Oleander: One of Us Series Read online

  I stiffened and stared at the cup. Don’t stay in the diner. That was the rules, and I’d lived my life by rules. Maybe not others, but they were rules just the same. “No, thank you. I’ll just drink this here and leave.”

  “Don’t be silly, ain’t no one else here. These men don’t mind. You mind fellas if this here lady sits and eats?”

  There was a mumble and movement of their heads. But I stared at nothing but the steam on that black coffee.

  “See,” the kid murmured. “Go ahead, take a seat. I’ll bring it right over.”

  My belly gnawed and muttered. I was so used to just having barely enough, just one mouthful more than that and the beast came alive—wanting. I gripped the straps of my pack and stepped toward the booth. Warm air blew gently against my face from the heating vents overhead.

  God it was nice in here. Nice and clean and warm.

  The kid sang as he worked with his back to me…and it wasn’t angst, hate-filled rap. It was nice, thick blues with a country twang, something utterly alien.

  A hiss cut through the air before he turned and slid the plate onto the counter. I stared at a mountain of whipped cream and tied to swallow the whimper.

  He was around the counter before I knew, striding toward me with a bounce in his step. “You’re happy.” I couldn’t help myself.

  “Sure am. Got my letter for Harvard today. Gonna be out of this place and into classrooms with professors and doctors before I know it. Told Pops it’s my last night tonight. Gonna take a vacation, see my folks in Orphic City and then I’m outta here, bye bye Demand.”

  I never heard the door open, only the clatter of the cup as he jerked his gaze toward the door and then sat the plate in front of me. I couldn’t help but follow his stare

  Four thugs walked in. I glanced at the ink on their arms…prison tattoos marred pale skin.

  But the black leather vests spoke of a gang that wasn’t welcome around here. A vicious brood of rebels with a name for violence—the Hunters.

  The two men huddled over their plates, stopped chewing and glanced over their shoulder. Half-eaten burgers were left behind as they rose swiftly and made for the door.

  “Gentlemen,” Nik forced a smile. “We don’t want any trouble here…how about a coffee, it’s on the house.” But the kid seemed unable to move from the end of my table.

  And inside I was whispering. Don’t invite them to stay…get them out as fast as you can.

  But there was silence, utter silence. Until one of the thugs made a move for his waist, and I felt the rising…the surging.

  “Old man Jackson owes us,” the middle piece of shit murmured, his gaze shot to me, and then back to Nik. “We’re here to collect.”

  The kid shook his head and stumbled backwards. “Don’t know none of that.”

  But they knew. They knew plenty. Three fanned out and moved into the diner, leaving the door to close behind them with a bang.

  “Don’t want no trouble here.” Icy words slipped from my lips as I lifted my hands.

  Black veins rushed to the surface, spreading along my hand and my fingers. But they never saw, they never took any notice of me.

  I was just a bum. Just a sewer rat living on the streets,

  “Money,” the leader snarled as his enforcer dragged a gun from his waistband. “Or die.”

  The monster in me was hungry…ravenous almost, and no amount of apple pie could sate its need.

  I rose from the table, leaving my pack on the ground and took a step.

  I had their focus now. I was all they could see.

  The thug’s finger slipped to the trigger as I slowly shoved back my hood.

  Dad called me Oleander, after the poisonous tree. But it wasn’t my real name…he never told me what that was, and it was too far back to remember.

  “Sit down, bitch,” the banger spat, and raised the silver Ruger. “Or suck the cock of my nine.”

  There was a twitch in the alpha’s gaze, before he broke away from the others, striding along the diner to me.

  Panic whispered in the back of my mind. Goosebumps raced, tearing this moment apart and piecing it together in slow motion. I stood my ground, not moving an inch as he lunged to close the distance and grip me by the throat.

  Fingers curled, gouging into soft flesh. I tried to swallow, and swallow again. Fear howled like a wolf in the night, and inside I was weak. I was so fucking weak. Memories surfaced, binding my wrists, hands on the back of my head, pushing…shoving, forcing me into a place I was terrified to go.

  My knees gave a shudder, but held strong. The beast was all I had left. The only one who’d protect me, and she wanted the thug nice and close…where she could touch him.

  “You gotta mouth on you, don’t you, whore. You suck with that mouth? I bet you do.” His other hand lifted. Filthy fingers pushed between my lips, bruising and hurting. “Open your mouth bitch, come on…show me how you suck.”

  The ground underneath me vibrated. The call undeniable…as the beast inside me whispered. “Sure,” and the word slipped from my lips as I opened my mouth wide.

  Tires screeched. A gunning engine roared. White flashed in the corner of my eye before the banger’s fingers left my mouth.

  He gave Nik a glance and then shoved me backwards.

  I stumbled and carved the air with my hand, an inch away from his.

  “Out,” the leader barked. He settled cold, feral eyes on me. “We’re not done bitch. Not by a long shot.”

  He yanked his hand to his chest and then pointed at me. “I’m comin’ for you.”

  Panic filled the diner now as movement came from outside. But it wasn’t from the short-order cook behind me. It was the four lonely thugs on the wrong side of the fucking street.

  I sucked in hard breaths as the glint of guns stole the show. Screams erupted, guns were drawn. I waited for the bang…I waited for the red and blue.

  “Get down,” Nik growled behind the counter.

  But I couldn’t stop staring as the driver of the white pickup rounded the grille and stepped up to the sidewalk.

  Black. White. Hispanic. It didn’t matter what color you were around here. It only mattered what you guarded…for your flock was everything.

  The Brother Bear alpha moved like he had all the time in the world, stepping up to the pavement. He wasn’t what I expected at all, white, for one, older, a hint if greying hair at the edges, unlike his rival.

  He lifted his head. Blue eyes cut through the glass to meet mine.

  There was a flare of surprise. One tiny second before he took that final step and mounted the pavement. One glance behind me and his lips moved, only this time I couldn’t make out the words.

  Brothers fanned out to surround the Hunters. It was all bravado and talk. Flashy silver waved in the air in front of blue eyes’ face. But he didn’t look at the weapons. No, for him it was all about the eyes.

  Alpha met alpha as the two men narrowed in. Words were spat like bullets before the rival lifted his head to stare at me.

  The Brother’s alpha never drew a weapon…his words were all he needed. His lips moved before the Hunter alpha’s eyes widened. One tiny nod was all it took to admit defeat.

  There was no more flashy silver now.

  No more cocky attitude.

  The Hunters lifted their bare hands and slowly backed away.

  My knees shuddered, hand went to the back of the chair. It wasn’t the shots and the blood I was scared about. It was me. It was the monster.

  My nails dug into the soft leather of the seat as I took a breath.

  “Thank you…thank you for standing up to them,” said Nik, his voice shuddery.

  I couldn’t take his words. Couldn’t take his gratitude. I bent, grasped my bag from the seat, and was moving before I knew.

  Gotta get out of here.

  Just run.

  My steps were a blur.

  Nik yelled, “Hey wait! You forgot your pie!”

  Acid spilled in the back of my thro
at as I lunged away. The thick sole of my boots slapped on the linoleum before I pushed through the door and was out into the cold.

  Tires screeched in front of me. There was a heavy thud before I turned and cut across the thugs and then the white pickup.

  “Hey!” one of the thugs yelled.

  A soft growl followed. “Let her be.”

  Cars collided with something in the busy city streets. I didn’t have to turn my head to see. The asphalt was cracked, thick roots of a tree poked through, the poison trees I called and the poisoned trees answered, carving roots through the earth to find me. Red and orange streets lights blurred as I ran.

  Oleander, my dad once called me.

  And that’s what I was.

  I called them…I used them.

  And the monster in me was restless.

  Her roots were unearthed.

  Her need still raged.

  No. I tried to shut it down. I tried to take control.

  I kicked cracked pavement and pitched forward hitting something heavy in the dark. Half-filled trashcans clanged, echoing along the dark alley.

  I stumbled, dropped. Even in the half-moon I saw the black veins pulsing under my skin. I dropped my hand to the ground, and the tiny tendril was there.

  Fragile roots spread along the ground, curling around my fingers like a child clutches its mother. I swallowed and swallowed. But it wasn’t the acid in the back of my throat.

  It was the venom from the tree, from all the trees.

  I stiffened, shuddered and shook as I pitched forward, and they were there, weaving like vines through my fingers and along my hands.

  Let me out, the beast inside me commanded.

  It was stronger now…so…so strong. I whimpered and closed my eyes. It wanted me to find that gangbanger on the street. It wanted me to lure him into some dark alley—one just like this.

  It wanted me to wrap roots round him and hold him still.

  And it wanted to shove my roots through his lips and whisper. You don’t come for me…bitch.

  I. Come. For. You.

  My legs shuddered, desperate to feel movement. Desperate to obey. I opened my mind, opened my soul, and speared my fingers into the thickening roots and held on.

  I swallowed.

  And I swallowed.

  And somehow, I prayed.

  Chapter Five

  Oleander

  The city streets felt different now, like the midnight crime spree had washed the shit away.

  I glanced at cars idling at the red lights and craned my head. There were no hoots and hollers or hate-filled rap. No calls of suck my dick, bitch! Nothing but idling motors and music playing a little quieter behind closed windows.

  I gripped my bag and left the park behind, heading right this time instead of left, giving Jackson’s a wide berth.

  My steps didn’t feel as sure now, awkward and alien. That hunger in my belly had turned into something else. Cold rage rippled out from my bones. I gripped the straps of my pack with one hand, and stilled at the corner of a building.

  People rushed past in a hurry to get nowhere.

  I stared into the reflection of the winter sun from a bank of office windows and drove my fist into my middle. Panic raced. I searched the darkness for the beast. Get back down…I don’t want you…don’t need you…you hear me?

  And a sickening snarl leached out. Fingers trembled as I dragged my fist free. Black veins pulsed under the surface of my skin, and then faded. I was sick—sick with a disease no doctor could cure.

  Food. Maybe that could help? I shoved against the corner of the building and made for the shelter.

  “Ol…hey, Ol!” Hands went to my arm. Kind brown eyes filled my gaze as Pappa Joe leaned close. “Honey you look like Hell. Have you slept at all?”

  I could trust him, couldn’t I? One tiny shake of my head. “Just need food.”

  His grip was sure as it slid around my back. I tried to pull away.

  Don’t touch me.

  Not safe.

  Not safe from the beast.

  “Easy now. No one’s gonna hurt you. Come on, let me get some food into you and then I’ve got a cot and a nice warm blanket with your name on it. How’s that sound?”

  Engines rumbled. I blinked through the blur and saw a flash of white. But it was gone before I knew. Just a trick of my eyes. A trick of the beast. I nodded and let him lead me through the doors and inside. The sweet smell of syrup hit me hard.

  “You’re in luck. It’s pancake day,” Joe murmured as he pushed aside the double swing doors.

  But instead of turning left for the mess hall. He turned right. “Figured you’d take off after last night. Thought maybe you wouldn’t be back at all.”

  I flinched with the words and lifted my gaze. “You know?”

  There was a gentle nod. “Oh, I know. Not much passes on these streets without me hearin’ about it. Young Nik says you saved his life, and I’m inclined to agree.”

  The halls were quiet in the old transformed gymnasium. Most of the cots already cleaned and made fresh for the night ahead, lined up military style all the way to the end.

  “In my office child, the bed’s all made. You just slide off those boots and climb right in.”

  He shoved down the handle, and the door swung in. And for a second I stared, at not a quiet dark office, but the filthy inside of a van.

  Just reach inside there for me…that’s the girl.

  My knees shuddered, and I went to the doorframe. But instead of hard hands, pushing and shoving, dragging me inside, Pappa Joe dropped his hand from around my waist and took a step backwards. “Ain’t no one gonna hurt you child, so you just take your time. The light switch is to your left, and the cot to your right. I’ll be on kitchen duties most of today anyways, so you sleep as much as you need.”

  Fingers clenched tight, holding onto the painted steel. Black veins pulsed to the surface, racing along the back of my hand, before I dropped my hold, hiding what I could with the sleeve of my hoodie.

  “I’ll be back with some food, okay…okay Ol?”

  I gave a nod and then he was gone, leaving me staring into nothing. I was stupid and weak. I was just a fucking kid…even after all these years, still afraid of being confined.

  Closed doors terrified me. Hands around my neck made me weak. But it was the phantom straps around my wrists that bought me undone. Straps binding me to something I could never remember. My fingers trembled as I rubbed the leather hiding those numbers.

  Five seven six three.

  The numbers meant nothing…and yet they were everything.

  The key to my past…if only I could remember why?

  I forced my feet to move. Fingers skimmed the inside of the wall before I hit the light switch. White fluorescent’s flickered and buzzed before they came alive, and I pushed open the door wider.

  It was a plain room, small, with a desk on one side and a cot on the other. I gripped my pack and moved further in. Pictures of family lined the walls. Grandkids dressed in graduation gowns holding certificates out in front.

  I was drawn to a photograph of Pappa Joe and his wife. I dropped my pack to the foot of the bed. The old woman looked beautiful, thick silver hair against cocoa skin.

  They looked happy, and radiant, and that seemed to echo from the faces in all the pictures. Happy and sure…knowing who they were and where they came from.

  “That’s my Betty, taken last fall.”

  I flinched at the sound of his voice and placed the photo on the desk.

  “She was my life, that woman. Had a heart attack about a month after that photo was taken and died on the way to the hospital. I thank God every day for each precious moment we spent together…every day was sheer joy.”

  I was an invader, rifling through his memories—touching his life in ways that were too personal. “Sorry,” I murmured.

  “Don’t be.” He took a step, handing me a plate piled with pancakes. “Does my heart good to see others drawn to her, even i
f it’s just her picture. You got family, Ol?”

  I stabbed the fork into the soft mound, hacked it with the side of utensil, and answered, “Used to.”

  “You’re not like the others,” the old man murmured and shuffled closer.

  I could feel his gaze now, feel his focus…searching for answers to unspoken questions. His eyes dropped to the thick leather band around my wrist. “You a cutter, is that why you hide?”

  I stiffened, mouth filled sweetness and clouds. No one cared about me, no one wanted to know. I was the kind of person no one saw…I chewed and swallowed. Tell the truth…maybe he might believe you?

  “Pappa…Pappa Joe, you in there?”

  A woman’s voice boomed from outside. There was a hard knock, before the door was shoved all the way open. Harley, I think her name was, cut a glance toward me, and then the old man. “Oh, dear, sorry. I shoulda waited.”

  “It’s okay, Harley. Oleander and I were just getting to know one another. You enjoy those pancakes.” He gave me a smile and then grasped the door. “You want it open, or closed?”

  “Open…please,” the answer shot from my mouth.

  He gave a nod, and then was gone, shuffling after Harley as she turned and left.

  “Sorry Pappa, it’s just you asked me to come and get you when Maddox arrived.”

  There was a mumble of an answer, but they were too far gone now, voices slipping into a blur as they faded away.

  I cut the remnants on my plate and shoved the food into my mouth. My head buzzed, high on sugar and lack of sleep.

  The thick blankets around the thin mattress looked so warm and inviting. No one else was out here. It was safe…for just a little while. I kicked off my boots, swallowed the last bite and sat the plate on the edge of the desk.

  Sleep called me. My eyes drifted closed as I slipped my feet under the blankets. My toes peeked through the holes in the top, skimming fresh cotton.

  It was too clean, too soft.

  Too goddamn everything and as the bedsprings creaked, moaned and then finally settled I closed my eyes to the bright lights overhead and drifted to sleep.