Daughter of Anat Read online

  “Well, mark me off as your enemy but not anyone else.”

  “Done, but who have you derived at naming my enemy?”

  Good. She could see that he had a game plan and that he was hiding secrets too. Heck, I sounded like a pubescent teenager fighting on the playground.

  “The group that calls themselves the new leaders who include Borgon and his death wish cronies would have you dead, my lady.”

  She already knew this, but he wanted to show off what he knew. “Let’s say we are not enemies. Let’s say that we can come to an agreement where you will work with the other factions—

  “No! I will work with you, not the factions themselves.” He touched his hand to his temple and then his ear ignoring her bargaining terms.

  “Okay! Why?”

  “Anastacia Anat Hathown, you’ve been lied to for a very long time. I was made to keep quiet. I could have never predicted the recent events, nor could have predicted that you and I would be standing here today, together the way it should have been long ago.”

  I was sick and tired of her head hurting like it was now. If whatever he did made her in pain like the Hunter boy, I wouldn’t stand for it. She had a right to comfort.

  “Why do you act like you know me?” she held her head as he did his own.

  “Because I do. I will show you.”

  Oh no! Cord held a hand up to me like I would actually, friggin’ obey his command. Someone’s hand behind me grabbed at me and held me there.

  “Let’s see what happens. He promised he wouldn’t hurt her.” Szar was the voice of reason. I wondered when I actually started listening to his advice, but I think he was right this time. He better be!

  Great! Now I’m taking advice of her Valkyrie twin who wouldn’t stick upfor her when wolf boy was being vulgar. This wasn't the first time he'd done it, just the first she'd ever heard.

  She tensed when he got closer making him back off.

  “Do you think I will hurt you?”

  “I really don’t know that for sure?”

  Good girl.

  “I wouldn’t hurt you. I need to show you something. And I’m betting you need to show me. You know, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours like before. Unless you require me to just remove clothing and get it all out in the open. I could make it happen.”

  Ha! Listening to her tell him off in her mind despite the cool she held on the outside was like dessert before the meal. She was dessert all the days of the week and I’d barely had a taste yet. She called the cuss a nympho psychopath, nailing him for what he was. She also noticed the guy stripping for her in front of the whole crowd and friggin' noted his abworks again.

  I saw it in her mind. She knew he was marked. She grabbed his arm like she might pass out.

  “How?” she asked.

  “And you?” he hinted to see my girls body like it was a friggin’ invitation party. When his friggin' eyes drifted down across my girl’s body, I lost it. It was a good thing Szar was holding me down.

  “And this explains the name they called you. They know you have it?” She nodded to all of his men and then to us.

  “Yes and yes.”

  “And you knew I had one?”

  He flashed like the devil at her liking her nativity. “Yes, but not what. It is Orion surrounded by the sun I’m guessing. I imagine at closer inspection, I might find myself represented down there too.”

  “Do you know the meaning?” he asked.

  “No, but I’m wagering to guess that you’re the scorpion that killed Orion and I’m somehow the link between them all.”

  “Wow, gorgeous, sassy, and smart.”

  “What do you want?” Her voice turned icy.

  “Do you see what you missed?”

  What was his aim here? Szar started to release me, but when my feet gave away that I would take off towards her, he pulled me back. My fangs extended.

  “May I?” he gestured to her shirt looking straight at me.

  She nodded and up her damn shirt went. When he friggin’ dog touched her I went ballistic.

  “Szar, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Then hold your ass still till this damn show is over. She is already going to be mad enough without you going all caveman on her.”

  Ryan asked her if she heard something. I didn’t.

  “What was that?”

  “You heard it too, I take it?” he asked her.

  “Duh!” -- Freaking Obvious.

  “So you have some type of head smashing power?” he asked.

  “NO, that was you, not me.” He shifted his feet back and forth.

  “Not me.”

  “Okay, again.” He attacked her.

  “No touching,” she screamed. I leapt from Szar’s arms and made it a whole yard in one step before her hand went in the air stopping me.

  “That’s one I haven’t heard before from the opposite sex.”

  “Maybe you should.” Pig!

  He reached for her again.

  “NO!”

  “I’m just pointing.” He yelled at her. “That is scorpion.”

  They reasoned out her marks. I don’t see why I couldn’t be there for this. “YOU can call me Cord.”

  “What does everyone else call you?”

  The dog liked to torment her innocence.

  “Well you’ll just have to see, won’t you? Let’s retrace what we know. I came for you at the party. Gone before I could claim you,” he looked towards me, “You are the princess of the Val court, or were but it is my understanding that you don’t want it.”

  “How do you know this? And why did you let your minion torture my brother?”

  “Couldn’t be helped. A part to play to get to you. He knew the dangers.”

  “Again, how do you know I don’t want my role?”

  “We share mutual acquaintances.” He gestured towards me again letting her know I had too many secrets.

  “Yes, as you can see, we are not all enemies. You prefer to shack up at the Vampire court these days.”

  He wanted his face bloodied up. He was asking for it. I knew she could tell he was just trying to rile her up, but it was killing me to watch it.

  “Shack up. He is guarding me.”

  “I thought it was your last word that you don’t need guarding?”

  “How—

  “Never mind. You’re loverboy Hunter is next in line as well as your brother, correct?”

  She looked back and forth at both of us thinking too hard on all this.

  “I have a better bite.”

  You won’t ever know you damn wolf.

  “Later.” He would taunt her till I did blow just so he could hope she’d run to him.

  “Who is the rightful heir to your faction?”

  “Ah, smart girl. I really do like you. He died. The voting process is almost complete. The family line died out and so a new leader is voted in.”

  “And who might that be?”

  “Thought we were talking intelligently?”

  “Don’t patronize me,” she huffed at him. “Stop looking at me that way.”

  “What way, princess?”

  Her body was so tense. Like a thread being pulled on its last leg.

  “And don’t call me that either.”

  “As you wish.” He gave her his standard Cord two-finger salute he’d done since birth I think. She watched his ring appear before her eyes, giving a glance towards mine.

  “And don’t say that either.”

  “Then don’t look at me the way you do.” That set her off. Finally. Dude was finally getting a dose.

  “Is there anything I can say?”

  “We aren’t getting anywhere this way?” she breathed. They just kept going on and on. Szar’s hand continued to nail into my bicep, but he knew well I could kill him before anyone could see the blow.

  “Well, let’s get busy then. Where to? Point me the way.” His voice suggestive again. This crap would never end.

  No! It ends now. I bro
ke free of the man cuffs and flew across the field.

  “Alright now. Let me get this straight. You are familiar with the four of us I see and leaving a lot to be guessed by me. I want some type of alliance, but you are only selective on who you speak with. Let’s just lay it all out on the table and find out where to go from here.”

  The guys were right behind me, but I was focused solely on Stace. I staked my claim with my hand safely back around her waist. Cord watched it oh so very carefully.

  “On the table is my specialty,” Cord announced still watching my hands.

  How did…never mind. She felt the guys were with me and looked.

  “Now, so there are no secrets.” Cord’s hand went to his shirt. Stace’s mind went to work.

  She couldn’t see ever trusting him. I was with her one hundred percent, but this was already in the stars to happen.

  Stace, just listen.

  You knew. You knew all this time, she accused me.

  Stace, it is pertinent to our survival.

  Yeah, and I’ve been in the dark blind and filled with shi—

  Not any more, we can’t afford for you not too.

  “Are you two telepathic?” Cord interrupted us with his voice angry and worried with just want I wanted.

  “Ah, wolf boy doesn’t know everything,” she snipped at him. Dude has issues.

  I snorted. I hadn’t intended too, but it made him angrier and I didn’t mind that.

  Szar howled under his breath making Cord snarl like the dog he was.

  Oh, sexy. Not!

  My head snapped to hers. She was in a standoff glare with him.

  I moved my hand to my shirt from where my hand still lay across her stomach, then changed my mind and raised hers for her. The situation was truly odd to the viewing audience.

  All five of us let out a collective sigh as the real truth hit us like bricks.

  “And when I bloody want you to know something, I’ll make sure you’re the first to know. Let that be, ahhh...in your freaking dreams.”

  She was a tiger at the ready. She wouldn’t let up on him, and I was okay with it.

  Cord came back as quick though, “Every night. You can star in my show anytime.”

  Go on and tell him, Kissa. He has to know either way.

  She steamed her puckered lips at me, “Calum is Orion. Cord is the scorpion known for killing Orion. Cas is the sun who came from Ra, the sun god. Szar has a shield and according to the almighty mother is to take cover over me. Ha! I have all. Aren’t we just all the richer now?”

  All nodded being her fools.

  “I can feel all of you come near, except my brother.”

  “Thank the gods.” Szar snaked with sarcasm.

  “Same to ya bro!”

  “What connection do you have with Cord? How do you know?” Calum was starting to make the connections from which I left loopholes in the few short relays of info I shared with him. Meeting with the Hunter boy hadn’t been exactly my idea, but Lord Hathown insisted he know more. He wasn’t exactly receptive hearing it from me, but at least he knew everything about Stace that would make him know his place in this. He has yet to tell her even half of what he knows now.

  Putting the punk’s number in my phone was a damn shame on my end because I didn’t want to admit he was important to her.

  “I didn’t until a few minutes ago. When we arrived my head was killing me and the closer he moved to me the higher the ringing grew in my head.”

  “That’s it?” They both better talk.

  Kissa, you’re hiding something. She frowned and nodded at me indicating she wasn’t going to tell me or at least not right now.

  “No, when he touches me the same feeling magnifies. I don’t know what it means.”

  Cord watched Stace and me. “And I’m guessing you have a connection too.”

  “Yes,” she offered to him getting uncomfortable. He knew about the telepathy. She and I have increased in just about any power we hold if we are touching.

  Cord looked at Calum next. “And him?”

  “Same.” She got a nasty look in her eye aimed for Cord, “You afraid, mister wolf boy? I sense it.”

  And her emotions. I think we have all been affected by them with the exception of Szar. I am curious about that though. I’m not sure why that is so important to have.

  “What am I afraid of?”

  “I don’t know the exacts all the time. My boys here can sense it too. You tell me, but I can tell you are. What are you hiding?”

  Szar backed up with his hands up, “Not me, bro. I can’t read slick. Just you three. I can read fear on anyone, nothing else. That’s about it for me.”

  Cord’s eye narrowed to slits forcing me to look at Szar and check what he’s doing.

  “Don’t ever wink at me again, dude!” Cord told Szar making us all wonder what went down between them we missed. His fear increased significantly the second they landed back on Stace making the light in her eyes brighten with knowing.

  “You are…sad about something you don’t want us to know. You’ve been near me before. I feel it like I did before.”

  She was friggin’ amazing. I have no idea how she knows specifics like that but that boy was one hundred percent craping in his pants.

  “Everyone back away.” She barked loud like a traffic director. Disoriented, we all watched for a second before we realized what we’d done. She didn’t have the power to googly eye me like she could the rest, but I didn’t move on my own accord just then. I have no idea how she did that. My hands just shot off of her and all of us jumped back like we’d been shot.

  “Thank you, gorgeous,” Cord two-finger saluted her again.

  “And?”

  Cord spoke low but all of us could hear, “So I’ve watched you. Standing right beside your Vamp on cold nights while you stuck your tongue down the Hunter’s throat. Headaches came then too but I didn’t have a clue till now.”

  Stace was trying to keep her cool with not screaming at the guy, but he wouldn’t just spit it out. We were all waiting. Szar and I have assumed for months now that if Calum and I both had it, he would too. Calum even asked about it weeks ago. As soon as he knew we’d bring in Ryan, he thought to ask.

  “I have a theory on something. Just a theory.”

  “On with it,” she grew impatient.

  “It requires more than you may want to give.”

  What was he asking for? We didn’t agree to anything else.

  I wanted to tell her to refuse anything else, but something inside me told me I needed to know what would happen next.

  “I’m not doing anything inappropriate.”

  That was it. The second I moved, her damn hand flew up.

  Cord snorted and laughed for my benefit, “I can hope.”

  She growled then continued with her ability to think about all the wrongs things like aphrodisiacs and love potions.

  Kissa!

  She moved to a point where I couldn’t see anything but her backside.

  “Trust me. I won’t hurt you. Although everyone seems hell-bent on keeping you safe, yet you don’t seem to need it.”

  The next thing I knew the Were was cutting my girl’s hand, slicing her finger. His hand was dripping too.

  “Doesn’t that hurt?” she asked.

  Left in the dark, I could only see her thoughts. She was worried about the blood. Then all of the sudden, everything in her mind went black.

  I went nuts. I had them apart and space between them, but not before I saw flashes of some weirded movie themed picture show and then black again. It was like she fell to the ground and went to instant dream state.

  When she woke, Cord was still laid out. Everyone circled around us as I wiped the blood from her skin that didn’t smell near as sweet anymore. It was mixed for sure, tainted with his. Her eyes opened and shot up checking the wound. Closed tight and healed as always. At the same time, Stace and I checked Cord’s wound for which was also nonexistent. That was what Cord tested. T
hey healed each other somehow.

  The war. The Elf lord standing over Cord and I with fire all around. Was it a premonition?

  Her thoughts confirmed what I saw too. I don’t know how, but one or both of them can see visions.

  Cord started to moan like girl. She leaned over to where the other dogs were coddling him.

  “Cord,” she touched his arm. I wished she’d stop that.

  His eyes were closed still but he answered, “Anastacia, is it you."

  She was surprised he recognized her so easily. He knew her as well as I did before the day I won her at the party. He lost and should back off. History doesn't give him rights to her just like it didn't for me. Long ago Cord, Lee, and I stood watching her one night in the darkness. All young and filled with hormones we didn't understand and we all wanted the same girl. Lee won...for the moment. Cord gave up thinking it wasn't worth the effort for one girl. I let him. I waited my turn.

  “Yes. You’re hand. My hand. It’s…”

  “Healed. Then my theory was correct,” he said rubbing his eyes.

  “How did you know?” She knew I was listening by the way she kept eyeing me from under her hair. It made me happy to know she was okay with it.

  “The night of the party. Just before Thorn pulled you up in the air, I had you, I would have protected you.”

  I gave him this so he could maybe get it out of his system and move on.

  “I was the one who pulled you from the spy. You were bleeding. So was I. Something flashed across my mind with you and markings. And when the Hunter boy was done pummeling me and my own, I looked down and found all the cuts on my arm healed where you’d touched me.”

  Noted. If she would stop touching him now would be good. I wish I'd known about the healing thing before now. He lied to me.

  “I remember all that. I saw you in my mind.”

  She had?

  “Most of this matters not. I was healed after you touched me. Just like now.”

  “I did that?”

  “Yes. I can’t heal myself. My theory is you have always healed yourself. Right?”

  She gave him a look of disbelief.

  “Thorn told me.”

  She looked at me for answers and when I stayed silent, she went back to him. “You can heal others. And you saw it too. The fire, and us, and the Elf lord. Didn’t you?”

  “It’s our blood. The future maybe. I’ve touched you before,” he said between breaths like an old man on cheap cigarettes, “at the party when my arm was cut up. You grabbed me and then whipped away with Thorn to his glorious safety. And I was healed like I said.”