Lightning Kissed (10 page)

What he was really saying was that I had
constantly cut him out. And I had. I cut him out of my life time
and time again, only to summon him back when I needed him. But Theo
had always been stronger than me. He could take getting cut out and
drawn back in. I couldn’t. The minute I had felt my defenses being
penetrated, I cast him away.

I needed to grow up.

I looked into Theo’s deep gray eyes as he
waited for a response.

“No,” I answered. This wasn’t the time or
the place to have my pesky feelings get in the way. I shuffled away
from him and found what seemed to be the only standard-sized chair
in the place. This Collin guy must’ve had custom furniture brought
in. I dug through my bag and found one of the apples I’d stashed.
I’d intended to eat it right away, but I had no idea that getting
into this place would entail pulling on a huge rope using all my
body weight.

The apple crunched as I sank my teeth into
it. The sound of my own chewing kept me from hearing the hushed
conversation going on between David and Goliath. I was more of an
action kind of girl.

After a while, my apple was diminished, and
I was itching to go again.

“So how are you gonna get to Tibet?” I asked
Collin.

Both of their heads jerked in my direction.
It wasn’t that hard of a question. He couldn’t flash like us, so
traveling would be an issue.

I was just being logical—practical—in a mean
girl sort of way.

“I have my own plane. All Guardians do in
case there is an emergency meeting.”

Apparently there were a lot of
idiosyncrasies about the Guardian world I had no idea about.

Like the fact that they had planes and held
secret meetings.

All this time, I thought they were just
loners.

Theo and Collin flowed back into their
conversation about logistics and USB drives. This wasn’t turning
out to be the diabolical and high-danger journey Theo had made it
out to be. So far it was Slush Puppies and giants.

“Can I see the books?” I queried simply out
of boredom. Whatever was in those books had been cataloged in such
a detailed manner by Theo and now Collin that I doubted I would
find any new information.

But Theo had trouble finding ketchup in the
refrigerator.

Boys.

“Of course,” Collin waved his arm toward the
back of the place. Theo chuckled into his fist.

“What are you laughing at? Isn’t this what
we’re supposed to be doing?”

“Yes, just wait.”

We meandered through the great home. I
stopped to look at the paintings on our way through the hall. One
was of my grandmother.

“Rebekah,” Collin said with an air of
reverence. “Your grandmother is the wisest of all the Prophets. But
it is only in the halls of records that she is respected as she
should be.”

The picture of my grandmother was encased in
a frame made of golden filigree. She was younger, her hair
revealing the generation in which the painting was completed.

“You knew her?”

He patted my back. “Know, young female,
know. Just because something is deemed unworthy by a group of
people, doesn’t make it less loved.” Then he winked at me. An
unfounded giggle erupted from my mouth. Collin was handsome up
close. From far away, I couldn’t get past his overgrown stature to
see it. But now, when I turned and he was bent over targeting his
words to my ear, I could clearly see it. His jaw was rugged and his
eyes were the deep brown of someone who had a tiny bit of rebel in
them.

Collin had a little bit of anarchy brewing
inside him. I could see it.

Theo was in such trouble.

“Onward, good sir,” I said and motioned. I
felt a new camaraderie with him and showed it by linking my arm
through his. Theo shot a questioning look my way, but I ignored it.
There was no way to explain to him the glimmer I’d seen in Collin
without sounding any more right field than I usually did.

“Are there no pictures of Eivan and
Sevella?” I questioned the two of them.

“There are in Tibet. There’s a monk there
who is descended from Eivan’s advisor, Winchester—he commissioned
painters to paint their portrait for one of their anniversaries. He
also has some personal artifacts, but it would take some coercing
to let us see them.”

Coercing was my specialty.

We entered the multi-storied library and I
gasped. It was bigger and more magnificent than anything I could’ve
imagined. In truth, I’d thought it would be more—cave-like.

It was grand—a library fit for a king.

“Where are the records on Sevella?” I
prompted.

Both men glared at me.

“Don’t look at me like that. A woman usually
has a more—emotional, detailed account of things. Men tend to float
over the details.”

Collin nodded in understanding. He stalked
over to a stack already set on a table and brought all the books
over to me. He outlined the stacks, giving me an overview of where
I could find what. Theo stood nearby and oversaw the whole ordeal
but he looked anxious—preemptive. The books were enormous volumes
that smelled of the rich history of our race. History drove me. I
could recite the old laws instead of the Preamble to the United
States Constitution by the time I was seven. Each was leather-bound
with gold writing and matching gold filigree, which struck me as
indicative. This is what the Synod wanted us to believe.

Were these the pretty lies Rebekah spoke
of?

If someone were to lie to an entire race of
people, certainly covering it with leather in intimidating-sized
books would be the way to convey truth.

I opened the first book and gently turned it
to the section, or near the section, Collin showed me. He’d
presented so many things, I couldn’t keep track. Theo’s eyes
widened and ping-ponged between the books and Collin.

“What is your deal?” I asked a little louder
than necessary. The squawk resounded through the halls in
high-pitched echoes, carrying with it the level of my
irritation.

“You’re not gonna do the gloves and the
‘don’t breathe on anything’ routine? What the hell, man?”

Theo’s earlobes had gone completely red and
that vein was working an angry rhythm on the side of his neck.
Whatever Collin had done was really jerking Theo’s nerves. But it
didn’t matter what it was, he was out of line.

“Theo!” I berated him. Collin had been
‘relieved’ of his job. Most likely, because of his recent
connection to Theo and what he was studying. The guy just announced
that he was going to travel with us to help, and Theo was whining
about gloves or some piddly thing.

Theo stuttered in response, “No—I just—he—no
breathing.”

I turned to our new friend. “Collin, what
have you done? I’ve never seen Theo stutter like that. You must’ve
committed some great crime. All I can think right now is that you
did something inappropriate with gloves and breathing.”

He broke out into a boisterous chortle loud
enough to jostle some of the antiquated books right from their
shelves. He quickly quieted himself and cleared his throat. Poor
guy, he probably wasn’t used to laughing—unless it was at
himself.

“I hadn’t had a visitor in a great many
years. I may have been overprotective of the records.”

Theo was grumbling, “Overprotective, my
ass.”

I quieted down after the glove uproar and
dove back into the texts. They were fascinating to me. Everything
about who we were and where we’d come from demanded my attention
and held it steadfast. Through just a few hours of reading, I’d
discovered that the detailed stories of grandeur my mother and
grandmother told me as a child were a firm opposition to the cold,
almost scientific observations gathered in these books. Eivan was
painted as a shell of a man, commandeered by his gifts—a slave to
his blessing.

Aggravated, I continued on and finally came
upon information on Sevella—which was more of the same. She was
regarded as an unsocial creature—inhospitable and standoffish. How
could the stories of my youth and these ‘official records’ be so
different?

I slammed the book closed, not wanting any
more of my visions of the Eidolon and his mate to be muddled by the
flippant attitude of the authors of these histories.

“These are lies,” I bellowed at no one in
particular. “I can’t stand it.”

Collin looked down, as if silently deciding
neither to agree nor disagree with my assessment. I’d probably just
ruffled the feathers of at least two thirds of my race with one
statement. And if the Synod ever got wind of my
rebellion—punishment would be warranted.

Punishment from the Synod, at least for me,
was limiting my travel. To me, not traveling was as painful as
caging me in a cell.

Theo bristled at my words. I didn’t mean to
cause him pain—but what was in front of us wasn’t truth. And there
was no point in all this searching if we were just going to settle
for the Synod’s truth. We needed Eivan’s truth.

Theo shut the book in front of him and
leaned back, arms crossed over his chest. He was upset with me. I
needed to keep my thoughts to myself for once in my life—well, the
snotty ones.

“I need to go to Tibet and make sure they
are ready for our arrival—and get some other things done,” Theo
said, standing and stretching out his back with his arms raised in
the air. A slow rising blush covered my neck and bloomed in my
cheeks. It had been too long and not long enough since I’d been in
Theo’s presence. His shirt became taut around his shoulders as he
bent left and right and his biceps stretched the limits of the
material around them.

I knew what was under that shirt.

You just can’t unvisualize things like
Theo’s torso.

He was irresistible—even in mundane things,
like stretching.

“Okay, do you have a picture?” I slid my
chair out in preparation to leave.

“I don’t. Not on me. I will be back soon,
Querida
.”

I grumped out a sound of mild irritation. I
was itching already for flashing.

“Collin, do you need help?”

He looked at me, shocked. “No, thank
you.”

Theo sidled up next to me. “Go wherever you
want. There’s nothing pressing happening until tomorrow. If you can
just be back by tonight.” He bit down on his plumped bottom lip as
he told me that last bit. It was him asking me to be back
tonight.

“Or we can go to Tibet tonight.”

He thought it over for a second. “I will try
to arrange everything. Meet me at my place tonight.”

“Done,” I responded with a nod.

Without telling him where I was going, I
flashed to the back entrance of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in
Iceland. Once a year I went there and soaked myself in the calming,
renewing waters. I walked around to the front entrance, paid my
way, and bought a glimmering turquoise bikini from the gift shop. I
had packed plenty of them in my bag, but I wanted to get there as
quickly as possible.

On the way to one of the smaller pools, I
gathered my hair up and tied it into a knot at the base of my neck.
No matter how many times I’d been here, the temperature of the
warm, soothing water, nestled in amongst sheets and mountains of
ice, was surprising. The steam around the pools rose in rings as if
the tubs were blowing cigar smoke in the ice’s mouth. Around me,
mothers doted on their tiny tots who clearly got a kick out of the
sensation of ice to fire.

Submerging myself, I let out a breath I’d
been holding since I learned of Theo’s gifts. I was terrified for
him. Eventually the Synod would catch up with me. I was summoned at
least once a month, if not more, when my work and travel were
analytically audited—to what end I didn’t know. We didn’t have many
laws regarding travel. Just the usual—don’t get caught, don’t make
a Las Vegas magic show out of it, and don’t use your powers for
immoral behavior. But ever since the Synod had taken over, that
line between immoral and moral had been skewed.

Especially with their ‘sanctioned’
employment opportunities.

Such was the case with Sway.

Sway used to steal vaccinations, both
harmful and helpful, and formulas to make more, from Russian and
North Korean scientific facilities. She gave them to the Synod. The
Synod, in turn, would trade them for head-turning from government
officials. Theo said it was stealing—period. We weren’t supposed to
use our powers to steal—even to such an end as to stop those
countries from using those horrible diseases on our citizens. Sway
called it the lesser of many evils. She fancied herself a Robin
Hood of sorts—stealing from the devil and giving to the mildly
devilish.

I was on the fence and stayed there. Yes, it
was stealing. And yes, she was stopping nefarious people from doing
heinous acts of terror.

Both sides had equal defenses in my
mind.

I’d finally made up my mind after she’d been
captured. She had stolen an entire cold storage unit worth of Ebola
from Iran and handed it over to the Synod. They, in turn, used the
trade to make a government head of state turn a blind eye. A
Hawaiian United States Senator had been caught on tape, flashing
from the wooded area behind his home to his garage, by paparazzi
amidst an unrelated political scandal.

The video never saw the light of day, but
apparently an entire country’s worth of potential terrorist
ammunition was enough, because when the exchange was made, Sway
became part of the bargain.

They gave her to the government as a lab
experiment, like a three-dollar rat.

She was let out months later, decrepit and
Resin. Sway hardly ever spoke to anyone now. Once, she told me
about her ordeal but made me swear to never speak of it to anyone
again. She always seemed afraid of the Synod, calling me
immediately after my meeting with them just to make sure I was
okay. I didn’t even bother to tell her about Theo. It would’ve been
like alcohol in her wound.