Lost Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy #2) (3 page)

At once, the leftover, nightmarish feelings disappear as warmth spreads through my body. “Are you decent?” she asks.

“Not when you’re around, I’m not, but you can still step into my king’s parlor,” I joke and wait for her to come through the door. Since she’s no longer able to travel along the veil, she uses doors and things like a normal girl.

“Is that right, Mr. Kingly?” She steps into the room and pushes the door shut behind her. She’s wearing her favorite leather jacket, a green tee shirt, and that denim mini skirt and black leggings getup that drives me wild. “Careful. I just might decide to take advantage of that statement in some way.”

I throw back the covers and hop out of the bed. We meet each other halfway across the room, our bodies collidin
g—
a tad desperate, I gues
s—
and then I make up for the fact that I don’t ever get the chance to kiss her in the recycling dream by crushing my lips against hers.

In return, she parts her perfectly heart-shaped mouth and I forget about hunger pangs, floating men and black blobs hanging out in dreams. The girl I’m holding in my arms completes me, filling my aching heart and racing thoughts with a peace that keeps me in check. Things with Gia are so wonderful that the memory of what’s-her-name, aka my ex-girlfriend, hasn’t invaded my head in almost five months. The kiss goes on for about five minutes. No lie. We’ve been this way for the past few months since that fatal Halloween incident, the one where I discovered Gia’s true identity, the night she rescued me again and then gave up something more than a kiss in order to come back and be with me in this world.

As promised, I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure she’s happy so she won’t regret leaving her home.

The electricity I feel when she touches me this way has increased to dizzying levels. My friend Kyle says we kiss too much. He picks on me for doing the very thing I teased him and his girl, Shani, about doing all those months ago.

Gia doesn’t even seem bothered by my morning breath while I’m finding it hard to think about anything else. For someone who just happens to be the daughter of a sea god, she’s completely down to earth.

My hands travel over Gia’s body, enjoying each curve, every crevice. Hers stay entwined in my hair at first, but then I deepen our kiss, our tongues exploring in a way that lips can’t do. The room fills with sounds of our breathing and our little session touches me in areas of my body that threaten to send us spiraling to a place I’m not sure either one of us is ready to visit just yet.

As Gia pulls away first, her black hair glistens, setting off the flushed look of her naturally tanned skin. “Behave,” she manages to whisper and glances up at me, her strange gaze hitting me with the full impact of the spell she has placed on me.

“Why would I want to do that?” I move my lips back to hers. For a short moment, she gives in and kisses me with even more heat than before. It doesn’t last, though. Lifting her shoulders the slightest bit, she pulls away and then leans her forehead against mine. “Caleb, your mom is downstairs.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that,” I answer, the heat easing out of my body and the hunger pangs returning. “I’ll be a good boy for a couple of minutes, anyway.” I lean down and kiss the side of her neck.

She giggles. “You’re hopeless. You know that, right?”

Heck yeah, I know it.
“I can’t help it if I enjoy kissing my girl.” I’m still holding on to her waist while she has her hands on my chest, however I feel a slight tension in her body. Something’s on her mind. I need to back off and find out what that could be. With a lot of hesitation, I release her body, move over to my bed and force myself to sit on the edge. She follows me, cradles my face and gives me a sad smile. My heart flips. I want her to go ahead and say what she’s thinking.

Before I can ask her what is wrong, she says, “We need to talk... about her, the Dark Queen.” Right. There goes every tingle I was feeling. I think they all just flew out the window.

I don’t want to think about Erica, the girl who Gia claims placed me under some kind of love spell, the girl who will supposedly bring on the apocalypse, the Dark Seraphine. Nah. I don’t want to think about any of that, let alone talk about it.

Erica has been gone since a couple of weeks after the Christmas holiday break. One day she just didn’t show up at school, leaving everybody confused about why she left. No one knows where she has disappeared to. I’m surprised she didn’t leave right after the disaster that was our Halloween dance, when Gia was exposed as a mermaid. The night her brother, Raze, and her bodyguards were killed by the Dark Agents and the Melusine witch. The night Gia saved my life, again. The night I said Gia’s real name, which should have killed me. The night I met her father, Poseidon…

Erica’s aunt and uncle say she’s going through some things regarding her parents’ deaths and needs to take a break. I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Either way, she’s gone, vanished out of our lives. I don’t get Gia’s fears.

“I still can’t believe…” My thoughts trail off. I don’t want to hurt Gia by telling her how much doubt I’m feeling with her claim about Erica. “She didn’t hurt me or anything.”

“That’s what she wants, you know. For you to believe everything’s all good. She’s the mistress of fooling the crap out of people, Caleb. My father would never have told me anything wrong.”

“And this would be the dad who told his daughter she can never return to her home? All because of something nice she did for a human, aka me? Is that the same dude?” I ask, feeling like a jerk almost as soon as the words leave my lips. Her face falls. I hit too hard. No, wait, my mouth hit too hard. I need to work on that little issue. I reach out and pull Gia into my arms. “I’m sorry. Those were some really screwed up things for me to say.”

“I think I’ll wait downstairs while you get dressed.” She eases out of my arms and heads toward the door. I can’t let her walk away from me this way. I reach out, gently taking her wrist in my hand and pull her back up against me. I wrap my arms around her little body and move my lips down to her ear.

A few months ago, we made a promise to each other. I won’t let my fears and issues ruin what we have going on here. “I won’t let go until you accept that your boyfriend can be a touch...” I try to find the right word.

“Pig-headed?” she asks.

I pull back to stare at her, playfully narrowing my eyes. “Seriously? Is that the right word, Gia Jones? Or are you just being nice again?”

“Sometimes it’s the right one. No, wait, always. Doesn’t matter, though. There are many other words to describe you.”

“Like...?” I can’t help asking; I am a guy. Our egos enjoy hearing these things from the girls we care about.

“Sensitive. Caring. Brave. Strong.” She lifts up to her tiptoes and gives me a light kiss. It’s just enough to give me the shivers. “And sexy.” Smiling with her lips and those gorgeously strange eyes of hers that change colors along with her mood, she eases away from me and walks out the door. I will my feet to lock in place, even though they don’t really want to listen to me.

You’re hopeless, my man. You might as well accept it.

Gia

Wow! I think I have the hottest boyfriend in the world.

I pretty much have to force myself to leave his room and head downstairs. Caleb doesn’t realize how smoldering he can be. The closer he gets to his eighteenth birthda
y—
the time when whatever thing brewing inside him will matur
e—
the more powerful his presence becomes.

I’m not the only one who has seen this new
thing
inside him. The other girls at school all hang around our table at lunch when before they would simply pass by with barely a glance in our direction. None of that bothers me, though. Caleb and I have more pressing problems to handle than a bunch of silly, lovesick girls.

I drift into the kitchen and sit down at the island in the middle of the room.

“Is he up and getting ready?” Caleb’s mom asks.

“Yes, Mrs. Wood,” I answer and tuck in my swollen bottom lip so I hide the evidence of what we’ve been doing. I don’t think I’m doing such a good job, though. She gives me a knowing smile and turns back to pouring pancake batter. The expression on her face as she carefully measures the way she pours, making sure each circle is the same size as the next one, reminds me of the way Caleb looks when he’s tackling a Trigonometry equation.

At first glance, Alison Wood doesn’t look very much like her son at all with her blonde hair she always wears in a ponytai
l—
the tell-tale black roots hint at her true color thoug
h—
dark eyes and prominent cheekbones. I’m assuming Caleb gets his six-foot-plus height, thick, wavy dark hair and gray eyes from his dad.

A few things he did get from his mom are an addictively positive attitude, a talent at mastering all things physical, a youthful appearance and a gorgeous smile to die for. Oh, I almost forgot. Both of them have a serious obsession with the color blue. Navy blue tees for Caleb and royal blue leotards for his mom. If I didn’t know any better, I would think they both came from Aquardia; my home, a place where blue rules everything. 

I release a sigh and settle into my thoughts while I wait for Caleb to finish getting ready for school. The events he and I have experienced a few months ago haunt him and fill my thoughts. Erica is gone, for now, and her family has a valid excuse for her absence. I say bull. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that what has happened to me affects her in some way, too. Her absence creates a way for her to readjust.

I don’t have the heart to tell the boy I love about some of the crazy things I’ve been experiencing. I don’t really understand them myself. The first time I dreamed of my brother was pretty odd, but then the dreams became something else. Kind of like they started to develop a mind of their own. Either that or they’re stripping my sanity away bit by bit.

My brother’s image, or what looks a lot like him anyway, began showing up outside my dreams, torturing me with reminders of a past I cannot change. I can’t tell Caleb about them just yet. He already holds enough guilt in his heart. I’m almost certain hearing that his girlfriend might be losing her mind will finish him.

I’ve given up everything so we can be together. I only hope my sacrifice will be worth it in the end. Will giving up my ability to Change stop the prophecy, the one my father explained to me before he gave me the elixir of humanity? The same prophecy my father told me about when I was a little girl; the one that says that the son of a wandering soul, who belongs to neither the race of men nor the light of the angels, will bring about the world’s destruction. I really don’t know.

The Dark Seraphine—that would be Erica in case you didn’t know—pretends to be a human girl, someone who cares about Caleb, however I know she waits for the right moment to strike. Erica’s innocent act doesn’t fool me. I’m glad she’s gone. I hope she never returns.

That’s all I have to say about that for now.

Then there’s my Caleb. He’s so very curious about the safe house, my new home. I want to show him my digs, the place I disappear to when we’re not together, yet there are rules that govern what I can and can’t do. The house leader, an alchemist from the land of the angels—a powerful man called Mabry—has made it clear that no humans are allowed inside the facility.

You see, there’s this war coming, a battle between the three celestial worlds: the sea people; the land of the Archangel Gabriel’s descendants, a place called Bardonia; and the human lands, Caleb’s world. As I said, he plays a super important role in all this.

I only hope that what the two of us have can stand through whatever tests are most definitely coming our way.

Caleb’s voice in the kitchen tears me out of my thoughts. He strolls over to where his mother stands beside the stove and kisses her cheek. He’s wearing a navy Henley, of course, and blue jeans. Pretty easy to guess what color his tee is, right? I don’t think he’s noticed me sitting on the bench.

“What are my two fav girls up to? Talking about me?”

“Always,” his mom answers and passes a wink my way. The small gesture reminds me so much of her son. “Don’t forget to pack the pencils and notebook paper I got for you. It’s the college ruled kind you wanted.”

“Yes! It’s the mechanical ones.” Caleb makes a cheering motion with his fist, stabbing at the air with it as he studies the box on the countertop.

“Those are the ones you asked for, right?” Mrs. Wood asks, her gaze is eager as she waits for her son’s answer.

“You know it.” He glances at me, winking and giving me a smile that makes his face glow.

I’m happy to see their relationship hasn’t suffered since he found out she kept the true nature of his paternity a secret. Yet still, if you study them long enough, you can see the eagerness in the way his mom prepares food for him. The way she hangs on every word he says with a slight desperation in her tone. Caleb acknowledges every gesture she makes, making sure to return each one of her nervous smiles with one of his own. I regret being the one who has caused all this.

“Are we ready to ride le chariot to our summer palace?” he says to me, coming over to set his book bag down on the countertop I’m seated at.

“I think so,” I answer.
Not really
, I want to say.

Adjusting to a normal human life has been... well, a little hard for me. Walking the line of the normal means not being able to use the veil—the method of transportation for all my people and other celestial races.

Since the beginning of time, the Seraphin
e—
my peopl
e—
and Melusin
e—
the sea witche
s—
alike have used the place that exists between the human world and the lands of the three celestial races to quickly travel from one point to the next. Moving along the veil is considered a privilege among the Seraphine, giving us the ability to show up in anyplace at any given time. It’s also a way to take advantage of the weaknesses in the system, something that’s especially useful to our greatest enemy, Bernael, the Angel of Chaos.

The fallen angel who’s responsible for the tension that exists between our three groups and the prophecy Father’s Seers have said will bring about the end of all our worlds as we know it. He’s also the one who controls the lost souls, the Walkers that no other human or Seraphine can see… No other human besides Caleb.

Since I gave up my ability to Change, I am no longer able to use the veil, a swirling dimension of colors that exist between this world and the celestial ones. Now, it’s all about using my feet; body parts that I never even used on a regular basis up until a year or so ago.

That’s when Father sent Raze, my deceased brother, and our bodyguards, Lelo and Marisa—may their souls rest in the land of Elysia—back to fix the chaos I began the day I saved Caleb from drowning. Wow. That’s some story, right? I turn my attention back to Caleb who’s making some goofy expression as he wolfs down his pancakes.

“Go ahead, eat too fast and have the stomachache from Hades on a Monday,” I warn.

He rolls his head toward me, giving me a lazy, though sarcastic, look just before he says, “But I do believe my princess in waiting will wave her magic wand and then no stomach ache can touch me.”

I smirk. “What? Caleb, remind me to tell you to stick with computer engineering in your next life because poetry is probably not going to be your deal.”

He inhales sharply through his teeth. “Y-ouch.”

“I do apologize. Well, kinda sort of anyway. “

“You’re forgiven, this one time.” He holds up his index finger to emphasize his point.

“That’s all right. My Caleb can do anything he sets his mind to,” Alison—Mrs. Wood—says as she prepares a bowl of soy-based cereal for herself. “He has poetry in his blood. His father always wrote the most disturbingly haunting lyrics.” She’s pouring milk and hasn’t noticed that her words have caused Caleb to stop eating. He sets his fork down on his plate.

“Right. So which dad are we talking about, Mom? Dude A, aka Darren the oblivious, or perhaps we’re thinking of Dude B, aka the poster man for strange, odd and hasn’t been seen in over a decade now?”

Alison covers her mouth, holding his gaze a few seconds. She finally lowers her hands and says, “Oh, baby, I’m sorry. I just, I...” Tension has settled over us like fog, even clouding over the sunshine beaming through the window beside the back door.

Caleb scoffs a laugh. “It’s cool, Mom. Seriously.” Scooting his plate away, he turns to me. “Time to go, I do believe.”

“Finish your food, hon,” Alison tells him. Her voice almost sounds as though she’s pleading. Her statement was innocent and I feel bad about this sudden change of mood between Caleb and his mom.

“I’m not hungry anymore.” Without looking at her, Caleb lifts his bag and starts toward the door. I ease my body out of the chair, lift my purse and follow him.

“Have a good day, you two,” Alison calls out in a tired voice. I glance back at her, taking in her slumped shoulders and the defeated way she lowers her head. I guess I was wrong about my earlier assumptions. Once again, the actions of my people have affected someone else the boy I love cares about.