“You can try to change the subject and distract me with your words, but I refuse to be used like this. My aversion to your choice to kill your grandfather will not change.”
“Kian…”
“No, Sadie,” he growled. He swiped a hand through his now dry hair while his knuckles turned white on the door handle. “I’ll see you at morning chow.”
He slammed the door in his wake.
I stood there for what seemed like hours, willing him to return and hating myself for wishing it. He rejected me. My original intentions were to change the subject, not spill my heart out, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. Ever since our kiss, I had had thoughts of what it would be like to tell Kian that I wanted more. It’s not like I asked for chocolate or roses or even a declaration of love, but I had hoped that he would return some affection, or at the very least let me down easy, but I never expected hurt and anger.
Beep. Beep. My phone chimed on the nightstand next to my bed. I decided to ignore it.
He rejected me. I began to pace, my limp fading with each step as my muscles warmed up to the movements. Two more beeps sounded from across the room. Kian’s last words were ricocheting in my head. He had practically accused me of manipulating him with my emotions. Clenching my fists down by my sides, I screamed “ASSHOLE!” My Talent crackled over my skin with the burst of emotion before I pushed it down by taking a deep breath. Then another and another.
My phone chimed two more times. Sighing, I sat down to read the messages.
Madison: Morning beautiful!
Rebecca: Gooooood Morning. I miss you roomie.
Rebecca: Not as much as I miss you.
Madison: When can you escape?
Rebecca: Ugh. That last message was from John. I don’t know what his problem is with stealing my phone. He has his own.
John: I love making Becca angry. Her face is squished together. You should be here to see this.
I laughed at my friends, the sound soothing the pain of rejection, and replied to each individually. I missed them too. For a moment, the emptiness in my chest that they filled didn’t seem so vast. More than anything, I needed the girls with me so I could vent about training, the slop they called food, and most of all Kian.
Sadie: I have to go to chow, but we need to have a talk later.
Rebecca: I love how you act all military now. Chow? HA.
Madison: Should we be concerned?
Sadie: Oh you know, the usual. Kian is an ass and I may have just handed him my heart on a platter before he accused me of manipulating him and stomped out of the room.
Madison: Damn.
Rebecca: We’ll call this afternoon.
The alarm blared overhead before a pleasant female voice announced that morning chow would be finished in 10 minutes. I huffed in aggravation. That would leave me only 5 minutes to eat once I actually arrived at the chow hall.
“Looks like a bran muffin for breakfast.”
I placed my phone back on the nightstand, since it was frowned upon to have it during training hours, and walked toward the chow hall alone for the first time since arriving at the HCA Underground.
Chapter 3
Email
From:Miles Koenig [[email protected]]
To:All Recipients; Caelian Council
Subject:Have you seen my granddaughter?
Fellow Caelians,
It has recently come to my attention that my beloved son had a daughter before he was so tragically taken from me. I don’t have much information beyond her name and a physical description (see below). Please let me know if you see or come into contact with a girl matching her description. I desperately want to connect with her. For now, I would appreciate it if this search stayed within the Caelian family.
Sadie
Height: 5’6”
Weight: Approx. 130lbs
Cobalt eyes, white hair, athletic build. Last seen at St. Vincent’s orphanage
Regards,
Miles Koenig
Chapter 4
By the time I entered the chow hall, there were only a few people scattered about. I scanned the room before making my way to the muffin and fruit cart and selecting a bran muffin. My lips curled at the thought of choking down the bland, dry pastry.
Pursing my lips to release a slow breath, I turned on the balls of my feet and walked to morning training. The layout of the Underground was efficient but confusing until you got used to it. There were two exits, but only one was used regularly – the elevators. The other led through the sewer system and ended in the woods outside of the metropolis. The Underground was set up in a spoke-and-wheel pattern, each hallway with a designated department.
The center of the wheel was the cafeteria and commons room. The eight main hallways interconnected with smaller hallways. Three were personal quarters, two training hallways, two infirmary wings, and one administrative. The administrative hallway ended in another circular room with another six smaller hallways that housed the various leaders of the HCA, including McCredie.
Halfway down the training hallway A, I felt a presence attempting to sneak up on me from behind. The syrupy vibrations from his Talent gave him away in an instant.
“Back off, Luca.” I stopped without warning and his body crashed into mine before it fell to the floor. I spun around on one foot and glared at him with both hands on my hips, my fingers digging into my skin in controlled anger.
Luca was splayed across the floor, his long legs bent and arms resting behind him on his elbows, holding up his torso as if he had been relaxing on the frigid concrete all morning. He threw his head back and laughed as if I had told the funniest joke he’d ever heard, his large Adam’s apple bouncing up and down with each exhalation.
“You wound me, Sadie.” Luca pushed on his elbows and with a lithe grace and the practiced ease of a trained fighter, he maneuvered his long- limbs to a seated position. His eyes met mine and with a half-cocked grin placed both hands on his heart, his pale pink eyes twinkling with amusement. “Does my Talent have no effect on you?”
“Not even a little.”
“Shame.” He rose to his full height and brushed off his backside. I turned my head up so I could look him in the eye. He was a foot taller than my 5’6” and when he returned my gaze all amusement was gone.
“I noticed Kian eating breakfast alone this morning. Lovers spat?” My mouth wouldn’t open. How would I even explain that we weren’t lovers to begin with?
“We aren’t together like that.” My voice was a mere whisper and I wasn’t sure he heard me until I felt Luca step closer, his siren Talent wrapped around me, again trying to pull me in. We both knew it wouldn’t work. Since the first time we met, Luca had been trying to seduce me.
I was different.
Exciting.
A little dangerous. New.
He had approached me before my first training session. I remember thinking he looked like one of those Greek statues of the gods. Chiseled and too perfect, his long mint green hair flowing around his face in a halo. A few pieces stuck to the brown skin of his neck, glistening with sweat from a previous fight. Luca was beautiful like a masterful work of art.
But he wasn’t Kian.
“Luca,” I sighed. “Stop. No more trying to seduce me. I’m not giving in to you and if you don’t step away, you won’t be able to enjoy the perks of your Talent ever again.” My eyes wandered to the area below his belt to drive home the innuendo before I stepped back.
Luca chuckled as I felt him reign in his Talent. “If you two aren’t lovers, then what are you?”
“That’s the million-dollar question, Luca.”
I spun around, resuming my walk to the training, this time with Luca by my side. He looked like a model slinking down the catwalk with his long-legged strides and haughty demeanor. Even when he had both hands tucked into his black cargo pants, he looked poised.
A small part of me hated him.
“So, let me get this straight. He follows you around like a lo
ve-struck puppy and when you’re not stuck to each other’s hips, he’s watching you from afar, his jaw clenching any time another man approaches you.”
“He’s…”
Luca raised his hand, cutting me off. “Let me finish.” My eyes rolled skyward at his suggestion that Kian was love-struck, but I closed my mouth and let him continue.
“You never reciprocate any other man’s attention, but you follow Kian’s movements and never tell him to go away when he gets close. You two arrived together. Eat together. I know he goes into your quarters every evening and stays for a while.”
We stopped in front of the doors and I turned to look up at him. Luca gave me a cocky wink and a confident smile, stretching his lips to expose two rows of perfect teeth.
“Are you stalking me, Luca?”
Luca lifted both shoulders. “People talk.”
“People need to talk about facts. Kian and I protect each other.”
“No. That’s not it,” Luca interrupted, his hand rubbing the smooth surface of his angled jaw. I forced my gaze to meet Luca, straining my neck in the process. The gleam in his eye was unnerving.
“It’s my business to know attraction and love. I live in that world. You both want each other, but something is stopping it from happening. You are more than willing.” He leaned forward and sniffed the air around me. I flinched away. “I can smell it.”
“You smell it?” I screeched before covering my mouth and looking around.
Luca laughed hard, bending over to hold his stomach, his eyes watering. I waited for him to finish, scared and a little intrigued by his confession. I knew Luca was considered one of the top Sirens in the HCA, but sniffing emotions would be an incredible asset.
“Are you done?” My foot began to tap, from nerves or anger, I couldn’t tell, but I was ready to know his answer.
“Yes.” He took a deep breath and forced himself calm. “Oh god, Sadie. I wish you could have seen your face. That was the best reaction to my secondary Talent.”
“So it’s true. You can smell emotions.”
“Pheromones, to be exact.” Luca leaned one hip against the wall crossing his arms. “The emotions have to be strong in order for your body to release them in chemical form. Usually, I can only smell fear and intense sexual attraction.” His lips quirked up when he finished.
“So you can smell when people are turned on?” My nose crinkled and then the realization dawned on me. “Oh god, have you been sniffing me? And Kian?”
“When the two of you are in the room together, I don’t have to try and smell either one of you. Both of your pheromones permeate my breathing air. That was the main reason I began pursuing you. Anyone that good to go should be an easy target.”
My eyes narrowed at his assumption. “I’m not easy.”
“Obviously.”
“Do you do use your secondary Talent on all the girls?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Please. I never have to work that hard. You have been a test of my patience and skill. Now, back to the big mystery.”
“What big mystery?”
“Why you and Kian haven’t bumped uglies yet.”
“Oh god. Do you even have a filter? If you knew Kian and I were attracted to each other, then why come after me?”
“No, I don’t,” Luca replied, his voice laced with honesty. One brow rose as he leaned forward at the hip. I shifted my eyes from one corner of the hallway to the other. “To answer your other question, I was curious. It’s not every day I see two people who are desperate to stay close to each other, but refuse their base desires. In the five years since I discovered my Talent, I have never seen such emotional devotion without physical commitment—outside of the religiously devout, of course.”
He paused. My face felt pinched from aggravation. “Hey. Look at me.”
I dragged my eyes from the wall and looked at him. For the first time since I had met Luca, I felt sincerity roll off of him. “I’m done trying to get in your pants.”
My arms snaked across my chest as I rolled my eyes. “Okay.” I tried to subdue the sarcasm in my voice, but it was no use. Each syllable bled with cynicism.
“I’m serious. You know, I’ve been watching you. You have a huge chip on your shoulder, but you don’t let it bleed into your training. You are one of the best fighters we have and your Talent is unmatched. At first, I thought I was attracted to you sexually, but I’m not. Well, not completely. I am a man.” His lip quirked a little at his admission and I felt heat rise up my neck in embarrassment.
“Where are you going with all this?” I sounded much braver than I felt.
He tilted his head to the side for a moment and I watched as his pupils dilated for a moment before returning to normal. He shifted his eyes all around the room before returning his gaze to me. Confusion marred his face before understanding dawned.
“I want to be your friend. Rumors have it that you are going after Miles Koenig and every time I have been around you when someone has brought him or his family up, fury rolls off of you. I understand that anger and I want to help.”
My fist clenched as my grandfather’s name left his lips. Luca tilted his head again and that’s when I noticed what he was doing. “Do you know you have a tic when you use your secondary?”
“What?” He asked confused.
“You tilt your head and once you breathe, your eyes dilate for a moment. That won’t be useful in battle.”
A full grin lit up his entire face before he continued. “That is why we need to be friends. We can help each other.”
“I have plenty of friends that I love and trust with my life. To be honest, I don’t have the energy for another friend.”
“Yes, you have friends on the outside, but you only have Kian down here in the Underground.” Luca’s eyes cut behind me for a moment and I gathered my brows in question. He leaned in closer, his lips brushing my ear. “I can help you with Kian.”
“Back away from her, Luca!” I heard Kian’s voice boom behind me, but Luca stayed close to me. His breath warmed my ear and his hand grasped my arm. I didn’t realize that I had begun to wobble until he steadied me.
“Did you know he was behind me?” I whispered back and then turned my head to look over my shoulder at Kian, whose body shook. “Give me a minute, Kian. Luca and I are discussing something.”
“He’s been standing around the corner for a while. Since I declared my intention of being your friend.”
“Okay. We can try to be friends, but don’t expect much from me. I’ve got a lot on my plate.”
“Obviously.” He whispered it and stepped closer. I released an annoyed sigh as I realized what Luca was doing. I’m never skipping coffee again.
“I don’t want to you to help me with Kian by making him jealous. I don’t want to play that game, but I could use help figuring him out. We’ll talk later, Okay?” I whispered before stepping back from Luca. He stood to his full height and stretched. It must have been uncomfortable for him to bend over and whisper in my ear.
“Okay,” he said out loud. I spun around on the ball of my foot and took a few steps toward Kian. He was looking at me instead of Luca, his face burning with anger, but his eyes boring into me and I could feel his pain.
Maybe Luca was right and he was attracted to me, but I didn’t know how he could have just walked out of the room this morning after I told him that I cared for him.
His hurt mirrored mine, but neither of us would open up to the other. Would we be in this purgatory forever, hurting each other by not saying what we really felt? I couldn’t say, but I linked my arm with his and placed my other hand on his chest while laying my head on his shoulder, waiting on him to calm down.
Once I felt his breath even out, I straightened up, but left my arm linked with his. Luca was where I had left him, smiling like he won the lottery of secrets.
“We’re late,” Luca stated with a chuckle.
“Yes. We are,” Kian replied through clenched teeth.
“
Go on in, Luca, and let Sergeant Smith know we will be a few more minutes,” I suggested as I narrowed my gaze on Kian for a moment before turning to watch Luca leave.
Luca nodded and walked toward the door.
“Oh and Luca,” He paused to look at me, one hand on the handle. “You will tell me what my grandfather did to you.”
All color drained from his face. “Your grandfather?”
“Friends don’t keep secrets from each other. But they do keep secrets for their friends.” I narrowed my gaze and watched as he flitted through a gambit of emotions before nodding.
“Yes. Friends keep secrets.” He winked at me and tipped his chin at Kian before entering the training room, leaving Kian and me alone.
Chapter 5
Live on Channel 5
Reporter: We are live with Dean Kerrington of the Human Purist Coalition and Frank Miller, Vice-Council chair of the Koenig family. It is a pleasure to be able to conference with two opposing forces regarding the Caelian Registration Act.
Dean:Good morning.
Frank:It’s a pleasure to be invited.
Reporter:Tell me, what has your organization accomplished this year, Dean?
Dean:We are a privately funded organization, mostly run by military veterans and the everyday person who desires to see the purity of the human race thrive and eventually be able to remove the anomaly Caelum’s meteorite injected into our DNA. We feel that the first step in achieving that goal is to pass the Caelian Registration Act.
Reporter:Interesting. How have you been supporting the bill which passed the House yesterday by one vote?
Dean:We have raised a significant amount of funds for independent marketing campaigns. Our primary focus is spreading knowledge and gaining public support.
The Caelian Cycle Boxed Set Page 17