Awakened (26 page)

“What?” Kale’s eyes furrowed, and he sat up straighter.

“You and I—what are we?” I moved closer, hoping he’d get my point.

Kale pulled me closer to him and placed his face into my neck, sending sparks of pleasure
down my spine. I wrapped my arms around his waist and snuggled as close as I could
get to him.

“I guess I am trying to DTR. You want help me out, here?” I kissed his neck and felt
him shiver.

“I have no clue what DTR means, but if it gets me more kisses like that, I’m willing
to DTR right here right now.”

I giggled and kissed Kale again. “‘Define The Relationship.’ I want to know what we
are to each other. You know, like—”

“Ella, I am always yours, but things are a bit more complicated than ‘boyfriend’ and
‘girlfriend.’ You have so much to deal with over these next few weeks, and I will
be here for you, but—”

“But what, Kale?” I pulled back to see his face. “But what? Are you saying that you
don’t want to be with me?” It felt foolish to say, but my insecurities creeped below
the surface.

“No, I’m not saying that at all, Ella. I’m saying that there are more important things
to handle right now, don’t you think?” Kale searched my eyes, possibly looking for
understanding, but finding none.

“It’s important to me,” I whispered.

Kale rubbed my back and chuckled. “Yes, it is important, so let’s handle it now.”
He walked towards the sofa, pulling me along with him. “Okay, okay. Let’s talk about
it before Jace and Mia come in.” We sat down side by side.

“I want to be with you,” I blurted.

Kale took a deep breath and smiled.

“What do you want?”

“You. I’ve always wanted you, but I also want you to be happy, Ella. I want you to
have a life you deserve, and I don’t know if that includes me.”

“You want me to be happy, and that includes you.”

“And my immorality?” Kale sat back. “There’s more.”

Finally, we were getting somewhere. I was excited to get to know Kale more and nervous
about knowing what he’d done in the past. “Well, what else is there?”

“
La Luxure
,
” Jace said from the front door.

I hadn’t noticed Mia and Jace enter the house. Mia’s eyes were red and puffy along
with her cheeks. I ignored Jace and went and hugged her. I didn’t expect much of a
hug back. No matter what Kale and Deacon said, Alex was dead because of me.

Mia hugged me back, more tightly than I was ready for, taking my breath away.

“Are you okay?” I asked in her ear.

“Yeah, I will be. I just can’t believe Alex is gone.” Mia sniffled and released me.

“Let’s go in the bedroom and talk.” I guided Mia to the back where Kale’s bedroom
was, but not before I told Kale that we would finish our conversation later—and that
meant explaining what
la Luxure
was and why it would stop us from being together.

***

“Did you see it happen?” Mia asked. She sat cross-legged on the edge of Kale’s bed.
“I mean, was he—”

I decided to tell her the truth. “Mia, he told me to run, so I ran. I wish I would
have stayed.”

I waited for her to get angry and ask me why I didn’t stay or why I didn’t get help.

“I’m glad you ran, Ella. If you hadn’t, then you and Alex would both be gone.”

I hadn’t expected that reaction. “Yeah, I guess,” I said hesitantly.

“Jace said that you have been blaming yourself for Alex’s death. Ella, you can’t do
that.” Mia shook her head and got off of the bed.

“Don’t listen to anything that liar says!”

“Who, Jace? Why is he a liar? Are you not blaming yourself?” Mia sounded confused
by my outburst.

I didn’t feel like explaining to her my new hatred for Jace and the Council, so I
shrugged and tried to downplay it. “No, I’m just tired and stressed, Mia. I have to
figure out what to tell Alex’s parents about his death. That’s going to be hard, and
then there’s Ana.” Would the Council accept her or not?

“Ana? Who is that?”

“She is one of the Immortals that held me on that island, but then she turned on Laurent.
She and Darke let me go once Kale and everyone got to the island to save me.”

Mia nodded. Did nobody at least fill her in on something other than Alex’s death?
“Yeah, that Darke guy is dead. Jace said that his brother killed him or something
like that. Why would the Council kill someone that helped you?”

I didn’t know what to tell Mia at that point. I could have told her what I believed
to be the truth, that the Council was full of a bunch of murderous liars, but I didn’t.
It was much more complicated than that, and I wasn’t ready to get into what the Council
had done, at the moment. Mia was still dealing with what happened at Alex, as was
I—plus, I felt angry with and betrayed by the Council.

“I don’t know, Mia. I wasn’t there at that point.” I pulled my hair out of its ponytail
and brushed it back.

Mia came over and took the brush from my hands. “Here, I’ll braid it for you.”

“Thanks.” I looked at Mia in the mirror and took in her perfect appearance. Her blond
hair was bone straight and fell around her face, her makeup looked much better than
the caked-on crap she’d worn when I first met her, and her blue eyes were perfectly
rimmed with dark liner and topped with smoky gray and black eye shadow.

Mia smiled, revealing her white teeth. “You have thick hair, Ella.” She pulled my
hair back and started to braid it.

I closed my eyes and relaxed. It had always felt good when my mother braided my hair.

“I have the dye we bought last week in my car, if you still want me to dye your hair.
It will give us something to do to take our minds off of all the stuff that’s going
on,” Mia suggested.

I didn’t see any reason to say no. “Okay.”

Mia grabbed her coat and headed out.

Kale walked in moments after she left. “How are you doing?” He took me in his arms
and lightly kissed my forehead.

“I’m good. Mia is going to dye my hair.”

Kale’s nose scrunched up in distaste. “I think your hair is fine the way it looks.”
He grabbed a lock and tugged lightly before running his hand through my hair, grazing
my scalp as he moved his fingers expertly through my hair. I groaned and placed my
head on his shoulder.

“It’s not going to change much, just add some highlights. Besides, I think that stuff
like this helps Mia deal.” I placed my arms around him and pulled him closer.

“I was thinking about what we were talking about earlier.”

“DTR?” I asked.

“Yes, I’d like that.” I looked up at Kale and smiled.

“You’d like what?” I smirked, knowing what Kale wanted, but wanting to hear him say
it out loud.

“I want you to be mine,” he whispered, moving his head closer to mine.

I knew he was going to kiss me, and I couldn’t wait. It had been too long since I’d
felt his lips on mine. “I
am
yours Kale, but what else do you want from me?” I tilted my head slightly in his
direction as I moved in closer, wanting to complete the emotional connection that
Kale had started with a physical touch, but I held back, waiting for Kale to speak
again.

“I want you.”

I giggled when Kale repeated himself. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t going to say he wanted
to be my boyfriend, but I knew that was what he wanted, and when his lips touched
mine, the spark travelled from my lips down my spine to my toes confirmed it.

Kale placed his hand in the middle of my back and pulled my body flush against his
as he deepened the kiss. I tightened my arms around his waist and fell into our kiss.
I’d never felt a connection in a kiss the way I felt it when I kissed Kale. He pulled
back and gently tilted my chin up. “I—want—you—to—be—my—” he began, placing soft kisses
on my chin and neck between each word.

“I’ll be your girlfriend,” I said before he could finish his sentence. I moved my
lips back to his for a searing kiss to seal that deal.

Kale and I would be together forever, and all I had to do was either convince Kale
to turn me or find someone in the Council to do it. Though my heart soared as Kale
ran his hands through my hair and kissed me back, my brain ran through all the ways
that Kale and I could possibly be together longer than my mortal lifetime.

Kale

Since the night I drank Laurent’s blood, I’d felt different or better. The beast’s
growl was low and controllable, and even as I kissed Ella and held her in my arms,
my lust for her blood was held at bay.

Deek and I had discussed what immortal blood did for
la Luxure
, and he and I planned to talk about it more after I’d checked on Ella. I had planned
on telling Ella that it would be best if she and I remained as we were, so that she
could go her separate way when the time came, but Deek advised me against it. “Look
at me and Chelle,” he’d said. “I’m Chorý, and she’s human.”

“Yeah, I know, but what about—”

“She and I discussed that, the same way you and Ella should. We decided that loving
someone isn’t something everyone is fortunate to experience. She and I have both had
hard lives, and when we met each other, everything fell into place, and it seemed
so easy.” Deek looked into the sky and smiled. “It’s a full moon out, and I know it
sounds silly, but knowing that my girl is sitting at home under her blanket—warm and
safe, looking at the same moon as I am—makes me happy, man. I couldn’t live without
her.”

“But you will have to,” I reminded him. She was human; she would die, leaving him
without her.

“Yeah, you’re right, but Kale, this feels so right.” Deek placed his hand over his
heart. “She feels so right, every kiss and every touch makes me feel that my place,
for as long as she allows, it is right beside her. I love her, and the only thing
that will ever take her away from me is the Reaper.” Deek sat back onto the couch.

“And how will you handle that? What if it pushes you into your first bout of Blood
Lust, what then?” I asked. I hated to rain on his parade, but it was a legitimate
question, and I wanted to know what he was going to do. I had already planned my next
defensive attack against it, which was one of the reasons Deek was here.

“I’ve been thinking about that, and look at you.”

“Look at me what?”

“You haven’t had any bad cravings, gone out and hunted, and you said that the beast
talks to you, but you still control yourself. These three days since what happened
with Laurent have been a lot better than before you took his blood.”

He was right. I felt better. Tired, but better. Tired was never something that I’d
felt as a Chorý, but after battling the Blood Lust, I knew that it was to be expected.
“What are you saying?”

“Well, what if we found the cure that Laurent was muttering about as you drained him?”

“Yeah, right. Deek, you know that that was just a dying man using his last breath
to lie. I didn’t buy his words then, and I don’t now.”

Deek sat up and leaned in close, as if about to impart a secret. “What if immortal
blood is the cure to
la Luxure
? What if that is why Darke wanted to send Ana to the Council?” he asked, tone serious.
“I think that’s why you don’t need me to place you in that cage downstairs.”

I shook my head. “I’ve heard the same rumors about the Zdrowy, the cleansed, but I’m
trying not to hear it. There is no proof, not one iota of proof. No, you will place
me there. I feel better now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t come back!” I shook my
head, wishing that Deek would understand that the only way to protect Ella was to
distance myself from her and as if he read my mind he commented on my fear.

“You keep pushing her away, and that will hurt her. You can tell her the truth, and
she will stand by you until you’re better. That’s what I don’t get about you, man.”

“What? Like I am so damned complicated.”

Deek ignored my annoyance. “For a man who is willing to chase a girl for a hundred
years, you are real unwilling to let her return the favor.” He shook his head and
leaned back again.

“What?”

“Do you love her?”

I paused. I hadn’t known Ella long, but I knew how strong my feelings were for her,
and I knew her soul long before Ella the body even existed. “I know her soul, and
I love it.” I admitted, hoping Deek would understand. Maybe I
was
complicated and didn’t even know it.

“I see.” He looked pensive and was quiet for a moment. “So you are falling in love
with Ella, and you are afraid to.”

I thought about it for a moment and realized that I didn’t only fear for Ella’s safety.
I also feared that there’d come a time when I’d have to live without her,, but that
wasn’t the point I was trying to make.

“Maybe that’s part of the reason, but there is her safety, as well, Deek. This isn’t
just some romantic story; Ella’s life can be in danger when she is with me.” I was
afraid of losing her, but it wasn’t just that, and Deek should have known that.

“Yeah, but Laurent’s blood may have cured you, and even if it didn’t, I’m sure that
Ella will stand by you. You need to give her a chance, man. I thought that’s what
all this was for, to save her and you two ride off into the sunset.”

I laughed. “If only.”

“Well, from where I’m standing, you are the only obstacle in the way of your happily
ever after, so move!” Deek shoved me and got off of the couch to check on Ella’s lunch
just as Mia walked out of the room.

She looked improved. Her cheeks had color, and her eyes weren’t as puffy as they had
been over the past four days. “Where’s Jace?”

“He normally stays in the study. He should be in there.”

“Oh, okay. I’m gonna check on him before I grab my bag out of my car.” Mia headed
back in the direction she’d come from, and I got off of the couch to go and check
on Ella. In one conversation, Deek had convinced me to forget what I had been worried
about and give Ella and me a chance.

Though I wasn’t wholly convinced, once I stepped in that room where she was and kissed
her, I knew that she and I were going to “DTR,” as she called it, and the outcome
would be in her favor.