Centaur Legacy (15 page)

Thick lush forests hugged the outskirts
of Rapid City and escorted us all the way to the hotel.
Temperatures were frigid, and we knew we weren’t ready for this
type of weather, any more than we had been prepared for Dublin’s
when we arrived. After my quick experience around people when we
entered the airport, I dreaded the idea of finding a mall to pick
up winter attire.

Drake found a hotel that was ten miles
from the Crazy Horse Mountain. As we drove, we could see the
mountain from the road. Snow covered the top of the mountain, but
the face of Crazy Horse somehow eerily peeked through the snow to
the winding road below.

The hotel had a small gift shop inside
proudly displaying what all the fuss was about from the signs we
had passed: Black Hills gold. I was surprised to see pink and green
leaf and flower patterns inlaid over the top of the traditional
yellow gold I’d always seen. Not only had I never seen it before, I
had no idea gold came in any color beyond white or yellow. I made a
mental note to get a souvenir before we left this place, but not
today. The clerk in the gift shop was obsessing about some loser
guy, and her thoughts made me want to grab her by the shoulders and
shake some sense into her.

We checked in and went to the room; for
some reason, I wasn’t surprised when I saw a taxidermied bison
standing outside the hotel’s bar. The room was spacious, with a
king-sized bed, Jacuzzi bathtub, and a sitting area in front of a
large window. The room was western themed with the feel of a
hunting lodge with modern amenities.

Fluffy white towels hung at attention
in the bathroom; granite countertops surrounded the sink. The
shower had two shower heads and a lever for a steam room, but the
furniture and bedding looked like replicas from a hundred years
ago. This was a homey place to combat the jet lag I knew would
quickly set in.

The airport had been sensory overload
for me, so when we arrived at the hotel, I did as Drake had
instructed and held his hand throughout the check-in process. It
seemed to work; I only heard others’ thoughts when I allowed myself
to pay attention to them. Something about Drake’s touch drowned
them out, so they became background noise. I knew I wouldn’t be
able to stay at the quiet hotel and still hope to accomplish what
we had set out to do. My voice sounded more defeated than I wanted
it to when I asked, “How are we going to find Cameron if I can’t be
around people?”

Drake’s hand squeezed mine, “As long as
we’re touching, you should get a stronger signal from me than you
do any others. If you start to feel overwhelmed, just hold my hand.
We’ll figure out how to find Cameron. Give yourself some time to
adjust; we just got here.”

I smiled when I thought how Centaurs
normally interacted with one another so formally. I looked down at
Drake’s fingers intertwined with mine, “I bet your father would
have heart failure if he saw us now, huh?”

Drake nodded. He stood in front of the
enormous bed in our room and let out a quick smirk, “About Dad,
he’s a good Centaur and has been a great father to me, but he isn’t
pleased that I’ve been gone for so long.” Drake had been at
Zandra’s house for a month and with me for almost a week. “I spoke
to him before we left for Ireland. I need to call him to let him
know we’ve returned.”

I could hear it in his voice: I wasn’t
going to like what he was about to say. Without cringing I asked,
“And?”

Drake avoided my eyes, “I told him
about my broken engagement with Bianca right before we left your
father’s house.”

I could feel my eyebrows raise, “How’d
he take it?”

Drake answered flatly, “He wasn’t
thrilled.”

Still on a high from our conversation
on the plane, feeling playful I asked, “Did you tell him you’d
found another Centauride to fall madly in love with you, so he
shouldn’t worry?”

Drake looked at me and his easy smile
warmed me, “No, I didn’t.” He didn’t hold my gaze. His eyes dropped
to the floor when he said, “Before we left for Ireland, I wasn’t
sure how you felt about me.” I rolled my eyes because Gretchen
herself had told him I was going to choose him the night we escaped
from Zandra’s. He looked back at me and added, “After our
conversation last night, you seemed to be on board with getting
married.”

It would be bad form to say, “Duh,” so
I answered, “Very on board.”

Drake’s tone was flat, more
matter-of-fact than the loving soon-to-be husband from the plane. I
got a nervous pang in my stomach, wondering if he’d had time to
reconsider. If he had, wouldn’t he have gotten two
rooms?

I stood staring at him when he
continued, “If you’re sure, I’d like for my parents to get the call
from your father. I’m sure our customs sound stupid to you. . .
they sound juvenile to me when I think about them. But it would
lessen his frustration with me if he knew I had been chosen and the
Nash bloodline will continue. Well, maybe not in name.”

I was confused, “What do you mean:
‘maybe not in name’?”

Drake’s smile was warm. “I’ll keep the
Nash name, but our kids will take on yours, since you’re a
Chiron.”

I’d gone from Benning, to Strayer, now
Chiron – did it really matter? “What if I want to be Camille
Nash?”

His smile grew, “Let’s cross that
bridge when it comes. Can you call him?”

I shook my head, still not
understanding the change in him, “This doesn’t sound like a big
deal, Drake. I can call Will now if you want.” After three days of
agonizing over whether Drake would still want me, the fact that he
did wasn’t something I had intended to keep a secret.

“I was hoping you’d say that. Dad’s set
in his ways. When we last spoke, he wanted me to seek a blood debt
from Bianca.” My eyes grew to the size of quarters, but Drake held
out a hand in a gesture to keep me from jumping to the wrong
conclusion. “When I told him I broke the engagement, he told me to
get it fixed or don’t bother coming home.”

My mind jumped to the worst possible
conclusion as I took a step away from him. I thought back to our
conversation on the plane. A hurt welled up within me, “So, that’s
why you’re willing to stay with me: being stuck with me is better
than being cut off from your family?”

No wonder he’d made it seem like it was
the most normal thing ever while we were on the plane. Every other
Centauride was a virgin; they weren’t allowed to date and most got
married in their late teens. He only said it was okay that I wasn’t
because it was either choose me or be cut off from his family. What
choice did he have?

“What? No! Why would you think
that?!”

“You just said you were going to be
disowned if you didn’t carry on your bloodline. So, what you’re
saying is you’re settling for me. I’m the best you can do, is that
it?”

Drake closed the gap
between us. I expected him to shout at me again. He pulled me close
as his lips found the nape of my neck and kissed me softly. His
lips caressed my collarbone all the way to my earlobe when he
answered, “You
are
the best I can do. Don’t you see it? I love you. Do you
understand what a gift it is for me to be loved in
return?”

I didn’t answer him. He grabbed both of
my hands, his eyes locked on mine. “Few, if any, Centaurs have any
choice in who they marry. They’re just happy to be doing their duty
for our race and their family. When Bianca chose me, I felt awful.
I had always hoped the Centauride who chose me would choose me
because she wanted me. With Bianca, it would be a loveless marriage
– just like my father’s and his father’s before him.” His blue eyes
never let mine go, and I didn’t know what to say.

“Then, you came into my world, breaking
every tradition I’d ever known. You were so beautiful I was scared
to look at you because I worried I’d never be able to look away.
The more time I spent with you, I learned that your beauty wasn’t
your best attribute.” Drake took his index finger and touched my
chest, his touch sending tingles all over my body. “It was your
heart. You opened it to me, and my whole world changed. Last night
when you finally agreed to marry me, I felt. . . no, I knew, I was
the luckiest Centaur to walk this planet.”

I believed him, but a small part of me
still needed to hear it. “Even though I’m not as good as all the
other Centaurides?”

His voice morphed, his frustration loud
and clear. “Why do you do that to yourself? Why do you sell
yourself short? You’re perfect. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted,
before I even knew that it was safe to want it.”

“But your parents wouldn’t be happy to
know that I’d been with a human.”

“Cami, I’ll let you in on a little
secret. I know you think that your relationship with that human
before me somehow diminishes your worth in my eyes – you’re wrong.
Of everything you told me, the only part that bothered me was when
you told me you thought you loved him. If another took up residence
in even the smallest part of your heart, it would destroy me. You
said you’re sure you don’t love him. That means your heart belongs
to me. That’s all I ever wanted.”

Drake’s hands pulled my face to his,
our lips a whisper apart. I didn’t need to say it, but I did
anyway, “I’m yours, Drake.” My lips closed the distance between us.
One of his hands dropped, sliding under the back of my shirt;
sparks rained as I felt his hand on the small of my
back.

His mouth moved to my ear: I felt his
breath, warm and heavy against me. It was more than his words, his
love enveloped me. With both my hands, I grabbed the material of
his shirt and lifted it over his head.

I traced the contours of his chest with
my hands. He stood motionless in front of me: the longing in his
eyes sent shivers through my body.

Drake closed his eyes, the corners of
his lips turned up in a content grin as I watched goose bumps
appear while I traced the lines of his chest. I wanted more than
just to caress his skin; I wanted to feel his skin against mine. I
couldn’t be sure if it was his idea or if he was responding to what
I wanted, but he slid his hands to my sides and pulled my t-shirt
over my head. It dropped to the floor as I saw his eyes take in
every inch of me.

I stood in front of him half-dressed.
Both his hands wrapped gently around my shoulders. His hands began
to tremble, and I worried that a rejection was coming. Turmoil
shone through his eyes. He tried to look away from me, but I
wouldn’t let him. I reached my index finger to his chin and turned
his eyes back to mine. His desire overrode his senses, and his
hands shook as they began caressing me in a needy way. I stepped
into him, molding my body to his, pressing hard against him. A moan
escaped his lips.

I felt his fingers sliding just under
the waistband of my jeans; I could feel the conflict in him. I
didn’t push harder. Drake’s breathing was labored, his hands were
taking in my exposed flesh, and the shivers I’d felt initially were
replaced by waves of raw desire. His voice was barely more than a
whisper, so low I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him or if I had imagined
the words, “I want you.”

“Then take me.”

His hands stopped the gentle caressing
as his arms wrapped me in a steel grip. He was fighting the desire,
as hard as I was hoping he’d lose the battle. He pulled me onto the
bed with me on top of him – his decision finally made.

I heard Daniel’s ringtone on my phone.
I let it go to voicemail, too caught up in the moment to be
interested in repairing the damage with Daniel from our earlier
call. The phone rang again, and again, and again. After the fifth
phone call in as many minutes, Drake whispered, “Go ahead and get
it. It might be important.”

I shook my head, “I’ll call him back,
later.”

Drake reached up, grabbed the back of
my neck and brought my ear to his lips. “I’m not going anywhere,
Love.”

A sixth call began ringing.
I forced myself to get up, intending to silence the phone, but as I
did, something told me I needed to take the call. Drake was right.
If Daniel was making this many calls, something
was
wrong.

(Camille – Hotel near Crazy
Horse Mountain, SD)

“Hello, Daniel?”

“Cami, are you okay?” Daniel’s voice
was urgent, borderline panicked.

Telling him “yes” would be a gross
understatement. “I’m fine. I tried calling you back last night, but
I kept getting your voice mail.”

“Never mind about that. Beau and I are
at my dad’s hangar. We’ll be in South Dakota in five hours. Don’t
go anywhere, okay?”

“Why are you coming to South Dakota?”
Drake could only hear my half of the conversation, so he gave me a
questioning look.

“Just stay put, okay? We’re leaving
now. We’ll be there soon.”

“Daniel, what’s going on? Why’s Beau
with you?” I missed them both so much, but I couldn’t understand
why they’d be coming here. Had Zandra found Daniel?

“We met this lady; she was a
Centauride. She said you were in danger, and Beau needed to get to
you. We’re on our way. Whatever you do, just stay put until we get
there. Is that Drake guy with you right now?”