Her first wave of discombobulation passed, and then she did a double-take at his face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?” He straightened his face.
“Like you want to murder me. Don’t try to hide it now.”
Triaten attempted to hold in a sigh, but couldn’t stop it from eking out.
She pushed the blanket off her lap and swung her legs off the side of the bed, facing Triaten fully. “Can I have some water?”
He handed her the half-full bottle. She guzzled it, draining every drop. Warily, she looked at him. “Months ago. I’m sorry I left like that.” The words blurted out.
He looked at her sharply. “Are you?”
“I had to leave Tri, you have to understand that. I was doing it for both of us.”
Triaten rubbed his temples. Apparently, they were going to get into it right away. “Were you doing it for us, or for you, Charlotte?” He stood up, pacing in the small walkway next to the bed. “Man, I was an idiot. The first time I let it happen — in some weird part of my brain I believed that you actually wanted me. But I was wrong — I knew it the night of the flame moon — it wasn’t real — you were using me and I couldn’t let it happen again.”
He stopped pacing, and arms across his chest, he looked at the wall above Charlotte’s head. “I never should have let that first time happen. That was my mistake. But you didn’t need to leave, Charlotte. You left us — the possibility of us — without a thought.”
“Triaten, you humiliated me.” A flush rose in Charlotte’s cheeks. “What was I supposed to do? I didn’t know what else to do. Where to go. I just couldn’t be around you. Couldn’t be humiliated every time I saw you.”
“You want to talk humiliation, Char? How about at the airfield? I was stupid enough to think that after Mary confessed to killing Thomas, you were finally ready. Ready to put that chapter of your life to rest. Ready to move on. And I figured, why the hell not? Why not offer you up everything. All of me. All I wanted was you to stay.”
He turned from her. “And you crushed the thought without even considering it.”
Charlotte stood up and grabbed Triaten’s arm. “Consider it? Of course I considered it. I sat in that jeep, trying to convince myself of the possibility of us. But I couldn’t, because all of you, Triaten? You’ve never been ready for love — real love. You’ve spent your whole life avoiding it, ever since Horace sent your mom away. And since then you’ve treated every female you’ve ever come across with the same detached distance. How was I supposed to believe I was any different?”
Triaten pulled his arm away from her grasp. “Don’t blame Susan and my father for your choice of leaving.”
Charlotte stopped and took a deep breath. She sat back down on the bed, and then laid flat on her back, hands over her eyes, legs still hanging off the side. Silence surrounded them. The hum of the engines filled the small area.
Her voice came out small when she spoke again. “Fine. I was stupid to leave. I should have stayed and figured out whatever was going on with us.” Her hands came away from her eyes and she looked at Triaten. “But leaving was the best thing that could have happened for me. I still needed to let go. Let go of Thomas. And being at Saima’s camp — it was the best thing. I could remember all our time there. Where we fell in love. And then accept it as being gone. I couldn’t have done that on the mountain, Tri. And not with you.”
With a sigh, Triaten sat back down on the chair in front of her, his hands gently on her knees. Charlotte pulled herself upright, and looked him in the eye. “And when it came down to it, Tri, I chose you.”
Triaten’s eyebrow rose. “Chose me when?”
“The first time the Malefics attacked. When they almost killed me. You maybe don’t think I remember it, but I do. It was before you and Aiden and Skye showed up. I was almost dead and Thomas was there. He was so happy to see me. And I was so happy to see him.” Tears started to brim on her lower lashes. “And he was ecstatic — ecstatic that we could finally be together again. He told me just to let it all go, and we would be together. And I was so close to doing it — so close to letting go — and then your face popped into my mind. And I couldn’t let go.”
She wiped an eye. “So I dragged my hand onto my heart, and healed it just enough, made it pump for hours. I stayed alive. Death would have been so easy, and it was so painful, but I did it. I stayed alive for you. For you, Tri. Even though Thomas kept begging me to come with him.” She grabbed Triaten’s arms, fingers burying into his forearm muscles. “But I wouldn’t do it, Triaten. I chose you. I couldn’t leave you. When it mattered most, it was you.” She heaved a steading breath as her grip on him tightened. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else you want from me.”
Triaten’s head hung, his eyes avoiding hers. “Hell, Charlotte. Not now.” He shook his head. “You were always the one. Truth told, I waited for ages, and I never admitted it. But I thought we were ruined.”
She scooted closer to him, both of her hands going alongside his neck. “Tri, we’ve lived long enough to know there’s very little that can’t come back from ruin.”
Her touch sent a shiver down Triaten’s back, but he steeled himself. His eyes flickered to hers. “Charlotte, I met someone.”
Stunned, Charlotte stared at him, frozen. Then her hands jerked away from his neck.
“You met someone?” Her voice was flat, disbelieving.
“Yes. Char, I thought we were done. Done for good, all chances ruined. It’s the last thing I wanted. It just happened.” His hands tightened on her knees. “I still love you.”
“And her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“It was only four months, Triaten. Four.” An accusing tone reverberated through her words.
Triaten stood again, and re-started his pace. “And it took me three of those months to manage to eke out the tiniest sliver of a life without you. And you’re faulting me for that? It took me that long just to get enough of a routine so I wasn’t flogging myself for every moment you were gone. And for what I did to make you go. It took forever just to figure out what to do with myself at dinner. What to fill my days with. Who to talk to.”
Charlotte’s hands were wrapped into tight fists that rested on her thighs. “Who is she?”
“She’s human.”
“God, Triaten — human?” Her eyes went to the heavens as she shook her head.
Triaten forced himself to hide the preemptive cringe. “And she’s Skye’s sister.”
Charlotte stared at the ceiling of the plane, face resigned to wry disbelief as tears gathered. Her voice softly cracked. “A hundred years, and you haven’t loved anyone, and now this. Two.”
“I never said I loved her.”
“You told me about her. That means you love her, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“I didn’t plan it, Char.”
“Why her?” Charlotte looked at him, eyes narrowed. “Out of anyone, why her?”
“Char…” His voice tapered.
“Why her?”
“Char…you feel things — so deeply.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Triaten hesitated, even though the answer came immediately to mind. He considered not telling her, but at this point, truth was what they both deserved.
He looked down at her. “She’s not you. That’s why.”
He sighed as he sat heavily down on the bed next to her.
Charlotte took a steadying breath and wiped the tears that threatened to fall. “So I feel things too deeply, and she’s not me.”
Her head bowed as she rubbed her temples in silence. When she finally looked back up at him, aching hurt etched her face. “So what now?”
“I don’t know.”
Silence followed them the rest of the flight, continuing on as Triaten drove Charlotte home after landing. He pulled his jeep up to the front of her house. Lights were on inside, even though it was mid-morning. Triaten had called Hor
ace to arrange for her house to be readied after her long absence. They must have been here when it was dark.
Triaten put the jeep in park, but let the engine run. A clear sign.
“I had Horace order an avocado panini from Joe’s for you. It should be here by now. And the refrigerator is stocked.”
Surprised, Charlotte looked up from her lap to Triaten. “You did?” Utter confusion filled her words.
“Just because we’re in a crazy place, doesn’t mean I can’t still take care of you.”
Charlotte nodded silently, not having a clue what was going through Triaten’s mind.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
She looked away, out the window, but gave a half-nod. “I will.”
She opened the door and cool air rushed into the jeep, sending goose bumps across her bare arms. Still dressed in her battle gear, the black tank top did nothing against the bitter air. One foot out the door, Charlotte stopped and looked back at Triaten. She opened and closed her mouth several times before she let words out.
“It took me a long time to get to this point, Tri. To let the past be the past. And now that I’m here...I want you. I want us. I want you to take me inside. To touch me. To prove how right we can be together, instead of how wrong. But if you’re not ready...” Her voice trailed.
“Char –”
She forced a bright smile that cut him off, the one word telling her all she needed to know. “It’s okay. I will wait. I don’t have much choice.”
{ Chapter 15 }
Triaten slapped the face again, hitting cheekbone and sending blood droplets flying across the room. This was way easier than going up to the ranch. He wasn’t quite sure how he was going to face Shiv at the moment — hell — he didn’t even want to be in his own mind right now.
So instead, he bent down, his face in front of the one eyeball that wasn’t forced shut under a bloody, swollen mess of skin. “It’s time, DeLisio. This can go on all day. Or you can tell me what Genevieve knew about the attacks in Africa. What you knew.”
DeLisio spit blood out of his mouth, just missing Triaten’s chest. The spray splattered onto his lap, leaving a string of spittle left dangling down his chin.
Triaten glanced up at Aiden, leaning against the wall, and then back down at DeLisio, tied to the chair in front of him. Edmund, hands clasped under his chin per usual, sat in a chair at the corner opposite Aiden. Edmund was the one elder that rarely missed an interrogation. They’d been at this for two hours, and Triaten was getting annoyed. He almost always had more patience than Aiden did for this work, but he realized from Aiden’s casual stance, that he himself was suddenly the impatient one. And it annoyed him even further.
He reached out and wrapped his fingers around DeLisio’s throat. “She knew what was going to happen. Which means that you did too.” His tightened the clamp against DeLisio’s throbbing vein. “Thousands died, DeLisio. Thousands. And you are going to pay for those lives one way or another.”
Aiden cleared his throat, and Triaten released his grip. DeLisio’s head dropped to the side. Triaten straightened, stood for a moment looking down at the still form, and then he gave DeLisio’s cheek a slap. DeLisio’s eye opened.
His look focused on Triaten. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t matter now that she’s gone.” DeLisio’s words tumbled out low, jumbled from the broken jaw.
“What doesn’t matter now that she’s gone?”
DeLisio shook his head. A powerful man, beaten. “She was going to give me the one thing I could never have.”
Triaten crossed his arms across his chest. “What’s the one thing? What does a billionaire need?”
“All this money. And I’m still going to die.” His one open eyeball traced up to Triaten’s face. “She was going to make me immortal.”
“Immortal? What do you mean? What did you think she could do to you?”
DeLisio took a dramatic sigh.
“Start talking.” Triaten demanded.
“It wasn’t me, but it was to be my legacy. It was the child she was carrying. My child. My son was to be a god.”
Aiden’s eyebrow rose, but he remained leaning against the wall.
“What the hell are you talking about, DeLisio?”
“You may be older than me, but you are a boy,” DeLisio spat out. “You do not understand what getting old does. How you have to grab. Grab at anything that will help you hold on. Grab at anything that will make you live beyond your grave. And I’m getting old, so what is my legacy? If I’m going to die, what do I leave?”
“And you think your child will be a god?” Triaten questioned. “That’s the ultimate goal for you? How do you think that’s going to happen?”
DeLisio coughed, and more blood snot dripped down his chin. “I know all about your kind. Panthenites.” He spit the word out in disgust. “Genevieve was Malefic. Our child would have been Malefic. And there are Malefics all around the world that think it’s time to put the god back into the species.”
“Put the god back in the species? What is that supposed to mean?”
“Why do you think they coordinated attacks, boy? For fun? Killed thousands for no reason? They’re not that stupid. They’re taking control. Killing as many as they can. Every death they dole out is worth a thousand times the destruction in fear created. The fear becomes exponential. And fear is what makes gods. It’s what makes power. It always has been.”
Triaten took a step back from DeLisio, horrified and not bothering to hide it. “The Malefics want to be worshipped as gods again?”
“They haven’t been successful at destroying mankind, so they’re trying a new tactic — going back to the old ways.”
“One where they’re gods?
DeLisio chuckled through a cough. “And there are plenty of Panthenites that want that same thing.”
“No.”
“Don’t be ignorant, boy. We are all wired to want control. Man, Malefic, Panthenite. All of us. And expand that power. We get some, we want more. So why not make the Panthenites and Malefics into gods once more? Why not have man serve you again? And why would I not want a piece of that?”
“What Panthenites? Who?” Triaten held his fist tight to his thigh, somehow managing not to beat DeLisio even further.
DeLisio laughed again and shook his head.
Triaten advanced at him, punching his good eye. DeLisio’s head snapped back, then fell off to the side. A whimpered groan gave evidence he remained conscious.
Triaten gripped his grey hair, lifting his head up. “Which Panthenites? Give me names, DeLisio. Now.”
A half-smile curved into DeLisio’s mangled cheek. “Take a look around, boy. Who’s not in the room?”
Triaten looked up, meeting Aiden’s eyes, and then Edmund’s. Beyond those two, the room was empty. He shoved DeLisio’s head as he released his grip.
He strode over to the door and flung it open, looking up and down the hallway just outside the back room. Aiden followed at his heels.
Triaten went to the adjacent rooms, opening and closing doors as he checked in them. There were a set of six back rooms behind the main parlor in Hotel Auric. The rooms were all used by the Panthenites for purposes such as this. Triaten ducked into one last door, the one that led to the main parlor, and then came back to the center of the hallway where Aiden was waiting.
“He’s not here?” Aiden asked.
Triaten shook his head.
Edmund stepped out of DeLisio’s room and shuffled over to the two. “Horace is gone, isn’t he?”
“It doesn’t mean a thing, Edmund,” Aiden reasoned.
“Doesn’t it? I had suspected something. He has wanted more power for too long. And now there’s proof.” He focused on Triaten. “Your father is playing for the wrong side, Triaten. And you will have to admit it and renounce him.”
Triaten’s jaw set hard as he shook his head. “I don’t believe you, Edmund. Nor do I believe DeLisio. Horace wouldn’t join forces with the Malef
ics. Not after everything he has done — has helped to build with the Panthenites. Not after he helped save our species from extinction.”
Splotches of red dotted Edmund’s face as his voice turned harsh. “You don’t believe he’s involved, or is it that you don’t want to believe me? Don’t you forget that I saved the Panthenites as well. I’m not about to let Horace take anything over.”
Triaten’s eyes narrowed at Edmund. “And maybe that’s why you’re so quick to blame him, Edmund.”
“Do you have any other reason for why your father slipped out?”
Triaten’s lips tightened. “I will find him. There is a reason for this.”
~~~
“Cronus.”
Skye jumped as the word was whispered into her ear. She looked up to see Helen next to her. “I’m sorry?”
Helen looked down her bird-nose at Skye as she sidled up next to her, slipping onto a tall, black-leather chair adjacent to Skye’s. Helen leaned back in the chair as though walking over to the bar was exhausting. Skye became immediately uncomfortable. The leather and gold surrounding her in the Panthenite parlor at Hotel Auric made her uneasy, even sitting at the bar. And now Helen’s presence. There were a million places she could have waited, and how she let Aiden leave her stranded here, she didn’t know.
It had been hours since Aiden and Triaten had disappeared out through a back door in the parlor. Aiden insisted this was the safest place for her to wait. And for whatever reason, Aiden didn’t want her to have anything to do with what they had vanished to do. More secrets.
She was longing for the warm comfort of Joe’s, nursing a tumbler of neat scotch, when Helen had suddenly appeared. Skye’s stomach churned.
“Cronus.” Helen repeated. “That’s your lineage. We never bothered to track your mother’s lineage, because her powers were so weak, as were her mother’s. It’s why we never slated her for breeding. I am actually befuddled that any power made it through to you.”
Skye looked at the elderly Panthenite like she was talking Latin. She didn’t have a clue what Helen was telling her. “What is Cronus?”
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