by Lexi Ostrow
“You bitch! What did you do to him?” the female shouted, fangs apparent for the first time.
Noted. Power or trait transfer is definitely a thing.
Hoping the fire would burn the Word Speaker the same way, she conjured a softball-sized ball in the palm of her hand. “I’m going to venture a guess that you’ll be as vulnerable as your vampire partner if I throw this at you.” She shifted her hand to aim at the vampire, who had finally ceased to howl. “Or, I can throw it at him again.”
The woman’s skin paled, and she put her hands up in surrender. “Don’t harm him again. We will leave and pretend this never happened.”
Kellie tsked and shook her head as she took a step forward. Alcott moaned softly behind her, and she wasn’t certain if she should be grateful he was making noise or terrified because of his condition. Walking two more steps forward, she stopped toe-to-toe with the woman just as a crack of thunder pealed through the dreary summer day.
“I want to know what’s going on. I want to know why the fuck we were just attacked when this supposed war isn’t underway.” She tossed the ball of witch fire into the building centimeters to the left of the woman and watched as it harmlessly fizzled out, unable to damage anything in what she considered to be the real world.
Her actions had the desired effect, and the woman visibly twitched. “We were sent by Demus, the one who leads us, to do away with you. Your powers are strong enough that he thinks snuffing out your existence will make it much simpler should this famed war take place in your lifetime. Our lifetime.”
That wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. Being targeted a week after finding out what she was meant the assaults would keep growing. And why the fuck didn’t someone mention this kind of thing could even occur?
A streak of lightning lit up the deep gray sky, and she looked up, fully expecting New Orleans to do its usual rain dump. Seizing the opportunity Kellie’s mistake had caused, the Word Speaker lunged, knocking her to the ground and pinning her.
“You will pay for what you did to my husband!” the woman shrieked and slashed her nails across Kellie’s cheek.
Doing her best to remember something she’d learned only a day earlier, she raised her knee and slammed it into the woman’s back. It caused her to loosen the grip she had with her legs, and Kellie rolled to the left, tossing the Word Speaker off.
She saw Alcott’s silver athame glint off the remaining sunlight. Hastily, she reached toward the weapon and slashed at the woman, who ran at her once again. A clean slice opened across the woman’s neck, and a bright streak of red appeared before practically bursting free as the woman clawed her own throat. Bile churned in Kellie’s stomach as she realized what she had done. She couldn’t control the shake of her hand, and the athame dropped to the cobblestone sidewalk with a clang.
“No!” the vampire screamed, and still slightly smoking, raced to his partner’s side.
The woman lay unmoving, and Kellie began to tremble harder at what she’d done. Could Alcott be in the same position? She needed to get to him, but not until she finished the man off. If she could muster another murder.
Imagining the fire roaring to life over every part of her body and growing into a ball in her hand, she was startled at how quickly it roared to life. The Guardian wasn’t paying her any mind as he crouched over the woman, audibly sobbing and visibly shaking.
“I hope Demus gets this message and realizes to back the fuck off,” she said, preparing to lean down, hug the fucking creature and ignite his body.
The sky opened up at that precise moment, drenching her and putting out the flame. She stumbled backward, knowing she at least had time to grab the weapon and strike him while he was too lost in grief. But as she watched him, it was as if his pain and sorrow were hers. The loss of his Word Speaker resonated through her and made her picture Alcott never waking up.
Spinning away from the painful scene, she turned to Alcott. Blood still seeped from his injury, and his eyes were closed. It didn’t mean he was dead, but it did mean she could not waste time killing the vampire. He would come for her again, she was certain of it, but she wouldn’t let that matter. She needed to save her Guardian. If he could protect her with his life, she could endanger hers to save his.
“Kellie!” a familiar voice boomed through the open space.
Her head jerked toward the sound, and she saw the man Alcott had called Ryce, the one who had gotten her into such a fine lifestyle. Standing a few feet from her, he was every bit as deadly and handsome looking as when he’d appeared the last time. Not to mention, the rain beating down on him only seemed to make his trench coat and the black shirt underneath mold to his sculpted body.
Rain!
She quickly put her hand over the wound in Alcott’s stomach. Like with slit wrists, the rain would cause him to bleed out quicker. Or so she thought. Hayley had been in medical school when they’d shared an apartment, but she couldn’t focus enough around her concern to hear her cousin’s random babble about that sort of thing.
“Can you save him?” she shouted over the steadily increasing wind and thunder.
“That is neither here nor there at present.” The man turned away and walked toward the vampire.
The man’s head shot up, and he clearly realized who the man before him was, though he didn’t skirt away from his fallen charge. Instead, the Guardian hissed and tried to tug her backward with him.
“My brother is a fool. A power hungry, mentally addled fool, if he thought he could succeed with a plan like this.” He picked up the dropped athame, which had been cleansed by the pounding rain. “He is showing his cards, and his desperation.”
The words were spoken in a tone so deadly, Kellie felt goose bumps break out over her skin and was silently thankful she was not the target of such power.
“And, I must tell you, I’m fucking sick of it.” He lunged, slamming the blade into the vampire’s heart. With a snap of his fingers, his foe’s neck whipped to the right and snapped.
Denege hit the ground in a lump, and Kellie felt her heart racing in her chest. Would she be punished for what had occurred?
“Please, Ryce, help him!” The desperation in her voice reminded her of how she’d sounded when she’d woken up screaming as a child, calling out for the father who could never come to her again.
“That is not my name,” the man said with a deadly calm, his back still facing her. He waved a hand, and the two bodies vanished as if they’d never been there at all.
When he turned, she saw the eerie glow in his eyes and the sharp fangs behind his lips. A strange compulsion stopped her from trying to attack him as he walked closer, anger radiating off him like a nuclear bomb detonation.
“I will not hurt you. I do not make it a habit to protect those in my care though.” He looked to Alcott, and some of the fury faded away. “I can help him, but just this once because he was a strangely part of my family for a time when I let him choose his fate. Otherwise, no. When a Word Speaker or Guardian are killed or injured in the line of duty, it is not my place or my right to help them.” His anger did nothing to ward off the intense magnetism he seemed to wear, pulling her in like a moth to the flame.
“Close your eyes. This could be unsettling.”
Without needing to be told twice, she squeezed her eyes shut, but not before wrapping her free hand around Alcott’s dangerously cold fingers. Suddenly, she couldn’t feel the cold slap of raindrops. Opening her, eyes she wondered if she looked as terrified as she felt.
“Where are we?” she demanded, not rising from her place at Alcott’s side. They seemed to be a room with no windows or door. A white room with swirls of pale colors — red, green, blue and more. Only the colors moved as if the walls were alive.
“You are between worlds. A place a Word Speaker should never see, but since you held tight to him, you had to come as well.” He peeled the khaki coat off and dropped it to the floor. With a wave of his hand, the air next to him shimmered, and a very normal looking
living room appeared behind it. “Go through to my home. Wait for me.”
Every instinct she possessed told her to listen to him, but the words, “I will not leave him,” spilled from her lips.
She moved as if her body had a will of its own then. Her hand lifted from the wound, revealing that the blood flow was finally slowing, and her other released Alcott’s fingers. Her body jerked to a stand, pulled by an invisible thread. She wanted to cry out, but she was unable.
“I do not like controlling people in such a fashion. But I need you to wait.” His voice boomed as he used whatever his power to throw her through the doorway.
Finally, she was able to cry out, and she pushed off her butt to race back through the doorway, but it was too late. It had closed, separating her from Alcott.
He sighed as he looked down at Alcott. His only friend’s coloration was ghastly white. Blood oozed out of a gash in his stomach, and his eyes remained closed. The small rise and fall of his chest was the only indication that the Guardian had not already passed on.
Bending, he placed a hand over the wound and concentrated. His eyes never left the injury, watching as it knit shut as expertly as if a doctor had done it. There was nothing else that could be done. He would likely need blood, but that sort of healing would go against the rules. No matter how badly he wanted to destroy Demus for his latest affront, Cal could not risk being taken away for punishment. Not when he was needed to protect his warriors more than ever.
Scooping Alcott up against his chest, he wondered what the fiercely independent man would think, knowing that he was being tended too once more. He needed to take Alcott to the room he had occupied, but he couldn’t leave Kellie unsupervised for long. Especially not if her cousin happened to walk into the dimensional rift. Gods only knew what sort of hell that could unleash.
With only a thought, the doorway to his living room opened once again. His sigh of relief was audible as he realized Hayley was not at her workstation. Kellie was, however, standing directly in front of it, and a momentary panic sliced through him that she might know whom the lab space belonged to.
Fucking uncomfortable in your own god damn home, he thought bitterly as he stepped through the doorway.
“He needs to rest, but he will live,” he said by way of getting her attention.
As Kellie turned, the relief pouring out of her eyes was enough to make his heart ache with jealously. After less than a week, it was apparent the two had found one another. His smile was genuine though. Alcott deserved a second chance as much as anyone, perhaps more. It was rare for a Guardian to stay so long with a Word Speaker only to be ripped apart out of the blue.
“Thank you. May I, can I, come closer?” she asked tentatively, even as she moved away from the slice in reality to walk toward them.
“There is no harm in that. However, he has a room here.” He nodded out the front door. “We are connected by a hallway of sorts. You may both rest there until he regains consciousness. I can protect you for that long.”
Something rather close to alarm passed across her face, likely because she had assumed they were safe in his home. However, he couldn’t protect them from Demus because of Huracan’s restrictions.
“What is that?” She turned and pointed at precisely what he’d been hoping she wouldn’t notice.
“It is a viewing window. I am able to watch all of the Word Speakers, in some fashion, by opening them. At times, I close them, and other times, I leave them open. In this instance, I am waiting to see if the person that works at that station is a Word Speaker.” Lying was easy to him, even when it was to that the people he should be honest with for their part in the prophecy.
“You can’t just tell?” She’d come close and was stroking a hand down Alcott’s cheek.
“At times, things are not what they appear.”
She nodded. “Hmm, well that looks an awful lot like Tulane’s hospital.” She looked up from Alcott and directly at him. “Would I get to meet them if they are a Word Speaker?”
“No. There are rules and guidelines. You are only here because I was too focused on saving Alcott. There will be no more questions. Should you wish to remain with him while he heals, you will come with me. Now.”
His tone left no room for argument. Though it wasn’t until he heard her light footsteps just behind him that he knew she would let it be. Her actions proved that he didn’t need to worry about Kellie’s commitment to Alcott, or her discovering that he was watching her cousin.
Chapter Twelve
“Kellie!” Her name tore past his lips the moment his eyes fluttered opened. Alcott bolted upright in the bed, panic setting like a lead weight on his chest as memories flooded back to him.
An attack.
A failure to protect.
His eyes rapidly moved around the room and the fear grasped him tighter as he realized he was back in the brothers’ realm. The white, swirling walls brought a bout of nausea so intense that he had no choice but to lean over and retch into the trashcan beside his bed.
His bed.
If he was back, then he’d failed. Kellie was gone, likely dead, and he was once more not worthy of being a Guardian. How could he have botched the fight and feel so fucking dandy? Jerking the white duvet off, he looked down at his stomach. There wasn’t even so much as a scar. Did you imagine everything? Was it nothing more than a pathetic dream?
He barely pushed away the wave of panic. There was no room for it, he was rational and would remain that way despite the situation even if he had to find a way to make his magic do it. If he’d truly dreamed up Kellie, perhaps it was time he accepted that he did belong in his book until called on. Maybe it meant his mind wasn’t strong enough to survive being more than a character when there was no Word Speaker.
Slowly, he looked around the room. Nothing looked out of place. He was back and uninjured. Everything had been made up in his mind. But why?
“I see you’re finally awake,” Ryce said, strolling in without so much as a knock.
Alcott’s stomach dropped. He’d obviously been asleep for a while, which confirmed he’d dreamed everything. Kellie wasn’t real and the amazing way they’d connected wasn’t real. Well, at least you didn’t fail then.
“Ryce, how long was I —” Alcott cut off mid-sentence as he saw Kellie walk in.
“I was going to interrupt and remind you, for what must be the millionth time, that my name is no longer Ryce, and I tire of you utilizing it when speaking to me. I much prefer to be nameless to my warriors. To my brother,” he said with the usual arrogance.
Alcott didn’t care. He pushed off the bed and had Kellie scooped up in his arms so quickly, that he was shocked he didn’t trip. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she buried her face against his neck. Her heart beat frantically against his chest as he just held her close, inhaling the deep and spicy scent that rolled off of her.
“You’re real,” he whispered as he placed a kiss on the top of her head, oddly excited to see the multicolored stripes of color were real too.
She snorted against his neck, but did not pull away. Instead, she merely lifted her head. “I believe that is supposed to be my line about the sensual book character currently holding onto me as if I were the most precious item in the world.”
Pulling her back he stared into her hazel eyes. Of course, there couldn’t have been anything more between them strong feelings and intense desire, but he couldn’t believe he was the only one feeling where they could go in time.
“You are my Word Speaker, and that makes you the most precious thing in the world to me.” His voice was deep with emotion cutting through the words and making them sound gravelly.
She smiled up at him and tucked her hair behind her ears, an action he was beginning to realize she did when she was nervous or embarrassed.
“Yes, well, you’re pretty damn important to me too, Alcott. You’re not allowed to die on me. Never again.”
“I died?” He jerked his head toward their benefactor, sho
ck racing through him.
“No, you didn’t. You would have though, had I been a moment later. You’re lucky I realized you were on Demus’ list at all. You, both of you, shouldn’t have even bleeped on his radar with how new and unfocused Kellie is.”
“I’m not unfocused,” Kellie growled as she finally moved out of Alcott’s embrace. “In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I murdered someone a day ago.” As she spoke the words, it was clear the gravity of them hit her for the first time. “Oh, my god. I murdered someone. I killed someone.” Her words were barely above a horrified whisper.
Alcott moved quickly, grabbing her and wrapping her against his chest as she started to crash to the floor in agony.
“I killed someone,” she whispered, over and over again in a chilling mantra.
Alcott did not know what to do. He placed a kiss on her head and cradled her against him before moving to the bed and gently laying her down. She wasn’t paying attention. Tears streamed in rivulets down her cheeks as she alternated between chanting and crying out at what she had done.
It felt as if he’d failed her all over again. No one should ever have to take another life. Even though they had been recruited as soldiers, she shouldn’t have been forced to know such torment until the war actually began. Or had it begun around them? It killed him to walk away from her, but he needed to know what had happened, aside from an attack that might have meant the beginning of the war.
“We need to talk,” Alcott said as sternly as he could muster.
The brother before him was nearly all powerful, and giving him orders was not something that ever ended well for a Guardian. Although he had saved Alcott’s life, it didn’t mean the man wouldn’t torch his ass for being pushy.
“My brother happened. My brother is always what happens.” The bitterness was so thick that it was a presence that lingered in the room.