“I know the catcall kind. They throw their praises, hope to get her attention, then crash and burn when she reminds them they are out of her league. It happens. I deal. The difference is they are rabid Elf thieves who want to steal more than just a few batted eyelashes. Like I said, I can deal with you.”
Fumbled words-1 People Skills -0
I felt like my track record was being recorded somewhere and the numbers were all wrong, but no one believed me. Either way, I would keep trying.
My little speech did wonders for Cord’s humorous side even if it as off course for the enemy. “By all means, my lady. Take the charge and lead the way,” he rolled his free hand in a circle and laid it out palm faced in the three stooges direction. It did the trick. It caught them off guard, no matter how foolish I looked.
I plowed through the grass taking the left one down with my magic #2. Rightie went down next. Mid-thigh high went down before it hit him on his short little neck. I think he even fainted first. I couldn’t have planned it better.
Feeling way to ego boosted happy I lifted my chest when I turned back to see Cord’s for certain look of shock for my own entertainment. He didn’t give me what I wanted though.
Instead, he was beside me rather quickly pulling my knife from the first Elf and wiping the blade clean for me.
“I’ll remember this the next time I need a bodyguard. Your mouth is as deadly as your knives.”
That was all the admiration he would give. He was so different than the rest. He flirted in his way like his usually self all the rest of the way to the Were Manor gate where Angus met us.
I knew now why Cord preferred the cabin. It was simple compared to the manor. My own court was known for it's "glamor", but the Were court was extravagant. I didn't picture elegance associated with the wolves, but there it was.
Coming here before, I was too angry to notice. But now that something threatened to destroy it, I hated the idea. My own court was in shambles at the moment.
Overlapping marbled stairs with gold adorned columns. The entire front side of the manor was all windows from the ceiling to the floor. A mosaic of various half transformed Weres were carved into each section of of wall near the roof. In awe, I tried to memorize the story it told. I know Cord wasn't in it, but imagined him there.
"They like art," his footsteps landed beside me.
"Art?" I asked.
"Weres like to sculpture, carve, things like that. All the natural borns at least."
"Is that why you prefer the cabin? Because you don't like art?"
"They didn't choose me, I was forced."
Ahh! "Because you are not Were born."
When he didn't say anything, I glanced sideways to be sure I didn't offend him. His usual confidence had faded, his eyes gave me an answer.
"I'm sorry Cord, I shouldn't have said anything." Those people person issues always made me open mouth, insert foot.
"Anastacia, I--
"No Cord, it was a bad guess."
He touched my elbow light enough I looked down to see if that was what I felt.
"It was dead on."
Oh! Okay! "Well, then you and I are not much different."
The vulnerable Cord disappeared behind the mask again. "How so, princess?"
"Just that. My childhood was stolen from me to become this Shadow Queen goddess girl. My choices were taken away too."
His face revealed how much he hadn't realized it from my point of view. I felt sorry for all the guys in that instant. None of us had a choice.
"Well, we are all in this together now. And for the record, I would only change one thing."
"To be human again?"
Cord's expression softened unlike any other time I've ever seen it, "Five days."
Confused, I watched on. He went through several hues of green across his face before saying, "If my uncle had died five days later, everything would be different."
The memory played on my mind. "Your father was Hoover Ryan."
"Uncle," he corrected.
He was betrothed to me and set to meet me, but his father, no uncle, died and his funeral took place that day. I never met him.
"Cord, that can't be anything but--
"What can't be? It doesn't make it any less true."
He stomped off before I could say anything back. There was really nothing I could say.
Inside my room, I showered. I hated that Cord was there, that near to me. I worried even taking a shower with him so close with another truth revealed. He wouldn't hurt me, but I always felt now like I was hurting him by just existing. Like Calum.
I covered the shower poof in vanilla soap and washed away the day. Twice.
I got even more angry standing under the scalding hot water that kept reminding me of the pain. I wanted Cas back. I wanted to exfoliate every last stinking one of them with my sponge of doom from my skin. Stab them with my bare fingernails. Drac was to blame. Borgon was the blame. They were the bad guys. I needed to remember that.
Fresh and clean, I stepped into the kitchen where Cord’s personal cook, a stout young girl named Tania, was giggling and holding her hand to her mouth with something Cord said. I narrowed my eyes at him, not her.
Cord stood straighter and bid her goodbye. Tania scurried out and Cord sat back down where he was currently eating a huge plate of spaghetti. MY spaghetti I’d asked for.
“What were you saying to her?” He ignored me and went back to eating. I guess he was angry at what he admitted.
“Nothing.”
Nothing my ass. “Leave Tania alone.”
He looked at me blankly. “It’s not like I would hurt her or anything, Anastacia.”
Yeah, but you might lead her into places I didn’t want her. I’d guard Tania. She’d helped me fit in more and saved me more than once when I was bored.
“Whatever, Cord. Just leave her alone. You’re flirting with everything that smiles your way isn't really you, just the mask you hide behind. Give yourself some honor for once.” I sat down across from him. He stopped the fork midway and looked at the empty spot where I sat.
“Would you like for me to get you a plate.” Oh yeah, he was angry. Angry at what he admitted and now angry that I was correct.
“Not hungry.”
He didn’t believe me. I really wasn’t anymore.
“You do know you’re in my court, with my people, and you’re trying to tell me what to do? We might as well be married and be done with it. You’re already ordering me around.” He chewed a bite and waited for me to respond. He was trying to bait me and for once, I wouldn’t let him win.
“Might as well. At least you’re acknowledging who is boss.”
He choked on his bite. It serves him right. We ate in silence and avoided each other the rest of the day.
The next morning Cord gave me a new plan. Plan F for failure, he called it. I didn’t like it, but it’s the only plan we’ve got!
CHAPTER TWENTY
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand...
“What in the name of Orion are you doing?” Cord eyeballed Calum to get an eye equivalent of a high five for his proud humor.
No one gave him any glory, but Kassie gave him a squeal of approval. She was a little more into Cord Ryan that she needed to be and he ate it up like chocolate cake with fudge frosting and a spoon to go with it.
“We are practically family,” Calum joked.
No, they’re definitely not. “Thank you for your kindness, but I know dogs prettier than you.” Cord and Calum were the only two who regularly put each other down and never let it get to them. They have such a love, mostly hate relationship. Funny enough, it fit the picture of the Hunter Orion and the Scorpion always at odds with each other.
The two were shirtless and fighting for the crowd. He asked if we could practice one of our vision moments to help him power up and win the fight. I declined. At Cord’s court, continuing our practice as we’d always done at the warehouse, they were enjoying the girls ogling their
assets. Cord’s jeans were riding lower than usual giving us a glimpse of the trail and where it led. I had to admit, I missed Cas terribly. But a month without him was doing me in. I hungered for attention, and not the friend kind.
He caught me watching and stopped sparring long enough to grab a towel to soak up man sweat. I happen to be the towel girl.
“You keep looking at me like that and I will have to wonder if my man Thorn has lost you.”
I frowned. “Sorry. I just miss him.”
“And his not so heavenly body. I know everything compared to his wimpy ass, but watching me doesn’t fare well for keeping me honest. I made a promise to him.”
“What promise? And you hold nothing to him.”
“Wasn’t aware you to knew each other biblically?”
I know my teeth showed with my reaction. I gritted them to keep from punching the living daylights out of him. “I haven't and you know it. Not that it’s any of your business.”
Both hands in the air and the sweat drenched towel in my lap, “He told me to keep my hands to myself or he would cut them off. I don’t intend to lose them. I will keep that promise no matter how much that smart mouth turns me on.”
He located himself near my lap and positioned his face beside mine. To others, it looked like he was going to kiss me. He did peck me on the cheek, but his hands stayed far away. The fake relationship was still in play, but my closest friends knew differently. Cord was convinced weeks ago that if we didn’t show the Were population, the word would spread that it was a fake. I thought it was a ploy, but he’d been good on his word.
He was about to walk away when he turned back to give me a solid lengthy gaze. He said low and pointedly, “And I promised to make sure you were unharmed, as well as untouched, till the day he had you back.”
Just that one statement was all I needed. Nearing a spell of depression again, Cord knew just when I needed to hear a reminder. I may hate the men around me sometimes with their manly ways, but they knew me. They really did care about me.
The empty space on the bench beside me was replaced with a giggle. “You know you two do look great together if you turn that way. He’s yummy.”
“He’s all yours. Just know he’s a handful.”
She giggled a lot more.
Kassie is now fully in on the situation. She was angry with me, astonished on all accounts, and equally awed by the meaning of it all. But in the end, she was still my friend. The first friend I ever had. It was good to have her back.
I teamed up against the two boys and took them down. Maze joined in knowing their tactics from all our sessions. I was starting to feel a little more balanced tipping the scales of equal gender status. I insisted that Kassie and Maze continue to come over to the Ryan court once a week for sanity sake, but refused to put them in harms way. They know now that the five of us, including Cas, were immortal. I didn’t have to hide that part of me anymore.
Maze stayed the night with me despite her dislike for the Weres. It was about relationship building, I told myself. I slept the whole night for the first time in weeks. I have no idea why, but it was satisfying to feel rested.
The next night I dreamed. The mother visited me.
She talked about one war being over and another on the way.
“Each of you will remain thus so until another war arises. With immortality, the imminent probability of the gods getting restless is high on the timeline. For now, you live out what you know. The failure to obtain the sword is on my part. It could mean my own death. And it may still come to that, but for now, you rise above your adversaries. Gain allies.”
The next morning, I told Maze of my one sided dream. Knowing most every single detail now, I didn’t have to keep up with what she knew and what she didn’t. When I told Maze, I included Kassie. It just made sense to stop doing things alone.
“She knows you make fun of her.”
“And she thinks I’m capable of saving the world. It is her who will be the fool.” I was tired mentally. Just over a year and a half ago I was all guts and ready to end this. I hadn’t anticipated it taking this long.
“I wouldn’t want a god’s wrath. Maybe she sees you do well.”
“Then we’re all square then.” I dragged my feet to the bathroom.
Maze jammed her finger into my ear, stopping me halfway. “Oh no you don’t. Mopey attitudes only get us more fighting time in the ring. I’m tired of fighting for a few days. Let’s try being happy today.”
Try.being.happy.
The crowd asked for a match anyway. When I lost to Cord in an assorted weapons match, the Were crowd asked for...a kiss. Both us us stopped dead center neither wanting to acknowledge the fact that we couldn't get out of this. Forced to play it out, I stepped up to him hiding my fear. Fear of him prolonging it more than anything.
His hands circled my waist. His mouth twitched to both sides just before his lips touched mine. I can't rightly say it was a bad kiss, but I was so intent on picturing Cas' face, I don't remember it much. When it was over, my eyes stayed closed. I heard the crowd clapping and felt my feet moving.
All the while I could hear him mumbling how he was dead meat now. He apologized a hundred times before the day was over, but also asked if we could do it again since Cas would know. That disturbed me just as much hearing Nara could smell me on Cas. This Fab Five marked ones thing was over exaggerated in the gross department enough as it was. Cord corrected me saying it wasn't just that. Sheepishly, he told me he'd already kissed me once. It was the Werewolf Cas could detect, not him personally.
Oh!
I left him to his own demise knowing not even perfume or mouthwash would help him. I kind of felt bad. Nah! He needed a good butt kicking every once in a while.
Since we were on an embarrassing subject anyway, I went with another area of the Weres I was curious about. The marriage ritual.
He almost refused me, but I put on the charm telling him I really wanted to know and that I would not tell a soul. He insisted that I see it, making me worry about his insinuations, but he only meant to watch it. He actually invited me to come to the next one. I felt so honored.
I wanted to know more then, but he said it would not do the justice of telling it. All he did say was that it involved an intimate exchange between the two. I pressed him. He gave and told me. I wished now I’d not forced it out of him. It really wasn’t something that should be shared. After the ceremony, that part I will see, each would choose where to put their “love bite” where no other could know. It was to signify their eternal love. I guess the Werewolf bite was more than just a love pat and pawing each other, I joked in my head. But really, it was special. I thanked him for sharing it with me and never brought the subject back up.
I thought back to the one thing I didn’t share often from the dreams.
“This world was broken a long time ago from the destruction humans brought on it. The pieces were scattered among us making the supernatural world dance around its glass shards, shattered and reconstructed to fit into a picture frame that doesn’t quite fit. It would take every single able body to make this work again.”
I needed more allies. We had dozen of Elves converted, but I needed Lord Jetten. Like now.
I cornered Cord alone in the kitchen, because he ate...a lot, and told him what I wanted. He called around for the fiftieth time. I called Lee for the first time since the last favor. He didn’t answer, so I texted him. He told me to call when I was completely alone.
Maze and Kassie went home that night. I decided a late night shower was needed.
“Yes,” he said in his deep tones.
“I want to find someone.”
A pause. “Who?”
I knew not to say a name. “The king of the forest whom has been gone too long.” As goofy as it sounded, Lee knew who I meant.
“Not possible,” he snipped into the phone.
“Why not?”
“Meet me in our place in one hour.”
The phone clic
ked off. Our place? The only place we had was the small wooded area at my own court. How was I supposed to get there?
Forty-five minutes later, I was darting through the trees trying to miss the moving spotlight on my home court’s lawn. Cord would flip if he found me gone. I stuck my head out of my room and told Angus I was in the bed and done for the night. He smiled and heard me click the door locked. I knew I had less than sixty seconds before another Were would be under the bathroom window. Oh yes, I had the pattern down pat.
Standing in the very place where I surprised my friends once before, I watched for his shadow to pass around me. That day was like a blur. The day Lee saw that Calum and I were linked. Our marks were revealed that night. I remember Lee’s face. It was like he saw the world end that night.
“Do you know what they say about you?”
I turned at the smooth sound of his voice behind me.
“It seems you’re going to inform me regardless, I see. Though not what I need.”
Circling the tree I stood beside, he moved covertly up close to my face. His tone was bone-chillingly cold. “That you’re wicked at all you do.”
Wicked? I understood his underlying tones, but I ignored him. “Perhaps. Is there anything else to share of significance?”
“I know they are wrong. I know the real you.”
I didn't respond to the sentiment, just cocked my head sideways to aim it closer to where the voice originated. I looked up to where his eyes indicated the voice came from. They didn’t glow in the dark, for there was no light. I could barely see myself, much less him.
“Lee!” I pleaded.
“He refuses to come out. His people will kill him.”
“No they won’t. I have at least fifty hidden in a Were camp that will testify to following him.”
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