Vindicate

  “Is that a sincere inquiry?” he asked in a subtle, yet serious tone.

  “I’m sincere in telling you that one way or the other I’ve got somewhere to be.”

  “Naturally,” he said as he raised one eyebrow. Clearly agreeing that my train of thought was right on track. “Willow. That is your current name. Correct?”

  I nodded once. He smiled vaguely . “Willow, I want to apologize for har dship this soul has brought you,” He said with glance to Bianca’s body.

  “I can’t accept that apology.” I wanted that to sound fierce. But it didn’t. It sounded humble.

  His gaze became colder, yet the energy in the room was still humming. “Do you disregard this Escort or the race? Speak the truth.”

  It wasn’t a hard question to answer. “This one.”

  “You hav e no ill regard toward the race?” He pressed as that stare bore into my soul.

  There was no way in hell I was lying to this guy. His essence demanded respect, maybe even loyalty. He was simply regal. “Equality. Why should one bad soul mark the race? I have an issue with her.”

  I’ll be damned. August, Madison, and Olivia’s philosophy was sinking in. A moment to late of course.

  “I see.” He said as he glanced at Bianca’s body that was hovering in the air. “I would destroy her for you, but you see I have a te ndency to see the larger perspective .” He hesitated to capitalize on his next words. “I do not ha ve an issue with this soul. I do , however, have a problem with her creator.”

  “Leave her like that for all I care.”

  I saw his eyes sparkle. I’d amused him in someway. Maybe even made him proud.

  “You’re not begging me for your life. You’re not begging for redemption.” He mused so quietly that I wasn’t sure I was meant to respond.

  “Why would I beg you for something I own? As far as redemption , karma will have its way. I just want to be released from here. My soul needs to find its counterpart so I can begin again.”

  That made him smile. “I knew I’d like you.”

  He had to stop smiling, looking at me that way. I felt like a humble servant, and even though I could not feel anything right now I knew when I remembered this I would be furious with myself for gawking at him. It wasn’t a lustful gawk. He was just forcing me to not hide how I really felt. My emotions may rage on the inside, but outwardly I always looked the same. Indifferent. Not with him, though. “What exactly do want from me again?”

  “I want to make a deal with you.”

  That took my breath a way, and all the fuzzy feelings on the inside vanished. I was not making a deal with the devil. Is that what he was? Lord please tell me he’s an angel. Do not waste evil on someone this pristine. “Before you say another word let me tell you that I will not bargain with my soul or anyone else’s.”

  “Now you’re just trying to impress me.” He said with a slight grin. “It’s a simple agreement.”

  Aren’t they all ? I thought sarcastically. As if he could hear my thoughts he glanced in my direction for a brief instant before h e walked over to Bianca and considered every inch of her. It was clear to me that she was nothing more than rubbish to him. “I will res tore everything she has taken from them. I will restore your life.”

  I waited for him to go on but he didn’t. “For?”

  “For.” He repeated as his diamond gaze moved back to me. “For your support.”

  “My support?”

  “Yes. In your future you will come across souls that feel that Escorts are less than worthy. I want your support. I want you to speak to the masses that you lead and tell them that one bad soul does not spoil the race.”

  Draven’s image flashed in my mind. Even without this deal I would have stood up for him if his soul were in question. “I will speak the truth. I will harm no one that does not harm me. I’ve been told that the ghost I’m fighting, Donalt, is or was a n Escort. I will not stand up for him or anyone like him. But I will defend anyone who is simply existing and not harming anyone.”

  “Donalt.” He said with an amused grin. “I could tell you how to end him in an instant, but lets not exhaust this night shall we. We have energy to restore.”

  “And how can you do that? Are you a God or something?”

  He smiled faintly but never bothered to answer my question. “You will not remember me or this conversa tion. I will restore your adored’s energy along with yours. With that energy in place you will be able to send Bianca on her way.”

  “All three of us will be restored. Correct? And you mean I will be able to kill her.”

  His eyes narrowed as the y sparkled. “I should have spoken to you long before today.” He was clearly entertained by me . “I doubt that you will have time to find her body and kill her. You need to leave The Realm immediately. There will be damage. I cannot undo a set fate . But rest assured your adored’s heritage will burn through what was meant to harm him, and in turn he will rec over the reminder of his energy … wherever it may rest at that moment.”

  Burn? What did that mean? “All you want from me is to stand up for Escorts? To defend those that bring no harm.” This made no sense to me. Why could he not do that? Why did he need my voice?

  “For now. We’ll see where the tide leads us.”

  “Are you evil?” I dared to ask.

  “Not on purpose.”

  When I didn’t smile he did. “I’m not harming you or anyone you care for. This is my olive branch. When I need you to remember tonight, you will. I truly hope that you are the person you have presented to me.”

  “Why can I not remember it now?”

  “I believe you have enough to concern yourself with at the current moment. Your life and perspective will be foreve r more changed shortly. For now…f inish what you began.”

  Just before he raised his hand he locked gazes with me. “I can only redeem you r soul once tonight. Finish this and leave.” He glanced at Bianca. “This child will have no memory of this either. I’m placing her across the r oom from you.” His eyes shimmered once more. “I bid you good luck.” With a wink he majestically said, “Until we meet again.”

  A flash of light exploded across the obser vatory. It was so bright I had to shield my arms across my face.

  Rage, grief, every horrible emotion was pulsing through my veins. What was I doing? What is going on? Why did I feel hope again? Why was I sure that I would save Landen. That he was not lost. And why in the hell did I smell like peppermint all of the sudden?

  The images of me were all around me. I could hear Bianca’s mocking laugh. I scanned the room trying to find the source.

  I felt someone grasp my shoulde r and turned to destroy the image, but I saw the tattoo. I saw the word ‘love’ - that’s when I saw the real Charlie. She laced her arm through mine. “Show yourself!” she yelled.

  Instantly, sha dows from every corner appeared. Charlie began to speak Latin. Promising words in a dead language.

  An image reached for her, and jus t when I prepared to strike it I saw the tattoo , the word. The real Madison. I held my anger back and watched the two of them use the dead as a weapon – a s they commanded the dead to siege Bianca.

  The ice in the pool was gone now. The water was boiling. I t was spil ling over onto the stone floor. The steam from the cold floor and the hot water connecting made seeing anything even more difficult.

  The water was rising on the floor, s o much so that I feared for Landen and Drake. I let go of Charlie and splashed through the water to where I’d left them.

  An image was holding Drake’s body. Her lips were on his, and from my perspective it looked as if she wa s pulling the life out of him. Rage absorbed me, but just as I focused my thought, the image raised h er hand and I saw the tattoo. I saw Olivia .

  “Willow! Willow!” she said, raising her arm . “Love! Love! Love! I’m real. He was drowning!”

  “Guess what? I’m real, too,” I hea rd Bianca say against my neck. My anger thrust her back, and as I turned
to bring more harm, the shadows that Charlie had called into existence consumed her.

  The room was silent. The images were gone. Really? Shadows? That was all it took to end her? For some reason I had a gut feeling that told me she was more deadly than that. Before I could search for her I felt something. I felt Landen. His energy was like a beacon in this room. How was that possible? How come he felt stronger now than he has in days?

  I turned to see Brady and Draven at Landen’s side and Olivia and Aden at Drake’s. Was this real? Or was this Realm toying with me. He was gone. They both were. I know they were. Gratitude for Charlie and her curse of dark whispers consumed me. They must have restored them, brought their essence back.

  Brady had managed to hold Land en’s head above the water, but I guess Aden and Olivia were a moment too late.

  The water was subsiding, and Aden held Drake’s head back as Olivia continued to give him CPR.

  I ran to Drake’s side and hel ped her push against his chest. No. We are not dying again tonight. There are no third chances. That is what my thoughts were screaming. I knew I had to get out of here. I had to wake them up and get out of here. The urgency was suffocating .

  “Breathe for him!” Olivia yelled.

  “This is him? You’re sure?” I said, looki ng over my shoulder at Draven. I w as sure Landen was next to him, but I couldn’t feel Drake, so I h ad no way of knowing for sure. No way of knowing if he was someh ow deeper in this Realm.

  “Wake him up, and we’ll find out,” Draven said, admitting that he had no idea.

  I tilted Drake’s head back and breathed into him on the counts that Olivia was yelling at me. Two counts in, I felt the hum of his lips; I felt his arm move around my waist. I leaned back and found his eyes slightly open.

  “Say my name!” I screamed at him.

  He coughed, allowing the water in his lungs to escape. “Love – you are my love – always my love,” he said in an exhausted whisper.

  A smile beamed across my face. He was waking up, but that victory was short-lived. In his embrace, I felt my energy being pulled from myself – drained. My head began to spin out of control.

  Draven pulled me away from him. “I told you to be careful! Everything is intensified here!”

  “He’s not awake ! Not all the way ! He ’s real -- but not awake!” I yelled , shaking Drake ’s chest . Draven held me back with every ounce of his strength, but he was no match for me. I reached for Drake. “Open your eyes – look at me!” I yelled.

  I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder and turned defensively, only to find Madison standing there.

  “A promise is a promise. Move. Wake Landen. Wake the healer.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows as I gazed at her. I understood the promise. Th at this was her place, not mine, but I didn’t understand why she needed a healer. Then the suffocating urgency to get out of here flooded my soul again. Landen needed me. This was not my place.

  I pushed back and turned to Landen.

  “Are you sure there isn’t any water in his lungs?!” I asked Brady, seeing how calm he and Draven were.

  “None. I never left him,” Brady swore . “I felt him come back. All of him. This is him. I would know his energy anywhere.”

  He knew I would, too. Brady was just so abu ndantly relieved that he had to tell someone.

  I took Landen’s face with one hand, and with the other I splashed what was left of the water across his f ace. His body. I leaned my lips against his. “What words are sacred…tell me what is sacred. Wake for me. Remember who you are. Remember me!”

  I pus hed my lips harder against his. I felt them move. I felt his strong lips move against mine. He sat up abruptly, pulling me to his lap, holding me with his powerful arms against his chest. Oh. My. God. His kiss. It was life. It was more powerful that it had ever been. I felt whole, understood. He was not half my soul. We were one soul. And we were alive. Alive in each other’s arms.

  I wanted this to be the end. For this to be him. All of him. But something told me there was damage that I could not see or feel. Tears of doubt and joy came to the corners of my eyes as I savored every movement of his lips. His warm, humming lips.

  “Say the words, Landen, ” I thought.

  “I love you. You are my life. I love you, ” he thought.

  He pulled his kiss away from me, and his blue eyes fell into mine. “I love you, Willow.”

  I wrapped my arms aro und him, feeling his strength. The essence of his beautiful soul. Whatever the damage was beneath the surface was not worth the worry at this moment.

  Before I could sigh in relief, I heard a horrible scream and looked to my side.

  Madison’s hand was on Drake’s chest. A fading light w as expiring from her touch. Her and Drake’s eyes were locked inside of each other as wonder took over their expression s . I didn’t see why Charlie had screamed. Why Aden had an instan t panic overcome him at first, but then I saw it. The blood. Madison’s wound . The one I had healed was back. She collapsed in Drake’s arms as her blood pooled on the stone floor.

  Without hesitation, Landen moved me from his lap and crawled to her side. He ripped the bottom of her tank top back before he ever looked at her face.

  When he saw her image, I felt Landen’s astonishment. “Who is this?” he asked as he looked at Drake, who seemed to be paralyzed with shock.

  “Madison – Madison!” I yelled. “Heal h er! When this happened before Dad said she punctured a lung. She’s drowning in her own blood!”

  “Before?” Landen said under his breath as if he were seeing the moment.

  “Landen, focus!”

  Charlie was holding Madison’s head, crying breathlessly against her skin. “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”

  Aden did his best to console her, but Draven kept his distance. I felt his yearning. His only desire to hold Charlie, but he wouldn’t move. He refused to touch any of them.

  Landen’s hands covered the wound on her small waist, and instantly a glow of light appeared there. He held his hands there longer than he nor mally would. I felt his doubt. He didn’t have my father here to tell him that everything beneath the surface was healed, and he was determined to make sure she was whole once again.

  His hands stayed in place so long that her entire body began to glow. From the corner of my eye, I saw Draven step back, ensuring that mor e space was between him and us. It was like he couldn’t bare the temptation of the light.

  Madison opened her eyes and took a gasping breath. Landen moved his hands to find the wound gone. All the blood was gone. Like it had never happened.

  “When I healed her, the blood was still there ,” I thought.

  Landen’s astonished eyes met mine. “You healed?”

  I nodded. “Think ing of you – watching you learn I did . I don’t understand why it came back. What did I do wrong?”

  “Nothing, ” Landen said as his eyes moved from Madison to Drake, then to me. “You gave her your energy… and she gave it to him.”

  I looked down to see Madison staring at me, gaining her breath. It made sense now. I t made sense that Per odine wouldn’t take her blood. That my dad and Perodine were talking so intently to her in the hallway. That Britain had told me I’d been misinformed.

  I felt sick to my stomach. In a million years I would have never asked someone to step into the path of death or danger to save someone else. “Tell me. Who should I be mad at? Did they talk you out of this or in to it? Who decided that you would be a sacrifice ? What would have happened if I didn’t wake Landen in time?! What would have happened if this wasn’t him?” I said in a voice that was laced in betrayal.

  She leaned away from Drake, who was still trying to understand who Madison was.

  “My choice. My promise to keep,” Madison stated blankly as she stood.

  I stood, too, and so did everyone else, unsure where this was going.

  “I neve r asked you to be a sacrifice! I asked you to help. I asked if you could bear to see him!” I
looked at Drake, then back at her. “How cruel would it have bee n if he woke to find you dead. After all this time. A fter everything .” I was furious with all of them. How poetically cruel could this night have ended. “– I deliver him a dead girl?!”

  Madison’s eyes looked up and down me. “You’re welcome.” Then she turned to walk away , but Drake reached for her arm and with his undeniable strength, he turned he r to face him. Their eyes swam inside of each other . I watched as Madison’s chest rose and fell heavily, then pushed his arm down. “I’m not her.” A nd with those words, she woke. Vanishing from this Realm.

  She was the smart one. I was still standing here even though every part of me was screaming evacuate . Leave while you’re ahead. You’re alive. They are alive. Rejoice for that victory. And get the hell out of here.

  Aden yelled Madison’s name, vanishing along with her.

  Drake looked at me. “What just happened?”

  “Did you ha ppen to let some seductive wench into your chambers a day or so ago?” I asked as I crossed my arms.

  He looked down, then all around him. “No,” he said breathlessly. “Is this a dream?”

  I looked over my shoulder to Draven. I wasn’t sure if they could wake now. I know he said they had to take themselves bac k, but I wanted his direction. His advice.

  Brady had pulled Landen to him and was hugging him, slapping his back. Olivia was captivated by Charlie – Draven…she was concerned, and it took me a second to understand why.

  Draven was stepping back slowly and was almost to the stone wall . Charlie was advancing with tears streaming down her face. With betrayal echoing in her emotion.

  “I can’t do this!” Charlie said to Draven.

  He clenched his jaw and tilted his head as anger for who he was soared through him.

  “Our best friend!” Charlie yelled. “She was dying, fading faster than before , and you did nothing!”

  “What did you want me to do, Charlie?!” Draven asked in a disgusted tone.

  “You coul d have held me. You could have told me th at it was going to be all right . But no . You let Aden do that. You left us. Long before this moment, you left. You are so caught up in this freaking Realm that y ou have forgotten who you are. Who I fell in love with. You are becoming exactly what you promised you would never be!”