TARNISHED (Book 5.5, The Caged Series (Novella))

by Natusch, Amber Lynn

  “Hiding things from those around you isn't always the best course of action, Sean. Secrets can kill.”

  Without being dismissed, he walked away from me, obviously frustrated by my unwillingness to share with him what I'd kept secret for centuries.

  “This one cannot, of that I can assure you.”

  “That will remain to be seen,” he replied.

  I should have known that he would be right.

  Jay always was.

  The Calling

  It was decades after that night when Jay and I revisited that very conversation. The night my visions of her forever disappeared. Lightning struck down around us violently in a way that rarely, if ever, occurred on the East Coast, but that night the skies were alight with the turbulence I felt inside. Something was brewing other than the storm.

  A growing pulsation surged through me, starting slow and steady until it finally erupted, nearly physically pulling me toward the direction of whatever had caused it.

  “Did you feel that?” I finally asked the others as I searched our surroundings for something approaching. The presence I felt was so clear that I could only assume that it was nearby.

  “Feel what?” Jay replied, trying to follow my tracking eyes with his.

  My brow furrowed as I focused on the energy while its intensity slowly faded. Then, without precipitation, it suddenly dissipated. I felt instantly empty and fought to regain my composure.

  “Perhaps it was nothing.”

  Jay's scrutinizing eyes fell on me hard, reading through my calm façade.

  “You're like a walking supernatural radar,” he countered. “If something went off, it wasn't 'nothing'.”

  “That may be true, Jay, but I feel nothing now.”

  But even as I said those words, my eyes instinctively fell to the west, in the direction of the Green Mountain valley. Something had called to me from that direction, and though I could not place what it was, it would not be denied. That momentary flash was like a beacon—a homing device—implanted in me.

  “And that 'nothing' you feel now, it wouldn't have anything to do with the thing that is not for me to worry about?”

  As I assessed him, I could tell that he would not be so easily derailed from what he knew was true. Though the details eluded him, he clearly had pieced things together.

  “I do not know.”

  “But what do you think?”

  “I think that they are connected, though I cannot conceive why.”

  “It is because you are connected in both mind and body. I know you dream of something...someone. Perhaps now you can feel that someone too...”

  “And that would be possible if I still felt something. But I feel nothing, so your theory is null and void.”

  “Who is she?” he asked boldly, unfaltering when I moved closer to him. I felt protective of just the thought of her. I did not like having someone asking questions about her. She was mine; that was all anyone would ever need to worry about.

  “Be careful, Jaysen,” I warned, my face dangerously near his.

  “She must be a powerful being, Sean. Perhaps I am not the one who needs to be careful.”

  “You know nothing about her...”

  “And my suspicion is that you do not either.”

  “You're playing with fire, old friend. I suggest you walk away before you get burned...”

  “I would tell you the same except that I think that isn't the case. In fact, I think it's quite the opposite. Whatever this force of nature is, my guess is that she is water to your flame.”

  “Cassandra said she would be my demise,” I uttered, low and warning. “The only demise that will be related to her is that of anyone who attempts to harm her. I will see to that myself.”

  I didn't need a mirror to know that my eyes had returned to their black shade, staring through Jay as if he barely existed.

  “What did she show you?” he asked curiously, ignoring my threats entirely.

  “A girl...a woman.”

  “What is she?”

  “I do not know.”

  “Who is she?”

  “I do not know.”

  “Are you to find her?”

  “Jay! I know nothing other than the fact that her ghostly pale form has plagued my thoughts and dreams in the most welcome way for longer than I can remember now. I can hardly recall what life was like before she came to me in her blood-covered glory, her eyes begging for what she could not ask...”

  “And what was that, Sean? What does she want?”

  “My help...,” I whispered, finally putting that piece of the puzzle together. How I hadn't made that connection before that moment was beyond me, but Jay's wisdom had a way of seeping into those around him at times when his determination was high. “She needs my help. I have to protect her.”

  “From what?” Jay asked, true concern painting his expression.

  “I do not know...” And I didn't. I had no clue how to do what I knew I had to. “But I will find out, and when I do...it dies.”

  Jay nodded in agreement.

  From that moment on, I was completely unable to focus on anything else, my mind always wandering back to her. Often, I would find myself gazing off to the mountains for no reason, as though remnants of that stormy night still somehow called to me. It was an eternal distraction. Though when I decided to journey out there, hoping to find some trace of her, the feeling never changed—never intensified.

  Not until twenty-eight years later.

  The One

  I awoke with a start. Something was wrong. My heart seized violently and sweat poured down my face at an alarming rate. Without any thought to what I was doing, I was up and dressed, heading out the door with cell phone in hand, already rallying the troops. Barking orders as I exited, I slipped behind the wheel of my SUV and wrenched the key in the ignition, quickly peeling out to collect the others. They had better be ready...

  There was no time to lose.

  Heading out of town with the brothers in tow, I raced to the highway, needing to head north, though for no reason I could make any sense of. Whatever I was feeling, the connection was deep and inescapable. The longer we drove, the larger it grew until suddenly, just as we were approaching the Vermont border, a scream tore through my brain―a cry for help.

  That's when I saw her.

  Surrounded by men, she fought as they beat her with whatever implements they had at their disposal. Broken, battered, and alone, she fell to the ground as she made one final plea for someone to help her. Anyone.

  Then she disappeared from my mind.

  With laser precision, I wove my way through the back roads deep into the woods until I came upon a single car parked just off the road near a hiking trail. Barely waiting until my car was stopped, I hopped out and placed my hand on the silver Audi A8.

  She was here...

  With lightning speed, the brothers and I ran toward the screams that suddenly filled the forest air. Males screaming. When we reached the spot where the haunting calls of death had come from, we found a slaughter scene. Two unidentifiable bodies lay close together, shot up, butchered, but not destroyed. The others had been disposed of far more creatively. We followed the trail of dismembered limbs, organs, and entrails until all that was left was a trail of blood. Red paw prints painted the snow for miles until they broke into a small clearing amid the dense trees. There, propped up against the tall pine behind her, still broken and battered, was the one I had dreamed of for so long.

  I called out to her, not realizing the words had escaped until they came echoing back to me. Her eyes shot up in the direction my voice had come from, but we were still hidden behind the thick fir trees.

  Then I started to run.

  I watched as panic took her over, clearly unaware of what was happening, or what fate may await her upon my arrival. Slowing as I reached her, I crouched before her, letting her gaze soak me in as mine did her. Her bloodstained skin contrasted the snow she sat in and her hair blew wildly around her f
ace, sheltering it from the cold. She shivered uncontrollably, so I took my coat off to protect her from the frigid air. As I wrapped it delicately around her wounded body, she watched me carefully, her eyes never leaving mine.

  Those eyes...

  A blue I hadn't seen since I left the seas of my homeland stared back at me, and I felt a sense of completion that had eluded me for centuries. I carried her back to the vehicle, my eyes never leaving hers. Her gentle stare begged me to keep her safe, and that was exactly what I would do. No harm would ever befall her. Of that I would make certain.

  When exhaustion overtook her, she went limp and lifeless in my arms and my heart fell. Never... She would never feel that way to me again. How something so frail, even given her supernatural advantages, could ever be a threat to me was beyond comprehension. She will be your demise, I heard whispered through my mind.

  I laughed.

  The only threat she posed to me was against all that Ares had created.

  That was a loss I was willing to suffer.

  Epilogue

  Present Day

  I looked down at her as she slept beside me. The peace I found in the act was a sinful indulgence, something I had never been afforded. She was and always had been my sweetest downfall.

  Watching over her.

  Forever watching over her.

  I had done it from the moment I had finally laid eyes on her, unwilling or unable to let her go―the very definition of impossible. Not even the buildup of centuries had prepared me for the moment my dreams were realized. It did nothing to prepare me for all that would follow either.

  What had once been a struggle for identity soon became a war.

  The pull toward her shook me initially, forcing me to keep my distance until I just couldn't any longer. Once that door was opened, it could not be shut. Every moment spent around her freed more and more of the light within me, her purity calling to it. The effect ensnared me, holding me captive until the truth was revealed.

  The beast that she caged threatened to undo it all.

  Even in those darkest moments, the moments that unleashed my own beast, nearly allowing me to backslide to a place of eternal darkness, I didn't because I couldn't. My threats had been idle, even if I hadn't realized it then. Killing her was tantamount to killing my soul—yet another impossibility. With her, I was a true expression of both who and what I was―what I wanted to be―for better or worse. With her, I could best my destiny. With her, I felt whole.

  But the future I saw with her at my side was in jeopardy. I could see it in her eyes. Her heart told her she was where she wanted to be, but her mind betrayed her, and I feared it would betray me too. Someone or something had gotten to her, and the precarious balance that she and I held wavered in its wake.

  Fear was an emotion I had never experienced before knowing her. It had been prevalent ever since. I feared for her life. I feared her secrets. I feared her lies. And I knew she feared mine. Questions about my past continued to haunt her, both day and night, the twisted expression she wore as she slept a constant reminder of that fact.

  My darkness raged against the fight it could not win—the lack of an enemy to slay. Both he and I were helpless, a feeling that was most foreign and unwelcome. A feeling that would not relent. Night after night, I watched as those expressions became more tortured and tormented, unable to decipher the reason but knowing the cause.

  Me.

  Cassandra had it wrong. It was not Ruby who would be my demise. It was I that would be hers. If I could not find a way to defeat the demons that plagued her, she would succumb to them and be forever lost.

  Perhaps that loss would be the death of me.

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  STRAYED

  Book 6 in The Caged Series

  Available 2014

  Also Coming Soon:

  UNBORN

  Book 1 in The Unborn Series

  Tempted by Evil

  Book 1

  The Light and Shadow Trilogy

  Available NOW!

  A brand new YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance trilogy by Shannon Morton and Amber Lynn Natusch!

  A sheltered girl.

  The perfect boy.

  A mysterious stranger.

  Random messages delivering a sobering prophecy plague Aspen's existence. With every curious encounter, her sanity further wavers. Before long, Aspen finds herself balancing the fate of humanity on her shoulders, until a single act turns her world upside down. She finds herself alone, isolated from those she thought she could trust.

  Alone to damn the world.

  See more about Author Shannon Morton:

  Redheadsread.com

  Author Spotlight here

  Acknowledgments

  I have an amazing team that seems to expand with every novel I put out. Thank you to Shannon Morton, Jennifer Ryan, Dannielle Gleim, Jena Gregoire, Eryn Bagley, Kristy Bronner, Jen Krom, Kristy Atkinson, Virginia Nicholas, and the newbies, Cristina Suarez-Munoz and Megan Ward O'Connell. You all played an integral part in making this novella what it currently is (which is hopefully a raging success).

  Now...on to the next project