The Soul Mate (17 page)

“You think I wanted this!” I yelled. I
dropped the dishes I was holding and turned toward her. “You think
this was how I’d envisioned myself ending up with someone?”

I laughed at her. “Yeah, I stayed up every
night as a little girl praying to the Gods that someday they would
send me to a guy who would see me as nothing more than a
necessity!”

Seething, I turned my back on her to pick up
the dishes I’d dropped. Dumping them in the barrel I began hastily
collecting the others that had scattered farther away.

“No matter,” Onyx said, suddenly directly
behind me. “Soon there won’t be much left of you to see.”

A sense of dread filled me. I’d just barely
turned my head when I felt the palms of her hands push against my
back. With strength I didn’t think possible for someone of her
size, or even a human for that matter, she pushed me and I flew
about ten feet through the front lot, then skidded across the grass
before hitting the tire of a large van.

Before I knew what was happening she was
wrenching me up. Frantically I reached for the closest thing to me,
the back double doors of a van. They were completely smooth and
devoid of anything to grasp.

“Bye Trinity.” She laughed as she pushed me
forward. I tottered for a minute, then a blast of wind hit me hard
and I went flying through the wards.

It took me a minute to realize what had
happened. I’d never even ventured sticking a pinky finger through
the wards. I had always assumed they consisted of some kind of
substance, something tangible. But no, it was if I had simply
fallen over.

The camp had vanished.

I was still standing in the middle of a huge
clearing except now it was empty. I walked forward and I was
instantly overcome with the strangest sensation to… walk away.

“Onyx! You bitch!” I screamed.

“I didn’t ask for delivery,” Somebody hissed
from behind me. My mouth dried. “But I’ll take it.”

“Shit! Shit! SHIT!” I screamed. I screamed
and I ran.

My body surprised me. Several months of hard
labor had given me more endurance that I’d expected.

I ignored the small branches and sharp rocks
cutting into my feet and focused solely on pumping my arms and legs
as hard as I could.

A frighteningly high pitched scream had me
nearly jumping out of skin. To my left, two naked bodies rolled
alongside of me locked in a bloodied ball of snarls and hisses.

I turned sharply to the right, smashing my
face into a low hanging tree branch. Stumbling backwards I tripped
over something, a rock maybe. I was fully engulfed in the forest
now and its shadows. Getting to my feet I heard a crunch followed
by a low growl. Squinting, I scanned the area.

Crouched by a tree no more than four or five
feet from me, eyes glowing red against the dark of the forest, was
how I was going to die.

As if reading my thoughts he grinned at me, a
depraved and ugly look full of vile intent.

I began to shake furiously as he stepped out
of the shadows. “I’m going to fuck you while I kill you,” He
hissed, his nostrils flaring.

If his intentions were to incite fear in his
victims before he did them in, it was working tenfold. But I didn’t
doubt him for a second. He was in fact turned on. Naked as the day
he was born and bared before me I could see just how arousing the
thought of raping and killing me was to him.

“Please,” I begged him. “Don’t.”

He laughed, the sound resembling more of a
growl then anything close to merriment. Inhaling again, this time
deeply, his large chest expanded. “Ahhhh, you are far too sweet. I
should bring you back and keep you as my own.”

Oh my Gods. He wanted to make me like
him.

The horror I felt must have shown on my face
because the bastards grin swelled. I was out of options and out of
time. In a last desperate attempt to live, I turned to run.

With speed no mere human will ever possess he
had me pinned down on my stomach before, it seemed, I’d even had a
chance to move. Too startled, too scared to even scream, I wet
myself.

Something wet and surprisingly warm began
stroking my cheek. His tongue, I realized, as I fought the urge to
gag while he licked his way from chin to temple.

I didn’t want to die, not before I’d really
gotten a chance to live. And not like this.

Cool air hit my back as my t-shirt was torn
open. I squeezed my eyes shut. Was it going to hurt to turn? Would
I remember my life before? Would any part of me be the same?

My body instinctively jerked off the ground
as ice cold daggers pierced through the flesh on my back. I
screamed through the pain and kept on screaming until an explosion
went off. I felt a tearing inside of my ear, and then both pain and
pressure filled my entire head.

It hurt so bad I barely noticed that the
weight on top of me was gone.

“I’ve got you fată, you’re safe now,” A
muffled voice said. Something warm pressed up against my cheek.
“I’m not leaving you. Not ever again.”

I tried to speak, to say anything at all but
I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move.

Thankfully, everything soon went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I awoke sometime later in an unfamiliar bed,
several candles flickered beside my head, and sharp pains throbbed
throughout my right ear and temple. Drina’s face appeared above me,
frowning.

“How do you feel?” She asked.

“Uh, not good.” My voice shook and creaked
like an old rocking chair.

Her eyes narrowed. “He feels terrible you
know.”

“What?" I asked, confused. Who?”

“Xan, of course.” Drina snorted. “Stupid boy.
Your ear I was able to heal but if he hadn’t shot the creature
you’d be dead right now. That is one thing I can’t fix.”

Shot? The wards! That monster! Oh my
Gods!

“My back?” I yelled, sitting up, remembering
the feeling of something tearing into my skin.

“Calm down!” Drina snapped. “You were
scratched, not bitten. You and Xan have matching scars now. Drink
this, you’ll feel better,” She said, handing me a steaming mug of
foul smelling liquid. I choked down as much as I could before I
felt it might come back up. Yet Drina was right. The pain in my
head and ear slowly receded.

“Like magic,” I muttered.

Drina’s laughter was deep and slow. I could
have sworn at that moment, it was tangible, a live entity and
completely separate from her and if I wished to reach out and touch
it I would have been able to.

“Trin?” Xan’s face came into view as he
rounded the bed and came into the candle light. Drina stood and the
magic I’d felt from her evaporated.

“I’ll be at Jaelle’s.” She said, looking at
Xan, her expression grim. Mother and son stared hard at each other,
their dark identical eyes waging a silent battle.

I burst into tears as soon as she left.

“Shhh…” Xan whispered, embracing me. He
stroked my hair, my back, and my arms. Any part of me he could
find. I was shaking, cold even though it was warm in Drina’s
trailer. Needing his warmth I buried myself into his body. I’d been
without him for too long.

“Please don’t hate me,” I sobbed against him.
“I never wanted any of this.”

“No fată… I could never… didn’t ever…” He
stopped speaking and gripped me tighter.

“I’m sorry,” He finally said.

Xan was at a loss for words? Apologizing
even? Had the world come to an end? Oh… well yeah, sort of.

I knew it was time to make a decision. I
could keep fighting against Gerik’s claim on me, keep fighting
against what my body demanded but the rational part of my brain
rejected. Or…I could give it all to Gerik. My virginity, my soul,
and my free will.

My family was gone and the world as it had
been… gone. I had a new family now and a choice to make between two
men. One with so much magic he couldn’t contain it all and the
other without any.

Both were beautiful, caring and ready to be
there for me when I needed them. Gerik made me drop to me knees,
desperate and… not at all myself.

Xan… He made my stomach flutter when he
smiled at me. His soft touches made me ache for more than just
touches. I wanted Xan. I wanted all of Xan. I wanted our late night
conversations and playfulness during practice. And more. I wanted
everything I could get out of him.

I encircled his neck pulling him toward me
until his face was close to mine. I traced a finely edged cheekbone
and brushed my lips against his.

“Xan, I need you.”

“I’m here Trin. I’m not leaving this time. I
promi-

“No.” I smiled at him. “I mean I want
you.”

He studied me for a moment. I watched as his
usually harsh features softened. “I don’t want it to be horrible
for you.”

I shook my head, ours noses touching. “Not
being with you is infinitely worse.”

Drina’s poor bed side table was only the
first of many casualties.

Pulling his shirt over his head and kicking
off his jeans, he surveyed my clothing. “Do you like this shirt
fată?” He tugged at the baggy black t-shirt I was wearing. I
glanced down at it.

It was Gerik’s. Drina must have gone to my
trailer for clothing and grabbed the first thing she found. Xan
grinned when I didn’t answer. “In that case…”

That was all the warning I had before he
ripped it from collar to hem and tore it off me.

Ours was more of a battle than any sort of
intimacy. The moment Xan’s lips met mine every fiber of my being
begged for retreat, forcing me to run from the man I wanted more
than anything. Touches meant to create pleasure caused me to cry
out in agony even as I screamed to be closer to him.

The walls shook and the windows rattled as we
had no choice but to attack each other.

Xan’s passion eventually turned into brutal
desperation.

In our hopeless attempts to get as close as
two people can, all of the pain, humiliation and rejection Xan had
endured up until now, was all coming to a head. He was quickly
reaching the point of no return.

“Tell me to stop, Trinity. Tell me.” His
words were clipped and hard. His breath was hot against my face. He
had me pinned me up against a wall and had tried to kiss me. I’d
turned away just in time and he’d responded by punching a hole in
the paneling right next to my head. It was one of many.

He jerked my chin until we were forehead to
forehead, our heavy breathing mingling in each other’s mouths.
Gripping me tighter he wedged his hips in-between my legs.
“Otherwise I’m going to finish this right now,” He said
harshly.

My body jerked at the intimate contact only
there was nowhere for me to go. His hold on me was bruising and he
was seconds away from making good on his words.

“Tell me to stop fată,” He growled. His eyes
had begun to shine with wild abandon.

Humanity had no place here. Here, we had no
choice but to let loose the animal inside, an ancient instinctual
part of us all, no matter how deeply buried. One ounce of mercy and
all would be lost. I knew I would not be able to go through this
again.

“Finish it,” I whispered through my teeth as
my body tried to shrivel away from his.

With one excruciatingly painful thrust he
found his entry inside of me. My body went limp as the pain
instantly receded and was replaced by liquid warmth. Brushing sweat
drenched hair out of my face, dark eyes found mine.

“It worked,” I panted.

Arching up until I could kiss him, I swept
the tip of my tongue inside and felt nothing but the sweetness of
his own mouth and the instinctual need to deepen our kiss, but he
pulled away.

“You are not his anymore, Trin,” He said, his
voice rough as his body retreated and then returned, pressing hard
into mine. I gasped as foreign sensations of pleasure burst forth
and exploded within me.

“Do you know what that means?” He asked, his
tone and body language fiercely possessive. “You’re mine, Trinity.
Mine.”

There was so much emotion in those dark eyes
that I felt my heart immediately responding.

Then Xan began to move.

It was painfully obvious that what had
happened so far had only been the prelude; the calm before the
storm.

Our bodies crashed together like waves, the
pounding of Xan’s heart against my own was like thunder in my head.
I saw stars as my body fevered and shook with the feel of him
moving inside of me.

Xan was everywhere, all over me, inside and
out, surrounding me, yet I wanted, no, I needed more. With every
kiss, every touch, every stroke, he brought me higher, taunting me
to reach an unseen edge and to freefall over it alongside him.

When my world exploded, my insides shattered,
my skin quivered and melted, it was all I could do to hold on to
reality.

Alive is a relative term. As long as you were
breathing you were alive, right? Just breathing would never be
enough for me ever again. What I had experienced with Xan was life
at its finest. The way his smiles turned me inside out and how his
kisses made my stomach dance, the way his skin felt underneath my
touch and how amazing he felt inside of me. It… it was
everything.

“Holy Himeros,” I sighed.

Xan looked down at me, his features hard.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.

Silence.

“Xan?” My voice cracked. Why wasn’t he saying
anything?

“Are you mad at me?” I asked him. “Did I do
something wrong?” Was being a virgin really that bad of a thing?
Maybe to a guy like Xan it was.

“God no.” He kissed me softly on the lips.
“It’s just… I didn’t realize that you really had never been with
anyone before.”

“How could I? I’d never even kissed a guy
until I met Gerik!" I said defensively. "I’d never even wanted
to!”

His eyes widened. “I know! I mean, I didn’t
know that but I knew that you couldn’t…dammit Trin. I just didn’t
think that you and Gerik never actually-