The Lycan Rebirth (The Flux Age Book 3) by Steven J Shelley Page A

forced to flee underground during the day.
    Yasmin was as surprised as everyone else when Tomas informed everyone that he’d secured a private flight to New York from Bucharest. To get to the Romanian capital he had hired a convoy of four wheelers. As their arrival was imminent, many of Yasmin’s army were forced to shift into human form so they could fit safely into the vehicles. Yasmin found the situation faintly ludicrous, but then the transition from 21st century technology to the Flux Age wasn’t going to be a smooth one.
    The trip to Bucharest took seven hours. The convoy made good time but Yasmin could feel tension building in the back of her mind. She felt they would only be allowed to travel where the Berlin Club let them.
    The dark army boarded their private charter with minimum fuss and by sunrise they were up and away across the Atlantic. Tomas had secured Yasmin a private chamber at the back of the plane, for which she was grateful. She took a few hours to gather her thoughts and anticipate what they might find in New York. She had half a plan forming in her mind but it remained sketchy at best. She was just about to venture out into the main cabin when Tomas knocked and entered.
    “A minute of your time, queen,” he said in a strangely strangled voice.
    “Of course, Tomas, always,” Yasmin replied. “What can I do for you?”
    Tomas’s expression was as pained as she’d ever seen it.
    “I’ll come straight out and ask the question,” the Doktor said. “Is this about protecting the lycans or is it about Jack Foley?”
    Yasmin looked at Tomas sharply, but couldn’t bring herself to anger. She had asked herself the same question many times and was satisfied with her motives. She genuinely loved the Lycan Society because they actually stood for something other than power and domination. She was happy to admit her admiration for the ancient race and model her own organization on the Society. It just felt right .
    But Tomas’s emotions did not allow him to see any of this. The poor man had become hopelessly conflicted in his feelings toward her. Now that she gazed into his despairing eyes, she tried to pinpoint when all this might have begun. She supposed it had something to do with being the one to draw Yasmin into the delicious darkness of being a vampire. It was Tomas who had scouted and purchased Frica. It was Tomas who had assembled the Maramurians to rebuild the castle. It was Tomas who had lit the beacon that had drawn Yasmin across an entire ocean to find him. And finally, Tomas had been the one to first receive Yasmin’s vampire kiss.
    Knowing the inherent sensuality in such an exchange, Yasmin could almost understand how Tomas had come to feel the way he did about her. It was a fierce love, she could tell. A protective love. Yasmin felt stifled by it even though she felt safer with Tomas around.
    “You’re eating yourself from the inside,” Yasmin finally said, her hand involuntarily caressing Tomas’s glistening cheek. “You need distance.”
    Tomas nodded slowly, holding Yasmin’s hand to his face as if it were infusing him with life itself. And then he was gone as quickly as he had come.
    Yasmin was left alone in her cabin. She realized that she had effectively cast Tomas away, but also knew it was for his own good. Perhaps some small part of him had been hoping for a miracle, that she would reveal her undying love. But that love was reserved for someone else. Someone she hoped to save when she reached New York. That needed to be her focus now.
     
    New York City, USA
     
    The plane touched down at a private airfield out of New Jersey. A convoy of private cars with bulletproof windows whisked Yasmin’s small army to NYC. She had to admire Tomas’s efficiency, even if the doktor could barely look at her now.
    The convoy pulled into the Mandarin Oriental, a five-star Manhattan hotel. No expense would be spared now, and Yasmin didn’t need to rely on Tomas’s life savings anymore.