The Eternal Series Box 1: An Eternal Universe Box Set

by Candy Crum

  “And while you’re planning, I’m a sitting duck,” I said. “No Kailah. We would never allow anything to happen to you,” Aeric said.

  I avoided looking at him. “If you really want to help me, if you really want to protect me, then teach me how to use my body and my mind to protect myself. You’re not always going to be able to be there. There will come a day when that line of defense will fail and then I’ll be left to the wolves. If you train me, then it would take stress off you, and it would definitely take stress off me.”

  Sayen sighed. Rachel was desperately looking between them and me. The tension in the room could be physically felt, and it was trying to choke me. I was worried about what they determined would be for the best. Because ultimately, whatever they decided, I’d have to go with. I could argue all I wanted, but at the end of the day, I couldn’t stop them from doing it.

  “You said it yourself, Khanae. You guys never expected me to have so much power. I’ve shown that I can use it. Trust me a little,” I pleaded.

  Sayen turned to me. “The problem is that you can only use it in times of great danger. You can’t actively use it yet. That means you may be able to protect yourself at the time, but you would be blindsided in a surprise attack because you probably wouldn’t sense it coming. That would greatly affect the outcome and it definitely slides things in their favor.”

  “Just listen to them!” Rachel shouted. She was getting frustrated with me, as always.

  I shook my head. “No. Train me, or I go home. I refuse to be weak. I’ve been weak and walked on my entire life. I won’t do it anymore.”

  My talk was big, but I didn’t feel it as much as I let on. I was shaking because everything did scare me. The more they brought out the faults with my plan, the more I wanted to step into the safety of Khanae’s old and very strong arms, but I couldn’t let that happen. Something in me was telling me that I was right.

  Khanae looked at Sayen, and I saw the fight leave them both. “As you wish,” Khanae said softly. “Aeric will teach you hand-to-hand combat.”

  “Wait… What?” I asked.

  I didn’t figure that I’d be “assigned” an instructor. I thought that I would be able to pick one. My first choice would have been Khanae, but Brett was obviously the better choice between the two guys. He didn’t piss me off so badly. Suddenly, for the life of me, as soon as I knew I would soon be forced to be alone with him, I couldn’t push those ridiculous dreams out of my head. I tried “la-la-la-ing” over them in my mind, out of worry Aeric might be listening, but then I felt slightly paranoid so I stopped.

  “If you want to learn hand-to-hand combat, Aeric is your man. He will even be able to teach you much more than that,” Khanae said with a smirk. I wasn’t sure that I liked the smirk… Paranoia at its finest again.

  “Like what? Why can’t I have Brett as my instructor?” I asked.

  Brett laughed. “Because you actually like me.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” I demanded.

  “It has everything to do with it,” Sayen replied, also smiling. “You and Aeric seem to have a rather… volatile relationship. He will get better results out of you than Brett ever could because of that alone.”

  “You’re not afraid, are you?” Aeric playfully asked. I could tell that he found my unwillingness to be around him amusing, and that annoyed me. He saw that vision, so he probably thought that I was trying to avoid him because I felt uncomfortable due to some ridiculous idea that I wanted him. Granted, he was attractive, but there was no way that I was going to let him think that he has any effect on me at all.

  “Of you?” I asked with a smile. “Hardly.”

  “Then shall we?” he asked. “What? Now?” I asked.

  That was completely unexpected. If I had a little time to mentally prepare myself, I would have been okay, but that was too sudden.

  “You want to train so badly? We’re going to start right now.”

  Defeated, I just sighed and rolled my eyes before sulking my way out to the Charger without saying a word.

  Chapter Five

  We drove for quite a while until we were in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea where we were, but I had to admit that it was stunning. The trees were massive and towered over everything. Despite the heat, the air was cool. We were on a small back road that was completely canopied by the trees. I was actually starting to enjoy the drive, that is until Aeric opened his mouth and crushed my small window of comfort.

  “So, what was the dream about?” he asked.

  My eyes widened a bit, and I turned to see him smiling.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Well, I did as you asked. I tried really hard to stay out of your head last night. Though, I’m sure that you are sad to see that it didn’t kill me, as you suggested.” He laughed a little. “But in the living room, during the argument, I heard you think something about a dream of me. I was curious.”

  “Well, obviously, you didn’t try too hard,” I said coldly.

  “Well, it was your fault,” he said with another smile. “The la-la-la thing kind of attracts more attention than it repels.”

  “Damn it all.”

  He laughed again. Unfortunately, it was a rich sound that was very comforting.

  “So, what was it about?” he asked. “Like I would tell you. Besides, you haven’t even told me where we’re going yet, or what we’re going to do.”

  “Well, plans just changed I think,” he said with a devious smile.

  “What does that mean?” Oh, this really wasn’t my day.

  “Well, I had an idea on how I was going to train you, but now, I have an even better one that will get even better results. Really, it was your doing, so don’t blame me,” he said.

  “Oh, dear God. I don’t like the sound of that at all.”

  “We’re almost there,” he said. “I picked this place because of its serenity, among other very good attributes useful to us today. It’s peaceful, and it’ll help you concentrate.”

  We pulled off to the side of the road in a heavily wooded area. Aeric killed the engine and sat back in his seat. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

  “Can you hear it? Can you smell it?” he asked.

  I closed my eyes and inhaled, the same as he had. I could hear and smell something in the distance. It was very quiet, but I could tell that it would be louder with closer proximity. A large lake was down the bank to our right and out about fifty feet. I couldn’t see anything off to the left, across the road and over the small bridge.

  Aeric reached for the door handle, and I did the same, getting out and wandering over to his side. We made our way over the bridge and to the opposite side of the road. There was a large, steep bank on that side too, but it was heavily wooded, unlike the other side.

  “It’s very steep, and I don’t want you to fall, so I’m going to carry you down.”

  I laughed. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

  He smiled before taking step forward. His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me tight against his chest. “Oh, I think yes,” he said, just before lifting me bridal style.

  In my mind, I wanted to fight him. I wanted to push, kick, and scream at him until he let me go because something in my blood boiled to do so. But somewhere, deep down, there was something forcing me to still in his arms. To lie unmoving, feeling the safety in his powerful grasp. That part won out as I silently relaxed against him, the darker side of my reaction forcing me to angrily narrow my eyes at him as he laughed in response.

  Aeric lightly shook his head and made his way down the hill. As suspected, the sound of rushing water grew louder as we approached. When we finally reached the bottom of the hill, I saw the source of such a calming sound. It was a beautiful stream that ran into a large waterfall. Aeric couldn’t have picked a better word to use to describe it—serene.

  The trees were even larger down there and canopied over everything. With every slight gust of wind that blew, the
leaves of the trees parted to let the sun through to reflect off the water and illuminate the colorful rocks that lined the be. My eyes followed the current of the water to see Aeric standing at the edge of the waterfall. I hated to admit it, but he looked incredible standing in the little bit of sunlight peeking through the trees.

  I couldn’t help but notice how pale he looked in the sunlight, and it made me wonder if he’d been taking care of himself since everything started. I wondered if it was because he hadn’t had any blood in a while. It didn’t seem to bother him nearly as much as it did me, but it did bother me, though I wasn’t sure why. I took a few steps closer to Aeric, just a few feet from the edge of the fall.

  “What do you think?” he asked with a graceful smile.

  “I absolutely love it here. It’s amazing,” I said, returning the small gesture.

  Aeric began unbuttoning the black button up shirt that he put on before leaving, and though I tried not to, I couldn’t help but watch. He pulled it off and sat it on a nearby tree that had fallen over. He was wearing a black ribbed tank underneath, and I couldn’t deny how good he looked in it. His arms were full and well defined, but not too big, and his chest and stomach were just as toned.

  “Having issues?” he asked with an amused expression.

  My eyes narrowed, and I kicked water at him, though it didn’t take much for him to dodge it.

  “Not even close. Why are you stripping anyway?” I asked.

  “Well, I would hate for someone to burn that shirt in the process of trying to kill me. I already lost one good shirt that way,” he said with a laugh.

  “That’s nothing a lighter couldn’t fix,” I said with a sarcastic grin. “There doesn’t need to be a Vampire in it for me to set it on fire. That just seems to help it along.”

  He disappeared from my sight in an instant. Without any warning, Aeric was behind me and had both of my wrists locked in one of his strong hands behind my back, and his other was placed carefully around my throat, tilting my head back.

  “You would regret it,” he said low in my ear. I could hear a devious smile in his sexy, accented voice.

  “Is that a fact?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’d make sure of that,” he said in the same seductive tone.

  “You’d like to think that you could try,” I said, unable to stop myself from taunting him.

  A low laugh escaped his throat. “Though I would love to, we simply don’t have the time for me to show you every tiny way in which I am far more powerful than you. Instead, I have to teach you to use your completely irrational and still very weak abilities.”

  “Weak?” I said with obvious anger in my voice.

  “Oh, you aren’t? I’m sorry, I was under the impression that you were still completely human. I mean, you certainly smell that way,” he said as he gently traced the length of my throat with the tip of his nose, inhaling deeply as he moved.

  I twisted my head away from the hand wrapped around my throat, towards his elbow, before weaving under his arm and instantly breaking the loose grip on me. Quickly, I locked my arms and dropped to my knees, using the firm grip that he had around my wrists to pull him down along with me. In the same movement, I quickly moved back a step, between his legs, and stood violently; flipping him over me and flat on his back. Smiling from my victory, I took a step back as he righted himself.

  “Very good!” he said excitedly.

  “Thanks. I saw it in a movie,” I said flatly, still slightly irritated.

  “Ah, I should have known you weren’t really that coordinated,” he said with another one of his mischievous grins.

  Brett was right. Aeric really brought out a rage in me that I’d never felt before, and it flooded through me right then. I took a few exaggerated steps toward him.

  “I kicked your ass!” I said.

  Even more furious, I decided that I wanted to try to push him off the waterfall. It wasn’t like it would hurt him, and it would certainly make me feel better, but I’ve discovered that things never quite go as planned with me. As I saw what was happening, it was too late to stop my movements.

  The soft glow of the light blue aura on my hands warned me of what was about to happen as they made their way to his chest, but it didn’t mentally register in time for me to control it or stop myself. As soon as I made contact with his body, the shirt that he was wearing ignited into flames as he fell off of the edge of the waterfall. Immediately, I dropped to my knees as fear ripped through me.

  “Aeric! Aeric!”

  A black flash leapt into the air and over my head. Spinning around, I saw see Aeric land gracefully, kneeling on one knee a couple of yards away from me. He slowly stood, and I saw the burns that I’d inflicted to that bare, once-flawless chest and stomach.

  “If you wanted me to take off my shirt, you could have just asked,” he said with a grin.

  My eyes involuntarily widened in shock. “Ugh! Are you serious right now? I was actually worried! I almost killed you!” I shouted.

  “Yeah, thanks for that, by the way,” he said with another grin as he made his way over to me. “Now you see why I chose a place with a lot of water.”

  “You knew that was going to happen?” I accused, still more than a little upset.

  “Of course, I did, but I was prepared for it, so it’s okay. Like I said, I didn’t want that nice shirt ruined. Here comes the fun part,” he said.

  “The fun part?” I asked.

  Aeric’s eyes narrowed, and that dreadful evil grin crept back on his beautiful face.

  “We’re going to play a little game,” he said.

  “Uh, I don’t like the sound of this,” I said. I had a feeling it was going to be anything at my expense.

  “I’m going to challenge you to use a power, and if you fail, you have to answer a question for me,” he mused.

  “What question is that?”

  “You have to tell me about the dream you had of me.”

  My jaw dropped again. Suddenly, I hated all of them for sending me with him for training. Brett would have been so much easier. I was in hell. There was no way I was going to win that little bet. I was going to be forced to tell him about that disturbingly erotic dream that I had. The one I awoke from in the middle of the night gasping for air because I couldn’t breathe fast enough. No, this wasn’t going to be fun at all. God, I hate him.

  Chapter Six

  My heart skipped a beat. What was I going to tell him if I failed? By if I mean when because I know it’s going to happen. It’s inevitable. Fine, if he wanted to play that game, I would play, too.

  “Fine, when I don’t fail, then you have to answer to me,” I said with a grin equally as evil.

  “What question do you have?” he asked with curiosity.

  “Oh, no. I said you would have to answer to me. I didn’t say that you would have to answer for me. If I pass your little test, you have to show me something,” I said.

  “Ah, so you want me to show you something, do you?” His smile spread, and I wanted to smack him.

  “You, sir, are a perv.”

  He looked to the sky for a moment, attempting to look thoughtful, before nodding and smiling once again. “Only with you. You make it so fun and oh-so-easy to torment you. It’s your fault entirely. Besides, I’m two hundred and fifty years old; I get bored easily.”

  “You’re two hundred and fifty years old?” I asked.

  He nodded proudly. “Well, I’m two hundred and fifty years old in Vampire life. I was twenty-seven when I was turned.”

  “Two seventy-seven then. Damn, you’re an old man.”

  He laughed. “Then you must like older men since you find me so irresistible.” He took a few steps around me, lowering his mouth to my ear as he lightly placed his hands on my hips. “Having fantasies about me in the hallway with you wearing nothing more than a very sexy satin robe. Dreaming about me later the same night. Admit it; tell me what the dream was about.”

  I rolled my eyes, ignoring his mind games and
stepping out of his grip. “Not a chance. It’s you that’s going down, and then you’ll have to show me the real you. I saw a little the night we met, but I still see you as human, as ridiculous as that sounds. I have a hard time grasping you as something other than human because you act so human. So, when you lose—and you will—you are going to show me the real you. Or I’ll light you up again and coax it out of you.”

  “Oh, my, threatening now, are we? Well, since I know that I’m going to be the one winning this little wager, you can bet your ass that your questions will get worse; much worse,” he retorted.

  It would be interesting for sure. Aeric spent the next hour and a half showing me a few things—mostly meditation. He showed me how to completely calm myself and clear my head so I could think and process things like I should have been. In that time, he never challenged me once. He thought that would be unfair—and it would have been—if I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

  He excused himself to give me a few moments alone to myself. I hoped that he was using that as an excuse to hunt, but I doubted it. His pallor still bothered me, though it had no negative effect on his looks. The fact that I even registered his appearance made me uneasy. Whatever the relationship was that we had, I wasn’t sure that I liked it. It seemed dangerous to me, given my past.

  Sitting in the shallow water, I placed my hands flat against my crossed legs. I tilted my head back and let the little bit of sun trickling through the trees warm my face and calm me. I could feel the breeze gently blowing my hair, and I understood how these elements could be so calming.