Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (19 page)

“So, his attempt on your life should have taken away his immortality. But it didn’t, why?” April asked her with no hostility in her voice at all, Demetrius was relieved to realize.

“Not unless someone in the High Council is aware of his involvement in the plot. I doubt that, when Sara was fleeing the castle with my body after the explosion, she hung around to explain what happened. And without my body….” Mel shrugged. “I’m sorry to say that she was guilty until proven innocent. No, what Sherman is doing is more than likely sanctioned by the Council because they believe that Sara and the others failed me or were the ones who committed the crime. It is in all likelihood that Sara is a wanted fugitive.”

“Then he’s the one who had her arrested.” At her nod, he continued. “High Council of Magick? You’ve mentioned that before. Is that some sort of court system or something?” Demetrius asked her, trying hard to understand a whole other world other than the two he currently lived in.

“Yes, that’s exactly what they are. I am magic, but without someone to govern even me, things could be one sided. The Council wants for nothing, the people see to their needs. So they enforce my law for me. If not for someone to back me up and with nothing to gain, I could become a tyrant.” She looked at April. So did he. But his mate just smiled at them both and continued as if Mel hadn’t given her a perfect shot.

“That probably explains why she is working for smaller airlines, and when she does fly for the bigger companies, she does it under the company name and not her own. She is hiding out, just not from anyone in the human world. All this time we believed her to be hiding from the law. Just never imagined that it was the law of another realm,” Demetrius mused out loud.

“What happens if she is able to prove Sherman is the one who caused your demise? Is he then stripped of his royal sanction?” April asked her.

“Yes, and once that happens, he’ll be a mere immortal. Then...then Sara will be able to fry his ass,” she stated with a huge smile.

~CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO~

Sara waited until full darkness before she opened her hand to the bright orange stone. Looking toward the door to make sure no one could see her, she blew gently across it.

She’d been given one of these stones before, a blue one then. It had been many years ago when she was still being tested and trialed to become a guard. The instructions had been to open it. It had taken her several hours of studying it, rubbing it between her hands, throwing it. She’d even tried soaking it in water. As she was drying it off, she blew a piece of lint off it and it opened up, revealing the message.

The stone rocked softly in her hand, vibrating little shakes. As she watched, the stone began to morph; tiny wings began to separate themselves from its surface. Then a face formed and took shape, its features so small they looked surreal.

As the wings started to flutter, the rest of the stone became arms, legs, and a body. The little creature rolled over in Sara’s palm and stretched tautly. It was a pixie, a woodland being that worked with the forest. Sara watched as the pixie pulled her little wings tightly against her back as she continued to change and become whole.

When it had rested for several minutes, it suddenly flew from her hand and across the room toward the sink. Then she flitted over to the toilet and around the rim. Her wings were going so fast that it was nearly impossible to see with the human eye. Sara watched her until she came back and landed on her bent knee.

Sara smiled at her. She wasn’t at all what the movies portrayed a pixie to look like. Her wings were diaphanous, of course. But the rest of her was purely female. Her short hair was bright, bright orange and spiked all over her head. Her eyes were also orange, but not quite as bright as the hair. She had a piercing in her little nose and a chain of something sparkly around her ankle. In addition to the dark green Grateful Dead t-shirt, she also had on a pair of Capris that reached just below her knees, and flip-flops.

“Don’t you just hate Ohio weather? It can be hotter than the Sarnillian’s belly one day and colder than Daphne’s tit the next.” Her voice was tiny and squeaky, but Sara could hear her.

“I’ll have to take your word for those places. You have a name, pix?” Sara asked her.

“Yeah, well duh. Everyone has one, don’t they? Sheesh, the queen said you were smart. It’s Mari. Well, it’s really Marigold, but I go by Mari. Do you believe this flippin’ hair? I wanted to be pink, but that girl Petunia beat me to it.” Mari began flipping her hair around with her fingertips.

“You mean there can only be one pink...you know, I don’t care. You have a message for me, Mari?” Sara hated dealing with pixies. They tended to be self-centered and not a little narcissistic. This one was proving to be both.

“Yeah, the queen said to sit tight, and not to do anything stupid. I guess we can mark that one off the list. You are in a dungeon. I’m also supposed to tell you that your vamp is well. You know a vampire? Ooooohhhh, has he nipped you yet? I would love to be bitten by one. That would be so cool,” Mari gushed.

“He’d crunch you in half. What does she mean, sit tight?” Sara’s head was beginning to ache already and the pix had only been there five minutes.

“I don’t know, just sit tight. You know that really is a stupid statement. Are you supposed to pucker up your butt while you sit here? Stupid. And I bet if you asked nicely, he’d bite me. Could you do that for me? I’d be your friend for life.” Mari looked around the cell. “Okay, that really isn’t a long time, but I could sneak you in some cigs to bribe the guards with.”

“No, he’s not going to bite you, and no, I don’t want any cigarettes.” Sara rubbed her forehead to try and ease some of the sudden tension. “As for the butt thing, I’m not even going to think about why you want to know. Can you take a message back to the queen for me?”

“Yeah, but you have to put me somewhere that I can get past the magick first. I can’t break the ward put on the door to keep you in. Although why you’d want outta here is beyond me.” Sara flicked her with her finger. Mari landed with a soft bump on the floor.

~~~

Aaron had been trying to contact Sara for nearly four hours when Demetrius shimmered into the room. He simply dropped to the nearest chair.

“What’s happened? Did the plane go down? Please tell me she didn’t suffer. Oh Demetrius, I....”

“Sire, she’s all right. I’m sorry, I never...I’m sorry, sire. She’s...the queen, Melody, sent me to talk to you. She said that I needed to explain what’s happened.”

“Where is Sara? I need to see her. Where?” He reached for her again and was terrified once again at the finality of their connection. It was as if she no longer lived. “If she’s all right like you say, why can’t I reach her?” He stood up and began pacing.

“She’s been arrested for—” Demetrius started

“Arrested! For what? She hasn’t done anything wrong. Take me to her right now. We’ll clear this up in no time.” He began walking to the door. When he turned around, the other vamp was still sitting. “What else, Demetrius? What haven’t you told me?” He sat down again. He suddenly felt his fourteen hundred years.

“Sara’s been arrested for treason and murder. They have her in a dungeon in Malt...Mult…the castle. Melody said that you must not go to her, nor should you plan her escape. She also explained that you mustn’t try and contact her, that Mel’s mate must continue to think she, Mel, is gone.”

~CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE~

Sara had been in the castle dungeon for three days with only a small patch of light from a vent high on the wall to mark her time. She wanted to see Aaron, just one more time before they passed judgment on her. She knew that she was to die, but they were slowly killing her by keeping her away from Aaron. She had stopped asking last night; no one paid any attention to her anyway. She was getting hoarse from screaming for someone to let her see him.

Sara’s magic didn’t work here; the cell was engineered in such a way to keep anyone inside from using anything to escape. Made sense if you thought about it, and she had. Every day, every hour, every second since she’d been tossed in here. She now sat in the corner of her cell, contemplating what had brought her to this end. Sherman. He seemed to be the bane of her misery.

Sara looked over at the tray of food from her evening meal. Her food left untouched as were the other meals that had been placed in the room. Her appetite was simply gone. It was too bad, really; it always looked like she was being fed more than bread and water. The bread that was there didn’t look like it had one single worm in it either. She laughed manically at her own joke. They didn’t serve food that way here, she knew that.

The cell really wasn’t that bad either. There was a nice cot with a thick mattress on it. In addition to the clean sheets were two blankets and a fluffy pillow. It was by far softer than the back of her van had ever been. She’d fallen asleep in it twice, and while she didn’t sleep well, it was no fault of the bed. There was a toilet and a sink with a plastic mirror over it. On the stone floor where she was currently sitting was a thick rug. There weren’t any pictures on the walls, of course, but someone, long ago probably, had used something to carve his name in the dark stone. There were also a few crude words there, written well before Sara had been a thought in anyone’s mind.

Sara felt them before she heard them unlocking the door. It was nearly time to come for the tray, so she didn’t move when the door opened. That seemed to be the only power she had retained, feeling them, but not reading their intent. So she was surprised when one of them touched her. He must have tried several times to speak to her, but she was too far gone in her depression to have heard him.

Sara looked up at him now, seeing him for the first time, and realized with a start it was Tyler. He looked so good to her. She nearly jumped up to hug him to her, so happy she was to see someone familiar. But her bonds, the shackles at her wrists and ankles, kept her from moving.

“Hello, Sara. Can you get up and follow me, please? The High Council is ready to see you now.”

Sara looked at him for long moments, and then turned back to the small patch of waning sunlight. “Lend me your dagger, Tyler, and leave me. Tell them you found me in my cell dead. I’d appreciate it. I don’t want to die like a coward, and we both know the penalty for killing a royal blood.” It was beheading at the gallows. They both had been witness to it enough. “I promise you it won’t be a lie by the time you get back to them.”

“Come on, up with you. You need to bathe and dress. The others are waiting to see you, and it isn’t like you to keep people waiting. Come on.” His voice held a bit of authority that she couldn’t help but obey.

When she was standing, he let her go, and she crumbled to the floor again bumping her head against the hard wall, not because she wouldn’t go with him, but because she was weakened from lack of exercise and food.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve...I must have slipped.” The sudden memory of saying that to someone nearly had her double over in pain. Oh, Aaron, she thought again.

“Steady there, no one will be happy if you are hurt,” he told her as he held her tightly.

“Yes, can’t have the condemned man, err, woman hurt before they behead her, can we?” She giggled manically again at her own joke. She was losing it, no doubt about it, she thought.

“See here now, girl, straighten yourself up. What’s wrong with you? You’re scaring the men. Steady yourself.”

Tyler’s tone and order had her trying to obey him before she could blink. Tricky bastard, he’d done that on purpose. She smiled slightly for the first time in days.

Tyler got her up, and though she was leaning heavily on him, they managed to traverse through the halls toward the lower bathhouse. He sat her upon one of the chairs nearest the showers and hosed her down, clothes and all. She didn’t think there would be any saving the shoes, but the metal of the chainmaille and arm and legs binds would be fine. They had taken her weaponry before putting her in the cell, but had given her the dress of her position when she’d been a guard.

Tyler handed her a new bar of soap. She washed herself with no enthusiasm for the task. When he had hosed off the soapy film, she looked up at him and smiled.

“Thanks, Tyler, I do feel better. Where are you taking me? I suppose I should have inquired before, but I’m just...I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“To the main Council Chamber. They’re all gathered there.” He had a squadron of twenty men with him, she noticed.

They must really be worried she’d freak out and start killing them all with this sort of man power. A small laugh escaped her mouth before she could catch it. She was definitely going to need therapy after this. Then she thought, well, only if they have someone in the audience, come to think of it. Not much time for anything else.

“Are you hungry?” Tyler interrupted her musing. “They said that you haven’t eaten much.”

“No, I don’t think so. My belly doesn’t feel up to it. Maybe before they take me to the gallows, they could give me a cheeseburger and fries.” Another memory and another sharp pain.

She burst into tears, and that quickly turned into heart-wrenching sobs. He held her until it passed, or at least slowed down enough so that they could be on their way.

One of the other guards brought in some clothes for her to wear, a pair of her jeans and a t-shirt. She put them to her nose and breathed deeply. He left her to her business, asking that she please let him know when she was dressed. In no time at all, she was opening the door and coming out.

“Come on then, let’s get going,” he told her. Her escort surrounded her completely and off they went. She started whistling
Wizard of Oz
without thinking. One of the guards started to sing the words until Tyler cleared his throat. Spoil sport. Sara started humming the theme from
Jaws
,
Terminator,
then
Friday the Thirteenth
and any other horror movie she could think of as they made their way down the long corridors to her doom. By the time they rounded the last corner, she was singing “The End of the World As We Know It.” However, she didn’t feel fine.

~~~

Sara walked into the room with her head held high. Tyler had taken off her handcuffs so that she could bathe, but he hadn’t replaced them, so she clasped her hands together before her. She didn’t care. She wouldn’t try to escape. She was tired of hiding and she wouldn’t endanger Aaron by letting him hide her in the human world, which she was sure he would be willing to do. No, this was much better; she could at least have her dignity this way.

Perhaps two hundred people were in the room, most of them standing behind the impromptu barrier that had been erected. Some were sitting in the stadiumlike seating. There were seven people sitting behind a long table in the very back of the room and another five sitting in chairs in front of it facing her as well. This was where she was led to stand. She could feel the hostility and anger in the room. She didn’t look to see why. Frankly, she was too depressed to care. She was above ground now, and her magic worked better. She simply didn’t care enough to reach.

Sara looked back at the table and recognized a few of the faces staring back at her. One in particular was Robert Meal. He’d been the highest ranking officer of the High Council since she had started working for them. As the queen’s personal guard, this council was the only one she and the other guard answered to aside from the queen and king of the realm. Also seated there was Sherman.

Shermie was sitting in one of the throne chairs. As this wasn’t even close to the receiving room, or throne room, he must have had the chair brought in for him.
What a pompous ass
, she thought, and gave him a small wave.

“Hello, Bob. How’s it hanging? Shermie?” She laughed at him as he stiffened in pride. They’d always disliked her, and judging by the smirk, they were really enjoying this.

“Sara Temple, by order of the High Council and governing rulers of Molavonta, you’ve been brought before this council today to stand judgment for crimes against your queen. Do you know why?” Bob asked her with a grin. Yeah, she thought, he was really enjoying himself.

Before she could answer, there was a commotion behind her. As she turned fully to see what could have dared interrupt, she was engulfed in a pair of muscled arms and a very familiar scent. Aaron. Aaron was holding her close to him, kissing her face, ears, and neck, whatever he could touch. She, too, was holding onto him, clinging to him, knowing that any moment they would drag him away.

“Master Vampire MacManus, you will need to take your seat. These proceedings are underway and you are not on trial here,” Sherman said to him.

“No, I don’t think so,” Aaron said with defiance in his voice as he turned to the man. “I’m going to stand right here next to her. You can try and take me away, but I assure you, there are twice as many of us than there are of you. Blood will be shed if you try.”

Aaron looked the man right in the eye, daring him to try. Sara knew that look. He’d used the same one on her numerous times over the past few weeks. She grinned. She didn’t think poor old Shermie looked so happy now.

“This is not the way we do things, sir. I will ask you again to please be seated. If you do not comply, I will have the Royal Guard come in and take....”

Sara flexed her magic, just a small amount. The room seemed to swell then tighten. “He will stand with me.”

Her voice was strong and held a great deal of authority. No one moved in the big room, nor did anyone speak for several long seconds. Shermie sat down.

“Very well then, Sara Temple, do you know why you are before this council?” His voice was a little wobbly at first, but gained strength at the end. He apparently hadn’t realized that she was this powerful. She hadn’t moved at all.

“No.”

“Do you have anything to say in your defense?” he asked without giving her any reason as to why she was there.

“I don’t know what I’m defending myself against or for, so I can’t say.”

He ignored her, barely pausing before going onto his next question. “Is there anything you wish said on your own behalf?”

“Behalf of what? I don’t have a clue of what I’m being held for.” She was getting nervous. Someone was really pushing this thing through.

“Sara Temple, you leave me…I mean, you leave us no choice in this matter but to see that you are punished for the crime committed against the king. I therefore—” He was cut off before he could continue with her supposed sentencing.

“My name is Thomas Shawn Reilly. I’m vampire, my master is Master MacManus. I have something to say, if you don’t mind. I want to know what she is.” Thomas stepped forward and bowed before Aaron, his master, and with a small nod from him, he turned to Sara and winked. “She heals like a supernatural, her speed is vampire fast, and you just experienced what I’m assuming is a small taste of her magic. I would like to know what she is before you destroy her, because I have no doubt that’s what you plan.”

“Now see here.” Sherman’s eyes bulged in rage. “These hearings are conducted in a certain way. You people are not supposed to just...just...you need to sit down.” All he needed to do now was stomp his foot, she thought, and he’d have a hissy fit down perfectly.

Another observer spoke up loud and clear. “I am Phillip, former guard to the queen, and king to the first queen. I am magic. I think the doctor has a good point. I, too, would like to see what she is.” He turned to Sara and asked, “Just how tight are you holding your shields, young lady?”

“I…I’m not sure what you mean.” She looked around the room. She wouldn’t run now, but out of habit, she looked for all the exits. She hated being the center of attention. Every instinct in her was flight or fight, and she was battling the flight part very hard.

“Yes, you do. Drop your shields, all of them. I want to feel your power run through you without them,” Phillip told her gently.

“No,” she insisted as she stepped back against Aaron. They didn’t know what they were asking her to do.

“Sara, honey, do it for me, please?” Aaron pleaded with her as a whisper in her ear.

She looked at the man holding her. She understood what they were asking her to do. She just wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea. But she couldn’t refuse him. She would do anything for him. She reached out and hugged him to her, then stepped away. Her magic was very strong, even she knew that. When he reached toward her again, she shook her head at him, and dropped her considerable hold on herself.

Every light bulb in the room brightened to the point of brilliance, and then exploded. No one moved, and after a few seconds, the room lit up again with thousands of candlelights. Sara became luminescent in the darkened room. A pin dropping could have been heard, as everyone in the room had stilled. As her power moved throughout the room, it felt as if all of the air had been squeezed out of it. No one was unaffected by it. Then it eased as suddenly as it rose.