Sinjin (3 page)

“You haven’t failed,” she argued as she ran her fingers through my hair
and breathed a few sighs of relief. “You’re alive! Thank God!
You’re alive!
” I could hear a hiccup in her voice, as if she were choking back her own tears.

“Jolie,” Rand said, his voice soft and gentle, “I believe she needs some time to herself.”

“Okay,” Jolie said with resignation as she stood up. Moments later, the sound of their footsteps told me they were approaching the door. After the door opened and closed, I heard a key locking me in my prison.

Alone again, I closed my eyes and indulged in a rare sob. The breath of life, now filling my lungs, betrayed me and the path of destiny I
’d chosen. I cared nothing about myself, but I’d failed the tribe.

I’d failed my people.

TWO

The third day I spent in captivity was basically the same as the previous two days with one exception: I actually got some sleep after Jolie and Rand left me to my solitude. Following Jolie’s little magical stunt and my consequential attempts to commit suicide, which, of course, were thwarted, I was understandably exhausted.

I was drained of energy, but my brain was a war
zone of clashing thoughts and feelings that continually collided into each other. I couldn’t stop thinking about nearly taking my own life. Even after being taught to accept and prepare for suicide, if the situation warranted it, I wasn’t prepared. Not by a long shot. And, worse, I didn’t know how I felt about nearly losing my life. Was I happy to be alive? Yes and no. Should I have been happy to be alive? No, I didn’t believe I should have been. Any way I looked at it, I’d failed Luce, thereby failing my people and ultimately, myself.

You are a warrior first and foremost, Bryn,
I reminded myself.
Death in the line of duty is respectable, admirable even. It was what should have happened. It was the right thing to happen.

But was it really the right thing to happen?
I argued back and forth in my mind, and soon a rebellious anger began burning inside me.
I mean, where the hell was Luce? He left me on the battlefield after making sure all the other tribespeople were taken care of. And where’s he been since I was taken prisoner? He hasn’t reached out to me once! He’s powerful enough to communicate with me, and yet, nothing!

Never doubt the actions of the Supreme Elder,
my alter ego retorted.
Luce is never without a plan, or without a method. He will come to you only when the time is right. And when he does, you’d better beg for his forgiveness. You’d better hope he forgives you for being such a complete failure.

Yes, I was a failure, a role I wasn’t accustomed to. Ordinarily, I proved myself the ultimate warrior and healer. I was highly respected in my community as an Elemental with exceptional powers and abilities. I was strong and proud. People envied me as much as they respected me. I hated to think what those same people would
think of me now.

Look at yourself,
I thought.
You felt nothing but relief when your feeble attempts to take your own life didn’t work. You’re weak! Insipid! You failed at the one duty that could have protected the entire tribe from the evils of the Underworld. Instead, you recklessly divulged most of the tribe’s secrets to your sister, who will, no doubt, use them against you! Against your people!
I gulped down feelings of remorse as my inner diatribe continued.
Now look at you! Sitting in the same place where you cried your eyes out last night like a little baby. Cried like a little baby, then slept like one all night while the future of your people lay in peril.

I disgusted myself.

The moonlight streamed through the windows, although the storm outside was just as bitterly cold and furious as it had been the previous evening. Lightning lit up the dark clouds, and moments later, a volley of thunder shook the entire room.

I jumped up from where
I’d been sitting on my bed and started pacing the room, feeling like a caged tiger. It wasn’t my nature to sit still and do nothing. And after three days and three nights of it, my sanity was now jeopardized.

I have to get out of here!
I thought.

The only sounds in the room were my footsteps and the occasional loud interruptions of thunder. The flashes of lightning were the only sparks of light in my otherwise dark room. Glancing at the clock
on my bedside table, I noticed it was now midnight. It looked like I was about to endure another sleepless night.
Great.

When I spied the tray of food sitting beside the clock, my stomach growled out loudly. It was my dinner: the one Jolie
had brought me earlier, which I’d refused and was still refusing to touch. There was no way in hell I could eat or drink anything after what happened the last time I trusted my sister. Now I knew better. Now I would starve before I subjected myself to anymore of Jolie’s magic which would force me to spill my guts, thereby endangering my people again.

I
’d been fooled once but I refused to be fooled twice.

The thunder shook the room again and I approached the window.
I never got tired of the view: a craggy mountain face that overlooked the tumultuous sea below. Admiring the vistas outside was the only thing I could do to keep from losing my mind.

“Poppet’s sister.”

I gasped and my stomach rode up into my throat as my heart started pounding. In a split second, I wheeled around to face my unexpected visitor, taking a fighting stance even though I was unarmed.

“At ease,” the seductive voice of Sinjin Sinclair, a vampire and my sister’s chief protector, announced with an amused smirk.
His English accent seemed even more pronounced than I remembered it.

I didn’t smile back.
I wasn’t happy to see him. “Haven’t you heard of this new concept called knocking?” I asked sarcastically while inhaling deeply so my heartbeat would return to normal. As much as I disliked Sinjin, he wasn’t any threat to me. At least, not right now. I shook my hands out and regulated my breathing, trying to reduce my fight or flight adrenaline rush. What was more, I didn’t want Sinjin to assume he’d taken me by surprise because that wouldn’t bode well for my reputation as a warrior.

“Perhaps I might have knocked if you were a guest of the queen’s, rather than her ward,” the vampire responded haughtily. He took a few more steps into the room before closing the door behind him. His eyes never strayed from mine, and I stared at him just as intently.

The lightning pierced the sky again and illuminated Sinjin for a few seconds. And I was begrudgingly reminded of how strikingly handsome he was. He was exceptionally tall, maybe six foot four inches or so, with very broad shoulders, a wide chest that tapered into his waist and long legs. He had an athletic physique. His hair was as black as the thunderclouds outside, but when the lightning shone on it, I swore it reflected shades of dark blue. His angular jaw and full lips, combined with the shadow of stubble along his jawline and his cheeks gave him a mischievous look. Or maybe Sinjin’s roguishness was completely reserved for his eyes, which were, in a word, magnificent. The color matched the sky on the sunniest of days, if someone were to add a drop of aqua to the otherwise blue. Not only was the color of his eyes distinctive and beautiful, but so was their almond shape. Fringed with long, black lashes, they matched the darkness of his nearly too heavy eyebrows.

It was a shame he was a vampire,
and thus, the bane of my existence.

“What do you want?” I demanded, feeling my teeth gnashing of their own accord. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me—like a predatory beast just before it pounces
…

“Hmm,” Sinjin said, tapping his long fingers against his chin artfully, and pretending to ponder my question.
“World peace, perhaps a trip to Paris, or the chance to win
Britain’s Got Talent
?”

“Really?”
I asked, frowning as I shook my head to show him I was anything but amused. But my reaction did nothing to disrupt his incessant smile. “I was hoping you were going to say a stake through the heart!”

“Did someone wake up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed?” Sinjin inquired, quirking both of his eyebrows at me curiously.

“In order to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, that implies that I would have had to sleep first,” I grumbled while I returned my attention to the dark view outside my window, turning my back to Sinjin. I wasn’t sure why but I suddenly found it strangely difficult to look at the vampire any longer.

Don’t ever turn your back on a vampire!
I reminded myself as I wheeled around to face Sinjin again.
And you’re wasting an opportunity here
!
You should be taking every chance you’re given to find out as much as you can about your keepers!

I sighed as I realized I was right. I needed to seize every opportunity that I could.
Now resolute in my decision to make as much of Sinjin’s visit as possible, I honed my attention on him. I would put to good use the skills gifted to me as an Elemental and I would read his thoughts, hopefully uncovering a few morsels of information that would benefit me and my current situation. Luckily for me, I was good at what I did and usually no one had any idea I was invading their thoughts. I could only hope such would be the case with this vampire.

“
I have heard,” Sinjin started as he eyed me knowingly and winked, “that one of the best remedies for a good night’s sleep is an … orgasm.” He smiled as soon as my mouth dropped open. “Perhaps I could be of service to you.”

I immediately shook my head, but didn’t reply
, still not able to find my tongue. Instead, I repeatedly attempted to access his mind, but kept slamming against a wall. “Does Jolie know you’re here?” I asked, hoping to get past his bulwark, but my third attempt was just as fruitless as the first two.

Try again!
I yelled at myself.

The problem I was coming across
wasn’t because I couldn’t read Sinjin—I’d managed to the first time I’d met him when he’d entered our camp to release my sister when she was our prisoner. But although I had managed to read his thoughts then, they were never very clear. Oddly enough, they came across as feelings rather than words, which was unusual. Most times people thought in words and images together, with the occasional emotion thrown in for good measure. It was rare to encounter someone who merely thought in terms of feelings but nothing else.

“T
o answer your question as to why I am here, the queen has requested that I visit you,” Sinjin said. “Consider me a vamp bearing gifts,” he finished, holding his arms out. That was when I realized he was carrying a pile of folded clothes. I’d been so surprised by Sinjin’s visit and then so enamored of his looks that I hadn’t even noticed he was carrying anything.

“Gifts?”
I repeated, my tone slightly angry in response to the disappointment and irritation I felt with myself. A handsome man shouldn’t have had this reaction on me. There were plenty of good-looking Elemental men in my tribe and I’d never afforded them a fluttered heartbeat. I was seriously off my game …

“I came to deliver apparel to you, milady, the Bête Noire, herself,” Sinjin sang in his nonchalant manner that I found highly
exasperating.

“You came to deliver apparel to
who?” I repeated, frowning because I didn’t understand what he was talking about. That, and I was still upset with myself.

“To
whom
, my little fury,” Sinjin corrected me with an impish smile. “To the Bête Noir,” he repeated again.

“It wasn’t my auditory processing that was in question,” I retorted as I speared his smile with a frown. “I don’t know what that word means.”

“Ah,” Sinjin responded as his eyebrows reached for the ceiling. He shook his head like it was a big shame. “Perhaps someone did not perform to her full potential on the vocabulary section of the SAT.”

“Ha-ha,” I replied sarcastically,
surprised he even knew what the SAT was. I didn’t imagine England followed the same testing standards that the States did, and Sinjin was about as English as they came. I crossed my arms over my chest when his gaze immediately settled on my bust.

“I will leave th
ose two little words a mystery for you to solve,” Sinjin replied as his eyes met mine again. “Consider it your homework assignment.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head before
inspecting the clothes he carried in his hands. “I already told Jolie I’m not interested in all the crap she insists on trying to give me. I’m not about to become her newest charity case.”

“Unruffle those feathers, princess,” Sinjin said with an animated smile. He shook his head and made a clicking sound with his mouth
that, when paired with his gaze as it roved my figure, revealed approval.

“Do you have to keep doing that?” I inquired, throwing my hands on my hips as I glared at him.

“Doing what?” he repeated with a shrug.

“You keep looking me up and down like a
perv and it’s pissing me off!” I answered. “How would you like it if I kept staring at your … package?” I shouted, feeling my anger spiraling out of control. There was only so much incarceration, hunger and unwanted visitors that I could deal with. Apparently, I’d reached my limit.