5 Roman
Roman
One of the first things we learned in basic training was to master the art of watching without watching, of staring straight ahead and keeping military bearing while disaster rained upon us.
That was exactly what was happening now.
Despite Helen’s bravado and the council’s foolishness for allowing this to happen, we were facing a very real threat.
A literal goddess stood in front of us.
She’d disarmed a roomful of men with the wave of her hand and, whether it was an illusion or not, with a snap of her fingers, she had changed the very weather Ethica’s dome worked so hard to control.
Even with her display of power, I don’t think anyone in this room knew the implications of what this meant.
I hadn’t grown up like the others in Ethica.
My father’s station hadn’t afforded me a standard education.
Sure, I knew all about the advancement of science and its benefits like every other citizen.
But I’d been raised on stories of these wild, magical creatures, and now one of them walked among us, demanding sacrifices, and not a single member of the council knew how this could go wrong.
They’d let the pretty female who’d stood bravely in front of the goddess sacrifice herself. And for what? This foolish plan that some sort of wedding would appease the gods? There was a trick in here. Something we were missing. I had to stop this.
I tore my attention away from the brunette and focused on the councilwoman by my side. “We need to talk.”
“Later,” she hissed, dismissing me as her heels clicked down the hall and we headed back to the parking lot. Frustration welled deep in my soul, but I said nothing more as I opened the glass door.
The goddess and her crows were gone, leaving the shifters alone as they climbed into their vehicles.
This was bad. So very bad.
“Megaera Cerberus.” Councilwoman Troy shook the pretty brunette’s hand. “Thank you for accommodating us while we sort the whole wedding thing out.”
The councilwoman’s tone was back to business again. I clenched my jaw as I looked away.
“It’s no trouble at all.” Soulful brown eyes met mine, and a frown turned her soft lips. “This is a lot… for everyone.”
My heart slammed against my ribs when I heard her speak again. That voice. Her eyes. There was something about this woman, like I knew her from somewhere.
Megaera. She even had a pretty name.
I racked my brain, trying to think if I’d seen a file on her before. I’d have remembered a face like that.
She was beautiful. Curvy in a way that invited an appreciative gaze, but I could see how muscular she was under her clothes. And tall enough that her head came to just past my chin.
Not some delicate little thing to break.
A real handful of a woman.
I had the ridiculous urge to lean closer and see what she smelled like.
I stood ramrod straight.
“Where are your suitcases?” Helen looked around. The troops were busy escorting the other council members to their waiting vehicles and the wolf-shifters were driving away.
“This is it.” Megaera didn’t look behind her as she hefted the single bag onto her shoulder.
I didn’t know what I’d been expecting. Tears? Harsh goodbyes? If memory served me right, the wolf-shifters could speak telepathically. But this woman, she was here all alone, accepting some barbaric fate.
And everyone is okay with this?
My sense of justice was gnawing at my core, and I clenched my jaw harder, ignoring the urge to tell the council how naive they were all being.
“Roman, would you mind taking Megaera here home?” Helen made it sound like a question. “She’ll be staying at our main estate in the east wing. Take my car. I’ll be here for another few hours making calls.”
I snapped to attention and gave a brisk nod.
Embassy duty and private security details came more often than not with my new promotion. I was used to playing babysitter, and the councilwoman benefited from having me on call. Not that I blamed her.
“If that’s all right with you, Megaera.” Helen gave the woman a politician’s smile.
“Of course.” Megaera raised her chin, staring right at me. “Best to jump straight in.”
I turned away, needing to get in control of my face. This woman was affecting me strangely.
“Right this way, Miss Cerberus.” I guided her toward the vehicle.
“Please call me Meg.” She stopped just as I opened the door to the back seat of the sedan. “And your name is Roman. We didn’t get properly introduced, but I guess all of this is moving very fast.”
Meg held out her hand for me to shake.
I stared at it for far longer than would be considered polite before I caught myself.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Apologies, Miss Meg. Welcome to Ethica.” The minute my fingers touched hers, I realized my mistake.
Her touch was warm and intoxicating. Too close.
Too connected. The strength of her hand in mine was firm and grounding and alive in a way I hadn’t felt in…
forever. A strange desire rushed through me. The urge for more.
As quickly as I shook her hand, I released it, ignoring that little gasp she made as if she’d felt something too. That line of thinking was dangerous. Above my station.
“Watch your feet,” I instructed as I maneuvered her so she had no choice but to sit in the back seat. Realization came over her face before she frowned again, sitting and pulling her feet inside the vehicle.
I closed the door and hurried to the driver’s side, scanning the area to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, and pulled the radio up. “Status on the wolf shifters.”
“They’re almost to the forcefield,” Staff Sgt. Marcus relayed.
“Roger that. Test it after it’s back up and ensure there aren’t any glitches.” I looked at the woman in the backseat, feeling the unease grow in my gut. “I’ve got an errand to run.”
Those pretty brown eyes of hers watched me in the rearview mirror as I slid behind the wheel. It was unnerving, this feeling. To ignore it, I checked all the mirrors and then overrode the autodrive function to manually take control of the vehicle.
It wasn’t her fault I was acting like this. I’d gotten all worked up when the goddess had arrived, thinking back to the stories my dad used to tell me about their trickster ways and absolute chaos they rained down on humanity.
I needed to get a hold of myself. They were just stories. Who’s to say that woman was even a goddess? It might’ve been some kind of holographic trick on the glass ceilings. The skies above now looked bright blue again. What about disarming my men?
I wasn’t like most humans I’d grown up with, thinking that science could explain every single thing about our world. Even if I hadn’t joined the military and been privy to information beyond what the normal citizen got, I’d been raised with a different mindset than the other kids.
Sometimes, you had to pray to something beyond fact if you wanted to be able to sleep at night.
But it still seemed strange that all of the intelligent and highly respected members of the council had treated a goddess in their presence like they did.
I’d misread the situation was all. There must’ve been some explanation for why they were going through with this insane plan.
Those curious eyes were still watching me in the mirror. “You don’t talk much, do you?” Meg asked.
I shook my head once as I eased the vehicle out onto the city streets.
“That’s all right,” she said. “We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
I wasn’t sure if she was just talking to fill the silence, but I liked the sound of her voice. It was pleasant. Not too jarring, or inflected with that strange pitch most women had these days.
The city high-rises loomed ahead in the business district as traffic picked up speed.
“Wow,” she whispered from the backseat.
I knew about mutants. What the history books said. The corrupted scientists who’d tried to splice human and lycan DNA. The lab leak. The purists’ crusades. The years of war and darkness until the humans built their cities to salvage what remained of pure bloodlines.
There was some dissent now in the elite circles as to whether the toxic wastelands humans had left behind were only recently stable or if they’d been for some time, but the mutants had thrived out there for centuries.
And Ethica prided itself on being more modern than other human cities around the world by becoming the first to establish trade and relations with the mutants.
Personally, I knew half of this was bullshit. They were stories, and like Dad said in secret a time or two, winners write the history books, so be careful whose side you’re reading.
But I could see the divide between us now in the wonder on Meg’s face as she took in the buildings surrounding the street. I’d never been to the wastelands in the wild and I imagined my own experience would be the same.
This pretty mutant woman didn’t belong here.
“Are those people standing still, and moving?” She pressed her face to the glass as we headed toward the entertainment district.
I chuckled a bit, surprising myself before I controlled my expression again. “The autowalk sidewalks keep pedestrian traffic moving at an optimal pace,” I recited what every human knew.
“Oh.” Her mouth hung open in that O as the passing buildings reflected in her eyes. “There are so many windows. My mom said…” Meg’s voice got smaller before it grew stronger again. “I thought the houses didn’t have windows.”
As much as I wanted to pry deeper and ask about her mother, about her family out there—as a matter of national security of course—I knew my place.
“Most of them don’t. Those are the stores and restaurants. People pay for the view.” I left it at that, not wanting to explain how it worked with the divide in classes. The house she’d be staying at would have windows facing the public gardens and she’d have plenty to look at there.
Curse science, what is Helen thinking?
I tightened my grip on the wheel. The guard at the security office waved us through.
“We’re here,” I said, right as the car informed us we’d arrived at our destination.
“So fast?” Her face was flushed a shade of pink, and I got the feeling she was nervous now. I hurried outside so as not to drag this out.
Meg opened her door before I got to it. That bothered me for some reason. My job was to see her safely inside and to her quarters. It was the least I could do.
Her mouth had dropped open again as she stared up at the four-story house, and then the nearly identical buildings that made up the government district. Her gaze locked onto the manicured gardens with the old trees and memorial paths.
“Mom told me about that.”
Her mom must’ve been Sage, the notorious criminal who’d fled the city many years ago.
“What else did she say?” I asked, curious to know more. Not that I planned on relaying anything to intel, but just in case.
“Never mind.” Meg’s smile brightened her whole face. “So this is home?”
“This is home.” I reached for her bag. The sooner I dropped her off, the sooner I could get back to my men. I needed to convince Helen and the colonel that this was a mistake.
Meg kept her belongings close. Almost as if she didn’t trust me. That stung more than it had any right to. But she wasn’t from here. She was smart to be wary of strangers.
I scanned our surroundings as I hurried up to the front door and keyed in the code.
The house was empty, like usual. Ethica’s outside weather always remained at optimum temperatures, but the inside of the house felt cooler as the marble floors and twenty-foot ceilings sat vigil, waiting for the inhabitants to come home.
“Your room is up here.” I guided her to the grand staircase with its black banister and oversized paintings lining the wall.
The pieces were classic, depicting various stages of inventions throughout history.
Gutenberg’s printing press. Bell’s telephone.
Edison’s lightbulb. Benz’s Motorwagen. The Atanasoff-Berry computer.
All hail the greatness of science.
Meg walked slowly up the stairs, frowning as she studied the images. The urge to ask if she’d seen them before—to know what they were taught out there in the wild—itched just under the surface of my skin.
I walked faster.
Meg stopped at the top of the stairs and looked over the house from this angle. The black circle of a chandelier hung on suspension chains over the foyer below. Where we stood, halls stretched out to either side of us, leading to the family’s private quarters.
I expected her to comment on the opulence of the house. Most people were impressed. The design was meant to wow its guests.
“It’s cold,” she said.
“I’ll send Katrina up and she’ll help you adjust the temperature in your room.” I left her just outside the door to the east wing guest quarters. It was far enough removed from the family to provide privacy, and the only room with round-the-clock surveillance cameras in the hall.
“Roman, please wait,” Meg said.
The sound of her voice tugged on something in my chest. She must’ve felt alone. Scared.
It wasn’t my problem.
Still, I turned at her command. “Is there something else you need?”
Her fingers brushed over her heart. “I know this must feel strange for you too, but I promise it will make sense soon. This is lucky. Truly, for both of us.”
My brow furrowed as I studied her. There was a tightness in her shoulders as she stood straight. Her pulse flickered fast against the smooth skin of her neck. She was prettier than any woman I’d ever met, and for some reason, she thought to soothe me instead of herself.
It was hard to believe there was a monster lurking just beneath the surface, but I wouldn’t let my guard down. Not when I had a job to do.
“If you say so,” I said. “I need to get back to my unit.”
“Oh, of course.” Her cheeks flushed red. “I’m sure we’ll get a chance to talk later.”
I nodded, following orders as I marched back down the stairs, and ignored the feeling in my gut telling me it was a very bad idea to leave her here alone.