by Shelly Crane
Dad continued. “I doubt you have the whole story, in truth and in full. Remember that you only know what they’ve told you, what they want you to know.” Gaston growled in warning, but Dad pressed on. “There’s a reason that you bonded with my daughter. Remember that.”
Seth looked at me over his shoulder and I saw something different in his eyes. It wasn’t reverence or the beginnings of love or wonder. It was suspicion. I felt as if he himself had reached up and slapped me. It was his family that had come in and attacked my family. I saw him flinch with that thought. It was his family that sent him a suspicious text earlier asking if he was ‘done with me yet’. He flinched again, seeing where I was going with this. It was his family who hurt my father, his family who barged in here as if on a mission, and his family who were now watching him like they were waiting for something. I backed away a little, pulling my arm from his grasp. His lips moved, saying he word ‘no’ but no sound left his lips. His eyes begged me as he finally understood the gravity of his actions, of his family’s actions. Whether he understood what was going on or not, he was taking a side right now. And it was ripping me in two that he wasn’t choosing mine.
Gaston looked at Seth and nodded. Seth shook his head as if he understood what he wanted but he didn’t want to do it. It was then I finally understood that my significant came here to betray me. A gut wrenchingly painful breath burst through my chest and out of my throat. The moan stopped Seth dead in his tracks and he moved to come to me, but I put my hand up to stop him.
“How could you?” I asked him with as much conviction as I could, but it came out a pathetic whimper.
He seemed to get it then and straightened. He seemed shocked and shook his head. He glanced back at his uncle and then back to me. “No, Ava. No. This isn’t what it looks like. Uncle Gaston came here to make sure I was okay. He…he was worried that your family was going to hurt me. I would never betray you this way,” he said angrily. “My family would never do that—the way you’re thinking—when they know that we’ve imprinted. They’d know what that would do to me.”
“Seth,” Gaston implored in an exasperated tone, “we need to be going. No more stalling.”
“Gaston,” he growled. “What are you doing?”
I felt his confusion, his anger, his need to protect me, but also his will and want to protect his family. I backed away another step away as his back was turned.
A member of his family that had fallen in the back of the room was getting up. Things were getting worse for us by the second. When Seth heard the noise behind him, he turned and lunged my way. I covered my head on instinct at the roar that erupted from him and the way he came at me. But nothing ever came. I opened my eyes to find Seth’s back in my line of sight. I peeked around him and saw the man glaring at him, his arm twisted in Seth’s grasp.
“Don’t ever touch her,” Seth told him in that voice I had heard before. I was so confused I didn’t know what to do or think. Was he with me or against me?
I felt arms go around my waist and gasped, but Rodney shushed me. “Come on,” he whispered into my hair, but Seth had already turned and started to lunge.
I held up my hand and he stopped immediately. He sighed seeing it was Rodney and then sighed again when he saw me back away another step. “Ava,” he begged. For what, I didn’t know. What did he want me to do in this situation?
Then his eyes rounded and his mouth opened to speak, but it was too late. I heard Rodney’s grunt and then he fell to the floor behind me as Mom screamed. I was yanked roughly by my hair as Gaston dragged me away from Seth who came for us.
“Uh, uh, uh, nephew.” He held something over my head. Seth’s eyes glued to it as he stopped. “I see that you’ve let the bonding and intensity of the situation get to you and that presents a problem for us.”
“She’s my significant,” Seth argued. “What did you expect? Would you let someone take Aunt Amy from you?”
He smiled. “You’re missing the point. You haven’t been with Ava. You don’t know her, you haven’t slept with her, you haven’t fallen in love with her, and my significant isn’t the daughter of the woman who destroyed our family,” he finished loudly. I couldn’t help but flinch. He pulled a little tighter on my hair, but it didn’t escape my notice how he made sure not to touch my skin. “This is it. This is our chance, what we’ve always talked about.” Seth paled—actually paled at his uncle’s words. “We’ve always said that when the time came we’d return the favor to the ones who destroyed us. You’re bonded with the Visionary’s daughter.” He grinned. “I see no more fitting restitution than that.”
“And what about me?” Seth asked calmly and seemed to throw a wall up in his mind. I got nothing from him. “While you’re torturing and doing whatever you plan to do to her, what about me? I’ll feel that, have to…deal with that.” He gulped, but kept looking at his uncle.
I looked away from him, completely disgusted. Even if he hadn’t come here to purposely ambush me, they had talked about ‘the family’ who had ruined his family all those years ago and apparently that trumped our bond. He was going to let them ruin us.
“Don’t worry, Seth,” his uncle was saying. “We have our ways of getting around the bond. We even have ways of creating a bond itself.” Seth seemed surprised by that, apparently having forgotten what we talked about before…or so it seemed, but who knew what was real anymore. “We’ll take care of you. In the meantime, she’ll be at your disposal. Whenever you need her, or want her,” he tacked on with a grin, “she’ll be there.”
Seth gulped again and nodded. “That’s great, Gaston.”
Rodney woke up with a groan and scrambled up at seeing the scene, remembering where he was. His face was red with anger as he cursed and braced himself on the back of the couch. I tried to look at him, but couldn’t. Gaston turned us toward my parents and I could practically hear the smile on his face as he began to spew propaganda at them. I didn’t hear a word of it as my world crumbled around me. I just stood and tried not to crumble with it.
Rodney’s phone dinged with a text. He ignored it. It dinged again, and then again without waiting. He sighed and pulled it out, to turn it off I presumed, but then he stopped and looked at it. Then he started to text back. My mouth fell open and if I could have smacked him in the back of the head, I would have. Only my brother would be texting his buddies back in the middle of a Watson/Jacobson clan battle. What a jerk.
He slipped his phone back in his pocket and looked at me. He looked beyond angry, but there was something else. His eyes shifted left once before he mouthed for me to duck. I didn’t wait or think, I just trusted my brother. I yanked out of Gaston’s grip as fast and hard as I could. He had been holding me for so long that he has gotten careless and comfortable. I went easily, falling to the floor in a heap, my chin smashing into my knee. I hissed in pain, but before I knew it, Seth was smashing into his uncle from behind, toppling them over the coffee table to the floor. He punched his uncle just once and that was all it took for him to be out cold.
I heard some scuffling behind me, but couldn’t look away from Seth as he rushed to me on his knees across the floor.
“You’re hurt,” he breathed and took my chin in his fingers. His calm didn’t seep in, and I wondered if our bond had been severed because my heart was broken. I pushed him away before I could find out or think too hard about it.
He sighed. “Let me help you.”
“You chose, didn’t you?” I asked softly.
“Ava, please. I need to get them out of here. Let me give you my touch before I have to leave.”
“Or you just want my touch for yourself before you go,” I said, but didn’t look up at him. I felt his fingers under my chin, but it was as if he knew exactly where to press to not hurt where it was aching. He lifted my face gently to make me face him. He was so close that our noses almost touched.
“Do you really believe that?” he asked, his voice gravelly and filled with unchecked emotion. I couldn’t answ
er him. Not only did I not have the answer, but I was afraid of being wrong and afraid of being right. Finally I felt his touch begin to sink into my skin. I was relieved and…so many emotions at once. I wanted him, but was it all chemical? Was it all something in my body that made me want him? What if he didn’t want me and I was stuck wanting someone who just wanted to use me? I sighed, letting his touch comfort me for now and heard his responding one, like he was waiting for me to accept his touch before he let himself accept it. “I have to leave, take care of some things,” he told me, pressing his forehead to mine. “I will be back. I’m so sorry for…” He leaned away and looked like there was a million things he wanted to say. Instead he leaned forward and kissed my forehead. I drew in an embarrassed breath that I’m sure he enjoyed at my expense. “Don’t give up on me, Ava.”
With that, I watched him pick up his uncle from the ground and heft him over his shoulder. Rodney was dragging someone from the room and I realized the room was clear of everyone but us. My brother was outside with them and I felt a moment of panic before he came in the kitchen door and shut it. Or tried. The hinge was destroyed and wouldn’t latch. He gave up and put a chair in front of it to keep it closed and then gave me my phone. “Why do you—”
“Seth had it. Must have picked it up from the table at some point. He was the one texting me. He planned that little…move we pulled.”
I gasped and covered my mouth. “What?”
He slid down beside me on the wall. We looked over at Dad and Mom. Dad was already looking better so the poison apparently wasn’t deadly or permanent, but Mom had to stay with him. He was asleep with his head in her lap and she looked at us worriedly, listening, splitting her focus between us and Dad. Dad was going to be so pissed when he woke up. He hated when Mom had to take over. He wanted to protect her, always. It was in the Virtuoso man’s blood to.
Rodney sighed. “He got your phone off the table sometime during the night, texted me from it, and told me to take out his cousin behind him so he could take his uncle and you wouldn’t get hurt in the process. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what was going on, what he knew and didn’t know, okay? But I do know that he didn’t want to hurt you. He wanted to keep you safe.”
“How can you say that when—”
“He defied his family, who obviously thought he was going to be on board with his uncle’s plan, which was a bust. What do you think they’re going to do to him when they wake up?” I groaned and sucked in a breath without even realizing it at the thought. Oh, God… Would they hurt him? He covered my hand on my knee. “I’m just saying, he was ambushed as much as we were. He knew the Watsons and Jacobsons had beef, but he didn’t know that Mom was the one who took their powers. They left that important little tidbit out apparently. Why? I don’t know. He just thought he was going to have to be overcoming a little tiff, he never imagined he was going to have to deal with all that.”
I licked my lips. “He blocked his mind from me. Why would he do that unless he was guilty?”
“Maybe he didn’t want you to know what his plan was and give it away? I don’t know. I just know what he did, and what he did was defy his family and save you. They were planning on taking you away from us, Ava. Do you understand that?” he finished, his words slow and telling.
“Yes,” I said quickly.
“Turn on your phone,” he said and yawned as he put his head on my shoulder. “Lover boy said to tell you to open your text messages.”
I did as he said and there, in a message to no one, was an unsent text. It read: Don’t give up on me, Ava. Please…
I could do nothing but cry and let Rodney wrap me in his arms.
Five
I knew I was dreaming. It was one of those dreams that you knew it was a dream, but you couldn’t wake up. I wouldn’t have wanted to even if I could have. Seth was here.
I stood in the coffee shop. The other patrons stood as statues, unmoving. He approached me slowly, as if testing me and my reaction. I giggled, unable to stop myself. He was being so funny and adorable. What was he doing?
“Are you okay?” he asked me so softly that I barely heard him.
“Yes. Are you?” I reached out shyly and took his hand. “You’re acting so strangely.”
He sighed. “Of course. I’m fine, I just…I didn’t want to change you. That’s not what I was trying to do.” He shook his head.” His brow furrowed. “What do you remember, Ava?”
“I remember you.” His fingers laced with mine and my breath hitched. It was like everything was intensified here, but it really wasn’t. His calm wasn’t actually seeping into me; I knew that. It was just in my mind, but that didn’t make it any less exquisite.
He shook his head and seemed torn. “I don’t know if I can…” He looked up. “Will you hate me tomorrow?” he whispered and moved the hair from my temple to behind my ear.
“Why would you say that, Seth?”
He turned his head a little. “I love to hear my name from your mouth. It does something to my insides.” He leaned back and looked at me with renewed vigor. “Okay. I’ll deal with the consequences tomorrow. Tonight, I just want you to myself, just like this. I want to get to know you, to learn you. If that makes me a bastard, then so be it.”
I looked outside. “It’s daytime though.” I shook my head and grinned. “You’re being kind of weird.”
“For today, can we just pretend that I’m not and enjoy this?”
“What are we going to do? I have to work, don’t I?”
“Nope. And neither do I. Look around. Time doesn’t matter here.” I did and saw all the people as they stood still, time stuck in its place. “We can do anything you want to do. Go anywhere you want.” He took my face in his hands and I sighed just because I had to and wanted to, not because my body made me from his touch. It was a revelation that I needed more than anything in that moment. I didn’t need him…I wanted him. “Where does my significant want to go most in the world?”
I thought about it and pondered it. I’m sure he thought I’d pick the beach or the mountains or some extravagant place, but truly, I could only think of one location.
His eyebrows rose in question.
“You said you never went to reunifications…”
“Yes,” he answered hesitantly.
“Then you’ve never seen the rooftop of the palace in London where we have them. And that’s a travesty.”
His lip quirked, but he kept his smile in check. “Show me.”
He pressed my forehead to his and I imagined what the rooftops looked like, transferring the memory to him. The terrace and the landing, the stars. When I opened my eyes again, I was standing on the terrace under the London sky and it was no longer a memory.
I laughed happily and looked around in a circle. “Wow. This is the best dream. It’s so real.” I looked up at the London sky, the stars winking back down at me before I came back to him and touched his face. “You feel so real to me. I can even feel your stubble.”
He looked at the ground as his arm went slowly around my waist. “The fact that you want me to be real is good enough.”
I blinked up at him and wondered why my dream was so strange. It was as if I could hear Maroon 5 in the background and the temperature was perfect, the stars were brighter than they should be, his hands gripping the small of my back were the right amount of pressure and warmth to drive me absolutely insane, but not enough to make me actually do anything about it. Yet. The birds on the terrace were my favorite—robins—because they sing all through the night in London. It was as if it were all orchestrated for me, designed to be perfection.
Seth moved away a little and ticked his head for me to follow him. “Wow,” he muttered. “That’s London,” he mused.
“That’s London,” I answered as the robins began their song. I smiled and closed my eyes for a second. “It’s prettiest at night, I think.”
He still had my hand and when his thumb ran down my middle finger, I shivered. He turned and
looked at me. He started to take his jacket off.
“I’m okay. I’m…not cold, but thanks.”
His tongue touched his lip when he tried to hold back his smile. “I know.” He spread it out on the cold stone. “Why don’t we use it to lie down?”
He didn’t wait for me. He lay down on the brick floor next to the jacket, tucking his arms under his head. I followed him down and felt his hand immediately on mine.
I gasped. “My vision…” I smiled and looked over at him. He was giving me a very cute confused smile in return. “This is one of my imprinting visions. This—right now.”
He seemed so happy about that. “Wow. That’s awesome.”
I gave him my best coy smile. “Are you going to tell me what you saw, Seth?”
He shook his head. “Even I know that’s not how it works, little lady.”
I smiled and settled back in.
He paused for a few minutes before he spoke again. “Someday, Ava, I want you to bring me here for real,” his gruff voice said. He didn’t look at me even though I found myself looking over, wondering where the rough emotion was coming from. “I want to see these stars with you and know that everything that was wrong is right. That we made everything better.”
Was it the vision talk or was it me? “Seth, I don’t—”
“I know, sweetheart,” he breathed his words and rolled toward me. He propped up on his elbow and let his eyes roam my face, as if the answers to all his questions were right there for him. “I don’t know why you get a reset here and I don’t care right now. It must be nice.” Again he kept his smile in check, just barely letting it skim the surface.
The birds hopped closer on the terrace wall and we both looked up at them, listening to them sing. “I love listening to them. When I was a kid, I used to pretend that I was one of those little birds because I wanted to sing and fly and get away from everything. If they want to leave, they leave. If they want to sing, they start the most beautiful song. If they want to start a family, they find a boy bird.”