Set In Sparks (Morningstars Book 2) (8 page)

“I'm gonna go and find him,” he decided, but Maya suddenly stood in front of him, pressing her palm against his chest.

“You stay. Whatever there is between Jaden, you and me has to wait until we know why you aren't you,” she decided, meeting his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Kaden, I felt it. The place where I should have been feeling you? There was nothing.” Only then struck him the words she had said earlier to his twin.

“What in the world makes you think I've been with other women?” he wanted to know and her eyes clouded with a new wave of sadness.

“I know you think the bond fades if it's not being renewed, but Kaden, I took so much of your blood that it won't fade or get weak. I'll always feel what you are feeling, and I could feel the arousal you felt, or the grim relief at the end of the night. I could never sleep through such intense feelings, so please, don't even try to lie to me, especially not tonight. I cannot take it.”

Kissing her was probably the last thing he should do, but Kaden couldn't help himself as he framed her face and kissed her forehead with all the longing he felt. Once he stepped back, he paled though. Bloody handprints marred her beautiful features and he instantly started rubbing over the spots until Maya grabbed his arms, pushing him away with angry tears in her eyes.

“Stop touching me, Kaden!” It shattered him to see her glare at him. “You think I care about that blood on my face right now? No. I care to know where it came from. What happened? What is wrong with you? Until we find that out, you will not be going anywhere, even if it means I have to guard you myself.”

Kaden followed her with his eyes as Maya made her way to the stairs leading up to the first floor. “What about Jaden?” He worried about his brother because, after all, he was the second broken corner in their weird, twisted triangle.

“Let him get over the hurt. There's no use in talking to him now. We betrayed him and it cut him deep, deeper than we even guessed. Nothing you or I can say will make it better, so just let him be,” she pleaded, hanging her head.

There was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do and that almost killed Kaden on the spo
t
.

Cany was shaking like a leaf in the wind. She hated that Ryder was sitting next to her and luckily, the twins had kept Maya from joining them.

“Maybe I should stay back too. That back there didn’t look too good,” she remarked, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder. Truth was, Cany had no idea which direction the mansion was.

“You aren’t going back. She told Jaden,” Ryder said curtly and Cany turned in her seat to face him, a scowl on her face.

“And you know that how?” she snapped and Ryder didn’t even spare her a glance. He was tense and Cany wondered why. It couldn’t just be the twins, but then again, they used to be close friends.

“I saw the way Maya was looking at Jaden. She kept touching him as if she knew he wasn’t going to stick around. She didn’t once look at Kaden even though she probably thought about him just as much as she thought about Jaden,” Ryder gave back and Cany swallowed. She had only seen the couple exchanging gentle gestures. She hadn’t even thought more about it.

Panic took her over, making her hands tremble for a different reason than before. “Take me back. Now, Ryder. Please. She’ll be hurt. Jaden will be hurt. I don’t think he’ll stay! Please, Ryder! Let me check on her. I need to see her. Please,” she begged, touching his arm and hating herself for noticing how his corded muscles jumped under her touch. She wished Ryder wouldn’t wear a long-sleeved shirt because even that little material appeared too much. Shaking her head, she told herself to get a grip.

“We’ll see your parents tonight, Cany. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you hope to get out of this. You pale every time we talk about it. I need to know what’s going on,” Ryder explained, just hitting the gas stronger. They were still going away from her Queen and towards her family home. His expression was taut and she settled back in her seat.

“It’s nothing. Why should something be going on? I just want to invite them to the masquerade, maybe have my mother come for the dancing lesson. She loves dancing,” Cany mused, watching his expression go soft. It surprised her.

“Stop looking at me,” Ryder mumbled, a smile playing around the corner of his lips. Cany couldn’t. He was beautiful. His long dark lashes brushed against his high cheekbones whenever he blinked. His lips were full, the upper one smaller than the lower one and yet Cany wanted to nibble on it. Grinding her teeth against the impulse, she turned away, knowing that those emerald eyes next to her were sparkling now.

“I didn’t,” Cany declared and then rubbed her knuckles over her brow. She was nervous, more than she would have ever admitted and Ryder’s white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel just intensified it.

Too soon he parked the car in front of the house Cany luckily didn’t live in anymore and he killed the engine before turning to her. How such a big guy could fit into a Ford Mustang was still a mystery to her. In fact, he seemed to take up all the air she so desperately needed.

“You can tell me now what’s bothering you or I’ll find out inside. Cany, I’m here to protect you and I can’t do that if I don’t know what we are walking into. You’re the Queen’s first courtier, and I’d like for it to stay that way because otherwise Maya’s gonna have my balls for breakfast.”

“Eww,” Cany commented at that rather disturbing image. “I have serious doubts that Maya wants to come into such close proximity to you,” she smiled, but then sobered again. “Please, I’m in no danger at all. This is my home … used to be my home. They are just…”

The white front door opened before Cany could finish. Her mother stood there, small and slim, while Ryder and Cany watched in silence how the wind picked up her mother’s ebony curls, blowing them around her slender face. Ryder glanced out of the front window up at the darkening sky. “Wow, look at that storm outside,” he commented, as it only got worse, twirling dead leaves and fallen twigs around. Cany took a deep breath, trying to calm her mood, which stood in stark contrast to her mother’s face, a mask of calm and pale like a Greek statue.

“I imagined her to look a little friendlier,” Ryder mumbled in surprise. Cany couldn’t help but wonder how he had imagined his first meeting with her parents to go. She snorted as she realized that she almost sounded as if she was taking him on a date instead of having him protect her. In a gesture that probably was meant to ease her tension, Ryder reached out to brush a curl over her shoulder. She felt his fingertips even through her light leather jacket and in that moment, she wished she could be leaning in now, brushing her lips over his and just drawing strength from that little contact, but she couldn’t. She would never be able to follow through with that.

“Let’s go,” Cany said, opening the door while carefully trying to extract her dress from the confinement. “Mother,” she smiled, bowing to her like she had learned from an early age on. There were no hugs in Cany’s home, at least not between her and her mother. Dear Creator, why did Cany crave physical contact the most in these moments when she saw the tiny woman that birthed her?

“Hurricane, good to see you.” It was a lie. Cany could hear it in the strained tone of her mother’s voice and could see it in the taut lines on her face. If Ryder was surprised by the hostility and her real name, he didn’t let on. “Come in, why don’t you? And pick up that dress before you ruin it.”

Cany found herself wishing she had succeeded in going alone, wishing that Ryder wouldn’t bear witness to more exchanges between her and her mother, but he stood there, a looming shadow with a bad scowl on his face. Cany felt as if she was five all over again and it made her want to cry.

Jaden entered the Morningstar compound, feeling as if he never before had walked those halls. For a fleeting moment, he considered that this most likely was what Maya had felt once she realized his betrayal. What grim irony it was that he now felt exactly the same way she had felt. He recognized the feelings, remembered them from the time Maya was alone in that new mansion of hers, defeated and broken. It was how he felt. He had lost her for good now, and couldn’t do a thing about it.

“Look who suddenly remembers his warrior friends!” Jaden knew the comment was meant as a joke, but he still turned to Lex, wondering why no one had ever bothered to so much as breathe anything about that secret to him, one so big it could shatter a lot of worlds. The mind reader’s expression sobered and Jaden noticed that he had forgotten to guard his thoughts. Then again, he wasn’t really in a talking mood anyways. The dark haired fighter cocked his head, rubbing his palm over his black buzz-cut hair.

“Why did you come here then if you don’t wanna talk?” Lex asked, reacting to his unspoken thoughts. The mind reader was one of the most loyal warriors Jaden knew and yet he had never realized what a burden Lex truly carried. Maya was still guarded around him because she had trusted him and he had broken that trust, yet it took until that moment for Jaden recognize how horrible Lex’s position really was. Great, since a moment of clarity was exactly what he needed when he had come here with the intention of glowering at everyone.

“Maybe we should not do this in the hallway,” Lex suggested and Jaden just nodded, following him until they reached the mind reader’s room. It was scarcely decorated with a bed, a dresser, two nightstands and a poster pinned on the wall. It was a movie poster from a movie called
The Exorcist
, one that Jaden had never seen and he sure didn’t feel the need to ever rectify that. As it was, he saw enough horrors out on the street every damn night and believed he didn’t need to waste his time watching horror movies, chick flicks, or television in general.

“Vodka?” Lex asked, offering him a bottle. Jaden wished he could get drunk, but he knew that never was going to happen since his body simply worked against it. Now, a slight buzz would be possible, but only if he emptied the tall glass bottle all in record time.

“I fear it won’t help,” he grumbled and Lex nodded.

“We can always pretend to be drunk,” he suggested and Jaden gave him half a smile. While they had almost the same height, he had always thought the mind reader to be standing taller than he. There was just something about the confidence Lex exuded that impressed Jaden and, most likely, everyone else who met the fighter.

“I’m curious. What’s your excuse? Why didn’t you tell me?” Jaden no longer thought it was because Lex was taking sides, but simply because with a power like he owned it, you would end up all alone of you shared every secret.

Lex luckily didn’t try to play the innocence card. Instead, he took a deep breath. “It wasn’t necessary. Maya was so upset once she realized what a mess you were all in. It wasn’t even on her behalf. She hurt for Kaden …”

Of course she did. They could have had happy weeks and she wasted them on me
, Jaden thought. Lex instantly shook his head, a scowl furrowing his brow.

“No, buddy, not at all. You seriously don’t know her if that’s what you think happened.” Jaden decided to stay quiet at that, closing his eyes while the Russian liquid burned its way down his throat. Sadly, all he could see was Kaden holding Maya and kissing her forehead, at least it would be what Jaden would do to try to comfort her.

“Listen, how about I tell you how that night went and you stop throwing images at me that I highly doubt are true?” Lex objected to his thoughts and Jaden groaned.

“Have you ever tried forgetting about the fact that your one and only is with another guy?” he growled and Lex gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles jumping. The anger was almost tangible and Jaden held up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. Just go on.”

“Maya told Kaden that there was no chance for them. She told him repeatedly that she belongs to you. She didn’t want to have his blood. She was ready to die over it, Jaden. Dead. Gone. Vanished. You know what I’m talking about?” Lex made sure Jaden was still listening to him, but Jaden couldn’t help shivering. He remembered the pictures or whatever it had been he’d seen earlier, with Maya’s blood coating the floor like the red velvet had. So much precious blood. It scared him and cold spread through his body.

“Good, we are on the same page,” Lex decided, obviously still following Jaden’s thoughts. “She didn’t want to link Kaden to herself in any way. If someone knows how strong this bond between a mate and his Origin is, it’s Maya. She wasn’t ready to have Kaden hurt over that. She wanted to carry that burden alone.” Jaden didn’t want to think about Maya and Kaden bonding. He didn’t even want to think about Kaden loving his Origin because Maya felt the same in return. It was nothing that made Jaden feel better, not in the slightest.

“You know, heart to heart is always awesome, but right now I need to get out or I might throw up all over your pretty carpet. Oh wait, you don’t have one, oh well. Thank you, Lex, for nothing really,” Jaden snapped, knowing that Lex was the last person to deserve his anger.

“Imagine having woken up on that bed after your poisoning and finding out that Maya was no longer. Really imagine it.” Jaden froze with his hand on the doorknob, refusing to let those images flood his mind.

“Can you see yourself opening the door, happy to be alive, only to hear that she gave her life for it? Can you imagine the hole in your chest? You would have met me and Kaden standing in the hall of your home, both pale, rocked to the very core by the death of a tiny girl. Can you see yourself running down the stairs to make sure she wasn’t there, tapping into her feelings and not finding anything? You’d be hollow now, Jaden. Then imagine Colbin telling you that they couldn’t have done anything and that Maya knew this was a huge chance. Ryder probably would have been so mad because life robbed him of making things all right with his little sister.

“Can you see staring at your best friend, who’d be so hurt, he’d tell you that your damn twin could have saved her, but nobility had kept Maya and Kaden from it? Come on, Jaden. We both know you would have probably tried to hurt Kaden for it.” Jaden saw it like he had to stop and watch a car crash. He didn’t want to, shaking his head against the onslaught of pictures and yet they all came raining down, images like nothing left of Maya to bury but the clothes she had worn and pure fury because life had taken from him what he loved most, but most of all anger towards his twin for not having made it right.