Lightning Kissed (15 page)

“We were told he was lost in the
fray—dead—murdered.”

Pema shrugged. “All lies perpetrated by our
family to protect him.”

I was scared to ask the next question.
Though I was always curious about Eivan and what happened to him,
my questions were really derivative of my fear for Theo.

“Protect him from what?”

“From your enemies. You have enemies
now—whether you have seen them or not. Whatever or whoever you
trusted—all of it—consider it all false. I had to see you two
together this morning before I revealed our histories. Eidolon is
so much more than one person and his abilities. There is no Eidolon
without his mate—his female. Collin has kept me informed, but I get
the gift of discernment directly from Sevella and often I have to
see things with my own eyes before believing. Her discernment kept
Eivan alive. “

“Who are our enemies? I have to protect
Theo,” I pleaded.

She shook her head. This was it. Pema was
just going to be another person posing questions and scenarios,
leaving me empty and useless to Theo—the very opposite of what I
needed to be. I sat, on the verge of tears, when her hand
outstretched and touched my hair.

Almighty, please let her give me the
answers—something.

“You have lovely hair. I couldn’t have
chosen to hide amongst royalty. No, I loved Tibet.”

We laughed at her offhand comment. It was
sarcasm—but underneath and in her brown eyes, a hint of sadness
lay. I gathered that my previous question would remain unanswered.
But I needed information, so I pressed forward.

“Is there a time when you won’t have to
hide?”

“When the keyhole is finally locked.”

“Huh?” Not the most proper response. But I
couldn’t take it back.

“There are things best not said out loud. I
can tell you of one of your enemies. He will be the closest enemy
and the one most dangerous to you and Theo. He will claw at you,
flare dissention among those you trust and push you away at all
costs. You mustn’t let him get between you. This will be your most
difficult job as his mate.”

“Who?” I almost begged, shifting to a
kneeling position, ready to grovel on my hands and knees if I must.
If this person was going to try and separate me from protecting
Theo—I’d die in order to stop him.

“Theo.”

“What?”

“You’ve heard the stories of Eivan going mad
with his own power?”

“Yes.”

“Some of that is truth. But it wasn’t his
power that betrayed him, it was the voices of those he was meant to
guide. His life has meaning beyond just vacations and
transportation means.”

I loved this female for everything she was
trying to help me with. But so help me, if one more person spoke to
me in cryptic riddles, I would go ape-shit.

“Please, just this one thing. Tell me
plainly. Tell me how to help him in English and without hurdles to
jump through.”

She chuckled at my crass plea.

“Love him. Care for him. Put his needs
before your own. Be the mate you are destined to be. The Synod
hasn’t been on your heels for piddly reasons. There’s always more
at stake with them—nothing is simple. It is the only way to bring
him down from the heavens when his head has gone too far away.
Be—his—mate.”

I hefted out a heavy breath—laden with
self-depreciating emotions. Being his mate wasn’t as easy as it
seemed. I was a selfish person—always had been. I was a willful,
spoiled child and had come to realize I was even more of a rude,
willful, spoiled woman. I was so self-involved, my own reflection
checked herself out. I flashed for my own satisfaction and monetary
gain when I could be helping people. I treated my entire life like
one big vacation.

But for Theo I would give it all away.

I could become what he needed.

I would carve out my heart and offer it to
him if it would help him.

The time to grow up and leave the spoiled
child behind had come and gone.

“I can do that.”

She laughed. “I know you can. I watched your
love this morning. Take care of him.”

Pema sighed and shrugged. I took it our
little chat was finished. There was so much more I needed to know,
but I had a feeling she’d given me all she wanted me to have.

“Hey, how can you travel with someone else
without losing them?”

She shrugged, got up from her perch and
wiped off her backside. “Don’t let go.”

“So all the others, who travelled with those
they loved?”

She wrapped her arm around my shoulder like
we were old friends. “I can’t answer for them. All I can say is
that not letting go works.”

“What about the weight?”

“That’s all up here.” She tapped lightly on
my temple. “Mind over matter.”

***

Pema broke free of our hold as we reached
the temple. She explained on the long walk back that she chose to
come there as a teen. The monks didn’t know what she was, but they
had seen her flash. She laughed in telling me that she heard the
word lightning used frequently to describe her.

They didn’t ask for information and she
offered none. They made her live in the other cabin because she was
a girl and in her own words, super-hot.

There were so many more things I wanted to
ask her. Why did she choose Tibet? Why did they let her stay? Why
didn’t her family hide together?

WHEN THE SYNOD
SUMMONS A LUCENT, THE LUCENT SHALL ANSWER THE CALL IN HASTE.

I wasn’t one of those people who could read
or study while listening to music. I needed complete quiet without
interruptions.

Collin hadn’t gotten the memo and neither
had the voice—now two voices—in my head.

It took Collin a full thirty minutes to open
the books. He sat and stared at them for half an hour. I understood
his reverence, I did. But that Pema girl had given us a deadline.
These books weren’t going to be around forever like his books were.
There weren’t digital copies of them everywhere at our
disposal.

He got up as the sun set and lit an oil lamp
I hadn’t even noticed in the corner.

The second voice spoke in Portuguese, which
I found strange. And not the contemporary Portuguese either. This
was old school. The same phrase was spoken over and over in perfect
form, not a hint of a lilted accent or Americanized fashion.

It was akin to having noise-cancelling ear
buds plugged in. All I could hear were their voices.

Cosmically or heavenly, those same voices
rose and fell with the climaxes and valleys in the texts before me.
It was like they were speaking through the books to me, or to me
about them. I didn’t know which.

But mostly, I couldn’t get them to stop.

A hand touched mine and like water through a
syphon, the voices were sucked away.

Colby.

To regain my senses, I tore my gaze from the
page and up to her face. Her glassy blues bore down into me.
Colby’s eyes had always been otherworldly to me. Mostly they were
blue, but like her wake, they lightened and darkened according to
her mood. There was a storm brewing in them now.

“Theo, where were you?” Concern laced her
tone.

I shook my head from the residual echoes of
the voices. “I’m here.”

“No, you weren’t. You were somewhere else.
Collin was yelling your name when I came in. Did something
happen?”

Shifting to look at Collin, I saw he was
distressed. He was stroking his beard, consoling himself. I must’ve
been far gone.

“No, nothing happened. I just need to read
more.”

She nodded and let go, but as soon as she
did, the voices returned. My hand jerked out and grabbed her wrist.
They quieted again, as if she were their master.

“Tell me,” Colby demanded.

“There are voices. They’ve spoken to me only
twice. But when I read these books, they are relentless. You made
them stop.”

“What do they say?” She broke down and
kneeled in front of me, fisting the edge of my shirt.

“They say ‘Help us’,
‘
Ajudar-nos-á.’
”

“Help them what?”

“I don’t know. Sit with me while I read. We
don’t have much time.”

She pulled up a chair, never letting go of
my hand, and I read faster than I’ve ever read. Colby filtered
through pictures, taking notes as she did. The three of us studied
until we could hardly see the letters anymore.

“You must retire. There are still two more
days.” Pema had entered the cabin again.

Colby squeezed my hand once and then let go,
looking for any sign that it had distressed me.

“I’m good,” I assured her.

Collin stayed to speak to Pema while Colby
and I went outside. My legs would barely move and my neck ached
from being huddled over the texts.

“Hold my hands,” she requested, and the glow
of something mischievous beamed in her eyes. “Don’t use your
powers.”

“What?”

And before I knew it, we were in the
bathroom of the house in Tibet—in the bathtub.

“I did it!” She yelled and flailed her
arms.

“How?”

“Pema told me to not let go. Just don’t let
go. How stupid is that? All this time, I’ve been too scared. So
everyone else must’ve let go. We could’ve flashed together as
kids.” Frustration took hold of me, and I held her.

“Everything works out like it should. We can
flash together now. As long as you don’t let go of me again,
everything will be fine.” Unlike the times before, she willingly
relented to my touch. Her arms wrapped around my neck and her face
went where it should, to that nook between my neck and my
shoulder—as though it had been made just for her.

Just when I was getting comfortable, she
broke free. “I can go get Collin!”

“Okay, but I don’t share bathtubs with
dudes.”

***

That night was spent debriefing each other
of what we had seen, which was no more than patches of a quilt that
didn’t fit together and just left more holes.

“What did Pema tell you?” I asked Colby.

She looked down and straightened an already
perfectly placed piece of her dress—which meant she was about to
lie to me. Somehow my female still thought she could lie to me and
get away with it.

Wrong.

“She just warned me about some things.”

“What things,” Collin interjected.

“Things I should be aware of as—you know.”
Starting with her neck, Colby’s blush invaded her skin until the
tips of her ears glowed red and even her lips flushed.

“Spit it out.” Collin rose in posture,
challenging her as a joke. Colby and Collin had become rivaling
siblings sometime in the past day.

“Hey! Lay off Sasquatch!”

Collin reared back, feigning offense. He
pinged his gaze between the two of us and then blurted out, “What’s
a sasquatch?”

The glint in Colby’s eyes told me she wasn’t
letting this issue go so easily but neither was Collin. It also
told me that Colby had found a way out of her wriggling jam. She’d
found a way out of explaining to us what she and Pema had
discussed.

Poor Collin.

“It’s a big, hairy, Viking ape,” she spewed
at him in jest.

Collin pointed at her. “There are no legends
of Viking apes.”

“Oh yeah? I’m looking at one.”

I could’ve stopped it at any time, but it
was kind of fun to watch. Plus, Collin couldn’t ogle her if she was
gutting him.

“I am not descended from Viking people, and
for that matter, I am not descended from apes either. How dare
you!”

Collin’s poker face was infallible. I
couldn’t discern whether or not he was truly offended or just
playing along.

“I was just calling you a name based on your
looks, you oaf.”

“Well, if we are making assumptions based on
appearance alone then you are a…” We waited for a few seconds while
he formulated a name for Colby. I had the feeling Collin had never
playfully or seriously insulted someone in his life. His face
screwed up in over-concentration. “A wiry, boney little imp who has
no manners.”

That one shut us all up.

That was a little more truth than joke.

I supposed I should’ve come to Colby’s
rescue, but I was in the middle of witnessing something I’d never
seen. Colby Evans was speechless. Any residual blush had floated
away with her loss of words. I should’ve called Ari. Even though I
despised her, we could’ve shared a laugh over this scenario.

She opened her mouth twice to take her
revenge and then closed it, standing with slumped shoulders and
forging to the bedroom—which was unheard of. Colby didn’t back down
from a battle, especially one of wit and sarcasm.

“I apologize, Theodore. I thought it was all
in play.” Collin said to me, though his gaze was still on the
hallway.

“It’s fine. I don’t know what’s gotten into
her.”

***

Collin and I sat for a while, discussing the
day’s events. I’d finally gotten comfortable when the lightest of
footsteps pranced down the hallway. A bag was thrown into my
lap.