A Girl Named Calamity by Danielle Lori

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

TRICKED AND BONDED

“Idon’t care about the stupid bond. I don’t feel any different and I’m leaving,” I told Weston as I walked away.

“Go ahead. Get on that horse. You will realize what you’ve done, and you’ll be riding back to me.”

I frowned. “Why would I do that?”

“Because the bond only allows a certain amount of distance between us. You get past that, and you will feel pain.”

He couldn’t compel me anymore, and he couldn’t use my blood. And somehow, I was still saddled with him? It was a vicious cycle that hated me.

“Why would anyone ever want to do this?” I asked.

“They don’t. It usually only happens accidentally.”

“This is stupid,” I muttered.

Weston laughed. “Go, find out how far the distance is that we can be away from each other. I’m hoping it’s at least out of hearing range.”

I glared at him and went to get on my horse. I needed to find out if what he was saying was actually true. I rode out of camp for a little while, anticipating the pain to hit me any moment. I only got half a mile out before it started.

I didn’t feel pain. I was shocked to feel what I felt instead. Intense longing. The absolute desire to jump into his arms and wrap my arms around him.

The feeling was so severe that I had to stop. I couldn’t imagine being without him. Why would I have ever wanted to be without him? I needed him.

This was worse than pain. It was heartbreak.

The minute I turned around, the feeling diminished. And I didn’t even want to test it again. It hurt too much, and I just wanted to go back.

When I got back to camp, I was expecting the I told you so from him. But the second I looked in his eyes, I knew he’d felt the same way I had.

“Why is our bond different than yours and Maxim’s?” I asked as I went and sat across from him and the fire he had started.

“Because I am a man. You are a woman.”

I rolled my eyes. “How enlightening.”

“I don’t know, Calamity. It’s just the way it is.”

“How do we get rid of it?”

“We die,” he said dryly.

I sighed. “Besides that.”

“There is no other way.”

I wouldn’t accept that answer. This was close to one of the stupidest things I had ever done, and I needed to fix it. I couldn’t be half a mile from an assassin without longing for him. It was far from ideal. “We have to find a way! Are you not concerned about this?”

“There is no way to fix this. I promise you. Maybe you should have learned a little more about it before you went around biting people.”

“Maybe you should have realized what you were doing when you took my blood in the first place!”

“I knew exactly what I was doing.”

I grumbled. I was arguing with a brick wall. “Take me to Undaley. I know you can travel like the Mage. I could be there tonight.”

“No.”

“Why not?

He was quiet, and his eyes didn’t meet mine while he looked at the fire.

“Please tell me you still aren’t planning to make me open the seal,” I groaned.

“What you’ve done changes nothing,” he said.

I wasn’t too concerned. I couldn’t even find the seal like I was supposed to. I doubted I could even open it if he knew where it was.

“You can’t compel me, you can’t use my blood; are you going to torture me then?” I asked.

“That’s an idea. I know I can handle more pain than you.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Torturing you would be torturing myself.”

“Why?”

“Because whatever you feel, I will, too.”

My eyes widened as I looked at him. “Anything?” I asked, appalled.

“Any emotion or pain.”

My thoughts immediately went to the sexual variety.

He laughed. “You’re a virgin for life now, Princess.”

I shook my head. “No . . . you can abstain, but I think I will indulge myself quite often.” Taunting him was high on my list of favorite things to do. So was tempting death’s door.

“You’ve forgotten that I will always be close by. You better not care about the man very much.”

I frowned. “Why?”

The fire crackled between us while I met a serious assassin’s gaze.

“Because he won’t be alive for long.”

Why did I even ask?

I sighed. “Did they teach you to solve all your problems by killing in Titan?”

“Most.”

“I’ve got myself into a bigger mess than before,” I mused.

“You don’t even know the half of it.”

* * *

I woke to bright sunlight in my eyes and a soft breeze against my skin. I tried to push the hair off my face, but couldn’t move my wrists. My eyes traveled down my body from the cloth tied around my wrists to my bound ankles.

I frowned. “What the hell?”

“I have no idea how you got out of that bathhouse, but I wasn’t taking any chances.”

I looked up into a pair of amused eyes. So, I had disappeared from the bathhouse? How? And why? I couldn’t find the seal, and yet it was undeniable that strange things seemed to have happened to me.

“You think this is funny?” I snapped.

He smiled. “Yea. I do.”

“Untie me, now.”

“Ask me nicely.”

I glared at him. I tried to wiggle my wrists out of the tie, but it was too tight. I couldn’t play this game for the rest of my life. Although I was more than relieved that he couldn’t make me open the seal, this was just another problem that wasn’t ideal.

“I can’t go anywhere without you, anyway! Did you not feel the stupid bond?”

He rubbed his jaw. “Oh, I felt it. But somehow, you got out of a bathhouse that I was standing right in front of. I can sense you a mile away and you just disappeared. I want to know how you did it.”

“You can’t always have what you want.”

“Trust me, I know that,” he said roughly. His eyes swept down my body, and my heartbeat picked up when I realized what he was saying. The temperature suddenly went up ten degrees. His gaze had my skin flushing and cooled some of my anger. Some.

“Please untie me,” I snapped.

He sat on his haunches and untied my wrists while I avoided looking at him. He was a conundrum, and I wasn’t going to spend time thinking about his motives. Because there was always something that drove him. And I would probably never understand what it was.

And I didn’t think I wanted to.

I rubbed my wrists and stood. Sand sunk in between my toes as I walked down to the beach. I didn’t know if Weston was watching, but I didn’t care, I stripped off my clothes and waded into the waves. I spent some time scrubbing up and then some time enjoying the water.

I was neck deep when I heard a deep voice. “Get out. We need to go.”

I spun around and saw Weston at the tree line of the beach. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I told him.

“Get. Out.”

I sighed. I was ready to get out. And I really loved to get under Weston’s skin. Put those two together and it worked just fine with me.

“Fine.”

I complied and began to walk out of the water, his narrowed eyes still on me. Water sluiced down my shoulders, and my skin tingled from his gaze. Before the water uncovered my breasts, he turned around and walked back to camp. I laughed. It was a little edgy considering I had no idea where I got the guts to do that. My actions surprised me more than they probably did him.

I walked back up the beach to camp, expecting an angry assassin, and I was correct. Although I hated the calm angry assassin; hemade me nervous.

“Let’s go,” he said calmly, but too calmly.

I was only waiting for the storm to hit. But sometimes I liked the storm and wanted to open the window to let it in. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not! I’m going to Undaley. If you don’t want to feel the effects of the bond, then you better—” A hand over my mouth cut me off, and I muffled against it.

“Shut up,” Weston ordered, and his tone had me listening. I could feel my heart beating in my chest while my ears strained to hear something. I heard only the swish of the palm trees and the water lapping on the beach. I leaned against Weston with his hand still over my mouth.

“You are going to stay right here. And you aren’t going to move. Nod if you understand me.”

I nodded my head.

Six men in black cloaks appeared in a half circle in front of us. I knew right away that they were Mages by the matching silver clips holding their cloaks. I shook my head with a nervous pit forming in my stomach. Weston couldn’t handle six Mages.

His voice was rough against my ear. “Ah, Princess, you underestimate me.”

The Mages stood in a state of uncertainty. I could tell because they each looked at one another as if waiting for someone to make the first move.

But none of them ever did, because Weston appeared in front of one and shoved a blade into his heart.