by Ana Calin
The Lord Protector leans back, bright eyes still fixed on the display. He scrolled down to a picture of a shyly smiling Lucia, rich red locks framing her pretty white face with the girlish freckles. My cock twitches. God damn it, a picture of her is enough to get me hard.
“A couple adopting a lot of red haired kids,” the Lord Protector muses. “Looks like they’re searching for something.”
I nod. “That’s why I’m looking into John and Valerie’s pasts now. They’re probably related to supernaturals, and have been searching for a kid with special powers.”
The Lord Protector turns his eyes to the window. “Do any of the other kids display special powers, did you check?”
“I tracked down a few of them, but my senses didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary.”
“We didn’t exactly find anything special about Lucia either, and yet she has very special abilities.”
“Yes, but with her, I would have known there was something supernatural about her at a glance. I didn’t get even the faintest hint from the others.”
“So if Mr. and Mrs. Reid aren’t raising a bunch of special kids, they must have been searching for one in particular. Maybe they don’t know about Lucia’s abilities because she hadn’t displayed any before. But her abilities aren’t that special. She’s just a fortune teller at most, or maybe we don’t fully understand her nature.” He looks at me. “I must admit, Silas, I’m puzzled.”
“That’s why she stirs emotion in you? Because she’s the first woman you don’t understand?” I should regret my words as soon as they’ve escaped my mouth, but I don’t. I can feel my own brightness flood my irises as I hold the Lord Protector’s stare.
“Probably,” he replies, calmer than I expected. “Or she is indeed the most special woman in the world. One way or the other, while I don’t know exactly what to make of her just yet, I decided her place is among supernaturals. She opened a portal to Hell, and even after I find a way to close it and send her back to the human world, she might not stay safe for long, not with her elusive power that could re-surge anytime.”
“I will be her bodyguard for as long as necessary.”
The Lord Protector’s eyes narrow, making him resemble a cunning fox. “I actually suggest that you stay away from her, Silas. You’re becoming emotionally involved.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes you are. You are even jealous.”
My hands tighten on the arms of my chair. “I’m intrigued, like you, nothing more and nothing less.” The Lord Protector and I stare hard at each other, our irises burning.
“Maybe that’s one of the girl’s mysterious abilities,” he says. “Getting the most powerful men in the world interested in her.”
“And to think that she didn’t have a drop of luck with human men.”
“Humans were intimidated by her. They aren’t evolved enough to recognize the rough diamond this girl is.”
“Rough diamond.” I cock an eyebrow at him. “The words you choose to describe her, one would think you’re emotionally involved.”
He pushes up from his kingly seat as if he’s had enough of this bullshit, and heads to the window, turning his attention to his mobile device as to signal this conversation is over.
“I need you to go to the Academy, see the Headmaster, tell him about the girl. Tell him we need her enrolled, even though the academic year is a few weeks in. We’ll get her a mentor to help her catch up.”
“A mentor.” That would mean another man around her.
“Yes, someone who’s not you, Silas. I need you with a clear head, doing your job. If you lose your balance because of your feelings, you’ll take the world down with you. You can’t afford to be around the girl anymore.”
My blood is boiling in my veins, but I’ve learned to control myself in the millennia I spent as demigod of war and guardian of the mortal realm. I’m burning to antagonize this powerful bastard, but it’s not in my best interest, and much less in Lucy’s.
“Lord Protector.” I nod my head curtly and head out of the study, pulling the doors after me a little too hard. They make a louder thud than usual, and my steps down the hall are more pointed than on a normal day. My jaw is tense too, my teeth grinding.
I’m not afraid of the Lord Protector. I’d gladly pick a fight with him, but he does outrank me in the Realms. The Powers That Be would descend to judge me, and most probably Lucy would go down with me as Apple of Discord. That’s one of the worst things to be judged for, because the ‘Apple of Discord’ is something only a hell creature can be. And our kind fights for the good. An Apple of Discord can only be a weapon from hell, sent to divide us, and the punishment for such creatures can be eternity in the pit.
I tell myself I only care because she’s an innocent young human caught in the midst of all this. But deep down my core twists thinking that I have to keep my distance from her.
“Psssst, Silas.”
My heart leaps. That was her, whispering my name, her head sticking out from behind the library door she cracked ajar. Just look at those innocent blue eyes staring pleadingly at me. No matter what the Lord Protector says, she still needs me.
CHAPTER III
Lucy
My heart pounds in my chest as Silas closes the library doors behind him. I take a few steps back, relishing the sight of this beautiful man that seems more a god of beauty more than a god of war. My eyes slide over his blond hair brushing his broad swimmer’s shoulders, the white shirt flowing like silk over his sinewy arms, those chiseled cheekbones, and my God those amber eyes that brand their way into my soul.
A pang of guilt goes through me as he steps closer.
“Lucy,” he says in that warm baritone of his that melts my insides. “Everything okay? Your cheeks are on fire.”
I take a hand to my face and whip around, ashamed of my blush, afraid he can read my thoughts on my face. I move quickly to the nook where I’ve left the book on the long bloodline of Merlin, with Maverick Jones as his last descendant.
“Silas, please, I need your help.” I take a seat, holding the book to my chest like a shield. “I have to call Sadie, or Chase. I asked Gordon, but he said I couldn’t contact the outside world, not even to say good-bye. Sadie must be out of her mind with worry, Silas, please.”
He looks around the library as if someone could be listening in on us, then he sits down, bending towards me. I still can’t get over how handsome he is.
“I’ll help you Lucy, but... Listen, I hate to break this to you, but the Lord Protector decided you are to stay here, never to return to the human world.”
“I know. But I have to at least let them know that I’m all right, they’ll be worried sick.”
“I’m sorry, Lucy. Once you’ve had contact with the supernatural, you must cut all ties to the mortal realm.”
“Please, Silas, just one, final phone call, or, I don’t know, something, magic if not technology. I won’t ask anything else of you, I promise.”
He looks to the door again. I grab his hand, and his eyes flip down to where our hands are now joined. His hands are large, bony, strong and white as ice against mine.
“Sadie must be out of her mind with worry. My parents must be sick by now, too. Just let me tell them that I’m fine. Look, I don’t even have to call all of them, just Sadie.”
His amber eyes meet mine. “You seem more worried about your friend than your parents.”
“Sadie is more than family to me.” And deep down, I think she’s the one that cares the most. John and Valerie aren’t my biological parents, and I always had the feeling their love was, I don’t know, superficial, but maybe that was just me not being able to love them enough.
Silas searches my eyes, thinking, making a decision. He nods, and my heart rejoices—he’ll do it. He reaches into the pocket of his jeans, hitching out his mobile device. It’s black and slim, very high-tech, like something the secret services would use. He presses a few buttons with his thumb, so quickly that I’m sure
no human eye could catch the combination, then he moves his big hand over the device in a circle.
The gesture is full of elegance and magic, my eyes pulled to his lips as they murmur. A spell leaves his mouth, and the air fills with a pleasant fragrance, something that changes the air and bewitches me. My God—I just witnessed the first spell casting.
Silas’ eyes are now on fire. I can see the his irises waving like molten lava.
“Wow,” I whisper.
“One day you will learn it, too. It’s a spell that shields devices from all mortal tracking technologies. You can call now, they won’t be able to track down the call.”
I punch in Sadie’s number—the only one I actually know by heart. She picks up on the first ring.
“Sadie?”
“Jesus, Luce!” she squeaks. “You’re all right!”
“I’m fine.”
“Where the fuck are you? All hell has broken loose here.”
“I’m...” I look at Silas, and say the first thing that comes to mind. “I’m with a man.”
She pauses.
“What man?” Her voice is soft, careful as if she fears I’ve been kidnapped, and the villain might be listening in.
“I met him at the Halloween party.”
“What the hell are you talking about? You have to come back here, Blade was kidnapped, and everybody thinks you’re the reason.”
“What?”
“Come on, Luce. You saw it with your own eyes, and everybody knows it. Blade’s friends, they got to talk to the police before they disappeared as well. They said you were there when men dressed in black took Blade. Now the police think you were part of it.”
My pulse quickens. “Part of it?”
“Working with the kidnappers, going for students of Silverdale, probably to kill them and sell their organs.”
“That’s insane! Why not think I’ve been kidnapped as well?”
“Because of Blade’s guys, Luce, they made it look like you’re the villain. You need to come back and set the record straight. Otherwise you’ll be spending your life on the run from the authorities, do you realize what that means?”
“But if you say the police think I’m involved in Blade’s death, they’ll—”
“Blade is dead?”
The words freeze in my throat, my eyes widening at Silas’.
“Jesus,” Sadie whispers. “You are involved.”
“No, it’s not like that. Sadie, please, listen.” I decide to tell her the truth despite Silas’ hard face and molten eyes warning me not to. “I know he is dead because I was there indeed. But the creatures that killed Blade are now after me, too. That’s why I need protection, why I need to stay hidden.”
“Creatures?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Luce, please, you have to come back. Think of John and Valerie. They’re worried sick.”
“Yeah.”
“They’re looking to hire a PI, John has activated all his connections. Your Mom won’t stop crying. She’s got the police roaming the entire campus, and she’s applying for permission with the Lord of the Thorny Forest to allow a thorough search of his grounds.”
“They won’t get it.”
“What?”
“The permission.”
“How do you know?”
I take in a deep breath. “Because I’m with him right now. I mean, at his mansion.”
Silas’ amber eyes glow like fire. He mouths, ‘What are you doing?’. ‘Trust me,’ I mouth back.
“I’ll just say this, Sadie, no one else can protect me but the Lord of the Thorny Forest, but he’ll stop doing it if you tell anybody. Just tell Mom and Dad I’m fine. And tell them to stop the search.”
But Sadie isn’t having it.
“I’ll do that only if you come see me, so I can make sure that you’re fine, that you haven’t been hurt, that you’re not being held hostage against your will.”
Silas shakes his head no, and he’s adamant about it.
“I won’t be able to do it immediately. But how about in a while? I don’t know, a few months. I’ll call every month until then, too.” I stare steadily at Silas as I push my luck. He runs his hand through his silky blonde hair in exasperation.
Sadie breathes into the mouthpiece as she ponders. “Every. Single. Month.”
“Every single one. But Sadie.” Gravity fills my voice. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone where I am. Or the Lord of the Thorny Forest—” I don’t finish, but she understands.
“I promise.”
I kill the call and look up at Silas with a pleading face.
“Please, I had to do this.”
But he’s fuming, his ropey muscles flexing through his tight white shirt. He grips my arm and yanks me close.
“I don’t think you fully understand how things work, Lucia. You don’t get to make decisions like that.”
“No, you don’t fully understand what Sadie means to me.” I shake myself from his grip. “I. Am. An. Orphan, Silas. And Sadie is the only living being that I bonded with at a level that could rival the flesh. She’s more family to me than my foster parents, or any of my foster siblings.” All a bunch of weirdos anyway, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Tears crack my voice, and I can’t talk anymore. I sob quietly, turning away from Silas, but I can still feel his gaze on me. I look out the window. It’s started to rain, big heavy droplets splashing against the pane.
“All right,” he says in his pleasant baritone that runs through my body. I squeeze my eyes shut, taking in the feeling. Good God, please don’t let me fall in love with him. If I couldn’t have Chase, what chance do I stand with a supernatural who’s seen it all? “I’ll help you contact your friend every month, but this has to stay between us. It’s a secret no one can know, now or ever.”
His big warm hands wrap around my shoulders, and he turns me to face him. My cheeks burn, but he must believe it’s from the crying. “You’ll have to let her go, eventually, Lucy. The Lord Protector has already made the decision that you’re staying in the supernatural world. All contact with your past is strictly forbidden. We will find a good cover-up story to feed the police and—” He hesitates. “Your parents.”
He means they’ll fake my death, I suppose, but I can’t go in on it. I’m mindlessly drawn to the way his lips move. I even raise my chin in a subtle invitation for him to kiss me. But in response his solid frame explodes into the air like fireworks of sparkly dust.
Jesus! What just happened?
I blink at the last trail of stardust that spirals into nothingness, and fall back down onto the reading nook.
“I’ll be damned.”
Lucy
GORDON KNOCKS CURTLY on the door before he pushes it open unceremoniously.
“I trust you’re ready, Miss Reid,” he says, squaring his shoulders and standing aside by the open door to allow me to walk out. He announced to me yesterday what time I had to be ready. I’m finally being taken to meet Maverick Jones, the warlock.
I walk by the butler, clutching the book on Maverick’s bloodline to my chest. As Gordon instructed me, I’m wearing something light—a simple green fitted top and khakis, paired with a cardigan, and slip on shoes. The warlock is going to make me work hard, so comfortable is preferred to pretty.
An SUV awaits at the curb, and Gordon opens the door to the back seat for me. I peek inside, and stop in place.
“Isn’t the Lord Protector coming?”
He puffs, eyeing me like I just asked the most ridiculous thing. “Oh, gotten used to personal contact with the Lord Protector, have we? Well, news flash, Miss Reid—The only reason you even ever met him alone was because he needed to sort out what kind of a creature you were.” He doesn’t even try to mask the contempt in his voice. “I wouldn’t expect that he’ll summon you to such a meeting again soon. Or ever.”
I do my best to mirror his contempt. “I must say, I didn’t realize you were a magical creature, too, Gordon. The supernatu
rals I’ve met so far are so, I don’t know, beautiful, special, while you’re just a bitter old prick.”
His irises shrink to black little beads inside the bulging whites of his eyes. I smile as I get inside the car, but when he gets in next to me my spirits sink. I just offended the butler, but apparently I’m gonna have to endure more of his bitter presence on our way to meet Maverick Jones.
“So how much have you gotten to read about the warlock?” Gordon says as the car rides out through the gates, out into the dark thorny forest. Clouds coat the sky, the forest reminding me of Grimm fairy tales.
Relieved that he doesn’t pick up the conversation where we left off, I wave the book at him. “I’ve read all of it, but I’m not sure how much stayed with me. I know he comes from a long bloodline of warlocks, all of them single children, and that he’s one of the younger supernaturals.”
“He’s the youngest teacher at the Academy,” Gordon puts in, his chest rising with respect, his attitude telling. “When you lay eyes on him, you’ll see a man in his twenties, but try to keep in mind he is actually eighty. While that isn’t old to supernaturals, you are to address him with the same respect you would a grandfather. He doesn’t like humans as it is.”
“Yet another conceited arse in the Lord Protector’s employ.”
“He’s got every reason to be conceited, Miss Reid. Maverick Jones is a well of knowledge, and a weapon. He wields great power over the elements, with volcanos as his specialty. He understands the complexities of nature. All that power demands respect.”