by Tori Smith
But how could he, show me, that is? My urgent need for answers was the only reason my arm moved in the direction of his hand, but even still, I jumped before he could touch me.
“Will it hurt? Whatever you’re going to do?” I asked and his eyes softened in the corners, playing at me in ways I hated.
Because I liked the way he looked at me, this man who’d taken me.
“You’ll actually probably find it pleasurable,” he stated, smoothing his hand over my skin. My breath caught, as he lifted his eyes. “I always do.”
His thumb rubbed over me, massaged over my scared skin, and that mark that was once dormant blasted in full light. It filled the entirety of the room. My head flooded and my thoughts blasted in a wave of visions.
And they all surrounded him.
Lucas’s face I discovered beneath the clouds, an unyielding force in my memories so strong I wondered how he’d ever escaped. He was there after I hit my head, hit my head after this had all happened before. My mark had revealed itself, it burned after a man attempted to steal my purse and no nausea accompanied these visions. They were crystal clear. Lucas was crystal clear, beside me on the sidewalk.
Touching me.
He’d held me, so gently when he lifted me from the walk. He’d traveled for miles, relentless in his strides and to a place I recognized, the whites and bright light of his loft cascading around his large body. Cradling me, he held my body tight, a pressure behind his chest thumping restlessly against my cheek. He was worried about something. He was worried about me and carrying me to a room with a sole bed he laid me down on it. He’d been careful not to touch my mark, which had still been an angry red at the time. He’d been careful when he touched me period, but did something before he could leave me in the room.
His thumb brushing against my cheek I felt as if he was doing it to me now, each play that same digit made against my mark in the current moments stimulating me.
Awakening me.
I drew in a breath, opening my eyes to blue fire.
Lucas.
His eyes were literally glowing, a burn encircling his irises that only brightened the more he touched me.
“Arden…”
I couldn’t help touching his bicep, the hard panes of sinewy flesh igniting my insides and maddening my soul. It had been a light to guide me there, a beam that called to me in the most primal way. Exuberant and warm, the illumination was under his shirtsleeve and I peeled the material away, rolling it up with my fingers.
“Arden, stop.”
The charge nearly blinded, like stardust from the heavens and just as beautiful. Hovering over it, my fingers cut into the light.
It matched mine, Lucas bringing my arm into my vision. Between the pair of us, we really did fill the room, the light from my forearm and from his bicep the same.
My hand descending, I drew into Lucas’s light and his lids lowered.
“You shouldn’t,” he breathed.
But like his earlier protests it didn’t seem as if he actually wanted me to stop, his hand folding behind my neck. He massaged my mark with his other hand and I didn’t fight when he pulled me up against his chest. It was like he wanted me to touch him there and the minute I did, his groan moved life inside me, my fingers discovering the same raised flesh I had. He had a mark too, a mark like mine.
His eyes closed as I touched it and mine as he touched me, an invisible link between us I couldn’t understand. It was as if we got pleasure off each other, an emotional connection that bonded us. Enjoying it, I didn’t let go and the moment Lucas did I felt severed, my heart literally feeling the bleed of the loss.
The connection broken.
His hand fell away from my mark and he guided me back. The moment his fingers left my skin, our light dulled around us and my mind reeled, still on the high of it.
Disoriented, I put my head in my hands.
“So much for not touching her.”
Derek’s voice bought me back and when I found him he wasn’t alone.
A man came from behind him. He stood by the door and could be considered one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen and that was saying something considering my initial draw to Lucas and even Derek too if I was being honest with myself. There had just been something about the two before all this happened.
There was something about this guy now.
Broad, he had a height near Derek’s and a build similar to Lucas’s, the best of both worlds. Cheekbones high and lips full, he had the stare of a panther in the wild, his hair just as dark and pulled back into a short ponytail. Shaven at the sides, his hair texture had a waxy gleam, his skin golden and hinting at maybe a Middle East Asian ancestry. His sight fell on Lucas before me and whatever feelings he had about him dissipated the moment our gazes collided.
His expression softening, the man came forward, his green eyes bordering on the scale of actual illumination they were so bright, but something peeking out of his shirt collar was illuminated. It could easily be seen as he was wearing white, but I stopped staring at it the moment he’d taken my hand.
It felt so nice, his hand in mind and I didn’t draw back. It felt too familiar.
I’d say eerily so.
“Your Majesty, my name is Elia,” he said, bowing his head slowly. His hand moved in the direction of my mark and I couldn’t focus on what he said or even what he called me, his fingers so very close.
I almost wanted him to touch me. Like it felt right, but drawing his hand back, Elia resisted.
“Warrior of the New Realm and guardian of the crown,” he continued, staring warmly at me. “Along with my military brothers I have served Her Majesty the queen for her entire twenty-four Earth years in this century.”
The queen… This century…
Her Majesty.
I gazed around but suddenly I wasn’t with Lucas or even Derek, but two men who were standing at attention around me and this man who held my hand. Clicking out of it, Derek and Lucas brought their feet together and hooked their arms quickly in front of themselves. They proceeded to slow bow like Elia did, lifting their heads. Even Derek did this, completely serious about the action. His gaze traveling away, that was all he gave me before Elia crossed in front of him.
“I’ve served you, Your Majesty,” Elia emphasized, then looked around. “We all do. We serve you and well… I’m sure you have a lot of questions about that.”
Five
Arden
“I’m sorry. You’re going to have to run that by me just one more time.”
Because this was… wild and I was pretty sure these guys could add psycho to their laundry list of “fun” personality traits, the likes of which allowed them to kidnap me and force-feed me this bullshit story about how I was some queen. They’d brought me upstairs and continued to unload on me, talking now about how I was destined to rule some place or something.
What was that some place or something again?
“And I’m queen of what now?” I asked, entertaining them a little yes, because I was scared and truly had some questions about things I’d personally seen with my own eyes, this mark on my arm one of them and my interactions with all of them, as well as why I seemed to be okay with them touching me when they did.
And actually liked it.
I’d admit that because yes, these guys were very hot in their various ways and I had a vagina that made me prone to such foolishness, my captors currently stationed around various parts of the room. Laser focused on me, I felt every ounce of their stares in this new environment I was in.
It seemed Lucas and Derek’s loft was two floors because I currently sat in their living room. I also didn’t have to wear chains anymore and with my favorite black tea steaming in my hands, the guys were at least trying to treat me a little nicer. I honestly didn’t know how they had the herbal brand I started my day out with every morning before I went to work, but I didn’t question it.
I didn’t want to know the answer personally.
The beau
tiful guy… well, the beautiful guy with skin better than mine sat across from me in an easy chair. Elia’s tone incredibly honeyed, it hinted of a dash of milk in dark coffee, his complexion incredibly smooth, which made me want to beg for tips on how to even out my own olive-toned skin.
Sweeping his hair out of his face, he looked like Aladdin now that he’d taken his tiny ponytail down and he leaned forward, smiling like he was happy to go over all this again. He’d done it several times before.
His full lips hiked more with his grin.
“You’re queen of this,” he said, raising his hand slightly above him. “Queen of Earth, but not now Earth.”
Not. Now. Earth.
“Where we come from it’s called the New Realm, a place ruled by your family for many centuries and I know it may seem confusing, Your Majesty…”
Also, something I wasn’t used to. He’d used that and various versions of it since starting our conversation, Excellence and Your Eminence being two of them. It all sounded like something out of some middle grade fantasy books I used to read about young royals and their rule of the land.
Not something in the twenty-first century.
I doubted the Queen of England herself was called some of these things they sounded so ancient, but apparently I was… Her Eminence.
Bringing my cup to my chest, I avoided Lucas’s gaze to my right, his massive body taking up the other half of the couch. He’d been doing that since we came upstairs, my stare up and over him even though he’d spoken during various parts of this conversation. Whoever Elia was he was the more well-versed of the three and Lucas spent the majority of his free time with his attention on me, something in his eyes I had a sneaking suspicion bordered along the lines of “we did things, hehe.”
I was well aware we did… things, things I didn’t understand and wasn’t sure if they started again I would stop them. Whatever energy I felt between us in the study had not only been nice for me but felt familiar to me. Like we did things like that all the time and every day.
“You and me… it’s what we do.”
Whatever “it” was had been as unusually stimulating as whatever happened with Derek, the man borderline leering from his position by the door. He looked like he wanted no part of this conversation, standing by the loft’s entryway and gazing back at us on occasion. He never chimed into the conversation and every time our gazes crossed he immediately cut the contact.
Gripping my cup, I gazed up at Elia.
“But you are of noble blood,” Elia continued. Tilting his head at me, he did that every once in a while. Like he needed permission to go on and confirmation I understood things all right. Clearly, I wasn’t on this new information train, but he moved forward anyway, his hands together and with patience to a fault in his eyes. He did seem very wise, intelligent.
He smiled again. “You have a destiny far beyond what you’re doing now.”
That of playing bitch to the devil but I didn’t say, waiting for him to go on.
“And a prophecy to—”
“Too much, Elia.”
Finally deciding to join the conversation, Derek stalked his way over with a scowl, taking a second to peek out of one of the loft’s windows before coming over. I had no idea who or what he looked for but as he was standing by the door for most of the evening I assumed it’d been something. Or maybe he was just unusual like that. I didn’t know him.
I didn’t know any of them.
Derek stopped in the center of the room, arms big and beefy as he folded them over his chest.
“She clearly doesn’t believe a thing you’re saying and all this is pointless.”
As docile as Elia was in this conversation he sure did flip a switch on in front of Derek and that reminded me that the two had been arguing for what seemed like the better part of an hour and that had been after I’d woken up here a second time. Who knew how long they’d been going at it before that and they seemed on the cusp of it now. Elia shot up from his chair, but Lucas had been faster, cutting in front of me and pressing a palm to them both and even though Elia stepped back.
Elia shot a finger out.
“You continue to disrespect her,” Elia said, pointing to me. “Apologize.”
“Apologize?” Derek nearly shot his head back in laughter. “She doesn’t even believe she’s a queen let alone all the stuff you’re tossing at her. And you want me to apologize for something she doesn’t even believe in.”
“It’s all new to her,” Elia said regarding me with another wave of the hand. He stepped back from Derek and the movement must have been enough for Lucas to withdraw his hands because he returned to my side, sitting down.
Elia folded his hands behind his neck, shaking his head. “She’ll understand in time.”
“But we don’t have time, Elia,” Derek pushed through his teeth. He pointed at me too. “She should not have awakened and because she has something’s coming. You think we took care of the problem, but you fail to remember we thought the same on the night of her birthday. Her mark didn’t go away after that purse-snatcher and it’s not going away now. Clearly, there’s a threat and pretending nothing’s wrong and wiping her memory again won’t help anything.”
My mouth parted, taking everyone’s attention, but suddenly so many things took light in my head.
“You did… what?” But how, how could they wipe my memory, and “awakened”…
What the hell did that mean?
“You wiped my memories?” I questioned gazing around. I swallowed. “What did you wipe? What did you take and how?”
“Arden?”
“And you knew it was my birthday that night?” I asked Derek, cutting Elia off. “How? And what do you mean when you say I’ve awakened? I don’t get it. What’s going—?”
Lucas’s hand slid to my arm, not quite touching my mark but when he bypassed and moved straight to my hand I figured that’d been his intent.
“I took your memories,” he said, holding my hand. He covered it. “Just some of them that night. I believed it was for your protection. Like Derek said, you weren’t supposed to know about—”
Elia hovered to the side and Lucas released my hand when Elia took a seat.
“There’s so much to tell you, my queen,” Elia said, his eyes almost sad. “And we’ve all had to keep things from you, many things for a long time you weren’t supposed to know about. At least not now.”
At least not now.
Elia tilted his head. “The mark on your skin is very important,” he said, guiding me to look at it. “And Lucas removed the memory of it because it’s not supposed to stay. It only appears for certain reasons.”
His attention moved to Lucas, then Derek after that, the pair turning away.
“It’s the key to your destiny,” Elia went on, panning back to me. “Because you are special. You have a purpose, Your Eminence, and are more powerful than you could even dream. Your power exceeds all of ours.”
“With some provisions,” Derek clarified to which Elia frowned at him. Derek shrugged. “If we’re telling her the truth, we say it all. She may be awakened, has received signs of her power, but not only does she not know what to do with any of it, she needs to know she’ll never be to full stamina without—”
“All of us,” Elia said to him now, shooting him a look before facing me. “He’s right. We make you stronger as do you us.”
“Stronger? Like mentally strong?” They’d been the first words I dared to say regarding all this being true and the fact I was actually playing into what these guys said astounded me right now. The last time I had been this mental had been in school and my parents chalked that up to the stress and strain of going to a very mentally demanding private school.
The nightmares and evening terrors had been such a common occurrence when I’d been a child I almost believed they’d actually happened, things like arrows being shot at my head and people chasing me amongst other things pretty much a daily event. Even still, those had been terrible but
nothing like what happened after them.
The hallucinations.
Manifested in front of my eyes, I saw those people chasing me, coming after me with crossbows and wearing more war paint on their faces than a scene out of Braveheart. They’d always get so close, a trigger finger away from gaining a hold of me, but something always stopped them, a vision in the distance, that again manifested itself in front of my eyes. I could never see the person who saved me, but they were always followed by others, multiple protective forces. As soon as the visions began, they ended and my parents assured me worrying would just cause the images to form more often. My mom and dad lessened the intensity of my course load by placing me in easier classes and eventually, after I turned thirteen, the images stopped completely as well as the night terrors. Moving into adulthood, I’d had not one single occurrence since I was a teen and doing really well, I hadn’t had to have any more mental check-ins or visits to health care professionals. I was fine.
I was not fine, my tea literally floating out of my cup in front of me. Screaming, I jumped back, the cup the tea had been in shattering on the hardwood floor.
Until it wasn’t.
Like I never dropped it, the cup suddenly pulled its pieces together, like someone ran the reel backwards and the cup was going in reverse from shattered to whole.
Coming together, the cup lifted into the air, sliding onto the table and from behind it, Elia’s eyes glowed, his lips moving. It was like he was talking to himself, whispers I couldn’t hear outside of the gentle press of his lips to the other. The black tea’s liquid still hovered in the air and I noticed something bright beneath the lapel of Elia’s white shirt.
I leaned forward, focusing on the illumination but my vision cut off from it when the tea moved in front of me. Startled, I brought my legs up on the couch and Elia merely laughed in response.
A softness touching his eyes, Elia raised his hand and upon him waving, the tea moved over the table. The moment he closed his hand though, the tea splashed into the cup, a gentle plop in the air before Elia sat back.
