Tangled Fates

by Carly Fall

  Annis trembled and felt like her knees would give out at any moment. She stared into his

  blue-green eyes and the room around her seemed to disappear. The only thing that mattered was

  the male in front of her, the one who told her she was beautiful, the one who had just said he

  wanted her. Her heart swelled, and she felt tears stinging her eyes. Did she care for Blake? The

  answer was a resounding yes. Yes, she cared for him deeply.

  But was caring for him enough?

  Blake licked his lips, his gaze searching her face. “God, Annis, answer me. Please. Can I

  kiss you?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  His lips slowly came down to hers, and she shut her eyes and prepared herself for the

  onslaught of emotions and physical feelings Liberty had told her about. “It’s like your whole

  body is consumed in flames, Annis. It is the most miraculous feeling . . .”

  The kiss was soft and gentle. Blake’s lips moved over hers slowly, and after a moment,

  he pulled away.

  And Annis felt nothing.

  There were none of the fireworks that Liberty had described; there wasn’t any heat

  coursing through her veins. She felt completely normal and perhaps a little let down.

  Opening her eyes, she met Blake’s gaze.

  Desire swam in his eyes, and he brought his lips to hers again.

  And . . . still nothing. In fact, it felt very strange, like she was kissing a relative or a . . .

  friend.

  She stepped away. That’s what it was—Blake was her friend, and although she loved

  spending time with him, and yes, she cared about him and found him attractive, there weren’t the

  sparks that Liberty had described. The whole situation felt terribly awkward.

  “Annis, what’s wrong?” Blake asked.

  “I-I . . . I’m not sure Blake. This just feels . . . wrong.”

  He looked confused. “What do you mean?”

  What did she mean? And how did she say it without hurting him? “Blake, it doesn’t feel

  right kissing you,” she said softly. “It feels very . . . wrong. Like it shouldn’t be happening.”

  Blake’s face fell, his disappointment obvious.

  “I’m sure it’s me, Blake,” she said quickly, taking his hand in hers. “You’re such a good

  friend to me, and perhaps I just can’t get past that.”

  Blake was silent for a moment, then said, “Maybe we should try that again.”

  Annis smiled and shook her head. “I don’t think three times is going to be the charm in

  this case, Blake.”

  He brought his hand up and caressed her cheek. It was a sweet gesture that could be taken

  as friendly or sensual. There was nothing erotic about it to her.

  “So you just aren’t feeling it, huh?” he asked.

  Annis shook her head. “I’m sorry, but no.”

  Blake rubbed his hand over the top of his head. “I-I thought it would be different between

  us. I thought it would be . . . ”

  “Spectacular?”

  Blake laughed. “Yes. That’s exactly how I thought it would be. Fucking spectacular. I

  thought we’d both be seeing stars or some shit.”

  Annis grinned. “I’m sorry, Blake.”

  Blake stared at her, obviously still confused. “I just don’t get it, Annis. I care about you.

  And you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. You are the one person I want to

  spend time with.”

  “And I feel the same as you, Blake. But perhaps it is best for us to spend time together as

  . . . friends.”

  Blake nodded, then looked at the floor. “I thought for sure we’d end up in bed with you

  flat on your back.”

  Annis cringed at his words. Flat on her back with a male on top of her was exactly where

  she didn’t want to be, and she reminded herself that she had never shared her experiences at Area

  2 with anyone. Blake couldn’t possibly know that his words made her uncomfortable. She

  sighed; at least he was being honest with his words and not sugarcoating anything, and that was

  one thing she admired and loved about him. It was an excellent trait, and she wished that her

  tongue would work in that way sometimes as well.

  Blake met her gaze and smiled. “You truly are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,

  Annis.”

  Her cheeks warmed, and she returned his grin. “That is very sweet of you to say. It seems

  that with a handsome face such as yours, you have been in contact with many beautiful females.”

  Blake threw his head back and laughed. When their eyes met again, his were sparkling.

  “I’m not giving up on you, Annis,” he said. “I’m going to make you realize the error of your

  ways.”

  Annis smiled and shook her head. “Blake, please don’t make this more uncomfortable

  than it already is.”

  “It will be a subtle seduction,” he said. “You won’t even know it’s happening.”

  Annis rolled her eyes. “Enough talk of seducing me. Would you like to head down to the

  gym with me? I could use a sparring partner.”

  “You know I’m going to kick your ass,” Blake said, holding out his hand.

  Annis took it. “Really, Blake?”

  “Really.”

  “Well, an expression I have heard tossed around this house comes to mind.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Game on, my friend. Game on.”

  Chapter 20

  Cohen sat in the back of the Gulfstream G150 around a small, white table with Noah,

  Rayner, and Jovan. Abby, Faith, Liberty, and Annis sat up front. Cohen watched as they all

  talked and laughed together. It was midday, so Annis was blind, but of course that didn’t stop her

  from enjoying herself. He had never seen her wallow in self-pity, as he liked to do. She never

  focused on her losses or her past, but lived in the moment.

  “So here’s the file that the cop in Phoenix sent out,” Noah said in a quiet voice, pulling

  out a blue folder from his computer bag and setting it in the middle of the light wooden table. He

  kept his voice low; he hated if Abby knew anything about his work as a criminal profiler.

  He rifled through the papers. “It looks like we’ve got reports, some notes, witness

  statements, and . . . oh, fucking wonderful. Pictures.”

  There was silence for a moment. “Jesus, that’s enough to make you want to lose your

  lunch,” Jovan mumbled.

  “Agreed,” Noah said with a sigh.

  Noah handed the pictures to Cohen, and he studied them with a critical eye. The blood

  didn’t bother him. He stared at a picture of a male whose face had been so beaten his features

  looked like red mashed potatoes. The male was thin, and wore jeans and an orange Phoenix Suns

  sweatshirt.

  The picture was a crime scene photo, and Cohen couldn’t tell if the guy had been found

  indoors or outside.

  “Where was this guy found?” Cohen asked.

  Noah handed him another picture, a mug shot. “Meet Peter Stagg, gentlemen, a local

  pimp who’s been busted for not only hustling underage girls, but also drug possession. Found in

  a back alley of some apartments just outside of Phoenix beaten with a blunt instrument, although

  the coroner isn’t one hundred percent sure of what weapon was used.”

  “Any guesses?” Rayner asked.

  “They’re leaning toward a tire iron.”

  “It sounds like the human gene pool is better without him,” Jovan said.

 
“Agreed,” Cohen said, feeling no remorse for the awful death the guy had been given.

  Noah gave them a couple of other pictures to look at.

  “Same thing on these two guys?” Jovan asked. “It looks like they bit it the same way.”

  “Affirmative,” Noah said. “Michael Lass and James Frake, also fine, upstanding

  members of society with records that include rape, aggravated assault, and robbery with a deadly

  weapon.”

  “Again, humans are better off without them,” Jovan said.

  “So your police contact thinks they’re all connected because they were all killed in the

  same way?”

  Noah shifted through the papers. “Yeah, and they all had strange symbols carved on their

  backs. They’ve been set to the FBI for decoding.”

  “Do you have any pictures?” Cohen asked.

  “Let’s see,” Noah said, rifling through the papers. “He should have included it in the file.

  I told him I needed everything . . .”

  A moment later, Noah pulled out the picture and laid it out in front of him so all four

  could see.

  There was a moment of silence.

  “Oh, fuck me,” Jovan said.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Noah hissed.

  Cohen stared at the picture. The so-called symbols that had been carved into the backs of

  the three dead people weren’t symbols at all, but a language.

  In fact, Cohen was staring at the SR44 language.

  “Does that say what I think it says?” Rayner whispered.

  “Noah, what’s wrong?” Abby said from the front of the plane.

  Noah took the pictures and slid them into the folder. “Nothing, baby. Nothing.”

  Cohen turned and stared out the window. Although he was only trying to protect Abby

  from reality, Noah was a liar. There was, in fact, something very wrong. He knew that none of

  the Six Saviors were going around Phoenix smashing human’s faces in with a tire iron and

  carving their native language into their victims’ backs.

  So if it wasn’t the Six Saviors, there was only one other option.

  The Platoon. And they were literally leaving their name carved into human’s backs.

  Chapter 21

  Annis stood in front of the mirror, her bones weary and exhausted. She had just finished a

  grueling workout in the gym in the Phoenix silo. Apparently, since the FBI hadn’t been seen

  around the silo recently, the Six Saviors had deemed the place safe.

  Before her workout, she had been summoned to meet the other Warriors in the War

  Room while Liberty and Abby put together a quick dinner.

  “Why in the fuck would The Platoon do this?” Jovan had asked as they brought her up to

  speed on their discovery.

  “My guess is because they don’t know any better,” Annis said. “Perhaps they think that

  every terrible human is a Colonist or a descendant of one.”

  The three males stared at her. “Do you really think they’re that stupid?” Noah asked.

  Annis had shrugged. “I never knew that a Colonist dropped ash when they were in a

  heightened state. Wasn’t that something you found out through experience?”

  Noah nodded.

  “I don’t know about their intelligence, Noah.”

  “But ignorance breeds stupidity,” Cohen said quietly, his eyes never leaving Annis.

  She had nodded in agreement. “Yes. However, if you aren’t aware of all of the aspects of

  a situation, you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

  Cohen brought his stare down to the table, and Annis had wondered if he had caught the

  double meaning of her words. Just as The Platoon didn’t know they were looking for a human-

  looking form that dropped ash, she didn’t fully know the whole story behind Cohen and his

  hatred of her.

  Sighing, she stared in the mirror at her naked human form. Her breasts were high and

  firm, her waist trim. She had just a very slight flare of hips and wished they were larger, as she

  thought she looked more like a male than a female. She envied Faith’s hourglass figure.

  Stepping into the hot shower, she closed her eyes and let the water relax her. As steam

  billowed around her, she thought of that disastrous kiss with Blake. Good Lord. She had been

  expecting so much more, but it left her so confused and disappointed.

  As she lifted her face to the spray, she realized she was in a quandary. How she wanted a

  mate, someone who would love her just the way she was, just as Blake did. He accepted her flaw

  of loss of sight during the day, and he also understood that being a Warrior was in her nature.

  How she longed for someone who sparked the embers of desire within her and made her forget

  her past, but brought beauty to the human sexual experience for her.

  Suddenly, she felt more alone than ever. Yes, she was within a group of people, but she

  really didn’t fit anywhere. She was different than the females of the house, and the Warriors had

  seemed to accept her, but she still felt their hesitation at having a female in their ranks.

  She longed for a partner, someone with whom she could walk through this life as an

  equal, and someone who loved her, who brought passion into her life.

  Staying with the Six Saviors, how would she ever find what she truly wanted?

  It all seemed too much. As she sunk to the tile, the hot water washed her tears away. She

  closed her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest, and behind her lids was something she didn’t

  understand. The only face she saw was that fucktard Cohen’s.

  Chapter 22

  “Hi, Annis.”

  She turned to him and smiled. “Hello, Cohen. How are you this evening?”

  They were in the Great Room in the Phoenix silo. Cohen walked over to the oak bar.

  “I’m pretty good. Can I refill your glass?”

  “That would be wonderful, thank you.”

  He felt good—great, in fact. Better than he had in months. Smiling at Annis, he was

  happy there weren’t any harsh words exchanged, that they were getting along.

  Annis was sitting on the couch in a black T-shirt that came to her mid-thigh. She smiled

  as she held out her glass, and he poured the wine.

  He watched as she brought the glass up to her full lips and took a sip. How he longed to

  taste them.

  “Please sit, Cohen. Come join me.” She patted the area of the couch next to her.

  He did as instructed, placing the bottle of wine on the end table.

  “So how was your day?” he asked.

  “It was excellent, thank you. But there is something that I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Of course. What’s up?”

  She ran her finger around the edge of the glass and looked up at him from under her thick

  lashes. Why was she wearing so much eye makeup? It was a side of Annis he had never seen

  before: flirty and coquettish. He didn’t know if he liked it. He preferred the strong Annis, not this

  girly woman toying with him like some bar tramp.

  “I was thinking . . . that you and I should . . . get together,” she said.

  Cohen’s heart raced, and his body roared. Good God, he wanted that as well. He

  remembered his oath to Mia, but maybe it would be okay to break it. He couldn’t go through life

  totally miserable all the time, right? Mia wouldn’t have wanted that. She would want him to be

  happy.

  Clearing his throat, he took a sip of his gin. Gin? Why was he drinking gin? He was all

  about the good Captain. He set
the glass aside next to the bottle of wine and cleared his throat.

  “I’d like that as well, Annis.”

  “However,” she said, her voice going up a couple of octaves, “I am afraid, because of

  what has been done to me in the past. I will need you to go slow, Cohen.”

  “Of course. Of course I will. And if you want me to stop—”

  “I won’t.”

  He took her glass and set it next to his. Holding her head in his palms, his thumbs

  caressed her cheeks, and he gazed into her golden stare that had a pinpoint of rose-red coloring

  right in the center. How odd. He’d never noticed that before.

  This was it. He was going to kiss Annis. He was going to make love to her and show her

  how a man could make a woman’s body shake with exquisite pleasure.

  Cohen brought his lips to hers and moaned. Her lips were silky and full, and they moved

  over his with hesitancy. He gently parted them with his tongue, and she gasped.

  She ran her long, slim fingers through his hair and caressed the sides of his face. He

  pulled back, his breath heavy. Hesitantly, she let her hands slide down his neck to his shoulders

  and across his chest.

  “I want to touch your skin,” she said.

  He quickly whipped off his T-shirt and tossed it to the floor.

  “I’d like to touch yours as well,” he said, his voice hoarse.

  Slowly, she removed her shirt. A rose-colored bra housed her breasts. He brought his

  hand up and traced a finger down one of the straps. Annis closed her eyes and shivered at his

  touch. Carefully, he palmed her breasts, his thumbs caressing her nipples through the silk into

  tight peaks.

  He moved a little closer to her and reached around her back, unclasping the bra. It fell

  from her shoulders, and he set it on the ground.

  Pulling her close, he held her as he lay back on the couch, the leather cool on his skin. He

  let his hands wander over her bare back, loving the ridges and grooves of her spine and muscles.

  “Kiss me again,” she whispered, her eyes still shut.

  If that’s what the lady wanted, that’s what she got.

  As Cohen kissed her and explored her body, he trembled as her fingers traced up his arm,

  down the sides of his torso, to his thigh. Good God, he needed to get rid of these pants.

  Mia was but a distant thought, and Cohen opened his eyes expecting to see her. When he