Enslaved in Shadows (25 page)

“I remember you,” She whispered.
“You work for Marcus.”

Loud curses rang out in the room as Royce and Draven both took a step forward.
Solon held up both hands in supplication and quickly began explaining his reason for being there.

“Yes, I worked for Marcus, but I didn’t like it. I’m a mercenary, what can I say. I go where the money flows.” He looked over at Jes and then over at Bells.
“I was put there to keep an eye on you and Faith, get in to his circle of trust so to speak,” he sighed loud and continued speaking.
             

“Marcus isn’t the mastermind behind all this mess, simply a pawn. I’ve been around since the beginning.
My true target is still not acquired. I’m getting close.”

Solon took a step forward and watched as he keenly took a seat in the chair and rested his elbows on his knees.
Solon seemed to be thinking of a way to explain everything.
Royce eyed Solon.

“I can’t read him.” A confused Royce said.
He eyed Solon a bit more, his eyes
squinted,
and Royce grabbed his skull. His eyes closed and when they
opened,
the brother was more than focused. He was zeroed in on his target.
Draven knew that look. Death would come with a swift wind if Solon didn’t make a believer out of him.

“Finish the fucking story Solon.” Royce interjected into the silence.
The tension in the room circulated in thick strands that threatened to choke the air right out of its space and its occupants. Whatever this man had to say wasn’t good.
He hadn’t notice earlier, but Solon was wearing black leather gloves on both hands.
Had he been wearing them before?

“I am Solon Gimald. I am son of Surelle and Vivek.”
Solon whispered.

“I was cast out by my family years ago.
Surelle is the matriarch of House Phoenix. I am Belinda’s brother by blood, but my father Vivek is from House Redhaven.”

“My mother would have told me about you.” Bells answered sharply. No way I have a brother.”

“It’s true sister. Your mother was captured by Vivek before you were born.
Their relationship was not one of consent.
When your mother became pregnant with
me,
she stayed and gave birth.
Nursed me for about two years and then she left.”

Bells shook her head in denial and began to pace the length of the carpet.

             
“That’s truly an interesting story, but where do Jesminda and her daughter fit into your equation mutt?” Royce questioned.

This was the rightful heir to the Royal house of Redhaven. But he wasn’t about to say that shit out loud. He’d gone missing almost five years ago, and the gloves.
Well, Draven knew what the gloves were all about.
It was rumored that the vampire felt pain if anyone or anything touched him.
This included the elements; he was like the bubble boy but worse.
He couldn’t be killed by virus, but he could be killed by contact of any kind.
Solon had eaten through his mother’s stomach at six months. Or so the rumor said. Now he’s telling them his mother was Belinda’s mother? Which would make him what?

“A shameful abomination is what that makes him.” Royce answered his thoughts.

But how is it he could be here now, in the sun with no harm and have helped fight off those things?

“Those things back there?” Royce asked.

“Those things,” Solon said. “Were death walkers, soldiers of Darkness but able to walk in the light.
Reanimated like zombies, but able to take instructions and follow them.
Their bodies rot from the inside out and soon when they become full dead there isn’t much that can kill them, except severing the head from the spinal cord.”

“Shit.” Draven whispered.

             
Jes stood and put her hand on her hips. He loved her strength. She was blind to it, but if pushed into a wall, people should back the fuck up. Far back.
She wasn’t one to go toe to toe with.
“Hold up, are you saying those things back at Bells’ are fucking zombies?”

             
“Death walkers.” Solon repeated.

Both women looked at each
other, then back at him,
and said in unison.

“Zombies.”

“Call them what you want sister.” Solon said to Bells.

“Jury is still out on that, I will need to speak with
my
mother. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a gun for hire. Care to explain just who you’re after?”

“That’s my business not yours sister.”

“Stop calling me that!” Bells screamed.

Jesminda hissed low under her breath a string of curses that Draven thought a woman would never say.
She shook her head and then looked back up at Solon and gestured her head for him to continue speaking.

“I was following Jesminda, have been since the beginning. I knew you were with child, and when you got off the plane from
Belize,
you were so warm and kind to me.
I couldn’t let anything happen to you or your young.
I was the gentlemen who let you have the cab.”

Draven knew there was more to his story. He wasn’t about to believe one thing he said. Who the hell was his target? He looked in Royce’s direction and his friend silently shook his head no. Royce still couldn’t read him.
They couldn’t keep this guy around.
Couldn’t let him leave either.
He was a dangerous liability, a wild card.
They didn’t know anything about him, except what he’d said.
He was a mercenary, which was wrong on so many levels.
There was recognition in Jes eyes when he mentioned the cab.
She sat back on the bed and put a hand on Faith’s back and began rubbing.
She didn’t say anything, hell what did you say to a guy who’d been trailing you for five years?

“Why?” Draven bit out. “Why were you following my mate?”

             
“She was kind, she smiled at me, wasn’t afraid of me. It helped that her
lifeline
twinned with mine.
I didn’t know it yet, but we both want the same thing.”

“Get the fuck out.” Royce said. He stood from his chair and walked over to the wall facing the door.
“Seriously fucktard, you think we’re stupid right? Five fucking years, you follow his woman? Join her ex-husband’s crime organization? Because her
lifeline
wove with yours? Save the dramatics.” Royce was about to light another smoke when Jes and Bells shot daggers at him with their eyes.

“Sorry,” he shrugged. “But I smoke when people lie, or make me happy, or after orgasm. Okay I smoke all the time.”
His smile was unapologetic as he continued to eye Solon.

“How is it you can be in the sun?” Royce asked.

“Because of my mother.” Solon answered

“Your mother Surelle was a Phoenix. That makes sense and from what I understand you can’t touch anyone?” He asked.

“That’s correct, I’m here as an ally not a foe.
I want,” he cleared his throat as it became hoarse. “I need to aid your woman and her child.
I will help you keep them safe if you would let me.”

Fuck a duck, a horse, and a big ass elephant.
He might as well throw that in for good measure.
It was
his
job to keep an eye on Jesminda, and the bastard wasn’t making the moves on his mate, not a chance in hell. Something was wrong with this. All of it. What could the both of them have in common?

“You never said anything,” Jesminda whispered. She looked Solon in the face. She rose from the bed then and walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Solon flinched and hissed but didn’t say a word. Jes quickly moved her hand. He had on a leather jacket but
apparently,
it still hurt.
Good.
His wolf didn’t like the contact and made it know when he let out a loud rumbling growl.
             
“Hands off Jes, or I am going to introduce him to the ends of my size thirteen’s, clear?”

Jesminda shot him a dark glare and shook her head. “Shut up Draven, this man has been with me for all of Faith’s life, and now I know who he is. I also know, she looked down at Solon as he raised his head to look up at her. “You were there when Faith was born; you took me to my hospital appointments. You were the one that botched up the GPS coordinates, weren’t you?”

Solon only nodded, and Draven’s agitation rose to levels that induced a red haze, as he tried to digest that piece of information. The smug bastard had seen the birth of his child. His offspring; that shit didn’t sit well with him or his wolf, as his animal rose to the front of his skin. Processing scents feeding the information back to Draven and his entire body coiled in rage.
The bastard wanted dibs on his mate.

Quick movements had him in the man’s face and he knew if he touched him, the man would be in pain.
He didn’t care what throne he may or may not sit on in the future. He could have been king of the world, or even the universe but Jesminda was his. Whoever tried to come between his goals where his mate was concerned was enemy.

“Don’t even attempt to make a move on her, you sick bastard, I can smell your want for her.”

Solon looked Draven in his eyes and removed one of his gloves. His hand was covered in intricate tattoos almost like the ones you see done with Henna ink only theses markings were gold, actual fucking gold in color.
What the fuck was he? Draven had never seen markings like that, ever. Solon brought his hand close to the skin. The power the other man emitted clung to his nostril, and singed his hair.
He snarled and glared at Solon, dared him to touch him.
Just once
,
so he could see the bastard in pain.

“If I wanted your woman, I would have taken her long ago, just because I feel warmly towards her doesn’t mean she is the one for me.
I will know when my woman reveals herself. And before you go making preconceived notions about the level of pain you think I will feel, be warned.” His blue eyes turned glacial.
“Be fucking warned, because if my skin even lightly touches yours, it will be all she wrote, the fat lady will have sung and you will be no more.
I don’t want to end you; it’s not your time.
But there is one thing you don’t know about me.”

Draven and everyone else in the room watched him intently.
There was a glassy look in the other man’s eyes.

“I touch you, I will hurt, but you wolf, will die.”

There was an icy blast that ripped through the room and Draven felt it stabbed him straight through to the marrow of his bones. He was sure everyone else in the room felt it as well, because he wasn’t the only one wincing.

Draven looked into the eyes of a man with nothing to lose. The bastard cracked a deadly smile as Draven looked him over. His hand still hovered closely to his chest.
He took a step back and he felt Jesminda wrap her arms around his waist. Instantly he calmed.
She was still angry with him, wore it like a protective cloak, but she still came to his aid.
She was truly his mate even if she didn’t want to acknowledge it.
Her body knew, her heart even knew.
The only one who needed convincing was the woman herself.

“Don’t feel pity for me. Shit, don’t worry over me either.
Trust me when I say my life will stay this fucked up no matter what.”
Solon said in a dead voice.

* * * *

             
“I know where the new holding house is.
Marcus has moved the vampires to a house in the Garden District. That’s the reason we are all here right? To get the vampires back?”

             
There was a collective nod across the room, and Bells looked over at Solon with a peculiar look on her face. Solon wouldn’t meet her in the eye as she stared at him. She was about to approach him when Royce took her by the hand and maneuvered her to the other side of the bed.
Jes was a bit shocked as Belinda never let anyone lead her from her course.
Maybe it had something to do with all the shit going down with the death walkers trashing her home, and then of course this new stranger, Solon, showing up at the last minute, claiming they were related.
Solon told her, he’d always been there; from the beginning.
All because of a smile, she didn’t know whether to be happy about that or concerned. It wasn’t like he’d stepped in to ease any of the pain that was given to her. He’d stood by and watched her slow descent into madness. Why help her now?

             
Draven explained they were moving out in the next hour.
They were all going back to headquarters.
Jes watched as he fingered his cell, and called for air support.
She headed towards the restroom.
She needed time to think.
Things were so mixed up. Trying to figure out the time just wasn’t worth the effort.
She had an hour.
She’d use it to let the hot water soothe her aching muscles.