by Elissa Daye
At first, she didn’t realize what was different, until she looked at her bed. A single red rose was lying on the pillow where she slept. Hunter. It was his way of apologizing for not being there in the morning. He must have known she would come here next. Lyssa picked up the rose from the pillow and put it to her nose. She lingered there as long as she could, taking in the peaceful scent of the flower’s petals. Setting it down on the dresser, she took one last look in the mirror. Her aura was definitely glowing brighter. She’d have to tone it down if she didn’t want to attract too much attention.
“Well, time for me to face the day.” Lyssa quickly showered and picked out fresh clothes for her morning, before leaving her room to have breakfast with Jackson. As she sat down at the table, she made sure to put her thoughts on lockdown. He did not need to read about what happened last night. That was private.
“Good morning,” she greeted him, and was surprised to find Serena seated next to him.
“Happy after birthday. How was your date?”
“Thank you, Serena. It was one of the best.” Lyssa hoped that the smile she gave them did not betray her. She wished she could talk to Hunter today, but she knew he had gone back to his secret identity this morning, and there was no guarantee when she would see him again. Lyssa hoped she would be too busy this week to miss his absence.
“So, what’s the plan for today?”
“More work at the Watch Tower. I have more cataloging to do.” Lyssa tried not to meet her eyes. Her answer wasn’t far from the truth, but she held back the pertinent details. Ever since they’d traveled to the Land of the Shadows, Lyssa had been trying to find a way to release the souls from their binds. All the while, she fought alongside the others as they cast out as many earthbound shadows as they could. Lyssa wished they were able to take out shadows on their own turf, but the rules of their world were still unclear. The Guardians of the Watch Tower would not make a move until they had enough reasonable information. Lyssa hated waiting, but what choice did she have? They may not be able to annihilate any while they were in the Land of the Shadows, but they sure as hell would take out any they saw in their own world. As soon as they gathered enough intel from their operatives in the Craven, they would start planning their attacks with other sectors.
“Well, that’s a bore. But it’s the life of a Guardian, no doubt.” Serena stood up from the table. “Jackson and I will be training today. Care to join us?”
“Nah. I’m good. Thank you—tons to do. No rest for the wicked, you know. Later, guys.” Lyssa grabbed her bag and teleported away from the apartment.
When she found her spot at the rotating globe, Lyssa felt reserved to the task at hand. Since it was spring break, she had plenty of time to track down more locations where the shadows had started gathering. She spent the rest of her time making notes for the Watch Tower. Today, she was just finding them and passing on the locations. There would be no fieldwork. While it seemed like busywork, Lyssa took comfort in the fact that her research would give them a compilation of how many shadows were in each area, ultimately helping them track down where the Craven were targeting.
Lyssa worked throughout the day and into the night. She had hoped that Hunter would check in, as was his habit in the evenings. She tried not to worry when he didn’t communicate with them, but she was afraid to voice her concern. No one else bothered to comment on it either. Perhaps they were afraid to give their worries power. When he did not come home the next day either, she was very worried. Logan had not returned either.
She finally could not stand the silence anymore. “Where are they, Julius?”
“With the Craven, I suppose. They’ll return when they are able to. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
That sure was easy for him to say. If something happened to either one of them, Julius would easily replace them. Hunter was irreplaceable to her. She wanted to reach her energy to where he was, but would he feel it? Or would the Craven near him detect her presence if she attempted to locate him?
Lyssa closed her eyes and tried to envision where he was. When she got close enough to almost find him, she felt her energy repelled. He was blocking her. He did not want her to see where he was or what he was doing, but he sent along a message to her. I’m okay, Lyssa. I’ll be home soon.
Soon went from one day to a week, and then to several weeks. Lyssa knew that he and Logan were in deep, but her heart twisted inside. She tried so hard not to worry about him, but part of her world was missing. Lyssa did not want to need him as much as she did, but it was too late for that. Jackson noticed her sadness and did his best to comfort her.
“He’ll be okay, Lyssa. He’s coming home. You know he will,” reassured Jackson.
“Do I? How can I know that? He’s shut me out completely.” Lyssa was about to add more to her tirade of emotions, but Julius entered the room.
“We can’t wait much longer for them to return. We’re going to attack them on their turf. First, we’ll meet up with Sector Seven. Gear up. Today we fight.”
By gearing up, Julius meant grabbing their bag of magical items that they carried with them. Inside her bag, she kept the items that helped call her totem spirits, as well as her wand, crystals, and candles, in case she needed to cast a circle of protection. She took a minute to breathe in some calming air before joining the others in the library. Lyssa had never been to another area of the Watch Tower. How exactly would they get to Sector Seven’s area from there?
She was actually not surprised to see Julius open the hidden passage in the library again. This time, she noticed that he had pulled a completely separate book. When they walked through the door this time, there was no tunnel. Instead, they were staring directly at a brick building surrounded by several others. The building was run down compared to Sector Four. There was graffiti painted from one end to the other in red, blue, and black. A fire was burning in the trashcan outside it, but there was no one around to enjoy its flames.
They all climbed the stoop and entered the building. The carpet inside the old stairwell was so frayed that the wooden steps were visible beneath. When they reached the top, she realized they were on the seventh floor. Heaven help them if they had to meet up with Sector Thirty in a building like this, for it seemed like they were in some inner-city ghetto. She followed Julius down the hall until he tapped on a door with the number seven stenciled on it. It swung open to let them in, and they walked inside.
Three Guardians stared politely back at them. Lyssa listened as introductions were made, and bowed her head where appropriate in greeting. While she should be attending to what was being said, she could not help but worry about Hunter and Logan. Something was wrong; she could feel it in her heart. She closed her eyes and tried to stay in the moment.
The only man in Sector Seven was Jeremy. He had a low buzz cut and a face that looked haunted. He was wearing a white tank top and acid washed jeans. There were thick chains looping from the pockets at the front of his jeans, all the way to his large back pockets.
Sydney, a pale blonde with long wavy hair, was staring at her. She almost looked like a vampire with her deathly pale skin. She was dressed in a red short-sleeved shirt and dark blue jeans that hugged her hips.
The last one was a girl with long, straight, black hair. She wore a black V-cut shirt, black denim jeans, and black boots that went all the way up to her knees. The spiky heels were sharp and distracting. Her name was Ariel.
“Are there others?” If this was all there was to Sector Seven, it made her wonder if they would have enough firepower for their attack.
“We have others, but they are fighting another battle at the moment. Don’t worry. We’re up to the task.”
“Of course,” Lyssa added quickly. She should know better than anyone not to judge a book by its cover. “Forgive my curiosity. It sometimes gets the best of me.”
“It does most of us,” Ariel replied. She smiled softly
at Lyssa and nodded her head at her.
“Lyssa, can you sense them?” Julius was already back to business.
Lyssa pulled out the map of her town and put it on the table in the middle of the room. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the paper, trying to take in the energy source from the Craven. Her soul flew through the air to the warehouse she had been to before. As Lyssa peered in the windows, she saw that they were indeed inside. When one of them raised his head to the window, she looked him in the face. The shock overwhelmed her. It was Hunter. He quickly nodded to where her spirit was hiding, then quickly went back to what they were discussing. Lyssa noticed the black rings under his eyes. Everything about him seemed off. His energy had been altered, and the darkness was taking its toll. She knew it was Hunter, but he was not the same as the last time she had seen him. Bringing her soul back to her body, she tried to hold in the gasp of shock that wanted to leave her body.
“Are they there?” Julius demanded.
Lyssa was not ready to answer the question yet. She needed time to understand what she had just seen. Lyssa attempted to shake off the bad feeling entering her body when she heard Hunter’s plea. You must come tonight. You must attack them. Don’t let on that you recognize me when you’re here. They need to believe that I’m one of them.
She pulled herself together and answered him. We’re on our way.
“Yes, Julius. They’re there. So are Hunter and Logan. We have to treat them as if we don’t know them if we want them to get out of there safely.”
“Agreed.”
Lyssa pointed to the spot on the map. “We’ll enter on the third floor and make our way up to the fifth.”
A slight pop sounded, and Julius was the first to move through the air. The rest of them followed. When they entered the building, it was clear that they should move quietly. She kept replaying the image of Hunter in her mind. The hollowness of his expression sent chills down her spine. This assignment was sucking the life out of him.
The Guardians climbed the stairs quietly, their wands out and ready. She was surprised to find no one was guarding the hallways. Were the Craven so confident in their abilities that they had no fear of intrusions?
When they reached the doorway to the fifth floor, there was a rustle of movement behind the door. I think they heard us.
Julius turned around to face them. On three. 1, 2, 3. He kicked open the door, and they rushed in behind him. Flash after flash of bright green light came shooting at them. They dodged each attack and countered with their own.
Jeremy pulled the chains from his pocket and started to wave them in the air. The metal began to gather energy with each swing and soon were like electrically charged whips that he lashed around him. He was running at a Craven who had a rounded mole-like face. He was the man from her dreams. The Craven countered with his own blast of light, which was easily dodged.
Ariel was sending her totem animals at the Craven around the room. A spectral wolf was snarling at a woman it had trapped in the corner. She was, in turn, beating it with her wand, her fists, anything she could find, all to no avail.
Sydney called down an electric storm that shot sparks at any of the Craven in sight. Lyssa was impressed with their skills and wondered, for a brief moment, how long it had taken to master them before she focused her thoughts on the problem at hand. Cement started to crumble as the room pitched around them. This building was too old to take the magical war waging within its walls. Lyssa sent bolt after bolt of light toward the shadows entering from the other end of the room. Various pieces of furniture made the perfect hiding places from ranged attacks, and the shadows all crouched behind them.
Lyssa saw Logan and Hunter amidst the fray. She knew there was turmoil within them. If they didn’t attack the Guardians, their cover would be blown. She saw Hunter glance at her across the room, and he raised his wand. Lyssa knew he had to, and yet it made her sad to see him look at her with the dark sneer on his face.
Gathering her senses, she guarded her facial expressions. Her head raised in challenge as she fired off at her attack at the same time. She dodged his easily, but hers clipped him in the shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Lyssa fought the urge to run to him; instead, she hid behind the couch in front of her, taking in deep breaths to calm herself. Jackson put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her for one moment, then moved away and started attacking another Craven.
There was a loud rumbling, and the floors started to shake. When she looked up, she could see even more debris falling from the ceiling. The building was falling down around them, and if they were not fast enough, they would not be able to get out.
Lyssa was just about to teleport away when a pillar clipped her head mid-movement. She tried to picture where she wanted to move to but was having trouble concentrating. A hand pulled on hers, and she knew that someone else was moving with her. Lyssa knew who it was before they landed safely at the Watch Tower, where he placed her on the sofa quickly before leaving. When she tried to open her eyes, her head spun. Hunter had already left. She fell asleep thinking about the danger he was in and hoping above all else that she had not hurt him with that blast she had sent at him.
Chapter 18
As soon as Lyssa felt up to it, she made her way back to her apartment. She curled up in her bed with the deep sorrow that was welling in her chest. The misery kept her company until the last of her energy fled from her body, and she lost herself in sleep. Her dreams were plagued with images of people falling beneath the wreckage of the building.
When she woke up later, Lyssa felt empty inside. The only thing she wanted to feel was him. Closing her eyes, she pictured the one place where she felt closest to him. In moments, she was standing in the room where they had given all of themselves to each other the night of her birthday. She lit the candles and crawled under the satin sheets, cradling his pillow next to her in an attempt to breathe in his scent. Did his spirit live here still? Could she feel him? No. The emptiness grew inside her, and the next thing she knew, she was sobbing into the pillow. She couldn’t hold it back anymore. Her heart was breaking so far away from his. Did he feel the same emptiness?
After a while, her head started to pound, and her eyelids felt heavy. The ebb and flow of the pain made her fall back to sleep while the tears dried on the pillow.
The room was dark and cold when she awoke. The candles had almost burnt out. Now they were only small nubs with tiny spitting flames. Something had caught her attention while she was sleeping, but she could not figure out what it was. It was almost as if someone were calling out to her.
Lyssa?
Hunter? Had she imagined it? She looked around the room, wishing he were there. When she got no response, she lay back down. Lyssa knew it was pointless to go back to the Watch Tower today. She closed her eyes to go back to sleep, but then she thought she heard a slight whoosh of air enter the room. She discounted it as just her mind playing tricks on her. When she felt the hand on her face, she knew she was wrong. Lyssa opened her eyes cautiously.
“Lyssa. Sweet Lyssa.”
She quickly threw the covers off and launched herself at him, almost tackling him in the process. She ran her hands over him to make sure this was her Hunter. Was he really there?
“Hunter. Are you okay?” Tears were forming in her eyes as she remembered attacking him earlier.
“I’m fine, Lyssa. No worse for the wear.”
“But you are, Hunter. You look horrible. Are you eating? Have you been sleeping okay? Your eyes, they’re haunted. What’s happened to you?”
“Lyssa, I can’t.” It was clear that Hunter fought demons that he could not share with her. His soul was tortured with it. She longed to comfort him, but she had no idea what he needed.
“What can I do?”
“Help me feel.”
Their lips easily sought each other in the darkness surrounding them. She put he
r hand to his face and felt the scratch of the hair that had started to grow. Gone was the clean shaven man that she had fallen for.
One soul-searching kiss led to many searing kisses that took her breath away. The fire between them was burning almost too quickly, and soon their clothing was holding them back. It disappeared within moments, and they lay there skin to skin. There was a desperation within her to hold onto him as long as she could. She wished she could capture this moment in time forever, lying so close with nothing separating the rhythm beating in their hearts.
Hunter rolled her onto her back and trailed kisses down her neck, the hair on his face scratching her neck in such an erotic way that she could not help the sudden arch of her back. When his teeth followed the same path in gentle nips, a low moan escaped her throat. He captured the next moan with his mouth, and she could feel the blood rushing to places that had been dormant in his absence. His hands roamed down her body as he continued to devour her lips. When he parted her legs with his hands and slid his finger between them, she almost lost her mind. Lyssa had to push his mouth away to take in a breath. She tried to push his hand away because the feelings he was generating within her awoke a beast that wanted to retaliate in kind. While she had let go before, this was something totally different, something wild and reckless.
“Relax, Lyssa.” Hunter’s words in her ear almost made her lose control. “Let go, Lyssa.” He moved his hands in a way that made it hard for her to think. Her body tightened, and she braced for the impact as she crashed with wave after wave of tingling sensations running through her body. At her release, Hunter groaned and captured her bottom lip in his teeth. She could barely breathe; the world was spinning almost too quickly.
