Raining Light (Fate's Intent Book 5) (25 page)

“When she’s ready, I guess.”

“Then maybe we should think about settling for a night or two to get back on track.”

Zayden nodded to the idea as he looked down at Adele. “You’re probably right but we shall need a proper place to re-energize.”

“Where do you suggest way out here? She can’t make one for us.”

“I know of a place.” Zayden curiously glanced over at Darius.

He instantly figured out something and stepped forward. “Zayden, no. We’re not taking them there.”

“Why not?”

“Because—” Darius pulled Zayden aside but none of us could hear what he was saying or at least I couldn’t. All I knew is that it was about some place that Darius seemed very agitated in taking us but I knew Zayden. He did exactly what I thought he would do; overrule his decision to think about the rest of us.

Darius sighed again and clearly still didn’t want to as they walked back to us.

“Is everything all right?” Ruby asked.

“Perfect.” Zayden answered. “Like I said, we know of a place so we better get going. It’s northeast from here.”

“So, everything is fine then?” Aleksander asked.

“Yeah.” Darius replied. “We better get going before we lose light.”

“Okay.”

“Darius, hand her to me.” Zayden got up on Adele’s horse and Darius took Adele easily from Aleksander and put her up on the horse. “Let’s go. Rift, come on.”

The pup scampered off beside him while we got up on our horses and Trever turned his eyes down to Lex and Rouge still sitting obedient at his side. “You too.”

The lions looked at each other and slowly started to dissolve back into the golden flakes.

“Trever—” I groaned. I didn’t want them to go. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t stay.

“Don’t worry, Jay. Don’t think of it as dying. They died thousands of years ago.” It lifted off the ground in the same manner it fell and put itself back inside the vial Trever wore around his neck. “See? They’re always with us.”

It wasn’t good enough but I accepted it and took the reins of Ryon’s horse while Zayden led us off the road into the trees.

I had no idea where we were being taken but trusted them enough to know it would be a safe place where we could be housed for a couple of nights if needed.

We only walked through the trees for about a mile but it was slow due to the terrain and the sun was going down by the time we reached our destination with enough light to see.

“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked when we stopped to what looked like still the middle of nowhere.

“Just warning everyone.” Darius said.

“Warning us? Of?”

“The only rule. Don’t break anything.”

Trever laughed. “And if something does break? Are you going to kill us?”

Darius just glared over at him and Zayden answered for him to ease passed the tension. “Actually, the house will do it for him because it’s mostly made of glass.”

They turned back around and brought us around the hillside so we were insight of a beautiful manor. It was huge with the whole front side enclosed with glass.

“What is this place?” Ruby asked.

“It’s mine.” Darius said.

“You lived here?”

“Lived here? No. This was my family’s summer home. We’d only use it a few weeks a year for private soirees and such.”

“And by private, he means anyone bearing breasts has attended.” Trever joked. Darius’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it’s true.”

“Quit acting like you know us.”

“We watched you grow up. There isn’t a thing we don’t know.”

Darius’s eyes narrowed even more and Zayden cut in to it with the plan. “We’ll settle our horses in the stables and see how long we should wait this out. Probably not exactly when Adele wakes up. We’ll have to see how she feels.”

“That’s probably best.” Aleksander replied.

We headed into the stables around the side without another word and readied our horses for an unknown period of resting. It seemed we all waited for everyone to finish before attempting to go inside.

“Hey.” I said, looking back at Trever who was standing at the entrance of the stables, looking south. “Are you coming?”

“Ah—no. I’m just going to stay out here for a while.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, Jay. Just go in. You’ll see me later. I’m not going anywhere.”

I knew why he wanted to be alone and walked to the door without saying another word to him. I didn’t want my time here to be about that and forgot about it completely upon stepping inside. It seemed even larger and the others were sitting on dark burgundy leather couches around the large fireplace in the center of the open space but I noticed one thing missing.

“Where’s Adele?”

“I put her in a room upstairs.” Zayden said. “I’m sure we’ll know when she wakes up.”

“Yeah.” Troy laughed. “She’ll want to know where she is.”

I laughed too and looked straight in front of me when I sat down. Ruby was watching me without a smile from the joke. “Is he—”

“No.” I said quickly so she wouldn’t finish her sentence. “He needs to be alone for a while and could you really blame him?” My eyes started to tear up just from saying it out loud and I pulled my legs up on the couch with my head over my knees. “I’m sorry. I can’t talk about it yet.”

Troy rubbed my back and I heard someone get up.

“Stay inside.” Aleksander went out to tend to him and they began talking in private.

Zayden let out a long breath to start a new conversation while he gently stroked the long white fur of the pup at his feet. “You really think she’ll be fine when she wakes up?”

I lifted my head and looked at Ruby before we both turned our attention on Zayden. I noticed he was quick to get on the subject but he sounded worried like he didn’t believe it could have been possible.

“I don’t know.” Ruby answered. “Ryon meant a lot to her. If she’s going to remember like he said, it’s not just going to go away. At least, I don’t see how it could.”

Zayden sat silent, staring at nothing as Ruby and I looked at each other again for a moment. I didn’t really know if I should continue this conversation but did.

“You shouldn’t be troubled by it. She will get over it. He was a big part of her life. He was always there when she needed someone and she appreciated it.”

Ruby sighed in a sad way and looked at the floor in front of her. “Is it weird that I don’t feel sad about it?”

“Of course not.” Darius answered. “You saw him walking around like he was still alive. If you want to feel something then hate Trever.”

“It wasn’t his fault that Ryon decided to—never mind.”

“Maybe not but the guy’s sick. He didn’t have to bring him back and cause all of this.”

“If he didn’t, Zayden would be dead.” Troy said.

Darius let out a long sigh. He never saw good in anything Trever did and that was okay but he hated talking about it more.

“Okay. Enough.” Zayden cut in. “I’m going to have that over me forever as it is so the least we could do is not talk about it. Rift, stay. I’ll be right back.” He got up and started walking down the hall to the right. The cute pup did exactly what he wanted and stayed where he was.

“Maybe someone should make sure he’s okay.” I said. We looked at each other and there was a pause like no one was sure if they should, even little Rift but I was. “Well, okay. I guess I will.”

I walked back into the bathhouse and my eyes first opened wider from the sight. The whole thing was completely tiled with peach colored tiles from floor to ceiling and it had a huge matching porcelain tub that was the focal point of the room, sitting right in the middle.

Zayden was standing over by one of the sinks just hunched over it and I approached him from behind, touching his shoulder. “Zayden?”

He reacted quickly with his speed and turned around with black eyes. We both seem startled by it and he began to calm down first. “Oh, Jaylyn. It’s you.”

“Are you all right?”

“I guess so.” He sighed, turning back around.

“Doesn’t sound it.”

He sighed again and put his head down. “Ryon took those arrows for me. Even if he was dead, Adele is going to feel grateful for that forever but I don’t know if I should be.”

“Who said you have to be?”

Zayden huffed and looked at me through the mirror with his eyes still black. “He was my brother, Jaylyn and I technically didn’t even find out until he was already dead.”

“Are you feeling regret for that?”

“No!”

His voice was unnecessarily agitated and I stepped up beside him, turning my back to the sinks with a possible solution. “You need to relax.”

“How?”

“How do you think? Look at you. You’re stressed and it’s not going away is it?”

“No.”

“Where would you like to do it then?”

Zayden turned his head to me and his body slowly followed. He seemed unsure about what I was offering but I knew he wanted it. He took a longer breath through his nose and I think he did it in a sense to smell me. “You don’t think it would be weird now after finding out we were supposed to be together?”

“Weird? Of course not. We’re not testing what it would have been like. You’re just going to bite me so you can get rid of that. Now, where would you like to do it?”

“All right. It should only hurt at first. At least, that’s how it’s been for me.”

“It’s okay. I’m used to getting worse pains being inflicted by others just for fun that they can.”

Zayden smiled. “I see but maybe you should look away. It’s probably going to be weird for both of us in the beginning.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, exhaling through my mouth while he gently took my wrist in his hands. “Okay. Go ahead. You shouldn’t be like this when Adele wakes up.”

Zayden brought my arm close to him and it happened quickly.

I flinched for just a second when he initially bit but I kept all sounds of pain quiet while Zayden was sucking on my arm. The pain went away like he said it would but it was replaced with a strange feeling of pleasure. Surely something I’ve never felt before but I didn’t know why I felt it at all.

I couldn’t seem to hold my own anymore and let out a breath similar to that of a moan. I opened my eyes with this odd urge to watch and somehow liked seeing Zayden’s teeth in me and his grip tight around my arm. I brought my free hand over to him and ran my fingers back through his hair with light breaths while biting my lip to keep in my moans.

Zayden’s eyes opened from the touch on his head though and he looked at me, slowly pulling away at the same time as his eyes began to fade.

“If this is the bond Trever was talking about then I think we have a serious problem.”

Chapter 32

Zayden

Her expression sent instant worry flow through me. “Did I hurt you?”

I looked down at her arm but the wound had already healed after being out of my mouth for only seconds. A small amount of blood was all that remained.

“No.” She said as she turned to the sink and rinsed the blood off. “It felt—” She seemed hesitant at first like the awkwardness of it all found her but came out with it despite. “Good like—sexually.”

I was a little surprised and it showed on my face. “Sexually? For you?”

She smiled almost shamefully and looked away just to add to her nervousness. “Wow. Was that just me? How embarrassing.”

I laughed. “No. I mean, I didn’t think it would have been anything like that for you. I know it felt great for me. It’s better coming out of someone else.”

“Is this going to make things more difficult? I don’t think either of us thought it would have exactly been like that.”

“Well, we’ll have to see. I don’t mean to sound like I’m coming on to you but I would surely like to do that again. I’ve never felt this good after that’s happened before. It’s like the aftermath of great sex—only without the sex and the orgasm came from my mouth.”

“Okay, you lost me.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I could really explain it either.”

“That’s okay. You don’t have to but maybe we should discuss it with Adele before it happens again. Something might change if she knows. Troy wouldn’t like it to begin with but knowing this would really just make it worse for him like we were actually testing what it would be like if we ended up together. I don’t want him to think that.”

“You don’t like the thought of keeping this from him, do you?”

She paused but the answer was still clear before she said it. “No. It feels almost like cheating, though I haven’t really done that to know what it feels like but I’m sure it’s close.”

“If this is something we decide to keep up until I can get the control then let me talk to him. He would be more considerate to agree if I ask him, knowing my true intentions. Not that you’re not pretty or totally doable but—”