Forever (Descendants of Ra: Book 4.5)

by Tmonique Stephens

  She stroked Tirrika and caught her reflection in the restaurant window. The petite blonde staring back was what the public saw. The sacred relic gave her the power to blend in, not be the fugitive cop on the run with her lover.

  Alexis’s hand fell away from the necklace. Without the anu’Ra, she was an ordinary woman. A fugitive in love with a fugitive.

  She’d met Reign and her normal world had been completely erased to be rebuilt into a universe full of Gods and Demi-Gods. From detective to monster hunter. Strange dichotomy.

  She eased a breath past the sudden knot in her chest. So much of herself had been lost and was irretrievable. Her family: Not that she had ever been particularly close to her three brothers and her parents. Her freedom: She was a wanted criminal, but the anu’Ra, a gift from Reign’s mother, the Goddess Nu, allowed her more freedom than anyone on the planet. Her career: She loved being a detective. Now, fighting evil had new meaning since her life became entwined with the Nicolises.

  She’d gained so much, yet lately, one question kept circling her mind: Was it worth it? An unequivocal yes always leapt from her lips. She voiced the affirmation, giving the word more conviction than keeping the three letters locked behind her teeth.

  So why couldn’t she sleep at night?

  And why could she say yes and walk away from her life, and not say yes to the love of her life? The future terrified her, that’s why. The new homes on the lakefront, she didn’t want to leave her grandmother’s house and move to RockGate.

  Was that sentiment because the cottage meant so much to her or she was just afraid to leave? It was the one thing she had of the past she wanted to keep, even though it rooted her to a place when her future waited to be claimed.

  “I still can’t get over Avery’s expression when we veered into Pussycats.” Ridley laughed. She had passed tipsy a few drinks ago.

  Emeline snorted the ginger ale she sipped. “The wall of dildos and vibrators blindsided him.” She polished off the last bit of crème brûlèe cheesecake.

  “And the nude anatomically correct male doll.” Stella choked between giggles.

  Downward spiral redirected, Alexis said, “Dressed only in chaps!”

  “Was the pubic hair real?” Emeline said to Ridley.

  “How the hell would I know? I wasn’t gonna touch it.” Ridley shuddered.

  The horror on Ridley’s face had Alexis holding her side, laughing uncontrollably. She breathed through her mouth and had to look away. If she looked at any of the women sitting around her, she’d pee on herself. Instead, she focused on the Range Rover parked outside the restaurant. That was a mistake because Avery was sitting in the driver’s seat. The questioning frown on his face set off another round of giggles.

  A body came flying out of the bar across the street. Male. Brown hair. Muscular by the tight tee shirt, Alexis did a quick assessment. He rolled over the hood of a parked sedan, seemed to bounce on the asphalt, and then land with a heavy thud near the solid yellow line down the center of the street. Her breath caught as a car skidded. Tires squealed. The horn blared. At the last second, the car swerved around the man and kept going.

  A crowd poured out of the bar as the roadkill volunteer staggered to his feet. His distinctive laugh reached through the pane glass window of the restaurant, causing a chill to race down Alexis’s spine, and her heart kicked into overdrive.

  It’s not possible. He couldn’t be here.

  She rose and the chatter at the table silenced. Someone said her name, asked what was wrong. She couldn’t answer. Her focus remained fixed on the man now blocking traffic. He stumbled and threw out his hands to steady himself. Drunk was another unusual occurrence, rarely seen from her siblings, yet there was Thomas, the youngest of her trio of older brothers, so sloshed he wobbled.

  Were George and John, her other brothers, with him? A quick survey of the swelling crowd and she didn’t spot either. If they were here, they’d never leave him in this condition. Then again, he hadn’t exited the bar under his own steam. Where were his friends? The Navy didn’t drink alone. They brought friends to guard their backs. It was Fleet Week in New York. That could be the reason he was in the city, except what were the chances he was here at the same time as she?

  And who was he yelling at? She moved around Ridley’s chair and ran past the waiter, bringing more drinks to the table, and the hostess. Outside, she halted on the sidewalk, struck by the sight of Helen, Thomas’ wife . . . standing next to another guy? A guy with a crew cut and plenty of muscles who wasn’t drunk. Crew cut closed the distance between himself and Thomas. She took a step to intervene, and Avery blocked her path.

  He grabbed her shoulders. “What the hell are you doing?”

  The sound of fists meeting flesh and the roar of the crowd filled the air. She couldn’t see who hit whom. She jerked away and tried to get around him, but Avery wouldn’t budge. “That’s my brother!” she fumed.

  That got Avery to turn around. Thomas was on his feet while Helen held crew cut back. Blood leaked from a gash on the side of her brother’s face. He bent over and coughed blood all over the asphalt and himself.

  Avery latched onto her arm and shook his head. “I don’t care who that is. I’m not letting you get involved.”

  Letting me? Tirrika hissed, responding to Alexis’s blistering rage. The dual-headed serpent shifted, ruby and jade eyes targeted Avery. No one, living or dead, let Alexis do anything. Avery’s gaze dropped to the necklace. Ink crawled up his neck until he inhaled a slow breath. Alexis snatched her arm away. “Even without this necklace, I can take care of myself, so back off, Avery.”

  She walked over to Thomas and tapped his shoulder. “Hey, there.”

  He lurched around, squinted, and blinked a few times. “Hey, there yourself. Damn, you’re sexy.” He lisped through a split lip.

  He didn’t see his red-headed sister. He saw the blonde illusion the anu’Ra had created.

  “We should get out of here, get to know each other better.” He slurred and threw an arm around Alexis’s shoulder.

  Leaning heavily on her, he shouted, “See, Helen. You ain’t the only bitch in the world. I got women coming out the fucking woodwork for me. I can get any woman in here I want.” He waved at the crowd.

  “So leave, go with the skank. I don’t give a damn. I got a man and he’s one hundred times the man you are.”

  “Since when can you count that high?” Thomas coughed up more blood.

  “Since I found someone with a dick bigger than two inches,” Helen yelled.

  The crowd lapped it up.

  Thomas lunged at his wife. Alexis tried to haul him back and was too late, he was already in Helen’s face. Helen’s boyfriend slammed a fist into Thomas’ jaw. Thomas went down and so did Alexis. Her brother landed on top of her, but he scrambled up, caught the man around the waist, and threw him onto the crowd.

  A brawl erupted with Thomas, Helen, and her new man taking center stage. Halfway to her feet, someone knocked into Alexis. She landed on her knees, pebbles digging into her kneecaps. Tirrika, her anu’Ra, and serpent guardian, awakened. The dual-headed necklace slithered around her neck, agitated. Appearing in front of the public in a golden suit of armor and matching sword wasn’t a good idea regardless of her current situation.

  She almost yelled for Avery’s help, but he was the God of Chaos, not the god of chill out. His help would only make things worse. She spotted him anyway, tossing a body out of his way. Someone else tackled him from behind. She said a quick prayer that he wouldn’t lose his temper and tried climbing to her feet.

  Another body collided with her. She went down beneath two people. Someone stepped on her hand. The agony raced up her arm. Tirrika hissed, reacting to her pain. It wanted retribution. She sent a calm thought to the relic and shifted her body. The move should have given her enough room to slide free except whoever had landed on her weighed a ton. She could barely breathe and couldn’t move.

  Tirrika strained against her authority. Pr
ogrammed to protect her, Alexis’s control wouldn’t last. Where was Stella? Ridley? Anybody! She couldn’t hold on much longer, and that meant she’d definitely make the morning news.

  GIANT SNAKE LOOSE IN NYC. FUGITIVE DETECTIVE SPOTTED IN LITTLE ITALY.

  Suddenly, the weight lightened. Air filled her lungs. Before she shoved the last person off her chest, the body was tossed across the street. Its journey ended when it became the new hood ornament on a Lexus. A familiar pair of black combat boots came into view. She looked up and there stood Reign in all his blue-eyed, dark wavy haired, six-foot eight-inch glory. He was furious, yet his hands were gentle when he pulled her to her feet.

  She noticed the silence and the people still slugging it out. The brawl continued around them, yet not a sound reached her. Reign had shielded them from the world.

  “Why are you—how did you get here?” She demanded answers.

  His eyes were midnight instead of their usual ocean blue. A muscle ticked in his jaw, and his nostrils flared in conjunction with a scowl twisting his lips. “What were you doing with that man?” He pointed at Thomas.

  The brawl seemed to have sobered her brother up. He was upright and slugging away. Bloody and still battling. Alexis was pissed and proud at the same time.

  “You let him touch you.” Menace oozed from Reign in tangible waves.

  He’s jealous, she realized. She’d never seen this side of him. The girly part of her preened. The practical part of her snapped, “That isn’t a man. That’s my brother, Thomas.”

  The fury bled from Reign’s face, and he glanced at her brother again.

  “You met him once, at the country club the night your girlfriend, Nephythys, kidnapped me, remember?” She poked his chest.

  “Truthfully, no. All I remember is you,” Reign said a bit sheepishly. Helen’s boyfriend had Thomas pinned and was pummeling his face. Reign released their protective bubble. Screams, the crunch of bodies hitting cars, and flesh hitting flesh, the sounds of the battle returned. Reign kicked Helen’s boyfriend to the side. He hoisted Thomas to his feet and slung him onto his shoulder. In the blink of an eye, they were on the sidewalk half a block away, watching the police arrive.

  The girls, Avery and EJ walked up to them. “Are you all right, Alexis?” Avery asked.

  “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “Someone bumped into Emeline and—”

  “I almost fell and Avery lost it.” Emeline cut him off. She held his hand, seemed to anchor him, but it was too late for the neighborhood. A storefront window shattered, followed by two more. People were on top of cars, brawling. The area had descended into complete chaos.

  Avery pointed at the growing mayhem. “This is the result of my loss of control. “Sorry,” he said, his attention on the slew of additional police cars whizzing past.

  Alexis squeezed Avery’s arm. “No. It’s my fault for dragging you into this mess, but thank you for having my back.” He gave her a weak smile.

  “We need to leave.” EJ pointed and led the women away with Avery guarding the rear.

  “What do you intend to do with your brother?” Reign asked as they trailed behind the group.

  Alexis thought fast. “Well, we can’t take him to the townhouse and expose everyone to him. That leaves Grandma’s house.”

  Another blink and they were inside her Grandma’s cottage home on the Westchester County border. Reign dumped Thomas on the sofa and strode into the half bathroom behind the staircase.

  Alexis dropped down next to her brother. Half of his face was swollen and already bruising. He’d wake black and blue by the morning. Quickly, she checked for broken bones. She didn’t find any, but she wasn’t a doctor.

  “You need to heal him,” she said when Reign returned with a damp face towel.

  “No.” He handed her the towel.

  “What? Why?” She glanced at him.

  “He needs to remember his actions. He’s so intoxicated, he may not. The bruises will be a reminder of tonight’s events, otherwise, it will be your word against his, and who do you perceive he will side with?”

  Damn it! Reign had a point. Thomas was skunk drunk. Recalling anything that happened tonight would be a miracle. “Let’s get him into a bed to sleep it off.”

  Before she could move, Reign had Thomas in his arms again. They vanished and footsteps echoed overhead. She listened to the bedsprings creak on the old mattress in the spare bedroom, and then the door slammed closed. Reign returned to the living room and leaned against the nearest wall. His arms folded against his broad chest, making him seem bigger and more threatening. His face devoid of emotion, he was a brick wall.

  Yet, fear wasn’t an emotion she associated with Reign. Yes, he was fearsome to the average person, intimidating with all that muscle and brooding countenance. To her, he was Reign. The man she loved, even when he scowled, his eyebrows lowered over his deep blue eyes, drilling into her, as they currently were.

  Alexis threw up her hands. “What? You couldn’t expect me to leave him there to get arrested or beaten to death.”

  Reign continued to stare. His silence a bigger accusation than a shouting match.

  “All right, then. What would you have done in my shoes?” She dared him to come up with a better answer. And it had better not be she should’ve left her brother in the middle of the street to die when he damn sure wouldn’t have done the same to Roman or any member of the family.

  Finally, he sighed and his gaze softened. “I would have done nothing different. However, the consequences remained the same.”

  Yeah. Consequences. She could appear to him as the blonde he’d come on to when he awakens, let him think he’d scored, then shoo him on his way. Good plan, too bad it made her nauseous.

  Elation flooded her at the first glimpse of her brother. A person would think years had passed instead of months. Seven months. Longer periods of time had transpired between their visits. His military career had taken him all over the world. There were emails, occasional text messages, Instagram, and Facebook. They kept in touch more than any of their other siblings.

  Actually, so desperate for their forgiveness and a chance to explain, she would’ve been grateful to see any of her brothers and her father. Especially her father. Her mother...

  Yanked out of her thoughts, she refocused on Reign. “You should go. There’s no need to expose both of us and place the Nicolises at risk. I will deal with my family.”

  There, she said it. She had her family and he had his. She knew it would come to this and the inevitable choice. Defeat chipped away at her. She shoved it aside to deal with at a later time when no one would see her tears.

  She barely stopped herself from squirming under Reign’s penetrating stare. “You are my family, Alexis. I had thought you considered me part of yours.” His voice rumbled low.

  Her breath caught at the unmistakable hurt in his voice. She did consider him her family. Reign was everything her brothers and parents weren’t. His love was the balm her soul hadn’t needed until he gave it to her. Supportive, understanding, compassionate, all of those adjectives applied to him, while she couldn’t say the same about Clan Lever. Cold, unforgiving, judgmental, controlling, and brutally ambitious, that summed up her kin.

  She was just like them. Before Reign, she’d locked down her heart, judged everybody through lenses colored by her mother’s bitter tongue. She chose law enforcement because chasing bad guys was better than examining the potholes in her life, potholes she couldn’t avoid when not on the clock. So, she took extra shifts, worked harder than everyone else and made detective in record time. The job demanded more of her, and she willingly gave it. Anything to fill the yawning emptiness. Her job had been her world. Being a detective was everything she wanted.

  Now, she loved hunting quimaera. The loss of control she felt upon meeting Reign had ended. She had more control over her life now than she’d ever had at any point. She didn’t think she was judgmental, cold, or unforgiving, but neither was her mother at Alexis�
�s age—so she’d been told. People change, sometimes for the better. A lot of times for the worst.

  I won’t turn out like her.

  Only time would tell.

  He held out his hand to her. Confused, she clasped it and allowed him to pull her to her feet. His lips brushed hers without the usual heat. A kernel of fear rooted in her heart. Had she pushed him away? Was this goodbye? Of their own accord, her fingers curled into his shirt, refusing to let him go.

  “Tonight, we sleep. Tomorrow, we tell him the truth about us,” he murmured against her lips.

  Relief flooded her and then dried to sand as his words registered. The truth? “What if he can’t deal with it? What if he puts us in jeopardy? Puts you in jeopardy?” She couldn’t handle that.

  “If your brother has any of your strength, he will accept everything you tell him.” He grabbed her chin and tilted her head. “No more talk about your brother or our families.”

  He ravished her mouth with deep thrusts of his tongue. His kiss released a firestorm of emotion: Lust, love, desperation until, breathless, she clung to him whimpering. Hot skin warmed her front. Cool air chilled her back and ass. She was naked and grateful her man was able to achieve the feat with a mere thought.

  Her nipples tightened even as her breasts flattened against his unyielding chest and his erection wedged between their straining bodies. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He carried her upstairs, his cock teasing her soaked lips had her hips rocking against the length. She yelped from a smack to her ass.

  “Behave or I will take you right here, your brother be damned,” he said in a rough growl and thrust against her clit.

  A shudder went from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. How she loved when he did that. A throaty laugh escaped and she gave a tug to his short beard. He crossed the threshold of their bedroom and she was airborne. A single bounce on the mattress and she was sandwiched between a hard chest and a soft duvet.

  He rolled her nipples between his knuckles, a tiny torture she adored, then he lowered his mouth and suckled each to throbbing peaks. She arched, moaned, and clamped her hand to the back of his neck because his touch wasn’t close to being enough. She needed the abrasion of his beard on her flesh.