Kissed (The Thorn Chronicles) (17 page)

“Okay.”

Puck put the key in the ignition and hesitated.

“There is no group. I need some time with you alone, but I knew Ginny wouldn’t let you go with me. We will be camping and I promise to be a gentleman.”

I breathed out. “That’s okay as long as I get the answers I need about Kai.”

Puck pursed his lips together, cruised down the interstate and out of town.

We drove through the ugliest land I’d ever seen. It was barren and flat. Sagebrush blew across the road. If not for the wind, the air would be scorching. After a bit Puck spoke.

“You know how you wanted to drown yourself in the pool last night?”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling foolish.

“Have you ever felt that way before?”

I thought about it for a minute. The taste of bile, the slight dizziness. And the rush of blood in my ears. It was a feeling that I didn’t feel often, but I’d experienced it before.

“Yes. Right before I threw a temper tantrum.”

“You?”

I grinned, a little embarrassed. “Yeah, I threw spaghetti at my father.”

He whistled. “I bet he was mad. Did you get grounded?”

My smile disappeared. And I lied. “Yeah, something like that.”

He seemed to sense the shift in my mood. “We’ve got a long drive. I’m going to pick up the speed. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

After a couple of hours the scenery changed suddenly. The road became crowded and the air hazy. Another hour later the ocean appeared. And I was in love.

“Can we stop?” I asked.

“Not yet. We’re almost there.”

Soon we were on a winding road with mountains on one side of us and the ocean on the other. The salty air was exhilarating. After about a half hour he pulled off the road and I marveled at the beauty of the ocean and the steepness of the cliffs.

“Come on,” he said. He led me down a small path toward the edge of a rock cliff. The cliff jutted out over the ocean and the breeze coming off the waves carried with it a mist.

“It’s important that you listen today. Pay attention to the nuances of the way things sound.” Puck stood in front of me, staring down with his intense gaze. “Close your eyes.”

I obeyed.

“What do you hear?”

“The waves, a few seagulls, and cars. I can hear cars on the road.”

Puck moved closer to me and whispered in my ear. “Listen closer. Find the sounds that you don’t normally hear.”

I listened. “There’s a rustling in the trees behind me. And a cricket. You, I can hear you breathing.”

“Very good, now open your eyes.”

He stood inches from me, a pained expression on his face. The wind played with my hair and the cricket continued his song. Puck didn’t speak, didn’t move, just stared at me as if I’d suddenly appeared.

He took my hand and placed it on the left side of my chest. “Now, you need to learn to listen with your heart.”

I inhaled, hoping he couldn’t feel or hear the racing of my heart. Silently, he led me to the edge of the cliff. I stood not a foot from the edge of the cliff and Puck stood behind me, so close that I could feel his own heart’s erratic beating.

“Do you trust me?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

“Good, that’s going to be important,” he said and moved in front of me. “Now, I’m going to remove your sense of sight and hearing. And I’m going to do it the easy way, because otherwise I wouldn’t have the energy to make it through the rest of the day.”

“What do you mean? The easy way?”

He hesitated, as if he was afraid of scaring me. “Well, I could use my power to remove your sense of sight and hearing, but I’d be so tired afterward that I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

He pulled out a blindfold and earplugs and grinned.

“See, the easy way.”

He slid a blindfold down over my eyes. “Before I put your earplugs in, I’m going to explain what’s going to happen. You’ll have earplugs in for about a half hour to forty-five minutes. We won’t stay here the entire time. Listen with your heart. When I touch your cheek like this.” He placed a warm palm on my face. “I want you to tell me what you hear in a single word. We’ll start with the ocean because it’s easy.”

“Okay.”

I had my arms tightly crossed in front me. He moved my arms to my side and forced my palms open. He then turned my hands so that they faced the ocean. I felt exposed, vulnerable. Then, he gently put my earplugs in. The deafness was startling. The inability to hear or see, relying only on Puck was not exactly on my top ten list of ways I wanted to spend a Friday afternoon. Plus, I was scared. Not that I would admit that to him.

Puck shifted out from in front of me and I crossed my arms again and clutched at my ribs. Puck stood behind me and pushed me lightly forward. I resisted, knowing the edge of the cliff was less than twelve inches from the tips of my toes. He laid a quiet hand over my heart, reminding me that I was supposed to be listening. I relaxed a little and he extracted my hands from the death grip they had on my sides. He held my arms out about ten inches from my body and faced the palms towards the ocean once again. Then he moved away. I started to shake, not quite sure of what I feared. I took deep breaths and tried to calm my quaking body. The salty air of the ocean soothed my emotions as I listened.

Energy flowed into me. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I could feel the waves crashing against the rocks. And the smell, it wasn’t exactly salty like I expected, but it had a lemony orange smell. The whole thing felt vibrant and alive.

As Puck’s hand rested on my cheek, I spoke the word.

“Exhilaration.”

He tugged me away from the edge of the cliff. I was reluctant to leave, but I stumbled along behind him. He placed my hands on hot metal and I deduced that we must’ve reached the car. He opened the door and I fell into my seat and fumbled with the seatbelt. Puck had mercy on me and guided my hand to the buckle.

The sensation of moving was disconcerting. My hair whipped in my face. The feeling out on the road was completely different then standing by the ocean. The car slowed then stopped and Puck once again found my face.

“Frightening.” Even though I couldn’t hear or see him I know he laughed.

I unbuckled and waited for Puck to come get me. I didn’t like being completely reliant on him. This time we didn’t walk for long before he took both of my hands placed them on the bark of a tree. I listened. This time I heard things that were different from when I stood in front of the ocean. The tree was quieter and calming and the smell was different than the ocean. Lavender. I’d never noticed before how ordinary objects held such power.

“Peace,” I said before he asked. Once again, I found that I was reluctant to leave. The calm lingered as he led me back to the car.

The next time he stopped, he helped me kneel on the ground near the edge of the road and placed my hands in the dirt. I could feel the wind from the cars as they raced by. I tried to ignore them and listened to the earth beneath me. My skin crawled and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I shivered and concentrated. Tears came without warning and I saw my greenhouse, all my roses dead. The smell of decay filled my nose. I stood abruptly and stumbled.

“Death,” I said as Puck caught me. He led me back to the car and I leaned against the door, facing him. I’m not sure how long we stood there. But I listened hard again, trying to wipe the horrible imagery away from my head.

He placed both palms on my cheeks this time. There was such concern and warmth coming from him. I could taste his emotion. Like vanilla ice cream and cinnamon. It was strange because usually I associated cinnamon with Kai. I didn’t know if I was supposed to answer or not, but I did anyway.

“Love,” I murmured. His hands moved to my ears and pulled out the plugs. I staggered with the noise. The birds, the ocean, the cars. I clamped my hands back around my ears. After a few minutes I removed my hands, and tried to get used the loudness of the noise.

“Alright?” Puck asked.

“Yeah. It’s loud.”

“I know, I’m going to take off your blindfold, but you’ll want to close your eyes before I do that and let them get accustomed to the light before you open them. Otherwise, it can be pretty painful.”

“Okay.”

I squinted against the sun for a good five minutes before I could fully open my eyes. When I did the first thing I saw was Puck smiling.

“You did a lot better than I thought you would. I wanted you to notice that the magic is just bursting to get out. Or in. And sometimes the magic is quieter, like the tree. Come here and look at this. I was surprised when you said death. When I went through my training I think I said something like sorrow. But you were more accurate.”

There on the side of the road was a cross surrounded by flowers. Someone had died here.

“Who?”

Puck shrugged, “I’m not sure. As far as we are concerned, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you felt it.”

“What does this have to do with Kai?”

“I thought you said you could be patient.”

“I was.”

#

Puck drove as he talked.

“The magic is all around you. You felt it and most people can on some level. You seem pretty talented at sensing it. That’s odd, because most of the time the only ones who can do that are like us.”

“What are Guardians?” I asked.

He laughed. “Hold your thoughts for just a little longer. We’re here and I want to set up before it gets dark.”

The campground was pretty isolated. It was right on the beach. There were other campers, but not many. Once the tent was up, Puck grabbed my hand and we walked down to the beach as he talked.

“Everything has an energy. The oceans, the trees, even the car. Everything, and everyone, has a different energy. What you were listening for today was that energy. It is what fuels our magic. You felt that the ocean and the tree were distinctly different as well as the place where some poor soul met his end. Most people feel it on some level. When you say some guy is creepy even though he didn’t do anything to you, it is because of an energy he put out. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah.” It made perfect sense. Each of my flowers felt different to me too. We sat down on the sand about thirty feet from a family building a sandcastle. A little boy laughed as he splashed water on his mom.

“Now, most energy can put into one of two categories. Positive and negative. As Guardians we use positive energy. Most of it comes from the world around us. We tend to stick to coasts and places with a lot of nature. Vegas is not a natural place for us, but we decided we’d have a harder time being caught if we centralized our efforts in a place that the Destroyers wouldn’t expect. Plus, we have other ways of collecting energy.”

Suddenly, I had more questions than I had answers. The ocean roared in front of us, but I couldn’t seem to coherently collect my thoughts.

“What do you do?” I asked, finally finding my voice.

“We manipulate energy and try to change the feelings of those around us. We make people happy.”

I thought about that for a moment. “That’s it? You make people happy.”

He glowered at me for a second. “Watch. I’m going to snap my fingers so you know when I act.” He pointed at the family on the beach. The little boy was in a tussle with his sister. They both had hold of a pail and did not want to share. Their shrieks were loud enough for the entire beach to hear. Mom and dad seemed to be purposefully ignoring them.

Puck snapped his fingers and the shrieking stopped instantly. The boy handed his sister the pail and toddled back to his mom and dad where several more pails lay. Then he joined his sister down at the water and they helped each other fill the pails with water.

“What’d you do?”

“I shifted their energy. Each was being selfish. I changed the energy to charity, which essentially means that they now care more about the other’s happiness rather than their own.”

“How?”

At once, blood rushed to my head and butterflies buzzed around my stomach.

“Holy smokes, how did you do that?”

“I can create the emotion and send it to whoever I want. Most of the time though, I only use it to make people feel some form of happiness.”

I snorted. “So you just go around making people sing kum ba yah and love each other.”

“You make it seem so trivial. We have huge influences in governments and corporations. We are the reason that the world doesn’t completely go to shit.”

“I’m trying to understand.”

He stood up and offered to help me. “Yeah, sometimes I don’t completely understand it myself.”

We walked along the beach as he talked.

“Wait,” I said. “This doesn’t make sense at all. Look at my hands.”

Puck held my hands and examined them.

“Do you see any scars?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Before I met Kai, they were covered in tiny scars from rose thorns. Now they are gone. How do you explain that?” He sighed. “Our powers extend to physical manipulations as well but only on humans. I can’t cure cats or move mountains. And some of us are better than others.”

My mind was spinning with information, but I’d felt like I’d only scratched the surface. And he hadn’t explained anything about Kai.

“What about Kai?”

He hedged. “Kai is a unique situation.”

I sighed. Why did everything have to be so complex? “Yeah, so. That doesn’t explain anything.”

“Within the Guardians there is a hierarchy. Most of us are minor Guardians and we all answer to a major Guardian. A major Guardian is usually responsible for a large city or whole state. Above the major Guardian is a head Guardian. Some countries, like ours, have their own head, but some heads are over several countries. The entire continent of Europe only has two head Guardians. Then there is the Master Guardian and his council. Each Master Guardian can choose how many he wants in his inner circle. The current one has exactly three, and they are called council Guardians. Did you follow that?”

“So, One Master Guardian with a council of three. The Master and councilors are over the Heads who oversees the Majors. Underneath the Majors are Minors. And you are a minor, right?”