by Heather Linn
“Kitten you have to teach these friends of yours better manners, you better go see what she wants. She looks kind of upset.”
“No I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with you just like this. I belong here.” I felt my heart breaking in two. He was getting rid of me and there was nothing I could do to stop him.
“If only it was that simple,” was the last thing that he spoke to me and just like that he was gone and I was floating around, cold and alone back in nothingness.
Chapter Fourteen
When I finally realized I was asleep and needed to wake up, I heard someone saying my name. “Cat please wake up. I need your help! Please wake up!” I couldn’t make myself open my eyes. I licked my lips to try to talk and I realized the woman sitting on my bed calling to me had to be part of my dream too, because I could still taste Akia’s mouth on mine. I decided to snuggle back down into the covers and try to find my way back to him. Besides if the woman shaking me was a dream, she would go away.
After a few more minutes of her pleading for me to help her, I struggled and got my eyes open. Some dreams are just so annoying that you have to give up and wake up to end them before they drive you crazy. Much to my surprise, the woman was still there! She was very much real. I licked my lips; that was real too. I was completely confused. There is nothing scarier than not being able to tell where dreams and reality start and stop. It took me a second to recognize Jewel. The look on her face and the ring she was holding out to me made me instantly alert.
They use to say that everyone in the world had a polar opposite; someone who is a complete 180 degrees different than they are. I truly believed Jewel was my extreme counterpoint; she was the perfect little homemaker; she just had a knack for it. Where I was the rebel who spent 90% of my childhood making trouble for myself and Dr. Walker, Jewel was the teacher’s pet that spent most of her time trying to take care of him and make his life easier. I fought until I got what I wanted to make me happy and she studied to be perfect and please everyone else. I loved being on the front lines with the boys where she was content living in the shadows of the men with the other females. She represented everything that I had despised about our upbringing, yet I couldn’t help but love her with all my heart. After Darien, she would be the next person I would go to if I ever needed a friend. She also held the title of Darien’s mating partner. They had been trying for a while to conceive and I knew one day soon she would be mother to his first born child and the rest of his future family.
The day that she told me she was carrying Darien’s child I was excited for her, or at least I was trying really hard to be. She was waiting to hit the three month mark before she told anyone else. The fact that she trusted me with her secret meant the world to me. I smiled and did the girly thing to the best of my ability. I was happy for her even though I knew that Darien would no longer be mine when their baby arrived. I guess in all honesty, part of me hated her because Darien was promised to her, but the other wiser, less jealous part of me was glad it was her and not one of the other females in the group. If it ever came up, I knew I would trust her with my life, so I guess I should be able to trust her with his.
“Please put this on. I know it is stupid, but when I came in you were dreaming and you said Akia’s name. I know this is probably just a piece of metal but if you wear it, it will make me feel better.”
I would have done anything that she told me right at that moment. She looked so worried and wanting to help that I welcomed the ring she put on my finger. I didn’t know how my dream had happened, but if the Doc’s ring would keep it from happening again, I was all for it. Once it was securely on my finger I felt better. I knew that she did too because she smiled and started talking again.
“Darien came home very upset. He went straight to Dr. Walker’s office and at the top of his lungs demanded that you be taken off the streets. He said you were endangering everyone and that you were falling in love with the Regent. When Dr. Walker tried to calm him down and make him realize that his imagination was getting the best of him and that you were staying right where you were, things got chaotic.” Jewel paused for a brief moment. She was staring at something that I couldn’t see. I was betting she was seeing everything happen again in her mind. “I have never seen Darien act like that. I know that he is hot headed and a little temperamental now and then, but this time he seemed out of control. He was so mad that it was like he was an animal. He was beside himself. This time it was different.” Jewel ended her thought with a shudder. That shudder alone told a tale beyond what her words had described.
“Jewel, just how upset was he? I know him better than anyone else and I have never known him to truly fly off the handle.” As soon as I said that I knew him better than anyone else I wished I could take it back.
The look she gave me crushed me. I was supposed to be making her feel better and with my last comment, her eyes flared even wilder with fright. “Cat, he wasn’t himself. For the first time in my life, I was afraid of him. I tried to go to him, to calm him down, but the more I tried to soothe him, the more he screamed incoherently. It was like he was a wounded animal. I have never seen anyone act the way he did. It was so bad that the screaming stopped only because because his throat was so raw he could no longer go on. He started throwing anything and everything he could get his hands on. No one could stop him, he was crazy with rage. He completely destroyed Dr. Walker’s office. Then as quickly as he had stormed in, he took off. I don’t know where he intended to go, but I am completely positive that it is going to be bad when he finally gets there.”
Jewel was sobbing by the time she was finished filling me in on what I had missed. I think I just sat there staring at her with my jaw on the floor for a full two minutes before I could recover enough from the shock of her story to realize that I should have been trying to comfort her more than I was. After all, she had just braved walking around with the streets full of monsters to give me the heads up. She deserved consolation. She deserved a purple heart of courage.
“Ok Jewel, first things first. You have to calm down. You have a baby to think about; the stress is going to hurt both of you. Darien was being childish. I scared him; that is all. He thought I was dead. You know that we have been friends forever. He was really worried while I was gone. I am sure he is just having a few drinks somewhere trying to blow off some steam, but if it will make you feel better, you can hide out here for the night and I will go find him, beat some sense into him, and bring him back to you where he belongs. Maybe you could surprise him early with the fact that he is going to be a Daddy. I am sure that would calm him down.”
Damn, I was so good at lying; so good in fact, that I almost believed myself. Truth be told, I was really worried about Darien. I had seen him angry quite a few times, but I had never known him to lose control the way Jewel said that he had. I didn’t know that Darien was capable of destroying something as important as Dr. Walker’s office, so I guess I really didn’t know what else he was capable of in his new destructive state. The thought scared me, and I don’t scare easily. Maybe it was time that she told him that she was expecting. He would be so excited by the news that he would forget about me and my problems. Maybe it was time that I grew up. I chose not to be a mating partner. It wasn’t fair for me to keep him from Jewel. She was in all sense of the word his wife and the mother to his soon to be children. I couldn’t compete with that and it wouldn’t be fair to anyone if I tried. As soon as she told him about the baby, I would step out of the picture and let their lives move forward with no more interference from me. Even as I thought it, a little piece of my heart broke. How could I step back from someone that was so close to me that is like we were the same person?
With Jewel hidden safely away for the day, I went off to find Darien and get to the bottom of whatever it was that had him acting that way. Not that I didn’t know it was me, but we had to talk about it. I had to make him understand that I hadn’t pushed him away because of Akia. I didn’t want to ruin our fri
endship and I didn’t want to ruin his future family either. With those two doubts and so much guilt swirling around in my mind, there wasn’t room for thoughts of Akia to have a role in my decisions.
If it had been anyone but Jewel at my door, I would have ignored them. As bad as I felt, it would have taken a lot more than a worried girlfriend to get me out of my bed. Jewel had managed to keep me grounded and calm my anger many times. I owed it to her to at least try to find him. I also needed to get rid of the pain. That pain in the pit of my stomach that told me something bad was going to happen. Despite being worried about Darien, I still had time for a little self-pity. I didn’t know why so much was happening to me at once. I didn’t ask for my life to get more complicated than it already was. In fact, I didn’t even think that was possible. I mean, how much more dramatic could life get than seducing monsters that could kill you with one finger?
I made myself a promise right then and there that I would never again complain about my life. I was going to get to the bottom of all this and then I was going to become a shut-in. There was really no reason for me to leave my apartment. I mean, at least I was safe in there and there wasn’t anyone trying to eat me or be in love with me. Maybe I could get another cat, or twenty, and then live like that woman in one of the movies that Darien and I watched. She was crazy; she never left her house and she talked to the cats like they were human. I could definitely see the plus side to that. My future as a crazy cat woman was looking better and better with every exhausting step that I took.
Chapter Fifteen
Dr. Walker’s office was about ten times worse than Jewel had described it and I hadn’t thought that was humanly possible. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture left upright. Books were ripped off the shelves and scattered throughout the room and all of Dr. Walker’s papers were thrown everywhere, like long forgotten confetti. Everything that had always been in the office was still there; chaotically rearranged, but there, except for one important thing: good old Dr. Walker himself. I would bet my right arm that he had gone to find Darien, just like any other worried father would do, which could easily prove to be a deadly mistake. How could this possibly get any worse? I was singlehandedly risking the lives of everyone in my family every time I went near any of them.
Even if I promised to ignore Akia for the rest of my life, that didn’t mean that he would just as willingly ignore me. In fact, I bet that ignoring him would just make him more determined than ever to get my attention. Besides, would never seeing him again be enough for Darien to forgive me? I knew him better than that. I knew that Darien would not rest until he took Akia’s life. I would have to leave; that was the only way that I could fix everything. Once I found Darien and returned him to Jewel and got Doctor Walker back safe where he belonged, I would leave. I couldn’t handle the Akia thing and I didn’t know if I was brave enough to go to him with the truth. If I did he might kill me, but everyone else would be safe. The only answer was getting as far away from everyone as I could. It would hurt me more than death itself, but everyone else would eventually go on with their lives. Akia would meet some high class monster and he would realize that I was just a passing second class fancy. Darien would hold his first baby in his arms and realize just how much he cared about Jewel. Everyone would be so busy with their own lives that they would forget about me. I would be OK with that, after all, I made my bed and I am the kind of girl that sleeps in it. I would figure out all the details after I found Darien and Walker though, because now I had to focus on the task at hand. If we all got out alive, it was going to be a welcome surprise.
Dr Walker was too old to look like one of the never aging creatures and human servants were only allowed out on the streets to do Dominus errands with a hand-signed pass from their owners. If a servant with no papers was spotted, they would be killed on the spot and questions would be asked after the fact. Doctor Walker was a smart man, but even he wouldn’t be able to talk his way out of such a situation if he got caught. My only hope was that he hadn’t left without at least trying to forge a realistic note. He was way too smart not to think about a note. He was, after all, the only reason that we were all alive. It was his job to take care of all the little details. If it hadn’t been for him always being one step ahead of the dangers around us, none of us would be here. He would never intentionally put himself in harm’s way because he knew that we all depended on him. I had to believe that. If I didn’t, I was going to have a breakdown, and if that happened, I would be of no use to anyone. The thought of not only being responsible for the death of my best friend but also for the only parental figure that any of us had, was way too much to handle. I would never be able to recover from that. I had to convince myself that nothing bad was going to happen, that everything was going to be OK because it had to be. I just hoped that if I was lucky enough to find one of them, the other one would be in tow.
When I got to Darien’s favorite bar, the Spinning Dragon, I was crushed by the realization that this wasn’t going to be as easy as I had hoped. The place was so packed that entire groups of Dominus were spilling out into the parking lot. The place was nice, but it was never this busy. There had to be something really interesting happening inside. Then I got the stabbing pain in my stomach and that is when I knew something was really wrong. I tried not to panic. Somehow I knew that one of them was in there. I didn’t know what was going on but I knew that one of them was in there and in some kind of serious trouble; I could feel it and it felt like a constant tugging in the pit of my rapidly sickening stomach.
Trying to push my way through the crowd of immobile creatures packed in the line out front of the bar proved to be even more of a challenge than I had anticipated. The monsters didn’t get this distracted often. I knew there must be something intensely sinister going on inside that had all of them so fascinated. My first thought was that Dr. Walker had been caught and was being executed. Just thinking that for a second caused a whole new panic to run through me. He was in there being tortured and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it because I couldn’t make a path through the monsters to get to him. I knew that I had to get to him even though I didn’t have a plan as to what to do if he was still alive when I got in there, mainly because I figured it was too late. If he was still alive, I would do whatever it took to get him out, even if it meant turning myself in and letting them kill me just so they would forget him for a second. I would not be able to go back and face my family if I had to tell them that Walker was gone. Death would be a faster less painful punishment. A second would be all he would need to get away, right? For a minute I let myself beg for him to be smart enough to run away if I was brave enough to step up to the plate. I knew that he loved me but he was way too smart to let my death be in vain.
What is it about blood and gore that draws a crowd? No matter what species you are dealing with, the need to see two or more people ripping each other apart can draw a crowd like no other. I didn’t need a crowd right now, I needed a private place to kick Darien’s ass and snap him back into reality. Since I knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy, and since I was use to not getting what I wanted, I was a pro at making plan B’s, C’s, and D’s on the go. When I got inside the club, my panic eased a little. I figured I was on the inside now and no matter what was happening, it was easier to take care of it on the inside than standing on the outside.
All of the Dominus were chanting the word ‘fight’; I had to admit I was a little relieved because I knew Dr. Walker well enough to know that he would never fight one of these creatures. He had enough smarts to know that he could never win. I was finally able to let out the breath that I didn’t know I was holding. The crowd parted slightly and a wave of relief washed over me. I wouldn’t have to die or face my family with news of Dr. Walker’s death because he wasn’t in there.
Just like I expected, the calm feeling disappeared just as quickly as it came. I felt my heart plummet to the floor before my eyes had time to make sense of what they were seeing. Darien was in a
hand to hand battle with one of the monsters, and he was pretty close to losing completely. There was no way that he could win. No matter how many hours a day any of us put into the gym, we would never be able to win a match with even the weakest of the new race. I had to do something before Darien got himself killed or even worse. Someone might sober up enough to realize how truly weak Darien was. How could they not see that no Dominus could lose this badly? I knew that if he was found out, it would lead to a death sentence for me as well because I would never be able to stand by emotionless and watch my best friend being killed just for being human. I didn’t know what to do. Either way, I was going to have to interrupt what was going on or he didn’t stand a chance. I couldn’t live if he wasn’t alive. Even when the time came for me to disappear; I would know that Darien was alive and well, and that would be enough for me. If Darien was dead; that would kill me. That was the only thing that I was certain of.
After weighing out the options in my mind, I settled on the one that I hoped would be the least painful for everyone, and maybe if I was lucky, no one would die either. I didn’t want to ask for too much; there was no reason to come across as demanding. I am bright enough to know that I could never in a million years take the monster that was on the verge of tearing Darien apart down physically, but I was pretty sure that I could get his attention, fawn all over him, and make the little man in his pants want me enough to lure him away from my stupid best friend who was so hell bent on revenge right now that he didn’t realize what he was doing.
I quickly took off my jacket and laid it on the table knocking over a few drinks in the process, but there is no use crying over spilled vodka. Then I undid the buttons on my shirt all the way down to my belly button, leaving only a black lace bra between the eyes of about 100 drunken Dominus men and my full tanned breasts. Not my brightest idea by far, but I knew I had to make it work. If at any time Darien took a blow that would make him bleed we would both be killed. Blood and drunken Dominus can make a vicious mix, so vicious that they will literally tear each other apart if their will power isn’t strong. My open shirt definitely made it a lot easier to move through the crowd. In fact, I wished I’d thought of it earlier. The men were just moving aside with their eyes wide and staring and their mouths agape. Monster or human, it didn’t matter. If you could get their minds on sex; they were putty in the palms of your hands. When I got to the center of the crowd my plan worked a little too well but on the wrong person. Darien looked up at me shocked, surprised and completely distracted; which gave his monster opponent just the chance he needed to hit him hard enough to knock him out cold. I saw the monster draw his leg back to kick Darien in the head and I moved without thinking. If he landed that blow, there was no doubt in my mind that it would kill Darien. A Dominus could walk away from such a blow but Darien, on the other hand, would be killed instantly.
