“Not talking now?” Damon's voice lowered so that only the minion in front of him could hear what he said.
“You’re going to die,” his voice came out in a screech. His hand raised allowing a black stream to pour out of it, tinged with red around the edges.
Damon couldn’t get out of the way fast enough; it burned a hole straight through his shoulder instead of his abdomen where the minion aimed. His body wasn’t enough to stop it, and it burned a hole through the warehouse wall.
Damon looked at his shoulder there was no bleeding the beam had cauterized the blood vessels, but it had also taken a large part of the mobility in his arm. It would heal, eventually.
He could almost hear Dante reminding him that pain was a large part of being one of the deadliest creatures in the universe.
He ran at the minion his time was over. The minion raised his hand, but Damon was already air born his legs went around the minion's neck as it laughed at him.
“A broken neck won’t kill me.”
Damon increased the pressure on his neck as his hand turned into a claw. He tore through his chest the muscle and blood vessels hanging out until he reached the heart. Quickly he shredded it before pulling it out, he moved away from the minion watching his body flop around on the floor like a fish out of water. There were very few ways to kill a minion but removing the heart was a good one.
Before relief could set in, River’s scream made him look up. A minion had her by the throat.
Chapter Nine
Damon watched as the minion laughed his hand closing around River’s throat. He didn’t have his Symphor, and there was a chance the minion could kill her before Damon was able to reach him. He could see the other two minions creeping in the shadows, but they weren’t after him.
One of the minions jumped on the one holding River making him lose his grip on her neck. She bit him giving herself a chance to get away. He let go with a shocked scream, and she ran to the edge of the platform and threw herself over. Damon put on a burst of speed catching her when she fell.
“You could have died,” He admonished her as the minions stopped fighting to focus on them.
“I was doing so well where I was.” Her voice was dry with sarcasm.
Her words brought a smile to his lips. Stay with the three minions of Darkness or jump and put herself in his hands. Pride that she chose him made his chest puff out a little before he pushed her back as the minions jumped off the platform to face him.
“Two dead,’ He said with no expression on his face. “Three to go.” With those words he allowed a smile to curl at his lower lip, and his eyes highlighted with a red cast making him look like a demon.
The minions took a step backward none wanting to be the first to confront him.
“You can’t kill us,” one of the minions said even as the look on his face said he knew better.
“Denial is not attractive, even in a minion of The Darkness.” His body stance changed as he prepared for them to rush him.
They didn’t disappoint coming at him from all sides to throw him off balance. His body flowed without thought as he was once again on the training floor.
“Your enemy won’t care about your size or that you are only one being while they gang up on you. Take out the deadliest one first; he is usually the leader. It will throw the others off and give you a chance to get your bearings as you plot your next kill.”
In the Created world, it was kill or be killed.
Damon spun around un-expectantly to plunge his fingers into the eyes of the minion behind him. The minion fell to the ground screaming while the other two backed up shocked. With a quick move, he grabbed one of the minions that backed up digging out his heart and shredding it before he threw it to the other minion.
“A present.”
The minion whose eyes he gouged out was trying to stand. Damon looked between the two of them judging who to go after next when their bodies disappeared.
“Where did they go?”
He turned to look at River she was holding a deadly looking piece of pipe in her hands as she searched the room for them.
“I don’t know. Let’s get out of here before they come back.”
She nodded and crossed the room to allow him to wrap his arms around her. Damon willed them out of the warehouse.
They shimmered into existence on top of a large mountain. The area around them was filled with flowers some that most humans would never see. There was a small stream that went past them and a beautiful cabin not too far from where they were standing.
“Is this where you live?” River asked him caught up in the beauty of the area.
“No. This is where I come to when I need time alone. No one including my brothers knows where this place is. I guard it jealously. The Darkness and its minions won’t be able to track us here easily.” He thought they could get to know each other up here, but maybe she wouldn’t appreciate that.
“This is nice,” She moved off to get a closer look at all the different flowers. “I’ve spent so much time in captivity I feel like I never got a chance to explore the world.”
She gave him a smile as she went to the grass and laid down in it rolling this way and then turning and rolling the other way. Her laughter glided over the flowers and bounced off the trees. He would never be able to come here again without seeing River in the grass making his special retreat a paradise.
Damon stood there staring at her with a smile made up of wild curiosity; he knew she was real and yet some small part held him back a tiny kernel of fear taunting him saying if you reach out and touch or hold on too tight she’ll disappear.
River stopped laughing and rolling in the grass to stand up. She wiped off the jeans that Rena had given her. She still marveled at Rena and her daughter-in-law Amber. Aran and Alexei seemed to love their mates without any reservation.
With a shy smile on her face, she walked up to him. She hadn’t flirted with a male for centuries; now she was a bit nervous.
“Damon,” she reached out and placed her hand on the side of his face.
His cheek rubbed against her hand before he turned and kissed her palm.
“Would you like to see the house?”
She nodded, her voice getting caught in her throat like a teenager. She got a brief glance of herself playing in the water when she thought of her younger self then it was gone replaced by the blood vessels constricting in her brain. She stumbled unable to see for a minute.
“River,” Damon had his scanner out looking for the cause of her stumble.
“I’m ok my eyesight got blurry for a minute, I’m better now.”
He frowned but accepted her word. He pulled her against his body unwilling to let her go. Together they walked into his cabin. It was large on the inside although it looked so much smaller on the outside.
“When I built this my goal was to make it small and cozy.”
She looked around; they walked into the living room that was big and warm and welcoming. She could imagine an army in here.
“Then I started thinking of my family and realized one day whether I liked it or not they were going to crash this place. So, either I made it large enough for all of us or they enlarged it when they got here. I did it myself.”
“I like it; it makes me want to see it filled with people laughing and talking.” She smiled up at him before moving into the room. There were pictures on the wall.
“Are these your brothers?” There was a picture of six males, and he was one of them. They were dressed for combat with deadly looking lasers in one hand and a lethal looking dagger in the other.
“That’s my family. I have five brothers and to be honest, I’m surprised they haven’t tracked us down yet. I haven’t had a chance to hang this picture.” He placed it on an empty wall.
“That’s my brother Mick and his Mate, Jaz.”
His brother was tall, but he didn’t look like Damon. Mick had blue eyes, but as far as she was concerned, they couldn’t compare to Da
mon’s and he had brown hair. He also looked at the female in the picture like she was the only one in his world. She was beautiful with her red hair and her green eyes and a body that River was sure was model perfect. For a minute, she almost felt jealous but once again here mother’s voice reminded her that beauty came in all sizes including River’s size.
“Who are all of the people on the other wall?”
She walked up to the pictures. “I know who some of them are. There was a picture of six brothers’ one in the shapes she knew and the other in the shapes of beast. That’s “Aran,” she pointed him out as well as Nicholas.
“The others are of their mate’s and their children at different stages of their lives.”
Damon watched as River stroked Rena’s picture, then she went to stare at Dee’s picture.
“She’s must have had many males vying for her. Her mother would have been proud of a daughter so small.”
Damon looked at the picture, but he remembered Dee when she was that thin, she was starving herself as well as going insane because of what their enemy put her through.
“She’s thicker now, I wonder why she changed?”
“Dee had some intense issues in her life, and she needed to deal with them. She did with the help and love of Niko, which allowed her to get up to a weight that was right for her frame.”
“Oh.” The hateful voice in her head came back reminding her she would always look like this.
“River is there something wrong?”
“No,” she answered quickly. “I was wondering if I could lie down? I’m tired.”
“Of course, I should have realized you would be tired.” Damon led her to the second bedroom that she could have if she wanted although he wanted her to sleep in the same bed with him.
“Thank you,” she said at the door before walking in and closing it behind her.
River threw herself on the bed as old anger and frustrations rose to the surface. When she was captive none of it mattered. Being so thick didn’t matter unless she thought about how she wasn’t getting any smaller no matter how little she ate. It seemed unfair that she starved and still she was thick. Now she wasn’t a captive, and she was around these full-figured women who were confident and self-assured in who they were. Then she looked at Damon and his brothers mate Jaz. Damon would want a female small and graceful like her. Not that it mattered she was running as soon as she got the chance.
Her shoulders shook with the unfairness of it all. What had she done to be stuck in a body that was so different from everyone else? How could Damon even think to like her like this when he was surrounded by so many beautiful women? Her hands clenched at the sheet, and she squeezed her eyes shut hoping not to catch a glimpse of her body.
“Beauty comes in all different sizes, River, including your size.” She repeated it constantly until she finally fell asleep.
*~*~*~*
Damon sat on the couch pondering his mate. He wouldn’t be much of a doctor if he couldn’t tell something was bothering her and it wasn’t the size of the living room, but he didn’t feel he had a right to demand the answers or even fish for them yet. She didn’t know him. There was no way she could understand how beautiful she was to him. She was exquisite like she was molded just for him. He could already feel the way her softness would meld and comfort his hardness.
The picture of her holding that pipe in her hands made him smile she wasn’t going down without a fight. The sheer bravery it took to jump from a platform that was roughly twenty feet high still amazed him. His mate was a bad ass in a perfect curvaceous thick body. He’d have to wait until she knew him better before he could strip her and worship at her marvelous breast.
“Good thing I’m not The Darkness and I don’t want to know what you’re thinking right now.” Dante gave him a look before he joined him on the couch.
“I felt you disturb my alarm on purpose.”
“I wanted to make sure you were paying attention.”
“How did you find me?” Dante turned his head to look at him.
Damon sighed, of course, his brother knew about his retreat. He never came here before because he didn’t have a reason to.
“Thank you,” Damon said again. Thank you for the sterile shield, for bringing Nicolas to take care of River, for protecting her. He could think of a hundred reasons to thank his brother.
“You never have to thank me for protecting my family.”
As far as Damon was concerned that one line said it all, Dante accepted River as family, he accepted her as Damon’s mate. He would protect her like he protected his brother because that’s who Dante was.
“The Darkness knows about River they know that I’ve met her. They will be tracking us.”
“This isn’t something you can avoid Damon. The Darkness will have its pound of flesh.”
“How do I beat it, Dante? How do I keep River and myself safe?”
“Each person who duels with The Darkness must do it on their own terms. That’s how you must approach it. Maybe instead of thinking about The Darkness you should enjoy your time with your mate. In case it’s the only time you ever get.” He disappeared leaving Damon to think about his words.
He stood and walked to River’s door knocking as he heard her cry out. He went in to check on her to find her in her bra and panties. The look of horror and fear on her face as she fled to the bathroom had him following her.
Chapter Ten
“River?” Damon knocked at the door.
“Go away; I’ll be out soon. I have to find some clothes.”
He stood at the door unsure of what to do before he finally came to a decision.
“I’ll leave you some clothes on the bed and wait for you in the living room.”
“You have clothes for me? Will they fit?”
“I have clothes, and of course they will fit you’re a perfect size.”
River waited until she was sure Damon was gone before she opened the bathroom door and walked into the bedroom. There lying on the bed was a pair of pants, they were black with red pipes on them. She smiled, he was reminding her of the fight at the factory. The clothes Rena gave her were nice and fit, but she had been avoiding the mirrors. It was almost like it was second nature if she didn’t look then she didn’t have to compare herself to others.
The pants hugged her lower body, and the pipes were making her smile. The tank top completed the outfit she looked…nice.
Facing the mirror was harder than she thought it would be. She focused on the smoothness of her hair. Rena and Amber had taken one look at it and took her to get it done. She had glanced at it then, now she could see how it complimented her face. Her breasts were small, but she loved them. Deep breath she looked at her whole body. What did Damon see when he looked at her? What did she see?
She looked down at her bare feet, but the floor was warm, and she wasn’t one for shoes since she loved to be in the water. Her hand went to the knob, and she walked out. There was a small hallway that ran across the house from side to side. That’s where the bedrooms were. Then when you walked straight the kitchen was on the left side and in front of that was the living room, it was open to the kitchen.
Damon was in the kitchen he wore a pair of dark blue pants that had the button open but were zipped. He didn’t have a shirt on showing a chest full of defined muscles. Across his back, there were faded scars like someone beat him.
“What happened to your back?”
“The Darkness.”
Her hands balled into fists, knowing that he had been hurt, seeing the proof of it hurt her.
“Tell me what happened earlier.”
“There’s not a lot to say. I remembered something that happened to me when I was a child. I’ve spent so many years focusing on surviving that I forgot I had issues I never dealt with in my past, one caught up with me.” She looked him square in his eyes.
Damon hid the smile that wanted to play on his lips. She was more than a match for him. If he wanted to know her se
crets, then he would have to tell her his. Talking about The Darkness made it to real, but she needed to understand the danger they were in.
She nodded and set her eyes on the food he was fishing out the fridge.
“Hungry?”
She dropped her head, “A little.”
Since she gained her freedom she was constantly starving, Nicolas told her it was because her body starved for centuries. He had been surprised she had any muscle tone or could even walk. Since she remembered the days she couldn’t stand up she didn’t argue with him. Her body craved food every three to four hours. She wanted to eat, but the smell of food made her sick, and then there were all those vids that Sloan played constantly. He said it was so she wouldn’t get bored.
They all talked about one thing, synthetic food. There was female after female telling how her life was so much better now that she ate synthetic food. How much her husband loved her now that she was thin. The husbands would be shown and the love they felt for their wives would be evident.
If that weren't enough he would slip a vid in there that talked about laser surgery to get rid of any unsightly pockets of thickness your body may be holding onto despite the food you ate.
Now Damon claimed she was his mate. How could he want her over all the extremely thin women?
“Nicolas believes it’s the diet I was eating. My body needs extra food and probably will for a while.”
“Then we’ll eat more often I’m not opposed to that.” He smiled at her getting lost once again in her hazel eyes.
“Your kitchen is a lot smaller than the living room.”
“When I’m together with my brothers there is never enough room in the kitchen, so I’ll enlarge it whenever they crash this place.”
She ran her hands through her hair. “The Darkness?”
Damon took some time to combine the ingredients he took out and place them all in a casserole dish before sliding it in the oven. Then he took out something quick put it in the food processor to defrost, the only good use for a food processor, then came and sat down next to River.
Damon: The A'rouk Brothers: A BBW Paranornal Page 6
