Chapter Nine
The music thumped through me as I swayed my hips in time to the beat. I had only been to the clubs in London a few times. I figured I had to start somewhere. Father had agreed that I didn’t need Antony to protect me whenever I was with my brothers so I had left him at the house.
‘Here’s your boring drink,’ Leo shouted as he handed me a bottle of water.
‘You know I don’t like alcohol,’ I replied, punching him on the arm when he stuck out his tongue.
Cancer was on the dance floor. She grinded against a stranger. His hands were all over her and I wondered how she could stand it.
‘I got Cancer another wine,’ Leo shouted in my ear.
I jumped back as the over loud sound hit a nerve. Cancer was drunk. That was why she let men touch her. She had guzzled at least four glasses of wine. Aries joined us. He had a grin on his face and lipstick on his mouth. He laughed as I shook my head at him.
‘You pulled already, mate?’ Leo pointed to his own lips.
Misinterpreting him, Aries leant in and pretended to give him a kiss. Laughter escaped me as Leo shoved Aries away, causing him to bump into a short girl. Aries apologised as he looked down at her. She melted under his gaze. Reaching up, she wiped the lipstick away from his mouth and pulled his head down for a kiss.
‘How does he do it?’
I couldn’t answer Leo. I really didn’t know. Leo had his fair share of women so I didn’t know what he was worried about. He was antsy and I suddenly realised why. He tapped his foot on the floor and looked around.
‘Leo…go dance!’
He glanced at me and then back to the dance floor. He was so lovely. He didn’t want to leave me on my own but his dancing shoes called him. He was useless at dancing but he loved to get lost in it.
‘Go on! Scorpio will be back in a minute,’ I called.
He nodded once and plunged into the crowd. The air around me was too hot. I turned to go to the bathroom. As I pushed through the heaving bodies someone bumped into me and I tumbled to the floor.
‘I’m so sorry,’ a voice shouted as arms reached around me and hoisted me up.
I came face to face with a pair of green eyes. His hair was dark and styled into a French crop. He wore a suit, which was odd.
‘I’ve come straight from work,’ he shouted, obviously noting the way I looked at his clothes.
His gaze travelled down me. I glanced down at my long bare legs. The dress I wore was Cancer’s. She was shorter than me so the dress looked elegant on her. On me, it looked short. Very short. The black lace over the top half of the dress had made me feel bare at first, but the longer I wore it, the more comfortable I felt. Until now.
‘Nice dress,’ he said, grinning at me.
My heart triple jumped and I gripped my water bottle.
‘Do you want to dance?’
We were idle in the middle of the dance floor. Others dancers were gyrating to a sexy song I didn’t recognise. I rarely listened to the radio, or kept up with the trends. I loved to dance but didn’t usually have the confidence to let loose.
‘Yes!’ I shouted.
He took my hand and tugged me deeper into the throng of people. He started to sway his body. I was surprised that he could dance well. He grabbed my hips as I moved them. I couldn’t help but let the music overtake my muscles. He pulled me against him, putting a thigh between my legs as our hips moved in rhythm together. My eyes closed briefly at the heady contact between us.
When I opened them, I looked straight into eyes. He wasn’t much taller than me but his gaze was intense. We didn’t speak. There was no need for words. Our bodies were dancing the talk for us.
‘What’s your name?’
Smiling, I debated whether to tell him. The amount of people that found my name odd, made me not want to ruin the moment.
‘Pisces.’
His eyebrows rose but he smiled. ‘I’m a Pisces.’
I almost stilled. His hands on my hips kept me swaying. He pulled me closer. I felt the warmth of his breath on my face. Was he going to kiss me? I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to.
‘Pisces!’ someone shouted.
Pulling away from my partner slightly, I turned to see Scorpio close by. Was he going to interrupt my first ever dance with a handsome man?
‘We’ve got to go,’ he shouted when I made eye contact with him.
I shook my head as my dance partner tightened his grip on me. Scorpio towered above us as he drew level. He wore a tight T-shirt that emphasized his strength.
‘Do you know him?’ my dance partner shouted.
Nodding, I stepped out of his embrace. I wasn’t sure why I moved away from him. I just knew something was about to happen. The gunshot was drowned out by the music. No one else noticed but it had only been a week since I had last heard the sound. The crowd didn’t realise that there was a gunman in the club.
‘We have to go,’ Scorpio shouted again.
My new friend held my hand. The music cut off suddenly and the DJ told everyone to evacuate.
‘Is everything okay?’ the man asked.
I nodded and squeezed his hand. Another gunshot sounded nearby. Everyone heard that one. Screams rang out as people started to run for the doors.
‘What’s going on?’ I turned to Scorpio.
He eyed my friend and saw that our hands were joined. His throat moved. I looked down to where my fingers were being held. It had felt amazing to be in his arms. And now there was trouble.
‘Pisces, get out of here,’ Aries called.
He came into view as the crowd thinned. To my horror, he was wrestling with a man that had a black mask over his face. My new man steered us out of the crowd. Scorpio followed closely behind.
‘Your friends are…’ His sentence trailed off when Scorpio caught his eye.
I watched him as we made our way outside. People pushed but he managed to find a way through. A part of me wanted to stay and make sure that Aries was okay. Had he been attacked? Was anyone shot?
‘We’re her brothers.’ Scorpio growled behind us.
‘That explains it,’ the man said, pushing open an emergency door.
We fell onto the street. Scorpio ripped my hand away from the stranger as soon as we came to a stop.
‘What are you doing?’ I exclaimed.
‘Mate, if she’s taken, you should’ve said inside.’
What the bloody hell did Scorpio think he was doing? He wouldn’t get away with ruining my evening. The man could be my twin flame.
‘She’s not taken but I’m very protective of my sister.’
My new man’s green eyes were no match for Scorpio’s intense gaze. Scorpio stared until he backed down. Lifting his hands in surrender, my man started to back away.
‘You’re nice but I only wanted to dance,’ he said as he spun and jogged away.
How could Scorpio do that to me? My dance partner was the first man that had taken an interest and Scorpio had scared him away.
‘Why did you do that?’
In general I wasn’t a violent person but an urge to kill him overtook me. He grabbed my arm as I went to hit out. He shook his hair from his eyes and looked down at me. ‘If he’s the one, Pisces, he’ll find you.’
I gritted my teeth but the hot bubbling energy drained from me. He was right. If we were meant to be together, the universe would make sure we came into contact again.
‘I still can’t believe you did that,’ I muttered, turning as Aries and Leo fell out of the door behind us.
‘We need to go.’ Aries puffed, grabbing my arm.
Sirens sounded nearby so we made a run for it. Father had said that the Dysfunctionals would try to stop me from being with my twin flame. I really hoped the shooting wasn’t because of me. The thought of more gunfire heading my way whenever I was with my possible twin flame made me sick to the stomach. I never imagined falling in love could be so dangerous.
‘I can’t keep up, wait up!’ I shouted as the others ran
ahead.
They couldn’t hear me. It sounded like the police were nearby but I couldn’t be sure. There was no way I was able to catch up to them. They had forgotten I was even there. Their adrenaline had taken over. I watched as they rushed on ahead.
‘There you are!’
The shout made me yelp.
A man in a black mask came out of the shadows. I backed towards the railing and stopped when I bumped against it. At least we were near the river. I didn’t want to swim in the Thames after dark but it looked like I didn’t have a choice.
‘What do you want?’ I yelled.
He approached me slowly, each step measured. ‘We can’t allow you to be with your soulmate,’ he said, his voice muffled by the material over his mouth.
‘Why not…?’ It was a stupid question but I was intrigued.
‘Because if you succeed, we’ll no longer have a purpose. Some of us like the violence and greed in the world. Makes life much more interesting, don’t you think? Poor Pisces. So clueless about what’s actually going on. All of you are.’
His words found their way into my soul. I had been around a few times. Something about the man’s energy was familiar.
‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ he asked when I refused to answer.
He was powerful, whoever he was. I could feel his dark energy from across the street. With my back against the railing, I started to slide away from him. I didn’t want him to get too close. There had to be enough time to jump when I needed to.
‘No, I don’t,’ I replied.
I gulped suddenly as a flashback entered my mind. A man with grey eyes towered over me. We had met in a past life somewhere. He had stopped me from being with my twin flame then.
‘There’s always been this back and forth between us, Pisces. I’m the head of the team that takes care of you and your siblings every lifetime.’
He edged closer. I moved further away.
‘Why is it so important to you that we don’t complete our mission?’
He took off his mask. His jaw was strong, and his grey eyes were hypnotic, even in the dark.
‘This is my planet. It’s fun when humans feel crap about themselves. It’s much more entertaining to watch them destroy who they are.’
A part of me wanted to keep talking to him. He could tell me more about why we were there. Our life purpose had a lot to do with the man but I knew nothing about it.
‘It’s entertaining to watch people fall in love, isn’t it? Feels good,’ I crowed.
He grinned and stopped pursuing me. I countered him by stepping forward. His eyes narrowed. A distant part of myself was annoyed that the boys hadn’t come back for me. But they knew I could handle myself. I didn’t want them to get hurt. It was best they stayed away.
‘Ah, but that’s the thing. In this world, fear is what rules people and I want to keep it that way.’
Other masked men started to come out from the alleys nearby. It was time to finish the chat.
‘Well, good luck with that,’ I said, stepping forward, spinning and vaulting over the railing.
Someone fired a gun. The air beside my ear whistled as I hurtled towards the surface of the river. I prayed that the tide was high enough for the water to catch me. When my bare legs sunk into the river, my breath was taken away. I allowed the water to swallow me, not fighting the descent into the murky darkness. There was a shout above but I didn’t panic. I allowed my lungs to fill with water and blew it out again.
When I was low enough, I started to swim downstream. I couldn’t believe I was in the River Thames again. The amount of times I had swum in the capital’s river was beyond counting. I hoped I wouldn’t hit any debris. There were all sorts of things in the grimy river and at night, visibility was impossible. There was a ringing in my ear as I moved with the flow, allowing myself to float along.
After a few minutes, I came up to the surface to see where I was. The London eye was right next to me. I climbed out and sat by the big attraction. It was the middle of the night but it was London. I worried that someone would see me wringing wet in a short dress. As the adrenaline in my body wore off, I started to shiver uncontrollably. I had left my bag at the club so I didn’t even have my phone to ring the boys.
‘Are you okay?’
The voice sent a shot of relief through me. I turned with a huge smile on my face, knowing who had come to rescue me. The smile froze when my gaze landed on the joined hands of Antony and a pretty girl. She was petite and dainty, unlike me.
‘Pisces…! I didn’t realise it was you,’ Antony said, letting go of the girl and taking off his coat.
‘What are you doing here?’
He just happened to be at the London Eye when I climbed out of the river? Was the universe seriously helping me by sending Antony? Why couldn’t it be one of my brothers? It wouldn’t bother me if I had seen one of them on a date. Not that I cared if Antony was on a date either.
‘You know this crazy lady?’ the woman asked him.
I laughed. The bark came out of me. They both frowned. Antony pulled me up as he wrapped his coat around me. ‘Let’s get you home.’
‘Shouldn’t you ring the police, Ant? She’s just tried to commit suicide.’
Putting my hand over my mouth, I tried to stop the hysterical laughter, but it came anyway. I probably was mad. The evening had been a crazy one. I found it hilarious that she thought I had tried to kill myself. The mirth left me as the idea planted in my head. It would be a lot easier if I had killed myself.
‘No, I know her. She’s a friend. Your flat is nearby, will you be okay? I need to get her dry, or she’ll get ill.’
Antony started to drag me away from the girl. She stared after us. I felt bad for ruining her date. Would Antony have kissed her the way he had kissed me? Not that it mattered. In fact, I had no idea why the thought had even entered my head.
‘What happened?’ he said when we were far enough away.
I couldn’t talk. My teeth chattered so much, I couldn’t even form words. He swore and stopped in the middle of the road. I stopped with him, not sure what he was doing. He unbuttoned his jeans, and they fell to the ground.
‘What are you doing?’ I stuttered.
He came over and knelt down in front of me. Picking up one of my ankles, he put my foot in the leg of his jeans. He did the same with the other one. I had to hold onto his shoulder so I didn’t topple over.
‘They’re not going to fit.’ I gasped.
He straightened slowly, pulling the jeans up my legs. They were a bit too long but not as bad as I thought they would be. When he fastened them, they bagged on my waist, but my hips kept them up. I instantly felt warmer.
‘You have very long legs,’ he muttered, putting his arm around me as we started to walk again.
My high heels made my feet hurt. I just wanted to get home. Instead of taking me to the train station, Antony guided me to a hotel.
When he stepped through the door before me I started to laugh again. Luckily his shirt was long and covered his underpants but his bare legs looked ridiculous.
‘Can I help you?’
The receptionist eyed us. I prayed she would let us have a room.
‘My girlfriend just fell into the river and I need to get her out of her wet clothes. I know it’s mad but do you have a spare room, please?’ Antony said, batting his eyelashes at her.
She glared at him before glancing over his shoulder at me. ‘You’re not kidding. Shouldn’t you get her to a hospital?’
‘Why waste precious time when she could be in one of your hot baths in a few minutes?’ he replied.
I tried to smile at her as my teeth jumped against each other.
‘Okay, what’s your name? Go to room twelve,’ she said, throwing me the key. My fingers were frozen under Antony’s jacket. I tried to reach out to catch it but it fell to the floor.
‘Antony Miller.’ He grabbed her hand and kissed it as he gave her his credit card. ‘Thank you!’
‘Just go and get her sorted, she’s about to fall over.’
Antony came to me and picked up the key. I was about to step forward when he swept me into his arms. He used the fireman’s carry which allowed me to nestle into the warmth of his chest.
‘Bring out her clothes. I’ll put them in the dryer,’ the receptionist called.
Antony shouted his thanks but said he would place them on the radiators.
‘You’re bloody mad, you know that?’
I didn’t disagree. I couldn’t. My whole life was mad. My whole existence was crazy. Tears squeezed their way out of their ducts and I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t make a sound as he unlocked the door and dumped me on the bed. He literally dropped me. He shut the door and ran to the bathroom.
‘Crap, there’s only a shower,’ he called.
The rush of water sounded as I sat on the bed. I couldn’t move. My muscles were seizing up and emotion came through me in waves. He came back into the room, acting very business-like as he stood in front of me.
I looked up at him as he wiped a silent tear from my cheek. He tugged me into a stand and pushed the jeans off me. I stepped out of them as he grabbed the bottom of my dress and pulled it up. I yelped in surprise. I hadn’t expected him to undress me. My body shook uncontrollably. As soon as the cool air touched my skin, it made it worse.
‘Arms up.’ He grunted. I was sure his shoulder was still sore but he showed no sign of pain outwardly. I knew he was hurting, his eyes gave it away.
My arms lifted and the dress slid off. I was left in my underwear and high heels. He kept his eyes on my face the whole time.
‘As hot as you look, the heels have got to come off, and so does…’
He still didn’t look down but pinged the back of my bra. I gulped through the shivering and nodded. He pushed me to sit on the side of the bed and knelt in front of me. Taking off my shoes, he threw them behind him.
‘You can do the rest.’
Taking my arms, he guided me into the small bathroom. It wasn’t too steamy but the warmth of the air made me feel a little better. I wobbled on my feet. He had to help me into the shower stall. It was a big one. I struggled to keep my balance before I stepped under the water. My knees shook so badly, I didn’t think I would be able to stay standing.
‘Will you be okay? Can you get your underwear off?’
I really didn’t want him to see me naked but I didn’t know what else to do. He ripped his shirt off when I shook my head. I noticed he still wore a bandage around his gunshot wound. Stepping into the shower, he wrapped his arms around me. He pushed me into the middle of the shower, holding me up as the water ran over me. I groaned at the pleasure of warmth but the pain of the hot and cold contrast hit my nerves.
‘Are you okay?’
‘It hurts. How is your shoulder?’ I whispered as I started to thaw out.
‘I’ll live.’
I leant on him. My head was on his chest as we stood under the shower spray. My muscles started to shake in a different way as I felt the beat of his heart against my cheek.
‘You have to tell me what happened,’ he said, moving my hair back from my face.
The tears came again. He didn’t say anymore as he stroked my back and I started to feel normal again.
‘We need to get you dry.’
It wasn’t a certainty but I was sure he touched his lips to my hair. He let me go and stepped out of the shower. Throwing a towel around his shoulders, he reached back in. The water snapped off, before he wrapped me in a towel and pulled me out. He started to rub the material over my skin vigorously. He moved the towel over the whole of my body, even down my legs.
‘You really need to take these off now,’ he said, rubbing my butt with the towel.
Jolting back, I almost slipped over. I had accepted his help with everything else but I couldn’t let him see me completely naked.
‘Calm down, I’ll leave you to it.’ He chuckled, standing up. He stretched before he backed out of the bathroom.
I quickly stripped off and wrapped my hair in another towel. When I came out of the bathroom, Antony was wearing his jeans and nothing else. His shirt, underpants and my dress hung by the radiator.
‘Quick, get in the bed.’
I did as I was told. My body hadn’t fully recovered yet and I needed warmth.
‘We need to dry your hair. I found this in the drawer,’ he said, holding up a hair dryer.
Sitting up, I released my hair from the towel and discarded it on the floor. The hair dryer burst into life as Antony climbed onto the bed behind me. He aimed the hot blast in my face, making me choke. He laughed and turned it to my hair.
‘Sorry, I’ve never dried someone else’s hair before.’
‘Do you do your own?’
My hair flew everywhere which made me smile. He wasn’t a very good hairdresser.
‘Only sometimes. Not very often,’ he said, turning the dryer on his own hair for a second.
‘So you don’t sit in front of a mirror, styling it every day?’
He pushed my head gently forward so he could dry the underneath. He unfolded his legs so they were either side of me.
‘Nah, I get up and let it rest how it does.’
It was nice to joke together. His hair would never need drying or styling. It was too short.
I yelped as he held the dryer in the same spot for too long. He moved it and rubbed the sore area on my head.
I remembered that his shoulder was still mending and wondered how bad it hurt after lifting me. ‘Is your shoulder sore?’
When he didn’t answer, I turned towards him but he shook his head. He was lying but I didn’t push him.
‘I wonder what our neighbours think about us making so much noise,’ I said, feeling bad.
‘You’ve got to stop worrying about others so much. Just worry about you.’
My muscles started to shake again. My hair was almost dry. Antony switched off the dryer and put it on the side. He climbed out from behind me and wrapped me tightly in the duvet. I froze when his hand delved under the cover and took hold of the wet towel that was around me. He pulled it away. I gasped as it unravelled and came free. I was cocooned but the intimacy of the action sent a hot bolt through me. He threw the towel on the floor and cuddled his body around my cocoon.
‘Go to sleep. When we wake up, we’re not leaving this room until you tell me what happened,’ he whispered.
I felt safe in my protective cover. I thought about revealing all the details of my encounter with the enemy but I instantly drifted into sleep.