Rylan's Heart (17 page)

“I want you and I will have you. You will not leave here until you realize you belong only to me.”

He tightened the cord cutting off air to Rylan who stood still, not resisting the death that may come to him. Black spots began to swim before Rylan’s eyes as he said farewell to his mate and wished her well until they met again.

Zuhun picked him up and threw him.

Rylan felt his body swirl in time and space, unable to direct where he would go. He felt the path that Zuhun sent him on but something inside of him rose and changed the trajectory.

He opened his eyes on a beach. A niggle of a memory wormed its way into his head. Home. He remembered this beach from when he was a small child. His parents brought him here to play.

The roar at the other end of the beach was Zuhun.

Rylan walked into the water as it gently lapped onto the shore. Laughter whispered through his mind as he remembered the good times. Images he no longer saw came back with sudden clarity. His mother stood before him in her beauty. His father stood behind her straight and tall. This was the day they told him he would be leaving without them.

“Rylan.” His mother fell to her knees in the sand pulling him in for a tight hug.

“Your father and I are sending you to a planet far away from ours for your safety. There is a coup about to happen in this place and we want to make sure the young men are safe, that you are safe. There will be plenty of fighting and we don’t want any of you to become targets.”

“Madra, I am a warrior. I will stay and fight beside Padra.”

“You are a warrior my son and you will live to become a full grown warrior. You will come back and fight beside Padra but not before then. That is my wish.”

“Yes, Madra, as you wish.”

His father pulled him into a rough hug before releasing him to his mother one last time.

“Within your heart I place a gift. When the time is right it will come to full bloom.”

The images of his parents faded and his heart throbbed with the pain as if a knife were going through it. He fell to his knees as he held his chest.

Zuhun trudged through the sand until he stood in front of him.

“I have always detested the sand and the beach more than that I have detested this planet. How did we end up here? This is not where I directed you to go?”

“Guess I’m not as defeated as you thought I was.”

Zuhun reached out to grab the cord at his throat. It dissolved in his hands and fell to dust through his fingers.

“Maybe the cord doesn’t like the sand or the water either.”

Rylan stood, his body taking on power as he looked at Zuhun. It was time for a change.

Rylan knew his parents gave him gifts in their short time together, but he never expected it to change his life. There was a power flowing through his body that he couldn’t understand, but he knew whatever his Madra did to him that day was waking up and gifting him with power.

His chest hurt. The last time he felt pain like this, Dante was trying to kill him—shock him. Whatever that male had done to him in Aran’s house was the last time he felt this—like his heart was about to explode.

Raising his hands, he drew on a well of reserve. He could feel Aviana whispering in his mind, telling him all of her power was his. Then there was Gabe, willing to become anything he needed, allowing him to invade his body and tap into his reserve energy.

Family. It was the one thing he spent many years shying away from. It felt like a lifetime of having no one to now realize everything he ever wanted was laid at his feet for the taking, and then there was Zuhun. Zuhun, who would take everything from him and leave him with nothing. He wouldn’t care that taking Rylan would cause pain for Aviana and Mckayla. He didn’t care that Gabe would become the broken one; all he wanted was to rule his little corner of the world. Or did he want more?

Zuhun stood before him gathering power, little sparks igniting around his body. The male was determined to keep him. He could see it in the way his eyes narrowed and the determined tilt of his mouth. Escaping him wouldn’t be easy.

Zuhun’s body changed once again, becoming thicker. Small tentacle like appendages appeared on his arms and legs each with power coiling around it.

The calm sea behind Ryland became choppy as the sky became the storm color of his blue eyes. Several of the tentacles rose and threw a white flame at him. Rylan quickly raised a shield while moving to the side allowing some of the power to miss him and hit the sand. Blazing fire erupted on the wet sand.

Creating a small window in his shield, he threw out a counter volley to test the strength of Zuhun’s shield. The bolt of energy was devoured by the shield.

Rylan set his mouth and looked for a place of safety to allow his energy levels to build up higher. Zuhun raised his tentacles and fired another blast that had Rylan retreating down the beach. He ran putting space between him and Zuhun.

“Trust your Matra.”
Voyager’s voice rang in his ear.

His two sides had been damaged badly by the abuse they suffered when they were at the mercy of Xolon…and there was no mercy. Although they were merged, they were not one. It seemed better this way. One side could always believe what was happening didn’t affect them. If he had been one instead of two when he was tortured, he would have been forever broken. Instead one side of him retreated while the other stood strong. Some days the Arbrin retreated, but on others it was the Matra.

Now he needed to stand strong. Unless they came together for this cause they would be defeated. The question now was could the two parts of him become one the way they were intended to. His situation was unique so there was no one to ask; all he could do was try. He would laugh but the situation was too serious. He found and ducked into a small cave. Beautiful blue rock shone with an inner power lighting the space that should have been dark.

Crystals along the wall sparked a memory of him playing in this cave as a child. He would change in here and allow his Matra to roam free. They were both so little back then, without a care.

He felt a stretch in his body he hadn’t felt since he was freed from the claws of Xolon. His Matra was curious to see the cave he used to love. The Arbrin held out an olive branch, silently asking forgiveness for ignoring an important side of who he was all these years.

He felt the tilt of the Matra’s head as he examined the olive branch. Looking for a way to ignore it? He didn’t know so he simply waited. He knew he didn’t have time, but this, the first stage of becoming whole, was more important than who might see him and his weakness.

Claws appeared at the tips of his fingers. Rylan dipped his head refusing to believe that he might be weak enough to leak a tear at his Matra accepting his olive branch. Together they ran deeper into the cave as he felt his Matra begin to contribute his thoughts and solutions to the problem of fighting Zuhun.

He came to an abrupt stop when the two parts of him agreed—this was the perfect place for a battle to take place. The cavern was wide; they could feel the power from it feeding them. It was always their special place when they were young. There were several large boulders they could use to mount sneak attacks as well as touch to energize.

Together they pictured Aviana waiting for them and Gabe walking the floor as he prepared to tell them about self-sacrifice. Then Mckayla’s face came to them. They loved her too and couldn’t wait to have a hand in raising her. The thought of their mate wiping their brow before she kissed it to make sure they were ok brought a ray of hope to their heart. They would win or die trying. Never again would they become a victim.

Rylan tapped into the power available to him as his body transformed from Arbrin to Matra. They listened as Zuhun entered the cave quietly, moving towards their position.

The first bolt of fire hit them before Zuhun turned the corner, proving he was both old and skilled. The Matra caught it, shooting it back at Zuhun.

There was a laugh of victory from Zuhun before he appeared in front of Rylan.

“Perfect. Your Matra has come out finally. I always wanted both of you. Thank you for bringing him to the party.”

Rylan threw a white ball of power at Zuhun that spread with contact, coating his shield visible for a few seconds, allowing him to determine how far it spread around his body.

Zuhun quickly doused his body with black flames and his shield became invisible once again.

“Whose idea was that? Was it your Matra’s?” He slowly edged to the side of the cave not touching the walls as he moved around Rylan. I see your Matra is the real brains. Your Arbrin half has been struggling for years, not having any real power, simply waiting for the Matra to come out and take over. Now here you are, a slave to your other half. I can help you. I can facilitate the merging of your two halves again so you will feel whole.”

“Why would you do this?” The words tumbled from the Matra’s mouth sounding rough and unused.

“So you never have to take a back seat again. You will always be acknowledged in my home. I want both the Matra and the Arbrin. Does your mate want that? Does she even know you exist? He hid you so well I would not blame her for her ignorance. Yet if she claims to love you, she must suspect you exist?”

Rylan never turned as his shoulders drooped. His mate should suspect his Matra existed. She should love him as much as she loved the Arbrin. Did she see them as Arbrin and Matra? Would she leave when she realized he was two beings and not one?

A bolt of energy came at him back; he flipped to meet it with a bolt of his own. The two met midair and fought for power. Circling each other, looking for a weak spot to attack and annihilate each other, they both fizzled into nothing.

“Why do you fight, Matra? I will win.”

“What would you do to me if I surrendered to you?”

“I would not torture you if that is what you are asking. If you surrender, I know you are willing to be with me and you will want the same thing I want. I will satisfy all your needs and teach you to need what I need. Together we could be amazing.”

A bolt of electricity came for him. It was shaped like a cord. He ducked behind a boulder as it hit and gave a shriek, sliding down the boulder and twisting in pain on the cavern floor before it winked out of existence.

“You would seek to collar me?” the Matra demanded in surprise.

“No, I simply wish to make your surrender easy so you do not feel like a failure.”

Rylan grunted his anger. The shot he sent out this time wrapped around Zuhun and pulled him up from the cave floor entrapping him. With a screech, Zuhun began cutting into the cords that bound him until he fell onto the cave floor.

“No more chances, Matra. I will capture you and that Arbrin and together you will suffer.”

A bolt of light hit Rylan, the pain radiating from his shield to his body. His knees buckled forcing him to hit the ground. The look of grim satisfaction on Zuhun’s face pulled him back to his feet.

The next attack came; he caught it holding the burning bolt in his hand and tugged Zuhun closer to him before he broke the connection.

A roar escaped Zuhun as he moved from the ground and hovered in the air.

“A weakness, Zuhun? How many more do you have? I will discover them all, and when I do I will eradicate you.”

Rylan opened his hand and the flames were yellow with a red center. He brought them up to his lips and blew, shooting them at Zuhun. A scream of pain followed as the flames devoured his shield.

“Don’t fight it,” Rylan said, standing tall. “Allow it to kill you the easy way, Zuhun. Anything after this will be much harder.”

Engulfed in flames, Zuhun twisted in pain and fury. “This isn’t over, Rylan. Now I want more than just you, I want your whole family.”

Zuhun disappeared leaving Rylan alone in the cave. He sank to his knees as the pain from the fight invaded his body. The blasts he took were now seeping with blood. No longer able to hold himself up, he collapsed on the cave floor knowing he needed to get back to his body.

Rylan heard his Arbrin side whisper in his mind. They needed to leave but the Matra refused to move or give up control of their shared body.

“She’s ours,” the Matra stated. “Not yours, not mine, but ours. I want to be there with her also, to feel her soft hands and to rejoice that we have been given a soul-bond with such generous curves. I know I, we do not deserve her, but that does not change the fact that she is ours.”

“I know. You’re right, she is ours as we are hers. I have not told her, but I suspect she knows. She knows me in some ways that are better than I know myself. We will tell her, and then we will show her. She will accept you because you are a part of who I am.”

The Matra lowered his guard and the Arbrin followed. They walked around each other at first but the urge to become whole was in their eyes. Two spirits, designed to be one from birth, merged for the first time since they were captured by Xolon too many years ago to remember. Like layers of steam, they dissolved into each other knowing they would never be pulled apart again.

Rylan opened his eyes to find he was still bound to the table in the attic. A brief scan of the room let him know Zuhun was not around. His body shook as it tried to become reacquainted with what it felt like to be whole.

His claws popped allowing him to reach backwards and slice the remaining energy beams holding him in place. He would have given a chuckle at Zuhun’s last ditch efforts if the situation was funny. Instead he needed to focus on moving. He was so weak, if Zuhun came back before he was gone it may not matter that he was the victor of the last confrontation.

The effort to sit up wracked his body with pain. Ignoring the ache in his midsection, he used his claws to break the beams at his legs. Carefully, he slid off the table to the floor.

He knew better than to try to stand and crawled slowly to the door. The very essence of the house tried to drain him, keep him until its master returned. His arm shook as he reached up, turning the handle. With deep breaths, he pulled the door open and prepared his body to roll down the steps. Time was of the essence. He curled into a ball and felt every bump and bruise as his hip bones hit the steps knocking the breath out of him.