Chapter Twenty-Two
EVERYTHING WAS...PERFECT.
I’d never felt such peace. Such gratitude. Absolute serenity wrapped around me like a dream, protecting me from pain and misery, delivering ultimate paradise.
Yawning, I sat up from where we’d fallen asleep.
A vast meadow rested beneath a sky painted with warm golds and cool silvers.
The blossom tree arched overhead, its branches heavy with pink flowers—its petals falling over us like gentle rain.
They blanketed the ground and clung to Rook’s nakedness as if they were as addicted to her as I was.
Reclining on my side, I propped my head in my hand as the babbling of a river snaked in the distance, glowing faintly as if it flowed with quicksilver instead of water.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Rook as she slept. Her long black hair gleamed, her thick eyelashes like ebony feathers, her lips as perfect as the petal lingering on her cheekbone.
Reaching to brush it away, my fingers tingled.
She smiled in her sleep, fisting my heart with agonising love.
Everything about this place was a drug, and she was by far my greatest addiction. I didn’t know why we hadn’t woken back in reality, but the longer I looked at her, the more I fell into her. I never wanted to wake up. Never wanted to return to the real world where we hurt and struggled and died.
If we could stay here for the rest of eternity...I would be happy.
My fingers drifted from her cheek to her throat. She sucked in a breath as I traced a lazy path over her shoulder and down her arm, making her break out in goosebumps. Her bare breasts begged me to kiss them. Her honey skin gleamed with white-etched snowflakes.
My hand took liberties while she slumbered, cupping the weight of her breast and running my thumb over her taut nipple. Ice frosted her eyebrows and lips, making it seem as if she’d dipped herself into sugar again...ready to be eaten.
I sucked in a breath as I rolled on top of her.
Being this close quieted all my fears, erased all my worries. I had no pain, no weakness. I had nothing in my mind apart from her, and I wanted her.
A faint breeze stirred the blossoms overhead; a flurry of petals drifted over us. A few crowned her hair while one landed on the very lips I wanted to kiss.
She mumbled in her sleep—
I kissed her.
Her eyes flew open, hazy and sleep-trapped. Well, hello there.
The petals turned to ash on my skin as I caught fire. I need you again.
Fuck, I’d been so na?ve back in Cinderkeep. So oblivious to what this woman would mean to me and just how much I would need her to survive. In so many ways...
Her cool hands cupped my cheeks. The iciness of her skin on my overly heated face made every thought disintegrate. “I love you, Lucien Ashfall.”
The bond flared with fire and ice as she returned my kiss.
Auroras tangled around fluffy clouds and petals shot into the sky.
This place reacted to us like it was us. An extension of who we were as I gave her all my weight and kissed her.
I reached between us to thrust inside her—
The dreamscape ripped apart.
Rough, bruising hands grabbed my ankles, yanking me backward. I landed on the floor amongst broken crockery and spilled food from last night. My eyes flew wide just as another man jerked Rook off the bed, leaving her dazed and hurt beside me.
“Hands behind your backs!” a pot-bellied guard yelled.
I snarled as one of the guards kicked my shoulder, pinned me onto my stomach, and lashed a zip-tie around my wrists. Rook’s horrified gaze met mine as she suffered the same treatment. How did this happen? Weren’t we just about to have sex?
“Get up!” another guard barked.
Straining against the imprisonment, I glanced down my body as two men hauled me onto my feet. Fully dressed. Pants zipped. Shirt buttoned. Rook cried out as another man hooked her elbow and jerked her upright. Her dirty nightgown hung down to her ankles. Every part of her was appropriately covered.
I don’t think we were. Having sex, I mean.
Her eyes narrowed on me, searching for signs of what we’d been doing before we’d been rudely snatched out of the dream. So everything we experienced was mental? We didn’t touch each other at all this time?
I flexed my hands, blood throbbing in my fingertips from the tightness of the zip-tie. Flames flowed around my bones with indignation—
Wait. My healed bones. Bones that no longer hurt but sizzled with power.
I smiled.
“Get moving.” Two guards stalked to the open door. The third shoved Rook and the fourth pushed me. “Get.”
A punch of dissonant frequency shredded my skull.
Rook cried out as our ears rang, blood bubbled, bones burned—
“Turn that fucking thing off,” the guard behind me commanded. “Can’t you see they’re barely alive as it is? I know Mr. Swift told us to be wary, but they’re both just as weak as yesterday.”
“I reckon we should shock ‘em...just to be on the safe side.”
“Surgery is booked for this afternoon for a new vitalsync core. Until then, let’s do our best not to kill them so we don’t end up in a shit ton of trouble, alright?”
The frequency cranked up a notch, sending a gush of blood out of my nose.
Rook collapsed, folding to the floor, only for a younger guard with dark blond hair to catch her.
The sight of his hands on her.
The fact that he touched her.
I went to tear his motherfucking throat out—
Frequency drilled harder into my thoughts, knocking me sideways. Nausea wrapped around my throat. Dizziness and weakness and—
“Enough already!” someone shouted. “Mr. Swift explicitly said to bring them down while conscious. Quit it!”
The horror went quiet as a guard snatched the remote from his colleague and pocketed it.
“They’re trapped and surrounded. They have a long day ahead of them, and I’m sure we can get them to the dining room without anything going wrong, don’t you?
Besides, they say they’re immortal, but they look like they’re gonna die real soon. Let’s not rush it, yeah?”
“Fine.” The two guards by the door disappeared into the corridor.
Rook groaned as the guard manhandling her jerked her upright again and shoved her into a walk. She bashed against the wall.
I saw red. Literally.
Fire surged, flowing through my veins like molten rage. I sank into it. I urged it to grow hotter, angrier. I went to unleash—
Wait. Rook shook her head subtly in my direction. They don’t know we’ve healed.
I stiffened, following her thoughts of vengeance.
I’d spent the last twenty years thirsting for revenge.
I’d achieved some of it—thanks to killing Marcus and part of the board back in China. The demolition of Brimstone headquarters helped eradicate a few more, but...not all of the board members were dead.
Do you have full access to your ice? I studied the sway of her nightgown as I followed her down the corridor of this luxury English mansion.
I do. It’s impatient and blood thirsty but it’s there.
Good. Balling my hands, I walked a little taller. Keep it secret for now, like you said. Once I know the rest of the Brimstone board are here, we finish this.
Her hair bounced down her back as she nodded. I’ll follow your lead.
The guard trailing Rook cupped her elbow, helping her down the winding blue-carpeted staircase to the lower level.
My temper snarled. The moment the rest of the board members are dead, we’ll go straight to your lab, alright?
Rook stumbled on the last step, but the guard helped her find her balance.
I would have to kill him. Just for having the audacity to touch her.
Deal. We can call Sovereign Retrieval again. They can take us straight to Snowflake Corp.
The squeak of boots echoed in the foyer as the guards guided us past the living room, snug, and kitchen to the opulent dining room of last night.
Neither of us spoke as the guards pushed us toward the twin dentist looking chairs, bound our ankles with the leather straps, then cut the zip-ties off our wrists and buckled matching restraints into place.
My instincts snarled at letting them imprison me yet again, but this morning wasn’t like last night.
The fire had returned. I wasn’t under any illusion that I was healed for good.
I knew whatever synergy Rook and I had shared would fade soon enough, and we had to be far away from here when that happened, but... for now, we had a hidden weapon.
All we had to do was wait for our enemies to gather so we could wield it.