Chapter 17
Unveiling
LANIAS
Looking down in surprise, she noticed that the floor she was looking at was much cleaner than the one that had been in the bar.
“You’re not Stanthos.”
This statement came from behind her.
Lanias quickly turned around, her eyes landing on a man who leaned against a clean bar table.
Looking away from him, she gave the entire bar a once-over.
This place was completely different from Cains.
It was clean, and the air smelled of fresh wax.
Sunlight spilled in from the window. The sound of the ocean outside completely replaced the noise of the city.
Where are we?” she sputtered.
He pushed off the table and straightened, tightening the strings to the black apron he wore and said, “Santorini, Greece.”
He walked around toward what she realized was an entrance to the other side of the counter.
She followed his movements with her eyes, taking in his features.
He had sea-green eyes with nearly midnight colored hair pulled back in a ponytail.
His skin was warm caramel, a five o’clock shadow graced his masculine jaw.
“Santorini,” she repeated. Deciding to go with the flow, she approached the counter with ease. “Are you Roni?”
Not looking up at her as he turned on what she realized to be a stove top, he answered. “Να?.”
Seeing that he wasn’t interested in hiding the truth, she asked, “Are you the one who protects the half-blood Surrems?”
“You’ve asked three questions so far,” he said as he reached up to a copper pan placing it on the stove top.
As the pan heated on the stove, he started gathering ingredients of different kinds from the silver pans that were embedded within the table next to him.
“And not once did you introduce yourself.” He shot her a hard look. “Is that an American thing?”
She offered him an innocent smile. “You didn’t seem unwilling to answer my questions. I’m Lanias.”
He paused in reaching for olive oil when he heard her name, his eyes meeting hers. “Is that so? You’ve finally returned, Eris always said you would one day.”
“My father—I mean, he did?” Lanias hadn’t any idea what sort of person or was it Surrem; he’d been.
That part shouldn’t have felt like such a blow, she’d known nothing about him aside from what her uncle had written.
Eris was like a being out of time and space; he saw things in a completely different way than others.
She wondered if she could even trust those words. “I wouldn’t know much about that.”
“Eris wanted you to have a better life, rather than hiding and pretending to be something you’re not.
” Roni’s eyes grew dark. “He just didn’t count on Zaharis getting you, and other Witches caught up in his bid for power.
Even still he promised not to interfere with your life, he only broke that promise once. ”
Catching on to what Roni had said, Lanias frowned. “He promised not to interfere in my life?”
“Didn’t Warren tell you?” Roni said, his eyes on the task at hand.
Lanias pretended not to notice the mouth-watering smell of the food he was cooking in front of her. “Once a child was sent from the Garden, Eris would not interfere in their lives. It was a promise he made to your mother. For he almost killed an entire village for persecuting a Witch long ago.”
“How long ago?” she demanded, feeling that her perception of “long ago” was very different from him.
He didn’t answer, only offered her a secretive smile. “Just know, that he never broke this promise even after your mother’s death. He broke the oath the day he saw you and your friends being buried.”
“What?” A faint knowing filling her, but Lanias couldn’t bring herself to fully believe what Roni was hinting at.
“The day you and your kind lay beneath dirt after their execution.”
Keeping his attention on meal preparation he turned and reached for a bottle of water. Reaching up with his other hand he picked up a larger pot and placed it upon the left stove top. He then poured the water inside. “He used you as a conduit to save everyone.”
Lanias always thought she’d been the one to lose control of her magic, saving everyone, but also killing the doctors as she escaped with Eliza in her arms. She winced, feeling a pain explode from her right temple. Hissing, she pressed her fingers there. “Ow!”
Roni’s voice sounded as if it was coming far away. “He opened the door, telling you to run.”
Her heartbeat was pounding faster; she held the edge of the counter to keep herself upright. She felt as if part of her were being shredded and exposed.
Lanias had no memory of any of this, she felt like she was running down a dark hallway only to realize there was no escape to the outdoor sunlight. Only a simple glass light fixture in a corner.
“Run Lanias. Run.”
A voice came from the dark. The screams that had filled the halls of the lab fell silent. She’d curled in the corner terrified of what was happening, weak and unable to do anything.
“The door is open, go!” A masculine voice shouted at her.
She wanted to believe the voice.
Young Lanias needed something, anything to believe in. Trembling, she rose from where she crouched and hesitantly went to the door. With shaking hands, she grabbed the door handle and pulled.
To her astonishment it opened, and before her was the long hallway. The guards who were making their way back to intercept glared at her. “You, who let you out!” they shouted, but before they could reach her, their heads suddenly inflated and exploded.
“Move forward.”
Stunned by the gory mess that coated the walls and floor. Lanias felt frozen but she listened to the voice. Moving bare foot down the hallway.
In her mind’s eye, her memories was unredacted roll of film, slowly but surely exposing her to what she’d missed.
She was the one killing the guards, hospital staff and the scientist in their sterile white coats.
Apparently, it was she who destroyed the tank that kept Eliza in. Cradling the crying infant in her arms.
Lanias watched herself as if she was seeing a moving clip.
She was ten or was it eleven, shivering as she kept moving forward ignoring screams of pain, and remorse.
Ignoring the death and bodies that piled up.
When she reached the exit, only to step out onto what looked like a short cliff.
She’d stared up at the angry sky, a sky she hadn’t seen for what felt like forever.
“My child, this is my first and last gift to you.”
The lightning struck twice, and she saw the bodies of young girls lined up on unburied ground. Their bodies wriggled as some lifted their heads as they found air. She felt the warm tears falling down and buried her face in the wriggling mass in her arms.
“Thank you, thank you.”
She didn’t know who she was thanking, only that they had broken her from a stark hell.
Lanias collapsed to her knees, watching as the crying Witches below slowly started to stand. She felt a rage growing inside her and a need for power fill her. If she had power, she could have done this alone. She could save them, herself, and the baby in her arms.
Later, when she finally got the strength to go below and find her baby sister. She plotted then, to do anything she could to protect those there and any other Witches The Council failed.
A plate of food was placed before her. She looked up, tears covering her cheeks. “What happened to my mind that was filled with memories,” she tearfully asked.
Roni placed a fork, and spoon next to the plate. “That was me unlocking them.”
Looking down at the food, she released a short laugh. “You’re feeding me?”
He nodded offering her a gentle smile. “I couldn’t send you on a journey down memory lane, without at least feeding you. Could I?”
Lanias eyed him, “You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that I just went through an emotional midlife crisis. I’d probably throw this spoon at you.”
He laughed, “Well then, do so. But after you eat my Greek pasta.
“If Alek were here, he’d…” She turned around. “Oh shit, Alek.”
“Can you send me back?” she panicked, asking frantically. “I left a friend behind.”
“Να?, that’s easy.” He barely blinked before she found herself standing in Cain’s once more.
Only the atmosphere had changed drastically.
Where all the Beings had previously been cavorting in their own spaces and causing havoc.
Now, many of them appeared tossed here and there on the floor, several didn’t look to be breathing. The furniture had been destroyed, and there was no bartender to be seen.
Lanias wearily scanned the bar.
She covered her nose as she was sure she smelled a mixture of body fluids. Spinning in a full circle, she wasn’t prepared for the sight of a messy looking Alek sitting atop what looked to be a pile of Troll bodies. His legs crossed, hair loose and a great amount of something red on his clothes.
“Is that your Aleks?” Roni asked from behind her.
“Yes, and it looks like he’s been having fun while I was away.”
“Fun?” A dark voice cut int.
Alek who’d been drinking from what looked like a wine bottle. Finally seemed to notice them, she winced as she realized his silver pupils were surrounded by a harsh red color.
“Lanias?” He said her name softly.
“In the flesh,” she nervously answered.
Before she could say anything else, he was off his mound of corpses and standing before her, fangs out and Vampire aura on display.
“You disappeared,” he said without blinking.
She wanted to look away but he held her gaze. Her senses told her if she looked anywhere but at him, her poor Vampire would lose it. “Yeah, I didn’t know that a Greek beer would literally take me to Greece.”
“What—” Alex instinctively held her by her throat.
Lanias sharply raised her hand to stop Roni from reacting in any way.
“Don’t.” She instructed, keeping her eyes on Alek.
“He’s a bit sensitive right now,” she added.
Alek, completely ignoring Roni, leaned down and inhaled her scent. His throat gave soft growling sounds, as he buried his face in her neck.
It was awkward as she was shorter than him, even being 5’9 in five-inch heels.
His mouth opened and she felt his tongue dance across her skin.
She released a shiver, breathing hard through her nose.
She wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but she was growing increasingly uncomfortable.
Alek’s hand released her neck and suddenly she was in his arms being devoured.
His lips desperately taking hers.