The girls watched Chase and Adele walk away. When they were far enough away so their conversation couldn’t be heard, Kat turned to her friend with a big grin. “Isn’t he wonderful,” she sighed.
“He sounds like your perfect man.” Ally smiled.
“Oh but he is, isn’t he?” Kathryn said wistfully.
Ally couldn’t help getting swept up in the excitement radiating out of Kat. Both James and Chase looked like they’d stepped out of a romance novel, with perfect chiselled looks, taut bodies, chivalrous to a fault and not to mention being Scottish.
“They’re almost too perfect,” Ally said warily, suddenly feeling like something was very wrong.
Her gaze swept over to where Chase and Adele had sat down. They appeared to be locked in an intense conversation. Judging by the amount of side looks, they both kept giving them, it involved Ally and Kat in some way.
Is Chase somehow involved in this? It wouldn’t surprise her. She was beginning to wonder how far spread this secret was. Adele definitely knew more than she was letting on, and she had never heard any mention of Chase until tonight. Ally didn’t know all her grandmother’s friends or acquaintances, but surely if Chase was so fabulous, Adele would have mentioned him before. So why hadn’t she? Ally found all of this to be extremely puzzling. She had the sneaking suspicion this all went back Madame Isabella’s mention of a prophecy, James and Vincent.
Ally found she was getting more confused and more frustrated with each new development.
“Hello? Earth to Ally?” Kat said.
Ally shook her head. “Oh, sorry…”
“Did you hear a word I said?”
“No, I was lost in thought.” Ally replied, apologetically.
Kat noticed the concerned gleam in Ally’s eye. “What’s going on?”
She looked to Kat and shrugged. “That’s the problem, I don’t know, but look at Gran and Chase.”
Kat followed her friend’s vision and looked at them, really looked at them. A shiver of unease ran throughout her. “Looks intense.”
“It does.” Ally stared trying to read their lips or hear their voices, anything to indicate what was being spoken of. “Some very weird things have been happening over the last twenty-four hours, and I intend to get to the bottom of it,” she said, sounding decidedly determined.
“Like what?” Kat asked as she looked up at her.
“Well I can’t remember last night, after a certain point anyway, and when I saw James again I had this strange image in my head almost like a daydream,” she said remembering what had happened earlier. “Either I’m going mad or something really strange is going on.”
“What was it?”
“It’s going to sound very odd,” Ally began.
Kat nodded encouragingly.
“I saw an image of James, and this other guy that I have never met before, circling each other, like fighters in a ring, ready to strike at any second. The thing is, I haven’t seen James for five years and the only time I saw him was in my grandmother’s kitchen!” she exclaimed. “So it’s impossible."
“How strange!” Kathryn agreed.
“And then there is Vincent…”
“What about him?” Kat frowned.
Ally took a deep breath. “I was leaving the kitchen and heading for my bedroom, thinking about the prophecy. This, of course, led me to thoughts of James and out of nowhere I thought, ‘After the events of last night with Vincent.'”
Kat’s eyebrows furrowed together. “So you think you met Vincent last night?”
Ally was feeling slightly insane. “Honestly, I have no idea!”
“This is going to sound crazy but going with the theme of things tonight, it may not be so bizarre…”
“I’m listening,” Ally said.
“Well what if last night was real, and you did see all that?”
Ally just stared blankly at her friend.
“You’re not following me are you?” Kat sighed in frustration.
“Not really, no.”
“Alright, try it a different way. Perhaps you did see James, and you met Vincent last night but there is a reason you don’t remember.”
“The reason being…?”
“Someone made you forget,” Kat finished.
Ally looked like she had just been smacked in the face. “Made me forget? As in drugged me?”
“I don’t know the how’s or why’s Ally. I’m just trying to figure it out.” Kathryn appeared to have a mixture of horror that someone could drug her friend, while at the same time being full of excitement that they might be getting somewhere in trying to decipher what the hell was going on around here.
Her mind ran through a list of suspects. “But why would someone do that?” Ally wondered aloud.
“Maybe you stumbled upon something you shouldn’t have?”
As Kat said the words, Ally felt wave of fear slide over her. What could she have stumbled upon?
“Maybe,” she muttered to herself more than Kat.
“Ally, James is back,” Kathryn said her eyes locked on Chase.
“What?” Ally exclaimed. “How do you know?”
“I read Adele’s lips,” she replied.
“Really! Did you get anything else?” Ally asked excitedly. Maybe she’d get some answers after all.
“No. Just that James is back, and we aren’t supposed to know.”
Her beloved grandmother was hiding something, and it must have been big. James and Chase also seemed to be in on the secret. She felt her head start to spin at the betrayal she felt.
“What are they hiding?” Ally whispered. Tears welled in her eyes and her heart constricted, threatening to splinter into a thousand pieces.
“How could she? How could they?” Ally asked her friend.
“I don’t know Ally.” Kat felt her own heart break for Ally. She didn’t know how to comfort her. She was also concerned about Chase. Kat had believed he was a good man and possibly the one she might spend her life with. Yes, it had only been one night, but she was a firm believer in the saying when you know, you know. She knew, or at least not half an hour ago, she knew that he was the one.
“You know what,” Ally began as she rose. “I’m not going to stand for it. Someone has some explaining to do, and they are going to do that right now!” She felt her voice rising in anger.
“Ally,” Kathryn whispered tugging on her arm. “Chase is coming back.”
“Wonderful, we can start with him.” Ally smiled with wicked delight as she stood up.
“Ally, maybe there is a better way to go about this?” Kathryn urged her friend in a quiet way.
“I don’t care,” Ally stated defiantly.
Chase had almost reached them, so Ally sat back down, getting into position to strike, verbally not physically.
“I’m back, lassies,” Chase said with a warm smile as he sat down. Completely unaware of what was about to happen, he grinned at Ally. She saw that as an opening and took it.
Ally looked at him with a mask of calm but underneath, she was seething. Chase noticed something wasn’t right. His eyes flicked back to her face of their own accord, and she saw apprehension in them. She leaned closer and in a quiet but very firm voice, she asked, “What the hell is going on here, Chase?”
He looked back at her warily, trying to assess what she knew or, more to the point, didn’t know. “What are you talking about lass?” he asked. Chase tried to appear open and oblivious to Ally’s angry mood.
Ally wasn’t buying it.
“I want to know what is going on, and I want to know now,” she repeated with more force this time
“Ally, maybe this isn’t the time,” Kat said quietly. She could understand why her friend wanted to do this but sometimes pushing things didn’t get the results you were seeking.
“No, now is the perfect time,” she said without even glancing at Kat. Ally was focused on extracting information. The guests had left and there was no-one around, except for them. Nothing would sta
nd in her way. Nothing…
Chase realized he had to do some serious damage control, or he was going to be in a lot of trouble. “What is it that you think is going on Ally?” he asked, feigning innocence.
“I don’t know. That's the problem, and I’m looking for answers.” Ally stared at him intently hoping to unnerve him.
Just then an idea started to form in her mind. She decided to go with it. “Tell me Chase, if you were in this situation, what would you do?” She paused, before continuing, to gather her thoughts. “You see, five years ago my life changed forever. I had a prediction made by a Fortune Teller. Suffice to say it wasn’t a joy-filled reading. Things from that prediction have started to come to fruition…”
Chase was starting to melt in his resolve. He knew he mustn’t, but he couldn’t help it. She was humanizing herself, and he couldn’t help but start to wonder what he would do in her situation.
Ally continued, “She predicted that two people close to me would die, which turned out to be my parents. A man named James Carlisle was supposedly my guardian and soul mate. Until that morning five years ago, when I found him standing in the kitchen, I hadn’t so much as seen or heard of the man. Then he was gone, never to be seen again, until now…” She took a deep steadying breath and continued. “Two men are bound to me by destiny, one being James, the other was someone called Vincent.”
Ally looked at her best friend who smiled encouragingly. Chase remained fixated on what Ally was saying. “Last night is foggy to me, after a certain point I can’t remember anything. This morning, I had a thought about Vincent and meeting him last night. The thing is, as far as I know, I haven’t even met him!”
Chase watched her with his full attention as she related all the information to him. He really felt for the girl. She was lost, confused and scared to death of what was going on around her.
“Tonight when I saw James, I had what I think might have been a flashback. I saw James and another man, presumably Vincent, preparing to fight. We, Kat and I, came to the conclusion that someone drugged me, because I may have stumbled upon something that I wasn’t supposed to see.”
She paused to gather herself. Ally could feel the tears threatening to fall, unbidden, from her eyes. As she relayed the events of the last night and today, she felt an overwhelming sensation starting to consume her. Ally then understood that she had been more affected by this than she realized but she had started down this path of discovering the truth. She forced herself to fight the feeling and continue. “I felt someone watching me in the bushes outside, and now James is back, and we aren’t supposed to know about that. I know my grandmother is hiding something from me. I also know that James is involved, and now I know that you, Chase, are also involved.” She paused for dramatic effect and tried to gauge Chase’s reaction. She was running purely on instinct.
Ally had thought if she could make Chase put himself in her shoes, he might crack. She saw the struggle that was going through his mind. She just prayed that she had tipped the scales enough in her favor to make him reveal all he knew.
“The Fortune Teller foretold a prophecy that I had to fulfil or all would be lost. A secret was being hidden from me that would change my life in ways I could never imagine.”
Ally gave him a moment and stared at him without breaking eye contact before she continued. “Now tell me Chase, would you sit back and go quietly into the night, or would you fight like hell and let nothing stand in your way to find out what was going on?”
Damn it, he thought. He would do the exact same thing that she was, if he found himself in her position. He couldn’t help but admire her.
Chase hadn’t been fully convinced that she was the one, until he heard her speech. Ally was showing incredible courage and daring in the face of adversity and uncertainty. She could move him by speech alone, and he felt a subtle command being sent his way. Ally was powerful already, and she is only half immortal. Imagine what she will be capable of when she has been brought fully over, he pondered.
Chase tore his eyes away from Ally and found Kathryn looking up at him beseechingly. If Ally hadn’t fully convinced him, Kathryn just had, with a simple look and without words.
“Please, Chase…” Kathryn lovingly placed her hand on his. “We need your help. Tell us what you know.”
The defeat was written in his eyes and his features. “Oh lass, I cannot deny you anything.” He smiled and kissed her gently on the forehead. She glowed with the happiness that only new love can bring.
“Thank you,” Kat said and smiled up at him.
He turned back to look at Ally. “I don’t know everything, but I know this…” He took a deep breath and sent a silent prayer up to the heavens that Adele and James didn’t roast him for this. “James and Adele are the ones deeply involved. Kathryn and I only play a minor role.”
Ally’s eyes flew to Kathryn, who appeared to be just as confused as Ally.
Kat looked at Chase with startled confusion. “What do you mean, I play a minor role? How am I involved at all?”
“Lass, that is something we need to discuss later and in private.”
He could sense that Kathryn was nervous. “It’s not bad, I promise. I hope that you will be very pleased with the idea.”
Ally sighed in frustration. “Guys, focus please. My problems first if you don’t mind!”
“Right,” Chase said, getting back to the matter at hand. “There is a prophecy that you must fulfil. James, as you know, is your guardian and soul mate and well, to put it mildly, Vincent is evil to the core.”
Chase looked like a boy who had misbehaved, waiting to be found out and then put in the naughty corner. “Adele and James will explain everything in detail but there is more…” Chase’s tone turned serious.
“Do I want to hear it?” she laughed sadly, almost wishing she hadn’t been so pushy.
“You aren’t what you think you are…” The words seem to hang in the air around them.
“Ergh! The same riddle twice. ” Sarcasm filled the room as she rolled her eyes. “Madame Isabella informed me of that as well, but I still have no idea what it means.”
“You will,” Chase quipped back.
“I wanted answers, not more questions.” She gathered her thoughts whilst relaxing back into the chair, then asked, “Tell me this then; could they make me forget something that happened? And would they actually drug me?”
Chase began to laugh. The thought of Adele or James drugging her was preposterous.
Ally threw her hands up in disbelief. “Well I’m glad you find this so amusing,” she said dryly.
“Lass, I’m sorry. It’s not that. It’s the thought of the love-sick puppy James or Adele, drugging you. I can promise you they didn’t drug you. They don’t need to.”
Ally studied him for a second. “What do you mean they don’t need to?" she asked very cautiously, having a feeling that she wouldn’t like his answer much either.
“We can control people’s minds.”
She looked at him confused for a moment. “Mind control? How very sci-fi,” Ally said dryly.
Chase chuckled. Amidst the chaos and turmoil he found it amazing that she could make a joke. It was something that he found surprisingly endearing.
“Sci-Fi or not, that’s what we can do,” Chase said, almost expecting her to implode on the spot, from confusion or pure shock.
Ally stared at him with big wide eyes. “You do realize this sounds insane?”
“To someone who wasn’t born with the ability it would sound insane, but I assure you, it’s the absolute truth.”
Ally studied him for a moment and discerned that he was indeed telling her the truth. Mind control was a foreign concept to most people, but somewhere, deep inside, it resonated with her. Ally couldn’t understand how or why it seemed to make some kind of sense, but it did.
“What else have they done that has tampered with my mind?” she wondered aloud.
Kathryn watched her friend with quiet concern, and pla
ced a hand on her shoulder with a soft smile to let her know that she was there for her. Ally realized again how lucky she was to have a friend like Kathryn.
Ally turned back to Chase. “So they altered my mind to make me forget meeting Vincent, and they are hiding all this from me because….” Her voice trailed off as she tried to understand why they had hidden it from her. Pondering quietly she came to the startling realization. “They hid it from me because it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. I had no idea what the secret was, so the events of last night, whatever they were, needed to be wiped so they could reveal it to me themselves?”
Chase looked pleasantly surprised. She appeared to have a very quick analytical mind. It would serve her well in the coming times.
“That is exactly what happened lass.”
She understood the concept of mind control and why they fogged her memories, but her brain was still trying to take it in as a reality. Ally was also angry that Adele appeared to have so little faith in her. What part of the last five years made them believe she was incapable of dealing with the truth?
“Was it Adele or James that did the mind thingy to me?” Ally asked, deciding she needed to give whoever it was, a damn good telling off.
“No idea, I wasn’t there. I only found out tonight what had happened.”
“What exactly did happen?” she asked.
“You met Vincent…”
She had to ask the obvious question. “So why am I still breathing then? He wants me dead.”
Chase stood up and starting pacing around the room. He felt cramped and thought he may need to run like hell when Adele and James caught on to what was going on.
“James saved you.”
The flashback started again only this time, she saw James at her bedside, whispering to her, 'Forget tonight, my darling. You will remember tonight when you need to.'
“I remember,” she paused for a moment before continuing. “It was James! They had no right to do this.”
Ally just felt hurt and betrayed by their decision. “Why didn’t they just tell me?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.
“To keep you safe. They both love you dearly lass,” Chase said quietly.
Ally snorted. “They’ve got a funny way of showing it!”
Chase stopped pacing and sat down again next to Kathryn. She had been sitting quietly trying to absorb all the information and be there as moral support for her friend. Kat looked at Ally and then to Chase. She could hardly believe it, but it all made sense, and she felt relieved to know that Chase was a good man after all. He was trying to protect Ally, which made Kat like him all the more.
Ally seemed to be collecting her thoughts when she asked him the question she feared the most, “This prophecy, and all the other stuff…I have no say in it?”
Chase locked eyes with her, and she felt like he was staring into her soul. “It’s your destiny.”
Something in her rebelled at the thought. She stood abruptly and started for the veranda. She needed some fresh air. This room was beginning to suffocate her. She stopped and looking over her shoulder said, “That’s where you’re wrong, our destiny is what we make of it, nothing is predetermined.”
“Your destiny is set Ally, whether you like it or not. The only thing that isn’t set in stone is the outcome. Fight it all you want, but you cannot run from your destiny.”
Without another word, she stepped outside.
Chapter Ten
Immortal Prophecy Page 13
