The Arrival: Arianna Rose, #4

by Jennifer Martucci

  The collective energy around him vibrated with respect. He would have relished in the unabashed worship he was receiving if Arianna’s friend Beth had not been drilling holes into his skull with her eyes. Even Arianna seemed to have softened slightly, but not Beth. She lowered her elbows to the table and leaned in. “How did you know we were at the bar and in trouble?” she asked, suspicion skewering her every word.

  “I felt the Sola needed protection,” he answered and lowered his head modestly.

  “That doesn’t really answer my question, does it,” she commented viperously.

  “But it is the true answer,” he said and felt a collective nod of concurrence support him.

  “Uh huh,” she said insolently. “So you felt the Sola needed you and you were able to swoop in and be her champion. That sounds convenient if you ask me.”

  He wanted to scream, inches from her face, that no one had asked her, that she ought to shut her troublemaking mouth. He could kill them all if he wanted to, even the Sola, at any given minute. They hadn’t the vaguest inkling they were in the presence of the world’s most lethal predator, permitted by him to live for the moment. He felt his muscles jerk, his body begging to lunge for Beth, and had to force himself to relax. He needed to remain outwardly calm.

  “Have I wronged you, Beth?” he asked with composure he did not feel. “I hope I have not upset you. I only wish to help you protect the Sola, Arianna, from the evil that conspires against her.” He relaxed his features into a mask of serenity and waited for a response.

  “Beth, what the hell is your problem?” Dane came to his defense and chastised his sister. “This guy saves you, saves all of us, and this is how you treat him, you give him the third degree?”

  “Not all of us were saved,” she reminded the group. “I just have questions,” she started. Bands of deep pink tinted her cheeks.

  “Well keep your questions to yourself,” Jason chimed in. “Show a little gratitude.”

  Yes, show a little gratitude, Darius thought. “No, let her be,” he said. “She is being a good friend and exemplary protector. She trusts no one. And rightly so.” His words might as well have been nails in her coffin. The people at the table beamed at him. Even Arianna offered a weak, half-smile. He’d succeeded at winning them over and burying any further doubts that might have cropped up courtesy of Beth.

  Beth stood and gathered her plate and napkin from the table. She rushed away in a huff.

  “Beth,” Arianna called after her.

  “Just let her go,” Dane said gently. “She’s embarrassed. Let her cool off a bit.”

  “Are you sure?” Arianna gnawed her lower lip and asked.

  Dane’s gaze zeroed in on her mouth as if aching to just press his to hers. Darius swallowed vomit that threatened from the wretched display.

  “Trust me,” Dane winked at her. Arianna smiled, a full smile, a far cry from the flaccid looks she’d given him.

  “Okay,” she said and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

  He spent the rest of his meal enduring idle chat and small talk with the dull, identical twins and their equally uninspiring band of friends. When Arianna stood and cleared her plate and utensils, Darius nearly clapped with relief. He excused himself and shadowed her to the trashcan.

  “Look, I am going to Beth’s cabin to see if she’s all right. She didn’t mean anything by the way she acted before,” Arianna said and tugged at the hem of her T-shirt. “She appreciates what you did. We all do.”

  Was that sincerity he’d just heard? Had his ears deceived him? He’d chalked up the morning so far as a complete disaster, yet here she was, thanking him in her unique, gritty way. Perhaps she wasn’t as difficult to enthrall as she seemed.

  “Thanks for saying that,” he said. He looked to his shoes then her face. It was hard for him to act as if he did not have self-confidence. He did not lack in that department in the least. But that’s what she seemed to want to see. So he showed her. “Go, see your friend. I’ll be nearby.”

  “Okay. See you later, Darius,” she said and took off.

  He paused for a moment before following her unseen. She had spoken his name. His name on her lips, the first time she’d called him by his birth name. It created an odd sensation in his stomach, as if millions of bubbles were bursting at once. He wasn’t sure what it meant or what he should do about it. He should have rejoiced, if the depths of his cold, bleak soul were capable of such a phenomenon. But they were not.

  Darius left the large lavish log home and the cluster of admirers he’d amassed and set about stalking Arianna.

  Chapter 14

  Luminescent green eyes had become a familiar sight for Arianna in the past two weeks. Darius had made himself a permanent fixture in her life, one she’d resigned herself to accept. At first his presence had been a nuisance, having him tail her constantly, always with the same odd, wooden pleasantness. There had been times, she’d been tempted to shout at him and demand he leave. Especially since he’d alternated between bouts of seeming as if he’d been tolerating her, and dramatic moments of grand, sometimes tearful, oaths of loyalty. But that had been early on. During his initial days, he’d been far different from how he was now. Now he seemed to be exactly what he claimed to be: a person charged with keeping her safe.

  She’d tried to persuade him to leave, that enough people had been assigned with that task, but he’d refused to hear of it. He’d insisted on remaining. And in doing so, he’d joined the ranks of people who treated her as if she were something special. She found it ironic for her, a girl who’d spent the majority of her life bouncing from unstable situation to unstable situation in various trailer parks, to have a group of devotees willing to sacrifice their lives to protect her. She was still unclear what for just yet. But everyone swore she would know when the time came. She was not as sure and everyone else seemed to be; especially Darius.

  Even now, as he waited outside her door and chatted amicably with Jason and Dane, he continually glanced at her window where she was tucked behind the folds of itchy curtains spying on him, watching as if he knew she was there, with a look she could only describe as expectancy. She did not know what he truly expected of her or what his true purpose was, just that she did not possess the strength to question every move he made or word he spoke as she had when he’d first appeared. In many ways, he’d even grown on her. There were times when she felt completely comfortable around him, as if he’d been a part of her life forever. But other times, the air between them dueled like identical poles of different magnets, colliding and jockeying for dominance. Those were times an innate voice whispered through the hollows of her core to run from him as fast as she could.

  As he continued to look past Dane to her with a keen look of anticipation, that voice persisted, loudening to a bloodcurdling shriek.

  Arianna stepped away from the window and moved to the kitchenette, determined to busy her hands with something, anything, to do. She washed the tin mugs in the sink as well as the kettle then filled it with water to have yet another cup of instant coffee.

  She was setting the kettle onto the hotplate when a knock at her door made her jump. She hoped it was Dane or Jason, or Beth, but knew it was none of them, that it was Darius. The indescribable friction that charged the air and jolted every cell in her body was present. Hesitantly, she walked to the door and opened.

  She expected to see his brilliant jade eyes, but saw, instead, that his bronze face was tilted toward the powder-blue sky as if he were basking in the warmth of the late-morning sun. “Hey,” she said. He immediately lowered his chin. His sharp gaze met hers.

  “Good morning,” he said. “You are not training today?”

  “No, I am taking a day off,” she replied and watched as his expression sagged a bit.

  “Oh,” he said and sounded disappointed. She had spent most mornings training with him, honing her skills, learning to control her powers. His tutelage had proved vital to her exercises as she now felt confident in her
ability to direct her powers on command.

  “Go if you want to,” she replied and smiled. “I know how much you like to run drills with everyone. I’m just going to stay here and mope around a bit, maybe go for a walk later.”

  “A walk?” he said and brightened. “Why don’t I go with you? We can go on a little hike.”

  His brow had lifted and his eyes were round, his expression equal parts pleading and excited. She wanted to say no but heard herself say, “Sure, sounds good.”

  “Great!” he said enthusiastically. “I will see if I can borrow a backpack from one of the guys and meet you back here in a few minutes, okay?”

  “Sure,” Arianna answered. And suddenly, what was supposed to be a relaxing morning and afternoon of brooding and soul-searching would now be an energetic hike that required backpacks. Great, Arianna thought and set about riffling through her belongings for a pack.

  Darius returned minutes later, as promised, and had changed into cargo shorts that sat low on his hips and a fitted T-shirt.

  “Ready to go?” he asked eagerly.

  She gave him a nod of approval and he led the way from her cabin, across the clearing and into the forest. He guided them down a narrow dirt path lined with spiny ferns and dense, tangled vines. Arianna followed and was granted an unobstructed view of his athletic body. He scrambled over slippery rocks and walked effortlessly over moss-covered logs. She couldn’t help but be amazed by his agility and balance. He moved with the grace of a jungle cat, yet his size more closely matched a bear. Tall and strapping with wide shoulders and a broad back whittled to a tight waist, he did not look as though he should be as sure-footed as he was. He looked as if he should be flexing his sun-kissed muscles in a game of beach volleyball for a cluster of giggling, bikini-clad girls. But he wasn’t. He was with her, hiking along as nimbly as a sprite. She found herself grateful to be trailing in his wake.

  He claimed to have never been in Tongass National Forest yet expertly steered her along a safer route than others who had resided at the compound for months. They wove in and out of monstrous evergreen trees in comfortable silence. The only sound that haunted the wood was the sporadic chirp of an alarmed chipmunk. That and the rhythmic breaths they took as they made their way up a steepening ridge. Arianna was careful to mind her footing as occasionally, exposed tree roots arose like gnarled knuckles of mythical beasts and crossed the path. They continued for what seemed like hours up the embankment. The landscape around her was a disorienting fusion of every shade of green imaginable. Leaves, in an array of shapes and sizes, protruded, canopied and littered the forest and thinned only as they reached the crest of the bank they’d climbed. A patch of small pink flowers interrupted the endless stretch of green and the sound of rushing water could be heard.

  “Why don’t we sit for a minute?” Darius said and pointed to a large flat boulder.

  Arianna’s clothes clung to her body, moist with perspiration, and her calves complained from trekking. “Sure,” she said and did not hide the relief in her tone. She slipped the straps of her backpack off her shoulders and sat. Darius sat beside her, his arm brushing hers, and she was suddenly very aware of his close proximity. She unzipped her backpack and as she did, her forearm brushed his. His skin was fiery against hers, strange and somehow recognizable. Still, she scooted away from him unnoticed and dug in her pack for her drink.

  As her fingertips grazed the cold plastic of her water bottle, her thirst burgeoned. She quickly opened the bottle and brought it to her lips. Cold water trickled down her throat as she greedily gulped. Some dribbled from the corner of her mouth. She whisked away the droplets with the back of her hand. Darius drank from his water bottle but was far more refined about it, sipping rather than swigging as she had. He’d turned to face her, his leg bent and resting on the rock with his knee touching her thigh. He looked over his bottle at her, amusement dancing in his eyes.

  “What?” she asked. Heat bloomed across her cheeks. “Why are you laughing at me?

  “I wasn’t laughing at you,’” he said and his lips twitched to form a small smirk.

  “Come on, spill it,” she ordered him. “What is it?”

  “No, it’s nothing, really,” he said coyly. “I just find you, I don’t know, delightful.”

  “Delightful,” she echoed the word. “Really?” she asked flatly.

  “You sound so surprised,” he replied.

  “I kind of am,” she confided. “I’ve been called a lot of things before. A lot of adjectives have been hurled my way, but delightful? No, that’s never been one of them.” She shook her head and gave a slight, self-depreciating chuckle.

  “That is shocking,” he said seriously then turned his attention to the area where pink flowers grew. He began fumbling with them and Arianna saw that berries grew within their blossoms.

  He reached for the yellowish-red berries and plucked several off the vine. They looked like orange blackberries. He rolled one around between his fingers then popped it in his mouth.

  “Whoa, what’re you doing?” Arianna asked worriedly.

  “Eating, what does it look like?” he answered and seemed surprised. “Try one,” he said and offered her a berry.

  She looked at him warily. “Are you sure they’re safe?” she asked.

  “They’re salmon berries. Try them,” he persisted with a playful smile.

  She arched a brow at him, still unconvinced. He proceeded to shovel the berries in his palm into his mouth.

  “Come on,” he said and his voice was muffled by the fruit. “I wouldn’t eat them if they were dangerous.”

  She laughed and he chewed quickly. “Ah!” he said dramatically. “See. I’m fine. Come on. Open your mouth and stop being a baby.”

  “A baby, really, that’s the best you’ve got?” she said and shook her head disappointedly. “I go from being delightful to a baby. What a fall from grace! So sad,” she said with mock somberness.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m mean,” he teased her. “Now stop your chatting and open up.”

  Reluctantly, she parted her lips and he dropped one in her mouth. She bit down and was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted almost citrusy, like canned mandarin her mother used to buy from time to time as a treat. “Wow, these aren’t bad,” she said and smiled. “Not bad at all.”

  “See, I told you so,” he commented with satisfaction.

  “Oh cut the crap and don’t be so smug,” she said and wriggled her backside backward so that his knee no longer rested against her leg. “You know, if you stopped acting so self-righteous, you’d be a lot easier to be around.”

  Darius quirked a brow at her and said, “Maybe my delightful remark was a bit premature.”

  “Hey!” she said and slapped his arm lightly.

  “Whoa, I better look out!” he kidded. “Maybe there’s some truth to the other names you’ve been called.”

  “Be nice!” she said and furrowed her brow at him with overstated annoyance. Darius laughed. But a more serious subject, a question that had troubled her since she’d learned of what she was, crept into her thoughts. “While we’re on the subject of truth – you brought it up for the record – I would like you to tell me the truth about something.”

  A look of concern flashed across his features. “The truth about what?’ he asked and she detected the slightest hint of nervousness.

  “The truth about what exactly is expected of me. You know more than you let on. I can feel it. So don’t even think about lying to me.”

  Without warning, powerful hands gripped her shoulders, reminding her of his physical strength and speed. Darius’ eyes bored into hers. “I will not lie to you, Sola,” he started and did not call her by her name. All playfulness drained from his expression. “There is a war coming. And we are going to need you to win it. Evil must be defeated.”

  Arianna shrugged his hands off her shoulder, the heat radiating from them too much to bear. “What war? What evil are you talking about, those Assassins of the Dark Orde
r?”

  “I wish it were that simple,” he answered cryptically. He rose to his feet and began pacing. “You know what you need to do. I know you were told of your destiny, that you are to unite us, and unite us you must. If we are to win this war, you must.”

  “I still don’t understand what you are saying. I still don’t know who or what the threat is that I am supposed to unite everyone against.”

  “The threat at large will present itself in due time. We will know soon. We will sense it. All that is clear is that we need you. You are the most important being on the planet, and because of that, there are those out there who want to destroy you. I will not allow that to happen.”

  Arianna felt tremendous pressure build inside her, forcing itself against the surface of her skin. She could not take the cloak-and-dagger nonsense any longer. “I can’t take it anymore!” she fumed. She slapped her hand against the boulder beneath her and pushed herself up and stood. “I can’t take another word of this vague stuff anymore! I need to know what is going to happen, what to expect. I can’t continue living my life with my head buried in the sand. I can’t,” she concluded and felt tears threaten.

  Darius softened. “Knowing exactly what is going to happen or what to expect is something that cannot be done. It cannot be guessed or predicted with accuracy.”

  “Enough with the riddles, Darius,” she said with defeat. She threw her arms in the air and allowed them to collapse against her thighs. She stood quietly for a moment, refusing to look at him, opting instead to take in the glorious view of a rushing river below. Rapids surged over fallen trees and rotting logs, as well as huge boulders and piles of leafy debris. Despite the natural obstacle course, however, the current remained strong and continued to flow.