I leaned over and kissed him hard on the mouth. At first he didn’t respond, so I slipped forward and sat on his thighs, kissing hard and I pulled my hands from his, wrapping them around his neck, and kissing harder. He pulled back and pushed at my arms, but after a groan he relented and he kissed me until we were both panting, breathless.
“Jas, baby, I have to get back. I brought you some clothes, a sleeping bag, and some food. Stay here tonight and I’ll fix his memories. He won’t come after you again, I promise.” He smiled reassuringly at me, but my face fell at the thought of spending the night in the cave without him anywhere near me. As I looked down, he lifted my chin with his finger. “I love you, Jas. God, I fucking love you so much. Please believe me, but I have to go, right now!” He leaned in, kissed me gently, and I watched as he faded away again, becoming nothing more than a shadow.
While I sat there, shivering with cold and with longing for Nate, his voice sounded in my head, “Jas, make a protection line. Do it now.” I moved to the door to make the protection line, but I froze looking around at the stones. I hadn’t ever done it before, but somehow I knew what to do and I knew Nathan was feeding me the information. I blessed the larger stones and lay them in a line, feeling like something took over my body. I went with it because I was sore, cold, and extremely freaked out.
I found out a little later that the line worked and it helped to settle me down. I felt more lost and confused, and I couldn’t reach out to Nathan, no matter how hard I tried. After a while, I fell asleep with one ear open. I heard a sinister voice carrying on the wind, calling out, looking for me. “Where are you, Jasmine? Come out, come out wherever you are!”
I huddled at the back of the cave, but I could still hear the sound of someone crashing about overhead as stones began falling around me. I could feel myself being pulled back into the cave wall. I wanted to run, but I was being held back, something was keeping me in the cave and since I was sure it was Nathan I tried to force myself to relax. I rested my head back, and could hear the sound of his heart beating and smell the familiar scent of his skin, musky aftershave, and the feel of his warm arms around me. He held me wordlessly for a few moments and then turned me around. “James is headed home. As soon as he’s asleep, I’m going to place an enchantment on him to make him forget about today. Go back at first light and slip into the barn. I’ll meet you there.”
I nodded into his chest, as he pulled me in for a hug. “I almost lost you today. You can’t leave me. Without your love, I’d be a monster like them. I need you to know you have saved not only my heart, but my life and my soul.” Gently, he kissed my forehead and faded away.
“Wait. How are you here? What’s with the fading away?” I asked him, but got no answer.
I snuggled down into the sleeping bag, comforted by the smell of his aftershave and fell into a deep sleep, waking in the early morning light, freezing cold. A loud sound made me jump but listening intently, all I could hear was the sound of the waves hitting the cliffs and the birds flying and cawing.
Leaving the sanctuary of the cave was hard but necessary if we wanted to keep my growing powers a secret. Being more careful on the way up the cliff, I came upon a scene of complete devastation. Trees were ripped up from the roots, leaves floated everywhere, and the ground had been ripped up. Something about this mess scared me. I walked through, creating a path out of the destruction, and made it back to the barn. At the door of the barn, there was a welcome sight. Nathan stood just inside the double doors, smiling. He looked exhausted, but relieved.
I walked at his side into the barn and he sat on the chair, leaving me to sit on the floor. He looked at me; his eyes drooped but he fought it.
“Nathan, what’s wrong?” I asked him worriedly. He yawned and stretched, causing his brown shirt to rise slightly, distracting me by the sight of his sculpted stomach. He smiled as my gaze reached his face, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I’m exhausted. I haven’t been sleeping very well these last few days.” He nodded towards me. “I have been busy protecting you from my fucking family and it hasn’t been fucking easy, in fact it’s been an absolute fucking nightmare.” I sat staring at him expectantly, waiting for some answers, but he shook his head at me. “I need to get some sleep. I’m meeting my family in three hours. I will explain everything to you to—” His words cut off, as a sound came from the barn door. It slammed open, clattering off the wall. Nathan faded away, shaking his head and leaning over to give me a whispering kiss on my forehead.
I sat watching the door, but no one came in and the door fluttered open in the breeze, as I sat there watching it blow about in the wind. I thought about Nathan and how tired he was and tried to send him some energy. I wasn’t sure how the thing with him worked, but I was worried about him and I didn’t want him put in danger. Eventually, I got up and made my way over to the door to close it over. I was surprised to see a vivid red hand print on the door and when I thought about how I would let Nathan know about it, his voice sounded tiredly in my head, “it’s ok, I see it.” As he spoke to me his voice broke and he closed our connection.
The rest of the day passed without further incident, but I was on high alert for James. I hadn’t seen him at all, all day, which meant I was cold, hungry, and irritable by the time Nathan showed up that night and I took my foul mood out on him.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he appeared beside me after two a.m. He had just awakened me and I was cold, hungry, and very tired.
“No, I’m bloody not,” I snapped at him, furious with him and his stupid family for making me sleep in a stupid barn with no stupid heating or fucking food.
“What’s wrong?” he pushed sounding concerned. “Did my uncle try to hurt you again?”
“No, it’s not that. I’m cold, I’m hungry, and I’m tired. I haven’t eaten all day and you’ve just appeared and woke me up.” I knew I was whining, so I stopped and turned away. After a few seconds, I glanced back at him and he was gone, no goodbye or nothing. Feeling even more pissed off, I snuggled down into my sleeping bags and tried unsuccessfully to find sleep. I shivered, and my teeth chattered so hard as strong wind and rain battered the barn. The wind seeped through the cracks in the wood and the barn was freezing as the rain pelted down. I was studiously trying to ignore the sounds of the wind and rain when a warm hand touched my cheek. I jumped away so fast that he almost dropped the things he carried.
“Whoa, Jas, it’s just me, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Looking over at Nathan from the other side of the barn, I was comforted by his smile and what he held in his hand — a bag full of sandwiches, crisps, biscuits, a tray of cakes, and a flask full of what smelled like hot chocolate.
“I really love you just now,” I said without thinking and his head snapped up towards mine. The look on his face scared me into silence.
“No, Jas, you can’t. We have to stop this, you need to stop.” His eyes dropped to the floor as he spoke and his voice went hoarse as he continued, “We can’t, not anymore… I mean, I can’t… ” his beautiful eyes filled with tears as he ran his hand through his hair, messing it up. Moving towards him slowly, I put my hand on his knee and he looked up at me with tears on his cheeks. “I have to go. I’m sorry,” he whispered before fading away. I sat there confused and hurt. He gave me so many mixed signals and I couldn’t figure out why he wanted to stop, unless his family really suspected something about us, was that what he meant about us stopping?. I sat there for a while, picking at a sandwich, my appetite all but gone, and had a small cup of hot chocolate before falling asleep again.
I awoke a few hours later and Nathan sat beside me, watching me sleep with a small smile playing around his lips and his eyes. “Sorry about last night,” he said sullenly. “I guess I better explain what’s going on, huh?”
I nodded in agreement, and sat up a little. He walked away from me and placed a line of stones with scribbles on them across the entrance to the barn. “Just in case anyone co
mes into the barn, they’ll see you but not me.” I nodded at him again and he continued to place the stones in every corner. “These will also help protect you, when I’m not around. You have a penchant for attracting trouble and every time I’m away from you, you need to be rescued.” I was about to say something when Nathan stepped back towards me and the look on his face stopped me, “You know it’s true, but never mind that. I have some explaining to do. When we were unconscious, a gypsy came to visit my father. This man has been a friend of my father for many years now and he trusts him above all other consultants. This man, Geordan, told my father that the tides were shifting and that someone close to him was turning away from our values…”
“What? How could he possibly know that?” I asked, feeling more than a little curious.
“He has the gifts of his forebears, meaning he can see future events. He can also sense great changes in the balances of power; if the pendulum swings from evil to good or back again, then Geordan knows about it, and warns my father. Anyway, he,” Nathan smiled, shaking his head at me, as I opened my mouth to speak, and placing a finger on my lips, as he continued to speak uninterrupted, “warned my father that the tides were turning, that the evil under my father’s rule, was being corroded by love and that someone in his close circle would betray him by falling in love with a mortal and not just any mortal. The Destined.”
“What’s a Destined?” I asked and my tone showed that I was more confused than ever.
Nathan reached over and turned my face to his. “You are,” he answered simply. “You are the Destined, the one who has the power to ensure that our race, the race of demons, stay in control of the powers and that no one can ever or will ever take that power away.”
“What does that mean for us then, Nathan?” I asked him, my voice cracking, feeling my heart splinter as tears fill my eyes.
He looked at me full of concern and with tears in his own eyes before answering, “Jas, by falling in love with you, I may well have signed both of our death warrants. I can’t be with you, but I can’t be without you. I don’t know what to do…” The tears in my eyes spilled over, one rolling down my cheek as I watched the pain cross his features. His voice trailed off as he looked at me in the soft light of the lantern. “Move over. I can’t sit over there and know that I might never get the chance to hold you again.”
He crawled over to my sleeping bag, and squeezed in, holding me tighter than I’d ever been held before. His arm snaked around my waist holding me as though he was worried I would slip away, without him. I turned my head and kissed him softly on the neck and he shivered, kissing me softly on the head. I turned back and faced away from him, relaxing into his embrace and trying to memorise the feeling of him holding me, because I knew that it would be a while before he held me like this again. His gentle voice, brushed over the back of my neck, making me shudder as he spoke.
“I’m getting interviewed tomorrow by him and I have to convince him there is nothing going on between us. Things just got a whole load more difficult, but for the moment, I just want to hold you and stay with you.”
His lips pressed onto the skin at the back of my neck. His lips linger there for a moment and then he sighed and moved them away. I tried to turn to give him a kiss and could feel him tightening his hold, shaking, “No, don’t turn around. I can’t kiss you on the lips. It will break me apart and I need tonight to be perfect…”
“What do you want, Nathan?” I asked him quietly.
“You, just like this, Jas. I want you, but I need to protect you. I had no soul until you came into my life, no heart until you touched it, and no awareness until you awakened it in me. I have never loved like this before. I know I will never feel like this again. You mean everything to me and I will love you with everything I am, all the days of my lives…”
“Well, isn’t this cosy?” a voice from outside the barn sounded and looking into the middle of the barn, all we could see was Jack standing there, glaring at us. “Nathan, I never expected you to betray your father, but here is the proof.”
I could feel Nathan shaking behind me and it galvanised me into action.
“No, Jas,” Nathan warned, but I didn’t listen. I walked over to the edge of the stones and felt power coming from the ground. Power flowed through me from the stones, the tree that grew through the barn, but mostly from inside of me and I could feel the zip and zing of it through me. I thrust my arms out from my sides and whoosh! Jack went flying through the air, cracking his head on a branch from the tree. There was such immense power radiating through me, but it wasn’t until Nathan touched my arms, I felt how powerful I was. My skin thrummed with electricity.
I walked over to Jack and touched his chest, murmuring as I did, “You saw nothing. You came out here and checked on me, but you saw nothing and you heard nothing. I was sleeping alone!!!” His body tensed as shockwaves rolled down my arms and I used the power again bringing my hands them together with a crash of light. Jack was back in his bed and I turned towards Nathan. “Wow, what a rush,” I said, smiling at him.
“Stop now, Jasmine. He’s gone. It’s just me…” His voice was high and terrified, and his eyes widened with each step I took towards him. He had to know I would never hurt him. He was the other half of me and I loved him with every fibre of my being. I kept moving, watching in dismay as Nathan backed away from me. “Nate, what is it?” I asked as I reached him, and touched his face gently with my fingers.
More electricity flowed through me and he shuddered and disappeared, fading away into nothingness, which brought me down, crashing to the ground, feeling more drained and exhausted than ever. I crawled into my sleeping bag and was asleep within seconds, not caring about why Nate disappeared. I dreamed about Nathan calling me for help, but when I woke and heard activity outside of the barn, I didn’t immediately associate that with my actions from the previous night. It wasn’t until I tiptoed over to the slightly open door that I realised the Stevenson’s were all back from their holiday with a gruff-looking man, with long shaggy hair and an overgrown beard. He wore clothes that were all patched and frayed. I realised things had taken a turn for the worse.
I stood at the barn door and watched as Geordan arrived which was worrying because of everything that Nathan had said, but seeing Nathan carried out of the car by his parents was far worse. A pit opened up on my stomach and something squirmed uncomfortably. He seemed to be unconscious and I had no clue what was wrong with him or why he was asleep during the day, unable to walk.
I walked back into my barn, the small area becoming like a sanctuary for me. I spent the rest of the day thinking about Nathan, wondering where he was and what was going on. In the early afternoon, it started raining heavily again. I was lying on my back listening to the sounds of the pounding rain on the wood, hearing the drip of continual water falling and feeling the soft whisper of a breeze on my face, I wasn’t paying much attention to anything near the door. A shadow caught my eye and my eyes darted over to see Nathan standing in front of me. His appearance made me jump, because it was so quiet and was he blurred around the edges. I could see he said something, but I couldn’t make out what.
Suddenly his voice sounded clearly in my head and I jumped again as he said, “Jasmine… block…help me, please…” before his voice faded away to nothing. The cold air around me swirled as I thought for a few minutes, but I couldn’t figure out what he meant by block. What was he talking about? What was I to block?
The answer became clear a few moments later as the barn door opened and Geordan, Mr, and Mrs Stevenson all walked into the barn.
“Well, let’s see her then. Perhaps we can figure out if she has something to do with Nathan being unable to awaken,” a raspy, wheezing voice said, making my skin crawl and shivers break out.
Again, Nathan’s voice made me jump, “Block now, Jasmine…”
Focusing all my energy on blocking him from reading me, I watched as they walked slowly towards me, listening intently.
“So is
this where you keep all the sacrifices?” Geordan asked Mr Stevenson.
“Yeah, we enchant them and put three in each stall.” Mr Stevenson answered, sounding a little uncomfortable.
“I would keep them away from her.” Geordan said quietly as they finally reached the door of my barn. Redoubling my efforts to block him, I glanced up as the barn door swung open revealing the odd trio. Mr Stevenson glared down at me. Mrs Stevenson looked anywhere but at me, but Geordan looked at me curiously, as though he would like nothing better than to dissect me, making me feel exceptionally uncomfortable.
“Hello, Jasmine. My name is Geordan. I’m a friend of Mr and Mrs Stevenson and we are here to speak to you about Nathan.” As he spoke, he moved closer to me, making me feel more uncomfortable and his eyes roamed all over me, making me feel as though he was violating me. He reached out and took my hand, saying gently, “Something is wrong with Nathan and we think you can help us figure out what.”
The moment he touched me, I felt an odd sort of pulling, as though he was stretching the muscles in my head, but I had already decided to block and focused all of my powers on making sure those muscles snapped back into place. As they did, his head snapped back.
“I can’t get a read on her. Something is blocking me. This is very unusual.” He looked at me and his dark eyes gleamed malevolently. He snatched my hand again and this time, white-hot knives darted up and down my body, stabbing me in places. I screamed aloud, only just managing to hold the block in place. He smirked down at me and looked over at the Stevenson’s standing at the door of the barn.
Ignition (Escaping Demons Saga Book 2) Page 3
