Emanare (Destined, #1) (13 page)

CHAPTER 15

The sun was gone, replaced with an orange marmalade moon. The large perfect circle sat behind a moving string of shadowy clouds. Sam stood next to the entrance of her dormitory, wishing she hadn’t told Cale she would meet him. Who did he think he was, ordering her around? And more importantly, why did she listen to him? Tonight was it.

Sam walked toward the oak trees. Her skin began to prickle and she felt like she had been punched in the gut. It didn’t help that all she could stomach for dinner was a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. An uncomfortable lump formed at the base of her throat. She swallowed, forcing it back. For a brief moment, she realized she should have brought Chase with her. It was hard enough to shake him after dinner. He was so clingy, as if he didn’t want her to be alone. And he kept obsessing over her strength. It was a one-time thing. Why couldn’t he just let it go?

She took a left and moved into the grove of trees. Dried leaves crunched under her boots as she descended deeper into the woods, to the same spot where Cale had led her the night before. She spotted him leaning against a tree trunk and stumbled back. He was dressed in all black. His hair and features were so dark he blended into the night, making him almost unnoticeable.

“Good, you came.” Cale’s voice was deep and hoarse. He moved from his leaning position to greet her.

Sam didn’t speak. She glanced past him, focusing on another bouncing bright ball of light. Only this ball was different than the last two she’d seen—much brighter, illuminating half the forest behind Cale. She smelled the sweet fragrance of honeysuckles. It reminded her of her aunt. They used to pick the honeysuckles off a vine that wound around a fence lining her grandmother’s yard. A warm, reminiscent feeling traveled through her. She imagined putting the soft flower up to her lips and sucking the candied nectar from the core.

Cale grabbed her arm. “What are you looking at?” he said sharply.

Sam broke her stare and glared at him. She moved her eyes down to the hand gripping her arm. Instead of fear, she suddenly felt strong, like he couldn’t harm her. Her eyes shifted to his other hand. The one holding a knife. But oddly she didn’t even attempt to jerk out of his grasp. Her heart beat with equal rhythm and her breathing remained level. Then she remembered the light. Focusing again into the forest, Sam began to take strength from it. Beneath her skin, deep within her bones, she felt weightless. Her body could have easily been made of air. If she didn’t already feel the ground under her feet, she would have thought she was floating.

“I think you know what’s about to happen.” Cale laughed darkly. “You may get your wings, but you’ll never ascend.”

Then the light from the forest shined out from within her, illuminating Cale’s dark body in a sea of white. Just when she thought she couldn’t feel any more radiant, she heard a familiar voice. It was a voice she hadn’t heard since childhood—her Aunt Rose. Rose’s voice floated through the air like a beautiful song with the rise and fall of a soothing harmonious pitch. Sam turned her head in all directions, but she didn’t see Rose anywhere. How could she? Her aunt had died in a car accident when she was eighteen, and Sam was only eight.

“Samantha, you were born for the purpose of serving good,” Rose sang. “You are more powerful than he is. Look into your soul, to the light you possess. You were born like me. I will see you soon, my Little Dove.” Sam sighed at the sound of her nickname.

Rose’s voice disappeared and the light behind Cale faded. Sam now knew Rose had been with her in the form of a bouncing bright light every time Cale targeted her. Her Aunt Rose watched over her, doing her best to protect her from him.

Cale tightened his grip on Sam’s forearm, forcing Sam’s thoughts back to his hard face.
Am I the only one who heard her?

“Angeling, your time is up.”

“Wait.” Sam stepped closer to Cale, not showing an ounce of fear. “You called me ‘angeling.’ What is an angeling?” Sam stared into his cold eyes, willing him to answer her. Her skin still emitted a magnificent white aura.

“You don’t know what you are?” He laughed. “Look at yourself, you’re glowing.”

“You’re going to kill me,” Sam said. “The least you could do is tell me what I am before you do it. Let me know what I’m dying for.” Sam tried to follow her aunt’s words and find the light within her soul. She stopped concentrating on Cale’s firm hold and directed her focus within. And then it happened. Her light seeped into him through his grip around her arm, just as he had done to her with his touch. Cale turned robotic. She had turned his power around on him. He was under
her
control now.

***

“Alea, you’ve been reading that book all afternoon. You look exhausted. Take a break.” Evrik stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Alea closed the
Virtus Liber
and let him guide her shoulders back so her back rested against the puffy beige sofa cushions. She rubbed her temples. Evrik circled the couch and took a seat on the arm.

Evrik thought about the eighteen-year-old girl, grateful Sam was nineteen. He realized he could have sat next to the girl in class or walked by her on campus. Fortunately, they had figured out why the
sanguis
demon had come to Baltimore. He was in search of a predestined angel. A girl who had no idea how much danger she was in.

“I think Dray and I found something.” Malachi and Draylan descended from the grand staircase and entered the great room, joining Evrik and Alea. “We did some research online. It seems a human child is assigned a protector, someone who watches over her until she turns eighteen.”

“Do you mean like a bodyguard?” Alea asked.

“Sort of,” Malachi said. “The protector is usually a human, with an ability.”

“Like unusual strength?” Alea sank into thought.

Malachi nodded. “The protector stays with the girl until she’s eighteen.”

“Does she keep the same protector for eighteen years?” Evrik asked.

“From what I read, it depends,” Draylan sliced through the conversation. “The protector is usually someone the girl knows. Bummer for the angeling, because the protector’s identity is kept a secret.”

“Dray, did you just say ‘angeling’”? Evrik asked.

Draylan shot Evrik an arrogant smile. “Well, Bro, after further research on
my
part, it turns out that a human making her transformation into an angel is called an angeling.” Draylan smiled proudly. “Yup, just some heavenly info I found.”

“Yeah, but does this ‘protector’ follow her around for eighteen years? I think I’d figure out something was up if I moved across the country and someone followed me,” Alea said. 

“Oh—I got this one, too,” Draylan said. “If the angeling is in a situation where she has to separate from her protector, another protector is assigned to her.”

Alea tapped her pen on the cover of the book. “So this girl may have had more than one protector?”

“I don’t think that matters,” Evrik said. “If we find the protector, then we can find the girl.” Evrik’s eyes flickered with excitement. “Good work, Chi.”

Draylan cleared his throat.

“You too, Dray.”

“I’m happy I could help and all, but how are we going to go about finding an extraordinary human?” Malachi asked. “It’s not like we have a directory.”

“That was good, Bro.” Draylan curled his arm around Malachi’s shoulders. “You made a joke.”

“Seriously guys,” Alea said sharply. “At this very moment the
sanguis
demon…Cale…whatever his name is, could be seeking this girl out.”

“Alea’s right.” Evrik’s brows dipped. The situation felt too close to home. “We owe it to the girl to find her and warn her.”

“Isn’t that what her protector is for…to protect her?” Draylan said.

“That’s the problem.” Malachi rubbed his forehead. “I totally forgot. There’s a window.”

“What do you mean?” Alea asked.

“She is only protected until she starts to physically change. From the time she starts her change to when she completes the full transformation, she is vulnerable. The angeling stage only lasts a few weeks.” Malachi stared at his friends’ anxious faces. “The protector can’t do anything to save her during that time frame.”

“Why?” Alea asked.

“She has to be totally pure, without the influence of the supernatural world. If her protector were to try to save her during this period, the angeling could be rejected from the divine for not being clean of all impurities. No abilities. Only the purest can assist her. That would be the angels, and they usually don’t intervene.”

“And if she’s rejected?” Alea asked.

“I don’t know. It’s never happened. An angeling is either killed by a demon or…”

“She ascends as an angel,” Alea finished.

Malachi nodded in agreement.

“You can bet Cale knows all of this.” Alea stood up quickly.

“Where are you going?” Malachi followed her.

“To try and create an elixir. We’ve got to find her.”

“If Cale is here, it means the angeling is about to go through the process,” Evrik said.

 “Or she’s already started going through the change,” Malachi added.

 Alea moved quickly, getting ready to hurdle the steps.

Draylan spoke up. “Um, sorry to crash the party, but I think we need to consider Sam.” No one said a word. Draylan wavered. “Sam’s best friend's a skin-walker.” He hesitated again. “It would explain why Evrik was attracted to a human in the first place. I never could understand why, Bro.”

“No. No. No. No.” Evrik’s words shook the walls. He glared at Draylan. “She’s past the age. Don’t you think I’ve already thought about Sam? With Cale pursing her, Chase being her best friend and her involvement in our world. Sam would be the logical answer, but it can’t be her.”

“I’m just sayin’.” Draylan stepped out of Evrik’s path, palms raised. “I—I could be wrong.”

Alea took her foot off the step and moved next to Evrik. “Evrik, Draylan could be right. It makes sense. I think we just didn't want to accept it.”

Evrik shook his head back and forth in denial. “No. She’s not eighteen. It’s impossible. She would have already gone through the change.”

“Evrik—Cale went after her. He wanted her for some reason.” Malachi touched his friend’s shoulder. “We could be wrong, but if we’re right, we can warn her. Get her somewhere safe until her transformation is complete.”

Minutes of silence went by before Evrik spoke again. “If Sam is the angeling Cale came for, then one of two things will happen—Cale will kill her and she will be taken from me, or she will complete her change and she will be taken from me.” He swallowed back his sick feeling. “Either way, I lose her.”

“Look,” Malachi said, joining Alea on the staircase. “I’m going to access Sam’s birth records, do some digging into her past. Evrik, something’s not adding up. There are too many coincidences surrounding Sam.”

Evrik exhaled. “Let me know as soon as you find out anything.”

Malachi nodded. “Evrik, we’ll figure this out. Either way, together.”