Hope wrapped her arms around her body. A few of The Associates glanced at her. The men had been doing it off and on throughout the entire day. Being uncomfortable with the attention, Hope tried to avoid looking their way as much as possible.
Bored was an understatement of how she felt. Her attention drifted over the metal rafters above their heads, then took in the walls built of nothing more than iron frames. They were in the upper floor of a soon-to-be office building for whatever the hell Darrok had said earlier. He was finalizing plans, she was not allowed to leave the room.
It wasn’t just the feeling of being caged that got annoying, but also not being allowed to move too far away. If she tried, Darrok would be on her case. The doors to the room stood open and her attention drifted outside. Craving air, she pushed her luck.
Meandering closer to the door, she headed toward the patio, and risked a casual check. Darrok had his attention on her. Hope ignored the anger brewing in him with each step she took. Where could she go? The small patio overlooking the city? There wasn’t anywhere to go, she couldn’t fly for god’s sake.
“Don’t,” Darrok warned. The single warning she would receive.
Hope gave him a sidelong glance and a shadow of a smile passed over her lips. If he expected her to stop, he’d have to stop her himself. At this point, the punishment was okay by her. Do it, I dare you. Maybe she’d remember to hate him.
Once outside, Hope breathed in the clean fresh air and closed her eyes. She crossed to the railing and her fingers slid over the bar. It had been sunny more often as of late and she needed that warmth on her skin. Darrok’s footsteps clopped her way. Taking another deep breath, she prepared for his anger, stiffening. If he touched her, he wasn’t stopping, and maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea anymore.
An explosion struck the center of the building next door and then a swoosh and thump came from behind her. Hope flinched, and assumed it was Darrok, but it still caused her to whirl around. When she did, she came face-to-face with white eyes shining her way, and a face shrouded in the shadows of the hood he wore. The thing was taller than she was, and reeked of strength. Death, as well. Hope’s body shook.
Is the bounty still on my head?
Black leathery wings rose behind him, tipped with claws, spread tall and wide, which blocked out the entire doorway behind him. Black leather adorned his entire body, with a belt that had electricity crackling blue inside it. He seemed familiar though she had never seen him before.
Another explosion rocked the entire zone, but this one hit the center of the building behind the creature. Hope’s arms flew up to shield her face. Darrok yelled in the building and Hope went to scream.
The beast stepped forward and snatched her before her scream manifested. Throwing her over his shoulder, he leapt into the air and with a few powerful flaps of his wings, they landed on another building before Hope knew they moved.
Hope stumbled backward when the beast put her down on the roof. She raised her hands on instinct, no longer bothering to hide what she was. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
From under his hood, his voice came out deep and thick when he spoke, almost a growl. “Say, thank you.”
“The hell I will. Do you have any idea who I am?” she asked, preparing to attack.
His mouth slid upward at the corner. Hope sucked in a breath and her hands flew to her mouth. She would know that smirk anywhere, but how could it be? That wasn’t possible. She thought he was dead. He pushed the hood off his head and his wings disappeared.
The white glowing eyes changed back into the stubborn liquid black she was all too familiar with, though darker than she remembered.
“Yeah, I do,” Ronin said. “A real pain in my ass.”
Hope’s arms drifted down. She studied the man in front of her before checking over his shoulder. They had crossed half the zone. Darrok may not have a clue where they were for the time being. They should be safe.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
Ronin closed the distance, not letting her have a moment to process what happened. Hope had never seen anything like him. When he moved in front of her, her eyes widened. She went to shake her head and move away, but he grabbed her and hauled her forward, landing his mouth on hers.
All reasoning left and she dissolved into his arms. The only thing she could think was how bad she wanted more. Deepening the kiss, she brought her hands up and dug her fingers into the leather coat along his back. She gave in completely. This . . . this was what she wanted all this time. It was everything she ever needed.
After a moment, Ronin reluctantly pulled away and studied her. “You believe I would give up on you so easy?”
Hope shook her head and moved away from him. “You don’t understand,” she whispered, afraid of letting her secret out. Of what Darrok would do. To Ronin. To everything.
“I can feel it, Hope. You’re no longer pregnant.”
A large cloud of smoke made its way into the sky from the building where Ronin took her. Hope closed her eyes. A tear slid down her cheek. She shook her head.
“When they removed the tracker—”
Ronin cut her off. “It wasn’t the tracker. It was them.”
Hope whirled on her heel. She wanted to tell him the truth, but that caught her attention. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Ronin’s eyes flashed like they were lit by the moon before settling back into normal. It took him a few seconds before he spoke. “Vandren figured out what I am. What you are. Relaying it back to Darrok made him furious. Darrok wanted the child removed from you. They lied to you.”
Hope’s lip quivered. Her eyes welled up. “I can’t keep doing this, Ronin. I—”
He nodded when her voice cut off. “I know.” Yet, he didn’t. To ease the tension, he chuckled and added, “Surprised you haven’t asked.”
“What you are?” she asked, letting the truth go. Later. Later she would find a way to tell him. Just a bit longer. Until we know it’s safe, then I’ll tell him.
He half-shrugged in a sheepish way. “Yeah.”
“Does it matter?” Hope’s attention drifted down to the roof.
“Not when you learn you’re not as alone as you thought you were.” With those words, Ronin brought her attention back up to him.
“I don’t understand. You’re a friend of Cayla’s. You didn’t know me before.”
“I was a friend to her, yes, for a long time.” He remained quiet for a spell. He didn’t answer the other question. “You and I were brought together for a reason. I didn’t know it until I saw the way you healed. I’ve never come across anyone like you before. I didn’t consider the possibility. When you became pregnant, I knew.”
Hope waved her arms around. “Wait, wait, wait. Hold on one freakin’ second.” Now she was lost. She shoved her finger in his face. “What the hell do you mean, when I became pregnant, you knew?” This was all getting confusing.
Ronin smirked. “Because Cayla and I tried and nothing came of it. I can’t impregnate a human or Amaranthine.”
“But you can impregnate—”
“You.”
Hope shook her head. “Don’t cut me off. One, don’t make me feel like I’m a weird thing to make babies with. Everyone else has been there, done that. Two, you’re nothing like me.”
“Sure about that?” Ronin closed the distance and stared down at her.
Hope couldn’t handle the intense gaze and moved away. Damn the man for using that against her every single time. His hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her back. “Stop using those eyes against me.”
“Admit you missed me.”
“Not. Happening.”
Ronin pulled her closer. “I missed you, too.”
She pursed her lips. “I don’t like you. Remember how I mentioned it before? Yeah, still holds true.”
“And yet you can’t help but do just that. I’m not exactly like you, I was made, not born.”
“What do you mean?” Hope
listened to his heart rate. A steady beat meant he told the truth.
“I didn’t remember anything from before until Vandren injected me with whatever the fuck was in that syringe. I’m sure it was meant to kill me. Instead . . . I remembered. All these memories came flooding back.”
Ronin went on to tell her everything he remembered, as fast as possible. Living a few previous lives (he didn’t tell her who he was before), then dying, and coming back as Ronin.
Darrok required special guards many lifetimes ago. His only command to the scientists who made them were that they would need to protect a special object, which meant they had to be formidable. So the group of scientists Darrok hired, rounded up children with special talents and began their experiments.
The one male who survived out of them all: Ronin. But something changed in him when they finished the procedures. His aging slowed more than an Amaranthine. He was able to abandon dying forms and renew himself. Everything they did began a process in him that altered him. The DNA in his system took on a life of its own and his body, his senses, everything amplified and advanced into a new being made more of energy than anything else, hence the belt. Like . . . an Eternal in many ways.
Hope blew out a breath. “So why did you forget?”
Ronin shook his head, finally releasing her to check the building they’d left Darrok at. “Don’t have a clue.” The smoke had dissipated. They had been on the roof too long and needed to leave. “I think they made me forget, not wanting me to know what they did. Every time I leave a dying form, I forget a lot of my past. Something must have gone wrong. You saw what I looked like.” He came back to look her in the eye. “When I changed into that form? I wanted to destroy things, not help. Not protect. Not guard.”
“But you saved me.” She stuck her tongue out.
“I hunted you. I wanted no one else to have you. I craved what belonged to me. Who I was made for. Only in my development, it wasn’t as a guard to you, but . . .”
Hope caught on and gave him an understanding nod. “Funny, Darrok kept saying I was his.” When Ronin stiffened, Hope’s gaze traveled over him and she couldn’t help but grin and add, “You became something darker, a lot more like him.”
Ronin tilted his head and turned to the side. Hope heard the same thing he did. They were coming. “We need to leave.”
“I know—” Hope began, but Ronin spread his wings and cut her off. She squeaked when he snatched her and threw her over his shoulder all over again. His entire demeanor changed into what he’d been. Dark is exactly the way to describe him. The entire atmosphere surrounding him turned to ice.
“Okay, but you didn’t have to be so aggressive,” Hope said, suppressing the urge to stomp her foot to make a point.
“When haven’t you known me to be?” Ronin asked, entertained at her fixing her dress.
Hope gestured with sarcasm to explain. “Every time you want to move from point A to point B, for some strange reason, you think you need to shift and then grab me. How about, instead of that, we find a vehicle and do it the old way?” She finished by going back to adjusting her dress and brushing the dirt off.
“It takes too long. Darrok won’t stop until he has you. I fly, you don’t. Problem solved. I can protect you better when we fly.”
After Ronin saved her from Darrok a few days ago, they moved on to a new zone, further away from Darrok, but then out of nowhere Ronin snatched up Hope, threw her over his shoulders, and went aloft before it hit her that he grabbed her.
Never bothered to explain. Never once saying, “hey, I sense them coming. We should go.” No. Just grab and fly. Like she was a chess piece to be moved from place to place.
Something changed in him since she had seen him last with Vandren. Whatever that shot did, it awakened something in him more aggressive than Hope had ever seen Ronin. He had always possessed an inner fierceness she felt, but this was an entirely new ballgame to her. Not to mention she didn’t appreciate the extra attitude. Could he have gotten cockier?
Apparently so.
Not that she hated it. In fact, it was attractive as all hell. She didn’t have that intense need to mate around Ronin like Darrok, sure, but the attraction was intense, and she wanted more.
Ronin had landed and plopped her down before she found her footing, then smirked at her when she fell back on her butt. If he continued to think it was amusing to grab her and haul her around, she would show him what she could do dammit.
Now they were in a forest she didn’t recognize. Overgrown from neglect, a house sat in the center of it, but Hope wasn’t sure it was habitable.
“Yes, but when you grab one who wears a dress that is as delicate as this woman wears, you risk it being torn up.”
“This is a problem?”
Hope narrowed her eyes and smacked her head into her palm, then raised her head and sighed as dramatic as possible. “Ronin, you’ve become far more of a butthead. I don’t have any other clothes to wear.”
“You’re making my argument for me,” he said, lowering his gaze to her dress. He looked ready to remove it.
Hope shoved past him with an “oh my god,” uncomfortable with the scrutiny, and needing space. When she did, she grumbled, “This new attitude of yours is not ingratiating you to me. I don’t know whether I can trust you or not anymore.”
“Why?” he asked, catching up to her.
Hope cast a sidelong glance at him. “Every time you change it seems you give further over to that side of you. You become more . . . like Darrok. Your aggression is worse. You’re becoming possessive and not letting me too far out of your sight. Shall I go on?”
“Stop acting like you have a problem with it. I won’t hurt you. I can sense your body react to mine. You like this side of me. You’ve always liked me.”
“See! That too. You’re speaking your mind more. I liked quiet, brooding, and angry with me all the time Ronin better I think.”
Ronin chuckled and hurried up the broken steps before she could to check things out, leaving her behind.
Hope held back, not because she was afraid of the house, but because she was afraid of the man inside the house. Okay, it wasn’t as much fear, as being this alone with him in this abandoned place. The proximity to Darrok’s zone before, kept them aware, but Ronin felt the same she did. Darrok wasn’t anywhere near here. His reach didn’t come this far. For now, they were safe and could relax.
But how safe was she . . . from Ronin?
Hope stood at the broken window in the small room. It surprised her to find that the air was so crisp and clean around this house. The past few months the air seemed cleaner wherever they went, the air warmer, and the ground more alive. Bits of green touched the trees again, but then by nightfall they died. The Earth wanted to renew itself, but under the swell of hatred and death the planet struggled to support life.
A new day is coming. I can feel it in the air.
Ronin went straight to each room inside the house without pausing to figure out where each room was, and where the fireplaces were, the kitchen, even the utensils. Unless he built it, he had lived in this home before, but Ronin had yet to mention anything to her.
The home ended up being more habitable than she first assumed. Whoever built the home had done so with pride. The wood stood up to the test of time and most of the house inside, which differed from the impression of the exterior. Whoever lived here last made sure nobody wanted to risk coming inside with the belief it was bad inside.
Ronin chose the room next to hers. A doorway with no physical door connected them. A doorway he entered a moment ago to check on her while Hope stared up at the bright moon that lay a silver white glow over her body, and the floorboards behind her.
Clothes shifted against the wood frame, settling in place to alert her to his presence. When he entered a room, he brought with it a sense of power. Strength matched now to Darrok’s, and it kept growing.
The longer Ronin’s attention stayed on her, the more she wanted his touch. His eyes
penetrated her to the core, capturing her in their embrace, enticing her. With Darrok, it had been a need to mate. With Ronin, it felt . . . familiar. Like what she lost long ago had come back. She’d come home.
Hope stood her ground when he shoved off from the door. She held her ground when his heavy footsteps inched closer and closer, and she somehow held her ground when he stopped behind her and every nerve ending in her body woke. Goose bumps spread down her arms, her head tingled, her body warmed.
His cool breath slid over her with each exhale. Hope closed her eyes, listening to him breathe. Ronin reached up, pulled her long hair away from her face, and moved so close his chest pressed against her back.
“This feels right,” he whispered.
“What does?” Hope opened her eyes, leaning her head toward him.
“Being here with you. Alone. Having you to myself. Protecting you.” He pressed his mouth against her ear, “Keeping you to myself.”
Ronin kissed her neck and moved down to her collarbone. He kissed her shoulder and then reached over and took hold of her chin. Turning her to face him, he took her mouth in his and kissed her far gentler than ever. Sliding his hand further up her cheek, he used the movement to spin her to face him.
He didn’t plan to stop.
THIRTY SEVEN
“I DON’T THINK ANY of the children will survive. They are ticking time bombs. Ekon won’t.” Hope paused. Ronin stood at the railing and studied the dead land outside the house. The next morning they discussed what she’d seen in Darrok’s zone. “You know . . . I’m not sure how many of them are his.”
“He told you Ekon was,” Ronin pointed out.
“Yeah, but was that the truth? He said Ekon was his, but what he didn’t say was if the others were, or weren’t. They could all be his. Hell, they could be experiments . . . like you.”
Hope of the Future Page 28