Of Water and Madness (13 page)

But the voice slapped sharply back into his mind as the image faded, and he tried to cling to it but within mere seconds, it was gone. His mind was wiped clean of all thoughts, and his face went calmly blank.

“Do you know where she is?” he asked, the old memory of Thea long gone.

Thea, chest heaving and pain and fury in her eyes, looked to Lucian incredulously. Lucian placed a tentative hand on his son’s shoulder, and urged him to turn around and look at him.

Both he and Thea knew it was very unlike Liam to ask for Rhiannon’s whereabouts. He usually had a kind of sixth sense in regards to her…

“I believe she’s in the back gardens,” Lucian murmured hollowly, his hand clenching on his son’s shoulder as a sudden urge to shake the sense back into Liam washed over him. But he refrained, and simply released him and watched Liam smile before walking away, as though he had no care in the world.

He found her on the back steps of the castle, sitting with her hands clenched in her lap and her face smoothly blank. He stepped toward her and sat at her side, a carefully prepared sheepish smile already on his face.

But when he turned to look at her, his heart clenched and thundered with pain, and he let out a sharp hissing sound as his hand came up to rub his chest.

Rhiannon immediately glanced over at him, worry in her eyes at seeing the anguish on his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, reaching out to him, her hand covering his as it clutched at his heart. At her touch, he met her eyes and saw the tears in them, and the memory of her collapsed in his arms in that very garden, sobbing against him as he held her tight and comforted her hit him like a stone cold wave.

She saw what she assumed was guilt on his face, and seeing it had her pulling her hand away and turning from him. She said nothing as she closed herself in, shutting all doors and locking them tight. She wouldn’t let anything he said upset her, couldn’t let it creep in to hurt her, not now, not ever.

Whatever excuses or reasons he had, she would listen to them objectively, and accept. But she wasn’t sure if she could ever forgive…

When he lost eye contact with her, he struggled to hold on to the image of her in the garden, but it slipped away as if blown by a swift and careless breeze. He tried to grasp the lingering remnants of it, but felt the fog settle in once more over his thoughts and shroud him in emptiness.

All that remained was the misery in his heart, but he had no idea now just what had caused it…surely it didn’t have to do with the girl?

What was it that I ever saw in her anyway? She’s so cold…

“I’m sorry you’re hurting, Rhiannon,” he told her, smiling as he rested his arms on his knees casually, ignoring the pain that continued to throb in his chest. She refused to look at him, and sat in silence as he continued. “Things just weren’t working out. I hope you won’t hate me too much…we can still be friends.”

She absorbed his words and felt the chill set in, covering her in frosty shivers that encased her in a shield of ice. So cold…she would never, ever be warm again.

“I think you’d like Stella if you met her, she’s great,” he continued, not seeing the single tear slip down her cheek. “Anyway, I’ll leave you alone, I’m sure you have work to do. Thanks for understanding.”

He patted her shoulder and got to his feet, leaving her to emotionally crumble to pieces on the steps behind him. If only he knew what he had done; it would have killed him.

When morning arrived, Liam woke to the voice in his head, telling him to go to Stella.

A sense of urgency accompanied the voice, so he didn’t even wait to have breakfast or tell anyone where he was going. He simply left.

He arrived in New Orleans and wandered into town, his hands tucked into his pockets and his mind filled with Stella’s face. In his head the voice kept repeating her name, over and over, until the excitement to see her consumed him. He couldn’t stay away from her that much he knew. She was just so wonderful…

Without even realizing how he knew where to find her, he wandered to a coffee shop in the historic French Quarter, and there she was, sitting at one of the little café tables on the outdoor patio, sipping a latte and reading a book.

Although his mind told him to be happy to see her, he felt quite the opposite feeling in his heart. But something told him not to worry about it, and so he simply didn’t.

“Stella,” he greeted as he sat across from her, the little voice instructing him to smile.

She glanced up from her book and smirked, closing it and setting it aside as her eyes met his.

“Hello, handsome.” She held her hand out gracefully, and he took it in his own and pressed a soft kiss to her skin, his eyes holding hers. It wasn’t until he’d made the gesture that his heart rolled over horribly and he had a brief moment of wondering why he had done it…but seeing her eyes had the question subsiding.

“Can I get you anything?” a waitress said suddenly as she approached, her sunny smile distracting him momentarily.

“I’ll have whatever she’s having.” He grinned back at Stella, although he had no idea why he was smiling.

Stella smirked again and took a sip of her drink, eyeing him over the rim of her coffee mug. When she pulled it away, she licked her upper lip delicately, pleased when his eyes followed the movement.

“I wasn’t sure I’d see you again,” she told him, setting her mug down and leaning in to grasp his hands in her own. “I had such a good time with you yesterday, until your family stole you away.”

They just don’t understand.

He grinned. “It’s okay, I’ve explained it all to them. They’ll get over it.”

“So what’s it like, this Euphora place you were telling me about?” She smiled up at the waitress as she dropped off Liam’s coffee, but made sure to meet his eyes again the moment the woman was gone. “Could you take me there?”

Why not? That way everyone could see how wonderful Stella is…

“Sure.” He took a sip of coffee as his face lit up with pleasure. It really was a grand idea, wasn’t it? Then they would all see…

Stella smiled and leaned over the table suddenly, tilting her face so that her lips brushed his seductively. He froze for a moment, something deep inside of him hesitating, before his mind urged him forward.

Kiss her…

He did, pressing his lips to hers. The kiss was gentle and sweet, but when he pulled away he had a fleeting thought about how he had felt nothing but an odd emptiness in his heart. He couldn’t really remember how it had felt to kiss anyone else, but something inside of him knew there should be something more than this eerie emptiness…

But even as the thought occurred to him, it vanished and he smiled, his mind cheerfully blank.

“So, when would you like to go?” he asked her, his mind suddenly deciding that this had to happen. He had to bring her home, had to introduce her to everyone so that they could understand.

Stella smiled and tapped her lips with one perfectly manicured fingertip, her eyes flashing with feminine power. “I’m ready when you are, handsome.”

They walked up the cobblestone walkway together, hand-in-hand. It hadn’t even occurred to him to wonder why Stella had so easily accepted his explanation of what he was, and where he came from…instead it had all seemed so natural and perfect, as if it was meant to be.

At least, that was how the little voice justified it, and he didn’t have the willpower to question the voice. Instead he was floating along in the dark recesses of his old self, barely aware of what was happening to him and content with what the voice told him was reality. And if his heart strained away from Stella, and ached bitterly whenever he looked at her, he didn’t understand the feeling and therefore brushed it off.

They came across Capri and Rian first, who were both sitting beneath one of the large willow trees, reading to each other and talking. When they saw Liam and Stella approaching, they both froze and stared in stunned silence.

“Hi guys,” Liam greeted, waving a hand at them cheerfully. Capri’s eyes shot to Stella almost immediately, and the disbelief and uncertainty she felt was obvious.

Rian instinctively shifted closer to Capri, eyeing the human girl coldly. He didn’t trust the gleam in the girl’s eyes, or the way she kept her hand clasped firmly in Liam’s, almost possessively.

“Liam, is this the girl…Stella, right?” Capri asked, sincerely in her heart wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. If this girl really made him happy, then who were they to judge him?

Liam beamed down at her before glancing at Stella, meeting her eyes. For a brief moment he said nothing as he stared at her, as though losing himself completely in the moment. Capri’s eyebrows raised curiously while Rian’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Suddenly Liam shifted his gaze back to Capri and grinned. “Yes, this is Stella. Stella, this is Capri and Rian.”

Stella smiled politely. Capri took the cold strain in the other girl’s eyes as nerves, so she tried to return the smile in a show of good faith.

“So, um, how did you two meet?” Capri questioned, only to be momentarily distracted when she realized Rian was as still as a statue beside her. The tension in the air was unbelievably palpable, and she worriedly bit her lip.

“She was walking on the same beach I was and we just stumbled across each other.”

“I just thought he was the cutest thing I’d ever seen,” Stella said, looking at Liam fondly. “So when he told me about this place, I wasn’t too surprised. He seemed…otherworldly, if you will.”

Liam grinned and leaned down to kiss her nose affectionately, his eyes filled with humor and happiness. If only those watching knew how violently his heart was retaliating or how hard his mind was working to try and convince him not to listen.

“Isn’t she cute? I can’t get over that accent.” He laughed, wrapping an arm around her and winking at Rian. “We should probably head inside. I want Stella to meet everyone.”

They started to walk away, but before they could, Blythe and Jax appeared at the entrance to the castle, and when they spotted Liam and Stella, they both started forward.

As Blythe got closer, she suddenly broke into a run. Jax had to try and keep up with her, knowing she’d do something drastic. He barely managed to catch her by her arms moments before she launched herself at Stella, fists flying.

Blythe snarled like a spitting mad cat, her hair flying around her face as Jax restrained her, struggling against her wrath.