by Tamara White
His father has been on the warpath apparently trying to find her. We’ve also got to keep a close eye on her because there’s a spy who told him we were coming. That could have been the principal they told us about but I have a feeling it’s not.”
I down my glass before refilling it waiting for some kind of response. As much as I want him to say nothing will happen and she’ll never be in the underworld, something tells me it won’t be true.
“I know you want some sort of comfort right now but you know there’s nothing I can say. You already suspect what Evie’s going to do, don’t you?” he asks sipping his drink.
I sigh feeling defeated because I know exactly what she’s going to do. If it were me in her shoes and Jeremy had popped into her life, it would be like waving a flag in her face.
“Yeah, she’s going to try and make a deal. I just hope she doesn’t try it by herself,” I say choking back another glass.
“Look man, I suck at relationship advice but the best thing you could do, is talk to her. Tell her you suspect what she’s planning and that you want to help her. If she knows you’re willing, then she might make you a part of it. At least then she won’t be alone when she goes through with the stupid plan,” he says laughing.
He may not be the best at relationship advice but he did good then. Maybe once we get back home, Spencer will get his chance with Zoe again.
“Alright Casanova, I better get some sleep. The travel was more draining than I expected. I’ll see you in the morning,” I say putting my glass on the bench and going up to my designated sleeping area.
We’re all sharing rooms at the moment and the people who get the night with Evie are the only ones that get privacy. The rest of us just crash in either the spare bedroom or Mike’s room.
As I go up the stairs, I can hear the others talking so I know I mustn’t have been gone too long if everyone’s still awake.
I’m sharing a bedroom with Christian and Zach tonight. When I walk through the door they both immediately stop talking.
I sigh getting undressed and dropping to the air bed. “So what’s going on?” I ask waiting for one of them to start up talking again.
“Sorry man we were just talking about Jeremy and Evie. What do you think? Won’t it be weird being in a bond with your old girlfriend’s brother?” Zach asks grimacing.
“Huh. I never really thought about It like that. I just want Evie to be happy. If Jeremy is trying to be good and they want to bond, who am I to interfere with that? Besides don’t you think it’s weird that the two of you, who are brothers, are in the same bond? That’s got to be weirder than being in a bond with Jeremy,” I respond hiding my smile.
Truth of the matter is I don’t think it’s weird for either of us being in the bond together. I mean if Evie had a problem with it than sure it might be different but I don’t think she cares or notices. On top of that I’ve been alive for many years and seen many things worse than brothers sharing a woman.
“Shit, I guess we didn’t even think about that. You think Evie’s weirded out being in a bond With Zach and I? What should we do?”
“Relax man, I was just playing. If Evie was bothered by it, she would have said something by now. She’s not the type to hide her feelings if something bothers her. Well, only if she’s worried about hurting someone but even then, she would try to come up with a solution. Now if you don’t mind guys, I’m knackered. I’ll talk to you in the morning,” I say switching off the lamp closest to me.
Abrupt, I know but if I’m going to get my energy back, I need to sleep.
“Oh and just so you know, I invited Jeremy to come back with us on the condition he left his father. I told him to think about it but hopefully he chooses to come with us. Evie needs all of her bonds, especially if she wants to form a bond with Christian.”
I roll over leaving them to talk about all that I’ve said hoping they’ll keep it down enough that I actually get some sleep. Otherwise it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.
Evie
It’s taking every ounce of concentration I have right now not to laugh.
Mike and I have been in here trying to get our foresight to work but so far, I’ve gotten nothing. Mike has had snippets but me, I can’t seem to concentrate long enough to get one.
It’s Mike’s fault really. He said we need to sit on the floor, with our legs crossed and be at peace with our mind. What he didn’t notice when he moved me into the place he wanted me, was the full-length mirror on the opposite side of the room where you can clearly see my reflection. At first, I was able to ignore it but now I keep glancing at and all I see is a female version of a Buddha.
Christian gave me some clothes that he and Zeke brought for me today so after my shower I got dressed in some of the new stuff. I chose a gold tinged maternity bra and grey stretchy pants.
It was amazing that it fit so well and was so comfortable that I didn’t even bother wearing a shirt. He even got me some moisturiser that helps stretch marks which I gladly applied to my whole body but now I may regret it, just a little.
My skin’s shiny and the colour of my clothes make me look like a Buddha statue. It’s probably stupid to be laughing at myself but I can’t help it.
“Evie, if you don’t concentrate, you’ll never get a vision,” Mike says his eyes still closed.
“I’m trying, but I have to move. All I can focus on is my reflection in the mirror. I look like the female version of a Buddha statue.”
I get up and sit by his side with no mirror in sight. The whole-time Mike has kept his eyes closed so I get comfortable doing the same hoping I can concentrate better now.
It feels like forever but I finally start to feel the vision. It starts with emotions, pain, fear, sorrow, then the scene comes into view and I gasp.
The house has been burnt to a crisp and the forest surrounding the house is just stumps of burnt trees. I look up and see the sky is grey.
My vision goes from one scene to another, the school, my old house and then I’m left looking at the mansion.
People are fighting on the front lawn. Not people, demons and elementals.
Dane’s laying on the ground, blood oozing from his mouth. Mike’s fighting off three demons by throwing lightning and fire at them. Zeke and Jeremy are off to the side fighting off at least ten demons and clearly losing.
I look around seeing the others scattered about fighting demons, even Jimmy is here but I’m nowhere to be found.
All of a sudden, the demons turn as one and a man walks through them to approach my family.
“This is your last chance to stand down. Evelyn is mine! Her children are mine! No matter how hard you try, you’ll never get her back. She doesn’t want to be with you anymore however she made a deal for your safety but if you don’t stand down now, her life and your own are forfeit.”
I watch as each of the guys stop fighting. Even my grandfather stops. My heart breaks seeing what happens next.
The man smiles and black lightning shoots out of his hands hitting my family and the remaining elementals. They all disintegrate to ash the moment it strikes them.
I stand here in shock wondering what happened? What happened to lead to this?
“Hello Evelyn.”
A man appears at my side and I recognize him immediately. Only one person can have this much power.
“So you’re the Creator,” I say studying him.
He’s pretty normal really. Dane gave us a brief description but this is nothing like what he described.
“As I told Dane, I appear as what you think I look like. Now I’m here to talk to you about what decisions led to this moment. This was your fault Evelyn.”
My jaw drops in shock. All this was my fault?
“You see, I have given you eight bonds. Eight bonds to help you on the right path towards fixing the barrier and the world but you choose to ignore your bonds.
You keep focusing on your babies but do you think I would have allowed their creation if it wasn
’t important to what you are to do?
I control a lot in the world and while I can give you hints and nudges in the right direction I can’t outright tell you what to do. If I did that, the ruler of the underworld could break free from the barrier and what you saw here would be a reality.
I don’t have long here but I needed to see you when Destiny told me this would happen. Do you trust me, Evelyn?”
“How can I trust you? Everything I’ve been through and you’re still sending me on these wild goose chases. I don’t believe this is all my fault. Something else must have happened to cause this!” I rant frustrated by the vision in front of me.
It’s like a tv screen paused to remind me what happens.
“You either trust me or you don’t but I will say, if you follow the path I have you set on. Then this,” he says gesturing around at the mansion, “This won’t happen. Keep going on the path I had set out and your babies will be born safe and happy.
Keep following the path you’re on now, then everyone you love will die and you and your children will be possessed. Everything that happened here is because you chose to go to the underworld by yourself to make a ridiculous deal instead of talking to anyone. You can’t find a shortcut out of this.”
I blink and he’s gone, along with my vision. I’m back in the room with Mike watching me.
“Hey how long was I out?” I ask getting up and stretching my back out.
I don’t want to tell him of the vision yet. I want to process it and see what he meant and what I have to change to get back on the right path.
Chapter 20
Teddy
This morning was pretty normal apart from Evie being a bit more reserved than usual. She told she was thinking through some things and she’ll come to us when she’s ready but it didn’t stop me from worrying.
When we pull up in the school parking lot, a shiver runs through me making me doubt opening the door. Something’s going on. I don’t know what it is but I feel it in the air.
People are staring at us and my stomach churns knowing something bad’s about to happen. A lot of people are staring and the teachers that are out here, are avoiding looking at us. That alone tells me something horrible has happened.
We walk through the halls with Evie sticking between Dane and Ky when we see them.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?!” Mike shouts out causing a few girls nearby to scatter.
All over the school, there are posters hung up on nearly every wall. It’s a picture of Evie last night wearing her bra and pants that Christian and Zeke got her.
Across the bottom of the poster it’s captioned. “Whore pregnant, auctioning positions for father. Call this number.”
It’s even got Evie’s old house number with it.
Evie’s staring shocked and tries to huddle in on herself. There’s no hiding her pregnancy now. In the picture, you can clearly see the bump and now that everyone knows about it, it’s not going to be hard to look for it.
“Come on, just ignore it. Todays the last day. I don’t care about follow up results. We’ll pull some strings and hopefully Raphael can talk some sense into the principal too,” I say grabbing Evie’s hand and pulling her along.
I don’t even bother going to her locker, just walk straight to our first class. The others will take care of the posters while we go to class but I don’t want Evie watching. It’s bad enough she can see them on every wall as we walk to class.
I can only hope this blows over quickly but even while I’m thinking it, I know it won’t.
Dane
That conniving bitch! This kind of thing screams Catherine and I’m sure the others are thinking the exact same thing.
“I’m going to catch up but I’ll see you guys later,” Ky says quickly rushing to catch up, Zach following behind with a wave.
“I don’t know about you man but I don’t think I’ll be going to my first class,” Mike says looking at all of the posters hung up.
“Yeah me neither. Let’s go see if there’s a ladder around to pull these down. Hopefully there’s not too many.”
We were lucky enough to find a janitor who gave us permission to use his step ladder to get the posters down. It took almost our whole first class for us to get most of them down but thankfully there weren’t as many as I thought there would be. We weren’t able to check the girl’s bathrooms and knowing Catherine, it’s something she would do knowing we won’t go in there and risk it.
Mike ended up asking a random girl going to the bathroom to see if there were posters but she was sure there weren’t, so that’s a relief.
Once we’re sure there’s no more posters or other surprises lurking about, Mike and I collapse across the hall from Evie’s first class watching for anything that may go wrong. There’s no point going to class now when we only have five minutes until the bell.
All of my exams went pretty well yesterday so I’m done and just need my results but Mike still has to go to class next period. For now I let him sit with me knowing it will help him feel like he’s doing something to help.
“So how do you think Catherine got that picture without one of us sensing her? It was taken from my bedroom, on the second floor of a house filled with elementals and angels. She shouldn’t have been able to get that close without one of us sensing her or hearing her thoughts.”
It shouldn’t have been possible for Catherine or one of her cronies to get that picture without us feeling their presence.
That means whoever took it was most likely one of the people in the house last night or someone who knows how to shield themselves from us, Raphael and Zeke. And if that’s the case, then we have big problems.
“I don’t know but before we speculate, I think we should talk to Raphael and Zeke to see what they felt last night. If they felt anything off, then we can figure out our next step. If they didn’t then we’re going to have to look at one of us as being the ones responsible. I hope that none of us would do that but how else did that photo get taken?!”
I know one of us would never do it but Jeremy was as our house. Who’s to say he didn’t hang around after to take a quick photo of her?
All I know is whoever took the photo will pay for it.
Kylan
Whoever the fuck put those posters up, deserves a good dose of karma. Evie’s pretending that nothing’s wrong and all is fine in the world. She’s acting like it didn’t even happen but we can feel it through the bond.
Once class was over she happily walked to the next one but we can still feel her sadness and anger. I’m glad she’s angry because she deserves to be. Lately she would be all sad and mopey, just letting people walk over her but I have a feeling she’s pretty close to lashing out.
We’ll meet you in the cafeteria guys. Evie just wants to go to the car for a moment, Dane says to all of us through the bond.
We all agree understanding her need to have a moment before facing the whole school. Teddy and I line up to grab some snacks for Evie while the others all go out to her tree. In our rush to get out the door this morning we didn’t bring food with us.
Hopefully the food or being in her familiar safe place, she’ll feel more at ease.
“Hi boys, how are you today?” a voice asks from behind us. Before I finish turning around I know who it is. Who else would it be but Catherine trying to rub in her victory over Evie.
“Catherine whatever you want to say just get it over with. We’re not in the mood for it today,” Teddy says moving along the line picking up things Evie will most likely eat.
“Oh sure, I just wanted to see how Evelyn is today? Was pretty unfortunate that those posters were around the school. I’d imagine she feels terrible,” she says smiling innocently.
I ignore her focusing on the food. No matter how naïve she pretends to be, I know she had something to do with it and I’m not going to engage in her pointless attempt to get a reaction.
Teddy follows my lead trying to distance himself from her in the l
ine. Thankfully she walks off after a minute or two of silence knowing she won’t get more from us.
“Alright anything else?” Teddy asks me before we pay for our combined haul.
“Just a strawberry milk for Evie. She mentioned wanting one the other day but I forgot,” I say watching him grab one from the fridge.
On our way outside we pass by Catherine and her groupies, all discussing Evie. As much as I want to stop them, I can’t. Evie would be more upset if I said something to them, than if I were to leave it alone. It sucks being the bigger person.
“I’ve got food,” Teddy calls once we’re in earshot of Evie.
She immediately straightens looking at us and we both laugh at the look of hunger on her face. She reaches for the tray closest to her moaning when she starts eating. Everyone laughs as she digs in and I notice Jeremy sitting beside the tree too.
I wasn’t sure what would happen after yesterday but I’m glad he’s here so I can suss him out. Maybe if we can ask him some questions we can find out more about him and his intentions with us. I don’t want Evie getting feelings for him for him to just up and leave.
Mike
I enjoy watching the others throwing question after question at Jeremy, trying to gauge his endgame. He answers quickly glaring while he responds and Evie seems completely oblivious to what’s going on, just eating and engaging here and there but for the most part her food is her number one priority.
“So, did you go to school before here?” Evie asks between bites of her sandwich.
“I’ve been to multiple schools but never really finished. My step mother taught me all that I really needed to know so it never seemed to matter. Besides my father deemed my time better spent on more active pursuits. He wanted me as his personal killer.
The first time I left the underworld, I was fifteen. My father deemed me worthy of his rite of passage so I was sent here to do what he wanted. Little did I know, he sent someone to watch me over the course of my time here. I failed miserably, apparently because of the angel part of my physiology.