Chasing Shadows (42 page)

The ride home was quiet. Our hands were clasped together in a clammy pile of wrinkled fingers and palms. Heat blasted away the cold from my soaked clothes but left me feeling chafed and itchy. When we finally arrived at our house, I hurried to get inside. We left our muddy shoes on the porch and raced up the stairs and into the bathroom. Sebastian drew a warm bath, and I added bubbles for some extra relaxation. I peeled the still-damp clothes off my body and shucked them off to the side. Sebastian had climbed into the tub already and was waiting for me to jump in and join him. My toes burned against the warmth of the water, letting me know that I was colder than I had thought.

Sharp heat burned away the chill quickly, and I settled in more comfortably against Sebastian. My head rested easily against his shoulder. Exhaustion seeped into my bones at that moment and I sighed heavily. Even though lying there snuggled up against Sebastian’s chest and shoulders was amazing, I didn’t want to fall asleep in the bathtub. I slowly got up and wrapped myself in a thick white towel. Sebastian protested but fell silent when he saw how tired my eyes had grown.

I didn’t bother sifting through the closet to find clothes; instead I grabbed a shirt Sebastian had left on the floor and pulled it on. It smelled like him, masculine and of something unknown to me, even still. The sheets were still tossed aside, just like they had been in the morning. Feeling even more exhausted, I crawled into bed, pulled the sheets up, and dozed off quickly.

A soft bounce at the foot of the bed startled me out of a dreamless sleep. I looked around the room. Night had fallen, and the clock said it was a little after seven in the evening. Groaning, I looked down at my feet to see Helios kneading the space between my legs. His ears perked up and he spun to stare at me. It was eerie how he always knew when I woke up, but I understood how he knew because I knew when people woke up too.

He climbed up to greet me, and I scratched his ears while crooning at him. His weight bore down on my chest, and I gasped for breath. No matter how many times he sat on me, I never got used to how heavy he had gotten since Sebastian had left him with me as a kitten. Helios was easily thirty pounds, and he wasn’t even at his full size yet. That thought in it itself made me groan inwardly. “Helios,” I said with my voice stern and a frown creasing my face, “if you keep growing, I’m not going to be able to handle you lying on my chest anymore.” He chirped at me as if to say, “Sure, Mom, I’ll stop growing for you.” I smiled at my cat and continued to give him love.

Footsteps made Helios’s ears perk up and twitch, and startled me into jumping. Sebastian chuckled. I snatched one of the pillows next to me and launched it at his head. It sailed through the air and missed him by an inch. He had sidestepped my ammo and charged at the bed. A squeal escaped my throat as I watched him fly over my head and land roughly next to me. Helios growled in pure frustration, hopped down, and ran out of the room. We laughed in unison. As we sobered up, I sat there and thought about everything that we were fighting against the u da yv la dv for, moments like this, and future moments bursting with joy and love. My eyes started to blur as I thought of a world without those moments and future memories. I sighed heavily and wiped at my eyes quickly.

Soft buzzes from my phone made me pull my attention away from my thoughts. There was a text from my mom asking me if I would be able to babysit while she and my father went out. I reread the text a few times before an idea formed. The night in question was the next full moon, and I needed a full moon in order to do the ritual to save Clamora, but I still needed an alibi so that Sebastian wouldn’t try to stop me. Pushing the brilliant plan back in my mind, I replied to my mom.

We went downstairs shortly after our play fight. Black-and-white movies played endlessly on the TV as we munched on popcorn, half buttered with a delectable blood sauce and half coated with plain butter. Helios had found himself a spot on the area rug and was snoozing away. The thick afghan that had been draped over the back of the couch was now pulled on my lap as I lay against Sebastian’s side. We stayed like that for hours, unmoving, laughing at how cheesy some of the movies were, and clinging to each other when they were so romantic that it somehow hurt. I wasn’t sure how many movies we watched before we passed out, entwined on the couch, or how long we had been asleep when I woke up from a bad dream.

I stared at the bright test pattern that bounced around on the black screen. My mind raced at the visions that had flashed before my eyes, and I took slow, deep breaths to calm my erratic heart and emotions. Ever since we had learned how to contact each other psychically, we had become more in tune with each other’s emotions. At times it was wonderful, but at times like this it was irritating and a slight inconvenience. I knew the dream was only a manifestation of my guilt about keeping my plan from Sebastian. We were technically married—maybe not in the mortal world, but that didn’t mean as much as it did in the supernatural one—so weren’t we supposed to share every thought, idea, and plan with each other? Being as quiet as possible, I stood up and began to clean up the living room. It was better than pacing the floor. This way, if he woke up I didn’t have to tell him I was having a small panic attack about a secret I was keeping from him. Letting a small huff of air out when I was finished picking everything up, I turned off the TV then woke him up and we headed upstairs and into our bed.

Chapter 20

Throughout the next week, I sent Sebastian to the store periodically to get him out of the house so I could prepare the abscondere potion. On the last day I sent him out, I made a quick healing wreath that I placed above our front door and a small healing bracelet for him specifically so he wouldn’t be suspicious about why I was sending him away. He had gushed happily over the bracelet and admitted sheepishly that he had been a little worried I was trying to get rid of him for something more sinister or serious. I had to bite down on the surfacing guilt as he spoke the words, and I placated him by telling him I simply wanted to surprise him with something nice.

The moon was growing in size, and the days stretched longer in anticipation. I had grown more affectionate toward Sebastian, and he didn’t seem to mind it or wonder why. We were sitting on the bed, and I was staring at him. He was sitting propped up on the pillows, a book in his hand, and the blankets only shielding the lower half of his body. Every so many pages he would glance up and raise an eyebrow. After a while, he set the book down on his nightstand and sighed. His green eyes turned dark and his face went serious. My body went still at his look. He knew something was up. Each memory of the last week and a half flashed through my mind, and I couldn’t find anything that gave me or my plan away. Sebastian’s eyes flickered with confusion as he watched me panic slightly.

“AubrieAnna . . . ” he said, soft, cool, and collected, just like his voice always was.

I groaned inwardly at the sound of my name coming off his lips. “Hm?” was all I could manage.

“Why are you so jumpy and into me lately? I like the second part more than you realize, so don’t get me wrong there, but you’re just attached at the hip with me lately and I’m a little confused.” When he spoke with the serious tone he was using now, his accent came out stronger than normal, and it did things to my brain that no one voice should be able to do to anyone’s mind.

“I just feel it.” I looked down at my hands and started picking imaginary lint off the comforter. “It’s coming soon, and I’m a little scared . . . ”

Sebastian didn’t say anything at first, and I couldn’t look at him. I hadn’t lied when I answered him, because I knew it was coming soon, my entire body tingled every time I stepped outside, but it wasn’t the full truth. He still wasn’t saying anything, and I was focused so hard on the comforter my magic had actually tugged a single thread free from the stitching. I picked at it quite aggressively. Darkened hands touched mine and a calming sensation settled over me. I stopped yanking on the small string and looked up into the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. “Why did you not tell me?” His voice was soft, hands warm, and eyes distracting.

I stumbled over the words that came out of my mouth. “I . . . I didn’t want you to worry about me, or worry about when it’s actually going to happen. I just wanted nothing but you and me.” I looked down at our hands when I finished speaking.

His thumbs stroked loving circles on the backs of my hands. “There will always be you and me.” The soothing circles stopped as his firm voice was silenced by the end of his words. I still couldn’t look at his face; I didn’t want to lose my breath yet. Warmth grasped the back of my neck and my cheeks with fierce eagerness. Still feeling shy, I looked up at him through my lashes, and my breath caught. Sebastian’s eyes were full of understanding, desire, love, and fierce determination. He yanked my face, forcing me to look at him, and I did. I stared back at him with every emotion in my body. We stared at each other like that, emotions in our eyes, breathing in heavy gasps, as our desires and need to be close to each other flooded the room in a scent that was heady in the most beautifully intoxicating way.

Soft sweet lips crashed down on mine so hard I thought I was going to break under them, but I didn’t and I was so thankful. Without any hesitation, my fingers yanked him closer to me. We were chest to chest, and I couldn’t stand the sudden heat that was running through my bones. It made my muscles shake while my blood boiled and my brain shut down completely. All I could think of was getting as close to him as possible. I knew he felt it too, because his fingers shredded through my T-shirt and gripped at the parts of my skin that were suddenly bare. Air cooled my feverish skin, making me shiver. He seemed to take the hint and pulled me down onto the bed, covering my body with his surprisingly overheated one.

Our bodies were melded together and our lips never seemed to part. We were one, and there was nothing in the world that I wanted more than to feel his soul touch mine. Without thinking twice, I scratched at his back and clawed my own hand to shreds. Blood oozed from the scratch, just below his left shoulder blade. Lightly, I pressed my freshly bloodied palm against his wound and gasped in sheer awe.

White light seared my vision and my soul shuddered inside my body. It was ecstasy and joy fused so completely that I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to handle it anymore. Lights sparked in every inch of my being, like an explosion had gone off, and every positive thought and feeling was released to freely ping off my insides. Our souls met and shared an embrace unlike any other I had ever felt. My arm was burning with a pain that was almost unbearable. Fearing that I was somehow on fire, I looked down at my arm and gasped. The white light that had burned my eyes was coming from me, from us. I looked up from the light we were emanating and into his eyes, and I saw the same shock that was bombarding my own thoughts. His eyes went heavy, and I knew he was feeling every single thing that I felt. Every muscle in his body shuddered and shivered before he collapsed in a sweaty heap.

I moved my hand away from his back and saw that the wound on my palm had healed and scarred. It wasn’t a jagged sheer white line; instead, it was blue and purple, like an iridescent bruise. There was no tenderness to the skin, just the new, discolored bruise. Curious, I reached over Sebastian’s back and touched my palm lightly. My skin was still soft, but it tingled lightly when I ran my fingers across the line. I tried to peek over Sebastian’s shoulder to see if his cut looked the same as mine, but his heavy weight against me told me he was asleep. Even though I couldn’t see it, something inside my chest told me it looked the exact same.

***

My skin had cooled so suddenly that shivers crawled along my skin, giving me goose bumps and waking me from a deep sleep. I had lain there under him for what felt like hours, thinking about our souls meshing into one being, and had eventually closed my eyes and fallen asleep. Clutching the blanket tightly around me, I rolled over to look at Sebastian. Just under his left shoulder a shimmer of purple glinted in the failing daylight. It took all of my effort to not reach over and touch it, to feel if it was just as soft as the surrounding skin.

A ping from downstairs caught my attention and pulled me back to reality. The sun was setting. I scurried to my feet and rushed to get dressed. Sebastian groaned sleepily from the bed while I rummaged around in the closet. Luke had told me we would be walking through the woods, so I had to dress accordingly without looking like I was going for a run. Footsteps alerted me to the fact that Sebastian was up and moving around. I threw on my leggings, a sweatshirt, and some tennis shoes and popped out of the closet. A confused look stumbled across his face and his right eyebrow lifted up in a question.

“I told my parents I would babysit for them tonight so they could have a date night, remember?” I smiled softly at him.

He nodded once before he turned to walk into the bathroom, thought better of it, and turned back around. “What in the world did you do to me today?”

“What do you mean?” I cocked my head to the side, then had one of those aha moments and immediately tried to explain how I had felt in that moment and what I had done.

“So you somehow managed to get our souls to actually meet up with each other inside of our bodies, and that’s what it felt like?” Sebastian’s normally cautious eyes were wide with amazement and awe.