JUMP (The Senses)

by Cindy Paterson

  “Refused you?” Keir asked, obviously baffled by the possibility.

  Waleron ignored him. “Bonding is an ancient spell used by our ancestors. It was originally for breeding purposes. The most powerful male Senses were Bonded to the most powerful women so reproduction was guaranteed to produce a child with the strongest abilities. It was a way for us to become stronger. Damien is of a Bonded line. That is why he is a Tracker and a Visionary.”

  “But there is nothing gained by Bonding us together. She’s human,” Balen said. All he could think about was Danielle being put in danger again. No, never. She’d been through enough because of him.

  “I’ve never heard of this. Who is capable of this Bonding?” Keir asked.

  “Few,” Waleron replied. He placed his untouched brandy on the coffee table and rose to his feet. “Be ready for battle. I will return shortly.”

  “I promised to tell her about us,” Balen said before Waleron had a chance to Trace.

  Keir swore under his breath, but remained quiet.

  “I assumed you would. It is time. She must join us,” Waleron said.

  “Meaning?” Balen asked, eyes narrowing.

  Waleron said, “She must become a Senses.”

  Before Balen could ask how the hell that was possible, Waleron left in his usual fashion, disappearing. Waleron was a cold, unemotional Taldeburu, but he wasn’t always like that. Something had drastically changed.

  A few thought that it was from some aftereffect from when Waleron was captured by a Lilac over a hundred years ago. Lilacs were Center World Others—females, nasty as the most venomous spiders and as sexy as Jessica Biel. They lured men into their web and sucked the life right out of them. Sometimes the Lilacs placed their preys in cocoons and let them stay there for weeks trapped in hell. Waleron had been in her hands for years. Some believed she had put him in one of her cocoons and tortured him at her pleasure. Others said that Waleron and the Lilac had fallen in love with one another and, when she was killed, he was left with no emotions, becoming the cold and abrupt Senses that he was now.

  Not that it mattered, considering he was the most loyal and powerful of all Senses. He kept his word and protected all without question.

  Balen chugged back the rest of his drink and set it on the glass bar. “So, ever hear of a human becoming one of us?”

  “Nope,” Keir said.

  “Think he’s shittin’ me?”

  “Nope.”

  “Yeah, figured that.” He poured himself another drink.

  Chapter 9

  A knock sounded on the bedroom door and Danielle smiled, anticipating Balen after his “testosterone only” conference. She noticed her stomach do the flip-flop thing. Just thinking of the guy sent her pulse racing and insides melting like butter on a hot stove. God, she felt a teenager again.

  She swung open the door and her smile faded at the sight of Anstice. She half closed the door in her face then stopped herself, remembering Balen’s words. Being rude was just plain immature. Still, it hurt to look at her friend after what she’d done.

  “Come to tell me more lies?” Danielle asked as she walked back to finish making the bed. She was going home as soon as Balen returned. The hurt was still fresh over Anstice not telling her about Balen being her brother. God, it still was difficult to swallow.

  “I just wanted to see . . . Danielle, please look at me . . . I want to explain things.” Anstice hesitated at the door and then changed her mind and approached the bed. “Every time you painted his portrait, the words were on my lips, but I was sworn to secrecy.” She wrung her hands together. “I thought you’d get over him. I don’t know . . . maybe that you’d give up on the paintings of him. But then . . . then he came back, and it all changed.”

  Danielle pulled the duvet up over the pillows and smoothed it out with her hands. “It changed way before that, Anstice. It changed when you met Keir. Quit your job. God, you loved being a vet. You studied for six years, and then you met him and wham. You threw it all out the window to be a what? Housewife? But I supported you. You wanted to be at Keir’s beck and call. I never said boo. I trusted you to tell me things. I thought we confided in each other. Guess I was wrong.”

  Anstice put her hand on her shoulder, and she stopped fiddling with the duvet. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Balen.” She hesitated as if she was having difficulty getting words past a large lump in her throat. “Ryszard was after me, Danielle. He used you and Balen to get to me.”

  Danielle straightened when she heard the choked sob. She glanced at Anstice and saw the anguish in her eyes. Christ. She’d at least give her the courtesy of listening.

  Anstice continued, “We are different. Keir, Balen, Jedrik, myself, all of us here—and, well other places too.” She sat on the edge of the bed with her hands in her lap. “I didn’t know any of this until I met Keir. Didn’t know I had a brother or that I was different. We were different. When he told me . . . well, at first I thought he was some psychotic zealot.” She gave a semi-snort. “God, it scared the crap out of me what he was saying, but . . .” She looked up at her. “But soon it made sense and my reality became surreal. The thing with my hands—”

  “When you touch injured people?”

  Anstice gave a single nod. “I am called a Healer. A Senses Healer.”

  “A what?” Danielle felt a tremor rush through her veins at the name. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what her friend was going to tell her, and yet still she needed to know.

  “We are called Senses. All of us who have these unique abilities. Umm . . . like when I touch someone with an injury, I can heal it.”

  Danielle felt like either laughing at the ludicrousness or crying for her friend, who thought she could heal people with her hands. She did neither, Anstice looked downright serious, and after all vampires were . . . real. Yeah, that still was not sitting well. “Okay, say this absurdity is true. Then why didn’t you heal me when I fell off my bike and broke my arm that time when I was eight? Or can you only heal certain injuries? Or maybe there is the possibility that Keir is involved with drugs and he’s slipping you something to make you think you have this . . . capability.” God and she thought she was insane, now her friend was going to end up in a padded cell with her.

  “You don’t believe me.” Anstice looked up at her.

  Danielle huffed. “Well, come on, Anst, healing with the touch of your hands? It’s a little hard to swallow. You don’t have to make things up in order to try to make amends, okay? We’ve been friends a long time. I hate that you kept shit from me, but I’m not going to throw our relationship away because you swore to some secret about your husband’s criminal activity. And obviously, your brother is involved too. Did Balen and Keir screw over this Ryszard guy? Is he Mafia?”

  “His is . . . was a vampire, Danielle.”

  “A vampire,” Danielle repeated. “Got it. Scary shaved-head doctor guy told me that one already.”

  Anstice sighed, her fingers curling together. “If I told you two years ago that the guy who abducted you was a vampire, do you think you’d have believed me? You were talking to the police, what if you’d told them what I’d said? We . . . the Senses can’t allow that, Danielle. It is forbidden for humans to know about us. Can you imagine if the world knew we existed?” Anstice hesitated and Danielle stopped pacing to look at her friend. “Ryszard wanted my healing capabilities for himself. He was using you to get to me until . . . well, until Balen made the deal with him. In exchange for your life, Balen gave Ryszard the location of where Keir and the other warriors were hiding me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yep, sounds like the drugs have done their job.”

  Anstice sighed. “You of all people know that I wouldn’t lie about something so . . . implausible.”

  Okay, so a vampire sucked her blood. Padded room, here she comes. But she knew the Ryszard guy had bitten her neck. She had holes in her neck to prove it. Dr. Scary had also said that vampires existed. So maybe it was true
. Could it be true? She sure as hell didn’t want it to be.

  “Ryszard released you and Balen led him to me,” Anstice said.

  Oh, crap. Talk about guilt being placed on the shoulders. Danielle felt her knees weaken and she dropped to sit on the bed beside Anstice. “That’s what he meant,” Danielle said more to herself.

  “What?”

  “Balen said he betrayed someone. He betrayed you. He risked your life for mine.” How could he make that choice? Why pick her? Anstice was his sister. God, this was getting shittier by the second. If this was all true and she wasn’t having some hallucinations.

  Anstice continued, “Balen had been tortured for weeks and required healing. Ryszard knew this so he . . .” She paused. “He made a bargain—Balen had to consume Ryszard’s blood, which would make him into a vampire and then lead him to me. If he did this, he’d let you go. Balen made the deal and you were released and Jedrik took you to the hospital. Of course, Waleron—he is our Taldeburu, our leader—erased your memory of all that happened.

  “Balen came back to us with tainted blood, but it had yet to take effect, and none of us knew until it was too late. I healed him and . . .”

  That explained Balen’s mangled leg healing. God, could Anstice really heal? She was beginning to realize that making all this up was not viable.

  “I was taken to Trinity’s—”

  “Trinity?” Danielle asked.

  “Umm yeah, Trinity is a . . . well, a witch. I know this is a lot.”

  “No shit,” Danielle muttered. Vampires, Witches and her best friend was a Healer for a group known as the Senses. What next? Zombies and werewolves?

  “Trinity has an impenetrable safe house with . . . well, no one can enter without an invitation. When Balen came to the house, Trinity thought he had come to protect me and invited him inside. In turn, Balen invited Ryszard.”

  Oh God, this was so surreal. Anstice’s words was like a mythical story of hell. Could it get any worse? Probably. Anstice had yet to tell her what exactly the Senses were. What Balen was.

  “Trinity sent Waleron a warning.” Anstice sighed. “But Ryszard knew I wouldn’t go with him willingly, so he was prepared. He had one of his underlings take you from the hospital and . . .”

  Danielle finished the sentence as the memory came hurtling into her. “He held a knife to my throat. You were there and so was Balen. Balen attacked the guy with the knife and . . .” Oh shit, she’d been terrified. Balen had stabbed the guy in the neck and taken her into the basement. She looked at Anstice. “I fought him. I fought your brother. I tried to get away. I saw you struggling to escape Ryszard. Then, there was all this noise and . . . I don’t remember anything else.” She rubbed her temples as the nagging memories assaulted her.

  “Violet is a witch from the coven. She took you back to the hospital.” Anstice lowered her head and her voice softened. “Balen . . . he . . . he vanished. The vampire blood he drank had to have been taking hold of him. He had to run or he might have turned on you . . . and us. He knew the effects, the consequence, of the poison in his veins.” Anstice closed her eyes for a few seconds. “God, he must have been in so much agony, trying to fight it. Leaving was the only thing he could do. The warriors would’ve had to kill him if he’d stayed.”

  The mere thought of Balen dead sent a wave of panic through her body. She felt vulnerable when it came to Balen and she disliked it. Her father had been that way and look where it led him. She drew her hand from Anstice and stood, needing to move her limbs. “Balen left you there. He left you to Ryszard.” That so didn’t sound good.

  Anstice nodded. “Yes. But he knew Keir and the others had come to aid me. I believe if they hadn’t, Balen would never have left me to Ryszard.”

  “But you don’t know,” Danielle said, not wanting to play the part of pessimist, but needing to hear the answers.

  “I believe in my brother, Danielle. He thought of nothing but you when he consumed Ryszard’s blood. He knew he would turn, knew he’d be hunted and killed by the other warriors, yet he saw an opportunity to set you free and took it. Yes, I do know.”

  And Danielle knew too. There was no question Balen would’ve protected both of them. She saw it every time she looked at his painting, the agony at what he’d done, the turmoil over leaving and the guilt that sat like a cement block on his shoulders. “But why keep this from me? Why couldn’t you just explain like you are now? Okay, I admit the vampire part is still mind-boggling, and the Healing. But, Anstice, I would’ve believed you . . . eventually.”

  “There is a code among us. A draconian law. No human may discover we walk this earth. If it happens, like in your case, Waleron erases your memories of us.”

  “He wiped my mind clean? Really? That’s possible?” Whoa, that guy had way too much power.

  Anstice sighed. “There’s more.”

  “Great, exactly what I want to hear. Just don’t tell me that Grim is really a werewolf. Cause I love that dog.”

  Anstice tensed and her eyes shot to the window. She grabbed Danielle’s hand and pulled her towards the door. “Get out of here. Go to the basement. Now.”

  Danielle stiffened. “Why? What’s the—”

  Balen charged into the room, the door slamming up against the wall from the force and then tilting as the top hinge gave way. “Danielle,” he shouted. “Get back.”

  Keir was right behind him. He grabbed Anstice, pulling her back against his chest. Balen shoved Danielle behind him. Every muscle contracted as he faced the window.

  “I can’t feel it. A witch?” Anstice asked with confusion.

  “No,” Balen said. “Different. It smells like . . . oh, Christ. Wraiths.” He should know after dodging them for so long.

  “Balen, take Danielle and get her to the Tomb,” Keir ordered.

  “Too late for that,” Balen said.

  A dampness came seeping into the room with the smell of rain mixed with wild roses. It was like a small tornado of blue mist swirling for seconds before a slight figure appeared in front of them. A cloaked woman materialized, wearing a pale blue gown that left nothing to the imagination. Her golden tendrils swept across and down both shoulders to settle on her breasts. The woman’s blue haze faded and her form became solid as she stood facing the four of them.

  Balen whispered to Danielle, “Back out of the room nice and slow. Whatever you do, don’t stop and get the hell out of here. Now.”

  “Holy begeebers with crap all over it,” Danielle said in utter awe and disbelief. She blinked to see if what she was seeing would disappear. It didn’t. Maybe vampires were real and Anstice could heal with her hands. Or Keir had slipped her some drugs while she was sleeping. Whichever, the beautiful woman in front of her was staring right at her as if she could read every single ridiculous thought that was steamrolling through her mind. If she was ever one to faint, this was the time.

  ****

  Balen tightened his grip on Danielle’s arm. “Genevieve?” he asked Keir without taking his eyes off the woman.

  “Yes,” the woman answered, her gaze moving to Balen. “I am Genevieve, Wraith of Water, and I am here to help you.” She gave a slight nod towards the window. “The others are coming. I suggest you leave here. And take the woman with you.”

  Balen grunted. He might stand a chance alone, but with Danielle . . . no way in hell. “Where to? Because my options are pretty slim right now.”

  The Wraith’s eyes began to change from blue to green. “To your homeland. The cave. It is your only choice if you wish Danielle to live.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Balen said, half laughing at the absurd suggestion. No way in hell he was listening to a blasted Wraith when they were the ones after him.

  The ground quivered, and the window shattered, shards of glass crashing to the floor as the wind gusted into the house.

  “They are close,” Genevieve said. “She will die if they take you. Only as a Senses can she survive the Bonding. Waleron knows this. Go now. I shall
delay them.” She raised both hands into the air and entwined them. A mist of swirling water circled around her. It rushed and groaned, growing with power, driving everything in the room back from her vanishing figure “Go,” she shouted. “Go.”

  Balen grasped Danielle’s hand and pulled her from the room. Her skin was cold and trembling, and he knew she was in shock. Seeing the beautiful Wraith and her power was enough to make any human reel in shock. Christ, this was bad.

  He felt Waleron in his mind. “Tomb. Now. I will meet you there.”

  He was angry with himself for putting Danielle in danger . . . God, if anything happened to her . . . he couldn’t think about it.

  Balen half dragged Danielle down the stairs into the Tomb, Keir and Anstice steps behind. Jedrik stood outside his room in his black boxer shorts and no shirt.

  “Hey, what’s all the hullabaloo? Trying to sleep here,” he said, running his hand through his hair. His bedroom door had a large sign on it saying Hot Women Enter.

  A white cloud appeared next to the pool table and Waleron appeared. Danielle gasped. Balen wrapped his arm tight around her waist and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

  Waleron eyes glowed red for several seconds and then went back to the usually brilliant ice blue. His stance was tense, ready for an attack. The power he exuded was tremendous and filled with rage; this was the Waleron no one dared to encounter as an enemy.

  “Do not use your powers, or they will sense them and be able to track you. You will travel by car to Newfoundland. By air, Urtzi can easily track you.” He passed him keys. “I will arrange for the jet to pick you up when it is safe. You will stay with the Senses on the east coast. I trust them implicitly. The plane will take you to Spain. I will meet you in Zugarramurdi for her transition.”

  “For real?” Balen asked.

  Waleron scowled. “Have I ever not been ‘for real’?”

  “Right.” Balen urged Danielle down the hall to the garage at the back of the Tomb, but she was shoving at his arm. “Christ, woman, we have to get the hell out of here.”