I tried not to roll my eyes. I suspected she knew, but I wasn’t sure until then. “You knew this whole time, didn’t you?”
“Of course I knew! I’m old, not stupid.” She smiled, taking a sip, and returning the smoldering drink to the table. “And when I saw you, I knew you were the girl in my visions. Dressed in solid black with a hole in her heart the size of… something really big. Of course it was you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you knew?” My thundering heart started to relax, since I wasn’t going to die right then. “I thought you’d want me dead. I heard Eric and Julia talking about the prophecy and that they had to kill the girl in the painting—me. Eric doesn’t know. I’ve been lying to him. I hate lying to him. And the bond. The bond!” I yelled as tears ran down my face. “It’s linked me to one of them.”
She snorted. “Well, he’s really not blue then, huh?”
“It’s not funny! How can you laugh? He wants to kill me.” I wiped the tears off of my face. “The bond keeps throwing us together, and it’s pushing us to do the one thing that will kill me. I don’t want to die, and he doesn’t want to kill me. The only reason I got away from him tonight was, because I gave the bond what it wanted—a kiss, but on his cheek. The cords that held me to him snapped, along with his self-control. So I ran. If I wasn’t just a little bit faster, he would have killed me! For all I know he’s waiting outside.” I rubbed my hands over my eyes. “What am I supposed to do?”
Al looked at me. She left her steaming cup on the table while I ranted. My grief and fear floated to the surface and spilled out of my mouth. She extracted bits of info from the muck. “So, you’re bonded—but not bound—to a demon kissed boy, who doesn’t want to kiss you?”
I nodded. “Yeah. But it doesn’t matter. His control is gone. I broke it tonight to get away from him.” We sat in silence for a while. The emotions that flared through him that night were intense. He wanted to protect me. And he tried so hard, but he knew he was failing. I was his undoing. His thoughts flooded into me, and I could feel it. My voice was a whisper, “When his eyes flashed, it reminded me of Jake attacking me. But I wasn’t afraid of this guy.”
“What’s your question, dear?” the nun asked.
I breathed in, trying to steady myself, “Eric told me that they can’t feel - that they don’t feel anything. Since I can sense his thoughts and emotions, I know he wanted to protect me. Is that possible?”
“Anything’s possible,” she sipped her tea. “It’s unusual, but not impossible.”
“What do I do?” I asked.
“Something is going to happen with the two of you. Do you have any idea what it is?”
I nodded. “I think so. But I don’t know how or why. He’s in the painting. The guy I’m pulling up—or the one who’s pulling me down. It’s him. I’m sure it is.”
She sipped her tea. “Then you have nothing to worry about. With him anyway.”
My incredulous eyes flicked to her face. “Yeah, right. Al, he was ready to rip me apart tonight.”
“But he didn’t,” she shrugged. “And his self-control is remarkable. It’s almost as if… ” her voice trailed off. The rest of the thought passed through her brain and she left me out.
“As if, what?”
“Demon kissed are selfish and self-serving. But you can feel his desire to keep you alive. You need to know why. The only way you’ll find out is to use the bond.”
I shrunk away from her. The thought frightened me. I felt my jaw tighten. “No. I can’t see him again. I can’t.”
Her head snapped toward mine. “What do you mean, you can’t? You aren’t weak. I’ve seen you with Eric. And you have been resisting and breaking the bond with the Valefar boy. Unless one of us knows what caused it and what it wants, you’re stuck with it. And if he’s trying to protect you, there is something else at stake here. Maybe it’s the prophecy. But maybe it’s not.”
“What else could it possibly be?” I slumped back in my chair.
“It might be the prophecy, but there is only one way to be sure,” she said.
A yawn escaped me. I hadn’t yawned in weeks. Suddenly my eyelids felt heavy. “Sis-er..,” I said weakly reaching out to steady myself. Then the room spun, and I passed out.
My first vision filled me with horror. At first, I was surrounded by blackness. It crept in like fog before a storm. Coldness pressed into me. My body felt dreamlike, but I wasn’t in my own body. I was watching me. When the black fog cleared, I saw myself sitting a few feet away. I watched myself. A cool breeze lifted stringy curls off my face. The moon hung low on the horizon. As I watched the vision, I looked around to take in my surroundings. There were shadows that looked like people looming beyond me in the distance. The ground was glistening red. I held a limp body across my lap. Buildings were in the distance, but I only sensed they were there. I couldn’t see anything clearly that I wasn’t focused on in the vision.
I watched as my sobs grew softer, as I was speaking to the guy in my lap. I cradled his head in my arms. I was unable to see his face, only a crown of dark hair. That could be anyone. But from the way I was reacting, I knew it wasn’t just anyone. It was someone important to me. Desperate to know who it was, I called out to her, um, me, “What’s wrong?”
But she didn’t respond. None of them did. It was like I wasn’t even there. I walked closer trying to see the young man in her arms. He was covered in his own blood, streaming from a large gash below his neck. It leaked out of his dying body in a steady stream, too fast to fix. As I neared, I could see that my hands were covered in scarlet, and there was a wound across my palm. The vision flickered as I watched my hand press to his head.
A scream, “Nooooo!” came from one of the shadows. It moved forward quickly.
I tried to see the boy’s face. I had to know who lay dying in my arms, but I couldn’t. Then, the darkness swirled and I was back at the old church. The musty smell of stale air filled my lungs.
Sister Al loomed over me, watching me lying on the floor. “Well, that was weird. You fell asleep.” I rubbed my head, and found a dishtowel rolled up under my neck. I pulled it out and sat up slowly. Al grabbed it. “I didn’t know how long you’d be out. The rest of us go into a trace when we see. None of us sleep.” She put the towel in the sink and turned back to me. “Have you been sleeping?”
I shook my head and immediately wished I hadn’t. The throbbing made me deaf. I held up a finger to let her know I needed a minute. Images from the dream were spinning in my head and fading fast. She spoke urgently, “Ivy, we don’t have a minute. When you come out of a vision, you need to immediately write down everything you remember. Since you can’t see straight, you gotta tell me. Talk girl, before it fades!”
I began to collect the scenes from the vision, but they were slippery like soap. When I tried to grasp tightly on one, it would slip out of my grip. I decided to just talk and see if that worked better. I told her what I saw, leaving nothing out.
When I finished, she said, “That’s odd. No faces.”
I noticed her tea wasn’t on the table anymore and the kitchen was cleaned. “How long was I out?” I asked.
“About an hour,” she replied.
“Really? It felt like a few minutes. That’s not good.” My brow furrowed.
“I’m glad you see the problem. The visions should become shorter, as you mature and learn to use this power. But, they may not. Since you are tied to the Underworld, because of the demon blood, I suspect it may be different for you. Especially since we already know that your visions result in sleep. The problem is that we can’t do anything to control you falling asleep, to protect you. If a vision came on while you were in danger, there would be no way for you to escape. But, there was a warning before it came to you. Before you fell asleep. You yawned. As soon as you feel sleep pull at you, get somewhere safe. Force your body out of the vision until you are. You won’t be able to do it at first, but as your powers get stronger, you will.” I climbed off the floor
and back up to the table. I rested my head in my hands, leaning heavily. She said, “Ivy, I doubt you’re going to be anything like the rest of us. Don’t mention what happened here to anyone. They will know you are different. And Ivy?”
“Hmm. Yes?” I said.
“You have to tell Eric, before he finds out another way.”
My heart twisted, as my face echoed the sensation. “Sister,” my voice faded to a breath, “I can’t.” My heart slid up my throat. The ramifications of telling him were horrible. The look of betrayal on his face would be unbearable.
The nun had a sad look on her face. “I know he finds out. I’ve seen it.” She warned, “Control what you can, Ivy. Sometimes when things happen on their own accord, they need to. But, other times it’s best if we set the events into motion. Eric will be with you and another, when it matters most. You will need both of them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
That night, I finished my homework, and jumped in the shower. Letting the scalding water beat down on me, I thought about what Al said. You need both of them. She wouldn’t tell me who the other person was, but I knew that Eric had to help. If he didn’t, it would be bad. While it was hard to accept Al not telling me who the other person was, I did understand her reasoning. During my Seyer lessons she revealed the importance of not telling the person who was in the vision too much information. If too much was revealed before the vision came to fruition an alternate future could happen—one no one saw. Seyers had the horrible job of choosing which visions to derail, and which to allow to progress. Right now, Al said I was too inexperienced to make those choices, but given the chance, I would derail my prophecy in a heartbeat.
As for Eric, I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t destroy me. It made no sense for him to rescue me then, and slay me now. I didn’t know what to think of him. I owed him my life. There was no way around it no matter how much I hated it. The debt made me feel trapped, because there was no way to repay him. It would linger forever… or until I told him what I was.
At the first crack of dawn, I got dressed. The house was still quiet. I padded down the stairs to the kitchen with a fist full of trash. Sifting through the papers, I found what I was looking for. It said CLASS TRIP on it. They were going to Albany, New York for a week to tour the state capital. A multi-hour, multi-day school trip—on a yellow school bus? No, thank you. The orange flyer crumpled in my fist, and I extended my arm over the trashcan. But, I hesitated before dropping it in.
My mom appeared behind me, and snatched it out of my hand. “What’s this, Ivy?” she asked. As soon as she saw what it was she squealed, “Ivy! You can’t throw this out!” She was fully dressed, and alert. She looked at me like I was nuts for not wanting to go.
The flyer was a reminder to pay for the trip so I could go—tomorrow night. The school needed the permission slip signed and returned, today. I bristled, knowing it was going to be a fight, “I don’t want to go, Mom.” Besides, if I left my house then I wouldn’t have the wards to protect me. I couldn’t go even if I wanted to, but I couldn’t tell her that.
“How can you not want to go?” Mom asked, standing in front of me. “It’s a seven day trip. And it fulfills your history assignment.” She paused, hand on hip, and looked at me, “You’d really rather write a fifteen-page paper about the state of New York? Did you write it already? It’s due tomorrow, if you skip the trip.”
I sighed. The paper. Crap. I forgot to write the paper. “No, I didn’t write it.” Sensing that I already lost this battle, I gave in. I’d have to make sure Eric could come with me. I couldn’t just disappear for a week. “Fine, I’ll go. I need the money and the slip.”
Mom smiled at me. Her cheeks were rosy. “You’ll love this Ivy. They are going to a theatre shaped like an egg. You’ll get to see backstage too. I know that’s only a small part of the trip, but that alone makes it worthwhile.” Mom grabbed her purse, and took out some cash and a pen. She signed her perfectly scripted signature (that was impossible to forge) and crushed the cash into my hands. “Here is some extra to get yourself some snacks and souvenirs.”
“Thanks Mom,” I said.
Since I was officially the last student to turn in my permission slip, I had to walk it down to the office. I swung open the office door, and walked up to the counter. It was oblong, painted the unhappiest shade of yellow in existence. A honey-colored wooden swinging half-door was at the end of the counter. It held the secretaries in their pen, like zebras at the zoo. The women worked at their industrial gray desks, and ignored me. I walked over to the counter. The office was slatted in mid-morning sun as it shone through dusty metal blinds. The room smelled of musty cinder blocks and Xerox machines. I slapped my permission slip on the counter. The change in the envelope jingled, as it hit the blanched wood. I sighed, waiting to be acknowledged.
A pear shaped woman rose from her cramped desk. “Yes?” She snapped. Her fried red hair shifted as a mass. She immediately drew out her crimson claws and tapped the counter, glaring at me.
“I needed to turn in my permission slip for the class trip,” I said and pushed the envelope and slip toward her.
“Kinda late to hand this in; isn’t it, hun?” she scolded.
“Yeah, I was gonna write the paper instead,” I mumbled.
She replied with a humf, and took my stuff and walked back to her computer. “You’re in the system. Be here tonight by 5pm or they’ll leave without you.”
The day passed like all the rest. No sign of Jake. Eric was Eric. And Collin was absent. I told Eric that I’d be going on the trip, and he said he’d accompany me. He left after school to clear it with Al. At the final bell, I launched myself from my seat. I got home swiftly. Rummaging through my closet, I grabbed a few hoodies, jeans, and tee shirts.
I paused in front of the mirror. Apryl’s necklace peeked out from under my shirt. Touching it, I wondered if I should take it with me. The thought made me look at Collin’s ring. It had been sitting on the dresser since the night he revealed he was a Valefar. Suddenly, I wanted that ring on my finger. I didn’t know what to do. The ring was on the dresser because I didn’t know what to think. There was no way to tell if he was a friend or enemy. At a very basic level, he was my natural enemy. Just because he didn’t act on it didn’t mean he wouldn’t. I hesitated. There was no time to think. I could do that on the bus, and for the next seven days. I stuffed the necklace under my shirt, and slid Collin’s ring onto my finger.
It was 4:45pm. I had to haul ass to get back on time. Good thing I was a super awesome runner. I scrawled a note to my mom that I’d see her in a few days. Throwing my keys in my bag, I ran out the front door, slamming it behind me. My feet slapped the pavement in quick graceful leaps. Dappled light shone through the tree branches, as the crisp air swirled around my face. I ran across four lanes of traffic—during rush hour –managing not to get hit, which was something. Two blocks to go. It was 4:53pm. I shifted my duffle bag, and picked up the pace. Almost there. Turning toward the alley, I ran at full speed straight down it.
Five strides max and I’ll be in the schoolyard. As my foot slammed into the pavement on my third stride, something struck me from the side. I let out a yelp, as my body smacked into the asphalt. I felt who it was before he spoke, because the bond snapped tightly into place on impact.
His words touched my mind with urgency. They’re tracking you. Be still. I lay in Collin’s arms, facing the brick wall. His hand was over my mouth, and the other was still wrapped around my waist. His heart was hammering. Something cold slid around my wrist and I heard a metallic clink. The protest died in my mouth, as I saw two guys run into the alley. They ran straight at us faster than humanly possible. Collin’s arms untwisted from their protective hold around me, as he lunged at my stalkers. I pressed my body back into the brick wall, heart racing. Watching.
Collin was quicker than the attacker. Before the guy had a hold, he grabbed him and threw him into the alley wall. The second guy jumped on his back, and laced his arms aroun
d Collin’s throat. He couldn’t get the guy to release him. I started to step out of my hiding place, but Collin threw him off. The attacker landed in the dumpster next to me. Both of the unknown guys got to their feet quickly, acting like their injuries were no more than a stubbed toe. Maybe they were. I didn’t see any blood or bruising on either of them.
Before I had time to consider it, Collin had one of the guys by the throat. “How dare you attack me!” His voice was unrecognizable, his face contorted with rage. He dropped the guy to the ground, and kicked hard. It was at that moment that I realized they were Valefar.
The attacker swallowed a scream of pain. He finally bit back, “I didn’t know it was you. We were tracking someone. She came through here.”
“She isn’t here. Do you see her? Do you see her!” Collin yelled. The man shook his head. Collin’s boot connected with stomach and the Valefar made a gurgling sound. He didn’t try to get up or fight back. He lay prone on his side, as if begging for mercy. The second man stood there, saying nothing. “No one betrays me. No one attacks me! You know the penalty for such an error… ” He slowly leaned down.