Fated

Chapter 4

I followed the man out of the station as we approached a sleek black car with black tinted windows, parked out front. The dark-haired man walked to the backseat door, opened it, and motioned for me to get in. I hesitated, staring at him, about to object but he raised an eyebrow as if to say, do I need to make you?

What choice did I have? Walk back into the police station where I was a wanted criminal for the murder of my own mother? Maybe, if I followed this man, there might be answers—answers I so desperately needed about what was happening to me and how my mother had died. Finding those answers was all I had left. Reluctantly, I lowered my head and climbed into the backseat.

The scent of new leather filled the car as I took in the pristine interior, cold and immaculate, just like the man who had led me here. The door closed behind me and the black-haired man slid into the passenger seat while another man sat in the driver’s seat.

The second man’s body was angled toward me, his eyes studying me. Like the dark-haired man, he too was handsome in an almost otherworldly way. His striking light blonde hair was styled slightly messy, giving it a voluminous effortless look, framing a youthful face.

Every feature was symmetrical, almost too perfect, from the sharp angle of his jawline to his high cheekbones that gave him a sculpted appearance.

His eyes—dark gray, nearly black, just like the other man’s— held an intense gaze as he stared at me, his broad smile revealing a flawless set of white teeth.

“Ash, are you sure you got the right girl? This one doesn’t look like she could hurt a fly,” the blonde man said with a chuckle.

The dark-haired man had a name—Ash.

Ash didn’t even glance at his friend as he replied, his tone flat, “Drive.”

“All right, all right, grumpy ass.” The blonde flashed a playful smile at Ash before turning back to me.“I’m Calyx.”

Had he not been my kidnapper and had my entire world not just shattered into a million pieces, I might have found Calyx charming, and his smile contagious.

“Calyx,” Ash warned in a low and dangerous tone.

Calyx dramatically rolled his eyes and turned back in his seat. “Lighten up, Ash; we did it, we found the girl.”

Ash said nothing.

I reached for my seatbelt with jittery hands, pulling it over my lap. At the sound of the click, Calyx chuckled, his eyes meeting mine in the driver’s mirror.

“Today, Calyx,” Ash muttered before the car started moving.

Who were these men? Had they been sent to rescue me or kill me? I leaned toward the latter. Maybe I deserved to die. If I’d somehow killed my mom—or was otherwise responsible for her death—then I wanted them to kill me. In fact, I would beg for them to do it. Chewing on my lip, I squeezed my shaking hands together, desperately searching for the courage to speak.

“Where are you taking me?” My voice was quieter, far softer than intended.

Calyx turned his head slightly, glancing at Ash. But Ash remained silent, his expression unflinching. They were not answering questions, then.

The throbbing in my head still pulsed relentlessly, and my swollen eyes burned with exhaustion. I didn’t know where I was going or how long it would take to get there, but I was dangerously close to breaking point. My body felt hollow, every last ounce of strength wrung out of me. I leaned against the door, the cool glass pressing against my forehead.

Then I closed my eyes, welcoming the sleep calling to me.

***

As I began to wake up, every part of my body ached, my limbs heavy and sluggish.

I desperately wanted to stretch to relieve the stiffness, but stayed perfectly still, listening to the two men arguing in the front seat.

“Come on, man. It’s not like she’s going anywhere. Once we get to the door to Gardonia, we won’t have anything fresh to eat for who knows how long,” Calyx said.

“If he even suspects we have possession of the girl and we don’t bring her straight to him, he’ll have our heads,” Ash replied in a sharp tone.

Calyx pressed, “But hear me out; the girl has days before she settles. Until then, she smells more human than not, and when we bring her into Gardonia, we could very well have a fight on our hands. Don’t you think we should keep our power at full strength?”

“The very fact she does only have a few days before she settles is a testament to how fucking close we’ve cut it. If we don’t get her to him before then, who knows what she’s capable of? Not to mention the fact that her power could already be manifesting.”

“Dude, really? Unless she’s one hell of an actor, she isn’t manifesting at all. I don’t think the girl even has a clue what she is.”

A tense silence followed.

“Damnit, Calyx. One night. We stop one night, only to feed—and we leave in the morning.”

I could almost see the grin spreading across Calyx’s face.

What the hell were they talking about? What did Calyx mean by “what” I was? Both of them sounded utterly insane, and now they were apparently planning to bring me to their leader because—according to them—I possessed some kind of power.

But then there was Ash and the way he made people obey him without question, as if he could exert some sort of mind control. That also was a power, wasn’t it?

Oh, God—what if I do have some terrible power? What if it’s the very reason my mother’s dead? The thought made my skin crawl, my stomach churn, and my chest tighten.

The car rolled to a stop.

I lifted my head, pretending to have just woken up. Ash turned around, his dark eyes meeting mine. “You will do what Calyx says until I get back.”

So, he must be the only one who could do the mind control thing. I added that to the list of things possibly important to remember. The only thing keeping me going at this point was the need to find out the truth—for my mom. I had to stay strong until answers came, and then Ash and Calyx could do whatever they wanted with me.

Ash opened his door and started walking away.

“Ash!” Calyx yelled.

Ash paused and looked back.

“Get her some new clothes; she’s going to draw too much attention like this.”

He paused and lowered his voice, cupping his hand around his mouth as if I couldn’t hear him. “And she stinks.”

He wasn’t wrong. Although I’d changed, my skin was still coated with dried blood and vomit.

Ash nodded. “I’ll get the room sorted, then you take her through the back entrance.”

Then he was gone, and something uneasy stirred inside me in his absence.

“You are going to want to stay very close to me.”

Shit.

I glanced out the window. Dusk had started to set in, meaning I’d slept almost the entire day with no idea where we were now, but the towering buildings surrounding us indicated we were in a city at least. My face pressing up against the window’s chilled glass, I peered up at the front of the building beside which we were parked. It was a hotel, a very lavish one.

An exaggerated yawn escaped from Calyx in the front seat. He seemed to be the friendlier of my kidnappers, and it also seemed that he liked to talk. Could I use that to my advantage?

He and I sat silently for a few minutes before Ash came striding back toward the car.

There was a strange sense of relief in me at his return, and I detested it.

Calyx rolled down the window, and Ash flicked a room key toward him. “Room 901.”

“OK, but hurry up, man. I’m starving,” Calyx said.

Ash only glared at him before walking away, leaving me with the same unsettling sensation as before. I shoved it down and thought about how Calyx had told Ash they needed to feed.

I had never heard anyone describe eating in such a crude way; the thought caused dread to weigh in my stomach but I wouldn’t—couldn’t—allow my mind to wander there.

Calyx opened my door, and I winced upon pulling myself from the car, every muscle screaming in protest.

My bare feet hit the warm pavement, and I struggled to steady myself. Calyx led me through the back door of the hotel, and we rode the elevator all the way to the top floor, to room 901.

Room was not the right word, however; here, even suite seemed like an understatement.

This space was massive, a kind of luxury I’d never experienced before. A sharp pang of grief twisted in my chest as I thought of Mom. She would have loved this.

In all those years when she couldn’t afford to take us on a real vacation, she would rent a hotel room just to let us escape for a while. We would check out the pool, order room service, binge on an unhealthy number of snacks, and watch movies all night.

The memory made my throat tighten, and I fought to hold back the tears threatening to spill over, doing my best to block out every emotion, to numb it all.

My eyes swept over the room.

Glossy white marble floors stretched across the entire space, leading right into a spacious living room where an opulent large couch faced a generous-sized TV mounted above a grand fireplace. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the far wall, offering an uninterrupted view of the cityscape and its tiny pinprick lights twinkling in the dusk.

To the right, a full kitchen gleamed with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances, while to the left, a hallway led to what I assumed were the bedrooms.

Not knowing what else to do and unsure if my legs could even hold me anymore, I made my way to the couch, sitting down. Calyx dropped the duffel bag he had been carrying and sat on the opposite end. I clasped my gloved hands tightly together in my lap in an attempt to keep them from shaking. Then, I cleared my throat, trying to muster steadiness in my voice.

“What is Gardonia?” I asked, hesitant but determined.

Calyx flashed me a grin. Good. Getting him to talk might be easier than expected.

“You really know nothing? Your mom didn’t tell you anything?” He raised a brow.

“My mom didn’t know anything.” I couldn’t help the bite in my tone.

“Huh.” He leaned back. “That’s hard to believe since Gardonia was her home, too.”

My heart sank into my stomach. My mom had known something about all of this, and had been keeping it from me? No, it couldn’t be. We’d never kept secrets from each other.

I forced the thought away, refusing to let it settle.

“So, you and Ash—you guys have magic?” It was a terrible attempt at sounding intrigued.

“Yeah,” he said, sounding bored.

“And I also have magic?” I asked cautiously.

He took a moment to consider, then nodded.

“So, yes and no. You’ll settle on your twenty-first birthday; that’s when your transformation will happen, and you will receive your full power. You might have started to notice small things already, bits of power breaking through. That’s called manifesting. But until you settle, your human body won’t be able to hold your power, especially power like yours.”

I tried my best not to react, not to show him what a complete lunatic he sounded like. I had never manifested a hint of anything, and highly doubted I ever would. Biting down on the inside of my cheek, I debated my next question, but kept returning to the same thing.

“Did I kill my mom?” I blurted out.

He looked at me for a moment, and then, I realized, he was doing his best to suppress a smile. A few seconds passed before he burst into laughter.

My fists clenched in my lap, my teeth grinding together so hard I thought they might shatter.

“Did you seriously think you killed your mom?”

He gasped and smacked his hand on his leg as if it was the funniest joke he had ever heard.

I stayed silent, seething.

“Ok, ok,” he said, reining in his amusement. “So, here’s the deal; we’ve been looking for you for a really long time. Sixteen years, to be exact. Our king needed us to find you before you settled. Luckily, Ash got to you just in time. He tried multiple times to take you, but one of those damn bracelets had a protection spell. He tried to compel you to take them off. Shit, he even had someone else try to take them off you. Eventually, he figured the only way to get those bracelets off was for you to remove them yourself.”

My mind flashed to last night at the arcade, to Ash’s command to remove my bracelets, and to the way the waiter had lunged at me.

A cold shudder ran through me, tears pooling, unready to hear what came next.

“There was also a protection keeping us out of your house, and we were running out of time, so Ash used his compulsion on your neighbor, Mrs. Andrews.” He paused as if recalling something. “What a delightful lady.”

He smiled to himself.

“ What did Ash make her do?” My voice cracked, barely above a whisper.

“Oh yeah, so Ash had her kill your mom and then make it look like you did it. The blood you woke up covered in, it wasn’t even your mom’s. Mrs. Andrews just popped a blood bag over you and led a trail to your mom’s door.” He chuckled. “The cops would have figured it out eventually, but we needed you out of that house with those bracelets off your hand as soon as possible. Ash gambled you weren’t one to refuse an officer.”

He shrugged, then smiled at me as if to say, anything else you want to know?

The pounding in my ears was deafening, and my vision, quite literally, turned red, channeling all my rage at Calyx. Never had I imagined it possible to feel hatred this intense—for Calyx, for Ash, for everything they had taken from me.

“You … You had my mother killed, just so I’d take off a piece of jewelry?”

My voice was breaking, copious tears streaming down my face.

Calyx shrugged, seeming genuinely surprised at my strong reaction.

Monsters. Ash and Calyx are fucking monsters. I wiped away the snot and tears running down my face, my body shuddering in a state between rage and grief.

“What does your king want with me? What was so important that my mother needed to die?”

“Look—the whole ‘we killed your mother’ thing—it’s nothing personal. I even kind of like you, but you’re a threat to our race, and the king wanted you brought to him before you could settle.” He stood up, walked over to the fridge, and pulled out a bottle of water.

I stared at him in disbelief. “You’re implying you’re not human?”

That stupid fucking grin was back.

He took a couple of steps toward me before suddenly, something massive and black flashed through my field of vision. I jerked back instinctively, my breath catching in my throat, drinking in the sight before me. Jutting out from Calyx’s back was a pair of colossal membranous wings as black as night, stretching wide and casting vast shadows over the room.

My hand shot to my mouth. I was horrified and awestruck.

The wings were the most terrible yet beautiful things I had ever seen, each glistening wing larger than my entire body, exuding a power almost tangible in the air.

And in that moment, my entire world shifted on its axis, never to be the same.

“Does this look human to you?” Calyx asked, his grin widening. Before I could respond, the wings vanished as swiftly as they had appeared.

The door opened, and Ash walked through it.

I detested the part of myself that was forced to feel relieved at his return. I glared at him with pure, undiluted hatred as tears streamed down my face. He raised an eyebrow in return.

“You’re a fucking monster!” I spat at him right before two gorgeous women walked in behind him. Calyx—seemingly forgetting everything that had just happened—offered the women a giant grin. He walked over to the first woman, a dark-haired beauty with warm golden skin and almond-shaped eyes. Her short, sparkly blue dress hugged her curves and plunged low to accentuate her generous cleavage. He took her hand, pulling her to his lap on the arm of the couch as she giggled, oblivious to the tension in the room.

The second woman looked unsure. She was equally beautiful, with long blonde hair, fair skin, and soft delicate features. Unlike the first, she wore a modest, simple black dress stopping just above her knees. She glanced at me with a shy smile, suddenly making me extremely uncomfortable. I tried to ignore the cold, unforgiving way with which Ash was glaring at me.

I stood up abruptly. “I’m going to bed.”

Before I could take a single step, Ash’s expression darkened, a wicked grin creeping across his face. I tried to swallow down my fear, knowing nothing good could come from that look.

“Areya dear, meet Krissy and Sophie.” He gestured to the women. Hesitantly, I gave them a small, forced smile as Ash stepped closer to the blonde—Krissy—and ran a finger down the side of her face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Krissy has brought you something nice to wear.” He smirked. Krissy’s body visibly stiffened. “Krissy, give Areya your dress.”

Krissy’s eyes widened as she stumbled over her words. “Actually,” she began, her voice shaky, “I really have to get going.”

Ash cut her off as he spoke with a chilling authority.

“Krissy, Take off your dress and hand it to Areya.”

Krissy’s eyes widened in terror, but she didn’t hesitate, gingerly stepping out of the dress. Only wearing a black laced bra and matching underwear, she walked over to where I stood, holding the dress out to me with a trembling hand.

I couldn’t move, frozen in place, my whole body shaking uncontrollably.

Ash moved, closing the distance between us, his breath ghosting over my skin.

He stopped right in front of me. “Now, Areya, I went to the trouble of finding you something nice to wear, and this is how you thank me?”

It sickened me how my body reacted to the closeness of his, the way his unearthly beauty, paired with his intoxicating scent, overwhelmed my senses.

When he took another step toward me, fear kicked in, flooding my body. Tears broke free as he lifted my chin with a single finger until my eyes met his.

“You will take the dress, then you will sit down, and you will not open your mouth. Do you understand?”

I nodded, unable to stop myself. My hands moved against my will, reaching for the dress. I took it, then sat on the couch, shivering head to toe.

My eyes flickered toward Calyx who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the show.

Ash turned his attention to Sophie, still sitting on Calyx’s lap.

“You will be quiet, too,” he commanded.

“Really, man?” Calyx whined.

“We aren’t here to play,” Ash said sharply before turning back to Krissy. He placed a finger on her lips. “Not a sound from you either.”

I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but look on in horror.

Ash’s expression shifted, his eyes gleaming with a predatory hunger as sharp, needlelike fangs sliced from his gums.

Before I could comprehend what was happening, he sank his teeth into Krissy’s neck.

Krissy’s wide, terrified eyes locked with mine as Ash drained the life from her body.

My heart was on fire, desperate to help her, to tear her away from the monster at her neck and take her somewhere safe and far away.

But all I could do was shake my head, helpless tears spilling down at seeing her so afraid.

I’m so sorry! I wanted to scream, I’m so sorry I can’t help you.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and inside, I was now screaming and thrashing against the command quietly holding me in place, but it was no use. Her body went limp, hitting the floor with a sickening thud, another following from behind me: Sophie.

Ash’s eyes were now solid black, the face of a demon staring back. Slowly, he licked the blood trickling down his lip, his voice low and chilling when he finally spoke.

“You can go to your room now, Areya.”