Sabin, A Seven Novel

by A. M. Hargrove

  “You were part of his past, weren’t you?”

  “Part of his past?” Her face fills with rage as her light gray eyes darken and her pupils bleed into her irises. “I am his past, present, and future. I am his wife!” she spits out.

  Her words are implausible to me. Sabin’s wife? He has a wife? And he brought me into his home? Where his wife lives? Why the hell would he do that? Not only that, I’m sharing his bedroom! And he claimed me. This makes no sense.

  “He has no morals. But make no mistake, you are not welcome here and …”

  I don’t give her a chance to finish because for whatever reason, I don’t believe her. He had to have some reason for claiming me and bringing me here.

  “Shut your lying mouth! Until he can tell me his side of the story, keep yours to yourself.”

  Flamehair gets into my space, which pisses me off, and grabs my arm. A sneer forms on her mouth as her gaze rakes my wrist. “Listen to me, you little hrouran, you think that mark means something? You’re nothing to him. You understand?”

  “Get out of my face!” And I make the mistake of throwing a right jab to her jaw. When I did that to Sabin, he ignored it. Flamehair doesn’t. She fires back so fast, and lets me have it. Edge told me they were stronger than humans. That’s an understatement. One fist connects with my ribcage and my body leaves the chaise. Excruciating pain explodes throughout me. By the time I slam into the ground like a rag doll, I hang onto consciousness by a thread. But trying to inhale brings on another dose of vicious pain that wracks my body. The last thing I remember is her grasping me by my shirt and telling me something in that odd language of theirs, and then her spitting on me.

  ~~~~~

  “Serena? Can you hear me?”

  Wincing in pain, I answer, “Yeah. I think so. What happened?” There isn’t a part of me that doesn’t hurt.

  “That’s what I’d like to know. We found you unconscious by the pool, with more broken bones and injuries than I care to recount. You’re nearly all patched up, but hang on a sec.”

  One of those machine things hovers over me. Then it pronounces me fine.

  My memory is fuzzy and I try to sit up.

  “No, don’t do that yet. You’re sedated and you may be lightheaded.”

  “My head is throbbing.” I massage my forehead.

  “It should be. Your nose was broken. It looks like you took a pounding from someone’s fists.”

  When he says it, an image of that flame haired bitch dances in my head and even though I’m sedated, I turn into a hellcat.

  “Care to tell me about your wife?” The words come out of me with such vehemence; he literally takes a step backwards.

  “My wife?”

  “Yes, your wife.”

  “What the … aw, fuck. She’s not my wife. She’s my ex-wife. And what does she have to do with this?”

  “She’s the one who beat the shit out of me.” The words are said with such contempt that Sabin takes another step back.

  “You’re telling me that Ali’yah came onto my property, and accosted you?”

  “No, Sabin, she didn’t accost me. She called me a ‘little rooran’, whatever that is and I’m sure it’s not anything good, and then she proceeded to beat the shit out of me. Now you know why I was unconscious. Oh, and let me quote her. She said, ‘You know you are nothing but a sub-species to us. You think that mark means something? You’re nothing to him. You understand?’ Care to explain that?”

  “Bloody fuck. RAFE! EDGE! VERUS! HELIOS! DREY! ANDROS! My quarters! NOW!”

  It doesn’t take long for all of them to arrive. Sabin is so angry, he can barely form a coherent sentence. It takes Rafe to get the information from me, which I let him have in the same manner I gave to Sabin.

  “She came here while we were in our meeting with the Council, discussing the vault,” Rafe says.

  “That fucking bitch.”

  Edge says, “She called Serena a hrouran and said she was nothing to you? That fucking whorebag.”

  Since I want to know, I ask, “What is that exactly?”

  Seven faces strained with fury swivel my way. Of course, none of them respond.

  “Serena, you don’t want to know. It’s not something I’d care to repeat,” Sabin’s soft voice says. His tone does not match the rage carved in his features.

  Helios speaks next. “What are we going to do?”

  Sabin steps close to me. Eyes on me, he says, “We are going to do nothing. I am going to move to have her banished to a critical penal colony. She harmed my claimed one. That will not be tolerated. I will execute this by the order of the house of Lhu’hantran.”

  What is he talking about? “What’s the house of Loohantrun?”

  When I’m the focus again, I speak. “Okay guys, I may not be from your planet, but please don’t look at me as if I have two heads. What the hell are you talking about?”

  Silence. Now why should this surprise me? Because I almost died, that’s why!

  “Come on, damn it! I almost died!”

  Rafe steps in and says, “You may as well tell her, Sabin. She knows just about everything else.”

  Sabin’s mouth curves, though the smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I suppose you’re right. The House of Lhu’hantran—and you need to drag the ‘u’ out a bit and kind of let it linger in the back of your throat—is the house of royalty I was born in, for lack of better explanation. I have certain rights because of this, and I am exercising these rights. I have been lax where Ali’yah is concerned, and that ends now. She deserves much worse, but by breaking through my security and attacking you, she has committed a grave crime.”

  “Oh.” The house of royalty he was born in? What the hell? I need to go home. I feel like I’ve been plunged into the court of Henry the VIII, where everyone is trying to kill each other off. What’ll be next for me—poisoned wine?

  When I glance at Sabin and see his arched brow, I know he heard my thoughts.

  “Seriously? Who else has tried to kill you?”

  “Okay, the hedges were sort of my own fault,” I admit.

  “And has anyone else tried to hurt you here?”

  “No. But the Shaurok …”

  “Cannot be blamed on me.”

  “Not specifically, but whoever created that dang necklace.”

  “It was not my people who did that.”

  “Oh.” He’s shut me down. “I guess I never expected some flame haired bitch to attack me. I’m a little freaked.”

  “As you should be.”

  “Sabin,” Edge interrupts, “what can we do to help?”

  “I want all security points double checked here and all scanners updated. Install a no entry for Ali’yah. And then I want a search to commence for her. I also want any record pulled up of her entry here and what she did to Serena. I’m going back to the Council with the findings.”

  The men leave. Sabin settles on the side of the bed, resting his arms on his thighs. “I’ve been a terrible protector. First, the hedges, and now, this. You were supposed to be safer here than on Earth, but I find you near death twice now. It’s time to assign you a guardian. I can’t be here with you at all times. When I’m gone with The Seven, I can’t be distracted from what our duties are.”

  “Tell me about this woman who tried to harm me. You say she is your ex-wife? I thought your kind didn’t marry. Why haven’t you mentioned her before?”

  He slices his hand through the air and I feel his temper rise again. “She is nothing but a … I meant to tell you, but …” he stops and his onyx irises connect with mine. His lids lower for a second, then he’s back and his anger is gone, replaced by what? Sadness? Grief? It’s an expression I’ve never seen him wear.

  I am done with his reticence. Sitting up, though my head throbs and my body revolts in pain, I say in a tone that allows no argument. “Tell me, Sabin. She physically hurt me. You owe me that much.”

  He nods abruptly and clips, “Ali’yah is a viper. She was unfaithful
countless times during the years we were together. But worse, I suspect she may have been involved in the death of my family.”

  His words appall me. “Years we were together.” “Involved in the death of my family.” What kind of woman is she? His back faces me and that won’t do. Scooting to the side of the bed, I reach for his arm and tug so he turns toward me. His features are a mask of pain.

  “What makes you think this?”

  “After Tuara was murdered …”

  “Who’s Tuara?”

  “My sister. After she was killed, Ali’yah, never acted sorry, shocked, or even the least bit sad. We were still together then. Tuara’s death ripped me apart so I didn’t pay much attention to it. Then my brother informs me he saw Ali’yah with another man. She denied it but when I told her Turen saw her, she became bold about it, even flaunted it.”

  “I take it Turen is your brother?”

  “Was my brother. After that confrontation, I told her to leave. It was only weeks later that Turen was found dead. At the time, I suspected it had something to do with Tuara’s murder. They were twins, my brother and sister. But then, not long after that, my parents were killed in a suspicious accident. The watercraft they were on exploded in flames. That’s when I knew all the deaths were related. It wasn’t hard to piece it all together and I figured I was next in line. Ali’yah’s reactions to everything were off. Something wasn’t right. But I was up against the Council and she was a member. The Council was unwilling to listen to my complaints. They believed Tuara was murdered because she was a member of the Guards of Paradox. My brother’s death was a matter of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for my parents’, they said their watercraft malfunctioned and no evidence could be found to support my claim.

  “That’s when I approached Rafe because we’d been friends for a long time. I told him my plans and asked if he would be interested. The idea that the Nyan’truans couldn’t keep Judgment Day or Paradox safe and that my sister and possibly my entire family died because of it, showed me I needed to act. My proposal was form a group that would dedicate itself to preventing this from occurring again. Rafe was in. Now I needed to get the Council’s blessing. They refused.”

  His disclosure staggers me but allows me to see why he is so steely at times. My brain fires with a million things. I want to comfort this man, but will he accept it? It’s ludicrous that this Council was so unyielding toward the whole situation. But right now I am torn. Should I sit here like an idiot or do the thing I would want him to do?

  Hell with it. My decision made, I extend my hand until it touches his cheek. At first he is startled. He hasn’t noticed that I’ve moved from behind him on the bed. When he leans into my hand I know I’ve done the right thing. Then he jerks me so fast I topple forward, but he doesn’t let me fall. I end up on his lap, facing him, and he nuzzles my neck. He’s silent; I only feel his breath against me. My hands sink into his hair and I hold him close, not saying anything. This is his moment, so I let him be. Intuition tells me he needs this … this closeness and that he hasn’t shared this with anyone either, other than The Seven.

  After several deep inhales, he pulls away and his eyes seek out mine. What he says next unravels me from my soul to my heart. “I have a confession to make. I was here when The Seven notified me they located Judgment Day. When I first saw you, I was masked and sitting on your sofa. You came in, sniffed the air, and kept moving. I looked at you and thought I was looking at heaven. You were magnificent. When you went into your bedroom and took your clothes off, I had never seen anything so perfect. Your eyes reminded me of a stormy sea, they were so green. I wanted to fuck you like I’d never wanted anything in my life. When your hands landed on me while I was still masked, it took almost more effort than I possessed not to wrap my hands in your hair and taste your mouth with my tongue. My intentions toward you were … let me put it to you this way. If some man had thoughts of my sister similar to the ones I had of you, I would’ve put my fist through his face.”

  A deep attraction exists between us, but I didn’t know he’d felt this way. He’d hidden this quite well. “I didn’t …”

  He cuts me off. “I’m not finished.” His fingers weave into my hair and he twists them around in it. “Ali’yah never lived in this house. We lived elsewhere when we were together. I want you to know that. This was the home I was raised in, grew up in. It was my parents’ and theirs before them. My brother was the oldest. It was to have been his by rights. But after his death, and after my sister’s, everything reverted to me. That’s another reason why I believe Ali’yah had her hands in this somehow. She was greedy. Wanted more. She went after my brother before me, but he was involved with someone at the time. I was stupid, naive, and fell for her. But Serena, she means nothing to me, other than someone I want banished. In the best of times, our relationship was far below average. I’ll spare you the details, but believe me when I tell you I am much happier without her in my life.”

  The way he says it makes me believe him. There is no doubt he has no love for that woman. “So what happens to Allya?” I ask.

  “I need the Council’s stamp of approval. Well, I don’t really, but it’s good to have it though I have enough authority on my name alone to act.”

  When he says that it triggers something in my mind. “So how exactly did The Seven start if your Council said no?”

  “I undermined their authority by going to one of my father’s closest friends and allies who was also from an established sovereign house. He gathered a group of his associates together and they overruled the Council’s decision, forcing the Council to agree to it. We thought everything was great until it was decided that the Council would spearhead the whole thing and The League was formed. The League is The Seven’s ruling body. They are better than the Council because they are more military minded and understand what happens during missions, but they are in alliance with the Council, so oftentimes their decision making is clouded by those idiots. I’m sure you can understand our frustration. We’d like to add more manpower, not to the original Seven, but to supplement some of our activity in house, and they continually refuse our requests. We’ve asked them to accompany us, only for them to see the increasing numbers of Shaurok, but they refuse.”

  “It sounds like they don’t want you to find Judgment Day.”

  “Doesn’t it, though? We’ve often said that. What makes me know that’s wrong is we’ve had it within our grasp until Juliette Hart tossed it into the sea. That’s when you found it.”

  “Why didn’t you stop her?”

  “It’s a question I’ve asked myself many times. We are not supposed to interfere—only to protect. Just as you didn’t know what it was, neither did she.”

  “That is a fatal error you and your men need to correct it.”

  “Serena, we are bound by our code. I could face serious ramifications for telling you about it. And so could you. That’s one of the reasons I claimed you.”

  “What kinds of ramifications?”

  “They could strip me of my command and send you back to Earth without protection, making you vulnerable to the Shaurok.”

  My heart thumps so hard, I fear it will batter my sternum. “Why would they do that? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Because no one is supposed to know of us … of Nyan’trua. We have a strict non-interference policy.”

  This is too hard to swallow and I don’t get why. He interprets my silence for what it is.

  “Look at it from their point. If you go back and tell others about us … our technology … it could alter the future of Earth. Or, people might think you were crazy. We don’t want to have any impact. That’s why we use transparency to mask ourselves for the most part, and when the Shaurok kill, we remove any trace of the victim, making it look like they never existed. We basically take away the mystery.”

  All of this is new information. Erasing the existence of people mortifies me. “What if the people killed have families, like Charity M
cKessen?

  He doesn’t answer so I know they erased her.

  “So her family thinks she never was? Like there was no Charity to begin with?”

  Again, no answer. “Answer me, damn it!”

  “Yes. We removed her from all memories, data banks, everywhere there was a trace of her. We had to or else it would rouse suspicion.”

  Oh my god! Who are these people I’m dealing with? How can they just wipe a human being away like that? Charity was a person. Someone loved her. She had a family. This sickens me.

  “Serena, we didn’t kill her. The Shaurok did. You have to remember that. We were the ones who tried to save her.”

  “But her parents never got the chance to mourn her,” I argue.

  “While you disagree with our methods, they also never had to feel the abject pain of her loss.”

  “Would you rather feel you never had a family?”

  “That’s not a fair question.”

  “I disagree.”

  He glances away for a moment, and turns back to me as if he’s weighing a decision. Then he grabs my chin and his black irises lock onto my green ones. I am plunged into their depths and find myself in a dark room, looking at a woman weeping on the floor, a man by her side. The images aren’t quite clear, and the edges are blurred, yet I can see everything around me. I follow a man, though I can’t understand what he says. He speaks in a foreign language. He leads me to a set of enormous double doors and I stare at them before entering. As soon as I walk through them, grief nearly rips me in half, threatening to bring me to my knees, yet I force myself to remain upright. Then I see her—a young woman lying on the floor, covered in blood. An excruciating pain engulfs me and I want to scream. I collapse next to her and open her gown to discover a huge gaping wound in her chest. Just as I fear my heart will crack in a million tiny shards, I am whipped out of the scene, back to the present. It’s not surprising to find I am shaking and covered in perspiration. The loss of that loved one lingers and I ache inside so fiercely I want to sob. I’m trapped in the cycle of thinking about the young woman and feeling the anguish of her death, and I can’t seem to shed the grief I’m experiencing.