Soul Seers Complete Set (23 page)

Standing outside on the porch while I waited for Dr. Jessen and my
father to arrive, I was itching to get back inside and check on her. It was borderline
painful to keep myself from going back to her side.

Wearing a path along the wooden planks lining the porch floor, I
paced and thought about the possible consequences of telling the good doctor
our theory. I really needed to talk to our parents first before revealing such
an accusation. Although Dr. Jessen was a good friend of my father’s, it didn’t
mean he would keep such an important secret to himself.

The thought of my father putting us all in this position, and
contemplating his reasoning for doing so, began to wear at my resolve. Anger
and resentment started to build with every forceful step I took along the
creaking wood.

I was beyond maddened by the time my dad pulled up and frantically
climbed out of his tiny BMW. His coat billowed behind him as he briskly crossed
the street in my direction, never breaking eye contact with me.

“Keep your block up,” I commanded quietly as he climbed the few
short steps.

“May I ask why?” he asked with slight annoyance in his tone.

“Only for a moment while I talk to you, that is. I just need to
talk freely with you while Delphina tends to Ella inside.” I stood in front of
him, my hands in my pockets, nervous about how this conversation might play
out.

“Surely she can read you, Jonah,” he pointed out, attempting to
state the obvious.

I shook my head. “No. No, she can’t read me. Ever since the
episode at the museum, I haven’t been able to read anyone, except for Ella.
Ella can also read me, but it seems her mother cannot. I think she can sense
I’m blocking her, even though I’m not intentionally doing so.”

“Is this what you needed to talk about? Your abilities? That is
awfully selfish of you at this moment, son!” he scolded, worried I was more
concerned about myself than the person he was really here to see… Ella.

“Fuck, no! You asked a question and I answered you! Don’t you dare
think for one minute my thoughts aren’t solely focused on that girl in there!”
I yelled, pointing to the front door of the house in pure rage.

“Watch your tone, Jonah! You seem to have forgotten to whom you
are speaking with,” he stated firmly, as if he was ready to count to three and
put me in time out.

“I haven’t forgotten who you are, but I will not stand by quietly
while she is in there suffering over something you did!” I emphasized under my
breath to avoid yelling like a crazed maniac.

“Something I did? What are you talking about?” he asked in an even
more hushed tone. Oh, he knew all right. It isn’t a surprise he immediately
lowered the volume of his voice at the sound of my defiant accusation.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. What I want to know
is—what’s happening to her?” I begged. I grabbed onto his coat collar and
brought my face so close to his, I could feel his breath on my skin. I sensed a
rush of emotion bubbling up inside me. It wasn’t sorrow. It wasn’t pain. It was
full-on hatred at the fact that someone could have done something to harm her.

“I need to see her first in order to know what the hell you are
babbling about, Jonah,” he deadpanned as he began to turn towards the door.

Grabbing his jacket with a firm grip, I jerked him back in my
direction and forced him to look me straight in the eye. If he was going to
lie, he was sure as hell going to look at me while he did.

“Do you really want me to say it out loud? Is that really what you
want? Because I’ll shout it for the whole fucking world to hear. I’ll let
everyone know that you trans…” His hand covering my mouth shut me up just
before I began to force the words from my tongue.

“God damn you, Jonah!” he all but whispered. “Fine! I will tell
you everything. Inside!”

Glaring at him to let him know how serious I was about all of
this, I jerked myself away and stormed into the house, never fully allowing him
out of my sight.

Once the door was shut and we were securely inside the living
room, he began to speak in a very controlled tone that made a shiver tingle my
spine.

“How did you find out?” he asked.

“Besides the fact that I can feel her heart beat in sync with
mine—she had a dream. Not a premonition, but a memory of some kind. My
blood burning through her veins as you held her captive,” I explained with a
very brief summary of her complicated dream.

“Your hearts beat together? How do you know this?” he asked with
bewilderment and awe.

“We can feel it. As soon as we touch each other, whether it’s a
simple touch or passionate, we can feel that our hearts are beating with the
same rhythm. If her pulse increases, so does mine. When I’m next to her, it’s
almost as if her blood runs through me. I don’t know how to explain it, but now
that I know, I can even feel her heart thrumming from a distance. It’s one of
the reasons I knew she was in trouble—and the reason I told Delphina we
should call you.”

“That is not possible, Jonah. It has to just be coincidence,” he
mumbled, flicking his hand in the air and beginning his way down the hall,
completely dismissing my revelation.

Another surge of fury overwhelmed my senses and I pushed on his
chest with my arm, slamming his back against the wall and holding him there
while I got up in his face.

“Tell me why you did it!” I growled, only a mere inch from his
face.

“To save her,” he admitted, looking at me with sincerity in his
eyes. “She was seizing severely from the brain injuries she sustained in the
car crash. Delphina was on her way into the operating room when she saw me
rushing to her daughter’s side. She grabbed my hand and begged me to save her
daughter. And in her barely audible words, I could tell, she knew Ella was
special. Del already knew she was one of us.”

“Then why me? Why not use human blood?” I asked, curious as to why
he thought her powers were so important to save.

“I had my reasons,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Then tell me, damn it! I have a right to know!” I seethed. His
elusiveness was getting to me big time.

“Jonah. For one, I was hoping to spare both of you the burden of
knowing such a secret. And two, you being this demanding is keeping me from
checking on her. Now that you have found out, I will tell you my reasons for
doing what I did. But at the moment, I need to get in that room and see what is
going on with Orella. So, move out of my way before I have to move you myself,”
he ordered, small drops of spittle hitting my face as he spoke with annoyance.

“You’re right. You should go to her. But, I beg of you, please no
more lies and deceit. The fact that you’ve known her all this time and never
told me, allowing me to go through the constant heartache of never knowing she
was real, just makes me wonder who my father really is,” I admitted as he began
walking down the hall.

Turning his head in my direction, he just nodded solemnly before
continuing to Ella’s room.

Needing a moment to compose myself, I leaned my body against the
wall in the foyer and buried my fingers in my hair, nearly pulling out every strand
as I attempted to calm my thrumming heart.

Christ. All this time he knew. He knew the girl with amethyst eyes
and pretended as if it was some silly obsession. He actually made me feel like
I was a nutcase! How could he stand idly by, knowing exactly why I had constant
dreams about some seemingly random girl, and pretended she was just a figment
of my lust-filled imagination?

Okay. I needed to calm myself—not get even more pissed off.
Taking a few more deep breaths, I braced my hands on my knees and continued to
lean my ass on the wall as if it were the only thing keeping me upright.

“Jonah!” my father yelled from down the hall.

Without a second thought, I responded to his stressful bellow and
bolted towards Ella’s room. My heavy strides thumped along the hardwood floors
and echoed in my ears. It seemed to take forever to reach her and once I did, I
was stunned at the sight before me.

“Jonah, you need to calm yourself! If what you’re saying is true,
your blood pressure rising is causing her seizures to accelerate,” he said
sternly as Ella’s body jerked violently, her muscles flexing while her limbs
thrashed about, tangling herself in the fluffy covers. Her body was
pale—a tiny tank top covering her upper body, nearly exposing her in this
vulnerable state. The white of her eyes was all I could see as they rolled
forcefully to the back of her skull. My dad held a flat piece of plastic in
Ella’s mouth with one hand and cradled the back of her neck with his other,
tilting her head to the side while Delphina attempted to make sure she didn’t
shift towards the edge of the bed.

“How do I… What do I do? Tell me what to do!” I screeched,
desperate to make it better. I needed to make her better if it meant I had to
cut out my own heart to do it.

Delphina was the one who responded with such a calm demeanor,
telling me she had gone through this before. Luckily, her docile tone
immediately made me relax a little as I attempted to listen to her commands.

“Jonah, just come over here and lay down next to her,” she
instructed as she held out her hand to lead me around the bed. Unsure of how
this would help and a bit uncomfortable with being so close to Ella when she
seemed so fragile, I slowly eased my way down next to her on the bed as she
continued to convulse wildly. “Now, close your eyes and try to read her. Don’t
worry about it if you can’t. Just take a few deep breaths and try to see into
her soul.”

Certain I would love nothing more than to see my Ella again, I
immediately turned on my side to face her, closed my eyes, and began to suck
air in through my nose until my lungs couldn’t inflate anymore. With a shaky
whoosh, I exhaled through my mouth and repeated my attempts at breathing.

Needing to touch her, needing to feel her flesh against mine, I
reached over and tried to grasp her flailing hand with my own. As contact was
made, I felt marginally better. I could still feel the tense spasms of her
muscles, but held onto her and allowed her to tug my hand with every
contraction.

Each twinge her body made pulsed through me like lightning
strikes. Convulsions so powerful, I could feel the throb of each shockwave
course through my limbs in slow motion.

The feeling of blood rushing through her veins was stronger than
ever. Each gush of warm liquid that pumped through our bodies felt like a
fast-paced dance number. I felt the bass of her heart beating along with my
own, which now sat like a lump in my throat.

Breathe, Jonah.

After several more breathing attempts, I suddenly felt exhausted
and sore. My muscles felt like I had just finished the most intense workout of
my life, yet I had done nothing more than get in a slight tizzy with my dad.

Why are you fighting
with your dad?
Ella projected. The sound of her beautiful thoughts made me
smile.

Keeping my eyes closed, I tried to stay composed—worried
stressing her out would make things worse. I pushed my thoughts to her as
calmly as I could.
I confronted him about
us and called him a liar to his face. I was being selfish, only thinking about
myself, and I’m sorry.

Jonah. I’m so tired,
she
thought. Her mind didn’t sound tired, but I knew exactly what she meant—I
felt the same way. My muscles were beyond exhausted. I was so drained at that
moment, I doubted if I could even move voluntarily.

I know you’re tired.
I am too.
Straining to touch her, I reached my hand up and stroked her hair,
which was lying against her cheek. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know
exactly where every inch of her was. My mind was hers, as her mind was also a
part of me. We didn’t need vision to see one another.

I’m not tired, like,
sleepy tired. My body just hurts so badly. I can’t find the energy to move.

Then don’t. Just lay
here with me for a while. I won’t go anywhere, I promise,
I assured her,
continuing to rest my hand on the side of her head and lightly, lazily stroking
her hair.

Do you have the
strength to cover me up? Please?
she pleaded.

Opening my eyes, I looked over to see she was still partially
exposed—a tank and a pair of underwear were the only things covering her
body. Hating the fact that she seemed to have little privacy and our first
semi-intimate encounter was under these circumstances, I reached over and
gently pulled the blanket to cover her chest and arms. Without saying a word,
Delphina helped me while proceeding to cover me as well.

Off in the distance, just inside the doorway of Ella’s room, was
Dr. Jessen. He stood, mouth agape, as he tried to understand what had just
happened. Hell, even I didn’t know what had happened.

I tried to speak, but my mouth was full of cotton and my tongue
was swollen and sore. I wondered what the hell transpired to cause such a
painful reaction in my mouth when my father looked at me with sorrow in his
eyes.

As if he knew what I was asking, he whispered, “As soon as you
touched her, you absorbed her seizure. I have never seen anything like it
before, Jonah. I was not prepared. You might feel quite a bit of soreness in
your body and it is possible you bit your tongue as well. So, do not try to
talk for now. Just rest and stay with her. Del and I are going to get you both
some water and then talk with Dr. Jessen in the other room so Ella can get some
rest.”

Now I understood why I felt so sore. It was a small price to pay
if it meant Ella no longer had to suffer. Truth was, I would go through
anything for her.

I tried to nod, but my head felt like it weighed fifty pounds.
Just as my father walked out the door and my heavy eyes began to flutter shut,
I looked over at Ella’s now peaceful face and smiled.