Tainted Read Online Free PDF Page A

 
    I had it blocked.  What happened?  “Stop reading my mind.  And I believe you said I lacked brain cells so that would be hard for me to do.”  I rolled my annoyed-to-no-end eyes purposely.  One minute insults, the next compliments.  After closing my eyes briefly and holding my breath to block him out, I knew it would work as long as I wasn’t talking, but being able to think, respond, and block was complicated. 
    “Very good!  You are amazing,”he stopped himself from advancing forward with actual real shock and maybe a little awe.  I knew the glint in his eyes and what it meant.    
    “Please don’t.  Pike, what do you want from me?”
    “A chance to show you your options.”
    “There aren’t any.  I was claimed by Ian.  The prophecy is fulfilled.  You’re the only road block."  I paused then added,  "And Kin.”  My head was trying to convince me of something as the truth but really my heart knew it is an outright lie. All three of these men were important somehow.  I just wish someone would let me in on the little secret of why or how the other two factored into the equation. 
    “Am I?  Or do you not find your own road blocks to substantiate an excuse.”
    “Stop it.  You don’t own me.  Don’t try to sway me.”
    “I’m not.  Just making you think about your own swaying.  And you’re the one exception to the claiming.”
    “Why are you here?  And what do you mean?” 
    “Isn’t it obvious, Grace?” Pike opened his arms wide at the sound of my name.
    “I think you should go, cheerio.”  My name.  They liked to use my name against me.  I waved my hands at him wanting to be alone faster than he was letting me.  
    “As you wish, Grace, my queen.  If you should need me, just call.”  His voice was so soft and purring.  He really meant it, I think, even above the “I’m so sexy I won’t get let down” voice going on with it.  He was so confusing.
    As he faded back into the shadows my mind saw Pike as two separate things. Unfortunately, the rationalization wasn’t sane.  One described him as a multi-layered Twix bar that you never seemed to find the bottom layer too.  The other...a giant can of mixed nuts.  He couldn’t just be one kind of person. 
    Funny, the word need .  It had the power to question what one really wanted and really need ed.  It had the power to persuade or deny one’s own true desires.  Or does it?  What does one really need?  And who really marks one's destiny?  I was somehow destined for being the Fey court queen without much order giving, destined for this prophecy that isn't precisely readable to the naked eye, and destined for being guarded by not one but three Fey princes all fighting for what...I wasn't entirely sure.   I just followed the flow the last few months and only now am I freaking out at the prospect of going forward another step.  
    I sat there for at least another hour or so in thought.  The water sprites were true to their abilities and continued dancing after I was alone again.  He was most likely still in the shadows watching and waiting for me to need him so I blocked with everything I had.
    When I started to stand, a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind, the same hand that grabbed my shoulder a hundred times over my lifetime. I seated myself again out of being polite to the forced hand that still to this day gave me small shivers all up and down my back.  I wished the sudden shift in wind would die back down for Pike’s scent hadn’t left the air yet. \
      Guessing he was having trouble facing me by the way he stood directly behind still, I broke the silence first. He was here and that was most important.  “How did you know I was here?”
    “I don’t sleep, Grace.  And I always know where you are.  It’s my duty.”
    Duty?  Duty! I couldn’t hold it in.   “Duty?  Why does it have to be duty, and not for want of seeing me?”
    “That’s not what it meant.”
    “It is, though.