Two Halves Series (80 page)

That’s for calling me lover boy.

It would take him a while to shift out of this one, at least until he figured his sheets had been smothered. I only wished I could have appreciated the irritating effects of the rash when I saw him scratch it.

My urge to speak with Mira grew, but it was too dangerous. She was my only link to the life I would soon forget. How could I have not remembered her? How could Vulcan had taken such precious memories away from me? I pulled out an olive note pad and quickly scribbled the words that would make sure my memories returned. On the matching envelope, I wrote a date in the future—the date on which she needed to open the letter. I reached over to put it in the pocket of her purse propped on the kitchen counter.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped up. Mira leaned against the door frame to the kitchen.

I took a quick breath in as if I’d seen her for the first time. The parted hair in the middle and two braids at the sides of her head made her look like she belonged back in high school. Mira wore no makeup today; in fact, after seeing all the women in the club, I’d realized she hardly ever did. Her wide eyes and caramel skin brought out her natural beauty.

“I-I had to come back to give you something.”

“What is it?” She took a step closer, then pointed to my sweater. “Why the change of clothes?”

“I’d heard it’d be brisk tonight.”

She narrowed her brows.

“Did you vortex here?”

“Yes. Sugar, believe me. It’s better you don’t know everything about today.”

“Is that it?” Her attention was drawn to the envelope still in my hand.

“Yes. It’s for you, but you can’t open it until a few days from now.” I showed her the scribbled date on the front.

“You’re worrying me.” Mira shuffled her bare feet toward me and took the envelope from my hand. She examined it carefully.

“Nothing to worry about, sugar. Just promise me you won’t mention seeing me to anyone. And you won’t open this until that date.”

“I promise. Is it bender business?”

I nodded.

Mira stood a foot away from me, close enough to feel the warmth of her sweet breath on my skin.

I took her face into my hands. “I love calling you, sugar,” I whispered.

“I prefer Mira.”

Oh, how much I missed her snarky remarks.

“I’ll remember that. I promise.” I hushed her by pressing my mouth to hers. The tenderness of her lips mellowed mine as she wrapped her hands around my neck. I crushed against her body, tightening our embrace. The rational part of my mind urged me to leave. Anything I did today could change the future. I pulled away, lightheaded, and I wondered whether I forgot to breathe.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “You kissed me as if you were saying goodbye.”

“I’m fine. I need to go. I will see you soon. I promise.” I let go of her hand and spun a vortex on the back wall of the kitchen. “Mira, please. Don’t mention my being here to anyone, even me.”

She nodded. I knew she’d analyze our unconventional run-in, but Mira would keep the secret. My shifter was the wittiest woman I’d known.

I stepped through the time hole, emerging a few miles away from the hill. What I had to do next could not be seen by anyone. After all, time travel wasn’t common.

* * *

Back in my present, I examined the blue and purple lines that covered my arms. The bubbles under me flowed each time I moved on the water bed. The strain of passing through time mapped my skin. I pulled down my sleeves and fell back, letting the waves lull me to sleep.

A knock on the door stirred me thirty minutes later. I forced the energy I could muster toward my aching muscles, sat up, and rubbed my eyes. Time travel drained me beyond my expectations.

“I thought you’d feel better after four hours.” Vulcan pushed open my bedroom door before I got a chance to stand up.

“So did I, brother.” The word squeezed through my throat as I pushed off the bed.

“Here.” Vulcan touched my arm.

A shock flew through me, tensing my arms and stilling my heart for a moment. I tensed, fearing he’d take my memories away once again, but he didn’t. The smell of lightning circled my neck along with a sizzling sensation of healed flesh. Blue bolts danced around my skin, flowing through my body, feeding and nourishing my muscles. I felt as strong as when I began to move the Earth. It was like the strength had never left me.

“It replenishes and its never-ending,” he explained.

Never say never.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“Once we’re there, we’ll connect and suck the keepers dry. Nothing will be left of their flesh except wrinkled skin and ashen bones.” An orange flame sparked in Vulcan’s eyes again. “Once they’re out of the way, we’ll take on the half-breeds to get to the casters.”

“Didn’t you want to get the casters first?” I asked.

He shook his head, “Change of plans. They’re up to something and we need to cut off the source of their energy first.”

I found it interesting that Vulcan thought of the Sarah and William and their twin children as greater threats than the keepers. It also made me wonder how he expected to overpower a warlock, an angel, and a vampire. Did we possess that much energy? It was possible; after all, I had moved through time.

“So basically you know what you’re doing.” I gave him a naughty smirk, hoping the flame I directed to my own eyes sparked there as well. Vulcan seemed to enjoy that.

“I always do. It’s rare anyone can surprise me.”

Never say always.

We flew through a time hole to Monasterio de Piedra. The halls I’d abandoned hummed with silence. I missed my own home—but not as much as I missed the hill and my caramel goddess.

Vulcan and I walked through the corridor side by side. His arm touched mine; on purpose, I thought. Smokeless sconces decorated the walls, throwing shadows on the plush carpeting at our feet. My soles sunk in as if I was walking on sand. Endless landscapes painted the walls. If you stared long enough at one, you’d feel like you were right there. The keepers’ quarters were around the next corner. I smelled a mix of sulphur and lightning. Someone waited for us, and I hoped it wasn’t the keepers.

We turned to the right and stopped. Vulcan pressed even closer to my side. Twenty feet in front, almost against the wall of their meeting place, the keepers waited. Castall held a cane to support his frail posture. A longer beard than usual draped from his chin. The eyebrows had overgrown and were tinted with a darker shade of gray than I remembered. He’d covered his head with the hood of his long coat that matched the color of his facial hair. I’d never seen him with the hood on. The right hand on the cane shook his weakness through to the ground: a first for the warlock as well. Beside him, Drake’s skin paled and was almost translucent, and Gabriel’s never-ending glow had faded to merely a shimmer.

They shouldn’t be here. Didn’t the twins warn them?

I tried to connect to their energy but couldn’t. It was as if their power had been hidden or camouflaged.

From behind a blue sheer, an approaching silhouette of two bodies enlarged. One of the two pulled the fluttering cover to the side and out stepped Crystal and Ayer.

“Perfect,” Vulcan whispered under his nose.

His stance had been weary of everyone since we arrived, but he didn’t show it. I felt his apprehension easing inside me. The warlock became more confidant of his plan to destroy the keepers with each passing minute.

“We finally meet,” he said.

“This is not a place for you, warlock,” Gabriel said in a high-pitched tone, which was quieter than his yells. A pure scream of the angel would burst everyone’s ears.

“It will soon be our place.”

I looked at his smirk. Vulcan still thought of us as allies, but I was his doom. My neck tingled, and the fleshed spikes extended around its circumference. The sensation spread through my body as the energy collected in my bones, satisfying early morning hunger. My gaze flew to Crystal and Ayer, whose faces painted an emotionless portrait.

“How dare you even think you have the power to kill us!” Drake let out his perfectly sharpened fangs.

Electricity zoomed from Vulcan to me. Blue light weaved between my fingers.

“You’ve controlled the world long enough, and it’s time you’re bend out of it,” Vulcan replied.

Power enlightened my senses, and for a moment, I wondered whether Vulcan was smart enough to move this moment to the future, to see whether he’d succeed. Perhaps he was afraid if he did, he’d be dead. Did he fear seeing what would happen? Or did he just want to ensure his plans went as he had schemed before?

The sizzling of lightning that flew through my body zapped my heart and sped up its pulse. My arms flew up by themselves, in tandem with Vulcan’s. Orange flames sparked out of his pupils. It was time to strike, and Vulcan’s priority wasn’t the keepers. He wanted Crystal’s and Ayer’s powers first.

My gaze flew to the silent twins to the right of the keepers. Lightning swirled from my feet, zigzagged up my body and to the side. The fleshed spikes on my neck lengthened, vibrating like a rattlesnake’s tail. A sphere the size of a basketball formed between me and Vulcan. It hovered four feet above ground. I felt in my bones the need to push the sphere at the twins, but I couldn’t. They were like my own.

Vulcan thrust his arms forward, moving mine as well. The ball of blue fire flew toward the casters. I raised my hand just before it hit their chests, and the sphere stopped.

“What are you doing?” Vulcan’s eyes bulged, and the flames inside his eyes flared outward. His claws of fire tightened around my ribcage and heart making it more difficult to breathe. Haze filled my vision as he tried to connect to my memories.

I thought about Mira, the twins, and the fate of the world if this warlock came to power and pushed away his energy. “You cannot do this.”

“Watch me.” He forced his hands forward again.

The sphere zoomed through the twins but hit the back wall. Although Crystal and Ayer appeared to be in flesh, they must have changed to their visible ghost states. Strands of lightning and electricity spread outward on the wall, up the ceiling, and down to the floor. The energy made its way back to our feet where it sizzled into our bodies.

“You’ve been warned.” Vulcan’s face flustered, then paled. The contours of his cheeks hardened. “Eric? Did you warn them about today? Do you remember them?”

Vulcan’s hoarse voice held a hint of pain, and even if I wanted to feel sorry for him, I didn’t.

“You lied to me. You stole my memories.” A new wave of electricity traveled up my body.

“It was the only way to trust you, Eric.”

My spikes rattled harder. Some broke at their seams, and blood dripped down my torso.

You have no choice but to help me. We’re connected. I die, you die,
he said in my mind.

I know.

It seemed that our ability to hear each other only worked when we wanted to be heard.

Vulcan stretched his palms out toward the keepers. “Once I have their essence, no one will be able to kill me.”

I felt him concentrate on the energy he tried to gather from them but failed. Nothing came our way, no power or new strength. The keepers contained their abilities within them.

Gabriel laughed in a higher tone than his usual. Drake smirked and crossed his arms at his front. Castall’s cane fell to the ground. The old warlock’s hood slid off his head, and the long beard peeled off his chin. The cracking of bones echoed through the room as Gabriel and Castall twisted their spines. Gabriel’s skin softened and shaded with a caramel glow. Castall grew a few inches taller. His wrinkles disappeared, and shoulders broadened.

The siblings!

Drake smeared makeup off his face with his sleeve, revealing different bone structure than I expected. Vulcan threw a new blast at the vampire, hitting his target.

“Father!” Crystal and Ayer ran to his side. They joined hands over his limp body.

“Shifters!” Vulcan hissed.

Now that his plan to kill the keepers had been ruined, I felt him contemplate whether to run and hide. I couldn’t let Vulcan get away. Unfortunately, we were nowhere near the hereafter to bind him.

I grabbed his throat, feeling the pressure on my own as well. My squeeze tightened until my eyes fogged. The room spun, and I had to let go.

Vulcan turned backward but bumped into an invisible wall. The twins were concentrating with their palms up, the way they had had when Aseret was bound. Their eyes enveloped with white, shining brighter than a light bulb. It was almost like staring directly at the sun, forcing me to look away.

Familiar chanting sounded in the hall. To the left, where the keepers stood before, Xela, Mrs. G, and Sarah appeared, like they’d been transferred from a ghost realm to this one.

Vulcan bounced off another invisible wall. He screamed, blasting electricity at the barrier. Strands of lightning flowed along an outline of a sphere above our heads and down to the ground, making its way back to our feet. The strands of power rejuvenated the warlock again. He clenched his fists. The hall shook.

They contained us!
I heard in my mind as he continued to try to break through.

Someone pulled my arm, once, then another time. My body turned three hundred and sixty degrees, then was pushed to the side. The smell of forget-me-nots swiveled around me as caramel skin swooshed in front of my eyes. When the twirling settled, my shifter friends looked identical to me, standing inside the magical field. Even I wouldn’t be able to recognize myself.

The chanting outside our enclosure intensified.

Vulcan’s voice roamed through my mind,
What is this?

“You kill me, and he dies.” Vulcan’s gaze flew from me to the other two look-a-likes.

One of my clones removed a dagger from the sleeve. It was Mrs. G’s magical blade.

“There’s no other way, Vulcan. You said it yourself, we’re bound. I will not let my loved ones suffer. I will not let the world be ruled by a maniac.” The clone pushed the blade upward just under the ribs, and jammed it into its own heart.