Incendiary

by Elisabeth

  “You’re untouchable,” I said to him.

  His back muscles flexed, and I loved the feel of it. I inhaled his scent. He smelled fresh, outdoorsy and something manly I couldn’t describe. He sighed.

  “It’s my ex, Paris’ mother, Helena. She’s been trying to get me to help her since she ran into some trouble, but I won’t help her. I refuse to bring that vile woman back into our lives. She doesn’t get to come into my son’s life like this. I don’t want her to hurt Paris, babe,” he said, lowering his head, in deep thought.

  “She won’t, Alex.” I tried to reassure him.

  His voice rough from the raw emotions he was feeling, he said, “If she brings any harm to my son, I promise you and the world that I will kill her.”

  There was conviction in his voice. I stayed quiet, but something didn’t feel right. It felt like he knew something might happen.

  “Alex…What’s the matter?”

  “I can feel something is going to happen. I feel it inside of me as if something sinister is brewing and is waiting to escape from inside me. Whatever is going to happen is going to force me to be someone else, and I know it has something to do with that woman.”

  I felt his every word seep through me. I unwrapped myself from him. “Alex, baby, look at me.”

  I waited for him to turn around and, when he did, there was a worry in his eyes. Those perfect mismatched eyes of his.

  “Baby,” he said as if he was afraid of whatever was going to happen. He reached out, wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, and leaned down, pulling me in for a kiss. A scorching kiss that I swear heightened every emotion I felt for him.

  At that instant, I knew I could never and would never leave this man. I kissed him back with such power, with everything in me. I wanted him to feel how much his love had changed me. I wanted him to feel how I felt about him, and the way a simple touch from him could drive me crazy. I moaned, and he pulled away from me. I stood there on the tips of my toes with my eyes closed and lips parted from the intensity of his lips on mine.

  “I love you, Kenna.”

  My heart beat fast, and my insides fluttered as if a storm of butterflies had exploded inside of me. Kenna… A nickname I would cherish for life.

  “I love you too, Alex.”

  “I’ll never let harm come to you, I will always protect you, and I will never hurt you,” he confessed to me.

  I opened my eyes to look up at him. His eyes told me all the truth I needed to see. After seeing the entire truth of his life, and how we fit together, my feelings for him amplified. It felt real, and it felt natural, as if all this time it was always there, always brewing awaiting the day when he stepped up to me and told me I was his. I was made for him, and in turn, he was made for me.

  “You’re something else, Alex, you know that?”

  He chuckled as he pulled me into him wrapping his arms around me.

  “Yeah, I’m your husband, so, of course, I’m something else.”

  I snickered.

  “You’re not even my fiancée yet, dude. Don’t be crazy,” I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest, loving the warmth he gave me.

  “We’re skipping that bit. I don’t need that. I need you to know you’re already my wife. As a matter of fact, you were born to be my wife.”

  I giggled, yes…giggled. He made me do all sorts of things I had never done before. This man was a gift, my gift. A gift I internally prayed for…not just to be mine but for me to be his too. I also prayed for the feelings of impending doom he had deep inside not to be real.

  “Okay, husband, let’s go back to our guests.”

  He softly chuckled. “Say it again, baby.” He groaned as I felt his member grow hard on my belly.

  “Husband.”

  “Damn, that makes me so hard. Don’t move yet, give me a minute to breathe and tell my dick he can’t have you right now, maybe later.”

  “I’ll sing for you later, baby,” I said to him as I looked up at him getting on the tip of my toes again, waiting for him to meet me halfway with a kiss.

  He smiled at me, with all his pearly whites. Dammit. If my husband wasn’t sexy before, he was so damn sexy right then.

  Alexander

  It wasn’t like Paris to ignore my phone calls or not keep in contact whether he was on a trip or not. I called his bodyguard, Banner. There was no answer, and then there was this sinking feeling in my gut. Deep down inside, the same feeling I had when I lost my brother Hector all those centuries ago.

  I called Tank.

  “Yo!” he answered.

  “Tank I can’t find him.”

  He already knew who I was talking about.

  “Alex, I’m sure he’s fine. The kid probably wants his space from you. You’re always hovering.” I groaned and shut my eyes.

  “No, Mario this is different. I can feel it, man. I need to find my son.”

  “Okay, give me a bit. I’ll trace Banner’s phone.”

  “Okay.”

  Tank hung up, and I began to pace back and forth in my silk pajamas. Please, please let there not be something wrong with him. Please. After an excruciating twenty minutes, Tank called me back.

  “Tell me you found him?”

  “Alexandros...” He called me by a name I no longer associated with. A name that made me hate my entire being. Tank only called me that when he had bad news to break to me.

  “No, no, no... Mario don’t call me that name. Where is he? Where is my son?”

  “There’s a helicopter coming in for you, take it, and get there as fast as you can. I’m sorry, Alexandros.”

  I couldn’t even think straight as I walked out toward the chopper I heard coming up in my backyard. He must’ve sent it right over. My heart wasn’t my own. When I got in the chopper, a hand covered mine.

  I looked up, and I realized McKenna was with me the whole time. I couldn’t speak to her. There was nothing I could say as my leg began to bounce up and down. I needed them to get there as soon as possible.

  Twenty whole minutes, it took us that long to get to where my son was. I didn’t even wait for the chopper to fully land as I jumped out of it. I had on my slippers, and I landed on some rocks, but I couldn’t feel a thing but my heart beating wildly in my chest.

  When I got to the campsite, the first thing I spotted was blood. Being around blood was something I would never forget. Not the bodies, the scent or what death looked like before they took their last breath. I could never forget. That’s why when I searched around in circles for my son, I had lost it. I heard McKenna calling for me, but I couldn’t stop. I had to find him. He was my whole life. He was everything to me. To lose my son would be for me to lose myself.

  I spotted one of my knives I gifted him on his birthday on the ground, and a tear fell. Did he fight his way through all of this? Where was he? Then, I heard a cough coming from deeper down in the woods, and I ran.

  “Paris! Paris!” I yelled.

  When I reached where the kid was, I inhaled before bending to my knees and slowly turning him around. I gasped, lost for words as I looked at my son’s face. Bloodied and beaten to an inch of his life. His breathing was ragged as he opened his left eye. He opened his mouth to speak as I sat on the ground and pulled him into my lap.

  “Of course, you’d show up without a shirt on.” He coughed as I chuckled.

  “I’m so sorry, Son. I’m so sorry,” I said as another tear slipped out of my eye.

  “Daddy,” Paris called me, and I watched him as he exhaled slowly closing his working eye. “It hurts. It hurts so much.”

  “I’m taking you to get better, okay Son? I promise I will never let danger come near you again.” I watched him for a moment as he didn’t speak. He was just there, and that’s when it dawned on me what just happened.

  Tears I had never shed before in all the lives I was given fell hard, and my heart, my heart ached so badly.

  My mouth opened, and I screamed so loud and hard I hear
d the trees in the woods shake. Then, I pulled my son closer to my chest sobbing loudly.

  “My baby. My son. My Paris. Save him!” I shouted angrily. “Save him!” I roared. “I know you’re real! You know me, and I know you, so save him just like you did me. Don’t do this to me! You’re breaking my heart!” I wasn’t praying to Aphrodite or any of them. I was praying to the one who called himself the Most-High. I wanted his interference.

  I was so distraught because my son, the only child I had on this earth was gone, and I didn’t know what to do. I don’t remember the last time I prayed, but it seemed like the most befitting time to search for a higher power, a power higher than the mere gods I’d known all my life. I shut my eyes again as I rocked my son back and forth. It didn’t matter that I felt people around me. No! I would never let my son go. They’d have to kill me first. If he were indeed dead, then they would have to bury me with him.

  Please, please, please. I begged internally. I know I’m not the best person out there, but I love this kid. I love him more than I love myself. He is me, and he has seen me through the darkest of times without him. I don’t think I can be the man everyone needs me to be. Please, Most-High I beg of you.

  Memories of when Paris first started to walk flooded my mind, and I couldn’t help it as I cried. I thought of that time when I felt like all was lost on me, and I couldn’t figure out what to do. Then, he walked over to me as I watched TV, not even paying attention to what was really going on.

  There was some show on the TV, but my mind was so consumed with the guilt of killing my father. I hadn’t killed him too long ago at that time. I only killed him after Paris was dropped off at my front door. He was such a tiny little kid with mismatched eyes that shined so bright, and the way he would smile up at me brought me joy. I felt a small hand on my tattooed knuckle, and I looked from the TV down to my hand. Paris looked at me with such love; it hit me so hard. This life was the hardest for me to endure as the abuse of my father almost broke me. It took me so much time to find out why. He was a reincarnation of King Menelaus, Helen’s husband. It was a sick joke one of those gods tried to play on me. He knew from the very beginning who I was, even though I was not directly born from him. My birth was always a mystery. Each time, someone would find me near a fire as a baby, and they would adopt me, but this was the worst of it all. He beat me like he hated me, which he did. So, when I got the chance to kill him, I felt surprisingly empty because he still raised me.

  The guilt didn’t last long as I thought it would. The moment Paris put his tiny hand over mine and stretched his arms out for me to hold him I would oblige. At that time, he was two-years-old.

  “Daddy,” he called out to me, and my chest swelled with pride.

  “Yes, kid.”

  “Daddy, okay?” His voice shaky as if he would cry any minute now, and I smiled because I knew I didn’t kill the bastard for nothing. I did it to watch my son grow up with love and not hate.

  “I am now, kid.”

  Paris laid his head on my shoulder.

  “Love you, Daddy,” he said to me, and a tear fell out of my eye.

  “I love you too, Paris.”

  “Promise?” he asked.

  “Always.”

  “Forever, Daddy?”

  “I’ll love you forever, Paris. I promise you that much.” That night everything for us changed, and I never regretted nor felt guilty about killing that nasty man or loving my son harder than anyone had ever loved me.

  I needed something to happen. I needed it right then! They would all pay. I knew who it was. That was why I never let her see him again because all she brought was trouble. I warned her. I told her if she ever brought Paris trouble again, I would kill her and whoever else she was involved with. This was war that had been declared, and I would finish it. Not just for Paris, but for the other kids here who were sprawled out, bleeding and dead, as if they did anything wrong when they didn’t. Such innocent lives all gone because of one woman’s mistakes. Helena. Yeah, the irony I know. She would be dead soon, right along with Carlos and his crew. They thought they were a match for me, and I would show them why my name on the streets was the mad boss of Nevada.

  As I held Paris, devising a plan, I felt a hand on my shoulder, but I refused to acknowledge her right now. Yes, I loved her, but right at that moment, I was hurting. Hurting in a way that would turn me mean and angry. I could already feel the darkness I always possessed resurfacing, becoming uglier, much more menacing.

  “Alex, baby look at me please.” McKenna’s sultry voice tried to get me to let go of my darkness, but it was who I was, and there was no turning back for me.

  “Kenna…baby, please, just leave.”

  “No! Alex, I love Paris just as much as you do; I’m not leaving him.”

  “Well, I need you to go. I promise you the man that leaves this area will not be the one you love, and I’m not talking about my son.”

  “Alexander, look at me.”

  She crawled around to face me and placed a hand on my cheek. There were tears in her eyes as well, but it didn’t make me weak. If anything, it fueled me even more to kill those who brought this tragedy into our lives. She continued speaking.

  “If you have to get rid of whoever brought such sadness in our lives, I understand. I will not make you choose between me and seeking out revenge. I will always be here for you when you get back and into my arms. I will try my best to ease your pain and make everything better for you.” She looked down at Paris for a moment, another set of tears falling from her eyes, then she looked up at me. “They don’t deserve to live. This was our baby, and they did this. Alexander, bring them down. Do you understand me?”

  I nodded sharply wanting to wipe the tears away from her eyes, but I couldn’t let go of Paris. I held him so close to me as if shielding him from more hurt even if he had already taken his last breath, and then something happened.

  A huge wind picked up, moving us further into the woods. A man appeared from thin air. My eyes widened because I knew that face, but I couldn’t place it. I narrowed my eyes as the man got closer, yet his eyes seemed glossed over as if he was blind or something. His long, black hair shielded some of his facial features, and his outfit made him look like some sort of Rockstar. His glossed eyes landed on me, then McKenna and after, Paris.

  “Kenna, get behind me,” I ordered, but it was too late as the man lifted his hand and was able to pry Paris from my arms. “NO!” I screamed as I stood up ready to kill this man.

  Just as I was about to make a move, the man looked over at me with his eyes now bright green, still glossed.

  “I’m here to heal him. You asked, and the Most-High answered, sending me to you.” His voice was so damn familiar, but who was he?

  Just then, big, black wings materialized before me, and I took a step back.

  What the hell?

  “Who are you?”

  “Raphael,” he answered as he lowered Paris’ body to the floor. He kneeled before Paris, placing his hand over him, and he inhaled.

  Raphael threw his head back as the light appeared out of his hand, and he placed it over Paris’ chest. It only took one good minute for me to see my son’s chest slowly rising and falling. I dropped to my knees out of breath. My son was breathing again. I watched in amazement, as this angel, or whatever he was, healed my son. Then it stopped, and he looked down at Paris then me.

  “He will awake when he heals. It will take a while.”

  “Thank you,” McKenna managed to say for the both of us.

  “Don’t thank me. Thank the Most-High and Paris?” He looked at me as if he were addressing me.

  How did he know my name?

  He answered before the words came out of my mouth.

  “I know you because of your sister, Pandora. Find her, and you’ll find me.”

  “She’s alive? Where is she?” I stood up quickly running over to him, but just as soon as he appeared, he disappeared.

  This changed everything.

/>   Chapter VII.

  McKenna

  It had been a couple days and Paris still was in a coma that seemed to take both him and his dad. Alexander wasn’t eating or sleeping. He was either in the hospital or busy plotting how he wanted to find Carlos’ crew. The look in his eyes was a look I had never seen on any other man in my life. I took time off from work because I wanted to watch Paris when Alexander wasn’t there. I didn’t care that some of Alexander’s men were there to watch him. I wanted to watch him and be there when he woke up.

  I looked at Paris as I sat by his bedside. He looked so peaceful as his chest moved up and down from his breathing. The beeping of the machines was annoying at first and hard to cope with, but soon, they became like background noise. I stood up, pulled my chair closer to Paris, and reached out, grabbing his hand into mine.

  “Paris…” I began to talk to him. The doctors said if we talked to him, he could hear us. “It’s me, Ms. Eros, well Kenna. I just wanted to say hi and talk for a bit while I wait here for your father. I know he is reeling from all of this because he loves you so much, and he got so scared. I know you probably would’ve told him to calm down because you’re fine.” I wanted to finish, but I couldn’t.

  My eyes filled with tears. It hurt me to see Paris like that. I wanted him to be awake, so he could tell me about his next play he was working on in school, or how much he was enjoying helping Elani out in her class. He was such a great kid, and it tore me apart to see him hooked up to all sorts of machines. I knew Alexander was out getting revenge for Paris. Part of me thought he was so terrified to see Paris like this in the bed. So helpless, not saying much or doing anything.

  I wanted to ponder on it more, but there was a quiet knock at the hospital door. I wiped my tears away before answering.

  “Come in,” I said.

  When the door opened, I was stunned.

  I had never in my life seen someone that resembled Paris or Alexander before until now. I stood up and stared as a beautiful woman with the same mismatched eyes as Alexander walked in and smiled at me. She had her black hair up in a bun, face full of freckles, but everything else was Alexander. I was freaked. Did Alexander have family I didn’t know about?