Dark Revelation (21 page)

            Mia stepped forward from the shadows.  The imp turned his palm upward toward the sky and motioned his fingers toward him.  The car began to roll and pitch forward landing on its roof. 

            As he closed his fist, metal began to pop and crumble into itself.  That’s what he heard it.  The girl.  The imp cocked his head to his side and listened again.  Yes, he was sure he heard it. 

            The imp came close to the vehicle and peered inside.  Inside the car was a girl.  When he flipped the vehicle and crushed it, part of the metal from the door pierced through her abdomen.

            The imp grabbed the girl and pulled her through the window.  He breathed her in and could tell she was quite powerful but not so much controlled yet.  He decided he would let her live.  His master wasn’t there and he didn’t much like all the bad things he was made to do.  So he moved her out of the way and continued to make the car explode.  On the side of the road, Ryleigh cried out in pain.  That is when Mia decided to tell Tristan. 

            He faded away to Tristan’s location and brought him and Vee back.

            When Mia appeared Tristan was taken aback and immediately thought that Finar was summoning him.  “What does he want now?”

            Mia shook his little head, “Nothing, you must come with me.”

            “Well if he doesn’t want me, why should I come with you?”

            “You just must come; I need help to save her.”

            Tristan was intrigued and agreed.  They faded to the accident.

            Mia pointed.  Tristan looked at the imp to thank him but by the time he turned around, he was gone.

27

Dreams never let you sleep

“I knew that you would be okay,” Tom continued.  “I’d ensured that if anything ever happened to your mom and I, that my sister would get you.”

“I was put in the hospital,” Ryleigh said.  “I had some pretty bizarre injuries.”

Tom’s face darkened with anger.

“But I’m okay,” Ryleigh reassured.  “Aunt Vera was nice to me also.”

“Mia brought me to Ryleigh,” Tristan popped in.  He wasn’t sure if he should say anything but decided now was as good of time as any.  “She was severely injured.  Vee and I saved her life.”

“Yeah but, I’m okay now,”  Ryleigh paused for a moment and then changed the subject.  “Dad?  How did you get out of your cell?”

            Tom hesitated, “He let me go.  I don’t know why he did it, he just did.”

            Tristan wondered, “Where were you?”

            “I wandered all over the Sanctum.  I was trapped.  My imp was killed by Finar.  I tried to find a way to release my wife and the twins.  But, without my imp, I am useless.  I heard the screams and headed back toward you. “

            Ryleigh was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and could feel how tired her body was.  Even though Nissa helped heal her, mentally she was spent.  She needed a rest and needed to escape into the darkness for a while.

            “I have to sleep,” she told them. 

            Tristan and her father both nodded her way.

            She stopped and hugged her dad, “I missed you.”

            She headed into the back of the house to find refuge from the current madness. 

Ryleigh dreamt a fitful sleep.  She kept dreaming about her mom and the look in her eyes.  The pleading for Ryleigh to just accept what was happening.  Waking up multiple times she even wondered why she closed her eyes.  All she could see was the pool of blood beneath her mother’s body. 

She knew that her mother gifted her Chi to her.  But it wasn’t like Tristan.  Tristan explained how he could feel Illeana inside of him.  She couldn’t feel her mother inside of her.  It was impossible.  She sometimes would talk to her twin, since she found out that she had one.  She knew that it had to have been boy.  Although, with the twin girls, this meant that there was something different about them too.  Something eerie with the way they looked at you.  Their eyes seemed to pierce through her soul. 

            Her dream took her back to finding Tristan with the knife.  Instead of missing him and her father appearing, she killed him.  She could feel that she reveled in it.  She was enjoying making him afraid of her.  It was as if she fed on it, completely, and it felt natural.  As if this was what she was meant to do.

            She woke up covered in a sheen of sweat.  The day was still bright and although it felt as if she slept through the night, it had only been an hour.  She was a little afraid of the darkness that she felt.  It worried her.  She wasn’t sure if she could even talk to Tristan dad about it.  Although, she knew he would possibly understand what she was going through. 

            Shaking the sleep off she walked into a conversation that seemed intense. “There isn’t anything you can do Tristan,” said Tom.  “You are like this forever.  More powerful, stronger, this is why Fin wants you on his side and will not kill you.  Ryleigh I’m worried about.”

            “What about me?”

            They turned around surprised to see her standing there; they were so involved that they didn’t even hear her approach them. 

            Her dad stuttered for a moment, “H-hey!  We thought you were still sleeping!”

            “Apparently,” Ryleigh said, sarcasm implied.  “So, what
do
you mean then?  I guess if you are worried about me, then I need to be worried about myself as well.  Don’t you think?”

            Tristan crossed the room.  He grabbed Ryleigh by her arms and pulled her close, “Of course you should be worried.  You are different than me. You are more whole.  I am…”  Pushing her back to look in her face, “I don’t know what I am.  Can you feel another presence?  You know… inside?”

            “I can’t feel my mom and haven’t tried to feel my twin.  I talk to it all the time but, I haven’t tried to be honest.  I wanted to, but I was afraid.  I didn’t want to know or feel that someone or…something else was inside of me.  The thought of it just really creeped me out.”

            Tom broke into the conversation, “Well, we can help.  I mean, I can’t.  I don’t know if I can connect with anyone else.  It’s been a long time.” 

            “There’s only one way to find out,” Ryleigh announced.

28

The moment when all that didn’t matter disappeared

            Tristan, Ryleigh and Tom gathered in the living room after putting the girls down.  Tom reached out to one of his contacts that helped him and his wife escape seventeen years earlier to find someone to take the girls.  They would leave first thing in the morning to a safe place.  Hopefully far enough from this madness.  Not one of the three would be privilege to their location, nor would they know who took the twins.  An imp would fade them out of the house and to a new location.  It was for the twins and their own protection. 

The all held hands, eyes closed.  Tom was nervous as he hadn’t connected with anyone but his wife in a very long time. 

Ryleigh felt her father’s nervousness and squeezed his hands.  Concentrating on their breaths, Tristan and Ryleigh connected first.  They’d decided that Ryleigh would attempt to stream Chi to Tom first.

She sent a small energy pulse to her father.  She looked at her father.  He opened his eyes, feeling the electric sensation run up his arm.  He concentrated on that feeling and tried pulling on it.  He couldn’t do it.

Tristan tried next.  He sent a pulse to Tom.  Again, Tom couldn’t grab onto it or pull it.  He dropped their hands.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” he said blandly.  “To be honest, I’m okay with it.”

Ryleigh broke her connection with Tristan and embraced her dad.  “I love you.”

“I love you too, honey,” Tom replied.  He would have to learn how to live life, all over again, as a human.

“Tristan and I will try later – to see if there is someone, or something inside,” Ryleigh said. 

Tristan nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m sure you two will figure it out.”  Tom left the living room and went into the spare room he would be staying in.

“I think he’ll be alright,” reassured Tristan.

“I’m sure you’re right,” said Ryleigh.  But she wasn’t so sure.

***

Since the first time they connected, Ryleigh and Tristan didn’t have an opportunity to really talk about what happened, or them… Or even touch.  Too much transpired and interrupted their opportunity.  Ryleigh wasn’t even sure how she felt being connected to him, tethered to him.  She did want it.  Or something like it.  From the time she was little she had always craved for someone to be at her side.  Which more than likely stemmed from the fact she was supposed to be a twin. 

            So many times she talked to herself as if she was not herself.  Wondering if she was completely crazy. 

            Prior to meeting Finar face to face, she needed to talk to Tristan.  She needed to experience that connection.  To feel inside that someone wanted and needed her.  Just in case she would never feel it again and be sent spiraling headfirst into the nether.  The thought of it bothered her immensely.  She didn’t want to be cast into a pot of melted energy that spiraled around forever.  The explanation of the nether wasn’t ever clear.  To any of them. 

            In the dark she crept to Tristan’s room. Careful not to make any noise to disturb the twins, or her father.  She opened his door gently, Mia was sleeping on the end of his bed and lifted his squirrely face and peered at her.  “Mistress?” he questioned.

            Ryleigh stepped into the room, “Could I have a moment?” she whispered to Mia.  He cocked his head and looked hesitant to leave his master.  “Go Mia, go to Nissa,” Tristan’s baritone ordered. 

            Tristan looked as if he had been awake for a while, although when she peered in the room it seemed as if he were sleeping.  “I knew you would come,” Tristan acknowledged.  “At least, before tomorrow.”

            “Yes,” Ryleigh answered.  “I-I,” she sighed.  She tried to find the words to convey to him to let him know how she felt but there were none. 

            Tristan sat up cross-legged on his bed and patted the space before him.  Ryleigh sat across from him.  She was nervous and didn’t know what to expect exactly.  Neither did Tristan.  What he felt that he needed to do, came from instinct.  Ryleigh was also led by that same instinct. 

            She reached out and placed her palm on his chest as they did before.  Tristan did the same.  Breathing in as the other breathed out.  This time it was a little more intense.  And a little faster as they had connected previously. 

            Looking deeply and intently into his eyes, she thought she felt a stirring within her.  She could drown in his violet eyes and their liquid pools of lavender.  Once the connection was made, Ryleigh placed her hands on her legs.  She was nervous about what might happen or come next.  The temperature in the room seemed to have risen. 

            Tristan caressed the back of Ryleigh’s neck.  She allowed her head to fall into the palm of his hand feeling the warmth from inside.  She could almost hear him.  Knowing how he felt.  This was what she wanted.

            Tristan pulled her to him.  They’d become a little more in tune with their energy cycling to prevent anything from exploding, however, when Tristan pressed his velvety soft lips into Ryleigh’s, her heart felt as if it were going to explode from her chest.  His kiss was urgent and aggressive, as if he wanted to imprint his lips onto hers.  Ryleigh felt the urgency herself.  She wasn’t sure if she was ever going to have this again.

            Tristan pulled away staring at her, “I don’t want to lose you.”

            Tears began to well in her eyes, swallowing a lump that was being created in her throat, “I don’t want to lose you either, Tristan.”

            “This connection, it’s more than just predetermined you know,” Tristan said almost whispering.  “I really do care about you.  I would have cared about you even if we didn’t have some stupid destiny planned for us genetically.”

            “I know.  I feel the same way.  I’d dreamt about you so many times before,” she told him.  “I know I’ve said it before, but, even though we are supposed to be matched for each other, I’ve always known it.  Does that make sense?”

            Tristan nodded, “I love you Ryleigh.”

            Ryleigh’s heart caught in her throat and she began to sob.

            Tristan pulled her close into his chest, a place that knew her best, “Why are you crying?”  He smoothed her hair back from her face and kissed her tears away.

            “I don’t want this to go away.  I don’t want to lose this,” Ryleigh sobbed.  “I finally have this, something I’ve searched for, and now tomorrow – it could be all gone.”

            “Hey now,” he reassured. “You have been through so much already and come out on top. We are going to survive and when Fin is dead, we can move on and restart our lives.”

            Ryleigh knew that Tristan was saying these words to reassure her.  She could feel him running through her with his energy untamed like wild horses on the savannah.  She could feel the truth of the matter and that he was scared, just like her.  He was scared he would never see her again. 

            He kissed her deeply.  He wanted to pull all of her inside of him so he could protect her.  Grabbing her into a fierce embrace they slept in each other’s arms. Sleeping a dreamless sleep.  Unaware of what tomorrow would bring.

***

            In the middle of the night, Ryleigh’s cellphone rang.  It was Cyrus’s phone number.

            “Hey there,” Ryleigh mumbled through sleepiness.

            “Well, hey there yourself,” answered Finar cheerily.  “Guess who I have?”

            Ryleigh shot out of bed waking Tristan.  “What’s wrong,” Tristan asked.

            Ryleigh waved him off and answered, “What have you done?”

            “Oh, don’t worry.  I won’t kill your friend or his mother – yet.  You need to come and visit me.  Tomorrow.  Six p.m.  Via the portal at your aunt’s mansion.”