Once Time Passed (A Burdened Novel Book 4), page 30
“Look at me,” she says with a point. “I’m pure evil.”
“You’re hexed. That’s not the true you.”
“Isn’t it, Nate? That’s in me, to do what they want, to be what anyone wants. If a hex is all it takes to take over me, to overpower us. This will happen again, Nathan, and we’re sitting ducks, waiting for it. That, right there, is our future. I am the evil Chislon warned about that your dad and Lunis warned us we’d become. It’s—.”
I grab her by her shoulders and force her to face me. “No one can determine who you are or what you will become? You call those shots. You remember telling me that? So, if you don’t want to be some wicked looking Volva, then get your ass back up there and you stop it. Don’t give anything or anyone the opportunity to control you, babe. Not even me. Get ahead of it and we’ll make it.” She nods and steps backward through waving space that she’s able to easily conjure.
With another round of practice, I do the same.
I Don’t Care
Nathan
Tracey falls from her levitation and I catch her before she hits the ground. She shuffles out of my arms and charges for the door, bursting into darkness. I follow after her as I steal a glance at my watch. It’s nowhere near night, not even close to mid-afternoon.
Out of one enemy’s grasp we run into another. I stop in the doorway unable to stop my Burdened from crawling into control. The Qualms crowd Tracey, keeping her from passing. She’s drained, swaying left to right, seconds away from falling into their arms.
“Don’t touch her,” I growl.
They step aside, and I grab Tracey and tuck her behind me. One takes the front of their line. “The time we’ve granted has run short. You can come willingly or forcefully. You’ve had enough time to make that choice.”
Hourglass clutched in my hand, I look from it to him, “I work off my own schedule.”
Their steps retract, seeming afraid of the device in my grasp. I use it as leverage. “Don’t make me use this.” I threat, lifting it higher, adding a bit of a shake to it, though, with no idea what it does.
The leader of their pack lifts his arms. A dark mist moves around the hand that’s, both, bone and flesh at the sleeves edge. “We only desire to converse with you. We mean neither you nor your mate any harm. Meet us tonight.” They disperse into dust and quickly drift away with a breeze. As the do, day takes its rightful place at two in the afternoon.
Tracey and I hurry for the truck, and I throw a quick glance over my shoulder, catching Amelia eyeing us from a dirty window of their cottage. She disperses from view when our eyes meet. I didn’t mean for things to go sideways, just a flick of the switch they’re attacking us and I’m just trying to make it out alive.
Whatever we are, this All-Seeing of Death. We’ve got the darkest of darkness spooked.
Tracey’s panting. Her folding hands sit, shaking, in her lap. My Burdened causes a pinch in the back of my neck, edging me to tap into Tracey’s feelings and thoughts. It’s used to it and seems to get fueled from her overflow. It drives a stab in my back, telling me I’m wrong. That, instead, it cares. I will not invade her privacy as long as I can control it. Sometimes, it’s overpowering and comes to me without my knowledge, but for the most part, I’m in silence unlike our past. I think she appreciates that.
A tear splashes onto her leg. I drag the side of my hand across the left side of her jaw, catching another tear before it falls. “You can take five minutes,” I tell her. “But that’s it, Tracey.”
Tracey scrapes the heel of her hand from her eyes to her chin. “Sorry.”
“Four minutes and fifteen seconds.” I’ve started the truck and driven away from my aunts’ house.
She coughs. More so, sobs covering it with another cough.
I pull off to the side of the road and exit the truck. On the passenger’s side, I open the door and say, “Get out.”
“Why?”
“Just get out of the truck, Tracey.”
Slowly, she retracts her seatbelt and steps out, hiding her face with a humble bow. I push my arms around her shoulder. “One minute and twenty-two seconds to go.”
Tracey throws her arms around me and squeezes tightly. “My last one for the rest of the year, swear.”
I’m resting my chin on top of her head. “It’s okay. You’re not some evil seeress. You’re Tracey Warren. A girl who’s missing class and work at moment to. . . I don’t know. Save the world. You think they’ll let you use that as an excuse?”
She draws back, sweeping her hand over my shirt. “Yeah. Sorry, Professor Perry, I was out with my once dead mate trying to find out how we’re the All-Seeing of Death, so we can see how we’d be used to stop Qualms from overthrowing the humans and taking over the world as you know it today.”
“Perfect!”
She rolls her eyes and turns away from me.
With her back to my chest, I push my arms across her chest and slip my head beside hers. “If it’s not for the small things in huge faults, what would we have to live for?”
She grabs my arm across her front and leans her back. A simple sigh escapes her. “For more moments like this that make going through those dealings worth it.” Looking at me, she asks, “This hold. Do you mean it or are you doing this for me?”
I study her eyes. They’re red, but it’s as if I’m sucking up the sadness that once tormented her. “It is all for you, Tracey. But I mean it too. I mean every tension and every bit of closeness.”
She falls silent. I mean it, the way I hold her. There’s more affection in my embrace than there has been before. I guess, the disconnect is fear of loss.
“The world is a dark place. Even if weren’t on a battle for our freedom and that of others, we’d still feel attacked, if not by others, then by ourselves. I can’t and I won’t let you be victimized by these demons and monsters that plague our current circumstances. We’ll smile through the battle of overcoming the evil that’s trying to come alive inside of us. We’re greater than what we’ve been told we are, and I’m willing to fight against. Will you?”
Tracey turns around. “Yes.” Her answer is simple, followed by a simple action. She gets in the truck and closes the door.
I round the truck and get in. Pulling the door closed, I say, “Tonight. We should go to the Forge. Get the full understanding of what’s going on. We’ll go home first, recoup, then hopefully get answers for our questions.”
Mr. Brightside
Nathan
Taylor and Little Nathan come with us to the night club. It’s on a rural part of town that makes me want to triple hit the alarm on the car, as if it’ll make a difference. We’re carded at the dingy, metal door. Sweat and citrus hits my nose as I wait in the doorway for Tracey.
We didn’t come out to party, but didn’t want to stand out in sweat pants and t-shirts. In jeans and a shirt that stops at her belly button show off Tracey’s curves distractingly. I can’t help but wonder, each time that I admire her, how our life would be without the extent of the mating. How she would’ve loved me outside of fate’s reels, my kind’s seal.
Maybe we would’ve met by chance, had the worst first date, but tried it again after a month or two when we’d happen to cross each other’s paths again. We’d enjoy mostly laughs, and one day, I’d look at her and see something I’d missed the first hundred times I viewed her. I’d hear her voice out of the blue one day and it’d sound like rushing water to a deserted heart. And her smile, I could pander in it all day. Maybe, she’d love me slowly.
Tracey smiles at me, passing the guard. Her words fall short. And, honestly, I don’t care to hear them. I admire her a second longer, and resist the urge to kiss her and taste her smile. She’s been drowning me for a while. Off and on, I see her as just a friend, then I see her as my lover, and then I’d see her as a heartbeat. On a rare occasion, like this, she’s all three.
A hand waves in front of my eyes. Little Nathan. “What?” I ask.
“We’re being signaled,” he says, pointing to our left.
A waitress stands by a VIP booth, waving us over. When we make to her, she asks “You’re Nathan?”
“Possibly?” Taylor answers.
“Anything I can get you guys?” She smacks her gum. “Spritzer, cocktail, whiskey?”
We sit in the booth. Little Nathan and I order a shot of Jim Beam, Tracey and Taylor pass. The waitress nods and leaves us.
“Are you seeing this?” Tracey asks, gaze fixed on the bloat of people dancing.
I will Tracey’s ability to assist me in seeing as she does. I smelt it from the door, but figured there’d be at least one human in this place. I was wrong. Every beast of all kinds fills this club.
“Are they hiding just in case?” Tracey asks.
I shrug. “Just because you are a beast, doesn’t mean you have to look or act like one. Most may prefer their human form.”
“Like we do,” Taylor adds. “I’d hate walking around the color of a cherry and jet-black hair.” She pulls her ponytail over her shoulder. “Every time I’d through my hair over my shoulder, I’d risk cutting someone with how sharp our ends become.”
Tracey pushes her hands through the back of my hair and the feeling is euphoric. “It’d be very dangerous to do this,” she says. “And your skin would be uncomfortable to touch,” she adds, slipping her hand beneath my shirt. It slides across my stomach to my side, and to my surprise, the next feeling is her kiss against my neck. “And that’d be poisonous,” she croons.
I turn a bit to meet her eyes. “Only if you were able to bite me.”
Inebriation’s narrows her eyes. “I’d nibble on you.” Her tongue glides over my neck and she follows through with her promise. Her state of mind sinks down on me and nearly takes me there too. A place that lifts my senses and lightens my head, a place that’s warming my body, and yearning for the contact of my mate.
In an instant, Tracey’s straddling me, hands thrusted through my hair, tongue sliding across my neck. I grab her hips and move her to my side, using much of my strength to keep here there.
The volume of the music’s increased and a tantalizing scent is flooding the open area. It may be coming from the pink fog spraying from the fog machines placed around the loft-like ceiling.
Little Nathan’s disappeared. I scan the crowd, finding him sucking face with a Kitsune, like most of the people in here, abruptly making out and grinding on the dance floor.
The waitress returns. She’s Burdened; as Taylor described, red as a cherry and her hair cut short, now spiky. “What’s going on?” I ask, trying to keep Tracey’s oncoming at bay. She’s on her knees now, inches from touching or kissing me in the right spot to get fucked on this bench.
“It’s diner’s hour. You’re a Burdened Sephlem, I see. Unaffected by the pheromones. It’s a time for feeding and everyone’s welcome to choose how they fill that urge, sometimes it’s by sex.” She points to two witches getting it on in the corner. “Maybe they like to drink.” She nods toward the party next to me who’s ordered a human male plater for their beverage. A mixture of vamps, lamias, and demons have their teeth dug into the human jerking himself off as he’s being drained. I’ll never unsee that shit. “Or my favorite,” the waitress continues, “Burdened who are trying to blend in with the rest of the crazies.” I scan the crowd for Burdeneds finding them feeding on randoms and satisfying their beasts for the hell of it. “It’s not too bad when the Misses, is getting a little rowdy.” She points the butt of her pen toward herself.
“It’s a demon’s ball,” Taylor mutters.
“No. It’s a place where you can be free to be what you want, and who ever runs this place is provoking that behavior, helping you not hide it,” I say.
The waitress nods. “Make sure you’re out of here before the trumpets blow. Your feisty lady here, is human and they will have a ball feeding off her.” She looks me over. “And you’ll likely have fun fighting them off and doing a little feeding for yourself.” She hands me my drink. “When’s the last time you tasted soul, or power, or fear? Or pleasure? Pleasure’s the sweetest.” Looking from Tracey to me she concludes, “Get out there, enjoy it.” She gallops from the two steps leading down to the floor and locks lips with a woman who’s happy to reciprocate the action. They go at it against the back of a man who’s feeding on a human half his size.
At the tug of my belt buckle, I turn to Tracey, grabbing her by her shoulders. “You listen here, Little Missy. Don’t be distracted. You’re too cute to be all over me like this.”
She laughs. “But.”
Throwing my hand over her mouth, I say, “Shh. We’re on a mission right now, and freaking on you at a night club is not a part of it.”
“Nathan?” Taylor calls, gaze locked on a far corner near a hall. In the dim blue light of the hall, three Qualms appear. The one, their leader, I’m getting more familiar with his appearance the more I see him—It. Unlike the others, it’s a head taller than those that accompany it. And when the dark mist does reveal his face, it’s less skull and more flesh with icy gray eyes.
“Go get Little Nathan,” I tell Taylor. “Keep an eye on me so you can follow me after you find him.”
“Kay. wants me to take Tracey.”
“No. I got her.” I grab Tracey by her hands and force her to come with me. We maneuver through the amorous crowd to the hall where the Qualms await us. They start off down the hall, and I follow behind them. The instant we escape the pink fog, Tracey stumbles to a stop.
Why do I feel like sexually assaulted you?
I pull her to keep moving. We’ll talk about it later.
Hand clutched around mine, realizing we’re likely walking the green mile, she asks, Where are we going?
The direction they’re going, I say, pointing toward the Qualms. You feeling better?”
Yeah. Sorry about that.
I hold in my laugh.
The Qualms enter a door on our left, two guards stand at the entrance, but allows us to pass through. They’re tall and stocky, like most of the Qualm infested humans I’ve encountered. With the help of Tracey’s sight ability that’s accessible to me without my tapping into her, I’m able to see beyond their façade. A Qualm resting in each of them, both, the human and the Qualm are please being conjoined.
The room’s warm and humid. The seven of us stand silent in the area lit by a soft blue ceiling light. I shrug throwing my arms out at my sides.
“For years, we’ve lived among this land in silence, in peace, living amid the people of this realm,” their leader says, in an undertone that carries out its Ss and Hs. “We do not care to harm this world nor its people, we desire to a part of it. Our king came here first, eons ago, welcomed by a Seeress, Elbany. He discovered this realm has much to offer as we have much to give.” He extends a hand and a guard steps before it. “What we are doing does not harm the human beings. It makes them stronger, we extend their life by decades, we cure their sickness, we expand their knowledge.”
“They’re heaven on earth,” the guard says, modeling himself.
“That is only the benefit we have toward humans,” the Qualm standing to the right of the leader says. It is nothing but dark mist and skeleton. “Imagine the extent of your kind, Nathan,” it says convincingly. “We not only enhance the body of the humans, but of all kinds. We can live freely, finally,” he cheers with glee, “on this land. As can any other creature that still hides in the dark.”
“We will accomplish this, Nathan,” the leader cuts in. “We prefer to do so quietly and without harm. This is where we require you. Please?” it requests peacefully. “Help us make this transition easy for the beings that walk your world.”
“No,” cuts from me before crossing my mind. “Not a chance.”
Despair falls over the three. The leader shakes his head. “Maybe an example,” it offers but I don’t care. The only reason Tracey and I haven’t taken our exit is because of the two guards.
The waitress was right, I’ve not fueled in a while, since Michael, and my Burdened is weak and I can’t allow it to feed on Tracey. That’s wrong. So, in this state, I know those two would overpower me and there’s no way I’m losing a fight in front of my mate.
“Please,” the leader commands, “join us.”
Through a door behind them enters my aunt Cynt, and beside her, her deceased husband, Daniel.
“Wait,” Tracey interjects. “I thought it didn’t work out for him. They couldn’t find a suitable match, for you, Mrs. Waturstrom. Double wait.” She shakes her head as he hands raise, palms forward. “How are you alive. . .” Her words fade off, flooded by a thought. Hand flying over her mouth, she mutters, “Oh my gosh.”
Clue me in, Sparks.
That is not your aunt, babe.
“It’s better when the being and the Qualm are able to merge with each other, this is the hardest part, as it appears you have witnessed, Seeing. However, this would not be an issue with you, Nathan. You have the ability to manage the mindset of anyone before you. You can provide freedom and pleasure where there is none. You can bring acceptance onto this land and we,” it motions to its colleagues, “Can, too, live in peace, in a land of color, in a world of opportunity where joy exist and happiness saves lives, and love conquers wickedness.”
“Yeah. . .” I drone. “The answer’s still no. She nor I are helping you overtake our world. I don’t care what we or you can gain from it. There’s separation from wherever you came from for a reason. So, mist your way back there, and leave us alone.”
Anger replaces the eager feeling in the room. “You will regret that, Nathan. You will side with us, or your life’s cycle will repeat. A life you’ve grown to believe is your beginning and your end. A reality you will forever wish for relief from. Chose to side with us, Seeing of Death. Let us show things you’ve not yet seen, and you will see that we are your past, your present, and your future. You will see we are your only option.”
