‘He’s there,’ I said, pointing towards a small group of men.
Taurus glanced at the group, then slowly started to move. I followed, keeping my distance. The man we had kidnapped knew who I was but he hadn’t seen much of Taurus when he had been in the attic.
‘Play it cool. Don’t let him see you,’ I called.
The people milling around heard me. They saw I was in a wheelchair and carried on with what they were doing. I held back as the group shifted and the man broke away from them. As he turned, his eyes made direct contact with mine. I blinked before I realised what had happened.
Taurus broke into a run as the man spun on his heel and legged it. I made my way over to our van, feeling useless as Taurus gave chase. They disappeared from sight. I was too low to be able to see over the cars. I punched the arms of my chair and looked around. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait. I was sick of not being able to do anything. I glanced down at my stumps and cursed them, yet again.
‘I lost him,’ Taurus puffed when he came back.
I shook my head and gritted my teeth. ‘If you gave up smoking, you would have caught him.’
He opened the doors of the van and shoved me inside without saying anything. I clasped my hands together. My skin heated as I shook all over. It had been our best chance to get him.
‘There was no need to chat up the receptionist, then. She was probably no one,’ he called as he started the engine.
‘Seriously, mate, you need to stop getting high. It’s slowing you down. If you were fitter, you could have caught him.’ I thumped my thigh.
‘Yeah, well, if you hadn’t been such a hero, you would have been able to catch him, too.’
I almost choked on my own bile. The others had pussyfooted around me since my accident. Taurus was right. I had been careless and stupid. I told myself that every day. I didn’t need anyone else to tell me.
‘Don’t judge me, mate, and I won’t judge you,’ Taurus called.
I hated to admit it, but like usual, he was completely right.
Chapter Eighteen
‘You’re my soulmate,’ I blurted.
She stopped what she was doing. Her body frozen in the position she had been moving to. We were in the rehab centre and Natalie was helping me with my exercises. There was no one else in the room. Something had triggered me to want to let her know about our mission. When I had returned from our escapade the day before, I had sent her home in anger.
‘I’ve never known you to be sentimental.’ She let her arms fall.
I cocked my head to the side and smiled slightly. ‘To be honest, I’m not being sentimental now. You see this?’ I held up my wrist so that my stupid bracelet came into view.
She nodded and stepped forward. I didn’t want her to get too close. I was afraid that she would take the words as an outpouring of my heart, when they were only a statement of why we were there.
‘I can never take this off because it’s part of my mission. I know where we come from, and where we go when we die.’
She blinked a few times. I waited as she absorbed what I was saying. She would either trust me enough to believe me, or think I was off my rocker.
‘My siblings and I have agreed on a mission. So have you.’
She frowned but didn’t move or say anything.
‘We’re here to unite with our twin flame soulmates to bring more…love…’ I almost choked on the word but managed to clear my throat in time. ‘To the world.’
Natalie sat on the floor and crossed her legs. The small movement caught my eye. I remembered a time when I was a kid and I would sit on the carpet with Mother to learn why we were on Earth. My skin prickled at the memory of her. She had brought us up as her own children, yet we had learnt that she was trying to help the man that wanted to stop us from achieving our goal.
‘Is that why you have the ability to make fire?’
Her big eyes glanced up at me from under her lashes. Her innocence wasn’t lost on me. My heart skipped a beat or two. She believed me without any question. She had seen life but she didn’t remember it the way I did.
‘Yes. There’s a man named Nick who wants to stop us. He kidnapped Pisces but we managed to rescue her.’
Natalie nodded. ‘That man you held captive. Was he involved? I didn’t take much in when you questioned him.’
She glanced at my wrist and reached out. Stroking the cord, she pulled to try and get it off. It wouldn’t move. She gave up, knelt in front of me and rested her hands on my thighs.
‘I’ve never been a believer in soulmates. I recently found a place where people were talking about twin flames. Normal people.’ She blushed when I raised my eyebrows.
I shrugged. ‘I can’t pretend I’m normal.’
I was glad I wasn’t normal; it made life a lot more interesting.
‘There are a few thousand twin flame soulmates on the planet at the moment. They’re not really consciously aware of their mission. They struggle with running, like we have.’
She squeezed the bare skin of my thigh and heat bloomed under her touch.
‘Are we over the worst?’ she whispered.
I shrugged again. I had no idea how it went forward. Pisces and Antony had harmonised quickly but we had been at it for over five years.
‘All I know, is that no matter how hard I try, I can’t push you away anymore,’ I said. ‘It’s irritating.’
She laughed. The sound echoed around the room, bouncing off the training apparatus. I glanced over at the bars and hoped one day soon, I would be able to use them to practice walking with my new metal legs.
‘I’ve never been able to push you away. Every time you came back to me, I couldn’t resist you. That’s just as annoying. I thought I was going mad. How could I love someone who kept treating me like crap?’
I froze and brought my attention back to her. She stroked the hair on my thighs. I reached out and folded my hand over hers. Her smile faded and her frown reflected my own.
‘You loved me?’
Her cheeks burned red. I resisted the urge to reach out and stroke them. My mobile started to ring and Natalie pulled away. She started to pack up as I took the call.
‘Aries, its Leo. I have a rather surprising surprise for you. I think you’d like to know about it.’
I could hear the others babbling in the background and was tempted to tell Leo to shout at them but I stopped myself.
‘Are you going to tell me what it is?’ Why didn’t people just get straight to the point?
‘Where’s the fun in that? Come home as soon as you can.’
The phone went dead and I swore. Natalie glanced over as I shook my head. ‘We need to get back.’
She smiled as I spun and took myself off to the showers. I had worked hard, managing to do a hundred pull-ups. My arm muscles were stronger than they had ever been and my thighs were getting there, too.
The water washed over my body as I sat in the plastic chair. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Natalie said that she had loved me. I had never been in love before. I hadn’t known that she felt that way. Did she still feel the same?
‘Your phone’s ringing again,’ Natalie shouted through the door of the disabled shower room.
‘Can you answer it?’ I shouted back.
I switched the water off and dried myself. When I was decent, I opened the door and froze. Natalie was crouched on the ground. Her head was in her hands and sobs tore out of her.
‘What’s the matter?’ I said, wheeling to her.
‘That wasn’t your phone, it was mine,’ she stuttered. ‘My mother’s dead.’
Chapter Nineteen
The day couldn’t get much worse.
‘Why are you here?’ I asked.
I hadn’t seen her for two years and we hadn’t spoken for months. Her short brown hair was starting to grey.
‘Mother, why did you abandon us?’ Cancer asked.
I had to hold onto the wood of the table to stop myself from shoutin
g at Cancer. The coffee shop was quiet. I had no idea why I agreed to let Cancer come with me. She had set the meeting up, which was the only reason she was sitting with us.
‘Please will you let me do the talking?’
She folded her arms across her chest and sat back. She knew that I was better at talking and would get the answers we needed.
‘I’ve missed you both. I’m sorry for what happened. I was swept up in the moment. Nick was so…’
Her words trailed off when I growled. She had held back tears when I had wheeled into the coffee shop. Her eyes had watered. She swallowed as she tried to keep what little emotion she had, under control.
‘I can’t excuse what I’ve done. I’m only human. I now realise that I was wrong, and I want to make it up to you.’
Her words sent searing heat down my arms. Cancer yelped when flames covered my hands. I sucked the fire back in and glanced around. Luckily no one else had noticed my little fiery outburst.
‘Aries, I know you don’t trust me, and you probably never will. When I saw your father again, I realised what I’d done,’ Mother said.
Cancer sat forward and went to reach out to her. She was a bit of a mummy’s girl, which was exactly the reason I hadn’t wanted her to come. She would let her emotions get involved.
‘How did you find Cancer?’ I asked.
Mother blinked when I nudged Cancer in the side and she pulled back.
‘I spotted her in the shopping centre. I knew it was her, because I saw her turn into water by the fountain.’
I grabbed Cancer’s arm and squeezed. ‘What have I said about using our abilities in public?’ I snarled.
She yelped and pulled out of my grip. She rubbed at the red mark that now formed on her arm in the shape of my hand.
‘You can talk,’ she grumbled as tears came to her eyes.
I swallowed and ducked my head. I had never been very good at controlling my temper. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, turning back to my mother.
‘I know it’s hard for you to believe but I love you very much. I wanted to keep you safe. Nick assured me that if I stayed with him, he would leave you alone. When I found out that he’d kidnapped Pisces, I wanted to leave, but he wouldn’t let me. He still won’t let me go.’
A quick check around the coffee shop made me believe her fear. I could see the slight shaking of her hands and the beads of sweat that sat on her forehead.
‘How do I know you’re not working for him right now? Leading him straight to us?’
She smiled and my back straightened. She was proud of me, I could tell.
‘You can tell a liar from a mile away. Why do you think I asked for you to come?’ She reached out but then changed her mind when her gaze landed on the arm of my wheelchair.
‘That is true, Aries. Is she lying?’ Cancer piped up.
I scowled at her again, annoyed at her interruption. I wanted Mother to be lying. I wanted to be able to disown her so that we could get on with our lives but the truth was obvious. She wasn’t lying.
‘I sneaked here to see you. I managed to grab Cancer and arrange this meeting. Nick doesn’t keep me that well monitored, because he’s bored with me and believes I would never go against him.’
I glanced over my shoulder as the waitress brought our drinks. ‘Sorry for the wait.’ She fluttered her eyelashes at me.
Grinning back, I looked her up and down. She was just my type. Young and impressionable with a beautiful body. It would be easy to love and leave her. Cancer punched my arm, and I blinked, breaking eye contact with the young woman.
‘Can we get back to it?’ I said as the girl moved away.
Cancer shook her head and shared a look with Mother.
‘I thought you’d found your mate.’ Mother ripped open a small sugar and poured it into her drink.
I looked down at my hands where they rested in my lap and laughed. ‘I’m still allowed to look.’
‘Well you shouldn’t be!’ she snapped.
My eyebrows rose as she stirred her tea furiously.
‘You didn’t want me to find my twin flame.’ I glared at her, picked up a can of drink and popped it open.
Her face softened. A part of me wanted her to be innocent. I wanted her to be our mother again but the trust would never be there.
‘Of course I wanted you to find her. I want you to succeed. It had nothing to do with my children. It was all about me and my own lessons.’ She blinked rapidly. I was shocked at the show of emotion from her. She was a tough, down to earth woman, who knew what she liked, and that was that.
‘It’s okay. I believe you, Mother. Maybe we could…’
‘No,’ I interrupted Cancer.
They both stared at me and I felt like the bad man they believed me to be. Being with our mother was dangerous.
‘She abandoned us,’ I said to Cancer.
‘So did Father but we’re still trying to rescue him.’ As Cancer sat on the edge of her seat, something occurred to me.
‘Are you working with the man we took captive? Is this a setup?’
Her eyes widened. I had hit the wrong mark but something was up.
‘You took someone captive?’ Mother said.
I swore under my breath and tried to wheel backwards. I pushed myself too hard and knocked the table behind me. My instincts told me that what they were saying was true but Cancer had let the man go. She helped him to escape. She had denied it over and over but I was sure she lied.
‘Don’t go, Aries, we’re not finished,’ Mother said.
I stopped trying to turn and looked at her. She wore makeup and a smart trouser suit that made her look younger than her age.
‘When I saw your father again, I knew that everything I had done with Nick was wrong. I never should have left you, or tried to control you. We’re all human, even if some of you might have special powers. Haven’t you ever made a mistake?’
Her eyes pleaded with me. The little boy inside wanted to tell her that it was okay.
‘Yes. It was a mistake coming here.’ I turned to leave.
‘I will tell you where your father is, regardless,’ she called as I reached for my wheels.
I paused. I couldn’t let pride get in the way of our rescue mission. I didn’t trust her one bit. It would be interesting to see if she was being genuine.
‘Go on then. Tell me the truth,’ I said, not turning back.
I heard a chair scrape on the floor. Her high heels clicked against the stone floor as she came to me.
She crouched down as if she was talking to her young son and placed a hand on my arm. ‘Give me a bit of time. I would like to try and rescue him myself.’
I grabbed her hand before she could pull away. ‘What are you playing at?’ I hissed.
She looked at the remains of my legs but couldn’t look me in the eyes. ‘I don’t know how far you’ve got with Natalie. I fear that I’ve ruined my own soulmate relationship. Please back off and let me try to rescue my husband.’
Cancer scooted her chair nearer to us as I stared into my mother’s eyes.
‘He’s not your husband anymore. He married someone else,’ Cancer said.
There was a tone of resentment in her voice. I was pleased that I wasn’t the only one that believed our parents were as bad as each other. They were supposed to be an example to us. Their journey made me believe that the effort of the twin flame relationship wasn’t worth it.
‘I don’t want to come between them. Their relationship is as important to your father’s growth as Nick’s was to mine.’ She wiped a hand under her eye.
I couldn’t tell if she cried crocodile tears. I squirmed in my seat and let go of her hand.
‘Did you actually love Nick?’ Cancer asked as I swallowed the sharp retort that sprung to mind.
When she nodded, I fought the urge to ram her with my chair. How could she love the man that had killed my soulmate in previous lifetimes?
‘I know you don’t understand. Other relationships are important for
growth. If your twin flame is with someone else, it’s helping them to get ready for you.’
‘I’ve had enough of this,’ I snapped, looking for a way to get past her.
She refused to move. ‘I love your father more than anything. I want to prove that by rescuing him. I need our relationship, or friendship, to end on a high note this lifetime. Please understand that.’
‘I need proof.’
I glanced back at Cancer when she put a hand on my shoulder.
‘Proof of what…?’
Mother’s gaze flicked over my head. What had they shared between them? I didn’t trust either of them but I couldn’t ignore my instincts. I had to let her attempt it but I needed reassurance.
‘Proof that he’s alive. Proof that you’re working to rescue him.’
‘Nick’s planning on moving him soon. One of his men…’ Her gaze shot to Cancer again. I turned to see that my sister’s eyebrows were pulled low. ‘…is going to be his guard until then. I’ve made friends with this man. I’m hoping he’ll let me see him.’
‘Why is he moving him? Where is he now?’
She glanced around us as she clasped her hands together. ‘He’s in North London. I haven’t managed to get to the house yet but I’ve seen surveillance in another house. I can bring you a tape after I’ve been there next week.’
The young waitress watched us with interest. I winked at her and she blushed as she turned away.
‘Why are they taking him to another place?’ I asked again.
Her throat moved as she swallowed. She wouldn’t look into my eyes. ‘Because he’s planning on luring you to him and then killing your father.’
Chapter Twenty
‘Let me just tighten it,’ the doctor said.
He held my freedom in his hands. I jumped up and down in my seat like an excited child.
‘Can I have a go?’ I asked, staring down at the metal that was now attached to the bolt on the end of my stumps.
‘Not today. We’re making sure they’re a good fit. It won’t be long, though. You’ve impressed us by how far you’ve come in your recovery.’
[Zodiac Twin Flames 01.0 - 03.0] Boxed Set Page 27