In the Beginning... (10 page)

But before that child could be conceived, her
mother would have to accept him.

“I want my sister.”

“Then you must prepare for
breakfast. I have fresh clothing laid out for you. As well as
these...” He felt around on the bedside table until he found the
small velvet bag that contained the jewels that represented
the
equa
of his
family line. “I wish you to wear these.”

“Why should I?”

“Because they are yours now. They were my
mother’s, and my father’s mother’s, and her mother’s mother. They
are the symbol of who you are to all of my people.”

“I don’t want to be a symbol to people I
don’t know and don’t want to know. And I don’t want your family
jewels, in any sense of the words.”

Theo felt around until he found her small
hand. He put the jewelry bag in her palm. “What harm could wearing
a necklace do? The choice is up to you, my little love. Wear them
if you wish. The clock bell will chime the half hour soon. By the
next chime we should be ready to join our king, and your sister and
cousins. Go, take your shower and prepare.”

He felt her gaze on him for several long
moments. “Go, Michaela. I have promised to take you to your sister,
and I shall always keep my word to you.” She placed the jewels back
on his lap.

She scrambled off the bed and away from him.
He heard the sound of the bathroom door closing behind her. The
shower flared to life moments later. Theo held the velvet jewel bag
in his hands for several long moments. The small bundle represented
her acceptance of what she had become, and he understood why she
was so reluctant to wear them.

Would he capitulate easily if he had been in
her place? No, he would fight with all the fight he had before he
gave in to some strange creature ripping him from the only world
and life he had ever known.

He ran the jewels through his fingers,
touching each stone and recalling the colors and shape. He had not
always been blind. It had been progressive, worsening as his
prognostic gifts had strengthened. It was the Sebastos’ way. His
young sister, barely in her fifties, was an apprentice healer and
artist. She would lose her own sight as her gifts deepened. His
brother was also a healer, and had lost much of his sight through
the years.

But this little once human
mate of his would give him children for which that blindness would
not ever occur again. He slipped the necklace into the pocket of
his
pardus.
She
would wear it before the day ended.

In the meantime, she had spent too long in
the bath. They could not be late to meeting their king. Not
today.

Mickey started the shower, but kept the
strange pajamas he’d dressed her in on. Now, when he wasn’t near
her, would be the only time she had a chance to escape. She had to
find her sister and Josey and Emily. But how?

There was a window in the large master bath.
It was a small window and looked out over the gardens; it would be
the one way she could get away from the man and find the others. If
she couldn’t find them, she could run. Find the police in this
town, and make them help her. Make them call her brother, father,
or uncle. Then they could rescue Mal and the others.

Mickey trembled as she slid the window open.
The suite was three stories up, but outside the window was a
balcony, complete with a small patio table. And at the other end of
the balcony, she could just see the edge of a staircase. Hopefully
it led down to the ground floor. The garden would have an exit.
Most did.

She climbed onto the marble countertop and
slipped out the window. It was a tight squeeze, but she got her
hips through the frame. She landed on the balcony with a thud, and
she stilled. She prayed the sound hadn’t carried to the blind man
back inside the room. Was his hearing more acute than most
people’s? Would he catch her?

After a moment, when he didn’t appear in the
door frame, Mickey stood. He wouldn’t be able to see her pass in
front of the glass door, but she still crossed the balcony as
carefully as she could.

Less than a minute later she
was in the gardens, surrounded by the hotel walls on each side. But
she knew there
had
to be a way out of the gardens, somehow.

***

She searched each edge of the garden, looking
for something that even halfway resembled a gate, but there was
nothing. Mickey wanted to sink to the lush ground and cry. How long
would it be before he found her? She sat down, leaned against the
cool stone of the hotel’s east wall.

Mickey pulled her legs to her chest and
huddled behind the large plants, hiding herself the best she could.
The gardens had appeared deserted, but what if they weren’t? What
if someone was there? What if they found her and took her back to
him?

She wiped a stray tear away, wishing she was
at home with her family with everything in her being.

A curse sounded not far from where she hid
and Mickey tensed, peered through the leaves surrounding her. When
she saw a familiar head of red hair she hiccupped and jerked to her
feet. “Mallory!”

Her sister turned and Mickey saw the relief
on the face so similar to her own. “Mickey! Thank God!”

Mickey threw herself into her sister’s arms,
then backed away when Mal hissed out a gasp of pain. “He hurt
you.”

Mal shook her head. “A little. Come on. We
have to get out of here.”

“They have Em and Josey, too. I was trying to
find them, or get out and get Rand back here. But there is no way
out of this garden.”

“Come on. We’ll have to go through the hotel
then. There is a way out of here. I know it.”

Theo knew she was no longer
in his suite the moment he pushed open the bathroom door. He
felt
the room’s emptiness. And that meant
she could only be in the gardens. He turned off the running shower
before returning to the living area of the suite. It took a simple
push of a button on the main phone to have him ringing the hotel’s
security department. Quick instructions had the entire hotel exits
going into lockdown.

She may be somewhere within the hotel, most
likely the gardens, but she would not be escaping. Her place was
with him, where he could keep her safe and protected for the rest
of their days.

He stepped out of the suite and onto the
balcony. Years of practice had him descending the steps into the
garden without misstep.

Aodhan was near, his presence easy for Theo
to detect after so long of working closely with the warrior. “Yours
has wandered away, too, my friend?”

“She is quick and fierce. She will not
respect me unless she is defeated in this battle by one stronger
than she. But there must be a battle first. She is glorious.”

Theo spoke little as he and the other man
walked deeper into the large garden area. There were many twists
and turns amongst the garden’s paths, many places for the young
women to hide for a short while. But Theo had faith in his Goddess.
They would find their mates again.

***

“Hurry, Mickey.” Mal was pulling on her hand
as they entered the main doors that led from the garden into the
hotel. Mickey did her best to keep up with her sister.

“The sign says turn left!”
Mickey tugged her sister in the opposite direction when Mal wanted
to go right. It was just like a real
hotel;
Mickey noticed that and took in all the signs that led to the
hotel’s amenities— swimming pool, restaurants, gift shops,
everything. Why would they kidnap them all and bring them to an
actual hotel? Weren’t they afraid someone would help them? “Come
on. There’s the lobby!”

Mickey didn’t know what they would do when
they got outside, but she wasn’t stopping until she found a way to
safety. And she knew Mal felt the same way.

There were people in the hotel, a mix of what
appeared to be guests and staff. Mickey and Mal didn’t bother
stopping and speaking with anyone. And no one stopped them, just
stared wide-eyed at them. Probably the blood on her sister’s
clothes, her hair.

Mickey was relatively clean.
He’d bathed her sometime in the night. She remembered that. And
knowing he’d touched her naked had her face flaming. At least he
hadn’t
seen
her
body, but it was only a small consolation.

Mickey held her sister’s hand as they rounded
the last corner of the hallway. It looked familiar, and when she
saw the glass and gold doors ahead, the tension tightening her
chest lessened just a bit.

Someone stepped into her
path and she crashed into a hard male body that she immediately
recognized.
Him
.

***

Theo felt a sense of rightness the moment the
soft, feminine body rammed into his. Would it always be that way
for them? His hands tightened on her arms, only to subdue, never to
harm.

“Let me go!”

Her fear was so heavy in her
words; Theo’s heart softened. His hands gentled on her waist. He
pulled her to his chest, then raised one hand to cup the back of
her head. Had any woman ever felt as soft, or as right to him as
this one, his
Rajni
, did? “I will do you no more harm, love. This I have promised
and I will remain true in my vows.” He brushed his lips against
hers, ignoring how she stiffened in his arms. Her surrender would
come with time. “If you and your sister have finished your
walkabout, we must go to the king’s dining hall.”

Her defeat was easy for him to sense on the
air surrounding them. It was in the way she slumped in his arms.
Theo frowned. He did not want her defeated–he wanted her safe and
happy with him. How long would that take?

“Walk about? We were escaping, you idiot!”
The sister hissed the words at him through her own newly developed
fangs.

Theo smiled. “You cannot. We
will not allow it. Aodhan? If you shall lead the way to the dining
room? I am sure the others are waiting on us. My
Rajni
and I will join you
in a moment.”

She trembled against him when her sister was
pulled away. Theo saw only the shadows of the other couple as they
left. His woman’s tears landed on his arm.

“Do not cry.” The order was
soft, and against her hair. He whispered the rest of his words next
to her ear. “It would please me greatly, my love, if you would wear
the necklace. I cannot
see
it on you, but it is where the piece belongs from
our very first day together. In fact, I must insist.”

She stood still in his arms while he fastened
the necklace around her neck. His hands tangled in her hair, and he
tilted her head back. He pressed his lips against hers for a
moment. “Thank you. Come. I know you will wish to see your cousins,
as well.”

After the meals they’d
shared and after the long day was over, the man led her back to the
suite without saying a single word. Not that Mickey wanted him to.
She was too afraid of what was to come. When he had her alone in
his room, what would he do? He thought she was some kind of
mate,
would he try to
force her to have sex with him?

She couldn’t fight him off;
even with his blindness he was still quick and strong. And he’d
already proven she couldn’t escape him, either. She’d spent all day
studying him; he’d taken her with him to an office that looked
eerily similar to her own, only the legal tomes were in a different
language. Many were also in Braille. He’d told her to look around
his office library as much as she’d liked, and she’d done just
that, hoping to find something
that would
tell her where they were and how to get away.

All she’d found was more information than she
could ever hope to process. Legal briefs, some written in English,
abounded. They were everywhere in his office, and as she saw him
loading several pieces of typing paper into an ancient typewriter,
she had a good inkling who was responsible for the writing.

She’s read quite a few,
ignoring the headache the slightly out of focus print caused—she
needed her glasses for reading—and had been admittedly intrigued by
the depth and complexity of the laws of these strange people. And
by his rulings, as she’s easily determined that he was a judge of
some sort. For these people. These
Dardaptoans.

And she’d admitted to
herself several hours earlier that these kidnappers were
of some sort of strange race. A race she’d
definitely never seen before.

But what did that mean for her and her
sister, her cousins?

She’d do whatever she had to in order to find
that answer.

He’d let her bring several of the books back
to the suite, and had carried them for her. He’d offered with a
blend of old-fashioned formality that unsettled her; he’d carried
the books in one hand and held hers with the other.

She’d let him; it hadn’t seemed worth the
battle to fight something as simple as handholding. If she’d
resisted, would he have forced her? Or perhaps flung her over his
shoulder and carried her away, like the man Aodhan had done to her
sister after the morning meal?

Mickey hadn’t seen Mallory since, though the
blind man had told her Mal was perfectly safe. Mickey didn’t
believe him, but until another opportunity arose for her to sneak
away, she knew she didn’t have any choice but to cooperate in
whatever plans he had.

“I have had the servants leave you out
something to sleep in, whenever you wish to go to bed. I tend to
sleep and rise early. What is your customary habit?”