Synergy (20 page)

He pulled his guitar off him and set
it
in the stand, then placed his hands on my hips and leaned his forehead against mine. “I can’t change what’s happened. I’m just trying to change what could happen.”

“There’s nothing we can’t handle if we’re together.”

“I need you to go to a safe place,” he whispered, tightly closing his eyes as if he were in pain.

I reached for his face and beckoned his eyes to open with my fingertips. “We can argue about this all night, Draven. It’s all of us or none of us.”

He swallowed the dark emotions he was clearly fighting, opened his eyes, and said, “You don’t find it odd that your dad isn’t around right now? That your mom told you goodbye? What do they know? What are they fighting to protect you from?”

I thought of my parents, the light my mother was, the darkness my father was. How impossible they must have thought their love was. I knew no matter what, I would prevail where my mother failed, that I w
ould find a way to diminish The R
ealm, stop it from calling the boy I loved into its cold darkness. I would stop it from testing any soul, and that war began right here, in Draven’s arms. I had to find a way to con
vince him that I had no regrets. T
hat somehow we were all meant to be in this moment with the people in our lives.

“They know that our fate is here. You were right about being connected to these people by past lives...Drave
n, we are meant to meet them. A
ll of us have a chosen fate, and it’s time to face it.”

He pulled in a deep breath as his eyes fell into mine. “Why did you do it? Why did you fall?”

I knew him well enough to know that in his complex mind, he was questioning if I fell for him simply because Willow had told me I would. Knowing him, he thought I fell for him simply out of loyalty to who Willow was then. “Because I love you,” I promised. “I could only fall if I truly loved you.”

His lips threatened a smile, but one never came. “You didn’t have to fall to save me. I was already saved.”

“Did you hear what Willow said? I could only fall if I loved you, if that was what the universe or God wanted. Please don’t question something that clear, because if you question that, we’ll never be able face the unknown, we won’t be able to save souls. We have to trust ourselves
. Y
ou
have to trust yourself. I know I don’t understand these auras you see or
the pull you crave,
but I do know that you are stronger than you think you are.”

“I just need time, Charlie, time to figure out how to control the urges. It’s a hunger that I can’t explain. I literally feel like I’m fading, that if I don’t find a way to feed that hunger, I’ll vanish. Either way, I lose you.” His hands reached for my face. “I just can’t.”

“You can do it; my dad did it,” I said, covering his hands with mine. “He found light in his music through the love of his fans...he made his own escape, and you can, too. You already have begun; your music is reaching people, both dead and alive.”

A sardonic smile came to the corners of his lips. “I wish I knew how he managed to do that.”

“Is that why you’re looking for my dad? Are you looking for advice?” I said as our hands fell away from my face.

He leaned against the windowsill. “Maybe.”

I walked over to him and leaned my body against his. “That was his life, not yours. Wha
t he endured, you will end. The R
ealm will never hurt anyone else after we get through with it.”

He began to run his fingers through my long, dark hair. “I hate the way all of you look at me.”

“We’re scared for you. We don’t want you to fight this alone.”
I assured.

“You shouldn't have to live like that, though, afraid of me.”

“I’m afraid for you, not of you; so are the others.”

He leaned down and let his lips gently touch mine. I pulled away slightly. “Pack a bag, baby.”

He sighed. “I thought we were talking this out as a group?”

“Do you really think anyone besides you doesn’t want to go? What are you waiting for?”

“I don’t know; a push, I guess.”

“I’m pushing as hard as I can,” I whispered.

He pulled me to him and swayed me from side to side. “I heard your mom. I heard her tell you to find a comfortable place. I promise you, I will not make it hard on you. I think he’s good for you.”

I leaned back. “You think he’s better than you?”

His eyes told me yes.

“You’re wrong.” I glanced out the window, then back at him. “You win. We’ll stay.”

“Where did that come from?” he asked defensively.

“Look, I faced a demon twice today that wants Monroe, an innocent girl. My best friend’s world is about to come crashing down on her. Your brother is on edge, everyone is. I can’t leave here if you aren’t one hundred percent sure of yourself. I have to know that you love
yourself enough to fight for us. T
hat you’ll be there when everything blows up in our face. I have to know that when we leave here that we’re a solid team because if you have doubts, you’ll kill us all, and I’m not looking forward to dying a thousand deaths or losing anyone.”

He bit his bottom lip, then let a painful smile surface on his lips. “I don’t deserve you, but I’m not going to let anything or anyone hurt the ones we love.”

“So what’s our decision, Draven Michaels? Are we staying, or are we going?”

He arms tightened around me. “Whenever they get done talking to Win
ston, I want to try to go to The R
ealm again, try one more time to save them. If I can’t, and we all agree that leaving right now is the best thing to do, then we’ll go.”

“I’m
going with you to The R
ealm.”

“Charlie, he said he would kill me if I was near you in that realm.”

“I’ll take care of Silas.”

“Charlie, he’s right. You have no business near me in that place.”

“Y
ou going to get over that mindset
.
I would bet you every guitar I own that if you
get over how I tempt you in The R
ealm, you’ll have broken this curse. It’s better that we figure this out now, not when we’re forced to. Today you were tempted, we were pushed into the same part of that realm for a reason: because they knew I was your weakness. You are going to have find a way to fight that hunger, to pull the energy you see around me from a different source.”

“From someone else? Is that what you’re saying?” he asked as anger flooded his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying, and that someone else is you.”

Confusion took over the anger in his eyes.

“It’s in you. It’s in everyone. Light and love don’t vanish, but they’re forgotten; you know that. You have to find a way to pull your own light.”

I could see that my words were making sense to him, so I pushed on. “Promise me you’ll pull light from you, that you’ll find balance and never become what you fear the most.”

He leaned down and kissed me
passionately. I pulled him as
close as I could to me. “Promise,” he said over and ov
er as his soft lips framed mine and his powerful hands searched my body.

In the middle of our embrace, I heard Winston scream, “I don’t want to talk about it!” I could tell he was still downstairs, but he had managed to ruin this moment.

Draven stole one more kiss, then leaned his forehead against mine.

“What does he not want to talk about?” I asked, not really wanting to know.

Draven leaned back against the window. “Whatever deal he was trying to make with Bianca. We can’t see what he said, and he’s not talking.” Draven started to say something else, but he hesitated and looked over my head. I followed his gaze and saw Monroe walking into the studio.

“What time is it?” I whispered.

Dr
aven pulled out his phone. “Ten
fifty-one.”

I let out a sigh. “Maybe you’re right, Draven; maybe we can save them from here.”

He looked at me like I was crazy, then I showed him once more the moment that Monroe had asked
me to be in the studio at ten
fifty-five.

“
A time marked by your favorite number…change…is that what it means?” He asked squeezing my waist.

Nervously
,
I nodded once hating that I didn’t see that the first time she told me to meet her in here at that time. Anxiety began to ripple through me.

“
Well,” Draven said as he reached for his guitar. “I guess I should get warmed up, then maybe those knuckleheads will stop fighting and come up here.”

“Right,” I mumbled as I turned and walked to Monroe, who had taken a seat on the couch. Aden came in at that moment, but he didn’t go to his drums; instead, he sat in the chair and looked at me hopefully.

I nodded to tell him that I’d gotten th
r
ough to Draven, and he seemed relieved, but uneasy at the same time. I was sure he was furious with Winston.

Draven began to play the bass of the song that had saved so many souls. The song was so viral at this point that if the band really wanted it, fame was inches away, but fame was the last thing we had time for.

I turned my attention to Monroe; she was still calm, but she seemed oddly aware, like she was waiting on something. Her eyes moved to the right, and
anxiously
I followed her stare.

All at once, a light divided
in
thin air, and from that light a girl emerged, then another. My heart pounded in my chest: it was Willow and another girl that could be her sister; they looked so much alike. Willow wasn’t the calm woman I had spoken to in my memory an hour ago. She reflected the image that Madison had drawn, the one that I thought was of her.

Willow’s hair was long, dark, and tangled. Tears had stained her face; they almost looked like ash. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked furious...she looked dangerous.

I glanced
nervously from them to Aden, who was paralyzed with shock. My eyes found Draven, who was still trying to get a response from my father by playing the strings of his guitar as fiercely as he could. He must have felt my stare or the tension build in the room because he glanced over my shoulder to where Willow and that girl were. At first he didn’t seem shocked, but then I saw his eyes begin to change; he had seen a glimpse of them, of whatever they were fighting before they appeared here.

I looked back at them and tried to see, but there were too many questions racing through my mind for me to focus on one, for me to really see what had happened to her before she appeared here. Willow stepped forward and held out an iPod. “Which one of you made this?” she asked as anger trembled through her voice. I recognized the cover art: it was the image that Madison had sketched that mirrored Draven’s test, the snake, the ball of fire. I told her not to post that image, but she sai
d it would be a warning to all E
scorts that we were going to fight, that we were going to protect the ones we loved. It was a silent statement that app
arently carried more weight than
I thought it would.

I couldn't understand why that song would make Willow mad. Aden had pretty much assured me that it was helping those boys, but then I began to see glimpses
of her, I saw Landen and that p
rince whisper the lyrics as she stared at their sleeping bodies. She wasn’t mad; she was desperate, she was trying to figure out how to get to them, and she knew that somehow we had.

The other girl stepped in front of her. “Um...” she said nervously as she tr
ied to smile. “Listen, I know.
I know you’re asking yourself how we...” she hesitated as she looked around and tried to figure out where they were. “...how we appeared here, but listen, there’s a very believable explanation.”

I stood up and tilted my head so I could see around that girl and look at Willow. “Willow,” I said as calmly I could, not believing she was there, that this was really happening. There would be no way for me to protect Madison from this, for me to explain my way out of why I didn’t wa
rn her. I tried
to tell myself that she knew.
She
had to have known this was coming. She literally sketched it out this morning,

Willow’s eyes grew wide. “You know me?” she asked breathlessly.

I wanted to tell her that I knew her very well, that she was a wise woman that had prepared me for this day, but I couldn't find a way to say that, and I knew that the wom
an that asked me to love her friend
would not have wanted me to say anything. “Not yet,” I said, believing that this girl was not that woman in Egypt, not anymore; a part of her may linger in the soul of Willow, but that calm, wise woman did not exist anymore.

“Did you make this?” Willow asked, glancing to the iPod once more.

I hesitated before I spoke. I kept asking questions in my mind, trying to see if this girl was always like this, this mad and afraid. I wanted to see how she got here, how she knew to come here. Aden had stood and moved closer to me; I had no doubt he was seeing her, too, and there was so much to see.