Isaac suddenly spoke up. “You mean you didn’t stand me up?”
“No, I would never do that Isaac,” I said peering around the man to meet his blue eyes.
“I thought you left me there by myself,” he said and his voice was soft like a little boy.
“No,” I said. “Never.”
“So, he can interrupt but I can’t?” laughed the man that was their leader.
“Yes, because you are rude about it,” I said before continuing. “She took me to an old house. And when I woke up,” my voice was starting to crack as I fought back the tears, “My father was there. She didn’t come back for a little while but when she did,” tears were coming now, “I had to watch my own father’s head be ripped off. I had to watch my dad die. Then, she came after me. My whole body felt like it was burning. I thought that I was going to die and I would have if Jonathon hadn’t shown up. But he did and he saved me when I thought there was no chance of being saved. We thought Jonathon killed her but she outsmarted us. She is still alive and still leaving me messages. She won’t be satisfied until I’m dead and she doesn’t care who she has to kill to get to me,” I wiped a stray tear from my face.
I looked in the scarred man’s face. For the first time it seemed that compassion had filled his cold gold eyes. “We will help you.”
“That’s all we ask,” said Patrick.
“Come with me. We will find a more comfortable place to talk,” the man in the red cloak said starting down the corridor that we hadn’t come from.
“Can we go now? Please?” I asked Jonathon in a whisper. He looked at me and I knew he wanted out of here just as much as me.
“Patrick?” asked Jonathon deferring to his uncle.
“You two can go home now. We no longer need you, we will be fine,” said Patrick. The rest of the Coven followed the man in the red cloak, Patrick, Amelia, Danny, Mason, Joseph, Balthazar, Vivian, Viola, and Gabriel, followed behind them.
Jonathon and I headed back down the corridor we had come from.
It seemed to take longer going back but then again there was no impenetrable doom waiting for me at the end to speed up time.
We finally reached the outside world and made it to Jonathon’s mustang.
Just as he was opening the car door for me there was a noise from behind us.
“Kylie?” a voice asked from the dark. Jonathon whipped around into a crouch in front of me. His teeth were out in points and glimmered like deadly daggers in the moonlight.
He let out a feral growl and then launched himself at the approaching danger.
Chapter Seven: Isaac
“Get off of me! Are you crazy?!” the voice croaked in a strangled shriek.
“Jonathon! Jonathon! Stop it! It’s Isaac!” I yelled. The growling that was coming from Jonathon ceased. He stood and released the struggling figure that was beneath him. Jonathon wiped the dirt off of his hands onto his jeans. Despite the dirt he still looked like a model.
Isaac’s lip was bloody and his eye appeared to be turning purple, Jonathon’s hands had left a bruised impression around his neck. Isaac rubbed at his neck and winced when he swallowed.
“Are you okay?” I asked. He nodded still rubbing at his throat. “Did you need something?” I asked him, tilting my head questioningly.
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you. To explain,” He said in a raspy voice. I moved towards him.
“No,” said Jonathon’s voice ruff, “You’re not going with him.”
“Yes. I am,” I said sternly.
“No,” said Jonathon equally as fierce.
“Jonathon Matthew Pulmer you are not the boss of me. Now go prance your butt into your car and stop acting like King Henry VIII. The world does not revolve around you.”
“Kylie,” he pleaded but I was hearing none of it. A girl needed some independence.
“Jonathon, please,” I begged.
“Fine, you have ten minutes,” he said holding up ten fingers for emphasis. “Ten,” he repeated.
“I will take as long as I want,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Just don’t take all night.” He sighed. “Deal?”
“Alright,” I said to Isaac, “Talk.”
“Follow me.”
I followed him around the underground opening into a string of trees. He kept walking. The trees became thicker and the sky almost completely disappeared. My heart began to race in fear. Not fear of Isaac but of what could be hiding in the dark.
“We should be out of earshot now,” Isaac said turning to me.
“Earshot?” I asked my brow raising.
“Your vampire doesn’t need to know everything,” He mumbled.
“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked putting my hands on my hips in a get-on-with-it gesture.
“The Coven,” he said.
“Why?” I asked drawing out the word.
“Because now that you know I’m a part of it I can talk to you about it. Well, I can’t tell you everything but I can tell you some things. Aleksei wouldn’t want me to tell you everything,” Isaac said shaking his head.
“Is there something I should know?” I asked.
“No, but you should be warned,” he said and even in the dark his blue eyes glowed.
“Warned about what?”
“Vampires,” he whispered the word like he was letting me in on a little secret.
I laughed.
“Come on Isaac. Be serious,” I giggled.
“I am,” he said glaring at me.
“Okay, I’ll humor you,” I said sobering.
“That’s all I ask. Before I waste my time talking about those filthy bloodsuckers let me tell you about the Coven.” He cleared his throat, winced, and then continued. “The Coven was formed centuries ago. Maybe even millennia ago the exact date was never recorded. We are the decedents of the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar was formed to hunt and kill them. They aren’t our friends, Ky. We are trained to kill vampires not work with them. This will be a new experience for us. Especially for someone like me, Tyson, Colton, and Wayland, young, untrained warriors. We haven’t perfected our skills yet. We are only beginning to learn how to control our senses and refine our skills. Every nerve in my body is screaming ‘kill’ when I’m around a vampire.”
“Can I ask a question?” He nodded his ascent. “Do you have to be a part of this Coven? Is it a choice?”
“There is no choice for us. We are raised knowing what we will become. On our eighteenth birthday we are inducted into the Coven for life. There is no getting out of it, except death, and there is no deciding to join. You’re born into it and trained by your parents at a young age. I’m a lethal weapon. If the military knew about us we’d become some kind of super weapon. Humans that aren’t quite human, with deadly skills like no other, sounds like a horror movie or a sci fi novel, eh?”
“Kind of. Is that what your tattoo is for?” I asked pointing to his arm which was now covered.
“Yes. It’s the Coven’s symbol. That way if we are in a different country other Coven members will recognize us. Each tattoo is the same in essence but each Coven has a slight difference to differentiate between countries.”
“I guess I have to respect it, now,” I said sadly.
He laughed. “Yeah, it’s not like I wanted it.”
“So, you don’t want to be a part of the Coven?” I asked.
He bowed his head. “No,” he sighed, “I don’t. I just want to play in my band, write songs, and act like any other typical teenager about to finish high school. But instead my dream is on hold and I’m training during all of my free time. But I guess it’s worth it to save you.”
It was my turn to look down. My curls hid my eyes from his gaze.
“I don’t want any of this. I don’t want anybody, especially you, risking your life for me. It’s bad enough having Jonathon risk his life I don’t you risking your neck too. I just want this to end but it’s never going to stop. At least not until she’s dead. Wh
y does everything in my life have to be so messed up?” I said putting my head in my hands and shaking my head back in forth. I groaned into my hands.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, Ky. It’s my duty to protect you. I will die to protect you,” he said pulling my hands away from my face so that my green eyes could meet his blue one.
“I don’t want you to protect me,” I whispered.
“It’s my job, Ky,” he said. “It’s what we do and we’re glad to do it. It’s an honor.”
“But a job you don’t want to do,” I said.
“I do if it means saving you,” he said and I could tell that he was serious.
“Maybe I don’t want to be saved. You can only save yourself,” I laughed lightly but it was not a pleasant sort of laugh.
“Ky, that isn’t true,” he said.
“Isn’t it?” I said my face falling.
He looked thoughtful and didn’t answer.
“Can I ask you something?” he said, his face becoming red.
“Of, course, you’re my friend Isaac, you can ask me anything,” I said and meant it.
“Is it true about the whole soul mate thing?” He asked looking down at his shoes. He was tracing a random design in the dirt with the end of his shoe.
“Yes,” I sighed.
“So you have no choice? You have to love him? You can’t stop loving him? You have to become one of them, a vampire?”
“To answer your first question, yes I love him, I don’t think it’s possible for me to not love him, every fiber of my being yearns for him. I’ll never stop loving him, even when I take my last breath it will be him whom I love. And to answer your last question, no, I do not have to become a vampire and I don’t plan on it. I have no desire to live forever. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. I want to live my life to the fullest with Jonathon and then die human.”
“Really? You don’t have to become a vampire? I’ve never heard of such a thing before. Is your vamp okay with that?” Isaac asked shocked.
“If by, vamp, you mean Jonathon, then yes he’s okay with my decision. He wants me to be happy and staying human is what makes me happy,” I said.
“You’re a strange one Ky,” Isaac said with a small smile. A smile I noticed he reserved only for me.
“So, I’ve heard,” I mumbled looking at my feet.
“If you don’t want to be a vampire wouldn’t you be better off being with a human. Marrying a normal person, have kids, grow old together. Wouldn’t that be a better life than growing old while the person you love stays young forever?” He asked puzzled.
“But I can never love someone. Not the way I love Jonathon,” I said. “He’s it for me. The love we have… Isaac, words cannot describe how much I love him. He’s my… He’s everything to me.”
Isaac looked down at the ground and in a soft voice said, “You couldn’t love me? I would be good for you, Ky. Normal. I could work a steady job, we could live in one place all our lives, your precious bloodsuckers have to move every couple of years so the humans don’t get suspicious, but I wouldn’t. We could get married and have kids. We could have a life together. A normal, happy, very human life. What’s so wrong with that?”
“I love you, Isaac, I do, but not how you want me to love you. And your far from normal yourself, you kill vampires, you’re part human part angel, how is that normal?”
“At least I won’t look like I could be your son or grandson. People will think you’re his mother and then his grandmother. Have you thought about that?” He thundered spittle flying.
“That’s not important,” I said in a small voice even though he was right. What would people think? How would that make me feel?
“Isn’t it?”
“No,” I growled, “It isn’t.”
“I love you, Ky. No, I’m in love with you. I want you to realize that I could be good for you. He already left you once he could do it again. But I won’t do that. I’m your best friend and I’ll always be there for you. I would be good for you,” he reasoned.
“No,” I said shaking my head back and forth.
“Come on, Ky!” He cried like a petulant child. I expected him to stomp his foot and cry any second.
“Isaac, you and I are friends. I have been through this with you before. We are friends and only friends. Nothing more. If you can’t understand that then I guess we won’t be able to be friends any longer.” I said, getting mad that he was so stubborn.
His shoulders finally sagged in defeat. “Fine, we’re just friends and nothing more.”
I sighed and tore my gaze away from his to look down at the ground. Maybe he will finally understand that we will never be anything but friends. I knew his feelings but I couldn’t reciprocate them. I felt bad, Isaac deserved the world, but he wanted me and I could never return his feelings no matter how hard I tried.
His eyes got a mischievous glint in them. “Maybe I can change your mind.”
Before I could protest his lips were on mine.
My body went into panic mode. I couldn’t move. My body was locked into place.
His hands cradled my face. His mouth pressed against mine with an impenetrable force. I couldn’t breathe. His mouth roamed over mine; searching. The kiss seemed to go on forever. He did not want to relinquish me. I wanted to cry. This was not what I wanted. I wanted a friend. Only a friend and Isaac couldn’t even accept that. He always had to make things complicated. It was so unfair. If there was one thing in life I thought I could count on it was having Isaac as a friend. But now I couldn’t even have that.
A force collided with me and Isaac. I stumbled and fell backwards landing with a thump on the dirt.
“Ow,” I said rubbing my dirt covered bottom.
Isaac was on the ground and a dark figure straddled him.
The figure’s fist slammed down on Isaac’s face I heard a crunch. The figure hit Isaac once more.
“Don’t you ever, ever, do that to her again! Next time, I will kill you!” the figure screamed in Isaac’s face.
“Jonathon?” I whispered and I knew there was a trace of fear in my voice.
“I’m sorry, Kylie,” He said standing. He wiped Isaac’s blood off on his shirt. He wrinkled his nose. “I won’t be able to stand the smell. Hold this,” he said handing me his immaculate leather jacket. He removed his gray t-shirt and held it in his hand.
His perfectly sculpted pale chest seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. I wanted to run my hands along the perfect planes and contours of his chest. I wanted to trail my finger down the light skimming of blond hair leading down from his belly button. I bit my lip. This man was perfect.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Burning it,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“So the smell doesn’t attract other vampires. Specifically Selena.”
“You can’t light a fire here!” cried Isaac in a garbled voice. Even in the dark I could see he held his nose and that blood ran down his fingers.
“Watch me,” said Jonathon, his whole hand was glowing in blue and purple flames. The shirt immediately caught on fire. The cotton burned briefly before falling from Jonathon’s hand in a pile of unrecognizable ashes. The fire didn’t spread like Isaac had thought it would.
“How did you do that?” Isaac asked, holding his broken nose.
“I can control my flames with my mind. If I tell them not to spread they don’t spread. If I tell them not to kill they don’t kill. But if I do tell them to kill then the flames become destructive,” he said glaring at Isaac like he wanted to light him on fire next.
“Most vampires that I’ve met with the power of fire can’t do that and their flames are orange not blue,” said Isaac from the ground.
“I’m one of a kind,” said Jonathon with a sigh. “Remember what I said Isaac. I don’t care if you’re friends with her but don’t you ever do that again. If you force yourself upon her I will hunt you down and subject you to some very unpleasant scenarios.”
“Whatever,” said Isaac rolling his eyes at Jonathon.
Jonathon let out a feral growl and snapped his teeth a centimeter away from Isaac’s face.
“Come on. Let’s go,” I said pulling on Jonathon’s arm. He retreated but not before he sent Isaac a death glare.
I followed him slowly back through the woods to the car.
“How did you know what was going on? Isaac said he went far enough away for you not to be able to hear.”
“I couldn’t hear what you were saying but when he kissed you,” he said flinching, “you’re body went into stress mode and I knew something was wrong.”
“How did you know I was panicking?” I asked.
He chuckled, “Kylie, we’re soul mates. Soul mates know these things. We can read each other’s emotions.”
“We can? So I can read your emotions just like I can read your mind?”
“Yeah, why don’t you try?” he said with a smile. Gone was warrior Jonathon and in his place was sweet, caring, soul mate, Jonathon.
“How?” I asked eager to know.
“Think about me. Only me. Focus on me. Picture me in your mind. Have you got that?”
“Yes,” I said closing my eyes.
“Take that image you have of me and rip it open. Like you’re trying to get inside of me. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said focusing on the image and what he had told me to do.
“Now just feel what I feel. See what I see,” Jonathon said in a soft voice.
This sensation was weird. It was like having an out of body experience. It’s like I was seeing through Jonathon’s eyes. I could see myself standing there with my eyes closed shut and an intense expression of concentration. I tried to focus on what he was feeling.
“Oh!” I said, my eyes flying open.
He smiled. “Did you feel anything?” he asked.
I nodded, “Yes, you’re still upset but you’re pleased too. Pleased that I didn’t enjoy it and pleased that I’m a quick learner.”
Forbidden (Fallen Series Book 2) Page 8
