Revived (The Lucidites Book 3) (27 page)

Ren pauses again. I rustle my hands back and forth on my legs, earning me a contemptuous look from him. “I’m not proud of being a part of Allouette’s plan. However, if it wasn’t me, it would have been someone else and that someone might have let you die.”

Joseph clears his throat. “I think we owe you a strange bit of gratitude.”

“Oh, golly gee, shucks…don’t flatter yourself. I didn’t do it for you.” Ren gives us a cold expression. “I did it because I didn’t agree with killing people, but I didn’t know that until I was witnessing it. I also didn’t like being used. If I had it to do over, I’d have had the ship circle around and run over Allouette, but unfortunately I took my mind control off her long enough for her to recover and dream travel to safety. Damn bitch.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

N
ot one word came out of my mouth during our meeting with Ren. Strangely, his long monologue filled in all the gaps. It left me with only one question, but not one Ren could answer. Only one person can answer this question, and there’s no way I’m ever going to confront him with it. I turn to Joseph, stopping his progress down the hallway. He’s almost sprinting, like he needs to get as far away from Ren’s office as possible before a bomb goes off.

“Stop,” I say, clutching his arm.

He looks at me, not quite seeing me. Blinks rapidly. “You wanna say it, so just go ahead. It’s all right to have a little sympathy for the guy. Maybe more now than ever.”

I do
want
to voice the question rolling around in my head, like a bowling ball in a clothes dryer. “To find out that the woman you loved, the mother of your children, died like that,” I say, my throat quickly turning to cement. “To be handed your two children and told…what was that moment like? How devastating would that be?” I speculate, trying to remove myself from the equation, but it’s impossible. I was one those babies, handed to my father with the news that my mother was murdered during childbirth.

“Trey doesn’t seem like such a monster anymore, huh?” Joseph says.

“No, he seems like a man given a heart-wrenching fate. I suspect his scars run deep.”

“I know they do.”

“Maybe he resents us though, for living, when Eloise died? Maybe that’s why he sent us away?” I say.

“I think you don’t want to believe that he loves you as much he does because you’d have to start caring too.”

“I don’t know,” I say in a sincere state of confusion. “I think this information will help me to understand him better. Maybe even forgive him…one day.”

Joseph’s eyes are sharp, rimmed with a new hostility, but it’s not aimed at me. “Who could do something like that? What kind of person murders babies?”

“I can’t even begin to understand the evil…” Every inch of my skin feels like its crawling with sharp-legged beetles.

“Will it make what you have to do with Chase harder? Now that you know he’s responsible?”

A humorless grin spreads slowly on my mouth. “Oh no, now my motivation is firmly in place. More so than ever I’m certain I can pull off the plan. And make him suffer a painful death.”

“Damn, that look in your eye right now kinda scares me…in a good way.” Joseph pats me on the back as we resume the walk to the elevator. “Good luck tonight. I feel sorry for the man you’re meeting.”

“I don’t.”

♦

The marble steps of the Parthenon feel both solid and fragile under me. I sit. Wait. I don’t know how he does it, but he will find me. I’m like an antelope prancing in front of a hungry lion, but this circle of life is about to be revised.

Two and a half minutes. That’s how long I have to wait. Behind me his rubber-soled shoes barely make noise as he crosses through the inner chambers of the Parthenon––the
cella
. Its walls, no longer standing, make this possible. I pretend I’m enjoying the morning light as it kisses the tops of the buildings of Athens. But I’m not taking in the view or the magnificent structures around me. I’m rehearsing. Reinforcing my shields. And slightly worrying what will happen if my protective charm fails. Aiden knows what he’s doing though. With this I can trust him.

I rarely pray and when I do my agnostic heart doesn’t quite know who I’m praying to. But right now I know exactly who I need to direct this prayer to: my inner goddess.
Please help me to deceive this man. Unleash inside me what I need to convince him that, to me, he’s irresistible.

Standing, I straighten, like my senses have just been lured by something deliciously human. I slide my chin around until my eyes seize him strolling around a column. I know how an intense desire feels. At the sight of him my chest convulses forward once, but only an inch. My lips part, like breath has just escaped my lungs. And my eyes scream “I want you.” The way my body reacted to Chase before I had the patch to my protective charm is engrained in my memory. And right now I’m triggering that memory, making my body live in the past.

Chase’s eyes are like two round-cut aquamarine diamonds, a well in their middle. A bottomless well, as empty as his soul. Still, it’s impossible to not appreciate such beauty. He’s like Niagara Falls, breathtaking and deadly.

To my inner goddess’s pleasure he’s wearing a tuxedo shirt, the neck opened, no bow tie. The best part of his ensemble is the taut suspenders. My job is getting easier by the minute. When he’s only a foot away I slip two fingers under the paisley silk suspender at his waist. Watching my fingers as they slide up, I wait until they’re just at his chest and then I tug him forward.

“I didn’t even have to ask this time,” he says, his cold breath greeting my face like I’ve just opened a refrigerator.

“Ask?” I say with a shiver.

“For you to touch me.” His eyes are like that of a proud cat’s, all self-serving.

“I’ve been slow to warm,” I say, slipping my fingers out from under his suspenders and running them down until I find the place where they attach to his suit pants. Again my fingers tuck inside the fabric and tug. “But I can’t resist you any longer.”

In a rush he grips my other arm, his fingernails pinching into my skin. “Although I’m pleased to hear this, I must ask that you not play games with me, Roya.”

My breath hitches. “I...I...I…”

Pressing his fingers harder into my arm, he crowds his face up against mine. “You might think the streets of Las Vegas were loud enough to conceal your conversations,” he says through beautifully white clenched teeth. “They weren’t.”

“Chase.” A subservient plea in my voice.

“Yes?” he says in a hiss, his canines flashing at me.

“You’re hurting me.” I let my voice quiver, and swivel my gaze to my arm. The skin has turned blotchy in places due to the constriction caused by his fingers.

Loosening his grip on me he skims his hand until it meets my wrist. Like a handcuff he cinches around it, but not as tight as before. “Imagine how upset I was to hear your recount of your revelation to those men in Las Vegas. It almost sounded as though you were unhappy to know why I wanted you.”

“I’d never want you to be upset,” I say, realizing my fingers are still inside the waistband of his pants. I pull them away and step back as far as he’ll allow me, his grip still on my wrist. Staring down at the crumbling marble under my feet, I practice a look of shame. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. It’s only that the circumstances involving us are so complicated and have been a lot to digest.” Bringing my submissive eyes up to his I say, “But I’ve decided that no matter your reason for wanting me, I’m grateful.” He searches the features of my face, with an expression that isn’t quite anger.

He tucks his chin, swallows hard, and turns his gaze to the distant corner of Athens. “Who are they?”

“They’re like my parents,” I say.

With a lift of his chin he flicks his eyes back to mine. “Will they come between us?”

“How could anyone come between us? Will your parents be a problem to our union? Please tell me there’s no one who has that power,” I say, my voice dripping with fake desperation.

“Oh no, it’s our marriage that will finally put me back in my father’s graces. Bearing children with pure blood will not only reinstate me into the Blain family, but it will put me in the highest position.”

“It appears that our relationship will mend many fences and for that I’m glad.”

A wicked smile quirks his lips up, a clever gleam in his eyes. “Oh yes. It will mend castle walls and once I’m back inside the Blain estate…I’m going to kill every last one of them. Then you, my queen, will have a proper place to birth my children, since the Grotte is no place for them.”

In a palace of blood. How romantic…

“How do you always know where I am?” I ask.

“Roya.” He shakes his head and clicks his tongue. To my relief he’s softened a bit in appearance and with his grip. “You haven’t been paying attention, have you?”

“Not enough, apparently,” I say in a meek voice.

He releases me and gracefully steps closer. “I’m targeted on your energy. I know it like I know the contours of most people’s minds. Even when you’re awake, I know where you are. I wish I could say that I knew what you felt and thought, but you’re too good at shielding. Soon a day will come where you will never use a shield against me, but for now I’ll allow it. I do enjoy the game of love and it isn’t as much fun if I have too many advantages.”

He’s sick. Corrupt and sick.
I lace a smile across my lips, plant my hand softly on his chest, and feign a shudder as though his heartbeat under my fingertips is erotic. The only thing turning me on right now is the idea of ripping his heart out.

With unhurried, deliberate steps he begins snaking his way around me. “Did you know that the word
Parthenon
refers to a virgin’s apartment? Funny place for us to meet tonight.” He’s completed the tight circle around me. “So, Roya, now you know why I want you. Why don’t we cut to the chase?” His smile is inches from my mouth. I run my eyes over the features of his intricately beautiful face.

Cupping the side of my head, he pulls me in to him. Sickness rises in my stomach, but I make a silent plea just as his mouth covers mine. Under all the breath and movement I find a way to forge the lust and the allure. The animalistic desire I once felt for him is gone, replaced by repulsion as deep as the pits in hell. I know the moves to this dance, though, even if I’m forced to do them with the devil. When his mouth grazes mine I push into him, thinking maybe I’ll make his lips hurt and he’ll mistake that as passion. He bites me. I let him pull away first and then I lunge for him, pretending to still be hungry. His pink mouth twitches with a smile. I thank my inner goddess.

“Well, it’s settled.” He flattens his shirt, like I’ve wrinkled it. “You’ll be my wife.”

I pull him toward me, enjoying this little game he’s unaware I’m playing. With a shaky hand I find the place where his shirt opens to his chest, three buttons down, and slide my fingers up until I feel the blood beating in the vein along his neck. I push up on my tiptoes until my lips meet my fingertips and kiss him softly. His purr masks the revulsive shudder I let slip out. He tastes like juice concentrate, making my mouth feel like it’s now coated in syrup. His skin is as hard as what I suspect the statue of Zeus on the east pediment feels like. If it wasn’t for the beating under his skin, then I’d question whether he was human.

“Yes, but we have eternity to be together,” I whisper against his skin. “I don’t want to rush this.”

My scalp suddenly screams. His fingers yank my head back, almost ripping out a chunk of hair. “I’ve waited a long time for this. Don’t you forget that.” He releases my hair and stares at me behind sinister eyes.

“As grateful as I am for this opportunity, as much as I want you,” I say, “I need to know you want me, and not just my blood. Now that I know the truth it’s more confusing than ever.” I pause for effect and then look at him like he’s the answer to all my problems. “Make me believe you want me. Prove you love
me
.”

His black eyebrows furrow in confusion. This gorgeous and powerful man is suddenly lost. “How?”

I thread my fingers through his smooth hair, rubbing them against his scalp. “That’s the thing about love. It’s a mystery. You’ll figure it out and when you do, I’ll be yours…forever.”

I pull my bottom lip into my mouth, my top teeth press down against it. He yanks me to him and growls. His excitement is palpable; it almost courses through my body. Chase loves games and that’s what love is to him. A game. He probably thinks I’m smiling due to the ecstasy of the moment. He leans down, his mouth going wide. I almost don’t hide the horror in my eyes before his teeth pierce my neck and rack against my skin. Pain sears from the bite, like a hand held too close to a flame. However, if this is a battle scar, I’ll endure it. His breath presses against my skin sharply, eliciting a response that even my revulsion can’t overcome. Goose bumps rise to the surface. His eyes meet mine and I smile back at him with feigned unabashed adoration. He kisses me once upon the lips and steps away. A distance I’ve been looking forward to.

“Until next time,
mon amour
,” he says, lowering his chin.

Chapter Thirty-Four

“A
re those teeth marks on your neck!?” George says too loud when I sit down with a bowl of salty grits. After last night if I never have anything sweet again I’ll be fine.

“George,” I reprimand in a hush. “Be quiet.” Keeping my eyes low I scan the main hall. Thankfully it doesn’t appear Trey is present, but half a dozen people are twisted around in their seats, curious looks on their faces. One of them I stare at too long. Aiden’s. He’s wearing a look that matches George’s horrified expression.

“He did that, didn’t he?” George grips my hand and points his gaze at Aiden. The three of us are locked in a staring contest now. Thankfully, most everyone else has turned back to their breakfast.

Aiden must have read George’s lips or sensed the allegation because he shakes his head with a deliberate force. Unable to stomach the look of gross disbelief on Aiden’s face I slip down in my chair, using my hands as a visor over my forehead. “No,” I say so only George can hear. “It wasn’t him.”