Bonded (The Raegan Mason Trilogy)

by Cheryl Courtney

  His kiss pulsated through my body. I tried to reign in the hunger for his touch. I swallowed trying to compose myself. “So you’re saying there might be some that want to kill us? Why do you hate them so much?” I knew the emotion was hatred.

  “There are Royal Elders in each family. They are the oldest in each family, and were the first from our planet to settle here. Then there’s the Serpens. They are kind of like angels, but not so angelic.” His spat the word as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth. “They are immortal, for lack of a better word, and have been on Earth since, well since they arrived from Grace, our home planet. There is a loose interpretation in ancient legends about falling from Grace.”

  “The fallen angels? You’re serious?” I said it, but knew instantly that he was telling the truth.

  “Well not like you’ve heard from the Bible, but a lot of the stories handed down refer to them as the fallen angels. They are powerful, even beautiful in appearance. And they tempt humans as much as they tempt our kind. They enjoy torturing or punishing our kind. Their rituals are considered barbaric and filled with pain. It is believed they have perfected a way to drain the essence of our kind without killing them, allowing them to feed off of them for longer periods of time than before.”

  A flash of my tortured dream crossed my thoughts.

  “What was that?” Kyler questioned with alarm. He grabbed my arms and forced me to look into his eyes.

  “A dream I had at the lighthouse.” I tried blocking the images but he continued to hold my attention with his hypnotic eyes. Flashes of the chains, the hissing and the pain kept surfacing as if Kyler were extracting them from my memory. “It’s nothing but fear manifesting from the needle I felt from Nate when he attacked me.”

  Kyler stiffened and released his stare when I mentioned Nate. “Still, those images are pretty close to what I’ve heard happened on Grace before the exodus to Earth.” He focused on my eyes again, concentrating. I assumed he was trying to get more information from me, but I didn’t have any more to offer.

  “So, Royal Elders? Are they like the good angels?” I was hoping to divert him back to the original conversation.

  He inhaled deeply and looked away briefly. “Let’s not compare any of them to angels. The Royal Elders are not any better. They don’t do anything to help the situation.” The anger was building. “We will have to figure this out on our own.”

  I searched his eyes for comfort and found a longing so painful my heart was breaking in tiny pieces. I reached out to touch his face. The heat between us flashed. His sapphire eyes began to smolder and burn. My emerald eyes reflected a matching glow. Our breathing increased as I leaned in to kiss him.

  “Maybe we should take off the enhancers.” He paused with his eyes closed and started to unclasp his necklace.

  “No” a voice registered in my mind, but it wasn’t Kyler’s or my thought. It was a male voice, but nothing familiar to me.

  “Did you just hear that?” I asked Kyler. Panic filled my voice.

  “I did. Who is that?” He looked around as we waited to hear the voice again.

  “Who are you?” I managed to think through the fear that was bubbling at the surface of my emotions.

  “You can call me Joshua.” The voice responded politely. The voice was melodic as if he were singing a lullaby.

  “Where are you? What are you?” My inquisitive mind got the best of me. Kyler squeezed my hand in warning.

  “I am here. I mean you no harm. I am an Elder. Consider me a friend.” Joshua replied candidly.

  Kyler tensed and sucked in air at hearing that. Panic filled him and his eyes locked on mine. Strange images filled my mind as Kyler tried to warn me. I felt confused and couldn’t make out the images as they flashed quickly in my mind.

  “Enough!” Joshua spoke with authority and Kyler froze. His thoughts stopped and I couldn’t feel his emotions or thoughts. “As I said, I mean you no harm. I am here as a guide for the two of you. As your companion has tried to persuade you to fear me, I was forced to pause him. It isn’t him that I am concerned with at the moment.” He spoke as if bored with the conversation and left me curious.

  “Kyler, I will release you if you agree to hear me out before jumping to conclusions. Your prejudice toward Elders is understandable, but do not force that discrimination on young Raegan. Blink twice if you agree.” Kyler blinked twice and slowly melted back to normal. “Good, now please listen as my time is limited and the certainty of my warnings is dire.” Kyler grabbed my hand again for his comfort as well as mine.

  “This island is special to Raegan, and it is her island of sanctuary. Nothing can harm her on this island as long as she wears her enhancer. Removing the stone from her skin will open a window of opportunity for others to locate her.

  Kyler, have you noticed anything different about this island?” Joshua asked in a way that seemed he was toying with Kyler’s mind.

  “I can’t hear my mother.” Kyler acknowledged.

  “Correct, very astute. When did you realize that?” Joshua questioned like a detective.

  “When we came ashore and I tried to contact her for help.” Kyler confessed.

  “Why did you need help? You’re on a deserted island with the apple of your eye. What better place could there be?” I began to mistrust Joshua the more he questioned. It was as if he wanted to tempt us.

  “This island felt wrong when I got here. What do you mean ‘others to locate her’?” Kyler’s protectiveness emanated from his thoughts.

  “It’s her scent, Kyler. They smell HER.” Joshua’s voice sounded hungry.

  Kyler tensed but the heat from him was radiating toward me. I felt engulfed by fire.

  “Why wait, Raegan? Don’t you desire Kyler the way he desires you? Once you unite, they won’t be able to smell you with his scent on you.” My heart was racing and my thoughts were suddenly filled with Kyler’s desire as well as mine. I leaned in toward Kyler experiencing the magnetic electric energy. His hands were hot against my skin as they roamed under my shirt to my swim suit. His lips found mine and his tongue was forceful. He was pulling me down on the couch under him and running his hand down my legs.

  “Wouldn’t the bed be more comfortable?” Joshua interjected right before Kyler pulled off my swimsuit. Kyler picked me up and carried me to my parents’ room where he continued to pull off my shirt and then my top. He kissed me eagerly and roughly at first. His eyes were glowing and through his thoughts I could see my eyes glowing as well. It was ecstasy. I wanted all of him and couldn’t bear not to be closer to him.

  “Why do we need to wait?” I thought frantically as my mouth kissed his neck and chest. I knew there was a reason, but I couldn’t remember.

  “Um, I don’t know.” Kyler thought as his hands caressed my body as never before. His lips brushed across my chest and lingered on my stomach.

  I laughed as he tickled my stomach with his kisses. “But wasn’t there some kind of danger about this?” The nagging feeling that we shouldn’t be doing this now kept interrupting the pleasure.

  “Danger?” Kyler stopped and jumped off of me. “You’re sick, Joshua, or whoever the hell you are!” Kyler yelled to the air. He picked up my shirt off the ground and tossed it to me as he turned away and started pacing the room. “Where are you? Show yourself!”

  “Temper, temper, Kyler. You must be careful with your temper around an Elder.” Joshua taunted.

  “Of course I’m angry. Are you trying to kill us? She isn’t of age yet and it’s not the right time.” Kyler motioned to me to get up off the bed. I was confused and flustered by our escapade.

  “Kill is such a strong word, Kyler. Wouldn’t the pure pleasure be enough? You could live forever in that bliss if you take her now. What about the others?” Joshua kept tempting Kyler.

  “I won’t take her life for anything.” Kyler grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the house. The storm was upon us and the cold rain slammed against us. We were running but I didn’t know where
else to go.

  “There’s nowhere to hide. Only she can get you off of the island. Raegan, do you know how to leave this island? Do you want to leave? Stay here and shut out the rest of the world. You were born here, right in that house. Your mother conceived you in that same bed. Wouldn’t you want a child of your own? A powerful child?” The voice kept calling after us as we ran. The lightning flashed and I screamed as a face appeared behind a tree. Kyler stopped running and pulled me in close to him. We were under a tree breathless from the run.

  “Rae, look at me. Do you know how to get off the island?” Kyler’s eyes searched mine. Panic filled him. Angry panic. “We’ve got to leave, now! Please Rae, think!”

  Fear gripped me and I couldn’t think. “No! I don’t have a clue!” I grabbed onto Kyler with all my strength and forced myself to keep standing so I didn’t faint. Tears were flowing as hard as the rain. A wall of sand formed around us as Kyler did his best to keep out the icy rain. I kept thinking of the lighthouse and how warm and safe I felt there. I wished we were there and not on this island. I kept whispering take us home, take us home. The wind was whipping through the trees and pushing us. The rain was pummeling us with icy daggers, and Joshua was haunting us. I closed my eyes and pulled Kyler closer. Then everything was quiet.

  CHAPTER 20 - OUT OF HARM'S WAY

  I was afraid to open my eyes. I just knew we were dead. The faint hum of machinery caused me to open my eyes. We were in the lighthouse. Kyler and I were still clutching onto each other until it registered to both of us where we were.

  “How’d you do that?” Kyler placed his hands on my shoulders and searched my eyes with those fiery sapphires.

  “I..I don’t know.” I stuttered and crumbled to the floor. My nerves were raw and we were soaked from the rain. “We’re safe now. You don’t still hear him, do you?” Kyler examined my face for any trace of his presence in my mind. I shook my head.

  Satisfied, Kyler went into the bathroom and grabbed some towels. He wrapped one around my shoulders and rushed upstairs to get some dry clothes. I was shaking when he returned and he pulled me up to standing and began to help me dress in his borrowed clothes. “My mother is on her way.”

  I couldn’t speak. I was freaked out. I think it’s called shock. First, we’re dragged off in a rip tide to some beautiful deserted island that I knew, I lived on before. Then the assault of memories I couldn’t stop. Then him. I couldn’t bear to think his name for fear he would track us down. What did he mean others would find me? What scent is he talking about? I carefully sniffed my underarm as I wiped my face with the towel.

  Kyler chuckled slightly. “It isn’t body odor.” He continued to dry my hair for me as I stood statuesque. “Your essence has a scent, and yours is intoxicating.”

  “I don’t understand.” I admitted openly. I searched his eyes for answers he was withholding from me.

  Kyler sighed. “I don’t know all of the answers you’re looking for. After that little encounter with…” I placed my finger on his lips to prevent him from saying the name. “My mother will be here shortly and she has some more details to the puzzle.” His dimples formed without a full smile.

  He walked toward the kitchen and started heating up some water for hot chocolate.

  “Do you think he’s one of the Serpens?” I asked.

  Kyler shrugged and continued making our hot chocolate before coming to sit down next to me. He handed me a mug. “To calm our nerves.” He smiled as he tapped his mug to mine.

  Serpens and Elders? What did any of that have anything to do with us? My mind ran wild with the new information. How could they be connected to me? Did my parents have special powers I didn’t know about? Which Royal family did I come from? Could that mean we could be fallen angels? I forgot Kyler could hear my thoughts.

  “No, definitely not fallen angels or Serpens. We are children of Royal Elders. My father is a Royal Stone Elder and that’s why I have this enhancer. One of your parents must be a Royal Elder too.” He grabbed his necklace. “There are some Elders that would not want us bonding. Remember, those bondings and unions can create some very powerful, um, children.” Kyler blushed a deep red then cleared his throat. “Serpens are ones that try to steal essence and powers, but as far as I know they didn’t all come here. Most stayed on Grace, except for a few that followed the exodus. There hasn’t been any encounters in thousands of years. I’m not sure what to make of the one on the island.” The tension was deafening. We stared at each other without speaking for what seemed like hours. The silence was broken when we heard keys at the door and Marina walked in. She was dripping from the rain that had started falling. Kyler threw her a towel as she walked in.

  “You couldn’t wait five minutes before dropping a bomb on her like that?” Marina scolded Kyler then rushed over and hugged us both. I looked over her shoulder looking for Aunt Sarah but didn’t see her. “She isn’t coming, dear.” She patted my back and hugged me tighter. “Are you feeling okay?” She searched my face. I’m sure she saw weariness in my eyes.

  “I’ve been better.” I forced a quick smile and sat back down on the couch. I continued to sip the hot chocolate. The smooth velvet chocolate soothed my nerves a bit, but I still felt like I was in a nightmare. “Are you going to explain more?” I asked obviously eager for more pain and shock. I wasn’t intimidated by her presence anymore. The fact that immortal beings were trying to kill me now outweighed the fact that I crave her son’s touch, and blush brilliant shades of red in her presence.

  She smiled apologetically. Warmth that didn’t exist the first time we met colored her face. She looked sympathetic to my demise. She sat down next to me, and Kyler sandwiched me in on the other side of the couch.

  “Guess this is going to be hard to hear?” I looked back and forth between their eyes. Kyler rubbed my arm comfortingly sending electric pulses through my bones as Marina began filling me in on the details she discovered while we were gone.

  ******

  I guess the pain of reliving memories of a family I lost over and over in the past nine months doesn’t compare to losing a father and aunt that never were mine. Evidently, Aunt Sarah and my father are not like us so there is no way he could be my father and me still be a child from a Royal family. So by process of elimination, Dad isn’t my father. My mother must be from a Royal family and united with another of our royal lineage to have me. Whether Dad knew about it or not is yet to be discovered and may never be fully understood at this point. By default, Aunt Sarah isn’t family either. She honestly believes that Christopher Mason is my biological father. For now, we agreed she would remain in the dark.

  As far as my mom, Marina explained in as delicate manner as possible, she must have been seduced by an Elder and conceived me. Whether dad was in the picture then depends on whether we believe the word of my Aunt Sarah who said they met when they were young and didn’t have me until much later in life. Marina seems to believe it’s possible. Since we are not able to bear children from normal humans, only others like us, or Elders.

  The Serpens that Marina had mentioned when I first met her would be the ones that will be searching for my “scent”. Not only am I an offspring of an Elder, but evidently a rare find in our kind. Although thought to be extinct, the Serpens search for those of us that have been “bred” for lack of a better word to feed off of our essence or life force. To put it plainly, my mother has to have been a child of an Elder, her mother was a child of an Elder, and on and on until the first union between the Royal Elders. Judging by my power to transport not only myself but Kyler too across an ocean, I’m experiencing strong powers before my eighteenth birthday. That piece of information leads us to believe the Elders will want to eliminate me because I’m a threat, and the Serpens will want to either drain me or breed me. Ugh! Not an option.

  Kyler is also a child of a Royal Elder. His situation is different, though. He’s a male version of the pure child. The odds of that happening are very rare too. His Elder father appears from
time to time and trains him in forms of combat. He knows the Serpens want destroy him. They see a royal male offspring as a threat to their purposes. It opens up opportunities for bonding and uniting between pure offspring, such as the bond between Kyler and me. A union between two consenting families could create a new type of progeny, stronger and more gifted than the Elders or the Serpens. This is another strike against us. Our bond is already strong. The real test will be to take off our enhancers and test our powers.

  So here we are days away from my eighteenth birthday. The day my powers will really start to surface. It’s also an official time to obtain permission for a unification ceremony. Only then can Kyler and I complete our union without the consequences of death, on my part, and trashing the hopes and wishes of many others that are at the mercy of Elders and Serpens. The tricky part is going to be staying alive until that day.

  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to thank my husband and family for putting up with me as I set out on this adventure to write. Thank you for the encouragement and support.

  To my mom, I like to believe you would have enjoyed reading this book. Thank you for the years we had together, the lifelong love of reading you passed along, and for always being my number one fan in everything I did. I miss you.

  Thank you, Misty, for taking my madness and helping me fix the flaws. I’ve enjoyed sharing the characters with you and the laughs as we dissected the chapters. Amazing how certain phrases can bring a fit of giggles.

  To my brother, you’re still older, and I’m still smarter! ;-)

  To my dad, you read romance novels? Wow! Thanks!

  And to all my friends and readers, thank you for reading and taking a ride through my imagination. I hope you enjoy Bonded and the two still to come.