The Ballad of Aramei

  “She’s petrified of him,” I say. “And who can blame her?”

  “I know,” Isaac says softly.

  “But what about what she said?” I add, becoming more rigid with worry the more I think about it all. “About being in Aramei’s mind and it being dangerous.”

  Isaac leans around me further and kisses my jawline. “We’ll figure it all out soon, but babe, maybe she’s right. Maybe you shouldn’t go anymore.”

  “No…,” I say, staring at the bedroom door, lost in thought, “…I have to find out what she’s trying to tell me.”

  Isaac knows that this will not be an argument and that my heart and mind are set on helping Aramei. He says nothing in response, but wraps his arms around me from behind.

  “Isaac?”

  “Yeah, babe?” He moves a hand up and brushes a lock of hair behind my ear.

  “I don’t think Alex is safe here.” I turn my head slightly, though I can’t see his face. I only feel his breath on the side of my neck. “Trajan mentioned her, but didn’t really didn’t go into it and it worries me.”

  I lean up and away from his chest and turn around halfway to face him. “Do you think he knows she’s here?”

  Isaac traces the tip of his index finger down the bridge of my nose and then rests it upon my lips. “He probably does,” he answers and I tense up instantly. “But if he wanted her dead, she would already be.”

  He watches my lips and I feel them react under the hungry gaze of his eyes. My heart hammers down into my stomach as he studies them before gently parting them with his own. “Don’t worry about Alex,” he says between kisses, “Don’t worry about anything. Not right now.” He teases me, nipping my bottom lip before slipping his warm tongue into my mouth. He lifts my body around on his lap to face him; my bare knees burrow into the pillows behind his back.

  The kiss breaks, but his mouth is still so close to mine that I can taste the mintiness of his breath. “Did you lock the door?”

  “Yes,” I whisper into his lips and feel my eyelids close softly when he crushes his mouth over mine again. Isaac peels off my shirt and cradles his arm around my naked back, flipping me over to sit on top of me. He grabs both of my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head. I look up into his ravenous eyes and know that I better not squirm. If I do, he’ll pin me tighter and my wrists will hurt.

  But I do squirm because that’s exactly what I want him to do.

  My eyelids are heavy, tingling and numb, and I can hardly keep them open. His free hand slides down the soft curvature of my hip leaving chill bumps in its wake. And then he moves his head down the length of my body with it. He kisses my ribs, one by one, painfully working his way to my bellybutton and my body wilts under the magic of his mouth.

  “Be still,” he demands softly as he lets go of my hands and sinks further below my stomach.

  And I do exactly what he tells me to do because I don’t want him to stop. The heat of his hand slipping under the fabric of my shorts sends fire through my legs.

  I shudder out a moan before he even touches me.

  ~~~

  BAM! BAM! BAM! I jolt awake and practically fall right out of Isaac’s bed with the sheet wrapped around my body. It takes me a second to realize that the banging is coming from the other side of the door. Isaac lifts up in the bed, an intolerant expression lies on his face.

  “What?” he shouts at the door.

  “It’s me, bro,” Nathan says from the hallway. “Get up. Put your Spiderman boxers on and let’s hit the pond!”

  I look over at Isaac, eyes as wide as plates. Then I glance at the bedside clock. It’s ten o’clock at night. “Is he serious?” I hiss and look back at the door. “Are you serious, Nate?!”

  Isaac jumps out of the bed and slips his boxers on, which I might add are not Spiderman.

  “Let’s go,” he says with the jerk of his head. “Get dressed.”

  A spat of air bursts from the back of my throat and my eyebrows draw together in confusion.

  “I’ll explain it on the way.”

  “But what about swimming trunks?” I say while at the same time practically tripping into my shorts.

  All I want to do is go back to sleep.

  “We’re not going swimming.”

  He grabs my hand and walks me briskly out the bedroom door; I’m clumsily trying to cover my boobs with my free hand because I didn’t really have time to put on the bra before my t-shirt. And we zip down the stairs and out into the night air.

  “We did something while you were with Aramei this morning,” Isaac says as we dash across the front yard and toward the path through the trees.

  I’m easily keeping up, but still the human part of me is paranoid I’m going to trip in the darkness and fall on my face if I don’t watch my footing.

  “What exactly did you do?” I look over at him in a wary sidelong glance.

  All kinds of things rush through my mind, but nothing I can immediately fit into this puzzle thrust on me out of nowhere.

  Just as we reach the opening through the woods near the pond, Isaac stops abruptly and jerks my body by the hand to stop with him. This is getting more confusing by the second. I hear voices coming from the path behind us and Isaac just stands there, staring into the trees as if waiting for whoever it is to move into view.

  Nathan emerges from my right with Harry at his side.

  “What the hell is going on?” I say.

  “Just wait,” Isaac says, lowering my hand with his fingers on my wrist. He never takes his eyes off the path.

  “Here they come,” Harry says and he looks extremely nervous. His eyebrows are knotted and his jaw continuously moves around as if he’s gritting his teeth.

  Nathan is sporting a spiteful grin and I’m not sure what to make of that.

  I hear Cecilia’s voice and crinkle my nose absently at the sound of it. She’s going on and on about…no one ever knows. As the voices get closer I gather there are more than just a few and the large swath of shadow falling out ahead of them tells me there is a rather large group walking down the length of the path. Daisy, Zia, Sebastian, Cecilia, Camilla and even Shannon, Phoebe, Elizabeth and Xavier; Isaac’s other siblings that I rarely ever see.

  And everybody else, too.

  My head snaps around to Isaac, “You set the trap!” I whisper harshly.

  He nods.

  Oh my God…Oh my God…

  I can’t breathe all of a sudden.

  “We had to wait until we could get Cecilia here since she’s a suspect,” Harry whispers behind me and the group is coming up fast.

  “Yeah,” Nathan laughs, “and that really wasn’t hard to do. Just dangle a few biceps in her face and she’s on it like flies on shit.”

  I grasp Isaac’s hand tight and my adrenaline is suddenly burning like acid through my veins. Nathan’s grinning face had at first made me feel a sort of excitement, but now that the reality of what is about to happen sinks in, I find myself completely and utterly panicked.

  Chapter 21

  THE GROUP FINALLY EMERGES from the canopy of trees and they all step into the light of the moon in the grass-covered opening together. Most are in bathing suits. A single pole light glows and hums close to the dock with a power line stretching from the top and through the trees, giving the house its electricity.

  The first face I see even though she’s packed near the center with Rachel at her side is my sister. My blood races furiously through every loft of my body. I feel sick to my stomach and find that already my hand is pressed over my belly. Sweat beads in my hairline and an annoying rogue vein constantly twitches near my left eye leaving an intense itching sensation that I can’t even bring my hand up to scratch, I’m so fixated on the scene.

  Harry steps in-between Isaac and me.

  “There’s just one thing we didn’t have time to work out yet,” Harry says in my mind and I know Isaac and Nathan hear it too because they both look in at us between them after Harry’s comment.

  “
Unfortunately,” Nathan says, “it’s a major thing, but we have to do this now. Bas and Zia were talking about going to Boston again and taking Camilla with them.”

  “Wait!” I say, “You’ve been planning this trap all this time without me?” Surely they hear the bitterness in my tone.

  “Baby, it wasn’t intentional,” Isaac says without looking at me. “The best time for us to plan has been in the mornings while you’re with Aramei. Most in the house are still asleep.”

  “Okay, so what part did you not figure out?” I say, still bitter. I might be for a while, actually.

  Before any of them can answer, Cecilia speaks up from the crowd:

  “Where’s the beer?” She’s standing at the front with Camilla and Zia on each side of her and she’s dressed in a skin-tight pair of shorts that barely cover her butt cheeks; her face cheeks are all rosed-up with pink blush.

  “Beer’s on its way,” Nathan says doing a weird little dance that embarrasses me.

  “Dude, you suck,” I say telepathically, but find myself laughing, too.

  He winks at me because he doesn’t care.

  I just shake my head.

  Beer? I’m not even going to ask. I’m sure it was just to get a certain few out here to ‘participate’.

  “We’ll party after,” Isaac announces, “but first I’ve called you all here because I have some announcements to make.”

  A chorus of voices moves briefly on the air as everyone whispers to the person next to them what they think these announcements might be.

  “Hopefully it’s about letting me out of these stupid shackles,” I hear my sister say.

  “Isaac’s going to name his Right Hand,” Camilla says.

  “But that’s really not an announcement.” Zia says. “We already know Nathan is second in command here.”

  “Yes,” Daisy says, “but Nathan will be leaving for Serbia sometime so Isaac will have to name someone new.”

  Daisy is actively participating with the ‘suspects’, but she obviously knows more about what’s going on than I do. I catch her eye briefly; that knowing, be-ready-to-react look is hidden in her creamy-white face. Not to mention, she looks extremely nervous, like she’s about to walk across a mine field, which is the space between them and us.

  I catch myself looking around the ground for signs of little mounds of dirt. But they weren’t stupid about it and made the trap obvious in any way.

  Isaac’s fingers slide away from mine as he steps forward.

  “First,” he says, folding his hands in front level with his waist line, “I need to get something out of the way.” He holds out one hand palm up. “Alexandra? Will you step to the front please?”

  Oh great! He’s starting with my sister. I’m all for getting the hardest out of the way first, but I would’ve liked a little advanced warning. I shut my eyes and breathe in an unsteady breath.

  Alex pushes her way through the crowd, taking awkward steps through the grass and into the empty space between us and them; the shackles restricting the length of her strides.

  I swallow six lumps in my throat.

  She stops and looks across at us, waiting with one raised eyebrow; her hands are fixed closely together near her pelvis because of the shackles on her wrists.

  When Isaac doesn’t say anything, I gradually step up next to him and look to him at my side. I’m about to nudge him with my elbow when I hear his voice in my head:

  “It’s not her….”

  “What? She already walked through it?” I start to crane my neck, looking every which way for evidence of trap lines, but Isaac grabs my wrist. “Don’t do that,” he says harshly. “You’ll make it obvious.”

  “Oh….” I blink away my folly and try to look natural, but I can tell by how stiff my face is right now that I look anything but natural.

  Isaac clears his throat.

  “As you all know,” he begins, “Alexandra is Adria’s sister. Yes, she is of the Vargas bloodline and she did…,” he glances at Alex briefly and I can tell he’s still seriously distrusting of her despite not being the Dark Praverian, “…she did cause a lot of problems for Adria months ago—nearly killed her, in fact—,” there was poison in that statement. I look to and from both of them nervously as he goes on, “but like Rachel, Alexandra is to be given a chance to prove herself and she’ll not be treated as a traitor by anyone in this pack.”

  Some faces are staring back at us awkwardly and I realize that I’m sort of doing the same thing. This announcement has pretty much already been established when Alex first got here. It was never made into a ceremony like this, but...Isaac better come up with something else, fast.

  “I thought it was her…,” he says absently, still not looking at me.

  “Well, it’s not,” I say, “so you better speed this up or move onto something else before you make it obvious.”

  Xavier steps out of the crowd now and stands beside Alex, his short blond hair naturally a little messy in the front, which apparently helps with his sex appeal. He has dark blue eyes that always appear hooded, and a facial bone structure that could land him any six-figure modeling contract if he didn’t think male models were such pussies.

  “She can stay in my room,” he says with a deep, dimpled grin.

  That familiar grin always reminds me that he’s Daisy’s twin.

  “Ummm, no?” Rachel says, also stepping out of the crowd, “She’s staying with me.” She snarls at Xavier, but Xavier smiles back at her with charm and confidence.

  “Maybe you should ask her,” he says.

  “What is happening?” I say quietly, trying to keep a straight face as I watch.

  Nathan laughs behind me and says under his breath, “You’re witnessing what Xavier is famous for?”

  “Being a man-slut?” I say, mortified.

  I’m glaring at my sister now with warning, but she’s not even looking at me.

  She snarls at Xavier. “Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?” A look of unbelieving disgust warps her face.

  “I’m the guy you’re going to sleep with before this week is over.”

  Nathan and Isaac both can hardly contain their laughter. I’m still trying to make myself believe I’m actually standing here listening to this. Seriously? Did he really just say that?

  Alex crosses her arms—always awkwardly because of the chains—and steps right up to Xavier with a heavily wrinkled nose. “Wow. You really have me seriously fu—.”

  “Alex?” I say, waving a hand at her to calm down, but I only have her attention for about two seconds before she’s back in Xavier’s sexy grinning face.

  “You keep telling yourself that, okay?” she retorts, popping out one hip.

  “Oh, I will,” he says confidently and then he leans towards her slowly and touches his lips along the side of her jaw. Alex doesn’t move, but for a second a flicker of confusion flits across her eyes.

  I think Cecilia’s eyeballs are about to drop out of her head.

  Alex just stands there looking at Xavier as he pulls away and walks casually back to the front of the crowd.

  “Oh man…,” Nathan whispers, “he’s got her.”

  My head snaps around and beams of anger shoot from my eyes at him. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I snap. “Alex isn’t easy like the girls Xavier’s used to.”

  “Nathan,” Isaac says also with laughter in his voice, “I think you should’ve said Alex has Xavier.”

  Nathan brings his hand up and rubs his chin in thought. “Y’know, I think you’re right, bro. Adria’s sister looks like she wants to pop his eyes out with a fork—no one’s ever refused him like that before. She didn’t even giggle.”

  “Can we get on with this?” I say as the resentment starts to boil closer to the surface. I won’t have someone like Xavier using my sister for sex and tossing her aside like trash. And it really gets under my skin that Isaac and Nathan seem to be getting a kick out of this.

  But that problem is for later….
r />   I have been so dumbfounded by the exchange between Alex and Xavier that it takes me a few minutes to realize that two more—Xavier and Rachel—have just been marked off the list.

  “It’s not Rachel…,” I say aloud, but in a quiet whisper more to myself. I can’t believe it. I wanted it to be her, at least, up until she and Alex latched onto each other’s company. “It’s not her….”

  I raise my chin slowly to see the other faces in the crowd. There are several, but it’s already been narrowed down to mostly people I care for, but can live with being the one. Alex and Zia were the two I feared the most and now that they have been ruled out I feel like I can breathe a little easier.

  Alex takes it upon herself to walk back to stand with the crowd, assuming Isaac is finished making her the center of attention.

  But then something strange catches my eye in a sort of morbid slow-motion, the kind that as you watch you start to see something traumatic being set in motion and you have no time to react to it. Zia smiles a chilling smile across the space between us and she slowly curls her fingers around the chain dangling between Alex’s wrists. In all of a few seconds, Alex’s body is hurled into the air above Zia’s white-blond head and bashed against the ground face-first. Several people scatter outward, tripping over one another as they scramble for safe distance. Isaac’s sister, Phoebe, suddenly drops to her knees before she can get out of Zia’s path and she reaches up, clawing at her throat as if being choked to death.

  Isaac, me and Nathan start to run forward towards them, but our feet come out from under us and we soar backwards through the air as if snatched in mid-run by the backs of our shirts. I land hard on my butt, feeling my left wrist twist painfully underneath my leg.

  “You can’t!” Harry screams at us and then I’m being dragged across the dirt and grass by my other wrist. “She’ll kill you!”

  I don’t know how Harry did it, but it’s obvious now he was the one who stopped the three of us from running toward Zia to help the others.

  “Stay out of the trap!” he yells. “She can’t hurt you outside of it!”