Orion

by Cyndi Goodgame

  “And what am I, OH wise one?”

  “I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you,” his face was dark now with foreboding.

  “You will,” my teeth gritted.

  “The daughter of Anat.”

  What does that really mean? And how is this climatic? A dead goddess can’t be my mother. “Whatever. And you would be her son too if there was any truth to it.”

  “Ja! I am. But I’m no woman. The female offspring of the goddess Anat, not the son. I was a mistake that wasn’t meant to happen.” He looked as if he wanted to stab me with a fork. What did I do?

  “Don’t say that!”

  “Ja! Truth hurts. I’ve hung there for weeks after hearing them wondering if father knew I was awake listening to him tell me I’m worth nothing and that you are the golden child.”

  Time was up. The car was stopped in front of the court gate office just beyond where the guards were stationed butted up to the concrete walls that surrounded our court like a fort. I hadn’t realized I was nose to nose with Szar until Lee opened my car door.

  “Ludicrous, self-righteous idiot!”

  “Good to know! But that’s the good thing about being twins. I already knew you felt that way about me. Tell me something I don’t know?”

  I huffed in Szar’s face and stepped out. Lee stopped me with a hand on my arm and whispered for only me to hear, “Hide your emotion before you go through those gates.” I looked at my arm where he held me and back to his eyes giving him a silent reason to keep his hands to himself. He let go and walked to the trunk.

  Calum and Lee finished the end result of my “keep from killing the vamp thug” plan. Szar really gave me crap about it, but I challenged his snarl with my own and he backed down. Secure with all my knives in my own possession again, I adjusted my shirt and vest skillfully snaking my feet around from keeping my back turned to my ultimate plan. Calum stood there watching my exposed side where my knives slid in pimpling my skin from the coldness.

  “What all have you got in there?” The slight form of a smile edged his lips. “Secrets are for sharing.”

  I stepped up to him, tiptoed up to his ear like so, and whispered loud, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  He shivered. I liked that. Wouldn’t you know it! Lee and Szar stood there watching.

  “Guess there’s no doubt whose boat we’re all fishing on,"Lee said rudely.

  Szar straightened, “That’s my sister you piece of crap.”

  Lee grunted, turned back to the car, and slammed the door behind him.

  “Guess he never got over you either. You’ve been busy! Sure know how to catch ‘em sis. Do you know how to bust their balls when they make a move you don’t want or do I need to demo it before you go?” Szar’s eyed both boys.

  I stormed off only after I made the mistake of thinking I needed to check their handiwork on the thugs. I gagged and hid my face now holding my mouth. Our two thugs were lying prostrate in the dirt, knocked out and untied with their weapons beside them. They were to appear as if they were spying and were attacked. I almost stripped them down to cause humiliation with their court but decided that it would look more like a set up. I thought then I’d lost my mind. Maybe I have. I had the strangest feeling I would regret not taking the Vamps elsewhere, but didn’t know why. My stomach in knots still, I stood over the two dark haired broad shouldered men lying in front of me. The knots and fluttering growing as I near the blue eyed vamp. I was crouched down checking their pockets and found nothing when suddenly a picture came in my head. Of me! I was in the long red dress from the Val Ball given last year. I remember standing on my own balcony window watching the party below after I’d made the right appearances. I stepped off the top step and sat on the edge of the railing. I was crying. I remembered that. I cried that night since coming back from a mission where two Vamps were killed before the party. It was the first real dead person I’d ever seen.

  “Your idea, princess,” Lee grouched.

  I was pulled out of my vision. It was like someone else’s dream. I shook my head back and forth realizing I was leaning on the Vamp. His ass! Whoa!

  “Quit calling me that. You didn’t earn that right. And they’ll wake up and tell their Vamp lord all about it. Great for them. Heard he’s an asshole anyway.”

  Soon!

  I jerked my head around me expecting someone but saw no one but Lee. “What is soon?”

  He gave me a what the heck look so I walked away.

  Calum followed me into the car and we arranged ourselves strategically. I was in the front now with the back seat covered in blankets. The guards would only believe a story connected to me and seeing Szar would raise suspicion. My stomachache...gone. And so was the Vampire.

  I pulled up to the gate listening to the group of rank smelling men hiding in the back seat. I giggled a small amount at the thought of growing up with no men in my life and suddenly, in a few weeks I had several, including my brother, sandwiched into the back of a car. They grunted some more about having little room.

  The guards believed my story about a short visit with my father and sent me in. I had minutes before I would see his face and read his reaction.

  We parked in the outdoor drive at the visitor entrance. I jumped out and met the outside guard before he got close to the car to see in. “I need to get something to my father quickly and out of sight. Can I move the car to the inside garage?” I smiled the needed blonde moment/devil may care smile to get the answer I wanted.

  It worked and I jumped in the car. Szar grunted and mumbled a muffled something like, “God, the female wiles we fall for. Maybe women really do rule the earth.”

  I smiled.

  Once in, we went to work. All four of us jumped out of the car. Well, Borgon was dragged by Lee.

  We were in the door and at my father’s private chambers through the back entrance dodging the kitchen staff and only had one door left near the alarm panel to get through. The one my mother and father supposedly used to sneak out of before we were born. Of course that all stopped with us, but not because the romance died. She did.

  Our hand motioned speak was improving rapidly with all the sneak work so the movement through the palace was exceptionally fast. Szar was already a pro at it since I know how often he snuck out.

  I realized just how well our little three man, now four, team worked in unison. Which was really well when we weren’t arguing. And I was the only female present.

  I counted off on three fingers and opened the door and slipped in. No one was there. The plan! I’d appear first, let father see me, and then reveal the rest.

  But…the plan changed. All of us moved into my father’s private den and waiting till he arrived. We didn’t know it would be over half an hour. He should have retired already by earlier years standards. But that was then.

  The doorknob sounded. We all jumped up from a sitting position.

  He entered and stopped, searching each face and the rest of the room for anyone hidden.

  He put a finger to his mouth. I’d had the intellect to have everyone stay quiet as mice before he entered knowing the lack of cameras, but not sound alarms. The sound of us standing would have been the first noise, and thankfully it coincided with him entering the room.

  We were motionless.

  Father walked to the desk, wrote on something, and held it down to me.

  Only your voice should

  speak. And no information should

  be given. Social visit only.

  I nodded.

  He walked over to me and hugged me, then Szar. He surveyed the physical damage much like a doctor would, not a father. All the while he was saying happy greetings and how long would I be here and other fatherly comments. He walked into the bath area and brought back bandages and alcohol. He wrote a note as he walked asking if this was Calum, hello to Dyer, and who is the guy who still sat, tied and gagged on the sofa. He was lying. He knew who he was.

  I wrote notes back to him as I followed so o
ur voices appeared to be having a conversation.

  I told him Dyer and Calum knew everything. I told him that Borgon was Szar’s babysitter for the last few weeks and needed a quiet space to think, but that his family was in danger and only complied to save them. He did a double take and I knew then that he recognized him now even with his hugely puffed face and blood dripping hair. Maybe he was lying before, maybe not. But learning from Szar moments ago that Borgon's family was to be executed if he didn't come through with and help "whoever" with this plotted was worse.

  Lord Hathown continued to talk about court gossip and commented in the right places, laughed, and I sounded completely like the daughter who left here just weeks ago.

  I wrote a note that I would return to the school with Calum and Lee, wait till my birthday, and hopefully survive the night. Szar or he would get back to me soon.

  He hesitated at the thought of me leaving, but agreed. I wondered if my father could be worried about my safety at home, the Hunter school, or possibly at all. Was he sending me into the largest of lion’s den? Am I a part of a bigger picture that no one seems to want me privy too?

  He hurriedly wrote his last note to me.

  This is bigger than just me as your father of this court. You have to do this. Follow what you’re told and stay close to Calum. He will protect you. Others will be there soon. I can’t do this alone or for you.

  I had to insert any news to seem important since anyone who would want to be listening would expect it. I was a basket case on the inside. “I know that Dr. Quinn is in on something big. He hasn’t slipped anything as to where he’s stashed. I expect to get something soon, I hope. Until then, I really like staying there father. I’ve really enjoyed going to classes.” I realized I’d just admitted to being okay around Hunters out loud. “Well, if you can handle being around Hunters, that is.” I looked at Calum. I’d cut his heart several times tonight without the help of my knives. My tongue was sharper.

  He would have to wait.

  We finished cleaning Szar up. Father wrote that Szar would stay out of sight in his manor bedroom until further notice out of sight. Borgon would be pulled down to the dungeon, a locked room. He wouldn’t happy with the arrangements, but he’d be safe from harm. Father would keep tabs on his family. Assuming he was to be trusted.

  I asked for the letter from my mother and he flinched at me knowing, but reluctantly said he would have it for me soon.

  We said goodbye, mostly in our made up sign language, and left. I couldn’t help but feel the knots forming in my stomach. Not the fluttering sensation, of late that came with being near the vamp dude, but the dread. The idea formed around the edge of my mind that all the things in my world are about to change. I turned before I closed the door, eyes on Szar. He read me well. He held up a note that had already long been written before I’d faced him now.

  Be careful, sis.

  And let them protect you

  since I can’t.

  I smiled the best I could even when Szar grabbed me in a rare hug. I wrote frantically.

  And any ball busting comes from me,

  not you. Clear?

  He laughed to himself. I returned a silent laugh and whizzed through the corridor to the car. The blanket resurfaced for the backseat escapees, and we were off.

  He wants to protect me. I saved him. My whole life I was surrounded by my twin and now we are forced apart and still saving each other. Once when I was six, my even then more powerful brother stepped in the sparring ring and took down my opponent when the boy cut my cheek with the steel dagger. When I was twelve, three of the court bully boys cornered me into a room alone. Szar was there. I can hold my own and I think he knew that then. There was just some understood silent statement he tried to keep instilled in me that I would always be protected even though I’d grown better in skills than him, stronger than him, more magically inclined than him, and more favored than him. Life just couldn’t be fair to the both of us. I was alone in everything with a powerful hunger growing inside me I couldn’t contain. He was surrounded by friends and becoming more aware each passing day that he was second in my father’s eyes. And now he’d confirmed that not only did he think it was true, that my father said it with his own two lordly lips.

  Chapter Twenty SevenAs if you could kill time...

  Back in the school, parked, and sitting in the dark, I held back the tears a Valkyrie should never shed. I asked them to stay under the blanket so I could change. Calum grunted something close to the word murder underneath the blanket. I didn’t want to ask.

  When my zipper made the long haul down the front of me, I heard another grunt that sounded something like “keep your breathing treatments to yourself.”

  What did that mean? I finished with jeans and a t-shirt on, tied my Nikes, and yelled for them to surface.

  “In the future, you might wear clothes on top to save time I think,” Calum advised.

  “That's uncomfortable, no way!”

  “And you think there is any room left in my jeans for comfort right now?” The disembodied voice under the blanket announced. Lee was a moron.

  “Why can’t you wear jeans again on a mission?” Calum insisted with agitation and pounding Lee on the side of his head.

  “I told you, I can’t function that way effectively. My suit keeps me clean on my throws. I know exactly where everything is located on my body.”

  That was not the right thing to say by his look. He flicked his head fast at Lee for a reaction I wasn’t looking forward too. Too late.

  “Who first for the inspection? I am already versed somewhat.” Lee piped out. Thwarp! Lee fell back down on the seat. “Crud, man!”

  I’m guessing he’s thinking that Lee knows more about me than he wanted, so I inserted, “I designed the outfit a year ago.”

  Calum smiled at this, figuring my reason for commenting.

  He puffed his chest. Boys!

  “So you think you can’t react in jeans?” Calum continued down this road.

  “I react just fine. I’m very well rounded in—

  I saw Lee’s face with the word choice. “A regrettable choice of words,” he muttered interrupting me.

  I groaned.

  “No your reaction time with your prey is undoubtedly smooth and—

  I attacked, “LEE. I defend, not prey upon.”

  “No, you just play with your toys.”

  I opened the car door and reversed to open the back door. Calum’s hands were on Lee’s throat. My eyes wide at the sight, I reached for both of them and yanked them out. They didn’t pretend to not notice my stronger than them grip.

  Lee let out a, “Meow!”

  “I’m going to show you my claws if you don’t shut the c—

  “Lee, STOP! That’s enough.” Calum yelled, let go of both of us, and closed all the dinging doors. Our scene would be a soap opera if watched by sightseers. We crossed the yard and watched Lee press on to the dorm room alone without a bye or anything. I motioned for Calum to follow me to our bench. We settled on it and looked up for a few minutes staring at Orion before us.

  “You know I don’t care about the Hunter/Valkyrie rivalry. Yes, I didn’t like being here that first day, and not even the second day. But you, you made my blood boil. I hated you the first day and the next even. But the third day, I was so enamored by the thought of you near me. I couldn’t wait to wake up the next day. You made my thoughts so confused on what I was here for, I forgot to hate you. And I couldn’t remember why I needed to hate Hunters pretty soon after that. I’ve always been told too.”

  He was still silent.

  “I know Lee tries to set you off. I don’t get him, at all. But you can’t let him get to you. We couldn’t have made it tonight without him.”

  “That’s the only reason I haven’t kicked his ass."

  “I know. I know. But we need him.”

  “And he friggin’ knows it,” his voice filled with poison.

  “Be that as it may, he says things to
rile you up. But hear this, I only want what’s best for all of us.” I gulped at speaking this way. It was conversations like this I only heard hiding in the bushes when a court romance was the top gossip. And mostly they were between the lines talk for fear of being caught. But I wasn’t sure I felt that way about Calum. Yes, he was great and all, but I didn’t feel any connection with him other than our heritage and well, I couldn’t hide from the sparks.

  “I…I… care for you."

  He dropped his head. I couldn’t say it. I’d only known him for a few weeks, but I just knew that this was right. I knew he was the answer in this world of everyone out to get me. I walked away from my father and twin. I knew, without a doubt, that...

  He turned swiftly to me, not touching.

  He looked me in the eye and let out a sigh. He smiled, just barely. “Yeah, I know,” he whispered down to my lap. “Do you regret it?”

  “No! Not at all! I just, didn’t know all this would happen when I came here! I am glad we're friends.” He gulped.

  I searched his face for answers.

  "I knew…I knew the day you showed up here. I followed you here, to this bench that day, do you remember?”

  How could I forget? I watched his eyes watch me. “I thought you hated me.”

  “Kind of right.”

  My worry eyebrows rose. He watched them go up.

  “I hated that you came, my father sounded so intent that it was my job to keep you safe from things he wouldn't say. I knew when I saw you that there something about you I’d never seen anything like you before and I just couldn’t walk away. I did, though. I waited till you gave me a reason to hate you. But it never came.”

  And then, the night we realized that we were meant to find each other, that no other person in this world would ever satisfy my curiosity like you had in three days time, I had to have you. I’m going out on a limb here, Stace.”