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  He rolled over and placed his hands behind his head. “There is more than just that, but luckily, we have more than enough time to figure it out.” Kale didn’t sound completely convinced.

  Something in his voice made me prop myself on my elbow to see him in the moonlight that shone through the window.

  “What is it that you are worried about, Kale?”

  A knock on the door saved him from having to answer me. He jumped off the bed and headed to the door. I glanced at the clock. Who would be at the door at two a.m., and why?

  Kale pulled the door open a crack, just enough for him to see and not me.

  “Hey, man, you got a second?” I heard Deacon ask.

  Kale looked back at me. “I’ll just be a second.” He went out and shut the door tight behind him.

  I resisted the urge to go see what was going on. I trusted that Kale would tell me about it. We were past the protective lies and headed into a relationship where we could both depend on each other for honesty.

  I stood up and stretched. Later that day, I was headed back to what had been my home since my stay in Ocean Trace, and even though I was headed back with bad news and lies, I was a bit eager to go. I missed Lea, Eric, and Sarah, and I was beyond grateful for their generosity. I wanted to show them that.

  I headed to the window and stared out into the back yard. I couldn’t help but think that all I was giving them in return for the hospitality were lies and a dead son. How could l look them in the face and tell them that I was thankful, but after I sold my parents’ home, I was leaving, never to return? I had at once thought that I’d be able to visit them over the years. I’d probably have a good five to eight years before questions about my graceful aging would arise, but I was a coward. I didn't have the courage to return to a home that I’d helped destroy.

  Kale came up with my cover story, a good one. I had gotten ahold of a cell phone and called Alex for help, and he came to my rescue. Alex was always protective of me, and that protectiveness had gotten him killed.

  I pressed my face against the cool glass and took a few deep breaths. I wanted to run away from all this, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t that type of person anymore. I’d face my new problems head-on, no matter how much it hurt. I would solve them, not leave them unattended and forgotten—which reminded me that I needed to talk to Kale about what I’d learned from Laurent. He might have been a murderous creep, but he had taught me how to control my visions and told me the truth about my mother and father.

  I moved to the dresser that held Kale’s cell phone and pulled it out. He had Mia’s number in it, and I wanted to text her to see if she was okay, I thought better of it when I remembered the time. I didn’t want to wake her up, but I needed to talk to someone, anyone.

  I paced the room, waiting for Kale to come back. The longer I was alone, the more time I had to mull over everything that had happened. Realizing that the only escape from my thoughts was out in the living room—where I had assumed Kale and Deacon were—I grabbed one of Kale’s hoodies and threw it on over my tank.

  I opened the door and quietly walked down the hall into the living room, but Deacon and Kale weren’t there. I went back down the hall and placed my ear against the closed door to the study where Kale had allowed Jace to stay, but I heard nothing. As I straightened and started to turn, the door to the study opened.

  “Hello.” Jace leaned against the doorjamb and looked down at me. He was still fully dressed in his fatigues, even at two in the morning. His hair was ruffled, and his eyes were slightly closed, as if he’d just woken up.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. I hadn’t talked to him in almost four days, and that wasn’t going to change now.

  As I turned to leave, Jace grabbed my elbow and gently pulled me back him.

  “Let go of me,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Forgive me.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked, amazed. “Are you really asking me to forgive you for whatever part you played in my parent’s death?”

  Jace watched me with worried eyes and shook his head. “No, I mean for touching you without your permission.”

  “Oh, and not for killing my mother and father?” I yelled.

  Jace reached out again—I took another step back.

  “Ella, I didn’t kill them. There are plenty of things that I have done to find you, but murder was never one of those things.” Jace sounded defensive yet sincere, but I had been lied to too many times. Jace cleared his throat and started to continue speaking.

  I didn’t let him. “Listen.” I moved closer to him. “I don’t want to hear any of your crap. You may not have killed them, but all this time you knew, you knew what had happened to them, and you didn’t tell me.”

  I ran my hands through my hair. I was so tired of being lied to or having secrets kept from me. “You were never going to tell me, were you?” Anger dripped from my voice.

  There was a long moment of silence.

  “No. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I knew you would find out,” he admitted.

  I stared, shocked. I hadn’t expected Jace to tell me the truth.

  “I knew what Aleixandre had done, and I still tried to take you to him. I still believed that we could protect you. I still believe we can. What Aleixandre did was wrong on so many levels, but you still needed to be protected, and the Council has the ability to do it. ” He released a deep breath. “My mistake was in not being honest, Ella.”

  “You knew that her parents had been murdered by Aleixandre, and you were still planning to take her to him?” Kale thundered behind me. “This was why you were angry with the Council when we rescued you.”

  “Yes.” I knew he wasn’t asking.

  “And you didn’t talk to me about this, why?” Kale approached us. He moved differently when angry. His usual slow and easy gait turned strong, determined.

  He towered over me. His jaw clenched, and his fists balled tightly at his sides.

  “I thought that we had more important things to worry about, and I was worried about your reaction.” I heard the nervous shake to my voice. I was worried, but more than that, I knew that Jace didn’t kill my parents. He’d only received my anger because the two men who had killed my parents weren’t available, and because he represented the man who ordered the hit.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see the unapologetic look in Jace’s eyes.

  “I said that I realized—”

  “The question now is if you realize what I will do to you if you don’t leave my property,” Kale said menacingly as he moved closer to Jace. “I wonder if you understand the position you have now put me in.”

  Jace laughed, but I saw nothing funny about the situation.

  Kale looked dangerously similar to the Chorý that had taken Alex’s life. His eyes had darkened to obsidian, his chest expanded, and his fangs—which I’d never seen before—extended past his lips. My heart pounded in my chest, and I backed into Jace, who placed his hands on my shoulders.

  “Don’t worry, Ella. We knew that la Luxure would one day be more than he could bear. Kale knew when we rescued you. He wasn’t sure I was telling the truth, though.” Jace pulled me closer, protectively, and I allowed it. I didn’t want Kale to do to Jace what the other Chorý had done to Alex.

  I had only feared Kale once, and that was at the lodge when I thought Kale was going to bite me.

  Kale smiled, revealing sharp white fangs. He reached for me. “Come here,” he requested, his voice soothing and warm.

  “Don’t do that to her,” Jace said as I tried to move away from him. Jace pulled me back.

  I shook my head, trying to erase the fuzzy feeling, and looked at Kale in disbelief. He had once again used Enthrallment on me. “You have to be kidding me!”

  Deacon came around the corner and glanced at everyone in confusion. His gaze landed on Kale, and he froze. “Man, you aren’t looking so well. What’s going on?”

  Kale didn’t take his eyes off of me. Jace pulled me behind him. T
he black stare was unnerving, and even though I was angry, I could still see something was seriously wrong. Kale was acting odd, and Deacon looked worried.

  I peeked at Kale from behind Jace’s shoulder and winced at the anger I saw there.

  “It seems that the trust we had has once again become strained, Ella,” Kale said, his voice deep and taut. “Why is that? Jace?” His emotionless expression looked as hard as stone.

  I cleared my throat and looked to Deacon, who was heading toward Kale.

  “Look, man. I think we need to calm down a bit.” He glanced at Jace and frowned. “Let Ella come over here to me. Kale is fine. He’s just angry, that’s all.” Deacon looked at me with pleading eyes and motioned for me to come to him. As I moved, Jace held up his arm, trapping me behind him and against the wall.

  “She can stay here. Kale, when was the last time you fed the beast?” Jace asked tonelessly. I didn’t think that Jace was afraid of Kale, even with that predatory glare.

  “Look, just to defuse the situation that I can see coming from a mile away, let her come over here. You and Kale can handle this mess without Ella being in the crossfire,” Deacon reasoned, and it sounded great to me. Kale’s agitation was worsening, and it was making me nervous.

  Jace shook his head again. “Over my dead body.” He growled.

  “Fitting words, seeing how that is exactly what is about to happen.” Kale sounded sinister.

  Things didn’t slow down, my life didn’t flash before my eyes, and even though I had time to move when Kale leapt into the air and landed on Jace, I froze. In what could have been a flashback to Alex’s death, Kale sank his teeth into Jace’s neck with a snarl that made me scream. Deacon moved so fast and reached to pull me out. I hadn’t even noticed that I was once again pinned between a wall and a crazed Chorý and immortal.

  Deacon kicked Kale in the side. Kale grunted as his teeth left Jace’s neck, with a sickening sound of ripped flesh.

  Deacon grabbed my arm and flung me toward the bedroom door. “Get in there, and lock it, now!”

  I did exactly as told and slammed the door behind me. I leaned against it and tried to still my heart, which beat so hard in my chest that it hurt. I fought the tears and closed my eyes.

  Bad move. I could see Alex’s face as it changed from anger to panic to utter fear. I saw his face pale and his eyes pleading with me to run. I remembered how I’d run until it felt my heart would explode into pieces.

  “I can’t let this happen again,” I whispered, but what could I do? I couldn’t let the Luxure or whatever it was kill our chance to be together. This wasn’t the first time that Kale had struggled with it. Back in the cemetery—Kale had been struck with the urge then, too, but he’d gotten over it. There had to be a way to pull him out of it again.

  I took a deep breath, turned around, and called through the door for Deacon.

  “Give me a minute, Ella,” Deacon yelled back. “I kinda have my hands full here.”

  Chapter 31

  Kale

  I knew that Ella was there and that everything that I did—including each word I spoke—pushed her further from me. All the trust that we’d built was slowly crumbling.

  She wouldn’t take my hand. She was afraid of me, and once again, she was trusting Jace over me.

  I wasn’t angry with her but with myself. I had been crazy enough to believe that a beast like me had a place in her life. Jace’s smirk when Ella refused to take my hand was all the beast inside me needed, and before I knew it—before I could even comprehend Deacon’s words—my fangs descended, and all I could think about was not the sweet taste of Jace’s blood, but the look in Ella’s eyes as I leapt into the air.

  Just a day earlier, I’d seen her eyes sparkle at the possibility of starting a life together. All that was now broken and impossible, because the need to drain Jace was more than my need to punish him for his role in the deaths of Ella’s parents.

  It was the need to make him bleed, the need to take his blood as he died. Even when I was rational, I killed Council members for self-preservation, not for the lust I felt now as I sank my teeth in his neck and frantically drank, drank as Jace thrashed against me.

  Deek’s kick wasn’t enough to keep me off of Jace for long, and when I returned to his neck, I felt his pulse speed up in panic and anger. He pounded me on the head with one hand. Though his blows did nothing to break me from his neck, they did stop me from sucking the blood that was rushing from his vein to my mouth.

  I released Jace’s neck just long enough to grab him by his collar and shove him up against the wall so hard that it crumbled and dented beneath him. I sent a fist, filled with all my anger at the Council’s actions, into his ribs and smiled deviously as he expelled a choking breath. Anger raged inside me, and I kneed Jace in the same spot I had punched him, sending him to his knees.

  “How did that taste?” I taunted as I lowered myself to my knees, to meet Jace’s gaze.

  I leaned in closer to take what would be the final taste of the immortal waste. Deek grabbed my neck and waist, he used all of his strength to pull me away from Jace, giving him time to stand up and recover some from my attack. I fought like a caged animal, but with each grunt and snarl, I felt my head start to clear.

  My limbs felt light and could no longer fight Deacon. I could still taste Jace’s deliciously fragrant blood in my lips, and I felt a sense of calm. A dizzying wave of clarity swept over me.

  “You hear me, man?”

  From the annoyance in Deek’s voice, he’d been trying to get me my attention. Even though I believed that immortal blood could help with la Luxure, it didn’t seem to be a permanent cure.

  “Deacon?” Ella called, and I closed my eyes, feeling Jace’s blood race throughout my system.

  “Give me a minute, Ella,” Deacon yelled through the door. “I kinda have my hands full here.”

  I looked at him, knowing that I had proven what he would soon tell Ella: That I had lost control and that I was a danger to her, just as I had believed from the beginning. I could no longer deny it, because as I drank from Jace and looked into Ella’s eyes, my first thought was: Would her blood be as sweet as her kisses, as warm as her lips, or as willing to come to me as she was?

  “Deek, take me to the basement and lock me up.”

  “Are you sure, man?” Deek’s voice was low and sincere. “I think you just let your anger get the best of you. It could have happened to any one of us. There’s a lot of stress going on; too much for us to handle.” He let me go and caught me when I wavered on my feet. “The call from Ana shook me up too. We need to send for them; she can’t handle him on her own.”

  He’d called me away from Ella earlier because Ana was having problems controlling her progeny and needed our help. All I could do for her was send Deacon to her to help; I would not let her bring him here.

  Still, that was not the only problem. I looked at Jace’s neck and remembered how good it had felt to know that his immortal life was in my hands, how sweet his blood had been as it passed over my lips, pooled in my mouth, and flowed down my throat.

  “I said: Lock. Me. Up.”

  ***

  I’d spent a week in the cell. Deacon had told me that Ella was pissed off at me, Jace was threatening to take Ella and run, and Deacon himself sang my praises to them. He blamed Jace for purposely pushing my buttons, and Ella blamed me for trying to fix everything on my own. They were both right.

  Jace had thought showing Ella what I would become would’ve been enough to make her leave me. Ella and Deacon also thought that this would be an easy fix, that all they had to do was hope and wish that I got better, and that would be enough.

  I wasn’t feeling as optimistic as they were, and for good reason. I had waited a full two weeks before I allowed Deacon to let Ella see me, and I regretted it as soon as she walked through the door. Her face was red and swollen, and she held onto herself for the comfort she needed from me that I was unable to give. I hated myself for it.

 
; She was so strong before she met me. She had lost so much, but I had never even seen her cry. She thought that world saw her as fragile, and maybe they did, but in my eyes, there was no person stronger than she was—and I was the one who’d broken her. I could have hunted and killed Laurent never revealing myself to Ella.

  “How are you?” she asked, her voice strained and low. She avoided my eyes and looked to Deacon for comfort. He approached the cell, eyeing me suspiciously. I nodded to let him know that it was all right, and he placed his large hand on Ella’s shoulder and squeezed. Jealousy roared inside me that he was able to touch her and comfort her while I was locked in this cell.

  “I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “I’m okay. It’s just—” Ella drew closer to my cell, and I retreated further inside. Disappointment flared in her eyes; I ignored it. This was for the best. “I just got a little emotional when Deacon told me that you would see me finally.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re not,” she insisted, to my surprise. “You and Alex have that in common. You aren’t sorry for doing what you think is right, even if it hurts my feelings.” She unwrapped her arms from around herself and placed a hand on her hip.

  “How we get you better, so you can get out of this—” —she gestured to the cell bars and frowned— “cell and back into my life?” Her smile was forced, so she finally knew the severity of the situation.

  “Saving me isn’t worth your life, Ella, and it could come to that.” I realized how harsh my words were only after I’d said them.

  Ella’s stunned expression changed to annoyance. “Are you saying that this isn’t worth fighting for?”

  Chapter 32

  Ella

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Kale glared at me through the bars. His anger was clearly evident as was my own.