Leric’s nostrils flared, and he bared his teeth, hissing, “Do you want to know the difference between how women handle their issues and men do, my Chosen?”
I swallowed hard, shaking my head again against the debilitating power. “Leric…no…”
“Women talk through their issues while men,” he bent, glaring straight into my gaze, “beat the shit out of each other until one of them is dead.” A tiger’s furious snarl. “And it won’t be me.”
Sucking in oxygen, I forced peace down our bond, and he instantly jerked, his glow dimming, and he growled, “Stop that.” His narrowed gaze started to move the barest bit to my left…to Cain…but I jerked a wavering hand out, grabbing his chin, keeping his attention on me. Even when I pushed more peace, he growled, “You are fucking mine.”
Blinking blurrily, I whispered through our connection, “I am no more yours than you are mine.”
Chest heaving, he growled aloud, “Sex doesn’t make you his, either.” He jerked his face from my hand, and shot up from his chair, the back banging noisily on the ground, his tiger sounding furiously, but after staring at me for a long moment, he turned and quickly moved through the tables of those staring around us, Roselle and Reese both following at a distance, giving him space.
I stared after him for long moments, waiting until I saw him enter the hotel completely, then let my eyes close against the dizziness, holding my forehead, not bothering to move, not wanting to move yet.
Slowly, conversation picked up at the other tables, probably gossiping, but it was something other than the dreadful silence.
King Collins’s voice was quiet when he asked, “What the hell did I miss during that?”
Cain cleared his throat next to me, rubbing his thumb over my leg gently, stating gravelly, but lazily, “I believe he knows she’s sleeping with someone.”
I barely withheld my chuckle.
“I got that,” King Collins muttered dryly. “And Sin, even though you two hide it well, you might want to leave the Temple.”
Sin’s voice was utterly even. “Oh…I think I’ll stay awhile. I always enjoy a good challenge.”
My lips trembled the barest bit, but luckily no one could see it with my hair hanging.
King Collins muttered, “You’re fucking crazy.” He cleared his throat. “But anyway, how did he go from furious…to breakneck in less than a second?”
Ah…I had been wrong on how long it took. “I touched him.” I reached blindly for my water, keeping my eyes closed against the twirling, and felt Cain press it into my hand with his free one. I took a sip from it. “He went into my memories.” Another larger drink. “He saw everything and every time.”
Silence descended again while Cain’s hand tightened brutally on my leg.
Elder Farrar muttered, “Well…I bet that was one hell of a porno.”
“Christ,” King Collins muttered in reprimand. “A little tact, man.”
“I’m just saying…”
I did chuckle then, peeking my eyes open slowly, making sure the table in front of me wasn’t spinning too horribly. “And clearly, the peep show into my personal affairs was not well-received.” I rolled my head on my shoulders, trying to sit up straight. “Plus, his power packs a punch that leaves you winded.”
“You’re alright?” Cain asked brusquely, helping me straighten with gentle, but steady hands. “I knew he did something.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I muttered, shaking my head past the last of the remnants of Leric’s power, firmly ignoring how warm Cain’s palms felt as he lifted me slowly, and his scent that spiked the barest bit. “It just made me dizzy as hell.”
He grunted quietly, releasing me quickly…only to place his hand back on my leg under the table.
Elder Samson dipped his head to me, and I swear his gaze held respect I hadn’t seen there before. “You, Ms. Jules, handled the bond’s pull much better than he did.”
My brows lifted the barest bit even as I pressed my leg against Cain’s. “I’ll still kill her in a heartbeat if I see them together physically.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “Honestly, he held it together pretty damn well for what he viewed.”
“Yes, but you used your head while you faced her, unlike what he pulled from you. You know the boundaries of your bond, and you formulated a plan before anything unfortunate could happen.” He shrugged a negligent shoulder. “That was well done for someone of your age and situation.”
I grinned a bit. “And then, I got sloppy drunk.”
Golden brows rose. “As would anyone in your circumstance.” He stared pointedly, not falling for my act as so many others did. “Take the credit where it’s due, Ms. Jules.”
I grudgingly nodded with a heavy inhale. “Thank you.” I hated that shit, so I glanced to my other Lajaks, moving the topic. “I’ve still got money to blow…so…we’re going to hit the market again.” It was fabulous with antiques and handmade goods, but there were groans from all around. “Oh, quit whining and maybe I’ll buy each of you something.” I waggled my brows. “And a gift from me, is always a priceless treasure to hold close to your,” I touched my chest, “heart.”
Instantly, Elder Bridges appeared affronted, muttering, “We’re fucking screwed.”
King Collins nodded. “She’s got that look.”
I chuckled, raising my hands. “Oh, come on…I’m not that bad.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Now,” I clapped my hands delightedly after dinner…and after giving each of them their gift, “who wants to watch a movie?”
All scowled from their lazy positions about the room, no words uttered.
I wiggled my hips in my pajama shorts. “Or…who wants to go dancing?”
Their eyes narrowed further, because that meant they would be back on duty.
“Movie?” I gestured to the projector the hotel had instead of a television. “Or dancing…” More hula wiggling of my hips, turning in a full circle with the motion, grinning at them, then tossing my arms wide. “Your choice.”
Cain blinked, his hooded gaze lifting from my hips to my eyes, muttering gruffly, “Movie.”
The rest grunted in agreement, although, for a much different reason.
I shivered grandly, smiling happily. “I knew you’d pick that.” I turned, and bent, rifling through my bag of purchases, grabbing another acquisition I had bought. Turning back to them, I waggled it merrily, doing a little jig. “Who doesn’t love Humphrey Bogart, right?” I tapped the disk’s case. “It’s a two for one deal, so our evening is totally booked.”
As one, they all appeared pained.
I waggled a finger at them. “Only Sin’s allowed to wear that expression. He’s earned it.” I dragged one of the heavy dinette wooden chairs over into the middle of the room, grunting a bit with the effort, no one moving to help me. Glaring a bit, I hopped onto the chair and reached up to the projector…and couldn’t reach it. “Dammit,” I muttered, the thing way too high, and knowing I wasn’t going to get any help as they all watched on. I jumped. And barely kept from falling off the chair while landing, almost reaching the button. Digging my heals in, I bent low, then jumped, reaching…and my fingernail scraped it…right before I fell in a tumbling mess onto the ground, yelping when my shin slammed against the chair.
Cain’s voice was dry. “Are you alright?”
“Kiss my ass,” I muttered, blushing furiously, shaking my head a bit on the ground, and stood to limp over to the bar. I chose the longest liquor bottle I could find, then proceeded to limp back to the chair. I stood on it, this time carefully jumping with my arm extended with the bottle, and bam…the compartment for the disk extended. “Yeah! Who’s your bitch!”
I hopped down, getting rid of the bottle…grinning victoriously…and noticed my movie case was gone. I blinked, and instantly made my chin wobble, turning my back to them after a moment. My breath hiccupping. “I just…I just wanted to watch,” a shuddering breath, “a movie.” I waved a hand. “It’s been so…hard�
��you know?” I shook my shoulders the barest bit, letting my head fall into my hands, making myself feel—had to with this crowd—a sliver of forced pain, remembering an old painful memory, one of the many I kept locked away, the type you deal with, then try to move past.
“I’m sorry.” King Zeller blurred next to my side, a breeze ruffling my hair, holding the movie. “That was rude, and very inconsiderate.” He handed me the case, and rubbed on my back a bit woodenly, like he didn’t do well with criers. “It’ll get better.”
As he moved away, I heard Sin groan quietly, and I turned, eyes shimmering in hilarity, and started doing a little cowboy dance behind the King’s retreating back. My King and the Elders’ faces were priceless while they watched on, Sin only glaring at King Zeller, rubbing his forehead. King Zeller froze, and turned in a whirl, his eyes going wide. I grinned cheekily, and finished my little dance. “Your wallet, knocked your ass out, and tricked you. You’re falling behind in the count.” I bowed grandly. “With great respect, of course.” Elder Bridges and Brann both started choking on chuckles, earning a glare from King Zeller, but I explained when he peered back to me, “One, I’m a woman. Two, I’m a spirit. Three, my life has sucked a big one. Subterfuge is native to my very being, and a must for survival.” I waggled my shoulders as I moved to the chair, smiling happily. “And you just fell for my fav-or-ite trick.”
“But,” he sat heavily on the recliner, “you were honestly upset.”
“Her third point. Her life has sucked,” Sin stated slowly, still glaring at him. “She knows what to use when it’s needed to get what she wants.” He waved an irritated hand at me as I jumped and put the movie into place. “And now, we’re all stuck watching three fun filled hours of mush because you fell for tears that weren’t even falling.”
When everyone glared at King Zeller, I waved a hand, jumping down from the chair. “Don’t blame him. You were all thinking the same thing.” I proceeded to move the chair out of everyone’s way.
“Not me,” Sin muttered grumpily.
“Given,” I stated easily, and turned the projector on with a remote, black and white stilled images flashing on the white screen as I flicked the lights off. “Now, make room.” I waved my hands between King Collins and Cain on the couch. “This is going to be so much fun!” I hopped a bit, truly appreciating all their revolted expressions. “Like a big slumber party of Royals, but with actual wholesome good times.”
Elder Samson flicked a finger at me. “You’re getting your own damn room at the other cities.”
My eyes instantly gleamed, and I heard many a groan from whatever they saw on my face. “But…you can all protect me so much better if I’m sleeping in the same room as you.” I wiggled down into place between my King and Cain, stretching my legs out in front of me. “And think of all the money I’ll save you when you inevitably try your hand at gambling with the spirits again!” I pressed another button, turning the film on. “It’ll be a blast.”
King Collins held up the silk white scarf I had gotten each of them. “You don’t really want us to wear these, do you?”
All eyes turned to me.
“You can if you want to. It may actually work fashion-wise with what I have to wear.” I waved an absent hand. “And, if you didn’t notice, they’re all embroidered, personalized with my own brand of my likeness for each of you.” And in black, the woman actually having colored thread to do so with at the market.
Instantly, everyone started covertly searching for their scarf in the dimness of the room, lit only by the movie that was starting, trying to discover what I had written about them, the writing small and hard to find.
I heard a few grunts, even a couple of chuckles, my King actually sniffing once when he found my message, and Cain’s wolf huffing quietly as he stared at the message for long moments.
His simply reading, My Badass Wolf Man.
Covertly, I watched a bit warily, but relaxed in slow increments when he draped the scarf around his throat casually, not recoiling from it, even as King Collins draped his over his knees very carefully, my King stating on a gruff voice, “I’m sure I can work it some way.”
I patted his arm, trying to not fall against Cain when he stretched his arms over the back of the couch, his heat penetrating fiercely, his warm flesh rubbing against my shoulders, and told my King, but I was telling everyone, “Only if you want to. It’s not one of those gifts you have to wear to make me feel better. But,” I flicked a finger at everyone, “if you are going to trash it, just don’t do so in front of me, because that’s just inconsiderate.” I heard “Thank you’s” all around for the first time, but I waved a hand for them to be quiet, hitting a button on the remote. “None of that, gentlemen. We have two shows to watch, which demand utter silence and respect. Prepare to be amazed with the magnificence that was Humphrey Bogart.”
The next day each of them wore their scarf, whether it be as a belt, under their collars, as a shoelace, or even a bandana, but I much preferred Cain’s way, wrapped around his wrist, hooking through the thick black leather wristband he wore, nice and neat, but noticeable on his left arm, his black shirt sleeves pushed up on his muscled forearms, the light color fierce against his olive skin tone and the black stallions my Lajaks had been gifted. Although Leric continued to glance at it while riding, his eyes narrowed, he on my right, Cain on my left—as normal for my guard…but Leric had no room to talk since Lissa had joined our traveling group, staying respectively back on her white horse, on the far side of Roselle and Reese, apparently her position having been somewhat of an executive assistant to Leric, so I let it slide as long as they kept their interaction respectful, which they managed to do, her gaze always a bit wary on me, one of her first intelligent actions so far.
“We need a healer!” Leric bellowed while I hung precariously around his neck inside the pitch black cave, my body dangling behind him into the depths of Barren, almost to the top, three weeks after we had come to the Temple. “Caro’s injured!”
I heard shouting from above in my dazed mind, doing all I could physically just to hang onto Leric as he continued climbing out of the abyss of obscurity, but also, having to keep a tight rein magically on our tether together so he didn’t feel any of this horrendous pain. If I hadn’t trusted him before, I undoubtedly did now. He hadn’t left me behind when I had been lying, dying on the damn bloody dirt. Instead, he had roared in fury, and sliced and maimed and destroyed in outbreak speed, killing everyone he could even as he carried me back to the cave’s entrance, leaving a wake of death in his trail.
Thoughts in a mess as they normally were when I exited the Barren, my added profuse, and prolonged, blood loss, my life’s blood still trickling down my body, dripping off my toes into the Barren, I shouted on a choke when Leric bumped me again as he climbed. He heaved in a breath, hanging onto the wall with one hand, grabbing my arms when they slackened around his throat, ordering gruffly, “Hang on, kitten. We’re almost there.”
“Hurry,” I groaned on a slur. “Gonna…pass out.”
“Just hang on,” he barked, and continued climbing at his fast clip.
“What’s wrong with her?” I heard Elder Farrar’s voice shout from above. “I can’t see shit.”
“Move back! All of you,” a male’s voice—probably a Guardian—snarled. “He sounded like he’s almost here.”
“Give me a hand,” Leric ordered gruffly.
I peered up, blinking blurrily, but only seeing darkness as Leric extended his arm, but suddenly we were being boosted out of the darkness easily, and I saw it was Cain who had lifted us from the depths, his jaw clenched tight, setting us on the ground with little effort, his gaze instantly flying over me where I hung onto Leric, my arms cramped around his neck.
“Christ,” Elder Farrar’s voice muttered from behind me, and I felt him start to pry my arms off Leric, my gaze trapped on Cain’s. “You got stabbed? You said they didn’t have weapons in the Barren!”
Cain’s nostrils flared, and he re
leased his hold on Leric when he steadied on his knees, moving around behind me to see the damage, Guardians and Lajaks surrounding us.
“I have to close…the door,” I mumbled as they started laying my limp frame back. “The…door.”
“I’ve got it, kitten. Just relax,” Leric stated in my mind.
“Okay,” I mumbled, blinking blurrily, staring up at Cain where he knelt beside my head, staring at my stomach, not moving except to place a hand on my forehead. “Doesn’t hurt…much…anymore.”
Elder Farrar’s hands were glowing over my stomach, and he shook his head. “It’s not fucking healing.” His glowing gaze snapped up over my head. “Elder Samson, get down here.”
The ground shook, the sound of the door slamming, and Leric shouted, “It won’t help.” A pause. “How far off is a healer?”
“Less than five minutes,” a male stated.
“Why won’t it help?” Elder Samson asked, already kneeling next to Cain, his glowing hands also over me. His gaze pensive, and a shake of his head. “She should be healing.”
Leric fell to his knees beside my head, next to Elder Farrar, knocking Cain’s hand off my forehead to run his own hand over my head in gentle strokes, earning a very quiet growl from Cain, but Cain didn’t push, listening to Leric when he explained, “The man turned her own sword on her while it was still in her hand, still being driven with her own power, a self-inflicted injury.” He shook his blood-covered white rolls. “In other words, a spirit’s magical choice. It’s not an injury a Mage, or even I, can fix. We need an actual fucking doctor to heal her.”
Cain rolled with the punches even as my vision started to dim, staring back to my injury, running his hand through his tight black curls while the other Lajaks froze in comprehension. “She’s lost too much blood. She’ll need a transfusion, too.”
“I know this,” Leric growled at him, but quickly ran a hand over his face, glancing down to me, taking his eyes off Cain. “That was damn sloppy, kitten.”
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