Chapter Three—The Enclave

I don’t know how long we had been driving before we finally, blessedly, came to a stop. I’d dropped off into an uneasy slumber, my head resting against Kaz’s shoulder, but I jolted awake when I felt the car come to a halt and the engine switch off. I stretched my arms up over my head, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and raked my fingers through my unruly swath of curls before I climbed out of the car, with Riley and Kaz close behind.

That was when I saw them: Alice and Sarah, climbing out of the other two cars. They looked so different, outside of the more pressed and formal attire that they wore at Thornfield. Sarah’s red hair hung loose and long, making her look younger than I remembered her. She was clad in black leggings and boots, and a smart peacoat over a white tunic. She beamed bright when she saw me, and I ran to her, and directly into her arms. “You’re all right,” I said, and she gave me a hug.

“I’m fine,” she said, and held me out at arm’s length to look at me. “I’m pleased to see that you are, too.”

Then I turned to Alice, who was rosy cheeked and smiling. She was clad in jeans and a windbreaker and looked like she had spent most of the recent past in a garden. It suited her. I hugged her next and she gave me a squeeze. “Oh, Jane, dear,” she said fondly. “I have missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

Sarah hooked her arm through mine while Alice went on ahead to Kaz, whom she took gently by the elbow—“This way, Master Kain,” she said—and we all walked up the drive.

We were in an old gated community at the end of a cul-de-sac. All around us were houses that had almost identical footprints, replicas of the same three and four-bedroom houses. It was on a large swath of empty land, and the one into which we were headed appeared to overlook an overgrown golf course.

The house was nice, in that middle America suburb kind of way. The brick was light, and there was a large window that gave a glimpse of a lit chandelier, but it was the kind of house that only looked expensive. We walked up the drive, and I saw that most of the greenery around the other houses was dried or dying, but the plants around this one were, comparatively speaking, doing quite well. I imagined Alice planting evergreens, just to give the place a little color. It was nice, but it was no Thornfield.

We pushed our way through the front door, and we were in a small foyer that boasted high ceilings and a staircase. A glance to the left and I glimpsed a kitchen; to the right, a sitting room. The floors were hardwood, the carpeting was ivory, and the furniture looked like it came with the house, like this had been the model that prospective buyers had come to look at when they were deciding if they wanted one for themselves. The decor was nice enough, but bland, beige, with no idiosyncratic flare that made it feel lived in.

As soon as we got inside, Kaz seemed to know his way around, and he disappeared into the sitting room, whereupon he took the liberty of pouring himself a drink from a small bar that was hidden inside a globe. I watched him, with Sarah and Alice at my side, and Riley lingering behind us.

“We’ve been all right here,” Alice whispered, “and the master knows it now. He feels comfortable in the space.”

“How has he been, really?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper. But Alice just shook her head.

“I think it will do him a world of good for him to have you at his side.” I turned to smile at them but felt suddenly queasy, and I must have looked a little green because both Sarah and Alice furrowed their brows in concern.

“Forgive me,” I said uneasily. “Um, this is Riley Sinjin. Riley, these ladies are Sarah and Alice, and—excuse me, where’s the bathroom?”

“It’s through the kitchen on the right,” Alice said, but I’d already run from the foyer. If I hadn’t been so single-mindedly searching for a toilet, I may have noticed the granite countertops and the tiled floors. Instead, I darted into a small powder room, dropped to my knees, and vomited every ounce of liquid in my body.

When it was done, I sank to the floor, leaned back against the wall, and patted my stomach as though I could appease the creature growing therein. “It’s ok,” I whispered to it, “I’ll feed you soon, I promise. Just please don’t be mad at me right now.”

I reached up and flushed the toilet, washed my hands in the sink, then cupped them together to bring some water to my mouth. I swished it around, spit, and then drank down as much as I could manage. When I’d emerged from the powder room, Sarah, Alice, and Riley were waiting for me. They all shared that look of concerned knowing, and I wasn’t sure if Riley had told them or if they had intuited it. Either way, Alice took me by the arm and led me past the kitchen table and back into the Foyer; Riley followed close behind.

“We have some things to discuss with Master Kain,” she explained. “But we’ll get you two set up in some rooms upstairs where you can rest and clean up.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Then I’ll whip us up something to eat, and you’ll feel right as rain.” Alice patted my hand and led me upstairs. The hallway had the kind of art on the wall that you’d buy from a chain store: generic, uninspired. We paused in front of one of the doors, and Alice turned to look at Riley. “This is the guest room,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll be quite comfortable.”

“Thank you,” Riley said, still on edge, still on guard.

“And the bathroom is there,” she said pointing to a door across the hall, “should you need it. There are towels on the bed for you, and a bath robe in the closet. Perhaps you’d like me to wash your clothes for you?”

“Ah, thanks,” he said uneasily, “but, no. I’ll be all right.”

“Very well,” Alice said. “Jane, dear, you’ll be in the Master, just at the end of the hall. The double doors.”

“Thanks, Alice,” I said, and she gave my hand a squeeze before retreating down the stairs. I lingered strangely with Riley, trying to apologize for bringing him here, wanting to explain that I didn’t feel as though I had any other choice.

Thankfully, it was he who broke the silence: “Thank you, Jane,” he said, “for saving my life.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“No, seriously—I know things have been…” He extended his hand as though he would touch me, but he pulled away again. “I…I don’t know if I can stay here,” he said, “but thank you for giving me the option, at least.”

“You can’t go back to the resistance,” I protested. “Blanche will have you killed on sight.”

“I know. I wouldn’t return to them—I think you’ve changed my mind about the entire thing.”

“Have I?”

Riley smiled a little sadly, scratching absently at the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he affirmed. “A little. We’re all made of—what was it you said? The same cosmic materials, or whatever. Why shouldn’t we share the planet?”

I smiled. “A convert, are you?”

“Maybe. We’ll see.”

“Then stay,” I pleaded. “You’re my friend—you could help us.”

But he shook his head. “It’s hard for me to see you with him.” He scoffed, laughed a little, averted his gaze. “And that’s the last thing I’m going to say about it.”

“But Riley—”

“I’ll see you at dinner, Jane,” he said, and slipped into his room, closing the door behind him.

I made my way into the master bedroom, and found it finely appointed, if a little dull. There was a plush, cushioned headboard in beige tweed at the head of the king-sized bed. The bedspread was white, but I was exhausted to the bone, so I didn’t hesitate to kick my shoes off and drop down onto its plush top. I laid across the foot of the bed like a dog, and drifted off to sleep, images of Kaz in my mind, flashing from before he had lost his sight, to after, and back again.

I don’t know how long I was asleep when Kaz came into the room, but I could hear him in my mind, and his voice roused me to waking. I sat up on the end of the bed and balled my hands into fists so that I could rub the sleep from my eyes.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said, moving slowly into the room. I watched him as he navigated the room, his hand held out just a little in front of him. But he knew where everything was, and only knocked into my abandoned shoes as he came to sit on the edge of the bed.

“I’m glad you did,” I replied. “I didn’t want to sleep the day away.” Besides which, I was starving. And still a little queasy. I felt a pang in my chest, and I wanted to tell Kaz about the baby, but something stopped me. Something stopped me, and he could sense it.

“That man,” he began slowly. “Riley Sinjin.”

“What about him?” I asked.

“Do you…” he hesitated. “Are you two…?”

I moved to his side and took his hand in mine, lifting it to my mouth so that I could press a kiss against the back of it. “No, Kaz,” he said. “We’re not. We never were.”

I could feel some of the tension go out of his body even as he turned to tug me toward him, closer, closer.

And when he kissed me, it hurt where my lip was split, but I did not pull away. I couldn’t. He lifted a hand to my face and cupped my cheek gently in the palm of his hand, and he was so warm I thought his skin might burn my skin, but I didn’t care. Like the dream I kept having, I decided that I would simply let his fire consume me, and I gave myself over to it.

I in turn reached up to run my finger along the ridges of his scar. He started like I’d hurt him, but I think the sensation just startled him.

“Is it horrible?” he asked, his voice tremulous, and I had to smile a little at his vanity. “Am I a monster?”

“No,” I said, “you are no monster. You are still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

He caught me in another kiss and clung to my shoulders like he was holding on for dear life. And something grew in him, a fervor, a desperation, and I welcomed it.

He reached forward and tore my flimsy tee shirt from the collar, down, until it split into two separate bolts of fabric, and my breasts were bared to him. He bent forward and took my nipples between his hungry lips, suckling there like they sustained him. His large fingers kneaded the thick, heavy flesh of my tits, and I could feel a twinge between my thighs as his ministrations on my nipples brought my pussy to life.

I gripped him by the horns and held him to me fast, until I needed his fingers on my sex, in me, probing. Anything to relieve the yearning that felt like an ache deep in the pit of me. I undid the buttons of my jeans, and Kaz pulled away just long enough to command his datapad to do him the courtesy of setting his clothes to off, and I could admire him in the dim light of the room. The scar on his face extended down his neck and over his right shoulder, coming to an abrupt halt mid-bicep. His patterned scars remained, including the one that connected him to me, but those weren’t what I was looking at. My eyes roved lower, lower.

His cock was turgid and insistent, and I reached forward to grip it in my eager fist, stroking the smooth skin of it in a gentle rhythm. He slid my panties over the curve of my hips, and I shimmied out of them, dropping down to kneel in front of him.

I took the bulbous head of his prick into my mouth and suckled there the way he’d sucked at my nipples. I took more and more of him into my mouth until I could bear no more, and I pulled back, then swallowed more and more, as much as I could bare. I bobbed my head up and down and he brushed his fingers over the curls of my hair, and I could hear him gasping. And how it thrilled me to make him gasp.

With one hand I gripped the shaft of him, but with my other hand, I pressed a finger to my clitoris to warm and ready myself for him. And to relieve that sharp ache that demanded attention. Already, I was dripping wet.

“Turn around,” he said after a time, “on all fours. I want to touch you everywhere.” And I did as he bid me. Turning away from him, I climbed onto the mattress and bent down on my hands and knees. His hands were on me, painting a picture in his mind with touch. “Spread your legs wider,” he said, and I did, the flower of my sex blooming under the light of his attention. He ran his fingertips over every inch of my most private parts, memorizing my form with his touch. It was exquisite, to have every inch of my body touched.

“Did you think of me,” he asked, “while you were away?”

“Every day,” I said. “Did you think of me?”

“Every moment.” I felt his hands on my hips before I felt him plunge his cock deep inside of me, fucking me with an animalistic sort of abandon, the kind of sex that is possession as much as it is love.

I let out a cry and he bent forward with his hands on my shoulders so that he could thrust as deeply into me as my body would allow. And he filled me up.

He quickened his pace, the head of his prick hitting my g-spot so that I could almost immediately feel my orgasm start to build. After so long away, I knew it wouldn’t take me long to reach my climax, but I tried to delay it, tried to relish the feeling of being his again. His breath came in ragged gasps, and I could tell he was close, too. “Wait,” he said, pausing and pulling out of me, “I need your mouth.”

I turned over and spread my legs for him, and he gathered me to him so that his hand was cradling the back of my head even as he thrust his cock back into my warm, wet pussy. His mouth found mine in a hungry kiss, his tongue dancing, spelling out in a secret language the words that made up the promise we were telling each other: we would never be separated again.

Kaz let out a grunt and thrust home, spilling his hot seed into me. And the feeling of him pulsing inside of me was enough to send me over the edge, and my orgasm broke like a wave against the rocks of my longing. We were panting in the aftermath of that visceral, animalistic lovemaking, and finally Kaz pressed a kiss to my forehead, and held me close, even as his member began to soften between my thighs. He pulled out, and I could feel the warm trickle of his come drip down my thighs as he laid himself on the floor at my side. He tugged me to him and held me tight and I laid my head on his chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart.

“Is it true, what they told me?” he asked. “Are you really…?”

“Yes,” I murmured, a smile in my voice. “I really am.” And he rolled with me until I was on my back, and he hovered over me, and he kissed my belly and kissed it and kissed it like it was a sacred thing.

“You are a miracle,” he whispered, and I didn’t know if he meant me or the child we’d created, but it didn’t matter. I stroked his horns as he administered his affection.

“I beg you, please,” he said, his milky eyes swimming with unshed tears, “don’t leave me again. I would not survive it.” He laid his head down against my belly, and I stroked his cheek and let my eyes come to a close.

“I will never leave you again, Kaz,” I murmured. “I couldn’t.” I considered him a moment, and I could feel his salt tears on my skin, though his body was relaxed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you myself,” I whispered. “About the baby.”

“You did tell me,” he said. “I mean, not in so many words. But with the pulse of your heart, I heard you. Alice and Sarah just confirmed it downstairs—at least, they expressed their suspicion. I thought for a moment that I’d gotten it wrong, that the child was Riley Sinjin’s, but I felt it in my gut, as clear as day, I felt it. It’s mine.”

“Yes,” I said. “It’s yours.”

“This is a dangerous world,” he said, his tone sleepy and low. “It will not be an easy life for our child.”

“I know,” I said. “But I believe we can set things right, between the Ivaldans and the resistance. If Riley agrees to stay and help us, I think we can set things right.”

“Time will tell, I suppose,” Kaz said, dubious. “I wasn’t sure I could do it, lead the Ivaldan people after…losing the boys, and…everything. I’m still unfit for any military duty.”

“But it won’t come to that,” I asserted. “Will it?”

“I hope not,” he replied. “But only time will tell.”