Genesis

by Christie Rich

  Oh yeah we would.

  I stepped into the open and smiled at my glowering aunt. “Sorry about that. I got carried away.”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes like a new teenager. “I raised you better than that.”

  I cocked my head. “I had it under control.”

  “Sure you did.”

  I let out a staggered breath that sent my hair flying around my face before I changed the subject. “So, what were you saying about Jessica?” I still couldn’t believe she was here. She had a chance now, and it was all because of Heath. I smiled at him again, getting lost in his smoky eyes.

  Aunt Grace’s voice pulled me back from La-la land long enough for me to realize I was beyond pathetic. “We’re hoping your blood can break the connection between her and her bondmate.”

  My blood? Since when did the resistance take to vampirism? “Why would it?”

  “You’ve been able to resist compulsion. The bond creates a false sense of comfort for an elemental. We have to get Jessica to be open to other feelings, other thoughts. We are hoping a transfusion of your blood will give us enough time to influence her.”

  “Wait a minute. Is Adam here?”

  “I brought him a few days ago,” said Heath.

  I shook my head at him. That was where he had been headed in his leather armor? “I don’t get you.”

  “Not much to get.” His eyes swept over my body in a way that made me melt faster than a Popsicle in Death Valley. “I want you, and to really have you, I need to resolve the conflicts that keep you from giving yourself to me fully.”

  My brows furrowed. “So you’re willing to break a bond to get me to bond with you?”

  He threw his head back and groaned. “You are the most exasperating woman I have ever known. I tell you the lengths I have taken to win you, and the only thing you can come up with is conspiracy?”

  His frustration set my own on a rampage. I didn’t know what a great guy he was until moments ago. It wasn’t like he’d made his motives clear. I crossed my arms. “We haven’t made any real commitments, Heath.”

  His jaw clenched tight before he answered me. “Not for lack of trying on my part.”

  “So you want me to believe that you have no agenda related to your realm, or the council, or, um, let me see.” I tapped my finger against my chin. “Ruling the entire fae race?”

  He looked like I just made him eat a pile of garbage. “I don’t want that. I never have. It’s why I’ve stayed in the lower ranks for so long. I never had anything worth fighting for until I saw you. I don’t care about your power. I just want you. I would prefer to be bonded with you, only because I would have you longer.”

  Aunt Grace butted in. “You’re not telling her the truth, Heath.”

  He whirled around. “Don’t.”

  She gave him a stern once over. “She needs to know.”

  He blocked my view. Even though I couldn’t see his face, the rigid set of his body told me he was seething. “You promised me.”

  She stepped around him. “Rayla, Heath has been helping the rebellion far longer than he is admitting to you. Without him we would be nothing more than a straggling band, living like gypsies. He’s the one that made the sanctuary possible.” Heath turned away from me, his fists clenched at his sides. “And he found a new place for us when we thought all was lost.”

  I stood in front of this strange man. “Why wouldn’t you want me to know that?” Without warning questions barreled into my head about his motives.

  “That is why,” he said softly.

  I backed away from him, not sure what to do at this point. “I don’t understand any of this.”

  His warm fingers brushed mine before I was out of reach. “I told you I had a life before you came along.”

  I smirked at him. “Yeah, but I never imagined you would betray your own people just to help some humans.”

  His tight jaw clenched harder and he closed his eyes. “I have good reason for doing what I have, traitor or no.”

  “Hey.” I placed my hand on his arm. “I was kidding. I love that you’re risking everything to help us.”

  He blinked then stared at me, his smoldering eyes unreadable. Then he grinned. “What else do you love about me?”

  Using the L word didn’t seem like a good idea right now. “Don’t press your luck.”

  He smirked. “I knew this was going to be fun.”

  Grace opened the door and ushered us out, saying it wasn’t good for Jessica to have to hear this. She was unconscious for heaven’s sake, but I didn’t complain. I wanted to find a quiet corner where Heath and I could spend some quality time. My mouth dried up at the thought.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Amazingly enough Grace showed us to my new room. Compared to the stately chambers I’d been staying in lately this was a royal dump. I walked over and plopped on the squeaky mattress then patted the space beside me.

  Heath grinned.

  I smiled up at him. “You are such a scoundrel.”

  He raised a dark brow, his tawny eyes glistening. “I’m the one who should be scandalized.”

  I cocked my head. “Is that right?”

  He meandered over to me until his legs touched my knees. Even through the fabric of my pants, his skin burned mine.

  I stared at him and smirked. “Don’t tell me all of the sudden you’re going to act shy.”

  He pulled his hands to his heart as if wounded. “What if I am shy?”

  I laughed. “Just sit down already. You’re hurting my neck.”

  He edged in beside me. “Gives me an excuse to do this.” His fingers slid along my shoulders and into my hairline where he started massaging gently.

  My muscles responded immediately, turning to mush under his fingertips. If I didn’t speak up now, I never would. Clearing my throat, I glanced at him. “So?”

  “What?”

  “Don’t play the fool with me.”

  He grinned again as if he couldn’t help but smile. “Fine, but we have unfinished business to take care of first.”

  I hardly had time to gasp before he lifted me onto his lap. His hands settled on my hips. “I’ve been waiting ages for this, Rayla.”

  He wasn’t going to wait a second longer. I pulled his face toward mine. Our lips brushed together tentatively. I felt his headshake. He shifted and pulled me back with him as he settled against the wall.

  I laughed. “Comfortable now?”

  He smiled. “Not quite.” With mock seriousness, he yanked me closer. “That’s better.”

  I let my hands travel the length of his arms, treasuring the feel of his skin against mine. He was way more complicated of a person than I ever imagined possible.

  Warm fingers grasped my chin. “Don’t overanalyze this.” He waited as if asking permission.

  The moment I nodded, his lips found mine again, sweeping me into a world of delirium. I couldn’t have thought in that moment if I wanted to. We fused together, becoming one person. I wanted him so much. I kept checking for compulsion, but if he was using it, he was a master manipulator.

  No. I didn’t want to think of him like that ever again. Heath. The unlikely hero.

  When he severed our kiss, he settled his forehead against mine. Our ragged breaths mingled together. My heart might never recover from this if he didn’t stop looking at me that way. “You’ve brought life to me again, Rayla. I never want to let you go.”

  A tear ran down my face, and I shivered. Why did this dark foreboding still lurk around us— as if now that I had him I wouldn’t be able to keep him? “Me too.”

  He inched away from me, scanning every inch of my face. His brows furrowed. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

  I moved off his lap and sat beside him against the wall before I clasped his hand and held it to my heart. “How much more needs to happen before we are fully bonded?”

  He nearly choked. “I didn’t think you’d want to.”

  I glanced at him. Something like hope
lingered in his eyes. Seeing him like this melted my fears. I traced the lines in his palm, not quite able to look at him while I spilled my soul. “I never expected this. I mean, I wanted it. Something real. So now that I’ve found it, how could I deny you everything that I am?”

  He hugged me so tight I was sure a rib cracked. “I hoped you’d say that.”

  I laughed. “No pressure though?”

  He shook his head, smiling almost boyishly. My own grin hurt my cheeks.

  I was smitten by the lord of fire. Who would have thunk it?

  “Hey now,” he said.

  I gave him a smirk. “How is it I’ve been able to block everyone else from my mind but you?”

  He patted my leg before his fingers clasped my knee. “I have ways.”

  “Speaking of your ways, are you going to tell me why you have been helping the rebels?

  He shrugged. “No one else would.”

  “That’s it?”

  His fingers intertwined with mine. “From the beginning I thought it was wrong for us to use Elementals. Some of my brothers seem to forget that we are dealing with people. The first time I saw a woman taken from her betrothed, I vowed never to do that myself. I’m no saint, mind you, but how can we hope to gain anything other than time here if we treat humans like possessions?”

  “So when you were testing me when I first met you?”

  The sound of him swallowing made me study his strained features. “I may have gone overboard. I heard that you had been able to repel compulsion, and I was curious. I’m not going to lie to you. It started out as a game.”

  Fair enough. I appreciated his honesty. “When did it change?”

  “After we danced. After Jett nearly took you.” His eyes clamped onto mine. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Finn had asked me to take over. I was next in line, and I didn’t have anything better to do, so I agreed. To be honest, I thought there must be something wrong with you because Finn was so focused on Cassie.”

  I laughed. “Good to know.”

  “After a while, though, I realized why he had bowed out.”

  I frowned. “Why’s that?”

  “Your power is intense. It’s overwhelming sometimes to sit near you; even now I can feel it glowing inside you, and I should not be able to.”

  “This really is a sanctuary then?”

  He nodded. “With everything going on, I had to find a place to protect you if it came down to it. I still don’t know how this will unfold. With you being missing, the council has ordered the guard to come looking for you. I’m still not sure we can keep this place concealed from them.”

  “Why not?”

  “The royal guard came to us from your creator and use different sensory perception to locate their target. They have the advantage because they originated in your universe. You have to understand, we are outsiders as well as outcasts. Although all laws of creation are universal, those laws are not always interpreted the same way.”

  I shook my head. “This is so complicated. Whatever happened to simplifying?”

  “I’m sure I would be punished for telling you this, but we were only allowed to come to this planet after we agreed to servitude. Now we war because we do not like our duties.”

  A little ungrateful if you asked me. “Which are?”

  “Many things, but most important is the protection of the planet and the resources within it.”

  “Protection like from alien invasions, or what?”

  He shrugged. “Anything is possible, but it is the threats to and within the human race that we deal with.”

  “If that’s true, you guys haven’t exactly done a great job.”

  “I’m not here to argue that point. Rebel, remember?”

  “How long exactly have you been involved with the resistance?”

  “I cannot say. At first I only contributed when I knew it would have no effect on my race, yet after a while, I could no longer look at the hunt in the same way. It’s one thing if a woman is raised to desire the bond. It’s completely different if she is taken from a life she doesn’t want to leave.”

  I could hardly believe I was hearing this from a fae lord. “What about helping your people?”

  He scoffed. “We tend to forget where we’ve come from sometimes, and frankly the courts make me sick.”

  “How so?”

  “Everything is about power and control. None of it is about happiness and advancing our race.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He shrugged. “Like seeing if there is a way for us to find a permanent place in this universe.”

  What an interesting thought. “Care to clarify that a bit more?”

  He wouldn’t look at me even though I tried to get him to. His voice came out ragged. “It’s been done before. A whole race incorporated into a new world.”

  “So if you were incorporated into the human world, what would happen?”

  “Ideally, we would get another chance at progression.”

  My brows furrowed. “I don’t understand.”

  “I cannot tell you what is beyond this world; it is forbidden.”

  “What can you tell me?”

  He gave me that smile of his. “That I am late, and like I said before, I have some things to take care of.”

  I nudged his shoulder. I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off him, and I was going to have to talk to Aunt Grace about this soon. “I’m sure you do.”

  He stood up and brushed his braid over his shoulder. I still wanted to get my hands into his hair. “Catch up with you in a while?”

  “Absolutely,” I said more casually than I felt.

  When Heath walked out the door, I pulled my knees to my chest. I couldn’t believe this. I’d actually made a decision and it wasn’t that hard after all. I’d even gotten some answers from him, too. My only regret was that four men would be hurt because of me. Even though they’d come into this knowing I could only belong to one of them, it still didn’t make me feel any better about letting them down…especially Zach. I didn’t know how I was going to tell him.

  I didn’t want anyone to ever have to go through this kind of pain. I cared about all of them, and I wanted to see them happy. A new plan was forming in my mind. I didn’t know how realistic it was, but with Heath’s help, maybe we could change things in his realm and mine.

  I found Grace in the kitchen. Instead of leaning over a stack of bills, she hovered over something on the stove. I sniffed a greedy breath. Doughnuts? She hadn’t made them in forever. I pulled in the fragrance once again before I wandered into the room.

  She turned toward me and smiled. “Just in time. They’re almost done.”

  My mouth watered at the thought of them. No time like now to tell her about me and Heath. “Hey, I need to talk to you about something.”

  She gave me a knowing grin over her shoulder. “Are you sure about this, Rayla?”

  I frowned. “What? Are you suddenly a mind reader too?”

  She laughed. “It isn’t hard to see where you two are headed. I think you’re forgetting I’ve been around a while longer than you. Besides, you didn’t answer my question.”

  I licked my lips then steeled my gaze. “I’m sure.” I hesitated to ask her, but I needed to know. “What do you think about him?”

  She shrugged. “He is a private man. I haven’t been able to get to know him very well, but he has only ever helped us…even before I took over word spread about the rogue fae that smuggled information for us.”

  I sipped my chocolate milk. “It’s just sort of unbelievable. I mean to find out that he has been so chivalrous.”

  She laughed. “John thinks he’s merely bored.”

  I picked at the edge of the table. “How is Uncle John?”

  She came across the room with a stack of freshly glazed doughnuts and held the plate out for me. Still a bit too hot, I dug in anyway. Miraculously, she didn’t comment on my nervous habit of picking at the table edge. The one at home had an entire section car
ved out by the time I was done with it. She told me she was going to make me buy a new table when I started making money. Regret stirred inside me. Thinking about a place I would never see again was pointless, so I put it out of my mind.

  Her face was guarded. “He’s been through a lot and doesn’t want it to be for nothing. We had hoped to find out where Travis was. John feels responsible for him being taken, and worries if we ever do find him, it will be too late. We all knew going into this that torture was a realistic possibility, but now he has nothing to show for what they subjected him to. You’d have to understand the mind of a man to know what I mean.”

  “I suppose,” I said. Could any woman ever truly understand the mind of a man? I ached for Uncle John the same way I ached for Luke. Even with what he had done, I still wanted to help him get away from Ainessa’s rule. I had to find a way to help him. Given different circumstances, he and I could have been good together.

  Neither of us said anything for a while, but Grace touched my sticky hand. “You have my blessing, if that’s what you’re after.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. This isn’t exactly how I imagined things would go for me when I left home.”

  The cringe she gave me looked odd on her. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t say that to make you feel guilty. It’s just that I didn’t know I could feel like this about someone. Brody kind of ruined me.”

  Her brown eyes warmed with compassion. “I was afraid of that. You two spent so much time together alone; it was bound to happen.”

  That wasn’t what I meant. It was like I was talking to a different person. The old Grace would have been on my back in less than a heartbeat for letting things go too far. I glanced at her, but was too shy to match her stare. “I stopped him, but he didn’t like it.”

  “Rayla, I’m not here to judge you. I was simply trying to keep you from getting hurt. That boy couldn’t have been who you ended up with, and I knew it.”

  Who I’d end up with? It hit me. She’d had a plan for me. “Who did you think I’d end up with?”

  “At first, we were hoping for Travis, but you never took to him that way.”