Becoming a Legend (22 page)

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Arianna
’s mind came awake before her body as she lay there sleeping on Andrew. He lifted a piece of her hair and twirled it around his finger. She felt a tingle begin in her hands as they awoke and the feeling of his skin beneath her began to send a different kind of tingle down her arms. Andrew’s arms were comfort to her. Noticing she was awake, he easily picked her up and slid her on top of himself. He smiled as they were now face to face. Arianna was about to talk, but he put a finger on her lips to indicate to be silent. Confused, she looked around the room and then finally heard the new voice in the mix in the living room.

‘
Jackson is here?’
Arianna tried to push herself up and off his bare chest. Andrew clamped down and smiled wickedly. His skin always brought tingles to her, but now he was pushing more feelings her way than normal. The skin contact made it hard to concentrate on anything but Andrew. She couldn’t make much of a sound without being embarrassed when she finally left her room alone.

‘
And Nixon. Nelson should be here in an hour,’
Andrew replied and smiled back at her. He slid her up so that they were now nose to nose; the movement causing her to pout more at him. Then his statement sunk in.

‘
What?’
Arianna’s head snapped up as she listened for the second new heart beating in the room. She found him in the kitchen. Both her human guards had arrived. Andrew leaned up and kissed her. Arianna wanted to respond better to his kiss, but she was distracted. Arianna thought that after a short nap, she would at least get a little time to accept what she would have to do: infiltrate the minds of her friends that trusted her. Arianna had always respected Jackson from the first day she met him. For over a year, she had thought he was a businessman who rode the same Friday night city bus with her. He was always dressed in a suit and tie. She had spoken to him many times before she knew the truth. He was part of her personal protection team. He would be the first test of this new power, and it saddened her to use him like that.

‘
I hate this.’
Arianna complained. She really thought she had more time to prepare. Falling asleep wasn’t part of her plan.

‘
What? I’m pretty sure I’m not a bad kisser. At least you didn’t think so last night,
’ he teased. Andrew was doing his best to lighten the mood. He didn’t blame Arianna for her hesitation. Diving into anyone’s mind without their express permission wasn’t a nice thing to do.

‘
Not this.’
She trailed her hand down his bare chest. She could never hate being alone with him or his loving teasing. ‘
The part where I fell asleep again for hours. I’m not that weak girl. That just isn’t me.’
Arianna was frustrated. Away from the poison, she should have been getting better.

‘
Oh I know that,’
Andrew replied. ‘
You’ve been rejecting my advances for over a year now.’

‘
What?’
Arianna was surprised. While he had often times kidded about running away with her just to piss off Devin, she really didn’t take it as more than teasing. There was the one time she was truly alone with him for twenty seconds where he asked her to fall in love with him, but she figured that was just him hitting on her because she was the first female baku he’d ever seen.

‘
I’ve been making it quite clear that I’m interested in you, but you’ve been denying it.’
Andrew slid a finger across her cheek and made her shiver as her focus returned to him and her body pressed against him. His hands slid beneath her shirt and wrapped around her back. The skin-to-skin contact sent more shivers through her and made Arianna try to pull herself closer to him.

More shuffling outside their room brought her attention back to the people in the living room. Immediately
, Arianna turned red and gracefully maneuvered off of Andrew. Devin was just outside the door and even though he didn’t have super hearing, Turner did. Arianna felt a twinge of guilt sneak through her. She’d spent three days with Andrew and easily moved back into the warm feeling of his arms when she woke, but she couldn’t do that now. Not with Devin around. Not without making a choice. She had to remain neutral, or at least try, until she decided.

Reading the rush of emotion from her, Andrew backed up and gave her space
even though he wanted to chase her across the room. There was no reason for her to hesitate. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He was sure of that. Then he heard the cough in the kitchen from Devin.

‘
He really doesn’t mind,
’ Andrew added as Arianna moved closer to the door. The only reason she would be away from him now, with the need to be together so great, was Devin.

‘
Not jealous at all
?’ Arianna asked, disappointed. Part of her wanted Devin to care. It would make things ten times harder, but she still wanted it.

‘
No, he’s jealous. How could he not be? But he doesn’t mind you being with me
,’ Andrew replied. ‘
And you can’t leave yet. You need to check Jackson and Nixon to see if either is the one poisoning you
.’ Andrew patted the bed beside him.
‘I’ll be good,’
he promised. Arianna moved over and sat beside Andrew, making sure there was no skin-to-skin contact to drive her crazy. True to his word, he sat nicely as she closed her eyes.

“D
id you find out anything else after we left about the poison,” Devin asked Nixon. Arianna jumped into Nixon’s mind easily. There were no secrets there as he continued to talk with Devin. Nixon was still the hoops-shooting human half of the duo that also rode her bus.

Turner began talking in the kitchen to
Jackson with the same type of questioning. They must have had it planned. Once she knew that Nixon wasn’t the one, Arianna jumped out of Nixon’s mind and into Jackson’s, looking for his response. He wasn’t as much of an open book to her as she pressed into his subconscious. He was keeping several secrets, but upon examining each of them, he wasn’t involved in poisoning her. His secrets involved Molina, and their secret relationship. Even now, he was worrying about her back at the Randolph estate. Arianna was thankful. She could never really see Jackson as anything other than the straight-laced, suit and tie wearing, business man she had gotten to know.

‘
Clean?’
Andrew asked curiously as Arianna brought her focus back to him in the room.

‘
Yes,’
Arianna replied as she stood. Andrew reached over and grabbed her hand before she could move too far away. He gently kissed the tips of each of her fingers. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight, but he had to.

‘
Both of them?’
he asked, delaying her for at least a moment longer.

‘
Yes. Jackson is hiding his relationship with Molina, but neither knows anything about the poison. They don’t even know what it looks like from what Mori showed us,’
Arianna replied. She couldn’t take her hand from his. She was pulled in two directions at once. Part of her wanted to climb back into bed and cuddle with Andrew, and the other part wanted to go back out and see Devin, even if he wasn’t going to reciprocate her emotions.

‘
Then you should go tell Devin. And stop by and test your blood counts again just to be sure you’re getting better.’
Arianna felt the twinge of worry behind his comment. Even she knew that she shouldn’t still be falling asleep all the time.

NINETEEN

Neither
Nelson nor Mica had knowledge of the poison, or of the small, clear plastic disks distributing it. Arianna’s entire team, minus her most trusted team member, Molina, and keeper Thomas, were all crammed into the four bedroom cabin. Molina and Thomas were expected to arrive before the morning sun, which was too bright for Molina to travel in. Andrew kept to himself in her room the whole time, and her four guards were unaware of him, but Arianna was hyper-aware of him. Every movement he made caught her attention. She had never been so aware of anyone in her life. While she wanted to blow it off as a crush, she couldn’t let go of the feeling that it was more than that. As night ended, and everyone was finally going off to their rooms to sleep, Arianna continued to sit on the couch, watching TV.

“
Ari,” Devin interrupted her, though it wasn’t actually interrupting since all she was doing was sitting in front of the TV. She wasn’t really even watching it; her eyes were already closed. “You need to get some sleep. Your numbers are getting better, but not by much. You need sleep.”

Devin offered his hand
to her to help her stand. Arianna hesitantly took it. Faintly she felt something behind his touch. Worry or jealously, she couldn’t tell which as it may have been flickering between the two emotions. Devin led her over to her room. Andrew was sitting at the window watching the sun rise. For night humans, sunrise meant time to go to bed. Devin gave her hand to Andrew and walked away to the shared bathroom and into the room he was sharing with Turner.

Arianna
couldn’t stop the tears that were building up from falling as she heard the bathroom door shut. Just like that, Devin had given her away. Arianna stared at the bathroom door Devin had just left from as the waterworks began. She wasn’t afraid to cry in front of Andrew because he felt what she was feeling inside and therefore already knew. There was no real hiding of her emotions from him anyway. Andrew slowly placed his arms around her, pulling her close. He turned her around and hugged her to hide her tears on his chest. He felt the hurt in her and slowly took the pain away.

Sadness was quickly replaced by anger
, and Arianna mentally went into the room Devin and Turner were in. Andrew didn’t stop her; he knew completely what she was doing. While she didn’t want to hurt anyone, she needed to see the truth. Turner was already asleep, and Devin was lying in bed reading as always. Arianna entered his mind and was shocked to find the space almost empty. Less than a half dozen thoughts floated about and none were a different color. Devin wasn’t hiding anything from her in that moment, but he wasn’t really thinking about much either. Arianna looked around his mind and found several doors. Andrew already knew about the doors. It was Devin’s way to keep track of everything. She looked at the locks, but didn’t even find door handles. Frustrated, she pulled out of his mind and continued to cry. Devin’s mind was a solid fortress that held his emotions and thoughts locked away.

Andrew pulled her over to the bed.
She wouldn’t find what she was looking for. Devin had spent years learning how to keep his emotions at bay in order to be the best baku hunter. Baku could sense emotion of any kind, especially in a person who was awake. Devin was a silent force, able to lock everything in his mind. Arianna sat down obediently at Andrew’s touch. She was still in shock and filled with sadness that immediately returned as his touch faded.

“
Ari,” Andrew said, crouching between her legs as he removed her shoes. She was making no effort to go to bed, so he was doing so for her. He slid his hand on top of hers as he sat down beside her. Some of the sadness faded, and she looked over at him finally.

“
I can feel everything you feel. He just broke your heart.” Unwillingly, Andrew started to feel the rage build in him. He didn’t want Arianna in the hands of another man, but he also couldn’t help the protective feeling that was creeping over him. Andrew was conflicted, but it wasn’t wrong to feel anger at anyone that hurt her. Devin was hurting her even if he thought he was protecting her. Andrew’s anger brought Arianna’s attention back to Andrew. She reached over and touched his face, her way of calming him.

“
Since I’ve been getting sick on and off for over six months now, Devin has never left my side. He used to let Turner help me sleep at night when I first turned a year ago, but not in six months.” The tears began again. Andrew more than filled the emptiness that Devin left, but it still hurt. “Was it all in my head? I thought he loved me. I’ve slept with only him for months. I thought that meant something. I thought that was his own way of telling me how much he loved me, that he wouldn’t let anyone else protect me.” The room blurred as the tears picked up, flowing. Andrew didn’t try to sooth the tears out of her but allowed her to keep crying. “I thought he loved me,” she repeated.