by Candy Crum
He gave one of his award-winning, beautiful smiles and gently ran his fingers down the side of her face as he complimented her. My heart ripped in two. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to come tonight because of that very small moment Aeric and I shared, but I decided that I wanted to because I’d always liked Sam. I thought that if there was a chance that he wanted me, that I should take it—especially after Analynn showed up. But to hear him completely dismiss me while trying to get laid by Casi and more than likely the day before he asked me out, completely crushed me.
“Don’t worry about that. Trust me; she’s a huge asset to me. All you have to do is ask her out on a date. Let her suggest the place, but make sure that you let me know where you are and what time you will be there, but it must be after dark. Do you understand?” she asked him with another playful stroke of his chest.
He smiled and fell right into it. “Sure, that’s not a problem.”
That was all I needed to see. I jumped up and quickly headed outside. I took my phone out and immediately dialed Rachel’s number. It went straight to voicemail the first time I tried, so I tried again. It rang that time.
“Come on Rach, pick up!” I said. “Please, just pick up. Damn!” Voicemail again. “Rachel! Aeric was right! Sam isn’t the guy that I thought he was. I need you now. Please come pick me up. He’s been talking to Casi. This entire date was a plan to lure me away from you guys. Please come get me!” I quickly shoved the phone in my pocket and took off running. I decided that I couldn’t wait there for whatever was going to happen, and I needed to get away as fast as I could. Someone grabbed my arm and jerked me around. I swung out of instinct.
“Kailah! Calm down!” Sam said. “What’s wrong? Where are you going?”
“You bastard!” I said. “How could you? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“What are you talking about?” A look of confusion crossed his face.
“You set me up. You just killed me, do you understand that? How could I have been so stupid?” Realization hit him that I knew what was going on.
“Wow, that’s incredible. She told me you would possibly see what was going on. How can you do that? How is that possible?” he asked. Suddenly, he was absolutely fascinated with me. How wonderful for me.
“Stay the fuck away from me!” I said. The foul language seemed to catch his attention, but it didn’t seem to have the affect I thought. Ridiculous.
“Kailah, nothing is going to happen to you. She just wants your help. What’s so bad about that?” he asked.
“You daft jerk,” I said. I realized that I’d picked up a word from Analynn’s vocabulary and my stomach twisted a bit. I ignored it. “You have no idea what you’ve just tampered with. Casi isn’t human! What did you trade my life for anyway?”
“Not human? What? And I didn’t trade your—”
“Tell me Sam!” He sighed. “She paid off some of my school loans.”
A cross between a shocked and completely sarcastic look crossed my face. “You are one hell of a guy.”
“Kailah, she just wants to talk to you.”
“Think about that Sam. Do you honestly think a woman would pay that much money just to talk? To me of all people?”
Reality swept him and regret washed over his face as he realized that I really wasn’t a girl anyone would want to talk to that badly, and if anyone was willing to go through that much trouble to talk to me, then it probably wasn’t for anything good.
“Let me go, Sam.”
“She really wants to kill you?” he asked.
I nodded. “She isn’t a good person. She and Rachel’s ex, Jeff, nearly killed Rachel a week ago. That is why I’ve been staying with Rachel more. Because we’ve been petrified that he would find us. And you’ve just, quite literally, fed me to him. Let me go, Sam. I still have a chance. I don’t sense him around yet.”
“What will happen to me?” he asked.
It occurred to me suddenly that he was only after one thing: saving his own ass. Before, I thought that it may have been because he was actually convinced nothing bad was going to happen to me. But at that moment I knew he understood me and all he wanted to know was what was going to happen to him. I needed to make my reply good. Otherwise, he would hold me there until they came.
“Sam, they’re going to kill you either way. This was something that you did out of your own greed. They have no plan on letting you live. You need to do the right thing. We have time to run if we split.”
“You could be wrong. If I keep you here, they might let me go.”
“Are you seriously telling me that you would sacrifice me instead of taking the chance that we could both live?” He shrugged and started to pull me against him.
I wasn’t trained in hand-to-hand combat, and I figured any Immortal tricks I had up my sleeve wouldn’t work since he was human—if the ability had even returned. So, I used the only tried and true maneuver I had. I threw a knee into his groin, realizing that I really needed to learn how to fight. There weren’t any fancy tricks that he had. He just curled up like a newborn and fell to the ground whining and groaning. I would have laughed thinking of the comment that Aeric had made about weak mortal men, but that wasn’t the time.
I took off again and silently thanked whatever feminine bone it was in my body that allowed me to quickly run in heels, but I didn’t get far before another dark feeling settled in on me and my body began to tingle all over.
“Kailah!” I looked back over my shoulder and relief washed over me.
Aeric was standing there, holding Sam by the throat. I could feel his energy, but it wasn’t his that was making that sickening tingle crawl across my skin.
“Who… are you?” I heard Sam struggle to ask.
“Someone that you will see in the dead of sleep for the rest of your natural life. Messing with her? Big fucking mistake.”
Selfish pride and happiness flowed through me as I watched him defend me by threatening Sam.
“Now, it’s you who’s made the mistake, Aeric. You shoulda left Sam for me to finish and got Kailah outta here. Now, you’re the one responsible for her demise,” Jeff said.
I looked over to where Jeff was standing. “Hmm, demise. That’s a pretty large word for someone who has no oxygen flowing to their brain. Is there like a Hooked on Phonics for asshole Vampires?” I asked sarcastically.
He laughed. “I don’t remember enjoying your company this much when I was still human. This is going to be fun.”
Aeric blindsided Jeff and took him to the ground. We were still in the parking lot of the restaurant, and I worried about innocent people coming outside to their vehicles. We were lucky that it was packed in there, so the vehicles acted as a barrier between the fight and the large windows. I heard a loud growl, and I quickly forgot about those inside and focused back on the fight.
“Casi, Jeff is fighting some guy out here. Kailah is unprotected.” I heard Sam’s frantic voice on the phone, and I turned with wide eyes to see him ratting me out to my enemy.
Instantly, rage took me over. “I’ll kill you!” I screamed as I ran toward him.
I had no idea what I planned on doing, but I wanted to beat the hell out of him.
“Allow me.” In a flash Casi appeared right behind Sam, and in one fluid motion, she lifted him off the ground, snapped his neck, and tossed him into the back of a large Dodge truck beside her. “I don’t like litter. Do you?” She smiled.
I stopped mid-run. He was dead. Sam was dead. I wanted to hurt him, but I hadn’t actually meant that I was going to kill him. I just wanted him to feel a little of my pain, but Casi killed him. She finished him off in only a heartbeat. I looked back to Jeff and Aeric, and it was obvious that Aeric was in the better position. Jeff’s throat had been torn open, and his face looked almost completely crushed.
Aeric had him in a lock, and it looked like he was getting ready to take off his head, but as usual, I wasn’t able to hold my hope for long. The loud pop of a gunshot rang out, and I look
ed back to Casi to find that she was the shooter. Aeric was on the ground and lying very still. Fear for him swept over me. I had no idea that he was able to be taken down by mortal means. A gun? She was a Vampire for crying out loud! That was a little like cheating at that point, or sheer laziness.
“Jesus, Jeff. Apparently, you’re absolutely no stronger now than when you were human. Ugh, Kailah, never send a man to do a woman’s job.” She rolled her eyes in disgust at Jeff’s weakness and noticed me staring at Aeric’s still body. “The bullet is lodged in his head sweetie. He’s paralyzed for the moment, but that could easily change to something a little more permanent depending on your attitude. Now, we can make a trade if you like,” Casi said.
“He’s paralyzed? How is that possible?” I asked.
“Pathetic mortal emotions. You all make me sick. Dear God, you are no better than Jeff! I assumed that, since you are supposed to be some hot-shot Immortal goddess, at the very least you would entertain me more than him. But honestly, I’m getting a little disappointed here.”
She looked from me to Jeff and back again. Once again, she rolled her eyes when she saw my lack of interest.
“He is paralyzed because that bullet was made special for him by Khia. So, when it lodged in his brain, he was not able to react to it to push it out on his own because of the spiritual power concentrated inside of it. So, basically, it’s like it killed him, without him actually dying. Make sense?”
“What do you want?” I asked. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt him anymore.”
“The deal is you for him. I let him go if you come with me.”
“I said anything.”
I couldn’t look away from him. He somehow knew that I was in trouble and once again came to my side without my asking. It didn’t matter because I knew that Casi was serious. She would kill him right then if I didn’t agree.
“I meant every word. Please, take the bullet out, and I will go with you.”
“Well, that will be my job since I don’t trust dipshit here,” she said with a head gesture in Jeff’s direction. “It seems your friend got the best of Jeff, and he would more than likely kill him like a coward. Even more likely than that, he would do it while your friend is still paralyzed. I have more honor than that, believe it or not. So, I will take the bullet out myself. But first, you have to leave with Jeff. I want you away from here before he wakes up. Do you understand the conditions?” I nodded. “Good. You’re going to have to go to sleep for a while. I don’t want you to know where you’re headed.”
That was the last thing I heard before a sharp pain cut through my skull and the world around me went black.
The Eternal Resurrection
The Eternal Series Vol. 3
Candy Crum
Chapter One
How could I have been so stupid? I was warned, but I didn’t listen. Hell, I warned me. I had a few bad feelings that registered, but I didn’t even listen to myself. My sister has always scolded me for making stupid decisions. I’m a worrier, and I think of every possible negative outcome that I can, but for some reason, if I want something bad enough, I ignore the obvious. This was definitely one of those times, and it really paid off. If I ever got out of there, I owed her an apology—and myself some therapy.
I struggled to sit up, but my head was splitting. When my mind caught up to my body, I realized that I was slumped over in a metal chair with my hands tied to the frame behind me. That was the only thing keeping me from falling forward on my face. I had no chance of budging, and on top of the other bonds, there was also something tied around my mouth, which pissed me off more than being tied to the chair.
I lifted my head and the dull, aching throb of a headache paired with sharp pains down my spine made themselves known. It felt like someone had their entire hand on my brain squeezing it while someone else was shoving needles in my neck and down my back. I could hear rain outside, and that seemed to calm me some, for which I was grateful.
Looking around the room, something was a little off. I felt the magnetic energy of the earth around me, and I realized that I was in a finished basement. There was a massive TV down there and really nice furniture. I knew where I was. The layout. The paint colors. The furniture. All of it told me exactly where I was.
Rachel had told me about it before and described everything in great detail. It was Jeff’s house. Well, his parent’s house anyway. Jeff still lived with his parents. I wondered if they had any idea what he’d become. From what Rachel had told me about them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did and brought him dinner sometimes.
Suddenly, the fact that I could feel the rain water outside and the earth surrounding the basement walls somewhat irritated me. What calmed me only moments ago now annoyed me because it was like they allowed me to sense that they were there, but I had no way of knowing how to use them. If I couldn’t sense them at all, it would be easy to try to find something a bit more… human to help me. Unfortunately, without having any kind of control over them, it was more like being tied to a chair in the middle of a group of friends while they sat and watched, but refused to help.
I heard a clicking noise from the door behind me, and my skin began burning. It was either Jeff or Casi. Hell, it may have been both. I wanted to turn to look, but that was impossible. With as much excruciating pain as there was shooting through my back, neck, and brain right then, my head probably would have just fallen off at that point. I just sat and waited.
Casi stepped in front of me, the look on her face not a happy one. Something wasn’t right. I immediately began shifting a little in my seat. She mouthed a word to me. I didn’t understand her at first, and she seemed to have noticed my confusion. She did again, and I quickly recognized it, though, it was not one that I imagined would come from her.
Barrier.
She pointed upstairs and then she pointed to her ears. She wanted to talk to me alone without Jeff hearing us. I nodded and closed my eyes. The odds of me doing much of anything was about a hundred percent less than slim and none, however, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth—as ridiculous of a saying as that was. If she was willing to betray her uglier half, I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit there and whine like the little engine that couldn’t.
As I focused, the headache got worse, but I realized something terrifying. Casi and Jeff were not the only two Vampires in the house. There were about five more in there with them, and some of them were far more powerful. It was becoming very clear that I was very screwed.
I tried to focus on them and not Casi. I needed to try to include her on the inside of the barrier. Analynn said that water could create barriers that could stop a Vampire on the outside from hearing anything unless they were within human hearing range. She also said that water was drawn to me and that I didn’t need a water spirit to call it. I just hoped that she was being serious given that she was the most bubbleheaded piece of shit I’d ever met, and suddenly, the success of this little venture depended on something that she told me. Highly unlikely.
There was no way that I could actually call on spirits, so I just had to focus and pray for the best. I moved my head forward and looked down toward the gag. She quickly pulled it down, and I glanced behind her toward a small window that just barely stuck up over the ground. I mouthed the words “open the window,” and she did that, too. The instant the window opened, I felt the energy of the rain pour through the window along with its sweet scent. It washed over me, and I felt it energizing me.
My headache started to feel better, and I realized that I was beginning to heal. I guess that I was too exhausted from everything today to be able to heal on my own this time. Once again, I closed my eyes and focused on the energy of the water. As I felt myself tap into the water’s strength, it was like I was flooded with knowledge. I realized that each element has its own energy without having to use the actual element. The Immortals all used the spirits to do that, but I could sense the actual energy it possessed all on my own. That meant
I didn’t have to actually pull water in from outside to create a barrier, I just needed to use its essence—just like Analynn had been able to do.
It was kind of like being depressed and lying out in the sun. The sun itself isn’t what brightens your mood. It’s the energy and the heat, its essence, as it shines down on you. It’s the same principal. Water has a neutral energy to me because it gives life and also takes it. That’s why, when placed in a barrier, it will neutralize the Vampires senses while heightening mine. It balances things out.
Focusing on the energy surrounding me, I pushed it outward around the two of us. In moments, I felt secure that it would hold and would work for what we needed. I may not have been able to control the elements like Sayen and Wendy, or physically use them on demand, but I certainly knew my way around a barrier. They seemed to be getting easier. Of course, this one was created using an element that seems to like me anyway. So maybe I was getting ahead of myself.
“I’m new to this, so whisper anyway just in case,” I said.
She nodded. “Things have changed. Don’t for an instant think that I’m down here because I like you or feel sorry for you—because I don’t. I couldn’t care less, honestly. The reason why I’m down here is because Jeff has gone mad and changed the game.”
“What do you mean?”
I didn’t care about all the other stuff. I mean, really, should I have actually expected a warm and fuzzy moment from a Rogue?
Not hardly.
“Khia asked us to help her find you. She protected us from Khanae and Sayen’s sight so that we could move freely. When we found you, we were supposed to take you to Khia, and in return, she would spare us.”
“And do you honestly think that she would do that?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Well, she approached me after we attacked you of our own choice. She wanted to use us because we were familiar with you. So, if I didn’t do what she asked, I would have probably been ended right then. Anyway, that was the plan, but it’s changed now. Jeff has no plan at all of taking you to Khia. That is why we are here at this horrid house of his. Well—of his parents. Grown ass man and lives with his parents.” She shook her head.
