Love (The Allure Chronicles Book 4) (16 page)

W
ithin moments of getting dressed
, loud shouts from down the beach had Owen and me dashing out of the cave.

“Let go of me!” Violet’s angry voice cut above the rest of the commotion.

I hurried toward the beach and the sound of her voice.

Owen grabbed my hand. “We need to be careful.”

“I know.” I squeezed his hand to let him know I did appreciate the warning.

“Daisy!” Violet called out as soon as I reached the edge of the water. Violet was being restrained by two Dragos I’d never seen before. Their wings had an iridescent quality that shimmered in the sun that was emerging from behind the clouds.

I stayed back. “Violet.”

Her eyes brightened when she saw me. “Thank goodness you’re okay.”

“Oh, you’re going to pretend to care about my well being?” I was far passed carrying about being polite. I didn’t know for sure she had it out for me, but she was an Allure, and that meant she definitely didn’t care.

“I don’t know what they told you, but you can’t trust them. I warned you about them.” She looked right into my eyes as if trying to manipulate me. Had she forgotten that didn’t work on me anymore?

I didn’t call her out on it, there was no point. “But I can’t trust you either. Not at all.”

“I never hurt you. I tried to help you.” Violet fought against the Dragos’ hold. I was surprised they were enough to keep her back. Everyone acted as if she were the most dangerous one out there, yet it seemed almost easy to keep her in place.

That’s when I noticed Taylor holding Glendale. Taylor’s eyes were fixed on Violet and I knew part of the restraint came from her.

“I can’t trust a word that comes out of your mouth.” I had no idea where her loyalties lay, but they weren’t with me. That part was for sure.

“I can change that.” Glendale purred happily in Taylor’s arms. “I can make her tell the truth.”

“How?” I eyed him warily. “If you had that skill then why are you only telling us now?”

“He needed a witch.” Taylor stroked Glendale’s fur.

“So he’s like a familiar?” I raked through my knowledge of witches. “Isn’t that what witches call their cats?”

“I’m a Helzin Demon. You know that.” Glendale glared at me.

“Ok.” I nodded even though I didn’t quite get it.

“We are working symbiotically. He helps with my power, and I help with his.” Taylor kept her eyes fixed on Violet. “Let’s get the truth out of her, Glendale.” She adjusted Glendale in her arms.

He closed his eyes and purred even louder. Violet grimaced. “Violet’s too strong to make this work perfectly, but she’ll be more inclined to answer your questions now.”

I looked at Owen and then at Hailey. Both had transformed their wings while I’d been distracted. I was severely outnumbered by winged creatures. Owen gave me a reassuring smile and wrapped his hand around mine.

I steeled myself before beginning. “Why are you here, Violet?”

Her eyes were partially glazed over. “Because I need to be here.”

“Why?” The first answer wasn’t nearly as helpful as I’d have liked.

“Because I know of a way that we can help each other.”

“How?” I didn’t hide my skepticism.

“Don’t listen to her, Daisy.” Sol frowned. “Whatever they are trying isn’t working fully. I can tell.”

“I’m not stupid.” I was tired of everyone acting as if I was helpless on my own.

“Just a reminder.” Sol shrugged.

Sol’s reminders were more annoying than Owen’s, but I shrugged it off.

“How can we possibly help each other?”

“I need half your essence. It may not work since you were not made like other Allures, but I think it might. You give me half, I’m happy. You don’t need all of it. Starting with a whole essence in the beginning may be why you couldn’t fully change. This might fix you so you’ll be happy.”

“I’m not going to be happy until I can feel all the time.” I was tired of living in fear of the numbness. I couldn’t start a normal life until I knew my emotions were here to stay.

“You may be happy with who I give the essence too.”

“It’s my essence!” Taylor yelled. “It is not Daisy’s to give.”

Glendale shifted in Taylor’s arms. Taylor dropped him and the glaze disappeared from Violet’s eyes.

“I’m not the reason you lost the essence.” Violet addressed Taylor calmly. “I know you blame me, but I am not at fault.”

“I don’t believe you.” Taylor’s jaw clenched. “You are not innocent in any of this.”

“I will not deny I had a role, but it was not meant to be you. It should have been someone else. Someone who had existed for longer, but that wasn’t to be. Besides, I got nothing from you. The essence was stolen before I could act.”

Taylor scowled. “You think that matters?”

“Why did you need an essence, Violet? You already had Hugh.” She’d had her chance to pick a companion. Why did she suddenly need another?

“I do have Hugh, and I have no regrets there, but my line will die out if I don’t act fast.” Violet’s face fell. “He’s sick.”

“What line?” I glanced around. The others were being silent. I guess they were leaving it up to the Allures to discuss things ourselves.

“My line. Before I became.” Violet started to speak, but then she stopped. “Before I became an Allure, I had a child. That child grew up and had children and so on. But this generation there is only one, and he is sick. He never had a child. If I do not change him quickly he will die, and it will be as if my human footprint never existed. Please, Daisy, you need to understand.”

I was flabbergasted. All of this was over her descendent? She, who claimed being an Allure was so great, was asking me to understand that her line of descendants would die out? “I have to understand? What about my line? Or I guess you don’t care, do you? I’m just part of some stupid experiment or whatever the hell I am. But you know what? I care. I care about my future, and your future isn’t more important than mine.”

“Don’t you see, Daisy. I care about this.” Violet’s eyes filled with more emotion than I’d ever seen inside them.

I said nothing. I only watched.

“I care. I actually care,” Violet continued. “I feel. Through the years it is the one thing I’ve held onto, and it has only grown stronger. I cannot lose the one thing I can still feel. You need to understand.”

“Then you should understand I’m not going to be happy as an Allure, and giving you, if it were possible, half of the essence won’t change what I am. It will just connect me to someone I care nothing about.” I struggled to come up with adequate words to explain myself. “I’m sorry he’s sick. I’m sorry he’s at the end of his life, but making him an Allure will not give him his human life back—and you of all people should know that an Allure life is nothing like a human life. It’s long. It comes with power, but that power is useless if it isn’t what someone wants.”

“What do we do with her?” Glendale sauntered over. “Use her as bait instead of Daisy?”

“Abe will want her back.” Sol nodded. “Even after all these years she’s still Abe’s prize.”

“And I thought the Pterons were messed up.” Hailey shook her head. “This is like a soap opera.”

“This is only the tip of the iceberg.” Wyatt nudged her shoulder.

“I am not Abe’s prize. I am a means to more power for him. I didn’t see it then, but I see it now. Which is why Daisy is his new prize. She holds the answers for far greater power. You were idiots to bring her here.” All trace of emotion was gone from Violet’s eyes, and I wondered if I’d merely imagined it.

“We’re not going to let them get her.” Owen wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“Oh? You going to fight them? Like you did last time?” Violet laughed dryly.

Owen’s arms tensed. “I should have fought harder last time. I will this time.”

“They will kill you this time.” Violet’s expression darkened. “They’ll torture you and make Daisy watch until she begs them to stop your pain. And they will only stop if she agrees to do what they say. She’ll agree, and then they’ll kill you. And then she’ll beg to have them take away her feelings. That’s how it’s going to play out.”

“No. That’s not how it’s going to play out.” Owen held me tighter.

“He’s right.” Taylor walked toward Violet. “It’s not going to play out that way, because you are going to make sure of it.”

Violet chortled. “How am I going to stop them? I’m not an Elder yet.”

“They’ll still listen to you.” Taylor crossed her arms. “But not yet. First we’re going to help Daisy save her emotions.”

“Now?” Any hope of getting them back had seemed so far away. I expected to have to fight the Elders before it happened, and now that the possibility was before me, I didn’t know how to react.” Do we really have time?”

“Yes. Considering all the time we’ve wasted in the past few days, we can waste more now.” Taylor stared at her bare wrist as though she expected a watch to be there.

“Why?” I didn’t believe Taylor had suddenly changed her mind about me. “Why do you want to help me? Are you going to take your essence back?”

“That’s not how this is going to work.” Taylor sighed. “Glendale explained it.”

“When?” I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t hear him.”

“In my head.” She touched her forehead. “Jim, you got the herb?”

“Yes.” Jim held up the satchel.

“Sol, you ready to try what you did last time?” Glendale asked.

“Yes.” Sol nodded.

“Wait.” I held up a hand. “I wasn’t done talking.”

“I know you think you’re the most important person in the world, but that doesn’t mean we’re all going to wait around for you to decide that my change of heart doesn’t matter. But if you really want to know, if I can’t get the essence back from you, the last thing I want is for Violet to get it. If this works the essence will no longer be retrievable because it will completely change in nature and form. You also get your emotions back so it’s a win for you and a loss for Violet and the Elders. If I can’t get a win for myself, I’d rather a loss for my enemies.” She gave me a stern look. “Ok?”

I was stunned at the thought of what was coming, so I said nothing.

“We’re all set then.” Taylor smiled. “I’ve even got the dark magic.”

“Dark magic?” I shivered. “I never said I was okay with that.”

“It’s the only thing that’s going to work.” Taylor kicked her foot in the sand. “And Pterons, go restrain Violet. I don’t think I can do both things at once.”

“I need to be with Daisy for this.” Owen pulled me closer to his side.

“You don’t need to be anywhere but making sure Violet doesn’t try to kill Daisy, got it?” Taylor scowled.

“Got it.” He took both of my hands in his. “I love you. I am right here. I swear I will be over there in a second if you need me.”

“I know.” I did my best to appear more confident than I actually was.

He kissed me. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the kiss, memorizing the sensations so I could hold onto them during whatever I was about to experience. Sol was involved, which meant it was going to be painful.

“Cut it out. When I said we had time for this I didn’t build in time for a make-out session.” Taylor scrunched up her nose.

“So what do I do?” The thought of having any sort of dark magic used on me sounded positively terrifying, but getting rid of the numbness that kept crawling back kept me from refusing.

“The herb works best in water I read. Should we get her in the water?” Jim pointed out to the ocean.

“Don’t worry, Owen, she’s going to be okay,” Hailey reassured him. “Taylor actually has a point. Keeping Violet in check is important.”

“I don’t think she needs to be floating out at sea.” Sol looked from me to the water and back again. “But maybe doing this at the shore makes sense.”

“My clothes stay on.” All the talk about being in the water freaked me out.

“Uh, that’s not even a question, love,” Owen called out immediately.

Glendale chuckled. “What kind of dark magic do you think this is?”

“I was just letting you know that wasn’t happening.”

“If you embraced your Allure side, you’d have no reason to be embarrassed.” Violet said with an edge to her voice.

I turned toward her. “I don’t feel embarrassed now, but I’d rather feel embarrassed than feel like this.”

“Ok, miss ‘I’m not embarrassed’. Go lie down in the water.” Taylor pointed to the shoreline.

“Why are you in charge?” I would have been more comfortable if someone—or really anyone else—was calling the shots.

“Because you need my magic.”

“Our magic.” Glendale swished his tail.

“Ok.” I dashed over and kissed Owen again for good measure.

He grinned. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I held onto his hands for a moment before I made myself let go.

I lowered myself down into the shallow water. It was cold, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

“She loves water.” Violet’s words were blurred with my ears partially in the water. “Couldn’t pull her out of it.”

“Because it was the only thing I could feel.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to explain myself.

“Ok. Owen, no flipping out about how this is going to look.” Sol waded into the water.

“If you try to attack Sol it’s going to ruin everything,” Taylor added.

“Why would I flip out?” Owen asked.

“Because it’s going to look like I’m hurting her.” Sol stood beside me in the water. “And I will be hurting her, but it’s the only way it works.”

I answered before Owen could. “He won’t flip out. He wants me to get my emotions back.”

“Yes.” Owen let out a deep breath. “I do.”

“Don’t worry, Daisy. I’ll watch him,” Hailey assured me.

Jim handed over the satchel to Taylor who loosened the top and dumped out several brown roots into her hand. It definitely didn’t look like anything special.

I must have made a face because Jim patted my arm. “It’s far more powerful than it looks.”

“Ready, Sol?” Glendale asked.

Sol nodded. “Yes. Hopefully I don’t kill any of us.”

“That had better be a joke.” Owen’s voice carried over.

“It’s going to be fine,” Hailey reassured him—but she didn’t sound all that convincing.

Sol moved over me. “This is going to hurt.”