Veined (A Guardian of the Angels Novel) (28 page)

I saw his eyes, filled with fear and pain and fierce protectiveness. The knife, a moment shy of hitting true, had nothing to do with those emotions. He shielded me, he was scared for me, he did nothing to defend himself.

And then I saw it. The reason for his fear. A glove was off, and his naked hand circled my waist.

With all my strength, I jerked my body into his embrace, helping him touch me quicker, before the knife would render him dead. It wasn’t even a consideration. To die in Attic’s arms while he was trying to save me was a million times better than dying at the hands of the Derinyes.

In the instant his hand held me, the world sped up. Fleeing. And blurred until I couldn’t see a thing. Wind whipped and spiraled around us. My Vein burst with energy, as if it took all of what was inside it to keep me in one piece. Although I knew the trip would only be a matter of seconds, I felt my body already failing me. My muscles weakened and my head flopped back.

Attic rearranged his grip, holding my neck. “Hold on. Please.”

I wanted to reply. Say something to comfort him, but my vocal chords disappointed me. I could hear, and that seemed to be the only thing that was still working.

The wind stopped whistling and in its place came surprised voices, but they sounded distant. “Attic.”

“I need your help,” Attic’s voice rang clearly.

“No hello, son? Don’t you think that would be the least you could say after not seeing us in years?” a husky male voice said.

“Please,” Attic said.

“Who’s the girl?” A woman asked.

Attic replied quickly, his words a rush. “A Guardian. Not strong enough to portal. Please save her.”

“She’s dying. It would drain both your father and me to save her and we don’t even know her. If this is her time to go, Attic, you must accept that.”

This was dying? It didn’t hurt the way I imagined it would, my body just felt numb.

“No,” Attic shouted. “If this were Jonathon you wouldn’t have hesitated. You have the power to bring her to life. Use it.”

“How dare you bring up Jonathon,” the male roared.

The woman calmer, interrupted. “You ask us a great favor,” she said. A high pitched buzzing started in my ear, making it difficult to hear. I strained as much as was possible to stay there with them, to keep listening. If I lost that, I’d be gone, that much I was sure of. “Why should we do this for you, when you have avoided us and refused to come home, and have run from us at simpler requests? We don’t owe you anything.”

I heard a thump to my right and sobbing. Attic’s voice broke when he next spoke, and I felt a twang of sorrow grate uncomfortably through my limp body. It hurt hearing his sadness, and I wanted to comfort him. I wanted to kiss him and make it better, tell him I loved him.

A sharp intake of air stopped Attic’s sobs. Soft and low in my ear he spoke, “I love you, too.” His voice grew stronger, more confident, and I imagined he stood facing both his parents. “Save her,” he said. “And I’ll swear to anything you want of me.”

Shock coated the male’s words. “You’d freely
swear
for her?”

“Save her and I’ll do it,” Attic said.

“Don’t be foolish,” the woman said, “you don’t know what we’d ask of you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Attic said. It was difficult for me to
hear the next words. The buzzing grew stronger in my ear. I wasn’t sure, but I think Attic said, “Save her.”

Soon it sounded as if I lay in the middle of a giant beehive. I couldn’t hear anything over buzzing. So this was it. I strained and strained to hear Attic’s voice. One last time.

CHAPTER 23

THE BUZZING STOPPED
and a silence cradled me
.
I was oblivious to time. It could have been minutes, hours, even days, before the silence broke and I heard him.

“Tweet, little Lark. Let me hear your voice.”

“Attic?” I croaked and my eyelids fluttered open. Attic was bent over me, his hair dipping over my brow. Relief flooded his face and he wiped a lock off my cheek. I scanned the room. I rested on a bed of some sort. It was soft and sunk where Attic knelt next to me. “Where am I?”

“My bedroom.”

“I don’t recall we were on a date.” My lips barely moved in my attempt to smile.

A grin lit up Attic’s face briefly, before it darkened. “We’re in Washington, at my family’s home.”

“What’s with the serious face? Thought you liked when I larked around.” Feebly, I pushed myself up onto my elbows, while Attic sat back.

“I almost killed you.” He stared at his black gloved hands. “I hate myself for it.”

“No,” I said, my voice rising. “I know that must have been difficult for you, considering what happened to Tanya, but portaling saved me from the Derinyes.” I sat up and gripped his chin, turning him to face me. “Thank you.”

Attic leaned forward and rested his head against mine. “You’ll have to dance again to refil
l. Portaling drained your Vein.”

I nodded, bumping our heads together. “Attic?”

“Yeah?”

“Why’d the Derinyes come?”

“Furie”—he shuddered—“is the name of
that
Derinyes. And she came to rub our noses in our mistake. To let us feel the full weight of what we’d done. She could only guess how much we’d be kicking ourselves. And she promised Jason your heart in return for the pendant. She is a lethal huntress. The scent of my skin on the necklace was enough for her to find me.”

“And why’d she come on her own?” I asked. It seemed silly to me for her to come without backup.

“Backup? She doesn’t need it. Besides, she is the queen of cockiness, she thinks she’s powerful enough to squash us like flies. Which she is. We were lucky, Sylva. You have no idea just how much.”

A question simmered in the pit of my belly and spilled out of my throat like heartburn. “She’ll be back, right?”

I felt Attic’s body tense. “Yes. I don’t know when, but she won’t forget we got away, and she
will
come for us.” He placed a hand on each of my shoulders and pushed himself back to look at me. “But with only one part of the key, she won’t be able to stay above ground long. And it will drain her, she may need months to recover before she can come up again.

“You have to promise me you’ll keep training and stay with your Guardian family at all times. Albelin is good at healing, but his fighting will be no match for a Derinyes. I’ll send stronger fighters to help protect you all.”

I heard the beginnings of a goodbye in his words that thickened my bones with a layer of ice. “You meant what you said before. You don’t want to see me again, do you?”

Attic didn’t speak for a moment. He looked into my eyes
and the room around us warped. Swirls of color blurred the straight lines of the window, the bookshelves, the desk. I broke our contact. If this was goodbye, I couldn’t let myself feel the love that pushed me toward him. “I
want
to see you. But if I do, it won’t be like this.”

My belly cramped, my mouth too dry to respond. He’d told me of his responsibilities before. I knew this already, but the reality of it was not like watching a fire burn, but being burnt at the stake.

“I made an Oath. I swore to do anything they wanted of me. And in return they saved my heart.” Attic placed a palm over my chest, but I brushed it off.

“What did you swear to?”

“My parents are worried by my attachment to you, which they should be. I’ve already considered numerous times to become a Rogue Guardian and take you with me. Just so we could be together.”

“What did you swear to?” My voice was cold, but my anger was easier to control than the grief.

“I swore that once you leave here, I’ll have all my memories of you removed. There is a Guardian with the ability to Lethe other Guardians, and my parents have already summoned him.”

My breath shuddered and I bit my lip, scrutinizing the red and gold blanket bunched up in my lap. I couldn’t think of anything worse than him not remembering us. My hand brushed the soft sheets and a horrible sickness rose up in my throat. Actually, I
could
think of worse. Much worse.

I let the tears that welled up glide down my cheeks. It didn’t matter that he saw me crying. He’d soon forget everything.

“I want my memories taken, too.” I forced myself to meet his gaze, but could only hold it briefly. “They are meaningless if you don’t have them. And once you’ve forgotten about us, it’ll be easier for you to marry, and I don’t want to be eaten up with jealousy knowing you’re sharing your life with another. The Guardian must take my memories as well.”

Attic stared at his cupped hands, lying limp in his lap. After a long silence he spoke, his voice cracking, barely keeping his composure. “I understand. I’ll pay him to remove your memories of me, of us, and to tweak the memories of everyone that has seen us together. We shall be strangers to each other, should we ever meet again.”

I felt something rip deep inside of me, something I wasn’t sure would properly heal, even without my memories. Trying to keep the pain from my voice, I said, “It’s for the best. When will he do it?”

“He’ll need to touch you and Albelin, Alyse, Cordelia, the other Guardians back home, ah your home. I’ll make sure before he takes mine away that he knows to go to you, too.”

We both sat saying nothing for a long time. Outside, the sunset threw pink and orange nets into the sky. I watched as they captured the land, softening the leafless trees with their glow. I had to look away, the colors reminded me too much of the soft, warm heat that exploded around Attic and me when we were close. I desperately wanted to feel it again, even knowing just how much harder it would be to rid myself of these memories.

I felt Attic spring off the bed suddenly, his stance stiffened. “The Mediators are coming,” he said, “to give us our punishment.”

I sighed, but didn’t feel afraid. “Nothing could be worse than what we’ve inflicted on ourselves,” I said.

Attic laughed, deep and guttural. “You’re probably right. Still, whatever i
t is, you’ll be alone through it. I won’t know to help in any way.”

Sweet waves of honeysuckle escaped me at his words and Attic didn’t waste a moment. He swept me into his arms, pulling me from the bed onto my feet, and we kissed. And as we did I cried out in my head over and over that I loved him. When my arm slid over his Vein I heard him crying out the same to me, and I felt how he too was broken inside, just the same as me.

I knew this was good-bye. After the mediators left, I would follow.

His bedroom door opened and air rushed toward us. We loosened our hold, but kept two arms linked, the skin on our upper arms touching. Slowly, I focused my gaze on the three Mediators, and a flurry of swishing red wings and golden skin began to circle us.

“We have decided on a suitable punishment,” the woman Mediator said, as soon as her feathered wings had extended toward the others.

“I accept,” Attic said, bowing his head and nudging me.

I cleared my throat. “Ah, I accept, too.” It was strange to accept the punishment before hearing what it would be. Not that we had any choice.

The Mediator with the singing voice spoke, his tone neutral and his words to the point. “We’ve decided the reason you lost the key was a mixture of two things: carelessness and love of this lady.” He inclined his head toward me, and I thought I saw a small pocket of understanding in his eyes, but if it was there, it quickly disappeared.

Attic’s arm tightened around mine as if he were having trouble standing up.
It’ll be okay, Attic. I’ll handle whatever it is, and you will, too.
His arm slacked a fraction.

“Therefore, we have decided to dole out a lesson that will teach you to control your carelessness.” The Mediator turned his gaze to me. “And you will share in his lesson, reducing the length of punishment from two decades to one.”

My tonsils hurt as I swallowed. So long? My poor Attic would have to suffer a decade?

The Mediators closed in on us, the other male before me and the female before Attic. They kissed our foreheads as the song-voiced Mediator continued, “Any hurt that is inflicted on either of you, the other person will share.”

In the corner of my eye, I saw the woman Mediator lift Attic’s hand and, before I could do anything, she stabbed through his glove and palm until the tip of the knife protruded out the other side. Attic’s grunt and my cry mingled together. Pain pulsed up my arm. I looked down and my cry turned into a gasp. Blood seeped out of my palm and the back of my hand from a stab wound, exactly like that the Mediator had inflicted on Attic.

The male Mediator in front of me took my unharmed hand and, with a quick wrench, snapped my index finger back, breaking the bone. This time I could taste Attic’s fury in his grunt of pain.

The Mediator spoke again. “The lesson in this punishment is clear, I hope. You will learn the value of being careful and the consequences of careless risk.”

Both my hands hurt with excruciating pain and I knew it would remain so until I refilled my Vein. Right now I’d only repair as fast as a human. But as I looked at the stab wound, I noticed it was already fading, only the broken finger still throbbed. What?

Attic stepped back, so his Vein touched me.
You feel my pain, and my Vein is full of Angel blood. The stab wound is almost healed. My broken finger, however, is your injury and it’ll stay as painful as it is until you’ve recovered.

“There is of course, an interesting twist to this punishment,” the female Mediator said, “Considering the Oath
you swore to, Atticus, you will only know that anytime you are injured someone you care about will experience the same pain, but you won’t know who.”

I turned to face the Mediator, and her black eyes considered me. “I’ll have my memories erased, too. Would you give me the same kindness to know when I’m hurt someone I care about feels it, too?”

“Granted,” the male Mediator in front of me said.

“We’ll review the progress of the lesson after each year, and we hold the right to adjust it as we see fit.”

“We wish you well, Sylva Lark. Atticus Plot.” The three Mediators wings broke their contact and, in a blur of red, they left.

And now it was my turn.

“Wait,” Attic said, grabbing my hand, the blood that had leaked through his glove mingling with mine. “I need you to have something of mine, please?” He took off his hooped earring, clipped it shut. “It’s the perfect thing really, it was the day you asked about this, I first knew you liked me back.” He prepared to slide it on my pinkie.

My vision blurred. Oh, hell, this was going to make it even more difficult to walk away.

Attic hesitated and I could see him about to pull it back. Quickly, I slipped my finger into it. It fit perfectly. “I’ll treasure it always.”

Fighting all my urges to wrap my arms around him, I twisted away. Each step toward the door hurt a million times worse than what I’d experienced when I first entered the Mediator’s circle. This hurt was venom that attacked not only every part of my body, but every emotion I was capable of.

This was venom that could kill me, but would make sure I suffered first.
Attic
, my mind whispered,
stay there, and don’t come out until I am far, far away.

>>The End<<