The Relentless Warrior

by Rachel Higginson

  “Nobody’s home,” Talbott sighed.

  “That doesn’t mean this is a dead end.” I turned to face the group. “We’re looking for evidence linked to my parents and Terletov. I’m hoping we don’t find anything, but there is a very real possibility my father is working for him.”

  We split up, taking the house in pairs. I kept Olivia’s hand and pulled her along with me. I would be in charge of searching the rooms with more places to hide important clues.

  We wandered through my father’s study, pulling at books and rifling through his desk. There wasn’t a whole lot here since this was only a weekend home, but there were enough of my father’s personal documents that something could pop up.

  “What’s your dad like?” Olivia asked as she rifled through a first edition of something ancient.

  “Old,” I grunted. Because he was in fact, old. My parents had been around for a while, not succumbing to the King’s Curse or the conflict with Lucan. They were like cockroaches.

  “Neat,” Olivia added. “He’s very organized. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found evidence filed under “Things I Should Keep Hidden.’”

  I laughed before I could stop myself.

  “Does it bother you that you have to do this?” she asked.

  I thought about that for a minute and I seriously contemplated not answering her. She didn’t push me, but she didn’t change the subject either. I was a twenty-four year old man and hadn’t made up my mind if I had “daddy issues” or not. I decided not to say anything. She didn’t need to know about my messed up parents and their prejudiced, bigoted ways. It wouldn’t even make sense to her, probably.

  And then I heard myself say, “My father is different from me.”

  She looked up from the desk, her dark blue eyes hitting me like a monsoon- dark with storm, intense with its heat and power. “I didn’t ask if you were like him. I asked if this bothers you.”

  She held me there unmoving; I was bewitched by her fierce loveliness. She was both delicate and invincible, both thoughtful and independent. And I’d been a jerk.

  “It bothers me,” I admitted. “We’ve never really been on the same side of anything before, though. Growing up he did the whole distant-father thing. And I was fine with that. He’s always had career goals that were more important than his family. Or at least me.” I cleared my throat and thought that was a great place to stop- you know, before I made myself look like a total tool.

  “So he works for Avalon?” Liv pressed.

  “Er, no,” I shifted uncomfortably and focused my attention on the bookshelf in front of me. I didn’t know why this embarrassed me, or why I wanted Olivia to have all these good thoughts about my family, but it was really hard to tell her the truth, to open up to her about how dysfunctional my family was. “He worked for the king before Avalon.”

  “Ah, the other bad guy.”

  I smiled at her dry humor. “Yeah, the other bad guy. His big issue was racism. He divided our kinds into individual sects- restricting our Magic until we were barely functioning. Things were… bad. But still, he never involved humans. Apparently, even Lucan had some kind of moral code.”

  “So your dad?” she prompted.

  “Yeah, he was a politician under Lucan, a regent in South America. But when Eden and Avalon took over, he willingly left his position because he didn’t agree with how they opened up the Magic. We lost contact then. He didn’t approve of my belief system or support of the new Monarchy and I never could agree with his intolerant way of thinking. I saw him a couple summers ago, right before I started traveling for Avalon. We met for lunch and he seemed… distracted. More so than usual. At the time I chalked it up to annoyance with me. In a way, I’d gotten a lot farther politically than he ever had. I think he’s bitter about that. He devoted his entire life to politics and serving the Monarchy, but when it came down to it… he bet on the wrong horse. It’s hard for him to see me have success when he failed.”

  She let out a surprised laugh and said, “Yeah, if I were your dad that would probably be hard for me, too. But do you think that is enough of a reason to join forces with Terletov? I mean, come on. You turned out half-way alright, so your dad couldn’t have been all bad. Terletov is straight up evil. You really think your dad could be part of that?”

  I shook my head; I had no idea. “We’re just following a lead. If my dad walked in the door right now, I wouldn’t feel the need to hide what we’re doing or anything, it’s just… something feels off. The activity is happening too close to where my parents spend their time. And Analisa’s down here. Plus, the sacred mountain. Something isn’t adding up, I’m just trying to put the pieces together.”

  “Did you always know you didn’t believe what he did?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  I looked up at her and fell into that hypnotizing gaze again. I found myself walking towards her, unable to ignore the pull of her seductive aura. “No,” I answered truthfully. Slowly I came to a stop in front of her, straddling her outstretched feet between my own. “Avalon talked me out of my beliefs. He showed me a different way to think and it made more sense than how I had been taught to think.”

  Liv nibbled on her bottom lip and gave me her profile while she thought over my answer. “That’s all it took for you? Someone showing you a different way to think about something?”

  Feeling that this was more about her than my personal feelings on the proper treatment of Shifters, I said, “It’s easy to get stuck thinking one particular way. And a lot of times it’s even good to be rooted in your beliefs. But every once in a while someone comes along and blows everything you ever thought to be true right out of the water. Sometimes it’s more important to be flexible than right.” I stepped into her and placed both hands on the desk near her hips. I dropped my chin to my chest and rested my forehead against her temple. She tensed underneath me and let out a shuddering breath, but didn’t ask me to move. “I’m sorry I’ve been a jerk lately.”

  “Exactly,” she whispered, letting her breath fan against my lips. “You’ve been a jerk.”

  I suppressed a smile and leaned in. She was so close. So very close. My Magic had started reacting to hers sometime back in Romania. Now, every time I got close to her, I felt the tug of her Magic and the eagerness in mine. I didn’t know if she noticed it or even understood what was happening between us, but I couldn’t deny the strong, magnetic pull her body had on mine.

  I’d been denying myself this contact since I’d met her.

  But I was so tired of stopping myself short. I was tired of not closing the distance between us.

  I was tired of only fantasizing about what her lips tasted like.

  I wanted to know how they felt, how sweet her tongue would be against mine, how pliant her body would be beneath mine.

  Or would she be this feisty in every way?

  “I said I was sorry,” I murmured, letting my lips touch hers with a teasing graze. Fissions of electricity popped and sizzled down my body, igniting my blood in a way that went beyond my Magic, even beyond a simple familiar connection with her; this was elemental… this was life-altering.

  Potentially, this was suicidal.

  “And if I don’t believe you?” she asked breathlessly. She hadn’t pushed me away. In fact, her neck had arched gracefully so that her bottom lip rubbed a sensual brushstroke against mine. I wanted to groan in frustrated pleasure.

  “Then I’ll have to prove it to you.” And I planned on doing exactly that.

  Finally, my mouth dropped down to hers with the lightest, most intense kiss of my entire life. I felt the tender press of her skin against mine, felt it all the way to my bones. Every cell in my body jumped to life, singing, humming and vibrating with an awareness that had never been there before. My Magic all but attacked Olivia’s in its fervency to unite. I felt my body lurch forward from the force of the connection. The sweetest whimper escaped her luscious mouth and every thought in my mind demanded I sweep the desk clean and lay her down on it to claim
those lips as completely as possible.

  “Look, Xander, Jericho finally closed the deal,” Sebastian drawled from the doorway.

  Olivia jerked back out of my reach. Dazed and more than a little pissed off she blinked up at me.

  “He’s been working on this for a while?” Xander asked around a mouth full of… popcorn?

  Really?

  I tried to drop my forehead to Liv’s, but she was already scooting out from underneath me. Her cheeks flushed prettily and her body trembled from the intensity of our connection. She pushed past the guys crowding the doorway and ripped her Magic from mine in a violently, irritated way.

  My Magic recoiled into me, like a punished puppy. I felt it curl back into my body, neglected, painfully alone and pathetically disappointed.

  “I swear to God, Sebastian,” I groaned. I flipped around so I could lean back against my father’s Peroba Rosa, Danish-designed desk. “I am going to murder you.”

  He just grinned at me and stole some of Xander’s popcorn.

  “Where did you get that?” I gave a pointed glare at the microwaved bag in his hands.

  He shrugged. “It was in the cupboard. The kitchen was clean, by the way.”

  The popcorn was imported from America.

  Strange.

  My father hated instant anything, and popcorn wouldn’t be an exception. He also didn’t order anything from America. He didn’t have anything against the country exactly, but he didn’t typically need to import anything. He lived with whatever he could find in Brazil.

  “The popcorn’s a clue.” I stood up and walked over to the bag. I sampled a piece and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but still, its presence was… bizarre. “That doesn’t belong to my parents.”

  Sebastian eyed the bag curiously and Xander dropped his handful of buttery kernels back into the bag. They moved out of the way so I could head back to the kitchen.

  I had the strongest urge to go after Liv and talk her through what just happened to us, but I could sense her Magic upstairs and I decided she probably wanted some space .

  I couldn’t normally feel out other Magic; it wasn’t one of my gifts. But somehow Liv and I had gotten close enough so that I could sense hers.

  And right now, it was screaming for me to leave her alone.

  Damn it.

  “What are you going to do now?” Sebastian trailed behind me sounding hesitant but definitely amused.

  “I’m going to see what other foreign foods have taken over my parent’s kitchen.” My feet stomped across the Brazilian cherry floors so shiny I could see the shadow of my profile in them.

  “No, about Olivia?” Sebastian clarified. “Was that a kiss we interrupted?”

  “You damn well know it was a kiss, Asshole. Don’t bother playing stupid.” There was a new frustration building inside me and it was the opposite of the sexual tension I’d felt only moments ago. Why had she run out like that? Why was she hiding now?

  Obviously, she felt something for me. So what was with this cat and mouse game?

  “Touchy,” Xander grumbled. “I see what you mean now, Bastian.”

  Oh, good grief. Only God knows what these two clowns had been discussing.

  Thankfully, Sebastian ignored Xander so he could continue to grill me. “Really, Jericho, what’s your game plan with her? What’s your next move?”

  “I don’t have one,” I admitted. I had no idea why I was being honest with these two clowns. It wasn’t like they were relationship experts. Xander had never settled down with one girl for any length of time. And Sebastian had dated Seraphina. I didn’t need to say anything else about that. I mean… he dated Seraphina. “I’m not really trying to start something with her… I just, I can’t seem to stay away either, though. I don’t know how I feel about her yet.”

  “Bad move,” Sebastian grunted. “She’s not the kind of girl that gets pushed into the background. If you don’t do something about her, someone else is going to.”

  “Oh? Like you?” I laughed derisively.

  “What’s wrong with me?” Sebastian demanded in a tone that was a little high-pitched in my opinion.

  “She can’t like you. The Gypsy told her if she falls in love with you then her brother dies.” I didn’t sugarcoat that; he needed to know I was serious.

  “Bloody hell,” Sebastian groaned.

  “Were you really thinking about making a move?” This needed my full attention. I turned around in the hallway and glared at him.

  He had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. “She’s intriguing. You can’t blame me for being interested.”

  Fury pinged through my blood, hot and justified. My vision clouded, narrowing until Sebastian’s face was only a pinpoint and the only thing I could see. “Don’t touch her,” I growled in a deadly voice. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t think about her.”

  Xander let out a bark of laughter. “Don’t know how you feel about her, huh?”

  “Shut up,” I snarled.

  I turned back around and went to work in the kitchen, throwing open cupboards and then slamming them closed again.

  “You got it bad, my friend.” Sebastian sounded sympathetic but Xander only snickered.

  “I am aware,” I said.

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m fairly certain she’s as lost as you are.” Sebastian walked to the refrigerator and opened the door. Not that he would know what should be there or not, but I appreciated the help.

  “I’m not sure you’re right,” I sighed. But I felt the slightest rallying of nerve because Sebastian believed she was.

  I had no idea what to do with all these feelings. They were new to me. This was uncharted territory.

  Sure, I’d felt strongly for Eden, but in the years since we ended things, I’d often wondered if I felt as deeply for her as I believed I did. I mean… love? If I really loved her as much as I thought I did, why was it so easy for me to walk away?

  Obviously, it hadn’t seemed easy at the time. But after all we went through, it was as hard as any logical decision was. I knew there wasn’t a future with her that she would always belong to Kiran. So I cut my losses and got the hell out of Dodge. I’d moped about her for years after, but there wasn’t this true sense of heartbreak that could destroy me.

  Mainly, my pride had been hurt.

  Would the same be true with Olivia?

  I didn’t know.

  And I didn’t really know if I wanted to find out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Olivia

  “Whatchya doing?”

  I looked up to see the girl with all the attitude staring at me intently from the doorframe. I let out a deep sigh and looked down at the blank piece of paper I’d torn into tiny bits of outwardly expressed irritation.

  “Making confetti,” I answered dryly.

  “Oh, yeah?” She raised her eyebrows at me like she hadn’t expected me to be funny. “What are you celebrating?”

  I paused dramatically and then met her assessing gaze. “There’s just so much… how to narrow it down? There’s the fact that I’m trapped in this alternate reality in which my entire molecular structure has been changed without my permission. Or, there’s the very real possibility I’ll never be able to go home again. Oh, or my sister is in a coma. Or wait, there’s the fact that I’m ready to murder the man who did this to me and I can’t ever remember wanting to have real feelings about killing a person ever before.”

  Roxie’s lips twitched in what, I had to believe, was a rare smile. “You’re going to need a lot more confetti if we’re celebrating all of that,” she said.

  I allowed myself a shallow chuckle and then stood up, brushing the “confetti” from my lap. After that… thing with Jericho downstairs, I’d escaped to a room on the second floor that had guest bedroom-ish vibes. The deep rich woods still accented the floor and furniture. The large sleigh bed was made up with all white linens and a billowy sheer mosquito net that swayed from the breeze coming through the open win
dow. The desk along the wall remained empty though, and the open closet door revealed more blank space. A slow ceiling fan thumped around above head.

  “The electricity was left on,” I pointed up at the ceiling fan, noticing the switch next to the door Roxie leaned against.

  “That’s not all,” she told me. “They’ve found something downstairs.” She turned back to the hallway and motioned with her hand to follow.

  I let my fingertips run along the soft, pure white of the comforter on my way out. Little bits of electricity popped beneath my fingertips, leaving my hand buzzing and my arm tingling. I frowned down at my traitorous appendage. It wasn’t the Magic falling out of me like there was too much for my body to contain. It was… it was that this had started to feel natural, instinctive… innate.

  “Coming?” Roxie asked impatiently.

  “Yep.” I ran a hand through my frizzy hair, thanks to the suffocating humidity and heat, and hurried after her.

  We walked down the hallway in silence. I admired the different pieces of unique Brazilian art that popped with bright colors against the stark whiteness of the paint behind them. Each painting had a unique point of view, clearly created by a different artist. Still, they flowed together in an effortless design scheme that impressed me. Jericho’s parents had good taste.

  “So you’re freaking out, huh?” Roxie paused at the top of the stairs and just laid it all out there. No preamble, no softening interlude... just the meat of her curiosity.

  I looked back at a portrait of a woman’s head, her obsidian hair whipped back to fade into little black birds. Her full lips, her dark lashes, her small chin depicted an exotic Brazilian woman while the color palate mixed and matched all over the painting. Her eyes were closed, her face tilted toward the burning sun in the top edges. The overall effect was breathtaking.

  “A little bit,” I sighed in answer to Roxie’s question.