The Awakening: A Witch-Vampire Romance: Feel the Heat.

by Anastasha Renee

  Gavin chuckles at my inner thoughts.

  I lay silently beside him, wondering where we are going to go from here. The horizon is a blank canvas. Eventually I hear him start to snore. I wrap my arms tighter around him and drift off into the first restful sleep I’ve had in five days.

  Chapter 14.

  I wake with a start. There is someone banging on the front door. Gavin is still snoring away, so I untangle myself from my brother and make my way slowly down the hall toward the front of the house. I am moving at a crawl.

  Goddess I hate being this weak, I think to myself. As I get closer to the front room the pounding on the door gets louder and louder. Whoever it is, they are determined, I can say that for them at least.

  Gavin catches up to me just as I make it to the living room. He leads me over to the couch that’s in front of the fireplace and makes me sit down.

  “I have the house warded. No one can get in without my permission,” he whispers to me.

  “We can do that? Wards and such?”

  That’s some cool shit.

  Gavin shakes his head. “You have so much still to learn sister,” he tells me in a voice like he still can’t quite believe how ignorant of my own world I am.

  Gavin still looks haggard, he isn’t at full strength. I stand back up and grab his hand.

  He looks at me like I have lost it completely.

  “What in fiery hell do you think you are doing,” Gavin demands in an angry voice.

  “We are stronger together. I might be weak in body, but my mind is well again.”

  Gavin shakes his head again, clearly thinking I am delusional. We make it to the front door still hand in hand, sharing the energy sparking between us. Our free hands are glowing brightly with jade fire. I gasp as I look at them. This is new. I knew I could make my hands glow, but not anything like this. Gavin looks just as amazed by this as I am.

  Gavin opens the door and I gasp out loud, letting go of his hand and throwing myself at the door to get to the person that is on the other side. When I reach the door I don’t move through the empty space as I am expecting to do. I bounce back, repelled by thin air. I look at Gavin amazed.

  Jaxx is standing outside the front entrance looking broken and bloody. I try to get through the door again. This time I use my glowing palm as a sort of key to break through the bound space. It works handily. I rush to Jaxx as fast as my weakened body will allow. I want to throw myself into his arms, but I am afraid to touch him. Not just because it might cause him pain, but I am afraid he will reject me.

  Gavin grabs me by the arms and plants me firmly behind him as if Jaxx might physically hurt me.

  “What are you doing here? How did you find this place,” Gavin snarls at Jaxx. He is firing up his palms once more. Readying for a battle if he doesn’t like the answer he gets.

  “I can follow my destined anywhere. You know this,” Jaxx answers weakly. He is swaying on his feet.

  “Where have you been while your destined has been laying here dying,” Gavin demands.

  Jaxx pales even further.

  “Let’s get him inside, Gavin. Can’t you tell he has been through hell himself? He isn’t going to hurt me. I can feel his intent and his emotions. They are pure.” I look Jaxx in the eye as I speak.

  “Fine. You may enter, but if you try to hurt her I will finish you,” Gavin warns.

  “Understood.”

  Gavin walks back into the house, leaving Jaxx and I alone. I step closer and grab his arm, trying to make sure he isn’t going to fall over. He is still unsteady. When I get close enough to touch him, Jaxx drops to his knees and pulls me tightly to him. He shoves his face into my stomach and starts to shake. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and look down into his face. Silent tears are streaming down his cheeks.

  “Please for the love of the Goddess forgive my trespasses against you,” he pleads.

  “Of course I do.” I drop down onto my knees and face him.

  “You don’t even have to ask,” I assure him as I pull him to his feet and use the porch railing to reach mine.

  “Let’s get you inside,” I say, trying to lead him into the cabin.

  “I didn’t leave you, Ella. You have to believe me.”

  I stop dead. Stone still.

  “What? I saw you leave. You misted!” I am starting to get angry. I know I said I forgive him, but I will never forget the feeling of him leaving me. Not as long as I live. Jaxx’s knees give way beneath him.

  “Gavin, get your ass out here and help me with Jaxx,” I yell.

  We heave and get his huge frame onto the couch.

  “Answer me, Jaxx. What do you mean you didn’t leave me?” I look at him in the face.

  His eyes are deadly serious.

  “I was pulled. I couldn’t control it. I was transported into a cavern. I don’t know where it is located, but it was deep in the earth, a long way from the surface.” He shudders at the thought of it.

  “What happened when you got there,” Gavin asks.

  I sit down beside Jaxx and take his hand in mine, but he isn’t having that. He pulls me into him, holding me tightly. I stiffen slightly.

  He turns to me, his eyes pleading. “Listen to what I have to tell you. Please, pretty eyes.”

  Tears begin to stream down my face at his use of the nickname he’d given me. But my body stays slightly stiff.

  “Talk,” Gavin demands once more.

  Jaxx nods. “When I was pulled by an unseen force into the cavern there were a lot of men there waiting for me. I was so disoriented from being forced through whatever it was they pulled me through, that they were able to capture me easily. They put me in chains that blocked my gifts. I was powerless.”

  “Why would someone do that,” I whisper more to myself than anyone else.

  “When they had me secured, they started to question me. They wanted to know about Ella.” He looks at me.

  “They wanted to know about your gifts, your strengths,” he tells us, turning back to Gavin.

  “Whether you and she were more powerful together or apart, they wanted to know what kind of connection the two of you have since you are twins.”

  I look at Gavin with horror in my eyes.

  “I wouldn’t talk, so they tortured me,” Jaxx breathes out in utter desolation.

  I stiffen, anger building in my chest. I can feel the first rumblings of the ground moving beneath my feet.

  “What-,” I start to ask, but Jaxx cuts me off.

  “No, my raven, I won’t tell you that part. I don’t want you to share my nightmares.” He looks at Gavin.

  “The man in charge went by the name Celian,” Jaxx tells Gavin in a grave voice.

  Gavin explodes from his seat.

  “That son of a bitch! He knew about her all along! Now I know why he wouldn’t come here to help! That fucking son of a bitch,” he seethes out his anger.

  “There’s more,” Jaxx says.

  “Your father’s clan wants Ella dead. They think she will become too strong. That both of you will, because you were born twins. That in itself isn’t supposed to be possible, so they are running scared. I heard him talking to his men about sparing you, Gavin. He wants to mold you into someone he can control.” Jaxx leans his head back onto the couch and winces. I can see that he is in a lot of pain still.

  Gavin is up and back to pacing the floors.

  “Well that sick son of a bitch can’t have me,” Gavin snarls.

  “Celian killed his son, your father. He took great delight in telling me that. He said if he could kill his own son, he would not have any trouble doing the same thing to me.”

  I just sit silently watching them. I already know all of this, but I keep it to myself.

  “They were happy when you called, Gavin. When you told him that Ella was dying, he was enjoying his triumph and taunting me with the ways he was planning on killing me. But then something happened that scared him. Badly.” Jaxx looks into my eyes and I know that he knows that it ha
d something to do with me. Somehow he must have felt my presence there in that dark and dank place.

  “They all left to go to some kind of meeting after that. I was trying to escape when someone came into the room where they were holding me.” Jaxx looks back at me apprehensively, pulling me closer to him and hugging me tighter, so that I can’t get away from him.

  “Ella, please don’t pull away. What I have to say won’t make you very happy at first, but please just listen until the end,” pleading with me again.

  I nod, still sitting stiffly in his arms, because I have a feeling he is about to bring up someone I do not want to hear about.

  “It was Valkyrie. I was still in chains and injured. She just came sauntering into the cavern. To say I was surprised would be an understatement.”

  I start to pull away, not wanting to hear the rest.

  “Ella, let him finish,” Gavin instructs.

  I still.

  “She started bragging that she and I had never been together. That she’d thought if I had defiled myself for my true mate that she could have me. Have me for herself.” Jaxx’s face is twisted.

  I am reeled by the news. He had never touched another as he had thought. I am afraid to believe it, but I want so badly for it to be true. I turn to face him and gaze into his eyes and see the truth for myself. My heart soars.

  “But that didn’t work out for her so well. So she decided to help your grandfather as a sort of revenge towards me. She is the one that let me out of the chains. She had heard that you were most likely dead, but I knew because of our bond that you weren’t,” Jaxx says passionately.

  “That you were somehow getting stronger again, but she wasn’t aware of that. She was trying to seduce me for real this time, saying that since you were out of the way for good that we could be together,” Jaxx storms as anger floods his face and voice.

  “She was dead wrong,” his voice is lined with steel.

  “What do you mean,” I ask.

  “I killed the bitch. I wrapped my hands around her throat and squeezed with all the strength I had left in me. I left the evil, lying bitch lying there dead, her body cooling in the dirt, for your grandfather to find.” He looks at me, defiantly, almost daring me to not accept what he’d done.

  “Ella, I’m not sorry for it. She could have ruined everything. She was feeding information about me to Celian. She caused all of this pain for the both of us. She deserved what she got,” he tells me so earnestly, pleading with me to understand.

  “He is right,” Gavin agrees.

  “I’m glad she’s dead, Jaxx,” I tell him gently.

  “I’m sorry that you’ve had to carry that with you for so long. I’m sorry that she caused you pain. Thinking that you had shamed yourself in some way, but I would have forgiven you if you had. You have to know that. I would forgive anything, short of leaving me ever again.” We stare at each other as if we are the only ones in the room.

  “And that is my clue to leave,” Gavin chuckles as he leaves the room.

  We are alone at last. I am still all over the place at all of the new developments, but the only thing I want to do right now is be as close to Jaxx as possible.

  “I need to heal you,” I tell him, taking his hand in mine.

  “We need to heal each other.”

  “In more ways than one, little raven,” he agrees.

  I climb into his lap and snuggle into his chest, starting to cry.

  “I have missed you so very much. More than you can understand. Please don’t leave me again.”

  “I swear it on my life. I will never,” he assures me fiercely, hugging me tighter to him. Jaxx pulls back from me and runs his fingers under my eyes, drying my tears.

  Jaxx stands up from the couch and pulls me up with him. He is still moving stiffly, but he is trying to hide how badly hurt he really is.

  “Where is your room,” he asks.

  I grab his hand in answer and lead him down the hall to my blue room. When we enter he looks around and catches sight of the holes that had been pounded into the walls.

  “We still have a lot to talk about, Ella.”

  “Later.” I tug him to the bed and make him sit on the edge. He reaches for me, but I move his arms back to his sides.

  “Let me do this for you, let me heal you.” I start to unbutton his shirt, but I get impatient with my shaky hands and rip the shirt open. Buttons fly around the room, pinging on the floor.

  “Impatient aren’t we, little raven?”

  “You have no idea.” I smile wickedly at him. I roam my hands over his sculpted shoulders, removing his shirt. I gasp at the bruising that is covering his chest and stomach. There are gashes and burn marks everywhere also.

  “Don’t worry, Ella. Your touching me is healing me, the pain is fading. I promise.”

  I just nod my head. Leaning forward, I start to run my now glowing hands over his various bruises and abrasions. It still amazes me every time I get to use my gifts.

  Jaxx reaches down and pulls me up off my knees. Then he pulls us both into the bed, me laying across him like a living blanket. I am comforted to hear the now familiar beat of his heart.

  “You are so beautiful to me, Ella. More than moonlight,” he mumbles as he falls into a deep slumber.

  I lay there for a while, praying to the Goddess of the moon. Thanking her for bringing Jaxx back to me. Begging her not to let him be taken from me again, asking her to protect my family. Odd as they may be, they are mine. Lastly, I ask her to forgive me for almost giving up. Giving up on those that love me, on those that need me, on Jaxx, and on myself.

  I see a shaft of moonlight spring through the closed curtains and illuminate Jaxx’s face. He is truly blessed by her. One day I might be also. I can only hope.

  “Thank you,” I whisper.

  I need to do something. Maybe offer something to her alter for the blessing of our union. Jaxx is a child of the moon. His gifts derive from her. I need her blessing. We both do. I will have to ask Jaxx about it in the morning. Right now he needs his rest. I turn onto my side so that I am facing him. I fall asleep like this, looking at his face relaxed with sleep. I am content for the first time in forever.

  Jaxx is gone when I wake in the morning. I roll over, fingers searching for his warmth and I find nothing but cold sheets. I pop up in bed in a panic.

  “Gavin,” I yell, thinking that it was all a cruel dream, and that I am still without him.

  Gavin and Jaxx come running into the room, both of them fully alert and looking for danger. What they find is me with tears streaming down my face.

  “I thought it was all a cruel trick. That you were still gone,” I sob.

  Jaxx rushes to the bed and pulls me into his arms.

  “Baby, I’m here. Please, pretty eyes, don’t cry. Look at me. Feel our connection. Look into my eyes.”

  I do as he asks, searching within them. He is here, and now I feel like a child being coddled after a nightmare. I sigh and wipe the tears from my face.

  “I’m sorry. I woke and you were gone. I freaked a bit. I’m okay now.” I make to get off of his lap, but he just pulls me tighter to him.

  “Don’t you think that I might need reassurance that you are still here, too? I didn’t want to wake you this morning. From what your brother has told me you need the rest, but we are together now,” he bends and whispers into my ear.

  I glance at the door for Gavin, but he has snuck out of the room once again, leaving us alone. I love that boy.

  Jaxx starts to kiss me. He trails his fingers down the side of my face. We snuggle for what seems like no time at all before Jaxx’s mind snaps back to the here and now, to the dangers that are still lurking.

  “We need to start your training today. Not just with your gifts either. We need to start with hand to hand training also,” he confirms.

  I look at him, puzzled.

  “Self-defense training? Why do you think I’m going to need that?”

  “If I can be taken and held
at my age, then they can get to you also. We need to cover all of our bases.”

  I look at his serious expression and I think about all that has happened and all that he is saying to me. I need to be protected from all sides, but the main point is that I need to be able to protect myself. I don’t want to rely on everyone around me to coddle me.

  “I want to try something,” I tell him. “I don’t know if it will work, but I want to try it.”

  He looks at me quizzically. “Anything you want, sweets.” He smiles and flops onto his back beside me.

  I climb onto his lap and straddle his thighs. He grins and I laugh.

  “No, that’s not what I want to try, you perv,” I tell him when he makes a grab for my waist. I laugh once again at his crest-fallen expression. I put my hands on each side of his face, my fingertips barely touching his temples. I close my eyes and concentrate. I try to reach him with my mind, to feel the wall that protects Jaxx, blocking others, including me, from trespassing on his mind. I search the walls and find a tiny crack-like opening and push my way through. As I skim his mind and current thoughts I feel him stiffen underneath me.

  He jerks back like he wants to break my connection with him.

  “No,” I demand. “Wait. You will understand in a moment.”

  He takes a deep breath and calms himself.

  I try to find an anchor point, a place to tether my mind to his. I skim his subconscious some more and find a glowing ember burning bright in my mind’s eye. It is his feelings for me. They wash over me like a tidal wave, all consuming, this man holding me in his arms. Trusting me in the most intimate ways, trusting me beyond reason or doubt. I anchor our connection in the recesses of his truest feelings for me. It will never be broken there. The strength of it will protect it always. I slip quietly and quickly out of his mind, being mindful not to take any of his thoughts or memories with me.

  I open my eyes and look into the midnight blue of a stormy night. I can tell Jaxx doesn’t really know how to take what I have just done.