Sin of Fury

by Avery Duncan

  “Well, our king is much like that lion. But not an animal,” he said, tittering. “I don’t know about you, but when I think ‘king’, I think England, or monarchy. Either way, though, our king is nothing like those frilly wearing kinds that we see in old-time movies. He wore leathers, weapons, had hair that I would die to possess --”

  “You knew him personally?” Jamie interrupted, not wanting to listen to him rave over another man. The guy sounded...other-worldly. A king who wore leathers? She tried picturing Talon in a leather jacket and pants, and the image was too implausible for her.

  Vladimir nodded, a proud look entering his eyes. “I was his personal consultant,” he said. The condescending tone wasn’t lost on her.

  “I was not there when the kidnapping happened -- well, we are not too sure that he just didn’t disappear. As king, he was put under much stress and I think he could feel, much as I could, that our earth was dying. Still is, in fact.”

  “So the 2012 stuff is real?” she asked dubiously, face screwing up. Jamie had never personally believed in the Mayan prediction, but now that she knew for sure that there were things other than humans... Her skin crawled.

  “Silly human, of course it isn’t. That calendar was made to instill fear into the minds of the lessers and plus, with all of the leap years, their predictions are inaccurate. Do not believe in things you see in the movies.”

  “Vampires,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “What about those?”

  “My, my, you are a curious one. Vampires, unfortunately, do exist. Yet they are close to extinct,” he said sadly, hands stilling their twisting. When he spoke, the grief in his voice reached her. “I am but the last of our once proud and thriving race.”

  Awkward and shifting her legs so that one crossed over the other, Jamie rubbed a hand over her cheek. “I’m so sorry...you never know, though. What about Talon? He showed me how...strong he was. It isn’t possible for a...a human to survive what he did and still have enough sanity to go through the day. And his eyes...” Her voice trailed off.

  “Talon is an anomaly. He does not know what is within him, yet Lucian and I knew from the beginning. I cannot tell you anything except that he is an Immortal.”

  “Why can’t you tell me what he is? Don’t you think he has a right to know?” she demanded angrily on his behalf.

  “Jamie, if I were to tell you what he is, what he was made for, you would die tomorrow. There is a reason that he has had such a rough time. Meeting you was just the catalytic push he needed to awaken into his powers. Sooner or later, he’s going to start feeling it.”

  Fury flashed through her and she barely stopped from jumping to her feet and slapping him. “This morning...” She struggled to talk calmly. Vladimir acted like he knew everything, and while she might want to tear every sparkle from his skin piece by piece, she had to get answers. “Before this morning, he didn’t remember a thing. I don’t even think he knew what color his eyes were.”

  He nodded, urging her to continue. “This morning, well.... Something weird happened. Like he got possessed or something,” she said thinly, rubbing a hand over her eyes, remembering how black it had gotten. She explained the glaring light, the complete darkness, and the way he had spoken to her -- how demonic his voice had been. Jamie also told him of the time Talon had almost killed her at Auro’s mansion.

  The whole time she spoke, it got harder and harder for her to keep from crying. Just thinking of Talon in a situation, remembering it, was horrible. He had been put through so much, yet he still kept her with him.

  By the time she was done talking, a pondering silence had entered the room.

  “I will talk this over with Lucian,” he finally said, once again twisting the hankie.

  Jamie took a shaky breath and nodded, relaxing back into the chair. She hadn’t realized that she was almost at the edge, about to fall off.

  “Now, back to our earlier conversation. We have shifters -- you might think of them as werewolves, but they can turn into so much more than that. I once knew a man who

  could turn into a spider. Creepy thing, but he was amazingly flexible...” A smirk came over his face as he talked.

  “A couple of rules you might want to consider. If you ever seen one of our kind fighting? I would request, for the sake of Talon not going apeshit on everyone, that you do not enter it or try to interfere. We have a council for that.”

  “A council?”

  “Surely you did not think our world has survived without advisors,” he laughed, waving the hankie as he did so. “You will meet the council soon enough. Our oldest living creatures consist of the council, and they are rarely considerate in their decisions. If they want to behead you, they will. But, without the king’s okay -- and since Lucian and Talon are the rulers right now, I doubt he would go along with any of it -- they cannot touch you.

  “When you meet with them, you must not speak directly to any of them. It is the greatest insult you could ever show them, and even Talon won’t be able to help you if you do such a grave misdoing. I am wondering why you are even welcomed to this world,” he commented slowly, stroking the hankie like he would a cat. Her chest tightened, offended. He shot her a look and laughed softly. “Not like that. I’m just saying that you and Talon are so different, and you have no becoming qualities besides your beauty. I cannot sense anything other than human within you.”

  Jamie thought back to the men in black, when she was just a kid. Her mother taking her away, trying to hide her from things. That near miss when everything had fallen around her. As she mulled over what he had said, she couldn’t help the errant, horrible thought that she had used to force out of her mind.

  It was too painful. To dangerous. It was something she had never thought about, as bad as things had gotten.

  He had said that she would die the next day if she knew anything about Talon.

  What would it matter if she died a second time?

  “I must warn you, Jamie. The witches...they are after Talon. They want him dead, but more than anything they want him to suffer. They are going to use you to do it.”

  Her blood froze in her veins, becoming icy as fear coursed through her. “How do I know when I’ve...seen a witch?” she asked, hands turning numb.

  “You will know. Their eyes are soulless. Centuries of being connected to the earth, living the horrors and damage that had come to it, has made them heartless and emotionless. They have as much warmth as a serial killer.”

  “And they are...after Talon. Why?” she demanded.

  “You might want to ask him about an ‘Amena’,” he said, standing to his feet and putting the hanky in his back pocket with a grace it seemed only he could perfect.

  “Why? I have more questions...”

  “I have introduced you into our world. Talon will do the rest for you. If you need anything from me, you may ask Talon or Lucian for my cell.

  With that, he left the room in a whisper of sound. Jamie stared at the empty space, not even surprised. Jamie leaned into the chair, mind whirling.

  “Jamie?”

  The voice had her startling, jerking to her feet. Talon was in the doorway, watching her and waiting. She cleared her throat awkwardly, then wiped her hands on her pants.

  She was going to ask him about this “Amena” person as soon as they were alone.

  Chapter 13

  Everything that happened after the meeting was pretty much a blur to Jamie. The second they left the room, Talon was bombarded with people and she was pushed to the back.

  That was how it was for the next week.

  Talon got so caught up with calls and papers and meetings, that it seemed like there was no time for her. She was left in her room, bored off her ass and so brain dead she almost forgot about asking about Amena. When he came back to their room, he was so tired that the second he sat down in the chair to take off his shoes, he passed straight out.

  Resolute, she would get up and drag him to the bed, all the while thinking that
this was so much more different than it had been with Chris. When she had had to drag his drunk body to the couch, her skin hadn’t gotten hotter with just the touch. But while she took Talon? She swore the room was a sauna and she wanted nothing but to strip him naked and wake him up with her hands...or her mouth...or her body.

  For the most part, she felt like a pervert. But she shrugged it off and took her time caring for him. It was normally midnight by the time he got to their room, and she was so bored that she couldn’t sleep. So she would put him in the bed after maybe ten minutes of trying to get him to cooperate, and then get a damp cloth and clean his face.

  Jamie was slowly realizing that she could spend her life taking care of him. Sitting and watching him, trailing her fingers over his jaw and temples. Sometimes he would grunt -- it was the cutest thing she had ever heard in her life. She was no longer scared that he would wake up and try to kill her -- they had gotten past that part.

  Instead, it got to the point where she would suddenly be jerked to his body and cuddled to death. Vladimir had been considerate enough to send her more sweatpants and comfortable clothing, but the whole time he tsked at her, saying she needed to dress like a woman.

  She could only imagine what his vision of a “woman” was.

  None the less, Jamie would get dragged down to his body and soon after she would fall asleep against his shirtless chest. No matter how frustrated she would get with him as she waited, Jamie couldn’t deny him when he would wrap his arms around her waist and act like he had to protect her, even in her sleep.

  Jamie hadn’t seen him at all after talking with Vladimir.

  Lucian had given her an apologetic look before following after him, leaving her to herself. She wouldn’t have found their room if it hadn’t been for the funny woman at the front desk. At first, Jamie hadn’t known what to think about her. The woman had told Jamie that her name was Jessica, and that she was the receptionist for Lucian. And then she had told her more.

  And more.

  And more.

  And more.

  Her head had hurt within the first five minutes of talking, and she felt bad about it, but it had been a relief when Jamie had finally found her room and the woman had gone off on her own, leaving her to blissful silence.

  The room Talon and her shared was...quiet. It wasn’t like the rest of the building, either. While the back of the gas station was full of metal, the room they were staying in was elegant and spacious. Almost like Auro’s room for them had been. Old fashioned but with no windows and billowing curtains and eerie screams from outside.

  Right now, she was leaning against the headboard that connected to the bed. The walls were creamy, the light reflecting from the hanging light covered with shadows from the fan. It got hot really easily in the room, so the soft whir of the fan was a comfort she used to lull her.

  Food was brought to her when she found herself hungry. Clothes were brought to her in the mornings, left by the door. Shampoos were already available in the shower when she needed them.

  Talon was out with Lucian, or at least she assumed. There was nothing to do but watch TV and eat, and she felt like she was getting fatter and fatter. It hurt, to not see Talon until late in the night when he was too tired to even look at her. She was so used to him being around her, him listening to her, being there.

  Her throat closed. She would have to go to that house again. To get more clothes. She couldn’t live off of these people for very long -- she felt like a moocher. Covering her face with her hand, depression washed over her. She didn’t want to take a chance at seeing Chris.

  She could always go to the store... No, all of her money was on credit, and she was sure that by now he was tracking everything she did through the banks. Her stomach turned.

  Talon was busy and her house wasn’t so far away from here that she couldn’t get a bus or walk.

  She made up her mind.

  Jamie got to her feet and slipped on her shoes, grabbing her ever-faithful Columbia off of the chair that was set by the door. No one had ever said she couldn’t walk around the building before -- hell, that was what she had been doing for half the week.

  She pushed open the door and began walking, shoving her hands in her pockets. It felt like she was breaking invisible rules or something. By the time she got to the receptionist, her hands were clammy and there was a small shake in her legs.

  Jessica looked at her with wide eyes as she walked by, waving as casually as she could. There was a small shake in her hand that she prayed Jessica didn’t notice.

  “Where are you going? I don’t think Talon would like you leaving...he does know, right? If he didn’t, he would get really angry...”

  “It’s fine, he knows. Just going to my house to pick up some things,” she replied as she put her hand on the glass windows of the door. Even she could hear the quiver in her voice. Jessica, thankfully, had no clue what Jamie was about to do.

  “Well,” she started, her high-pitched voice uncertain, “give me your address in case they ask. Please,” she added brightly, already forgetting about how Talon would be angry.

  Jamie breathed a sigh of relief and rattled it off, thinking that it could have been a lot worse. Jessica wrote it down and before Jamie chickened out, she was walking through the door.

  “So you won’t believe who called me this morning,” Lucian snarled, slamming the door closed behind them.

  Talon met his eyes and raised a dark brow. “Who?”

  They were sitting in their conference room, going over some portfolios and taxes. Now that Talon was back, everything was going into overdrive and they were opening new accounts. They were also going over bills and rights, and trying to get everything into place for when the king finally came back.

  Before, Talon hadn’t known how much of a relief it was to not remember anything. Now that he did, though, he was stressed and had had no time to talk to Jamie. Now he knew why he didn’t take vacations.

  God forbid he get a little break. Lucian must have been busy, too, though, he thought, leaning his elbows on the table.

  Right now, his partner looked pissed as hell.

  “I really don’t want to answer this question,” he growled, shoving a hand in his hair.

  “Just tell me.”

  “Zyn.”

  Talon felt his ass drop from underneath him. All of the breath rushed from his lungs and he became lightheaded. “No... He’s...”

  The door to the conference room popped open with a click. “Talon, I have received word that your beautiful woman has left the building.”

  Vladimir’s too-happy voice floated into the room, completely at odds with the fucked up news that Lucian had just given him. But at the words, Talon’s body went into overdrive.

  “What do you mean, ‘left the building’?” he growled, surging to his feet. Where the hell else would she go?

  “Our Jessica told us that she went to her house.” He gave them a wave before flaunting out of his room, his newly-purple hair shimmering in the light. Talon stared at where Vladimir had been, then at Lucian.

  “God damnit,” he shouted, shoving his chair back, barely noticing it slam against the wall. “We will finish this when I get back.”

  He strode from the room and found Jessica, typing away at her keyboard. When she saw his face, though, she paled.

  “What is her address?” he demanded, fisting his hands on the counter. It took everything in him not to just break her damn computer, but he managed.

  With wide eyes, she reached for a small piece of white paper and handed it to him. “And you let her go?” he snarled, yanking it from her grip.

  “She... I told her that you would get angry, but then she said that you said she could go and I said she had to give me her address and she gave it...”

  “Shut up. Just...the next time this happens, you have to hear it from me verbally.” He slammed a hand on the counter before stalking from the reception area and putting his long legs to use. His bike was in the ba
ck, and it only took a bit to get it out and started. He didn’t bother with a helmet; fuck, he was too angry.

  He looked down at the paper and tried placing the side of town that the street was on. There was a whole bunch of rich people on that side of town; he frowned. Jamie hadn’t been dressed like she was.

  But, then, neither had he when they had first met. Shit, he hadn’t had any clothing on.

  His bike roared to life.

  Jamie crept into the house slowly. The spare key under the mat had been where they had always left it, and his truck wasn’t outside of the house. But did that really mean anything? She had taken the damn thing and it had probably gotten towed from outside of the hotel.

  The first step inside of the house was like walking into a hospice. It reminded of her of pain and tears, of everything that she had hated. Her foot brushed the ground slowly, the door knob cold and hot at the same time in her hand. When it landed, it creaked. Groaned. Made it seem as if the whole house were coming alive, ready to torment her.

  Her stomach turned and she let go of the door knob. In her whole life, nothing had ever been so terrifying as this was now. It was cold. Like an icebox.

  Empty.

  When she stayed at the entrance for several minutes, ears ringing because of the silence, she convinced herself that Chris was gone and he wasn’t going to pop out like some sort of horror movie character. Feeling a numbness settle in her chest as her surroundings slapped her in the face with their familiarity, Jamie debated on whether leaving the door closed, or opened.

  Leaving it open would mean a quicker escape, although she would have to run to get away from him anyways. She bit her lip, staring at the freedom that was so close to her. She wasn’t the track star she used to be, and what if she closed the door and he thought the house was empty, and she had time to escape?

  Then again, what if she didn’t notice he even came home?

  Was he even gone, in the first place?