Unexpected Eden

by Rhenna Morgan

  Eryx’s seductive gaze settled on her, and pleasant ripples fanned out across her skin.

  “Ah, yes. Your manly image. Let’s see…” Ramsay coughed dramatically and placed a theatric hand at his chest. “He’s the soul of bravery, wisdom and discipline. Women flock to him and he has no equal in the sensual arts.” Ramsay picked up whatever bizarre entree he’d been working on and placed it in the center of the table with a raised eyebrow. “That work better for you?”

  Ludan rolled his eyes. “I think the short version is ‘Well hung and loaded.’”

  More laughter and commentary bubbled up, not a bit of it as interesting as watching Eryx move. Innocent actions, handing out drinks to his family and helping Orla when needed. Simple. And here she was with her brain on vacation and her hormones on overdrive.

  Flock to him in droves indeed. The idea of another woman approaching him, let alone touching him, sent her nails digging deep into her palms. She’d likely be arrested in under a week for murder.

  Eryx dragged her to her feet and hugged her tight. He nuzzled her ear. “Let go, Lexi. Whatever’s in your head right now, you’ve got nothing to fear. Not from me.”

  In slow degrees, her pulse slowed and her skin cooled. Eryx pressed a cool, watermelon colored drink into her hand and lifted his own. “A toast to Alexis. May her journey tonight be swift and the gifts she receives suitable for her new life in Eden.”

  Cheers rang out and each member added their own best wishes. Food was passed around the table and drinks refilled at a steady rate. With each drink, Graylin, Ramsay, and Orla grew more animated, though it seemed a bit bass-ackward they got the spiked drinks and she went cold turkey.

  Orla brought out a tray of miniature-looking mudslides, and Eryx pulled Lexi from her chair, settling her on his lap so she reclined against his shoulder.

  He traced the outline of her face, the care and sincerity written on his face so overpowering her lungs refused to work. “I need you to trust me tonight, Alexis. Completely. Can you do that?”

  Her throat tightened. This wasn’t a matter of sharing an intimate secret or guarding a respectable sum of cash. This was her life. Staring into his eyes, she reached for her inner compass. Listened for the quiet voice that had always guided her.

  A calm strength bloomed inside her chest. Love. So faint. Easy to discredit as wishful thinking. Definitely too soon. Better to set the concept aside. “I trust you,” she said instead. “I know you’ll take care of me.”

  Eryx pressed his lips against hers, a simple, reverent kiss. His hand tangled in her hair and he rested his forehead against hers as his eyelids slid shut. “May the Great One make your journey a fast and easy one,” he whispered. “I need you here with me.”

  Lexi hugged him, something about his demeanor pricking at her instincts. “I’ll be fine. This is right, I know it is.” She sifted through his thick hair and the memory of him looking down on her this morning leapt to mind.

  His chest expanded and collapsed on steady breaths. He met her steady gaze, nodded, and handed her one of Orla’s chocolaty concoctions. His smile lacked its usual fullness. “Then you’d best have your dessert so we can get on with things.”

  Condensation coated the glass and a cool bead slipped over her fingers. What was she missing?

  He nudged the drink toward her lips. “You’re thinking too hard. Enjoy.”

  She tilted the glass for a sip and moaned. Sweetness to rival Godiva’s milk chocolate with a delicate bit of mint. A pleasant distraction of the highest order. And there was booze in it. Definitely a plus on the stress management side.

  She took another drink. Then another. When she sat the glass down, more than half was gone. “That’s good, Orla. What kind of liquor is it?”

  Galena’s gaze darted to Eryx then back to Lexi. “It isn’t alcohol.”

  Seven desserts on the table. One empty and the rest untouched. Her facial muscles loosened, skin slackening as though it might slip right from her skeleton.

  “It’s a Myren sedative.” Eryx’s voice was warm and soft at her ear. “It’s better this way. Less apprehension for you.” His fingers at her hip tightened. “You said you’d trust me.”

  Her brain wouldn’t work—not like normal. Closer to day-old oatmeal and a fine strainer; shit was going nowhere fast. Fury prickled through her bloodstream, but it couldn’t compete with the thick lethargy. Her eyelids lowered even as her heart screamed in betrayal. “You lied to me.”

  * * * *

  A pack of Harleys rumbled down the street as a pair of chatty joggers nearly crowded Maxis off the sidewalk. He hated Evad. Even the less populated cities like Tulsa were loud and polluted compared to the natural beauty of Eden. And the technology, nothing more than novelties. Poorly designed toys to distract humans from their empty existence. He’d lost count of the gadgets he’d destroyed, his Myren energy melting the guts with little more than a push and a swipe.

  The antiquated apartment building on his side of the street was straight out of the fifties with its generic red brick and crackling white paint trim. Wrought iron bars over the windows didn’t say much for the place.

  The park across the street was more updated, as was the trendy restaurant perched over the Arkansas River on massive steel beams. Zigzagging between them were more joggers clad in outfits to rival a neon rainbow.

  Better to get on with his mission and leave the chaos behind. Mere supposition that Eryx had taken his new toy to Eden wouldn’t suffice with the ellan. He’d need proof.

  Eryx had stumbled beautifully sending one of his minions to retrieve Lexi’s belongings—nearly hand delivering her home address to his contact within the Shantos camp. The odds he’d find any evidence in her lodgings were slim, but it was a fine place to start.

  He yanked open the weathered screen door and pushed wide the glass-paned door behind it. Dank, stale air filled the shadowed stairwell. Four apartment doors marked each corner, with a sea of industrial gray tile to connect them.

  Maxis strode to a set of mailboxes set into the center wall. Eight uniform slots in tarnished brass noted tenants in unmatched labels.

  Alexis Merrill.

  A heady buzz skimmed beneath his flesh, but he tamped it down. Excitement had already led him to one misstep with Eryx. He couldn’t afford another.

  A quick check of the numbers on the doors—one through four. He needed number eight. The top floor for the malran’s new toy. How sweet.

  Three steps from the top, a door opened, the brass eight catching on sunlight from the interior. A middle-aged man in a blue button down and faded jeans stood at the threshold, a stack of mail in his hands.

  Maxis slowed his steps and scanned the three remaining apartments for activity. One with an animal, two others vacant. With a curt nod, Maxis angled toward the one next to Lexi’s and made a show of digging in the front pocket of his jeans.

  The man pulled Lexi’s door shut and shot her deadbolt into place with a flick of his wrist.

  Maxis feigned a worried glance at the man then pretended to shove his non-existent keys back into his pocket. “I don’t think we’ve met.” He held out his hand. “Are you a friend of Alexis?”

  The man considered Maxis’ outstretched hand for an uncomfortable string of seconds. A none-too-subtle warning. He accepted Maxis’ palm. “Ian Smith.” His gaze slid to the door behind Maxis. “Lexi didn’t tell me she had a new neighbor.”

  Maxis scanned Ian’s mind. A retired cop turned investigator. Ian’s memories were full of little else, at least in recent years.

  Ian tugged at his hand.

  “Forgive me.” Maxis let go and sidestepped toward the door he’d pretended to be his own. “I’ve only met Lexi once since I moved in, but she seemed a nice girl. One can’t be too cautious when looking out for a young woman.”

  Ian scrutinized Maxis from head to toe. A shrewd old man with a
penchant for details.

  A complication he could do without. If Maxis was smart, he’d eliminate the threat. Make the man a missing person before he could mention meeting Maxis to Lexi. Then again, good outlets for info were hard to come by.

  “I apologize for holding you up.” Maxis turned for the door he’d indicated as his and mentally flicked the lock. He opened the door only enough to slide through then closed it behind him with an unhurried kachunk.

  He stepped deeper into the vacant apartment and waited.

  Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.

  Praise the Great One, would the man ever leave?

  Footsteps sounded on the wooden stairs.

  Finally. Maxis drew in a steady breath, tracking Ian’s energy out into the parking lot. He peeked between the bedroom’s dusty blinds. Lexi’s friend tossed the mail into the passenger’s seat and folded himself into a pathetic sedan.

  Maxis tapped his lips. A woman across the street pushed a too-chubby toddler in a swing. A duck trailed two laughing young boys with a sackful of bread.

  Ian’s memories hadn’t given him any proof, but had shown Eryx and Lexi together the day before, announcing an unexpected trip out of town.

  He closed the blinds and left the musty apartment. He’d search Lexi’s apartment next. If that didn’t work, he could always pay Phybe a visit and see how her presentation with the malran went. Maybe the trip they’d mentioned was to Eden. If so, all he’d need was one confirmed sighting and he’d have everything he needed to put Eryx’s downfall into play.

  Chapter 10

  Lexi basked in a deep, dreamless sleep. Something pricked her consciousness. Something important. It wiggled along her senses with a fine static electricity, silent and mysterious. Like the dreams she’d had as a kid where she wanted to wake up—needed to badly—but couldn’t lift her eyelids no matter how she tried.

  Delicious heat settled along her side and the clawing need to surface subsided. Her spirit curled into the unseen haven and nestled into the dark restful place where worries and fears didn’t exist.

  A voice reached to her, faint, far away. “Stay strong for me.”

  The musky, worn scent of leather and spice tickled her nose. Odd. She’d never been able to smell in her dreams before.

  A velvet touch skated along her temple and a whisper tickled her ear. “I love you.” The words barely registered. Had she heard them right? Oh, wait. This was a dream. No one had ever said those words to her. She was just—

  Nnnnguuuaaaah! Lexi arched against a violent, blistering pain in her chest. A scream gathered in her throat and lodged tight, her airway barricaded by pure agony.

  Not a dream. A nightmare. She tried to move, to run, but her arms and legs wouldn’t cooperate. Her lungs hitched—two gasps in, five huffs out. The space where her heart was supposed to be hummed with a nerve-numbing current that radiated everywhere.

  A presence flittered in her mind and a sizzle zapped along her synapses. “Who’s there?” Her grated question echoed against a mist of nothingness. Maybe she was hallucinating. The last thing she remembered was Eryx and—

  The drink. Eryx had drugged her. Her stomach lurched and a wail ripped past her throat. She hadn’t thought the pain could get worse, but she was wrong. Eryx’s betrayal clawed her from the inside out, and mingled with the H-bomb mushrooming in her chest.

  Light flickered in the soupy fog of her nightmare. She shuddered hard enough to rattle her teeth and darkness crept along the edges of her mental vision. A string of enraged shouts registered somewhere in the distance, the words too vague to process.

  She needed relief. For someone to lift the five hundred pound branding iron from her chest and let her roll over and die.

  Sparkling white exploded in her mind’s eye and shoved at the darkness. Galena strode through the mist, her sunshine-colored dress billowing out behind her, face schooled for battle.

  Lexi curled her dream self into a ball. Each thrum of her pulse ricocheted until she thought she might shatter. She couldn’t keep going. Didn’t want to.

  Cool fingers wrapped around her huddled shoulders and her pain shifted. Lexi froze. One minute she’d been on fire, unable to process beyond the pain. The next, she was centered and wrapped in feminine arms. She shifted for a better look.

  “Don’t move.” Galena huffed as though she’d run a marathon. “We’ve had to fight for hours to reach you. If I lose contact everything you were feeling will come back.”

  Moving. Pain. Bad. Got it.

  “Fire.” The one word nearly killed her. The torture hadn’t ceased after all. Was merely held at bay by Galena’s touch.

  Galena stroked Lexi’s trembling arms, her body not exactly spooned against Lexi’s back, but close enough to comfort. “It’s your awakening.”

  The dream landscape changed and a bit of the tension in Lexi’s belly uncoiled. Above them stretched an endless black velvet sky dotted with silver and diamond stars. “I’ve got control now.” Galena’s voice eased, her words a steady croon. “Relax and let me help you. This is normal. I promise.”

  Her awakening. Memories dive-bombed her with the same intensity as the burn still spreading through her despite Galena’s efforts. This was it. She was in it.

  And Eryx had tricked her. Fury jumped on top of the pain, demanding retribution.

  “You’ve got to relax, Lexi. We’ve been at this for over four hours and your body can’t take much more. Eryx’s so worried he’s a mad man.”

  “Drugged me.” Lexi coughed the accusation and breathed through the vicious stings beneath her skin.

  “Of course he drugged you. It’s custom. No one walks into their own awakening.” A fatigued chuckled rumbled in Galena’s chest. “Well, except Eryx and Ramsay. But they’re idiots.”

  A bit of Lexi’s self-righteousness anger swapped seats with the bite of embarrassment. “Custom?”

  “Mm-hm.” Galena stroked her forehead, and absent yet caring touch.

  Lexi moaned. This is what it would have been like if she’d had a sister. Or a mother. Anyone.

  “It’s better for the person being awakened to be relaxed so the anchor can slip more easily into their mind. Even with the sedative, you fought my entry.”

  “I was pissed.”

  “So I learned.” Galena tucked a strand of hair behind Lexi’s ear. “You’ve really got some trust issues, girlfriend.”

  Quiet from her peanut-gallery brain. Hard to argue with facts. “I’m dreaming?”

  “Sort of. More of a drug induced hypnosis, for all the good it did us.” Her lilting voice settled into Lexi’s burning pores. “You’re going to be fine now. Think of things you find pleasing and let go.”

  “Eryx?” She croaked the question.

  Galena laughed, but it was a weary one. “Are you saying you find him pleasing or asking about him?”

  “Okay?”

  Galena sighed, so much unspoken emotion behind the sound. Frustration. Anger. Fatigue. “He’s exhausted, but he’ll be fine. He won’t let anyone else funnel energy to us, so Ludan and Ramsay are feeding him. Stubborn man. Now relax and stop worrying. His ego is big enough.”

  Her smoldering soul sighed with relief. “How much more?” The way her voice cracked she wasn’t sure Galena understood the question.

  “You’ve been at it a long time—longer than anyone anticipated.” Galena’s usually smooth tone had its own grit.

  Lexi dragged her eyes open through sheer will. Galena’s pale face hovered over her, lines bracketing her mouth. “Hurting you.”

  “I’ll live.” Her face dipped closer, eyes narrowed. “And I expect you to as well. If not for yourself, then for my brother.”

  * * * *

  Heavy clouds hung above Maxis as he flew toward the furthest reaches of Asshur. Dark rough rock stretched as far as the eye could see, hiding the isolated strong
hold he’d been building for the last fifty years.

  He rounded the last of the craggy mountains, and a heavy clasp of pride gripped his heart. Absolutely nothing to boast about—which was precisely the point. No one would easily find this garrison.

  Landing in a well-hidden cranny, Maxis stretched his senses a good hundred yards. The subtle energy of those who waited inside pinged against the smooth-as-glass surface, but otherwise the area was desolate.

  He ducked behind a jutting wall of rock. Darkness. A sweet relief to the stabbing sun, broken only by distantly spaced sconces with low, simmering coals further down the tunnels. Were it up to him he’d have forgone any light. His sun-beleaguered vision navigated the darkest environs with perfect clarity, but his guests and guards weren’t blessed with such skills.

  A draft caressed his neck and the pungent scent of dirt filled his lungs. Each footstep landed with a punctuated clip against the black path. Gaining ammunition to use against Eryx and his throne was one thing, but his real plans lay minutes ahead. The big picture strategy to advance the Lomos Rebellion and ensure his place as ruler.

  The thought wrenched his gut tight. Everything his grandmother had fought for, so close. His father had proven a failure, for the rebellion and his only son. More abusive and coddled than respected leader. His mother hadn’t offered much more, abandoning him when he was barely nine and choosing an unborn child sired by a human over him. But Evanora…she’d been steadfast. The one person he’d been able to count on. Would she be proud? Respect the actions he was about to take?

  He rounded the final bend. His colleagues sat comfortably around the fire pit, female slaves at their feet in simple, white cotton gowns. A common sight among his people if his plans came to fruition.

  “Good of you to meet me, gentlemen.” Refreshments lined the buffet behind them, an elegant display of cheeses and bite-sized meats barely touched. “I trust you’ve found your accommodations satisfactory?”

  Grunts of agreement rumbled through the dome carved room as Maxis circled the arched row of elegantly carved chairs. He greeted his first guest, scanning the man’s recent memories. “She didn’t see to your needs, Thyrus?”