Exaltation (22 page)

“I don’t know how. That’s Rydell’s place.”

Raven looked down and let out a slow breath.

“You don’t look so hot,” Dagen said.

“Best compliment of the day,” Raven said with a wink, trying to act like her old self. “I have a lot going on at home, too.”

“You want to talk about it? An outside ear is an objective one,” he said as he leaned forward in his desk.

Raven stared into his eyes for a second or two. This was the longest conversation she’d had with him, so she wasn’t sure she trusted him.

She was sure, however, River had a thing for him. Which could only mean he was good at his core.

“Long story. Basically Berries hates me and fifth period is going to blow without Rydell there to block him from giving me a hard time.”

“Want to skip?”

“The thought crossed my mind but Berries is the reason I’m on this schedule right now. I couldn’t get away with skipping if I wanted to.”

“He’s not doing anything creepy to you is he?”

Raven smirked as the thought that he had stalked Miss Emery and robbed a ton of people of their family journals crossed her mind.

“We’ll find out today. This will be the first time I’ve been around him without Rydell. Soren will be in there so it might not be too bad.”

“You and Rydell, ” he said with a half smirk.

“Might be a little early to say it like that, but your boy’s getting to me.”

“In a good way?”

Raven blushed. “I haven’t found a flaw yet.”

His eyes grew sad but a smile remained on his face.

“I’m not being played am I?”

He drummed his hands on his desk for a second before he answered. “I’ve known Rydell a long time. He doesn’t play.”

“You’re evasive like him.”

He grinned as the bell rang and Raven turned to face the front of the class.

Lunch was spent catching Soren up on what went down the night before. Ash whispered most of it to him, and like Raven he seemed to be skeptical. He even told them that the words were probably written as a parable and we needed to dig more.

Raven ignored most of the conversation and stared out the lunchroom windows. It was so dark outside you would think dusk was a mere breath away. Not surprisingly storms were not Raven’s friend.

Walking to fifth period Soren asked, “Where’s lover boy today?”

“Not a clue.”

“That serious?” he asked with a raised brow. Surprised Raven didn’t scold him for calling Rydell that.

“Could be. Have an opinion on the matter?”

“Don’t know the guy.”

“You don’t know him, and the girls don’t have prickles.”

“But?” Soren said.

“But my dad and Emery made it seem like they knew there was someone else meant for me. That’s supposed to help us with whatever we’re fated for.”

Soren glanced over her. “Yeah, but you’re the only one who will know who that is. No harm in having fun until all this hell breaks loose.”

Thunder vibrated the school right about then.

“It’s getting wicked outside,” Raven said in an uneasy tone.

Soren put his arm around her. Which would be totally cool and normal to Raven if she didn’t notice Dagen stepping out of Mr. Berries’ class down the hall.

Instead of Dagen giving Raven a dirty look, he winked at her and gave a guy nod to Soren.

Odd.

When they got to the classroom everyone was walking in and turning and walking out. On the board there was a note from Berries that said he was ill and for us to go to the library and sign in—work on our thesis.

Raven could have sworn she heard angels singing in the air. The entire weight of the day lifted immediately.

Soren seemed perplexed as they left the room. Instead of focusing on where they were going, he kept looking over his shoulder in the direction Dagen had gone.

“You’re the tense one now,” Raven quipped.

“Storm’s getting bad outside.”

“You don’t think?”

“Let’s just find a back corner and lay low,” he said, as he took Raven’s hand and pulled her to the library. Most of the class was signing in and turning to leave.

Soren and Raven made their way to the back corner and camped out on the floor. Raven started to work on her paper but Soren kept his eyes trained on the entryway to the aisle.

About the time Raven gave up on her thesis and started on her chem homework, Soren stood up like someone had poked him with a hot iron. That was enough to get Raven’s attention. She pushed her books in her bag and stood behind him.

He held his arm back to keep Raven behind him as they moved forward. Right when they reached the beginning of the aisle, Raven heard a bellowing scream, which made her jump back five feet and caused her heart to slam into her throat.

It was only Miss Carrington, the librarian.

“You scared the life out me,” she said as she braced herself on the bookshelf and held her chest with her other hand. “What are you doing back here?” she said as her eyes darted back and forth between Soren and Raven in an accusing way.
Really?
Raven thought.

“We’re in Mr. Newberry’s class, we are supposed to be here,” Soren said.

“No one is
supposed
to be here. They dismissed school early so everyone would be home before this storm came through. You need to go. Now.”

“Go or find shelter?” Raven asked with a tremble.

“The storm isn’t supposed to pass over until four so you have plenty of time. Get to a safe place.”

“We have to find the girls,” Raven said to Soren, as she rushed past him and weaved through the aisles, trying to get out of the library.

When they reached the hall they were both sure they had stepped into a horror film. All the lights were out and the halls were vacant. Random papers were strewn here and there across the floor.

“How did we miss this memo? I bet they are freaking out that they couldn’t find us,” Raven said, as she raked her hands through her hair.

They walked double time down the halls. Right as they crossed the commons area they saw a shadow ahead and a cold chill ran down Raven’s back. She knew that profile.

“Can’t be,” Soren said under his breath.

Benjamin, the boy who nearly killed Raven in that car wreck, decided to step into the glow of the emergency lights just then.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the girl who broke my heart,” he said in a sinister tone.

“Where did you come from?”

“Oh, I’ve been back about a week or so, keeping a low profile, you know, because I’m shy and all,” he said as he moved forward.

He hadn’t changed one bit. Raven was apprehensive about dating him a few years back because he looked older. His hairstyle was the only thing that allowed him to get away with perceived age as a young teen. He’d cut it since then. His dark blond hair was brushed back, and the cool stare of his eyes were gleaming in the dark hall.

In the blink of an eye he was gone. Before Raven could process his sudden disappearance, she heard a BOOM and realized it was Benjamin’s body slamming into the lockers twenty feet from where he was standing and none other than Dagen was holding him in place.

“Been looking for you,
buddy
,” Dagen said through gritted teeth.

Up until this point Raven had taken Dagen as a playful soul, carefree, the nice guy who was helping River’s boy Kade out. That perception shifted as she saw him for what he truly was: lethal.

Dagen glanced over his shoulder. “Get her out of here.”

Soren glared at Benjamin as he started to move toward him.

“Do your
job,
and get her out of here!” Dagen growled at Soren.

Right then Benjamin vanished from his grasp. Dagen swallowed a curse as he vanished, too.

Oh. My. God! What just happened!

Soren grabbed Raven’s hand and they took off. Every hallway they passed Raven could have sworn she saw shadowed images moving toward them, ones that looked just like the ones they had all fought in The Realm. When they passed a well-lit hall they saw an even darker enemy. Berries.

“What are you two doing? Come here this instant,” Berries said to them.

Soren focused on him then under his breath he said, “Take my bag, my keys, get the car, and pull up out front.”

“I’m not leaving you to deal with him alone!”

“That’s not Berries,” Soren teemed as Raven felt his vim elevate to a threatening level. “Now,” he said in a tone that offered no compromise.

Raven was going to get the car all right—and drive it through the school. It’s not like that would be an odd thing to add to her record.

Raven was running at top speed when she slammed into someone. Raven screeched but then she heard her father’s voice. When she looked up at him, he already had his hands on her face and was looking over her.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. Soren is facing off with Berries but it’s not Berries, and there are dark figures everywhere and Benjamin is back. I don’t know where the twins are!”

“They’re the ones who called me. They’re safe. Listen to me. I need you to hide in the Veil.”

“Dad, I can’t! I have to help Soren. This is wicked. Like not a good wicked!”

“I will not let anything happen to Soren, you know I won’t. Calm down and hide. Do that for me.”

“Dad.”

“Shh,” he said, as he glanced over her shoulder and a wave of rage came over his stare just before he looked back at her. Raven tried to turn and see what was behind her but he wouldn’t let her. “Veil. Deep breath. Do this for me.”

Raven let out a shaky breath but was way too wigged out to adjust any vision of hers to see a curtain. Right then she felt a wave of vim come over her, a numbing one.

Jamison was doing it. He was using his energy to calm her down. “Go,” he said right as the hallway changed to a field.  “Run.”

And she did. Raven ran at top speed, feeling the evil at her heels. One glance over her shoulder told her she was right, men in black were not far off. She started saying where she wanted to go in the Veil, up, down, north, west, south. She said them all because she kept landing exactly where she didn’t want to be, either in the middle of gore or with those beings at her heels.

Finally she breathed one word: home.

That was when her entire world flipped upside down.

Chapter Twenty

There was no death. There was nothing that looked morbid, or dark. There was nothing odd at all. Raven felt peace, a peace like she had never felt before. The sun was so bright it took her eyes a second to adjust. When they did she saw the old man from the rink sitting in a chair whittling away.

What is he doing here?

“Um, excuse me?” Raven said, and as she did the sun dimmed. There was an awesome house before her. The one she had seen the last time she was in the Veil, the one that had the addicting music coming from it, that guitar. Up close it was easy to see this home was one that was out of this world.

It was made of brick but there were no straight lines in its structure. There were terraces, porches, bay windows, recessed windows, it was like everything in one. And everything except this home was now shrouded in darkness.

The old man glanced up. “You seem lost.”

“You know my dad.”

“Very well, a good man.”

“Agree. I’m so lost. He sent me in here to hide but I was scared and moved a thousand different ways, now I don’t know how to get back.”

“What command did you say to reach here?”

“Home. But this is not my home.”

The old man smiled faintly. “The Veil is eccentric in that it leads you to truth. And it rarely sees home as a structure, but more so something much more irreplaceable.”

“I have only ever had one home in my life. Well, I’ve had a few, but they are all the same and not like this.”
Trust me.

He grinned and as he did Raven could have sworn she saw clouds move through his blue eyes. “Yet this place knows the home of the soul.”

A rumbling thunder came from behind Raven and she edged closer to the old man. There was nothing but night behind her now. And as far she knew those evil men were going to come from that night at any second.

“Can, can we go in? I’m scared.”

“This is not my home, but yours. You can follow any path you wish.”

“You don’t get it. I’m lost. I just want to go home.”

“I understand. Everyone loses their way before they find the right one, and that path creates us into who we are meant to be. It allows us to see what we need to see.”

Right…

Raven did
not
have time for a philosophy chat. She really didn’t. She had already edged past him, thinking this frail old man might be her last line of defense.

“Can I go in?” she asked. But when she looked behind her he was gone.

Another rumble sent Raven sprinting toward the house. She opened the door and charged through. Inside it was just as wild as the structure outside. It was decorated with a mix of period-specific furnishing, random yet on purpose. She halted, then slowly began to creep through the house, knowing it had to belong to someone—someone
dead
.

Raven thought she heard a slow guitar or at least someone tuning one up, preparing to play it. She moved in that direction. She wanted to announce herself and hoped that would put her in the good graces of the owner.

Manners are bound to charm the dead…

She tried to prepare herself for the most gruesome ghost in imagination as she stepped into what she could only assume was a den.

Its lair…

It was dark with wooden walls. The furniture was as odd as the house. The couches had waves to them, low and high points.

By the blazing fireplace there were large regal leather chairs. But as soon as Raven’s eyes moved there she lost interest in the décor,
big time
.

Leaning against the mantel was a boy. At least she assumed he was, because his back was to her, and his head was hung low as if he were lost in a desperate thought. He was wearing no shirt and had dark jeans that hung just perfectly from his lean warrior build. The glow of the fire was clinging to his skin and in that glow she found every reason to allow her heart to thunder forward.

Son of a…

It was like his soul was branded; a mark was glowing through his skin. It was a mark Raven had seen just the night before in those books the twins had stolen. It looked like four rings and a mix of triangles and spheres, among other symbols she didn’t recognize.

As if she were under a spell she eased forward, staring at the mark on him.

Why do I
know
this symbol…

Though her heart was roaring she was calm. This was the musician she had heard before, the one who played the sound she could not get out of her head for days. It had to be him. A guitar was leaning next to the chair he was standing by, as if he’d just set it down before he found the despairing thought he was struggling with.

His hair was dark and had a wave to it, the curls were clinging to his neck.

Nervously, she swallowed as she committed every taut inch of his body to memory…as she felt a commanding grief fuse with absolute bliss.

How can you be
…home?

She knew she should’ve said something, at least made a noise to let him know she was there. But before she could rationalize it, she was only a few inches from him, staring at the mark gleaming through his young, muscular skin.

Her hand trembled as she reached forward. Long before her touch reached him her vim expelled from her hand…it was a slow glide of enchanting white light. Before it found his flesh, exposed her presence, vim escaped him. Just as slowly, it danced toward hers. In mid-air, as it collided, mingled, absorbed and became one…Raven
felt
it.

At the crown of her head a warm sensation manifested. Then slowly, delectably, glided down her body…like a lover’s touch. Awakening her very soul—giving her more pause than any other moment in her life.

When the rush flowed past her lips, they parted slightly, passing her neck, her eyes flutter closed, her chest, she held her breath—could barely stop the quiet pants…moving down past her navel, encasing her waist…moving lower…and lower...the vim…
he
was in her veins, swimming in her soul and it was…delicious. 

Raven was so absorbed within the sensation that at first she didn’t notice how tight he was gripping the mantle, how every muscle tensed or the rush of breath that burst from his lips.

All at once he began to speak in a slow, low tone.

“It was a bloody dream…I saw you…I
felt
you. My chest ripped open with pure joy.
Want
.” He hung his head lower, as if their little vim exchange did nothing but make him more miserable.

“My virtue is my patience, or it was…until the likes of you came to mind, until I realized this pulse in my soul was because of you. I lost all willpower then, love. Every ounce.”

His fist gripped the mantel to the point of splintering the wood. “I was a fool.”

His gaze drifted to the side.

“I landed in this hell, forevermore trapped. Our fate seized.” He swallowed stiffly.

“For all I know they have won, they’ve taken you…I can’t feel anything here. I can’t focus.”

He hung his head once more.

“I don’t know how to get out…how to find you, love…I need you to forgive me for that. I’m a selfish bastard I know…I don’t deserve your forgiveness...”

Within a beat of her heart he turned. His words silenced. She was lost in his image. He had to be the hottest ghost in existence. His eyes were blue in the centers, a wild blue that was deep. Around the edges they were dark as night. He had the longest lashes she’d ever seen on a boy. A firm jaw line, and perfectly shaped lips. He had to have been just older than Raven when he died but there was not a mark on his body, not one flaw she could see.

Can angels die?

He drew in a sharp breath and with a trembling hand reached to cradle her face. Raven should’ve moved. She knew that. But she didn’t. With his touch the sensation of vim within her amplified, swam through her, whispering a lover’s promise.

“Oh for Creator sake please tell me you are not another bloody illusion,” he whispered in a deep, velvet voice.

Raven didn’t dare say a word.

His eyes filled with pain as they raced across her face.

“I’m
so
sorry, love.”

Before Raven could ask why or tell him that he had no reason to be sorry his lips were on hers.

Raven was pretty sure he moved toward her with a charismatic grace, but she was under his spell. And if she had any hope of overcoming that it was lost when she felt the flesh of his lips move across hers.

His kiss was slow and measured, savoring. Raven felt a slow deep pulse under his flesh. When his tongue grazed hers a bolt of electricity shot through her.
God your vim is going to be the death of me!

It was pulling her toward him.

They both sighed against each other just before his lips claimed her bottom lip once more, hungrily wanting more,
needing
more.

When he pulled away from her and leaned his forehead against hers, he spoke tenderly. “Somehow, someway, I will find you, love.”

Right then the house began to rumble, a growl was heard all around them. He let Raven go and reached for his shirt. Raven panicked and hid behind the chair. She moved there so fast she didn’t even remember thinking to do so.

The boy made it to the door and then stopped himself. He looked back into the room, finding it empty. He lowered his head and sighed. “Please forgive me, Hartley.” And with that he left.

Raven pulled herself into a ball. She should have been terrified of the roar outside, the darkness she was sure was going to find her in that spot. But all she could do was think about that boy, and the feeling he gave her.

She squinted her eyes closed.
Life was
not
this weird. It couldn’t be. Why did that ghost call me by my first name? Why did he act like he recognized me? Why did he kiss me? And I why did I let him? What was it with me and boys lately?

Raven was so lost in her personal mental rant it took her a second to realize she didn’t hear the rumbling anymore, that she couldn’t feel the fire anymore.

Right before she opened her eyes she felt someone touch her shoulder and moved back as fast as she could.

“It’s okay,” Jamison said to Raven, reaching his arms for her to come out of her hiding spot. She had crawled into one of the stoops on the storefronts. From the looks of it, one on Toulouse Street.

“How did I get here?”

“You ran home like I told you to,” Jamison said.

“No, no, no I didn’t. I was with the musician, the old man.”

Jamison had helped her stand by that point and as soon as she said she saw the old man his entire body tensed.

“What old man?”

“The one we saw at the rink—you remember, you and Aunt Saige looked at him like you knew him then he vanished.”

“You saw him?” Jamison said with a ghost of a whisper. That made no sense. The battle today was mild compared to the ones Raven and the others had fought as children.

“For a second, he said something about how the Veil leads you home but I wasn’t home. I was at that house, you remember the one that had the music coming from it when you took me in the Veil the first time?”

“I don’t remember a house,” Jamison said honestly, as his eyes rushed over hers as it all made sense at once. He had been looking for the soul that was to rise with her since she was an infant and couldn’t find him. He never thought to look in death. But the Creator himself led Raven there.

“Yes you do! We saw it before. Right when I asked you if Elvis was in the Veil and if I could go check out the dead musician.”

“There was no house.”

“Dad, there was a house. And two seconds ago I was in it.”

“What happened there?”

Raven looked away and blushed.

“Raven, did you see someone there?”

She nodded slightly.

“And?”

“Dad…don’t go there. I can’t deal with another boy convo between us. Too much weirdness without that embarrassment.”

She saw him,
Jamison thought to himself as relief moved through him. It was short lived though. He had no idea how to get the boy out of death. He needed to talk to Saige. Hell, he needed to talk to Reveca. For all he knew Raven had just found a solution to all of this. That one boy.

“Listen to me,” he said calmly. “Everyone is safe at Emery’s. You need to go there.”

“Where are you going? Back to the Veil? Can I go?”

“Not yet. Soon,” Jamison said as he nodded for her to walk.

Raven hesitated but then she began to run, she needed answers, she needed her girls, Soren.