Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1) (5 page)

“Beautiful,” he leaned over and whispered in her ear. “You felt so good in my arms, like you belong there forever. You look gorgeous with your wide green eyes, and that just-kissed look on your face. I love hearing you pant in my ear.”

Her panting got a little louder because he was turning her on with the sound of his voice and his words.

“Are you hungry?”

She nodded she was hungry, for the taste of his lips; a loud sound came from her belly making her look down at herself.

“Well, I guess that answers my question.” He laughed as he stood and reached for her hand. “Now we get to go see what kind of cook Ash is.”

“Mick?” The hesitancy in her voice stopped him.

“What’s wrong, Jaz?”

“Did I…did I do okay?’

His brow wrinkled before understanding lit his eyes.

“I’ve never been so turned on by a kiss in my life. Your lips captured my heart, and now it belongs to you.”

“Oh…” she didn’t know what to say as redness crept up to make her cheeks flame. “I don’t understand what it means to have captured your heart.”

“That’s because I have a hard time keeping my hands to myself. I’ll explain some over lunch because this will affect Ash and Brook too.” He stopped and waited to see if she was okay with that idea.

“Sounds good and I’m hungry.” She led him out the room and down the beautiful old fashioned staircase. It was made of wood which no one used today unless they were rich.

They walked into the kitchen to see Brook sitting at the island while Ash bent over the stove.

“Jaz.” Brook stood and hugged her. “How are you?” she whispered in her ear.

“I’m really good,” Jaz replied before hugging her sister. If someone ever told her life could get this good she would have laughed at them.

“Jaz, Mick, what are your plans?” Ash asked as he cooked their lunch.

“I still don’t know.” Her voice came out hesitant and shaky. As long as she was in Mick’s arms, she didn’t need to plan for the future, but she couldn’t shelter against him forever.

“Hope everyone likes burgers and fries. I went simple today.”

Jaz twisted her face hating those dry, dusty patties that she used to have to force down.

“Don’t knock it until you try Ash’s food. I think you’ll be surprised.” Brook told her giving her a wink.

Ash took the burgers and placed them on buns. He checked the fries; they were ready. In a couple of minutes, he had plates made and food set before everyone.

Ash eyed Brook, she hadn’t eaten earlier and he was worried about her.

“Jaz, is there something wrong with the food?” Mick asked since she hadn’t eaten anything.

“No, I guess I’m just a little worried.”

“Eat, please. We will do our best to overcome everything coming our way, but you need to eat first.”

She nodded but didn’t pick up anything. Mick reached over picked up a fry dipped it in ketchup and placed it at her lips. She opened up and took a bite just missing his fingers. She gave a sexy rumble over the food being good and took the next fry he offered her. She smiled as he fed her French fries until she picked up her burger and took a big bite of it. With eyes wide, she shoved another bite into her mouth.

“Told you,” Brook laughed. “It’s good.”

They ate in silence. When everyone finished, Mick stood and cleared the table before he washed the dishes. Jaz sat back and rubbed her belly, unable to remember the last time she ate.

“Let’s go to the living room,” Mick said, standing in the doorway to the kitchen. They walked down the short hallway to the living room.

Ash sat on one of the loveseats and Brook took a seat on his lap. He gave her a kiss on the neck before his arms went around her.

Jaz took a seat on the other loveseat, and Mick sat beside her, leaving only an inch of space between them.

“There are a couple of things we all need to talk about,” Mick said, clearing his throat.

“What?” Ash gave him a knowing look. He knew there was something else going on, but waited until Mick was ready to share.

“We have bigger worries than just the Clone Council or the Patron’s men coming after Jaz. The Darkness is also coming after her.”

“The what?” Both Jaz and Brook said at the same time, squinting up their noses with that puzzled look on their face.

“The Darkness is the bogeyman of the galaxy. Except it’s not a story used to keep children in their beds at night. They’re real. Your Earth talks about the devil. He’s rumored to be one of the top henchmen in the Army of Darkness. They recruit their victims by killing the person they love most. Once The Darkness owns you, there will never be freedom.”

“The real question here is why would The Darkness be after Mick and Jaz?” Ash asked.

Mick nodded; that was the answer he needed to try to answer.

“I don’t know what you know about me, Jaz, so I’m going to go into a little bit of detail. The Created—that would be Ash and me, were born on a different planet in a galaxy your scientists still haven’t found. Much like you, Jaz, we weren’t born; we were created.

“The males of the planet—we call them Scientists because their interest was in any and every sort of science—used to be warriors. I have seen pictures of their ancestors. They were tall, much like us, with extremely fit bodies and abilities that helped them fight wars. They conquered their planet bringing peace to it, and over the centuries they conquered every planet around them.

“Then there came a time when no one would challenge them. I’ve no idea how long this time was. But during this time they began to change, became more interested in science and what they could achieve through it and less interested in war. Eventually, their bodies changed. Their brains increased in size and their bodies decreased.

“Now the planets they conquered wanted to conquer them for the advances they were making on a daily basis. At this point, they knew they needed protection. They devised shields to protect their planet, and that worked well until someone was able to find a way through them. Eventually, they came up with weapons, but none of them were designed to fight a war by this time. They tried robots with the best AI ever designed. They even made full grown killers. Nothing worked long term.

“In the end, it was one of their females who said, ‘if you want a warrior, he must be birthed and taught to care for this planet above all others.' But they could do nothing the acceptable way. They went on a quest to collect different male specimens as well as still viable DNA from males who didn’t live long enough to be brought back to their lab. They even collected animal DNA and then started combining so they would have warriors who held many different abilities.

“We all come from one Female. Every Created has the same mother and it helps to bind us together. After that, everything changes. We, the A’rouk brothers are the first Created. Technically Dante was the first Created, and I was the second. Each group of brothers was created in groups of six. We are all roughly born twenty-five years apart. As you can imagine this was hard, Dante was older than I am, then when Julian came along now Dante is fifty years older in Earth terminology. This was not just our group, but all created.”

“Wait,” Brook interrupted. “How did that happen?”

“The scientist slowed our aging process in the beginning so by the time Raphael was born Dante was maybe eight even though he had been alive well over a hundred years. After all six of us were born, we were allowed to age more like normal Earth children. The Scientists didn’t want us to grow up too far apart. My theory is that they wanted us to form bonds of dependence. That worked more to our advantage and not so much theirs.

“We should have been their crowning jewel, and we are. Unfortunately, in their haste to create their warriors, they also created killers with a curse over their head.”

“What do you mean?” Jaz reached her hand out and placed it on his thigh letting the heat warm her. “Mick?”

He picked up her hand and kissed the palm before standing. He started pacing back and forth in front of her.

“Jaz, the Scientists collected Darkness DNA on their travels. They never knew what they had. Darkness DNA carries a curse that infects those who come into contact with it. In this case, that would be my brothers and me.”

“What curse?”

He gave her a tight smile. “It’s rather simple because The Darkness is simple. The moment we look upon our mates the curse is activated. The Darkness will demand that we either willingly turn our mate over or kill her ourselves. Either of these actions will condemn our soul to servitude in the Army of Darkness forever.”

She curled up on the loveseat shrinking away from him. Mick felt his heart shrivel even though he knew he deserved a reaction just like this.

“Is that why Dante had you taken away the day you saw me?”

He turned sad blue eyes on her before nodding his head. “None of us knew what The Darkness would do, and he didn’t want to put you or anyone else in jeopardy until he knew what to expect.”

“What happened to you?” Why was she even asking? She should be running up the front stairs except he didn’t run when her handlers came for her. He didn’t shake in his boots when they said he might die. His voice rang so loud when he told them they couldn’t take her.

So she told her inner voice to shut up because she wasn’t running. Besides, they would simply track her down and kill her. Her inner voice grew quiet at that reminder. Right now she was going to figure out how to help Mick. Then even if she died, her life would have meant something.

She sat up. “I’m not brave. You might have already figured that out. Tell me what happened next.”

“The Darkness chose to attack my mind. They moved me to the Hell planet.”

Ash’s sharply indrawn breath told her it was just as bad as it sounded.

‘They beat me repeatedly demanding I turn you over. I refused.”

“How did you stand it?”

“I dreamed about you, lost myself in thoughts of you. How you would smell, feel.”

“You didn’t give me up,” her voice was filled with wonder.

“I never want to see you hurt, Jaz, never.”

She stood and walked up to him sliding her arms around him. “I wish I was as brave as you are.”

She rested her head on his chest feeling his heart beat under her ear. The steady thud of it calmed her down and gave her hope for tomorrow, despite the bleakness of the situation they were facing.

Her eyes closed and she found herself wondering how she could care for him when she spent so many years never caring for anyone. Mick drew her, called to her on a level she never experienced before. It both scared her and exhilarated her. Maybe if tomorrow was promised to her she could slow down, ponder it all. But her tomorrow wasn’t promised, all she had was today and for now Mick was part of that today.

“That’s what I meant when I said I bring just as much drama to the table as you do. Ash, you and Brook are going to need to leave for a while. Maybe come to the clouds with us. I don’t want to take the chance The Darkness will come after you for helping Jaz.”

Ash held Brook a little tighter. “I want to protest and say that I can keep us safe, but I am aware of what The Darkness is.” His eyes flashed red. Ash had just a hint of Darkness in him but not enough for it to affect him.

“I think we have a bigger problem,” Jaz said looking at the trim around the floor, it was flashing at them.

“What’s happening?” Brook asked.

“Early warning system that we put in place when we first designed our houses. It means someone unauthorized is on the grounds.” Ash moved Brook from his lap to the love seat next to him before he stood up and strolled out the room. There wasn’t any alarm in the way he held himself just mild curiosity.

Mick moved away from Jaz to follow him. Jaz and Brook shrugged and made their way after them.

“Ash has a control room. It’s kind of like his war room. He can monitor the grounds and the house from there.”

They walked in to see several large hanging vid screens that showed assassins approaching the house as well as what looked to be security for the Clone Council. There were three different consoles in the room the largest had six chairs around it.

“Turn over the female clone and no one will get hurt.” They were using an echo generator. It made sure that whatever they were saying was heard by all within a twenty-five-mile radius.

“Well, they mean business, I’m sure if we had neighbors they would be able to hear that,” Brook said as she looked at Ash.

“You should turn me over.”

“Why would I do that?” Mick asked looking at her. No one was turning her over.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”

“Jaz, think. Look at all the men out there. They didn’t come all this way for you to surrender. They have intentions for all of us. I’ve dealt with the Patron’s men before; they’re not nice.”

“I’ll turn myself in while the rest of you find a way to escape. Mick, tell them this is for the best.” Her eyes pleaded with him. She couldn’t be the reason they died.

“Jaz, Brook is right. They don’t intend for any of us to get out of here alive. They might be right if this wasn’t Ash’s house.”

“What’s that?” She pointed at the screen.

“It’s a laser cannon.” One man went to his knee holding the front of it on his shoulder. A second went to his knee balancing the back of it on his shoulder. The third was at the tail end preparing to fire it.

“They’re going to blow the house up around us.”

“They’ve obviously never met Aran.” Aran was Ash’s oldest brother and their leader. Ash touched a button, and a tingling went through them all.

“We should run.” Mick and Ash spared a moment to look at Jaz before turning back to the vid screen.

They heard a loud noise as the cannon exploded, they could see the pulse of light coming at them. It hit against a shield and fizzled into nothing.

“How…how did you do that?” Jaz asked shock coloring her voice.

Ash laughed. “Long story short. My brother Nicolas, the physician in our family, found his mate. Her name is Janis; some bad people were after her. They threw Molotov cocktails through her windows.” Ash caught the blank expression on her face and stopped.