Chapter Text
Amara found it strange to look into Vivianna’s eyes again after so long. Those sharp blue eyes had once been so familiar but now it was like a stranger was looking at her. Their connection felt fuzzy still, not as strong and clear as it was with Sabrina or with Erik.
Amara didn’t know what to say. Where once the eight of them had been like one person, now they were fractured. Now, she was one person sitting beside another person with no idea how she was feeling.
‘It’s good to see you,’ she said. ‘We didn’t know if you were alive or, you know, if you might have had the operation. We know … we know Livia and Ren are … are gone. Is Gideon … is he …?’
Vivianna gave her a gentle smile. It looked somewhat unnatural on her face. Amara had always known her as austere and undemonstrative. Maybe she’d mellowed these past few years. ‘Gideon is with me. He’s fine.’
‘That’s such a relief. Viv, we need to know. Is The Cannibal hunting?’
There was a look of surprise on Vivianna’s face, though Amara couldn’t feel the matching emotion from her. Was there something wrong with the connection? It was incomplete somehow.
‘Amara, The Cannibal is dead. The Chairman is dead. They have been for six years. BPO now has now returned to its original inception.’
Amara stared at her. The Cannibal is dead. Can it be true?
‘He’s really gone?’ she asked Vivianna. ‘Who took him down?’
‘Do you remember Angelica?’
‘Yeah.’
Vivianna took a breath. ‘She birthed another cluster and they killed him because he was hunting them. Jonas killed the Chairman and without him, the other hunters went away or changed or … well The Cannibal had killed some of them already.’
‘I can’t believe it,’ whispered Amara. Six years? Six years we could have been free.
‘So, who else is with you?’
‘Everybody else. Sabrina, Erik … Oscar.’ She swallowed. ‘Oscar, he’s … he needs help. We’ve kept him alive, kept him as healthy as we could but … he’s not all the way there. We don’t know how much of him is left.’
‘He had the operation?’
‘We don’t think he did. There is no scar but something must have been done to him.’
Vivianna nodded slowly. She considered Amara for a moment and suddenly they weren’t in Trafalgar Square anymore, but back on the hillside in the middle of nowhere.
‘Where are you?’ she asked, looking around. ‘Have you been in the same place all this time? It feels like it is the same temperature here. What country are you in?’
Amara hesitated. Her immediate reaction to such questioning was resistance but Vivianna was bound to be desperate to see them, desperate to help them.
‘I’ll talk to the others, see what they want to do,’ Amara said, choosing to remain cautious. That was how they’d survived this long, being careful and cautious and making all decisions together.
Vivianna looked disappointed but she nodded. ‘I understand. It will be an enormous adjustment coming out of hiding. Will you come to me? I want to see you all, help you all.’
Amara nodded. ‘You live in London?’
‘I work in Paris and in London. I will be here for another month or so. Come to the BPO offices in London.’ She smiled softly. ‘It is the same building but they feel so much different now.’
‘We will.’ She reached out and took Vivianna’s hand. It felt strange to hold it again. She’d forgotten how she felt. Her fingers were slender and elegant. She had always had a genteel manner, though she had never been a warm person.
She wanted to be with them again, with Vivianna and Gideon, to be a little closer to that whole they had once been. Maybe they could even get Oscar better again. They could never be completely whole, not without Livia and Ren, but maybe they could come close.
Vivianna’s touch faded away and Amara found herself alone again, on that hillside. She took a blocker and waited for it to take effect, before she got up and made her way back down the hill.
Vivianna sat and watched the people walk past, trying to readjust to Amara being gone again. She was so unused to that now. Being without most of her cluster had become normal. She rarely even thought of them now; they had been gone so long.
And now they were coming back. Would he be pleased? Perhaps. She wasn’t sure. He could be difficult to read. He was an expert in keeping his feelings to himself. She was still surprised he had been beaten by that other cluster.
‘Not beaten,’ he said. ‘Not yet.’ His voice was low and dangerous.
She nodded, deferring to him. ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘You’re too clever for them.’
‘Do not resort to flattery,’ he said. ‘You are above that. Are they coming?’
‘I think they will. They want to help Oscar. I could feel how desperate she was to do that.’
He pulled a face. ‘Their love for each other will be their undoing.’
Vivianna did not argue. Part of her agreed but part of her did not. Love within a cluster could be dangerous. It could make you all vulnerable. But it also provided strength and it should not be underestimated.
They all decided to go out for breakfast. Well, except for Hernando and Lito who had better things to do that morning, their first morning as husbands. The two clusters and their partners, friends and kids required a huge table and took up half the café.
Wolfgang laughed as he watched his daughter eat and wondered how they were going to clean up after her. Probably better that she make the mess here than in the hotel room though.
The other cluster had announced they were going to be leaving later that day. Teddy hadn’t wanted to talk about it but Rafael had explained that his brother needed some help. The whole cluster had decided to go back to England with him to do what they could to help. The fact that they were doing that for him seemed to make Teddy more tearful than ever but Wolfgang knew how that felt. Sometimes he still couldn’t believe he had people in his corner now, people who would risk everything for him. He hoped never to have to put them in that position again.
Will had been quiet since he’d visited Wolfgang in the shower that morning. He wasn’t the only one who had noticed but nobody had managed to coax anything out of him, not even Riley.
Wolfgang did notice though that he kept watching Elin. He was familiar with the look he was giving her. It was what Wolfgang affectionately referred to as ‘the Mom look’. Will was worried about Elin.
Niki studied Will surreptitiously for a moment before turning her gaze to Wolfgang.
Suddenly it clicked. She’d told him, or he’d worked out, about Alois. Will knew he’d been seen the night before and was doing his best not to mention it but the worry was consuming him.
Without drawing attention to himself, Wolfgang visited him.
‘Niki told you, didn’t she?’ he asked.
Will looked at him and nodded. ‘You should have told me.’
‘I was going to. Look, it’s probably nothing. It was probably all that emotion, just bringing him here. He probably didn’t even mean to do it.’
‘Maybe.’
Wolfgang looked at Will and waited for his friend to look back at him. ‘Niki isn’t going to let anything happen to Elin. No matter what.’
‘I just wish I understood why he had to be like that. I don’t understand how anyone could hurt their cluster.’
‘I guess Whispers’ mother didn’t understand either.’
Will looked at him for a moment, then turned away, rubbed his hand over his face and would speak no more about it.