The Relentless Warrior (4 page)

I thought that over for a few silent moments, knowing he was wrong, but not all that
anxious to change his mind. It didn’t really matter to me how he saw himself or what
his self-esteem charted at. He was a stranger. He would remain a stranger. And I was
so out of here as soon as O was better.

Still… I asked, “Why? Because you want to go find your friends? Because you don’t
want to be stuck here with a bitchy girl you don’t even know?”

I slid off his lap, feeling the moment lapsing into oblivion, leaving only awkwardness
in its wake. I crawled to the other side of the couch and when I turned back around
to face him, I propped my feet in between us, putting up a very tangible wall.

“Olivia, I didn’t mean all that.” He stared down at his empty hands and then back
at O. “I am happy to be here. Happy to help. I can’t help but feel responsible for
what happened to you and your sister and I want to help make it right. But I am anxious
to get back in the field. I’m anxious to get some justice for my friends, for O….
for you.”

“Then why don’t you just go?” I asked sincerely. Holding him back here caused nothing
but frustration and depression.

His gaze swung to mine where it proceeded to paralyze me and turn me into an entirely
different kind of puddle than before. “Justice starts with Ophelia’s recovery- with
your
recovery.”

I gulped.

And then managed a very sarcastic, “See? Good guy.”

A soft smile tilted his lips and he shook his head slowly. “It’s only because you
don’t know me that you think that.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed and then quickly flashed him a cheeky grin.

We fell into a kind of uncomfortable silence then, neither of us sure whether to go
back to the sarcastic-argumentative relationship we usually shared, or if we had moved
into something more serious and profound.

Was this the beginning of a friendship?

Or had we simply both lashed out because of the high-stress situation.

“I hate to lose,” Jericho confessed in a low rumble.

“Excuse me?”

“I hate to lose. Loathe it. In fact, I’m such a sore loser that unless I know I’ll
win the game, I won’t play.” He paused for a moment and then explained, “I know you
don’t feel like you know me, but that’s something important. I hate losing.”

“Truly?” I laughed and relaxed a little at his attempt to open up. “You only ever
play games you know you’re going to win?”

“Most of the time.” He nodded but something about his far off look made it seem like
there was a reason for his obsession with winning- possibly a very good reason he
hated to lose.

“That’s so…. boring!” I bounced forward on the couch until we were only three inches
apart. He sat normally, with his outside arm slung over the arm rest and I hovered
over him on my knees.

“It’s not boring,” he grumbled. “It’s safe. Safety is important. Safety first.”

“First of all, I highly doubt you were ever a Boy Scout. Unless aliens have something
similar like… Alien Scouts?”

“I’m not an alien!”

“Shush,” I reprimanded him. “I’m speaking.” Okay, that was just to get under his skin.
I hid my smirk and continued, “Second of all, safe
is
boring. Duh. Present circumstances excluded, of course.”

“Of course,” he nodded. “That still doesn’t change anything. I like to win.”

I wiped at the left over snot hanging at the end of my nose and shrugged, “Oh, well
that’s too bad.”

“And why’s that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because I’m about to kick your ass in a thumb war and I just know it’s going to ruin
the rest of your day.”

He laughed before he could stop himself. “I’m afraid to even ask what that is,” he
drawled.

“Are you kidding me? You don’t know what a thumb war is? Oh my gosh, you’re so lucky
you met me!” Sure, there were all kinds of stinging barbs that dug in nice and hard
with those words and the implications of why we had to meet in the first place, but
I pushed them all into the deep pit of emotional trauma I would deal with later. Right
now I needed distraction; and not even Magic could help the big, bad Immortal win
this game.
 
 

Chapter Three

Jericho

“Does she do that often?” Eden asked in a hushed tone. She was sitting across the
room from me on the window sill, swinging her feet nervously and letting heels bounce
against the wall.

I looked down at Ophelia from where I sat on the couch, with Liv tucked in against
me. Ophelia had been still for a while; her eyes were moving rapidly behind her closed
lids, but her body had stopped thrashing. She’d made it through another night, and
a feeling of unbelievable relief settled over me. Every long night was like this.
I just kept hoping she would make it one more night, just one more- and then the same
thing the following night.

There had to be some kind of cure for her, some kind of help we could find.

“Yeah,” I answered in a whisper. Olivia was finally asleep and I didn’t want to wake
her. After our intense thumb….war she deserved a few hours of peace. “Almost every
night.”

“Her sister has to be freaking out,” Eden sighed, true sympathy brightening her black
eyes with tears.

I remembered what it was like for Eden when Avalon was held in captivity without Magic.
She knew exactly what it was like to be the sibling forced to watch someone they love
suffer. “You would know,” I offered. I rubbed a hand over my face in an effort to
step out of those memories. When Avalon was being held by Lucan it was one of the
darkest stretches of my life, but it was also the only period of time I could call
Eden mine.

Eden made a wincing sound of agreement and then stood up. Her hands went subconsciously
to her slowly-swelling stomach and I smiled before I could stop myself.

“Congratulations, Eden,” I said sincerely. “That’s amazing.” I nodded to her stomach
where she rubbed at it self-consciously.

“Thank you, Jericho,” she smiled. She looked around the room a little suspiciously
and then in a whispered hush she said, “It’s twins.”

I felt my mouth drop open in shock. Holy hell. “What?”

“It’s twins!” She was beaming now, Magic floating excitedly around her, filling up
the room with her overflowing joy. “Syl did an ultrasound last week, and we could
see the babies. I’m having twins! She had suspected it at the beginning because of
the heart beats. But when the ultrasound machine arrived, she could finally confirm
it.”

“Eden, that’s…. that’s-”

“It’s alright, Jericho. You don’t have to say anything,” she laughed lightly at me.
“I was just dying to tell someone. Kiran thinks it might be best to keep the entire
pregnancy quiet, especially now that we know we’re having twins. It’s just that you
and I used to be so close, and I know I can trust you. I probably shouldn’t have said
anything, I just-“

“Eden, seriously, stop.” I smiled up at her as she stood over me. I didn’t make a
move to join her, in fact my arm tightened around Olivia and I adjusted her a little
so that she was draped even further over my body. She was probably going to be pissed
when she woke up. I was pretty sure falling asleep had been an accident. We played
game after game, tangling our thumbs together and laughing at stupid things. Eventually
her head had dropped to the back of the couch and her eyes slowly closed. I drifted
off too then and while we were both out we’d become connected. I woke up when Eden
stepped in to check on Ophelia, but I hadn’t found the willpower to move Liv off me
just yet. “I’m really happy for you. And of course, I won’t tell anyone. I’m glad
you still think of us as… friends.”

Eden’s entire expression turned emotionally serious, “Of course, Jericho.”

“You’re going to be a great mom, E,” I confessed before I could think about it. She
was right, at one time we were really good friends and it was stupid that our relationship
had to suffer just because she’d given in to her destiny.

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she blushed bright red. This was the
Eden I knew and remembered, not the regal queen she had turned into, but the emotional,
unpredictable girl just trying to figure her life out.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She swiped at the tear, seeming embarrassed by her loss
of control. After a moment, she pulled herself together and said, “Avalon’s coming
home in a few days. He wants to get Mimi back here, and safe. I think he’s staying
this time. For good.”

“He wouldn’t leave Mimi behind. I know that,” I sighed. “Good for him.” Avalon belonged
here, especially since he was so newly married. Hunting down the sick bastard that
was trying to rip our Kingdom apart was no way to spend his honeymoon. Besides, he’d
spent enough of his life on a similar mission. He deserved rest. He deserved happiness.

Not to mention the Kingdom was restless and insecure with the news of Terletov and
his terrorist attacks spreading rapidly throughout the people. They needed to see
all their Kings and Queens on their Thrones, safe and secure.

“That’s how I feel,” Eden nodded. She looked up at me with those huge black eyes and
I instinctively knew what she was asking; good thing it was a decision I had made
weeks ago.

“I’ve already decided to go. I’ve been dying to get back out there ever since your
bastard brother ordered me here.”

“And you’ll be alright leaving?” She glanced over at O whose eyes were still flashing
rapidly behind her closed lids.

“I’m not doing anything productive anyway. I’d rather have the chance to hunt down
Terletov and force a cure from him than sit here helplessly and watch her die.” The
pure honesty behind my words churned my stomach at the powerlessness I felt here trapped
in the Citadel.
 
I was a soldier,
a warrior
. I belonged on the front lines of battle making tangible changes for the good of
this Kingdom.

I was not a nurse.

Or even a very good friend.

“I was hoping you would say that,” Eden said sadly. “Especially since I can’t do anything
about it this time around.”

I laughed a little at her feistiness. “I thought we decided when you tried to take
down Lucan that you weren’t exactly the go-into-battle type?”

“Shut up!” she squealed. “I rebuilt the Resistance with my bare hands! I took down
the Monarchy single-handedly!”

“You know it’s funny how all those details slipped my mind,” I drawled.

She tried to look mad, but burst into laughter instead. And in that moment, all the
tension, the awkwardness, the weird-after effects of declaring your undying love to
someone who never really loved you back to begin with disappeared and we really were
just…. friends again.

Liv shifted in her sleep, a pained moan escaping her full mouth on a quick breath.
She arched her back like a cat, trying to get comfortable. I looked down at her and
noticed the scowl she had, even in the oblivion of sleep. I lifted a hand and rubbed
at the juncture where her eyebrows had drawn together. My hand slid down to cup her
jaw, and I watched her expression visibly relax as she settled back into peaceful
slumber.

“You guys seem close,” Eden noted, taking a few steps toward us. She hesitated at
the foot of Ophelia’s bed and gave her a look of pure frustration.

Where Eden’s healing blue smoke had once been the saving grace and miracle cure to
hundreds of Immortals afflicted with the King’s Curse, it was powerless against the
experiments Terletov was running.

She hadn’t been able to save a single Immortal thus far, and even Ophelia seemed untouched
by powers that had once healed me faster than anything I’d experienced before.

“Liv and I?” I asked on a laugh, then I shrugged when I realized she was serious.
“Not really. I don’t’ know. She doesn’t have anyone else. And she’s desperate to save
her sister.”

“She trusts you,” Eden’s black gaze found mine and her face was perfectly serious.

“Hardly,” I grunted. “Maybe she trusts me more than she trusts anyone else here, but
that’s not exactly a compliment. She hates me as much as she likes me.” Olivia was
a firecracker, something wild and untamed. Yes, she was unhinged with grief for her
sister, but her explosive personality came from a much deeper place than her current
tragic circumstances.

While Eden was occasionally feisty, Liv was
always
a fighter.
 
She was stronger in personality and character than any woman I’d ever known and she
was determined that things go her way- including the health of her little sister.

There was this unexplainable need raging inside me to figure out why she fought so
hard, demanded so much. I was almost desperate to unpack the complex puzzle that was
Olivia Taylor.

I had never spent time around humans before, not in relational settings- other than
Ileana and the Gypsies. But even they had a measure of Magic and enchantment to them.
Plain, simple humans had never held my attention for very long, or given me a reason
to notice them.

Until Olivia.

She demanded my attention, my focus. She walked into a room and lit it up with either
her charismatic light or her biting fire. She was a destructive force of nature, an
unrelenting, claiming question that demanded answers and fought mercilessly when they
weren’t given to her; she was a fierce warrioress that would burn this world to the
ground if things didn’t go her way.

And whether or not she admitted it, she’d set her hopes on me and my ability to save
her family. I felt inadequate and useless. Never before had insecurity plagued me
more than this moment. Not when Eden- the only girl I’d ever loved- chose another
man, not when she chose me even while I was unworthy, not when she left me any of
the times she left me. Those moments, even while horrible, were healable. I survived.

I looked down at the petite girl in my arms, sleeping in tranquil silence, and wondered
if I would be as lucky with her. She was infinitely more dangerous. She could be utter
annihilation- she could be the end of me.

So why wasn’t I running in the other direction? Or at least walking that way?

Eden’s gasp pulled me out of whatever crazy direction my thoughts were headed in.
“What is that?” she demanded.

Her fingers floated to her belly again and a look of pure anguish contorted her pretty
features. Her onyx gaze met mine, panicked filled- not light-panic either, but pure,
raw, undiluted hysteria.

Tears immediately swelled in those black depths and spilled over her long lashes,
“Jericho,” she whispered. “I need, Kiran.”

“Of course,” I quickly agreed. I stood up and deposited Olivia not as gently as I
probably should have on the long couch.

She slumped down with a thump against the fabric and immediately let out a groggy,
“Hey!”

Eden swayed on her feet, looking utterly confused and disoriented. I ignored Olivia
and reached for Eden’s arm, steadying her. “What’s wrong, E?”

“I think,” she started but her trembling chin kept her from continuing. Visibly pulling
Magic from around the room to strengthen her, the blue smoke instantly pooling at
her feet, she tried again, “It’s the babies, I feel Magic. But-“

She stumbled forward, frantic to get to Kiran. I caught her again and a sick feeling
of something toxic and poisonous filled my stomach. The babies were in danger? How?

Eden straightened, struggling so hard to pull her shit together, but it was no use.
She was out of her mind with anxiety- one look at her would make that clear to anyone.
But then she hurried past Olivia and the entire world seemed to tilt on its axis and
something ominous and threatening entered an already screwed up world.

Eden stopped abruptly and swung her gaze to Olivia with a ferocity that reminded me
of the night we killed Lucan- she was that focused, that determined. She was the Immortal
Queen in this moment, she was the last Oracle.

“It’s not the babies,” Eden breathed in an infinitely relieved voice.

“Eden, what is going on?” I demanded. Her intense gaze on Olivia ignited an instinct
in me I had never known before, something so primitive, so protective it scared me
in its ferociousness.

“Jericho, I felt another Magic in the room.” Eden’s gaze was still fixated intently
on Liv who was looking back and forth between us like she had woken up in the twilight
zone. Again…. “It’s faint- barely there. I thought it was… I mean, I assumed it was
the babies. I’m supposed to feel their Magic any day now.”

I cleared my throat and deduced, “But you only felt one Magic.”

“I was worried that maybe one of the babies was in danger,” she confirmed. And then
she said something insane- completely and totally insane. “But it wasn’t the babies
I felt.”

“That’s not possible,” I shook my head and crossed my arms, my stance wide. I loomed
over Olivia daring Eden to explain her accusation,
daring
her to just spit it the f out.

She ripped her focus away from Olivia and met my gaze. Her obsidian eyes were steady
and confident, if not tinged with a little sadness. “I feel it Jericho. She’s Magic.”

“That’s not possible,” I repeated, feeling like an incompetent tool.

“But it’s the truth,” Eden argued.