His jaw flexed. “As you wish.”
“I do wish. It seems I need to flick off this foul temper you tend to heap on me.” I didn’t wait a second longer. This was my chance for some much-needed space.
Stepping over the log, I strode off into the dark. What I needed to do was take control of my own situation, because I sure needed some time and personal space to come to grips with my very new, and very dominant, mate. Davio was in my life now, and I understood that.
I had already accepted our bond.
I kept walking, finding the dark eased my discomfort and calmed my mind.
In hindsight, this was what I wanted. I wanted freedom. No, scrub that–what I wanted was what my mother had never had. I wanted a man who would be there to protect me, and sadly, I wanted to know more about the father who’d given me life and then walked away from me. I had a past to put to bed before I could embrace my future. I only knew Davio was undoubtedly that man in my future. He was generous and attentive–obviously too attentive, but I no longer wanted to quibble over that. We could work things out.
Weaving in and around the sand dunes I recognized just how few people I had in my life. I had Mum, Silvie and her mother Seriah, but next to them, I had no one else. And to think I had a father who came from another world. He may be a warrior, but still I had to meet him.
I lifted my wrist and pressed the small light to illuminate the time. I should go now–while the time to make my escape was so easy. I had the image. The safe location.
At the sound of movement coming from back near the fire, I made the decision to go. I only had a few seconds because already I heard Davio calling my name, his tone a tight mix of demand and concern.
So I brought forward the image of the safe room the warrior had left imbedded in my mind. Only at the last moment, I realized something very important. How had my father known ahead of time I would have the ability to teleport there?
Only the treacherous thought came too late.
I had arrived.
Chapter 6
From darkness to darkness, I was here. Wherever here was.
My heart thundered. Had I done the right thing?
“You did.” There was a sliver of light chasing in under the doorway, and I heard the answer coming directly from beyond.
From someone who had just read my thoughts.
“Come. I’ve been waiting a lifetime for this moment.”
I’d always considered myself brave, only right now my legs shook. My feet tapped at the ground, and I fidgeted from side to side. “H-how can I trust you?” I clamped down on my tongue, hating the sudden giveaway of nerves.
“You’ve always been able to trust me, only you’ve never known me.”
I heard the voice of a stranger, of a man I should have known for eighteen years and hadn’t. In that defining moment, I found my courage and set it in place. I could do this. I had to do this. Enough with the indecision–this was my only chance for answers.
I took a step forward, the sliver of light guiding my direction.
Squinting though the darkness, I clutched the door’s cold, round knob.
“Y-you’re reading my thoughts.” Stupid nerves made me stutter. Get it together. Turn the knob. Open the door.
I twisted my fingers to the right, the knob slipping under the slickness of my palm but I got it, then yanked, steel scraping over steel for all of two inches before I halted, the hairs on the back of my neck pinging up.
Hell. Why such thick steel for a door?
“I will explain. Your strength skills have come from me. Your ability to read thoughts, and soon the full force of forethought and forewarning will be upon you. I have seen yours–it will be as strong and precise as mine.” He paused, forcing the door open from his side before I could react.
Before me, he was real and solid–and I stood like a block of ice. “Don’t you go moving any closer. This is a lot to take in.”
“I realize that.”
“You’re truly my father?”
“Yes. Your mother is bound to Earth, whereas I am bound to Dralion, although from what I’ve seen, Carlisio’s grandson has enlightened you to at least that much. Now come out of the dark and stand before me.” His hands snapped to his sides.
“I’ll stand before you,” I huffed, “provided this steel door is not leading me into some kind of cell. Let’s not forget, the last time we met, you hit me on the head.”
The man’s heels clipped together and he disappeared from the opened doorway, light blasting through from where he’d stood. “It’s no cell,” he said over his shoulder.
I took care as I chanced a glance at the room I was leaving. As depicted in my mind, with the light now streaming through, it was a simple square room of white walls. There were no furnishings. Not one item except for a lone, odd-looking chair.
With a sigh, I looked ahead and took a step, halting under the arch.
“Close the security door behind you and ensure you block your mind against the protector known as Belle. It would be unacceptable if she chose to telepath. This time is for us alone.”
“Belle can’t reach me. I’m already blocked.” The four walls smelled of fresh paint but were an icky gray color and there was nothing else in the room apart from two plastic chairs and a basic round table. “You better not hurt me this time.” Then I stepped cleanly into the room.
He looked at me, his black coat dropping stiffly to the floor over a vivid blue shirt and black leather pants. “I would never harm you.” He lifted a brow. “That is again. You are my flesh and blood and the thought of distressing you in any way is abhorrent to me.”
He angled his blond head, which I mirrored since I only hoped he meant again the same way I’d mean again.
“I speak only the truth, for you should never fear me.” Turning his back, he pulled out one of the plastic chairs and sat.
“I’m staying because I want answers.” I shoved the heavy steel door shut, noticing the newly painted walls reflecting patches of silver here and there. I spun to face him. “Why are you trying to hide the steel walls?”
He scrubbed a hand across his jaw, edging out his foot to scrape around the second chair, the unpleasant screeching making me squish my nose. “This entire room is steel reinforced. The walls are freshly painted since I saw your initial distress, and wished to eliminate it.”
“Saw? You mean with your forewarning?”
He rubbed his large hands on his knees as he leaned forward. “Sit with me. There’s a chair, and I will explain all.”
“I can see the chair.” I frowned. “Let me read your thoughts first through my forethought.” I’d barely made the demand when his thoughts opened fully to mine, the surge of information and images taking my breath away.
I clutched at my racing heart.
He’d made the quick decision to try and disguise the steel walls by painting them in the half hour before I’d arrived. He’d been “forewarned” that I’d be upset and he showed me the forewarning.
He saw–so brilliantly and with crystal clear perfection. It was like nothing Davio and Belle had told me it would be. This was real, vivid with colors, as if I watched the event of forewarning in real time.
“It’s impressive, isn’t it? I have to admit I saw Davio explaining Carlisio’s forethought to you, but both you and I are born from the mated bond. The strength of ours is unequalled.”
I itched now to know more.
Crossing the metal flooring, I sat opposite him, for I could not help my interest. This man was my father. He had passed skills onto me I needed to learn. I wasn’t leaving until I knew.
He smiled, following my movement with his gaze. “Our forethought is strong.” He firmly gripped my forearm. “Your skills grow fast. They are cementing and strengthening as your powerful lineage demands.”
“How do you do that? You’re reading my thoughts even though I’m blocked.”
“We are one and the same. You can block your thoughts from me, as you wish onl
y you’re currently not doing so.” His fingers tightened. “You believe you’re blocking, but that is not the case. Look for yourself.”
I did, opening my eyes wide as I saw the truth. “I was so sure.” How had I not seen that?
He released me. “It is natural for our blood-bond to direct our motives into complete compliance of one another. In the future if you wish to block from me, you will need to focus more firmly on the task.”
So I did, only a second later finding I didn’t care for it. I wanted him to know the truth of my thoughts, for now was not the time for any hidden agenda. “You can read what you wish.”
He watched me closely, inclining his head. “Then let me take you somewhere more comfortable.” He eased upright. “We have much to discuss and little time to do so.”
As he strode out the door that opened behind the small table, I followed him from the room.
“Okay, so exactly why the steel room? I know why you painted it, but why have one at all?”
Walking beside me, he answered. “The steel room is simply to ensure Carlisio cannot track you on Davio’s behalf. I will not risk any endangerment coming to you while you’re with me.”
My brow lifted. “Uh-huh.” We’d see about the endangerment–the jury was still out on that one. “Would you explain why a steel room would stop a forewarner’s tracking? There’s very little I know.”
“Simply put, our cells cannot pass through the solidity of steel. They also can’t pass through the energy field which protects Dralion. That being the case, this steel room exists for the same reason as the dome. You arrived in the room next to one which holds a large amount of metal. This effectively scatters the initial image of your arrival, and it also allows for a defendable position if one’s ’porting airstream is followed.”
We continued down a wide hallway where silver threads in the white carpet shimmered. Again, the walls were gray–so stark.
“Although now, it is quite safe for us to move about the rooms of this apartment. There is no chance Carlisio can gain an accurate visual, not with the natural use of steel contained within the building’s construction.”
“I see, and I can teleport from any one of these other rooms?”
“The amounts of steel aid in disseminating images, but not in preventing any form of teleportation, only a solid wall can do that.”
“So I can leave at any time?” Which I would in an instant, if necessary.
“Yes.” He grasped my shoulder. “I see your thoughts, and I understand your confliction. Yet you are my daughter and tied to me by blood, a bond which our Magioling DNA accepts to a deeper degree than an Earthling’s. As your new relationship with Loveria stands strong, so too does a blood-bond. The two are no different in strength, except he holds your soul.”
“My bond with him grows fast.”
A rush of air passed between his lips. “So I’ve seen.” Leaving the hallway, we entered a living room. Ahead of me, one scalloped wall faced a dark, full-length glass slider, and in the adjoining room, a tidy kitchen and breakfast bar.
I moved toward the one and only piece of furniture, a two-seater gray leather couch.
“Where are we? Exactly.” I heard the crash of the surf–it was close.
“At the Mount.”
Which meant we were only a thirty-minute drive from my home base of Te Pukē.
“Which building?” Sitting, I ran my hands over the silvery leather, feeling the chill in the fabric.
“The top floor of the exclusive towers. This is the penthouse suite.”
My brow wrinkled. “Um, so you just moved in?”
Flinging out the back-tails of his leather coat he sat, his weight pressing into the couch beside me. “No. I purchased this apartment after the towers were built–eighteen years ago. I needed a base close to your mother and you.”
Again, I checked out the room in case I’d missed something that said eighteen years of occupation. “Ah, you didn’t care to decorate? Some color would be nice.” There was just the couch and a couple of fixed bar stools.
“This apartment is here for one reason alone, and as I’ve said, I can’t be followed. I come here only to check up on you and your mother, when I can do so without your grandfather becoming aware of my departure from Dralion.”
I rubbed my nose. “I have a grandfather?”
Did that mean I had other family as well?
“Yes.” He angled his head to one side, eyes trained on me. “To both questions.”
My feet tapped away on the ground. Him reading my thoughts was going to take some time to get used. “How often do you check up on us?”
“I spend a few short minutes visiting your street, two or three times a week. It is the most I can manage.”
“How come I’ve never seen you before?”
His violet eyes darkened. “I am forced to keep my distance. Your grandfather rules Dralion with a firm hand, an iron grip that doesn’t allow me to acknowledge my weakness, my one all-consuming love.” He paused for a moment, then continued. “Which is for you and your mother.”
I looked at him, trying to find a breath as everything swayed before my eyes.
“Breathe.” He slapped my back.
I inhaled, vitally important air shuddering back into my lungs. “I-I.” I didn’t know what to think first, so I blurted it all out at once. “My mother? You love us? And did you say my grandfather rules Dralion?”
He took my frozen hands into his. “We have much to discuss, and you have much to learn.” As he rubbed to instill some warmth, he continued, “You are a Wincrest and my name is Prince Alexo.”
As I looked him straight in the face, I saw his words were the truth.
“Oh hell. Hell. Hell. Hell.” I breathed unevenly. This couldn’t be happening.
This meant my so-called grandfather was the hated Donaldo who Davio would gladly kill. “You’re Alexo?” I said out loud, with almost no feeling left in my lips.
A small cough as he cleared his throat. “I do not care for you calling me by my given name. I am your father, and I have waited a lifetime for my daughter to name me as such.”
“Right, Dad,” I exaggerated. “You can’t think it’s okay to dump this kind of information on me, or at least not this fast after eighteen years of nothing.”
Rising to his feet, his jacket flapped out behind him and he paced across the room, pulling the glass slider open. With the door open, the scent of the ocean floated in on the night breeze. “Enough with the sarcasm.” He turned on his booted feet.
“I wasn’t being sarcastic.”
“I understand you’re hurting because of this news, but the truth is still the truth no matter which way I present it.”
That I understood, was even grateful for considering the kind of week I’d just suffered. “Sure, you’re right about that. So tell me why you’ve steered clear of my mother and me.”
“Because of your mixed heritage. Donaldo would only ever see Kate as an Earthling and my weakest link, disposing of her as quickly as possible.”
“So why become involved now? With me, that is.”
“It is not I who became involved, but the protectors. Your mate is making my life difficult in his claim of you, and that is why we now meet.”
“Hold on. Give me a minute to think this through. I’m still coming to grips with the fact I’m standing in the same room as my father. Who, I might add, has been silently watching over me, since my birth.”
He rubbed his forehead and moved toward me. “You are safe with me. We are one and the same. Our blood-bond is cemented at birth and that connection is unbreakable. This is why I’ve never risked coming into contact with you, for the physical effect of being in each other’s presence is the same as you being in Loveria’s. I would want you with me in Dralion and you would want the same, but I do not have the heart to take you from your mother. She loves you. I cannot expose her whereabouts to Donaldo, not when I’ve seen he would harm her. He wants full-blooded heirs, not Halflin
gs, so you’ve both remained.”
I clutched my head, pressing all ten fingers over my skull. My mind was stretched to capacity, almost ready to explode.
“Take a deep breath,” Alexo instructed. “We will get through this.”
Oh, I knew I’d get through it, only where would I be at the end. Dropping my hands to my knees, I met his gaze. “Okay, so there’s no risk to me because of Donaldo Wincrest.”
“No, he would never harm a child of mine. The risk is to your mother alone. Her death would be a certainty, allowing him to see me married to another to give him full-blooded heirs. But I’ve never cared that your mother is from Earth as he has.”
“How does he even know my mother exists?”
“Because I will not take another and I wasn’t careful enough eighteen years ago. I mentioned Kate and shouldn’t have. From that moment on he’s searched for her.”
“You’ve never given us up?”
“No.” He took a second, his chest rising and falling as he inhaled. “I see both Donaldo’s strengths and weaknesses. He does not hold forethought as you and I do, as it can skip generations, but he is a great leader. Although by the strength of our familial blood-bond, you too would find yourself called to serve him.”
He sat at my side. “I’ve always wished for you to have choices in your life, for those not to be taken from you as your mother was taken from me. Yet now, Carlisio involves his grandson, and Davio pursues you. This means it won’t be long before our spies in Peacio report back to Donaldo that you exist. Although there is no danger, you, like me, would have to leave your mother. Her safety must be ensured. It is why I’ve come.”
I shuddered. “Donaldo has never met me. How will his spies connect me to you?”
“You hold the coveted forethought strength skill. Your eyes are the rare Wincrest violet. Your features are so similar to one of the other females in our family’s line. I could go on, but those things alone isolate you directly as mine. No Dralion spy worth his weight in gold will ever withhold that kind of information from Donaldo if he saw you.”
Protector Page 10
