Awakened (25 page)

“Of all people, I know what it is to pay for mistakes made, and I am ready to do just
that when the time comes.” I looked down at Ella, who had fallen asleep in my arms.

“She’ll hate you for it,” Jace added. “She’ll never want to see you again. This may
be the last time she allows you to even be this close to her. Can you accept that
as punishment?”

“If I must.”

“Hah.” Jace turned and faced me. “You have followed her throughout time, sacrificed
your life and soul for her, and you are telling me that you would just walk away once
she tells you she wants you gone? I don’t believe it.”

He didn’t need to. I had done all those things for her safety, and I would do even
more for her happiness, even if it meant I’d never see her again. I had tried to protect
her for so long without her knowing of my existence. She deserved a normal life, and
I couldn’t offer that.

“Yeah, I know—I know, my opinion means nothing to you.” Jace laughed as he headed
to the front of the boat. He was right. I had done and sacrificed a lot for Ella,
but she had made it clear that she wouldn’t accept dishonesty.

***

After Ella and I got off the boat and into the car, the car ride to the jet was quiet,
but I could hear her breathing, each inhale and exhale more ragged than the last.
Tears fell down her face, tracing the paths of the previous ones until they made it
to her bruised chin and puddled in her lap.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her, the ghost of the girl she was before. She wasn’t
the same, and I’d known that would be the case, but it hurt to see her so broken.
What did she find out that made her react to Jace the way she did, say the words she
said, and then retreat into her own little world?

Ella’s heart-shaped lips sat in a grim line on her face. They were swollen from a
small cut.

Once she woke up on the boat, she’d told me of the Chorý that had landed on top of
her and Alex. I winced. I’d heard her scream and froze, unable to run to her. Fury
twisted through my gut as I imagined her pinned to the frozen ground; the beast purred,
waking from its slumber.

Ella wrung her red, chafed hands in her lap. I wanted to reach over and touch her
hand, to soothe her, but I didn’t dare. I had no right to console her, touch her,
or hold her.

All the things she needed, and I couldn’t give them to her. I needed to put distance
between us now, so that later when Deek and I were gone, it would be easier for her
to cope.

Holding her earlier had felt so good and so right, but the truth of what happened
to Alex was still fresh in my mind. The lies and betrayals would soon come to the
surface, and I wouldn’t be able to make this right with a few apologies. Ana, Deek,
and the Council members were the only ones who knew the truth, and it ate me up inside,
so much so that the beast within me had woken.

I needed the blood of my master, but Laurent was dead. I looked away from the girl
I’d chased throughout time, the girl whose lips tasted so sweet their flavor was forever
burned in my memory, the girl I would walk away from forever if I couldn’t beat
la Luxure
.

What I wanted from her was unrealistic, and I knew it long before I’d found her. Her
life was her own, and the only way to share eternity with her would be to infect her,
change her from the beautiful person that she was to a cold shell of a human that
would kill and destroy as I had, centuries before.

I looked over to her again. Her tears had yet to stop falling. We exited the Jeep
and walked over to the jet. Ella’s hair blew around her face in dirty tangles. She
didn’t reach up to move the hair from her eyes and face. She only stared straight
ahead, her expression blank. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. I stared, wondering
if things could have been different.

“I don’t want them with us when they come,” Ella murmured.

“Who?”

“The Council. I don’t want any of them on this jet with me. I just want to go home—to
your home, I mean. I don’t know how I will explain where I’ve been to the Carlsons.”
Ella shook her head and whispered, “And I don’t know how I am supposed to tell them
that their son is dead.”

I pulled her close again, ignoring the beast as it purred with pleasure. “Don’t worry
about that, right now. You can stay in the cottage until we figure out how to get
you back home again.” Ella nodded, and made sure that she was safely inside the jet.
From Big Tusk to Chote was ten minutes by boat, followed by a fifteen-minute Jeep
ride to where the jet had landed.

Ella and I sat in the jet. I watched the color return to her cheeks. Her body relaxed
against the cushioned seats, and she’d finally stopped crying.

The thirty-minute wait for the rest of the group seemed like forever, but when I heard
the Jeeps pull up, I headed outside to tell Jace and the others that Ella wanted nothing
to do with them.

“Hey, man. She okay?” Deek was the first to greet me as he jumped from the Jeep and
headed in my direction.

“As well as can be expected. Deek, she doesn’t want any of the Council on the plane
with her, and she wants to stay with me for a while until we get her story together.”

“Sounds reasonable, but what about the Council?” Deek looked behind him to see that
Jace and Servitto had ended their discussion and were headed in our direction. Before
they made it over, Deek leaned in close to speak to me. “Jace knew all along that
Ella would act this way when we arrived, but I don’t think the other two did.”

Deacon left the circle and climbed into the jet with Ella. I could hear him introducing
himself to her. That left me to go to the Council members and telling them the jet
that they had provided us with was off-limits to them, at the demand of the person
that they had risked themselves to save. I hoped that Jace would help me defuse the
reactions of his fellow colleagues.

“I’m assuming that she is still really pissed at us.” Jace eyed Ella from afar.

I looked back in time to see her cold gaze on the group of Immortals. I cringed, thankful
that the stare was not directed at me. I approached the group, amazed that they let
me, since they knew that Laurent was dead and they no longer needed me.

“She’d like it if you three found a different way home,” I explained again as I looked
into the eyes of each of them, searching for the anger that was sure to follow.

“Are you telling me that we can’t fly home in our own damned jet?” Tamsin’s voice
dripped with annoyance. Maybe someone would say that I had turned her against them
and threatened to make me pay.

“We need to get home, as well,” Servitto stated. “Have the pilot return for us.” I
wasn’t surprised that Servitto accepted Ella’s wishes. Jace moved toward the jet to
inform the pilot of the flight plan changes, while Tamsin and Servitto moved away
from me to have a private conversation of their own.

I headed into the jet and sat beside Ella. I couldn’t wait to be home and settled
in to deal with the next set of problems that awaited us.

Ella

Three days later

I woke up and rolled over to find Kale gone. For the past three days, Kale had lain
with me until I’d fallen asleep. The nightmares had gotten worse, and he had always
been there when I woke up, but not today.

“Hey, you’re up.” His warm voice sounded from the other side of the room. I turned
over to face him. Kale sat in the corner in a pair of gray sweat pants and gray flannel
T-shirt.

“What time is it?”

“A little after noon.” Kale stood up and sat on the bed beside me. “There’s someone
here that wants to see you.”

I sat up abruptly. “Who?”

“Mia,” Kale answered.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to see anyone yet, Kale.” I lay back down and pulled the
covers over my head.

Kale pulled the covers back and kissed my forehead. “Ella, you can’t stay in my bed
forever. As much as I love the fact that you are here and safe, you are going to have
to face her and everyone else.”

“‘Everyone else’ meaning Jace and the Council?” I asked.

“No, I mean that sooner or later, you are going to have to see the Carlsons.” Kale
scooted closer and got under the covers with me. He pulled me into his arms and placed
his chin on top of my head. “Mia knows that Alex didn’t make it back, and she needs
someone to talk to as well. You can be that someone for her.”

I snuggled closer to Kale and draped my arms over him. “You mean because I know what
it’s like to lose someone?”

“No, all of us have lost someone—me, Deek, Jace, and now Mia—but you are the only
one she wants to speak to.” Kale kissed the top of my head.

“Yeah, I’m sure she blames me for Alex’s death.”

Kale pulled my face up to meet his and planted a sweet kiss on my lips. “Stop that.
I’ve already told you that no one blames you. We all knew what we were doing when
we left to find you Ella.” He shifted onto his back and pulled me flush to his side.

“What if I never want to go back?” I asked. “What if you and I ran away together and
I never came back to Virginia?”

Kale sighed. “You wouldn’t want to live with that regret, Ella. Trust me.”

“Whatever.”

“No ‘whatever’ about it. Trust me, it’s a burden you don’t want to bear.” Kale patted
my back and started to get up. I pulled him back down, pleased that he let me. He
fell lightly back onto the bed and then rolled over, holding himself over me.

“This is very inappropriate, Kale,” I said with a smile. With his own sly grin, Kale
lifted himself all the way up and stood beside the bed. He held his hand out to me.

“Come on. Get up.” I took his hand and let him lead me to the bathroom. Once Kale
left, I showered, brushed my teeth, and changed into some of the clothes that Kale
had purchased for me.

I went to the door, placed my hand on the doorknob, and then took a deep breath. Once
I went out there, there would be no going back into the room and covering my head.
Revealing the truth would start here; first with Mia, and then with Sarah and Eric,
but after that was a mystery. Where would Kale and I stand?

He said that running away wouldn’t solve my problems, and he was right, but if I spoke
to Sarah and Eric, then stayed with them through the hard part of losing a loved one,
could Kale and I then disappear? Mia would still be left behind, and there was still
the small fact that I was not an immortal. Asking the Council to change me seemed
no longer an option.

I couldn’t trust them, but Kale hated what he was and would never turn me into a Chorý.
I knew my only option was becoming immortal through the Council, but I needed a plan.

First, I needed to deal with Mia. She wasn’t going to take Alex’s death well, even
though she hadn’t known him long. Anyone he’d ever met instantly fell in love with
his boyish smiles, goofy grin, and sleepy eyes.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, opened the door, headed for the living room, where
I could hear Kale’s friend Deacon speaking on his phone.

Deacon saw me and hung up. “Hey, you’re finally up.”

He stood up. Over the past few days, when I actually left the bedroom, Deacon was
there. I liked “Deek,” as Kale called him, and I found that the big guy was like a
huge teddy bear. He was always attentive to my needs and had the same distaste for
Jace as I did.

“How you feeling? Are you hungry? I can cook if you want.” Deacon headed toward the
kitchen. He had been cooking for me, and I had to admit that I enjoyed seeing what
he would come up with.

“Yes, please. Can you make enough for Mia, too?” I didn’t see her in the kitchen or
sitting area.

Kale answered my unasked question. “She’s outside with Jace at the moment.”

“Hmm, with Jace?” I ignored the urge to roll my eyes. Kale and I hadn’t yet talked
about what the Council had done to my parents, but I think he knew something. “How
did she take the news?”

“She took it better than I thought she would. She told me that she and Alex had had
a conversation before he’d left, and he’d explained to her that he might not come
back, but I still think she is going to need you. She may not know how to deal with
all this, and you, unfortunately, do.” Kale had dressed in his usual black and was
sitting in the window by the fireplace.

I went to stand beside him and allowed the fire to warm me. He was right; there were
a few things that needed to be straightened out before I confronted Jace, and I believed
that it would be easier with Kale by my side.

“It’s good that she took it well.” I finger-combed my hair and pulled it into a ponytail.
I pushed away thoughts of my unfortunate experiences with death, because that brought
thoughts of my parents and the growing hate I had for Jace and the rest of the Council.

And thoughts of Alex. I’d cried for him so much and so hard over the past three days
that my head pounded and my eyes burned, but being close to Kale made it a bit better.
We had passed the hurdle of Laurent. That made things better in my mind. Even though
Kale refused to tell me what happened to Laurent, I knew that he had handled it, and
we could move on.

I placed my hand in Kale’s to get his full attention. His hands were cool and so big
that they engulfed mine. “I have a question for you.”

He turned from the frozen landscape to face me. His eyes were dark, and I could see
the stress and worry in the caused dark circles under his eyes.

“Ella, when do you not have some sort of question for me?” His voice was low and playful.

I smiled. “What are we?” I didn’t feel shy or nervous. I wanted to know where Kale
and I stood.

I’d had boyfriends before; boyfriends that I’d cared about, but nothing like what
I was starting to feel for Kale. Kale and I hadn’t known each other long enough to
fall in love, but it seemed inevitable, and I had finally found something in my life
to get excited about. Being with Kale and learning about his past, the things he loved
and the things he hated, excited me. It didn’t take my mind completely off of Alex
and the things that had happened to us, but it was something to look forward to, and
for that, I was happy.