The Eternal Series Box 1: An Eternal Universe Box Set

by Candy Crum

  “Consequences?” Aeric asked. “Kailah, will this hurt you?”

  Chapter Ten

  I started to answer him, but Analynn’s cold hand rested on my shoulder. I’d been touched by spirits several times before, and they felt warm, hers was cold and that bothered me. Out of all the spirits that surrounded me during my abduction, hers was never one of them. She wasn’t one of the spirits bound to this earth to help, so why was she here?

  Her icy grip tightened as I felt her draw energy away from me. She was right, I was already bordering on passing out without even getting a bite of my strawberry pancakes. The more she drew from me, the weaker I became, but I fought it. I needed to see this through. I wanted him to have the closure. And, as selfish and petty as it was, I wanted to see what it really looked like for Aeric to be in love. To prove to myself that there wasn’t anything that strong between us so that I could let it go. I doubted that I would stop caring, but I could put it behind me and try to ignore it.

  “Aeric,” Analynn said.

  Her voice wasn’t at all the same, sarcastic, yet peppy tone she took with me. Oh, no. It was sweet and sounded like a woman being reunited with her long-lost love after years of being apart. I could tell by looking at Aeric that he could see her as plain as day and hear her just as well.

  “Analynn,” he said, his voice full of love.

  The way he said her name sent a shiver down my spine. It wasn’t the cold chill of disgust; it was a shiver of want or desire. I desired so badly to hear him speak my name like that. Another tear filled my right eye before spilling over onto my cheek.

  “It’s been so long.”

  “Yes, my dearest, it has. How are you?” she asked in that same slow, sweet pitch. Instead of the Valley Girl twang she’d had with me, she adopted a more proper southern belle accent.

  Some Georgia peach she was. Bitch.

  “I’ve been fine. How are you? Is it true? Are you really not angry with me?” he asked.

  She shook her head as a smile crept across her face. She reached with her free hand for his, and I wanted to lash out at her, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it for two reasons. One, it seemed that her icy grip had me all but paralyzed—and two—I wanted to see this show for myself. And my, my, was it authentic. Neither one was aware of my presence anymore. It was as if I didn’t even exist.

  “I have never blamed you, my dearest. It was Khia that killed me, and I know that you tried to save me. You need to move on from that guilt. Hold on to me forever, but please, Aeric, please let go of the guilt. I have always been with you and watching over you. Your sadness breaks me in two.”

  I watched as something changed in Aeric’s face. His eyes briefly met mine and there was a very subtle turning of the corners of his mouth.

  “I’m so happy to hear you say that, Analynn,” he said.

  Her grip tightened, and I tried to fight the groan that was forming in my chest from the pain. I could feel a flash of anger flooding through the bridge of energy between us, but it disappeared as she reapplied the fake face of the perfect girlfriend of decades past.

  “Whatever do you mean?” she asked. The tone in her voice made me sicker then. “Is there something you’re not saying?”

  “I’ve been alone all this time because of the guilt that I felt for you, Analynn. I’ve never allowed myself to get close to anyone because I was terrified that I couldn’t protect them like I couldn’t protect you. But hearing you say that you’ve never been angry with me, and that I should move on makes things inescapably clear for me.”

  “It’s her, isn’t it?” she asked as she did a quick head gesture in my direction.

  I could hear the anger seeping into her voice, but she was damn good at covering it up. I’m pretty sure the only reason why I heard it was because I felt it so clearly. Aeric was silent as he looked at her. Guilt crossed his face as he looked in my direction and then back to her. I could tell that he had no idea what to say. If he said no, he probably thought it would hurt my feelings—and it more than likely would have—but if he said yes, it was hurt Analynn.

  What he didn’t know was that if he said yes, it would more than likely send her into a rage that hell hasn’t even seen the likes of before.

  “Aeric, please think about this. I’m losing my hold, and I must go. I will be back for you, I promise. Please think about this,” she said before disappearing; even from me.

  I realized then that the fury she was forcing herself to control had burned out her energy, and mine, a lot quicker than she had anticipated. The cold feeling left behind by her hand and her blind rage quickly subsided as warmth for the man sitting in front of me took over and revived me. I felt all energy coming back to me, even more than what I had when he walked in.

  “Aeric,” I said.

  I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what I should say.

  “I can’t believe it. It was really her,” he said. I nodded. My heart was starting to sink again. I should have expected this, for him to be overwhelmed with getting to speak to her, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.

  “So, do you think you’ll be able to move on now?” I asked.

  It sounded a little more concerned than nonchalant.

  “I do. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I know that I have a chance to now. I’m not stuck in a complete standstill. It may take a long time, but at least now I can start the process of moving on.”

  “I see,” I said.

  My head dropped slightly, in part because of the fatigue and some of it in defeat. I was saddened. It may take forever for him to fully get over her, and when he does, would he want me? Or would he want someone else?

  “Kailah, I know what you’re doing,” he said softly. His expression was soft and concerned. He wasn’t upset or bitter.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  The corners of his mouth turned up slightly again. “You asked me that for a reason did you not?”

  I hung my head once more and nodded slightly.

  “You mean a great deal to me. You’re the great-great granddaughter of my greatest friend in the entire world. You grew on me with every spiteful, sarcastic, and overall amusing comment that you made at my expense. No one has ever spoken to me like you do, and I find that entertaining. You are an incredible woman, but the fact remains that, as of right now, you are my charge.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. I knew what “charge” meant. It meant that I was pretty much a chore that he’d been given. But I needed to know if he thought of it that way or not.

  “Sayen and Khanae have both put me in charge of protecting you. They want to make sure that you’re safe and sound, and they trust me to do that. I shouldn’t tell you this, because it will only make things more difficult between us, but I feel as though I, at the very least, owe you the truth. I can’t deny that there is something between us. At first, it was just me with the interest. I was fine with that, and I wanted it to stay that way. I liked that you hated me because it kept you safe. I was rational because I knew that you despised me too much for us to ever have a relationship and therefore decided that my feelings were better ignored. But once I knew that you were beginning to change your mind, I began slipping up and making stupid decisions because of my irrational feelings. That’s why Grace was able to sneak up on us at the waterfall. I wasn’t paying attention to anything but you. That’s why you got attacked when you and Rachel went out—because I was pissed off about Sam and vowed not to go and watch that. Then I was too late when you needed my help most of all. I’d finally decided to go, but it was only to spy on him. I didn’t trust him. I went for the wrong reasons and ended up wasting time, and you were in trouble by the time I got there.”

  “So, basically—” I tried to finish his thought, so I didn’t have to hear his sweet voice say it, but I choked. I couldn’t bear to feel the words on my own tongue. Especially after he’d just been flirting with me not moments before the whole Analynn fiasco.

  “We can�
�t be together. Your life is far too valuable. It’s far more valuable than my feelings. I am, however, terribly sorry that your feelings are hurt in this process. I don’t know how much you actually care about me, I don’t want to know. I can’t know. If I did, I might slip and make a stupid decision again. I have to know that my head is clear and that you are safe. The only way to do that is to try to forget anything that I feel for you.”

  Tears began silently falling again. I couldn’t speak. I could hardly breathe. I was afraid that if I uttered even a single noise that I would scream with every ounce of my lung capacity. At that moment, I hated the world, and I hated that I was having my life stolen from me in every other aspect just so I could live for eternity—alone.

  What would I do? Date and possibly fall in love with a human one day? I would be forced to suffer the same fate that Sayen did, watching them grow old and die. I didn’t want a human. I hadn’t ever really been attracted to human men and maybe Aeric was why. Maybe deep down, I knew there was someone out there better for me. He is better for me. I wanted him, and I would never be able to have him.

  “Kailah,” he said. I realized that I was just staring at the bed with a blank expression as millions of thoughts raced through my head. “Say something,” he said.

  I could hear the strain in his voice. He was upset, too.

  “I’m really tired,” I said. I blinked a few times when my eyes began to burn, and I figured out that I actually hadn’t been blinking at all. “Channeling that energy wore me out again. I think that I need to take a nap.”

  He reached over, getting ready to touch my hand, before pulling it back nervously. I saw him nod out of my peripheral and stand. He left my plate on the bedside table as he turned to walk away.

  “Good night,” he said.

  Forcing a quick smile, I turned over and slowly curled up in a little ball once the door closed. As soon as I was comfortable, I felt the tears begin to flow freely. Even after how grateful I was to be alive, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would feel better if I were still dead. Immediately, I felt guilty for the thought and dismissed it. Life was a gift, even though I would have an eternity of horrible things like this happen. But for right now, life could not possibly get any worse.

  But then again… Things never seem to work out the way that I plan for them to.

  Chapter Eleven

  “You… bitch,” I heard Analynn’s anger filled voice say.

  I looked up and saw her at the foot of the bed. She was very pissed off.

  “It wasn’t bad enough that you had to steal him out from under me, but did you have to subject me to that hideous speech?”

  “Honestly, I thought you were gone. And seriously, if you hated it so much, why did you stay? Besides, I kinda figured that with the content of that conversation, you would have been a little happy, or ecstatic even,” I said.

  “You should feel lucky that I don’t have the energy to stay and chat. The downside to talking to the mortal—or in Aeric’s case, a living soul—is that once I use your energy, you suck it back into you plus some, and it weakens me. I haven’t done that using an Immortal before, so I didn’t realize that would happen. Humans simply weaken.”

  “You really are a horrible person,” I said.

  “Look who’s talking, you boyfriend-stealing bitch. We’ll see who he really wants.”

  “What the hell does that mean? He made his choice, remember? He said we couldn’t be together. You are fighting over nothing. Besides, you’re dead—remember? You can’t have a relationship with him.”

  “Nothing huh? It’s good to know you see him as nothing. No, he made that choice because I’m dead, like you just said. If I was alive, he never would have said any of those things to you. He never would have even had the opportunity to feel anything at all for you! I told you to stay away from him or bad things would happen to you. Enjoy the last little bit of time you have because your life is about to get very complicated.”

  “It hasn’t been already?” I asked.

  “Oh, not hardly. I have a feeling that you are about to see a whole hell of a lot more of me, and everyone else will, too.”

  “What do you mean everyone else?”

  She laughed that maniacal laugh of hers before disappearing. I hoped that it would be for good, but I knew that it wouldn’t be. She certainly wasn’t one for making light on promises. I didn’t care at the moment. All I wanted to do was sleep. Though Analynn was right about all of the energy plus some being returned to me, it was also a fact that when I cry, even a little, it completely drains me. I had just been hit by a metaphorical truck in my opinion. I was exhausted.

  I laid back and closed my eyes. I could see the swirls of light slowly fading in from the outside edges of my eyelids as I was beginning to lose consciousness. As I slept, I had strange dreams. I had dreams of fond memories from when I was a kid. I dreamed of when my mother would tuck us into bed at night and read to us. I dreamed of when we would go out to the pond behind our house and swim. I dreamed of when I was around seven or eight years old, and I was taking a hot bath.

  I had yelled for Amanda and had asked her to get me a glass of water. When she came back, I took a drink of it, and between the horrid taste and her wild laughter, I quickly discovered that she had put liquid dish soap in it. She was always horrible to me when we were kids. Some of the dreams were bittersweet, some were sad. Some, like the dish soap dream, made me laugh inside my mind.

  There was a shift in everything around me. The air felt cool, and I looked over to my right and saw that the room was dark. The digital clock said 9: 34 PM. I’d slept nearly eleven hours. I couldn’t believe it.

  I used my ability to search out for anyone, but found no one. They must have run to get something to eat. Hell, they probably figured that I’d be passed out for a few more hours. A cold chill swept down my spine, and I immediately sat up in bed, turning on my bedside lamp. There, at the foot of my bed stood Analynn, but something was different. Something was terribly wrong.

  “You’re—solid,” I said as another chill ran down my spine. A dark, crooked smile crossed her lips as everything started to make sense. “You overpowered a mortal.”

  “I told you that you and everyone else was about to start seeing a lot more of me. It was simple. She looked enough like me that my spiritual powers could influence anyone else that they were actually seeing me. Genius, really. Now, when Aeric sees me, he will come crawling back to me and forget that he even met you.”

  “That will never happen. Aeric will see you for what you are. I’ll make sure of it!” I said.

  “Oh,” she sighed. “I thought you might say that.” Another dark smile crossed her face, and I began trying to shift in bed, but was still too weak to move. I knew that I’d be too weak to fight her. “I guess that I’ll just have to eliminate the competition once and for all.”

  “Analynn, no!” I said.

  The air immediately became dry as she pulled the water from the air around us. With the flick of her hand, a large ribbon of water quickly wrapped around my neck and froze solid, choking me. A few more followed just as quickly and pinned my wrists and ankles to the bed. I wasn’t even strong enough to move my blankets, let alone break the ice pinning me down and choking me. My powers may as well have been nonexistent with how physically weak I was.

  As I lay there, pinned to the bed by the thick, heavy ribbon of ice, I tried to mentally call out to someone who may hear me.

  “Don’t even bother. They aren’t home. It’s only you and me. But, to tell you the truth, playing this game won’t be nearly as fun without you. I want to make you watch as I take Aeric and twist him around my finger. I want to make you watch as I make him worship me and forget you. I even want you here when we make love for the first time after being back together. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to be really loud and obnoxious for you so you can hear me scream his name from wherever you are in the house. Honestly, if you had any idea what you were missing, you would’ve j
ust tried to take him a long time ago. Now, that is a real man, and he knows exactly how to please a woman. But—” she smiled wickedly again “—you won’t ever find out anything about that.”

  She sat next to me and watched as I helplessly struggled against the ice. Everything around me was beginning to spin, and my lungs felt like they were going to explode. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this, but I didn’t want to go out without letting her know exactly how I felt.

  I did the only thing that I could do.

  I used the sarcastic charm that had become my trademark over the last few weeks. I lifted my hand as far as it would move and flipped her off as my vision completely faded out. The sound of her maniacal laughter was the last thing I heard as I once again lost consciousness.

  The Eternally Damned

  Memoirs of an Egyptian Goddess

  (An Eternal Series Prequel)

  Prologue

  Three thousand years I have walked this earth. Three thousand years I have watched the humans grow in strength and intelligence, while also growing in violence and lack of compassion. I have seen empires rise, including my own. I have seen many of them fall.

  That is part of what immortality is. Change. Adapting. Losing…

  Immortality is growing and choosing a path to use your gift to help those around you, or to rule them. There was never a choice for me. My mother instilled in me a great sense of duty and humility. If they are weaker than you, teach them. Help them grow. Your people are only as good as your slowest, most fragile man or woman. If your weakest ally is more powerful than your strongest foe, you can never lose.

  Being raised as a servant taught me compassion and a sense of family among those that shared no blood with me. It taught me duty and loyalty to my people—the men, women, and children with whom I served. When I say this, I should say that being a servant in my time, under the Pharaoh and his Queen, was something much different than the slavery many experienced and now learn about.