Two Tribes, page 28
part #1 of Young Atlanteans Series
The more time she had to mull it over, the more it came down to Xavier. She had been the happy one in the beginning. There was no escaping that Xavier had ruined it for her. Again.
Frustrated tears stained her face. She hated the flat, hated the area, hated the school and all the people in it. In short, she was miserable and hated her life.
Alexia looked at her watch. It was eight o’clock on a very dark evening. Perhaps the darkest of her life, figuratively speaking.
Valarie was bathing the two little ones, Latitia was in her room and Dwayne and Richie hadn’t even come home.
It was the final straw. She jumped up from the sofa, grabbed her phone and keys and ordered an Uber. Then, without telling a soul where she was going, she stepped out into the crisp night air. She paced a few feet up and down until her Uber arrived.
She didn’t see why Xavier got to breeze through life after doing this kind of thing, scot-free. No. This time, he was going to pay. She was winging it, but she was going to have it out with him once and for all and if he didn’t show the right amount of remorse, she’d have nothing more to do with him. Someone had to stand up to him.
The fact that JJ was seldom squeaky clean in these things escaped her. She only had enough room for hatred of one brother at that moment. She soon got to the wharf, pressed all the buzzers so someone let her in and fumed all the way up in the lift.
The door was left ajar for her when she got there. Of course they would have sensed her coming. Even that fuelled her anger. Like she would actually want to pay a social call. Then there was the massive step up in accommodation. That was rocket fuel. No more bloody slumming it for them.
Alexia did not see JJ as she marched in. Only Xavier, watching her smugly from the huge leather sofa placed strategically under the huge Pollock print she knew and recognized. As the lump wedged itself firmly in her throat, Xavier held his arms open wide. ‘Welcome, Sis … you like?’
The world dropped an octave as her last nerve broke. ‘No, I don’t bloody like. In fact, I frickin’ hate! How dare you meddle in my personal life and then leave me all alone without a care of how I’m feeling. Every place we’ve ever gone it’s the same old story. Well, I’m sick of it. Sick of it!’ she screamed, catching him twice with her fists in his face before he could stand up and grab them.
She struggled and wailed as Xavier shouted at her to quit. Then a second pair of hands touched her gently on her shoulders and JJ’s voice went to her mind like a soft caress. Calm down, Lexie. Surely it can’t be that bad? She hadn’t realized he was home.
She continued to scream, ‘I hate you!’ at Xavier until her voice cracked and he shoved her away with a final ‘Get off!’
Then she was turned and her nose buried in the soft fibres of JJ’s sweater, swathing her in the familiar smell she associated with home, childhood and safety. It calmed her instantly.
‘All this over a stupid boy? A boy that didn’t need much persuading, I might add,’ Xavier said angrily, now that his initial shock had subsided.
‘Go easy,’ JJ’s voice rumbled from beneath her cheek. ‘Imagine how you’d feel.’
‘No, I won’t,’ Xavier snapped. ‘She needs to understand her station and that she can’t throw herself away on some low-life hoodlum who will never be able to take care of her and will never be worthy of her in a million years.’
Xavier’s anger only served to recharge her own. Her temper rose and she turned to face him like a spitting Cobra. ‘How dare you? It’s not up to you who I see.’ Her voice shocked her how low it sounded. She didn’t sound anything like herself. As if she’d changed into a different person. ‘I can date Genghis Bloody Khan if I want to. You’re not my bloody king.’
Then Xavier stepped into her face, making her hitch a breath at the sudden ferociousness of it. ‘Oh, but I can. In this world where our father saw fit to dump us, I am king and don’t you forget it.’
Alexia was so shocked at his statement that she turned to look at JJ. He was staring at his brother as shocked as she was. Then he said just one word: ‘Stop!’ It wasn’t shouted or even demanded, just said flatly, but somehow held all the threat and venom that was required.
She looked back at Xavier, who’d registered the same thing and seemed to gather himself. It was as though she was witnessing something huge, like something was changing between them and, despite her anger before, she didn’t like it.
‘No, I won’t bloody stop,’ Xavier said, renewing his momentum. ‘My whole life, it’s been you two ganging up on me. Well, I won’t have it. Not anymore.’ He reached out and grabbed Alexia’s chin, painfully. ‘You think I was alone when I had my little mind walk with our local boy, Dwayne?’
‘Xav!’ JJ warned.
It was said so suddenly and so fearfully that Alexia took her eyes off Xavier for a moment to look at JJ. The expression on his face was like nothing she’d ever seen on him before. Panic. He was literally imploring Xavier not to go on. But, of course, it was Xavier, so he did and dropped the bomb on the last vestige of brotherly respect she had left in her. For the brothers she’d followed blindly, worshipped and adored, the blinkers were ripped off, but instead of allowing her to see, the light scalded her eyes and blinded her to reason. A noose wrapped itself around her neck and tightened as she said the words, ‘Well go on, Xav, you know you want to.’
Xavier roughly pushed her away.
JJ narrowed his eyes in an unsaid dare. Correction, he was threatening Xavier in his head.
Alexia’s blood pressure rose to a thumping in her temples and her mouth felt sawdust dry. ‘Why don’t you just say what you’re dying to say?’
‘Don’t!’ JJ said, with an earnest plea on his face that hit her in the gut and settled like a medicine ball.
A weight of dread pulled her heart downwards into her bowel and she was already shaking her head, no longer wanting to hear what she knew Xavier would say.
‘It was straight after the dance,’ Xavier went on, reflectively. As if he was trying to get the order of memories straight in his head. ‘The Johnson brothers were in their bunks, plotting on how to get back at Trick. JJ and I just gave them the push they needed to do it and, we both decided, it wasn’t a safe place for you.’
And there it was. The wretched, caught-out, guilty as hell look on JJ’s face. In that one moment everything she thought she knew, her whole belief system in her family, fell away to leave a smouldering pile of ashes.
She’d never had much security as a kid, with her mother not exactly stable with either of her fathers, but she’d always had her brothers – particularly JJ. He had been the constant in her life. ‘How could you?’ she whispered, barely able to get the words out, her throat was so closed up.
You have to listen to the context, JJ said in her head. He turned his murderous look on Xavier and they were quickly locked in a psychic argument that didn’t include her.
Typical. Even then they excluded her.
Acid filled the cavity where her stomach should be and she headed for the door. She had no idea where she was going. Anywhere from there.
Not home.
Not the Johnsons.
‘Come back,’ Xavier called, with mock contrition. ‘We did it for you. We really did. Don’t you understand, Alexia?’
When she didn’t turn around and a great blackness settled around her heart, his final words were not so diplomatic. ‘One of us will be your king, Alexia.’
‘Not mine,’ she said, under her breath. Then, as soon as she breathed again in the lift, she pulled the card out of her pocket.
CHAPTER 31
JJ was left staring at Xavier, aghast. He couldn’t believe he’d just cut off the only line of communication with their sister out of spite. ‘Who will keep an eye on her now?’ he said, nonplussed. How would he keep tabs on Latitia? He really would have punched the ‘what have I done?’ look right off Xavier’s face if he wasn’t so completely left-fielded.
Xavier was already struggling to smooth over the fact that his big mouth had run away with him. ‘She’ll be OK. Give her some time. She’ll come around.’
JJ shook his head. ‘I seriously doubt that.’ All the while, he was searching his brother’s face for any semblance of the boy he’d loved and grew up with and saw only a stranger. He rubbed his head wearily. ‘What has happened to us all?’
Instead of being sorry, Xavier’s face darkened and he walked away in disgust. ‘We grew up, JJ. We just grew up.’
* * *
Alexia had walked in the drizzle for what felt like hours after she’d left Xavier and JJ at the wharf. Finally, after cold began to seep through to her bones, she took out the small old-fashioned phone Yaro had given her. It had taken her so long because it was such a monumental decision. To ring the number on the card was to ask for a lift, but to use his phone was to change her life. She instinctively knew it. It was a precipice jump, because despite Yaro’s promises, there would definitely be strings and he was still a stranger. Albeit an intriguing, terrifying one.
She didn’t know why she was so surprised when it was his voice who answered immediately. ‘Alexia?’ his heavily accented voice said immediately. ‘Is everything alright with you?’
It took her a moment to breathe and then cough to answer. Then, despite her best efforts to hold it in, a sob escaped her and the whole sorry mess came out with her tears. ‘No … I’m not alright, Yaro. I’m not alright at all.’
His voice changed and became stern. ‘Stay exactly where you are. My car will come for you.’
She looked around her, blinking back her tears. ‘But I don’t know where I am,’ she said, wailing again. She had stomped off in her anger and then wandered in misery and hadn’t taken notice of where she was going.
‘Do not worry,’ he said, sounding completely unperturbed. ‘We can track your phone. Simply text me.’
She sniffed back the tears and the first, distant alarm bells. ‘OK. Thank you so much.’
‘It’s OK. Everything will be fine; you do not need to worry about anything. I will look after you now.’
She felt immediate relief that she’d finally called him; he’d played on her mind for days. And it did solve her immediate problems. But she was a bright girl, despite what her brothers thought of her. She felt uneasy. He was a powerful male who’d probably been alive a long time and he was interested in a girl like her. Even she knew that didn’t add up. Maybe she’d given in to him a little too easily. Perhaps she’d relinquished too much control. It was those disturbing thoughts that prickled the back of her mind until the car pulled up next to her. Then the butterflies at seeing him again completely blew them away.
The driver came round the car and opened the door for her. The drizzle had turned to rain. For a moment she paused and looked behind her at the shiny streets reflecting the lights from the shop fronts. For a split second, she considered running back. To her old life, her childhood, her brothers … but it was only fleeting. Too much had happened for that.
‘Miss?’ the driver said, to hurry her along.
She looked up into the handsome, clearly Atlantean face. ‘Sorry.’ She got in. The car was empty this time, but Yaro was there in the balmy warmth and aroma of Eastern spices, she’d began to associate with him. It calmed her instantly and made her relax into her seat. ‘OK, miss?’ the driver asked from his seat.
Alexia nodded, heart pounding. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked in sudden panic.
‘Prince Demidov has requested I bring you to his private residence, Your Highness.’
Prince. She swallowed. There was nothing to fear. So, he was royal. Big deal. Everything was exactly what he said over the phone. She tried to breathe and slow her heart. Staring out of the tinted window, she could barely see the lights anymore. They were shrinking away and she prayed to the five moons and whatever deity was out there that she’d made the right decision. Then she snapped herself out of it. Her mother should be proud. She’d become her own woman; she was branching out on her own.
* * *
Alexia’s mind went from terror to excitement throughout the journey to Yaro’s. It felt achingly long. She tried to figure out where she was going, but it was hopeless. The most she could work out was they’d gone west as they hadn’t crossed the river, until the streets became greener and lined with trees and the houses much larger. ‘What’s he like?’ she said to the driver, instantly feeling silly. He wasn’t exactly going to reveal he was an ogre.
The driver smiled at her in the rear-view mirror. ‘Have no fear, Your Highness. He is a great prince.’
She smiled back at him; her mind not put at rest at all. She still wasn’t entirely sure whether he was a genuine prince in the Atlantean sense, or if it was an alias or simply that his character put him above the humans he managed. She had no way of knowing. It only added weight to the already niggling voice at the back of her mind that told her she didn’t really know him.
At last they pulled into a treelined street of huge manses, each one different and more imposing than the last, to a pair of impressive-looking wrought-iron gates. She wasn’t that worldly wise, but even she knew a house this size, located in the capital, had to belong to someone super-rich. Real nerves began to disperse her butterflies. She was beginning to see Yaro was more powerful than she could have ever imagined.
The gates opened slowly and the car glided in onto a shingle driveway. The house loomed through the trees made of red brick, with huge chimneys and diamond-shaped lead in the windows. It was obviously Tudor and not the mock kind. It seemed to go on forever. Tiny lights lined the drive, illuminating the imposing building like a fairy tale and the large, manicured gardens with perfectly maintained topiary.
The car swung around a wide circular fountain with a crunch and came to a stop in front of a large overhanging porch with two tall lanterns either side. It gave a friendly glow to a house that appeared to be in complete darkness. ‘We’re here, miss,’ the driver said.
Part of Alexia couldn’t wait to get out of the car and another was dreading what she’d find inside. However, she had no choice when the driver opened the door for her and the huge door to the house opened wide. A lone dark figure stood behind the light of the lanterns, making it impossible to see his face.
‘The butler will show you in, miss,’ the driver said, answering her question but making her long to cling to him a bit longer.
‘Sorry, thank you. I don’t even know your name.’
‘Anton,’ he said, with a friendly smile, showing neat square teeth. He nodded once and got back into his car.
She was left feeling cold and alone. The wind whipped around her still-damp clothes and she was forced to face the dark figure of the butler or die of exposure. ‘This way, Your Highness,’ the butler said with a bow.
It was a shock that he knew who she was. Her father had many staff, but he always insisted that they were never as formal as this. She put her first foot onto the red-tiled step and slowly entered the house, hesitating on the threshold.
The butler noticed and turned. ‘You may enter. All privileges have been extended to you.’
It was a really peculiar thing to say, but she put it down to cultural differences and the traditions of an ancient family. That must be it, she reassured her clanging alarm bells going off all over the place.
The hall was wood panelled as she would have imagined, and the red tile became chequered with black in an intricate design. It swept your eye up to the grand staircase and huge painting midway of a fierce-looking knight on a foaming black horse. The banisters were richly carved and swept up in two directions either side of it. The walls were a deep red but the lighting was low as if lit by candles alone.
The light was kind of cosy, if not a little creepy. No wonder you couldn’t see in from outside.
Eventually they came to a halt in front of a door that the butler pushed wide open. ‘The prince will be with you shortly,’ he said.
Her eyebrows rose at the confirmation of his status. She was learning more about Yaro by the minute, but she smiled and walked in, taking in more of the opulence of the house. He was obviously a collector of expensive and beautiful things.
The theme of candlelight continued into the room of rich reds and russets. The walls were covered in red flock, golden paintings and lined with cabinets of collectables and glassware. A rich rug swallowed her feet as she inched towards the red sofas, facing each other next to the open mouth of a fire. It blazed like a furnace, already warming her face and hands, until she felt an icy draught behind her.
‘Welcome, Alexia.’
CHAPTER 32
The familiar voice was sudden and came from right behind her. It made her jump and put her hands to her chest.
‘Please don’t turn and look at me yet.’
At first her Atlantean senses were overwhelmed, firing off all at once at his proximity. No one had ever crept up on her like that before. It was either the speed at his arrival, or he’d cloaked himself in some way. All Atlanteans sensed each other, but she was gifted, even with humans. Then, as the feelings subsided, she became excited at finally meeting her rescuer, tinged with a little apprehension when he seemed so reluctant for her to see him.
Alexia had relived their meeting in his car a hundred times, until he’d become a hero from a romance novel. His red lips and pale skin that needed to be shielded from the light. The tattoos on his long fingers, hinting at Atlantean royalty. Everything about him was so exciting, how bad could he be? ‘Thank you for coming to my rescue tonight,’ she said in a cracked voice.
‘It is my pleasure to assist, just as I promised,’ he said, sounding more Russian than ever.
Her heart was pumping hard in her chest. ‘Why don’t you want me to see you?’ she said, trying to turn her head, but he was just out of sight. Deliberately.
