Royal Affliction (The Anti-Princess Saga) (3 page)

“Are you remembering them yet?” she asked.  I shook my head and she grimaced.

“I’m fine,” I reassured her, trying to convince myself as well as her.  “Just a little tired.”

I left her there because I didn’t feel much like talking about my problems at the moment.  Not that I could talk to her about my underlying issues, or anyone for that matter.  I was alone.  There was no one that I could confide in with whatever was going on in my life because I could never give them the whole story.  I felt a little lonely for that fact.  Not lonely enough to return home though which said a lot.

I made my way to the back of the building, put my purse inside the locker that Carol and I shared, and glanced into the large mirror that hung on the door.  It looked like I hadn’t slept in about a week, and I felt like I hadn’t either.  I tried to make myself look happy and unbothered.  It took all my effort but I managed.

The first half of my shift went fine.  I helped a few regular customers who were always pleasant, and tipped very well, and I even took it upon myself to reorganize the counter so that it looked more inviting.  Anything to keep me from remembering how tired I was.  When I came back from lunch, however, I was unhappy to see a man that I knew, and despised, sitting at the counter.

It was Brent Fowler, the one and only human boyfriend I’d ever had and a good reason why I wasn’t looking for another one any time soon.  He looked up from his plate and flashed me a smile, the kind of smile that said, “I know you don’t want to see me, but here I am.”

Brent was a big man, not fat, but muscular.  He always took pride in knowing that he was stronger than most men, and I knew that he was.  He wasn’t exactly what you would call “sexy,” but he’d been sweet, at least in the beginning.

We’d dated off and on for a year and a half now and were off at the moment.  When he was nice he was a great guy that you just wanted to be around, but when he wasn’t…he was the biggest dick on the planet.  Not the kind of man you wanted to marry and I wasn’t sure why I’d gone back to him so many times.  Familiarity?  We’d been apart for a few months now and he was most likely here because he thought that it was time to give it another try.  I didn’t.

Since I saw no easy way of avoiding him, I approached him.  “What are you doing here Brent?  You know that I have asked you several times to stay away from me.”

He arranged his face into the look of that innocent little boy who never did anything wrong.  He’d used this look on me far too often while we were dating for me to know that it wasn’t genuine.  My face hardened.

“It’s not against the law to eat pie, is it?”

Brent was one of the jealous types but I’d chosen to look past his faults.  There is nothing stupider than a young woman in love.  But everyone has their limits to what they will take, mine had been Brent putting my co-worker, Jacob, in the hospital.  I’d moved to another apartment complex a month beforehand just to put some distance between us, shoulda found a new job too.

“Brent…just go.”

He stared at me for a minute, his eyes softening the longer they stayed linked to mine.  Without another word he slinked off his chair, pulled some money out of his wallet and dropped it on the counter.  “I will always love you,” he muttered under his breath as he walked through the exit.  I don’t think he meant me to hear him, but my species had excellent hearing.

Someone came to stand beside me.  It was Carol.  I could tell by the unique perfume she always wore.  It was a mixture of lavender and vanilla.  It was a welcoming scent.  “Are you ok, dear?” she asked, bringing her hand to rest on my lower back in a comforting gesture.

“Yeah, I just don’t know what I ever saw in him.”  My eyes were still focused on the door when I answered, my mind reliving all the happy times we had shared, opting not to think of the bad at the moment.  I had loved this man at one point and I knew some part of my heart would always beat for him whether I wanted it to or not.  His eyes had told me just how much he was missing me, just how much he cared.

Two men walking through the front door brought me back.  They grabbed a small table in my section so I picked up a couple menu’s and headed for them.  “What can I get for you guys?”  I was relieved to hear my voice come out pleasant and not as exhausted as I felt.

“Just some coffee please, Tessa.  Regular, I think,” the older of the two said with a smile.  It always unnerved me when people I didn’t know called me by my first name despite the fact that my nametag displayed it to anyone caring to look.

“Sure thing, I just brewed a fresh pot.”  They looked antsy and didn’t talk to each other while I was filling their mugs, not something I was at all bothered by.  Some people just liked their privacy.  They both smiled so I headed back to the counter to return the pot to its home.

“Zolera.”

It was just a whisper, but I heard it.  I froze, my fingers loosening around the coffee pot until a loud crashing noise echoed around the room.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Tessa, clean that mess up,” Gus, one of the busboys, said and it jarred me enough to regain composure.  “Think I got some bacon grease on the handle, sorry guys,” I said loud enough to get everyone’s attention off of me.  It worked.  Gus handed me a broom and a dustpan and I thanked him for it.

There was no way I heard what I thought I heard, but I had to be sure.  As I swept I kept my ears as open as I could.  After a minute or two I caught the voice again and snuck a glance at my two new customers.

“We’ve been looking for weeks and we haven’t found any.  At this rate they’ll be on to us before we find out where they’re meeting,” the older one protested.

The other male nodded.  He was much younger than the first man, probably close to my age where the other guy looked old enough to be his father.  Then he spoke, and the words took my breath away.  “The Boru King won’t be pleased if we come back empty-handed again.”

The room started to spin and darken before my eyes as my legs gave way.  I dropped to my knees, breathing hard but feeling as if no oxygen was entering my lungs.

Dekem was the former ruler of the Boru, a species long since purged from Kortis.  My father had killed Dekem with the weapon that now belonged to me.  The other three kings of Kortis had banded with my father to banish the rest of them to this earthly plain.  They had no King.  This was common knowledge among my kind.  They had been cast out with no way to return, and were forced to live amongst the humans.  They had chameleon abilities which helped them to blend in with the human population.  The Boru would love to see all of my kind dead for sealing their expulsion and executing their King.  But since they were no longer able to get to Kortis they were quite content with killing any of my kind that they could get their hands on (i.e. those of us who decided to cross over).

The sound of chairs scraping on the floor brought me back to the present, and when I looked up, the table where the two had been sitting was empty.

Damn!  I should have paid more attention to what they were talking about.

I knew that they were trying to find a group of Zolera that were meeting for some reason.  From what I knew, the few of my kind that came to this realm tried to blend in with humans. 
Why would they be meeting?
I knew none of my kind here because I would only recognize another Zolera if they had no concealment spells on.  None of us would be foolish enough to walk around like that, an open target to any Boru let alone exposing ourselves to the unknowing human race. 
Why were these humans looking for them?
 
Were the humans working for the Boru, if so, why?
  So many questions were flying around my head that I couldn’t hold onto one of them.

“You look like you’re going to be sick,” Michelle, another fellow waitress commented with concern.  “Go home and try to get some rest, Tess.  I got it.”

I couldn’t argue with her so I nodded, muttering a “thanks,” before heading back for my purse.

As soon as I took one step outside, my senses heightened and my eyes darted around the parking lot at the instant twinge of fierce, looming eyes.  Something was watching me.