“It’s for the best.” She comes to sit beside me, clasping my hands in hers. I see the tears in her eyes and my own start flowing freely. I throw my arms around her and hold her close.
“I don’t want to leave you. You’re the only mother I’ve ever known,” I sob quietly into her shoulder.
She gently pats my damp hair. “There, there, my sweet Liora. I’ll always be a part of you. And if you ever need me, I’ll be here for you.” She pulls back and gives me a shaky smile, dabbing at her eyes. It’s so unnerving to see her cry. Never in my seventeen years have I seen her so much as sniffle.
“Liora, I want you to know this. Finding you, raising you, and being a part of your life has been by far the most wonderful, most joyous experience of my life. Thank you for letting me be a part of your world. You gave this old woman more happiness than you will ever know. I hope I was able to provide you with what you needed. Know that I always did the best I could—”
“Oh, Tattie!” I cry. I hug her tiny shoulders closer. “Thank you for being the most amazing, wonderful mother a girl could ever have. I couldn’t have hoped for anyone better than you. I’m going to think of you every day.”
“I always knew you were on loan to me, and that someday you’d leave to follow your life’s path. I just never thought it would be so soon, and I didn’t know it would hurt this much.”
“Oh, Tatiana, I love you, too. I’ll miss you so much.”
We hold each other in a tearful embrace until it’s time for me to go. I look around the cabin one last time before walking into the bright morning light. Kieron is putting a few of my bags in the back of the Mustang, next to all of Lucky’s prized clothes and shoes. His mouth curves up in a small smile. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” We’d decided to take my car, and since my eyes are fried from so much crying, I happily take the passenger seat.
He starts the engine and we pull away down the gravel road, most likely for the last time. I turn my head to stare at the cabin as it grows smaller and smaller. I see a flash of silver in the window and know she’s watching. I hold up my hand and wave, wondering if she really and truly knows what she means to me.
~~~
We head through town and toward the highway. “I was starting to say something to you before, when Tatiana interrupted us with breakfast,” I say. “I have an idea and I hope you’re okay with it.”
“Shoot.”
I tell him my plan, and when he smiles and nods, I’m reminded once again how wonderfully lucky I am to have such an amazing man.
“Turn down this way; it’s the last one on the right,” I instruct him ten minutes later. “Park over there.”
He angles the Mustang into a space between a beat up Honda with four spare tires and a minivan with no tires at all. “I don’t know how good I feel about you going in there by yourself.”
“I’ll be fine. You can see me from here. Nothing bad will happen, but if it does, feel free to come over and make yourself useful.” I give him a wink and a kiss.
He nods, and I make my way over to the battered blue structure. The window is cracked and covered with dirt. It’s early and there are no signs of life. I tap lightly on the window several times until a head pops up.
“Liora, what the hell?”
“Corrine, I have to talk to you, now. It’s urgent. Get dressed and get out here.”
“Is everything okay? What happened?”
“Just get out here now!”
Thirty seconds later Corrine is sitting beside me on the porch in sweats and galoshes, her stringy hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, her bruised face barely hidden behind her thick lenses.
“Corrine, we’re getting out of here. Right now. Me and Kieron—”
“Kieron’s back?” she asks, looking around.
I nod. “Yup. And we’re leaving. Now. We’re going to California to live. Los Angeles.”
“Now?”
I nod again, and she frowns. “So you came to say goodbye.”
This time I shake my head. “Nope. I came by to get you. You’re coming with.”
Her jaw drops and her bruised eyes open wide. “What?! No. I can’t possibly…”
“Yes, you can and yes, you are. No arguments. It’s all taken care of. We have plenty of money, so no worries in that department. I’ll buy you anything you need and totally take care of you. Come on, Corrine. You don’t really want to stay here, do you?”
She puts her head down and shakes it back and forth.
“So you’ll come then?”
She slowly raises her head and shrugs, then nods.
“Great! Let’s go!”
“What, now?”
I nod and stand up, waving my hands impatiently.
“Geez, Liora,” she says. “What’d you guys do… rob a bank? Kill someone?”
I cock my head to the side. “Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything to you.” Almost everything.
“Give me five minutes.”
I rejoin Kieron in the car. Three minutes later a happy Corrine skips towards us wearing a baseball cap, dark sunglasses, and carrying an army duffel bag.
“Just tell me this,” she says as we head out on the open highway. “Are we fugitives from the law?” The thinly veiled excitement in her voice suggests she wouldn’t mind if we were.
“From the law? No.” Kieron and I exchange a quick look. “But Corrine, there are some things you need to know. I’m going to tell you something that is going to change your life. It will alter the world as you know it. But know this…I am your friend, and you have nothing to fear from me, now or ever. I care about you… it’s very important you know this.”
I can’t see her eyes from behind her dark glasses, but I hear the brave apprehension in her voice. “What?”
I take a deep breath. I have to tell her. It’s the only way. And I have to tell her before we get too far away in case she totally freaks out and wants to go home.
“Well, it’s kinda hard to say. I’ve never told anyone my secret before. No one who wasn’t like me,” I add with a quick glance at Kieron. The love I see in his eyes gives me the reassurance I need to continue.
“You see, Corinne, I’m different from other girls…”
Epilogue
Kieron wraps his arms around me as we gaze out over the ocean. “It’s so pretty here,” I whisper, marveling at the way the setting sun casts pinkish-orange streaks over the sparkling water.
“As gorgeous as this is, it doesn’t hold a candle to you. I swear you get more beautiful every day.” He nuzzles my ear and strokes my hair. A contented smile passes my lips and I turn to give him a small kiss. It’s been almost a week since we left the cabin in Virginia, and our road trip will soon be over.
The end of one life. The beginning of another.
“You guys look like you’re posing for a postcard or something,” Corrine says as she emerges from the rest stop bathroom. “It’s almost enough to make a girl want to die of envy…maybe jump into the ocean, just to be put out of her misery.” She winks to show me she’s only joking.
I smile back at her. “Sorry.”
“So we’re really almost there?” she asks, excitement lighting up her face.
“Maybe another hour. Two, tops,” Kieron says.
“Well, let’s get a move on then. Liora, I love you, but I’m just not looking forward to being stuck in a car with Lucky again. She tells the worst, most inappropriate stories. Let’s get to our new home, A.S.A.P.” She grins, pushes her glasses up over her freshly healed eyes—compliments of Lucky I was told—and heads to the car.
I turn to Kieron, savoring the feeling of the sun’s warmth on my skin, and Kieron’s love in my heart. “Do you really think this will work?” I ask him for the dozenth time.
He smiles and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me close. “Yes, I do. We’ll be together, and that’s all that matters. I love you, and I always will.”
As his lips press down on mine, I feel the now familia
r flutter deep inside and think how lucky I am to be with him, despite the craziness of our worlds. I kiss him passionately, not having the heart to tell him that he’s wrong…about us being together being the only thing that matters.
Because there’s something else…something I’ve come to realize deep within my soul, and without a shadow of doubt. I don’t know how it happened, or when. But it did. Something so unbelievable and earth-shattering, it will change all of our lives forever…for better or worse.
I place a gentle hand on my belly and smile up at the man I love.
End of Book 2
Curse of Shadows and Light
Demonblood Series #3
A novel
by
Penelope King
Copyright © 2013 Penelope King
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and events are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
To Mom~
Thank You.
Chapter 1.
The dried leaves and twigs rustle as he leans his full weight on top of me, a perfect fit as our two bodies meld into one. His bare skin is so soft over his hard muscles, and I gasp for breath before his lips press again on mine. His hands roam my body as if I am his most treasured possession, created for him and him alone.
This claiming of me. This ultimate surrender of my soul to his. I am on fire.
But he doesn’t just take. He gives. His fingertips dance along my arms and face, and saying nothing, he tells me so much. This is no ordinary kiss. No ordinary touch. No ordinary love.
For he is no ordinary man.
He is inside of me, filling every space in my broken soul, healing my wounded heart, strengthening my faltering spirit. He brings me back to life.
He is mine. And I am his.
Forever.
********
“Liora… Liora, wake up.” Corrine nudges my shoulder more roughly than necessary, and I open my eyes. A half-second later I realize where we are, and it couldn’t be further from the magical place I’d just been.
“You dozed off,” she continues with a peculiar look. She pushes up her thick glasses. “But we’re coming up to Crystal Cove now. We’re almost there.”
I sit up straighter and rub my eyes. Kieron glances at me with a tight grin but keeps his attention on the road. He lowers his hand from the steering wheel to give my leg a gentle squeeze before reaching for the bottle of water in the center console and taking a big swig.
“Anyways,” Corrine continues in a chipper voice, “I let you sleep through Los Angeles, ‘cause it was just slow traffic on the freeways. Not quite the golden paradise they make it seem like on TV. And not one celebrity anywhere. But you can’t miss this part—it’s amazing out here!”
I tilt my head against the passenger side window. She’s right… the scenery is breathtaking. The wide, paved roads are shiny black with nary a pothole in sight. Rolling hills of brilliant emerald blanket the sides of the highway. Rows of perfectly-shaped palm trees stand like proud beacons navigating us through brilliant displays of strategically placed flowers… their blooms so precise, I can’t help but wonder if they’re even real.
This couldn’t be more different from the place we just left. The small, rural cabin in the Virginia woods was the only home I’d ever known. The only place I felt comfortable and loved. This is like another world.
Will this one reject me too?
Like suppliants in need of protection, Kieron, Corrine, and I will soon be arriving at the home of Tattie’s twin sister, Anastasia. My guardian had only recently told me she even had a sister, and I have to admit her revelation caught me by surprise… as if there were this whole other secret side to Tattie I never knew existed. And the fact that she’d never mentioned her until we were truly desperate was concerning as well. If things were good between them and they were close, surely Tattie would have said something sooner.
“Why so quiet… you feeling okay?” Kieron glances my way as he turns the car down a narrow side street.
I nod and try to smile, but my heart isn’t in it. There is too much sadness in my soul.
“You’ve been awfully sleepy lately,” he continues. “I’m sure you’re just exhausted from all you’ve been through. It’ll be nice to sleep in a real bed in a real house. Give you a chance to relax and recover from all the drama.”
I nod again and turn my attention back to the whizzing scenery. I can’t tell him that no amount of sleep will ever help me ‘recover’ from the horrific events of the past several days: Finding out that my friend Tristan was a Light-angel who’d been brainwashing and using me. Lucky getting expelled from her homeland of Thiberoux with the threat of death if she ever returns. To be sure, it was a horrible, hellish place, but it was the essence of our existence, whether I liked it or not. I’m not sure how she’ll survive not being able to go home. It’s like telling a shark it’s no longer welcome to swim in the ocean.
And then, the awful realization that we’d never be safe where we were with the Light-angels after me, and I’d have to leave Tatiana and my life in Dove Creek behind. The only life I’d ever known and the only woman who’d ever shown me kindness, compassion, and love. And I had to leave.
And of course, Bones. His death truly saddens me. But it is absolutely killing Her. She keeps it buried, deep inside. But I feel it. Like an emptiness in her heart… a black poisonous hole that can never hope to be filled again.
“What do you think she’s like?” Corrine asks as she leans forward from her perch in the back seat. Her eyes are positively huge as she stares out at the luxurious countryside. “Other than obviously super rich.” She gulps and her lips become tense.
I shrug. “Dunno. Except the fact that she’s Tattie’s twin, I don’t really know much about her at all.”
“She’s a powerful witch, though,” Kieron adds. “She knows real magic. Just keep that in mind.”
Corrine swishes her hand. “Pshaw. As if that would freak me out. After traveling cross-country with a couple of demons, you have to do better than a silly ol’ witch to get a rise outta me.”
Despite my melancholy, I can’t help but chuckle. Her easy acceptance of Kieron’s and my true nature had shocked me to some extent. But somehow, deep down, I must’ve known she’d be okay with it. Of course she’d been taken aback at first, and even frightened for a moment. But she soon started nodding and saying how it all made sense now. She was convinced several of her mom’s awful boyfriends had been of the demonic variety, including the one who’d assaulted her right before our escape from Dove Creek. I didn’t have the heart to set her straight— to tell her that some humans can behave just as terribly as any demon I’ve ever known, if not worse.
“Do you really think she’ll be able to heal you, though?” Corrine asks, softly now. “Make you and Lucky one again?”
With a sigh, I absently tap the window with my fingertip. “I don’t know… maybe. Tattie thought maybe there was a chance. But I don’t see how—”
“Look, this is it. We’re here,” Kieron says as we come to the turnoff for Crystal Cove Estates. We drive a few more moments before arriving at a small guard shack in front of some monstrous black iron gates. “How do you want to do this?”
I shrug. “I assume we’re expected, but I have no idea. If there are any problems you’ll have to take care of them.” I note the sun hovering on the horizon. “Lucky won’t be here for several more minutes, but we need to hurry.” I’d thought it best we meet my ‘aunt’ in my human form, as apparently she’s not too fond of demons, and obviously Lucky can’t be trusted to behave.
“May I help you?” the rotund guard asks as he approaches the driver’s side window. His e
yes narrow as he peeks inside and sizes us up.
Kieron flashes his movie star smile and turns on the charm. “Yes sir, good afternoon. We’re here as guests of Miss Anastasia Havish.”
The guard frowns and stares at us like he’s already decided we don’t belong here and are all up to no good.
“Miss Havish hasn’t called in any visitors’ names today,” he says. “I’m going to need to see some identification.” He takes out a small pad and starts writing down the car’s license plate number.
Kieron and I exchange a glance. “Ugh. Do it. Hurry,” I mutter.
“You don’t need to see my ID,” Kieron calls out the window. “And you don’t need to write down my license plate number. In fact, go ahead and rip up that paper right now.”
Immediately the guard stops his scribbling and looks at us, a blank look on his pudgy pink face. Then, without blinking, he tears the paper into tiny pieces and throws them on the ground.
“Hey, he didn’t have to litter,” Corrine grumbles.
“Now you will write down exactly where Miss Havish lives and give us the directions. You will open the gates and let us in, and forget that you ever saw us. Understood?” Kieron’s voice is firm, but not unkind.
The guard nods and starts scribbling again. “Yes sir, just straight on through…follow the road around there then take that last turn. It’s the last house; you can’t miss it. Biggest one in here.” He gestures over his crude map and hands it to Kieron. Then he rushes back to his little hut and a moment later the mammoth gates part, permitting our passage.
The guard waves at us happily, and Corrine wiggles her fingers at him as we pass by. “You don’t need to see his identification… These are not the droids you are looking for… Move along,” she says in a funny voice. Kieron and I both turn to look at her, and she bursts out laughing. “What, you never saw Star Wars? You just totally Jedi mind-tricked that guy!”
The Complete Demonblood Saga Page 47
