by Quinn Loftis
“Cassie was out on a date with a male?” Syndra’s voice was full of concern.
“Is that a bad thing?” Lisa asked.
“The males of our race are very possessive of their Chosen. And because of the nature of the dark elf, they take that possessiveness to a whole new level. Did he kill the boy?”
“No, but according to Elora it was a close call.”
There was a pause and Lisa waited for the Elf Queen to speak. When she finally did the voice came from behind her.
“Well.”
Lisa and Elora jumped in surprise. Elora glared at Syndra. “Could you somehow announce your presence before you just walk through our window?”
Syndra clucked her tongue at her. “Testy aren’t we? Nice outfit.” She motioned to the costume Elora still hadn’t taken off.
Lisa stepped in before Elora could respond.
“Do you think that Cassie is safe with Trik?”
Syndra leaned against the counter and tapped her chin with a long fingernail.
“Trik won’t hurt her. She’s his Chosen and he is, therefore, incapable of hurting her. Now, anyone that comes between them is fair game.” She gave Elora a pointed look.
Elora held up her hands. “I’m not trying to go toe to toe with Mr. Bad Ass; I just want to know that my friend is ok.”
“She’s ok,” Syndra responded.
Elora rolled her eyes and threw her hands in up in the air. “Well now that that is all cleared up.”
“Why don’t we all just go over to Cassie’s house and see for ourselves if she is alright?” Syndra said with a wave as she walked through the same window she had arrived in.
Lisa was shaking her head at the Queen as she watched her go. “Can you imagine how much time we could save if we could do that?”
“Can you imagine how much easier it would be to sneak out of the house?” Elora responded with a smirk.
“Good point.”
~
“I’m home,” Cassie hollered into the house as she closed the door behind her and Trik.
“I don’t know why you insist on meeting them now,” she muttered to him.
Trik twirled a strand of her hair around his finger and Cassie slapped it away when she heard her mom coming down the stairs.
“Isn’t it customary for the boy to meet the girl’s parents?” He whispered in return.
Cassie started to respond but her mom came into the entryway. “Where have you…,” she started to speak but then stopped midsentence as her eyes fell on Trik. Cassie watched as her mom took in the incredible masculine beauty that was Trik in his human guise. When it was apparent that her mom wasn’t going to stop any time soon, she snapped her fingers in front of her face.
“Mom, hey, I’m over here. Remember me, your daughter?”
Her mom blinked several times and finally looked over at Cassie. She cleared her throat as she tried to remember what she had been going to say.
“Yes, Cassie.”
“Well, at least you remember my name,” Cassie mumbled.
“You’re late and who is this, this,” Sylvia looked Trik over again as she tried to find the right word.
“This is Trik,” Cassie interrupted. “He’s…”
“I’m the boyfriend.” Trik took Sylvia’s hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it chastely and then quickly releasing it. “I can see where Cassie gets her beauty.”
Sylvia colored. “Oh you’re good, but not good enough for me to forget that my daughter is late and actually left with a different boy than she has arrived home with.”
Cassie grimaced at her mother’s tone. She turned to Trik and smiled. “So I’ll talk to you later?”
“Is that a not so subtle hint of telling me to get lost?” Trik raised a single brow at her.
“Pretty much.”
Trik leaned down and gave Cassie a quick kiss on the cheek and then a slight bow to her mother.
“It was very nice to meet you.”
“Uh-huh,” Sylvia was once again struck by his inhuman beauty and didn’t snap out of it until the door finally blocked him from her view.
Sylvia’s head snapped back around to Cassie.
“Who on earth was that?”
Cassie smiled nervously. “That was Trik.”
“I got that much, Cassandra. But who is he, and where did you meet him, and how old is he, and how on earth is he that good looking?”
“Slow down mom,” Cassie told her mom as she headed for the kitchen. She needed some caffeine to help clear more of the alcohol from her brain before she dove into this whopper of a lie she was about to have to get her mom to swallow.
“As I was saying,” Cassie began again as she pulled a Coke from the refrigerator. “His name is Trik and I met him over a month ago at dad’s work.”
“Does he work in your dad’s building?” Her mom asked.
Cassie took a quick sip of her drink as she tried desperately to come up with a plausible explanation for Trik being at her dad’s work. “He’s a courier for one of the offices in the building.”
“How old is he?”
“He’s 18, but he graduated last year. He was homeschooled,” Cassie added.
Sylvia crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her daughter. Cassie could tell that her mom was deciding on whether to call her on her load of crap story or just let it go for now. Thankfully , it was the latter.
“Next time please call if you are going to be late and your father needs to meet Trik before you go out on a date with him again, or return from a date with him.” Sylvia laughed at her words.
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Cassie said dryly as she tossed her empty Coke can into the trash.
“I still don’t understand how you left with Todd, but then came home with…”
“Hotty Mctotty?” Cassie grinned.
“Yes, I will agree, he is quite good looking.”
“Mom, who would you come home with? Todd or that?” Cassie pointed in the direction Trik had exited and gave her mom a deadpan look.
“Well, despite how attractive Trik is, it wasn’t nice of you to leave Todd out to dry,” Sylvia chided.
“Oh I think Todd was quite glad that we left him,” Cassie mumbled as she walked past her mom. “I’m calling it a night.”
“Sleep well, honey,” Sylvia grabbed Cassie in a quick hug. Cassie patted her mom’s back. “Sorry I was late.” She told her again, really meaning it.
“Just get some rest Cass,” Sylvia told her with a final pat. “And don’t think I didn’t smell the alcohol on your breath. We’ll talk about that later.”
Chapt er 7
Long ago, deep in the forest of Aldeon, the Forest Lords created a race full of magic, strength, intelligence , and cunning. This race divided itself into two factions. And so the light and dark elves came to be. The Forest Lords were not pleased by the division of their creation, and so they removed themselves, watching as they fought and destroyed one another. But the time has come for the Forest Lords to once again bring order and peace to their children, the time of the light and dark elves is over. The time of the Elfin is just beginning.
Lorsan felt his anger rising as he listened to the report from his second in command. He felt his Chosen’s hand rest on his arm, an attempt to calm him. It wasn’t working.
“You’re telling me he left a week ago, you haven’t heard from him since, and you are just now making me aware of this?” Lorsan gritted his teeth in frustration.
“My Liege,” Alok said as he knelt before the Dark Elf King. “I thought he must be handling something for you and I didn’t feel it my place to question. Trik has always come and gone as he pleased.”
Lorsan paced the throne room as his mind raced. He had always allowed Trik more freedom than any in his army, but then Trik had never given him cause to ques tion his loyalty. Trik had always done what he’d asked, always followed through, even if he did give Lorsan grief over just about everything; he still did as he was told. But that was before
he had found his Chosen.
“Alok, how are the crops coming along?” Lorsan asked.
“They are growing well. The human soil seems to be mixing well with our own,” Alok answered quickly, which irritated Lorsan further because he knew that Trik would have purposely dragged out the explanation, adding a few smart-ass comments of his own. Oddly enough he found that he preferred a contrary assassin to a cooperative one.
“When will the first batch be ready to harvest?”
“By the end of this week,” he answered again with a no nonsense tone.
“That will be all,” Lorsan dismissed the warrior.
“What of Triktapic, Liege?”
Lorsan’s head snapped around and the look in his eyes made Alok step back.
“I will deal with Triktapic and you will make sure the first batch of Rapture is successful.” Alok bowed and quickly made his way through one of the mirrors in the throne room.
“What is your plan?” Ilyrana asked once she and Lorsan were alone again.
Lorsan threw his hands in the air. “Of all my warriors, he was the one I would have bet my life would remain loyal.”
“You don’t know that he has defected yet,” Ilyrana argued. “This is Trik we are speaking about, my King. He has always come and gone as he pleased but he has always returned.”
“He has never gone so long without checking in with me or one of his warriors. Nor would he ever allow a project of this magnitude to go unsupervised for so long.” Lorsan’s eyes narrowed as he continued. “He is being distracted by his human at a time when I don’t need him distracted.”
“She is his Chosen.”
“So he says,” Lorsan cut his own Chosen off.
“So bring her here,” Ilyrana challenged. “Let us see for ourselves that she really is his Chosen.”
“What will that change?” Lorsan growled. “I still expect him to do his duty; I still expect his loyalty to be to me first.”
“I agree with you, love. But maybe if Trik feels that we are welcoming her into our race, then he will not feel the need to stray.”
Lorsan looked at his Chosen and was, once again, struck by her aptitude in forethought. He, more often than not, let his temper get the best of him while she remained cool and logical. He had decided long ago that this was why the Forest Lords had given her to him.
“So we shall have a banquet in honor of Triktapic’s Chosen,” Ilyrana told him with a smile.
“I can’t decide if this plan in ingenious, or just your way of getting to throw a party,” Lorsan chuckled, but felt his anger diminishing as he watched his Chosen.
“Maybe a little of both,” she teased.
~
Trik sat in Cassie’s room, waiting on her to come back upstairs. He thought about the past week that he had spent with her. They had only been apart when she was in class, with her parents, or in the bathroom. They had talked about anything and everything. His mind drifted off to one particular conversation that still troubled him.
They had been lying on her bed, her head on his stomach as he weaved his fingers in and out of her hair. She had looked up at him and asked him what his childhood had been like, what he had been like. It had been so very long since Trik had thought about his childhood, and the longer he had sat there trying to think of something to tell her, the harder it had been for him to even get a picture in his mind of what his childhood had been like.
“Very different from your childhood I think,” he had told her.
“What do you mean think?” She had asked him.
Trik had pushed as hard as he could in his mind to form some thought of his childhood, but no memories came.
“I don’t remember it,” he had told her, his voice flat and devoid of emotion though inside he had felt like something was beginning to weaken, some wall that had been erected was beginning to falter in its hold.
“You don’t remember anything about your childhood.” Cassie’s voice had been full of disbelief and sorrow.
“It’s been a long time, Cassie. I am ancient, remember?”
He had teased her, trying to keep her from feeling bad for him, all the while, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling growing inside of him.
Trik sat up abruptly as the unwelcome pulling sensation drew him from his memories. He knew that sensation and it was one that he was beginning to dread. Lorsan was calling to him. He wasn’t forcing him, but he was definitely summoning him.
Cassie’s bedroom door opened and Trik stood quickly, closing the distance between them.
“What’s wrong?” Cassie saw the frustration written across Trik’s handsome features as he pulled her into his arms.
“Lorsan summons me; I must go.”
“When will you be back?” She asked him calmly, pushing out any of the possibilities for which his King would be calling him.
“As soon as I can.” Trik pulled back and looked down at her. “I don’t suppose you can stay in your room until I come back for you?”
Cassie stifled her laughter into his shirt. When she looked up into his silver eyes, she saw worry there. “Trik, I can’t just stay in my room when you aren’t with me.”
“Why not?” His brow furrowed in frustration. “I can’t keep you safe when I’m not with you Cassie.”
“There is nothing you need to keep me safe from.”
“A'maelamin, I am the most feared assassin in the history of my race.”
Cassie was surprised to hear no vanity in his tone. He was just stating the facts.
“I have taken more lives than you have probably met and pissed off double that amount. Believe me, there is plenty to keep you safe from. The news that I have found my Chosen is spreading quickly. You will soon become a target to anyone who wants to get to me.”
Cassie started to speak but he cut her off with a firm kiss.
“Look, it’s Saturday,” he smoothed her hair back from her face as he looked down at her. “Just stay in your home until I get back. I won’t be gone long.”
“Fine,” she said in exasperation as she stepped away from him and flopped onto her bed. “I’ll wait for you here like a good little girl.”
Trik grinned down at her and her heart nearly stopped at his Adonis look. The elf really was too good looking for his own good.
“I shall reward you accordingly.” He leaned down over her, his hands on the mattress on either side of her head and pressed his lips to hers. Trik lingered over her, breathing in her scent and memorizing her taste.
“See you soon beautiful,” he whispered against her lips. Cassie’s eyes closed as she relished his closeness, but they opened as soon as she felt a soft breeze caress her face. She sat up and blinked as she looked around her room. Trik was gone.
She flung herself back on her bed with a groan. A whole Saturday stuck at home. “This is crap,” she muttered to herself.
Her cell phone beeped. She grabbed it from her bedside table. It was a text from Elora.
E: U up?
C: Yep. Cassie texted back.
E: Quiver boy there?
C: Nope
E: Bored?
C: Yep
E: Go out?
C: QB says it’s dangerous
E: So is breathing in the noxious fumes we call air. Point?
C: Well, when u put it that way E: Can’t argue with my logic
C: Uh, u mean can’t argue with you period?
E: That too. So-u in?
C: Bring it.
E: That’s my girl
Cassie grinned as she tossed her phone onto her bed. Elora to the rescue. It was good to have a friend who liked to stick it to the man, or to anyone for that matter.
~
“It’s been a while, Triktapic.” Lorsan waited for him in the large garden located behind the King’s palace. Trik looked around as he entered the large garden and thought that it must look much like what humans described in their enchanted tales. Lush grass carpeted the ground. Tall trees with strong trunks and long branches co
vered in ornate leaves shaded the garden. Flowers in every color imaginable bloomed around them, tall, short, small , and large.
Trik smirked to himself, thinking that Cassie would ask why the dark elf castle was not actually dark, at least not on the outside. Regardless of the heart that lurked in Lorsan’s chest, he still liked beautiful things and his garden was indeed beautiful.
“It’s been a week, my Liege, hardly any time at all.” Trik knelt before Lorsan knowing that it would both please and irk the King.
“A week since you have bothered to check on your duties,” Lorsan’s words were clipped and tight.
Trik continued to kneel. “Alok has it under control.”
“How would you know? You haven’t checked in with him in a week.”
After a long pause, Trik stood, tired of playing the part. “I do not answer to Alok, and if he thinks that I am not keeping an eye on what is going on, then he is not the Second in Command that I thought he was.” Trik’s head snapped around to look at Lorsan.
“You know that I would not let such a project go unchecked. You honestly believe that in a week I have not laid eyes on the crops myself?” Trik didn’t hide the contempt in his voice.
Lorsan stood, staring at Trik. After several moments of silence he let out a long breath.
“I don’t know what to think, Trik.”
“Lorsan, I have found my Chosen, not lost my mind.”
“They are one in the same if I remember correctly,” Lorsan chuckled nostalgically.
A slow smile spread on Trik’s face as his temper faded. “So you remember?”
Lorsan walked over to a chair that had been placed beneath the largest shade tree and sat. He motioned for Trik to take the seat beside him.
“I remember,” Lorsan agreed tiredly, truly remembering what it was like when he had first laid eyes on his Ilyrana. “I have been wrong to question you Trik. But in my defense, this is a very important and dangerous time.”
Trik nodded and said with a sly smile. “I can agree to all of that.”
“Why don’t you bring her here, let us meet her?” Lorsan offered.
Trik leaned back in his chair as he considered his King’s words and kept his face carefully blank. It wouldn’t do to let Lorsan know that the last thing he wanted to do was to taint Cassie, his pure Cassie, with the darkness of his realm.