Illicit (15 page)

“Thorn...”

“I know love I will tell you everything, just let me get you home to safety.”

“So I am in danger.”

“You’re in no danger as long as I’m here. Be still love and let me tell you what I must in my own time and my own way.

I had thought to give you more time but I see now that that was a mistake.”

“More time for what?” He looked over at me then, and the sadness on his face almost made me cry out.

We turned down a narrow street lined with trees on both sides. The air here was dark and thick, even at this time of the afternoon.

Again I felt that clawing feeling, as if something was puling at me with icy fingers. My breath grew short and I clutched at my throat.

“Easy lyubov, breathe for me.” He slowed the car but did not stop, his attention divided between the road and me.

“Why do I feel so sick all of a sudden?” there was a ringing in my ear and I felt as though I would faint any minute.

There were flashes of color flitting in and out of my mind’s eye, as he turned down the long driveway to the house that I had seen so long ago, in a dream.

I sat still in amazement as he walked around to help me out. “What is this place?” I looked around at everything that seemed so familiar somehow, but I knew the memory wasn’t real, how could it be?

I started walking across the grass, but not towards the house. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they carried me across the lawn, past the gigantic house and to the gardens beyond.

His voice was right behind me calling me back but I couldn’t turn back, I was being drawn...there, the little house in the woods.

My feet moved faster as I made my way towards the structure that seemed to call out to me. It felt like I was walking through quicksand, each step growing heavier, and there was a veil over my eyes.

I was running now as Thorn yelled for me to wait. How had I gotten away from him? The question was fleeting, as was every thought I had in that moment.

I was aware that I wasn’t quite myself, that something or someone else was leading me. There was a shrill laugh on the wind as my hand reached out for the doorknob.

A series of scenes played through my head as my hand connected and my knees grew weak.

The little girl, she seemed so familiar. And the boy, I knew who he was although he looked so different now; it was what was inside him that I recognized.

I fell forward through the door even as his voice yelled out to me, and then it happened.

Darkness, and in the midst of the darkness, as I felt myself falling, a tortured scream from somewhere nearby.

His face was the last thing I saw before the darkness overtook me. But even with all that was happening and had happened up until now, it’s the words I uttered that made the least sense to me.

“You left me.”

The look of torture that came over his face sent chills through me, as I gave in to the dark tentacles that pulled at me.

THORN

I lifted her in my arms and ran to the house, calling for my mother. My fear was so strong I could almost taste it.

Realistically I knew she was okay, I could feel her heart beating against me, and hear her breathing in and out. But any kind of hurt to her was torturous for me. How could things have gone so wrong? I thought I had time.

There was so much I wanted to tell her, so much to share, but now I was afraid it was too late.

This is the very thing I wanted to avoid. If I could’ve spared her ever knowing I would have, but barring that, I would’ve chosen a better way for her to recall.

Her words pierced me to my very soul, because she was right, it didn’t matter the circumstances, I had left her, broken a promise.

“I’m so sorry malysh.” My mother met me at the bottom of the stairs, her face frightened, no doubt because of my unusual shouting.

“What is it, what’s happened, is that...”

“Yes it is.” I kept going because now was not the time for introductions. I’d brought her here for protection, with my enemies upping the stakes it would be stupid of me not to.

I laid her across my bed and sat next to her. She was gone away in her head, somewhere far from me. “Open your eyes malysh, please, for me.” I whispered the words urgently as she laid still as a stone.

Mom came in with a tray but I didn’t pay any attention, my eyes were focused on her for any sign. She looked so still and small, vulnerable.

The memory of Mina being that close to her made my blood run cold. I’d been working so hard ever since I brought her home to avoid just that happening, though I knew it was a chance I’d have to take.

Just a few more days and this would’ve all been over. I closed my eyes, begging for a brief moment of peace.

She made a sound of distress in her sleep, but still she did not stir. As my mother left the room, it gave me a chance to reflect, to go back in my mind to where this all started, before either of us were even born.

The memories were too much as always, and I walked across the room to the tray where I was sure mom had left her cure all. I was a tad surprised to see the amber colored liquid instead of clear.

I threw back the scotch and placed the glass gently back on the bedside table, because I wanted to fling it into the fireplace until it shattered into a thousand pieces.

Moving back to the bed I touched her, the way I always need to whether she’s near or far. I’ve tried so hard to protect her, to spare her this. My poor baby, her life...

Now she has remembered, but not in the way I wanted. Now she had only the darker side of it and I must wait until she awakens before I can tell her all of it.

Her heart, that organ that beat in her chest, but that I can map with my own, was hurting. This for me was unacceptable.

She had known enough pain, I can’t...”Wake up Jasmine, open your eyes and look at me.” Nothing.

“Son what can we do?” My mother had returned without my notice and the sun, what little there had been of it, was now gone completely.

“There’s nothing, she’s not ill, her body just refuses to awaken because her mind remembers. Her heart is hurt, because for her she’s three years old again and has awakened to horror, and I wasn’t there.”

“But you were a boy, surely she can’t blame you for that, how could she?”

“Because I promised.”

“Oh come on, I’m sure she’ll understand that there was nothing you could’ve done...”

“How is it mother that you know our history and you cannot understand this? Jasmine and I are not like others; had I not left her they would never have dared.”

“But you were so young, and you didn’t even know of your strengths then. I’m sure when she wakes up, and you’ve had a chance to talk, she will be very understanding.

I looked down at her on my bed, the place where I’ve imagined her a thousand times. Even now, with her in that state, my body still reacted.

It was no use telling it not to, she’s the one woman that can overpower all my training, and that, without any effort on her part. She only has but to breathe and I am hers.

There was a lot to be done now, not least of all was telling her father this fantastical story of our lives and why our paths had crossed, but I wanted to tell her first. I also had to go hunt my enemies, but how could I leave her like this?

I wanted to be here when she first opens her eyes, so that I can answer all her questions, hold her as she relives the horror of her childhood.

She stirred and I sat on the bed next to her, willing her to come back to me. The silent tears that fell from beneath her closed lids tore at my heart, and I bit into the flesh of my hand so as not to cry out.

“You may go now mother.” I waited until she left the room, to lie down beside Jasmine and draw her into my arms.

Her body was still and cold, so cold. I tried rubbing warmth back into her arms and back as I held her as close to my heart as possible.

With all that I am, the one thing I cannot do, is take away her pain. I would gladly give up all I have, all that I am, to carry her pain in myself so that she never has to.

So great was my distress that I didn’t think of the one thing that was sure to work. There was one place where we’ve always met, where nothing else was allowed to intrude.

THORN

Yes of course, why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? Brushing the hair back gently from her face, I cleared my mind of everything but her.

The sounds outside the window no longer penetrated, as I controlled my breathing, until I was almost in a state of comatose.

I nudged at the edges of her mind, trying not to intrude too harshly. This will not be as our other encounters.

I wasn’t sure who I was going to find in the mirrors of her mind; eighteen-year old Jasmine, or the little innocent that had been dragged from the night in terror.

The room was in darkness as I crept into her mind. Everything was still and all that could be heard was her breathing. I stood over her here as I had in my room not long ago.

“Jasmine, baby look at me.” I knew she heard me, because her breath hitched, but still she refused. I touched her face lightly with my fingertips, tracing a path down her cheek.

“I would never have left you my sweet, sweet, girl, had I known what was going to happen, I promise you.”

“I was so scared, I called for you, all night and all the next day. Why didn’t you answer me, you knew how didn’t you, or am I remembering differently? Angel.”

She remembered. “How much do you remember?” I held my breath as I awaited her answer.

“Everything.” Her voice was a tortured whisper.

“That night...?” again I held my breath, hoping for the best.

“Everything.”

I closed my eyes in slight despair. I would’ve loved to have spared her that. I could feel her pain, the anger and torment. I warred within myself as to what to do next.

For years there was no memory of it in her mind or heart. I’d searched diligently, even toyed with the idea of erasing the memory if it was there. It wasn’t too late to do that now, but would it be fair?

It was so hard sometimes to know what was right and what was not. I know my views where she’s concerned are old fashioned and out dated.

This too is one of the reasons I wanted to give her more time. When I do finally take her beneath me, I won’t ever be able to give her the space most women want.

Much as when we were younger, we will seek each other out at every turn, never wanting to be too far from each other for any length of time.

I will also, as her mate, seek to control everything in her life as my way of protecting her and our children.

They had tried to explain this to me in my training, but there had been no need. I had already experienced it to a point, since the minute she was born, only it was supposed to get worst.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“I want to know everything. Who was that girl, and what does she have to do with what happened to my family?”

“What makes you think...?”

“I don’t know; it’s a feeling, a very strong one. I seem to be bombarded with them all of a sudden.”

So it had started. “Did you touch her?” the question asked with such venom jarred me for a second.

“No.” Her body relaxed and she unclenched her fists. “Open your eyes baby and look at me.”

Finally she opened her eyes and looked at me. I could see the change already, not complete, but it had started. The light was already beginning in her eyes; it was only a matter of time.

I told her as much as I could about the legend and our destiny. She listened with very little interruption, though there were times she seemed more than a bit skeptical.

Taking one of her soft hands in mine, I relayed the story in my head, just as it had been taught to me so long ago.

“In older times, we would’ve been accused of witchcraft, cast aside, spurned. Some of our ancestors, both yours and mine, have suffered that fate throughout the centuries.

But now men think differently and are somewhat more tolerable. They’ve also learnt that every gift is not of the darkness.

That all unusual abilities hadn’t been granted by sorcery! Now, instead of being hunted to destruction, we and other people like us, are being harnessed for our minds, for our extra powers, that are still asleep in most men.”

“People like us, what does that mean? Does that have anything to do with you walking in my dreams?”

“Shh, we’ll get to all that, just let me share this with you, and then I’ll answer all of your questions.”

She didn’t seem overly happy about that suggestion, but she laid her head back down and prepared to listen like I asked.

“There are great lines that go way back in the motherland and throughout Europe. Men started charting these lines over six hundred years ago.

Scholars and others of like minds have been monitoring, studying, dissecting these families. Culling out the weakest from among the strong.

Over time they were just a few of those lineages that grew stronger over the passage of time, while others languished and even more faded or squandered their gifts.

Some exploited their gift to their own detriment. Still others had been wiped out by the inquisition and other fallacies like it.

Throughout it all, there were two families that always seemed to rise to the top, whose strengths were always enhanced instead of depleted with each generation.

There was a great legend, one that many had thought to be folly, of these two lines converging. Of two members, one from each of these two groups wedding each other, somewhere in the future, which is now, our time, yours and mine.”

I saw her poised to ask another question of me, but my finger across her lips kept her silent.

“It was believed that if such a thing should happen, that the offspring of that duo would be almost indestructible. For sure the child would be extremely powerful.

As a child I knew nothing of this legend. Had I known, I would’ve understood the strange hold you have had on me, since you were in your mother’s womb.

It was later determined that it was because of that coming connection that my family and I had been led here, to the Americas, to you.

It was only after you’d been taken and I had been brought to the brink of madness that it had all come out...”

Her sharp indrawn breath at my words had me kissing her brow gently and wrapping her more securely in my arms.

“As I was saying, they had no choice then but to tell me the whole of it, young though I was, for fear that if they didn’t, I would surely lose my hold on reality.

There was still a bit of confusion in the beginning, when they first started telling me of my family’s history, because one of those lines was thought to have ended.

Men had spent hours, days, years, trying to decipher and recalibrate the legend. In the end they only set off a horrific sequence of events that no one could’ve foreseen.

The greed, envy and depravity that stemmed from that one mistake, will have repercussions for generations to come, but I’m getting ahead of myself.”

I took a deep breath to push back the anger. It bothered me still that our lives had been manipulated, that she, more than anyone, had suffered as much as she had.

“It was your grandmother that they believed the legend had ended with, your father’s mother.”

“My dad’s, he was adopted wasn’t he? But I don’t think he ever knew what happened to his original family, at least I’ve never heard him speak of them.”

“I don’t think that he knows, but let me finish.” I kissed her hair and inhaled her scent; already it was getting stronger, before long it was going to be almost impossible not to mount her. I cleared my throat and prepared to go on.

“Throughout time, some had chosen to live beneath the radar, while others had enjoyed their wealth and the benefits of their talents lavishly.

No longer needing to hide, but instead lauded by some in high society, these families flourished and amassed great wealth over time.

While even others sought to keep themselves hidden away from the world, and so lived as most men do.

The Vikov family had been such as this. They had not lived in squalor, but neither did they own great wealth. Their women preferred to be midwives and healers over the centuries, though a few have been great warriors of note.

Ekaterina Vikov, that would be your grandmother, had been the last of her line in Russia. A very secretive person, she was hardly ever seen.

It was thought that the weight of her heritage was too much for the young girl and she had sought to escape it. That’s what was believed throughout the society as it is called anyway.

They are the men and women who have kept the annals for generations. The watchers and keepers of this particular truth, whose fathers and grandfathers before them, had done the same.

All in all, there were five remaining families of the thirteen or so that had been known of since about the fourteenth century.

Of those five, two were supposed to fulfill the legend. Ekaterina had known of her heritage of course, it would’ve been passed on to her at her mother’s knee.

In her line it was known that the gift skipped a generation and was most always found in a girl child.

When she had been murdered, it was rumored throughout the society that it had been another one of the five families that had done the deed. No one of lesser power would’ve been able to get that close.

But it has never been proven, which meant that the family responsible had to possess great strength and power, to keep their misdeeds so well hidden.

It was thought that her line had died with her, and since the gift wasn’t evident in any of her cousins, and there had been no siblings, her death had sent everyone into a spiral.

Theories were reexamined and the legend taken apart and looked at more carefully.

It was at this time that one of the other remaining families made their bid for their place in our society, or what they saw as their right, because of some medieval slight.

Apparently this line had once been one of the greatest, but because of fraudulent behavior and other atrocities frowned upon by the other families, they’d lost their standing.

That family is Mina’s, the Divecki clan. She is the one you saw today.” I squeezed her hand when I felt her tense up, but carried on.

“After Ekaterina’s death and the uproar it caused within the society, things had calmed down somewhat. Or as much as they could for a people who had believed in something for hundreds of years, only to have it disintegrate in one afternoon of bloodshed.

Ekaterina had been poisoned before her home had been set on fire. It was thought that she must’ve been ill at the time that this happened or she would’ve sensed the danger to herself and not been taken by surprise.

Her death set off a chain of events that almost destroyed the whole society back then.

I wasn’t born at the time of her death of course, but the legend was set and the society knew that my father’s firstborn son would be the son of the great house that is supposed to fulfill this legend.

So it was strange that it was my near madness in the end all those years later that brought the truth of her demise to light.

When you first disappeared, no one said anything to me of it, but they didn’t need to. I felt your terror as if it were my own. I was ten years old and a thousand miles away.

My rage I well remember, rage and crippling fear. One of the elders had to be brought in. I had raged and fought myself into exhaustion by the time my family thought to seek help from that quarter.

It took them days to get me to make sense. I had become almost catatonic, or so they thought.

In fact I was using all my strength and energy to travel over seas and lands to reach you.

I had no idea what was going on. Up to that point, all I knew was what my father had shared with me.

I had always believed them to be nothing more than just some fanciful stories that he made up. Tales I thought to be fiction mixed with half-truths, stories of legends and supernatural strengths!

Because they thought me gravely ill, I had been sedated for my own good. But the medicine had the opposite affect on me, and instead my strength grew.

I kept screaming that we needed to save you. I could see you but I could not reach you. Could hear you, but you could not hear me. It was the worst time of my young life, horrifying.

Our connection was strong, but we had not had enough time to form the kind of bond that could withstand such a separation.

It was my screaming for my Jasmine and my parents explaining to the elders about my strange attachment to you since birth that got them to thinking and questioning.

It was then I learned that my family was one of the two greats the legend spoke of. And like I’ve said, it had been believed that Ekaterina’s had been the other.

At her death, the Divecki family, because they were next in line, made their bid. But such things aren’t so easily or hastily decided, so even at the time of your abduction and your family’s...slaughter some twenty-one years later, the issue had not yet been resolved.

Upon hearing of my strange attachment, coupled with the fact that I was fast losing my mind, men had been sent out to uncover the truth, but first they had to save you, even though they had no idea who you really were at that time.