She nodded again. “I was outside the walls near the forest when I came on two people that I have never seen before together. They were discussing something that as it turned out is of great importance to our lord Devish. It seems that they were speaking of treason. They were talking about overthrowing him. It is such a shame too. They were not being loyal at all.”
Michael heard all of this, and he didn’t need to hear anything else. The truth was out and now he had to defend it—somehow. He had to reset the game if he could. “I was trying to see where his loyalties laid my lord.” He smiled. He even tried to laugh, but instantly he knew he failed with both of them. He knew it was hopeless. He knew Devish all too well. He would never let him wiggle out of this one.
Devish did laugh too. He meant his. “I see. You were trying to convince my friend Kalima that it would be a good idea to overthrow me and to take over the head of the council just to test him. That is very ingenious if you ask me, and well, you have not.”
He knew where this was going, so he didn’t have the choice. He let his eyes flare to their vampire’s red shine. He let his fangs be exposed. He brought the animal inside him out.
Devish laughed again, harder this time. When he finished it, he stood up. “How dare you show your teeth to me?” He took a couple steps to Michael and stopped. His eyes also went red. “I am your lord and master. I am the head of our world. You are nothing but a made handmaiden. You are nothing without me.”
Michael swallowed hard. Maybe he shouldn’t have shown his teeth after all. Devish was right. He would be no match for him with either strength or speed. Devish outweighed him by all accounts by ten to one. Knowing this, he changed tactics as fast as he could.
“I am sorry my lord. I did not intend…” he tried, but Devish cut him off.
Without so much as a single motion, he reached him so fast, and with one hand, he pulled him off his feet. With the greatest strength, he then pulled him to his face. All with in the same motion, he changed into his half-bat and half-wolf self.
He now couldn’t breathe.
This was what Devish intended. “You are one to beg Michael. You are the weakest of the weak. Why Gorhan ever made you, I will never understand. You are nothing.”
“Please…my…”
He couldn’t hear what he was trying to say, so he released some of the pressure around his throat. He did want to hear him after all.
Able to, he caught his breaths before he continued. “…do not kill me. I did not intend…”
He cut him off again. “Stop blabbering Michael. It is so not becoming of the head of one of our families.” He looked over at Elizabeth and gave her a soft glance. “Do you not agree with me my dear Elizabeth?”
She laughed at this. “I do not.”
He looked back to Michael and now saw a single tear in his right eye. He laughed again with seeing it.
“I am not going to kill you my dear boy.” He pulled him closer. With his bat-like nose, he was able to get him really close to where he could almost feel his skin touching his. “I am going to let you live on one condition.”
Michael really breathed this time. “What do you wish of me?”
Devish looked directly in to his eyes. “I want you to assist me in discovering all of the other Elders that our plotting with you to overthrow me. If you do this for me, if you expose all of those you have spoken to, I will let you live out the rest of your days in peace and quiet. If you do not agree with me on this, I will end you right now. And do not attempt to lie to me boy. I can read your thoughts as if they were my own.” He moved him slightly away from him so he could see his entire face as he answered him. “Would you agree to my terms Michael, the great head of the Gorhan family?”
Michael nodded, well he bobbed anyway, as he answered him, “I will. I will do everything you ask of me.”
Devish heard honesty in his voice. He saw it in his mind too. With the lack of oxygen, he was able to read him. The block was gone with the pain.
“Very well.” He turned back to Elizabeth. “Please fetch me my wolves, my dear.” He watched her nod, and turned back to Michael. “You are going to be my guest for a while. I hope you do understand that you have no choice on the matter, but I cannot have you running around causing trouble any more with any of my people.” He glanced behind him and watched her return through the door of his room with five very large men walking behind her. She had brought him his wolves.
The first one, the alpha of this particular little pack, his favorite and most loyal of all of his wolves, stepped directly behind Michael.
Devish loved how big he looked. “Ah Gregory, Lord Michael Gorhan will be staying with us for a while. See to it that he is made comfortable. I do wish for his stay to be a pleasant one.” He looked back to Michael and saw the torment in his eyes. He knew what was coming next. “You will learn what it is like to violate my trust dear Michael. You will learn how to remain loyal to me. You will learn of the feelings of a true death if you ever cross me again.”
Michael winced. He knew only the torture that would most likely come to him if he didn’t agree. As he said it many times, he knew Devish well. He knew how he repaid that trust just as much as he knew of the pain he inflicted to those that did not repay it.
Devish set him back to his feet. He felt pleased that he had made his point.
Two of his wolves came and took Michael by both arms as soon as he gave them a simple nod.
The two then pulled him backwards and out of the room.
Michael said nothing. He accepted his fate. What else could he have done?
When all of his wolves left them, Devish turned back to Elizabeth. “It is so sad that this had to come to this, my dear.” He turned and walked back to his chair. He sat down with a heavy heave. “I do appreciate your loyalty in all of this. I do not know what would have happened if you had not watched them as you did. I do not know of how I would have survived it.”
She smiled.
He got comfortable in his chair and he stared her down. “It has come the time to clean out the Elders. They have become weak. They have become needy. It is time to replace all of them with those who are loyal to me.”
This was of course what she wanted to hear. It is why she had told him about all of this in the first place. “Yes my master—of course.”
He admired her. “Good. There will be room available for good Walkers such as you in the new order. I will reward you for such loyalty as only you could dream it.”
Her smile grew.
He turned to other more important things next. “I need you to fulfill one more thing with me before I ask of you to start a new family.” He stared at her rather beautiful eyes. They were as brown as brown could be.
“What do you wish of me my lord?” She was ready to do anything. She couldn’t wait to begin it either. Everything had gone according to her plans.
He looked back at the door. He looked carefully, noticed it closed, and so he turned back to her. “I need your assistance with Rana. If the black wolf knows the truth of what had been done to him, I need her to rejoin me by my side. He will not take lightly of such knowledge. Without her strength, I will not be able to defend myself against him. Rage can be a powerful force inside one as he is. He could become far more dangerous with it.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. After all, she wanted to be that one, not Rana, at his side. Why did she deserve that from him?
“I need your help to set her straight again.”
She didn’t like it, but she also knew that she didn’t have the choice. She would have to help him, like it or not, so she agreed without another thought about it.
“I will do whatever you ask of me my lord.”
He nodded strongly with hearing this. “Good.” He looked back at the door. He couldn’t see her but he knew she would be coming soon. It was just the matter of time before she did, and now with Elizabeth’s help, he knew that she would soon be back at his side.
17
<
br /> He ran for hours. He ran out through the forest, down to the great southern river of the island, and then ran back towards the coast. He didn’t know where he was going but he didn’t care. He just ran to think. He ran to calm down. He ran to figure out what he was going to do next. When he ran back to the fields, he decided that he wasn’t finished yet, so he turned. He continued running. Before he knew it, he knew where he was. He went to their spot in the trees. He even found her there, alone.
She heard him come.
She saw him come out of the trees.
He stopped just at the clearing’s edge.
“Kalima, I was trying to find you. Where have you been?” Rana kept her hands in front of her waist. She felt worried. She was also scared. She didn’t know what was going to happen after this night. She didn’t know what he would think of her after she told him what he needed to know. Would he hate me? Would he still love me in the end? These were her questions. These were her reasons to fear him, because she didn’t know, but it was time to find out.
The very minute he saw her standing there, he felt himself melt from the heat of her eyes. He felt his heart breaking again too. Both felt like a punch to the gut. It made it hard for him to breathe.
“I have been running for a while. I needed the time to think.” He stayed where he stood. He couldn’t move too close to her without getting burned. He would burn from her overwhelming love that he felt for her.
She saw the look in his eyes. She saw the hate. She saw the hurt. She felt his pain through his eyes. She knew what this meant. She saw him like this before.
“You know?” She felt even more ashamed. She wanted to be the one to tell him. She wanted to be the one to set him free of the pain. Now, she didn’t have the chance to set herself free as well. How could he ever forgive her now?
Fresh tears streaked down his face. “Why did you do it?” He couldn’t think of anything else to say or ask. He still couldn’t believe that this was even real.
She couldn’t help but cry some herself. “I did it before I knew you.” It was time to explain this. It was time to win him back. “I did not know who you were. I knew nothing of the love you have shown me.” She wiped both of her eyes with both shaking hands. She did her best. The tears kept coming. They wouldn’t stop.
He let his come. “You hid my only reason left to live. You helped him hide her from me.” This was the hardest part of all of this. He could see his brother doing this, it was in his nature to deceive people, but with her—she was so much more than that. He didn’t understand it, and so wanted to. He really did want to forgive her. He just didn’t know how to do it yet.
“I am sorry.” She took a step forward.
He took a step back.
She stopped. The tears came again. “I did not mean to harm you.”
That wasn’t enough. “Why? Why did you do it?”
She knew it too. “I was hurt then. I felt burned too. My brother burned me when he had our father killed. I was so cold back then that I did not know how to think with warmth. I did not know how to think with light.”
He knew what she went through with Rochie. He also knew how it bruised her, but it didn’t matter when it came to this. This was different. He had nothing to do with that particular pain. “I thought you loved me.” This is what did.
“I do.”
“Then why have all of the secrets? Why did you hide it from me when you knew it burned me so? Why keep it that way once you knew me as you do now?”
“Why did I not tell you?” She crossed her arms over her chest. She wanted to feel his around her—protecting her, but had to settle for her own. Hers didn’t do her any amount of good at all. “You do not know the powerful hold your brother has on those around him. You have no knowledge of the games he can play with one’s mind.”
Oh but he did. “I know what my brother is Rana. I know of the foulness he can bring. I expected more from you.”
“I know that I was weak. I know that I should have told you the truth when we first joined together. I was afraid. I feared what he would do if I broke the agreement that he and I shared.”
He didn’t accept this. “I would not have allowed him to harm you Rana.” He meant this more than his own life. He to himself meant nothing, and never would. But her—she was so much more than he would ever be.
He just didn’t know, so now it was time that he did. “I did not fear for my life Kalima. I feared what he would do to you.”
He forcefully shook his head with this. “He cannot harm me.” He turned his back to her. The tears continued flowing down his face. His naked chest was now covered in his own sadness. It glistened in the dark.
Again, he didn’t understand, so again, she tried so hard to explain this. “You are not all powerful Kalima. You are only half of what he is.” She knew he thought that he was. In all of this time, she knew his strength, but he also didn’t know Devish. A Walker’s blood lost its strength as it passed from one to another. They grew weaker as they passed on their gifts. A Full Blood, a born Walker like Devish had the greatest strength. It meant that Kalima was only half of that strength. He had to accept this. He was not as strong as Devish.
“I know that it is what he thinks.” He turned back and faced her. “I know that is what you think too.” He felt the hurt strongest with this. She didn’t trust him. She didn’t believe in him. It hurt him more than her hiding his life.
She bowed her head. “I know what I know through a lifetime of living among them. I have seen the days of the old Elders, when all of them lived as Blood Walkers. They were the greatest and the most powerful that had ever walked this world. Nothing stood against them.”
He laughed with this even though it wasn’t funny. “And yet they are all dead.” He growled some after the laugh.
She heard it and truly started crying again because of it. “I love you Kalima. I did not mean to cause you this pain.” She had to get back to the heart of this. She needed him with her again.
He had other things on his mind. “I cannot forgive you this Rana. I cannot until I see her again. I need to find her. I need to see her breathe. I need to hold her and hear her thoughts again inside my head.” He looked back out to the trees.
What he said felt like a dagger straight through her heart. “How will you find her? Devish does not even know where she is.” If this was what he wanted, she could no longer keep him from it. She had to let him go. She didn’t have the power anymore to persuade him. With everything she did, she didn’t blame him. It was his right.
He heard his brother’s name and again he growled. “I know where she is.” He lied, he really didn’t, but he knew once he concentrated on her strong enough she would find him. Now that he knew she lived she would try. He just needed to know she was and she would do the rest.
She heard him lie. He was never any good at it. “I will be here when you find her again.” She accepted it from him. She didn’t have any other choice any way but to do it. “I will be waiting for your safe return.”
He looked back to her. “I will not be coming back.” His eyes dried. He didn’t know why, but they did.
Hers did no such thing. The tears just flowed down her face like water over a falls. “I understand.” She did. She hated him for it, but she knew his love for freedom and his distaste for the war. He loved the solitude and with his daughter returned to him, he would find it again. Again, she didn’t like him for it, but yet again, she didn’t have the choice. It was his and his alone to make.
He took a heavy gasp as he let the eyes at the back of his mind come forward.
She watched his eyes turn yellow, and then watched him turn ashen black.
The wolf came fast. Fully formed, he turned from her for the last time.
She watched him as he disappeared into the darkness of the night.
When she was alone, she felt it more than ever. Her life, her only love, had left her alone and it burned. It devastated her, and she wanted to share it. It was time for D
evish to pay for what he had done. She owed him it.
She turned and headed back.
She stomped.
She rushed. Pain needed to be shared, especially to those that deserved it.
18
They crossed the channel and reached the other shore only to find the human camp not a mile from them. Seeing so many of them, they expected the worst. It turned out they were wrong.
The humans even seemed to be waiting for them. Donte, Jameson’s closest friend, even welcomed them on horseback as they walked towards the camp.
He rode out to meet them.
“Rochie, Kenar, and friends.” He stayed on his horse.
To Rochie, he sounded cold.
Kenar thought he sounded confused and when he read his thoughts, he knew why. “Jameson has come to find us.” He should have been confused by this, but there was more. “He has been trying to find us for the past few days, but he had help. He was shown how to get here.”
“My king has been acting very strange lately. He was told to come here.” Donte still wasn’t convinced even though they had found them right where he was told they would be. It just couldn’t be real, so his mind told him so.
Rochie didn’t understand. “Who told him?”
Kenar did. “It was Sima. She told him to come here in a dream.” If he didn’t know the sweet girl, and everything she could do, he would have doubted this himself. She was gifted beyond words.
Donte only did this because he was his friend. “Now that I have found you, maybe you can tell him what he needs to know. If you can—or will.”
This was the old argument all over again. “Donte, we have done nothing but to try and help him. I am sorry that that trust has eroded over the years, but it is true. We have always tried to help him to find the correct path.”
Donte just shrugged. Some of him simply didn’t care either way. Again, he was just doing what he told him to do. “Come back with me. He is waiting for you.”
Kenar, Rochie, Shelley and Devin all did follow him.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 59