Destined_The Immortal Defenses Series

by E. L. Davis

  Alexia could tell it was going to be a long, frustrating night for her friends and she felt bad that she wouldn’t be there to support them. After her morning with Demetri and then the awkwardness she had dealing with Ellie, she truly was exhausted. She couldn’t help but hope that Cheri didn’t figure it out without her; she wanted to be there to help and celebrate the victory.

  By the time Alexia made her way to bed, Cheri had gone through a quarter of the list with no luck at all. The sounds of their voices carried up from the yard to the open window in Alexia and Demetri’s room. If she closed it, the room would get much too hot and she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Cheri had laid out the pair of pajamas Alexia had so foolishly requested in her moment of pure confidence in herself on the bed. A little note stuck out of them that read, ‘I want to know everything’, signed with a perfect ‘C’. The day had been so busy since Cheri and Roman returned that Alexia hadn’t even told her about what had happened while they were gone.

  Ellie had stumbled upon her own defense because of the strong passion that flooded Alexia and Demetri’s room. It was extremely awkward walking from the room and having accusations thrown at her when she was alone with Ellie. She tried to convince Ellie that nothing had happened. Ellie didn’t buy it, and she kept pushing and pushing, telling Alexia that she knew what had happened. That she could sense all the swirls of emotions radiating off her. It was then that a light bulb went off in Ellie’s head. “That’s it,” she had said dramatically. “That’s my defense, I can sense emotions!”

  She had been so happy about finding out what she could do that she had forgotten what she was accusing Alexia of. Of course, the next time she was alone with her friends she knew they would want an explanation. Alexia didn’t know what she would tell them. She would have to tell them how she had told Demetri she loved him and how much she truly meant it. After that she had no idea how much she should tell them. They were her best friends but at the same time she wanted to savor the memory and keep it all to herself and to Demetri.

  Alexia had just pulled on the pajamas Cheri had brought back for her when there was a light knock on the door.

  “Come in,” she said as she closed the window about half-way. When she turned around, Demetri stood in the doorway, blown away by what she was wearing. The pajamas weren’t much of anything at all. It was pretty much a red bra with see-through material that hung around her body stopping just after her belly button. Red booty shorts clung to her waist, hiding very little of her legs.

  Watching him standing there absolutely dumbfounded made her laugh hard. It was as if they had returned to Demetri’s bedroom in Youngstown, but instead of Alexia being rooted to the spot staring at Demetri in awe, it was Demetri who stood frozen where he was. Alexia climbed under the covers and said, “Better?” He snapped out of it a little but still stood in the doorway. “What’s wrong?” She was starting to worry he didn’t like what he had just seen.

  “Nothing.” He shook his head trying to gain back some of his motor functions. “I was just seriously blown away right there.” He moved around to the other side of the bed, taking off his black muscle shirt and climbing in beside Alexia. After everything that happened between them that morning, Alexia had expected things to be weird and uncomfortable, but it wasn’t at all.

  She felt more comfortable around him than she ever had in her life, maybe in any of her lives. Turning to face Demetri, Alexia smiled and looked into the eyes that had completely taken her in since day one. The only thing about them that had changed was there was a constant happiness in them, especially when he had Alexia in his arms. “I’m so tired,” he whispered to her, not breaking her gaze.

  “Me too, it was a long day.” She blushed; they hadn’t really talked about what had happened between them.

  “Yes it was, but I had a very good day. Did you?” he asked shyly.

  “No,” she paused briefly, “I had an amazing day.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” He yawned and pulled her tight against him. “No regrets?” he asked once her head was buried into his chest, holding his breath while waiting for her answer.

  “Of course not!” she said, lifting her head up to look at him. “You don’t regret it, do you?”

  “I have waited so long to have you, Alexia. It used to hurt so badly not ever being able to have that kind of connection with you. That’s why I had to pull myself away from you today. I didn’t want to pressure you into something you weren’t ready for, but at the same time I wanted it so badly.”

  She held a finger to his lips, motioning for him to be quiet. “I love you.”

  He moaned with pleasure at the sound of the words. “I love you so much more.”

  Suddenly, Cheri barged through the door, and then they heard Ellie and Roman yelling about something outside.

  “Alexia!” Cheri shouted. “I am going to strangle you for not telling me! How could you keep this from me? This is, like, so freaking huge. You should have told me the moment I walked through the door! I can’t believe I didn’t notice or realize or something! I always know everything! You know that!”

  They could hear heavy footsteps on the stairs and a second later Ellie and Roman appeared behind Cheri.

  “What the hell, Cheri, how did you do that?” Roman asked in complete shock.

  “Do what?” she said in an angry but confused voice.

  “Take off like that? You disappeared from right in front of us,” Ellie said, just as shocked as Roman.

  “I heard what Alexia and Demetri were talking about and I completely lost it! I just ran up here I guess. I don’t know, all of a sudden, I was just up here, okay? That doesn’t matter at this point, what matters is that my best friend lost her…”

  “Wait a second. You heard what we were talking about from the yard?” Demetri interrupted her.

  “Clearly that’s not the point!” Cheri yelled, her eyes turning dark as she started taking deep breaths trying to calm herself.

  “Roman, check the list, third from the bottom,” Demetri demanded. Roman pulled the list from his pocket and scanned to the bottom and read out loud.

  “Ability to use the defenses of those around them. Holy shit.” He looked up at Cheri, who looked confused again. “You could hear them talking from all the way down in the yard, and their window is barely even open.” He gestured toward the half-closed window. “Then you took off like a bat out of hell. You said so yourself, suddenly you were just up here.”

  “Super speed,” Demetri said, pointing to himself.

  “Super hearing,” Roman said, doing the same.

  “Aw man!” Ellie whined. “Your defense is so much cooler than mine. You suck, Cheri!”

  “Then that means…” Alexia began.

  “I might be able to use your special defenses, too?”

  “Try to make Roman do something or tell you something he wouldn’t usually admit to,” Demetri said, the tension in the room building.

  “I don’t know how,” Cheri said. She was not handling the pressure well.

  “Just look into his eyes and focus,” Alexia told her, “and the rest will just come to you.”

  Not sure about how things would turn out, Cheri nervously turned to face Roman and looked him straight in the eye. “Sit down,” she said in the same tone of voice Alexia used when she was making an Immortal do what she wanted them to. Immediately, Roman plopped down on the floor cross-legged and Cheri started to scream, squeezing her eyes shut and rubbing them hard. “My eyes!” she yelled. “They burn so badly!” She screamed loudly again. Roman snapped out of his trance and shot up from the floor, putting his arm around Cheri to comfort her.

  “I know it hurts, Cheri, but it worked! We figured out your special defense. This is just perfect. Not only did the original Immortals make sure they had a warrior unlike any other Immortal, but they also made sure you were friends with somebody who could mimic your powers. This is all just mind-blowing right now. This is going to make such a big difference going forward!
” Excitement was ringing in Roman’s voice and now that the pain in Cheri’s eyes was going away, she was getting excited too.

  “This is awesome. Now we all must make sure we’re at the top of our game, and then we can go see the picture of the Sapheneia. Alexia and I can trace it and then we can clear up what the prophecy truly says! What a great day it has been. Ellie and I both figured out what our special defenses are, I finally got to go and get some of my stuff, we know that we can trace the book, and, of course, Alexia lost her virginity! All in all, I say that makes for a wonderful day. Anyways, we will let you two go to bed now. See you in the morning!” Cheri ushered everyone out of their room, leaving Alexia and Demetri in dead silence.

  “Did she really just blurt that out for everyone to hear?” Demetri asked, looking just as stunned as Roman had when Cheri pushed him out of the room.

  “Yeah, she did.” Alexia lay back down into the pillows. “I’m sorry she acted like that. It was so uncalled for.” So much for savoring the memory, Alexia thought.

  “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault at all.”

  “I really just wanted to keep it between us, but then, because of Ellie’s defense, she found out, and then Cheri found out because of her defense, too.”

  “Don’t stress yourself out over it. What’s done is done.”

  Alexia sighed and returned to her favorite sleeping position: in Demetri’s arms pulled close to his body. “Tomorrow is going to be interesting,” she said into his chest.

  “Let’s worry about that tomorrow, okay?” Before he had even finished what he was saying, Alexia was fast asleep.

  ∞ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ∞

  Over the next two days, Cheri and Ellie perfected their defenses, and they all came up with different strategies to test them to their limits. There were so many factors that could disturb the strength of Cheri’s defense. They needed to know how close she needed to be to somebody to be able to use their defense, how good the person had to be at using it for her to be able to use it efficiently, and, of course, how long she could use it for.

  The easiest test subject was Roman and his super hearing. Roman stood on the porch while Ellie and Alexia sat inside the house chatting quietly. Cheri would slowly back away further down the beach, and by the time she was halfway to the water, she wasn’t able to use Roman’s defense anymore. It was quite a distance between them and that would help them immensely if they ran into trouble at Union Headquarters.

  Not only did they have to find out how strong Cheri and Ellie’s defenses were, but they also had to figure out how Alexia would be able to locate the book. Everyone took turns hiding random household objects such as picture frames, books, pots, cups, and couch pillows, and Alexia had to find them. It took her a while to figure out how she was supposed to use her special defense, which Roman and Demetri had described as a ‘pulling’ sensation. After failing at finding the huge pan that Ellie had hid in the tree outside the house, Alexia could feel anger bubbling up inside of her, so she tried a different approach. Instead of picturing the book that Roman was hiding, she imagined herself finding it and holding it.

  There was still no pulling sensation leading her to it, but an image flashed in her mind of her pulling the book out from one of her many shopping bags that still lay on the floor in her and Demetri’s room. Before Roman could even descend the staircase, Alexia was darting past him to retrieve the book and, sure enough, she found it. Adrenaline pumped through her body just as it did when she used her second defense on Demetri.

  After they knew that Alexia could trace objects and not just people, there had been many questions about what kind of trouble they could possibly get into at The Union Headquarters.

  “Amar still has people on the inside that can tell him we’re there.”

  “If you haven’t been called to speak to a Union member, you’re not supposed to be there, no matter what.”

  “Ahaz is probably still really pissed about us lying to you, so we don’t know how well he will react to us just showing up there.”

  Those were just a few of the concerns that had been thought up.

  Roman wanted to make a specific plan for every little thing that could go wrong. Where would they meet? Which exit would they use? At the mention of possibly taking another two days for the full plan to develop, Ellie had finally stepped in and told Roman off for being so cautious

  “Alright listen here, way-to-careful Roman, we have spent the past two days making plans, working on our defenses, and a whole bunch of other stuff to get ready for this little mission. I say we go tomorrow. We’re ready; no more making plans and no more excuses about not being prepared. We are prepared and we’re going tomorrow.”

  When he opened his mouth to reject her idea Cheri stepped in, too. “Ellie’s right, we know what to do if something goes wrong. I think we’re ready to go tomorrow, too, so let’s vote on it. Who says we should go tomorrow?”

  Cheri and Ellie lifted their hands in the air followed by Demetri and Alexia.

  “Sorry, brother,” Demetri said, “looks like we’re going tomorrow.”

  The rest of the day Roman was silent. During lunch that consisted of ham sandwiches and cut up fruit, he didn’t speak or look at anyone. It was clear he was not happy about the way the vote turned out. While Alexia, Demetri, Ellie, and Cheri played a game of beach volleyball to pass by some time, Roman sat inside alone sulking.

  After dinner, when Roman still hadn’t spoken to anyone, Cheri confronted him. “I know you’re worried about what could go wrong.” He had been lying on his bed staring at the ceiling but when she spoke he sat up and listened politely. “I honestly think,” she continued, “everything is going to be fine. Sitting in here thinking about everything that could go wrong, and how you think we aren’t ready, isn’t going to change anything.”

  It took a moment for him to respond. “I just don’t want anything to go wrong and if it does, which there is a huge chance it will, we should be prepared for anything.”

  “But we are prepared for anything,” Cheri said, exasperated. “If Ellie senses a lot of tension or anger, then we know we have to get out of there. If we get separated, Alexia and I will be able to find whoever we lose.”

  Roman sighed, as deep down he knew she was right that they were prepared for anything. But he couldn’t stand the idea of something going wrong. Cheri made to leave him alone again, but he stopped her, taking her hands in his.

  “I really don’t want something to happen. I don’t know how I would react if you or any of us got hurt or captured. I’m worrying because I care. I want you to know that.”

  ∞

  The Union Headquarters were located an hour inland from the old village Alexia grew up in. Even though they knew it was dangerous to take a portal right to the building, they did it anyway (much to the annoyance of Roman). When they stepped through the portal, they were five minutes away from their destination. They all walked in silence, reviewing the plan in their heads one last time.

  Demetri stopped at a winding dirt path that led up to a huge building; it almost looked like a mansion instead of a work building.

  The Union Headquarters had beautiful gardens all around it with flowers that Alexia had never seen before. Huge trees grew around the property shielding it from its neighbors. As they got closer to the building, Alexia could see that it was all made of old gray stone, it wasn’t cracking or falling apart, and it looked almost too well maintained. The big front doors were made of old wood, with two big brass knockers on each door with matching handles. They stood still for a moment catching their breath and then Demetri reached for the handle and pushed the door open.

  The inside of the building was surprisingly busy and loud. Through the thick front doors, they had heard no noise, no footsteps, nothing. Now it was almost so loud it hurt their ears; heels clacked loudly on the marble floor and voices seemed to reverberate off every wall. Groups of men and women hurried around the big front room, some going to elevators and other
s descending staircases located haphazardly around the foyer.

  Nobody seemed to notice the arrival of the five teenagers standing awkwardly in front of the main doors. Demetri took Alexia’s hand and led the way, weaving between the crowds of people and muttering apologies to those he bumped shoulders with. She kept glancing back to make sure the others were close behind them.

  “This way,” Demetri said, still yanking on Alexia’s arm. They headed down a hallway just off the left side of the main foyer. Office doors lined the hallway on both sides. There weren’t many people around, with only one or two people waiting outside a doorway.

  “It’s at the end of the hallway to the left,” Demetri instructed. “Go.”

  Alexia grabbed Cheri’s hand and they ran down the rest of the hallway, leaving Demetri, Ellie, and Roman to watch for any trouble in the middle of the hall. When they reached the end of the hall they made a sharp left into another large room not quite as busy as the one before.

  This part of the roof was made of glass, which let the sunshine come pouring through to dance off the marble floor. They searched the walls for the painting they were supposed to be looking for; Demetri described it as huge with three ugly men and two women. He said it wouldn’t be hard to miss but it was nowhere to be found. Trying to blend in with the crowd, they didn’t linger in the big room but instead took the hallway straight ahead of them.

  “I’ll look on this side,” Cheri muttered, looking up at the walls on her left. Alexia did the same on her right. There were paintings of mountains, trees, and one of a man and women holding a pitcher of what looked like blood. When they had reached the end of the second hallway, they still hadn’t found the painting with the book in it.

  “Should we go back?” Cheri asked. Alexia nodded, knowing they would have to regroup with the others and make a quick plan. When they were halfway back to the room with the glass roof, a door swung open right in front of them and out stepped a familiar woman. Astropos. She was wearing all-black attire again, with her hair pulled tight back in a ponytail, and her face was tired and stressed. Alexia and Cheri tried to push past her without getting noticed.