Tatyanna

by Lindsay Johnston

  Marek knew what Emmett wasn’t saying, and without hesitation, he wrapped both his arms around Tatyanna’s slim waist, and they disappeared into a shimmer of reds and golds. Emmett squatted down and shifted into a small crow, and took off to the meeting point.

  Chapter Forty-One

  New Commander and Second

  Emmett flew into the open window, and saw both Marek and Tatyanna had already settled down, comfortably waiting on him.

  “Took you long enough,” Marek said, teasing his old friend.

  “Yeah, well, as far as I know, no animal has the ability to instantly vanish and reappear elsewhere. Only you have that power.”

  Marek grinned and quickly sobered up. “Can you explain now?”

  Emmett studied his two friends, trying to decide what the best way was to describe what had taken place. It would be easier if he could share his memories with them. He knew Tatyanna was able to read his memories, but wondered if Marek could.

  “She now possess the power of the Phoenix, is that correct, Marek?” Emmett asked, working the idea out in his mind.

  “Yes, she does.”

  “So, that would mean you would possess certain gifts of Tatyanna’s, too? Right?”

  “I think so. What are you getting at?”

  “Great. I need you two to face each other and hold hands.”

  Marek dragged a chair to where Tatyanna was sitting on his bed. He lifted her small hands in his huge ones and grinned at her. Emmett walked to stand between them, and placed his left hand on the back of Tatyanna’s head and his right hand around Marek’s head.

  “Close your eyes, and let’s hope this works.”

  Emmett immediately was able to open up a connection with Tatyanna, but it was Tatyanna who was able to open that connection up to Marek.

  “What’s that?” he asked, starting to jerk back, when he began receiving a tightening on his hands.

  “Don’t move, or you will break the connection,” she said matter-of-factly, as if she had done this many times before.

  In their minds, they could see everything Emmett had witnessed, from his perspective. Marek knew exactly where they were at in the war room where he planned every battle and every move he ever made. Looking at it through Emmett’s eyes made Marek realize just how stark the cabin really was. The only thing on the walls were maps, and there wasn’t any furniture, besides a table.

  “Really, you couldn’t spruce up the space a little?” Tatyanna asked. “This feels more like an institution than a room.”

  “It’s not meant to be pretty and decorative. When you are planning a war, you are planning for survival, not stupid drawings on the wall,” came Marek’s tart response.

  “Both of you, stop. Do you want to know about this epic ending or not?” When Emmett didn’t receive a response from either one, he returned to his memories, bringing it back up in his mind.

  The cabin was small, as it was filled to capacity of Gavin’s team, but it wasn’t because the room was jam packed full of people. It was because everyone in there was trying to see the argument going on between Gavin and Lilly, and they had given them plenty of room in case a fight broke out.

  “This is ridiculous,” Gavin shouted, running his hands through his short golden hair. “I don’t know why he assigned a bunch of women to be on my team. Medo will win for sure.” This received him a low growl from just about every woman in the room.

  “If I didn’t have to be here I wouldn’t. I can’t believe you have such a screwed up outlook on us women. What do you expect us to do? Sit and clean up after you?” She didn’t even wait for an answer, knowing that was what he expected. “Marek’s mother is a great fighter, are you saying she is useless?”

  Gavin knew better than to argue about his leader’s mother; that was a death sentence. “No, I don’t think that. But she was only great because she was married to his father, who possessed the power of the Phoenix. No one smart enough would go after her.”

  Lilly hammed her index finger into his chest. “You are a fool, boy. And that is exactly what you are, a fool. You have no idea what is going on, do you? You take your job as Marek’s second for granted. I know men and women who would die to be in your position. Be glad you two are related, or else you will find just how replaceable you are.”

  Lilly turned away from Gavin and called forth the women, staring down at a map. “We need to figure out how to capture both Medo and his second, Griffin. Neither one will be easy.” Lilly listened as each person on her team, the men included, threw out suggestions. She considered some, and immediately disregarded others.

  “Hey, what the hell do you think you are doing? I’m the team captain!” yelled out Gavin.

  Lilly pinched her nose in a similar manner Marek had done many times when dealing with the ignorant boy. “Yeah, well, you aren’t acting like it. I haven’t seen you act like a leader once.” She turned around to face the boy and glared at him. “So, all-mighty leader, what do you think we should do?” she asked sarcastically.

  “I think I should be captured,” he said, enjoying the shocked expression on her face.

  “You realize the purpose of this game is to capture the other leader, not for you to be captured. When you have a real idea, share it. Otherwise, don’t open your mouth.” She turned back to hear other thoughts, when Emmett spoke up for the first time showing that he was in the room.

  “It’s not a bad idea, if you actually gave it a second and thought about it.”

  “Why should we listen to you? You are playing both sides.”

  Emmett shrugged. “Does it matter? Like you said, the goal is to capture the leader. Everyone knows that this pairing is volatile. Everyone in this room is waiting for one of two things to happen. Either for you to punch Gavin and have it all out for all to see, or for you to come together and prove just how awesome this pairing could be.

  “I realize I haven’t been around much. But, the point of the game is to capture the flag, or in this case, capture the leader. We know there are spies and people who can switch teams. Who is to say that a second can’t pretend to be a spy, and turn in her own leader? No one would be expecting it. You would have the moment of surprise to capture Medo, and then his second. Right?”

  Lilly was silent as she contemplated Emmett’s words. He could see understanding on her face, but she continued to wear a sour expression. She whirled on Gavin. “Is that what you meant by having yourself captured?” When she didn’t receive a response, she asked again, “If that’s what you meant, then why didn’t you say something?”

  “Would you have listened?” he asked, sounding like a man instead of a naïve kid.

  “No,” she said honestly. “But in my defense, you gave me no reason to. Everyone in this room knows how you view female warriors. How was I to know to take you seriously?”

  Gavin had the decency to look ashamed, and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “Yeah, so maybe I was a little judgmental and all that. But I think it is a great plan. It will at least get us captured; I just don’t know how to capture Medo once we get there.”

  Lilly smiled secretly. “You leave that part up to me. I have an idea.”

  The picture changed and started to fast forward. Marek was surprised to see he was getting glimpses of his memories as Emmett skipped ahead. He briefly saw Emmett’s humor in interrupting Marek and Tatyanna’s kiss, to when he was stabbed. He could feel the pain of that stab wound, as if it was happening to him. He reached to touch his side, but was stopped at the tightening of Tatyanna’s hand, and he remembered her telling him not to break contact.

  He still wanted to bust his friend for interrupting an intimate moment with Tatyanna twice that day, but he felt like karma came back to bite his friend in the ass, as he witnessed Cy heal his stab wound. Cy really didn’t have any bedside manners. It was why, whenever he was injured, he would rather deal with it himself than to deal with the other man. His hands had felt like sandpaper, and he treated Emmett like an idiot for getting
hurt. He especially didn’t feel sorry for his friend when Galena forced him to sit down and eat two bowls of soup with a heaping piece of bread. He laughed at the tortuous expression on his friend’s face, and knew his friend had been punished appropriately.

  “You’ll pay for those thoughts, Marek,” Emmett threatened him. Both men knew it was an empty threat, but the damage was done. Emmett wished he could forget the memory, and Marek couldn’t wait to hold it against him in the future.

  Tatyanna could feel the two men have a bonding moment over the ridiculous memories, and just let it go. She enjoyed seeing a different side to both. In their everyday lives, they were both too serious, and always on the lookout. This was a time of war, but it was good to laugh and have those memories before there came a point where they wouldn’t find anything to laugh about. She still didn’t know what to expect from all of this, but she feared it was going to get a lot worse before it got better.

  A picture started to form in Emmett’s mind. This one was solid and unmoving, and Tatyanna thought for a moment he had brought up the wrong memory. In his peripheral vision, she could make out two figures, one of them was Lilly, and she was dragging a handcuffed Gavin by a rope. He was screaming and waving his arms, trying to find a way out, but she kept marching on.

  Surrounding them were four women of all shapes and sizes, but clearly they were fighters. Some wore revealing clothing, but strapped to every inch of skin was a weapon. Their bodies were also marked with tattoos and raised skin, showcasing their scars proudly. The other women were dressed more formally, compared to the other two, but had long slits in their dresses like her own for easy movement. She saw a man come up to them, getting ready to attack with his weapon drawn, when one of the women wearing a dressed pulled a long knife from under her dress. She jumped in the air, twirled around twice, catching the sun on the metal right before coming down behind the attacker and holding him in a headlock, with her knife in the hand holding his head, only to draw a long pin from her hair, unleashing a casket of dark curls and stabbing him in the neck below the ear. He immediately dropped to the ground, and she ran to catch up to the entourage, a healer appearing out of thin air moments later, searching the man desperately for the pin before finding it and removing it, causing the man to sit up looking disoriented.

  As the entourage entered into enemy territory, the group was surrounded by men and a few women on all sides as they escorted them into a building. The shock that was on Medo’s face was evident. He tried to form words, as his eyes darted back and forth between the rope in Lilly’s hands, and to the other end of the rope attached to Gavin’s hands.

  Medo looked to his second in disbelief, and for confirmation. “It’s true. We’ve had confirmation from one of our spies.” The man smiled before continuing his report. “I guess during their planning session she turned on him and threatened to change sides, if he didn’t shut up and listen to her. I guess he didn’t want to listen,” he said smirking, glancing back at Medo, but frowned instantly, standing at attention as the dwarf warrior pushed past him to get eyes on the prisoner.

  Medo was toe-to-toe with the man, and still Gavin refused to look at him. “You are a poor excuse of a second, and an even poorer excuse for a leader. Don’t you know you should show respect to your enemy? It is the difference between them killing you slowly, or showing you mercy.”

  Gavin rolled his neck so his head was staring down at Medo. “Since I don’t plan to die today, I don’t have to show you respect. Anyway, how can I respect someone who I have to look down to?”

  Marek inwardly cringed, knowing Gavin hit a sensitive spot. Even Lilly flinched at his words, as Medo pulled out a mace from a leather satchel and swiped it under his feet, causing him to fall to the ground, hitting his head hard against the wooden floor.

  “Shit. Damn,” the kid said, trying to stand back up, when Medo repeated the same move.

  Medo stepped closer until they were practically nose to nose. “The way I see it, we are now at eye level. I appreciate you stooping to be at my level.” Gavin glared at the man, never caring much for him in the first place, and the dislike turned to almost hatred in that moment.

  “Wow, Medo, if I knew talking about how small you are would get such a rise out of you, I would have done it sooner.” Medo threw down his mace and punched Gavin right in the nose. Everyone in the room heard the crunch of his nose breaking, and the next thing they saw was Emmett jumping back as blood came spewing out the young man’s nose.

  “Oh no, I don’t do blood,” Emmett said, making everyone aware he had been in the room the whole time.

  Medo turned and walked over to Emmett clasping him on the shoulder. “Let me guess. You are the spy?”

  Emmett gave him a one shoulder shrug, his eyes darting around for any signs of blood on him. “The one and only. As soon as Marek gave the assignments, I knew I had to follow Lilly and Gavin back to their headquarters to see how this would play out. I wasn’t disappointed. As soon as I saw the direction that things were going in, I sent word to Griffin.”

  “And then, you came back here to see how it would play out?”

  “Well, personally, I didn’t think they would get this far. I figured Lilly would bring him in knocked out. I guess he learned some manners long enough to make the walk over here.”

  “Humph,” Medo said, rubbing his chin while watching the prisoner.

  “You do realize Marek’s rules, right, Lilly? If the leader gets caught, so does the second. So you are our prisoner now. You just made this game super easy to win.”

  “Hey,” Lilly said, her eyes flashing in anger. “You didn’t have to do shit, Medo. I thought we could be equals. I thought if I brought him to you, you’d let me join you. The fight doesn’t have to be over. We can continue playing, and see how many people we could bring down. The ladies here,” she said, spreading her arms out to include them, “agreed to follow me and join your side. The others were given the chance, but chose to fight instead.” She rolled her eyes and her shoulders. “I don’t know why. We all know what Gavin thinks of women warriors,” she said, with spite.

  Medo looked back at Griffin to see what he thought. “We might as well play it out. This is a battle, right? Just because the leader was caught, and the second changed sides, doesn’t mean someone from the other side didn’t step up to try to change the outcome. I say, we fight to the end to see what happens.”

  Medo nodded his head again, lost in thought. He snapped his short stubby fingers, and told everyone but Griffin, Emmett, Lilly, and the prisoner to leave.

  Once the room had cleared, Medo kept glancing back and forth between Lilly and Gavin, and started to chuckle.

  “You really do amaze me, Lilly. I know I’ve never told you that before, but you do. We trained together for years here, and have played this game, but you were always silent and deadly. I didn’t know you had it in you to stand out like this.”

  Lilly bristled at the words, and her shoulders let down a little before she instantly straightened. She turned her head to look over at Gavin, making sure no one saw her let down, but Gavin was watching everything. She had judged him wrong, just as much as he judged her wrong. Gavin gave her a sly wink, and nodded his head in Medo’s direction. Lilly knew what she had to do.

  She handed the rope to Griffin as she walked over to Medo, with a slight sway of her hips. The move didn’t go unnoticed, and he was taken aback. She continued to strut toward him and when she was close enough to touch him, she did. First, running her finger down his face, tracing a scar and then continuing the trail down his chest. “I’ve always admired you, Medo, your fighting style, your commitment to Marek. Yes, you are rough around the edges, but I’ve always liked you. I was hoping we could be on the same team. We were both dealt different cards, but in the end, here we are.”

  Medo grinned as Lilly stepped even closer to him, their chests brushing as she leaned in for a kiss, turning her head slightly to see the shocked look in Griffin’s eyes and met Gavin’s gaze
as she reached behind Medo’s head, grasping his neck and then pulled his head down to hers. A moment before their lips met, she changed her grip and flipped over his body, holding him in a head lock. He exploded, realizing she just pulled one over on him. Griffin went to react, and found himself with Gavin’s handcuffs on his wrists. The other man was now holding a knife to Griffin’s throat.

  Lilly looked around the room satisfied. Medo continued to yank and pull trying to get out of her grasp, but it was useless. She originally planned to just humiliate Gavin and truly turn on him, but after Medo’s words, she realized he never truly saw her the way she saw him. She never thought she would put Medo in the same class as Gavin, based on how they had trained together in the past. But he was just like every other male, thinking they were better than her. It was Gavin’s unwavering belief they could do this that gave her the strength to follow through on the original plan. Maybe they had both learned something after all.

  “Now what?” Gavin asked, looking like he was about to lose his grip on the struggling Griffin.

  Emmett stepped forward, clapping his hands. “I am so glad I was here to witness this. Now we will wait until Marek can come,” he whispered, pushing his hands away from his body, suspending time.

  Tatyanna pulled her hands away first and looked at Emmett in a new way. “You can stop time? Seriously? You are just now showing that little secret off? I could have used that trick so many times before now. All those times I had to deal with Beverly and be put out of my misery. Arghh.” She worked herself up at the thought of that horrendous woman.

  “Who—” Marek started to ask, when he caught Emmett’s head and a shake of his eye.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to know. Just let it go.”

  “Fair enough. Go back and release everyone. I will send the signal the battle is over, and a winner will be crowned tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? Why tomorrow?” he asked, shocked.

  “Because I have other things to deal with first, and decisions to make. Please ask Lilly, Medo, and Gavin to meet me in the war room, and get the others as well.”