Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (210 page)

“
Delmari?” I yelled.
“Hurry, you’ve—” I turned and gasped.

Not
Delmari. Not Aiden.
The
Kember
.

Behind him walked a dozen more
energy-sucking beings. His cloak ruffled as he rushed toward the
Rygon. His ocher eyes settled on the girl still clutched in the
Rygon’s grasp.

Chapter 7

The Rygon turned toward the Kember and
cowered. “S-sir, I’m sorry. I—I don’t know what came over me. I
didn’t mean to…”

Letting out a hair-raising yell, the
cloaked man drew out a red titanium knife and slit the Rygon’s
throat. The two bodies dropped to the ground. He kicked the Rygon
aside and knelt next to the lifeless young woman. Very carefully,
he smoothed a few dark strands of black hair from her face, his
hand lingering on her cheek. After a moment of staring at her, he
stood. Fire built in his palms until they completely engulfed his
fists. The Kember touched a nearby tree and within seconds, every
treetop burst into flame. The dozen other Rygons followed the
Kember, single file, as he walked away.

Body frozen, my mind spun in a whirl
of angry colors, and the world around me turned black.

“
Delmari!” I jolted to a
sitting position, strands of damp hair stuck to my forehead. My
fists released the death grip they held on the comforter beneath
me. Full on, heart thumping panic seized me. “Delmari!” I screamed
again. Jumping from bed, I staggered toward the door, vaguely
realizing I could move again.

Aiden jumped up from the floor and
held his hands out in front of me. “It’s okay. Calm
down.”

“
D-Delmari. Where is
he?”

His eyes widened a little. “Delmari’s
dead.” The words were slow—careful, like he had to remind
me.

“
No. He’s not. I—the rain.
I felt it. It was him.”

“
The rain?” Now he looked
even more concerned. Great.

“
Yeah, you know, the wet
shit that falls from the sky.”

For the first time, I examined my
clothes. They should’ve been scorched—and wet. I only saw dirt. I
gripped the hair at the back of my head. Dry. “What the heck?” I
whispered.

I stumbled backward and collapsed onto
the bed.

The roar of flames, the pain of my
flesh burning and the girl…How could that have been a dream? No,
not possible. How else had I ended up in bed? It’s not like Aiden
would’ve carried me back from the woods.

“
Are you all right?” Aiden
sat back down, leaned forward and rested his forearms on his
knees.

I averted my gaze to the red glowing
numbers on my alarm clock. Three o’clock in the morning. I’d been
out for a while. Unless the whole thing was a dream: Mr. Sorenson,
Aiden pissing me off, the girl…My thoughts swirled in
confusion.

I slid the comforter down and crawled
beneath it. I was so confused, I didn’t know if I was really awake.
“Golden.”

“
You collapsed in the
middle of the woods, screaming about something burning
you.”

Not a dream then. My hand clutched the
comforter so tight, my fingers hurt.

“
If you have some sort of
medical condition, I need to be aware. Nothing was mentioned in
your file.”

What the—
“
Medical condition
? I don’t have a medical condition!”

He cocked his head. “Has this happened
before?”

“
No, of course
not.”

Aiden hesitated. “Maybe you should see
a doctor.”

“
Nothing’s wrong with me.
If you want the truth, I don’t know what happened.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Nothing. Never mind.” I
threw back the comforter and stood. Marching to the closet, I
grabbed my green hoodie and yanked it over my head. I had to go
back—I had to see if the girl was there.

Aiden stood, an impenetrable
barricade, in front of my exit. “Where’re you going?”

“
Where does it look like?”
I tried to move around him, but he sidestepped, nearly forcing me
into the wall.

“
Sit.” He pointed to the
bed. “Please.”

“
No. I’ve gotta see if that
girl is still there. Move.” I reached out to grab his arm and
physically remove him. As I did, I realized the foolishness behind
my rash behavior a moment too late.

He grabbed my hand midair. Jerking
away from him, I tripped over my own feet and failed to regain my
footing. Everything around me blurred, except for the corner of the
dresser coming closer and closer to my face. I squeezed my eyes
shut.

Aiden caught my arm right before my
head connected and pulled me back toward him. I blinked, dizzy from
all the quick movements. After a moment, he carefully released my
arm but kept his hand outstretched. “Are you all right?”

Adrenaline pumping, heart racing, my
gaze wandered over the thick muscle covering his body. Slowly,
common sense returned. Not even Houdini could get past
Aiden.

I shoved his hand away, ignoring the
question. “I need to go back. I have to see—”

“
What?” He lowered his
head, looking at me levelly. “There’s nothing to see.”

Stepping back, I figured my chances of
sneaking out the window. Yeah right. Mr. Freak-senses would be
outside by the time I slid the glass up. Unwilling to lose the
little dignity I had left, I gritted my teeth. “Fine.”

Once I sat on the bed, he moved from
the door and crouched down a few feet in front of me. “You were in
physical pain when I picked you up. I felt it…” His gaze fell to
his hands. “What happened?”

I took a
deep breath. No sense in arguing over something his ability picked
up. He’d tell Ian either way.
Do they
already have my room reserved at the psych ward?
“I-I think I saw…something.”

“
You’ll have to be a bit
more specific.”

My hair fell forward, shielding half
of my face, and I quickly tucked it behind my ear. “The forest—the
same forest we were in…it was on fire.” I expected skepticism in
his features. His green eyes were attentive instead. “This girl was
being chased by a Rygon, and he—he killed her.” An aching pain shot
through my chest. “The Kember—he was there...” I went on and told
him the whole thing, exactly how I saw it.

His brow furrowed and his mouth opened
a few seconds before he found his words. “You’ve been through a
lot. I’m sure it’s just some—”

“
It wasn’t a
dream.”

“
Well, I don’t think so,
either, but—”

“
I’m not crazy or
delusional, either. The fire burned me. I heard everything, smelled
the smoke…”

Aiden’s eyes skimmed over me, as if
trying to decide what to think. “Did you know the girl?”

“
No. Never seen
her.”

“
You’re sure Rygons were
there?”

“
Yes. They had the markings
around their creepy blue eyes.” Some of the Rygons’ marks spread
and covered more than just their cheek bones, but I didn’t need to
elaborate. The more energy a Rygon siphoned, the bigger their mark
became. Some Rygons had their whole faces and even parts of their
necks covered in black vein-like markings. That much energy made
them a bitch to kill.

“
There was a whole group of
them, and I think they all took orders from the Kember.” Rage
swelled in my chest. I inhaled, reminding myself to keep breathing.
The Kember had been right there. If I could’ve gotten to him—if I
could’ve moved… “We need to find out who that girl was. We have to
go back to the forest.”

“
Slow down.” He ran a hand
through his thick hair. “Kembers and Rygons don’t work together. Is
it possible you’re overreacting?”

“
No!” The way the Rygon
attacked her, she had to have been a Drea. What if, through her, I
could find the rogue Kember? “If it wasn’t a dream or some
off-the-wall hallucination, what was it?”

Aiden rose, walked to my window and
drew open the curtain. He gazed out into the darkness before
turning back toward me. “I’m not sure.”

“
The Kember is real and so
are Rygons. Why not her?”

He leaned against the window ledge and
studied me. “This isn’t about her, is it? This is about finding the
Kember and avenging Delmari.”

The taste of blood filled my mouth as
I bit the inside of my lip. I never thought of myself as
transparent. I didn’t like that he read me so easily.

Aiden’s voice lowered. “The Authority
will find out who he is.”

“
What if
they don’t? We’re going to let someone else die? Do you not have
feelings
at all
?”

He didn’t say anything right away. He
stayed completely emotionless. “What do you expect me to do? If
she’s a Drea, she has a Kember.”

My
frustration finally hit a breaking point. I leapt from the bed.
“Something could happen to her. Won’t you feel like crap knowing
you knew but didn’t do anything about it because you were
too
stubborn
?
We’ve gotta find out if she exists.”

Aiden adjusted his footing, his voice
calm, despite my lash out. “You don’t even know who she is, or
where she lives.”

“
I’ll
figure it out. She has to be around here if she was running through
our forest. Why do you think they killed her?”
Him,
I wanted to say. Why would that
psycho pyro kill Delmari? Would he really go through all that
trouble to get to me?

“
From what you’ve told me,
I don’t think the intent was to kill her.”I thought back to the
memory and agreed. He seemed pissed she was killed. A Drea’s energy
was our ability and our ability was connected to our life force. We
couldn’t live without it. Something about the mental energy in a
Drea’s body allowed Rygons to take it; it acted as a drug. They
could never get enough and they’d never stop.

I paced the room while chewing on my
thumbnail. The Kember disappeared at the funeral and while fighting
Delmari. Twice now he’d lit a forest on fire. I didn’t dare bring
up the multiple abilities again to Aiden. It’d be one more thing
he’d make me tell the stupid shrink. “I’ve gotta get back
there.”

Aiden stepped in front of me,
intercepting my path again. “It’s late. We’re not going back
tonight. I promise you, there’s nothing out there.”

“
I’ve gotta see for
myself.”

“
Then wait until morning.
You can’t see anything in the dark, anyway.”

He was right, and I hated it. I turned
on my heel and walked back to my bed. The second the sun peaked
above the mountains, I’d leave with or without him.

Aiden, obviously satisfied I wouldn’t
be trudging through the darkness, strode toward the
door.

“
Hey…” I pulled a pillow
onto my lap and fidgeted with the corner. “Are you going to tell
Ian? You know, about tonight?”

He stopped in the doorway and
hesitated a moment before turning back toward me. “No.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “I-I
thought…”

Aiden grabbed hold of the door and
began to close it. “Get some rest. If you need to see the forest,
we’ll go in the morning.”

*****

The second the sun cast a pale pink
haze through my curtains, I snapped my sketchbook closed and bolted
from bed. I still only had two outfits, but for once I didn’t care.
I slipped into my clean jeans and orange tank top and headed for
the small bathroom.

When I finished showering, I smoothed
my bangs to the side of my forehead and grimaced. The girl looking
back couldn’t be me. Her sapphire eyes appeared grey and dull, like
the life and light had left. As far as I was concerned, they had.
Discolored circles had formed under them, as if she hadn’t slept in
weeks. Pathetic. There was no other way to describe her.

Biting my lip, I turned away. No
wonder Aiden didn’t talk to me more than he had to. People weren’t
fond of the walking dead. I ran a brush through my blow-dried hair
and then shuffled into the kitchen.

Aiden sat at the table, his mouth
fixed in a line of concentration as he stared at a laptop screen.
Like every morning, the curl on the ends of his hair was damp and
the smell of aftershave lingered in the air. I stopped in front of
the table and rested my hands on the back of a wooden chair. “Let’s
go.”

Without looking up, he motioned to the
fridge. “You should eat something first.” He slid his iPhone across
the table. “Then call Skyler. He called four times last night. I’m
not supposed to stop bothering you until you call him
back.”

“
Of course not.” Ignoring
the phone, I walked to the fridge and grabbed a yogurt.

“
He’s worried about you. He
hasn’t talked to you since the—”

“
I know!” My stomach
twisted, and I took a deep breath. Dropping my gaze, I traced a
finger around the foil lid before putting the yogurt back. “I’ll
call him later.”