by Kelly Oram
“Russ, don’t say such horrible things!” Grace threw her arms around me and started sniffling again.
I had no idea what to do or say this time. There was no way to comfort Grace, because there was no way out of this situation. I’d reached a dead end. I looked to Cynthia and Ethan for help.
“Will somebody tell me what the hell is going on?”
All of us ignored Dani’s outburst. Me because I didn’t want to get into this with her, and Ethan and Cynthia because they were more concerned about Grace. “Grace, it’s going to be okay,” Cynthia said softly as she placed a hand on Grace’s shoulder.
“This was the plan, right?” Ethan added in a voice equally gentle, treating Grace as if afraid she were going to break at any moment. “We knew he’d get weak. It’s what needs to happen to break his bond, remember?” Ethan’s voice was confident and soothing, but I felt his worried gaze on me.
Grace pulled her tear-stained face out of my chest. “What if it doesn’t work? It should have by now, right? What if it never breaks? What if you can’t start regaining energy from others? What if you…” She hiccupped. “What if you die?”
Well, that did it. Dani meltdown in three…two… “WHAT?” Dani screeched, right on cue. “Russ! Explain right now, damn it, or I will turn you into something unnatural!”
I sighed. “Fine. Remember how when you got to the consulate your body was rejecting all supernatural energy except mine and Dad’s?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the council was able to break your bonds, but I’m stuck with mine.”
“I know, but—”
“So, my dad was toying with me every bit as much as he played you. Just like you before they dissolved your bonds, my body rejects all supernatural energy except yours and Dad’s.”
Dani’s eyes popped wide open as Caleb stated the obvious. “He hasn’t seen either of you in over five months.”
“That is why your aura is so faint,” Gabe whispered. “I had wondered. It was so bright the first time we met, but it is barely visible now.”
“Barely visible?” Dani shrieked. She still couldn’t see auras.
Gabe nodded. “He could almost pass for human.”
Dani looked sick. She stared at me with an open mouth, her eyes bugging out of her head. “You’ve been slowly starving of your energy all this time?”
I rolled my eyes. I knew she would overreact. “Stop freaking out. I’m sure this is why the council didn’t explain it to you.”
Dani shook her head and tore my hand from Grace’s. She plastered my hand to her cheek, bombarding me with her essence. When I shuddered beneath the onslaught of energy, her eyes glistened, and before I even knew what hit me, she pulled me to my feet and had her arms around me. “I didn’t know,” she whispered as she started rubbing her hands over the bare skin on my arms. “The council never told me you were like me. Russ, I’m so sorry.”
I tried to pull away from her at first, but within seconds I couldn’t remember why I should. This was my Dani. I knew her voice. I knew the feel of her. I knew her smell. I recognized the rush of energy that came at me, and remembered that my heart always sped up like this whenever she was close to me. This was the Dani that belonged to me.
Slipping my arms around her waist was like being transported back in time to a previous life, back before Dani was a supernatural. Back before there was a council and a resistance, when there was only the two of us against the world. Back when I had everything I wanted. When I was happy.
When I finally hugged her back she buried her face in my shoulder, and then after a moment she was kissing my neck. The torching feel of her lips on my skin was too much for me to handle. “Dani,” I breathed. I was shaking so hard I couldn’t get any other words out.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she said, her breath tickling my skin.
She knotted her fingers in my hair, and my eyes rolled back in my head. As I bent down to meet her searching lips, I heard a tiny Grace-like gasp that, thankfully, brought me back to the present.
“Danielle?”
Dani shook herself from her daze and flinched with horror as she realized what she’d done. “I’m so sorry, Gabriel. I—” She blinked again and moved into Gabe’s arms, as if she needed him to hold her back from me. Her eyes glossed over with tears. “I don’t know what happened.”
My muscles were so rubbery I collapsed back down to my chair. “Geez, Dani,” I gasped, wringing the shakes out of my hands. “What are you trying to do to me? Just want to make sure you can still torture me?” I let out a haggard laugh. “Well, congratulations. You’ve still got it.”
“What?” Dani shook her head in disbelief and sat back down, clinging to Gabe. “No, Russ, I didn’t mean to—I don’t know why…”
She was really freaking out now. Granted, she’d just lost control of herself and nearly kissed me in front of her mate, but the emotional breakdown she was having seemed over the top. “Are you crying?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Looks like Russ must have zapped away all your self-control along with your magic,” Cynthia muttered, making Dani’s cheeks flush with embarrassment.
The blush was nearly as shocking as the tears. Dani is not the type of girl who blushes for any reason. “What the heck is up with you? I mean, I know I’m pretty irresistible and all, but you’re acting like a psycho.”
That broke her out of her freak-out enough to make her roll her eyes at me. “Shut up. I’m allowed to worry about you.”
She moved as if she was going to sit next to me, but Grace stopped her. “Maybe you should keep your distance,” she snapped.
Okay, so Dani wasn’t the only one acting crazy. The only person I’d ever seen Grace lose her temper with was Ethan. I know I’d said she was starting to gain a backbone, but this was different. There was some serious anger inside her that went beyond petty jealousy.
I glanced at Ethan and Cynthia, but they were just as startled as me. Gabe was the one who ended the glaring match between the two girls. “Danielle. I, too, think a little space might be best.”
Dani didn’t take her eyes off Grace. They were lost in some kind of epic glare-down. “He needs my help,” she growled.
Finally tearing her eyes from Grace, she glanced at me and her anger depleted. “Russ, you need energy. How can you even stand it? I remember what that felt like. It’s torture.”
Hearing the word torture, Grace’s anger disappeared as well, and she picked up my hand, lacing our fingers together once again.
“It hasn’t been that bad,” I said. It was sort of the truth. It had sucked—I’d been in constant pain and restlessness for the last five months—but it wasn’t the torture Dani endured. “I wasn’t as strong as you to begin with, and I’m not in the cravings.”
“Still.” Gabe glanced at the space around me, as if looking at my aura. “You should not have lasted five months. I do not understand how you are still alive, much less functioning on the level you are.”
I shrugged, feeling very uncomfortable. I didn’t like talking about my condition with anyone, much less the freaking know-it-all Seer who stole my girl. As if being weak wasn’t a big enough blow to my ego, Gabe had to be the only person on the planet as strong as Dani. “We’ve been able to slow the process down a lot, thanks to Grace.” I tried to sound as indifferent as possible. “Without her, I’d have died months ago.”
I grinned at Grace and gave her hand a squeeze. She tried to smile for me, but couldn’t manage it.
“What do you mean?” Dani asked.
Grace and I were both startled by the sharp edge in Dani’s tone. When I glanced back, Dani was scowling at Grace’s hand in mine. She was jealous again, but that was stupid. She had her man. She’d chosen whom she wanted, and it wasn’t me. Even if things were like that with Grace and me—which they weren’t—Dani should be happy about that, or at least relieved that I might be moving on from her.
Even more sur
prising than Dani’s jealousy was Grace’s hostility toward Dani. Both of them had their hackles raised again, which just plain didn’t make sense. Grace is the sweetest person I’ve ever met. She likes everyone. She’s so friendly she even managed to forgive and befriend Clara, after Clara tried to kill her and helped Andrew kidnap her. I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand her dislike of Dani, but they’d been brittle with one another since the moment Grace stormed into the conference room at the consulate.
“I’m the opposite of you,” Grace explained, her voice unusually antagonistic. “When I touch supernaturals, instead of becoming what they are, I make them become like me—I turn them human.”
“You what?” Dani and Gabe both gasped.
“Since I turn Russ human when we’re touching, I dissolve his supernatural bonds. We’ve spent so much time together that I’ve managed to slow down the amount of energy he loses. It’s kept the pain bearable, and most likely kept him alive.”
“But you have to be touching for it to work?” Dani asked through gritted teeth.
Grace—sweet little innocent Gracie—held up our entwined hands and smirked at Dani. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?” She kissed my cheek, as if to emphasize her point further. “As much as I hate what’s happening to Russ, I consider myself lucky. There are worse things than being superglued to a gorgeous, fun, smart, sweet guy twenty-four seven. And he makes a really great pillow on the nights when he can’t sleep and has to sneak into my room. We’ve gotten really close.”
“How close?” Dani growled.
Grace grinned. “As if I’d tell you.”
I blinked at Grace in utter shock. Not that I didn’t agree with everything she’d said, but it was so unlike her to admit it out loud, and to do it with—I’m fairly certain—the malicious intent of hurting Dani. That was totally something Dani would do, but she has a mean streak in her. Grace doesn’t. “What in the H-E double hockey sticks is happening right now?”
Cynthia, Caleb, Clara, and Ethan were all just as astonished. “It’s a girl thing,” Cynthia finally managed. “Two momma bears fighting over one cub.”
“No,” Ethan whispered, shaking his head in bewilderment. “It’s more than that. I can feel a temper inside of Grace that isn’t normally there. It doesn’t feel like hers.”
His words made the pieces click together in my mind. “It’s Dani’s temper. It’s their connection.”
“Connection?” Gabe asked while my friends started to understand.
Everyone looked to me, and I shrugged. “Whatever. They’ve already defected. Just tell them.”
“My father says Dani and Grace are physically connected,” Ethan explained. Looking at Dani, he said, “You have to be, in order to maintain balance. The Creator needed you, but alone you would be too powerful, so they gave you a connection to Grace to give you a sense of humanity. To give you a flaw. A weakness. You feel Grace’s humanity, and Grace feels a bit of your supernatural essence. She’s even been experiencing a bit of your cravings over the past half-year. She’s never been this out of control before, though. The connection must be stronger with the two of you being so close to one another.”
“Or, I just care about Russ,” Grace snapped. “I don’t want her to hurt him again.”
Neither Dani nor Gabe knew how to respond to this new information. They both just stared at Grace as if she were an alien. “She’s affecting you, too, isn’t she?” I asked Dani. “That’s why all the psycho-girl crap.”
Dani broke out of her reverie and scowled at me. “Psycho-girl crap?”
I smirked. “What else would you call it? I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen you cry, but you’ve nearly burst into tears a dozen times today.”
“It must be Grace’s influence on you,” Ethan said.
Dani frowned. “What?”
“Have you been extra emotional lately?” Cynthia asked. “Anxious? Afraid to speak up for yourself, or a little depressed maybe?”
“I guess,” Dani admitted hesitantly. “But it’s been Russ, too.” She looked at me, blushing, and then spoke as if she were admitting a grievous sin. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my head for weeks. When I saw you today…” Her voice trailed off into a sigh. “And just now when I…I couldn’t help it.”
Ethan and Cynthia groaned together while Caleb snorted. “Yup, that’s definitely Grace,” he teased.
“All the way down to the pathetic, lovesick sigh,” Cynthia agreed.
I didn’t mean to look startled—I knew Ethan said Grace really liked me—but I’d never seen the “lovesick” side of her that was apparently obvious to them. My face heated up, and I turned away from Grace only to meet Dani’s stricken expression. She looked as if she didn’t know whether to be angry and jealous, or just sick to her stomach. I could have told her the answer was both, because that’s exactly how I feel every time I see her cling to Gabe as though he’s her entire universe.
“The crazy emotions are a Grace thing,” Cyn said, trying to get the conversation going again in order to pass the awkward moment.
Grace frowned, so I squeezed her and winked at her. “Don’t worry; we love you for it, Gracie.” Looking again at Dani, I lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “You guys are connected. She’s your balance.”
“Michael told you this?” Gabe asked. “Did he tell you anything else? Perhaps Grace’s calling as this Ungifted One you mentioned? How she is different, or why she is in need of a warrior? Do you know her destiny?”
I rolled my eyes at the gleam of excitement in his eyes. “We have a few answers.”
“Answers like about what you did back at the consulate?” Dani raised an eyebrow at me. “How could you be powerful enough to dissolve the wards on the building and suck all the power out of me when you’re so weak you’re nearly dead?”
I groaned. “Okay, okay. Promise not to interrupt, and I’ll tell you everything you missed since I left you at that crusty diner back on Halloween.”
It took me the rest of the train ride across the river to finish telling the story, especially since Gabe kept interrupting with asinine questions. By the time he and Dani were all caught up, I had a raging headache and my patience was as nonexistent as my magic. If we hadn’t rumbled into the Newark station and had to switch trains for one that would take us south to D.C. right then, I might have strangled someone. Forty-five minutes in a subway car with Gabe, Clara, and Caleb is not my idea of a party.
Ethan rose and offered Grace his hand to help her up. She’d fallen asleep curled up against me. She hesitated to take his offered hand, blushing cherry red. Ethan’s ears and neck flamed in response, and he swallowed so hard all of us heard it. Oh, to be a fly on the wall inside their brains right then. Now that the warrior bond went both ways, Grace could feel Ethan’s emotions, which meant she was finally learning exactly how hung up on her he was.
Everyone gives me crap about being hopelessly head over heels for Dani, but Ethan wasn’t far behind me with his crush on Grace. His was just a much more recent development. Not that matters of the heart are a laughing matter, but it’s been highly entertaining watching him fall and slowly realizing just how desperately in love with her he is, while she was completely clueless to the situation. Heh, she definitely wasn’t clueless now.
There was this moment of insane awkwardness before she slipped her hand into his and allowed him to help her rise to her feet. The blushing intensified. Ethan cleared his throat and flipped on his mental warrior switch, allowing him to focus. He pulled Grace close as he neared the compartment doors, waiting for the train to finally stop. “Stay close to me,” he muttered, low and tense.
At the warning, I made sure the dagger I’d stolen from Duncan was easily accessible from its place tucked in the waistline of my pants. Caleb and Cynthia also perked up at the intensity in Ethan’s tone. “You expecting trouble?” Caleb asked.
Ethan grimaced. “The guardians from the consulate couldn’t be here yet, but they could have
sent word out to any already in this area. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found one or two scouting the train station for us. Everybody stay on guard.”
Heads nodded, and we stepped off the train into a thankfully supernatural-free station. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief but stayed alert. We moved as a group to the nearest ticket counter, looking for a train schedule. Luck was on our side. There’d be a train heading south in ten minutes. Just before Ethan stepped up to the window to purchase tickets, I finally spoke up about a plan I’d formed after we left the consulate. I had to clear my throat around the lump of nerves in it. I was not looking forward to spilling my guts. “Hey, um, don’t get a ticket for me.”
As I knew they would, the entire group froze and turned to me with confused expressions. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I took a step back from them and kicked at a piece of petrified ABC gum on the ground. “I can’t go back to D.C. with you guys right now.”
I watched everyone as the news sunk in, trying to gauge how big of a stink they were going to give me about this. Their expressions were all pretty much what I’d expected. Clara was suspicious. Caleb, Cynthia, and Gabe were confused. Grace’s wide eyes told me she was panicking, while Ethan and Dani both seemed to be trying to explode my head with lethal eye lasers.
Ethan and Dani spoke at the same time. “What are you talking about?” Ethan asked, while Dani took a more direct approach. “The hell you’re not!”
I’d been prepared for this. From the moment we left the consulate, I knew what I had to do, and I knew of all of them were going to fight me on it—especially Dani and Ethan. I was sure I could convince Ethan, but Dani was going to be harder. I met their angry expressions with a level gaze. “There’s something going on with me. I have to figure it out.”
