Broken Promises
Chapter 2
Nine Years Later
A strong wind blew Julia’s hair around her face. The sounds of catsumys filled the morning air as she silently walked down the abandoned road. She quickly shoved her rouge strains back up into her hat hiding them from view.
“This is a long way from heaven,” she thought as her eyes scanned her surrounding, “but I can live with that.”
Hitching her pack higher on her shoulder, she looked around to see if anyone had seen, but as before she was alone. She huffed under her breath and started forward again.
Warm sunlight danced across her face when she finally stepped out from under the canopy of the forest. A small village stood before her eyes. Two tiny rivers wrapped around the peaceful scene connecting a few yards behind the village walls.
Its high wooden walls showed of battles long forgotten. Scars dug deep into its mighty body, but it stood firm, unyielding to all.
She walked quickly up to the road that headed towards the sleepy town. The only way she seemed to be able to enter was through a small arch way that was stationed by two armed guards.
Seeing her approach the guards moved away from the wall stopping her short.
“State your business,” demanded one of the guards.
She looked both over and sighed in relief. They were both humans, which was very odd because a demon would have been better qualified to protect the village than both humans combined.
Taking a deep breath she answered in a low voice, “I have come for food and rest. I have traveled a great distance and would truly appreciate it if you would allow me safe passage.”
The guards fell silent and studied her for a moment. She prayed that they had not noticed that she was a woman even with her faked deep voice.
She knew what happened to a woman who traveled alone and even with these guards, she did not want to take that chance.
She watched with great relief as the guards moved aside and waved her in. She stepped forward, but before she was in the village the guard that had not spoken grabbed her arm.
She turned and looked up at him. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was dry.
“Don’t cause any trouble, Lad. Do you understand?” asked the guard.
“Yes sir,” she huffed in a deep voice.
“Good,” growled the guard.
Releasing her roughly he shoved her through the gate. She almost tripped over her own feet, but caught herself. She turned and looked back at the gate and she had to repress the urge to stick out her tongue at that guard.
Rubbing her arm she scanned the village. The streets were filled with buggies and carts packed to the brim with different fruits and vegetables. People, all human, mobbed the streets rubbing elbow to elbow with each other.
She shivered at the thought of stepping foot into that mess, but she needed food and she needed it fast.
Scanning her surroundings one last time a small diner caught her eye. It was small and a bit run down, but it would do. Shoving her way through the crowd and almost losing her hat twice she finally reached the diner.
Taking a deep breath she pushed open the diner’s doors and stepped in. The smell of stale smoke and liquor flew up her nostrils and tickled her brain. She wanted to gag on the smell, but she forced the notion down.
Trying not to breathe through her nose, she walked into the diner. It was poorly lit and only appeared to have to have two tables with no chairs, but the bar was as shiny as a new penny.
Other than herself only two people graced the diner with their presence. One appeared to be the bartender and the other, a man, appeared to be a customer like herself. The man sat with his back to her nursing a bottle of Jakin and the bartender only glanced up at her then continued to polish a spotless glass as if she was not there.
She huffed then made her way over to the bar. Slinging her pack off her shoulder she sat it in the stool next to her then climbed onto her own stool. It took a bit of effort due to the fact that the stool was so tall, but she finally made it up there all by her lonesome.
When she looked up the bartender was in front of her. She jumped back a bit almost falling out of her chair before she corrected herself.
The bartender had a striking face and not in a good way. He appeared to look more like a humanoid weasel then a man. His bitty eyes were close together and his chin was long and pointed. His nose was short and pig shaped.
She had to force herself not to shiver as he looked her over.
“What do you what?” the bartender asked in a high squeaky voice.
She told him her order making sure to deepen her voice when she spoke then watched as he headed to the back room.
She looked over at the man beside her. He did not even notice that she existed. Shaking her head she looked down at her hands.
“Dang, Father, you were right,” she thought to herself. “I was not missing anything.”
“So are you new around here?” asked the man.
His voice made her jump, but she kept her seat.
“Yes sir,” she answered in a deep voice.
The man turned to face her. He would have been quite handsome if he had bathed and trimmed his beard, but at that moment he just looked like an unkempt mountain man.
The man looked her up and down once before he turned back to study his bottle.
“You’re overly pretty for a boy,” the man reported.
“I look like my mother,” she answered quickly.
The man looked up at her, one eyebrow raised. She cursed herself when she realized that she had not deepened her voice, but the man said nothing, most likely to drunk to notice.
“You must watch your back,” the man hissed. “Men around here don’t care any if you’re a girl or a boy as long as you’re nice to look at. But they are nothin’ compared to the demons that wander around these parts.”
“Demons?” she asked making sure to deepen her voice this time. “You don’t mean all demons are like that, do you?”
“Demons are evil, vindictive creatures that are more beast then man.” the man muttered around his bottle.
She stared at the man for a moment not believing her ears.
“Does everyone on this village share your opinion?” she asked carefully.
He took a sip before slamming his bottle roughly on the bar. He turned to her, his eyes as blood shot as a demon in blood lust, and sneered at her.
“Yes, Lad!” the man snapped. “It has been this way since I was a child and it’ll be that way when I’m dead and buried in this cold, hard ground. You just better stay away from those demons, Lad, if you want to live a long and healthy life.”
She stared the man in the eye as if she looked away he would jump her, but he just turned away and sipped his Jakin. As she quickly looking away, the man’s words pounding in her head.
“Father what can I do?” she prayed. “ They have so much hate in them. How do you expect them to love one another. You may have given this assignment to the wrong daughter.”
“I chose you because of your heart, Julia. None of your sisters have as much sympathy to both races as you do,” a male voice whispered in her head.
“Father?” she breathed.
“I am not asking you to change the entire world, but just to change one person,” God continued.
“One is not a very big number,” she muttered.
“No, but it is a start and all starts start out small,” explained God.
“What do you want me to do now?” she asked.
“Wait,” God whispered.
Seven Hours Later
Julia picked at the last remaining pieces of her food when the door of the diner slammed open. Warm air gust in stirring the stale air making her look up. The man beside her hissed out a liquored laced breath as the bartender stiffened before her.
“What do ya’ think you’re doin’ here, Demon?” the man snarled.
She felt the man lumber out of his stool as she turned. Her breath froze in her lungs when her eyes locked on the man behind her.
Two piercing green eyes shot straight through her, even though he had not looked at her. Long, blood red hair hung loosely around an animalistic, yet ungodly handsome face. His body was wide and large, but not overly so.
She watched as the demon drew a lung full of air through his nostrils. They flared as his eyes snapped to her. Her heart skipped a beat, but she did not allow him to see how his eye contact affected her.
“You better not be thinkin’ what I think you’re thinkin’, Demon!” growled the man. “You leave that Lad alone, you here.”
The demon looked over at the man then back to her. He took another breath, more slowly this time.
“Lad?” the demon asked in a rough, gravely voice.
She watched in shock as a smile tugged at the side of his mouth, but never fully formed. She was expecting him to tell her secret, but he said nothing.
“What do you want, Caspian?” asked the bartender.
“Why so cold, Delaney?” the demon asked. “What have I done now?” .
She watched as he started forward, so before he could look back at her she turned and looked back down at her empty plate.
“What’s wrong with me? I have never been so shaken by a man before. I am an angel!” she lectured to herself. “I can destroy this world with a wave of my hand, but this man, this demon scares the very life out of me. Why does this man make me feel like a new born colt? All shaky and unsteady on my feet.”
Caspian breathed in the female’s scent again. The smell of vanilla and female musk filled his senses. He wanted to grab her and rub her strange scent all over his body.
He wanted it to soak into him so everyone knew that she was his and he was her’s. The very thought scared him to death, but at the same time calmed him.
The female’s clothing left everything to the imagination, making her appear to be nothing more than a young boy. If it had not been for her powerful scent he would have even been fooled by her ruse as the humans appeared to be.
Though the exact thing that drew him to her, also made him want to run and hide. The female was not human, but at the same time, she was by all means not a demon either. The female was something that he had never come across before and for some reason, she made him quite nervous.
“Caspian, we may have been friends when we were boys, but we are grown men now,” squeaked Delaney. “You know that it is looked down upon now that we know better.”
He looked at the one human that he thought he could always count on, the one man he called his friend, and snarled.
“You have no spine, my old friend,” he snapped.
He watched as Delaney pulled back. It took all his self control not to reach out and snatch Delaney over the bar and snap his weasel-like neck with his bare hands, but he could not. He looked back at the female in front of him and froze.
His tiger did not want to show the female its rage; it did not want to scare her away. It acted as if she was a skittish deer that would flee at any sudden movement.
He looked at the female’s back. It was straight and stubborn, but he could see a slight shiver that ran up and down it.
Whispering so softly that a human ear could not pick up the vibrations he said, “I know what you are.”
The female’s head whipped around. Her eyes were wide filled with both fear and amazement.
“Who are you?” the female whispered back.
He smiled then turned to the door. He knew that she was going to run after him and his tiger purred in pleasure. Without looking back he stepped out of the diner.
Julia watched as Caspian walked from the diner. Her heart was still pounding. He had known that she was more than she seemed, and that could be dangerous for both of them.
When he had spoken to her she thought her heart was going to stop. She had never in her life felt that way with a male.
Her father’s words echoed in her mind. She looked back at the door then back to her plate.
“Is it him?” she asked.
“Yes,” whispered her father.
Before she could stop herself, she was racing after him. She heard the bartender and the man yell after her, but she did not even give them a passing glance.
When she finally made her way out of the diner’s doors Caspian was no where to be seen, but his demonic scent filled the air. It called to her like nothing had ever before and she heeded its call.
Following her nose, she stalked through the crowded streets. People seemed to move out of her way as she made her way out of the village. She walked for what seemed like miles before she finally felt Caspian’s presence.
She stopped in her tracks and turned towards the forest. She could feel his eyes on her as she stepped towards the silent trees. His scent filled the crisp air filling her nostrils with its exotic flavor.
Throwing the pack towards one of the many trees that lined the road, she took a deep breath and pushed forward. Forcing her shoulders back and her chin up, she walked through the forest with a sure step.
It was dark and the light was fading fast under the thick canopy as she continued forward. The sounds of darklings slithering through the trees made her wary, but she knew that she could take one if she had to.
She continued forward until Caspian’s scent vanished. She stopped and took another breath, but she could not distinguish his scent in the air.
The trees groaned as they swayed and her heart beat jumped slightly with every sound they made.
Without so much as a sound, Caspian shot out of the trees. He hit her with such force it knocked her back. Her back hit the forest floor causing the breath to be knocked out of her. She gasped just as Caspian’s body trapped her beneath him.
Caspian looked down at the female beneath him. Her soft warm body called to him at such an elemental level that he wanted to stay like this for the rest of his life.
Her bright blue eyes stared up at him as her hair tumbled out of her pathetic looking hat. It was the color of desire, of passion and it took his breath away.
Then before he knew what was happening, he was flying through the air. He quickly turned and landed on his feet like any self respecting feline would. He looked back at the female to see her pushing her self to her feet and dusting off her pants.
“That was totally uncalled for!” she snapped.
The female’s eyes blazed with such fury that it made a shiver run up his spine.
“And throwing me through the air was not?” he smirked at her.
He knew that if looks could kill, he would have been writhing on the floor at that moment.
“That would not have happened if your big ass had not tackled me!” the female growled.
“Big ass?” he laughed.
She sneered at him as she stalked forward. The female was at least more than a foot shorter than himself, but she did not let that stop her.
“You are such a child,” she snapped.
“You don’t know anything about me,” he snapped back. “So I would watch what you say to me, Woman.”
“I know that you use your size to try to intimidate people and sorry to burst your egotistical bubble, but it does not work on me!” the female growled.
He watched her, desperately trying to keep the smile that he was fighting off his face. He could not remember ever feeling this invigorated in his entire life.
“Why did you follow me, Woman?” he asked.
“The name is Julia, and don’t act like you did not want me to follow you,” the female exclaimed. “You did everything except roll out the red carpet for me.”
He watched as Julia crossed her arms accidentally forcing her breasts higher and causing his heart to skip a beat. His blood began to boil. No one had ever spoken to him in such a way, except for his mother.
“What are you?” he asked.
He was a bit nervous of her answer, but he had to know. He had to know why he felt like this when he was close to her.
Julia flipped her hair over her shoulder as she puffed out her chest.
“I am your worst nightmare,” Julia sneered. “I am the creature that haunts your dreams at night. I am the creature that makes you afraid to go to sleep. I am the most powerful being that your pathetic mortal eyes will ever see. I am an angel.”
He stared at her for a moment before a laugh flew from his lips. Then another and another, until one blended into the other. His gut protested, but he could not stop himself.
“What’s so funny?” Julia snapped.
“A little snip like you is my worse nightmare?” he mocked. “You can’t truly believe that.”
He wiped a tear from his eye as he watched Julia. Her eyes flashed in rage and confusion, but it did not frighten him. It made him want to tease her more. To bring out such fearsome emotion from the little female before him.
“I’ll show you,” Julia whispered.
He watched as something amazing happened. Julia’s eyes began to glow, the light shot out of her eyes in a demonic sort of way. Her body began to shine as if a thousands suns came to life beneath her very skin.
A stream of light tore through her back and quickly formed into two perfectly shaped white wings. Even her clothing began to change, turning from the ill fitting dirty rags, which had once covered her body, to fine white silk that hugged her body in layers.
He had never seen something so breath taking in his entire life. She looked nothing like the woman that inhabited his world. Where they were all tall, Julia maybe came up to his chest. Where they had no shape, she had curves in places that he had only seen in his dreams.
He watched as Julia bowed up at him before she sneered, “Now are you scared? Do you wish you had rethought your words?”
Julia cursed herself for being so easily angered, but she could do nothing to help it now. It must be her red hair like her sisters are always telling her, but it was too late to second guess herself at that moment, the damage was done.
She was shocked when Caspian did not run at the sight of her. He just stood there, staring at her as if she was a fine piece of art that was on display.
Then she saw something that in all her four hundred years of living she had never seen. Caspian smiled and took a step towards her. He did not scream, he did not cower, and he did not even shiver. He just stood there with a stupid grin on his overly handsome face.
“No,” Caspian whispered.
“What?” she asked startled.
“You asked if I wished to of spoken to you differently and I answered no,” he explained.
“Why?” she asked truly confused by his answer.
“Then I would have never been able to see you like this. The thing I don’t understand is why do you would hide?” Caspian asked. “Why do you cover up your beauty?”
She stared at him, his words ran through her mind. No one had ever called her beautiful before and his words touched her in the very depths of her immortal soul.
“Beauty?” she whispered.
Her breath caught in her chest as Caspian’s eyes roamed down her body. He studied her as if he was going to be tested on every freckle that marred her tan skin. He did not miss one line, or one flaw as his eyes scanned over her.
“Has no one ever told you that fact?” Caspian asked.
“No,” she whispered. “I am below average where I come from. There are hundreds lovelier than I am.” .
When Caspian did not say a word she looked up. He stood before her, his face perplexed and riddled with unshed disgust. She fidgeted under his intense stare, which seemed to break him from his thoughts.
“That is impossible,” cooed Caspian so sincerely that she almost believed him. “You have been beautiful since the day you took your first breath.”
She watched as Caspian stepped towards her with no hesitation, but he did proceed with an awkward slowness as if she was a skittish filly. When he was no less than two feet in front of her he stopped.
He towered over her five-ten frame, which was not that surprising because everyone on Ventra was freakishly tall. Caspian made her feel dainty and feminine for the first time in her life.
“Why don’t you fear me?” she asked. “I don’t understand?”
“Do you want me to fear you?” Caspian asked in a soft cooing voice.
“No,” she huffed.
She looked down to ashamed of herself to look him in the eye. She sucked in a startled breath when his fingertips touched her cheek. They were rough and callused, but they were so warm.
They trailed down her cheek, over her lips, and down to rest on her beat pulse, which was keeping the beat of the conga.
“Why should I fear someone just because they are different?” Caspian chirped. “I promise you that next to me, you look so normal you’re boring.”
Caspian looked on as Julia’s shoulders began to shake, then when she could not hold it in any longer an almost silent laugh slipped from her lips. That one giggle seemed to break the dam that was keeping her laugher at bay because all at once they began spilling out.
As he watched her he could feel a true smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, but instead of forcing it back like he would normally do, he let it form.
His heart swayed with the sound of Julia’s laugher, but it did not compare to when her joy filled eyes locked with his. He thought his knees would buckle under his weight, but some way unknown to him, he continued to stand.
Her bright blue eyes stared through him, right to his very soul or at least what was left of his. He wanted to reach out and drag her to him, but he pushed down the impulse.
He did not understand why he was so affected by this woman, this angel, but it did not scare him. He knew that the woman before him was someone that would change his life. The problem was, was it for the good or for the bad.
“Mate!” growled his tiger.
It took all his self control to keep his tiger in check. Its outburst had surprised him and had all most burst free. He could feel it rubbing against his belly racking its claws with every touch. It wanted to come out and it shocked him how much he wanted to release his control.
He wanted to loosen the reigns on his beast, to let it rule his actions a little. He had never felt that way before, but as his tiger stated, Julia was his mate. She was the one woman that was truly his and no one else’s.
He took a deep breath drawing his mate’s scent deep into his lungs. Her aroma filled his senses like a drug. It over powered him, made him weaker than he ever was, but at the same time, more powerful than he ever hoped to be.
“Thank you for that,” Julia giggled.
He watched as she wiped a tear from her eyes before she looked fully at him. Her bright blue eyes were like the sea, open and never ending. A person could stare at those eyes forever and never find the end. They could even get lost if they were not careful.
“You’re so different from others I have met,” his mate expressed. “You are such a breath of fresh air. I have no idea why you don’t shy away from me and at the moment, I really do not care. You have no idea what it feels like to be feared by all that looks upon you. To have people run from you not for whom you are, but for what you are.”
“I might know that feeling even better than you, Julia,” he thought.
“I’m glad I can be useful for something,” he answered aloud.
A smile spread across his mate’s face and it broke his heart. For something so beautiful to feel so alone was not right. He knew why people might fear her, but just one look should have been enough to quell their fears.
As he pushed a strand of his overly thick hair out from in front of his face he noticed how dark it was getting. He could hear the darklings slowly moving through the forest as if drawn to Julia by her power and her light.
He did not fear them, but he could not let them harm his mate. They were still beasts and were still unpredictable. He looked back down at Julia to see her looking up at him, her eyes filled with confusion.
“We need to get moving,” he stated.
Without waiting for her answer he lightly grabbed her arm and tugged her after him. He moved through the forest with ease, but his mate did not come without a fight.
“What?” Julia asked. “Why?”
His mate tugged her hand, but he did not release her. He knew that if she truly wanted to get free she could of with no problem, but she refused to use her true strength.
“It is not safe for you here,” he explained. “I must get you to a safer location.”
He could feel Julia tense and he finally looked back at her. He stopped under a huge tree, whose branches were as thick as a full grown man.
His mate’s eyes were trained on their surroundings. They watched every movement, she heard every sound, and he knew she could feel the darklings following them.
“You need to change back,” he whispered softly. “They seem to be drawn by the strange energy that you are amending.”
He did not have to ask her twice. Before he had finished his mate’s body had began to glow. He watched as she quickly changed back into the form that he had first seen her in, but luckily she had not donned that ugly hat.
With a smile he turned and started walking through the forest. The darklings continued to follow them, but less congregated around them this time. He knew that if he had to, he would protect his mate from the creatures that have protected him all his life.
Julia swallowed a cry as a darkling bumped softly against her leg before darting back into the growing darkness. Before she noticed what she was doing she tightened her grip on Caspian’s hand. Suddenly her unease disappeared as if it had not been there to begin with.
In the back of her mind though, it replayed the story of an angel who had been caught by a pack of Concuns. Those darklings had torn that angel apart, but it was only a story. But even if that was true, she did not want to test her theory.
She looked ahead to see Caspian’s large back filling her view. He lead her through the darkness with such ease that she could not bring herself to truly be afraid.
As they walked, she slowly started to notice how the darklings acted around him. They moved out of his path without any coxing from Caspian. They acted as if he was their alpha, their leader, and by the way he carried himself Caspian seemed to believe it as well.
He did not seem to fear these creatures at all. He appeared to be calm and collected even as they rubbed up against him. And as she watched she began to believe that maybe, he was their alpha.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“Some place safe,” Caspian grunted under his breath.
“No, duh, stupid!” she said sarcastically. “But where are we going? Does this “safe place” have a name?”
When he did not answer her she did the only thing she could think of. She locked her legs. Caspian was quickly jerked to a stop and she refused to budge until she got her answer.
“I am not moving another inch until you get off your high horse and tell me where you are taking me,” she reported.
Now that he was facing her she lightly snatched her hand out of his and glared up at him. Caspian looked down at her, his face blank of any emotion, but she knew that he was a tad bit pissed at her.
“I am taking you to the safest place I know,” Caspian answered. “I am taking you to my home, we should be safe there.”
His voice never wavered when he spoke, but for some reason she knew that he was a bit scared to bring her there. As if he was scared that she would not be safe there.
Her heart bled from him. She wanted to wrap him in her arms and tell him every thing was going to be alright. She looked into his eyes and for a moment did not see the strong demon that stood before her, but a child that had been hurt and needed someone to love him again.
She pulled her eyes away from his and painted a smile so false, it even felt wrong.
“Well then we better get moving,” she chirped. “The house is not going to come to us and my feet are killing me.”
She started forward with no Earthly idea where she was going, but she knew that Caspian would not let her stray far. Before she was even a yard ahead of him Caspian latched his hand around her’s and passed her.
With a smile she happily fell into step behind him, letting him lead her to safety.
Please comment any advice would help.
Chapter 3 coming soon.
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