“If you can’t break the barrier, find a way around it.”
“And just how am I supposed to do that?”
“I haven’t got a clue. Like I said it’s your mind.” Vince tilted his head to the side, as if he were looking out the window, but Josh knew he was using the reflective surface to watch him. “What do you know about the rebellion?”
“All I know is that there are two opposing groups…clans, whatever…that can’t get along.” Josh wasn’t about to share any details of the small amount of information he had. For all he knew, Vince could be a spy.
“I am not a spy.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t read my mind?”
“Your energy field is pulsing with suspicion.” Vince turned his shoulders towards Josh. “Do you know what a death pledge is?”
Josh’s heart skipped more than one beat. “I’m not swearing a death pledge to you or anyone else.”
“I wasn’t asking you to. I’m willing to swear one to you. I need you to trust me and I can’t think of any other way.” Vince shifted his gaze to his lap. “I hope you aren’t squeamish.”
“It depends.”
Vince tugged his gloves off his disfigured hands then unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, exposing a web of scars. “You need to tug the collar of your shirt aside, or let me slip my hand under it.”
“What for?” Josh didn’t like the idea of a man’s hand under his shirt. Scars or no scars.
“You don’t know how a death pledge works, do you?”
Josh shook his head. Diego told him that Channie swore one to save his life, but he hadn’t shared any details about the actual spell.
“We need to clasp each other’s wrists with our left hands and place our right hands over each other’s hearts. And it has to be skin-to-skin contact for it to work.”
Josh held his shirt open so Vince could press his palm against the bare skin of his chest. Then did the same.
Magic was already in the air, but when Vince grabbed Josh’s wrist, the hair on his arms stood on end.
“I, Vincent Javick, formerly known as Vengeance Veyjivik, do hereby solemnly swear, upon pain of death, to never intentionally harm Valor Veyjivik, also known as Joshua Vincent Abrim. This I pledge, else my life be forfeit.”
Red light poured out of Vince's chest. It was nearly the same color as angry energy, only darker. It spiraled up Josh’s arm and into his heart. He tried to pull away, but he couldn’t let go of Vince's wrist or lift his hand off his scarred chest. The magic bound them together.
Vince stared at Josh for a few seconds then said, “You need to accept my pledge.”
“How do I do that?”
“Just state your name and say the words, but don’t promise anything in return.”
“Okay. I, Joshua Abrim, Valor Veyjivik…whatever…accept your pledge.”
Magic circled Josh’s heart then flowed out of him. It entered Vince's chest then disappeared. The bond released. “There. Do you trust me, now?”
“I trust you; but that doesn’t mean I trust your judgment.”
Vince's mouth twisted, contorting his scarred features, but the way his eyes shone revealed the expression as a smile.
I wish I could see him the way he wants to be seen. The air in front of Vince's face shimmered. The scars disappeared. A fringe of salt and pepper curls peeked out beneath the brim of his hat. His full lips curved up into, what could only be called, a ‘charming’ smile. Fine wrinkles fanned out from the corners of his sapphire eyes and deepened as he frowned.
“Valor?” The illusion dissolved. “What are you doing?”
Josh blinked then shifted his gaze away from Vince. Somehow, knowing how handsome the man should have been, made his disfigurement all the more tragic.
Josh suddenly wanted to open up to him. Something deep in his gut urged him to spill it all. Was it a spell? He didn’t detect any weird energy, but what did he know? Maybe his desire to trust Vince was a natural reaction to seeing him without all the scars? Am I really that shallow? The man’s appearance shouldn’t make any difference in how Josh felt. He needed time to sort everything out before he shared any more secrets. There was too much at stake.
“I need to get back inside and disqualify myself so they’ll let the guy that came in third advance to the final.” The disappointment Josh felt was way out of proportion for the situation. It was just one race. Or was it? Something told him that it was his last race.
“There is still so much we need to discuss. Will you meet me somewhere tonight?”
“Heritage Park. Under the pavilion next to the playground. Midnight.”
Vince opened his door and put one foot on the ground but remained seated in the car. “And, Val?”
Josh cringed. “Don’t call me Val. That’s a girl’s name.”
“You need to be more careful about using the Veyjivik name. It could get you killed.”
Josh didn’t feel like hanging around after withdrawing from the race. He wanted to go back to Dad’s house and study the damn poems some more before it was time to meet Vince in the park. He doubted he’d gain any more insight but it was worth a try.
“Josh?” Mom lifted her hand, as if she were going to touch his face, but she curled her fingers into a fist and lowered it to her side without touching him. Whatever disagreement they’d had must have been ugly. “Why don’t you come home for a few days? Your father is staying at the hospital with Liz. And with Channie out of town, you must be terribly lonely in that big house all by yourself.”
“How did you know that Channie was out of town?” He hadn’t even told Dad yet.
“Mary told me.”
Thanks a lot Aunt Mary. “Kassie has a big mouth.”
Mom’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second. “Are you and Channie having problems? Is that why you didn’t go with her?”
“We’re fine.” Josh didn’t mean to snap at her, but he didn’t like the hopeful tone of Mom’s voice. It was obvious she didn’t like Channie.
“Will you come home? Just until she gets back?” Mom’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t know. All my stuff’s at Dad’s.”
“No it’s not.” Elijah blinked then swiped at his cheeks with his fingertips. “Everything’s just the way you left it. Your bed’s not even made. And you still have lots of dirty clothes on the floor. But I’ll help you clean your room. I’ll even do your laundry.”
“I meant my books, squirt. I have a ton of homework.” Josh sighed. How could he say ‘no’ with Elijah looking at him with his eyes full of hope and tears?
“Please?” His chin quivered.
“all right. But only for a couple of nights.”
Elijah threw himself at Josh and wrapped his arms around his waist, nearly knocking him over.
“Easy there, squirt.” The kid had grown and put on some weight in the last six months.
Josh lifted his gaze to Mom’s. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore than he already had, but he needed to practice this magic stuff. And for that, he needed privacy. Something he wasn’t likely to get much of at the condo. “I’m not moving back in. This is temporary.”
She nodded. “We’ll take what we can get.”
Josh followed Mom to Lucky Pie, but had to park in the lot across from the Library. She was really trying hard to make up with him. Lucky Pie was Josh’s favorite restaurant in Louisville, but it was also crowded and noisy—especially on a Saturday afternoon.
There were already two groups of five people standing in line behind Mom and Elijah when Josh walked up. “We don’t have to eat here. We can go to Mimi’s if you’d be more comfortable.”
Mom smiled and shook her head. “No, this is fine. They said they could seat us in about half an hour. Is that okay?”
Elijah was standing behind Mom, nodding vigorously. He liked Lucky Pie, too.
“Yeah, this is great.” Josh’s mouth watered. “I hope we don’t have to wait much longer. I’m starving.”
They only had to wait fifteen minutes instead of thirty before they were seated, but it felt like an hour.
Josh ordered his favorite—Napolitana pizza–spicy salami, calabrian chilis, roasted garlic and smoked mozzarella. But instead of digging in as soon as the food arrived, he snuck a peek at the photo of Channie on his phone. I wish there was some way I could let her know that I remember our first real kiss. His lips tingled just thinking about it.
She has to be terrified. I wish there was some way to let her know that Hunter’s looking for her right now. And that I won’t stop searching for her until I find her. But most of all, I wish she could feel how much I love her.
A bolt of gold light exploded out of Josh’s chest. It shot straight up into the sky like a rocket. The force of it arched his back. It lasted for less than a second, but he was completely drained of energy, physical and magical. It was a good thing they’d already been seated. Sheer willpower was the only reason he wasn’t on the ground.
“Josh? Are you okay?” Mom pressed her palm to his forehead.
“I’m fine.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Just a little dizzy. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”
“You looked like you were in excruciating pain for a moment.”
“It’s been a while since I raced. I’m just a little sore.” He dug his fists into his lower back and stretched. Trying his best to sell the lie. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
She frowned, puckering her brow.
Josh could tell she didn’t buy it. Not completely.
“If it were something to worry about, you’d tell me, right?”
“Mom!” Elijah tugged on her hand. “Stop bugging him. You’re going to scare him off.”
Josh reached over and mussed Elijah’s hair. “It’ll take more than that to scare me off when there’s pizza on the table.”
When they got home, Josh played a couple of rounds of Mario Cart with Elijah. He’d planned to ‘let’ him win, but the kid had obviously been practicing while Josh was gone. He didn’t have a chance. “Okay, squirt. You’ve completely humiliated me. I really need to get some work done.”
“I thought you said your school stuff was all at Dad’s?”
“It is. But I have some research I can do online for a history paper.”
“I suppose that means you want to borrow my laptop?”
“You have a laptop?”
Elijah shrugged his shoulders. “Mom gave me her old one when you moved out. It’s password protected, so I can’t get online without her permission.”
“Thanks, squirt.”
Josh got up and headed upstairs to look for Mom. He found her in the living room, looking at an old photo album. He didn’t want to disturb her, but if she found out he’d asked to borrow Elijah’s laptop and hadn’t asked for the password, she’d get suspicious. “Hey, Mom? What’s the password for Elijah’s laptop?”
She jerked her head up and blinked. “Oh. I didn’t hear you come upstairs.”
“Sorry.” She must have been pretty absorbed in the old photos. “What are you looking at?”
“Come here.” She patted the couch next to her.
Josh glanced at the open book and groaned at the picture of him and Kassie in the bathtub together. “Seriously? I wish you’d just throw those away.”
She hugged the book to her chest and smiled but there was a faraway look of sadness in her eyes. “You’ll understand when your own child is born.”
Josh chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t plan on having kids anytime soon, but when I do, I’m not going to torture them with indecent photos.”
Mom frowned then set the photo album on the end table next to the couch. “I know you told your father in confidence, and he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but I’m not just anyone. I’m your mother.”
“What are you talking about?”
“When’s the baby due?”
“Are you talking about Kassie?”
“I already know Channie’s pregnant, so stop pretending it isn’t true.”
Holy shit! No one had mentioned anything about a baby. Maybe, no one else knew.
“Josh? What’s wrong?”
“I…uh…” It was hard to form words with a desert-dry mouth. His lips refused to cooperate. He pressed his fist against his mouth, but felt nothing. His face was numb. His whole body was numb.
“Josh? Honey, are you okay?”
He shook his head. How could he be okay? He couldn’t even remember having sex, but he was going to be a father? “I’m not ready for this.”
Mom wrapped her arms around Josh and pulled his head onto her shoulder. “I know, sweetheart. None of us are. How far along is she? Maybe it’s not too late—”
“No. Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.” Josh stood up and paced across the living room floor. He’d always believed that it was a woman’s right to choose whether or not to keep a baby. He’d debated the subject in speech class last year—and he’d been firmly on the side of ‘pro-choice,’ but this was different. This was his baby. His only memory of Channie was less than a minute long. He couldn’t even remember whether or not she liked pizza. But he knew in his heart that she’d never agree to an abortion. What would Channie’s crazy mother do when she found out? Josh sank onto the sofa and dropped his head into his hands.
Mom rubbed his back then slid over and guided his head to her lap. She combed through his hair with her fingers.
He hadn’t let her baby him like that since he was twelve, but Josh’s life had just spiraled completely out of control. He needed the comfort of his mother’s touch.
A baby changed everything. He didn’t have a clue what he should do. Should he obey the Book of the Dead and stay here, learning all he could about magic before it was time to face off with Dominance? Or should he get his ass in his car and drive straight to Arkansas?
Mom brushed the curls off his forehead then sighed. “This is exactly what I was afraid would happen.”
Josh sat up and scooted away from her. “Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.” Mom reached a hand out to touch Josh’s cheek.
He leaned back, away from her. “You never liked Channie, did you?”
“You know that’s not true! I let her stay here for weeks while I watched your racing career fall apart. I wrote excuse after excuse to the attendance office when the two of you cut classes. Josh, please. I don’t want to fight with you anymore.”
“Then quit trying to run my life. My racing career is over. I’ll be lucky if I can graduate this spring, but even if I don’t, that’s my problem. Not yours. I’m married and I’m going to be a father. Deal with it.” Josh stood up and headed for the front door. “I’m going for a ride.”
“Are you coming back?” Her voice trembled.
Josh paused with his hand on the doorknob and looked over his shoulder. Tears streamed down Mom’s cheeks, but it was the look of quiet desperation on Elijah’s face, peeking around the corner, that made him pause. “I’ll be back. But, don’t wait up for me.”
Josh pulled the door shut behind him then leaned against it to catch his breath. It was a good thing non-magical people couldn’t see energy fields. His was lighting up the entire cul-de-sac with multi-colored bursts of light erupting out of him like miniature solar flares.
Josh grabbed his helmet out of the back seat of his car and his bike off the roof. He wished he could talk to Dad, but there were too many secrets between them now.
He hadn’t even told Dad that Channie was gone. Besides, with Liz in the hospital, Dad had enough to deal with. He didn’t need the burden of Josh’s problems on top of everything else. And he’d just told Mom that these were his problems and he’d deal with them. Time to suck it up, and do it.
It was only about eight o’clock. Josh still had another four hours before he was supposed to meet Vince at Heritage Park. He pulled out his phone and smiled at the photo of Channie then called Kassie. Who better to give him advice abou
t a surprise pregnancy?
Hunter had warned Channie that he had “things to do.” But it’d been four days since she’d seen him. She’d thought he would have at least checked on her by now. She refused to consider the most likely reasons why he hadn’t come back. But she had to work at it. She had to fuel her imagination with scenarios of Hunter out having a good time with Shep. He was drunk…or hung over…or shacked up with someone. Or maybe he was punishing her for overreacting when he kissed the top of her head.
Hunter has not been captured by trackers, or worse, Momma. He is not being tortured for information about her or Josh. He is not dead.
Anxiety squeezed the air out Channie’s lungs. She used to have nightmares when she was little that Daddy’s old Chevy truck had fallen off its cement blocks and crushed her beneath it. She’d wake up unable to breathe, even though it was only a dream. Abby used to slap Channie until she gasped. But Abby wasn’t here to save her anymore. She was gone forever.
A gold thread, thinner than a single strand from a spider’s web, drifted towards her. It hung in the air for a second then slipped inside her heart. Channie’s body responded before her mind recognized the filament of pure love. Josh!
Warmth spread through her veins. The bands around her chest broke free. She gulped in huge lungfuls of air then wept with relief as their heart-bond throbbed.
The memory of their curse-breaking kiss played across her mind. It was a memory she pulled strength from often but this time she saw it differently. It was from Josh’s perspective. She pressed her palms against her heart, as if she could hold onto the feeling. “You remember.”
Aunt Mary was watching TV in the living room when Josh arrived so he followed Kassie back to her bedroom. He swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat when he saw the baby basket next to her bed. “So, you’re all ready for the baby, huh?”
“Are you kidding me? I’m eighteen. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” Kassie exhaled, blowing her bangs off her forehead. She placed her palms in the middle of her lower back and stretched, sticking her already protruding stomach out even further. “What’s up? You sounded a little weird on the phone.”
Believe: The Complete Channie Series Page 72