Exaltation (12 page)

Emery reached her hands for his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Right now,” he said as his eyes moved over her. “This space between us.”

She let her thumbs trace his cheekbones. “Baby steps. I feel it, too, Jamison, the risk in the air. I don’t want them to deal with us and whatever that danger is all at once.”

Jamison let out a faint breath. That was as close as he had ever gotten her to agree with him on the matter.

He leaned up and claimed her lips, soft and sweet at first, but the second she moved her hips closer to him the kiss became hungry, fierce.

In one swoop, he’d pulled her tank from her and his hot lips landed on her chest. He smiled as he kissed her flesh, as he heard her gasp, and felt her hands rush through his hair.

His hands moved up her thighs, grasping her, squeezing. Emery arched her back and moaned his name as she rocked against him.

Jamison stood with her in his arms and laid her across the table. His kiss moved across her chest, and just as he was sliding down her stomach he froze.

Emery was so consumed with the high he was giving her that it took her a second to notice something was off.

“Get dressed,” Jamison said as he stood.

“What? What’s wrong?” she asked as she saw fury wash down his face.

“Call the girls, something’s wrong.”

In a frantic rush Emery ran to the laundry room and pulled on clothes. “What do you mean something is wrong?”

“Something just broke the protection spell,” Jamison said as he sent a mass text to those in the inner circle of the coven to meet him at Saige’s.

Those spells were layers deep, and kept the girls and Soren safe no matter where they were. It took a lot to break one. In the past Jamison had sensed Rydell King and his followers trying to penetrate them, and it was nothing for Jamison to strengthen them once more. This was an automatic shut down. Something catastrophic had to have happened.

Chapter Eleven

Lust is all Escorts really know. They can’t feel love, for if they do it connects them to a sea of souls they’re meant to protect but harm just the same. It would
weaken
them to feel love, and they all strived for as much power as possible.

There were a few Escorts who felt something with their mate beyond everyday lust. They called it a
fever
. Fevers were rare but Rydell knew of them. He knew they were arresting, that they sucked you in and sent a surge through your soul near constantly. They were dangerous because they blinded you from your purpose from time to time.

Someone like Rydell, a First who was meant to always protect his sovereign, kept his distance from such things. More so now than ever—he had a faction to rule. He couldn’t be distracted.

Which was why, now after the rush of her touch dissipated, he was pissed at that girl—she stole his focus.

He was beyond twisted. He couldn’t figure out how a
human
girl made him feel like
that
. Why he could now sense her as if she were swimming in his veins.

He knew he had to deal with Raven and get as far away from this place as soon as possible—find any and every way to forget about skater girl. He would outrun the fever if it was the last fucking thing he did.

He had
zero
time for addictions.

As he was trying to think of a quick fix, and tell himself not to track the girl as she pulled away in a Jeep, Dagen and Kade pulled up in front of him.

Kade only dropped off Dagen then drove on.

“I thought you said to appease my ego you were going to stretch this out to two weeks?” Dagen said.

Rydell furrowed his brow at him in question then he remembered. Earlier in the day he was telling Dagen they were going to be out of there in a few weeks time, they’d focus on the curse then. Dagen had his doubts, told Rydell not to underestimate Raven. He was there moments after Benjamin faced her and the boy was still not right. Rydell smirked and said not to insult him, he would toy with her for at least two weeks before he struck.

“I may have to make it up to your ego another way,” Rydell said as he stared in the distance. He was not staying this close to skater girl for two weeks, not if he was all but sure she’d sparked a fever in him. He still could not figure out how a human soul enchanted him. It made no fucking sense.

A wicked smirk emerged on Dagen’s face. “Benjamin said she was a hellava kisser. Was he right or just bullshitting? I doubt he actually touched her. I really do.”

“What are you talking about?” Rydell asked with a shake of his head.

“What am I talking about? Raven BellaRose had you against the wall. I thought you were a goner, but then I saw you holding her and kissing back. I thought to myself damn that’s my boy, he’s going to take her down right here in front of everyone, but then you let her go. What was that, just a tease?” Dagen grinned. “I guess it’s one way to get her to trust you.”

“Raven BellaRose,” Rydell said in a lethal tone.

Dagen dipped his head and swayed back and forth to look in Rydell’s eyes. “You all right there, boss man? Did she jack with you? King, look at me,” he said when Rydell kept moving his stare to the distance.

“Where is Benjamin?” Rydell asked.

“Bout four dimensions away last I checked, keeping it on the down low.”

“Make sure he stays there.”

Dagen lifted his chin in question.

Rydell paused before he answered. He was struggling with what to say. The thing about fevers is that one of the first side effects after a claim is protection, to defend your fever. He felt that way now, and he knew he couldn’t feel that way, not when he had to kill her to survive, for all his people to do so. Right now he wanted to slaughter Benjamin for
ever
thinking of hurting Raven, and that was beyond fucked. “She’s dangerous.”

Dagen looked at Rydell like he was insane and Rydell was sure at that moment he was. “Go. Make sure he stays away.”

“Where are you going?”

“To blow off some steam.”

Rydell was going to figure out if the little kiss of death had given him free reign in the Quarter, if all the spells had been lifted.

***

The only way for Raven to forget about how stupid and embarrassing it was to kiss that boy was to dance, and she did with the others in the Jeep. The music blared all the way back to the Quarter. 

They had just crossed Canal and were trolling down Decatur Street when Soren’s cell started ringing. They only heard it because the song they had on repeat had just ended.

“Moms,” he said as he answered then listened for a second. “No, I don’t have an issue with that, but why? What’s up?” All the girls were staring at him now. “Which one?” he nodded. “All right then…no we’re cool.” He hung up the phone, looking perplexed.

“What’s wrong?” Ash asked him. His eyes moved over her before he spoke. “Mom told me to stay with you guys tonight.” Ash turned crimson. “And she said we were to go to Saige’s house, the one she has in the Garden District.”

“What?” they all said at once.

He shrugged. Raven started digging around for the phone they’d brought with them. They were abnormal teens meaning they could not seem to keep up with one even though they had three between them.

“We’ve got company,” River said.

Raven’s heart stopped. She looked up right as she found the phone which had twelve missed calls.

“Your dad is behind us.”

Raven glanced back. He pointed for River to turn on the next block, and when she went to slow down he waved her on.

“Your mom is with him,” Raven said as her mouth turned to cotton all of a sudden.

“What is going on?” Ash asked as she moved further away from Soren. She’d been leaning a little close most of the way home.

“I don’t know, but my mom called me six times before I heard it,” Soren said.

Raven slouched in her seat. Her bliss bubble had evaporated. She was in trouble again and didn’t know why. There was nothing worse than that feeling. 

River drove like a saint the entire way to Aunt Saige’s. No music. No words.

When they got there each of them got out, stood behind the Jeep, and waited.

Jamison parked a good twenty feet behind them. “They’re fine. Not one scratch,” he said as his hand reached to the passenger seat and landed on Emery’s leg.

“They’re fine, but something broke ancient spells the most powerful coven in existence put in place,” Emery said with a hint of anger and doubt. She had dreaded this day for so long, put her life on pause, robbed years of bliss from herself and her girls because of fear. And now it was here.

Jamison’s fingertips moved in small circles on her leg as he stared forward.

“They’re the only ones strong enough to take it down,” he said in a low tone as his stare landed on Raven. He noticed how she was nervously fidgeting with her hands as she stood with the others in the distance.

“Why would they do that?”

Jamison clenched his jaw. He had a pretty good idea how it happened but wasn’t ready to tell her. Not when she still clearly had a fear he would fall into a fit of lust if he came across another female Escort.

“Jamison,” Emery said, putting her hand on his. He was driving her wild with his touch, and she didn’t have time to be spellbound, not when he took her so close to the edge then had to stop. Her body burned with want, her heart ached for family, and her head was spinning.

“The girls all have the energy of an Escort in them,” he said with a glance to his side at her. That was the life Jamison had before the Dominarum coven. Though he had stripped his bonds it was still in his essence, an essence which went into creating new life. In theory it was the reason the girls were so powerful at such a young age.

Emery’s stare questioned him; she knew that but wasn’t connecting the dots.

“An Escort is hunting Raven, at her school…if she was intimate with one, it would have broken the spell.”

“What do you mean
intimate
?” Emery asked as her eyes went wide. She was not naïve, knew her girls were near eighteen, breathtaking. She knew how she was at their age, but she was not ready to know they had crossed those lines.

“It wouldn’t even have to be physical,” Jamison admitted as he tried to keep a calm tone. He knew more than likely it was. The crash of spells happened too quickly.

“You said King was Reveca’s in another life,” Emery said with a quake in her voice, sensing how the girls could be facing danger from more than one source.

Jamison had told Emery about Reveca moments before. He’d had no choice. He had called Reveca in front of her while they were looking for the girls. He asked if she had done anything to rock the energy around the Quarter. Reveca was sly with her answer, but Jamison knew how to read her and was sure she still had no idea Rydell King was within a breath of her for the first time in ages.

When Emery questioned why he reached out to her, Jamison told her the story from a new perspective. How he was there before Rydell King was taken by Revelin. Emery already knew what Reveca went through after that, knew who she was today. She knew because she studied the coven inside and out, all the texts, all the prophecies, looking for a way to save her girls from having to deal with this Rapture.

She also knew Reveca was lethal and known for her jealously. She was born of the original bloodline of the coven, not someone you dare to cross on your bravest day. Even without a rep, the woman had a host of mortal and immortal bikers at her back that would do
anything
for her.

“He was..is,” Jamison said before he sucked in a deep breath.

“Then call her back. Tell her he’s here, to come and get him and end this.”

Jamison nearly twitched a grin. “She’d kill him.”

“Would that not solve our problem?”

Jamison stared at her for a second, shocked she would say such a thing. But then again he wasn’t. She’d do anything to protect her family, just like all the coven women.

“Sorry,” she whispered, regretting her words as soon as they left her lips.

Jamison squeezed her leg. “Reveca remembers her past differently than how it’s recorded. For ages she has been angry at Rydell. She feels she fought and he quit. She doesn’t even believe in Escorts or the Rapture. If she saw him she would surely kill him.”

“How could she kill someone she loves?”

“Because the man she loved is lost inside of the Escort he is now—in her mind she’d be saving him. Revelin would have stripped him, and what he couldn’t take away he would have stained. Reveca can’t know him the way he is now. She’ll destroy him, which will destroy her…”

“Then you,” Emery said as she swallowed nervously.

“I don’t know how far it would go. Reveca is a core element in this coven even though she’s sequestered herself.”

“What do we do? How do we fix this?”

Jamison hesitated then spoke. “We’re going to put the spells back in place. Then we’re going to open up their memories, teach to them fight with their vim.” 

“You plan to let them fight this Escort, this Rydell King?” Emery said with wide eyes.

“We’re not going to let them do anything, but we can’t hold them back either. If Rydell was coldhearted he would have already struck before we found them. Somewhere in him is the mortal I knew. For all we know the girls have already stifled the threat he presents.”

“How can you say that?”

Jamison looked down. “If the spells were knocked down because of an intimate moment it would have jarred him. One way or another that’s going to help us.”

“How?”

Jamison glanced to the girls. “He’s not going to understand what he felt—he’ll think it’s a fever, which will make it all the harder for him to engage harm…or perhaps the rush jarred him enough to reach back to memories Revelin suppressed of his mortal life.”

“Jamison…if it’s the first…and Reveca figures that out…”

“Shh,” Jamison said. “One way or another I’ll take care of it.”

“How are you going to teach them this?”

“The Realm.”

“You want to take them to the place where Escorts feed? Have you lost your mind?”

“It’s a dream plane and the coven can protect us there. It’s the only place where we can manifest foes for them to practice against.”

A shiver ran down Emery’s spine.

“They’re going to be fine.”

“Here’s a better option. Ask them what they did and then tell them
not
to do it again.”

Jamison grinned. “My twins are stubborn. They get that from their beautiful mother. You tell them not to do something and it will be the first thing they do. Raven is going to do what makes her happy no matter if it’s right or wrong.”

A defeated breath escaped Emery. “Fix this, Jamison.”

Jamison got out of the car then, Emery did, too, but she stayed a few feet back. Jamison had his coven leader expression strapped across his face, a calm sternness. He knew that was the only way they would see how serious he was.

“Anything happen tonight that you feel I should know about?” Jamison asked as he looked across the girls and Soren, settling his stare on Raven who’d turned red with embarrassment.

That answered one question—who Rydell had made a move on.

“Just—just the routine we’d been working on, sir,” Soren said as he made sure he kept space between him and Ash.

Jamison’s eyes met Raven’s.

Raven felt her heart race. There was no way in a million years Raven was going to confess what she’d done. If she did she would have to admit to herself it
actually
happened.

“Something happened tonight,” Jamison said to her. “And whatever it was penetrated every single spell we have in place to protect you. You’re basically standing in the middle of a field with a flashing light strapped to you.”

“How—how do we fix it?” Raven asked.

“Look,” Jamison said as he ran his hands through his hair and glanced back at Emery. “We were going to take this slow, because if we didn’t everything that you suppressed would flood you and I’m not sure how well you would take that. So, right now you’re going get a crash course in energy while Saige and the others put the barricades back up.”

“Right now?” River asked.

“Would you rather leave town?” Jamison asked, already knowing the answer.

In unison, without even glancing to one another, they all said, “Crash course.”

“Inside,” Jamison said before he turned to go to back to Emery.

When the girls and Soren reached the front steps they glanced back, saw how Jamison was holding Emery against his chest. Something they always thought they wanted to see, but right now it scared them even more.