Caged in Darkness (11 page)

“Ash and Maye are the only reason I’m not
like my parents, if it wasn’t for them…” My pointer finger pressed
against her lips to silence her.

“Ash and Maye gave you a choice. What you
did with your choice was entirely up to
you
.” I whispered
the last word into her ear.

The feeling from earlier was back again. It
was like a pressure building in the pit of my stomach, pushing me
to merge with her. Her body language changed suddenly and I knew
she could feel it too. The air around are bodies was charged like
electricity and I could see our auras merge to blend together. Our
senses heightened to an almost painful intensity until I touched
her again. With our skin touching the pain gave way to waves of
pure ecstasy. I leaned in to graze my lips against the tip of her
nose and her breathing changed to a slight whimper. Her hands
touched my abs and moved upwards to grasp the fabric of my shirt
that lay over my chest. She pulled me closer.

Her face tipped up and I captured her lips.
Her body relaxed into mine and she pulled my neck down for better
access to my lips. She was inexperienced, but she kissed with a
fervor that made up for that. Her lips parted and I took the chance
to slip my tongue into her mouth. She gasped at the invasion, but
when I kissed her more gently she began to hesitantly explore my
mouth. Her tongue twisted around mine in a dance of wills and we
eventually settled into a rhythm that was both hungry and
sensual.

ASH

I rode home with Griffin instead of Izzy and
Willow. Griffin kept quiet the whole ride and dropped me off on the
street in front of the house. At first, I tried to pretend I wasn’t
waiting for Savannah to walk through the front door. After checking
the driveway for the millionth time, I had to admit it to myself.
Now, I sat in the living room with the lights low and a book in my
lap.

I wasn’t angry anymore. Honestly, I don’t
know why I lost my temper earlier. Savannah had been right, I
should trust her. My instincts came alive when I saw him watching
her. It was primal and an emotion I never felt before now. I was
ashamed that I didn’t fight it and worried that Savannah wouldn’t
forgive me.

Where was she? I thought she was going to
take Liam to his place and then come straight home, but it was
approaching midnight. My throat felt tight and I worried that I may
have driven her to trust the wrong guy. There was something wrong
with Liam. I hadn’t lied when I told her that. Now, I couldn’t stop
imagining all the horrible scenarios that Savannah may be placed
in.

When I wasn’t worrying over Liam harming
her, I was torturing myself with what other activities they might
be up to. I never had to worry about Savannah with guys. She wasn’t
interested and they naturally sensed that enough to stay away from
her. She had been different tonight. Maybe it was her ascension
drawing near, but it could have been
him.

Lights flashed in the driveway to reveal a
black mustang pulling in. A closer inspection revealed that Liam
was driving. I pushed my anger back at the memory of Savannah
saying she wouldn’t let Liam drive and forced myself to be calm. I
desperately wanted to watch out the window until Savannah was
safely inside. However, if she realized I was spying on her it
would serve as more proof that I didn’t trust her.

I walked to the entryway between the hallway
and the living room to wait for Savannah
.
I knew Liam walked
her to the door, because I could hear faint voices through it. My
impatience was growing, but I forced myself to take a casual stance
against the wall until she was inside. Savannah was transformed by
the smile that stretched across her face, but it made me uneasy.
She turned away from me to climb the stairs.

“Hey.” Her back tensed at my voice, but she
turned to face me with her hand clenched around the railing.

“Is there something you need?”

“I’m sorry. There is no excuse for the way I
acted earlier. I was a jerk and I hope that you won’t hold it
against me. I may have misgivings about Liam, but I should have
handled it differently.”

She looked at me from the third step of the
staircase and smiled hesitantly. “I’m still upset with you, but
I’ll come around. I do expect you to apologize to Liam too.”

“I take it that means you are seeing him
again?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Yes, I think I am.” She smiled and turned
to go upstairs. I followed closely behind. My mind was working at a
face pace to process, what it would mean if she saw Liam again and
how I would react to it. The idea of her dating him made me
queasy.

Savannah stopped at the entrance to her room
and leaned against the door. “You want to come in? We could watch a
movie? We haven’t done that in a while.”

There was a very good reason why we hadn’t
done that in a while. Lying on her bed watching a movie was not
easy for me. After tonight, I didn’t think it would be a good idea
to refuse. I could use as many points with her as possible.

“Yea, sounds like a good idea. No girlie
movies, okay?”

“Ha! After tonight,
I
get to pick the
movie. I’m thinking
Titanic
or
Ever After
…”

I groaned. Three hours of
Titanic
was
not appealing and
Ever After
wasn’t much better.

“Mmmm, I’m not sure I could withstand the
pain of watching either of those.” I feigned a yawn, “I’m suddenly
exhausted.” Savannah playfully punched my arm.

“Okay, how about a romantic comedy?” I
nodded and followed her into the bedroom. She put on
Made of
Honor
and we curled up on her bed. Her head tucked into the
crook of my arm and we relaxed into a familiar routine.

She fell asleep on my chest halfway through
the movie, while I lay awake tempted by the scent of her lingering
perfume. When the movie reached the last ten minutes, she startled
herself awake. Sitting up she turned to glance around the room with
a confused expression on her face. Her eyes lit on me and I was
entranced by the expression that crossed her features.

“Ash…” The voice that escaped did not sound
like
my
Savannah. She sounded like the frightened little
girl she used to be. It was the sound of the lost child, who didn’t
believe anyone could love her. Her eyes widened and her voice
pleaded, “Ash…” I couldn’t bear the pain that emanated from her. It
wasn’t merely her voice or appearance; I could
feel
her aura
calling out for me to heal her. She was back in that metal cage
being forced to witness her parents sacrifice innocent after
innocent. I could hear her longing, her profound need to be saved.
“Ash, please…”

Her hand reached for me, while her eyes
remained locked in her mental prison. I circled her wrists with my
hands and pulled her to me. I meant to wrap her body with my own
and offer warmth, but when I cradled her to me her cheek pressed
against mine.

Her hand gripped my skin hard enough to
bruise me. It was painful, but not nearly as much as what she was
enduring. Every night since she came to live with us, I watched her
be torn from the inside out. Her demons ate away at her every day.
This was different. Lately, her nightmares had worsened and I
didn’t know how to banish them. I wanted to keep her safe, but I
didn’t know how to save her from herself.

Her tears moistened my cheeks and my heart
broke at the contact. Something snapped in me then. My chest tore
in two and I bridged a feeling that until now had been barricaded
by as many shields as I could muster. I took her face in my hands
and kissed her with the passion of a lifetime. Everything I ever
felt for her was in that kiss. My need to protect her, my amazement
at her respect for every living being, my love… I couldn’t convey
enough, but I tried. None of my emotions could overcome the
amazement at the response I received. She kissed me back.

Savannah

I was restless. I fell asleep before the
movie ended and woke up to a cold bed. Ash was nowhere to be seen
and the window onto the terrace was wide open. I shivered and
climbed out of bed to close it. My bare feet touched the floor and
I felt something soft catch between my toes. I lifted my foot to
find a large black feather. I massaged it between my thumb and
finger, trying to figure out how it ended up in my room. Shrugging,
I threw it into the trash.

The window was stuck, but it eventually gave
way and allowed me to shut out the cold. The night was beautiful.
The stars were more visible than usual and the moon was full. I
sighed at the beauty and turned to go back to sleep. The moon shone
through the glass to light up the room, but left a corner that drew
the darkness from the surrounding area to create a pit.

The shadow straightened and moved to create
the shape of a man, which was frightening enough. Then the wings
spread to reveal the
thing
from the secret passage. A silent
scream caught in my throat. I wanted to run, but then I thought of
Ash and Maye. I couldn’t allow this shadow to harm them. I backed
away until I hit the window. I quickly opened it to climb onto the
terrace.
It
followed.

I ran to the edge, but was stopped by the
balustrade. I leaned over to see how far it would be if I jumped,
but when I tried hands pulled me back. I fought to escape. My
fingers clenched and I moved to claw its eyes out.

“S, calm down! I’m not going to hurt
you!”

Tears fell before I could hold them back and
I curled into a tight ball. Ash knelt and held me as I let go of my
fears in his arms. He smoothed my hair away from my face and sang
to calm me.

“I’m sorry.” I pushed the words out between
fits of crying.

“I know. I know.” Ash carried me back into
my room and settled me on the bed. He tucked the covers around my
body, but when he tried to leave I stopped him.

“Please don’t leave me. I don’t want to be
alone.” He nodded and settled back into his position from earlier
that night. I drifted to sleep in his arms.

The next morning I woke to a migraine and
the smell of pancakes. On the table, beside the bed was a tray
filled with a fresh breakfast. I smiled, knowing that Ash left it
for me. Beside the glass of milk, I found some ibuprofen for my
headache. I loved that he knew me so well. Only he would realize
that I would have a migraine after nightmares.

I thought about the kiss with Liam. I wasn’t
sure why we had kissed. I hadn’t known him long enough to develop
feelings for him, but when he kissed me it felt right. I couldn’t
remember ever wanting to kiss anyone.

Last night had been terrifying. I was used
to nightmares, but I never had issues with sleep walking and
wondered at the new development. I was lucky Ash caught me. I could
have ended up with a broken neck. Sighing, I tackled my
breakfast.

I spent the rest of the morning resting in
bed and doing homework. When I noticed that I had read the same
paragraph several times over the past twenty minutes and still
didn’t know what it was about, I pushed the textbook away from
me.

My notebook lay open next to me. I grabbed
the pen and began to doodle. Thinking back to the secret passage
and my waking nightmare from last night, I started to draw the
thing
and realized that I had drawn an angel with terrifying
eyes and black wings. The
thing
resembled an angel, but with
strange symbols across the skin and black wings. Next to the fallen
angel was the box from the passage.

I tore the page from my notebook and
crumpled it into a ball to toss it into the trash bin. I missed,
and got up to pick the ball of paper up. Looking down into the
trash, I paused at the sight of a black feather. Taking the feather
in my hand, I could feel my heart beat accelerate. The feather felt
real.
I quickly sent a text to Izzy and Willow, begging them
to come over.

An hour later, I sat on my bed with the
feather on my lap; books lay scattered around me. The textbook I
was currently staring at was about the properties of certain
stones.

“Hey, sorry it took me so long.” Willow
startled me and I jumped to hug her.

“Wow, okay I didn’t know you missed me that
much!” She laughed and sat on the bed. “Um, what’s with the books?”
Her hand moved to pick up the feather that lay on the coverlet from
when I stood up. In comparison, the feather dwarfed her hand. It
was about a foot long and as wide as three fingers.

It took me some time to explain my
hallucination in the passage, my dreams, and the feather. When I
was finished, Willow sat in silence staring at the feather.

“Couldn’t this me from one of Izzy’s
outfits?” She handed the feather back and I stood to place it in my
dresser.

“Do you ever remember her wearing anything
that had giant sized
feathers
?” I spoke forcefully, because
I
needed
her to believe me.

“You said Ash put everything from the
passage into the attic, right?” Willow stood and led the way
towards the attic.

It took us a while to comb through the
boxes, because Maye had insisted on keeping almost everything from
my parents’ estate. Willow got sidetracked when we found the boxes
from the passageway. Once her eyes set on the journals, she was
lost to me. Every half an hour I would call Izzy and leave a
voicemail for her, but she still hadn’t called back.

“Listen to this, your ancestor says that he
sought the dead to learn about your lineage.” Willow turned the
page and blew dust from the text.

“What do you mean
he sought the
dead
?” I grabbed the journal and tried to find the section she
left off at, but Willow took it back.

“He used rituals to bring back the souls of
the dead to gain knowledge.”