She rushes into the room confused. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Trouble is nearby, and they are coming for us.”
“How do you know?” she asks, looking out the windows for what I know will not be seen until they want to be seen.
“Because I know. Now let’s go.” I grab the bag I have been living out of since I got here and throw a few other things into it. “Are you ready?”
“Almost, but I wasn’t expecting to move so quickly.” I roll my eyes at the supposed non girly girl who has somehow accumulated more stuff in this house than I have.
I look up as Shadow begins to growl. “Too late.”
Skylar jumps and catches sight of the men coming for us. “Those are realm warriors, not the typical criminals you know, and considering the raven emblem pasted on the leader, I would say you found Lord Marius, or rather, he found you.”
“Shit. I wasn’t planning on dealing with him.” I step in front of her. “Stay behind me. I’ll handle them until you can get away.” They come at us with everything they have. Thankfully, the security I set up has forced them to move in only two at a time. I grab the first two and shove them into my direct view. Their screams alert the others to change their tactics. They rush in on top of each other, like Kamikazes, hoping enough will survive to get me or at least do enough damage so the one behind him can. I have a hard time keeping up with the onslaught, taking care of myself, and making sure Shadow can handle himself okay, to keep up with Skylar too. Frantically, I fight my way through warriors, searching for her. “Skylar?! Skylar!” I scream until she suddenly pops up with a large smile and dead warriors at her feet.
“What do you want? I’m busy.” She smiles, shoving her body into another and taking him out with a swift jerk of his throat, breaking his neck with ease.
Huh. Well at look at that. I clear out the last enemy, grab my things, and take hold of her arm. “Let’s go, badass, before more come.”
We jump into the car, and I can see her smiling at me from the corner of my eye. “Okay, yeah, you impressed me. Well done. Badass.” She squeals excitedly as she leans over and kisses my cheek. “You know, I don’t think warriors are supposed to kiss each other on the cheek, Sky.”
“Oh yeah? So where are they supposed to kiss then?” she whispers in my ear. I turn my head quickly and take hold of her face to kiss her lips the way I want. At first, I do it to satisfy my own curiosity, to see if she could respond back the way I like, which she does, and the shock I was hoping to give changes to me. I wasn’t expecting her to touch me that way.
“Did I do something wrong? Why did you stop?”
“No, everything’s fine. We just need to get out of here,” I say, glancing her way to look her over and hating myself the instant I do.
My new home, my real home I purchased months ago, has been under construction until recently. It needed some added changes, some special, hidden additions. My brother taught me many things, and one very important thing he made sure to remind me of before I left was to always have a backup plan, an escape plan that no one else will ever know about. I created two. The men I had working on my home were all met with individually upon completion, a thankful up close and personal talk until they didn’t remember ever doing a thing. I then tipped them well and sent them on their way.
I proudly walk through the grand entryway as the home announces itself to me. “Hello Sir. Welcome home. The estate is secure at all areas, and there are no security issues at this time. Computer system check … all systems are working properly.”
“Wonderful, is there anything else, Tahs?”
“Yes, there is a celebratory wine chilled to its optimal temperature in the kitchen.”
Smiling, I acknowledge my new found friend. “Thank you. That will be all Tahs.”
“Tahs?” Skylar asks.
“Yeah, Technologically Advanced Home Security. A family friend named designed it for me.”
“Oh really, and what’s advanced about it?”
“I can talk to it without saying a word.” I move my hand simply a half turn to the right in her direction, and Skylar is scanned.
“The suspect is carrying two knives, one tied to each ankle, one gun on her left hip, and two undefined weapons under each breast.”
Skylar stands back with a smile as she crosses her arms. “Interesting. However, I am not carrying any weapon under either breast, so your system is flawed.”
“Oh my system is never wrong. It’s been tested time and time again and has never failed. Not once.”
Removing her shirt, she lifts her arms above her head confidently. “Search me then, but if I’m right, I get to choose my room.”
“And if you’re wrong? What do I get if you’re wrong? Will you go back home and leave me alone?”
Her confidence lessens, yet she still nods in agreement. “Okay, if that’s what you really want.”
I step toe to toe with her and look her over before I feel up her stomach and to her chest. Pushing my thumbs underneath the edge of her bra, I feel along the edge of her breasts, staring into her eyes all the while searching slowly and thoroughly. “There. And there.”
“What is there? That’s nothing but a wire in my bra.” I flip open my knife and cut off a piece off her bra, pull out the weapon, and take notice of her impeccable breast that falls free from the collapsing restraints.
I hold up the small, single-edged knife that was hidden between the wires of her bra. “Oh, you mean that little thing is considered a weapon?” She takes off her bra and hands it to me. “Well if that’s off limits, then by all means, take the other one too. Something to remember me by. So do I have to leave now or can I wait until morning?” she asks, unable to look me in the eyes.
“Neither, for now you can stay and keep your loaded bra to carry those dangerous weapons of yours. But I am keeping the knives.” I am really starting to like looking at her naked breasts, and hell, I am starting to crave them.
Skylar smiles once again. “I do like this place much better. Do I get to choose a room, or am I supposed to sleep on the floor somewhere near your bed? Speaking of your bed, do you need someone to keep it warm or does Tahs handle that, too?”
I take a deep breath, trying to maintain my desires to a controllable level. “Skylar, I told you. I’m not going to fuck you, so you can stop trying.”
“Why not? I know you’re interested, so stop fighting it. There is no reason to be scared of me.”
“I’m not scared of you or anyone. I’m simply tired of people being taken away from me. I’m tired of caring about someone and then having them ripped out of my life and never being able to get them back. I have a feeling sex with you will take me places I don’t want to go. There is something about you, Skylar, something I think I would really enjoy getting to know, but you’re hiding it underneath this phony desperation you’re pushing onto me right now. At some point, the real you is going to come out, and I’m afraid I might enjoy it too much. Maybe that’s what you’re afraid of. Maybe you are the one pretending to be something you’re not.”
She gulps, seemingly searching for an answer for me. “Well, I’m clearly not running away from the possibilities, Ryan! Why are you?!”
“Because this life was forced upon me. I didn’t choose it, so I am doing the best I can to control the heartache. If you can’t understand that, then I’m sorry.”
She steps back, covering herself and suddenly shying away from me. “Actually, I can.” She grabs her bag and walks away with a heart melting sadness about her.
“Damn it, I should have just let her go.” I turn around frustrated, finding a familiar face.
“Welcome home!” Terrence exclaims as he walks into the room. “Don’t worry, the home security system is good. Eddie gave me a key.”
“And where have you been?” I ask.
“I think we need to talk about things. I have some … family news that I need to finally share with you.”
CHAPTER 10
Elijah
Ryan called me to his new house this afternoon, and apparently, Cat is set to meet me there. I assume there is word about Marius, finally. Maybe we can get this search done and send the tall, freaky one back to his realm hole where he belongs. If I could only figure out a way to send his best buddy, Fagan, back there with him. Maybe those two should marry each other and stay out of my damn life. Pulling into Ryan’s new home, I have to laugh to myself. This place couldn’t be more different from his brother’s. Nick’s lack of a stable home growing up pushed him to find something that supplied a welcoming comfort. He wanted a place to dive into and feel protected from the eyes that were always watching him, and as it turned out, a place that he knew Kayla would love too. Ryan, however, has chosen something so modern, so open, and so hard edged that it almost challenges you to a fight before you even walk in the door. His guards are a little more interesting; they seem a little skittish.
“Hi,” I say, sending the guy diving behind the shrubs surrounding the guard’s house. I lean out of my car, trying to find the guy. “Hello?”
“Who are you here to see?” the man asks, poking his head out just enough to see me.
“Ryan. Who the fuck else would I be here to see?”
“Name?” the gopher asks.
“Elijah Stevens.”
He rushes out of the bushes and into the guard house, slamming the door shut. What the fuck is happening? The man pokes his head out the door. “Proceed, please.” The gate opens, and I drive in, noticing Amery’s jackass mobile already parked in front. Sure enough, he’s comfortably waiting inside right next to Cat on a two person sofa. “Ryan, what is up with your gate guard? He acted like I was going to throw bombs at him.”
“Oh, they accidently witnessed a few things recently. Marius sent some warriors here as Amery came in, and he somehow forgot to handle things differently in front of the earth walking people. He disintegrated the men to basically nothing.”
“Sorry. I’m a lover not a fighter. I like to handle things quickly and cleanly.” Amery laughs while I become nauseous and threaten to vomit somewhere. “Well, hello Eli. We were beginning to wonder if you were ever going to get here. I told Cat that you probably got lost and we should just continue on without you. It’s not like you can help much with this issue anyway, being a commoner.” Typical Amery greeting with his usual sarcastic ideals.
“Hello to you too, Jackass,” I say simply yet proudly.
Cat gets up with an exhaustive sigh. “Hello Sweetheart,” she says, kissing me gently and not as deeply as I would want in front of Jackass. “I really wish you two would get along better, Eli.”
“What do you mean? We get along. We simply like to play this little game where we pretend we hate each other immensely.” I smile towards Amery but change my tone when I look into her eyes. “So what’s going on? Did you find Marius?” I wrap my arm around her and kiss the side of her face to clarify whose girl she really is.
“We found him, among other things. We actually found out something even more disturbing,” Cat says as I look towards Ryan.
“Marius has sought out a very powerful Diviner,” Ryan says.
“A what?” I ask, hoping I am not supposed to know who that person is.
“Yeah, that’s what I asked too. Apparently, she is able to see the future and this one in particular is also able to give people ideas on powerful solutions to their problems,” Ryan says, sighing as he takes a seat.
“A witch? I thought they were only in storybooks?” I laugh until no one else does. Oh great.
“Diviners are not witches. They are seers. They are able to predict what could happen if things are handled a certain way. Marius was originally testing her to see what would happen if he attacked Nick a certain way, and once the Diviner confirmed a plan will be successful, then he was going to proceed.” Ryan explains to me.
“So let’s bribe her to confirm the wrong plan and then we end this whole thing quickly and everyone can go back to their rightful places.” And out of my damn life. “Hell, I’ll chip in on the bribe. How much we talking?” No one says anything. Instead, they all look at each other with hopeless expressions. “A hundred? A thousand? Two? Three?! If it gets much more then I fully expect Nicky to handle most of it. He does own an entire realm of hell. I know land prices are down these days, but that’s got to be worth something, right?” And the silence continues. “Oh no, what? What do we need to do?”
“Diviners are not able to lie, so it is pointless to try and bribe her. We thought maybe we could use her to our advantage too and figure out where Marius was hiding his army. After all, we only need solid proof that he is building an illegal army with commoners in order to get permission from the Council to eliminate him,” Cat informs me with a squeeze of my hand.
“How about we just eliminate him now and then find the evidence? Less trouble that way,” I suggest, crashing into a seat and bringing my girl into my lap with me.
“Eli …” Cat shakes her head. “This is serious. Ryan met with the Diviner himself and used his skills to retrieve some information from her. Marius figured out no matter the size of his army he won’t be able to defeat Nick. Not alone at least.”
I pull my lips from her neck and look up at Ryan. “Oh shit! What now?! What crazy ass demon fuck are we going to have to deal with now?”
“He’s trying to figure out how to bring Savage back,” Ryan says. “And apparently, he’s figured out a way.”
Chills run up at my spine. “And that is?”
“We don’t know for sure. When I asked for details, she screamed and said she couldn’t bear the thought of those images again and permanently erased the possibilities. No matter what I did, she fought me.”
“We need to tell Nick and make sure he keeps old devil puss in his fiery cell. Put extra demon guards on Savage or something. I don’t know.”
“Nick knows, but he fears changing the tactics of the ninth until we know more. The fear we are feeling may be the cause of his release, and any changes we make may make it easier to accomplish what they want. Right now, there is no access to him without Nick’s approval, so whatever it is they have planned requires Nick to purposely pull him from hell.”
“The only reason Nick would ever consider doing that is if someone he loves was in trouble and Savage was the only one who knew how to save them,” I say, realizing what they all have already come to understand. “He is going to attack his family—Kayla, the kids, or you, Ryan. No one else would push Nick to the brink of insanity which is what it would take for him to decide such a thing. You need to go back and seek the shelter that Nick can provide for you because Marius is clearly targeting you lately.”
“No, I can handle myself against Marius especially. Besides, Nick thinks the plan is not to kill me but to turn me. I killed Savage, and as much as I hate to admit it, I have his blood in me, and much like Nick, I am just as susceptible to becoming him.” Holding Cat close, I stand up with her and away from Ryan, staring hard. “I’m not him. I only have the potential to become him.”
“Oh yeah and how will that happen? Is that damn dragon going to fly in here and bite you?”
“No, I have the dragon under my control, and I am able to keep him stagnant for now, but if my anger gets out of hand, if I am pushed too far, then I could snap. Kayla has always been Nick’s remedy. She helped me too, but being away from her makes me vulnerable to my own blood.”
“Alright, sounds like a simple solution. We need to get you a Kayla,” I say, wondering how the hell we could ever find another one of her and then convince her to help us without getting our asses kicked.
“We have one. We’ve had one. Someone no one knew about until recently,” Ryan says, apparently shocking everyone because my jaw isn’t the only one on the floor right now.
Amery stands with his hands on hips. “Who?” At least I wasn’t the last one to know this bit of information.
“Terrence. He is Kayla’s half-brother and has the potential to be just as
powerful as Kayla.” We all instantly spin in Terrence’s direction. Ryan walks to his side. “He’s going to be my mood controller.”
“Wooow, you are really Kayla’s brother? Did you know?” Cat asks, looking him over as we all are.
“I knew. She didn’t. I’m older and was sent away before she was born. She knows now and, thankfully, is very supportive of me. I’m excited to train, but I still have a long way to go. Nick wants Ryan to stay away from trouble as much as possible until I am further along in my abilities.”
“So our goal is to keep Marius away from you until Terrence is more capable of protecting you from you,” Amery says. Ryan nods while I continue to look over Terrence.
“Yeah, I see it. You’re definitely as hot as she is,” Cat hums, causing Terrence to blush. “That whole forcing people to look your way no matter how hard they try not to.” What? I squint, eyeing him up and down, trying to see what she sees.
“You don’t do anything for me man,” I say, and Terrence thanks God which is odd considering.
Cat sighs again, continuing to look him over, which is starting to annoy me. “You know, Kayla was the first woman I ever had a sex dream about.” What? What! She turns to me, nodding.
“I thought we were going to share our dreams with each other, and I know nothing of this one.” Cat laughs and kisses me. “No. No, I wasn’t trying to be funny. I really want to know.”
“Eli, this is not the time. If you’re good, I will tell you all about it later.”
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