Book of Life (7 page)

Thankfully, this time he obliged. “About two weeks ago a friend of mine was murdered, her name was Jane and she looks just like you. That same night another friend of mine lost her owl, at the same place and time. The owl’s name was Stella. Sound familiar?”

I shook my head, but inside I was teeming. I’d awoken on a rock, naked and lost, the only thought on my mind a name—Stella. It was as though I had been dropped there by the very heavens, left to flounder in an unknown world.

“But how? I know for a fact that Jane’s body is still safe at the priory, so it’s not like you’ve run off with her body. You’re not aware of ever having a twin sister are you?”

I wrinkled my brow, instead focusing on his first statement.
Priory? What was that?

He shook a hand at me. “That’s not very important, what’s important is how and why you are here. I need Max to define this. I have no idea how this could have happened.”

I was growing annoyed with the vagueness of his talking. He may be able to read my thoughts, but that didn’t mean I could read his.
How what happened? What do you think happened?
And how did he know I was even this person he’s thinking I am? I didn’t even really understand who or what I was, beyond the term he’d called me—shifter.”

He looked directly at me, forgetting the road. “Exactly. You’re a shifter. All too much of a coincidence for me.”

His answer made no sense though he continued to stare. I eyed the road ahead, trying to express my desire for him to watch where we were going but we stayed perfectly on the road. I guess he didn’t need to see. Another reason to feel uncomfortable with this decision to get into his car, but I had to trust my gut. I had to.
What was he?

He finally looked back at the road. “It’s far too complicated to explain what I am. You’ll figure it out eventually.”

I crossed my hands over my chest, hating Jake more and more with each moment that passed. I never should have gotten in his car, but then again, perhaps he was taking me to the
him
I needed to find. This was the only thing that made this whole situation seem sane.

“Who’s
him
?” he prodded.

This time I didn’t even bother to answer, and being that even I didn’t know who this man was myself, my mind couldn’t answer for me.

MAX:

I left the sanctuary with Srixon, weaving through the rooted room. Deep below the heart of the priory, it was hard to imagine that this was where we had been the whole time. My mind was taxed with all the things Gen had told me, so much so that Srixon and I remained silent until we reached the stairway.

Srixon shut the door behind us before talking. “I’m sorry, Max. I’m sorry for the mistakes I’ve made. I don’t think I can say that enough.”

His apologies were irrelevant at this point. All that mattered now was the task ahead. “I appreciate it, but I don’t want to hear it, Srixon.”

Srixon was beside me as we climbed the stairs. His gaze fell sheepishly.

I felt a small bit of remorse for my coldness. I used to treat Srixon with more respect. “I’m not angry anymore. I see that it’s a waste of time. What I need to know now is how to change Avery’s mind and bring her back to the light.” I tried to focus our conversation away from personal matters. “It just seems like an impossible task.”

Srixon seemed to slough off his self loathing in exchange for a more active enthusiasm to rectify the situation. “I’ve heard of it happening before.”

I shook my head, attention perking. “It has? Why don’t I know about this?”

He tilted his head. “It was a very long time ago, long before you, and even me. Some believe it’s not true at all. I myself have never had the pleasure of meeting this pixie myself, though I have long wanted to.” He seemed to smile. “But perhaps if you were to seek her out, you’d be able to figure out how she got her light back from the man that took it.”

“Do you know where I can find her?”

Srixon nodded. “She was a part of the Eastern priory in Tibet, the temple hidden far in the mountains. I believe she still resides there. I can’t imagine she could be anywhere else.”

“Then that is my next move.” I ended the conversation there.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. I left Srixon at the altar with a bow before leaving the great hall. Outside, snow began to fall from the sky. I thought back to the day I first found out about Jane. It was a day not unlike today, though Avery had been the woman in my life at the time. I walked down the path to the large stone gate where a male Element pixie let me out. His seasons were already changing from fall to winter. It had been a short fall, but it typically was here in the mountains of Colorado. It was the middle of November, December just around the corner.

Christmas had always been a favorite holiday of mine. I smiled to myself then, the first true smile I’d felt in some time. Jane was on my mind, more specifically Jane celebrating the holiday with me. I wanted nothing more than to have her back by then, and this was my goal. Less than six weeks was all the time I had. In my head I began to make a schedule. I allowed three weeks to the task of pulling Avery out of the shadows, and another two to finding Jane.

Before I left the priory grounds all together, I had one last stop to make. Outside the sanctuary gate I turned left toward the priory memorial grounds. It was a three block walk past the priory capital buildings and up a gently winding road. The memorial grounds had been built facing the city below. It was monotonous walking there when I could easily fly, but the walk was a needed refuge for my mind to think and reflect on the impossible prophecy before me.

Snowflakes began to build on the sleeves of my wool coat. I kept my eyes on my black shoes, watching as snowflakes hit the cobbled street, melting immediately into the stones. I don’t know why I did this to myself when I could just as easily see Jane in the In-between, even if I couldn’t touch her. Perhaps that was the reason. Visiting her body allowed me the chance to see her as I did before, touch her skin if just for a moment, and pretend she was still here.

I arrived at the memorial grounds and another Element pixie waved me through the gate. One of his eyes was silver, the other still a fall-like amber. I approached the main pergola where Jane’s body lay among a handful of others in her same state. priory alchemists had given her a vampire potion which kept the shell of her body in suspended animation. She was placed on a carved stone pedestal among the others. Under the pergola, she was protected from the snow and rain but still exposed to the nature that surrounded her. Under the eaves, guards stood as still as the bodies they watched.

Typically, such attention was only reserved for the royal and prominent members of the priory. It was a preservation process they chose much like the Egyptians of long ago. In fact, that was where the practice was first derived. Many believed that if their earthy body could be saved, these great leaders would one day find a way to return to a life left too soon.

I arrived at Jane’s side, watching her as though she was sleeping—I wished that were the case. A part of me expected to see her wake as I’d seen her do a hundred times before. I brushed a piece of hair from her face which had been misplaced by the wind. Keeping her body in the cold weather helped the potion work. During summer months, the pergola would be enclosed in a permanent winter the Element pixie’s would provide.

I wanted so badly to kiss her, but it was not allowed. Even the touch I laid upon her skin was frowned upon. Already I sensed the added level of awareness amongst the guards around me, each appearing to stand a little bit taller, ready to intervene should I try to touch her again.

She looked so cold, her face scratched from the rocks where she fell. They were wounds that would never heal unless her soul and life was returned to her body. Luckily for me, Her soul lingered along the shoreline in the Ever After where I could visit her, but her life . . . who knows where that had gone by now. Finding it would seem an impossible task.

I stopped myself, hearing Gen’s voice in my head. She had warned me not to waste too much time on Jane. It shouldn’t be my focus at the moment. I allowed myself another minute to bask in the idea of Jane before I turned my back on her and left the pergola. I had soaked up enough memory and love to last me the three weeks I needed to convert Avery. I held this love in my nearly dead heart like an ember waiting to burst into flame. I could use this as a tool if I needed. That brought me comfort and just enough drive to move forward.

EMILY:

I’d locked myself in the bathroom the next morning, urging myself to make the necessary steps to get ready for school. I had been allowed to skip the last two weeks for understandable reasons. I had to admit it felt good to leave that place behind for a while, but there was no way Mother would let me get out of it forever. I feared what memories going back would resurface. Would I be able to handle it without the means I used before?

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Every other thought I had, aside from going back to school, involved Jane. Small memories, like the way she’d bug me to hurry up in the morning, bringing me a glass of orange juice before school. I had to remember she wasn’t going to do that. I had to be responsible, but as hard as I tried, I didn’t want to be.

I yanked open all the drawers before me, makeup shifting and rolling inside. I wasn’t sure just what I was looking for, but a black thought dominated my mind. As though I’d hoped for it, a familiar rattle came from the drawer to my left, tickling my curiosity. My hands dropped from the drawer handles, delving inside to shift the contents about, searching out the source of the familiar rattle. This particular drawer was cluttered with forgotten items. My anxious hands summoned forth things I hadn’t seen in years until—there it was. I stared at it as it sat there staring back at me. It seemed so simple but yet loaded with danger, bad memories, and an Emily I had hoped to put behind me. My hand reached for the orange prescription bottle though my mind screamed to leave it alone.

But what did it matter?

If it was such a horrid thing to have, wouldn’t Max have already found it? He’d scoured every other inch of my room but had somehow overlooked this drawer. There had to be a reason for it—fate. My fingers grasped at the bottle and I shook it in my hand. A few small items rattled inside, shadowed behind the opaque plastic. I compressed the lid and twisted it open with my palm, peering inside. For a few brief moments I had forgotten about time altogether, so drawn by this object that Jane’s death had left my mind. Realizing this, I found it felt good and I wanted that feeling to continue.

I reached a finger into the bottle and retrieved one red pill. I rolled it onto my palm, observing the plain oval shape. The bottle contained the pills I’d originally gotten from Greg when all this started—the blood pills. A craving was triggered from somewhere deep inside me, someplace evil, someplace wanting. I’d forgotten about these pills as Greg had then kidnapped me, feeding me his blood straight from the vein instead.

I shuddered at the thought. That shudder alone reminded me of how horrible that whole experience was. I never wanted to be that person again—and I wouldn’t. That part of me had been healed, but, then again, the pills had been a much milder way to ingest such a rare drug as Angel Blood. This I could handle. I only had a few left anyway. Besides, giving them to Max was a waste.

Without a second thought, I popped the pill in my mouth, swallowing it dry before my mind got a chance to stop myself. As it went down my throat, however, the guilt kicked in. Quickly, I leaned over the sink, trying to gag the pill back up, but it was no use. I turned on the water, heat rushing to my cheeks and tears filling my eyes.
Why had I done that?
I was stupid. The dark reality of the world returned to me as I waited for the dreadful effects of the blood to kick in.

Hoping that ignoring what I’d done would make it go away, I began to apply my makeup, albeit shakily. Slowly, however, the effects of the pill began to cloak me in a veil of fuzziness. As I leaned away from the mirror, I instantly knew that ignoring it was not working as I felt the whole room sway, padded in a pillow of quiet.

I felt calm.

I took a deep breath, the first real breath I’d taken in some time. Hands on the counter, I summoned the strength to act as normal as possible, but all around me things began to speak to my subconscious. The whispers started as though someone where miles behind me, speaking through a tube and straight into my ear. At first I hardly noticed them as I exited the room and began to get dressed. I didn’t care what I wore as I pulled on the first pair of jeans I saw and a black and pink striped sweater. Bracing myself against the closet door, I shut my eyes, urging the feelings inside me back, still hoping I had the mental strength to suppress what I’d done, along with the guilt.

Opening my eyes, I slipped my feet into a pair of loosely tied boots at the bottom of my closet. Running a lazy hand through my hair, I kicked my backpack, which had been tossed beside my boots, into the middle of the room before lazily picking it up.

Standing and hooking one strap over my left shoulder, I turned and came face to face with Wes. I nearly doubled back, suddenly sobering as his smiling face observed me.