Damon: The A'rouk Brothers: A BBW Paranornal Page 19

  “I was there, at the beach, your scent reached me, but I couldn’t find you.”

  “I was trapped, held captive.” Her voice was low it held sadness in it that clung to her like a second skin.

  Damon sat on the couch in front of her allowing his hand to rest lightly on her thigh, hoping that he would somehow calm her. He raised his scanner and analyzed the water that she threw up, it was sea water with an extra chemical mixed with it. With a wish that he could have his medbed, he changed the scanner to look for traces of the chemical in her body.

  River was right; she was dying. The extra chemical in her body was damaging her organs from the inside out. Eventually, they would fail if the device sitting her chest didn’t kill her first.

  “River you need an operation, one that would be easier to perform in my medical wing but I can still do it here. It’s the only way to save your life.”

  Her eyes clouded as she looked up at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t want to go back there. If I’m held prisoner again, I might as well die because I will die there.”

  “You’re not dying, and you’re not going back. I’ll do anything I can to keep you safe.”

  She nodded her head but dipped her eyes like she couldn’t look at him.

  “River?”

  She tilted her head and looked at him longing shining in her eyes.

  “Tell me,” he prompted leaning closer to her.

  “In case I don’t make it I want to…” She had come all this way although she had no idea where she was. The one thing she wanted to do was to touch his lips. Her eyes focused on his lips communicating her desire without words.

  She shouldn’t tempt him like this, giving him permission to do the things he could only think about until now. Stay in control Damon; he screamed inside his head even as he lowered himself needing to feel the smoothness of her lips on his. Kissing her was wrong, but he was going to kiss her. He needed the same physical connection she needed.

  His lips touched her, and a part of him calmed. His lips were gentle on hers. The sigh that left her mouth at his touch made his lips turn up. He sucked on her bottom lip and nipped it until she opened her mouth. His tongue shot in caressing hers. More he thought as her taste made him wild with passion. He deepened the kiss just a little. Her hand raised and she caught hold of his shirt while the other hand trembled in his hair.

  Reluctantly he moved back; she needed healing not kissing.

  Her smile made his heart race. “Thank—,” her body began to convulse.

  His arms went around her drawing her close as she died again. He screamed his fury as he picked her up and made his way up the steps to the bedroom. When he walked in, there was a surgery table already set up with a sterilization field around it. Dante. His mouth kicked up in a half smile; he could always count on his brother.

  He laid River on the bed knowing he was going to have to do some apologizing later, but he couldn’t take her in that field with the clothes she had on. Since he was going to have to cut into her chest it was best she didn’t have anything on. He stood over her and reached for his professional calm. The same calm he’d use when he operated on his brothers knowing that one wrong move would kill them.

  River was his mate, and he wanted to worship her body tell her how beautiful she was, but he’d never get that chance unless he could detach himself enough to make sure she’d live. He stepped outside of himself refusing to give the enemies after her or The Darkness after him the satisfaction of being so emotional that he couldn’t save her life.

  He stripped her refusing to notice the beauty of her skin and focusing on how her chest moved as the device started working its way toward her heart. One look at his scanner confirmed what his eyes were telling him. The device within her was active, and now it was a race against time to see who won, him or it. He stood back and ran a hand over his frame cleaning himself of any bacteria he carried small or large and changing his clothes into old time scrubs that would give him enough room to work.

  Extra 3

  This is one of favorite alternate beginnings.

  Chapter One

  River was a prisoner for heinous crimes they said she committed. Crimes she couldn’t remember and that her captives had no proof she committed. It didn’t seem to matter whether she was innocent or guilty they had her and weren’t going to let her go.

  As far as she was concerned, she was a slave. She had no say in anything that happened to her, which was why she was sitting in a tank waiting for the show to begin. She placed her hand on the tank as the coldness of it sank into her pores, once again she forced her mind back to a time before she was held against her will but there was nothing but blackness. Sometimes when she was asleep little snippets of a life before this would come to her, when she woke, they would float away like dust bunnies in the sun.

  She took a deep breath and tried to prepare for what was to come. She banged on the side of the glass knowing no one could hear her. The tank was shatter proof as well as sound proof any misery she felt in here would only be for her. Closing her eyes, she shied away from the reality of what was about to happen. River was the main event in the only circus on the Earth. She was the freak. Her event would open the show; then she would perform it again in the middle of the show for the skeptics. Perform it; a bitter laugh came out of her mouth as if she had a say in what would happen to her. Then she would go on once again at the end of the show. By then all eyes would be glued to her as they watched with horror and a slight amount of fascination at what happened to her.

  They would cheer and whistle for her never knowing that every time she was made to endure this, she came one step closer to death. She wrapped her arms around herself giving herself the only comfort available to her. They didn’t care, no one cared. In the end, that was the point.

  She heard his voice—Sloan. He was the circus master. She could see him before her eyes like he had done it thousands of times in the past because he had. The circus of the night had toured all over the Earth for longer than she cared to remember. Now they were in New Pittsburg. Usually, they didn’t tell her where they were, but Sloan had taken joy in telling her their location as if it meant something to her.

  Her hand reached out to touch the side of the tank once again as Sloan welcomed the customers with shady smiles and great words about the illusions that would occur tonight. Illusions? He could kiss her ass, not that she would ever let him that close.

  He would be dressed in a top hat and tails his nod to the circus masters of the past. The customers would have no idea what his dress meant, but they would love him more for it. He would regale them with tales of past circuses holding them in the palm of his hand.

  Then he would ask them that one magical question, the one that would make the children gasp and the adults shake their head in disbelief.

  What would you do if you couldn’t die?

  *~*~*~*

  “What?” Damon was in his medical wing looking over scans that belonged to both Brook and Jaz. Not because there was something wrong with either of them. It simply kept him busy and gave him something to do other than concentrating on the feeling that was slithering over his spine telling him that his life was about to change.

  “You’re going to see the circus since it’s in town,” Dante said like it was something he did every time the circus came to town.

  There was no circus or there hadn’t been since the war. All humanity could do after the alien-human war was focus on living and rehabbing the Earth.

  “When did we acquire a circus?”

  Dante shrugged giving him that innocent look that meant he knew more than he was willing to say.

  “I can’t go. I have urgent matters that I have to take care of here.” His attention turned back to the scans looking for something that had been impossible to find.

  Dante lifted a brow before coming to look over his shoulder.

  “Is something wrong with Jaz or Brook? I was with them
both not that long ago and didn’t detect anything out of place.”

  Damon sighed Dante knew there was nothing wrong with them. In fact, he was willing to bet his brother would know if something was wrong long before he or their mates picked it up. That was just part of who Dante was as the first.

  “No, as far as I can tell they are both fine. Nicolas confirmed the decisions I made with Brook as her pregnancy progressed. He also gave me access to the notes and medical information he had on his sisters when they were pregnant. It has been helpful. I ran a scan the other day looking to see if Jaz was pregnant which came back negative. I conveniently forgot to mention the possibility of pregnancy to her.”

  “If Jaz and Brook are okay what is so urgent that you cannot spare a night to go to the circus?”

  “Why are we going to the circus?”

  “Not us, you.”

  Damon frowned at him. There were times when Dante asked his brothers to do things that didn’t make sense, but they rarely questioned him. Most of the times they simply got the job done, but Damon felt a little more cautious about this. He had been on edge for a couple of months, ever since Mick defeated The Darkness.

  He had spent the last couple of months tucked away in his medical wing. He noticed that all of his brothers were a little hesitant to leave their small community. No one knew what would happen next. Could one of them run into their mate? Did they even want to run into her?

  Damon pushed the thoughts away as his heart raced a little faster. He wanted to meet his mate but not at the expense of her life. Mick somehow defeated The Darkness, but he wasn’t sure how and neither was Damon. He did test after test on both Mick and his mate Jaz, but there was no evidence to suggest how they had done it. How could he or any of his brothers believe they would have the same good fortune? He shook his head; it was better for him to stay here than to risk putting his mate’s life in danger—that was if he had a mate.

  Damon turned to look at Dante to tell him not this time. Instead, he swallowed hard and thought, ‘Shit.’

  Dante had that look about him; his eyes were gold, and his form wasn’t solid. All Damon could see was the eyes before he coalesced into a solid form once again.

  He hated when that happened it meant he was standing at a crossroads in his life. Whichever decision he made now would be the one he would live with for the rest of his life. He had been here before all of his brothers had been here, making this type of decision was never easy. Instinct told him to take the easy road. The lessons he’d learned in his life taught him that easy usually led into a trap.

  He took a minute to look around his medical wing just in case he never saw it again. The yellow walls offered him comfort and the medbeds gave off a low hum that was normal background noise to him.

  “Where’s the circus?” Dante smiled at him giving him all the information. Damon nodded and willed himself to his room; he needed to change.

  He grumbled as he looked at himself in the mirror. He should color his eyes so as not to scare the humans and make his hair behave instead he shrugged and went to his closet. He didn’t want to be there; he’d let his brother deal with the fallout if there was fallout.

  He dressed in a pair of black leather pants and a red mesh tee. That old Earth saying that everything came back in style couldn’t be truer. What he found funny was the way that society was sure they were the first people ever to dress this way. He tugged on a pair of boots and willed himself to his living room.

  Damon stood before his brother defiance written in his stance. Dante raised an eyebrow a habit he seemed to liked.

  “What are you waiting for you don’t want to miss the opening act.”

  Damon raised his eyebrow at that. He was sure his brother might have something to say about how he looked but nothing. He dematerialized and rematerialized at the coordinates Dante gave him. He stood in front of an old building; it could have been an auditorium at one point. It was a testament to whoever designed and built the building that it was still standing. Night was falling, and there was a chill in the air even though summer was still officially around soon autumn would be here.

  He watched as hovers pulled up and parents dressed in casual clothes with laser guns at the ready got out. They had children clinging to their legs like the Earth would open and swallow them whole. What act could have brought the elite out of their sky-high houses causing them to set foot on the Earth?

  Curiosity won as he walked through the doorway never stopping to give the doorman a ticket. Inside was a wide lobby were vendors from Earth hawking their wares. There was food that wasn’t out of a processor and toys for the children that they had never seen before.

  He worked his way through the line until he was standing at the counter ordering popcorn. A parent was trying to explain to her child why they shouldn’t eat the popcorn, so he bought two bags and handed one to the little girl. Casually he brushed the side of her face before he moved on. Her mother didn’t know, but her child would grow up to lead the war on synthetic food.

  He made his way through the double doors and the throng of people that led to the main auditorium. There were seats that reached for the sky packing as many people into each row as possible and seats flowing downward toward the floor. On the floor were rows of seat all behind a thick force field so no one could get in and no one could get out.

  He made his way down until he found the lone seat that he knew was meant for him. When he sat the lights lowered and a voice, he didn’t recognize introduced himself as Sloan before he began to regale them with the wonders of the circus and the marvelous acts that had been performed long ago. Then he introduced his main act by asking the question.

  “What would you do if you couldn’t die?”

  The lights went out completely before flaring to life to reveal a female sitting in a tank of water. She wasn’t any female she was Damon’s mate. His body strained against the force holding him in the chair even as he looked into her hazel eyes that were sad and wide with fear.

  No, he screamed in his head what were they going to do to her. She had brown skin that reminded him of comfort. He could picture her arms around him her lips fused to his as he stroked the perfection of her beautiful skin. He struggled harder, but nothing happened. He couldn’t move, and no one around him seemed to notice this predicament.

  She looked at him; eyes focused on him like the light from a laser. She opened her mouth to breath the word help making him go ballistic in his seat.

  The spotlight highlighted the female in the tank.

  “She can’t die,” Sloan told the audience pulling them into his web. “She wants to die, in fact, she begs for death, and I try to give her what she wants, but it never works. Today we will try one more time. Maybe with this audience, her dream will come true.”

  A gasp came from the audience as they looked at the tank with morbid curiosity. Children held onto their parent afraid to let them go, but just as trapped in the web that Sloan created with his words. There was a loud sounding crescendo then the seat River was on was pulled away, and she fell into the tank struggling to make her way up to the surface of the water. A force field cut her off making her struggle to hold her breath as she pounded against it. The force field was red so that everybody in the audience could see it and know that she was indeed stuck under water.

  Her hands and feet kicked and pounded against the tank until the last of her air ran out, then she drowned with her eyes open looking at Damon pleading for help.

  Chapter Two

  Five, ten, fifteen minutes Sloan allowed her body to float in the water while Damon tried over and over to break the force field that was holding him. Finally, with a bright smile he had her dragged out of the tank by two muscle-bound men, they flexed as they made a show of hauling her out of the tank carrying her like she was a disgusting fish instead of a female who had just been abused. One they laid her on the floor with a showy little bow a medical doctor came to verify that she was dead.

  “Who would li
ke to come from the audience to examine the body? Anyone? Can I get six volunteers three males and three females?”

  Slowly hands went up, and he picked people at random calling them down to the stage. They frowned as they looked at her but they gave a small laugh also. Like underneath all the drama was a kernel of fear that they didn’t know how to handle. The look in their eyes and the way they jumped back from the body confirmed she was dead.

  He looked at them and smiled like killing a person on stage was all the rage. “Please look at the audience and confirm that she is dead.”

  “She’s dead,” they said one by one. Several of them looked green and almost ran off the stage when Sloan dismissed them.

  “Now,” his voice lowered to a stage whisper. It was loud enough to carry to everyone in the room but low enough to rattle their bones and make them shiver in anticipation. “Will River stay dead or will she once again defy everything we know and believe in by breathing?”

  It was the first time he mentioned her name drawing the audience deeper into his power as he gave them a person to connect with. Someone to feel sorrow for or even joy if she should happen to stay dead.

  Every eye turned to watch her as seconds turned into minutes, just when the audience was about to cry foul River took a deep breath and began to heave the water in her lungs out. Some stood cheering and clapping while others said it was a trick. It didn’t matter who it was young or old everyone had an opinion of what had happened and were more than willing to voice it loudly.

  It wasn’t until the humans froze like they were a picture caught in a moment in time that Damon stopped trying to struggle against the force that was holding him. His body picked up the danger drifting into the room like shadows, and he knew that his time was up. He wouldn’t even get a chance to hold River before his soul would be offered up to the darkness. River the name brought a smile to his face, he now knew the name of his mate. They would kill her, and he struggled harder to no avail.