Emanare (Destined, #1)

by Browning, Taryn

  “You didn’t,” Sam said, shocked.

  “He’ll be fine,” Evrik dismissed. Sam didn’t speak. “I’m just joking, Sam.”

  “I know what you meant. And as for your mind-control ability, don’t worry; you may not be able to change my thoughts, but I’m realizing you have many effects on me physically.”

  “Don’t tempt me. I may not leave.” He laughed and twirled her ponytail with his fingers. She loved it when he did that.

  “Evrik—”

  “Yes.”

  “Why aren’t you angry with me for what I did with Cale and Chase?” Sam gazed out the passenger-side window, too ashamed to meet his loyal eyes.

  “Please look at me.” Sam shifted her glance. His irises were their usual lush green. “I only have weeks left with you, if that, at the rate you’re changing. I want to make our time meaningful. You’re going through a lot right now. I’ve been around long enough to know not to sweat the small stuff. You are what’s important.” He tapped her nose and formed an incredibly adorable smile.

  Evrik exited the Beemer, circled the rear of the car, and opened the passenger door for her. He lifted her upright and pulled her into his chest, wrapping his muscular arms around her.

  “Is this okay?”

  She nodded in response to whatever he was saying. Her only focus was on his lips. They looked so soft and warm. She imagined what it would be like to kiss him outside of her dreams and sporadic memories.

  After a quiet pause he cupped her chin in his hand and whispered, “Please be careful.” He bent down to find her lips. His lips fit perfectly on hers. Their tongues touched, igniting a frenzy of sweetness within her mouth. She wanted to grab him and never let go. They moved in perfect rhythm, his lips pleasingly tickling hers. The world spun around them, like they were the center of everything, in the midst of a centrifuge. Their kiss was more intimate than Sam could have ever imagined, making the built-up anticipation even more rewarding. Her new memories were wonderful, but the real thing was mind-blowing.

  Sam arrived back in her room and didn’t see Lauren. She figured Lauren had gone out with Ryan. Sam called her mom before she went to bed, who assured her she was doing fine and reminded Sam to be careful for the millionth time.

  The next morning Sam woke to a knock on the bathroom door, meaning it was Ann or Vicky. “Hey Sam, Lauren, can I come in?” Sam was relieved to hear Ann’s upbeat voice.

  “Come on in.” Sam yawned. Ann burst through the door like a ray of sunshine. Her curly red hair bounced around her shoulders.

  “Have you seen Lauren?” Ann asked.

  “She hasn’t been home since yesterday. I figured she was with Ryan.” She didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt something was off.

  “We usually walk to Biology together, and she wasn’t downstairs. I thought she might still be getting ready.”

  “Maybe she walked to class with Ryan.” Sam’s words shook. An uneasy feeling crawled underneath her skin. Sam knew Lauren was most likely with Ryan, but she felt a grave danger thinking about Lauren. The feeling was strong and gripped at her. She felt it deep in her bones.

  “Call Ryan.” Sam swung her legs over the side of the bed to retrieve her phone. "I'll try Lauren."

  As she feared, Lauren's phone went straight to voicemail.

  “I have his number in my phone.” Ann scrolled through her address book. “Hi, Ryan, it’s Ann. Are you with Lauren?” She paused, listening to Ryan speak. “If you see her, please tell her I waited for her outside the dorm.” She paused again. “Okay, thanks, Ryan.”

  “What did he say?” Sam feared Ann’s answer.

  “He hasn’t seen her since yesterday, after lunch.”

  “I’ll try to find her. You go to class and I’ll let you know what I find out later,” Sam insisted.

  “Okay, but if you need me, I’ll keep my phone on vibrate during class.”

  “I’ll call you when I find out where she is. I’m sure she’s fine.” Sam jumped up, pushed Ann out the door, and immediately called Chase and Evrik. Something was very wrong.

  CHAPTER 22

  Sam paced her dorm room, starting at her bed, past the sink, past the bathroom door, past Lauren’s bed, to the door, and back again. Her steps could have easily worn a hole in the depressing gray carpet. Chase was in class, but surprisingly answered her call anyway. He told her he would slip out of class and meet her in her room. Evrik had to drive to campus from his house. It would take him a few minutes. He was bringing Alea with him.

  What if Cale has Lauren? Sam could feel it. Lauren was in danger. It wasn’t like Lauren to just leave campus without telling her or Ryan. She couldn’t believe this was happening. What had she gotten her friends into?

  Sam answered a knock at the door. Without making eye contact, Chase brushed past her, crossed the room, and slouched down in her desk chair. “When did you see her last?”

  Sam joined him on her side of the room. She plopped down, legs crossed on her bed, hoping he felt uncomfortable by her stare. She wanted to get a reaction out of him, anything but coldness and silence. “Yesterday, I had lunch with her and Ann. I went over to Evrik’s after lunch and didn’t get back until around seven last night. I figured she was at Ryan’s.”

  “So you didn’t see her this morning?”

  “No, Ann came looking for her before Biology. She called Ryan, but Lauren wasn’t with him. He hadn’t seen her since after lunch yesterday.”

  Chase assessed Sam’s worried face. “What do you think happened to her?”

  “Cale,” Sam whispered. She hoped desperately she was wrong.

  Chase growled. At that moment, Evrik and Alea entered her room. “Have you found her?” Evrik asked.

  “Sam thinks Cale took her,” Chase answered.

  Evrik moved next to Sam’s side and took a seat. “We’ll find her,” he whispered in her ear.

  “Thanks.” Sam reached for Alea’s hand. “Evrik already knows, but my mom fell down the steps Sunday night.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetie.” Alea’s sparkling silver eyes squinted worriedly.

  “Is she okay?” Chase said, slightly less frigid, but obviously still harboring ill feelings.

  “She’ll be fine. A few broken bones and cuts and bruises, but she’s healing.” Sam sighed. “The point is, Lauren took me to the hospital to see my mom. When I saw my mom, she told me about the destiny of the women in my family. It usually skips a generation, so she thought I wouldn’t be affected…at least not directly, maybe my daughter. Not that I have to worry about children now.” Evrik put his hand on hers.

  “What else did she say?” Chase prodded, ignoring Sam’s sadness.

  Sam’s mouth fell open, astonished by Chase’s indifference. “She said Cale would stop at nothing to kill me before I completed the change. My protector, whoever that is, can’t guard me now.”

  “Why does that make you think Cale has Lauren?” Evrik asked.

  “Cale has realized that he can’t defeat me. Even though I haven’t completed the change, I’m stronger than he is. I was able to use his ability against him.” Sam hesitated. “This is going to sound crazy, but I can feel it somewhere deep inside. I can feel Lauren’s fear. She’s in trouble, and it’s entirely my fault.”

  “What are you saying, that you can sense fear now?” Chase said with bitter sarcasm.

  “She can,” Alea said. “Angels are very intuitive. Usually angelings are not powerful enough to feel so deeply, but Sam is different. She’s not the average angeling.”

  “Does that explain why she was able to use Cale’s ability to stop him from killing her?” Evrik asked.

  “Yes. Someone has provided her with her gifts early. She shouldn’t be able to do any of this yet,” Alea said.

  “My Aunt Rose—” Sam said.

  “What?” Alea asked.

  “My Aunt Rose came to me as an amazing ball of light every time I was with Cale.”

  “Can we not rehash you sleeping with a demon again?” Chase
frowned, crossing his arms and staring out the expansive window. The panoramic view displayed organized rows of towering oak trees forming leafless, horizontal lines. Jagged sticks topped their thick trunks.

  “Cut it out,” Evrik glared at Chase. “Go ahead, Sam. What happened with your aunt?”

  Ignoring Chase, Sam continued. “Saturday night was different. The light was much brighter, and I heard my aunt speak to me. She told me to look inside myself to the inner light, that I had the strength to defeat Cale. You see, my aunt is an angel. She died when she was eighteen; well, at least everyone thought she had. I believe she gave me the strength to defend myself.”

  “I agree,” Alea said. “But I also think there is something special about you. The archangels have a purpose for you. You have been surrounded by magic and powerful abilities since you arrived at Tolbert.” Alea looked around the room. “Evrik, me, Draylan, Malachi, and even Chase are all examples of the power that surrounds you.”

  “But who is my protector? I don’t know anyone else who has an extraordinary gift.”

  Vicky appeared at the bathroom door. “It’s me.”

  Everyone’s jaws dropped.

  Sam gasped. “How can it be you…you don’t have an ability.”

  “Yes, I do.” Vicky flung her hair back.

  “If you had an ability, I wouldn’t have remembered you. But I remember you, clearly.” Sam rose to her feet. She didn’t know how she felt—angry or relieved.

  “No shit, Sherlock,” Vicky responded. “Who do you think took your memory?”

  “No…you’re kidding.” Chase was no longer zoning out the window; his eyes were fixed on Vicky’s. Two sets of blue eyes locked onto each other. Vicky broke Chase’s deadly stare.

  “If you’re my protector and somehow took my memories, why were you gone so much last semester with Brian? Shouldn’t you have been here protecting me?” Sam asked. She realized she was shaking.

  “You’re the reason we broke up. I had to spend all of my time making sure you weren’t getting yourself killed. You had to go and make friends with magical beings who had enemies. I wasn’t at home all of those times…I was protecting you.” Vicky stepped out of the bathroom and let the door slam behind her. “I’ve lived my whole life differently than everyone else, trying to fit in. Do you think I don’t hear what you girls say about me? Do you want to know the real reason I’m so ‘self-absorbed?’ I’m the only person I can count on. You girls don’t accept me, so why should I listen to a thing you have to say?”

  “So you’ve known about everything this whole time,” Evrik interjected, rising to his feet. “We’ve been working tirelessly trying to figure out why Cale was here and how Sam’s memory was taken, and you knew all along?”

  Vicky flashed the palm of her hand. “Hold up, special ‘Lightwarrior’ guy. I haven’t known everything.” Vicky crossed her legs on Lauren’s bed. “I knew Sam was an angeling. She was assigned to me when the ‘higher-ups’ found out she was attending Tolbert. Lucky for me, I was also attending Tolbert, so instead of going off to college to be ‘normal,’ I was assigned to Sam. It was my job to keep her alive until she started to change.”

  “But why take her memory of anything supernatural?” Evrik asked.

  “I wasn’t really at home for my dad’s birthday on Friday night. I followed Sam to Canton. I saw Cale lure her out of the bar and into a car. He filled her head with garbage and dropped her off in Fells Point. He tried to seduce her, make her believe she should be with him so he could get close enough to her when the time was right.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why or how you would take her memories.” Chase stared at Vicky skeptically.

  “I can read minds, and I can take away memories. Those are my abilities—oh, and I’m strong, like the rest of freak-show-uber-human society. Like you, Chase.” She smiled.

  Everyone froze in confounded silence. “If you can read my mind, why didn’t you listen to my real feelings about you when you asked me out?” Chase asked.

  Vicky laughed. “Huh, it’s too bad you’re so wrapped around someone who’ll never love you, at least not in the way you love her. You spend all of your time thinking about her. Memory or no memory, she will still love Evrik. Could you blame me for trying? I am human. I thought we might be a good match, you know, with our abilities.”

  “So you’ve known about me all along?” Chase’s words grew louder.

  “Pipe down, animal-boy,” Vicky said, planting her hand on her hip. “Yeah, I’ve known about you. Well, at least since you stepped foot, or paw, on campus. Anyway, I was there when you saved Sam from Valisk. Who do you think called to tell you she was in trouble in the first place?”

  “That was you? I assumed it was Alea.”

  “Nope.” Vicky smacked her bubble gum. “If it weren’t for me, your ‘girlfriend’ would be dead right now.”

  “Why don’t you just give her her memory back?” Evrik interjected.

  “I can’t. It’s done. Sam’s strong. She’s already getting it back. It will eventually come back to her.”

  “But why did you take it in the first place?” Sam asked.

  “I didn’t know any other way to protect you from him. When he left, I took away your memory of anything supernatural—that includes half-humans, humans with abilities, and demons. I wanted you to forget all of the influencing thoughts he planted in your head. I was hoping he would leave when he saw that your memory was gone. I guess I underestimated him.”

  “What about angels? I remembered my aunt,” Sam said.

  “My abilities don’t stretch that far. Angels are one of the only beings who are too powerful to block. Angels, and, well, demon royalty. I haven’t tried. They aren’t demons I intend to mess with,” Vicky said, twisting her hand around to check out her manicure.

  “So this whole time, you were my protector,” Sam mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief.

  “Yup, but there’s nothing I can do anymore. You are no longer one-hundred-percent human. You’re an angeling. My work is done. Now you can change and join the heavens, and I can try being a regular college student, finally.”

  “It’s not over yet,” Sam said sharply. “Lauren’s missing, and I think Cale took her. We have to find her.”

  “Not my problem.”

  “She’s your friend. It is your problem.”

  “Excuse me while you sort through your issues—” Alea broke the tension. The air was so thick it could’ve been sliced into pieces. “I’ll go home and create a seeing elixir. Maybe I can locate Lauren.”

  “Good idea. Fill the guys in, will you?” Evrik asked.

  Alea nodded and left.

  “So, are we done?” Vicky’s head rolled in Chase’s direction. He turned away and focused out the window again. “Now do you want to go out? Sam obviously wants Evrik, and even if that weren’t the case, she’ll be gone in a few weeks anyway.”

  Chase inhaled deeply. A stifled growl emerged from deep inside of his chest. His wild eyes slid over to Vicky. “Even if you were the last person on earth, I wouldn’t be with you." He stood up, still glaring at Vicky and swept passed the group. “Sam, let me know if you hear anything else about Lauren.” With the slam of the door, Chase left.

  “Uh, sorry about the memories. I seriously didn’t know this was going to happen. I was just trying to save your life.” Vicky disappeared through the bathroom door without another word.

  She and Evrik were alone.

  CHAPTER 23

  Sam lay on her bed, resting her head against her fluffy white down pillow, pondering everything that had just occurred. Her wing bumps began to hurt so she switched to her side. They still hadn’t gotten any larger, and fortunately the uncomfortable itching had stopped. But her wings were definitely forming; she could feel them developing. It seemed she felt stronger every minute. An unbelievable energy, like she had downed a case of Red Bull, minus the shaky I-want-to-jump-out-of-my-own-skin feeling. She was full of life, even though the life she knew wa
s coming to an end.

  Sam reflected on her conversation with her mother. She had seemed so vulnerable in the hospital. A side of her mother she hadn’t seen since her parents’ divorce. And now she had to leave her, just when she had started to understand her. They could finally have a meaningful mother-daughter relationship, one built on mutual understanding. Suddenly, the thought of not having her mother around to offer her unsolicited opinions made Sam feel afraid and alone. She had taken her mother’s love for granted and never fully appreciated how hard she’d worked to support her as a single mother.

  Sam buried her face in her hands and ran her fingers through her smooth, board-straight blond hair, clutching the back of her head in her hands. It was unbelievable that, of all people, Vicky was her protector—the thought had never crossed her mind. Which archangel would entrust my life to Vicky?—Michael, Gabriel, Rafael. Maybe they weren’t paying attention or had taken the day off the day my protector was assigned.

  But her supernatural friends had protected her, not Vicky. Lauren was missing, and Vicky refused to help find her. Ann couldn’t know they suspected Lauren had been taken by a demon. Thinking of Ann, Sam realized she hadn’t heard from her all day. She was sure Ann would have come sprinting into her room after her Biology class, asking about Lauren.

  She stretched, extending her legs over the edge of her bed, and placed her feet on the floor. Her muscles were stretched so tightly, they felt like elastic bands that could snap at any moment. A hot shower would help her loosen her aching muscles. Then she’d go find Ann.

  Sam let the warm water run over her. She inhaled the steam, letting the moist, dense air rise into her nose and settle down into her lungs. After washing her hair with her pomegranate-almond-scented shampoo, she drenched her mesh scrubby ball with lavender body wash and did her best to remove all of her stress. A shower was just what she needed to relax and clear her mind.

  Sam drew the curtain back. Ann stood in the bathroom, only a foot from the tub. Sam slipped trying to grab the curtain to cover herself up. Ann stared at Sam catatonically.