Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (39 page)

Another muted scream, the kind of emotional torture she feared most, rang in the air, muffled by walls and doors and padding. She could only imagine how shrill it must be in person. Even now, prickles barbed her scalp with pain. She’d screamed like that once. After Heather had found her, back cut, gripping a knife, desperate to rid herself of the pain and bizarre thoughts.

Now she knew she’d been trying to free her wings. Her thoughts had been part of her transformation. The meds must have staved the change off. No more, though. She was a seeker now. She had to be brave now.

Crusoe crouched before her, a calm about him that fit his chosen setting all too well. “Tell me what she says.”

Sadie peered down at the page and read out loud. “Force the truth if it shall set them free that bliss is not the ignorance but the ending. Crash down with might. Levity is the heavy cloak of the father that forgiveth.” She paused, wary of his reaction but unable to ignore it. His fists clenched the air, unclenched. A low, quiet whine penetrated the air. She heard it. More than that. She felt it, too. “No heaven and no hell unless this is the hell
,
but to join the two are the salvation and the sin in one. He cannot see. Make his eyes peel the light back from the grapes.”

Crusoe lunged at Sadie and propelled her upward by her throat, choking her. “You will not play games with me,” he hissed. “Or you will die screaming for help like your filthy mother.”

His words knifed at her. No one was safe from him. Not her sister, not her cousin. No one. Rage coiled inside Sadie and with it, power sprang to life. The pages said if realm lines collapsed, humans and immortals alike would perish. It said that until the change completed, the lines had to remain in place. “My… mother?” she coughed past his grip.

Until the change completed. What change? Changelings? Human evolution?

If she told him these things, what would he do?

Struggling to breathe, his grip tightening, her feet fighting for purchase, Sadie closed her eyes against his bloodshot glare.

“
I won’t kill you, Sadie. I’ll kill Jen. Heather. Elijah. One by one, in front of you.”

Her power swelled but unconsciousness threatened, too. She needed air. Fearing she’d fade into the encroaching black oblivion, Sadie latched onto the static building within her. She heaved her legs up against his chest, grasped his bicep and shoved. A shockwave pulsed out of her body and knocked him away from her.

Crusoe landed on his back with a grunt.

Sadie crouched to the floor and readied to springboard herself into the nearest space that wasn’t this one. Her mother’s words one by one, rearranged themselves in her head. Change…changelings…joining realms…each realm passage….

Crusoe’s growl pierced the air. Sadie’s heart pounded. Her energy gathered inward once again and she pressed for it. Before she could spiral into a transport, Crusoe’s fist smashed into her face. She careened backward. Ignoring the throb in her cheek and jaw, she somersaulted off the wall and launched against his midsection, shoulder first. A grunt knocked out of him, giving her courage. She might have a fighting chance after all.

She followed the hit with a twisting kick. A
crack
resonated in the air. Her shin lit with bright pain but the contact satisfied her in a primal way, feeding her energy. Crusoe leapt sideways into the air. He disappeared with a soft
pop
. Sadie spun, ready for him to reappear, but uncertain where he would attack. The seconds ticked by. His earlier words burned in her ears.
Your filthy mother
. Had Crusoe known her mother?
Snick
. She swung left too late. He tangled his ankles around her waist and flung her body against the far wall. The padding had to be what kept her conscious because the force was beyond her imagination. Her confidence wavered.

Crusoe came at her. She rolled aside and pushed off the floor. Her wings
arched
in flight and with such short ceilings she could do little more than hover before dodging each new assault. His fist crushed into her thigh instead of her head. She screamed in pain. She grabbed her leg and fell from the air. He kicked her in the face, sending a spray of blood at the wall.

The blackness threatened again. She was alone in this. But if he killed her, would he go after Jen and Heather?
Lies. Sees. Daughters.
Her mother’s words again restrung themselves. Sadie might have some messenger in her after all. Because the nonsense was becoming lucid.

Were Heather, Jen and Sadie three separate links to the Book of Sorrows. But why was Sadie the only changeling?

Sadie rolled. She didn’t know if she was rolling to him or away but she had to move. She sensed him coming in again. He would not stop. Until he had what he needed. Her head grew dizzy as her mother’s words circled faster and faster around it. What could they mean? What could she say to make him stop?

With him bide time.
One by one, each daughter—wait a minute. Jen was a daughter, too?

She forced her vision to locate him. A blur of black wings sped at her. She rolled and tucked, sending a pulse off of her skin. The bubble blocked his assault but did little to damage him. Crusoe laughed, a deep melodic sound that would send any person’s mind over the edge. It was the sound of childhood night terrors. “Nothing can save you now. Not even your Elijah.”

Crusoe attacked again. Sadie shot another pulse outward, curling into herself and pressing the energy into a weak membrane. But he hit again, seemingly enjoying her newfound trick. He struck at all angles, testing it. Her body trembled, shaken and depleted. The words strung themselves in her head. A clear meaning appeared within them. But would telling him what she saw stop him? Would it only enslave her to him?

Were her mother’s cryptic words worth dying for? No. She had to live for them. She had to. For Jen. For Heather. They would change, too.

Another chortle of laughter. Another strike. Her vision flashed black. Sadie’s limbs collapsed to the padded floor. Crusoe stopped attacking. He bent down so she could see his face and, God help her, she could not close her eyes against it. Was this the face of her death? His eyes searched hers and, for a vast moment, Sadie believed he’d kill her. She would fail. At least she’d fought. At least she had braved love, too, had not backed down. If nothing else, Elijah would know he was loved. He would protect her family. And one day, perhaps he’d come to understand why she hadn’t kept her promise to stay.

Sadie shut her eyes and clung to the bizarre hope that Crusoe needed her alive. “It says if the realm lines collapse, immortals and humans will both be annihilated.”

*

Elijah and Lyric arrived to the laundry littered room ready to draw blood. Elijah had pinpointed her faint vibration and hunted its trace. Though a mere whisper, he recognized Sadie’s hum as clearly as his own. They’d been joined. He could feel her now. Crusoe wouldn’t know that. Otherwise, he’d have cloaked it better.

Silence met them in the room. How long had passed? Elijah tried to estimate and failed. Her vibration lingered as well as her soft lilac fragrance
,
but both could be from any number of moments ago.

Lyric followed as Elijah stalked through each room. They split up. No signs of a struggle showed which could bode well or badly, depending on Sadie’s state and what Crusoe came here for. Based on what Monica had overheard Holly admitting, combined with rumor from her stint on the streets, they’d surmised Crusoe, the Illeautians themselves, suspected more journals existed. Lyric disagreed. Crusoe already had countless journals from the boxes in Sadie’s room. Why go after more? He figured Crusoe wanted to lead them astray and vanish with Sadie until she’d served his purpose.

Elijah paced his breathing, focused his detection.

“
In here,” Lyric called from down a hallway. “Over here, by the floor. I can feel her sorrow.”

“
What do you mean sorrow?” he snapped.

Lyric closed his eyes and took a moment. When he opened them, he only shook his head. “Deep sadness. Fear. But old fear. A memory maybe?”

Elijah calculated. Elijah knew Crusoe well. A hundred years had to count toward something. He’d underestimated him and had certainly been blind to his lies and true nature
,
but Elijah knew his pattern. His penchant for significance and meaning in events and places. That very facet of his nature likely contributed to creating the Illeautian movement.

Crusoe needed meaning. After witnessing so many meaningless horrors while hunting vampires and criminals, Elijah could see how blaming humans for it all, for so many immortals’ downfalls would send Crusoe toward finding meaning in the Book of Sorrows.

If there was no blood to get addicted to, if there was no humankind at all…. Elijah knew better. He never could blame mortals for simply existing. Elijah had faith that the Book of Sorrows championed both realms, though, no matter what Crusoe hoped to find otherwise.

They swept each room for further traces and Elijah’s mind worked. He retraced different hunts with Crusoe. A shifter gone vampire hiding in southern Brazil. Crusoe’s need to collect a pigmy necklace once they’d tracked their target through deep rainforest. The human leader of a blood den in Moscow, Crusoe taking his pinky ring.

Dismay frosted his hot anger. If Monica was right, Holly located Sadie for two reasons: to get Elijah closure and thereby win him, and to give her to Crusoe as well. Crusoe had always played dirty. Crusoe would use fear to force Sadie into submission. He’d use meaning. What would be her worst fear realized
—
.

“
Lyric,” Elijah called.

“
What is it? Did you find something?” He flashed to Elijah’s side.

“
I know where he’s taken her. That is to say, I know what he’s taken her to. An asylum. The only problem is which one?”

Lyric frowned. Elijah despaired. Which one? Thousands scattered this country
,
let alone any other
,
and Crusoe had the world to conceal her in.

“
We have to assume he’ll want to keep her nearby. To save his own energy as well as hers. I suspect there is something significant about being in Phoenix. The vortexes maybe?”

“
Crusoe had said something when he left. About rebirth.”

“
Phoenix rises from the ashes.” Lyric’s eyes glittered. “Was her mother ever institutionalized?”

Elijah shook his head. “I’ve no idea. But wherever we go, we need to go now. Someone’s coming, I assume whomever calls this place home.”

A car’s engine turned off outside. Exhaling in resignation, Elijah wasted no time and pushed them back to the safe house.

A blind stab in the dark felt like all he had left. There had to be more. He couldn’t fail her now.

“
Elijah, we’ll find her,” Lyric said.

Monica rushed into the large anteroom where they’d transported. “Where is she?”

Elijah’s wings hung heavy with trepidation. He couldn’t face Monica.

“
We don’t know.” Lyric stepped between them. “Elijah thinks an asylum.”

“
Okay. Go to it then.”

Monica’s fervor didn’t surprise him. He had to wonder if Sadie realized her effect on the chameleon, if she would be surprised over the fierce loyalty she had inspired.

“
It isn’t that easy,” Elijah managed, hating the words, hating himself for not having an answer.

“
Yes,” she demanded. “It is. Don’t tell me you can’t trace her. Don’t give me that. She is depending on you, Elijah. She loves you, you idiot. So if she’s in some
godforsaken
place, go find her. Now.”

“
He will,” Lyric interjected. “Once we isolate where to begin. If he goes off blind and frantic, he’ll drown in it.”

“
Drown? Drown? While she dies?”

Elijah snapped his head up. “She will not die.”

“
Crusoe won’t kill her?” Monica demanded. “Why wouldn’t he?”

Something hideous twanged inside of Elijah, down in his chest, deeper than his bones. In his very core, he heard her. He felt her. Anguish. He closed his eyes, and wrapped every grain of his attention on hearing her soul call to his. In the dead of winter on a moonless night, no lone wounded wolf’s howl sounded so mournful as Sadie’s vibration calling to his.

Elijah transported, blindly following the agonizing sound. Within moments, he drew close, slowed and teleported into the room. Fury beat in his veins. Crusoe hovered above Sadie’s prone form. He flicked a finger against her cheek. He laughed a twisted chuckle and Elijah lashed out. The air whined, bent, and Elijah snapped his heel against Crusoe’s face.

The seeker flipped back, tucked and thrust upward in retaliation. Elijah answered, kicking high. Crusoe’s fist connected with Elijah’s abdomen, sending him careening back. He tumbled into Sadie. She yelped. Elijah shielded her body, hovering between her and Crusoe.

“
No, no, no,” Crusoe chuckled. “Don’t tell me, Elijah. You can’t have fallen for a human?”