He stilled, could feel the blood coursing through his veins. Had he crashed? No, he didn’t think so. Or were all these memories because he’d watched the James Bond movie? He raked his fingers though his hair. He didn’t know what might or might not be real anymore.
“Who am I?” he called out as he walked across the clearing.
Silence was his answer.
The pig watched him leave, then cautiously stepped into the open, sniffing and grunting. A thick fog rolled in and the pig shifted into a woman. She strolled across the clearing, uncaring that she was completely naked.
Laughter bubbled out of her. “Surlock, what have you done that you no longer remember who you are?” This should prove very amusing. The great and mighty Surlock brought to his knees because he didn’t know who or what he was … and with no way to guard his little impure.
Greed filled her. What worth would the king place on his youngest son if he was captured? She expected it would be a huge treasure, maybe his entire kingdom.
Surlock had once rejected her. Her lip curled in a sneer. She knew he’d slept with women of lower class, but he’d dismissed her advances. And now, he wanted to protect the impures, who were nothing at all. Maybe he had even slept with the one she knew he’d been sent to protect.
Revulsion washed over her. The impures were part Earthling and part Symtarian. She didn’t care about them one way or the other, but she disliked the idea one might have been chosen above her.
Not that any of it really mattered now. The impure no longer seemed as important. She would be destroyed eventually. No, Surlock would be the bigger prize. Finally fortune smiled on Excoria.
CHAPTER 13
“So, who is he?” Jennifer asked as she looked out the bedroom window.
“I told you his name is Surlock.” Darcy shrugged, smoothing her hand across the satin bedspread. Maybe she shouldn’t have put Jennifer in the bedroom next to hers. It was a nicely decorated room with clean straight lines, done in yellow and soft white. Still, she’d have to warn Surlock about coming to her room late at night. What if Jennifer heard him? Darcy’s relationship with Surlock was new and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to share it yet.
Jennifer turned, capturing Darcy’s gaze. “We’ve been best friends since college and we’ve always kept each other’s secrets. Remember when I was thrown in jail for breaking and entering? You bailed me out and we didn’t tell a soul.” She visibly shivered. “My father would’ve had a stroke, right after he cut off my allowance, if he’d found out.”
“But once you were inside Jack’s apartment, you were able to destroy the naked pictures before you were caught, so it was worth it.”
Jennifer laughed. “And almost burned down Jack’s apartment in the process, which was why I was caught. He was such a jerk. If he hadn’t gotten me drunk, I wouldn’t have let him take the damned pictures.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “But the thing is, you bailed me out and you never said a word. We’ve always had each other’s back. Except this time you’re not talking.”
Jennifer was right. They had shared a lot, and Jennifer always kept her word. “Okay, but you have to swear not to say anything, no matter how bizarre or strange any of this sounds.”
“That good?”
Darcy planted her hands on her hips. “Swear.”
“Cross my heart.” Jennifer made a motion of crossing her finger over the center of her chest, then hurried to the bed, kicked off her heels and piled in the middle of it. “Tell me everything,” she said, patting the other side of the mattress.
Darcy had to wonder if she was doing the right thing. But then, they had been friends for a long time, and she could always threaten to tell about the pictures if Jennifer breathed a word.
She climbed up in the middle of the bed and sat across from Jennifer. “Remember when I was talking to you the other morning?”
“You mean when you called at some ungodly hour and woke me up?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“I remember.”
“I saw a wolf, so I picked up this big branch to protect myself.”
“Ohmygod, a wolf?” Jennifer’s gaze quickly scanned Darcy. “Did it hurt you?”
“No, now let me finish.”
“Okay, just don’t leave me in suspense.”
“While I was standing there grasping the branch, this really dense fog rolled in and I couldn’t see a thing. When it finally cleared, Surlock stepped out from behind a tree completely naked. He startled me, so I sort of hit him over the head. Now he has amnesia.”
Jennifer pursed her lips. “If you didn’t want to tell me, all you had to do was just say so.” She started to scoot off the bed, but Darcy grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“No, that’s really what happened. I swear.”
She narrowed her eyes. “The truth?”
Darcy nodded. “Swear to God.”
Jennifer’s mouth dropped open, then snapped shut. “Darcy! He could be a vagrant, a serial killer. God, you are so damned gullible.”
“I beg your pardon.” She squared her shoulders.
“You are. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but you fall for everything.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
She shook her head. Now was not the time to get into a did too, did not argument. “There’s more.”
“More. Oh goody. I can’t wait to hear the rest.” She plumped a pillow behind her and lay back. “Please, go on.”
“We have the same birthmark.”
Jennifer’s eyebrows shot up. “The rose?”
Darcy nodded. “He remembered enough to know that he’s here to protect me.” She frowned. “But I don’t think that’s right because I don’t have any enemies.”
“Have you had sex with him?”
Her face felt as though it were on fire.
“Oh, Darcy. Whatever will we do with you? This has to be some kind of prank. Maybe an ex-boyfriend is setting you up.”
“But we have the same mark. Surlock said our whole race has the same mark.”
Jennifer grabbed a throw pillow and pulled it over her face, making some kind of muffled noise that sounded a lot like a groan. She tossed the pillow away. It rolled end over end and fell off the bed, landing on the floor with a dull thud.
“Darcy, he could’ve had a rose tattooed on his ass. Did you really look at it?”
Darcy’s forehead wrinkled. “Not up close. From what I saw, it looked the same.” Was it all a setup? Okay, maybe she could have pissed off a couple of people, who just might set her up because they were really bored, and had more time on their hands than they knew what to do with.
“I wouldn’t put anything past that bitch Amy. Remember how her boyfriend dumped her, then turned around, and asked you out in front of her. She definitely had sparks flying out her eyes.”
That seemed to be happening to Darcy a lot lately—men asking her out in front of their current girlfriend. Jarrod, Amy’s boyfriend, then Peter. She shook her head. “But there’s more.”
“Pray tell.” Jennifer’s words dripped sarcasm.
“We’ve shared dreams.”
One of Jennifer’s perfectly tweezed eyebrows shot upward. “Shared dreams,” she repeated. “I have so got to hear this one.”
“It’s just what I said. We’ve shared dreams.”
“Explain.”
Darcy thought back. “The first time I knew what he’d dreamed. It was about a wolf.”
Jennifer suddenly sat up, her eyes wide. “You’re joking, right?”
Darcy shook her head, and goose bumps popped up on her arms. “No, why?”
“This is really weird. I had a dream about a wolf the other night.”
That was too strange. What if it was all connected—wait, something was wrong. She stared at Jennifer, who was looking way too innocent. “No, you didn’t. You’re lying.”
“But I did. I dreamed I was … running. And you?”
Could she have had the same dream? “It almost felt as if I was one with the wolf.”
“That’s exactly the way it was for me.”
There was something about Jennifer that didn’t quite ring true. Darcy didn’t trust her. “And then there was this big mountain lion.”