It didn’t take long for the helicopter to drop us at the house. I admit it felt weird being there. After spending the time in the camp, I had grown accustomed to my bed in my lavish tent. Not to mention the parties every night. Was my new gift going to be welcomed here? Were the others going to be even remotely happy to see me?
When we arrived, Rose and Helen were standing at the door with their arms crossed over their chests. Oh, how I had not missed them. However, Nick had gotten to them, which might explain why they thought so little of me. I wished at that point I knew how to reverse the damage. I was still no different than them. No more powerful, no less popular.
“Did you have fun?” Rose asked as I put my bag down on the floor inside the doorway to look at them.
“Why would I have fun? I watched a woman get shot in the head,” I said scornfully. The urge to punch both of them seared through me.
“Good riddance,” Rose said, looking at Marshall. “Who’s this? Get yourself another toy while you were in New Mexico?”
Her tone pissed me off beyond belief. I knew that I apparently had some man problems and some very odd codependency issues, but I wasn’t a slut.
“This is Marshall. He’s my friend,” I said, trying to keep my cool.
“And this?” Helen asked, purring, as she looked at Wesley.
“That’s Wesley,” I said sourly, still trying to control my emotions.
“Oh, this is Wesley, huh?” Helen shot towards him and put on a smile. “I’m Helen. Earth warden.”
Wesley glanced at me and his eyes changed to a pale green. “Wesley. Bona fide anomaly,” he said and she giggled. “This must be Rose. Assuming you’re the water warden?”
Rose rolled her eyes but put on a smile.
“Rose is Mona’s daughter,” I said softly as Krista walked through the door.
“Oh.” He looked impressed. “I should have seen it. You get your beauty from her.”
Rose blushed.
“Anything happen while we were gone?” Krista asked, placing her bag next to mine.
“Nada,” Helen said, hugging her. Nice to see they had made amends for all the crap that had happened before I left.
“That’s good,” Krista smiled. “I think that Dawn and I would like to get some rest. It’s been a long day.” Krista grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the stairs. “Marshall and Wesley, do you mind grabbing our bags? We will get you settled.”
I turned and watched as Wesley gave them a sexy smile and picked up my bag while Marshall grabbed Krista’s and followed us up the stairs to my room. Helen and Rose were instantly enamored with him. This made me wonder if his superhuman powers were what made him so irresistible, or if it was the fact that the boy suddenly had an ego that reached right past heaven.
My room looked untouched and Krista smiled awkwardly as Wesley threw my bags on my bed.
“Kelly spent most of her nights in the field. I don’t think anyone knew what she was doing, honestly.” Krista went into my closet and pulled out a clean set of sheets for me. “Marshall, your room is through the adjacent door. Adam already moved his stuff out so it’s good for whatever you brought with you.”
“I really don’t have anything anymore.” Marshall hung his head.
“We will have to remedy that.” I gave the boy a pat on the back.
He looked extremely uncomfortable. What did I expect? The boy had been on the run for lord knows how long. He probably never had a safe place to sleep or a bed all to himself. In fact, he had spent all his time sleeping in my tent. This had been at my request as soon as he was introduced as my assistant. I wasn’t going to let some poor guy sleep on the ground outside Miranda’s tent while I laid on a luxurious bed in a fancy tent.
“Wesley, we have you on the other side of Dawn. That’s my old room,” she smiled. “I made sure to make it more masculine when I left.”
“Where are you staying now?” So many petty changes had happened while I was away.
“Adam’s dad went home a few days ago and your mom said I could have that room. It has a bathroom attached,” she shrugged.
“Oh well, that’s fortunate. They originally wanted to put Wesley in Adam’s old room but your mother was against it due to the adjoining door.”
“That sounds like my mother,” I said flatly as a hiss of a laugh escaped Wesley’s lips.
“I don’t think her mother has anything to worry about. Dawn would never cheat on Aaron,” Wesley said snidely.
“He is not my boyfriend!” I exclaimed. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Again, it sure looked that way.” He looked at Krista and smiled. “So, keeper of my soul, care to show me around the rest of the place?”
Krista looked at me, puzzled. They didn’t understand that there was still a wedge between me and Wesley. We were going to have issues for a while. Until the familiarity of having him around became a normal occurrence.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, motioning for him to follow her out of the room.
“Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone.” He winked at me and looked at Marshall. “She’s a man-eater, dude, guard your soul with your life.”
Marshall waited for Wesley to be out of earshot before speaking. When he did speak, he spoke cautiously.
“You are actually in love with that man?” Marshall took a seat on the edge of the bed as I plopped down next to him and put my head on his shoulder.
“At one time, yes. I mean I can’t say at one time. I love him. Just not so sure that the ‘in love’ is accurate at this time.” Marshall’s arm slid around my waist.
“I don’t know what happened. When I got back to camp, there was blood everywhere. Men dressed in all black just slaughtering Lilly’s people. Wesley was lying in the middle of her tent with four or five dark creatures around him. I had never seen them before.” He shook his head. “I had no idea that she was pimping him out to the other army heads. In exchange for information, Wesley received one more mark.”
“It’s OK. I know you don’t know everything that happened in that camp.” I felt my eyes getting heavy. I was tired.
“I know a lot and I’m going to tell your parents everything I know.” He reached over and put my pillow in place. “You should rest, Dawn.”
“Marshall?” I asked, yawning.
“Yeah?” he asked as I laid down and he covered me with a thin blanket.
“Will you stay with me? I don’t think I could handle being alone.” I reached for his hand and held it softly in mine, pleading with my eyes.
“Of course.” He smiled that cruel smile as warmly as he could. Some people were just born to look deceiving but instead, become some of the most treasured parts of your life.
Marshall laid down next to me. We faced each other, our foreheads touching. I let out a long yawn.
“I am so lucky to have met you.” My eyes were getting heavy. I could hardly keep them open any longer.
“No. It is I who is lucky to have met you.” I felt his hand on my shoulder for a second before my body took me away into a blissful world full of dreamless wonder.
Chapter Six: Codependence
I woke up at half past seven that evening. Marshall had managed to slip away some time after I had fallen asleep. I didn’t feel rested but I felt better. It was odd waking up as myself and not as Prudence, but like people say, all good things must come to an end.
I crawled out of bed and padded from my room to the bathroom, not paying any attention to anyone who I may have passed. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway; the three other people on this floor besides Marshall and I had an issue with me one way or another. I took about four minutes to do my business and exited the room. The hall was empty at first, then I saw him.
Adam stared at me wide-eyed as a smile spread across my face. My palms were sweating and my heart was pounding. I couldn’t handle it if he yelled at me now for the wrong I had caused him.
“
So you are back,” he said as I walked slowly towards him.
“I wasn’t gone long.” I wanted to smile at him but I was too scared to.
“You were gone a while,” he said, placing his hands in his pant pockets and glaring at me. He was angry.
“Then yeah, I’m back,” I said softly.
“I suppose that you and Wesley have made amends.” His voice sounded almost cruel. I knew he had issues with Wesley but I wasn’t aware that they were that deep.
“No,” I said slowly, eyeing him.
“Well I suppose that is good. Please excuse me, I have laundry to do somewhere.” He pushed past me and walked away. I watched him go, but his head did not turn once in my direction as it used to do before all of this.
“He’s better than he was last week,” Shawn said, coming up behind me. I jumped.
“How bad was it?” I asked, placing my hand to my erratic heart.
“Pretty bad. He was head over heels for you but got cold feet with Rose. She was just a distraction, she didn’t change how he felt about you. This situation, however, yeah, this did some damage.” Shawn shrugged. “Human love is something that I don’t understand.”
“I think that I’m going to go outside and get some air,” I remarked as I walked away from Shawn.
I wandered out the back door and into the left field of the pasture. I figured if I went out there people would just leave me alone. It was familiar, with the feel of the air and the smells of the trees. To me, it was a piece of heaven placed on earth. I was wrong about being alone when I walked up on my father looking up at the sky. He was in jeans and a white t-shirt – abnormal attire for him.
“Hey, honey,” he said as I got closer.
“Hey, Dad. When did you guys get here?” I stopped next to him and tried to follow his gaze.
“A few hours ago. Your mother has already headed to bed, she’s worn out.” He smelled the air and a contented smile spread across his face.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked, noticing that his eyes were red-rimmed.
“Seemed a bit stuffy in there tonight.” He gave me an odd smile and put his arm around my shoulders.
“Yeah that it did.” The stars were bright out here with no city lights to obscure their luster. Still, it didn’t beat the nights in the mountains where it looked as if you could just reach out your hands and touch them.
“We decided it was time to bring Nick in for questioning,” my father said, glancing down at me.
“Oh, well that’s good.” I nodded my head. Finally I felt like some justice was going to happen. “Your mother set up the court martial for tomorrow afternoon. We don’t think that you girls need to be there.” He squeezed my shoulder and I stiffened.
“Why?” I asked.
“He’s already warped Helen and Rose. We don’t want to give him the opportunity to turn them on us completely.” My father made sense. We weren’t sure what power Nick had over the other two wardens. It was apparent that he was feeding false information to them, but the full on effect of his lies was truly unknown.
“When are you going to tell them?” I asked quietly.
“I’m not sure it will fix anything. Maybe without him feeding them lies they will revert back to how they were when you met them,” he said, dropping his arm. He shook his head from side to side and changed the subject of our conversation. “It’s nice to have Wesley back, isn’t it? I have him working with some of my top men. He’s on a monitor so that I can assess his location and skills. The boy has amazing power. Just wish we knew all the blood that is in his veins.”
“He’s not the same, Daddy,” I said, my voice catching in my throat. I was seriously about to cry over this.
“He won’t be, darling. However, I have seen the boy’s artwork. His visions for the most part are right on.” He turned to walk away from me.
“How do you know they are right on?” I asked over my shoulder.
“A harbinger gives a glimpse into the future. Wesley has the ability also to provide information from the past.” He sighed. “Don’t stay out here too late, honey. Mona will have dinner ready around nine I’m sure.”
“I won’t. I promise,” I said as he walked away from me.
I stood there for another five minutes looking at the sky before heading back towards the house. At first it seemed that a blob was standing at the corner of the back porch. When I got closer I saw that it was Adam. He was upset, or worried, or just extremely pissed off. I wasn’t sure what emotion I was looking at.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stuffing my hands in my jeans pockets. The air was still warm but a chill had set over my body. I was nervous to be near him.
“Needed a little time to think, that’s all.” Adam looked at me and forced a crooked smile.
“I just needed to get away. All this talk of invading enemy camps. I’m not sure if I can follow their tactical vernacular,” I laughed nervously.
“You know you did a pretty shitty thing,” he said out of the blue, ignoring my last comment completely. I looked at him, rapidly blinking, trying to catch up.
“I’m sorry, Adam, I didn’t know what else to do.” My voice cracked and my heart was pounding.
“So you tell your brother to make me forget what happened. Did you ever wonder or even think that I had everything under control?” His eyes were glistening. My actions had only brought him pain.
“I only wanted to make it easier on you,” I said softly.
“By hijacking my brain!” he exclaimed. “Let’s get this straight between us, all right? I was there when the ashes cleared. I was there each time your heart broke because of them. I accepted a gift from God to protect you with my life. I put myself in front to save you. And what do you give me? Amnesia! I was going crazy because I couldn’t remember anything about you.” He put his face in his hands and sighed. “Maybe I should ask your father to erase all my memories of you and go back to Midvale. Then I can try to lead a normal life. One where there’s no magic and no paranormal beings. Where I simply have my faith to guide me. I have given up so much for you. In response, you pine for Wesley, lust for Aaron, and make me forget.” He looked at the moon, his hands firmly stuffed in his back pockets.
“I understand.” I felt a tear roll down my cheek.
“No, you don’t. I used to think you were nothing like Miranda.” He took a long breath and threw his hands in the air. “I was incredibly wrong. You are just like her. Now excuse me, I need to get inside before Rose comes looking for me.” He pushed past me and into the darkness of the trees.
I stood there, dumbfounded, watching him walk away. My actions were meant to be positive, not negative. I just wanted him to be happy. As long as he thought of me romantically he would never be happy. I never thought that it would reverse. I didn’t bring happiness to Adam, I brought pain. Wesley was right, anyone else would be stupid to wind up with me.
“Bravo,” a voice said behind me and I turned around.
“How much of that did you hear?” I asked as Wesley approached me.
“I heard every last sentence,” he smiled.
“Great,” I muttered, crossing my arms. “I thought you were being monitored.”
He lifted his wrist. Fastened tightly around his small frame was a bracelet equipped with a blinking red light.
“State of the art demon technology. If I go past the fences I get a nasty shock.” He sighed and looked at me, frowning, his eyes shifting colors due to the low light.
“That sounds incredibly painful,” I said.
“I find it funny.” He winked at me.
“Find what funny?” I asked cautiously.
“You had maybe two boyfriends before me: obviously you were independent. We go out for eight months, give or take. I mess up when Miranda comes back into my life and we are forced to split. It didn’t even take you a week before you laid claim of Aaron’s soul. Made me wonder at the time if you really loved me at all.
Now that Aaron is all pale and emotionless you have moved on to Adam. It looks like you have some serious codependency issues.” He put a pale hand on my shoulder.
“It’s far from that, Wesley,” I said, anger in my voice.
“He is right.” Wesley narrowed his eyes.
“About what?” I growled at him.
“You are just like Miranda.” He smiled at me.
“I am nothing like her!” I seethed, my hands burning.
“Shut up and listen,” he demanded. “First there was Isaiah, her strongest love. She’s happy and the world is a wonderful place. A century later he leaves her for her mother. Miranda goes on a bit of a binge for the next two hundred years, collecting as many souls as she possibly can. Even nearly snagged your brother in the process. She thought she had found something in John before she met me.” He smiled seductively at me and I rolled my eyes. Even Wesley sucked at giving himself an ego.
“What does this have to do with anything?” I asked, perturbed.
“I am a descendant of Isaiah. We share the same harbinger bloodline. She fell for the good boy who I was all those years ago, just like you have done. Same crap with me, Aaron and Adam. You know you belong with me. You know that I am your Isaiah.” He took two steps towards me and stopped.
“I will not lie and say that I do not love you, because I do. I have harbored my emotions. I was selfish and my claim on Aaron was rushed and juvenile. Nonetheless it happened. Adam was never meant to be part of this, he was innocent. He just calmed the pain.” I put my hand to my heart and sniffled. “He made it hurt so much less. All I wanted was to make him forget what was happening between us because I am no good for him. However …”
“You belong with me,” he smiled, reaching for me. The look on his face shocked me, it was if he thought I was some prize he had won in a race. This wasn’t the Wesley that I had known.
“No,” I said softly. “I will not be your replacement for Miranda. We will fight side by side as one but my heart is not yours.” I choked as his eyes widened. I was on fire.
“Then why rescue me if you do not wish to be with me?” he asked, his eyes flaring red.
The Wardens Boxed Set Page 86
