ANGEL'S KISS (A Dark Angel's Novel) (34 page)

The sound of Ottie’s labored breathing brought my thoughts back in line. “Hurry! How do I save him?”

“Qadesh, you must open yourself, body and soul. Your blood, pure because of your great-grandfather Seraiah, and strong from your grandfather and me, can heal him.”

“You.” The cups I drank from in my dreams. That metallic taste. “You’ve marked me somehow, haven’t you?” A touch of anger showed in my words. I held the dagger tighter.

“Yes, my Qadesh. I am coursing through your veins, giving you strength.”

I shook off my fury. There wasn’t time. “Just tell me what to do.”

“Use Annot to open your arm and give him the gift of your body. He will drink easily; his soul is very strong, a good choice for your first. Then you must reach out with your soul and moor his to you, allowing him to draw on your energy.”

Ellasar registered my confusion. “These bodies are vessels. The Ka, or soul, is our unique self. You will replenish his soul’s energy and strength by allowing him to draw from your own.”

“I understand the blood, but I don’t know how to lock souls or whatever. I don’t understand.” Panic and fear were taking over my grief.

“You will know. Trust yourself.” He stood back. “But hurry, the window is closing. If we wait longer, you may not be able to separate.”

“Not separate? But—”

“Now, my Qadesh, or he is lost. His heart has but one or two beats left.”

I spared a moment to look at Ben and Zeke. Ben was shaking his head, and the look in his eyes said he knew what was happening and didn’t approve. He raised his head and mouthed no.

Too late. Only saving Ottie mattered now.

I didn’t think about the pain or what this action would cost. My dagger glowed white and warm. I trusted in its strength. I sank the blade deep into my wrist, and my blood flowed from the cut. As I moved my arm toward Ottie’s mouth, my blood dripped, cauterizing his wounds, and causing steam to rise.

I was too far into the rabbit hole to be shocked by anything. Functioning on instinct, I quickly dragged my arm over his most deadly wounds, hoping to seal them. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed to be working. After dripping my blood over the two large bullet holes, I moved to his mouth, hoping that the exit wounds would heal on their own.

He was too weak to suck, so I squeezed and pushed my thick blood through the cut and into his mouth. The blood flowed easily, and as his mouth filled, I saw him swallow and then he started to draw on the wound.

I closed my eyes. I felt as if I’d been looking at the sun too long. A brilliant red light filled my mind’s eye, waving and fluctuating with my pulse. I’d heard of an aura, but I never believed until now. It reminded me of a photograph negative—where the whites are black and the blacks are white—except what I saw wasn’t fixed, but flowed and rippled around me.

I moved my mind’s sight to see Ottie. The faint silvery glow of his energy as it pulsed was dim, barely there. I instinctively wanted to surround him in my love, and my aura turned pink and stretched to encompass his body. He greedily accepted and surrounded himself with my light. In that instant I knew him as never before—his hopes and dreams, regrets, secret fears. His loneliness broke my heart. I knew that I was family to him, too, and he missed my father. I also knew in that moment that he was mine to shape into whatever I wanted. I could take his free will. I had the power to make him my pawn.

“No.” I couldn’t do that to him.

“Stay the course, my Qadesh,” Ellasar said in my mind. “Just a little longer. You must finish, push the energy into him, and then tie off the connection like a tourniquet. You’ll need to stop the flow.”

I did as he instructed; I pushed hard and then imagined a cord encircling my energy field and cutting it in two, like an ameba dividing to make two separate fields. There was a tiny thread that I couldn’t break, an umbilical cord holding us together.

“Like a baby, he can now survive outside of you,” Ellasar answered my silent question. “But he is yours now, more so than if you had truly given birth to him. He cannot survive if you perish, and he will always do as you command.”

Ellasar had asked if I was ready for the responsibility. I realized now what he meant. I truly held Ottie’s life in my hands. Without that small tether he would perish. Could Ottie forgive me for this life I thrust upon him, tied to me forever? Would he have wanted to live knowing he would be my servant? I hadn’t even asked. I just selfishly kept him here with me.

The blackness crept in around my vision again, and exhaustion threatened to relieve me of all my worries. I hugged my dagger and lay down beside Ottie as he drew on my arm. Ellasar stepped up. He pulled me back and made Ottie release my arm. Then he put his arms around me and picked me up, cradling me to his body as he walked.

“Ottie?”

“Rest now, my Qadesh. Your minion will awake in perfect health in one days’ time.”

“Take me home, please.” Mist swirled around us and the sounds of Ben and Zeke grew fainter. I didn’t want to keep my eyes open, but I was afraid.

“Zeke?”

“Still no trust between us?” He raised an eyebrow.

“No,” I managed to say.

He shook his head, but agreed. “As you wish.” I heard Zeke’s nails on the tile floor trotting behind us and a low rumble from his chest.

The last thing I heard was William’s cursing and Ellasar’s laughter. Hugging my dagger, Annot, to my chest, I welcomed the darkness.

Off the Rack

I was wearing a long silk gown the orange-pink color of a summer sunset. The first odd thing I noticed was the auburn hair on my shoulders. It confused me.

I stepped closer to the mirror and gazed at myself with eyes that were the same blue as my mother’s eyes. Her arms reached out to me, and when I looked down I saw my own arms raised toward the mirror.

Pain threatened to crush me. Then the anger came like a hot spot in the summer air. I’d longed for a mother who never was. I looked at my face—our face—again and shattered the mirror with my hands. When I pulled my hands away, they were covered in blood the color of rust. It was old blood, and it wasn’t mine. I knew it was Ottie and Maloran’s blood on my hands.

“Why would you feel responsible for what she did, Mrs. Lewis?” Maloran’s voice came from behind me and I swiveled to see him leaning against the wall. He just shrugged his shoulders and left the room. I followed him, but when I walked through the door I was in the ocean. Waves rose and crashed against me. The water was up to my neck, threatening to drown me. I tried to scream.

“I...no.” Coughing and choking, I woke to Zeke’s big tongue scraping across my face.

“Yuck! Stop it!” I weakly slapped at his nose and rolled over. Then the dream floated back, bringing memories of that gold room to mind.

Maloran was dead, and my mother is gone again. The woman I’d met at the Janecks was nothing to me, but I ached for the loss of the mother of my memories. The pain was overwhelming, and I brought my hand up to my chest only to poke myself in the boob. I opened my eyes and was momentarily blinded by the sunlight coming in through the blinds.

What time was it? I forced myself to sit up. Then I remembered the jab I’d just given myself and looked down. Annot was still in my hand, and—lucky for me—it had changed back into a simple dobber, just a garden tool again, no glowing light or sharp point anywhere. And yet, I could feel it pulse. I hugged it to my chest and flopped back onto the bed. Last night had not been a dream, and the memories of my mother and my feelings of loss washed over me again.

“Woof.” Zeke nudged me with his big head, bringing me out of the depression that threatened to crush me. As he trotted toward the door, a low whimper escaped his huge jaw.

“Oh! Yeah.” I wiped the sleep and tears from my eyes. “Gottcha. You need to go out.” I tried to hurry out of bed, but I just kept getting tangled in the sheets. I was all twisted up. Finally, I collapsed to the floor on my knees. As I staggered to my feet, a beautiful, white silk gown fell gracefully around my ankles.

“Ellasar,” I grumbled.

As I hurried down the stairs, I realized that the gown hugged my body perfectly, its silk train sweeping around me. When had he found the time to have gowns made for me? Because this dress definitely wasn’t off the rack.

As I let Zeke out, the cold air swept in. The gown didn’t actually cover much. Its halter top plunged well below my breasts, and the side slit crept up above mid-thigh. I felt a little like Mae West. Thank goodness Dennis and his guys weren’t here right now. A quick glance at the clock told me why they weren’t working—it was a little after
noon
. They must be at lunch. I couldn’t believe I’d slept so late.

Shivering as the cool October air swirled around me; I shook my head and took a deep breath of the fresh air to clear the cobwebs from my mind. I wrapped my arms around myself while I waited for Zeke, but it was difficult because I was still holding Annot.

I looked closely at my hands. The memory of being covered in Ottie’s blood came smashing back and I frantically looked myself over. But I was clean. No trace of blood or other evidence revealed that I’d been in that awful house.

Swinging around to look at myself in the kitchen mirror, I saw I had deep, dark circles under my eyes. I looked thinner, too, but there wasn’t a mark on me. I remembered cutting my arm with my dagger and checked for a scar. I turned my arm over, feeling the soft tissue of my inner arm. Nothing—not even a mark or scratch—remained to remind me of what had happened.

Just then I remembered hearing William’s voice right before I’d passed out. He would have information for me.

I left the door ajar and ran to the kitchen to find the phone. I threw paper towels and books off the counter looking for the phone until I finally found it on the charger. Who would have thought Alan would put something away? Where was Alan, anyway? And how would I explain this gown? My hands shook and I had to dial twice before I could get the right number in and push the green call button.

“Answer the phone, answer the phone, William.” Zeke lumbered back into the house then. He must have felt my anxiety, because he put his big head under my arm.

“What happened last night, Zeke?” I looked into his big, dark eyes, hoping for answers. I didn’t get any, of course.

“Miss Alexandria?” William’s voice sounded unsure.

“William, what happened? I just woke up. Is everyone all right? Where’s Ottie?”

“Miss Alexandria, thank goodness you’re safe. Ottie is here with us. He has not regained consciousness, but he is resting well.”

“Oh, thank God.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “What about Ben and the police? How did you explain all the blood and …Officer Maloran?” Just saying his name made me sick to my stomach. I had to hold on to the counter to keep from sinking to the floor. How could my mother ever have thought that double murder would be okay?

“Ben is unharmed and back on duty. And as for the other situation, everything has been taken care of. You need not worry.” His voice was as calm as if he were talking about cleaning up after a party and Ottie was sleeping off a bender

“How…” I was too overwhelmed with questions and memories to think coherently. “What happened, William? How did I get home? I don’t remember much after I…” I couldn’t even think about what I’d done to save Ottie. I could still remember the vulnerability and his love for our family that I’d felt through our connection. “After I saved Ottie.”

“Alex, I can’t answer any of those questions for you.” He paused and I thought maybe he had hung up.

“William?” My voice sounded shaky even to me.

“How are you,
Alexandria
? I am so sorry I didn’t arrive in time to stop him from taking you. All I knew was that Zeke had gone with you, and I trusted him to protect you.”

I looked down at my pretty gown and clean hands. Part of me was grateful to Ellasar for helping me save Ottie and taking care of me when I couldn’t. But I also felt taken advantage of again. “I’m alive, William.”

“Miss Alexandria, to say that your grandmother has been consumed with worry and rage about your capture by an immortal is an understatement. Why don’t you have Ben drive you to the house and we can discuss all of this? While you’re here, you can check on Ottie. He should be waking soon, and he will need to see you.”

“Okay. I really want to see Ottie.” Then I remembered Ellasar’s words. “But I thought Ottie wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow. Ellasar said he would need a full twenty-four hours to heal.”

“Yes. You’ve been gone since Sunday evening. Today is Tuesday.”

“What?” I clung to the counter for support and Zeke pushed up against me to keep me standing. Then I remembered that B hadn’t shown up, and I couldn’t help but get a little bitchy. “So, B finally decided to come home. What was so important last night—I mean Sunday night—that she couldn’t help me?”

“I will call Ben and tell him to be in your driveway in thirty minutes to ferry you to Sera Haven.” Then the line went dead.

I was reeling from William’s puzzling information. Where could Ellasar have taken me? I thought he was just controlling my dreams, not reality. Could I have slept for more than twenty-four hours? And why wouldn’t William talk about it? As I put the phone back on the charger, I wondered how many people were bound to B as Ottie was to me. And what that really meant.