by A. Star
“I thought you might be awake by now. Sorry about your headache.” A tall, slender woman approached the bed.
“This should help with that." She held her hand out to Kimani. Two tiny white pills rested in the center of her palm.
Kimani frowned and shook her head. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sarai.” She nodded toward the pills. “These really are just pain pills. I’m not gonna hurt you. I was just following instructions before.”
Kimani clamped her mouth shut and stared, wishing she could get her hands free and around Sarai’s long neck.
She heard noise outside the door and Sarai stood just as Ahkil walked in.
Kimani glanced at Sarai and noticed the woman had crossed her arms and was rolling her eyes at Ahkil. She could tell by his expression that they were conversing telepathically, just as he did with her in his panther form.
“Hey! If you two are talking about me, I’d like to be in on it. What the hell’s going on and who should I kick first for giving me this headache?”
Ahkil winced, glanced at Sarai, then nodded towards the door for her to leave.
Sarai turned toward Kimani again, an odd frown on her face as she twisted her mouth.
Kimani glared at Ahkil. “What the hell, Ahkil? Spill it! And don’t talk in my head, either. I know that’s what you and Sarai were just doing. So is she a panther, too? Your wife or something?” The thought of him having a wife sent excruciating pain through her entire body and she forgot about her headache for a moment.
Ahkil smiled. “Sarai is my cousin. Our mothers are sisters, and I don’t have a wife or mate.”
He sat beside her on the bed and gently took her hands in his to untie them, running his thumb over her skin. The simple action sent intermittent vibrations straight to her center and she couldn’t help swiveling her hips a bit to ease the tension building there.
He stood and moved to the foot of the bed to untie her feet. “You’re not gonna kick me as soon as I set you free, are you?”
“I don’t know yet. It’s according to how well you answer my questions. Start talking.”
His only response was “Mmm” before he finally proceeded.
“I never meant for you to get hurt, and I didn’t know you when I asked Sarai to help me.”
“What are you talking about?” Kimani sat up and placed her feet on the floor. “Help you do what?”
“This.” He motioned to the bed and the room. “Before we met, I orchestrated this whole kidnapping the breeder thing with an underground group of humans I’ve crossed paths with before, but I didn’t know you. I asked Sarai to find out more about them for me.”
“You keep saying that and I still don’t know what you’re talking about. What does this ‘underground group’ want with me?”
“They don’t believe in the whole harvesting practice and neither do I. They live as humans used to live long ago and remove the burden of saving the world. You would choose a mate and live a normal life.”
Kimani spoke as if she was talking to herself. “Instead of the breeder colony.” She touched his arm, sparks palpable between them despite the rising nausea that always accompanied her emotional pain. “Why? Do you hate us that much?” She feared she already knew the answer, but needed to hear him say it. Her heart started to shatter. How could she feel what she did for him when he hated her and everyone like her?
“No! Have I treated you like I hate you? I already told you I didn’t know you yet.”
He remained beside her on the edge of the bed. “You know that. I didn’t want you to make it to the colony to save more humans, but not for the reasons you think.”
“So what am I thinking, Ahkil?” She hated the tears tightening her throat.
“I don’t hate you, Kimani.” His voice softened. “How could you not know that?”
He stood, his back to her. “I just don’t like the way humans exploit everything and everyone, even their own.”
He turned to face her again. “Just because you were born with healing blood doesn’t mean you should allow them to lock you up in a test tube so they can use you to extend their selfish lives. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to have a family or have a mate of your own or never know the touch of a man who cares about you.”
Kimani stood and wrapped her arms around herself.
“When I agreed to take you to the colony it was my opportunity to intercede, and Sarai agreed to help. At first, I admit I just wanted to keep one breeder out of harvester hands, but…”
“But what? Why did you change your mind?”
He sighed. “I didn’t change my mind. I still don’t want you in harvester hands, but I couldn’t let the underground group take you either.”
“Oh.” A strange mixture of fear and excitement nearly paralyzed her. She didn’t want to read more into his words than she should, but some things were becoming painfully clear–mainly, her unwanted feelings for him. She took a step toward him.
“You seem to have some pretty strong opinions about who should be allowed to keep me and where I should go. Bagdi gave me a good life and I never doubted her love for me, but I always knew most of the world thought of me as a commodity to be used for their purposes, and you’re doing the same thing. She raised me to believe you couldn’t be my enemy, but right now I’m not so sure.”
Kimani started pacing back and forth, glaring at Ahkil from time to time, her arms still wrapped protectively around her torso, but deep down she knew he didn’t want to hurt her. So why do I feel so afraid?
“I actually listened to you when you suggested I could have a family of my own, that I actually had a choice because that’s what I wanted to believe. You have no idea how desperately I want to believe you. Why didn’t you just hand me over to the underground group? I never would have had to know you’d betrayed me if you’d just let them take me.”
She whispered the last sentence, her anger dissolving seamlessly into defeat. Even if he had allowed the ‘underground humans’ to take her, she never would have been able to rest without knowing he was alive and unharmed. Stupid. My first love and he can’t be trusted.
She wrapped her arms around her torso and toed the floor, unable to look at him following what she’d just admitted to herself. Love?
Before she could stop him, Ahkil closed the distance between them and wrapped her in his muscular arms and held her in an iron grip.
She should have pulled away. Every ounce of pride she could muster screamed in outrage as her body melded to his, her head resting against his chest. The strong, accelerated beat of his heart was like chocolate to her senses and she couldn’t move away from him. In fact, she wanted to be even closer.
Kimani wasn’t sure how long they stood there, but it felt right. Despite everything, she was meant to be right where she was.
Ahkil slid his hand down her back and leaned back with a heavy sigh. “So where do you want me to take you? You tell me. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
She looked up then, the warmth in his beautiful green eyes encouraging. “You will?”
“I will.”
“You never answered my question. If you thought I’d be better off with the underground people, why didn’t you just hand me over to them?”
Ahkil slid his index fingers across her brows, caressing her skin as he made the shape of a heart with his hands, framing her face. She didn’t think he could hold her any tighter, but he did, lifting her feet from the floor and sliding her body against his as he dipped his head.
Her burka was no protection from the fire that lit between them when he claimed her mouth with his own, gentle at first, then nudged her lips apart to slide his tongue inside.
Kimani’s body came alive at his heavenly exploration, nerve endings firing in places she’d tried to forget she had. There was no place for desire or longing in the altruistic life of a breeder. In order to be harvested, her blood had to remain pure, untouched, untainted. The decision she made this instant could cha
nge her life forever.
She pressed her palms to his chest until he stopped and allowed her body to slide down, her feet touching the floor again.
She couldn’t ignore his accelerated heartbeat, but just like before, she didn’t want to read too much into his reaction.
He stepped back, maintaining contact with her by caressing the neckline of her burka. “I didn’t hand you over to the underground group because I couldn’t. Do you really think after all the years I’ve traveled this path I routinely stumble over nails? I couldn’t watch where I was going because I was too busy watching you.
“My panther took over, and instinct had you on my back and up the baobab before I could think about it. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I couldn’t let you go, and I don’t want to let you go, now. What better place is there for a breeder than with a guardian?” He hesitated. “I don’t want you to feel trapped, so if you still want me to take you to the colony, I will.”
She smiled and stepped closer, enjoying his hands on her body. “I’m starting to think this whole ‘untouched’ thing is overrated.”
Ahkil smiled, lifting her from the floor again and carrying her to the bed. He gently placed her on her back, sat beside her and slowly lifted her burka, his gaze locked on her. “My thoughts exactly. Let’s start by getting rid of this, shall we?”
“I can’t travel without my--”
“I’ll get you as many ugly dresses and head coverings as you need, whenever you need them. I like being the only one who gets to see how beautiful you are.”
Kimani laughed, a nervous rush of air. Her stomach fluttered. Ahkil slowly slid his tongue across his pointed incisors, and nothing else mattered as she reached for him. In his eyes, she saw the promise of a future she’d always wanted.
~*~ The End ~*~
About the Author: Dariel loves books, animals, and all things paranormal. Dariel has written articles for The News Item of Mobile, and Black Health Magazine of Atlanta. A classically trained pianist and vocalist with a degree in piano and vocal performance and a master’s in counseling psychology, she completed studies for a Ph.D. with the exception of her dissertation, and finally stopped due to kidney failure/dialysis. She is presently writing a shifter romance series, “Dark Sentinels,” and two Nephilim series, “The Alerians” and “Children of Cain.” Lives with two large dogs and a passel of black cats. To learn more about Dariel and her books, visit her blog.
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“You do realize that this is completely insane, right?” Cade asked Gareth, his best friend, with his thick arms crossed across his chest.
Gareth sighed heavily, because he couldn’t pretend this wasn’t the third or fourth time Cade had said that or some version of that since they had come outside. Parked at the curb of his paved circular driveway, he waited for his car and driver to return from the airport with...her.
Cade huffed again. Despite a decade since leaving college football behind for law school, the dark-skinned man still looked like he played. And maybe even at the college level. Did the man never age? “This is nuts and I can’t believe that I helped you to do it faster.”
With another sigh of his own, Gareth looked up at Cade. In his own college football days, Gareth had never had to do that. But, times change. “I pay you very well to help me, even when I’m being insane,” he pointed out.
“I did it because you’re my friend, not because you pay me,” Cade muttered. “No other lawyer would put up with you, and for a lawyer, that’s saying a lot.” He lowered his arms to his sides as he turned. “This is basically slavery. You’re buying a human being.”
Gareth looked down the driveway, waiting to see the car. “I am not,” he replied, almost petulantly on the verge of being offended. “I bought her a plane ticket.”
One dark brow arched steeply on Cade’s face. “You’re bribing her with a green card.”
To that, Gareth couldn’t respond immediately. It was the craziest thing he’d ever done in his life and he knew it. That included the lunatic teenage years and most of four years of college.
Who would have ever thought he’d get...a Russian mail order bride. But no, he reminded himself that it was a bad term for it, and not even accurate. Just archaic and firmly trapped in the common lexicon.
“You’re making this sound like it’s a crime,” Gareth said. “We’re not doing anything illegal—”
“That’s a little sketchy.”
“—or immoral.” Gareth frowned deeply. “We’re two consenting adults who’ve made a decision. Who have talked, at length, with each other and like each other. What’s so wrong with that?” Even as he said it, he wondered if he was really trying to convince Cade or if he was trying to convince himself. Sitting here, waiting on the car, the whole thing just felt crazier and crazier. But that was probably just his anxiety talking.
Cade sighed, dropping his head. “You know, Gareth, when I told you that you needed to get a social life and get back into the world, maybe date, this wasn’t what I had in mind.” He briefly glanced at the curb with a sort of longing in his eyes, like he wanted to sit down but knew the concrete wouldn’t be kind to his expensive suit. Form won out over function, and he remained standing.
They were saved from further conversation when the car pulled into the drive. Gareth felt his breath catch in his throat, experiencing a surge of nerves unlike anything he’d felt in ten years. Every rotation of the tires amped up the pounding his heart and made his breathing bottom out even further.
“Oh God, Cade,” he murmured. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
“This is a great time to think that.” His friend was no help at all, but then, what could he expect him to do?
The dark car came to a stop right in front of him and he stopped breathing all together as the driver’s side door opened. Sandra (his driver) stepped out and came around to open up the back passenger door.
If Gareth thought he’d start breathing again when this moment passed, he was wrong.
First to emerge were a pair of long, slender, pale legs. They ended in sneakers, but that didn’t seem to effect the tone and elegance of the limbs. The pair drew out an equally elegant body dressed in Capri pants and a white blouse. He had seen her in pictures, and they had spoken over video, but they had never met in person and the images could never have conveyed the reality.
The woman standing before him was tall and toned, not voluptuous but not boyish. Her face was strong, with good cheekbones, slightly wide-set eyes and an almost feline nose. Hair so blonde it was almost white cascaded around either side of her face. Her nearly black eyes met his eyes first, which was refreshing, and their meeting look sent a shock of electricity racing through him, because what his heart needed was more juice.
As was inevitable, however, those eyes quickly dropped and latched onto the wheel chair he sat in. As that was usually people’s first sight, he was grateful she had been different, but wished that it didn’t have to be so. Suddenly he wished it more than he ever had since his injury had first happened.
After a moment, her eyes lifted to his again and that electricity returned. He forced himself to breathe. “Hello, Irina,” he said, a bit hoarsely. “It’s good to meet you in person.”
She smiled and his breath left his body again. Her eyes glimmered with knowing, though what she knew, he didn’t. “It is good to meet you, Gareth,” she said, in clear but strongly accented English. He waited for her reaction, surprised that he hadn’t seen it in her yet. “It seems that you did forget to mention a thing or two,” she said, but without remonstration for his rather grievous oversight.
He hadn’t mentioned the chair.
Shocking him to the ends of his hair, she leaned forward and touched his cheek while kissing the other.
Gareth didn’t know what to say. Her lac
k of anger made him feel almost ashamed of keeping it secret, though Bobby had suggested he hadn’t told her to give himself an “out.” And maybe he was right, but the thrumming in his chest definitely didn’t suggest he wanted out of it.
Sandra pulled a single suitcase from the trunk and set it down beside Irina. Gareth, relieved for the distraction, looked at it and then back at her.
“Is that all you brought?” he asked.
“I do not own many things,” she explained. “What could not travel well, I took care of before I left Moscow.”
Cade cleared his throat and Gareth’s head snapped around. He had totally forgotten that his friend was there... “Oh, yes, right,” he coughed. “This is Cade Morgan, my best friend and attorney.”
Irina smiled politely and extended her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Morgan.”
“You can call me Cade,” he said, taking her hand with a guarded but polite smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. Gareth has told me...well, almost nothing about you. He’s a close-mouthed bastard that way.”
Gareth almost punched him, but Irina laughed warmly. Truly warmly, in fact. Gareth felt warmth wash down from his head to every part of his body that still had feeling. And almost a few that didn’t. “Perhaps he simply wanted to keep me all to himself.” Light glittered in her dark eyes and Cade was surprised for a moment before he laughed as well.
“Perhaps he did,” he agreed. “Why don’t we go inside?”
“Good idea,” Gareth said quickly. “I can show you to your room so you can put your things away.” He wheeled around and started up the ramp into his sprawling one story home. Irina walked side by side with him. Apparently Cade had taken her bag for her, and it irked Gareth that he hadn’t thought of that.
Awkward silence fell over them as they walked. After all, how did one proceed with this sort of thing? ‘Hello, welcome to America, let’s get married.’