Released Souls (7 page)

“I’m not checking out yet.” He coughed, rolling toward me, leaving a
red residue on my sock.

I quickly flashed my gaze at him so he wouldn’t see the blood. This was bad.

“That’s an understatement,” I replied, getting up and reaching over to help him up.

He shook his head and
pushed himself up slowly but rested for a few moments before standing up completely.

Sirens
blared in the distance, and I knew we didn’t want to be around when they arrived. I could only imagine how that conversation would go.
Yes officer. I think my grandpa and aunt were trying to kill my boyfriend and possibly me.
I’d be hauled off to an institution pronto. Our two worlds hadn’t found a way to coexist yet…maybe someday.

“I think at this point I’d welcome the Golem back into my life in a heartbeat,” I replied, wrapping my arm around Logan’s waist. He didn’t moan or utter another word all the way to the car. The pain was too severe to even bother.

I knew Logan was going to be all right physically. Healing was my strength and I had everything back at the house to help him through the pain. Mental healing, however, was a different story. I didn’t know how long his recovery might take, but I wasn’t going to abandon him. I could always hunt down the ones who did this. They were only an arm’s reach away, after all.

I pulled the car onto the main road to our home, thankfully missing all of the fire engines and police cars that were coming from the opposite direction.
They had dumped us off in the industrial section of town, near the port. Something told me this wasn’t the only warehouse they had here.

Logan
’s breathing quickened, and I watched him attempt to get comfortable in the front seat, but it was impossible.

“
I’ve already started the healing process on you. See how your arms are pink instead of red now?”

“I’ll take your word for it.”
He nodded and gripped the console.

“
I’ve got stuff for the pain at the house. It’ll be like it never happened,” I told Logan when suddenly the emotions from the last thirty minutes of my life began to drown me. Staring straight ahead, I did everything I could to maintain composure. He was the one who needed to be taken care of, not the other way around.

“It’s not that
bad, really. I crawled away before the explosions,” he replied, glancing over at me. “I think that’s the only reason I’m alive.”

His words lodged
in a place deep in my soul. He almost died because of me… again. He was leaning his head back against the seat, his eyes closed. It wasn’t fair to drag him into this, whatever
this
might be. He’s risked so much for me — given up so much for me — that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to repay him, and it was probably only going to get worse. He left a world of darkness for me, and all I seemed to do was bring him right back into it. It wasn’t right.

“Your lip looks horrible,
” he whispered, shaking me out of my spiraling world of guilt.

My tongue glided along
my top lip, and I looked quickly in the rearview mirror to check it out.

“Geez. It didn’t feel that bad.” Not only was my lip swollen to the point that it looked like it would explode, my left eye
was bloodshot and the left cheek was a glossy red. “So my own aunt beat us up while we were unconscious?”

“
Pretty cold. I doubt she did it though. She probably just snapped her fingers,” Logan spoke softly, his voice hoarse.

“
Does that make it better?” I laughed. “You know she seems to have gone rogue. My grandfather’s interest in me sparked this whole mess with her.”

“You don’t think Eben knows
about this?”

“It didn’t sound like it. He’s been talking to her about me
joining him, and I think she thought that was her job in life. She implied that covens around the world were coming to get me, but she was going to take care of me first. It sounds pretty ridiculous.”

“Whoa.
That’s not ridiculous. It’s —”

“What?”

“If they’ve summoned the Diabolus covens, it’s nothing to be messed with.”

“Wait, Diabolus coven? Lara
mentioned something to me about demoniker spells like it was a disservice that my mom didn’t teach them to me. Is that connected?”

“Yeah. It’s connected,” his words were
edged with anger.

We pulled into the driveway
, and he hopped out of the car as if he had never been trapped in a burning building. My aunt’s car was parked on the road so I wasn’t surprised when she swung the front door open to greet us.

“My god! What happened to you?”
Aunt Vieta cried out.

“Lara happened to us,
” I replied, looking over at Logan.

He
gently touched my back as he moved by me to get to the family room. I scurried to the kitchen pantry to begin creating the remedies for his burns and everything else.

“She left us in a burning building or should I say she trapped
us in a building that she set on fire.”

My aunt gasped.
“I can’t even imagine someone…” she broke off.

“
Well, believe it.” I grabbed the jars of marigold and calendula tinctures, balancing them as I pinned the St. John’s Wort to my side with my elbow.

I slid the jars on the counter and began
creating the skin-calming ointments that would prevent infection. A flash of light caught my attention out the kitchen window and a fluttering set of wings dove toward the glass.

“Dace is here,” I shouted to Logan.

“I’ll let him in.” My aunt rushed to the door and opened it wide only to have Dace, Bakula and a couple other fairies come right inside.

“How are you?” Bakula flew right over to me, and Dace
shot toward the family room to see Logan.

“I’m a lot better than Logan. He got burned pret
ty badly,” I replied, my voice trembling.

My aunt placed her hand on my shoulder. “You’ve done an incredible job with him. Whatever spells you threw at him
before you got here have really begun the healing process.”

“Yeah, but none of this would’ve happened to
him if he hadn’t come back to…” I couldn’t finish my sentence because of the lump that had formed in my throat, so I continued pounding the gel out of the aloe leaf.

Bakula circled over to me, tapping her foot against the air. She was completely
exasperated with me. “There isn’t time for you to start with the guilt trip thing. I know what happened in that warehouse. None of this was your fault. You saved him.”

“He wouldn’t have needed saving if he hadn’t come back out here to help.”
I stared at her letting the reality of my words sink into them.

“Is that what you would’ve wanted? Logan
never coming back for you?” My aunt stared at me with a peculiar expression.

“God no. I…” Forcing back the tears
, I began again, “If it weren’t for him I never would’ve gotten through all this. He’s my everything, but I think because he is, I’m afraid to lose him. Like really lose him.”

My aunt shook her head. “Don’t start playing these games, Triss.
Sometimes it’s too hard to separate yourself from them. They can take on a life of their own, and you wind up losing the one you love the most.”

“My mother’s conversation didn’t help either,” I confessed.

“She’s not thinking straight. She’s having a hard time separating your life from her life,” my aunt said.

“I miss her so badly, and I feel awful for what happened at your house.”

“Don’t,” my aunt whispered. “Truthfully, I’d be surprised if she remembers it.”

“What she does know is how much you love her. I tell her so
every moment when she seems cognizant.”

“Now onto some business,” Bakula interrupted.
“The pipes that burst in the warehouse.”

“Yeah?” I asked, wondering how Bakula knew I did that.

“You know you did that right?” Bakula questioned, glancing at my aunt.

“I figured it was a pos
sibility after the whole flame tossing ordeal.”

“Well, between harnessing fire and water I’d say you’ve got some pretty special talents.” Bakula sat on the bowl that was infusing the marigold and Calend
ula mixture.

“This is a pretty big deal.”
My aunt leaned against the counter. “I didn’t know witches could have more than one power. I mean I’ve heard about it, but I thought it was a myth.”

I love how everyone knew about these myths but me. I
really had been kept in the dark.

“No myth — just unusual…very unusual.”

“Should we tell my mom?” I asked.

Aunt Vieta looked down to the floor. “You know, I don’t think so. Not yet.
She saw what happened to you at the house and could barely wrap her head around the idea that you have the same ability as your father…”

“With the fire?” I interjected.

She nodded but still wouldn’t look up at me.

“I think once I learn what these skills can do for our side, it will put us
at a great advantage.”

“Sides,” my aunt whispered, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this is what our world has come to.”

“I’m going to take Lara down.” I stared directly at Aunt Vieta, waiting for her to look at me.

“I…I don’t know that it’s a good idea to —”

“Every member that we can eliminate is one less to worry about down the road. And if she’s going to continually target Logan then we won’t be able to focus on what we need to be doing anyway. We’ll constantly be looking over our shoulder,” I interrupted.

“You
’ll be doing that anyway,” she whispered, finally acknowledging my stare.

“What’s you
r aversion to stopping her?” I argued, crossing my arms.

“I’m not adverse to stopping her but taking
her out is quite another thing.”

“It might be the only way,” Bakula said quietly
. She slid off the bowl and walked along the edge of the counter toward my aunt.

I was silent for a few moments
and looked outside to the night sky, which had a brightness hovering right below the clouds. I heard Dace and Logan’s voices raise and then fall back down to an almost whisper. I couldn’t fathom how he was able to maintain such composure with everything he just went through. The tincture was almost ready. Turning my attention back to my aunt I began again.

“I’d say that is
pretty much our
only
option with her or any of the high ranking members of the
Praedivinus
order. It’s not like they’ll all of a sudden redeem themselves. They’re in too deep. Besides, Lara told me they were coming for me. I’d like to be prepared. I’d like to get to them first.”

“They’ll stop at nothing to ensure our demise
so I’d say it’d be foolish not to reciprocate the gesture,” Logan belted out from the family room.

I
grabbed the poultice that had been soaking in the burn tincture and snapped off an aloe leaf from the plant on the counter.

“And by the way, you weren’t the one kidnapped and almost burned to death.” I
leaned over and whispered to my aunt. “It puts things in perspective a little more being trapped in a fiery warehouse.”

She reached up and touched my arm. “No, Triss. You’re right. It’s not the magical world I once knew.
” Her eyes filled with sadness, and she followed me into the family room where Logan was sitting on the couch, with Dace and the other fairies perched on the armrest.

My aunt flipped on the light
, and I was shocked to see Logan’s flesh almost completely healed. He flashed me a brilliant smile and dropped his eyes to the bowl I was carrying in.

“You certainly know how to take good care of me.”
He beamed.

“You’re a lucky one,” Dace echoed
Logan’s praise.

Why
was everyone ignoring the fact that this wouldn’t have happened in the first place if it weren’t for me? Trying to focus on the positives, I sat next to Logan and began placing the wet compresses on his arms. I couldn’t go to that place in my mind — not now.

“That’s nice and cooling. Thanks, babe.” He winked at me and a flood of guilt ran through me.
I was being thanked for almost getting him killed?

Logan caught my
expression and raised a concerned brow at me.

I smiled at him and scrunched my nose up to divert his attention.

“The good news is that Lara thinks you’re both dead. That’s why we brought Troni and Coter over. We want to keep the cover going. If there’s anything you need, these two will get it for you,” Dace said, pointing at the two fairies.

Neither of them looked particularly friendly, but they at least weren’t starin
g at us with the predator look in their eyes, and as long as they didn’t show teeth I think I could get to like them.