“How?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
“Well, that depends. You see, Casey, there are things I just can’t seem to put together with all of you. I need these things answered before I can tell you that.” I shifted uncomfortably. He was fishing for information that could kill my friends, sister, and even Jace … Then I replayed the night in the cave and the feeling of being unwanted that everyone gave me, which showed me my value.
“I don’t know if I should be telling you anything,” I said after a second of hesitation. Jace was my main concern. I didn’t want any harm to come his way. He was already suffering enough with his injury.
“Casey, I know you’re different from them. You’re essence … it’s so sweet. I could work with you to make you stronger than any of the others. And with that training, you could protect whoever you wanted. I will not seek harm to those you want to protect.”
If I was stronger, I could have protected Jace. I didn’t want him to hurt ever again. “What do you want to know?” I asked. The corners of his mouth turned up, and he started throwing small pieces of rock into the water.
“I know all of you are human, and that makes learning the things you all did virtually impossible at the speed you did. I’ve been around Reese and know she was oblivious to the skills she now possesses.” Jealousy sprung its ugly head as I thought about Reese. She, out of all of us, seemed to be the one Fuzz put on a pedestal.
“It’s all really confusing to me, too. One day we were all normal then I get a call from Reese’s neighbor Fuzz telling me to come to his house and that Reese had almost died.”
“Fuzz?” he slightly shouted, interrupting the calm stillness his voice had just held. He noticed my apprehension. “Sorry, please continue.”
“We went over there, and Reese was tellin’ everyone about her trip to Panama City, which led into us askin’ Fuzz to train us to fight. He said we all had natural abilities.”
“Did he say where you got these abilities?” he asked, his eyes growing more curious.
“He said we were blessed as a baby with gifts that were hardwired into our DNA, but he would never say how we got the gifts,” I told him.
“I see,” he replied, rubbing his chin.
“Anyway, he told us we needed to move to his training camp for his guys to train us, and we’d learn things at a much faster rate than average people. My understanding was we had to learn these skills to fight supernatural things and … you.” His lips curled into a smile. “Do you know how we got these gifts?”
“I might, but I’m not a hundred percent just yet. Would you be willing to tell me where this training camp is? I’ve had tails on you all at certain times, but somehow you always end up losing them. It must be quite a journey to go through to get to it. That’s how I knew you were out here. I have someone sitting at a certain point that we know you all pass by to go to and from this camp, and when any vehicles we recognize leave, they notify me. I chose to come talk with you today, Casey.”
“I’ll tell you where it is depending on what you’re willing to give me in return. I know you’ve got to be capable of doin’ some bad ass stuff if you can bring Wheeler back from the dead.” As if on cue, Wheeler came out of the woods and stood staring at me with his solid onyx black eyes that seemed to loathe everything about me.
“Casey, I would like you to meet Talgon.” I looked between the two of them with unquestionable confusion.
“Talgon? That looks like Wheeler to me.”
“I think you and I could work well together, and I would be willing to let you join me. You know that I can’t be stopped, and it’s only a matter of time before I kill everyone you know that’s against me. The only question you need to ask yourself is do you want to be in that group?”
His question hung in the air. I didn’t know how to respond at that moment. “Can I have a minute to think about this?” He nodded. His body language made it clear I didn’t have long. I trotted off down stream until they were out of sight. I plopped down and leaned against an old log. He was providing me with a way out, something I wanted just this morning. What if I wasn’t learning as much here because this wasn’t where I was meant to be? Countless questions ran through my mind, but the most important was could I leave my sister and Jace? The others meant very little to me. They didn’t need me. I wanted to be somewhere I could be respected, and if having others fearful of me was the way to go, then that would have to work. Maybe I could convince Masey and Jace to join me once I had established my place with Derek. This decision terrified me. With apprehension, I stood and forced myself to walk back to him.
“I do wanna join you. I think this is where I belong.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. “What do you want for your life?”
“I want power. I want people to fear me, and I want to not feel anything anymore. The feelings I have on a daily basis are getting old.”
“Excellent. I can give you all of those things; you can walk by my side and trample all of those that ever thought twice about your worth. You need to openly accept the darkness …”
“I do,” I said.
He came toward me like he was going to kiss me. I was an inch from his face, staring into his eyes that started to turn black as if someone had squirted a tiny drop of dye, and it was washing away all the other colors. The wind rushed around us as the sun’s beam disappeared behind a mass of dark clouds that appeared from nowhere. I could smell the rain coming, and I couldn’t help but wonder if what he was doing had anything to do with the abrupt weather change. He opened his mouth slightly, and I opened mine, thinking our lips were about to meet; only they never did. A swirling, dark substance emerged from his mouth and into mine, then down my throat. His lips, which tasted of blood, closed the gap between us. The kiss was hard and tasted of a sweetness I had never had—a sweetness of power.
My insides felt as if they were being ripped apart. I wanted to jerk back and cradle my aches, but I couldn’t break away from him. When it stopped, I didn’t even realize my eyes were pinched shut until he pulled away from me. I opened them to find a much more brute, handsome man sitting in front of me.
I shook my head in disbelief, “How …”
“Now that you are of the darkness, your eyes have opened to many new things that you couldn’t see before, things that were cloaked to others. You see me in my true form, one that is not of this realm. My name is Dermetheus, not Derek, and this is Talgon, not Wheeler,” he said, motioning toward Wheeler. I gasped because his form had changed, too. The boy standing there before was replaced by a huge beast with curved horns on the sides of his head, tough skin, and black claws for fingernails.
“So what do you want to do with this world?” I said.
He smiled at the thought. “You will get those answers all in due time, my dear, sweet Casey. I also promise you that we will get you trained on fighting techniques that will have those others begging you to be with them again,” he replied.
“I’ll never be with them again. As of this moment all I want is to see them beg for their lives.”
“Good. First I’ll need you to do a small job for me, though.”
“Whatever you require of me, master,” I told him. My vision of the world was melting away as I talked. How I once saw it seemed to be peeling away, leaving a more blunt view. It was like the goodness in me had put a mask on a world that was cruel and hostile, making me believe it was better than what it truly was.
“I want you to take this vile with you to the training camp, and when you get there, you will need to drink every drop. I know your heart has desires, Casey. I tasted it with that kiss. What would you say if I told you I could help you with those desires?’
“Are you talkin’ about Jace?” I asked. I felt the slight familiar flutter in my heart.
“That is exactly who I’m talking about. This liquid holds the key to being with your Jace.”
“How?” I asked, confused.
; “Once you drink it and go to him. He will see his true love. If it is indeed you then nothing will change, but he won’t be able to hold his feelings back from you any longer. If it isn’t you then he will see his true love’s form.”
“Meaning if it really is Shayla then I’ll appear to him as her?”
“Yes. He will see this form; however, anyone else that sees you, will still see Casey. Regardless of who he sees, he will desire you beyond anything he’s ever known. At this point you will need to have an intimate moment with him.”
“You mean sleep with him?” I asked, feeling like I was holding a date rape drug.
“Yes. After, he will fall asleep, as will you. Shayla or someone else will come to check on him and find the two of you in the bed together. This will break up the bond between this group. Some will side with her while others will side with Jace. This gives us an opportunity to keep moving with other agendas without having them too interested in us.”
“Oh, they’ll definitely take sides on this.”
“Once he sees Shayla, if indeed it is her you turn into for him, then the spell will be broken, and he will see your true form, and if you follow through with my instructions, he will be yours to command for the rest of his life. Whatever your biding, he will have to follow.”
“I don’t think I’ll be turnin’ into Shayla for him. He looks at me in certain ways that tells me he wants every inch of me. With this, he’ll finally have the balls to do somethin’ about it.”
“Whatever happens, do not lose your cool in there. You’ll need to focus with everything you have to make sure your eyes don’t give you away.” I walked over to the water to look into the reflection and found my eyes now matched Talgon’s. “Focus, and they will change back to what they were.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, concentrating all my thoughts on this one task. I opened them, and green eyes stared back at me. “Awesome!”
“There are other reasons that you will need to remain calm. I am assuming that since this place is so hard to find, it must also be very hard to get into. Am I correct?’ he asked as I rejoined him on the bank.
“Yes, only certain people can get in. Do you want me to sneak you in when I go back?”
“No, now is not the time, but in the future that would be the best and easiest plan. So you need to make sure that you don’t mess anything up today.”
“You have my word. I’ll get this job done for you,” I said as Talgon gave a disbelieving grunt. “I wouldn’t be gruntin’ over there, bull boy. Right now I’m seein’ myself in your shoes real soon as being the second in command.”
“I will cut you down and not think twice about it, human. You just remember that,” Talgon replied.
“That’s enough,” Dermetheus said as the rain started to shower us. “Casey, go ahead and get this job done, and once it is complete, report back to me at this location.” He handed me the vile and a card with an address on it. I took it and walked back to the SUV. Once I shut the door, I raised the vile eye level to get a better look. It was bright purple with bubbles floating around. Shrugging, I sat it in the console and started the engine.
I slowly drove back to the camp in the pounding rain. I was half expecting to see an angry mob waiting on my return since I had practically stolen the SUV, but there was no one in the garage to my relief. After I put it in park, I glanced in the mirror to make sure my eyes still looked normal. I smiled when I saw they were still bright green eyes.
I practically skipped to my room, excited about taking this liquid and seeing Jace. First, I had to make sure Shayla wasn’t in there with him. It seemed luck was on my side as I found her sitting on one of the couches with a magazine. Masey sat opposite from her on a chair curled up reading a book.
“What’s up, girls? Shayla, I’m surprised you aren’t down there with Jace,” I said. I needed to find out if she had any intentions of visiting him soon.
“I’m lettin’ him have a boy’s day since Ollie and Payne wanted to get together after what happened to Liam. I’ll probably go down there in like an hour to check on him. I think they were lettin’ him rest for a bit now.”
“Speaking of Liam, why didn’t you ever make it out to the service?” Masey asked, sitting up. Her hair was all over the place, in a wild mess. I shrugged.
“I didn’t think I was able to handle it. I wanted to be there, but I thought it’d be better if I just took a drive alone, so that’s what I did. How was it?” I asked, trying to sound like I cared.
“It was bad ass,” Shayla replied. Masey stared at me with a weird expression.
“That’s good.” I tried to keep my attention on Shayla.
“Somethin’s different about you,” Masey said. I scrunched my eyebrows at her, concentrating hard on not losing my temper. I could feel it starting to elevate.
“What do you mean?” I asked, smiling.
“You seem … different.”
“It’s probably because I’m in a better mood now that I’ve had some time to myself without so many people on top of me in this place.
“Amen to that. I can’t even take a shit without someone comin’ in there and bothering me,” Shayla said. She had placed the magazine back in front of her.
“Hmm maybe that’s it,” Masey said, still eyeing me with curiosity.
“I’m goin’ to my room. I’ve got some more homework to do.” I turned and walked away, still feeling her eyes on my back. I hit the back of my door once it closed. I hated having a twin. Of course she was going to know something was off with me! I didn’t need to think about her anymore. I came back here for a job.
I pulled the vile out of my pocket, and with a shaky hand, unscrewed the lid. I took a small sniff. It smelled of cotton candy, so I hoped it tasted as good. I turned it up and drained the entire bottle. I waited for something to happen, a feeling of some kind, but nothing did. I opened my door and walked to the hospital room on the bottom level.
“What’s up, Casey?” Payne asked as he and Ollie came around the corner.
“Nothin’ much,” I answered. “Are you guys headin’ down to see Jace?”
“Nah, he’s out cold, takin’ a nap,” Ollie said. I wondered where Reese was. It was unusual for her not to be with either him or Shayla. “See ya later, we’re about to go hit the gym up.”
“Bye.” It looked like everything was working in my favor, and in a few moments I would finally have Jace admit his feelings for me. I couldn’t get the nervousness to subside as I stood outside the door to his room. On the other side, waiting for me, was the man I was meant to be with. Who knows, maybe I could convince him to join me with Dermetheus. I was sure he would be happy to have him with us. He would be a great asset to the team.
I turned the knob and stepped inside. Jace’s light breathing indicated he was still sleeping, so I quietly walked to the side of his bed and looked down at his beautiful face. “Jace …” I whispered softly. He started to move a little trying to wake and come to me. “Jace …” I said again, this time a little louder. His eyes fluttered opened and looked up at me. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. The moment his eyes saw me I knew he wanted me. Dermetheus was right. It would be more than anything he had ever desired before.
“Shayla?” he finally answered. My heart sank. How could I have been wrong about the way he felt? It was her he wanted the whole time. He just toyed with me! I guess I was something fun for him to mess with. This was the last time I let my heart reach out to anyone. This was the last day I would ever feel anything again.
“Yes, Jace. I’m here,” I answered.
“Shayla, I’ve never wanted anyone as bad as I do you right now. I pulled my shirt over my head exposing my chest to him and then let my pants fall to the ground.
“How bad do you want me?” I asked. I grabbed his hand and put it on my stomach letting him trail his way down. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
“So fuckin’ bad.” He sat up, slightly grimacing in pain, and wrapped hi
s arms around my waist, pulling me to him for a deep kiss. It was everything I had imagined it to be and more. His lips were indescribably soft as his tongue moved gently in my mouth. I ran my hands through his blond hair, pulling it slightly. He moaned as he let his hands trail up and down my back. What to do with you, Jace Taylor? When he woke up from this, my original plan was to have him love me beyond any other person he’s ever known, but now that I know he was just messing with my emotions for his own sick pleasure, well that changed everything.
When you wake up, I’ll probably have you walk out in front of a diesel to go ahead and end your miserable existence on this earth. Finally he pulled me on top of him and my wish to be with him came true.
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU, skank!” Shayla’s voice thundered through the halls as Fuzz and I ran toward Jace’s hospital room. This was followed by a loud bang and other voices shouting.
“Calm down, Shayla. I’m not puttin’ you down until I know you have yourself under control,” Steele said. We rounded the doorway to find chaos. Jace sat in his bed with a baffled expression while his eyes kept darting between Shayla and Casey. Steele was holding Shayla by the waist. She thrust and stretched, desperately trying to reach Casey, who stood in the corner half naked with a huge grin.
“What the fuck is goin’ on up in here?” Payne shouted as he ran into the back of Fuzz and me pushing us farther into the room.
“Do you wanna know what’s goin’ on, Payne? I’ll tell you what’s goin’ on in here. Your friend Jace Taylor can’t keep it in his pants. I found these two goin’ at it hard when I came in here to check on him,” Shayla wailed. “I think you can let me go now!” She snatched out of Steele’s grip and gave him a malicious glare.
“I really don’t know what’s goin’ on … when she was on top of me I saw Shayla, not Casey,” Jace said, his voice shaking.
“Jace, you don’t have to lie to them. You told me you wanted this to happen. I think now that it’s out in the open you can just go ahead and let them know,” Casey said, not bothering to cover her almost bare body.
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