Devi: Matefinder Book 2 (11 page)

                “I’m not leaving Kai when you are done. I’m not dying early!” I told her firmly.

                She looked at me with sadness. “We agreed, Aurora. We agreed that I would join your body in your twenties and when I left, you knew it may expire your body.”

                Her look of pity sent terror through me. Tears ran down my cheeks. They felt like cement. “No! I don’t want to expire.” She glided over to me and raised her hands toward my head. I flinched.  She looked hurt.

                “Aurora, it’s okay. I would never hurt you. See what I see. Remember.”

                She grasped my head. One thousand images invaded my mind, most of them I couldn’t interpret. Thoughts, words, stories, all downloaded there. I knew things. I felt things. Reincarnation was real. Tara was Max’s first wife reincarnated, when his wife died during labor, her soul reincarnated into Tara. If they got married again, they would have the same baby. The same soul. Bodies were just vehicles to explore the world. Nahuel was my brother in a past life. That’s why he called me sister. He knew. If the body expired, it wasn’t a big deal. Your soul could come back. But the choices you made while in that body had consequences. Karma was real. Everything was energy. I started hyperventilating.

                The vampires had the worst energy, they were tipping the balance. We came to Earth to grow as a soul, to learn, to love, to challenge ourselves. The vampires were causing a major disturbance in the balance. Souls didn’t want to come here anymore because it was getting to violent, the lessons were too hard. I had agreed to help. I was an advanced soul. It was an honor. I had agreed to let my body expire and leave Kai if it helped the balance. No! I didn’t want that, I needed to stay with Kai.

                She took her hands off my head.

                “I want to stay. Can’t you stay with me while I live out this life?” I pleaded.

                She looked sad again. “A werewolf’s life is long. I am needed elsewhere. Other souls need my guidance. You know that. A year down here is a thousand on the other side. I am needed,” she said with finality.

                I had a thought. “After we defeat the vampires and restore the balance, I will drink the tea again and you can detach from me that way.”

                She shook her head. “I am just a projection. I am still with you right now. I was only able to join your body because of the car accident that I caused, almost killing you.”

                My mouth dropped open in shock. “You CAUSED my car accident!” Black bats flew out of my mouth. Anger. My voice made the earth shake.

                She looked hurt again. “We agreed to, Aurora. That’s how I would join you and that’s how you would meet Kai. Only bringing you near death again will allow me to move on.”

                It was all tripping me out. But everything she said felt right. Since I had this knowledge, I knew it was the right thing. I started getting scared; nothing was in my control. Nahuel fanned me with sage. “What if I don’t help with the vampires? What if we leave them alone?” I said in defiance.

                She frowned and pinched her eyebrows together. “Then the earth will become too dark, demons will be born of the vampires, and the earth will be destroyed. Everything that happens on this side of the veil, affects the other side. You must not allow it to happen. Vampires are the oldest souls. They rarely die. They have been here in the earth school for hundreds of years. When the soul leaves the body, it is able to go back to the spirit world and restore, to see the errors of their ways, to realign with their positive purpose. The vampires haven’t come back to the spirit world in too long. They don’t remember why they are here. They succumbed to evil early on. They have lived and brewed in that evil for hundreds of years. They are lost and need to be cleansed.” Her voice was deep and foreboding.

                Chills ran up my arms. She touched my forehead and images flooded my mind of horrible things the vampires did. Their original mission was create an alliance with the humans and willingly form a bond in exchange for blood volunteers. Never harm, never kill, never take without permission. Now, they used all means necessary to get blood, they liked the fear coursing through the veins of their victims. It was like a drug to them. They were lost. But not all of them. Not Alek. The vampire from my vision. He had stayed the course. Our entire mission on Earth was to learn to live in harmony. OH MY GOD. What a failure! Humans started war with humans. Vampires killed humans. Werewolves killed vampires. Witches did nothing. The entire reason of coming to Earth was an utter failure. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

                “Fine. I’ll honor my promise to help you. But when you leave me, try to keep this body intact. Please. I have people here who need me. Not another body but ME, Aurora,” I told her with a fierceness in my voice.

                She nodded. “You are very strong, you have much power in this life. I will do my best.”

                That didn’t sound like the guarantee I was looking for. All the trees around me suddenly had shimmering rainbow leaves. The Universe was a huge place. We weren’t alone. There were other worlds, other schools. The tea was rocking my world.

                The Devi walked toward me. “I’m proud of you.”

                All of a sudden I felt like she was my mother and I wanted to cry. She was watching over me always. She wanted to interfere when my father was abusive. She was on the other side of the veil, watching in agony, but she wouldn’t rob me of that lesson. It made me stronger. It made me Aurora.

                “What do I do? How do I defeat them?” I asked her as she got closer.

                “Kai is on the right path. He has his own destiny to fulfill. Follow his plan. Unite.” She opened her arms to embrace me and dissolved when I touched her.

                I began to cry. My whole life was a lie, the world was a lie. People were struggling to work all of these jobs to pay for food, cars, and big houses. They were living all wrong. The earth was meant to be treasured not drilled into, not robbed for her minerals. People were unhappy because they were living wrong. They were sick because they were eating wrong and polluting Earth Mother.

                It began to rain. I sobbed harder. Each drop of water was an emotion leaving my body. Nahuel and the warriors danced around me. They chanted and sang and I cried and screamed.  I was tired of being angry, or scared or a victim. My father abused me and I killed him. I would have to answer to that. I did the best I could with the life I was given.  But I was done living in the past. I was ready to move forward. Suddenly, I shed my past like a snake shedding its skin.

                At last, I stopped crying and lay back on the grass and looked up at Sky Father. Nahuel danced around me, chanting a beautiful rhythm. My breathing slowed and I fell into a peaceful trancelike state where nothing existed. Just me, floating on Earth Mother’s grass, letting the rain wash my soul clean. Letting my warriors dance protection energy around me. I had a purpose. We all did.

                After walking down the mountain with Nahuel and the warriors, I found my teepee and slept for several hours. Nahuel woke me with an egg, black bean, and salsa burrito. I smiled and scarfed it down. It felt good to be myself again. Although seeing rainbow leaves on trees was fun, I didn’t want that permanently. I looked at Nahuel. Thinking of him as a brother felt right.

                “You were my brother in another life. Is that why you called me little sister when I first met you?”

                He smiled. “Yes. I have had my own vision quest and have seen my own purpose. It is heavily intertwined with yours, little sister.”

                I sighed. “It’s a lot to process.”

                He patted my back. “Go on with life knowing that everything you are doing is being guided and it will all work out.”

                Go on with life. Hah! Easy to say when you didn’t have a Devi spirit ready to leave your body the second she does her job, possibly killing you in the process.

                After breakfast, I said goodbye to Alma and the warriors and headed home with Nahuel. Kai had sent me dozens of texts over my vision quest. He felt erratic emotions from me and was worried. I told him I was fine. I was excited to see him, to live my life fully with no more insecurity, to be done with playing it safe and just be in the moment.

                When Nahuel pulled up to our house, I gave him a long hug and thanked him for the adventure. I made my way to the front door with my backpack and saw that Kai had the door open, he was leaning against it.

                His eyes looked tired, like he hadn’t slept well. He wore grey sweatpants and no shirt. He brushed his thick tousled hair out of his face with his left hand.

                “Welcome home.” He opened his arms in the doorway and I ran into them. We held one another for a few long moments, just feeling the closeness of the mate bond. He pulled back and looked at me grabbing the sides of my face. “You’re different.” He told me.

                I nodded and kissed him deeply. I nipped his lip at the end. “Very different,” I told him.

                He raised an eyebrow and grinned. I walked into the house and dropped my backpack on the floor. Then I shed my jeans and t-shirt. I turned around to see Kai looking at me with wolf eyes. He had a predatory look on his face.

                I unclipped my bra and let it drop to the floor.

                “So, I’ve been thinking,” I purred in a sultry voice.

                He didn’t take his eyes off my body. He swallowed hard. “Yes?”

                I peeled off my panties. “Life is too short for you not to make love to me right now.”

                His fingernails sharpened to claws as he tore across the room hoisting me up. I straddled my legs around him. He kissed me hard as he walked me back to our bedroom.

                “I wanted to wait until our wedding night,” he said in between kisses. I bit his bottom lip as he shrugged out of his sweatpants. “Screw it. I’m sick of being a gentleman.” He threw me on the bed and climbed on top of me as I laughed at his admission.

 ***

                Making love to a werewolf was everything I thought it would be. Passionate, gentle, and a little rough. Afterwards, I lay next to him, panting. “You’re telling me when we are mated that it will get better?”

                He laughed. “That’s what I hear, although that’s hard to believe.” He rolled over and kissed me. “I like this new Aurora. I should send you off on spiritual retreats more often.”

                I smiled. “How’s Luna?”

                He rolled his eyes. “She’s annoying. I tried to feed her and she attacked me.”

                I laughed and began to get dressed. “How did it go with Shamus and Tara?”

                Kai shrugged and put his sweatpants back on as I admired his chiseled body. “As well as can be expected.”

                “So, Kai …” I nervously played with the ends of my hair. “I saw things, I know things that I never knew before. I am a Devi. There is a purpose to life and I did agree to balance things out.”

                Kai stared at the bed and the rumpled sheets that were evidence of our love making.

                “Okay,” was all he said, but I felt so many emotions through him. Rage, fear, possession, love.

                I didn’t know what else to say. What could I say? “I’m going to check on Luna.” As I went to walk past him, he yanked my arm and made me sit on his lap.

                “I love you,” he stated. It wasn’t the words so much as the feelings through the mate bond that made me smile.

                “I love you, too, Kai.”

                “And from now on, every wolf that smells you, will smell me,” he told me with pride.

                I rolled my eyes. “And I’ll bet you love that.”

                He nodded. “I like that you opened the mate bond.”

                I kissed the stubble on his chin. “I know who I am now, Kai, what I want in life. The past few days has changed me.”

                He smiled. “I can see that. My mother is flying in day after tomorrow. We will get married the day after that. Three days.”

                “Perfect.” Who knew how long any of us had to live? I didn’t want to waste my life. I didn’t care anymore about the vampires or my blood. I was going to live my life and if it was over before I wanted, at least I could say I gave it my all. I wasn’t going to live in the dungeon of my insecurities and fears.

                I returned his smile and stood up to go see Luna.

                “What did they give you on the vision quest?” Kai quizzed me.

                I smirked. “Some really funky tea that made the leaves of trees turn into rainbows.”

                His deep rumble of laughter rang out down the hall as I went to check on Luna. It was good to be home.

Alek

                Kai was in his office on the phone, I was about to knock on the door when I heard him speaking angrily.

                “I won’t roll over and let the vampires take my city! This is my territory and I will do as I wish!” He roared at the person on the other line. A moment passed and he slammed down the phone. I was debating walking away.

                “Come in, Aurora.”

                I sighed. It needed to be dealt with. I had to tell him more about my spirit vision. I entered his office. He gazed at me behind his dark tussled hair. He patted his lap and I sat down draping my arms across his neck.

                “Are you going to try to wipe out all of the vampires?” I asked him.

                He was silent for some time.

                “Most of them, yes,” he finally replied.

                I checked my phone. It was getting late, but was still light out.

                “Then I want you to come with me somewhere. I need to check out something that came to me in my vision quest.”

                If all holy hell was about to be unleashed on the vampire race, then I wanted to make sure we weren’t senselessly killing off all vampires. If my vision was true, they weren’t all evil. I wanted to be fair.

                “Okay,” he said with skepticism in his voice.

                I nodded to the door. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”

                After the sweat ceremony with Nahuel I had written down the address of the vampire in my phone. Forest Grove was only about an hour drive.  

                I gave Kai directions to Alek’s house and then told him about my vision. I didn’t exactly tell him everything about the Devi part. I wasn’t ready for that argument yet. I kept out the part where she pretty much assured me I would die when she left my body, which would be soon.

                “So, you met the Devi?” he said aloud.

                I nodded but kept silent. I fidgeted with the protection pouch on my necklace. There was something else I wanted to mention.

                “The Devi spirit said to follow your plan and that you were on the right path. What is your plan exactly?”

                Kai didn’t usually keep secrets from me, but every time I probed he didn’t give me details. He had joined the council, had secret meetings, and was acting shady about the whole thing. I didn’t like it.

                Kai sighed. “This isn’t just to keep you safe, Aurora. You know the fire you set at the club the other night?”

                I nodded. That wasn’t a hard one to remember.

                “Well, the firemen showed up quickly and put out the fire, but found four human bodies. They weren’t burned. The news report said they died of blood loss with no apparent wounds.”

                My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh my God. They’re draining them.”

                Kai nodded. “I think they kill humans all the time and hide the bodies. You setting the fire didn’t give them enough time. The firemen found them and the media got ahold of it.”

                I leaned my head back. “Whoa.” This was big. This wasn’t just about killing Layla so she wouldn’t be after my blood to make babies. This was about protecting the human race.

                “So, I did a search,” Kai continued as we reached the interstate. “I searched for any news story where the bodies were described as dying of blood loss.”

                Chills ran up my arms. Did I want to know?

                “How many?” I asked.

                “Ten thousand deaths in America this year. That’s just America. Most of the bodies were concentrated in one area of the country.”

                I wanted to tell him to stop.

                “Here. The Pacific Northwest. Layla’s hunting grounds. My territory! The vampires have gone too far.” His arms were rippling with patches of fur.

                I felt my eyes go yellow. I stared forward in shock. Again he dodged my question about details of his plan to eradicate the vampires, but I didn’t care. I was digesting the new information.

                The entire drive to Alek’s property was spent in silence.  I wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. What if it was a trick? I had to trust that my vision wouldn’t lead me into a trap. Alek lived on five sprawling acres in the small college town of Forest Grove. We parked at the closed private property gate and got out of the car. There was no call box and no way of opening the gate.