Son of Ra (10 page)

“I didn’t expect this bossy directive girl to come other with a knife in hand.”

“Me neither,” I snorted.

“What happened?”

“You.  I’ve never been so forceful, much less the fact that you know my innermost thoughts, and yet you still like me.  The real me.”

“You are amazing.”  He pushed closer, turning me sideways to face the moon, and bringing his body up against mine.  I went frigid when I could feel all of him.  Head to toe.

“You okay?” he asked putting a hand on my hip on top of the covers. 
With this? 
I couldn’t help but hope for more kisses. 

“Oh, yeah, mostly.  I think.  Um, maybe…”  He moved away.  I regretted it immediately.  I had an idea.  “Let’s think about something else.”

“Hard to do,” his sigh was long putting his hand back on my covered hip flexing it several times.

I smiled inside and out.  “Um, what is your favorite childhood memory?”

“Well, I once caught a Frisbee in my mouth.”

I pulled my head to the ceiling, “What?”

“I was in the park once, my friend Joel was throwing a Frisbee, and I caught it in my mouth.”

“On purpose?”

“Yeah.  I wanted to see if I could.”

“Okay! Are you half Werewolf or something?”  I laughed.

He roughly said, “NO!” and then calmed after playfully tickling my arms with feathery fingers.  He was in what I knew to be the “spoon position” to sleep.  Just sleep.

I felt my eyes droop.  I was warm.  Safe. 

“I feel very safe with you,” I murmured.

No word came from him and my breathing slowed.

“What is your favorite childhood memory?” he whispered really close to my ear with his head nestled into the back of mine
. 
I felt the necklace fall away but didn’t have enough conscious alertness to check it.   I jostled my eyes open and felt him breath against me.  Peace.   That’s all I can do to describe it.  Safe.  I’ve never felt this way.

“I don’t have any,” I drifted slightly away from awareness.

“How about the day I first saw you?”

“I didn’t know that day.  Just you.”  His hand flexed against my hip like he was having a hard time with this.

“But if you had, maybe you would have a great memory to hold on to.”

“Maybe,” I was drifting off.  I don’t know what made me like this tonight.  It just felt so right. 

Chapter Ten

…what they can help, and what they cannot.

The sun poured endlessly into my window the next morning.   I rolled backwards feeling no one there and wondered if it was all a dream.

Wrapped in the covers, I rolled back feeling the necklace.  It was there lying on the sheet beside me.  I peeked out sideways and found no one.  When I searched the room it was empty.  It wasn’t a dream since I know I went to sleep with the ring in my possession and it was still here.  And the blanket was still wrapped around me, not the sheet.

I rolled back over to where Cas would have been had he still been there when I woke up.  My head hit something.  I rolled the rest of the way, raised my cheek knowing it was some type of box.

A jewelry box.

I was so eager and reluctant all at the same time
. 
No one is watching.  But he is listening, I know it.

I opened the top off very slowly.   A burgundy ribbon closed over a shiny silver box made a scraping noise as I lifted it causing me to look around for snoopers.  Well, only one snooper and he was the giver. 

I closed my eyes waiting a second longer to find the prize.  When I opened it, my mouth did a cross between a big O and giant smile all in one. 

Inside the box was a gold chain with a burgundy deep red heart pendant.  At the top of the pendant a small diamond was nestled in the groove right at the middle. It was familiar.  It looked remarkably like my mother’s. I held it up twirling it about marking the rising sun glittering against it. 

Without hesitating I scooped up the ring dropping the chain part of it into the box.  The new chain slipped and I failed to clasp it.  It took me a few seconds to pull it back and ready it to close.  I changed my mind quickly and dropped the ring onto the bed and clasped the chain feeling the chill of it hit my skin.

…orange soda, French bread, and every fruit known to man…

Is that you, Cas?

…huh…you took off the ring…Stace…

Don’t come in.  I’m not dressed.  Just heard you. 

Why did you take it off?

I was in the bathroom now, hurrying myself to be ready.

I found something this morning.  Do you know anything about it?
              Maybe!

Thank you!  It’s beautiful.

Then it’s fitting.

Will it block you?

No, it is simply because I wanted you to have it.

I put it out in front of my face and looked at it in the mirror then took it back off to shower.  I took it back off to shower.  I took longer than I intended simply because the vanilla shampoo, vanilla soap, and vanilla bubbles were flying above me and popping down.  I am in love with the shower. 

A soft chuckle went through my head.  In my haste to protect my new ruby red charm, I neglected to guard my thoughts.

I stepped out, drying off and lathering in even more vanilla lotion.  I wondered yesterday who put all of it here.  Surely not Cas.  Surely he didn’t know my obsession with vanilla.   I finished with a favorite fitted teal green t-shirt and flare jeans.  My favorite peace sign belt from the day I arrived, and my secret favorite, cowgirl boots under my jeans.  My hoodie lie on the bed in wait.  I was ready. I re-clasped the necklace and opened the bathroom door anxious to find Cas. Fiddling with the box of jewelry I’d accumulated, I opened the balcony and enjoyed the air to calm my heart rate down to normal.

He had a way of showing up at precisely like a damsel in distress kind of moment.  But I was no damsel in distress kind of girl.  I could take his kind and any other in three seconds flat.  He was here for other unknown reasons I wasn’t clued into yet.  YET!  And I hoped to find out just what that was. SOON!

Cas, the predator, irked me. For a man that bulked up and long legged, it should be a little more difficult to be stealthy. And I was the prey.  A very willing prey.

“Hello there.”  A deep voice echoed from the bed.  A bedroom voice.  And he definitely had the bedroom hair going on, not that I noticed before.

“What are you doing here?”

“Um, door was open.”

I glanced at the balcony he nodded towards.  “Not a normal opening for invited or uninvited guests.”  I walked over to the dresser finding my watch and earrings to put on turning my back to him.

I felt his eyes watching my every move.

“Define normal.”

“I can’t anymore.  And not sure I want to.” 
Yet, Calum…

Your charm is missing.

“Oh!” was all I managed.  I could feel his rage and jealousy hit me.   Why did I think of him?  Because he seems more in the norm?  

I fiddled with the sheets as if to make the bed but more just to have something to do at moment.

He stopped me with his hand on my arm sending heat racing upward, “Stace…I want a chance…”  I froze in the middle of my reach for the pillows.

“I don’t know.  I don’t know what is right, right now,” I sighed too loudly.

I tried to move.  He just moved his hand to hold mine interlacing our fingers together.  I watched him traced the back of my hand with his thumb.  His eyes looked up in a deep stare that was every bit as intense as a kiss.  He was speaking to me all through this pleading, wanting, yellow eyed look.  And I couldn’t get enough of it.

“Why did you give me...this?”  I pointed to the ruby.

He smiled, his eyes on the necklace, “I wanted my heart near yours.  It’s my thoughts your guarding against, so I wanted my heart represented.”

“Why?” 

This girl!  Lord!
  His face reckoned a million things in one.  I heard him knowing he neglected to hide it.

“Never mind…I love it.  More than anything.”

He smiled and looked down.  The ring was in my pocket and the chain sat in the box.  “Would you like for me to make it into a bracelet so you can wear both?” 

“You would do that?”  I ignored the fact that he somehow knew the ring wasn't in the box in the first place. He really tries to just stop my heart with shock it seems.

“For you, anything Kissa.”

It was astounding.  I nodded for no reason but to acknowledge. “After the meeting.  The ring I mean.  I will give it to you then.”  I stared at the floor.

“Are you hungry?” he asked me showing me a kindness by not asking.

Chapter Eleven

To get the full value of love…

We ate then rallied ourselves into the Sun room waiting for the group to arrive around ten that morning.

I had mixed feelings on how this was all going to go down.  Standing in the same room with Calum and Cas would be entirely too strange.  I wasn’t sure what I felt completely about anything but did acknowledge one conclusion.  I needed some time off from everyone to think straight. 

Neither of us spoke much.

He stood nervously after a quiet while.  “They are here.”

Holding his hand out, he led me down to the bottom floor and stopped me.  “Please don’t mention to anyone about me, my weapons room, or most definitely, our connection.”  He pointed to my head.  "At least not just yet."   I nodded eager to get the whole thing over with.  I dreaded it oddly enough.  I did not want to leave.

When the front door opened, Claire, the housekeeper, was thrown aside by a storming Calum.  “Where is she?”

I stood beside Cas now, my zip hoodie sweater zipped up to the top and hands in my pockets.  I felt Cas step sideways to make room for Calum’s large Hunter impact.  I fell backwards as Calum had his arms around me.  I just couldn’t return it.  It didn’t feel right. So I gave him what I could.

I felt Cas’ eyes watching my every move as Calum let go, but didn’t go far.  I pulled the necklace from under my shirt in a split decision tucking it under the zipper I just pulled up but didn’t even let it register that it wasn’t the ring. 
What will happen next for you?
He didn't answer me.

I stood back up now, Calum beside me, and took turns hugging Maze, and shaking hands with Dr. Green.

I apologized to Claire for Calum’s rudeness, but he just scowled at everyone he looked at.  For once, Cas was not the sole center of the room and it put me on edge.

My father was here too.  He didn’t reach to hug me, shake my hand, or anything. Nice father.  “Can I talk with you a moment?”

He took me up to the Sun room.  I didn’t register then that he knew the way in without directions. Once there, his business face was in place and ready.   “I had to keep you safe.  Were you comfortable?”

I nodded.  I frantically worried that he could read how much I really liked being here.
I don’t want to leave. 

“I know Lord Cross will keep his word.  He will not let anything ever happen to you.  His word is good.”

LORD? 
“Did you just say Lord Cross?  As in THE LORD CROSS.  This is his home?”  I told myself to keep it together. 

“Yes.  Didn’t he tell you?”

“Obviously not.  Who is he?  Which one?”

He eyed me wearily.  “Thorn is downstairs.  You were standing right beside him.”

That was so not nice to keep as a secret
.  You should have told me.

No answer was offered.  He must not be able to hear or he is silent for a purpose.

“Well, he has been an ally to our family for years keeping watch over you since you were young.  I had the upmost confidence in his abilities and still do.”

So do I.  All of his abilities.  Including keeping his secrets.
 
I tightened my fists knowing my own rule on secrets.  I hated double standards, and worse, that I kept them myself.  I just didn’t want secrets kept from me.  Don’t we all?
  He shines brighter than any sun I could have ever imagined in my world.  And that explains why he could overtake me.  He is the Vampire lord.  And I tried to kill him!  Hej!

“I didn’t keep all of them away to hurt you.  I knew what was already set when the five of you were born.  Your mothers brought all this to pass.”

“Why did his dad turn him?” Five?

“That’s a good question except that I know the answer.  Thorn knew he would never rule the Val court even with the amount of power he held for he wasn’t an heir.  He was a natural born leader in every way but his birthright.  The previous Vampire lord knew he needed a son to be from another faction to ensure survival.   We both saw an out.  And prophecies are known for their truths.”

“Survival of what?”  I was so confused.  “What do you want me to do, father?”

“What do you think you should do?  You are now eighteen.  It is the time now that you choose.  Your power will grow as long as you are near Thorn and Calum.  I made sure you survived the night of your birthday.  It is your move next? Now, do you have a preference of where you would like to go?”

I want to…I’m not going back home.  Ever
!  I want to stay more than anything, but I just feel like it’s not the right thing to do.  I should go back to the school, finish my classes, and do some thinking about what I want to do.  I would like to do some surveillance on the factions to see what my death would have secured without the opinions of any present company.  I want to find out how I could possibly bring factions closer together.  I want to find out what the factions think will happen with me alive.  Or dead.  And I can’t do this with Cas near me.  I can’t think when he is near.  At least not about anything but him.

“What will the factions think when I’m still alive?”

“They know little. For now, they think that the group of you are broken up, have no hidden agendas, and will be quiet.”

What group?

“When were you going to tell me anything?”

“What do you still need to know?” he didn’t apologize.             

“Who tried to kill me?”

“Who didn’t?  Every faction had at least one hidden assassin.  All failed and some because it was set up that way.  The Elves, led by a now desperate Borgon, don’t want the idea of a unionized earth. And you are the key. You’re going to have to be good, Anastacia.  Silent.  You have to comply.”

Comply.  Silent.  Every faction.  “Does that include Vampires?”

He knew my aim.  I wanted to know who the Vampire assassin was.

“He was one of them.  Thorn.  He was the appointed assassin.  He and I had an agreement long ago.  He let the other factions believe he would be there to take you out as well, but they did not know what we knew.”

He pointed to my head indicating he knew of the connection.  He knew.  Assassin?  Cas was supposed to kill me.

“How did you know to do all this?”

“Because I was there.  The night all three of you were born.  You and Thorn were connected from the second you entered earth.”

“How do you know that?  What do you mean?”  I was frightened now, no doubt, giving every ounce of fear my body could produce.  We were talking about the Vampire lord, the one I hated.  All my years of practicing the art of hiding my senses seems to have gone to pot in just a few weeks.
  Some Val Supergirl!

“Because he said your name.”

“My name.  How is that possible?”  I didn’t believe it even when Cas told it.

“The same way you said his back.”

That’s not possible.”

“It is, and it did.”

“And Calum, and Szar?”

“Szar is just simply Szar.  And next in line for my title.”

“And Calum?”  My patience was wearing severely thin.

“He was born once again at the same time, but we lost him for a while.  He is just a Hunter with a greater purpose.  The factions know he
is
physically stronger than any other Hunter.  They know this.  I know this.  And Thorn knows this.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You asked,” he replied chastising me in a way.

“Why do I need to know Calum is a stronger Hunter than others?”  I felt queasy knowing the answers danced on the edge of my brain.

“Because you are linked to all of them in some way.  Weird way.  They will protect you.  I’ve kept you apart from them for your own safety.  But you’re naturally drawn.  Calum and you, you found each other without fail.  And you and Thorn—

“What about us?   I mean him?” 

I didn’t mean to insinuate any us. 
Cas and I.  There isn’t any us. 

“Stace, I saw the way he watched you.  Has watched you for years.  Waited.  And the black in his eyes when Calum came near you.  He tensed.  I’m your father, count me a little intelligence.  And you can’t hide your feelings from me.  I can sense every emotion at my age.  Give me little credit.” 

My father’s only attempt at humor.  He can read me that well?
 
“Why were we all born at the same time?”

“That is a story for another day.  For now, we need to get back to the group, and move on.  Others are watching and will try to alter our course for the day.”  He paused.  “Are you staying or going?”

Cas was really giving me a choice.

“Going, for now.  I need to find out more.   This all…there’s too much I don’t know.”

When we returned to the main room, everyone was in a kind of standoff position.  I walked instinctually up to Cas and stood beside him.  I didn’t think to do it, I just did.

Calum cocked his head sideways at the move.  I quickly moved over to stand by father.

Cas spoke first.  “She will be taken to the Hunter school until further notice.”

I want to stay.  But I can’t.  You heard everything, didn’t you?
  I closed my eyes.  He didn’t have to respond.  His Vampire hearing would have heard it.

Calum spat a vicious curse at him adding, “You will not speak for her in anything.”  His fists were rising and his hand touched my shoulder blade.  My skin prickled where he pressed into me unlike the warm energy from days ago.  It was electric, but not nice.

I felt like a trapped rat in the maze of an inescapable decision making moment that wouldn’t end the way I planned. 

My eyes wide, my thoughts in silent curses, “I can speak for myself.  And you can back off.”  I pointed to Calum ashamed at my own assertiveness. I gathered my thoughts and from the irksome aggressive nature he was taking with what was not his territory.  Calum’s arms convulsed and his fists were inching closer to get by me.  Next thing I know, my hands were splayed across the front of my claim.

He is mine.

The Hunter in Calum took a step back. 

My hand went to my neck.  It wasn’t there.  It was still in my pocket.  Tears filled my eyes.  He knew I knew everything.  About him.  I dared a look up.  His eyes bore into mine.

I don’t know what to say.

He didn’t move. 
I will find you, Stace.  I will.  If you need me, just take off the wall that hides me from you.

How?  We are so far.

He moved his arms down beside him now.  His expression took on a greater light, tenderness in his unspoken voice. 
No, now that we’ve connected in other ways, it reaches farther.

How do you know?

Because, this morning I listened to you dreaming from five miles up.

What? 
I almost answered him aloud.  My face spoke loads, I am sure.  To everyone.  I’d been so caught up in what Cas and I said that I’d forgotten I was in a room full of people. 

I played with the ring halfway out of my pocket now.

My father proved he knew, because he reached over and tried to tuck the ring out of my fingers and placed it on my finger hiding the agenda. 

The crew in front of me watched us with curiosity.  It couldn’t have escaped their eyes.  We were all turned now and heading out the door when Cas called my name.  A small round of hysteria hit my brain.
              “Stace, you can have this now,” his voice went all dark and dangerous like when I’d met him.  He pulled my hand up to him, opened my palm and folded it back.  My tears stung when I closed my eyes feeling the last of his warming touch not knowing if I’d find my way back to him as much as I wanted too.  I placed the ring in his hand.  Somehow, I didn’t want him blocked.  It suddenly came to me that it was my greatest fear.

This will be back tomorrow.

Calum huffed and watched.  He mumbled something utterly rude.  By contrast, Calum’s Hyde voice sounded uncaring and self-centered which probably pissed Cas off even further.  I whizzed away in a long black car before I knew what I held.

In my hand was my phone and a copy of the letter from his own mom.  I put it in my pouch before anyone could notice.  I had all three of our letters.