by N P Hector
He knew that she was still reticent to accept the idea that they were a fated couple. But my god, something about that kiss had shifted their relationship. Like an earthquake it shook them off their feet. And when they stood again they found that they were on different footing than they were before the earth shook.
But he needed to focus now. Someone owed him an explanation. “She’s awake. Now someone tell me how the hell we let that happen.”
A portion of the crowd exhaled at the news that Selene was awake and well. They had been pacing anxiously as he waited in the bedroom. They were terrified at the prospect that the blow could have been fatal or permanently damaging. Humans were so fragile, after all.
Joan’s arm was in a cast and her sides were bandaged, but she rose to speak. She was still Commander at Arms and her leader was demanding a report.
She personally felt responsible for allowing the attackers to swarm Selene. She had seen the blood at the back of the woman’s head and her stomach had roiled. Not just because of what the woman meant to Romulus, but because she was beginning to genuinely enjoy Selene’s company and was somewhat envious of her fragile but veracious human life.
Romulus immediately gestured for her to sit and rest. “Not you, Joan. You did everything you could. I want to know from the rest of the team surveilling the apartment how they failed to provide you the cover necessary to do your job effectively.”
A man with a straggly grey beard and a rounded stomach rose. “My lord, I think that this is an overreaction because of your proximity to the...issue.”
Romulus raised an eyebrow, but his voice remained level. “your compatriot, Joan, one of our fiercest warriors is sitting injured next to you.” The man looked at Joan and gulped. Romulus turned towards a tall gangly man with glasses and asked, “Roger, how many men were watching the apartment?”
The tall, thin, brown haired man stood abruptly “6, my lord.”
“Six?”
The man nodded in confirmation. Romulus hummed. “And Joan, how many of Kem’s lackeys did you have to fight off in the apartment?”
Joan lifted her chin proudly and responded with authority. “14.”
There were murmurs around the table as Romulus took his seat at the table. “So, you tell me, Michael, if you think that this is an overreaction.” Michael bowed his head until his straggly beard reached his stomach.
Saying no more, Romulus gestured to Rodger for a report.
Rodger stood and pushed his glasses up. He shoved his hands into his pockets and focused on the paper in front of him. “My team had a thorough visual of the lady’s apartment at all times. We were equipped with three during the day and six at night--when Kem is known to be most active. We had motion sensors at the doors and windows, and night vision goggles with heat sensors.”
Cullum shook his blonde head and gestured to those around them, “more than standard procedure, so what went wrong?”
Roger spoke, his Adam’s apple bobbing, “that’s the thing. Nothing went wrong. Everything worked according to plan. Kem’s minions were just stronger than we thought. I didn’t know that he could portal fourteen minions into the apartment. Normally, our heat sensors would have caught something, but he must have cast some sort of shield around the apartment and broadcasted the baseline image. So, as we watched, it was like playing an old tape on a security camera broadcast. We were sure that everything was fine.” He turned to Joan. “honestly Joan, I’m so, so sorry. I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I’m running through my equipment again today to try to understand what went wrong.”
Joan slammed her uninjured fist on the table “that’s why I wasn’t able to use anything. Those bastards hobbled us.”
Cullum raised his voice, “what do you mean you weren’t able to use anything?”
Joan rolled her eyes. “It means that none of my magik worked. I couldn’t portal, I couldn’t levitate, and I couldn’t use telekinesis.”
A woman with fire red hair leaned forward. “So how did you keep them away from her? I hear the human was mostly unharmed.”
Joan smiled. “Katrina, I used the most reliable weapon I have” and gestured to her muscles.
But then her face turned serious and she recounted the minions’ attempt to drag Selene to the portal. “They were desperate to bring her through the portal alive. I’ve never known Kem’s minions to do that before, but it seems like everything is a first with Selene.”
Cullum’s brow wrinkled as he looked over her bandages. “It’s a miracle you survived.” His gaze narrowed in on her bandaged side. Fearing that some more blood had leaked through the bindings, Joan pulled at her sweater to cover the wound. She was too proud to admit that she had been bested.
Roger interjected, “it’s a miracle any of you survived that onslaught. How did you get out?”
Joan hiked a thumb towards Romulus. “Romulus came bursting through the portal like a bat out of hell. Then he let out the most powerful shock wave I’ve ever seen.” Joan shook her head, “poor Selene, I don’t think any of her wine glasses survived the blast.”
Rodger adjusted his glasses. “Whoa whoa, backup” he turned towards Romulus “there were power suppressants around the apartment. How--”
He let the question linger in the air. All eyes turned towards Romulus. He sat there, silent, a figure of coiled energy. His voice was deadly as he spoke. “We underestimated Kem. But Kem underestimated us, too.” He continued “I felt Selene’s panic. I knew something was wrong, and nothing was going to keep me from her. Not minions. Not suppressants. Nothing.”
A pin could be heard dropping. A brave Cullum spoke up, “so it’s true then, you must be fated. Your protective instinct and proximity to her must have drawn from her soul’s substance and made you strong enough to overcome the suppressant.”
A burst of fire appeared in Romulus’s hand as he responded, “it is true. Sorcha has returned to me. I healed her this very evening.”
To his people, only a fated couple could heal each other with magik. By healing Selene he had all but confirmed that their souls were intertwined. Now, if he could just get the stubborn woman to admit it.
Katrina brushed her red hair out of her eyes and turned towards Romulus. “You’ve reached majority and have gained immortality and all of your powers. She isn’t yet 26 yet. Has she shown indicators of any powers yet?”
Dougall put his hands in the air and interrupted, “whoa, whoa, whoa. She’s under 26?!”
Katrina raised an eyebrow and expected a sexist comment about women and aging, “your point?”
Dougall put his head in his hands. “She’s the lead regional negotiator and she has her PhD.” Cullum patted him on the back. Romulus felt the corners of his lips twitch upwards at his friend’s obvious envy. Dougall might play the joker, but at heart he was an overachiever. He had even led the order in Adrian’s absence. Cullum threw a piece of paper in Dougall’s direction.
Katrina pressed forward “has she shown evidence of magik?”
Romulus clenched his jaw. “No, and she has no memory of her past life. Or of me.”
“Well then you must make her remember. If she’s not bonded to you, Kem might very well kill her and then…”
“And then we will never be together again.”
Katrina didn’t need to elaborate further. She sent him a sympathetic look and offered gently, “take her to the pools. She’ll remember then.”
Joan nodded. “Until she remembers and bonds with you she can be easily killed. Kem clearly wants her dead. I’ve never seen him send fourteen minions before.”
Romulus rubbed his squared jaw and addressed the room. “Kem wants her dead and I won’t allow it. Double the daily guard on her and the rest should continue with their regular duties. Dougall, send for the Eastern division and keep them apprised. We won’t be able to spare any extra arms for some time.”
Dougall looked surprised. “My lord, double? Why will she need double when she remains safe in the fortress?”
He had asked himself the same thing. Her apartment had been trashed and was no longer secure. Kem’s minions could return for her at any time if she stayed at her apartment.
She couldn’t stay there anymore, but she still wanted to go to work. If he kept her here with him on the Order’s estate then he could always watch over her and keep her safe. Under his watch she would want for nothing and would be protected.
But after hearing more about her passion for work and seeing her panic at the thought of being absent for a day, he knew that he couldn’t keep her trapped here. She’d never forgive him, and he recognized that she prized her independence just as much as he did. “I will not keep her here during the day. She will spend nights at the Order but she will still go to work. She won’t accept being kept a prisoner here, and she needs her freedom.”
“But sir-- “
“I am lord of this order, but I will not dictate her life.”
Cullum leaned forward. “Romulus, you know what will happen if she dies before you do-- if she sacrifices herself to preserve you.”
“Our souls will not return. We’ll be star dust once more.”
Dougall pleaded, “so you can see why we cannot let her out of the fortress. What if she takes a bullet meant for you? You’ll be separated for eternity and won’t return. You don’t get another chance. You’ll return to the stars.”
“She’s still the stubborn lass I once knew. Trust me, it doesn’t appear as if she’ll let me anywhere near her, let alone close enough to take a bullet. We’ll keep some guards with her and will inform her of the danger she’s in. She’s a smart woman. She won’t take any foolish risks.”
Joan stood. “May I be excused? I’d like to talk with her.”
Romulus nodded and addressed the crowd as Joan left, “all of you will make her feel welcome here. Her home was invaded and she has nowhere else to go. She is now under my protection.”
“Thank goodness you’re ok! I thought they’d killed you.” Those were the first words out of Selene’s mouth after Joan had knocked and then entered the room.
Selene had tried to push out of bed but found that while her head no longer ached, her body was still weak. The fiery kiss with Rom had restored some of her energy but not enough to launch herself at Joan.
Joan had plopped herself down in the chair that Rom had dragged beside the bed. She’d updated Selene on the phone call to work and how the Order was working to figure out who had sent the minions and how they had managed to suppress Joan’s power. Now Joan sat cross legged on the bed as they played a game of chess. The board had magically appeared along with Joan.
Selene was in the middle of asking Joan about the bandages at her side. She’d noticed how Joan was favoring the one side, and she expressed concern that maybe her friend should let her fated heal her.
Joan lifted her nose in the air and told Selene, “if an arrow to the neck at Les Tourelles couldn’t kill me, a bunch of soul stealing amateurs weren’t gonna get very close.”
Selene’s head snapped up and she searched Joan’s face. Joan smiled contentedly as she took Selene’s bishop and wiggled it in front of her face. “I never liked Bishops-- so I’ll take yours.”
“Joan”, Selene began slowly, “where did you say you were from, again?”
Joan gestured for Selene to make her move. As she guided a pawn to take Joan’s knight, her new friend responded, “never did.”
She wasn’t going to be thrown by her friend’s evasive answer. She had a niggling suspicion that there was more to Joan than she originally expected, and she wasn’t going to let Joan slip away without answering her questions. Although Joan was impatient to get Selene to finish her turn Selene was unbothered. She did her best to look casual as she scanned the board. “What would you say if I asked if you were from Domremy?”
Joan’s eyes flashed up and then returned to the board. But not fast enough to disguise her surprise at Selene’s question. “Depends. Are you asking?”
Exasperated, Selene urged her. “Joan? As in Joan of Arc?”
Joan wrinkled her nose and moved her hair over her shoulder, the absolute picture of poise. “God, it’s been ages since anyone’s called me that.”
Selene gasped. “You can’t say ‘God’! You’re a canonized Saint!”
“I thought you were a hostage negotiator, not a history prof.”
Selene sat back against the pillows in complete shock. Next, she’d hear that Dougall was a werewolf.
The headache Romulus had soothed was now back full force. “My mom was a feminist and a Roman Catholic-- but that’s beside the point!” Moving a pawn across the board, Selene murmured “I can’t believe you’re the Joan of Arc.” Selene realized that she had been played. “That explains why you’re kicking my butt at this. I used to win my lunch money by playing classmates back in the day, you know?”
A moment of silence passed between them. Selene couldn’t resist asking, “So you’re really Joan of Arc?”
“I go by Joan these days.”
There was one part of the puzzle that she just couldn’t figure out. “So, how’d you get away alive?”
Joan clicked her tongue and smiled. “Well, that was a fun one. All the history books make me out to be a teenage girl. But I had turned 26 so I’d hit my immortality and matured into my powers. I used them to caste the illusion that I was burned at the stake.”
“Your parents must have been so relieved.”
Joan shook her head. “It turns out that my parents weren’t really my biological parents. My mom got sick and couldn’t have kids. So, one day they found me at the edge of a field, and they raised me as their own. They were staunch Roman Catholics, so they’d probably condemn me for witchcraft.”
Selene looked at her with empathy. It must have been very difficult to have to hide that from your parents. “They must have been devastated when news of the burning got to them.”
Joan shrugged her shoulders. “Honestly, it was for the best that they thought I’d been burned at the stake. It was different back then. Better for me to be a martyr than a witch, you know?”
“But you were so young! And then you were on your own? Wow, that would have been tough.”
“Selene, you’ll be 26 in a few days. I was the same age as you are now.”
Selene gave Joan a suspicious look and spoke slowly. “I never told you when my birthday was.” The underlying question was there. How much did Joan know, and why?
Joan shrugged and moved her own bishop. “You didn’t. But you have to understand that your age is a big point of contention around here.”
Selene regarded the board. “And why is that?”
Joan looked exasperated and tried to make her new friend understand that she had investigated her birthdate from a place of friendship and necessity. “Ok, so soulmates. Romulus gave you the run down, right?”
Selene moved her piece and looked up at Joan before thinking back to her earlier conversation with Romulus. A lot had happened since then and she had been so shocked when he had first explained it to her. Add in her recent head wound and things were still a bit fuzzy. “Apparently there’s a star, and when it explodes, it produces souls as energy. But that energy is too much for one person, so it’s split into two?” Joan nodded and motioned for her to continue, “and he seems to be under the impression that we were in love in a previous life before we died, and now we’re back together and I’m supposed to fall head over heels for him. Is that about right?”
Joan moved her knight quickly and gestured for Selene to go. “He left out one small part. Ask him about how you died, and why Kem is so interested in you.” Joan had a point. Selene had been so overwhelmed with all of this fated/ soulmates thing that she hadn’t even stopped to think about why she was being hunted. Romulus had mentioned something about her work stopping this Kem guy from being able to convince people to steal their soulmate’s powers, but she couldn’t see why else this guy would be so determined to get to her. Realistically, she was just a
small blip on his radar.
But now Joan was dropping heavy hints that there was more to this than Romulus had initially hinted. Selene cocked a brow. “I thought you were his second in command. Why would you tell me this when you know that it might make me like him less?”
Joan looked away from the game of chess and spoke with conviction. “Because just because you’re soulmates doesn’t mean that you’re invincible. And I know I’ve only just met you, but I feel a kinship. No matter what happens here, know that I’ll always have your back. And I want Romulus to tell you everything.”
“You sound like you’re talking from experience.” Selene turned her head to look more closely at her friend. “Romulus mentioned that your fated was healing you. So why are you still injured?” She gestured towards her friend’s wounds and the bandages that covered her body. She hadn’t wanted to prod at the issue, but now with Joan’s recent advice, she really wanted to know what else Joan was hiding.
Joan swooped up Selene’s sacrificial pawn and stretched out, so she lay across the bed and leaned on her elbow. “Ah, that. Damn mate connection. Drives me absolutely insane.”
“So, he couldn’t heal you?”
Joan’s voice was serious as the grave. She curled her arm protectively against her stomach. “I wouldn’t let him.”
Now, that was interesting. Joan was always bursting with energy. She hadn’t known her long, but she knew that Joan went 100 miles an hour every day. It didn’t make sense that she wouldn’t let someone fix her wound so she could bounce back to normal even faster.
She knew that Joan’s limited mobility was going to drive her nuts while she waited to heal naturally. “Why not? I don’t even know Romulus and I jumped at the opportunity to heal my head.”
Joan shook her head and spoke so quietly that Selene had to lean in closer to hear her. That was also uncharacteristic of the proud woman. “If I let him heal my body it would injure my heart.”
Selene was immediately alert. “Is he hurting you?”