Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 (40 page)

She smiled. “And I love you.”

“So how do you do it?” he asked.

“It’s a spell that Hunter and I have to say while the connection is active.”

Adam nodded. “OK. Listen, um, you don’t have to tell me when you do it. I trust you.”

She frowned at this. It seemed odd considering he’d been so big on communication and no secrets, but she let it go. He obviously had his reasons. “Sure. And you know I really am OK with giving you more blood.”

He grimaced. “I’m not sure I am.”

“Why? It’s who you are, Adam. I wasn’t thrilled when I found out I was part Daemon, but I explored that part of myself through my powers. I think you should do the same.”

He sighed. “I don’t really want that. If anything it would just be to finish the healing. Being a Vampire, or half Vampire was never something I wanted. I guess I just wanted to be like everyone else, even though I knew I wasn’t.”

She smiled and held out her wrist. “Then take it.”

He looked at her wrist. “I’m not used to it. I might…”

“I trust you,” she said, echoing his own sentiment.

Adam looked at her as he pushed her wrist away. Then he pulled her to him and kissed her hard. After a while he moved his mouth down her neck and kissed it lightly before sinking his fangs into her vein. Overwhelming bliss flowed through Syney’s body as she gripped the blanket she was sitting on. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time. After a truly euphoric moment, Adam pulled back and looked at her. His black eye was gone, and his brown eyes had gone very dark.

“You OK?” he asked, brushing her hair out of her face.

She nodded. “Better than. You?”

Adam looked away then jumped out of bed, twisting his arms around. “Little sore still, but I feel really good.”

“Good,” she said, lying back on the pillows, still in a glow after the bite. “How come the other day, when I gave you blood, it didn’t make me feel good?”

He crawled into bed and lay next to her. “Because I didn’t bite you.”

“Oh, no venom. Gotcha.” She kissed him lightly on the lips.

“Thank you for that.”

“I told you…anything.” She kissed him again as he slipped his hands around her waist. Syney relaxed into him with a sigh. This was what she wanted, no matter what damn Amelia thought. She pushed the thought of her mother out of her mind. This was her life, and she had a plan for it. That plan didn’t involve Hunter at all, and she was OK with that…really.

Gabe wasn’t surprised to find Noelle sitting in his bed as he walked in. Her own room had become almost useless to them, but there was no way they could officially occupy only one room. Smiling, he sat next to her and brushed her golden hair behind her ear. She smiled back before sniffling a little then sneezing with gusto.

“You OK?” he asked, as she took a few deep breaths.

She nodded and stretched her arms. “Just a little stiff and stuffed up. I was going to take a nap, but Syney kicked me out of my room. So I went to get some lunch and started feeling really crappy.”

Gabe frowned and placed the back of his hand on her forehead. “One, why did Syney kick you out of your room? And two, you feel warm. Maybe you should go see the doctors.”

Noelle pushed him away. “I’m fine. Probably just a cold.”

“You skipped one,” he said with a smile.

She stared at him for a moment. He knew she was debating whether to tell him. It was fun to watch these inner debates she had with herself all the time. She was always being pulled between her loyalty to Syney and to Gabe. He didn’t like putting her in these positions, even though he knew he generally would win out. She finally sighed. “Syney said she wanted to call Amelia forth to ask her about the connection.”

Gabe’s smile fell. He didn’t like Syney doing magic without any of them around, especially spells like this one. He also didn’t like the idea of Amelia talking to her daughter. There were some things he still didn’t want Syney to know. And Amelia…she wasn’t someone who kept her opinions to herself, much like Syney. He stood and headed for the door. He needed to find out what actually had happened sooner rather than later.

“Where are you going?” Noelle exclaimed, her voice pulling him to a stop.

“I have to find out what they talked about.”

“No, you don’t. I wasn’t even supposed to tell you,” she said then sneezed.

“This is serious.”

“And so am I!”

Gabe rolled his eyes and leaned against the door. “Syney is used to having her feelings hurt. Trust me.”

“Ugh, you’re horrible sometimes.”

She was right. But Gabe knew what had happened before and what could happen again, and he wasn’t about to sit around and let a nineteen-year-old run the show. Granted, she had done a pretty good job so far, but she still made stupid decisions that put them all at risk.

“What are you angry about?” Noelle asked, as he moved to sit next to her.

“Who says I’m angry?”

“I can tell. It’s still about Leaf getting involved, isn’t it?”

Gabe grimaced. “I don’t like wolves, especially when they get involved with my business.”

“You liked Hunter.”

“No, I could stand Hunter. There’s a difference.”

Noelle laughed and placed her hand on the back of his neck. “I love you.”

He looked at her and noticed how red her eyes were getting. She wasn’t crying, but something was wrong. He placed his hand on her forehead again. It was hotter than before, and her heartbeat had gotten faster.

“What?” Noelle asked, swatting him away again.

“You should see the doctors.”

“I can’t.”

He stared at her. “Why?”

She sighed. “They’ll be able to see that I’m a Shifter from my blood.”

Gabe shook his head. This wasn’t good. The only way Magic User doctors could make diagnoses was through blood samples. Most sicknesses in the Realm presented the same way physically. “Then I’ll take you out of the Village.”

“No, I’m fine. Really. I used to get colds all the time when I was younger. My mother even called me ‘Coldy’ for a while. It’ll pass.”

Gabe frowned. “At least get some sleep.”

Noelle cleared her throat. “Only if you stay.”

“Of course.”

Noelle pulled off her dress and, with a shiver, climbed under the covers. Gabe slid in next to her, his concern building. He didn’t like her like this and was genuinely worried, which bothered him more than anything. He hated worrying about people. After a while her breathing evened. He glanced at the door. This was the perfect time to leave and talk to Syney. He wouldn’t be long. Gabe started to get out of bed when Noelle jerked awake. “Gabe!” she cried out.

He put his arms around her quickly. “Shh. What’s wrong?”

A few tears fell out of her eyes. “I was just dreaming, I guess.” She shook her head and settled back into her pillows. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

She took a deep breath. “Would you ever…join again?”

He smiled slowly. “Only with the right woman.”

Noelle stared up at him, her face unsmiling.

“And I do mean you,” he clarified.

She nodded, her face still serious. “I was thinking about asking Helen to do it for us. I think she would.”

Gabe quickly shook his head. “No more people involved.”

“She wouldn’t have to know anything other than we’re in love and want to be joined.”

“Let me think about it,” he said, knowing he wouldn’t.

She nodded as her eyes drifted closed.

He loved Noelle; that wasn’t the problem. And he would have jumped at the chance of joining with her if it didn’t involve Helen. He had a natural distrust of people, which hadn’t gotten better since Adam’s attack. He wasn’t willing to risk Noelle’s life for this. He didn’t want to risk anyone’s lives anymore, but he knew it was unavoidable. The least he could do was keep Noelle out of the line of fire. He planted a kiss on top of her head and settled back into the bed. Syney could wait. He was needed here right now.

The moment Mellisandrianna opened the closet door, Helen would be found and suffer the consequences. Helen held her breath and prayed she could somehow sink into the back wall of the closet she was hiding in, but she knew it was impossible. She wasn’t sure what her mother actually would do to her. When she was young, she and Adanna had been caught trying on their mother’s clothing. Mellisandrianna had spanked them and sent them to their rooms for an entire day. But now Helen was older, and there wasn’t a good childish reason for her to be in here. There was only a deceitful reason. She was here to spy on her mother.

Something had happened in the last week; she knew it but had no solid proof. Leaf had grown quieter than usual. When she’d asked him about it, he’d told her he was on to something big but wanted to keep it to himself until he was sure of some things. Helen wasn’t a fan of that answer but trusted him to make a good decision. It did, however, give her the urge to find out some things on her end. After becoming high priestess, she’d gone over the sanctuary of the chapel with a fine-toothed comb but hadn’t found anything that would make her suspicious besides a few notices about law changes. One was regarding the enactment of the law that prohibited the joinings of members of different races. The other, oddly enough, prohibited joinings between royals and nonroyals. She hadn’t thought that was a law, just something that always had been done. Both notices were dated more than a hundred years ago and signed by Queen
Lassandrianna. Helen had recognized the name, not only as a Crystallianna name but also from somewhere else, back when she and Adanna had spent the day raiding her mother’s closet. The name had been written on a leather-bound journal that was shoved way in the back and covered in dust. Helen remembered thinking it was strange that the book was in her mother’s closet and not locked up in the library. After reading those signed notices, she found it even stranger. That was when she’d gotten the harebrained idea to search her mother’s room. It had gone fine for a few minutes until she heard voices outside. She barely had managed to dive into the closet by the time Mellisandrianna and Grass had walked into the room.

She let out her breath as muffled voices met her ears. This might be even better for her. She built up whatever courage she had and moved as close to the door as she could, the voices becoming a little clearer.

“It’s almost time,” her mother said wearily. “There’s something I want to show you.”

The closet door was slightly cracked open, and Helen moved to put her left eye right into that opening. Her mother moved to the dresser and pulled something out of a drawer. Then she unwrapped whatever it was and showed it to Grass.

“If anything happens, you have only an hour. Put this on my chest and say this.”

Helen strained her eyes to see what was in her hand but couldn’t see anything except the blue cloth it was wrapped in along with a note the queen handed Grass.

Mellisandrianna rewrapped it and handed it to Grass. “Take it. Have it on you always. I have only one more.”

He took it and slid it into his pocket. “Who will you want?”

She shook her head. “Do what you have to,” she said, walking out of Helen’s view.

A moment later she heard the bedroom door open again then close. Helen stayed quiet for a while longer, making sure they had left before she slowly opened the closet door. The room was empty. Staring at the now closed door, Helen tried to take what she’d heard and make some sense of it. What would happen? And putting something on someone’s chest and staying something? That sounded like a spell. But why would her mother want Grass to do that? Could Lycins even make spells work? None of it made sense. She sighed and turned around, using the light from the room to help her see into the closet. Her mother’s clothes hadn’t changed over the years. Helen, herself, wasn’t into owning different dresses for different years like Adanna and Cass, but her mother never changed her dresses. She found something she liked and stuck to
it. She ran her hand over a few of the thick cotton fabrics and felt herself pull toward her memories of growing up. Her mother always had seemed different to her when her father was alive. That stood out in Helen’s mind. He seemed to make her happy and softer somehow. Or maybe it was just age that made Mellisandrianna harder.