Arianna Rose: The Arrival (Part 4) (25 page)

Arianna
shuffled on shaky legs and sank to her knees. She scooped Beth’s shoulders off the floor and cradled her friend’s head.  Numb, dark eyes cast an accusatory stare straight through her soul and a bitter chill swept through her veins and froze her heart with shame.  She reached out and brushed a single bright-red droplet that flecked Beth’s cheek – one of many that marked her face – then wiped her bloody finger on her pajama shorts.  Her chest tightened and her throat constricted painfully as tears she’d held at bay rushed forth, streaming down her cheeks and spilling from her chin. 

But with her tears came something else. 
Mind-crippling rage arrived, accompanying her remorse like a vengeful companion.  It sidled up and seized her.  “Who did this?” she screamed from a place deep inside her, her voice harsh and challenging.  The room fell still.  She felt the eyes of much of the village on her.  “Who killed my friend?” she demanded of the stunned silence.  “Someone will answer for this.  And I will spill his blood!” she rasped.  Her senses heightened; adrenaline and the crimson veil shrouding her vision uniting and enhancing her sensations. 

Fire coiled through her veins,
frenziedly pumping surges of pure, incandescent energy through her entirety.  Several bodies in the room were cowed by her words and backed away from her, bowing their heads.  Her voice was not her own.  Her body trembled with the most power she’d ever felt flow through her at once.  Her skin heated from the inside out and a red glow illuminated the room.  Beth’s blood on the walls blackened in color against the blood-red splash atop it.  “Speak!  Someone here knows something!  I can feel it.” Her words were not idle threats.  She could feel the timid shiver of energy radiating from more than one person. 

“It was her brother,” a tremulous voice offered.

The stench of festering darkness stormed her nasal passages, filling them with the fetid odor of deceit as it stretched a diseased finger to her shoulder.  “Her brother,” she roared, her voice tolling like a bell and resonating through the room.  She turned her head and saw four trainees exchanging furtive glances.  She lowered Beth’s body to the floor and felt the twisting of a blade lance her gut.

“We’re not sure if it was Jason or Dane.  But we saw it was one of them.  All of us saw one of them run out,” the young man said, his voice filled with certainty that hadn’t been present at first. 

“That cannot be.  They couldn’t!  They wouldn’t!  You are lying,” she accused.  Treachery dimmed from overhead like a fleet of iron-hued storm clouds, shading and obscuring truth and clarity that was so close to her fingertips yet just beyond her grasp. 

“No, we are telling the truth, Sola,” the young man said fearfully.  “We all saw it,” he added and gestured to the men with him. 

Darius’ full-bodied voice abounded with conviction and called to her.  “Arianna, you must listen to them,” he started, but two approaching forms flickered in the corner of her eyes and captured her attention.  They moved toward the cabin, walking at first then running suddenly. 

“It’s Dane and Jason,” a surprise
d voice rose above the buzz of conversation. 

Arianna’s head whipped toward the door as Beth’s identical twin brothers bu
rst into the room.  Guttural screams cleaved the air as they dashed to her beaten body.

“NOOOOOO!” Their voices, roughened by explosive sobs and pleas to deities for answers, filled the room.  They collapsed to their knees and grappled with what they saw.  “Who did this?” Dane thundered, spittle spraying from his lips as he leaped to his feet and glared at the people in the room
, consumed by madness.  “Who could do such a thing?”

“It was one of you,” the trainee who’d spoken earlier bold
ly stated and stepped forward. 

“Murder
er!” someone in the crowd hissed.

“They have to pay,” another scorned. 

Arianna watched in shock and horror as a circle began to form around Dane and Jason.  Powers churned and bubbled like an angry sea.  “Get back!” she screamed and charged through the perimeter.  She positioned herself in front of Dane and Jason. 

“Arianna, we didn’t do this
!  Why would they even think we did?” Dane gripped her wrist and turned her to face him.  His eyes held truth and his tone was sincere. 

“I saw you,” a voice accused.

“We could never hurt her,” Jason tried but his voice faltered, overcome with sobs. 

Their matching faces, beset by pain and grief, looked to her for help, for answers, for justice.  But the villagers had other ideas.  They’d grown agitated.  Rattled by the heinous murder, the first of its kind to ever befall the compound, they
judged unquestioningly.  They only seemed interested in taking into account the report of a few of their people, knowing fully that where their kind was concerned, things were rarely as they appeared.

Arianna sensed the disturbance in the flow of energy surrounding them.  Volatile power ebbed and flowed, along with the potential for rash retribution. 
“Go!” she commanded Dane and Jason.  “Get out of here now!”

“No! I am not leaving my sister like this!  I need to find who did this,” Dane yelled.

“We’re not leaving, Arianna!” Jason cried.

“You need to leave
or they are going to kill you,” she said with grave urgency as she looked over their shoulders and saw the agitation of the crowd.  “I will find out what happened.  You have my word.”

Dane held her gaze.  A tortured tremble of thanks twitched across his face before he and his brother vanished from sight.  Arianna was left girdled by an anxious mob.  Darius pushed past several people and joined Arianna, standing by her side.

“People, please,” his voice was placating, smooth and calming like warm milk.  “A tragedy has struck our tight community.  We are hurting.  We are grieving.  But we must be vigilant as we grieve.  Evil is afoot.  Make no mistake about it.  We will root it out and destroy it.  But first we must embrace the pain we’re feeling and resist the urge to accuse recklessly.”

A roomful of adoring eyes was riveted by his words, silent and waiting.

“Let us remember that one of our own was struck down and deserves our respect,” he outspread his arms and gestured toward Beth’s slain body.  Reverent murmurs and nods of agreement rippled through the group before conversations resumed and the gatherers disbanded. 

Darius turned to Arianna and wrapped both arms around her shoulders, enveloping her into his warmth.  “Oh Arianna,” he said and his hot breath caressed her neck. 

“What happened here?” she asked as her vision returned to normal and tears ran anew. 

He tightened his embrace and told her, “We will find out soon.”

Chapter 18

Persuading Arianna to return to her cabin had been a chore.  Darius had sweet-talked and coddled her along and she’d resisted mulishly.  His temper had flared several times, but he’d been forced to bridle it. The luxury of venting his hostility, his true form, was a luxury that came with a price tag too steep to pay.  For now.  He was still biding his time.  The moment would come when all would be revealed.  But that moment hadn’t arrived.  Meanwhile, he loathed babysitting her as she was, unstable and prone to tear-filled outbursts.  One constant remained despite her instability, however.  Her dogged pursuit of unearthing someone other than Dane or Jason persisted.  At the cabin, she’d been preoccupied with grilling the trainees who’d stood just beyond Beth’s doorstep and saw who they thought was Dane or Jason leave.  They’d retold their account to her more than once, relying on their eyes alone, as so many did.  Fortunately for him, they’d ignored their senses.  Still, she pressed them; heeding her instinct and sniffing around like a bloodhound on a trail.  Darius had thought at one point, he’d have to heft her over his shoulder and carry her from Beth’s.  She’d been insistent that something had felt off, that she sensed evil. 

Fool that she was, she was
standing beside evil incarnate, confiding in him, had even kissed him earlier. Of course she sensed evil! 

Now, as he watched her, cocooned in her comforter and sipping a mug of
herbal tea Briathos had slipped him, face puffy from crying her bleeding heart out, he wondered if her instinct still teemed with the sensation of proximate evil.  He doubted it.  She was a sad sack of a creature.  The sight of her, as she was, made him want to puke.  How could the Sola be so weepy and easily affected?  He wondered.  He found it wholeheartedly unappealing. 

She hiccupped and swallowed, sniffling loudly, as if emphasizing his disgust.

“Do you need anything?” he asked her and cringed inwardly, both at her swollen red nose and the saccharine voice he’d used.  Feigning concern and affection was nearly as exhausting as looking at her. 

“
No, thank you,” she answered, her voice thick.  She blew her nose then wiped it with a rumpled tissue, reddening it further. 

“Try to rest, Arianna,” he said and suppressed a gag.
  “You’ve been through so much.” He tilted his head and spoke softly with tenderness he did not feel.

“How?  How can I rest when a killer is out there?”

“I will keep you safe, you have my word,” he swore with feigned honor.  “And besides, Dane and Jason, one of whom is the only suspect witnesses fingered thus far, are gone.”

“I don’t believe Dane or Jason killed her,” she said with unsettling certainty. 

“Well, the group of young men who saw one of them leave her cabin does, and right now, that’s all we have to go on.”  Darius brushed a wayward lock of hair from her forehead.  But Arianna did not respond to his caring act in the least.  He managed to stifle an utterance of revulsion as he’d reached his hand toward her greasy forehead and touched her unkempt hair and his gesture went unrewarded.  She did not even tip her head to one side and brush his hand with her cheek.  Her expression remained icy and unreadable, a detail that irritated him immensely. 

Arianna leaned forward so that her breath, perfumed with sweet exotic tea leaves, fanned his face. 
At least that remained pleasant.  Had her breath been as unappealing as her appearance, he would have vomited for sure.  Her eyes, brightly veined and duller than usual in color, hardened and locked on his unswervingly, penetrating him with their intense gaze.  “My best friend was killed.  I will find who did it.  I will find the person responsible for her death, and he will suffer.”  She did not threaten frivolously.  Her words were cold and calculating, the violent promise of a predator.  He licked his lips and swallowed.  He enjoyed this side of her, the flinty, cunning part of her she kept neatly tucked away.  She was a huntress and he a hunter.  If only he could draw it out of her permanently, their shared destiny, their union, would progress seamlessly.

“Please, rest,” he begged
as he envisioned them ruling the planet together ruthlessly. 

“How can I?” she asked and
slumped against the headboard.  Her eyelids were heavy and her posture sagged.  Perhaps the tea Briathos promised would relax her was actually serving its purpose. 

“Just slide down under these warm covers and close your eye
s.  That’s all you need to do.”  The tone he used, as well as the words, was meant to lull her.  She rubbed her temples and blinked. 

“Maybe you’re right.  I don’t know.  I can’t think straight, but I know I’m missing something.  It’s right under my nose.  I can feel it.”

Or sitting right beside you
, he thought and snickered inwardly.  “Rest will sharpen your thoughts,” he reasoned, then added as the piece de résistance, “Beth needs you to be at your best.  Honor her death by giving it the best you have, later when your brain is refreshed.”

Her features clouded over and a sad smile lifted a corner of her mouth.  She
made a production of rubbing her forehead with one hand then running said hand through her disheveled hair, capping it off with a peculiar clucking sound she made with her tongue.  She then placed her mug on the nightstand and turned to him.  “You win,” she said.

I always do
, he thought.  “There are no winners tonight,” he said instead and forced his voice to sound contrite. 

“I just hate that I am wasting time here,”
she said and gestured to the bed. 

“I’ll tell you what.  I will go while you sleep and scour the clearing for clues.  I will even search the perimeter of the woods.  I can’t go further, though, until daybreak, but it will be a start.”

Her features softened and he worried she would begin blubbering again.  “You mean that?” she asked.  “You’ll do that for me?”

“I would do anything for you, Arianna, but what I will do is not for you.  It is for Beth,” he said somberly, knowing fully that he had just knocked a home
run clear out of the ballpark. 

Arianna reached out
and tugged his arm, pulling him close.  She embraced him tightly.  “Thank you,” she breathed.  “You have no idea what this means to me.”

Hopefully it means you will part your legs for me when I return
, he thought as his groin roused at her nearness.  “Rest.  I will check on you,” he said and gently lowered her against her pillow.  He pressed his lips to hers and smiled his best I’m-so-smitten-with-you smile then turned and marched to the front door.