Persona (27 page)

When she opens her closed lips from him and he sighs and deepens the kiss still. She has an unwanted feeling all of a sudden, that something doesn’t feel right to her. Then she realizes that she doesn’t feel the spark of her persona that usually comes charging in at high emotional times for her.

This makes her feel conflicted and then embarrassed that she is letting her friend Marty kiss her like he is. Because that is what he is, her friend. She doesn’t know how she feels about him being more than that, and it weighs heavily on her heart that she’ll have to push him away from her. Slowly, Moira raises he hands and places them on his that cup her cheeks. With a gentle touch, she pulls his hands from her face and opens her eyes as she does.

This makes him pause in kissing her, and oh so slowly does he draw his face from hers. She can feel his lips fall away from hers, and when they do she can still feel the tingle of them, as if they were still there. Even having this small feeling, it still isn’t enough to let him believe she feels something when she doesn’t.

When he leans back, she can feel her heart breaking, at the way he looks so hurt.

“What’s wrong, you alright?” He says breathily.

It makes her feel even worse then, that he looks generally concerned that something is wrong instead of her misplaced feelings for him. Guiltily, she looks away from him biting her lip, before turning back to him.

“You know I care about you Marty, I haven’t exactly hidden my feelings.”
He sighs and leans back against the bed and seems slightly less hurt and more somewhat irritated now.

“But?” He says softly.

“But, you’re my friend and I need you to just be that right now. I don’t think I could handle something new in my life at the moment.”

She can feel herself pouting at him, begging him to understand. She feels badly about not telling that she really doesn’t have feelings for him, at least not like the ones he must for her. It does feel wrong that she is sort of leading him on, but she knows she can’t lose him. Not now.

He gives her a serious look, one that she has never really seen on his face before, and slowly nods at her.

“I can live with that I guess. Just do me a solid, and tell me this has nothing to do with Liam?”

This makes Moira start, and think why would he even ask that? It makes her wonder if she doesn’t hide the way she reacts to Liam. But of course this doesn’t have anything to do with Liam, does it?

“What does Liam have to do with us?”

“Just answer Moira, do you like him? I’ve seen the way the two if you watch one another.” He says admittedly.

She realizes that she does react do Liam, but not in the way she would want. She has been too angry at him to really think if her reaction means anything else. So she dismisses the thought, and gives Marty a sincere look instead.

“No, I don’t like him Marty. Not in the way your implying, and maybe not in a normal way either.”

This seems to placate him and he rests easy against the pillows again, and so she does to. As they sit in an uncomfortable silence now, Moira wonders if maybe she just told a lie to herself and to Marty. She just hopes this doesn’t change the way they are to each other, but she has a sinking feeling that it will.

***

The following morning, Liam is up early before even Charles and Jo. So he offered to walk Casden and Kai out to their bus stop, not that they need the supervision or anything. He just has the need to get out of the house, and this poses as the perfect opportunity. He lost a few hours of sleep the night before, because of Her.

It didn’t help matters any for him, when Marty came out of the room they went into alone. This was some time much later too, and Marty told them as he went into the boy’s spare room, that she was asleep. Liam wonders if Marty would have stayed with her the entire night, if it hadn’t been for Daisy and Raven going to bed in the same room.

It just simply bothers him, that it bothers him at all. So, here he is, at six in the morning while everyone else is still asleep walking out to the end of the street with two boys at dawn.

When they make it to the end of the street, more kids their age come into view. Casden and Kai walk as if the entire world hangs on their shoulders now.

They both hang their heads as they come to a stop some ways away from the group of boys. They don’t seem that off to Liam, only a band of four middle school aged boys. But from the way Casden and Kai avoid their gazes, it makes Liam wonder.

When he asks what was wrong, only Kai remains silent and sullen. Casden, turns to him with a look full of hatred, one to serious for a boy his age.

“Nothing is wrong, just stay out of it.”

At this the other boys turns to him with laughter and anger in their expressions. They begin talking to one another and pointing and laughing at Casden.

This makes the boy’s face turn to a deep scarlet and when it does, Liam clenches his hands into fists at his side. When the other boy’s antagonistic laughter rises, Kai shies away and stands so that Casden blocks his view of them. If Liam wasn’t standing so close to them, he might have missed it when Casden’s brown eyes deepen to a startling black.

When the boy is turning to the others and his brown hair is deepening, Liam swiftly grabs the boy’s arm and stops his movements.

“Don’t do it little man, they are not worth your anger. You are way better than them, so don’t let their ignorance influence you.”

By this time, the other boys are backing away from them looking frightened and go back to ignoring them. Casden turns to Liam with wide eyes though, and as he does the boy’s eyes and hair return to their natural brown color.

“My dad tells me the same thing you know. It doesn’t help every time though.” Casden says with a sigh, as he steps back so that Kai is beside him and not behind.

This makes Liam smirk and shake his head, as he watches the boys act and seem like they are older than they are. He wonders if he would have been like them if he had a sibling.

“Your dad is a smart man, and you should listen to him. It’s all any of us can do these days.” Liam says with a sigh.

Casden nods his head and places an arm on his brother’s shoulder, and Liam notices that the bus is now coming down the street to them. He knows he talks a good game, and his advice is only good in theory. Once those boys get on that bus with the other kids, the rest is up to them and he knows it’s never easy to keep a level head.

By the time the bus comes to a stop, Casden and Kai follow a few paces behind the other boys and get ready to climb on board. When Liam watches Casden and Kai walk to the back of the bus, where the cages are, he feels a deep hatred for their stupid separation laws.

However, as Casden makes his way to the back, he notices the boy’s shy smile and subtle blush as he nears a little blonde girl. This makes Liam smile in return, and it makes him feel better to see that when the boy sits down beside her, she turns to him with a similar smile and blush.

As the bus pulls away from the street and leaves Liam standing there alone, he realizes that there are some things in this world that make up for the bad ones. With a shake of his head, he turns back and starts the short walk back to the house.

By the time he reaches the driveway where is truck still rests, he notices he is no longer alone outside. Looking like they are packing things back into the truck, are Raven and Marty. They both still and look up as he approaches them. Seeing Marty revives his ugly jealousy for the boy and his free attentions of Moira. It’s stupid he knows, but he can’t help feeling animosity towards the other boy.

Under different normal circumstances, he and Marty might have been friends, but not now. It doesn’t completely make sense to him, that he feels the connection he does to Moira and even more that he feels a claim over her, when he has none. He wonders if it’s something related to his persona, like maybe it’s an alpha wolf instinct. Whatever it is though, it makes Liam think he is crazy.

Liam comes to a stop near the truck just as they close the back hatch, and is it his imagination or do they both seem tense? Raven sighs deeply, as she looks between the two boys, who are now is a starring contest.

This makes Liam smirk with a sick fascination, and he can’t believe how predatory he is being. With satisfaction, Marty turns away from him with a nodding glare and heads back for the house and not looking back. Raven however, rolls her eyes and leans back against the truck giving Liam a cross look.

“What’s your problem?” He asks as he leans against the truck next to her.

“I don’t have a problem sexy, you do.”

Now he is the one to roll his eyes, and stare at her like she lost her mind. And did she just call him sexy, he thinks?

“Me? Why do you say that?”

“Oh come on, you don’t fool me Liam Morgan. Me and everyone else, sees the way you and Moira give each other moon eyes.”

Huh. He didn’t realize they were actually giving one another ‘moon eyes’ but whatever. What everyone is picking up on is their confusion and slight hostility and not affection. Or at least on Moira’s end anyway. He isn’t entirely sure the reasoning behind his looks to her though, and it only makes his confused. Before he can deny anything of ‘moon eyes’ relation; Raven shakes her head at him and fixes him with a reserved look.

“Don’t even try to deny it, I notice these things, and you’ve fallen off the deep end my friend. Question is, what are you going to do about it?”

Alright he thinks, this girl is completely off her rocker. Apparently he mistook her crushing on him, for her being intellectually nosy about his love life, or lack thereof.

“There is nothing to do. Nothing is going on between Moira and I, simple as that.” He says as he none to slyly turn away from her.

“Sure sure, keep telling yourself that buddy. I’m not picking team Liam or team Marty on this one, but life is too short to just do nothing. So do something, before you lose your chance.”

He turns back to her, and seriously takes a look at her. For all her Lilith good looks and dark hair and features, he never would have thought of her giving anyone sage advice. Maybe she is right and he needs to pay better attention to things. Regardless of the reasoning for his feelings for Moira, he knows something is going on with Marty.

If he does nothing, she might go to him instead of Liam. He is about to thank Raven and tell her she is a genius in disguise, when they get interrupted by Charles running out the front door towards them. Instinctively, Liam pushes away from the truck and meets the other man halfway with Raven close behind him.

“What is it, what’s going on?”

Liam’s first thought is something happened to Moira and it makes his persona tickle along his skin with a dull hum. He quickly ignores that thought and as his persona still lingers, he knows he should wait for Charlie to respond before jumping to conclusions.

“You better come and take a look at this. There is another news broadcast, and it’s about you Liam.”

Raven gasps at this, and Liam can only think ‘damn, so much for not jumping to conclusions.’ With a feeling of dread and relief that it’s not Moira this time, he follows close behind Charles back into the house to see what the word is.

***

Sitting on the sofa in the living room with Daisy and Ray, Moira can only feel utter shock as she stares blindly at the television screen. What she sees doesn’t make sense to her, and leaves her questioning the sanity of the man that held her captive days ago. Alright, it’s not like he was ever sane. But Peter Fletcher, who she will swear up and down is behind these attempts to throw them off, isn’t a moron either.

She just can’t figure out why he would be doing all this, just to get her back? It feels like he is just grasping at straws now, and she is the little straw that just can’t get away.

The latest news cast was aired this morning, and she and Daisy were lucky enough to catch it before Ray cut the television off. They are now saying that she, Moira, and her accomplices are being led by what they believe to be a terrorist. With no background trail that they know of, the terrorist is going by the alias of Liam Morgan. When Moira first heard that, she literally just about had a heart attack.

She did however slump into the nearest seat, and thank goodness the couch was right behind her or she would have fallen to the floor. The only thing she could do, and can do is stare at the television. Her persona is like a live wire underneath her skin, and she is afraid to breath funny, or it’ll shoot out of her like a rocket without her control.

They, on the television, think that there might be a connection between Paula Morgan Inter-Species sector Representative. She is however unreachable at the moment, which doesn’t put her in the clear. Moira feels her pulse racing, and prays that Liam’s mother isn’t being held captive by Fletcher, like her father probably is.

They then go on to say that Liam is extremely dangerous, which is laughable to her, and if he is seen you should take any means necessary against him. What does that even mean, any means necessary, she wonders? Nothing good, she’s sure of it.

Distantly she hears Marty come into the room, and it doesn’t even bother her right now that he doesn’t say anything to her. No, he just runs off to fins Charles who is in the kitchen with Jo. Both come running into the living room with Marty; and she thinks that Charles looks like he’s going to be sick. He says something to Marty, which she doesn’t understand at the moment, and then he charges out the front door.

Moira doesn’t think anything of it until she can sense the familiar cinnamon scent of Liam rushing to her from behind. It comes off a breeze almost from afar, and she knows then that he was outside and the closer he gets the closer the scent gets too.

Moira turns around just as the scent is so overpowering that she can almost taste cinnamon rolls on the back of her tongue. He is positively shaking in dismay, and she can feel is persona rolling off of him in waves. His eyes change then and go from grey to a startling lavender color, which makes Moira’s breathe catch in her throat. Her own persona reacts to his now, and she can feel her eyes change, and the room becomes clearer, before she can rein it in.