Channeler's Choice (26 page)

Her eyes were starting to lose focus on the words so Eren laid her book,
Life In A Society
, on her lap. She’d already read the whole thing. She was going back to reread the sections that held a particular interest for her.

The problem was this book didn’t say anything about channelers who could use both sides of their power. No one seemed to know much about that, which made her stomach turn. Being a freak who could kill people with her energy was one thing. Being able to heal them was altogether different. Some days—more often than she wanted to admit, even to herself—she just wished she was normal again.

Her thoughts strayed to the bottle of pills tucked away in her closet. The contents of that bottle could grant that wish.

The sun was starting to go down and the shadows of the trees behind her aunt’s house were reaching toward the deck. It made Eren recall another evening when she had waited for Aiden like this. That was the first night Luke tried attacking them both. As she kicked her feet up on the table in front of her, Eren shoved aside such thoughts. Nothing bad was going to happen tonight, she had to believe that.

But she couldn’t. Hours ago she had been overwhelmed by a panicked feeling that something bad had happened to Aiden. It had taken Aunt Sylvia and Caitlin an hour to convince her everything was alright and not to worry. The feeling fading was all that had calmed her down. Still, she wondered, especially having noticed the worried look Aunt Sylvia tried to hide.

The clinking of ice in a glass alerted her to Caitlin’s approach as she stepped out onto the deck. Make that several glasses. Caitlin shot her an encouraging smile as she set a tray packed with glasses of iced tea on the table. Today her lipstick was such a dark red that it almost matched the black eye-liner she wore. She’d taken a lot of time putting on her makeup and perfecting each long curl of hair. At first Eren tried to tell her Fane would be so happy to see her that he wouldn’t care what she looked like. But then she realized Caitlin was just doing it to kill time. She couldn’t blame her; every second that passed today was nerve wracking.

Sitting up, Eren took one of the glasses and swallowed a huge drink. “Thanks, I needed that.”

“
I figured you did,” Caitlin said as she picked up a glass of her own.

Nervous energy rolled off Caitlin. It was somewhat comforting to know she wasn’t the only one dying for this day to be over. She thought of trying to comfort Caitlin with her power, like she had that day at the tournament, but something distracted her. A power with enough force to rival the moon approached through the forest. It had to be Aiden.

“
Oh my God,” Caitlin murmured as her hand fell on Eren’s shoulder.

Four figures stepped out of the trees, but Eren only had eyes for one of them. In a pair of khaki drawstring pants, carrying a huge buck strung across his shoulders; was Aiden. The buck’s head alone, with its huge rack of antlers, had to weigh a hundred pounds. The sight made Eren’s stomach clench, both with guilt over what she’d just been considering, and with something wonderful. In that moment she knew, for him she would live life as a channeler, no matter how frightening her fate might be.

She rose and went to him. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw Fane carrying a smaller buck and Uncle Alin carrying a doe. But her attention could not be diverted from Aiden. That familiar, magnetic pull seemed stronger since they’d been apart and she couldn’t fight it. She felt, more than saw, Caitlin approaching Fane. At least she wasn’t the only one who looked like a love stricken girlfriend who’d been left behind.

Zolin moved to Aiden’s side. “I’ll take him from here, Aiden. He’ll be in good hands.”

With a grunt of effort, Zolin took the buck and carried it into the house. A moment later, Aunt Sylvia squealed as she flew out the door and ran to embrace Uncle Alin and smother him in kisses.

“
Three deer, Darling? Really, what happened to just two?”

“
That’s Aiden’s story to tell,” Alin said when she let him come up for air.

He grinned and winked at Aiden as he and Aunt Sylvia took the doe in the house. A moment later Zolin came back out and took the smaller buck from Fane. Sighing, Fane stretched and thanked him.

“
You two say hello to your ladies and come in when you’re ready,” Zolin said with a knowing grin.

Red stained Aiden’s cheeks. It made Eren wonder what they had talked about during their hunting trip. But when the door eased closed behind Zolin, nothing mattered except that Aiden was back. Pressing her face to his chest, she hugged him tight, not caring that he was slick with sweat. She was surprised to find the scent of buck mingled with his own was almost enticing.

“
You don’t want to do that, E. I’ve been walking all day with that thing strung over my shoulders. I must stink,” Aiden insisted as he pushed her away.

Eren smiled and licked her lips as she looked up at him. “I don’t mind.”

His eyes grew wide and he cocked his head. “Really?”

Nodding, Eren rose onto her toes and kissed him. It started gentle but turned into something almost desperate as they clung tight and tried to meld into one another. The kiss lasted so long that it really couldn’t be considered just a kiss. But Eren didn’t care. She felt Aiden’s power rise up and touch her lips. A moment before she could breathe it in, they were interrupted.

“
Sorry, but this is for your own good,” Fane said.

They broke the kiss and turned. Fane stood at the edge of the deck with the garden hose in his hand. Eren had time to turn her head away before he opened it up and sprayed them both with cold water. Laughing and throwing their hands up to protect themselves, they ran after him. A long water fight ensued that left the four of them soaking wet and laughing until their sides hurt.

Shaking her head, Aunt Sylvia finally stepped out onto the deck and threw towels at them. “You kids get in here and get cleaned up before dinner. Boys, hit the showers.”

Starving as she was, Eren was the first to jump to her feet. Drawn in by the delicious aroma wafting out the door, the others were quick to follow. The dining room table was covered in butcher paper and the carcass of a half carved deer was spread across it. Her stomach churned, taking her appetite with it. Uncle Alin smiled and nodded to them as they walked past, a carving knife in his hand. Grandfather and Aunt Sylvia labored over cooking pots in the kitchen, but not even the aroma wafting from the saucepan could revive Eren’s hunger.

Disturbed, she rushed to follow the others upstairs. She and Caitlin waited in the loft while Aiden and Fane took turns taking showers. It wasn’t easy to let Aiden go, dripping wet as he was and looking amazing. Fane had added a couple of plush chairs to the loft which she and Caitlin sank into. Eren wasn’t surprised in the least to find that Fane had also added a row of bookshelves the entire length of the loft wall. They were short because of the angle of the ceiling but still held probably a few hundred books.

Before Uncle Alin and Fane moved to town this loft—along with the attached bedroom and bathroom—had been Eren’s. She liked what Fane had done with the place. It fit him perfectly. She and Caitlin hardly had time to start talking about the boys before they returned from their showers.

Eren was slightly disappointed to see Aiden had found a t-shirt to put on. There wasn’t as much room next to her in the big chair as she had originally thought and she had to sit half on Aiden’s lap when he sat beside her. About that, she was not disappointed.

Not really wanting to talk about her own week, Eren said, “So tell us all about the hunting trip.”

The guys took turns giving them details, nearly talking over one another in their excitement. Aiden’s face lit up when he talked about the sweat lodge and other Mayan rituals her grandfather had shown him.

He turned to her with bright, eager eyes. “You’ve got to start teaching me to speak the Maya dialect your family speaks.”

“
It’s hard,” Eren warned, trying to hide a smile.

“
I don’t care. I want to learn all about your culture.”

“
Alright, but tell me more about the hunt.”

She asked about every sight, smell, and sensation, encouraging him not to leave a bit of it out. But he did, she could tell by the way he hesitated a lot. His shocked expression told her that he had expected her to be bothered by the hunt. If she was going to be truthful to herself, she was surprised that the description of the hunt didn’t bother her.

It was sobering to know how worried he was about her reaction. She had to start loosening up and embracing channeler life.

Or did she?

Quieting the voice of resistance inside her was getting harder. The last thing she wanted to do was push him away because of her squeamishness, which was apparently far less than even she had expected it to be. That bothered her.

“
I know you wanted to leave this part out Aiden, but we have to tell them about how I shared my power to heal you,” Fane said.

Head sinking, Aiden sighed. So he had left something out.

With a hand covering her gaping mouth, Eren listened in horror as Fane told them how the huge bull had slammed into Aiden’s back so hard it had shoved it’s antlers into him and broke its own neck. Her horror turned to fascination when Fane described sharing his own power with Aiden to heal him. Aiden refused to look up at Eren, but she didn’t want to see his face right now. She wanted to see his back. Fane said he’d seen muscle and bone shining from within the holes the buck had made.

Eren pushed Aiden’s shoulder until he turned sideways and then she lifted his shirt. There were four pink circles of tender, new skin, but otherwise no sign of injury. Caitlin leaned. Gently, Eren ran a finger over the pink circles. Aiden shuddered beneath her touch but she could tell it wasn’t from pain.

“
Wow,” Eren and Caitlin murmured almost in unison.

“
I thought we couldn’t be hurt so easily,” Eren said as she let his shirt fall back down.

“
Believe me, it didn’t feel easy,” Aiden said.

He lifted his eyes to her. They were filled with such guilt that Eren leaned forward and kissed his cheek to ease his mind. It was very hard not to flip out but she didn’t want him keeping things from her because he was afraid of her reaction. However, she was definitely going to have a talk with her uncle and grandfather.

“
Our power doesn’t reach its full strength until we’re almost twenty. Until then we can be hurt by just about anything if the accident is bad enough. It helps us blend in with normal people while we’re young,” Fane explained.

He sounded like grandfather when he talked like that and it almost made Eren smile. With his brains and smooth talk she thought he might just make a good teacher. If any of them had a chance to be anything but soldiers that was.

“
Yeah and even after that, we still have to concentrate and use our power to make sure we don’t get hurt,” Caitlin said.

There was so much Eren wanted to say to Aiden at the moment but she wasn’t about to say it in front of their friends. Instead, she gave him a very serious, very scared look. This was the first time she had really thought about losing him, about having to live without him, and she didn’t like it. Even if she gave up her power, she didn’t want to give him up and losing him would be even worse.

Brow furrowed, Caitlin shook her head. “But Fane’s not a healer channeler.”

“
He didn’t heal me, just lent me his power so I’d have the energy to heal myself. It was pretty cool,” Aiden said.

Tucking a lock of dark hair back out of her face, Eren fixed Aiden with a confused look. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“
Neither did we. Apparently only a bonded Society can do it,” Fane said, eyes wide and bright.

Eren wanted to respond but she couldn’t, her throat refused to let any sound out.

Aiden’s eyes widened and he smiled. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you guys about. I know it’s a little early, but Eren’s college pamphlets got me to thinking.” He paused and turned to Fane. “I hate the idea of starting college while you’re still here finishing high school.”

“
Me too. Then our schedules will be off for the next four years,” Eren said.

Fane’s jaw clenched as he swallowed hard and his eyes widened, catching the light. He exchanged a look with Caitlin, one that Eren was pretty sure meant they’d talked about this before.

“
Go on,” Caitlin said.

Aiden’s gaze shifted back to Eren. “So I was thinking that E and I could take a trip to Ireland to find that uncle of hers. Then maybe we could go to Mexico and see what else we can find out about the Rectors who can use both sides of their power. When fall comes, the four of us could start college together.”

From the slightly apologetic look in his eyes, she could tell he’d been hoping to talk to her about this first. Not wanting him to be sorry at all, she beamed at him.

“
I love it. Let’s do it,” she exclaimed.

“
That would be excellent, but, I’ll be able to get my diploma in only a year and a half,” Fane said with a smile pulling at his lips.

“
That’s perfect. Then we could meet you guys in Mexico,” Caitlin said.

They all started talking at once. Little would make Eren happier than for all four of them to be able to go to college together. This way her Society would only have to be apart for a short time. Only a small part of her felt strange to think of them that way, as her Society.