I look down and stare at my ring, the one Hunter gave me, and once again, I think
about the promise he made.
I have to fight. I have to go back to him.
I close my eyes for a split second and when I open my eyes and turn around, I find
Samael sitting up and staring at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Hunter gave you that ring, didn’t he?”
“Who else would have?” I snap back.
“Why don’t you just cut your losses now? Things will never work between you and him.
Not for the long term anyway.”
“Well, I’ll take whatever time I can get.”
Something changes in the way he looks at me.
“I’m just trying to help you out. You’ll end up getting hurt in the end and the longer
you wait, the tougher it’ll be.”
I give him a puzzled look. “Who caused you to get this bitter?”
He laughs. “I can’t say it was a person as much as life itself.”
He gets up and starts to walk away.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to the end of the hallway to see if I can do something about the wards
around the portal that brought us here.”
“Wonderful. And why are you just now mentioning this particular portal?”
“It didn’t come up before.”
UGH!
He leaves the room and I follow him out.
HUNTER
I refuse to leave the cabin where Kayla left this world. I hope maybe the demon will
need to come back at some point. Xavier also thinks that’s possible. He can tell
the demon has been here recently, so we wait… and wait…
As the days and nights go by, I get anxious. I start to feel like we’re wasting time
and I find myself at a loss for what to do. At this moment, it seems that my best
option is to find Benjamin and get him to help, and I despise the idea of trusting
a demon to help me find Kayla.
The decision to leave is actually made for me.
As soon as Chase appears in the cabin, I can tell by the look on his face that something
really bad happened.
“What is it?” Xavier and I ask at the same time.
“Earthquake,” he says. “This one did more damage than any other in history.”
I stand up, fast. “What about Kayla’s family? Are they okay?”
He nods. “They’re fine, but that was too close for comfort. I don’t think they’re
being targeted by the ones causing the destruction, but I still suggested to have
them moved to the Academy to keep them safe.”
“And?”
“One of the fallen was sent to talk to them, but they refused the offer. They said
Kim is safer there than she ever was and that they don’t want to bring up memories
from her life before now.”
I nod. “Can’t blame them.”
“Her parents want to talk to you, Hunter.”
I shake my head. “Absolutely not. I’m not facing them until I have Kayla with me.
I was with her when she was taken. I just can’t—”
“It wasn’t your fault, Hunter,” says Xavier.
“He’s right,” says Chase.
“I’m still not going back until I have her.”
Xavier sighs. “Waiting here is not working. Our best chance is to find Benjamin.
I know you hate the idea, and it may take a while to find him through Stephaine,
but he really is our best chance. I’m sorry.”
I nod and glance at Chase. “Please go back and keep an eye on her family. Let them
know I need to find her and I have no intention of going back until I do.”
Chase promises to remain watching over them and leaves.
I take one look back at the portal where she was taken from and take a deep breath
before we leave the cabin and go on a search with no leads. All we have is hope that
Xavier gets lucky enough to be able to track Stephaine.
KAYLA
No matter what or how long we tried, nothing could be done about those wards. Our
Nephilim abilities, as far as that goes, are mostly useless.
Fortunately, some of our abilities are still of good use and as soon as we sense the
demon near, we run back to the room, close the door, and act like nothing happened.
I sit on the mattress and Samael sits next to me.
Suddenly, the demon barges into the room and he doesn’t look too happy.
Samael and I quickly stand up. Samael automatically gets in front of me and no matter
how intimidating the demon looks; I roll my eyes at Samael and step to his side.
He shakes his head and the demon gives us an amused look.
“How is training coming along? Soon I’ll need you to train someone else. I need
you to be ready.”
“We are—”
I cut Samael off. “We’re not ready.”
The demon’s expression changes completely. He looks infuriated, and Samael gives
me a ‘what are you thinking’ look.
“We aren’t,” I continue, ignoring Samael. “The wards limit our training. I don’t
know if half of what Samael taught me is working because I have no way to test it.”
The demon cocks his head to the side and smiles at me, a smile that makes the hair
on my arms stand up.
He takes a step forward and this time when Samael moves to be in front of me I take
a step back. Yeah… I’m not stupid.
“What exactly do you need to test?” he asks, amused.
I look over Samael’s shoulder. “There are things we can do to get into people’s heads…
to feel what they do and see what they see.”
“And that is useful how?”
I shrug. “It can help us anticipate their moves… know what they know. Sometimes,
information is more valuable than physical power.”
Samael gives me a ‘shut up’ look, which I ignore.
The demon looks at Samael and then back at me, “You’re smart and you look so much
like your mother,” says the demon, “but you also have traits that come from your
father and besides, I know what you are trying to do, little girl. I’ll move some
of the wards, but make no mistake that I’m not removing the ones I need to keep you
here. If you want to test getting into people’s heads, well, there are quite a few
lost souls roaming around outside that window. They are all yours.”
I step forward and look straight into his cold and empty eyes. “You’re wrong,” I
say, “I may look like Irene, but don’t you ever compare me to either of them again.
They didn’t raise me and we are nothing alike.”
He shakes his head and smiles. “I didn’t exactly raise some of my own either, yet,
we are who we are.”
I open my mouth to tell him he’s wrong, but he quickly turns around and leaves the
room. Within seconds, we know he’s gone from the house.
As soon as he leaves, Samael grabs my wrist, turns me around and looks at me.
“What the hell are you thinking?”
“Let go of me!” I yell.
He gives me an apologetic look and lets go of my wrist. Never once do we lose eye
contact.
“I’m thinking that him weakening the wards gives us a better chance to get out of
here.”
“You heard him… he knows what he is doing.”
“Yeah, well, weakening wards is tricky. If we’re lucky, he’ll make mistakes along
the way.”
Samael shakes his head but leaves it alone.
I look away from him and down at my wrist. I notice that the bruises that were on
my arms before are now completely healed.
“What happened to my arms before I woke up?” I ask.
He looks away. “I don’t know.”
“You’re lying!”
“Look, before you woke up you were trapped in illusions. That is probably how it
happened.”
“That is not possible,” I say.
He looks back at me. “What makes you think that?”
“Because I was with Hunter in those illusions. There was nothing that could have
caused the bruises.”
“Look, I don’t know, okay? Maybe you just remember some illusions but not all of
them.”
Knowing this is another useless argument that’s not getting me anywhere, I turn around,
walk over to the window and stare outside. This is the first time I truly look at
anything other than the fires and the Otherworld far ahead. I know the demon honored
his word and dropped some of the wards because the screams I once heard from a distance
are now closer. I even see a couple of the lost souls come near the house where we
are.
Samael gets closer and stands behind me. I hate the way I can feel him breathe down
my neck. He stays silent until I try to move. I turn around and he’s right in my
face. I avoid looking at him and try to move but he blocks me. “You’re not seriously
going to try and get into their heads, are you?”
“Of course I am. One of them might know a way to get out of here. I’m going to look
around for information wherever I can.”
He shakes his head. “You’re the most difficult person I ever met.” He pauses and
shakes his head. “I’ll help you.”
“Whatever you want.”
I stare outside and see a woman roaming around. I look over at Samael. “I’m ready
to try it.”
“How can I help?” he asks in an annoyed tone.
I look at him, ready to tell him to back off and let me do this on my own and I’m
surprised to see he’s nervous.
I take a deep breath to calm myself down. “Stand watch. I’ll be focused on her and
I need you to get my attention if the demon comes back.”
He nods.
I turn back around and look at the woman. I doubt she can even see me from where
she is. I close my eyes, focus, and it doesn’t take long for me to slip into her
mind and be taken into her memories.
There’s so much pain. I feel the tears run down my cheeks but I don’t stop. I can
see her at the scene of a car accident. She gets arrested for being under the influence,
and is taken away. I can see her in jail grieving for the people whose lives she
took. I can see her blame herself every minute of every day all because she made
one bad decision at a party. One day, the day she got out of jail, she just took
her own life. She walked into her home and her eyes looked emptier than ever before.
She was only in there for a few seconds. She grabbed her car keys, went outside
and got into the same car that was involved in the accident. She made sure the windows
were closed, the doors were locked, and she backed it into her backyard before she
drove it into the pool. A neighbor found her dead hours later. I keep my eyes closed.
This woman doesn’t belong here. She was never given a chance. She was never forgiven.
She just had no guidance and after making mistake after mistake, she ended up here.
Out of instinct, I focus on healing her. I have a feeling I shouldn’t, but I can’t
stop myself. As soon as I start thinking about the forgiveness that she deserves,
I no longer have her memories, but I feel what she is feeling now and I can feel her
looking at me. I instantly know that something about her has changed. She is now
scared and at peace all at the same time.
“Kayla,” I hear Samael.
I don’t respond. I open my eyes and spot someone approach her. She runs. I quickly
do the same to him, mostly because I feel protective over her and I don’t want him
to hurt her in any way. They are the only two around for now but the way he was looking
at her terrified me. I gasp as soon as I’m in his memories. He was one of the fallen
at some point. He’s with a young woman who he loves with all his heart. Then, I
can see when she’s older and he is still with her. He tells her about how one day,
she will be an angel and he tells her the things that she can do to quickly become
one of the fallen so they can be together. Telling her that got him sent here, to
Hell. I heal him too. When I open my eyes, I find him on his knees looking up and
me, and that is how I know it worked.
“God damn it, Kayla! Stop doing whatever you are doing and look at me!” Samael yells.
When I do, his eyes are wide open, and I can feel that mine are puffy from crying.
“What?” I ask.
He moves his hand toward me and for some reason I don’t flinch. I just stay still.
He touches a lock of my hair and I look down. The hair in between his fingers is
no longer blonde. It’s black.
I gasp.
“What did you do?” he asks. “Your hair… it is all dark except for this streak of
blonde hair.”