Authors: Stacie Simpson
Mirrors. Mirrors above me and all around me. I’d seen this
place before. In a dream? Not a dream, a fantasy. Camila showed me this
bedroom. Was it Rook’s? Was this real?
Rubbing my eyes I tried to remember how I got here. It felt
like I’d been sleeping for days. What was the last thing I remembered before
waking up here?
Oh God.
It all came flooding back at once. The drugstore. That poor
clerk. Malcolm. And then...
Rolling out of bed I stumbled across the room aiming for the
door but had to make a pit stop in the bathroom when my bladder let me know I
really had been out for a while. Once that was taken care of I cracked the
bedroom door open. Seeing nothing but carpet and walls lined with paintings
similar to the ones in the spa, I eased around the doorjamb and padded down the
hallway.
Passing several closed doors along the way I eventually came
to a living room where overstuffed recliners and couches faced a very large
widescreen TV mounted on the wall. Add the bar in one corner and the stripper
pole in another and I had no doubt a man lived here. Beyond the bar I found the
kitchen, which was very modern and so squeaky clean I doubted it was used very
often. At one end of the kitchen there was a table with benches on three sides
but no dining room that I could find.
Backtracking, I found the front door on the wall behind the
couches and recliners. As quietly as possible I opened the door and prayed I
would find something familiar on the other side.
My hopes sank when I stepped out onto the unfinished
concrete floor. Why would I be in a high rise that was still under
construction? At first all I could see was open space, cement pillars and large
picture windows with no curtains or shades covering them.
Looking out a little farther I saw... a forest?
What the hell?
Moving towards the outer wall of the building I crept
forward to get a better look. The room was bathed in sunlight but once I moved
into the forest I was surrounded by gloomy darkness. The forest floor was soft
allowing me to move silently towards the sounds of male grunts and clanging
metal. A damp earthy scent filled my nose and when I reached out to touch a
tree the bark was rough with patches of soft green moss here and there. Looking
up I tried to see the tops of the trees but they stretched to the ceiling and
kept going into what appeared to be a night sky.
I’d seen something like this before, in The Gateway during
one of Solomon’s shows.
A few steps later a small clearing came into view and I
ducked behind a tree to avoid being seen. Several men formed a circle with Rook
at its center. He was shirtless with his black leather pants riding low on his
hips. Even with everything I’d been through, the sight of his muscles flexing
as he struck out at an attacker sent shivers up my spine.
I’d always known he would be a skilled fight but never
imagined he would be so beautiful. His movements were fluid and graceful, each
one flowing to the next like choreographed steps in a deadly dance. One after
another the men came for Rook and one by one he left them bloody and broken
lying at his feet.
When only two men were left standing, Rook swung his sword
slicing clean through the neck of one man as he spun around to land a kick to
the head of the other man. Throwing his sword aside he grabbed the man by his
head and twisted until a loud crack rang through the air. Dropping the last man
to the ground he roared to the sky then fell to his knees with his head in his
hands.
I took one step and his head snapped around with rage
burning in his silver eyes. Reflexively I bit my lip and stepped back, away
from the livid demon just twenty feet across the clearing. I’d never felt fear
because of Rook before and something inside me broke as I shrank away from him.
It seemed to take him a moment but then his features relaxed
as he focused on me and asked, “Angela?”
I nodded my head but couldn’t move towards him. What was
wrong with me? This was Rook; not that crazed maniac who...
No, I wouldn’t let myself think about that right now.
Rook stood in a fluid motion and took one step towards me.
It was too fast and I flinched before I could stop myself.
He stopped and eased back, taking a seat on a fallen tree. “I
won’t hurt you Angela. I would never hurt you.”
I forced myself to take a step towards him and said, “I know
you wouldn’t hurt me.” Taking another step I asked, “Where are we Rook?”
He glanced around and gave an amused snort. “Believe it or
not we’re in the staff apartment building at Myths and Legends.”
“Really?” I asked, looking around in surprise as I made my
way slowly across the clearing. When I reached the fallen tree I sat down at
the opposite end from where Rook was sitting. “It reminds me of a show I
watched in The Gateway once. Well, I didn’t actually watch the show; I just
caught part of it while I waited for you. Anyway, it was
Swan Lake
and I
remember watching as grass spread out from the stage covering the theater
floor. I’d been thinking it was an illusion but then I knelt down to see if I
could touch it and it was just as real as all of this.”
Rook chuckled, “I’ll have to tell Solomon about that. As a
human you should have been tempted to reach out and touch the grass, but you
shouldn’t have acted on that impulse. I guess like the vampire mind control,
Solomon’s magic doesn’t work on you the way it should either.
Anyhow, think of this as a training program, one of many
created by Solomon at my request. When I turn it off, the forest and the bodies
will disappear leaving the unfinished building in its place.”
I’d suspected the dead men on the ground weren’t real, but
it was a relief to have my suspicions confirmed.
“Why is this floor unfinished?”
“There’s only one floor above this one and it belongs to
Dragon. When we built this place we decided to add a layer of security between
him and any possible threats. Anyone wanting to get to him would have to go
through me and a whole slew of Solomon’s magical booby traps,” Rook explained
as he reached down and plucked a bottle of water out of the tall grass.
“What kind of booby traps?”
“The usual. Portals that suck you into alternate dimensions
with no way back, various monsters that appear out of nowhere to bite your head
off, magical quicksand meant to hold you in place until I get here.” He
shrugged and took a drink of his water. “Other things along those lines.”
My eyes went wide and he said, “We added your palm print to
the system when we brought you here. You don’t have to worry about any of the
security measures here or anywhere else in the resort.”
I was still skeptical and asked, “How will my palm print keep
magical monsters from eating me alive?”
“The security panels are part technology, but mostly magic.
When your palm print is scanned at an entry point the magic determines the
threat level you pose. Since I gave you the same security clearance that I have,
the magic will not see you as a threat no matter where you go in the resort. I
do however; need to warn you not to open any doors outside my apartment unless
you’re sure you know where they lead. Some of the doors in this resort are
actually portals in disguise.”
It felt like my jaw hit the floor. “Why would you give me
that kind of access to the entire resort?”
He looked down for a moment then met my eyes. “If I can’t
trust you, who can I trust?”
Unable to handle the emotions involved with a question like
that I looked away from his penetrating gaze and asked, “So how long was I out
anyway?”
“You were missing for about thirty-six hours before the
hospital called. Claire and I spent about four hours at your bedside in the ICU
until you were stable enough to be moved. You’ve been sleeping here for about
twelve hours.” He paused for another drink of water then asked, “Are you
hungry? Thirsty?”
He held out his water bottle and I took what he was offering.
He moved slowly, carefully and I appreciated his attempt not to spook me even
as I regretted the need for his caution.
I hadn’t really thought about food or water up to that point
but once the cool liquid hit my mouth I couldn’t stop drinking.
When the bottle was empty, Rook slipped a T-shirt over his
head and said, “How about we go back inside. You can have some more water and I’ll
make you some food. I’m not much of a chef, but if you like omelets you’re in
luck.”
I smiled but there was something I needed to know before we
did anything else. Looking down I asked, “Why am I here Rook? When he shoved me
out of the car by the ER I thought I was going to die. Hell, I wanted to die,
it hurt so much. But here I am less than a day later and physically, I’m as
good as new.”
“I couldn’t let you die Angela so I asked Claire to give you
some of her blood.”
I turned to face him. “Will I be a nightshifter now?”
He shook his head. “Not a chance. Your body is strong enough
to fight off the virus. Within a couple of days there won’t be any trace of it
left in your blood.”
“Thank you Rook, thank you for saving my life.”
“Don’t thank me Angela,” he growled. “I wasn’t there when
you needed me. It should have never come to you needing vampire blood.”
“Don’t Rook. You can’t blame yourself for anything that
happened to me. I left the resort after you told me how much danger I was in. I
never should have gone without even telling you where I was going. And
Malcolm... It’s all my fault...”
Rook interrupted, “The trackers found him in time, he’ll
pull through.”
“Truly?” I could hardly believe that was possible.
“It takes more than a few bullets to take a shapeshifter
out,” he assured me.
I closed my eyes for a moment, relieved to have one less
death on my hands, but I couldn’t let Rook take the blame for what happened to
me. “If you had tried to help me you would have been punished for it. The man
who...” I had to take a deep breath to stop the tears that threatened to fall. “The
man who took me shot the drugstore clerk in the head. He said he hoped you
would reset time to get me back so that your Elders would take care of you for
him.”
“Claire warned me,” Rook said with a grimace. “Harrison told
me he thought something had happened to you. I was about to reset time back to
a point when we were still upstairs when Claire came into the lobby and stopped
me. Another second and she would have been too late.”
“Did she see what happened to me?”
“Not exactly,” Rook hedged.
“What did she see?”
He rose to his feet and offered me a hand. “I’ll tell you
about it while I make us some food.”
Hesitantly I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet.
His hand was strong and warm, and more comforting than I would have thought
possible. He said some strange words and the clearing and forest vanished,
leaving nothing but the cement floor and pillars behind.
While he made us omelets Rook explained what a golden
prophecy was and told me all about his adventures in Solaria. He expressed his
guilt for not searching for me himself, but I told him I understood why he hadn’t.
I also pointed out that if his best trackers and Solomon’s locator spells all
failed, then his chances of finding me weren’t very good, and his time was
better spent saving the humans in New Orleans and preventing Travali’s vampires
from outing the supernatural community in the worst possible light. He told me
that only half of Claire’s prophecy had been fulfilled but they weren’t sure
what the rest of it meant.
By the time we were finished eating I was just about caught
up on everything that happened while I was gone, but I had the distinct feeling
he was holding something back. Not to mention his eye twitched a time or two
making me sure there was something he didn’t want me to know.
“What aren’t you telling me Rook?”
We were sitting at opposite ends of his kitchen table and he
wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Rook?” I asked, then it hit me. “Where is Rachel?”
He scrubbed his hands over his face and my heart stopped.
“She’s here at the resort,” he began, then looked me in the
eyes. There was so much anguish in his silver eyes that I knew this wasn’t
going to be good at all. “Your arrest
was
a distraction and with
Clarissa’s help, Danarius was able to take Rachel to Solaria. He tied my hands
by killing humans. If I had reset time or even stopped time to take her away
from him again, I would have broken the rules. He gave her back to us, but not
before he fed her a vial of Oblivion.”
I gasped, remembering what Dragon had told me about the drug
and what I’d seen firsthand when we came across it at work.
“Is there anything we can do?” My eyes pleaded with him,
begged him to say yes, but he just closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Dammit Rook there has to be something we can do.” I got up
and paced across the kitchen.
“For now she’s being kept comfortable but there is no known
cure for addiction to Oblivion. If we stop giving her the drug, her heart will
fail and she will die. We’ve even tried changing addicted humans into vampires,
since normally the drug isn’t addictive for supernaturals. It was a good idea,
but unfortunately it didn’t work. The new vampires were still addicted to
Oblivion and had to be put down like rabid dogs.”
I turned back to face him. “I want to see her.” He started
to shake his head but I said, “She is my child and I want to see her, now.”
“Angela,” He started then stopped and seemed to be searching
for the right words. “We had two choices to keep her calm. Either we let her
have sex, constantly, nonstop, or we make her think she’s having sex. We
decided against letting her actually have sex and went with option two.
Basically there is a nightshifter on duty at all times who
is continuously sending sexual fantasies to your daughter so she thinks she’s
having sex. In order to keep up the steady stream of erotic visions some of the
guys needed a little help. Some of them chose to feed, but some of them wanted
to fulfill their own fantasies while projecting what they feel into Rachel.”