Hadaen [The Marujan Brothers Series] Book One (2 page)

An eerie fog stretched,
crawling sluggishly along the avenue and wiping its gloom on every
surface it came in contact with. All and all, she was quite
satisfied that she hadn’t left just yet. A tinted black SUV drove
by slowly, its tail-lights dimmed. Amelia’s eyes shot to the
unlocked state of the door and her alert heightened. There had been
days when she was anticipating a potential robbery… and there were
nights when she was
really
expecting one. Tonight was one of those nights.
Stepping further behind the cashier’s desk, she felt for her loaded
rifle and exhaled slowly, waiting.

A couple minutes passed and
she almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a tall figure
approaching the store. She could not decipher whether or not she
was seeing correctly but she chose the rational option. She was
damn well not sleeping. The person was dressed in a long black
coat, seemingly damped from the rain and head bowed, presumably
attempting to keep the shower from his face. Amelia swallowed down
the lump that had somehow formed in her throat.
Get a grip, Mel!
Chancing a glance
at her well-hidden weapon, she stood firm and composed despite the
shaking of her feet inside black combat boots.

The stranger pushed the
door open. She waited. He stepped inside and shrugged fiercely, his
heavy cloak dripping on the floor. She decided to take the
opportunity to study him.
You know,
because I might end up filing a police report if he gets away. Not
because he seems like a total hunk…
She
swallowed again. Thick short cut black hair clung to his forehead
and neck, water rippling down his jaw and running off the bridge of
a narrow nose. For an instant, she felt the strange sense of
familiarity but quickly dismissed the feeling. And he just stood
there, regarding the floor, his jaws clenching and unclenching
rapidly. Mentally rolling her eyes, Amelia then cleared her throat
loudly.

“What can I get you, sir?”

The man’s head shot up, his
eyes widened for just a moment, and then settled on her as if
attempting to see into her soul. She frowned and surprisingly, he
smiled. Taken aback, she gripped the rifle tighter and inhaled
slowly. Amelia had to admit, the man looked gorgeous… and
unbelievably dangerous. He had the most amazing eyes she had ever
seen; dark whirlpools of desire drawing her into captivity. His
face was well-chiseled; squared jaws and a mouth that begged to be
kissed. She swallowed again. And then that same mouth began to
twitch as if with faint amusement. For a moment, she started to
wonder if he could sense what she was thinking. One dark eyebrow
shot up skeptically and she gasped, blush heating her cheeks and
setting her nerves on edge.
Oh, my gosh!
What if he
does
know what I’m thinking?
If looks
could kill, she’d be dead already because this man suddenly made
her feel like Shrek-meets-Bigfoot. How she wished she could just
dry up and waste away…..

“Two bottles of brandy and a flask of
whiskey.” His voice came smooth and thick, rich with an accent she
could not identify.

Amelia quickly retrieved the items,
taking care not to lose him from her vision. And as soon as she had
placed the bottles on the counter and bagged them, he stepped up
instantaneously, his musky scent clouding her thoughts.

“That will be—…”

“Keep the change,” he said before she
even managed to respond, shoving down a few hundred dollar
bills.

“Sir, you should—.”

“Relax, Amelia. Keep the change.
Shouldn’t you be heading home? A liquor store is no place for a
woman to be at midnight.”

Her eyes widened as she watched him
cross the room and then pull the door open. “How do you know my
name? Who are you? Have we met before?”

The man turned slightly and smiled,
knocking the air out of her lungs.

“Something like
that.
Nous nous rencontrerons de
nouveau
…” And he turned and left, leaving
her to drown in her mesmerism and the puzzled by her ignorance to
his words.

…Nous nous rencontrerons
de nouveau…

~*~*~*~

H
adaen sipped on his whiskey, staring deep into the angry
flames of the fire place. He hadn’t counted on finding her so
quickly. It had only taken him seven centuries and he was prepared
to go at least ten more. But now that he
had
found her, he did not know if he
could quite control himself. The moment he had laid eyes on her,
the lustful longing bombarded his loins even stronger that it had
ever had. And yet he could not have her…not until he was sure she
was his intended mate.

Amelia, Daughter of the
Liberty
.

Hadaen clutched the
necklace tight in his right palm. It had served as a link to her
over those very long decades and he did not plan on losing her
again. This time… she was going to be
his
. Even if he had to do so by
force, she must accept him or else his anxiety and frustration may
just prove to be lethal.

“You do this every night, Hadaen,”
Gideon’s voice came dryly from behind him. “You sit by the
fireplace, downing whiskey and gripping that damn necklace like
it’s your lifeline.”

Hadaen groaned and gave his
brother a smothering look. “It
is
my damn lifeline!
She
is.”

“How do you know? The woman could be
bewitching you. She could be working for the Kankul Dynasty for all
we know...”

“No.” He shook his head and stared at
the necklace. “She’s one of us, I can feel it.”

“Then why the fuck did she run away
seven hundred years ago to have me running behind you while you
chase after her?” Gideon frowned and swore again beneath his
breath.

“Do not forget your
place,
brother
!”
Hadaen’s growl shook the walls of the room. “You did not have a
choice. She is the Daughter of the Light. Our key to
redemption.”

“More like the key to your cock...”
Gideon whined beneath his breath.

Ignoring his brother’s
comment, Hadaen went on, “We were told about seeking
Liberty
since we were
lads. The priests taught us about it from the old scriptures but
never
how
to find
it. Amelia is our way and I must convince her.”

For a moment, Gideon was silent. “Why
do you have to convince her?”

A pained sigh escaped Hadaen’s lips.
“Apparently, she does not remember who she is.”

Gideon groaned and massaged his
temples. “Are you certain?”

“Yes! I could read her mind…her
memories. There is no trace of her life in Maruj there. Her life
seemed to have only started a quarter of a century ago. She did not
even recognize me at all.”

Gideon moved in closer and took a swig
from Hadaen’s flask. After a short pause, he took three more and
then pulled up an armchair. “If that’s so then it means we will
have to carry her to the Hub of Lensai.”

“It’s the only way.”

Gideon sighed and then jumped to his
feet, looking like his usual frisky self. “You know what I find
hilarious about all of this?” Hadaen glowered and swallowed thickly
but did not answer. “It’s amazing how you were the one who drove
her away in the first place.”

“I did not drive her away,”
he snarled—
yes, snarled
—between clenched teeth.

Gideon chuckled. “You forced yourself
on the poor thing. Why else would she run?”

A puff escaped his lips and Hadaen
held his hands up at eye level. “Fine! Are you done; rolling around
in your formidable immaturity?”

Gideon cleared his throat weakly and
said, “Well then… So you found Amelia. Where do we go on from
here?”

“She works nights at a liquor store on
some dark alley crawling with thieves and whores…” He exhaled
sharply and then continued. “I followed her home. Her place isn’t
much better. It appears to be some sort of old abandoned industrial
building.” He got to his feet in an instant, wonder evident on his
features. “What I found strange was that the moment she set foot
inside the building, it was as if she did not exist at all. I could
not reach into her mind. There was nothing…”

“Well, that only leaves two
explanations…” Gideon tucked his hands into his pockets and shook
his head. “Either she really is playing with you or…” His eyebrows
rose immediately. “You don’t think…?”

Hadaen met his eyes firmly. “That’s
exactly what I’m thinking, little brother… Someone is shielding
her.”

~*~

“Y
ou really didn’t have to wait up for me again.”

Amelia smiled as she
trotted bare-footedly through the kitchen, pulling on a robe over
her thin pajamas. She blew out a breath and reached for a mug to
pour herself some coffee. Stopping dead in her tracks, she frowned
and mentally scolded herself.
Really, Mel!
Coffee at this hour
? Sighing, she reached
inside the refridgerator, poured some milk and then tucked the mug
inside the microwave for a minute.

Her roommate, Reese, folded
her legs beneath her on the sofa and wove around her copy of
Cosmo
. “Yeah… I was
bored. Decided to read about how to find me a new man.”

Amelia laughed and sat next to her,
sipping on her warmed milk. “There was a hot guy in the store
tonight…”

Magazine suddenly
flung aside, Reese sat up straight, her face
bright with interest. “Do tell... How hot was he?”

“I don’t know. He seemed like a
mystery to me,” she responded and then stared at her friend. “Seems
like I’ve seen him before but I don’t know where. He even knew my
name. Strange…”

“Strange
? A super-hot guy knows your name and you think that’s
strange
?” Reese laughed.
“Talk about giving attention to the wrong girl.”

Amelia frowned slightly and sipped at
her mug. “I’m serious. I don’t know how to explain it but when I
saw him… it was almost as if I knew him and there was this look in
his eyes… Then he said something that sounded like French to me. It
sort of gave me the creeps how he said it.” She turned to look at
her friend who was now suddenly looking skeptic. “Okay, I know it
sounds weird but—oh, never mind.”

Reese giggled. “Sounds like some of
that reincarnation stuff. You know, past lives and all that.” Then
her face lit up. “But what if…?”

“No. Nuh-huh. I do not believe in that
crap. Forget about it.”

“But think about it, Mel. You could
have had sex with this guy centuries ago…” she laughed.

Trying to ignore the heat
that was now crawling up her neck, Amelia pulled her robe a little
closer and sighed. All this talk about sex was seriously making her
regret that she hadn’t just given into her curiosity years ago and
went to bed with that jerk back in high school.
What was his name again? Brad? Brock…? Nope, it was
Brad
. Although he had been a giant buffoon
who smelt like her neighbour’s mutt of a dog, she was pretty sure
that she could have held her breath—maybe closed her eyes too—and
allowed the initiation to proceed. At least he was interested in
her. No guy seemed to favour a long-limbed bony geek with no plans
on the future. So instead of taking up Brad on his offer eight
years ago, on the backseat of his car, she had none but landed a
hard uppercut to his balls and fled the vehicle like a mad
woman.

“I think I’m going to go to bed,” she
muttered and grasped her empty mug. “And think about getting a day
job. I’m starting to feel really creepy about being at that store
at nights.”

Ten minutes later, Amelia was warmly
tucked in bed, covers pulled al l the way up to her chin and the
lamplight dimmed. A cat meowed somewhere below her window. Then
silence. A dog barked and a few trashcans were toppled over. The
cat screeched. It was a typical bedtime song on a typical night.
The small window across the room and opposite to her bed was
slightly ajar, making up for the air-conditioning they lacked in
the dissipated building. Cold air wisped its way to her, chilling
the top of her ears and forehead. Amelia pulled the covers to her
temples.

Reminiscence was not something she
found appealing; at least not when the past was as nasty as hers.
She could find one word to sum up her experiences, her losses:
hilarious. Okay, maybe not ‘hilarious’ in the true sense of the
word but instead of crying about it, she might as well find the
humour in it all. As far as she knew, or what she was told at the
foster home, her parents had died in a car accident while she was
under a nanny’s supervision as a babe. A typical story, wasn’t it?
And Amelia had accepted it not because she wanted to but because
the heartache of questioning it was far too much for her to
handle.

A sudden lightning bolt snapped,
casting an orange-ish hue across the walls. It lingered a while…
and then disappeared. Her eyelids sagged and a yawn forced its way
pass her lips.