by Tijan
"Oh my goddess." Sireenia rushed to Saren's side. Both of them looked at me.
I grimaced as I saw the questions and shock in their eyes. Then I saw their mysticism and knew they had never thought I would transition, not completely. I swallowed that back. Their lack of faith in me shouldn't have been surprising.
"You have transitioned!" Saren shot to her feet. "When? How? Have you been like this the whole time? Has this been a waste of our time?"
Sireenia grew quiet.
"Are you kidding me?" How could she even think those things? "I didn't know until now. I had no idea when whatever happened. I just knew that something clicked in me and I knew both of you had been thread-holders. That was it and then you're throwing yourself at me. What am I supposed to do? I thought you wanted me to defend myself."
"Can you control it?" Saren stood with her hands ready at her side.
Sireenia stood beside her and tightened her robe. She glanced from Saren to me. Then she stepped forward. "Davy, it is very important to tell us, can you control your powers?"
"You mean: can I do this stuff at will? Not really, but sometimes. Sometimes I can do it and sometimes I can't." I shrugged. "When I really want something to happen, it happens. I wouldn't bank on it, though."
"Why could you stop me now and you couldn't before? I've been training you for three months. I've been hitting you with my powers for that long and you've been taking it?"
"They didn't really hurt." Even though they had and my body had been swollen the entire time. "I don't know, maybe I was just tired of it. Maybe I was distracted by something else. I have no idea."
"What were you thinking before Saren tried to attack you? I saw a look on your face. What was it?" Sireenia stepped forward. Her gaze was intent on me.
"I have no idea. I thought about you guys, what you were, and then I looked up and Saren's coming at me. That's all I remember."
"No, you had a different look. When you thought about us, you were surprised. When Saren attacked you, you were annoyed. She distracted you from a thought. What was it? What were you thinking between those two things? Think, Davy."
"I wasn't. Really. You guys were talking about vortexes and the thread being taken out of you. Then," I shrugged. "I have no idea."
"I felt pain from you." Sireenia tilted her head to the side. "I can feel emotions, not as well as you, but I felt sadness from you. Then panic. What were you scared of?"
"Or who."
"Who are you scared of you?"
Both of them watched me. I wondered if they could hear thoughts too.
I shrugged again. "I have no idea. I just know that I haven't felt normal for awhile, not since…" Not since the last time I had seen Roane when we had talked in the library and he left me.
"There! What are you thinking right now?" Sireenia surged towards me and her hands grabbed my arms.
The moment her hands touched me, a surge of memories rushed through me. The first time I saw Roane in the library, when I saw him in my dorm. Then he stood behind me when Sheila asked if he was my date. A rush of adrenalin went through me as I remembered our first kiss, when I slammed my mouth against his. And then I remembered when we made love. I'd never felt such a desperate fever before him.
"Oh dear." Sireenia wrapped me in her arms before she turned towards Saren. "It's him. It's the vampire."
I tensed and expected a biting comment from her, but it never came. Instead, I heard the door close a second later and felt Saren's absence more than I'd ever felt her presence. I pulled away from Sireenia. "What was it? Is she upset?"
"No, she's not. She's feeling her own memories." She moved to hold my face in both of her hands and then she closed her eyes.
Warmth started to pulsate through me. It spread from her fingertips into my skin, down my neck, arms, waist, and all the way to my toes. She was taking away my pain and giving me a different emotion, one of fondness. It felt good and I closed my eyes before I pulled away. "No. That's not real. It's not right that I take that from you."
"You do it all the time. You take away others' pain so I'm taking yours."
"You can't have my pain. You have enough of your own."
"I don't take it into me. Watch."
As I did, Sireenia moved back and held out her arms. She smiled and then closed her eyes. A moment later a coat transformed over her skin. It was a second layer of skin, but white. As soon as it was done growing over her it cemented to her skin and she opened her eyes with that same smile. Then she shook her body. The white skin fell away and left behind her normal skin with a rosy glow over it.
"See?" she asked. "I have some tricks up my sleeve too."
"I don't even know what I would look like if I could do that. I'd be like a quilt or something."
"I was empathic when I was human. My ability has progressed since I held the thread in me and since I lost the thread."
"What happened to you when the thread left you? Roane told me that every person dies once the thread leaves them."
"I did die, but I didn't. The human soul died, as it should, but we passed on to a different realm. There's a part in us, all of us, that connected with the Immortal and the essence of it gave us a different life. This is where we all go. This is where you will go too, I suppose."
"How many are there of you?"
"The older threads, what I call myself, have developed ourselves into these bodies. I chose this body to look like this, the way Saren also looks how she wants to. We don't have real bodies. You can touch us and see us, but no one else can; only someone who is connected to the Immortal thread can. The magic is unparalleled. It is unimaginable, but we do know certain rules and one of them is that the Alpha werewolf cannot know who you are. You must be able to hide yourself to him."
So I needed to fight an ultimate sorcerer-vampire. I was being trained by some type of witch spirits and I needed to hide from an amped-up werewolf. And they still wondered why I wasn't sold on embracing the Immortal inside of me.
"My life sucks."
Sireenia patted my shoulder. "Everything will be fine. I can feel that inside of you too. You already know what you have to do." When she reached the door, she looked back. "She hasn't let go of the human world yet so you won't meet Talia as one of us. She still holds on there."
I closed my eyes when pain sliced through me, like I'd been gutted.
"And Davy?" Sireenia smiled, an ethereal look came over her as she stood with her white hair in a braid over one shoulder and dressed in a white hanging robe. "You mustn't assume the obvious all the time except one thing."
Dread filled me. "And what's that?"
"You're strongest when you're with him. You showed us that now. Go to him. I think you're ready."
"What about the werewolf?"
The door closed behind her, but I heard her answer, "I think you're ready for that too."
My mouth dropped. I hadn't been ready ten minutes ago and now everything changed? And how was I even going to get back?
I gulped. "Saren?"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Saren and I left the castle, walked down a wooded pathway, and then she clasped my arm. "Take us back."
"What? You do it."
"You do it. Sire thinks you're ready so you need to be able to do this. Take us back."
"I have no idea where we are."
"It doesn't matter. You know where you want to go. Take us there."
"But…" My mouth hung open. How was I supposed to do that? Then I heard a voice in my head. It was a whisper and it felt strangely familiar, too familiar. 'Think of where you want to go, where you want to be, then wish it and it will be.'
"What?!" I snapped, spinning in a circle. The voice was in my head, but it sounded so real. "I thought I was done hearing voices in my head and now someone's back."
Saren grabbed my other arm. "What are you talking about?"
"Someone just told me to wish and it will be. It's annoying. You're all annoying. You want to know why I don't want to be t
he Immortal, it's because of this! I have voices in my head. I have freaky witch spirits telling me that I can teleport myself somewhere and I have no idea how to do it." But as I spoke, everything started to move around us. We were in the eye of a tornado and time was being sucked around us, whipping, snarling.
Then the voice whispered again, 'She can't hear me, she should not. I am here for you, Davina. I always will be… You are never alone.'
Okay—creepy. And before I could reflect on that thought, something snapped us away. It was like a hand reached into our vortex and shook us into a different vortex. Before I could shriek from surprise, we'd fallen to the ground and I hissed from the pain.
"What was that?" I turned for Saren, but she wasn't there. "Saren? Where are you? This is not funny. Did you do that?" Scrambling to my feet, I couldn't see or feel her. She wasn't close to me at all. I didn't feel her presence. It was like she was dead, but she was a witch spirit so I wasn't that surprised. Well, a witch spirit with some extra oomph to her.
"We're close."
A gruff voice spoke behind me and I whirled around to see a blonde vampire sitting in front of a fire. She was hunched over with her elbows braced on her knees. A bag was placed behind her. It was slightly open. Some pictures poked out from the bag along with a yellow cardigan and a beaded necklace.
"Fine," she sighed and stood lithely in one motion. When she turned around, I found myself staring into Talia's face, but it wasn't. This was a vampire, not the thread holder. She was older, maybe five years older, but the same hazel eyes stared through me, hardened. Instead of Talia's red hair flying around her, this girl had blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun tucked behind at the base of her head. She bent down and pulled a long sleeve armor shirt over her. The front of it had a black wolf painted over it with green eyes that seemed to see right through me. As I moved to the left, they watched and then followed when I went to the right.
Freaky.
Suddenly, she walked right through me. I gasped, braced for the contact, but nothing happened. The girl walked straight through me as if I was air. Then I realized I was air. I wasn't there in body, but in mind. I had no idea why I would want to be there, but I turned with the intention of following the girl when a shadow jerked away from the fire.
The movement caught my eye and I whirled back around, but I didn't see anything except the flames that waved back and forth in a smooth rhythm. I started to turn again, but there it was. The shadow jerked forward and this time I was able to catch where it went. I focused all my attention on it.
"Who are you?" I asked. Was this an actual shadow or a ghost or a witch spirit?
It didn't say anything. It didn't move. It glimmered there above the bag. Some embers in the fire moved in that moment and flames exploded, the sky was illuminated for a second. I saw a face in the shadow and they looked downwards. It was focused on the bag, so much that I drifted closer so I could look at the bag too. Glancing back up, I could no longer make out the shadow, but I could still feel it. The presence was strong, so strong, and I closed my eyes. I let myself feel what this shadow wanted me to feel.
Urgency. Desperation. And such clear concentration that I was jerked out of my trance-like state. The thing wanted me to look in the bag and if it could've told me in person, it would've been screaming at me.
"Tracey, where are you going?"
I jerked around. She was coming back. Talia's sister was almost to the bag, reaching down.
'Oh god…' I sucked in my breath and snatched the bag before she could. Everything whirled around me again and I knew I'd broken through the vortex. She couldn't see me before, but she did now and she was pissed. Her eyes went from shock to a murderous rage.
"Hi! Sorry!" I squeaked and then closed my eyes again. 'Vacuum away. Vacuum away. Roane. Go to Roane! Go to Roane!' I tried to command my Immortal insides and as Tracey's rough hands scraped my skin, the wind picked me up again and I was back in the same tornado.
When I landed this time, it took me a minute before I realized where I was. It was quiet, too quiet in the room, but there was loud music below me. It sounded like a bass booming underneath my feet and when I looked around, I saw a couple of leather couches, a bar, a desk, and three walls made from glass. Then I realized that it was the sound of bass under me. I was in Roane's office at the Shoilster. Then I gulped, oh goodness.
Just then the door opened, the bass sounded clearer, and I looked up.
Wren took two steps inside and froze. The papers in her hand ripped apart. She couldn't hide the terror in her eyes before I saw it. And then it was gone. She stood at her highest height and her leather corset creaked from the movement. The papers were forgotten when she moved her hand behind her back.
"What is that?" I lurched forward.
"What are you doing here?" She looked around, but no one was there. The door was closed. There was no escape.
"It's just you and me and whatever you're hiding from me."
"I'm not hiding anything from you."
I narrowed my eyes and studied her. I studied the vein that had started to pop in her neck. "Yes, you are. What's in those papers?"
"Nothing. They're for Roane, not you. And what are you doing here? I should be yelling for him right now."
I swallowed and looked back to her eyes. They were frosty now, but I narrowed mine and went inside of her. It was an old empathic trick. I sensed the disarray inside. Wren was relieved I was back, pissed that she was relieved, and another part was in chaos because she smelled something familiar, too familiar for her to handle.
I pulled out and then sniffed the air. Nothing.
"What do you have?" Her eyes looked frantic.
I lifted the bag. "This? This is what you smelled?"
"Wha—get out of my head!" She grabbed the bag from me. Her long curls whipped against my head as she moved back. "Do you know whose this is?"
"I'm the one who took it. Do you?"
Wren blanched and jerked backwards, stumbling to the door. I watched as she went through it, but gaped as the door shut behind her. The almighty hoity-toity vampiress had just ran from me—me! She was scared of me for some reason. My gaze shifted to the bag. I doubted she was terrified of a bag so that left only one possibility…She knew the owner of the bag. Wren was scared of Tracey, not me. Who was Tracey to Wren? How did they know each other?
"Davy?" Roane was frozen in the doorway. His gaze was riveted to me.
Oh god, he looked good. His hair had been buzzed again, but it was how he was dressed that had my knees buckling. He had on black dress slacks matched with a black soft cotton buttoned shirt tucked inside. Roane looked like a business owner, one that oozed sex appeal from extreme confidence. And he didn't care, which made him even hotter. He looked so different from the college student he'd been in the beginning.
I swallowed, my throat was tight. "Hey," I choked out with a small wave. When I saw that my hand was trembling, I stuffed it behind me.
I didn't know what to say. He didn't move. He didn't speak. And my feet were glued to the floor. Maybe I shouldn't have come. Maybe Sireenia had gotten it wrong and I wasn't my strongest around him. "I shouldn't have come. I'm sorry."
"No!" Roane jerked forward, but stopped. His hand was in the air. He reached out to me, but he didn't move or say anything more. A myriad of emotions flashed over his face before his hand moved back to his side. "Where were you?"
My eyebrows shot up. That was what he settled with? No hug? No kiss? No 'I missed you and was so worried about you?' My blood started to boil. "Are you serious? That's all you have to say to me?" Maybe I hadn't been gone that long? And maybe Roane hadn't missed me as much as I hoped he would.
"I…" He opened his mouth, but shut it without saying anything, again.
The door burst open behind him and Gavin came inside. He flashed me a smile. "Well, well, well. The prodigal superpower is back again. Where've you been, darling?" Then he opened his arms wide to lift me in the air.
Finally. Someone
was happy to see me.
He twirled me in a circle.
I laughed and glared at the same time. "Put me down." But it was nice to know someone missed me.
Gavin set me back down and glanced over his shoulder. "Aren't you going to give your girl a kiss? You've been worrying enough to give your immortal body an ulcer. And a splendid body he has, Davy. He really does, but then again, I think you already know this."
I felt him patting my shoulder and knew he was trying to reassure me, but it wasn't helping. Roane still hadn't moved. He seemed normal now, no shock residing. His eyes were clear and focused on me, but I didn't see what I had hoped I would. Gavin was wrong, Roane hadn't missed me. If he was worried, it was about the Immortal being gone. It was all about the Immortal, not me.
"Gavin, can you give us a moment?"
"Sure." Gavin flashed another smile and winked at me before he left.
I remembered being annoyed with him the last time I saw him but now I didn't want him to go. He wore a white track suit that still gave him the athletic look, but somehow he made it look natural. All vampires should dress like that. When the door closed behind him, I wondered what color his track suit would be the next time I saw him. Then Roane cleared his throat and I no longer cared.
"You've been gone for three months." He moved around me to his desk.
We brushed shoulders as he moved past, but it wasn't close enough. I sucked in a breath and felt my body yearn for his touch. When it didn't happen, I felt cheated, but I turned and regarded him. "Has it been that long?"
Roane turned his back to me and looked out over the dance floor. "What happened that day? Gavin was there. He said you were fine. You were with your roommate and a witch. I've spoken to Emily and I've read the police reports from the witch and wolf. None of them know what happened and there's no video of you leaving."
Wow, the police had been called. "Emily's mate has Immortal essence in him. He was made with magic and I had to leave. He would've sensed the Immortal in me and tried to drain me. I might not have been able to control myself and I was scared of what could've happened. I could've killed everybody. So I left."
