Her Imaginary Lover (8 page)

A
booming voice next to her ear made her flinch away from the man. There was
something familiar about this man's scent, and some of her panic subsided.

"Take him
away. The elders will have to decide what to do with him. I'll take care of
this
human."
He traced her wrist, and his grip on her tightened.
The air around them crackled with intensity, and he traced her jaw with
calloused fingertips in a move so achingly familiar to
Kaylom's
that she opened her eyes and screamed.

Chapter Six

Over
the incessant pounding in her head, softly spoken voices registered. A man and
a woman argued in hushed whispers, so that she didn't catch what they were saying.
At the mention of
Kaylom's
name her eyes flew open,
and she immediately wished she'd kept them shut. Her headache increased
tenfold, and her stomach churned in the glaring brightness surrounding her.

She
moaned and screwed them shut again. What was this insanity? A cool hand on her
brow forced her eyes open again, and she flinched and blinked rapidly.

"There,
my dear, take it easy. You're bound to feel a little queasy after that
entrance." Cool liquid touched her lips, and she drank eagerly. Instantly
her headache receded into the background, and after more furious blinking,
shapes crystallized in her vision. "There, that should make you feel a bit
better." The softly spoken, melodic female voice wrapped
itself
around her, and she croaked a hoarse, "Thank
you."

"That's
quite all right, my dear. How are you feeling now?" The woman that lilting
voice belonged to touched her wrist briefly, and Macie jerked it away from her.

"
Kaylom
, where is he? What have they done to him? I want to
see him. He's done nothing wrong. Where is he? Where the fuck
am
I?"

The
words tumbled out of her and with it the realization that she could see. The
blinding light separated into pixels of color and shapes, and she drew in a
sharp breath, as her vision cleared, and she focused on the woman sitting on
the side of her bed. Straight, long, silver blonde hair framed a face so
beautiful it hurt to look at her. Despite the lines showing her advanced years,
this woman shone with an inner beauty and serenity that manifested itself in a
warm golden glow around her slim form. Macie's gaze snared at the diamond
encrusted collar she wore around her neck, and the woman's lips curled up into
a smile. Long elegant fingers brushed a strand of her hair away, and her
brilliant blue eyes held a shimmering warmth and affection that bathed Macie in
her approval, though what she had done to deserve that she wasn't quite sure.

"It
does you credit to ask after your mate at a time like this. I told you
Kaylom
chose well,
Arich
."

A
furious growl from the other side of the bed made Macie look over there, and
she immediately wished she hadn't. The man stood there watching the scene in
front of him from under hooded eyelids, looked just like she imagined
Kaylom
to look. Shoulder length black hair, peppered with strands
of grey framed a harsh, proud face with an angular jaw, covered in several
days' worth of scruff. The man's full lips sat in a grim line, and the veins
stood out on a thick neck, sat on massive shoulders. His equally enormous and
muscled arms were crossed over his chest, fists clenched. In fact his entire
body looked coiled for action, and suspicion and mistrust surrounded him like a
heavy, black cloak.

Macie
instinctively dropped her gaze under his fierce stance, and immediately wished
she hadn't. Her cheeks heated, taking in the way his thighs strained against
the clingy fabric that covered them, and there was no missing the heavy bulge
in his groin, even with the long tunic covering it. This had to be
Kaylom's
father, and it was all kinds of wrong to notice
these details, but she couldn't help but look again anyway.

The
woman next to her laughed, as though she'd read Macie's thoughts.

"
Kaylom
takes after his father, as you will have
noticed."

Macie
shook her head and groaned.
Can you say
busted?
Sheesh, these were
Kaylom's
parents, and
she was acting as though she'd never seen a man before, which was strictly
speaking true, but made the whole situation even more awkward.

"I—I…"
She gave up and simply stared at her clasped hands. If she didn't look around
then she wouldn't get herself into trouble, and it also helped with the
pounding in her temples. Being confronted with so much visual stimuli made her
feel queasy.

"I'm
Lycille
, by the way and
Kaylom's
mother, as I'm sure you must have guessed by now. I would like to say I'm
pleased to meet you, but your presence here has caused considerable uproar,
already, and it means my son is currently sitting in a prison cell, so—"

"He
what?
Why?" Macie interrupted the other woman and glared at her. She yanked at
the downy soft blanket covering her and for the first time realized that she
was dressed. The long tunic like dress skimmed the top of her breasts and was
the most beautiful deep blue. It echoed
Lycille's
clothing, minus the corset that cinched the older woman's curves in, and gave
her a beautiful shape. A thigh-high slit exposed bare legs, which ended in
silver sandals that wrapped around her ankles with leather straps. It reminded
her of descriptions of ancient Rome she'd read about as a child.

"Don't
pretend you don't know what you've done, human."
Arich's
clipped tones held a world of censure and anger, but it was the hurt behind
them that spoke to Macie, and meant she held back the angry words bubbling on
her tongue.

These
were
Kaylom's
parents, and they must be as worried
about him as she was. Every fiber in her body urged her to get out of this bed,
and to find him. She sensed his distress, and it cut ribbons of fear into her
heart.

"Where
is he? I need to see him," she said, and tried to get out bed, but the
room swayed, and she sat back down again with a yelp.

Instantly
Lycille
was at her side.

"That
wouldn't be wise. You're not strong enough. The air is thinner in our dimension,
and you will need to get used to it before you can storm off to see him."

"Aren't
you forgetting one rather important thing,
Lycille
?"
Arich
interrupted his wife. "
Kaylom
is under heavy guard and will more than likely be executed for his crimes, so I
fail to see why we are welcoming the cause of all his troubles into our home
like some long lost relative."

Lycille
sighed and
looked as though she was going to say something, but Macie pushed herself to
her feet, and after a hairy moment of almost falling flat on her face, she
managed a few shaky steps toward
Kaylom's
father.

She
glared up at him, and his eyes lit up in grudging respect.

"
Kaylom
is no criminal. He didn't do anything wrong. Why is
falling in love such a crime? Are humans so below your attention that it makes
it a crime to sleep with them? Or are we just there to be convenient sport for
you
Athurons
? Good enough to fuck but not good enough
to mate with, is that it?"

She
took another step toward
Arich
and poked him in the
chest for good measure. At least he had the good grace to look slightly
uncomfortable. She could see
Lycille
step up with a
big grin on her face, which seemed rather at odds with the situation. The
shadows behind
Arich
moved, and Macie's throat went
dry as a bunch of lethal looking
Athurons
suddenly
materialized and formed a circle around them.

Arich
put a hand up,
which stalled their approach, and they proceeded to glare at her. One of them
had angry red scratch marks on his biceps, and Macie realized why their
menacing presence seemed so familiar. These were the guards, and she realized
that's what they had to be from their protective stance and the weapons they
carried, who had snatched
Kaylom
out of her arms. The
one with the scratches must be the one she held onto for her ride into this
dimension.

On
instinct she thrust her wrist out. An intricate swirling design of what looked
like the roots of a tree, interspersed with symbols, circled her wrist and
crept into her fingers. It was similar to the one she spotted on
Arich's
and
Lycille's
wrists, and
judging by the murmur that went through the circle surrounding them, they knew
that, too.

"I
know this means something to you guys. I also know that
Kaylom
did not expect this to happen, but it has, and I'm his, and I'll not let you
take him away from me. If you want to punish anyone then concentrate on those
that cause harms to humans in my realm."

Another
murmur filled the room, and Macie smiled grimly.

"Yes,
I know about them. I've always sensed you lot. I just didn't know who those
presences were, until
Kaylom
explained it to
me."

"He
had no right to do that. He knows the rules better than anyone. He's my son. He
will be one of the elders one day. It's his duty to mate with an
Athuron
female, not—"

"Not
a pathetic little human like me, you mean. Well, tough luck to you and your
rules. He did, and I'm here, and I'm not leaving without him, so stick that in
your pipe and smoke it."

Macie
barely resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him and to stamp her foot
for good measure. Such childish actions would not help her now, she knew that,
but it was too damn infuriating. Her wrist throbbed and her heart ached, and
she blinked back tears of frustration. What use was it to be here in this
world, and being able to see, when she was still as helpless as ever? She
couldn't fight these beings. There were too many and they were too strong, but
she had to make them see sense somehow.

"So,
you will have him forsake his race, his family, his destiny, to be with you, is
that it, little human? And you profess to be his mate? That is laughable."

"
Arich
, you're being too harsh."
Lycille
intervened and pulled a shaking Macie into an embrace. "The girl is barely
recovered from her entry into this world, an entry which shouldn't be
physically possible for a mere human, and she bears his mark. A mark that
inscribed itself in our archives, I might add, and is the only reason you could
pin down
Kaylom's
location. That has got to mean
something. Only a true mating is recorded in such a manner, and you know
Kaylom
. He would not act against the will of the elders,
and he would never jeopardize our kind. For this to have happened, for Macie to
bear not only his mark, but also our family crest means this was pre-ordained
and meant to happen."

She
pulled Macie tighter against her and linked her wrist next to hers. The symbols
merged, and lights sparked between their wrists. It was fascinating to witness,
and Macie held her breath. She knew this was what must have happened when
Kaylom
linked their wrists together. The same sense of
peace, of homecoming, enveloped her, and this time she couldn't help but let
her tears fall.

"There,
child, it's okay. I can only imagine how overwhelming this all must be for you.
It's bad enough when you know what will happen, but this is all new to you. For
what it's worth, I think
Kaylom
has chosen well."
She looked across to
Arich
, and some sort of unspoken
communication seemed to occur between them, because at long last
Arich
bowed his head and sighed.

He
seemed to age several years in front of Macie's eyes, or maybe that was just
her watery eyesight's perception. Try as she might she couldn't help the tears
from falling, and
Lycille's
unexpected kindness just
made it so much worse.

"You
may leave us, guards. My daughter-in-law is no threat to
Athuron
."

Time
stood still as
Arich
stepped close enough to encircle
both his wife and Macie in a hug.

"There
now, stop crying. I'm not such an ogre, but I had to make sure you weren't some
sort of imposter."

Macie
stiffened at the growled words in her ears, and yanked herself out of the
comforting embrace.

She
glared up into his smiling face.

"You
mean this … this whole thing was what? Some sort of a fucking test?
 
Is
Kaylom
hiding
round a corner somewhere? Because I swear if he is, I'll deck him the minute I
see him."

Amusement
warred with worry in
Arich's
expression, and he shook
his head.

"I
wish it was that easy, little human. While I accept what you say is true, the
fact remains that
Kaylom
broke more rules than I care
to cite when he claimed you. None of this should have happened, or indeed be
possible, and we'll have a fight on our hands to convince the rest of the
elders that you are a worthy mate for my son. Are you prepared to fight for
him?"