Nine Lives: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part THREE

by Akeroyd, Serena

  We all did, and Eve didn’t even flinch at the surge of attention aimed her way. She looked more tired than before, and the light that pulsed on her body was blinking more than ever. It reminded me of a game I played on my phone, where you had to remember a pattern and follow that pattern blindly.

  “What is it?” Eve slurred, and as we watched, she slumped in her seat as her eyes rolled back in her head. When she started seizing, we all froze for a second. I’d never been more grateful for a Vamp’s speed, though, because Samuel was there in the blink of an eye. His rapid movement actually stirred us all into jerking upright, but we were useless. Samuel wasn’t. As our woman began to convulse, he grabbed her and carefully laid her out on the ground, shoving the chairs out of the way so she could lie in a free and clear space. Her back arched, her body turned rigid, and the leaves began to glow and flash like they were strobe lights—then red spit began to froth at her mouth.

  What the hell?

  I watched Samuel check his watch. His hands were careful as he hauled his sweater over his head and, shaping it into a ball, pressed it behind her head. His hands hovered over her as though he wanted to touch her but knew he couldn’t.

  Around her, keeping the same few feet between us as Samuel had maintained, we all dropped to our knees.

  It could have been thirty seconds or thirty minutes, but I felt the passage of time like I never had before. I’d just wasted a day in a cave, and at some points, it had felt like the minute hand was ticking backward rather than forward, but now? It was on hyper speed. It scared the shit out of me because, once again, Eve was throwing us into the unknown.

  Finally, she stopped convulsing and with it, her new ink stopped glowing.

  As Samuel released a shaky breath loaded with relief, he checked his watch and whispered, “Eighty seconds. Shit, that was a long one.”

  Frazer cleared his throat. “Sammy’s sister has epilepsy,” he explained, and we watched as the Vampire pressed his ear to Eve’s mouth. His relief was evident when he shuddered, then reaching for her right arm, he elevated it and pressed her hand to her left shoulder. Raising her right leg so her knee was bent, he used that to tilt her onto her left side.

  Eren’s voice was tight as he bit off, “Still think we have time to kill?”

  The seven of us shot each other uneasy glances. He was right. Whatever the ink meant, whatever purpose it served, it wasn’t about to let us waste time, and it definitely wasn’t going to let us hide Eve.

  Not without Eve paying the consequences.

  ❖

  Eren

  “She okay?”

  I shot Stefan a look. “She’s still sleeping.”

  His nostrils flared, and I had my own private show of Stefan’s temper surging to life. He was pretty controlled most of the time, but most knew that the hotheads were the Hell Hounds, the Incubi, and Succubi. They naturally ran hot. Okay, that was a generalization. Most of us ran hot, but those souls were renowned for their tempers.

  “The drugs?” Samuel asked.

  I’d had this conversation with every single one of Eve’s Chosen. Well, Samuel wasn’t technically a Chosen yet, but he would be. We were all tied together in a way that someone somewhere might understand, except us, naturally. It didn't make sense for Samuel to be the final creature in Eve’s coterie, and for him not to be her Chosen.

  “Maybe. But it drained out of our systems two days ago.” She’d been unconscious for four fucking days. Four. I wasn’t the only one going crazy with worry. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t do the same with hers.”

  “We’re bigger than her,” he said, just as all the others had.

  “I know,” I replied impatiently. “What I don’t know is why she’s still sleeping, Stefan. We just have to figure out our next move and hope she’s awake for it.”

  His eyes flashed with concern, but he nodded, and with his arm in the doorway to the stateroom where Eve was sleeping, he launched himself backward so he could take off and retreat to the deck, which was our battle command.

  A pretty fine one too.

  The stateroom had a huge queen-sized bed that Eve took up a sliver of. It was covered in silky fabrics that she didn’t even snuggle into. She just laid there like some kind of weird Sleeping Beauty. It was creepy and terrifying at the same time.

  Silver cabinets gleamed on either side of the bed, picking up the reflections of her glowing ink and sending little light displays into the moldings that reminded me of the sun’s rays on the surface of a pool.

  At the foot, there was a sofa, and that was pretty much where I’d been sitting for as long as she’d been out. I slept with her but sat here when I was awake because lying next to her was an act of torture. I wanted to haul her into my arms and warm her with my body, but when I tried, she just lay there like a corpse and it was freaking me the hell out. She wasn’t cold to the touch, and her chest moved up and down slightly, but those were the only indications she was sleeping.

  She didn’t even snore, for God’s sake. That would have been beyond reassuring.

  She hadn’t needed cleaning up yet either—in four days, she’d yet to have need of the toilet… It truly was like I’d fallen into some surreal Snow White retelling and we were the seven dwarves, except they hadn’t been the ones to wake her up, Prince Charming had, and no way was another dude going near my gal.

  Fuck, who was I kidding?

  If he could wake her up, then I’d try not to castrate him, but that was all I could promise.

  With my ass on the dusky pink sofa, my feet in a cream sheepskin rug, and my body surrounded by girly, mirrored furniture that showed me how shitty I looked after hardly any sleep for four days, I was starting to get cabin fever.

  I’d self-appointed myself as her guardian while she rested, but it was starting to get to me. The fear and the concern were working their insidious path inside me, and I knew if I didn’t take a break soon, I could potentially crack.

  Arms braced on my knees, back bowed and shoulders hunched, I studied Eve’s quiet and restful features for so long, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed between Stefan disappearing and my phone buzzing.

  Blinking, I reached for the new cell Samuel had given me the other day, and studied the text.

  Samuel: Can you take a picture of Eve’s arm?

  I frowned and texted back: Why?

  Samuel: Please?

  My eyes narrowed, but I saw no harm in doing as he asked. Not that I’d hand it over without a fight.

  Getting to my feet, I stared down at the woman who’d Chosen me, tried to ignore the fact I wanted to bawl terrified tears like a kid, and took a picture of her arm that was laying neatly on top of the comforter.

  The dove gray sheets complimented her alabaster skin, and the contrast between her pale flesh and the glowing ink was all the more confusing. I’d never seen a tattoo like it. It was almost like henna, but as intricate as henna could be, I’d never seen this level of fine detailing on a henna tattoo. And yes, I knew what I meant by that. Henna was beyond detailed, but nothing like Eve’s tattoos.

  I raised her arm, discomforted as always by how limp and lax it was. If I picked it up, didn’t hold it, it would fall back down instantly. Bridging my fingers with hers to cover the mark on her palm, I snapped a shot of the underside of her arm, then took two more of the sides. I squeezed her hand then carefully laid it back down on the bed. Dipping over her, I pressed a kiss to her forehead and whispered, “I’ll be back soon, habibati.”

  No reaction.

  Naturally.

  Retreating from the stateroom, I headed for the deck. When I heard arguing, it didn’t come as a surprise, but when I called out, “What’s going on?” Everyone settled down.

  It was as plain as the nose on my face that without Eve as the glue, the two Packs were going to eat each other alive.

  With her at the forefront of our minds, it should have eased the agitation running between us, but it didn’t. If anything, the stress seemed to exacerbate the f
act that until her, we’d been enemies.

  That whole frenemy stuff was fading with every moment we stressed over Eve and with every moment she remained asleep.

  “I think I’ve figured out who to talk to,” Samuel declared, giving me a clue as to why he wanted the pictures.

  My eyes flashed with interest and I headed toward the dining table where there was some food laid out. “Tell me more,” I demanded, and kept my eyes trained on him as he seemed to contemplate his words.

  Of my brothers, I was the most rational, and because of that, I didn’t dislike Samuel, whereas his cool logical and robotic nature were always going to rub Dre and Stefan the wrong way. Nestor was a bit of a scientist. In another life, I’m sure he’d have studied biology or geology or something, what with his fascination for nature documentaries and for reading anything to do with Earth. For that reason, I thought Samuel didn’t grate on him either, but my other brothers were too irate to appreciate a man who remained cold and aloof under intense pressure.

  Samuel’s eyes were tired, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t slept either since Eve’s seizure. “There are very few credible parapsychology units in the world,” he rasped, lumbering over to me with a lack of grace that spoke of fatigue. Vampires were grace itself, so this was yet more confirmation that he hadn’t rested in a while. “The best is in Edinburgh.”

  “So, that’s where we’re heading?” I knew we’d been traveling toward the Northern hemisphere, but with no aim in mind until we finalized a plan of some sort. It was going to take us fourteen days just to hit the lower half of the Mediterranean, so it wasn’t like we were in any rush.

  “No.” Samuel poured himself some orange juice and took a deep sip. “I looked into the professors—”

  “By looked, he means hacked,” Stefan interrupted, but he sounded more amused than irritated. I shot him a look and saw that he had his feet in the hot tub with the bubbles off. As a creature of the sun, this yacht should have been his ideal getaway, but with Eve incapacitated? No. He looked inches away from setting fire to something. In his hands, he had a block of soap and was whittling it down with one of the dinner knives—something he only ever did when he was nervous.

  I empathized, but while I was glad he was doing something with his hands, his easy access to something he could hurl at Samuel put me on edge.

  Samuel was the only one of us who seemed to be proactive here—yes, I knew how ironic that was considering he wasn’t even one of Eve’s Chosen. Stabbing him would be the exact opposite of proactive.

  “You can’t hack ‘someone,’” Nestor pointed out drolly, as he grabbed a banana from the table.

  “Well, he hacked their lives, didn’t he?”

  Samuel grunted. “Yes. I did. Several times, but I found very little that would indicate they’d be able to help us. Sure, they have a course within the psychology department, it just wasn’t what we needed.”

  “Okay. So, what’s the game plan then?”

  “University of Greenwich.”

  I blinked. “Never heard of it.”

  “It’s in London. Well, you’ve heard of Greenwich Mean Time, surely? It was the international measure of time back in the—” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Never mind. UoG is a public university, and they offer not only more units on parapsychology, but it’s headed by two very interesting people.”

  I’d bite. “Why are they interesting?”

  “They’re a husband and wife duo. The wife is a specialist in ancient languages. She made her name in that sphere before, about twenty years ago, changing careers and forming an interest in parapsychology. Her husband? He specializes in the occult and claims to have come across creatures that are capable of ‘opening their maw and eating a person’s soul.’” He shot me a look. “I’m figuring that’s where their interest in the parapsychology shit happened. They came across a Sin Eater.”

  “You’ve been in touch with them?”

  “Yes. They want pictures of the tattoos. That’s why I asked for them.”

  Because I found that to be reasonable, with a few flicks of my fingers, I sent the images to him. The instant his phone pinged, he abandoned the sandwich he’d been building and sent them to the couple who might know something about what was going down with Eve.

  “We’re going to be getting off the boat at Gibraltar. It’s British territory in Spain. One of my family’s private jets will be waiting for us there, and it will take us to London,” Frazer informed us.

  “They haven’t agreed to meet with us yet,” I pointed out.

  Samuel snorted. “They will. This is just a formality. How many kooks do you think they hear from on a weekly basis?” He pursed his lips in disapproval. “They have to have some sort of vetting process, and a manifestation on this scale? Throw in the language? They’re going to bite. Trust me.”

  His phone beeped and we all laughed.

  “From your lips to God’s ears,” Nestor said piously, but we were all buzzing, hoping it was the professors.

  Samuel nodded. “Would seem so. They agree to meet with us on the eighteenth.” He shot a look at Frazer. “The jet will be there, won’t it?”

  “Yes. I arranged it through Harry,” Frazer replied.

  When Samuel caught my quizzical glance, he shrugged. “My family doesn’t like to remember I’m still breathing. If I have to use the Stafford fleet, then I arrange it through a cousin who doesn’t hate my guts.”

  “Did they say anything else?” Dre addressed Samuel.

  “No. Just that they’d meet us.” He reached up and rubbed his chin. “Now we just need to figure out what the fuck is going on with Eve.”

  “Maybe whatever it is that’s fucking with her will lessen up now that we’ve figured out a game plan?” Dre’s tone was hesitant but hopeful, and as batshit crazy as it sounded, it kind of made sense.

  Her passing out and sleeping for days straight had certainly taken away any interest on Reed, Stefan, and Frazer’s parts to keep her locked up in bubble wrap for the rest of her life. Instead, we’d all focused on figuring out what was going down with her, shifting our focus from the future to the present.

  “We can only hope. Normally, I’d say that was insane, but she passed out when we started dithering. If there ever was a prompt to get a move on with things, that was it.” Samuel reached up and rubbed at his eyes. “Now that’s sorted, I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me if there are any developments.”

  As he shuffled off, his shoulders hunched despite his success in tracking down someone who might be able to help us, I watched him until he’d left the area, and asked, “Are we throwing all our eggs in one basket?”

  Reed shook his head. “Samuel never does that. He has two other parapsychology units lined up if these two professors don’t work out, but they’re not as perfect for our needs as the two in England. According to him, we’d be heading to Edinburgh next if they don’t work out, and then New Orleans. There’s someone there who’s an expert on spiritualism and Voodoo.” He shrugged. “The best bet of finding what that fucking language is, though, is through these professors.”

  Scraping a hand over my hair, I rested it at the back of my neck and rubbed the tension that had been there ever since Eve had her seizure. I was thankful she hadn’t had a second one, but the need to be with her was riding me hard. Sitting there, gawping at her day after day, wasn’t doing either of us any good, but being away from her was setting me on edge.

  After that night with the McAllister infiltration, after what Eve had done to me, my Lorelei was close to the surface, and he was not happy about not being Claimed. Especially when his Chosen was there. The soul, even though he was decades old, felt young. Like it was taking baby steps in a place that had recently been full of other creatures. I understood it was having growing pains, but it was ramping up my anxiety to previously unreached heights.

  “Go to her, brother,” Dre rasped, jerking me from my thoughts with a clap to my back. “We can’t do anything now except
wait for her to awaken and reach Gibraltar. We’re going as fast as we can.”

  “Shouldn’t we hit land and try to fly?”

  “Maybe when she wakes up,” Frazer inserted, “but it depends. Do you really want her, after she’s been unconscious for so many days, to be stuck in a car as we drive across the desert to reach the nearest airport?” He grunted. “I know I’d prefer her to be comfortable here while she’s still so shaky.”

  Because I agreed to a certain point, I just nodded and got to my feet. I collected some food on a couple of plates, grabbed a few more dishes to cover what I’d gathered, then hauled a large bottle of water from the mini fridge that sat underneath the table.

  “You know where to find me,” I told them, and headed out without a backward glance.

  The nearer I was to Eve, the more my Lorelei seemed to calm down. It was weird to be tied to someone so intrinsically that the physical distance between you could agitate you. Having never experienced the like before, and not having spoken to that many Packs with Chosen, I didn’t know if it was normal or if it was another ‘perk’ to having an odd duck for a mate.

  I used my elbow to drop the doorknob and headed into the room. When I saw Samuel, I almost froze in shock. I hadn’t expected him to come here, hadn’t expected him to go anywhere other than another bedroom, but he was tucked in at her side, curled into her, and Eve?

  She’d curled into him.

  What the fuck?

  She’d moved. For the first time in four days, she’d moved?

  I was elated, but the Lorelei definitely wanted to sulk. Like a fucking kid.

  Sam’s eyes didn’t open when I moved deeper into the bedroom, and I carefully rested the snacks and food I’d grabbed to sustain me on the coffee table in front of the sofa. I took a seat, running my eyes over them both as I tried to see if there were any other changes in Eve’s status.

  She hadn’t moved an inch when I climbed into bed with her, so why was she now?

  Because she’d Chosen me already and hadn’t Chosen Samuel?