Into Forever

by Danielle James

  She remembered thinking how disturbed she must be as she watched him struggle for breath. Gage, even though she didn’t know his name at the time, was likely dying. And while he was fighting for his life, she was thinking about how it would feel to touch something besides his temples. It was the feeling that came after that thought that disturbed her the most. If he had died, she would never have the opportunity to find out anything about him. She felt a keen sense of loss at the thought of him dying, and it brought tears to her eyes. She had never felt anything like that for anyone before.

  After he was healed and well, his family needed her assistance and Serena saw him again. It was all she could do not to throw herself at him and beg him to take her. Everything about him was sensual. And he was dangerous; not only to his enemies, but to her as well, although not in the same manner.

  It was after the young dragon infant was born that she finally succumbed to his charms. Not that he had to use them on her. They had both denied their attraction for as long as they could manage, but in the end, a simple walk through the woods turned into so much more.

  One kiss. That was all it had taken to rip the thread of self-control each of them had to shreds. He had taken her right there, against the trunk of an enormous maple tree. She still had the marks on her back where the bark had bitten into her skin. She was proud of those marks. She wished she could show them to the world.

  She also knew something else that was disturbing to her. When he made love to her the first time, she felt him. Not just a normal physical connection, but a mental connection that was damned powerful. Not only did she feel her own pleasure, but his as well. She saw into his mind that night. In one very intense moment, she knew everything there was to know about the man she was with. This was not something that occurred often with the Fey. It was so rare, in fact, that it was considered myth by most of her people. It was called the sdhide amlore, which roughly translated to soul mate. The phenomenon was unheard of, save for myths and ancient stories.

  She only knew about it because after she felt it, she looked up the experience in the ancient texts her mother kept in her study.

  “Serena!” her mother’s voice boomed from just down the hall. “Get out here. Now.”

  Serena steadied herself. Her mother couldn’t know where she had been, so this must be some other infraction she had committed. She hurried into clean clothes and met her mother in the hallway. “Yes, Mother?” she asked innocently.

  “You left your seeing mirror out.”

  “I’m sorry, Mother, I will put it away now,” Serena said.

  “I saw what you have been watching,” she said through clenched teeth. Oh no. Serena had been watching Gage through the mirror. Had she forgotten to close the spell?

  “You have been watching that vampire,” her mother accused.

  There was no point in arguing with her. Yes, she had forgotten to close the spell and her mother knew she was at minimum, stalking a vampire. To make it worse, the vampire she had told Serena to stay away from.

  “I will not lie to you,” Serena said. “I was watching him.”

  “Where have you been these last few nights?” Anora demanded.

  “Out in the forest,” Serena answered honestly. She just didn’t specify where and with whom.

  “I know what is going on here,” Anora seethed. “I warned you to stay away from that vampire. You disobeyed me. Prince Adeer’s council called this morning. He wants to arrange a meeting with his future bride. I feel the time has come for you to honor your destiny.”

  Serena felt her heart break in two and drop down to her feet. Her destiny was not with that prince. It was with Gage and she knew it. She also knew there was no way she could convince her mother.

  “I cannot have you gallivanting about with that vampire when your impending wedding is so near,” Anora continued as if she didn’t know she was crushing her only daughter. “From now on, I will monitor where you go and who you are with. I will know if you disobey me.”

  “Mother! No!” Serena cried. “I don’t want to marry some prince! You have no right to choose my path for me!” “I can and I will,” Anora said, matter-of-factly. “Where you go, I will know. What will be, I will see. You will know no privacy, and answer to me.” The spell drifted effortlessly from her mother’s lips and Serena felt the bonds shackling her from the inside out. Her eyes began to burn as her heart broke all over again. There was no way she could see Gage without her mother’s knowledge.

  “I hate you,” Serena whispered, before she ran to her room in tears.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “I have spoken to Prince Adeer’s councilman. He wants to arrange a meeting in one week. We will be leaving tomorrow night,” Anora said. Serena had spent the entire day in her room, sulking. Her mother had unceremoniously flung open Serena’s bedroom door just as the sun was going down and dropped the news as if it were no different than a shopping trip with friends. She closed the door and stormed off immediately after her announcement.

  But this was more than a shopping trip! It was the end of her life as she knew it, Serena thought. Her mother had basically sold her to another. Yes, Serena was bringing her dowry with her to the marriage, but it was pitiful in comparison to the wealth Prince Adeer already had. The biggest prize was peace. Which was stupid, Serena thought. Their clans were already at peace. They already were allies in the Fey world. This thing, this marriage, was meant to strengthen those ties.

  Her mother planned to take her to the God forsaken desert to marry a man she never met. And Serena knew her mother would make it happen, even if she had to take her in chains. Once her mother got an idea in her head, there was no changing her mind. Hopelessness consumed her as she searched her mind for anything that might help her cause. She knew telling her mother that Gage was her soul mate was a no go. Not only would she chastise her for entertaining such a silly thought, but she would be even more irritated with Serena.

  Anora had always been a good mother to her. Serena never wanted or needed for anything as a child. There was nothing that Anora wouldn’t give her; there was nothing she wouldn’t do for her, except this. She hated that this one thing was one of those traditions that held strong within the Fey. Arranged marriages among the royal families were as old as time and still observed. No one had ever questioned it before, and Serena knew that they wouldn’t start now.

  The next day she would be taken away on an airplane to the sandy land of Israel to meet her husband. She would never see Gage again. The pain in her heart was nearly too much to bear. She had to see him again. Just one more time to say goodbye would have to be enough for her; for both of them.

  She gathered her things and cast a cloaking spell. Serena had no illusions that she would get away without her mother finding out; her mother’s spell was much stronger than her own. But it would mask her activities until she was far enough away to at least have a head start.

  She made sure to grab the cell phone Gage had given her as she slipped out the window into the waiting night.

  Angel was standing in front of him, demanding answers, when Gage felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He hated keeping secrets from his leader and brother. Angel was the closest thing to family that Gage had had for the last three hundred years. He wanted to tell him what was going on, but Gage knew the consequences of those actions. So instead, he kept his mental barriers up and kept them strong, even in sleep.

  Of course, there was the possibility that Angel could help him if he knew what was going on. Gage had considered telling him on many occasions. It was a constant battle within himself that he was going to have to come clean about eventually.

  Gage fished his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. 911, meet me at our tree.

  The message was from Serena. The fact that she felt it an emergency made up Gage’s mind for him. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and stood.

  “Where are you going?” Angel demanded.

  “I have something to take care of,�
� Gage told him as he grabbed his leather jacket and prepared to leave. He wanted to run, but knew it was not an option. If he ran, Angel would follow him, and so would the rest of his brothers. Not. Going. To happen.

  “You and I are not finished,” Angel warned him. Gage knew Angel was pissed. There was fire in his eyes and Gage could feel Angel trying to get into his mind. He strengthened his wall and refused to look at him.

  “I have to go. I’ll explain later,” Gage said, ignoring Angel’s command to stay put. He had never disobeyed a direct order before, but he did it now. Serena needed him. Before Angel could call reinforcements, Gage opened the front door and walked out into the night.

  Once he was beyond the gate, Gage broke into a run. He ignored the mass of fans that were chronically camped out by the gate surrounding the estate, as well as the seething fury he could still feel coming from

  Angel. He put everything but Serena on the back burner of his mind. He didn’t know what the emergency was, but he was going to get there as quickly as possible.

  “There must be something we can do,” Jessica said to Sebastian. They had both just watched Gage run out the front door like the place was on fire. “He is in trouble. I know it.”

  “Did you dream something?” Sebastian asked her.

  She looked into his pale blue eyes for a long moment before answering. “I’m not sure,” she finally conceded, dropping her eyes from his gaze. “I keep dreaming about something, but it’s blurry and far away. I think I may see Gage, but there are others as well. I can’t really describe it.”

  “But it’s bothering you, just the same?” he asked her, brushing her long blonde hair out of her face.

  “Yeah,” she said. She suppressed a shiver from his touch. Even after the four years they had been together, even the simplest touch from her mate set her blood on fire.

  “I don’t know what the fuck his problem is,” Rebel chimed in. He was standing in the corner of the room with his back against the wall, his Stetson pulled low over his forehead. He looked menacing in that pose, and to anyone who wasn’t his family or friend, he was.

  “What on earth is he up to?” Jessica asked no one in particular.

  “Well, whatever it is, he needs to open up about it.” Leigh walked through the room, having heard the whole conversation. She had baby Toni on her shoulder and was patting her back as she walked. When she reached Rebel, she handed the baby over to him. “She won’t sleep for me,” she told him with a smile. Rebel took his daughter in his large hands with ease. At first, he was nervous when holding her, but soon it became clear that Toni was a daddy’s girl, through and through.

  “I could always follow him,” Rebel offered as he placed his daughter on his shoulder. He started rubbing little circles on her tiny back subconsciously. Toni whimpered and Rebel began to sing to her. His deep voice rumbled softly through the room and the baby immediately calmed. It wasn’t long before she was sound asleep.

  “You couldn’t follow him unless you wanted him to know you were there,” Leigh said, rolling her eyes.

  “I can be stealthy,” he retorted. He almost sounded offended.

  “Oh, like you were before we met?” Rebel had watched Leigh from a distance at first, which prompted her to file stalking charges against him. It wasn’t the best way to start a relationship, but in the end, it had all worked out.

  “That was different,” he grumbled.

  “I do not want anyone following him,” Angel said. “Whatever it is, he does not feel that he can trust us with it. I fear he is going through something and we need to at least try to understand. We all know how it feels to lose our mates, or at least, we know what the fear of it feels like. I want him to stop blocking us out on his own. I want him to trust us.”

  “Is it what he’s doing, or the fact that he has shut us all out that bothers you?” Brea asked, already knowing the answer.

  “It is that he will not open up to us. We are supposed to be there for one another. This is not only upsetting, but could be dangerous. We have to be able to communicate with each other.”

  “There hasn’t been any trouble since Merrick was toasted,” Leigh said. “Again.”

  “I know this,” Angel told her, “But we are all far too aware of what could happen. I just don’t like it.”

  “Daddy!” Jade yelled as she entered the room. Everyone put their concerns on the back burner to smile at Angel’s young daughter.

  He knelt down to her level and opened his arms for her. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Hello little one,” he said, smiling through her mass of hair. It was as red as her mother’s and curly to boot. On this day, it was especially unruly.

  She pulled back from his embrace and stared her father in the eyes. “Don’t you think I am a little big for that endearment?” she asked giving him a knowing look.

  “You will never be too big,” he smiled.

  “I just wanted to tell you something,” Jade said. Angel sat down on the chair and motioned for her to sit in his lap. Jade rolled her eyes, but did it anyway. “I am really too old for this,” she smirked as she plopped her butt down on his leg. She may only be five, but she was half vampire and much more mature than her numerical age, not to mention physically bigger than any five year old she ever met. If she had to pick an age for herself, she would say she was thirteen.

  “Nonsense,” Angel retorted. “Now, what is this that you have to share?”

  “Ok,” Jade said as she pushed her hair out of her face. “Here we go. Uncle Rebel has got to stop eating my snacks. I’m starting to get pretty stinking mad about it. Every time I go to get something, it’s gone. Poor Freida has had to go to the market three times this week! Tell him to get his own.”

  “How do you know it was me?” Rebel asked, feigning innocence. “I ain’t the only one here who eats cookies.”

  Jade rolled her eyes. “No one else is that stupid,” she retorted.

  “Jade!” Brea chided her. “That was not nice.”

  Jade shrugged her shoulders. “One day I am gonna lose it on him, I swear.”

  Angel chuckled. “Rebel, please refrain from eating Jade’s snacks. It bothers her to the point where she may cause you physical harm.”

  Rebel grinned but agreed to try. “Now, was there anything else?” Angel asked his daughter.

  “Yep, more to come. You guys are worried about Gage. Right now, he isn’t in any danger. But he will be soon. There is something he is going to do that will put his life at risk, but we can’t stop him. We have to help him when it’s done.”

  “What do you mean? How do you know this?” Angel asked. Had she been able to see into Gage’s mind? Had he forgotten to block Jade?

  “No, he blocked me,” Jade said, hearing her father’s thoughts.

  “What have we talked about?” Angel said, raising a brow at her.

  “I know, no poking around in people’s heads without permission,” she answered. “But you were broadcasting it loud and clear.” Jade had always been powerful with her mind.

  “How do you know he will do something that will endanger him?” Angel asked, preferring not to recognize that he had dropped his mental barriers.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I just do. Can’t explain it more than that.”

  “I’m afraid to ask, but is there anything else?” Angel asked her cautiously.

  “Yes. I keep dreaming about this woman. She is very pretty, with really long blonde hair. I finally told her to just go away, but she said she wouldn’t until I made Frankie get off her butt, stop making excuses, and do the blessing on the baby.” She looked at her mother, expecting consequences for her hard words, but Brea remained silent. “Well, not those exact words,” Jade clarified, “But you get the jist of it.”

  “And where is Frankie now?” he asked her.

  “Oh, she’s busy right now.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Frankie collapsed onto Jacque’s chest. All she could do was gasp for air and wait fo
r the pounding in her chest to calm down. He moved his hands up her back and into her hair, cradling her head against him. She could hear his heart thundering against his rib cage just under her ear, and with her new vampire hearing, it sounded just like his drums. She liked it. There were many things Frankie enjoyed about being a vampire. She loved that she could move with the speed of sound and that she could see and hear literally everything. She loved that she could keep up with Jacque and his appetite for sex.

  What she didn’t like was that she could not read the thoughts of her family. Oh they could muck around in her head all day long though, because she had not learned to block herself from them. Jacque and Angel had tried to teach her, but what she needed was Gage. He was the best, but he was too preoccupied to help her.

  We need to see you both, Angel’s voice sounded in her head. Yep. That was just irritating. She was gonna have to learn to block them. They had a way of interrupting at the worst times. But to be fair, she and Jacque had spent the better part of a month in bed, so there really wasn’t a good time for them to interrupt.

  “Zut alors,” Jacque grumbled underneath her.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Frankie laughed. “We should get up.”

  “I am already up,” Jacque replied playfully. To verify his statement, he pressed his hips upward, pushing his erection into her lower belly.

  “You are insatiable,” Frankie laughed. “Come on.” She smacked his chest gently and pushed herself off of him.

  She stood beside the bed and waited for him to get up. A wide, mischievous grin spread across his face. Raising one eye brow, she dared him to do whatever it was he was thinking. Jacque moved faster than even Frankie’s eyes could track him. In the blink of an eye, he had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back into bed and rolled her beneath him.