by S King
No, the worst part of all of the memories coming back at blinding speed was the last three words he whispered to me. That husky voice of his, strained tight with hidden regret, pain and remorse for what I—we were going through.
Wait for me.
The memories faded to black, and I was left standing on the riverbank, unaware of the tears that had escaped my eyes. Staining my cheeks as the air thickened, my breathing became labored. I couldn’t focus on anything. The world spun around me like I was in one of those fucking teacups at Disney Land.
Stumbling, I grabbed a rock that had fallen away from the mountain tops and found its forever home here on the bank. I was below the place where I should’ve died. I was here and what was worse was the fact I hadn’t even known why.
“Luminous,” Shang came to stand in front of me as my breathing quickened and plumes of black shadows formed around my vision. “Luminous?”
I flinched out of instinct away from him. I couldn’t be touched. Not right now. Not when I was forced to relive the memories of what should’ve been my end.
“Please Shang, just go.” I heaved several breaths trying to get in enough air to fill my lungs and calm my racing heart.
Demir had made a fatal promise that didn’t seem to mean anything after I had woken up. But now, the more I thought about it the harder I felt my panic rising in my throat.
He had morphed into something nightmares were made of in a matter of seconds. And I had been blinded by my feelings—enhanced by the scientists or not, for him.
Even after three months he had changed from the man I had known before. But still I wanted to stand beside him. Still I wanted to be called his wife. Both in theory and in reality. I wanted my happily ever after. As my mind cleared and my body started returning to normal, a pit of emptiness formed in my heart.
I could never be with Demir because I couldn’t trust him not to kill me one night because his job was on the line.
“Luminous, come on. Let me take you back to my house, you’re looking like hell right now.”
I didn’t even have the energy to fight him. I couldn’t argue my case for what I knew to be a lie. If Demir had effortlessly stood by and done nothing when Slade was being executed, then how long would it be before he allowed the same to happen to me?
“I’m fine…I just…” my vision blacked out completely and with it my body shut down on itself.
Right before my world fell to nothing, I clearly heard Demir whispering to me.
“Wait for me.”
§§§§§
The smell of fresh bacon and people talking gently amongst themselves brought me back to reality. Even if I didn’t want to, I rolled over on the soft cushion and sighed in relief. It’d be a lie to say I wasn’t thankful for the lack of sleep paralysis.
The disability had plagued me so long I had become friends with the unseen demon. But strangely enough since I had been sleeping in Demir’s bed and waking up next to him. I hadn’t had as many episodes. Maybe today I could talk to him and find out his thinking behind why he did nothing for Slade.
But as I laid there and the voices around me continued to speak in hushed tones, I realized something. If Demir didn’t want to tell me what he was planning or what was going on in his mind, he wasn’t going to. Like a majority of guard members he kept his inner most thoughts close to the vest and didn’t bother pretending like he was going to comply with anyone’s reasoning. Naturally, I didn’t expect Demir to keep his promise about not hiding anything else from me.
Still, there had to be a way for me to get the truth from him. Covering my closed eyes with my hand. I tapped my forehead and sighed heavily in the leather cushion. What to do? What to do?
“Luminous? Are you awake darling?”
Frowning, my thought process stalled, and I was left wondering who was sitting next to me. Neither Karina or my mother called me darling. Which meant there was only one other person who could possibly be calling me by the sweet sentiment. I risked the chance to look at the person speaking to me.
“Fefe?” I bolted up right and looked around the room I was in.
After everything that had been done. All of the explosions. Karina deciding to lose her shit in the motel and Demir rescuing me from the flames. All of it had been in vain because, yet again, I was sitting on the couch at Shang’s house. The very man I didn’t want to have a favor for.
“Oh come on!” I snapped. Dropping my head in my hands, I tried to remember what the hell happened for me to get here.
“That’s no way to answer the question asked of you, Lumi.” Shang’s voice came from the hallway leading to the kitchen. So it was true. Not only was I back in Springcrest but I was back at Shang’s house and very much awake.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I composed my temper to be the very definition of calm and collected. I was Buddha himself. Now all I needed to do was think of my next move.
“Deary, what’s wrong?” The cushion beside me gently let out some air before Fefe’s hand found my back and started rubbing circles in between my shoulders.
“How did I get here?” If I didn’t sound like an ungrateful bitch then society was just as screwed in the head as I was.
Fefe’s genteel face appeared in my peripheral as she looked at me. “You fainted when you were talking to Shang. And—”
“Don’t tell me,” I fell back against the couch and stared at the ceiling. “He carried me all the way back here?”
“Yes, deary.” Fefe’s simple eyes were filled with the type of gentleness every grandmother should have and every mother tried to be.
Blowing out a hard breath, I dug my nails in my scalp and counted back from ten.
“Do you want to eat before you go back?” The question was soothing at best and almost pleading. As if she knew what was waiting for me should I return to Castlehedge.
I smirked, giving her a pitiful look of apology before slowly shaking my head. “I can’t. There are some things I need to handle in my old stomping grounds.”
Understanding dawned on her as the words slipped from my mouth. I didn’t want to upset the older woman, but I did have things to tend to in Castlehedge. One of them being figuring out Demir. The other? Well, I hadn’t gotten that far in my scheming thoughts.
Right now the only thing in my mind was having to make the trek back to Castlehedge by nothing but my intuition to guide me the way home. Not to mention figuring out a way to defend myself should someone decide to play stupid with my emotions and temper.
“You can’t go back to Castlehedge,” Shang came into the dining room as Fefe offered her hand to me.
I nodded in respect to her but kept my heated gaze on Shang.
“And why the hell not?”
“Because there’s PG members everywhere in Castlehedge. After your impromptu escape from custody. The judges have deemed it necessary to call in the Regal Guard.”
“Oh for the love of Mary!” My head snapped back on my shoulders. Would this nightmare never end?
One second I was perfectly fine and the next? Well, I was just going through the ringer just trying to remain alive. Unlike last year, however, I had no idea where the threat was coming from. Sure, I knew about Demir having some type of hand in the orders and the judges not particularly excited about having to assign different orders to different guards because I wouldn’t just lay down and die. But the judges had to answer to someone and whoever he or she was. They weren’t going to let me go easily.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I tried to think of a way to get around the shit show I had found myself starring in. But something Shang had said struck my curiosity and forced my head to tilt as I looked at him.
“Who’s the Regal Guard?”
He glanced at me as Fefe dragged me by the arm to the table to eat something.
“They’re a group of ruthless bastards that’ll take everyone you care about out. Just to make sure you come sooner rather than later.”
“So they’re the Honor Guard on c
rack, right?” I thanked Fefe for the plate but kept my eyes glued on Shang.
“They’re worse.”
“How?”
“Really Luminous? You can’t go up against them, even the scientists don’t want anything to do with them.”
I tapped my temple and narrowed my eyes at him, “then why are they still allowed to walk around?”
“Because they keep order when situations like yours occur.”
“Fine, let’s play devil’s advocate.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. Tilting my head at him, I asked, “why haven’t you handed me over to the scientists? I mean, you have quite the reputation amongst the Gold and Silver sect leaders.”
“I’m not the one fucking a judge from Onyx Elite.”
“Language!” Fefe gave him a disapproving look as she made her own plate.
“Oh please, who I sleep with isn’t of any of your concern!” I snapped, glaring at him.
A part of me couldn’t believe he had gone there. Then again I was talking about Shang and from what I had gathered. Nothing was off-limits with him. If he wanted to play dirty, I could do it too. I just didn’t want all of my personal business out in the open.
He rolled his eyes, pushing his plate away, “oh come on, Luminous. I beg to differ with your point. You’re asking me why I haven’t turned you over to the judges or the scientists? Have you even so much as entertained the notion to ask Losett the same thing? After all, he’s the one who was a part of making you a target for my guard as well as Regal’s.”
The pretentious bastard. I had half a mind to jump over the table and strangle him. And he knew it too if his cock sure smirk was anything to go off. Maybe he had a point, one I didn’t want to admit to. But unfortunately, like he knew I wanted to pulverize him. I knew he was right. We were in something of a stalemate and now the tables were in neither of our favors.
If Shang were busted by his guard or Regal then he’d face death. If I tried to force him to keep me hidden then we’d both face a painfilled punishment. The question now was which poison would either of us drink in order to save ourselves.
“Shang, Luminous, please—”
Fefe’s pleading for us to stop arguing was cut off when Shang leaned forward and stared at me. His black eyes nothing more than two pools of death.
“You want to question the people who have done nothing but help you. Yet and still, you don’t think about the people who put you in this position in the first place.”
“Don’t tell me what I think or what I’ve done,” I warned. Idly, I felt my hand reaching for the butter knife sitting next to my plate. One quick stab and things would be better.
“Why not? You faint, I carry you back. You somehow float up river like a damned legend, we,” he motioned between him and Fefe. “Save you and yet?” He spread his arms sarcastically, “you think we’re—well me specifically—going to turn you over. Don’t you think it’s kind of odd I haven’t turned you over yet?”
“Why?” I matched his sarcastic gesture and shrugged with a smirk on my face. “You have the opportunity and yet, you do nothing. Why is that Shang?”
“I’d like to know the answer to that too, brother.”
I shot out of the chair and spun around to face the newest voice in the argument.
The woman was beautiful in a black widow type of way. What with her black hair cut in a short, blunt bob. Black eyes that were eerily similar to Shang’s. Thick eyebrows fit her face in a Cara Delevingne fashion. Her beauty was deadly to a fault and she knew it too.
Oddly, as I looked at her I stepped away from the table and looked between the two. Yeah, there were similarities that were painful to admit. To the point I knew the situation just took a turn for the worst.
The woman looked at me, ready to pounce on my throat, “Luminous River, finally.” Her voice was sinfully sweet and what was worse was the fact I wanted to go closer to her. She had to have the ability to manipulate emotions because on their own conviction. My feet took a cautious step forward; going against my internal warnings to stay away.
“What’re you doing here, Meril?” Shang pulled me back against his side and stared at the woman claiming to be his sister.
Her lips lifted in a sensual smirk before her eyes slid to Fefe in warning. “I would leave now if I were you.”
Fefe, never one for the drama or the fighting, looked between the three of us.
“Go Fefe,” I breathed with my eyes still locked on Meril.
Shang’s head snapped around to the older woman and through gritted teeth said.
“Go, we’re fine.”
Nobody moved until Fefe fearfully grabbed her nurse’s bag and left the house. It wasn’t until we heard the crunch of tires retreating from the property that Meril cracked her neck and nailed me with a hard glare.
“Demir sends his regards.”
Chapter 14 Red Room
The sickening crunch of bone breaking through the courtroom echoed off the marble walls. Roxy glanced down at the body she had just released and tilted her head at the flunkies waiting for her command.
As quickly as the guard member was ushered into the chambers he was carried out. But I couldn’t focus on the death or the order that had been executed in front of me. The only thing I heard in my mind was the conversation Sadvidge had with us five nights ago.
“What’s the development in the case?” Alexi tilted his head as Roxy’s flunkies dragged Slade’s body away.
Sadvidge smiled and handed several thick packets of paper to the court member. Waiting for all of us to receive her information, she leaned back in her seat and kept her eyes on me.
I would not entertain her theory about me not having killed Luminous. Or the fact I was hiding her. She was alive alright. But she wasn’t where anyone could find her.
“What the hell is this?” Judge Heaton held up the information and slammed it on the bench.
“That, ladies and gentlemen,” Sadvidge sat back in her seat again and smiled victoriously. “Is this Regal Guard’s line up of members.”
“Why is Meril Wylan on this list?” Alexi was flipping through the pages leisurely and frowned as he took in the information.
“Because she has a vendetta against her brother. Especially after Luminous somehow escaped custody when she was in Ravendowager.”
“Meaning?” I asked, feigning ignorance as I crossed my arms over my chest. I needed to get as much information as possible from the half-rouge judge in order to protect Dristan and Karina. But more importantly, Luminous.
Sadvidge raised a bored brow as her eyes slid to me, “she was spotted at a motel and when the Platinum Guard cornered her. She laid waste to the property.”
“Is that so?” Alexi asked the sarcastic question burning on my lips.
“It is. In fact, several PG members are still trying to recover from the assault. Therefore, I found it necessary to call in reinforcements.”
“So, you took it upon yourself to bring in the Regal Guard?” Heaton, for once, wasn’t remaining silent when Sadvidge had crossed the line.
“Yes.” She answered calmly. All the while staring at me like she was just waiting for me to slip up and tell the bench where Luminous was. Or worse give great detail about how she had escaped.
No dice. I matched her stare for everything I had in me.
“What’s your angle?” Alexi had finally finished reading through the report and stared at the judge who had a bone to pick with everyone sitting around her. For the time being, however, I was the lucky target that had captured her attention.
“Luminous River can provide us with a new way of life, a new dawn. This is for the best of our society and the guards.”
A bark of laughter left Heaton, “you’re wanting Luminous more than the scientists. Why is that?”
“Had a certain individual completed their contract as they should have,” she nailed me with another hard stare. “None of this would even be a discussion.”
“I did w
hat I was told,” I snapped, losing my patience with her. “How were any of us to know she was going to survive the stab or the fall?”
“Losett is right.” Heaton nodded in agreement while the other judges—Alexi included, mumbled. “Luminous River was an anomaly within all of the guards when she was a sect leader. We just didn’t know her defiance stretched to the point of laughing in the reaper’s face.”
“Therefore we need to make sure she is returned to her maker. Imagine what the guards would become should she dam a new generation.” A sick type of excitement flitted its way into her eyes as she looked at the five of us.
“The poor girl isn’t a horse,” Alexi said, rubbing a hand over his forehead. “She can only take so much, not to mention. What’s her current state? Is she even healthy enough to get pregnant?”
“We won’t know until—”
“Fine,” I snapped, sitting up in my chair and grabbed my official stamp. “I’m over discussing this, you think she’s alive and well?” I glanced at Sadvidge as I ripped the order from her side of the desk. “Then let’s see if the Regal Guard is everything you want it to be.”
As I slammed down the gold ink stained stamp on the order, I prayed Luminous would—for once in her life—remain where she was. In my house and away from anything resembling Shang or his twin sister.
Pulling my mind away from the memory, I glanced at Alexi who was staring at the black marble door. He hadn’t been as forthcoming with his help as he had been before I sighed off on the order for the Regal Guard to come in. But something told me he was busy devising his own plans.
Alexi was a funny man that way. One minute you think you know exactly where his head is. The next he turns out to be working with you instead of against you.
“Losett,” Heaton turned to me and leaned against the armrest of his chair.
