Deception (33 page)

“What?  In whose debt?” he wondered.

“Your debt.  I am well beyond my debt limit, I’m sure.”

“Seriously?” 

I thought I was, wasn’t I?

“Well, um, somewhere around three hundred seventy-two."

Gulp!
                Did he really keep up or was he being facetious?

“Give or take a few, depending on Kinsler’s intentions at the given time."

Not the answer I was looking for, but what did I expect?  “Do I have to make good on all of them?”  On a scale of one to ten, my fear sitting at a moody seven and my libido sitting at a warm nine, I was more than ready for his next response.

“Never forget a debt.”  He was surely teasing me, but he sounded very serious.

“O-kay!”  I seriously couldn’t read him.

“Right now!”

“Now?  How?”  Still in semi-shock.

“Oh, I can think of something!”

He leaned in to collect eagerly. 

I obliged understanding dawning on me quickly, totally leaving normal behind. His lips were on mine and that's all that mattered.  I heard him stop and count aloud a couple of times between kisses.  I giggled once into his mouth.  “How many more to go?”  I whispered.

“You have a long, long way to go!” His voice shook.  His eyes filled with desire and a glow in the air around us.  He always, always had the last word.  Which left me wondering if the roses were his last thought left with me when he couldn’t say something he really wanted.  I leaned over and continued my life debt.



We stayed like that until the morning light was breaking over the canopy of trees.  The seer had left us with more questions and little answers.  For now, we had each other, and that was all we needed.

The ending night was quiet now and so were our words, the stars telling tales of their own as they hid themselves with the coming light.

“Did you hear that?” he asked me as he jolted up to a sitting position so fast that I tumbled over a little.  My stomach squeezed.  My nose found Kin.  What was worse, it was stronger than before.  As if the not real binding made our connection closer.  Thinking the worst, I chose not to alert Ian just yet what I knew.

“What?” I was still trying to find which way was up and get balanced on a bouncing net suspended in air trampoline contraption giving me motion sickness. He didn’t notice my quick reach to put my fingers stretched across the front of my palms and flick them around checking for the burn.  Nothing!

“I guess it was nothing.”  He laid back down curling his arms around my middle.  I forced a block on my mind to be sure.  If he advanced, I felt like he’d retreat with Ian close.

I shouldn’t have ignored the feeling, but Ian acted like it was nothing in the end.  Maybe it really was nothing and I was considering the fact that maybe Kin just wanted a peek.  So I kept it to myself and after a while the scent subsided.  The burn never came but there were traces of the rubber smell all through the air.  I resulted to forgetting all about it and curled up closer to Ian until the quiet attack of dandelions surfaced below us and went unnoticed by Ian, but not me.

Ian never saw the tall figure blending in the trees of the garden edge lurking with watchful eyes or knowing HE, himself also was in fact being watched.  The figure inched back at seeing our reaction, but I think he realized I knew. 

Yet the other figure was going undetected by Ian too.  A dark shadow moving, watching out from just behind the trees staying just outside the distance because he too needed to avoid any thought pattern invasions.  But I had other ways of sensing them.



I spent an extensive amount of time in the meeting room going over and over the words that deemed my destiny in life finally deciding on a final analysis of each specific line and was ready to show Ian.  When I called him in to hear my spill, Pike was with him.

“Do you want him to hear?”

Pike was offended, but I didn’t care.  He shouldn’t be standing in the court if he didn’t agree with the system.

Ian squirmed and shifted his stance, “Yes.  This is about him too.”  I let out an “I am so against this” sigh and forged on with what I had to say explaining it one line at a time.

We’ll come seek you on one hallowed eve (Fey winter solstice)

When grace upon you is in full bloom (Grace, the half Fey, half human)

A queen emerges among us all (both courts involved)

To take us into a peaceful rule (solve two court’s long disputes against each other)

A prince will name her to his own (one of three- who?)

Guard her well from friend or foe (current queen designated Ian got this role)

Come seek us at the pass (when the queen claims who she chooses)

Otherwise, you shall not last. (all will perish if she doesn’t)

After explaining my analysis, I looked up at the two dominant he-wolves staring me down with obvious conflicting issues between them.  Staying quiet was smarter and seeing how it played out.

“The events are playing out regardless.  We watch and wait,” Ian said. 

That's it?
  My mouth dropped open letting the flies hop in. 

Pike took this moment to give out some Pike induced wisdom, “Yeah, let’s see what the queen’s next move is.  We are all watching.”  He stretched his long powerful legs out, crossed them at the ankles, and leaned back in the chair he found against the wall.  His arms folded behind his head and he pulled his lips in an anticipatory smile.  My head started to tingle.

Ian uncomfortably walked in front of me, blocking Pike’s invisible wavelengths of whatever the heck he was doing to me.  I blocked on instinct feeling more confident all the time with the ability to do so. I swallowed making a hard knot in my throat and thought about all the events that have happened and led to this one spot on the time continuum.  All the magic.  All the hidden super powers within me that I had no control over or why there were so many.  All the decisions I have had to make.  All the decisions I will have to make next while these two male specimens duke it out. 

“For now, we watch it pan out.  Altheon will continue to shed light.  The borders are secure.  And Grace is safe.”  Ian said all this to be in control of what he felt like he was losing control of.  I could see this tooling around in his mind.  He needed this control.  And for now, I would give him what he needs.

Does she even know what she has in front of her?  I can give her anything she wants.  Anything!  I’ve been there for her too.  All these years.  Why does she think I’m such a jerk?  Those other human girls ate it up.  They just swooned at the sappiest or cruelest words as long as I smiled.  They ridiculed me too for giving her too much of my time.  Everyone.  I’m the victim.  She’ll be sorry.  Maybe if I had some time alone with her she’d come around.  That’s it!  But how?

Pike was indignant.  He knew he could get to me, but that would never happen.  He had this idea that he just needs time alone with me and he will have me conquered.  Let me see that he had more to offer.  



Does she even know what she has in front of her?  Whatever she needs, I have more than enough.  For all the years I’ve waited!  Why does she not see that I acted the way I did for her?  Because guardian boy was always there!  Human girls fall for it all, but she didn’t like anything I tried.  She saw it as evil or mean.  If I had some time with her...alone time. 

Kin would not be deterred.  He knew he could take me against my will, but he wanted me with my actual consent.  A generous offer...that he could give and beat out the rest.



I’ve decided hearing the thoughts of men can be harmful to my health.  Both Pike and Kin stay near the court more than away it seems.  Now that I have a closer connection, they don’t seem to hide it as well.  Mostly they let things leak on purpose, but sometimes they forget to filter.

My life is war and peace and love and heartache all mixed into a bowl and packed into a jar labeled
Grace’s Believe It or Not
.  This war between the courts will be bigger than me.  They think I will be the one to save us.  I sincerely hope they are not mistaken.

Dear Reader:

Thank you for reading
Deception
.  If you enjoyed this book, would you consider leaving a review?  If you would like to find more young adult paranormal romance stories, please check out the
Goblin’s Kiss
Series
.  Turn the page for a sneak peek of Cyndi’s other series…

AMES

I let the girls crowd around cuz’ well...I was a guy.  They were each telling me their names.

When I turned to the sound of one talking about another girl approaching, there she was.

If l could have prepared myself for what I would be confronted with, I’d have never believed it.  My body shook at seeing her, feeling her burning energy.  The last time I saw her she was seven, but up close and made into a woman now...

Almost dropping my notebook, I stopped for a brief second before continuing my stride in her direction.  The closer I came, the stronger it got.  At some point it became so strong that I planted my feet to the ground and waited for her to ascend upon me rather than get any closer. 

She kept on.  Closer.  Two feet.  The tips of her shoes knocked mine.  Her hand clamped down on my arm.  Heat flooded me, grounding me to the floor.

The groupie cheerleader named Christina barked something at her I didn’t quite hear since my insides were barbequing and roasting to a good 100° above even the unusual scorching Tennessee heat.  The girl taunted her with her words finding it seriously easy to downgrade her self esteem in front of me.  Were these human girls even more evil than I?  I doubted it, but it was a close second.

Jem was toying with the girls as her emotions were doing a flip-flop motion with a combination of anger and
desire
.

I don’t even know how I know how she was feeling it.  It’s a power I’ve never held.

She actually liked me.  I didn’t know how to compute this information.  She wasn’t repulsed by me and she didn’t siphon anything from my own emotions to help herself.  Processing this was beyond jacked up much more than the fact that I was even feeling her
emotions
in the first place.  All of this was just wrong.

After the initial shock that she didn’t use any of her own pain inducing powers on me, I decided to let go of my own and see how it fared.  She didn’t seem to be the queen of evil I’d expected of her.  She didn’t have an ounce of malice in her body at the moment.  But I did have an overwhelming urge to search her body for scars and other distinguishing differences that would make me know her better than any other man on this earth.

The girls stepped up their fowardness.  They pressed even closer in as I moved towards Jem.  She had the same piercing eyes that matched my own as she did years ago.  Her blue to my odd green.   Girls have always dug it.  Human ones.  My own kind counted me as the odd man out more so than even the humans.

Jem’s hair was long and had shiny waves of golden brown even in the florescent light.  Not really a guy thing to notice, but I did.  She was cute and beautiful all in the same way.  She bit her bottom lip as if nervous, but tossed her hair back in confidence.  She was fun to watch.

During the initial greeting, the Christina girl leaned against Jem’s body and I suddenly went ape.  She was too close to her.  I reined it in and held my fists to my clawing body.  If it wasn’t for the fact that she was of my own people, I would have to wonder why I felt the urgent need to protect her.  It wasn’t healthy for dang sure.

It gave me the same disgusting feeling it always did.  Human girls were cold, clammy.  

Jem didn’t like the groupie girl doing what she did.  Interesting.

Groupie girl pressed in more and I let it be to see what Jem’s next reaction would be.  I was fascinated to say the least but I hated it too.  I had a job to do.  

When the girl ran her fingers up and down my arm Jem visibly scrunched up her face and a soft whimper left her lips.  Was she in pain?

I stepped away from both of them wanting this girl’s inhuman pain to disappear.  I didn’t want her to hurt.  Yes, I did.  No,
I didn’t
.

I bit back a small smile, but she saw it.  Not able to take my eyes off her, I nodded to groupie girl and held out a hand to Jem unable to control what I was doing.  I swallowed back the bile that my throat caught from wasting energy on the bubbly cackling chatter behind me now.  If they weren’t following due to the magic within me before, they were now.

This girl, I got nothing.  It was like she cut it off. She didn’t give an ounce of emotion over to me on purpose though I was trying like everything to get it.

Groupie girl Christina barked a comeback and then said my name, “...Ames here will find out how taken you are all too soon.”

Taken?  Did that mean she was already claimed?  By a filthy human?   I shook my head enough she didn’t catch it.  I didn’t care if she were claimed or not.  It only made it harder if she were attached to someone to have to embrace this new world she would have no choice in turning to.

Christina laughed a little like a guy on steroids and took her little fawning guy traps away from us.  

Ring! 

Great!  I was alone.  With her.