“Sounds good to me,” Arianna said.
Beth agreed, as did Lance, Ewan and Clint. Dane motioned with a tip of his head and they moved toward an empty booth at the rear of the bar and near the pool table. As soon as they were seated, a bubbly blonde wearing a skintight tank top and short shorts visited their table. She introduced herself as Brittany and snapped her gum frequently as they ordered their food. Arianna had expected Dane to hit on her, or flirt playfully as the other guys with them did, but he did not. He didn’t seem interested in the least, in fact, not even when Brittany made a point of leaning and placing her ample bosom directly in front of his face when she reached to get the empty napkin holder on their table.
Arianna wasn’t the only one to notice his disinterest in the attractive waitress. Jason commented as soon as Brittany was out of earshot. “Dude, what is wrong with you? That girl is smokin’ hot and she’s into you. And you ignored her.”
Lance, Ewan and Clint looked among each other then nodded. Beth folded her arms on the table and buried her head in them. Dane hesitated a moment and fidgeted in his seat. He did not look up right away and seemed to be riveted by the skin on the side of his fingernail as he continued to pick at it.
“Dane,” Jason asked loudly. “Are you gonna talk to her?”
“Maybe,” Dane answered with disinterest.
“Maybe,” Jason echoed in disbelief.
Realizing Dane was in need of saving, Arianna said, “They have a jukebox.” She pointed to the far corner opposite their booth. “I haven’t seen one of those in ages. Let’s go see what songs they have.” She tapped Dane and tugged his wrist. He slid from the booth at her urging and walked beside her as they made their way across the bar.
“Thanks,” he said when they stood in front of the coin-operated machine.
She did not look away from the discs inside but felt his eyes on her. “For what?” she said coolly.
“You know, the whole Brittany thing back there.”
“No problem,” she replied and paused. “She is cute though, right?” she asked casually as she scanned the titles.
“I don’t know,” he answered and dug through his front pants pocket. Coins jangled. He held out a handful to her. “I don’t really like blondes,” he added softly when she turned toward his outthrust hand. His eyes were fixed on hers for the briefest of moments. “So, what do they have here?” he asked and nudged her aside. “Outta my way, woman. I don’t want you putting on any crappy love songs or angry chick music.”
Arianna huffed and flung her hands up. “Excuse you,” she grumbled.
After Dane made his selections and let her pick three measly songs, they returned to the table. Brittany had brought a pitcher of beer and informed them their burgers were on their way.
Once the food arrived, the group chatted, ate and drank. When they’d finished and plates had been cleared, they shot a few games of pool. Arianna was amazed when she glanced at the clock mounted above the bar and realized two hours had passed. Two hours that she had not been miserable. Two hours she had not thought about Desmond. She was actually enjoying herself, a feat she thought herself incapable of. She and Beth had just sat back down at the booth they’d eaten at when Jason’s voice sounded over the music.
“Come on, we’re going to play another game,” Jason called to her and Beth.
“I think I’m going to sit this one out,” Beth replied and waved her hand at him.
“Me too,” Arianna agreed.
“Suit yourselves,” Jason said and turned to Dane, Lance, Ewan and Clint.
“Yeah, I think I’m done, too,” Dane said and started walking his pool cue to the rack mounted on the wall. Jason began lacing into him verbally about Brittany again. That topic quickly yielded his choice to sit with the girls rather than play pool.
“Okay, they are officially giving me a headache,” Beth said as she stood and grabbed her glass of beer from the table. “I’m going to sit at the bar. Care to join me?”
“Sure,” Arianna replied. She clutched her beer in her hand and scooted to the edge of the seat. But when she tried to stand, her legs, feeling unnaturally weak and heavy, collapsed beneath her, as if they could not bear her weight. Her backside returned to the padded bench seat with a thud.
“Arianna,” Beth turned and said. She noticed that Beth stumbled a bit when she’d spun. Arianna tried to focus on her friend, but her vision became blurry.
“I-I don’t feel so good,” Arianna said.
“Are you okay?” Jason’s voice sounded distant, as if it echoed through a tunnel, but she could see that he’d slid into the booth and sat across from her.
“What happened, A-Bomb, you got wasted by accident or something?” Dane asked and plopped down beside her.
“I don’t get wasted,” Arianna replied and noticed that her voice had thickened. “I only drink beer once in a while because I like the way it tastes,” She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, not bothering to reprimand him for calling her A-Bomb. She did not have the energy “Something is wrong.”
“I don’t feel right either,” Beth said and Arianna could make out that her hand was at her forehead.
Though her vision was blurry and her body felt weak, her instinct remained sharp. Awareness prickled up her spine. Her eyes scanned the room, sweeping the faces of the people present. All were fuzzy and indistinct. Still, intuition guided her to the bar area. She could not be sure, but she believed the bartender watched her and her friends, as well as the few patrons who’d remained and now milled about shiftily. She felt his eyes on her, felt the weight of his stare.
“What is it?” Dane’s concerned voice was at her ear.
“The bartender,” she murmured and felt her limbs leaden further. She narrowed her eyes and focused on his face, straining the meager strength that emptied fast. He moved toward them.
Dark eyebrows, arced and pointed like sharpened scythes, nearly collided as the barkeep approached, glaring. He smiled malevolently and revealed a mouthful of small, pointed teeth. “I guess the Sola is not immune to the essence of belladonna mixed with a special concoction my ancestors passed down from generation to generation called Hellfire,” he roared unexpectedly, the sound of his voice filling the space. “No, you’re not, are you, you traitorous bitch!”
His words seemed to hang in the air for a few seconds too long, as if delayed by some unknown force that halted all activity in the room. The bar hummed and crackled with hostile energy.
Dane shouted words in her defense, swearing at the bartender as he stood. But his legs crumpled from under him. He cried out in frustration as he found his limbs as useless as Arianna’s. The bartender’s laughter rolled through the room like thunder. Beth attempted to move toward her brother, but her legs refused to cooperate and dragged, uncoordinated and heavy. She clutched the pool table for support and barely held herself upright. Jason made an effort to spring from his seat but his movements were labored as well, his body unsteady.
“What the hell is happening?” Arianna panicked and saw that Lance, Ewan and Clint struggled to stay on their feet.
The bartender’s laughter stopped abruptly. Three dark and hulking forms stole toward her and her friends. “Come now, Sola! You are not that naïve, are you?” Another vile fit of glee beset him. When he’d finished, he said, “My friends and I are assassins of the Dark Order, a brotherhood dedicated to upholding the fate of our kind, the truth.”
“Fuck you!” Dane spat and succeeded at lifting his shoulders off the floor. Arianna’s vision fluctuated between razor-sharp precision and indistinctness. The moment she heard Dane’s voice, her head had snapped in the direction of the sound and she’d been able to see the luminescent sheen of sweat that covered him as he fought to position his upper body upright. One of the men, whom she now saw clearly, descended on Dane.
“No!” she cried out and hoisted her wrist, exerting every ounce of strength she had. Heated anger flared within and her insides began to tremble. Her
vision became veiled in crimson and the air became laden with the sour stench of sweat, grease and alcohol. Blistering fury welled inside her and yearned for release. She hefted her fingers, aiming them at the man advancing on Dane. But the tremendous effort yielded just a small dribble of fire from her fingertips that fizzled instantly.
Seeing her inability to defend Dane, the bartender erupted again. “The all-powerful Sola, ladies and gentlemen!” he jeered. The remaining two men moved with lightning-fast speed and were upon Lance, Ewan and Clint before they could move their sluggish legs. Arianna watched in horror as pale-yellow streaks of fire tore from their fingers and hurled toward the trainees.
“No!” she heard herself shriek, but it sounded as if she were submerged beneath fathoms of water. Her words were muddled and the evening she’d been enjoying with friends transformed into a nightmare.
Flames lapped their bodies before swelling and engulfing them fully. Dane and Jason shouted words that were inaudible over the sound of blood rushing behind her ears and Beth cried out in horror. Three glowing bodies crumbled to the floor, consumed by fire so hot, they were reduced to ashes seconds later.
“Cowards!” Arianna heard Jason say, his voice cracking with emotion. “You have to drug us to win! You fight without honor!”
“Honor?” the bartender sneered. “You, a defender of the ultimate traitor, dare speak of honor?” An evil chuckled passed through his lips. “You are undeserving of honor, and you will not receive an honorable death!” He stepped away from the bar and crossed the room, looming before Arianna, Beth, Dane and Jason. “But before we kill you, you can watch her die.” He pointed a finger at Arianna, and her pulse rate thumped faster, racing dangerously fast. She did not fear death, but did fear for her friends. Her soul would suffer eternally knowing that four more people she loved would die as a result of knowing her.
“Please, don’t kill them. Kill me, but spare them. I beg you,” she began.
“Oh you beg me, do you?” He frowned exaggeratedly and mocked her with his tone of voice. “I am going to enjoy ending your miserable little bleeding-heart existence. You disgust me!” His final words were punctuated by his fingers sparking to life in lurid ribbons of silver and pale blue, swaying and intertwining in a dance of death.
Arianna was rapt, transfixed by the flames that would be her demise, when a large section of air next to her shivered iridescently before exploding in shafts of opalescent light. The bartender and his minions shielded their eyes against the light but spun to face it just in time to see a figure step through the shimmering glow. Tall and fit with broad shoulders and a tapered waist, the form was male and powerful looking. His skin was a warm shade of bronze that offset luminous sea-green eyes, eyes that immediately zeroed in on the men in front of him. He launched both hands forward and Arianna watched in awe as all except the bartender were blasted backward and crashed into far wall. A thunderous thud shook the very foundation of the building. The men met with the wall with such force, she could hear the snap and crunch of bones, of skulls shattering. The bartender offered a fleeting look of surprise before he leaped toward her. Each cell in Arianna’s body demanded that she move, but her muscles remained paralyzed. He closed the small distance between them effortlessly. He clutched her chin, tipping it upward. She felt the cold steel tip of a blade puncture the soft skin of her throat. A warm trickle began trailing down her neck.
“Make one more move, and I kill the Sola,” the bartender threatened.
Jade eyes locked on her before disappearing entirely. Within seconds, the point of the blade no longer pierced her flesh and a hand no longer gripped her face. She turned her head and saw in her periphery that the bartender did not hold his weapon. The man who’d materialized from the glittering light did. Then with impossible speed, he slashed at the air. Arianna gasped when she saw the bartender’s head tumble from his shoulders and land against the floor with a sickening clunk. But just as blood and gore started to squirt from the ragged stump, the lithe form sent forth an inferno from his fingers so intense the bartender’s remains were reduced to a puff of smoke that disintegrated to ashes.
“I have to get you out of here,” he turned his chiseled jaw and seized her with his gaze. “There could be more from the Dark Order coming.” A rattle in the kitchen made her insides jump.
“I am not leaving without my friends,” she said evenly.
His emerald eyes flickered with a glint of something she could not name before he replied, “Of course,” with a confident nod. He then extended his hands to his sides, elbows tight to his waist and she watched as her friends drifted up and floated on invisible beds. He drew them closer so that Dane, Jason and Beth were nearby.
“Arianna!” Dane spoke first, concern knitting his brows. “You’re bleeding. I couldn’t help you. I couldn’t help you.” The pain in his eyes was palpable. She would have reached out a hand and soothed him were it not for the paralysis caused by the belladonna essence, a drug made from a rare and poisonous plant, mixed with an ancient supernatural potion.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said gently.
The mysterious man suspending her friends in midair spoke. “We need to leave. They are here.” He looked in the direction of the entrance of the bar. Voices sounded from the other side. He wrapped an arm around her waist and scooped her from the booth she sat at. Her friends remained as they were and watched wordlessly as he held her against his steely chest.
“Who are you?” she asked him as her brain resisted an unspecified familiarity her energy sensed.
His gaze settled on her, drilling against her mind’s defenses. “I am your destiny,” he answered as she felt her body vaporize and become one with the atmosphere.
Chapter 12
Arianna opened her eyes and the slow, steady rhythm of her heart sprinted out of control. She was in her cabin, in her bed, and could not recall how she’d gotten there. She blinked several times, clearing her vision in the process, and then allowed her eyes to roam the room. Her scurrying heart screeched to a near-halt when her gaze landed on a tall, tan figure sitting with impeccable posture in a wicker chair at her bedside. She stifled the scream that surged and pressed against the lump of dread stuck in her throat.
“Arianna, you’re awake,” the figure said in a gravelly voice. He leaned forward, his face closer to hers. Shimmering eyes in an ethereal hue of green she’d never seen before were dressed in a fringe of black and seemed to glow against the backdrop of toasted almond colored skin. A stranger was with her. And he was watching her intently.
She stared at his features for a moment. Recognition sputtered in her mind’s eye. Pieces of a nebulous puzzle began drifting into place but had yet to form a complete picture.
“Who are you and where are my friends?” she asked as a stream of memories eddied around her brain, carrying images of Beth, Dane and Jason, and violence. She sat up, too soon apparently, as a stab of pain shot through her skull. Her hands went to her temples, her fingertips rubbing in small circles. But she did not let the stranger out of her sight.
“You friends are fine,” he assured her in a voice as warm and rich as his skin tone. “I put each of them in their bed.”
She turned her head to face him. Her brain felt as if it wobbled and rattled inside her skull like a bowl of gelatin cubes. “You still did not answer my question.” She pronounced each word clearly and slowly. “Who are you?”
He leaned back in his seat and Arianna noticed how small the wicker chair looked with him in it. He bowed his head as if embarrassed. “I am Darius of Gehenna. I have been waiting to meet you for five centuries. I cannot believe the time is at last upon me, that I finally have you.” He looked up at her, his eyes almost pleading, but for what she hadn’t the slightest clue. Still, a quality he possessed, something inherent in this Darius person, sang inside her.
Arianna looked away, the movement painful, but less so than before. Her eyes darted around the small space, searching in time with her brain. Darius had
waited for her for five centuries. His claim seemed as absurd as so many other aspects of her life did, yet all were real. All were true.
The room seemed to transform suddenly into a vacuum, devoid of all light and sound. Air exited her lungs and a violent shudder racked her body. Everything she’d been told gelled at once.
She whipped her head to look at him, understanding hitting her with the force of a sledgehammer. “You’re the one,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “You are the man Agnon spoke of, the one who was coming for me.”
Darius scrubbed the short black hairs on his scalp. His lips hooked upward into a small, tight smile. He nodded almost imperceptibly. “What else did Agnon say?” he asked and she could hear the tremendous restraint he exercised to keep the irritation from his voice.
Arianna squirmed a bit beneath the comforter on her lap before answering. She felt her cheeks heat but tipped her chin in defiance of it and spoke with clarity and confidence she did not quite feel. “He told Desmond you are supposed to be my husband. He said we were destined to marry.” She trained her sharpest gaze on him. “I am not destined to marry anyone. I choose my own path.”
Darius held his hands at chest-height, his palms facing her in surrender. “As you should, no one determines another’s path for her. What you’ve heard is a distortion of the truth.” His irises undulated like tall grass swaying in a breeze, reflecting lush, varying shades of green. “I have not waited centuries to marry you against your will. The privilege of serving you will suffice.”
“Serving me?” she asked and did not mask her incredulity.
“I am your loyal servant.” He dipped his head reverently. I am here to protect you.”
“Okay, you and everyone else,” she said cynically. “The truth would be nice for once. Please, enough with the declarations of loyalty and all the rigmarole. Everyone tells me the same thing.”
The Arrival: Arianna Rose, #4 Page 13
