by Lisa Daneils
For the first time, she started to think about how little she knew of the man she had been watching for nearly a week.
Soon this arched eyebrow morphed into a new expression. Aiden stood up a little straighter, and the many variations of his smile that she had seen were entirely gone. They were replaced with something much more menacing. “On one point, you are quite right, and only one thing. We are not wandering through the forest. And now, it’s just you against me. Now, release my little Ally before I get angry. No one likes me when I’m angry.”
Brent released Alannah and stepped forward, evidently believing that he could intimidate Aiden by his sheer size. “I can take you and break you, little man.”
Aiden’s reaction was not at all what Brent had expected. An eerie chortle echoed around them as Aiden let his head fall back to better enjoy the laugh.
“Stop laughing, you little weakling!” Brent pulled a sword from his scabbard and he charged at Aiden, all the while the laughing man seemed oblivious.
“Aiden, watch—” Alannah began to shout, fearing that he did not understand just how dangerous the situation was. Brent may be incredibly simple, but he was adept at using a sword. Riley had made sure all of his henchmen were.
Seconds before the sword connected, Aiden stopped laughing and looked Brent directly in the eyes. His hand reached out faster than Alannah could register. The next thing she knew, the sword was falling to the ground, and Brent was doubled over with a broken arm. He spat blood on the ground, clearly winded from whatever Aiden had done.
Slowly, Aiden reached out a finger and pushed the large man over onto the bramble. “That was more like the display I had expected from humans. You know,” he clasped his hands behind his back and began to deliberately walk around the man, “it’s strange how you humans think so highly of yourselves when most of you utterly fail to grasp a situation. You don’t listen to instincts and the aura of an area, something that all other animals do. I’ve known birds with better instincts than humans, and they are among some of the simplest creatures I can think of that you would know. And yet, compared to the likes of you, they are very nearly geniuses.”
From a fetal position on the ground, Brent panted, “What are you?”
Aiden leaned over him, “Tsk, tsk, tsk. I didn’t give you permission to speak, human. You won’t get another warning.”
Brent looked at Alannah, clearly asking her with his eyes just what she had befriended. She shrugged.
Aiden gave her a look and rolled his eyes. “Don’t bring my little Ally into this. She has never been curious enough to ask.”
Brent’s mouth dropped open, “What?”
Aiden picked him up by the front of his shirt. It was a strange sight to see the smaller man so easily lift Brent up. The large man dangled from Aiden’s hand more like a very ugly rag doll. “The next time you speak, you’ll lose a body part.” Aiden’s demeanor was almost pleasant in sharp contrast to the words, which made the situation all the more terrifying.
Turning to Alannah, Aiden asked, “What would you like done with him?” The large man whimpered, but clearly the fear was keeping him from saying anything. His eyes pleaded with Alannah.
Looking at him, she shrugged, “I really don’t much care what you do to him.”
“Well, I’m not the one who has been chased by him. How many years has this mongrel tormented and hounded you?”
“Over three.”
“Then what do you consider ample punishment for a man aiding a traitor? A quick death? A slow death? Rotting in prison? Really, it’s up to you, kiddo.”
Despite the situation, Alannah couldn’t help but guffaw at the very strange reference to her. Hiding her mouth, she recovered and thought about it. “Honestly, leaving him here to be found by the rest will probably be best.”
“You do realize if they don’t find him within a couple of hours, the wild animals will end up eating him.”
“We could point the rest of them in this direction?”
“It seems a bit… underwhelming, but alright. If that is what you want.” Aiden flung the man to the side. Brent’s limbs thrashed around as he soared through the air, finally striking water over 20 feet from them. Paying no attention to what he had just done, Aiden approached Alannah. Unable to fight the fear that had arisen during the display, she couldn’t help but take a step back. Aiden’s eyes widened a little. “I’m not going to hurt you, Alannah.”
“You just pointed out how stupid humans are for not reading the situation. I’m not fighting my instincts after that display.”
He held out his hands, a thin smile spreading across his face, “That is an admirable sentiment, but you have no reason to fear me. I’m about as much of a threat to you as you are to Lucky.”
“Considering I kicked the poor boy, that isn’t as reassuring a statement as you might think.”
“I’ll admit that was a little extreme, but he was also not responding to you. Sometimes you have to inflict a little pain to get simpler animals to do the right thing.”
“A simple animal such as myself, you mean.”
“This shouldn’t be a revelation. I’ve never been opaque on the fact that I’m a more… evolved creature than a human.”
“I know, I know. It’s just, besides your eyes, it was difficult to think that was true. I mean, I knew it, but I guess it was just…”
“Easier to ignore it.”
She looked at him a little apologetically, then nodded.
“I really do appreciate the sentiment because it made you comfortable enough around me. It would be nice if you could continue to see me the same way. Remember, I really don’t like to interfere in human affairs, big or small.”
“Then why are you?”
His head tilted to the side a little and he held up his hands. “That answer hasn’t changed either.”
“What? Just because you find me amusing?”
“Sure,” he said, a gentle smile crossing his face.
“How is that a good reason to do something you don’t feel you should be doing?”
Aiden pursed his lips, “Three years you have been on the run. During that time, how many times have you found amusement?”
“Maybe about a half dozen. I was pretty much constantly on the run. Amusement wasn’t exactly a priority.”
“And if you were to run this kingdom, how much time would you have to be amused?”
“Oh gods, I would never want to do that. There is no chance for me to fix this situation. I’ve tried, and it resulted in Riley killing both of my brothers, my older sister, and her family. He only keeps my parents alive because he thinks that it will draw me back under his control.”
“And why haven’t you gone back to help them?”
“Because I can’t help them.” Frustration was beginning to well up inside her. “Once I return, I’ve no doubt he will kill them and try to force me to bear a child for him. That’s really the only reason he wants me there, and my absence is the only reason my parents are alive.”
Aiden looked away. Placing a finger to his lips, he pondered aloud, “And if these problems were removed, would you be willing to rule the kingdom?” He looked over at her.
“There is no chance that you can take down Riley and his entire army. Bringing down Brent like you did was impressive, but there is no chance that you—”
“I didn’t say that I was going to do anything. I was asking you about your future and what you would do if it was given back to you.”
Alannah felt tears pricking her eyes. “I can’t think about the impossible.”
This caused her companion to stop and ponder. “Fair enough. We will discuss it once we hit the road. For now, we are killing the mongrel.”
“What?” Alannah couldn’t follow the way he was jumping topics. “What do you mean when we hit the road? And we aren’t killing anyone.”
“We are going back to get a good night’s sleep, then tomorrow, we are very much going to leave the inn.”
A concern rose in the forefront of her mind, something completely unrelated to what had just happened. “You do realize that we have to pay for staying in their nicest room.”
Aiden frowned, “No, we don’t.”
“Maybe your kind doesn’t have to—”
“My kind definitely pays for things. Up front. We don’t have to pay for it because it has already been paid for. A full month’s worth of the room, but it looks like those plans have changed.”
“A full month? I though you only expected to be there a short period of time.” She was altogether confused by what he was saying, and it was beginning to sound like he was trying to get out of paying by lying to her.
“I never said I was planning on staying. Your wound was life-threatening. I’ve been able to keep you from dying, but that kind of wound is impossible to heal in a few days. Okay, not impossible, but the last thing I want is to draw that kind of attention to myself and my location. The last time I healed you, I put a little too much into it, and I’ve already had one visitor since then. Throwing him off my trail was… well, it was really fun. The guy is so responsible and intelligent, but his blind spots are enormous.” There was a look of fondness on Aiden’s face that made him look absolutely adorable. “Ah, little Liam, you have enough of your own worries, you goofball. Don’t let my gift to you go to waste because you came hunting for me.”
“What are you talking about?” Alannah was baffled by what he was saying.
“Don’t worry about it. He’s gone back home to his very pregnant wife. The other two aren’t likely to try to hunt me down for a while yet, and no one from my kingdom would dare to come looking for me right now.” He chuckled, “I’ve made sure they are a little too preoccupied to worry about my location. Okay, my father and I have made sure they are too busy. I can’t take credit for what he does of his own volition. Point is,” he redirected his attention to the current situation, “right now we are focused on you. Given how often you have opened the wound, and that little incident the other day,” he gave her a meaningful look, “I decided it was in our best interest to speed up your healing. It’s why after running, you aren’t hurting now. If there is one thing I’ve learned about you, there isn’t exactly a great sense of self-preservation. From day one, you have just been a host of self-inflicted pains.”
Alannah narrowed her eyes, “Self-inflicted on me or you?”
He laughed again, “Oh, touché. Maybe you have rubbed off on me and I’m exhibiting some of your masochistic tendencies.”
“You have not known me long enough to start now. If you are becoming more of a masochist, that means there were always hints of it, at the least.”
“Oh,” he gave her a dubious look, “but you may wound me yet with that tongue of yours.” He looked back at the water as there was sound coming from that direction. “We had better hurry. Apparently there are some animals already picking up his scent.”
“What? How can you tell?” Alannah had completely forgotten about Brent and the events leading up to that moment. Aiden was so different and his discussions so animated and stimulating that the mind simply could not focus on anything else.
“I’m not human, making me much more attuned to the world at large. Come on. A couple of his fools are over that way,” he pointed off in a direction, though Alannah could not say if it was toward the inn or somewhere else. She was completely lost at this point. “Once I send them on their merry way, we can go back and get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and you are going to have a lot of things to cogitate. Best to do that with adequate sleep.”
“I suppose you know exactly how to get to all of them, then back to the inn.” Alannah had a feeling that there was no guess work with Aiden.
“Absolutely right. I’ll just point those buffoons in another direction, landing them in a town well away from where we are headed. They’ll have a long night ahead of them, but most of them should survive it.”
Definitely not human, she thought as Aiden seemed to start meandering through the woods. It may have looked like he was moving without having much of a clue of what he was doing, but by this point, Alannah was very certain that was because he already knew how things would go. His apparent lack of concern wasn’t out of a lack of caring—it was becoming clear that Aiden was always several steps ahead of everything going on around him. “Would it be rude to ask him what he is?” she muttered to herself.
Aiden turned to look at her, and for a moment she was afraid that he had heard her. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked.
“Of course. Sorry.” She hurried to catch up to him, her mind trying to untangle the bizarre events that had happened since she woke not that long ago. It was almost as if she had managed to enter a completely different life. One that had started that day by the river as she and Lilith had cleaned the clothes and the dog.
Chapter 7
The Future’s Too Uncertain
Alannah watched as Aiden quickly located and sent the henchmen after their leader. Sometimes he had to threaten them, once he had to hurt one, but usually, he simply convinced them to do what he wanted. They even found the man who had run off, and he was clearly terrified of Aiden. It was Alannah who finally convinced him to go find Brent. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw how menacing Aiden’s smile was, but she felt it best not to ask what had happened between them. There was no visible injury on the man, and that meant that Aiden must have been able to do something a lot more terrifying than the display she had seen.
As soon as he was gone, Aiden beamed, “Time to head back and have a good meal. The poor family is quite shocked by all of this, but their injuries will heal.”
With everything else going on, Alannah had forgotten about their involvement. “Did they get hurt?”
Aiden sucked in his cheeks, then exhaled heavily. “Nothing too serious.”
“Did you do anything to help them?”
“It depends on what you mean. Driving those men away is an obvious way I’ve assisted them.”
“I mean, did you have to heal them?”
“Only a little.”
“How much is a little?”
He gave her a look, “Do you really want to know? Or will it make you feel guilty since they got hurt because you were in their inn when the men found you?”
“I…” her voice faded. It was not easy, but she really did want to know. “I want to know.”
He made a disapproving sound, “I’ll tell you, but you have to swear you won’t blame yourself.”
“What? I can’t do that!” Alannah was offended that he would try to make her promise such a thing. “I already do feel guilty.”
“Exactly, so why make it worse?”
“Because if you don’t tell me, I might imagine it is worse than it is.”
With another heavy sigh, Aiden said, “They broke two of Mr. Flannery’s ribs, pulled out some of Mrs. Flannery’s hair while tossing her out of the way, and sprained Lilith’s ankle when they shoved her against the wall. Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?”
Alannah’s hands were over her mouth, a look of disgust in her eyes. Pulling her hands away, she snarled, “I should have told you to kill them all.”
“Too late for that now, though. So what else do you have? How do you benefit from the knowledge?”
“I can try to be more careful in the future. Refuse to stay anywhere for more than a night.”
“That’s your solution?” Aiden looked at her askance, clearly irked by such a weak idea. “They have been hurt, but they are all on the mend. Mrs. Flannery won’t even feel pain when she wakes up.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You’ve been through the process, so you tell me.”
Frowning, Alannah tried to put his words into context, “You mean, you healed them? Like you’ve healed me?”
“None of them required being pulled back from the brink of death like you, but yes, there was a good degree of healing for two of them. They will be
sleeping it off. Depending on how they are when they wake, I may try to restructure their memories so that they aren’t concerned. I’ve no doubt the men won’t be back at this particular inn.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“A couple of people will be here to make sure of it until you send some protection.”
“I will send protection? How am I supposed to do that?”
“This conversation is more vexing than amusing. Please wait until tomorrow after sleeping on things. You can ask me tomorrow once we are on the road.”
“You aren’t making any sense, Aiden. What is going on?”
“I’ve told you, we are going back to the inn. We will have a large meal, get some sleep, then we will leave.”
“That’s not good enough. That tells me nothing about what you are planning.”
Aiden leaned his head back and clamped his hands over his mouth. He took several deep breaths before opening his eyes. “Fine. Here’s the plan.”
Then he launched into a long, detailed plan of exactly how the next few days would play out. The first time she tried to interrupt to ask a question, he cut her off, telling her to wait until he finished, then he would answer all of her questions. Then he picked up mid-sentence where she had interrupted him. By the time he finished with the plans, he was halfway through eating dinner, and Alannah had even less understanding of what they were supposed to do. There were times when she was convinced that he wasn’t even speaking the same language. By the time he stopped, she decided just to enjoy the peace.
“There is the answer to your question. Now, eat and go to bed.” He picked up his plate, only half of the food eaten, and marched off to the kitchen.
Alannah ate more like a machine than a person, her body automatically doing what Aiden had told her to do. Instead of trying to pull out the pieces of what he had said that she could understand, her mind was working furiously to understand Aiden.
After getting ready for bed, she lay awake, waiting for him to enter the room. Apparently, all three of the family members were still out, so Aiden had taken care of the cooking and was currently cleaning up.
