Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4)

by Dark, Dannika

  Novis watched me carefully with amusement on his face and wisdom in his ancient eyes. “Heard of the butterfly effect?”

  “Don’t even go there, because I can one-up you on that. Back to your scenario. What if I didn’t rush into traffic and I let that person die? As a result, all civilization ends fifty years from now because of that one event. It could go either way. We can only follow our instinct, but there’s no way to see the domino effect of our actions.”

  Depressed, I dropped my chopsticks and stared at my plate. It was hard to eat Chinese food with another man, because it had become a “Logan and me” thing.

  “Silver, I am your employer, not your warden. I cannot stop you from whatever you intend to do. Just be prepared for any consequences to your actions. You may not see them now, but they will come.”

  “All actions have consequences, Novis. That can’t be helped.”

  “I’m sorry that you must make such choices.”

  “Not your fault.”

  “Of course it’s not,” he mused. “We’ve all been faced with difficult decisions in our lifetime, but I’m pleased that you’ve uncovered the truth. It must come as a relief to finally know who you are.”

  I removed my gloves and set them on the table. “I don’t know everything about who I am. My mother isn’t my real mother—just a surrogate who carried a fertilized egg. All this time, my mom was a Chitah human child. My real mother I may never know, and there’s still a big question mark over who my father is. Jesus, what if I’m related to Logan?”

  Novis literally fell back laughing, slapping his hand on the table and drawing a few inquisitive eyes. His laugh was animated and completely unexpected.

  “It’s not funny,” I murmured.

  He sipped his drink and snorted out a little tea. “Let me assure you that you are not related to Logan Cross. I am a very old Mage, and I know a lot about many different Breeds. Chitahs know their own blood; there’s a connection between them that can’t be explained. Logan would never be able to bed a woman that gave him a… sister vibe. It goes against everything in his nature.” Novis snorted out a few more laughs. “I do apologize; I didn’t mean to make light of this. Logan is not your relation. The same way a Chitah knows their soul mate is similar to the way they know their siblings. You could split apart twins at birth, put them in a crowded room full of people, and not only would they find each other but they would know they were related. I’ve personally witnessed this myself. A young Chitah once grew curious about his human son after the baby was given up for adoption. He’d never seen the child since birth, but after a long search, he located the school the boy went to and somehow managed to nose him out.”

  “Good to know.”

  Meanwhile, my inner self threw her head down on the table and sighed in relief. Then I wondered about Logan’s human sister, Sadie, and if he’d ever try to find her.

  Novis dipped his finger in a puddle of sauce and his expression soured when he tasted it. “Whatever path you choose, Silver, you will have my support.”

  “It feels like no matter what choice I make, I’m going to betray someone.” I leaned back in my seat with a huff. “I think I need some rose-colored glasses for Christmas.”

  Novis laughed cheerfully and stole a piece of beef from my plate. “I can arrange for that.”

  I scraped my fingers through my hair and rested my elbows on the table. “How’s Sunny? Did she wake up yet?”

  Novis nodded and pulled in his lips to lick them. “She’s damaged from this tragedy. This is why I once warned you about growing attached to things that die so quickly.”

  “I’ll love my friend, whether she dies tomorrow, or a thousand years from now. We’ve already had this discussion and if you can’t see how precious life is, then what have you really learned through immortality? I want to see her.”

  “That can be arranged. She needs someone to speak to her.”

  “Why haven’t you?”

  He straightened his shoulders and looked uncomfortable with the topic… and quite familiar with it at the same time.

  “You can’t give consoling words to a woman who has watched her lover die in her arms.” His eyes looked down and a glimmer of emotion sparked in his face before disappearing. “Let’s enjoy what we can salvage of this dinner, shall we? Too much discussion of serious matters; let’s not fill personal time with woes. So often, people will pollute table conversations with words that spoil the taste of food and drink. I’ve learned in my life that there is always time for both. I have given you my answer. Now tell me more about Page,” he said with a curious quirk of his brow.

  ***

  The thing about Relics is that they aren’t just a plethora of information—they’re a sponge. Particularly with any knowledge related to the Breed. Each generation not only inherits the knowledge from their ancestors, but has an opportunity to build upon this to pass along to their own children.

  While Christian had performed a complete memory scrub, no one knew if Slater’s would be permanent. Maybe he’d never regain his memory, but the knowledge was potentially hard-coded to his genetic memory, so he would be carefully monitored. It didn’t occur to us until we were sitting at the table discussing it with Page, who was now fully involved through no fault of her own. She insisted that no physical harm come to him, and on Justus’s word, that would be so.

  I lent her some clothes, uncertain if I should ask how permanent the situation was between her and Justus. I’d never seen him bring a woman home before, and now I was wondering if I would be forced to sleep upstairs if she moved in. Just the idea that I might overhear Justus in the throes of ecstasy made me crash on the sofa the next evening.

  The wall monitors were set up to display a starlit night, and I was curled up on the sofa in the dark room, stargazing.

  “I haven’t forced you to sleep up here, have I?”

  Page walked into the room, wrapped in a dark green blanket.

  “No. I’m having a little insomnia,” I said, watching a shooting star blaze across the screen. “A lot going on in my head.”

  “Do you mind?” she asked, pointing at the spot beside me. I shrugged and she sat down, throwing the blanket around both of us. Page tucked the edge around my legs. “There. Snug as a bug in a rug.”

  The indentations in her nose were more pronounced; she must have been recently reading. She absently rubbed them and yawned.

  Max sauntered into the room and collapsed on the rug before us—stretching out his beautiful black body and licking his front paw. He had adapted nicely to his new home and had already claimed a few spots in the house as his. Justus scolded him whenever he caught him licking the monitors on the lower end of the wall, but Max had always been a window-licker.

  Page sat to my right with her legs curled up. “He’s lucky, you know. To have you in his life. You do so much for him and I hope he realizes it.”

  “Thanks. Why does everything have to be so damn hard? Now that I know what I want in my life, it could be taken away from me.”

  Page touched the ends of her brown hair and smiled wistfully as she recited a few lines:

  “Doubt thou the stars are fire,

  Doubt that the sun doth move,

  Doubt truth to be a liar,

  But never doubt I love.”

  She tucked her hair behind her ear, watching another shooting star blaze across the screen.

  “What is that?”

  “Shakespeare,” she said with a light chuckle. “I’ve always loved that verse.”

  “Why did Slater take you?”

  The shine in her eyes wore away. “He was trying to impregnate me. All that crap they’ve been doing over the years, and he thought he had some kind of epiphany. He primed me up with injections and I struggled so much that they doped me up. Slater was infuriated, and through my foggy state of consciousness, I overheard him telling them it wouldn’t work as long as they kept giving me morphine. The older guy wanted to get rid of me, but Slater was determined to
prove his idea would work. I think he was planning on kidnapping me from the facility and taking me on his own to finish up his experiment. I don’t remember much; I was out of it most of the time.”

  “I’m glad we found you when we did.”

  “Me too. Justus told me how you spotted the vial in the photograph. Most people don’t pay attention to things like that.”

  “Luck.”

  “You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for, Silver. I think it’s time you own up to it.”

  “Well, in that case, I totally rocked at saving the day with my extraordinary talents of perception.” I laughed and Page tilted her head back. “How serious are you and Justus? I don’t mean to pry, I’m just—”

  “You have every right to know. You’re his Learner and I can see how protective you are of him.”

  “I definitely have to keep my eye on him sometimes. Doesn’t he drive you crazy though? I don’t see how you can tolerate the way he speaks so…”

  “I keep him in check. We balance out each other’s temperaments. I can be equally headstrong, and I think we both already know the woman is always right.”

  “You’ve worked your magic on him, that’s for sure. I’ve never seen him so agreeable.”

  She curled her body toward mine with her knees pulled up in the same fashion and her voice fell to a whisper. “I’ve never fallen for anyone, and I never thought it could happen so fast.”

  I thought of Sunny and a tear slid down my nose. “It didn’t work that way with Logan and me, but Sunny and Knox had that kind of connection. She said she just knew it from the beginning.”

  “Don’t ever repeat this, Silver. Just between us, I think I love him. God help me, I don’t know why, but that’s how I feel about Justus. Please don’t tell him; he’ll think I’m crazy since we barely know each other, and maybe it’s too premature for me to be saying things like that. Plus, I don’t think that’s where he wants to be with a woman, and I get it. A Mage doesn’t settle very often and then there’s him being a Charmer and me always being outshined by some woman. I’m not up for that kind of competition. I just want to live in the moment for a little while and enjoy what we have before it ends.”

  I wiped away a tear and attempted to smile. I didn’t know if Justus felt the same way about Page as she did him, but a part of me hoped so. Especially knowing the kind of women he had reduced himself to being with because deep down, he never felt worthy of anyone who would want to know him on a deeper level. Charmer or not, Justus never gave it a chance.

  Her eyes filled with compassion and she touched my arm. “It’ll work out between you and Logan. You two deserve to be happy and don’t let anyone try to take that away.”

  “What are you two doing in here?” a voice bellowed from the dark hall. Max meowed at him and continued licking his paws.

  Page countered his remark. “The ladies are waiting for a knight in shining armor to bring on the ice cream.”

  In the distance, we heard the sound of a drawer opening and Page giggled, leaning in to whisper, “No matter what happens, Silver, I promise I’ll be here if you need to talk. You got it? Not just as your Relic, but as a friend. There’s no need for Justus to continue paying me for my services; you’ve paid me back more than enough by saving my life.”

  Justus flashed into the room with a large gallon of ice cream and two spoons. Big spoons. I almost doubled over with laughter. He handed me the carton and took her hands.

  “Let me warm them,” he murmured, cupping one of her hands within his and blowing a heated breath. It was a sweet gesture because he couldn’t use his Thermal abilities with the necklace on, and it was such a private moment that I looked away.

  “My hero,” Page breathed. Justus unabashedly kissed her upside down on the lips and I thought about how much she had opened him up in ways I never could. “Now go back to bed and leave us girls to our vices.”

  Justus grunted a complaint but gave her one more kiss and left us alone to tear up the rocky road.

  Chapter 35

  “What the hell are you doing?” Leo scowled.

  My seat suddenly reclined all the way back until I was lying down in the car.

  Christian replied from the back seat. “I’d say I was getting the lady horizontal, wouldn’t you?”

  “What’s the point of this?” I asked, staring at the roof of the car.

  “I’d rather you not have your head poking out of the window like it’s target practice just yet. There are a lot of nut cases out there and if anyone got wind of this from Tarek’s Pride, they might do something stupid, or at least try it.”

  “That’s Christian, always thinking ahead,” I mused. “I don’t think they’d hurt a female, would they, Leo?”

  He merely flicked a glance at me and kept quiet.

  Christian scanned outside the windows. The streets were dark and empty as we rolled up to a desolate building that looked like a warehouse. I leaned up to get a better look and Christian shoved me back down by my forehead. I had expected to be going to a mansion or something more ostentatious than a brick building in the hood.

  “We’re here,” Leo announced.

  “I’ll get out first,” Christian murmured. “Stay down for a minute until I knock on the glass.”

  Both men hopped outside while I stared at the roof. I wondered if Leo realized he had a small stain up there that looked like mustard.

  The door clicked open and Christian unlatched my seatbelt. “It’s just a short walk to the door. Stay close to me.”

  I leaned up and my leather coat made noise. “Seriously, Christian. You’re taking this a little—”

  The loud crack of a gunshot cut off my words. Christian threw himself over me and I listened to a struggle. My heart pounded against his chest.

  “Got him!” an unfamiliar voice yelled from a distance.

  Christian lifted his head and I saw a hint of a smile behind those scruffy whiskers. “Are you still going to argue with me, lass? Like I said before, there are some demented people that are itching for a little payback.”

  “I can’t die from a gunshot.”

  His breath heated my face. “I don’t care if they throw a fecking water balloon at you. I’m going to protect your life, and that’s final. So quit your whining. I swear, you haven’t changed a bit since we first met,” he rambled on as he heaved me out of the car. “You rabbit on as if you know something about our world and you’re only a little tadpole. You must think I’m a big numpty. Of course I know a gunshot won’t kill you, but it can knock you down long enough that you wouldn’t be able to escape and I would be too distracted to fight. Plus, I’d have to explain to your Ghuardian why you look like a donut with a hole in the middle.”

  “Okay, Christian. Point taken. Let’s get inside already.”

  Without telling Logan, I had asked Leo to take me to their Overlord—the man who ruled over all the Lords. The idea of a manhunt with a bunch of Chitahs tracking us down gave me waking nightmares. Leo mentioned that Logan might be detained for questioning until they reviewed all the facts, due to it being such a serious charge. Unlike human laws, being arrested among the Breed meant there was sufficient evidence to impose a sentence. I wasn’t familiar with Chitah laws, but I didn’t think they would be much different.

  Leo pulled off his winter hat and the streetlamp caught the red highlights in his short hair as he brushed his hands over the back of it. It was a Ewan McGregor color from some of the old movies I’d seen—reddish with blond mixed in. I wasn’t sure why he had never challenged for the position of Lord in his Pride, but perhaps his time would one day come. He tucked the hat in his back pocket and unzipped his coat.

  Six guards surrounded us and led us inside to a set of heavy double doors. Two reached forward and opened them, and my nerves bunched up in my stomach when before us was one serious-looking gentleman sitting behind a long desk with three men to his right. He wore all black, looked like he could have been six foot ten, his nose was strong and
sculpted like a Roman, and his eyes were not the typical amber color. They were a brilliant citrine and sent a flurry of goose bumps all over my arms when he glanced up at me. He had hair the color of soot, and not one feature on his face changed as we approached.

  Leo bowed submissively. “Sire.”

  I drew in a swift intake of breath when the doors slammed behind us and all six guards lined up against the wall.

  “Leo Cross.” The Overlord greeted him in a textured voice. “You may sit.”

  Leo took the empty chair on my right, leaving Christian and me standing in the middle of the room with no more available seats.

  “Mage, come forward and let me have a closer look at you. Vampire, stay back. No harm will come to her in my presence and on this, you have my word.”

  I released my breath and took a few steps forward. I felt a little undignified standing there in a pair of black boots and a leather jacket when every man at that table was dressed in his finest attire. The Overlord slowly lifted a long finger, signaling I could come no closer. Nervously, I bowed, not knowing the custom.

  He lifted an indifferent brow. “Logan Cross may be guilty on charges of murder. It is a serious offense to attack a Lord, and here we have one who was slain. The investigation is under way, but it has been brought to my attention you wish to speak on behalf of Logan Cross. If we bring him in, everyone involved will be questioned. My best men are determining the facts that occurred on the evening prior to the incident through questioning. I have also been made aware that you and Logan Cross have a… relationship.” His brow slid up and he leaned back in his chair, never once removing his eyes from mine. I couldn’t look at him directly, so I kept my focus on his hands, which were still on the table. “I’m sure you are aware this is frowned upon by our Breed, but it is not by any means illegal. You have the right to speak for or against him, as you wish, but you do not possess any rights as a mate.”

  “Sir, I love him.” I paused and let those words settle in, but they seemed to have no sway one way or the other. “You may remember me on the night of the party, because it was an engagement celebration between me and Tarek. Not a mutual one. Tarek blackmailed me by threatening the lives of everyone I loved.” I licked my lips and pulled in a breath, because I was finding it more difficult to breathe. “The night of the party, he held me against my will. Tarek had a history with Logan, and everything he did was for personal vengeance. When Logan brought a woman to the event, it threw Tarek into a rage. That’s when I realized he was going to keep taking this one step further until he ruined Logan.”