“You really want to know?” he entreats, giving the office a quick survey. “I like what you’ve done with the place, son. I heard you opened the office in Washington too. Good job. Bet you feel like you’ve accomplished something important in life.”
“I did until I heard you were alive. Where is Laine?”
“I killed him,” he states easily, grabbing a globe-shaped paperweight from my desk. “Once you remembered, and you came back, I knew it was my time to get back into the family, physically.”
I laugh at his nonchalant attitude. At the fact that he feels like he has me dumbfounded—cornered. How he sauntered in here like he was going to blow me away by being back. I’ll give it to him, I didn’t know he was in Laine, but this is no surprise. It was just a matter of time before he came slithering his ass around. “You don’t think I’m not already prepared for this moment, Nathan. To take you out permanently. You don’t think that I knew about your prophecy when you went to Amelia, Jacinta, and Chris, and they made your soul immortal if I killed you. You have to give me more credit than that.”
He glares at me, quickly sobering. “I know you, Keith. You can’t get past your wickedness. I’ve already won, the moment you killed Lunis. I won. Everything will turn over to me, and I’ll rule this—”
“Eennt!” I break in. “Wrong again. I never killed him.”
Leaning forward, his eyes narrow, hiding his shock in his glare, but it sounds in his voice. “You found him and took him,” he tells me like he was there.
“That you are right about. But I haven’t killed him. See dad, I turned over a new leaf when I met Tracey. . . You should’ve killed her when you had the chance.”
“I could still kill you both.” He stands.
Tipping down the corners of my mouth, I agree, “You’re right. You can.”
He slams his hands on the desk causing it to crack. “I had you, Keith.” He thrusts a point in my face. “I had you right in the palm of my hand. Then that meddling bitch had to come around. I had you, Keith. You were done for.”
“And yet.” I lean back in my chair, arms out to my sides. “Here I am.”
“I’m the reason you are alive! I spared your life. It’s not by any accident or divine providence that you defeated death. I did that. I took over this body, I brought you to her. I made her touch you just long enough to pump a single beat into you all’s heart that would keep you alive long enough to erase everything you knew about her and ev—”
I jump up, shoving him back. He falls onto the chair, grabbing the arms. “I don’t give a shit what you did. You didn’t spare my life because you’re a father who wanted to see his son survive. You wanted to see me as a puppet. Working for you and whoever else you decided was worth getting whatever the fuck else you want out of life. You didn’t do me any favors. You made shit worse for my mate and me. Me knowing or not. You are still dead to me! I may not be able to do anything about you at this very second. But I’ll find you, and I’ll kill you again, and again, and again if I have to. I’ll watch you die. I’ll watch me murder your soul.”
“You can never touch my soul,” he utters through his gritted teeth.
“You are right where I want you. All I needed to know was who you were.”
“You’re not some great god, Nathan. You’re just as destructible as I am. Except I can come back.”
I narrow my eyes. “Who am I?”
His face twists disgustedly as he sneers, “What?”
I say again, “Who am I? What is my name?”
“Nathan.”
“I got my name from?”
“From me.”
“And what do you think that means?”
“What?” he questions again, puzzled.
“Like father . . . like son.” I walk around my broken desk. “See you around . . . dad.” I leave my office and pass Kathy to the glass door that leads out to the hall.
“Keith,” my father calls, now in the hall that leads to the main door of the building. He meets my eyes, and a smirk plays in his words. “There’ll be some visitors waiting for you at The Forge. I suggest you go there. No tricks. Make sure you take your girlfriend. You wouldn’t want to miss seeing anything.” He passes me. “You want more answers, go there.” Waving, he says, “Goodbye, Kathy.” He smiles with Laine’s face that I’ve already wanted to smash. “See you around, son.”
Son of a bitch!
Far From Perfect
Nathan
I park in the driveway, rushing to get in and tell Tracey about what the hell I just experienced. I kick the driver’s door open and snatch my phone from the cup holder before getting out of the truck. Slamming the door closed, I turn for the porch.
A man stands there with his arms crossed and a deadpanned eye locked on me.
“What. The. Fuck.” I’m frozen, hand clutched around the keys I’d planned to punch the clicker and lock the doors.
“Don’t incite yourself, Nathan.” Tarleton frowns. “It is not he who you see, but Truth whom you’ve failed to believe.”
I retract my steps, yank the door open, and get back in my truck. As I’m closing my door, he appears in my passenger seat. “Bro!” I shout, hands flying to both, the door handle and the steering wheel. “I don’t know what or who you are, but I’m not playing with this shit.”
“We spoke long ago, and I tried to give warning to all this.” He gestures around him. “But I wasn’t successful. My apologies for letting you down. I should’ve sought you out sooner, but I didn’t know how fast time was running.”
“Yeah, well. Time stops for no one. You’re making me very uncomfortable, can you please get out of my truck?”
“Should I accept my true form? Will that make this better?”
“If you want me to listen to something you have to say, any form that doesn’t look like my friend will do.” I must’ve talked him up. It can’t be a coincidence. We brought him up last night and I’m seeing him today . . .
He digresses and morphs into one of the cloaked figures. A Qualm, but robed in gold and silver. Beneath his hood is as if his face is covered by a thick, white stocking. If I were to snatch it off, there’d likely be nothing there, just like the dark ones. He avoids looking in my direction, as though he’s ashamed of this form. No feet rest on the floor of my truck, but his flowing robe waves in the breezeless air. “I am not of this world.”
“No shit.”
“I’m from a realm not entirely known to man, but this will soon change. My people have lived for years in the dark and they’re ready to escape that darkness, as their resources are running low. They live just beyond the seen, the known, just out of touch, and they no longer want to view the world from the inside looking out. They want out, and they’re coming. And nothing will stop them.”
“Okay cain’t . . . ? You’re running short on time here.”
“I’ve come as a warning. I live for a higher purpose. We were designed to protect this world. But once a Qualm falls into darkness, that is what they become. Their mind becomes corrupted and their will turns to another. The breeder of Burdened and Hybrid Sephlems is their leader, he knows what he can make of this world, and he’s declared to bring the Qualms among the Sephlem and have them mate with humans, breeding a hybrid of whom he will rule over. Disguised as such, your world will be their world. They will merge together and humans will live among beasts, a turn in hierarchy. The Qualms will soon show the humans’ most powerful weapon can easily be consumed and turned against them.”
“What? Nukes?”
He faces me, lack of expression on his covered face. “Their minds.” Turning away from me, he continues, “You, Nathan, have a gift they desire more than infinite life. A key that breaks the border of the two realms. And, something far better, the ability to directly and indirectly control. Bound to your mate, you alone can reveal the true desire of any being, you can avert those wants, you can convert any being to be submissive to your own desires. That power, Nathan, is one people will kill for
, or allow their enemy to obtain to only be murdered and that power is passed on.” He sucks in a breath and continues, “You must not kill your father. No matter what. He’s your entrance to the leader and you need the free pass.”
I rub my hand over my mouth, trying to grasp hold of the idea that I’m an instrument for something. People have been trying to use me all my life. They’ve also been trying to kill me for as long as I can remember; for being Burdened, for being assumed that I’m a part of some world-changing prophecy, for believing in fairy tales and bedtimes stories.
“Don’t take my words lightly, Nathan. It may be hard to believe. Your mother had been telling you about this for years. That marking appearing on your back was warning the overtaking is underway. The All-Seeing of Death has been rendered and the only people who do not know it is you, is you. The instant you and Tracey bonded, the hourglass was turned. They would try to tear you apart as fate forced you together. Death and love, as love may give life and require you to be together because depending on you two, we will be captured or set free. But Love does not cater to death here. It does not prevail, so do not expect it to win. You can choose which road you take, but make no mistake, the sand has almost run out.”
My lips part, but past them, my words are lost. Shaking my head, I ask, “Why are you betraying your own people? You’re wanting me to go against their overtaking, no? What do you think I’m capable of doing to an entire fleet of half-dead fiends? Demons? Half-grim reapers. . .? What the hell are they, anyway?”
“Does every human support the wishes of their leader?”
“I . . . I suppose they don’t.”
He evaporates from the passenger’s seat, leaving nothing in his departure.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I close the front door and try to work out my confusion. Burned bread hits my nose. I go to shout, ‘who’s burning down the house,’ but bite my tongue when I turn the corner to the kitchen.
Tracey snatches her hand back from the pot, hissing from likely burning herself. If it serves my memory correctly, she can’t cook and won’t. The island holds two spots; plates, utensils, and glasses. On the counter across from the island, Tracey’s placed two steaks, a bowl of mashed potatoes, broccoli, and rolls.
I sneak up behind her and poke the middle of her back. “Boo.”
She jumps, dropping a roll and butter knife to the floor.
“Shit,” I laugh. “Sorry. Didn’t think you’d be that scared.”
Tracey punches my chest. “You suck! I only made two rolls, so this one is yours.” She brings the one she snatched from the floor before my eyes, then sets it on the plate.
“You cooked all this?” I push through the clumpy potatoes with the spoon left in the bowl. “You don’t cook.”
“Right, but, see, I wanted to try it, and I searched up a nice recipe that included steak. I picked the simplest one, of course. But . . . Well, I owed you from the times you cooked for us. And, I wanted to do something for us.” She shrugs. “I just hope you like it.”
My insides want me to grab her by her neck, lift her to her tiptoes, pull her close, and kiss her. Kiss the living hell out of her. My Burdened shudders my flesh, agreeing with the thought.
I won’t do it.
The other half of me cringes even considering doing something like that, it’s too aggressive.
“How about we sit outside and eat? I’ll grab a blanket if you get the food.”
Her eyes lighten and she smiles, agreeing, “Great. I’ll meet you outside.”
The day is silent; birds don’t tweet, the wind doesn’t rustle the bushes, the waters even still. It’s quite peaceful after the last couple of days I’ve had. I clean my plate, though in all honesty, it wasn’t great. But Tracey went out of her way to cook, and I’m kinda honored she thought of me. She doesn’t come close to finishing her food.
“How were things at the office? Did Kathy miss you?” Tracey asks, smiling.
Laying across the blanket on my elbow, I scoot closer to her and slip my arm beside her to graze her arm. Why? My body is pulling me to her, but I don’t want to be too aggressive or push her outside of her comfort zone. I’m massively into Tracey, and she’s growing on me more and more every day, but I should take things slow, not knowing what the future has in store. “Your friend Laine stopped by.”
“How does he know where the office is?”
“He’s my father.”
Tracey stutters, sitting up on her knees. “Get out!”
“Nope. I’m staying right here.”
“What’d you do?”
I fall on to my back, pushing my hands over my head. “Absolutely nothing. He walked right out the door. He told me to go to the Forge tonight.”
“What’s that?”
“This hole in the wall club in the city.” Leaving my eyes closed, as I’m trying to wrap my head around all of this, I say, “Tarleton showed up when I was coming into the house. I nearly lost my shit.”
Tracey cuts me off, “He’s really Chislon. He’s nice, but he gets on my nerves.”
“Right,” I drag. “You two have met?”
“Yes. On more than one occasion. Tell me more about Papa Nathan. What’s he doing back? You just let him walk away? I mean, after finding out everything you did last night with your cousins, and him knowing you were going to be the one to kill him so he hexed himself with immortality should you had . . . I mean . . .” She drinks from her glass. “That’s all a bit much.”
“He has a plan and whatever it is, he’s been working it since I was born, and he found out I’d be his demise. Honestly, Tracey, I have no idea what his plan could be. Just that he tried, and it was because of you why he failed. Chislon was saying that there’s a power that can be passed on by murdering the one who holds this superpower.”
“Ohhh,” she sings excitedly. “Like magic wands!”
I flick my gaze to her and do my damndest not to roll my eyes. “Wands have nothing to do with this, Tracey. While I was in front of my father, I was mouthing off things I had no idea about. Saying he was using me as a puppet and was working for him. I’d promised I’d kill him. It just all came out.”
“Likely you’re Burdened helped out with that. You did say it’s been helping you out a lot lately.”
There’s a tickle on the back of my neck with my Burdened happy he was acknowledged. An affectionate sensation charges through me, resonating for Tracey.
I chuckle. “My beast is in love with you.”
She blushes. Briefly, I see Tracey through his darkened vision, seeing the world in a flushed maroon; always seeing red in search of a feeding. But with her, she’s seen clearly, clear as night. Tracey’s grabbed by the back of her neck and drawn near me.
Through a gentle growl, I’m saying, “Only you can lighten the darkness cast on a beast meant to never live in love. Only you can fill until satisfied with only affection. Only you can bear the heart of a beast and with pride and strength, take on a wicked soul. You dare not ask the full of what we are and yet you accept it without care or fear of what this being will become. He’s played with feelings I’ve never cared to encounter until you. We’re completed by your love and hope even after what’s to come, it will remain.”
She’s kissed. Her lids fall over her eyes as her face heats and she’s lost in lust. Or maybe she’s found in love.
I’m snapped back in control, releasing my hold on Tracey. “I’m sorry.”
She licks her lips before covering them with her hand. “There’s a difference in your kiss,” she says. Her chest swells and she croons. “Yours is uncertain, as if you’re not sure I’ll return your caress. The other you is assertive, sure in a sense that dares me to want otherwise, as if it knows no matter what, I’ll accept it.”
“Is he right?”
Nodding, she says, “He is.”
I make a move to kiss her, but decide against it and instead kiss her cheek. “I have no idea what’s going on, Tracey. I’m trying to catch up with everything but
feel two steps behind.”
“Me, too.”
I hold her gaze. “Thanks for not giving up on me. You probably saved my life and a lot of others.”
“I did it for me, not you, Nate.” She winks.
Jar of Hearts
Tracey
“I have to go to work, and Taylor’s having an episode.” Little Nathan points for Jason to sit on the blanket with Nathan and I. “You two don’t mind watching him in the meantime?”
“Of course not.” Nathan tackles Jason and tickles him, throwing Jason into a fit of giggles.
Little Nathan thanks us and runs back to the house, saying, “I’ll be back.”
Jason escapes Nathan’s clutches and tackles him, doing his best to tickle him. Nathan’s huge under Jason, laughing from the attacks of Jason’s little fingers. He cries and begs for Jason to stop because he can’t breathe. Jason, jumping to his feet, cheers, “I win. I got you with my tickling superpower, muahahaha.” He wiggles his clenched fingers, ready to go in for round two.
Nathan throws up his arms. “I surrender, Captain Jason. You win.”
Jason cheers with victory, pumping his little fists in the air, chanting, “I am the tickling wizard!”
I pack the plates and cups into the basket I brought out for our picnic. Nathan whispers to Jason, “Tracey looks like she’s searching her basket for some secret weapons. We better get her before she can use them on us.”
“Affirmative,” Jason returns in a whisper.
I’m attacked from the back before I can respond to my eavesdropping. Tickled by both Jason and Nathan, I fall onto my side, laughing so hard my stomach and jaw hurt. “Okay. Okay! I give! Mercy! Mercy!”
Jason jumps to his feet and Nathan leans back on his knees. They cheer and high five and then they stand doing an ‘I won!’ dance, twisting their hips and waving their hands in the air.
“Would you two champions mind helping me clean up?”
Finite: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Sephlem Trials Book 4) Page 28