Centaur Legacy (11 page)

“I can hardly wait. I guess my dad was
right all along.”

“Your dad? Right about
what?”

“He told me you wouldn’t be back. He
told me that we were over.”

“What do you mean
over
? Daniel, you’re my
best friend.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a new best
friend.”

“It isn’t the same.”

“Yeah, I know. He’s a pure-blood.” The
call disconnected. I looked at the receiver; I wasn’t sure what I
expected to see. I dialed Daniel’s number again, but it just went
to voice mail. Daniel knew about Centaurs? But how could
he?

(Camille – on airplane, en
route to Rapid City, SD)

Drake pulled me from my seat onto his
lap with about as much effort as lifting a pillow, “Who was
that?”

“My friend, Daniel. He was pretty
worried.”

“It was a short call.”

I did my best to mask the hurt in my
voice. After everything that had happened, I really wanted to catch
up and hear what I’d missed. “Yeah, I must’ve caught him at a bad
time.”

Drake lifted my hair away from my neck
and pressed his lips to the now fully healed skin near my
collarbone. “Good news for me. I’ve got plans for your lips that
don’t include talking.” He slowly made his way up to my mouth as
the embers inside me raged into an inferno.

As I sat on Drake’s lap with his arms
wound around me, questions started to churn through my thoughts. I
had a twin who was being protected by a magical arrow – it really
did exist. How had my mother been able to give him up and never
check on him again? My father was a descendant of a lost Centaur
herd, and I was somehow supposed to be poised to reunite herds,
maybe with the arrow? I could finally communicate with my mom – but
she couldn’t help me with the future. Hopefully she’d be able to
help me locate Cameron. Daniel knew about Centaurs – how long had
he known that I was a Centauride?

When we both pulled back for air,
Drake’s eyes looked heavy. I asked, “Are you tired?”

He took both my hands and put them on
either side of his face, the same as he had done three months ago
on Will’s yacht. An image of the two of us lying on a beach in the
sun next to crystal blue Caribbean water played through my mind.
The vision showed Drake lying beside me: his abs glistened in the
sun and the smell of coconut oil filled the air. The vision was
vivid, so vivid I could feel his hands rubbing the coconut-scented
oil on me. The warm ocean breeze blew across my skin, and the heat
from the sun burned down on us.

I moved my hands from his face and lost
the vision. Drake was smiling when I asked, “So was that a fantasy
or the future?”

“Both, Love. It was both.”

“Tell me again – why are we going to
South Dakota and not Grand Cayman?”

“It’s your choice, Camille. I’ll follow
you anywhere.” Drake pulled me in tighter to him. I thought back to
our conversation the other day. As perfect as it felt in his arms,
I knew we needed to talk. No matter the outcome, I couldn’t let him
believe I was something I wasn’t.

I didn’t look at him; instead, I found
his hands absolutely intriguing and kept all my attention focused
on them. “So, I’ve been thinking. There’s this thing about me that
I’ve never told you. I didn’t think it was important before, but
now I’m not so sure. So I’m just going to put it out
there.”

I was seated on his lap but craned my
neck to glance up at his face. He was curious, but his expression
wasn’t registering any kind of alarm. I took a deep breath and
added, “And if you want to rescind your offer to marry me, I’ll
understand.” I could feel his body go rigid beneath me. “I won’t
like it, but I’ll understand.”

I had his attention. He didn’t
interrupt, and I didn’t dare look in his eyes for fear of losing my
nerve. He said nothing, so I continued. “So, I dated a guy for a
couple years, and I really thought he was the one, you
know?”

Drake’s quiet voice asked,
“Daniel?”

“What? No! I’ve already told you I
never dated Daniel. The guy’s name was Ronnie, and incidentally,
Daniel hated Ronnie. Every chance he got, Daniel told me how much
he hated him.” I realized I was stalling, took another deep breath
and continued, “Okay, so, when humans date for that long, sometimes
they do more than kiss.”

Drake’s muscles tensed further as I sat
motionless on his lap. All I heard was, “Go on.”

“So, we did, you know. . . with each
other.” Drake didn’t ask for more information, and I was sure he
got my meaning without me having to spell it out for him. When the
silence became unbearable, I added, “At the time, I didn’t know
anything about Centaurs. But the other night, when we were in the
hotel, you said you didn’t want to be responsible for stealing my
virtue before we were married. It hadn’t occurred to me until you
said it, but. . . that’s when I realized that maybe you wouldn’t
want me anymore if you knew this.”

Drake didn’t say anything. His heart
was still beating fast, and his muscles were still taut. “I really
cared about Ronnie. I mean, we dated for more than two
years.”

Drake remained still. I was terrified
he was going to end it with me right here. What would his mother
say? Would she already know? Drake said his father was very
anti-human; is this something that would blackball me from his
family? From Centaur society? I’d been holding all these questions
in for more than two days, and each one threatened to drive me
insane. Finally Drake broke the silence. In a calm voice, he asked,
“Is Ronnie still in your life?”

I shook my head that he wasn’t. I was
normally so good at reading Drake, but his face held no expression
at all. This was just as difficult as I had envisioned. Luckily we
were in the air, so it’s not like he could take off running miles
away where I couldn’t catch him.

Drake’s hand began to lightly caress
the top of my arm. It felt like he was trying to soften his blow,
and I braced myself for whatever he’d say next. “You said you cared
about him. Did you love him?”

Wow, not what I expected. Guys usually
hated to hear about other guys. “I thought I did, at the
time.”

“And now?”

“Now that I know what real love feels
like, I know I wasn’t in love with him.” Drake seemed to be lost in
thought for a moment. I didn’t want to lose him over this. Unless
Centaurs could somehow time travel, I wasn’t going to be able to
undo a bad decision.

Without letting the emotion overtake my
voice, I added, “I didn’t think I would risk losing the love of my
life because I made a stupid decision and liked the wrong guy when
I was nineteen.”

Drake’s hand squeezed my shoulder. His
voice sounded hollow when he asked, “That’s what you believe I am
to you? The love of your life?”

This question forced me to look at him.
Of all the things he could ask me, this was what he wanted
clarification on? I didn’t look away, wanting him to see my answer
at the same time he heard it. “Yes. I know you are.”

Drake cleared his throat, looked
directly in my eyes and said, “Thank-you for telling me. I’m glad I
know.” It looked like he wanted to say something else, but he
stopped talking and concentrated on the darkened television on the
wall.

“Drake, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that
it was a big deal. I swear he doesn’t mean anything to me, now. I
haven’t seen him or talked to him in over a year. I understand if
you can’t marry me, or if you don’t want to, or if it’s enough of a
shock that you need some space.”

It would kill me if this ended us
before we ever had a real chance. The memory from Zandra’s house,
where she had lied and told me that Drake and Bianca were dead,
washed over me. That pain was indescribable, but sitting here in
the silence waiting for Drake to break it off with me was almost as
bad.

His eyes sliced through whatever
defenses I had, as I braced for what I felt was coming and looked
away. I didn’t want to see his eyes, but he held my chin so I was
forced to look into his. Drake’s voice was as tender as I had ever
heard it, “So, if I don’t want to rescind my offer, where would
that leave us?”

I felt my blood pumping harder. Did I
hear him right? “That would leave me begging you to make me your
wife.”

Drake’s smile was the one that I had
seen so many times, not forced, and still full of love. “Cami,
relax. I’m not thrilled, but your relationship with this Ronnie has
no bearings on my feelings for you – now or ever.”

I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding
my breath, until he said it, and I was able to take in air again. I
wrapped both my arms around him tightly, “So, you still love
me?”

“Since the first moment I held you,
Cami. And for the record, my love for you won’t end even after my
body stops breathing.”

My heart leaped. The fire was again
spreading through me. All the reservations I’d had about marriage
and Centaurs disappeared in that instant. I wanted it. I wanted it
all, and I wanted to be tied to Drake for all eternity. My mind
drifted back to the dream on our way to Ireland when my mom had
said if I loved Drake I’d have to let him go like she had done with
Kyle – there was no way she could have felt the same kind of love I
felt for Drake. If she had, she would have been willing to risk
anything for Kyle. In that moment, I knew she was wrong.

I eased my body away from Drake’s
embrace and asked, “If a captain of a ship can marry a couple at
sea, can a captain of a plane do it in the air?”

Drake’s smile stretched wide, his arms
mashed my body into his when he answered, “I don’t think so, but
I’m glad you won’t be fighting me about it anymore. Since you’re in
an agreeable mood, I do have one small request.”

“Anything.”

“Until we make it official, I’d like
for you to wear sweat pants and baggy t-shirts to bed.” He smiled
and then added, “Socks, too.” I thought back to the night at the
hotel when I’d emerged from the bathroom wearing the peach-colored
nightgown. I smiled at the memory of his inability to look anywhere
but at me. I loved that look. It was familiar to me. It was the
same look I had for him right now.

“Sweat pants? I don’t know. I hear
South Dakota can be pretty hot in the winter time.” Laughing at my
own joke, I knew full well it could easily be minus twenty when we
landed.

“It’s hot no matter the location or the
season where you’re involved. Wear the sweatpants, or better yet, a
snowmobile suit.”

With the weight lifted off my chest,
and with the knowledge that Drake was in it for the long haul, I
told him everything Mom had shared: why I didn’t have my powers
until just today; I had a twin brother, Cameron; Jeb, a.k.a Zethus,
had given Cameron’s guardian the arrow. I didn’t even hide that my
mom expected me to go to Daniel rather than to embrace a Centaur.
No secrets.

After I had relayed the whole
conversation, Drake looked worried. “Your father is of the Tak
bloodline?”

“Yeah. Will’s Dad told him to seduce
Mom, gross right?”

The color on Drake’s face drained. His
voice was hollow, “Yeah, gross.” I got the feeling there was
something Drake wasn’t telling me, but his arms wrapped more
tightly around me, and I didn’t want to ask why.

(Beau Strayer – Camille’s
oldest brother, San Diego, CA)

I got why Daniel was such a draw for
Camille. The guy never ran out of energy. He’d be on the waves
before the sun broke over the horizon in the east; by the time the
rest of Oceanside was waking up, he’d already had two hours in the
surf and was laying out his plans for the day.

Having grown up in my family, my
brothers were fun to be around, but each day was meticulously
planned, and our lives felt carefully scripted. Hanging out with
Daniel felt like I was trying to keep pace with the Energizer
Bunny. I’d never allowed myself to be around women. Daniel
surrounded himself with them, from the beach, to the park, to the
mall; he even had a flock around him when he went to pay his
utility bill. I’d never seen anything like it.

He was three-quarters Centaur. His
mother had been a half-blood, the daughter of a human mother and a
Centaur father. Daniel’s father was a full-blooded Centaur. I hated
to admit it, but it never occurred to me that there would be
different percentages. You were either Centaur or you weren’t, and
to be Centaur, you had to have pure blood.

I couldn’t argue that there was
definitely something more than human about him. He was charismatic,
athletic and fearless. I’d always heard that Centaurs who settled
into human lives didn’t share their lineage with their children,
but Daniel knew all about it. It wasn’t a big source of mystery for
him: if anything, he despised it.

I began to wonder how bad it would be
to have a life like Daniel’s father. I hated the fact that if I
waited another year and wasn’t chosen by a Centauride, I would
essentially be cast out from the family. If I just stayed here, I
would never have to see their disappointment in me. I could meet a
girl and be like all those sappy movies I’d always seen. Something
inside me was convinced this was where I was supposed to
be.