Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Ebony woke with a familiar ache in her chest and an unfamiliar ache between her thighs. One made her smile with memories of passion beyond anything she'd ever imagined, and the other reminded her of why she shouldn't be letting Lark develop feelings for her.

"Good morning, love," Lark said, rolling over and pulling her in for a kiss.

They were both nude and he was very happy this morning. "Woah, you're insatiable," she teased.

"Apparently when it comes to my soulmate, I am."

"I'm not sure I can handle any of that," she said motioning vaguely at his lower half. "I'm feeling a bit weak from last night," she admitted, and her cheeks burned.

"My soulmate needs sustenance," he said with a laugh. "I guess I'll tell the guys to meet us for breakfast. They brought Shine back from DC and I'm anxious for you two to meet."

"Shine Buchanan?" She couldn't fathom why that would be necessary.

"Yeah, apparently she wants to confront her father on some illegal business he's been involved with," he said vaguely.

Ebony wasn't sure what that could mean but it didn't surprise her. Just seeing the man on television had always given her the creeps and her mother would practically hiss at his image whenever it came on. Ebony stood up and hurried to the bathroom, trying to ignore the fact that Lark was watching her naked behind the entire time.

She managed to avoid looking in the mirror as she prepared to shower and wash her hair. She hated to see the harsh reminder of the time bomb in her chest. She stepped under the hot spray of water and let it soothe her and wake her up. As she soaped her body and washed away the residue of Lark between her thighs, she couldn't help but grin. She'd gotten to experience something that most people never had a chance to. Not the sex, anyone could have sex, legal or not, but she had gotten to have sex with her soulmate. The knowledge of that was warming and she wished she could pick up a phone and gush all about it to Taylor. They'd spent many a night talking about what a soulmate might be like and although Ebony didn't have anything to compare it to, Taylor assured her that not all men were good in bed and if a soulmate was better than the best she'd ever had, he would be amazing.

Ebony could now attest to the accuracy of that.

She was feeling renewed when she stepped out of the shower, even if the ache in her chest hadn't eased. Then she froze, a hand pressing against her chest, but not over her scar, not where she knew cancer grew. This was different she realized. This was a pull in her soul.

"Fuck," she groaned as the weight of what it meant settled over her. It was everything she'd hoped for and feared finding. Her soulsister was near.

"Ebony, are you okay?" Lark demanded. He was standing in the doorway staring at her, completely nude still and unashamed.

Ebony turned to him and gave a half smile. "She's here."

Lark stiffened and crossed to pull her into his arms. "Shine, I think it's Shine."

"No, she's—it can't be," Ebony gasped pulling back in his arms far enough to look up into his face. She expected to see that he was joking, but his face was deadly calm.

"I met her last night when they arrived. She's not what everyone thinks she is. She's more like you, but also not at all," he said with a shake of his head.

"Did you," Ebony swallowed back a flare of jealousy. "Did you spark with her?" She asked with a tight voice. Images of Lark and Shine in a bed together filled her mind and she wanted to throw something. She pulled her towel tighter around her body, trying not to think about how perfect, unmarred and healthy Shine's body must be.

Lark's eyes softened and his lips pulled up into a small smile as he shook his head. "No. But I must say I like to see you jealous." He pulled her to him and kissed her deeply, easing some of her jealousy and fear, but not all of it. "I didn't feel anything when I was near her or shook her hand and I don't want her. No matter what, I will never want anyone but you, Ebony." He ran his hands down her arms and up her front to brush over her breasts then to her face. "This body, this face, your piece of soul is all I'll ever want. No substitute will do, no addition needed."

Ebony pulled back and shook her head. "You know that's not true," she whispered and turned to the mirror. She stared into her own eyes, searching for the pieces of her soul, the thing that recognized its missing slice. Was she about to meet her death, her savior, her chance at dying with a purpose, her chance at living a full life? What did she even want anymore?

She met Lark's gaze in the mirror and drew in a sharp breath. She saw bloodlust there, an eagerness for her to take everything from another living human so that she could perhaps beat the death sentence in her chest.

She looked away. She couldn't breathe under that pressure. "I am going to brush my teeth," she whispered, her voice husky with emotion.

He touched her back gently and for a moment she thought he was going to say something, but then he walked out quietly and shut the door. When she heard the click, she crumpled to the floor and let silent tears fall from her eyes.

She'd known it was stupid to let herself get involved with Lark once she'd realized what he was, but she'd convinced herself that it would be okay. Now she was paying the price. A deep dread filled her and a fear of death she hadn't had since she was first diagnosed settled over her. She didn't want to die, she didn't want to give someone else a chance to be happy with their soulmate. Not just anyone… Shine Buchanan, a woman she had hated from afar. And not just some random guy who may not exist… Lark, a man she now knew intimately.

Everything had changed, and it was all her fault, why hadn't she been stronger, why hadn't she resisted his advances?

Nothing had changed, she reminded herself. She was still dying and she still wanted to give someone else a chance at something better, and if Lark was right, Shine was ready to come out against her father. Maybe the woman wasn't all bad. Ebony had always assumed that her soulsibling would be a decent person, seeing as she had half the soul that Ebony did, and Ebony had never wanted to do anything terrible in her entire life. The soul likely had something to do with morals, Ebony assumed.

Ebony knew she couldn't let herself wallow for long. She picked herself up and brushed her teeth, then walked out of the bathroom to dress. Lark was already dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a black T-shirt, it seemed to be his preferred look. His hair was shaggy, and he was scowling at his laptop.

She didn't like seeing him upset and she made an impulsive decision. "What is it?" she asked, dropping her towel and posing provocatively.

He looked up at her and grinned. "You have no idea how much I want you to stay just like that," he groaned. "But I told the guys to meet in here for breakfast and if they see you like that, I'll have to gouge out their eyes or kill them." Lark chuckled. "Also, I don't want you to meet Shine in public, just in case things get weird."

"Oh," she said quietly. "Yeah, that's probably good." Ebony bit her lip and walked over to where her clothes from yesterday were thrown on a chair.

Lark was suddenly behind her, his hands running up and down her sides and his mouth hot and wet on her neck and shoulder. He grunted and bit lightly at her skin before pulling away and lightly tapping her bare ass.

Comforted by his obvious desire she smiled as she pulled on the clothes then brushed out her hair and put on some mascara. When she ran out of ways to distract herself with primping, she made the bed and picked up the few things littered about the room.

A knock at the door froze her on the spot and she stared at it, holding her breath.

"Room service!" A voice called, following a second knock.

"I ordered for everyone," Lark explained and went to open the door. A waiter pushed in a cart loaded with trays and cups, followed by Stone looking bright and cheery.

"Good morning, love birds," Stone called out and poured himself a cup of coffee from the cart.

"Morning," Ebony said and accepted a cup of coffee from Stone.

They settled on the couches with the food laid on the table and as soon as the door closed behind the waiter, Stone started talking.

"Granger and Shine should be here soon, and we'll have some answers there I think, right away," Stone motioned at Ebony meaningfully. "But I did come up with a couple interesting items last night in my research that I think we should discuss before they get here."

"Talk," Lark ordered. He'd settled on the couch close to Ebony and she laid a hand on his leg for support. How had he become her safe place so quickly?

"Ebony's mother had a rather large chunk of change in a bank account when she first got to LA. She opened it with Glick as a signee because her residential address was listed as the halfling camp, she couldn't get an account on her own. She registered Ebony at five under the name Henrietta Long, hiding her identity from, well, everyone essentially."

"She knew Glick before she got there?" Lark asked, confused.

"It would seem so."

"My mother didn't have money, she worked every day of her life," Ebony said, shaking her head.

"Yes, but she never used her rations. She never scanned anywhere. She was definitely hiding."

Ebony tried to think about that, was Stone right? Had she ever actually seen her mother scan or had she always used cash? It was strange for a halfling to use cash, Ebony knew that but her mother had always done it that way. Why? "Was she hiding from my father?" Ebony wondered aloud.

"Perhaps, but what if it was more?" Stone said with a knowing grin.

"She grew up here in Vegas. You know this is where she met your father and got pregnant, right? Well she was raised right here, daughter of two born fullsouls."

"Okay, so her family had money, she had an inheritance to escape with," Ebony reasoned. "I guess that all makes sense, though I don't know why she didn't tell me."

"Maybe. Everything points to her hiding and Buchanan was after her, is after you," Stone said around a mouthful of muffin.

Ebony blinked and shook her head, this was all too much. "Whoa, wait, where do you make that connection?"

Lark cleared his throat and she looked at him, he had a contrite set to his mouth that she'd never seen before. "There was a letter in your employee file, it was from Buchanan to you but sent to the hotel so Glick intercepted it. It could have simply been that he was interested in hiring you, but even Glick didn't seem to think that was all on the up and up. It's what sent us on the lead to DC."

Ebony's mind spun at this new information, why the hell had senator Buchanan been looking for her, and why had Glick kept it a secret? Before she could ask any questions Stone continued on.

Stone set a file on the table. "Buchanan had a file on your mother in his home office. It details her life up to her disappearance from Vegas, pregnant with you."

Ebony gasped and darted her eyes from Stone to Lark, expecting it all to be a joke. "Does it say who my father is?" Not that it mattered, not really, but she'd always wondered about him. She supposed it was natural to want to see where you'd come from, who had made you. She wanted to see some kind of care for her mother in the eyes of the man that had risked her mother's life for a night in bed. She didn't want to be a lust baby, she desperately wanted to have been made in love.

"No, I'm sorry, it doesn't reveal that. There is only an address for your father. I looked it up last night, but it seems to just be an office building. So another dead end maybe," Stone explained with a frustrated shrug.

"Perhaps he works there? Maybe she had too. They could have met at work and fallen in love," Ebony knew her voice was high and strained, desperate for a happy memory for her mother. "I want to go there. I want to see it I—I just want to see even if it's nothing. It's all I have of her now."

Lark rubbed her back comfortingly and nodded at Stone.

"The building is owned by Buchanan," Stone said to Lark. "It could be dangerous."

"My life is over. I'm dying. The police are after me and my soulsister is coming into this room any minute. I want to know what my mother was hiding from. Who my father was and who I am."

Lark pulled her to him and grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him. "You are my soulmate, you are not dying, you are not going to jail, and I don't care who walks through that door when. Those are the facts." He spoke with such fierce sincerity that Ebony almost believed him.

Ebony put her hands on Lark's face and smiled into his eyes. "You're good, but I'm not sure you're that good, searcher."

He growled and a knock at the door stopped any further discussion.

Ebony shot to her feet and so did Lark, putting himself between her and the door.

"Come on in," Stone yelled when no one spoke or moved for several moments.

The door opened and Granger walked in with narrowed eyes and scowling lips. His gaze was locked onto Lark and the two men seemed to be having a silent standoff.

"Fucking move," a voice snapped from behind Granger and then the small woman that Ebony had seen a hundred times on television, pushed around him.

The flame inside of Ebony was instantly vibrating and she stepped around Lark, only to have him grab her arm and pull her back.

"Is it her?" Lark whispered in her ear.

"She's my soulsister, I can feel it like nothing I've ever experienced," Ebony confirmed.

Shine rubbed at her own chest. "I feel it too, like a little pulse. I guess that's because I'm not as souled as you," she said with a shrug. "I got the short end of that stick."

"How does that even happen?" Ebony wondered, taking in the darkness of the woman's eyes and the paleness of her skin. If she didn't know better, she'd say this was a nosoul, not just a halfling with less than half a soul. "Let me go," she said gently and patted Lark's hand.

He looked at her and she saw a fear there that warmed her. She smiled at him, this was what had to happen. He reluctantly let go and she stepped forward, so did Shine. Granger was right behind Shine, glowering, and Ebony could feel Lark breathing down her own neck.

"May I?" Ebony asked, raising a hand to touch Shine.

Shine nodded and lifted her own hand. Ebony touched palms with her soulsister.

Ebony groaned with the feeling of completeness that filled her at just that touch. It was like she'd been living with almost-full breaths all her life and this was the first time she filled her lungs to capacity. She never wanted it to stop and she wondered if that's what it would feel like if she killed Shine and took in her slice of soul, would this completeness be permanent? Ebony could understand why people found it an irresistible possibility when faced with it like this.

"Wow," Shine said, blinking. "I've never felt anything like that."

"Well, here I thought Granger was supposed to be good in bed," Stone teased from the couch.

Granger just grunted, not taking the bait, but Ebony appreciated his light attitude in the situation. She dropped her hand but continued looking into Shine's eyes, mourning the loss of contact instantly. Ebony didn't see anything malicious in Shine's gaze, no deep desire to strangle her to death and take her soul. But Ebony knew the thought had to have crossed Shine's mind.

Sure that a fight wasn't about to break out between them, Ebony relaxed a bit.

There was something else that needed answered immediately though. "Lark, I want you to touch her. I need to know if—if you feel it with her," Ebony said. She couldn't go on wondering, she couldn't be around this woman and know that Lark was as attracted to her. It would kill anything she thought she felt for him. It would ruin what she thought they had. He said he had felt nothing when they met last night, but she needed to see for herself.

"No," Granger said, shoving Shine behind him.

"You don't own me, you ass," Shine hissed and pushed around him. "You're good in bed, but I am not your property and I'm so sick of taking orders." Shine reached out a hand to Lark while Granger looked as if he were about to kill everyone and run away with Shine whether she liked it or not.

Lark looked at Ebony. "Are you sure? I don't feel anything looking at her. I don't want to touch her in any way," he insisted.

"You didn't feel anything for me before we touched," she reminded him and took a deep breath because this could change everything. "I'm sure." Ebony stepped away, making sure she wasn't touching Lark in any way as he reached out to take Shine's hand.

It seemed like the entire room held its breath as the two touched skin-to-skin. Ebony couldn't take her eyes off of Lark, searching for any hint of desire, any spark of recognition.

After a moment he pulled his hand back and frowned. "I felt the tiniest sensation," Lark admitted as if it were a shameful thing. He turned to Ebony, his eyes apologetic. "But it's nothing like what I felt when I first touched you, Ebony. If I didn't know she held a piece of my soulmate's soul, I would think nothing of the sensation at all. There's no way that I'd pick her out as my soulmate based on that touch." He shook his head to emphasize his point. He grinned at Ebony and ran a finger across her chin. "Just you, babe."

"You don't want to…" Ebony gestured vaguely, not wanting to vocalize her thoughts but needing to know.

"Want to throw her over my shoulder and take her to bed?" Lark laughed, gaining a growl from Granger.

"Something like that," Ebony gritted not really wanting to hear the answer.

"No, I feel nothing of the sort for her. Halflings aren't supposed to produce a soulspark remember, and the only reason you and I did was because you have so much of the soul. She does nothing for me. I want no one more than you, no one except you Ebony, now and forever."

"It's enough to make you sick, isn't it," Stone said with a mock gag.

"What about you?" Granger asked Shine. "Did you feel it?"

"No, I didn't notice anything at all," she shrugged. "So, now that's settled, I would love a cup of coffee."

Shine pulled Ebony to the couch and settled in next to her. The feeling of relief she got by being near the woman was something she'd only ever gotten from a shot, and she was scared to admit how close she'd been to accepting Granger's offer of blood in the hotel room. Her body had felt weak, on edge, and sensitive. But the thought of taking blood had made her stomach churn.

Stone served up coffee as Lark and Granger whispered near the door.

"Where did you grow up?" Shine asked, her mind going a mile a minute with questions, concerns, and wonder at their situation. She wanted to know everything about this woman she felt so connected to. She wondered briefly if she'd have felt a similar connection to her own mother, or her real father? She'd never felt anything from the senator except duty and she'd been fairly young when she stopped trying to feel love for the man. Was this what family felt like?

"LA."

"And your mother?"

"Dead now, but she grew up here in Vegas, I guess. I don't know my father."

"Me neither," Shine said with a laugh.

"How is it that you, or, how do you…" Ebony trailed off, uncomfortable.

"Everything was hidden from me for a very long time. Obviously, I knew as soon as I was old enough to reason, that I wasn't like the other children. I wasn't even allowed to play with them until I was old enough to wear the contacts, stay out of the sun, and keep my mouth shut about things. I was given shots three times a day. I was kept in DC, and I don't even have a chip." She held up her hand.

"No chip?" Ebony gasped and grabbed her hand, feeling around where the chip should be.

"No."

"And no mother, what happened to her?"

"She died right after I was born, some kind of complication from birth."

Ebony nodded. "As with most parents of nosouls," she said then gasped and covered her mouth. "Not that you're, I mean obviously you?—"

Shine laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. I have come to terms with what I am. Whatever it is. Not a nosoul, not really a halfsoul though either, just like you aren't. You are a little more, I am a little less." She shrugged. It didn't matter, couldn't change, it just was. "It's weird being next to you, I can feel a comfort in it," Shine said and grabbed Ebony's hand, wanting more closeness.

"Me too," Ebony said with a smile, not pulling away.

Stone just watched them with curious eyes, seeming to take in everything the two were saying and doing. Shine wondered if he was waiting to see if one of them was going to attack the other, to try and take the rest of the soul for themselves. She had no such desire, and she hoped Ebony didn't either.

Granger and Lark joined them then, neither looking particularly happy.

"What do you know of Buchanan's facilities here in Vegas?" Lark asked.

"Not much. I wasn't allowed to be a part of anything that he didn't specifically want me to talk to the media about. Which pretty much only consisted of the orphanages."

"And you found out they are not quite what he said they were," Lark prompted.

Shine nodded. "Which is what I want to expose. He's been experimenting on them, trying to figure out what makes the soul tick, I think. Maybe he was after a solution for me," she shrugged. The idea that anything the senator did was for her benefit was laughable, the man was beyond selfish.

"There's a facility here in Vegas that your father owns," Lark explained. "It's listed as the address of Ebony's father."

"Coincidence?" Shine asked, though she didn't think it could be.

Lark shook his head. "Your father had records of Henrietta, Ebony's mother in his home office and he tried to find them both. I think he may have had Ebony's boss killed to keep him silent."

"Silent about what?" Shine asked, not at all surprised to hear the senator could have been involved in a murder.

"That's what we need to find out. Ebony disappeared the same night that her boss died, which makes her a prime suspect. I can keep her hidden but it would be easier if we could prove someone else had a motive."

"Oh! Yes, that would look pretty bad," Shine agreed.

"They want you to help get us into that facility to look around, but I told them it's too dangerous for your father to know you're here," Granger snapped, his protectiveness warming Shine.

"Dangerous, yes, but isn't that what I have you for?" she said with a smile for the big man. "He won't come at me publicly. So maybe I shouldn't be trying to hide." She pulled off the hat and let her hair flow around her face. "Maybe I need to make a statement."