Arianna Rose: The Arrival (Part 4) (21 page)

“Go if you want to,” she replied and smiled.  “I know how much you like to run drills with everyone.  I’m just going to stay here and mope around a bit, maybe go for a walk later.”

“A walk?” he said and brightened.  “Why don’t I go with you?  We can go on a little hike.”

His brow had lifted and his eyes were round, his expression equal parts pleading and excited.  She wanted to say no but heard herself say, “Sure, sounds good.” 

“Great!” he said enthusiastically.  “I will see if I can borrow a backpack from one of the guys and meet you back here in a few minutes,
okay?”

“Sure,” Arianna answered.  And suddenly, what was supposed to be a relaxing morning and afternoon of brooding and soul-searching would now be an energetic hike that required backpacks. 
Great
, Arianna thought and set about riffling through her belongings for a pack. 

Darius returned
minutes later, as promised, and had changed into cargo shorts that sat low on his hips and a fitted T-shirt. 

“Ready to go?” he asked eagerly.

She gave him a nod of approval and he led the way from her cabin, across the clearing and into the forest.  He guided them down a narrow dirt path lined with spiny ferns and dense, tangled vines. Arianna followed and was granted an unobstructed view of his athletic body.  He scrambled over slippery rocks and walked effortlessly over moss-covered logs.  She couldn’t help but be amazed by his agility and balance.  He moved with the grace of a jungle cat, yet his size more closely matched a bear.  Tall and strapping with wide shoulders and a broad back whittled to a tight waist, he did not look as though he should be as sure-footed as he was.  He looked as if he should be flexing his sun-kissed muscles in a game of beach volleyball for a cluster of giggling, bikini-clad girls.  But he wasn’t.  He was with her, hiking along as nimbly as a sprite.  She found herself grateful to be trailing in his wake. 

He claimed to have never been in
Tongass National Forest yet expertly steered her along a safer route than others who had resided at the compound for months.  They wove in and out of monstrous evergreen trees in comfortable silence.  The only sound that haunted the wood was the sporadic chirp of an alarmed chipmunk.  That and the rhythmic breaths they took as they made their way up a steepening ridge.  Arianna was careful to mind her footing as occasionally, exposed tree roots arose like gnarled knuckles of mythical beasts and crossed the path.  They continued for what seemed like hours up the embankment.  The landscape around her was a disorienting fusion of every shade of green imaginable.  Leaves, in an array of shapes and sizes, protruded, canopied and littered the forest and thinned only as they reached the crest of the bank they’d climbed.   A patch of small pink flowers interrupted the endless stretch of green and the sound of rushing water could be heard.

“Why don’t we sit for a minute?
” Darius said and pointed to a large flat boulder.

Arianna’s clo
thes clung to her body, moist with perspiration, and her calves complained from trekking.  “Sure,” she said and did not hide the relief in her tone.  She slipped the straps of her backpack off her shoulders and sat.  Darius sat beside her, his arm brushing hers, and she was suddenly very aware of his close proximity.  She unzipped her backpack and as she did, her forearm brushed his.  His skin was fiery against hers, strange and somehow recognizable.  Still, she scooted away from him unnoticed and dug in her pack for her drink.

As her fingertips grazed the cold plastic of her water bottle, her thirst burgeoned.  She quickly opened the bottle and brought
it to her lips.  Cold water trickled down her throat as she greedily gulped.  Some dribbled from the corner of her mouth.  She whisked away the droplets with the back of her hand.  Darius drank from his water bottle but was far more refined about it, sipping rather than swigging as she had.  He’d turned to face her, his leg bent and resting on the rock with his knee touching her thigh.  He looked over his bottle at her, amusement dancing in his eyes.

“What?” she asked. 
Heat bloomed across her cheeks.  “Why are you laughing at me?

“I wasn’t laughing at you,’” he said and his lips twitched to form a small smirk. 

“Come on, spill it,” she ordered him.  “What is it?”

“No, it’s nothing, really,” he said coyly.  “I just find you, I don’t know, delightful.”

“Delightful,” she echoed the word.  “Really?” she asked flatly.

“You sound so surprised,” he replied.

“I kind of am,” she confided.  “I’ve been called a lot of things before.  A lot of adjectives have been hurled my way, but delightful?  No, that’s never been one of them.” She shook her head and gave a slight, self-depreciating chuckle.

“That is shocking,” he said seriously then turned his attention to the area where pink flowers grew.  He began fumbling with them and Arianna saw that berries grew within their blossoms. 

He reached for the yellowish-red berries and plucked several off the vine. They looked like orange blackberries. He rolled one around between his fingers then popped it in his mouth.

“Who
a, what’re you doing?” Arianna asked worriedly.

“Eating, what does it look like?” he answered and seemed surprised.
“Try one,” he said and offered her a berry. 

She looked at him warily.  “Are you sure they’re safe?” she asked.

“They’re salmon berries.  Try them,” he persisted with a playful smile. 

She arched a brow at him, still unconvinced.  He
proceeded to shovel the berries in his palm into his mouth.

“Come on,” he said and his voice was muffled
by the fruit.  “I wouldn’t eat them if they were dangerous.”

She laughed and he chewed quickly.  “Ah!” he said dramatically.  “See.  I’m fine.  Come on.  Open your mouth and stop being a baby.”

“A baby, really, that’s the best you’ve got?” she said and shook her head disappointedly.  “I go from being delightful to a baby.  What a fall from grace! So sad,” she said with mock somberness.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m
mean,” he teased her.  “Now stop your chatting and open up.”

Reluctantly, she parted her lips and he dropped one in her mouth.  She bit down and was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted almost citrusy, like canned mandarin her mother used to buy from time to time as a treat.
“Wow, these aren’t bad,” she said and smiled.  “Not bad at all.”

“See, I told you so,”
he commented with satisfaction.

“Oh cut the crap and don’t be so smug,” she said and wriggled her backside backward so that his knee no longer rested against her leg.  “You know, if you stopped acting so self-righteous, you’d be a lot easier to be around.”

Darius quirked a brow at her and said, “Maybe my delightful remark was a bit premature.”

“Hey!” she said and slapped his arm lightly. 

“Whoa, I better look out!” he kidded.  “Maybe there’s some truth to the
other
names you’ve been called.”

“Be nice!” she
said and furrowed her brow at him with overstated annoyance.  Darius laughed.  But a more serious subject, a question that had troubled her since she’d learned of what she was, crept into her thoughts.  “While we’re on the subject of truth – you brought it up for the record – I would like you to tell me the truth about something.”

A look of concern flashed across his features.  “The truth about what?’ he asked and she detected the slightest hint of nervousness. 

“The truth about what exactly is expected of me.  You know more than you let on.  I can feel it.  So don’t even think about lying to me.”

Without warning, powerful hands gripped her shoulders, reminding her of his physical strength and speed.  Darius’ eyes bored into hers.  “I will not lie to you, Sola,” he started and did not call her by her name.  All playfulness drained from his expression.  “There is a war coming.  And we are going to need you to win it.  Evil must be defeated.”

Arianna shrugged his hands off her shoulder, the heat radiating from them too much to bear.  “What war?  What evil are you talking about, those Assassins of the Dark Order?”

“I wish it were that simple,” he answered cryptically.  He rose to his feet and began pacing.  “You know what you need to do.  I know you were told of your destiny, that you are to unite us, and unite us you must.  If we are to win this war, you must.”

“I still don’t understand what you are saying.  I still don’t know who or what the threat is that I am supposed to unite everyone against.”

“The threat at large will present itself in due time.  We will know soon.  We will sense it.  All that is clear is that we need you.  You are the most important being on the planet, and because of that, there are those out there who want to destroy you.  I will not allow that to happen.”

Arianna felt tremendous pressure build inside her, forcing itself against the surface of her skin.  She could not take the cloak-and-dagger nonsense any longer.  “I can’t take it anymore!” she fumed.  She slapped her hand against the boulder beneath her and pushed herself up and stood.  “I can’t take another word of this vague stuff anymore! I need to know what is going to happen, what to expect.  I can’t continue living my life with my head buried in the sand.  I can’t,” she concluded and felt tears threaten. 

Darius softened.  “Knowing exactly what is going to happen or what to expect is something that cannot be done.  It cannot be guessed or predicted with accuracy.”

“Enough with the riddles, Darius,” she said with defeat.  She threw her arms in the air and allowed them to collapse against her thighs.  She stood quietly for a moment, refusing to look at him, opting instead to take in the glorious view of a rushing river below.  Rapids surged over fallen trees and rotting logs, as well as huge boulders and piles of leafy debris.  Despite the natural obstacle course, however, the current remained strong and continued to flow. 

Warm hands held her upper arms
.  “Arianna,” Darius said her name with longing.  His lips were at her ear, his breath feathering the curve of her neck.  She stiffened reflexively, all too aware of his body close to hers, of his hard chest pressed to her back.  “Everything will be okay.  I am here now.  You are safe.” 

Her pulse battered her throat, drumming so feverishly, she wondered whether he could see it from where he
hovered, so close she half-expected retractable canines to emerge at any moment and feast on her jugular.  But teeth did not sink into her flesh thankfully.  But long fingers slid down the length of her arms and entwined with hers. 

“I have enjoyed spending time with you, Arianna.  I protect you for reasons other than my calling,” he said, his voice intense and laden with brimming emotion. 

His words, their meaning, snapped through her lifeblood like an electric current.  She flinched and curled her fingers tightly around his before freeing them and turning and taking several steps away from him.  She went to the boulder they’d sat on and took a long swallow of water.

“It’s getting late,” she said evenly.  “We should head back.” 
She slipped her arms through the straps of her backpack then wandered toward the salmon berry patch.  She knelt and picked a berry and tossed it into her mouth, savoring the conflicting sweet-tart flavor.  She stood and turned, leaning against a thin tree trunk as she chewed. 

Darius turned and looked at
her with regret.  Golden light sluiced through the forest canopy, kissing his deep-tan skin and illuminating his lustrous eyes, making both glow with unearthly radiance.  No one would argue that he was a striking sight to behold, raw masculine attractiveness personified.  He stepped closer to her and licked his full lips.  He rubbed his hand over his buzzed hair and smiled at her.  Nothing that he’d done was inappropriate or harmful on the surface.  He’d made clear his interest in her went beyond his duty.  Desmond was long gone, absent for almost a month already, and hadn’t made any effort to contact her.  Nothing stood between them.  But that voice inside her continued to warn, impossible to ignore as if embedded in her DNA.  He watched her hungrily.  His eyes assumed a feline quality, prowling and plundering as they stared, and the voice deep within shrieked. 

“Ready to go?” she asked in a voice steadier than she felt. 

He allowed his gaze to become hooded by his eyelids, his expression so thoughtful it bordered on calculating.  He took his bottom lip between his teeth seductively and allowed his eyes to skim her from head to toe.  “Yes, I’m ready,” he said. 

Arianna shivered and fought the urge to sift away from him.  Instinct warned her that he’d find her no matter where she went.  Whether it was
his calling or another skill entirely, he’d latched onto her.  “Lead the way,” she said calmly. 

Darius seized her eyes with his.  A question or message blazed in their depths.  What he tried to convey in his stare was a mystery to her
, though.  Either that or she did not care to see what they sought to show her.  “Follow me,” he said and his voice wrapped itself around her throat, making her feel as if she could not breathe. 

Arianna followed Darius as they hiked back to her cabin in the clearing.  She still did not know what her role in the coming war would be, or if a war even loomed on the horizon at all.  None of her questions had been answered and new uncertainty had been une
arthed.  All remained a mystery, including whether or not Darius could be trusted.  He had saved her life, appeared from an unseen void and rescued her from certain death, yet worry about his intentions grew like a malignancy within her.  She did not know why, but a part of her resisted trusting him.