Ethereal: An Illumine Series Novella (The Illumine Series) (4 page)

Seriously, this freak was bantering with her? Rinae could practically see his ego oozing out of his head. “I’ve heard of people going a little extreme on the cosmetic surgery, but are you sure yours wasn’t less of a surgery, and more of a botch-job?” She gave a jerk of a shrug. “How the hell should I know what you are?”

Flexing his jaw, the man grinned wickedly. “By the time you’re nearly dead, you’ll know.”

Rinae squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a single, silent tear slip down her cheek.

“Rinae!”

Her eyes flew open in time to see a figure sprint out from the shadows. Tegen’s curls danced wildly around his head as he moved like lightning, a silver blade glittering in his outstretched hand. In seconds he was on the other man, pinning him to the ground and pressing the blade against his throat.

The blade turned red, glowing like freshly forged metal. It dug into the fanged-man’s neck, sizzling and burning the skin where it pressed.

Tegen spared no time with formalities or jokes. “Kill him, Rinae. Use your fire and finish him.”

She scrambled to her feet, eyes wide. Again, she had to wonder how Tegen had gotten here so suddenly, how he had moved so fast.

“I can’t-” she started to say.

“Yes you can!” Tegen fired back, struggling to hold the man beneath him. The blade pressed deeper into his skin, fire sparking on the silver. “He isn’t going to stop until he’s dead. Listen to your instincts, Rinae!”

Her instincts? Her instinct said to run like hell, to never look back at the two people brawling on the park ground. It said to burn everyone until nothing was left but ashes and embers, to incite riots with the power singing in her veins. Not once did her instincts tell her to kill the monster pinned beneath Tegen’s blade.

Not until now.

Raising her hand, she studied it in the pitch-black night. She could feel the heat waiting, desperate to be free after all these years. Could she finally be useful in the world, could she shine when it was impossible to hide?

A scream cut through her thoughts, and Tegen was flung backward into a tree. He slumped to the side, unconscious, and Rinae had barely enough time to register that he was hurt before hands reached out to grab her from the dark.

She spun around, screaming and flinging her hands out in front of her. That was all it took; she felt something unlock inside of her, a key turning and opening the door to everything. White fire rushed off her hands, exploding in front of her like fireworks. The man screamed, sprinting backward, clutching his face as fire consumed his hands and arms, until it swallowed him whole in a burning mass. Writhing, he belted out a wild scream before exploding into ashes, raining over a small patch of ground where he had been standing moments ago.

Rinae stood there, stunned. Had that really just happened? She had to be dreaming, had to have accidentally sipped a drink with some kind of drug in it. Maybe she was like Alice, and fell down the god damn rabbit hole into her own personal hell.

But the moan behind her said otherwise. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the faint shift of movement, Tegen stirring in his crumpled state.

A new wave of fury, white hot and concentrated, seared her veins. This was all because of him, all because he decided to dig into what she was and blackball her in public. She’d burn him alive just like the man, only this time she’d do it with glee.

Kneeling before him, she took fistfuls of his shirt in her hands, and jerked him upright. “What the hell is wrong with you? Is this your idea of fun, putting people in danger expecting them to react?”

His head tilted to the side, limp, but his eyes fluttered open. “That’s some power you’ve got there, Slayer.”

“Don’t call me that. You don’t get to call me that,” she hissed. Shoving him back, she turned and started to leave. No amount of words could make her stay. She’d rather see him choke on his own blood.

Behind her, Tegen’s low words carried with the faint draft. “There are others out there.”

She stiffened, curiosity picking at her like a bird to spare bread crumbs. It could be a bluff, she realized, or it could be the start of something she privately ached for over the last seven years; the truth. Acceptance, knowledge, maybe even adventure.

Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, screaming yes. Her brain logically fought back, reminding her it wasn’t real, magic couldn’t exist.

Could it?

Cocking her head over her shoulder, Rinae couldn’t believe herself as she asked, “Others like me?”

He was back on his feet already, back pressed against the tree. Tegen shoved his hands into his pockets, forcing the rigidness of his body into a slouch. “Yes,” he said, unwavering. “Others like you.”

“And how are they like me? Aren’t we, as humans, unique and individual?”

“You’re far from human, dear.” He winked. “And you know what they say, for every one of you, there’s at least six in China.”

What little cockiness she had drummed up shriveled and died inside her. Fire lanced through her veins, palms itching with the need to burn. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Neither of them moved, keeping the breezing distance in place. Rinae watched him as he shifted from one foot to the next, a mask of amusement bringing his lips to a tantalizing smile.

“They are like you because they are Nephilim.” His grin turned sharp, broadening to a smirk. “And whether you like it or not, there are others like the creature you just killed.”

“I didn’t kill-”

Tegen closed the distance between them in seconds, eyes sharp and bright. He hissed. “You did. You slaughtered a vampire who otherwise would have used your veins like a soda tap.”

Stumbling back, Rinae locked her fingers around the handle of the blade tucked between the waistband of her jeans and her bare skin. If he came that close again, she’d slit his throat and not think twice. Personal space invasions were an immediate no-no.

But other than crashing on her private bubble, everything he had done and said had been to help her. He told her how to kill that... thing. Part of her still wasn’t comfortable calling it a vampire. Vampires didn’t exist, they were make-believe creatures of nightmares and old folklore.

Then again, humans who could create fire with minute willpower and sparkling wings that glittered worse than the craft department shouldn’t exist, either. Maybe her delusions over her ‘gift’ had manifested as a dream. This had to be a dream, a really damn good dream.

“Say I don’t believe you,” Rinae challenged, pursing her lips. Thoughts of fanged freaks and balls of fire tossed in her head. “What happens? I take it I can’t just walk away from this.”

His shrug said she could, but his eyes contradicted just that. “You could walk away, but you’d try to find me within days, that I can promise you.” He sized her up, eye-balling her critically until she folded her arms over her chest in irritation. “At the rate your powers are developing, you’ll attract every supernatural creature in a fifty mile radius. If you don’t learn to control it and use it right.”

There was a way to control her fire? Rinae’s head began to spin faster, looping like a carousel on high speed. Her mind reveled; was it really possible to master the very complication that plagued her? Or was it a ploy by the mystery boy, luring her to something deeper?

“More will come,” Tegen continued, running a hand through his short black locks. “Now that you can see past the glamours.”

Glamours? Rinae pinched the bridge of her nose, willing the spiraling inside her skull to stop.

A scowl tugged her lips in an ungraceful manner. “So what, this is how it works?” She tossed her hands in the air, beginning to pace in small circles. “You tell me there’s a world of freaks out there, and I’m supposed to accept that on a whim?”

Examining his nails with disinterest, Tegen kept his face down. Only the edges of his mouth, tipping upward in a petty attempt to fight a grin, were visible. Humor colored his voice. “Perhaps.”

“Because that’s what you’re doing. You, the person I know absolutely nothing about,” she brought her hands down over her face, pressing her palms into her tired eyes. “Are trying to get me to believe that the myths and fairy tales are true. Are you high?”

A sliver of laughter slips from Tegen’s tightened lips. “Well, when you put it like that, I guess I am trying to get you to believe. But something tells me you already did before I came along.”

Rinae’s hands slid off her face, revealing narrowed eyes as thin as knife slits in a bed-sheet. Saying she had believed in magic long before him would give him a smug satisfaction. Saying she didn’t believe at this point would make her a liar. Neither settled well with her.

Tilting her head up to the sky, she let out an exasperated breath. “Great. Next you’ll be telling me unicorns live in the park.”

“Actually-”

Her head snapped down instantly, anger blushing her cheeks. “Don’t. Don’t even go there.”

“Alright, I won’t. But you will regardless, you’ll think about all of it every minute,” he pressed, watching her with wary, sympathetic eyes. “I’m only trying to help.”

Rinae did her best not to sneer, but failed. “I can’t trust you. I don’t even know you.”

“Try.”

He made it sound so simple. As if it were possible to throw countless years of distrust out the window in a single shot, and welcome a stranger eagerly into her life.

Shaking her head, she took a step back. “I can’t.”

“You mean you won’t,” he said, sighing. Sadness streaked his face, bringing a bitter touch to his features. “It’s your choice. I won’t follow you, but when you’re ready, you’ll know where to find me.”

She opened her mouth to protest that it wouldn’t happen, but Tegen had already turned on his heels and started back into the park, vanishing under the waves of darkness surrounding them. Rinae couldn’t help but wonder if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life, or if she had just opened the biggest door to a world waiting for her.

CHAPTER THREE

JUST GETTING BY

“Delphine, you’ve got to sit down.”

“No, Loyal, I’ve got to go back out and find him. He’s waiting for me-”

“The baby-”

“To hell with the baby!”

The argument was starting, again, just as it had been for the last several weeks. Delphine was growing restless at home, sneaking in and out of the underground to go on what she called a ‘search’ for the man of her dreams, the one who fathered her child. Like always, Loyal had stayed glued to her side, insisting she keep calm for the child.

Because that was working so well.

Rolling back on her side, Rinae winced and sucked in a painful, sharp breath. It had been days since Rinae’s nighttime attack, and since she had refused to leave their underground home. Scratches and scrapes of raw skin covered patches of her body, and her ribs had been brutally bruised. When she returned home that night, Rinae had made it just in time to a nearby corner and barfed the orange juice she had downed. By the concern of Jake, she had been keeping quiet in his bed, wrapped in various blankets and shrouded in a corner of darkness.

And yet, all she could think about was Tegen, the boy who had said words that could free her soul, free her spirit, and free the power that tied up her insides.

A sigh escaped her lips, and Rinae forced herself to sit up. She shuffled out of bed, grateful Jake was not here to enforce her to get rest, and peered around the curtain hiding her from the commotion in the main room.

It was something straight out of a war movie. Bits of broken wood and cloth covered the floor, mixing with bits of candy wrappers and plastic bags. A shock of bubblegum pink hair flashed further across the room. Rinae looked up to see Delphine wielding a blade, one of hers, inching her way closer to the door leading outside.

Loyal had his hands out, pleading with the wild pregnant teen. “Del, come on, you know what happens when you get stressed like this.”

A raw, angry scream tore from her throat, hands flinging through her hair and running down her face. Her eyes were wild, wide-eyed and flickering back and forth across the room like ping-pong balls.

“I can’t wait any more, not one more day. He’s looking for me, I know it!” Delphine’s entire body shook. Her free hand hovered over her stomach, then jerked away in fear. “He promised he would come back for me, for our baby. I can’t wait for him, I need him now!”

Across the room, Loyal met Rinae’s silent stare. He shifted his chin ever so slightly, hinting at the door. Rinae didn’t need to be told twice.

“Hey Del,” Rinae called out, forcing the tone to radiate cheerfulness. Sleeves tugged over her arms, cautiously stepped closer to the pair. “Loyal giving you trouble?”

Loyal opened his mouth to yell, but Rinae silenced him with a dark glare. The terror in Delphine’s eyes dimmed. She seemed to hesitate between pointing the blade at Loyal, and pointing it at Rinae.

The knife turned back on Loyal. “Yes,” Delphine said. “He doesn’t want me to leave, no one does. Apparently I’m supposed to sit in a damn chair all day and wait for this kid to pop out from my stomach.”

Sharp tones, wild fear, and uncontrollable mood swings. Rinae knew this was one of Delphine’s bad days. Talking her down wouldn’t be easy, not without a few hours of distractions and extra hands.

Unless, she used her gift.

No, she shook her head, mentally cursing. No way in hell was she going to start making excuses to manipulate and twist people to better her surroundings. And she certainly wasn’t going to light Delphine on fire, not that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind before she knew of the pregnancy.

If this was going to go over well, Rinae would have to play into Delphine’s pocket. Sneering in Loyal’s direction, she spoke. “Well that’s stupid. Of course you should be looking for him. What if you went into labor and he wasn’t there?”

“Exactly!” Delphine nearly smiled with glee, happy to have someone understand her. “That’s why we need to leave. You, you could come with me, we could search-”

Rinae rushed forward, smacking into the blade and shoving Delphine’s arm high into the air. Delphine screamed, pushing back, but Loyal had jumped into the mess and locked down her other arm in a tight grasp. The blade sliced into Rinae’s hand before it fell free, blood and metal hitting the floor the same time Delphine collapsed.

The second she was down, Loyal jumped up, turning to meet Rinae’s gaze. Her eyes stood transfixed on the gash in her hand, blood running down her palm and bleeding into her wrist and sleeve. She heard Loyal curse under his breath, his hands taking her wounded one and examining it.

“Shit, go get that cleaned, Rinae. I’ll handle Del.”

She nodded, making for the small wash basin in the back end of the open room. It was a rusted bucket filled nearly to the brim with dirty water, cases of bottled water stacked alongside for use. Grabbing one of the bottles and popping it open, Rinae poured the lukewarm liquid over her hand, gritting her teeth as it stung. She tossed the empty bottle aside, ripped a piece of her sleeve, and created a temporary, makeshift bandage until she could scramble enough cash to grab gauze in a few days.

By the time Rinae made it back to the front of the main room, Jake, Carson, and Loyal were all hovering over a distraught, relentless Delphine. She noticed the faint, worn leather straps wrapped around her wrists, binding her to the recliner she flailed against.

“Let me out! Let me go!” She wailed, feet kicking at the dirty floor with force. “I need to leave this damned place.”

Jake’s cold voice silenced her pitiful sobs. “You’re not going anywhere, Del. Get over it.” Turning his stare to Rinae, the sharp coldness in his face softened dramatically. He left Delphine with Carson and Loyal, nodding once before taking Rinae back to his cot.

“It’s getting worse,” Rinae muttered, shaking her head. “She’s never going to learn, is she?”

A pained, stressed look tightened Jake’s lips. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, dropping onto the cot like a tired sack of potatoes. “It’s getting out of hand. At this point, she’s putting the child in danger. We may need to see if there’s any way of committing her.” He let out a near-quiet swear. “She keeps talking about him coming back for her and the baby, I don’t think she realizes it’s never going to happen.”

“Going to happen? She doesn’t even know who he really is,” Rinae nearly laughed, but it was far from funny. “I asked her once about the guy, you know, in case we could possibly find him. She must of been high as a damn kite, Jake, because all she could tell me was that he was some kind of angel.”

In some ways, Rinae felt bad speaking about Delphine as she did. The girl had obviously gone through some kind of trauma, and now she was left to deal with the remains. In some ways, Rinae felt like her and Delphine could have been great friends if she wasn’t so nutty.

Pulling her down to sit alongside him, Jake took Rinae’s slashed hand, studying it carefully. Dark brown flecks of dried blood lined the cracks of her palm and fingers.

“Loyal said you got hurt trying to take her down,” Jake explained, stealing a glance at Rinae. “While I’m thankful you didn’t let her run out there wild and free, I’m not happy you got injured in the process.”

She shrugged him off. “I’ll be fine, Jake. Big girl, you know? I’m not a child.”

“You’re right,” he said. “You’re not. But you still need to be careful. Hasn’t even been a week, and twice you’ve come home covered in dirt and cuts and bruises, and fending off punks in the alley with weapons
alone.
Not exactly happy about that, either.”

If he was looking for an excuse to put her under house arrest, she would make it clear he’d need more than a few belts to hold her in place.

“But, you need to get out, I see that.” Jake continued, stunning Rinae with his words. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, squeezing affectionately. “Something out there just... calls you. You’re like a bird who needs to be free from the cage. So go, little bird, be free.”

Something in his words both caught her off guard, and raised her guard higher. Was this a test, a poisoned apple she was being asked to bite? Or was it real, and did he finally see that she needed as much space as the countryside to function in her disfunction?

Opening her mouth to thank him, Carson shoved his head around the drapes and crashed on their silent moment. Jake instantly went rigid, sitting upright and composing himself to a cool and calm mask.

“Jake, can my friend crash here for the night?”

The question was innocent enough, but you wouldn’t know that by Jake’s blackened glare. “Absolutely not. You know the rules, no outsiders.”

“But-”

“Carson, if more people know about this place, we risk losing it. The answer is no, and I’m not budging.” Jake nudged Rinae’s shoulder, signaling for her to leave. “I’ll see you soon, Slayer.”

Rinae gathered herself, and made her way out through the small metal door. Outside, it was a brisk and cold afternoon, not that unusual for New York weather. She made sure to pull her maroon hoodie over her bright red hair before she decided to venture randomly into the big city.

When Rinae wasn’t clubbing, or sleeping off days in their underground home, walking was the next best thing that cleared her head. She didn’t have to explain herself, or dodge fights on the busy, bustling streets clustered with people in trench-coats and wielding briefcases, moms with strollers and teacup puppies in their arms. Walking allowed her to think, give pause to the odd chain of events that had been building so suddenly in her life.

First, there was Tegen. They’ve met twice in the last couple of weeks, and still she knew nothing about him, not even his full name. All that stood out in her head was the dark curls that framed his face, and the rich skin that part of her wanted to touch. He lingered in the back of her thoughts, a light in her life. And like a fly, she was drawn to that light and nothing else.

But the hiccups disrupting her recent day-to-day didn’t end there. Jake was still trying, desperately, to understand what had happened between them. Delphine was one screaming match away from a psych ward with drugs and straps. As for Loyal and Carson, she barely spent any time talking to them lately, lost in her own seclusion and need to be away from their home.

And then there was her gifts.

At this point, there was no way denying what was part of her. She was different, a blue sock in a sea of red. Something, she didn’t dare say magic, flowed in her veins. For every explanation she could logically come up with for the events in her life, four more tied to the impossible were more likely. Fire didn’t just normally shoot from human skin. Normal humans couldn’t manipulate other people into forgetting and thinking different things.

So what was she? Tegen had said so himself, that others existed like her. Did that mean she could find them, or did that mean that Tegen knew them? Turning a corner into a less-traveled area of the city, Rinae slipped into a small coffee shop to briefly warm up.

The shop was tiny, and at best could only seat a dozen. Chairs of various styles sat at several small, round mahogany tables decorated in various menus and stand-up ads displaying special drinks for each week. Cream colored walls trimmed with dark brown framed the small front room, each side covered in different paintings and posters until no wall space was left. It screamed of small town charm, but sported drinks fit for even the city’s biggest, strongest caffeine addict.

Looking up and down the small room, Rinae spotted a set of booths alongside the grand window at the opposite end. She’d taken two steps forward when she stopped, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Seated at the farthest booth from the door, a familiar olive-skinned boy with black curls sat with a cup of tea and several books.

She narrowed her eyes to slits, drawing up her chest and stomping up to his table. Her fists clenched tightly at her sides, and she struggled not to strike him in the jaw right then and there.

“Are you following me?”

His lips brushed the edge of his cup, steam rising from the scalding dark liquid. “Interesting theory, Watson. Have you evidence to back your wild, frivolous claim?”

Rinae’s cheeks flamed red. Scooting into the booth across from his seat, she kept her eyes narrowed. “This is my spot. You can keep your pretty little face if you leave, or I’ll give you a nose job free of charge.”

“My, that’s quite the temper you’ve got there. Tell me, is it a front you use to look all big and intimidating, or are you really sharpening your tongue on razorblades?”

“Get out,” she growled. She wasn’t going to play his games; punks like him got a black-eye, robbed in the night, and tossed into the dumpster for good measure. Right now, all three of options sounded fantastic, maybe even better if she could wipe the smirk off his stupid face.

For a moment, Tegen simply stared. The tiny white china cup in his hand stayed steady and true, hovering in front of his hitched smirk. He took a careful sip, pinky raised in the corniest of fashions. “Seeing as how I was the first one here, having a grand afternoon with tea and fresh literature, I believe I will pass.”

“Tegen-”

“In fact,” he continued, smirk growing with each syllable. “I’d even go as far as to say it might be
you
who is following
me.
You really should reconsider your nickname from Slayer to Stalker, you enchanting little creeper.”

White hot rage boiled under her skin. Rinae pursed her lips, trying to think of something, anything, to smack back at the infuriating idiot sitting across from her. But all she wanted at this point was answers, and Tegen was the only one who could provide them.

She could feel herself struggling to say the words out loud. They seemed to wrestle with her tongue. “So, what happens now, exactly?”

“That depends,” he said calmly, setting his cup down on the table. “On if you are ready to believe or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you willing to open your eyes and accept the world for what it really is? Are you willing to open your eyes and accept
yourself
for what
you
really are?”