by Kristie Cook
Our bodies flew forward against the seatbelts when T.J. stood on the brake, and my stomach launched into my throat. We jerked backward against the seats at the same time we hit the guy. Except . . . we didn’t really hit him. He wasn’t really a guy. A thousand or two tiny birds flew up into the sky.
The driver slammed the gears into park and climbed out his side, and Leni and I climbed out ours. T.J. rushed toward the front of the cab, but Leni and I both looked up. Shadows streaked against the darkening sky.
“We have to leave him,” Leni said. “We gotta go.”
As much as I’d rather stay in the truck until it left Tampa again, I agreed. We couldn’t bring T.J. into this. He had a wife and kids. A baby on the way.
We took off running down the dark street, both of us pulled in the same direction. Whether it was to a place of refuge or to our deaths, I still wasn’t sure. I glanced over my shoulder once to find T.J. staring after us, his arms in the air with exasperation.
We ran through a condo parking lot, across a green space, and into another parking lot. Shadows hovered on the other side, so Leni cut through a small area between two condo buildings. Three men—Shadowmen—stood in our path, one slightly in front of the others as if they were in formation. With nowhere to go, we picked up our speed and ran for them. At the last second, Leni veered off to the left but didn’t slow as she approached the stucco building. Instead, she ran several steps up the side of it, flipped in an arch over the heads of the Shadowmen and landed against the side of the opposite building and slightly past the obstacles. She dropped gracefully to the ground and waited on me as if she’d done this a million times.
I plowed right into them like a bowling ball into pins and launched into a fight. Knowing Leni was safely beyond them, I focused on my punches and kicks. A fist to the Adam’s apple. Another through a couple of ribs. A foot to a temple and another into a groin. In no time, they’d all fallen and then disappeared.
We continued our run, zigzagging through parking lots and access streets, following our guts as everything around us darkened more. We entered the parking lot of a closed, rundown hotel at the edge of the water, and I felt them on the back of my neck before they ambushed us.
Several dropped from the sky, surrounding us. Eight. Now ten. Now a dozen. We both fought, and I couldn’t have been prouder of Leni as she swung and kicked and flipped over their heads. She was stronger and faster than I’d ever imagined. So was I. We knocked out some, but as soon as they disappeared, more came to replace them.
I should have known.
I did know. And I’d let her charge forward anyway. Just as I always did, in every life we’d ever shared together. She was the fire, the light for our paths. I was her protector, meant to lead alongside her but never in front of her, or I’d lose my way. But damn if she didn’t get us into some really fucked-up situations.
“We’ll never fight our way through this,” she said in my mind as she dropped to a crouch and swung her leg out, knocking a Shadowman to the ground. “There has to be another way.”
I inhaled a deep breath and pushed out as I slammed the butt of my hand into a nose. “I’ll keep them occupied if you want to jump ahead and scope the area.”
I knew she could do it. She’d done so hundreds of times before. She could spring over their heads and be running down the street beyond them before they even noticed she was gone. The know-how was there, if she could get her current body to cooperate. The way she’d been performing tonight so far, I was sure this wouldn’t be a problem.
She nodded up toward the top of the mid-rise hotel building as a hand reached for her throat. She karate-chopped it away and bent her knees, ready to jump.
But more bodies fell into our circle.
And not Shadowmen.
“Looks like you can use some help,” a male voice thundered through my head. The shock distracted me long enough to receive a punch to the jaw. The dark-haired guy who’d dropped in retaliated with a blow to the Shadowman’s throat, knocking him unconscious. He disappeared before hitting the ground.
I didn’t trust this guy, or the girl who had come with him, despite what he’d just done. I didn’t like how I could hear him or her. I didn’t like how they were better fighters than both Leni and me—I was a former champion so this said a lot. Like, “They could easily kill us.” He stood about my height and size, but she was a bit of nothing, maybe five-three and a hundred pounds, and although Leni and I still fought, these two took out all but three Shadowmen in a matter of a few seconds. I swung at one remaining in front of me, and it disintegrated into black powder.
“Why do they do that?” I growled with frustration.
“They’re the Lakari,” the guy said. “Enyxa’s death spirits. They can only take so much damage before they can’t hold their physical forms anymore.”
“Let’s go before they come back,” the girl said, already sprinting down the street, only her short blond hair visible above the dark clothes she wore. “You’re almost there.”
The guy followed her and so did Leni. I wanted to stop her, but she was already way ahead. I ran after her and by the time I caught up, they darted into the service alley where a sliver of yellow light shone through a partially open door next to a receiving dock. At least Leni hesitated there, waiting for me.
I grabbed her wrist. “I don’t trust them.”
She glanced up at the sky. More Shadowmen swooped overhead. “We don’t have much of a choice.”
My gaze darted around the alley, surrounded by the hotel’s walls. I looked back the way we came. The Shadowmen had landed. Another eight or so, headed our way.
“Come on!” the girl yelled, and we were both yanked inside.
They slammed the door shut as soon as we were in and pushed several bars across it, bracing it closed. Either locking the Shadowmen out . . . or us in.
Leni and I turned to face the room together. We reached out for each other’s hand and squeezed. But the room wasn’t a room. Only a dark and dingy hallway, and the couple was already halfway down it, looking over their shoulders at us.
“Come on,” the girl said. “You have to get to the Gate.”
We still stood there, staring. They fought like us, but better. They knew about the Gate. This was either really good or really bad.
“We’re Guardians, like you. Members of the Phoenix,” the guy said. When they spoke, their mouths moved at the same time as the words in my head. “If you can’t trust us, who can you?”
Leni and I exchanged a look, then stepped forward to follow them.
“I’m Asia,” the girl said as we continued down the hall. “Well, Anastasia, but I go by Asia this time around. This is Brock, but his soul’s name is Broderick. You obviously don’t remember us, but you will soon.”
We passed the massive but empty and dark kitchen, turned a couple of times then entered a stairwell and climbed several flights.
“You’ll need to project to get to the Gate,” Brock said. He looked over his shoulder and lifted a brow as a grin tugged at his lips. “Do you need a private room to do it? I mean, that’s my favorite way—”
Asia punched him in the arm. “Don’t be an ass. It’s none of your business. We’ll take them to the guides, then to a private room. They can do it however they want.”
Leni grabbed my hand again as we went through the eighth-floor doorway and down another long, dark hall. We passed guest room doors on either side, though it was obvious this hotel hadn’t seen tourists in decades. We finally came to a stop at the last door on the left. Brock knocked, paused, then opened the door.
We walked into a large open room, what may have been a suite at one time. Floor to ceiling windows lined the far wall, providing a nice view of city lights and lots of water. The all-too-familiar pull jerked in my gut. The mansion was out there on an island in that water.
Or maybe it was the Gate out there. Maybe they were one and the same. Asia and Brock seemed to be anxious for Leni and me to get there. Maybe we were safe after all.
Leni’s grip on my hand tightened.
“Uncle Theo?” she shrieked, both aloud and in my head. “Mira?”
I turned toward the point she stared at with her mouth hanging open. Two people had come through a doorway from an adjacent room. Older people, the plump, gray-haired woman my so-called grandmother. Apparently the other Leni’s uncle.
Except I now recognized both of them as someone else.
The people who had killed Jacey.
Chapter 39
Jeric jumped in front of me and pushed me away. “Run, Leni! Run! Through the windows. You’ll make it!”
My heart ran off at breakneck speed as the rest of my body stood frozen in shock. I wasn’t sure if seeing Uncle Theo or Jeric’s reaction surprised me more. And I wasn’t sure if it was my own fear or Jeric’s making my heart race.
“We shouldn’t have come,” Jeric ranted in my head. “I knew this was fucked up. I should have followed my own gut. I’m sorry, Leni. I’m so sorry! But I’ll get us out of this. I’ll get you out of this, alive this time, I swear.”
“Jeremicah, calm down.” Uncle Theo held his hand out, palm up, his voice calm and comforting. His brown eyes warm and his wrinkled face open and inviting. He took a step toward us.
Jeric backed into me, pushing me toward the windows. “Stay away from her!”
Apparently everyone could hear his thoughts, because they all reacted. Uncle Theo and Mira moved closer together, and Asia and Brock flanked Mira’s shoulder. Another couple—a blond-haired guy not much taller than me and a slender brunette woman, both probably in their thirties—came barging into the room and took the other flank, behind Uncle Theo.
“Jeremicah . . . Jeric, dear,” Mira said, her gray brows lifted over her glasses, “we’re here to help, not hurt. We’ve always been helping.”
With that kind of offensive formation?
Jeric’s hands balled into fists. He held them out, away from his sides, still in a protective stance as he continued backing me to the windows.
“Don’t lie to me! You killed her before. But not this time!”
Mira frowned. “We did what we had to do. She was already dying. If we’d let her soul weaken any more, so close to that many Lakari, they could have taken it.”
“We helped her last time, son,” Uncle Theo added. “We helped you. Protected both of your souls until you could get to the Space Between.”
Jeric’s body shook, anger still pouring off of him in waves. I wanted to believe Uncle Theo, even Mira, but Jeric’s soul was in mine and mine in his. I felt his hatred for them, his distrust. I couldn’t remember what they had done to me last time, but I didn’t have to. Jeric’s soul remembered enough for us both.
And I did know what they’d done this time. Abandoned me. Both of us. They’d disappeared off the face of the Earth without the smallest of traces they were even alive. No phone calls. No texts. No emails. Not a single response they were okay, which they obviously were. Much better than Jeric and me, who’d been fighting off Shadowmen when Uncle Theo and Mira had people here, flanking their sides.
Jeric had backed us up as far as we could go. I glanced over my shoulder as my butt and calves pressed against the window. Night had nearly fallen, but I could still make out an area below with a wide sidewalk, more like a patio, and grass dotted with palms and oaks. Beyond was the water, tiny lights shining on the far side.
Eight stories was a long way down, but I could do it. The fighter in me that had come out only an hour or so ago had been scaling and jumping buildings, even mountains, for hundreds of life cycles. Jeric and I could both do this. I pressed the palms of my hands flat against the window at my sides. I knew I could cause it to break if I willed it.
Only thing was, we’d be jumping right back into the swarm of Shadowmen.
“Don’t do it,” Uncle Theo warned, and I frowned while peering at him out of the corner of my eye. “Yes, we know what you’re capable of. Much more than you yourselves know. We’ve been Phoenix Guides for decades. We were your Guides in your last life and this one.”
I turned my head to look at him straight on. “You’re trying to tell me you were Jacey’s Pops? Reincarnated as my uncle? What a lie! You’re too old.”
“We haven’t reincarnated,” Mira spoke up. They were still several yards away from us, but it felt like the whole group was closing in. Cornering us. “We’ve only taken different roles in your lives.”
“He was dead!” I said, my chin quivering. “I remember seeing Pops’ dead body.”
“Did you?” Uncle Theo asked, and now that I did remember seeing Pops through Jacey’s eyes, I noticed the resemblance. Only more gray hair and wrinkles made Uncle Theo look different. “Or did you see a corpse that looked more like a wax figure?”
I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t remember clearly enough.
“The universe works in mysterious ways,” he said. “Especially to help the Guardians. Mira and I were Guardians, too, in past lives. We chose a different path for this life cycle, allowing us to live to old age for once. Our identities changed to help you, and when you didn’t need us in that capacity anymore, they went away.”
“Yeah, you disappeared and left us to the mercy of the Shadowmen,” I accused. “Some Guides you’ve been.”
“Who the hell cares?” Jeric growled. “What do you want from us, if not our souls?”
“We only want to help,” Uncle Theo said, holding his hands out palm-up. “Help you get to the Gate so you can be Forged. You have special strengths and abilities from the re-Bonding, but they’re only temporary until you’re Forged. We’re on your side, Jeremicah.”
Uncle Theo took another step, and so did Mira.
“No closer or I’ll do it,” I warned, although I wasn’t sure if I actually would. If our new strength, speed, and other abilities were only temporary—if he told the truth—we wouldn’t make it far.
Mira and Uncle Theo both frowned. The others behind them remained silent and tense, as if waiting for me to try. I’d seen them fight, at least Asia and Brock. I wouldn’t stand a chance with them, and I didn’t think Jeric would either.
“Please believe we’re only here to help,” Mira said.
“Why do you think I sent you to Italy?” Uncle Theo asked me. “Why do you think I made you learn sign language? All to lead you to each other.”
“So which lies am I supposed to believe?” I seethed. “Because you either lied to me before or you are now.”
“I only did what you needed, little bird. We knew Jeremicah was in Italy at the same time, traveling in the same area. I knew you needed to know how to communicate with him. And why do you think I left you the journal, both times?”
“Perhaps to lead us right to here, to your trap,” Jeric snarled. “I’m sure abandoning me at the deaf school was all part of the plan, too?”
Mira’s narrow lips pressed together. “In a roundabout way, yes. I had to get you away from that man. His soul was going Dark.”
“But you loved him anyway?” Sarcasm dripped in Jeric’s thoughts. “And now you want us to trust you?”
She shook her head. “I was never even married to him. You were too young to remember, but I came into his life only once you were in it. To protect you from him. After the accident . . . I had to get you away.”
The muscles in Jeric’s forearm twitched. “I don’t believe you. She’s lying, Leni. They both are. Don’t fall for it.”
“No, we’re telling the truth. You—them. . .” Mira swept her hand backwards to indicate the other four. “All Guardians . . . you can’t have family ties. You can’t have a past to be able to do your missions. This is w
hy your history must be erased—”
“Wait—you wiped away my parents’ memories?” I asked with disbelief.
“Not us. It just happens. Once Twin Flames find each other, the universe responds. You must take on your new roles. Your new lives.”
And they wanted us to trust them? They had to be kidding. As angry as I’d been with my mama, I was even angrier now. She and Daddy had no memories of me—nothing about me as a baby, as a toddler learning to dance, losing my first tooth, my first recital, holidays and family vacations . . . nothing. All wiped out. For what?
“You ruined our lives so you could lead us here!” I growled.
“We did lead you here,” Uncle Theo said, disregarding the first part of my accusation. “We led you to each other and then to here—to the Gate. Surely you remember the importance of the Gate?”
“I also remember how you stopped us last time,” Jeric said. “Why bring us to this run-down building if it’s so important we get to the Gate with no delay? Why the detour?”
Jeric made an excellent point.
“This place offers safe passage to the Gate,” Mira said.
Something within me turned with that statement. Regardless of how much I disliked everything they had to say, that felt right. In my gut. Instinct told me this place provided our way to the Gate. I didn’t know how, but I couldn’t deny the strong feeling.
“I think they’re telling the truth,” I mind-whispered to Jeric. “I feel it.”
“Don’t trust them,” he replied. “They’re trying to manipulate us. Bully us. They haven’t helped this whole damn time, so why now? It doesn’t make sense.”
Another good point. I suddenly didn’t know what to believe. Or whom. Did I trust my instinct—the fire I supposedly was and let it light our way? It hadn’t always led me to the best decisions. Jeric’s instinct, however, had been more reliable, and it screamed distrust. So was he right? Were they trying to control us, make us do what they wanted, only to steal our souls again? Was I once again putting too much trust in my elders? People who had already failed me before?