Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The whole house was quiet and somber. Even Rosemary seemed to know that life right now was too overwhelming.
Dougie never came and ordered them to school. No one invaded on their privacy and the last thing on their minds was food.
Jay stood on his balcony looking up into the dark sky, his mind fractured.
His brothers were on their way. Talon was the first to get his memories back. He was twelve, and he's been looking for them ever since. On his own, searching.
He couldn't even imagine what that would be like for him. Not just a part of yourself missing. Three parts of yourself missing.
Eze had only gotten his memories back a few days ago. He was thirteen and not handling any of this very well. He wasn't even able to do anything unusual except talk and feel them. Talon was nineteen and must be pretty strong because he was careful to keep his past locked in a distance. One day that might bother him but right now he had enough on his plate.
They were supposed to be the same age. They were supposed to be together. It was one of their flaws. They're need to be together. One mind.
They were shattered and broken.
One of them was missing. Echo. Either he hasn't gotten his memories back, or he hadn't been born yet.
That thought terrified them.
Them. One mind.
He was having a hard time with that. As cruel a thought as it was, he didn't know if he wanted others in his head all the time.
He'd been content with just him and Paisley. She belonged to him and he felt like he was sharing her now. He spent most of his time trying to cope and trying to keep them separated from her.
They were never meant to mate. Never meant to be in love. They weren't designed to have lives. Until the switch to this time, they were never more than a few feet away from each other. They all wore white jumpsuits and their hair was kept shaved off so that they all looked identical. Or as close to it as possible. There was nothing identical about them anymore.
So many things had gone wrong.
Maybe once they had good intentions but over time, they had lost that, and it had all become about survival.
They become all about survival. The people who created us. Until this life we were allowed no thoughts or opinions of our own. We did not differ from a body waiting in a pod for a mind to take over it. The only difference is that they didn't want our bodies, they wanted our minds. Don't put their crimes on our shoulders.
This wasn't the first time Talon has tried to ease his guilt, but it wasn't working. His shoulders felt weighed down by the choices of his people and he was the one who came up with how to do it.
We were given a task, and we did what they created us to do. Solve the equation.
Her arms slipped around his waist and her lips pressed against his scarred back.
"We are no different than the invasion of the body snatchers."
"You said it yourself. Close that book. That isn't who you are. You're the boy who slept on my balcony when my father died. You're the boy who ran through a forest to save me."
"Tell that to all the voices living in my head."
"I don't have to. They all agree with me."
Jay turned in her arms and held her as tight as he could, and she held him back just as tight.
"It's hard to believe that one day all of this will be gone. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, all the east, and west coast."
He kissed her softly. "Not our lifetime." He grabbed her chin at her next thoughts. "Another Paisley, Remember? Not you. I won't let that happen to you."
"I'll try to remember that if you will."
"I will." He promises. "I'm worried about you. All of this is too much for me, how can you______."
"Because I have you. You talked to Mack."
"I felt like she deserved an explanation."
"How is she taking it?"
"I'm not exactly a person she's going to share her feelings with but she's tough. She'll figure it out."
"And our parents?"
"Apparently when I was out of it, I talked out loud to my brothers.... God that doesn't even sound right. Anyway, they heard more than they should have, and you know Lisa, the first thing she did was went and told your mom."
"I feel her worry but she's tough too. We'll all figure it out."
"If_____."
"Don't finish that thought, Jay McCarthy! If you decide that it's best for our parents not to know, then I'll stand by you, but if you even think about wishing you hadn't connected us, then the whole secret invasion going on will be the least of your problems."
He smirked and lied right through his teeth. "I would never think that."
"Best you don't. Especially since I'm so damn glad I seduced you before all this that it's ridiculous."
He felt her good humor slip.
"I would have lost you if______."
"Could never happen." He laid her hand over his heart. "Not as long as that is beating. It might cross my mind every now and again that it would be nice if I wasn't a selfish mother fucker who trapped you with me, but nothing could stop me from doing it all over again. And again, and again if need be. Being selfish is the least of my sins."
She kissed him and as soon as her need for him sparked to life, so did his for her. He promised himself just a few moments in her arms, just a few moments of the freedom he found while she bathed him in her love, but they were nearing his bed before he came to his senses.
He growled his frustrations.
Bemused and still dazed, she tried to filter through his thoughts. Then she blushed. "Oh."
"I've been trying all night to figure out how to separate you from them but I'm finding it impossible." He growled again and pulled his t-shirt back over her shoulder. "I was willing to say to hell with it a few moments ago but Talon has reminded me that Eze is only thirteen."
Now she paled. "Thirteen? I know they're there; I can feel them but since they stop talking when I'm awake I just assumed that you turned them off or something."
"I've been trying. Trust me. Even though we aren't sure how we feel about that."
That last part was a feeling that he wasn't even sure was his.
He perked up. "You're saying you can only hear them when you're sleeping? You don't hear them right now?"
She smirked in his direction. "You're always stronger than you think you are." She pulled his shirt back down over her shoulder. "I know you, Jay. You need to be close to me right now. I make you able to think clearer." She took a step closer to him. "And you make me unable to think at all. You're also not going to share this with no one else. Not even your brothers, so you have about twenty seconds to figure it out." Her hand went to the snap of his jeans.
