Procris (The Complex Book 0) Read online

  My heart was pounding at her words, and I followed her to the backroom where she handed me the stone that had been calling to me. With shaking hands, she placed it in mine.

  “This will help, it’s yours free of charge. Listen to it, and yourself, and you’ll be fine.”

  “I should pay you.” The warmth from the stone tried to comfort me.

  “No, child, this is not meant to be sold. This stone decides where it wants to go, and with whom. Someday it may want to move on, and you’ll know. Now go, be safe.”

  “Thank you.”

  With the stone clutched in hand, I left the store and absently walked toward the station for the next zipper back to my home dome.

  I wasn’t paying attention, as I should have been, and when the sound of a glyder getting closer started to register, it was too late. A strong arm came down and grabbed me, setting me down in front of him. At first I thought it was Lucian, but I looked down and saw the arm that was around my waist, it was an Intra uniform. Gasping I looked over my shoulder and saw it was Merrill, with a wicked grin on his face.

  Frantically, I looked around for Fandare, knowing he’d be close by, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

  I had no idea where he was taking me, but all I could think of was Lucian and the stone getting almost too hot to hold in my hand.

  Chapter 16

  April 9, 4 AS

  Lucian

  Once we were to Halley’s quarters, and the door was closed, she spun away from me, and I could feel her magic start to build.

  “Stop,” I said. “It’s me.”

  “I know who you are, don’t come any closer.” A white-hot ball of magic appeared between her hands.

  “Halley, it’s me, Lucian.” I didn’t want to force her magic to stop; that would only hurt her.

  Her magic quivered and she shook her head. “No, you’re Merrill.”

  “Give me a minute.” Stretching my body back and forth, I started to move and get back into my skin, and not his. A few minutes later, I was standing before her as I always looked.

  Her breathing was shallow. “What the…”

  “I’m sorry I had to do that to you, but it was imperative that you be seen with him.”

  “Why?” She shook her head.

  “He somehow found out about Marfa and was going to make sure you took the fall for it.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll go into the details later, but the main thing was it was a way to get rid of me. He knew I’d never allow you to taken out of here and put into prison.”

  She blinked a few times before speaking. “Where is he?”

  “You don’t have to worry about him.”

  “Lucian. Where is he?”

  “You can’t see him right now.” The last thing I wanted was for her to see what Fandare and I had already done to him.

  “Why?”

  “Because we need to let this whole thing play out, it isn’t time yet. We have to make this look like he was going to harm you, and there was a struggle, where he ended up falling down the main shaft of the tunnels and his body was never recovered.” I watched closely as she absorbed this information.

  “Is he dead now?”

  “No.”

  “Will I have to kill him?”

  “No.”

  “I don’t know how I feel about this.”

  “I know, Halley. Death comes naturally to us. Over the years, we have become more civilized, and we don’t kill as much. Centuries ago we killed all the time. Trust me when I say, he wouldn’t stop. He’d find one way or another to separate us and make me pay, possibly using your death as a catalyst to get want he wanted, revenge.”

  “Do we have time to do the ritual?”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. I need you to know I am with you. I need to be immortal before we do this. I’m tired of being second, never meaning anything to anyone. We are in this together, all the way.”

  Warmth spread across my skin and settled on the back of my neck. I now had the mark. We were bonded. I summoned the flower I brought for her and handed it to her.

  “There is no need for a ritual, you have chosen and we both have our marks. I simply wanted to do something special for you. Humans love their rituals and that is what you knew. I wanted something to merge our two cultures together, but there was no need for it. We are bonded.”

  “Let me see.” She grabbed my arm and turned me around to see my mark. “Ahhhh…it’s true. We are as one.”

  “Yes, my beloved, we are.” I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her with everything I had. I knew she’d be feeling a bit off as immortality settled on her, but with her Strogi blood, no matter how diluted, she should be able to handle it.

  When she pulled away from me, I frowned but waited for her to gather her thoughts.

  “There’s something I need to tell you.” Her fingers twisted around each other.

  “You do not need to worry about telling me anything.”

  “I do. I’ve told you about my family. How Starr was everything, and I was nothing. Well. There was more to it. Even after P-Extinction ended, some Metas and Humans continued to fight. Some were more bitter than others. Starr was very beautiful, full of life. People, Humans and Metas were drawn to her. There was one Meta who would never leave her alone. One night he caught her in a back alley and not only beat her, but also took her will to live. She’s alive, but not the same. She sits in a room every day and stares at the wall. My family is convinced there is a doctor out there somewhere that will make her whole again. But I don’t think so. I think that Meta took that part of her and she’ll never recover. All I can do is hope this one hundred thousand S-Co will be enough for them. I have no more left to give.”

  I walked over to her and put my hands on her shoulders, giving her a squeeze. “I know.” I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You have done all that you can for your family, now do something for you.”

  “You know?” She frowned at me.

  “Once I knew there was something different going on between us, I looked into your past and tried to see if there was anything I could do.”

  “Is there? Is there anything else you could do?” She had the tiniest bit of hope in her voice.

  “There may be something we could do. I don’t want you to get your hopes up. We’d have to find the Meta that did this to her, and since she hasn’t been able to speak, it is hard to find out any information as to what kind of Meta it even was. Although, we could narrow it down. If we can find the Meta, we may be able to get her will to live back, but there are no guarantees. The Meta may need to die in order to release her will.”

  “Okay, I understand. While I may never want to see them again, I also don’t want them to live the rest of their lives like this.” She bit her bottom lip. “Maybe we can look into this, once we are out of here?”

  “We can. But now we have a problem to take care of.”

  Chapter 17

  April 10, 4 AS

  Halley

  I wanted to take the time to enjoy this overwhelming feeling of power coursing through my body, but we had business to attend to. Thankfully, I had already been dealing with becoming stronger and knew what I had to do to not destroy everything I encountered. But the power. Wow. What I had before was nothing compared to now. And the connection to Lucian? It was like he was a part of me, like another appendage. Not that I could control him, but that we worked together, each instinctively knowing what the other needed or was going to do.

  I still relied on Lucian, since the full power of the Strogi magic was still new to me. Fandare had sealed all the tunnels, so no one would wander down there while we were with Merrill.

  Hand in hand, we walked onto the platform and saw Merrill tied to a board, bloodied.

  “Procris…” he hissed.

  “Still at it?” Lucian asked. “I told you that you should be afraid of me. You never, never mess with anything that is mine or my clan. Halley is full Strogi now and we a
re bonded.”

  “I will never give up. I will destroy you and your clan, one by one until you are the only one left. Then I will allow you to live, for all of eternity with what you did.”

  “I did nothing, fool. Do not blame your mistakes on me, or those of a woman who prefers to play than commit. You are sealing your fate with these words.”

  “You’ll die! I’ll kill you all! Babies and all. No one will survive. Only you. You’ll have this on your head for the rest of your existence.” His maniacal laugh filled the space.

  I always knew that he wasn’t a good person, I never felt safe when he was around. But now that I was Strogi, I saw him in a whole new light. You could see that he wasn’t right in the head. He was sick. I walked closer to him, knowing Lucian and Fandare were right there beside me, and reached out a hand, touching the back of his hand.

  Images filled my head, painful images, sick images of what he wanted to do to everyone in Lucian’s clan. He was going to take immense pleasure in hurting every one of them. Over and over, the images played through until Lucian pulled me away and broke the connection.

  “He can’t live. He’ll never stop. And what he wants to do to the clan.” I shook my head. “We can’t allow it. Too much.”

  “You were able to see what he had planned?” Fandare asked.

  “Yes, is that unusual?”

  He shook his head. “No, we all have different strengths. I work with the physical body and the emotions that go along with it; Lucian’s strength and mind are his talents, and now you can see into a person’s mind. Now we have to figure out: is it their future, their desires, or what they are currently thinking about. But we know what we need to do about this one.” He pointed to Merrill.

  “You may want to step away,” Lucian said to me.

  “No, I am Strogi now. I do not step away.” I nodded for him to proceed.

  Lucian leaned down and spoke into Merrill’s ear. “You should have left us alone.”

  Fandare and Lucian each took an arm, and with their other hands, braced them against his skull and started to pull. The sound of bones crushing and breaking apart filled the space. Blood poured out of his body and the thirst for it filled me. I wanted to jump on his open torso and drink my fill, but I held back. He couldn’t look like something ate him, he had to look like he fell from a great distance and was broken on the rocks below.

  They released him and he disappeared down below. The wood timber and rope disappeared, along with the floor, since they were all conjured by magic.

  We floated there, watching him fall to the bottom.

  “I’ll see you in your chambers, Lucian, when you are done.”

  “Thank you.” Lucian pounded his brother on the back. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “Take care, sister.” He kissed my hand. “Welcome to the family.”

  “You too, brother.” This new family was already so different than mine, and I was grateful.

  Once Fandare was gone, Lucian turned to me. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  Again, Lucian shifted and transformed into Merrill. Now that we were bonded, I knew the difference, but to everyone else it would be Merrill.

  We went back to my quarters, and then made a show of traveling around Main City, him looking aggressive and me looking scared. Before long, he started looking nervous and took me to one of the access doors for the tunnels. I started struggling, but no one was there to see me. Only the security cameras.

  We quickly moved through the tunnels, going deeper until we were at the edge of the main tunnel. By this point we could hear voices getting closer.

  “No, Merrill. Please let me go!” I yelled.

  “Never! You’re mine,” he hissed.

  “No, please,” I cried.

  “You shouldn’t have chosen him over me!” he yelled in Merrill’s voice. “Now you’ll pay.”

  “Let me go!”

  We started struggling, getting closer to the edge. As soon as we knew someone could see what happened, he slipped and fell over the edge.

  I fell to the ground crying, scooting back until I hit the wall. Watching the men rush by me, I knew what they’d see, or not see because the drop was so far down. But Lucian was going to be safe, back at his quarters.

  They took me down to the station and I went through everything with them. They sent someone up to get Lucian and bring him in. Because we had gone through everything, we didn’t have any problems answering their questions.

  When they reviewed the surveillance tapes, it supported our statements, along with the statements from the customers and employees at the Uni-Brew and his months of harassment.

  When they came back from searching his room, I began to get a little worried by the looks on their faces. When they showed me the images on the Uni-tab I gasped. There were so many pictures of Lucian and myself. Sometimes together, sometimes separate, but thankfully nothing about Marfa.

  Before long, we were leaving the station, my hand tucked in the crook of Lucian’s elbow.

  I wanted to run and get there faster, but we had to keep it slow and not draw attention to ourselves. I figured we’d go back to his quarters, like the original plan. But he took me the opposite way, when I stopped; he simply smiled at me. It was such a rare sight I temporarily forgot what I was going to ask him.

  Then he stopped me at an unfamiliar door on the outside ring of quarters on a higher level of the the dome we called home.

  “What are we doing here?”

  He easily lifted me up into his arms. “This is an old Human custom, is it not? For a man to carry the woman into their home when they are married?”

  “That went out of style a long time ago.” I put my head on his shoulder. “But I think it should come back. You haven’t answered me, why are we here?”

  “This is our new quarters. Since we are bonded, and this place happened to become available, it is now ours. Fandare was able to get all of our belonging moved in here, while we were answering questions with the Intra.”

  Looking around, I saw my bookshelves lining the walls, along with some additional replications of furniture that had long since gone out of style, yet somehow fit the both of us.

  But it was the view of Lorn that took my breath away. I could feel the sun was moments from setting, and the clouds were building, making the sunset look like the sky was on fire.

  Lucian came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, and we watched as it dipped below the horizon. Our magic dropped and we no longer needed it to protect us from its deadly rays.

  When I first came to Lorn, it was strictly for my family, to help my sister, to do my duty. What I didn’t expect was to find love and my place in this universe.

  Epilogue

  6.30.6 AS

  Halley

  Flanked by Lucian and Fandare, we made our way to the jetters to take us back to their planet of Creda. You would think I couldn’t take care of myself.

  “You know we’re leaving, nothing is going to happen to me.”

  “Of course not, sister.” Fandare patted my shoulder. “You know we’re protective of you.”

  “No, really?” I rolled my eyes.

  “Watch your step.” Lucian took my elbow and made sure I didn’t trip.

  As we settled into our seats, I sighed. Leaving seemed to go a lot smoother than arriving. Of course, there weren’t as many leaving as had first arrived, but surprisingly more made it through the whole-time than they thought. We’d all learned a lot and it seemed like this was going to work.

  I rubbed my swollen belly. I had never expected to become a mother, yet here I am with a man I love more than I ever knew I could, and his Strogi child on its way.

  We were hopeful this was a new beginning for the Strogi; it was rare for children to be conceived and born from two Strogi. With their numbers being down, this was going to going to be a good thing. If there were more Humans that were descended from the Strogi that were on Earth, this could mean a whole ne
w resurgence of our kind.

  Lucian grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. I was going to be meeting his clan, and I wasn’t nervous like I would have been when I was Human. Bonding with Lucian and becoming a Strogi had shown me I was always worthy, just because my family never saw it, didn’t mean it wasn’t true.

  THE END

  The Complex Book Series.

  A Lone Planet. One Complex.

  Unlimited Chaos.

  http://www.thecomplex.info

  About the Author

  About

  M. STRATTON

  M. Stratton is an International Amazon bestselling author in the romantic suspense and mystery suspense categories for her Storm Series and Bender. She lives with her husband and son in Arizona, which is a big difference from where she grew up north of Chicago, Illinois. As an only child, she learned to tell herself stories to make the long winters go by quicker while dreaming of summer vacations. Now as an adult, she still makes up stories to pass the time, but now she writes them down to share with other people. Stratton is a self-proclaimed dork who loves to make people laugh. Her inner rock star is always on stage performing to a sold out crowd, but she’s quiet and shy on the outside. She spends her days plotting new ways to surprise her readers.

  www.mstratton.com

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