Awakened (16 page)

Alex

Jace and Kale stood in the kitchen, facing each other. Their faces were grim as Mia
and I sat at the bar waiting for them to get on with it, whatever
it
was going to be.

Their silent conversation was nerve wracking. Though the promise of proof weighed
heavily on Mia’s mind, I was ready to see how they were going to prove their immortality
and I was ready and willing to join the Council. I wondered about the process of initiation
and what I would tell my parents.

Fear crept up my spine as I thought of having life—eternal life—after Ella was gone.
I pushed the fear aside and turned my eyes back to Kale and Jace. I would cross that
bridge when I got to it. I mean, how hard would it be to give eternal life to Ella
as well? Would she want it? I’d confessed my grief over pushing Ella away when she
needed me most to Mia; she blamed that guilt for my need to join the Council. Though
my guilt was one reason and maybe even the most important one, it wasn’t the only
reason.

Jace pulled the knife out of the kitchen drawer. Mia all but fainted and held her
hands up. “Oh, no.”

Jace paused half way through the wielding of the knife from the drawer and looked
at Mia in confusion.

Mia’s face was pale, and her lips set in a grim line. “Don’t you two even think about
pulling some cutting stunt. One, it’s too easy to fake; and two, it’s nasty.” She
shook her head. Her blond ponytail slapped each side of her face. Kale grunted or
growled—it was hard to tell with him, lately. His face was paler than usual, and his
eyes seemed to flicker from black to blue. I wasn’t sure if it were from the stress
he’d been under or the fact that he was immortal. I glanced at Jace, who’d never seemed
to have a problem with his eyes—or his temper, for that matter.

“You are not the one who will be cut, so what is the problem?” He sounded exasperated.

Wait, who was going to be getting cut, Kale or Jace?

Mia rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to see anyone bleed. Seriously, there has got to
be a better way than that.” She pointed to the knife and shivered.

I had to admit, I was with her on the not seeing any blood part, but I wanted—needed—to
see what immortality was all about. Mia still shook her head with her arms settled
across her chest in defiance.

Kale cut in, “Either you want the truth, or you don’t, Mia. You are the one who was
demanding it earlier. Now take it.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter.
He wasn’t looking so hot, and I needed to get home soon. I didn’t have the time to
try to calm him down again, assuming I could even do so. I’d gotten out of being home
in time for dinner by saying that I was taking Mia out while her parents weren’t in
town. My mother wasn’t comfortable with Mia being home alone, and she wanted Mia to
stay with us, but she was worried that since someone had broken in, they could do
it again and try to take Mia.

I needed to get home and defuse the situation of Mom’s paranoia before she imposed
a curfew on me. “Just do it, for Pete’s sake.”

Jace and Kale looked at each other.

Suddenly, the knife was nothing but a silver gleam until it landed square in Kale’s
chest.

Mia screamed, Kale winced, and Jace looked quite pleased with himself. I backed up
into the bar with Mia burrowed in my chest, and damned if I didn’t want to grab her
and run. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed them to act.

Kale’s face was tight with pain, and though he said he was immortal, he never said
that he couldn’t feel pain. I expected him to hit the floor in a heap of pain, begging
us to call an ambulance, and that’s exactly what Mia screamed for me to do.

Fear and shock froze me. Jace’s face held a bit more satisfaction than I was comfortable
seeing after that assault, and Mia finally stopped screaming, only to faint and slide
down my chest to the floor. Thankful that she was so close and not clear across the
room where she could have really hurt herself, I kneeled down not once taking my eyes
off of Kale and his bleeding chest wound. My stomach lurched, and the food that I
had eaten earlier seemed to want to make a comeback. I stomped it back down and shook
Mia, gently calling her name.

“Jeez, you’d think that I stabbed her,” Jace said nonchalantly. He moved to help her
up, but the dude had just stabbed Kale square in the chest and had all but smirked
about it. He wasn’t touching Mia just yet.

“I got her,” I said quickly as Mia started to come to.

Jace rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.

“What the…” she said breathlessly as she came around.

Kale pulled the knife from his chest with a nasty slurping sound and placed the bloody
thing on the counter. He lifted up his shirt and pulled it off. Blood made its way
down his chest, but not any farther than that. It stopped bleeding pretty fast, and
his blood was darker than it should have been.

“Watch,” he demanded. “Because this is the last time I will do this.” He pointed a
hard stare at Mia, who I thought was going to faint again. She and I both moved in
closer and watched as Kale’s blood slowly stopped seeping from the hole in his chest.

His wound… melted, looking like flesh-colored wax. Mia gasped. Nothing stayed behind
but a pearly pink puckered scar.

“What—” I muttered.

“The—” Mia shrieked.

“You asked for it. You got it,” Jace said with a smile. He flicked a glance at Kale
and grinned before he turned to us. The look on Kale’s face was priceless
.

Their expressions told me that even though Ella was missing and they seemed to be
on the same side for the moment, they were enemies.

“Now if you don’t mind,” Jace said casually, as if he’d just shown us how to use a
map or something. “I have somewhere important to be.” Jace strode to the table and
packed his crap and headed for the door. “See you lovely bunch later.” He threw his
pack over his shoulder and then disappeared out the front door.

Mia and I still stood there, clasping each other. She was still shaking, and I was
still staring at Kale’s chest even as he turned away from us, placing his hands on
the counter squeezing so tight that his knuckles were as white as the cream marble
counter. It looked as though he was still in pain, but the wound was gone, healed
in less than a few seconds. I wasn’t quite sure of what to say.

Mia still leaned into me, allowing me to take the brunt of her weight. “Kale, I—”

“Get out,” Kale growled, and Mia snapped her mouth shut and obeyed without question.
She ran to the living room, grabbed her coat, shoved it on, mumbling something about
getting out of there as she headed out the front door.

I turned to Kale. His bloodstained chest heaved, and he tightly gripped the edge of
the counter. Kale was struggling with something, and it wasn’t the mended wound. Following
my better judgment, I left the kitchen, put on my coat, and met Mia outside in the
snow, where she stood shivering against the car.

“Okay, so I believe them. I still don’t want you to join them,” she said as I worked
the keyless entry and motioned for her to get inside.

I turned the car on and turned up the heat. Cold air blasted through the vents. We’d
been there all day and got all the answers that we could handle.

Mia squeezed her eyes closed and massaged her temples lightly, then released a shaky
breath. “Truly, Alex, what we saw in there was some seriously—”

“Funked-up stuff?” I interrupted, hoping to get a smile from her, but I was straight-up
denied one. Mia looked serious, and I couldn’t blame her. I was a bit freaked out
myself—freaked out and astonished. I still wanted that, whatever it was. The power
that came with immortality would easily help me against Laurent. I wasn’t giving up.

Though seeing Kale bleed made me nervous, the yearning for the power his immortality
gave him pushed away any fear and replaced it with pure need. As an immortal, I’d
have the same power, and there wouldn’t be much difference between Kale and me, making
Ella’s choice between Kale and me that much easier. She’d chosen Kale over me because
he’d believed her when I hadn’t. If I became immortal, then the years I’d known Ella
and all we’d been through together would level the playing field. I’d have a chance.

***

The next two mornings, my mother cooked her stress-relieving breakfast feast. She
had made Mia stay over, which meant I had to sleep on the coach, because Mia got Leah’s
room and no one was allowed into my old room. My dad said that no one was to enter
that room until Sheriff Making decided whether or not to call in the FBI for help.
If they accepted, then the room would still be fresh for the FBI’s evidence team.
I wasn’t sure of the process for calling in the FBI, but my father had made it clear
that they may or may not decide to take on this case. Even though I knew the truth
about Ella’s disappearance, it still angered me to think that the FBI could refuse
to help an innocent girl and her family.

“Mia, I hope Leah’s bed was comfortable for you,” my mother said as she dished out
another huge serving of eggs in front of Mia.

Mia looked at her plate and frowned. My mother had been trying to make up for her
parents being out of town by babying and force-feeding her healthy helpings of eggs
and turkey bacon. Mia gave me a wide-eyed look for help, eliciting some giggles from
Leah.

It was the first time I’d seen Leah smile since my father had refused to put up a
real Christmas tree like we traditionally did. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but
we always made a tradition of buying a fresh tree from the Robertson’s farm, and then
we’d pop popcorn for the garland and sit around the tree decorating it. Most years,
Ella and her parents were with us, celebrating and reminiscing. This year, no one
but Leah felt up to it, but dad decided that he would head to Wal-Mart in Elmwood
City and buy a six-foot plastic pre-lit tree and throw it up somewhere in the study.
I myself didn’t care what we did, but Leah was heartbroken about the change, and I
hated that her Christmas was ruined.

“It was fine, Mrs. Carlson,” Mia replied with a smile, and she pushed the eggs around
her plate.

My mom looked over in my direction. “I think you and Mia should get ahold of her parents
and let them know what’s happened here and that Mia will be staying with us until
they return.” She placed the pan back onto the stove.

I could tell that she wanted to say more, but she glanced at Leah and frowned. She
had kept Leah home from school for the past few days and was preparing to send her
back for the few days leading up to winter break.

“Leah, you finished?” she asked.

Leah nodded, then jumped down and handed her the plate.

“Head upstairs and get ready for a shower so we can get ready to go to your aunt’s
house, hun, and don’t get your hair wet. We washed it last night.” Leah headed upstairs,
and my mom looked back at Mia and me. Her eyes were no longer red from tears, but
dark and tired from worry and lack of sleep. She placed the plate in the sink and
turned back to us.

“Tomorrow your father and Sheriff Making have arranged for a security company to come
in and set up a home security system for us.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I
remember when we could leave our doors unlocked when we left for work and come home
unworried about what could be waiting inside, and now—” She stopped and caught her
breath.

Mia looked over at me, understanding lighting her eyes. She’d said that I was doing
the right thing in keeping Ella’s secret from my parents, and I wondered if she still
felt the same way.

My mom quickly wiped away her tears. “Now, someone has taken Ella, and we may never
get her back.” She placed her hands over her face, and my heart broke. How was lying
the right choice, when it was hurting my mother?

“Mom,” I started, unsure of what to say, unsure of how to make her feel better. Even
now, the truth wouldn’t help. It would only push her away, break her trust in me,
and hurt her more. There was no fixing this, other than bringing Ella home safe and
sound, and as a Council member, I could do just that. Not only that, but I’d be able
to continue to protect her in the future, as well.

My mom waved a hand to shush me so that she could finish. “He’ll be here at seven
in the morning to set everything up, and I’d appreciate it if you were all up and
dressed ready for the tutorial on how to use it. Apparently, we aren’t the only family
in Cedar or Elmwood City that’s decided on a home security system, but Sheriff Making
and Mr. Dauwde made a few calls in our favor and got us pushed to the top of the list.”
She turned back and started the dishes.

“Mrs. Carlson,” Mia ventured, and my mom turned slowly.

My mom smiled, but there was no happiness in her eyes, just emptiness. “Yeah, sweetheart?”
she whispered, as if speaking hurt.

“I think it’ll be okay. They’ll find her,” Mia said with a conviction that baffled
even me.

I was wondering how we were going to do that very thing when my cell phone chimed.
Mia kept my mom talking as I pulled the cell from my pocket and checked the message
from Kale.

Tomorrow, my place; Jace and I have a lead and a plan.

I could vaguely hear Mia and my mother talking about home security systems in a small
town when my stomach dropped about fifty feet. I must have visibly paled, because
before I knew it, my mother was standing in front of me, exuding curiosity and concern.

“What is it, Alex?” she asked, and I looked up at her. Her face was wan but expectant.
Did she think my father would text me with news about Ella before he called her? Maybe
she thought that it was the news of her body being found. The pain in my mother’s
eyes froze the lie that rested on my tongue, and all I could do was stare at her as
she stared at me.

“Is it Brett, again?” Mia asked, her voice a bit unsteady. Her eyes widened at me
before my mom glanced at her, as well.