by M. R. Polish
The sound of someone clearing their throat startled me. My defense went back up, and I instantly regretted letting it fall in the first place. I was being kidnapped, this wasn’t a vacation. I couldn’t let that happen again.
With trepidation, I turned the chair around to face my destiny. A man stood near the entrance of the plane. He was not what I expected. Not that I had expectations for my own kidnappers, but he surpassed them.
My heart skipped a few beats.
Captors weren’t supposed to be cute. Were they?
Dark sunglasses covered his eyes even though it was twilight. He wore a half buttoned, black pinstripe shirt that showed a white t-shirt underneath and blue jeans.
I looked down at my own attire and winced. Still wearing my funeral dress, I looked like a librarian covered in black. Oh well. It’s not as if I chose to be there.
Running my fingers through my hair, I tried to smooth out my long red tresses, wishing I could pull them back with something.
Lifting my gaze, I gave myself permission to let my eyes travel over the god of a body he had. A Five O’clock shadow gave him a mysterious look that went well with his dark tussled hair.
A grin spread out on his face as he noticed me undressing him with my eyes. Averting my ogling look as quick as I could, heat rose to my cheeks as they turned a bright cherry red.
“Esmerelda,” he assumed with a deep drawl. It gave me goosebumps and a shiver coursed through my spine.
I bit my lip and shook my head. It shouldn’t have, but it disappointed me that he thought I was someone else. Of course he would have a girlfriend. Someone that sexy wouldn’t be without one.
He cocked his head. “You’re sure?”
“I think I know who I am.” I grimaced and nodded toward the cockpit. “Are you a—um—a…” How did I ask someone if they thought they were magical, too, without coming off insane?
His chuckle interrupted me, but I was grateful I didn’t need to finish my uncomfortable question. “No, I’m a Guardian.” He took off his sunglasses, revealing perfect aqua blue eyes. “Have you seen Victor?”
No words came. All I could do was shake my head once again. A Guardian? What was that? A bodyguard? After the incident with Joe, I sure hoped I was done with those.
He grinned, showing a small dimple. “I’ll go check the cockpit,” he turned, moving toward the front of the plane, “…Victor likes to think he can fly.”
If it were any other day, that might have been funny.
I rested my head back against the chair. A couple seconds passed before he returned from the front of the plane, shutting the door behind him.
“Did you find Victor?”
“Yeah, he’s in there.” He pointed with his thumb behind him, to the closed door. “He’ll be out in a minute.”
“So, I take it that you talked him out of flying?”
He smiled. “Yeah, I told him my life was at stake, and I’d haunt him first if anything happened.”
I grinned back at him, somewhat relieved. My kidnapper wasn't releasing me, but at least he wouldn't be practicing his flying lessons tonight.
Mr. Hot-n-Sexy strode down the aisle to the chair next to mine, sitting down as if he owned the plane; which as far as I knew, he could have.
“You really don’t know what’s going on, do you?” He leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs.
“Know what?” After today, I wouldn’t be surprised if he told me he was a werewolf.
Shaking his head, he gave a small grin. “I thought you knew, that’s all.” He winked at me. “It shouldn’t be long till we’re up in the air.”
I gulped—he said we. That meant he was going with us. Maybe he would help me escape? My hopes soared.
Victor emerged from the cockpit, closing the door behind him. “I see you’ve met Jarak.”
“I see you’ve decided you can’t fly a plane…” I folded my arms. “Actually, we haven’t formally been introduced,” I admitted, trying to engrave Jarak’s name into my memory. Mmmm, I liked it. It fit him well and I played with it, rolling it around in my head. If I lived through this, Ailaina would shoot me if I forgot the name of the hot guy I would be telling her about.
“Well, in that case, Ara, this is Jarak. Jarak, this is Ara.” I glanced over at the handsome stranger as Victor introduced us.
He gave me a quick glimpse then back at Victor. “Ara?”
Victor stepped closer, taking the seat across from us. “Yes, it is short for Arabeth. Correct?” He unwound the black scarf from around his neck, draping it over the arm of his seat and unbuttoned his suit jacket as he crossed his leg over his knee.
“Yeah.” My whole body quivered again. I wasn’t cold, so I knew it was my nerves. Not that I’d experienced anything with high amounts of stress lately.
Jarak leaned over and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m confused. She is Esmerelda—how does she not know this? I thought she knew.” He hung his head. “When I heard the name Ara, I presumed it was a nickname or something.”
Victor held up his hand to interrupt. “It’s a long flight to Madrid. We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
The plane’s door slammed shut, sealing us inside. I jumped from the sound.
Okay, so now plane doors closed and locked by themselves. That wasn’t weird. Right?
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears matching the roar of the engines as they became louder, winding up tight. My stomach flopped in protest. I’d never flown before and quite frankly, it scared me.
Heck, I never thought I'd be kidnapped either, but here I was, on a plane, with a deranged magical lunatic, and some hot tag-a-long.
Bending over in my seat, I tried not to hyperventilate as I concentrated on my breathing. The plane moved backwards and I shrieked, sitting straight up and clutching the arms of the chair. There was a reason I never flew before and at that moment everything, even the kidnapping, became irrelevant as I forced myself to keep breathing.
Victor leaned over and patted my knee. “All is well, my dear.”
I swatted his hand away from me.
All is well? No, all was not well.
Thousands of butterflies fluttered around in my stomach. I was on my way to Spain, in a plane with a kidnapper, to see my dead mom. I shook my head. “No… It’s not okay. I don’t want to fly. ” I could feel my anxiety climax as the jet crawled toward the start of the runway.
“It’s okay, just breathe,” Jarak reassured in a calming tone.
“What do you think I’m doing? Sucking up all the stupid in this plane? Cause let me tell you, it would take a long time!”
The plane slowed almost to a complete stop before racing forward, sucking me back into my seat. Tipping back, I realized we were in the air, climbing high above the ground and defying gravity and all the security it offered.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the small plane banked to the right. Panic stricken, my knuckles turned white as I gripped the seat as tight as I could. We were gonna fall out of the sky!
“Ara, open your eyes and look at the lights before we get too high.”
Shaking my head, I declined. No way was I going to look.
“It’s a new adventure, life as you know it has changed. Not everyone can say they watched their past fade away as they flew to their future.”
Ugh. Gagging on Victor’s words, I peeked one eye open, straining to see outside the tiny window. The lights of Elko grew smaller and smaller.
We banked again, turning to fly over my hometown. My eyes closed tight, and my face was in an unattractive squished contortion. I sucked in a deep breath and held it to calm myself down, focusing on anything other than the fact that we were still climbing thousands of feet in the air at a rapid speed.
Looking through my eyelashes, I looked at both men, not wanting to open my eyes wide yet. Crap eating grins spread out over their faces at their apparent fascinations with my fear of flying. If I weren’t frozen to my seat, I would have let them both h
ave it.
A bump in the so far smooth ascend made me jump, and I realized the only way I would get through an entire flight was to talk. Talking usually got me through the worst moments. When my parents would fight I would either head to Ailaina’s house or call her. With my cell phone gone—not that I could use it to text thirty thousand feet in the air—I couldn’t talk to Ailaina, so my next option was Victor and Jarak. It should prove to be an exciting trip.
I tried to loosen the grip I had on the armrest, but each jump in turbulence the plane went through, made me tense back up. “So why Spain? I mean why not Florida or Hawaii, somewhere tropical?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Victor leaned forward. “Because of what your mom is, there aren’t many vampires willing to turn her. They said it was too dangerous. In Spain, I was able to convince Trevor, an old vampire to do it, along with Ree. He has more restraint than most vampires in the world. And, he owes me. This is his way of paying me back.”
“You’re serious about blood sucking creatures who hunt at night, aren’t you?” I shuddered.
Victor’s eyes clouded over. “I’m afraid so. They’re real. Just like you and many of us, hold magic.”
I shook my head. “This is crazy.”
“Let me show you.” Victor held his hands out before I could protest. A blue haze of energy formed and hovered above his palms. It reminded me of the glowing I saw with my hands earlier. He drew his arm back and hurled the mist-like-energy at the other chair, turning it to ice before I could blink.
I jumped from the unexpected action. My eyes widened. “Holy cow!” I reached over and touched the chair, momentarily forgetting my fear of flying. It was hard and cold, undeniably ice.
Both men smiled at me in a knowing satisfaction. Okay, so magic might be real. I used to play pretend with Ailaina when we were kids all the time. Our storybooks would become spell books, and we’d cook up potions in our play kitchens and teapots. Maybe innocence has more of a connection than I ever thought? I toyed with the idea that Victor was right.
I gulped, still staring at the chair. It was so weird to look at.
“Does that help you?” Victor settled back into his seat.
Pressing my lips together, I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yeah.”
He chortled. “Good.”
Averting my eyes from the ice, I caught Jarak staring at me. “So why are you here? I mean, do you kidnap people too?”
Jarak raised one brow. “Kidnap people?”
“Well it’s a perfectly good question since Victor kidnapped me.”
He laughed. “He kidnapped you?”
I didn’t laugh. In fact, I found nothing about it funny.
His face became ashen. “You’re serious.” He gawked at Victor. “She’s serious isn’t she?”
Clearing his throat, Victor rubbed his chin. “Yes.”
Jarak stood up and paced, throwing his arms in the air. “Why’d you do that? How am I supposed to do my job if you pull that kind of stuff? You said you had it taken care of. I knew I should’ve done it myself.”
“There was no other way. She admitted it herself. She wouldn’t have come with me willingly.”
I gulped and studied my hands that shook from my nerves.
“You should’ve had me do it. I’m the one who’s supposed to protect her. I’m the one who found her. I could’ve gotten her.” With every step Jarak took, the more his voice rose. “You hired me to make sure she’s safe. How am I supposed to do that if she feels threatened because you kidnapped her? And what about Ian? If he found out…” he trailed.
“She’s here, that’s all that matters. And, Ian won’t find out. Not unless you tell him.”
I wasn’t sure who Ian was, but his name sounded familiar. Was he the ring leader of this circus? Why did his name ring a bell with me?
“As long as you get what you need, you don’t care how you get it. Am I right?” Jarak stopped pacing and ran his hands through his hair. He stared at Victor, waiting for his answer. “All you warlocks are the same… greedy and uncaring.”
Victor rubbed the back of his neck. “I told you, I need her, you need her, and she needs her mom. It’s that simple.”
I snapped my head in his direction. “What do you mean, you need me? Why am I so important?”
Victor waved his hand. “Nothing… I just meant that I need you to be there for your mom.”
Jarak exhaled a deep breath and settled back down in his seat. “I’m sorry, Esmerelda.”
I scowled at him. “My name is Arabeth. I think you guys kidnapped the wrong girl. My mom is dead, and I’m not Esmerelda. Please, just let me go back home.”
Victor leaned forward again. “Ara, your real name is Esmerelda. I know it must sound weird to hear, coming from someone who you don’t know, but it’s true. Meadow is alive and waiting to see you.”
Tears filled my eyes and threatened to flow over. “Please stop. I can’t take anymore.” I peeked over at Jarak. He was bent over with his head tipped down, but his eyes still looked up at me. Maybe now that he knew the truth, he would help me escape? I pleaded with my eyes.
He turned and glared at Victor. “We need to talk.” Hope flared inside of me with his words.
The plane jumped with turbulence and I let out a little cry, grabbing the armrests once again.
Victor nodded and then opened his hands, palms facing me with his fingers splayed open. “Yes, we need to talk. Besides, I don’t think she’ll make it flying the whole way, this might be better for her.”
“For her or for you?” Jarak scowled.
“For her.”
At that same moment, my eyelids grew heavy, and I strained to keep them open. The room moved, making me dizzy. It was so severe that I couldn’t keep them open. My body slumped as I fell into a deep sleep.
Four
Jarak
T he door to the jet’s kitchenette clicked as I closed it carefully behind me. Not that Esmeralda would wake too easily, but it was best not to push the boundaries by slamming it shut.
“You have a lot to explain,” I demanded in a hushed voice. I pushed a finger to Victor’s chest.
Victor’s brow rose, and he flicked my hand away. “You can talk louder. She won’t wake up for a while. I used a sleeping spell.”
“I know that, but she’s different. Isn’t that why we need her? What’s going on, Victor? You hired me to protect her. I guess I just assumed all these years that she knew she’s a witch. I mean, she’s the witch.” My insides burned, and my pulse pounded in my ears. Clenching my jaw, I glared at him. It took all I had not to punch my employer in the face. Sure, I needed her, too, but not like this. Kidnapping her wasn’t the way I saw this all happening. Too many factors came into play.
And then, there were the Crossbreeds. When they found her, she’d need to trust me to keep her safe, but now Victor might have ruined all of that. How could she trust someone who held her captive? Victor clearly didn’t think this out as long or as thoroughly as I had.
“Jarak, listen… I hired you to help keep her safe from Nicholas, not from me. I don’t want to hurt her. I need her.”
“You never told me why you need her.” It had better be good too, because it was cutting into my time that I needed with her.
Victor shrugged. “I don’t recall any contract I signed stating that you needed to know all my business.”
“You’re the one who said you want me to keep her safe. It falls somewhere under that.”
He cleared his throat and leaned against the small metal counter, with his arms folded. “We all know Nicholas wants her to help create his Crossbreeds—at least he needs her to make ones who won’t die without great effort to retain their life. What you might not know, is that in order to do that, he needs all five elements in one form. Something she has,” he paused, giving a half-shrug, “I, on the other hand, need her to help with a certain Crossbreed.” He said the last word differently, as if the Breed he talked about was personal to him and say
ing the word left a nasty taste in his mouth.
“Will she be hurt?”
“Why do you care?” His voice boomed through the kitchen.
“As a Guardian I take my job seriously.” His secret put me on edge. Something didn’t feel right. Esmerelda going up against a Crossbreed—one who I didn’t know—without training, could be suicide.
“As soon as she can prove her skills and helps me, she can leave… if she survives.”
If she survives? No. She must. She has to! “I refuse to stand by and watch her walk into a trap. If there is anything else you should tell be about this Crossbreed, now is the time. Heck, she doesn’t even know she’s a witch! How does she not know this? She’s eighteen! Her powers had to be strong by now.”
Victor glared. “Don’t talk about who you don’t know like that. This Crossbreed has survived a very long time and deserves to be released from her injustice.” He looked away, licking his lips. “Meadow concealed Esmerelda’s magic. That’s why she doesn’t know. Now, Meadow’s too weak to hold the Concealment Spell, and Esmerelda’s magic is revealing itself.
“Meadow went through so much these last eighteen years. Her husband, for all intents and purposes,” he seethed the last few words as if they were laced with arsenic singeing his tongue, “is a marshal for the B.O.M.B., and they held each other in a Confidere Spell.” He opened the fridge, taking out a bottle of water and took a drink.
“What is that? I’m a Guardian, not a Warlock.” I might have been raised around magic, but it didn’t mean I knew all the spells.
“They placed a spell over each other, making it impossible for the other to talk, or to go to anyone, about Esmerelda.” His voice dropped. “It was me who had Meadow take Esmerelda as an infant in the first place, and Adonia and Torres—her real parents—hired Bry to find her. So they both had their reasons.”
I hit the door, causing a dent. So many years I spent trying to find her and here I was on the same plane, working for the very man who hired the woman who took her!
Hatred wasn’t a strong enough word for how I detested the man in front of me. “She has no clue about that either does she? The part about Adonia and Torres?” Clenching my jaw, I ground my teeth. All this time wasted, having absolutely no clue who she is—and what she is capable of.