Finite: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Sephlem Trials Book 4)

by Felisha Antonette

  Taylor punches my back when she comes up behind me. “You okay? You look a little distracted.”

  I relax my muscles. “Yeah. There’s just enough going on to send me off the edge. Are you okay? You’ve come up in a few of Tracey’s and my conversations before now. She mentioned you having it hard.”

  Gaze fixed on the floor, she mutters, “Well, yeah.”

  From the corner of my eye, I study her. “Well?”

  “I don’t need you judging me, Nathan.”

  “Oh yes, you do. You have a son, Taylor, and everyone else has done more taking care of him than you have. When your father died, our mother didn’t miss a beat. When she got tainted by Roehl, she may have fallen off, but she still made sure we got taken care of when your father did nothing for us. When—”

  “Shut up, Nathan. I’m not our mother,” she fires back, throwing her arms out at her sides.

  “Maybe not.” I lift the stone on the chain she wears around her neck and drop it so it knocks against her chest. “You wear it like you are. And when I gave it to you, I thought you’d wear it with her strength.”

  She takes it in her grasp. “I know I let her down. But I’m back now, like you are. Though I’m still working on finding a way to live without Justin, your being here will make that easier.”

  “Don’t go AWOL on me, Taylor.”

  Little Nathan jogs from the living room to where we stand by the front door. He wears a black t-shirt and dark jeans, standing my height and wearing my face. “I agree. You were severely missed, bro, and yes, Taylor, no more sulky mommies. We need you around here, Jason needs you. Where are we off too?”

  “Hold the phones,” I say, throwing up my hands in front of us. “I know I’m late, but can we just shine some light on Taylor having a son!”

  “And he’s Burdened,” Little Nathan cuts in.

  “I saw that. How’d you teach him not to shift so early? I couldn’t go outside until I was five.”

  Shamefully, Taylor admits, “I don’t know. Olar helped with that.”

  Nodding, I acknowledge her embarrassment but ignore it. “Well, it’s really cool. He’s a good kid, Taylor. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.” Taylor zips up her hoodie and pulls her hair into a ponytail. “Where are we headed?”

  I eye them and say, “Amelia’s.”

  “Oh crap,” they complain.

  We travel on foot, staying in line with the river to the marshes. Their home sits off the river, on stilts, keeping it above the water, but the porch is built on land. Through thick shrubs and tall grass, we shuffle to the wooden porch that creaks as the wind blows. The swamp’s still, a sober home for frogs and crickets that bring sound to the night.

  I knock, ignoring Little Nathan’s remarks of how pissed Amelia will be at me standing on her stoop. He’s right, I may be out of my league, hoping Amelia will help me after what I did the last time I was here. I’ll be lucky if she didn’t kill me on the spot.

  The doorknob rattles before the door’s yanked open. I flash her a smile when our eyes meet.

  “No!” Amelia shouts and slams the door.

  “Told ya,” Little Nathan condescends. “We need a new plan.” He turns around, and I catch him by his shirt as he’s stepping off the stoop.

  “Hush.” I knock again. “I need your help, Amelia. Come on.”

  “No, Nathan. Get from ‘round here,” she shouts, her voice heavy with a Creole accent.

  “Come on, Aunty. Family here!” I try to soften her up. They’ve wanted to have a direct connection to our family, but remain only as distant cousins for a reason. It’s been years since I’ve seen her, and I only come around when I have no other options. I don’t fuck with dark magic, but it’s useful when dealing with wicked souls and demons. Or memory loss. “Open the door. Let’s talk about it.”

  “We got nuttin’ tu talk ‘bout. Get from ‘round here, Nathan.”

  “Amelia, don’t make me knock down this door,” I threaten. Knocking harder, I say, “Let me in, I need your help.” I gesture to Taylor for her to give me some type of assistance, maybe a little push in the ‘convincing’ direction.

  She rolls her eyes. Stepping up beside me, she says, “Amelia, things are bad out here, we need you. And Nathan isn’t bad anymore. He’s mated and is more at ease, not ruthless.”

  I’m mated. Why is that bate?

  The door cracks open. “You mated?” Amelia questions, high-pitched, peeking her head out of the door. “De boy who neva would bring a female home to heem momma mated? How God den let that happen?”

  “Amelia, I need your help,” I tell her, palms up.

  “Naw you come on in here, tell me all ‘bout dis mate of yours.”

  Dammit. “I’m not here to talk about her,” I deviate.

  “You want somethin’ from me, I get somethin’ from you. Aint no room for compromise.” She opens the door wider. “You go on in dere, put ya hand ova in de fountain, touch dat water. Tell me all ‘bout her.”

  The Revealing Fountain of Truth, we call it. If I submerge my hand in that rusty, yet crystal clear fountain water, it’ll tell her everything she wants to know, which I don’t want to do. On a lighter note, it could show me what I need to see.

  I duck through the door and enter her mildew smelling home. On a deep brown couch, far from the fountain, I take a seat and lean over on my knees. “Aunty, we need to discuss something else before we talk about my mate.”

  “You neva change boy.” She breaks in, ready to scold me. “Here ya are den got a mate and still want something for nothin’. We deserve to meet ya mate.”

  “I can’t bring her around you three old geezers.”

  “Get out!” she shouts, throwing a point toward the door.

  Laughing, I mutter. “I’m joking.” I pat the seat beside me. She comes and sits. “See Amelia, I knew you loved me.”

  “Nah, boy, I don’t love you. I’m interested in seein’ dis gal da God den burdened wit ya, you ole devil.”

  I hold my chest. “Ah, insults aren’t caused for,” I say, hurt by her insinuation. “I didn’t ask to be what I am.”

  She peers at me through her scattered lashes. “Tell me whatchu want?”

  To reveal too much with Amelia is a suicide play. She always seems to know a little more than I’m willing to offer, so to tell her about my amnesia in addition to things going on, she’ll find a way to use the information against me. The most important point of our visit is what I reveal first. “I killed our father a few years ago. I’ve gotten word that he’s come back. I need to find out how this is possible.”

  She jumps up from the couch, moving away from me to the other side of the room. Hunched over, hands on her knees, distress stealing her sober eyes, she frantically asks, “Ya killed ya father?”

  “Yeah,” I say, standing. “I had to.” A thought flashes before my eyes that’s shoved before me by my Burdened. Tracey’s laid on the ground, my father standing above her, inches away from snatching her life. “He nearly killed my mate.” That word, mate, it’s slipped past my lips with claims on Tracey more than once tonight. I don’t want to claim her. She’s a human, not a car. But then, calling her my girlfriend knocks me off my feet too. She’s greater than both, and dammit, I don’t even know how I got to this place. My Burdened smacks me with another memory of Tracey with her arms resting comfortably around my neck, and she’s leaning toward me for her kiss. My beast then reminds me of the sensation, how it used to feel versus how it feels today.

  Hey! You’re going to have to cut this shit out, I tell him. I’m trying to handle business and need to focus.

  “Nathan,” Amelia snaps me back. “We talked ‘bout dis.”

  I cross the floor to Amelia. “I had to do it. With me mating and him trying to kill us, I couldn’t have both around.” It’s my Burdened who makes the suggestion.

  “What did you two talk about?” Taylor asks, leaving the entrance and coming over the small living area, crowded by the couch, a table, th
ree lamps, three chairs, and a bookcase housing trinkets.

  Amelia shakes her hands, attracting our attention to her. “Long go, Nathan, yawl’s daddy came here. Got heemself hexed, neva be defeated, requested be made Burdened and Hybrid on de outside, immortal on de inside.”

  “Ol’ fool.” Chris, the oldest of the three, comes in from the back door. She drags her hand over her dampened caramel flesh, then her dull silver hair. “He came ‘round here wanted us make him indestructible.” Chris turns down the corners of her mouth. “Said he bore a son who would bear the mark of death. He was certain. Said he heard ’bout it from some gal who had an eye in the palm of ha hand, said she said it was a prophecy.” She’s easier to understand over her sister, the easiest of the triplets.

  “Yah, heem did.” Jacinta comes through the back door, adding in her side. “Thought heem lost heem mind. Told heem no way no how we’d turn heem immortal,” she carries with emphasis. “He’d be Burdened and Hybrid if heem want but no way heem worth stickin’ round here longa dan what heem already lived.”

  “We told heem we’d make it so if heem son come kill heem, he come back,” Chris adds. “Get to know the right people, they know what to do to bring heem back. Anybody else kill heem, he’d be damned to hell. Nobody like that disgusting father of y’alls.” She makes a round around the house, shaking black ash in the corners of their home.

  “How did you find out about this?” Taylor asks me.

  Amelia cuts me off. “Heem came ‘round long ago. Really long time ago and ask what we could do ‘bout th—”

  “You don’t need to get into details, just that I came around and you told me about my father.” I cut her off. These old ass women talk too damn much. I don’t need Taylor knowing about everything that happened.

  “Oh!” Amelia laughs. “You don’t wantcha family knowin’ ‘bout dat past. Huh, boy?”

  “They know about it,” I counter. She’s about to take it there, and I’m about to lie. Not everything needs to be brought to light when things are done in the darkness.

  “How much dey know? Hum, Nathan? What dey know?” She peers her gray eyes at me, brows hitched, index finger extended in a harsh point. “Thought ya was done keepin’ secrets, boy.”

  I knock her hand away to keep her from hexing me. “I never said that. I said that I was done with the life I lived before. My secrets will remain my secrets.”

  “Ya mate know you holdin’ up dem secrets? Nah, I bet ya stay blocked off from her all de time. Scared she’ll see inside dat head and hate she was mated to a monsta like ya.”

  “What do you want, Amelia?” I ask, irked that she’s grilling me about shit that has nothing to do with any of them.

  “Two things naw.” She comes closer, standing the height of my stomach. Looking up at me, smiling with her wet wooden teeth, she requests, “I want ya tell dem secrets, and I want know ‘boutcha mate.”

  “Nah, that’s okay. I don’t need your help.” I pivot.

  She grabs my arm with her shaking, cold hands. “What’s it to ya? What gon’ happen to ya, ya tell us?”

  “You’re not going to try to feed off of me.” I snatch my arm from her. “Little Nathan, Taylor, let’s go.”

  “Fine, Nathan,” says Chris, standing in the way of our exit. “We’ll take care of ya father for ya. What ya want?”

  Taylor turns red in the face and scowls.

  “What,” I ask her.

  “Do you know what secrets she’s talking about?”

  I scoff. “Maybe. But I’m not sure what they have to do with you.”

  The three sisters snicker.

  “Sounds like we’re in this because of you, so it’s about time you tell it all and now,” Taylor demands.

  I look her over, a soft squint in my eyes as I examine her threat. Though I didn’t fully remember everything after Tracey had rescued me, when I first saw Taylor crossing the bedroom floor, the first memory I had was of her crossing me. The old me would still hold a grudge till this day against my sister. I, however, have already forgiven her. Forgiveness. . . what used to be a foreign word, is now one I wish I knew when my mother was alive. It’s something she always used to teach me and even though I get it a few years too late, she’d still be proud.

  “Okay,” I say to Taylor. “But I can only tell what I can remember. And that’s coming in waves right now.”

  “How come, Nathan?” Chris asks.

  “That’s what we’re here to figure out. I wouldn’t come to you three if there was a faster, safer option, but there’s not. So here we are.”

  Amelia nods. She points and says, “Go stick ya hand in da fountain. We get some answers fa ya.”

  Silent Majority

  Nathan

  Slowly, I cross the creaking wood to the fountain too big for the corroded living space of the house. Out of everything here, the only thing that looks pure is this fixture made up of pure gray stone that holds black obsidian pebbles piled at its bottom. The water’s still, a mirror-like reflection of myself, staring into my eyes, wondering if I really want to know the truth I seek. Above the surface, my hand rests in the air. The water anxiously awaits my contact, now rippling as if I’d already placed my hand in its murk.

  “Do it, Nathan! We ain’t got all night,” Chris complains.

  I submerge my hand in the water and its surface grabs me around the wrist, keeping me from yanking out of it. As the water ripples, Tracey’s face appears.

  Amelia comes to my side and places her hand against my chest. “What kinda mating is this?” she asks angrily. Her hand moves from left to right, up a bit and back down as she searches.

  “Whatever you’re looking for, it’s not in there,” I say.

  “You dare lie to me?” she accuses, expression darkening to a malevolent scowl.

  I try to yank my hand from the fountain, but it’s got me stuck. “What? No!”

  “Then you!” she yells, pointing at Taylor. “You said heem was mated!” Amelia whips her hand back, a hex on her lips.

  “No!” I shout, unable to jump between her and Taylor. “I was mated. Whatever happened to me. Something happened to me. I’m mated to this girl,” I point to Tracey’s face in the water. She’s content, her brown eyes sparkle and a constant pinch rests in the corners of her mouth. I want to pull at one of her curls and tell her a joke I heard on the radio this afternoon to soften her expression. I chuckle, knowing she’d laugh, and her geeky laugh would make me laugh. And somehow, the sadness that pinches the lower lids of her eyes would be buried under a joy I don’t think she’s known for some time. And that’s the thing that kept me coming around her, watching her joy. Me being her joy and the fulfillment of being wanted by someone.

  “Boy! Your thoughts aren’t private.”

  “Yeah, bro.” Little Nathan mocks, “We just saw all that joy in the water. Maybe be careful.”

  I immediately remember Tracey and I on our camping trip. Fucking was accidental, but a good accident. There were sensations, beyond that of the physical, that I never encountered. So, yeah. I believe we’re connected. But believing it isn’t enough.

  “Nathan!” Taylor shouts, eyes covered, as is Little Nathan’s.

  “Boy, focus. That girl be very beautiful, but ya need answers, and I cain’t give ‘em if ya don’t focus.” She straightens. “Remember what happened.”

  I turn my attention back to the water as it’s aggressively rippling out, splashing water over the edges of the fountain. It dimly reveals Tracey screaming, others are too. From another’s perspective, we look down at me the ground. Around me, three and my cousin attack me. I don’t recall feeling a thing, but I felt Tracey. She felt it, every kick, slash, and hit.

  She, Lana, and Laine claw and bang at a blocker shield. No matter how hard they try, they’ll never get through that.

  Arms tied behind my back and my ankles bound, I hit the ground. Michael, Caige, and Detrick each seem satisfied with their work. Tracey’s passed out. Lana heals Olar and unsteadily helps
him from wherever we were. Behind their departure, Michael, Caige, and Detrick pass a silent Laine sitting next to Tracey. Long seconds pass as Laine stares at Tracey and me, contemplation thick in his eyes. He crosses the floor and kneels beside me as he whispers something in my ear. With his index finger pressed to my temple, electric currents pass from him to me and back. Laine then scoops me from the floor, and as he’s leaving the room, he smirks and mouths, “I got him.”

  The fountain water releases its hold on my wrist, and I yank my wrinkled hand from the water.

  “I got him?” Little Nathan questions, confused.

  “Got me?” I question.

  “Who heem is, dat man with those white eyes?” Amelia asks.

  “He’s a friend of the family.”

  “Mmm. I’d keep my eyes on him. Now ya know wha happened. Time ya pay up. Or ya debt doubles.”

  “Doubles?” Taylor asks.

  “Oh yes,” Jucenta exclaims. “I cain’t wait for heem to pay us off.”

  I throw my hand up, stopping Taylor from asking her next question. “It’s because of Tarleton. The guy I had rescued from Kordell, Lunis’ brother.” Kordell was worse than Lunis and Tarleton was a slave to him, one of hundreds. “After he saved Mom from being captured by those eels, Kordell was going to kill him.”

  “Kordell was unbeatable, Nathan,” Taylor says. “They called him a god with those scythes marks on him because he was that All-Seeing of Death thing everyone was raving about, and he had a mate that sealed it.”

  Nodding, I lift my gaze from the ground as I say, “Right, he was undefeatable. Until I defeated him.”

  Little Nathan’s jaw drops, and Taylor gasps, “You?”