Truth Behind the Mask Read online

  It was Erith who finally pulled back, gasping for air. “Wow,” she gasped. “Who’d have thought Pagan Osborne was such a great kisser.” She traced her finger over Pagan’s lips, outlining their shape and rubbing at their combined moisture that caught on them.

  “I don’t think it was all me.” Pagan’s voice was husky.

  “I have been wanting to do that since I first met you,” Erith said, her gaze still fixed on Pagan’s lips. “You have no idea how drawn to you I am.” She leaned forward a little to lay a gentler kiss on Pagan’s mouth. “My hero. You just reached out, snatched me up, and shielded me from those men. Once I felt this body of yours against me, I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to see if your lips were as soft as the rest of you is, despite all that strength you hide away.” Erith ran a hand over Pagan’s shoulders. “You’re holding me up as if I weigh nothing at all.”

  “You don’t, really. Besides, I wanted you a little closer so I could reach your lips better without getting a crick in my neck.”

  “The closer the better,” Erith said, caressing the line of Pagan’s jaw and then kissing her again. She pulled back slowly and gave Pagan a decidedly goofy look. “How romantic! Our first kiss, and it’s in an alleyway. You certainly know how to sweep a girl off her feet.”

  Pagan smiled at the memory of carrying Erith through the air as they traveled the city via its rooftops.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  “You,” Pagan said and kissed Erith’s forehead sweetly. “Us. This kissing thing that’s erupted between us.”

  “I, for one, like it.” Erith pulled Pagan closer again.

  Pagan hesitated and then reluctantly pulled back a little.

  “What?” Erith stilled her movements, searching Pagan’s face.

  “This isn’t exactly the right place to continue this, not with the Phoenix’s gang members running riot through the streets.” Pagan stuck her head around the edge of the alleyway and scanned the area swiftly. “They’ve gone now. We should head back home while it’s safe.”

  “How do you know they were part of his gang?”

  Pagan went still. She could almost audibly hear her brain click into gear, and only then did she give an answer. “They mentioned him in their taunts, and they were too coordinated to be a snatch-and-grab gang. I’m assuming that this Phoenix is out to cause as much mayhem as possible.” She mentally slapped herself for her slip-up. Nothing like proving you know more than she thinks, Pagan. One kiss and you’re about to spill the family secrets!

  Erith nodded and then looked pointedly at Pagan until Pagan frowned at her. “What?”

  “If we need to get back to the lighthouse, you might find we’ll go quicker and will get less stares if you put me back on the ground.”

  Pagan smiled sheepishly and gently lowered her, but not before she had deliberately brushed Erith the entire length of her body in order to do so.

  Erith shuddered at the contact. “Pagan Osborne, you are a wicked woman.”

  “Why?” Pagan asked, feeling the excitement still prickling at her skin at the touch they had shared.

  “You know why, and if this is what you are like after a few kisses while still fully clothed, God help me when you’re naked!”

  Pagan’s eyes widened and Erith touched her gently.

  “What is it?”

  “You’d…you’d want to be with me that way too?”

  “You really don’t see it, do you?” Erith tenderly stroked Pagan’s cheek. “You are so handsome, inside and out. I’d be a fool not to want to make love with you, and my dad, for all his faults, did not raise an idiot. I’ve wanted to be with you from the moment our eyes met, Pagan. I want more than kisses and hand holding. I want the whole thing. And if, while we explore all that entails, we find that we want forever together, I am willing to explore that too.”

  “You’re something else, Erith Baylor,” Pagan sighed, her heart oddly light and her head filled with a strange feeling of giddiness.

  “Yeah, well, when you work out what, be sure to let me know,” Erith said with a wry twist to her lips.

  Pagan covered Erith’s mouth with her own and kissed her sweetly. She liked the dazed look written all over Erith’s face when she withdrew. “For one thing,” Pagan said finally pulling away, “you’re mine now.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  Pagan signed something to her before her nerve gave out. Erith frowned as she tried to work it out. “Okay, I’m getting I and you, but what’s this?” She crossed her fists over her breasts.

  Pagan repeated the signing again and explained each one, saying each word shyly. “I. Love. You.”

  Erith’s face instantly crumpled into tears. She hastily repeated the gesture back at Pagan. “I love you too.”

  “Tonight we’ll start a crash course in sign language,” Pagan said, tenderly wiping away the tears that escaped from Erith’s eyes.

  “I’ve just learned the ones I’ll use the most.”

  Pagan planted a soft kiss on Erith’s freckled nose and then peered out again from their alleyway. “It’s safe for us to go now.” Taking Erith’s hand, Pagan led them away from the theater and the still-startled crowd. The police were starting to arrive, and the sound from the unhappy crowd was beginning to hurt Pagan’s ears. She bored them a path of escape from the madness.

  “I always feel safe when I’m with you, Pagan,” Erith said, looking back at the people milling around looking lost and confused. “I wonder why that is?”

  “Because your heart recognizes me as someone who will never do you harm.”

  “Maybe my heart just recognizes you.”

  *

  The lighthouse beam was unlit in the light of the early afternoon. Pagan hastened to the welcome sight of the striped lighthouse standing proudly amid the other, less adorned buildings.

  “Why the rush?” Erith asked.

  Pagan tried to shrug off the question and lessen her haste. “No rush, really. I have a couple of duties I’m expected to take care of, and I can’t remember what time I’m due to start, so I figure the sooner I’m there the less chance I have of being late.”

  Before they reached the lighthouse Erith tugged at Pagan’s hand, halting her. “Before we go back in…” She reached for Pagan so she could kiss her once more, long and hard.

  Pagan groaned as Erith’s tongue explored her mouth. Pagan couldn’t help her arms from drawing Erith closer.

  “Thank goodness Chastilian is a progressive city.” Erith grinned as she pulled back from their embrace. “Not all cities like to have two women kissing in the street.”

  Pagan blushed as she looked around, expecting prying eyes to be at every window watching their passionate display.

  “Are you going to tell your sister about us?” Erith asked.

  Pagan was still buzzing from the kiss, so it took a while for her brain to kick back into gear so she could answer Erith’s question. “Yes, as soon as I can get a moment alone with her and Rogue.”

  “Good, because I don’t want to have to hide from them how much I love you.”

  “I don’t want anything hidden between us either.” Pagan knew that sooner rather than later, her life was going to be revealed for all it was worth.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Pagan and Erith wandered through the open shop door to Ronchetti Security and slipped past the people who were walking around, perusing the products. She waved at Melina, who was watching over their customers.

  “I need to check with Rogue about something. I won’t be long.” Pagan waved Erith up the stairs to the main living area. After watching her disappear, Pagan sought Rogue out in her office where she was sorting through some paperwork.

  “Hey, you.” Rogue’s smile was welcoming. “How did you enjoy your film this time around?”

  “It was brilliant. The day it hits DVD I have to get it to save on movie tickets.” Pagan closed the door behind her. “When we came out of the movie there was a gang of Phoenix’s m
en running amok outside.”

  Rogue stopped what she was doing. “Before dusk? They are getting bold. They’re not usually out from under their stones until the moon begins to rise.”

  “There were about seven of them stealing handbags, but with much more violence than your usual purse snatcher. They just plowed right through us all, scattering people all over the place.”

  “Were you or Erith hurt?”

  “Not really. Erith would have gotten trampled, so I…” Pagan hesitated. “I picked her up and got her to safety.”

  “Literally, I take it?” Rogue laughed at Pagan’s abashed nod. “And what did she have to say about your feat of strength?”

  “Not a whole lot. She just kissed me.”

  Rogue’s head shot up and then she smiled. “Well, after this morning’s unabashed staring at the sight of you in your gym gear, I can’t say I’m all that surprised.”

  “She has the softest lips, Rogue. I’ve never felt anything like them.”

  “You’ve kept yourself away from emotional entanglements, maybe now you’ll see the reason why so many of us fall.”

  “She said she loves me.”

  Rogue’s eyebrows rose. “Does she, now? And what about you? What are your feelings in this matter?”

  “I told her I loved her too. I have from the moment I first saw her,” Pagan said. “This is the one, Rogue. This is the woman I want to spend every day with. I can’t explain why or how I know, I just do.”

  “Then your life is about to become very complicated, young Pagan. You’ve fallen for an outsider, and one inexplicably aligned with our enemy. Now you have to see if love can truly conquer everything that you believe it can.”

  “We’ve only just kissed and already I have to decide stuff?”

  “Surely you knew this day would come when you found someone to share your heart with?”

  “No, I never really expected anyone to see beyond my lack of hearing. It seemed such an issue as I was growing up.”

  “She obviously sees you, Pagan, for all you are. Being unable to hear doesn’t make you unable to love or to be loved in return. Look at me, for instance. I was the Vigilante Council’s technological wizard, the Sentinel who could create gadgets and gizmos. Give me a tool, some wires, and a fuse, and just see what I could conjure up. Then one day at a huge gathering, your parents brought in your sister because she was going to be trained as a Sighted and was old enough to be allowed into the sessions. I took one look at her and knew she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. She was barely sixteen, way too young to be thinking of romance, and in truth so was I, so I bided my time, waited, and hoped that she would see me among the sea of faces the Council presides over. She did; she caught me staring at her, and the rest is history.

  “I courted her properly, and your sister helped me feel I was more than just the geek Sentinel the Council employed. Then the world turned upside down and we were thrown together even closer because of circumstances no one ever envisaged. I moved in here, learned to run a business as well as continue my Sentinel work, and still build my gadgets.” Rogue gave Pagan a poignant look. “And I had to learn how to bring up a small child whose world had been turned upside down and inside out.”

  “You did an excellent job. I love you so much.”

  “I love you too. Sentinels aren’t expected to fall in love. They are supposed to love only the city and defend it beyond all costs. So when a Sentinel finds love, it is sweeter than anything else they will ever experience.”

  “Erith seems to have a way with gadgets like you do,” Pagan said.

  “She has a Sentinel’s way of getting in and out of places, I’ll grant her that.”

  “Maybe I can break the whole Sentinel thing to her gradually. I don’t have to tell her everything straight away. It’s not like we’re picking out china patterns yet.”

  Rogue leaned back against her desk, arms folded across her chest. “Are you happy, Pagan?”

  She gave Rogue’s question careful consideration. “Yes, I am. It’s like a piece I was missing has just been handed to me, and I feel complete for the first time.”

  “That’s a sweet feeling.” Rogue smiled, then her head tilted up as she heard familiar footsteps. “Melina’s coming.”

  The door opened and Melina stepped in. She looked at their faces and eyed them both warily. She shut the door quietly behind her.

  “Okay, I’ve had this strange feeling for the last five minutes that something was happening. I should have known it was emanating from you two. The shop is closed for the day, so what’s wrong?”

  “Phoenix’s men have been running amok in Chastilian’s daylight hours,” Rogue said.

  “That is not a good sign.”

  Rogue edged closer to Melina, put an arm about her, and cuddled her close. “But on the bright side, Pagan got well and truly kissed by her little red fox.”

  Melina’s eyes widened. “You’re too young to be kissing!”

  Pagan started to laugh and Rogue coughed politely.

  “Sweetheart, please remember how old we were when we started kissing. Pagan here has a lot of catching up to do. Our late bloomer is about to blossom.”

  Melina was quiet for just a moment, then asked, “How was it?”

  “I heard bells without the requirement of my aids.”

  Melina hugged Pagan to her. “You just enjoy every minute you have together. If this is the one for you, then I am very happy. She’s a lovely girl.”

  “I think so too.” Pagan gave Rogue a look. “She told me something of interest today on the way to the movie. Seems Tito Ammassari had a visit from the police yesterday. They wanted him to identify the people in a photograph they had.”

  Rogue shared a look with Melina. “How does Erith know this?”

  “The police decided to question him in the office next to Erith’s but kept the door open so she could hear every word. She said she’s never seen Tito act so frightened. After they left, he kept flitting around checking that the alarms were all in place.”

  “Did she hear if he recognized the others?”

  “She said all he kept saying was it wasn’t him in the photo and he didn’t know anyone else either. He denied all knowledge.”

  Melina sighed. “Damn it, it would have helped to have known the last two in the photograph. I wonder why he didn’t tell the police anything when the one man in the photo is so obviously him?”

  Rogue looked over at Pagan. “I think we should go visit Ammassari ourselves tonight. He’s obviously running scared.”

  “With good reason. Two in the photo have already been killed.”

  Melina gave Rogue a hug, then slipped from her grasp. She patted Pagan on her cheek. “Now all we have to do is find a way to get you out of the loving arms of your new girlfriend and out into the night.”

  Pagan swallowed back a groan at how she was going to accomplish that without raising suspicion.

  “Young love,” Rogue said. “So fraught with dilemma.”

  Pagan ignored her and went to find Erith. She had a few hours yet to formulate an excuse for why she couldn’t stay up until all hours on a weekend. She found Erith on the sofa in the living room, idly flicking through the TV channels. The smile she graced Pagan with pushed everything else from her head.

  “All sorted?” Erith asked, moving over to make room for Pagan beside her.

  “For now.” Pagan snuggled in close, relishing the peace she felt with Erith in her arms.

  *

  Much later that evening, Rogue walked into the living room where Pagan and Erith were still watching TV in a comfortable silence. Erith was snuggled into Pagan’s chest as they took up most of the sofa in a lazy sprawl of limbs.

  “Mel said to wish you both good night. She has a migraine and I’ve just gotten her settled in bed.”

  Erith stirred from her position. “Migraines are not nice.”

  “She’ll be out for the night. She usually has to just sleep them off,” Rogue
said. She turned her attention to Pagan. “As for you and I, we have to go.”

  Pagan stared at her for a moment, then realized what Rogue was doing. “What’s up?”

  “We have an alarm screaming blue murder in the city. Might just be a faulty wire, or perhaps someone has been tampering with the connections, but we have to go investigate.”

  “At this late hour?” Erith asked.

  “The alarm has already been going for a while. It’s driving the neighbors crazy, so I said we’d go try to sort it out so that the city can sleep tonight without disturbance.”

  Pagan got up and stretched the kinks from her spine. She looked back down at Erith. “Sorry to cut our evening short. Goodness knows when we’ll be back, so I’ll probably see you in the morning for breakfast.” She leaned down and gave Erith a kiss. It lasted a lot longer than she expected because once she’d started she was loath to stop. Rogue’s polite cough broke them apart. Pagan stared into Erith’s emerald eyes. “Good night.”

  Erith brushed her fingers along Pagan’s jawline. “Be safe.”

  “I will, I promise.” She padded after Rogue down the hallway and then up to the lighthouse’s hidden lair. Pagan saw Melina firmly ensconced before the monitor screens. She ran a hand over Melina’s hair and tugged at the ends.

  “Hope your migraine gets better, sis.”

  “We’d have waited forever for you to get your ass in gear and leave both the room and your girl, so we expedited the matter.”

  “Any stirrings?” Pagan asked.

  Melina pointed to a screen. “The Phoenix’s men are out here, here, and here.” She gestured at the locations viewed through the closed circuit camera’s eye over the city. “They have been visible for the past hour. That’s not their normal procedure. They’re up to something, and they don’t appear to care who sees them.”