by AJ Myers
“Are you all right, Em?” Nathan asked, putting his arm around my waist as I began to sway unsteadily.
“Do I look all right to you?” I pushed weakly at his arm in an effort to remove it, but it was like trying to move a steel beam out of the way with my pinkie finger. “And didn’t I tell you not to touch me?”
“Bring her to me, Nathan.” Mrs. Amelia’s eyes met mine and I couldn’t help but notice the amused twinkle in their emerald depths. It became even more pronounced when she turned her gaze back to Nathan. “I’ll have her fixed up in a jiffy, dear. It would be a true waste to mar such a lovely leg with a scar. Don’t you agree, Nathan?”
He shot her a look, but kept his opinion about the beauty of my leg, or lack thereof, to himself. If my leg—which really isn’t a bad looking leg, actually, if you don’t mind short and stubby—wasn’t worth defending, I didn’t even want to think about what he thought about the rest of me.
I’d be happy to tell you, in vivid detail, what I think about each and every inch of you, Nathan whispered in my mind, reminding me he could hear every single thought I had. But, it’ll have to wait until I can have you all to myself again.
I really couldn’t care less what you think of me, I told him, ignoring the way my body started tingling all over at the look he was giving me. For all I knew it was him literally making me feel that way. I couldn’t trust anything about him, including his effect on me.
And knowing that was worse than anything Jack could have ever done to me.
Nathan helped me over to where Mrs. Amelia sat and knelt down, pulling me down on his knee and lifting my leg into the old woman’s lap in a move so fluid that I couldn’t help but be a tiny bit impressed. Tyler stayed right behind us, and I got the feeling that all I had to do was say the word and he would take another beating to get me out of Nathan’s messed up clutches. And, for some reason, that made me feel better, like I wasn’t so alone.
Mrs. Amelia examined the wound for a moment, then gave me an appraising look before saying, “On second thought, Ember, why don’t I show you how to do this? The wound isn’t terribly deep. It should be a fairly easy one to start with.”
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” I told her, remembering my disastrous lessons with Grams with an internal wince. “I’m not very good at this stuff, Mrs. Amelia.”
“Oh, of course you are! Such a powerful gift you have, dear. You only have to learn to channel all of that wonderful power,” Mrs. Amelia told me, taking my hand and holding it over the still bleeding cut on my leg. “Healing is all about focus.”
And so was levitation and shielding and demon banishing and…and all those other things I’d sucked at. Still, because I thought it would be impolite to argue with her, I tried to do what she said. I focused with all my might, but nothing happened. Frustrated, I tried again. And again. And again.
“Sometimes it helps if you close your eyes, dear,” Mrs. Amelia said calmly, apparently unsurprised that I hadn’t done it on the first try. “It’s easier to heal a wound if you don’t have to watch it bleed. That is especially true when the blood in question is your own.”
Closing my eyes, I took a couple of deep, steadying breaths and tried again. I pictured the wound and saw the healing process as if it were a film playing behind my closed lids. First the bleeding would slow and stop. Then, it would scab over—it was an icky part of the healing process, but one that I had never managed to skip over. Then the wound would knit itself together, tissues would reform to replace that which had been damaged. Then it would heal, leaving behind nothing but smooth skin. I hoped.
As I pictured each step in my mind, I began to feel an intense heat radiating from my hand and the same tingling sensation I had felt the day Grams healed my burn. It was then that I lost my focus for a second. What if I didn’t do it right? What if my leg sprouted feelers or—horror of horrors—simply disappeared?
“Oh, my word,” Mrs. Amelia breathed as the heat from my hand began to lessen as my fear and doubt interrupted my concentration. When it completely faded, she actually moaned aloud. Beside me, Nathan made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort of laughter. And then, as if that wasn’t already mashing my internal panic button, I heard Tyler groan softly behind me.
I took all three sounds as a very bad sign. I wiggled my toes and was relieved to find they were still there. I reached down, keeping my eyes closed, and was even more relieved to find I hadn’t grown any feelers of any kind.
Okay, how bad could it be then?
I opened my eyes and stared in horror at the leg before me. It was the most shocking shade of purple I have ever seen. Not only was it bright purple, it also seemed to have doubled, maybe even tripled, in size. The panic attack that had been looming over me, just waiting for its chance, finally hit and I started to hyperventilate.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, dear,” Mrs. Amelia said, not quite meeting my eyes.
“Not as bad as it looks?!” I shrieked, jumping out of Nathan’s lap and glaring down at her. “How can you say that? I look like half an elephant! This is as bad as it gets!”
“I have to agree with her,” Tyler volunteered, grimacing. “That’s pretty damn bad, Amelia.”
“Ember, baby, calm down,” Nathan said soothingly, shooting Tyler a deadly look that told him to shut up better than words ever could. “It’s going to be all right. I’m sure there’s a simple solution. If Amelia can’t undo it, I’m sure Shea can. Just…don’t panic.”
Unfortunately for him, I could hear the laughter in his voice. The look I leveled at him was so full of anger and violence that he actually flinched away from it, all amusement gone in a puff of smoke.
And speaking of smoke…
“What the hell is wrong with my hands?” I demanded, shrilly, noticing for the first time that they were actually smoking.
I became totally hysterical. Unfortunately, the more frantic I became, the more smoke I seemed to be producing. And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I felt the heat from my hands starting to spread through my entire body.
Nathan jumped up about the time I burst into flames.
But I wasn’t in the attic anymore. I was back in that room with the girl from my dreams, watching as the fire crept closer and closer to me. Then, I was back on that stage of horrors where Jack had tried to roast me, feeling the heat of the flames as they surrounded me.
And then, I saw a scene I’d never seen before. I was on a hill overlooking some kind of plantation or something, tied to a stake. I was staring stonily ahead of me, not even paying attention to the flames as they ate at my clothing. I saw nothing but the man riding toward me, knowing that by the time he reached me it would be too late. I didn’t even take my eyes off him when the fire reached my skin. As long as he was there, where I could see him, I could die with dignity.
But, I couldn’t. I couldn’t take the feeling of those flames consuming me. I just couldn’t. Terrified tears welled up in my eyes and immediately blurred into steam, making it impossible to see him anymore.
And that’s when I started to scream.
Em, stop. Nathan’s voice brushed my mind again, sounding sweet and so very sad, snapping me out of my vision and back to the very fiery present. Just stop for a second and take a breath, he continued, trying to calm me down. You’re not burning, baby. Feel the flames and let it calm you. I know you’re scared, but you have to breathe. It’s the only way to put out the flames.
Breathe? Was he kidding?
“I don’t think she likes that much, bloodsucker,” Tyler observed, looking slightly panicked. I was glad to see that one of them was.
“I know she doesn’t like it,” Nathan snapped. “She’s terrified of it, that’s why she can’t control it!”
“Then do something about it!” Tyler snapped back. When Nathan didn’t move, he turned and ran into the bathroom with a muttered, “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
I heard the tap come on in the sink, but it didn’t really register
until he ran back out with an old ice bucket in his hands and flung the contents directly into my face. The flames went out as soon as the water hit me, the icy coldness of it serving the dual purpose of putting out the fire and snapping me out of my hysterics.
The second the flames went out, so did my knees. Tyler and Nathan both reached out to stop my fall but it was Tyler who caught me. Very gently, he lowered me to the floor and brushed my dripping curls back from my face.
“How you doing, beautiful?” he asked softly when I just stared up at him, the terror in my eyes making him wince.
“I’m wet,” I croaked hoarsely, trying to give him a weak smile. There was a real note of relief in his answering chuckle.
“Yes, you are,” he said sitting down next to me and taking my hand in his. “And cold.”
“Here, baby,” Nathan said, kneeling on my other side and covering me with the blanket from the bed. He was very careful to tuck it in all around me—a not-so-subtle way of making Tyler let go of my hand. When Tyler just grinned and shifted so I could use his thigh as a pillow, Nathan looked like he was contemplating giving him another beating. Instead, he turned to look at Mrs. Amelia where she stood, watching the three of us. With a strained expression, he said, “Call Shea. Tell her she needs to be on the first flight out.”
“Of course,” she said, bustling toward the door without really looking at me. “What precisely should I tell her is the reason for such haste?”
“Tell her the meeting’s been set,” Nathan said, turning back to look at me again. The fear and sadness in his eyes caused my heart to ache a little. “She’ll understand.”
“Very well,” she said solemnly without looking back.
“Oh, and Amelia?” Nathan called as she reached the top of the stairs and started down. She stopped, her shoulders tense. I frowned at the display, wondering what her problem was, but then she turned and smiled at us so sweetly that I thought maybe I’d imagined it.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Tell her to hurry up,” Nathan said, catching my gaze and trapping it in his. “We’re out of time.”
Mr. Right
Once I was dry and had stopped shaking like a leaf—mostly—Tyler and Nathan confiscated all of my energy supplements and pretty much tucked me in and commanded me to go to sleep, promising they would stand guard. Even after they’d left, though, I continued to try to force my eyes to stay open, but in the end I lost the battle and slipped into a dreamless, and thankfully Jack-less, coma.
When I woke up, it was to the sight of my grandmother’s smiling face. She was running her fingers through my long curls and I felt like a little girl again, surrounded by Grams’ warmth and love, safe in the knowledge that she would never let anything hurt me. There was a wealth of fear in her sparkling green eyes, and I knew without asking that she had been told about Jack’s visit the night before.
“I have a surprise for you,” she said with a soft smile.
Not another one, I thought with a groan.
“What now?” I demanded, sitting up in the bed and giving her a dark look. “Because, seriously, I think I’ve had about all the surprises I can stand, thank you very much.”
She rolled her eyes at my theatrics and threw the covers back. I laughed in delight and relief when I saw that my leg had been returned to its normal size and color. I didn’t know how she had done it, but I would love her forever and ever for it. I had already decided that if it couldn’t be reversed I was going to run away, change my name, and join the carnival. I had even picked out my stage name: The Amazing Purple Elephant Girl. I was glad I wasn’t going to be forced to such drastic measures.
“I hear you had quite the night,” Grams said, standing and walking over to the French doors Nathan and Tyler had boarded up for me the night before. She threw them open, letting in the sunshine and fresh air beyond, and I suddenly realized how claustrophobic the room had been with them closed. “Just so you know, Nathan is downstairs plotting to abduct you again the first chance he gets. He’s quite adamant that you’re not going to war with your demon this morning, so prepare yourself. If it hadn’t been for your new friend, Tyler, running interference last night, I think you would have woken up somewhere very different this morning.”
“Yeah, probably the dungeon of Castle Dracula,” I muttered, getting up and stretching. I checked the neckline of my hoodie as I lowered my arms and was glad to find that it covered my mark. Grams had yet to see that tell-tale little sign that Nathan owned me, and I really didn’t want to get into it right that second. “Tell me something, Grams. Is he brain damaged or something? Or is it that he’s just too stupid to understand the word no?”
“I told you, he knows something you haven’t come to realize yet, Ember,” she said, staring out at the fabulous view of the town of Moonlight I had from the widow’s walk. “Of course, I don’t know how you’ve remained oblivious this long. The truth is so obvious a blind man could see it. Until you’re ready to face it, though, it wouldn’t hurt you to cut him a little slack. He really is trying, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, sure he is,” I muttered, thinking of my mark and the invisible strings Nathan held in his oh-so-not-capable hands. Not wanting to discuss Sir Sucks-A-Lot anymore, I decided to change the subject to one I really wanted to discuss even less. “Grams? If I’m so frigging all-powerful, why don’t my powers work right?”
“Because of the bind I placed on you,” she said, turning to give me a contemplative look over her shoulder. “You haven’t even begun to discover your abilities yet.”
“Haven’t begun to discover my abilities?” I repeated with a bitter laugh. “Do you know what happened to me last night? I caught on fire, Grams! Like, literally on fire!”
When her eyes flared wide with shock, I decided they hadn’t told her everything about the night before after all. I waited for her to explain it. I needed her to explain it. She could have used sign language, Morse code, smoke signals…anything. I would have been fine if she’d written out an explanation in hieroglyphics. Instead, she just stood there and looked at me like she was really seeing me for the first time.
“Don’t just stand there!” I yelled. “Explain, Grams! How did I do that?”
“That isn’t possible,” she murmured, looking worried. “The bind I put on you as a child was exceptionally powerful due to your abilities. It has to be removed in stages, the first of which began when Nathan revealed you were a bandraoi. You should be nowhere near the stage that would allow you to summon an element.”
“Yeah, well, I think I must have skipped a couple because I looked like a total freak,” I snapped, wondering if she was ever going to give me a straight answer to a question.
Suddenly, it was all too much. I couldn’t deal anymore. I wanted to be the person I had been a week ago, dealing with the unhappy dead and not a murderous, delusional demon. I didn’t want to be a blood witch. I wanted the only vampires in my life to be the ones I read about in books and saw in movies.
I. Just. Wanted. To. Be. Normal.
Just to prove that I wasn’t, I felt that terrible pressure starting to build in my chest again. My heart started slamming against my ribcage like it was trying to beat its way out of my chest and my whole body felt like I was standing on the surface of the sun.
I was losing it. Again. Fabulous!
Ember? The silky sound of Nathan’s voice in my mind took me by surprise, but it wasn’t enough to help me. Ember! Baby, what’s wrong?
I winced when I realized he was picking up on my panic and then decided I didn’t care. What difference did it make? In about ten seconds I was going to self-destruct, anyway.
Please help me!
I hadn’t meant to call him to me, but something inside me must have known I was about to need him in the worst way. He had played a major part in the destruction of my life, but that didn’t seem to matter. I knew in a way that I wasn’t ready to examine that he could help me. I didn’t want to give him that much power over me, but I really d
idn’t have a choice.
Aw, hell. I needed him.
By the time he walked into the room, that terrible pressure in my chest was making me feel dizzy and my heart was racing a mile a minute. I shot him a frantic look and he started toward me slowly, his eyes full of…fear.
Oh, that couldn’t be good.
Carefully, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his chest, whispering soothing words in my ear. The effect wasn’t as instantaneous as it had been last time and that scared me even more. If he couldn’t help me, what would happen? It occurred to me then that no one had ever actually told me what would happen. Why? Because they all sucked.
“We need to get her calmed down quickly,” Grams told him, really sounding worried. “The bind is unraveling on its own, flooding her with power much too quickly for her to acclimate herself to it. There’s eight years of pressure waiting to be released in that tiny little body. If she loses control, it could be disastrous.”
Tiny little body? I thought, totally insulted. And by my own grandmother, no less! And she was one to talk, anyway, considering she isn’t any bigger than I am.
“What happened to her, Shea?” Nathan asked shortly, smoothing my hair and tightening his hold on me when I began to tremble in his arms.
“I believe our Ember is realizing there’s no escaping her destiny,” Grams murmured, sounding sad.
“It’s all right, Em,” Nathan crooned, holding me closer. “It’s all right, baby. I’m here.”
Given that I actually trusted him about as far as I could throw him, I decided not to comment. Instead, I dropped my forehead to rest against his chest and tried to breathe. Between his scent and the soothing rumble of his voice, I was finally able to get some control over myself. My heartbeat slowly returned to normal. It got easier to breathe and I stopped feeling like a bomb about to go off.
