Shattered Skies - Night Waves (10 page)

       I thought about his question for a minute before I answered. He was still looking down at the ground. I reached for his hand again; hand holding was more personal than just sitting awkwardly, legs brushing together. When my fingers closed around his, he looked up at me with doe eyes. I spoke to him as gently as I could.

“I am sorry you were forced to give up something like that to someone that you didn't know. I’m sorry that I took something away from you that was supposed to mean something to you. I am even sorrier, that your first time was with me, someone that is worse than a Dominus in your eyes.” I could see a look of confusion pass over his face before he finally settled into a smile.

      “Do you think that is why I told you, because I wanted you to feel sorry for me?” I once again didn't know what to say. That just seemed like one of those questions that didn't have a right answer.

      “I don't know why you told me to be honest.” There, that was the truth, no need to hide my confusion from him. I sat quietly and watched his eyes soften. He was gradually accepting my genuine concern over taking something away from him that I had no right to take.

“I don't even know your name. I know nothing about you. I thought I was murdering you in there and I loved every minute of it.” I didn’t know why but that last part of that stung.

It was my turn to look away in shame. His hand grabbed my chin and forced me to look him at him before he went on. He looked less manly now. There was a glimpse of a teenager behind his face. Talking like this was as new to him as it was to me.

“But I am grateful,” he said and to him it was as simple as that.

“OK, you’ve lost me completely now. Grateful for what?” The fact that I just wasn't getting it puzzled him. I could tell by the emotions flashing across his face.

“I am grateful that I got to have sex. Sex is a fairytale unless you are in the class that is used to reproduce more food. I wasn't important enough for that. I was always just labor until I got away.” He wasn't really
talking to me as much as he was thinking out loud. I knew what it felt like to need to talk, so I didn't interrupt him. “Anyway, I was lonely. I hate to admit it but there was part of me that was glad to get caught again. At least while I was captive I had other human contact. People that were in the same boat as me, people that were just as miserable as I was.” He was right. I would never truly understand what he had gone through.

“Even more than all that though, I hate to admit it, but the fact that I wanted you to die so bad in there? It messed me up and I didn't take the time to enjoy the moment, not that I didn’t
recognize amazing when I felt it. I got to have something today that no one I’ve
known has ever had; sex with a beautiful woman. Thank you for that,” he said with a cute little wink. I had to laugh.

“I don't think sex is something you thank someone for. But then again I could be completely wrong.” We both laughed at that and sharing a laugh felt good.

It was strange how normal this all felt. I had never even met another human that wasn't in one way or another associated with Walker, and here I was flirting with a human stranger like it was something that I did every day. Someone that I knew I wasn't going to kill if I decided that I wanted to have sex with him a second time. A man that didn’t come with the long string of baggage like the one Darien and I had between us. Jace was capable of laughing too. Just not at me, but as easily at himself. Hmm, a man that didn't take anything too seriously. I could use one of those. It would be so nice just to be able to throw my head back and laugh without having to worry that I might be offending someone.

“OK, so how do we get out of here?” I said. That was a sly way to change the subject before this got too real
for me. I didn't want to lose the relaxed feeling I was having with him just yet.

“We don't get out of here.
I don't even know your name. What can I call you?” He said it like he had already decided that this was the end of the road for both of us.

There was a tragic note in his acceptance. I had seen how feisty he had been with the Dominus. I couldn't figure out how he could give crap to Drake like that and just
suddenly give up now. What about being in here had him so certain that this was it for us?

“I’m Catalina. You can call me Cat, almost everyone does. What do you mean we don't get out of here?” When he didn't reply, I let my thoughts continue, “I don't know about you but I have no intention of spending the rest of my life
trapped in here.”

“Well, that is where you and I differ then.” His statement was hard as stone. “I am Jace. It is nice to meet you.” He held out his hand for me to shake. His gesture was a little too formal for me, considering the fact that I had watched a storm rage through his eyes while he was in my bed, but what the hell?

   Shaking his hand I asked, “What do you mean, that is where we differ? I have gotten myself out of worse situations than this.” I took a second to look around, surveying the cell that where I was held captive. “This is almost like a posh hotel compared to some of the holes I’ve been locked away in.” I was trying to get him to loosen up a little and my attempt was rewarded with a wry smile. Sadly it vanished all too quickly when he considered the subject at hand.

  
“It means that this is my last stop. I am here waiting to be taken to the Hunt. I am sure he has other plans for you though. I am almost glad for you that he does, because the Hunt isn't a good way to die.” There was that distant look again, the one that he got when he was talking about things that meant certain doom.

  
I wondered for a second if that is how he had coped with his life so far? Maybe when bad things were happening to him, maybe he managed to push them into an imaginary place in his mind. If he did that, then his death wouldn't be real to him. Instead, his death would just be a movie that he watched as if through someone else’s eyes. That would be a pretty good trick, if you could figure out how to do it.

  
“Is it true what he was saying about you and the King?” His voice startled me for a second. I hadn't realized I had been drawn into trying to step outside of my own tragic life so totally.

  
The question that he asked was one that I really didn't want him to ask. Something inside me didn't want to answer his question because I knew that I would go down notches in his book. A truthful answer would destroy the stress free relationship that we had managed to build with each other because I knew he wouldn't look at me the same if I told him the truth. I made a decision there and then to be honest with him. It would have been easier to just lie, to make something up, and to tell him that Drake had his facts wrong, but telling the truth won out.

  
“Yes it’s true,” I said. I didn't give him the chance to say anything. I guess maybe I was hoping that if I could talk long enough, he wouldn't remember what the question was to begin with. “I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't mean for the King to become infatuated with me. I didn't ask for any of it.” I waited for the lecture that was about to come next. I braced myself for how bad it was going to hurt when I lost his respect. I knew that feeling much too well. I waited for the disapproving tone to creep into his voice, I waited for the righteous glare, for the look of pure disgust on his face, none of which I needed.

  
“Damn, wish I had thought of that! Though I don't have your amazing tits and your cute little ass, so I doubt I could have convinced the King to fall madly in love with me.”

  
“That’s right, be like the rest of them, judge... wait, what?” My shock made him chuckle.

  
“I’m sorry. Should I have reacted differently to that?” Was he being serious? Was his sarcasm so good that I couldn't pick up on it? I was taken aback and stunned. It took me a few seconds to find words.

  
“Everyone else has a problem with it,” I said. Probably not the most mature or well thought out statement, but it got my point across.

  
“Everyone else needs to wake up and realize they don’t live your life and never will. When you die, it is you that gets thrown in the hole and covered with dirt, not them. So you live your life the way you want to, Cat.”

  
If there was ever a moment for falling in love with a stranger in two seconds flat, this was the moment. 

  
“Thank you so much,” I stuttered, still half waiting for the disapproving axe to fall. I was really hoping it wouldn’t though, because a second after the words came out of his mouth, something happened to me. I think I forgave myself, or maybe I just stopped feeling bad for what I felt about Akia!

  
“Don't thank me for being honest with you. If this Dominus feels for you and you can be honest with yourself and admit that you love him, you do whatever it is that you can to get back to him. Don't live in fear Cat. We have seen way too much to live in fear. Living everyday like you die tomorrow really does make sense in this world.” He sounded so much older and wiser than he looked. He had to be my age, maybe a little bit older, but not by much.

  
“Don't look at me like I just said something amazing,” he said. I guess I hadn't realized that I was looking at him with a look of awe on my face, but I had been. I was a little embarrassed that he caught on to me and I pulled my eyes from his.

   “
Anyone that cares about you should have said the same thing,” he added. Was it wrong for me to want to believe him?

  
I wanted so much to hold onto his words, not that they made me feel better about the way Darien had acted, but because they made me feel better, period. It was OK in his eyes for me to be with Akia, even though Akia was responsible for what Jace believed would be the day he died. It was OK because love conquered all and your heart doesn't choose who is good for you, it chooses who it wants. I thought about this for a minute.

  
“You know the real world doesn't work like that Jace, right? I am supposed to kill as many of the beasts as I can.” My voice came across harder than I intended it to. Jace was looking at me like he was confused, so I tried a different approach.

  
“You know the rush you got when you thought you had just killed me in there? That feeling that for just a brief second you were in control of your own destiny?” I didn't get to continue before he interrupted me.

  
“That’s the perfect way to describe it,” he said. I am guessing you know that feeling well, don't you?” I don't know what it was about those words, but they were the ones that I needed to hear.

   
Quickly the situation changed and the tables were turned. I was no longer trying to make him understand things I said. Instead, I just started talking. The words and confessions flew from my lips the way wild horses flee a fence when they see a way out. Jace was giving me a chance to free myself from things that I had bottled up. I told him my life story sitting in that little room, well nearly all of it. I left out the things that had made me question myself; a girl is allowed to take a few secrets to the grave with her, right? We talked for hours, there were no interruptions, there were no judgments or pretenses, there was just me and him sitting in the dark talking. For the first time in my life I knew what it felt like to be accepted. He didn’t care what I was or who I used to be. I was just Cat to him, a girl that like him was doing everything and anything to survive.

“Now look how cute that is. Wake the hell up, both of you.” I knew that voice. It was a voice that made me want to throw up. Instead I sighed and snuggled in closer to Jace.

I didn't remember falling asleep that night but it was the most restful sleep I’
d had in a long time.

“I don't know about you two, but if it was me, I wouldn't spend the last two days of my life snoozing, but you humans are stupid, so I guess it’s no big shock.” That last remark woke me up. I don't like it when bad-ass, want-to-be-king Dominus men with egos the size of Texas woke me.

“What are you complaining about now Drake,” I threw back at him, exasperated. I mean really, what is the worse that could happen to me? I doubted that he was going to kill me for my attitude, but if he did, there were worse things in the world to die for.

The
hard edge in my voice was enough to wake Jace. I should have moved. It really wasn't like me, to snuggle with a stranger, but something about the fact that I was so comfortable with Jace was bothering Drake, and if it bothered him, it was motivation enough for me.

“I should take a picture of this and show Akia what a tramp you are. That way, it would be less of a blow for him, or it just might push him over the edge even faster than I could hope. Either way, I
’d win.”

“What do you want Drake? If you are here to kill me, just do it. Cause death would be better than listening to you.” The sad thing was, by then, I truly believed that.

“What is the matter Kitty Cat? Did you wake up on the wrong side of that pathetic rodent this morning?” Even though I ignored him he just kept talking, so much for that ignore it and it will go away myth. “I know what I am going to do with you, Cat. I can't kill you. But I know something that will. You, my little Kitty Cat, are now cordially invited to talk part in the Hunt.”

Jace was suddenly moving, jumping to his feet so fast that I almost fell over. Luckily my reflexes were
faster now. “What did she ever do to you, that you just can't kill her here and now and spare her from the Hunt?” I was getting confused. I wasn't sure if Jace thought he was helping me or what, but the kill her here and now part didn't appeal to me.

  
“Do you have any idea what she is, you stupid rodent? Not that I have to explain anything to you, but the faster she dies and the farther I am from where it happened, the better off I’ll be.”

  
What exactly was it that he thought I was? For a minute Drake had signaled fear and I could smell it on him. It was actually quite refreshing.

  
“She isn't like me and she isn't like you, asshole,” Drake said. There is something wrong with her somewhere and the sooner she is done away with, the better. I won’t do it myself, no thanks. I was in the castle the night she supposedly died. I saw the aftermath that she left behind her and I am not giving her the chance to come anywhere near destroying me again.” I hadn't thought about that.

  
Drake hadn’t seen everything that happened that night in the castle, but he did see the piles of ashes that used to be his friends. Shit, I understood it now. He thought I was capable of destroying his kind! That was all I needed; another one thinking I was the person put on the Earth to take it back. Just great.

  
“What is he talking about?” Jace never took his eyes off Drake when he talked.

  
“I will tell you about it later Jace. It isn't nearly as dramatic as he is making it.” I tried to get the point across for Jace to drop it and it worked; he clammed up didn't say another word. Drake however, wasn't ready to let it go.

  
“Are you kidding me Kitty Cat? I am being overly dramatic?” He turned his attention from me to Jace. “Your girlfriend there is a cold blooded killer.” The disgust in his voice was astonishing.

  
“I don't think someone that attempted to kill her not once, but twice, in the last 24 hours has any right to complain about anyone killing anyone.” It was kind of nice that Jace was automatically on my side at every turn.  The earned him more brownie points than he could imagine.

  
“Oh just shut the hell up! I hope I’m the one that gets to rip your pathetic throat out.” Drake was almost sneering his words. “Now do you want to hear the truth or are you going to let her bat her pretty little eyes and lie to you?” Jace looked back at me as if to ask what he was supposed to do.

  
There was nothing left for me to do but shrug. I wasn't sure that Drake would just drop it, even if Jace had begged him to. Also, I hated to admit it, but I was dying to know what Drake’s version of the story was going to be.

  
Jace turned back toward me and Drake started to spin his tale. He told Jace about how we broke in to rescue Walker. He told him how I had opened a vein and fed Walker, so that he would be strong enough to get away. Drake’s voice was almost machine-like as he spoke, not even showing excitement when the plot thickened. His pride was hurt and you could hear it when he admitted how Darien and Jaden had kept him out of the room that day, and that he never seen what actually happened. I was hoping that his story stopped there. That Drake would not speculate about what had happened behind the closed door. I was wrong.

  
“I didn't see her die, so I suspected that she wasn't dead. What I found when I got finally made it back to the room were piles of dust that used to be the strongest best trained guards in our unit. Whatever she is, she was powerful enough to evaporate ten Dominus. What I wanted to know was how the hell she did it. I also wonder how it can be that she is still standing here after my test.” I wanted to tell him that he wasn’t the only one that had stayed awake countless nights wondering, but I choose to remain silent, probably a first in my life.

   The look on Jace
s face when he turned back to me looked just how I felt. Lost, confused and more than anything, it was a look that said he wanted answers. I wanted and needed the answers too, but I had nothing better to offer but a glare in Drake's general direction.

   “
What's the matter Kitty Cat; did I hit the nail on the head?” I hated him and I wished that Drake had died in the room with the other guards that night, just so I’d never have to hear his voice again.

   “Y
ou have no idea what you are talking about Drake. I was out of the castle way before those Dominus even made it to the room. Don't make up stories to try to justify why your best men were so slow that stupid humans got away from them.”  I willed him to believe that. If he believed that I was human and that he was wrong and I was out of the castle before whatever happened that killed all of his men happened, then maybe, just maybe, he would let me go.

  
“You dear woman are anything but human, and you’d have me believe you were out of there and you had nothing to do with killing Jewel, our hostage? Sure!” I couldn't hide the pain that flashed across my face fast enough. I had just given him the confirmation that he needed.

  
“So you did her! I knew it. You walked in and killed your sister. That is classic. You are colder than I give you credit for.” It took all the strength I had not to collapse to the floor. It was never easy keeping a memory out, but when someone forced a bad memory back into your mind, it was a real bitch.

  
“What is he talking about Cat?” Jace never once took his eyes off the self-satisfied beast standing in front of us. As for me, I was more than over this conversation.

  
When I didn't answer and turned my back to them, Drake knew that he had won. He didn't gloat though which surprised me. Instead he laughed, causing the tiny hairs on the back of my neck to stand up at attention.

  
“Well, it looks like I gave you two a way to entertain each other for a while. Why don't you tell her how fun the Hunt will be and she can tell you how she is a soulless hypocritical bitch? I would love to stay and watch, but if I am going to rid the planet of her, I have a lot of planning to do.” And with that, he was gone.