Plight: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Sephlem Trials Book 1)

by Felisha Antonette

  I have had enough! I face them, preparing to speak, and Nathan rubs my arms. His beard brushes against my cheek before he kisses it. “It’s okay. Let them talk. We’re just here as his silent support,” he whispers. “Look at him, he’s calm. They’re okay.”

  To my left, I meet chocolate eyes. Overtaken by their relaxation, I turn around fully and take Nathan in. His full-brown eyes are dark in the night, and I can only imagine the many colors concealed beneath his irises. This scruffy look on him is to die for. I scrape the bed of my fingertips across its roughness.

  I can’t believe in such a short time, my life has changed so much. My days full of Nathan are ending. I’ll be back at school for seven to eight hours, waiting for the time to pass. Thinking about it, my heart skips a beat, and my panic rises. A panic I’m able to soothe as I lean forward to kiss my mate. He closes the distance. My kiss is innocent, but yet again, I have no clue just how much I need him until I have him and I want to get lost in this intimacy. His hold of me is secured, but I want it tighter, to bury myself in his embrace and let it end here.

  It won’t, though. . .

  “Hello!” shouts from behind us. “Are we interrupting something?” Glen snips. I’m reluctant to pull back, but I give Glen my attention. She throws her hands on her hips, snapping, “Should we leave you two alone?”

  “Why are you so mad? What’s up, Glen?”

  “You’re out here swapping spit with your boyfriend, while Scott’s over here feeding me his bullshit!”

  I am so over this repetitive conversation. “Glen, stop it for crying out loud! He is not lying, and you can feel that. If you would just listen to Scott, instead of complaining and arguing with him about it, maybe you would see that for yourself.” I dust the sand from my pants as I stand. “We have already gone through this too many times. Or did you make her forget that too, Scott?”

  Glen blocks my sight’s path of Scott, yelling, “Tracey, don’t talk to him like that! He hasn’t made me forget anything!”

  “So, what, Scott?” I continue, “You tell half, but not all? Get your shit together!”

  Nathan pulls my arm, and I snatch it from his grasp.

  “Tracey, don’t speak to him like that,” Glen warns. Her expression turns lethal.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t speak to him like that. You spend so much time yelling at him. Again, just listen to him, Glen. He isn’t lying. He’s just messed you up so much in the head, you can’t tell the difference.”

  “Tracey, you’re going too far,” Nathan says from behind me, tugging me by the crook of my arm.

  “Yeah, Tracey. Listen to Nathan. You are going too far,” Glen retorts. Her hands are shaking as they did at the table.

  “Glen, we are friends, and I love you. But, if you throw me again, you will regret it,” I warn her, readying myself. “You should calm down.”

  She scowls at Nathan. “If we’re friends, why are you at Nathan’s side instead of mine?”

  “Glen, what are you talking about?” I throw my hands to my chest. “I’m not picking sides, we’re all out here together!” Scott stands from the sand. During this entire interaction, he’s not said a word. “Why aren’t you checking your mate?” I ask him. “You see she’s about to spaz out and she doesn’t even know it. You’re standing there watching her, knowing she’s wrong about everything. Help her!” I gesture toward Glen.

  “Tracey!” Glen shouts. “You’re not Miss. Perfect, you know that? You’re the furthest from it!”

  “How dare you, Glen? I’ve been nothing but understanding this entire time. So, what, I kiss my boyfriend while you argue with yours and it’s a freaking crime?”

  “Yes! You’re supposed to be my friend, backing me up, looking out for me!”

  “The reason we’re even standing here is because we’re looking out for you. Scott! Tell her!”

  Scott ignores me.

  “I told you, don’t talk to him!” she yells. She is losing her freaking mind! “I bet your boyfriend doesn’t even know the real truth about you, Tracey,” she says in a singsong voice. “The illu―”

  “Shut your freaking mouth, Glen! Shut up!” I warn, daring her to throw our friendship away. She knows that’s off limits.

  “Oh, what? Your mate doesn’t know about that? Make me not tell him!” she dares, air vibrating around her.

  Nathan pulls me behind him, and I push him aside, not wanting his protection. “Who are you?” I yell at Glen, hurt by her need to embarrass me. “Don’t do this!”

  She smirks, and I don’t recognize the eyes staring back at me.

  My hand heats, and my anger’s rapidly growing beyond my control. “What, Glen?” I shout, going back and forth in a pushing match with Nathan. I smack his hand away. “You. Stop!” He grumbles, looking away from me. “Glen, what? I’m your friend, the least of the bad guys, the person who has been here for you forever, and you’re going to stab me in the back? Nathan and I have been looking out for you this entire time. We’ve spent days and hours with you and Scott because we care about you too. And you’re going to try to embarrass me?”

  “Just talk to her, Tracey. Don’t flip out. She’s out of it,” Nathan tells me.

  Glen scowls at me, and Scott stands off to the side with his hands clasped behind his back. Glen’s expression is lethal, and she’s turned the three of us into the enemy. I know how I’ll prove this to Glen since Scott doesn’t or won’t.

  “You feel that, Glen, that evil surfing through your veins, the anger thrashing the beat of your heart. That’s new, right? Scott’s done that. You’re mad at the wrong person.” I ready myself for her attack.

  Nathan grabs my arm. “What are you doing, Tracey?”

  “I got this.” I keep my eyes on Glen. “Just catch me if she sends me flying.”

  “Why would I be mad at Scott?” she asks, stepping closer.

  “Ask Scott!”

  A force shoves against me, hitting me square in the chest. Before I can fly backward, Nathan has me in his arms. He places me down. I cut him off with the rise of my hand. “I got it.”

  I send a miniature blast at Glen’s chest. I hit her dead-on, knocking her onto her butt.

  “Tracey, you are taking this too far!” Scott yells, leaving Glen to fend for herself.

  “No, Scott, you took this too far,” Nathan says, “If you would’ve handled this correctly from the beginning, this all could have been avoided.”

  “You too?” Glen shouts, angrily gesturing at Nathan. “I thought you had more sense than the rest of them.” She steps in front of Scott and almost snarls. There’s so much hate shimmering in her evil eyes.

  Nathan steps forward. “You do not want to go down that road with me, Glen. Tracey may take it easy on you. I won’t. And note. When I knock you off your feet, Scott’s going down with you,” he warns, deep and threatening.

  She squares off, and I realize just how out of it she is. Scott should step in, but he doesn’t move. There’s fear in his eyes, but it doesn’t say he wants to stop them. It’s almost as if he’s scared he’s making the right decision—to not stop Nathan if things take a wrong turn.

  “Did you hear what he said, Scott?” Glen shouts.

  “Glen, I’ve tried. There’s nothing more I can do. I talk to you, over and over, but you don’t accept me. I’ve tried to tell you this stuff time and time again, but you don’t believe me. I have nothing else.” His words flood with misery as he concludes, “You don’t . . . choose me.” He leaves from the conversation with his head low and shoulders slumped. Turning away, he trudges off.

  I pull Nathan’s arm.

  “I heard,” Nathan says.

  It’s worse than we thought. Choosing to be with your mate plays a large part in our relationships. Not being offered the choice to bind destroys us from the inside out. It injects us with a disease that changes us to different people. And this is what’s happening to my friends.

  “Okay, now what?” I ask.

  “I got it. I don’t kn
ow how this will play out, but I won’t hurt them no matter what she does.” He grabs my hand to keep him down. “Glen, Scott didn’t lie to you. Everything he’s said is the truth. None of us are here to hurt you. You’ve been around us for days and around Scott even longer. You love him, right? Why don’t you believe him?”

  Glen looks back at Scott, who’s looking at the ground. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Why would he lie?”

  “Why wouldn’t he?”

  “Glen, this is not a game. Why would Scott lie? Knowing how strongly you feel about him, you still don’t believe him? You said he was holding back, but repeatedly he’s tried to bare his heart to you, and you reject it. How do you expect him to act?” Nathan throws up his free hand, shaking his head. “We had it wrong. This isn’t Scott’s fault, it’s yours.”

  Shock strikes Glen, and she turns to Scott with wide eyes, asking, “Is that true?”

  Seconds pass and Glen jumps up, her expression questionable. She sulks across the sand, approaching him. Scott points in my direction. “Tracey, I’m so sorry,” she says with lighter, friendly eyes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “It’s okay,” I smile. “Scott will help you through it.”

  She and Scott chat, grasping each other’s hand as they stroll down the beach.

  Nathan bumps my elbow with his. “I think I fixed it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.”

  I avoid his kiss, letting it fall onto my cheek. “It sucks it had to go this far, but at least they’ve figured it out now. I’m happy I’ll be able to finally talk to her about everything.”

  “Yeah. They should be smooth sailing from here.”

  broken

  “You mind if we hang out in Taylor’s room for the night?” Nathan asks. We’re headed down a different hall than the ones I’m used to. Silver framed abstract paintings line the cream-colored walls of this hall that leads to only two doors.

  “I don’t. In the morning, I need to finish my speech, though. And I have a slew of homework I need to start, essays and things I’ve completely ignored.” I rake my hair into a ponytail as the stress weighs on me from how I’ve let my entire spring break pass, getting nothing accomplished.

  “Hey,” I greet Taylor and Justin as we enter their lavender painted room softly lit by two tall corner lamps.

  “Everything okay?” Taylor asks. Justin looks over his arm stretched across the back of the cream-colored sofa sat in the middle of the room.

  Nathan and I sit on her king-sized bed tucked behind the couch. The mirror of a wall-sized vanity to our right reflects us as we recline. “It is for now,” Nathan answers.

  “Take it as it comes, right?” Taylor quips as they turn back to the movie playing on the wall-mounted TV.

  “Exactly,” Nathan agrees, throwing a pillow behind his head.

  The three of them fall silent, watching a black and white movie that may have recently begun. I fold my legs, snagging my phone from my back pocket to return a few texts I’ve missed during tonight’s commotion.

  “You start back at school in a day, right, Tracey?” Taylor asks, never taking her attention from the movie.

  “Hm-hum,” I reply.

  She cranes her neck, asking Nathan, “What are you going to do about that?”

  Nathan snorts. “I’m going to let her go.”

  “Let me go?” I object, setting my phone aside.

  “You know what I mean,” he says to me, gaze locked on Taylor.

  Taylor’s staggered gaze is a mix of shock and fear. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she asks, rubbing her hand over the back of her neck.

  “What do you suppose I do? She’ll be finished soon.”

  “Nathan, you cannot be serious!” she huffs. “Alright, and while she’s sitting in class, here comes Roehl, strutting through her classroom, posing as a new student. She will be enthralled by him.”

  “I’m sitting right here, so stop talking about me like I’m not.” I slap Nathan’s arm with the back of my hand. “What the hell is she talking about?”

  “Yeah! You will!” Taylor exclaims. “She’ll be driving home, and he’ll catch her then. Or better yet, while she’s walking through the halls!” She goes on, hands flying about as she runs through one scenario after the other.

  Eyes bulging and heart racing, I look to Nathan for some kind of rebuttal. “Calm down, Tracey.” With as much calmness as he requested from me, he says to her, “What do you propose I do?” for the second time. “She has to finish school. I won’t let anything happen to her, in my presence, or out.”

  “Nathan, you cannot―” She averts her attention to Justin, blurting, “No! You both sound crazy. What if something happens? Apparently, we can’t trust Scott to look out for her as we had planned.”

  I cut her off. “When did we plan something?”

  She waves her hand as if to wipe her words from the past. “That was an awful choice of words. We discussed the idea. I shouldn’t have said planned.”

  “Okay, but why wasn’t I included?”

  “Forget about that, Tracey! Listen.”

  “Don’t, Taylor!” Nathan bats.

  “No!” I object.

  “Tracey!” he barks my name as a father would scold a child, tone forcing me to do what he says. Clearing his throat, Nathan taps my thigh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to come out like that.” He lets the words out in a softer tone, one to pacify instead of provoke.

  I ignore his apology.

  To Taylor, he warns, “You’re crossing a line.”

  “No, Nathan. You’re not remotely approaching it.”

  All I know is, someone had better tell me something before I start tryouts for the Fantastic Four.

  “Taylor is just scared for you, Tracey, and she’s blowing the entire situation out of proportion.” He rubs my arms, and I relax.

  “I agree, Taylor. You know they’ll handle it. Nathan will not let anything happen to Tracey.” Justin rubs her shoulders. “What happened when you all went to talk to Roehl anyway?”

  Nathan adjusts, saying, “We talked and, as usual, he acted as if nothing was going on. He told me I didn’t belong there since I no longer looked at him as family.”

  Taylor faces Nathan. Her disagreement with Roehl’s statement pins her eyebrows together. “Did he forget what he did or something?”

  Nathan shrugs. His jaw clenches and releases in a split second, yet the aggression makes me wonder about his and Roehl’s past.

  Nathan’s head falls forward, and he shakes it slowly, shamed by something. “Honestly,” he starts. “When I saw him in the woods, I knew he was up to something. I didn’t know what at the time. I dropped the ball. He was happy I did, which he told me. He also informed me that, regardless of my efforts, he would take Tracey.” Nathan lifts his head, face now vacant and cold. “I told him he could try, and he reassured me he will with a pat on my back. We changed the subject to discuss your father’s death. He then asked about Tracey, her abilities. This went unanswered. He inquired about the family. I kept my responses short until he brought you up, Taylor,” he adds inquisitively.

  Justin sits up, facing Nathan with full, jet-black eyes. “What was it about?” he almost growls.

  “That’s what I’m curious about. What is it you owe Roehl, Taylor?” Nathan asks, leaning forward. A glimpse of accusation sits in his stoic glare. I get a sense he knows something but may be waiting for Taylor to reveal it.

  Taylor scratches the side of her nose, a pensive glance bouncing back and forth from Nathan to Justin.

  Justin gains a demanding tone, ordering, “Speak, Taylor.” I jump at the force of his voice.

  Taylor reaches for his hand, but he moves away. She trembles, turning to Nathan, who’s calm as a midday blue sky.

  “Nathan,” she starts.

  He throws his hand up, palm facing her, index finger extended. “Before you speak, I want to let you know it had better be a damn good rea
son.”

  Taylor’s torn. Whatever it is, she doesn’t want her brother to know.

  I scoot closer to Nathan, wrapping his arm around mine if what it is upsets him. Taylor looks at me gratefully.

  Nathan’s jaw clinches as his glance shoots to me from the corner of his eyes. The heat of him cools as his rage dissipates.

  “We’re waiting, Taylor,” Justin says impatiently.

  She takes a deep breath but stays silent. Procrastination runs in the family. I, too, am growing impatient. This day is getting longer, and soon, the sun will be rising.

  “I did go to Roehl,” she admits after minutes tick past.

  “Why?” Justin cuts in.

  “I needed something taken care of.”

  “Like what?” Nathan snaps. She looks away from him at me. “Say it!” he demands.

  “I needed you to kill your father after what he did to us.” She looks at Justin, who isn’t moved, then back at me. “I asked him to help me. . .” She pauses, struggling with the word. “. . . Entice you.” Nathan just stares at her; we all do, eager for the ending. “I knew she’d be okay,” she rushes. “I knew nothing would happen to her. I wanted him dead, and I couldn’t do it myself.”

  Nathan brings his hand to his face, squeezing his eyes shut. “Taylor, tell me what you did . . . and calmly,” he adds, words muffled as his hand scrapes over his mouth.

  She throws her hands up at her sides, rising to her feet. “It started out with me asking him for someone with an ability that would help me kill him. He told me no, but would, instead, get you to want to kill him.”

  “He already wanted to do that,” I interject.

  “He did, but he wouldn’t have done it soon enough. Nathan takes his time. I didn’t want to wait. So we agreed to. . .” She takes a long pause, lowering her head. It’s irritating she won’t spit it out! “Go. After. Tracey. To. Anger. Nathan.” Each word comes out like its own sentence. “Tracey, I am so sorry. I knew you would be fine. I knew Nathan would help with whatever happened.” Her eyes fill, as do mine, poisoned by the sting of her betrayal.