The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2)

by Claire, Nicola

  "You don't even look Gi," I pointed out, a little snottily. She did bring out the worst in me.

  "And you do?" she shot back.

  "Dora," Theo warned.

  "Isadora," I corrected through gritted teeth, making her smile triumphantly.

  Theo let out a frustrated sigh. "This is going to be a very testing day."

  "Only if you forget to call her by her full name," I growled.

  "Your Gi has grown claws," Isadora murmured, almost a purr in itself.

  "You have no idea, lady," I shot back.

  "Casey," Theo warned now. My eyes flicked to his and he shook his head. Just a small movement, but it relayed so much. He didn't trust her. He didn't want her to know I was Pyrkagia now too. That I was Aether.

  I gave him a beaming smile, which made him shake his head for a different reason. I was quite happy to keep Isadora in the dark, and more than happy to see that Theo didn't blindly trust his ex-lover.

  Take that, bitch!

  I blinked at the unusual-for-me sentiment.

  Everyone shuffled slightly on uncomfortable feet, until Isadora decided to get the show on the road.

  "So, has your pet regained her strength enough to travel at last?"

  Pet? My hands fisted and Theo took a step forward, his eyes blazing gold and sending a message to Isadora I don't think she wanted to see.

  "My Thisavros has recovered nicely. Thank you for your concern." He emphasised Thisavros, which made it forgiveable that he was talking about me as though I wasn't there. I understood his message, even if Isadora chose to ignore it.

  "Well, while you've been amusing yourself, Theodoros, I've been catching up with a few of my informants."

  "And what have you found out?" he asked, ignoring her jibe at what she considered his hobby.

  "The Basilissa is no longer in the Gi fortress."

  I sank onto the side of the unmade bed, not even caring that Isadora had seen it and could work out how it had gotten that way. News that the Basilissa hadn't just sent her Guards after me was not good. I concentrated on breathing, until tension eased from my frame when Theo's hand started to rub gentle circles on my back.

  Isadora pouted.

  "What else?" Theo asked, not taking his concerned eyes off my face.

  "Two Gi Guard regiments are also missing since the day before yesterday."

  "How many in a regiment?" Theo asked, voice low and level.

  "Usually twenty-five for a Scout regiment, but these are the Queen's Guards. Highly trained, extremely efficient. So, a dozen per regiment instead of the normal amount."

  "So, twenty-four Guards in total on our tails. Plus the Queen," Theo surmised.

  "Eighteen," I corrected, absently.

  "Excuse me?" Isadora demanded, as though my speaking was an indiscretion right then.

  But Theo talked over her. "Of course," he said with burgeoning pride. "You took out six the first day of your escape."

  "Really," Isadora remarked, sounding unimpressed. "That would be with the help of your Gi doctor. Just how did you win him over, Cassandra?" she queried. "Offer him a little something on the side?"

  Theo growled, gold flashed, but it was my Stoicheio which reached out to slap that smug look off her face. Theo pounced on my mistake. With a sweep of his arm he pushed me back on the bed, making me lose my concentration.

  Then placed himself between me and Isadora, and shouted, "Enough!"

  His own Stoicheio filled the room, masking mine and washing us all in its heated Fire.

  "I may be exiled from Pyrkagia right now," - What? Exiled? Someone hadn't divulged all their secrets, had they? I stared daggers at his back, for all the good it would do me. - "But I am still your Prince," he added, in a feral growl. "Do not test me Isadora Petros."

  Silence met his statement, thick with the weight of unsaid words. I glanced around Theo's stiff frame and watched Isadora stare him directly in the eyes. Defying him openly for a moment. Letting him know we needed her, more than she needed to kowtow to royal titles.

  But then she slowly lowered her head and with a small nod said, "Your Highness. Forgive me."

  Theo nodded in return and turned back to me. His eyes held mine, letting me know what he'd risked by throwing his position in her face. We were on thin ice and we needed Isadora's guidance to avoid capture in Gi land. I had to improve my attitude. I had to work on my control when angered by her smug, smarmy smirks. I couldn't let Theo step in like that again; covering for me. One more time and Isadora would lift that defiant, superior pointed chin of hers and stomp away.

  We needed her.

  I sighed, my eyes no doubt letting Theo know exactly how I felt about that.

  He offered a small smile, then with a brief touch of his fingers to my cheek, turned back to the room at large and said, "Well, I guess we should get going. Any ideas on which route you plan for us to take?"

  Isadora straightened her spine, seeing that the theatrics were over, and then settled into the persona she loved best. Self-satisfied know-it-all.

  "The airport is out," she announced. "Gi are crawling all over it. So I've organised a vehicle and we'll head east to Belém, then attempt an airline there."

  Theo whistled. "That's a hell of a journey by car."

  "Yes," Isadora replied, shrugging her shoulders and somehow managing to stare down her nose at me at the same time. "Three thousand and eighty-eight kilometres on the BR-230. We'll have to head south-west in a dog leg and then east towards the coast and Belém. Unless you'd like to take your chances in the rainforest? Then we could try Santarém. But the Gi have a stronghold there as well. They are extremely territorial and guard the Amazon as though it were their lifeblood."

  "It is," I pointed out. "It thrives, they thrive. It suffers, they suffer."

  "How primitive," she remarked.

  "How over opinionated," I shot back.

  "Being of a superior intelligence does not necessarily mean I am over-opinionated," she snarled.

  "Doesn't mean you're not a bitch either," I argued, forcing a pleasant faux smile, with a flash of teeth.

  Theo sighed.

  "Two days in a vehicle with you two sniping at each other. Somehow I think my luck has run out."

  "Oh, Theo," Isadora purred. "Just think, you can take your pick at the end of each night. Mix it up a bit, compare notes. I'm sure you remember how inventive I was."

  She did not just say that.

  Theo growled and said warningly, "Casey." Casey? Not Isadora? Not even Dora? What the...?

  "I'm not the one being a bitch," I finally settled on as answer.

  "Little Gi," she said, the diminutive term sounding like a derogatory one coming from her lips. "It takes Fire to hold Fire. Of which you severely lack."

  "Theo, can I please? Please?" I begged, standing up to glare at the woman and fisting my hands at my sides. "Just one shot, that's all I ask. That's all it would take. Just one."

  The bastard started laughing, took the necessary steps to bring himself in front of my face, cutting off all vision of the witch. He tipped my chin up, let me see his amusement - and could that be pride? - flashing in his eyes. And then dipped his head down and kissed me hard. On the lips. Tongue and teeth and all. In front of Isadora.

  "Delicious," he murmured, hot breath across my face. "Maybe this will be fun after all."

  I seriously doubted that. I really, truly did.

  Chapter 13

  Even If The Earth Cried Silent Tears Inside My Head

  Isadora left us in a huff to get her luggage and rendezvous in front of the hotel in fifteen minutes. Barely enough time to round on Theo and have it out.

  "I don't trust her." A repeat of my earlier statement.

  "So you have mentioned," Theo drawled.

  "You don't trust her either," I reasoned, one hand resting on my hip, the other pointed at his infuriatingly amused face.

  "This is true," he said, reasonably.

  "Then why is she here?"

  "Also som
ething we have gone over, Cassandra. Must I repeat myself?"

  I let a frustrated sound out and threw my hands up into the air.

  "Theo!" I said with meaning. "I'm new to this. How am I going to hide that I am now Pyrkagia too?"

  His eyes scanned the hotel room briefly, taking in the Fire damage, and then came back to my face. Concern and understanding traced shadows across his façade.

  "Is that what you're worried about?" he asked, softly.

  "Among other things," I said, in a more volume appropriate voice.

  "Oraia," he whispered, walking closer to place a hand on my cheek and one around to the small of my back. He pulled me slowly against his chest. "I will protect you."

  "But what if she finds out?"

  "Then we deal with it, like we deal with anything else that arises."

  I wished it was that easy, but something told me Isadora finding out what I was becoming would not be a good idea. When I said I didn't trust her, I meant I really didn't trust her. That woman had only one goal in mind. Eradicating me and having Theo all to herself again.

  I sighed as my cheek came to rest on Theo's chest. His hand had moved from my face to up in my hair, stroking. Softly. Lovingly.

  "What's this about you being exiled?" I asked, rubbing myself against his shirt, feeling the hardness of muscles beneath.

  "Ah," he said, making me pull my head back to catch the meaning in his eyes. He looked a little contrite. "I didn't mention it sooner because it doesn't help our current predicament." He hadn't mentioned it at all.

  "Really," I said, imitating Isadora's earlier tone, which only made me frown.

  "Casey," Theo said on a sigh. "My father is not the forgiving type. I have been ostracised due to my involvement in what happened the night you left. Pyrkagia do not take kindly to being attacked and having their land invaded." I snorted. Who did? Theo raised one eyebrow at me. "I was allowed to remain in Auckland, but not be involved in Pyrkagia politics. Unless," he added, voice lower conveying the magnitude of what he was about to say, "I followed you. In which case it was made clear I could not return to Auckland. Ever."

  My heart sank. We'd always known, from the moment we discovered I was Gi and he was Pyrkagia, that we were enemies. But somehow, stupidly, when my Pyrkagia side had Awakened, I'd thought we'd be able to return to our home city and be together, at last. On the same side. Of course, even though the Pyrkagia Rigas didn't know I had transformed into something else, something that brought me under their branch of Ekmetalleftis, I would always be Gi, an enemy, to him. Corrupting his son. Defiling his bloodline.

  "How did you convince Isadora to come then?" I asked, feeling numb all over.

  Theo started to rub his hands up and down my bare arms, clearly aware I had paled and was retreating.

  "I offered a favour," he whispered into the hair on top of my head. He followed it up with a soft kiss. "One she can claim at any time in the future. And there will come a time where she needs my help. We live very long lives, the odds are she'll have need of my aid eventually."

  "Just your aid?" I asked, voice quiet. Could Isadora ask for something else? Something I would not be prepared to let Theo give her.

  I felt his lips spread as they rested on top of my head.

  "Yes, sweet little Gi. Only my aid. No need for you get all territorial just yet. Although," he murmured, bringing his lips down to my ear, "If you want to punish me for my transgression, please don't hold back. I'll willingly take anything you offer." The last was said in a seductive purr.

  I gave him a light playful shove; he let me.

  "I gather a favour of aid is not something to sneeze at?" I said, lifting my eyes to his.

  "An offer of my aid is not something to sneeze at," he countered. "It was the only thing I was prepared to bargain with. And fortunately something Isadora, an operative of Pyrkagia, values. I dare say she has strategic favours documented in a ledger somewhere and caresses each one lovingly before she goes to bed at night."

  I let a chuff of laughter out. Theo smirked.

  "It's probably the only thing she gets to caress at night," I said, then promptly covered my mouth with my hand, mortified I'd said that aloud.

  Theo let out a bark of laughter, his chest rising and falling with the chuckles that followed.

  "You really have gotten under her skin, you know," he finally said, moving to finish packing his suitcase, aware our fifteen minutes were nearly up. He finished his task and turned back to me, face serious again. "But Oraia, she would not be a good enemy to have."

  "She's already an enemy," I remarked, crossing my arms over my chest, suddenly feeling exposed.

  "No," he argued. "She's a rival, nothing more. But once you cross that line into enemy territory, she would be a formidable opponent."

  "I can't see the distinction," I admitted. Because I couldn't. Isadora would drop me in it, at the very first opportunity. How is that different from being my enemy?

  "Then you had better learn," Theo pointed out, rather harshly I thought. "Athanatos are capable of much cruelty to gain what they desire. Especially when pushed too far. Our very long lives offer little in the way of a challenge at times; we greedily grasp any chance to alleviate that boredom. Isadora is over two thousand years old, do not make the mistake of assuming she is human in any way. She gave up what humanity she had after one hundred years of life. She is Athanatos, and sooner or later she will tire of the entertainment you provide and consider you a challenge instead."

  I held his gaze, letting the gravity of his words sink in. After a lengthy pause I nodded my head. I still had so much to learn about this new world I now lived in, but the most obvious lesson was the potential for danger. I seemed to be walking a tightrope strung between survival and the jagged edge of death. With death glaring back hungrily. Isadora was just another landmine to navigate, but right now I lacked the experience to see the signals before I stepped on the bomb.

  "Will you help me?" I asked, and received a scowl in return.

  "That is a given, Thisavros. You are mine." The last was said in a low growl, which should have made me jump, but instead sent awareness coursing through my body, flaring my Pyrkagia alight. Theo slowly closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. His hands fisted at his sides, and his chest rose and fell steeply. "Casey," he continued to growl. "Grab what you need and get out that door, before I strip you bare and taste you."

  I did jump then, followed by a squeak when his gold flamed eyes opened and target locked on me. I reached for my hoodie, not planning on wearing it in this heat, and then ran to the door. Before my hand was even wrapped around the handle, Theo was at my back. His fingers cupped my throat from behind; carefully, not tightly in any way, but definitely possessively. He tilted my head up and back, as his body pressed into my spine, imprisoning me.

  "Too late," he whispered. Then his lips crushed into mine, stealing all thought of escape, making my knees go weak and my blood pump furiously through my heart. "Ah, sweet Thisavros," he murmured against my lips. His tongue licking, teasing, tempting the corner of my mouth. "You own me."

  I shuddered, he groaned, and then with one last deep, consuming kiss, he slowly pulled back. I could still feel his heat down my spine, still feel the touch of his lips on mine, the sensation of his possessive fingers at my throat. I'd never felt so wanted before, never felt so desired. I didn't own Theo, he owned me. And I loved it.

  "Open the door," he said, voice rough. "If we stay here a moment longer, we'll never leave."

  I gave him a smirk over my shoulder, letting him see that I thought that idea was a great plan. He shook his head slowly, closed his eyes again and pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering several words in Greek under his breath. I turned back to the door and opened it, then before I could change my mind, stepped through into the empty hallway beyond.

  As soon as Theo closed the door to our room behind him, I felt the world shift slightly. Maybe the Earth sighed in sadness. Maybe it was just me. Our brief reprieve in the Tr
opical Manaus Hotel was over, and now we were running for our lives. Again.

  "What will happen when we leave the shields behind?" I asked, as we waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor.

  "If any Gi are nearby they may spot us. But unless we use our Stoicheio they won't detect us."

  "Is that why Isadora wears a disguise?"

  "It helps to blend in and be overlooked."

  "But you're not," I stated, glancing at Theo in all his natural glory.

  He offered me a wide toothy smile. "I am too well known to hide that easily. And now, so are you. We take our chances and run. Hoping no Gi happen to be walking by."

  I thought about that as the lift came to a halt on the ground floor.

  "I guess if anyone has to use their Stoicheio it had better be my Gi," I suggested. "That way they won't be able to tell if I'm one of them or a trespasser."

  Theo turned slowly to look at me as the doors chimed and swished softly open.

  "Clever," he murmured, reaching up and tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Beautiful and intelligent. There could be no better combination."

  I offered a small smile, feeling shy for the first time since we'd reunited. A once familiar sensation, that now felt out of place when it was just Theo and me.

  "I've missed the blush," he whispered, as someone cleared their throat on the other side of the still open elevator doors. Theo turned his head to face the offender and gave him his most imperious arched brow look.

  I thought, for a moment, that he might do something over the top. Like tell the guy who stood there waiting to use the lift, that this one's taken and then close the doors in his face to do wicked things to me. But he must have realised we had to get going, because he made a low growling sound in the back of his throat, grasped my hand and walked us out past the unamused gentleman at the lift doors.

  I was still smirking at his behaviour when we came out under the portico and found an impatient Isadora leaning against a large SUV.

  "Finally," she muttered, rounding the front of the car and going straight for the driver's side door.

  "You're not going to drive?" I asked, astounded at her audacity. Theo was not the sort of man to be blithely driven around by someone other than Aktor, his dedicated chauffeur.