Kissed (The Thorn Chronicles) (28 page)

He fell to the ground in a thud. I wasted no time. I flew to the door and ran outside, not even thinking about shoes or socks. I needed to get away from this horrible place forever. I ran around my garage thinking Dwayne had a car I could take, never mind that I’d never driven before.

There was a car sitting in the driveway and someone got out of the driver’s side. His face was so unexpected that I froze. Then I ran for him.

“Jason!” I squealed and flung my arms around him. I couldn’t believe it.

“What happened to your cheek?” he asked.

“I got bit. Can you heal it?”

“Vampire?” he asked with a grin.

“This isn’t funny. I don’t want it there anymore. Heal me please.”

He nodded and placed his hand on my cheek. I waited for the pain to disappear, but nothing happened. Sweat appeared across Jason’s forehead.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, just out of practice I guess. Give me a second.”

After a couple of minutes the pain began to recede. Finally he removed his hand.

“It’s not perfect, still a little puffy. But come on, let’s get you out of here.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I came to get you.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“They’ll meet up with us later. Puck was pissed when he found out that I got to come get you instead of him, but Ale insisted. Said that Puck would be too distracted.”

He drove in silence, the sky ever darkening. The roads twisted and turned as we drove deeper and deeper into the woods. The car shook and every once in awhile I jumped when we hit a pothole. I hadn’t been paying much attention to where we were going. Eventually, the car slowed and we pulled up in front of church.

“Why are we here?” I asked.

“Everyone’s here. They decided it would be a good place to meet.”

As I sat in the car, now unmoving, fear snaked through my veins. Something wasn’t right.

Jason opened the door and tugged on my arm.

“Wait,” I said and pulled out of his grip. “I don’t want to go in there.”

“I promised to bring you. Come on, it’s just Ale and Puck. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

He was right, I was being silly. I followed him quietly to the church.

He creaked the door open and I hesitated once again. This was a place where some of my worst nightmares came from. Why would Puck and Alejandro be here? Unless they were busy taking care of the Master Destroyer. They could’ve done that at my house. Something didn’t make sense.

Jason opened the door and beckoned to me. I followed, but was cautious.

The inside was fairly empty. A strange blue light lit the sanctuary. Jason took my hand and pulled me down the middle of the aisle like a reluctant bride and pushed me toward the pulpit. He bowed low next to me, muttering.

“I’ve brought her to you, at your request.”

I looked up. Seated next to the pulpit on a throne-like chair was a beautiful woman. I almost didn’t recognize her with her hair curled and her face neatly made up. She wore a tight black dress that glittered in the blue light. The dress revealed generous cleavage and had a slit that came up to her hip.

“Naomi, how nice of you to join us.”

I looked down at Jason still low to the ground, groveling. I’m sure she expected the same out of me, but I did not follow. I stood there with my head held high.

“The pleasure is all mine, Mother.”

Master Destroyer, Master Guardian. What about Master roses? Grand Master, Old Master, Master Burke, Red Masterpiece. The next rose I breed will be called Master Tuscany.

She smiled a wicked half smile. “I enjoyed that stunt you tried to pull this afternoon. You pitied me, your poor helpless mother. The person you should’ve pitied was your father. For years he’s wanted to become stronger. He was such a weak Destroyer. Tonight he will get his chance to become the Destroyer he was meant to be.”

“You mean Father is not the Master Destroyer?”

She laughed. “No, he’s far too weak for that.”

This news disturbed me. For years I’ve feared the wrong parent. She was the one. I gasped as realization dawned on me. She was the one who killed Puck and Kai’s dad. She killed Ruth.

Jason stood up next to me and moved to stand by her.

“Where’s Dwayne?” Mother asked him.

“Still at your house. Naomi attacked him. I had to leave him behind. She wouldn’t come with me if she thought I was with him. I’ll go back and get him later.”

Jason brought Dwayne to me. His betrayal was almost more disturbing than Mother’s.

The door to the church opened again and two men walked in. Father came first, his face twisted in a grimace. The person following him caused my heart to hurt.

Kai.

What was he doing here? Both Father and Kai bowed in front of mother. Father sat in a pew behind me and Kai went to stand on Mother’s right side.

His face showed no sign of recognition. In fact the entire time I stood there staring at him, he kept his eyes on my mother. Mother, however, did notice.

“You like my pets, do you? So sorry, you can’t have this one.” She pressed her ruby red lips to Kai’s forehead and he smiled. “He’s my favorite.”

I gagged. He’d been part of her evil web the whole time. First Jason and now Kai. Who could I trust?

She stood abruptly.

“For years, I have trained you to follow in my footsteps. For years, I pressed against you to force out your rebellious side, but you were always obedient and good. Wanted to do the right thing. You’re my biggest failure. Did you ever stop to think why bad things kept happening to you? Course, I had to wait for that fool of my mother to die. She was too powerful or I’d have killed her first.”

I shook my head, still shocked by the recent turn of events. Not only was she responsible for the murders, but she knew I had a power.

“You were a strong Shade, but I needed you to come out as a Destroyer. And so I pushed. I thought maybe you’d rebel once you found out I was going to force you to marry Dwayne, but of course you didn’t. You just kept being good little Naomi. Then your father tried to get me to stop the wedding.”

I jerked my head up at this and she grinned.

“Surprises you, does it? Of course your father loved you. His baby Naomi. He always loved you more than he did me, and I couldn’t stand it. Every time he had to hurt you, it hurt him even more. I loved it.

“So, I had him beat you after the wedding announcement didn’t work. Once again in the hopes that you would snap and your power would come bursting forth. It does sometimes, when people are pushed to their breaking point. Power that comes out like that has devastating consequences. I never wanted to be around because I would’ve risked my own death, but your father was expendable. It would’ve served him right, loving you more than me. But you somehow managed to heal yourself. The roses your Grandmother left behind held more power than I anticipated.”

So she didn’t know about Kai helping me? She thought I did that all on my own.

“I knew at that point I needed to take drastic measures. I was already planning on having your father murder a girl, to punish him for not being hard enough on you. But I knew then that he had to murder someone that meant something to you. “

My mind reeled with this new information. Everything she did was out of revenge and thirst for power. How disgusting.

She paused and glowered at my father who didn’t seem to hear anything she said. Then she continued her rant. I didn’t want to interrupt because as long as she spoke, I bought myself more time.

“We plotted and I had your father kill that red headed girl you liked so much and I was going to have him tell you at your wedding. I thought for sure right then you’d snap. I think that would’ve worked, but I was over confident and underestimated the police and FBI. I suppose it was a bit stupid of me to use a radical church as a cover up. I won’t make that mistake again.

You went to live with my wretched sister and you met my young friend here, Jason. He’s been spying on the Guardians for the last couple of years.” She beckoned him to her. He went and stood on the other side of Kai.

“He has been an amazing informant. He told me of your rise into the folds of the Guardian leadership. You were welcomed with open arms and your power and strength was revealed. For, of course, you were powerful. How could you not be, being my spawn? But, alas, you used your power for their side, instead of ours. And we can’t have you doing that.”

Something nagged at the back of my mind. She was a woman.

“Mother,” I called out.

She paused mid rant and narrowed her eyes at me. Then she smiled sweetly. “Yes, dear.”

“You are a woman. How can you be the leader?”

She stepped carefully off the dais and approached me. She placed her finger under my chin, raising my face to stare into her blood red eyes.

“Those fools never bothered to tell you the history of our people.”

“Yes, Jason,” I said his name with spite, “told me the story. But he didn’t tell me about the women.”

Mother turned and tutted at Jason. “You told her the edited version, shame.”

She hesitated. Then pointed to the door.

“Come,” she commanded.

A dirty old man entered and bowed before her.

“Thousands of years ago, women graced the ranks of Guardians and Destroyers. We were among the first Shades to become Guardians. Because of that God gave us another gift, the gift to remove and absorb the power of another Destroyer. Around the time of Moses, Guardians and Destroyers banded together and agreed to no longer train women. We were too much of a threat to their power.

“Then, something extraordinary happened. A Guardian broke the rules. He found and trained a woman. So the Master Destroyer sought for years to find a woman worthy to rival her. He found me. He trained me and underestimated my power. I grew strong and knew that I had the ability to overcome him. He sent me home until it was time to take control.

“By then I had already married your father and was pregnant with you. I tried to live a normal life, to fit in until my time came. Which was when I discovered the other woman the Guardians had trained was my own mother. I had to hide who I was from her because she was more powerful than I had anticipated. She even turned my husband into a Guardian, but I fixed that.”

A huge grin spread across her face and she barked out a laugh. “Shortly before you turned eight, she died. I hunted down the Master, drained him of his powers, and killed him. Then it was I who became the Master.”

She gripped the man kneeling at her feet by his hair and he screamed out. Mother went rigid and after a few moments the man collapsed. He looked dead.

Mother had a crazed look in her eyes. “You see what I can do. I can take their power.”

“Is he dead?”

“No, but now he is no longer a Destroyer. That is why the men fear us. They can’t remove power, but we can. We can take it from all of them. Though, I have learned of a way that anyone can take the power of another.”

Mother slithered back up onto the dais and took my father’s hand in her own.

“When you take her life, you will be bathed in her power, then you will be strong. Are you ready?”

My father nodded and two men came up on either side of me and grabbed my arms, holding me in place. I had no idea where they came from. Kai approached Father. He had a dagger, the jagged kind you only see in movies. He took a deep breath and handed my father the dagger.

Mother spoke. “You know what to do.”

Father walked slowly down the stairs of the dais. His eyes were blank. I thought quickly. In a few short minutes my insides were about to be spilt. I squirmed, but realized I was going nowhere. I used the only defense I had. I tried to change my father’s mind, after all he’d been a Guardian before my mother got her hands on him. I sent every possible emotion I could think of in his direction, sunshine, the smell of tulips, the taste of chocolate ice cream, and the sound of a beautiful voice in song. Then I sent truth, and memories. Of our days when I was a child and we went fishing. Those late nights when he would read me bedtime stories until I fell asleep.

He hesitated at the bottom of the stairs and his eyes flashed recognition. He turned and looked at my mother. The knife fell slack in his hand.

“NO!” she screamed. “You want power, the power only she can give you. You must kill her.”

“Right,” he said, his voice gruff. He continued toward me, he raised the knife. I increased the onslaught of positive emotion. I knew my mother was doing the opposite from the dais. He had to be confused. I felt the grip on my arms slacken and the men who were supposed to be holding on to me let go.

I could’ve run then. I probably should have, but I wanted to see the light in my father’s eyes again. When he was inches from me, I started to speak.

“Daddy, Daddy I love you.”

I felt the tip of the knife pinch the skin above my belly button.

“Daddy, don’t do this. I love you.”

He looked me straight in the eyes and whispered, “Naomi?”

“Yeah, Daddy, that’s me. I love you.”

He looked down at his hand holding the knife and I heard it clatter to the floor. He looked around like he had no idea where he was.

Mother roared with fury and raced down the dais toward me, Kai on her heels. She was headed for the knife, but Kai got it first.

“Fine,” she said, nostrils flared. “You do it,” she said to him.

He nodded and looked at me. A fresh wave of panic overtook me. There was no way I’d be able to fight him off. He stared at me for a long minute and then plunged the knife into my mother’s right shoulder. She roared with pain.

Kai whispered fiercely, “You’ve got to take her power or this won’t work.”

I reached from my mother’s arm, but her hand clasped mine first. Tiny electrical pulls of power were being dragged out of me. I fought against her with everything I had. I remembered how with Dwayne, it felt like I was pulling him into myself. I had to do that with her or she’d take mine.

Then I pulled. My eyes buzzed and my hair tingled. I wanted to break the connection but found myself unable to. If I relaxed at all, the energy flow reversed. I had to keep pulling. After what felt like hours, but must’ve only been seconds, Mother collapsed and her head cracked against the wood floor.