by Tia Didmon
“How?”
“When pavement heats in the sun, you see distortions emanate from the road.”
“You heat the surrounding air, distorting it?”
“Yes. We direct the energy to reflect the landscape behind us, creating the illusion,” Tovan said.
“You could have given Houdini a few pointers.”
“Human magicians have come up with many illusions that we have incorporated for our use.”
“You sound like you respect them,” she said.
“I do. Humans have produced some of the most creative minds to walk the earth. They have also created some of the most destructive.”
“What do warriors do about the bad humans?”
“Nothing. We have never interfered with human law,” Tovan said.
“And now?”
Tovan’s eyes flickered. “You have changed the rules.”
“Because I’m human.”
“Part human, but yes.”
Kiki tried to connect with the power inside her. She felt it like a pool of untapped energy but couldn’t figure out how to direct it. “Can I try it? The invisible thing.”
“No.”
“Pardon me?”
“You must learn to release the power of the crystal before you learn to contain it. When it comes to manifesting the power of the crystals. You make a mistake. You die.”
“So, I can blow up a mini mall but I can’t disappear.”
“Yes, but why... blow up a mall?”
“I hate shopping.”
Tovan frowned. “You are being disagreeable.”
Kiki shrugged. “Get used to it.” She looked at her hands. “I feel the power. I’m warm all the time. Never too hot but never cold.”
“The crystal regulates your body temperature. These abilities are instinctual and require no training.”
She put her hand on her hip. “How long did it take you to learn... to disappear?”
Tovan glanced toward the trees. “Jordane is returning.”
“Afraid to answer the question?”
He turned to her. “Jordane began my training while I was still a child. Most must wait until they are accepted by the warrior pack.”
Kiki nodded. “Jordane said he was hard on you. He wished he had been a better parent.”
“Jordane was both mother and father. He was barely a man when our parents died. He took the trials, protected me and became pack leader to ensure I became a warrior. I owe my blood brother everything. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect him... or you.”
“He strikes me as a man who would put his family first.” Kiki hated how much she admired him. Would she jeopardize the time she had with him by revealing the truth?
Jordane strode from the trees. He was wearing only jeans. His bare feet skimmed over the grass as he approached.
She tramped down her body’s reaction, wanting a little more time.
Jordane had to will himself to stay calm. As soon as he left the sanctuary of the forest, his body yearned for its mate. She had needed to rest. The only way for him to allow her the time she needed was for him to run. He had forgotten the freedom his wolf had given him before he took his warrior form. He sent a silent prayer of thanks for his mate and her ability to make him remember where he came from. Who he was before they tasked him with being the warriors leader. “How is the training coming?”
Tovan shrugged. “She wishes to run before she can walk.”
Jordane smiled at his brother. “Not unlike you then.”
“I was an apt pupil.”
“Yes, but you wanted to disappear for the purpose of reappearing and scaring the local townspeople.”
Tovan frowned. “That was a long time ago.”
“And still it was one of your less inventive pranks.”
Kiki laughed. “Oh, I like where this is going. Now I understand why Tovan likes magicians so much.”
Jordane raised an eyebrow. “Human magicians have nothing on Tovan. He has some unique abilities.”
Tovan gave his brother a hard look. “As leader of the warriors I would think you would have more pressing matters than reminiscing about the antics of my youth.”
Jordane laughed. “I could not appreciate your creativity then.”
“Did Laura get the information you wanted?” Tovan asked.
“She did.”
Kiki touched his arm, though it was meant to get his attention, he felt her touch like fire in his blood. “What did you ask Laura?”
He put his hand over Kiki’s. “She gave the image of the assassin to Marcus. I wanted to confirm the PIA distributed the image to other offices.”
“Marcus will make sure they get that image but I doubt it will do much good. I couldn’t make out any facial features,” she said.
Jordane smiled. “You saw the images the canine gave you. Laura can take a snapshot of those images. She recreated a logo from the man’s jacket.”
Kiki smirked. “That’s why the PIA wanted her so bad. She gets details out of a perp’s mind that others would overlook. I didn’t notice the logo.”
“You see through the animal’s eyes. It would not recognize script. They trained Laura to transcribe mental images. She is a wonder by demon standards let alone human ones.”
“She is. What was the logo?”
“It is a company belonging to the Chavez family. Marcus believes the man is an assassin working for the Lopez drug cartel. Why they would want...”
“No!” Kiki backed away. Her eyes darted around, looking between the trees.
“What is it?” he asked.
Kiki’s face was white. He had never seen her afraid. This went beyond. She was terrified. “I can’t do this.”
Jordane turned to his brother. “I need a moment with my mate. Secure the grounds.” His warrior senses rose, searching for the invisible foe.
Tovan nodded then disappeared as Jordane turned back to her. “You’re scared yet you know I would allow nothing to touch you. Tell me what has caused you such distress.”
Her face hardened. “I’m not your mate. The sooner you get that through your thick skull. The better.”
His vision blurred as his warrior threatened to emerge. Pain, sliced his finger tips as claws pierced his skin. There was nothing to fight. Only his own inadequacy to secure his woman. To make her believe in her safety. “You are mine.”
Kiki pulled her gun. “I’m not a thing. I’m a real person, not some piece of meat that you own then toss away when you’re done.”
Jordane sucked in a breath, sensing the pain, regret and embarrassment. His warrior receded, realizing the threat was emotional not physical. “Kiki, you are everything to me. You can refuse me, but I will never choose another. I will attempt to convince you till your dying breath that I’m worthy of you. If I cannot gain your trust, then I will pass from this world when you do.”
Kiki’s lowered her gun. “No... you can’t. The warriors need you.”
“If I am incapable of gaining your trust. The most important person in my world. Then I am not worthy of being a warrior let alone their leader.”
She stood with both hands on her gun, pointed to the earth as a silent sob racked her body.
Jordane took the gun from her hands and pulled her against him. “Tell me what upset you. How do I ease your pain?”
“You can’t.”
He tried something he hadn’t done in centuries. “Please tell me.”
Kiki sniffed. “It’s bad.”
Jordane prepared himself. Part of him wanted to keep the blissful ignorance but that wasn’t who he was. He was the leader of the warriors and that meant facing the truth. “I need to know. I deserve the truth.”
She pulled away. “You do.”
Watching her recede from him was the hardest thing he had ever done. “There’s nothing you can say that will change who you are to me.”
She laughed without humor. “What if I told you that everything about me is a lie? That Kiki Sanchez doesn’t exist.”
Chapter 7
Kiki could see the pain in Jordane’s eyes. Every moment with her had been a lie and yet he didn’t understand how bad it would get if she told him the truth. She didn’t want to see the disgust in his eyes.
Jordane was quiet for what seemed like eternity. “Your name is not Kiki Sanchez?”
“Kiki Sanchez is who I want to be. Strive to be, but she isn’t who I was born to be.”
“Everything evolves. If changing your name was the catalyst for your evolution...”
“Changing my name was essential to my survival. The person I was, died years ago,” Kiki said.
“Tell me what happened to you. Who threatened you to the point you felt this was your only option?”
She looked down. “I don’t want to tell you. I can’t see you look at me... like that.”
Jordane tipped her head up. “Nothing you can say will change how I feel. You are my mate and you always will be. Your soul remains the same regardless of what you call yourself.”
Kiki licked her lips. “Are you sure you want the truth? There’s no going back. It changes... everything.”
“Yes.”
She nodded, pulling away from him, needing the cold. The isolation. It reminded her of her childhood. The person she was before she met Laura. “My father is a drug lord in Columbia. He purchased my mother from an associate.”
Kiki waited for Jordane to get his anger under control. His eyes still flared with green fire but his fists relaxed. He nodded. “Go on.”
“My mother was part Asian. She was beautiful but weak. She grew up as nothing more than a slave. My grandfather would have killed her if she wasn’t so beautiful. He cultivated her to be a wife from the time she was a child. Her only purpose was to serve her husband.”
“You can not blame her for her upbringing. It sounds like she knew no other way.”
“I don’t blame her. She loved me... in her way. She just couldn’t see the cage she was in. We had the best of everything, as long as you didn’t mind the fact we couldn’t leave the property.”
“Your father kept your mother secured because he was a criminal?”
Kiki shook her head. “He kept her and the other women like her on separate estates. He had multiple wives.”
“Then why marry them if they were nothing to him.”
“The women meant nothing to him. His sons were another story. He wanted as many as he could and to be legitimate. My older brother was gunned down by a competitor. He was only fourteen. My father was furious and started having sex with my mother every night until she was pregnant again.”
“It sounds like his sons were only cattle.”
“He worshiped his sons. It disgusted him when I was born but he decided to use me like my mother. To marry me off to an associate. He ordered my mother to train me to please my husband.”
“Did she?” he growled.
“Yes. She had no choice.”
Jordane’s hands flexed, claws flashed before he got himself under control. “What happened to your mother?”
“Her third child was another female.”
He frowned. “And?”
“My father killed her on the birthing table and strangled my sister.”
Jordane walked over to her. He put his hands on the sides of her cheeks. “This person you refer to as a father is nothing more than a cockroach. Vermin that should be cleansed from the earth.” He kissed her.
She tasted his anger. His desperation. As if trapped with that little girl who watched her mother and sister killed in front of her. “You can’t go after humans, Jordane. That’s your code isn’t it?”
His muscles tensed. “We don’t involve ourselves in human affairs but this... is you.”
She touched his face. “It was a long time ago. Men in his profession have a limited life expectancy. He may not be alive anymore.”
Jordane shook his head. “Your father is a coward and a disgrace.”
“I know.”
He ran a finger over her cheek. “What was your given name?”
“It was Marie.”
“Why did you choose the name Kiki?”
“Kiki was the first one to show me unconditional love. She showed me who I was. Who I was meant to be.”
“Who was she?”
“She was my cat.”
Jordane’s eyebrow went up. “Your cat?”
Kiki nodded. “She was the first pet my father allowed me to have. My mother had just told him she was pregnant again. A bodyguard said there was a litter of kittens in the garage. I begged for one and my father was in a good mood and allowed it.”
“You named the cat, Kiki?”
“Yes. My mother was raised to be a consort. She was trying to make me one as well but I couldn’t... conform. She noticed the differences in me but she never told my father. It was the only way she could protect me.”
“Your mother was in an impossible situation and her own family put her there.”
“She was half Japanese and half American. Her own family ostracized her, raised her as a bargaining chip. She did everything my father asked, and she never lied but she offered no information about me.”
“You don’t blame her, do you?”
Kiki shook her head. “She had no way to stand up to my father.”
“But you did?”
Her face scrunched to hold back the tears. “No, I didn’t. Even when he strangled Kiki in front of me. I did nothing. I sat back and watched him kill the only living thing that made me feel whole.”
“Your father killed your pet? Why?”
“After he killed my mother, I think he regretted it. She was beautiful, and they had trained her to... service a man. He became irritable. I don’t know if he was unhappy with his other wives but his mood swings began to escalate.”
“He never suspected you were different?”
“Not until the day he killed Kiki.”
“What happened?”
“He was strangling her. I was too young to stop him. But I had connected with Kiki for brief periods. I wasn’t sure how my talent worked only that I could sometimes feel her emotions and would sometimes see myself through her eyes. I was perfect to her. Beautiful. She made me feel like I was her everything.”
“When an animal chooses us as part of their family. Their pack. We are the center of their universe. Their devotion is unbreakable but your pets love for you is not what made your father realize you had psychic talents.”
“No. When he was strangling her, I connected with her. I couldn’t save her but I blocked the pain. I told her this was the end, and that I loved her and that everything I would become was because she loved me.”
Jordane kissed her forehead before wrapping his arms around her. “I am sorry.”
“She started purring. Her last moments were not about her death. She sent me images of the forest, open areas. It was her way of telling me I needed to get free. She was seconds from death and she wanted only my freedom.”
“What did your father do?”
“It freaked him out. He knew I had taken away Kiki’s pain and fear. She never struggled while he held her. When he threw her dead body to the ground at my feet and stormed out, it was the only time I saw fear in his eyes.”
“He was afraid of you?”
“He started calling me Diabla.”
“Devil,” Jordane said.
“How did you get away from him?”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I didn’t. He sold me.”
Kiki grabbed Jordane’s chest as his warrior broke free. Fangs slashed through his gums, causing the tips to drip with blood. Claws ripped through his fingertips as his body bulked with muscle and his skin tone deepened. She stared at the scariest creature on earth. Fear spiked her veins until she connected with the warrior’s mind. Anger. Retribution. Fear. He felt them all. Jordane wanted to rip the world apart looking for the man who’d hurt her. All while his soul cried out in pain and injustice. She slipped her arms around him, waiting f
or the tension to ease. She felt his body soften to its human form as his arms circled her.
His voice was like gravel when he spoke. “How did you escape?”
“I wasn’t with my husband long before I got away. We had an… altercation. I slipped out and hid in a truck that went to the port where he shipped his drugs.”
“You stowed away on a ship?”
“In a cargo container smuggling cocaine into the states.”
Jordane shook his head. “How did you create your new identity? How did you survive the voyage?”
Kiki felt the shame. She let it wash over her. He deserved the truth. “Marie Chavez exists no more than Kiki Sanchez. I don’t have a birth certificate. I’m nobody...”
Jordane grabbed her. “You are everything. To me... you are the one thing worth fighting for. Dying for.”
“Don’t say that,” she whispered.
“It is true. You know I cannot lie to you.”
“I know.”
“Tell me how you survived on the ship. I sense your hesitation. Were you hurt?”
She pressed her forehead against his chest, letting the memories flood her mind. The carefully erected dam, breaking free. “No one knew I was on the ship except the rats.”
“How did you obtain food?”
Shame was a bitter emotion. It seeped into her heart, destroying her hard-fought self confidence. “I used my talent.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The rats. I made them think I was one of them. They brought me back small amounts of food. Fed me as if I was one of their babies. When I was cold, I would... tell them. They would horde over me to keep me warm.”
Jordane’s body went stiff. “You lived off the scraps of... vermin.”
Kiki pursed her lips. “I’m alive because of those vermin.”
“What you are describing is... unfathomable. I don’t understand how you survived in such conditions...”
She backed away, running a hand through her spiked hair. “The rotting food wasn’t the worst part. My clothes were flimsy so when the rats were scavenging, I was cold and would huddle in the corner. By the time I reached the port in New Jersey, I was sick from the uncleanliness of my situation.”
His eyes were green flames. “Go on.”
