Chapter 1 Jade Dragon Mountain 1 страница

Contents

CHAPTER 1 JADE DRAGON MOUNTAIN

CHAPTER 2 MISSING PIECES

CHAPTER 3 THE ARMY

CHAPTER 4 TORTURE

CHAPTER 5 ECHOES

CHAPTER 6 UNDINES AND IFRITS

CHAPTER 7 WATER AND FIRE

CHAPTER 8 THE STONE FOREST

CHAPTER 9 THE UNHOLY CHURCH

CHAPTER 10 SURVIVAL

CHAPTER 11 THE BARGAIN

CHAPTER 12 THE FELLAS

CHAPTER 13 THE QUEEN

CHAPTER 14 ANGEL AND SOUL MATE

CHAPTER 15 FORGIVING MAGIC

CHAPTER 16 CASIMIR

CHAPTER 17 WAR OF HEARTS

CHAPTER 18 MY ANGEL

CHAPTER 19 NINETEEN

CHAPTER 20 THE GIFTS

CHAPTER 21 PLANS WITHIN PLANS

CHAPTER 22 THE COMPACT

CHAPTER 23 THE OCEAN

CHAPTER 24 THE ISLAND

CHAPTER 25 PERSEPHONE NO MORE

CHAPTER 26 NO SUNSHINE

Evie

CHAPTER 1

Jade Dragon Mountain

He can’t hide from me. Not that he is ever trying to, but still, it’s impossible. I know where he is at all times. I’m attuned to his voice, his scent…the beat of his heart. It’s my favorite pastime these days—stalking Reed. It’s a game that I play without knowing that I’m playing it half the time. I hunt him…and he lets me.

As I move through the stone-walled courtyard, my bare feet make almost no sound while I traverse the stone bridge that crosses a tranquil plunge pool in the middle of the Zen garden. A galaxy of stars reflects in the water beneath me, but they can’t hold my attention. Reed is ahead of me, in the bedroom of the Naxi-inspired pagoda that we have been sharing. He is poring over maps of the surrounding terrain. Reed studies these maps frequently, learning everything he can about Lijiang and the Jade Dragon Mountain that has been our base of operations since we arrived in China last week. He has been very busy—too busy.

My eyes shift to the banyan trees in the courtyard that nestles just outside the wide doorway of the pagoda. Illuminated red-paper lanterns are strung within its weeping branches. The light from the lanterns turns my pale skin pink as I creep behind the twisted trunk. I scan the slate porch from my leafy position. The doors are open, allowing the breeze to pass freely through the room on either side. Reed hasn’t looked up from his seat at the desk, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know I’m here. I can’t tell if he has sensed that I’m stalking him; he never gives anything away.

I study him for a moment. His dark brown hair has gotten longer than how he had been wearing it in Crestwood. But, I like it; it looks very sexy. His body is curved at sensual angles, making me want to touch him, to feel the raw power beneath his skin. His wings are in, so he looks completely human, well, as human as Reed can look. Since he is absolutely ethereal, I can’t see him as anything but angelic now.

When I look up at the arcing, gray tiled roof of the pagoda, I try to see if there is another way in—a sneakier way because I want to take him by surprise—jolt him out of his tactical plotting. He has been singularly focused since our arrival: amassing an angelic army, one strong enough to match Brennus’ army.

I shiver at the thought of Brennus. With a little luck, Brennus and his army of Gancanagh are half a world away. Reed is going to great lengths to protect me from Brennus. He has literally gone to the other end of the Earth to accomplish it, bringing me to China, to the secluded base of an enormous snow-capped mountain. Reed and Zephyr have been working on little else other than keeping me safe from the Gancanagh leader who wants to make me his queen…his undead lover. I cannot allow that to happen. If he gets me back and bites me, there is little chance that I will not succumb to his venom and become one of them. Now that I’m reunited with Reed, I’m desperate to remain with him, no matter what.

A deep, primal growl, coming from the room ahead of me, makes me freeze where I am. I glance back towards the room and every hair on my arms rises. Another low, rumbling growl drifts to me on the gentle breeze that stirs wisps of my auburn hair around my face. The sound is terrifying in its intensity, and every instinct within me urges me to run from it as my eyes connect with the animal making it. Fierce green irises peer at me from the enormous, sleek cat crouching before me near the doorway to the pagoda. A shiver of pure fear shakes me as I involuntarily take a step back from the massive, black killer.

“Nice kitty…” I whisper to it, taking another shaky step backward and feeling the rough bark of the tree at my back, impeding my retreat. “Reed!” I whisper urgently as I cast a glance into the room, but he is no longer seated at the desk. My eyes fly back to the aggressive animal in front of me that is stalking me like I’m a luscious morsel. The panther’s muscles tense, looking as if it will pounce on me at any moment. I look wildly around for an exit strategy while several killing scenarios pulse in my mind, but I would rather try to run than try to engage it.

“Stay!” I command the panther, watching its tail swish as it deepens its crouch. It’s not listening to me—it looks like it’s enjoying itself immensely, the way its tail is swishing back and forth like it’s toying with a mouse or something. Hide, I think when the hackles rise on its sleek, black pelt.

“Reed!” I squeak, watching the cat bound up and lunge in my direction. I squeeze my eyes closed, holding my breath and pressing deeper into the tree, waiting to feel its sharp teeth sink into my skin.

“Evie!” Reed says from directly in front of me. I open my eyes to find that Reed is no more than inches from my face, looking at me with panic in his eyes. His powerful, charcoalgray wings are arcing out around him, shielding us. His hand reaches out, cupping my cheek.

I try to answer him, but I find that my entire body has gone rigid, so much so that I cannot even move my mouth to speak his name. Reed braces his hands on my shoulders, running his hands up and down me as if he cannot see me. “Evie?” he says again, but this time he is leaning into me, inhaling the air near my face. I try again to speak, but I feel stiff.

It takes several seconds for some of the rigidity in my limbs to ease, allowing me to inhale a breath as I look up into the face that I love above all others. “Big cat!” I utter as I attempt to pull away from the tree at my back only to find that I am entangled in vines that are holding me to the trunk. Looking at my arms, they have taken on the rough texture of the mossy bark of the tree. When I raise my hand to my eyes, my fingers appear twig-like as I wave them in fascination and horror. “What the—” I inhale a sharp breath, my eyes move to Reed who is observing me now with a mixture of pleasure and awe on his face.

“You can relax, Evie, it’s not permanent,” Reed says to reassure me. “You are evolving. It appears, you can change your shape now,” he says, smiling and raising one of his brows.

“But—I’m a tree,” I whisper to him, feeling appalled by my current shape. I have taken on the mossy exterior of the banyan tree that I’m near.

“Yes, but you are not really a tree—you are more like a chameleon,” he says as he leans his face closer to my ear, brushing his cheek to mine. I feel the suppleness of his skin against the course roughness of my current bark-like exterior, which causes a small measure of my fear to melt away.

“Buns said that when this shapeshifting thing evolved I would be able to turn into butterflies or something, like she can.” I respond, remembering how Buns had shapeshifted before my eyes into a swarm of butterflies to demonstrate her angelic ability to me. I’m beginning to feel disappointed over my current predicament of looking like some sort of woodland sprite. I was really hoping to be more like my friends, the angels, when I evolve, not less like them. I’m already too different from them, being only half angel and the rest of me human that this is just one more thing that will separate me from being seen as one of them.

“This is so much better than that, don’t you see? he asks me, grinning.

“No, from this angle, it kind of sucks, Reed.” I reply, stepping forward as my knees become less rigid, enough to bend them as I pull away from the tree that I had become a part of only moments ago. Reed wraps his arms around me, steadying me by pulling me tight against him.

“No, what you can do is so much better. We have to change into something animate, like butterflies or a panther, but you can change your shape to reflect your surroundings…camouflaging yourself. It’s a huge asset—” Reed says with excitement until I cut him off.

“That was you!” I accuse him as my skin begins to take on its normal hue and I start to change back to my original form. “You changed into a panther!”

A chuckle escapes Reed then as he hugs me tighter. “I thought for sure you knew it was me, but you didn’t, did you?” he asks.

“I probably should’ve known. Your eyes were the exact same color as the cat’s eyes. I’ve always thought that you move just like a cat,” I say, gazing up into his perfect face that is mere inches from my own. “Is that the only shape you can take or will I be running from a bear next time?”

“Oh, I can take many, many forms, but I cannot do what you can do—my forms have to be animate. I have to change into an animal, but you—do you think you can do other forms?” he asks with excitement. “Do you think that it has to be just a solid form—can you be liquid…air?”

“I don’t know.” I reply honestly.

“What were you thinking right before you changed?” he asks. “Were you thinking ‘tree?’”

“No…I was thinking ‘hide,’” I reply.

“Of course!” Reed exclaims. “I have someone I want you to meet. His name is Wook and he is a Virtue angel, like Phaedrus, who has lived near the Naxi for several centuries. He has studied the Tibetan monks and the Naxi mystics and has seen some of their abilities. Perhaps, he can instruct you to hone your human capabilities. I will not be much help to you in that, as I have little insight into the human side of your nature.”

“You think this is a human trait?” I ask Reed with a skeptical look, “Because I can’t think of any human that I know of who can change herself into a tree.”

Reed’s eyebrow arches in a cunning way. “I don’t know, maybe it’s a hybrid trait. No angel I know of can do what you just did. It is very unique,” he says, and awe is back in his voice again.

“I don’t even know if I can do it again, Reed,” I reply, feeling strange about what just happened. This evolution into a stronger being is really disturbing. It takes the awkwardness of puberty to a whole new level, I think. “And maybe we shouldn’t tell anybody about it.”

“Why not?” Reed asks, frowning now while scanning my face.

“Because it’s unnatural and…freakish,” I reply as casually as I can, but I’m a little too stiff just yet to pull off the casual shrug.

“Evie, you don’t understand, this is ‘mad cool’ to use your words. It makes you even more dangerous!” Reed breathes and I can see he is really charged up about this. Searching his face for signs of disgust, I can find none. He is truly happy that I can now turn into something else. He must be worried that he will not be able to defend me. He must see this as one more evasion technique.

“You think a tree is great? Just wait until I can turn into an avalanche and come pouring down the mountain,” I smile as my arms creep around his neck, pulling his face closer to mine.

“Yes…that would be excellent,” he exhales near my ear, causing shivers to run through me.

“So you don’t think this is sketchy?” I ask, feeling relief that he is not repulsed by me.

“I don’t question your existence anymore. I’m just grateful you are here, in any form,” he says, picking me up off of my feet and carrying me back into the bedroom.

The bedroom is sparse by the standards of western culture. It contains only a rather large bed and a writing desk. The silk clad bed is centered in the room on a low wooden platform. Folding doors open up the entire room to the outdoors so that the room is exposed to the gardens and courtyard. High stone walls that allow for privacy from the other pagodas cluster around our own to shield the entire pagoda.

“Isn’t it your job to question my existence?” I ask him teasingly.

“No, my only job was to annihilate fallen angels and since you are not one of them, you do not fall under my job description,” he says, nuzzling my neck and placing me in the middle of the bed. Following me down, he brushes the hair back from my forehead with his strong fingers while gazing into my eyes. “But now that we are bound to one another, I have a new job description.”

“You do? What’s your new job?” I ask, fascinated by the sensual turn of his mouth. I trace his lips with the tip of my finger that has now returned to normal.

“To love Evie…” Reed says, holding each of my fingers to his lips, kissing them one by one, “to protect my brave girl from any evil that would dare to speak her name…” he continues, tracing a line from the palm of my hand to my wrist. “To make her enemies bow at her feet…” he murmurs before his lips find mine. I recognize his words as those that Buns had translated for me after Reed said his binding vow to me in his Angelic language. He had promised to protect me in the descriptive detail that only a Power angel can convey. It is a little overwhelming to hear the words, even when it may become necessary for him to actually do all of the things he is saying in order to protect me.

“Reed,” I whisper against his lips, “that’s kind of scary—”

“Thank you,” he replies smugly just before deepening the kiss as he completely misinterprets my words as a compliment. At the moment, I’m in no mood to correct the mistake. Kissing him back, I reach my hand up to gently stroke his wing. A soft groan escapes Reed at my touch. I love that.

Slowly, Reed’s hands move over my body and the feel of his hands on my bare skin, although exquisite, is shocking because I just realize that I’m not wearing anything. I squeak in surprise, causing Reed to pull back a little so that he can look into my eyes again in question.

“My clothes?” I ask.

“Trees don’t wear clothes,” he replies. “That very pretty little sundress you were wearing is now shredded at the base of the tree outside.”

“Oh…and where are your clothes?” I ask as a smile forms in the corners of my mouth, allowing my eyes to rove over his perfect form.

“Panthers don’t wear clothes either,” he shrugs.

“How…convenient,” I sigh, wrapping my arms around his neck again and pulling him back down to me.

Just then, Reed’s cell phone rings annoyingly on the desk behind us. I tense, holding Reed tighter to me. “You are absolutely forbidden to answer that phone,” I whisper against his lips.

“What phone, love?” he says as his head dips lower, tracing my collarbone with his lips, causing shivers to course through me as desire ignites within me. I relax as the phone stops ringing and my hands slip to his hair, threading through it and feeling the softness of it.

I trace the line down his neck to the place just above his heart, the place where my wings have been symbolically branded into his skin. I’m still fascinated by the way in which it appeared, after the binding ceremony that linked Reed’s life to mine was performed. I can’t hide the smile of satisfaction that this mark on him makes me feel. It literally screams the word “mine.” Reed is mine and no one can take him away from me now. Our fates are connected and I know that I should feel guilty for tying him to me like this. My fate can turn on a dime because most angels, when they first see me, believe that I must be evil, since no angel before me has ever possessed a soul. But, in this moment, I can’t feel anything but happy that we are here together.

“What are you thinking right now?” Reed asks, searching my face.

“Umm, right now?” I ask, trying to stall because I just got caught reveling in the fact that he’s mine. “I was just thinking about how happy I am, about this,” I say, feeling myself blush as I trace the shape of my wings that are imprinted on his chest.

“This makes you happy?” he asks and when I nod he speaks to me in Angel as he tenderly kisses the symbol of his wings etched into my skin just above my heart.

“What did you say?” I whisper because I haven’t learned to speak his language yet. It still sounds like music to me, like a hypnotic lullaby.

“Me, too,” he replies, smiling broadly.

“That sounded a bit more than ‘me, too,’” I counter, but Reed’s smile only broadens. “And I wasn’t just thinking that, I was also wondering what I can call you.” At his look of confusion, I go on, “I mean, you’re not my ‘husband’ because you’re much, much, more than that…” I trail off, waiting for him to say the word for what we are to each other, now that we both swore a vow to be united for eternity.

He responds immediately in Angel and I smile because I should’ve known that it wouldn’t be English. It sounds like he said aspire, but in a way that is so beautiful that it makes tears form in my eyes. My voice is thick when I ask, “Translation?”

Groaning, Reed’s brow creases in a frown. He is struggling with the limitations of the human language, so I wait patiently for him to answer me. “It means…‘beloved above all others’… ‘most revered, venerated’…but it’s more than that. It means ‘essential to me’ and ‘a part of me.’”

I can’t help the tears that slide from my eyes. “Aspire,” I whisper to him as my hand cups his cheek. His eyes close briefly, savoring the contact.

Feeling Reed tense against me, his eyes snap open as he begins scowling right before he says, “We are busy right now, Zephyr. Come back later.” Quickly, Reed covers me with a silk sheet.

“I cannot. This is important,” Zephyr replies from somewhere outside of our room. From the distance, it sounds like he is standing near the stone bridge that traverses the jade-tiled pool in the courtyard. “You should answer your phone.”

“He was kind of in the middle of something, Zee. He still is—how important is it?” I ask, trying to hide the irritation in my voice.

“Very,” Zephyr replies and at the sternness of his voice, dread seeps through my senses. It causes my arms to tighten on Reed, pulling him nearer to me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, hearing panic in my own voice.

A growl comes from Reed then as he leans his forehead to mine. “Evie, it’s okay, whatever it is, I’ll take care of it,” Reed says soothingly, trying to calm me down. But I have seen too much lately to be reassured by his words.

“Is it Dominion?” I ask Zephyr with my heartbeat drumming rapidly in my chest. I look over at Reed, seeing that he is already dressed. Startled by the fact that I hadn’t even seen him move, I sit up in the large bed, pulling the sheet up with me and wrapping it securely around me. Zephyr steps into our room then, keeping his eyes averted from me as he speaks directly to Reed, but he is using their Angelic language that I can’t understand. My panic increases. Zephyr never does that. He never speaks in anything but English when I’m around because he knows I can’t understand them. Something is wrong—something big—something he doesn’t want me to know about.

“What’s going on, Zee? What’s happening?” I ask them, looking between their two faces as they debate something important. If it has to do with Dominion, it can’t be good for me. The military headquarters that acts as the high court for Power angels put me on trial for my life only days ago, which wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t also told me at the time that the only right I possess, in their eyes, is the right to pray for death.

The next thought has all of the blood draining out of my face as I whisper, “Brennus—”

“No, it is not Dominion or the Gancanagh,” Zephyr says rapidly, trying to reassure me, but still, his face looks grim.

There is only one other thing that can be severe enough to warrant a look like that from Zephyr and my brain can’t even move past the name that it keeps repeating over and over like a prayer. Russell. Something inside my heart recoils painfully.

“Where are Brownie and Russell?” I ask them, watching their faces closely. They both have blank expressions, like they are deliberately trying to hide something from me.

“They are still in the Ukraine,” Zephyr replies in a calm, soothing voice. “They are being very cautious and they are moving slowly. Many, many kingdoms have risen and fallen in that part of the world. Many beings still like to call it home,” Zephyr explains with patience.

I exhale a breath that I didn’t know I was holding as his words register with me. I know I won’t be able to completely relax until they are both safely with us. I still have no idea yet what I will tell Russell about Reed and me. I made Buns and Zephyr promise that they wouldn’t breathe a word of the binding vows to either Brownie or Russell. I have to be the one to tell Russell and it has to be face to face. No matter what I say to him, he’s going to have a hard time understanding why his soul mate has chosen to bind her life to someone else, after all of the lifetimes we have shared together. I don’t think I’m going to be able to explain it to him, my need for Reed. I don’t even understand it. All I know is I tried to live without Reed and it was impossible. I was dying inside every day.

“Maybe we should go to them. We can pick them up and bring them back here,” I say, because I’m extremely worried about them. Brownie is a Reaper angel, and although she’s immensely stronger than a human, she does not possess the brute strength of a Power angel. Russell is part Seraphim angel and part human, like me. His strength will soon rival that of Reed and Zephyr, and all other Power angels, but he has not fully evolved yet, so he is at a disadvantage should he run into a fallen angel…or Brennus.

“Zee and Buns are going to go to the Ukraine. They are leaving within the hour,” Reed says softly and I bounce out of the big bed and head to the bathroom wrapped in a sheet. After I retrieve some clothing on the way, it only takes me seconds to change before I am back in the room, searching for a bag to pack some of my clothes.

When I look up, I see Zephyr and Reed studying me. “How long will it take us to get there?” I ask, trying to gauge what I will need to take for the trip. Buns has done some shopping for us, but Zephyr has been attempting to lock her down. He has been trying to explain to her that she is a target for the Gancanagh, too, since she is my friend, but she doesn’t want to listen to him. She has never really had to take any of this into consideration before because she is a divine Reaper angel. Since her job is to negotiate for human souls, she has essentially been immune to the fighting taking place between divine Power angels and the Fallen. As for other beings, they too, leave her alone because of her divine status. But the Gancanagh have vowed to get me back. They have even gone so far as to attack Dominion’s compound while I was there to “rescue me.” It would be nothing to them to use Buns to get to me and I can’t have that.

“You are safer here for now, love,” Reed says and he uses his sexy voice when he says it.

My eyes narrow because I’m onto his attempts to soothe me, I say, “I want to go, too. I can help, if there’s trouble.”

“No, you cannot, not right now, Evie,” Zephyr replies in a low tone, like he is talking to a child. “You are too emotional right now.”

“I can handle whatever comes, Zee, I promise. I’ll be fine, trust me.” I reply, not looking at him and continuing to pack my clothes into the bag.

“Evie, listen to me,” Zephyr insists as he moves nearer to me in order to make me look at him. “I can see that you believe that, but I can prove to you, right now, that you are unable to separate yourself from your emotions.”

“Zee, I’m fine—really. Let’s go,” I insist, crossing my arms in front of me in defiance.

“Brennus has Russell,” Zephyr says quietly.

Panic hits me and I struggle to take the next breath. My heart twists and pounds in my chest as my hands shoot out to grasp Zephyr’s forearm so I won’t fall down. Flashes of Russell’s smile, his face, the way he looks at me when I enter the room come to my mind in an instant. “How?” I breathe, searching his face. “We have to go now! I have to talk to Brennus—he will listen to me—”

“Shh…Evie, it’s okay. The Gancanagh don’t have Russell,” Zephyr says with a soft tone, putting his warm hand over mine to comfort me. “I said that to emphasize my point. Right now, you will do anything, agree to anything, in order to keep the ones you love safe. We can’t have that.”

“That was mean, Zee,” I accuse him with a grimace as my hand trembles underneath his. Reed hovers near me and I can tell by the look on his face that he wants to jump in and comfort me, but he is trying really hard to hold himself back from doing it.

“I am sorry you think so,” Zephyr replies with an even tone; his amazing blue eyes reflect his regret. “I have decided that I need to take a different approach with you from now on.”

“Oh yeah, have you decided on the scare-me-half-to-death approach?” I ask with a salty tone in my voice as I look at him.

“No. My approach will be to emphasize what is best for you. I will be your mentor and the first thing that you will learn is that we will protect you from now on, not the other way around,” Zephyr says. “The word is out about you, Evie, and it is trickling down like rain to even the lowest level of demons. Many will come for you and they will die. We are organized and well equipped to deal with them, but you must listen to us and believe that we have your best interests in mind.

“I already know that, Zee,” I reply rapidly. “But, you have to understand that I have your best interest in mind as well.”

Some of the sternness leaves his face then as he glances over at Reed and then he looks back to me again. “Evie, you are a Seraph and it is in your nature to guard and protect, but we are ancient warriors while you are still very young and have had little training. You have been born on the front line of a battle that you are still ill prepared to fight. I will train you so that, one day, you may fight at my side. I promise that I will teach you all that I know so you will become very powerful, like me.”

Hearing the sheer arrogance of his last words makes a small smile curl in the corners of my mouth. I move forward and put my arms around his waist, hugging him tight. “It’s hard for me to remember you’re scary old, Zee, because you look as young as me.”

“I am scary old and you will listen to me from now on,” Zephyr replies as he picks me up off of my feet and gives me a bone-crushing hug.

“I’ll hang on your every word if you let me come with you to get Brownie and Russell,” I whisper to him because it’s hard to talk when all of the air is being squeezed from me. “You can explain all of the strategy that you have planned to protect me.”

“Nice try,” Zephyr replies, setting me back on my feet, “but there is little chance that I will take you to the Ukraine with us. You are staying here with Reed. I am sure you will find something to do while we are gone.”

“How come Buns gets to go and I don’t?” I ask Zephyr as I pull away from him.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-30