“Yes. We do have that,” she said, and their eyes locked.
Ava wanted to kiss him and knew she needed to leave before the desire became too much. She was getting in deeper. Why was she doing this to herself? It was only going to hurt even more. But she wanted this. This level of comfort and honesty. She couldn’t remember the last time she and Thomas had such a sincere conversation. If ever. Peter was understanding and cared for her. Ava wanted to tell him that she wanted to be more than just friends.
Forbidden.
Her mouth went dry.
“I should go before Dad starts to worry.” She stood from the couch, breaking the intense connection.
“Okay,” Peter said. He picked up a dark blue jacket and handed it to her. “Here, take this. Looks like the bottom’s about to fall out.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and put on the jacket. She inhaled. It smelled like him.
He opened the door for her and then followed her to his car. The wind blew, gaining strength, and the temperature outside warmed. Only in the South could it be warm one day and cold the next.
Peter got in the car after her and cranked it. “We should hang out more often. It’s been a while.”
“We hang out every Friday night.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “I meant not at a football game. It’s been like two months.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy.”
When they pulled up next to her car in the school parking lot, she dreaded leaving the moment and going back to reality. But she got out anyway.
Peter came around to her side. “I just want to make sure you’re happy. I care about you, you know.”
“I’ll be fine. I had a good time.”
“Me, too. I’m glad you came.” He stepped closer, and her breath hitched.
Peter wrapped his arms around her tightly. It relaxed her, and for a moment, Ava wanted to draw him closer and run her hands through his hair. She was sure he could feel her pounding heartbeat.
She quickly pulled away. “Goodnight.”
He grinned, showing the dimple in his cheek. “Goodnight.”
Ava slid behind the wheel, and then he closed her door. She started the engine and drove away. The stupid warning from Gillian kept bothering her. But why was it forbidden? Other than keeping their kind a secret.
Her phone rang, startling her, and she answered, thinking it was Peter.
“Where are you?” Thomas asked, angrily.
His words slurred evidence that he was still drunk. She didn’t even want to think how he got home.
“Home,” she said. Like she was really going to tell him the truth.
“How’d you get back to your car?”
She didn’t want to answer and knew she couldn’t lie. “Peter.”
“What’s with this guy? You into him or something?”
“No. I’m just struggling with chemistry.”
“Whatever.”
Ava imagined his jaw clenching. “It’s true. I’m failing.”
“So you have to get some other guy to help you? Can’t you ask Jeremy?”
“He was busy. What difference does it make? You got drunk even though you promised you wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, because you pissed me off.”
“I’m not doing this.” She hung up. He was such a jerk.
Why did she have to be with him? Because of some stupid binding? How serious could Savina and Colden be, since they had been absent for ten years? Whatever happened to them always being there for Ava and the rest? Why should she go back tomorrow?
Ava turned up the radio to calm her anger. Guilt seeped into her thoughts as she remembered her father telling her that her mom never regretted what she was. Bet Mom never had feelings for a human, she thought.
Could it even be possible to be with Peter?
No matter though. Tomorrow she would end her relationship with Thomas. It was that simple. She had overanalyzed things once again, but the answer was right in front of her. Life would be good. At least, it would be better.
CHAPTER TEN
REUNION
On an extremely bitter, cold October night, it was time for the Initiation. Waiting for Thomas, Ava bit her lip and watched the fast moving clouds move across the darkening pink sky through her window. She didn’t know why she was nervous, but she hadn’t slept at all last night and couldn’t sit still for one minute all day. Her dad tried to comfort her, but it didn’t work.
She heard the doorbell and knew it was Thomas. Once they went to the Manor and came back, she would talk to him.
With a moan, she finally left her room and met him downstairs. “See ya later, Dad.”
“Everything will be okay,” he said.
Ava nodded and followed Thomas out the door.
“Took you long enough,” he said.
“Don’t start.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll just blame our lateness on you.”
She opened the back door and squeezed in next to Gillian and Melissa. Thomas left the loud radio playing and the heat going for the others. Lance took the passenger seat, while Jeremy sat in the very back of the Jeep.
Melissa sighed. “Thomas, we’re not late. It’s not like we’re going to the football game. By the way, what did Coach Jones do to you for being tardy Friday?” She laughed and lit a cigarette, inhaled, and exhaled the smoke.
Gillian coughed.
“He suspended him one game,” Lance replied.
Melissa laughed. “Ouch. Bet that sucks.”
“I was five minutes late,” Thomas said. “Joey Davine is late all the time.”
“Yeah, but Joey Davine isn’t the star quarterback, now is he?” Lance said. “Coach couldn’t care less about him. He’s just some measly freshman.”
Ava sighed and rolled her eyes. Thomas whined like an infant, while his precious Lance comforted him as always.
“Why were you late?” Melissa asked. “Were you finally getting it from Ava?”
“Shut up,” she snapped. “Not tonight.”
Melissa laughed uncontrollably. She rolled down the window further to release her cigarette butt. Her blond hair slapped over her face.
“Don’t get upset,” Gillian whispered so low that no one else could hear. “She’s just in one of her moods.”
Ava knew too well about her moods. She also could tell Melissa was excited, yet nervous. All of them were.
Melissa rolled up the window. “Well, you know it is about time. I mean, no wonder Thomas is grumpy, and you know, now that I think of it, you have been irritable.” She glanced at Ava. “Just get it over with already.”
Ava peered out of the window at the low moon that was the color of the sun, the beginning of a blood moon. It looked close enough to touch and seemed to swallow the sky. She was ready for this night to be over.
“Yeah, well, I’m not the one spending all my time with someone else,” Thomas blurted.
He kept his eyes on the road, but Ava noticed his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly he might break it off.
“And after tonight’s meeting, you and I are going to fix this.”
“Fix what, Thomas?” Ava asked. Blood boiled within her pulsating veins.
“You and this guy.”
Lance groaned. “Oh god—can you two wait until we’re not around?”
“He’s just some guy in my class,” Ava said.
“Who?” Jeremy asked.
“Peter McNabb,” Thomas said through clenched teeth.
Melissa let out a short, hard laugh. “You are threatened by him? Are you serious?”
“No. I’ve seen him sitting next to her at the games. And by her locker every day. Is that where you were last night?”
She swallowed. “Thomas, please. We’ve known each other for years now. Why should it bother you all of a sudden?”
“Because you’ve been spending so much time with him lately.”
“Thomas, he’s only really helping her with chemistry and math,” Gillian said. “You kn
ow how terrible she is.”
Ava met Gillian’s eyes and mouthed the words “Thank you.”
“We’re not supposed to lure others into our group, Ava,” Melissa said.
She rolled her eyes. Where was this coming from? “I’m not luring him.”
“Okay, can everyone just settle down?” Jeremy asked. “Please?” He squeezed Ava’s shoulder.
No one spoke for the remainder of the drive. Ava twirled her ring around her finger, thinking more of Peter, and just wishing she were somewhere else. The tight cramping in the pit of her stomach returned, as Thomas drove through the dark woods. She clamped her eyes shut, and Peter circled her mind. She propped her head up against her hand as she enjoyed the short daydream. She imagined his tall, slender, muscular body. His brown eyes. And then wished for his lips to touch hers.
“There it is,” Gillian whispered, and Ava’s eyes popped open.
As they neared the great mansion, Ava gasped. She gawked out the window. The mansion was just as she remembered it the first time she came. How could that be? After all those years of visiting, it had clearly depicted abandonment. Now, it looked perfect—no caved-in roof, no kudzu, no broken gate, no overgrown vegetation.
Thomas put the car in park and turned off the engine. Ava stared straight ahead at the Victorian structure of gray stone. Sharp steeples projected from the mansard roofs. Several arched windows faced the front with diamond-shaped panes, like something out of a church. She didn’t remember the two round turrets on each side of the heavy wooden door, but she did remember the raven statues.
“Now what?” Gillian asked, wrapping her black curls around her finger.
“We go in, genius.” Melissa opened the car door and jumped out.
“What if they’re not there?”
“Then we wouldn’t have come tonight,” Jeremy said. “It’ll be okay.”
Ava was glad she wasn’t the only scared one. She slowly opened her door, and soon Thomas was by her side. He grabbed her hand and held it tightly.
“It’ll be okay,” he said, but she assumed he was reassuring himself.
They all walked together through the unbroken wrought-iron gate, between the garden with blooming purple orchids, orange lilies, and several other varieties of colors and flowers. Ava remembered the vivid colors. It was odd that such color could survive in October, and look so fresh. She couldn’t really see them now, at dusk and shivered from the bitter cold, but then automatically, her body warmed. Thomas placed his arm around her waist, holding her tight against him as if she would vanish.
“Why is it so cold?” she mumbled. “It never is this time of year.”
“I don’t know, but I hope it’s warmer inside,” Thomas said and then knocked on the door.
Eerily silent woods surrounded the mansion. Another shiver reverberated throughout Ava’s body. She didn’t know what would happen to them. Her heart raced.
They waited only a few seconds before the massive wooden door opened. Behind it, stood Savina. Ten years had not aged the tall, slim woman. Her auburn hair was longer—below her waist, and straight. Small barrettes pulled it back from each side from her face. Her infectious smile reached her eyes. A ring of yellow surrounded the light green irises of her eyes.
“Hello, my children,” she said with a Scottish accent. “I’ve missed you all so very much.” She gave them tight hugs and kissed their cheeks. Ava breathed in the scent of oranges and remembered it from the first time she’d met Savina. “Please, make yourselves at home.”
Ava hesitantly crossed the threshold, with Thomas helping her along, into the ornately designed home. She stared at the grand staircase that wound around to several stories and felt incredibly small under the intricate cathedral ceiling.
“I’ve prepared dinner for us all,” Savina said. Her black robe-like dress drifted along the floor as she walked. The sleeves were long and wide. Ava couldn’t stop looking at her.
She led the way into the dining room, and Ava’s mind immediately flooded with the memory of that first night they all arrived. The paintings on the blood-red walls were dark and creepy. One was of the full moon behind bare trees and a woman floating in the air with a round, garnet pendant hanging from a chain around her neck. In another, a group of people dressed in black cloaks stood around a large fire bowing. It all reminded her of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. She loved those stories, but never wanted to live in them.
A steaming brown soup, warm bread, and several casseroles had been placed on the round black table. Pewter plates and glass goblets waited at each place setting. Ava remembered how good the food had tasted the last time, and her stomach growled.
“They’re here,” Colden stepped into the room and clapped his hands once. His long raven hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and his black eyes beamed. His tall slender body was cloaked in a long black robe that looked like a priest robe and he had pale ghostly skin. “It’s so good to see you all. So healthy and so strong.”
His smile gave Ava the creeps. She didn’t know what it was about him, but she felt more comfortable around Savina. He was a Droll, a powerless Enchanter, which was very rare, but that wasn’t the reason for her uneasiness.
When they all sat down, Savina smiled and motioned for them to begin. “I can’t believe you all,” she said. “It seems like yesterday when I saw you last. And what beautiful people you turned out to be.”
“So what have you been up to all these years?” Ava didn’t mean for her tone to sound so harsh.
“Looking out for all of you,” Savina said.
“Among other things,” Colden told her. “There is much to discuss, but we will get to that later.”
“Why don’t we get to it now? Where have you been all this time? You haven’t been here in ten years.”
Melissa nudged her. “Ava?”
“No, I want to know.” She wasn’t sure where all this was coming from. Or why she was suddenly so angry with them. Maybe it was just all those years of feeling abandoned and how she’d dreaded this day or that she had no choice in any of it.
“I know it may not seem like we were not here, but we were,” Savina replied. “Only when you needed us the most. But we are here now. For good.”
“Why?” Ava asked. “Because you need us?”
“Stop,” Melissa said.
Savina held up her hand. “It’s okay. Finish eating, and we will explain everything.”
Embarrassed, Ava picked up the silver spoon and then hesitated. She watched Thomas slurp his soup like it was his last meal on earth. Gillian daintily sipped hers, and Melissa looked at her as if she would hurt her if she didn’t calm down.
“Please do not fear me,” Savina whispered to her.
Why did she say that? Could she sense Ava’s fear?
Ava drew a deep breath, and sipped the warm soup. It was rich and thick, and though she didn’t want to admit it, it tasted heavenly.
Like the last meal with Savina and Colden, there wasn’t much talking, but Ava couldn’t ignore the stares from both of them. Once everyone finished, Savina motioned Ava and the rest into another large sitting room. Candles flickered all around. Savina moved to the black, marble fireplace, waved her hand across it, and a fire appeared.
Ava gasped. She had never seen an Enchanter use her power like that. An old painting of lively green rolling hills and tall mountains, presumably Scotland, where Savina and Colden were from, hung above the fireplace.
She sat on the L-shaped dark red couch and looked around at everyone’s faces. They all looked content, comfortable, as if they belonged. As if they knew Savina and Colden would be here, but Ava felt sick, like a large weight had lodged in her stomach. She met Thomas’s eyes and he took her hand.
Colden stood by the fireplace, and Savina sat in a Victorian chair that matched the couch.
“It has brought us such great joy to see you all,” she began. “You are all so strong, mature, and so beautiful. Now it is time to understand the splendor of the Craft.”
The knots would not stop forming in Ava’s stomach. Thomas squeezed her hand, something he did when she gripped too hard, but she didn’t let up.
“Each of you has a wonderful ability and we are here to solidify our Aureole,” Colden said. “The Aureole is a circle that once we all stand on it, glows and connects us all. You have also come back to help us fulfill a mission.”
Ava froze. A mission? She exchanged glances with the others and they looked just as confused.
Savina interlocked her hands. “Devon Maunsell has escaped the Cruciari.”
Ava felt her jaw go slack. She didn’t know who Devon Maunsell was, but for him to have escaped the famous Enchanter prison was enough for her to come unhinged.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
INITIATION
Ava took a deep breath and kept the stew from coming up. How could an Enchanter possibly escape the Cruciari? Water surrounded the fortress. A negation spell prevented the use of any powers. Enchanters were slowly tortured until death. Yet, somehow, one had escaped. What did this mean to them?
“How did he get out?” Her voice was shaky.
“We are still investigating that,” Savina said.
Colden slowly paced in front of the fireplace, in deep thought. “We have been trying to find out if someone let him out or if the charm broke.”
“So who is this guy?” Melissa asked. She didn’t look as nervous as Ava felt.
Gillian chewed on her lip and curled and uncurled her hair around her finger while Jeremy held her other hand, seemingly calm.
Colden stopped pacing and then turned to them. “He is a Cimmerian, a Dark Enchanter. One of Corbin’s biggest supporters.”
A piercing silence fell on them. Corbin Havok. He was Colden’s father and Savina’s stepfather—the most evil Enchanter in history. He had started wars with Enchanters and massacred mortal humans, or as they were known as Ephemerals. There hadn’t been any wars since he died almost thirty years ago.
“When did he escape?” Ava asked.
Under A Blood Moon (Elemental Enchanters) Page 8