Evigheden

by S King

  Judge Sooter was the first to speak, “as you wish, Demir Losett.”

  I was confused by the simple statement and opened my mouth to ask for clarification when the world went black and my body fell to the marble flooring.

  §§§§§

  I awoke with a start as the ice water slammed into my face again. While I was knocked-out I didn’t dream anything, didn’t hear anything, but my body was telling me I had gone through hell and back just to remain breathing.

  “Good, you’re still breathing…for now.” Dristan’s voice came from the side of me as my body came back online.

  “What happened?” I cleared my throat, spitting blood and winced as the pain started short circuiting my brain.

  “Honor guard,” he squatted in front of me and clasped his hands together, “you really pulled a smart move with the courts. Chivalrous, but stupid as shit.”

  My best friend was fuzzy as I looked at him, “my eye is red isn’t it?” I motioned to the body part in question and didn’t bother mentioning the other one. I knew it was swollen shut and I’d be lucky if it got its shit together before…I didn’t even know what time it was, let alone the day.

  “Like the damn devil himself,” he confirmed and shook his head. “What the fuck man? You should’ve simply said you’d do it and then put her in hiding until you found the evidence, or at least the person who actually framed her.”

  “They were threatening her and challenging me, Dristan.” I forced myself to stand up only to fall back down in the couch as my ankle gave way.

  “Look, I get it, but—”

  “You told me to protect her, that’s what I did and now you’re saying I was wrong?”

  “I didn’t tell you to get halfway to the grave in the process, bro!”

  I rubbed a busted hand over my face and gritted my teeth as pain rocketed through my nerves. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  “Try not to die while you get her the hell out of Castlehedge.” Dristan’s voice had calmed down to a somber tone, but I could sense the darkness looming over his thoughts.

  I opened my mouth to say something when the door to the kitchen knocked against the wall.

  “Not only that,” Slade’s familiar, cock sure voice hit my ears before he came to sit in front of me on the coffee table. “But Silver is after your head now, as well.”

  “What?”

  “It’s true, boss.” Dristan handed the other man something, “after your little display. The courts ordered Lumi’s sect to execute your Diamond Order, stay be damned.”

  I jumped as Slade touched me and his death started playing in my mind. Gritting my teeth, I tried to ignore the haunting images as he continued to fix my broken hands.

  “That’s nothing in comparison to what happened next,” Slade said, “the honor guard is after both of you. BC thinks after the two of you die the guards will be unified thanks to the mutual tragedies and hatred for the HG.”

  I flinched as the wounds started mending themselves and my vision started to clear.

  “But wait there’s more,” Dristan added in the way only he could as he took residence in the chair next to the window. “They spun the story saying Luminous killed the officials of our guard in retaliation—”

  “Ow!” I snapped, raising my newly healed fist to Slade’s face.

  “Well hold still!” He growled.

  “Anyway,” Dristan yelled as Slade continued to heal me, “in retaliation to not receiving the same orders or treatment as Gold. BC also is claiming you felt compelled to defend your guard, hence you killed Silver’s senior member. Surprisingly, they didn’t mention anything about Inessa or Svenia.”

  I jerked my leg out of Slade’s grasp and glared at him, “thank you.”

  “With pleasure,” he matched my acid filled tone with one of his one.

  Turning my gaze to Dristan, I frowned, “so you’re telling me the courts are blanketing the truth because I called them out on their bullshit.”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” Slade grumbled as he sanitized his hands, “the courts have issued black orders on top of the Diamond for the two of you.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to think of a way to get back into the court’s good graces.

  “It won’t be easy,” Dristan said as if reading my mind.

  “Why would you want to in the first place?” Slade asked with a screwed look on his face.

  To be honest I wasn’t surprised the two of them were having a conversation about my delusion filled state. Who was I kidding? Luminous and I were in a shit storm worth of trouble, more importantly we were running on stolen time.

  Massaging my temples, I rested my elbows on my knees. The first thing I needed to do was warn Luminous, but how was I going to do that? She was not only grieving her sister, but her guard was in shambles. Between Lovett choosing his life over following through on their wedding and now the courts voice in the senior members’ ears, hell was going to rain down on our sleepy city.

  “The only option right now is to get your girl and leave.” Slade finally broke the silence filling Dristan’s living room.

  I rubbed a hand over my face and looked between my friends, “do either of your seriously think she’s going to willingly go with me?”

  “That would be a negative,” Dristan agreed.

  “But it’s worth a shot,” Slade grumbled.

  I took a deep breath and looked out the window. There had to be a way to get Luminous out of Castlehedge long enough for our guards to come to reality.

  “By the way,” Dristan tossed a Diamond Order on the coffee table and nodded to the pearl white paper. “She’s going to be handling this tonight, not knowing the other sects of Gold and honor are after her.”

  I snatched the rolled paper from the table and scanned over the document. It was an order against one of the daytime judges who had let off the child trafficker a few months ago.

  I looked up at my only trustworthy friends, “care to have a little party tonight, boys?”

  Slade cracked his knuckles, a sickening smile covering his face while Dristan started laughing under his breath.

  “I’m always up for a little pre-game before the big game.” Dristan wagged his brows at me as he slapped hands with Slade.

  “I’ve always wanted to test out my new daggers,” Slade made an example of the weapons in question by pulling them from his waistband and twirled the sharp smaller knives in the air.

  The three of us left Dristan’s underground house for the inner city of Castlehedge with the taste of blood raging through our veins. Thanks to BC indicating the location where the target would be for the night, I sent Dristan and Slade ahead as I tracked Luminous down.

  Luckily, I didn’t have to search too far for her. She was coming out of some apartment and adjusted her shirt. For a second, blind rage consumed me; I didn’t stop myself as I slid into the alley she was headed toward and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Have fun?”

  She jumped at the sound of my voice, still lost in the euphoria she had just experienced with whoever she’d left just minutes ago. “What do you care?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then don’t ask stupid questions,” she snapped and started past me.

  I didn’t know why I reacted the way I did; it wasn’t like she knew I was the one to give her thirty minutes of pleasure at Nine Lives. I had no grounds to be jealous or territorial, but I was.

  Without thinking, I pulled Luminous into the alley, hidden in the shadows and stared at her. With her back against the wall, she was invisible to anyone walking past.

  “Listen to me, Luminous River, you don’t know what type of dangerous game you’re playing right now.”

  She smirked, tilting her head, “is that so?”

  For a second, I had the conscious mind to take her in the alley. Why did she have to look so damn good in her hellbent defiance? Then I remembered what Dristan and Slade had advised me. Get her out of Castlehedge while protecting both
of ourselves. The plan was simple, all I needed to do was keep my second head in my pants and focus on staying alive.

  Clenching my teeth, I clamped down any thought of stripping her and glared into those damning slate gray eyes. “Why can’t you stay out of the way of a threat?”

  “One would think you’re feeling threatened by some form of competition.”

  Did she know it was me in the private room at the club? No. There was no possible way she knew. I was next to a pro when it came to reading the emotions of a woman and I was learning all of Luminous’s quirks and tricks as time passed.

  She didn’t know and I wasn’t about to tell her anything. For now, she just needed to be warned about keeping to the shadows and staying out of Onyx Elite’s sights. I’d tell her the truth later. Whenever that was.

  Taking a step closer, my body pressed hers into the brick wall as members from the HG crossed the street.

  “Let me make one thing very clear to you, if I wanted you, there would be no competition in my way. This is a friendly warning to watch your back and stay away from that kid,” I pointed toward the apartment she had just left.

  Naturally, Luminous wasn’t one to back down—from anything—and made sure to get her point across as she kicked her chin up. Staring at me she lowered her voice to match my own.

  “And let me tell you something, Demir Losett, I will not be told what or who I can do. Especially by some over arrogant, cock sure, son of a bitch from Gold Guard.”

  I tried not to smile at the insult and studied her for a moment, “do you really want to walk down this road, Lumi?”

  Scoffing, a humorless smile covered her lips, “you’re more than welcomed to join me. Otherwise, stay away from me.”

  I stepped back from her, knowing what I was about to do was probably going to get me hurt—yet again—I unsheathed my sword.

  “If you choose the hard way, I’ll have to use force.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she fell further into the shadows and let her whip uncoil, “are you trying to die, Losett?”

  The way she said my name brought a smile to my face. The longer I kept her in the alley the better; she wouldn’t face the HG tonight—or any other night if I had anything to say about it.

  “What would you do if I said, I’m banking on you not dying, River?”

  “Is that a screwed-up way of flirting with me?”

  I shrugged, unbothered by her questions, “possibly.”

  “You need to get out more.”

  “So I’m told.”

  This woman was doing things to me with those eyes of hers; she glared at me, her grip tightening on that threatening whip of hers as she took a deep breath and raised a brow at me.

  “Whose turn is it to go first?”

  I spread my arms and smirked at her, “ladies first, as always.”

  “Figured,” she took a step, prepared to strike with the whip when she caught sight of something.

  Following her line of sight, I looked down at what had fallen from my pocket. Sitting in the slight space where moonlight had come into the alley was the mask. My mask. From the ball and from Nine Lives.

  I looked back up to her and smirked as she put the pieces together.

  “Well, shit.”

  Chapter 15 Judge’s Words, Executioner’s Promise

  I stared at Demir, not wanting to believe what I was seeing. More importantly, I didn’t want to acknowledge Karina’s voice in my mind laughing at my stupidity. Granted, she would probably think the entire situation was nothing but pure, stupid irony at its finest.

  “You?” Was the only word I could possibly form to come out of my mouth.

  An almost apologetic look covered his face. Still, he shrugged an indifferent shoulder before saying.

  “How else was I supposed to make you realize you weren’t meant to be with Lovett?”

  My rage ignited and I would’ve lashed out at him if it weren’t for Karina coming out of nowhere to block my attack and stop my momentum.

  “We have to go now,” she said, looking over my shoulder like someone were chasing her.

  “What are—”

  “Demir, let’s go,” as if he were on the same magic dust as Karina, Dristan appeared out of nowhere.

  Karina spun around, finally seeing the two Gold Guard men that haunted both of our dreams.

  “Why are you with him?” She hissed, taking a protective stance as if to protect me from Demir’s—or Dristan’s—sword.

  “Long story, what’s going on?”

  “No time, I’m sure you two will have plently of time to figure it out later.” Dristan snapped, dragging Demir further into the alley toward the other exit.

  I opened my mouth to say something when the sound of a gun cocking hit my senses. Spinning around, I yanked Karina out of the way just as the gun went off and shouts of surprise filled the night.

  The honor guard bastards were here and right now, the four of us were the targets. What the fuck happened?

  “Run!” Karina pushed me toward Demir and Dristan as she pulled a stick of dynamite from her leather coat.

  “You brought dynamite to a gun fight!” Dristan jerked me back by my collar and sent me flying into a dumpster.

  Demir, being the jackass protector he was, caught me right before my head smacked the side of the steel bin.

  “Are you ok?” He whispered as he helped me stand up.

  “I—”

  “As opposed to what? A fucking sword?” Karina snapped lighting the dynamite and throwing the thing at the four HG members coming towards us.

  “I’m going to suggest we run,” Demir grumbled, grabbing my arm in a vice grip and ripped me away from leaning on the dumpster.

  Karina was manically giggling—as she always did right before an explosion and half skipped toward us as she counted down the seconds from when the dynamite would go boom.

  “Five…four…three—”

  “You are too fucking happy right now,” Dristan jerked her away from a drain ditch she was about to fall in and glanced over her shoulder.

  The dynamite exploded behind the four of us, sending our bodies skyward. I didn’t know if it was instinct or because he felt bad for not telling me that he was the one in Nine Lives, but Demir was able to keep a steady grip on my arm; allowing him to pull me into his chest as gravity pulled our bodies back to the snow-filled ground.

  We landed with the type of thud that knocked the wind from our lungs. Granted, Demir took the brunt of the fall, with me landing on top of him.

  Bracing my hands on the ground above his head, I searched his face. Even though I was livid at the fact I had shared my body with the man beneath me, I wasn’t so heartless as to not want to make sure he wasn’t ok. For fuck’s sake, I didn’t defend his ass for this long, just to die on the edges of our hometown.

  “Are you—” the second explosion made him move too quickly for me to track.

  He reversed our positions with his arms moving to protect my head as rubble and fragments started falling around us.

  Only when sirens erupted through the air did I open my eyes and find Demir staring down at me.

  “You fucking pyrokinetic, psychotic female!” Dristan yelled behind us.

  Karina—being Karina—was busy laughing her ass off from hell to high heavens as she laid in her own snow drift, staring up at the dark navy sky.

  She was so deliriously happy I couldn’t stop my own giggle fit from overtaking my body. Pushing Demir off me, I rolled to my side laughing at the absurdity the four of us had found ourselves in.

  One-minute Demir and I were about to have one of our classic showdowns, the next we were laying in a snowdrift in an abandoned lot laughing our asses off because my best friend had a flare for anything that went boom in the night.

  “This is not a laughing matter,” Demir commented and got up to dust off the snow from his duster.

  “Yet and still, here we are,” Dristan griped.

  Karina popped up, looking at me, “did
you see their faces though?” Another wave of laughter assaulted her.

  “Who the fuck carries dynamite!” Dristan hollered with his arms spread wide.

  Pointing to her, I wiped away my tears and tried to gain my composure, “she does.”

  “You never know when you might need to blow,” she wagged her brows at me, “your way out of a situation.”

  I laughed that much harder, catching her typical gutter-minded comment. Of course, Demir and Dristan no more understood what was so funny about the situation than a couple of sleeping dogs.

  “Ok, ok,” Karina pulled herself together long enough to try to stand up. Unfortunately, all composure left her when her feet slipped out from under her on a patch of black ice.

  “God damn it!” She face planted first into another snowdrift that had been perfectly formed.

  This time, Demir and Dristan didn’t hold back their laughter and ended up slipping on their own patches of black ice when they tried to help us up. To say we were a quartet of laughing idiots would be putting it mildly; it had taken us another fifteen minutes to finally get our footing and get out of the abandoned lot to the edge of the city limits.

  With all of the giggling and laughing aside, Karina stood beside me and watched the daytime fire department try to put her flames out.

  “So, Gold Guard dogs,” she said, breaking the silence. “What exactly is going on?”

  The question was valid, I’ll admit, but I didn’t know if I was ready to hear what was going to come out of their mouths for an explanation.

  Dristan was the first to speak, “that’s for Luminous and Demir to discuss.”

  Having the firecracker temper of a drunk Irish man, Karina spun around and narrowed her gaze on her one-time lover. “

  She’s my sister, so whatever is going on with her, I have a right to know.”

  I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, “Karina.”

  “You’re putting yourself in uncharted territory, Karina. So, stop while you’re ahead.” Dristan warned.

  “What!”

  I pulled her back from lunging at the mountain of a man standing beside a silent Demir. “Stop, we’ll find it out ourselves.”