“What do you want, Atius?” I ask. Oh, yes, I know this guy. He is one of Javier’s goons, or was. Now that Javier is dead, I don’t know what Atius is doing, don’t really care either as long as he stays the hell away from me.
“You’re coming back with me, both of you.” Atius grabs my upper arm to start dragging me with him. Mr. No Name goes for Sylvia, but Haven is keeping her out of reach.
“Our business isn’t with you guys so walk away and pretend you never saw us.” Atius is giving the guys a chance to walk away from this, and I’m hoping they take it. I don’t want them getting involved in this. He yanks my arm harder, and I have had about enough of it. I’ve never had much success fighting against Atius because he’s ridiculously strong, but I’m going to try anyway. I’m not getting dragged back into the past. When Atius turns toward me, my fist meets his chin. His body flies backward and slams into a car, leaving a dent. His body crumples in a heap onto the ground. Holy Shit! What is happening to me?
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Sylvia
I’d hoped I would never lay eyes on Atius again. That man is evil incarnate, just like Javier was. I’m grateful that Haven decided to walk us out, but I can’t let him get involved in this. I just met him, and he has nothing to do with this walking nightmare trying to cram me back into a life of pain and misery. Atius has given Haven an out, and he’ll let him walk away.
“Go, Haven, you don’t need to be involved in this,” I whisper to him. But he doesn’t move; he continues to maneuver to keep me behind him. Atius has Kelly, and it is only a matter of time before he loses patience with Haven and decides to remove him from the situation and have his friend grab me too.
I hear a commotion, but I can’t see, so I peek around Haven’s much larger frame and see Kelly launch Atius into the air. This whole situation is getting out of control. We can’t afford to draw attention to ourselves. Why did I let Kelly talk me into leaving the house!
Atius’s friend seems to be shocked. This is the best time to make a break for it. Unfortunately, Kelly looks like she’s in shock too. Keeping a hold on Haven I reach for Kelly and grab her forearm.
“Kelly, we’ve got to get out of here!” She doesn’t even act like she hears me. Lennan grabs her shoulder to try to help me get her attention. She really needs to snap out of it. “Please, Kelly, we need to go home!”
Sparks of light flicker all around us. One minute we are in the parking lot, the next we are in the foyer of the house. Kelly, Lennan, and Haven land on the floor, unconscious. I am the only one still standing when Matthew walks into the entryway.
***
“Where the fuck have you been! What the hell happened! And who are these guys!” Matthew shouts.
I don’t want to deal with Matthew and his temper tantrums. I’m disoriented, scared, and worried about Kelly. What Xenobia sees in him must be spectacular to put up with his possessive, moody bullshit.
“Stop yelling at me and help them. Get Xenobia down here, now!”
Matthew looks at me in shock. In the time that he’s known me, I’ve never raised my voice to anyone. I keep to myself. I don’t draw attention my way. I do my job, and my clients are happy. But circumstances being what they are, I’m entitled to a little bit of an explosion.
I don’t know if Matthew used their weird mind connection, or whether we were yelling loud enough to be heard all over the house, but I am relieved when Xenobia comes in. I’d rather her deal with Matthew’s temper. I’d rather her handle the whole situation to be honest.
“Oh, thank god you’re back! What happened to them?”
“I don’t know. We were on our way back to the car with Lennan and Haven,” I say, pointing at the guys, “when we had a run in with Atius and some other flunky. Kelly hit Atius hard enough to send him flying, and then I panicked, and somehow, we ended up back here. I’m the only one who didn’t pass out.”
“Your new powers must be coming online. How much did these guys see?”
“They saw the whole thing. What are we going to do? They seem like nice guys. They don’t deserve to be mixed up in this mess.”
“I’ll have Chi fly them back into town. If we’re lucky they will think they drank too much and won’t examine it too closely. We can hope, anyway. People tend to rationalize away things they can’t explain. Matthew, find Chi and have him get these guys out of here and then drive the car back. Sylvia, help me get Kelly upstairs, and then you are going to tell me everything from the beginning.”
Yep, this sucks. Kelly talks me into sneaking out, and now I get to face the music alone. I knew better than to risk it, but I did it anyway. This is why Kelly will always make a better rebel than me. I’m not much of a risk-taker, and I don’t like confrontation.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Xenobia
“Xenobia!” I wince as Matthew’s voice tears through my head.
“For Chrissake, Matthew, lower the volume before you give me a migraine.”
“Sorry, but your two wayward women are back. Come down to the foyer. They’ve brought company.”
A feeling of relief floods through me. At least Kelly and Sylvia are safe. I don’t own the girls, but I do feel responsible for them. Especially now. I can understand Matthew’s anger. The girls took a big risk being out in the open when we don’t know when or if they will gain power. But I know he isn’t concerned with them so much as he is afraid for Onyx, he doesn’t want to be separated from him again. He doesn’t want to tip our hand too soon and lose the element of surprise. If Kage finds out what we’re up to, he could build defenses against us and then all of our efforts will be for nothing. Although, it might be a little too late to worry about it.
Once arrangements are made for the two men that inadvertently got wrapped up in this chaos, Sylvia and I hoist Kelly up between us. We haven’t made it very far when Kelly starts to come around.
“How did we get back here?”
“Let’s talk about it upstairs.” Since Kelly can walk under her own power now, we make a much easier trip up to the living quarters.
“So, you guys want to tell me what possessed you to leave and go on an adventure without letting someone know?”
“Simple. I was tired of sitting around here with nothing to do,” Kelly states.
“If you had just waited, I was actually on my way up to let you know you could go back to work. Nothing had manifested, and I felt like easing back into work wouldn’t be a big deal. Instead, you got impatient, and now we might have exposed our hand to Kage, not to mention you got civilians involved in this.”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I fucked up. No sense dwelling on it, it’s done. What are we going to do now? Obviously, something is manifesting. I don’t even remember how we got back here. One minute I’m staring at Atius’ unconscious body, the next I am coming to here at the house.”
“Sylvia apparently transported you back. I’m not even sure how that is a possibility, but we knew giving you my blood came with a bunch of unknown elements. You guys have got to work with these abilities and get them under some kind of control. We’ve potentially been exposed, and we need to be prepared. So that definitely means no work for a while.”
“At least we have something to do if we can’t work,” Kelly mutters. I ignore her attempt at sarcasm.
“Have Maggie, Terra, or Morgan shown any manifestation?” Sylvia asks. She’s been pretty quiet since we came upstairs. I know she prefers not to be involved in drama. Unfortunately, our whole life is one big drama right now.
“Not yet, at least they haven’t said anything. I haven’t noticed anything.” Sylvia nods but doesn’t say anything else. “Get some rest. We’ll start testing out these new powers in the morning.” I leave them so I can go discuss things with the guys. Shaping a plan of attack has become even more important now that the cat might be out of the bag.
***
Knocking on my office door wakes me up. I’ve only had a few hours of sleep, but then what else is new.
&n
bsp; “Yeah, I’m up.”
“You know, you don’t have to keep sleeping in here. You have a bed.” It looks like Onyx is going to be Captain Obvious today. Maybe I’m just cranky.
“Yep, and you’re in it.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” he questions sweeping his hand down his body like he’s god’s gift to everyone in the Universe.
I roll my eyes. “You need something?”
“Just wanted to let you know that Kelly and I are going to be in the gym training if you want to observe.” I’m surprised he had the decency to actually go through the motions of acting like things are normal. He could have just used the mind connection and startled the crap out of me. He’s making an effort, I should probably cut him some slack. “Thanks. I’ll be there in a bit.”
I head upstairs to my room to get a shower before I get to spend the morning trying to judge just how powerful Kelly and Sylvia are going to be. Grabbing some clothes out of my dresser I head into the bathroom. Matthew is just reaching for a towel as I get the door open. Awkward. Yep, he’s hot, but this is still uncomfortable. I whirl around as I mutter “sorry” and try to make a mad dash out into my bedroom, but he grabs my upper arm. “Don’t go.”
I jerk my arm out of his hand. “You need to finish getting yourself together. Hurry up because I need the shower. Onyx is in the gym with Kelly, and I need to get down there for observation.”
“You can’t keep ignoring me, us. I know this is taking an adjustment period, but I also know that you are making this more difficult than it needs to be. At least sleep in your own fucking bed at night. We won’t bite, unless you ask us to.” He raises an eyebrow, going for humor to try to alleviate the tension.
“I’m not even going to pretend there isn’t an attraction, a connection even, but we still hardly know each other. I can’t let this side-track me from keeping my focus on our defense. Even if I wanted to let go of my defenses, I can’t afford to. Not now. I’d rather be lonely and keep everyone alive, than give in and get someone killed because I was distracted.”
“You can use that as an excuse all you want, but even you need love.”
“But this isn’t love. It’s some weird metaphysical connection that has pushed us together. Timely, with everything that is going on, but I am not going to gamble my future on it.”
Matthew sighs. I can feel the disappointment coming off of him. I know he wants this connection to mean something. He’s got his own emotional scars that keep him pushing for this. Expecting that Matthew and Onyx reuniting would take some of the burden off of me was too much to hope for, I guess. And, truth be told, even though things can be bumpy between Matthew and me, I’d love to get closer to him. I’m just full of hesitation. I mean, we are tied together for the extent of our lives now, which for us can be quite a long time. We don’t have to rush it.
“I’ll think about coming back up here to sleep. That’s the best I can offer you right now.”
“That’s more than I thought I was going to get, so I’ll take it.”
Matthew grabs the towel and walks into the bedroom as he dries his hair. I try not to stare while I close the door. Yep, let it not be said that I don’t recognize a work of art when I see it. I just can’t let it distract me.
***
I walk into the gym as Kelly gets in a strike. Onyx goes flying across the room, hits the wall, leaving a huge dent. Seriously, we need a better place for them to practice. They’re tearing up my house. Of course, when we got this place we weren’t exactly expecting metaphysically enhanced battles. Maybe we should start looking at building a training area on the property. Who knows what other gifts we’ll be working with. Onyx stands up and shakes it off. Thankfully vampires can take a lot of damage.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit that hard.” Kelly, who usually doesn’t let on that she cares about much, is genuinely disturbed by her new abilities. I’m sure once she adjusts, having this kind of gift will make her even cockier. At least she’s got a good heart so it isn’t like she’ll be drunk with power.
“That’s why we’re practicing. You’ve got to learn how to control your strength, so you don’t accidentally hurt someone. Especially if you are in a highly charged situation. Damn girl, you pack a powerful punch.”
I watch them spar for a while longer. Onyx is teaching Kelly what she needs to know, not only to control her power but to take out potential enemies. Being a vampire, Onyx knows the weak points and how to capitalize on them. He might be mischievous and sometimes frustrating, insufferable even, but he can be serious when he needs to be. As I watch him move in a violent dance with Kelly, I can see his gracefulness, even in the chaos. A kind of macabre beauty. Precise, exacting. Raw, primal energy. I suddenly see the deeper layers that Matthew sees. The exposed inner nature that Onyx keeps hidden behind his boyish teenage humor.
I must have gotten lost in the moment because I come back to the present with Kelly waving her hand in my face.
“Hello! Earth to Xenobia.”
“I-I’m sorry, what?” I stutter.
“Where did you go just now? You know what, never mind. The important thing is what do you think? How did I do?”
“I’m impressed with the amount of strength you’ve got. You’ll have to train every day to hone it. You’re definitely not going to be working for a while. Wouldn’t want you to injure a client. But, yeah, this definitely has possibilities.”
***
I leave Kelly and Onyx to resume their training. Not much I can contribute to it really, I just needed to see what we are working with. I send out my power to search for Mercy. She’s working with Sylvia to find out exactly what her power is. So far it seems like Sylvia has more of a passive power, so I feel pretty safe with Mercy overseeing it. I follow the energy to find Mercy and Sylvia in the kitchen. They are on opposite sides of the table with a glass of tea in between them.
“Ok, try again.”
“I don’t think my power works this way. We’ve been doing this for the past fifteen minutes, and nothing is happening.”
“Just concentrate. You moved four human beings a good distance, you can move a cup across the table.”
“Yeah, but I was scared when I transported us here. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that. I don’t know how I did it.”
I read Sylvia with my power enough to know that she is scared of her abilities. That probably has a lot to do with why she can’t tap into them. I remember what it was like when I started working with mine, and I had no one to guide me.
“You can’t be scared of what you can do, Sylvia.”
“That’s easy for you to say, Xen, you’ve had your abilities most of your life.”
“Exactly. I have more experience, so trust me when I say that you need to embrace your power or it won’t work right for you.”
“I need a break.”
“You haven’t even been at this very long. Let’s keep trying,” Mercy coaxes.
Sylvia is having none of it. “I’m going for a walk to clear my head.”
Mercy stares at the doorway that Sylvia just exited. “What are we going to do? Her power is a useful defense, and we need it.”
“Give her some time. It isn’t something we really have a lot of because we have no idea when Kage will make a major move. However, if we try to push her we will make it harder for her. She’s a lot softer than the rest of us. It makes her a good companion to her clients but makes it difficult for her to deal with confrontation.”
All I can hope is that she connects to her powers before we have an emergency.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Chi
Full dark has set in, and as usual I’m hidden in the rooftop shadows, keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the supernatural community. Many times, I see things I can’t do anything about. Supernatural politics are a real thing. The factions are ancient, touchy and set in their ways. It’s why we hide from humans. They wouldn’t understand how we operate. Still, there are boundar
ies to what should be allowed. I do what I can to keep things from getting out of control. Still, I’m only one being, and I can’t be everywhere at once.
I’m settling in for a long night. Ever since Matt took out Javier, things have been tense. It is only a matter of time before Kage makes a major move. So far it has been little things to annoy and provoke, but the power move is coming. As Master of his house he won’t let this go. Xen’s power base, while building, is still weak. One of our best tools right now is intel. At the moment my eyes are on the two vampires standing below me, my ears tuned in to their conversation. I don’t recognize them so I can only assume they are rogues, with no allegiance to any House.
“Well?”
“It’s true. She does have the mark of a House, although I don’t recognize the symbol.”
“What is he thinking? He can’t just keep the member of a House! It is inviting chaos. Maybe it is time to move on.”
“I think his addiction to the blood is motivating his actions. After so many years of this habit, I think he is overcome by the thirst, no longer rational.”
“As I said, maybe it is time to move on.”
“I don’t want to go. We’ve been here for so long, and our life is here now.”
“And I don’t want to get caught in a power struggle that has nothing to do with us.”
Their conversation dies out as they walk further away. I must find out who this new blood source is. If she is truly the member of a House, there will be serious backlash. We don’t need to deal with this while trying to defend our own. In all likelihood, Kage will not allow this new source out of his sight for long periods of time. He’ll be on edge after what happened to Javier. It makes my job so much more difficult. House Muerte will be on alert, and no doubt have extra security.
The Rise of House Valdis Page 12