Bonded (The Raegan Mason Trilogy) (25 page)

BOOK: Bonded (The Raegan Mason Trilogy)

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Fear gripped me and I couldn’t think. “No! I don’t have a clue!” I grabbed onto Kyler with all my strength and forced myself to keep standing so I didn’t faint. Tears were flowing as hard as the rain. A wall of sand formed around us as Kyler did his best to keep out the icy rain. I kept thinking of the lighthouse and how warm and safe I felt there. I wished we were there and not on this island. I kept whispering take us home, take us home. The wind was whipping through the trees and pushing us. The rain was pummeling us with icy daggers, and Joshua was haunting us. I closed my eyes and pulled Kyler closer. Then everything was quiet.

CHAPTER 20 - OUT OF HARM'S WAY

I was afraid to open my eyes. I just knew we were dead. The faint hum of machinery caused me to open my eyes. We were in the lighthouse. Kyler and I were still clutching onto each other until it registered to both of us where we were.

“How’d you do that?” Kyler placed his hands on my shoulders and searched my eyes with those fiery sapphires.

“I..I don’t know.” I stuttered and crumbled to the floor. My nerves were raw and we were soaked from the rain. “We’re safe now. You don’t still hear him, do you?” Kyler examined my face for any trace of his presence in my mind. I shook my head.

Satisfied, Kyler went into the bathroom and grabbed some towels. He wrapped one around my shoulders and rushed upstairs to get some dry clothes. I was shaking when he returned and he pulled me up to standing and began to help me dress in his borrowed clothes. “My mother is on her way.”

I couldn’t speak. I was freaked out. I think it’s called shock. First, we’re dragged off in a rip tide to some beautiful deserted island that I knew, I lived on before. Then the assault of memories I couldn’t stop. Then
him
. I couldn’t bear to think his name for fear he would track us down. What did he mean others would find me? What scent is he talking about? I carefully sniffed my underarm as I wiped my face with the towel.

Kyler chuckled slightly. “It isn’t body odor.” He continued to dry my hair for me as I stood statuesque. “Your essence has a scent, and yours is intoxicating.”

“I don’t understand.” I admitted openly. I searched his eyes for answers he was withholding from me.

Kyler sighed. “I don’t know all of the answers you’re looking for. After that little encounter with…” I placed my finger on his lips to prevent him from saying the name. “My mother will be here shortly and she has some more details to the puzzle.” His dimples formed without a full smile.

He walked toward the kitchen and started heating up some water for hot chocolate.

“Do you think he’s one of the Serpens?” I asked.

Kyler shrugged and continued making our hot chocolate before coming to sit down next to me. He handed me a mug. “To calm our nerves.” He smiled as he tapped his mug to mine.

Serpens and Elders? What did any of that have anything to do with us? My mind ran wild with the new information. How could they be connected to me? Did my parents have special powers I didn’t know about? Which Royal family did I come from? Could that mean we could be fallen angels? I forgot Kyler could hear my thoughts.

“No, definitely not fallen angels or Serpens. We are children of Royal Elders. My father is a Royal Stone Elder and that’s why I have this enhancer. One of your parents must be a Royal Elder too.” He grabbed his necklace. “There are some Elders that would not want us bonding. Remember, those bondings and unions can create some very powerful, um, children.” Kyler blushed a deep red then cleared his throat. “Serpens are ones that try to steal essence and powers, but as far as I know they didn’t all come here. Most stayed on Grace, except for a few that followed the exodus. There hasn’t been any encounters in thousands of years. I’m not sure what to make of the one on the island.” The tension was deafening. We stared at each other without speaking for what seemed like hours. The silence was broken when we heard keys at the door and Marina walked in. She was dripping from the rain that had started falling. Kyler threw her a towel as she walked in.

“You couldn’t wait five minutes before dropping a bomb on her like that?” Marina scolded Kyler then rushed over and hugged us both. I looked over her shoulder looking for Aunt Sarah but didn’t see her. “She isn’t coming, dear.” She patted my back and hugged me tighter. “Are you feeling okay?” She searched my face. I’m sure she saw weariness in my eyes.

“I’ve been better.” I forced a quick smile and sat back down on the couch. I continued to sip the hot chocolate. The smooth velvet chocolate soothed my nerves a bit, but I still felt like I was in a nightmare. “Are you going to explain more?” I asked obviously eager for more pain and shock. I wasn’t intimidated by her presence anymore. The fact that immortal beings were trying to kill me now outweighed the fact that I crave her son’s touch, and blush brilliant shades of red in her presence.

She smiled apologetically. Warmth that didn’t exist the first time we met colored her face. She looked sympathetic to my demise. She sat down next to me, and Kyler sandwiched me in on the other side of the couch.

“Guess this is going to be hard to hear?” I looked back and forth between their eyes. Kyler rubbed my arm comfortingly sending electric pulses through my bones as Marina began filling me in on the details she discovered while we were gone.

******

I guess the pain of reliving memories of a family I lost over and over in the past nine months doesn’t compare to losing a father and aunt that never were mine. Evidently, Aunt Sarah and my father are not like us so there is no way he could be my father and me still be a child from a Royal family. So by process of elimination, Dad isn’t my father. My mother must be from a Royal family and united with another of our royal lineage to have me. Whether Dad knew about it or not is yet to be discovered and may never be fully understood at this point. By default, Aunt Sarah isn’t family either. She honestly believes that Christopher Mason is my biological father. For now, we agreed she would remain in the dark.

As far as my mom, Marina explained in as delicate manner as possible, she must have been seduced by an Elder and conceived me. Whether dad was in the picture then depends on whether we believe the word of my Aunt Sarah who said they met when they were young and didn’t have me until much later in life. Marina seems to believe it’s possible. Since we are not able to bear children from normal humans, only others like us, or Elders.

The Serpens that Marina had mentioned when I first met her would be the ones that will be searching for my “scent”. Not only am I an offspring of an Elder, but evidently a rare find in our kind. Although thought to be extinct, the Serpens search for those of us that have been “bred” for lack of a better word to feed off of our essence or life force. To put it plainly, my mother has to have been a child of an Elder, her mother was a child of an Elder, and on and on until the first union between the Royal Elders. Judging by my power to transport not only myself but Kyler too across an ocean, I’m experiencing strong powers before my eighteenth birthday. That piece of information leads us to believe the Elders will want to eliminate me because I’m a threat, and the Serpens will want to either drain me or breed me. Ugh! Not an option.

Kyler is also a child of a Royal Elder. His situation is different, though. He’s a male version of the pure child. The odds of that happening are very rare too. His Elder father appears from time to time and trains him in forms of combat. He knows the Serpens want destroy him. They see a royal male offspring as a threat to their purposes. It opens up opportunities for bonding and uniting between pure offspring, such as the bond between Kyler and me. A union between two consenting families could create a new type of progeny, stronger and more gifted than the Elders or the Serpens. This is another strike against us. Our bond is already strong. The real test will be to take off our enhancers and test our powers.

So here we are days away from my eighteenth birthday. The day my powers will really start to surface. It’s also an official time to obtain permission for a unification ceremony. Only then can Kyler and I complete our union without the consequences of death, on my part, and trashing the hopes and wishes of many others that are at the mercy of Elders and Serpens. The tricky part is going to be staying alive until that day.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank my husband and family for putting up with me as I set out on this adventure to write. Thank you for the encouragement and support.

To my mom, I like to believe you would have enjoyed reading this book. Thank you for the years we had together, the lifelong love of reading you passed along, and for always being my number one fan in everything I did. I miss you.

Thank you, Misty, for taking my madness and helping me fix the flaws. I’ve enjoyed sharing the characters with you and the laughs as we dissected the chapters. Amazing how certain phrases can bring a fit of giggles.

To my brother, you’re still older, and I’m still smarter! ;-)

To my dad, you read romance novels? Wow! Thanks!

And to all my friends and readers, thank you for reading and taking a ride through my imagination. I hope you enjoy
Bonded
and the two still to come.

Be sure to stop by my website,
www.cherylcourtney.com
, or like my Facebook page,
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheryl-Courtney-Author/336216163161262
to get updates. You can also follow me on Twitter @tweet_CherylC

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1 – THE ROCK

CHAPTER 2 – THE SONG

CHAPTER 3 – A NEW DAY

CHAPTER 4 - KYLER

CHAPTER 5 - SURPRISE

CHAPTER 6 - TORTURE