Authors: Dakota Dawn
Reed screamed, “Nooo.”
Tuning in to his inner power and focusing on Reed’s brainwaves, Simon saturated Reed’s mind with the message that it was time to sleep. He blinked back more tears as Reed’s eyes closed.
A confused Reed woke to a thunderous sound. He glared at Simon when he saw that the van had just been loaded onto a transport vehicle.
Simon looked grim. “Welcome back, my king. Part of the team is securing the van and the others are still below, investigating.”
Reed headed for the transport vehicle and climbed up. Simon followed. All that was there was charred seats. No dead bodies. Hope bloomed in his chest. “Maybe they made it out.”
“It’s possible,” Simon agreed, but he didn’t sound very hopeful.
Reed’s phone buzzed, causing him to jump before he answered it. “What did you find?” Maybe Chase had been found. His heart stopped beating.
The team leader answered gravely, “We found four bodies. Three are burned beyond recognition. The fourth man was found thirty meters from the van. He was a criminal we’ve been looking for. I’m not positive, but it looks like he was stabbed through the eye with a screwdriver. There is a chance that he could have been impaled during the fall, but the team doesn’t think so. He is covered in blood. We are sending him to the lab to get a blood analysis. Do you have any special orders for us?”
Reed couldn’t speak, so he handed the phone to Simon. He wished he could special order them to bring Chase back. The lump in his throat was growing larger by the second.
Simon handled the team and brought Reed back home. After a short visit with Tate, who was rapidly improving, Reed went to his room and didn’t even bother to wipe the tears off his cheeks. In his rooms he was free to let his emotions out. Reed plopped down on the bed and pressed his face into Chase’s pillow.
* * * *
The following day Reed was informed that Chase’s blood had been found on the murdered man. Chase was one of the men who had been in the van. All of Reed’s people mourned, but none more than him.
As pain burned a hole in his heart, Reed started a fire, and with his favorite knife, letter by painful letter, he burned “Chase” into his forearm. As he formed the C, he thought of how cute his little Chase had been. The H in Chase’s name stood for humble. Chase had bowed down to all of Reed’s demands without complaint. Enjoying the pain that matched the pain in his heart, Reed burned an A into his arm and thought about how awesome his little lover had been in bed. S was for how sweet his little lover had been. Tears slid down Reed’s cheeks as he burned the letter E into his arm. E stood for the everlasting love he would feel for Chase. His sweet little Chase. Tossing the knife aside, Reed crawled over to Chase’s pillow and sobbed out his sorrow. For days he was inconsolable.
A week after hearing of Chase’s death, Reed pulled himself together and held a memorial service for his lost love. That night, when he returned to his room, his carpet had been replaced. He knew Tate and Simon were behind the removal of the blood-stained carpet. Death would have come to anyone else who had done it. Looking at his healing arm, he knew he’d never forget his sweet little mystic mate.
* * * *
Chase woke up and looked around. “Where the fuck am I?” He noted that he was on a bed in a small room.
The door opened, and an old woman walked in. Her wrinkly smile reminded him of a kindly grandmother. “Ah, I see you are awake. It’s about time you get your lazy ass up. Your fever broke two days ago.”
Maybe she wasn’t a nice little old lady after all. The world tilted when Chase tried to sit up.
“Not so quick, boy.” She placed her time-worn hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down.
“What happened to me?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. You look like someone beat the shit out of you. Either that or you fell down a cliff.”
Chase’s stomach churned as memories flooded his mind. His captors were dead. He didn’t know who to trust. And he was lost as hell. Shit, he may have even lost his job. “How long have I been here?”
“I found you a week ago. I don’t think you had been fevered for long. Otherwise, you’d be dead.”
“What state am I in?”
She pursed her lips and eyed him up and down. “I’d say you’re in a pretty good state of health. You look like shit, but you are slowly healing.”
Chase shook his head. “No, what state, the land kind? Am I still in Texas?”
“Maybe your state of health isn’t so good after all. I’ll go make you some broth. Rest for now, you’ll need it.”
Chase’s head was pounding. He raised the covers and saw that he was still dressed in his long-sleeved T-shirt and sleep pants. As he dropped the sheet, his body odor rose up and invaded his nose. He stank. After he rested a minute, he’d go take a shower.
A rattling sound startled Chase awake. Looking toward the sound, he relaxed when he saw the old lady retrieving a cup from the tray she had just set down. “Prop up on the pillows.”
Chase stacked two pillows behind him then scooted up against the headboard. He was out of breath by the time he was done. A couple of minutes passed before he was able to ask, “What’s your name?”
“Nori. What’s yours?” As she asked the question, she handed him a cup of broth.
“Chase.” He took the offered cup and sniffed it. It didn’t smell bad. Chase took a sip. It was kind of bland, but his stomach couldn’t handle more than the broth anyway.
“Go ahead. Drink as much as you can. You need the vitamins in it.” She paused then cackled. “I can’t have you laying in my bed forever. Three hundred years ago, yes. Today, no.” She eyeballed him. “You are not so pretty, but you are young.”
Chase scowled at her, but all she did was grin and leave the room.
His luck had to be some of the worst in the world. He hurriedly drank down the rest of his broth and placed the cup on the tray. Closing his eyes, he rested for a bit. When he woke up, the tray was gone and it was dark. The only light in the room came from the bathroom. Needing to go pee, he eased off the bed and headed for the bathroom.
Seeing the tub reminded him that he stank. After he relieved himself, he turned on the water and waited a minute before sinking into the rising water. The warm water eased some of his sore muscles.
As he soaked, his mind wandered. What was he going to do next? How the hell was he going to get back home?—Reed. He was the key. If he could find Reed, he’d make him take him home. Nori was kind, in her own crazy way, but she didn’t seem to be playing with a full deck. Tomorrow he’d scout around and see if he could find someone else to tell him what state he was in.
The bathroom door opened, and Chase squealed and covered his groin.
“Use extra soap. You stink.” Nori shocked him by gathering up his dirty clothes.
“Hey, I need those.”
“You won’t need these until tomorrow. In the morning you will find them on the chair by the bed.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks.” Chase couldn’t argue with her. She was right. His clothes did smell bad.
She nodded. “I already changed your sheets. I’ll see you tomorrow. Sleep well.”
“Good night,” Chase called out to her retreating back.
The next morning, after putting on his clean clothes, Chase met Nori in the kitchen. He was feeling much stronger. She served him some more broth, bread, and stuff that tasted like fruit. He ate like the starved man he was.
“It’s good to see you eating. A young man needs his strength.”
“I’m feeling much better. Thanks for nursing me back to health.” He took his last bite then leaned back. “I’m going to do a little scouting today.”
“Don’t go far. You’re too heavy for me to carry home.” Nori looked thoughtful for a moment. “Where are you from?”
“Texas.”
“Is that what you are scouting for?”
Chase had no reason to lie. “Yes.”
Pity transformed her face. “Don’t go far.”
“Okay.” She didn’t have a mirror, so he couldn’t see himself. Did he look mental?
“That’s a good boy.” She got up and went to the cabinet and pulled out a maroon-colored plant. Holding it up for him to see, she said, “While you are out, if you come across any more of this, pull it and bring it back home. I used most of what I had on your cuts.” Nori walked over to Chase and took his chin in her hand, then turned his face and looked him over. “In a few days your scabs should fall off. Your nose looks much better. How are you feeling?”
“Stronger.” Chase didn’t like the look of pity that lingered in her eyes.
She picked up their dishes and brought them to the sink, then turned to look at Chase. “If you get lost, just whistle and I’ll come for you.”
Chase felt his temper growing. “I’m not slow.”
A patient smile crossed her lips. “Of course not. Just remember what I told you.”
Knowing he couldn’t win, Chase just went along with her. “I’ll do that.” He pushed away from the table and strode out the door.
Five feet from the house, he stubbed his toe on a rock and cursed softly. If he’d known he was going to be taken from his bed, he would have slept with his boots on. He looked around and cursed again. Where the hell was he? There was not one plant he recognized, and the sky was light purple. Even the grass had a bluish tinge and the trees had brown trunks with blue leaves. All of these things had been at the castle, too. Who landscaped for miles on end? This must have cost the owner big bucks. Chase kept walking. Nothing clicked in his mind. It was like he was on another planet.
A large knot formed in his stomach.
No!
Reed hadn’t really kidnapped him and brought him to another planet, had he? He reached up and touched his right cheek. A scab covered Reed’s mark. Reed said he was marked for life. If that was true, the heart should still be there. Chase ran all the way back to the cabin.
On shaky legs he entered and went straight to Nori. “Do you have a mirror?”
“Yes, it’s in the bedroom closet. I haven’t gotten around to hanging it. I don’t have much need to see myself these days.”
Chase rushed to the closet and dragged the mirror out. He placed it on the bathroom sink and looked at his cheek as he picked at the scab.
“Stop that. You are going to scar yourself. Trust me. You need your looks, boy.” Nori gasped when Chase turned around.
“Y—you belong to King Reed. You wear his mark. He must be called.” Nori rushed away as quickly as her old legs would carry her.
Yes, you do that. I’d love to talk to the king.
If what he feared was true, Reed was in for an ass kicking.
* * * *
As Reed sat at his desk going through a pile of paperwork, his office door burst open. Tate rushed in.
“Chase might be alive.”
Shock shot Reed to his feet. His heart beat erratically. Chase was alive! “Tell me everything you know.”
Tate quickly started talking. “Nori, one of the wilderness wanderers, called and said she’d been taking care of an injured young man. She found him in her cabin, near Darkton Village, about a week ago. He was beat up and burning with fever. His right cheek was scraped up pretty badly. A few minutes ago he picked off the scab. She said he wears your mark. And that he seems angry.”
Reed walked around his desk and headed for the door. “Tell Simon to meet us at transport.”
“Already done. He’s waiting for us.”
Within minutes they were speeding away.
Reed’s heart felt like it was going to explode. Tears of relief and joy threatened to spill over, but he blinked them back. He rubbed his forearm and remembered the pain he had felt the last time he lost Chase. That was something he couldn’t live through again. Hardening his heart was necessary. Chase was nothing but a breeder for his people. All he had to do was bury his true feelings, and everything would be fine. He would have to keep his distance from Chase.
Love fought against Reed’s cold determination.
“If the man turns out to be Chase, I want one of the best warriors posted by him at all times. We need the humans to build our population. The males we will turn into warriors and the females we will breed. From now on all humans will be guarded closely.”
Cold determination won.
Chapter Seven
Chase waited for Reed outside. Rage rippled under his skin. That rage was quickly directed at the fucking otherworldly vehicle that glided a foot above the road. Couldn’t he have been abducted, the second time, by someone rich enough to afford one of those? Hell fucking no. He’d been tossed into a trashy, cheap-ass van that hadn’t missed a single bump in the road.
Reed jumped from the vehicle, looking magnificent, of course. Tate and Simon followed him as usual.
Reed’s magnificent teal eyes locked in on Chase. The fucking teal eyes were another giveaway.
Chase moved at the speed of lightning. Reed never saw the blow that smashed into his nose. Reed landed on his ass. Chase stared down at him. “Where the fuck am I?”
Reed rose slowly to his feet. Tate and Simon stepped closer to him, but Reed motioned them back. Reed turned slightly. “Simon, go tell Nori thank you, then come back. She is due an appreciation gift.” As Simon left, Reed gave Chase his full attention. “You are on Ardinio. It is a planet five hundred thousand miles from Earth.” Reed gestured toward Tate and Simon. “We are all fairies. Trollettes and leprechauns live here, too.”