Protector (18 page)

Not prepared to answer, I busied myself writing down Mr. Houghton’s calculations from the board.

“Look at me.”

“I’m not listening to you. Please, try and look busy. If we get caught talking, we’ll end up with pink slips. And trust me you don’t need an afterschool detention at a time when you need to leave for Peacio.”

He leaned in closer. “Mr. Houghton is practically deaf otherwise we’d have already scored a handful of them. What have I said to upset you?”

“Whoa. Mel look,” Lauren grumped.

For heaven’s sake. It appeared our doings had again captured the attention of the two classroom vixens.

I saw Lauren shove an elbow into Melanie’s side.

“Oomph. I saw, Lauren. He’s clearly besotted with her and why, I have no freakin’ idea. Faith is too skinny and she has next to no boobs.”

I froze at their comment, my gaze lowering. Sure, I was a B cup, and unlike them, I hadn’t had my breasts surgically enhanced to their backbreaking DD’s.

While that thought ran through my mind, two missiles of white-balled paper zoomed from the front. Melanie and Lauren squeaked as the projectiles hit them fair and square in their heads.

Davio chuckled. “Just ignore them. Zac and Viv are dealing with it. My protectors are still wound up after last night and those girls...” He paused, taking a second to clear his throat. “They clearly have no idea what they speak of.”

“Thank you.” I smiled. “For those nice words, I’ll go so far as admitting I admire and trust you.”

“Only admire?”

I lifted a brow. “Yep.” I picked up my blue pen and tapped his nose. “You have a big enough head without me giving you anymore compliments.”

The corner of his lips lifted and his eyes crinkled. “You like the size of my head?”

I didn’t give in to answering. Instead, I focused on Mr. Houghton’s droning voice, and tipped up my textbook. Page one-hundred and one. Paragraph four.

I sighed. Oh how boring.

Chapter 8

As I made my way down the hallway, I heard Davio’s low growl first. It came from the direction of Belle’s dining room. Zac and Viv were supposedly with him while Belle had told me she and Silvie were collecting supplies for the weekend.

As my forewarning activated I stilled. A wavering vision of Davio and his two protectors appeared before my eyes. Shocked, I closed my eyes focusing only on the vision and immediately noticed a fourth person standing slightly to the side. He was unknown to me–a young man with short, springy red-gold hair.

Slowly the short-lived vision melted away.

Wow, my forewarning, my ability to see what was to come had definitely advanced. But why had I been forewarned about there being another man in the house?

I waited, hoping for more, recalling Alexo’s solemn words. “Your skills grow fast. They are cementing and strengthening just as your powerful lineage demands.”

It seemed the more I used them the stronger they would become.

That thought thrilled me since I was eager to experience what Alexo had shown me of his skill.

Loud complaints came from ahead as Viv strode down the hallway toward me, blocking my passage.

“I was coming. I only needed a moment,” I assured her. “There’s another man here and I had a warning. Who is he?”

“It’s Silas. Silvie and Belle will be back in a minute, and you mustn’t dally, not when there is still much to do this day.”

“Has something happened?” I already knew I should be quick.

“Silas is here and ready to ensure Davio’s return. We should have left. The protectors in Peacio have been called together and are awaiting us. We have spies to find,” she reminded me.

“Then let’s go.”

“Make your goodbyes fast, Faith. Silas has never been one to dawdle.”

Ah, finally I was to meet the ominous Silas.

Stepping past her, I entered the wide-open space of the dining room, spotting Davio at the eight-seater oak table. His gaze veered immediately to mine and he stood, holding out his hand toward me.

“Come, Faith, and meet my esteemed cousin, Silas, since there is a second.” Silas and Zac joined him in standing as I crossed the room to his side. To Silas, he said, “I’d like to introduce Faith Stryker to you.”

His cousin inclined his red-gold head rather respectfully. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last. Davio has obviously spoken of you.”

I inhaled slowly as I took in the man who Davio called his right hand, his family, the one I’d viewed just seconds before in my forewarning. He towered in height, standing with his legs planted firmly apart and a sword belted on his right hip. It glinted against the dark leather pants he wore.

Then I stiffened.

“Hold on, I’ve seen you before.” And I meant before, before.

There was a flittering image–a memory from just a few short weeks ago. Silas had been in Silvie’s home, in the hallway just outside her bedroom door when I’d popped around before school, although this man had seemingly disappeared right before my eyes. I’d believed myself to have imagined the entire episode.

Davio secured his arm firmly around my waist, reinforcing his complete presence. “This is Silas, Faith. You can’t have seen him before.”

“B-but…” I stumbled to a stop, turning my disturbed gaze to Davio’s.

What was the truth?

I hadn’t known Davio back then when I’d thought to have first seen Silas.

My gaze switched back and forth between the two, Silas to Davio, Davio to Silas, Silas to Davio. My shock continued to unravel images within my mind. Numbly, I pushed away to stand on my own, to understand what the dated memory in my mind was. “Exactly who are you, Silas? And how do you know Silvie?”

With his solid build and broad shoulders, he was not someone to forget.

Then the knowledge came to me, harshly with its truthfulness. “I can’t believe this. I know I’ve seen you at Silvie’s–and I mean her house–outside her bedroom door.”

I pressed a hand to my forehead, demanding my forethought bring me a visual of that time as I knew it could do with past memories.

Within a half-second, I staggered under the weight of a pressing feed so similar to Alexo’s in all its full and absolute glory. I’d done it.

I fell to the floor, landing on my bottom with a punishing slap as the images unraveled and brought the memory to life.

I heard Davio kneel behind me. “Don’t touch her,” he suddenly warned over the top of my head. “Let’s take care. This is one of her first. Let her experience it to the fullest.” He carefully moved around to face me.

I scuttled back to the wall as the path cleared, keeping out of everyone’s reach as images assailed me. I saw Silas stepping from Silvie’s bedroom. Me, stopping bluntly at the sight of him exiting her room, only by the time I recovered, Silas was gone. Gone in an instant. Gone into virtual thin air.

When I confronted her, Silvie had acted as she’d not known what I babbled about. “A man in my bedroom? You must have imagined it,” she’d said.

I squeezed my eyes shut and reopened them. Why had she blatantly lied?

Silvie and Silas.

Fear and anger slammed into me. “You’re sleeping with Silvie?” I ground out, finally locating my backbone and pushing up to my feet.

“What?” Silas practically shrieked; he most definitely paled.

“What?” Davio parroted his protest, his horrified gaze swinging from his cousin to me. “Faith, no, there is simply no way Silas is sleeping with his sister.”

“His sister?” I know I screeched, right before I lost all breath.

Davio pulled me to him.

“Silvie doesn’t have a brother, Davio,” I mumbled like a lost child. “It’s her and Seriah, like my mother and me.” My hands shook. “An only child.”

A frightening barrage of thoughts swelled in my head for I saw through our mated bond he’d told the truth. Silas was Silvie’s brother. Which meant my best friend had lied.

Davio’s wide eyes were filled with unease. “Silvie and Silas are twins. They were born prematurely in Peacio eighteen years and two months ago to my mother’s beloved older sister, Seriah.” He lowered his stress-laced voice. “Silvie was going to privately confess it to you this weekend. It was a necessary deception, one we all knew of but couldn’t speak. It was for your well-being that you not know.”

So it was all deceit and lies. Silvie had never been of Earth.

My heart bumped out of rhythm at the magnitude of her dishonesty, then broke. Shattered into a million pieces.

I closed my eyes and shoved Davio away. I glared at Silas and the last straw snapped. “You have the same hair, the same blue eyes, the same damn freckles even.”

Now it hurt to look at him.

That was when it dawned on me.

Silvie had been by my side my entire life.

Which meant that this unending deceit went back eighteen shocking years, not just to the time of Belle’s arrival.

Silvie was no friend at all. What we had meant nothing to her. That made my heart rip in two.

Eighteen years of lies. Everything that I’d known and shared with her–all the worst kind of lies.

Shame rolled through me, and anger…so cutting and painfully deep.

A wracked gasp to my left rent the air.

Silvie froze in the doorway, hands to her mouth, eyes bugged wide. Belle stood behind her. “Silas.” Silvie stared at her brother. “W-what are you doing here?” Then her tormented gaze swung to me. “Faith? Don’t move. I can explain.”

I sucked in a fast breath and turned on her, storming over to where she stood. “Lies, Silvie. Since we were children,” I ground out, never more furious in my entire life.

“I’m so sorry, Faith.” She tried to reach for me, but I struck her hand away. “I didn’t know how to tell you I had a twin brother, not with everything that’s gone down since your strength skills were born. But I was going to tell you. I promise I was going to tell you.”

My fury continued to rise. “What about the past eighteen years? You didn’t think I deserved the truth sometime then?” I blasted her.

Tears pooled in her eyes, bursting to stream down her cheeks. “Please let me explain.”

“Explain?” I was losing it. “How about saying I have a damn brother I’ve never told you about, Faith! How about saying I was born in Peacio. How about saying I’m from the same place as Belle–because even Belle has told me that much.”

Belle had never lied to me about where she’d come from, whether I’d believed her from the start or not, I’d still listened.

My pain exploded, and my wrath soared.

This was a betrayal of the worst possible kind.

I turned my back on her and everyone else in the room. There was no way I was willing to listen to any one of these so-called Peacio protectors. This information had been withheld by all of them. I stormed through the dining room and the living room, my hair flying around my face as I slammed the ranch slider wide open.

“Where are you going?” Davio yanked on my arm, pulling me around to look at him.

Everyone was there behind him.

“I’m leaving, Your Royal Highness,” I spat at him. “You have a country to return to, or have you forgotten just as you forgot to enlighten me of Silvie’s connection to you.”

“No, you can’t leave like this. You haven’t heard Silvie out,” he demanded, shackling his hand to mine.

“How dare you. You’re no better than Silvie and who knows just how many more secrets you’ve left untold for my supposed own good.” I staked him with a very venomous glare, one that should have slain him on the spot. “Can’t you see what’s happened? My best friend isn’t my friend, and nothing I have in this world is real anymore.”

Nothing.

Why would Silvie have been planted here so very long ago? Why the lies, and for what reason or purpose did they and she serve? Because obviously Carlisio–my father’s enemy–was ultimately behind this huge farce. How could he not be, not after he’d been behind Belle and Davio’s arrival?

I couldn’t focus. It was all too much. Like torture to consider how very badly I’d been used.

I clutched my chest, hating the pain of heartache which swarmed me.

“Just go away. All of you. Leave me alone.” I desperately needed space.

“No. Nobody shall leave this room until you’ve listened to Silvie’s full explanation just as she wished for you to. I would never have guessed you’d have seen this.” For a split second, Davio’s anger diverted to focus on Silvie. “Explain now,” he snapped at her.

In my worked up state I had no intention of listening. “Hah, Silvie’s had long enough to tell me the truth, and you and your black heart have had enough time too, but no, everyone has to wait until poor Faith finds out herself before the truth finally emerges.”

“Zac, block her,” Davio ordered. “There’s no choice. I won’t have my mate this distressed without me. She comes with us.”

Zac slid in behind me and cut off my escape path out the opened door. Silas and Silvie circled to the left of Davio while Belle and Viv came around the other side. It seemed it was now six against one. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as everything within me rose to fight. Like a lioness, I would defend myself.