Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

  “Why?”

  Sebastian interjects. “To protect them and make them less vulnerable. Together they are stronger.”

  I remember my conversations with Nate about this in the facility and back in Miami. Like he’s read me, we both look at each other knowing how we know this all too well.

  Nate is the first to break contact as he looks away. He looks down, and then at Xander, who in turn looks from him to me.

  Hold up! Did Nate and Xander just share a private thought, because it looked like they exchanged something?

  Still staring at Xander, I ask, “Sam asked you to come to the Sondian safe house to go on this mission and you agreed? Why the hell would you do something like that?”

  Nate interrupts, “Look, we’ve already gotten hell from Ezra. We have the coordinates. I’m linked to him. He’ll be fine.”

  Unable to hide my frustration with being left in the dark I ask, “What in the hell happened between you two while I was upstairs?”

  Nate glances at Xander, and then he looks back to me. “There’s no point in fighting what’s going on between us any longer, Jes. We all need to know where we stand.”

  The gut shot Nate has taken is blunt, but painfully true. My chest tightens as his statement sinks in.

  Ezra’s voice snaps me out of my trance. “Sebastian, Balthazar and I are working on a strategy before we set foot in the Aokigahara Forest. We will be prepared. Believe it or not, Jes, Nate and Xander got us a huge amount of information by doing what they did. But, they aren’t going to do it again. Right?”

  Both of them nod. It’s obvious that Ezra laid into both of them.

  Sebastian speaks up. “You know what you experienced tonight with your mother was real Jes.”

  I nod agreeing with him. “It felt real.”

  Sebastian asks, “Would you consider the possibility that your mother’s soul is in a tangible realm? One that we might be able to access someday?”

  I remember talking to my adopted mother, Delilah, about this. “You mean like Heaven being a real place?”

  Ezra says, “Yes, that’s exactly what he’s saying.”

  I look at my father now. “Do you think it’s a real place, Ezra?”

  Ezra puts a hand in his pocket and lowers his head. He cups his other hand over his mouth briefly. Clearing his throat, he looks up at me. “Your mother came to me once after she passed.” His voice begins to crack. “She told me that I would find her again one day. I believe I will find her again in a realm called Heaven by many.”

  Sebastian, Balthazar and Ezra all agree that it’s best to leave tonight. Sam has told Xander that the mission is in seventy-two hours. We’re only killing time by just sitting around here for the remainder of the night. Plus, Michael Sanderson is already tracking me here.

  We all try to rest on the flight, knowing we need it desperately for what is awaiting us in Japan.

  During most of the flight, Ezra, Sebastian and Balthazar discuss maps and strategies for the mission. When the plane lands, I blink my eyes open. Sitting next to me, Ezra asks, “Did you sleep?”

  I nod. “Maybe a few hours.”

  As we, all file off the plane, Balthazar warns. “Keep your block up and be ready. Last time we landed, we weren’t welcome.”

  Two black SUVs are waiting for us with four Japanese men, flanking the back of both of the trucks. Balthazar and Sebastian walk over and greet them in Japanese as we load the baggage. Balthazar calls for Nick, Elicia, Jake and Luke to ride with him. The rest of us ride with Sebastian.

  When I get into the car, I notice we have a driver this time.

  I tap Sebastian on the shoulder and ask, “Guardians?”

  As we drive into the city, is hard to determine what’s scarier; the arc lightning that surges across the sky every few seconds or the madness on the streets of Tokyo. Police are everywhere, and soldiers are on every corner armed with machine guns. I wonder how many of them are Sondians and how many are Dobrians. Civilians are running on the sidewalks with the same confused look that possessed the civilians back home in the U.S.

  We are deep in the city on a street lined with businesses and shops. The truck carrying the rest of the team is in front of us. It pulls up to a large brick building with jade-green ivy growing on the walls, enveloping the structure. A bay garage door at the front of the building rolls open, and our trucks pull in.

  The inside of the building is gutted and vacant, a simple warehouse by the looks of it. We get out of the trucks and wait as Sebastian and Balthazar talk to the drivers in Japanese.

  The windows lining the top part of the wall all the way around the building are darkened with an amber-colored stain. It doesn’t block out the patterned lightning. I hear a metal door swing open somewhere in the building and search for the location.

  I hear Siobhan’s voice before I see her. “Well, it’s about time.”

  Coming into view, Siobhan walks straight toward Jake as he lifts her into his arms.

  Jake picks her up in his arms and kisses her. I try not to stare as I turn away and walk back to the truck to start unloading. As I come back with a bag on each shoulder, I tense when I see Isabel Cain, Corinna’s sister, standing next to Siobhan and Jake.

  Nate comes up behind me with two bags on his arms. He sends me a thought, “You okay?” I haven’t talked to him, much less received a thought from him, since he set the standards of where Xander, him and I stand with each other.

  I nod and quietly say, “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  As Nate drops the bags next to the ones I’ve just brought, he steps over them and joins the others. I hang back and put my hand in my coat pocket. I gently squeeze the cold metal of the original Copula I’ve inherited from my Onoch lineage settled at the bottom of my pocket.

  Xander comes to my side. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “You nervous?”

  I look over at him just as he looks directly at Isabel.

  I lower my head. “Yeah.”

  His sigh is deep and pained. “Yeah, me, too.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  He puts the bag down on the growing pile in front of me and says, “It wasn’t yours either.”

  Xander turns away and walks back to the trucks to finish unloading, as I stand at a distance unable to take the step toward Isabel as everyone else introduces themselves to her in person.

  I pretend to busy myself with separating the bags that are piling on top of each other when I notice someone walking toward me. It’s Isabel. As she stops in front of me, I feel the heavy weight of guilt once again.

  “Jesca.”

  Before I can profess my guilt, Xander comes up to us and extends his hand to Isabel. “I’m Xander Sera.”

  She looks from me to Xander and shakes his hand. “Hi.”

  Releasing her, Xander says, “If I had known Isabel—”

  Isabel interrupts, “Look Xander. I don’t blame you.”

  She looks at me now. “I don’t blame you either. I just want to get my sister back. That’s all.”

  Reaching into my pocket, I dig beneath the Copula and pull out the bracelet I have held onto since the night Corinna was abducted. The one Isabel gave her. Holding it in my palm, I offer it to her. “When I found it, I knew I had to bring it to you.”

  I don’t make eye contact with her; just stare at the bracelet in my palm, quickly becoming a blurry blob through my welling eyes. All of a sudden, her hand cups over mine, not to take Corinna’s bracelet, but simply to hold my hand.

  I close my eyes and take in her acceptance before I open them and focus on her. “I’m going to get her back Isabel.”

  Isabel nods. “Thank you.”

  Like the New York safe house, everything is underground, and there are multiple levels. I’m coming to realize that our life as guardians appears to be safer un
derground—for now, anyway. Siobhan and Isabel give us a quick tour of the house, and we each claim our spot for the short amount of time we’ll be here.

  Sebastian reiterates my thoughts. “Don’t get too comfortable. We are thirty-six hours away from the apex of the intersection.”

  Sebastian tells us to meet in the living room in three hours to be briefed on the mission. Before he climbs the stairs to the upper level of the safe house, he calls, “Xander, be ready in two hours.”

  Sebastian doesn’t have to tell us why. It’s the one thing that I have been dreading for the past twenty-four hours. Xander going in undercover as a Sondian.

  Elicia interrupts my thoughts when she taps me on my shoulder. “I’m going to bed.”

  Nick walks up behind her and nuzzles her neck. “Me, too.”

  Elicia playfully rolls her eyes, and then she looks at me. “We really are going to sleep.”

  I put up my hands surrendering to whatever she says as being true.

  Elicia pulls Nick into the room she has chosen, and they close the door behind them. Yeah, they aren’t sleeping.

  I lean against my doorway, I notice Xander a few doors down watching me. The thought of him leaving the safe house before us assaults me as I look away from him.

  He shouldn’t go. He needs to be with us—with me.

  “Tired?”

  Hearing him approach, I glance up at him as he approaches. “No. You?”

  Leaning against the wall opposite me, he lets his head fall against it and smiles softly. “No. Just thinking.”

  Tucking his hands deep into his jeans pockets, he shifts against the wall as his smile releases and he drops his eyes from me. “So, I’ll see you when you get to me.”

  My stomach tightens with his attempt at saying goodbye.

  “Balthazar and Sebastian say you won’t be far behind, but they’ll give me more details when...”

  I cut him off. “Don’t go.”

  He shakes his head, but refuses to look up at me as he answers me flatly. “Not going isn’t an option Jes.”

  “Yes it is. You have a choice Xander. You don’t have to martyr yourself—”

  He pushes off the wall and closes the gap between us. “Is that what you think? That I’m trying to be a martyr?”

  I stand up to him and meet his piercing eyes, but I can’t help the intimidation I feel from our closeness. “It sure as hell appears that way!”

  He hunches over, seeming to get as close to eye level with me as possible. “No, this is me chasing down what I need to make right!”

  I glance down the hall, worried our voices will draw the team from their rooms before returning to him and lowering my volume. “If they discover why you’re there, they will kill you.”

  Just imagining how simple it would have been to finish me off, I know they won’t think twice about killing him. A ripple of panic course through my body just as Xander steps closer, and shakes his head from side to side. “I’m not going to die. I have too much to live for now.”

  Urgently, he cups my face in his hands and closes the remaining space separating us. Xander closes the small remaining space separating us as his lips crash against mine. There’s nothing tender, slow, or gentle about our kiss as he presses his body against mine and pins me against the wall. Every touch is rushed and needy. From the steady hold, he has on my neck as his tongue swirls with mine. To his hardened desire rocking against me through the fabric of my pants. I surrender to all of it.

  Suddenly, Xander pulls back just enough for me to feel his hot breath scorching my lips, tempting me to close the space he’s given between us.

  “The other night in the cabin, when you ran, you read my thought. Me telling you that I loved you.”

  His ragged breath drawing on each word is so sensual and magnetic; I can only manage a nod as I stare at his lips.

  He shakes his head ever so slightly, capturing my lips gently once again before releasing them. “I shouldn’t have let it slip. I know it was too soon.” Desire for him is at my doorstep, urging me to lean in, but Xander’s hands hold my face at a distance as he continues. “But time isn’t on our side. And time doesn’t really fucking matter when everything inside of you screams for that love and desire to be unleashed.”

  Like a sharp blade, his words pierce my chest with a truth that can’t be swept away or hidden from. He peppers another light kiss on my lips. “It’s not a fabricated link Jes. It isn’t something mechanical implanted driving this between us. It’s just you. And it’s just me. I know that this attraction, this love I carry for you inside of me goes beyond any link. I’m bound to you. Heart and soul, I’m bound Jesca.”

  Unable to keep the space between us any longer, I ignore all sense and caution as I kiss him again, letting the fire ignited in me spread wildly as I pull him in to my room.

  As soon as the door is shut behind us, Xander pulls off his shirt. On me again, his tongue urges my lips apart, deepening this growing inferno between us.

  God, I need to feel his skin against mine. Breaking the kiss, I peel my shirt off and throw it aside before crashing against him again. Pulling him with me, I lead him toward the bed. As I pull him with me, he pulls back breathless and panting but says nothing as he stares into my eyes. I let go of his shoulders and undo my bra, letting it fall to the ground beside us as he continues toward me. At the edge of the bed, he takes me in. He runs the back of his hand down my neck and over my right breast. Grazing my erect nipple, I feel the steady flare of every nerve-ending connecting it shoot straight to my thighs.

  Gently, he cups my breast and dips his head down to capture my nipple between his full lips. I can’t contain the ecstasy as I run my hand through his hair, let my head fall back and moan from the pleasure he’s giving me. In the back of my mind, apprehension lingers. I haven’t done this before. Gone this far. The smallest concern is over shadowed as he takes my other mound in his mouth and lowers me to the bed. Needing his lips on mine, I bring his face back to mine. Ravenously we tug, suck and devour each other as his hand slides down my stomach to the waist of my pants. As he works the button and slides the zipper down, I expect to feel doubt about letting this go any further than it already has. But I don’t, not in the slightest as I help him pull my pants off.

  Xander whispers against my neck, his lips feathering against them. Pulling his lips from my neck, he tenderly kisses me before looking into my eyes. “We don’t have to—I don’t want to rush you.”

  I run my thumb against his lips, silencing him. Silencing his worry about my not having had sex before. He doesn’t want to push and a part of me feels relief that he’s okay with that.

  Keeping my eyes steady on his, I take the hand kneading my breast and slide it along my trembling stomach to the thin waistband of my panties. Every breath he takes becomes more urgent than the last as I guide his hand with mine over the fabric between my legs. My body trembles as he slides his hand back and forth, indulging me with his touch.

  With our eyes locked and my answer clear, Xander slowly slips his hand beneath my panties as he secures my lips with his. As his fingers run along my wetness, my body responds as I lift my hips to invite him into me. The moment he dips down into me, we both release a moan as our tongues intertwine and I surrender to the intoxicating bliss his touch offers.

  As I lay my head on Xander’s bare chest with my eyes closed, I listen to his heartbeat as his thumb runs circles on my shoulder. The gentle touch keeps our connection alive as I reflect on every touch, every sensation of what I just felt for the first time. A soft knock suddenly pulls me from the moment I’m still holding onto.

  “Jes.”

  Hearing Nate’s voice sends off alarms in my head as well as Xander’s as he rises from the bed and reaches for his shirt.

  “Plans have changed. We need to meet down stairs, now.”

  I’m stumbling around put
ting on my pants as Xander and I exchange a worried look. “What’s changed?”

  “Can I just come in?”

  His question isn’t a request. I know Nate too well. Pulling my shirt quickly over my head, I see the door start to open. I rush to it just as Xander seeks shelter behind it.

  Holding it open a fraction, I look everywhere but directly at Nate. I can’t. Not with what he could have walked in on moments earlier. “What’s going on?”

  “Have you seen Xander? Ezra needs to talk to him before he leaves.”

  I shake my head and tuck my shirt into my pants as I brave looking up at his face. His jaw is working like it does when he’s pissed. Shit.

  “Um, well, I—”

  Before I can finish stumbling over my words, Xander speaks over me. “I’m here.”

  I look down, unable to look at any other reaction Nate might have at this point. I know that they are staring each other down over my head though and that sets a completely new chain of panic into motion. Shit, shit, shit.

  “The weather has worsened. Ezra and I want to leave now to ensure we get you to Sam’s in enough time without drawing suspicion.”

  Ezra and Nate? I thought Xander was going on his own.

  Nate seems to answer my thoughts. “Like I said. Change of plans.”

  I look up at him now as he glances at me before returning to Xander, his body stiff and his face stoic.

  Xander puts his hand on the center of my back and rests the other on the frame of the door above my head. “Okay, just let me say my goodbyes.”

  Nate scoffs and looks down the hall before glaring back at Xander and me. “Thought you two already did that.”

  His words are a punch straight to my gut as he turns and walks away from us. “My bad.”

  Fuck. He knows everything. Knows what happened between Xander and me. Even if it wasn’t sex, it was intimate. Very intimate.

  Xander pulls me back against him. “I didn’t want him to find out like this.”

  “Me either.”

  As I sit on my bed, staring at the door, I memorize the last kiss Xander and I shared before he left. I conjure up the hypothetical’s of what could happen on this mission to the three men who mean the most to me—Ezra, Xander, and Nate. I run through the visions, just like I have for weeks, hoping to uncover something I had missed before, but nothing surfaces. Nothing stands out as a direct warning.