her too briefly, and Driz struggled to keep her gaze fixed on the mirror, Pearl’s hair trying to obscure her vision as she shifted to the other cheek.
Pearl angled to the side so Driz could see her easier, glancing back to make sure Driz was watching.
She skimmed her open mouth over Driz’s skin.
The trail of Pearl’s hot tongue and the nip of her teeth on Driz’s ear curled her claws with desire.
She tensed with need to wrap around Pearl, but she didn’t know if that was allowed, so she pressed her palms into the sides of her own thighs, nails digging in, the light sting helping ground her so she didn’t float away.
Pearl looked at the mirror again, her eyes partially closed and her smile slow. Her hand trailed down Driz’s throat and chest to her top button, undoing it with nimble fingers, followed by the second and the third, drawing the fabric to the side and exposing Driz’s left breast to them both.
Pearl hummed as she scraped her blunt fingernails along the underside and then ran her thumb over the nipple.
Driz jolted with pleasure.
When Pearl bent down and lapped her tongue over the hardened peak, Driz gasped, her claws sinking deeper into her thighs as Pearl did it again. The reflection was a bit hazy, and somehow, that made it even more exciting. Driz had never been more aroused. Her wing joints ached. She needed…
Pearl slithered back up Driz’s chest. “D’you like what you see?” Pearl rasped against Driz’s ear, her beautiful hand continuing its caress of Driz’s breast.
Driz had a hard time making her throat work. “Yes.”
“Me too. Do you believe me?”
Driz managed a nod. “Yes.”
“Good.” Pearl kissed her mouth, tongue delving inside and making Driz’s blood rush harder.
Then her touch was gone and she stepped off the stool. Driz’s gaze on the mirror was broken and she stared, ravenous, at Pearl. Real Pearl, with no blurred glass between them.
Pearl’s cheeks were flushed, her breath and heart elevated, her scent strong. Pearl clearly felt it too—this overpowering pull. A drive to mate, in whatever way they could. In every way.
Driz stepped forward, reaching for her.
“So,” Pearl panted, voice high. “Anyway. What’s that surprise you planned for me?”
Driz blinked, her mind not working.
“Oh.” Pearl’s eyes widened.
Driz looked down.
The tips of her outstretched claws shone with blood. From where she’d been gripping her own thighs. Dark red stains dampened the sides of her legs.
The sight punctured her daze of arousal, a confused reality slamming into her. “I am sorry.” Driz snatched her hand away and took a step back, and another.
“Are you alright?”
“I…I just…I will be back.”
She stumbled out the door, her body a muddled, clumsy mess. All wrong, more so because she’d just felt so, so right for once. She had to get away before she did anything else. Because Driz burned for Pearl, and she didn’t know if she could.
She flew directly north, dropping into a narrow canyon containing the closest stream. The walls swallowed her and stared disapprovingly down on where she landed in the water.
Falling to her knees, she tried to scrub off her bloody hands. Her monstrous hands, which shook.
Would Pearl fear her again after that reminder of who and what she was?