The churning pain he felt threatened to spill out his eyes, and he hadn’t shed a single tear since the day he’d watched his mother’s body burn.
This hurt just as much. But he wasn’t fourteen. He was old. And tired. And alone.
Chapter Seventeen
Ajax left Emma with Katherine, the two women watching the news on television, and walked outside onto the beach with Teagh. When they were several minutes away from the house, far enough that the females would have no chance of hearing, Ajax stopped walking, and starting pacing.
Teagh waited patiently, but Ajax couldn’t talk yet. He felt like he was going to explode. He picked up a fallen log and hurtled it out toward deeper water.
“Little upset, are we?” Teagh tilted his head to the side and grinned. “Let me guess? Emma?”
“She won’t Mark me.”
“I thought you didn’t want her Mark.”
“I didn’t. I was afraid she wouldn’t survive Itaran court.”
“You’re right. Unless things have changed dramatically, she’d have a tough time. They won’t be happy with a human Queen. But she’s tougher than she looks, Ajax. And she loves you. You should give it a chance.”
“I abdicated the throne.”
Teagh’s head flew back in shock. “You what?”
“I sent Aron to the Queen a couple of hours ago. I relinquished my claim to the throne.”
“Fucking idiot. Why did you do that?” Teagh gestured to the house. “So that’s why that bitch has the balls to show up here now? You handed her your head.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. Emma didn’t want to be Queen and all I could think about was being with her, protecting her.” Ajax threw another log, not as large as the first, but it flew through the air like a boomerang and sank beneath the waves. “But now that the Queen has shown up with her minions, Emma won’t let me walk away. She says too many people would suffer.”
“She’s right.”
“I know.” Ajax kicked at the sand. “But she still won’t be my Queen. She refuses to give me her Mark. Says she’d be my Achilles’ heel, a political liability.” He picked up a rock and threw it, watched it until it disappeared on the horizon, too far away for him to track. “A fucking weak point. A vulnerability that I can’t afford in court.”
“Sounds like she’s been there.”
“She has. Snuck around with her invisibility as a child. She grew up on Itara. She knows how the Immortals there operate.”
“Shit. I don’t know what to tell you. She’s right. About all of it.”
“I know.” Ajax wanted to throw another log, but there wasn’t one close by. He felt like he was coming apart at the seams and the only one who could hold him together was pushing him away. “I just don’t know what to do about it.”
Teagh paced for a few minutes and Ajax left him alone to think. The silence and the waves did nothing to soothe his frayed nerves. The Itaran Queen had changed everything showing up here. Before, he’d been content to ignore her. Now? He wanted her fucking head.
Teagh bent down and picked up his own rock to throw. “Celestina said the goddess would come for Emma and take her to the Queen.”
“Yes.”
“So that Emma can turn that bitch into a pile of ash.”
“Yes. And that’s exactly what she says she’s going to do. She vowed to me that she would kill the Queen and any of her descendants if they try to stand between me and the throne.”
Teagh whistled. “Sounds like she’s pissed.”
“She knows the Queen is here to hunt the Timewalkers.” Ajax crossed his arms and stared up at the sky. The sun was setting. They didn’t have long to make plans, not if Celestina’s time table was correct. The goddess could show up for Emma at any moment. “Have you told Katherine yet?”
“Didn’t need to. Katherine and Mari both know why Raiden was sent here. She was on the phone with her mother immediately coordinating the Timewalker descendants’ move into the Darkwalker properties. Everyone Katherine loves will be protected. But there are others out there, human women who don’t know what they are.” Teagh, Guardian of the Gate, Ajax’s dear friend, looked unsettled, and nearly as upset as Ajax felt. “If she comes after Katherine, I’ll cut off her fucking head myself.”
“Everything is going to change, for all of us.” Ajax rolled his head on his neck and tried to think. “Even if Emma ashes the Queen and, by some miracle, I reclaim the throne, the Queen’s daughters won’t stop hunting our females.”
“I know.”
“Especially her eldest, Inessa. That female is over a thousand years old and even nastier than her mother.”
They stood in silence for a minute before Teagh closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were lit with purpose. “Katherine just contacted me. You aren’t going to believe this. The Queen is scheduled to be on live television with the American President so she can make her appeal for peace to the people of Earth.”
“She mind-fucked him.”
“Sounds like it. He’s only human.”
Ajax let out a roar of frustration, hoping it would make him feel better, more in control. Then he started back to the house at a quick jog. Teagh fell into stop beside him.
“What are we going to do?”
“I’m going to go challenge a Queen on live television, and you’re going to gather what few friends we have and get ready to fight. Don’t let Emma out of your sight. The goddess will come for her. And when Emma goes, we all go.”
<><><>
Emma rose from her seat on the couch as Ajax and Teagh came in the back door. Nerves made her shaky as she walked to Ajax and wrapped her arms around him. Teagh patted her on the shoulder and kept walking to where Katherine waited for him on the couch.
Emma looked up into the hard face of the male she loved. “What’s the plan?”
He looked down at her and lowered his head for a kiss. “I’m going to port into their live television broadcast and reclaim my throne.”
Emma nodded. It might work, and it would alert Earth’s governments that the pretty Queen of Itara had some trouble of her own. “Okay.”
He smiled down at her. “Then we’ll wait for the goddess to come get you, and we’ll all go to the throne room on Itara and see what kind of damage control we can do there.”
“And I’ll ash that bitch before she can hurt any of our friends, or the Timewalkers.”
Ajax held her close and she was content to lean on him and listen as the television reported droned on and both Katherine and Teagh made their seemingly endless telephone calls.
“What’s her name?”
“Who?”
“The Queen?”
“Nelina.” Ajax’s hands rubbed up and down her back and she rolled the name around in her mind, tasted it. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I want to know her name before I kill her.” Emma held on to Ajax and offered him the same comfort and support he gave to her, and always would. She understood that now, in this moment, more than she ever could have before.
She loved him. He said he was willing to fight for her in Itaran court, willing to risk claiming her. Willing to face assassins and political pressure and all the bullshit that would come from a life with her by his side.
Was she really refusing to give him her Mark because she was protecting him, or because she was a coward? He’d hurt her when he’d refused her Mark in the beginning, badly. But she’d hurt him as well. So, who was she really protecting now? Ajax, or herself?
Itaran assassins didn’t frighten her. She could jump, become invisible, and fry their asses with Angel’s fire. Immortal bitches didn’t intimidate her. And who was going to watch Ajax’s back better than she would?
No one.
So who was she kidding?
She looked at the clock on Katherine’s microwave. The President’s live broadcast was schedule to take place in twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes.
It had to be enough.
She pulled back far enough to look into Ajax’s eyes. She had his immediate attention.
“Take me back to my loft. Now. I forgot something important.”
He didn’t hesitate, and before she could blink they were standing in her living room.
“What did you forget?” He loosened his hold and she grabbed his hand, led him to her bedroom. “What are you doing?”
She led him to her bed and turned him until his knees hit her mattress. Lifting her arms to his shoulders, she applied pressure so he’d sit down. She sighed in relief when he allowed her to seat him. She stepped closer and stood between his spread thighs before wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Do you still want my Mark, Ajax?”
He stilled completely, turned to stone in her arms. “You don’t want to be Queen.”
“I want to be with you.”
“You’ll be ridiculed and hunted.”
“I don’t care. I’m not afraid anymore. I love you. I want to be with you, to protect you and make love to you. And I don’t care what it takes, Ajax. I’ll fry every God damn Immortal on the planet if I have to, if that’s what it takes to be with you.” She summoned the Mark’s energy as she spoke, invited it to drift up through her body and into his. The power rose, ready, but waiting for his answer.
“Yes.” He crushed her to him and she let the Mark burn through them both. Their kiss was fire and ice, passion and pain, and the Mark burned it all away until there was only their kiss, their bodies touching one another. She opened her eyes briefly and noticed that they were both on fire, small dancing flames of white zipping joyously up and down their frames like little children running over their skin.
He groaned and pulled away. “Gods, woman, I want you again, but we don’t have time.”
She pulled back too, rested her forehead against his as they both tried to catch their breaths. “I know. But I couldn’t let you face her alone. I couldn’t let you go.”
They held each other in silence for a few minutes, her emotions too raw to allow more words. He must have felt the same because he didn’t try to speak, just held her close and buried his head in the crook of her neck like she as his home and his life, his everything.
They only had a few minutes, and it was gone too quickly. She opened her eyes to check her bedside alarm clock. “We have to go.”
“I know.” He kissed her again, a hot promise of more to come later. When he let her go, he lifted his leg and removed his boot.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure you’re mine.”
She helped him tug off his boot and pulled down his sock far enough to bare his ankle. Her Mark was there, burned a deep black in his skin. She smiled at the sight and bent to kiss it. He moaned as heat arced between them. Ankle as erogenous zone? Nice…
“You’re timing sucks, female.”
She laughed and kissed him on the mouth. “I know. I’m sorry.”
His smile died and he held her face in his hands. “Don’t. Don’t ever apologize for this. You’re mine now, Emma. Forever.”
She nodded and stepped back as he once again covered her Mark with his boot. Yes, she was his, but more importantly, he was hers. And she’d kill any Itaran that tried to hurt him, including Nelina.
That bitch wasn’t her Queen. And dear old Nelina was about to find out exactly how much hunting Emma’s Mate and Timewalker family was going to cost her.
<><><>
Everyone gathered around the giant big screen television that hung on Teagh’s wall and waited for the live broadcast to begin. Once Ajax had a visual lock on the location, he planned to port into the middle of the scene and confront the Queen.
Katherine warned him about the President’s personal security, but he wasn’t concerned. Human bullets couldn’t penetrate his armor. He was much more concerned about the Queen’s Angel’s Fire. He was counting on her not wanting to make a scene on live television in front of the entire population of Earth by revealing that power. That would scare people, and the Queen didn’t want them scared. She wanted them tamed, eating from the palm of her hand.
“Take me with you,” Emma begged him again. “I can fry her right there.”
“No. The timing won’t be right. You have to wait for the goddess. Do as Celestina instructed. I don’t like it either, but this is the only way I can get to her and publicly claim my throne.”
“I hate it.” Emma wringed her hands in front of her.
“Let’s go.” Bran stepped forward. “I’m the only male here without a Mate, besides the Darkwalkers, but those mute bastards would just scare people. And, we need them in the throne room to ash the Triscani. I’m just an Archiver. A sword. They can live without me.”
“I’m going alone.”
“The hell you are.” Bran looked at Emma, and Ajax watched a silent communication pass between them. He wasn’t going to win this argument.
“All right.” He looked to the television. The President had just assumed a seat and was speaking, introducing his special guest alien. If he only knew he was inviting evil incarnate to sit next to him. “Let’s go.”
He leaned over and tasted Emma’s kiss once more. Love shone from her eyes and his ankle burned with her Mark. He felt confident. Things would work out. They had to. He had too much to lose.
Bran stepped beside him and they both studied the images on the television screen.
“You or me?” Bran asked.
“You. I’ve got to work on my speech.”
Bran rolled his eyes and opened a portal. Ajax stepped through and stood facing the President of the United States. He’d expected the man to shout or start, not sit and stare into space like he was asleep with his eyes open. He’d expected to be shot at. He’d expected people to scream and gasp.
He was not prepared for silence, or the feeling of foreboding that made his stomach drop as he turned to find a single unmanned camera, a dark, empty room, and a dozen Itaran soldiers.
“Cut the feed. We don’t want any more of his friends to show up before we’re ready.” A female voice issued the order from the shadows and one of the soldiers sliced through half a dozen wires with one swipe of his sword. Electricity arced for a moment, but the soldier just smiled. It had been a long time since Ajax had been around any Itaran other than a forbidden son. He’d nearly forgotten they had unusual gifts of their own.
“Ajax. So nice of you to arrive, and right on time.” A robed figure stepped into the light that shone on stage and raised delicate, feminine hands to the hood that hid her face.
“Inessa.” The Queen’s daughter stood before him.
“Ajax. Welcome home.”
Ajax turned to Bran to tell him to get the hell out of there, but the other male was already gone. Thank the gods. Someone would know where he was. Emma was probably frantic.
The princess and heir of Itara approached, her hand ablaze with light in case he decided to try anything. “Take him home, gentlemen. You know what to do with him.”
Ajax didn’t struggle as Inessa took her seat next to the President and fussed at her hair, making sure not a single strand was out of place. Her gown was white, elegant, and fell around her like she was an angel from the humans’ heaven, not a demon from hell. He felt the portal open behind him and was pulled through as the Itaran female ordered one of the two soldiers who’d remained behind to restart the live television broadcast from a second camera.
She tilted her head at the human President and he startled back to life like a windup toy that had just been set free.
Yep. Completely mind-fucked. She owned the poor man, and he’d never even know it.
Inessa smiled and waved goodbye as her thugs wrapped him in chains and pulled him through a portal back to his home, to the Itaran throne room, where the Queen waited beside a giant stone pillar that was covered with empty chains. The pillar stood on the edge of the room, visible from the throne, and surrounded by more soldiers.
Somehow, he didn’t think the chains were g
oing to be empty for long.
<><><>
“What do you mean it was a trap?” Emma paced in front of Bran, trying in vain to control her temper, but fire leapt from her hands to her feet and back again, like a bouncing ball of rage.
“The Queen’s daughter, Inessa, had the room completely locked down.” Bran turned to Katherine. “None of the Secret Service you spoke of were there. No humans at all. Just her Angel’s Fire and about a dozen Itaran soldiers waiting to take him.”
“Take me back there,” Emma demanded. “I’ll go fry that bitch right now.”
“He’s gone, Emma. They took him through a portal in chains.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit, Bran. Come on. Give me something.”
Teagh held out his hand and bravely touched her arm. “He could be anywhere, Emma. A deep sea cave. A human prison cell. The Itaran dungeon. Anywhere.”
Emma reined in her flames and tried to think. “Yes, but where would that bitch want him?”
A black Gate formed in Katherine’s kitchen and Robbie stepped through it, halting all conversation in the room. Except it wasn’t Robbie, not completely. His eyes weren’t human, they were black as tar and unforgiving. “It is almost time.”
Nicodemus, the Darkwalkers, and all of the Itarans bowed.
Emma walked straight to him and looked the goddess in the eye. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Robbie, or rather the divine power that was inhabiting him at the moment, looked her over and shook his head. “You do not look like a Queen.”
Emma looked down at herself. So, she wasn’t wearing Itaran armor like the warriors. She didn’t have any. She had on her toughest clothes, which consisted of a pair of blue jeans, hiking boots, a T-shirt and leather jacket. “This is all I’ve got. Let’s go.”
White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5 Page 19