We grabbed a small booth in the back corner. Xander tucked me into the corner before sliding into the black leather seat beside me. Rioden pulled himself into the seat across from us and grabbed three menus from the menu stand.
“Lunch is on me,” he reminded us, which caused me to feel slightly guilty about the fact that I had no money to help either him or Xander with the hotel or food costs I would be incurring while I was with them. However long that might be.
I scanned over the menu and quickly picked out a sandwich to order. While I waited for the guys to pick something out, I surreptitiously gazed around the diner. Three waitresses wearing jeans and white shirts with black aprons tied around their waists were working their way through the tables.
Although it looked like the major lunch rush was over, most of the tables were still full of people in business attire, working on their meals and chatting animatedly.
The booth behind Rioden was empty and piled high with dirty dishes from its previous occupants, and the table beside us was occupied by two middle-aged women wearing slacks and blouses with tennis shoes. They looked to be finished with their meals, and just waiting to pay the check before they left.
My eyes fell onto the youngest waitress in the room, who was slowly making her way over to our booth. Her apron and skin-tight jeans were slung low on her hips, showing off her fit, tan stomach. Her plain white tee was so tight and stretched over her large chest, that you could clearly see the outline of her lacy bra underneath.
She walked up to the table and drawled in a slightly southern twang, “Hi, I’m April. You guys know what you want today?”
Xander lifted his head from his menu and glanced up at April with a distracted smile, before turning to me to see if I was ready. I nearly missed his glance, because with that slight smile, April had nearly swooned. Her eyes widened and her chest popped out, as she lifted one hand to her poufy blonde curls to straighten them out.
She looked like a peacock preening for its mate, and her eyes were so wide that she reminded me of a cartoon character. I was surprised that I couldn’t see her heart beating out of her chest.
“Skye? You ready to order?” Xander asked for the second time, before I registered his request.
“Oh, sorry! Yes, can I get a BLT without the L or T, and a Coke please?”
“No L or T?” April questioned airily.
“Um, yeah, no lettuce and tomato. Just bacon and mayo please,” I clarified.
April shook her head and scribbled my order down, then turned her attention to Rioden, who just ordered a burger and fries. Then, turning her megawatt smile onto Xander, she winked at him and asked, “And what can I do for you today, hun?”
Xander ordered a BLT too, keeping his gaze locked onto mine. I held my smile back as he teased, “I want mine with the L and T though, please, and a Coke as well.”
Her smile slipped a little as she told us she would be right back with our drinks; then off she went, swinging her hips as she left. I had a feeling that her sexy walk had been a show for Xander who, unfortunately for her, was still smiling at me as she left.
“What?”
I laughed at him, and he looked over at me like I was crazy.
“No L and T? Who orders a BLT and then removes 75% of it?” he quipped, knocking his shoulder into mine.
I pushed him back and jokingly told him to leave me alone. We continued to laugh and joke with each other until April came back with our Cokes; pulling us out of our happy bubble. Grabbing my glass for a sip I noted that Rioden was frowning at Xander, but when his eyes looked over at me he softened his gaze. Evidently something Xander was doing wasn’t making him happy. I immediately felt my mood somber up when Xander inched away from me and cleared his throat.
“Well. So, Skye. Did any questions come to mind while we were walking over here that we can answer for you?”
Gulping down a few sips of the ice cold Coke I contemplated his understatement of the year. I tried to come up with a question that we would be able to talk about here in the diner.
“Actually yes, Rioden. From what I gathered from your and Xander’s explanations on how I got here, a portal was created so my family could travel here when I was a baby. However, from the conversation Xander had with the Semvon yesterday, it sounded like he was looking for a portal to get back home. Are there more than one? How do the portals work?”
Lowering his head to keep the conversation limited to only the three of us, Rioden spoke softly, or as softly as his deep voice would allow.
“Portals are tricky things, Skye. The sorceress who created the one that brought you here was, at the time, one of the few people with enough magic strength to do such a thing. See - portals only work one way, and depending on where you place them, they can be destroyed. Such was the case with yours, I’m told. From what I’ve been able to gather, your portal was made out of a large dressing mirror back at the castle. Once you went through, it was destroyed by the sorceress in Tyalbrook in order to keep anyone from finding out where you had gone. Those who knew about the plan knew that when you left, you might not ever come back. See, portals were a new magic, and no one was sure that a return portal could be made.”
“So how did the Semvon, and you, manage to come through a portal five years after us?”
Rioden shrugged. “I’m not sure how they managed to find out where you went, but I have my suspicions. I know that McClintock – that’s the man who’s been searching for you - has a powerful sorcerer under his wings, and I assume that somehow he was able to figure it out. In McClintock’s army I was mostly a castle guard, so I wasn’t privy to a lot of his inner workings. I used my free time to search the castle for clues, but it was heavily guarded by those who were told to never trust anyone, even another guard of infantry. The day I came to this dimension, I had overheard a lot of excited discussion between some of the elite guard members about how they had finally gotten through, and how the Semvon were being sent in to find you. I followed those guards back through a section of the castle that was usually off limits, and that’s when I saw McClintock himself ushering the Semvon and his sorcerer into a darkened room. I slowly made my way to the door and peeked in, just as the portal opened up to this dimension through a large mirror. Once they stepped through, I waited for McClintock and some guards to turn away before I pushed into the room and quickly ran; jumping through the portal after them.”
“You weren’t worried that you might never get back home once you did that?” I asked; my jaw dropping as I began to fully recognize the sacrifice that he had made. He’d spent the last ten years of his life stuck here waiting to protect me. Or, I guess that’s what he’d been doing.
“No. At the time, my only thought was about getting here before anything happened to you. When the fighting finished and I realized that I’d killed the sorcerer before he could make a portal home, I did find myself full of despair because I realized that I had trapped both myself and you here.”
Rioden stopped and took a sip of his coffee when our waitress April walked up with our lunches.
“Here you go! Burger and fries for the big guy, bacon sandwich for you and a BLT for you, sweetie,” she said sweetly, and then she actually had the nerve to put her hand on Xander’s shoulder; leaning down to place his food in front of him.
“If you need anything from me at all darlin’, you just let me know, OK?” she finished and winked at us again.
Seething from her overly forward behavior, I smiled and placed my hand on Xander’s forearm and drawled in a syrupy sweet voice, “Thanks sweetie, but he has everything he needs right here.”
April straightened slightly before spinning on her heel and sashaying away from our table, while Xander eyed my hand on his arm. Rioden actually snorted as he attempted to hold back a laugh, which he graciously tried to cover with a fake cough.
“Interesting,” Xander laughed; staring after April and then looking at me.
As innocently as possible, I removed my hand and began to p
ick up my sandwich. “What?” I managed in a normal tone.
“Psh! ‘What’ my ass, you’re jealous!” he laughed, and took a loud, crunchy bite of his own BLT.
“Jealous? No, I am sooo not jealous!” I fumed. “She was making a fool out of herself and I’m sorry, but I just thought it was rude. I mean really, how does she know you’re not with me, huh? I mean, for her to wink at you and touch you and call you names like that in front of me…ew, it was disgusting.”
“Jea-lous…” he sing-songed with his mouth full; winking at me in his ridiculous way.
“Rioden, would you please tell him to listen to me?” I argued, turning to his uncle for support. But Rioden just popped a french fry in his mouth and shook his head.
“Sorry – I’ve been putting up with girls fawning over him for years now. It’s nice to have someone else have to put up with it for a change!”
“Oh, whatever,” I said huffily, looking back at Xander. “Why would I be jealous? I barely even know you and we’re certainly not together. It’s just, well…you’re my Guardian, right?” I asked, and he nodded his head in agreement. “So as my Guardian, I think I should look out for you the same way you look out for me…and I was making sure that little skank took you off of her list of potential conquests,” I finished lamely, biting into my sandwich with a small huff.
“Aww, I see - you were just looking out for me.” He laughed, and I could see that at this point he was thoroughly enjoying himself. “Thank you for your fervent help with my dating life, but don’t worry – I’m not in the market for another girl.”
I noticed the way he emphasized ‘another’, but I decided to let it drop for the moment and steer the conversation back to what we had been talking about earlier.
“I will assume then, since there are still Semvon coming after me, that this McClintock guy was able to find someone else to come through and make a return portal. And that is what you were asking the Semvon about yesterday.” I looked at Xander this time for some clarification.
“Well we don’t really know what he’s doing anymore but yes, we can assume that they took a break in hunting you for some reason; possibly because they had to find someone who could create a portal. As we said, that kind of magic needs a lot of strength.”
Xander continued, “So once he was able to create a return portal, it’s safe to say that he started sending hunters here to search for you. Unfortunately, the ones who did find you started to run into trouble.” He smiled and popped a stray piece of bacon into his mouth.
“Trouble? What kind of trouble?”
“Why us, of course.” He shrugged as if I should have already picked up on this.
“Skye - between Rioden and myself, we have killed upwards of fifty Semvon, just in the last year and a half.”
My face went pale at the thought of how close I had probably come to being captured by these demons, and the thought of Xander and Rioden putting themselves in harm’s way to protect me from them.
Seeing the look on my face, Xander hurried to say, “Don’t get all worked up about it though! The closest they’ve ever been to you, that I know of, was the other night at that party when I took you to the hotel, and then yesterday in the park. They obviously know where you are now, which tells us that there’s a base of them here. My guess is that they’re going to keep on attacking, so if one fails to bring you back, the next one can try.”
Pushing my half-eaten sandwich away, I tucked my hands under the table to hide their shaking, as the thought of a Semvon army ran through my mind.
Rioden stared across the table at me, raised his hand, and called for April to come over. When she arrived she pointedly ignored me and Xander and turned on the charm for Rioden who, while obviously at least ten years her senior, was still very handsome in his own right.
“Can we get the check and a to-go box right away please?” he requested.
April pulled a ticket out of her little apron and told him to pay at the front, then walked away and returned with a box a moment later.
“I’m going to go pay. Box her lunch up and let’s get going, Xander.”
Xander dumped the potato chips from both of our plates on top of my sandwich quietly, and then turned to look at me as I sat there like a statue, frozen in fear.
“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I have the hardest time trying to explain things to you without sticking my foot in my mouth. Nothing is going to happen to you Skye - I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, but I will protect you, always.”
He slid out of the booth and offered me his hand, which I hesitantly reached for, letting him half pull/half help me to my feet.
“Xander - you just told me that there is most likely an endless army of creepy-black-smoky-demons out there, whose main goal is to capture me and hand me over to some evil guy. You think I should just be calm?! How are you supposed to protect me for the rest of my life? And how am I supposed to live, knowing that they’re after me, huh?!” I fumed.
Trying not to call attention to us, I pulled my hand out of his and stalked to the front door, standing next to Rioden as he paid the bill.
I watched from across the room as Xander stood there for a moment looking crestfallen, and then guilt stabbed at me for not believing in him and his ability to protect me. But how could I not be frightened of what was to come?
As he turned and picked up my to-go box, our friendly little waitress walked up to him and spoke. I watched as she practically turned herself inside out as she smiled and jiggled her parts at him. He replied to whatever she was saying in one word answers, and didn’t even seem to be surveying her ‘assets’.
When she handed Xander a scrap of paper, he looked it over and then amazingly enough, shook his head no and placed it back into her outstretched palm. I could tell that he said something, because April’s face turned crimson. She turned her head towards me, her big blonde hair flying around her face, and she stared me down. Turning back to him, she quickly said something and then walked away.
Xander ran his hand through his hair and glanced my way before grabbing my food again and heading to the door.
NINE - YOU ARE EVERYTHING
Xander
I strolled past Skye and Rioden as they stood at the counter and went right out the front door without so much as a word; starting to make my way back to the hotel. The farther away from Skye I walked the less I could feel the heat of her in my chest, and it was a relief to be able to push her out of my body, even if it was only for a few minutes.
Her doubt in me at the diner had hurt. The realization that she still thought she would be able to live a ‘normal’ life – after all she had seen – was enough to make me feel a deep, piercing guilt. She had no idea what Rioden and I were about to ask her to do, and what she would have to give up. Her whole life was about to be uprooted, just so that she might someday be able to live without fear. Even then, she’d always have people who would desire the power she would be able to provide our kingdom. Someone would always be after her blood.
Knowing now that McClintock had a portal at his disposal to be able to whisk her back to Tyalbrook made it even more essential for us to explain what we needed to do, and to start enacting a plan.
“Ri!” I yelled; knowing they weren’t too far behind me once I started to feel her heat coming back into my chest.
I glanced behind me and Rioden acknowledged me with a nod of his head. He bent his head to Skye and said something, before taking larger ground-devouring strides to catch up with me; leaving a speculative Skye following slowly behind us.
“Ri, we have to go ahead and tell her our plan,” I told him. “I need to know what you’re thinking about right now.”
“Xander, I don’t even know what I’m thinking. We were supposed to wait until her 18th birthday before we started any of this, and then I had a plan to get us home.”
He spoke in a clipped voice, which showed me he was still just a little miffed at me for pulling her into our
fold sooner than expected. The news that he already had a plan to get us home was new to me though, and I immediately questioned him on it.
“What do you mean you had a plan? Why can’t we go through with it now?”
“Look, Xander…There are things…things I haven’t even told you…Wait, hold up,” he ordered. He stiffened and grabbed my arm as we rounded the corner of one building and entered into the parking lot of our hotel.
The way his muscles tensed up caused my heart to stutter and I immediately launched myself at Skye, dragging her quickly under the cover of the building. I placed my finger over my lips, silently begging for her silence, and I let my senses roam out as Rioden had; searching for what he had sensed.
“Whoa,” I muttered, as a powerful amount of energy hit me. I could tell that there were Semvon nearby, but I sensed there was something else, too.
I looked over at Rioden, standing at the corner of the building and still tensed to do battle, and I edged up to him to get some answers.
“Xander - you listen to me now and don’t argue, got it?” he barked, his eyes still watching the hotel.
“Ri, what’s going on?” I asked, and his hand darted out and grasped my arm tightly as he repeated himself; his voice tight. “Do NOT argue with me, Xander.”
I relented and he continued. “You’re gonna take my car, and then you and Skye will head west to the mountains. In my glove box you’ll find a name and a phone number. Call it and tell her who you are…she knows the truth about everything and she’ll give you directions. Got it?”
“What? No, Ri! I’m not leaving you! What’s going on? We can take them!”
I pulled my arm from his grip and tried to look beyond the building, but his large frame blocked my way. He immediately pushed me against the brick façade, and pulling close to my ear, he forced me to listen.
“Xander, you will go! I’m protecting you, and I’m protecting Skye. You’re the important ones here, and you must get home, Xander. There is something stronger at work here than just the Semvon…” He pulled back and leveled his face with mine, whispering, “McClintock has men here - I can feel it - and you must go NOW!”
Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook) Page 8
