Blood Yellow (4 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

L
eigh was spending the afternoon training with Jonothon, her colonel. Their hand to hand fighting always proved most useful since they complemented each other nicely on the battlefield.

He came at her with his knife, catching her from behind
, the cold metal pressed against her skin. He held her in place for just long enough for her hair to graze along his face. He could hear her heart beating as that knife was pressed up to her skin.

“How are you going to find him? They say he has just vanished. We are going to have to prove he is dead for that joke of a queen to turn the crown over to us.”

Leigh took the opportunity while Jonothon was talking to use the distraction to disarm him. She knocked his knife to the ground and gave him a back elbow to the solar plexus causing him to lose the upper hand in the situation.

“To me you mean.
But you let me worry about that. You’re supposed to just train the men and make them battle ready. Haydar and I will handle the details.” She swept his leg, and he fell to the ground.

He looked up at her from the ground. Sometimes this woman gave him a run for his money, but today he was letting her win. Haydar had been pushing her lately and coming down hard on her, but if she knew he was taking it easy she would have skinned him alive.

“Whatever you say, boss lady.” Jonothon got up off the ground and grabbed his gear, taking a moment to steal a glimpse of Leigh while she changed her clothes. He watched as her sweatpants were exchanged for tight jeans and looked away as her shirt dropped to the floor. He heard the zipper move as she secured her top.

“Something you like, Cromwell?” She spit out the words with a cold icy tone. Jonothon’s attention went straight to her face as he snapped into attention.

“No, ma’am. Sorry.” Jonothon watched Leigh storm across the room in his direction, unsheathing her knife; he loved it when she got like this.

“Let me tell you something, Jonothon. Just because I let you fuck me,
doesn’t mean you get to look at me anytime you like. You are no different than anyone else here. You know the rules; keep it in check, or your service under me is done.”

She was through with him. She turned away from him, not wanting to look at him anymore. He was going to get himself killed. If he didn’t stop acting like that, she would have to take care of it herself.

“Go make yourself useful and track down my bitch bent amty. Don’t return until you have found her. If she has had contact with her akh, I want to know.” She slammed the doors shut behind her as she made her way out of the training facility.

Jonothon finished gathering his things from the room
, her words left to echo in his mind.
You know the rules; keep it in check, or your services under me are done
. Harsh and cruel, just like Leigh. She never stopped long enough to think what life would be like if she broke her rules once in a while. He walked out of the room and down the hall way. He saw evidence of Leigh’s anger strewn down the path. A dead guard’s intestines were displayed along the corridor. He entered his room and grabbed his emergency bag, taking no chances on becoming her next victim; he went to his car and headed out of the compound in search of Nikole.

L
eigh couldn’t believe she had caught Jonothon looking at her like that. He knew better. They had rules they had to follow. She wanted to kill him on the spot for taking that kind of a risk. He wasn’t anyone to her; she would never risk her livelihood and life for anyone.
Stupid man. Like she would trade all this for him
? She took her knife out of the sheath and flung it against the wall. The blade soared through the air and settled into the wall with a loud clang…right in the middle of a painting of her parents.

You have everyone eating out of your hands, Leigh.
Don’t fuck this up and let some man divert your attention
, she said this to herself as she walked over to the painting and removed the knife. The canvas was ripped and hanging off the frame. “Sorry, Omm, you know my temper.” She touched the canvas lightly and pushed the pieces together, looking up at the blue dress Sarah was wearing. “It’s been so long, I don’t even think I remember your voice.”

“She sounded like you, Leigh. When you get mad, I hear the tone she used to get with me when she was angry.” Haydar’s voice was hard and deafening. “She wanted to see you triumph, wanted to see you take over. I know she would be pleased with all the death you have caused.”

“Are you sure of that, Baba? Do you know she wanted me to kill my akhs?” she turned around and looked at her abb from across the room.

“While we never spoke of their deaths, we did speak of you taking control after my passing.
I know she would appreciate the obstacles you have taken out in getting to a position that will lead to your eventual leadership.” Haydar walked to Leigh’s desk and pulled out her chair, sitting down and looking over the items on display. Practical, that was his girl, always looking for the best weapons to display.

“Abb, was there something that you needed?” Leigh questioned as she placed her knife’s tip on her finger and twirled it in slow motion. “I have sent Jonothon away to locate Nikole and keep an eye on her. I want to kill my dear bent amty, a
nd he will supply me with her.”

“
And you trust him, absolutely?”

She could tell by his eyes that he
didn’t trust the choice she’d made. “Are you challenging my judgment or my men?” Her tone sharpened when she looked pointedly at her abb.

He shook his head while turning to face her in the chair. “This isn’t a matter of challenging your power, dear bent. This is a matter of questioning if you are
sending the best for the job.”

Haydar stood up and walked in front of her, his eyes narrowing in her direction. “I give you a lot of freedom, Leigh, but mark my words, you let that man distract you for even five minutes, and I will make sure you regret the day you joined with him.” He
moved away from her before she had a chance to speak. As he reached the office door and looked back at her, he knew she was hiding her emotions. She’d always been the level headed child.

“I challenge you because I know you are better than the rest. I
won’t allow my only worthy child to fail like those worthless akhs of yours.”

Haydar left the room in silence while Leigh
was left with only her thoughts. Once again he knew; he always knew. She took the knife once more and whirled it into the wall. He didn’t care that for eight hundred years she had done nothing but follow his every command, carried out every order, and killed her own akhs. No, he didn’t care. She was just another tool at his disposal.

Looks like you are going to have to be handled yourself, Abb. Better watch your back. I would hate for you to have an accident.
Leigh reclaimed her chair and opened her laptop. She began pulling up maps of her training compound to see its weaknesses and plan the proper place for his demise. She pulled up his bedroom and living quarters, looking for the appropriate point of entry. From the plans on the computer, it looked like his sitting area had the least amount of protection. Her plan to take her abb out was starting to form perfectly in her mind.

The silence in her office
was broken with a loud knock on the door.
Idiots
! Why couldn’t men learn they didn’t need to display their masculinity every chance they got? Closing the laptop and sitting back in her chair, Leigh responded to the knock. “Enter.” Her eyes narrowed as her abb came back in the room.

“Bent, in case you were wondering, it seems we have someone staking out our location.
One of the men found one of our dear family member’s ghuls outside of our facility. He is being held in the interrogation chamber. Would you like to join me in the questioning?”

Leigh pushed herself away from the desk and stalked across the room towards her abb. Grabbing her yellow bag, she pulled her door shut and locked it while following closely behind Haydar.

“He intruded on my property; I get the first slice into him.”

Haydar smiled at his bent. Her ruthless demeanor always had been her best quality.

CHAPTER SIX

N
ikole woke up to the sound of her phone going off in the middle of the night. She fumbled with it at first, and then answered as she listened to Nasir’s voice on the other end.

“Nikole, you need to come to the hospital, quick. There has been an accident, and Adara is in trouble.”

Nikole blinked awake while she took in what he was saying, “What do you mean an accident? Where are you? Is she hurt badly? You should have called me sooner. When did this happen?” Nikole got out of bed and started pulling on the same clothes that she had worn earlier in the night.

“Well someone showed up at her apartment, and there was some sort of fight.
The details are still a bit hazy. She is unconscious at the moment, but the doctors think she is going to be fine. I’ll tell you more when you get here. Please come quickly.”

“Nasir, what are you not telling me?” Nikole asked, holding her shirt in her hand. Her body tensed as she sensed this was going to be
bad news.

“Please, just show up soon.”

She heard the silence on the other end of the phone and Nikole just took a moment for the shock to set in. She finished getting dressed and went to Alec’s side of the bed, waking him up.

“Alec, we have to get up. Adara’s been hurt. Wake up.” Nikole grabbed her socks and shoes and started to slip them on as Alec’s eyes opened.

“What happened to your friend?” He sat up in bed, watching her while she finished dressing.

“I don’t know anything except that there was an accident, and she is at the hospital. Now come on, let’s go!” Nikole ordered as she threw his clothes on the bed. “It’s an hour and a half to the hospital, and I
don’t want to let too much time pass. Hurry!” She left the room, pulling her things together in her bag. She would come back for her stuff later if she missed anything, but right now she needed to get to Adara.

“Nikole, calm down. Why
don’t you teleport yourself there ahead of time, and I’ll meet you there. I can bring your things with me at the same time, that way you don’t need to make another trip back here.”

She paused when she heard the words
he’d just said. She set her bag down and turned around, looking at him with a blank stare. “You don’t want me coming back here?”

He slowly shook his head. “That’s not what I said. I said why
don’t you go ahead, and I’ll bring your things. That way you don’t have to make another trip today.”

Nikole
didn’t have time to argue semantics. Her best friend needed her, and she was just going to get pissed off at Alec if she let him continue talking. She raised her hand to silence him. “Whatever, I have more important things than arguing details with you. See that my things are taken to my home, and I will have someone pay you for your hospitality over the last three months.” Without another word, she grabbed her bag and vanished before his eyes.

He didn’t get a chance to explain anything to her; she just left.

Alec hadn’t expected that. He had thought she would want reasons and an argument, especially after earlier. He couldn’t help but feel saddened by her absence, his heart a bit heavy with the realization that their time together was at an end. He just couldn’t stay there with her. Maybe he should tell her what he had done. Would she be able to forgive him? Would anyone in their race be able to forgive him?

He tried to put the ideas out of his head as he started to gather her items from his home.
He’d already packed most of her clothes earlier. He picked up her suitcase and as he took it to the truck. He noticed she had part of her bra strap sticking out of the side. He opened it to stuff it back in when he saw a pair of her underwear. He sat on the tailgate of his truck looking through Nikole’s clothing; her scent all over them. He didn’t want to let her go, but he knew he had no choice.

If only he
wasn’t your amm. If only he hadn’t killed my family. If only…
He heard an owl up in the trees. The silence in this moment now broken, he realized the sooner he ended things with her, the easier it would be. Neither of them would get over what happened to him, and neither of them would really be happy. He shut the suitcase and pushed it to the back of the truck bed. He went back in the house and started to collect the rest of her things. Each item he touched was like an additional slice on the wound his heart was already feeling as he loaded his vehicle.

Securing her bags in his truck as he grabbed his keys, he left his home and headed down the mountain in the direction of the royal mansion. The two hour drive in silence felt like torture to him. He never thought the woman on that table who
was cut up, bloody, and unconscious would mean so much to him. He remembered the way she looked when she woke up after the ordeal, how scared she was when she couldn’t move her legs. She was the first person he had shared his blood with after his wife.

The thought of his wife punched him in the gut. He had to pull the truck over.
He couldn’t focus, his breath starting to grow shorter and his heart racing madly. How could he think of another woman? It felt to him like his wife had just died! Panic started to set in as he got out of the truck and walked around it. He placed one hand on the metal for support and the other over his heart as he begged it to slow down. The feeling that it would jump out of his chest was the ultimate torture. His beautiful Annah, how could she be gone? Her red hair with those green eyes; she’d been the best woman he had ever met. She never met an enemy, everyone loved her. And their bent, his angel, his priceless beauty. His women, his life. How could he even begin to replace them, his family and his heart? He’d spent 300 years trying to control his anger and rage from that dreaded night.

Alec put his back up against the truck and slid down to the ground, sitting on the dirt road as he stared out into the trees running along the mountain.
The elements called to him to be set free; how long could he suppress the urges? He hadn’t used his power much since the fires in Zahle. The sight of it always brought the sick feeling to his stomach and made him remember the smell of the bodies burning.

Alec rested his head on the metal and looked up to the sky. He remembered the day he and Annah met in medical training. She was wearing a white nursing outfit. He pictured the way her clothes clung to her hips and how she swayed when she walked. His memories of her were overflowing his emotions as he watched their lives in his mind.

He remembered the day their bent had been born. Annah went into labor late in the night. There hadn’t any time to get to a doctor, so he had to help bring her into this world. They worked together and birthed their perfect, golden haired little girl. When she came out, her head was covered in hair, and her skin looked like pink prunes. Their little Leena. He only had her for twelve years before the fires.

Alec opened his eyes after some time, reflecting on their life together as he saw the trees in front of him
were engulfed in flames. He quickly stood up and extinguished them. One hundred trees, gone. He hadn’t meant to cause that. He thought he had his elements under control. Feeling guilty, he got back in the truck and made his way down the rest of the mountain without a single thought. He couldn’t keep remembering his family like this. He needed to focus on the present and not the past.