Revelations (Bloodline Series) (13 page)

Keira

It
was starting to get dark and we were about to go home when a piece of paper
blew in and landed right in front of us.

“Since
when do we get bits of rubbish in the country?” Tyler frowned as he bent down
to pick it up. “This is weird, it’s a photograph.”

“Let’s
have a look.”

I
took it from him and stared at it, tears filling my eyes instantly. In the
picture was a little girl, dressed in little blue jeans, a white t-shirt with
Donald Duck on the front, and little white sandals. Next to her was a man with
his arm around her. He had short black hair and wore black jeans with biker
boots and a blue and white checked shirt.

“Keira,
are you alright?” Tyler asked me.

“No...no,
I’m not. Tyler, this is me and my dad.”

“What?”
he gasped.

“Why
would this be here? I haven’t seen this since I was a little girl.”

“Could
it be your dad has sent it to you, maybe to let you know he’s watching over
you?”

“I
doubt it. He’s just a spirit now; I don’t think he would be able to do anything
like this.”

“I
wouldn’t be scared…if anything, this shows love, Keira.”

“I
know,” I sobbed.

He
wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight for a few minutes. “Do you want
to go home?”

“Yeah.”

A
moment later we were in my hallway, and Tyler was still hugging me. Eligos
stood there glaring at him.

“I
think she is going to need you,” Tyler told him. “I’ll let her explain things.”

He
let go of me, and Eligos walked over. Tyler nodded to him and then walked into
the living room. Eligos teleported us into my bedroom, then sat down next to me
on the bed. I showed him the photograph and told him what had happened.

“I
think maybe Tyler is right,” he told me. “This is a loving memory for you;
maybe your dad found a way to have a form of contact with you.”

“But
how…how would he have gotten the photograph? I haven’t seen it for years
myself.”

“I
don’t know darlin’. I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess, but these things
can
be done.”

“It
would be nice to think it was him,” I smiled.

“Then
think it. If something else happens we can re-think, but until then keep
smiling about it.”

****

Over
the following week there were no strange occurrences. No more photographs found
their way to me, and I hadn’t had any further contact with the owner of the mysterious
male voice.

It
was Lily’s birthday…she was twenty-three. Everyone had bought her little
presents, and she got mad at everyone for spending their money on her. Jake
woke her up in the morning with breakfast and a rose on the tray. He bought her
a beautiful velvet coat that she had wanted to get for a while, and some
gorgeous diamond stud earrings. She was absolutely thrilled with them. I bought
her a gold locket and chain, and I’d had “Best Friend” engraved on the front of
it. She had tears in her eyes when she opened it. The others had bought her CD’s,
DVD’s, vouchers for her favorite shops, flowers, and a lot of other things.

She
wanted to cook a meal for everyone, but we wouldn’t let her, not on her own
birthday. Marley, Jared, and Olivia came forward and cooked for everyone. We
found out that before all the problems they’d had with their dad, Jared was
actually training to be a chef for a high-class restaurant close to where they
lived. We invited all the guys’ parents, and Lucian and Tyler had to go into
town to buy another table to put next to the one we had in the dining room. I
found myself sighing in relief that the room was so big…we had to fit
twenty-two people in it. It was a really good night, and everyone enjoyed
themselves. We were a little anxious at first in case anything happened, but
thankfully, it was peaceful.

The
day after Lily’s birthday, Eligos and Danny went out with the guys to continue
their training. Elizabeth stayed home with me. We hadn’t really spent much time
on our own since the discussion about my dad. We got ourselves glasses of
orange juice and sat in the living room. It was quite a dull day and rather
cold, so we decided to stay indoors. We talked for hours; she told me what life
was like when she was a young woman, and what Salem was like when she first
came over from England. She told me more about her husband and her grandson
John. It was really nice to spend time with her and get to know more about her.

After
a while she turned the conversation around, and I told her all about my life up
until the time we met. When I told her about my mom she got really mad; even
more so when I told her about driving to check on her when we thought West
Chester had been attacked by Ballantine and his followers. She wanted to go and
pay her a visit. It took me quite a while to calm her down again.

We
were just about to make something to eat when we heard something come through
the post box. I walked into the hall and froze when I saw what had landed on
the doormat. It was another photograph.

“Keira,
are you okay?” Elizabeth asked as she came and stood beside me.

I
couldn’t speak, I just pointed towards the door. She walked over and picked up
the photograph, and after studying it for a moment she passed it to me. This
time it was a picture of me on a horse with my dad standing beside me. We both
looked so happy.

“Why
do I keep getting these?”

“They’re
nice memories, aren’t they?”

“Yeah,
of course they are, but he’s never done this before, so why now?”

“I
don’t know Keira,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Why don’t you
put it with the other one, keep them safe?”

“Yeah,
I think I will.”

I
tried my best to smile at her, then went upstairs to my bedroom, opened the top
drawer of my bureau, and pulled out a little silver box. I had put the other
photograph there to keep it safe. I looked at them both for a moment,
remembering the days when the photographs were taken, then put them both away.
I lay back on my bed and took a deep breath.

“Keira,
can you hear me?” the male voice I had spoken with before asked.

“Now
is not a good time to be getting cryptic messages from you.”

“I
need to talk with you.”

“So
talk,” I sighed.

“Go
to the harbor, 3 P.M.”

“Oh
great…I’ll be surrounded by people and look like a mental case talking to
myself.”

“You
won’t.”

“Why
can’t you talk to me here?” I asked. “Hello?”

There
was no use talking…he had gone. I looked at the clock; it was already 2 P.M.
The guys wouldn’t be back until around six. I just had to try and get away from
Elizabeth. About ten minutes later she walked into my room.

“Are
you okay?” she asked me.

“Yeah,
I’m fine. I just need to get out of the house for a while.”

“Well
then, why don’t you?”

“I’m
on lock down, remember?”

“Oh
rubbish…nothing has happened for a while now. The photos are a nice thing, not
a bad one. Go out, go shopping or something; I won’t have you feeling like a
prisoner. You can look after yourself or move away quickly enough.”

“What
about the guys…what if they come home?”

“I
will tell them exactly what I have just told you; now go,” she smiled.

“What
will you do?”

“Watch
TV. I know that will probably sound boring to you, but it’s new to me,
remember. I didn’t have people walking around inside a box when I was alive.”

“True,”
I laughed.

“So
I will see you later.”

She
walked out of the room, closing my door behind her. I hated lying to her, to
any of them for that matter. I wanted to tell them everything, but I also
wanted to hear what this man, or
thing,
had to say.

Chapter 15

Steve

Keira

I’d
left the house pretty quickly in case Elizabeth changed her mind about me
coming out on my own. I parked a couple of streets away from the harbor and
slowly made my way over. I was twenty minutes early.

“Keira!”
I heard a voice shout as I was just about to walk on the dock. “Hey, Keira.”

I
turned around to see Steve walking over to me. “Hey,” I smiled. “How are you?”

“I’m
great thanks, and you?”

“Yeah,
I’m good, thank you.”

“Where
you off to?”

“Just
going for a walk. I’m supposed to be meeting someone in about twenty minutes.”

“Boyfriend?”
he smirked.

“No
…he’s
out at the moment,” I smirked back. “Just someone I need to have a chat with.”

“Fair
enough.”

“Why
are you still here anyway?”

“Oh,
I left for a little while but had to come back. There’s still a few things I
need to do, and someone I need to see.”

“You
here for a while then?”

“Maybe;
it depends.”

“On
what?” I asked.

“On
whether they join me or not.”

“Ahh,
another business deal.”

“Yeah,
pretty much. You know me, busy busy. Anyway, where are you meeting your friend?”

“He’s
not a friend, but at the end of the docks.”

“I’ll
walk you down.”

We
made our way slowly to the end of the docks. He was passing comment on some of
the boats, but I wasn’t really paying much attention to him. I needed him to
leave so I could speak to this
thing
.

When
we reached the end, we both sat down, dangling our legs over the end of the
dock.

“So
what have you been doing with yourself?” he asked.

“Not
much really,” I answered, trying my best not to drag the conversation on.

“You
seem a little fed up.”

“No,
not really.”

“Hmm.
Oh yeah, what was that phone call about? You know, when you were talking about an
earthquake?”

“It
doesn’t matter,” I sighed.

“I
remember it, Keira.”

“What?”

“I
remember everything; how frightened everyone was, running and hiding. But
nobody else seems to remember anything.”

“You
told me you couldn’t!”

“I
lied.”

“Why?”

“You
weren’t scared at all. Why is that?” he quizzed.

I
didn’t answer him; I just turned away and looked out at the ocean.

“You
knew you would be safe, didn’t you?” he added.

“How
could I have known that?”

“Why
don’t you tell me?”

“Look,
I’m not being funny, but I haven’t got time for this, and I don’t like liars. I
have to meet—”

“Okay,
no more lies,” he said quickly.

“Look
Steve, I’m not being rude, but I have to meet someone.”

“I
know you do,” he said in a different voice.

I
turned quickly to look at him. I knew that voice.

“Why
do you think I’m here?” he asked. As he did his eyes changed for a moment, from
the normal sized brown to very large electric blue, easily twice the size of my
eyes.

“You!”
I shouted, jumping to my feet.

“Calm
down.”

“Calm
down?”

“You
will only attract attention.”

“Who
the hell are you?” I demanded to know.

“Not
Steve.”

“Tell
me your name, you bastard, or I swear to God I’ll—”

“You’ll
what? Attack me?” he mocked. “In the middle of a town full of people? That
would be clever, wouldn’t it?”

“I
don’t care.”

“Sit
down Keira. I do genuinely want to talk to you.”

After
a minute or so I sat down again, but further away from him. I didn’t want to be
too close to him…I didn’t trust him, but I wanted to hear what he had to say.
He had risked being found and attacked just to talk to me. I felt I had to give
him the benefit of the doubt.

“Don’t
be scared of me, Keira. I don’t want to hurt you, not at all. I happen to like
you.”

I
glared at him for a moment, and then realized I knew who he was. What creature
had electric blue eyes? An angel. “You’re him, aren’t you? You’re Ballantine!” I
almost gasped.

“Yes.”

“You
give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you where you sit!”

“Because
you wouldn’t be able to. Fact. How’s that for a reason?”

“Don’t
bet on that.”

“I
know what you are—a big mix up of things—but you have so much to learn,” he
said sincerely. “I could teach you Keira.”