Falco Invictus: On the Forge of War (28 page)

“When can I see Roderik?” Aria asked for the
tenth time. One did not wake from the dead every day.

“Do not call him that,” the Queen said. “He
prefers Sharr. And you can talk to him soon.”

Either it was an implanted compulsion or
Aria simply looked for what was familiar to grasp onto. Sharr would
be comfortable to her, someone she associated with pleasant
memories. Thus far, Nadia found no such compulsion in the girl’s
mind. Only a wish to be with someone safe she could trust.

The Queen speculated what it must have been
like, a thirty-three year-old mind awoken into a body hardly out of
adolescence. “Tell me. What do you last recall?”

Aria closed her eyes. “A voice. A voice
thundered, calling out to me. Darkness... my death, I think?” Her
face blanched at the memory. “Then I woke up in a hospital room.
Oberon was there. He told me something bad had happened to me, but
he was going to take me home. I imagine he meant here.”

Nadia frowned. Aria's retelling sounded
disjointed and slightly confused. “Sharr,” Nadia said, “has missed
you very much. He thinks of you often.”

In response Aria simply smiled back. The
reboot remembered at one time she and Nadia had been sort of
friends. But then at the time Nadia had neither been a Queen nor
Roderik a man of such power.

“What year is it, Nadia?”

“It is 2030,” Nadia answered.

“So much time has gone by…”Aria trailed off.
“Things aren't the same are they?” she asked and sounded incredibly
innocent.

Nadia remembered Aria had always spoken in
such a soft wispy manner. It was her girlish disposition, almost a
naiveté, she expressed to the world. Some mistook it for dumbness
and assumed Aria was no more than an empty-headed young woman. It
was such a subconscious integral part of her composition she hardly
noticed how it affected people.

Nadia put a comforting hand on Aria. She had
no right to be angered at her, yet she felt jealousy and didn't
like feeling this way at all. She knew for a fact Sharr felt the
same way when he was around Aria. It had to wrench his heart.
Curious the emotions this DeFalco girl invoked in those near
her.

A memory came back to Nadia. Under the
circumstances she saw no problem with her sharing it. “The first
day we met, you were mad and jealous of me.”

“A little bit,” Aria confessed.

“Go on.”

“It felt strange. I realized that he had at
last given up and I did not like that he might not show me the same
attention as before, even if that’s what I wanted. He was always so
genuinely sweet to me,”Aria admitted.

Like most women she enjoyed male attention,
even if sex was not involved. She knew very well how Roderik had
felt about her. After all, he made no secret of it. Nor did anyone
else.

“But he still had feelings for you.” Nadia's
tone acquired an edge. “It was I who had to compete with you for
his affections. And I was his girlfriend!”

“I'm sorry, Nadia.” Again Aria spoke in her
seductive naïve manner. Was there any wonder that Sharr had fallen
under her spell?

“He worshiped you. All this could have been
yours.” Nadia said, indicating the island as well as the power that
went along with it. She did not like an unsaid thought that had
occurred to her -

And it might still be.

“I was glad that he found you. It seems
you've won,”Aria pointed out, not exactly sure where Nadia meant to
go with this discussion. It made her feel a bit uneasy. “He
couldn't be with me and deserved to find someone else to love and
be happy with.”

“Good. I am glad you recognize what he
felt... feels for you, is honest love.”

“Roder... um, Sharr.” The name Roderik used
sounded foreign to Aria and not right on her lips. “He was never
anything but kind to me. I understand that he was in pain because
of the love he felt for me.” She let out a long defeated sigh. “But
I was glad for him.”

“I don't think that you fully appreciate all
that you represented to him. You were –”

Priyanka returned from the lab and cut the
discussion off between the two women. She carried a small
electronic note pad with the DNA and blood results. Reluctantly,
Priyanka handed the pad to her Queen.

Nadia glanced down at the results, not the
least bit surprised by what they showed her. “Oberon is Sharr's
half-brother.”

“That’s news,” the reboot was truly amazed
by what Nadia had told her.

“Did you also know you're pregnant?” Nadia
casually asked.

It had been meant as a test to see exactly
how involved this reboot was with Oberon's agenda. It appeared
though, to judge by the sense of confusion Aria experienced when
she learned of her pregnancy that she indeed was no more than a
simple, innocent pawn. Wheels within wheels, gears tumbling over.
Nadia found herself almost disappointed by this fact.

Aria was a little perplexed. The body her
mind currently occupied remained virginal and this new fact made
little sense to her. “I don't recall having… I mean, who's the
father?”

Nadia looked at Aria coldly. “Sharr.”

Aria's shoulders dropped. She did not
understand, now more confused than she had been upon waking up in
Germany weeks ago.

For her part, Nadia understood all too well.
When Sharr and his people first met the Korelias, her mother made
sure to take a spectrum of DNA samples from each member of the
Phoenix Project. The samples had been in cold storage at GenKon
Inc. Aria's baby would likely be the product of those genes from
before Sharr had undergone The Rashalon.

Sharr gazed out his window down into the
garden below, his hands clasped behind his back in one of his more
natural postures. The rain had not let up for days. Perhaps
tomorrow would bring the sun?

A bell chimed.

“Enter,” the Shotar said, but he did not
turn from his rain soaked view. Lightning flashed out the window,
the sound of thunder vibrating in his bones.

“Look at me,” the Queen demanded. She was
one of the few who could speak to Sharr Khan in such a curt manner
and remain unscathed.

The Shotar slowly turned his head. He was
struck when he beheld the reboot of Aria beside his mate. He held
his breath and his heart pounded in his ears.

“Breathe!” Nadia snapped, her clipped tone
masking her anger. “There are things that I need to tell you.”

Aria glanced over at the desk. A frosted
glass decanter with a curved neck, a half-gone vibrant blue liquid
almost glowed whenever lightning cracked outside the large window.
On the desk's corner, nearest Sharr the crushed remains of a
claw-goblet stood, a testament to the strength of a Falcanian's
enhanced muscle.

Nadia noticed the decanter and goblet as
well. It was easy for her to guess how the goblet had come to be in
the state that it now was. No doubt Sharr had sat here, fumed over
old memories which caused him to simmer to a cool rage. Why had he
at last gotten her in this way? How come he had been denied this
moment years ago? Doubt filled his core. The simple unfairness of
the situation and his own weakness angered him even further, until
with his bare hand he crushed the goblet.

“Have you been drinking?” Aria asked.

Wide-eyed Sharr nodded at Aria. She was all
sweetness. Her rhetorical question was meant to show concern for
her old friend. It was clear to her that he was upset.

As a Falcanian, it was quite difficult to
become inebriated. A surprising amount of alcohol would be required
to achieve such a state; the Shotar had done his best to test those
limits. Yet he was unsuccessful, another one of his failings.

No sooner had she spoken than the reboot
moved nearer to Sharr. He remained a few feet away however afraid
to be touched by her.

Nadia felt ill, her stomach turned and she
wanted to purge its contents. The sweet pleasant expression that
the reboot beamed at her mate made her sick. Any other woman and
she'd have not cared a bit. Her mental control was the only thing
which kept her from surrendering her dignity.

“Oberon is your brother,” the Queen stated
flatly.

With a sideways glance he kept a steady eye
upon Aria who smiled happily at him. “I see.”

“And she is exactly as she appears to be, a
reboot of Aria DeFalco,” Nadia said. “For all intents and purposes,
she remembers who she is, though she doesn't fully understand what
she is. Some of her past is vague, yet for the most part she
remembers you. In truth, rather fondly. There is no real detectable
tampering with her DNA with the exception of her biological age she
is Aria.” A near hysterical smile curved Nadia's lips. She felt a
little cruel at the moment and wanted to stun him with the news.
“Oh, there is one more thing. Aria carries your human baby.”

Sharr was not sure how he should react to
this. A bit surprised, naturally. The fact of this reboot's
pregnancy might complicate his life and matters for the Khanate. He
chose discretion, though Sharr knew that he could not long hide his
feelings from his mate.

“I'll leave you two,” the Queen said
tightly, “so you can become reacquainted.”

Nadia turned on her boot heal, but not
before she let her tail snap back, its pincer clicked in the
silence of the office inches from where Aria stood and caused her
to jerk back.

“Nadia!” Sharr called out to his mate, her
back to him.

Rather than respond, Nadia raised an open
palm to silence him. She had no wish to hear what Sharr had to say
and did not mind making it abundantly clear. The doors of the
office closed behind the angered Queen, her tail still madly
swinging.

Aria quietly watched as this unfolded. She
was upset that she was the cause of Nadia's pain. “I wish I could
make her feel better.”

“Nadia is strong,” Sharr told Aria. “She is
my strength.”

Questions filled Aria's hazel eyes. She
stood there and examined his features. The echo of what he had been
still could be seen in his blue-gray eyes. Yet this man who had
been Roderik Visal, her ardent suitor, had changed in ways that
went far beyond the external. His soul seemed to have been touched
by darkness.

“You look so different. You’ve even regrown
your long hair and goatee.”

“Nadia prefers it.”

Aria smiled. “Oh, I see.”

“Does my appearance frighten you?” Sharr
asked, knowing his wings, tail, and pointed ears might her off.

“Not at all. It's just so different.” An
uncertain expression came across her pretty features. “Roder –
ah...I don't even know what to call you.”

“Whatever makes you comfortable.” That was a
thing Sharr would not have allowed of anyone besides this girl. “It
has been a long while since you spoke to me Aria...” Sharr trailed
off. He hated how their friendship had collapsed. “Are we OK?”

“Yes. We are.”

“You are not treating your wife very
kindly,” the Italian girl stated. She'd only been on this island
for a short while now and she had managed to gather that Roderik
had his pick of women.

Sharr scowled. Aria had just touched the
wrong topic. “Having been Saul's mistress, that is not something
you should be worrying about, Chicklet.”

Definitely not the best place to restart
their relationship that was for sure, this topic of infidelity. It
had always been an unspoken taboo between them. The one thing that
had kept him from telling her how he had felt about her.

Aria smiled at the pet name. Her
recollection of Saul and Roderik's mutual banter was as much for
her own entertainment as it was male bonding remained rather clear
in her memory.

“Don't get touchy,” she said playfully. “I
thought that you and Saul had resolved your issues. You came to
even admire him.”

Saul Berkowitz had not been the most
handsome of the male species. Very much the opposite. Overweight to
an extreme, yet his richly gregarious personality had been able to
win most people over. At first Sharr, had resented Saul for his
affair with Aria. But one day, the older man took Sharr under his
wing and began to reshape him.

“I did admire Saul. I'd even say I am now
who I am because of him.” He looked squarely at her. “Driven by the
fact that he had your affections, I tried as best I could to become
Saul.”

“We never meant to hurt anyone.” Aria could
see the hurt in his eyes. “I didn't know you even cared about
me.”

“And by the time I did tell you it no longer
mattered.”

“You never forgave Brad.”

Sharr felt his blood boil. “No!”

Aria began to see a certain irony in the
situation. “And look what you have become.”

“All I ever wanted to do was tell you that I
loved you.” He hesitated, his heart shredding. “I wanted to marry
you and would have asked you given the chance. Do you know how much
self-control it took to keep that to myself every day?”

That Sharr's instincts about the man Aria
had chosen to be with proved fatefully accurate only had angered
the young Shotar more. Brad Ferraro in physical appearance was a
short, pudgy man minus Saul’s redeeming personality. Sharr had
known himself to be so much more than the thick-set man both in
appearance and personality. Ferraro had been a bad boy, rough
around the edges. He fell into that category of the football lug
and was about as dense as one might expect. And he had money. It
was very little wonder that Sharr despised him from the moment they
met.

She looked down at the rich, burgundy rug.
“After all these years, you still feel that way?”

“Aria, you changed my world. You unlocked my
soul.”

“What happened?” the reboot stammered. “What
happened to the world? To our families and friends. Where did they
all go?”

The abrupt change in subject took Sharr Khan
off guard. Aria leaned closer to Sharr and nearly touched him. He
moved back a step. This was dangerous. Being close to her, made him
lethal...