Aconite (The Elektita Series Book 1) (13 page)

"En alia
vivo." His voice was sad as he cradled me in his arms. I didn't
understand. I couldn't quite wake up, our night had been magical. Full of love
making and hard rough sex. We had talked of plans for the future, ways to stay
hidden from my family. They would be looking for me soon so we had packed what
we could before we had fallen asleep. Something must have happened—the look
that he gave me now was far too pained to warrant good news.

Sharp pain tore
through my chest drawing wet warmth down my belly. The world twisted and grew
hazy as I was finally jarred fully out of sleep. Sebastian still held me,
rocking, slowly in our bed. Tears flowed down his face. Never before had I seen
this warrior of mine show weakness. He was always the epitome of strength. I
needed to know why he looked so broken but the words wouldn't form. I watched
as he grew farther away. My breath grew short. I had been stabbed. Who would do
such a thing? I did not think my family had figured out what I had done—not
yet.

I was dying, that
I was sure of. Guilt gnawed at me. How could I have made him sleep so soundly
that an intruder was able to get past him to me? That was it he was crying
because he couldn't save me. Healing wasn't magic that he possessed. Not since
the change. I reached my blood soaked hand towards his face. I wanted to wipe
away his tears, reassure him that he could have done nothing more. I couldn't,
my arm would not respond. Sebastian's body spasmed with his growing sobs. The
world was beginning to fade; soon I would be at the mercy of the Gods. I said a
quick prayer that they would look kindly on my life.

My world felt as
though it had shifted as I looked down on my lifeless self-curled into
Sebastian's bare chest. I knew it then. There had been no intruder. His hand
still held on to the dagger that was buried hilt deep into my chest. He had
taken my life and the plan had been laid out hours or days before. The salt
circle that prevented my spirit from holding on had been poured all around the
bed we shared. It felt odd looking down on the last moments of my life knowing
that my lover was also my murderer.

My eyes flew open
as I simultaneously lurched out of bed, flinging Sebastian's arm off me in the
process. Sebastian had put a dagger in my heart. I had seen the whole thing. I
had felt myself float away, able to see in full color the truth of it all.
There was no intruder. Sebastian would not have let a murderer escape,
especially someone who had killed the one he loved. We were alone in the room.
He did it himself. I felt the bile rise in my throat as I replayed my newly
acquired memory over and over.

"What is
it?" Sebastian had awakened and was beside me in no time. I beat my fists
into his chest with my eyes squeezed shut. I couldn't even look at him. I
wanted to wedge a knife into his chest like he had mine.

"You murdered
me!" I wailed and continued to slam my fists wherever I could manage. He
didn't move out of my way, letting me hit him over and over until my muscles
became too weak to continue.

"You took my
life in this very bed." No wonder I had such a physical reaction when I
first saw this bed. He flinched back like I had struck him. I looked up into
his face to find a single tear had escaped and now slid down his cheek. He
grabbed me, folding me into his body. I couldn't find the comfort that I had
once before; the memories where far too close to the surface. He held me so
tightly that my breath came out in short pants.

"I told you
no more, you stupid, stupid girl." His voice weak with strain as his tears
slid through my hair. This was the moment I wished more than anything that my
tattoo would do its thing. I didn't want him to touch me. He had no right to
cry when my death was by his hand. I sank my teeth into his chest, a bitter
metallic taste moved across my tongue. That got his attention. His release,
hard and abrupt was welcomed.

"I'm leaving.
I don't fucking care what you say! Take me back to the Inn." I grabbed my
bag off the floor. I didn't even want to change; my mind had focused on escape.
Whatever I left behind was of no importance. I could buy more. His eyes
followed every move I made as I slipped my feet into the flats that Richland
had brought with my things.

"You cannot
leave; I won't allow it. No matter what your feelings are towards me at this
moment. There are things that you don't know that makes up a much larger
picture than you or I." His words caused an explosion of fury within me. I
dug around trying to use it to spark the magic that I possessed. Maybe I was
stronger than the Vero. Minutes passed and nothing happened. I couldn't do it.
Damn Jonathon and Sebastian, both.

"Then I will
walk!" I wasn't bluffing. I was more than capable of walking to the main
road. Then I would hitch a ride to town. There was no way I was going to stay
another night with him.

"You don't
even know where we are. It is dangerous out in these woods at night, even more
dangerous for you. Animals are not all you have to worry about." I had
been pacing the room, bag in hand, for what felt like forever. I hated to admit
it but he was right. I had no idea where I was or even how I got here. I headed
towards the bedroom door anyway. Before I could even make it into the hallway
Sebastian stood, blocking the path.

"You. Are.
Not. Going, Anywhere." He slowly emphasized each word while increasing his
volume, causing the last word to come out more like a roar. His words had been
meant to intimidate me, I was sure of it, but the bite mark on his chest took
away what reaction I would have had. Where my bloody teeth prints should have
been, his tan skin was flawless. I still had the faint metallic taste that was
the key identifier of blood in my mouth so I knew I had really bitten him. But
here he stood healed in record time. He caught my hand just before I could
touch where I was sure I had left the mark.

"Please."
My request came out a whisper. He brought my hand to his chest; laying it
directly where I had bit him.

"There is
much that you do not understand." I remembered he had called himself a
werewolf, again he was right, there was much more I did not understand.

"Then I will
sleep on the couch. Alone." I wanted to get as far away from him and that
bed. I never should have let him stay with me. That was one piece of
information I could have lived without.

"So be
it." He stepped aside letting me pass. I rubbed the spot where he had
stabbed me, not from pain, but the memories of it. How could you cradle someone
in your arms that you loved and stab them in the chest? Sebastian obviously
wasn't human so maybe he didn't think like one. His tears and outright remorse
didn't read right for a man lacking empathy.

"What did you
say just before you stuck that blade in my chest?" I remember the words
like they were my own. En alia vivo, obviously wasn't English. There was the
same disconnect within my dreams as there was in real life. It felt like me but
wasn't. We shared the same memories, thoughts and feelings but yet she was not
me. I did not understand her language.

"In another
life," he said, handing me a blanket to sleep with. When I grabbed the
blanket he wouldn't release it. Instead he pulled me closer to him.

"It was a
promise that I intended to fulfill."  Before I could protest further he
cupped my face in his hands and brought his lips down, claiming mine. In
betrayal of my thoughts I deepened the kiss. Our tongues fought much like we
had. The kiss was carnal, it felt rushed and angry, our teeth slammed into one
another as if in a battle. He broke away before I did.

"Now get some
rest, Alexis. Tomorrow is a new day and everything is about to change.

I reached my
finger to my swollen lips. I had just kissed the man that murdered me. I think
everything already had.

The way his eyes
roamed my body felt dangerous, erotic, and places down low began to beg for his
touch. The feeling was harsh against the prudish life I have led so far. It
scared me; the things he could do to my body if only I would give in. My body
craved the danger, invited it. The need for him to take me, here and now, in
the middle of the cafe was exhilarating. I had never wanted anyone so badly in
my entire life.

"Alexis, did
you hear me?" My thighs clenched with the sound of his voice.

"I told you
never to come here no matter the reason." He trailed his fingers across my
belly as he passed. A small thump fought back in protest. I knew they were
going to meet for their weekly updates. Sebastian had told me to stay home but
I couldn't. He had begun to trust that I would stay where told so I took
advantage of his growing trust and spelled my way out. Used his own teachings
against him. I wanted her to be a part of his life. I wanted him to watch her
grow. None of us knew how much time I had. This was unprecedented. To live this
long plus be carrying a child. I took a sip of my tea. It felt good, God I
missed coffee, neither of them would let me even look at caffeine let alone
drink even a cup. They had been searching scrolls and ancient texts since the
day I announced my pregnancy, trying to find something that would help what had
been a virtual consistent for hundreds of years. They would come and I would
die. Mack sat down next to me concern and sympathy wrapped his face.

"You’re not
supposed to be here. The house is the only safe place for the both of
you." I knew that but being cooped up, only leaving for a few minutes at a
time, was hard on me. Richland visited daily and Jo even came from time to time
but it wasn't the same. Seasons will come and go and I won't get to enjoy it. I
missed watching the people of this town that I had grown to love. I rubbed my
rounded belly. She was worth it. Her safety was above all else. Hell, Jonathon
and Sebastian had even come to the same agreement.

"Arrrg."
My face meeting a hardwood floor was never a good way to wake up. My back ached
and my head was pounding its way to a migraine. I hadn't been asleep that long
but my body hated me at this moment.

"Are you
okay?" Richland's laugh preceded his concern.

"Yes, I'm
fine." I picked myself up off the floor, stretched and soaked in the light
of the sun. It felt great, far greater than sleep deprivation should feel. The
dream held me still. I couldn't shake it. Like all the others it felt
impossibly real but the scary part was I knew this one hadn't happened yet. I
rubbed my belly knowing good and well it sat empty.

"Do I only
dream memories of the past?” I tried to mask how scared I sounded with the
remnants of sleep. It must have worked because he didn't even give me a second
glance.

"Of course,
your dreams have always been to remind you of what you are. Why, did you have
another dream?" He was interested now. I couldn't risk it getting back to
Sebastian though. I wanted to keep some parts of me as my own and until I
figured out what that dream meant I would do just that.

"No, actually
I didn't dream at all." He gave me a skeptical look but let it go.

"What time is
it?" I needed to steer this conversation away from my dreams. I bent down
stretching to touch my toes. I felt like the tin man frozen for far too long.

"It's three
thirty in the afternoon." The smell of coffee had me standing bolt
upright. Mm mm...Caffeine. After the dream I had, caffeine sounded fabulous.
Richland had two steaming mugs of coffee in hand while he waited for me to
finish my stretches.

"How did you
know I would wake up soon?" They all seemed one step ahead of me.

"I knew you
had to wake up sometime. You have died many different ways but death by sleep
hasn't been one of them." God, why did he have to remind me of my many
lives and many deaths? I didn't want to remember how one of them had been at
Sebastian's hand because that would just lead in to the memory of our kiss. Now
I knew why Jonathon carried so much hate for Sebastian. He had killed the women
that he loved. 

"Don't even
remind me." I took a deep drink out of the mug he had handed me. Even
though the coffee was far too hot to drink it still felt good as it burned a
path down my throat. I was a coffee junkie, what could I say?

"What, too
soon?" He shot me a wicked grin. Yes, jokes about my death would always be
too soon.

"I can't
believe you let me sleep all day."

"Don't you
mean two days?" I let his words sink in. I had slept for two days. No
wonder my body ached and my head felt like it had been kicked in by a horse.

"Are you
sure?" I had never slept for even an entire day in my whole life and now
all of a sudden I could sleep for two and the sad part was that I couldn't even
put that in the top five of the weirdest things that had ever happened to me
anymore.

"Yes, I do
know how to read a calendar. When the sun rises and falls twice in the sky it
generally means two days." His sarcasm was not amusing. "Hence the
coffee readily available; I had to keep awake somehow." He nodded taking a
drink out of his mug. I looked him over. He did look disheveled and the dark
circles under his eyes defined lack of sleep.

"If I was out
cold why did you not sleep?" A twinge of guilt crept through me at the
fact that it was my fault he looked like death warmed over.

"Boss’
orders." Why, oh, why did everyone seem to follow what Sebastian said?
Even I was guilty of that hence the fact that I was still here.

"Where is
Sebastian anyways?" I knew he had a day job but being here in his house
without him felt odd. Plus, we had a deal. He had things he needed to tell me.

"He is out
but left strict instructions to call him as soon as you wake." I wanted to
talk to him but that kiss in my latest dream made any further conversations
more complicated. I didn't want to talk about either one. I knew technically we
had been far more intimate. But that was another life, another time. It was
easier to make myself believe that it wasn't truly me.  Richland had left me
with my coffee and thoughts while he excused himself to call Sebastian and
inform him that his prisoner was awake. I could hear his muffled voice in the
next room. The conversation was short and to the point, I suppose, because
Richland had made it back in the room before any in depth conversation could
take place.

"He will be
here in a few hours," he said taking a seat next to me on the couch.

"So what’s
stopping me from leaving? I don't want to be stuck here for another few
hours." So far Richland and been the only one that hadn't done anything
wrong or maybe it was just a matter of time before I had some vision, memory, dream,
or whatever you want to call it that showed his true colors as well. But for
now I would give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I'm sorry
for snapping at you but I have a job I need to get back to as well as a room
that has a bed that won't send me into a blubbering heap on the floor."

Richland had said
that I was asleep for two days but I was still utterly exhausted. He gave me a
sympathetic look. Wow, his eyes where so much like mine.

"I heard
about what happened." How much did he know? Did Sebastian give him all the
details up to and including our kiss? I sounded like a child but it was not
every day that someone knowingly kissed their murderer and liked it.

"How can you
stay with him? If I was your sister then it was your sister he murdered all
those years ago." He looked down at the mug he clutched in his hands. A
great sadness that always appeared when anyone spoke of her wiped the happiness
right off his face.

"He did not
murder my sister. Alesiya was your third life." From what I had gathered
Alexandria was my first life, so if Alesiya was my third, then who was I in my
second life?

"My third; I
was someone else in between?" I felt my brows pinched together as I
finished the question.

"Your second
life was a fluke. You died even before anyone knew you had been reborn. Your
family felt your death and rejoiced with little care as to who witnessed
them." My family rejoiced at my death. What had I done that made them hate
me so? I chose to hold on to that instead of how he just defined one of my
lives as a fluke. I needed someone that I didn't despise right about now.

"We were born
together, as twins, in the summer of seventeen-seventy; nine years after
Alexandria died."

Two things struck
me hard: One, Richland was my twin. I stared at him trying to find anything
that would prove him right. We stood at the exact same height and our eyes
where exactly the same. I leaned forward; he even had the same odd green spec
that sat in the pupil of his right eye. The second thing that had struck me was
I had been young when Sebastian had stuck a dagger in my heart. Twenty-five if
I had done my math correctly.

"It's true.
Well sort of, Alesiya and I where twins. Not you and I of course, but with each
life from then on you still have kept the few things that made us twins."

I remembered now
how Sebastian told me that Alexandria was before Richland's time. The never
ending flood of information that I waded into was beginning to wear down on my
ability to be surprised. It kind of made sense though. I had noticed our similarities
right away and the feeling of kinship was quite strong even though at the time
I didn't recognize it as so. It was hard to believe that only a week ago I was
living a very sheltered life, tucked away from anything supernatural.

"Are you
reincarnated?" He hadn't regained his handsome smile and I felt a flicker
of pain in my heart.

"Alexis, you
are the only one to bear that particular curse. I am Lupo, like
Sebastian." That didn't make any sense. If we were twins how can I be a
witch reincarnate and him be a werewolf?

"I made a
choice after Alesiya died. I knew that she would come back, maybe not as her
but as someone else. So I chose to become Lupo so I never really had to lose my
sister." He answered my question even before I asked it. He had given up
his humanity for her. I knew twins had a deeper connection than regular
siblings and I guess it made sense if you had the ability to stay with her in
some form or the other you would choose to no matter what that took.

"Tell me of
her." I wanted their story. Maybe it would access those memories of hers I
had. I could give Richland what he had given up everything for.

"I want to, I
do. But I can't, it would be too dangerous right now. The Vero is nothing to
mess with." Was it really that strong that even two days later it still
made me vulnerable? I relaxed my body and felt for that hum that was a constant
along my tattoo. Nothing, my superpowers where still on the fritz.

"Well then,
if my answers are going to be limited I'm out of here. People are probably
looking for me." The only other people that would be looking for me would
be Jo or Jonathon and I didn't really care if either of them found me at the
present time, but I needed an excuse to get the hell out of there. I could not
be stuck there any longer. The Vero be damned. As far as I knew there were only
four people in this town that could use its affects to their advantage. All I
had to do was steer clear of them. But I needed one question answered before I
would go.

"Sebastian
said that animals weren't the only things out there that could hurt me. What
did he mean?" He began fidgeting with a frayed string in the seam of the
couch those same hazel eyes purposely avoiding my gaze. He was nervous.

"I don't know
what he was talking about. You'll just have to wait ‘till he gets back to ask
him." The hell I will.

"No can do,
buddy. I have things to do, places to be, and here is not one of them." I
grabbed my bag that was leaning against the couch and headed for the door. The
only reason I was here in the first place was for answers and those had just
been cut off.

"You can't
even if you tried. Sebastian placed an entrapment charm around the entire
house. We're both trapped here."