Set In Flames (Morningstars Book 1) (13 page)

Maya woke up because she was hot. She couldn’t exactly remember when she last had felt so warm, but this morning, or better evening, it was too much.

She hadn’t been knowingly freezing, but with the heat now having invaded her body she noticed how cold she had felt ever since she had arrived.

Sitting up, something black slid down from her body and with shaking hands she reached for the material.

A sweater. And by the spicy smell, one of Jaden’s. Someone was trying to play a seriously cruel joke on her and even though she wished she would be angry, she couldn’t help but pull it over her head.

His smell instantly surrounded her and she took a few deep breaths before getting mad at herself, taking the sweater off again and then throwing it across the room.

Looking around she saw a fire burning in the fireplace. It was the first time ever and she was surprised, because for some reason she had considered it fake, just deco in this room. She did like that it was lit though. If she combined all the evidence, meaning sweater, fire and the breakfast next to her bed, she’d say it had been someone with a very guilty mind.

Someone like her mate. Sighing she got up, picking a brow up at some flowers that stood on her desk.

The fact that he wasn’t here spoke volumes, yet she couldn’t help but softening towards him again. He cared. No matter what he told himself; he couldn’t stay cold towards the woman that so rudely had been forced upon him.

The rain was coming down hard, when Maya decided to settle in her favorite window seat with a book. She already knew she wouldn’t get to it anyways, but she at least wanted to try. Her mind though simply didn’t focus.

The door clicked and she knew someone had snuck in. She turned, expecting Lex, hoping for Jaden and finding… Red. She knew by now that he had gotten his name because of his eyes, which marked him as one of their enemies.

Maya had been dying to talk to him, to the supposedly heartless one.

He stayed by the door, making her wonder if it was for his sake or hers.

“Grab a chair,” she invited and he did, coming closer.

She waited, giving him a chance to sort through his thoughts.

“It’s not true, you know?”

She blinked. “What is?” she asked, putting the book aside so she could pull her knees up to her body.

“I’m not heartless. That means you don’t need to be afraid of me. I know what the guys may or may not have told you,” he said, his voice soothing. It made her smile.

“I’m not, and I’m sorry if I gave you that impression,” she explained, seeing how he picked up a brow. “Why are they calling you the heartless one if it’s not true?”

Silence stretched between them and she started to wonder if he only was there because everyone else had been in to see her. Was he feeling obligated to keep her company, too? She reached for her book just when he ran a hand through his raven hair.

“Staying in control is hard. Emotions easily throw that control. I don’t hang out with them often… or feel compassion the same way they do. I’m making a choice against being evil every hour of every night. That’s why they call me the heartless one. I don’t care what you represent in their society, or who you are meant to be once you get out, but keeping you a prisoner like this is wrong. I figured you could use some…” He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head in thought.

“Friends?” she helped out, but he instantly shook his head.

“I don’t do friends. I never did, which is why I’m not having a preference for any of the other guys,” he explained and she grinned. “That’s not what I meant! I meant I’m not close to any of them,” he said, blanching under her eyes. She laughed before sobering again. If he had no friends and wasn’t close to any of the guys, then… The question was who of them was the truly lonely one?

“I’m glad you came by. I feel terrible. I wish I could just leave. I’d stay wherever your leader wants me to stay, as long as I could pick,” she whispered and Red forced a smile onto his lips. It looked as if someone was trying to torture him.

“I know how you feel. They kept me locked up a long while before they trusted me. Only my quarters weren’t as comfortable as yours.”

She shook just from that announcement, but still wondered if maybe he had gotten the better end of the deal after all. “I wish they would just put me into a cellar. That way no one would have to pretend I have a free will.”

“Oh May, don’t say that! You are a pure soul, a good person. Good people don’t…” He drew a long breath. She stared at him, wondering if he had gotten her name wrong or… Had he possibly given her a nickname? Was he trying to make her feel at ease? For someone who was rumored to be heartless he sure was going out of his way to make her feel better.

“Get locked up for being a freak?” she teased, hoping to ease the tension he was throwing off.

“You aren’t, and you know that. I do have to say I am jealous of your purple eyes though,” he admitted with a sad smile.

“Because they’d ease your struggle?”

He nodded.

“Can I ask you a few questions? Red is stupid. You have to have a real name, right? All parents name their child something,” she whispered and he got up from his chair, walking over to the next window to rest his forehead against the cold glass. She noticed how his eyes began to glow around the irises. Asking for either his parents or his name caused too many emotions, it seemed.

“Miles. They called me Miles. They hoped a normal, boring name would change what I was. It didn’t. Once I changed I decided to leave that name behind. The guys were eager to provide a new one though. Red just stuck.” There was a strain in his voice and she could see the veins in his neck bulging. “I gotta go,” he added suddenly, but she didn’t let him, simply stepping in his way.

She needed to prove to him that she wasn’t scared. “Stay, I can read to you and you can just listen. It’ll calm you down. I don’t want you to go like that,” she said quietly and his glowing eyes focused on her.

“You should be afraid and I don’t wanna scare you,” he pressed, but she just reached out to touch his arm.

“I’m not. Sit. I’ll read to you. It’s a sappy romance about a chance meeting between a soldier and a girl. You’ll love it,” she grinned, waiting for him to settle down. She could tell he was reluctant, but she rather knew he was okay before he left her room than worrying how guilty he felt about scaring her. Sitting down as well, she picked up the book she had intended to read.

“You’ll be a great Queen,” he suddenly said and she paused before she even had started to read.

“What makes you say that?”

“You are not afraid to stand up for people who need it. You know when someone needs company,” he mumbled and she shook her head.

“It’s what helps, isn’t it? Company?” she asked and he nodded.

“It’s a fucking paradox. Usually I get more emotional when I’m around people, but they, too, calm me down the most. Each and every time I run the risk of hurting them. Even the guys are too afraid to stick around then. They never say it, but I know.”

She stared at him for a long moment. “It hurts you,” she stated, but he just shook his head.

“Miles, let me be your friend. Talks like this might bring out emotions you don’t wanna face, but maybe they’ll make it less likely you’ll go crazy,” she suggested.

“You really are desperate, huh, May?” he teased and she was glad to notice that the glowing of his eyes subsided.

“I’ve been locked up a lot in my recent years, and I thought that Jaden might be my salvation. I was slightly wrong. He was nothing I thought him to be.” A bitter feeling rose up in her throat and she hugged herself. It had been a while since she had seen the guy that was supposed to become her mate one day.

“I don’t know Jaden very well, May. Kaden, Ryder and him are a pretty tight unit.” She had heard that before and still she wanted to hug Red because he wasn’t trying to feed her some line about how amazing Jaden usually was. “He did save my life more than once though. And if you asked me; if you were my girl I’d take you away and keep you in my house,” he offered, surprising a laugh out of her.

“You wouldn’t,” she replied and he grinned, guilty.

“True, I’d be too afraid to hurt you. A mate for me wouldn’t be good at all.”

He shook his head as if he never before had contemplated that thought. Maybe it was because there hadn’t been a Queen. Maybe it was because he thought Fate wouldn’t allow him to have one.

“I’m sure you heard that already, but my mother is like you… Only not as sane,” she explained quietly, staring at her hands.

“Your mother deserves death, May, for everything she has done to you.” The glow returned to his eyes as his anger came.

“Hey,” she said softly, reaching out to touch his hand. He stared at the skin contact as if he expected Maya to go up in flames. “I know she’ll get what she deserves. I hope that once I changed, someone will take the time to show me how to defend myself. Until then though I’m here and don’t need to fear her,” she explained and still Red stared at her hand.

“You really aren’t afraid of me, are you?” he wanted to know and she gave him a smile.

“Miles, I’ve seen monsters and I’ve seen good men. You don’t belong into the first group. You belong to the latter,” she told him with a conviction that came deep from her soul.

He surprised her by first leaning in to kiss her on the forehead and then by kneeling in front of her. He bowed his head, taking a deep breath.

“My life before yours. I will always protect you, my Queen. You’ll be truly amazing, May!”

She was speechless and guessed that he hadn’t expected an answer anyways, because he stealthily moved to the door, leaving the room with an expression that surely mirrored her own. After a few moments Maya decided to head out into the game room. She wasn’t ready to spend yet another night alone.

Jaden didn’t even know why he was back in MSP. He hadn’t visited that club in over a year; simply because at some point cheap sex had turned into a sport he no longer wanted to be good at. Tonight though he needed to forget.

He thought about finding a drunken human. If she really was buzzed up, his buzz would be much quicker to come, too. Besides, he wanted to bend some brunette over a bench, do with her all the things his torturous mind had cooked up about Maya.

He wanted to grab her hard and take her against a wall because he couldn’t get to a bed fast enough.

He wanted to pull her hair while he took her from behind.

He wanted to make love to Maya for a full night, missionary style, just because it meant he’d be able to look into her purple eyes all the time.

He couldn’t do all those things though and he needed some human woman, cheaper than a prostitute, because they gave their bodies for free.

His gaze swept through the dark club, making him remember too well the night the club had been emptied because one bartender or the other had been beaten to a bulb in the back.

The owner didn’t mind what visitors did to each other, but when someone as much as grabbed a bartender’s ass he went bat-shit crazy. Not that any of those girls usually minded. It was easy to see by the way their breasts all but fell out of the top.

He had slept with no less than ten of MSP’s bar-chicks throughout the decades.

“Hey there, handsome,” a girl said, her words slurred by too much alcohol. She should be on her way to bed in her home already, but it suited Jaden fine that she wasn’t.

The voice was wrong, but her hair had about Maya’s length and she wasn’t much taller than his Origin. She’d do just fine.

“Back corner,” he ordered and she instantly went ahead. Her smell almost made him sick because she wore too much perfume, but that was bearable. Anything would do to hide the smell of the guys that already had been on her tonight. And by the bite marks on her neck he’d say he was third now.

She wanted to go under his shirt the moment they reached the corner, but he pushed her hands down. Wearing a shirt was his newest tick. Even though Maya wouldn’t know, he did it for her. His chest was hers after all… Just like everything else about him belonged to his Origin only. It didn’t keep him from trying to get her off his mind though.

“I am not here to cuddle with you,” he told the barfly and she only nodded, getting her hands on his pants.

In the almost dark corner of the hallway it was easy to imagine Maya being that woman.

As long as she didn’t speak he could see what he wanted and his imagination seriously was good. He always had been amazing at lying to himself.

Her kindling with his pants started to annoy him, so he grabbed her and pressed her chest forward against the wall. His need to bite her had vanished the moment he had seen her other bite marks, but he still wanted to take the edge of his need.

“I’m gonna fuck you hard and fast now, you hear me? You better be ready,” he growled into her ear, pressing his whole body against hers to make sure she had nowhere to go.

“I’m so wet for you, handsome,” she purred and he closed his eyes, moving his lips close enough to her ear so she’d feel him speaking.

“Do. Not. Make. Another. Sound.” She nodded instantly and he pushed up her skirt, one hand buried in her hair. He immobilized her as well as he could, not wanting her to turn back to him.

She either didn’t wear her panties anymore or she had come without right away. It didn’t matter to him.

Just when he was ready to get down to action, his phone rang and he cursed, intending to let the voicemail pick up, but it just kept ringing and ringing again.

“Fuck,” he growled, pulling it out.

It was Lex. He had no idea when the mind reader and he had become the It-couple, but he picked up nonetheless.