Sweet Sleep (The Children of Ankh Book 1)

by Kim Cormack

  Her brother hollered, “Dinner, Candy Kayn,” then laughed as he saw Kayn jump three feet in the air with his sudden entrance.

  She hadn’t even known he was home. As soon as her brother shut the bedroom door an extremely buff guy wearing shorts and no shirt appeared sitting on Kayn’s purple comforter on her bed. Kayn squealed with her heart in her throat for the third time in five minutes.

  “Oh, they were right. You are overdramatic,” the incredibly hot, half-naked guy teased as he hopped up and began walking toward her, hand extended.

  “Stop … who in the hell are you? How did you get in here?” Kayn demanded as the man continued to walk toward her as she backed up into the bathroom, ready to slam the door and lock it behind her.

  He chuckled, “Kayn, you need to calm your pretty self down. I’m from Clan Ankh. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, officially. I’m Frost, I knew your soul donor Freja. Your Mom … whatever you want to call her.”

  He was from a Clan. She remembered this whole conversation. She had agreed to the terms of her survival. She hadn’t known that they could appear out of thin air, and in her bedroom, but beggars can’t be choosers. She thought of something funny and couldn’t help herself. She had a weird sense of humor.

  “Not Jack Frost,” Kayn teased with a touch of sarcastic humor, feeling safe for some reason even though he was a stranger.

  “Wow, and she has a sense of humor, because it’s not like it’s the millionth time I’ve heard that one,” Frost fired back.

  Kayn definitely thought he looked much steamier than Frosty, because damn, he was good looking. She couldn’t look away.

  “Mind if I ask why there’s a half-naked guy in my bedroom?” Kayn enquired calmly. She felt instant warmth in the pit of her stomach as she tried to regain her senses. He had stolen her ability to think straight. She felt drawn to him with a disturbing lack of personal control. She snapped back to reality as her sister crossed her mind. He was like Chloe! She got it now, although it didn’t help much. He came closer, sensing her weakness to his mind altering existence in her personal space.

  “I think it’s time you became less interested in stalking a particular boy who will remain unnamed and be more interested in what I have to offer you,” Frost said with his sugary sweet, yet somehow sarcastic voice.

  “What’s that?” Kayn asked meekly as the half-naked Adonis took a step closer to her.

  “Why, safety in numbers, Kayn, and training. Whatever do you think I’m offering you … sinner?” he answered seductively, his voice oozing with dark charisma.

  He stood dripping with naughty energy only a breath away from her. She understood that she couldn’t shut the bathroom door now. She knew that he could overpower her in an instant. She also knew she would allow him do whatever he wanted to do to her. He was doing something to her that was making her want him. She didn’t feel frightened. She felt stimulated and dangerously alive. He was clearly from one of the clans. Kayn smiled, This was her opportunity for protection. He was not what she had expected.

  “I have something that you need. Open your hand.” Frost placed a small bag full of rocks in Kayn’s hand.

  “Seriously, I already have the random rock thing covered. Kevin’s Grandmother has a bit of a rock fetish. Unless these are magic beans. If they are, they didn’t work out so well for Jack in that whole beanstalk incident,” Kayn raised one eyebrow in Frost’s direction. She chucked the bag of stones on her bed.

  “You’re really quite a smart ass, aren’t you?” Frost extended his open palm towards Kayn seemingly suggesting that they hold hands. Kayn fought the urge to tell him that she might need a spanking. What was wrong with me? I love Kevin, I love Kevin, I love Kevin, she repeated in her mind.

  Frost stood there, his hands extended toward her. He said, “It doesn’t matter how much you love that Kevin kid. Right now the only thing that matters is that you take my hand. You already signed the contract. “

  He had read her mind. Could they all do this? Kayn felt a moment of foreboding as she placed her hand in his. The contact with his skin sent a shiver of pleasure right through her. She decided to err on the side of caution, and she yanked her hand away.

  “So let me get this straight. You want to give me a bag of rocks and hold my hand. I am not a complete moron, how about an explanation first?”

  “Unfortunately you are entering a new existence where the explanations will be few and far between. Sweetheart … life will be easier if you just go with it,” he teased. “Those rocks go in the four corners of your room. They are to protect you while you astral project. They will also come in handy when you need privacy from another higher level soul,” Frost said bluntly as if it were a completely normal conversation they were having.

  “A circle will work, too, just use salt for any other concerns involving unwanted visitors.” Frost extended his hand again in Kayn’s direction. “Now hold my hand frog sticker girl.”

  Kayn said, “Frog sticker girl?”

  Frost winked at her and replied, “It’s a long adorable story. I’ll tell you the whole thing someday. Once I know the ending.”

  She was afraid, she didn’t know why, but she wanted to trust him.

  Frost spoke to her using only his thoughts; you need to trust me. I would never do anything to hurt you. I have been waiting for you for a long time.

  Why would you be waiting for me?

  He spoke gently now to Kayn, “I need to mark you Ankh. Wherever you go I will be able to find you. If you are in trouble, I can help you. I will be drawn to you. This is not just about me. All of us wearing this mark are drawn to each other as magnets. We are bound together spiritually, if you are in any danger, we will know. We will all come and help you.”

  “I’m not really sure I want any part of binding myself to anyone permanently at seventeen years old,” Kayn stated with a very adult, firm resolution in her voice.

  Frost said, “This binding is only so we can protect each other. Nobody has any control. We can just sense when one or more of us are in danger. It’s going to hurt, but I have to mark you for your protection. Believe me, you want this. You already agreed to this, it’s not an optional thing."

  Kayn looked at him and thought, but I’m scared. Kayn’s body seemed to will her to place her hand in Frost’s outstretched hand.

  “Do this willingly, and it will be easier for your heart to except. If I have to take you by force, you leave right now. If you do this willingly you get to stay here for a little while longer.” Frost stated.

  She stared at him and said, “It’s going to hurt?”

  “Trust me; it’s the only way to keep you safe,” Frost whispered as he extended his hand in Kayn’s direction once again.

  She felt as though he were controlling her somehow. Kayn hesitantly gave him her hand. The second she made contact with his skin she felt that same pleasurable warm shiver he had given her before. He turned her hand around and roughly pressed his ring into her palm. It was excruciatingly painful.

  “Son of a bitch,” Kayn screamed as the symbol on his ring melted her skin.

  Frost had branded the flesh on the palm of her hand. Kayn stood defensively yet half doubled over with shock and pain. “This is the symbol of Ankh; this is the key that unlocks the gates of death; this is also the name of your clan. It will always be there branded on your body, and branded on your soul. The rocks in that bag; some are for psychic protection while travelling. The Staurolite is for increasing your connection with other realms which we will get to, much later in your training. The Snowflake Obsidian is for foresight development. You know that sensation you get when something is about to go wrong? That stone helps develop that ability. Citrine is to increase any psychic power you may or may not possess. Unless you are an oracle, it’s not necessary. I just like the stone. You will learn to absorb energy from them, like you are fueling a car.”

  He paused and asked, “Did you catch any of that?”

  Kayn said, “I lost the
ability to pay attention when you branded me.”

  Frost chuckled, “Try to pay attention, it’s important. Jade and Amethyst are for your protection and the Black Onyx is to release the negative emotions involving your family’s death. You need a spiritually safe zone for travelling, if you want to come home and find your body still in one piece. That is until you earn your own tomb.”

  Kayn said, “Feel free to quote me. I’m never sleeping in a tomb.”

  He laughed, “Oh you don’t have to worry about ever falling asleep in one of our tombs. You will find out how funny that statement is at a later date.” Frost kept speaking, “Once you have reached the age of eighteen. You become sealed to the Ankh. It’s time to train you properly. Trust me, for us, losing our bodies is not a big deal, but I understand for you it would be too much to absorb. Losing a body is not remotely the end of the world. Once you’re sealed to your clan, your soul will stay connected. If you die, we go and find you. We can bring you back to us. Most of the time we can take even a piece of the shell that you prefer to use and repair it as good as new with some time in a rose quartz chamber.”

  Kayn was of course not listening, still stuck on the burned and branded flesh painfully screaming in the palm of her hand. She pursed her lips to give a cooling blow. She hadn’t really heard a single thing since he had burned her hand. She was still blinded by the stinging, excruciating pain of her melted flesh.

  “Oh, quit being such a baby,” Frost teased as he reached out his hand toward hers once again.

  “Seriously, do you think I have been sniffing glue? I will not give you my hand again. That really hurt,” Kayn stated in an offended tone.

  “Sniffing glue?” Frost questioned aloud, obviously missing something in Kayn’s sarcastic wit.

  How about, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I’m not crazy enough to give you my hand again. If you burn my hand once, shame on you, but burn me twice, shame on me or so Kevin’s grandmother would have said, she thought.

  “You have quite the active little hamster wheel turning between your ears, don’t you, frog sticker girl?” Frost sarcastically answered her thoughts. Kayn glared at him, boiling rabbits with her eyes.

  “Do you want me to heal it or not, Kayn? You may as well trust me. Pain is completely irrelevant once you learn that it’s only temporary.” There was now genuine tenderness in his tone.

  He was speaking to her as if he were trying to calm a child.

  Her instincts were telling her to trust him.

  “I’m sorry, Kayn. I forget how it feels not to be fully enlightened. Please give me your hand,” and Frost extended his hand once again in Kayn’s direction.

  Kayn placed her hand in his. He raised it to his lips and kissed it. A warm feeling travelled from his lips to the palm of her hand which warmed and then felt immediately better. “All better now, sweetie,” Frost said, smiling as Kayn stared dumbfounded at her pain free palm.

  He said, “Let me show you something.” He reached over and pinched her arm hard with his nails.

  She snapped, “Ouch, what the hell?” What is wrong with this asshole? She rubbed her arm where he had pinched her. She was bleeding a little bit.

  He chuckled, “Now, look at your palm.”

  She glanced down at her palm. It felt warm and the mark began to glow. Frost touched her arm and it made the symbol appear on his palm and it started to glow.

  “This mark becomes permanent when you turn eighteen. Once you pass the testing and you become enlightened. You will get a ring just like this one.”

  “Do I get to burn unsuspecting people, too?” Kayn replied in a saucy tone.

  “You sure do, frog sticker girl,” Frost teased. He appeared to be quite proud of the condescending little nickname he had picked out for her. She suspected the douche behavior was not an act. He was actually an ass.

  After a moment of silence, Kayn spoke, “You know this is a lot to take in.”

  “You are second tier by birthright. I don’t know how much of the story you remember. You are alive because Azariah chose to give you another chance. You had a fire, you fought to survive. We had been watching you for a long time. I saw you on that final day before your sister’s Correction. I saw your humility and your natural talent that existed without any supernatural help. We couldn’t stop the shell from erasing your family, but we allowed the connection to be left open around you on that day. When you heard your sister Chloe scream for you to run. You heard that because you are second tier. It gave you a few extra seconds. You didn’t have any abilities. We had to give you a fighting chance. This also allowed the boy Kevin to hear Chloe scream as well. We watched in amazement as Kevin came for you that night. He has a very old, very strong psychic line in his family. We knew if you could survive the shell then we still stood a chance at helping you merge with your twin’s soul to become one of us. You are a good person, Kayn—not always perfect, but genuinely well intentioned.”

  “Is Kevin in any danger? Does anyone know he heard?” Kayn asked with a sudden onset of panic.

  “No, just us, but then it became necessary to adjust Kevin as well,” Frost said.

  “Kevin comes from psychic genealogy through his grandmother. Once you stimulate them and open that door to the other side, those with a genetic predisposition to access the unattainable portions of their brains can leave us exposed. Once that door is opened, it makes them a danger to people like us. If the powers that be went around killing psychics for no good reason we would have a spiritual war on our hands. Being sensitive, a psychic with even extreme cognitive abilities is allowed. It’s also a well-known fact that they are not allowed to interfere with Third Tier business. There are three clans: Ankh, Clan Trinity, and Clan Triad—all important in their own way at maintaining the safety of the human race. If we killed Kevin as well as your family all that made you light could become dark. We had to physically adjust him to make him one of us. You didn’t find his dramatic physical changes at all strange?” Frost questioned.

  “How did you adjust him? Magic or something? Does he know?” Kayn questioned with sudden concern.

  “Psychics are capable of many of the things we are capable of, Kayn; that’s why matching and drawing you and Kevin and Chloe together was important as children. He would be flexible to anything strange around him knowing what his grandmother was capable of. His grandmother and mother are the same as him although his mother’s abilities have never been triggered. They are sitting dormant as Kevin’s were until we accidentally tampered with him.

  “Psychics are as powerful as any Second Tier soul when they hone their skills. They are naturally occurring genetic mutations among the human population, sort of like evolution. Order is important, so the psychics know not to mess with fate and never with death. They can have their whole line exterminated.”

  “Did Kevin’s grandmother know I was going to die and let me go home anyway?” Kayn had a sudden feeling; it was the ache of deeply penetrating betrayal inside of her heart.

  “She knew if she stopped you that her family would be next. She also knows that nobody escapes correction. She may not have known for sure, but if you had been paying attention, you would have seen the signs to your demise as well, Kayn. You felt your sister being killed as you lay in the grass and blew it off as hunger pains even though you knew that it was far too painful to be simply hunger pains. You had that sense of foreboding that you chose to ignore as you walked toward the house. There should have been three, Kayn. When was the other one?” Frost questioned her.

  “When the wind blew, when there was no wind on the track,” Kayn thought all of a sudden, clicking back to that moment and how it made her feel. She even had joked about someone walking over her grave.

  “Everyone is given a fighting chance to survive. Those are the rules, but nobody with supernatural ability is allowed to interfere unless they are joined together by marks.” Frost lifted his hand showing her his palm, touching her and showing his suddenly appearing mark.
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br />   Kayn understood everything now. It had all become crystal clear during their conversation.

  “You are now protected by us, as a spiritual family of sorts.” Frost’s face took on a sudden look of humor mixed with annoyance.

  “Pardon me for a second, love,” he strode toward the window and flung it open.

  Kevin startled, slipped, and began to fall. Frost grabbed his arm as he dangled off the ledge.

  He said, “Are you going to be a problem, young man, or an ally?”

  “An ally, definitely an ally,” Kevin stammered, as he was pulled back through the window like a rag doll.

  Kevin had gone straight to Kayn’s after his run-in with Lily—out of guilt maybe, but more so because of a strange feeling that had come over him that she was in some kind of trouble. Kayn stood, mouth agape, her heart tightened with fear for Kevin.

  She stated calmly, “Don’t hurt him, Frost.”

  “I knew he was out there the whole time, Kayn. I let him hear everything,” Frost replied.

  “Now you know your Grandma’s a psychic and Kayn’s a Second Tier soul. Did you follow along all right or do you need anything explained to you?” Frost said.

  “I think I got it. I’m good,” Kevin answered.

  “Are you going to tell anyone, Kevin?” Frost stared right through Kevin as if he had a built-in lie detector.

  “No … never. I wouldn’t,” Kevin stammered quickly in response to Frost’s question.

  “Any questions?” Frost added with dry annoyance.

  “Where’s your shirt?” Kevin teased.

  “I see you two are perfect for each other,” Frost replied struggling to hide a smile that crept to the corners of his lips as he was trying his best to be intimidating.

  “Well, pass me your hand then, son. It’s your turn.” Frost smiled as Kevin put out his hand willingly.