Soren
Mael had told me most of what life on Mirach was like, yet the one little detail he left out was how my life would become one of endless walking, under a sun—that just felt closer than Earth's. Glaring. Burning. Hot. All while I knew we could use the stone and be anywhere in seconds.
However, two months at the raiders was enough time to learn how much this mating, bonding-ritual of the dheka meant. Vittore would never leave her side. Out of all her admirers, he was the worst.
Which was what I wanted.
My tongue played over my teeth, watching the two of them. Always together. Her distance from me was growing… And here I was, back in time to close it.
When was the last time we had sex?
Absently, I played with the stone around my neck. It alone gave and brought me—everything. Fate mocked me. I knew it wouldn't be easy... How long did Marcus wait? Seven years before they finally came together. And… after a hundred, they still didn't have this marriage thing figured out.
I could wait forever. She loved me. All I needed to know.
Now, I had to figure out how to keep her… Our branding was definitely not a magic spell. And I didn't have magic fingers… She would get addicted to his ability… the sex. Where would it leave me? Did I make a mistake…? No.
We needed Vittore either way.
How did she get over his past?
My gaze drifted to a lonely figure walking beside us… Brylee's choice of mate for Juliet was some stranger I didn't even know. Or knew about—if it wasn't for Mael… Brylee couldn't send Mateo; he lost his wife on Earth and was back on Palmyra… And because he already fell in love with someone, we didn't know if he and Juliet could connect like that… It had to be someone else. Niana. He took the position with fortitude… If only he could speak a little English. Didn't matter. He'd only join our harem later when he and Juliet could communicate. If the two fell in love at all… If Niana and Juliet's joining in the room worked. If not… Our prompt for the occasion would step in. Who knows if they were ever meant to be? Juliet's first crush. Jerry. Back on Palmyra, being trained and molded.
I chuckled. Juliet would be so angry if she knew Jerry was back in her life.
Lucky. The werewolf queen was easily convinced… The riphaths would bend to her will, one way or another. Her one goal. To live forever and take over more worlds. On the other hand, I could be glad I knew where the water and life stone was. Brylee almost ripped off her veil. And if she still gave me issues, I could help her with her demon. Take away her skin. What she wouldn't do to be able to walk around in all her glory.
"I thought you said you'd be able to handle it," Sam whispered, halting me while the others walked ahead. "You've been staring at them… Juliet's been avoiding you."
"Not at them… Her… Juliet's never been easy… And in the end, this Juliet is a tiny bit different than mine was."
"I suppose… How do you plan on changing her mind?"
"I think… teaching her to fight will do the trick."
"Oh! An outlet? Good idea… Put you in close proximity… Tension. Build-up… Not bad."
"She's really good at it too… And it will put me at ease. She'll know how to protect herself."
***
Romero and Vittore stood on the outskirts of our little camp, having a serious discussion. Their bodies only shadows in front of the full, solid moon. While we all learnt the language, their communications had become private. They had to go hunting anyway. Our provisions needed to be supplemented with meat from time to time. Blood. The brothers at least knew where to find water and ways for us to travel that weren't continually up and down desert dunes.
Sam gave me a look and winked. Getting up, he led Cindy and Liam away to go for a walk. I stopped fidgeting sixty years ago, but dealing with all these emotions made me scratch at my eyebrow with a thumb. Juliet and I were alone... I waited till they were out of earshot before I tried again to get her to talk to me. "I feel like I ruined things… I'm sorry, Julie."
"Soren, it's like a cold you can't shake… These lies and manipulations will never work."
I sifted some sand through my fingers. It was more than a sore throat and a cough. My chest sat on my body when I thought about the souls I left there… What would Juliet say or do? What would I do… if we still went south?
It was now or never. Had to find out.
I walked around the little seating area and held out my hand, asking her to take it. She sighed, but slid her hand into mine and got to her feet. "What now?"
I urged her into my arms. Juliet stiffened. Reluctant.
"I want to show you something… Please trust me."
She sighed again—she did it a lot those days, and it was enough to push through. I closed her in a tight embrace. The stone was in a firm grip in my hand as I thought of a place I'd once come across on our world domination. A quaint little village in Europe, where I stayed a few days to take a break from the constant death and screaming. Magical. Deserted. It might still be if Qadir were handling things a certain way.
"Close your eyes."
"Open them."
Juliet slowly lifted her head from my shoulder and turned around in a circle out of my hold. Excited, she yelped, "Cows!" She ran up a little street. I followed through the narrow walkways and past foreign buildings. "How in the world! Look at that view! Oh, it's gorgeous…"
She eventually came to a stop at a small café with tiny round tables and deserted chairs. A narrow but heavy river ran right at its edge, thundering down from the mountains surrounding us on every side. A dark mist covered the tops. The clouds canopied the whole valley of green grass, lush trees, and plant life.
"Where are we?" I pressed my lips together and shook my head, playing with her. "How did we get here?" I dug in my shirt and pulled out the stone, securely clasped on a constant chain right between my pecks. Juliet stood closer. "What is it?"
"Magic." She playfully hit me on the shoulder—which would've been a lot harder previously—and picked it up. "It's a supernatural stone… I think every planet has one… I stole this one… It's a teleportation stone and can take anyone anywhere if you've been there before and kinda commit the location to memory."
Juliet played around with it in her fingers.
"You have an ability. I don't." She looked up in question. "There is only one other person Sam gave one to."
"Who?"
"Louis?"
Juliet's lip curled. If one thing was a bonus, it was that she hated him. I smiled and lovingly caressed her cheek. "I can go get your grandparents out of jail—right now. And take them to Cindy… Julie… if you want, the two of us could stay here… alone… No one would ever find us. We will always be able to run away at the slightest bit of danger… If that's what you want… We can disappear and forget everything that happened. Your parents will be safe with Romero... We can go visit whenever we want to. We can do whatever we want to… If this is what you want, I'll do it in a second. For you... I planned Vittore, yes… because I thought in the long run… A thousand years… It would be best. Safest. No one can defeat the dheka, and if we have an 'in,'" I air quoted the word, "We would never ever be bothered."
Juliet led me to a little table, and we sat facing each other. "Tell me everything." I scratched my head, wondering how I could tell her without lying… "The truth."
"Juliet, you'll hate me. You'd want to kill me." She squinted a threatening glare at me. "I… I made many mistakes… And then I went back in time with this to fix it."
"You're joking."
"I'm not! Why do you think Romero has been following us? He knows… I don't know how, but he does."
Juliet tilted her head. "You don't?"
"No! I went into a room there on Mirach and woke up one morning on the compound… I'm the only one who knew… Although by now, Yazen and Ahasuerus would've figured out what I did."
"I was being sarcastic."
"What do you mean?"
Juliet disappeared and reappeared two seconds later. Inwardly, I groaned. Sloppy. "You misspoke a second ago as if I should've known I have an ability which I didn't until a few weeks ago… You said you planned Vittore… Soren, your Juliet—"
"No! It's one timeline. It's linear. The future doesn't branch off and create multiple people… You are mine and always will be… the only thing that changed is—"
"The way I grew up… Without Marcus in my life." My features hardened, and I sat forward. "No, I don't remember. But your book from that timeline—Romero has it… I've seen it. I've known for some time and was waiting for you to come clean."
Unable to look at her, I got up and walked to the water's edge. I stared at the white seahorses the surface created. Their constant motions took me to a place where I had to do this all again. How many times did Juliet time-travel—try to figure it out? I didn't have that luxury. The only thing I was doing was prolonging my life. And with all the factors from outside forces and family, it was impossible to fix and have everything I would want.
"Soren, I had children. Family. Friends. A life… And nowhere in the book you're mentioned."
My mood fell even deeper into the dark blue depths below me.
"It's vague and only snippets… It didn't really portray—that I was happy… Where… do you fit in? Our branding worked. And you knew if you came back in time, it would work for us… There had to have been a connection."
Right there at the waters' edge, I sat down and took off my shoes, rolled up my pants, and put my feet into the water. Freezing. The current strong. Manipulating my legs over and over...
Juliet eventually joined me and did the same.
After some time, she said without sighing, "I could get used to this."
My Juliet was back, and I had to tell her… "Marcus and you… It was difficult for you guys… That Juliet had a jealous… jealousy problem… On a scale, he is, was ten times worse… I… wasn't allowed in… I would've been number three or five, I didn't care. I love you. Wanted to be a part of your family." I looked up at the dark sky. "Thinking about it. I never wanted anything else."
"So they denied you entry, and then what?"
"I…" I chuckled nervously. "I became the bad guy."
"In what way?"
"I chose the other side. Got married for an alliance. With a family on En-gannim who has the rights to the water… I went against my values and my love… I used her in ways that would—did—disgust you… Then… I hurt you and the people around you to try and break your world apart… In the end, there was still no hate between us… As if time healed all…" I chuckled. "Although there was one time you tried to kill me… Nevertheless, when I saw you last—after a hundred years."
Her eyes widened, and she whispered, "I was more than a hundred years old."
"Yes… and you still loved me… And I wanted you even more, wished there was some way they would let me in."
Juliet took a long time to think about my words, but changed the subject, "The water rites on En-gannim are so important?"
"Ha. No. A stone." I looked at her. "Yes. I could go get it right now and show you."
She nodded eagerly.
I'd been on Marcus Island so many times. With Mael's description of where exactly they accidentally dug it up, it would be easy to find.
Juliet climbed into my arms, and I closed my eyes and thought of the area.
Excitedly, Juliet turned out of my arms but still held on to me. "Soren!"
"Welcome to En-gannim."
"Oh my, it's beautiful. Is there anyone else here?"
"No… We're on an uninhabited island. For now."
"Where? How do we find it? There are a lot of x's for one small stone."
I turned about in the large crater. Circling ourselves and the area. The stone had created it—probably. Or Avrio testing it. In the depths of the ground. For spells of time, to see what it could do.
There was a specific tree; I walked toward it and fell on my knees to dig. Juliet followed and helped. Together, we only had to get our hands dirty enough to hit the small box. I let her get it and open it. She picked it up and held it up to the sun. "Soren, what can it do?"
"With this, we could find a planet as barren as an asteroid and bring it to life. Try."
"How?"
I pointed. She placed it on the ground and clapped when water sprouted from it like the merest gurgle. "It's a tiny stream. How long does it take?"
"Place it deeper."
She put it in the hole we dug. I pushed soil over it. Water spurted and flung a stream high into the sky, spraying us like a geyser. Juliet gasped as the torrent of rain drenched us. Her hands shot out.
Wet and already soaked, she sputtered, "If you place it even deeper, more water? So, a cave?"
"You don't want to be there when it erupts.'
"Fascinating."
I reached out and pulled her lips onto mine, kissing her, pressing into her, begging for her to let it go.
Juliet pulled back and lifted her hands to push me away. "Soren!" she complained through my one-sided kisses. "Soren, wait." Juliet stood and pulled me out of the water, streaming down on us. "Very romantic, but I gotta talk to you first." She wiped at her eyes and pushed her hair out of her face. "We're soaked."
I sighed. "Do I really need to go back again, and next time, what? Kidnap you?"
Juliet had a funny smile on her mouth and shook her head. "This is it, isn't it?"
"It's pretty permanent," I joked.
"I don't want to—until I'm like nine hundred and feel like I could do it all again, but not now… That life… means nothing to me… I have no connection to it… And in this one, Marcus and Louis went on with theirs… as if I meant nothing, or maybe our brandings, the brandings are just—"
"Situational? I've thought about it."
"I don't know either. What to even call it… Fate? Their lives and mine? Vittore… Chris? He was the guy at the auction, wasn't he?"
I nodded.
"He's married in this life… I don't want to get between them. Just to—what? Force a connection… Michael? Who was he?"
"I already checked. He also got married a few years ago… He was your watcher on the compound." She gave me a questioning gesture. "The humans wanted control over Qadir. They monitored us twenty-four seven…" I stepped closer to her and took her face in my hands. "Julie, the reason I came back was because, in the end, there was so much death. My sister and parents died. Billions and billions of vamps and wolves gone as if the races never existed… Earth was a barren dystopia, and I… was alone… So alone… I had no hope for the future… Was I selfish?"
"I don't know Soren? I… probably wanted to do the same thing at some point… I can't think that with the chance of fixing all my mistakes, I wouldn't have taken it… Unless our fate is somehow ingrained in our beings, and this timeline will turn out much the same." She leaned in and kissed me. Our arms wrapped around one another, and we got lost in the solitude, our legs already knee-deep in water. Through our kisses, she lifted my shirt over my head, and I did the same with hers. My mouth ended on every part of her, along her neck as she writhed against me, touching me with longing. I undid her bra, and she hurriedly shrugged it off, only for me to cup a breast and get lost as our lips parted for one another.
Juliet pulled me, kissing me at the same time, toward a grassy bank. We undid our pants in the process. I laid her down, got comfortable between her legs, and sank into her with one hard thrust. Her gasps and fervor settled me in a way I wouldn't experience in this life. The truth was all she needed. She held onto me the way I needed.
Both satisfied, I lowered my body onto hers. Our mouths lazily finished off the passion. "I love you so much," she whispered. It was all I needed to hear and wrapped her in my arms, rolling us onto our sides so we could be face to face.