Page 29 of Lily's Eagle

She shakes her head. “I’m fine, really, I am. Now to get to Lora’s—“

“I’ll take a walk around town instead,” I say.

“OK, OK, fine,” she says, rinsing her hands under the tap and spraying water everywhere. The counter and stove are both still covered in suds, but she seems to have forgotten about that. “I really need to close up now. But come in tomorrow morning. We open at six.”

She smiles at me crookedly as she ushers me out of the kitchen and back into the main room of the cafe. She’s acting so odd I’m thinking I should stick around and see why, but I’m running out of excuses to do so.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says again as we’re by the door, and as soon as I step onto the deck, she shuts the door, locks it, and draws a thin little curtain over the glass part for good measure.

As I stand there, the ever colder wind blasting against me and making my hair fly every which way, I’m trying really hard to figure out when the conversation and our meeting took this bizarre turn that ended with me standing alone on the deck, and her so nervous she couldn’t stop shaking.

The phone call. The one she made to Joyce and Carrie at the helpline. That had to be it. And since I have nothing at all to do for the next five hours or so, I might as well go introduce myself there. And maybe let them know that Ariana is in some sort of distress.

I’ve been here what, less than two hours, and there’s already so much I could help with. But why is everyone and everything just pushing me away?

8

EAGLE

Lily’s been gonethree days, give or take, and in this time, I’ve almost gotten into twice as many fights, mostly with guys who thought it was funny that Lily just up and left in the middle of the night. So, as a result, all the guys are avoiding me in a large arc and it seems that even Ash is dodging my calls now. I’ve spent most of the afternoon just riding, the only thing that still works to clear my head. Somewhat. But twilight is falling over the valley I’m looking over, alone in a picnic spot a lot like the one where I totally fucked it up with Lily the last time I saw her.

Twilight is supposed to be this magical time of day according to her. A time when the veil between the real world and the spiritual world is thinnest and magic can and will happen. Or some other such nonsense. I honestly only half listened to her most of the time when she’d spout all her Native lore and whatnot, but I still remember almost everything. More now that she’s gone, it seems. It’s all just flooding my mind every time I let it run free. I’ve been trying not to.

I never liked twilight much. It’s a spooky time when nothing looks like it should, because the colors fading makes everything look weird. So not like she says. Or maybe exactly like she says. I don’t give a fuck.

The world is so quiet up here on this nameless hill, so serene and peaceful. A few birds are still calling to each other in the trees, but the only other sound I hear is the slight hissing and rustling of the forest all around me. I wish my mind would take on that peaceful silence too. Instead I’m clutching my phone, waiting for Ash to call me back. He should. I called him at least five times in the last two hours.

All I really want to know from him is whether his girlfriend has heard from Lily at all. I haven’t. And I’ve been too proud to call her first, but that’s fading. And I don’t want it to. I just want to know she’s alright.

My phone finally starts ringing before I can work myself up into an even more agitated state than I’ve already been doing. And it’s a good thing I checked the caller ID before answering, because it’s not Ash, or Lily, or any of my other so-called friends. It’s Cross.

“Come to Sanctuary,” he says. “Now. As soon as you can.”

He hangs up before my reply of, “OK, I’ll be right there,” is out of my mouth.

I don’t like this summons. Because it sounded urgent and because it came at twilight, the spookiest time possible. Try as I might to keep dark thoughts away, they just keep flooding my mind like the actual nighttime darkness settling on the world as I ride to Sanctuary.

If anything happened to Lily… no, I can’t go down that road, not even just to think about it. She’s Cross’ daughter, he took care of her. He always does.

But despite knowing all that, the dark thoughts just keep coming. I should’ve been there to watch over her. Never mind that she didn’t want me to be. I should’ve been there anyway.

* * *

The ride to Sanctuary takes me straight through twilight into full night. The HQ is eerily quiet and empty as I enter. There’s usually at least a couple of children running around, or shrieking, or laughing, somewhere in one of the many rooms and hallways in this massive house, but not so tonight. The large dining room just to the side of the main doors is dark and empty too, and even the ever-present smell of food is gone. At least it probably means Lily’s alright, since I’m sure half the MC would be here getting ready to ride if she weren’t.

I called out to announce myself as soon as I entered through the wide, solid oak or whatever, front door, but got no reply. Inside the cavernous lobby—a marble and dark wood decorated room— the silence is deafeningly absolute and the weight of all the stone of this majestic building presses down on my shoulders.

This place used to be a hospital once upon a time, before it became the MC’s HQ and the chief MC party place for a time. Maybe I’m feeling all the sickness that once lived here. Or maybe I’m feeling trapped, because I never feel comfortable in large, thick-walled structures. Give me the wide outdoors and I’m happy, inside not so much.

Lily thinks it’s because of my wild, native blood. I think it’s just because my father’s locked up in a maximum security prison, so places with thick walls trigger me. Whatever. I wish I could feel the echoes of those wild MC parties instead. They were something else, if half the stories from the old-timers I heard over the years are to be believed. I suspect a lot of them aren’t.

I walk across the lobby towards Cross’ office, trying to make as little noise as I can, even though that’s probably the wrong approach to take. I don’t even know why I’m reacting this way. I’ve been here a bunch of times, watching Hunter, and hanging out with Lily before that. But most of that always takes place outside, either in the garden or in town. I rarely interact with Cross on any of it. Other guys give me my directions. A nighttime summons from the President can’t be a good thing. Maybe if I didn’t directly jump to the conclusion that something happened to Lily, I would’ve processed that before now.

Voices, agitated, male and raised, are coming from Cross’ office, growing louder as I approach the door.

I can’t make out what they’re saying, but I’m probably about to find out anyway. So I empty my mind as best I can of my racing thoughts, swallow hard and knock. Best to just face the music, whatever tune is playing. That’s how I always look at life. I think maybe dad taught me that, but it could’ve been any of my other “uncles” in the MC. Brothers now, I guess.

“Come in,” Cross says and I open the door to find him, Tank, Ice and Hawk all glaring at me.

---