by Aja James
Hmm…perhaps not satisfaction in every definition of the word. But she’d get answers, damn it!
If she pissed him off with her direct, frontal assault on the impenetrable fortress around everything Cloud, at least they never had a relationship to damage in the first place. Worst case, they’d be paired up with other warriors on future missions, if they couldn’t stomach each other after this overdue confrontation.
One way or another, she was going to get a rise out of him.
“Like has nothing to do with it,” Cloud replied through tight lips, his tone practically dripping reluctance.
She could tell that he was thinking of ways to avoid conversing with her altogether, but his innate politeness rebelled against ignoring her totally.
“You are…my comrade in arms,” he said slowly, pausing to choose his words. “I respect your prowess in battle.”
Aella cast a glance over her shoulder at Eveline, who was plodding along quite a bit behind them on her well-mannered, determined little mare. She was muttering to herself as she rode, probably trying to solve the prophetic puzzles in her head and to find the clues that would help them save the world.
The sun was slowly sinking below the horizon, casting their surroundings in the orange glow of a last burst of light before nightfall.
Satisfied that Eveline was slowly but surely making her way, not in danger of tottering off her horse, Aella nudged her steed to keep pace with White Dragon, bringing her close to Cloud’s side.
Cloud automatically slowed, and for a second, Aella thought he wanted her to ride ahead of him, an attempt to keep his distance from her. But he merely came up on her right side, letting her take the inside track up the mountain, while he protected her from the edge of the steep ravine.
He had a tendency to do that—to protect everyone.
Even though Aella was a fearsome warrior in her own right, Cloud always watched out for her whenever they were paired together. She tried to do the same with him, of course, but admittedly, his physical strength and skills in battle truly did exceed her own.
“Respect is not like,” Aella niggled him. “We’ve been living together for three years; shouldn’t we be friends by now?”
She waited for him to respond, but he stubbornly remained silent.
“I hardly know anything about you,” she continued. “Where you’re from. What you did in your human life. What triggered your Awakening. How you became the Valiant—”
“We are not friends, Aella,” he interjected brusquely, trying to cut off the enumeration of all the things she didn’t know about him.
He didn’t want to share any information about himself, he made it clear. Any other person might have backed down from this inquisition at his cold rebuff.
But not Aella. Not now.
“Why not?” she asked sincerely. “Why aren’t we friends? Why won’t you let anyone at the Shield get close to you?”
“I am close to Rain and Valerius,” he argued through a clenched jaw.
And she knew that if she pushed him much more, he’d shut down completely, civility be damned.
Or, instead of shutting down, he might crack open slightly.
She wondered what it would take for him to lose his temper. Would “Cloud” churn into a mighty storm? Now that would be a magnificent sight to behold!
So, she kept pushing.
“What’s wrong with the rest of us?” she insisted. “Tristan and Isolde are adorable. Ayelet is lovely. Seth is everything charming. Jade is so beautiful and sexy I’d Mate her myself if she weren’t so enamored of Seth. Eveline is…special. Sophia is—”
“I like everyone,” he gritted out.
She shook her head, not letting him get away with anything but total honesty.
“You don’t like me. You barely tolerate me. It’s like you’re afraid of me or something. Did a tall, blond, female warrior break your heart in your past life? Is that why—”
Abruptly, his hand lashed out and gripped her horse’s reins, yanking the two steeds together so that their sides collided and Aella’s right leg mashed up against Cloud’s from boot to thigh, and their faces were mere inches apart.
“What do you want from me, Aella Alexander?” he rumbled low, his warm breath huffing roughly against her face.
“I am not one of those countless males who fall at your feet at first sight. Or the second and third, for that matter.”
Ooohh. He noticed that men fell at her feet? Good to know she hadn’t lost her touch!
She grinned at him, encouraging him to go on.
His frown deepened at her reaction.
“The only thing I feel when I’m around you is a splitting migraine,” he stated icily, lest she thought he was complimenting her. “We are fighting partners, nothing more. I have no desire to know about you, and there is nothing I wish to tell you about myself.”
Huh. Even Aella would admit that that was a rather harsh set down. She struggled to interpret his words in a more positive light.
Perhaps poking the storm cloud was not such a good idea after all.
It took a few seconds of stunned silence for Aella to get her bearings, but when she tried to pull away from him, he gripped the reins tighter, forcing both her and her horse to lean toward him, a captive audience.
“I know you want to fuck me,” he growled, startling Aella so much with the bluntly phrased truth that she almost toppled from her seat.
“And you’ve always gotten what you want. A female as intelligent, beautiful and strong as you take no prisoners, isn’t that right?”
Eh? He thought her intelligent, beautiful and strong?
But he wasn’t done.
“I’m not one of your conquests, xian nǚ. Ply your wiles on another male. I am not your friend. I don’t like you. I don’t want you. I will never be yours in any sense of the word. Is that clear enough?”
Aella chalked it up to her thick skin and her bullet-proof vanity that all she really heard in that veritable tirade was “xian nǚ”, Chinese for “heavenly woman” or “angel.”
Success! She finally got a rise out of him!
An angry rise, sure, but a bonifed emotional reaction nonetheless.
Aella felt downright gleeful about it. So she closed the mere inches between their faces and planted an open-mouthed kiss right on his full, perfectly-shaped lips.
Smack!
“You are utterly magnificent when you’re mad,” she cooed at him, undaunted.
Stunned, he jerked back and released her reins, pulling White Dragon dangerously close to the edge of the ravine in order to put distance between them.
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head as if to clear it. It looked like he was suddenly beset by that splitting headache he’d alluded to earlier.
Aella regarded him closely.
It wasn’t just frustration and aggravation that lined his face. It was real pain.
But before Aella could ask what was wrong—surely her teasing and that sorry excuse for a kiss couldn’t be that bad—a shrill squeak sounded from behind them.
“Take cover!” Eveline called out, “the bloodsuckers are everywhere!”
“We’re surrounded!”
*** *** *** ***
Fuck. There were dozens of them—mindless vampires swarming the rocky hills from all directions.
Cloud swiftly connected the three pieces of his preferred weapon, a Chinese-styled long spear, and brandished it at the heads of his enemies with a deadly swoosh, decapitating two Rogues in the process, cutting a wide slash across the chest of a third.
How had his senses not picked up on this? Had he been so distracted by Aella’s taunts that he’d let his guard down?
No time to dwell on his failings now, he determined, locking his jaw as more bloodsuckers rounded the mountainside from the front.
He could hear Aella taking care of business behind him, her ferocious war-cry shaking the very treetops around them.
He’d glanced at her a few moments ago wh
en Eveline alerted their danger. Aella immediately charged past the Seer on her thoroughbred, defending the rear and guarding Eveline’s safety.
While not completely helpless, Eveline’s telepathy wouldn’t work on these mind-controlled soldiers. And her powers were nowhere near as strong as Cloud’s.
Cloud kept their attackers at bay with broad sweeps of his spear. When he had a split second between enemy surges, he reached down White Dragon’s side and retrieved his automatic crossbow, slotted the arrows against his thigh and shot the first one through the neck of the nearest vampire, instantly disintegrating him. Simultaneously with his other arm, he stabbed the spearhead through another foe, then split the creature in half, straight down the middle.
This time, the assassin turned to stardust, indicating that he wasn’t a vampire but a Pure One.
Or he used to be.
Their enemies, no matter what Kind they were before, were now mindless minions of Medusa. They retained their warrior skills, their strength and power, but they no longer felt pain or fear, and they were much more deadly because of it.
Between the two of them, Cloud and Aella repositioned themselves and guarded Eveline in the middle. The well-behaved little mare that the Seer rode was no longer placid. She pranced and side-stepped nervously, turning around in circles, confused by the chaos around her. Eveline could barely keep control of her, doing all she could just to keep her seat.
“How many more!” Aella shouted above the din of clashing metal.
These ancient warrior assassins, like Cloud and Aella, didn’t use modern weapons, given that bullets didn’t have the force to take down Immortals fast enough with the healing powers that they had. Decapitation and severing of critical parts were a lot easier with feet-long blades.
“Still dozens!” Cloud called back. “Our best chance is to break through and keep climbing. There’s a path through the mountain up ahead!”
Aella let fly three of her chakrams in rapid succession, her Gift of superhuman speed making her movements all but impossible to track. As such, her targets had no hope of avoiding the swerving circular blades except with a prayer and dumb luck.
Unfortunately for them, Aella never missed.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw an enemy soldier pull back his arm to throw a javelin, his aim directly at Aella’s back.
Cloud fired his crossbow the same moment the assassin launched the lance. A split second later, the turned soldier went down in a heap of disintegrating limbs, but the javelin stayed its course.
No!
White Dragon was already mid-leap, headed toward Aella to intercept the missile, but it was too late. The spear-point was practically at her back.
At the last moment, Aella twisted to the side, dangling off her horse, the blade of the javelin grazing her arm as she toppled—
Finding its mark directly through her horse’s neck.
The thoroughbred crashed to the ground with a pained whinny, while Aella tucked and rolled just in time to avoid being crushed beneath the animal.
She barely got to her feet before their enemies swarmed her.
When he saw her surrounded, Cloud could feel his powers burgeoning within, trying to break free of his skin, practically shooting out of his eyes, which he had no doubt were blazing blue fire.
He couldn’t afford to let go. But he knew with grim certainty that if Aella was lost to him this day, there would be no holding back.
Miraculously, she didn’t fall, despite the odds of more than ten to one. And it gave Cloud enough time to leap into the fray on White Dragon’s back, trampling two enemy soldiers in the process, while he cleared a wide swath around them with his spear.
“Get on!” he shouted as his stallion kicked out with his powerful hind legs, sending a vampire hurtling down the ravine.
Aella didn’t need to be told twice. Within a split second, she swung onto White Dragon behind Cloud, keeping her seat with the strength of her thighs, while leaving her upper body free to continue engaging their enemies.
He resisted turning around to check on her. If she was strong enough to keep fighting, then she’d certainly live.
Instead, he shot the last of his triple-edged arrows through a few more assassins, maneuvered White Dragon around with another hind kick and charged back up the mountain.
On the way, he grabbed Eveline’s reins and stared hard into the eyes of her frightened mare. The horse immediately calmed and followed his lead, galloping beside White Dragon across the narrow mountain path as Eveline crouched low and hugged the horse’s neck to keep from falling off at the thunderous pace.
Cloud and Aella disposed of the few assassins that blocked their forward path, sending their foes tumbling down the ravine or disintegrating into dust and ashes.
On horseback, they were much faster than their enemies, who had managed to ambush them by climbing stealthily up the side of the mountain instead of taking the one and only path. Before long, they’d put enough distance between them and their foes that the javelins and arrows couldn’t reach them anymore.
Cloud felt Aella secure her weapons once more on her back and thighs. Her arms wound around his waist, and she pressed her front tightly to his back, molding herself to him like a second layer of skin.
They’d ridden this way before, whenever he brought White Dragon on a mission, like the time they rescued Sophia in the Catskills.
But this time, something had changed.
Cloud felt the heat from her body everywhere around him. Her thighs tight against his, her hands locked against his abdomen.
His eyes continued to blaze blue lightning, he knew. His power surge had not receded even though she was no longer threatened. It continued to roil within him, shooting sparks through his veins.
All of the muscles in his body tensed to steel when he felt her lips brush the back of his neck, left bare by his up-swept hair.
“Thanks for the rescue, big guy,” she murmured against his sensitive skin.
Another barely there kiss, as her arms tightened around him a bit more, and her hands splayed flat against his stomach. Her fingers absently stroked his abs as they rode, and he felt the touch everywhere.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
This was why he’d tried to stay away from her all these years. He had only suspected before, but now he knew:
She had the power to unleash him.
And once free of restraints, there would be no going back.
*** *** *** ***
It was nighttime in Jordan as Sophia’s group of travelers took a suite of rooms in a remote, sparsely occupied hotel on the outskirts of the city.
They’d made good time via bus and plane, and they even managed to avoid tourist hotspots and main roads. They dressed like locals, donning stylish jeans and dark-colored tops, nothing eye-catching. Inanna and Sophia covered their hair with black hijabs, while Gabriel and Ere, with their dark hair and dark eyes, blended in just fine. Benji wore a brown fisherman hat that drooped over his brow, hiding his bright, golden curls.
Tomorrow, they’d catch a flight on a charter plane to Cairo, Egypt. Sophia could hardly wait. They were getting closer and closer to the answers she’d been searching for, she just knew it.
After eating dinner together in the small hotel restaurant downstairs, they retired each to their rooms, two suites adjoined by an inner door, two queen-sized beds in each room.
“I should stay with you, Sophia,” Inanna said as she paused on her side of the door connecting their rooms. “Just in case.”
Sophia waved away her caution.
“Ere and I will be fine on our own,” she said. “You go have some alone time with your Mate and son.”
Inanna glanced at the young professor sitting on the bed closest to the balcony window. Ere had been everything courteous, helpful and kind over the past two months. They all liked him, and their trust and friendship grew with each passing day.
But over the past few days, he’d started to exhibit signs of weariness and s
tress. He ate a lot less and drank enough to stay just barely hydrated. He was getting thinner, and dark circles shadowed his eyes. Beads of sweat frequently dotted his brow, even when they were simply sitting on the bus or in a plane.
Something was wrong with the human.
Sophia followed the direction of Inanna’s gaze and sighed.
“I’ll take care of Ere,” she said. “I’ve been meaning to have a look at his health. I borrowed some stuff from the hotel staff to check his stats. Hopefully, whatever is ailing him is just a harmless virus that will work itself out soon. Else, we might have to take him to the clinic or hospital before our flight tomorrow. Maybe it’s best if he goes home first. I feel bad for having dragged him so far.”
“Why did you bring him, Sophia?” Inanna asked. “I admit he’s been helpful opening doors with all of his academic connections, but…”
“But he’s human and he doesn’t know our secrets,” Sophia finished for her.
She met the other woman’s eyes.
“I think Ere has a Pure soul. I wanted to learn more about him on this trip to see if I’m right.”
“And have you found your answer?”
Sophia shook her head.
“Not yet. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to him in private. Every time I tried, we were either distracted by something or someone else, or he changed the topic.”
“Sounds like the man has something to hide,” Inanna suggested softly.
“Or he’s just a very private person and isn’t comfortable sharing,” Sophia argued, feeling defensive of her ex-teaching assistant.
Inanna sighed.
“Well, we are just a few feet away if you need us,” she reminded the young queen.
“Try not to use your laser vision without provocation,” Sophia warned with a teasing smile.
“Only to make sure you’re safe and sound,” Inanna returned, undeterred.
If she had to, she wouldn’t hesitate to invade Sophia’s privacy with a penetrating look and break through the door or walls to make sure the queen is protected from harm.