Evanescent (31 page)

A darkness you could feel, solid to the touch,
surrounds Wes and me as we make our way further from Henderson Hall
on this, the unholiest night of the year.

Wes leads me past the dumpsters, down the
rolling lawn and behind a circle of evergreens that stake
themselves in the center of a clearing, proud and erect, as if they
were the overseers of Ephemeral.

He pulls me between three trunks with soft,
coconut-like husks and holds me. He runs his hands over my back,
warming me the way old Wes knew to do. If I close my eyes and numb
my heart he could still be the same boy I once cherished, the one
who put his seal over me with that first simple kiss.

“Is this where you wanted to take me?” My
body shakes, my heart flutters like a kite lost in the wind—ready
to crash and burn and take me along for the ride.

“Not quite.” Wes presses his lips together,
and his dimples dig in deeper than I’ve ever seen before. My
stomach squeezes tight at the sight of him. For a moment he’s my
sweet Wes again. Wesley Parker, the boy I’ll always love.

A horrible sadness grips me because if I’m
right, this night will prove beyond a doubt that my version of
Wesley is already too far gone to ever come back. There’s no way in
hell my Wes would hurt another living soul.

“Remember how I told you in the beginning
that Celestra needed to be overrun so that the Countenance could
reign over the Nephilim people?”

“Yes.” I remember that psychotic day in the
library when I first arrived. And to my surprise there was no
shortage of psychotic days after that as well. “I believe your
exact words were, ‘they would be eradicated by prom.’”

He gives a dull laugh. “I’m not sure about
that anymore, but I need you to understand they’re a real danger to
our people. Even though they’re smaller in number they’re very,
very
powerful. They’ve held supremacy over all Nephil races
since the beginning of time, Laken. They cling to old ideas. They
hold out their authority without credence to what the other
factions might want. It’s a dictatorship that has to end.”

“Sounds corrupt.” I try to strain all of the
sarcasm out of my voice. Wesley really does know how to paint a
nasty picture. And if there were no Celestra tunnels, no haunted
woods where they sucked the prisoners dry, I might have sided with
him. I might have done so if my mother, my sister, and the others
weren’t down there, but this is all inexcusable now.

I take up his hand, so I can pry into his
thoughts like he did mine when I first arrived.

“Laken, where I’m going to take you isn’t
pretty. It’s scary, and there are souls down there who are
undergoing very real suffering.”
I can’t sugarcoat this. If
honesty is my new policy, then I need to open the door as wide as
possible
.

He smiles as if he’s added that last part
for my benefit.

“You’re going to be powerful after our
visit, Laken.” The muscles in his jaw pop as if he means business.
“This place, it’s called the Tenebrous Woods. It’s where the
Countenance holds its prisoners of war.” He shoots a nervous glance
behind me. “Laken, the only way to get this power is to take it
from them physically.”

I stare at Wes a very long time. I’m
boarding up the windows and doors to my thoughts, so he’ll never
get inside and see what a monster my eyes convey to me at this very
moment.

“What will this power do for me? What in the
hell kind of benefit will it ever yield?”

“You could read thoughts.” He rattles my
hand as if he’s calling me out on it. “The Celestra that reside in
the tunnels are far more potent than the Celestra running around up
here. They’re a select group. The ones with heavily infused blood
are usually captured for breeding.”

A chill races up my spine and sends every
hair on my body standing at attention.

“So mindreading? That’s the power?”
Honestly, I have no clue how beneficial it really is. Overall it
seems impractical, something more of a dime store novelty trick. “I
remember you telling me they could time travel.”

“You remember.” He blows it out with a smile
of relief. Wes is thrilled that I’m receptive to this on some
level. “If you and I both take this power, we could travel through
time together. One of us isn’t enough. One of us could get us
there, and the other could get us back. I could never do it alone,
Laken, but with you—together we’re the perfect team.”

“The perfect team.” I wrap my arms around
him, careful not to touch his skin. I’m not sure if we’re the
perfect team anymore. Coop has already taken his place, so
efficiently. I would have never guessed that Wes and I could ever
grow apart, and here we are so physically close and yet miles away
in every other capacity.

Maybe our love had its chance, and we lost,
or maybe I’m just not trying hard enough. Whatever it is, I’m
pretty sure puncturing my teeth into an imprisoned stranger isn’t
going to bring us closer as a couple. I’m almost certain it’s going
to move us the hell away from each other pretty damn quick. I can
see now the spiritual terrain on which we’ve arrived for what it
is—a landslide. I’m not sure we’re ever going to recover. And with
Wesley’s strange enthusiasm for all things wicked, I’m not sure I
want to.

“Mindreading and time travel,” I whisper it
low. “I’m going to have these abilities after this?”

“You will. Don’t be afraid. There’s blood
involved. You need to take it in to get it to work on a cellular
level, but you don’t need a lot.” Wesley holds me out by the
shoulders, looking remorseful over this very thing. I knew Wes
wasn’t a monster. He knows deep down inside it’s wrong to do this.
“It’s not just the mindreading and time travel, Laken, there’s one
other thing. It’s a power that the Celestra haven’t even discovered
yet.”

My chest thumps wild at what this might
be.

“What is it, Wes?” My breath plumes around
us in thick, silver feathers.

He digs a proud smile deep into his
cheek.

“I won’t tell you. I’ll show you one day
soon. But right now, I want to take you to Tenebrous.” Wes crashes
his lips against mine and starts in on the most aggressive erotic
kiss I have ever known.

The ground melts under my feet. My lids
flutter as an unnatural heat surrounds us.

Wes and I are falling down a never-ending
tornado of fire.

We’re off to the Tenebrous Woods, and
nothing will ever be the same.

A deep welt of purple opens in an arid
expanse beneath our feet. Twisted branches claw from below, luring
us in like crooked fingers.

The ground comes up quickly, and Wes
tightens his grip around my waist. We land with a thump, with him
breathing into my neck like he was trying to syphon oxygen from my
body.

“Are you all right?” He pulls back and takes
me in, his eyes wild with panic as if there’s a good chance I’m
anything but that.

A breath escapes me in lieu of an answer as
I try to absorb this new horror. A sky of crushed amethyst, a night
so thick you could inhale it. You could feel it becoming a part of
your very being.

A siren shrills through the air. It takes a
moment to realize that it’s not a mechanical warning at all but a
human voice, one attached to a being who would give anything not to
be here.

“Shit,” I hiss lower than a whisper.

My heart palpitates so fast my bones rattle.
My adrenaline soars as an intense brand of fear rips through me.
I’ve become the cat at the bottom of a well, and now there’s no way
out.

“It’s okay.” Wes wraps an arm around my
waist and leads me through the dim-lit path. “There’s a guy we have
to find. His name is Ingram. He’s sort of the guide that runs this
place.” He pauses and pulls me in. “There’s a girl I draw from. Her
name is Skyla. I swear to you I have no feelings whatsoever for
her. And the only thing she feels for me is a serious dislike. Her
boyfriend is her Elysian, and all that means is that he oversees
the entire situation. I’m never alone with her, nor would I want to
be.”

“Her boyfriend lets this happen to her?
Doesn’t sound like a good boyfriend to me.”

“I don’t think he has a choice in the
matter.” Wes takes up my hand and continues us along the twisted
trail. “The reserves are low, so we’re borrowing fresh Celestra
from two years in the future.”

The future? The idea makes me dizzy.

“Am I going to take her blood? This Skyla
person?”

“You could. She’s the most powerful one
they’ve got down here.”

Nothing but the best for Wes.

He rattles my hand and laughs. “I can hear
you, Laken.” He opens his mouth as if he wants to add something
then closes it. “Soon you’ll be able to hear me, too.” He darts a
glance into the forest as he says it. “You don’t need to take
Skyla’s blood. It would drain her pretty good if we both did it.
I’ll ask Ingram to get someone else for you.”

I see
. A tiny laugh escapes me.
Saving the good stuff for yourself, huh?
I give his hand a
quick squeeze.

“Not at all. I just thought it might weird
you out because she’s a girl. I thought maybe her boyfriend might
volunteer to keep her from getting drained. He’s untapped from what
I hear, and I’ve been told he’s got a strong Celestra base. Not
that I want to see you chewing off some guy’s neck.” He looks me in
the eye a moment too long. “That’s where we take it from, the neck.
But if you prefer Skyla, I’ve got no problem with it.”

A thing—a man appears at the edge of the
woods, holding a glowing clipboard. His skin illuminates a sallow
shade of yellow, sort of like an electrified bruise. He looks
older, yet there’s some timeless quality about him, and somehow I
innately know he doesn’t age.

“That’s Ingram.” Wes says, leading us in his
direction. “Do you have her ready?”

“Don’t I always?” He seems bored with our
nefarious endeavors. “Come. She’s a spitfire this evening.”

“Is she ever anything else?” Wes says it in
a way that makes me think she’s kicked him in the nuts a time or
two.

My heart starts in on a death rattle,
demanding to be let out of this place. My palms break out in a
sweat. I’m not sure I’m up for a confrontation, especially not one
from a pissed off Celestra.

“Don’t worry,” Wes whispers. “She’s not that
bad.”

Ingram rolls out his hand as if introducing
royalty. “The Elysian has secured her to the post. Your withdrawal
is ready for the taking.”

The bushy pines open up to a clearing. A
strange glow illuminates the woods—then I see her.

God, she’s beautiful.

My body seizes as I examine her like this
with her arms bound behind her back, her legs secured with some
kind of metal bracket. Her face is pinched with anger, and her long
blonde mane shags out around her, glowing like her own private
sun.

“You’ve brought a guest. How nice,” she
smarts. “Is it show and tell at the haunted academy today? Let me
guess. Two bites are better than one?” She squints through the
light to get a better look at me, and her face smooths out.

“That would be Skyla.” Wes tickles my ear
with his breath. “The guy standing off to the side is her Elysian,
Logan. He’s good and pissed, and rearing for a fight, twenty-four
seven. Excuse me for a minute while I go over and fill him in on
how much I appreciated our unexpected meeting a few weeks
back.”

Wes takes off to “say hello” to the gorgeous
boy with blond flames for hair. They’re both unusually good
looking, with the exception of Ingram who amounts to a human frog,
which is what I’ve just reduced the Counts to, although I’d hate to
insult anything in the chordata phylum that way.

Skyla’s eyes enlarge, and she ticks her head
as if secretively calling me over.

“Me?” I mouth, pointing to my chest.

She gives a long, slow blink before glancing
at the human toad and giving a brief nod. Poor thing. She probably
wants me to break her the hell out of this place. Little does she
know, I lack the authority and that my “boyfriend” would like
nothing more than to keep her bound and gagged for life.

I make my way over, fully expecting her to
spit like a camel or scream in my face at what a horrible person I
am.

She beckons me forward with a desperate look
in her eye.

“I know, you,” she says just below a
whisper. “You’re Laken Stewart. I tried to save you when you were
in the Transfer.”

Everything in me goes rigid. My heart stops
its wild tirade as if those very words had the power to kill
me.

“
Laken
.” Wes jogs over. “Everything’s
straightened out. I’ll take Skyla, and you’ll have Logan.” He
closes his eyes a moment. “I can’t stand to watch.” He says it
sober, filled with an ache I haven’t seen in him before. “I can’t
stand the thought of you touching someone else.” He brushes the
hair from my shoulder. “Ingram, help Laken.”