“Dream on old man. And what about you?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll keep climbing the ladder and see where it takes me. Next Sunday night is the Ensign meeting. We’re going to elevate together, Laken. It’s an intimate ceremony that takes our bond to a whole new level. We’ll be one another’s Essentials.”
“Essentials? I thought I was already your spirit wife.”
His cheek cinches as if he were holding back a laugh. “An Essential is the next step.” The smile glides from his face. “It’s the consummation of our union, Laken. When two Counts as powerful as ourselves fasten to one another for eternity, it’s a sacred event. Our bodies, our souls, and our minds will become one for all of time and beyond.” Wes combs his fingers through my hair, and I erect a barricade over my thoughts while my heart pumps wild in my chest.
“Wes.” I pull him under the shadow of a birch as the stream sings a sad song, trickling down the property. “When we get my family out, you’re not really thinking of staying in this organization are you?” My hands glide up his sweater and smooth over his warm flesh.
“We can’t leave, Laken. That’s like trying to walk out of your skin. It can’t just happen.”
“So you want us to change the way the Counts behave? Free the people in the tunnels? That could be our life work.”
He cuts a look into the black of the forest, and already I have my answer. “The Counts don’t have some of the abilities as Celestra. There’s an inter-angelic war brewing. Those people in the tunnels are there to help the Countenance get the upper hand.”
“Wes, they’ve been stolen from their families.” I shake my head, trying to hold back the rage brewing in me. “You can’t sympathize with the Counts. That’s like sympathizing with the devil. It shouldn’t be done. No matter how you slice it, what the Counts are doing is wrong. The people in the tunnels need to be freed, not just my family or Cooper’s mom or Casper. Each one of those souls deserves to live life outside of that hellhole. It’s a basic human right.”
Wes takes in a full breath of air. “I know.” He grits his teeth, and his jaw pops.
A scream rises from deep in the forest.
“You think that’s Jen?” My heart runs wild. It was too shrill and high to be my sister. In fact, it didn’t even sound human.
“I don’t know. Let’s get back.” He tries to pull me toward the direction of the house.
“She might need help.” I pluck him off and run deeper into the woods, and another scream saws through the forest dampening the shadowed world as it grows ever so dark around us.
“Laken, wait.” Wes calls from behind.
Two limp figures dangle in the distance, swaying in the breeze. They look like feathers blowing back and forth from this distal vantage point.
“What the hell?” Wes takes up my hand as we get closer then stop a good fifty feet away because now we see them for what they are—bodies.
“Holy shit.” I take a step forward, inspecting them with their white matching robes, their bare feet dangling listless, arms limp to their sides.
“Laken.” Wes wraps his arm around my waist, holding me back from getting any closer. It’s two blondes, a boy and a girl. The breeze picks up, and they spin slowly, first one and then the other, revealing to us exactly who they are.
“Oh, God,” Wes whispers.
“It’s me.” I marvel up at my face asleep in its eternal state, my head crooked from the fresh break in my neck. The boy turns just enough for me to make out his all-too-familiar features.
“It’s Cooper.” Wes pulls me deeper into him as my body goes numb.
But I don’t take my eyes from Coop and me hanging from the tree with our stiffened corpses.
I contemplate a scream, but the world fades to grey, and I collapse right there in Wesley’s arms.
A part of me never wants to wake up.
Cooper
Monday, in Lit, Laken comes in with a touch of dark circles under her eyes as if she hasn’t been able to sleep, but it doesn’t mar her beauty, nothing can. I give a sheepish smile because I happen to know she’s still pissed at me. I want to tell her that the last person I want her with is Wes, but we’re so close to having everything we’ve wanted, I’m too afraid to fuck things up right now.
“Morning,” I offer.
The bell rings before she can reciprocate, and she sets her backpack down by her feet.
“We need to talk,” she whispers before turning around.
Edinger takes to the front of the class and begins introducing the next book we’re to slice and dice.
He holds up a paperback with a picture of a woman in a green dress.
“Margaret Mitchell’s classic, Gone with the Wind.” Edinger purrs it out as if it were the book he were dying to share. “This should round out the fall semester nicely. A story of a woman rebuilding her life after the world she knew was pulled out from beneath her.” He eyes Laken and gleams his dark smile.
If there’s a king of assholes, it’s most definitely Edinger.
I extend my legs, and Laken is quick to wrap her ankles around mine until our skin touches.
I still love you, Cooper Flanders.
It’s the first thing she says, and my heart leaps out of my chest and swims to the ceiling.
I still love you, Laken Stewart.
She turns slightly to get a look at me as if she needed to see if I were telling the truth. She spins back around and faces Edinger as if she were fully absorbed in his cross-dimensional analogies.
Anything new? I’m hoping not. I’m hoping they had one boring afternoon with the people pretending to be her parents and hightailed it back to Ephemeral—the end.
Wes talked a little about the Ensign meeting next Sunday night. He said we’d be bonding to elevate our status, that I’d be his Essential. He mentioned the word consummating.
My adrenaline spikes as I sink in my seat. The last thing I want is Laken and Wes consummating anything—least of all with each other.
Sounds tragic. I try to keep things light. After all, it was my big idea they keep close to speed things along. I’m not sure things are taking off in the right direction, though—for sure I don’t want them consummating some Essential bond.
Maybe it will be. She slips her legs tight around mine, and my gut grinds because I miss touching her. I took a walk in the woods with Wes yesterday at the Anderson estate. We heard a woman scream, and that’s when we saw them. She turns once again to steal a glance. Two bodies swinging from nooses—mine and yours.
My muscles lock up, my brain goes on overload, and I don’t move, or breathe, or say anything.
Coop? Do you know something? Who would have done that? Wes said someone was trying to send us a message. He said the bodies evaporated as soon as I passed out. It looks like I’m not as brave as I’d like people to believe.
I think you’re plenty brave. And, yes, I do know something.
Laken straightens in her seat and takes a full breath. She’s readying herself for the news, and I’m not looking forward to giving it to her.
Let me tell you later—not like this. There’s no doubt the Tobias sisters are a little pissed about the resurrection botch up.
Okay. Hey, Coop? There’s one more thing, Jones said something, and it sort of stuck with me.
What’s that?
He said it was time for us to decide who we are.
I let the words sink in. Time to decide who we are. I couldn’t agree more.
Laken retracts her feet and nods as she slumps into her seat.
We listen to Edinger drone on about Mitchell’s bestseller. How it depicts a time of change in a person’s life once a new reality takes over.
The Counts have taken over Laken’s life, and I think it’s about time I help her take it back.
The bell rings, and the room starts to clear out.
I stand and pull Laken in close, pretending like I’m trying to get past her, but, really, I’m taking in the scent of her hair, letting my fingers di
g into her waist a moment.
“I have to talk to Edinger for a minute. Maybe we can get together later?”
“I’d like that.” Laken takes off just as the last few students trickle out the door.
“Mr. Flanders.” He flexes his lips, no smile. “From what I can see, you don’t care much for Ms. Anderson.”
“Now there’s a lie from the pit of hell, but then you specialize in those, don’t you?”
Edinger balls up my shirt and slams me against the whiteboard with my head taking the brunt of the impact.
“I am incapable of lies.” He drops me to the ground, and I spring back to my feet. “I will never and have never deceived you.”
I lock eyes with the devil himself and contemplate what this might mean.
“So that thing with Laken and me”—I give a slight nod—“you’re being honest? You’re rooting for Laken and me to end up together?”
“That’s right.” His brows swoop in dark and angry. “And now I’m wondering if you want the same thing.”
“Wesley’s taking her to another meeting. An Ensign deal where they’re going to bond as—”
“Essentials.” His lips curl into a frown. “Is that what you want?”
“It’s up to Laken. She’s doing whatever she can to rescue her family, and both you and I know it.”
“Then she doesn’t understand the everlasting consequences, does she? She’s already his spirit mate. You can’t let it progress from there. Once the bond has been set through the Essential ceremony, she’ll never be with anybody else. All roads will lead to Wesley.”
“What happens if she changes her mind and wants to be with someone else?”
“Someone like you, Mr. Flanders?”
I lift my chin.
“You’ll perish. Anybody she tries to bond with on an intimate level will be at death’s door before three days’ time. Enjoy your honeymoon. It will be a short one.”
I take a breath.
“And if she bonds with him and becomes his Essential, will she be able to rescue her family from Tenebrous?”
His chest rumbles with the idea of a laugh. Edinger lands his hand over the top of my head.
A dark room appears in the theater of my mind. The walls ignite with flames as rows of people in dark-hooded robes hold out their hands. They chant and sing as two of them take off their hoods. Laken and Wes. They share a simple kiss before stepping onto a circular platform. A curtain of fire erects itself around them. Wes lays her down on the white onyx altar and pulls her robe open in the front, nothing but creamy thighs for miles. The chanting increases as the flames rise and growl around them. Wes lies over her body. I can see Laken’s head thrust back, her eyes shut tight in pain. His body writhes over hers as he dives in for a kiss. He’s taking her. Claiming her in every single way. His rhythm increases as he rises and falls over her body, and I knock Edinger’s hand the fuck off me.
“Enough.” I push him the hell away and walk over to the desk to catch my breath.
“Have you had enough? Because that’s only the beginning of what awaits for Laken and Wesley. Once the holy rite is established, there is no turning back.”
“Then help me get into the tunnels and get our loved ones out. It’s the only way I can think to stop her.” I press into him with all of my hatred. “You know as well as I do its desperation driving her into Wesley’s arms—nothing more. Take away the heat, and she’ll be right here with me.”
His lips cinch up one side. “Arrogant of you to assume so.”
“I know so. I can feel it.”
“And if it’s not true?”
“I’ll gladly surrender myself to the tunnels. Take me anytime, anywhere so long as our loved ones are free.”
A dark laugh gurgles from him. “Now, now, it looks like someone forgot to read the fine print. Those weren’t the terms.”
“They are now.”
“I’m afraid you don’t make the rules, Mr. Flanders—I do.”
“Then tell me what to do to get the people I care about out of that hellhole, and consider it done before the words ever leave your lips.”
“Careful. Desperation has been known to drive a person to the point of depravity.”
“I’m already there.”
“Good.” Edinger steps into me. The light dims outside the windows, and the overhead fluorescents explode in a burst of brilliant glory leaving Demetri as his own shadow. “Desperate and in love can lead to so many beautiful places, Mr. Flanders. The Tenebrous Woods is not one of them. I’ve given instruction to Wesley on how to procure your loved ones. I’ve no doubt he shared the concept with you. There is truly only one key that will save those you care about.”
“Your son.” I shake my head at the thought of ever finding an Edinger offspring. “Any idea where or who he might be?”
Edinger closes his eyes a moment before his lips expand in a thin set line.
“He’s here in this state, in this very institution of education. My son lives. Bring him to me, ready to serve, and all you ask is yours.”
Ephemeral? He’s at Ephemeral.
“If he’s here, why don’t you get him yourself? Use your authority, and lure him into your den like you do the rest of us.”
“He’s denied me. He needs to come willingly.”
“So he’s the only one you won’t hold prisoner?”
“The only one.”
“I guess you do tell the truth.” I start heading toward the door.
“Mr. Flanders?”
I back up a moment as the warning bell goes off.
“I wouldn’t play coy with your love interest. Time is of the essence. You may think she’s already chosen you, but her heart is still with Wesley.”
“Who said I was wasting time?”
“I didn’t have to be told. I can see it.”
“Why do you want Laken and me together so bad? Is this some kind of revenge against Wes?”
“Wes wasn’t made for Laken. You were.”
That’s what I thought, and, lucky for me, because Demetri Edinger cannot tell a lie.
Unless, of course, that was one.
I step out into the dismal day. The statue of Asterion mocks me as I stride by with my newfound arrogance.
I’m going to find Edinger’s bastard child. And I’m going to start by analyzing the DNA of every single student at Ephemeral. Looks like my father and I will be paying a visit to the blood bank again.
Because Laken wasn’t meant for Wesley.
She was meant for me.
Wesley
The colors of fall burn bright as Ephemeral coats itself in a autumn spectacular like it has never known before. I head toward Asterion where I traditionally meet Laken for lunch, with my feet buoyant and light. By weeks end, she’ll be mine, bonded to me and nobody else for all eternity.
My cell goes off, it’s Jones. I spot Blaine jogging up on the walkway and stuff my phone back into my pocket.
He pants out of breath as if he ran miles. “Hey, dipshit.” His dark hair is sticking up two inches over his head, and it makes him look insane. “Wipe that goofy look off your face. We’ve got a problem. Jones has been trying to reach you all morning.”
“What the hell for?”
“I don’t know.” He growls it out while downing the rest of the soda in his hand. “Maybe one of you fools left the bathtub running again.”
“That only happened once, and it was Fletcher’s bright idea.”
“Yeah, well, give him a call. It sounded important.” He nods over to me. “What’s with the never-ending grin?”
I shake my head, trying to keep the smile from popping back on my face, but I can’t hide it. “It’s Laken. We’re finally hitting our stride, dude.”
“Good, I’m glad. Keep her happy, that’s the key. Make sure she knows she’s the number one person in your life because once she thinks otherwise, you’re in for a rude awakening. Trust me, I know. I’ve been in the doghouse with Jen, and she still has me begging o
n all fours just to let me stick around.”
“Got it.” I watch as he trots off in his thick wool coat, his shoulders padded up like a football player. I’d hate to break it to him, but I’d never even look at another girl, let alone want one with Laken in my life. Laken will always be number one. The math is easy.
I put a quick call into Jones, and he picks up on the first ring.
“Where’ve you been?” He gruffs.
“I’ve got this little thing called school. Had my phone off. What do you want? You have any other family member of mine you’d like to abduct? Maybe kill a few off for kicks?”
“Shut up and listen.”
My stomach bottoms out as if I’m going to hear some serious shit news because for as long as I have known Jones, he has never spoken to me that way.
“There’s been a rash of kidnappings around Trinity County. Three young men and two women.”
“That’s terrible. What’s happening?”
“The news is going on about a guy dressed as a ‘zombie’ in one case. They think it’s some cult or gang misfiring their aggression on society.”
“Spectators.”
“Exactly. Get your guy on this. I need complete containment as soon as possible.”
“No offense, but why would the Counts wait until those creatures got out of hand? They should have been dealt with decades ago if you ask me.”
“Nobody’s asking you. I’m telling you to stop this hole up with whatever means possible. They’ve gone too far. And if you must know, there is a reason this wasn’t dealt with earlier. The Counts have had a mild treaty with the Spectators. We’ve looked the other way as long as they don’t go after society—and now they’ve done exactly that.”
“It’s going to be an all-out war to get them herded back where they belong. Is the Transfer big enough to hold them?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. They won’t be staying long. We’ve plans for a mass extermination once they’re rounded up. You might want to leave that little detail out in the event Mr. Flanders decides to become a bleeding heart.”
“And that he is.” Fucking Coop. I wish his heart would bleed somewhere other than Laken’s feet. “Hey, Jones? I meant to ask you, before we were interrupted yesterday, does Edinger have any children?”
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