by Lila Felix
“No, nothing happened. I just need to read more.”
She nodded and let go, but as soon as she did, the voices returned. My hand jerked out and grabbed her wrist. They quieted again, as if she were their master.
“Tell me,” Colby demanded.
“There are voices. They’ve spoken to me only twice. But when I read these books, they are relentless. You made them stop.”
“What do they say,” she broke down and kneeled in front of me, fisting the edge of my shirt.
“They say ‘Help us’, ‘Ajudar-nos-á’”
“Help them what?”
“I don’t know. Sit with me while I read. We don’t have much time.”
She pulled up a chair, never letting go of my hand and I read faster than I’ve ever read. Colby filtered through pictures, taking notes as she did. The three of us studied until we could hardly see the letters anymore.
“You must retire. There are still two more days.” Pema had entered the cabin again.
Colby squeezed my hand once and then let go, looking for any sign that it had distressed me.
“I’m good,” I assured her.
Collin stayed to speak to Pema while Colby and I went outside. My legs would barely move and my neck ached from being huddled over the texts.
“Hold my hands,” she requested, and the glow of something mischievous beamed in her eyes. “Don’t use your powers.”
“What?”
And before I knew it, we were in the bathroom of the house in Tibet—in the bathtub.
“I did it!” She yelled and flailed her arms.
“How?”
“Pema told me to not let go. Just don’t let go. How stupid is that? All this time, I’ve been too scared. So everyone else must’ve let go. We could’ve flashed together as kids.” Frustration took hold of me and I took hold of her.
“Everything works out like it should. We can flash together now. As long as you don’t let go of me again, everything will be fine.” Unlike the times before, she willingly relented to my touch. Her arms wrapped around my neck and her face went where it should, to that nook between my neck and my shoulder—as I thought it had been made just for her.
Just when I was getting comfortable, she broke free. “I can go get Collin!”
“Okay, but I don’t share bathtubs with dudes.”
“`
That night was spent debriefing each other of what we had seen, which was no more than patches of a quilt that didn’t fit together, and just left more holes.
“What did Pema tell you,” I asked Colby.
She looked down and straightened an already perfectly placed piece of her dress—which meant she was about to lie to me. Somehow my female still thought she could lie to me and get away with it.
Wrong.
“She just warned me about some things.”
“What things,” Collin interjected.
“Things I should be aware of as—you know.” Starting with her neck, Colby’s blush invaded her skin until the tips of her ears glowed red and even her lips flushed.
“Spit it out,” Collin rose in posture, challenging her as a joke. Colby and Collin had become rivaling siblings sometime in the past day.
“Hey! Lay off Sasquatch!”
Collin reared back, feigning offense. He pinged his gaze between the two of us and then blurted out, “What’s a sasquatch?”
The glint in Colby’s eyes told me she wasn’t letting this issue go so easily but neither was Collin. It also told me that Colby had found a way out of her wriggling jam. She’d found a way out of explaining to us what she and Pema had discussed.
Poor Collin.
“It’s a big hairy, Viking ape,” she spewed at him in jest.
Collin pointed at her, “There are no legends of Viking apes.”
“Oh yeah? I’m looking at one.”
I could’ve stopped it at any time, but it was kinda fun to watch. Plus, Collin couldn’t ogle her if she was gutting him.
“I am not descended from Viking people, and for that matter, I am not descended from apes either. How dare you!”
Collin’s poker face was infallible. I couldn’t discern whether or not he was truly offended or just playing along.
“I was just calling you a name based on your looks, you oaf.”
“Well, if we are making assumptions based on appearance alone then you are a…” We waited for a few seconds while he formulated a name for Colby. I had the feeling Collin had never playfully or seriously insulted someone in his life. “A wiry, boney little imp who has no manners.”
That one shut us all up.
That was a little more truth than joke.
I supposed I should’ve come to Colby’s rescue, but I was in the middle of witnessing something I’d never seen. Colby Evans was speechless. Any residual blush had floated away with her loss of words. I should’ve called Ari. Even though I despised her, we could’ve shared a laugh over this scenario.
She opened her mouth twice to take her revenge and then closed it, stood up and with slumped shoulders forged to the bedroom—which was unheard of. Colby didn’t back down form a battle, especially one of wit and sarcasm.
“I apologize, Theodore. I thought it was all in play.” Collin said to me, though his gaze was still on the hallway.
“It’s fine. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
~~~
Collin and I sat for a while, discussing the day’s events. I’d finally gotten comfortable when the lightest of footsteps pranced down the hallway. A bag was thrown into my lap.
“Resin,” she whisper yelled and snapped her fingers, getting us to pay attention. Collin jolted to action, grabbing his bag and scouting outside from the windows.
“Can you take Collin,” I asked Colby. I hadn’t really gotten a chance to investigate the hows and whys of Colby’s newfound bring a buddy program. I wished I had.
“Yes, but first I need something. Go ahead and go somewhere, anywhere and I will catch up.” I caught her wrist, “I’m not leaving you.”
“Two seconds, Theo. I’m grabbing one thing and then I’m gone. I swear it. If I’m not with you in ten minutes, come after me.”
I was screaming then, “They could have you in ten minutes.”
“I wouldn’t let them. I will flash before getting caught.”
“Ten minutes, Evans.”
She grabbed me by the collar and jerked me toward her for a small but powerful kiss. “I swear.”
Giving up on the feeling in my gut, I flashed to Brussels. I looked at my watch, she had seven minutes and forty seven seconds. I ducked into the nearest hotel and made reservations for two rooms.
Five minutes and three seconds.
I was gonna kill her if she got herself killed or caught. Forget the Eidolon business. Forget the voices and the effing books and everything that came with it.
I might be able to travel the planet in a flash—but Colby Evans was my whole world.
I’d just gotten her back—there was no way I would lose her now.
Desperate in only a few minutes, I called her phone. Nothing. I called Collin’s phone. Nothing. Seven minutes had gone by and I was about to explode. I could feel her presence still in Tibet. And if I concentrated hard enough, I could track her motions. She was running, not from something, but toward something—Pema’s cabin.
“Sir!”
Yelling tore me from her. The girl behind the desk was shoving printed papers at me and waving a pen. She didn’t realize that Colby was not here yet and the only real reason I was still here, not insane and with a purpose for the first time in my life was because of Colby. Didn’t she realize as she’s making me remember my own name and forcing me to sign some bullshit form that my girl could be captured?
Then I felt it, the shift of her presence. I could feel her entire path this time. It was as if my chest was a map, somewhere in my soul was the planes of the Earth and she was moving along them with ease like a figuring along a board game. The fee
ling seized momentarily and my heart along with it, thinking something had happened. As quickly as it fled, it returned, close. She was close, within five hundred or so feet of me.
Signing the stupid piece of paper, I finally relaxed. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as they entered the lobby. A simple nod of the head toward the elevator and we were shuffling in single file, wordlessly. We were on the seventh floor and on every floor we stopped to take in more people. Every person in that hotel was conspiring against my getting information from Colby and Collin. I’d been shuffled into the corner and I held Colby flush against me. It was the slowest elevator in the history of mankind.
“Are you okay,” I hummed against her ear. A shiver rustled through her at the nearness.
“Yes,” she sighed out.
With my hands on her hips, I drew her closer. The bag in her hand was enormous and I recognized it as one of Collins’ bags. Finally, we arrived at the seventh floor and we exited, the trio of us making great haste toward our rooms. I jutted a key toward Collin and he took it in question.
“Give us five minutes and then we need to talk.”
He went into his room without hesitation and I drug Colby behind me into our room. As soon as the door was shut, all bets were off.
I shoved her against the closest wall and pinned both of her hands above her, “Don’t do that to me again. Promise.”
All the pink blush from her cheeks intensified both from the adrenaline of flashing and, I hoped, from the position I now held her in.
“Okay, okay.”
“No,” I demanded, pulsing my hips against hers in an uncharacteristic show of alpha male claim. “Say it. Promise me. Your word has always been true. Say it.” I never broke my stare from her eyes. She needed to know that no matter what, from then on, us, separated, just was not going to happen. Her chest heaved with ragged breaths as she composed herself enough to submit to what I insisted she comply with.
“I promise. But I had to get the books.”
“You stole the books! The books from Pema? You stole them?”
She smirked at me. Usually I would’ve found that particular smirk endearing, but in that moment, I found it annoying.
“She said we had three days. She didn’t specify anything else. We still have two days with them.”
I opened my mouth several times to argue with her, but even I had to admit she had a valid point. Giving up on a pointless argument, I gave up and marked my relent by resting my forehead against hers and letting go of my hold on her arms. The relief flooded me.
“I was worried.”
“It was ten seconds.”
“Felt like a lot more, Querida. Eu sempre vou me preocupar.” I ghosted my nose along the perimeter of her face, breathing her in. She smelled like the mountains we just left mixed with her own scent. I reveled in the sensation of being this close to her again. Our hearts were pounding together. Before long, Colby’s hands were in my hair. The atmosphere around us changed and the desperation of my worry converted into something raw, an emotion that could only be expressed through our bodies—through my mouth on hers.
Kissing Colby was like witnessing a miracle. It couldn’t be explained by any rational hypothesis or theory. Science would never do it justice. Every caress of her lips touched my heart and tugged at my soul. I felt the peak of desperation grow after only a few seconds. It was the moment where she craved something closer. Her hands grew greedy and painfully grasped at my hair. It fueled me on. A whimper broke free of her as I pulled back slightly, outlining her heart shaped top lip with my tongue.
Every time I kissed her, I thought I’d die right there, from pure, unadulterated bliss.
We were both breathless when I began to slow down. She deflated with her face buried against my chest.
“God, I missed that,” she said and we both laughed.
Combing my fingers through her hair, I kissed her temple and her cheek. “I did too. How many did you steal?”
“Only four. I grabbed the ones that Collin said hadn’t been touched.”
“Good ole Collin.”
She looked up at me, “Theo, how did they find us?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know. But we need to find out. Let’s go talk to Collin.”
“Yeah.”
Chapter Sixteen
Colby
The Resin are not to be trusted.
Collin was pacing by the time we got into his room.
“How?”
“We don’t know. Someone is either tracking us—or someone we think we can trust can’t be trusted.”
I lounged on one of Collin’s beds. It irked Theo how comfortable I was with Collin. I could just tell.
“Who did you tell?”
The question was directed at me along with his pointer finger. I wondered why the speculation was pointed at me. He was the one who was in constant contact with Pema without our knowledge.
“I told my mother, and my two friends, that’s all. All three are trustworthy.”
The Viking was always teetering on the edge between me loving him like a brother and me wanting to send him to Valhalla.
“Obviously not!”
The redness now apparent on my face was no longer from our tryst in the other room, but from anger. How dare he accuse my friends, or worse, my mother of such treachery.
“And you, Mr. Guardian? Let’s not forget it’s you who works directly for the Synod. Maybe it’s you that’s been feeding them information. We all know they have spies in the Resin.”
Collin grabbed his chest. I’d fatally wounded him with my accusation. I didn’t really believe he would rat us out. But my hurt feelings at being the prime suspect made me retaliate.
“I would never. I know who Theodore is.”
Poor guy, I’d really hurt him. I did that with my big mouth, often.
“You told Sway,” Theo whispered, looking down at his shoes. One clump of hair had fallen out of place, like it was ashamed to be associated with what he had to say. His shoes always became interesting when he was telling me something he thought I would react strongly to. Accusing Sway of ratting us out to the Escuro was going too far. I wouldn’t even entertain the thought.
“Sway is my dearest friend besides Ari and you. There’s no way.”
How dare he. It was one thing to make broad accusations in my direction, but to directly implicate Sway. Sway was amazing. Yes, she’d been distraught after everything, but crying out traitor was a whole different can of worms.
My phone buzzed in my pocket while Theo and Collin went back and forth on several other outlandish tangents. I pulled it out to check and my day went from flirty to full on whore in five seconds flat.
“What,” Theo eyed my change of expression.
I threw myself back on the bed in a dramatic fashion and held out my phone for him to see.
“What did you do,” he half accused, half joked.
“I can’t even think of anything this time other than all this,” I swirled a circle with my finger indicating the mess with Theo.
I felt a hefty depression on the bed and looked up to see Collin had sat next to me, “You must be prudent and respectful. Go in and be completely humble.”
And then I fell off the bed laughing.
“What is so funny, female? Is respect and decency something to be laughed at?”
“Colby hasn’t been anything but arrogant and sarcastic to the Synod in her life. Plus, she wouldn’t know prudent if it jumped out of the ocean and bit her in the ass.”
“Hey!”
“How long do you have?”
That was the thing about the Synod. When they said jump, it was common knowledge that you responded with how high, how long and what you should wear while you’re jumping. Of course, I was a little rebellious. If they told me two hours, I flashed in one hour and fifty nine minutes. On the outside, I played it cool. But the Synod was a scary bitch—or bitches. It was made up of seven Lucents who had been together so long, that my mother
and I joked that their menstrual cycles were probably in sync.
At least, they always seemed to be PMSing when I visited.
“I have two hours. I need a shower. I smell like Tibet.”
“Are we going to plan this or are you just going to go in there and insult them?”
Theo and I both spoke at once, “Insult them.”
Ignoring the pleas of Collin, I went into the other room and quickly showered. I changed into my most unimpressive outfit. My rebellious attitude came from my mother. And she got hers from Rebekah. I didn’t even know why I went and answered their ludicrous questions. I wasn’t afraid of them.
Mean Girls made these ladies look like puppies.
I threw on a toddler sized white t-shirt and tied it in the front and paired it with a long black maxi skirt. Flip flops made me look even more like a hippie. I put on every single bracelet I owned.
Next was my favorite part. Regina, one of the Synod tried to pass a law in the sixties about Lucents’ outward appearance. It included the overuse of make-up and big hair.
So every time I went there, I used enough eyeliner to offend Lady Gaga.
“Are you still doing that,” Theo leaned against the bathroom threshold. I applied a lethal amount of black eyeliner and then added a thick layer of smoke eye shadow to carry the effect all the way to completely offensive.
“Yes. What are they going to do?”
“Um, sell you to the Resin?”
“Ha, ha, ha. You think it looks sexy and you don’t want me to waste all this on the Synod.”
“So true. But hey, Colby?”
“Yeah.”
He was the epitome of cool, calm and collected. Or so he showed on the outside.
“Don’t piss them off, okay? And if they ask you—if they ask specific questions about me, just tell them. Don’t try to lie or get yourself tangled in something you can’t get out of.”
I smirked at him through the mirror, “Please, I’m like their golden child. They like to call me in to make me feel like I’m under their thumb. But they know better.”
“Colby, meu Amada, please.”
The eyeliner got thrown into my makeup bag and I hopped up on the counter, now facing him.
“You know what I know about you,” I said kicking my legs against the cabinets.