Chapter Eleven
“Let go of me!” Kyna growled, fighting against the police officers. The man from the park had led her to a cruiser, where another man, blonde with pale blue eyes, was sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Got a Loni,” the man said, glancing back at her in the rearview mirror.
“No shit?” the driver said, grinning back at her. “She’s hot. What do you wanna do with her?”
“What do you think?” the man who framed her said, leering at her from the mirror. “The usual. Then take her to the camp.”
“Right,” the driver said. “I’ll radio it in.”
The crackle of the radio hurt Kyna’s head and the car jerked forward. She felt nauseated and furious. She had been caught by the Guardians and had failed her mission entirely. What was she going to do? Would they kill her?
“Cheer up, babe,” the driver said, grinning at her through the rearview mirror. “We’re gonna take good care of you.”
Kyna squeezed her eyes closed, sending as powerful a force from her mind as possible. A psychic call for help was her only chance. Otherwise, the Guardians would capture her and perform unspeakable tortures on her. Especially once they saw she was the last of her kind and would see her as personally responsible for the death of Richard, the leader.
The car moved slowly through the city streets until suddenly they were heading into the wooded wilderness. Kyna kept her eyes squeezed closed, silently sending pleas for help to anybody who might be able to hear them. If the Guardians had their way with her, she would never make it back to the Kersh clan, let alone to Kaldernon. She was doomed.
***
Cain made it to the border of the woods, his broad chest heaving with the effort of breathing. He knew deep down that Kyna was in trouble, more surely than he had ever known anything in his life. His body was suddenly electrified by her voice roaring in his head.
“Please. Route 198. They’re taking me away.”
Cain cursed and began running with all of his speed. Soon, the trees were blurring around him and he felt himself tapping in to a deep, dormant power. It helped him soar along the ground, eventually lifting him into the air. He didn’t question what was happening to him. He knew that Kyna was telling the truth and had been from the start. That deep down, he could shapeshift into a dragon, and now he was going to find her on Route 198 and destroy anyone who might harm her by any means necessary.
The scenery moved by in a blur, and didn’t slow down until he spotted a black and white police cruiser. He could feel Kyna close by, and landed forcibly in front of the car. It squealed to a halt and the men driving both got out of the car. Their eyes were round as saucers as Cain unleashed an ear-splitting roar. The men brought guns out, pointing them shakily at him. Cain swung his tail, throwing one of the men back with its force. The gun fell to the ground unconscious and the other man took a shot.
Cain dodged it, but barely. It grazed his leg and he unleashed a torrent of fire. The man screamed in agony as Cain head-butted him. He fell against the car with a thud.
The men were taken care of and Cain rushed to the car. The flames were going to reach the gas tank soon. Kyna was in the back seat, watching the whole thing with wide, terrified eyes. He tried pulling the door open. When it didn’t work, he pulled with all his force, ripping it off the hinges.
“Come on, we have to go,”
“Cain – “
“Now!”
Kyna stopped talking and allowed him to pull her to safety. He picked her up, much the same way he had when he’d saved her from the men in the forest, and took off running as quickly as he could. A few minutes later, a deafening explosion caused him to stumble.
“How did you –“ Kyna was breathless and confused and Cain smiled down at her.
“I had a dream. We have to get back to the tunnels. I need to see the world in the sky again.”
“Cain…”
“I’m so sorry Kyna. I shouldn’t have doubted you. I know it sounded ridiculous, but it doesn’t excuse the way I treated you for telling me the truth.”
“It’s all right,” she said. When he finally made it to the underground city, Clayton was standing outside, staring up at Kaldernon.
“Cain,” he said, moving forward to greet him. He was surprised to see Kyna in his arms.
“Is she all right?” he asked.
“She is now,” Cain said. He whipped around, setting her down gently and staring up at the pulsing lights of Kaldernon.
“They’re using an ancient language,” he said to Clayton. “They have a way to bring everybody back up there. Back home is what they’re saying.”
“You’re kidding,” Clayton breathed. “I’d heard it told that they were still trying. A Loni visitor made her way down a few years back, but nothing ever came of the message.”
“That’s because they weren’t ready yet,” Cain said, still craning his neck up at the sky. “You have to follow me. This is time sensitive. There are only a few more hours. Tell everybody!”
“Tell them what?” Clayton asked, heading for the entrance of the underground city.
“Tell them to hurry. The time to return is now.”
Clayton nodded dutifully and disappeared into the tunnels.
Chapter Twelve
Cain and Kyna stood outside quietly. Kyna was confused, and scared. Returning to Kaldernon had always been the theoretical goal, but now that they could, she was full of questions and doubts.
“It’s going to be all right,” Cain said, taking her hand.
“Are you coming with us?” she whispered. He took her close to his chest and frowned. He hadn’t thought about that yet, but he knew that this would be the only way to truly understand his heritage.
“It’s time to stop running from my past,” he said finally, pulling away from her and smiling. “If I keep doing that, what kind of future will I have?”
Suddenly, huge swarms of people began to pool from the entrances in the underground tunnels. They gathered expectantly around Cain, their faces taught with apprehension.
“We will follow Cain!” Clayton’s voice boomed as he followed the last of the Kersh clan from the burrows.
Cain grabbed Kyna’s hand and they took off running north, past the lake she had followed to find him. They ran for two hours, stopping for breaks only periodically. Finally, they arrived to a ledge overlooking the forest. Kyna gasped. It was the same peak she had seen in her first dream; the place in the distance Cain had been smiling at.
Suddenly, a shining golden light appeared above them. It fell over two people, who began to disappear. At first they were terrified, but soon they were smiling.
“It’s Kaldernon!” they shouted before they fully disappeared.
“We will keep order! Three at a time!” Clayton commanded, shouting authoritatively. The lines dwindled until it was only Kyna and Cain standing together on the cliff’s face.
“Are you sure you want to leave this world behind? You were raised as one of them.”
“It’s not safe even if I did,” he said, peering at her with his beautiful sea-green eyes. He gripped her hands and brought them to his lips, kissing gently. “Now that I have you, I can’t just let you go. Nobody has ever really felt like home. Maybe because my home is somewhere else.”
Kyna’s heart thudded in excitement when he pulled her toward the light. He squeezed her hand as it began to bathe over them.
“Are you ready?” she asked nervously.
Cain leaned down and kissed her tenderly.
“What are we waiting for?” he asked with a grin.
Suddenly, they felt the tug of the portal and together, they began their journey to their home world of Kaldernon.
THE END
Billionaire Romance
My Holiday Billionaire
Pamela Avery
Copyright ©2015 by Pamela Avery. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical mean
s, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Chapter One
Alexandra Jordan’s big blue eyes filled with unshed tears as the plane taxied down the runway, increasing its speed exponentially, before rising into the air, its powerful engines vibrating beneath her wings.
She tossed her head, deliberately hiding her face beneath her cloud of riotous blonde curls as she stared out at the rapidly diminishing landscape. Her seat mate, a batty old woman in her nineties chattered incessantly, trying to draw Alexandra into conversation. After several minutes engaged in what turned out to be a droning monologue, the woman took the hint and relaxed back against her seat.
I should be happy, Alexandra told herself. I should be ecstatic, over the moon; I should be the one talking the old woman’s ear off!
She had won a trip to freaking Hawaii and was flying first class for the first time in her entire life; plus she was going to spend two exotic weeks at a five-star resort; all expenses paid, and yet she could barely summon a smile.
She knew why, of course, her eyes filling anew as she ducked her head; she was mourning the death of her relationship of five years. It had ended just two days ago when she had borrowed Andrew’s phone to show him the email she had received about winning the trip. She had seen a text message that came in at that very second, “Hey Baby…remember, I’m serious…no more unprotected sex!. Pleeeease bring condoms! I miss you!”
Her mouth tightened now again as she recalled how her hand had shook as she looked up in shock, her disbelieving eyes zeroing in on where her fiancé was calmly sipping the bowl of soup she had made for him.
“Who is Cindy Jacobs?” she had asked in a shrill voice she barely recognized as her own.
Andrew had paused, his hand arrested half-way to his mouth and then he had blithely informed her, his eyes turning hard as he obviously braced himself and said, “She’s the woman I love.”
Alexandra shut her eyes now in remembered pain as she recalled the strange tunneling sound she had heard after that. A part of her had been afraid she might even be having a small stroke at the time.
Andrew had simply glared down at her as he rose to his feet and announced he had been dying to tell her that he had had enough, but now was as good a time as any. Then before her shell-shocked eyes, he had marched into the bedroom, grabbed a small duffel bag, and was heading towards the door before she could so much as sneeze.
The worst part was that whenever she remembered that encounter, what stood out most in her mind’s eyes was the apparent disgust etched onto his features as he looked at her. The pain was still there, but she wished she could believe it when she told herself that he didn’t deserve her. Her weight had always been a sore subject for her and he had known exactly what button to press. At the same time she knew her own self-worth and she wanted to be with a man who saw her as beautiful. She knew that she had to believe it first though. As he had left he had actually had the balls and gall to say “And lose some weight!” Thankfully, in this one instance she did not regret her temper. Before she had a chance to stop it, she had slammed her fist into his nose before shutting the door in his face. What a dick, she thought now.
At the time, she had promptly dissolved into tears but he didn’t know that, so that was alright.
She had been so devastated that she had actually considered not going on the trip at all. Her best friend and partner, Claire Davies had practically shoved her out the door insisting that Beautiful Designs, their Interior design company, could survive without her for two weeks. Beautiful Designs was her pride and joy; through sheer grit and determination, the company had risen from being a tiny corner shop to a corporation responsible for at least two hundred employees with branches in three states. The best part was, they were still growing and if she had anything to say about it in the next ten years, it would become a mega-corporation. She was the CEO but sometimes, like today, she felt about as clueless as the janitor.
In hindsight, she realized he had actually been gradually moving out on her for a while which explained why he had needed no more than a second to stroll out with just one little duffel bag containing all his belongings.
Raw pain shredded her heart anew and she leaned her head against the headrest of her seat and let the tears flow freely, unchecked as the powerful plane continued to burst through the sky. With every second she was getting further away from what was, and closer to what could be, she realized. Maybe the trip would be good for her.
***
“Sí Señor,” the hotel Manager crooned, bowing so low it was a wonder his head didn’t touch his knees as he smiled up with sycophantic worship at the tall, powerfully built man in front of him.
Alexandra tried not to roll her eyes as she watched the pair. The tall man murmured something in what was obviously meant to be a low tone. Given his very deep baritone voice, however, it carried right to her. She noted disinterestedly that he was speaking Spanish and tried not to start tapping her foot in impatience as the Manager started opening drawers and flipping ledgers in a flurry of urgent movements.
Unable to bear the wait any longer, she said waspishly, “If you two are done with your bromance moment perhaps you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of a bar. Watching the pair of you is so painful I could certainly use a big, strong ─” her voice trailed off into silence as the large man turned to look at her.
All thoughts fled as she locked eyes with what had to be one of the most amazing specimens of human being she had ever laid eyes on. He had a tawny mane of windswept hair that scattered around his head in a most becoming and arresting manner. He also had the most captivating pair of dark, dark eyes she had ever seen. They were so dark they were almost black and so intense she could have sworn she could fall into them. His features were finely chiseled with a granite jaw, a long aristocratic nose, and a firm upper lip. His lower lip was surprisingly full. His shoulders had to be at least a mile wide. There was a quality about him, something that reminded her of a big jungle cat about to spring. His tuxedo spelled class and money and was so impeccably tailored and well-fitted on his large, slim frame that she knew it had to have been custom-made. Expertly, her eyes picked out the unique Dormeuil Vanquish II cut of his tux. The man was the last word in gorgeous and very wealthy by the look of things. That tux had to have cost something in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand dollars!
Alexandra tried not to grind her teeth as it occurred to her that sometimes God did give with both hands.
The man grinned lazily, his dark eyes gleaming down at her as he said, “Big, strong what? Cup of coffee, I hope. Not much chance of you getting much else here miss.”
Alexandra bristled at that. At twenty-eight, she was curvy and voluptuous with large breasts and broad hips, a smooth, unlined face and in her opinion, healthy strong arms. She’d always resented it though, and now was no exception, especially when he made it sound like she had been going to say ‘big strong man’. So she was not the most attractive woman in the world. That did not give a total stranger the right to comment on her looks.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she began in a low, dark, warning tone “But I don’t like the insinuation.”
Amusement glinted in his eyes as he deliberately raked his eyes down her pretty gamine features. She had wide blue eyes; full blonde curls that made him think of his little nephews and their favorite cartoon character Goldilocks; she had full, pouty lips that invited a man to lean down and taste them, a pair of delectable-looking boobs the size of small throw-pillows, and delectable hips that just made him want to wrap his hands around them. She was a complete knockout in his eyes.
He felt his blood stir as it hadn’t done in a while and he immediately squelched the unexpected surge of desire; the last thing he needed right now was to be attracted to any female of the species.
Wi
th deliberate insolence, he gave her a measuring look that swept from the top of her blonde hair, down her tee-shirt, past her shorts, past miles and miles of smooth legs and down to her flip-flops. He needed desperately to put some distance between them, he decided. Besides it was fun to rile her up like this.
He said coolly, “Whatever you say.”
Then he turned around to accept the key to his Suite from the Manager’s outstretched hand.
“I hope you at least had the decency to give him a tiny room facing an alley,” she grumbled as she gave her details to the Manager.
The man gave her a wide-toothed grin, “Very funny, Miss.”
“I don’t hear anyone laughing,” she observed sarcastically.
“He owns half the hotels on this Island including this one. He can have any room he wants,” the man informed her as he returned her documents and key to her.
A flow of rapid Spanish had her looking towards the elevators in time to see a bell boy almost trip over his own feet in his haste to relieve the Spaniard of his briefcase. Alexandra rolled her eyes once more as she headed towards her room. With the reverence everyone was paying the stupid man, you would have thought he was the President of the United States!
Chapter Two
Alexandra Jordan was feeling blue for the umpteenth time in two short days; she was miserable, for want of a better word! She had been in Hawaii for just two days and she was ready to run for the hills.
The place was every bit as exotic as she had ever imagined, true, but it was also a tourist destination which meant that everywhere she looked, people were in pairs. It was so disgusting, it was like freaking Noah’s Ark, she thought churlishly. Thank goodness that odious Spaniard had had the good sense to hide his face because with the mood she was in, if he so much as called her a child tonight, she would plant her fist in his face and leave it there to take root and grow!
FLASH (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 15) Page 45
