Hadaen [The Marujan Brothers Series] Book One (7 page)

There was a crash coming from the
living room. Amelia's heart slowed to a thud. She gripped the towel
tight. Reese spun around quickly, her gaze sharp and she moved out
of the room.

"No! Reese!" Amelia groaned fiercely.
She was destined to lose her mind. "Don't...go out
there!"

After a moment, Amelia only
thought it wise to go after her. Stepping out into the living room,
she stopped dead in her tracks to see Hadaen Maruj standing in the
middle of the room. His gaze was cold enough to give her frostbite.
He held a hand out behind him, as if cautioning the other intruder.
Amelia's glance ran over the other man. They looked alike, possibly
related; same colouring, eye colour, and thick dark hair. Only this
one looked more approachable. It took her a while to realize that
neither of them was looking at her. Amelia's gaze averted to
Reese.
What the fuck--Reese?
A golden glow surrounded her, her hair floated
around her head slowly and she stood completely still. She couldn't
believe what she was seeing.
What the
hell?
She'd lived with this woman for
seven years!

"Who are you?" Hadaen's voice came,
slowly and stealthily.

"What do you want with
Amelia?"

"That's none of your fucking business.
Who sent you?"

Reese turned away and faced Amelia,
walking towards her. "We must get you out of here."

"The hell you will!" Hadaen snarled.
And as if by some superhuman speed, he strode pass Reese, standing
protectively in front of Amelia. "Do not move another muscle,
woman."

Amelia saw the anger riding
across her friend's--
her
friend?--
emotion. And before she knew it,
a swirling golden fire ball was raised on top of one of Reese's
palms. In a moment it disappeared, vanishing in a puff. She spun on
her heel, glaring daggers at the man standing behind her at the
door. He smiled smugly and buffed his nails against the breast of
his coat.

"I wouldn't be getting any
ideas, sweetheart," his unfamiliar voice sounded through the room.
"You have
no
idea
who you are dealing with." And in one sharp second he had her
slammed against him, twisting one hand behind her and his other
hand by her jaw. Amelia had seen that hold before. He could easily
snap her neck in a millisecond.

"Let her go!" Amelia dodged Hadaen's
grip and came up to a stop before them. The look in her friend's
eyes told her she was not afraid. Amelia couldn't understand why
she wasn't.

"You might want to encourage your
little witch here to speak up."

"I am no witch!" Reese
shrieked.

"Mmm... I was beginning to think
that," he went on. "You smell too damn good to be one."

"Enough!" Hadaen moved up to them and
tugged Amelia behind him. "I have no patience for any fucking
chit-chat right now. The darkness Gideon sensed might already be
upon us."

Reese stilled at those words. She
frowned deeply as if calculating something in her mind. "Doerci is
here?"

Hadaen's brows rose immediately and he
glanced at his brother, then back to her. "What do you know of
him?"

"Not until this oaf releases
me."

He watched her closely before giving
Gideon a short nod. Reese shrugged him off and scratched her
temple. She then looked Amelia, who now looked scared to
death.

"I'm sorry. You should've known by
now."

"So I'm supposed to just believe all
of this?" she scoffed. "The three of you can go fuck
yourselves."

The man snickered but quickly covered
it up with a cough. Reese silently pleaded with her. Hadaen looked
as if he wanted to murder someone.

"My name is Esyth," Reese muttered.
She glanced at Hadaen. "I'm from a village within the mountains to
the east of Maruj."

"The Hub of Lensai..." Hadaen nodded
her to proceed.

"This sounds like it's going to be a
treat," the strange man drawled and then dropped himself down on
the sofa, feet up on the coffee table.

"The oaf is my brother; Gideon Maruj,"
he told her. "And I'm Hadaen."

Reese gasped, her face blushing hotly.
Gideon grinned, Amelia pouted and rolled her eyes. "My lord, I did
not know," she said quickly, throwing in a fast curtsey. "Very few
of us know what you look like."

He nodded. "Tell me how you came to be
here?"

Reese swallowed and took a
seat. "My people--there is only a few of us--are the protectors of
the Liberty. Many years ago we sensed the power of a spell." She
eyed Amelia. "It was a very powerful spell; served to break through
the many dimensions of our world. But there had been a flaw. It was
not executed properly and the energy of the
mana
surrounding it was shifted.
Whoever had cast that spell was doomed to a life of mortality."
Reese--Esyth--shook her head. "We managed to calculate the source
of the spell as well as the destination of the caster. It was you,
Amelia. Two of our best protectors were sent to find you and raise
you; keeping your energy hidden. You are Liberty in itself, Amelia,
and we knew one day that Deorci would find out."

"What happened to the Protectors?"
Gideon decided to ask.

"They were murdered." She remained
silent for a while, probably showing reverence. "When I got here, I
could smell the darkness from far. Its trail still lingered from
the burnt car, their bodies like char.” She turned to Amelia. “I
could do nothing but watch you grow up in the foster home. If I'd
taken you, Deorci would have known. I had to stay close and hidden
as I shielded your energy for you for years."

Amelia moved towards the coffeemaker
shakily and poured herself a mug. She took two long sips. She was
going crazy. "What does that mean?" she asked.

Hadaen answered. "It means that
somehow Deorci has gotten notice of your existence. And you're in
danger."

"Also, if we don't get you to remember
who you are we are all screwed," Gideon said, his tone strangely
amused.

"They speak the truth, Amelia," Esyth
said. "You are the Daughter of Liberty. And you must
remember."

Before she knew it, Hadaen was already
standing before her and retrieving something from his pocket. It
was a silver necklace with a huge diamond-shaped sapphire locket.
She looked up at him, wide-eyed. Amelia's hand shook as she took it
from him. "I-I've seen this before. I-In that dream. I was wearing
it."

"Yes," he said, hoping she could
remember before he ripped his own hair out with frustration.
"You--" He cleared his throat. "You left it behind when you
disappeared."

She gazed at the remarkable piece of
jewelry, running her thumb over the pendant. Suddenly, a blue light
glowed within it and she jumped, almost dropping it. Hadaen moved
in closer, his eyes intense. Gideon was on his feet now, edging
closer. Esyth smiled warmly, eyes clouded with tears. Amelia
swallowed and sipped on her coffee once more. This was one hell of
a thing for one girl to handle all at once.

The light intensified, sparkling
wildly. She felt a connection, a surge of power tugging at her
insides. Then the light burst through the room in an outward sweep,
knocking over furniture, almost blinding. Esyth shielded her eyes
from the glare, Gideon stood a bit shaken and hands tucked inside
his pockets as the light sent a wave throughout the room. His coat
blew backwards, straining against the powerful force. Hadaen's eyes
never wavered; his gaze never left hers and for a moment she felt
as if they were the only two people in the room. Time stood still.
Nothing else mattered. And then the power was sucked back into the
locket.

"Fuck, that was awesome!" Gideon
blasted.

Esyth chuckled and clasped her hands
at her mouth.

Amelia looked Hadaen straight in the
eye, never blinking. She held the necklace in a death grip. The mug
fell from her other hand, smashing against the floor and coffee
splashing across the tiles.

And then she went out cold.

It was the second time since night
that she collapsed in his arms.

Chapter Five

M
aybe his arm had reached out across the cool sheets long
before he was fully awake. It seemed instinctive to do so. She was
his key to redemption; to the freedom of his people from the dark
cloud that had been casted over the Marujan kingdom by the Kankul
Dynasty. So when his fingers didn't make contact with warm flesh or
his senses hadn't been tingled by the total nearness of another
being, his eyes had flown wide open. It hadn't taken him a
millisecond to scramble out of bed.

Hadaen refused to believe that Amelia
had run off again. He had purposely set her down in his bed right
next to him, after she had fainted, to prevent just
that.

Without even giving it another
thought, Hadaen stormed out of the room. When he saw them--Gideon
and her--in the kitchen, he had almost tripped over his own damn
feet. Relief washed over him like a well-needed shower. Hadaen
frowned and glanced at his brother who was sitting at the counter,
sipping on a beer. He had always known Gideon had no sense. It was
five-thirty in the fucking morning!

Averting his gaze to Amelia's turned
back, he immediately began to wonder how she was feeling. If she
was all right but it didn't seem as if she was aware of his
presence at all.

"Where do we go on from here?" she
asked firmly without even turning around. He could hear the gentle
pouring of coffee. "Unless you still want to fuck me like an
animal."

"She's back, Hadaen," his brother
grinned and bit into a thick sandwich. "And I can't say I don't
like her."

Esyth stepped into the room at that
moment, dumping down two duffle bags. "I think it's high time we
left Washington. I've got a bad feeling about lingering any
longer." Then her cheeks turned to a high shade of red and it was
then that Hadaen realized he was only dressed in his underwear. She
cleared her throat. "I packed a few necessities."

"I need a gun," Amelia's voice came.
And all three turned to look at her. She was facing him now, her
face glowing with a radiance he hadn't seen in centuries. It
satisfied him greatly to see her wearing her necklace again. She
was truly back. Hadaen was pretty sure it was obvious how excited
he was. His cock jumped to attention, straining against the spandex
of his boxers-briefs. Her gaze travelled over him distastefully.
"Using our powers unnecessarily is going to be a drain. And it's
going to give our location away. If we run into any bad guys--and
I'm sure we will--firearms will suffice."

"She's right," Esyth said. "We should
all invest in weapons. Deorci will feed on the energy our powers
release and that will only make him stronger. We cannot take that
chance."

Gideon stood and downed the rest of
his beer. "I agree. I know someone who can help in that area."
Hadaen narrowed his eyes at him. "What? I've made a few friends
over the years unlike you, you fucking hermit."

Amelia smiled lazily and shot Gideon a
wink. Esyth concealed a grin. He didn't find his brother's words
amusing one bit. The only thing that really had his attention at
the moment was the sight of her. She was back.

Moving towards her, Hadaen groaned as
the pain in his cock intensified. He was thinking with his balls
again. The same way he had seven centuries ago when she had ran
away from him. But he didn't care. If he didn't touch her, he'd
explode into a million pieces. "I've been dying for you to
remember..." And he ran his palms over her arms, reveling in the
sweet softness of her skin and taking her in. Amelia was dressed in
a tight navy tank-top which was tucked inside the waist of
low-riding cargo pants. He wondered where she got the clothes from;
Esyth had proven to be very efficient since the previous night. He
thought she'd never looked sexier; he could just come all over
himself.

The look she gave him made his balls
shrivel. "The faster you release me, the less likely I'll be to cut
your fucking balls off."

He could feel the cool metal pressing
sharply against his loins. The slightest move would have him
staring down at his own testicles on the floor. A slow whistle came
from Gideon at his left. Esyth groaned and dropped her head into
her hands.

A smile curved Hadaen's lips. He was
going to have a grand time with her. Removing his hands from her
person and holding them up where she could see them, he backed away
slowly. It was then that he saw the large blade of the Chef's knife
as she placed it down on the counter. She then walked pass all
three of them.

"I'm ready when you are," she muttered
and disappeared from his view.

* * *

H
adaen maneuvered the black SUV out into the streets, heading
into the heart of traffic. The morning was somewhat calm, the
weather promising. Sun showed its way past the gentle sweep of the
clouds as the orange-ish hue of dawn started to recede from the
sky. Gideon sat in the passenger seat next to him, mentally
scanning ahead and behind them for any signs of danger. He wore
dark sunglasses to conceal the silvery-red glow in his
eyes.