Intuition: The Premonition Series Page 16

  “Oh my God, Zee! I’m sorry!” she says, droppin’ the blades on the ground with a clatter. Before either Zephyr or I can react, Evie rushes forward and places her hand over Zephyr’s wound. The lights above our head flicker. Lookin’ up at the lights and then down again, I hear Evie’s soft gasp. Her hand on Zephyr’s begins to glow. Her legs buckle out from under her and Zephyr catches Evie with his other arm before she falls.

  Lowering Evie gently to the ground, Zephyr follows her, as he seems to need to sit down suddenly. “Evie?” Zephyr groans.

  I can see what is happenin’: Evie’s healin’ Zephyr. I know it ‘cuz I remember what it felt like when she had healed me after I was stabbed in the chest—the fire that had torn through me hotter than molten lead and my inability to move while I was bein’ incinerated from the inside out.

  Kneeling by them both, I say in an urgent tone, “Don’t struggle, Zee. I don’t think she can stop.”

  Zephyr closes his eyes tight against the burnin’ sting that I am sure is tearin’ through him. I’m not as worried ‘bout him as I am ’bout Evie, since he is healin’; his wound is disappearin’ before my eyes. It is Evie that has me feelin’ panic. She’s beginnin’ to bleed in earnest; the blood is seepin’ out of the slash that has just broken open on her forearm. In the next moment, Reed enters the room and kneels down next to Evie. His face is grim as he is tryin’ to pull Evie’s hand off of Zephyr. The heat from the glow between them is scaldin’ Reed, but he relentlessly continues to try to break them apart.

  “Evie…love, can you hear me?” Reed asks in a gentle tone. Her face turns toward his. “Let go of Zephyr, love,” Reed continues, but she doesn’t move her hand, she just shakes her head.

  “Can’t,” she manages to say. The glow from her hand is dimmin’ now, becomin’ less intense, and since Zephyr is showin’ no sign of havin’ ever been hurt, it’s probably almost over—for him anyway.

  The second that Evie’s hand falls away from Zephyr, Reed has Evie in his arms and is out of the trainin’ room. I sit down next to Zephyr and reach my hand out to him to pull him up to a sittin’ position. Leanin’ back against the wall, Zephyr looks weak, like Evie has stolen all his energy.

  “I do not ever want her to do that to me again,” Zephyr says in a slow, methodical way, rubbin’ his forearm.

  “Yeah, it’s freaky, isn’t it?” I agree, noticin’ that my hands are shakin’. “Watchin’ her do it isn’t as bad as livin’ through it, but it’s no picnic either.”

  “She is dangerous,” Zephyr states, still rubbin’ his arm. “It is like magic, what she can do. Did you see her with the daggers?” he asks me, dazed.

  My eyes soften. “Yeah, she was gonna whoop yer ass,” I say as lightly as possible. “She was trained in daggers a long time ago. In Egypt.”

  Zephyr cocks his brow as he glances at me. “Did she guard a Pharaoh?” he asks with a serious expression.

  “Sorta, she was the Pharaoh’s concubine and he really loved her. He made her his pet and trained her to spar with daggers for his enjoyment. She was really good at it. She was his favorite until she met me and I persuaded her to run away with me—not one of our better lives. We got caught and executed,” I admit, tryin’ to block out the horrific images of her death in that lifetime. “Y’all should’ve seen her, though—she looks the same except her skin was like honey and so soft… her hair was jet black. Irresistible.”

  “Personally, I like her wings,” Zephyr confides, and I smile ‘cuz it makes sense for him to find the angel part of her more attractive than the human side of her. Then he frowns, “Do you think she is okay?” he asks as he struggles to get to his feet.

  I nod. “Yeah, it’s just a cut. She survived a gapin’ chest wound, so the knick she gave ya should be no big deal,” I reply as I help him up. It is strange to see him so weak. He looks like he barely has any energy at all. “Let’s go check on her.”

  We find Reed and Evie in the kitchen. Reed is just finishin’ up wrappin’ Evie’s forearm in a gauze bandage. I stop just inside the doorway while Zephyr walks over to Evie, and kneelin’ down next to her chair, he gazes into her eyes. “Do not ever do that to me again. I much prefer a flesh wound to whatever it was you just did to me,” he says in a military tone. Evie hangs her head in guilt. Reed continues placin’ tape over the bandage to secure it in place. When Reed finishes he steps back. “That being said,” Zephyr says as he wraps his arms around Evie, pickin’ her up off the chair in a hug, “thank you for trying to help me.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you,” she says, continuin’ to hug him.

  “She cut you, Zephyr?” Reed asks in confusion as if he hasn’t heard her right.

  “Yes,” Zephyr replies, puttin’ Evie back down on the chair.

  “How?” Reed asks with a searchin’ look.

  Zephyr grins. “Daggers. Russell said she was in Egypt—a concubine of a Pharaoh.” Zee repeats what I had told him and I see the reaction on Reed’s face before I hear him growl.

  Reed doesn’t like the visual he just got of another man havin’ Evie. Yeah, try seein’ it in yer head, pal. It sucks worse than that when it’s a memory, I think heatedly.

  “Show me,” Reed says to Evie.

  Evie cringes. “No. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she says, touchin’ her arm lightly. A meaningful look exchanges between Reed and Zephyr. Then, Reed kneels down so he can look in Evie’s eyes.

  “You have to. You cannot let what just happened sink in. You have to push through it so that you do not hesitate in the future, when you really need to use your abilities,” he says, while he touches her hair. My hands squeeze into fists so that I won’t attack him for touchin’ her. “Show me,” Reed says again, before holdin’ out his hand for her to take. She puts her hand in his with a little reluctance. I step aside as Reed leads her back down the hallway to the trainin’ room. Zephyr and I follow them.

  When they get to the trainin’ room, Reed picks up the daggers that Evie had dropped and wipes the blood off of the one that struck Zephyr. He hands them back to Evie.

  Fear. She’s afraid, I think as I see the look on her face. Reed picks up the other daggers that Zephyr has been usin’. He looks like a killer. A shiver of dread runs through me as he faces off against Evie. He isn’t playin’, but appears deadly serious. “I’m your enemy. Stop me,” he says in a soft tone, and then he springs toward her with a snarl on his lips.

  Evie has just enough time to spring backward from Reed’s vicious swipe that causes the air to whistle. Reed’s dagger misses her abdomen by centimeters. I shoot forward to pounce on Reed, but am held by Zephyr who whispers in my ear, “Do not go there. He will kill you.”

  I struggle for Zee to let me go, but he has gotten some of his strength back, enough to restrain me. My teeth clench as Reed stalks Evie, lookin’ for an openin’ to strike. She isn’t givin’ him one, stayin’ well back from him, but neither is she attackin’ him, which she clearly should be doin’ ‘cuz she needs to be aggressive. Reed seems to realize this as well and he changes his tactics. Instead of watchin’ Evie, his eyes drift to me. A slow smile registers on his face as he switches direction and comes toward me. In the next instant, Evie stands in his way.

  “No…” she murmurs to him. He ignores her, his eyes remainin’ on me just long enough to let her know he will do whatever it takes to get her to engage him in this fight.

  “Yes,” Reed replies with menace.

  Evie tenses and goes on the defensive, totally engaged now in whatever fight is gonna occur. She cuts off his access to me, and in a blink of an eye, she tosses one of her blades up in the air. As the blade arcs upward, she runs to the wall before the blade even has a chance to start comin’ back down. Usin’ the wall as a springboard, she pushes off of it, catchin’ the blade in midair and droppin’ toward Reed with the speed of a bullet. He is just able to evade the full impact of what she would have given him as he lunges to the side at the last instant, so that the blade Evie has exten
ded in front of her doesn’t embed itself in his chest. She tumbles on the ground, rollin’ back onto her feet in a crouch, before she swivels back to face him.

  If Reed is shocked, he hides it well, but Evie doesn’t give him much time to contemplate his next move. She is off again, flippin’ toward him like a gymnast, but a gymnast who can nearly defy gravity with the speed of a tumblin’ cyclone. Reed catches her foot that she would’ve planted in his chest and flips her back in the opposite direction, which to my amazement, seems to be what she had intended him to do. The change in momentum causes her head and arms to flip back up, so that she is able to twist and stretch out just enough to bring the daggers she still holds within inches of Reed’s neck. He catches her intentions at the last second, pullin’ back as the blades kiss his neck. The knives leave small, red scratches in his skin, but don’t cause him to bleed. In retaliation, Reed kicks out with his foot, connectin’ with Evie’s abdomen. He pushes her away from him. She tumbles back, but she is on her feet in a fraction of a second, runnin’ to the wall. She is up on the ceilin’ in the time it takes me to exhale the breath I was holdin’, thinkin’ she might have been hurt from Reed’s kick.

  She drops from the ceilin’ before I know what she is doin’, but instead of evadin’ her, Reed drops his weapons. His wings unleash out of his back as he springs up, catchin’ Evie in his arms in midair. She wraps her legs around his waist, droppin’ her daggers, too. They embed loudly in the wooden floor below them. Evie presses her body to his, wrappin’ her arms lovingly around his neck. Reed captures her lips in a passionate kiss that sends ice right through my body.

  “Ahh, that just blows,” I mutter, feelin’ Zephyr release me. I turn and try to push him away, but he is rapidly regainin’ his strength, so he just grins at my attempts.

  “You were hoping she would kill him?” Zephyr asks me.

  “Somethin’ like that,” I mumble, and I hear him chucklin’ as I leave the room.

  “Russell…Russ…” Evie whispers as she creeps into my darkened room. Still wide-awake lyin’ in bed, I refuse to answer her ‘cuz I’m still mad at her for what happened in the trainin’ room today. Hopin’ she will go away if she thinks I’m sleepin’, I don’t move. Slinkin’ to the foot of my bed, she stands there lookin’ at me. Realizin’ that she can see me clearly, even though it is dark, I watch her shadowy figure put her hands on her sexy hips. Then she whispers, “I know you’re awake, Russell. I can see that your eyes are open.”

  “Whaddaya want?” I ask her in a surly tone. I don’t try to keep my voice low. I can really care less if the angels overhear us.

  “Shh!” she hisses at me as she comes ‘round the bed to perch tentatively on the side by my feet. “I’m here because we have to talk. I have to tell you what happened when you were with your parents over break. I have to explain…” Her voice breaks as she glances away from me for a second.

  All of my senses are alerted to her in that second. She’s really upset, I think.

  Sittin’ up, I turn on the lamp beside the bed. Her face is a mask of pain. She looks heart-broken when she whispers to me, “I thought we would have more time. I was hoping we could stay until we took our exams, but we can’t. We have to go soon, Russell. I heard the angels talking and they’re looking for me—Dominion. We have to go before they kill them. They will think they are traitors. They think we’re Nephilim.” She is whisperin’ so fast and I can’t understand half of what she is tellin’ me. What’s Dominion? What’s a Nephilim? Who wants the angels dead? I wonder rapidly.

  Gettin’ out of my bed, I walk over to the desk in my room and retrieve a tablet and a pencil. I come back to the bed. Sittin’ next to Evie, I write:

  WTF Red?

  Evie takes the pencil back from me and writes:

  We have to leave, Russell. Just you and me.

  I scan her face after I read what she wrote. I want to shout at her ‘cuz I have so many questions. I take the pencil from Evie’s hand and write:

  Why? I frown, watchin’ her sad expression.

  She takes the pencil back from me and begins writin’ out an explanation: When you were gone over break, Buns, Zee, Reed, and I went to a resort to snowboard. We ran into some Powers who saw me. I ran from them, but one hunted me. She was pretty specific when she told me what she is going to do to me when she finds me. She called me a Nephilim, but when I asked the angels later what it was, they all clammed up on me and wouldn’t explain what it is. They acted like it was no big deal and that she couldn’t possibly find us, but everything I know about Power angels tells me they were not giving it to me straight. Powers don’t quit once they have a mission. They never quit. To her, I’m a failed mission if she doesn’t find me and erase me from all existence.

  I take the pencil out of Evie’s hand and write: Holy shit Red! Why didn’t anyone tell me? No shit, they don’t stop. They are like freaking terminators. They won’t stop until you’re dead. Why are we still in Crestwood? I thrust the pencil back at her, hearin’ my breath comin’ out faster in agitation.

  I kept trying to figure that out. Reed and Zee want us to think they’re still trying to draw in Alfred, but I think they have put him on the back burner because I overheard part of their conversation last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was on my way to the kitchen to get some water when I heard them talking in the library. They were all there: Brownie, Buns, Zee, and Reed. Zee has been keeping an eye on what “Dominion” is putting out on me. It turns out that all the Powers are now alerted to the existence of the Nephilim spotted recently in this area.

  What’s Dominion? I write after I tear the pencil from her hand. I then thrust it back at her.

  I think it’s like some kind of military HQ for Power angels. That’s what I got from the conversation, but I couldn’t ask them because I was earjacking the information. If it’s made up of Powers, I’m in big trouble. Evie writes and then she looks at me with eyes that show fear that she has every right to feel.

  If those angels are after her, she is in deep—and so am I, ‘cuz we’re the same, she and I. I gaze ‘round my bedroom, seein’ all of the monstrous shadows bein’ cast on the walls from the lamp on my bedside table. I try to make sense of what she’s tellin’ me. If Dominion is a military headquarters, then those Powers can mobilize legions of angels to search for Evie. I take the pencil from her hand as another question surfaces in my mind.

  Then what’s a Nephilim? I write with dread, not sure I want that question answered for me.

  She writes: I don’t know for sure. Like I said, the angels all clammed up when I asked them that question. Reed must have said something to Zee and the girls because they all keep insisting I’m not a Nephilim anytime I ask any of them what it is. They won’t explain it to me. I looked it up on the Internet. I found out that a Nephilim is supposed to be an offspring of the sons of God, meaning angels, and the daughters of Man, meaning human women. The sons of God are angels, but the ones who fathered the Nephilim are specifically the angels called the “Watchers” or another name is the Grigori.

  That sounds exactly like what y’all are, Evie. I write. Tears collect in her eyes as she nods.

  I know. But I hope not. She writes.

  Why not? I write.

  Because, Nephilim are said to be the offspring of human women and the Archangels that were sent to watch over humans. They weren’t suppose to be able to breed with them, but when they did, they created these evil giant monsters called the Nephilim that God had to destroy in a flood because they were so vile.

  “The” flood? Like the one with the big ark? I write the question and watch as she nods her head yes and then a wave of panic grips me. She can’t be a Nephilim. They’ll never let her live if she is. My hand shakes when I write: Reed would know if you were a Nephilim. He would’ve killed y’all right away if that was the case. There is no way Zee would’ve let you live either, so we have to trust the angels when they say y’all aren’t one of them.

  The only thing I c
an think of that points to me not being a Nephilim are a few technicalities. She watches as I quirk my eyebrow, eager for her to explain the loophole that gets us out of being seen as innately evil. Then she writes: Well, there are three things that we can argue: We don’t have white wings like the Archangels. I have red wings and I think you will too, so that clearly means that I come from the Seraphim. We aren’t giants either. I’m not even six foot and these creatures were supposed to be huge giants. And finally, we have souls. None of the other creatures were reported to have souls, so they couldn’t be redeemed.

  I just thought of another reason: We’re not evil. I write, stabbin’ the paper with my pencil harshly.

  She takes the pencil out of my hand and writes: I overheard Zee tell Reed that he uncovered the name of the Power leading the mission against me. Her name is Pagan. You want to know why they call her Pagan? It’s because her favorite bad humans to smote, back in the day, were pagans. The last time I saw Pagan, she promised me that she would rip out my evil heart, just after she tore a fully-grown tree from the ground and hurled it at me like it weighed nothing at all. She’s not going to stop. She’s got this Dominion on her side. I heard Zee telling Reed that they may have to move us soon because she has shown up in this area searching for me. They were hoping that she would believe we would leave the area, but somehow, she has gotten closer than they thought she would. Pagan can’t find me with Reed or Zee. I heard Buns say that Dominion will execute them if they’re found to be traitors. Dominion could put Reed and Zee on trial for treason if they think they’re aiding the Fallen. Her hands are shakin’ as she writes the last part. I gently take the pencil from her hand.