11. Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
F rustration ate Amelia up, but Zylar had a point. She had wanted to die and a mate, human or otherwise, was the last thing on her mind. Strangely enough, dying was the last thing on her mind now. She spent months wanting to end it all, and now she wanted to live. That saying ‘this too shall pass’, which she knew came from the bible always seemed a little trite to her, but the desire that was consuming her passed. There were small remnants of it left, but she was determined to fight them.
A mate? It was a curious thought and one she wasn’t dismissing right away. Being with big, tall, and purple wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to her, not by a longshot. If she was honest, she’d have to grudgingly admit that she kind of liked him. She didn’t want to go overboard, but he was growing on her. For unbeknownst reasons, last night’s spanking didn’t turn her off. She’d felt better afterward. It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She still didn’t understand that one.
“What does being your mate mean?” Good question Amelia. She was surprised she could think logically with so much happening in her mind.
“I’ve never experienced mating before, but the Diza form lifelong bonds. That means you and me for as long as we live, and I’ll live a long time.” He didn’t think it was the time to tell her that most of his people lived on into eternity.
A hundred years or a thousand? She could do that with him. The thought brought a smile to her lips. To live and be loved into eternity. Wow, she’d never thought of being loved, especially after her parents died and she was left alone with nothing and no one.
She could have babies like Bella was doing. A sweet little girl like Zoya. Her children wouldn’t be completely human, but so what? They would be her children and she’d love them to pieces and The Astors would never see them. They wouldn’t get a chance to infect them with their brand of hatred. The thought of family busted her bubble.
“We can’t be together. My cousins hate me and want me dead.” Amelia shook her head, trying to encourage the bad memories to flee. She was going to die soon, but did that mean she couldn’t have a passionate night with a monster who offered her love even though she wasn’t worthy of it?
“Maybe we could…?” Her words ground to a halt. The look in Zylar’s eyes said he didn’t want to hear it. Look at her, clearly understanding what she was seeing from her potential mate.
She might have a chance with Zylar if her cousins kill her. She had fled their presence because she knew if she stayed, they would have gotten rid of her that day.
“Come with me.” His voice was deep, and terrible sounding, and it made her shake.
Zylar frightened his mate. He could feel her emotions, another sign that they were true mates. He could feel the fear of her cousins that flooded her with the certainty that death was a heartbeat away. Fear wound through every thought, even memories of her childhood. It was insidious and the Tan-ge responsible for it wanted to make sure she never lived to expose his identity.
He held out a hand to soften the request.
Amelia took his hand, not sure what was going to happen next, but putting herself in his care made her feel good. He led her through a door to a room that reminded her of an office. Maybe this was where he worked when he was in his cabin. That made sense. He was a healer and would need a place to work when he reviewed cases.
“What are we going to do?” Her heart was beating erratically at the thought that he wanted her to call her cousins. He wouldn’t do that to her, right?
“Amelia, the thought that your cousins want you dead is winding through most of your thoughts. Even happy times from your childhood.” That was impossible.
She thought about the time her mom took her out for ice cream. It was a special memory, one of her favorites. Her dad was at work, and her mother had the day off and was cleaning the house. Amelia could remember sitting still and wishing her mom was cuddling her close. Then her mother threw down the rag she was holding in a dramatic moment reminiscent of the best TV shows and said, “Let’s escape together. You and me.” They giggled as they ran outside to the car and her mother drove off, telling Amelia how she’d rather spend time with her than clean a house.
The fear was here in one of her special memories, slowly polluting her mind with how her cousins hated her and wanted her dead. She cried, not able to help herself. Zylar swept her up into his arms and sat in the chair facing his desk.
She sobbed, wetting his shirt before hiccupping a time or two. “What’s happening to me? If he hadn’t alerted her to being compromised, she would never have realized it before it was too late. Now she could see the grimy black trail inside her mind attached to her memories. It was worse than she thought. That black trail seemed to stretch outward as if it was attached to more than memories.
“You met a Tan-ge somewhere along the way and it was much stronger than you.”
“What did you call it? An it?” Was it because he didn’t know if they were male or female?
“They killed every female on my planet. Only a veritable monster who didn’t understand how important and beautiful females were would kill them in wholesale destruction. If you’re that cold, then you’re not a male or female, you’re only an it.”
She nodded, agreeing with him. She wiped her tears on his shirt and looked up to find a frown on his face. He looked so put out that she laughed.
“Why are we in here?”
“It’s time to face your cousins. There can be no redemption without sincere apologies. Then yes, I’ll take you to bed and show you how a goddess should be appreciated, and it’s not by trying to rip her mind apart.”
How was she supposed to respond to anything or anyone after hearing that? She wiped her mouth discreetly to make sure she wasn’t drooling. A sexy fun time with a purple monster was all that was on her mind. It took several minutes before she was able to wrest her mind away from her erotic thoughts.
“Are you sure this is necessary and why is this happening to me?” Had he told her and the information disappeared into the battlefield of her mind?
“Amelia, you’re an empath.” Right, she remembered him saying that. “You met a Tan-ge with impressive mind control or the shields to your mind were weak, maybe non-existent. Either way, he worked his way into your mind and started planting seeds that would keep you isolated and kill you as time went on.”
As strange and unnatural as that sounded, she nodded, knowing he wasn’t lying. It made more sense than her suddenly wanting to kill herself. That wasn’t how she rolled.
“I need to talk to my cousins.”
“You do.”
“Will that take away this feeling of dread every time I think about them or any of my memories?”.
“No, but it will loosen the hold these thoughts have on you. I started the process last night.”
“By spanking me?” She asked it as a question, but she already knew the answer. The spanking felt like punishment, not the erotic spanking she knew he was promising her. This spanking made her feel better afterward as if a weight she couldn’t see lifted from her shoulders. He’d somehow loosened what the Tan-ge did to her.
“Let’s do this.” She could scream, cry, or rage at the world that she didn’t deserve this, but that wouldn’t help or solve what was happening inside of her. Facing her cousins felt like a death sentence. Despite her actions over the last several weeks, she wasn’t one to run away from her problems.
“Let’s do this.” Zylar turned her to face the screen he’d used to contact her cousins, calling SaKura first.
“Cousin,” SaKura greeted Zylar. Amelia felt the happiness in her maybe mate. She amazed herself when she realized she could feel his emotions like they were hers.
“My cousin and soon-to-be king.” Zylar greeted him.
“Is there someone you want to introduce to me?”
Since she was sitting on Zylar’s lap, Amelia felt like she didn’t need an introduction, but she was trying to play nice.
“You know Amelia, Jenna’s cousin.” Ha, Zylar didn’t think she needed an introduction either. “What you don’t know for sure is that she’s my mate. Please meet the healer’s mate and empath, Amelia.”
The look on SaKura’s face intrigued her. He looked like he’d just been struck by lightning, but then his eyes lit up like he was figuring out a secret.
“She’s an empath?”
“Yes.” It was simple and direct.
“Was she being manipulated by the Tan-ge? Were they targeting her empathic abilities?”
“Yes.”
SaKura closed his eyes and shook his head. “I should have known”
“How could you when you were in a mating frenzy trying to secure your one and only?” It was the reason their kings and queens looked to meet their mates before they ascended to the throne.
“Amelia, I owe you an apology.” She stared at him with her mouth open. Zylar placed his hand under her chin and pressed her mouth closed.
“No, no. I was the one who almost got my cousin killed. I’m so sorry for my actions and no matter who manipulated me, I was still the one doing those despicable things. Tears came, although she was tired of crying.
“I always knew,” Jenna said.
“We always knew,” Bella corrected her sister. They both came into the viewing range. Amelia wasn’t surprised to see them together.
“Amelia, what happened?” Jenna asked.
Yep, that one question started the tears. She felt like Niagara Falls.
“I don’t know. One day, I was perfectly fine. The next day I was engaged in a sinister plan and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t break free. I wanted to tell both of you, but the words wouldn’t come. Then I was convinced it was me against you. That you wanted me dead, and I needed to protect myself anyway I could.”
“Jeffrey! I wish I could kill him again,” Jenna shouted.
Amelia shrank back into Zylar.
“Bella and I have been talking about what was going on. The more we talked, the less we believed that you wanted either of us dead. That’s not the Amelia we know or love. Eventually, we reasoned that something must have happened to you. We heard Zylar say you’re an empath. What does that mean?”
Amelia tilted her head to look at Zylar, telling him without words that he was up. He took over telling them about how she could feel emotions around her and that because an empath was sensitive to other emotions without a shield, a species that understood how to reach deep inside their minds could manipulate them. Some Tan-ge could do that.
Zylar stood and placed Amelia on the chair, leaving the room while she talked to her cousins. Soon, the three of them were alone, and they talked through everything that happened, with tears and laughter filling the room. They also dealt with Amelia’s asshole of an extended family and what they wanted her to do. They talked for two hours before they winded down. When she disconnected, she knew that not only was she forgiven, but her cousins also loved her. She could go home again.
Now the butterflies were back for another reason. Was she going to have sex with Zylar and become his mate in more than name only?