Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) Read Free

to the weight pressing down. Feet press
against floors. Air stirs in response to moving bodies. Each motion a
ripple.
    My senses slipped away from the bar towards the north across the city
in a dreamlike rush of movement. Each movement brought a new rush of
sensations. Feelings that brushed against me like I stood in the
middle of a whirlwind of feedback.
    Sounds assault objects. Vibrations outline the world.
Conversations dull quick. Babies cries pierce heavier. Honks shake
metal and flesh. Pulses jump in reaction. Living creatures warm the
air with each puff. Bloody cord pulls still further.
    These senses could extend up to roughly sixty miles but the distance
was more than a day's walk. Travel speed slowed down as my mind
approached one dark mansion in a rich neighborhood. This was
certainly posh compared to what I remembered of her. Lights were
slowly flickering on in conjunction with a sunset in the background.
    Mine. Closer. Down. Through sheets of grainy wood.
    Traveling through objects is the most disorienting portion of a
normal trip. It feels like moving through panes of flowing water
while senses flickered off and on. The denser the object, the more
intense the shock. But until the link was released it would be
difficult to stop drawing closer.
    As my senses passed through layers of the building to the core I
could feel myself growing both resigned and apprehensive. The final
layer was a dense floorboard. Passing through this material was akin
to a painful belly flop from the high dive. Hinges could be felt on
one side, all the locks on the bottom. She lay in a dugout area
barely big enough to house a high-quality mattress and ten feet of
clearance. This was a small room designed to be hidden and protected.
    No light. No warmth. No whisper of air. Difficult to feel the
differences. Wood to one side. Fabric surrounds slumbering flesh.
Resisting urge to feel more.
    Her black skin melded in with the darkness of the hiding space. I had
practice at finding her. Here just before nightfall, from this sort
of remote viewing, she felt almost peaceful. Too bad the sun was
setting.
    I watched her in my intangible form. Not hard with this many drinks
in me. Her hair was carefully maintained, tonight it was straightened
out. Clothes were tantalizing and failed to cover slender shoulders
and legs. Not an unhealthy anorexia, she had toned muscles across a
tall frame. She dressed in fabric that felt purple, even at night she
wore her favorite color. Purple also carefully wrapped around her
wrist in a bow, something that covered an old scar which would never
heal.
    Air shakes. Vibrates me like rock tumbler. Energy surges
through, magnetized, from somewhere else, towards female’s
body. Her eyes flutter. Open. Unaligned. Unfocused. No light.
    The tint of her eyes wasn’t tangible. Her irises should be a
deep ruby color, surrounded in a pool of pure white. If I didn’t
know who she was, or what she was, I might have guessed her eyes were
a dark brown like the rest of her skin. Her gaze stayed unfocused for
only a moment, then locked onto the area where I floated.
    Words brush by. Shudder against walls confines. Sink in.
Meaning lost at first. Then vibrations of sound are understood.
    “Welcome home, Cat-nip.” The curve of her lips as they
moved. Her words triggered flashbacks of kissing her lips and
nuzzling the space between ear and neck. The memories were intense
enough to smell a teasing scent of peppermint.
    It was impossible to tell if she was angry or excited, her
expressions for both were often the same. A hungry smile framed
exaggerated incisors. Those very teeth had nearly killed me years ago
yet somehow I was conned into looking her up again like nothing had
happened.
    Distress laced throughout my body while a panicked heartbeat grew in
intensity. My incorporeal mouth wouldn’t move. Here I was,
watching over her like a love struck dope. What a joke. No part of me
wanted to get sucked back into whatever we had been.