“A word of caution.” Xin did not raise her voice. “You will overstep; it’s the nature of scientific advancement to overstep. When you do, I know that the person who steps in to fix it will not have Danyael’s patience or compassion.”
Brandon darted a glance at Zara. “Isn’t it illegal?”
Xin shrugged. “You’d be surprised how easily I can make it legal. Be careful.” She turned and walked away. After a moment, Danyael and Zara followed her.
“Damn it,” Danyael murmured as the elevator doors closed on them. “They’re not going to stop.”
“No, but Dr. Shen will be much more careful. Brandon Richards is protected by his wealth and his foreign citizenship. She’s not as fortunate, so she’ll watch her step. They both will, and it’s a good thing,” Xin said.
Zara examined her fingernails as if her manicure were the most important thing in the world. “I can make them stop.”
“Not that way,” Danyael said.
The assassin huffed a sigh. “Sometimes, the simplest method is the only way.”
“Death is never the only way.”
The smile Zara gave her husband was cool and knowing. “We can delay it, even fight it, but in the end, death is all there is.”
Less than twenty-four hours later, beneath the warm glow of the setting sun, Xin and Danyael walked through fields profuse with bright yellow flowers. Several feet ahead of them, Ching Shih, accompanied by Zara and Yu Long, appeared deep in conversation, their words scarcely audible over the chirp of bees and buzz of insects. In the distance, the small village of Wuyuan nestled in the shadow of the mountains.
Here, in the heart of China’s loveliest countryside, the horror and violence that had gripped Zhengzhou seemed far away—more dream than memory.
Xin looked up at Danyael. “Are you and Zara…okay?”
Danyael laughed. “We’re as okay, as normal, as we’ll ever be. We knew, when we fell in love, that we would never find a comfortable professional middle ground.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this mess.”
“I thought I dragged you into it.” He chuckled. “I guess it doesn’t matter.” For a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut. “It could have been so much worse.”
“You could have died.”
“I know.” Danyael looked at Xin. “Thank you for calling Zara.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I—” Sudden coughs racked his body, so deep and wrenching that he had to stop walking, lest he lose his balance. Zara glanced over her shoulder but made no move toward him when Xin reached out to steady Danyael against the jolting shudders.
“Can’t the doctors do anything about it?” Xin asked quietly after the coughs faded into silence.
Danyael shook his head. “The infection damaged my lungs permanently. I’m grateful that most days, it’s no worse than a cough.”
“I am sorry—probably more than you know—about ADX Florence.”
“I know. Apology accepted. Stop beating yourself over the head with it.”
“But you’ll always live with it. Damaged lungs. Nightmares. Your fear of water—”
“How did you—?” He shook his head. “My psych evaluation. Didn’t you have anything else more interesting to read?”
“Just keeping tabs on you.”
“You don’t have to lock me away. I’m not going to snap, Xin.”
“It’s the least of my worries. Do you know what else I saw over the past few days?”
“What?”
“Peace in your eyes and the most breathtaking display of grace under pressure. You’re a little broken on the outside, Danyael, but inside, where it matters, you’ve got it all together.”
A smile, surprised and sweet, spread across his face. “I…is that why you came to China? To check out the extent of the damage?” He gestured to himself.
“No. I wasn’t all that concerned about your stolen blood until I realized you’d left for China. I followed you to keep you safe, though I can’t say I succeeded.”
Danyael lowered his gaze for a moment before meeting her eyes once more. “We won’t find it either, you and me.”
“Find what?” Xin asked, her voice steady in spite of the pressure against her chest.
“Comfortable professional middle ground.”
“Regardless, we found a way to pull together as a team; we saved lives.”
“Yes, we did.” The corners of his mouth tugged up into a smile that warmed his dark eyes. “We should catch up with the others.”
Danyael did not need more words, and neither did she. They walked side by side, their shoulders brushing. The deliberate physical contact—so rare from an alpha empath—clogged Xin’s throat and made her heart ache. The emotional gulf that separated them did not shrink, but the rickety bridge that traversed the vast gap stabilized.
Trust. Respect.
Enough to build a lasting friendship.
Several feet down the path, Ching Shih paused and turned around to look back at Xin. Zara and Yu Long glanced at Ching Shih before continuing without her.
Danyael smiled at Xin. “We’ll see you back in D.C. Why don’t you and your mother come over for dinner on Saturday?”
“Zara’s not cooking, is she?”
“She can’t. You know neither of us can. We’ll order in some pizza; it’ll be a welcome change from pig trotters and cow stomachs.”
Xin laughed. “All right. We’ll do pizza on Saturday. Have a safe flight tomorrow.”
She continued walking, her pace slower than his as he strode past Ching Shih, pausing for a quick conversation, before moving ahead to join Zara and Yu Long.
“You have made your peace with him,” Ching Shih said to Xin as the two women fell into step.
“Is it that obvious?”
“His approval means a great deal to you.”
“Not his approval—I suspect I’ll continue to do things that will piss him off—but our friendship matters. It always did.” She paused and glanced down into the valley at a cluster of buildings secured behind low walls and nestled against the mountain. “Is that it?”
Ching Shih nodded. “Where I was raised. Where you spent the first two years of your life.”
“There are others now living there—clones of Zheng Yi Sao and Fu Hao.”
Regret flickered over Ching Shih’s face. “Your genes are not unique.”
“They never were, but I am,” Xin said. “You made sure of it.” She glanced at her mother. “The premier told me everything he offered you if you had chosen to stay in China with him.”
Ching Shih snorted and dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “He offered me nothing—a golden cage perhaps, instead of one made of bronze—but it was still a cage.” She raised her face to the breeze. “I had never felt more alive than during those few weeks we spent on the run from Wuyuan to Shanghai. And when we arrived in America, there were new challenges.”
“I know the legal battles you fought and won to keep me and raise me with all the privileges of a naturally birthed human.”
“It was necessary.”
“I know everything you gave up for me. I know you love me.
A slight tremble shook Ching Shih’s shoulders.
Xin continued. “I’m still struggling to understand, though, why you kept pushing me away emotionally, even physically.”
“It is the nature of children to leave. It is the nature of queens to be solitary. I was raising a child with the potential to be a queen.”
“But that’s not all it was.”
Ching Shih shook her head. “I remember the pain on Ai Li’s face when she pushed you into my arms. I could almost feel what she felt—the sorrow…the heartbreak of a mother giving up her child. I didn’t know if I could love like that, but I knew I could not survive the pain she was feeling if I lost you.”
“So you told yourself not to get emotionally attached me? How did that work for you?”
If Ching Shih heard the sarcasm in Xin’s voice, sh
e ignored it. She continued, her voice serene and her tone even. “It did not work, because I was already attached. I told myself the relationship was weak and distant, until you asked me to come to China with you.” Ching Shih stopped walking and turned to face Xin. “Why did you?”
“I didn’t know you. You were the one person I never understood. I attributed the differences to age and to culture, and I thought that if we were in China together, I might see the world through your eyes, and perhaps see you.”
“What is there to see but the truth?” Ching Shih laughed, the sound quiet and sad. “When you spoke about the lack in your life—how you did not have a mother like your friends—I knew I had to tell you everything about Ai Li, your mother. How she truly loved you. How she died for you.”
Xin reached for Ching Shih’s hand and entwined their fingers. “I’m glad you told me about Ai Li, but there is no lack in my life. My mother raised me with love, protected me from the jiangshi, and would have died for me. Like Zheng Yi Sao, you escaped from a gilded cage and carved your own place in history. You raised me to carve mine.” Xin bowed her head in a gesture of profound respect. “I am honored to call you my mother.”
Shock widened Ching Shih’s eyes, and her chest heaved as she exhaled. “I am proud…very proud of you.” For a moment, her smile was tender with affection, before quirking up in good humor. “Zheng Yi Sao, however, would be disappointed with us.”
“Oh?”
“We may have carved our places in history, but we didn’t get rich from it.”
Xin burst into laughter. She linked her arm through her mother’s. “We already have more than we need, and I’ll make sure you retire wealthy. After all, I am the daughter of a pirate queen.”
The End
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Intrigued by the assassin, Zara, and the alpha empath, Danyael? Their tumultuous relationship begins in Perfection Unleashed (Double Helix #1)
* * *
www.jadekerrion.com
About the Author
Jade Kerrion defied (or leveraged, depending on your point of view) her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Philosophy, as well as her MBA, to embark on her second (and concurrent) career as an award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance author.
Her debut novel, Perfection Unleashed, published in 2012, won six literary awards and launched her best-selling futuristic thriller series, Double Helix, which blends cutting-edge genetic engineering and high-octane action with an unforgettable romance between an alpha empath and an assassin.
Earth-Sim and Eternal Night won first place Royal Palm Literary Awards in the Young Adult and Fantasy categories respectively. Life Shocks Romances features Jade’s sweet and sexy contemporary romance series, which proves that, at the very least, she knows how to alphabetize books.
If she sounds busy, that’s because she is. Jade writes at 3 a.m., when her husband and three sons are asleep, and aspires to make her readers as sleep-deprived as she is.
www.jadekerrion.com
Secrets Of The King
Gina Watson
Secrets of the King © copyright 2017 Gina A. Watson
* * *
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Secrets of the King
Are the secrets worth her life? Or will Mal risk it all for glory?
When Mal is hired to do a job that no assassin would ever touch, she is thrown into a world filled with secrets that could get her thrown in jail.
Or worse, killed.
Under the alias, Callie, Mal rises to the position of Advisor to the King but her limits are tested when someone is onto her and the secrets she uncovers.
1
It was almost time to fight. As I looked out the window of the room I now claimed as my changing room, the other entrants were starting to line up. Most of them were big brute type men, ones you could count on as guards and in war, but in a match with someone small and nimble like me, they couldn’t compare. I didn’t even know why I was bothered with the tournament in the first place. I had proven myself worthy with my guard duty for the past two years; I had won over two hundred fights just in our guard training alone, but still, it was what had been decided, and if I wanted to get where I needed to be, I had to compete.
Turning back towards the mirror that had been placed in the room for me, I tied my brown hair back from my face and got ready for my fight. I wrapped thin, white tape around my knuckles to help soften the blow on my hands and make it easier to grip a weapon and made sure none of my clothing was loose and could be used against me in the fight. Then, when a whistle sounded from the next room, I knew it was time for the first round to begin.
I stood in an open area of the training room. All our usual equipment had been moved for the tournament and had been replaced with fighting mats and moveable walls filled with weapons. As the other seven entrants lined up beside me, we were greeted with the familiar face of our Captain. He paced up and down the line, looking each one of us in the eyes. When he got to me, he smirked.
“Men, this tournament is to determine who will become King Jarrett’s new advisor and personal guard. You have all signed up because you believe you are best for the position, I will be the judge of that.”
When he finished speaking he stopped in front of me.
“I didn’t think you would join the tournament.”
“Of course I would, sir. There’s nothing like going up against the best to prove how good you truly are,” I said, smiling my usual sarcastic smile.
“Well, Callie, you are going up against the best we have. Ones you have never faced before, so let’s see how you all go matched up together.”
As Captain Malik walked away from me, I swore I heard him laugh. Facing us again, he picked out the first pairing and ordered one of them to pick a weapon. One guard I had seen before, named Kade, walked up to the weapons wall and picked two training long swords and handed the second one to Malik, who passed it over to Kade’s opponent. The other guard’s eyes fell to the ground. My guess, he wasn’t strong with a sword. They faced each other on the ends of the fight mat with their hilts in their hands. They bowed, and the fight began. Kade advanced first, his whole torso leaned foward as he held the blade ready to strike. With three swift blows to the other guard’s blade and body, he had already dropped his sword. He scrambled to pick it up before the match was called. I could almost see the sweat beading on his face and neck. Kade didn’t wait for his opponent to be ready again; he went on strike and hit him with a few more blows to his side. He grunted and shrieked before dropping his sword again and falling to the floor. He begged for the fight to be over with his hands in front of his face, and I swear I saw tears streaming from his eyes. What a wimp, I thought. With the first fight down, Malik chose the next pairing.
“Callie and Nate, you’re up. Callie, pick the weapon you both will use.”
I could see the swords hanging on the wall in front of me. Their blades glinted in the faint lighting of the training room. I hid the smugness on my face. They were my speciality, and no one had ever defeated me with them. I picked two short swords off the wall and handed the other to my opponent. Malik looked at me and shook his head. I wasn’t one for rules. Before the tournament
began, each guard competing was told to choose a weapon that wasn’t their specialty, but as none of the other guards knew me, I used that to my advantage and Malik knew it. I stopped at my place on the edge of the mat and waited for Nate to be ready. I looked in his eyes and didn’t see an ounce of fear. You will be scared when I’m finished with you. I gave him a slight smile before my bow, and as soon as I saw his head come back up, I advanced. My light footing allowed me to ease across the mat with precision. With my weapon ready, I attacked. I drew my sword across my body and aimed for his midsection, which was easier to hit, but Nate was fast. He drew his blade up to protect himself, and my blade collided with his. The twang of the metal clashing in mid-air exhilarated me for the next attack I could do.
I spun in place and took Nate off guard. Holding my foot out low, I set him off balance for a moment, giving myself another opportunity to attack. I lifted my sword and swung it down at an angle, hitting his arm and making it harder for him to defend. Nate recovered quickly and slashed his blade across my body, the dulled blade still sliced through my clothes and slightly into my stomach, leaving a mark. I winced with pain for a split second before realising I needed to attack again or the fight would be finished. I steadied my feet and advanced. Our blades clashed in the air again. Using my speed, I spun around the back of him and attacked his sides, sending him stumbling forwards. He turned to face me, but with one more spin, I had him. My sword clashed with his in mid-air on the return, but instead of a head-on hit, I lifted the sword higher and ripped his own weapon out of his hands. The metal blade hit the solid floor with so much force the impact echoed throughout the room. The onlookers were stunned, their eyes held wide and their mouths dropped open. I knew they didn’t expect a girl like me to win such a fight.
I took off, not wanting to watch the rest of the matches for today. Sitting in my makeshift dressing room, I could hear the twang of metal on metal and the grunts of the other entrants. I fixed my wounds quickly and was ready when Malik called us back into the training room. By the time the day’s fights were over, four contestants had been eliminated, and they sat at the side of the room, attending to their wounds.
Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection Page 59
