by Deanna Chase
“What’s your agenda?”
“Relax, Hermione.” She winked at me. “I track down bounties strictly for the cash. No purer motive than that. Now Sy’s gotten involved because you’re family. But Prince Charming in there? Well, I don’t know what he gets out of this.” She arched a thin eyebrow. “Watch your back. Don’t take any apples from strangers.” She patted my arm and almost knocked me over.
I rubbed my arm and rolled my eyes. “Holy fairytales, Catwoman.”
“Catwoman? Shit, Catwoman’s a pussy.” She chuckled and sashayed through the door in her leather pants and four-inch heels. “I think I might like you, Selene,” she said.
At the door, she paused and called out, “Sy, you owe me another bounty,” then she strutted away and was gone.
“What is she?” I muttered.
“A Sekhmet. She’s great, isn’t she?” Sy rested an arm over my shoulder in a familial way. “I’m glad you’re not dead, cousin.” He handed me a card. “If Cheney doesn’t treat you right, give me a call. I can help.” He kissed my temple again, then vanished.
Ugh. This world was so weird—and overwhelming. Cheney stood in the doorway, staring at me.
“So you forgot to mention I have family.”
“Let’s go home, princess.” He followed me to my car in heavy silence.
“Have you heard from Gram?” I asked, hoping to penetrate his mood.
“No, I can check on her if you like.”
“Thanks.”
The lights flitted by in the darkness as I drove the familiar path home.
“Selene…” Cheney started, then stopped.
I raised my eyebrows, glancing over.
Cheney shook his head. “Don’t run off again. No matter how mad you get at me, don’t make me chase you. Had it been a different bounty hunter, we wouldn’t have been so lucky.”
I stopped at a traffic light and turned my head fully. I was just about to respond when a memory clouded my visions and my thoughts.
Cheney and I were nose to nose. His eyes gleamed with fury.
“There’s no fucking way I will allow you to leave!”
“Are you going to stop me, prince?” I growled back, spitting out the word “prince” like it was an insult.
“Damn right I’m stopping you.”
“I don’t think so. You don’t have the guts. You won’t stand up to your father or do what’s right. I’m doing this whether you support me or not.”
“I need you to have patience.”
“I’m done with patience. I’ve waited for you for two centuries. Maybe it’s best if I go with my own kind.”
“I am your kind.”
“You have no idea how much I wish you meant that.” I brushed my hand down his cheek, then strode toward the door.
“If this is a ploy to get me to chase you, it won’t work. I won’t come after you, Selene.”
I turned back to him. He stood in the middle of the room, proud as ever. “Good,” I said.
“I mean it.”
I nodded and walked away from him forever.
I opened my eyes with a cry of pain. My head throbbed and heart ached. He was gone.
“Selene.” Cheney’s voice broke through the excruciating pain.
“Cheney.” Something dormant inside of me recognized the sound of his voice and took over. My hands grabbed his face. He was here; he was real. I hadn’t lost him. My heart sang with joy. I pulled him to me, smothering him with desperate kisses, trying to drown out the more practical voice in my mind demanding attention. It asked what I was doing. It told me I hadn’t almost lost Cheney—that was someone else.
Cheney kissed me back with equal passion and tried to pull me from my seat to him, but my seatbelt kept me in place. Horns blared behind us. It meant nothing. I had him.
Red and blue strobe lights pulsed outside of the windows, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t kiss him enough. Each kiss was further reassurance that my heart was not going to stay demolished. I ignored the loud knock on the window, but Cheney pushed me back.
“It’s the police,” he said as if the words should mean something to me. Who cared about the damn police? “Outside the window. Roll down the window, Selene.”
I did as he said. A young police officer stood on the other side of the glass, trying to maintain a serious face though a grin obviously wanted to break through. “Are you having problems with your car?” The cool night air snapped me back to reality. My cheeks flushed deeply. I couldn’t believe I’d attacked Cheney like that. “Are you all right ma’am?”
Cheney leaned across me. “She fainted, low blood sugar. I think she’s still a little out of it. I was trying to move her to the passenger seat when you came up. If you wouldn’t mind helping me?” Cheney said smoothly.
The officer looked back and forth between us, doubt evident. I didn’t have any problem looking dazed though, since that’s exactly what I was. “She shouldn’t be driving,” he finally said.
“I know. If you help me move her, I’ll take over.”
The officer opened my door and undid my seat belt. Cheney got out and together they lifted me over to the passenger seat while I played the drooling idiot. Cheney shook the officer’s hand and said a few quiet words to him. A moment later he was in the car and driving us home, neither of us saying a word. When he put the car in park, I was out of the vehicle as fast as humanly possible and in the house, making a beeline for my bedroom. I slammed the door, locking it behind me.
Holy crap, I made out with a stranger I disliked in the middle of a public intersection! What the hell had gotten into me? I had a fiancé. I couldn’t do things like that. Yet the memory of us together felt so real, it was like it had just happened. Emotions floated like landmines in my head, waiting for me to step on them.
A slow, soft knock on my bedroom door tore me in two. One half wanted to hide under the covers and ignore it until it went away. The other half wanted to throw open the door and pick up where we left off. I went for a compromise.
“I don’t want to talk, Cheney.”
“What was that?”
“I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk.”
“Are you serious? You kiss me like that, then you want to ignore it?”
“Yes,” I said lamely. I couldn’t talk to him about what I didn’t understand.
“Selene.” I could hear him struggling for patience. “You know I don’t need you to open the door to come in there.”
“I’m engaged.”
“You aren’t going to marry that human.”
“Are you going to stop me, prince?” I said in the same mocking tone I used in my memory. It was so fresh in my mind, it just slipped out.
“If I have to—wait, what did you call me?” A moment later Cheney was inside the door. I pressed myself against the wall on the opposite side of the room from him.
Chapter 12
Cheney didn’t say a word—just began advancing.
“Stay away from me,” I warned, feeling energy begin to collect underneath my skin.
Cheney paused and looked at me hard. “Try to control yourself.”
“Then you stay back.”
“Who am I, Selene?”
“Cheney Hunt.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “What happened in the car?”
“I had a memory,” I said weakly. “We were fighting about me leaving, and you told me you wouldn’t chase after me. And then I left you…forever.”
Cheney nodded slowly without commenting.
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Oh, I remember it well.”
I let that sink in. “But you did come after me, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here now?”
“Yes,” he said in barely a whisper.
“That’s why I kissed you. After the memory, I was crushed. I could hardly breathe, then I heard your voice and—”
“It started to mend,” he finished for me as I nodded. “Is that all you remember?”
I nod
ded again.
“Have a good night, princess.” He unlocked the door and walked out like a normal person instead of just disappearing.
“Don’t call me princess,” I said to his back. He paused but said nothing, then left, closing the door gently behind him.
I wasn’t even remotely tired, but I didn’t want to be out there with him while I was feeling like this. I pulled out my cell phone and called each of the girls, individually talking to them about nothing important. It felt wonderful to pretend to still be normal. I missed them. I missed being twenty-six with nothing more to worry about than what I was doing Saturday night. After that, I called Michael and we chatted until the wee hours of the morning, reminding me why he was perfect for me. When I finally felt tired, we said goodnight. Michael was the one I wanted. I just had to remember that.
However, he wasn’t the one who occupied my thoughts and dreams the rest of the night.
***
The next morning I was starving. I opened my bedroom door as quietly as possible, hoping Cheney would still be asleep. The intervening hours did little to ease the wave of emotions I still felt about him. As I crept down the hallway, I heard his voice.
“Yeah, I have her.”
“No, she doesn’t remember anything.” He sounded weary. “Even that.”
“I don’t know why, Sebastian. She just doesn’t.”
“Look we can debate reasons all day, but that isn’t going to get us anywhere. I don’t think I’ll be able to do this alone. I’m asking for your help.”
“Not until I find us some place safe to stay afterward.”
“Yeah, that might work. I’ll let you know when we’re going to do it. Remember: tell no one, especially my family.”
“I honestly don’t care what he does to me anymore, but I’ll deal with him when I have to. Thank you, Sebastian.”
I couldn’t tell if Cheney hung up or not. I stood in the hallway, holding my breath, waiting for some indication of what he was doing.
“Are you going to eavesdrop from the hallway all morning?”
Damn. I walked into the dining room where Cheney sat at my dining room table in an olive green button up shirt that made his eyes breathtaking. I was still in my pajama pants and tank top, and I hadn’t even brushed my hair. “Good morning.”
“Good morning. Did you sleep well last night?”
I narrowed my eyes and grumbled something like yes. Really, I’d hardly slept at all because I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“You didn’t used to talk in your sleep quite so much.”
My cheeks flamed as I remembered my dream about him. Oh God, what had I said? I rolled my eyes and stalked to the cupboard. It was too early deal with him. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and leaned against the counter while I ate. A few minutes later he joined me.
“Are you giving me the silent treatment?” His lopsided grin made my chest tighten.
“No.” I took another spoonful. “Who was on the phone?”
“A friend.”
Hmph. Vague. I set my bowl to the side and took a step toward him. Cheney was a tough nut to crack. He only told me as much as he wanted me to know, and I was sick of it. He only had one button that I knew of—me.
“Am I too much for you to handle, Cheney?” I ran a finger down his hard chest and looked up through my eyelashes at him—purposefully taunting.
“My feelings for you aren’t something to be toyed with, princess.” He caught my wrist, eyes livid. “I will not be manipulated.”
I felt guilty. “Why do you think I will listen to your friend any more than I listen to you?”
“Sebastian has a better track record of getting you to listen. The two of us have a tendency to be rather—”
“Volatile?”
“I prefer passionate.” He reached up and caressed my face.
I looked away. I hated how he was always scanning my eyes for something else, something more. Every time he searched, he looked for the other me—the me he came back for, not the person who stood before him. It was a constant reminder that I wasn’t who he wanted. No matter what happened between us I would never be her and Cheney hadn’t accepted that. Not that I wanted him or to take her place. I had my own life, my own relationships. Michael.
I went back to the counter and picked up my bowl again. “So what are the plans for today?”
“Don’t have any. What would you usually do?”
“Well, normally, I’d have been at the studio for my first class two hours ago. Right now I’d have the shop open and I’d be working on inventory and book keeping. In a few hours, I’d be making charms and candles—followed by an evening class, then home.”
He tilted his head. “You can’t do any of that.”
“I figured as much.”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m going stir crazy here. You want to get out of the house for a while?”
“Sure. Let me finish my breakfast and get ready.”
I showered and dressed after much internal debate about what to wear. I settled on skinny cargos, a white silk tiered tank, a cardigan, and flats in case we did a lot of walking. “I’m ready. Do I need my purse?”
“You look lovely.” He put his arms around me; moments later we were in the middle of a forest.
The light filtered through the leaves above me, causing them to glow. They waved in a slight breeze and made a rustling sound that begged to be listened to. The damp, mossy smell of the forest was invigorating. Birds chirped, their happy chatter blending with the scampering of small animals frightened by our sudden appearance. The woods were a symphony.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s lovely.”
I turned to smile at him, and he looked different. He was still basically the same, but also not. His hair was as unruly as ever, but his face was completely smooth and his skin glowed with a golden hue. His ears were larger and slanted back in sharp points. I had the urge to reach out and touch them, but I put my hands behind my back instead. He was, in a word, stunning.
“You wanted to see my ears.” His voice was different as well. It was more lyrical and ran down my spine like honey.
“You’re beautiful,” I said without thinking. I was so undone by the change I had no choice but to speak the truth.
Cheney didn’t even crack a smile. “So are you.”
I looked down at myself to see if I looked different here, too. Perhaps this was a magical place that changed the way you looked, but I appeared to be the same old me. “You could have warned me.”
“And missed seeing your reaction? Not a chance.”
“Where are we?”
“We’re in a place long ago hidden from humans and forgotten by elves.”
“But you remember.”
“I am one of few.” He smiled. “Follow me.”
He moved fluidly and unerringly through the forest. I tried to keep up but stumbled clumsily. Cheney slowed down. Taking my elbow, he led me through to one breathtaking place after another. These woods were the most perfect place I had ever seen in my life. We wandered for hours, my eyes wide with each new sight and sound. Cheney pointed out different trees and animals. Being in the forest suited him. He was one with the nature and elements around him. I was the clearly the outsider here. It was a place I could see myself longing to be a part of, and with Cheney I almost believed it was possible.
We came upon old ruins in the process of being reclaimed by nature. Something that resembled a steeple still stood about twenty feet tall but was obscured by the taller trees in the forest. Remnants of walls and windows stood in a vaguely cross-shaped pattern.
“This was a church?”
“Once, long ago.”
“What happened?
“There was a human king who was very much in love with a peasant girl. He wanted nothing more than to be with her, but to do so would dishonor his kingdom. He was expected to marry royalty and advance the kingdom’s power and position. However, he could not marry anyone els
e when his heart belonged to another, so he waged wars against all those who provoked him in the slightest manner. He did anything he could to distract the people from his lack of a wife or heir. He commissioned the secret building of this church in the middle of his forest, never telling anyone in his kingdom of its existence. When it was completed, he waited until midnight on the night of the full moon and snuck away from his castle without his guard or servants. He went to the peasant woman’s house and convinced her to come with him here. He had a minister waiting for the two of them.”
Cheney took my hand and walked me deeper into the church. “The woman was shocked by his brash actions but also happy, for she too loved the king. However, she also had a secret. She revealed herself to be an elf who had been masquerading as human in his kingdom. She professed her love for him, though it would be against the will of her own people. She told him she would marry him only if he stopped the wars he was unjustly waging. The king was furious that she betrayed him by not revealing what she was sooner. He accused her of enchanting him. In his rage, he took her life. Once she was lying dead in his arms, he realized he had not been enchanted at all. He really was in love with her. Devastated, he buried her body and sat beside the grave, never moving, never returning to his kingdom, never nourishing himself until he, too, perished. The elf girl’s family found her grave and the king’s shriveled body lying beside it. They enchanted the forest so humans could no longer see it. After that day no other elves stepped foot in here, thinking the land to be cursed.”
“That…is a horrible story.”
Cheney softly laughed. “Most of the true ones are.”
“That’s so tragic. Why do you come here?”
“Because these woods are not cursed. This is not a story of sadness. It’s a story of love. They both loved each other so deeply, so extremely, that they went to great lengths to deceive everyone else so they could be together.”
“But he killed her.”
“He did, but he also paid the price for that. It does not change the fact they loved one another more than anything else. More than kingdoms, more than race, more than family.”
