Embody (17 page)

Landen looked down at me, and we both
blushed a little. We never answered her question, but I’m sure they
got the impression that we could. When the waitress came back, we
placed our orders, then Olivia and Chrispin disappeared to look at
the art in the front room. Dane and Clarissa were lost in their own
conversation, and Landen and I continued our gaze out the window.
Occasionally, we’d laugh at the reaction we saw in the people
outside.

It was dark outside now. Across the street,
a small car pulled in front of the building. Even without the
scarlet red flowing out from the car, we could feel the couple
inside arguing. The young woman stepped out; she was crying, and
the young man followed her. We could see the white line that
connected them, and deep inside we could feel that they loved each
other. I could see the woman’s intent; she was going to leave him.
“Why would she leave him if she loves him?”
I thought.

Landen tilted his head.
“Do you feel
betrayal?”
he asked.

“
Yeah, from her...did he cheat?”
I
asked, instantly taking the girl’s side.

“
I don’t think he did. He isn’t hiding
anything. It’s a misunderstanding,”
Landen thought.

The people on the streets just seemed to
ignore the couple as their argument danced around the car.
“Why
don’t we help?”
I thought

“
What do you want to do - walk over there
and play peacemaker?
” Landen thought in a teasing tone.

“
Not walk,”
I thought. Landen looked
quickly at me. He was excited and nervous at the same time.

Chrispin and Olivia sat back down at the
table with us.

“
Do you think we’re ready for this?”
Landen asked

“
Preston and Pelhan think we are,”
I
thought.

Landen nodded, then took a deep breath.
“Chris, come sit by me,” he said. He then looked at Dane and said,
“Can you guys scoot around?” They all complied without question.
“Look, we’re going to try something; don’t let anything move us,
and don’t touch us,” he said to the table.

We got blank stares and simple nods from all
of them.

“
I think if we just stare at them, we
should be able to move there,”
Landen thought.

I nodded. Landen put his arm around me, then
I stared at the girl and listened only to my breath. Seconds later,
I felt a rush of energy; I was standing outside by the car that the
couple was fighting around, and Landen was at my side.
“Are we
going to touch them or step in?”
I thought, feeling a little
less confident now that I was at the threshold of this
challenge.

“
I’ll step – if you step,”
Landen
thought, grinning at me.

I nodded, then started to make my way to the
girl; we decided to pick a moving target for our first time. Landen
shadowed the young man.

“
Willow – just focus on my eyes,
” he
thought. I nodded and stared into him.

We both stepped in at the same time, and a
warm rush swept through me; when her soul felt the love I had for
Landen, the girl’s anger didn’t stand a chance. She fell silent,
and so did the young man. Beneath his brown eyes, I could see
Landen’s soul sparkling through. The man took a dominant step
toward me and pulled me into a deep kiss. It was undeniable; his
touch was Landen’s.
“Leave now,”
Landen thought.

I stepped aside, and a hum of energy soared
through me. Landen was out safely, too. The couple stayed in the
embrace in which we’d placed them, and all the anger they had was
gone. Landen nodded his head toward the window behind which our
bodies were sitting. I then focused on my body, and within that
second I was back. I looked up to make sure Landen was back, too,
and saw him grinning profusely at me. He leaned in to kiss me and
thought,
“That was awesome.”

I looked out the window to see the couple
still embraced in one another. The others were staring out the
window in utter amazement; Chrispin was as still as a statue at
Landen’s side, and Clarissa was the same at my side. They saw us
moving and jumped.

“It’s alright. We can move now,” Landen
said, laughing.

“Was that you?” Clarissa asked, tilting her
head out the window. Landen nodded, taking a bite of his food,
which must have arrived while we were gone.

“You’re going to teach me that?” Clarissa
asked, bewildered.

“If you’ll learn, we’ll teach you,” Landen
said between bites.

Clarissa pushed against Dane. “Come on;
let’s go,” she said. She was more excited than I’d ever seen
her.

“Hey, hey - let’s at least eat first,”
Landen said, still grinning.

Clarissa let out a gasp of air and shifted
back in front of her food. They all ate in silence, looking at one
another, then to us. All we could do was smile. The first time I
saw Preston move into another body, I took it as a violation, but
now I think Landen might be right; stepping into people seemed to
have a more profound effect.

We lingered in front of the restaurant,
looking at all the paintings while we were waiting on the limo to
arrive. Clarissa was still anxious and excited about learning to
meditate, and the emotions of the others mirrored hers.

Once we were in the limo - away from anyone
who could overhear us - an onslaught of questions came at me and
Landen. They wanted to know everything: how it felt, what we could
see. Landen explained everything that we’d learned about the
energy. I laid my head on his shoulder and tried to stay focused,
but my eyes slowly became more than I could hold. I felt them fall
as I struggled against drifting by listing to the others speak.

“Baby, don’t scare me like that,” I heard
Landen say. As he pulled me on his lap, I could feel his panic
beginning to rise. My eyes flew open with a start, and the limo
suddenly filled with fear.

“I wasn’t sleeping; I was just resting my
eyes. I promise,” I said, looking at Landen.

He let out a deep breath, and calm came over
him.

“I forgot about the nightmares. Should we
even stay here tonight?” Dane said, leaning forward to make sure I
was OK.

Landen could feel my embarrassment. The
nightmares and the star on my tattoo made me feel like I was a weak
link - a person I didn’t want to be.

“She’s fine. We’ve just been in three
different dimensions today, and we’re dancing across a
thirty-two-hour day,” Landen said, pulling me closer. I felt the
doubt in the others, but they let it pass and began to ask even
more questions.

The limo came to a screeching stop, and I
heard other brakes screeching around us - then a loud crash of
metal. “Was that us?” Olivia screamed.

The driver slid open the glass that was
separating him and us. “There’s an accident in front of us; I’m
going to see if I can help,” he yelled back.

I felt a rush of emotion push through me,
one of panic and fear; they were so strong, it took my breath away.
Dane opened the door and jumped out to help, and Clarissa and
Chrispin were right behind him. I crawled off Landen’s lap to help,
thinking if I could take their fear away, I’d be able to breathe.
Landen held me back.

“Willow, they’re going to be twice as strong
out there. I’ll go,” Landen said, moving forward in the limo.

“I’ll stay with you, Willow,” Olivia said,
watching Landen follow the others. I turned to look through the
tiny window the driver had opened. I could see a van on its side,
and another car was at its side. Other cars were tangled around
them, and smoke was coming from everywhere as onlookers pulled out
fire extinguishers, trying to keep the flames away until everyone
was out safely. The emotions were so strong, I couldn’t even count
them; instead, I found myself gasping for breath. Olivia reached
forward and closed the window, then pulled me to one of the side
seats. As she moved back by the door; I was sure she was halfway
trying to block my exit.

Chapter Ten

We could hear sirens in the distance, and
the crowd around the accident was growing. The driver got back in
the limo and moved it to a side street to make way for the
emergency help. As soon as he parked, he ran back in the direction
of the accident. Even though I was several feet away now, I could
still feel the strong pull of emotions. I leaned forward on my lap,
trying to shield myself.

All at once, the emotions seem to fade. I
sat up slowly, trying to understand how they all could have
disappeared simultaneously, and then the limo door opened. Drake,
my void, slid in causally next to Olivia and closed the door behind
him. My mouth dropped open. Preston was right: Drake’s Aura held no
color; it was ashy and gray and outlined in black. Drake slowly
came to my side. Olivia dove for the door, wanting to scream for
Landen and the others - but Drake raised his hand, and the locks on
the door locked. “Be still, little one,” Drake said, looking
sternly at Olivia, who froze stiff, then sat back down.

Olivia had lost her sight the last time she
saw Drake, so the fear she felt was called for. I shifted back away
from Drake and glared at him. He tilted his head and smiled in a
boyish manner. “Love, I have no hard feelings about you sending me
so far away,” he said charismatically.

“Apparently, I didn’t send you far enough
away,” I said, finding that I had nowhere to go but the tiny
window.

Drake slowly reached for my wrist and pulled
it gently to him; his touch still held the same warm tingling
sensation, but it was incomparable to what I’d felt when I combined
my energy with Landen’s.

“Now...Love, you are the one who called me
here. If you didn’t want to see me, surely you would have stayed in
your own little fairy tale land,” Drake said, tracing the star he
had branded me with.

“You’ll not hold me captive anywhere,” I
said, pulling my hand away.

Olivia saw an opportunity to open the door
while Drake and I went back and forth, but Drake saw her out of the
corner of his eye and raised his hand. When he did, I raised my
hand and yelled.

“NO!” I screamed as loud as I could, and as
I did, what looked like a wall of clear water divided the space
between us and Olivia. “Run!” I screamed to Olivia, and she pushed
the door open and ran.

Drake let out a burst of laughter, then
looked back at me like I’d just professed my love to him. “I see
you’ve been busy in my absence,” he said, still laughing. “That is
the power that belongs to us.”

I looked down at the hand that I’d raised;
it was my left hand, the one with my ring on it. The band was a
stunning white color, and I felt a tingle rush through my soul. I
slowly reached up for my charm and felt it hum under my fingertips.
I suddenly realized that Drake had no power over me - I held the
power. I then looked at Drake and smiled confidently, and when I
raised my hand, the wall fell. As I made my way out of the limo, I
pushed forward and saw Olivia running up the street toward the
accident.

Drake was right behind me. Silence came over
the streets, and everything froze. I looked back to see him slowly
lowering his hand. “Love, we can play this game all night...I find
it enticing, quite frankly,” he said, lowering his head and looking
up.

I was so angry with him, I could have ripped
him apart. I walked quickly to him, put my hands on his chest, and
pushed him back as hard as I could. “What do you want? I love
Landen. Why can’t you get that through your head?!!” I
screamed.

He stopped my hands from pushing him again,
effortlessly holding them behind my back. He then pulled me closer
to him, trying to mesmerize me with his touch. “Why can’t you
understand that they’re only telling you what they want you to
know? There’s another side,” he said in a low tone, staring into my
eyes, trying to capture me.

“Drake, I know about the lives we had. I
know everything I need to know,” I said, tilting my head and
holding my resolve better than I ever have before in his
presence.

“Then you know that you loved me,” he said
in a tender tone as his expression turned softer.

“You can love someone and never be ‘in love’
with them,” I said, furrowing my eyebrows together so he’d see how
serious I was.

“There is no way for you to know how you
felt then; if it was not real, why would we have had so many lives
together? Mistakes are only made once,” he said, smiling
gently.

I closed my eyes and breathed out. As I
heard him breathe out, too, I opened my eyes to glare at him and
saw his smile widen. “You know that I’m right,” he said, leaning
his forehead to mine.

“Drake, the past is in the past. This is
now, and I love Landen,” I said in a flat tone.

He raised his head up and glared at me, then
stepped back and released my arms. “Why won’t you just submit?
You’ve always been a stubborn Scorpio,” he yelled. For the first
time, I was proud of that trait. “You wish to play these games, to
face every planet, putting everyone you know in danger,” he yelled
at me.

Before I could yell back, the sound came
back, and everything was unfrozen. I could feel the tingle in my
ring intensify, and I noticed that Landen had appeared out of
nowhere and was standing in-between me and Drake; the shock on
Drake’s face was apparent. “I see you’ve been busy, too,” Drake
said, regaining his composure.

“You’re a little early - don’t you think,
Drake?” Landen said, pulling back his shoulders.

“Who says we should wait on a silly little
planet to play our game?” Drake said, pulling his shoulders
back.

“No one here is playing games - except you,”
Landen said through clenched teeth.

Dane and Chrispin came running up behind me,
and Olivia and Clarissa were close behind them. Drake looked at
Dane, then back at Landen, and sneered.