by C. M. Owens
Jaded Jewels
The Coveted Saga Book 2
Published by C.M. Owens at Smashwords
Text copyright 2014 by C.M. Owens
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, events, or incidents are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to places or incidents is purely coincidental.
*Some content may not be suitable for readers under the age of sixteen.
Editing and formatting for this book has been provided by
Cheryl Green.
Chapter 1
Burning Alive
Hurting the one you love is more painful than losing them.
Hot, hot, hot—everything was so hot. I couldn't move or scream. It felt as if I was literally burning alive from the inside out. I saw only black at first, but then it turned to a glowing red. Am I unconscious? I can't breathe, I can't... this is awful.
"Tell me anything I can do," Tallis said, sounding panicked and tormented.
Heavy pacing was all around me, and I could almost hear everyone's thudding hearts over mine. The last thing I remembered was him kissing me. We were in my room, and he had just saved my life. I had finally convinced him to quit fighting his feelings for me. We kissed, and everything was perfect until I felt the burning passion inside me turn into burning pain.
"There's nothing you can do, Tallis. Astrianna will be here soon. Aria will be fine. Her pulse is weak, but it's not gone," Iris murmured softly, doing what she could to soothe him.
Why can't I speak or open my eyes?
I felt paralyzed, but perfectly aware of everything going on around me. Frustrating doesn't begin to describe the torture of being trapped inside your own body.
I had to tell Tallis it was my fault. He was blaming himself. He didn't want to kiss me. I made him. I didn't know the severe repercussions. I know he didn't know either, but I knew he would never forgive himself. How could I tell him it wasn't his fault if my mouth refused to cooperate?
Hurry up, Aster.
"Where is she?" Aster's horrified voice was like a breath of relief.
"She's in her room. On the bed," Gear said. Every sound was amplified, almost painfully so. It would have been nice if I could have put my hands over my ears.
"I'm so stupid. I knew this was wrong, but I couldn't stop myself. I never should have stayed," Tallis groaned through ragged, guilty breaths.
"You couldn't have known. No one has ever heard of this happening. Immortals have kissed humans millions of times. There's no way anyone could have seen this coming. Don't do this to yourself. She's going to need you when she wakes up," Chris soothed, relaying everything I wanted to say.
"It's too dangerous. I'm too dangerous. There's something wrong with me. I can't be here when she wakes up. I won't risk it."
Every piece of my body stiffened from the inside, making the pain worse. I couldn't let him go. No.
Tingles of something powerful started cloaking me, easing the pain, offering me an easy breath. Aster's magic was settling in, digging deep, repairing the damage caused by a single kiss. I wanted to scream, please don't go! I wanted to scream anything at all.
Chris was my lifeline—fighting the battle for me—when he countered, "Everyone knows you wouldn't have done this on purpose. Had you known, you wouldn't have let it happen. I'm surprised this is the first time you two have kissed. The two of you have been nearly inseparable since the first day you met. Hell, she's in love with you."
"I love her, too," he murmured in a regretful breath.
He said it.
My struggle to free myself from the frozen state became imperative. I couldn't let him go. I was afraid if he left, I might not ever see him again.
Tallis continued blaming himself, despite the very admirable attempts Chris kept making to convince him otherwise. "I knew that it was a bad idea. I should have stopped it. I can't be here to hurt her. Tell her I'm sorry—so, so sorry."
"Tallis, man, don't leave. She'll be devastated. She's going to need you," Chris begged, repeating himself.
"She'll be safer if I'm not here. I'm the danger now. I can't do anything that could put her in jeopardy again. That means I have to put distance between us. I have to try to break the link that I have to her emotions. Maybe I can come back once I've done that. Then I can guard myself better from linking to her again. Right now that's impossible."
It's not a link!
I wanted to get up and throw my arms around him, force him to stay.
In what felt like a heartbreakingly drawn-out moment, a door slammed, a car started, and tires squealed out of the driveway. I knew who it was that just fled.
That was the jolt I needed to wake up. My eyes flew open seconds before I croaked out his name, but the fragile sound was lost amongst the heavy exhales of relief by the others. Surrounded by the worried faces of my family, I scoured the room for the one face missing.
"Arisianna?" Jaslene's angst-ridden voice was a crackly as mine. "Are you okay?"
"Get Tallis back!" I screamed, well, tried to. My voice was rasp and dry, and I coughed before I was able to continue in the same scratchy tone. "I have to talk to him. I have to tell him I'm okay. He has to know this wasn't his fault."
My sobbing made my words all the more difficult to understand, but I didn't care. They all knew what I was trying to say even if the words were distorted.
Mom stroked my hair compassionately. Pity and sympathy softened her touch. That wasn't a good sign.
"Arisianna, dear, he just needs some time. This scared him to death. We don't know what happened. Mortals have kissed immortals many times, and nothing like this has ever happened." She took a deep breath before hesitantly continuing, "I think… he may be right. The two of you do need some space—at least until we figure this out."
No. I was sick of it—sick of them.
My tears poured like hot lava flowing down my cheeks. "I can't be without him. He can't leave me. I don't care what anyone thinks—he is my soul mate."
Air was leaving me quicker than it was coming, making my breaths shallow and harsh. Mom was trying to calm me down, but it was pointless. I tried to shrug her off when she wrapped her arms around me, but I was too weak to fight an immortal.
"Don't say stuff like that, honey. You can't think that way. This is normal teenage stuff. You just have a little extra in yours because it's beyond the realm of the mortal world. It magnifies the intensity of your emotions. I should have stepped in sooner, but I felt so much better about your safety when you were guarded by him. I know you don't understand, but things have escalated too far. Now I'm worried about your safety with him."
Her tears dripped, an authentic flow of a mother's shared pain. But she had no idea how deep my feelings were for him. It was more than some teenage crush. This wasn't a melodramatic teenage heartbreak or a stupid overreaction. He wasn't some teenage boy that I spent a few hours with and thought I loved. He was the only person in the world for me.
I was so exhausted from constantly defending my feelings that only I believed were real. I was so tired of trying to convince them that it was true love. They all thought they knew so much more and treated me like some young naïve girl. In just a matter of months, I had gone through more than most people ever had to go through.
I had given them understanding—a lot, considering all the lies they had told to me my entire life. Was it so much to ask them to show me th
at understanding now? Trust that I knew my own feeling better than they did?
A bitterness grew inside me as resentment started to fester, and I turned my head away while murmuring in a quiet voice, "Just go away, please. I want to be alone."
My tears continued their hot trickles, but I refused to wipe them away. Everyone did as I bid.
"I just want what is best for you, Arisianna." Jaslene said quietly while shutting the door behind her.
With my privacy, the falling tears multiplied as my misery took me over without any distractions. My heart didn't feel like it was breaking—it felt as though it was being sliced apart piece by piece with a hot, searing knife.
I had just gotten him back, and I was so certain that we couldn't be pried apart again. The kiss I had longed for was our undoing. It wasn't acceptable. I refused to let it be the end.
I tried calling him, but he wouldn't answer. I tried calling Allaysia instead, knowing she wouldn't ignore me.
"Aria? Are you okay? Tallis told me what happened. Ayla is on her way." Unjustifiable guilt was apparently a family trait, because Allaysia's words were laced with apologies she didn't need to offer. "We don't know what happened. Nothing like this has ever happened. I swear that Tallis has no clue what he did."
"It's not his fault, Allaysia. He didn't do anything wrong. I have to talk to him. He has to know I'm okay. I have to tell him I'm sorry, and this is all my fault. I can't let him blame himself, or I could lose him forever."
My relentless tears forced my emotion to rattle my tone, revealing the pain I was in.
"Aria, I’m sorry, but he's not talking to anyone right now. He said he was leaving for a few days. I'm sorry, but he even left his phone behind. He said he needed to clear his head. Chris told him you were okay before he left, though."
When did it all get so complicated? Why did everything in life have to be such a battle? A simple kiss had just decimated so much.
"I'm sorry, Allaysia. I just… love him. I never meant for this to happen."
"I know you love him, sweet girl. But I really do think some separation would be good for both of you right now. I know his link to you is way too strong. The magic just intensifies everything. In a few months, things will be better. The link will eventually die down."
Now she sounded just like Jaslene, Anesta, Iris and, well, everyone else for that matter. I was sick of all of them and their magical reasoning threaded with hints of inadvertent condescension.
A white car pulled down the driveway, and a flash of blonde was all I had time to glimpse as serenity-wielder blurred toward the house with her unnatural speed.
My voice returned to the cold tone it had carried with Jaslene earlier. "I have to go. Ayla just got here."
I didn't wait for her response. I just hung up before she said anything else to break my heart even more. I thought she understood my feelings. Now I just felt betrayed by everyone who doubted me, and I was on my own.
"Aria?" Ayla's incredibly soft voice rang like a wave of calm as she came into my room, approaching me quickly, but not with inhuman speed. "Aria, just wait a minute and everything will be okay."
She stuck her hand to my head, but I roughly grabbed it in objection. "I don't want it to be okay. I don't want to feel like this isn't real. I don't want to mask my pain with a false sense of serenity. I want to know everything painful means that our being apart is wrong. I don't want to feel for a moment that it's okay for him to be gone, because it isn't. I don't want to be at peace. I want to feel every bit of misery, so I can hold on to the hope that it's painful for a reason."
Wiping my face seemed pointless, because a fresh wave of tears spilled every time I managed to stop for a second. Those tears held meaning.
Jay walked in and wrapped his arm around Ayla, gently tugging her in an effort to give me back my privacy. His presence enabled her to feel my anguish. A harsh flash of realization and understanding jaded her eyes in that instant, and her tears welled up with almost the same magnitude as mine.
"I have never understood this emotion. I am so sorry, Aria. Please, let me help you."
"No. Just go away. I want to be alone."
I rolled over in my bed and clutched my stomach where I could feel the dreadful knots growing even bigger. It was too much, but I wasn't going to let her make it all disappear. It would be like giving into everyone's belief that we weren't supposed to be together. And I refused to even entertain that horrid thought.
Chapter 2
Never the Same
They say change can be a good thing. I wish it would hurry up and be good.
School had started back, and now I had all new classes. I still hadn't heard from Tallis, but Ayla had told me he would be back at school to keep an eye on me. She told me he would be different, though.
She warned me to keep my hopes low, saying he would not let himself become as attached. I wondered if he would even really be there. His adamant endeavor to avoid me seemed to contradict the fact he was suddenly going to be keeping an eye on me.
McKee opened the door to my car the second I parked at school, and I managed a weak smile. He was talking, but I couldn't hear a word he was saying. I was distracted as my eyes scoured the parking lot, desperately seeking to find Tallis's car or hummer. Then McKee was finally successful in interrupting my relentless search.
"Aria, I'll save you some time. He's not here yet." He sounded irritated by my complete indifference toward him.
I fought back enormous wave of disappointment and the tears that were struggling to reach my eyes. "Oh. Sorry. I just wanted to talk to him. I need to go to class. See ya later, McKee."
He scoffed, "Yeah. See ya."
The anger rolling off of him was almost tangible. The last thing I was worried about was McKee, though. He stomped off, throwing his tantrum by snapping a pencil in two. Seemed like a small feat for an invincible.
Butterflies fluttered anxiously, and the knots in my stomach doubled in size when I walked into the school. He was here. There was Tallis leaned up against the lockers and talking to Everett. He turned as if he sensed my presence. A forced smile was the only warning I got before he warily made his way toward me.
My stomach felt like it was flipping inside out. He was really walking toward me, acknowledging me, and this wasn't one of my cruel dreams. It was real.
He stood at least three-feet away when he stopped to speak to me. "Hey, hope you had a good Christmas vacation."
It was as if nothing had happened and we were casual acquaintances. He was so cold and indifferent—even worse than I had just been with McKee. We were suddenly two strangers who had never known each other outside of these hallways. I couldn't believe he was acting this way.
I tried to swallow, but the lump in my throat made that nearly impossible. "I've been trying to call you. I've been worried out of my mind."
I wasn't playing this game and talking about the mundane aspects of my life.
He didn't flinch. His casual tone continued, unaffected by my pain. His eyes were completely devoid of any shred of emotion as he continued speaking to me with his indifferent attitude.
"Sorry, I've been pretty busy. I had a lot to do. I got pretty behind on some stuff, and I went and visited some of my dad's family in New York. One of my cousins was getting his wings, if you know what I mean. They needed a little help, so Des and I went to go talk him through it." The first bell rang, warning us to get to class. Tallis looked around, and then continued speaking with such frustrating casualness. "I hope you have a good day."
That was it? Really?
He turned to walk away and began laughing with some guy who had walked up to join him on the way to class.
Shocked? No, I wasn't shocked. Shocked wasn't an abrasive enough of a word for how completely floored I was. I struggled to even try to process the bizarre and pointless conversation we just shared.
I assumed that he might at least have the dignity to pretend like he cared about the fact I had been utterly miserable and com
pletely destroyed by his absence. I couldn't understand how he could suddenly be so cold. There had been so much passion between us before, and now he was acting as if I was just some random girl he had just met.
Dwelling on it and letting it eat me alive wasn't smart, but what option did I have? Even as I made my way into class, I was still running over every cold and distant word.
English was my first class. Fortunately, I only had three classes this semester. If not for my mother's social experience rule, I'd be home-schooling right now.
So far, the social experience I was having was incredibly heartbreaking. It would never be the same between us now. He wasn't even the same person.
We didn't have any classes together this time, and I couldn't wait to be done with my last class. He wouldn't even look at me during lunch. McKee had returned to his seat—right beside me.
Torture—that was the best word to describe what I was going through. I think seeing him, and being unable to even stand close to him, was worse than him being gone all together.
I was getting the feeling that nothing was ever going to be the same between us again. It certainly wasn't ever going to be better than before.
Chapter 3
Drawn Out Drama
Pain is an emotion that destroys you and makes you feel alive in the same breath.
It was March before I knew it and nothing had changed. Tallis was still barely speaking to me. When he did speak, it was only to say something impersonal or necessary. He would follow me home sometimes, but he would turn around once I was safely down the driveway.
He was just another guy now. It was so hard for me to pretend that everything didn't happen, but it seemed so easy for him. I would rather let puke-faces suck me dry, than deal with this.
