Eternal

Z

I took to some harmless flirting with the barman, as he kindly kept refilling my shot glass, before I decided it was a perfect time to get my dancing shoes on, even if I did stumble a little, and walking in a straight line seemed to have removed itself from my list of abilities.

I had no trouble in finding some willing dancing partners before one started to get a little two friendly, I was just removing his hands for the third and final time when he was quickly pulled away from me and a fist connected with his nose. I heard the crunch and could see the bone sticking out from one side, as he screamed in pain and was quickly dragged away from some very hungry looking creatures.

“Oh how lucky I am, to have such a fine gentleman come to my rescue,” I said in a fake southern drawl, laced with too much sweetness.

“The sarcasm doesn’t become you, and with the state you were in I think I was actually saving that rather foolish human,” He replied rather simply, before moving closer to me and sliding his hands onto my hips and moving them and himself in time with the music.

“I never meant to be so demanding Unya and I am sorry, I just don’t think straight when it comes to you.”

“If that was the case, then why did you leave it so long to get in contact. It’s not like there’s any expectations between us, we’re just doing each other a favour, so why the disappearing act. I swear there must be something in the water.”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that, but something happened during that kiss we shared, I had to get my head figured out before I did something stupid. I wanted to make arrangements after the first week, but knew it wouldn’t be wise.”

“Look, don’t bother with an explanation it’s just been a very shitty month and I kind of needed a distraction, hence tonight. And then you show up with your friends and it’s just too much. I don’t want Addy to get hurt and I’m not going to kid myself into believing I can trust either you or those two. Let’s just get on with this arrangement so I can fix what that moron did to you and then we can go our separate ways.”

I could tell he wanted to say something else on the matter, and I just didn’t have the energy, so I made my second idiotic choice of the night, the first what I had said to the Satyr about Addy, and crashed my lips against his.

I knew I had taken him by surprise as his eyes widened before they drifted closed. He snaked one hand through the back of my hair, angling my head so he could take the kiss deeper, while his other hand moved up to my waist and squeezed much more gently than I would have anticipated.

I couldn’t feel a rush of emotions or a sudden lack of energy, so I knew he wasn’t getting anything more than a kiss, but that didn’t stop me from slowly losing myself in the action.

It was only when a slight cough reverberated through my ea

rs that I slowly pulled away to Addy’s smirking face.

I stepped away from Malachi until we were no longer embracing and was dragged away by Addy, we both decided we would be better off grabbing a taxi back to hers, with neither of us mentioning anything that had happened since she had stormed off. And I could tell that we were both happy about that decision, let the curiosity kill the cat another day.

Z

The following day I was taken over by a grounding headache, but Marcus would not relent as he droned on and on about the various steps we still had to take.

“For the love of the gods, have a little mercy man,” I practically begged him, which only put a glint to his eyes.

“This is self-inflicted my friend, so it does not warrant special attention or for me to go easy on you. Although you are soon going to be wishing you went a little easier last night. You see I’ve been so focused on enhancing your knowledge and abilities that I forgot to teach you how to fight with magic. I can tell from the way you just sat up a little straighter that I have finally caught your interest. Now while I was thinking of fighting, it made me wonder about all the training you are missing out on with Lawson and I have come up with a solution. Now I know you are good with keeping secrets, so I know I can trust you with one of the greatest secrets I hold close to me.”

“Of course you can Marcus, I just wish I could return the same courtesy, there is so much I want to tell you, I just can’t,” I stated resting my chin on my knees.

“Don’t worry yourself, I know you would if it was solely down to you. Anyway, I know someone who could train you, they may not be to the same standard as Lawson, but they are not far behind him. And if you could fight with your body, weapons and magic, you really would be a force to be reckoned with.”

Marcus gave me a little time to get ready, before taking me by the hands and sending us off to the greenest grass I had even seen, surrounded by a huge wall that seemed to never end.

There was a huge two storey building situated on one side, with an Olympic size swimming pool sitting next door to it and a large square of dirt with a large mat sitting on the ground next to it, directly in front of us.

There was a large array of weapons of to the side, much larger that Lawson’s collection and I could feel my stomach begin to twist, just knowing that today was not going to be easy on my frazzled nerves, sickly stomach and achy body.

Off to another side was a beautiful waterfall that fell into a natural river and a wooded area on the opposite side of said river.

I could see figures beginning to emerge from those woods and they seemed to float over the water. Marcus informed me that those were water nymphs, but they had broken free of tradition and decided to become warriors and protect this realm from all who threatened to destroy it. Amongst them were wood, earth and fire nymphs, not that they were with them right then. He even hinted at a few light nymphs, but I found that rather hard to believe knowing how rare they were and even he said he had not seen one himself.

“So, this mystical army is solely built on nymphs?” I asked, making sure to hold the scepticism from my voice.

“No sweetie, there are centaurs, sorcerers and sorceresses, even some creatures you will want to call vampire, but it would only insult them, so please refrain from doing so. We also have a few shapeshifters and even a couple winged horses, though they haven’t shown trust for us yet, so they probably won’t be of much assistance to our cause.”

“Such pretty words, dear friend,” Said a ravenous beauty as she approached from the building. She had dark brown hair, with deep chocolate eyes and very strong Arabic features to her face and skin tone. She was wearing a leather top, that looked more like a piece of fabric was slung around her neck and held together around her waist by a piece of corded rope.

It was revealing, without revealing anything essential, add that to the brown leather pants and flat boots. With two scimitars strapped to her back and a dagger around her ankle, she looked thoroughly kick ass.