Exaltation (24 page)

“It didn’t take me long to figure out who you were, what you wanted. I was prepared to take care of you myself before it became too serious.”

“Past tense,” Rydell said, pulling his shoulders back, not trusting he wouldn’t be struck at any moment.

Jamison’s eyes flipped to Dagen and then to Rydell.

“Up until the point where I saw your men attack a foe, and defend her as if their lives depended on it.”

Jamison backed away then. He started to slowly circle them. Every second he was reminding Rydell more and more of Revelin, but that made no sense to him. Rydell witnessed every Escort they brought into their line. That was the job of the First. He was not one of theirs, Rydell was sure of it. Jamison was far too aged and powerful to have been created after Rydell left Revelin’s side.

“That’s the point where I let my thoughts ponder your motives. You see, if you were defending your line it would not matter who destroyed the soul that was born to bring you down. Now would it?” he said as he stood before Rydell again.

Rydell didn’t bother to answer.

“So what do we have here? A change of heart?”

Rydell didn’t answer. Didn’t really know how.

Right then Dagen was seized. He never made a noise but Rydell saw his body tense.

Jamison was suffocating him from within, with only a thought.

“My men did as they were
ordered
. I was uncertain if I would return. Dagen would have conspired to help you protect her.”

Dagen was released at that moment.

“Explain the change of heart.”

“I can’t.”

Rydell stood before Dagen, letting Jamison silently know that he would not stand for him striking Dagen again. Call him optimistic. He had to at least act like the leader of the faction he’d created. Even though Britain’s warning that he was only a notch above mortal was echoing in his mind.

“Why can’t you?” Jamison nodded behind him. “I recognize your scent. Your boy’s scent. You have come after her for her entire life. Then all of the sudden the leader arrives and instead of trying to kill her you defend her?”

“I told you I can’t explain it. I don’t understand why natural born enemies have found the pull we have. Or why we are even pitted against one another in the first place.”

Jamison knew it—his first instinct never really let him down. Rydell thought he had a fever.

“You feel like the pull is mutual?”

“I cannot speak for her.” Rydell looked deep in his eyes, wondering how much Jamison really knew about his kind. “I have a fever so powerful it is only a pulse away from a rush. It has come on the heels of only speaking to her a few times.”

The glint in his eyes, the way he clenched his jaw told Rydell he knew exactly what he meant. Rydell couldn’t tell if that put him in Jamison’s favor or just gave Jamison another reason to destroy him. More than likely the latter.

“My daughter and I have an open relationship. I know you did more than
speak
.”

“It was profoundly innocent, I
assure
you.”

“Which is why you’re still alive.” Jamison breathed in. “I was under the impression the alliance between the line of obsession and exaltation had ceased.”

Was he one of us? Did that make Raven one of us? What was going on here?
Rydell’s head was spinning.

“It has.”

Jamison raised his brow, encouraging him to elaborate.

“I don’t know where you came from, why your scent is familiar. Why one moment you seem all too mortal and the next, I would swear you are a high ranking Escort who has somehow escaped my attention, so I have no way of knowing how you may or may not take my next confession.” Rydell raised his chin. “I am a First. I left my king because I didn’t agree with him. I began my own faction, but before today he had never proclaimed that I was no longer his. My status is in play. Meaning, I am a kill your daughter must make in order to overthrow him. When my men were sent by me to defeat your daughter they were sent to defend our lives.”

Rydell looked deep in his eyes. “I regret the orders I gave, for I gave them without seeing her as a living soul, but as an assassin.”

Jamison lifted his chin slightly. “I’m going to be crystal fucking clear with you. You don’t have a fever or a rush for my daughter. Your energy is attracted to hers because of her creation and nothing more.”

Dagen barely held back the smirk on his lips.

“However,” Jamison said, “you’re here now. Your recent actions have been honorable.” Jamison tilted his head slightly. “I see honor in your eyes, the honor of a warrior. A glint of who you must have been before this life.”

Rydell nodded once.

“You feel your faction can keep my daughter safe?”

“Honestly, sir, you have been a far greater challenge on your own. We will aid you. I’m already aware of what Benjamin did. We’ll find him, stop him.”

One long, cold stare.

“The spells that are protecting her have been amended to allow you and your friend here within her life. Within her neighborhood. I will warn you that the second you change your intent I will know.”

“I have far too much to understand to change my intent in the near future.”

“About your sovereign?”

Rydell didn’t bother to answer. There was too much fury in Jamison’s tone at the mention of Revelin.

Jamison let his near lethal gaze ease over Rydell.

“I have no doubt you’ve had a long existence. In that time you’ve seen Revelin use illusions to tempt his victims to surrender their emotion.” A sardonic smile. “Have you ever questioned what other illusions he could have created?”

“I’m starting to question everything,” Rydell admitted.

“The first step to recovery.” Jamison smirked, turned, and walked to the door. He halted there and glanced back. “At one time an enemy gave me a precious gift and that gift led me to my true fever. Keep that in mind. The path of the Creator is never clear.” He stepped out. “Raven has to work tomorrow. If you care to see her before Monday, that’s where you’ll find her.”  Then he was gone.

Dagen let all the tension in his body release. “This has got to be the most jacked up situation I have
ever
seen—did he just give you permission to date her? After he figured out we had been hunting her?” he said in an edgy rush.

Rydell stared at the closed door with his brows pulled together, completely perplexed as to why Jamison seemed so familiar to him.

“Must have been one hell of a fight you put up with Benjamin, enough to get that man to trust us.”  Rydell folded his arms. “Either that or he knows we’re no longer a threat to her, because he’s discovered the real one.”

“Benjamin?”

“It has to be bigger than him.”

Right then Rydell had a lot to figure out—he wanted to know everything there was to know about Jamison BellaRose’s past, destroy one of his own men, stop the curses he had in play, and protect Raven all at once.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Raven had done exactly what her father told her to do, she ran home. The second she got there she found the twins and Soren camped out in their room with books open wide.

Raven dove across the floor and turned to the page that had the same mark she’d seen on the ghost boy, wanting it to be different, for there to be a reason she could toss those wayward moments in the Veil in the back of her mind. No such luck. The symbol was
exactly
the
same.

How was Raven so sure? Because she could see the boy’s image and remember those few moments with him so clearly they might as well have been playing out in front of her right then. Her entire soul was humming, and it took everything she had to keep herself still, to stop the urge to run back into the Veil and find him. It was as if she was whole at his side and grieving while away from him—the very notion was mind bending to her.

She didn’t even care that evil would be on her heels as she searched the Veil to find him once more. Raven told herself it was because of this mark, it was because she wanted to explain to him she didn’t know him and figure out why he thought he did know her. She wanted to tell him she didn’t deserve the devotion she saw in his eyes.

The lie was an acid her mind would not accept. She knew she wanted to see him again because he did feel like
home,
like the old man had called him. She felt awakened at his side. That said a lot since she’d always considered herself wide awake, aware, and full of life.

“Are you all right?” Soren asked as he turned her chin so she’d have to look at him.

Raven realized she was crying. She was inconsolable; every horrible emotion that had
never
touched her soul had invaded her at once.

“What does this mean?” Raven asked with a shaky breath.

“After today, that’s the only question you have?” Soren asked as he glanced at the twins.

“Right,” Raven said, swallowing harshly as she berated herself for acting the way she was, feeling that way. “Where did Benjamin come from and how was Dagen fighting him like that? How did they vanish? What the hell is going on?”

“We were hoping you knew the answers to a few of those,” Ash said. “It felt odd all day, but no prickles, then all at once BOOM it was an all out war. I couldn’t find you guys anywhere!”

“We had to call your dad. No choice,” River said.

“Good thing you did,” Raven said, glancing at Soren.

“I was holding my own. That was just an illusion. Not Berries.”

“Like that made it safer!” Raven snapped. She slung the book away from her, pulled her knees to her chest, and raked her hands through her hair as she hung her head with squinted eyes. All of it, all her dad had said, all her dreams had unlocked, all her odd gut feelings were swarming in her thoughts.

She’d never had or seen a panic attack in her life, but the way her chest was tightening, the way her breath was catching, the race of her heart and the feeling of doom looming—the sensation that her path was not something she could control was ushering her toward such an attack.

All at once the twins and Soren were around her, telling her to breath, laying her out flat on the floor. Ash had reached for the mint leaves that always rested on their dresser and was telling Raven to breath in. Soren was swearing, saying he was going to get Thelma Ray as Ash shouted for him to stay in place.

River leaned down to Raven and calmly spoke to her in a hushed whisper. “Raven BellaRose, you do not freak out—ever. This is janked, I know, but you’re better than this, stronger than this. Nothing is going to hurt you. I won’t
let
it. None of us will.”

Raven kept her rapid breaths in sync with her mind.

“Close your eyes,” River demanded. “Now you think, you push this BS out of your mind and you think of the last time you had peace, you pull that to you, Raven—those moments are
weapons
. Ones you have to use now. Think, breathe.”

Peace,
Raven thought over and over and as she did she saw those eyes, deep, flaming blue eyes, surrounded by darkness. She felt the wave of devotion and protection, one far stronger than her family had given her, her friends, one that was complete.

A hum, a deep, warm, soothing hum eased through her body. Her breaths slowed but her heart kept its rhythm.

“What are you thinking about?” Ash asked as Soren caressed her brow.

Raven didn’t answer for a moment, had no idea how to explain to them she was losing her mind. Twice she’d seen a house her father told her wasn’t there. That in the Veil of death she had found the peace she was feeling then.

“A guardian angel…”

“The warrior?” Soren asked.

Since their memories had been unlocked he’d been trying to figure out who the person was who helped them during the hurricanes, taught them how to kill.

Soren knew they needed any and all help they could get. His gut told him as much. He wouldn’t survive it if anything happened to these girls.

His grandmother told him the man with honey eyes was a Witness, warrior of light. She’d told him that though he may emerge again, this fate was Soren’s and the girls’ to walk. Soren was good with that. He didn’t need anyone babysitting him. But still, learning how to kill faster, how to protect would do nothing but help him live out his fate.

“Not him,” Raven said under her breath, reaching her fingertips to her lips. Feeling a hunger, a hunger to feel that ghost boy’s lips once more. Feel the peace at its core.

“Who then?” Soren demanded, hoping she didn’t say Rydell. He didn’t have an issue with him, not really. But he knew something was off about him, that he was out of place at the very least.

Soren’s only comfort in this chaotic flip of events came from his grandmother, a direct descendant of the originals in the coven. She told him whatever they endured now was nothing more than a tremor, the war was on the horizon but not close enough to fear. She told him to enjoy his youth, his carefree days before they vanished.

Their conversation came on the drive to the twins’ house this afternoon. His grandmother was waiting for him outside the school when the battle was over. Soren was shaking. Once again he’d killed, fought those men in black, and pulled their very soul from their vessel. The smell of sulfur clung to him, the shock of his last moments apparent in his eyes. His grandmother took him home, made him shower, fed him, and spoke cleansing words over him before taking him to the girls.

“Our blood is rich my son, we are great protectors and you will not fail, none of my boys will. Those girls need you to be calm, to listen, to be a
balance
. And you will be.”

Soren breathed in her words, trying to read through the mystery of them.
My boys.
She had always said those words when she spoke of him and his cousin.

He’d hesitated outside of the twins’ room, staring at his phone. He wanted to call his cousin, someone who had been his best friend at one time, who seemed to understand the wicked as simply as Soren had. But it had been a while since he’d actually talked to Mason outside of text. Mason had long ago moved states away, up north. And apparently was hooking up with some girl called Indie now, one that was taking all his attention.

Talking to Mason would ease Soren, but he knew it would tick off the twins, maybe even Raven. They were not his biggest fans, not after what he did. Betrayal was rarely forgiven in this coven. Breaking River’s heart was the one lethal mistake Mason had made.

Instead, Soren told himself to just listen, follow his gut. Right now his gut was telling him this Rydell dude was not a threat, not after how his boy Dagen fought today. It told him his grandmother was right, this wasn’t the war, this was nothing more than destiny aligning the souls needed for the predicted fate.

Soren had known Raven his whole life. He’d never seen her panic, and he had never seen that look she had in her eye now, one that was marveling in a memory of peace.

“Who, Raven?” Soren pressed.

She met his gaze, bit her lip, “I don’t know. I don’t know anything right now.” Raven sat up. “I want to know what this books says, every word.”

“It’s going to be a long night,” Ash said as she and River moved back to the books they were studying.

Soren stood, pulled Raven up with him. “Let’s get some water.”

In the kitchen Soren watched as Raven slowly drank her glass of water and stared outside. There were several members of the coven lingering out there, talking.

“They know something,” Raven said, wondering where her father and her aunt were.

“Who did you see in the Veil, Raven?”

“No one you know,” Raven said sadly.

Soren looked away from her, knowing she thought he was asking if she saw Mason’s twin, Braxton. He’d died the year before in a boating accident. By all means he was a peaceful soul, a protective one, too. Someone Raven would’ve called an angel. Soren knew Braxton wasn’t there, his grandmother told him as much when she and Jamison taught Soren how to reach the Veil a few days before.

“You saw someone, and you’re keeping it to yourself,” Soren said, meeting her eyes once more.

“I just don’t understand it. For all I know I manifested it, saw what I wanted to see.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Soren said as steadily as he could.

A single tear trickled down Raven’s cheek. “He was an angel, and he was devoted to me.” Her lip trembled. “Please don’t make me talk about it, not today.”

Soren clenched his jaw, knowing there was more to it. But instead, of arguing he pulled her to his chest and rocked her side to side. Over her head, beyond the window he caught the stare of his grandmother who was lingering next to Miss Emery. Her one nod told him that letting Raven figure this out in her own way was the best course to take.

Soren would accept that for now. He would swallow it right up until the moment when his gut instinct wouldn’t allow him to any longer. For all he knew it could be days or years.

The night was grueling. That book was impossible. It took an hour to decode one line because they kept finding out they were reading it wrong. The words had too many meanings and they were written like rhymes.

River, of all people, struggled with the text. She declared she couldn’t grasp a clear vision of the text the way she had with any other text she read because the books were spelled in some way. Knowing that only pushed both River and Ash to unlocked the words more earnestly. Find every meaning, then use the process of elimination.

By six AM they had not learned anything, and had only pushed through one page.

Raven curled up in a ball in her bed, buried her head, and let herself cry. She didn’t know why she was crying but she was. She kept seeing that ghost boy in her mind.
He knew my name. How did he know my name?

Her dreams were clouded and confusing as she slept through the day, waking up just before two PM. She had to be at work at three. That night they were unveiling the ramps Soren and the others had built a few days ago. The crowd was going to be in the room at nine.

Even though Raven’s shift was short, she and Soren were still supposed to perform. It was a sad song. The lyrics told a story of how a couple was apart and were waiting to come back together again, but were too stubborn to do so.

“You sure you want to skate to this song, it’s a downer,” Soren said to Raven as she laced up her skates. He knew she was still off, not herself at all. The last thing he wanted to do was make it worse.

“The DJ will make it funny.”

“I’m not worried about how funny it is. I’m worried about you. You seem dim. You’ve never been this sad, not even after, you know…all the shit we’ve been through. ”

“Just need to skate,” Raven said as she pushed off from the bench she was on.

Just before nine the DJ set Soren and Raven up.

He made a big deal about how his ‘main man’ was going to have to trade his skates in for a board tonight and how Raven was going to be
so
lonely, for everyone to give them the floor for one dance.

The song started with a guitar so it got everyone’s attention. Raven stood in the center of the floor in a dim light with her head down. Soren skated up behind her and began to gracefully act out the sad lyrics. Raven could feel him leaning his body into hers, the heat of his presence, hear the screams just before his hands were on her waist and he turned her in his arms.

His gaze was tender, so full of yearning and desperation that each girl squealed all the louder.

Raven did broach a smile and it was only because she knew Soren was a gift…because she knew the second he
really
tried to hook up with Ash, she’d have no hope of refusal. 

The slow, sensual skate began then. It wasn’t really that big of a downer song, there was love in the lyrics and they made it seem enticing. Nothing like last weekend though. There were only a few lifts and slow turns. When it ended, his fingertips grazed Raven’s chin as he skated backwards away from her then left the floor to go the auditorium. All for show. The young girls awed as the boys yelled ‘bring it’ at Soren. The DJ let the crowd back on the floor and Raven’s shift was over.