What was once supposed to be nothing more than a filler had become something very different. Maybe I didn’t have it in me to use someone for my amusement after all, or perhaps the guilt that I felt had made its way into my conscience.
I had to get some air. I was starting to suffocate, thinking about what was going on with those that I cared about. I stepped out into the fresh night air and took a deep breath. This place was captivating; why had my parents ever left it? They had enough power to make the town forget what happened with John. Then again, perhaps that would be interfering with the forces of nature.
Was Helen the celestial form of Mother Nature?
I couldn’t help but think it as I looked at the sweep of green grass that led to a cluster of trees to the right of the field. If she harnessed the power of earth, wouldn’t that make her Mother Nature herself? I laughed to myself at the idea. We were vessels for the shards; we weren’t the shards themselves. Or were we? I was starting to feel like this wasn’t the end. There was far more to the story of our being than what we were told or learned over time.
I wrapped my arms around my shoulders and gazed out at the beauty before me. Then my eyes fell on the round burnt patch in the center of the yard, and I had to look away. I had definitely made my mark on the land.
Suddenly I started feeling dizzy and had to fight to stay on my feet. I failed miserably and crashed to the ground. I just didn’t feel any pain.
****
“Oh, shit, Dawn! I didn’t know you were still awake.”
Wesley’s voice came out of the darkness as I stood up, rubbing my face.
“Oh, I quite enjoy being summoned to the astral plane and arriving face first,” I groaned.
“Again, I apologize for the… heck, I hope it doesn’t bruise.”
I looked up and saw he was standing right in front of me. I took a step backward.
“You look… well!” I said, noting the color in his face. His eyes were almost as blue as the day I met him, and his lips were pink. He didn’t look like he was dying. Sudden hope surged in me.
Wesley held up a hand in warning. “I’m not… this,” he said quietly, indicating himself. “This is a projection. I’m lying in a tent in the middle of New Mexico, nearing my last breath.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I argued. “The last few times you summoned me you looked so ill. Unless…” His appearance unnerved me, no matter how much he tried to call it a projection.
“Something is amplifying my power,” he muttered vaguely. “Listen. I know about Aaron. I overheard her talking in my tent the other night. I may not have been there in body, but I do hear things. The good news is that he was taken to an undisclosed location. Neither Miranda nor her mother has been able to locate him.”
He took a step toward me. I automatically took one back.
“I don’t know where he is, before you ask,” I said slowly. “They won’t tell me.”
“Probably for the best that they don’t. However, where are you at? It took you longer to get here than usual.”
“I’m at home,” I lied.
He smiled. “No, you aren’t, Dawn. Honestly, I tell you where I am… why can’t you tell me where you are?” His smile was funny; it wasn’t my Wesley’s smile.
“What has she done to you?” I whispered, finally growing the courage to step forward and touch his face. There was nothing that he could do to me on this plane.
“Nothing.” He smiled again, and I saw the two points of his canines.
I had been right; he was changing. He hadn’t changed completely yet, but the process had begun. I wished at times that the movies were right, that it was possible for me to click my heels together three times and wish to go home.
“Wesley, open your mouth, please,” I asked him as he eyed me.
“Why?” he asked, pushing me away.
“Oh, God,” I said, throwing my hands to my face. “Are you even my Wesley anymore?”
I felt my chest lurch. Then the plane started spinning around me. The last thing I heard before returning to Earth was him screaming my name.
****
“Dawn?” My mother’s voice was shrill, and I became aware that she was shaking me violently.
I opened my eyes and looked up at her. The moment the light from the back porch hit me, the pain that I did not feel when I fell suddenly came rushing back at me.
“Ow!” I groaned, putting my hands to my face.
“Oh, thank the Lord,” she said, holding me tight. “We have got to get you stronger so he can’t summon you.” She looked worried.
“How did you know?” I asked, trying to sit up. My face was killing me.
“He’s the only one that has been doing it. Before it was Miranda, but now that she has him, she has no need to find you. John probably wants to, but she knows that he would only scare you. Just thank goodness he cannot summon you to their location.” She helped me up and glanced at my father, who was standing a few paces away, apparently lost in thought.
“How is a mortal boy summoning her in the first place?” he asked, looking at my mother.
“He’s not mortal anymore,” I said, brushing off my knees.
“What?” my mother demanded, grabbing my shoulders, and ignoring the yelp of pain that escaped my lips.
“Yeah,” I told them both. “I don’t know how far into the change he is, but he’s not my Wesley anymore.”
Now not only was Aaron turning into some creature whose nature I couldn’t predict, but Wesley was too. I had to make sure to keep Adam in my sight at all times.
“That’s not good,” my mother remarked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Tomorrow we get Krista back. Won’t she amplify our powers?” I asked as they led me back inside the house.
“You know you wandered too far away from the back porch,” my father admonished me, ignoring my question. “If you had stayed there, you’d have been okay.”
“What are you talking about, Dad?” I asked, annoyed.
“The protection only goes as far as the back porch. The fields beyond only have little confusion spells in them. He can’t summon you if you’re inside the house.”
I glared at him. “That would have been nice to know before I went outside at eleven in the evening.” I took some ice from the freezer and put it against my eye.
“To answer your question, yes, Krista will amplify your powers,” my mother interrupted, giving my father a dirty look. “What did he want?”
“What did who want?”
“Wesley. What did he want?” my mother repeated.
“I’m not sure. However, he said he knew about Aaron and that he was being held at an undisclosed location.” I shrugged. “I think he was asking me where Aaron was. When I couldn’t tell him, he asked me the same question.”
“You didn’t tell him, right?” my father demanded, stepping toward me.
“No, I said I was at home. Which he knew was a lie, he said it took me longer to get there.” I shrugged again. “In other words, we know nothing, and they know nothing. Except I know that he is turning, changing into something.”
I assumed a vampire, judging by his teeth, but then again maybe he had gotten both genes. John hadn’t been as lucky, but maybe Wesley was stronger than John.
“From now on, after dark, you keep your butt inside the house where he can’t summon you,” my mother ordered, hands on her hips. “Lord knows what will happen when his strength increases. He may summon you straight to Miranda.”
“Okay! I know!” I exclaimed, throwing my free hand up in the air. “You do remember he is the reason we started this whole quest,” I reminded them.
“Yes, he is,” my father replied. “At the same time, he is with the enemy.”
“He doesn’t have Stockholm Syndrome!” I yelled at them.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they were right, however. What if there had been a change in him that had caused him to flip sides already?
I took a deep bre
ath… “Anyway, he summoned me and asked where Aaron was. When I couldn’t tell him, he demanded to know my location. End of story.” I stormed past them and up to my room.
Once in my room, I threw myself on the black comforter and stared at the ceiling. Well, at least I understood now why I was resting at night: I was unsummonable while in this house. In a way that was a relief, but in others, I felt like I had missed a big part of what happened to Wesley. The fear that he had changed for the worst consumed me.
I knew I shouldn’t be obsessing about him. I had a big day coming up, with the whole raising-of-the-dead thing. It was pointless thinking about him. He was like the rest of them now. And what was the point of this war if not to save the souls of mankind from them? Oh yeah, angels and demons and stuff.
Just go to sleep, Dawn! Don’t worry about the fact that your nose could be broken. Just go to sleep.
I forced my mind off Wesley and Aaron and tried not to think of Adam asleep in the room next to me. I closed my eyes and emptied my mind entirely before dozing off into a peaceful sleep, with no fear of being summoned.
****
“Dawn?” Edmund’s voice brought me out of my slumber. I looked up at him with sadness. He was the only one who understood what was going on with me.
“Everything okay?” I asked, sitting up and realizing it was still night.
Edmund’s eyes glinted in the moonlight. It was quite entrancing.
“Yes, but I just got done talking with your friend. Is he on anything?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Adam? No, he’s just high on adrenaline,” I said softly.
“The boy is a talker, isn’t he?” He laughed and took a seat beside my bed. “How are you doing?”
“It seems like everything is about to collapse all around me. Wesley and Aaron are changing. Hell, even Adam is undergoing his own version of change.” I shook my head. “How am I supposed to do this?”
“You are the fire inside both Heaven and Hell. You are the first flame. You were bred for things like this. The only problem is, you didn’t have any backing like all those before you did. It was believed that if you didn’t know who or what you were, then you would never be identified.” Edmund started running his cool fingers through my hair. “Wesley? Is this the boy that you are trying to save?” he asked me.
“Yeah. He’s the one that this originally began for,” I confirmed. “You would think that it would be easy. Just dive in, snatch him, and bring him home. He even told me where he was.”
Edmund nodded. “You know, the best way to bring in an enemy is with bait. Mind games are easy to play if you have the power. I’m very good at them myself.” He smiled briefly. “What’s to say she isn’t playing on your emotional heartstrings to bring you in?”
“I knew that all those other times it was him though. I knew by the way he touched me, the way he smiled. It didn’t feel wrong,” I said, putting my face in my hands. “See what I’m saying?”
“You’ll get through this, Dawn. I have been on this earth for a very long time. I have met Wardens throughout the ages. I have seen raging battles over the destruction of the element shards. Nobody has actually achieved the elimination of an element. Let alone killing all four, which in turn would burn Heaven and Hell to the ground. That would pretty much make Earth a walking Purgatory.” He touched my face, his cold fingers sending a shiver down my spine. “You’ll do well, young one.” Our eyes locked and for a second, I believed him.
“You’re staying for the resurrection?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” His eyes shifted. “Please excuse me. I have yet to hunt, and it’s nearing dawn’s first light.” He laughed and pointed at the sky before getting up. In an instant, he was gone.
So, it was true about vampires… they could run at incredible speeds. I had never seen it till now, so it had all seemed like fairytale magic to me. I supposed there was a lot that I was going to have to get used to. If the allies were coming, I was going to meet creatures that most people thought were nothing more than bad dreams. Everything that goes bump in the night was real; it seemed, whether I wanted to believe it or not.
I sat there for a few more minutes, just thinking. I was alone again, just as I was before we moved to Midvale. I had Adam, of course… I had a feeling I was always going to have Adam. He was a mortal who had been allowed into the immortal world, full of fascination and wonder.
I lay back on the bed and put my hands behind my head. Tomorrow was the last day. In the morning I would work with Helen one last time on the ritual. At the first sign of twilight, we were going to the graveyard, where Krista was buried and bringing her back from the dead. It made me wonder how many other Wardens had had to do this. How many times had one been killed and consigned to Purgatory till another was born?
Somewhere around six, I closed my eyes, only to have them shoot open again at seven when the screaming began downstairs.
Chapter 28
The Grim
I had never run so fast in my life, not even when the demon beast was chasing after me a few weeks earlier. I hit the bottom floor without even taking the stairs.
That was new. I had never attempted to hurdle a banister before.
I came to a stop in the living room, where Helen lay motionless on the floor. My mother was standing in the opposite corner screaming, her eyes whited out and her hands on her ears. Whatever it was that was attacking us was assaulting the auditory receptors. I could hear nothing, however, as I grabbed my mother and pleaded with her to calm down. She merely pointed to the corner of the room, where a man in a black robe stood with his hands crossed over his chest. I couldn’t make out his face as it was covered by a hood. I could see how his appearance would cause alarm. The house had been heavily warded, to have a visitor as frightening as him could have been seen as a bad omen. Where my mother and Helen had found fear, I only found curiosity.
Hello, Dawn.
The voice in my head was strong and masculine. There were no other bodies present in the room. The only possible source was the man standing across the carpet from me.
“Hello?” I muttered as I began to press my fingers to my ears. I wasn’t sure if he had telepathically spoken to me, or if I had just missed the movement of his jaw.
My mother finally stopped screaming and fell in a heap on the floor.
I had no intention of scaring your mother or your friend.
However apologetic he was, I could sense a trace of humor in the voice. I managed a weak smile in return. This experience was new, but I had a feeling I could get used to it.
“Well, I suppose coming into a protected house without anyone knowing might be the reason.” I bent down and checked my mother. She was breathing peacefully. I walked over to Helen and placed my face close to hers. She too was breathing regularly. No harm, no foul. At most, they would have a bit of a headache when they came to.
I came to join you, but I see my arrival caused a bit of a scare.
Now he sounded morose. I understood his tone; he had no intentions of frightening my mother or Helen.
“If I knew who you were, I might understand a little more about what you’re doing here,” I said cautiously. It felt weird speaking aloud but only getting telepathic answers.
I do apologize. I am Death.
I gaped as he reached for the hood covering his face. He pulled it away, and I had to catch my breath. I had always thought that Death was a skeleton covered by linen. But he had pale skin, solid black eyes, and lips sewn up in two black Xs. Even if he wanted to speak, there was no way that he could, unless he tore his own lips apart. Just thinking about it made my lips tingle.
Do you fear me?
To my astonishment, I found I didn’t. I was more intrigued than afraid. He was nothing like I was expecting. You grew up with fearful thoughts about the Grim Reaper, but once in his presence, I found him something to be marveled at.
“Are you the Death?” I asked, curiosity driving away any terror that I m
ight have felt.
No, I am just one of many of my kind.
“Are you pure or mixed?” I asked. I felt like I needed to know before I welcomed him in.
None of my kind is pure. We are given a choice if we are worthy. If we choose to become Death, we just become it.
Well, his explanation didn’t help me much. If a mortal had made a choice, then I supposed that might be considered pure. If Death could not procreate with other members of the same clan, there could never be a pure being different than the original. I bet he was extremely frightening. I shivered at the thought.
“You are a reaper then,” I whispered, mesmerized.
He bowed to me. His face showed no emotion, but then how could Death show sentiment?
I am, yes. Reapers are Death.
“So why did my mother and Helen faint the moment they saw you?” I asked, wondering if it was his appearance that had gotten to them. Then again, I dressed in a similar fashion, and my mother had never fainted at the sight of me. Well, there was that one time, I chuckled to myself.
Your mother knows me, but she misunderstood, wouldn’t listen to what I had to say.
“How does my mother know you?” I looked down at her and sighed; she seemed extremely uncomfortable.
I am the one who brought her souls to judge. I am connected directly to your mother’s past. Not to mention the belief that once Death appears someone is going to die.
“Is someone going to die?” I asked, frowning. I would have hated to find out that this was the reason for his unexpected visit. However, he had said that he wanted to join us. Maybe he needed souls to survive? I’m sure that his explanation was going to be rational enough.
Lots of people are going to die, even more, if you don’t get your third above ground.
What the Hell? How did he know about the resurrection that was to take place? I shook my head and rubbed my temples. All these beings who could see the future were really starting to make my head hurt.
Smoke & Ash (Wardens Series Book 2) Page 25
