Arianna Rose: The Arrival (Part 4) (20 page)

“Beth and Arianna came with us to a bar in town,” Jason began.  “We ate and played pool.  Then the place started to clear out and we started feeling, I don’t know, like our arms and legs were heavy all of a sudden.  Then the bartender told us he’d drugged us and that he was going to kill the Sola.”

Briathos’ hand fell to his side.  He trembled and looked as though he may faint.  “No,” was all he said as he sank
into an outdoor chair. 

“
Those cowards murdered Lance, Ewan and Clint,” Dane said quietly.  “Three of our own were executed and there was nothing we could do to help.”

“If Darius hadn’t appeared from thin air and taken them out, none of us would be here,” Jason added.

Briathos’ gaze filled with tears, his face scrawled with lines of profound sadness.  He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead for a moment then when his eyes opened, they immediately went to Arianna.  “I am deeply saddened to have lost Lance, Ewan and Clint.  They were good and decent men, as well as promising students.”  He shook his head slowly.  “But the Sola and her protectors are safe and we have to try to see the positive in that.”

Darius heaved a silent sigh. He wondered whether Briathos was about to look to the shafts of light piercing the tattered bank of clouds and start yammering about an imaginary friend shining down on them and sparing their precious Arianna. 
If he did, Darius would be forced to leave and come up with an alternative way to manipulate her to his side.  Even he had his limits. 

“Come, let us go and break bread together.  We can share the
tragic news with the others after,” Briathos concluded and glided to where they’d just come from. 

Darius followed him as did Arianna, Dane and Jason.  They stopped when they reached a long table set with every kind of breakfast food imaginable. 

“Grab a plate and dig in,” Arianna leaned in and said to him.  A swath of raven hair fanned across his face when she turned from him and picked up two plates from the end of the table.  She handed one to him then proceeded to select a few items from the buffet.  He kept watch on her as he quickly patched together his meal.  He did not want to let her out of his sight for fear he would not be seated with her at one of the many small round tables set up in the sprawling dining area.  A croissant fell to the floor and he was forced to kneel, pick it up and throw it in the trash.  In the process, he had lost her in the fast-filling room.  A sea of people flooded the space at once, all dillydallying as they chatted and inspected the buffet.  He wanted drop his shoulder and plow past them but knew he needed to remain on his best behavior.  So instead, he said “excuse me” about a dozen times and shuffled toward the tables. 

He spotted Arianna immediately.  She was at a table that seated twelve and only one chair was unoccupied.  He hurried toward it.

She did not look up when he pulled his chair out.  “Wow, everything looks delicious,” he said to get her attention. 

She nodded and chewed and glanced at him fleetingly. 

“This guy is a hero,” Dane said and pointed to Darius.  Bits of food fell from Dane’s full mouth when he’d spoken and Darius’ stomach churned.  “Guys, this is Darius.  He saved us last night.”  Seven sets of unfamiliar eyes watched him in wonder and admiration as Dane retold the story of his deed at the bar.  Jason and Dane took turns detailing his gallant act, speaking of him in a reverent tone, a tone befitting his station in the universe.  He listened and nodded humbly, offering a shy smile here and there.  Arianna ate her food and refused to meet his gaze.  Her friend, however, the other girl he’d saved last night whom he learned was named Beth, watched him with the eyes of a hawk and listened keenly. 

When Dane and Jason finished regaling the table and questions had volleyed back and forth, Briathos pulled up a chair across from him and narrowed his eerily milky eyes.  “Are you the Darius
spoken of in the old prophecies?” he asked.

Darius had been prepared for such a question, had even rehearsed the answer right down to minute facial expressions. 

“I am,” he said and assumed a demeanor of thinly veiled discomfiture.  He dropped his gaze to his lap then gazed back up at his riveted audience.  Everyone leaned in, quiet, waiting, except Arianna.  She leaned against the back cushion of her chair and had folded her arms across her chest.  “But please, do not put any stock in anything you have heard.  All of it is likely misinformation.  There are many different interpretations of the prophecy of the Sola.  But the only shred of truth to it lies in my arrival.  I am here to protect her.  That’s it.  I am to protect the Sola so that she can fulfill her destiny.”

“And what is that, exactly?” Briathos asked in his sugarcoated voice. 

Darius took a deep, thoughtful breath then answered, “Only the Sola knows, and if she doesn’t, she will soon enough.  It is not for us to know or determine her purpose.  We are to serve her, to follow her on her journey to glory.”  He lowered his head as if bowing in prayer and readied for the part of his performance that would be worthy of a curtain call.  With tear-filled eyes and a small, childlike smile, he raised his chin and said, “She is our savior.” 

The collective energy around him vibrated with
respect.  He would have relished in the unabashed worship he was receiving if Arianna’s friend Beth had not been drilling holes into his skull with her eyes.  Even Arianna seemed to have softened slightly, but not Beth.  She lowered her elbows to the table and leaned in.  “How did you know we were at the bar and in trouble?” she asked, suspicion skewering her every word. 

“I felt the Sola needed protection,” he answered and lowered his head modestly.

“That doesn’t really answer my question, does it,” she commented viperously. 

“But it is the true answer,” he s
aid and felt a collective nod of concurrence support him. 

“Uh huh,” she said insolently.  “So you felt the Sola needed you and you were able to swoop in and be her champion.  That sounds convenient if you ask me.”

He wanted to scream, inches from her face, that no one had asked her, that she ought to shut her troublemaking mouth. He could kill them all if he wanted to, even the Sola, at any given minute.  They hadn’t the vaguest inkling they were in the presence of the world’s most lethal predator, permitted by him to live for the moment.  He felt his muscles jerk, his body begging to lunge for Beth, and had to force himself to relax.  He needed to remain outwardly calm. 

“Have I wronged you, Beth?” he asked with composure he did not feel.  “I hope I have not upset you.  I only wish to help you protect the Sola, Arianna, from the evil t
hat conspires against her.”  He relaxed his features into a mask of serenity and waited for a response.

“Beth, what the hell is your problem?” Dane came to his defense and chastised his sister.  “This guy saves you, saves all of us, and this is how you treat him, you give him the third degree?”

“Not all of us were saved,” she reminded the group.  “I just have questions,” she started.  Bands of deep pink tinted her cheeks.

“Well keep your questions to yourself,” Jason chimed in.  “Show a little gratitude.”

Yes, show a little gratitude
, Darius thought.  “No, let her be,” he said.  “She is being a good friend and exemplary protector.  She trusts no one.  And rightly so.”  His words might as well have been nails in her coffin.  The people at the table beamed at him.  Even Arianna offered a weak, half-smile.  He’d succeeded at winning them over and burying any further doubts that might have cropped up courtesy of Beth. 

Beth stood and gathered her plate and napkin from the table.  She rushed away in a huff. 

“Beth,” Arianna called after her. 

“Just let her go,” Dane said gently.  “She’s embarrassed.  Let her cool off a bit.”

“Are you sure?” Arianna gnawed her lower lip and asked. 

Dane
’s gaze zeroed in on her mouth as if aching to just press his to hers.  Darius swallowed vomit that threatened from the wretched display.

“Trust me,” Dane winked at her.  Arianna smiled, a full smile, a far cry from the flaccid looks she
’d given him. 

“Okay,” she said and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. 

He spent the rest of his meal enduring idle chat and small talk with the dull, identical twins and their equally uninspiring band of friends.  When Arianna stood and cleared her plate and utensils, Darius nearly clapped with relief.  He excused himself and shadowed her to the trashcan. 

“Look, I am going to Beth’s cabin to see if she’s all right.  She didn’t mean anything by the way she acted before,” Arianna said and tugged at the hem of her T-shirt.  “She appreciates what you did.  We all do.”

Was that sincerity he’d just heard?  Had his ears deceived him?  He’d chalked up the morning so far as a complete disaster, yet here she was, thanking him in her unique, gritty way.  Perhaps she wasn’t as difficult to enthrall as she seemed. 

“Thanks for saying that,” he said
.  He looked to his shoes then her face.  It was hard for him to act as if he did not have self-confidence.  He did not lack in that department in the least.  But that’s what she seemed to want to see.  So he showed her.  “Go, see your friend.  I’ll be nearby.”

“Okay.  See you later, Darius,” she said and took off.

He paused for a moment before following her unseen.  She had spoken his name.  His name on her lips, the first time she’d called him by his birth name.  It created an odd sensation in his stomach, as if millions of bubbles were bursting at once.  He wasn’t sure what it meant or what he should do about it.  He should have rejoiced, if the depths of his cold, bleak soul were capable of such a phenomenon.  But they were not. 

Darius left the large lavish log home and the cluster of admirers he’d amassed and set about stalking Arianna.

Chapter 14

Luminescent green eyes had become a familiar sight for Arianna in the past two weeks.  Darius had made himself a permanent fixture in her life, one she’d resigned herself to accept.  At first his presence had been a nuisance, having him tail her constantly, always with the same odd, wooden pleasantness.  There had been times, she’d been tempted to shout at him and demand he leave.  Especially since he’d alternated between bouts of seeming as if he’d been tolerating her, and dramatic moments of grand, sometimes tearful, oaths of loyalty.  But that had been early on.  During his initial days, he’d been far different from how he was now.  Now he seemed to be exactly what he claimed to be: a person charged with keeping her safe. 

She’d tried to persuade him to leave, that enough people had been assigned with that task, but he’d refused to hear of it.  He’d insisted on remaining. 
And in doing so, he’d joined the ranks of people who treated her as if she were something special.  She found it ironic for her, a girl who’d spent the majority of her life bouncing from unstable situation to unstable situation in various trailer parks, to have a group of devotees willing to sacrifice their lives to protect her.  She was still unclear what for just yet.  But everyone swore she would know when the time came.  She was not as sure and everyone else seemed to be; especially Darius.

Even now, as he wai
ted outside her door and chatted amicably with Jason and Dane, he continually glanced at her window where she was tucked behind the folds of itchy curtains spying on him, watching as if he knew she was there, with a look she could only describe as expectancy.  She did not know what he truly expected of her or what his true purpose was, just that she did not possess the strength to question every move he made or word he spoke as she had when he’d first appeared.  In many ways, he’d even grown on her.  There were times when she felt completely comfortable around him, as if he’d been a part of her life forever.  But other times, the air between them dueled like identical poles of different magnets, colliding and jockeying for dominance.  Those were times an innate voice whispered through the hollows of her core to run from him as fast as she could. 

As he continued to look past Dane to her with a keen look of anticipation, that voice persisted, loudening to
a bloodcurdling shriek.

Arianna stepped away from the window and moved to the kitchenette, determined to busy her hands with something, anything, to do.  She washed the tin mugs in the sink
as well as the kettle then filled it with water to have yet another cup of instant coffee. 

She was setting the kettle onto the hotplate when a knock at her door made her jump.  She hoped it was Dane or Jason, or Beth, but knew it was none of them, that it was Darius.  The indescribable friction that charged the air and jolted every cell in her body was present.  Hesitantly, she walked to the door and opened. 

She expected to see his brilliant jade eyes, but saw, instead, that his bronze face was tilted toward the powder-blue sky as if he were basking in the warmth of the late-morning sun.  “Hey,” she said.  He immediately lowered his chin.  His sharp gaze met hers. 

“Good morning,” he said.  “You are not training today?”

“No, I am taking a day off,” she replied and watched as his expression sagged a bit.

“Oh,” he said and sounded disappointed.  She had spent most mornings training with him, honing her skills, learning to control her powers.  His tutelage had proved vital to her exercises as she now felt confident in her ability to direct her powers on command.