Olar crosses the floor and kneels in front of Lunis. He flicks his nose with his index finger and says, “That’s right. And then I’ll make you fear death.” He looks back at me and then reverts his gaze to Lunis. “Literally.”
I force Lunis’ will to tie himself back up in his restraints. On our way out of the cellar, Lunis says, “Next time you see Laine, tell him he missed his last check-in. I expect to see him next week.”
Olar doubles back. “What?”
“Nothing,” Lunis hangs, allowing his head to fall forward. “Tell Tracey I miss her.”
Olar scrabbles with me, keeping me from going back in after him.
This dipshit doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up.
A landslide of memories beat me down, keeping me from going back after Lunis. I calm, but another urgency sends me rushing from the cellar.
King of the Clouds
Nathan
“Where are you going?” Olar shouts, trying to get his seatbelt strapped on, as I weave through traffic at a hundred miles per hour.
I can’t stand it another second. The events Tracey experienced. How’d I allow her to go through that shit? What took me so long to find her? Everything she endured for me? She knew Lunis was after me and knew screaming my name would open his senses to where to locate me, and she wouldn’t do it. Or maybe she didn’t know but wouldn’t risk it. Maybe she knew screaming my name would worsen the effects of her pain on me and though she was enduring the maximum of what she could bear, she was sparing me . . .
Who does that?
Even mated, I was still the slightest stranger to her, and she’d risk her life for me.
Damn this girl.
I make it to my destination, throw the truck in park, and jump out.
“Dude,” Olar calls behind me. “Where the hell are you going?”
Across the grass and through a double set of doors, I search. Down a hall and finding the door leading to my target, I bust in, wooden door smacking the wall behind it. Everyone in the lecture hall looks in my direction. I find her sitting in the third aisle from the top.
Tracey jumps from her seat, and I’m at her side before she’s upright, taking her in my arms. “What’s wrong, Nate?” She grabs me.
I hug her tighter. “Shh, for a second. We’re gathering our thoughts.” I speak for my Burdened and me. Tracey seems fragile, but she takes my tight clutch with the strength of someone who’s long used to my python embrace. Drawing back, I look her over, brushing her curly strands from her face and tucking them out of the way. “I fucked up. I’m sorry I left you alone all that time. And what Lunis made you suffer through. No.” I frown, drawing my brows taught. “What I made you suffer through.”
“Nate—”
I place my hand over her mouth. “That was so wrong of me, and I know you hate promises, but I swear as long as I’m here, now, as this me, you won’t hurt like that again. I won’t nor will I let anyone else hurt you like that again.” I kiss her cheek and sit her back on her seat. “See you later.” Meeting the glaring eyes of her professor, I say, “Sorry for my intrusion, sir.”
I leave back to my truck and get in the passenger’s seat with Olar taking over properly parking.
“Are you okay now?” he gripes. “Get your girl out of the way. Now we can focus on why the fuck Lunis kept bringing up your father?”
I push my fingers through my hair and grumble. He’s right. What the fuck did Lunis mean about my father? The stress is at an all-time high. A million things are happening within me at once. I’m remembering. I’m remembering a lot. I’m feeling Tracey; her breaths, her physicality. . . It’s how I found her. Something inside me led me straight to her, where she was seated, in that uncomfortable folding chair. I feel the pencil gripped between her index and middle finger as she taps it on the desk. The only thing I’m absent to is her thoughts, but I remember once that they were open to me. I don’t want to know what she’s thinking. There’s enough shit whipping through my mind.
My Burdened thrashes at the thought of my father being alive.
Killing Nathan Newcomb Sr., my father, that’s one thing I do recall. I stepped in his ashes and made sure he’d never be around to hurt my family or me again. How could he be alive?
I Hate You, I Love You
Tracey
“Nate, you sure you’re okay? You kind of scared me,” I whisper to Nathan, as I’m walking out of the library, juggling my book and backpack.
“I’m going through some shit. You ready?”
“No. No. Don’t worry about picking me up, I said. I’m okay.”
“I know. But you’ve been studying all night. It’s ten o’clock.”
I find a bench and sit down to get organized. “I’m catching a ride with Little Nathan and Carmen. You’ll be around later?”
Nathan talks to Olar for a second and comes back to me. “Hey, Sparks. I’ll call you back or see you when I get home.” He hangs up, and I sit slack-jawed.
“Oh my god!” I exclaim. “He called me Sparks!” I cheer, high-fiving the person sitting next to me. “It’s working!”
“Woohoo!” the stranger cheers.
I race to Carmen’s class to catch her coming out. “Hey. Why you in such a rush?” she asks, passing me her water bottle so she can stuff her laptop into her knapsack.
“He’s remembering!”
“I thought he already remembered.”
“No. I mean yes, he did. But he was missing some things like being mated to me. He knew, but it wasn’t a factor for him, just that I told him once.” I grab her shoulders and jump on my toes. “But he called me Sparks, which means he knows me. I can have my mate back!”
“But, I thought that was bad. Like for the sake of everything, it was better for you two to not be mated,” she says in a contemplative tone, hand moving about as she tries to make sense of it.
I wave my hand in her face as I’m shaking my head. “Yeah . . . But . . .” Sighing, I grump. “Don’t think that far. Just take it at face value.”
Shrugging, she says, “Fine.” She jumps up and down, grabbing my hands. Gleefully she exclaims, “I’m so excited he’s remembering you! Maybe, this’ll make you full. Maybe you’ll stop beating on a half a heart, and you two can be whole!”
“Here’s to hoping,” I swoon.
I ride shotgun to the house, hopes higher than ever before. If Nathan can remember me, maybe whatever this curse is over us can be broken. At this point, I’m believing anything is possible. Maybe we can conquer the world and live a life they swore he’d never have.
We make it home and Carmen, Little Nathan, and I enter, laughing as I tell how my professor pulled me aside after class to explain how I shouldn’t allow men to get between my studies and me. “It’s far too late, I’d thought to tell him,” I say.
Lana charges for me, hand flying at my face. I dodge it.
I blink, confused. She crosses the room, staring daggers at me. Glaring at her, wide-eyed and needing a reason why I’m the target of her attacks, I shout, “What the hell, Lana?”
She charges at me, anger sharp in her pointed finger and maroon swirling eyes. “You took my brother! You let them snatch my brother!”
Excitement sends my blood rushing. “Oh my gosh! Really?” I laugh a bit, hand pushing over my mouth as I’m washed with relief. “It’s about time.” Lunis is finally getting what’s been coming to him. “Who grabbed your brother?” I ask, wanting to be a part of whatever torture they have in store for him.
Her eyes grow wide, and she shouts, “What are you, crazy? Someone needs to get him out!”
I blurt, “What?” Flabbergasted, I spit, “No! No one needs to rescue that monster.”
“But they have him. Who knows what they’re doing.”
“Hopefully something very vile and extremely painful. Maybe they’ve attached jumper cables to his nipples, chained buckets of water to his feet, taped his eyes open, and are whipping him with a linked, metal chain that has nails sticking out of it
while someone else is constantly turning the electrocution dial. That would be ideal,” I say, as Carmen and I high five.
Carmen laughs, carrying, “Yesss.”
I throw a glance in Little Nathan’s direction, as he’s nodding. I tell him, “I’m so serious.” Turning back to Lana, I add, “And I am the furthest from sorry about it.” I try to pass her for the fridge, but she cuts me off.
“That’s my brother, Tracey! I have my concerns!”
My hand flies to my chest, and I barely convey my care. “Excuse me if I don’t seem the least bit sympathetic, but if Nathan and Olar found Lunis, I don’t have the slightest remorse for him. Maybe, I’m sorry you’ll be sad. But sorry for him, after what he’s done? Absolutely not.”
“What he’s done? What he’s done?!” she shouts. “Each of you stroll around here like Nathan and Olar are some saints! Like they’re heroes of some world and we’re to praise them for taking out this person or that! They aren’t, Tracey!” She slams her hand down on the countertop. “I know for a fact if you were to count the lives staining their hands, you’d come up with ten percent more than my brother’s! He did nothing like what they did. What they do! Nathan’s just as heartless.”
I ball my fist and though I can stop myself from punching her, I can’t stop the words charging up my throat. “What is your problem, Lana? Are you new to this? Did you just unbury yourself from under the rock you’ve been living underneath for the past four years? Lunis, your snake for a brother, kidnapped me. Gave a direct order to him!” I point to Laine walking through the front door. “To drag me across the world and leave me hanging there to be tortured. Thousands of us were there being slain and tortured just because it got his rocks off! He murdered!” I shout, rising on my toes. “Murdered! Our mother right in front of me! If you thought that didn’t make it worse. He then had my own mother and father killed!” I fight the flashbacks and hallucination courting me, daring to take me back to that park. “And dammit, if you thought that was the last of your brother’s torturing of me, he then ordered a hit on my mate. So, no,” I spit, fighting back the burst of flames itching to erupt from me. “Hell no! I don’t feel sorry for your brother. And I doubt. I highly doubt Nathan is anywhere near that heartless!”
She steps right in front of me, and I have to look up to meet her gaze. I keep myself from shoving her tall ass across the room. An exuberant display of pride churns her eyes magenta. “If anything happens to my brother, you’ll be able to see just how heartless your mate is.”
I shove her away from me. “Fuck your brother! I hope Nathan and Olar torture that son of a bitch to the end of time, with no mercy or remorse.”
“Hey! What’s up with all the yelling?” Olar asks, meeting us in the kitchen.
The front door closes.
“She,” I say with a point in Lana’s direction. “Has lost her entire mind!”
“Where is my brother?” Lana demands.
“Chained up in a cellar,” Olar coolly responds.
“See!” Lana shouts. “You don’t know all the stuff that they’ve done. All the sick things they’ve forced enemies and innocents to go through.”
Nathan comes up behind me, silencing my rebuttal. In my mind he asks, You’re okay? Should I kill her? Because my insides want to kill her. You’re furious. I can feel it inside of me like I’m the one arguing.
You can’t kill her, Nate. She’s Olar’s mate and if she goes, he goes. And she doesn’t need to die because she’s stupid.
“Tracey. You want to see what Nathan was up to while he was gone? Would you like to see just how ‘like’ my brother your mate really is?”
Nathan steps forward. “Yes.”
Laine rushes across the room to her. He says to her, “No,” and whispers something none of us can hear. Or maybe, I only saw him doing so.
Lana spreads her eyes wide and using her ability, replays a memory. Amid a crowd, Nathan ambles, looking over people, seeming to judge them in a way. They’re Sephlems, I can tell from their swirling eyes.
One he approaches, a girl—woman, she seems to plead, “Choose me.” He averts his gaze to a boy beyond her that’s tucked away in the crowd by an older couple. The fear in their eyes as Nathan approaches them makes my feet light but my knees heavy. “Please,” the older woman says. “He’s just a—” Her words are cut short by a single movement of Nathan’s hand. A voice calls to him, “You’re right. He’s the one.” Nathan nods and with another wave of his hand the group crowding around him all except the small boy, at least one hundred Sephlems, obliterate.
I throw my hand over my mouth and muffle my, “Oh my gosh.”
“That’s a lie,” Nathan defends. “I remember what and where I was when I was here and wherever that place was. This deathly place you’ve been, I’ve not.”
“You remember what they wanted you to remember,” Lana nags.
Olar crosses the kitchen to her, taking her hand. She snatches it out of his grasp. “I can’t believe you would use me to get to my brother.”
“Was it not because of your brother why you lied to me about who you really were? Let both of us be honest, Lana, because Tracey and I already know the truth. You’ve been working with Lunis since the beginning.” Olar shrugs. “It was only a matter of time before that came to light.”
Lana runs from the house. I look for Olar to go after her, but he grabs a bag of chips from the counter, then wallows to the family room and takes a seat in front of the TV. Under his breath, he mutters, “Why couldn’t it have been me who’s mating broke.”
“You’re okay?” Nathan asks me. “I’m going to chill out with Olar, make sure he’s good.”
“Go.” I push him in the direction of the living room. “We’ll talk later.”
Ever since Olar and I saw that note in Lunis’ house, the two of us have been a bit skeptical. With Lana being a part of the family, though, what are we to do? And she’s Olar’s mate. He’s been trapped this entire time and could do nothing. It’s like when Roseland found out Ann had a vendetta against the Newcombs. Mating with a person who hates you is dreadful for both parties. On one side, you’re forced in love with a person who you’re, likely, planning on deceiving. And on the other hand, this innocent mate, oblivious to it all, will remain heartbroken for their entire life, because the one thing they were promised would work out in their life, never will.
I sit at the foot of our bed, roughly rubbing my tired eyes.
Nathan pulls my hands to my sides. “I can feel that.”
“I’m sorry.” He called me Sparks and remembering this washes away my tremble. “You called me by a nickname you used to use.”
Did I?
Yep. It was the highlight of my day.
He sits against the wall, across from me. “Olar’s losing his shit. He’s not displaying it, and he’s quiet, seeming unbothered by it all.”
“That’s scary.”
“Exactly. He’s going to head out for the night. Come back later. He needs some time to work things out inside himself. Allow his Burdened to rule over him for a bit, to change his mind from those suicidal thoughts, and get back to a good place mentally.”
I kick off my shoes and scoot down to the floor to sit with my back against the bed. “You’re going out with him?”
“No, he needs to be alone. Just him and his beast.” Nathan takes a long pause. Uncomfortably, he meets my eyes and says, “My mind is like a freeway during rush hour. I’ve got a thousand different memories and thoughts clashing. What Lana showed us, I swear I don’t remember that, but I can’t honestly deny it. It doesn’t seem like something I can do; subvert the mind of hundreds? No way, Tracey, I wouldn’t. But, I can’t confidently walk around now, knowing I’ve wiped out innocent Sephlem for no reason. I didn’t even do shit like that when I was out of control when I was younger.”
I climb onto my knees and crawl over to him. Taking his hands in mine, I ask, “Are you okay?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. When we snatched Lunis
today, he mentioned my father, as if he were still around.”
I fall onto my butt and swallow hard. “What?” That’s impossible. “I was there when you killed him. He has to be dead.” I saw Natalia shove her shaking hands in his ashes. She rose from the ground with him all over her. We saw her suffer for months after his death.
“But I know how I can find out. You mind sitting this one out? I need to visit my cousins and they don’t take kindly to new faces, family or not. They deal in unkind darkness. Little Nathan and Taylor will go with me.”
Off put, I scoot back to the foot of the bed. “Yeah, okay.” Drawing my lips to the side, I gnaw on my cheek. His need to depart doesn’t affect me the way it used to, I don’t feel the pain from knowing he’s leaving without me or the requirement my body used to have that forced me to go with him. I’m actually very comfortable with him doing whatever he needs to without me, and I guess that’s what’s throwing me off. “I can stay around here and hang out with Jason, get some more studying done.”
“Thanks.” Nathan gets up and leans over to kiss my temple. “I’ll wake up next to you in the morning.” And he leaves from the room. He doesn’t seem to realize it, but pieces of the old him are creeping in. He, most likely, will not be waking up next to me in the morning. The greater part of him believes he’s over-stepping boundaries just by hugging me sometimes. But he’s being everything he can, and I’m falling in love with him in a totally different way because of it.
ve·rac·i·ty – conformity to facts
Nathan
I lean against the wall near the front door, waiting for Little Nathan and Taylor to join me. I can’t focus on a single thing long enough to gain some, if any, understanding. The only way to settle my thoughts and find out what happened to me is to visit Amelia and her sisters. They’re family on my father’s side who deal in a wickedness my mother despised and made me swear to never get involved with it. It’s not the first time I broke this promise. She’d push me through a wall for just thinking about going to them, but my options are limited.
Finite: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Sephlem Trials Book 4) Page 25