Daizlei Academy Omnibus Collection

by Kel Carpenter

  That was—no—no—I mean, I did collapse the building—but—

  “That’s not what happened.” It was all I could think to say as the cold realization hit me. “But nobody knows that…because Anastasia and I look the same.”

  He nodded solemnly, some of the anger in his eyes seemed to have cooled, but I wasn’t finished with this conversation just yet.

  “I’m not staying cooped up in the safe house every day. I can’t do it.” He opened his mouth to argue with me, but I cut him a harsh glare. I swear to Nyx if he interrupts me, I’m going to punch him. “Listen to me. I get it. The whole world thinks I’m probably some kind of monster, and you know what? I kind of am.” That had him shutting up. His mouth closed so hard his teeth clinked.

  “That’s exactly why I can’t stay in the safe house though, because if I’m not doing something—anything—I will lose my mind. Ask Alexandra. Ask Blair. They will tell you what happens when I’m forced into a box. But don’t ask me to do this when it’s something not even you will do.” Aaron raised his brow and shook his head. I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or frustrated.

  “What if people see you—”

  “What if people see you?” I repeated back to him, clasping my hands together and raising a brow.

  “They won’t.”

  “That’s a bullshit answer,” I scoffed. “You have no way to guarantee that.”

  Thunder roared overhead, the declaration of an incoming storm. We weren’t done here. Not by a longshot, and I wasn’t going back to the safe house until I had some answers.

  “Actually, I do.” He paused, and I motioned for him to go on. “I can shift into anyone or any animal in the world. Currently, I look like some random Shifter off the streets, but it appears you can see through it now.”

  Of course, another awfully convenient ability no one tells me about until after the fact, but that wasn’t what snagged my attention. He said now. Like he was implying I couldn’t before…

  “How do you know I couldn’t see through it before?” I asked sharply. His body went tense and his jaw twitched. There was something he wasn’t telling me. Something that nagged at my memory like an itch I couldn’t scratch, telling me not to let him off the hook. “How do you know I couldn’t see through it before, but that I can now?” I asked him again.

  “Because tonight is the first time I’ve taken someone else’s form,” Aaron said slowly. “And you saw through it. You saw…me.” His eyes looked to the heavens and he smiled, just a little, like he thought something was funny.

  “Who?”

  His dropped his gaze to me and an almost painful look crossed his face. He knew what I was asking.

  Whose form did he take? My heart rattled as heat rushed to my head.

  I had a suspicion, but I would not say it. No…

  “Don’t be angry with me…”

  Not the best way to start a sentence. My suspicion mounted, and I steadied myself for the truth.

  “Whose form, Aaron?” I demanded for the last time. His smile turned sad and he quirked up his lips in a stupid half-smile that looked so familiar…

  “Lucas. I used to pretend to be Lucas.”

  He—I—we—I didn’t know what to say. But fortunately, I had Violet, and she knew how to think.

  “Don’t shut him out for this,” she said. Her presence brushed closer to my mind and a numbing cold followed it. It didn’t take all the bite out, but enough to sort through my mess of emotions.

  “He’s a liar, just the same as Lucas,” I snapped.

  “How often?” I ground the words out, but he knew what I was asking.

  “Often enough that I should be groveling right now,” he replied, pinching the bridge of his nose and sweeping his hand down his face. It was a motion I did frequently. A tell when I was stressed, but much like he’d taught himself Lucas’s half-smile, he also knew mine.

  “Then why aren’t you?”

  “You know why,” Violet responded.

  “I didn’t ask you,” I snapped back at her.

  “Because I’m not sorry for it and I’d be lying if I tried to grovel.” He stepped a foot closer and I moved a foot back. The thick material of one of the tents brushed against my back. “I’m sorry you’re pissed off by it, but I can’t be sorry I did it. You wouldn’t let me get close to you, and I couldn’t seem to stay away.”

  “He cares about you,” Violet grumbled. I mentally shoved her away and this time she moved willingly.

  “So you thought you’d impersonate my best friend? Did Lucas know about this?” I took another step back without thinking and stumbled in the tent fabric. Aaron grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me forward. My hands landed on his chest with a thud and my head spun.

  “Yes, he did,” he answered. “And he allowed it because he knew what you were to me and that if he tried to stop it, I would tell you and prevent him from ever having a chance at anything with you. He entered your life and stole you from me before I was ever given an opportunity, and after you made it clear you didn’t want me around, he and I came to an arrangement. So long as you were happy with him, I would stay out of your life. But I refused to keep you completely out of mine.” He swept back a stray lock of hair, tucking it behind my ear. “I trained with you as him most late nights you couldn’t sleep. I did the bulk of helping you study to pass our classes. I was the one that found you on the anniversary of your parents’ death, and the one who tracked you down in the warehouse after you went missing.”

  I knew I should pull away. I knew it with everything in me, and I couldn’t seem to. My body was frozen to the spot.

  “So, you see, I’ve actually been at your side since I found you. You just never knew it.” I swallowed hard as he ran his fingertips across my cheek.

  Part of me could understand his reasoning. A very, very small part of me even felt bad for him, but it wasn’t enough.

  “You…lied to me. You—you—” I couldn’t find the words to explain what he did. To tell him how it was so much worse than lying, because it was infinitely more complicated than that. He’d made me believe Lucas was someone he was not. I knew Lucas as intimately as I had ever known a person. I knew what he liked and didn’t like. I knew about his parents and his family. I knew what time he woke up every morning because he couldn’t sleep, and how restless he was late in the evenings…but I didn’t know if that was even Lucas. Was it him, or was it Aaron? And how had I never noticed the difference?

  This was wrong on so many levels. I could barely contain the anger boiling within me.

  “And you’ve never lied to me?” he asked as his fingertips brushed over my bottom lip. It snapped whatever trance I was in and I shoved him back.

  “We need to get back.” I turned on my heel to walk away and he grabbed my arm, stopping me in my tracks.

  “Be angry, but please don’t shut me out.” He didn’t plead and he didn’t beg. I could give him that. But I was in no frame of mind to talk about this.

  I was compromised.

  He didn’t know it yet, and it needed to stay that way.

  I jerked my arm from his grasp and stalked off into the dead of night, wondering if every moment I had wanted Lucas, I really wanted the man who betrayed me.

  Chapter 106

  We returned without saying much of anything to each other and I didn’t sleep. Aaron spent hours in the bathroom and I could only assume it was to try to scrub the blood from his skin so thoroughly that maybe he could pretend he wasn’t that guy in the ring. Hide it just like he hid everything else.

  But I knew the truth now.

  And the truth is that he was just like me.

  We were both liars and killers. Maybe that’s why fate put us together.

  Because only someone just as ugly and depraved on the inside could ever possibly be made for me. The other half of my soul.

  It was sometime early the next morning that he finally came out of the bathroom. I didn’t say anything, and he didn’t comment as he laid on th
e other side of me. Our hearts beat in time with the crackling fireplace that never seemed to burn out. I felt the mattress sink as he rolled on his side, toward or away from me, I couldn’t tell. I was pretending to be asleep, and for the remainder of the night, he did too.

  Neither of us acknowledged our exhausted state the next morning when we rose with the dawn. I changed my clothes in an attempt to rid myself of the scent of smoke, but it clung to my skin. Snatching a new set of pants and a plain shirt, I locked myself in the bathroom and took another makeshift bath with a cup. Black particles swirled in the water as I scrubbed myself sterile with the lavender and honeysuckle soaps. Only after every hint of Aaron and the black market was down the drain did I set the cup down and turn the water off.

  “Selena?” Aaron said on the other side of the door, his voice hesitant.

  “What?”

  “Cade and Tam are here.” He didn’t wait for my reply before his footsteps trailed out of the bedroom.

  I dried quickly and subbed brushing my hair for shaking it like a wet dog as I dressed quickly. I was pulling my shirt down as I left the bedroom and I entered the living room to meet them. Tam quirked up an eyebrow in my direction, but I didn’t respond as took my place standing behind the couch. The sound of sizzling grease and scent of bacon drifted through the air as Amber strolled out of the kitchen holding a platter in her hand.

  “Have you figured out how to get us to Michigan and back?” Blair asked, sitting next to me. Dark circles lined her eyes, and her face was drawn, but determined.

  “We have actually,” Tam said pleasantly, stroking his beard.

  “Well, what is it?” Alexandra said impatiently. Tam turned his eyes on my sister and gave her a mischievous grin.

  “Patience, child. Good things come to those who wait.” Even as the words were coming out of his mouth, the elevator chimed and the doors slid open. A tall, dark-skinned man walked forward. He was thin, but under his plaid flannel shirt I could see respectable muscles. A belt buckle twice the size of my fist reflected the light at an awkward angle.

  I’d never seen a Witch dressed as a cowboy. This would be a first.

  “Who are you?” I asked bluntly. The man tipped his hat to me and turned to Tam.

  “This is Xellos, and he’s going to open a portal for you,” Tam said proudly. He gave him a feline smile and motioned him forward into the room.

  “How?” Amber asked, munching away at her bacon. She plopped down on the couch and kicked her feet up. The girl liked to pretend she didn’t have a care in the world, but few of us were afforded that luxury, and she wasn’t one of them.

  “By creating a rift in the dimension,” Johanna answered, coming around the corner. My eyebrows rose in skepticism.

  “A rift in the dimension?” I asked her. She sighed deeply. Tension coiled around her body like a vice, but she managed to give me a stiff nod before coming to a stop with her arms crossed over her chest. “Since when can Witches open rifts?”

  “Excuse me, miss.” Xellos dropped a hand to his belt as he swaggered into the living room like a good ol’ southern boy, not that he had much of the accent. His cinnamon colored eyes swept over me. “But since when did the matter manipulators return?”

  “Isn’t that the question we’d all like answered?” I replied softly. The others all pretended to find the particles of dust in the air just fascinating. All but one.

  Aaron lurked in the corner of the room, leaning against the only wall, half cast in shadow. His arms were crossed over his chest while he watched me with dark, unreadable eyes. I pushed him from my mind and turned back to the conversation at hand.

  “So you’re going to open a rift. How does a non-Supernatural go about something like this?” I asked, a note of my irritation creeping into my tone.

  “Very carefully,” Johanna muttered under her breath.

  “You seem to know an awful lot about this,” I noted. Johanna narrowed her eyes at me.

  “The rifts in this dimension are not meant to be opened. It is a dangerous task at best, and ends with everyone killed at its worst, because it requires infinitely more energy for a Witch to do it than a gifted teleporter,” she snapped back at me.

  “My question stands.”

  “She isn’t wrong,” the Witch stepped forward before the silence could crack whatever semblance of peace we’d been trying to hold together. “Opening a rift is not something most Witches can or should do. The consequences are…costly.”

  “But you can, right?” Alexandra asked. Xellos nodded once.

  “Of course he can,” Tam piped up, walking forward to loop an arm around the Witch’s waist. “Xellos has many gifts,” he purred.

  That explains a few things.

  “What’s the catch?” I asked.

  They turned their eyes to me and Xellos’s lips settled in a wary expression. Either he was born with it, or he made himself more powerful. But there was always a catch.

  “To open the rift, I will need someone who has been there to remain and act as the guide. Once the rift is open, I will need to tap the ley lines that fuel the black market. If I mess that up, the rift will do one of two things”—he paused, holding up one finger—“It will either close, killing any who are in it and trapping those who are already out on the other side.”

  I got the distinct impression that wasn’t the worst-case scenario, and it should have scared me more than it did.

  “Or?”

  He glanced at Johanna whose mouth formed a thin line.

  “The rift will expand until it implodes, killing everything for miles on both sides.”

  “And how likely is that to happen?”

  Once upon a time there was a small inner voice that wouldn’t have allowed me to ask that question. I would have deemed it too dangerous to attempt. Not worth the risk.

  It appeared that it, too, had died that night at Daizlei.

  “Difficult to say,” he said and rubbed the stubble alongside his jaw. “I’ve done this before, but I don’t make a habit of it. Probably wouldn’t be here if I did.”

  My heart beat steady as a drum, not changing tempo in the slightest at the possibility of a very imminent death. Thoughts about my sister swirled in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t give those power here and now.

  Those demons needed to stay buried for the time being.

  “How soon can we do this?” I asked. Johanna went rigid as a board, and Oliver stepped forward in front of her, a blue energy swirling in his eyes, just waiting to be unleashed.

  “With all due respect, Xellos—Tam, this is quite a lofty risk for us to be taking for information that may or may not be there,” he said.

  “Feel free to stay here, Fortier,” I replied. He turned that icy gaze on me, taking a step forward.

  “You would do well to remember your place in all of this,” he growled.

  “You mean below you? Because I’m not a royal prick born with a silver spoon, is that it?” I replied, closing half the distance towards him. I would have moved the rest of it, had Aaron not intervened. One moment he stood stoic and watching, the next he was stepping in between us, making motions like he was going to restrain me.

  I stopped short, a wicked cold smile coming to my lips.

  “Selena, can we please—”

  I lifted my hand slowly, waiting for the flicker of fear in Aaron’s eyes, but it never came. His jaw tensed as the room held its breath. His hands clenched briefly at his sides. But his eyes never flickered in fear, and I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

  I flicked my fingers to the side to force him to move.

  My eyes dropped to that hand as I did it again.

  Nothing.

  Why was nothing—

  “Your powers won’t work on me. It’s part of the bond.”

  I didn’t let myself show how much his mention of the damn bond made me bristle. I didn’t want it. I didn’t need it, but yet again, the universe decided to screw me over. Not only is my soul shackled to this man, but
my body, too, it appears.

  He couldn’t have my mind. That was blissfully untouched.

  “How inconvenient,” I said. My eyebrow twitched, and the couch Amber was sitting on shoved into the back of his legs. He fell backwards, clearing my path once again.

  “Selena,” Amber said in warning. It wasn’t a warning for me. It was a warning to me. I ignored her.

  “This is exactly what I’m talking about. She’s out of control—”

  “Stop saying that.” I paused at the sound of Aaron’s voice. “She’s not out of control. She’s grieving just like the rest of us. Her aunt died last night. Her sister died less than a week ago. She has no family outside of those here. No nothing, and to add to it, the world has gone to shit while the bond madness is setting in.”

  The bond madness? A chill ran through me, but I held in the shudder.

  “She doesn’t even want the bloody bond. It’s only going to get worse,” Oliver said.

  “What she does or doesn’t want with the bond is none of your business. That is between her and I, Fortier.” The grave tone in Aaron’s voice left little room for discussion, not that Oliver pushed it.

  “Apologies for my insensitivities,” he told me. “But the point still stands. Her power is part of what got us into this mess. She should not be able to break shields without effort. She should not—”

  “You would think then”—I trailed my fingers along the back of the couch—“that you would believe it imperative that we find out how I came to be. If you are so threatened by my power.”

  Oliver scowled, cruel lines marring a more than handsome face.

  “You think you’re invincible because of your power and you dive into situations without having all the facts. One of these times, you’re going to get someone killed.” He stormed out of the room without waiting for a reply and Johanna went after him.

  If I hadn’t hesitated, Anastasia would be dead. Not her. Not Lily.