Araman's Aria Read online

  “That is not an effective area, depending on the man, he could recover too quickly. Here,” she pointed to the spot where his ribcage met, “is a much better place as it will knock the wind out of them and you can then bring them down.”

  Araman looked at Brea with renewed respect for her abilities. He was thankful at the same time she did not feel the need to challenge him in hand to hand. He was unsure if he could fend off such an attack.

  “Can a man defend himself against your moves?”

  “It would be hard to teach but it could be done.” Brea realized what he was thinking as she reached for her wine. “You want your underlings to know how to protect themselves better than they do now.” She took a sip before deciding on another morsel from the tray.

  Araman nodded. “Could you teach such a thing?”

  “I could show them how to counter act.” Brea nodded savoring the aftertaste of the smoky meat, “But I would not be able to teach them to recover as I am not a Dia’Qui.” She reached for more.

  “Meaning?” He set down his empty wineglass.

  “A Dia’Qui is a male chakkra healer.” She explained. “Dia’Qui for males and Cin’Goh for females.”

  “Because of the differences in the chakkras?” Araman removed her glass from her hand. “The techniques would be different for each sex.”

  “You understand.” Brea grinned at him popping another piece of cheese in her mouth.

  “I am beginning to.” He caught her hand in his. “Now exactly what is this cleansing and does it include rubbing your body down with soap.” His blue eyes smoldered as he met her gaze.

  “I think we could include it another time, if it would please you.”

  “It would. Why not now?” Araman stood up dragging Brea with him. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bathroom and commanded the computer to fill the tub with medium warm water setting her to her feet.

  “Because, this is your first cleansing and other energies can not be mixed up with it.” Brea removed her clothing. She was looking forward to wearing her loose silk kimono. She did not like the feel of the tightness of the Terrian clothing. It explained to her why the women of the planet were nasty. Their blood flow was cut off.

  “I see, baby steps.” Araman tore his clothes off and was first to step into the water. As his foot touched the edge the water began to swirl creating a surface of foamy bubbles. Brea stepped in beside him handing him a bar of soap.

  “Until you are able to feel and separate the energies it would be safer. Besides, I already rescued you once today, I’m not sure I have the energy to do it again.”

  His chuckling echoed against the cream tiled walls as he began to lather up his hands. Brea turned her back to him and felt the tingling in her energy the instant he touched. She could feel his energy reaching out for hers. She did so love the roughness of his hands against her skin.

  She stepped away when his hands skimmed over the top of her buttocks. She turned around shaking her head at him.

  “I had to at least try.” Araman shrugged.

  “You sound like Santari,” she lightly accused him.

  “Now that was a low blow.” He said as Brea turned him around to wash his back. It was when he faced her again she faltered letting her hands glide up the ripples of his abdomen enjoying the hard muscle beneath her touch.

  His hands caught hers in his. “If you don’t want me to rise to the occasion I suggest we get on with the cleansing.” Araman’s eyes were beginning to haze over with his want of her.

  “I think you’re correct.” Brea smiled, stepping back and watching him finish bathing. With a sigh she did the same. She took a few slow deep breaths to get her energy focused away from Araman.

  He helped her wash her hair admiring the color under the water as the spirals relaxed under the weight. Both feeling much cleaner they got out of the draining tub and headed to the kitchen.

  “So what happens during the cleansing?” Araman asked leading Brea up the staircase to the loft bedroom. Brea looked up at the glass ceiling the bed sat under. The Orpheaus night sky was twinkling above. His response was a pat on the bed in front of her.

  Candles were lit on the single dresser and nightstand as the music softly drummed in the background. Brea sat in the middle of the bed, settling in with her legs crossed.

  “Sit the same way and face me.” She instructed.

  “Like your first night with me?” Araman asked crawling onto the bed. She nodded and waited until he placed himself.

  Both began to breathe in deeply, hold it and exhale. Brea levitated her hands above Araman’s letting her energy slowly mix with his. As she inhaled her body straightened to allow his chakkras find hers. Delicate tentacles of mist formed around Araman’s meditating body and gingerly sought out Brea.

  She felt the pull of her aura into his and the familiar way their energies mixed. What she was not expecting, was to be catapulted into the center of his third eye. Her mind felt like it had been sucked through a vortex as she sought to gain control over the situation.

  Araman felt her presence within his mind. He could feel her moving about in his memories. He knew he should expel her but yet was hesitant to.

  “Relax and breathe.” Her voice floated inside. “You can not hurt me.” She felt his apprehension wan. She also felt something within him surface immediately.

  It was guilt. He had lied to her about the visit to Orpheaus Six, in order to protect her. He and Santari were on a mission. She removed her presence before he detected her. He was already searching for her within his thoughts.

  As his mind relaxed, Brea was tossed into the middle of his memories as a silent observer. A woman quickly appeared then faded just as she emerged leaving a residue of familiar energy. She was kneeling down over a little boy playing with a red ball. The child looked up and by his eyes, Brea knew she was watching Araman as a child. During the brief glimpse she felt the woman’s motherly love for her son before it faded.

  Brea turned around and watched as a younger man knelt in front of a wall with a flower. His hurt was raw and fresh. She sensed the burning anguish within him knocking the breath out of her. A man resembling him put an arm on his shoulder.

  “Come Son, there will be other women. You’re still young.”

  A boyish Araman looked at his father. “We were going to marry.” He was angry with the older man. “She was not disposable!” An intense wave of anger and hatred filled Brea’s head.

  “Release it Araman!” She yelled out. “Release his poison, he is beyond your thoughts to change. Push it out with your next breath.” The emotional grip let go as she felt Araman take a deep air full into his lungs.

  Things around her faded into black as another image surrounded her. This time she stood in an office where Araman was read the message that his girlfriend had been killed in a crash in the flyer her brother piloted.

  The scene shattered like a glass on slate as a blonde woman approached. She was tall and curvy. Brea instantly disliked her recognizing his first wife. She had long wavy hair, wide blue eyes and full pouty red lips. She walked like she was on the hunt for her next victim.

  “No!” Araman tried to pull away breaking contact with Brea’s mind but she held him there.

  “It wants to release Araman.” Her calming voice penetrated his brain.

  Brea turned back to the woman. The stage around them brought the memory back to Araman’s apartment. He is standing there consumed by anger at the realization it was his wife who was trying to have him killed. It was his wife who was feeding the information to the enemy of their locations.

  The anger turned into molten lava brewing in the pit of his stomach when he thought of the faces of his dead men because of the treachery. The anger briefly turned to despair at the thought of the many men he lost because of her. The lava erupted. To Brea’s horror she stood watching Araman’s fingers wrap around the woman’s throat. She looked up to see Santari standing there.

  Brea was thrown b
ack from the intensity of Araman’s emotions exploding. Around her fire flared and fusillade were being detonated crumbling buildings. The tumbling rock exposed soldiers leaving them vulnerable and easy targets. Rapid laser fire showered like a heavy rainfall over the open space.

  Santari’s voice made Brea turn to see him dragging Araman’s charred body through the rubble, avoiding the crossfire.

  “You die on me you friggish son of a bitch, so help me I’ll hunt you down in the next realm and kill you myself.”

  “Leave me, Santari.” Araman tried to push his commander away. “Get the rest out.” His breathing became ragged as his eyes began to close. “And kill the bastard that set us up.” His body went limp against Santari.

  Brea opened her mind to the universe and brought down a pillar of white light over Araman.

  “Push the memories into the light, feel them leave you, feel the light fill the space they left.” Her voice echoed in his mind. Brea felt his burden lift releasing her own negativity with it.

  “Now here’s the part I like.” Her lilt filtered into his mind.

  Araman felt her hands take hold of his before sending his mind flying against the Orpheaus night sky. He looked down to see the waves of the purplish black ocean calmly lapping at the shoreline. He could smell the spicy air as he glided.

  “Follow me.” Brea led him further up into the black jeweled canvas. They pierced the atmosphere flying with their minds into the endless night of the universe. She led him past the birth of stars and through the death of solar systems until they hovered over a small galaxy.

  It was made up of a small sun and five planets orbiting around. The outer edge held the same clutter of dust like the Terrian Milky Way. Stars twinkled brightly in a silver and gold spectrum surrounding the tiny solar system.

  “It is a simpler world than most.” Brea thought.

  “If Shinwa is like you, then it is anything but simple.”

  Brea felt a sharp pain in her heart at the thought of visiting. She longed to walk through the tree roots of the trees that touch sky. The idea turned from a warm melancholy yearning into the ice-cold grip of fear at the realization she was being called to Shinwa.

  Araman felt the shift in mood and in his mind reached out to her and held her. Brea’s fright was instantly gone. So long as Araman was near no harm would come to her, physically or otherwise.

  “We should end the cleansing.” Brea told him.

  “How?”

  “You think yourself back.…” Before she could finish her sentence with the word slowly, Araman’s presence disappeared.

  At the very thought of being back inside his body Araman felt something slam against him and knock him over. He wondered who hit him with the sledgehammer for all he could see was stars.

  “If you had waited for my instructions you would not feel like you had a rock fall on your head.” Brea looked over at Araman sprawled onto his back.

  “I’ll try to listen better next time.” He rolled up onto one elbow and rested his head on his hand. He rubbed his brow with the other.

  “Next time?” Brea seemed puzzled.

  “Just because I had a rough landing doesn’t mean I won’t try again.” Araman smiled to her. “What happened to you?”

  “I felt the pull of home again and it startled me.”

  “Startled?” Araman raised an eyebrow at her. “I felt your fear Brea. Is it the call for home you told me about?”

  “I don’t know because once I am aware that you are near it goes away.” She shook her head. “I do not understand.” Brea glanced up to him. “I was hoping to find the answer to my question during the cleansing.”

  “About that,” Araman started on a serious note. Brea put her fingers to his lips.

  “I understand. I saw what happened.”

  “What do you mean you saw what happened?” Araman sat up.

  “I saw the battle that you were nearly killed in. I saw the faces of your men she set up to die.” Brea said quietly. “One’s instinct for survival can override ones logic.” She told him as he stood up. “It is over Araman. She is gone and the treachery now lies in a different face.”

  “It may lie in a different face Brea, but hers still haunts me. Hers and the men I was supposed to protect.”

  “You do not honor those men if you feel guilty for giving their unjust deaths justice!” She became angry at his determination to carry the pain. “Better to die at the hands of her husband than at the hands of the state. I am not so foolish to think that under the state her death would have been as kind.”

  “Olean law would have demanded a torturous end for such a traitor.”

  “And you didn’t love her.” Brea told him outright.

  Araman was about to argue but she was right. “No I didn’t.” His voice went quiet. “It would not have mattered if I had.”

  “I have seen into your core, Araman, you could not kill someone you love.…” She held up her hand to keep him from speaking when he opened his mouth. “And someone who truly loved you would never have betrayed you in such a manner. They would rather die themselves.”

  “There are those who are not as honorable as you Lyra.” Araman turned towards the stairs. “You will have to forgive me, but I need a breath of the night air.” He disappeared down the spiraled steps.

  Brea knew he needed some time to himself. The first cleansing is never the easiest especially so for one who has no knowledge. She sank down on the bed realizing that Araman instinctively protected her from the call of home.

  She raised her gaze up to the glass ceiling and watched as the shimmering web of silken silver threaded clouds hovered above hiding part of the sequined night sky. Brea released a slow breath. In her mind she reached out to Araman and told him she would never betray him in such a manner.

  * * * *

  Araman stopped walking as a soft breeze washed over him. He swore he could hear Brea’s soft lilt swirling in the spicy air around him.

  “You are my Chatam Pritam. Breaking faith with you would be my suicide.” The words dissipated in the rustle of the trees.

  He raked his hand over his head and rested it at the base of his skull as his thoughts filled with smoldering green eyes and soft coppery skin beneath his touch. He could smell her heated scent despite the distance as her heartbeat pounded in Araman’s ears. When he closed his eyes he could feel her presence.

  “What the Frigg has that Shinwa witch done to me now?” A pain in his heart started to burn intensely. Araman bent supporting his upper body with his hands locked against his knees as he fought for breath. He thought he was having a seizure as the stabbing pain increased.

  His hand went to either side of his head as he dropped to his knees. All his senses seemed to explode at once inside his brain as he fell forward on his hands. His fingers clenched the cream sand as a burning energy began to shift its scorch from Araman’s heart throughout his body. Hurt and betrayal mixed with the explosive emotions of anger and rage into a vortex sucking the oxygen out of his lungs as he felt them rip from his core.

  As quickly as the emotional hurricane crashed over him, it ebbed away leaving Araman feeling raw. Araman drew in a deep breath to relax his quivering body. He had never felt so vulnerable and yet it felt like his body was shed of extra weight.

  As his senses settled within the rhythm of his body, there was a thrumming in his blood he had never felt before. It was as though Araman was aware of everything around him all at once. He could feel the breeze touch against his skin before it reached him and where the sound of the next birdcall would come from. He could distinguish the scents wafting through the air and smiled when he found a trail of Brea’s cinnamon pheromones.

  The thought of her brought a tug at his loins. Something no other woman could do including his wife. For all the passion Sonya’s lips promised, it was his concubine who shared it with him. Brea was every bit feminine as she was a warrior. Strong as she was beautiful.

  His Shinwa witch had spun a web around
him and Araman knew he was caught. He had been caught the moment she lowered her hood and stared up at him with her exotic eyes. He let out a chuckle standing up thinking of her sodden and angry with his shower.

  The lights of his suite lit up as a petite figure stepped out of the doorway. He turned to watch her head directly towards him.

  ‘Herse was right.’ Araman decided to himself as Brea neared looking as though she was made for the moonlight. ‘There are things much worse than being tied to one woman.’

  Chapter Nine

  “Thank you for your selection. Your account will be debited.” A soft voice came over head of Brea who was inspecting the cloth. It was soft and fine, perfect for her intentions.

  “Please select your next choice from the screen.”

  “Exit please.” Brea turned away from the screen. Eight rejected sets of pants and tops lay on the bed in her efforts to find the right material and shape for Araman and Santari. A couple were too heavy, another too restrictive and the last five were just the wrong materials.

  The final sets were of fine woven silk of eggshell white. The tops were a loose fitting tunic held at the waist by a belt of the same qualities. The bottoms were wide-legged pants held up with a small tie. She brushed a hand over the garments pleased with her gift for the men. Brea already wore hers.

  With a smile she headed to meet the men for lunch at the resort’s patio deck. Crossing the beach, she decided it would be a good spot to teach the men how to counter her skills. The sand was firm enough for balance but soft enough to shift beneath their feet putting them off balance.

  “What do you mean I am over my limit!?”

  Her head snapped up at Araman’s outrage.

  “I am sorry sir but there have been some recent purchases that have expended your daily limit.” The dark little man explained swallowing his nervousness of the large blonde man.

  Araman’s icy glare turned to Santari who was amused by the situation. He threw up his hands and shook his head at his Commandant.

  “Don’t look this way. My expenses are already under scrutiny.”