by Tia Didmon
“When the rats went out the anchor hole and across the lines to the port, I tried to follow. I was too weak to hold on, and fell in the water. I got myself to shore and made my way behind a dumpster before I passed out.”
Jordane shook his head. “I thought it strange that the crystal merged with you without a formal trial. A test of your endurance. Now I understand. There is no trial that compares to what you have already faced.” He rubbed his eyes. His anger, a fire that raged behind them. “Did you stay in New Jersey long before making your way to LA?”
“I woke up sick and crawled out from the dumpster. That’s when I met Betty.”
“Who is Betty?”
“She was a hooker who worked the area. She assumed I was a young abused street worker. Sadly, my condition didn’t surprise her.”
“What did she do?”
“She got me healthy. Took extra... work so she could buy me food and medicine. She wanted a roommate. Someone she could trust. When I was healthy, and Betty thought I would go to work, I left her. After all her kindness I slipped away and hitchhiked across the US. I stole food and clothing and rolled Johns for money.”
Jordane frowned. “Rolled Johns?”
“I gave men the impression I would have sex with them then stole their money. It’s not the kind of thing men report.”
“None came after you?”
Kiki nodded. “I got caught a couple times and was beat up bad once. That’s when I got serious about training.”
Jordane looked at her in wonder. “Who are you, Kiki?”
“I was born Maria Chavez but she died the day I got on that ship.”
Jordane touched her cheek but she couldn’t handle gentle. She backed away feeling like she was back in that alley. Sick and covered in feces. “I can’t look at you,” she said.
“Why?”
Her voice cracked. “Because you look at me with admiration I don’t deserve.”
“You are wrong.”
Kiki shook her head. “How can you look at me like that after everything I’ve told you?”
“It’s because of everything you’ve told me, but there’s more. You have left out the events between being sold and getting on the ship,” Jordane said.
She shook her head. “Don’t ask me about that.”
“Nothing you say will change who you are to me. Tell me why you think your background matters.”
Kiki flicked up her hands. “I don’t exist. I’m nobody. I stole my cat’s name for fuck sakes.”
Jordane’s eyes flickered green. “You are Kiki Sanchez. You may not have been born with that name but you have earned it. No child should endure the trials you have. You are a miracle.”
Kiki covered her face and sobbed. “No.”
He pulled her to him, rubbing her back in a soothing motion. “You don’t understand how incredible you are.”
“Hardly.”
He kissed her, coaxing her lips apart. Her emotions were raw. Exposed. They tumbled out in a tsunami of hurt, pain and arousal. She grabbed his neck holding him in place as she ravaged his mouth. In a life filled with lies, cruelty and deceit. He gave her an emotion she’d never had. It had taken her some time to understand what it was. Safety. His body was taut against her. She felt his indecision. Unsure if he should act on his body’s demands. His eyes were closed as he tried to keep himself under control.
She reveled, knowing that for all his experience. Thousands of years of control. Training. She alone had the power to snap it. Her experiences had made her perseverant, and she wanted this. She wanted him, and knew the moment his will gave way to his arousal.
He scooped her up and ran into the house, throwing her on the bed as he removed his clothes.
She scrambled out of her own as her hands sought his chest. She needed his skin against hers. The warmth taking away decades of cold and death. “Make love to me, Jordane.”
He lifted his head. “Every time we are together it is more than making love. Our souls are becoming one. I can’t guarantee our union will be easy. I will tell you that I will never give up. Never put my own needs before yours. That I have waited thousands of years. Trained every day since I was a child just for the chance to prove I’m worthy of your trust.”
Her heart squeezed but it wasn’t in pain. She suspected she was falling in love with her beautiful warrior. While she couldn’t admit it, she could show him. Her lips met his. Her tongue swept into his mouth with urgency. Demanding his response.
He rolled her on top of him, moving his hands up to caress her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingers until liquid heat rushed between her legs. When she started to squirm, he grabbed her hips, positioning her on top of the large mushroom head.
She placed her hands on his chest, anchoring herself as she eased down on his hot shaft. Each inch filling her, stretching her to the point of pain. He didn’t rush her but she felt his body coiled tight. Tension etched in his face at her tortuously slow pace. When he was secured inside her, she began to move her hips. Slow rolling movements that made him grunt and dig his fingers into her thighs. She increased her tempo as his eyes opened.
Emerald fires reflected everything he was. The warrior. The man. The demon. His soul had one purpose, and it was her. He gave her everything, and she had to do the same. Her hips rolled, grinding into him with intense abandon, giving him all she was. All she could be and more. The freedom was an aphrodisiac unlike any she had ever known. Her body heated as the power within her reached out. Tiny filaments of energy, searching for its mate. For him. She soared then broke apart as she came hard, clamping down on him with a final thrust.
He moaned as his hot jets coated her inner walls, burning her with his love from the inside out. Tears still coated her eyelashes but they were from the beauty of the moment. The man she held in her arms.
She lay beside him, content, waiting for her breathing to return to normal. To enjoy his fingers as they caressed her skin.
“Are you ready?”
“For what?” she asked.
“To tell me what happened before you made it to the ship.”
“I had to get away from him. It hurt so much.”
“Your father?”
“No, my husband.”
Chapter 8
Kiki stared at Jordane’s chiseled chest. She had never told this part of her story. Never been able to share the worse months of her life.
He caressed her back, waiting for her to speak. It was his silent understanding. His faith in her that allowed her to put the horror of her life to words.
“My father feared me. He thought I was a devil. Something evil. So, he sold me to someone... worthy of me. A man who makes monsters look like poster children for a Teddy bear convention.”
“Who is he?”
“His name is Mario Lopez, and he owned me in every sense of the word.”
“Explain,” Jordane said.
Kiki pulled the sheet up over her body. “Mario married me the day after I arrived at his plantation. We had a lavish wedding but it was all for show. Unlike my father I was Mario’s only wife. He told everyone I was sixteen and that I looked young.”
“How old were you?”
She swallowed hard. “I was fourteen.”
Jordane’s hand stilled on her back. “He knew you were fourteen?”
“Yes. My father wouldn’t have lied to Mario. Everyone feared him. It pleased my father when Mario showed an interest in me but the original deal was for Mario to wait till my sixteenth birthday. I scared my father into selling me... early.”
Jordane’s fingers gripped her back. “He took advantage of you. Forced you to have sex with him. Raped you.”
Kiki shook her head. “In his eyes we were married. He had my father’s consent. He didn’t consider it rape. I tried to fight him but he hit me until I... gave up.”
He pulled her closer. “You did not give up. You were a child in an unforgivable circumstance.”
Kiki ran a finger over his chest. She
couldn’t look him in the eyes but his presence. Strength. Seeped into the cold, warming her. “It continued for a few months until I started bleeding. I had miscarried. I didn’t even realize I was pregnant.”
“What happened then?”
“The doctor told Mario that my body wasn’t mature enough to carry a baby full term. He suggested Mario wait to impregnate me again.”
Jordane’s eyes glowed like green fires in the dark. “Did he wait?”
“No. He’d been drinking with his men and wanted sex that night. I was so sore from the DNC the doctor had given me. I couldn’t... I snapped and used my ability.”
“I thought your talent didn’t work on humans,” Jordane said.
“It doesn’t. I forced his guard dogs to attack him. He was bleeding from his genitals when I ran from the room.”
Jordane’s eyes flashed in approval. “That’s when you stowed away in the truck, headed for the shipping port.”
“I had a run in with Mario’s head of security. He caught me. Tried to take me back to Mario, but I had grabbed a letter opener from the desk. I thought it was the light, or that I was in shock but his eyes turned white. His face dissolved when he was staggering away from me with blood gushing out of his neck. The wound was mortal. I ran. I heard shots before I hid in the truck. It was already idling. The driver had already checked over the cargo and was leaving. I got lucky.”
“Mario’s head of security was a demon? A Ladon?”
“I thought I had hallucinated. That I had been in shock until I joined the PIA. Later when I learned that demons existed, I realized my father and husband are affiliated with them.”
“The Ladon are a disgrace to the demon races.”
Kiki looked up at him. “My father and husband are a disgrace to the human one.”
Her breath hitched at the tenderness of Jordane’s touch. She had divulged her darkest, dirtiest secret, and he looked at her with awe and respect.
He ran a finger over one of the blue tips in her hair. She noticed he did that a lot. “No one knows about you. Your past. You have kept this secret since the day you ran from Columbia?”
“I meant to but then I started my PIA training.”
“The PIA found out?”
Kiki shook her head. “They don’t know about me. They would never have accepted me into the program with my background.”
“Someone found out?”
She nodded. “My instructors all thought I was a natural but the truth is I started training when I arrived in LA. I made my first kill at fourteen but I trained on the streets where there are no second chances. I got harder as I got older. Meaner too.”
“You are not mean.”
“I was on the path to becoming something only my father would recognize. I had no use for people. Only the stray animals were my friends but even that was going wrong before I joined the PIA.”
“How was it going wrong?”
“Maybe it was my state of mind I’m not sure but my talent started to fail me. I knew I had to make some serious changes, so I faked my credentials and joined the PIA.”
He touched her forehead lightly. “You were alone. You were...”
“A killer and a total bitch.”
Jordane growled. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“There is only one person who knows about me,” Kiki said.
“Who?”
“Laura.”
“You told her because you trusted her,” Jordane said.
“No. I was so mean to her. That was my thing. Push people away so they wouldn’t get to know me. So they would never know the truth.”
“Then how did she find out?”
“I made a mistake. She was slow on the obstacle course. She was in front of me and I pushed her. I was feeling alone and regretting some of my past choices. Later, I caught her in the washroom crying. Me being a jerk, assumed it was the training exercise that she was failing. I told her to suck it up.”
“What happened?”
“She looked at me and I knew it wasn’t the exercise. She had compassion. Fear. Respect. I’d never seen a look like that. I asked her what was wrong?”
“And?”
Kiki swallowed hard. “She told me that when she touches someone. She sees them. When she is interviewing a suspect, she uses keywords to focus their thoughts on the events she wishes to investigate. When I pushed her. I touched her skin. She wasn’t prepared and got the images in my mind.”
“What were you thinking about?”
She blinked back the tears that formed on her lashes. “I was thinking about my origins and losing that bastard’s baby. She saw everything. She was crying for me.”
Jordane ran a finger along her cheek. His touch was gentle. Compassionate. “What did she do?”
“She said I didn’t have to like her. That no one at the PIA did. She told me she would never mention it again, to me or anyone else.”
“Did she?”
A tear slipped from Kiki’s eye. “I was so mean to her after that. I pushed her. Part of me wanted her to rat me out. To prove that humans were total bastards. All of them.” She sniffed. “I think I wanted the axe to fall. The charade to be over. I couldn’t handle the loneliness anymore.”
“But she didn’t tell anyone.”
Kiki shook her head. “She started leaving chocolates in my locker with little notes on them.”
“What kind of notes.”
“They said that I was amazing and inspiring. They were embarrassing. I wanted to shoot her.”
Jordane smiled. “I noticed the need for Laura to help those around her. I was not as kind as I should have been and will thank her properly.”
Kiki nodded. “She wore me down, made me believe her friendship was real. In all this time, she has never brought it up. We have never discussed what she saw, and she has never betrayed me... even though I gave her every opportunity.”
“You wanted her to fail you?”
“Yes, at first. Soon, I realized there was nothing I could do or say that would make her betray me. She grew up with betrayal. Where she used her unfortunate circumstances to make her a better person. I used mine to make me a killer.”
“You are not a killer. You are a protector.”
Kiki shrugged. “I will kill if I have to, Jordane. The circumstances don’t change the result.”
“The circumstances are more relevant than you realize but tell me what happened next. Obviously, your friendship was not instantaneous.”
“No, the recruits and the instructors were mean to Laura.”
Jordane frowned. “They did not respect her talent?”
“Oh, they respected it. They even feared it but they disrespected her because she doesn’t look like the other recruits. She isn’t athletic, and she isn’t mean. Her shooting skills are below par. Everyone knew she failed the physical training.” She shook her head in disgust. “They treated her like shit because she didn’t fit the mold for a PIA agent. She is so much better than all of us. When she brought Blam home, even I thought she was nuts. He was in so much pain I couldn’t make sense of his thoughts. It was like his whole life didn’t exist until Laura saved him. That beautiful maimed cat showed me who she was. He was dirty and discarded and she saw only the beauty in him.”
“Like she did in you.”
Kiki squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes. I don’t deserve a friend like her.”
Jordane kissed her eyelids. “Yes, you do. I’m grateful for Laura’s instincts and her kind heart but she saw what was already there. A courageous and incredible woman. She saw the miracle you are when you couldn’t see it yourself.”
“That’s not true.”
Jordane tipped her head to meet his eyes. “You see yourself in that maimed cat. You think yourself discarded and abused like that pet of Laura’s.”
“I’m not abused, and I made sure no one could hurt me again. I am like Blam though. We’re both survivors,” she whispered.
He ran a finger over her lips. The sen
sation shot through her blood like wildfire. “I’ve survived for thousands of years and don’t wish to survive any longer. I wish to live, and only you can guarantee that life.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Yes.” He kissed her, clutching her body as if she were the only safe place in a storm of emotion.
Kiki looked into his emerald eyes. They were green fires that reflected an old soul that held respect and love… all for her. She felt it every time he touched her. His commitment was as tangible as his strength. Did she deserve this? Him? She wanted to be that woman.
He kissed her. The gentle urgency was always clear. He kept his warrior locked down, not wanting to scare her. He didn’t understand that no matter his form he wasn’t a monster. Not to her anyway. While his anger could be as tangible as his strength. She could never fear it. Fear him.
Her fingers tangled in his hair, gripping tight, until he growled into her mouth. The sound vibrated against her lips, sending her temperature soaring. Fire licked through her veins, igniting everything in its wake. Her actions became desperate. Needy. Her power surged, running along her skin. She sucked in a breath and released him. “What’s going on?”
“Your power reaches for mine, seeking the bond.”
“I thought our crystals were... male.”
“The power... the crystal itself is neither male nor female. While we are the first warriors to bond together. Past warriors bonded with their chosen mates.”
“It’s intense.”
His eyes flared. “Yes.”
“You want this... I mean you really want this. I can feel it.”
“I have wanted nothing in my life more.”
“Why?”
“I won’t be left in the void of emotion again. You represent a life, a love I thought would never exist for me. You represent hope and a future beyond imagining. Not just for me, but for all warriors.”
Kiki blew out a breath. “Sheesh, no pressure there.”
Jordane smiled. “We don’t have to bond now. I will... hold my power back. It is natural for our species to seek the bond as soon as we secure our mate.”
“You mean as soon as you have sex with a female.”
