Elemental Awakening Book Bundle

by Nicola Claire

"Stop now, or I will end you," he warned.

  "I'm not doing anything." I wasn't, as far as I could tell. But something was happening. The touch of skin on skin awakening every sensation Theo had ever made me feel.

  And if the panting of his harsh breaths were anything to go by, and the erection I could feel pressed into my back meant anything, he was feeling every single sensation I'd made him experience in the past as well.

  "Witch," he husked. "What are you doing to me?"

  "Thisavros," I managed to groan, writhing against his arousal as his free hand cupped my breast.

  It was the only explanation I could think of. Our Thisavros connection trying to re-establish itself. Reminding us of what we were to each other. Desperately seeking the joining I longed for and Theo had forgotten.

  "No!" he growled, thrusting me away from him. I stumbled, tried to right myself, and then promptly fell out of the opening of the cave and met only air.

  For a second all I saw was the wild hunger on Theo's face, mixed with a type of abhorrence that shrivelled my soul.

  And then the rope caught, the harness thankfully holding and I was hauled up the side of the cliff face, scraping skin, banging elbows and not feeling a thing but despair.

  Could this get any worse?

  Apparently it could. Because a hand wrapped around my upper arm and hauled me over the lip of the cliff, dumping me on wet grass as I stared up into tired and old hazel eyes that definitely recognised me.

  And I recognised them.

  "Miss Eden," he said. "It is so good to see you again."

  Aktor. The son-of-a-bitch betrayer. I reached out with all my strength and landed a punch to his ancient looking nose.

  Chapter Three

  A Lot Has Happened, Miss Eden

  "Casey!" another familiar voice rang out. "Don't hit him!"

  "Wh..what?" I stammered, fear and anger and heartache mixing with shock and happiness and utter confusion. "What are you doing here?"

  Sonya just smiled, wrapped an arm around a bemused Aktor and fussed over the blood that had already stopped falling from his nose.

  Isadora was the one to help me to my feet and with her usual arched tone she advised, "A lot has happened while you've been lying back and daydreaming."

  I suppressed the growl. For now.

  "Let's get the master up, shall we?" Aktor advised, keeping a good distance between me and himself.

  "Yes, let's," Sonya agreed, sounding unlike any Sonya I'd ever known.

  I wondered if this was the dream, and I was really lying unconscious back in my cell after the doctor had played "Operation" on my insides.

  I stayed well away from everyone, including my best friend. Who seemed more than a little comfortable with Aktor and not in the slightest concerned with the nearness of Isadora The Bitch. What had happened since I left New Zealand? How did she even know who these people were?

  She knew Theo of course. Had met him several times in the deli. She'd heard me speak of Isadora and probably Aktor as well. But she didn't know what he'd done. That was obviously it. She still thought Aktor was on our side, when in fact Aktor had betrayed us to Theo's father, handing us over to the Rigas, delivering the final blow.

  Theo appeared over the edge of the cliff, clasping Aktor's hand and beaming up into the face of his old servant. My stomach rolled. I swallowed back the sickening sensation that Theo didn't remember the betrayal at all. I wanted to stay where I was and lick my wounds. Getting close to any of these people would hurt. But Theo was compromised right now. He couldn't remember, therefore he didn't understand the danger.

  I couldn't let him get caught unprepared.

  I walked towards them, where they were hugging and back slapping and generally behaving like this was a family reunion. I didn't make it more than a few feet before Theo growled.

  An honest to God feral growl.

  "You haven't contained her?" he asked, ominously. "Dora!" he called. "Find me some rope."

  I lifted an eyebrow at him as Aktor started spluttering, Sonya told Theo to pull his head in - Yay, my best friend! - and Isadora tried to calm everyone down.

  "Rope? Really? You think rope will hold me?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and cocking a hip.

  Theo took two menacing steps toward me.

  "My rope will," he replied with a cruel smile.

  I waved my fingers at him, let Fire flare at their tips and said, "Pyrkagia, remember?"

  "Exactly!" he snarled, closing the distance between us. "And not born that way, at a guess."

  "No," I said, agreeing with him and then calling on the Earth to wrap vines around his ankles instead.

  He swore and simply burned them to a crisp. I didn't have it in me to recall them. Singed plants leave me feeling bereft.

  "In any case," he said stalking closer. "I'll use metal chains. You'll only burn yourself if you heat them up."

  "Theodoros," Aktor said, and there was power in his tone I'd never heard before. "Enough."

  We were standing chest to chest. I'm not sure how we'd gotten so close, my eyes had just been for the anger on his face, but here we were, barely a breath between us. He realised it at the same time as me and sprang back.

  "She has bespelled me," Theo said, his breaths a little too quick in coming.

  "No, son. She has not," Aktor advised, leaving me more and more confused, because shouldn't he be the enemy? Why was he defending me now?

  "We really have to get going," Isadora announced into the strained silence. "They'll send guards out to check the surrounding area when they determine Pyrgos no longer harbours you both."

  "And she's coming with us?" Theo asked, indicating me with a nod of his dark haired head.

  My shoulders drooped and suddenly Sonya was beside me, wrapping an arm around my frame.

  "Aktor said it might be rough, but I had no idea," she whispered. "What's happened to Theo?"

  Theo's head turned slowly to look at my best friend and for a moment I saw worry and indecision on his stark features. Of all the people to convince him that something wasn't right with him and not me, it was a human. A human he probably couldn't even remember.

  "Where are we going?" he asked instead, sounding more calm now, but I could see a muscle tense in his jaw. "Auckland is no longer safe?"

  "No, we've been based in Wellington, but Isadora had to return to Auckland for a family obligation and I chose to accompany her just in case. As it happens, it paid off."

  "And I go where Aktor goes," Sonya declared proudly.

  "There's a story there you need to tell me," I muttered.

  She just beamed back at me from behind dusky blonde locks. I also noted that Aktor's face softened on her words.

  "We've become close, Miss Eden," he supplied. "I'll tell you all about it once we're in the car."

  He indicated a large dark sedan parked just across the grass clearing we were on, at the edge of a silent suburban street.

  "Then we should go," Theo suggested, taking a step towards the vehicle, his eyes lingering on me for a second and then purposely turning away when he saw he'd been caught out.

  Everyone started heading towards the car but I grabbed Isadora's arm before she made it too far. Her eyes darted down to where I gripped her and stayed there until I released my grasp.

  "Just tell me this, can he be trusted?" I whispered.

  "They can hear you, you know?" she replied waspishly.

  "Tell me," I said, losing patience.

  "Yes, he can be trusted. He could always be trusted."

  I wanted to question her more, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Isadora had spoken, she was already walking away toward the car. I took one last look around the empty street we were on and wondered if I'd ever return to my home city again. Or if this was it for me. Outcast.

  I could add more names to the list but right now I really was wearing my emotions on my sleeve.

  The car was bigger than I expected. A limousine in fact. Black tinted windows hid the rea
r seating compartment, and Aktor suggested everyone get in there while he drove up front. He even donned a driver's cap, pulling it down low over is face.

  I was the last to slip through the open back door, finding Theo sitting too close to Isadora and Sonya sitting on the opposite seat eagerly awaiting me. I slid in next to my friend and immediately realised my mistake. Theo was directly opposite me, when he looked up he was looking straight at my face.

  He glanced out the side window, the muscle in his jaw still flexing.

  I turned sideways and took in my friend. She'd lost some weight and there was a heaviness to her now that bubbly Sonya never had. Her eyes looked older, she wasn't even chewing on the strands of her hair. She sat still, smile in place, but there was a darkness just behind the façade.

  "What happened?" I asked, knowing the question was more pertinent than I'd at first thought.

  Sonya let a long breath of air out. Then reached for my hand and laced her fingers with mine.

  "They came when I was shutting up the shop," she started, her eyes turning haunted and distant. "Two months after you'd left," she added. "If it wasn't for Aktor." And then she stopped, unable to get any more words out, tears filling her big blue eyes, her bottom lip trembling.

  I glanced over at Isadora, who had been watching silently from her side of the car.

  "The Rigas?" I demanded, aware that Theo had stilled.

  Isadora nodded. "His guards, in any case."

  I let a controlled breath of air out, turning back to my friend.

  "How bad?" I whispered.

  "Bad enough," came her reply.

  "You know what they are? What I am?" She nodded and from the corner of my eye I saw Theo cock his head, his eyes boring into the side of my face. "Can you see the Elements?"

  "No. But Aktor explained. And then I met Isadora." She leaned forward and stage whispered, "You were right, she can be a real bitch."

  Theo let out a snort and then looked chagrined. Isadora glared at him and shifted a little away in the seat. It would have been perfect, but Theo reached for her hand, entwining it in his, and lifted it to his lips in apology.

  "She's not the only one," I murmured, getting a raised eyebrow from him.

  "So, Aktor?" I asked in a louder voice, making sure the butler could hear from the front seat.

  "I traded my soul and your freedom for your friend, Miss Eden," came his careful and steady reply. "Did I make a mistake?"

  I shook my head, which I hoped he saw in the rear view mirror.

  "I thought you betrayed us," I commented, feeling so blastedly tired all of a sudden.

  "I know," the old man replied. "And in a way I did." Pain etched into every word.

  "I don't remember any of this," Theo remarked from his statue like position across the car.

  "We'll work on getting your memory back," Isadora soothed.

  It should have been me. I should have been reassuring my Thisavros. I should have been receiving the soft smile and squeeze of his hand in mine. It should have been me.

  Isadora's eyes came up to mine and held my gaze. Neither of us said anything, the car a cesspit of unwanted emotions, moving silently through the darkened Auckland streets.

  A private jet waited for us on the tarmac, fuelled and ready to go as soon as we boarded the plane. I walked down to the back of the cabin and sat myself down in a corner seat, fastening my belt and closing my eyes as soon as the engines roared to life, vibrating through the fuselage. Sonya had tried to sit with me, but she'd soon realised I just needed some space. In the end I had the rear part of the cabin to myself as the rest of them got reacquainted, attempting to tell Theo what had been happening in the political realms of Pyrkagia.

  Like me, I think he was more concerned in the personal ones, his eyes darting down towards where I sat more than once during the flight. I spent the duration half sleeping, half aching, half watching the man who seemed so far out of my reach.

  We landed in a crosswind, not unusual for Wellington. The rest of the passengers making suitable murmurs of concern as we crabbed our way through the sky towards the floodlit runway. For some reason it felt like a welcome, as though Wellington itself had reached out and tickled the underbelly of the airplane making it jump and jerk and sway.

  A smile spread my lips as the wind buffeted the plane, when I opened my eyes he was watching me again. A remoteness that didn't belong there mixed with a longing that used to mean something, but now just proved how far we'd pulled apart. Not intentionally. Neither of us would have wanted this. And I was tired, if I was honest, with the interference of everyone else in my life, in our lives.

  We'd battled prejudice and a long history of hatred to get where we were. We'd defied kings and laws, opened our hearts up to ridicule and the doomed prediction of failure. We'd done it all so we could be together.

  And I suddenly realised we had failed. They'd been right. Theo and I weren't meant to be together.

  "Come now, Miss Eden," Aktor said to my side. "It's not that bad."

  I turned to find the old butler sitting beside me, I hadn't even heard him arrive. Athanatos don't age like humans, but we do age. Slowly. So very slowly. So, Theo's father looks older than him and so does Aktor, both near in age to the ancients, the original Ekmetalleftis created by Aetheros. Twenty-five thousand years old Theo had told me Aktor was. So he had wrinkles, and walked with a slight stoop. But I knew him to be as powerful as the man he served. He may not have been a prince born into privilege like Theo. But Aktor had power from age. A vast age.

  Kind hazel eyes stared back at me, hints of amber and jade in the mix. Just like Theo's. All Pyrkagia look alike. Just like all Gi and all Aeras look alike. I was a mix of the two, Gi and Aeras, a bastardised version that was only coincidence.

  "He's confused," Aktor said softly. "You can imagine how difficult this is for him. He can't remember you, but he said when he touched you in the cave he felt things too real to be mere fantasy. I assume he felt his Thisavros."

  I leaned my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes. I couldn't talk about this. Not with anyone, and especially not with someone I used to consider a good friend, kind and knowledgable, and above reproach.

  I understood what Aktor had done. I even applauded it. Sonya is like a sister to me, he did the right thing bargaining for her life. But here we are, Theo sitting down one end of the cabin whispering to his old flame, Isadora. And here I was, alone and forgotten sitting with the hired help.

  That was a slight exaggeration. Aktor wasn't just the hired help. He was considered family. And let's not forget, he was remembered. I realised a bitterness had taken root inside me that I was futilely fighting, but lacked the strength to win.

  "We also understand how hard this is for you, Miss Eden," the old man went on. "We'll try to make this as painless as it can be, but, my dear, what tries to break us, does make us stronger."

  "Who's we?" I whispered.

  "Isadora, Sonya and myself."

  Isadora. This was exactly what that bitch wanted. It couldn't have gone better for her than if she'd tried.

  "Oh, and Nico is also waiting for us," Aktor advised. "So, come on. He's dying to see you."

  I stood up stiffly, my body beyond weary now.

  "Between you and me," the butler whispered conspiratorially as we made our way down a now deserted cabin aisle, "I think he has a crush on our Sonya."

  I snorted. I was sure it was exactly what the old man had been after.

  "I thought she had a crush on you," I remarked.

  "Therein lies the rub, my dear," Aktor said with no small amount of amusement. "But don't you think I'm a wee bit old for your friend?"

  I really started laughing then, realising I may have harboured deep seated feelings of disappointment in what Aktor had chosen to do, regardless of the necessity of his actions, but I knew he and I would get to the other side, still intact. As for Theo and me, I had no such hopes.

  We were still laughing as we stepped off the bottom
stair, walking out onto tarmac at Wellington Airport. A car sat not too far away, so we'd obviously made it to the private hangars off to the side. Everyone was standing beside the vehicle waiting for us, I had the impression they'd been waiting a while. How long had Aktor let me sit there after they'd all disembarked before he spoke?

  A shadow peeled off from the group and walked towards us, becoming recognisable in the dim light the closer he came. The spitting image of his cousin, Nico wore the good looks with a roguish air, rather than a sophisticated one. He ran a hand through his messed up dark hair and smiled down at me.

  Then asked, "Don't I get a hug?"

  I shrugged my shoulders. Nico was the least of my adversaries. He'd opposed our relationship in the beginning, even going so far as to try to hand me over to the Gi when they first came looking. But it had all been for his beloved Pyrkagia. And if I wasn't mistaken he was now an outcast too.

  I was sure Pyrkagia would always hold his heart and allegiance in some form or other, but the man was definitely on the out with the King.

  I opened my arms and he rushed in, lifting me off the tarmac and swinging me around in a bear hug to rival all others. I was breathless and laughing hard enough to almost pee my pants by the time he deposited me on the ground with the confusing and whispered words of, "Watch this."

  Then he kissed me hard. On the lips, in front of everyone, shocking me so much that I just stood there, like the moron I obviously was.

  There was a buzz of noise in the background, then I was wrenched away from hard, hot arms and landed on the hard, cold tarmac at my feet instead.

  And I looked up in time to see Theo beating the crap out of his cousin. Isadora yelling in the background trying to tear them apart. Sonya blinking and ducking behind an amused Aktor who simply watched on without saying a word.

  Finally, when Theo had decided Nico had learned his lesson, or maybe his arms were getting tired from all that swinging and punching, he stood up and took two steps away from his cousin. Then he sucked in air like it was his last chance at survival and began to shake his head.

  "Fuck!" he burst on a desperate exhalation. "I have no idea why I just did that."