Still, I needed to ask about what Thomas had said. Just to hear him deny it himself.
I also had to tell him all about Princess Ana. Because that recording Thomas showed me of me pretending to be the vampire princess had seriously freaked me out.
But before I had a chance to do any of this, Noah shut the door behind him, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me. This kiss was more intense than the one when I’d first woken up, and it affirmed what that one had already showed me—that despite what Noah had told me back in New Orleans, my feelings for him were reciprocated.
My body filled with warmth as we kissed, and I wanted to pull him over to the couch and keep going.
I would have, if there wasn’t so much we needed to discuss. But surprisingly, I wasn’t the one who pulled away first—he was.
“Raven.” Noah cupped my face with his hands, as if making sure I was really there and not just a figment of his imagination. “I lied to you back in New Orleans.”
“I figured as much.” I chuckled and leaned forward to kiss him again, but he stopped me. “What?” My stomach dropped—the look in his eyes was intense.
“We imprinted on each other,” he said suddenly. “Back at that bar in New Orleans, when I kissed you for the first time.”
“What?” I shook my head and leaned back, taking his hands in mine. I’d heard him, but what he’d just said… “That’s impossible,” I continued, although it didn’t feel impossible—it felt right. It made sense, even though it also didn’t. “You and Sage told me that shifters can only imprint on other shifters. Unless…”
“Unless what?” he asked.
“You’re not saying I’m a shifter?” I asked. “Are you?”
“No.” He laughed, amusement temporarily taking over the intensity in his gaze. “You’re definitely not a shifter.”
“Then what am I?” It was a question that had been eating at me for days. As far as I was aware, I was human. But then why were demons trying to abduct me? It didn’t make any sense.
“You’re human,” he said. “Shifters have the best sense of smell of any supernatural. If you were something other than human, I’d smell it.”
“So how did we imprint on each other?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “This has never happened before.”
“Great.” I huffed and rolled my eyes, attempting to make light of the situation. “Not only are demons hunting me for unknown reasons, but I’m also the first human to ever imprint on a shifter. Just when I think things can’t get any crazier, they do.”
“Technically, I think I imprinted on you,” he said. “And something about you allowed you to reciprocate. But yeah, pretty much.”
He pulled me to him again, and we kissed for a few more blissful seconds. But as much as I wanted to do nothing but kiss Noah and forget about everything going on around us, I had questions. A lot of them.
I’d start with the ones that had to do with the imprint.
“Why did you lie to me back in New Orleans?” I stared up at him, my arms still wrapped around his neck. “Why pretend the imprinting didn’t happen?”
He paused for a moment, his jaw clenched. “You know about the imprinting and mating process, right?” he asked, his eyes searching mine. “Sage told you?”
“She did.” I nodded, thinking about the first one-on-one conversation I’d ever had with Sage, back in her plush, pink room in the Montgomery compound. It hadn’t been long since then, but it felt like forever ago. “Shifters can imprint on multiple people, but they eventually choose one to mate with. Once they mate, that bond lasts forever.”
“It never goes away.” His eyes gleamed with intensity. “Even after death.”
“Okay.” I glanced down and shifted uncomfortably. “What does this have to do with you not telling me we imprinted on each other until now?”
“Because imprinting and mating is a curse as much as it’s a gift,” he said sharply. “Shifters either choose a mate, or never find true love. And that mating bond lasts for life. Once one mate dies, the other will never find love again. That’s the way it’s always been for us. But for you it’s different. If you fall in love with someone and he dies, you’ll eventually move on and fall in love again. But not if that person is me.”
“Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself?” I asked, forcing a small smile. “We’re young. We have the rest of our lives left to live.”
“We’re in a time of war,” he reminded me. “Or did you already forget how close I came to dying the other day? How close you came to dying?”
I lowered my eyes and shook my head, since no, obviously I hadn’t forgotten.
I just didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to live life terrified that each moment might be my last.
“I’m going to Avalon to fight in this war—to defeat the demons,” he continued. “There’s no saying what will happen to me. I’m a skilled fighter, but I’m not indestructible. If we let this progress between us, and if we become mates, I could be cursing you to a life without love. I don’t want to do that to you. I won’t do that to you.”
His words felt like knives in my heart, and I focused on breathing steadily to calm the emotions raging through my body. It didn’t work. “So… you don’t want to give us a chance?” My voice shook—from either pain or anger. Maybe both. “You don’t want to see where this connection between us can go?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to.” He pinched his forehead together and breathed out in frustration. “I want to more than you could ever imagine.” He dropped his hand back down, his eyes hardening. “But I can’t. If anything happens to me, I want you to be happy, Raven. That won’t happen if we become mates.”
“If you truly believe that, why tell me at all?” I backed away from him, anger running through my veins like fire. “Why not keep lying to me, like you did in New Orleans?”
“That’s what I wanted to do.” He closed the distance between us and took my hands in his, squeezing them tightly and not letting them go. “But you nearly died in that alley back in Nashville. For a while I thought you were going to die. Thinking that you were going to die without knowing about our imprint, about how much I care about you—well, it just about killed me inside. I had to tell you. Even though we can’t take this any farther, I needed you to know.”
I was silent for a few seconds as I took it all in—and it was a lot to take in.
Maybe to him it sounded noble. But to me, it just sounded selfish.
“What about what I want?” I glared up at him, determined not to back down. “You keep talking about what you want and what would make you feel best. What if I don’t agree? What if I want to give us a chance, no matter what might happen if we do?”
“That’s just the imprint bond talking.” He let go of my hands, and the space between us literally hurt. “Once it goes away, you’ll start thinking clearly again.”
“How can it just ‘go away?’” I couldn’t believe he was saying all of this. “Our souls are connected. I can feel it. I can feel your pain, your frustration, and your worry as intensely as if it were my own. That isn’t the kind of thing that just ‘goes away.’”
“It actually is,” he said. “The imprint bond will disappear if I either mate with someone else or die.”
Emptiness hit my chest at his words. “Both of those situations would devastate me,” I said. Obviously death would be the worst, but if he imprinted on someone else… I couldn’t bear to think about how badly that would hurt.
“You’d get over it.” He spoke with such callousness that it shook me to the core.
“No.” I shook my head slowly. “I don’t think I would. The imprint bond is intense—I’ve never felt anything like it before. I don’t think any human connection could ever compare.”
“For your sake, I hope it can,” he said.
Was this some kind of cruel joke? He was so determined to throw the imprint between us away—so determined to not give us a chance.
But I didn’t have to sit back and accept it. I’d manifested my desires onto him before, and it had worked. Now, my desire to convince him to give us a chance was stronger than ever. Maybe I could manifest him into seeing things the way I did. It couldn’t hurt to try.
And so, I reached for one of his hands and focused on the connection between us. Give us a chance, I thought, sending my desire his way. See what might develop between us if we let it.
He dropped his hand so quickly that you’d have thought my touch was burning him. “Stop that,” he said.
“Stop what?” I smiled innocently, since there was no way he could know what I was trying to do.
“You’re tapping into the imprint bond to try influencing me,” he said. “I don’t know how you knew to do that—only shifters know about the power of the imprint and mate bonds—but stop.”
“I didn’t know how to do it,” I said. “I was just practicing manifestation.”
“Manifestation?” He said it like he’d never heard the word before.
“Just something my mom taught me.” I shrugged. “The ability to will your wishes and desires to become reality. I’d always thought it was silly. But then I tried using it back when the rougarou captured us, and it worked. So I’ve been using it since.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, as if waiting for me to add in a punch line. Then he laughed.
“What?” I crossed my arms and glared at him.
“Manifestation doesn’t exist,” he said once he got ahold of himself. “But when imprinted shifters are near each other, they can send emotions and desires to each other if they focus on it. I did it to you back in the alley. When I told you to run.”
“I remember,” I said. “I can’t believe you thought I’d leave you there.”
“Tapping into the imprint bond is more than just communicating what you want,” he said. “The imprint bond connects our souls. When you tap into the imprint bond, you’re literally nudging my soul to want what yours wants. To feel what you feel.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Because even though I knew you wanted me to run from that alley, there wasn’t a single second that I actually wanted to do it.”
“I’m sure,” he said. “But you’ve always been stubborn. I’m not surprised you resisted.”
“It’s a good thing I did,” I said.
“It is,” he agreed, which shocked me, since Noah rarely admitted he was wrong. He was sort of like me that way. “But unless it’s an emergency, don’t use the imprint bond to influence my decisions. It’s not respectful.”
“Fine,” I said, even though I felt far from it. “I’ll just pretend the imprint bond doesn’t exist.” I stepped away from him, as if that would be enough to make the connection between us disappear. "That’s what you want, right? For us to never have imprinted on each other at all?”
“Don’t turn this into something it’s not,” he said. “All I want is to not hurt you. I just wish you could believe me and trust that I want what’s best for you.”
“After what Thomas told me earlier, I probably shouldn’t trust you at all,” I muttered.
Alarm flashed in Noah’s eyes—he was so panicked that he looked like he stopped breathing for a second. “What did he tell you?” he asked.
“A lot of things.” I leveled my gaze with his, glad that I was back in control of this conversation. “Mainly that you’re also known as the First Prophet of the Vale, and that I’m also known as Princess Ana, a vampire from the Seventh Kingdom.”
Raven
The guilt in Noah’s eyes showed me I was right. He was the “First Prophet” Thomas had told me about.
I stood there silently, waiting for him to explain. Luckily, he didn’t make a move for the door. If he did, I’d attempt to use my temporary vampire strength to stop him. Not that I thought that would work, since Noah was a trained fighter and all, but I’d definitely try.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about with Princess Ana,” he said slowly. “But I can explain about my past as the First Prophet of the Vale.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “Because Thomas said that the First Prophet—you—helped open the Hell Gate.”
“And what did you say when Thomas told you that?” he asked.
“I told him he was wrong!” I threw out my arms, amazed he even had to ask. “I told him you’d never want to release demons from Hell. But now that you’ve confirmed you’re the First Prophet, I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“You should believe me,” he said. “I’ll tell you everything, right here right now. I didn’t want to at first, because I didn’t want you to be scared of me. But I’m done hiding things from you, Raven. You deserve to know the truth.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I do.”
“It’s a long story,” he said. “We should probably sit down for it.”
“All right.” I plopped down onto the couch and watched as Noah did the same.
He sat close enough that we were nearly touching. I wanted to reach over and take his hand in mine so badly, but I resisted. It took strength—his body and soul called to me like a magnet—but I fought the pull.
Instead, I clasped my hands over my knees, watching him steadily, and said, “Tell me everything.”
Noah did tell me everything—from the first dream he’d received from the demon who had claimed to be the wolves’ Savior, to when the Earth Angel had ordered him to bring her back the teeth of ten demons he killed to prove he was worthy of entering Avalon. The story was long and twisted, and I hung onto every word with limited interruptions.
“Now you know all of it,” he said once he was done. “I messed up. Big time.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “You did.”
“I’m doing everything I can to make up for it,” he said. “So I hope you can find it in your heart to accept me anyway.”
“I already have,” I said honestly.
“Just like that?” He looked genuinely surprised.
“We’re imprinted on each other.” I took his hand, needing him to understand how important our connection was to me. “You’re a good person—I knew that both before and after learning about your past. I know it because I can feel your soul. You’re the one who refuses to accept me.”
“I accept you,” he said. “And I also accept that I’m not the best choice for you.”
“I think I deserve a say in that decision.”
He sighed and looked down at our joined hands, like he was struggling to decide if he should keep holding on or let go. He held on—for now. “I already explained my decision,” he said. “I don’t want to go through it again.”
“Neither do I,” I said, since all of this drama between us was emotionally exhausting. I wanted to convince him to give me a chance.
But when it came down to it, I couldn’t force Noah to want to be with me.
If this was going to work between us, he was going to have to come to the decision to give us a chance on his own. We were both heading to the same place—Avalon—and the imprint bond between us was strong. We had time to let our relationship build. I was doing everything I could to allow that to happen.
But if he continued being so stubborn about trying to push me away, that wasn’t the kind of relationship that would work for me long term, anyway. Being treated like that would make me miserable. It killed me to think it, because the imprint bond made me want to do everything possible to make things work between us, but it was true.
“Anyway, now you know about my history as the First Prophet,” he said. “So what did you mean about you being Princess Ana?”
He was changing the subject on purpose. But I did want to ask him about Princess Ana, so I went along with it.
“Thomas showed me a recording of Princess Ana when she arrived to the Vale to enter the Bachelor-like competition Prince Jacen had for a wife.” I motioned to the television, which was now off. “She was me.”
“What are you talking about?” Noah scratched
his head, looking genuinely confused.
“Princess Ana looked just like me,” I said. “We’re identical. And she was in the Vale when I was supposedly in Europe. So I think whoever took my memories had me pretend to be Princess Ana. They must have given me vampire blood—like Thomas just did—to give me the powers of a vampire princess. Then, once Prince Jacen eliminated me from the competition, they erased my memories and sent me back home. It would explain how I subconsciously knew what vampire blood can do for humans.”
“It’s not a bad theory,” Noah said. “But it’s not possible.”
“You didn’t see the recordings.” I reached for the remote Thomas had used, but there were no buttons on it—not even an on switch. What kind of advanced technology was this? “Once Thomas is back, I’ll have him show you. Princess Ana was me. I know it sounds crazy, but you’ll believe it when you see it.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he said. “I mean it’s impossible because I know who Princess Ana was. She wasn’t you.”
“All right.” I crossed one leg over the other, willing to humor him. “Then who was she?”
He looked me dead-on and said, “She was Annika.”
Raven
I sat up in surprise. “The Earth Angel?” I asked.
“The one and only,” he said. “Before becoming the Earth Angel, Annika was a human blood slave in the Vale. She worked with a witch named Geneva to infiltrate the palace. Geneva helped Annika disguise herself as a vampire princess and enter the competition to win Jacen’s hand in marriage. Annika drank vampire blood to have the powers of a vampire princess, and transformation potion to change her appearance.”
“To make herself look like me.” I was breathless as the pieces started fitting together even more—and startled as a shattering realization fell into my lap. “But you were still in the Vale then. You’ve known I looked like Princess Ana this entire time.”
The Angel Trap Page 8
