Shattered Skies: Beginning's End (27 page)

“It won’t be that easy this time Cat. There are no words that can fix it this time. I have to tell you something and I don't want to have to say the words out loud because if I do, it makes them real.”

It wasn't hurt in his voice anymore; it was something that I never expected to hear. It was disgust. We didn’t have time for him to do this now; I wasn’t going to let him. With everything that I had been through, I didn’t need to hear more from him. More importantly, I didn’t think I could stand to hear more from him. I was barely hanging on to my sanity; if he started on me might be the final push and my sanity could go out the window. 

“You know what? Save your damn breath Darien; Jaden already told me. You know I h
ave to be honest with you, Jaden was way better at hiding the disgust in his voice. If I do become a monster, that’s life, and if you want me gone because you can't stand to be around me because of what I might be, then that is fine too. Why not get what you have always wanted? Fuck me and I will die. You’d win either way, that way! Right now, I am asking you to work with me to get Dr. Walker out of that palace and then I will go, or we will get it on for days or however you want to do it. I don’t care anymore. I know what you think about the monsters; I know what we all think. If you can't live with me as one them if that happens, then I won’t stay around. I won’t even live any more if that will make it up to you. I didn’t betray you on purpose Darien, and if you are too upset to see that, I understand. I will be the bigger person because I love you. I forgive you Darien. Hate me if you want, but I forgive you. Now get up and let’s get moving.”

I had known him my whole life and he was just going to toss me away for something that I couldn’t control. I didn't think that my heart had any pieces left that were big enough to hurt, but I was wrong. For half a second I truly braced myself. I had never up until this point believed that you could die of a broken heart, but now I wasn’t so sure. 

“Is that what you think?” He spoke so low I was barely able to hear him. 

“What did you say? We have to go Darien. We don't have time for this.” 

He wasn’t moving, and I couldn’t move him. If we didn’t get Dr. Walker out of there tonight he would be lost. He was a Vampire; he couldn’t live in the sunlight and by tomorrow night it would be too late. All of the excuses that Dr. Walker had constantly used to make us stay underground suddenly started to make sense.

“I said
is that what you think this is all about Cat? That I am disgusted at the thought of you becoming a monster and that is why I am acting this way? Well I have news for you, Cat. I would love you no matter what you were. You could be standing over the top of me strangling the life out of me and my last words would be I love you. I am pissed because at least when there wasn't a chance that you could sleep with him, I knew you could never truly be with him. Now as sure as I am standing here, I feel like I don't stand a chance because sleep with him, you can. I have spent my life waiting for the right moment to tell you how I feel about you and now how I feel doesn’t matter a bit. I just keep thinking, maybe if I had told you sooner it would have been different. If I had only gotten to you at that ball, none of this would have happened. But instead I let my guard down for two seconds, and in those two seconds, I lost my reason for living. I would do anything to give you the life you deserve Cat, and now I have no chance. You own my heart Cat, you always have. Bu you know what? Right now? Right now I wish you were dead Cat. As horrible as that sounds, I wish you were dead. There would be nothing left for me to do if you were dead. Then I could die in peace too. But no, now I have to spend the rest of my life knowing that your heart belongs to Akia and not to me.”

My mouth was still on the ground when I finally realized Darien had left. I hadn’t even notice
d that he had stormed off in the direction of Jaden and left me sitting there all alone. Life just keeps getting better and better. You would think losing most of your family would be enough stress for one day, but then again, it wasn't me unless chaos met me at every corner.

When I made my way back to Jaden and Darien, they
were already dressed for battle. In another situation, I would be laughing at the two of them. It was like they had stepped from a bad spy movie. It was even funnier because with the same type of clothes and masks hiding their faces, I couldn't tell who was who. I have known them for years and I had never taken the time to realize they were so close in build. It took me another minute to finally figure out who was who. Darien was the one that wouldn't make eye contact with me.

“Wow, Jaden, the costumes are a little cliché don't you think?”

He was wearing a black body suite, black jeans, that if I didn’t know better, would have had to have been painted on to be that tight, and his outfit was topped by a black ski mask. They were both looking hot; if the basement had been full of female Dominus guards, the two of them would have easily created enough of a distraction for me to grab the Doc and escape.

“Listen Miss
Fashionista, this was the most functional thing I could find on short notice. Besides, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't looking forward to seeing your cute little ass stuffed into your suit, which, by the way, isn’t made out of denim. I opted for the one piece full leather body suit for you, Cat. I am too tired to try to imagine what’s underneath your jeans, so I thought I would just cut out the guess work and give my imagination a rest and my eyes a treat.” 

Th
e wink and the smile from Jaden was all it took to make me laugh again in what seemed like a century. Wait, with everything that had happened, was it OK to laugh? I knew that it felt good to laugh and right now keeping myself sane was all that mattered. 

“You have always been quite the charmer you know that?”
I said. Jaden let out a little howl.

“Let’s get this show on the road
guys. Let’s go get the Doc and get out of this nut bag town.”

For some reason, the thought of leaving and never seeing Akia again made my heart flutter. If just the thought of leaving
made my heart jump, then I was in more trouble than I thought possible. I just brushed the flutter off as I had every other sensation that came with my encounters with the Regent. He said that he wasn’t using his powers on me, but I didn’t know if I could trust him. How in the world could I know if he was telling the truth or not? If I had known Doctor Walker all my life and I couldn’t tell that he had been lying, what made me think that I could believe Akia the human hater? He already wanted to kill me, and he didn’t even know it was human blood that he so desperately wanted to spill.

“You need to get your head in the game and stop thinking about your boyfriend or you a
re going to get us all killed,” said Darien, correctly guessing the reason for the far off look in my eyes.

I didn’t respond to him. I didn’t know what to say. To say that I wasn’t thinking about Akia would be a lie that Darien would see right through. I silently swore to myself that I would fix thi
ngs between the two us. Somehow I would make him understand what I felt for Akia and what I felt for him. Hell, Darien was smart enough when he wasn’t being an ass. If Akia had brainwashed me, Darien would be able to tell. I ignored him and turned to give the thumbs up sign to team leader Jaden, and then we were up and running toward the castle long before Darien had the chance to launch another barbed word at me.

Once we got closer to
the palace gate, I went over what I had learned. I told them about the overworked guard that was disgruntled enough to ignore the details of his job. If the guard took off again, Darien and Jaden could barricade the hallway to the room where the Doc was chained. I would work on breaking the locks that held him. A barricade wouldn’t hold the Dominus off for long, but it might earn us the extra minute that stood between escape and death for all of us.

The window that
had been unlocked earlier was still unlocked. Trained monkeys would make a better security force for Akia. I would have to tell him that the next time I saw him. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that there wouldn’t be a next time. I pushed the thought aside and grabbed Darien’s hand and let him help me down through the window. He still wasn’t looking at me, which worried me; not because I didn’t know for sure if our friendship was repairable, but because you had to be alert and in sync when you were working as a team, and he and I were pretty far from in sync. Just as we had hoped Dr. Walker had been left unattended between shifts; so, so far so good. I kept repeating over and over in my mind that this was going to work out. I had to believe that; something had to go right eventually. The plan was simple enough. All I had to do was take the key off the new guard, and if he was as lax about his job as Dr. Walker had indicated, then it should be easier than taking candy from a human baby. 

There was no way that the guys could get the key. If either of them were spotted before the key was
in my hands, we would all be dead. Akia had told me that all the guards were ordered to give me free roam of the palace. Unless Akia had told them differently since he and I had last spoken, no one would question why I was down there. I had to appear more sexy and less criminal, so I took off the mask and stuck it in my pocket. I shook out my hair and turned to make sure Darien and Jaden were out of sight. They were and it was time for me make my magic work. I would be kidding myself if I said I didn’t get off on the fear that was involved in any mission. When you know death is the price you pay if you get caught, the adrenaline rush is amazing. I read in a book once that in battle you feel you are most alive right before you die; it was easy to see why. You were tempting fate and putting your life in her hands and the feeling was indescribable.

I had
nearly made it to Dr. Walker’s door when I ran into the new guard. It was Drake and Drake was enough to stop me in my tracks. He couldn’t have been the guard that Dr. Walker had told me about earlier. This monster was too good at his job. In fact, I was sure that he was the best that Akia had. I had to think fast. Drake didn’t like me at all and no amount of flirting was going to alter his opinion. I had to rely on the fact that the guys where boarding up the entrance, and I had to trust my instincts and change my plans on the spot. Drake was too smart to be fooled by the pouty lipped doe eyed expression that I had been prepared to use. 

“
It’s about fucking time. Where have you been Drake? Akia wants the key; he needs to change the locks out.” I was calm and cold; he would respond better to that. 

“Nice try girly girl. I was just with Akia and he doesn’t even know that you are here.” 

Damn it! So much for plan B. I could bluff, or at least try to, but there was no way he was going to just give me the key. I was in trouble. “Look, I don’t know what you are talking about and I don’t care. Sooner or later I am going to make sure that someone more competent than you gets your job. Now give me the key so I can get on with my business. You have a problem with me and Akia knows it. I am a hundred percent sure that it will be my word against yours Drake and who do you think will win? Now give me the fucking key.” 

He was moving towards me now, way too fast
for me to counter; He wasn’t buying my BS at all. It was a shame that he was an enemy. I really admired his ruthless approach to life; the kill now and sort out the lies later approach. If I lived through this I was going to live my own life like he did. You won’t get hurt if you never let your guard down.

“You know
, you sure have a dirty mouth for such a pretty girl. I can think of lots better things you could do with your mouth that would be a lot more fun for both of us”. I didn’t have time for his advances. I needed to distract him; but sex was not how I wanted to do it. But before I could protest, he had his hand in my hair and his mouth over mine. I somehow kept from gagging and let him kiss me. If he wanted to play rough then I would play along. I used my tongue to challenge him, and from the way he was tugging at my hair and from the way I forced myself to moan into his mouth, I was sure that I had him convinced that he was going to get it. 

As soon as I felt him relax a little I did the first two things I could think of; I bit his tongue and kicked him as hard as I could
at the same time. Super human monster or not, a good kick in the right place brings them to their knees every time. I knew he would fall; what I didn’t expect was him letting out a high-pitched howl. Are you serious? This big tough beast screamed like a girl when he was in pain? He screamed so fast that I couldn’t muffle any of it. I knew the team was in trouble; there was no way that Drake’s scream would go unheard.  Someone was sure to come.

Jaden and Darien were on top of Drake
in a flash and I ripped his keys from their holder. I ran for Dr Walker without waiting to see what they would do to Drake. If I didn’t get Dr. Walker out of there, the mission would be in vain. I knew what had to be done but there was no time to do it. Unless one of the guys was willing to take one for the team to delay things, things were going to become really inconvenient for me really fast. Darien and Jaden wouldn’t be able to kill Drake but they could probably hold him off. There were two of them and Drake was still on the floor half incapacitated by pain. There was no doubt in my mind that they would be able to contain him for a while, maybe even knock him out, but they would never be able to kill him and without Drake dead, we would have no extra escape time at all. And if Drake lived he would tell Akia what I had done and I would surely be hunted down and captured. Drake might not be able to identify who else had attacked him though. He was in too much pain to see straight and the guys had their masks on, so maybe they would get lucky and never be identified, which meant I might be able to take the fall for all of us. The monsters could torture me and I would never tell who helped me; that I was sure of.