Chapter 12
Mina awoke violently. Her gasping for air soon turned into coughing as the oxygen stuck in her throat. Rushing to her side, I pulled her hair away from her face and carefully, sent my tendrils of power into her slowing down her breathing and easing her cough. Her silence didn't stop my hands from rubbing her back and hoping to calm down her sudden shock of reality. Her large gold-brown eyes turned to me and her hand reached up to trace the scar Shelia had left. A smile that would make the sun's radiance dim in comparison met my worried gaze.
"Castor, Oh god. It's you," were her only words before pulling me to her. Her mouth was insistent as her hands tried to bring me closer to her. She fell back onto the bed pulling me on top of her as she continued to try to find a way to bring me nearer to her. She seemed to want to drown herself in me as her need grew with each passing second. Her lips pulled away only to catch her breath and her eyes glittered hungrily at the sight of me.
"Mina, you've only just woken up. I don't think this is..." she stopped me from saying anything else by sealing my mouth with another deep kiss. It was a tease, a dare to stop when my own desire was making me lose control.
"Are you sure?" a last attempt at gallantry.
"I should've done it from the start," she replied as her hands found my zipper. My last thought facing my fast consuming need was I hope she doesn't regret this later.
Bliss was the feeling I had when I woke up with my queen laying on my arm sleeping beside me. Her arms enfolded my waist and her face buried itself in my chest as I tried to get up. Not sure of what her reaction was going to be when she woke up for the second time, I endeavored to get out of her grasp without waking her. It wasn't possible. I felt her power enter me as her unconscious mind sensed my escape making all of my thoughts of leaving seem inconsequential and more of a passing thought. I couldn't counteract without bringing her back up to the surface of consciousness but I didn't want to have her despise me for taking advantage of her weak moment. I tried to console myself with the reasoning she had accepted it but I knew it wouldn't be the only emotion she had upon waking. I tried to make the most of my happiness but the impending dread I felt spread deep into the sunshine of the feeling and colored it a dark purple.
"She won't hate you," the gardener's voice gently voiced in my mind and I started unable to grasp the fact he had spoken to me.
"Where are you? She'll be looking for you next," I informed him but he seemed to already know by his silence. It stretched out so long I began to believe he had left my thoughts when he spoke again.
"You must keep my identity a secret. She has to find out on her own or else she won't be able to come to terms with who I am," He instructed me. I sighed. This had been going on for hundreds of years before I had come into play but these two always made things difficult for each other.
"I will but at least give her a hint. I don't want to see her suffer," I pleaded from my creator. His silence once again fell but it seemed unhappy at the prospect of her worry.
"Fine. Tell Nil to look into the library for files on his father. No, better yet, let me do it. I haven't entered his dreams in a while. He usually has such horrific ones I can't even grasp how he's managed to survive all these years without breaking down into some pit of despair," his praise of the young Ace led me to believe he cared deeply for him. If by some chance the man had actually sired him it would led to a much greater conflict than even Mina could bring about. Shelia would be furious. Her anger wasn't a pretty thing to be ignored as time and practice had shown us.
"Protect him," was my only reply to which I felt the link recede from my mind as he left me to my personal thoughts.
Taking comfort in the Gardener's reassurance, I wrapped my free arm around her waist as she stirred to life.
