How come he never talked about his family? How come he never told me about any of his friends or his life in Quebec before coming to study at ASU. He didn’t seem to have any interests other than me, and other than Mr. Devlin’s class, it didn’t seem like he had any other classes. And what was really odd about that was he didn’t have a laptop or the required text. He would just go to class with me, sit next to me and glare at Mr. Devlin like he did on the very first day he appeared. It was weird, and finally, I just kind of broke down one night in a crying fit—which was also a little weird, but I couldn’t help but feel like he was lying to me by not saying anything about himself—and I confronted him about his silence.
After he had calmed me down, he sat quietly for a few minutes as if he was mulling something over. Finally, he stood up from the bed and faced me, his eyes soft and rimmed with tears.
“Sara, I have to show you something,” He said as he started to undress. I started to get mad at him all over again, because how could he think of sex at a time like this? (Or how could I think of sex at a time like this? Because seeing him stripped down was definitely getting me worked up.)
But just as I started to yell at him, he raised his hand.
“Be quiet it for a moment and watch.” His voice was like thunder and made me swallow my protests. In fact, it made me lose my breath for a moment as if his command somehow stripped me of my voice.
And as I sat there on my bed, I watched as my boyfriend, a man who I honestly loved (But had yet to tell him.), began to change in front of my eyes. His tan brown skin suddenly became hard and thorny. His blonde hair turned green and leafy, and then he began to grow until he was close to 7 feet tall.
My boyfriend was a walking, talking pile of crystal like rocks.
#
Needless to say, I freaked out a little. Okay, I freaked out a lot. But just as I was getting ready to scream out in horror, Samuel’s voice filled my head.
I need you to stay calm.
And suddenly, my joints felt loose and completely relaxed. I felt full of a joy that I’d never experienced before, and I knew he was doing something to my brain. He was keeping me calm so that I could comprehend what he had to show me. And what he showed me was so far beyond my imagination that I thought my mind would shatter.
Samuel showed me a world much like Earth, but it was so green and lush. Even the cities were composed of nothing but vast jungles, and Jarred’s people were one with everything on their planet. Everything was used, but everything was respected, because it was all a part of one vast organism. There was nothing but serenity and peace, at least until the monsters came. That’s really the only way I can describe them. They were huge creatures almost wolf-like in appearance. Their mouths were full of sharp teeth, and their fingers were razor sharp claws. But it was their eyes that frightened me the most. They were a fierce, empty silver that seemed like they would swallow you whole if you looked into them too long; like they would devour your soul.
The monsters invaded Jarred’s planet, his people fought back relentlessly, they almost beat the monsters back. Almost. But then the monsters—the UnMakers—unleashed a weapon that devoured Samuel’s entire planet. Only a few thousand of them survived by escaping in these flying spheres of light. And now, Samuel’s remaining people traveled the universe hunting the UnMakers, making sure that they didn’t obliterate other planets.
By the time the vision cleared from my mind, I was in tears. What I had just seen was so beyond my comprehension that I felt like I was going insane.
Samuel had become his human form and held me tight against his chest as I cried. When I finally calmed down, I asked:
“One of them are here, aren’t they?”
“Yes. One of them is.”
I straightened and looked into deep into his bottomless eyes.
“It’s Mr. Devlin, isn’t it?”
“Yes. And he has one of the weapons, and he intends on using it.”
The reason why Samuel hadn’t confronted Mr. Devlin was because if he got too close to him, he knew that he would sense him and either attack him or detonate the weapon and if that happened, Earth and all of humanity was lost. So that night, we devised a plan. I would go to Mr. Devlin’s office during his lunch hour—Samuel was almost 100% certain this was where he was keeping the weapon—and I would locate it, steal it, and bring it back to Jarred so he could disarm and destroy it.
“It is a great wish, Sara,” He said as he calmly rubbed my shoulders while staring directly into my eyes. “And I would never put you in harm’s way unless I felt it wasn’t absolutely necessary.”
“I know,” I said, my eyes brimming with tears of either fear or intense sadness. “We have to stop him. We have to.”
#
I had never been so scared in my entire life. I think the only time I had felt this kind of out of control dread was when I watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with my dad when I was 13. I had read about the movie in one of the horror magazines I was into back then, and I was obsessed with seeing it. My parents were fairly liberal when it came to what I read and watched, but my dad was super hesitant when it came to that movie, and he kept rebuffing me and rebuffing me for weeks until he finally agreed to rent it while my mom was visiting my aunt in California. After it was over, I finally understood the reason why my father didn’t want me to watch it. I barely slept for weeks after that, because every time I closed my eyes, there was Leather face swinging his saw, dancing his mad dance on a sweltering Texas morning.
But this wasn’t a movie, this was for real, and Mr. Devlin was a real life monster.
On knocked on Mr. Devlin’s office door just in case he was inside. When he didn’t answer, I turned the knob, praying that it wasn’t locked. But it turned easily, and I slipped inside. I scanned the room quickly with my eyes, the office was very spartan and only contained a very old computer, a desk and a small side table with a black leather valise resting on it. The weapon, if it was here, had to be inside of it. I walked over to the bag and snapped it open. Inside was a shimmering orb. I hesitantly picked it up. It fit comfortably in my hands, but it was so cold and seemed to have a tiny hurricane or tornado raging inside of it, and seemed to pulse with my quickening heartbeat.
“Tell me, meat. What exactly are you doing with that?”
I turned and there stood the hulking shape of Mr. Devlin. His entire body filled the room and he flickered between his human form and his true one.
“You will give that to me now.”
My mind went blank, my body went stiff, and I levitated over to him. He took the orb from my hands and stared at me with his dead eyes.
“It’s quite extraordinary, isn’t it?” His voice filled my mind, and it felt like it was breaking apart, shipping away one little piece at a time. “Would you like to see how it works?”
The orb rose in the air and began to spin like a top, a lifeless silver began to pour from it, cause every hair on my body to stand up.
Suddenly the door to Mr.Devlin’s office crashed open, and there was Jarred in his true form.
“Ah, I thought I smelled one of your kind.”
Samuel charged Mr. Devlin, but then he opened his mouth, and the loudest noise I’ve ever heard exploded from him in a ball of silver fire. Samuel’s body was enveloped in it and the wall behind him exploded in a shower of fire and brick. But yet, Jarred kept moving forward, edging closer to the UnMaker. Abruptly the sound came to a stop and Devlin grabbed me by the throat.
“Stop where you are, or I’ll destroy the meat.”
“No!” Samuel shouted. “No, let her go, and you can destroy me. Just let her live.”
The UnMaker laughed and flung me against the wall with a hard crash and I crumpled in a heap, nearly unconscious.
“What a fair bargain. Your kind has always had too much of a weakness for life. If only you knew the true pleasures of the darkness.”
Samuel levitated into the massive hands of the UnMaker, and it wrapped its claws around hi
s throat and opened his mouth, preparing to unleash another unearthly scream of black fire. But just as his breath began to smolder, a long ragged branch exploded out of the back of the UnMaker’s head, it’s arms falling to its sides.
“And your kind, have never understood the true power of life.”
The UnMaker’s body hit the floor with a dull thud, and then I felt Jarred’s strong arms encircle me and carry me away. My mind finally had enough, and I passed out.
#
We lived for a week in the desert outside of Phoenix. We were there for so long because defusing the UnMaker’s weapon was a complicated process, and he didn’t want it anywhere near other human beings in case he made a mistake. He made a small cave in the Earth, bending the soil and rock to his will. I could hear him in my mind talking to the soil, telling it that we needed its help and it abided.
Finally, Jarred dismantled the weapon, and we went back to campus. I hadn’t brought my cell phone and there were a million voicemails from mom and dad. They were panicking and wanted to make sure I was okay. I called them back and found out they were on their way to Tempe to make sure I was okay. The explosion had been all over the news while were gone and they said one of the professors had been killed in the blast. The authorities described the explosion as a freak fire caused by faulty wiring, and ASU had been shut down the entire week we were gone.
I tried to get my folks to turn around and go back home, explaining the reason why hadn’t gotten back to them sooner was the explosion had screwed up cell phone reception. But they weren’t having any of that, and they told me they’d see me in a couple of hours.
After I hung up, I looked at Samuel and sadly smiled at him.
“So what now?” I asked. “Now that the Destroyer’s gone, are you going to have to leave?”
He smiled at me and stroked my cheek, wiping away a stray tear.
“I have been in contact with my people, and I have told them that I will be staying here on Earth to act as its protector in case the UnMaker’s come back. And if you’ll have me, I’d like to stay here with you.”
I burst out crying and pulled him to me, kissing him hard, wanting it to never end.
We sat and held each other for a long time on my bed, and I thought to myself how lucky I was to have Samuel. But, how was I going to explain to my parents that my boyfriend was a giant living rock formation from across the universe?
THE END
MILITARY BILLIONAIRE: BACK FROM DEAD
-The funeral-
The news of the brave soldiers who died hit the nation like a hurricane. It was just a day after the American government had announced of a very critical mission to ensure that they had flushed out the terrorists from their supposed hub and everyone was anxious to find out just what had come of it.
But then the day that followed, it appeared as though the mission had failed and as if that wasn’t bad enough, it seemed as though everything was going to work out rather correctly since at least they had a standby battalion that was ready to go in and destroy all of their enemies.
But that didn’t necessarily mean that the dead soldiers, their kith, and kin, were also going to be fine. Their hearts had been destroyed, and no standby battalion was ever going to heal the wounds in their hearts. As a matter of fact, it seemed as though nothing could be done to ensure that everything was sorted out.
The bodies were brought back, and even the president of the United States of America was present to make sure that he had delivered his speech, even getting to a point where he shed a tear or two in a bid to show solidarity. And once all of the ceremonies were over and done with, the soldiers were still dead, and nothing could be done to ensure that they had been brought back.
One of the special forces soldiers was Kendrick Oswald. He had been the team leader of that team that penetrated into the enemy territory but wasn’t that lucky enough to get back alive. His girlfriend, Nancy Hobbs, was one devastated girl. First and foremost, she didn’t seem like she needed to have anyone to take care of her. But as time went by, it seemed as though the news that her boyfriend was never coming back to her made her feel as though her heart had been torn apart and blown to smithereens.
For the entire ceremony, Nancy didn’t talk to anyone. In fact, all she wanted to do was to get over and done with it so that she could just go home and think about how life was going to be without Kendrick.
Even though they hadn’t been dating for a long time, that short time that they had been dating was so magical to that point where it appeared as though they had known each other for a very long time.
The person who was in charge of the sermon was a little bit too emotional, and he kept on condemning the war. And to some extent, the president was really at pains because after the preacher was done with his ranting, he was supposed to go right in front of people and explain to them once again why the war was necessary. But thankfully, he was the president and so he could pretty much say anything and people would clap.
Nancy was also feeling as though the war was pointless and to some extent, a way to reduce the population. But either way, it seemed as though they were going to have a tough time and the wounds inflicted on them by the war weren’t going to disappear anytime soon.
Nancy was still young and didn’t know how to cope with such kinds of situation. And that explained why she felt as though her life had come to an end. She knew that her mother was going to be there for her since she had been in the same predicament some time back. But either way, it was still very painful because men like Kendrick were very hard to find. She apparently didn’t know where the heck she was going to start with dating anymore.
Her friends and close relatives also made a point of attending the memorial since Kendrick hadn’t just touched Nancy’s life alone, but also the lives that he came in contact. They all surrounded Nancy during her time of need and despite the fact that they didn’t utter a damn thing, they knew that deep down, they were going to stand with their friend and family come rain come the sunshine. And needless to say, Nancy was more than grateful that they were there for her.
The memorial took way longer than expected. And many politicians who were granted the time to say something managed to use the opportunity to justify the war as well as the deaths of the soldiers. But all of this didn’t do a damn thing to console the families. Of course, there was a consolation price that was to be awarded to each family that lost a soldier. But that was just about it.
Finally, they were done with their speeches, and the president made a point of greeting all of the bereaved families before catching his limo, and he was out, so did the other politicians. Then slowly, everyone started leaving the stadium, leaving the families to take care of the dead.
Even to that point, she wasn’t saying a damn thing. It seemed as though everything was going on rather too fast for life and the only thing that she could have done to make things better would have been to keep her pain to herself. That was the best way that Nancy grieved. No one would ever get to understand the kind of pain that she was going through and needless to say, she had no intention to burden anyone with it as well.
“I know it’s a difficult time for you dear. But I just want you to know that despite everything, I will always be here for you no matter what. You understand me?”
Nancy nodded right before hugging her mother. Her friends came over and hugged her, patting her on the shoulder just to show that they weren’t going anywhere. It seemed as though words weren’t necessary for them to demonstrate their support.
Nancy then looked over the casket that had been laced with a brand new flag for the last time before leaving. Kendrick, the love of her life, was gone.
-Moving on-
“Baby girl, you need to try and move on. We know you loved him, but Kendrick isn’t here anymore. He is gone. And I know that he would want for you to find happiness.”
“I know mom. But where the heck am I supposed to start? I have no idea.”
“Maybe you should tr
y coming to church. I am sure there are plenty of good men who won't even think twice when they have a shot at dating you.”
Nancy wanted to say something, but her mouth just swung open as the words she wanted to say failed her. From the look of things, it seemed as though it was difficult for her to break her mom's heart by telling her that she was never going to church again.
The last time she went there, all the good brethren were staring at her in a suggestive manner despite the fact she was on another man’s arm. It even got her doubting if the flock of sheep going to church had transformed into a pack of hyenas. Her mother saw her shock and immediately knew what was going through her daughter’s mind and so without further ado, decided to change the topic almost immediately.
ROMANCE: Mated To The Lion (Paranormal Lion Shapeshifter New Adult Contemporary Romance) (Shapeshifter Mystery Alpha Lion Romance) Page 3