`She's fine,' Mason said with a small nod. `But I know what you mean. She's a lot stronger but still her.'
`Oh.'
Mason stood watching Wilson shuffle, uncomfortable with the subject. Damn, the boy had grown.
`Sit down, you two.' Ruth appeared beside them with a platter of sliced fruit.
`Jeez, Mum,' Wilson moaned as Mason sat at the table with him. `I gotta be more specific about the clothes thing again, do I? The sarong is supposed to cover all of you, not just the bottom half.' He waved at her bare top. `I thought we'd worked it out about you not wearing clothes around the house?'
`You're the only one who complains,' Ruth said with a smile, glancing at Mason. `It never worried you before.'
`Yeah, well.' Wilson's ears coloured.
`It doesn't worry Sally when she stays here.' Ruth smiled.
`Sally?' Mason nearly choked on his slice of rockmelon. `The girl you met last time we were on the island?'
`Yeah.'
Mason understood then as he watched Wilson. `Sally stays here? You mean you're—'
`Dating for over a year now,' Ruth said. She nibbled on her watermelon. `She's been a big part of our life here. She came to see Wilson after we got back, even stayed in the hospital here when Wilson had surgery. I like her and she's part of the family. That's why Wilson is staying with her on the island for the next few weeks.'
`Family. Island?' Mason's head ached for a moment. Everything was moving so fast. He'd missed so much. `She knows about—?'
`No.' Wilson looked him in the eye. `And it's going to stay that way until the time is right, Dad. So you need to remember that when we go over today. If you're ready?'
`Ready?' Mason felt his mouth move. They had accepted him back without hesitation. Butcher didn't exist here.
`Mason.' Ruth took his hands. `We want to be a family again. We want you back, here with us.'
`We do.' Wilson's hand joined his mother's. `No matter what's happened, you're still my dad.'
`I… I'm not good at this.'
`We know. That's why you need us and…we need you. So, you up for two weeks on Wreck Island then? After all, it is your birthday.' Ruth stood up and Mason felt his heartbeat increase as he looked at her. He loved the island. It was their special place. He'd met her there.
`We leave today?'
`Yep. We've got our own villa and Wil is staying with Sally and her mum.'
Wilson stood up. `The morning ferry leaves in two hours and I need to let Sal know if we're coming over.' Mason could not miss the excitement in his voice.
`Sounds like a plan. A good one.' Mason sat back in his chair, relieved.
`Right, I'll call Sal and let her know. Good to have you back, Dad.' Wilson disappeared down the stairs.
`I've missed so much,' Mason muttered as Ruth hugged him.
`Yes, but now you're here.' Her sarong fell away and she sat on the table in front of him. A leg flicked over his head and she pulled him towards her. `I've already sent clothes over to the island and we've got two hours to kill. Take your pants off.'
Wilson pressed redial on his mobile. Sally was the only one he called. Sounds he didn't need to hear wafted down from the balcony.
`Christ,' he muttered, walking outside onto the lawn, away from the house.
`Hey. You've reached Sally, please leave a message.' Her voice always made him smile.
`It's me, Sal. We're coming over this morning. Dad's coming with us and it's all cool.' Wilson paused, thinking about her. `Sal, it means a lot that that you're doing this, being here now. See you soon.' He stared at the touch screen for a moment, and then looked up. Alert. The trees had fallen silent.
`You're shitting me!' he cursed, dropping the phone onto a garden seat. `You really aren't all that smart, are you? Coming here.' Wilson grabbed the small crowbar he'd left outside after training.
He could sense the intruder.
An Unnatural.
`Not smart at all,' he said, stopping at the edge of the lawn, well aware of the complex security system buried in the garden beds surrounding the house. `We're not afraid anymore.'
The silence thickened around him and Wilson smacked the crowbar in his hand, making sure the sound of iron on flesh echoed in the silence. `Yeah, that's right. I'm not easy prey any more.' He spoke louder, letting his lip curl up. The iron crowbar felt light in his hand, balanced. He'd had it made for a particular use. Throwing.
There. He saw it. The irregularity in the foliage beside a gum tree. Iron whistled through the air. The bar sliced through the trunk of the tree, burying itself in the ground on the other side. Wilson smiled at the smothered wail of pain. `Yeah, bet that hurt. Iron doesn't like you,' he said, following the sounds of flight fading into the trees. `And don't come back. Next time I won't give a warning. Whatever you are.'
Wilson waited until he couldn't sense the Unnatural anymore, picking up his phone on his way back to the house. He listened and, unable to hear his parents, went in to pack a bag.
`Damn it,' he muttered, looking at the packed throwing knives. `Better take this as well.' He slipped in his 9mm pistol and two ammo clips. From upstairs, sounds filtered down.
`Bloody hell.' He shook his head and grabbed his surfboard on his way out to the workshop. He picked up the remote as he entered and music drowned out other sounds. `Oversexed parents. Unnaturals in the bushes. So much for being a normal family.' He laid his surfboard on its stand and ran a hand over it. `Lucky I got Sal and you, eh, baby?'
Wilson began to wax, trying to work off the anger shifting inside him. They had come to his home. If they came near Sally… Wilson worked the wax bar hard on his surfboard.
Her breath came in rapid silent bursts, though she ran faster than any animal could. Trees flashed by and her trail would be invisible. Not that it mattered anymore. The boy had sensed her. He had cut her with iron. No one had ever done that, ever.
CHAPTER 3
Mason sat on the top deck of the ferry, holding Ruth's hand.
`Whales on the portside,' a deckhand said. The ferry slowed and the crowd moved to one side of the deck.
Mason didn't move, enjoying the sun and Ruth beside him. He glanced at her, fiddling with a strand of long dark hair, her eyes elsewhere.
`Stop perving,' he whispered in her ear and was rewarded with a blush.
`Mason,' she started to say, but he slipped his hand onto her thigh.
`It's okay,' he whispered, sliding his hand a fraction higher under her short sarong, brushing her sex with a fingertip. `We're still the same people as before everything happened. You're still Ruth.'
`Mason,' Ruth whispered back, putting her hat over his hand. `I didn't…have anyone while you were gone. It was hard but…it would have been wrong.'
`If you had I wouldn't have blamed you for it.' He slid his hand down to her knee as the crowd moved back to their seats. `I've never seen it as you hurting me. But you have to give me time. And besides, she's far too young even for you.'
`Mason.' Ruth's blushed deepened as a tall, dark-haired girl walked past. Mason glanced at the girl's tiny black bikini, and saw why she might catch Ruth's eye. She was the type.
`You're so funny when you blush like that.' He kissed her on the cheek. `If I leave you up here while I go to the canteen, you promise to behave?'
`Stop it.' Ruth looked slightly mollified. `She might hear you.