by Lisa Daniels
“If I recall, those games were incredibly dangerous. I will expect you to keep that promise.” She hugged her friend again. Then Saffron turned and left Bree standing beside a fork in the road.
As soon as her friend was out of sight, Bree’s shoulder’s sagged. She really did not have time to stop and rest, but there was no way she could keep going. Promising herself that she would make up the time later, Bree moved into the woods and found a small grassy knoll. Lying down, she wrapped herself up in a wraith cocoon. Feeling adequately secure, the young woman closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep.
Several hours passed in a fit full sleep. The nightmare she had had ever since she was a child played through her mind’s eyes causing Bree to wake with a start. Her heart was racing as her mind tried to remember where she was. Completely disoriented, Bree felt arms wrap around her from the back. Her brain went into overdrive, and the young woman immediately tried to calm herself. Panicking first thing after waking often resulted in something or someone catching fire.
A warm voice spoke calming words, “It’s ok. You fell asleep in the woods and now you are waking.”
“How long as it been?”
“I do not know when you went to sleep, but it has been at least 24 hours since you left Kildeer.”
Bree was on her feet in an instant. “Oh gods! They will have decided that I failed by now. I needed to check in last night. Shit! Shit!” Bree ran her hands through her hair. Failure was not something she had ever experienced because the death was a strong incentive to succeed.
“You are a sorceress. What do you have to fear of humans?”
Bree stared at the ground, “Who said that I am dealing with humans?”
There was a pause. It was then that she realized she had no idea who had been holding her. A face immediately popped into her head. At first it made her smile, but that soon faded as she realized that had been the start of her failure. Slowly she turned. Leaning up against the tree was the man who had called himself Calixto.
All of the warmth was gone from his voice as he spoke, “Good morning my dear. I hope there is a very good explanation for what you have been up to.”
Chapter 7
A Devoted Companion
Bree’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the man. “I should have a good explanation? This from the man whose name I don’t even know?”
His brow creased as he took a step forward. “I told you I am Calixto. Dux Calixto if you want my official title.”
There was something about the title that struck a chord of recognition, but Bree was too angry to think about it as she looked into the man’s perfect face. She wanted to punch it. Since physical strength was not one of her skills, the young woman went for the next best thing, “And you told Saffron that you were Teagan. What other names do you use? And why the hell should I believe anything you tell me?”
A spark of realization flashed over his face and the corners of his mouth twitched as he watched Bree get angry. “Ah, so you sent her to distract me.”
“She volunteered,” the red head snapped. There were alarm bells going off in her head, but for the first time in years Bree found herself getting emotional.
“Ha. Volunteered. I would not be surprised, that human is a flirt that could rival you any day.”
Bree’s hands clenched as she glared at the man, “What the hell do you want? Or do you just like to stalk the women you sleep with?”
A look of anger passed over the man’s face as he looked down at her. For a moment, Bree felt a sense of victory. Then he burst out laughing. “I'm here to take what’s mine.”
“Then you had best get moving so that you can find it.” There was a threat in her voice that Bree had only used a handful of times before.
He gave her a no nonsense look.
Bree bristled, “I know that you don’t mean me.”
“Have you stopped to consider your body since you left me in a dark cave?” While her words were hot and threatening, his were cold and venomous.
“I don’t feel anything different after our night.” That was not true, but she was afraid of letting him know just how unsettled she had been.
He sighed and looked at her as if she were a child. Then he ran a hand over his face before answering, “I should have known not to get involved with you. I….” his eyes watched her. Clenching his teeth the man looked at her, “Take a moment to examine yourself.”
Bree spun on her heels, “I do not have time because I am currently being persuaded by a few demons.”
The man gave her a look of disbelieve, “You were working for demons?”
“Are you going to tell me that they are not worthy of help?”
“No. I would tell you that you are insane for offering help to a creature that will kill you for something stupid, like not checking in by a certain time.”
It was difficult to disagree with his argument in her current situation. She had accepted the job because she had been bored and it was a challenge that seemed likely to keep her entertained. Looking back over it, Bree could not deny that she had been getting increasingly reckless in her choice of clients.
Placing her hands on her hips, Bree looked at the man, “Sometimes there simply isn’t much work out there.”
“You have nearly unlimited power, so I’ve no doubt that you can be gainfully employed all the time if you wanted.” He tilted his head to the side, “Are you saying you took a job with demons because you were bored?”
Bree laughed, “That is exactly what I am saying. Now that you see what kind of girl I am, you can feel free to scamper away without giving me a second thought.”
“Except that I can’t.”
“Stop following me.” Her voice was low and threatening again.
“I. Can’t.” He responded as if she were being ridiculous.
“You mean you don’t want to.”
“No. I mean exactly what I said. Stop and assess your body and you will understand what I mean.”
Bree glared at him for a moment before closing her eyes. At first she was too annoyed to notice a few little signs, but as soon as her mind started to properly explore her composition, there were some obvious changes. Her eyes flew open, “What in the hell did you do to me?”
“I asked you if you wanted to be mine. Not only did you say yes, you thanked me for it. How was that not agreeing to be my mate?” His red eyes flashed like fire.
“What kind of backward creature takes that as a vow to be someone’s spouse?”
“You aren’t my spouse. You are my mate. And the fact that we mated after you agreed showed that you accepted it.”
Bree was about to take a step back, to turn and run away from him.
I really hope you find your peace and finally have a chance to stop running away.
Brandon’s words rang in her mind, and Bree decided to stand her ground. If she was going to find peace, she needed to stop running. She always played things off like she was ok, that nothing bothered her, but things did bother her, and she was not ok. Her behavior had been getting increasingly more dangerous, not just for her, but for everyone. Bree was bored, and she had no idea how to deal with it.
And now that she realized that, the young woman was starting to feel afraid.
None of this showed in her response, “Get rid of your mark.”
“I can’t.” The man’s perfect face was emotionless now.
“Are you so incompetent that you don’t know how.”
His nostrils flared for a moment before he responded, “I am not incompetent.”
“Are you being vindictive? Is this your way of getting back at me for leaving you?”
He blinked once, as if her question was ridiculous. His answer was slow as he said, “If I had known you were going to leave me the next morning, do you think that I would have mated with you at all?”
The question was like a punch to the gut. Bree was accustomed to men wanting to sleep with her. Even the ones who claimed they didn’t want to had alwa
ys taken her in the end. The idea that anyone would actually refuse her seemed impossible.
Then she remembered her conversation with Leo. These were a different kind of shifter, the kind who did not take sex lightly.
“What kind of creatures are you that you fight the urge to mate?”
His cold look showed Calixto’s regret very clearly, “We do not resist the urge to mate. We are very picky about the kind of person we will allow to see us be so vulnerable.”
Again, Bree’s thoughts were knocked off kilter.
Calixto continued, “We are picky because we want to do what is best for ourselves and the world we live in. Desperate creatures with miniscule life spans are the only kind that mate with anything that moves. I had not realized that you associated with them so closely.”
Bree sneered at him, “So you regret it as much as I do. All you have to do is remove your mark, and we both stand a chance at being happy.”
He snorted at the idea but said nothing.
Telling herself that she was not running away, Bree turned and stormed off into the forest. A few moments later, she heard Calixto following her. She spun around and snarled at him, “Stop following me like some love sick little puppy.”
His only response was to watch her with disdain.
The woman raised her hand, a fireball at the ready, “I am warning you, shifter, I have just about-”
The ground erupted around her and the air became thick with debris and larvae. Bree extinguished the fire ball and immediately put up a shield around herself. From where she stood, the young woman could see Calixto trying to cover his face. The problem was that these larvae were a unique kind of parasite. If he inhaled even one, it would kill him. Without thinking, Bree reached out a hand and wrapped the air around him, her field stretched along the extended hand and carefully enveloped the man. Having to stretch her shield so thin was going to make the rest tricky. She would need to move fast because all magic had a time limit, and the more it was used, the faster it would be used up. Her feet lifted off of the ground a few inches, and Bree pushed the air so that it shot her and Calixto through the mess that was still erupting into the air. Keeping them suspended over the ground, the young woman began to sweat as the effort took a large toll. Still she kept pressing them further from the forest and the danger.
It was only when they reached a river that she finally dropped them to the ground. She nearly fell over, but strong arms stopped her. She felt a the voice through Calixto’s chest, “We need to get washed off.” He picked her up and began to pull her clothing off.
Struggling against him, Bree protested, “Get your hands off of me.”
“Sure thing.” The next thing she knew, she was falling through the air. The gasp she made at the initial release was soon covered as she splashed into the water. The young woman rose from the water, her face red from the cold and her anger on the verge of being released.
She saw Calixto standing on the beach undressing himself. He turned a bit so that she could not see his front. With caution he walked backward into the water. Bree knew that it was a sign that he had no respect for her. He considered her so far beneath him that she wasn’t even a threat.
In that instant, she wanted to attack him. Her hands pulled forth a giant fist and she was about ready to slam it into him when she noticed him pitch forward into the water. It was the first symptom that came with the infection.
Her anger immediately disappeared as Bree raced forward. She pulled Calixto’s head above water and immediately began to give him mouth to mouth. The larvae should be attracted to her as a greater source of power, but it soon proved a much more difficult fight than she had expected. There were only a few instances of anyone being cured after being exposed, and they all proved that the larvae would detach from the host to seek out the stronger force. They would feed off of the power source until they were ready to change into devils. It was creepy and revolting. No matter how she felt about Calixto, Bree could not condemn him to the fate that came with this kind of infection.
Treading water, she continued to coax the larvae out through his mouth. At first it didn’t seem to work. Then she felt the wiggle of a tiny thing on her tongue. Quickly she pulled her mouth away from Calixto’s and she spat the thing out into the water. Her mouth went back to work as she created a small hand with the water that crushed the tiny creature.
She had no idea how long it took, but she managed to pull three of them out of his body. His breathing began to sound normal, and she finally allowed herself to relax. Gently, she held him in the water until he regained consciousness.
She did not see when his eyes opened as Bree kept Calixto’s head tilted away from her. His head quickly snapped up and he move away from her like she was a serpent.
“You’re welcome,” she said and swam away. “Go get dressed and then get lost.”
There was a loud sigh before he said exactly what she expected, “I can’t.”
“Then you accept that you are probably going to die with me because the demons are not going to stop trying to kill me?” She wanted to turn and look at him, but found that it was nearly impossible to look the man in the eye. It was her fault that he had nearly died, without any warning. The first time was her fault. With this warning, she was absolving herself from whatever happened if he refused to leave her.
"You can insist all you want, but I cannot just leave your side.”
“Fine. When you die, it’s on your head.” She began to swim to the opposite bank when his low voice reached her.
“Yes, it will be.”
She paused for a moment to ponder his words. Either he was too stubborn and was willing to accept death as the price. Or he actually cared about her and wasn’t willing to let her go it alone. The mere thought that he actually cared caused her to laugh.
She could hear him walking out of the water on the other side as she reached the bank. The young woman walked a short distance and dried her clothes with a simple spell that would not attract much attention. A quick smile flashed over her face as she marveled at how well made the dress was to have survived everything it had experienced in the last hour. “I really owe you Isaac.”
A sudden gust of air gave her a momentary chill, but it stopped nearly as quickly as it had started.
Calixto appeared beside her, “Do you really think you will survive this to be able to repay anyone?”
Bree was immediately on the defensive, “I’m not the one who failed to cover my face when the larvae spewed out of the ground.
“I’m not the one with boundless knowledge about what to be wary of when dealing with something beyond my control.”
Bree glared at the man’s cold face. “Despite being a complete bastard, you are welcome.”
She was trying to walk away from him when his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. It forced her to turn and look at him. “I am not a bastard like you. Like all of my kind, my birth was planned. But thank you for saving my life.” His voice changed ever so slightly as he expressed his gratitude.
“Are you quite done?” She allowed her anger to simmer under the surface.
Calixto looked into her eyes and nodded.
“Good, because that was hardly a significant attack. It won’t take them long to come up with the next one. If possible, I would like to reach a temporary haven before they prepare whatever they plan to do next.”
“And you know of one near here?” The man’s voice was emotionless as she asked.
“It isn’t too far.”
“If we flew, it would reduce the amount of time, nearly assuring us that we would reach it in safety.”
Bree rolled her eyes, “I’m a sorceress, not a fairy. I can’t fly.”
“But you just did.”
“That was basic levitation, not flying. It only works over very short distances. It would not get us a quarter of the way there, even if I had my full power at this moment, which I do not. And right now, the use of any magic is a really bad idea. The demons wil
l be able to pinpoint us long before we could reach the haven.”
“So we must get there by foot, without magic. Oh, this is going to be fun.” His voice oozed sarcasm.
“No one is forcing you to stay with me, sugar lips.” Bree didn’t even look at the man when he stopped.
“I doubt there is another creature alive who would consider calling me that.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Bree replied without looking over her shoulder.
She paused as the man openly laughed. “Are you insane?” Her voice was raised, “We have got to get moving. There is no time to stand around laughing.”
He gave her a meaningful grin, “No one is forcing you to stop, my dear.”
Bree gave a derisive snort as she tried to dismiss his retort. “You are the height of wisdom and wit.”
“And you are the epitome of wild and reckless.”
“I have a friend you should meet if you think that is true.”
“Do you mean Leonides?” Calixto’s voice was chilly as he asked.
Bree could see the look he was giving her out of the corner of his eye. It looked like he was jealous. A small smile played on her lips for a moment until he spoke again.
“I really like Leonides. He’s every bit the kind of man I wish I could be. Any woman would be lucky to have him.”
“I must agree with that.” Bree thought about her time with the man, but found that she couldn’t quite remember what he looked like. She frowned as she tried to remember his masculine features. Every time she tried to remember what he looked like, Calixto’s face appeared. It was the first time that Bree realized she had spent more time memorizing the face of the man beside her than she had ever spent studying anyone. Her heart clenched at the realization.
“Unfortunately, you are not his type, so even if you didn’t have my mark, you wouldn’t have stood a chance with him.” Calixto continued after a pause.
“What makes you say that?”
“He is the most cold and calculating person I have ever met. Mercy and kindness never affect his decision. It is always about what is best for everyone. Elian is the only man I know who is able to temper that side of Leonides.”