The Timekeeper (6 page)

“Okay. I’m all ears. What’s so important you found it necessary to come here in the middle of the day? One of these days, they’re going to catch you.” I snorted, gently shaking my head.

“I wouldn’t worry about me. I own the Council; they just don’t realize it. Not to mention they aren’t looking for me, but if by some chance they did find me, I can easily claim I needed to check a couple facts on something I had heard. The Council would never be able to call me on it. Checking information and rumors is part of my job and even those idiots wouldn’t stop me from doing what I thought was necessary. I need to talk to you about Jaylynne.”

Aural leaned against the building, waiting for me to continue, her lean frame relaxed, her beautiful swirling gold tattoos shimmering in the dim light of the alley. Aural was the only one who was unperturbed in my presence, other than my husbands, people went rigid, worried about what I might do next.

“Jaylynne is vital to everyone. She’s caught the attention of the Council, and she’s important to me for a multitude of reasons. You must to keep her safe. Protect her if the shit hits the fan, and trust me, everything’s going to find itself in the crapper sooner than anyone would like.

“Warde has the answers you’ll need, he will help you, I promise. After this is all over with Hel, if Jaylynne needs somewhere to hide, which she very well might, send her to the Palace Belt ta `Demm
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Your great-grandfather wishes to ensure she stays safe. She won’t need this right away, but the time is going to come when she requires hiding.” Aural study my face. She acted just like me, skeptical of everything, an admirable trait to possess in this day and age
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My daughter, Amelia, had been such a disappointment. She had all of the gifts I possessed, so full of promise, but she didn’t want anything to do with them. Instead of staying with her family and carrying on the duties that had been assigned to us, she married a very nice royal and moved as far away as possible from her Demon-Djinn blood.

She wouldn’t even speak to her father, and when Zev and I separated, it only seemed to put an additional strain on our relationship. Aural had disowned her mother to follow in the family footsteps my daughter would not. My granddaughter seemed more like me than anyone thought was probable. Aural was the child of my heart.

“Yes, Princess.” I vanished as the words left her lips.

I didn’t need to explain the rules to her. She couldn’t repeat anything I’d told her to anyone. She wasn’t capable of telling a soul she had seen me. I had gagged her when she’d been a child, forcing her mouth shut anytime the conversation turned to my business. I trusted her, but everyone had a breaking point. Gagging was an insurance policy.

She had things she needed to think about right now. Aural considered it necessary to plan her next move. I wasn’t envious of her situation. We both knew this would turn into a huge cluster fuck. I couldn’t do anything to help her, but I wanted to, I desired nothing more.

Dealing with shenanigans like this would’ve been a welcomed break from the dreadful daily life I’d found myself stuck in. I was born for this, I’d been raised to take care of my people and family, and I escaped duty, just like my daughter.

I opened my eyes and found myself back in my bedroom, with my head on the pillow, and a broody husband standing over me. Our wolf-hybrid, Nita, was lying on the bed next to me. She always guarded me when I left my body to take the astral form, and this physical body was unattended.

I ran my fingers through her supple fur, enjoying the white and light tans interrupted by striking streaks of sporadic black. She was amazingly soft, but I noted that she needed to be brushed. Her butt was a little matted.

“Ilana, I know you didn’t just go to find Aural. You were gone too long for a quick visit to a place you weren’t suppose to be.” I refused to look at him and focused on the clump of Nita’s fur that looked particularly bad.

“I had some other stops to make. Geez, I didn’t realize I was on a time limit or a location restriction.” Darius sat down on the bed and sighed, putting his head in his hands.

Darius always figured out what chaos I’d been causing, no matter how hard I tried to hide my tracks. Honestly, I couldn’t figure why I bothered. I just wasted effort on the situation every time.

“Let me guess, you had to stop and talk to Neal and Warde. What the shit, Ilana, I thought you planned to limit your contact with those two? Then you go running around Aliis, where you’ve been explicitly told not to, in search of them. Even now you’re being stalked by the Seraphim because of them, and you still set off after them like you owe them something
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You’re not indebted to Neal or Warde for anything, Ilana.” This was the last thing he wanted for me, but there wasn’t anyway around the truth. I nodded. I refused to lie to him, not about this.

“Yeah, well I’ve never been one for the rules, and it means nothing to me if there are debts to be paid or not. Besides
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not a single person noticed me, so no harm done. It took me a while to track them down, which wasn’t a small feat, I might add. Neal is the Ambassador on Summer Island, I needed to sneak around until I found him, and of course he didn’t have a clue where Warde was because they’re fighting again.

“I was forced to leave a message with Maleficent for Warde. Then I went to meet Aural. Sorry I couldn’t run around the world fast enough for you. It did me some good, Neal gave me an interesting tidbit of info, and seemed to match the small bit Mal relayed as well.”

Darius growled.

He wasn’t fond of Neal, in fact, he down right detested Neal, but he hated Warde more. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do to force my husband accept Neal. He’s aware of the attraction between the two of us, and while there was nothing he could do to correct the issue, he made his feelings concerning the situation well known.

He saw the looks Neal and I gave each other when left in the same room, and he was conscious of our affair that had happened long ago, he had never forgotten. Darius had an accurate account of all my affairs, although he couldn’t say anything. He might be my spouse
,
but I was free to do whatever I wanted.

“Really, what could possibly be useful that he would be able to tell you? Did he profess his undying love for you again, or did he try and convince you to talk to your father to allow marriage?” I sat up on the bed, disturbing Nita enough she hopped off and went downstairs, not interested in staying for the fighting.

He made it apparent he was going to ignore the mention of my cousin giving me similar info. I could tell he was in the mood to fight, and Neal was the topic today.

“One, the Queen of the Summer Lands, Ariannona, is fighting with both the Council and Azazel over a territory dispute. I know, nothing new there. He also told me Zev has been looking for me. He didn’t have any idea why.

“Funny, I heard the same thing from Drake earlier today too, then again from Mal courtesy of one of my cousins
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Oh, and Neal’s given up on petitioning my father for my hand in marriage, just so you know.” I knew by the look on his face, this new information did not make him a happy camper. He hated Zev more than he detested Neal.

“Great. It’s bad enough I have to deal with all of the men you lead around who want to get in your pants. Now I’m forced to try and cope with a man who has already been there. I don’t think I can do this, Ilana. I know you hate Zev, everyone in your family does, but that doesn’t make it any easier on me.

“Every time I see that asshole
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the first thing that pops into my head is you had the bastard’s child. You can’t have my children in Aliis, and it makes me seem a little inferior. Then I remember our wedding night, and you already know how I feel about the incident.” I put my hand on his leg.

My first husband made the top of most people’s kill list. Even his own family hadn’t been pleased with him, he shamed them and that was not something easily forgivable. I don’t think his mother, Medusa, had spoken to him since he had betrayed me.

“I know babe, but it’s not like I invited him. I want nothing to do with him either. I’d rather shoot myself in the foot. So Zev’s looking for me, it doesn’t mean he’ll find me. Let’s deal with it when he does, and not think about this right now. I simply thought you should know more than one person had heard. Mal found out from Crysian and Eulalie. I have a feeling he’s going to continue harassing everyone I know until he finds me.

“They should be giving him the run around, don’t stress about it.” I didn’t know how to make him stress less about the situation. I couldn’t have his children. He knew that when I married him. As far as our wedding night went, I was still pissed with Zev about that as well.

Our baby was a genetic impossibility. We had tried, hoped, prayed, but it wasn’t going to change the fact that I couldn’t carry his child to term. Dragons couldn’t have children with anything other than a creature that could lay eggs. There wasn’t anything that could be done about it, and because he had married a Demon-Djinn Princess, he wasn’t allowed to touch another woman for the rest of his life.

Oh, I had given him permission without repercussion, I would simply turn a blind eye, but he would have none of it, telling me that he had never wanted anything to do with any other woman. Darius was noble and sweet, but not very practical.

“I know this isn’t your fault. It’s just frustrating. We can’t take care of a child with this kind of life anyway. Besides, you given me countless mortal children, and that’s all I can ever expect of you. I helped raised Aural, and she turned out well, I would have made a wonderful father.

“I knew when I married you that we couldn’t have kids, and I did it anyway and I have never regretted it. Even after all of this time, I love you more and more each day, if that’s even possible.” My faithful Dragon, he was always sweet and loving, but vicious at the same time. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“I love you too, and you’re right, you would’ve made a magnificent father.” It was all I could say. I wasn’t the sappy type, something else he was well aware of when we married.

He never expected me to be, although I’m sure he wouldn’t complain if I was every once in a while. I was a passionate person, but you could never make me lovey-dovey.

He smiled at me briefly, “So, how is Aural? I worry about her. She has no one to protect her and she has such a dangerous job.” I chuckled, children or not, Darius’s paternal instinct came out every time some one mentioned Aural
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“She’s stressed. I have a feeling Dante’s going to lose a child if he doesn’t get Jayden away from her. She’s under a lot of pressure to pull everything together and there’s more going on than just the Jaylynne-Hel affair. She should’ve been able to fix this without any help at all.

“I believe she’s keeping things from Dante, but I could only speculate as to what
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I’m sure the royal courts are in an upheaval, and she’s ignoring her duties as Duchess of Regiam Urbem
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” I pulled myself off of the bed and stretched.

I was always stiff after I got back from Aliis. Astral travel made me achy, my body didn’t move at all when I left
.

“What do you want for dinner?” I asked, praying he would allow the change in subject. I started to walk out of the room, knowing he would follow.

“How about Chinese, I don’t feel like cooking tonight. I think I’m into take-out and watching a movie.” I turned around to look at him when I got to the bottom of the stairs. His stern features were lovely in the fading light of the day.

Something else was bothering him, but he’d been avoiding it and I had too much on my plate to deal with his drama. If this went on much longer, and he didn’t take care of the situation, then I’d be forced to corner him, until then I was going to pretend I was clueless
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“Take-out and a movie, sounds like a plan to me. Don’t keep me up too late though, I’ve got to work tomorrow.” He pulled his cell phone out and started to dial.

“Of course I won’t. I don’t want you to miss out on your beauty sleep.” I stuck my tongue out at him, and he placed our order.

“
Hi Mom, how are you?” I said as I walked into our store, Dope on a Rope Soap Company. The goofy family business started as a hobby. My mother and I became the co-owners of one of the busiest little soap shops in the country.

“Good, I’m glad you’re here honey. I need to run to the bank and I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in a half an hour. My damn knee’s been giving me problems again.” I smiled and gave her a quick hug.

“But you had surgery six months ago, why can’t they ever seem to fix the problem? Oh, the marvels of modern medicine.” She sighed and pushed her auburn and graying bangs out of her face.

“My sentiments exactly. They correct one issue, and then something else happens, they repair the second malfunction, and the first thing they fixed goes to shit again. I seriously question whether they have a clue as to what they’re doing.” I shook my head. I hadn’t been impressed with her doctors.

“Well
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you better get moving or you’re going to be late. I’ll be fine, Echo will be here in a little while.” She nodded and hobbled out the door as quickly as possible
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