by Lexi Ostrow
Torn Between Two Worlds
By
Lexi Ostrow
Published by Hot Ink Press
An Imprint of Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Acknowledgments:
This Book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Copyright 2014 Lexi Ostrow
Cover by Riley Steel
Edited by Elizabeth A. Lance
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.
Dedicated to all the people who have had their dreams come true.
Prologue
11 years ago, age 14
He snarled low in his throat. It was the same battle. Every fucking time it was the same with his brother. He ran a hand through his hair and grabbed his khaki trench coat off the couch and slammed the door behind him.
For longer than he could remember this battle waged between the two of them. A Word Speaker would come into the world and they would fight for control of them. He for the side of good, and his brother for, well, the side of himself. Word Speakers were the bane of his existence. Humans with some special ability to unleash book characters of their choosing into the mortal realm, the real world, once they were twenty-seven, but they were prey to all book characters using them to try and gain release until that time.
Long before the written word even existed his brother and he had been approached by a deity – Huracan, a lighting god, believed to be one of the world creators. Huracan had shown them two futures, one ruled by man that was not necessarily a perfect world, but a good world, and one ruled by demons; full of chaos and fires and screams. He had been shocked to the learn that musings of his tribal elder were real, demons and gods existed.
They had been told by Huracan that neither future was right and neither was wrong. But, that they had to choose a side and they would be granted immortality in order to keep watch over their sides and keep them on the path to the prophesied war. People with special talents would be born from time to time and unleash both Heaven and Hell onto Earth by letting story creations come to life. It would be these released beings that would fight in the great war that was to come, with their people fighting alongside them. Stories would control their destinies, just as it was stories that controlled how they lived during his time. It would seem his elder hadn't had it all right, the war had no set date and yet in a planning meeting he had overheard speakings that the gods would take back their creations in a very distant future, 2012. Yet Huracan made no such claims and only told them their lives would be long and full of trials.
It had torn them apart. Brother against brother made for a war that none would truly win and over the years he had grown to know that. The rules that bound them as watchmen still baffled even him at times. For reasons they were never told, the Word Speakers could only pull one character from a story at a time, one character to help. However, when a character was pulled, be they good or evil, their opposition also had access to the Word Speaker, to gain their own freedom. Both sides were approached by a brother when the time was right. When the time to train them was there. When they had asked Huracan why it was so, he had only told them it was for a balance. A balance that put he and his brother constantly at odds, fighting for control over the Word Speakers because once they turned twenty-seven, they had to choose which side to fight for, and only characters who represented that side could ever be released to fight alongside them. For their part, the characters became Guardians, beings connected to their Word Speaker in intimate ways, especially once released.
His brother was twisted, dark, and frankly not playing by the damned rules and sometimes took a Word Speaker for himself by force, rather than allowing the characters on his “side” influence the choice. He had found ways to cheat the system. Ways to warp Word Speaker’s minds and make the dark seem all too appealing. Because humans were weak, easily influenced and at times he was disgusted he ever had been one.
Four thousand years later and his brother was darker than ever. More dangerous than ever as he longed to know what would happen should his side win. There were always multiple Word Speakers waiting to reach their birthday. Some were strong enough to sustain their gift and choose a side, others too weak and ultimately killed by him or his brother to get them out of the way. The sides were unbalanced. Plenty in his favor and it made his brother ruthless, aggressive.
When Ciara Miller's existence as a Word Speaker pinged onto his radar indicating she was ready to begin, he had known it was time- and here he was waiting to give his song and dance of the rules, first to whatever character she had inadvertently chosen to be her Guardian and then to her.
“Well you're running a little late to the party, brother.”
The last word was sneered and he turned to face his brother. They were identical, supposedly part in parcel to why they had been chosen. Minus their jackets it would be impossible to tell them apart; his was khaki and his brother’s a dark leather. Light to dark.
“I don't have time for you right now. This isn't your fucking claim.”
It wasn't. Part of the deal was they took turns in explaining the rules and they had to be unbiased. But over the years his brother had learned to spit in the face of more than one of the rules.
“I'm not interested in a fight today. Go home and leave Ciara to me.”
“What kind of a brother would I be if I didn't give you hell sometimes? And boy can I give you hell, brother.”
For a second he feared the demons were going to join them, but his brother only smirked.
“As I thought. So easily shaken, brother. Don't worry this one feels strong to me. Strong enough to know which path will win. Mine.”
There was no time to respond, his brother just disappeared. Sighing, he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets and opened up the doorway between the heavens where they resided and the world of man, stepped through and went to see just what Ciara Miller could handle.
Chapter 1
Present
The man across from her quite literally began to disappear from sight. Well, more like he was becoming opaque. His brown hair seemed thinner, his green eyes less intense. His arms looked less than solid, but he did not look alarmed. It was almost as if he didn't realize what was happe
ning to him.
Ciara's breath caught in her throat. This was how he had come to her, randomly and without warning. She wanted desperately to talk to him. But she couldn't do that, not sitting in a room with eleven other people. Though, she supposed if she could pull off I was talking to my characters, anywhere, it would be a writing seminar.
No one else could see Alcott anyway, no one would for two more years. Her gift didn't allow anyone but her to see the things she drew from books. Not yet. For now, the only way to communicate with him without anyone thinking she was really losing her hold on reality, would be to slip between the veil into the place where characters existed, their books. To do that was to drop into a coma-like state, something she normally only did when she desperately needed Alcott and couldn't get to a Bluetooth device. Also not an option in a room full of people.
So she sat and watched. Stared to be honest. Alcott slipped away little by little. He knew she was staring at him. He even smiled back at her a few times and said witty things like “Hey, pay attention, can't bridge two worlds if you can't focus in a writing seminar.” or “I know I'm attractive little one, but as your Guardian I have no time for sexual adventures so stop trying to stare a hole in me.”
“Ciara, you're going to have to do more than fantasize in this room,” said Burke, a well known published author who was leading the writing seminar she sat in.
His voice cut through her distress. Right, critiquing others work, that's why she was here, to learn and get her own work polished for publication. Not to sit and watch as Alcott slowly, but surely, slipped away.
“Sorry just trying to communicate with the great writing gods and ask for you to be kind and gentle with my submission,” she said with a smile.
This earned her some laughs from the others and an under the table low five from Gina, her best friend. If she didn't know any better she would have sworn Gina could see Alcott with the way she was looking in his direction. It was more than likely that she was simply looking that way to see what Ciara had kept staring at across the room.
When she turned back to Alcott, more of him was transparent. She was going to lose him and she didn't know why or how to survive attacks from his own kind.
* * *
Alcott was the one who turned her world upside down eleven years ago. She'd been reading a young adult book. One minute she was overcome with grief for the male protagonist, a witch named Alcott because he had lost his family in an attack. The next, she heard someone asking her why they were there exactly.
Parts of that evening were cloudy so many years later. How loudly she screamed or hitting her head so hard into the wall she blacked out were crystal clear. When she had come to, the man had been holding her and that had freaked her out even more. By some blessing, the man, Alcott, had known who and what she was. He had explained to her that people like her were far and few between. That she had a gift for the written word. He'd told her a crazy story about her powers, that she could pull a character she felt connected with from a story right out into her own world. All she had to do was feel a strong emotion to them – fear, love, hate, joy, lust- and in her life they would be. Even a gift that sounded wonderful came with side effects, a cost so to speak. She could pull a character, but if you took the good, the bad came with it and vice versa. The evil that lurked in every novel had a way out through her just as the good did. Her mouth had opened with questions that hadn't stopped until he put his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. His green eyes and perfect smile had charmed her instantly. Had she not experienced his arrival, or maybe had she not been so young and so in love with the idea of him, she wouldn't have believed him.
Or maybe it was how later that night, the dark witches Alcott had been fighting in the book had come for her. Alcott had protected her, had called her his little sister to love and protect. With him being an older, but still age appropriate boyfriend candidate, it had stung. Overtime she had forgotten her desire for him and he truly became the brother she never had. Alcott was her protector, from broken hearts, to lonely nights, writer's block, the evil that kept coming after her and the car accident that had stolen both her parents from her. It seemed the evil would always be coming for her, always lurking in the shadows undetected by others until she was twenty-seven and possibly had a chance at release. It wouldn't be until then that she could accidentally unleash terror on the world, but with Alcott, her choice was easy.
Eleven years. Alcott had been her light in the dark for just shy of eleven years. He was with her every day, everywhere she went. It was with him they learned no one else could see him. Learned that she could visit with him, but it meant a stasis type situation for her in her world, but not in his. In his world, she would fine. Through that they had learned the limitations he faced in her world, he did not face in his. She could be seen by all, touch anyone she wanted too, live like she belonged. She had made relationships with friends; shopping trips with his girlfriends and sporting outings with his guy friends. She'd attended coven meetings and holiday ceremonies. She fell fully and completely in love with his world and never wondered about other worlds. She had her home and his, she hadn't needed more.
* * *
When Alcott quite literally was nothing more than a ghost in front of her she choked out a sob and left the room. Her footfalls pounded loudly onto the laminate floor of the school were the seminar was held. Heads turned to look out the doors of open rooms filled with college students as she barreled past. The metal stairway took her anger and fear with each heavy footstep and cast it out like an earthquake as she slammed down the steps, barely making sure not to miss any and fall.
Naturally, Alcott followed, hounding her with questions once she got out of the building and gradually began to slow down so people would not wonder what she was running for or from. She grabbed her Bluetooth from her purse and crammed into her ear, a solution they had long ago thought up so she could talk to him in public without people looking at her funny. Walking so fast she may as well have still been running down the steep hill to the parking lot she ignored all of the questions to the best of her ability as tears threatened to fall and she did not cry, would not allow it now.
All she could figure was that she was supposed to be trying multiple Guardians to assure she released the right one when the time came. She had been selfish and only had Alcott released, despite how many books she read a year. She had been holding on to him, determined to have no issues when she was twenty-seven and he would have true release and everyone would be able to see him, to touch him. A concept that had honestly always made her a bit jealous to be giving up her private rights to him, but she had never desired another Guardian in any capacity. Alcott was perfect.
When she flung herself into the driver’s seat of her Mini Cooper she finally spoke full sentences to him. “Alcott, I almost can't see you anymore.” She reached out to touch him and her fingers went through air, something that had never occurred before unless she was mad at him and somehow able to control his ability to touch her. Her gasp cut through the awkward silence in the car and her vision grew blurry as tears welled back up in her eyes. She was not a crier, not since the accident that took her parents. He looked flustered and grabbed out to hold her, passing through her as well.
“I'm crossing over. It will just look like I'm taking a little nap. I've parked for the seminar and seen plenty of students doing it, no one will even look twice.” Putting up the sunscreen just to be safe she just crawled over the center console. Panic laced her voice and a tear slipped free and slid down her cheek, hitting the leather seat beneath her.
Alcott looked like he had been about to complain, but didn't get a chance to before she closed off her mind and thought about his world.
“What the hell are you doing, doing this public? Are you crazy?” His shout accosted her as she shimmered into focus on his side. He shook her, his hands gripping her shoulders tight in anger and here, in his plane, he was able to make contact. Thank goodness.
“Yo
u're disappearing! You aren't going to be my Guardian anymore. Derrick leaves in two days, we've broken up to do the mature adult thing and now you're leaving me too. It's not fair to lose my boyfriend and my brother at the same time!” Her voice was shrill and she knew she sounded like a petulant child whose parent took away her toy, but she didn't care. She meant every word.
Derrick was without a doubt the other rock in her world. She had been dating him almost as long as she had really been interested in boys. Alcott had introduced them by shoving her into him at a high school football game. She'd been watching on the sidelines as a freshman cheerleader. Alcott had joked that she had been undressing the black haired running back so quickly with her eyes that he would be naked before the next play. As he'd been walking to the bench Alcott had casually shoved her into him. It had taken time, but they had grown inseparable. Now he had accepted a scouting position for international teams in Europe because he hadn't been drafted by any teams to play. At twenty-six he liked to joke that he was all washed up and past his prime, that this was his only chance. They had spent countless hours talking about it and after so long together they had still decided to end things. Neither wanted a strong commitment at this time and the fact that they could both picture their lives without each other had made her decision. She wanted that romance story all consuming love and Derrick would forever be her closest friend.
* * *
Alcott snarled in frustration and shook his head. She was almost in hysterics. Her breath was coming in short gasps and she was flailing around. Lunging forward as best as he could in the small backseat, he was able to clasp her arms to her side. He was grateful in her world her body was still because he could only imagine the trauma and issues it would have caused.
