by T Stedman
She couldn’t help but look at Marco’s hand, and he had one as well. Same hand, same finger, and same stone: turquoise.
“What’s going on?” she said, laughing nervously.
“Forgive us Tia. It’s a private joke between us brothers. Paolo said, smiling.
“Remember what I was telling you Tia, about our father’s obsession with fate and destined partners?”
These guys were weird! “Oh yeah … well?”
“Well what?”
“Any luck yet?”
The three brothers laughed. “Not yet,” one said.
***
The four of them arrived at Cash’s ranch the next day around lunchtime. Cash had collected them from the airport and welcomed them into his home.
It was a beautiful rustic lodge, with one main room with a huge fireplace and a landing above with all the bedrooms in a row opening onto it.
As soon as Tia got there she asked after Beau, the horse Cash had given her, so he sent her straight out the back to the stable barn to see him. This gave him the chance he needed to speak to the brothers. As he heard the click on the kitchen door he seized his chance.
“Now you can all tell me why you are really here,” he said, hands on hips and chin up.
Marco’s face looked a mixture of confusion and outrage.
Cash strode up to him menacingly and pointed a finger at his chest. “Let’s not bullshit each other anymore. I know you are Dubonnetti,” and he looked all three of them in the eyes in turn. “And you know who I am. So am I correct in assuming you are here to make a play for her now she’s turned eighteen?”
Instead of answering him, Marco smirked and looked past Cash to the door that led off to the kitchen. Cash followed his line of vision and his heart sank when he saw Tia standing in the doorway. She had a look of confusion on her face, then hurt and betrayal, quickly changing to anger.
“Tia!” Cash shouted, as he saw her turn to run out the way she came.
“Don’t come near me, the fucking lot of you,” she shouted, already hot-footing it out of the place.
Cash ran after her, shouting over his shoulder for Marco and his brothers to stay put.
As he got to the yard, Tia was already galloping away in the direction of the open fields. Cash shouted for a horse. A lad who’d been exercising his horse dismounted and threw his reins at him. Cash mounted it in one agile leap, dug in his heels and followed her.
He could see her ahead of him riding with reckless abandon, jumping fences and galloping at breakneck speed. He began to get concerned, knowing that the land dropped away on a steep downward gradient ahead, one that she would need to slow down to negotiate safely.
He called but she either couldn’t hear or was ignoring him. Then he saw her disappear. She was there one minute and gone the next.
As he got closer, he saw Beau galloping on rider-less. He stopped his own foaming horse as the land fell away and scrambled down the hill to the bundle at the bottom. He took out his cell phone, called one of his stable hands and asked them to bring the pick-up and ring 911. She was unconscious and he couldn’t tell if she’d broken anything.
***
Tia didn’t particularly trust Mark that much, but when she turned on her heel in the kitchen to ask him if he wanted to come and see her horse, and heard Cash’s raised voice accusing him for some crazy-assed, possessive reason; like some kind of misplaced father, she saw red. She loved Cash dearly but when she wanted him to vet her friends she’d ask.
As she jumped on Beau bareback all she could think of doing was putting as much space between her and them as possible. Her head wasn’t thinking straight; she didn’t even fancy Mark so couldn’t understand her own reaction.
As she pelted along the soft green pasture a pang of Jay came to her mind, or rather stung her heart, and she pushed Beau on faster to the steep downward drop. His front legs hit the last piece of turf and she let go; of her reins, of her thoughts, of her consciousness. Smiling, floating, she closed her eyes and raised her arms up …
Chapter 9
The shit had hit the proverbial fan, and Cash had known it would come one day. He was her Protector, and she was a Siren and he had three princes making a play to get her to go home with them and throw her lot in with their family. Now was the time to blow the whole thing wide open.
Her real family had to get involved now. They needed to know about the Dubonnettis, and Tia needed to know who she was in order to make the biggest decision of her life.
Cash had called in his counterpart in England, Sean, for moral support. He had then been told about a possible third he hadn’t known about, who Tia had said she liked a lot.
A quick look down the contacts list of Tia’s phone told him his name was Jay, and so he called him and explained to him about Tia’s accident and that he should come to Tia’s bedside. Jay agreed to do this without delay.
Everything was set in motion. Within the next twenty-four hours they would all be arriving. Among them were her uncle and two brothers.
Cash sat back in his chair exhausted. This should be interesting.
***
Tia had a couple of broken ribs, a broken wrist and a concussion. After an initial assessment she was transferred to a little private clinic Cash had organised. He felt he could control the situation better there given the visitors who would be arriving shortly. Money in the right quarter, he realised, spoke volumes in these situations, and Tia’s family evidently had a bundle.
The first to arrive was Sean. Cash shook his hand warmly, and quickly brought him up to speed. He took him through to the waiting room allocated to them, where Marco and his brothers were already waiting nervously. One was having a heated discussion on his phone, which he ended abruptly when he saw the two big men approaching.
As the introductions were made a flustered nurse escorted Jay into the same room. The nurses had never seen such an array of eye candy visiting one patient and whispered about the lucky lady and who she must be.
Jay walked in expecting not to know any one until he clapped eyes on Marco and his brothers. Surprised, he walked straight over, “Marco, Paul, Tony … What are you all doing here?”
“It’s a long story, what about you?” The brothers said, looking at each other with shifty eyes.
Cash interrupted just as Jay was about to explain to them his connection. “You know each other? Excuse me, my name is Cash. I called you here.”
“Hello.” Jay said, shaking his hand immediately.
“This is Sean,” Cash said, gesturing next to him.
Jay shook Sean’s hand and nodded.
“We spoke on the phone a few nights ago.” Sean said, looking intently at Jay.
Jay creased his brow for a second.
“You rang to speak to Tia … I answered her phone.”
“Ah,” Jay said, pausing for thought, then nodding in recognition. He pointed at Marco and his brothers. “Their eldest brother and I are close friends; I’ve known them for years.”
Just then there was a disturbance coming from behind them, as nurses scurried around and fawned after a distinguished looking gentleman, and two GQ model-type, dark, young men, with pale green eyes, the colour of apples.
The three stood on the threshold of the room.
“Mr Bonaci?” Cash asked, walking over to them.
He nodded and surveyed the people assembled. “These are my nephews; Thelxiepia’s brothers, Dino and Luca Bonaci. You may call me Alfonzo.”
He walked in and commanded the room. “Please let me know each of your relationships to Thelxiepia?”
He spoke in a beautiful accent of Mediterranean origin.
***
Jay sat on a waiting room chair watching the weirdest meeting unfold, trying to blend in with the woodwork.
Cash and Sean introduced themselves as Protectors (whatever they were) and seemed nice enough.
The man called Alfonzo then looked at Marco. “Dubonnetti’s sons,” he stated, as though it didn�
�t surprise him.
Then he slowly turned and faced him, just as he was looking down trying to be inconspicuous.
“And you are?” Alfonzo said, quietly, rolling his R.
“Jay… Jason Gardiner,” he said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, looking up through his eyebrows.
The man stared at him for quite a few seconds, making him feel really uncomfortable. He seemed to snap himself out of his stare and directed what he was saying to Cash again. “Is she conscious?”
“Yes sir,” Cash replied. “She’s just in for observation.”
“Let us go into her room. She needs to be part of the discussions.” And Alfonzo led the way into the room.
Jay stood and followed, not knowing what the fuck was going on. As he walked he noticed all the nurses giggling and whispering behind their nurses’ station.
He stood at the back of the room until enough chairs were brought in for everyone to sit around the bed. Alfonzo and her brothers sat at the foot of the bed, the three brothers to the right and he, Cash and Sean along the left.
He allowed himself to look over at Tia for the first time. He hadn’t seen her since he’d snubbed her at his hotel a few nights ago. She looked exhausted lying propped up in the bed. Her wrist was in a removable support, and he could see a few bruises and grazes on her face.
She smiled when she saw him. He smiled back weakly. She looked really small in this room full of big males.
Alfonzo spoke when they all appeared to be seated. “Before I explain to Thelxiepia who she is, first I want to make sure all who are here, should be here … Can everyone produce their talismans?” He paused and looked around.
Marco looked at his brothers and then all three held up their left hand showing their turquoise rings. Jay remembered Dante had one, except his was white.
“Good.” Alfonzo nodded, and then looked left at Cash, Sean and Jay.
Cash and Sean both pulled out necklaces with turquoise stone pendants on, slightly different to each other.
Tia looked from left to right in disbelief. Everyone else was looking at him.
He looked around him, “What?”
Marco piped up, “He’s Human.”
Jay and Tia both looked at Marco with, ‘What the fuck’, on their faces.
After a moment Tia turned to him, “I think they might mean your bracelet, Jay.”
Their eyes locked. He breathed a sigh, then looked at his cuff, rolled back his sleeve and revealed the bracelet with every other link punctuated with a turquoise flat stone. “I won this … it wasn’t mine.”
Alfonzo ignored his statement. “Your tattoos, would you mind revealing them to me? We can empty the room if you prefer?”
Jay frowned, shook his head in disbelief, and slowly got up. What the fuck had they got to do with anything? But he started to undo his buttons. “I don’t see what this has to do with her?” he said, nodding towards Tia.
“Humour me please…it will make sense in a while.”
Jay removed his shirt revealing his lean muscular top half of his body. His smooth skin was covered by heavy, black, ancient lettering and swirls that ran the length of his arms and chest, down to his waist and up over his shoulders.
“Please can you turn around?” Alfonzo said.
Jay stood, a little embarrassed and turned, the lettering and patterns continued all the way down his back.
“Are you aware of the significance of these markings?” Alfonzo asked, as Jay turned back round.
“My best friend gave them to me on my sixteenth birthday. It’s a spell; like a good luck thing,” he said quietly.
“Your best friend is who?” Alfonzo asked, looking at Marco.
“My older brother; he’s not here,” Marco explained.
Alfonzo nodded and looked back at Jay. “Your friend must love you very much.”
Jay nodded, slightly blushing, as he did the buttons back up on his shirt. He sensed Tia watching him and felt embarrassed that she was witness to his raw emotion. Still, all this must be even more mortifying for her.
As if she read his mind, “What is this?” She demanded, holding her hands out in exasperation.
Alfonzo just held out a hand to silence her. She flopped back against her pillows with a sulky expression on her face.
“Your markings,” Alfonzo continued, “are a pledge. You have the Dubonnetti coat of arms on your arm, and the trident, which is the insignia of Atlantis, on your back. The language it is written in is from there also.”
Jay just stared at him. He’d never had it explained to him at all. It was also so typical of Dante to fight his dad his whole life on the Atlantis thing being a load of bull, then plaster him in mystical symbols from the very bloody place he didn’t believe in.
“It says you are an adopted son of the Dubonnetti and have the same privileges as a son of that family. So this qualifies you as a Protector of a Siren. You may sit.” Alfonzo then pointed at the bracelet on his wrist. “Its owner must have been unworthy.”
“You can say that again,” Tia muttered.
Jay sat back down. “Siren?” he asked, more of a deflection than anything. His mind was still reeling from the translation of what was on his body. His thoughts were interrupted when Tia’s temper started to bubble over.
“Look, it’s really nice you all came to see me and all that, but I think it’s a bit rich. You two, for a start,” Tia said, pointing to her brothers, “fucked off as soon as I was sixteen.”
Her brothers sat up straighter with indignation and looked at Alfonzo.
“Calm yourself.” Alfonzo said, placating her. “I’m here to explain everything to you today. You have a decision to make and it must be made soon.”
***
Tia took a deep breath and bit her tongue and waited for him to continue.
Alfonzo paused, and when he was sure he had her full attention he began. “Your name is Thelxiepia Adonia Damaris Bonaci.”
Tia stared at him blankly. So what!
“You have four sisters and two half-brothers.” And he gestured to either side of him.
Tia’s face remained stony.
“When you and your sisters were born, you were extremely rare and special.”
Tia rolled her eyes. Jay and everyone else hung on his every word.
“There hasn’t been any such as you for five hundred years. You are one of five Soul Breathers or Sirens, as Human folk law chose to call you.”
“Right, that’s it! I’m not listening to this crap anymore.”
Cash stood up and tried to calm her. “Hear him out Tia,” he said.
She allowed him to settle her down. “You don’t believe any of this?” she said, searching his face in disbelief.
He looked at her kindly. His expression sobered her instantly. Fuck, he did.
Alfonzo continued. “Ten thousand years ago, our ancestors came here from the other side of the solar system, from another world called Atlas, to make a colony. It was a water world.” He paused to let his words sink in. “They built a civilization here called Murrtaine. After a time, the architects left and those left behind ventured out of water for short periods, and eventually relationships were made and children were born. The cross-over of species meant a city was built on land, near to Murrtaine, called Atlantis.”
“The people of Atlantis were intelligent, cultured and strong. They were able to move around amongst Humans and retained certain underwater strengths, but could not breathe the water like their Murr cousins.”
“And so Atlantis appeared to prosper, but eventually emissaries from Atlas returned. They became angry with its inhabitants. They found that they had abandoned their peace-loving culture and traditions and so they passed sentence to destroy Atlantis and cut off Murrtaine from Atlanteans forever to preserve it and its sacred power.”
“Those left on land realised that they had nothing more than the Humans around them with which to build their lives, and so pleaded with Atlas to forgive them and unite them as
one happy people as they were before. But it was decided that they had become too tainted by the inhabitants of Earth.”
“I expect you are wondering where you fit into all this Tia?”
“D’ya think?”
Alfonzo ignored her. “They didn’t get away with their crime by just banishment. Each of the five royal families had to give up a daughter to them to return to Atlas. Even the Borge family of Murrtaine was punished.”
“Decades turned into centuries and then into millennia and the royal families continued and prospered to this day. But they always remembered the prophecy told to them back then and wrote it down. That the spirits of those five daughters would return. That we would know when they were here by signs. The first of these was when a Prince married a Murr Princess. Your father did this, Tia. Then you and your sisters were born. Five. Then a glut of sons born to princes of all the royal families.”
He looked over to Marco and his brothers. “Five born to Dubonnetti. All of them given the rings as you have seen. Divining rings, forged to detect a Siren and ultimately a destined mate. The crucial point we have got to now Thelxiepia, is whose ring will go purple for you?”
Chapter 10
You could hear a pin drop. Most of them had heard the stories hundreds of times; even Jay had heard snippets from being around Dante and his brothers, but it was obviously all news to Tia.
“So I’m like a princess?” she asked.
“You are.”
“Well then,” she said, in a quiet but simmering voice. “Why the fuck was I brought up in council, fucking, care?” Her voice built in venom and volume as she said it.
Jay had to smile and cover his mouth with his hand, wiping the smile away so as not to get caught.
“I am sorry Thelxiepia … “
“Stop calling me that,” she shouted.
“Easy Tia,” Cash said, gently touching her on the shoulder.
Alfonzo nodded. “Tia … “ he continued. “I’m afraid you and your sisters were so precious to the families that you would have been sought as a commodity. So to ensure fairness to each family, tradition dictated that each family had its chance to secure its own Siren, and so you were hidden in the world.”