by S King
“You’re really trying to convince me her friends don’t care about her?”
He snorted in amusement and rested his head against the bark again, “you said it yourself, we’re all created with different abilities and different talents. Unfortunately, Luminous River is the queen on this board of chess. Everyone on the board wants her to disappear and that doesn’t exclude her precious guard.”
I shook my head, unable to comprehend what I was hearing.
“You didn’t seriously think she was going to last longer than anyone else from Silver, did you?”
“Why?”
“Because she is Silver’s angel, their protector. Never in the history of that guard did they have anyone like her and when things get bad, they’re going to look to her. After you two wipe out the HG, she will follow.”
“What did she do to deserve this?”
He smirked and tilted his head, “she was born, that’s what she did. Face it Demir, she is just another steppingstone to you and nothing more. If you were stupid enough to develop feelings for her then you might want to stamp those things out now. Once everything is said and done, you’ll have two options to choose from. Either you will die by the black courts hands for not killing her or you’ll have to use that special sword to end this game once and for all. Either way, she is going to meet a bloody end.”
I swallowed hard, not wanting to put the pieces together, not wanting to admit I was terrified of the news that was just thrown in my face. Jeffery was here to do me a favor by killing Luminous just so I wouldn’t have to. He had had his own vision and was trying to save me from the agony currently raging in my mind.
“Why had it taken you so long to figure it out?” He asked, breaking the silence between us.
“I didn’t know,” I said numbly.
“Obviously,” he spread his arms, grimacing at his injuries, “I was trying to save you from reality because I thought you knew. But since you didn’t? Well, it looks like things are moving along smoothly.”
“What happens if I just stay away from her? Or if I make her leave?”
He snorted again and gave me a sarcastic look, “you really think the courts are going to allow that?”
“Why frame her for something she didn’t do?” I was playing devil’s advocate. Trying to find holes in his story, trying to force my mind to repudiate what he had told me.
“Building a backstory, Demir. That’s the most important thing in a book, isn’t it? You have to understand the backstory in order to get to the end.”
He was right. The courts, or whoever, had killed the members of Gold and pinned it on Luminous was making it appear like she was a rouge Silver member, and her Diamond Order would be justified when the time came. In turn, I was going to be the expected to execute her order.
The world spun around me, my breathing became hard and my body had shut down on feeling anything. I may not have cared for the woman who led another guard in any way before. But somehow, those feelings had become so much more in a matter of months and now I had to figure out a way to save her life. It wouldn’t matter to the courts or any of the guards if I died because even if I weren’t around, Luminous had a price on her head.
“Since I’ve let you in on my little bit of information and you’re hellbent on fighting a loss cause can I ask you a favor?”
Jeffery’s voice cut through my tormented thoughts and brought me back to the forest.
“What?”
He groaned as he reached around the tree before turning back around and tossed me a sheathed sword. Similar to my own, the thing was long and begging to be used for destruction.
“Can you go ahead and put me out of my misery?”
“How did you know I was going to kill you?”
“I didn’t, I was gambling.”
“A fool’s gamble, wouldn’t you say?”
He smirked and shrugged, “some say I’m a fool other’s say I’m a lunatic.”
“All of which cannot play in your favor. Why do you want me to kill you?”
Jeffery took a deep breath, “I’ve lived a just and humble life. If I die right now, I’d have no regrets.”
I was struck stupid by the sheer honesty Jeffery had just dumped on me in the past thirty minutes—or however long we had been fighting. Everything he had just told me was something like a horror show; I didn’t expect for the night to turn out this way. But now, I had to look at the man in front of me in a new light.
He had forewarned me and helped me figure out why I saw Luminous dying. Everything made sense and now. Now Jeffery was asking me to kill him.
“Are you sure?”
He laughed under his breath, “I’m tired of my life and the rambling thoughts I get, Demir. This,” he motioned to his twitching eye, “isn’t something I can deal with anymore. But I don’t want to do it myself. You know a little dignity for the road, after everything is done.”
“Ok,” I said, stooping down to the sword and taking the thing from the cover. “If you’re sure.”
Closing his eyes, he smiled, “I’m sure.”
Not wanting to waste any more time, I took in his closed twitching eyes and twisted my wrist. In a singled, fluid motion, the sleek sword cut through the air decapitating Jeffery Cardenas. As his head rolled down the hill, I couldn’t do anything but stare off into the trees.
All of this had been planned since before I was born. Before Luminous River was born. Leaving me to close my eyes and think about just what the hell I was supposed to do now.
§§§§§
By the time I got home, I had had enough. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world that could make me happy or at least trick myself into thinking everything was going to be ok.
I had cleaned up my mess and gotten rid of any indication that would lead the day officers and nosey bodies to think something bad had happened when they were safely tucked away in their beds. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Jeffery had said to me before his death.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I stared out the window. Luminous was nothing more than a pawn in a sick political game. I was expected to lure her into the trap of her death, and I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this game and save her. But like with every other problem in life, there had to be a way.
I laid back on the bed and stared at my beveled ceiling, wishing I could just go to sleep and lose my memories of the night. However, the fates had different plans for me.
My doorbell ringing through the house forced me to turn my head to the security monitor on the wall and frown. Getting up, I allowed the locks to pull away from their cradles and met Dristan in the living room.
“How the hell do females get this shit off?” He asked, blindly walking into the living room.
I had forgotten about my own eye crap and was starting to feel the itch and burn of the products Svenia had given us.
“Some type of wipe, I think,” I said as I fell into the couch and rubbed at my own eyes.
“They can just wipe the shit off?” He grumbled and kept digging at his eyes.
“That’s what the wipes do, Dristan.”
“Do you have any of them?” He snapped, looking at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Do I look like a female to you?”
“No, you look like someone who got their ass handed to you. What the hell happened?”
I looked down at myself, “a little altercation with someone from our past.” I waved a dismissive hand at him, “don’t worry about it. I cleaned up my mess.”
He narrowed his eyes and stared at me, “why am I getting the feeling you’re hiding something serious?”
“Because you have a talent for reading emotions.” I got up, going into the kitchen and started washing my face of the black crap Svenia had talked us into wearing.
“Whose death did you see?” He asked, coming to stand beside me at the counter.
“Nobody of any importance,” even as I said the words, I felt like knives were coming up my throat.
<
br /> “Bullshit,” he countered, obviously reading my emotions.
I braced my hands on the counter and stared out my window, “Dristan, did you come here to read my emotions or is there a purpose to you standing here?”
He blew out a hard breath and kicked off the counter, “I was coming here to tell you that we’ve got another Diamond Order.”
Moving out of the way for him to use the sink, I grabbed a paper towel and ran the thing down my face.
“Whose?”
“Lovett Joker O’Qhuinn.”
Chapter 11 Frustrated and Tormented
My eyes flipped open as my leg jumped; adjusting myself on the couch I stared blankly at the TV while Will Smith popped out of his genie bottle and started his standard greeting when some lucky fool rubbed the lamp.
After the ball and getting utterly embarrassed by Mr. Phantom, I hadn’t been in the mood to deal with anything other than staring at my naked body in the mirror, run useless scenarios in my mind, and train with my whip.
Greenaway and Joyner had demanded I take my required three-week vacation while Rocks looked out for my sect. That was nearly two weeks ago and right now, I was already losing my mind. Between watching live action remakes of Disney classics and playing a choice interactive game on my tablet, I knew every song from Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast. Along with every heartbreak scene from Maleficent to Coco. Not to mention my debit card was daring me to continue my senseless in-app purchasing fits.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I pushed off the couch while Will Smith continued singing. Going into the kitchen, I tried busying my mind with something other than the memory of getting rejected.
I didn’t think I was a beauty queen, not by any means, but I knew I wasn’t dog meat either. Maybe my breath smelled like shit and he just couldn’t get past that. Maybe he didn’t like the fact I didn’t have porn star level assets. I had driven myself—was still driving myself mad about what could’ve possibly went wrong with the quickie I desperately needed.
Slamming the microwave shut and punching the start button, I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms. What the hell happened? Of course, I didn’t say anything after Phantom boy bolted from the private room and I returned to the party. God knew Karina would have demanded the identity of the illusive figure one-by-one until she found him and could shove one of her infamous Russian Heart bombs up his ass. Only then would she be satisfied with the ending of the night and convinced of any wrong against me had been righted.
On the other hand, I couldn’t tell Lovett I was hot and bothered over some stranger when I was supposed to be engaged to him. Besides if BC found out what I was doing, they’d have my head on a steak for not honoring my engagement.
Whether it was true or not, the black courts valued the sanctity of marriage. Whether it be a man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, orangutan-donkey relationship, adultery before, during and after marriage was just as bad as genocide in their eyes. Keeping my mouth shut on the subject was for the best; so, here I was looking stupid, waiting for a soup n’ a cup to finish cooking in the microwave and stewing over why I wasn’t good enough to fuck for a few minutes.
When the microwave went off, I grabbed the Styrofoam cursing under my breath as I went to sit on my couch and watch the rest of Aladdin for the thirteenth time in ninety-six hours. I was halfway through my cup of soup when my phone started ringing.
Blindly I picked up the thing and turned the volume down on the movie, “hello?”
“Where are you?” Karina sounded giddy with anticipation as her face popped up on the screen.
I picked up the phone, raising a brow at her flushed cheeks, “what the hell did you do now?
“Promise you won’t judge me.”
Closing my eyes, I pinched the bridge of my nose, “what did you do, Rina?”
“Guess!”
“Does it involve explosives?”
“Not the kind you’re thinking about.”
“Someone from Silver?”
“Nope.”
“Honor?”
“Uh uh.”
My head snapped off my shoulders as I stared at her, “no.”
“I told you not to judge me!”
“I’m not judging you, but I do need to know something.”
“What’s that?”
“Where in the fuck did you lose your mind so I can go find it for you?”
Karina was the first one to tell you she’d rather die than deal with anyone from Gold and that didn’t exclude dealing with them in bed.
When I asked her for clarification, she said sometimes you could just tell when a man was extra needy, and she caught that feeling a lot from the members of the elite Gold Guard. So, to hear her admitting she had slept with someone from GG? Yeah, I was a little confused.
“Lumi,” she sighed and fell back on her skull covered duvet, “he was a god in the sheets. Ok, so there weren’t any sheets, you know how those private rooms are at the ball.”
“Wait, wait, wait, back up,” I frowned as I looked at her. “You did this at the ball?”
“Well, yeah, I mean, we couldn’t very well do anything after the fact.”
“True,” I agreed, “continue.”
“And he did this thing,” she stared off into space for a second. “I don’t know what he did, but I know that I’m just now able to walk straight without it being obvious.”
“Oh my god!”
“I know! I mean, who knew someone from gold—”
“How’d you know he was from gold if it was at the ball?”
She twisted her mouth, keeping her eyes away from me as she scratched her neck. “Well, you know, because of the masks and everything…”
“You saw his face?” I was not liking where this conversation was going and had a feeling, I was going to start judging her sooner rather than later.
She nodded, making a face.
Slowly, I sat up on my couch, holding my phone in a vice grip, “who was it?”
“Promise you won’t—”
“Who?”
“Dristan.”
I propped the phone up on my coffee table and rubbed my hands over my face as I tried to wrap my mind around what my best friend had just said. She literally fucked the enemy. Yet and still, I couldn’t even get beyond first base with my phantom jackass.
“Lumi,” her voice was like that of a child who wanted their parent’s approval. “You’re not mad, are you?”
I glared at her, confused by her question, “about what?”
“Well, because you know. I know you’re trying to get Demir out of your system and then I come along and do Dristan.”
I shook my head, “no, I’m not mad, but guess what?”
“You’re judging me?”
“Like I’m a saint and you’re a sinner.”
She started giggling and covered her mouth to stop the outburst.
I wasn’t judging her for her decision of a partner. If anything, I was more upset by the fact that I hadn’t succeed in getting my own rocks off that night. In truth? I was jealous of my best friend.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Karina leaned closer to her camera like she could come through the thing. “What happened with that guy you were with at the ball?”
For a second, I didn’t say anything, I didn’t want to steal her thunder and turn the situation to a pity-party. I had never been the selfish friend that hogged the attention, but right now, I was feeling like a failure as a woman.
“Nothing.” I finally said, hearing the bitterness in my voice as the word left my mouth.
She frowned and tilted her head, “what do you mean nothing? As in nothing you changed your mind or as in nothing you guys just talked?”
“Nothing happened, I didn’t change my mind I was ready for it, but he kissed me and then the next thing I know I’m standing there in my underwear alone.”
“What?” She snapped.
Scratching my eyebrow, I nodded, “yeah. He kissed me, I kissed hi
m back, and then poof he bolted. Saying something about finding me or something like that,” I waved a dismissive hand in the air, “I don’t know.”
“Wait, wait, you’re telling me he kissed you and then was like nope, thanks I’m good and gone?”
“Yes.” I was expecting her to laugh at my failed attempt to follow her advice, but instead—as any good friend would—she looked at me with an attitude covering her face and said.
“Fuck him and his small dick, the fucking bastard. Who does that? Getting someone hot and bothered and then leaving. You know what? You can, and will, do so much better.”
I wiped my undereye as a single tear tried to break through my hard wall. “I just want to know what I did wrong.”
“Maybe he’s impotent.”
“What?” I said through a hard laugh as I wiped my eyes again.
“You know, permanently flaccid,” she wiggled her brows at me and dangled her finger in front of the camera. “Limp noodle nation!”
Even though I wasn’t really in the mood to laugh until my gut burst; leave it to Karina to come up with something so crazy I couldn’t do anything but laugh.
I didn’t know why I was hesitant to tell her what had been bothering me. She’d never given me any reason to be guarded with what I told her, and I knew, down to the core of my being, Karina Rizzo was a friend that only came around once in a lifetime.
When the giggles subsided, and we had gained somewhat of our normal composure again she sighed and smiled at me.
“Don’t ever think you’re not enough, Lumi. He was a fucking idiot that made a stupid decision. Besides, all else fails think of it this way, you don’t have to worry about a stalker coming through your front door because you fucked him so good.”
I snorted, laughing under my breath as I looked up at the end of Aladdin. “Thanks, Rina.”
“You know I love you like a fat kid loves cake.”
Nodding, I looked at her, “I love you too.”
“Good, now, go do your psychotic nighttime routine and get some sleep. I’m getting fed up with Rocks leading the sect by the book.”
“I take it he’s prohibiting you from using your Russian Heart?”
She rolled her eyes, “every damn time.”