Rapture (Elfin Series) (16 page)

“Why did he send you here to take Cassie?” Trik asked the two men for the third time. Still they knelt staring at the ground, neither one willing to speak. He could get them to speak if he felt like making a mess, but the truth of it was
, Trik was tired of torturing people. He had grown tired of it a very long time ago, but before he hadn’t had a choice, now he did.

He looked over at Tamsin who no doubt was expecting him to ask for some sort of tool. Instead
, he said, “They touched my queen with the intent to harm. For that reason, they forfeit their lives. I’m not going to get any information from them, and Cassie is safe. Frankly, I don’t feel like having body parts strewn about the room. Kill them, and then send their bodies back to Lorsan.”

Tamsin nodded but didn’t let the
surprise that Trik knew he felt show on his face.

“Don’t die before her,” one of them finally spoke up just as Trik was turning to leave.

“What did you say?”

T
he dark elf who Trik knew as Agog spoke up again, “If you die before her, he will do horrible things to her. Things you cannot even begin to imagine.”

Trik narrowed his eyes on him and then knelt down just in front of him. “Did he tell you to tell me this? Do you think to scare me?”

Agog shook his head. “No, I know you aren’t easily scared. But if anything should scare you, it should be what he will do to your queen, and what he will allow others to do to her.”

“Why are you telling me this now?” Trik asked.

“I’m going to die. Maybe I can redeem myself in some small way. You are the rightful king; you always have been.”

“You are a tr
aitor to your people,” the dark-elf Tran spat at Agog.

Ago
g shrugged. “We are but dead men; we have no people.”

“I will not grant you
your life,” Trik told him. “But I will make sure your death is quick.”

Ago
g gave him a final nod and then met his gaze. “I hope you are victorious.”

As Tamsin pulled the door closed behind them blocking the two prisoners from view, Trik let out a tired sigh and shook his head. “I’m getting too old for this.”

Tamsin chuckled. “You and me both.” He paused and looked back at the door as if he could see beyond it to the dark elves. “You’re doing the right thing,” he assured him.

Trik nodded. “I couldn’t let them live, but I don’t have to rip them to shreds either. We leave at first light. I’m tired of waiting. I’m ready for Lorsan to be destroyed and to know that my Chosen is safe as well as our people and the humans.”

“I’ll make sure everyone is ready,” Tamsin assured him.

“Tamsin,” Trik said before the light-elf king could walk away, “thank you.”

“Did you kill them? GAH!” Cassie growled. “I feel like all I do is ask if you are going to kill someone or if someone thinks you should kill someone.”

Trik paused as he stood in the open door to her room. He looked at his obviously frazzled Chosen and couldn’t help but think how beautiful she was, even in her stressed out state. She stood staring at him with wide, earnest eyes and he knew what she wanted to hear, but it wasn’t what he could tell her.

“They are scheduled to die,” he finally said as he shut the door behind him. He walked towards her and when he was within arm’s reach
, he pulled her to him and held her close against him. He knew in that moment it was more for his own comfort than hers. He could not give her what she wanted, no matter how disappointed it might make her in him.

“Trik,” she p
ulled back and looked up at him, “Honey, I’m not disappointed in you. Is that really what you think?” she asked him, obviously having picked up on his thoughts.

“I know you don’t want me to be a killer,” he told her.

She took another step back from him putting space between them that he didn’t want. She held her hand up to keep him from stepping closer and he frowned at her.

“Wait,” she said sternly, “you need to hear this. I am NOT disappointed in you. I’m the opposite. I’m so freaking proud of you. I’m in awe of you
, and, yes, I’m scared for you. Don’t you think I’ve seen inside you? You’re constantly telling me that you’re an open book to me and that you don’t hide things from me. Well, news flash, quiver boy, I’ve looked. I’ve seen. And I know that you don’t want to be who you once were, and my only worry was that if you killed those men then the darkness that I’ve seen you battling inside would gain new ground.” She took a deep breath and then let it out as she brushed wisps of hair from her face. “Please don’t think that you have disappointed me. Please know that I stand beside your decision and I get it; I understand.”

“You do?” h
e asked surprised by her words.

“Yes, I do. I know that as a King you will have to make difficult choices
, and I know that the safety of those under your care comes first.”

“No,” he shook his head, “y
our safety comes first then everyone else’s.”

She smiled. “Fine, my safety comes first
. I’m sorry that Lorsan put you in a position to have to kill.”

Trik let out a deep sigh. “Well
, he’s going to be putting me in that position many times starting tomorrow.”

“What?” Cassie asked confused.

“We leave out at first light,” he looked down at her and reached out and gently brushed his thumb across her cheek. “for battle, Love. I’m tired of waiting. It’s time we end this.”

She walked into his opened arms and laid her head on his chest. Trik felt the rightness of her warm body and as he closed his eyes and let her s
cent and her familiarity soak into his bones, he prayed to the Forest Lords that this wouldn’t be the last time he would hold his Chosen. He prayed that there would be many more nights, with hopefully less clothing.

“I heard that,” her muffled voice said and he laughed as he kissed her head.

“Can’t blame a man for hoping, Beautiful, especially when his future wife looks like you.”

“We’ve set the world on fire. We’ve taken the very thing that was to make them great and poured it out all over the ground
, trampling it as we fled. We struck, and now we run as the beast we have provoked comes to life. If we lose, we can at least say that we did not go quietly into the night. We stood for what was right. We stood for those who could not stand for themselves.” ~Tony

Elora heard the explosion before she felt the heat of it as Cush carried her in his arms. He picked up his pace and his feet never faltered even when the ground quaked.

“We almost got in that vehicle,” she mumbled to herself in disbelief. “We would have been blown to teeny tiny bits.”

“I can’t imagine you in bite size pieces,” Cush told her, not even breathing hard.

“Did you just make a joke?” she asked him as she looked up at him.

His lips twitched but he didn’t answer her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled up so that she could look over his shoulder. Her mouth opened slightly as she saw the flames that engulfed the vehicle. These flames weren’t the same as the ones that Rin and
Cush had produced; these flames were black.

“What the,” she muttered.

“Black flames?” Cush asked as he continued to run.

She nodded as her eyes continued to stare at the odd flames.

“Their magic is a product of what is inside of them. Dark magic for a dark soul,” he explained.

“So basically whatever you look like on the inside is what will come out?”

“Exactly,” he agreed.

They continued on in silence
and Elora eventually settled back in his arms. She laid her head against his chest and tried to keep the wall up between them. She was getting tired of holding it up. She missed him, oddly enough, even as she was held in his arms. She missed the closeness that she felt between them when she didn’t have a mental wall separating them.  She knew that the minute she let it down he would know what she was thinking and would know that she intended to stay in the human world without him. And she knew that he would probably blow a gasket, so for now she would just keep that little tidbit to herself.
Damn, where is my best friend when I need her?
she thought to herself.
Oh that’s right, she’s stuck in another realm attempting to take out a dark-elf king,
she added and grinned to herself. Cassie would tease her about talking to herself, but then if Elora knew Cassie, her best friend had already had many of her own pep talks with herself.

She didn’t know how long they had been running when she finally felt Cush begin to slow. She picked her head up from his chest and looked around. She saw that her mom was standing next to them so Elora pushed away from Cush
, motioning for him to put her down. She could tell that he didn’t want to but he finally gave in.

“There’s a motel there,” Tony said breathlessly
. He was pointing to a dilapidated building that was sporting a twitching neon sign that struggled to advertise V_CA_CY.

“Good,” Oakley wheezed as he too attempted to catch his breath. “Running for my life exhausts me and I could use a shower.”

“We get two rooms,” Cush spoke up.

“I call girls and guys,” Elora said quickly before Cush could assign them. Cush frowned at her but she simply shrugged.

“You have much to learn if you think that will deter him,” Lisa whispered to her as she leaned in close.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elora asked her mom.

“We’ll talk soon.” Lisa smiled to her gently. “I’m in agreement with your brother; I need a shower.”

Cush took Elo
ra’s hand. “We’ll get the rooms; you guys keep watch for anything that looks suspicious.”

“And by suspicious you mean?” Oakley asked.

“People who are too beautiful, black flames, or someone holding a sign that says I’m a dark elf and I’m here to kill you,” Elora quipped.

“Right,” Oakley chuckled, “t
hanks, Sis.”

“Anytime
, Bro. Like I said, I got your back.”

Twenty minutes later Elora threw herself on the stale motel bed and sighed. “Saving the world is tiring.”

Lisa laughed. “Are you sure it’s saving the world that is wearing you out?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” she groaned. “Okay, so you know how in the movies people always have revelations at the most inopportune times?”

Lisa nodded as she sat down on the bed opposite her
daughter.

“Well that actually happens,” Elora continued. “I mean there we
were in the middle of a war zone with Cush and Rin shooting out elf magic and flames all around and BAM!” she hollered. “It just hits me, Cush likes what he does, Lisa. He likes being a warrior. He enjoys hunting bad guys and taking them out and I will get in the way of that. That is why he didn’t want a Chosen. That is why at first he didn’t want me.” The words are only a little painful as she says them, though she knew they would hurt worse if she thought that he truly didn’t want her.

“Okay,” Lisa prompted her to continue.

“Well, I realized that I can’t take that from him. I mean, seriously, how long until he rolls over one night and looks at me and thinks
this is what I gave up fighting for
? I don’t want him to resent me, Lisa,” she said as she sat up and slammed a hand against her chest in emphasis. “It would kill me if one day he realized that he was unhappy and would have been happier had he not taken me as his Chosen, or whatever, but continued to be a warrior.”

“Elora, H
oney,” Lisa started but Elora held up her hand to stop her mom.

“No, I know what y
ou’re going to say and I get it. I do. I know that because I’m his Chosen that there is some mystical, soul mate crap, and you’re going to say there is no way he could ever resent me, but I don’t believe that.”

“Okay, that’s not what I was going to say,” Lisa chuckled. “But good guess. What I was going to say is that don’t you think that Cush is old enough to decide for himself what he wants?”

Elora looked taken aback. “No,” she said matter-of-fact like which drew another laugh from her mom.

“And why not?” Lisa asked.

“Because he’s a guy and more than likely he’s simply thinking about what happens in the bedroom if we are together or whatever.”

“Elora,
” Lisa shook her head, “Cush is not a sixteen-year-old boy. He’s a grown man, an ancient warrior, who has known all his life that he might one day meet his Chosen. You need to give him more credit than that.”

Elora thought about that for a few moments before she finally shrugged. “Maybe. But is it really a chance I should take?”

“Is this about Cush? Or is this about you being afraid of getting hurt?” Lisa asked.

Elora felt as if a ton of bricks had been dropped on her chest. Part of it was definitely about Cush, but now that her mom had asked the question she had so studiously been avoiding in her own mind, the simple truth of it was staring her in the face and she couldn’t turn away. She loved him. Plain and s
imple—she loved the elf warrior who was overbearing, bossy, pushy, and yet surprisingly, funny and sweet. She loved him and she was terrified that he wouldn’t—
couldn’t
love her.

“You suck,” she told her mom with a half-smile.

Lisa patted her leg. “Talk to him.”

“Yeah
, okay, I’ll get right on that,” she paused, “after we save the world.”

Lisa shook her head and then stood and walked to their motel door. She pulled it open and looked back at her daughter. “Nope, you’ll do it now.”

Elora’s eyes widened as Cush stepped in. “Thank you, Lisa,” he said to her mom, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Crap,” Elora breathed out as the object of her conversati
on shut the door behind her mom and locked it.

Tony watched as Lisa came into the motel room he was sharing with Oakley and the two other light-elfin warriors. She looked incredibly young to have a grown son and nearly grown daughter, but then if she had been mated to an elf, she had, at least at one time, had near immortality.

“So what’s your story,” he asked her as she sat down at the small table and chairs that were shoved into the far corner of the room. Lisa’s
head snapped up to look at him; her eyes widened slightly at his question.

“What do you mean?” s
he asked.

Tony walked over and took a seat across from her. “I mean
, how did a human end up the Chosen of a dark elf, have his children, and then end up a widow?”

She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You do realize that you asked me how I ended up the widow of a
dark
elf right? It makes much more sense that if I am a widow it would be of a dark elf and not a light elf, doesn’t it?”

“You’re dodging the question,” he pointed out.

She shrugged. “It’s not something I like to talk about. We all,” she looked at him pointedly, “have skeletons in our closets, some more than others.”

Tony held up his hands in surrender. “Touché.”

“All you really need to know, Tony, is that my mate was a good man and he died doing the right thing.”

“Did Trik kill him?”

The words hung in the air between them like a contagious disease neither of them wanted to catch. Lisa met his eyes and gave a small nod. Tony watched her for a few seconds longer before he spoke again. “So what now? Did Cush have a plan for after he destroyed the production of Rapture?”

“We need to get the portals back open,” she told him. “We figured out the only way to do that is to have on
e of Lorsan’s subjects willingly give a sacrifice of blood.”

Tony laughed out loud as his hand slammed down on the table. “You think you will get one of the dark elves to betray their king?” He shook his head. “Not likely. They’re too scared of what he will do to them.”

Rin sat up from where he had been lying on one of the motel beds. “We never said it was going to be one of the dark elves,” he pointed out. “We said it had to be a
subject
of Lorsan, meaning anyone under his rule.”

Tony’s head turned slowly until his eyes collided with the large warrior. “Ahh,” he blew out a breath. “You want me to be the sacrifice.
”

“Are you ready to talk?” Cush asked.

Elora straightened her shirt for the hundredth time, though it hadn’t needed it the other ninety-nine times either, and studiously tried to avoid meeting his penetrating gaze.

“Well
, I don’t think I have much of a choice; it seems that you and my mom are in cahoots against me.”

She heard the warm rumble of his deep chuckle and fought the urge to climb in his lap and beg him to hold her close. She had to be strong and she had to get a freaking grip because she needed him to understand that she wasn’t going to let this happen between them just because they were destined for one another. Did she want him?  Hell yes, but not if it cost him doing what he loved most.