Cloud Riders (Lord of the Planets)

by Debbie Behan

  Further into the ranges, they pulled up in the car park of FortesqueFalls. Here they had to walk down a steep trail leading to the waterfall. Down the path, the foliage increased in density. The tropical plant life was a lovely contrast against the iron ore-rich walls, in shades of deep purple to earth reds. Finally the pathway opened up to a breathtaking sight of spring-fed pools beneath the stunning FortesqueFalls.

  It looked so inviting that Cassie kicked off her shoes and tossing her dress aside, dove into the cool, clean water. She enjoyed the fresh feel against her skin and the taste of spring water on her lips. On coming up for air, waves of water exploded all around her as the boys bombarded her. Boys will be boys, she thought, giggling.

  After the dip, they walked up another path and turned right to the fern pools about ten minutes away. Here they could only admire the perfect bush setting: so green and lush around sparkling pools. They all sat and soaked in the beauty of nature at its most healthy, relaxing in the sun, deep within their own thoughts.

  Woody was the first to speak. ‘What was it like spending time with your dad? Is he as wicked as they say?’

  She nudged him. ‘How did you know that was who I was thinking about?’

  ‘Just a guess,’ he said, looking out at the kids playing under the waterfall. He too would have been thinking of Ella. They both had a lot to work through; maybe they could help each other.

  She turned to him, crossing her legs. ‘In so many ways he was just a dad and nothing more, a parent who showed his daughter what it would have been like to have had a real father. I felt special and loved.’

  ‘So, then the princess felt sad to leave even though she knew he was really just a mean old tyrant who was to be her enemy.’

  Cassie looked up at Kayden who was sitting on a rock near them and frowned. ‘It was so hard. I’ve never had a parent love me before and it really tugged at my heartstrings to have to leave,’ she sighed and dropped her shoulders, feeling the real worry.

  Kayden stood up and pulled her to her feet. ‘Cassie I’m so proud of you for what you did for us but seeing your father again will make you confused. Know that I have to take that decision out of your hands. As your boss I have to insist that for the time being you should steer clear of Aldebaran. You need time to get over him. You have to get your head back into the game. There’s a major war going on up there and we need you to be thinking clearly. Okay?’

  She knew he was right but she hated him for saying it. ‘Dad said you’d keep me away from him and believe it or not, he does understand why. That being said, I do need time to sort out my feelings for him. He really threw me a curveball, being so sweet and kind when I was expecting an angry wizard to cast a spell on me or something along those lines. To fight against him is going to be tough if I soften too much towards him.’

  Kayden hugged her for her bravery. She was obviously having a hard time with it, more than he had thought. The guy must have really done a number on her because she was usually good at picking up on bad karma and Kayden knew he was one of the worst.

  Cassie suddenly felt overwhelmed with the heartbreak of losing another parent. She started to shake and cried for a very long time. She cried for a father who could have been her saviour as a child and for a life that would never be because he could not be the father she now needed him to be. She had let him love her and she had returned it without question. Now home, reality hit and she to let it go as nothing good would ever come of their strong bond while they fought on opposite sides.

  When she finally calmed down she felt better, as if all the sadness had finally run out with her tears. Cheering up, she realised that she had brought everyone down and decided to cheer the team back up. All of a sudden, she put a big grin on her face and giggling, she wriggled from Kayden’s arms and ran full pelt into the spring.

  Woody reached her first. ‘You’re crazy, girl. You had us all worried sick,’ he chuckled.

  ‘I’m better now. As if I’m going to let my personal life totally spoil our trip! I want to remember it as being fun.’

  He shook his head, grinning. ‘You asked for it then.’ With that, he lifted her up, tossing her high into the air. The others had joined them and she caused some frenzy as they all fought to catch her.

  The sun was high up in the sky by the time they headed back to the car park. They were all still fooling around and Cassie stirred Ethan up so badly that he and Jason grabbed her. While Jason held her down, Ethan wrote in a black marker on her stomach, ‘Bad Girl’. When they let her up, she lifted her shirt to have a look and to proudly show off his artwork. He had written it in calligraphy and it actually looked quite cool.

  ‘I’m not washing this off, you know.’ She danced around, admiring it. ‘Actually, that gives me an idea. Seeing I’m a part of the team now I should be initiated into it. Let’s go to a tattoo shop so I can get the Cloud Riders emblem you all have on your arms.’

  Kayden reached for her and grabbed her around the waist. ‘You’re such a little rebel. The guys can’t do anything to upset you, can they?’ He looked over at Ethan. ‘Now, what have you started?’

  ‘She’d look sexy with tats,’ Ethan laughed.

  Kayden punched him in the arm and then gave Cassie a very seductive look. ‘I know.’

  ‘Then we can go straight there on the way home? I saw a tattooist on the way here,’ she nagged.

  ‘I guess it won’t hurt to at least take you there to have a look. It might frighten the hell out of you and make you change your mind.’

  She nudged Ethan, seeing as he was the one she had been stirring all the way back from the waterfall. ‘What do you think?’

  He grinned. ‘Might be worth seeing you in pain. Might just shut you up for a bit.’

  Kayden bent down and talked quietly. ‘If you really want this, you know I won’t stop you. However, I must warn you that I’m very partial to a woman with a tattoo. Therefore, don’t go holding me responsible for my actions if you look too hot. Are we clear, gorgeous?’

  She hugged him, laughing. ‘Promises, promises!’

  ‘Well it looks like we have a date with our tattooist,’ he grinned. My woman got me all excited, we’re going now. Stuff the food. Get your selves in the car. He grabbed the keys and moved her quickly over to the car. If you lot aren’t in and doors closed by the time I’ve buckled her in, you lot can walk home. He chuckled to himself as he relayed the message to the men only.

  ‘You do know after the needles stop jabbing it smarts like a burn,’ Ethan warned as he jumped in the Hummer. The boss wasn’t going to give her a chance to change her mind. He was keyed up and that meant leaving the horror stories for the rest of them to tell so as to maybe put her off.

  ‘Shh,’ she said, putting her hand to his lips. ‘I don’t want to know. I want the team symbol. End of story. No scaring me or the lot of you can wait outside.’

  ‘I’m not waiting outside, Cassie. Those stirrers can though. I want to see it happen so don’t think for one minute that you’re going to spoil my fun. No damned way!’ Kayden grumbled, amusing her.

  ‘We all want to see!’ Woody added.

  She shook her finger at them. ‘You’re all bitches and sadists. Okay, but you have to behave.’

  ‘Promise,’ they agreed, hitting each other.

  ‘Like she’s dumb enough to think we’ll shut our traps,’ Jason joked.

  Pulling up at the tattooist, Cassie was a bit nervous but she put her mind at rest knowing that it would be over in an hour, after which she would be walking out of the shop with the Cloud Rider marking.

  Marco the tattooist was a good friend of Kayden’s and had done most of their tats; therefore he knew she was in good hands. The guys pulled up chairs to watch, making jokes and taking bets on how long it would be before the poor guy was zapped into the shop next door when he hurt her. He was a funny character and she liked him. When he finally asked her where she wanted it, there was no other choice. Kayden had already decided it would look better below
her belly button, close to her right hip but smaller and more feminine. Kayden seemed very pleased with that spot and shook his head at any other suggestion. ‘My girl, my spot!’ He refused to listen. Cassie didn’t care, just so long as it was on her somewhere. So she lay back and Marco started the artwork.

  It was a little over two hours by the time he switched off the gun and the damned needles stopped striking her skin. It wasn’t something she would ever want to do again, especially in such a tender spot. Ethan was right: it now just felt like a bad case of sunburn but she would heal quickly and admiring it in the mirror, she was happy with the result.

  Without warning she started to feel a bit light-headed and Kayden caught her, snatching her gently up in his arms. ‘You alright, gorgeous?’

  ‘Your princess is sore and sick of being tough.’ She dropped her lip. ‘I think I need spoiling now.’ She gave a girlie smile and his eyes melted. She could tell he loved that she had dropped the hard-core act and needed him.

  Arriving back at the farm to drop the guys off, she felt tender and not very sociable. All she wanted was for Kayden to take her home so that she could just feel miserable and sore all by herself. However, they had other plans. The guys knew what she would be feeling and were refusing to let her be miserable. They propped her on their couch with pillows and told her to sit still while they organised cinema food and a movie. They fed her hot dogs and ice cream while watching a chick flick. How they had one in the house was beyond her. She had thought she would have to watch a rerun of Seinfeld or a gory man movie. She cheered up that they had gone to such an effort.

  Dawn was beginning to throw light across the sky when she woke the next morning. They’d made her sleep all night on the couch to prevent her from rolling over in her sleep, hurting herself. What she hadn’t realised was that they had all crashed there on the floor around her. Aw, that is so sweet, she thought, looking around the room at everyone sleeping. She found Kayden wrapped up in a sleeping bag right beside the couch. She sat up and groaned with the tenderness.

  Kayden sat up. ‘Are you alright, honey?’ he said a bit groggily.

  ‘Sorry I woke you. I am okay, just moved too quickly,’ she whispered.

  ‘You don’t have to whisper,’ Woody said. ‘We’re like doting parents waking at your every murmur. Boy, you talk a lot in your sleep.’ He chuckled and she heard little sniggers from around the room.

  ‘Shut up! What did I say?’

  They all laughed.

  ‘You were growling most of the night at Marco, calling him everything,’ Jason stirred.

  Kayden chuckled. ‘Enough, guys. You didn’t move all night, honey, they’re just being stirring shits.’

  She threw back her covers. ‘Well, if it’s okay by my doting dads, I have to make a trip to the bathroom,’ she giggled with them.

  Kayden helped her to stand up and it pulled a bit on the tattoo. She groaned. ‘Next time I get a dumb idea like this, remind me not to.’

  ‘And that would stop you?’ Kayden asked, still fussing over her.

  The boys were all sitting up now, watching. They had her going—now it was their turn. She walked a little bent over and complained a bit. Then looking back at their concerned faces she stood up straight and smiled. ‘Gotcha!’ she giggled as she went up the stairs.

  She heard them all laughing. Woody just shook his head. ‘Little bitch! She had us all going for a minute. I’m going to slap her backside when she comes back down.’

  Kayden got all defensive, ‘Like hell you will! No one touches her sexy tush but me.’

  Later that day, Kayden checked her tattoo and took off the bandage and they all came over for a look.

  ‘She’s like us, now,’ Jason said. ‘Heals fast now she’s linked with our team magic.’

  Cassie grinned, happily looking down at it. ‘It does look cute though, hey?’

  ‘Just wait until I have you on your own and I’ll show you cute you are,’ Kayden whispered in her ear before getting up to help with dinner. The BBQ smelt delicious and Cassie lay back, relaxing and sipping her cocktail while she waited. As the evening stars glittered in the sky, she wondered what mischief her father was conjuring up. He’d be bored now that she was gone and would no doubt be up to no good.

  Woody came and sat next to her, looking up at what she was studying.

  ‘Do you miss her?’ Cassie asked, turning her head towards him.

  ‘A little, but she’s no good for me.’

  ‘You know why I asked that, don’t you?’

  ‘You want to forget where you left a piece of your heart too?’ Woody said, understanding where she was coming from.

  Cassie nodded. ‘I find it strange that evil can walk both sides—be rotten to the core but also be almost perfect. We that love them can see both sides and yet choose to ignore the evil, preferring to only acknowledge the perfection. They have such an advantage on us. They see us as a challenge, using our kind hearts to get what they want. It’s hard to get over their perfect side, isn’t it?’

  ‘You have it down pat, Cass. We’re players for their amusement and if we dare end it, the rejection drives them insane. They have calculated our every move, not putting a foot wrong. It kills them to think we have worked them out. I’ve not heard the last of my Ella, or you of your father. They view it as a game, one that they lost and will continue to play until they win us back or become bored with it.’

  ‘Tell me, Woodsta, how are we to say no when we see them next in all their perfection, smiling at us like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths?’

  ‘We replace them with a real friend, one who understands because they’re going through the same thing.’

  ‘I’m not alone in this, am I?’

  ‘Not while we have each other.’

  They formed a pact that night that they would drop what they were doing if the other needed them. Cassie was happy she had found a friend like Woody.

  After dinner, they sat around until late, talking. They told Cassie that if she rested one more night to make sure she was over the tattoo, they would go somewhere fun the next day if there was no call-out when the horses were checked in the morning.

  A movie played, although she only watched half of it. She was too excited and tried to guess where they would take her the next day. Being locked up most of her life had made her want to experience anything that was going.

  In the morning she slipped down next to Kayden on the floor and his arms automatically wrapped around her, pulling the cover over them. He kissed her, losing grip on reality as he remembered her tattoo. If the others weren’t in the room he would have made good his threat to her for looking so sexy now with a tat. Damn the men, using this as a team thing and talking me into staying an extra night. He wanted to get up and kick them all awake for being sneaky mongrels and stopping him from having fun. Bastards!

  He moved from her sexy comfort and stretched, sitting up. ‘Feel like coming with me to check the horses?’ he whispered with cunning on his mind.

  She nodded and he stood, taking her hand and quickly pulling her to her feet. Stepping over sleeping bodies, they worked their way out the room. Woody was the only one who stirred. Kayden told him when the others woke to get ready and pick them up from his house. He had other plans in the meantime and left, grinning happily.

  A couple of hours later, they were back in the Hummer and heading off on a new adventure. The day was just starting to warm up as they set off and it was only then that Kayden told her they were going to spend the night on an island where the beach was to die for. Cassie was excited as she had never seen a beach before, never mind swum in salt water. They tried to tell her how bad it tasted and she laughed, not believing them, thinking they were just having a bit of fun with her as they usually did when she didn’t have the experience to know better.

  They went through a little town called Onslow to get to Beadon Point, where she had her first real look at the sea. It was tinged green in the shallow areas, changing to shades
of light blue that blended into indigo blue as it got deeper. Looking at the horizon, the colours seemed to join up with the sky, only broken by a few wispy clouds. From the boat ramp they went a further twenty-two kilometres offshore to the MackerelIslands, which are comprised of ten islands. They stopped at ThevenardIsland: a lovely holiday destination with chalets that ran along the beachfront. These, as she found out, were where they would be staying.

  Jason and Conor threw their gear into a couple of the chalets and they quickly changed and met down by the shore. The guys were taking Cassie on her very first snorkelling experience and couldn’t wait to see her reaction to salt water in her mouth. The beach felt soft under her feet and the sensation of it squishing between her toes she found quite unsettling. Kayden thought her reaction to it was funny and cracked up laughing.

  The rotten sod. She looked up the beach to where there were girls running out of their cabin and into the water. Her mind went into overdrive. This was her chance to get a little alone time with her man. To even out the odds a little she decided to plan a way they could be together, even if she was being a wee bit sneaky with it. But when up against five scheming team members, I am learning to beat them at their own game.

  ‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ she said, heading towards the girls.

  When she made it to them, given the challenge she had walking on sand for the first time, she started chatting to them, asking their names, where they were from and if they wanted to join her and her friends for a bit of snorkelling.

  ‘What! Those hunks? You’re telling us none of them have a girlfriend?’ They seemed gob-smacked and excited. The younger one, Sonia, stayed calm, being the spokesperson for the others.

  Cassie pointed out Kayden. ‘All except that one,’ she warned them. ‘He’s all mine.’