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  She huffed at me, “That wasn’t fair.”

  She was completely out of control and had no idea what she was capable of. I needed to show her. Her well faked innocent show wasn’t always the case. I knew this. She could go on thinking in her female mind of hers that I was oblivious. The game was fun and I enjoyed the banter between us.

  “Torture. Not knowing your thoughts is torture. But I can torture too my little Kissa,” I countered. I clasped her hand in mine and squeezed.

  I will take my turn later.

  Silence invaded my senses like a sad wave of the ocean. She said nothing as went into our own rooms to change. Not even a whisper.

  And he presumes that most battles happen in the unexpected, she thought to herself from the other side of the wall I stood changing from my leathers to jeans. Her reasoning out of a fight was programmed into her. She just didn't have the execution down for surprise attacks.

  I yelled through the wall, “That’s because they do. I’ve trained since I was five.”

  “And I,” her deafening scream reverberated through the wall.

  Oh how I looked forward to her temper tantrum comments. She was riled so easily.

  “Yes, but I have guarded and shielded you since you were ten,” I yelled back.

  “Ten?” she pierced the air.

  She knew this already. I told her.

  I hurried promptly enough in the changing process that I now stood right outside her door in wait like a dang dog, but was I complaining? Nope! I was begging for more. She emerged like an angel with a blond halo. “Ten. For which you were ten also. I told you this.”

  I held my hand for her to lead the way enjoying the sway of her girlish hips the entire way down the stairs. For someone who professes to be such a badass, she is all female. And my maleness was kicking in with each sway. Left. Right. Left. Right.

  “Yes, but were you Valkyrie or Vampire?” she inquired while adjusting her hair into some kind of silk bob of hair like she had always done when she sparred.

  Distractions. She was killing me. I opted for humor. “Later on that, and you were irreplaceable and fragile. It was a difficult job.” I so enjoyed her cattiness nature. She didn’t let me down once. Not even now.

  “Fragile. I’ll show you fragile,” she smiled like she was up to something.

  “Looking forward to it,” I returned the sly smile down to her pretty face.

  She reached back and attacked without a moment to lose and holding nothing back. She was on cloud nine with the amount of give she gave. I held back some, but not much. She really didn’t know what she was capable of. She underestimated everything she did even if she made others think she was arrogant. She really wasn’t.

  Why did she seem so breakable?

  “Can I ask you something?” she asked at the end of our sparring session for which she was fierce.

  “Anything?” I leaned back and tilted my head behind me to see her on the stairs where we were heading up out of the weapon’s pit.

  “Why do you not bite people?” Her face was soft and curious only.

  “I don’t want to hurt people. I can’t help what I am.” She would want to know all this, I knew it would come. However, the fact that she asked made me a freaking mess because she would only ask if she was really interested, right?

  “How did you get that way?”

  I’ve never told anyone. I didn’t expect her to want to know.

  “You don’t have to tell me.” All of her walls were down. She wanted to know about me. We walked

  I will. I was a baby. When my mother died, I was carried away from her but not before I heard you. I was assigned to the kitchen at the Val court. At ten, when your father approached me after finding my marks one day, I overheard him telling Szar about you and me. I knew you had the mark too, but not what it was. After your went in search of your Hunter, I vowed to find out the truth. I searched everywhere. I found the letters one day in your father’s study. I knew who I was and what I would become. He told me the rest. I had already met the Vampire Lord once and sought him out. My new father found me late one night and the deed was already done before I could ask. Like destiny. He protected me and hid me from anyone who hurt me or let me hurt them. I grew up with a huge supply since he took work at the morgue.

  “Why are you afraid to tell this?” she asked me tenderly. He demeanor had changed.

  I followed her to the sofa and managed to sit a section closer to her than before. She didn’t balk. “Because my real father must have known something. My mother was chosen and having me was her only goal in the plan. She was unneeded. As was…” I was made a vampire by my father.

  My second father. Somehow he knew. I never asked how he knew of my lineage or if it was coincidence. Maybe he could read it on me or something.

  The day Anastacia's father told me about the letters I just knew I had to make a choice. I couldn’t stand in her way and I couldn't have her like this either. I was born with the mark, but Lord Hathown said that day I wasn’t to interact with her. I would never be beside her. They said I was too weak to keep her safe and that one day a Hunter and a Were would be there to protect her. I know then they were only trying to drive me to the ultimate plan of the now. I had to do something to keep her alive. Being a Vampire gave me the strength and agility to do just that, whereas a Valkyrie would have left me like Szar. Strong, easy reader emotions, and trained. Nothing more. I was to be nothing more. It didn’t make sense. But my letter did.

  Choosing another form, take care that you are taught properly.

  I knew exactly what it meant. And so I changed from my original form...to Vampire. It was the natural order of things in the course my life should take. I was physically stronger, had a built in radar for the senses (all of them), power in the role I play when my unnatural father passed it on to me at the age of sixteen, and the unparalleled link to her. My one. She couldn't know what all I had done just to have her. And she would never know what all that involved whether I kept her or not. Some things are better left in the past without being said.

  A sigh escaped her sad lips bringing me out of my reverie. She felt bad for me. Pity wasn’t on my priority list. Then her mind went straight to the prophecy. The letter. Don’t let her go alone. As the son of Ra, you are bound by all orders of our kind and hers. When choosing another form, take care that you are taught properly. The ring will return and be of use to the both of you.

  “To protect you,” I let her finish first. I loved hearing her read things out in her mind. She was such a storyteller on the inside.

  Me? she asked. I told her yes with a nod of my head. “Who are you?”

  “Valkyrie,” I didn’t lie.

  I know that. Her face assured me she was frustrated with my sometimes inflexible mind. “And who was your father?”

  Uh, oh. She searched through names and faces of everyone she could remember in the Val court all the way back as far as she could.

  I will tell you soon. My real father, a Valkyrie member of the guard, was no one of importance. That is why I assume it was never meant for me to be Valkyrie. Easy. I did it for her. To protect her. Maybe it was rash at the time, but I was young and destiny is destiny no matter the age.

  She ran to the balcony and gagged? What the heck? She was crying. I am such an ass. Then she told me she was sorry.

  “What for?” I uttered aloud half thinking she was switching subjects but doubting it now.

  “You kept all this inside?”

  I think it was question, but either way she selflessly thought of me and not herself. “Necessary,” I told her.

  “Because I would never have become cornered into a life of the prison I lived being the princess sheltered from the entire world.” She burned with a thunderous fury. Obstinate, selfless, quick-tempered perfection in every way I could imagine! Even her willful attitude was attractive.

  “No, you would have still become the person you are sitting with me now.” I pointed to her stomach. “You will b
e great! And you have choices.”

  She didn’t want my compliments; she wanted to worry about everything and solve the world’s problems all at the same time.

  “What kind of choice? We have none. NONE!” Anastacia exclaimed.

  “You’ll know when the time is right.”

  And you prefer to remain cryptic enough with how much you tell me for the sake of saving me some kind of great pain? Just like my father. She shifted her chest forward to send me a clear message.

  “I only have your best interest.”

  “So do you all. What about what I want?”

  She was so stubborn. Childish in her ways sometimes, beyond her years in others.

  “And what is that?” I asked. Inquiring minds really want to know.

  “I don’t know at the moment. I’m really confused.” She slammed her body backwards in frustration.

  “Understandable. Will you grant me something?”

  “What?” She didn’t subside her rage.

  “Will you tell me when you know?”

  A whispery, “Yes,” escaped her mouth. Her mouth held open a little while longer and she turned her eyes to my mouth. I was eating up every bit of her reactions to me. I could live with this the rest of my unnatural life. I vowed to try to shock her with my words more. The result was just too good to be true.

  “Will you stop giving me half-truths and treat me like I am trustworthy enough with the truth and not shield me as if I were a lost child who can’t handle what is to come?”

  “Mostly.” I couldn't give her every answer for that would be telling her things that would make her hurl and run screaming far away from me. Nope!

  Aaaa! Maddening.

  As well for me. “Tomorrow, things change.” I saddened at the prospect.

  “How?” She asked her ten millionth question as I hooked her necklace back onto her neck that loosened.

  “Your friends arrive.” Agitated, she moved around not staying still and as sure as I wanted her to profess her undying love to me, I waited but not patiently. “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  She narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Will you do me the honor of keeping my company tonight?”

  “Doing what?” she squeaked out then got mad at herself for appearing affected by her own words. Her chest rose and fell in a fast succession.

  I tried not to look. What did she think I meant? “A night out,” I told her.

  Anastacia raised her eyes up to me and said nothing. I took my own lead and said, “One hour, the balcony, dress comfortable.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Claire had everything ready when I arrived in the kitchen. She giggled a few times letting me know she was thrilled with this event. That makes two of us.

  I really tried to keep my eyes from seeking out what treasures I had yet to unfold about her. I have known her for so long, but know now I have never really known her. She may not admit it, but she was different somehow than when she first arrived. Hope was growing.

  “Where are we?” Either she really was that unobservant sometimes or she was that engrossed in me and had no clue she was in familiar territory. Hoping for the later, her eyes zipped to mine several times since leaving, but my ever present stare unhinged her.

  “The place I was born.” The bench we sat on was cold. I pulled the blanket from the bag.

  “This is where you…are we at the Valkyrie gardens?”

  “You’re safe,” I freaked worrying she would flee.

  “I know,” she smiled.

  She felt secure with me. Pride enveloped me.

  “I used to lay here and count every star in my head until I fell asleep. My father would pick me up and I would wake up in my bed.”

  “And you never saw the sun after you turned?”

  No, I nodded barely through the darkness. Sometimes I do have to go out in daylight, but rarely. I try not to test my limits. “I used to lay here and picture you beside me counting too.” Great! She would think I was Stalker Vamp.

  “I spent as much time dreaming about anything but what my court involved,” she confessed and began to lie down in the grass on the blanket I just spread.

  “You asked me not to give you half truths. I’ll admit that I don’t think you are ready for all of it, but I will try to give you more of what you ask.” I felt the heat spewing off her lips. For once, I was thankful my thoughts were hidden. I had already scared her enough. I was a fool to think I could capture this girl and keep her. Goddesses or not, she was better for another. I was unworthy of her.

  “Thank you.”

  I smiled optimistically hoping to force her to do the same, “I was sent to watch you after I changed and could stay safe with you. I watched you the first time you hid in the garden. Only, I was already there when you arrived. I’d counted the constellations twice when you came there just waiting to see you. I was as much enamored by you then as I am now. You were so passionate and free and I couldn't stop watching you,” I held my breath.

  She laughed at my point of view, “That’s how you saw me?”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t have described it that way then. It was a young boy who had been sent to keep a child safe because one day she would be queen.” And maybe mine to keep.

  Her nose tipped against my arm in an attempted lean for me to continue. I froze in the darkness aching for more. Could she read what my body was doing to try to get at her? I wanted it all. I have waited so long. Breathing out short little pieces of air, I finished her unasked question. “Yes. No half truth here, you will be queen. It has been foretold.”

  Her mouth was close enough for me to feel her same short breaths that mimicked my own. “By who?” she expected an answer. Her face crawled closer. What was she doing to me?

  “They told my father, my father told me. They knew so much about you. It scared me. That was the day he told me when you were born.”

  Her fear shook the earth around us. “And remind me that you know when that is?” She turned and stared upward, staring at the starry sky.

  “February 29th.”

  On her knees in a heartbeat, she faced me while I leaned on my elbow to be angled even with her face. A guy has to do what he has to do for the girl. And right now I wanted what I wanted. And more, I wanted the memory of her last few picnics upstaged.

  “Ask me?” She eyed my ring. Did she know about the goddess rings?

  “Yours?” My birthday.

  “February 29th.” She was in shock. Not just slight shock, deathly still shock. “Truths.” I allowed her to process.

  “What does it all mean?” She let her breath out very slowly and removed the ring.

  “Mostly, that we were never really in charge with the possibilities, but ultimately we can choose to not follow our destiny.” Fate can be changed if she so chooses, but I will do everything in my power to sway her.

  “Interesting way of slicing it. It still comes out in pieces.” Or some strange horrible demon that is trying to make me go insane with the fact that my life is totally planned out and I have no control. And I seriously should get some credit for not saying everything I think out loud. She kind of half giggled at her sass.

  “So philosophical!” I teased trying not to let my own pleasure seep into her mind.

  “Likewise.”

  The slightest hint of ruby red. It matched my ring, yet mine seemed to have several colors inside the stone. Odd that I didn’t notice before.

  I lay back down avoiding the ring comparison conversation knowing she watched me. One truth at a time. For now, I wanted to put the past behind us and move on to the possibilities of having a future that included her in every waking moment of my life. And yet, the Hunter still lingers in the back of her mind. Heck, if she could read me right now she thinks I’m an idiot.

  “What is it?”

  “You don’t have to tell me, but do you like the Hunter boy?”

  No, I don’t. Not the same. “I do.”

  I cursed the Hunter two shades of
Sunday. That she would even consider me equal to him in any way was just friggin’ ridiculous. I would never be the tool he is. Mind full of loose screws with a little too much rattling around in there. He was a Hunter for goodness sakes. He amounted to the equivalent of a pretty boy picture frame. All looks on the outside, mindless on the inside.

  Nah, I knew he wasn’t all dumb, but he was still a Hunter.

  “But not in the same way…you have a way of… of making me so mad I want to prove myself. A way of…of making me melt ten times over just by looking at you.”

  She just said that? I waited for the punch line.

  “Your thoughts drive me insane, yet it thrills me to nothing to want to hear more. I think that Calum, he is my calm and you are my storm. I feel right around him. He makes me feel…like a peace that makes everything okay. He is…”

  “What do you feel when you kiss me?” I had to know that it might be the end of the best day of my life. Her inability to speak wasn’t giving me the animated reply I created in my head.

  “I don’t think I want to tell you just yet. I shouldn’t be boosting your ego.” She nudged my arm with her own and smiled in my direction. Okay, so she didn’t hate it.

  “Tell me?” I pouted figuring teasing was better than the evil deeds I wanted to do the Hunter boy for maybe having her heart. She did the most unthinkable reaction that would change my life forever.

  “My insides fall apart. I am frozen there, right then with only you in my world.” She watched my mouth open and watch her own lips move as she sputtered, “And Calum, I can tell now that I have tasted your lips, I only feel a comfort when I am with him. Like a brother.”

  She was so passionate for such innocence. Not tainted.

  I faced her on my side completely and pulled her to me. “I don’t know what to say with you sometimes,” Stud Muffin wasn’t who I was at the moment, but rather bumbling, stumbling idiot.

  She was changing her mind on something. She was letting me in even more. “I have more to say than I have ever wanted to say to someone than I ever have, ever, in my life. But I have only just met you and I am deathly afraid to say much more for several different full of fear reasons.”