The Relentless Warrior (14 page)

Avalon regarded his wife carefully before saying, “What if the mission doesn’t pose
as much of a threat as
she
does to the
mission
?”

“You know, I’m right here,” Olivia announced pointedly. “You can stop talking about
me like I don’t exist.”

We ignored her.

“Then Jericho sends her back,” Mimi shrugged and came to stand next to me. “You trust
him for everything else, Avalon. Are you really questioning his judgment now?”

Avalon huffed out a breath and turned to Sebastian, “And what do you think?”

Sebastian looked back and forth between Olivia and me, something surprisingly intelligent
flashing in his expression. “You let Seraphina tag along on missions. How much worse
could it get?”

“God, I hate you,” Seraphina snarled.

“I’ve heard that before you cheeky wench,” Sebastian smirked at her- looking so much
like his arrogant cousin I rolled my eyes. “But last time there was a little more
moaning involved.”

“Alright,” Avalon stepped in and held up his hands to keep Seraphina from flying across
the room and clawing Sebastian’s eyes out. Not that I would blame her. “That was no
help.” He glared at Sebastian.

Sebastian shrugged, holding both palms up. “Listen, like Jericho’s said, we’ve gone
into these situations before with people that aren’t prepared. But we’ve always trusted
instinct and Magic to get us through. I don’t know why now should be any different.
If she’s a pain in the arse, we’ll send her back. But my sister makes a good point.
I’m going crazy from the little time I’ve spent here and this is almost like home
to me. She’s probably about batty by now. Why not take her along? At least she’ll
be able to recognize some of Terletov’s henchmen if we should be lucky enough to run
into them.”

“Kiran? Anything to add to this?” Avalon turned to his co-ruler and raised his eyebrows.

Kiran let out a slow breath and shared a look with his wife. “I’ve seen firsthand
the destruction she’s capable of. I suppose the point has been made. She should go.
She should be given the chance to prove herself at least.”

“Are there other women on the team at least?” Angelica spoke up for the first time.

I felt myself flush with embarrassment. In the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten she
was here. Not only had I made an ass of myself in front of my friends, but someone
I respected, too. Great.

“Roxie,” Sebastian shrugged.

Avalon snorted, “Oh, yeah, she’s super maternal.”

“I don’t need a mother,” Olivia bit out.

A beat of silence pounded in the air before Avalon narrowed his eyes on her and his
skeptical scowl turned into reluctant admiration. “Maybe you’ll be better off than
I’m giving you credit for,” he said.

“Are we good here, then?” I demanded. I needed to get out of this room, away from
these people. I had never been gladder to leave my friends behind. And while I knew
my resentment would die down and I would get these emotional ghosts under control
again, I just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. “Can I go pack?”

“Yeah,” Avalon answered. “Yes, you’re free to go. Call me when you land. I’ll want
a full brief of what you find.”

“Sure thing, boss,” I called over my shoulder just to be a jackass.

I walked out into the hallway, shaking off the tension and frustration of that brilliant
meeting of the minds. I couldn’t even remember deciding I wanted Olivia along. In
fact, I distinctly recalled wanting her to stay behind.

And now, I wasn’t only saddled with her, but responsible for her to.

This was just about worst-case scenario for me.

“Jericho, wait!” she called from behind me. She jogged to catch up and I had to command
my body into silent submission when all I wanted to do was lash out at somebody-
hurt somebody
.

“I have to go pack,” I said shortly. “You should go do that, too. I want to leave
in one hour.”

“Oh,” she cocked her chin back and seemed surprised by my attitude. A pang of guilt
punched me in the stomach, but I was in too sour of a mood to care. “I will, uh, go
pack that is. But I just wanted to say thank you for standing up for me.” She smiled
at me, her full lips lifting into a mildly reserved expression of gratitude.

One that I couldn’t allow her to keep. I hadn’t done anything for her except argue
against stupidity. And in the end I would be paying the price for it. “Listen, I said
what I did because they were being completely hypocritical and I didn’t think it was
fair to you. But honestly, Liv, I don’t want you on this mission. Their points were
valid. You don’t know how to fight, how to use your Magic or even if you could use
your Magic if you really needed to. You’ve never been tested and you’ve had only one
day to practice your skill. This is a huge liability on my end, one that I didn’t
intend to take on.” I pinched the bridge of my nose to cover the fact that I couldn’t
look at her anymore. “Besides, you’ll be in danger and you could easily put my team
in danger.”

“Then why did you stick up for me?” she bit out angrily but her hurt expression betrayed
her.

“I told you why. Eden was just as inexperienced when she started out and we treated
her like our goddamn savior. I didn’t think it was fair to you.”

“I’m not a charity case, Jericho! I don’t need you to stick up for me because you
can’t live with a guilty conscience.” She was seething with ire, I could feel it hot
and fiery on my skin. Her Magic lashed out around her whipping and stinging mine like
the tail of a scorpion. Taking in her wild eyes and flushed cheeks, I didn’t even
think she knew what she was doing.

“You just came out here to thank me,” I reminded her callously. I wanted a fight right
now- needed it- and she was happy to oblige. “Apparently you did need my help.”

“No,” she shook her head and stumbled back a step. “That was when I thought you were
on my side. I had no idea you were using me to win your own damn argument.” She whirled
around as if she couldn’t stomach being around me anymore.

Guilt and regret slammed me in the chest then and I felt like a bastard for talking
to her like that. She’d gotten the brunt of an old anger that didn’t even have any
relevance in my life anymore. “Do you need me to show you back to your room?” I called
after her with a gentler tone.

She didn’t even bother to turn around, “Ha! Believe it or not, Jericho, I don’t really
need you for anything in my life.”

I watched her go without saying another word. I didn’t really feel like I deserved
a chance to argue her accusation. And I wasn’t sure that I wanted to.

I’d just dug myself a huge hole and then walked straight into it. But maybe this was
where I belonged. What Olivia and I had could barely be called friendship and whatever
relationship did exist between us had an expiration date. She was leaving. She wanted
nothing to do with me, my lifestyle or my future.

This brought back the nostalgic reminders of what it had been like to lose Eden, because
even though, I had been the one to walk away, I had definitely been the one to lose
her. I didn’t want to go through this with another girl that wanted something else
in life.

Something else that wasn’t me.

Chapter Twelve

Olivia

“We’re here,” Sebastian’s crisp accent pulled me out of a dreamless sleep.

I groaned but sat up. I blinked away the exhaustion and jet lag, sending a surge of
this new Magic through my body to give it the energy I needed to move in any way,
shape or form.

After an eternally long flight across an ocean and continents and then a four-hour
car ride through the winding, insanely dangerous roads of Brazil, we’d finally reached
our destination. And apparently our destination was somewhere in a rain forest with
negative light and a hundred different species of birds.

We’d left the throes of winter behind and landed south of the equator. It was hot,
hot as hell. I’d just left temperatures in the teens with wind chills reaching below
zero and now I was faced with sweltering heat and high humidity.

“I can’t breathe,” I whined when the doors to the sleek black Mercedes were opened
and the suffocating tropical air flooded the cool interior.

Sweat beaded my forehead. My t-shirt stuck to my skin. My eyeliner started to smudge
in the corners; I could feel it dripping. I scrambled out of the car and immediately
tripped on the uneven ground.

Alright, I’m awake.

“Are you okay?” Jericho asked as if he could care less either way.

“Fine,” I bit out. “Just fine.”

I hopped up to standing again and then used the light of the car to gather my things
from the backseat and trunk. I had packed a hiking backup of necessities and a messenger
bag of things to occupy my downtime: a few books borrowed from the Castle, a fashion
magazine, a deck of cards. I winced remembering my lost-forever Kindle that had been
as much of a victim of Terletov’s cruelty as I had. In fact, all my belongings needed
proper mourning. I didn’t consider myself a materialistic girl, but it
sucked
to lose everything important and necessary. There was just no way to spin that in
a good light.

And now I was stuck with borrowed items or hand-me-downs. Okay, that was harsh. I
knew most of my donated possessions were new and specially bought for me, but they
still didn’t feel like mine. They were expensive, brands I would never waste money
on and not really my style. They belonged in one world, while I belonged in another
one completely.

Jericho closed the car doors, Sebastian slammed the trunk and we were shrouded in
utter darkness once again. The tree tops were heavy and dense above us, blocking out
whatever light the moon might have offered. The animals squawked and growled in the
distance and some nearby bushes rustled with ominous vigor.

“Oh good, lord, I’m going to get mauled by a tiger before I ever meet Terletov again,”
I groaned. I sent the Magic soaring through my veins, heightening my senses and bringing
my night-vision to life. Now, this was a magical feature I could get used to. Hello,
humanity-upgrade. They seriously needed to develop an app for this.

Sebastian snickered at my obvious sarcasm, while Jericho offered, “You can use your
Magic to help you see.”

“Ten steps ahead of you, Captain,” I shot back. Why was he even talking to me? He’d
been ignoring me since Romania and clearly I was raining on his get-away parade. “And
you’re about to walk into a tree.”

He looked up just in time to see the attacking foliage and stutter-stepped to a halt.
“Did you put that there?” he demanded as if I knew how to do that.

Seriously, could I do that?

“Like, I would waste time on pranking you,” I scoffed. “Especially when you’re so
good at doing it all by yourself.”

He scowled at me.

“Did you text Talbott when we landed?” Sebastian asked Jericho. “Or are we going to
have to meet a welcoming party that tries to blow us up?”

“I texted,” Jericho grunted.

We reached a stucco wall that ran through the thick greenery of the rain forest. We
were just south of the Amazon, near a booming city called Cuiaba. Tourism was a major
form of commerce there and it was the capitol city of the Brazilian state of Mato
Grasso. Did I sound informed? I totally Wikipedia-ed it on Sebastian’s phone on the
drive here.

That was after our flight over in a super swanky jet that cost more than my life was
worth. Oh and it was just Avalon’s that Jericho was borrowing, like a pair of shoes.
And then Jericho
flew
the jet himself! Sebastian and I hung out in the buttery leather seats watching Will
Ferrell movies on the ginormous flat screen and sipping vodka and ginger ales, because
Sebastian claimed they settled the stomach, while Jericho piloted the freaking plane!

I knew these people came from money by how luxurious the Castle had been; but planes,
avoiding customs in order to land on private landing strips, hundred thousand dollar
cars just locked up in storage in some random South American country and arriving
at a private villa in the middle of the night didn’t match up with my middle-class-at-best
lifestyle.

A door in the wall swung open and a massive man stepped out. He towered over the rest
of us, huge, bulking and insanely muscled.

“Titus, how are you, brother?” Sebastian greeted tiredly.

Titus yawned in reply. “Took you guys long enough.” I was not expecting to see another
American. What was with all the surprise Americans?

“We came here as soon as we landed,” Jericho explained shortly.

“Not what I meant.” Titus yawned again.

Jericho’s gaze cut to me and then returned to Titus with a hint of regret. “We got
held up.”

“Yeah, well, we need leadership…” Titus glanced over his shoulder. “Talbott’s not…
he’s in a pretty bad place.”

“You would be, too, if your fiancée had been kidnapped,” Sebastian muttered under
his breath. “Again.”

Wait. What?

I glanced at Jericho mechanically, but his attention was on the building beyond the
gate that I couldn’t make out yet. “At least Lucan simply locked her in the dungeons.”

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

Titus’s attention flicked to me for the first time and he lit up with instantaneous
sex appeal. Obviously, a well-practiced reaction to the female gender. His whole face
came to life while he took me in, his bearish features softened, his eyes danced with
mischief and he radiated dangerous charm. Coming from such a huge man that looked
downright dangerous completely disarmed me.

“And who are you?” He stared at me with smoldering eyes and a crooked smile.

“Uh, er, I’m…”

“Human,” Jericho bit out.

My mouth gaped open and Sebastian let out a low whistle. Titus looked back and forth
between us with utter confusion drawing down his thick brows. He flicked a finger
back and forth between us, slow and heavy. Jericho let out an exasperated sigh and
Sebastian grinned wickedly.

“Why does everyone just assume that?” Jericho groaned.

Oh, that we were together.
Poor him, always getting stuck with the pathetic human.

“It’s the obvious sexual tension crackling between us,” I quipped dryly. “We can barely
keep our hands to ourselves.”

Jericho scowled at me but his hands remained impassively at his sides. Point proven.

Sebastian’s wide smile kicked up even further and now Titus matched expressions with
him, twinkling eyes for twinkling eyes.

Ignoring Jericho, I stepped forward, clutching my messenger bag. “Can I be shown to
my room now? I’m jet-lagged and cranky and I just want to go to bed.”

“This is a mission, Liv. There is no sleeping.” Jericho actually sounded a little
apologetic, but it wasn’t enough to gain him any points. “I’ll show you to your room
so you can freshen up, but you’ll have to use your Magic to stay awake.”

I grunted something like an agreement and fell in step behind him. I could hear Titus
ask in a confused voice, “I thought he just said she was human?” I chose to ignore
him.

We walked through the wrought iron gate on a path of red stone. I used my Magic to
not only bring my lagging body back to life but take in the foreign backdrop of my
new life-experience.

I’d gone off to Peru with the goal to “find myself” and if this wasn’t that very definition,
I didn’t know what was. Granted, I was discovering a new self, one that could shoot
lightning bolts out my fingertips and didn’t require sleep anymore… but still.

I was like Edward Cullen meets Storm from X-men. Next, my hair would turn silver and
I would start glittering in the sunlight.

I could hardly wait.

To steady my rioting nerves, I breathed in the fresh, tropical air. It settled on
my skin, hot and cloying, and dug deep in my lungs with a heavy pressure. The heat
pressed against my clothes, forcing sweat to spring from my hairline and lower back.

Where Peru had been all mountain-glory with thin air and rocky terrain, Brazil was
sultry heat and thick jungle. I swiped the back of my hand over my forehead and tugged
my thin V-neck t-shirt away from my stomach.

Eventually the rain forest cleared and we walked into the “front yard” of a sprawling
villa. Light from every window and door tumbled onto the mossy grass at my feet, lighting
up the breath-taking structure like a backlit painting.

Cream stucco siding was broken up by arched porticos that led directly into the living
space. The thatched roofing gave the surprisingly modern structure a feel of rustic
elegance. The red clay floors sat beneath darkly stained all-wood furniture with woven
leather upholstery. Lazy ceiling fans with straw paddles thumped listlessly in the
heat of the night and a glistening pool sparkled in the moonlight to my right.

I gaped at the beauty of this hidden retreat.

All kinds of people lounged around inside the open-styled house. Their curiosity peeked
as Jericho led me inside, but there was a tension about the room that prevented their
twenty questions from becoming verbal.

Several of them smiled and called out to Jericho, clearly relieved that he was here.
All were men that kind of blended together except for the one woman that kept her
distance. She was tiny, Latina and obviously wary of me. Her exotic, deep chocolate
eyes were rimmed with just enough eye-liner to make her face demand to be noticed,
but that was the only makeup she wore. Her dark hair matched the exact hue of her
eyes and was only trumped by the perfection of her tanned skin. She was stunning.
And really, really scary.

I closed my open mouth and forced myself to swallow against the knot of nerves tightening
on my throat. This was all just so
intimidating
.

Jericho took my hand and pulled me toward the back of the house where hallways branched
off into what I assumed were bedrooms. I couldn’t tell if he took my hand because
he wanted to reassure me, or if he had been trying to get my attention and all I could
do was stand there and stare.

Either way, I was grateful for the tug in the right direction.

Someone shouted out a direction for Jericho to go and he followed it as if he’d spent
time here before. We walked past an open kitchen with every appliance new and shiny,
past a library that contained floor to ceiling bookshelves on every wall utterly crammed
with books until they were bursting with the written word, past a dark wood-paneled
room with a pool table, and finally past several bedrooms that blinked by with luxury
and style. This house was insane.

“Party house, right?” I teased.

“Actually, it’s owned by a priest,” Jericho answered stoically.

Was he for real?

At the end of the hall he pushed open a door and led me into a quiet space with a
four poster bed draped with an ivory mosquito net. The rounded windows were open directly
to the outside and flanked French doors that walked out to a red stone patio. The
room was simply styled with only a huge crucifix adorning the wall across from the
bed. The wood and iron cross hung next to another door that I hoped led to a bathroom.

“This is me?” I whispered into the silent room.

“Yeah,” he answered softly.

“Alright, thanks.”

He lingered by the door, keeping it propped open with the toe of his foot while he
leaned back against the frame. I glanced over my shoulder at him and met his hazel
gaze with confidence I didn’t feel in this moment.

“Whenever you’re ready, you can come out to the kitchen. We’ll hold our meeting there
in case you’re hungry.”

“Alright.”

“Liv?” He took a tentative step forward, and then another one. My breath caught in
my throat and I turned around so that the backs of my thighs pressed into the soft
bed. He didn’t stop walking until we were just an inch apart. He towered over me at
this nearness, his body radiating heat like he was the sun. “There is a lot going
on with Terletov. This conflict is deep, and a lot of people are suffering because
we can’t find this man. Sebastian and I are taking over for a man named Talbott. He
is in charge of our Guard and part of the Royal Council, but his fiancée was kidnapped
last October. He is… he’s broken. There’s no other way to explain it. But he’s also
more determined than I’ve ever seen another man.” Jericho paused and glanced up at
the ceiling, seeming to put his next phrase together carefully, “What I’m trying to
say is that he is walking a very fine line between sanity and… He won’t mean to scare
you, but he might. I just don’t want you to get a bad impression of him or fear that
he’ll hurt you. His fight isn’t with anyone but Terletov. Do you understand?”