The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series) (5 page)

"I would advise you Christian, to
keep your hands off of me until you know for certain whom my father will
choose. In fact, keep your hands off of me altogether." But I know my
words have fallen on deaf ears and so I wriggle out of my captors grasp. It is
hard, but I eventually manage to get out of his grasp, and when I do I realize
that I am not as successful as I had hoped to be. Because up against the wall
is Christian, and his neck is pinned in another man's hands.

"If you ever touch her again, I
will kill you." I hear the other man say to Christian threateningly. The
threat is real. I know this with full certainty, but who is the man that has
made the threat, and what does he want with me?

"Why should I King Menédez? Why
should I bow down to you, when my family has never, ever bowed down to yours
before?" Christian spits at the man who has a tight grasp on his throat.

"Because if you don't, I'll just
kill you now. It'll be a lot easier, than having to go through with what our
father's before us went through." King Menédez spits, his grasp tightening
on Christian's throat. The two men stare at each other for a long time, and I
can feel the heat of their hatred for each other.

Finally after a long silence King
Menédez releases Christian, and let's him go. As soon as Christian is released
he scampers back inside to the crowd, vanishing as quickly as the other man had
come. Speaking of the other man, I realize that he has his back turned to me. I
can easily see that he is a strong man, although he is not overly buffed, he is
more angular than rounded. It is that display alone that shows his strength,
his mental and physical strength. I stay away from the man, although every
instinct within me tells me to approach him. I stay away, because I am unsure
of what his response to me will be.

"You're the man from before, in the
Labyrinth," I say as realization dawns upon me. He turns to me then and
smiles softly at me.

"And thus you must be the girl from
before. However you're not just any girl are you? You're Annabelle VanDyken.
The one that this charade is all for," King Menédez says, his smile
telling me that he is not saying this to be harsh.

"Yes I suppose so though none of
this was my choice," I say with a sigh, speaking truthfully to a man that
I don't even know.

"True, none of this is your choice.
Nor will you have a choice in your husband. Though you do have a choice to fall
for him," He says and I smile sadly. He adds as an after thought "By
the way the name is Victor."

"Thank you for saving me back
there. I thought Mr Sitzman was someone worth trusting. Obviously I had been
incorrect." I say solemnly, turning away from Victor, and staring back at
the full moon in the sky.

"Don't thank me just yet," He
says his voice is soft like a whisper.

I turn back around, startled by his
words. His scarlet eyes stand out strikingly upon his pale skin, his ruby red
lips just as unbelievable and I cannot understand why I did not notice this
before. I reach out to touch him but his gloved hand catches mine before I can,
stopping me from touching his skin.

"I said don't." His tone is
threatening, and my mind quickly matches it to the same tone he just used on
Christian. When he thrusts my hand away, I quickly pull it to my chest and
cradle it there. Is he insane? All that I want to do is say thank you.

I want to object to the way that he is
treating me, but the look in his eyes warn me not to say anything, it is quite
an impossible feat, but I manage to keep my mouth shut. I march off into the
ball room with saying another word. I still don't have the answers I want, but
I don't know if they are worth the trouble of getting. With one more look
outside I'm startled to find that Victor has disappeared.

I suddenly question myself if it had all
been my imagination but there is no way to explain the tingling in my wrist
from where he has touched me if I had imagined it. Plus there is no way that I
can forget the way he looked at me, or the way he had defended me by
threatening Christian. The man is real; no doubt of it, no matter how much he
is a mystery. Without realizing it, I have walked into a much more slender, and
feminine body. She turns around quicker than I can apologize, and when I see
her face my apology gets caught in my throat. Without realizing it I have run
into my mother.

"There you are Anna; your father
and I have been looking all over for you, it's almost time for the... Oh my goodness,
what are you wearing?" I can see the panic in her eyes at what I am
wearing and of what other people will think about my choice of
"outfit". She especially doesn't look happy about it, but what do I
care, it is my last night of freedom and I am going to do what I want to do.

"Well don't just stand there like a
stupid child, go and meet with your father Anna," She says, batting me
away with her paper fan, once I start walking the invisible line she struts
after me, making sure that I make it directly to my father and to my doom. It
is time for me to find out who my father has chosen, and whom I am doomed to
"belong" to from this moment on.

I see my father standing at the front of
the crowd with Christian, and four other men are standing with him. One of
those other four I recognize as the man from no less than a few minutes ago;
Victor Menédez. He looks pale in comparison to the other men, and yet somehow
he also seems more glorious.

"Ah there is my little Anna
now." My father croons to me in front of the other men. I try my hardest
to hold back the bile in my mouth. My father is anything but a sweet man,
especially when it comes to me.

"Now two of you have tied for the
honour of my daughters hand, the rest of you I'm sorry but you haven't made the
cut, and ultimately there can be only one winner," My father says, smiling
from ear to ear. I feel like saying to these men that I am not a prize to be
won, but I keep my words to myself, in hope to spare Meg and Simon from any
more pain.

"Please Mr Sitzman and King Menédez
stay where you are. Lord Bolton, and Duke of Kensington please leave." At
this the two older men leave and then there is only my father, Christian,
Victor and I. My father turns to the two men in question, and I feel chills go
down my spine; here comes the bad part I think to myself. Victor's eyes shift
to me, they hold a question in them, almost as if he is asking what I mean but
that is ridiculous, it's impossible that he can read my thoughts.

"As for you boys, here comes the
tricky part. I am allowing Anna to choose whom she will marry, but you boys
must convince her whom to choose by winning her heart," My father says, a
cocky grin pulling at his thin lips. So this is his bargaining chip, me. Since
there is no way either boy can win my heart, especially not after the stunt
that they pulled tonight, I don't know how this is going to turn out. It would
be fair to warn them that what my father has just given them an impossible
task, though why should I be fair when no-one else is playing that way?

"But be warned my daughter is as
stubborn as a mule." My father jokes and Christian and Victor laugh along
with him. I give them all a glare. How dare they make fun of me like that!

I storm off back outside, I feel freer
when I am outside rather than inside, and I need all the freedom that I can
get. Because for now it looks like my fate is sealed either way. I am going to
be married to Christian or Victor, and I have no idea who is worse, the creepy
sadistic gentleman that I met this morning, who is more like my father than a
lover, or the man that I met in the Labyrinth, who saved me from Christian, the
man whose eyes are red as blood, the man whom has a devil-may-care attitude and
a split personality. As far as I am concerned, I am going to burn because of
this.

Anna's P.O.V

It has been a couple of
days since my father had decided to split the four suitors down to two, and
unfortunately they have been the worst, and the youngest though that was a
solitary plus, of the group. I have been trying to avoid Christian and Victor.
However no matter how much I try, I always manage to end up seeing them by the
end of the day.

Fortunately, neither of
them appears to be game enough to attempt to win my heart. I have not had any
encounters with Victor - such as the one I had experience out on the balcony,
and in the Labyrinth - and I have not had any encounters with Christian either,
though I can feel his eyes constantly watching me, as if I am some kind of prey
to him.

My obvious hatred
towards the two boys, has my father fuming and my mother repressed, though she
would never know what repression was even if it slapped her in the face.
However, through all this mess there is one solitary plus that has me smiling
to myself. My father hasn't dared to threaten or harm me since before the ball,
which is more than unbelievable! Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the phase
isn't going to last long. Thus this is what I am thinking, when I walked out
here earlier, into the gardens, with my sketch pad and pencils in hand.

I have been idly
drawing a set of eyes in a face that has been haunting my dreams of late; a
face that is hiding somewhere inside of my hone. I have to admit that it is a
bit embarrassing to look up into the same man's eyes and know that I have drawn
his profile perfectly.

"Hello Anna."
His voice is thick and husky, and absolutely tempting but I push these thoughts
aside. I cannot allow myself to be drawn to him. I cannot allow myself to be
drawn to either one of them.

"Hello
Victor," I say as I close my sketch pad. I also cannot let him to see that
I have subconsciously drawn him.

"I saw you sitting
out here by yourself, I've wanted to speak to you for a while now, I wanted to
apologize for my behaviour when we first met." He gives a small tentative
smile, though how I can use the word tentative to describe Victor is beyond me.
From what I have seen and heard from him, he is anything but tentative. I have
to admit though, I am not only surprise by the fact that he is apologizing to
me, but that he is actually speaking to me at all.

"What
"first" meeting are we talking about here? The one in the Labyrinth
or the one on the Balcony," I say sarcastically and I can sense him
bristle at my words. Victor takes a seat beside me and looks down at the water
in the shallow fountain pool.

"You're right,
both times I guess. I haven't exactly been cordial to you since my arrival. I
had not been expecting to see Mr Sitzman here and when I did, well it made me
lose control. His family and my own have a long negative history, something
that I won't bore you with but I guess our loathing for each other is genetic.
However, that aside, I really am sorry for my behaviour," Victor says, his
eyes drifting back to me. There is a look of sincerity within those crimson
eyes, and I wonder how it's possible for him to have that kind of colouring.

"I suppose I can
forgive you. After all if what you say is true, you can't really behave
yourself around Mr Sitzman. Besides my behaviour wasn't exactly friendly
either," I say. It isn't exactly a lie; my behaviour had been more than
friendly though under the circumstances, it should have been understandable why
I had wanted to thank him. He smiles at my words though, and it makes me wonder
what exactly he could be thinking.

"I doubt you will
be getting an apology from Christian. An apology that you deserve more than my
own," Victor says. His smile leaves his face as quickly as it comes. I can
see that his skin is becoming quite red as if he is getting roasted with a
really bad sun burn.

"Are you alright
Victor? You're skin, it's like you're burning up," I say softly, reaching
out to touch the skin on his face so that I may examine it better. He gets back
up onto his feet and moves away from me. I quickly grab his wrist. His motions
completely stop and I don't know what has come over me.

"Don't go," I
say and quickly chide myself for saying such a thing. Hadn't I been thinking
before he arrived that I mustn't allow myself to fall for either of them? An
apology shouldn't have changed my thinking.

"I mean you don't
have to go if you don't want to," I say instantly closing my big stupid
mouth before I can say anything else. I see his shoulders drop but he doesn't
move to sit back down. He refuses to look at me as well.

"I'm sorry Anna
but I cannot," He says before he walks away, leaving me in the still
bright sunset. I think I hear sorrow and brokenness in his voice, though I
cannot be sure of what I hear. I wait for a while outside, until Meg finally
comes out looking for me.

"There you are
Anna; I've been looking all over for you." I don't get a chance to say
hello to her, before she starts ushering me inside. "What are you doing
out there anyway?" She asks, her eyes studying me, trying to guess the
answer before I can say what has happened.

"I was outside
drawing and then Victor came up saying he wanted to talk to me, but he didn't
really have much to say." I say, for once in my life trying to hide the
truth from Meg.

"Oh my, he
actually sought you out!" Meg says, though it sounds like a question I
know what she means. I nod in agreement.