Icarus; The Kindred (A Paranormal Romance) (9 page)

He touches my cheek. "I'm not the Jacelynd you knew. I will never be. This has forever changed both of us. But one thing will always remain. I love you."

I start to say something in response, but he puts a finger to my lips and kisses me. It's a short kiss, but so tender it's nearly painful.

"It's almost midnight," he says, "and I can't think of a better time to get you adjusted back to daylight." He leans past me and clicks off the light, blanketing the room in darkness.

I feel vulnerable in the dark, which has never happened before. "I swear I won't leave you unconscious this time if you stay."

He laughs, the timbre of his voice comforting, and pulls back the covers. He waits to speak until we are lying down and then whispers in my ear, "You didn't have to tell me you were sorry. I knew."

I want to roll over but can't for obvious reasons, so I turn my head instead. "Wait … you knew? You mean you were awake when I left?"

"Your fear and confusion were undeniable. I couldn't see you that way. My intention was to let you absorb some of this while you were hiding from the light. I would have found you."

My face flushes, remembering what Jace would have heard, what Trinity forced me to think, and I've never been happier to have the lights off. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. You shoulder no blame." He rolls over and rests on one arm, looking down at me. I can barely make out his face and the outline of his shoulders.

"What happened between the two of you?" I ask. "He said you had bad blood between you."

"When I said we haven't truly been in power over our own people in nearly five hundred years, I should have said that I haven't been in power over our people in nearly five hundred years."

Forgetting that my chest and back look like they've been roughed up by a cheese grater, I go to sit up for the second time since waking up, and immediately remember why I shouldn't.

"Whoa, whoa. Not a good idea," Jace says.

"You were the Seer Cleric?" I lie back down with Jace's help.

"Do you remember me telling you that we aren't human? Our families crossed over to this world, but they were never meant for this environment. Their children were born with mixed physiology. We were all born dependent on blood. We have never been able to fully immerse in human culture, so my father was given the mantle of Seer Cleric. King. And under his rule, our kind flourished. We made peace with mankind and the nightmare we lived through became fodder for literary fantasies and bedtime stories. But not everyone agreed with my father. Tristan's family, who lost the throne in their world before our parents came here, believed that humans were inferior. And in one nightmarish night, both my parents and my younger brother were killed. I was spared only because I wasn't there."

"That's why he said he was taking back what was rightfully his. Why weren't you there?"

"I was with you. Tristan doesn't just hate me for not dying with my family, he hates me because I won your heart instead of him. That's why it was so important that you come to him of your own free will." Jace smoothes a hand through my hair. "He took the throne after my family was murdered and has ruled with an iron fist ever since."

"Where are my parents?"

"Only those born after the first generation are immortal, though most lived an extraordinarily long time compared to human life spans. Our parents were all far older than we are now when they died. We will eventually surpass their years, but not for a while. We suspect it has to do with the way their bodies processed time—they simply didn't age like mortals. Yet, unlike us, they were susceptible to accident and injury."

I am having trouble even conceiving of another world besides this one, let alone everything else he's saying. It must show on my face.

"We don't have to talk about this right now. Let's just take this one day at a time."

"Probably a good idea," I say, shivering.

He rearranges the covers around me before lying onto his back. "Good night, love."

"Good night," I whisper.

The next morning, I look in the mirror, expecting to see some improvement—I do, but only the gashes are healing.
I still look like shit, my skin pale and my eyes red-rimmed, the area around them still sore. My breathing is a little labored and I have a righteous headache. Turns out, we
were
in a hotel, but Quinn and Blake did the favor of removing anything that had a name on it. Which makes sense, if I don't know where we are, neither will Trinity. We are getting ready to leave.

"I hate this," Quinn says as he ties a blindfold on me.

I scoff. "You didn't have an issue when you nabbed me the first time. I was told there was blood on my couch."

"Yeah Damian's," he says dourly. "You put up a royal fight after that first blow."

I hear Blake laugh, which is a welcome sound considering how dazed he was last night.

"Oh," I grin sheepishly. I suppose I should have guessed that. "Sorry."

I hear the door open and I
feel
Jacelynd's presence. I had noticed this quality about him when I woke up in the room with him in Florida, but hadn't understood it until now. He takes my hand. "Are you all right to walk? It's a little stretch until we're there."

"Just don't let me fall." I let him lead me from the room. I can tell we are exiting through a back corridor, maybe a housekeeping hall? That would explain how they managed to get me up here in the first place. We finally exit into what sounds, judging by the echoing footsteps, like a parking garage. Once we are in the vehicle—another SUV of some sort—Blake speaks.

"How are we going to tell him?" He sounds so small, so young.

"He isn't going to take it well, that's a given. He'll want to see it for himself," Quinn says.

No clue what they're talking about. "Tell who what? What are you talking about?"

No one says anything for a second and I guess they are deciding who is going to tell me this unfortunate news. Like I wasn't going to ask, when they are discussing it in front of me? Finally Jace answers, "Damian. He's been looking for Iris since the two of you disappeared ten years ago. This won't mean anything to you right now, but it will hurt later—Iris wasn't taken that night, she set you up."

I shrug. He's right, I have no recognition whatsoever of the name, other than remembering Damian's questioning. "Should I grieve or am I right to assume she wasn't much of a friend?"

More silence. "Guys, really? I'm a big girl, I can handle myself."

"She's your sister," Jacelynd says.

Okay, I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth. "That's not funny."

Jacelynd touches my leg. "It's probably better that you don't remember her right now."

"Were we close? Or was it more like we saw each other every five years or so?" Still more silence. "You do realize that by not answering my question, you are answering my question."

"You were very close," Jace says solemnly. "I'm still having a hard time believing it."

"She knew us, Jace," Quinn argues. "There was no mistaking it. She spoke with Blake a handful of times. It wasn't like when Jess here took Blake down. She had no clue who he was."

"I believe you. It's just a difficult thought to stomach. She's my sister-in-law." Jace takes my hand again and squeezes it like he's trying to soothe me, but I know it's his own feelings of betrayal that he's assuaging.

I am quite interested in my fist making her acquaintance. "Is there anything else I should know about my past?" These things do generally prove rather important when confronting enemies with world-dominating tendencies.

"One day at a time," Jace says quietly.

That's not a very comforting answer, but Jace doesn't seem the type to give under pressure. "Fair enough," I grumble.

"I'll tell Damian about Iris," Jace says. "I owe him."

I want to ask, but I figure he'll tell me when he's ready. We are on the highway now and the lull of the road is wearing at me. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep.

The
drive felt like three days, but how long it really took is anyone's guess. I know we stopped a handful of times and the guys took turns driving. At some point Jace and I took the back seat and I held him while he slept. We're trying to get me back on the right time clock, but that's easier said than done. We finally pull to a stop on a gravel road after I've popped my ears for the nine-hundredth time.

Jace comes around and opens my door. I can hear Quinn and Blake walking ahead of us, their shoes crunching on the rocks.

"We're here?" I ask, hopefully.

Jace laughs, his breath tickling my cheek as he leans down to kiss me. "Yes. We're here. Only a little farther and we can take this off." He tugs playfully on the blindfold.

I let him help me to my feet and I am weaker than I should be. It hasn't been that long since I took blood from him and he pauses to let me get my footing. He seems just as surprised.

"Are you all right?" He wraps his arm around my waist.

"Disoriented. I just need solid ground."

He is silent while we walk and I can't tell if he believes what I've said. I don't know if I believe it. I'm progressively getting colder, and no matter how much I blood I drink, my gut feels like it's full of ice. He stops me a few yards from where we got out of the vehicle. Someone starts the ignition and I hear it driving away from us.

He touches my shoulders. "You have a choice. You can either let me carry you or we can take the next half-hour going down the stairs. I'm sure you know my preference."

I sigh. "If we seriously take half an hour, I won't be standing at the end of it. I might as well give in now. I'm sure my pride will eventually recover."

I'm not laughing—I wasn't kidding, but Jace clearly thinks it's funny and is still laughing after effortlessly scooping me into his arms and making his way to the bottom of a very long, winding set of stairs. He sets me down and unties the blindfold. "Jessi, they know your face … and your name. Don't let that take you by surprise. You are loved by more than me and missed by all of our people."

"They?" I ask quietly, but he doesn't answer. We are in a valley, with rocks and trees covered in ivy and moss. Ferns in bright shades of green dapple the forest floor.

He brushes back a sweeping cascade of foliage to reveal a door, quite ordinary, quite plain. All of this is so strange. My whole world has been shaken and turned on its side. We are entering an obvious mountain, but considering how sophisticated Trinity's place is in relation to its archaic appearance, I don't know what to imagine at this point. He pushes the door open and we walk down a short tunnel until we turn a sharp corner and come to a vast opening.

What I see before me is nearly indescribable. Jace tried to tell me that we aren't human, that our parents had come from some other place. It didn't fully register. Not until now. Turning that corner was like walking into another world.

The mountain, if that's where we still are, is filled with life. A bustling crowd pushes its way in and around a marketplace. Beautifully carved stone tables and various sculpted archways make up a labyrinth of wares and goods. I hear laughing and talking, even an argument or two. I look at them, their clothes and their expressions. Most of them are pale. And it begins, just slightly, to come to me—where the myths of our kind came from. Dwelling in the Earth, we would become conditioned to a life without daylight. Humans would only see us above ground at night and assume incorrectly that we were doing so out of an inability to bear the sun's rays.

Jace has me tenderly by the arm. As he talks, those around us stop their chattering. "My parents upheld an agreement that was made long before they crossed over, allowing all who wished it the freedom to leave their protection and join the mortal world. The Dayworld. Most have willingly changed their lives and joined Trinity. Some were taken by force." He gestures around us. "This is all that is left of our way of life. This place and a handful of others like it."

I hear my name in hushed tones, whispered around us in surprise, in some cases excitement and in others, hesitation.

I have a variety of bad SyFy Originals cataloged in my brain, and I've gone through all of them in the last thirty seconds—nothing even close. And what's worse is that as much as I want to think I'm hallucinating all of this, it feels right.

"Is it really you?" I turn to see a teenage girl standing behind me, a grin spreading cautiously on her face. "Have you really come back?" I assume she is a turned vampire?

Jace answers for me. "Yes, but it's been a long time. She doesn't remember much yet."

Everyone claps and cheers and my face flushes. Jace brushes his fingers below my chin and touches my cheek with his thumb. "You haven't changed as much as you think you have," he whispers.

Quinn approaches us with Olivia in tow. He is joyful, too, and judging by their closeness, I would say they're a couple. Though, a few days ago I would tell you a whole host of stuff that's now been debunked, so what do I know?

"Not home, but close enough," Quinn says. I look at Jace for elaboration.

"You have always preferred the Dayworld," Jace says quietly. "We traveled between the two."

"You don't seem too pleased about that," I remark, glad to be moving away from the crowd and deeper into the mountain.

His restraint amazes me. He could probably let loose on the fact that had we stayed below ground, I wouldn't have been taken ten years ago. But he smiles sadly and says, "Something like that."

We come into an even greater opening—a hollow area more than eight stories high with small abodes lining the edges. Below us is an empty field where, believe it or not, plants are growing, though none I've ever seen. The only light is unnatural, so I can't imagine these are native species.

After a few more turns, we come to a large set of double doors. Jace motions for the others to join us and we enter what must be our place here.

"It's modern! Thank you, God," I laugh, hugging the couch.

"Really, it was nothing. You're quite welcome." Quinn jokes, then cringes as Olivia hits him in the side. A look crosses between them that affirms my earlier assumption about their relationship.

"Liv, did Damian ever come here?" Jace asks.

"No. After you and I got off the phone, we got into it and he left. I think he's going after her again."

Jace sighs. "I was worried about that. Has Quinn filled you in?"

"About Iris? Yeah." Liv's expression darkens. "Blake was awfully quiet when he came in."

"He will be for a while, I suspect. Where is he now?"

Quinn says, "He'll be back here later. Sweetheart, I told you he'll pull through this. He's just disturbed by what he saw. He was witness to some rather awful things."

Images of the creatures from the first part of Hades flash through my mind—"awful things" is an understatement. Perfect fodder for a low-budget horror movie.

Liv smiles at me. "You weren't in any state of mind to hear me when I spoke to you at the beach house and I know you don't remember me. But you will." She pauses before adding, "I've missed you."

I want to say something comforting, something to make her years of waiting worth more than this awkward moment, but the words aren't there. Not the right ones, anyway.

Jace wraps his arm around my shoulder. "It will take time."

Quinn picks up something from the coffee table and hands it to me. I'm skeptical immediately, simply because he doesn't say anything. It's a leather-bound book, tall but narrow. I open it and pause. It's a photo album. Liv and Quinn abruptly use the excuse that they're tired and are retiring for the night and leave Jace and I alone. Jace stands behind me, his hands resting on my shoulders as I look at one page after another. The pictures are mainly of us, Jace and me. We look happy. And we look like we belong, but I can't relate to the pale, light-hearted vampire that I see in Jace's arms. There isn't the slightest trace of bitterness or cynicism. All I see is the face of a girl who died ten years ago.

"You need more blood." Jace takes the album gently from my hands and lays it back onto the table, clearly sensing my mixed emotions.

"I just took blood a couple of hours ago." At least, I think it was just a couple of hours ago. The days are blending together.

He turns me around to face him. "It was actually about four hours ago. But, it's still earlier than normal."

Now that he has brought it to my attention, I am feeling the fatigue that must be showing on my face. I am also keenly aware of my need to shower. "Can I clean up first?"

He nods and walks me to the bathroom, then pulls out a fresh towel, placing it on the counter for me as he leaves.

I don't take too long. Mainly this is because one, I can't stand without wanting to pass out and two, because I feel odd when I am away from him. I wrap the towel around me and when I come out, I find that he hasn't gone any farther than the wall beyond the door.

Wordless, he takes me by the hand and guides me to sit on the side of his bed (I still can't think of this place as ours). The last few times we did this, I drew from his wrist because we were with Blake and Quinn. Not that they would have cared, but it still feels too intimate to take from anywhere else unless you're alone. This time, we aren't hindered by the presence of others.