Into Forever

by Danielle James

  “It was all about he hasn’t fed,” Jacque said to Jessica, but admonishing Gage. “When is the last time you had anything?”

  Gage pushed himself to a sitting position. His head felt woozy and his tongue was thick in his mouth. Frankie shoved a water bottle at him. He twisted the top and took a small sip. As soon as the liquid hit his stomach, he felt the need to throw it right back up. “Thanks,” he managed to say. “I don’t know when the last time I fed was.”

  “Well this is serious,” Sebastian said from across the room. They had all gathered in Gage’s room. Someone must have carried him up there, because he sure as hell didn’t think he walked.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “You fainted,” Jacque said.

  “I don’t faint,” Gage grumbled at him.

  “Passed out, lost consciousness, fell on your ass; whatever makes you feel better about it, but you did it.”

  “I am not surprised,” Angel said. “He needs blood. He isn’t like the rest of us. He will weaken more quickly.”

  “Go and get him a bottle out of the fridge,” Jacque said to Frankie and she immediately stood and hurried off to get it.

  “I don’t mean to be the pessimist here,” Brea said, “but he has mated himself to Serena. Can he even drink from the bottle?”

  Gage shrugged his shoulders. “Guess we’re gonna find out,” he said as Frankie returned with a fresh bottle for him. He took it from her lifted the bottle to his lips. He didn’t think; he just swallowed. He drained the bottle all at once. As soon as it hit his stomach, Gage fought the urge to wretch it back up. He forced himself to take slow, even breaths and swallowed the extra saliva that was coating his throat. He trained his eyes on a point on the ceiling and blocked all noise out of his head except the sound of his breathing.

  After a moment, the urge passed and he began to feel better.

  “Better now?” Jacque asked.

  Gage shook his head.

  “Good,” Jacque said. “Because we are running out of time. We need to find out just what you can do and how to use it. Meet us all outside in twenty.”

  Gage watched helplessly as his family left the room. He just wanted to crawl in a corner and die. Even though his body was already feeling stronger, his mind was not. His heart was aching as if he had just cheated on his mate, which was ridiculous. But it didn’t matter. The only blood he wanted belonged to a red-headed fey that was on the other side of the world. The only way he was going to get that was to do what his family said. He was going to have to get her back.

  He didn’t blame his family for not giving him a second to rest. He didn’t deserve it. He had put them in this predicament and it was his job to get them out of it. With a heavy sigh, he pushed himself off his bed and walked himself right down the hall and down the stairs. He knew they were outside. He could feel them. He always could.

  He didn’t see anyone through the glass door though. He slid it open and stepped out into the early morning. It was still going to be dark for a few more hours yet. He pushed the door closed and turned to face the beach.

  It was then that he saw just a flash of a shadow on his left. He didn’t have time to react before the figure slammed into his side, knocking him on his face. He should’ve expected that. The weight was slight and he knew it was Leigh.

  She pushed off his back and snickered. “Not on your game,” she laughed. “Better get on it, because we aren’t in the mood to show any mercy.”

  Gage spit out a mouthful of sand and pushed to his feet. “Alright, let’s do this,” he said. It was then that another form slammed into his other side. This time, he was slightly more prepared and managed to stay on his feet, but just barely.

  “Good,” Angel remarked as he moved away from Gage. “Don’t let us touch you,” he said. One by one, his family attacked him. Gage pulled on the ancient vampire powers that ran through his veins. Some he was able to easily block, others, he was not. Sebastian was able to get the drop on him when he jumped on his back from behind, after Gage had successfully blocked Rebel.

  “You think they are gonna strike face to face?” Sebastian laughed when Gage shot him a dirty look. “You gotta be willing to fight dirty.”

  “I have an idea,” Frankie said. “What you can do, I am immune, I call upon the power of Earth and wind to guide me,” she began chanting. “I am immune,” she said again as she approached Gage. He tossed up his barrier, which he was getting good at, and waited while Frankie made her way to him. The others stood by and watched intently as she did it. When she was close enough to touch him, Gage strengthened his barrier.

  Frankie smiled and reached her hand up to his face. She tapped him lightly on the cheek. “The fey will use magic,” she said, overly satisfied with herself.

  Gage was sorely disappointed as his family laughed. As far as a physical attack was concerned, he was prepared. But he was no match for magic. Frankie was a powerful witch, but she was not even as powerful as the fey.

  They had used magic before against his family. When Frankie, Jessica, and Macy were kidnapped, they used magic to take over their free will. They used their spells to make the women do whatever they wanted. He had no magic to fight back with.

  “Utta gonata farizia!” Frankie yelled into the night, throwing her hands into the air. Gage felt himself being lifted by the wind and tossed aside like a ragdoll.

  “Seriously?” he snapped, as he got back to his feet.

  Then he had an idea. He was strong physically, but his mind was stronger. You cannot beat me, he projected into Frankie’s mind. You are not powerful enough. Your magic will not work.

  Frankie shook her head and Gage knew she heard him. He continued the montage as he approached her. “Utta gonata farizia!” she yelled again. This time, he was unaffected by her spell. She yelled it again and again, and again he moved closer to her.

  “Block me,” he told her.

  Frankie shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Block me, Frankie,” he said again.

  Frankie was trying; he could feel her erecting walls around her mind. But he had no trouble scaling them and continuing his mental assault on her. He even felt bad about it, but he continued to do it, because he needed the practice and she needed to know how to block.

  “Fuck you,” she whispered as he closed the distance between them. He was so close that he could touch her. He was really proud of her for standing her ground. Instead of backing away, she straightened her spine and continued to chant spells at him. He could tell he was really pissing her off. She bared her fangs at him as she continued, and he continued to plant the seeds of doubt in her mind until he was close enough to lean in and kiss her on the cheek.

  “Fuck you,” she whispered again. She was shaking from head to toe. Gage was pretty sure she was plotting his slow and painful death for later.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered back. “I had to see if it would work.”

  “I hope you are happy with yourself,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Gage grinned one of his boyish grins at her. She hated him for it, because it made it very difficult to stay mad at him. “You destroyed my confidence!” she yelled at him and smacked him on the shoulder.

  “That is the way then,” Angel remarked. “I have never seen anyone counter such strong magic.”

  “I made her doubt herself,” he said.

  “And it worked,” Frankie snarked. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” she said. “I don’t like it at all.”

  Gage laughed. “I won’t. I promise.”

  “Now,” Rebel chimed in, “Read us.”

  “We will all block you,” Sebastian said. “You taught us well, so be prepared for a difficult task.”

  Gage waited while his family got their bearings. He wanted them to be as strong as they could be.

  “You ready?” he asked. Each of his family members were lined up and nodding their heads. He started with Rebel.

  He looked him in the eyes
and tried to enter his mind. At first, all Gage saw was brick wall. In his own mind, he envisioned himself climbing that wall. On the other side, he saw Rebel dancing in the sunlight.

  “Why don’t you just brag about it,” Gage said, shaking his head. Of course, Rebel could go out in the sun. Ever since he and Leigh mated, they shared her dragon power and Rebel was permanently changed into someone who could do great things, like eat food and dance in the sun.

  Then he moved on to Sebastian. His wall was easier to scale and he saw his brother working at the mixing board. Sebastian loved producing their music, and it was no wonder that he was thinking about it even now.

  Leigh was slightly more difficult. Instead of a wall, he saw nothing but black. It was like looking into an endless black hole. He tried to get around it several times before he realized that she was thinking of nothing but blackness. “Very sneaky,” he told her.

  When he approached Jacque, he saw steel doors. He had to work at the lock and finally, he pushed them open. What he saw on the other side was something that Jacque should have kept private. Gage felt himself blush. He looked at Jacque and rolled his eyes at his wolfish grin. “Seriously, dude, I did not need to see that,” he said, moving on.

  He looked at Frankie who was still pissed at him. He sent her a mental apology and began to pry at her mind. “Now, that’s not very nice,” he told her. He felt the need to rub his neck to make sure it was still intact.

  Angel was much more difficult. He had worked with Angel the longest, and he was also mentally gifted.

  His mind was on total lock down. Gage banged on the door of his mind but got nowhere fast. “Damn,” Gage muttered.

  “Doesn’t feel good, does it?” Angel remarked. Gage felt the guilt return for blocking Angel out of his mind for so long. “Go on, you can do it,” Angel told him.

  Gage stared into Angel’s eyes. They were so green that they almost glowed. Gage pulled on his power and pushed harder against the invisible barrier in his leader’s mind. He pushed and pushed. Finally, he felt the wall start to give. Gage retreated into his own mind and gathered his strength. He pushed forward with everything he had.

  He broke into Angel’s mind and saw everything. He saw every fight they had ever been in. He saw Brea from Angel’s eyes. He felt all the love and respect Angel had for his family. He felt his fear.

  It was overwhelming. He saw Angel grab his head and stumble back, but the images were flowing now and Gage could not stop them. He staggered back and tried to break the connection, but he couldn’t. He was now feeling everything from everyone. He could feel their concern.

  Gage could hear his family shouting, and on some level, he knew that they were moving around him. His mind was spinning. He was assaulted with images of their past and they were moving across his vision like a movie on fast forward.

  And then he felt it. In his mind, it was like a ball of light that was beckoning him from the madness that was taking over. It started small, but grew bigger quickly. He concentrated on that and followed the light. He saw it hover over the city of Los Angeles, and then it zipped across the ocean. He followed it over the water and over land. He saw Big Ben in England and the Eiffel Tower in France. He saw the light move over the dessert until it stopped.

  It seemed to be hovering over a whole lot of nothing but sand for a moment, and then his vision changed. A beautiful palace appeared out of the sand and the light shot through one of the open windows.

  When it stopped, he saw her. Serena. She was brushing her hair in the mirror, and she looked so sad and lonely. Gage’s heart broke right there in his chest. He missed her so much. As if she felt him nearby, she jerked her head up and looked around the room.

  “Gage?” she asked into thin air.

  “Serena,” he whispered.

  And then she was gone and he was back on the beach behind his home. His family was standing around him in a circle, waiting for him to come back to them. “Are you alright?” Angel asked.

  “I know where she is,” Gage told them. “I saw Serena.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “I just want to see if I can do it,” Jade said.

  “Ok,” Frankie told her. “Just try to clear your mind of everything else and concentrate on the words.”

  Jade closed her eyes and did as Frankie said. She thought of the herbs that she had carefully placed around the baby. “Um kata de foratta sorb at ti,” she chanted over and over again.

  “I don’t see anything,” Jade said.

  “Don’t worry so much about it,” Brea told her. “Not everyone is a witch.” She knew Jade wanted to be one more than anything right now, but she had her whole life to decide her path.

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” Frankie said. “That was a difficult spell. I couldn’t do it for a long time. It takes time to learn all the secrets of the trade.”

  “I wish I knew all the secrets now,” Jade muttered.

  Brea put her arm around her daughter. “Oh Sweetie, don’t you know? You already do!”

  “No I don’t,” Jade replied with a snarky tone. “If I did, I could do the dang spell!”

  “You just can’t remember,” Brea said, taking a seat on the couch and pulling her daughter down beside her. “That’s why you have this,” she said. She touched the little indent on Jade’s upper lip.

  “Everyone has that, Mom,” Jade rolled her eyes.

  “Yes we do,” Brea said. “I asked my mother once about it. She told me that when we are spirits in Heaven, before we are born, we didn’t have that mark. She said it is a mark of the Archangel, Michael. In Heaven, all the secrets of the universe are ours. We know everything. When it is time for our souls to be born into human bodies, Michael puts his finger on our lips,” she placed her finger over her daughter’s lips as she described, “and he says, Shhh, so that we can never tell. We have to go through life learning what our hearts already know, and the indent on our lips is from the angel’s touch as a constant reminder to our souls not to tell.”

  “That’s a beautiful story,” Leigh said as she came into the room. She took notice of the herbs surrounding her sleeping child. “Have you ladies been practicing magic on my baby?”

  “Just a protective spell,” Jade told her. “It was supposed to form a barrier around her.”

  “Oh,” Leigh said as she moved to pick up Toni. “Well, it’s time for her dinner so maybe later you could work on it some more.”

  From her perch in the clouds, Azerial was watching. Just as Leigh got close enough to pick up her baby, she smiled, and with a wave of her hand, she tossed an invisible wall around the baby.

  Leigh smacked into something she couldn’t see. “Damn it!” she screeched. “Would you people please stop that shit?”

  Jade’s eyes grew as big and round as saucers. “It worked!” she screamed out. She began jumping up and down in place and clapping her hands. “It worked. It worked. It really worked, Frankie!”

  Frankie was standing there with her mouth open. Damn, it really had worked. She hadn’t even been able to make that spell work for months. “I see that,” she finally said. She looked at Leigh with a dumbstruck expression and shrugged her shoulders. Leigh was staring back with a perturbed expression and her hands on her hips. “I think we should take the spell down though so Leigh can feed the baby.” “Ok,” Jade said, still bubbling over with excitement. She looked to Frankie for the words that would release the spell. She told her what to say, and Jade repeated the words.

  Azerial waved her hand again and Leigh picked up her baby. “Thank you,” Leigh said. “In the future, could you not practice on my child?”

  “I gotta go tell Daddy!” Jade said as she flew out of the room.

  “Oh Leigh,” Brea said, “You gotta lighten up. You know we would never do anything that would put Toni in danger.”

  Leigh sighed as she sat on the couch with Toni. She lifted her shirt and began to nurse the baby. “I know, I’m just so…”

  “Over protective?” Fr
ankie offered.

  Leigh smiled. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

  “I don’t understand how she was able to do it,” Frankie said.

  “That was a pretty tough spell to master then?” Brea asked.

  “You have no idea,” Frankie answered. Just then, she heard the tinkling laughter from far away. Brea and Leigh heard it as well.

  “Tell me I am not the only one who heard that,” Leigh said.

  “No, we heard it too,” Brea told her.

  “I know that laughter,” Frankie said with a broad grin. “It’s Azerial. She said she would be watching. I guess she did a solid for Jade.”

  “Oh,” Brea laughed. “That’s how she did it.”

  “So Jade didn’t really do the spell?” Leigh asked.

  “Well, she did, but it worked for her because she had a little divine help,” Frankie said.

  “Ah,” Leigh smiled. “I should have guessed.”

  “Confidence is important to budding witches,” Brea said with a wide grin, reminding Frankie of how Gage was able to get around her magic before. “Thank you, Azerial.”

  The women felt, more than they heard, Azerial’s welcoming giggle.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Gage spent all of his free time practicing his newfound old powers. He practiced not only shielding himself, but his family as well. He knew that he had complete control of it when Leigh surprised him by swooping down in her dragon form and shooting fire, not at him, but at Jade. Gage threw up the shield without a second thought. Jade laughed because of course, she had known what Leigh intended to do, and Leigh never had any intention of harming her. Nonetheless, it had opened a kind of gateway within Gage that let him hone his abilities to something so much more than he ever thought they could be.

  He could protect his family now.

  He worked on his mental suggestions as well. Even though he didn’t dare to make Frankie doubt her witch powers again, he did work on suggesting things to the rest of his family. He even managed to convince Angel that he wanted to go for a walk in the sun. He stopped his leader before the thought could be carried out, like right as he was about to open the front door.