Blakeshire (10 page)

As his lips traveled down my jaw, then my neck, he braced his arm by my head. For some jacked-up reason, I opened my eyes—and when I did I saw his tattoo, a dragon wrapped around a willow tree. My body tensed, and he noticed immediately, stopping his pursuit. Slowly, his eyes rose from the rim of my shirt and followed my stare. I had killed the moment with one glance.

He rolled to his back, stared at the ceiling, and his jaw flinched in anger.

“I’ll get over it one day,” I uttered nervously, hating how cold I felt all of a sudden; the room went from a thousand degrees to twenty below zero in an instant.

“Madison Marie. I don’t want you to get over
this tattoo.”

That statement made me feel so sick that I could barely breathe.

Chapter Five

~Drake~

She stiffly rose from the bed. Honesty was not my friend at this moment, but I was about to make it a servant. We needed to bury this hatchet one way or another.

I reached for her wrist. “When are you going to stop running from me?”

Tears burned in her eyes as she turned away from me and let her legs fall to the side of the bed.

I pulled myself up on the bed and moved closer to her. Before she found the courage to run, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her between my legs.

She was stiff and refused to comply easily, but I moved her with little effort.

My tattoo was now squarely in her face. She held her eyes tightly closed as her body trembled in my embrace. I lowered my lips to just behind her ear, knowing that spot on her body was one of many that clearly drove her wild when touched.

“Ask me why,” I whispered in my dark, kingly tone.

She refused to speak. She couldn’t; she was fighting back tears, something she saw as a weakness—but something I saw as a breakthrough. They meant she gave a damn.

As my hands moved across her arms, that glow I saw before was more defined. I wanted to believe it was her soul reaching for mine. The involuntary sigh that escaped her lips told me she felt my touch just as deeply as I felt hers.

“Madison Marie,” I breathed.

“Why?” she said with a quiver full of every emotion I craved to feel, every emotion that told me her soul was made of mine.

I felt my body lose some, but not all, of its tension. We still had a long way to go. “My first...my first everything…was under a willow tree,” I confessed.

She tensed, leading me to believe that by some stroke of luck or favor from the Creator Himself she had dreams that told her that that was the truth. That it really was her that stole my heart a million times over.

With a trembling hand, she reached for the tattoo which was set on the inside of my arm and traced the tree and the dragon that was wrapped around it.

“Her name is not in my skin…those lost moments are,” I said against her neck before letting my lips kiss that tender skin.

She let out another breathy sigh; the sound was heaven to me. If fate was cruel and I discovered that she was not the girl I was searching for, there would be nothing left of me. I needed her to be real, for her to be the one I’d been yearning to hold again.

“I have been fooled so many times, and now those ploys are driving you away before you even get a chance to know me,” I confessed.

“I know you,” she said under her breath.

Not the promise I wanted.

“I’m going to cover this.”

“No,” she said, grasping my arm around her. “I believe you. I really do.”

“Do you want to know what terrifies me?” I said as I held her waist tighter.

She leaned her head back on my shoulder and stared into my eyes, clearly questioning if I could even feel the emotion of fear after what I’d lived through.

My hand rested on her neck. Her heart was hammering. “When I figured out her name was Willow, I took it as a sign. I tested Willow with every phrase I knew, and every once in a while she would almost have me convinced—that someone had blinded and spelled her against me.”

My hand tenderly moved down her neck until I reached the warm flesh above her heart. She trembled, and I went to pull away, but that near silent moan that left her lips gave me the courage to keep my hand exactly where I wanted it. “I’m terrified that you are going to vanish from my sight. I have tested you far more than you think you have tested me. That is why I have no choice but to be honest with you. To be blunt. I know you. I know that you will run from me if you manage to find any fault within my soul.” I let out a weary breath as my hand pressed against her chest. “I need this to be real. I need you to be real.”

“The only reason…the reason I fight this…is to keep you safe.”

My brow furrowed to question her.

“In some small way, I agree with the charade that you are trying to keep up with Willow for the sake of that ghost. I agree because the moment we decide to realize what’s between us, something sinister is going to plot to rip us apart.”

And there it was. The ugly truth. She feared that something would take me from her. I would be damned if I couldn’t swear that would
not
happen. Hell, I had all but been promised by Zander himself that I would not rule my kingdom, that my blood would. A reasonable man would walk away now and spare her from that pain, but I’m not reasonable. I’m starved for her.

“Decide to,” I nearly bit out, but it sounded softer because it was under my breath. She had to see that she was only a breath away from making me believe that she was who I thought she was. Dare I say, if she was
, I would die a happy man knowing that I had held her in my arms at least once.

She glanced away, trying to hide her emotions from me. I had pushed her too far tonight. We were exhausted, and if I didn’t shut up now, I would honestly confess what Zander had all but promised me.

I reached for the lamp and turned it off, then adjusted us so that she was cradled in the cage of my arms. My hand rested above her heart as I held her. I could feel it pounding against my skin, which brought a smile to my face. Her body was reacting to me; her soul could not be far behind.

“Sooner or later, you are going to have to let me in, Madison Marie,” I said quietly into the darkness
, which caused her heartbeat to hammer even faster. I breathed another smile to life, just before I kissed her temple and settled into a deep sleep.

~Madison~

I didn’t sleep. I stayed wide-eyed for hours. Thinking. Obsessing. Thinking over every word he ever spoke to me, every broken memory or dream that I had of the two of us. I knew if I didn’t get my head on straight, I was going to push him away. That he had been hurt too often by too many people that he trusted; so hurt that one more blow to his fragile heart would end him. Which meant the people he adored, his kingdom, would lose the one man that would rule them with an honest heart, the one man that would raise them above the torment that they had endured.

I made up my mind that even if I closed my eyes tonight and woke up in the hell that I had lived through just yesterday, even if fear were the only emotion I was forced to feel, I would face it. I was going to figure out who that woman was that haunted me my entire life, what secret—for better or worse—she was keeping me away from.

I was going to figure out who every single traitor in that kingdom was and personally ensure that I was responsible for the last breath that left their vessels. I was going to figure out what the seven deadly emotions were and what or if that had anything to do with me. I was going to protect this boy I loved. I may not have the courage to tell him any of this, but sometimes…actions speak louder than words.

Somewhere in the night, I moved out of his arms. I found a black sharpie in my bag.

I was a bit of an eccentric artist, meaning that sitting in front of a canvas poetically painting an image while music softly played in the background was not my style. When I created, really created, I used nearly every inch of my body. It was messy and consuming, so much so that no one had ever once witnessed the act. Well, maybe my mother, but I wasn’t counting her in the ‘anyone’ category simply because it had been her idea originally that I express myself that way.

Around others, around my friends, I sketched, drew like a proper artist—but in my mind that was very basic.

Right now I was craving some erratic release, but I doubted Olivia would care for me to redecorate her home. So, I opted to use Drake as a canvas; his arm anyway.

He had to have been exhausted simply because as I adjusted his arm so I could see my project, he never moved, didn’t even bother to furrow his brow.

I didn’t have words before when he explained this tattoo to me. The grief I could feel coming from him was too much to handle at the moment. Now I wanted to say what I couldn’t before.

This tattoo was an elaborate willow tree, one that was identical to the ones that we could both remember. Around it, a very detailed dragon was clinging to the branches, making it seem as if it were both protecting that memory and finding shelter within that lost moment.

Along the base of the tree in the most elegant script I could manage I wrote:
first, last, forever.
Along the branches that moved in every direction I wrote my name, and every name I could remember from my past lives.

I grinned when my work was done. For a split second, I thought about washing off my artwork—it would be humiliating if he caught me doing this, and just as bad when he saw it in the morning. Just as I decided that this was doing nothing but toying with his mind and that I’d crossed a line that didn’t need to be crossed, he pulled his arm away and firmly placed it against his chest.

His brow furrowed. “Madison…”

I swallowed nervously and waited for the humiliation to begin, but he never stirred after that.

I stayed still as a statue, watching him in the dim light. He would flinch every now and again. More often than not, a sultry smile would come to the corners of his lips. When I focused, I could see flashes of what he was dreaming about. Every flash produced an image of me. Heat absorbed my skin as I saw how real, how vivid, and how sensual his dreams were. It was almost like he had taken our past and merged it with some as of yet unclaimed future.

Sure that he was deep in REM sleep, I leaned closer and in his ear whispered, “I do love you, Drake Blakeshire. I’m going to fight for you. No one is ever going to hurt you again.”

Right about then, the heavy scent of mint filled the air. It was so strong that it was more of a deep peppermint aroma. I breathed in, knowing it wasn’t coming from Drake. That was when I felt a weighted stare and glanced to the foot of the bed.

My heart stopped.
We were not alone.

Chapter Six

~Madison~

At the foot of the bed was a man; he was young, yet his dominant essence gave me the impression that he was older than time itself. His shoulders were broad and gave way to a sleek warrior build. His eyes—man, those eyes; they were deep gray, but light was shining through them, making them loo
k like dim diamonds. They complimented his dark hair and golden skin. He tilted his head slightly back and stared down at me over his perfectly chiseled profile.

I clenched Drake’s arm, trying to wake him. Even though my nails were all but drawing blood, he didn’t move.

“He’s not going to wake. I have supplied him with dreams. Dreams that are nearly overdue to come true.”

“Who are you?” I said in the toughest voice I could manage. I may not have any fear, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t know when I was outmatched.

“Shall we talk outside?” That wasn’t a question; I was sure of it.

Right as he said that, I vanished from where I was lying and appeared on the balcony outside of the guest room. I abruptly turned around, trying to gain my bearings.

“Vade,” I heard coming from my side.

I glanced to my side
to this man that might as well be a god.

“You asked my name, and I answered,” he stated evenly.

“And what are you doing here, Vade?” I asked bleakly, ignoring the cold night that was blanketing my bare shoulders with layer upon layer of chills.

He nodded to the door to the room where Drake was sleeping. “I came to see my son.”

My heart stopped. My senses had almost committed to the idea of trusting this soul, but that last line knocked him down to the title of enemy.

Vade crossed his arms as he casually leaned against the railing of the balcony. “No, I’m not Livingston. I’m not his Earthly father.”

Of all the times for me to lose half my insights, this was not a good one. I couldn’t see any auras around this guy, and I could detect no clear emotion beyond anger coming from him. And no matter how hard I tried, I could not see anything. Not even flashes of who or what he was.

“I’m blind here, man. You are going to have to be a little bit clearer. Are you trying to tell me you are a god or something?”

He smiled darkly. “I’m a sovereign.”

I nodded once as I pushed my hands into my jeans and furrowed my brow.

“No questions?” he said as those eyes angled in my direction. “The girl that is said to one day rule obsession has no questions?”

Well, if that wasn’t the oddest reputation to have built up, I didn’t know what was. Who was this guy, and how in the hell did he know anything about me?

“What do you rule, Vade?”

A wicked grin came to his stern image. “Anger.”

“Right,” I muttered, knowing that everyone had a baseline emotions and anger was his. I had only met a couple others in my life that carried the same signature—a couple meaning my cousin Draven, and Drake—and now come to think of it, Vade’s energy felt like them.

My eyes slowly moved over him. He smelled the same as Drake, h
ad the same pull to his essence. So in some way, I believed Vade. Trusted him.

“If you came to see him, then why are you talking to me?”

“We must remain strangers at this moment in time.”

“And why is that?”

“Otherwise, it will place him in danger.” His grave stare backed up that statement.

“Um, yeah, he’s already there.”

The night air turned colder, and I knew that blast of arctic air was coming right off this warrior king before me; his expression filled with the anger he said he ruled. “He was stolen from me, along with others. They are only hurting him to bring me down.”

Now I had something in common with this sovereign: we were both robbed.

“Where is your kingdom?”

“Not of this world.”

“Figures.”

He grinned disdainfully. “Once I discovered how deeply my fellow sovereigns had betrayed me, I looked back over Drake’s existence.” His eyes fell into mine. “I am deeply sorry.”

My heart started to hammer against my chest. I wasn’t afraid; I was defensive. I thought that this boy right here was going to take me away from Drake. That the moment I spoke my intention to love and protect him, the universe saw fit to take him—just like I feared before.

“For?”

“It’s my fault. If I had known he was taken, if I had seen how deep the betrayal was around me, he never would have left your arms…in any life.”

See now, I’m a strong believer in the power of attraction. I know that what you think about
, comes about. Apparently my brainpower was on steroids, and because it was, I managed to manifest the King of Anger. Not only did I do that, I managed to have him valiantly whisk away all my little insecurities. Either I was
way
jacked up at this point, or I was having one wicked dream.

I narrowed my eyes on him. “I seriously doubt it is your fault he hooked up with Willow in this life or any other.”

“By default, it is. I’m honored to meet you. I’m honored that a Selected was chosen to adore Drake…a fated soul that my essence has claimed.”

“A what?”

His diamond eyes rained down on me. “You are not from this reality. You are one of a few that traveled to this side to find and bring forth redemption.”

“Are you sure that you popped into the right bedroom?” Yep, my sarcasm was my instant defense.

“Your soul is marked. You are bound to have seen that.”

My breath seized. Days ago, Charlie and whatever ghost was following her around had placed fire against the skin on my back, and when they did
, some kind of wicked symbol glowed through my flesh. Using my ability to see into Charlie’s thoughts showed me that she had one, too, but in some way the details in the center of our backs were different. Mine had marks, where hers didn’t.

“Recently.”

He nodded once. “I cannot read into your thoughts because you are not one of ours. Until you spoke those words to him,” he nodded to the door, “I wasn’t entirely sure where your devotion was resting.”

“You were eavesdropping on us?” I exhaled as I felt humiliation.

I heard a subtle laugh come from deep in his chest. “Even if I could, I would not witness your most private and sensual moments…his dreams have been calling me for a while. I was watching his thoughts when I heard your words.”

“He’s calling out to you? He knows about you?” How could I have missed that?

“Not entirely. He just knows he feels differently from the souls with which he dwells. He knows that he has a desire that is deeper than most to release turmoil in human existence. And he is prepared to sacrifice anything to fill that desire.”

“Truth,” I muttered.

The air grew tight as those eyes evaluated me very carefully. He was obviously judging who I was and what my intentions were. “What you need to know is that even though he comes from the line of anger, even though Donalt and Xavier are tormenting him, that is not his war. It is not yours.”

“Kinda figured that out.”

“Did you, now?” he murmured as he narrowed his gaze.

“Well, sort of. I feel like I’ve been distracted. I went through something wicked a few hours ago, and when that happened I came out of it lacking a few emotions.”

“Which are?” he asked, raising his brow as if he already knew the answer.

Something about him compelled me to be more forthcoming than I would have been with any other soul. “Fear, shock, grief.”

A proud grin came to the edges of his lips. “And why do you think those three negative emotions were taken?”

Oddly, I saw flashes of my friend Monroe fire all around him, and I could swear I felt pride. I knew saying it was because a fifteen-year-old girl had a temper tantrum was probably the wrong thing to throw out there, so I was honest with him and myself for the first time. “So I can focus on my demon: obsession.”

“And perhaps lose your fear to claim what has always been yours.”

“Perhaps,” I breathed as I glanced away. I was more than sure that was part of Monroe’s reasoning.

That made him smile. “You are so hard to read that I wasn’t expecting you to know as much as you do.”

“Call it intuition.”

He tilted his head once as if to agree. “You are fighting the sovereign of obsession … and you, my friend, have been fierce, calculated in that fight. He has swooned you more than once, and each time you are the one that plays him for a fool in the end. He is very aware that he is running out of time with you. You only have three remaining kills. You have made every blow count, even used others to do your bidding just to save your kills for the ones they are meant for.”

For some reason, I felt sick and proud of myself all at once. “I’m not a killer.”

“You are meant to strike the line of obsession, and in order to take out that sovereign you have to work your way up from the bottom. He knows what you are doing. He has even tempted your addiction to winning this war by placing his first in your path more than once.”

“His F
irst?”

“The first
with which soul his essence connected. If and when that soul is asunder, he will be weak enough for you to end him.” He glanced over me once. “He has affection for you, but do not let that fool you. His reign, his line, his life, mean far more to him than you do.”

Something about this seemed all too familiar to me; so familiar that I was rather bored with it, almost as if I could care less what the sovereign of obsession felt for me—those emotions would never be returned. I would dare say that my soul knew I was furious with whomever this was, that in time I would deal with him, but at present I had other priorities.

I wanted to focus on that childhood fear right now. “Currently, I’m hunting a very ugly woman that hangs out with an octopus and loves saltwater.”

He nodded once. “That would be the First that is marking you for death, lacking a few details, meaning his essence is male and
he
was trying to kill an octopus in saltwater. But you see, salt is not really his friend—any of ours, for that matter—which is more than likely why you hid the weapon you need there.”

“A weapon?”

Vade glanced to the doors, then back to me. “I do not know that you did that intentionally, but karma did have its say that fateful night.” He let his words linger for a moment, then he spoke again. “At the very end, before you strike The King of Obsession you will need to be bound. You will have to be complete, which is more than likely why my fellow sovereigns have seen fit to mingle their desires together. Confuse each of you.”

“I’m not confused.”

“You’re furious, jealous, and vengeful.”

“I thought you couldn’t read into my mind?”

He grinned darkly. “I can read your eyes, dear one.”

“And you saw his past; therefore, you know I am justified within my emotions.”

His seemingly calm expression turned cold as stone. “Nothing can justify the wrong that was done to either of you.” He cleared his throat as he found his calm once more. “Know this: there has never been a point where he has not yearned for your very being. Each time he held another and felt empty, it was not her that broke his heart, but you. He could not understand why his devotion was not felt or returned.”

I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I wanted to forgive. I really did, but I was too mad to cross that line. “As far as I know, we cannot change the past, so what is done is done. I have to find my peace with this, and until I do
, I will remain at arm’s length.”

“Then you are condemning not only yourself and him, but
the souls you hold dear, to doom—for each of you must rise, and that cannot occur if you do not find forgiveness.”

“You heard me tell him that I love him,” I ground out, knowing without a doubt he was not only referring to me losing Drake, but my cousins, my best friend Charlie.

“I did. And your energy reflects the truth of that emotion. Right now, you need to forgive him and find vengeance, for your enemies were the ones that robbed you of the loyalty you demand.”

Exactly whom was he calling my enemy? Willow? No way. I knew where that girl’s devotion was. “If you have been watching any part of his life, then you know that Donalt guy is targeting his vessel. That Xavier and others like him are plotting to take over his kingdom. And as far as I am concerned, those two are already dead. I know who is fighting them, and they will win. Mark my words.”

“The wars against his kingdom…those are Earthly games.”

“You can call them games all you want, but they are real. Souls are in dire need of being saved. I have no doubt that I must find this woman—err, man—but Drake’s war will lead him in a different direction. Fighting at another girl’s side.”

“Willow.”

“You know her?” I forcefully exhaled. I was sure that he did. He seemed too at ease with the way he said her name.