I laughed and went in for another kiss on her soft lips. “No, not at all. You are one of the toughest chicks I know and you fight for what you believe in. That is not an accident at all.”
She frowned, not convinced. “Tell me what happened to everyone.”
“Well, Sarah took the boys and went back to New Orleans. They were fine and totally unaware of anything that had been going on in that place. Thank God.
“Daniels actually came back here with us. He’s in my room sleeping right now. I think he’s going to stick around, him and Luke seemed to get on pretty well. Alice went to the hospital and had to get her wound taken care of, the bullet wasn’t in there, but she needed to get it cleaned and get some antibiotics to prevent infection. As long as she stays off it, she should be fine.”
Chloe nodded. “I need to make the team a thank you card,” she joked.
“Nah,” I told her with a smile. “I’m sure they would appreciate that, but it’s not needed. They wanted to help.”
“Still ...” Her voice trailed off.
“There is something else I need to tell you.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Did you find yourself a sweet little solider at the Pentagon?”
I made a disgusted face. “Ew, don’t even joke like that.”
I told her the whole story about my new power. Yeah, I definitely had it.
When I was done with the story her eyes were wide, happiness swimming in her dark irises. “Drew, that’s fantastic.”
I shook my head, “I don’t know about that.”
“Whatever, you’re always so modest. Own it, man. This is great.”
I didn’t respond. I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t ever going to have a gift and now I had one. So strange.
“I knew it,” Chloe whispered.”
“What?”
She looked up at me with a soft smile. “Fire needs air to breathe. You are the air that fuels me ... my fire. We belong together.”
I couldn’t find the words to respond to that, so I did even better. I reached down and brought my lips to hers, kissing her with every ounce of love I had inside me.
Someone knocked softly on the door and I quickly sat up straight before they could come in. “Yeah.”
“Hey guys,” Gavin opened it a crack and peeked in. When he saw Chloe laying there with her eyes open, he grinned. “Oh good, you’re awake.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “Still a little weak, but my quick healing is helping.”
“Good,” Gavin, told her. “Well, I think you guys should probably come and see something.”
Chloe narrowed her eyes. “What is it?”
“Just come on.” He turned around a waited for me to help Chloe out of bed. She reluctantly threw the covers off and sat up. I came around and lifted her arm around my shoulders. We met Gavin in the hall and followed him outside.
Summer was beginning to come to an end. I could feel a briskness in the breeze as it lightly caressed my cheeks and hair. The scent of the trees and lush greenery also hung in the air.
There, in the center of the lawn, stood Zander. The rest of the group, Alice, Oscar, and Christina stood aside watching him with gaping mouths.
“Again,” Zander ordered, with a concentrated expression on his face.
Alice reached up and forced a branch to fall from one of the trees. Before it could hit the ground, Zander pushed both palms forward and a white light burst forth from his hands. The branch had been pretty good sized, but when that light hit it, only ash was left to drift softly onto the grass.
Holy crap.
Zander finished his demonstration and then looked up at us. “Yeah, that just happened.”
I shook my head. Well, the Warrior Angel wasn’t kidding when he said that Zander would take his place here. Next thing we know he will be wielding a giant sword and churning storm clouds.
“Well, be careful with it,” I told him.
He nodded. “I’m going to kick so much evil ass with this.”
I laughed, along with everyone else. “I bet you are,” I told him. “That is one thing I’m positive you will do.”
The Arcadia Falls Chronicles
Book 6
Innocence and Evil
Zander
Sleep would not come.
Although the mattress was comfortable enough, I still lay there, restlessly switching between staring at the ceiling and admiring Christina’s bare shoulders. I actually didn’t sleep much at all anymore. I didn’t feel like I needed to either.
So, instead of sleeping I found crap to do around the house, patrolled our grounds for vampires, worked out and read a lot. Yeah ... I read, it isn’t a widely known fact, but I do like to enjoy a nice fiction novel here and there. Unlike my half-sister, Chloe, she will read anything she can get her hands on. For some reason I can’t understand, she loves non-fiction just as much as anything else.
Whatever. To each their own.
Having insomnia sucked big time. I always thought it would be great having all those extra hours to get stuff done, but in reality you want to sleep ... you need to sleep, and the precious calm of slumber simply never comes.
Shadows played on the walls, lit by the dim glow of the moon shining through my window. I breathed in the brisk fall air and shifted onto my side. Christina’s eyes didn’t even flutter as my weight dipped the mattress when I moved.
Ever since New Orleans, I’d been changing. There were physical differences which surprised me, as well as everyone else. But, along with my growing strength and defining muscles, mental changes were also taking place.
At first the process was gradual, but then it came on full force. I had known that I was different after the Warrior Angel saved me. I’d had a careless outlook on life, saving people from vampires for the simple fact that I wanted to ... and it was fun. It was also dangerous, but I welcomed danger because I didn’t care much about what happened to me.
That was before.
After my mother passed away, I had no purpose except to find Trevor, my father. I’d grown up knowing I was different and wanted to understand why. I had basically been an outcast in school, never knowing why I was so different from everyone else and having to hide who I really was. Even though I didn’t even truly know.
When I found the Hunters ... well, when they found me. It had been a blessing in disguise. Suddenly, there were others who were different, other misfits who weren’t misfits at all.
They were heroes.
The Hunters, and Alice, and Oscar ... they all had their gifts and used them to protect the innocent. They were different and they embraced it. Best of all, although they were different, they were together, and they let me become one of them.
Now, I had become the outcast once again. The Warrior Angel came and declared that I had the soul of a warrior, that it was my calling to eradicate the evil which dwelled upon the earth. Well, at first I had assumed he meant vampires and other such demons ... but, I was beginning to realize that it was much more than that.
The gradual process I was speaking of began as just a small feeling that someone wasn’t a good person. Somehow, I just knew that they were bad. But now it was getting worse. I could feel the evil emanating from random people passing on the street and the strongest urge to take them from this world threatened to take over.
I was isolating myself. I didn’t want to be around people. I could feel their crimes and their wrong doings. These people were everywhere, far more than you would have ever imagined and it drove me insane to be around them.
I don’t see exactly what they are thinking, no, I don’t read thoughts. It’s more like a strong feeling. If a man has killed someone, I can sense the evil, not the crime. That is what worries me. I don’t know if I’m feeling the same thing for a person who has stolen a candy bar as I do for one who has committed murder.
Both are crimes, after all.
What if someone is only thinking about killing someone, but they never intend to g
o through with it. These are evil thoughts, yet the crime has not been executed. Am I feeling the same for everyone, for even the smallest sin?
I couldn’t chance it. Therefore, I couldn’t be around the general population, which in turn, took me back to my misfit childhood and isolation.
The Warrior Angel had healed me, ultimately saving me from death. So, I supposed I should be grateful for that. But, at the same time, he had given me this gift and then abandoned me. How was I supposed to get used to all this without help ... without someone to answer my questions.
“Zander,” Christina asked in a soft whisper. “Are you all right?”
I turned to her and scooted closer, pressing my body up against hers underneath the blankets. “I’m fine.” I kissed her shoulder. “Just can’t sleep.”
“Again?”
I nodded in the darkness. “Yeah.”
She turned over so that she was facing me. I could feel her dark eyes on me, trying to see if I was truly all right. “Anything I can do?”
“No,” I answered softly. “There isn’t anything anyone can do. I’ll have to sleep eventually.”
She sighed. “I’m worried about you.”
“I’m worried about me too,” I told her. It was the truth, I was worried. Even though there were lots of things that I liked about myself, I was turning into something unpredictable and that was something I didn’t like.
I slid my arm around Christina, her body was warm and inviting. She moved in a little closer and rested her head on my arm. “I don’t know what to do to help you.”
“I don’t know if there is anything that can help,” I responded. “I think I just need to get used to what I’m becoming ... you know, adapt to it.”
She nodded in agreement. “Maybe, but you may have to fight against what you are becoming, as well.”
This time I nodded. She was right. But, at the same time, I had to wonder what she thought of who I was turning into. I certainly wasn’t the man she knew when we first met. Then, we had clicked instantly. She was this wild girl with her long dark hair and knives hidden all over her body. While I was a guy who drank too much and killed vampires because I felt like it.
I still drink too much.
I still kill vampires.
But now I’m afraid of hurting innocent people.
Whenever I fought vamps before, I’d never been worried about hurting anyone. I did what I was doing to save them from being hurt. This whole Warrior Angel in my own right thing was not all it was cracked up to be.
~~~***~~~
After a long night of tossing and turning, the darkness finally began to recede. Quietly, I pushed the covers aside and crept out of bed. It was still early and I didn’t want to wake Christina.
I slid on a pair of jeans with a tee shirt and then headed out into the hall way. The house was still quiet but I knew that Chloe and Drew would probably be up soon, if they weren’t already. They were early risers. Christina usually was too, but she had been sleeping in more and more lately.
Sure enough, on entering the kitchen I found my sister and her boyfriend sitting quietly at the table speaking in whispers. Drew had a glass of orange juice in front of him while Chloe nursed a steaming cup of coffee.
“Hey,” I greeted them, heading for the coffee pot.
Neither looked surprised to see me up. They might have at one time, but now they were used to me being up at any hour of the day or night.
“Morning,” Chloe mumbled, taking a sip from her mug.
“What are you guys doing today?” I asked, opening the cabinet and getting a mug for myself.
“We’re going into the city to work with the instructors at the training center.”
I nodded. Normally, I’d have volunteered to go with them. But now, I was stuck here. They both knew it, even though nobody ever brought it up. Damn, how had my life become so depressing? “You up for that already?” I directed my question to Chloe.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “It’s been a couple weeks since we got back. I’m good to go.”
Drew stared at her with his brooding glare and wisely didn’t say anything. He knew better than any of us not to try and tell her any different. She was stubborn as hell and would always end up getting her way. If anyone disagreed with her, she would just do whatever it was she wanted to do anyway. So, in the end it was better just to go with it.
I understood that Drew was protective over her. They had a strange relationship, like Christina and I, only tighter I think. These were two Vampire Hunters who put their lives at risk every day, but at the same time, they cared more about the other than they did themselves, which could, and had, put them both in dangerous situations when wanting to protect the other.
Drew didn’t like me all that much. It took some time, but now we at least had a mutual understanding. Our goals were the same, so that counted for something. Chloe was important to both of us, and that counted for more.
I poured my coffee. “Just take it easy. You’ve been though a lot.”
“Shut up, I’m not a pansy. I feel fine.”
I shrugged. “Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She tossed back one of her braids and smirked. “I won’t.”
Leaning on the counter I took a testing sip from my mug and rolled my eyes in response.
“What about you, what’s your plan for the day?” Drew asked.
I shrugged. “Probably going to check the fences and cut back some of the weeds along them. That crap grows so fast I can barely keep up with it.”
Yeah, I’d been downsized to doing the yard work. The amazing part-vampire, part-warrior angel was now a groundskeeper.
Chloe frowned. She knew me all too well and probably knew I’d hate doing yard work. But I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. “Why don’t you train with Christina ... or Alice and Oscar?”
“I don’t know.” Because I’d probably never go out in public again since I was too afraid to hurt people. So why should I practice.
Just then, Christina appeared in the kitchen entry. She had already dressed in a pair of tight black jeans and a dark blue top that hung loose off one shoulder. As always, she wore boots, which I knew damn well had at least two knives within.
Ah, dammit. I’m pretty sure I fell in love with that girl the moment I met her.
Her long dark hair had been pulled back into a ponytail and she had even put her makeup on. Chloe wrinkled her nose. “Are you going somewhere?”
Christina shook her head and opened the fridge. “No, why?” She reached in and grabbed the orange juice.
“Because you’re dressed like you’re ready to go out and it’s like five in the morning,” Chloe responded.
Straightening, Christina opened the container of juice and set it on the counter. “Just because I don’t lounge around in sweats all day doesn’t mean I’m going somewhere. I just like to be dressed.”
“Well, I like to be comfortable.”
Those girls were never going to stop. This was what our life with them was like. Every. Single. Day.
Drew flicked his eyes back and forth between the two girls. I briefly wondered how often he felt awkward when he was with both of them. Christina had been his girlfriend before Chloe. They had grown up together, so it wasn’t strange that he had dated her. But, the fact remained, Christina had been jealous of his relationship with Chloe for a long time.
Drew didn’t really seem to care how the girls dealt with stuff. Even when I first met them, it was always Chloe for him.
“Chloe and Drew are going over to work at the training centers, are you going with?” I asked.
She filled a large glass with juice and took a long drink, meeting my eyes as she drank. Once she swallowed, she set the glass back down on the counter. “Not unless you’re going.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m staying here.”
“You can’t hide forever, Zander.”
My hands found their way into my hair. I didn’t like talking about this
stuff in front of everyone else. “I know that. I just don’t want to go.”
“You want to take a trip to Arcadia Falls. We can go see Luke and see if they need us to do anything over there.”
Again, I shook my head. “No. Someone needs to stay here.”
“Okay, fine. I’m going to stay here with you though.” She shook her head, resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going off the property.
“I don’t need a babysitter, Dammit. I’ll be fine here by myself.” I slapped the counter with my free hand.
After polishing off her juice, Christina calmly turned toward me and said, “I know that. I actually like spending time with you, so I am staying because I want to be around you, not because you need a babysitter. Now stop being so defensive.”
Chloe and Drew were smart enough not to say anything. I was already a guy who didn’t like to get all girly with my feelings, but on top of all that I was cranky from the lack of sleep.
“I’m going to go shower.” I lifted my coffee off the counter so quickly is sloshed over the side of the mug. Instead of cleaning it up, I just marched out of the kitchen, leaving them to deal with it. The conversation had gotten uncomfortable and I didn’t want to be around it. I swung by my room first to grab some clothes and then headed for the bathroom.
This was getting ridiculous. I didn’t want Christina around me if she just wanted to make sure I didn’t get into trouble. If she stays with me it should be because she wants to, not because she thinks she has to watch me or some crap.
I stripped down and cranked the hot water knob over to the on position. Then, I stepped into the tub and let out a sigh of relief when the hot water washed over my tense muscles. Steam filled the bathroom as I stood there, letting the water soothe me. I stayed until the hot water ran out, even though I knew the others were going to want a shower as well.
When the water ran cold, I turned it off and moved the curtain aside. I snagged the towel off the hook and used it to dry off my entire body, then wrapped it around my waist. With a hand towel, I wiped the steam away from the mirror so that I could see my reflection.
The Arcadia Falls Chronicles: Omnibus (Books 1-6) Page 39