Royally Entangled

by Catherine Banks

  “Release her,” Deryn ordered them with a snarl.

  Reluctantly, they released me.

  Tears streamed down my face, and I walked up to Rhys who reached me first, having been the closest. I gripped his shirt in my hands and said, “I don’t want to die! I’m too young to die.”

  “Shh,” he ordered me. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was getting more booze and I saw you guys. Then they started talking about killing us. I don’t want to die. I just met you, and I want to get to know you more.”

  “It’s alright,” Deryn told me, taking my hand and pulling me away from Rhys. “You’re not going to die.”

  “But, they said…”

  “We won’t let anything happen to you,” Fox said adamantly, smiling warmly at me.

  “We aren’t going to kill the humans,” Nico assured me.

  I knew that I should let the conversation drop and be reassured by their proclamations, but I was too drunk and stupid to stop. The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.

  “I know we’re stupid, and I know most of them aren’t used to you, but if you give them a chance to learn, I know more will come to love you. Killing the humans won’t make them like you. I only met you four, and yet I want to know more about you. If I’m dead, I won’t get to learn about you and learn what makes you so amazing. I feel so content when I’m with you guys. It feels right to be with you, even if I can’t anymore because you’re fighting and I don’t want to contribute to that. But, I don’t want to be dead.”

  “Who the hell is she?” one of the men sitting in a chair asked. He had the same eyes as Nico.

  “She’s our friend,” Nico told him.

  “Get her out of here,” he ordered him.

  There was a book open in the middle of their circle showing a necklace with a pendant that looked very familiar. I pulled out of their holds and stumbled over to the book, dropping to my hands and knees to look at it.

  “I’ve seen this,” I mumbled and squinted to try to get a better look.

  “Don’t touch her!” Rhys ordered someone behind me.

  “Don’t touch the book!” someone ordered me.

  I pulled my necklace out from beneath my shirt and tugged the chain over my head before setting it on the book beside the image. I was positive, it was the same necklace.

  “Is this what you’re looking for?” I asked and looked up at my friends who were standing in a protective circle around me. I hadn’t realized how much trouble I was in until I saw that they were all using their powers at that moment to keep others away from me. All of their eyes were glowing and they all held weapons at their sides.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned around to face me, and the book.

  Deryn dropped to his knees beside me and looked at the book and my necklace. “It’s…”

  “It is!” Fox exclaimed.

  “Where did you get this?” the man with Nico’s eyes asked me.

  “My Grandma gave it to me. She told me to keep it safe and that it would protect me from vampires.” As soon as I said it, I clamped a hand to my mouth.

  “Vampires? Is that who hurt you last year?” Rhys asked me.

  “Maybe,” I mumbled around my hand covered mouth. Maybe I should stop drinking so much alcohol.

  Before I could grab the necklace back, the man with Nico’s eyes snatched it.

  “I need that!” I screamed. “It’s the only thing preventing them from finding me!” I crawled towards him, the damp grass soaked into the knees of my jeans. “Please!”

  “Jolie,” Rhys whispered and placed his hands on my shoulders. “It’s okay. You don’t need the necklace.”

  “I do!” I yelled.

  “This is a precious artifact to us,” Fox whispered, his calming presence helping to push back the hysteria that was trying to build within me. “Please, may we have it back?”

  “It’s precious to you?” I asked. It was just a necklace. What was so special about it? Aside from it keeping the vampires away from me, Grandma hadn’t said that it could do anything else.

  “It is very precious to us,” Rhys said.

  “If it is yours, then I should return it to you,” I said firmly. “I’m sorry for being selfish. Please, take your necklace.”

  A voice began laughing loudly, causing everyone to look around for the source. I already knew. I knew who was coming.

  My body shook and my heart beat quickly. My palms began sweating and wrapping them around myself did nothing to help. No. How did he find me so quickly?

  Rhys, Deryn, Fox, and Nico stood near me, taking protective stances. It should have made me happy to know that they were willing to protect me even after what had happened, but it only made me worry about their safety.

  “You’ve revealed yourself, little lamb,” Demarcus said as he materialized a few feet away from us. He was tall, thin, and very powerful. His clothing was straight out of the eighteenth century, which he claimed had the best style, and refused to wear anything else.

  “Who are you?” Rhys demanded.

  “Oh, did you get another protector?” Demarcus asked.

  “N-no,” I stuttered quickly, getting to my feet.

  “Do you remember what happened to the last protector you had? Do you remember how much he screamed? I’ll be more than happy to do it again. Come with me now, and tell me how you escaped, and I’ll leave these boys alone.”

  I stepped forward, ahead of the males, and started to walk towards him.

  “That’s a good girl. Come with me and I’ll not hurt anyone,” he said with a cocky smirk.

  “Jolie!” Deryn called out.

  Fox grabbed my arm and stopped me. “No, you can’t have her.”

  “Oh?” Demarcus asked and quirked a brow. “You have a claim to her?”

  “She’s ours,” Rhys growled, his eyes shifted into Dragon’s eyes and his hands now had thick talons coming out of his fingertips. He came to stand on my right side and I looked at him in shock.

  Deryn shifted into warrior form and stood behind me, setting his clawed paws lightly on my shoulders, his claws carefully pulled away from my skin to avoid hurting me. “Leave, or we’ll take this as a challenge.”

  “Everyone,” I whispered in shock. Even after causing them problems, they were willing to protect me?

  “Do you really want me to kill these boys?” Demarcus asked me, frowning.

  I turned to face the males and said, “Please. Please let me go.”

  “No,” all four replied at the same time, not looking at me.

  “You are ours,” Deryn whispered. “You are our friend. You are important to us. We protect what is important to us.”

  “If you are hurt…”

  “Don’t have such little faith in us,” Nico said with a smile. “Rhys isn’t the only prince.”

  “What?” I asked, lost.

  The four of them smiled at me.

  “We’re all princes,” Fox explained.

  “You may be strong, but you aren’t strong enough to defeat us alone,” Deryn said to Demarcus.

  Demarcus smirked and five vampires materialized beside him.

  “Clearly, you have a death wish,” the male with Nico’s eyes said. “Nico, I don’t know who she is, but don’t disgrace us by losing now that you’ve made such a claim.”

  “Just give me the girl,” Demarcus snarled. “She’s just one stupid human.”

  “No, she’s not,” Rhys growled and leapt forward, attacking Demarcus.

  Nico stayed at my elbow, a staff in his hand which had a dark blue jewel on the end of it. I hadn’t even seen him grab the staff. Where had it come from?

  He set his hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. “It’ll be okay.”

  How could it be okay? How could any of this be okay?

  “Do you have a cape?” I asked softly, trying to keep my hysteria down as I watched the others fighting.

  “Yes,” Nico replied and added, “I’ll show you
it another night.”

  Demarcus and his vampires were ferocious and everyone moved so fast that I couldn’t keep up. Someone was going to get hurt. It was going to be my fault.

  “Just give her to me!” Demarcus snarled at Rhys as they fought.

  “No!” the four males yelled at him at the same time.

  My legs wobbled and I dropped to my knees beside Nico. Something warm and painful at the same time spread from my chest throughout the rest of my body. What was going on? Nico stepped closer to me and began whispering something in what I was pretty certain was Greek. Air shimmered around us and a transparent bubble enveloped us.

  “Tell me how you did it!” Demarcus demanded. “How did you escape?”

  “It really bothers you that a human girl escaped, doesn’t it?” Deryn taunted him, jumping in to back up Rhys. “How could you let such a weak being slip through your fingers?”

  “You left the door unlocked,” I whispered.

  “What?” Demarcus asked. He leapt away from Deryn and Rhys to look at me across the park.

  “You left the door unlocked. You and your men thought that leaving me broken and defeated was enough. You thought that I was too broken to have the will to run. You thought that my broken leg would keep me from trying.” Fury began to build in me and I stood up, fists clenched at my sides.

  “You underestimated my will to survive. You left to sleep for the day and I walked out of that building and all the way to a hospital. It was your own ego that allowed me to escape!”

  Demarcus snarled. “A mistake I won’t make twice.”

  Deryn lunged at him, but Demarcus expected the move and backhanded Deryn, sending him flying into the tree off to his right.

  “Deryn!” I screamed, fear clawing its way up my throat. I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t lose anyone else to Demarcus.

  “Please, stop protecting me,” I begged Nico. “Please, let him take me. You hardly know me. I’m not worth all of this.”

  “We know enough. You’re our friend and someone we are all very interested in romantically. We will not let him take you and hurt you. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  “You’re all fighting each other already. I’m not worth ruining your friendships. I’m not worth getting hurt over. I’m just a stupid, drunk, human girl who doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone.”

  “Ah, you’re drunk. That explains a lot,” Nico chuckled.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked with a glare in his direction. He wasn’t phased by the glare, which meant I needed to work on my scary face.

  “We can have this conversation another day, when you haven’t been drinking. Okay?” Nico promised.

  “Stop ignoring me!” Demarcus yelled and lunged towards me. One minute he was there and the next, he disappeared. My eyes widened and a small shriek escaped my lips as he appeared in front of me and tried to reach through the bubble to grab me. I jerked backward, but there turned out to be no need. The bubble exploded outwards in a flash of brilliant sunlight. Demarcus and his vampires screamed, then disintegrated before my eyes.

  Nico picked me up and headed towards the apartment. I gripped the front of his shirt and stared mutely at his neck. What had just happened? It had all been so fast, that I wasn’t sure what exactly occurred.

  “You’re safe,” Nico whispered reassuringly. “We killed the vampire who was after you. He’ll never hurt you again.”

  “He’s dead dead?” I asked and squeaked at the end of my sentence.

  “Yes.”

  “The artifact is returned!” someone shouted behind us. It seemed I wasn’t the only one in a bit of a shell-shocked state.

  “She saved the humans. She ended the war,” someone nearby whispered as we walked through those in attendance.

  “You hear that?” Deryn asked, walking on my left side. “You’re a hero.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” I countered. “You saved me from the vampires.”

  “You saved us,” Fox said adamantly. “Our four factions have been at each other’s throats for a long time trying to locate that artifact. You found it and returned it to us.”

  “We need to ask her some questions,” someone said behind us.

  “No,” Rhys snapped. “She is not well. You may ask her questions a different day. For now, be happy that this human ended the war.”

  “What’s her name?” another person asked.

  “Jolie,” I replied. “My name is Jolie.”

  I woke the next morning to a hallway of flowers, mostly roses, but all from different people, if my cursory glance at the cards accompanying them were correct. I stood, transfixed in my doorway as I looked at them.

  “You’re popular now,” Deryn informed me from down the hallway.

  I turned to look at him and saw he was not smiling, like he normally did. Instead, he radiated sadness. His eyes could not have drooped more if he was a puppy. My heart constricted.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.

  “Most of these are from males wanting to be your suitor,” he explained. “You proved that you did not care what race we were, and that you are selfless. Those are important traits in a mate. Plus, you ended the war. You’re a hero…heroine.”

  “I’m not a hero,” I whispered. There had to be at least thirty vases here. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars’ worth of flowers. “What am I supposed to do with these flowers?”

  “Keep them?” Deryn suggested.

  “Did any of you send them?” I asked and turned my head away to avoid his eyes.

  “No.”

  “So, if I throw them away, you won’t get upset?” I asked and looked back at him.

  “On the contrary, I will assist,” he replied, his joyful energy returning.

  I turned and he smiled warmly at me for just a moment before it wilted again. “You were avoiding us yesterday,” he said matter-of-factly.

  I nodded.

  “Why?”

  Rhys stepped into the hallway and stopped when he saw the flowers, Deryn, and me.

  “I was avoiding you because I think it’s best if I don’t associate with you four,” I admitted.

  “Why?” Rhys demanded. “And you can’t lie and try to say it is because we’re Others.”

  “Because you are friends,” I answered truthfully.

  Fox and Nico walked into the hallway, chatting softly, but froze when they saw the situation.

  What were all four of them doing in my hallway? Were they all coming to see me?

  “You four are friends, right?” I asked them.

  All four nodded.

  “I refuse to be the girl who gets between you. I’m not like that. I hate girls like that. I spend ninety percent of my time talking with men. Half of them have stories about a girl that ruined a friendship of theirs. I won’t let that happen to you four. You are princes! You have to get along so that your races get along. If I drive a wedge between you-”

  “Why do you think that you will cause us to stop being friends?” Fox asked.

  I slid down my closed door and wrapped my arms around my bent knees. I was a selfish woman. No matter what they said about the necklace, I was not a heroine or selfless. I was a vile, selfish creature.

  “I can’t choose,” I whispered and placed my forehead against the top of my knees. “I can’t choose between you four.” I didn’t know them that well, but they each offered something different. Rhys was a serious alpha, but had a soft side. Deryn was playful and strong. Fox was sweet and relaxing. Nico was silly and I could tell he was a trickster. I found that in this short time that I had known them, I was already attached to them. Thinking about being separated from them made the center of my chest hurt. Actually, ever since yesterday, my chest had felt strange.

  “Does anyone smell that?” Deryn asked, lifting his nose in the air and moving towards me, stepping carefully around the flowers.

  “Who said you had to choose?” Fox asked.

 
“Nico and Deryn both got mad at Rhys and Rhys admitted that he’s competitive,” I explained.

  “We never said you had to choose between us,” Rhys pointed out.

  “Not yet, but soon you will. I’ve only been out with you each one or two times. Even if you let me continue to date you, eventually you will make me choose. I don’t want to. I want to be friends with all four of you.”

  “Oh no, she’s trying to friend-zone us!” Nico screeched and then gave me a smile. Yep, trickster.

  I lowered my knees and picked up the nearest flowerpot. It had petunias in it. The card said it was from Anton and he had given me his phone number. Deryn had been right. These were guys trying to date me. What the heck?

  Deryn continued sniffing as he went past me, but stopped and spun towards me. His eyes widened and he jerked the pot from my hand.

  “Hey!” I shouted in shock.

  He threw the pot out the window at the end of the hallway, shattering the glass.

  “What the hell was that about?” I asked him. “Just because you don’t like them, doesn’t mean-”

  A huge explosion rocked the building, making me scream in shock and fall to my side. Deryn picked me up and ran down the hallway.

  “Run!” he yelled.

  “What’s-”

  The next explosion made the entire building sway and Deryn stumbled a step as he raced down the stairway. My arms tightened around his neck and I closed my eyes, praying to whatever god might be listening to let us survive. I did not want to get crushed by a building.

  Cold air hit me and when I opened my eyes, we were across the street from the apartment building.

  “Wh-What happened?” I asked and shivered, my heart pounding and my palms damp with sweat, but still unable to release Deryn.

  “Bombs,” he whispered, his eyes focused on the building and a scowl on his face. “Someone sent you bombs.”

  “They tried to kill me?” I asked, my throat tightening as soon as I said the words.

  “It would seem so,” Fox whispered.

  I looked around and exhaled in relief to find the four of them with me. “You’re all safe,” I said, feeling my back relax. Deryn set me on my feet, but kept his arm around my waist, since I didn’t think I could stand up on my own at the moment.