"Ok?" I ask suspiciously.
"Yes, ok," he laughs.
"Well I'll see you down stairs," I look at them both and get a nod of the head in reply.
Unable to shake the feeling of the two men readying themselves for an argument, even a fight, I walk heavily away from the door, but creep back on tiptoes to listen against the closed door.
"What is she hiding?"
"You knew this would happen?"
They speak at the same time, as they do a sigh.
"Me first!" My father challenges.
"I don't know, she disappeared for 15 minutes, I couldn't find her. She seemed ok after," Richard says.
"Anything could have happened in that time! You were meant to be with her!"
"She went off, I tried to follow!" Richard growls.
"Not hard enough!"
"Whatever Eric. I did you a favour; she is alive is she not?"
"Barley! Can you see the hurt she holds on to? The damage, caused by these fucking men who are meant to adore her!"
"That is not my concern. She is stronger then you give her credit for, she will come through this stronger and wiser, believe me."
"Believe you! You a man who looks at her with the same eyes that the wolves do! I will not have her hurt again. You will never live up to her; never will you be good enough!"
"Pha! You fool! She has a pretty face that is all."
"Really? You don't see the beauty in her heart, the pureness of her soul? A monster like you wants that, wants to damage her to no return. I will come down on you with Gods fury if you even think it!"
"I don't want to hurt her; I want you to keep her from me!"
"Forbidden fruit?"
"In a sense. I need to spend time away from her after tomorrow's events. No more favours, no more threats."
"Perfectly fine by me. I would have you to never see her again, any of you blackened hearts! The pull she feels to you will awaken in her, and I'd rather you were gone!"
"The pull, what do you mean?" Richard asks in an intrigued tone.
"You are one of thee most fucked up men on the earth. The pull she will soon find is her heart wanting to beat alongside yours. You need to stay away, far away, and then pray that she doesn't follow her heart, because you will be a dead man! She has a family, she will soon feel happy again, loved. Let her be that person, because years from now life as she knows it will be harder than this, and so will the people who fill this earth."
Holding my heart as it begs realise, I listen to every word, replay the words as images in my mind.
What will I do, hunt Richard down! No, that’s too weird to even think of without laughing. My father is obviously over protective with men being my friends, not that I blame him. I think after Sallack and then Parrise, I would have hit myself around the head for chasing after Ruk.
Creeping back down the hallway, I stop in my tracks when I see Arthur standing watching me, with his arms crossed and a playful raised brow.
"Snooping?"
"Would you believe me if I said no?"
"No," he laughs.
"Ok, well then yes I was," I smile at him sweetly.
Taking my hand, he holds it in both of his as he speaks in a whisper.
"You are a fine woman Zara, young, not yet wise, so let me tell you this, let your destiny find you, don't chase it. Feel with your heart, not with the words you hear. Believe your own words, even your lies; it will lead you to your path in life. And I'm sure it will be one hell of a path," he finishes with a cute wink.
"Thank you Arthur, I want to thank you for looking after my father also. I see you are fond of us both, we are lucky for that," I tell him as we walk down the stunning stairs and into the huge kitchen.
"I am the lucky one; your father has been very good to me.”
“Hey, come on. Why don't you tell me about your own adventures over a cup of tea?" I ask with hope.
"We may need a bottle off gin," he laughs.
"I'll get the glasses."
Chapter 17
Sitting in Sallack's bar, I watch Ruk and Mary hanging on each other’s every word, good god they make me sick.
How could he hold her the way he held me, kiss her like me and...Arrgh! I can't even kill the bitch, I have to sit here and watch my life be played out by my nemesis.
Then there is Den over by the bar, his hand gently stoking Candy's flat stomach, while she gazes at me with a smug grin.
Mickey, Parrise, Theo and Dom play cards at the table to our right, as if everything in the world is perfect, well I suppose to them it is.
"You look like a stalker, stop staring at them," Richard says for the tenth time, he just doesn't get it.
Sallack is too angry at everyone to get how I feel, Dallah over thinks how I feel, I think she wonders if I will make it through tomorrow, and maybe she is right to. Then there is Angus, he is such a good, honest man, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for his being here.
Tomorrow will be hard, I know it will be devastating, nevertheless, there is nothing I can do now, what could e done has been done, terribly!
"So you’re gone tomorrow? For good?" Sallack asks Richard with a growl.
"Correct, am I starting to bother you?" He asks sarcastically, angering Sallack further.
"Don't Sallack, he is only messing," I roll my eyes.
"Got to know him well then?" He asks me, sounding pissed off.
"Don't go there, I don't need you turning on me," I say in a hurt tone.
"I don't want to hurt you beautiful, I want to look out for you?"
"Oh here we are again, why don't you just hump her leg!"
Both men jump out of their seats at the same time, ready for battle, that is until I stand from my chair, hands flat on the table and my eyes burning brightly.
"Sit the fuck down!" I hiss at them.
They both look at me for a moment before conceding and taking their seats again.
Pushing my emotions back down, I slowly sit back onto my chair and look at them all in turn.
"I don't want you fighting; this is neither the time nor place! Richard is a cocky prick, get used to it! Sallack is an angry fuck, get used to it! Or don't, I don't care, I just need to get throughout this shitty day so I can face the next. I get you don't want to be here Richard, you are free to go. And Sallack, please for me, keep calm, wait until your anger is needed, please?"
"Of course," he replies, giving me one of his stunning smiles.
"Whiskey, double!" Richard shouts at Abbey.
"She said you can go!" Dallah tells Richard full of hope.
"She did, didn't she," he smiles, "but her father said stay, so I go after the ceremony."
"Since when have you been told what to do?" She questions with a raised brow.
"Neither your business or concern," he tells her in a bored tone.
As my eyes make their way back to the Brothers’, I watch again as Candy looks around to see whose watching before she takes a swig of beer.
"Dallah, what do you feel when you look at candy?" I whisper to her with concern.
Looking up from her glass of wine, she sighs sadly before answering me.
"I don't know sweetie. She is hard to read, she is so closed up," she smiles sadly.
"Have you seen her, she drinks from people's glasses when she thinks no one is looking?"
"Get over it Zara. She is most likely drowning her sorrows," Richard answers.
"Sorrows?"
"Yes, her body will be ruined, and she is to spend her life with a dog, one that will live a long life, while she withers away to nothing."
"You’re an ass, you know that right?" I say with a smirk.
"I have been told, yes," he grins back.
"What are you doing?" Dallah hisses.
Looking at her, then to Sallack I pull a face, resulting in her explaining her outburst.
"You're nice to him? What are you friends now?"
"You don't get it Dallah, you never will. But you have no worries, Richard
and me are as far from getting together as you are to have an affair with Sallack," I laugh, as does Richard. However, Dallah and Sallack look away with weak smiles.
"Are you having an affair?" I laugh at how strange they reacted.
"No! Of course not!" They answer at the same time.
Holding up my hands I shake my head and say, "hey, I don't judge, you crack on,"
It was only a joke, but Sallack didn't seem to find it that way, as he gets up from his seat and marches off to his office.
"What the hell was that?"
"I don't know, I'm gunna go see him," she answers sadly and follows after him.
"Come on, your thoughts?"
"You really want to know?" Richard replies with a grin, "ok. They are either fucking, or they want to."
"No, Dallah wouldn't do that to Julian, neither would Sallack."
"If you say so," he laughs.
Just as I go to argue with Richard, my breath hitches and I struggle to breath. Holding my chest, my eyes water and my mouth opens wide, begging for oxygen.
"What! What is it!?" Richard yells at me, shaking me roughly.
Standing from the chair, I hold onto his shirt, bow my head and continue to suck in air, but it is useless.
What is happening to me, I'm dying slowly, painfully, but I'm not ready! Not yet!
"Help!" I stutter to him.
Watching his face turn white with worry, he twists in a circle, looking at every man and woman in the room with me in his arms.
Stopping on an elderly man, he rushes over to him, hits him across the face before watching me again.
Why did he do that to the poor man, and why is no one moving, everything has stopped, frozen to time.
"Show yourself!" Richard commands.
As his voice pierces my ears, the last breath is knocked from me, and I go limp in his strong arms.
"She took our mates!" I hear a woman scream before all goes blank.
Waking from death, with a huge intake of oxygen, I let out a small gasp as my lungs fill, and the realisation of dying hits me tenfold.
Nevertheless, for what I awaken to is still as shocking as death itself.
Standing against a wall, held tightly by magic are two young women, and as I rise from the table, I instantly recognise where I am, Richards dungeon room in the Dark Coven.
Just as I go to call for him, his arm pulls me up by the waist and tight to his side.
"What's going on?!" I ask in a husky tone.
"These women came to you through revenge," he says plainly.
“Did I die?”
“In a sense, yes, but only for a minute or two. You are immortal remember.” He whispers to me gently.
Shaking my head to clear it, I gaze at the beautiful women and wonder what I could have done to them, then it hits me, they are Richard's cousin’s wives.
Nodding my head to him in understanding, I see Dallah, Sallack and Angus watching the women with hate clouding their vision.
It must have been terrible to find me dead in Richard's arms; I can't imagine the thoughts that ran through their minds.
"Guys?"
"You need to kill them!" States Dallah, receiving nods from everyone in the room.
"I killed their mates." I admit.
"And they killed you!" She yells with rage.
When Dallah gets like this, it is best to let her come around on her own accord, I don't need her blowing up everyone's head.
Standing on shaky legs, Richard soon removes his arm from me and gives me a non to gentle push towards the women.
"I suppose I deserved that. However, your mates deserved their death," I tell them with my head held high, which is just a show.
I feel terrible, I have taken these women's mates, broken their hearts with my actions. I deserved what they did to me, they must feel broken inside.
“I will cast darkness into your life and of those you love!" The woman with raven coloured hair and beautiful green eyes spits.
Looking at her closely, I see a flash of grey in her eyes, and a feeling of evil coating my skin.
"These are the mates of your cousin’s right?" I ask Richard with a face of confusion.
"Clara and Ellie, I have known them for years," he confirms.
"What do you have to say?" I ask the other woman, watching her every move, listening to the beat of her heart.
"Burn in hells fire!" She spits, literally, she spits in my face.
Cringing inwardly I wipe my face with the sleeve of my top and hold her face in my hand, my fingers biting into her flesh.
"You don’t want to be doing this; it won’t end well for you." I hiss in her face.
Her face shakes in my hand, and her breathing deepens.
"We will follow you, everywhere you go, we will be!"
"And you?" I take hold of the other beautiful woman's face.
"Sky gone dark. Hear my words, poisons thee..."
I stop her from speaking her curse by squeezing her cheeks so hard that I hear her jaw break.
Hearing Richard snorting a laugh, I turn to him with fury in my eyes.
"How could you not know? What have they heard!?"
Stepping out from the shadows, a five o'clock shadow on his handsome face makes my breath hitch.
"It cannot be," he growls out.
As Richard makes his way to me, murder in his eyes, Dallah, Sallack and Angus step forward, but I stop them by holding my hand up to them.
Stepping up to me, Richard bends to whisper in my ear,
"Let me speak."
Removing my hands from their faces, one can speak whilst the other moans through the pain of a crushed jaw.
“How did you find us?" Richard asks.
Cackles of laughter fill the room, but neither of their mouths move.
Holding the woman by the hair he pulls her head forward, and then throws it back causing her head to smash against the brick wall with a sickening crack and a scream that rips from her throat.
"These are mere shells doing our bidding, do as you please with them. We come to offer you a deal for the Charmer. Make your dreams come true, or nightmares if you decline our generous offer?"
"The Sister’s?" Angus states in fear for my safety, ripping me away from Richards side into the safety of his embrace.
"Yes," I nod at him and look back to Richard.
However as I look back, the lighting dissolves to nothing, and we hear a grunt from Richard.
Escaping Angus's firm grip, I run cautiously to where Richard was standing.
Swinging my arms in a circle, I hear the others scream my name, but I ignore as I search for Richard blindly in the blackness.
"Richard," I whisper in a screech.
Hearing his grunt again, I follow it and walk directly into his body which lies on the concrete floor. Bending down to him, I run my hands over his hair and face to make sure it's him and not one of the sisters.
"I got him. You three stick together!" I call to them whilst pulling Richards head on to my lap so that I can search his body for injuries, which is harder then you'd think in the pitch black room.
"Do you accept," they sing to him in harmony, their voices filling the room.
Holding his head, I place my lips to his ear and whisper almost silently,
"Where are you hurt?"
Then turning his head gently, I place my ear by his lips to hear him.
"Knife...chest...poison," he speaks breathlessly to me.
Moving my shaky hands across his chest, my heart falls when I feel the dagger sitting there, in his heart.
Damn, what do I do?!
"Dallah, he has a poisoned dagger in his chest, do I take it out, or get help?"
I ask her telepathically.
"Leave it in, push it, twist it. Let him return to hell!" She spits viciously.
Cutting off from her, I hold onto the dagger with both hands,
"I'm going to pull it out. Hold on to me."
With his head in my lap, he lifts his arms
and wraps the around my waist, readying himself for excruciating amount of pain to soon follow.
"Don't pull Charmer!" They hiss in my ears.
Holding tight, I'm just about to yank the dagger out when I'm hit with full force across the face, knocking me backwards. Still conscious I lift my head from the cold floor, my eyes wide in shock as my legs are gripped tight as I'm dragged across the floor with amazing power and speed.
Clawing at the concrete, I scream as I'm dragged up the wall and pinned to the ceiling just above where Richard lays.
Surrounding Richards body are candles that burn dimly, but thankfully giving us enough light to see what’s going on.
Where the blade sits in his chest, a black circle smokes up from his blood.
I can't help but want to cry seeing him like this; this is his nightmare coming true, what he dreams of every night.
"Do something!" I call to Dallah.
But in the shadow of the flame, I see the three of them standing like statues, with their heads bowed down.
Looking to my left, then right, the sisters are still in the bodies of the women, but in their eyes is where I see the truth.
Each sister holds one of my arms and one of my legs painfully as their focus is completely on Richard, excitement in their faces.
"Magic is no use, but try if you must," they laugh.
"Richard!" I call down to him.
The sisters pull at my body, causing me to scream through the pain, but nothing compared to the pain Richard is feeling.
Turning his head to face me, a candle illuminates the right side of his face where a single tears trails sorrowfully down his cheek and to his neck.
"It's not real," I tell him gently, angering the sisters further, "it's a dream, fight them," I ask him with tears of my own.
"Hush, you know nothing Charmer," they spit at me, "Richard, just accept our deal. You break the curse, we get her life, you walk away," they offer sinfully.
"No...dream...I...wont...go...back..."
Thrashing my body against the cold ceiling, my hair hangs down, removing half my vision. I can no longer see Dallah, Sallack and Angus.
"You won't! Look at me!" I yell to him, but his eyes shut to the pain. "You will pay for this! You think it's bad now, you fucking wait!"
"We will drop her onto you; force the blade to split you in half. Hell awaits you Prince, twisting fire, living nightmares, you will sacrifice all for this slip of a girl!" One of the sisters asks with laughter.
Forsaken (book 3) (The Charmer series) Page 18
