Ilena

10

It had been five hours but we were finally finished and Fritz had warmed up to me now that we had gotten to know each other. He had pulled out a bottle of wine about two hours ago and we were already on our fourth.

"NO, he didn't." I exclaim, laughing as Fritz tells his story.

"Yes, yes, my father the ancient, decided that it would be a great idea to run to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Unfortunately, the stewards were having a meeting in the kitchen and he hadn't bothered to put any clothes on. So, the proud ancient he is he struts in gets his snack and then quickly struts out. Leaving everyone gaping open mouthed. I nearly died when Sarah told me what had happened, she was standing guard that night." He said and busted out laughing once again, I nearly fell out of my seat laughing. I just couldn't imagine, he's thousands of years old and he was literally caught with his pants down.

"Wow." I said smiling as filled my glass once again.

"Your grandfather was quite the character, said he enjoyed shocking people, said in his old age you have to invent something new just to keep from being bored. Too easy to be serious all of the time as an ancient." He said smiling and then went to look for something on a desk near the wall.

"Wait, what grandfather, what are you talking...?" s**t how did he know.

"Your name, Ilena, its very unique, so unique that I who am over a thousand years old have only heard of one other person ever having it. It was my sisters best friend, before we found out that we would never age and she would. They went everywhere together until hunters from the east came and...killed her. My sister swore if she ever had a daughter that she would name the baby after her. Don't worry your secret is safe with me, I never was close with mother and I nearly killed her myself when she placed a bounty on Alex's head." He said and seemed to find what he was looking for, opening a box and pulling out a small piece of jewelry. "This was hers and I know that she would want you to have it...just don't let anyone see you wearing it while your here." He said and placed it in the palm of my hand. I was white gold from what I could tell and in the shape of a raven, every detail impeccably carved.

"Thank you." I said and placed it on my ring finger, it almost seemed to adjust itself to the right size. "I'll take it off before I go back upstairs." I said staring down at it.

"You look a lot like her, I'm surprised Mother hasn't noticed." He said refilling his glass.

"She said that I look like someone she knows, maybe she has noticed." I said starting to worry.

"Don't worry just act like you don't know about Alex or that ring and she'll have no evidence to incriminate you with." He said patting me on the shoulder. "Ok, I sent up the paperwork and she will send for you so she can sign it soon. So, you better go ahead and get back to it, maybe we can meet up again before you leave." He said more than asked as he motioned for me to drink up and I did and then stood, collecting my things. "Oh, one more thing. Is your hair a style choice or did you have a run in with Mother's favorite Griever?" Fritz asked, opening a drawer in his desk.

"Its not a style choice." I say frowning, "Why?"

He pulls out a vial filled with red liquid and hands it to me. "Jonathan was such an asshole. This will make you hair grow back in a couple of hours instead of having to wait for a whole month, just drink it and wait. No side affects to worry about."

"Thank you.", I say while popping it open and swig it down, it tastes like animal blood mixed with cherry cough syrup. "That's disgusting, but if you say it works I'll believe you. I hope Ill see you later." I say, he smiles and finally shakes my hand as he opens his door and I stepped out of it. I stand there as I hear him locking the five locks up the side of it and look down at my ring, her ring, its beautiful and its kind of nice to have something of hers.

I sigh deeply and head into the hallway that leads to the staircase. The torches here are all out now, just the ones in the larger room are still lit but with my night vision I shouldn't need the light so I push on.

After a few steps I hit something hard, I'm only halfway down the hallway so I know I didn't hit a wall. I'm pushed backwards and then I feel a large hand wrapping around my throat and picking me up off the floor as it carries me back into the larger lit room. I struggle against him but once in the light I see he must be at least four times my size. He's cutting off my wind pipe and while vampires don't need to breath like humans we still need air to live and he is crushing my neck at the same time. 'f**k what the hell did I do to deserve this.'

Something in his eyes tells me he doesn't care whether I live or die and even more than that he will enjoy killing me. I struggle to take in a breath and place my hand on his chest, using all the spark I can manage, I filter it into his chest. Instantly he drops me and is flung several feet away, crashing into the floor. I’m trying to cough my way into breathing again when I hear something behind me and swing around to find at least twenty men staring down at me, anger or shock filling their features.

"Don't tell me, your with him?" I struggle to ask as I stand while rubbing my throat and slowly start backing away from them. A couple are even growling but they are all wearing masks. I wonder who their hiding from. My feet are kicked from under me and suddenly I'm falling backwards, my head hits the wall and my vision fails and returns just as my back lands hard on the dirt ground and I use my hands to steady my fall but unexpectedly the moment my hands touch the surface a large electrical current leaps out and attacks rendering them all unconscious, all except for one.

He's standing in the middle of them looking around wide eyed, he has two options, run or stand and fight, I'm hoping he runs but I have no such luck and he charges me, careful to miss is comrades with his steps. He pushes me into the wall and I try to throw my current at him but it has no effect, he grabs my arms and pins them to the side of my head and stares down at me.

"I don't believe in hitting a woman but your pushing it." He growls at me but there seems to be something familiar in his voice.

"Why don't you tell that to your hound that tried to crush my neck for doing nothing more than accidently running into him." I growl back at him but my throat is still a bit rough and my words come out hoarse sounding.

He looks over at his fallen man but still holds a tight grip on me. "Your still one of them!" His growls again and pushes me even harder into the wall.

I lean my head forward as much as I can and look him in the eyes, "Maybe you should check your facts, Titan!"

"Maybe neither of us should make assumptions we know nothing about." He said seeming to calm down and loosen his grip a little. I hear a loud bang, a blinding light and then my entire right shoulder feels like its on fire. I open my eyes to see the man that had been holding me sunk to the side wall groaning in pain. I touch my shoulder and see blood when I pull away my hand, looking up Fritz is running towards me, holding a shotgun and seems to be yelling something but I cant hear him. I look down at the man again, his heart beat is pounding in my ears, the scent of his blood his filling my nose, his scent filling my senses, his blood its almost like its....I look down at my wound and then to his. The shot had gone through him and into me, its him, he's my...

Suddenly I am being grabbed and the room is spinning around me or maybe flying by me, then I'm back in my rooms, my guys standing around me with wide eyes and Fritz is breathing heavily as he sets me down on the couch.

"Well, I haven't moved that fast in a long time." He smiles as he sits down next to me. Charles and Evan are instantly at my side, checking my wound.

"Hold on I can get it out." Evan states and holds his hand over my shoulder. "This is going to hurt." He says cringing and I hold onto Fritz with my left hand. I hear a ripping sound and pain tears through me, I groan in pain and grip Fritz too hard and he's complaining. "There I think I got it all." Evan says triumphantly and holds out his hand filled with small bits of metal.

"Thanks." I say and get up, heading back towards room, "I have to get changed." I say quietly, the moment I'm inside I close and lock the door behind me, I sink to my knees and scream. Thank God these rooms are sound proof, why did he have to be a bad guy. Why did we have to meet this way, is he dead, will I ever see him again, does he even know what we are? I cry, I cant stop the flow of tears from my unending questions. I double over I'm crying so hard and suddenly there's hair in my face, falling long enough to double over a couple of times onto the floor in front of me. Great timing!

A knock at the door behind me startles me out of my thoughts and I wipe my face and stand to face the door. Opening it I find Charles standing on the other side of it, one look at me and he’s pulling me into his arms, into a gentle but strong hug. He threads a hand through my hair, pulling my head against his chest.

"I'm sorry, are you alright?" Charles asks sounding worried, then pulls back and inspects my shoulder.

"I'll be fine, physically anyway." I say quietly.

"And emotionally, mentally, what's that looking like?" He asks smiling weakly, brushing some hair away from my face.

"I'm...I don't know." I sigh loudly and sink my head in his chest once again, he pulls me another step into the room and shuts the door behind him.

"Tell me." He pleads, he is my maker, my friend and has been my lover, I have no deeper connection in this world than with him, if I'm going to tell anyone it will be him.

I sigh deeply, even I barely believe what I'm about to say. "I found him, my mate." I say disbelieving my own words.

"That's great, where is he, who is he?" He says smiling but then sees the look on my face and frowns. " What's the catch?"

"He was with the group that attacked me, he was the only one who wasn't affected by my spark. Fritz shot him and the shot went through him and into me, mixing our blood. That's how I found out. He's the enemy and I don't even know if he's alive or if he been caught by the guard or if he even knows what we are? I didn't even see his face it was covered by a mask and he might not recognize me with my hair." I sink down onto the bed, my head in my hands, quiet tears flowing down my face. " And you know what the worse part is, I already belong to him because of his blood on the bullets and he doesn't."

"Hey, hey, were going to find him, I'll have Fritz find out what happened to him and I'll have Evan call King Titan see if he sent him here and if he did, who he is. Were going to figure it out, don't worry so much." He tried to smile as he knelt down in front of me and lifted my chin.

"Ok, just don't tell anyone that doesn't need to know. I don't need any help remembering what I never had and already lost." I say weakly and kiss him on the cheek, we stand and he squeezes me with another hug. "I'm going to shower and change, the Queen will be calling for me soon." I say and head towards the shower, its not going to make me feel any better but at least I wont be covered in blood.

I shower and change into a pair of black slacks, black pumps and a loose fitting purple blouse, with a wide neck, wing sleeves, than synchs at the waist. My shoulder is still shredded but the bleeding has stopped and healing has begun, I tape a simple bandage over it, making sure its covered and head back out into the living room but only after I brush my hair which I almost forgot I had.

No sooner had I stepped out of my bedroom had Evan wrapped me in his arms, "Some protector I am, I wasn't even there when you needed me most." He said kissing the top of my head.

"You couldn't of known there would be an attack inside of the capital, I should have been perfectly safe." I say trying to sound positive but I know I'm sounding a bit depressed.

"I still have been there with you, someone should be with you at all times." He said as if coming to a revelation.

"Blake is my body guard, he will accompany me from now on." I say firmly, but he doesn't seem to approve.

"He is even younger than you, he is no match for anyone in this place. No Charles or I will accompany you from now on, I've already had the conversation with him and he agrees so don't try and argue with me." He says and looks like he leaning in for a kiss, I feign pain in my shoulder and lean out of his range just as Charles come around the corner.

"Oh good, your ready, the Queen has requested both of your presence for dinner where she says she will sign the treaty if it is adequate." Charles states ushering us into the living room. He must have heard our conversation and come to help me out.

I turn to him and quietly ask, "Before we go will you fill Evan in on what I told you earlier to avoid any mishaps from happening later." I say and then head off to speak with Blake.

I pull him to the side and whisper, "Blake I need you to get our things together, I want to be able to leave as soon as that treaty is signed. I have a feeling we may be about to over stay our welcome." He nods his head in agreement and heads off to do as I asked. He really is always on my side, I don't think he has ever held anything back from me.

A steward walks into the room, bows slightly and says, "Ms. Ilena and Mr. Evan, the Queen would be honored if you joined her royal-ness for dinner." He ordered and ushered us towards the door. A few minutes later and a very strange look from Evan about the whole mate thing said we would talk about it later and we were walking into a large dinning hall. The room was decorated in old artifacts and paintings from every era even the current one. The queen sat at the end of the table in a large bejeweled chair that spoke of her stature along with her royal purple dress and subtle crown that lay upon her head, her long hair was braided and laid on one side of her chair. I bowed slightly as I came in and after Evan saw what I did he followed suit.

"My Queen, this is Evan the one we spoke of." I say politely.

"AH yes, please come sit." She said motioning to either side of her. To my surprise she had actually had someone prepare real food for us but I did notice the chalices filled with blood for myself and the queen, Evan simply had wine.

"Your Grace." Evan said respectfully as he sat down.

"It's so nice to meet one of your kind and not have to worry about there being some dispute of some sort going on. So please tell me how you met Ilena?" She says picking up her glass of blood and sitting back in her chair.

"Well I saw her having a bit of trouble with some Grievers and I don't believe in letting any beautiful creature go to waste. So I decided to step in and assist the little lady." He said sounding as charming as ever, if I didn't know better I would think he was going to try and hit on the queen.

"I hope she thanked you appropriately." The Queen exclaimed looking between us.

"I believe she has adequately thanked me for the deed." Evan said smiling widely, I hope he remembers he's eating with the enemy.

"Well, she has saved your life or didn't you know. When you entered our junction, our little Ilena stood up for you, she traded her own life for yours. Luckily for her you have behaved since you have gotten here. We were worried that you had an ulterior motive to coming." She said as politely as she could even thought the context could have been nicer.

"I was attacked before anyone knew I would be the one taking on the treaty negotiations." I say trying to head that idea off at the pass before it becomes a problem.

"That is wonderful to hear, now we can enjoy ourselves!" She said happily. Three hours later we had told a million stories and I felt like I knew both of them better than most people in my every day life. We were laughing like old friends...if I didn't know better. The guards were getting closer to the table with every passing hour, some even seemed to be laughing with the conversation as a way to explain the weird closeness, but I know all to well the Queen was not that type of person. When doing a job you do that job to the T, no leeway, no joking around. No this was an ambush if I ever saw one.

"Oh wow, is that the time." I said looking down at my phone. "We have our last meeting for the treaty in just over five hours, I guess we better get going soon. I hate to ask my lady, but did you see fit to sign the treaty?" I ask as politely as possible, she hasn't made the order yet. There may still be a chance that we can walk out of here in tact. Suddenly I realize as I'm looking down at my phone, the ring Fritz gave me is still on my ring finger. I don't think there is any chance she didn't see it considering that's the hand closest to her, the one I've been using to lift my drink all night. 's**t, s**t, s**t!'

"I did sign the treaty." She said and held out a hand for a steward to bring it to her. Once handed it she opened it, grazing over its text as one would terms of agreement for some trivial lawsuit. "Then I thought...." She stood and walked around to the side of the table I sat on. "Why would I give a treaty to an abomination and the pond scum she's sleeping with." She crooned and the guards moved even closer.

Evan and stood quickly to defend ourselves, "Why sit with us for three hours if you were just going to have us killed?"

"I wanted to know if it would have been worth it to let you live...I decided that it wasn't." She said and took a step closer to the fireplace that I hadn't known was there.

"And the treaty, your going to risk going to war all because the wrong girl presented it to you? Not to mention that you might as well burn that if you kill me because he will come for you and he wont stop until he has vetted out the justice he feels is deserved." I said but at this point I was stalling for time as Evan and I made out way towards the end of the table. " Not to mention that not twenty minutes before you called us to dinner I took a shot gun blast trying to protect your kingdom from invaders."

"For all I know you let them in, and sure its a risk that we would go to war but who says that's not what I want." She said with venom in her voice and threw the treaty into the flames. It was them the guards lunged at us, I used my spark and electrocuted as many as I could as Evan made the others explode with his flame. When they were all down, the Queen had fled and I knew that just meant more trouble was coming. I grabbed Evan's arm and used my speed to get back to the rooms as quickly as possible, where they were in a fight of their own. We dispatched them quickly and even Fritz helped with his shot gun, I guess he was in this with us now.

"Grab what you can carry, we have to leave, now." I said command threading into my tone, interesting, I had never been a leader before. They did as I asked and we readied ourselves for the fight of our lives.

"Wait, there's a way out, in the dungeons where I live. Its how they got in earlier, she doesn't know its there, so it will be less guarded." He said and started to lead the way. I knew he wasn't lying, the men that attacked me had to get in somehow so there had to be a way in and out down there. I just hoped we could get there in time.

We avoided the elevators and took the staircases all the way down to the dungeon, Fritz quickly ran into his apartment and grabbed a couple of things and then we drove even deeper into the wet and grime and dirt, looking for our salvation that we knew might never come.

"Oh Frizzy, where did you go old man?" We heard someone call from far off, it had us quickening our pace so much so that I had to remove my shoes because the heels were sticking in the mud. Two more levels down and still we were no where but Fritz seemed to know exactly where he was going.

"Fritz where is it?" I ask him quietly as we round another corner of empty cages, the mud sinking in between my toes made it hard to keep from slipping.

"I dug tunnel, no one noticed because no one comes down this far. I dug it to get her out, your mother. Our mother said she killed her but I found her down here and I couldn't leave her. So I dug a tunnel and the day I finished I gave her everything she would need and lead her to it. That was near five years ago now, but I knew that if I left that she would go searching for me and find that she had gone. I've had to stay to keep her safe, you understand. But the tunnel it will lead us out, those men must have found it and followed it in to find us." He said sounding a bit scatter brained.

"I get it, but wait Fritz, those men, what happened to them? Were they dead or caught or did they get away?" I asked as we rounded yet another corner of empty cages and have to catch myself on the bars of one of them to keep upright.

"They were all gone when I brought the Guard down here to report it. They seemed to think I had just gone nuts and went back to what they were doing. There wasn't even any blood from the shot gun blast." He said shocked.

"No I saw the blood, he was hurt." I said and just as I had, Fritz stopped and smiled, in front of what looked like a hand dug tunnel. "Great, lets go." I said and we all made our escape. After an hour of running we finally made it out of the back side of the mountain. I tried to wipe off what mud I could and changed into my jeans and boots and we started to hike our way out of their territory.

"I've got a safe house about a four hour hike from the mountain, its hidden so no one knows its there." Fritz said pointing in the opposite direction of the mountain we just came from.

"So that's the plan we just run and hide?" Blake asked sarcastically.

"We can figure out a plan once were safe, right now we are to exposed. If anyone followed us, or if there's patrols to this side of the mountain. They will find us and by the queens orders, they will kill us. We have no time for making plans or having arguments about when we will make plans, we need to get going now!" Charles spouted.

"Lets go." I ordered and marched off in the direction Fritz had pointed. Everyone followed, they really didn't have a choice other wise. I took a couple of steps but then heard a noise from behind the group, I spun seeing two women running up to Charles, one of which was Sarah and she threw her arms around his neck.

"Sarah, you made it." Charles exclaimed.

"Thank God, I caught up to you before you disappeared. I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't find you." She said to Charles smiling and then gave him a chaste kiss. "This is my sister Cara, when I told her what happened she was more than happy to come along. Her and the queen have never gotten along anyway. Come on the Guard have already started getting a search party together, and there gearing up to kill." She said and started pulling Charles towards me.

"Fine, lets get out of here." I said and we bolted, using our speed to get a leg up on our hunters. Evan's arm was looped in mine to help him keep up but at one point he let go, he really didn't need my help at all. An hour and a half later we stopped, we had cut our trip by three hours, we were only an hour from the cabin but I want to make sure that we weren't followed.

"We should work out a code name for me?" I say as Evan comes to walk beside me.

"Right because her royal majesty is after you now." He says mockingly.

"I'm thinking something like Star or Lily." I announce using gestures and all.

"OH No, those are horrible code names, I'll think of something." He states laughing.

"Hey there not that bad!" I exclaim.

"So Charles tells me you found your other half?" Evan asks shyly.

"Yeah, turns out he's a rebel!" I sigh, and scratch my head. Having my hair back has been great but its been itching from the new growth.

"You know your a rebel now too. What does it matter what side he's on anyway, if he's meant to be yours you will work it out." He encourages.

"He also attacked me." I stated plainly, everything else I could over look but he attacked me when all I was doing was defending myself from the others attack on me.

"Well that was stupid, I thought vampires could tell by scent who there mates are?" He questioned.

"He's not a vampire, he's a titan as far as I know. And yes its by scent but sometimes we can only tell by tasting their blood. Unfortunately our good friend Fritz helped me achieve that win." I say sarcastically and roll my eyes.

"Titan's know the first time they meet there mate, its like an internal alarm. Sets off all our senses when we see them, unfortunately its a one time thing. If we lose them and they say change their appearance, it can prove very hard to find. Like my friend..." He stopped for a moment and tilted his head up to feel the wind.

I did the same and several scents crossed my path, one of them just happened to be the man from the dungeons. As if practiced Charles and Evan stalked off into the woods in search of our followers and we kept on our track towards the cabin, acting as if nothing has happened.