Aries: Book 2 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series) (12 page)

Chapter Seve
n
teen

‘We have a lead,’ Taurus announced when he came into the house.

I looked up from the weight I held in my hand. I had just finished doing my daily exercise routine. My thighs were getting stronger. I was ready to move up to the heavier weight.

‘Tell me,’ I said, putting the object back in its box.

‘Pisces was followed by the man we held captive. Antony noticed him. He got a message to me so I followed the man after he stopped tailing them.’

‘Where did he lead you?’

I sat up straight in my chair. I was bored with exercise and wanted something to occupy me. It was the ideal distraction.

‘To an industrial estate in North London. I thought it could be where Nick kept our parents, but when I took a closer look, I couldn’t see any of his men.’ Taurus took a joint out of his pocket and sat on a kitchen chair.

‘What was our man doing?’ I smelt burning and looked down to see that the table smoked where I gripped the side of it with my hand.

‘He was visiting a woman.’

We both smiled and for the first time in my life, I was grateful for Taurus.

‘Has Gemini been helping you?’ I asked, my nose screwing up when he lit his joint and took a drag.

He let the smoke filter out of his mouth as he shook his head. ‘He’s been working a lot.’

‘We need to go and get the woman,’ I said.

He sat up and glanced over my shoulder. I had heard the door open but didn’t need to look to see who it was.

‘What woman is that?’ Natalie asked, coming over and running a hand over my head.

My cheeks flushed as I remembered the way she had jumped on me. The experience had boiled my blood so much that I hadn’t been able to touch her with my hands.

‘I’m not sure you’d approve,’ I mumbled, warning Taurus with a curt shake of the head.

Natalie must have seen it, because she came to stand in front of me. She put her hands on her hips and lowered her eyebrows.

‘If we’re going to do this, you need to start being honest with me.’

Taurus stood.

‘Wait!’ I said, holding up my arm to try and stop him from leaving.

Natalie looked between us and finally huffed when no one said anything. ‘I’ll be in your room, waiting for an explanation.’

Taurus chuckled and offered me his joint. I was tempted, just for a moment, to take it. I imagined the tirade of abuse that I was bound to get from my woman. It was weird to think of her as mine but she finally was.

‘Let’s go,’ I said, before I could change my mind.

‘How…you can’t…?’ Taurus started.

‘I can, and I will. Go and put on something a bit less obvious.’

He looked down at himself. His cap was bright blue and his shorts were multi-coloured. He grunted and left me to face Natalie alone. I called her back into the kitchen. She came but stayed in the doorway of the hall. She crossed her arms over her chest, causing her cleavage to deepen. I swallowed as I tried to keep my mind on track.

‘I’m popping out with Taurus. I need you to stay here and wait for me.’ I didn’t elaborate any further. Instead I turned my wheelchair.

It was a pain in the arse having a fit and healthy woman on my back all the time. She was in front of me in a few strides.

‘I’m not going to let you go without telling me what’s going on.’

I wrapped my hands around her calves and pulled her to me. She tried to resist at first but gave in pretty quickly. She sunk onto my lap and I kissed her.

‘I promise to tell you everything when I get back but you need to think about something. My life isn’t normal. We’re fighting a battle and things happen…’

I looked into her eyes as my sentence trailed off. She was remembering the last time she had been on my lap. I placed my hand over her heart and felt how hard it was beating. I was doing that to her, even with the stupid wheels I had to cart around every day.

‘I want to know all about your life.’

Why did women have to get so emotional about everything? I swallowed and nodded. If she wanted to know, I would tell her absolutely everything.

‘Then let me go now,’ I whispered as Taurus came back into the room.

She climbed off me and helped me out to the van. When I was seated, she bent over and kissed my ear. ‘Stay safe,’ she whispered.

I grinned as she left and Taurus drove us to the industrial estate.

‘She was in that office there.’ He pointed at a grey building.

There was a big car park and lots of people milling around. It was lunchtime. A good time to check things out. Taurus got me out of the van. We made our way over to the main entrance. He no longer wore his hat and actually looked smart in a shirt and trousers.

‘You look alright for a change,’ I said.

He shook his head and glanced down at my own outfit. I wore ripped jeans and a sleeveless white T-shirt. It was getting hot now. I always made the most of it.

‘I think you should stay out here. She’s actually on reception.’ He looked through the glass windows.

‘Since when were you any good with women?’ I asked, going straight into the large foyer.

He stumbled after me but didn’t say anything as I wheeled myself up to the front desk. There was only one woman manning it. I assumed that she was our target.

‘I’m sorry for interrupting,’ I said as she hung up the phone and smiled at me.

‘That’s okay. How can I help you?’

She was older than us by about ten years. Her cheeks flared red when I turned my best smile on her.

‘I was watching you from outside. I had a bet with my friend that you would have a traditional British name.’

She glanced at Taurus and smiled gently. Her hand came up to her neck and she absently rubbed it. ‘You were watching me?’

It did sound a bit creepy but I was sure she wouldn’t mind. I could tell by the way she looked at me and blinked. As if she didn’t quite believe me.

‘You caught my eye as I went past. What’s your name?’

She blushed and lowered her lashes. It seemed it had been a while since a man had come on to her so openly. She was attractive in a receptionist kind of way. She had small glasses on the end of her nose. I imagined her taking them off and flipping her hair.

‘I’m Liz.’

I looked pointedly at Taurus, which made her laugh. It was a light tinkling sound. I had cracked her. I loved the fact that she was still flattered by me, considering I was in a wheelchair. She had glanced at my lack of legs but it hadn’t fazed her. In another lifetime, or just a few months before, I would have taken her to bed.

‘Elizabeth, what?’ I asked.

She grinned at Taurus as he shook his head and crossed his arms.

‘I can’t believe you’re right. I’m always right,’ he muttered.

He was a sucker for believing that about himself. He was doing a good job at pretending that his ego was bruised, even though I had made the whole thing up.

The receptionist gave me her full name. I asked her to write it down as proof of my win. She did as I asked and went to hand me the small piece of paper.

‘Can you add your number to that?’

She went bright red again and looked around to check that there was no one within hearing distance. She quickly scribbled it down and gave it to me.

‘Thanks, Liz, you’ve made my day.’ I tucked the number away and winked at her as we left.

Taurus shook his head as we headed towards the van. ‘I thought you were going to play detective but you were just yourself.’

‘What does that mean? You’re jealous that I’m gorgeous?’

He mumbled something that I didn’t hear it.

‘What did you say?’ I asked.

‘I said…it means you’re a womaniser.’

He had been walking behind me. I stopped my chair from moving by grabbing my wheels.

‘Don’t get arsy. It’s true, and you know it,’ he said, walking forward.

‘Wait!’ I looked through the vehicles parked in the car park.

He stopped and turned towards me. His hands were in his pockets. He slouched where he stood. He obviously wanted to have another joint. I looked past him towards our van and spotted what I thought I had seen.

‘He’s there,’ I said, pointing towards a small group of men.

Taurus glanced at the group, then slowly started to move. I followed, keeping my distance. The man we had kidnapped knew who I was but he hadn’t seen much of Taurus when he had been in the attic.

‘Play it cool. Don’t let him see you,’ I called.

The people milling around heard me. They saw I was in a wheelchair and carried on with what they were doing. I held back as the group shifted and the man broke away from them. As he turned, his eyes made direct contact with mine. I blinked before I realised what had happened.

Taurus broke into a run as the man spun on his heel and legged it. I made my way over to our van, feeling useless as Taurus gave chase. They disappeared from sight. I was too low to be able to see over the cars. I punched the arms of my chair and looked around. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait. I was sick of not being able to do anything. I glanced down at my stumps and cursed them, yet again.

‘I lost him,’ Taurus puffed when he came back.

I shook my head and gritted my teeth. ‘If you gave up smoking, you would have caught him.’

He opened the doors of the van and shoved me inside without saying anything. I clasped my hands together. My skin heated as I shook all over. It had been our best chance to get him.

‘There was no need to chat up the receptionist, then. She was probably no one,’ he called as he started the engine.

‘Seriously, mate, you need to stop getting high. It’s slowing you down. If you were fitter, you could have caught him.’ I thumped my thigh.

‘Yeah, well, if you hadn’t been such a hero, you would have been able to catch him, too.’

I almost choked on my own bile. The others had pussyfooted around me since my accident. Taurus was right. I had been careless and stupid. I told myself that every day. I didn’t need anyone else to tell me.

‘Don’t judge me, mate, and I won’t judge you,’ Taurus called.

I hated to admit it, but like usual, he was completely right.

Chapter Eig
h
teen

‘You’re my soulmate,’ I blurted.

She stopped what she was doing. Her body frozen in the position she had been moving to. We were in the rehab centre and Natalie was helping me with my exercises. There was no one else in the room. Something had triggered me to want to let her know about our mission. When I had returned from our escapade the day before, I had sent her home in anger.

‘I’ve never known you to be sentimental.’ She let her arms fall.

I cocked my head to the side and smiled slightly. ‘To be honest, I’m not being sentimental now. You see this?’ I held up my wrist so that my stupid bracelet came into view.

She nodded and stepped forward. I didn’t want her to get too close. I was afraid that she would take the words as an outpouring of my heart, when they were only a statement of why we were there.

‘I can never take this off because it’s part of my mission. I know where we come from, and where we go when we die.’

She blinked a few times. I waited as she absorbed what I was saying. She would either trust me enough to believe me, or think I was off my rocker.

‘My siblings and I have agreed on a mission. So have you.’

She frowned but didn’t move or say anything.

‘We’re here to unite with our twin flame soulmates to bring more…love…’ I almost choked on the word but managed to clear my throat in time. ‘To the world.’

Natalie sat on the floor and crossed her legs. The small movement caught my eye. I remembered a time when I was a kid and I would sit on the carpet with Mother to learn why we were on Earth. My skin prickled at the memory of her. She had brought us up as her own children, yet we had learnt that she was trying to help the man that wanted to stop us from achieving our goal.

‘Is that why you have the ability to make fire?’

Her big eyes glanced up at me from under her lashes. Her innocence wasn’t lost on me. My heart skipped a beat or two. She believed me without any question. She had seen life but she didn’t remember it the way I did.

‘Yes. There’s a man named Nick who wants to stop us. He kidnapped Pisces but we managed to rescue her.’

Natalie nodded. ‘That man you held captive. Was he involved? I didn’t take much in when you questioned him.’

She glanced at my wrist and reached out. Stroking the cord, she pulled to try and get it off. It wouldn’t move. She gave up, knelt in front of me and rested her hands on my thighs.

‘I’ve never been a believer in soulmates. I recently found a place where people were talking about twin flames. Normal people.’ She blushed when I raised my eyebrows.

I shrugged. ‘I can’t pretend I’m normal.’

I was glad I wasn’t normal; it made life a lot more interesting.

‘There are a few thousand twin flame soulmates on the planet at the moment. They’re not really consciously aware of their mission. They struggle with running, like we have.’

She squeezed the bare skin of my thigh and heat bloomed under her touch.

‘Are we over the worst?’ she whispered.

I shrugged again. I had no idea how it went forward. Pisces and Antony had harmonised quickly but we had been at it for over five years.

‘All I know, is that no matter how hard I try, I can’t push you away anymore,’ I said. ‘It’s irritating.’

She laughed. The sound echoed around the room, bouncing off the training apparatus. I glanced over at the bars and hoped one day soon, I would be able to use them to practice walking with my new metal legs.

‘I’ve never been able to push you away. Every time you came back to me, I couldn’t resist you. That’s just as annoying. I thought I was going mad. How could I love someone who kept treating me like crap?’

I froze and brought my attention back to her. She stroked the hair on my thighs. I reached out and folded my hand over hers. Her smile faded and her frown reflected my own.

‘You loved me?’

Her cheeks burned red. I resisted the urge to reach out and stroke them. My mobile started to ring and Natalie pulled away. She started to pack up as I took the call.

‘Aries, its Leo. I have a rather surprising surprise for you. I think you’d like to know about it.’

I could hear the others babbling in the background and was tempted to tell Leo to shout at them but I stopped myself.

‘Are you going to tell me what it is?’ Why didn’t people just get straight to the point?

‘Where’s the fun in that? Come home as soon as you can.’

The phone went dead and I swore. Natalie glanced over as I shook my head. ‘We need to get back.’

She smiled as I spun and took myself off to the showers. I had worked hard, managing to do a hundred pull-ups. My arm muscles were stronger than they had ever been and my thighs were getting there, too.

The water washed over my body as I sat in the plastic chair. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Natalie said that she had loved me. I had never been in love before. I hadn’t known that she felt that way. Did she still feel the same?

‘Your phone’s ringing again,’ Natalie shouted through the door of the disabled shower room.

‘Can you answer it?’ I shouted back.

I switched the water off and dried myself. When I was decent, I opened the door and froze. Natalie was crouched on the ground. Her head was in her hands and sobs tore out of her.

‘What’s the matter?’ I said, wheeling to her.

‘That wasn’t your phone, it was mine,’ she stuttered. ‘My mother’s dead.’