Kissed (The Thorn Chronicles) (19 page)

“Save your energy Puck, you’ll need it tonight.”

He sighed and dropped his hands. “I’ll see you later.”

Jason stood up. He was taller than the other three. “Puck, I’ll keep an eye on her. I won’t let Romeo mess with her.”

“Thanks,” Puck said and disappeared through the door.

Alejandro sat across from me and the other two sat on both sides of him. He paused and I stared at my nails. Rita had painted them two days ago. A bright pink with white daisies. The paint on my thumbnail had started to peel. I wished, desperately, that I was just a normal girl. A girl who worried about her nails and hair and went to parties and discussed boys with her girlfriends into the wee hours of the morning. Not some freak of a girl who had psycho parents and supernatural boyfriends.

Alejandro cleared throat. “What exactly did Puck tell you today?”

“What do you mean?”

“About us, what did he tell you about us?”

I sighed, and told him everything Puck had told me, including the energy exercise he had put me through yesterday. And the experience with the dirty old man.

“Why did he accuse me of being a Destroyer?” I asked.

Alejandro smiled. “Because, Naomi, you are a Shade.”

Bud

Rose growers have always played God. If you can’t find a rose that you like, just create it. Rose breeding is relatively easy. Find two roses that both possess a quality you like and combine them. Sometimes it takes a few tries, but eventually new roses are born. There are literally thousands of rose types. No one can agree on the original. In 1597 the first list of roses was published. It contained fifteen varieties. In my garden at home I have all of them.

“I’m a what?” I asked.

The room went silent for a few moments. The tall ceilings and bookshelves seemed to crowd the room like they were listening. I sat by myself on a shiny leather couch across from Alejandro and the two boys. They all stared at me like I was some kind of freak. My green hair got me that look a lot, but this was different. Tense.

“She’s a girl.” Romeo leaned forward, studying me. “She can’t be a Shade.”

“What does being a girl have to do with anything?” I asked, more out of curiosity than anything else. The Master always said that women had their place, and usually it was beside a strong man. But the way Romeo said it, it was almost like girls were physically incapable of being Destroyers or Guardians.

“Because—” Romeo began.

“Shut it, Romeo. You’ll just make this worse.” Alejandro sighed and waved his hand at Jason.

Romeo glowered at me, brushed his blond hair out of his eyes, and settled back into his chair and whined.

“Why does he always get to tell the story?”

“Because he’s good at it,” said Alejandro.

Jason stood and held his arms out wide. I’d never noticed how long they were. He spoke with ease and command.

“Long, long ago, before the earth existed, a battle brewed in the heavens. Lucifer, the angel of the morning, lusted after power. He begged God for an opportunity to utilize his gifts of persuasion in the Heavens. God would not have it, knowing that by giving Lucifer that freedom, he’d be opening a world of chaos. God is one of order.

“Lucifer rebelled. He took his followers and challenged God for the throne of the Heavens. But God was stronger.

“He cast Lucifer and his followers out of the Heavens to the depths of darkness.” Jason clapped his hands together and the room went dark. I jumped.

Jason spoke in the darkness, quiet and menacing. “God lost one third of his sons that day. But he underestimated the power of Lucifer. Time passed. Lucifer waited in the darkness with his new sons. Until he noticed that God had a project. Earth.

“Lucifer crept onto Earth and watched for an opportunity. He found his opportunity in Eve. She partook of the forbidden fruit, which contained the soul of one of Lucifer’s sons. Cain was born, not as a human but as a Shade. When Cain slew Abel, God discovered his atrocity.

“But God was wise and struck a deal with the Devil.” Three candles suddenly lit up on the coffee table in front of me. Jason sat in between Alejandro and Romeo. He leaned far forward, his dark face ghostly in the candlelight.

“God agreed to let the sons of Lucifer use the bodies that he created for his children. But rules were set in place. When a soul entered the womb he would remember nothing of his former life. He would only be allowed to use his curse for one thing. The one gift Lucifer possessed. The power to persuade, to influence by way of emotion and thought. In exchange God would attempt to redeem his fallen sons.

“Lucifer agreed, knowing that if he didn’t, he would be annihilated. This created a system wherein the Shades could chose, good or evil. Those who chose evil become Destroyers and those who chose good become Guardians. It is much much harder to be a Guardian than a Destroyer. A Shade’s natural inclination is toward pain and hurt. But, the Guardians do their best to undo the havoc that the Destroyers create.

“The Guardians are an ancient society. We recognize the fact that we once betrayed God. We work every day to atone for the pain we caused him.”

Jason clapped his hands and the lights came on again. Then he turned to Alejandro.

“The story hasn’t changed in thousands of years. I’ve heard others tell it and the words never change. It says, ‘The
sons
of heaven’. How is Naomi a Shade?”

Alejandro sighed. “I don’t know, but she is. We need to determine how powerful she is, then I’ll have to figure out what to do with her.”

I am a girl. There is no way I was once a son of the devil and was magically born here through a piece of fruit.

“This is impossible,” I said.

Alejandro smiled. “The traditional story leaves out some important details I’m afraid. Things have been lost over the years. So this is not entirely impossible. Now let’s decide what we are going to do with you.”

Romeo snorted. “Give her to the Destroyers. They’ll make short work of her.”

“Romeo, if you can’t keep your thoughts to yourself, I’m going to ask you to leave.”

“Fine,” he muttered.

“Wait.” I said and all three heads turned towards me. “What do you mean that it’s not impossible? Has this ever happened before?”

Jason interjected. “We’ve had a few women we suspected over the years but none that have been confirmed.”

“Oh,” I said and tried to think of something else to ask, but Alejandro jumped on the pause in the conversation.

“Jason, please go sit by Naomi.” Jason sat next to me with a grin. He smelled like oatmeal raisin cookies. The room was warm.

I waited, not sure what was happening. This whole thing was going too fast. I had no idea what to do and I wanted Puck here with me. At least he told me things.

Alejandro spoke. “Jason and Romeo are the two most powerful minor Guardians I have aside from Puck.”

“Puck can’t do shit, I don’t know how you can even compare us.” Romeo stood next to Alejandro, glaring at me.

“Romeo, go sit next to Naomi and shut up or I’ll bring Puck in here to do this instead of you. You both are about to become Major Guardians. You need to learn how to test Shades. Especially ones who’ve had some training already or seem powerful. If you blow it with them they could end up being your worst nightmare.”

“Naomi, you seem to have some very strange gifts, ones that you yourself are not even aware of. I’m going to send an emotion through you and I want you to send it to Jason who will then send it back to me.”

“How?” I asked.

“Just think of what you want Jason to feel. If you are as talented as I think you are, he should have no trouble.”

“Uh, okay.”

At first I felt nothing, just my own confusion. Then I had visions of bright sunrises and I could smell tulips. Happiness. I let the sensations build within me and then I released them toward Jason. Instantly, the sunshine disappeared and I could no longer smell the tulips. Then I heard a woman sobbing and cold seeped into my bones. Grief. Once again, I let it build until I couldn’t stand it then I sent it to Jason.

At first, the emotional shifts were slow and then they began to move faster and sometimes I’d even feel the same thing again. Sour grapes. A pit of vipers. Laughter. Pine. They shifted so fast that I didn’t even have time to think about what I was doing, I threw the feelings away from me as fast as they came. And I didn’t have to even think about what they meant.

Then they stopped. I had been so focused on the act of sending away the emotions that I had forgotten where I was and what I was doing. Alejandro didn’t speak but stared at me for a long while. I stared back defiantly. Alejandro hadn’t scared me since he gave me the Tuscany. We were friends and he didn’t feel like an adult to me. He was probably the only adult that I felt would never hurt me. I wanted to show him I was capable of whatever he put me through.

“Romeo, you and I are simultaneously going to send emotions to Naomi. I will send positive, while you send negative. Naomi, I want you to block the negative emotion and send only the positive to Jason. Ready?” I nodded.

This was harder because I had to focus on blocking the negative and the positive was more difficult to send on. At first I somehow managed to send only the negative. Alejandro scowled when Jason began to sob. I took two deep breaths and blocked out everything. Then I allowed myself to open up only slightly. The emotions weren’t as strong, but I could feel what I was supposed to do. Minutes later Jason giggled and Alejandro relaxed. Soon it felt easy.

“Good job, Romeo. Your assignment for this week is to replenish your energy. Come back next week. I’ll have a job for you then.”

Jason shifted next to me and put his arm around me. I felt comfortable with him, almost like an older brother. Ricki would have a fit though. I settled back next to him and closed my eyes, exhausted by the emotional overdrive.

“Naomi, what did the pit of vipers mean?” Alejandro asked.

“Fear. They represented fear,” I answered without thinking. “And the sour grapes were anxiety, laughter was giddiness, and pine was sorrow. This is easy. I’ve been associating sensory experiences with emotions ever since Kai started visiting me. When I get angry I taste blood.”

Alejandro sighed.

“You have a very powerful gift. One in which I have never seen before outside of the high ranks of the Guardians. It disturbs me. You act as if you’ve been trained before, yet you seem as innocent as an angel. I don’t know what to do with you.”

I shook my head, angry at the direction the conversation had taken. “Do with me? Nothing. When you decide to tell me what’s really going on, then maybe I’ll help you. But you aren’t going to ‘do’ anything with me.”

I started to cry. Nothing felt real anymore. Everything seemed like a manipulation of my system. Like I couldn’t feel anything real on my own anymore.

“What the heck is all this? This emotion crap? I don’t get it. Any of it.”

“Calm down. I’m getting there. You ask, I’ll answer.” He folded his hands together and settled back against the couch. Then he cocked his head.

“What’s real?” I asked. That about summed up every question I had. Did Kai really love me? Did I really love him? Was anything I felt my own emotions?

“Everything.”

I started to retort when Jason spoke up. “Just because you feel it through someone else doesn’t make it less real. We Guardians try not to create feelings but rather counteract feelings that come from Destroyers. It’s not a natural feeling when you feel hatred or rage. Those are contrived feelings. We are around to help minimize those. If it weren’t for us, you’d feel horrid all the time. For every ten Destroyers there is only one Guardian. We try, but we can never keep up with it all.”

Alejandro’s words floated around in my head. I couldn’t be a Shade. I wasn’t mean. And there was no way I followed Satan down to Hell. Plus, I was a girl.

Alejandro looked older than his normal thirty something self and I wondered how old he really was.

“Jason, you may leave. Thanks for your help.”

Jason gave me a kiss on the cheek and then walked out the back door. I grinned when I realized the kiss didn’t bother me anymore. Who was I becoming?

“How can I be a Shade?”

“We all are. Those with the curse or gift if you wish to think of it that way. Think about the first manifestations of your power. You wanted to hurt someone. And you did.”

He was right. First the old man, then the Ken clone. Something must have been wrong with me. I didn’t want to be evil.

“But, there have been times in my life before when I’ve wanted to hurt someone but nothing like this happened before.”

“Are you sure?”

“What do you mean?”

“Early manifestations of the power are weak, even for someone powerful like you. My guess is you’ve shocked people before, they just didn’t realize what it was you were doing.”

“I don’t want to be a Shade or a Destroyer.”

“You have to choose to be a Guardian. It’s not easy. You must fight against your natural inclinations.”

“Fine. Then I choose to be a Guardian.”

“If only it were that easy. You’re incredibly powerful. Those like Romeo will fight to keep you out of our ranks.”

“Why?”

“Because you are a threat.” He yawned and stretched, his muscles rippling beneath his shirt. He ruffled my hair. “I need to go to bed. Puck is out back, he’ll take you home.

“But, how can I be a Shade if there were no girls that followed Satan?” I turned and realized he had already left.

The night air was warm. Puck and Jason sat on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water. Puck pulled me down next to him and then put his arm around my back, his fingers teasing my ribs.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired.”

The ride home was quiet but peaceful. The whole evening seemed unreal.

At home I found the Baby Secret roses I had potted for Ginny. So far we had no blooms, but two buds had appeared. I held my hand next to a bud and pictured very clearly the bud in full bloom. In my head I heard rain and I felt sun warming my skin even though it was dark out. Nothing happened. Disappointed, I went to bed, frustrated that I could somehow send some poor unsuspecting soul sorrow or happiness, but I couldn’t make my roses bloom.