He didn't listen and kept going, pulling her nightgown up to her hips. She wanted him to stop, especially after what he had said in the car and, of course, because of Noelle, but everything he was doing felt so good, and she didn't feel like she could stop him. It was as if she had no will of her own. This was wrong.
"Something's not right," she said, pushing him off her.
Syney shot up in bed, awoken for real this time by the dream. She was breathing fast, and her face was flushed. That wasn't any ordinary dream. She jumped out of bed and opened the door to her room. The hallway was silent; all of the other doors were closed. She looked at the room directly across from hers, which was where Hunter had gone. Gabe had taken the room next to his. She bit her bottom lip as she looked between the two doors. Gabe's door opened slowly, and he smiled as he leaned against the doorframe. She narrowed her eyes at him. He knew she would be out here, the ass. "Stay out of my head," she said, before walking into Hunter's room without knocking.
Hunter was sitting on the window seat, staring into the night. He looked over at her and jumped to his feet. "Is everything OK?"
She nodded and closed the door behind her. She sat down on his bed and crossed her feet below her. "Just bad dreams."
"Like the ones before?"
She shook her head. "More like implanted ones."
Hunter looked at the wall. "I could take care of that for you."
"It's OK. As long as Gabe stays in my head and not in my bed, I'm fine." She regretted saying it the second she saw Hunter stiffen up and turn back to the window. "I was thinking we should just go back to Colchin—or maybe even stay here."
"We can't."
"I know. But a girl can dream." She stared at his back. She wanted him to hold her. She always felt safer when he did. But that wasn't going to happen again, not with his duty and honor. He was a warrior through and through. His feelings came second to that. She never was going to win. She sighed and stood up. "Good night."
"Wait."
Syney stopped at the door and glanced back at him. He looked at her for a moment before walking over and kissing her. "This isn't allowed in the Village, remember?" she said after a while.
He shook his head, the beginnings of a smile crossing his lips. "We're not in the Village yet. We have one more night. No charms or curses or any damn magic."
She smiled up at him. "I could go for one more night. Just make sure you project it really hard over that a-way," she said, gesturing to the wall between his room and Gabe's.
"I plan on it." He kissed her again.
Syney woke up the next morning alone. She stretched out her arms but found nothing but a cold bed. She frowned and pulled on her nightgown before making her way across the hall to change into her clothes. She found Noelle and Becca in the kitchen, both eating some eggs and bacon. Syney's mouth watered as she dug into the plate that Becca handed her.
"Where's Hunter?" Syney asked through a mouthful of eggs.
"He said he needed to take a run," Noelle said. "And Gabe is still upstairs."
Syney rolled her eyes. "He can stay there," she mumbled.
Noelle gave her an odd look, which Syney shrugged off.
"So, Becca, you obviously do a lot of magic. I'm assuming you're a Magic User," Syney said, dropping the topic of Gabe.
She nodded. "Yes. But I was raised here in the Human Realm."
"Really? That's interesting," Noelle said.
"Not really. My family has lived out here since before the Great War. There aren't many who do it, but we aren't the only ones," Becca said, sipping at a mug of coffee.
"Gabe mentioned you have magical books," Syney said, trying to be nonchalant. She didn't want to come right out and ask to see whatever books Becca had, but the moment Gabe had mentioned them, her interest had been piqued. She was sick of being a Magic User who knew squat about magic.
"A lot actually. My family started collecting them three generations ago. They believed it was important for future generations to not only study the magics but also practice them when they could." Becca gave Syney a smile. "Would you like to learn?"
"That would be OK," Syney said, nodding.
Becca showed them to her library, which filled an entire room. The walls all had built-in bookshelves that held books of different sizes and colors.
"This is amazing," Noelle said, sliding a finger along a shelf of books. "There's way more here than in the secured section of the library."
Becca laughed. "I'm not surprised. If you want to start playing around, I suggest starting with some conjuring." She pointed to the far shelf of books before she headed out of the room.
Syney eyed the books, not really knowing whether she should "play around." Noelle had no such preoccupations, as she pulled some books down and flipped through them. Syney walked over to the section Becca had indicated and retrieved a small green book. Inside were spells meant for conjuring. As she read she sat down at the round table in the center of the room. The book taught her more about magic in five minutes than she had learned in months at the Village. The only magic she ever had experienced were natural things she had done—like her lightning and the healing—and she couldn't seem to make either of those work when she wanted to. After about an hour of reading, she grabbed an empty glass on the table and placed it in front of her. Holding her hands over it, she closed her eyes and repeated some words from the book. "Adducam aqua." The second the words came out of her mouth, she felt something surge within her. It felt amazing. She opened her eyes and watched as water filled the glass all the way to the top.
"That's was amazing," Noelle breathed.
Syney smiled at her. "Pretty cool."
"Way more than cool. What you just did—that hasn't been done in hundreds of years. You just stably called forth an element." Noelle looked at her with wide eyes. "You really are the One."
Syney stared at her. "I'm just trying hard. I'm sure you could do it as well."
Noelle smiled. "Maybe. What did it feel like?"
"It was a rush. All that power. You've got to feel it." Syney picked up the book and flipped through it again.
They stayed in the library for the rest of the day, reading and even trying different spells. They successfully conjured water and fire and performed some spells, such as creating light and opening and closing doors. Syney could do the spells by herself easily, but Noelle had to use Syney's life force to make them happen. At least that was what Noelle said she was doing. Syney merely held her hand while she performed the spells. Becca brought them lunch, which they ate while doing a spell that made the room colder then hotter. The entire process was a thrill. Syney could no longer imagine a life without magic. Hunter had passed by the room a couple of times, casting a look in their direction. Syney knew he was checking on them, which she appreciated. Gabe had gone by once as well with Becca, the two whispering to each other. Syney was beginning to get unnerved by Gabe. After the stunt he had pulled the night before, she wasn't sure who he was anymore. She really did care about him, which made the whole situation even worse.
Syney looked up at the little blue lights that were hovering over the table and smiled. "Now that is cool. But I think I need a little break from the magic," she said with a yawn. "It's taking all of my energy, which I need if we're leaving tonight." She got up and looked over the shelves again. "Do you think we can take some of these with us?"
"If we want to die."
She looked back at Noelle surprised. "Excuse me?"
Noelle looked up from the book in front of her. "Books like these are what they found with Raine. If we get caught with them..."
"Right. Got it." She looked back to the books. "It's a shame, though. I think we both could get even better."
"At least you could. I can't even get the small stuff to work. I've been trying to make this book change color for the past half-hour," Noelle said, waving her hand over the book in front of her and repeating the spell. Nothing happened.
Syney looked over at the blue boo
k and thought of the color red. A second later the book changed to red. Her mouth gaped open as she stared at the book. Had she just done that? No way—she hadn't even said the spell.
Noelle looked at her. "Did you do that?"
Syney shrugged. "I just thought of the color red. That's crazy, though, right?"
Noelle smiled. "Not for you."
Syney sighed and looked back at the books. Doing magic felt really good, but it still scared the crap out of her. And being able to do a spell without even knowing the spell? She wondered what else she could do. She looked over the books again. Most of them didn't have any titles on them, just odd symbols. One book caught her eye, though, mostly because it did have a title and was leather bound, while most of the other books were cloth. She pulled it off the shelf. A smile slowly formed on her lips as she read the title out loud, "Treaty of Allegiance of the Great Races." She looked over at Noelle, whose eyebrows were raised in interest.
"No way," Noelle said, shaking her head.
Syney sat back down at the table. "That's what it says."
"All of those books were lost. They were only given to the ruling families who wrote it. It was supposed to be passed down, but when the Great War broke out..."
"Most things were tossed?" Syney asked opening the cover. On the first page was a symbol that looked like an upside-down P with two squiggly lines across the stem. "What's that?"
"Vampire," Noelle said simply.
"Huh?"
"Oh, um, all of the great races have a symbol that represents their race. That's the symbol for Vampires. I'd assume that means that was the Vampire royalty's book."
"What's Becca doing with the Vampires' copy of the treaty?" Syney flipped the page. There was a list of names with a race listed after them.
Noelle moved her chair so she could see the book as well. "Those must be the names of the ruling families who wrote the agreement. Yeah. See? Magic Users—Queen Armarilla of House Vilori. She was Queen Amelia's grandmother."
Syney scanned the names. King Hadrian III of House Zeffin—Daemons. King Lional V of House Cat—Shifters. Ash of House Juniper—Head of the Royal Guards, Lycins. King Gabriel of House Sânge—Vampires. Syney stopped and stared at the last name. No way. She looked at Noelle, whose eyes widened.
"You don't think..." Noelle said, looking at Syney.
She shrugged. "This is the Vampire book. And he is friends with Becca, who has it."
"And he's old enough."
Syney closed the book. "If Gabe helped write this, then whatever he's been up to has to be good, right?"
Noelle gave her a sad smile. "Not necessarily. The royal families of the time all wrote it. But that was a long time ago."
Syney nodded and ran a finger down the leather cover. A thought came to her, and she smiled. There was one way to get into Gabe's head. She flipped open the book until she got to the Agreement she was looking for, the one Gabe had invoked when he had come with her to the Village. The second she read it, her smile fell. The ass!
Hunter
He had checked on Syney and Noelle several times during the day, making sure not to bother them. He didn't know what to do. He was antsy, and his run earlier hadn't done much to alleviate it. He went into the sitting room in the front of the house and took a seat on one of the longer couches. On the side table was a novel from the Human Realm. He picked it up and started to read, if only to keep his mind blank. After a few pages, he realized it wasn't working. Syney had invaded his once calm mind, and she wasn't leaving. Last night had been a mistake, he knew, but he didn't care. He felt good when he was around her, and when they were intimate, he felt even better. He would have loved to chalk it up to the physical pleasure of sex, but he had been with other women before—women who were experienced—but they were nothing compared to Syney. He and Syney didn't have sex; they made love. He shook his head. Now he was thinking like a girl with flowery language. She was really doing a number on his head. He turned back to the book and tried to get lost in the fictional war on the pages in front of him.
Gabe walked into the room a while later, sitting himself in an armchair and putting his feet up on the small table in front of him. He was silent, but Hunter could tell he wanted to talk. He didn't care. Gabe was falling rapidly from the list of people he could stand. It was a pretty short list.
Finally Gabe broke the silence. "I have to go somewhere really quick before we leave."
"Fine," Hunter said, not taking his eyes off the book.
"So you and Syney had some fun last night."
Hunter looked over at him. "We did. And you need to leave her alone."
Gabe glared back at him. "What do you mean?"
"Stay out of her head. I think you've done enough for her. She doesn't need to get confused by messages you're putting into her mind. Do you understand?"
Gabe narrowed his eyes at him. "I understand. But you should probably understand that she's already confused."
Hunter scoffed and looked away.
"She kissed me last night. While you and dear Noelle were in the store. Right there in the car."
Hunter looked back at him, feeling his anger build inside. He needed to calm down, or he was going to cure his boredom with another fight with the Vampire, which wasn't something he could afford, considering he was just finally fully healing from their last fight. He smiled, something that didn't come naturally, and decided to play a little of Gabe's game. "But whose bed was she in last night?"
Gabe stared at him for a moment before looking away. "Touché."
"I don't want to have to kill you. So don't make me."
Gabe didn't respond. Instead he looked silently out the window.
"Do you love her?" Hunter asked, not really wanting the answer.
"No," he said after while. "Not the way you mean."
Hunter looked away from him and closed the book. There was no way he would be able to concentrate now. He opened his mouth to say something else when Syney came charging into the room with Noelle hot on her heels.
Syney went right for Gabe and threw a small leather book at him. "You asshole!"
Gabe easily grabbed the book with one hand and looked over at her.
Hunter jumped to his feet. "What happened?"
Syney stared Gabe down. " 'Agreement Seventeen of Article Twenty-Nine of the Treaty of Allegiance of the Great Races,' " she spat out, her voice growing louder with every word. " 'Any Vampire will be welcomed into Magic User territory, including the Grand Palace in the Village, and be treated as an honored guest, because of the Vampires' unique abilities that would help the population, including the ability to see spells...' " She paused. " 'And curses.'
Gabe stood up and looked down at the book in his hands. Hunter couldn't see what it said, but he was pretty sure it was a copy of the Treaty of Allegiance, especially with the way Syney was acting. He didn't blame her. His own anger was building again.
"You saw that damn curse on me the whole time!" Syney yelled, tears filling her eyes and her voice. "You knew what I was going through! You really are an ass! Oh, sorry. You're an ass, Your Majesty."
Gabe looked back at her but was still silent.
"What?" Hunter asked. He didn't understand what Syney was talking about.
"Oh." Syney looked over at him. "He's a Vampire king, or at least he used to be." She looked back at Gabe and stepped closer. "Was it all just to get me vulnerable? To get into my bed? What? Just tell me!"
"I didn't tell you for your own good," he said finally.
Syney rolled her eyes. "Bull. I tried to kill myself. You did this for yourself. I just can't figure out why."
Gabe shook his head. "Who put the curse on you?"
"Queen Bitch," Syney said quickly.
"And what would you have done if I'd told you?"
"I would have marched right up to her and given her a piece of my mind and made her take the damn thing off!"
"Oh, goddess," Noelle said quietly.
Hunter closed his eyes. He had
no doubt that was exactly what she would have done, and no one would have been able to stop her. "You would have been tried for treason."
Syney looked at him. "What are you talking about?"
"If you had accused Mellisandrianna of putting a curse on you without any proof, she would have charged you with treason, and the penalty for that is death," he explained. "Putting a curse on someone is illegal."
Syney silently looked at him. "She would have won." Her lips thinned out into a straight line as she looked back at Gabe. "You still could have told me. We would have come up with something else."
Hunter took a deep breath and shook his head. "Wow. You really are manipulative, Gabe. You got me to take her to Colchin because you knew they would charm us."
Gabe looked at him lazily. "You were easy to convince."
"Life—especially other people's—isn't a game. We aren't your little puppets!" Hunter yelled.
Gabe moved over to him. "And what exactly are you in a huff about? I gave you three perfect weeks with the woman you love. Oh, so mean of me."
Hunter clenched his fists and gave a low growl.
"Shut up," Noelle said quietly.
Gabe looked at her. "I did nothing to you."
"You did everything. You've been playing us all since you came to the Village," she said.
"Of course I have!" He shook his head and looked back at Syney. "There's something going on that's bigger than all of us. I see the whole picture. And if I have to keep you from doing stupid things in order to get you where I need you to be, then I'm going to do it. You're a young stupid girl who has no idea what she's capable of! You're so love struck over someone who could get you killed that you make choices that I can't work with. If you all want to think of me as the bad guy, fine, do it, but don't sit around telling me I don't care about life! That's all I care about!" He looked at each of them in turn before disappearing.
The three of them stood in silence for a moment. Finally Noelle cleared her throat. "Do you think he'll come back?"
Syney looked at her and then at Hunter. "Of course. There's a big picture," she said. She had stopped crying, but her eyes had grown hard and dark. She turned to Hunter. "Do you think he's right? Am I so stuck on you that I can't see anything else?"
Discovery: Altera Realm Trilogy Page 37