I heard Drake’s assurance in my head. “Cami, calm down. It’ll be temporary.”
I could barely hear him through the pounding in my ears. How long is temporary? Days? Weeks? Months? No. She has no right. She’s tried to separate us since the first moment we found each other. This is just another ploy to keep us apart.
“I didn’t see this one coming, Cami. I don’t have a choice. It’s my duty. If I refuse Pierre, my life is the Blood Debt owed.”
His words drew my breath up sharp. If I refused to let him go, dug in my heels and forced a vote for a new Chairman now, what would happen? Would they dismiss me as a lunatic? Would they choose Cameron? I hated that I still didn’t know all the stupid rules, “What if I told Pierre, no? Remind him that I’m of the Chiron line. Can’t I demand that you stay with me?”
“You aren’t the Chairman, Cami. Pierre has already agreed. The only one who can overrule him is the Chairman.”
“Forgive me, Pierre. I appreciate your offer. I would ask that you reconsider. The Chairman has hundreds of enforcers at her disposal. . .” my voice trailed off.
Pierre’s features softened, “Ms. Camille, I swear on my herd, you will be given every protection I can afford you. The Chairman has given her word that no harm will come to your family. The Lost Herd is safe. We must keep her safe so that she can find the truth she seeks. Drake is our last warrior, and I believe Chiron himself is taking a stand on your family’s behalf.”
“Zandra, I’d like to accompany you.”
The vengeful expression I had seen so many times was absent from her face. “I’m sorry, Camille. If the truth I seek leads me to the pasture, it is an end I willingly accept. I wronged your mother in life. She waits for me in death. You will not accompany me there. You and I are the only remaining Chiron Centaurides. My answer is no.”
My knees gave way. The throbbing in my head, as if it were possible, grew louder. Her words kept echoing in my head, “My answer is no. My answer is no. My answer is no.”
Drake turned away from me and addressed Zandra, “Forgive me, Chairman. It would be my honor to offer you whatever protection I am able. I respectfully request to have a moment alone with my wife. She is upset.”
Zandra gave a slow single nod. Her voice rang out, “Major Rababi!”
A menacing enforcer opened the door to the chamber, stepped in the threshold from the hallway, responding loudly, “Yes, Madam Chairman.”
“Show my granddaughter and Mr. Nash to my private office. Tell the boys to be ready to depart in five minutes.” She turned her attention to me, “I know this is difficult for you, but you have my word that I have no ulterior motive.”
The enforcer held the door for us and motioned for us to turn right. He opened a door at the end of the hall. My hands were shaking, Zandra’s words still echoing in my head. He escorted us inside: it was a scaled-down version of the Council Chambers we had just left. The same mahogany accents, chandeliers and red walls – the same details I had been in awe of in the chambers now repulsed me as I saw them in this room.
When he closed the door, my legs lost their strength as I collapsed into Drake’s arms. Sobs erupted from somewhere deep within me. My emotions were going full throttle. She was separating us, again. Why? Was that some sort of a show for the others on the Council? She had never known happiness her whole life, and she wanted to make sure I would never know it either.
Drake’s’ muscular arms held me close as his hand smoothed my hair and his lips were at my ear, “Shhh, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” His lips found my forehead while his voice kept promising me everything was going to be fine. I didn’t believe it.
We had talked through what I believed to be all the possible scenarios before coming here today. This wasn’t anything we had considered. I could hardly make out my own words through the sobs, “It’s not going to be okay. It’ll never be okay again.” My fingers dug into his flesh as I tried to find the strength to remain upright. “It’s a trap. She’ll kill you. She’ll accuse you of a crime. . . something. . . anything to keep you away from me.“
I nestled my face against Drake's bare chest. His heart was much more controlled than mine. The steady thump-thump, thump-thump beat strong and steady under my ear. His massive hand cradled my head against him while his other arm was wrapped around my waist, not permitting me to drop to the floor. My sobs refused to subside as my body melted into his.
“Listen. She decreed no harm would come to your family. They’re safe for now. That’s what we came here for. Remember?”
My family. Will, Gretchen, Beau and Lacey, Bruce and Hannah, Brent, Ben and Bart were upstairs right now. We had all been prepared to sacrifice our lives today. We were all prepared to do whatever it took to make the Centaur Council listen to us. Not one drop of blood had spilled. Drake was right: she had told the entire Council no harm would come to my family.
I took three rapid breaths, trying to make the sobs go away. Drake’s fingers slid through my hair. His voice was strong, “I’m going to be fine. I promise. I need for you to stay here. Pierre is a respected Centaur. You’ll be safe with him.”
My eye muscles flexed, “What?!”
Drake’s forehead nuzzled mine. “I need to know that you’re safe. I can take out anything the Chairman, any enforcer, even a god can dish out, so long as I know you’re okay. The safest place on the planet is here in Centurion with you surrounded by every enforcer available.”
“No, the safest place on the planet is with you.”
Drake shook his head, “Promise me you’ll stay here.”
My voice sounded weak, “I can go. I can help. I can move objects. . . I can read minds. . . I can . . . “ I trailed off when I saw his eyes. He didn’t want me to go.
Drake’s hand held my head against his chest. “If anything were to happen to Zandra and me, the Centaur Council needs a Chiron. Cameron may have the right blood,” Drake tapped his finger to my chest, “but he doesn’t have your heart. They need you. Promise me you’ll stay until I return for you.”
A fresh wave of tears streamed down my cheeks. Did he believe there was a chance he wasn’t coming back from wherever they were going?
I found my voice, not the little meek one that had just pleaded with him like a child, but my voice. I all but screamed at him, “You can’t leave me!” I struggled free from his embrace and stuck my ring in front of his eye. “You remember? You remember what your mom said. This belonged to your grandmother. She couldn’t live without your grandfather – she died a few days after he did from a broken heart. If you don’t think you’re coming back, then don’t leave.” Unwavering eyes looked back at me. A single tear fell from his eye, down his cheek and dripped off his chin. My whisper barely audible, “Don’t leave me.”
“Cami, be reasonable. I’m coming back.” His words sounded empty. Images began crashing in on me from all directions; I couldn’t control them: Mom in her hospital bed as I held her hand and watched the life drain out of her body, seeing the blood on Zandra’s walls that I believed belonged to Drake, the emptiness that consumed me as I walked in the freezing cold searching for him in South Dakota.
The two people I loved with all my heart were lost to me for a time, and I knew I couldn’t survive the emptiness if I lost him, really lost him this time. I would be an empty shell of a person. I didn’t try to wall up my memories from him, or hide the fact that I’d never breathe again if he didn’t return.
His fingertip and thumb angled my chin up, forcing me to look up into his icy blue eyes just as his eyelids began to close and his lips found mine. His strong arms lifted me off the floor and held me tightly against him. His chest radiated so much heat I could feel it through my shirt. We stood there wrapped up without words for a full minute before he set me back on my feet.
“Hold on. I can’t go like this.” He gestured to his warrior form. Drake closed his eyes and took a couple steps away from me. I saw a couple spots of light pepper his skin. I used our connection to try
to push an image of the two of us to him, the way I had helped him change from his warrior form in Cancun. When our connection opened, a vibrant image of the two of us in the shower last night cascaded in my mind. But it wasn’t my image – it was Drake’s. It was strange to relive the shower from his perspective. The memory of his hands caressing me through the too hot water was more erotic from his memory than I remembered it myself.
When I opened my eyes, the light on his form was gone, and my human-looking Centaur stood in front of me again. Drake wore nothing: his clothes lay shredded on the floor of the Council Chamber – neither of us had bothered to pick them up. Light from the sconce behind him highlighted his short blond hair. Every muscle stood rigid on his chest, as his eyes reflected the longing I felt.
A knock sounded at the door. I hurled myself at Drake, ready to plead all over again for him to stay. He didn’t flinch and made no effort to remove me from him; he only pushed a final thought to me while I desperately wrapped myself around him, “I’m coming back. Not because I think you’re too weak to live without me – that’s a lie, we both know you’re stronger than that. I’m coming back because you owe me.”
My eyes fluttered open as my breath hitched. “Because I owe you?”
His voice was soft, “You owe me a lifetime of nights with you curled up next to me. You owe me the hours of sleep you kept from me this last month. You owe me lazy days in a bedroom with blackout curtains. You owe me more showers where getting clean isn’t the objective. And something we’ve not talked about before, you owe me a son and a daughter.”
His last statement took me by surprise. I nearly choked on the words, “I owe you a son and a daughter?”
“Okay, maybe you don’t owe me a set of twins – you owe that to Centaur society. But as for everything else, yes, and I aim to collect.” A forced grin spread on his face.
Twins? I wasn’t ready to be a mom. Was he kidding? My mouth opened to argue, but words failed me. The knock sounded on the door again, and I knew we were out of time. His gaze was still fixed on mine, “That’s a pretty tall order. Especially that last part. What do you owe me?”
“I owe you my life, because without you, I wouldn’t want mine. I owe you my love for eternity, because before I met you, I wasn’t convinced love existed.”
The door cracked open to reveal the same enforcer who had escorted us to Zandra’s office. “Young Nash, the Chairman is waiting.”
I glared toward the door and the enforcer cringed, easing the door closed slightly. I saw him standing there in the crack of the door, unsure what to do next. I angled my body so I was facing the enforcer. “Tell the Chairman I’d like to see her.”
Fear shown through the enforcer’s eyes, “Uh, Miss. It doesn’t work like that.”
He was just doing as he’d been told, but it didn’t stop me from letting out an audible sigh. “Right, wouldn’t want to get you fired or anything.” I walked to the door and pulled it free from the enforcer’s grasp; he leaped back giving me plenty of room. I stuck my head out into the hallway. Sure enough, Zandra was waiting by the stairs. In the most proper, confident tone I could muster, I called, “Madam Chairman, I’d like a word with you, please.”
Zandra scowled in my direction. She looked like she was going to tell me no, but she must have decided that I was prepared to make a scene or something because she reluctantly strode down the hall toward me. She stepped inside and shut the door behind her. Her condescending tone wasn’t a surprise when she sneered, “What now, Camille?”
My invitation had not been well thought out. Drake stood behind me, no doubt trying to be nonchalant about standing in her office naked in his human form. Any other time this might have struck me as funny, but as it was I could hardly concentrate on anything but Zandra.
I took a deep breath and steadied my voice the best I could. I wasn’t scared of her, at least not like I’d been when I first met her. After everything she’d put me through, there was not a speck of love for her, either. All kinds of hateful things fluttered through my mind, and I suppressed each one before I could make the situation any worse than it already was. I took one more deep breath, felt Drake’s reassuring squeeze on my arm, and then let my eyes settle on Zandra. It tasted like vinegar coming out of my mouth, but I said it anyway, “Thank you.”
Her eyebrows rose. Her voice was hesitant when she cautiously asked, “For?”
“Thank you for sparing my family, even for just a little while. I look forward to your return.” She nodded cautiously, but did not respond. I didn’t know her very well, but enough to understand that threatening her wouldn’t work. I told myself this might be my only chance to make her want to bring Drake back to me. If I could just make her believe that I didn’t have it in for her, maybe she wouldn’t be reckless with him. I cleared my throat, “Cameron tells me you showed him nothing but kindness, and for that, I’m grateful.” She said nothing, but gave me a studious look, as if she were waiting for me to do or say something spiteful. I didn’t. Just as she began to turn away I added, “I hope that one day, I’ll be able to think of you as my family, too.”
Her back was to me, but my words stopped her in mid-stride. I didn’t expect her to turn around and take me in a sappy embrace. I didn’t expect her to apologize for the awful things she’d done. And most of all, I didn’t expect her to throw up her arms and tell Drake she had changed her mind and he could stay with me. It was good because she didn’t do any of those things. Instead, she remained faced toward the door and simply replied, “I’d like that, too, Camille. Drake, I’ll send Major Rabbabi in with some clothes for you. We’ll depart immediately.”
She turned the door handle and disappeared into the hallway. As if Major Rabbabi had somehow known what her request would be, the door swung open quickly and he tossed a uniform and pair of boots at Drake. It was the same charcoal grey all the other enforcers wore. The enforcer said nothing and closed the door behind him as he walked out.
Drake slid his legs into the pants and knelt down to put on the boots. I watched him, the way his muscles flexed with even the most mundane task. His hand that had cradled me against his chest just minutes before now laced up the boots that were going to let him walk away from me, maybe for good this time.
I forced the never-ending tears to stay in my tear ducts. I dried the tears that had already spilled out. His last image of me wouldn’t be one of sorrow or sadness. He stood up and slid his arms into the uniform shirt, trying desperately not to make eye contact with me.
When he was fully dressed, he stood tall, looked at the door then finally at me. His words were calm, “I have to go, Cami.”
I nodded. There was no argument left in me. I couldn’t turn into a blubbering mess again. It wasn’t fair to him. I needed every ounce of strength I possessed to stay upright, but only for a few seconds more. I gave him a quick hug, and forced my body not to cling to him, no matter how badly it wanted to hold on and refuse to let go. Twenty seconds and he’d be gone. I told myself, Hold it together for twenty more seconds. I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but my lips wouldn’t cooperate and folded into a grimace. Fifteen seconds and I could melt into a pile of goo. His hand squeezed my elbow gently. Ten more seconds, hold it together for ten more seconds.
Drake’s lips brushed up against my ear, “I love you, Cami. If anything happens. . . ”
I brought my fingers to his lips. I couldn’t let him finish his sentence. “I love you, too,” were the only words I could choke out. My eyes burned and I looked toward the ceiling, trying to focus on the mahogany trim rather than the man who would hold my heart for eternity.
Drake took my face in his palms, so I was forced to look at him. The burning in my eyes from holding back tears clouded my vision. His voice was steady, “If anything happens to me, I’m going to take Zandra with me to the pasture. Be strong for me. Show everyone you are a Chiron. I look forward to a long life with you, but if that isn’t meant to be, I need you to know I’ve felt more love in the last
few weeks than most are lucky enough to know in a lifetime. I regret nothing.”
His lips brushed mine one last time, and he walked away. As soon as the door shut behind him, I collapsed to the floor. A wail erupted from deep in my soul, and I made no effort to quiet it. I don’t know how long I lay crumpled up on the floor. I had no idea where the two of them were going, but I knew he was close enough to hear the thoughts I wanted him to hear. I cleared my mind, wiped the moisture and snot off my face, took several deep breaths, then opened our connection.
When I could feel we were connected, I shot one thought his way. “I love you, Drake. No matter what happens, know that a day will never pass where you aren’t my first thought in the morning, my last thought at night, and your arms are the ones I long to be in while I sleep.”
Chapter 14
(Camille Nash – Lost City Resort in South Africa)
The days had passed slowly. The heads of each family, except Pierre, departed the same night Zandra, Drake and a handful of enforcers left. My family and I returned to the Lost City Resort to wait for them to return. Pierre accompanied us with several from his family who had come to attend the Council meeting with him.
This place had held so much beauty when we arrived. Now it felt like my prison cell at Zandra’s estate. I don’t know what I expected. Zandra’s decree carried plenty of weight. Not only was my immediate family safe, but Will told me others from the Lost Herd began to arrive within days as word spread that no harm would come to them.
Each morning Will stopped by and wanted to introduce me to some new distant relative, and each morning I stood behind the door of my room and politely declined. I was ashamed of myself. There was so much for me to do.
Centaur Redemption (Touched Series) Page 13