Midnight Runes (The Bestowed Ones) (26 page)

“That’s really nerdy.”

I pulled one out and set it on the floor. “Think about it. Aren’t you used to your stuff being in specific places? It’ll make her question if she’d always had them in those locations, or at least why she all of a sudden thought they should be in a different place.”

He wasn’t sold.

“Imagine opening a drawer looking for your socks and you find undershirts instead. Why are you having such a hard time with this? It’s funny.”

“No, I get it. I’m distracted. I thought I heard the garage door open.”

“Go check it out. You can find out in less than a second.”

“Elyse is home. Do you want to go or stay?”

“Go.” I couldn’t believe he thought I’d want to spy on her. It felt like such an invasion of privacy to stay. Which was ironic because he previously spied on me, but it didn’t bother me.

“Where shall we go?”

“Surprise me.”

He flashed a mischievous grin at that open invitation.

“A junkyard? Hilarious.”

Less than a second later, he placed us on the edge of a cliff. I felt the warm sun and dry air. I took in the breathtakingly beautiful sight.

“
T
he Grand Canyon?” I guessed.

“Uh huh,” he said approvingly.

“I’ve been here before, but I didn’t take this particular tour.” Only helicopters could reach this isolated area.

I shuffled a few steps closer to the edge. Peering over, I saw pine trees decorating the river’s edge. My stomach dropped, and I had to take a step back. We were hundreds of feet up. I wasn’t a good judge of distances, but I knew we were high enough not to survive a fall. This is what it must feel like to stand on the top of a skyscraper and peer over to the cement roads below. I glanced back at Landon, and that mysterious smile was back.

“On a scale of one to ten, how adventurous are you feeling?” he asked.

“About a four.”

“Would you be interested in going to a nine or ten?” He took an exaggerated step toward me.

“Probably not.”

“It’s part of the reason I like to come here so much. It’s very liberating.” He took another deliberate step so I was nearly in arm’s reach.

I took a step away from the ledge and out of his direct path. “Uh, I’m not sure I’m following you.”

“I guess I’ll just show you,” he said, purposely walking the last two steps to the edge. He turned his back to the valley. He looked like a diver taking position.

“No. Wait!” I stuttered. “Why would you—”

He leaped backward over the edge and disappeared.

My breath caught in my throat as I rushed to the edge and peered over. I watched him free-fall and then he disappeared from view altogether. The seconds ticked by.

“Wanna try it?” I spun around at the sound of his voice.

I shook my head. I couldn’t find the words. I had to distance myself from the edge. I felt like I was falling. I took a few steps toward him and sat on part of a rock. I glanced over to him, unable to put enough words together to form a comprehensible sentence.

“I’m fairly sure I couldn’t do that,” I responded, still stunned. “I’ve never had a big desire to skydive.”

“It’s quite a rush.”

“I’m sure it is. I just don’t know that I could actually jump. It goes against all rational thought.”

“You have to jump to enjoy the fall.”

I looked up at him, trying to understand what he meant.

“It’s better not to do things against your will, but I could make us invisible and start us over the edge as if we jumped. It takes away some of the thrill.”

“I certainly don’t want to be cheated,” I said wryly, noting the hope in his face. He was so excited to show me this. I could do it once, couldn’t I? “I know you just did it and you’re standing here, but…” I didn’t have any solid reason not to, other than fear. And I knew nothing bad would happen. “Alright. But I’m holding your hand the
whole
time.”

He took my hand, helped me up, and we approached the edge together. My grip tightened proportionately to the disappearing space in front of us.

“On the count of three,” I said, staring straight ahead. I couldn’t wait too long and think about what I was doing. The longer I did, the greater the chance I would back out. I imagined I could jump across the divide. I knew it was impossible, but at least it was something to focus on, rather than plummeting to the rocks below. “One…two…three!”

We pushed off the ledge, leaving the safety of the solid ground and sanity behind. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as we plummeted. The wind stung my face and tangled my hair. My fingers throbbed from my death grip on Landon’s hand, but I refused to scream. The brown and orange of the canyon’s walls blended as we fell. I wondered when he’d get us back to the top. That was probably something I should have clarified with him. The top of the canyon fell further and further away while the ground hurried closer and closer.

That instant, we were no longer falling, but stood back at the cliff’s edge.

“Whoa,” I said, disoriented. “That was…interesting.” It was like going a hundred miles an hour then suddenly stopping without the whiplash.

“See how much fun that is?” He opened and closed his hand to return feeling.

I laughed. “It’s kind of crazy, actually. I’m glad I jumped with you once.”

I could see his mind working up to what he wanted to say next, but I had to beat him to it.

“I’m not ready to jump by myself. I totally know you’ll catch me, but I just can’t.” I wanted to do it on my own one day, but I wasn’t brave enough yet. It had nothing to do with his ability. I trusted him implicitly. I knew he would materialize by me and transport me elsewhere before I hit the bottom. Maybe if I did this enough, the thought of jumping off a cliff by myself, with no parachute or safety net, wouldn’t be as scary. It defied logic. No one jumped off something this high and expected to live. I didn’t have a death wish so it was difficult to wrap my brain around.

“I’ll jump with you again,” I offered.

After jumping too many times to count, he moved us by the river. We sat on a large boulder, under the shade of a pine tree near the rushing water’s edge.

“I feel like a pretty insignificant part of the world. Everything appears the same, yet it’s all different.”

He shrugged. “It’s just life to me.”

I tried to embrace this amazing ability as part of everyday life. “You said your family has always been in it. How do they feel about it?”

“Most people worship the group and consider it an honor to belong. Some members of my family think that way. I think it’s closer to a generational curse. I like what I am, so I don’t say that for myself. I say it for others who don’t want to be involved but don’t have a choice.”

“Why isn’t it a choice?”

“It’s equivalent to quitting the family business. It’s a hard thing to walk away from.”

“But it’s happened before. Mine, Trevor’s,” I said to hide how much what he said disturbed me.

“Yeah, it’s possible to do. Just doesn’t happen often. Something happened during that generation that no one remembers. It was like a mass exodus by our standards.”

“So are you running out of people? Is that why new ones are being pulled in now?”

“I don’t know yet. What he’s doing is against the rules. It’s more than against the rules. It’s never been done before; at least there are no records of it being done. It goes against the very foundation we’re built upon. There’s no honor in his actions. Just the suggestion this was going on outraged several members of the Committee. They transferred me here on assignment, as you know. There are lots of sub-assignments connected to it—investigating him, looking after you, etc.”

He was an undercover agent. “Have you talked to Trevor about this? Learned what happened?”

“He’s not forthcoming with info. Neither are most of the new recruits. They don’t know who to trust. It’s been a challenge to talk to anyone. Nobody likes a new person to arrive and threaten the existing hierarchy.”

“He’d talk to me about it. But let me call him to warn him before you pop over there.” I started to look for my phone and stopped. My cell was in my bag on my kitchen table at home. Across the country.

“Trevor’s not available.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s pledging himself tonight. He wants more access to power. It probably has something to do with him saying that stuff about being willing to pay consequences.” He looked pointedly at me. “He doesn’t have the ability to reason. I tried.”

“Are you insinuating he’s doing it because of me?”

“I am.”

“Because he thinks he can stop them from approaching me?”

“Yes. He’s concerned you’ll get pulled in like he did. Either way, the more power, the better. The more abilities, the better. It comes with the territory.”

“Is that experience talking, Landon?”

He turned his palm over. There was a tattoo covering it that wasn’t there before.

“I’ve had it for as long as I can remember,” he said distantly.

“No. I would have noticed it.”

He made a fist. “You have to learn to look beyond the obvious,” he gently chastised. He opened it again. It was gone. He paused and showed his other palm. It had switched hands.

“You have a moving tattoo.” I stared at his hands. “That must be the same one Zach saw on your back.”

“What?”

“In the locker room after gym. He mentioned he saw one on your back. What’s the benefit of it moving?”

“Easy to hide, but clearly I was slacking that day.”

“Trevor has one too. A waitress spilled a drink on him and it came through his wet shirt at the restaurant a few months ago. He refused to talk about it, but that must be what it was.”

“Then he’s further involved than I originally thought.”

“So he already did what you thought he was doing tonight?”

“I hadn’t realized he jumped in so quickly.”

“You sound concerned. Why?” I asked cautiously. I had to know why something regarding Trevor would concern Landon. It made me incredibly alarmed.

“One: you’re connected to him. Two: he’s committing to the wrong side.”

“So now there’s a good and bad side.”

“It’s not all bad. Just those who want total control.”

“Why are you being so open now?”

“To prove I’m not high-handed.”

“I thought you didn’t care what people thought of you.”

He smiled but didn’t say anything.

“Where does your family fit into this whole thing?” I asked.

“That’s a loaded question. From the beginning. Way back to its inception.”

“Do they know about me?”

I witnessed a flash of emotion in his face that was too quick to read. “Yes, they do.”

“Am I going to meet them?”

“I think that’s inevitable.”

I wondered why he would say that, especially after all this talk of it being optional and Trevor going out of his way to make a deal for more power. I wondered what other abilities Landon’s family possessed. I knew there was a downside, one that he had avoided telling me the night Trevor interrupted us with his surprise visit. Maybe his family was the downside.

He noticed my expression turning serious. “What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I’m wondering what part I’m going to play in all this. Cassandra said I had to develop my ability. She said that the balance is being challenged and changes are coming.”

“That’s true. What else did she say?”

“That I’d do what’s in my nature to do.”

He took my hand, turned it over in his, and traced my palm with his finger. It was mesmerizing. “I agree with her. Do you want my tattoo?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said part out of sarcasm, part out of suspecting it could move around his body, but not jump onto mine.

He leaned closer and brushed my cheek with his fingertips. I stopped breathing.

“You have to feel something incredibly strong toward me in order for it to work. An emotional connection, if you will. Do you feel a strong emotion for me?” he partially teased.

My gaze shifted to his lips. He leaned closer.

“There are two suggested ways to accomplish the transfer. One is to go through the formal ceremony and claim my line. That means you officially join and everyone knows. But the research I’ve done suggested a more discreet way to transfer it without the official stuff. I don’t know if it’s ever been successful, but we can try.”

He was so close I felt the current humming between us.

I knew the next move was in my hands. He wouldn’t force it upon me. He wanted to see what I would choose.

I reached my hands up, hesitantly at first, trying to understand the ramifications of what I was doing. I think the day’s excitement had made me reckless. I didn’t care.

I placed my hands gently on his cheeks. Each moment was exaggerated. Time slowed, and my heart sped up. It left too much time to think.

I met his lips so quickly I think I shocked him. A second later, he responded. His arms went around me and drew me close to him as he returned my kiss. The current between us turned electric, and energy rippled through me. I felt hot and cold. I savored every second. It felt different from any other time I’d been kissed.

Too soon, our lips parted.

He looked at me through heavy lids, and I knew I could happily spend all day kissing him.

“Any difference?” he whispered.

“That’s a loaded question, but I imagine the transfer feels like being branded, and I didn’t feel anything sear onto my body. Besides, I’d never want to take it from you,” I said.

“You wouldn’t take it from me. I can duplicate it.”

“Consequences?”

“Always consequences,” he answered. “But it’s the opportunity to be able to contact me any time, no matter what, without having to use a cell. It will enhance your emotional telepathy, too.”

I couldn’t believe he was offering me a permanent connection to him. Perhaps this was part of the path to strengthen my ability. I had acted on impulse, which was very unlike me. Landon gave an opportunity to be part of his world, and I took it. I had no idea what it would mean to be part of Landon’s line. It was what I wanted, but I couldn’t explain why. It just felt right. Based on the evidence—if it could be called that—from Cassandra, it felt like it was something that would happen eventually, and we were just speeding up the process.