Winning the Legend (3 page)

“How much further?” Arianna asked the same
question.

“We are almost there.” Maxim didn’t try to
hide the bit of disappointment in his voice. He kept in the lead as
they made a few last turns. Arianna noticed a bit of light in the
distance. They neared a small hole framed by green.

“Evergreen shrubs,” Maxim explained. “Keeps
the tunnel hidden even in winter.”

“Poisonous?” Arianna asked, looking closer
at the leaves as they got near.

“Not to my kind,” Maxim replied. “Who knows
if it is to others?” Arianna felt the hope in his words that it
might be for Andrew. Andrew reached past Maxim and moved the vines
out of the way for Arianna.

“Guess it’s time for you to go back to your
cave, troll,” Andrew replied, ushering Arianna out of the cave.
Andrew didn’t hesitate to push her outside. He’d been tracking
other night human activity since they’d entered the passages, and
they were miles away from everyone.

“Andrew,” Arianna scolded.

“I’d say it has been nice knowing you and
having you ogle my girl, but it has not,” Andrew replied. “Gabriel
will return with payment after we get settled.” Andrew was all
business. At least he wasn’t ripping limbs off, yet.

“Thanks for everything. Tell your father
thanks,” Arianna said as Andrew reached for her hand and tugged
gently. There was nothing wrong with Maxim, as Andrew wanted to
believe. He’d been a nice guy the whole time they’d stayed with his
family. Maxim’s attempts to hit on her were only halfhearted at
best. He had already been promised to a mate in his own clan.
Andrew tugged again. Arianna smiled at Maxim, and he nodded back
before Arianna turned to begin their run.

Arianna looked over to Andrew as the scenery
passed. It had been dark in the caves, though they could both see
fine in the dim light, but now in the sunlight she was getting a
much better view of him. His hair blew in the wind as did her own
light blond hair, which kept smacking her in her face. There was
just a bit more grace to Andrew than Arianna, but she was getting
better at all of it. In the past month being a night human came
easier, since she drank the blood of five different night humans.
It had been her choice to become the legend, and physically she
didn’t regret her decision. Mentally, it would be much harder now
that the clans were all meeting to fight over her.

Andrew’s night human form seemed more of a
ghost of him in the bright daylight. Unlike the other night human
clans, baku had evolved to be able to withstand daylight. Most did
not go outside in their night human form during the day, but Andrew
needed to now to run through the forest. It took years of training
to be able to hold a night human form in any bit of sunlight.
Andrew’s day walking ability had been perfected in the past month,
and he was the strongest of the albino-like clan. All baku
transformed into a night human with a complete lack of pigment, no
matter what they looked like before. Andrew’s normally dark brown,
wavy hair was now long and white. His tanned skin was paler than
Arianna’s normal coloring. And his eyes had a pink tinge to them.
While it was a stark contrast to what she was used to, she found
herself admiring his night human form as much as his day human
form. He was different, but she knew he was still him. Little
details still remained after he transformed. While his hair was
white and longer, it still had the slight curl at the ends that was
there in his day human form.

‘Getting tired?’
Andrew asked with concern in his thoughts as she
dropped behind him a bit.

‘Nope, sorry,’
she replied, focusing on the run and not the
perfect form beside her.
‘Just
distracted.’
Arianna raced ahead of him a
few feet to cover up her red face. Andrew approved of that answer
and easily moved beside her to catch a glimpse of her
blush.

Chapter 3

Arianna busted through the large, ornate,
gold-lined doors of the Meyer estate. To call it a country home was
a bit of an understatement. Tucked into its own private
mountainside just north of her normal estate, the Meyer home took
up more than eighteen thousand square feet with fifteen bedrooms,
twenty bathrooms, a great hall, and a ballroom. While moving back
into elaborate quarters should have felt like home to Arianna, as
her own estate was larger, it didn’t. Arianna really missed her
aunt and uncle’s small apartment over their family diner more than
anything. This was just another large, ornate building that would
be used as the setting for her latest drama. It wasn’t a home by
any account.

Andrew followed close behind, checking the
perimeter for any who had followed them. He extended his senses for
miles around and concluded that they actually had escaped without
anyone noticing. The competition would work much better if no one
showed up. Andrew looked at his watch. They had two hours before
the deadline. That was more than enough time for everyone to make
it since they were close enough running at full speed, but his life
would be easier if they didn’t arrive at all.

Arianna raced by the waiting staff in the
entryway and clutched the two men at the end of the line. Her
personal guard Nixon grabbed her first and hugged her before
Jackson took her and embraced her also. Relief was written all over
their faces. They had both made a pledge to her dead grandfather to
protect her with their lives, and they had to let her go away
without them for a month. They were as happy to see her as she was
to see them. Arianna didn’t realize how much she missed her
protection team until she saw them there waiting for her. Her two
human guards had been at the estate since she had gone into
hiding.

“She’ll be here soon,” Arianna whispered to
Jackson, already knowing what he wanted to hear. Before they’d
left, Jackson had asked to be Molina’s keeper and then they were
forced apart. “She misses you a lot and wouldn’t stop talking about
you. Are Nelson and Mica here yet?” Arianna looked behind the
guards to see no other guards waiting.

“No,” Nixon replied. “Gabriel tried to move
them around but couldn’t mask them like us since we’re just day
humans.” Arianna nodded and continued to look around. The plans
included Devin arriving first since he could be masked being only a
day human. Nixon and Jackson were moved second being that they were
also day humans. Jackson pulled her into another hug.

“He missed you, too,” Jackson said
cryptically for only her to hear. “He’s in the library.”

Arianna stepped back to see if Jackson was
teasing or not. He was completely serious. She knew what he meant.
Devin had already arrived. Arianna took off down the hallways,
twisting and turning to follow the sound of Devin’s beating heart.
She had never been to the Meyer estate before, but she didn’t need
a map to get to Devin. Andrew followed at a distance, knowing who
she was looking for. He had sensed Devin the moment they walked
into the main house. Andrew had won Arianna, but there would always
be a part of her that wanted to be with Devin.

Arianna made it quickly and silently to the
room where Devin was sitting. The door was wide open, and from the
hallway she studied him. He was busy working, as always, shuffling
papers around. Arianna watched like it was the first time she’d
seen him in years. Part of her would always be attached to him, no
matter how much she now felt for Andrew. Andrew stood back and
didn’t interrupt her time. Devin would always hold a piece of her
heart. Andrew just hoped the piece he held was bigger.

Arianna glanced around the book-lined
chamber. Walls of books of every color surrounded Devin as he sat
on the old-fashioned couch in the middle of the room. He was
completely oblivious to the history contained in the old,
leather-bound books around him, whose pages were yellowed with age.
If Arianna could concentrate on anything else, she would have seen
the beauty in the room, but her eyes couldn’t be swayed from
Devin.

‘Hello,’
Devin said mentally to Arianna as he continued to
read. Even with her new skills, Arianna couldn’t fool Devin. She
heard him no matter where he was, but he made sure she knew that he
knew she was present also.

“Hi,” she said, cautiously entering the
room. Their last time seeing each other, Arianna finally found out
why she was drawn to Devin. Her night human dearg-dul form felt
Devin was her mate as much as her night human baku form wanted
Andrew. Andrew moved back down the hallway to give them privacy.
She was safe when she was with Devin.

“You know, you’re breaking the rules,” she
said. “I’m not supposed to have any contact with contestants until
this all begins.” It was a rule to keep the other constants away,
but it backfired when Devin and Turner both entered the
competition.

“I thought you arriving made it begin,”
Devin replied as she inched closer.

“I guess so.” Arianna wanted more than
anything to run over and throw herself into his arms and hug him.
She missed him. It wasn’t the same passion she felt with Andrew.
Andrew was her lover now. Devin was her family and always would be.
He had been her rock for the past year when her life spiraled out
of control and she was thrown into her new night human life.
Without him, the dearg-dul clan, and her own life, would have
fallen apart.

Arianna sat down on the opposite end of the
maroon couch and watched Devin as he continued to work. It was
safer to keep a distance. A second rule she learned after she left
was that she couldn’t touch any of the contestants during the
competition. She did not agree with this.

“Everything go okay on the way here?” Devin
asked as he read on and signed a few more papers.

“Yep. Not a single person knew we left or
followed us. When will Turner arrive?” Arianna asked, gripping the
couch pillow to keep her hands to herself. This competition was
going to be agony for her with the rules stating that she couldn’t
interact with her keepers as she pleased. She couldn’t wait for
everyone to arrive and tell them the new rules.

“Turner plans to roll in thirty minutes
before the end so that we can get rid of as many of the followers
as possible. And Thomas?”

“He should be flying here soon. He was going
to wait until the sun was off a little so that he doesn’t get sick
from the flight.” Devin was gripping his pen almost as hard as she
was gripping the couch. At least he missed her, too. That was a
little bit of comfort.

Devin finally looked up. Arianna couldn’t
decide which she wanted to do more, cry or smile, as she looked
into his all-knowing blue eyes. In reality what she wanted most was
to crawl over and climb into his lap and have him tell her this was
all a dream. This game for her hand in marriage was becoming both
more real and surreal at the same time. Not a single clan cared
what she wanted. Only her family cared, and they were powerless to
stop what was coming. Breaking the rules, Devin reached over and
brushed a lone tear from Arianna’s face.

“I never wanted you to have
to do this,” Devin whispered.
‘I wanted
you all for myself from the first moment I met you. I’m sorry I was
never strong enough to stop this. I’m sorry I cannot protect you
like I should. I’m sorry for letting your grandfather
down.’

Devin’s fingertip still
rested on her face as Arianna replied.
‘My
choice Devin. This was my choice.’
She
didn’t want to have the contest, but it was her choice to go
through with it to protect everyone she loved. By having this
competition, her clans avoided all-out war.

‘And my failure. I won’t
fail here no matter who shows up,’
Devin
promised her.

Arianna smiled slightly before he pulled his
hand back. The moment was broken. One ding reverberated through the
house signaling that someone waited at the gate.

“The first to arrive,” Devin commented,
looking back down at his papers. “You better go welcome them.”

Arianna nodded and stood up
to walk past Devin. As she neared, she paused.
‘To hell with rules,’
she told him
before leaning down, and catching him by surprise as she hugged
him. Arianna wanted to savor the moment but knew that she had to
go.
‘I make my own rules.’

Chapter 4

Arianna stood just within the doorway of the
main house and watched as Jackson approached the first contestant.
Beyond the large, wrought-iron gate, a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy
stood perfectly still, like stone. He wasn’t alone. Two
imposing-looking men hovered just behind him. The blond man was
gazing beyond Jackson as he spoke to him, and stared at Arianna.
She felt his gaze even a hundred yards away. He was handsome in the
perfect-illusion way. His night human form was ever present, even
in his day human form. The sidhe night humans had perfected the
balance between night and day humans, leading to uniquely
perfect-looking beings. The young man nodded to Jackson, and waved
away one of his retainers. Arianna tried to decide if those men
were twins or not, as the two older, forty-something men looked
identical, even down to what they were wearing. The young man
confidently approached Arianna.

“Welcome to the games, Rhys McKinny,”
Arianna said, attempting to sound cordial, but it was difficult.
She was disappointed that anyone had showed up at all. She hoped
their planning would lead most of the contestants away, and then it
would be easy for her team to win. Thomas assured her that no
matter what they did, the leaders of the clan would find her, but
Arianna didn’t want to believe it. Rhys was proof that this was
going to be a long competition.

Rhys’ retainer moved first, dropped to one
knee, picked up her hand, and kissed it. Rhys followed suit and did
the same. He lifted his head and peered up at her with his sky-blue
eyes. Arianna tried to keep her surprise to herself as she looked
down at the perfect-faced man kneeling at her feet. Rhys looked as
perfect as a doll. All of his facial features were symmetrical. He
stood at least as tall as Gabriel, but was much more lithe. Rhys
gracefully stood and waited for Arianna to invite him inside. His
shoulders were not as broad as Turner’s, but somehow Arianna knew
he would be as much of a force to reckon with as her best friend
and lycan, Turner Winter.