Duality (Cordelia Kelly #1): Empath Urban Fantasy

by Hawk, Ryanne

  In fact, weird shit happened to me all the time.

  My palms clammed up, and my heart raced with questions. The nearer I walked to the water and the closer to the lake I got, the more scared I became.

  Then I remembered why and stopped moving. Around me the dreamy world silenced.

  She’d killed me.

  I was dead.

  ★★★

  I cleared the bushes and the path opened up into a large clearing dominated by a fresh water pond. How I knew this, I had no idea, but I was nostalgic—like I’d been here before.

  “I’ve missed you, Cordelia,” said a voice I’d know anywhere.

  I spun and there she sat on a large boulder covered with moss. My grandmother. Her dark blonde hair spun and twisted into a bun on top of her head. A pretty floral sundress and heels.

  “Gram? Gram!” I cried out in a surge of joy and ran to her. I scrambled up the rock and fell into her lap, a heaping pile of repressed emotions and tears. I frantically tried to wipe the tears, but she stopped me.

  “You can cry, sweetie. Your tears nourish the earth in this special place. They welcome you with open arms. You will do no harm here.”

  And so I let go and cried in my grandmother’s arms.

  “He’s done a good job so far,” my gram said as she stroked my hair. “The tear is mending. Still, there is much to be done to make you whole again, sweetie.”

  “What?”

  “Sol. His dedication is admirable.”

  “Gram? You’re not making sense to me right now. Could you explain?”

  She chuckled and the sound of her laughter warmed my heart. “Cordelia, you have always been so impatient. I thought you would have grown out of that worrisome trait by now.”

  “Gram, it’s a little tough to be patient when you wake up dead. I’m so confused.”

  She sighed and said, “Very well. When you were little, do you remember Dominic and Jasper?

  I nodded because even though my memories were fuzzy from so many years ago, I remember the two men who were always by her side.

  “They were my advisors and best friends. They protected, guided, and loved me. You will find yours as well. In fact, you already have.”

  “I have?”

  She gave me the look. The look that said, “What are you, daft?”

  Okay, so maybe I was being obstinate on purpose, but I was going to blame my muleness on the utter weirdness of this conversation.

  “Sol,” I said. “Sol is my advisor?"

  “Yes, my child. He will be all that to you and maybe…maybe more. Sol is unique in ways you will come to understand. He’s not perfect and he’s done things he regrets, but at heart he’s a good man. He took longer than I anticipated to reject his darker nature and seek his light. You, my child, are the goodness and joy he needs to light his path as he searches for his redemption.”

  “How do you know all of this? How do you know Sol?” The swift jealousy that she might know more about him than I did shocked me. Maybe they’d associated back in the day. Maybe they’d known each other. Maybe she’d slept with him.

  I gasped out loud.

  She laughed. “Oh, Cordelia, you make me laugh. I miss that about you. I watch from here. I check in on you from time to time. The fates whispered in my ear, and so I kept an eye on Sol as well. But I feel him in you. I sense him all around you and in your soul. That is where most of my knowledge comes from.”

  “So you didn’t associate with him when you were alive?” My face must have showed her something of what I was feeling or where my mind was because she flat out laughed hysterically. Complete with tears streaming down her face as she held her stomach.

  Eventually, she calmed down and said, “I’m sorry. Oh thank you for making me happy, Cordelia. No, I didn’t ‘know’ Sol back in the day—as you say.”

  My emotions calmed once more, and my ego was assuaged. Well, I didn’t know if it was my ego or not, but something about him and her together, and then him and me together made me feel like a reality television star. Thankfully, that bridge stood uncrossed.

  I bit my lip to stifle the grin that wanted to spread across my face. The thought of me and Sol more than just friends made a hot flush spread from the tip of my nose to the center of my core. As the grin formed I pushed it aside, the sting of betrayal rearing to the forefront of my mind and heart. Ice cooled the flush and I regained control of my wayward thoughts.

  Whew. I quickly decided I needed to change the subject. I didn’t want to get all pissed or gushy in front of my Gram, I could go either way at the moment. “What happened to me? Why am I here?”

  She sighed and swore in French, her native language.

  “You’re here because you are in between. You’re special, Cordelia, as you know. As empaths we exist on a different plane of existence than normal humans. You’re not dead, not yet, but you will be soon if he doesn’t hurry.”

  “What? I am so confused.”

  She patted my shoulder and said, “Just watch, Cordelia.” She waved an arm and an oval circled formed out of mist in front of us then solidified into a two-way mirror.

  What the hell? I saw myself covered with blood and sporting a gaping hole in my chest as I lay unmoving on the ground with that bitch crouched over me, licking her blood stained claws. Licking my blood.

  Monster.

  My hands clenched, and I reached out, shaking with rage.

  “You can do nothing from here, Cordelia. You can only observe the events as they unfold.”

  As I brooded on the boulder, Sol appeared above my prone form, and the night around him darkened with malice. His aura burst from him in a spectacular display of deep and rich colors, and he bellowed such a horrific sound all the lights lining the street shattered.

  “What have you done!” he screamed and raised his arms to the sky then brought them down with such force the pavement beneath their feet cracked.

  The blonde merely looked up at him, still licking her claws clean, and said, “I did what needed to be done. She needed to be put down before she could rise up.”

  “You had no right. She is mine. Mine!” he roared and crouched by my head and moved his hands over my chest about an inch from my skin. “Stay with me, baby,” he whispered. "My-flame. Don't let go."

  Tears formed in my eyes at his moving words, but I quickly stopped them from falling. I was unsure, scared, and lost. My trust waned.

  Sol chanted in the language I didn’t understand and closed his eyes, tilting his head back and raising his hands to the sky. Mist moved along his skin, swirling faster and faster, gathering force and melding with the blacks and reds of his aura. A static ball of mystical energy formed between his hands, and he sent the glowing ball hurling at the gaping hole in my chest.

  I screamed because the pain hit me hard. The magic surged into me and electrified all my nerves. Even here, in this place between life and death, his call moved me.

  Strong arms banded around me, and the calming scent of honeysuckle eased my pain. “Stay strong, Cordelia. You can weather this. You need to accept his healing, even if the pain hurts.”

  The tears I’d held back fell with each agony, and I begged them to cleanse me and steal the pain away.

  As I stared at the mirror and watched Sol work on my body in the living realm, I trembled here now, and my body pulsed with shock waves. He leaned over me and softly pressed his lips to mine. When he drew back, a silver cord stretched between us, and he pumped something into me through the sliver of our soul bond.

  I shuddered, both in this space and in the realm of the living.

  Sol looked up, and his eyes blazed with a red wrath as he stared at the blonde sitting idly on the curb, cleaning her nails and fixing her dress.

  Tendrils of grey smoke leaked up from the concrete and wrapped around her wrists as Sol whispered words of power beneath his breath.

  “Pandora, who is your master?”

  “You are, Sol,” she said on a breathy exhale of rhapsody. “Yo
u’re my master.” She let her head fall back as the grey mist twirled around her arms and slithered over her skin then solidified and yanked her wrists down.

  Sol rose up, stepped over my body, and towered over Pandora. “Did I give you permission to hurt her? Did I give you permission to even touch or go near her? Speak.” The heat and menace his voice cast made me tremble.

  “No, Sir.”

  “How did you find her?”

  Her chin rose and her eyes flared with blue light. “You’re not the only game in town anymore, Sol.”

  “Do you remember how you begged me to unleash myself upon you?”

  Pandora shivered, and a slow smile spread across her face. “Do you wish me to please you here in her blood, Sol? Do you want me to fall back and spread my long legs wide so you can take pleasure from what only I can give you? Like we used to do.”

  Sol crouched down, nuzzled her neck, and I glanced away. Her wrists still anchored to the ground by the ghostly grey chains. “Yes, Pandy,” he cooed to her. “Lie back as I take my pleasure.”

  As I watched her lie back, a Cheshire smile crossed her face, and the misty cuffs moved along the ground with her. They allowed her to lie down on the stark, damp concrete. She let her legs fall open, her red dress surrounding her like a pool of fresh blood in the dark night.

  Sol stripped out of his shirt and pants and said, “Your face may have been beautiful in life, but your soul will be both beautiful and useful in death.”

  Pandora’s head snapped up, and she glared at Sol. “What?”

  More ghostly grey chains rose around her body and locked her ankles to the ground. A thick mist draped over her stomach and anchored her to the cold pavement. A serpent like mist stretched up and over her neck and fastened down on her other side.

  She thrashed under the eerie chains. “What is this? What are you doing? You know who my parents are, you bastard. You can’t hurt me. They’ll kill you and feast on your bones.”

  “I could care less about your lineage. So what, your parents are full-blooded dark royals. I’m going to finally do what you asked for. I’m not going to hold back this time. I’m going to devour you.”

  “What about our bond?” Pandora whispered, and real tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. “I only did it because I love you.”

  I watched as he crawled over her body on hands and knees. I wanted to look away. I didn’t want to see him fuck her. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away from the mirror, only to peek through my fingers.

  “Our bond is weak and was permanently damaged a long time ago, Pandora. But this, this betrayal is the worst,” Sol said as he gestured to my prone body.

  “Did you tell her yet? Did you tell her how you’ve been fucking me all along? Does she know?” Pandora glanced my way and I swear her eyes twinkled.

  Sol looked away, and the truth hit me hard. My mouth formed an O, but no words escaped, only a low keening crack.

  I turned away and locked my emotions up tight. I balled my fists and dug my nails deep into my palm. My mind said, “You knew he had someone else,” but my heart and gut still wrenched.

  Sol leaned down and shook his head. “I haven’t touched you in months, Pandora. I left you at a hotel in Nevada—left you to your own devices. To finally clean up after yourself. The other night was an aberration. A mistake, and one I will never make again.”

  She screeched and the last remaining lights blew out with sharp cracks. "Do you think she will forgive you?" Pandora laughed. "She won't. I guess it doesn't matter though as she's pretty much dead."

  "I may have spent the night in your presence, but we did not have sex the other night, Pandora. No matter how hard you tried. I didn't want you, and you know it."

  She whispered. "Why do you think I came to kill her? Other than the reasons I gave you as you rambled on and on about how much you cared for her. I've never seen you in such dire straights. Love made you weak, and now look at you. Look at her." Her eyes looked towards my body. "You have nothing left."

  There was a lot of grunting and a straining sound.

  My gram said, “Cordelia, open your eyes and watch. You need to see this.”

  I cringed and told myself I had to watch to know the situation and because I seemed to have developed a masochistic streak.

  The mirror showed him still crouched over her, but long horns spouted from his head and curled down his back. His body doubled in size, and his skin had a blackish grey pallor. He turned his head, and his eyes were coal black and rimmed with fire and brimstone. Thankfully, he wasn’t having sex with her. He was poised over her body. The grunting was from his transformation.

  “Shut the fu--iddlesticks up. He shifts?”

  Behind me, I felt my gram nod against my back. “Indeed, he does.”

  The scene played out like a grotesque horror movie. The angles zoomed in and out, showing us different snippets. Sol pawed the ground near her head, and the scraping of his nails on the concrete made me squeeze my eyes and cover my ears. The sound was worse than nails on a chalkboard; the gouging reminded me of a pack of hellhounds pounding up and down the sidewalk with razor sharp claws, scrapping and tearing everything in their path. The animal side of him was trying to intimidate her into talking.

  The chuffed exhale of a deep breath made me cringe. Then Sol’s voice swept across time. “Tell me what you know, Pandora.”

  “Lean down more, so I can whisper my secrets in your ear, my heart.” She mocked unafraid.

  Sol hesitated, but complied.

  Her callous whisper drifted to me with the slow slide of heated glass. “I killed her grandmother. And now, I’ve killed her too.” She beamed up at him, her hair plastered to the ground like a macabre sunburst against the onslaught of darkness. She was more a dichotomy than I was, and I truly hated her. I wanted to tear her apart. I wanted to hold her bloody heart within my hands, raise the offering to the sky, and scream in furious victory.

  Then what she said registered. She’d killed my grandmother. A violence rose inside me I never knew existed, and I spun to face the woman who loved me. My skin burned, my heart palpitated in my chest in an uneven cadence, and the horrid taste of the South African succulent shrub Aloe vryheidensis ran down the back of my throat. I couldn’t speak.

  She enfolded me in her arms, holding me tight and trying to break into my aura. Her sweet apple scent, combined with her slow moving companionable honey auric shields, drifted over my skin and banked some of my blackened demeanor.

  The mirror rose in front of me once again, forcing my attention, and I stared at Sol. The night screamed and fell into blackness. Sol’s skin radiated infrared heat, and steam rose all around his new form. A mass of warm, moist air swiftly covered the pavement and caused advection fog to swirl and seep over everything in its ghostly wake. The world lay covered in patches of gray like a huge crocheted blanket. He moved away from her, backpedaling as fast as he could, then he stood up on two clawed feet and towered over her body.

  My grandmother turned to me and said, “Hate is a terrible emotion for an empath; the poison will consume. You have to learn to release or channel the venom into something else, or you will wither away and become bitter. We don’t have to let hate in; you can resist the temptation. Don’t give in to the dark side of your nature. Try to work together, to find peace in the storm.”

  I faced the mirror again even though I didn’t want too. Each time another piece unraveled, I cracked a bit more under the strain.

  Sol asked Pandora, “Who are you working for?”

  She laughed with a hollow, yet sinister tone. “You know who I work for. You know who wants her dead.” She choked around the ghost chains still holding her down.

  Sol closed his eyes and shook his head. “I should have known Carol would come after her.”

  The last of the truth uttered, and more pain lodged in my throat. My stomach rolled, and I beat the tears back. “Carol?” I gasped.

  Behind me, my Grandmother rested her head again
st my back as she held me tighter. “Yes.”

  The truth was so painful sometimes.

  It was during those rare moments of quiet when a shocking revelation hit you out of the blue. It was like you knew, but you didn’t know. Things fall into place, little pieces of the story, and then bam. You’re punched in the jaw, kicked in the groin, and doubled over because you didn’t see the end coming. You can’t breath around the destruction.

  Yeah—the situation was like that.

  The saddest part was things would never, ever be the same. They couldn’t be. Once knowledge was known, the words couldn’t be forgotten.

  Carol was my dad’s mom—my other grandmother from the dark side.

  I stared around the eerie, yet beautiful forest with the calm waters and bountiful flowers, the odd and disturbing news pinging around my head.

  I licked my lips and tried to run spit down my coarse throat. “My grandmother wants me dead?”

  “Yes. She doesn’t want you to unite the empaths. She wants darkness to reign. She cares nothing for humans, life, or meaning. She only cares about power and herself.”

  “I don’t want to rule.”

  “You have to stop running, Cordelia. Be who you were meant to be. You are the heir to the throne. Accept the challenge and be yourself.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “I know you don’t, but it’s your destiny. I suppose you could give up and stay here with me, but then he would die in vain.”

  Her words permeated the despairing fog swirling around in my head, and I said, “What? Who will die?”

  She turned to the two-way glass and merely pointed and nodded her head once.

  His back was to me as he stood between my living body and Pandora. She tilted her head and said, “You have to choose, Sol. You can’t sustain this for long. You can’t hold me and save her at the same time.” She smiled with delight and at present, I wanted her dead more than anything.