Worshiped By The Bear Kings - Complete (20 page)

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Outside. Open roof. Thunder Brad
paced along the concrete underneath the helicopter, waiting for Lynette and her
pilot. Any moment they’d be here. But it would still be a moment too long.

The knowledge
now confirmed that his precious Jasmine was kidnapped again, was tearing him up
inside. This wasn’t the Destair either. The Destair who still had some type of
principles, however corrupt they were. This panther creature was the spawn of
hellfire. The bearer of demons and devils. Brad was thinking about his life,
everything he’d seen, and it seemed he now knew what the evil would bring. Not
the burning of a single forest. But the complete and absolute destruction of
the world as far as any eye could see.

Brad felt so
out of his depth. He was used to being able to protect his kind from humans and
shifters alike. But now with the dark forces working with magic and terrifying
beasts, his bear was beaten into a corner. He didn’t want to ask these dragons
for their help. He wanted to be able to rescue Jasmine on his own.

“Hey,”
Lynette said, coming up behind him. “Don’t be down. We have a real shot at this
now.”

Brad shook
his head. “I know. It’s just thinking about her out there … all alone…”

“It’s okay,”
Lynette said, trying to hug him.

He brushed
her away. It didn’t feel right.

He needed
distance. He needed space.

Lynette’s
cell started to buzz. She pulled it out and put it to her ear. “Are we ready…?
Okay. Be right there.”

She flipped
it shut.

“We’re good
to go now,” she said reaching for his hand.

“Okay,” Brad
said fending her off again.

He headed
round the side of the chopper, with her trailing him.

“Hey,” she
said. “I’m just trying to be nice to you.”

“I know,”
Brad replied.

“What do you
think I’m doing?”

“Nothing,” he
said.

They climbed
aboard the chopper and Brad went as far to the back as he could. Lynette joined
him in the seat opposite. A man in a suit passed by and she waved him down.

“Bring us a
bottle would you?”

The man
nodded.

Brad stared
at her. “A bottle of water?”

Lynette
glared back at him. “Give me a break alright,” she said.

Five minutes
later they were in the air, and the man was approaching them with a bottle and
two glasses.

Lynette
accepted them. “Thank you.”

She tried to
hand Brad one of the glasses.

“No, thanks.”

“Hey,” Lynette
persisted. “I’m putting my ass on the line for you here. Who’s Goddamn chopper
is this? Who is risking their neck for a girl they haven’t even met?”

Brad shifted
uncomfortably. “I’m sorry.” He took the glass from her.

She poured
him his drink.

Then she
poured hers.

Their glasses
clinked.

“To the
future,” Lynette said, before swallowing.

Brad stared
down at the purplish-pink liquid inside the glass.

“To the
future,” he said, and drank.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

As reluctant as she was to return to
the dungeon, Jasmine was more afraid of following Gaspar back up the stairs.
She was sure of it now. That purple-pink liquid he’d been giving her was making
her mind dull with acceptance. She was proud of herself for fighting through
it. She still hadn’t claimed all of her thoughts back, but there was only one
driving force for her now. One focus.

She had to
get out of here.

The image of
the green light over her ceiling still perplexed her. The shadow waving. She
wanted to know who that was. Perhaps it was another prisoner like her. Of
course it could be a demonic illusion set up to wreak havoc on her emotions and
torment her but … still Jasmine was drawn. She had to keep going to through the
dungeon. Till perhaps, she made it to the other side…

Beyond the
ice statues and at the opposite end of the dungeon, Jasmine was thankful to
find another door which led to another set of stairs leading upward. She
climbed them and opened the first door afterward she came to.

Back to the
ice. Back to the frost.

Back to the
snow.

Jasmine
wrapped her arms around her chest and peered down either end of the corridor.
No one about thankfully. She made a right at the corridor’s bend and kept
following it around, passing many closed doors.

And then she
saw it.

The green
light, pooling out across the floor.

She ran
quickly to it and saw that it was coming from underneath a door facing
opposite. But as Jasmine stood in front of it and put her hand to the door
knob, the light suddenly vanished.

She blinked a
few times and then quickly opened the door.

It was a
bedroom without ice, just as hers had been. At the foot of the bed there was a
tall green crystallized statue, of a magnificent warrior in armor, brandishing
a sword. Jasmine let the door close behind her as she walked slowly towards the
statue, in awe of it. Then looking into the young man’s face … and his pure
sweet eyes … she did believe she recognized him…

“Oh my gosh,”
Jasmine gasped.

She reached
out to the statue to touch him, and as she did so a figure leapt up from behind
it.

“Don’t you
hurt him!” the figured screamed. “Don’t you hurt me!”

Jasmine
fought through hands and legs until the two girls were facing one another.

“Stacey…?”

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

Thunder Brad had fallen asleep. There
was something about the drink he’d had. Maybe it had strong alcoholic
properties or something. He wasn’t used to alcohol after all. That was a
human’s drink, not a bear’s. When his eyes opened it appeared they had landed.
He looked outside and saw that it was snowing.

“Where are
we?” he asked Lynette.

“Firebound
Island,” she answered him in a quiet voice.

Her servant
moved down the aisle and presented each of them with a fur coat to wear.

“I don’t need
that,” Brad said angrily tossing it aside.

Lynette
smiled a moment and picked the fallen coat. She handed it back to him.

“No,” he
said.

“Please,” she
said. “Because you love me. Remember?”

“Remember…”

“You love me.
Say it back to me.”

Brad blinked.
“I love you…?”

“Now take
your coat. It’s cold outside.”

Brad accepted
it.

The pair
climbed out of the helicopter, their feet landing in the snow. Lynette urged
him follow her up the steps, but Brad’s gaze was caught on something. He was
paralyzed.

The ice
palace in front of him, was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Jasmine reached forward and pulled
her friend to her chest. “Is it really you…? How can you be here?”

Stacey pushed
her arms away and climbed off her. She backed away, looking scared.

“It’s me,
Stacey,” Jasmine said, getting up. “Jasmine. Your friend.”

Stacey ran to
her bedside table and pulled from it a glass bottle. She unscrewed the lid and
started drinking from it.

“Everything’s
okay,” Stacey whispered to herself. “Everything’s okay…”

“I don’t
understand,” Jasmine said approaching. “I just spoke to you. You said Zane was
looking after you. I thought you were fine.”

“I
am
fine!”
Stacey shouted. “He
is
looking after me!”

She dropped
the bottle and lunged forward to put her arms around the statue.

“He loves
me,” Stacey sobbed. “He always loves me.”

Jasmine’s jaw
dropped, horrified. “Stacey,” she cried. “He’s a statue!”

Stacey shook
her head. “No. I am not to think that. Never to think that. Never, ever, ever.
Just waiting for the baby, then everything will be fine. It is fine. I’m okay.
I really am…”

The door
behind them swung open.

Jasmine
shrieked and backed away towards the window as Gaspar entered.

“Keep away
from her!” Jasmine shouted at him.

He gave her
an ominous smirk. “Well, I see you two have found each other.”

“What have
you done to her?” Jasmine demanded. “What have you done to Zane?”

“This is my
palace now,” Gaspar said sternly. “I make the rules. You will submit to me.”

“Never!”

Jasmine
picked up the bottle and threw it at Gaspar.

It bounced
off his chest and he caught it.

“Careful,” he
said approaching further. “You don’t want to piss me off.”

Jasmine
stooped down to pull Stacey away from the statue of Zane, but in response,
Stacey turned around and punched her in the face.

Jasmine fell
to the floor hurt and bleeding.

It seemed all
was lost now.

“You two can
catch up later,” Gaspar said. “I’m going to need you to come with me, Jasmine.”

“I’m not
leaving her,” Jasmine shot back.

“Thunder is
here. He has just arrived. I thought you might want to see him.”

Jasmine stood
up. “He’s here? How?”

“That doesn’t
matter. But he’s here if you want to see him one last time. Before…”

“Before
what?”

“Suit
yourself.”

Gaspar closed
the door behind him.

Jasmine ran
angrily towards it and reopened it. “Where is he?” she shouted.

“Follow me,”
Gaspar said. He turned back down the corridor.

Jasmine
looked back to Stacey anxiously.

“Get out of
here!” Stacey shouted at her. “This is my room!”

“I…”

Stacey ran to
the door and shut Jasmine out.

She bowed her
head and followed Gaspar’s lead down the corridor.

“Yes,” Gaspar
said as she caught up. “It’s good you’ve come to your senses.”

They kept
going past the stairs down to the dungeon and followed the corridor until it
went round to winding staircase to the ground floor.

Once there,
Jasmine looked around her.

She realized
she was in the palace’s throne room.

Two figures
were emerging up ahead. There was a tall woman with wild blonde hair and next
to her it was just as Gaspar as said, Thunder.

“Brad!” she
called to him.

She ran past
Gaspar to meet the pair at the room’s entrance, where she put her arms around
his neck and kissed his cheek.

“I’ve missed
you so much,” Jasmine whispered to him. “You don’t know what this has been
like.”

As she pulled
away, she saw that Brad’s eyes were cloudy.

Dull.

“Brad?” she
asked, panicked.

“Who are
you?” he replied.

PART
FIVE

CHAPTER ONE

Wind.

Hail.

Snow.

A war had
been fought here, and evil had reigned victorious.

The once
friendly and tropical island of the dragons, was now blanketed in the white
curse of the panther’s winter. Inside the palace, the remaining dragon guards
were frozen as statues, at the mercy of the Arch Baron panther, Gasper Travis
and his men. Upstairs Jasmine had seen her best friend Stacey Caversham was
also being held captive, brainwashed by the panther’s wine. Jasmine’s last hope
was realized with Thunder Brad’s emergence into the palace throne room.

If there was
anyone who was strong enough…

Anyone who
would do anything for her…

Then Brad was
surely him.

“Who are
you?”

Such terrible
words. Such terrible, devastatingly cruel words.

The look in
his eyes. The deadness about him.

“No,” Jasmine
whispered, her arms still around him. “No, no, no.”

“I’m sorry…”
Brad said slowly.

He was lost.
Completely gone.

“You have to
fight it, Brad,” Jasmine pleaded. “You have to fight their spell.”

Then the
blonde haired woman standing beside Brad spoke.

“Why hasn’t
she been neutralized?”

Gaspar, who
was a few feet behind Jasmine, stepped forward. “She has shown remarkable
resistance to the tonic,” he said.

“How do you
explain that? Has she been given the correct dosage?”

Jasmine
glared back at Gaspar, the rage racing out of her.

“Indeed she
has,” Gaspar answered. “I suspect my nephew might have something to do with it.
But fear not, she will soon be under my control without upsetting him.”

“Brad!”
Jasmine cried, shaking him. “Brad, wake up!”

Brad looked
confused. But there was no sign he understood her.

“Brad,” the
woman said in a low tone of voice.

He turned his
head towards her.

“Push her
away,” the woman ordered.

Brad turned back
to Jasmine and then gave her a hard shove. She landed on the floor next to
Gaspar.

“Get on your
knees,” the woman said.

Brad lowered
himself to the floor also, and rested on his knees.

The woman
stood behind him and put her hands on his shoulders.

Facing
Jasmine.

“Thunder Brad
belongs to me now,” she declared. “If you submit yourself to Gaspar willingly
then I will treat him fairly. If not, he will become another statue for the
dungeon.”

Jasmine
continued staring into Brad’s eyes.

Where there
was nothing. No recognition.

No love.

She couldn’t
believe it. How could he have been made so weak?

“So what is
it to be?” Gaspar asked beside her. “Will you behave yourself now?”

Jasmine’s
eyes never left Brad. “I’ll behave.”