Revived (The Lucidites Book 3) (37 page)

“Please, I need you. Please come to me. Please, if you love me… save me,” I plead.

“Little girl, your father cannot save you. No one can,” Zhuang growls.

“I wasn’t talking to my father,” I say through gritted teeth. “And there’s someone who can save me,” I say, my eyes flicking over Zhuang’s shoulder. “He’s just arrived.”

“I will not fall for your elementary tricks. Now release your consciousness to me,” Zhuang says, holding the sword over his head.

“Step away from her now,” Chase’s cool voice saunters through the air.

Chapter Forty-Five

Z
huang stiffens. His lipless mouth snarls. Stepping to the side he swivels chin enough to take in the solid form which has just arrived.

Chase glides until he’s hovering over me. He’s unconcerned for the man standing at his back, holding a sword uncertainly by his side. “Get up,” Chase says, extending his hand. My fingers curl around his cold hand and he yanks me from the ground. When I’m on my feet he turns, his sturdy frame sheltering me from Zhuang.

With Chase’s back to me, I feel protected as he takes control of the room. His tall build stands against mine, and I sense on the surface of his smooth features is a smile mixed with a strong expression of power. From my vantage point all I can make out is the smoothness of his shiny black hair as it meets the collar of his jacket and even just this is enough to remind me of how attractive this man is to the unsuspecting person. However, I’m not unsuspecting.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Chase’s voice is clear, deep. He peers around the room taking in the mayhem, then focuses on Zhuang, who is oddly frozen. “I suppose I should congratulate you on your superb work.” Chase’s hands rub together.

Zhuang eyes him nervously but doesn’t say a word.

“Looks like you’ve managed to do me a series of favors in one single night,” Chase says smugly.

“I do not work for you,” Zhuang spits through his pointy teeth.

“Everyone works for me,” Chase says coolly.

Zhuang separates his feet and zips his eyes around the room.

“You can go ahead and finish those remaining.” Chase waves his hand at the three men lying in various positions behind Zhuang. “But the girl belongs to me.”

Zhuang flares his nostrils. “The girl dies tonight.”

“Make this easy on everyone. Get over your grudge with her. If you don’t and insist on killing her then I’ll have no choice but to stop you. I really hope you’ll reconsider since I’d hate to end your majestic reign tonight.”

Zhuang laughs but not like before. This one reeks of insecurity. “There’s no stopping me. Now step aside while I destroy her.”

The room is suddenly colder even though the fire behind Trey is building with intensity, sending clouds of smoke into the air. Chase’s fists ball up and then relax.

“You and I both know the first statement you just made is inherently false,” Chase says calmly. “You can be stopped. And no one will destroy her––until I say.”

“I’m not leaving until she dies. She almost ruined me and will pay,” Zhuang says, taking a rattling breath.

I half expect Chase to say something but instead his fingertips tense and curl into the palm of his hands. The dim lights flicker. A low buzzing fills the space. Everything in the room changes on such a subtle level. The temperature. The light. The sounds. Although I’m watching from my safety zone behind Chase, I sense the terror building.

Zhuang’s long pointed nose twitches and then his face follows suit as if trying to fight something off. Spasms flex all over his face. His eyes bulge from an unseen pressure and dart chaotically all over his attacker’s face. He’s searching Chase for an option that will tell him how to combat what’s happening.

This ancient force prepared to waltz in here after learning all of the Institute’s secrets and destroy its unsuspecting residents. He’d expected he could overpower Trey, who would die to protect his palace and its people. Zhuang expected he could fight Ren and Shuman, who are talented but still moral. He knew they’d be unwilling to dip into the dark side to pull from the strength that it would take to fully challenge him. Zhuang had expected everything he’d encountered up until this point. However, he wasn’t prepared to face the man who stands before him now. Before him is the one person who’s not only powerful enough to bring him down, but now has the motivation to do it. And Chase has no trouble selling his soul in exchange for the power it takes to end Zhuang’s long life. He’s been doing just that for all of his life, which is exactly what makes him Zhuang’s perfect challenger.

Chase isn’t moving, but I can tell by the way he’s holding his hands in a fixed position that he’s using all his energy to channel the strongest power he’s ever tried to harness. Zhuang’s features stretch under an unseen pressure. His long slit pupils dilate. The surface of his face grows smooth. Suddenly he looks placid, like he’s in a trance.

An intense roar booms from Chase. He pulls both hands into the air. Zhuang rises three inches off the ground. I back up until I feel the cold steel on my neck. Another growl erupts from Chase and Zhuang stretches out his own hands searching for something tangible in the sticky air.

Zhuang howls, one so high-pitched, I cover my ears. His bony hands shelter his face, claw at it. Something from inside him or all around him or from far away sucks the very life out. Chase appears to be hardly straining as an unknown force suddenly speeds through the air. However, I know Chase has been drained by the power he’s exuded through this feat. My bracelet is undoubtedly doing its job, but still a part of me feels won over by this man. He’s drained himself. Staked his life on everything to kill my adversary.

I swallow hard. That feels like true romance.

Shaking my head I withdraw from these thoughts, remembering I can never be fooled by the immediate actions of this man. In the end he’s only after one thing and it isn’t me. This is the man who had my mother killed. Who forged the way my life unfolded. This is the man who killed Pearl and countless others, including Aiden’s parents. I remind myself why I’m here. Why I made the decisions I did. This is about choices and right now I’m choosing not to fight, but rather to let those who like to, face each other. Their selfish hate has overwhelmed them so much that they don’t even know who they’re fighting anymore.

A sound so awful it makes my stomach turn explodes from Zhuang. It isn’t words, but still I interpret the hoarse sound exploding from his mouth as a plea. If Joseph’s theory is correct, based on what he’d seen in his flash, then Chase is using his mind control to force Zhuang to send the power that he sucked from dreamers back into the ether. Like moisture in the air, it will be absorbed by some cloud of consciousness, where it will build until one day all this power rains back down onto the Earth and its dreamers.

Zhuang’s pointy fingers recede from his face. The red streaks start at his cheekbones and slash down his sunken cheeks. Before my eyes his skin wrinkles like a damaged piece of leather. It goes from being taut against his bony frame to dripping from his features. Sunken eyes stare unblinkingly at Chase and then they land on me. The wheezing in his chest is the first signal that he’s trying to speak and therefore abandoning the power he’s been trying to use to fight.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” he hisses at me and blood leaks from the corner of his mouth.

Zhuang is using his last breaths of other people’s lives for hate, which makes everything I’ve done and will do easier to digest. “Don’t delude yourself,” I say evenly. “You never could have killed me because I’ve always been the means to your end.”

“I’ll haunt your dreams, little girl. I’ll be there…every…time…you…sleep,” Zhuang says, blood spurting from his mouth with each word.

“Go to hell where you belong,” I say behind my barrier of protection.

Zhuang eyes flutter like he’s on the verge of passing out. He easily weighs twenty pounds less than he did moments prior, his robes slipping off his scrawny shoulders. His greasy black ponytail is now silver and wiry and drapes from his almost sunken head.

Chase casually drops his hands to his side. Instantly, Zhuang falls dully to the ground at his feet in a heap of silk and disillusions. This is the first time I consider stepping out from behind Chase and watching from his side as my adversary wretches in pain and agony. My eyes flicker momentarily to Chase, who’s oozing with pride as the man at his feet heaves in a breath and spurts out blood. “That’s it. Go ahead and die,” Chase says, his voice a welcome sound after all the noises of pain from Zhuang that filled the lobby.

In a quick motion Chase shoots one hand through the air and rips it back like he’s pulling something out of Zhuang. A howl bursts from Zhuang’s mouth, sending a volcano of blood into the air. Geysers of thick red liquid shoot up and sink back over his face filling in his wrinkles and drenching his silver hair. Instantly the flesh and bones twitch violently and when I think I can’t watch any more he grows smaller and smaller and every part of him dries up into itself. Within seconds Zhuang disappears into a pile of ashes and bones and silk. The sight is vile.

However, there’s something that isn’t despicable and it’s that Zhuang is gone. He’s dead and that means a new reign. Dream Travelers and Middlings are now safe. I should be happy. Relieved. Grateful. But I know my fate is not as safe as the people I’ve bargained to protect.

Chase spins around to face me. I take in the electric blue eyes that have just sucked the evilness out of the world and know they’re coming for me next. However, my death will be much, much slower.

Chapter Forty-Six

I
rrefutably he’s the most attractive person who’s ever existed. He such a beautiful composition of a man it makes me want to cry. I’m not sure if this is part of his mind control, but it’s one of the most useful of any of the talents I’ve encountered since learning I was a Dream Traveler. Attractive people hold so much power that they don’t deserve. People lavish the beautiful with unearned praise, riches, and fame. If you’re gorgeous and know how to use it to your favor then you can part a person’s consciousness, deceive a reality, or seduce someone into slavery.

Feeling the poisoned-tipped weapon stashed in my pants I ready myself for what must come next. I need him to come close. I need to prepare myself to fake it again. I need to finish him before he realizes this has all been a trap.

Standing three feet from me Chase pulls his wrist up to his chest. He’s weakened, but still a power exudes in every one of his movements. I don’t doubt for one moment that he’s a force I need to fear and also extinguish. Fluidly he taps his wrist like he wants the time. “Take off your bracelet, Roya,” he says through his soft pink lips.

Doom crashes down on me.

The confusion and fear wash over Joseph and Trey’s faces. I pretend not to notice them, to have eyes only for Chase. “What?” I say like I misheard.

“Take. It. Off.”

Stepping forward two feet, I act as if being close to him is all I’ve longed for. I make my eyes tell him that I misunderstand and just need him to hold me. Chase steps back several feet, keeping distance between us.

“I’ve done what you asked,” Chase says, gesturing at the pitiful pile of Zhuang’s remains. “I’ve killed a powerful man to protect you. I’ve proven that I love you. That’s what you wanted. That’s what you needed in order to become my wife, right?” His electric blue eyes pierce me and although I’m being battered by a shower of cold water overhead I’m on fire with fear.

I swallow hard, and again step forward a few paces hoping he won’t notice when I close the space between us. As if we’re doing a rehearsed dance Chase steps to the side, keeping himself a safe distance from me.

“Why?” I ask, injecting grief into my voice.

“You must know I’m not your fool. I’ve played your game, but that doesn’t mean for one minute I believed that poor act you tried to pull off at the Parthenon. I know you can shield yourself from me. My wife
will
not be protected from me in this way and you
will
be my wife.” He points to my bracelet. “Take it off.”

“But, I…I…”

“Take it off or your father dies.” Chase’s voice is even, full of promises.

I consider challenging the threat, but I catch Joseph’s gesture. He’s inconspicuously pointing to something. With a tiny flick of my eyes I look in that direction. Every hope I have of escaping Chase withers away with that single glance. Trey’s medallion, his protective charm, lies in the corner by the far wall. How had I not noticed that Trey had his charm ripped from him? Now it’s easy for Chase to overpower my father, make him do whatever he pleases. He can make him kill himself or anyone left in this room. Trey sits beside Joseph, his face crazed with worry even though he looks close to passing out. This man may not have earned much of my respect in the past, but that doesn’t mean I want him to fall victim to Chase’s mind control. I don’t need to weigh my options because I already know what I have to do. Zhuang is gone. The next danger stands right in front of me. I have to get him far away from everyone I love. I think I knew it would always go this way. Had prepared myself for this inevitability.

The pin to my bracelet pinches my fingertip when I press it, releasing the hinge immediately.

“No! Roya, don’t! Please!” Trey’s voice is panicked.

“It’s all right, Trey,” I say, dropping the charm to the ground, abandoning a piece of me in search of redemption. I believe without the charm I’ll still be able to hold strong against the beautiful man before me. Not only that, but I think that I’ll be able to plunge the poisoned-tipped knife into his chest, ending his life and thereby securing my fate.

I’m wrong.

As soon my bracelet disconnects from my wrist, an unstoppable force wrangles into my mind and heart, reading them and taking control of my body. A satisfied grin, so elegantly perfect and wrong, spreads across Chase’s face. “That’s it,
mon amour
. I knew you’d see it my way,”