Cloud Riders (Lord of the Planets) (25 page)

Cassie breathed out all the nasty thoughts she had and sighed with understanding. ‘I get it now. I told Aldebaran I was in love with you so he must have used some black magic on me to break us up. Now I know why he desperately wanted me to have that drink, a potion to repel you and make me look untrustworthy. With nowhere else to go he most likely thought I’d call him, knowing full well you would have all disowned me. That sneaky son of a bitch! Well, it backfired because he didn’t count on Starburst being smart enough to know his way home on his own.’

‘It had to be that,’ Kayden was agreeing. ‘I would never dream of treating you so appallingly. I’m so ashamed. You have no idea what a blessing it was when I came home and found you in bed. It was such a relief that you hadn’t run a mile from me, from us.’

‘I too was under the drug. Calm but just so tired. Hardly able to stay awake or think straight. The potion was obviously meant to keep me in a dreamy state of mind so I’d go to him as if it were nothing. It is only because Starburst is so clever I am here now. You know, he may have just saved us from being on opposite sides. That old man of mine, if he really is of course, has a bloody lot to answer for next time we meet. I won’t be falling for any more of his potions either,’ she said, now understanding what had gone down and feeling ticked off with Pops.

Kayden was still very emotional as he spoke. ‘I’ve been lying here most of the night, not game to sleep in case you woke up and left before I had a chance to beg you to stay. Please say you forgive me, Cassie. I’m so very sorry.’

‘I’m sorry too, Kayden but I do have to go.’ And then she smiled. ‘But only to go to the little girl’s room and then I’ll be right back,’ she said, teasing him a little.

He knew she was trying to joke and lighten the moment and he tried giving her a smile before he rolled off her. But she could feel his emotions as he watched her walk to the door and knew he was still devastated about the whole situation.

When Cassie slipped back into the bedroom, he had his arm across his eyes, still miserable for what he had put her through. It was hardly fair for him to take all the responsibility; Aldebaran also had a lot to answer for. She eased into him very gently and he put his arms back around her as she tried to find the words to heal the moment. ‘Next time a big black blanket attacks me, can you at least get me back to the clouds before you stop and talk to me?’ she squeezed herself closer to him. ‘Also, maybe not talk to me until the next morning just in case.’ She kissed him around his neck. ‘Because there is so much more we can do to pass the time away while we’re waiting for the spell to break,’ she whispered, kissing his lips.

His arms wrapped around her affectionately as he deepened the kiss, his love for her sending warm pulses through her body, luring her into his magical world. Cassie smiled, knowing that not even a wizard could break up a love like their’s forever.

After she caught her breath and Kayden had fallen into a restful sleep, she left him to nap and headed for the kitchen. If the others were feeling like him, they would also need some of her forgiveness. The best way she knew to show them that was to cook some yummy food for when they surfaced. Within no time at all, hot sausage rolls, cheese scones, and chocolate muffins were being pulled from the oven and the third batch of pancakes had been flipped from the pan. While she worked she thought about all the happy times they had together and mixed all that love into what she made. She was just flipping the last pancake and putting the last batch of scones in the oven, when Kayden came out. He came over, more confident and so much happier now.

‘That smells so good,’ he said, kissing her neck. Cuddling in behind her, he looked over her shoulder. ‘Looks and smells delicious, honey. If this aroma doesn’t wake the men up, nothing will. You’re one of them now you know and they’re not happy with how this trip went down. They slept out in the shed. They wanted to be here when you woke up so they could say sorry too.’

‘Well, I kinda figured they wouldn’t be far away if they were feeling as bad as you were. You think this should cheer them up a bit?’

Just as she finished saying it, the door flew open and they bounded in.

‘While you lot chat, I’m just going to have a quick shower,’ he said, kissing her cheek and ducking past a worried Woody who was heading straight for her.

‘I feel rotten, Cassie,’ he said, looking like he had barely slept.

She put down the tea towel and put her arms out for a hug. ‘I thought my cooking would bring you to me.’

Jason came over and made it a group hug. ‘We were all such mongrels to you and yet here you are, cooking up a storm and making all our favourite foods. Does this mean we’re forgiven?’ he said, kissing her all over the side of her face and making her giggle.

Then Conor and Ethan came in, joining the fun and making her giggle even more as they struggled to be the ones closest to her. They were all laughing and feeling better by the time Woody snatched Cassie up in his arms and pulled her from them. His warm smile and sweet face was all she needed to see to know that was how they all felt. There was a connection that none of them could deny. What one of them felt, they all did.

Once the others behaved, he put her back down so she could flip the pancakes still in the pan. ‘Cassie, you know that even though Aldebaran is your father and may not harm you, we have to be mindful he is capable of these types of dirty tricks aimed at breaking us up.’

Cassie flipped the pancakes out onto the dish. ‘We were all pretty gullible, Woodsta, allowing Pops to have his way with us, me included. But we shouldn’t let our work and the magic world up there interfere with our private time together down here. We have to become stronger than this and trust it will be okay the morning after each mission or the wizard has won.’

Woody agreed, brushing a little bit of flour gently off Cassie’s cheek and smiling. She turned and pulled the last batch of scones out of the oven, asking Jason and Ethan if they wanted to start organising the coffees while she set the table. Kayden and Woody helped her while Conor poured out juices for everyone. At the table, Cassie watched the guys eating and chatting and as the food hit their empty stomachs she could see them not only sounding happier but looking so much better too. She grinned inwardly, knowing she had stronger magic than her father did. She had the most powerful weapon in the universe. It was called love
,
and she baked it into all the food that was enjoyed, right down to the last crumb.

It was late in the afternoon when Cassie finally asked some of the bigger questions they had all kept ducking like the plague. Did they have girlfriends or wives waiting at home for them, or maybe kids?

Jason was making them a coffee. ‘Hell no. And hell no, definitely no kids. You have to be kidding. When we’re not here annoying Kayden, the rest of us live on the farm next door. That’s how we get here so quick. To ensure we had plenty of room to play with our boys’ toys, we brought adjacent properties. We were all going to live here with the boss, build onto this house. Only Kayden was always so damned grumpy with us living under his feet that we decided to expand the house next door. Give him space and give us sanity.’

‘My Kayden.’ Cassie nudged him and made him grin. ‘He’s a pussy cat.’

Jason eyed her. ‘Do you recall the first day we met you? Well, that was him twenty-four, seven. You have worked a miracle, girl.’

Kayden threw a towel at him. ‘And you can’t tell me she hasn’t changed you guys?’ he stirred him back. ‘I can’t remember you guys ever wanting to spend this much time around any woman.’

Conor nearly choked on his drink. ‘Yeah true, but tell me how many of them will get out of the bathroom long enough to let us enjoy them. Makeup, hair, clothes, salons and dreary shopping drive me nuts. Cassie gets up and cooks us the best breakfast ever, never fusses over her appearance and yet scrubs up a treat and knows how to enjoy the day. She’s just like one of the boys.’

‘Not to me,’ Kayden said, running his hand down her arm and putting goose bumps over her.

Woody laughed. ‘Come on, mate, quit that or you’ll have us all looking up an old flame for the night.’

Cassie sat up straight, an idea popping into her thoughts. ‘Great idea! Let’s have a party at your house. Invite your girls, your friends and have a bit of fun. I reckon we deserve it. Music, dancing and alcohol. Plus, I’d love to see where you live.’

The men looked at each other with the cheekiest grins.

‘Hell yes, we’re all in. What do you say, K?’ Woody threw an arm around Jason, waiting for his answer.

‘I know where I’d sooner be.’ Kayden pulled Cassie closer to him. ‘Nevertheless, if it’s fun you need, sweetheart then let’s go have some.’

The guys scrambled for the car. Jason turned before he jumped in. ‘We’ll organise everything, boss. Be at our house around six, okay?’

Kayden nodded.

Woody eyed him suspiciously. ‘We can pick her up if you change your mind and don’t feel like coming.’

‘I said I’d be there, now nick off.’

Woody laughed loudly as he sat in the driver’s seat and kicking the engine into life, he skidded off along the dirt driveway.

‘At last, we’re alone.’

‘See? That was my plan,’ Cassie giggled.

‘Is that right? You’re just lucky they didn’t drag us over there to help.’ Kayden watched Cassie quietly for a moment with an inquisitive expression. ‘Okay, spit it out. What are you thinking?’

‘What they said before about me not fussing.’ She angled her head slightly.

‘You seemed confused. Didn’t your mother or a minder tell you what was going to happen to someone with powers like yours when you come of age?’

‘I know now from talking to Woody that my mother should have told me a lot of things but never did. All I do know is what I have read in books. When I ran from you and went to Perth I had my twentieth birthday. It was then overnight that everything changed for me. Not only the superficial changes as you see me now, like never having to shave or cut my hair. Normal female bodily functions ceased leading me to believe I may never be able to have a child. Then there were the personality changes due to the strange dreams and daytime flashes of another world, the one you have now shown me. I felt smarter, wised up about all sorts of stuff. At first my thought was that it was a reaction to being so stressed and I thought I’d go back to normal with time. Except I already knew from talking to other females at the Casino that I was different. Not that it worried me too much as I’ve been a special case all my life. Going to a doctor was out. I guess I just didn’t want to end up a lab rat, being experimented on. Then what if they figured out about my powers? You can see why I just decided to hide it. I’m sorry, Kayden, I should have told you about the baby thing. You know, the not having kids thing. But I thought in time maybe I’d be enough for you.’

He looked at her seriously. ‘Honey, I know already that having children for our kind is almost impossible. You are more than enough, so never question that but that’s not what worries me about all this. I can’t believe your mother could be so heartless. Cassie, how old do you think I am?’

She searched his face, suddenly realising what she had already assumed: that the boys were immortal like the others up in the universe above. Woody especially was a real old style gentleman, although she wasn’t yet entirely convinced this could happen to earth dwellers.

‘You look maybe early to mid-twenties. You and your men all look around the same age. It’s hard to say because you all act so grownup, as if you’re a lot older than even that. I had given it thought, that you might be immortal like the rulers and gods up in the galaxy.’

Running his hand down her arm soothingly, he breathed out, sounding relieved. ‘You have such insight, Cassie. I’m quite sure it’s another of your powers that is only just beginning to develop. The men and I have been twenty for many years. Just like you, we had a growth spurt after our twentieth birthday where we developed into men almost overnight. You see, I know how weird that feels to go to bed wearing a man’s size eight shoes and waking up needing size fourteen or bigger in most cases. Then the universe downloads a whole lot of information that your brain has no idea how to process at first. That’s why your powers are still developing. It all takes time but believe me when I tell you, as soon as the time comes for you to use these powers, they will just flow out of you comfortably. None of us will ever age from this point on, honey because of our importance to the universe.’

‘So we won’t wake up one day and just age into old people once the universe is done with us like in the movies? Our bodies will not drop all our flesh and end up skeletons or maybe dust?’

He smiled. ‘You’ve been watching far too many vampire movies.’ He laughed, turning to her this time with sincerity. ‘I can’t believe you’ve gone your whole life with absolutely no guardians to care for you or teach you what to expect. It is the normal way with any of us. We are born with a carer to ensure we develop as intended.’ He shook his head. ‘Like us, you will live forever, Cassie. We are immortals: a gift from the heavens to keep the balance between good and evil. Only a selected few are born with powers like ours. Some of us were born to fight evil and some to fight the light. It keeps the balance within our galaxies. With your terrible upbringing I really believe that you were ignored for a reason, that you were destined for evil. Yet through all the misery, you kept your heart pure and never gave up. That alone shows me how strong and trustworthy you will always be.’

Tears ran down her face. She had fought and fought hard, many times wanting to give up and destroy every single person who was hurting her but to hurt them back she would be no better than they were. Then she would have never been here, right now, where she was the happiest she had ever thought possible and with a man who loved her, even if she might not be able to give him a family.
Hang on. Can immortals have babies,
I wonder?
Pulling out of Kayden’s calming embrace, she had to ask. ‘So can immortals ever have children? I mean I was born from one, right?’ She felt a little more hopeful.