Awakened

  Awakened

  A Few Are Angels Novel

  Inger Iversen

  Awakened © 2013 Inger Iversen

  All rights reserved.

  Published by: Inger Iversen

  All of the situations and characters in this novel are fictional. Any similarities to actual people or situations are completely coincidental and wholly unintentional.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Editing done by: Misti Wolanski of Red Adept

  Cover Artwork, Cover fonts, Spine, and Back Cover done by: AMDesign Studios

  Formatting by: Bob Houston eBook Formatting

  Inger Iversen

  www.ingeriversen.com

  Dedication

  In memory of Kaii Iversen and Don Burford Sr.

  “TRAGEDY IS A TOOL FOR THE LIVING TO GAIN WISDOM, NOT A GUIDE BY WHICH TO LIVE.”

  –ROBERT KENNEDY

  Prologue

  Hélène

  The grass is green and soft to touch, each blade softer than the next. I recline and breathe in the warm fragrant air, splaying my fingers through the spongy blades. The sun is warm, and the swelling clouds release little sweet drops of rain that cool my face and refresh my mind.

  How does something as simple as rain feel so good? The cool drizzle kisses my skin in a sweet contrast to the affectionate warmth from the sun, pushing me into a trance while I await his return.

  I shouldn’t be out here, in plain sight, where Laurent’s men could find me; but it has been too long since I was afforded the pleasures of the sun, the scent of the dew rain, or the warm embrace of the soil. Though I understand Kale’s hesitancy to allow me outside, I still can’t resist.

  I close my eyes and relax in the grass. I have learned how to control this power of second sight, and in doing so, I can recall things on my own, but I have yet to learn to recall a specific memory of my choosing, only what my gift allows me to recall.

  I allow the memory to take me deeper and further away from where I truly am. Darkness surrounds me, stealing the light from the sun, and the vision is murky and bleak; so much so that I can’t see a thing.

  A delicate girl lay crumpled on the snow-covered ground. Her grief floats around her, a heavy shroud that covers her along with a thin veil of snow. Her hair fans above her like a black halo, her eyes are closed, and her lips are blue. Danger surrounds her, but I know that she won’t succumb to the cold, because the darkness he brings is a worse fate than the snow. He will control her, use her to hunt and kill Council Members. Exactly as he forced me to do.

  I have learned his scent, his movements, and his voice. The man could not hide from me in my memories if he tried. For too long I had been with him, studying him as he studied me. Learning of his wants and fears, though most see him as unafraid. His fear does not take away from the power he wields; it only strengthens it, and without the knowledge I have of him, the girl in the snow is beyond help. He will feed her lies and false hopes, all the while stealing information and plotting her death.

  I have learned more from his actions than from his words, and though I am sure that this girl in this memory is the next Arc, I am not sure that she is the one that will save us from his wrath. She doesn’t fight as he takes her, and my hope that she is the soothsaying Arc is gone—and with that, so is my hope that she will someday end Laurent’s tyrannical rule.

  Chapter 1

  Alex

  My dad paced the living room, burning a path in the hardwood floor. He’d said every curse word that I’d ever heard and a few more that I didn’t think really existed. My mom hadn’t said a word since she discovered Ella was missing. She only sat on the stairs in her flannel pajamas, her curly golden brown hair a furry mess atop her head as she stared at the clock on the wall, my sister Leah slept beside her.

  I looked at it, too. Ella had been missing for three hours and twenty minutes. Kale and Jace stayed behind long enough to create the story that I would tell the sheriff, cleaned up the mess that had been left behind, and then took Mia home. Though I was pissed with Kale for allowing Ella’s friend to be placed in danger, I knew Mia had been there to say goodbye. When Ella had called me, it was impossible to convince her to not leave town, which was why I’d gotten on a plane and headed home as soon as I could. My cover story was simple: I came home early from college to surprise my family and found Ella and her things missing. Short and simple—which Kale had said was supposed to leave no room for error on my part—but as I repeated it, I thought I was going to puke.

  Sheriff Making seemed suspicious, and I couldn’t blame him. Fear and uncertainty rang through my voice so loud even I could hear it. I was normally a great liar, not that I was proud of it or anything. I mean, I only told simple lies, like, “Yeah, Mom, it’s just gonna be a couple of guys at the library,” or, “No, Mom, I didn’t take the car; maybe Dad moved it when he shoveled the snow,” kind of lies, but not the kind of lies that hid a truth as significant as this.

  Ella was alive and being held hostage by some lunatic who believed that she was some key to his power. Never had I seen that coming when I stepped out of the rental and watched her leave the house.

  Everything had been normal but odd at the same time. The moonlight traced her skin, causing Ella to glow in its soft light, her dark hair stark against her pale smooth face. Her scent was amazing. She hugged me gently, and I stiffened, trying to seem stronger than I really was, but I was anxious. Her green eyes sparkled as she looked up at me and smiled innocently. If I had just believed her, maybe—

  A knock at the door yanked me back to reality. Sheriff Making and Deputy Clae brought in a few bags of evidence they’d collected from the front yard, and I nearly fell to pieces. I wondered what they’d found out there. Kale and Jace managed to clean up what they thought would lead the police to believe that Ella was taken and hadn’t run away, but at this point, I wasn’t so sure if that had been a good idea or not. The story Ella had told me was unbelievable, and I couldn’t imagine anybody, cop or not, believing it. Even if I did get someone to consider her story, I’d have to explain why I’d lied for Kale and Jace, two men I didn’t know from Brett—but I’d seen what they were capable of for myself. They wouldn’t be above killing cops that were nosing around.

  “Eric, can I speak to you in the other room for a second?” Sheriff Making asked my father, giving me a sideways glance.

  I looked away quickly. Too late, I realized how guilty that made me look, but I didn’t have the guts to look at him again, and I didn’t think that I could save face, anyway. I was sure he knew something. I didn’t know what, but I was sure that I’d find out. My dad looked grim as he headed into his office and shut the door.

  My mom still looked lost. I hadn’t noticed her move to my sister, Leah. Mom stroked Leah’s hair as she slept quietly on the couch. Dad had been pissed when Mom went and woke her up, but Mom said that she couldn’t leave her baby in her room alone while there was someone out there taking girls from their bedrooms and leaving their mutilated bodies in the woods. Dad and I had both flinched at her words, but no one said anything else to her.

  I blamed myself for her worry. Mom felt as though she’d let Ella’s parents down by not being able to protect their daughter, after we’d taken her in after they died. I understood the feeling, because I felt the same way. Had I talked to Mom and Dad when I first thought something was going on, maybe I could have saved her. I closed my eyes so tightly that stars stared back at me. I had to hold my crap together until I could get back to Kale. He would tell me where Ella was and how we were going to get her bac
k or—

  “Alex!” my dad yelled. My mother and I both jumped, and Leah stirred under my mother’s petting. Mom’s eyes were wide and lined with tears. I couldn’t stand the way she was looking at me with fear and confusion. She mouthed ‘Hurry,’ and I jumped up and ran into my father’s office, just as another deputy entered through the sliding glass door with another bag of evidence. I was screwed, and I knew it.

  In the office, my dad stood in front of the window, his face was marred with harsh lines and dark circles under his eyes as he turned to me and spoke.

  “It looks like Ella didn’t run away,” he said. Both he and the sheriff just stared at me as I took in that news. I wasn’t sure if my reaction was believable or not, but as the adrenaline and shock wore off and the fatigue set in, it got harder and harder to play the part of an innocent kid.

  “But I thought—”

  “Son, let me ask you something,” the sheriff interrupted, and my dad motioned for me to sit down.

  I shuffled over to the chair and sat. I was amazed at how my muscles clenched more tightly even as I willed them to relax.

  “Let me ask you about tonight.” The sheriff crossed the room and leaned against the mahogany desk that Ella’s dad had given my dad years ago. He pushed back the paperweights and papers my father had sitting on his desk as he adjusted his heavy frame on the desk.

  Ella flashed in my mind, in the white summer dress and ugly sandals she used to wear just to annoy me. I hated gladiator sandals, but I didn’t mind how she looked in them. I wanted to smile at the memory, but I realized where I was and how stupid and inappropriate smiling would be.

  “We have reason to believe that Ella was taken, and it was set up to look as if she’d run away.” The sheriff grabbed his belt and hefted it further than necessary. “Now, son, what I am wondering is: Do you know of anything that you think we need to know about?”

  I felt sweat drip down my back, cold and slow despite the heat that blasted through the vents in the room. My head felt light, and I fought to remember the story that Kale and I had come up with. It had been so simple, but I struggled to remember. “I—I,” I stuttered.

  My dad shook his head and looked at me, disappointment evident in his dark stare. I swallowed hard and sputtered even more as I tried to answer his question.

  The sheriff seemed pleased. Maybe he thought that he’d caught me in a lie, and for a moment, I thought he had.

  “Son, I know you and Ella are close, but if there is something you need to say, you had better spit it out,” my dad demanded. The fatherly protection that he’d given me during the first line of questioning was absent, and present was the tone of a man at the end of his rope. My father had never been the type to yell or show much emotion, but tonight was different. I could see in his eyes that there was no room to screw up.

  I recited what Kale and I had practiced. “No, there wasn’t anything going on that I thought was weird, and she didn’t know that I was coming home early.” I looked at my dad before finishing, “No one did.”

  The lie left a bitter taste on my tongue, and it took all I had not to spit it out and tell the truth. I ran my hand through my hair then wiped my hand on my jeans. I was sweating like crazy.

  “So, what happened when you came inside the house?” Sheriff Making pulled a notepad from the inside of his jacket pocket and prepared to take notes.

  “I came in.”

  “Was the front light on or off?” Sheriff Making eyed me, waiting for my answer.

  “What?” I tried to gather my jumbled thoughts and piece together a coherent thought.

  Sherriff Making placed the notepad on my dad’s desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “Was the front light on or off when you pulled up?”

  I had to stop and think. Kale hadn’t said anything about it, and I didn’t remember. Sheriff Making continued to stare at me as if he was willing the truth from me. I looked to my dad and got nothing but another icy glare. I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me for my unexpected return from college, since he disapproved of my reasons for transferring to UVA, or if he was just so worried about Ella that he thought I was up to something.

  “I think it was off,” I guessed, since I couldn’t remember.

  The sheriff looked at my father and then pulled the evidence bag from the table. Handling it carefully, he dangled it in front of my face. “This was on the front steps outside, Deputy Clae found it.”

  It looked like crushed, opaque glass, like the shattered remains of a light bulb.

  Sheriff Making placed it back on the table and showed me the second bag. “Now, son, this is a serious matter, and until I get this to the lab in Elmwood City, I won’t know if it’s Ella’s blood or her abductor’s.”

  I paled. The bloody cloth that we’d used to dress Mia’s wound held my attention.

  The sheriff’s eyes widened and Sheriff Making had to snap his fingers to get my attention again. “Alex.” His voice took on a strange tone. “If you know what happened to that girl, and—”

  My dad jumped to his feet. “Sheriff, what the hell are you insinuating?” my father yelled. “I called him in here because you said that you believed he might have seen something or knew something, but that he may not know how important it is.” My dad moved to stand between me and the sheriff. “It seems to me that you are accusing him of purposely hiding information that could help get Ella back to us.”

  The sheriff raised his hands in surrender. “Eric, this is all normal procedure.”

  My dad scoffed and waved a hand of dismissal.

  I watched my father defend me, the son that he trusted—the son who was lying his butt off. It made me angry, but I felt helpless. I wanted to tell the truth, but if I did and Ella was telling the truth, I’d be betraying her trust, and I couldn’t do that again.

  “I don’t care what it is, if you don’t lose that accusing tone, I am gonna end this now!” my dad shouted, just as my mom entered the room.

  Her face was pale, and her eyes were red-rimmed. She held Leah in her arms, which was odd. Leah was too old and big to hold, but my mother held her close as if my eleven-year-old sister were a baby that needed to be cradled. Leah looked around dazedly and rubbed her eyes when she saw me. She smiled and tried to get down and run to me, but my mom held her tighter.

  “Alex,” Leah whispered, her voice still thick with sleep, and I melted all over again.

  The hell that I was about to put my family through was about to get even more complicated, and I wasn’t even sure that I could fully trust the two men I was blindly following. The only thing stopping me from spilling the beans was that Ella trusted both Jace and Kale wholeheartedly.

  Sheriff Making grabbed the bags of evidence and made his way to the door. He looked back at my father and tipped his hat. “Eric, I sure am sorry about what’s happened here. We are gonna find her.” He glanced at me. “I will be in touch with you all soon.”

  He turned to my mother. “Sarah, I’m gonna get more men from Elmwood City to come so we can search the woods. I already have two of my men looking, and we need plenty more than that.”

  My mom petted Leah’s head again and moved aside to let the sheriff out the door. He turned back to my mom and promised her that her home would be hers again as soon as they finished looking for evidence, but that the deputies from Elmwood City would be in touch with us soon.

  I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes, releasing the breath that I’d been holding; it wasn’t so much a breath of relief but one that acknowledged that the first step was over. But the small relief that came with that was short-lived as it dawned on me what was to come next. We still had to search for Ella, there would be more lying to my parents, and then there was Sheriff Making and his investigation. Searching for Ella, dealing with Kale and Jace—who seemed to have a not-so-great past with each other—and not to mention coping with what would happen if Ella didn’t make it home. How would my parents deal with losing her, and how would I deal with knowing what truly
happened?

  I dragged myself upstairs to Leah’s room, since my old room was now a crime scene and Leah would be sleeping in my parents’ room. I pulled out my phone and stared at the screen. We’d agreed that Mia and I wouldn’t speak to each other for a while, in order to keep her from being drawn into the questioning, and at first I thought that it would be easy, but now I needed someone to talk to, badly. My mom wouldn’t let Leah out of her sight, so I didn’t have a chance to talk to her, and I didn’t know what Leah had been told, but I was sure she wondered where Ella was. I wondered where Ella was.

  I held to the agreement not to call Mia and threw my phone on Leah’s bright yellow dresser. Before the conversation with my dad, when he explained his disapproval of my decision to leave New York, the choice to come home was simple. Things weren’t as complicated, and Ella needed me so I wanted to come home. Though the choice to come back had been spurred by my need to be with Ella and to protect her, it had also partly been because I missed my home. Not that I didn’t fit in at NYU—New York just didn’t feel like home. The city that never slept had lost its appeal after the first semester, and though I hadn’t been ready to come home at that point, I started to wonder what made me decide that NYU was the school that I just had to attend. Ella and I had planned to go to college together, but when I got the acceptance letter from NYU, she completely understood. It was hard to get accepted into the Poole and Schuler photography program, and that I had done it was the only thing that kept my father off my back when I told him that I was going to be a photographer in New York, not an engineer like he’d hoped. That was also the first night that Ella and I seriously discussed what we planned to do with the rest of our lives. I was more than happy when she decided to go to ODU, in Virginia and visit me in New York during that summer, but when classes piled up and I had to spend summer semester taking an extra class, we just pushed back our vacation plans. Then there was the accident and then the breakdown and after that, everything just fell apart. I wondered plenty of times what I could do to help Ella, but there was nothing, and all I ended up doing was holding her at the funeral.