Silent Orchids (The Age of Alandria: Book One) (15 page)

She didn’t like feeling examined and on display. Especially when she could feel the heat from his body radiating off of him; they were that close. And even more when there was a small, minute part of her that wanted to curl up and be enveloped by that heat.
I must still be suffering the effects of shock, because what the hell!

Kaeleigh jerked her arm out of his hand. Uncomfortable with his proximity, she took a step not backward but to the side—another one of Chel’s dad’s lessons: do not back down in front of a predator but move to the side to give yourself some room. Not reacting at all to her movement, Daegan just watched her. Feeling her strength return, Kaeleigh started walking again. She didn’t say anything, didn’t look behind her to see if he was still there, or if he was following her—she knew he was. Not sure how, but she could sort of
feel
him,
feel
his presence. Their paths entwining closer together. This should have creeped her out but instead it gave her an odd sense of comfort knowing he was there. He wasn’t going to hurt her, this she was sure. Maybe this stranger was even there to protect her. From what, she couldn’t even imagine. When she arrived at her apartment building, she stopped before going up the stairs to turn and thank Daegan, but instead she asked the question that had been on her mind since last night.

“What happened when you touched my wrist last night?” He didn’t say anything. “I know you know
something
,” she said as she sat down on the steps leading up to her apartment and looking down at her wrist as if she could see through the stack of bracelets that covered it. She looked up at Daegan, his eyes hard with some sort of internal struggle as he stared at her then at her wrist. She planned to wait for his response before she fired off another of her hundreds of questions; maybe that way she would actually get some answers.

Kaeleigh watched as Daegan seemed to come to a decision. His body shifted from stiff and controlled like a soldier to a little less so as he relaxed his shoulders and even looped his thumbs through the belt loops on his dark jeans. A gesture that was very normal for a very not normal thing happening. For the first time, Kaeleigh really noticed before her, not a stalker, but simply a man who looked about her age. 

He was slightly taller than average and built like an athlete, toned and muscular. His T-shirt under his opened jacket was stretched tight in all the right places revealing muscular ridges, the kind a girl could let her hands wander over for hours. Hair—shorter all around and slightly longer and mussed at the top—the inkiest black she had ever seen. His eyes were like deep vats of chocolate mixed with flecks of spicy jalapeño. Daegan was definitely good looking but less like a model and more
other
. Fighter even...
warrior
, the scar peeking out of his neck collar possibly confirming her thoughts. Thoughts came to Kaeleigh as she tried not to make her studying him obvious.   

He cleared his throat, causing her eyes to return to his, which in turn created a heat that ran up her neck into her face. He let it slide without comment. “The marking on your wrist is similar to other markings I have seen called
srontas
, which relate to cultural backgrounds; however, I have never seen that particular one before—it’s different,” he said with a frown. “I don’t know what yours means, perhaps it’s a mistake.” Daegan seemed to be speaking more to himself than to Kaeleigh.

“Okay...” Kaeleigh began to say as she was thinking. “So, how did
I
get one of these... snortas marks?”

“
Srontas
,” he corrected her with a slight twinkle in his eyes. Then suddenly serious again, “I don’t know,” he said with frustration, running his fingers through his hair. Frustrated perhaps that he didn’t know, perhaps at the situation, perhaps at her. 

Kaeleigh replied, not caring if he was irritated or not, determined to have some answers after everything that had happened. “Well, what happened when you touched mine? Something happened, I felt it. I can’t describe it, but it felt weird and now I seem to be oddly aware of you if I think of you.”

“You think of me?” Daegan asked, suddenly serious and confused. She thought for sure she would be getting some smart response laced with sexual intonation once she realized the opening she had given him with her last statement. 

Curious.

When she was about to blurt out something just to distract from the awkward silence of the moment, he started pacing, raking his fingers through his hair again... clearly uncomfortable.

“I’ve never had that happen before. I have never
heard
of that happening before. I tried to find out, but my contact was... unavailable.” He looked her in the eye. “The only thing I can think it might be is that my touching your mark somehow activated a piece of who you are...” He drifted off, apparently thinking out loud to himself. “In other words, there is something in you that is responding to the energy in me.” He was silent for a moment, then said, “Kaeleigh, I need to take you back with me. No harm will come to you while under my protection. I give you my word.”

Kaeleigh stood up, wiped off the back of her jeans, and said, “Well, good luck with that. I have no intention of going anywhere with you.” She started up the stairs and then turned back around and said with meaning, “Thank you for walking me home.” 

He nodded and turned to tell her one last thing before he left, “For your safety, you must stay close to your guardian and take his advice. Goodbye for now, Kaeleigh.” He smiled a sincerely handsome smile that made her heart do a little flip, and then he walked away.

Confused, Kaeleigh ran back down the several stairs she had climbed to ask who he thought her “guardian” was, stopping at the street corner. She was about to open her mouth when she saw Daegan disappear...
DISAPPEAR
? And not just disappear as in “losing sight of him as he walked off into the darkness of night,” but as in “poof, gone.”
WTF?
She blinked several times, shook her head, and headed back up the stairs and into the safety of her apartment.
Great! As if the weird flashes and the cryptic messages from the good-looking stranger weren’t crazy enough, he disappeared! He actually disappeared!! My friends are going to love this—if they don’t kill me, that is.
 

Her thoughts were such a blur she didn’t even remember the climb up to her apartment. When she reached her front door she paused, looked around, took a deep breath, then reached down to pick up the beautiful single-stemmed orchid that was lying across her doormat. Tears began to run down her face.

Kaeleigh stood at her front door cradling the delicate and beautiful flower, crying tears of frustration, fear, confusion, and even loneliness. Hearing footsteps, Kaeleigh turned to see Finn walking up the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with great concern as he ran up the remaining steps.

“THIS!” She strained her voice so he could hear through her tears as she showed him the orchid.
And a lot more
, she amended internally.

Finn looked at the flower and then into her eyes. “Let’s go inside,” he said calmly as he ushered her into her apartment. After sitting her down on her couch, he went into her little kitchen to make her some tea. “Chel called, Samuel’s parents made an unexpected stop in to visit and he wants her to stay and visit for a bit, otherwise she would have come over with me,” Finn shouted from the kitchen. He came back to where he left her on the couch and handed her the steaming cup of tea.

“Mmmm, smells good. Not what you usually make, what is it?” Kaeleigh asked as she inhaled deeply, letting the soothing aroma calm her frayed emotions.

“It’s just chamomile with a touch of vanilla. Now, what’s going on? You saw
him
again, didn’t you?” he asked accusingly.

Kaeleigh nodded as she pulled herself together to tell Finn what happened at the restaurant, but he interrupted with his own outburst before she even started.

“I’m gonna kill him! What did he do to you? You’re not going anywhere alone again!” Finn burst out in anger as he paced back and forth across Kaeleigh’s living room, which was not that spacious to begin with. He looked wild and ferocious and reminded Kaeleigh of a caged cat. He was actually starting to make her nervous, which of course caused her to get mad.

Now angry herself, Kaeleigh stood up and marched into the kitchen. “Where are you going?” Finn asked, sounding paranoid.

Kaeleigh turned around and looked at him. “You didn’t even listen to me! Get a grip, Finn. I appreciate your concern but I might feel safer with you if you actually paid attention to me and listened to what I say. I think Daegan listened to me better and he’s a total stranger. What is going on with you, Finn?”

Finn looked at Kaeleigh with one eyebrow raised and steam practically coming out of his nostrils. “Daegan?”

“The stalker guy. If you had let me tell you about how my boss had tried to seduce, dominate, and probably would have raped me in the alley, then I would have told you about how Daegan came to my rescue and handed out his form of justice—even though I had already dealt with the boss-man—and how he walked me home to make sure I was okay. He was decent, and genuinely offered to protect me.”

Again, Finn looked at her, but this time his features were softer and his shoulders that were set and indignant now lowered in defeat. He sighed, dropped his eyes, and put his hands on his waist, “Kae, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. Are you okay?” When Kaeleigh nodded, he drew closer and warmly gripped her shoulders as he continued, “I don’t want you around this Daegan, though. Even if he seems like a decent guy.”

“It’s not like I plan on hanging out with him, Finn. I don’t even know him. Plus, he’s not all there,” she said as she tapped her finger to her head. “Remember, he thinks I’m ‘the one’ or something and wants to take me back to wherever he is from, wherever that is... probably outer space,” Kaeleigh said as she rolled her eyes and shrugged. But something about what she was saying began stirring a longing buried deep within her. She looked at Finn, who now looked like he had seen a ghost. “Finn?”

Finn dropped his hands, backed up to the couch and sat down. “He wants to take you back? You didn’t tell me that part. He can’t... You can’t... You can’t go anywhere with him, it’s not safe,” Finn said, now mumbling to himself lost in his own thoughts. “We have to leave! We should go on vacation. You aren’t going back to that job anyway after what happened, right? Let’s get Chel and go on a trip to... well, I don’t know where yet but it doesn’t matter.” Finn was once again pacing and now rubbing his hands together over and over, mentally forming some kind of plan.  

Kaeleigh stood against the wall to the kitchen with her arms folded over her chest, watching Finn in bewilderment having what seemed to be some kind of breakdown. “Finn?” He didn’t look at her but kept pacing, “FINN!” Kaeleigh now shouted at him, which shocked him out of his little tirade. “What are you talking about? You’re acting crazy. God, you and Chel both are acting crazy and I am not going anywhere. End of story.”

Chapter Seventeen

Exhile

The Realm of the Unforgiven Dead

“A gate has been opened,” a monotone voice in the dimly lit cavern spoke.

Hope flared. Cley-una concentrated her magic—what was left of it—with all her strength. She, as well as several others among her with similar powers, was desperately trying to connect, to communicate with others outside their cave. She could have accomplished it effortlessly when her soul had been free, but in Exhile their powers were muted. It took their collective energy to push enough magic through to force what little connection they were making. Cley-una, being the Ferrishyn that she was, felt she should have had a greater ability to connect, but unfortunately she had been fighting to get through a clear message with no sustained success. 

“I can’t get through.” Frustrated, Cley-una collapsed the connection she had been maintaining until then. “He is so closed off and guarded. It makes it even harder to break through. Although it is not him alone, there is an outside force that has a connection rooted within him.” She sighed sadly. “I am only able to get through to the girl with images and feelings. If she is vulnerable, she will connect with my words, but it’s harder in the mortal realm and even then it was only with Eva’s added help.”

A tall Ferrishyn warrior stepped up behind Cley-una and put his hands on her shoulders, looking at her with deep love and confidence. “Arileas explained to Daegan that he needed to contact us. We will just have to wait for the opportune moment to try again.”

“He is stubborn,” an older Faerie woman with bluish hair piped up.

“No, he just can’t hear us, Tylna.” An older Elvish woman flippantly contradicted the other woman with a bored wave of her hand, having been over it many times before. 

They were somewhere within a system of caves and tunnels hidden within one of the many mountain ridges of the forsaken realm. Small groups had gone scouting—mostly consisting of the few shifters that often needed to roam—to find a way out, but always ended right back where they started. The cave opening looked outside but there was an invisible barrier that was impenetrable. Outside was always overcast with an eerie reddish glow, allowing barely enough light to see the outlines of the other mountain ranges. Inside, it was always cold and dark, but for the few torches that never were snuffed out. Never needing sustenance, somehow stuck in an in-between form—not entirely dead, but not truly alive—they were trapped in an inexcusable form of existence, not able to move on. Not only were they prevented from leaving, but their magic was being suppressed. It felt like a tremendous weight compressing and binding the very core fibers of their magical energies.

In total, there were about ten of them: Faeries, Elves, and Shifters. It had been over fifteen years for the newest of them, but for others it had been much, much longer. They knew who their captor was, although they never saw her, but they hadn’t figured out how
she
had managed to accomplish it. It shouldn’t have been possible, but it had happened and they were forced to work within their means to still try to help Alandria.