Chapter 4

Leaning on the table, I looked around. They had told me to sit, then gone back out into the hallway. It was an office, the desk being my main clue. I turned and looked at the large map again. I had no idea where it was for. I’d never seen a map of the city or the surrounding areas, so it may be what I was looking at. When you beg for change to buy a bus ticket while looking over your shoulder, you don’t stop to look at maps and rationally select a destination.

I glanced at my arrow sitting on the table, wondering if they’d let me have it back. There was blood on the neck near the head. I grimaced, probably not getting it back. I had no idea how Rafael was walking like he was. Maybe I’d missed him? I doubted that, I saw the arrow sticking up when he landed on the ground. Could I have just nicked him, or it was caught in his pants?

I looked around the room, still no windows. Did these people not like seeing outside? Maybe the lack of windows was for the king’s safety. Which made sense, even if running around the city without escorts didn’t. I frowned, I might be projecting a bit there, but a prince sneaking around filthy alleys could be part of the reason he’d wound up with an arrow sticking out of his butt.

I fidgeted with my finger guard under the table. The leather was fraying at the edges of my three-fingered glove. I knew the worn spots from memory without looking at it.

I heard new voices in the hall, the nervous energy made me sit up straight. I wasn’t being slammed with thoughts, which was really a rare thing, but I’d take it. Not freaking out in front of a king would be great.

A man with short, dark hair glanced in the door and turned to talk quietly with Chase and his brothers. It didn’t take a big leap to figure out he was another brother. The black hair matched Arius’ and the blue eyes were close to Rafael’s. Another prince. Guess their parents didn’t believe in birth control.

I could hear a woman’s voice and tried to listen to see if it was Paisley. Why was that name so familiar? I mean, it wasn’t a common name. But it wasn’t her in the hall, the tone wasn’t as gentle.

Chase came back in. “We’re waiting on a few of the others.”

I glanced up at him. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed he was able to control if I could hear his thoughts or not. He just tucked his hands in the pocket of his jeans and stood there looking at me.

That was another thing, who would believe royalty wandered around dressed in jeans and t-shirts? Except Victor, he looked like some sort of leather covered warrior. Then again if you had the scary vibe he did, you could dress however you pleased.

Victor came in. “We’ll use the group call for this.” It wasn’t a question and he didn’t look to Chase for his approval, which meant he had a high rank in this family. What was higher than a king though?

Chase inclined his head. “Alona will be on the phone.”

Arius came in, the other man and woman followed him.

Chase motioned to them. “This is my brother Michael and his mate Autumn.”

I glanced to him briefly. “How many brothers do you have?”

Autumn snorted. “A whole collection.” She sat down at the table across from me, her look hard as she studied me. “Ever hang on the southside?”

Michael turned and looked at her.

I gave a non-committal shrug. “Not when I could help it.”

She smirked, or I think she did.

I looked at her. Really looked at her. “You teach,” I didn’t know the name of it, “some kind of fighting at the parks.”

She nodded. “Self-defense. I don’t think you ever participated.” Her brows furrowed as she looked at me without moving.

Shaking my head, I willed myself to keep looking at her and not look away. I wasn’t hearing her thoughts either. “No. Fighting just isn’t my thing.”

She made a point of looking at the arrow sitting on the table. “Yeah, got that.”

I couldn’t hear her thoughts. Something told me if I could hear what she was thinking, it wouldn’t be any different that the words she spoke. “It’s good,” she looked back at me, “what you do. Help others.” I shrugged, “most don’t care and keep going.” I nodded. “You care though and teach them how to stand up for themselves.” Everyone was looking at me. “The real bullies would never admit they weren’t perfect and take your instruction…”

Autumn nodded. “Yeah. I’ve had a few, they show their true colors fast enough though.”

“You two know each other?” Arius asked in a quiet tone.

Autumn shook her head, then shrugged. “We’ve seen each other around.” She looked over at Michael. “She’s never been on the wrong side of anything I’ve witnessed.”

He gave her gentle look and nodded briefly.

It was a long shot, but I was desperate to get out of here and get on with my life of hiding from the realities I couldn’t change. I looked at Arius. “Your,” I couldn’t remember what Victor had called her, “the woman that was with you earlier, I’ve seen her before, just can’t remember where.”

The only indication he gave that he heard me was his eyes briefly acknowledged me, otherwise he was a statue standing there. “She’s a DJ.”

That was it. I pointed at him, then dropped my hand back under the table. “Yes. I’ve seen some the events she’s done...from a distance.” I sat back, then glanced to Chase. “That’s been driving me mad, trying to place her.”

Chase smirked, “I’m sure she’ll love to know you’ve seen her work.”

The man with the brown hair from earlier came in. “Leone and Beth are busy helping Alona, but Troy and Daxx are on the way. Emil,” He pointed to the hall. “is talking to Rena.”

Chase nodded then motioned to him, “this is…”

“Let me guess, your brother?” I looked from the man back to Chase.

With a smile he nodded. “Yes, my brother Quinton.”

I looked back at Quinton, he gave me an amused look. “Kara.” I said quietly.

“I’ve been told not to thank you for shooting Raf in the ass,” he shrugged, “but, I say it’s about time.”

I clamped my mouth shut before I blurted out a response.

Quinton sat down at the end of the table and crossed his arms.

Before I could decide if I should say anything a man came in from the hallway. I couldn’t be sure, but he looked like Arius’ twin, but there was something around his eyes that made him look older.

He stopped and gave me a quick once over, then incline his head. “I’m Emil,” he motioned around the room.

“Everyone’s brother?” I said sarcastically.

Autumn laughed and then cleared her throat and nodded her head while looking at Michael.

Emil smiled. “Yes.” He paused for a moment. “I am intrigued with your choice of archery. I thought it an extinct method.”

… a noble and worthy form of combat…

I hesitated, not sure if that had been his thought. Its pattern seemed to sound like the way he spoke, but that wasn’t a sure thing. People often thought differently then they spoke. My brain prodded me, he was still waiting for me to say something. “I didn’t choose it. It chose me.”

He nodded his head for a moment, then looked to Chase.

…it’s going to be a shit storm. She likes her, Crissy cleared her. The women are going to take her into their little gang and I’ll be stuck dealing with a pouting, irate baby brother…

Trying not to be obvious I looked around at the men. The thought hadn’t come from Quinton. Turning I looked at Michael, who only had eyes for Autumn. It was him. His eyes flicked to me as if he knew I’d just pinpointed what he was thinking. His look hardened and he moved over to perch on the edge of the desk.

Autumn turned her head and gave him a curious look. He glanced to me for a split second then shook his head. With a shrug, she turned around and continued typing on her phone.

I sat there silently, my hand moving around the edge of my glove. Irate baby brother. Because it couldn’t be bad enough, me shooting a prince in the butt, I was pretty sure I shot the youngest in a large hoard of brothers. I let out a long sigh as quietly as I could.

“You need anything?”

I looked up to see Autumn looking at me.

“You want a tea, water, or something?” She nodded like I’d responded. “I’ll get Daxx to grab some tea from Mitz. Between the porting and tossing your cookies, you’re probably feeling like you were dragged through the sewers.” She looked back to her phone and typed.

I glanced to Chase, he looked amused. Michael closed his eyes for a second. “Yes. Thank you.” I didn’t know if I wanted tea, or what porting was, but getting rid of the taste in my mouth would be good.

“Where is Raf?” Chase asked.

Quinton made some sort of noise. “Probably hiding at the temple, getting his ego stroked.”

“Ah,” he glanced to Victor, “we’ll add him into the call.”

“It might be best.” Victor looked at me when he said it.

Several long moments of tense silence passed. I waited to hear thoughts from those in the room. There weren’t any. These people were not normal. I almost laughed at my own thoughts, because yeah, I was so normal.

Troy came in with a blonde woman close to my size. She set a cup on the table in front of me, then backed up and put her hands on her hips and stared.

I looked to the cup, then back to her. I was sure they wouldn’t drug me, but life had told me to not take chances. I knew that if they wanted me dead, most could just pick me up and snap me in two.

Autumn leaned over the table and picked up the cup, took a small sip and put it down. Leaning back, she lifted one eyebrow at me like most people would shrug.

I turned the cup, so where her lips had touched was not near where mine would. I picked up the cup and smelled it. It did smell good, kind of minty. I took a small sip and put the cup down. “Thank you.” I gave Autumn a quick look, then my gaze moved to the blonde.

With a shrug she sat down beside Autumn. “I’m Daxx. I’d say nice to meet you, but then Raf would think I was happy you shot him.” She looked at Autumn and smirked, then back to me. “You had me worried. I was afraid Hubert’s bozos were using bows and arrows now.”

I looked from her to Autumn then. “Who’s Herbert?”

Autumn snorted. “Hu-bert. And he’s a class A jerk that needs to be in a cage for the rest of,” she waved her hand, “forever.”

Nodding slowly, I met Chase’s look for a second. “Okay.” I didn’t know what else I was supposed to say to any of that.

“Let’s make the call and get this started.” Daxx motioned to me. “If she knows locations, I’m all for kicking some ass today.”

Troy’s mouth quirked as he gave her an affectionate look.

I sat there looking around at these people, while sipping the tea. Which was really good. Many of them had tattoos down the length of their arm. I wondered if it had some sort of significance in the hierarchy of the royal family. I then noticed the two women had them as well. I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, but I thought Paisley may have had one too.

Chase set his phone in the middle of the table.

“You’re live with the furnishing crew, we’ll be coming at you from within the Palace walls.”

I knew right then it was Paisley on the other end.

“So glad you drew the short straw.” Daxx said.

“She is a god send,” A woman with a soft voice said, “points and the men just follow her orders without question.”

“That may be because they know her mate, beloved.” Chase said glancing to Arius.

“Mine is a king, should they not fear me?” She asked.

“Only if you have your chucks in your hand.” Autumn said grinning at Chase.

“Perhaps we could save this for a later time.” Victor said abruptly. “Cristy?”

“I’m here.” A woman answered.

“Where is here?” Daxx asked.

“My roof.” Cristy answered.

Daxx glanced to Victor, a questioning look on her face. He gave his head a gentle shake. “Why are you back there?”

“Because I need to see why I couldn’t see her.” She made a strange noise, “I should have seen her, Daxx. Why didn’t I see her?”

“You would have had to be standing and looking down the side of the building to see her go up the fire escape.” Quinton explained. “Were you looking down?”

“No. No. To do that I’d have to stand on the ledge, and I can’t do that here,” she was talking so fast, “the bars broke off the ladder up here, so I can’t use my strap and Victor gets upset if I do things without it.” She blew into the mic, “I don’t like it when he’s upset.”

I looked at Victor, the big scary man wasn’t looking so intimidating right now as he listened to her.

“I should have seen her. If I did, she wouldn’t have shot Rafael.” She sounded frantic now.

Someone sighed. “I’m all right, little sis, don’t stress yourself out over it.” His voice was deep, but easy going.

That was Rafael? That voice did not match the man that had glared at me.

“I know you are now,” she made a sound of exasperation, “but I don’t want Vic to judge her. I’ve seen him judge before and it’s not good,” she mumbled something that sounded like blood, “I see the good all around her, I just need to figure this out. She’s important…” She kept talking, but I couldn’t understand any of it.

Everyone turned to look at Victor.

He closed his eyes and exhaled. “Cristy, heart, come down off the roof. It’s going to be fine.”

“But, Vic, you’re the justice and I don’t…” more mumbling.

Victor looked at me, his expression wasn’t as cold as before. “Just come down off the roof. I don’t believe my judgement will be required.”

“Are you sure? I can stay up here and figure it out.” She sounded winded.

“I am sure, heart. Why don’t you go lend a hand with the furniture?” He suggested softly.

“Okay. I can do that.” Cristy answered, sounding less frantic.

“The more help the better.” A woman said in a soft tone.

“Okay Beth, uh,” there was a pause, “I don’t know if I can get there. Every time I picture there, I see that roof and I don’t want to go there…”

“I’ll meet you at the landing room, Crissy and bring you here.” A male said.

“Meet Leone there, heart.” Victor said with steady patience.

“Okay.”

“I’ll reconnect in a few minutes.” Leone told everyone.

Daxx turned to Autumn. “How did you get out of helping with that?”

Autumn smirked. “What do I know about decorating? I lived in the back of a gym before here.”

Daxx laughed.

“Yes, Autumn graciously referred to my knowledge for the placement of everything.” Chase’s beloved said.

Michael gave Autumn an inquisitive look. She shrugged at him.

“Once again…”

“Yes, yes.” Chase cut off Victor, “we’ll get on with the fact hunt post haste.”

Troy looked amused.

I frowned and wondered how one of the twins wound up being king. Usually it was the oldest, that I knew, but that was a bit harsh when you’re talking a few minutes apart—at least I always figured that’s how more than one baby was born. Not that I’d ever personally be doing any birthing of any kind.

…cupid…

I came back to reality to see everyone in the room looking at me. My gaze paused on Chase, he raised an eyebrow in question. I nodded quickly and looked around. “I don’t know what you need me to tell you.”

“I, for one,” Chase straightened up, “would love to hear more about you shooting the freak with the glow in the dark purple eyes.”

Quinton sat up and leaned on the table. “You shot a mage? Tell me it was in the ass.”

I opened my mouth to say something about shooting people in the butt, then remembered Rafael was on the other end of the phone. I shook my head. “I actually, uh,” I glanced quickly to Chase then back to Quinton, “shot him through the hand.”

“Ha.” Chase nodded, “more than a few of us would like to do that from time to time.”

“Or every day.” Quinton said with a sneer.

“Why his hand?” Victor asked.

I took a deep breath, trying to coach my mouth to remember it was talking in a room with royal people. “I could hear…” they knew, so it was okay to say it…

“We’re back.” Leone said.

“Very good.” Troy looked at me. “Kara was just going to explain how she came to shoot a mage in the hand.”

“I’m all ears.” Leone said.

Daxx motioned to me, so I’d talk again.

“I could hear his thoughts.” I bit my lip and waited for the judgmental looks and accusing stares. There were none. Okay, that was new. “I didn’t shoot him because of his eyes, that,” I looked at Autumn, “I figured, each to their own, however weird it was.” She nodded. “Then I heard what he planned on doing and it involved hurting someone,” I looked around, still no disapproving looks. “I don’t know who…” I leaned closer to the table, “then he starts rambling this bizarre stuff—and with the wind of,” I waved my hand, “I don’t remember exactly, but it kind of freaked me out.” I gave Chase a wide-eyed look, “like I was hitting an eight on my FOS,” his expression changed, “my-my freak out scale,” I felt dumb saying it out loud, no one said anything, “so-so I shot an arrow through his hand as he was waving it around.” I sat back. “He howled and cussed, but he stopped doing whatever he was doing.” I ended quietly. “I didn’t even care that it wasn’t a cheap arrow.”

No one said anything, in the room or on the phone.

Daxx turned and looked at Troy, he inclined his head like he knew what she was thinking. “Well, I for one…”

Michael shook his head. “There are too many unknown…”

“If you say variables, I’m going to throw something at you.” Daxx said. She pointed to me. “She can hear a mage while they are,” she looked at Quinton, then Michael, “casting or whatever it is they do.”

“Oh,” Crissy said, “she can help find the traitor that I haven’t been able to find.”

Autumn looked at Michael, “Eunice. She can see what she’s really thinking. See if this sudden confusion is real.”

I looked from one to the other, then to Chase.

Troy moved to stand by the table. “Are you able hear when you want?”

“You mean on purpose?” I scrunched up my nose like I’d just smelled something awful. “Why would I want that in my head? I try to not hear it.”

“Mmm,” he glanced to Arius.

I couldn’t believe they were talking about this. Never, and I mean never in my life had anyone believed I could hear what a person was thinking. Second, why would I want to do it? I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. My heart kicked up to super speed. My FOS was spiking close to a ten now and I couldn’t stay calm, I couldn’t just sit here and do this.

I jumped up from the table, the chair tipped over and I didn’t even care. Royalty or not, they had no idea what they were talking about. I paced toward the wall, then stopped and held my head between my hands. No. No.

I spun around and ignored the wide-eyed looks. “I can’t. Can’t. No.” I shook my head and waved my hand around like a lunatic. “I can’t do it.” With a jerky movement I looked at Chase. “You-you want me to try on purpose to hear what people are thinking?” I didn’t wait for any sort of response. “I barely escaped. Barely.” I mumbled more to myself then them. “If I ever get put back in there I-I’ll…” I took a deep breath, “I won’t survive. I j-just won’t.”

“What the hell is going on?” Rafael asked.

I whipped my head around to look at the phone. Reality came crashing through my panicked thoughts. I pointed to the phone and looked at a few of the men. “I shot your brother in the tush, a huge error on my part, and for that I’ll,” I shook my head, “do penance or whatever, but I can’t go back.” My hands started shaking, I looked at Chase, hoping he understood. “I just can’t. They’ll drug me again and-and…” I closed my mouth and stood there shaking, hugging my arms around my waist. There was no way I could describe what I’d been through and have complete strangers understand.

“What the hell is going on?”

I jolted and turned to see Rafael standing in the door.

…I don’t understand…

I took a deep breath. Not now.

…shit…

“Chase? Is everything all right?” His wife asked on the phone.

…Kara…

I looked at Chase and shook my head. I was trying to not have a complete breakdown. The room suddenly started to close in on me. I need to look outside. “I need to look outside.” I whispered.

“Troy.” Daxx stood up.

Autumn stood up as well, then Quinton did.

“What’s happening?” I think Paisley asked.

…someone needs to help her…

The more that stood up, the smaller the room seemed. I blew out a loud breath. “I need a window.” I gave Chase a panicked look. Rafael stepped into the room. I shook my head.

…what the hell did they do?...

I pressed my hand against my forehead, trying to stop them.

The girl from the fire escape came running into the room, she didn’t stop just came at me and grabbed me without a word.

My head filled with white noise, then my stomach lurched. I squeezed my eyes tight, this was a new reaction, I’d never had that reaction before. I swore there was a breeze, and opened my eyes. We weren’t in that room. “What the pish just happened?” I glared at Crissy where she stood a few feet away. We were on a roof.