by Erin R Flynn
I sighed, glancing at Jaxon. “Is this part of that him getting aggressive thing until I accept him?”
“No, that’s because he’s a noble who found his princess. We tend to be a bit over the top.” He smirked at me. “Just smack him back into place, Princess. We enjoy that too.”
“Fine, but I’m smacking you to call me Inez.” I shook my head when he went to object. “I just learned about all of this. Ease down or I hit my limit.”
He sat with that a moment. “Fair enough, Inez.”
Well, that was something.
I let Darius help me until I had to go to the bathroom. I laid down a very firm line that I was fucking peeing in the woods by myself. He kissed me and left me be, heading back to the campsite. Fine, I could deal with whatever he was going through as long as he backed off when I said it.
I joined them just as breakfast was ready, embarrassed that Jaxon had seen us have sex again, but noting it didn’t even seem to faze him.
“So, we were discussing the route, and we think cutting over and heading through Knoxville is the best plan,” Darius told me.
I glanced between them before clearing my throat. “Um, so we’re just adding to the posse? I mean, do we—is that smart?”
I expected Darius to answer, but Jaxon actually did, which I found impressive he would be straight with me and address a situation instead of brush it off. “You’ve only known the crazy of the apocalypse and having to distrust everyone to survive. I get that, and I think you’re amazing to have come so far, I do. I also think I won’t be the only one to find you and soon.”
“I doubt it’s a coincidence you found both of us so close together after years of running,” Darius said before I could even ask. “I was… Lost and then suddenly I felt like I needed to be traveling in a certain direction.”
Jaxon nodded. “I felt the same. Lots of us have been lost. The bombs went off and chaos ensued, but then we were all desperate to get to our home covens, check on families. Those of us who had survivors stayed a bit and helped rebuild, but then it was back to being pushed out of the nest to find our own covens to belong to.”
“Or some of us found death and worse, and it took a while to accept that it was all gone,” Darius whispered, looking away and wiping his eyes.
“Aye, but what I’m saying is I was way on the other side of the country and I woke and felt pulled to head this way, no longer wandering but with purpose. I’m not asking to join your court or anything more than get to know you a bit, but for now, I can at least be of help. I’m older and I’ve spent time in courts and know powers Darius doesn’t.”
“Plus, he knows vehicles and mechanics,” Darius added.
Jaxon nodded, studying me. “Do you understand how special you truly are?”
“Um, yeah, the electricity thing is pretty cool.” I shrugged and focused on my oatmeal.
“Absolutely, but a lot of the bombs that went off were EMPs, Inez. It wasn’t just corrupted taking out power grids, but governments, thinking that would protect them from bombs if they cut off communications.” He waited until I nodded. I’d heard from a lot of survivors that was how things had gotten so fried.
“Jaxon figured out you don’t just charge up what was taken out, but you fix whatever component got fried,” Darius explained. “He knows electrical engines too and showed me what circuit board your magic fixed. The area around it looked fried, but then that one part was brand new. That was what got hit, and you made it all better.”
I opened my mouth but then closed it, sitting with that as I drank my coffee, glad when they didn’t push me. I tried again a few minutes later, but then shook my head, letting the coffee do its job and wake me up as I filled my stomach. Finally when we were done eating did I know what I wanted to say.
“Could you switch out an electric engine for a regular one? Maybe like a camper or something with more storage if we’re going to load up as we go?” I asked.
“I can if we can find it, yeah,” he asked, his eyes flashing shock that I went in that direction. He smiled brightly at me. “We could have a working shower and toilet given you can fix a water pump and all the electronics.”
“You are so fucking cool,” Darius chuckled, giving me an impressed look. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
I snorted. “You’re excited? I have a way harder time than you guys to just pee.”
They burst out laughing, but then after a few minutes of us cleaning up, Darius bumped his arm into mine. “What else is that big, beautiful brain of yours thinking?”
I bumped him back. “Will you kiss me if I tell you?”
He growled and spun me to him, kissing me deeply. “Always. I will always kiss you if you allow me.”
“Will you tell me anything I want to know?”
“Yes,” he immediately replied, my heart warming again.
“Did I really taste sweeter?”
“Yes,” he hissed as he grabbed my ass and pulled me flush to him. “You tasted sweeter and like mine, My Princess.” He ground his body against mine. “Tonight I will lay you out and taste every inch of you. Let me court you tonight, Inez. Let me be so gentle and show you I deserve you. I want to treasure you tonight.”
Hadn’t he already done that? Sure, sign me up for more. I nodded, rubbing my chest against him so he felt my nipples were hard.
“I’m seconds from taking you again,” he admitted, smiling when I shivered. “Glad you feel the same, but you need time to rest.”
That was true, so I decided to answer his original question. “I was thinking we should plan better.”
“How so?” he murmured as he kissed along my neck, making it hard to focus.
“I don’t know if I’m signed up for all of what you were saying of this path or whatever, but eventually you want me to build a coven, and we left behind so much in Raleigh. So much useful stuff.”
“We did,” he agreed, sounding like he wasn’t fully focused on anything other than kissing my skin.
I chuckled and pulled away, smiling when he looked as if he was pouting. “What if we planned better? There are probably more electric trucks we could find other than the UPS one or can’t that even tow? Corrupted don’t like you guys, so even if you had to drive slow, so what? You say there will be more, and maybe there will be, but we could…”
He smiled at me, catching on to where my head was. “You like the idea of planning for a real home.”
“Don’t you?” I asked nervously. “I mean, something more than running and moving and—a future, working towards something.”
“I do. I want that with you, at your side,” he promised, giving me a soft kiss. “What are you thinking?”
“That we find some trailers and load them up,” I admitted. “We can mark them somehow so we can get them again or whoever, but we could have filled a trailer and then some just from that one Dicks. We won’t always find those places, so why not hide the stuff or get it ready?”
“Smart, very smart,” Jaxon praised. “Yeah, fuck, the idea of working towards something real sounds amazing after so much just being lost.”
Glad we all agreed. I wasn’t sure I could ever build a real coven or court or settlement, but something sounded better than the life I’d been living. It was a start and hope at least.
10
Jaxon
When I’d randomly caught the scent of a princess when I’d reached Charlotte and followed her trail, I had not pictured someone like Inez. Not. Even. Close.
Not only was she the most breathtaking woman I’d ever laid eyes on, she was unlike any princess I’d ever known… And I meant that in the best possible sense. The second I took my eyes off of her as I drove us to Knoxville, I wanted to glance at her again. She was asleep on Darius’s lap, curled up against him as if she was made for him.
She was made for me too, I knew it. I knew she would fit just as perfectly on my lap.
“If you crash and hurt her because you kept staring at her instead of the road, I will pound you,” Da
rius warned under his breath, not wanting to stir her.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m over five hundred years old. I can see much farther down the road than you can.” I did focus on the road though, my gut knotting at even the idea of her being hurt. “She is unlike any I’ve met.”
“Yeah, she is, and you know that means she needs to be protected.”
“Yeah,” I sighed, knowing her power alone would make everyone try for her. If people found out she could seriously make electricity and fix electronics… I couldn’t even imagine the scores of everyone who would try to take her. “Do you think those langers know?”
“Yeah, Clarence was excited she didn’t know she was a princess,” he grumbled.
“No, I mean about her power?”
“Maybe,” he answered after a moment. “He’s not the sharpest tack from what I’ve seen, but chasing her for five years might have clued him in to something’s up. I guess it depends if he’s ever tried the electric cars she’s used or just assumed she maybe slept in them when he sniffed her out?”
“It’s a very rare gift that I’ve never even seen, so I wouldn’t think many would jump there.”
We were over halfway there when she stirred, blinking awake those deep green eyes that reminded me about everything good in nature and back home. She tucked her long hair behind her ear, the sun catching it and showing another shade of brown I hadn’t noticed yet. Her hair was astounding, a rainbow of browns, the whole damn palette of shades.
Really, every one of them from the light end like tan through caramel and all the way to deep chocolate. It was amazing and unlike anything I’d seen in my years.
“Um, can we stop?” she asked with a soft yawn.
“Yeah, are you okay?” Darius worried, leaning in closer. “Do you hurt?”
“No, someone pushed me to drink three bottles of water that have to come back out,” she teased him.
“I didn’t want you to—I remember my sisters whispering they hurt after from not hydrating or something. Especially their first times.”
“I don’t hurt, I promise,” she replied, letting out something between a sigh and pleased groan when he kissed along her neck and teased her hair. “I could get used to driving on your lap if this is how it goes.”
Shit, she made me so damn hard. I took the next turn off for Asherville and smiled when I saw the hotel signs, thinking of something nice for the princess I was already interested in. Darius gave me a look, feeling the packs of corrupted as I did, but I nodded I knew. She wanted to do some good and liked to hunt as much as we did. Plus, it didn’t hurt to stop and see how picked over the place was.
Because I really liked the idea of working towards a real home and place to live.
I stopped in front of the TGI Fridays the Hilton had and smiled when she gave me a curious look. “It’s cleared, and the toilets should be better than squatting.”
“Yeah, much better,” she agreed as she opened the door and immediately reached for her rifle.
Totally not like any princess I’d ever met before.
We went in with her, Darius already telling me she wasn’t used to us enough to know for sure there weren’t any corrupted around. She’d come to trust us, and the fact she wouldn’t allow herself to be lax with her safety was smart.
“What else are you plotting?” Darius asked after she was in the bathroom.
“That there should be some pretty fine mattresses that can be tied up on top of those cargo bags that would make the princess much more comfortable.” I smirked at him. “It’s not like it would be heavy and probably much more comfortable for all the sex she’ll want.”
“Damn, that is good,” he agreed. “We were so focused on using space wisely that I didn’t think of that.” He glanced around as if looking for the door that went into the hotel directly. “And maybe they have those soft robes for her.”
“I like it.”
“She’s not good with being spoiled,” he warned.
“I like that about her.”
“Me too,” he said after a moment.
She finished fast and walked out stretching, her gorgeous hair thrown up in a messy bun. Darius told her what I’d come up with, and we set out to find her a nice king mattress and plastic we could wrap it in along with what we needed to tie it off. She didn’t want us to go through the trouble, but after Darius whispered something about thinking the air mattress might pop soon, she was on board.
Yeah, from doing dirty things. I heard that part too.
She was smarter than checking rooms and said we should look in storage and maybe they had an extra new one. We figured out where that was, and she took the keys from me to pull the van around. I didn’t want her out of my sight, but if I pushed for that, it would seem like we weren’t safe. Which we were.
Wow, that was quite the balancing act to pull off. I could tell Darius was feeling the same thing. Plus, she’d survived for years on her own during the fucking apocalypse, so I’d be fairly insulted if people acted as if I couldn’t wipe my own arse.
I was relieved when I heard the van pull up. We grabbed the mattress and carried it out… Only to find her cowering against the van.
“Shut up, shut up, I’m not,” she rasped, covering her ears. Darius dropped his end and rushed to her, turning her to face him.
“Focus, Inez.”
“Can’t hear you,” she shouted when there wasn’t so much as a bird chirping around us. “I can’t focus. The packs were part of the college football team. They’re screaming at me where their friends are, oh, and slut shaming me.” She growled and looked to her right. “I am not a slut, you fuckhead, and you’re dead so no, I won’t suck you all.”
My eyes went wide when I realized what was going on. “She sees ghosts?”
“Yeah, and she had no idea how to handle them,” Darius sighed, moving his hands over her ears and giving her a soft kiss. He gave her a firm nod when he leaned away. She took in a slow breath and focused on something I couldn’t see. After a moment I felt a pop of energy, knowing the ghost dissipated. I’d been around someone who had that magic before so I recognized it.
It was a fairly common power among princesses, and even some nobles had it. However, normally they turned into salt or something good for the ground or organic. I moved closer to see what was on the ground and reached for it.
“Don’t touch those,” she yelled at me. “I have to pick them up.”
I nodded, moving my hand away but still studying what it was. Seeds. They were fucking cucumber or some sort of small squash seeds. Holy fucking shit!
“Ignore them,” Darius whispered again, kissing her gently in between ghosts. “You’re not a slut at all, Inez.” She probably couldn’t hear him over the ghosts if they were shouting, but she seemed to understand he was on her side as she relaxed more and more.
“All gone,” she sighed, leaning her head against the van. “Asshole. Fucking assholes. They came to eat me, and then slut shamed me because you guys were going for a bed and one heard what you said, and still no diamonds.”
“Fuck diamonds,” I chuckled, pushing to stand and shaking my head. “You are amazing, Inez.”
“No, diamonds would be amazing,” she drawled. “Darius taught me how to get rid of them quicker.”
I glanced between them, seeing he didn’t get it either. “You said you had a family story that your ancestor’s blood showed her where to go to set up her coven, right?”
“Yeah, it kept pointing her down the path.”
“What did she do once she reached there?” I pushed him.
“She built her coven,” he answered, frowning. “I don’t remember the specifics.”
“Ours planted a tree, the first tree of life in that part of Ireland,” I explained. “Each coven is said to have their ancestral tree, the roots spreading out through the world to connect us all.”
His eyes went wide as he looked at all the seeds on the ground. “She’s not a lost house, she’s a new house.” He gave me a
worried look. “How though? Each princess was a champion of the gods and goddesses, and most are said to be no more.”
I swallowed loudly. “Aether’s never picked a champion. What if she’s not the princess for a god or goddess but the Goddess?”
“Oh boy,” he whispered, understanding she was in even more danger than we already worried if that was true. “Few would believe she was a new house, and those who did won’t like that upset.”
“So we shouldn’t tell anyone, like ever, especially since you guys aren’t even sure,” she muttered, shrugging it off as she hurried to pick up the seeds. “I think the first seed is a tree. I tried to look it up, but it didn’t really match and well, seeds tend to look a lot alike.”
I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to freak her out that it was probably not a seed that was recorded in regular books. “There were some boxes of chocolates and even the little booze bottles if we have the room, Inez.”
She worried her lower lip as she stood, and instantly Darius was kissing her. “Really?”
“I told you if you hurt your lip I would kiss it to stop you,” he chuckled.
“Sounds like a good plan,” I murmured, wanting to do the same, especially when she gave me a quick look and blushed. Oh damn, I was in trouble. “So do we want to stretch our legs and maybe do some hunting at the hospital? The area seems pretty good.” I frowned. “I think we should wait on loading trailers until we find an electric semi.”
“Why?” she asked, frowning.
“We can move the trailers right up to the door then. Otherwise we’re wasting time going back and forth with so much loading and moving it all.” I shrugged. “I’d rather spend the time scouting and thinning out the scores of corrupted.”
“Smart,” they said together.
We finished there and actually found a large cargo trailer that was fourteen by eight feet. Inez wasn’t fond of the idea in case we had to flee—and apparently she wasn’t allowed to be the one driving if we did—until we found a completely loaded police station no one had raided and risked the hospital right near it. Everyone learned fast that hospitals were guaranteed to have packs of corrupted.