Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (17 page)

Jasper looked like he was in pain.
“That was hardly a kiss, Hayden. Now kiss him properly.”

Alex simply stayed plastered against
the wall like he was trying to hide.

I glared at Jasper. He was right, of
course. We had to see if this was it. That didn’t mean I had to
like it. I felt guilty as I looked at him and my glare softened. He
looked like he was choking.

I stepped away from Alex and wrapped my
arms around Jasper’s waist.

“A shlova yan,” I whispered, my cheek
against his chest. “Even if we hadn’t been fated I would have loved
you.”

He crushed me against him. “I love
you.” Jasper’s lips touched my hair.

I took a deep breath, kissed him
lightly, and turned back to Alex.

“We don’t have to...” He stopped, his
voice catching in his throat.

“Yes. Yes, we do.”

Jasper gave my hand one last squeeze
and let go of me.

I wanted to tell him to look away, but
knew he was going to watch regardless.

I took Alex’s face in my hands once
more. “We have to do it like we mean it,” I told him as I looked
into his eyes. I could hear his heart pounding and I pulled him
down to me.

His lips were soft and fuller than
Jasper’s. I started out slowly then moved a little closer to him,
urging him to give in. For a moment I was sure he wasn’t going to
take part.

I felt his hand touch my shoulder and
his other one came to rest against my face. He pulled away for a
moment and I looked up to see what he was doing. He looked over my
shoulder to Jasper. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He turned his face
back to mine.

His blue eyes burned into mine. My
heart jumped. His hand moved behind my neck and hesitantly pulled
me to him. His kiss was soft at first then became harder and my
lips parted at the pressure from his tongue.

I heard Jasper hiss quietly behind us.
My first thought was to pull away but I stopped myself. Instead, I
threw myself into the kiss. I wasn’t planning on doing this
again.

Alex’s hand moved down my back and
pulled me against him. I took a deep breath and did the one thing I
didn’t want to do. I closed my eyes and waited for the
flashes.

Our kiss slowed and I pulled back to
look at Alex. His eyes had the strangest look to them.

I turned and looked at Jasper. He sat
on a chair with his head in his hands.

“Jasper,” I whispered. I looked back at
Alex. He had relaxed a bit and was leaning against the wall looking
at me.

I turned and went to kneel in front of
Jasper. “Are you ok?” The lump that formed in my throat at the look
on his face made it hard to talk. I stood and pulled him up so I
could hold him against me. “Look at me, please.”

He did as I asked and we gazed at each
other for a moment. I smiled.

“If you ever try to make me do that
again...” His lips stopped any threat I had been about to make. His
arms crushed me against him and he lifted me off the
ground.

I held him close and his cheek rested
on my head as he rubbed my back. “Thank the moons!” he
whispered.

Alex chuckled behind us. “I
agree.”

“So what does it mean, then?” I
wondered out loud.

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know and right
now I don’t care.” He laughed. “I wonder if there has ever been
someone out there as happy as I am about finding out he’s not fated
to someone.”

“Let’s have some supper and we can
think with full stomachs.” I gave Jasper a long soft kiss before
heading to the kitchen to make our plates.

We all sat down.

“Is Leslie coming tonight?” I asked
Alex.

“No. She’ll come tomorrow morning. She
had things she wanted to get done before coming.”

“So, since there is no way of knowing
why Alex dreams of me, let’s get back to my dream.”

“When are we going to warn the others?”
asked Alex.

“Tomorrow.” Jasper looked at me. “I
don’t imagine leaving is an option?”

I shook my head. “They won’t chase me
away from our life here. Not this time. This is our
home.”

Jasper’s shoulders slumped. “I didn’t
think so, but I still had to ask.”

“If I can paint that clearing well
enough, maybe the birds could scout for it.”

Everyone was quiet and we finished
eating.

I pulled my easel and paints out. I
closed my eyes to picture the clearing, opened them again, and
paused.

“I can’t do this with you guys watching
me.” Jasper and Alex were right behind me.

Jasper gave me a kiss on the head.
“We’ll be outside if you need us.” They started to head out the
door.

“Jasper?”

He turned back towards me.

“If I can’t do this...”

He walked back and wrapped his arms
around me. “We’ll figure it out.” He leaned down and kissed me
softly. “If they think they can come here and take you away then
they underestimate how much you mean to me.” He pulled me closer
and I felt any doubts I had slip away. “I don’t care if you can
save the world or destroy it. I’m not ready to give you up yet.” I
took a deep breath and Jasper tilted my head up so I was looking at
him. “I don’t ever see myself being ready to give you up. You are
mine and I’m not sharing; especially after today. I don’t think I
could go through that again!” He smiled, but his eyes were serious.
“We will beat them. There just isn’t another option.” He kissed me
tenderly and my worries started to slip away. It was amazing how
one kiss from him could always make me feel better.

“I love you,” I whispered.

He grinned at me. “I know, but I still
think I love you more.”

I smiled. “I doubt it.”

He gave me another kiss and headed
outside to join Alex.

I turned back to my canvas and dipped
my brush in some brown paint. I tried to see the clearing with my
eyes open.

I was concentrating so hard that I
didn’t even realize I was done until I blinked and the image was
still there when I opened my eyes. I took a couple of steps back
and nodded. It wasn’t perfect, but it was extremely close to what I
remembered.

I felt the panic starting to rise in my
chest as I thought of the dream. There wasn’t me and Jasper to
worry about anymore. Was fighting really something we should be
doing? What would happen to Tyler and Trent if things went
wrong?

Tears spilled down my cheeks and I ran
outside, throwing myself into Jasper’s surprised arms.

“Shush.” He kissed my hair and rubbed
my back. “It’s ok. We’ll find it anyway.”

I shook my head. “That’s not it. I got
it painted,” I mumbled into his chest. I pulled back so I could
look up at him. “We have to leave.” Another sob shook me and he
pulled me to him again.

“What made you change your
mind?”

“The twins; I can’t put them at risk
like that. They’ll be right in the middle of it.”

He took a deep breath. “Where do you
want to go?”

“I want to go see Melana.”

“You’re not scared that if we go there
I might have to stay?”

I shook my head. “If you had any urge
to be there at all you would be there now. Does it even cross your
mind?”

“No, actually.” He looked at Alex.
“You?”

Our friend shook his head. “It might
have something to do with the dreams, though. I don’t think I’ll
have to worry about it either.”

“We’ll let everyone know our plans in
the morning. They can decide what they want to do then.” Jasper
kissed me on the bridge of the nose. “We had better go to bed. They
are supposed to be here fairly early.”

Our plans for the next day had been a
trip to visit Dodge, Prense, Phlann and Shanus.

“We have to send a bird to tell Dodge
we’re leaving.” I could just imagine how upset he would be if he
wasn’t told.

“He’ll come.”

“I know.”

The three of us made our way back into
the house and Jasper and Alex went to stand by the
painting.

“It doesn’t look familiar.” Jasper
turned to Alex.

Alex shook his head. “I don’t recall
seeing it either.”

I went to stand between them and Jasper
put an arm around my shoulder. I stared at the painting. “If we
leave tomorrow, we won’t have to worry about it.”

Jasper gave me a squeeze. “We’ll come
back, Shlova.”

I looked up at him and let his eyes
sweep me away. As long as we were together, that was all that
mattered.

Alex threw some extra blankets on the
bed in the spare room.

I walked over and gave him a hug.
“Thank you.”

His eyes widened and he glanced over at
Jasper quickly before returning the hug. “Don’t mention
it.”

He settled himself down for the night.
Jasper took my hand and headed to our bedroom. We climbed into bed
and he wrapped his arms around me.

“Everything will be fine,” he
whispered.

“Sa laug sa nos ist emsan,” I whispered
to him.

“As long as we’re together,” he
agreed.

*****

“Jasper!”

We woke up to the sound of Alex
crashing through the front door as he shifted. Jasper leaped out of
bed and I reached under it, grabbing my swords. He made it out the
front door in two bounds and stopped before he could shift into a
tiger.

I stepped into the living room, ready
to take on whatever was coming.

Jasper started laughing and stepped to
the side as Zane came stomping into the house, his leg
bleeding.

“What was that all about!” he yelled
back over his shoulder.

I set my swords down and went to see
his leg. My heart was beating a mile a minute, my adrenaline
pumping.

Dawn came to stand beside him. “Are you
alright?” She was trying not to laugh.

Leslie walked into the house followed
by a glaring Alex. Zane stood. “What’s your problem?” he
demanded.

I bent closer to his leg to see the
damage. Alex had gotten Zane’s thigh in his lion jaws. There were
puncture wounds on the top and on the back of it. The blood was
flowing freely, soaking into his pants and dripping onto the
floor.

Alex glared at him. “Well, where do you
get off sneaking around like that? I thought you were one of
them!”

I put my arm on Zane’s arm. “You need
to sit down so I can fix you.”

“I’m fine!”

I glared at him, the blood still
pumping through my veins from all the excitement. “I don’t care if
you think you’re fine! You’re bleeding all over my floor! Now sit
down or go outside!”

Dawn pulled on his arm and he sat
down.

“What do you mean, sneaking? I knocked
on the door and no one answered. I was just checking through the
window to see if they were home because the door was locked. I
thought they might have left already!” He sucked in a breath as I
healed his leg.

I looked up at him, about to apologize,
but stopped. “Don’t you glare at me! I’m trying to
help!”

“Well, why does it always hurt more
when it heals than when it’s actually hurt?”

Jasper walked into the middle of the
room. “Everybody calm down.”

All of the glares honed in on
him.

“Now. It was just a misunderstanding.
No one is hurt, well, anymore, and we should just be glad that Alex
was wrong.”

I took a deep breath. “You’re right.” I
got up and went to Alex to look him over. “Are you ok?”

Leslie was trying to calm him down. He
nodded, some of the anger leaving him. “I’m sorry I bit you, Zane.
I thought...well...what with Hayden having another dream...” He
paused. “All I saw was your shadow when you moved away from the
window.”

Zane seemed to forget the whole ordeal.
“You had another dream?”

I gestured to the painting and
explained it to them. Jasper and Alex gave them some of our
theories.

“It really doesn’t make sense.” Zane
was shaking his head.

“That’s why we’re leaving,” stated
Jasper.

Dawn’s eyes flew open.
“Where?”

“We’re going to see Melana. I don’t
want to keep doing this. As much as I hate to, I have to get
involved.” Tears filled my eyes and I wiped them away with my arm.
“They won’t stop until they have me. Every time we think it’s over,
this will happen. And if it’s not the Namaels or the Majs, it will
be the humans. I think she’s our best bet for someone who will
listen to what we have to say.”

Jasper came to me and pulled me to
him.

Luke, Mel and the twins picked that
moment to walk into the house. They stopped short. Mel looked at
the blood on the floor.

“What in the world happened here?” She
turned to Tyler and Trent. “Why don’t you boys go outside for a few
minutes.”