"Your rage will either be your downfall, or it will be mine, and I'm not willing to risk my immortality to find out," Orlando wisely decided.
I already figured it was likely that his family had already planned to take me under their wing in the future so they could fool me into thinking the Collin family were the evil ones. Which worked on their behalf for a while until I discovered Kai was an Alpha vampire. For months, I thought I was protecting Orlando and his family from Kai, but then I found out they were vampires too. Hence, there is no way Orlando would duel Kai because it could risk his family's future scheme to come into play after I was conceived.
Vampires were clever when it came to strategizing their diabolical plans to take down another Coven. Orlando was right about Kai, because they were equally powerful since they shared the same second gift. Regardless that Kai is unstable in his head, it doesn't necessarily mean his rage would cause him to lose. Even if a vampire's unstable emotions are considered a weakness, Kai was still an Alpha, which meant he wouldn't be easy to defeat. Unless, Orlando played the right card to win.
"Coward," Kai mumbled under his breath, and Orlando wickedly grinned at him.
"If the pain of not having your mate is that bad for you, why don't you just put yourself into a detained sleep?" Orlando alluded, playing his card wisely as he tried hiding his wry smirk.
Moreover, I knew what Orlando was
doing. He knew Kai wasn't stable, so instead of dueling him, he manipulated him by getting inside his head. All along, this is why Kai most likely detained himself because Orlando provoked him to do it. This way, Kai would be out of his way from ever finding me.
"Kai, no! Don't listen to him!"
Kai once told me I was the prophecy of time. Maybe this is my chance to change the past, and I'll save the ancient Egyptian City from Kai's murderous plans before he kills everyone in the city and detains himself in his slumber. Then Kai will raise me like it should've always been that way. History can maybe be rewritten by me having such a time-gap gift. Finally, my time-gap placed me in the perfect time frame to possibly stop Kai from making a huge mistake.
Since Kai did not respond, Orlando continued to manipulate him. "Think about it, Kai. You could sleep in a dreamland where you would see her every day. All that pain would fade away to nothing."
"Kai, don't listen—"
"Shut up!" Kai bellowed, staring directly at me to pipe down, and my mouth hung loose for a second because I couldn't believe his splenetic temper.
Orlando gawked at him like he had lost his marbles, but then he grinned because he witnessed Kai's darkest grief. From Orlando's point of view, Kai only appeared to be yelling at himself, yet he failed to realize that he was speaking to me.
Pain and deep sorrow floundered over Kai in his unbearable heartache while Orlando ate it up to his thrill, but then his eyes darkened into menacing pools that promised an imperil effect to come.
"If you don't wish to fight me, then leave!" Kai snorted like a furious bull.
First, Orlando laughed before he withered into the incoming breeze.
"Think about it," Orlando resounded his voice from the waft before he was gone.
"Take my wrist!" Kai snappingly barked at me as he came towards me.
"No, not until you listen to me," I defied his orders, and he rumbled a low growl beneath his chest.
Kai hissed. "You're to take it without a choice!"
"I won't!" I yelled." You mustn't listen to Orlando! He's conning you to keep us apart!"
"Yet your time gap proves otherwise," Kai divulged his solid point.
Yet he didn't understand I was trying to give us a better future.
"That's not my point." Unfortunately, I didn't want to reveal too much about his future.
"I said take my wrist," he argued.
I gritted my teeth. "I said no! I won't go with you when you are acting like a lunatic!"
"Tough, because I'm not leaving you here. You're to take my wrist as I demand it!" Kai's strong alpha tone empowered his dominance over me as his mate.
He used his authority over me from us being mates. Even though he hadn't marked me yet, being destined mates, I didn't have much of a choice but to submit to his will. My hand shook as I fought to break free, but it did nothing because my hand got closer to his. Without a choice, my fingers grasped around his wrist before he looked down because he felt my hand touching him.
"I like the Kai in my present time a lot better than you," I gave it to him rudely, and he snorted at my ignorant words before he leaped us elsewhere.
High on a steep hill is where Kai stopped us as he peered out from afar.
"I've been eyeing this city for a long time now," he shared with me, and I was aghast to see it was the same Egyptian city I had found him in.
"No, you can't do what I know you are thinking. Don't let Orlando get in your head," I tried to warn him.
"I'm sorry, my love, but I can't wait for you to be born. Orlando has nothing to do with the decision I've been plotting," Kai uttered, then he jumped us somewhere else again.
In one leap, he took us to the heart of the Pharaoh's palace. Columns on both sides of the widespread passageway were etched and dazzled in multicolored hieroglyphs. Even the etched plants were flecked with divine detail. Beneath our feet, the golden bricks were unbroken and flawless. This part of the palace was in ruins and almost flattened when I was here during my excavation, so I marveled at seeing it in its prime condition.
"Let's go." Kai walked along the wide passageway as I trailed behind him, but the pain in my head increased, which ultimately slowed me down.
"Kai, wait, it hurts too bad!" I hollered, and he turned back for me.
I took his hand, and he dashed us forward in a snap. He took us to the pharaoh's throne room. Aside from the guards and guests, only the pharaoh sat on his throne, which was embellished with gold and adorned with precious rutilant gemstones and stained glass, each arranged with kaleidoscopic designs. Directly in the center, dancers were dancing and twirling with ribbon streamers while the guests on each side were watching them in front of the pharaoh's view.
"Who goes there!" the pharaoh pointed at Kai after he saw him, and the dancers stopped dancing as everyone stared this way at us. "Seize this unwelcome guest!"