Authors: Harmony Raines
Tags: #General Fiction
His eyes lit up, and she had an uneasy feeling she might find herself dumped on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere by him, robbed for the cash in her hands. Living in the mansion had cocooned her from the behaviour of ordinary humans towards her kind. Darius would not tolerate any trouble and so the other servants had always been polite to her, if a little cool and unfriendly.
“Room for one more?”
She yelped in surprise as a man got in beside her. She was just about to open the other car door and jump out into the traffic, to get away from him, when she realised it was Kieran.
“What are you doing?” Not willing to let her guard down, she eyed him with uncertainty. Was he going to take her back to his boss? They had probably hoped Darius would show up and fetch her and they would have the opportunity to kidnap the man himself. When he was a no-show they were going back to plan B, beat the crap out of her until she talked.
“Taking you to the border.” He shuffled closer to her and pulled the car door shut. “I told you I would, I told you I would see you to the border safely.”
“Double was only for one of you,” the driver said firmly.
“Then I guess we will try one of the others.” She opened the car door.
“No. Double and I’ll take you both.” The guy turned around once more and looked at them both, a look of distaste on his face. “No freaky stuff, though.”
The driver didn’t say another word. He simply put the car into drive and pulled out into the traffic. The look on his face confirmed what she’d feared: if Kieran hadn’t got into the car she was quite sure she would never have made it to the border.
She had no idea what kind of freaky stuff he thought they would get up to, but for now her attention switched back to Kieran. Frowning, she said, “Look, if you are after money, you’re out of luck. The driver wants twice the fare to take me to the border. So the money Darius gave me will be gone. I’m not asking for any more.”
“I don’t want your money,” he said sharply. In fact, he sounded downright offended by her accusation.
“Then what do you want, Kieran?” Misty asked. “Because I really can’t make you out. You say that you are not working for your boss anymore, you say don’t want my money, so what exactly do you want?”
He sat back in his seat and closed his eyes, rubbing his face with his hands, looking defeated. “For the first time in my life, I really don’t know.”
They sat in silence as they drove. Kieran looked tired, as if a vital part of him had been ripped out. Misty sat looking out of the window trying to figure out exactly where this was going to end. Was he going to follow her over the border?
Or was there still a chance that this was a setup? But his next question made her believe he was telling her the truth.
“What’s it like?” he asked her quietly.
“What, the Prime?”
“Yes.” He sat up, turning to her, his eyes intent.
She leaned forward, her fingers reaching up and touching the silver collar around his neck. “Free.”
“That’s it?” he asked. “Free.”
“Yes, everything about the Prime is free. No collars, no rules, you can just be yourself.” As her fingers circled the collar they strayed onto his skin, and she saw him shiver. “Have you ever been yourself, Kieran?” she asked.
He pulled back away from her. “I don’t need your psychological mumbo-jumbo, I just asked what it was like. It doesn’t mean that I’m coming with you.”
“It might do you good, to see where you come from, to see where you belong.”
“I don’t belong anywhere. I thought I belonged here, but then you came along, and now that’s all gone.”
“What are you so afraid of, Kieran?” she asked.
“All my life I’ve been told that if I go across the border into the Prime that somebody will hunt me, somebody will kill me.”
“That’s dramatic,” she said. “Who told you that? Maybe it’s only a story you were told when you were a boy?”
“It’s what I have been told all of my life.” He looked out of the window at the fields and trees. “Why would somebody tell me that, if it wasn’t true? The man who raised me was scared, and I mean really scared.”
“You sure it wasn’t his way of just controlling you?” she asked. “You know, in the same way that children are told about the bogeyman.”
“I don’t know, and it never really mattered before. What life could I have over there anyway? I don’t know anybody, or how anything works over there. Over here in amongst humans I know what I am, or at least I know what they think I am. And I played on that, in the cage; when I fought and when I won, I could see in their faces they were all scared of me. I don’t know what animal is inside of me, but it was like they could see it, as if it shimmered along the surface of my skin. I had a place, it was the closest to belonging I’ve ever felt.”
“All I know is that you are a predator. It’s written all over you: the way you speak, the way you move.”
“And what are you, Misty?”
“I’m the opposite. I’m the thing that should run from you, because as much as you are a predator, I am your prey.” He looked her in the eyes, devouring her. “I guess you see that too.”
“The only reason I’ll go across the border with you, is if you tell me one thing.”
“And what’s that, Kieran? You want me to tell you that you’re the greatest fighter in the world? You want me to say that you’re the fiercest man I’ve ever met?” She put on a breathy, excited voice.
“No, Misty, that’s not what I want to hear. What I want you to tell me is who
your
mate is?”
She swallowed her nerves. if he came across the border with her, he would know. As soon as they took their collars off, he would understand that they were mates. Did she want that? Should she run from him before that moment, that point of no return?
However, when she looked up at him and saw the pain and confusion in his eyes, she knew that he was the man for her. That he was the beast she would live with for the rest of her life.
“I think you already know.” Still she tried to stall him, trying to put off the inevitable.
“Tell me?” he whispered, his breath soft and warm on her face. “I want you to admit it, I want to hear you say it.”
“It’s you. There, it’s said, as if you didn’t already know. I guess you’re the kind of arrogant person that needs to hear it. But if you expect me to beg, expect me to plead with you to come across the border with me, then you’re wrong.”
He sat back and laughed. “There are a lot of things I might get you to beg me for in the future. But coming over the border isn’t one of them. That would be my decision and my decision alone.”
She wanted to thump him, really hard. But instead she just turned away. He would keep for another day.
So what exactly was he going to do? He already knew the answer, he just hated to admit it.
When he had seen Misty standing all alone outside the drycleaners he knew he had to help her. If there had been a time when he could walk away, it was then. But instead he was here, in a taxicab, heading for a border that he swore he would never cross.
In his head, the beast shifted, letting him know they had made the right decision, the only decision.
His focus shifted to the creature inside him. Misty said he was a predator, something he already knew. It was why he was so good in the cage; he saw everybody as weaker than himself. Everyone who ever fought him, had set out to prove him wrong, and suffered at his hands. Yes, she was right, he was arrogant, but it was that arrogance that had kept him alive.
Was that same arrogance going to get him killed once he crossed the border? At least it would be an end to his fear.
He was so tired, tired of running, tired of fighting who he was. Philippe had tried to make him into something different, tried to make him into a coward, the sort of person who hides away. But when Philippe died, that same part died too, and his animal had been his controlling influence.
Now that life was behind him too. It was time to embrace who he was. For better for worse, for life or death, he was going to cross the border, find out exactly who it was who had been trying to kill him, and strike first.
“How much farther?” he asked.
“I’m not really sure.” She tapped on the glass between them and the taxi driver; he had closed it almost instantly; it was as if he was worried that they would contaminate him if he breathed the same air. “How much farther to go?”
At first the man didn’t answer, so she tapped on the glass again and asked the same question, this time in a more self-confident way.
“About another ten minutes,” the driver said.
“Okay then, what’s the plan?” Kieran asked her. “What do I need to get across the border?
“Are you absolutely, completely, and utterly sure that you have never had a contract?”
He thought back to his childhood and how Philippe behaved. “No, I’m certain. I was a very young child when I came here. I couldn’t possibly have a contract, could I?”
She sighed, and he realised what a great risk she was taking for him. “I wouldn’t have thought so. I don’t think they take out contracts on children. But who knows?”
“So what, we go through separately? That way if I get stopped and detained, then at least you get away—at least you get to go home.”
“That’s not how these things work. We stick together, that’s the safest way.” She looked out the back window of the taxi, checking to see if there was anyone following them. “They’ll test your blood; it stings, but I’m sure you’ve felt worse. Don’t react, just stand there and let them do whatever it is they need to do.”
“You mean they can treat us like animals?” he asked.
“Yes. I think it’s because they’re scared.”
“They should be, shouldn’t they? If we really wanted to take over this world, their world, then we could.”
“That’s why we have a peace treaty. Please don’t be the person who breaks it.”
“That
would
draw attention to myself, wouldn’t it?” he said, smiling. Yes, if ever he wanted the whole world to know who he was, and where he was, breaking the treaty would be the way.
Yet as he looked at Misty, he realised that wasn’t what he wanted. He would quite happily slip across the border and become visible for the rest of his life. Having already experienced some kind of glory in the cage ring, and finding it brought him little true happiness, he was ready to sink into obscurity.
Misty looked at him and smiled, but he could see the worry in her eyes. She didn’t trust him, and it wasn’t just about the border either. He could still see the uncertainty in her eyes; she still wasn’t sure that this wasn’t one big setup. And until they crossed the border, there was no way he could prove otherwise.
The taxi eventually arrived at the edge of the border. The driver stopped well before the access point which then led down to the barricades, where guards stood watch. “This is as far as I go,” he said. “I want your money, and then you can get out and walk the rest of the way.”
Misty dug in her pocket and pulled out the money. She didn’t even count it as she handed it all to the driver. He should have protested, it was far too much, but it was worthless to them now. The border, and freedom, were in sight.
Kieran opened the door and got out, breathing in the air. It smelt different here, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, maybe it was just that it was far away from the city and the towns he was used to. But it was more than just the lack of pollution. It was different from the fresh air at the vineyards he had worked with Philippe when he was a child. That had been a Mediterranean heat, warm and dry, as if the water had been evacuated from the air.
But here there was a crispness about it, a coolness. Inside him something stirred, his animal stirred, as if remembering. Kieran still couldn’t quite grasp hold of it, still couldn’t quite see what he was, but a shiver of excitement coursed through him, because soon, he would know. Soon he would be able to free the beast who dwelled inside him. And, as Misty got out of the car and stood next to him, her scent excited him too.
Yes, the border was close, and soon he would claim her as his mate. He would learn exactly what that meant and he smiled, the sort of smile that never passed his lips before. It was one of satisfaction, at the thought of being himself for the very first time. There would be no more hiding, no more being a scared child, or the fighter, putting on a persona which didn’t belong to him.
“You ready?” he asked.
Misty smiled up at him, and said, “You’re asking me?”
“Yes, I thought you might back out, I thought you might choose to stay here.” She thumped him in the stomach, playfully, catching hold of his excitement. He really had committed to this, and now that he was no longer fighting himself, his whole body language had changed. He even sounded different, and his beast stirred, a thrill of anticipation filling Kieran’s body.
“You must be joking. I can’t wait.” She turned to look down at the border crossing, and he followed her gaze: one more
small
hurdle and they would be free.
She took his hand and they began to walk down towards the guards, through the first set of barriers, into a kind of a holding zone, which seemed bizarre, because there was no one else here. He couldn’t ever imagine there was a stampede of people in either direction across this border.
But before they cleared the holding area, he became aware of a car approaching. Maybe he was mistaken and there was about to be a rush for the border. Unconsciously, he quickened his pace, Misty keeping up with him as they got within a hundred yards of the guards.
But then he heard a voice, and he knew life was never going to be easy for him; he was never going to get a break.
“There you are, Kitty. I thought we’d lost you. But then I thought about it, and I knew that two freaks like you would come here to the border. If you had chosen another border crossing, or laid low for a while, I might not have found you. But of course you freaks have small brains, don’t you? So you took the most direct route. Not even trying to try and cover your tracks.” His boss stood there, a Band-Aid on his neck and a big bruise on his chin where Kieran had hit him with the butt of the knife.