People were racing away from us, and as I holstered one of my guns I tripped, ramming right into a large Vampire in a hooded robe, his spiked hair peeking out from under the hood. He hadn’t bothered moving out of our way where he rested against a luxury sports car talking in a bored manner on his cell phone while smoking a cigarette. I muttered a curse, then I quickly patted his chest with my hand holding the gun in an attempt to off balance him. “Sorry, man.”
“Not a problem,” he drawled lazily, resting further against the car as I pulled away, and began talking into his cell phone again, like this was an everyday occurrence. “Jack, I’m telling you, you’re wasting your time inside…and besides, are you fucking deaf?”
Even though I had initiated the hit, I was still a smidge stunned at his blasé attitude, so I brushed my natural-colored, long hair away from my face, and I glanced up…into spring green eyes. My breath caught and I stared at the eyes peering back at me steadily, but with a touch of curiosity. Memories of a life past rushed me, of eyes similar to these but on the sweetest face, holding me immobile and squeezing my heart in remembrance of the hurt I had inflicted. Unbidden, my free hand lifted slowly and I touched his face softly near his eye, uncaring that he froze at the contact. I ran one finger gently around his left eye, old agony seizing me as I murmured, “Isa.”
Black eyebrows snapped together, and those eyes, the exact color of the only person I had ever inadvertently hurt, altered, showing a vicious intensity Isa had never shown before. I snatched my hand back, jolting out of my trance at that unfamiliar expression just as Sin jerked me around to face him, glancing from me to the man behind me. “Did he hurt you?”
“No,” I mumbled quickly. “Sorry, I got sidetracked.”
Again, he peered over my head. Blinked. Squinted…then stared. “We need to go.”
I heard the man behind me move, and I nodded. “Yeah, past time.”
Sin yanked me away rapidly, periodically glancing over his shoulder with a cautious expression as he guided us while we ran through cars, zigzagging. Two lanes back and many cars over, he stopped us with a jerk, holding me close as he turned us toward the jail that had imprisoned me, still staring at the Vampire, who was now talking heatedly on his cell phone from his expression, and also staring at us. “Hang on, Caro.” I did as told, having learned my lesson. “Did you get his wallet?”
We saw the Vampire pause in his conversation, hand flying under his robe.
“Of course.” I forced a smile for the Vampire who had been kind enough to gift me with his money, still feeling a bit shaken from that encounter. “And it’s probably time to go now.” Because he didn’t appear too happy with the fact his hand came out from beneath his robe empty.
“Agreed.” I felt Sin’s power ramping. “Since you just stole King Zeller’s wallet.”
I blinked, then laughed outright, instantly feeling better, and held on tight as the asphalt swallowed us just as the…fuck me, King Vampire…started to blur at us. I closed my eyes against any flying debris, hearing a sailor-worthy curse from above just before the earth closed over us. We sank a few feet, then I shouted in surprise as we freefell, landing hard. I steadied myself, lifting with Sin from our crouch, instantly peering around. We were in a thin — what appeared to be never-ending — tunnel built under the ground, lit only by the headlights on the two dirt bikes three yards away.
“Oh, Sin,” I gaped, “you’ve outdone yourself this time.”
“Thank you.” He kissed my forehead, releasing me as he maneuvered to the first dirt bike. “Why do you think it took me so long to bust you out of there?”
I holstered my gun, striding the few steps to the other bike. “I wasn’t sure you would bust me out.” Or even visit me, for that matter.
He paused, turning on his bike, and gave me a cold, hard stare. “That’s not funny.”
No, it wasn’t.
“We need to go,” he muttered when I didn’t respond, his scowl still remaining on his face as he gazed at hard, earthed ceiling. “I can feel someone trying to break down here.” A pause as he stilled. “Yep, we need to go. Whoever it is, they’re powerful.”
We watched water begin to drip from the ceiling between us, and I started my bike. “I’m sorry I didn’t have faith.”
“Never again, Caro.” He shook his head. “Don’t doubt ever again.”
“I won’t.” And I meant it.
We raced off as a rush of blue water breached the tunnel above us.
The long tunnel closed behind us as Sin’s power flared again.
I grinned, my pulse pounding in my ears, exhilarated at the rush of freedom.
Chapter Four
Jolting awake with a black cotton bag over my head three months later, I didn’t feel so free. The ropes tying my hands behind my back and against the chair I was propped on didn’t help matters much, either. Especially since the last thing I remembered was going to sleep on the couch in the small apartment Sin and I shared, one of the many apartments we had to continually rent and leave because someone, not the Bossman that was for fuck sure, was hunting us down within a mere week of settling into each new place.
I mumbled behind the tape covering my mouth, “You fucking shits!” I wiggled hard in my binding. “Get this off me!” After being stuck in that cell for close to a year, I had found I now had a new fear for closed-in places, and this bag over my head was going to drive me crazy real soon. “Now, you fuckers!”
“I understood ‘fuck’,” a feminine voice stated calmly to my left. “That was about it. What about you guys?”
“I think there was a ‘shit’ in there somewhere,” another female voice stated, also to my left.
A masculine humming sounded in front of me. “I could tell you, but it wasn’t very nice, considering how long we’ve been tracking her.”
“Fuck,” I inhaled through my nose, “you,” another deep inhale, “assholes.”
“I got that one,” the first feminine voice stated.
“Me, too,” the second female quipped.
I sat still, but I jerked my head to the right where no voices had come from. I could feel the power there. “Water,” another inhale, “is for,” inhale, “pussies.”
The man in front of me snorted with a choking sound, then murmured, “Oh, come on, Jack.” A long pause, then humble words. “Fine, I’m sorry.”
I heard feet stomping toward me from the direction of the water Elemental and suddenly the bag was lifted and the tape on my mouth none to gently ripped away. “That wasn’t very nice,” I murmured, twitching my lips as I tossed my hair, now trendy and short, out of my face. I quickly assessed the situation. It wasn’t good, my attention stalling on the man directly across from me. “I mailed you back your wallet. Isn’t this a bit extreme?”
King Zeller, the fucking King of Vampires sat directly across from me in the intimate office we were in, the room done in a chaotic unity of the Elemental Mystical colors. A red couch, a blue couch, yellow carpeting, green walls except for where wooden bookcases covered them to my left, and white curtains lining the window behind the Vampire.
He cocked his head, a black, arched eyebrow lifting slowly. “It was short almost five thousand, and if I’m correct, that was all the cash it had contained.”
“I didn’t take the credit cards.” I opened my eyes wide in mock sympathy. “And carrying that much cash on you is always a bad idea.” I glanced to my right and peered up at the water Elemental, eyeing him for all of a heartbeat before recognizing him: neon blue haircut erratically past his chin, brown eyes piercing in their assessment of me.
“I’m getting the,” I waggled my brows in distraction, trying to figure out what the hell was going on…and if there was any way out of it, “exemplary royal treatment, aren’t I?” I tilted my head back. “I’d shake your hand, King Collins,” the King of the damn Elementals, “but mine seem to be currently out of service. You’ll have to accept my humble apology.”
He opened his mouth to say somethi
ng, but I turned my head to the left, not done with this perusal, and I muttered, “Well…I think I’m,” I shook my head, “hell, I’m just confused now.” Might as well go with honesty, knowing I was appearing a bit wide-eyed as I stared at the two women sitting on the red couch. One had flowing golden hair, golden eyes, bronzed skin, and was beautiful enough to make any man beg for her attention. She was Queen Cooper, the Queen of the Mages. The other had straight, neon red hair hanging below her shoulders, an innocently beautiful, perfectly shaped face, piercing blue eyes, and a body like mine: tiny in stature with a peaches-and-cream complexion. She was Queen Ruckler, the Queen of the Shifters.
My eyebrows furrowed as I started to move my gaze from them, since they didn’t appear to be the ringleaders here, staying mute as they were now, but my eyes darted back to the Queen Shifter. I had seen her picture plenty of times on television, but she was always a moving target, never standing still for very long — pretty much like this whole group of Rulers. Yet, seeing her sit peacefully, unmoving as she stared back at me and her gaze just as intense as the rest of them, I couldn’t help but examine each of her features slowly. I blinked as my eyebrows furrowed further, damn near touching when I was unable to put my finger on what about this fair beauty bothered me so.
“Is there an issue, Ms Jules?” King Zeller drawled his question, and from my peripheral I saw him light a cigarette and lazily recline further, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. His boots, amazingly, did not make a sound as they landed.
“I…I’m…” I cocked my head, trailing off as my eyes skimmed down the Queen’s face to land on her mouth. A perfect Cupid’s bow mouth. I jerked back on my chair, which pissed me off since I visibly showed them I could be startled, so I snapped my attention to King Collins — my King. I evaded King Zeller’s question, trying to regroup from the realization that Queen Ruckler’s features reminded me of Isa. “Where’s Sin?” I ignored that it was a little freaked and breathless.
King Collins was still staring at Queen Ruckler, but he slowly tilted his head down to me as he crossed his arms. “Sin…as in you being a murderer, thief, and escapee?”
“No. Sin, as in my family.”
“Ah, he must be her brother,” Queen Ruckler murmured softly, and I jolted again. Even her voice sounded like Isa. She paused, then asked, “Am I bothering you, Ms Jules?”
I gritted my teeth, keeping my attention firmly away from her. “Honestly, you’re weirding me out a bit, so if you wouldn’t mind…please stay out of this.” I stared up at my King, focusing on the issue at hand and not my runaway imagination. “Is Sin all right?”
He nodded once, so I asked bluntly, “Why am I here?”
He tilted his head skyward. “God help me, but you’re my new Prodigy.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?” And yeah, it came out a little shrilly…because I knew what the fuck a Prodigy was. Hell, every Mystical knew what a Prodigy was. It was the successor to the throne. I shook my head when he glanced down to only nod, and I started jerking at the ropes tying my hands together. “No, no, no.” I muttered a curse, ducking my head and gritting my teeth as I yanked as hard as I could on the ropes. I was grunting with the effort while my heart felt like it was going to gallop right out of my chest. “Fuck this shit.” The Queen to the Elementals I most categorically never wanted to be, that life definitely not one of freedom.
King Collins ignored my attempts to get free, walking slowly back and forth in front of me. “Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a smidge…apprehensive…having you as the Prodigy, but the spelled die said you were—”
“Spells schmells,” I interrupted, jerking hard but trying to keep my chair upright. “Fuck all the goddamn spells.”
He continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “And it’s not even because of your past that no one seems to know about or even your felonies.” He paused. “I took care of those, by the way; you’re no longer a convicted felon by the Law’s standards.” Again, he paused as I kept jerking at the ropes. “Not even a thank you for taking you off death row. Fuck, this is going to be interesting.”
“It’s like watching a trapped miniature tiger,” Queen Cooper murmured absently, and I could feel her gaze avid on me.
“Not now, Pearl,” King Collins murmured, patting the air in her direction, and he began pacing again while I damn near jerked my left arm out of its socket in a failed attempt at freedom. “So, as I was saying, it’s none of that which has me apprehensive about the fact you’re my completely untrained Prodigy—”
“You’re lying!” My breath caught, and I stated hurriedly, cutting him off, peering up at him with wide eyes. “That one guy…Kirkling…Kirksy,” I shook my head, because that wasn’t right, “Kirk-something-or-other is your Prodigy. I saw the press release on television before I got thrown in jail.” So why the hell are we having this conversation?
Brown eyes turned somber. “It was Kirkwood. And he died in a car accident three days before you escaped prison.” I went utterly still, remembering the episode I’d had on that day. King Collins leaned down, blue hair dangling, brown eyes watching me intently as he leveled our gazes. “I know about your trip to the infirmary. You were experiencing what happens when a Prodigy passes away. He wasn’t mated, so the Ruler’s power went to the next most powerful Elemental of his age group.” He tilted his head toward me. “You.”
My lips pursed as I inhaled slowly, and I stated just as gradually, as if he didn’t speak English, “No.” I shook my head and began tugging at the ropes again. “Never gonna happen.”
He sighed, standing straight, and began walking back and forth in front of me again. “You don’t have a choice. It is what it is. And you are who you are.” A pause. “Which brings me back to what I’ve been trying to state for the last three minutes.” He stopped directly in front of me and reached a hand toward me, and I froze, trying to decide what he was going to do and if he was close enough to kick.
Decided that he was, and hoping the move freed my hands, too, I shoved up with my legs, the chair and me flying up, and I quickly hooked his legs with mine before jerking the chair, myself, and him to the side. And as we fell, hitting the ground hard on our sides, I beautifully heard the wooden chair creak, the rung that held my hands prisoner breaking as I pulled with all my might. Ignoring his curse, I rolled onto my back and shoved off with my legs so I rolled backward over one shoulder to land on my knees. Wiggling my hands free of the rope was a cinch after that since the wooden rung that I had broken off fell out, giving my hands plenty of space to maneuver. I quickly lurched to stand, backing toward the door and watching the Rulers in the room stare a little wide-eyed at King Collins as he lithely jumped to his feet, glaring at me.
“I’m not a big fan of someone touching me when I don’t invite it,” I stated simply, before I jerked open the door, unknowing where I was going. But I didn’t care as long as it was away from them.
The door slammed in my face before I could step one foot out.
Baring my teeth at it, I opened it again, taking a quick—
It slammed again, stubbing my socked toes.
I grunted, lifting one foot, then the other, rubbing them. Then grabbed the iron coat rack as I opened the door again, shoving the end of it out the opening before it slammed again. It caught in the door, leaving it open a crack. I darted under the long rod, shoving with all my strength, even putting a foot up on the doorframe, giving it all I had. I knew it was Queen Cooper pulling this. “Fucking Mage bullshit.”
“Pearl, what metaphor did you use before?” King Zeller murmured softly as they all watched me work endlessly at the door.
Awed words. “Trapped mini-tiger.”
A masculine grunt. “It fits.”
They let me do this for about five minutes, mutely watching me tire myself out. Growling quietly and knowing I needed to preserve my energy, I stood up straight and yanked the coat rack back inside the room, letting it thump to the ground. I turned to them, crossing my arms over the camisole top
I had worn to bed who knows how long ago, since I had no clue how long I had been unconscious. I stared mutinously at King Collins, drumming my fingers on my arm in irritation.
I could have sworn his lips twitched, but he only jerked his head, blue hair falling back from his face to stare me straight on. “Are you done now?”
Not by a long shot.
King Zeller started snickering as he watched me, then he held up a quick hand when King Collins shot him a glare. “I’m only thinking payback’s a bitch.” He spread his arms wide. “How many times did you find Aria’s…antics…entertaining?”
King Collins stilled then muttered, “Not the same.” He pointed at me and spoke to King Zeller like I wasn’t in the room, which I took advantage of by gradually beginning to creep toward the window and hoping this was a first floor room. “You could still train Aria, albeit with her mom watching half the time. Her power wasn’t half the mystery hers is,” he jerked his thumb at me, which I noted was in the right direction and sadly meant he was paying attention. He glared, then he turned that glare on me, or more like, my hair. “A spirit! A fucking spirit!”
King Collins crossed his arms again, brown eyes solely focused on me, so I stopped moving and rested against one of the walls, keeping plenty of distance between us. “That’s what I was doing earlier,” he stated calmly. “I was going to touch your hair.”
My white eyebrows rose. “Don’t be jealous of the hair.” I fingered my shoulder-length hair where the underside of it was spelled hot pink, the top half its natural white. “Pink highlights would probably look decent in your blue hair.” And I wasn’t really joking, since the combo would look amazing.
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