Lost Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy #2) (17 page)

Caleb

“You are truly amazing. I knew you had a gift. My father told me all about it. But, my goodness, Caleb, I’m so completely impressed. You even scared my people away.” She’s grinning like a maniac and moving closer to me. I’m about to lose a week’s worth of meals if the nausea bubbling in my stomach has its way.

“No, you’re a liar!” I shout, thrusting my finger at her.

“I know you heard the whispers,” she reminds me.

“Get the hell away from me. I wouldn’t do something like that.”
You sure about that, my man?
How does the dark girl know about those whispers you heard?

“You will come with me now, Caleb. Might as well go ahead and face it. We’re the same, you and me. Imagine the things we could do together, the worlds we’ll conquer.” Narrowing her eyes, she tightens her grip on my forearms. The heat flowing across my skin increases and the tattoo on my neck fires to life again. I’m getting the weird feeling that I’ve ticked her off in some way.

“Stop fighting me,” she hisses through her teeth.

“While I admit your offer intrigues me, I’m afraid I can’t accept it,” I manage to say through gasping breaths and waves of pain pulsing from my neck and down the skin on my back.

My stepdad loves to watch westerns, those old timey ones that feature Clint Eastwood, the movies that show him sporting his dark hair. The cowboys branded folks back then and they used pokers with some kind of letter attached to the end of the stick that the bad guy heated up by holding the end over a fire. The scene looked so real that watching it made my skin hurt, too. Now, I’m experiencing the real thing. I got my own true-to-life showdown going on and somehow, I don’t think I’m going to win this match.

“Why won’t you accept our destiny? We’re so much alike, you and I. Don’t tell me it’s because of Gia. That shouldn’t matter now that you know her secret. Never mind all that. Let me show you a bit of what I can do for you.”

She tightens her grip on my forearms. Whatever thing she’s doing to me increases. It’s like I can feel my insides heating up. The bruises on my arms and abdomen start to sizzle. What is she doing? Am I about to explode from some kind of heated sex spell? I might be a guy and everything, but that doesn’t sound cool to me at all.

Something else happens, though. The bruises start to fade and keep fading until there’s nothing left except smooth skin. Erica has somehow healed me. Even my split lip feels better. Releasing my arms, she steps back and glances into my eyes. I’m too stunned by all this to move. I just want to find my friends and go home. Mom can help me make sense out of all this later on.

“Come. My father can heal the rest of those bruises,” Erica says, her face bright and her voice reassuring.

“And your father would be whom?”

“Don’t ask silly questions. Especially ones you can answer yourself.”

“Bernael. Wow. Your dad’s a tad psycho. Sorry to have to bring it up. Thought you might wanna know.” I’m still not ready to believe what she’s telling me. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to admit how gullible I’ve been.

“He favors me above the rest,” she begins explaining, her eyes bright now that I’ve shown a little interest in her situation. “I can make him stop all this. Together, you and I can help him understand this war is unnecessary.”

I’m about ready to believe in that slippery voice, falling for the treachery disguised inside her smile; the one that’s crooked just like Gia’s when she’s annoyed with me, but doesn’t want me to know. Something inside me wants to go with Erica, to find out if the things she just told me are true.

I jerk my arms away from her hands. Shaking off whatever she was trying to do. Stepping back, I tell her, “I’m not going with you. I don’t believe those things you said, either. I would never hurt my friends or the girl I love. Do you even know what the word love means, Erica, or whoever you are? Gia is the girl I’m meant to be with. Get over it.”

This is the part where she’s supposed to tuck her tail and run away crying, like a normal girl. She does look sad, but this isn’t your everyday chick who travels with a group of mean girls. Instead, one of the Agents, a girl, lunges forward and grabs my wrists. I know her from somewhere, but I can’t place her face. Pale skin and a mouth inked out in black lipstick scowl at me.

“You’ve made my friends angry. Now they want to hurt you again.” Erica stands off to the side, a horrific look on her face as she watches the Dark Agents surround us. “Don’t hurt him!” she screams, however ghost girl in the flesh means business. She doesn’t ease up one bit. They have stalked me since I was a baby, yet not once has one ever been so bold as to touch me.

Yeah, dude, I think you’re in trouble.

I drop to my knees and try to focus on staying conscious. I made it through Thorne ‘The Iron Fist’ Wiggins’s rigged boxing match only to find myself in a situation like this one.

“How shamefully embarrassing for you, little dark Seraphine chick,” Paige’s voice cuts into the moment. I’ve never been so glad to hear it. When I saw her get scooped up by something like a vacuum inside of a funnel cloud, I figured she was dead. In a low, whispery voice, she says, “I’d be embarrassed to let people know just how badly I suck at the persuasion arts, if I were you. Gotta make your friends do the dirty work. Pitiful.”

Ghost girl’s face slackens as she glances at Paige. She’s holding the silver sphere again and I remember from a couple days ago that none of Erica’s crew, aka Bernael’s dudes, seem to enjoy being exposed to the magic ball thing.

“Real smooth, coming from a sea witch who’s a traitor to her own people,” Erica answers, her hands clenched at her sides, her hair blowing across her face, the soft tendrils giving her a half concealed look of mystery.

“Sticks and stones, sweetie,” Paige answers, crossing her arms. “I so don’t have time to bother with you today.”

“Likewise, babes.” Erica smirks.

“Get. Your. Hands. Off. Him,” Paige says to the silent Agent girl and then extends a lightning bolt from inside the ball, her gaze a fiery storm of challenge.

Slowly, the girl removes her hands and takes a few steps back away from me. Erica lifts her hands in the air and turns to Paige. “Seriously? A lightning rod? What do you think that’s going to do to me?”

“Don’t have a clue, but I’m willing to try out a few theories,” Paige answers and inches toward me.

“Ladies, look. There’s no need to fight over a scrawny little thing like me. I am flattered, though.”

“Shut up, Caleb!” Paige orders.

“Be quiet!” Erica says at the same time.

Erica rolls her head back in Paige’s direction. “So are you like the Princess’s little bitch now? Protecting her?”

“Jealous? Wanna take her place by my side?”

“Not hardly. Caleb and I will be together. It’s been set up to be that way for a long time,” Erica says, her chin raised high.

“Whoa. Did I miss a memo?” I ask, still getting ignored.

“Keep dreaming,” Paige answers. “In case you didn’t notice, he’s already been claimed. And let me tell you something about pissing the Princess off where this guy’s concerned. You won’t like it. I can testify to that statement, honey.”

“I’m not afraid of Gia or her father and especially not you.” Erica turns to me. “You’re fighting for the wrong side, Caleb. They’re using you. Why does the alchemist hide from you? Ask him about the prophecy. Make him tell you what started it. Better than that, come with me. My people will tell you the truth.”

“Making a mental note now,” I answer truthfully. “But I’m good staying right here.”

Crossing her arms, Erica shakes her head. “I know you can see something’s not right with all this. Think about it. Why would the sea king send his enemy’s greatest warrior to protect you? Why didn’t he simply assign the task to his daughter? She’s a guardian of the white throne, a mistress of the starlight. One might think the sea king doesn’t trust his family.”

“My trust-o-meter’s a little screwed up, so I’m afraid I don’t trust anybody in this gang.”

“You trust Gia,” Erica says blandly.

“Gia’s my girl. Why wouldn’t I?”

She flinches and gives me a death glare. “Interesting. Remember all I’ve told you on this night. Talk to the Alchemist,” Erica says and steps back toward her ghostly guard.

Paige eases toward me, her body tense while her gaze never once leaves Erica’s face. “Running away again. Save yourself the trouble of repeating this embarrassing moment by staying the hell away from him,” Paige suggests. All of this is screwing with my head so badly, I think I might sleep for a week after I get home.

“Caleb!” Gia rushes through the bushes to the left of the spot where I’m standing beside Paige and in front of Erica. “I’ve been looking everywhere.”

She runs straight to me, shoving her body in my arms. It doesn’t even matter that she’s squeezing all the spots with leftover bruises on my chest and ribcage. There’s only one problem… I’m fairly certain I saw something big and dark at her back, a shadow trailing close behind my girl just before it faded away.

Caleb

“Man, I’m so glad to see you.” I bury my face in her hair, inhaling her flowery scent and forgetting about the witch, Erica and the Walker standing around us, our supernatural audience. I’m holding all that matters to me right now. I might have a better chance of winning this showdown than I originally thought.

She pulls back, her eyes focused on my lips. “I thought I’d lost you. I was so worried and scared.”

“You will lose him in the end, Gia,” Erica says in a honey smooth voice, ripping us back to reality.

It’s tease-my-girlfriend-to-death part two.

Gia spins around and then glances back and forth between Paige and Erica. I’m still holding on to her and I don’t intend to let her go. Everybody out here needs to understand we’re together. I plan on keeping it that way.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Paige begins, shrugging innocently. “I didn’t send her an invite to the party.”

“Erica, I really wish I could say how nice it is to see you, but then, it isn’t really,” Gia says with sarcasm.

“Why not? I’m happy to see you. Wanna know why? Because I get to tell you something. I’ve been dying to say this, too. Four words, actually, and then I’m gone... for now.” Erica glances at me and smiles. My stomach knots. I don’t want Gia to hear what she told me just yet, especially the disturbing suggestion about the two of them being related. “The prophecy has started.”

Gia flinches and her body tenses in my arms. Erica has touched on something she knows about, another secret strengthening that wall erected between us.

I glance down at her. “What’s she talking about?” Before Gia has the chance to answer, a strong gust of wind surges through the area, bringing a cloud of sand along with it, blinding us as we shield our eyes from the flying grains.

I pull Gia into my arms, covering her tiny body and burying her face against my chest. We wait for about thirty seconds until the wind dies down before pulling apart. Paige stands beside us, shielding our bodies with her sphere thing, but Erica has vanished... again.

I plant about twenty kisses all over Gia’s face and pull back so I can stare into her eyes.

“Please spare me the horror of this moment,” Paige scoffs and then walks off toward the spot where Erica disappeared from.

“Where’d you go?” I ask Gia. “Don’t scare me like that again. Geez.”

“I thought I saw something. I’m sorry I frightened you.”

I pull her into my arms again, inhaling her scent.

“Caleb! Man, where the hell have you been?” Kyle says, running up to our little group. He looks as though he just finished a round or two in a boxing ring himself.

I pull away from Gia and meet up with him before he has the chance to reach us. “What the hell was that?” He has this crazed look on his face that’s a cross between grinning and looking around hysterically at the same time; his brown eyes wide and analyzing everything around us.

“It’s a long story. Damn, I’m glad to see you.” I embrace him, not giving a shit about how not cool we probably look. “Where’s Shani?”

His smile fades at once. “I thought you might be able to tell me. Man, some crazy shit happened back there. She isn’t with you or Gia?”

“No,” I answer, panic balling up in my throat. This isn’t good. I can already tell.

“So Shani’s missing?” Kyle grabs my arms, his fingers digging into my flesh, his eyes a wild flame of panic bearing into my soul. I’m still wearing the tank top from the boxing match, yet the chill in the air doesn’t bother me. I’m too heated up for that.

“We’ll find her. She’s out here somewhere,” I say, feeling the complete opposite of my words.

“It got her. I know it did. Got the other kids, too,” Kyle says to no one in particular, releasing my arms and running a hand through his windblown hair.

Gia comes to my side and takes my hand. Even Paige’s attention has turned back to my friend.

“A few more details on the “it”, please?” Paige asks, her questioning gaze traveling up and down Kyle’s body.

“I don’t know what that thing was. I do know it took Shani. Thought I was all screwed up in the head over what happened, ya know,” Kyle answers without looking at any of us. The spooked way his gaze is darting around the woods, skimming the top of the trees as though he expects whatever he saw to swoop down on us at any moment, says it all.

I want him to confirm my train of thought.

“Can you at least describe it?” Paige urges, her tone impatient.

“You’ll think I’m crazy,” he answers.

“No way. Tell us what you saw, K-9,” I assure him.

Another moment of hesitation passes, his face a storm of emotions as though he’s sorting through his thoughts. “I saw her fall into the water,” he says without looking at me.

Paige throws her hands in the air. “Here I was waiting for a revelation. Caleb, we’ll talk later.” She starts walking toward the road.

“We’ll find her,” I assure Kyle. I know my friend, though. He’s lying, covering up what he truly saw. I intend to find out what that was and Heaven help whatever or whoever caused all this pain for my friends.