The Talamute Prince

"Looking for something?" Patrick's voice comes from the balcony and I turn startled. He had one of the flowers in his hands and I look at him more terrified then I've ever been. He walks over to the bed and pulls the panel out from under the mattress and examined it. My heart stops as I follow his actions for a moment in silence. Patrick walks over to me holding the panel in one hand and the flower in the other. His expression tells me exactly how to respond.

"How does it feel to be so easily lied to? To have someone play your own game using it against you." I keep my own face straight, trying to hide my fear.

"You're not even on the same level as me, Laoonica." He stares deeply into my eyes and I shiver. Patrick's lips curl as I shake, and I know it was visible to him. "I've never once let you out of my sight. I know your little fling with the Talamute is much more than your willing to admit, but I have seen with my own two eyes what he wants from you," he steps up to my face staring down at me, "and not much of a fight from your end of things." He runs the flower down the side of my cheek.

"I've never lied to you about my love for you. It isn't now, nor shall it ever be present again." I fight back the tears in my eyes as I look to the side. There is a guard holding Tosha with her hands forced behind her into one of his and his other hand on her throat.

"Sending that boy to the academy was indeed the right choice even if the reason was surrounded with a lie. He threw the panel and the flower on the bed. So, tell me Gomania, I mean Laoonica why do you seem so determined to press my limits." My eyes focus back on him. He had been listening the entire time. He steps closer to me and I let lose just a touch of my powers to create a glow around me to protect myself. "How long can you hold that before it weakens you and you collapse to the floor? After all, you're healing ability has already weakened you. Such a waste on a man who is about to die." his smile says it all. He knows that it won't be long. I look as Tosha struggles at the threat to her father. She is in a bit of pain trying to free herself from the guard's grasp.

"If you press me to hard you will find yourself and your magnificent city in ashes on the planet's surface." I take a step back, but I can't go any further as I had backed up to the now closed shower. Fear grips my entire being.

"No, you won't. You really want to take more innocent lives?" Ever since I had destroyed the passenger ship, I had been able to control myself a bit better due to that simple fact. "Do you really want to kill the boy you lied to save?"

"What, Patrick what do you want?" I ask as he moves directly in front of the shower.

"You Laoonica, all of you. I want you to be mine and only mine. What I am about to say and do is for your own safety." He waits so patiently as the weakness from exerting my powers starts to show. I can't hold the flames up any longer.

"You have already broken me what more can you do?" I shouldn't have asked. He smiles seeing that my powers are flickering as I try to hold them for too long. He just stands there and waits patiently while he watches my body give out and my powers diminish. He reaches forward catching me before I fall to the floor.

"I'm having a room set up in the center of the floor above this one. You'll have no windows, no garden, and no way out as all the secret doors to the floor are being sealed as we speak. You'll be heavily guarded, and I'll have access to a live video feed to your room at all times." He lifts my weak form up and carries me over to the bed laying me down. I don't wrap my arms around him but turn my glare to Tosha.

"Let them go. Tosha and her father. Release them. Please." I beg.

"Why should I? He tried to kill me, and she is the only lean I have on him. Thank you, for confirming the information I found while on the ship here." He says.

"What information?" He sits beside me on the bed as he brushes my hair out of my face. I grip his hand and try to push it away, but he simply places mine to my side and puts his on the side of my face.

"You can now translate everything for us since you speak their language." I didn't speak their language they spoke mine.

"I don't speak their language." I try again to push him away but this time he grips my wrist tightly as he stares into my eyes.

"Yes, you do. I spoke to you prior to our kiss on the ship in your language. Then after our first kiss I spoke Raspitian trying to hide what I said but you understood it. It seems after we kissed you learned my language and I didn't have to fake yours anymore. Having kissed the Talamute you now speak their language and you can translate the tapes of you with these men." he used my weakness to pin my hands beside my head as he leaned in close.

"You're cruel, but you're right. I never had a chance to beat you at your own game. Please let them go and I'll do as you ask without fighting you" it's a hopeless plea that I'm sure he won't listen to, but I don't want to see him destroy this poor girl or her father.

"This is your last night in this room so enjoy what time you have with your freedom, my love. As it seems being kind to you isn't working, I'll have to find another way to get to you." He put his hand on my cheek, but I can't even heat it up now. I'm disgusted by his touch, his face, even his green eyes that had captivated me.

"You're a monster. Nothing more." I turn my head as he leans in for a kiss. He grips my chin hard and pulls it back placing a kiss on my lips anyway.

"I'm not the one who wiped out an entire ship of people just to save myself." he says in a low growl.

"Let her go please." I don't have any cares for myself as I know he won't free me.

"Take her to the cell with her father. Let them have their last night together." I feel a small burst of my powers express themselves as he jerks away burned by what I had left in me. Then a slow silence creep over me. Tears fall as I watch Tasha jerked from the room. I don't see Heather, Marcy, or even Melena anywhere in sight. I close my eyes wanting to fall into the nothingness that is self-regeneration, but it doesn't come.

"I'll stay with her tonight to ensure she doesn't escape. I want extra guards on and under the balcony. Continue to prepare the room. Don't leave out the fabrics that have been proven to withstand her powers, nothing flammable goes in there." His cruelty knows no end. I rolled over sobbing so hard that even the guards seemed to feel sorry for me, but they knew better then to try and intervene. I ended up crying myself to sleep drifting away into dreams of my home. All the pictures that rolled through my head were of all the times I wanted to do something but was told no due to what I was. Patrick was right I was held prisoner by my father, and I loved him more than any other.

"It was never to hold you as a prisoner but to protect you child." I turn to see my father looking at me with sadness in his eyes.

"Father?" I see him standing in the distance as I walk through a field of tall grass.

"Yes, Laoonica, it is me." I don't rush to him to embrace him as I'm angry at his last bit of guidance.

"You were right to warn me of the danger of staying with Patrick, but why didn't you tell me to run or to leave or something. I'm no freer here then I was in your care father. You know what don't answer I don't care for more riddles." I turn and walk away to feel his hand reach out and touch my shoulder stopping me in my place as he circles in front of me.

"You have already met the reason you are meant to be here. The Talamute prince is your salvation. You must trust that he won't leave you to the fate Patrick has in mind for you." I look into my father's eyes.

"I should have run while I had the chance father as I will be punished for following him here." I sit down on a random stone protruding from the ground.

"You haven't even scratched the surface of what this planet holds for you." A gentle smile comes to his face and he puts his arm around me.

"I won't get to either father he'll keep me locked away for a lifetime if he doesn't get what he wants." I look back over at an image of a happy little girl running through the halls being chased by a father playing tag. The two slow almost to a full stop as I want to hold this memory in my mind.

"I tried to let you have as much freedom as I could without putting you or anyone else in danger. I loved that laugh." He says while he puts both arms around me and hugs me tight holding me there. I couldn't hear a heartbeat, but I could smell his cologne.

"Why the riddles before, why now do you come forth so easily with information?" he smiles.

"I can't tell you what you do not already know. You know the Talamute is your mate you have felt it. The simple ability to control your outward burst of emotions during the kiss with him should have told you he holds the key to you gaining control." The glow I had with Patrick was a sign we were never meant to be together. I would have never guessed it.

"Everything is going all wrong father, Tosha and her father are in danger because of me, the boy I saved by omitting the truth, these people are all at risk of dying if I don't obey Patrick." I lay my hands on to my head and weep.

"Don't give up hope so easily my child. What you seek is almost withing grasp." my father tries to comfort me but my soul weighs heavily in a moment of defeat.

"No father it isn't. It never was." I pull away from him and walk away.

"You need to wake up now. You have to wake up now." It didn't feel like I had been asleep very long and as I opened my eyes, I knew I hadn't. Patrick stood by the balcony looking out the curtains. I glance over at him with my mind racing and spinning still weak from before. I push myself up from the bed.

"You're awake so soon. I had expected you to be asleep most of the night. Nevertheless, the other room is ready, and we'll be moving you over shortly." He steps toward me seeing the way I wobble as I reach my feet.

"A prisoner can never love her warden." I hold my head up high pulling away from his attempt to help.

"On the contrary your father kept you prisoner and you loved him." I know he is right, but the thought made me feel sick to my stomach. "I'll be the only one you see day in and day out until you know nothing else and the memory of all other men fades from your mind."

"You will never have what you want, and you will die way before I age a day." He stares at me.

"I have my scientist working on isolating the gene in your DNA that promotes your long life and I'll be able to live just as long as you when they're done." I stare at him in disbelief. who would ever want to outlive everyone they loved willingly? He was insane and I was his to toy with.