The Fey (3 page)

“
What’s this?” Trece
asked. He bent down to pick up the DVD case. “I love this movie.
Shall I put it on?”

The White Boy
looked at Alex who shrugged. Who knew that Trece loved
Pinocchio
? Trece put the DVD in the player and flipped the
television so the movie played in the background.

“
I was going to ask,” the
White Boy said. “Do you love Pinocchio because you want to be a
boy? You know Pinocchio wanted to be a boy?”

“
No, that’s Max! I’m the
blue fairy like my tattoo.”

The men stared at Alex.

“
What?” Matthew
asked.

“
Max and I were supposed
to be this boy-girl deformed person but Max wanted to be a boy. So
we’re identical twins instead,” Alex said. She looked from one
confused face to the next. “John can explain the genetics if you
want. But that’s what happened.”

“
All right then. Anyone
has to look at you to know that your identical twins, but… thanks
for the clarification.” Matthew said. “Can we play cards
now?”

“
Thanks. Oh, I might get a
call,” Alex said. “Would you mind bringing the phone
over?”

“
A call?” Matthew
asked.

“
Are you her personal
secretary?” Trece asked. “Man, I would never let a woman push me
around like that.”

“
Shut up, Trece,” Alex
said.

“
Yes, ma’am,” Trece
replied. The men laughed.

“
King Abdallah likes to
call on his anniversary,” Alex said. “I’m sorry Mattie. Do you
mind?”

“
I’m happy to help,”
Matthew said.

“
Can we play?” the White
Boy said passing cards to each of the men. “We only have fifty-one
minutes before the clone and the cutie-pie husband return. I need
to make some extra money.”

“
You’re going to win?”
Trece asked. The White Boy looked at him and they
laughed.

Troy snatched his cards from the White Boy’s
hand. Plopping down in a chair near Alex’s bed, he set his feet on
her bed. Matthew pushed Troy’s feet off the bed and sat down in
their place. Like most experienced soldiers, they were seasoned
poker players. They fell into the easy rhythm of playing poker,
eating donuts and drinking whiskey.

Alex was about to win her second hand when
the phone rang. She opened her mouth, but Trece beat her to it.

“
Mattie,” Trece said
imitating her voice. “Would you mind getting the phone for
me?”

Matthew shook his head at Trece. Walking
across the room, Matthew picked up the telephone. Carrying the
phone across the room, he lifted the receiver to his ear.

“
Yes, sir,” Matthew
replied in Arabic. “She is right here. One moment.”

Matthew gave Alex the telephone receiver.
Alex set her cards face up showing her straight flush. The men
groaned and threw their cards at her. She ducked to avoid the cards
and took the telephone receiver from Matthew.

“
As-Salamu `Alaykum,” she
said giving the standard Arabic greeting into the phone. She smiled
at Troy’s exaggerated response to her win. Even Enrique the finger
puppet protested.

“
Alaykum As-Salam, my
dear,” a man’s voice said in Arabic. “How does it feel to have
killed your entire team? Decorated soldiers with wives and families
cut down in the prime of their lives because of you.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
They didn’t tell you?”
the man’s voice purred in her ear. “They are all dead, Alexandra.
And you are to blame. Charlie, Dwight, Paul, Nathan, Jax, Dean,
Scott, Mike, and Tommy. That’s not to mention Jesse Abreu. How does
it feel to have killed your best friend?”

“
Jesse?”

“
You as good as put a gun
to his head and pulled the trigger.”

Troy nudged Matthew’s arm and pointed at
Alex. Her face had blanched white.

“
Who is this?”

“
My name is Eleazar. I
want you to know my name so you will know precisely who did pull
the trigger. Just in case you forget, I will call you every month
at the exact time I was forced to kill your team. You will never
forget what you have done.”

“
What have I
done?”

“
Forced me to kill the Fey
Special Forces team. You better take a good look at what’s left of
your friends. Enjoy them while you can. I will kill every one of
them while you watch until you give me what I want.”

“
What do you want?” she
whispered into the phone.

“
I want my property,” the
voice screamed into the phone.

Alex screamed. Dropping the telephone
receiver, her hands covered her ears and a flood of tears poured
from her eyes and nose. Her ears filled with the sound of ragged
breathing. And panic set in. Desperate to get away, to get anywhere
safe, she ripped the tubes, wires and IVs from her body.

Troy jumped from his chair. His arms went
around her torso as he tried to stop her thrashing. Trece’s hands
went around her ankles to keep her legs still while the White Boy
ran to get the doctor. Matthew dropped beside her into the bed.

But the damage was done. In her terror, she
ripped the deep sutures in her hip. Her blood flowed freely from
her femoral artery.

A nurse ran into the room followed by the
White Boy. The nurse ran out of the room to get the doctor.

“
Trece, put your hands on
the wound,” Matthew screamed.

The White Boy took Trece’s place at Alex’s
ankles. Trece jumped to press his hands against her open wound.

“
Yes, right
there.”

Despite their efforts to hold her still, she
rocked back and forth in the bed.

“
Everyone’s dead.
Everyone’s dead. Everyone’s dead. Everyone’s dead.” She whispered
over and over again.

“
Alex, honey, you have to
stop moving,” Matthew said. “Ah fuck.”

The monitor screamed when her blood pressure
plummeted. The doctor ran in with a nurse. Yelling orders to the
nurse, the doctor fumbled with Alex’s useless IV lines. He pointed
to Alex’s arm and the nurse shot Alex full of barbiturates. Within
seconds, she fell back against the bed.

“
Mattie?”

“
I’m here,” he
said.

“
I killed everyone.” Alex
dropped into drug-induced oblivion.

F

CHAPTER TWO

Fourteen months later

January 5 – 5:30 A.M.

Denver, Colorado

Alex lay somewhere between sleep and awake
when John began stroking her naked body. She reached for him and he
shifted on top of her. His lips brushed hers before moving to her
chin. His tongue flicked the crease in her chin and his mouth began
a biting, pulling journey down her neck. She giggled at the waves
of goose bumps down her back and the rising warmth in her core.

She delighted at his weight, his lush male
scent and shivered under his still moving mouth and skilled
surgeon’s hands. Shifting her hips, she drew him into her depths.
At the moment of union, he pushed back to look into her brown
eyes.

“
Good morning,” Alex
whispered.

“
And a very good morning
to you,” he replied in his wonderful London accent.

He began subtle waves of movement that
brought them luscious warmth. With deliberate motion, he flipped
her on top of him giving him access to her full breasts. Alex
increased the pace, moving with purpose, against him while he
rubbed, bit and tortured her nipples. When she dropped her head
back, he sat up to meet her. With his strong arms around her, he
moved on top of her again pressing forward. They rose in tempo and
pace.

Feeling her close to the edge, he said,
“Promise me…”

“
Oh God, I hate it when
you do this.”

He kissed her lips.

“
I’m going to buy a
vibrator.”

He laughed. He moved his hips causing her
breath to catch.

“
Yes my darling?” he said
imitating her American accent.

“
What?”

“
You need to leave the
house today,” John said.

“
I already promised to
leave the house today,” she said. She tugged at her dog tag hanging
around his neck. She kissed him then bit his lip. “I need to buy a
vibrator anyway.”

Dropping his mouth to hers, he continued
deep and slow movements until she gasped with pleasure and
shuddered against him. He shifted their tempo then followed her in
waves of blissful release. They held each other tight, face to
face, heart to heart, entwined.

“
I love you,” he whispered
in her ear.

“
Not more than I love
you.”

He kissed her nose, nuzzled her neck, then
slipped from the bed to begin his day. When he moved into his
closet, she pulled the covers over her head. She was asleep by the
time he left for his morning run.

He yanked the covers off her warm naked body
when he returned. She played along and chatted with him until the
moment he entered the shower. Flipping the covers over her head,
she was asleep.

When she opened her eyes, he was dressed in
blue scrubs, ready for another day as a resident in the Vascular
Surgery program at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center. Knowing her love of coffee, he waved a mug under her nose
to wake her. When she reached for the coffee, he held the mug away
from her.

“
You’ve never broken a
promise to me Alex.”

“
Not yet,” she
said.

“
Not in twelve years,” he
said. “Come on, love, it’s time to start living again.”

“
Yes, I’ll begin with a
purple vibrator,” she said taking the cup from him. She sat up
against the headboard. Wrapping both hands around the mug, she took
a long drink of coffee.

“
Why purple?” he
asked.

“
It’s not your favorite
color. You won’t want to borrow it.”

“
Oh I might.”

Moving his hand in quick motion, he made a
buzzing sound and pressed his hand between her legs. She screamed
and splashed the coffee on the covers. Laughing, he gave her a hand
towel to mop up the mess.

“
Would you like to take my
car? It’s easier to drive.”

She smiled. John loved his Audi A8 like a
child. The car’s heated leather seats and plush interior was his
daily confirmation that he was no longer a poor starving orphan. If
he’s offering his car, he must genuinely want her to leave the
house.

“
My mother’s coming to get
me,” Alex said. She passed him the mug then, using her hands she
pressed her left leg to the edge of the bed. He gave her a metal
forearm crutch. She pushed herself to standing.

“
You’re taking your mother
to purchase your first vibrator?” he asked. Holding her bathrobe,
he helped her slip into the warm terrycloth. He put the mug of
coffee in her hand then watched her drain the mug. “You can get a
shower? Get dressed?”

“
I can,” she said. She
kissed him. “Thanks. My mother is taking me to her hairdresser to
begin the transformation to Alyssa Kreiger. We have a makeup
consultation, contact lenses, clothing, blah, blah,
blah.”

“
No vibrator?”

“
Sadly, I’ll have to wait
until tomorrow,” she said. “Unless you’d like to pick one
up.”

“
I won’t pick out my
replacement, love.” He brushed his lips across her lips. Turning to
leave the room, she caught his hand.

“
Thanks,” she
said.

“
You have to fight this
depression Alexandra. It’s eating you alive.”

“
When you see me next,
I’ll be a new woman.”

“
Thank God. I was getting
a little bored.”

She slapped at him and he laughed. With one
last kiss, he scooted down the stairs, through the kitchen and out
the back door to the garage. She listened for his car then got back
in bed.

Staring at the ceiling, she wondered why she
had promised to leave the house. She hadn’t left the house since
Zack the Jakker flew her home from Walter Reed. No amount of
cajoling, threatening or begging could get her to leave the house
once she was finally home. She even ignored a subpoena from the
Senate Subcommittee on Personnel. She wanted to be right here, in
this bed, in this house.

But today was THE DAY TO LEAVE THE HOUSE as
determined by… everyone. Her family ganged up on her last weekend
making her promise to get out of the house or go on antidepressants
and get more counseling. Only John and Max knew that she took
antidepressants and saw a counselor.

Not that it helped.

Well… she had cried all day and all night
the first month. No, two months. She couldn’t stem the flow of
tears that started the moment Eleazar told her everyone was dead.
Everyone was dead except Alex.

Enter pills and counselor. Exit hysteria.
She pulled the covers over her head.

Eleazar. Two days and…. She used her fingers
to count the hours until she had to speak to him again. Two days,
three hours, and twenty-four minutes until his January call. Her
mind went blank.

With a sigh, her internal review returned.
Max kept her from killing herself. Like many twins, they were
linked together mentally, emotionally, and psychically. She feared
that he would die when she died. She rubbed her hands over her
face.