Pure Destiny

by Aja James

  And…Her heart still hurt a little from the memories.

  She’d lost both parents within a short period of time, one after the other. Luckily, she’d found her own way. The Dark noble house treated her kindly, if with negligence. When she was old enough, she left to join the Pure Ones who belonged to no Dark houses on the borderlands. With these “free” people, she learned more about the realities of Queen Ashlu’s empire, including what had most likely happened to her Papa.

  It was this knowledge that spurred her to action. She began gathering like-minded Pure Ones from across the empire and beyond. She was determined that her Papa did not lose his freedom, pride, love and life for nothing. She never wanted such a fate to befall another family.

  Never had she dreamed that she would become the first-ever Pure Queen. That under hers and Tal-Telal’s leadership, they would win their people’s freedom.

  Fate was like a pebble tossed in a tranquil pond. One small disturbance to the perfectly balanced surface could trigger ripple after ripple of domino effects. Nothing would remain untouched by the imbalance, and the pond itself would forever be changed, for it had just swallowed the pebble.

  Perhaps the pebble was one of many, but the impact was irreversible.

  Dalair murmured something back that Sophia didn’t catch, his voice low and soothing, a true whisper in contrast to Benji’s loud rasp.

  Painstakingly, her Mate eased his sex from her tight, greedy clasp under the privacy of the thin blanket that was draped on top of them.

  She clenched around him reflexively, not wanting him to leave her, despite the throbbing soreness within.

  Her Pure healing abilities barely kept up with the continuous way their intimate flesh had abraded each other for hours on end. But she loved the sweet ache of having him inside her nevertheless, for the euphoria of the pleasure he gave her more than compensated for the pain. A thousand, million times more.

  She bit back a moan as the last thick, silky, steely inch of him finally disengaged.

  Just as carefully, he unwound his body from hers, leaving her immediately cold and shivering.

  “Wow, you’re built just like Daddy.”

  Benji forgot to whisper by this point, making pronouncements in his clear, angelic voice.

  “He gets that morning wood too. I asked him why he calls it that, but I suppose it’s easy to guess. Looks like a baseball bat. Not that I play the game; I’m not very sporty. And since it’s there in the morning—it’s only logical—morning wood.”

  Sophia could hear the light rustlings of Dalair pulling on his clothes, while Benji continued to broadcast his revelations.

  A wry grin spread across her lips as she listened, the ache in her heart receding as the sound of the boy’s cheerful voice spread through her chest like a soothing balm.

  She wasn’t even embarrassed. After all, it sounded like Benji saw “morning woods” frequently enough to know about them. It must be difficult for Inanna and Gabriel to keep such a precocious boy out of hairy topics like this.

  Sophia knew first hand. Benji would run any subject to ground if it perked his curiosity, and just about everything perked Benji’s curiosity.

  “Wonder when I’ll get one,” he chirped, still on the topic of physiological miracles. “Maybe when I get a girl to wake up with, huh? Must be hard to pee with it though. If it erupts like a geyser, wouldn’t the urine spray everywhere? How do you aim that thing? It doesn’t look like it’s coming down any time soon…”

  A silent chuckle trembled through Sophia’s body. She managed, just barely, to keep the laughter in.

  Benji’s chattering faded away as he and Dalair exited the cave together, presumably to answer the call of nature.

  Now that Dalair’s heat no longer cocooned her, Sophia felt all the aches and pains in her body so much more, especially the emptiness between her thighs.

  She shook her head at her own gluttony as she quickly got dressed. Of course she couldn’t hold him inside her twenty-four-seven. But it didn’t keep her from wanting it.

  Goddess above! She wanted him all the time. Needed him so bad.

  After they got out of this mess, back to safety, she was going to chain him to her bed for days…weeks…She’d feast on his body until they were both too exhausted to move. And then she’d start all over again.

  But first thing’s first.

  She straightened up their supplies efficiently, repacking the utility bags. By the time Dalair and Benji returned, she had pouches of liquid breakfast for them, chicken flavor, with a side of nuts, while they brought back canteens with fresh water.

  Benji chattered on about a particularly fat chipmunk that he saw during their brief trip outside while Dalair’s eyes met Sophia’s in the semi-darkness of the cave.

  She got the message immediately.

  “Eat all you can, okay Benji?” Sophia said to her favorite little person. “We have a long day of trekking ahead of us. You’ll need all your energy and strength.”

  To Dalair, she asked telepathically through their Bond, What’s wrong?

  Our enemies are closing in, he told her. I sensed unusual disturbance toward the north and west. At most five miles of distance between us. They must have found the crash site and immediately triangulated our location.

  Sophia took a deep breath to brace herself and calm the rising tension.

  Where do we go? Will we be able to get to safety on foot? What about Benji? He’s only a human boy. He won’t be able to keep up with the pace we need to set.

  “You know, this thing is pretty filling,” the boy said as if prompted by Sophia’s thoughts of him. “It really does taste like chicken. Is this what astronauts eat? This is so cool!”

  Sophia murmured distracted responses while her mind focused mostly on Dalair’s words in her head.

  We’ll see how far and fast he can hike on his own. When he gets tired, I’ll carry him on my back like I did last night.

  But your wounds… Sophia thought with a worried frown.

  Are healed, he immediately allayed her fears.

  His eyes burned with an intensity that set her body simmering on high as he communicated, Our Mating…your Claiming…strengthened me.

  She tried to nod briskly, all business, but couldn’t prevent the shiver of awareness and heat that coursed through her body at his mention of last night. Well, all through the night and into this morning.

  How many are there? What is the plan if they gain on us? Even fully healed, you are only one warrior. I might hold my own for a few seconds, but these are well-trained assassins. We have no weapons. And Benji is defenseless.

  Again, the boy had impeccable timing whenever their thoughts landed on him, interrupting their silent communication.

  “You guys are talking to each other in your minds, aren’t you?” he groused. “Mom and Dad do it whenever they don’t want me to hear. It’s annoying! I’m not a baby any more.”

  Sophia switched her attention to him.

  “But you are still a boy who doesn’t need to hear everything we boring adults have to say to each other,” she teased. “Especially all that lovey dovey nonsense you’re particularly averse to.”

  Benji narrowed his eyes shrewdly.

  “You’re not talking gooey stuff,” he discerned. “I can tell. Mom and Dad, Uncle Tal and Mama Bear, and a bunch of other couples at the Shield do it all the time, and they get these hearts in their eyes. It’s like anime cartoons. Literally throbbing hearts and stars in their eyes, blushes on their faces, and drops of drool leaking out of their mouths—”

  “Benjamin!” Sophia protested, torn between laughter and acute embarrassment at his description.

  “You guys weren’t talking X-rated adulting stuff,” the boy continued, unphased by her interruption. “You’re talking serious getaway stuff. Are we in danger? Tell me, I can handle it.”

  “Walk and talk,” Sophia said at a look from Dalair.

  “We need to get going.”

  And so, the thre
e of them set out into the woods, Sophia and Benji following Dalair’s lead.

  Sometimes, he hiked farther ahead to scout. When he returned, Sophia could tell that he would subtly change their direction. Other times, he set them on a path and lagged behind to cover up their trail.

  His hyper senses were helping them keep a few steps ahead of their enemies, but Sophia knew that they were gaining on them.

  And there were many.

  *** *** *** ***

  “I called in some favors. Assistance is on the way.”

  Just before dawn, the members of the Royal Zodiac and their Mates convened in the Atrium of the Shield to organize the search and recover mission once Tristan and Ayelet, working with the Cove’s Hunter and his tech guru human Mate, narrowed down the coordinates of where Sophia and Benji might have been taken to.

  And Dalair. Must not forget the turned Paladin, who abducted them in the first place.

  Eveline looked at Jade, who spoke just now.

  “Ramses is sending help?”

  The ex-vampire queen inclined her head regally, her full lips quirking in a half smile.

  “As an act of good faith to cement our newly forged Alliance, he’s sending Rhys, Ryu, and even the magnificent Eli. I also borrowed a couple of helos from one of the Hives that owed me, equipped with pilots to fly them. We will rendezvous with the Chosen at the appointed location in half an hour.”

  Seth’s eyebrows elevated slightly in amazement.

  “The most lethal shadow warrior across the history of Dark Ones is joining our forces for this mission—Lord Wind himself? That is indeed rare.”

  “Well, it was less about Ramses dispatching him and more a matter of the shadow warrior wanting to keep an eye on his son, I imagine,” Jade mused.

  “We don’t know what we’re up against—whoever and whatever Wan’er is now,” Aella inserted.

  “She must have planned all of this from the start. And if Eveline and Cloud are right,” she flicked a glance toward her Mate, “we can’t let her get her hands on Benji. We need all the help we can get.”

  “Then there’s Sophia and Dalair,” Cloud added. “We must use caution. This is a rescue mission first and foremost. We cannot aggress upon the enemy without knowing fully what we’re up against and risk triggering the Destroyer if the Paladin sustains damage in the process.”

  “Trust me,” Inanna said grimly, “we’re in no position to launch an attack against the Hydra and her armies. That thing was…”

  The warrior shuddered in memory of their recent battle with the two-headed monster.

  “We lost my br—Erebu—in the process,” she finished on a whisper. “I cannot lose Benji too. I cannot.”

  Gabriel wrapped his arms around his Mate to lend her his strength. But he, too, was shaking. The depth of worry for their son was debilitating.

  “We can only send three warriors to ride in one of the helos while our Chosen allies take the other,” Aella said briskly, her no-nonsense tone pulling the anguished parents out of their spiral of despair.

  “Cloud, Valerius, and Tal,” she named each warrior in turn. “Our strongest and, luckily, unwounded in the Paladin’s attack.”

  “I am recovered,” Ishtar said. “It was but a small nick. If Tal goes, I go too.”

  “No,” Tal rejected softly but firmly. “Your Great White Beast is mighty and fierce, but you are not a trained soldier, ana Ishtar, not in the ways of war. You should not have come on the last mission. You are too easily distracted by emotions.”

  Before Ishtar could protest, as her mutinous expression showed she obviously wanted to do, Aella quickly concluded.

  “Then it’s settled. You three better get armed and ready. Meet Morgan in the training hall. He has new body armors to neutralize the homing device in the killer-bullets our enemies might be using.”

  This was a bit of good news amidst the bad, which all of them were more than happy to receive. Ever since Medusa’s networks developed killer-bullets that isolated Immortals based on their varying body temperature, a few degrees higher or lower than humans, like heat-seeking missiles that were programed to explode their internal organs upon impact, both the Dark and Pure Ones had been at a distinct disadvantage.

  “Eveline, Ramses sent escorts to take you back to the Cove,” Jade informed her. “Maximus and Ariel are waiting on the ground floor.”

  The Seer nodded.

  “Good timing. I’ve gleaned about as much as I can from the Shield’s archives. What I haven’t been able to research, Ayelet helped me scan into a digital repository. I’ll continue my analysis back at the Cove and cross-reference with the Dark Ones’ database too.”

  With that, Tristan took Eveline downstairs.

  As they departed, Valerius asked in his low, husky voice, “What are the mission coordinates?”

  Aella grimaced, knowing that he wouldn’t like the answer.

  “Within a five-mile radius of 43.6094° North, 71.3219° West. Near Lake Winnipesaukee in the White Mountains, in other words.”

  The stoic ex-Roman gladiator huffed a breath in a rare show of emotion.

  “Fucking Hydras and their fucking lakes,” he muttered, as the three designated warriors headed out.

  *** *** *** ***

  The first batch of enemy soldiers closed in on them from the east two hours into their trek.

  Wordlessly, Dalair indicated with hand signals for Sophia and Benji to crouch in a leaf-covered ditch behind a rocky ledge. Unless the enemy was right above them, they couldn’t be seen outside of a five-feet radius.

  Then, Dalair sprinted into the woods, his footsteps so light they were almost soundless, his body a blur. Within seconds, it was as if he’d disappeared entirely.

  “Will he be back soon?” Benji whispered. A true whisper this time, as if he knew instinctively that silence was paramount.

  “Yes, very soon,” Sophia answered.

  Dalair had telepathically instructed her to count to three hundred. If he wasn’t back within five minutes, she was to take Benji and head in the opposite direction. He’d track them afterwards.

  Three hundred seconds was going to feel like three hundred years the way her heart was pounding with fright and adrenaline. She prayed he’d be back before the count was done. Even though she agreed to do as he instructed, she had a feeling she’d break her promise if push came to shove.

  She couldn’t leave him. No matter what, she couldn’t ever leave him again. She rather suspected that it was a physical impossibility, even if she could overcome the mental and emotional firewalls.

  “Why are they after us? What’s so special about me that they made your…Mate take me?” the boy asked, his tone so serious Sophia felt as if someone else was asking the question in Benji’s voice.

  Not for the first time, she wondered at Benji’s uncanny maturity for someone so young. He’d taken an abduction at knife point, leaping off a skyscraper, being absconded in a helicopter and an impromptu survival trek through unfamiliar woods like a champ. Never once did he complain. Always optimistic and cheerful, seeing the bright side of every situation.

  Unlike Sophia.

  Apart from getting Dalair back to himself, she struggled to see the silver lining in their present circumstances.

  Since the beginning, when she first spotted Benji ice-skating at Wollman Rink, she sensed the vibrant Pure soul within this cherubic, angelic human boy. She hadn’t been entirely certain back then, years ago, but there was no denying that Benji was magical, for the colors of his soul were unlike any she’d ever seen.

  In a way, it reminded her of what she saw in Erebu’s soul—the colors sometimes changed, blazing hotter, brighter, or subdued like a low flame. But unlike Ere’s soul, Benji’s was pure light, no darkness woven in between.

  His colors reminded Sophia of another soul she’d witnessed before, but couldn’t for the life of her recall now where she’d seen it. It was so familiar. Clinging to the edges of her memories. Just waiting for her to realize the truth
. She was frustrated by her own mental block, for she knew that whatever it was, the memory was critically important.

  “You have special powers, Benji,” she answered honestly, not attempting to prevaricate.

  Benji was the smartest, wisest little person she’d ever encountered across all of her incarnations. He could handle the truth.

  Instead of hushing them both and cowering in quiet, she decided to allow the distraction of whispered conversation. She didn’t know about the boy, but it helped to calm her, that was for sure. To distract her from the fact that they were being hunted like animals by squadrons-worth of armed, dangerous and mind-controlled assassins.

  “What kind of powers?” he immediately asked in that same hushed tone right next to her ear as they crouched together on the forest floor.

  Everything else was eerily silent, save the occasional flutter of wings and the scrambling and chattering of small animals.

  “Well,” Sophia thought quickly as she talked, trying to stick to the truth while not revealing anything he didn’t absolutely need to know, “you can see people’s true forms. That’s pretty awesome.”

  She knew Benji rolled his eyes even if she couldn’t see him.

  “Woopdidoo,” he muttered. “You can see people’s souls. That’s way cooler.”

  “Just so,” she agreed, which was the first time she acknowledged her Gift in a favorable vein, “we have the best kind of powers.”

  “Why do the bad guys want me for that?” he persisted, too logical and astute by half.

  “I’m just a human boy. Why didn’t they abduct Mama Bear or one of the Elite warriors or even Seth or Jade? How am I supposed to not do what they want if I don’t know what they want?”

  Sophia’s heart palpitated.

  That last comment assumed that he was anticipating being in their enemies’ clutches. He was already thinking ahead.

  She prayed to the Goddess that it wouldn’t become a reality.

  “You come from a very powerful lineage,” she added, then bit her lip and wondered if she’d revealed too much. The fact that Benji was Erebu’s son was still a secret, especially to the boy himself.